JANE No, none of us. His weird fancy has lighted, for the nonce, on Patience, the village milkmaid!

SAPHIR On Patience? Oh, it cannot be!

JANE Bah! But yesterday I caught him in her dairy, eating fresh b.u.t.ter with a tablespoon. Today he is not well!

SAPHIR But Patience boasts that she has never loved -- that love is, to her, a sealed book! Oh, he cannot be serious!

JANE `Tis but a fleeting fancy -- `twill quickly wear away.

[aside, coming down-stage] Oh, Reginald, if you but knew what a wealth of golden love is waiting for you, stored up in this rugged old bosom of mine, the milkmaid's triumph would be short indeed!

[PATIENCE appears on an eminence, R. She looks down with pity on the despondent Ladies.]

No. 2. Still brooding on their mad infatuation!

(Recitative) Patience, Saphir, Angela, and Maidens

PATIENCE Still brooding on their mad infatuation!

I thank thee, Love, thou comest not to me!

Far happier I, free from thy ministration, Than dukes or d.u.c.h.esses who love can be!

SAPHIR [looking up] `Tis Patience -- happy girl! Loved by a poet!

PATIENCE Your pardon, ladies. I intrude upon you! [Going]

ANGELA Nay, pretty child, come hither. [PATIENCE descends.] Is it true that you have never loved?

PATIENCE Most true indeed.

SOPRANOS Most marvelous!

ALTOS And most deplorable!

I cannot tell what this love may be (Solo) Patience

PATIENCE I cannot tell what this love may be [L.C.] That cometh to all but not to me.

It cannot be kind as they'd imply, Or why do these ladies sigh?

It cannot be joy and rapture deep, Or why do these gentle ladies weep?

It cannot be blissful as `tis said, Or why are their eyes so wondrous red?

Though ev'rywhere true love I see A-coming to all, but not to me, I cannot tell what this love may be!

For I am blithe and I am gay, While they sit sighing night and day.

PATIENCE ALL

For I am blithe and I am gay, Yes, she is blithe and she is gay, Think of the gulf `twixt Yes, she is blithe and them and me, she is gay, Think of the gulf `twixt them, Yes, she is blithe and and me, and she is gay, Fal la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la, and miserie! Ah, miserie!

[She dances across R. and back to R.C.]

PATIENCE If love is a thorn, they show no wit Who foolishly hug and foster it.

If love is a weed, how simple they Who gather it, day by day!

If love is a nettle that makes you smart, Then why do you wear it next your heart?

And if it be none of these, say I, Ah, why do you sit and sob and sigh?

Though ev'rywhere true love I see A-coming to all, but not to me, I cannot tell what this love may be!

For I am blithe and I am gay, While they sit sighing night and day.

PATIENCE ALL

For I am blithe and I Yes, she is blithe and she is am gay, gay, Think of the gulf `twixt Yes, she is blithe and she is them and me, gay, Think of the gulf `twixt Yes, she is blithe and she is them and me, gay, Fal la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la, and miserie! Ah, miserie!

ANGELA Ah, Patience, if you have never loved, you have never known true happiness! [All sigh.]

PATIENCE [C.] But the truly happy always seem to have so much on their minds. The truly happy never seem quite well.

JANE [coming L.C.] There is a transcendentality of delirium -- an acute accentuation of supremest ecstasy -- which the earthy might easily mistake for indigestion. But it is not indigestion -- it is aesthetic transfiguration! [to the others.] Enough of babble. Come!

PATIENCE [stopping her as she turns to go up C.] But stay, I have some news for you. The 35th Dragoon Guards have halted in the village, and are even now on their way to this very spot.

ANGELA The 35th Dragoon Guards!

SAPHIR They are fleshly men, of full habit!

ELLA We care nothing for Dragoon Guards!

PATIENCE But, bless me, you were all engaged to them a year ago!

SAPHIR A year ago!

ANGELA My poor child, you don't understand these things. A year ago they were very well in our eyes, but since then our tastes have been etherealized, our perceptions exalted. [to the others]

Come, it is time to lift up our voices in morning carol to our Reginald. Let us to his door!

[ANGELA leading, the Ladies go off, two and two, Jane last, over the drawbridge into the castle, singing refrain of "Twenty love-sick maidens", and, as before, accompanying themselves on harps, etc.]

No. 2a. Twenty love-sick maidens we (Chorus) Maidens

MAIDENS Twenty love-sick maidens we, Love-sick all against our will.

Twenty years hence we shall be Twenty love-sick maidens still!

Ah, miserie!

[PATIENCE watches them in surprise, and, with a gesture of complete bafflement, climbs the rock and goes off the way she entered.]

[The officers of the DRAGOON GUARDS enter, R., led by the MAJOR.

They form their line across the front of the stage.]