FAUST

To paradise!...

OLDHAM

To paradise.... Take me with you!

FAUST

My friend, It is not possible. I do foresee Some perils to whose touch I would subject None save myself.

OLDHAM

And what care I for them!

Faust--on my word, when I climbed up your stair This second time, it was to say good-bye To you forever, being quite resolved To end my choking loneliness and loathing With a quick shot to-night. Take me, or I Shall carry out my purpose. What care I Whither you go, or what the perils be?

I would go with you into h.e.l.l!

SATAN

We go To paradise. What is this h.e.l.l you name?

CURTAIN

THE SECOND ACT

_The scene is the stone-paved courtyard of a ruined temple. In the centre lies a square pool, with wide rows of steps leading down to the water, now overgrown with lotus plants. Around the court rise long colonnades of pillars with grotesquely carven bases and capitals of luxuriant design. Beyond these appear green ma.s.ses of dense tropical foliage, in which an occasional brilliant flower shines._

_Faust, Satan and Oldham, all wearing white tropical dress and sun-helmets, are seated on fragments of fallen columns in front of the pool. Luncheon is spread before them. Oldham is lighting a cigarette; Faust is just finishing his meal; Satan is leaning back, contemplating the surrounding jungle. Two dark-skinned servants, wearing white robes and turbans, are beginning to bear away the repast._

OLDHAM

One's blood beats fuller in these tropic lands.

Last night, as we were dining, where the beach With its plumed palm-trees sloped to meet the sea, And the white foam along the gla.s.sy waves Played in the evening light--I half believe I could have written love-songs. But to whom-- That were a problem!

FAUST

Yes, one's brain is lit With fire beneath this sun. At night, the glow Is magical; but at this height of day, When all the branches and the flowers and rocks And the far glimmering rivers shake and writhe In the fierce blaze, I feel a hideous touch Of madness in it.

SATAN

Keep you to the shade!

This is the pinnacle, the very noon Of summer in these lands. One hour of sun Unshaded--and poor Oldham and poor I Might have a maniac or a corpse as guest.

OLDHAM

I am not sure that I would help you with him.

I might be elsewhere occupied. Last night I entertained myself with imaging A project which, if I adopted it, Would preengage me.

SATAN

With a single guess, I'll tell you what it was.

OLDHAM

I give you twenty.

SATAN

You thought perhaps it would be nice to be The white bull we saw yesterday, and eat Without reproof from every vender's stall Throughout the whole bazar; and you intend Thus to disguise yourself, and try the sport.

OLDHAM

You hit it nearer than I thought you would!

'Twas something like that. I was wondering If, in this marvellous and lazy clime, It were not possible for one to take Twenty young beauties and a hundred slaves-- Retire to some secluded isle of palms-- And live without a thought, a wish, a hope, Drugged with the warmth, the languor and the light.

FAUST

Possible?--For a rabbit! Not for you.

SATAN

I am afraid you'd find it wearisome.

Some like it; but not your kind.

FAUST

In this heat Even he grows crazy; and we, Satan, turn Unsympathetic creatures. Whew, this blaze Is getting worse! Can't we move on?

SATAN

We go No farther.

FAUST

Lovely residence!

SATAN

It is here That our long journey terminates, my friends.

Upon this spot I trust, if all goes well, To give your long tried patience recompense.

FAUST

Recompense? I am sceptical of it!

But we deserve this. None but idiots Would have come with you to this boiling land On a wild-goose chase; on each step of which One gets a fleeting panoramic view Of kinds of misery one did not guess Existed in the world. Those lepers, beggars, Cripples, fanatics, reptiles--all the swarms Of loathsome creatures we have pa.s.sed--will haunt My dreams forever with new vivid masks Of nightmare. Recompense? There isn't any!