< Page:The Yeomen of the Guard.djvu
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| Phœ. | Oh yes ! Are the birds all caged ? The wild beasts all littered down ? All the locks, chains, bolts, and bars in good order ? Is the Little Ease sufficiently uncomfortable ? The racks, pincers, and thumbscrews all ready for work ? Ugh ! you brute ! |
| Wil. | These allusions to my professional duties are in doubtful taste. I didn't become a head-jailer because I like head-jailing. I didn't become an assistant-tormentor because I like assistant-tormenting. We can't all be sorcerers, you know. (Phœbe annoyed.) Ah ! you brought that upon yourself. |
| Phœ. | Colonel Fairfax is not a sorcerer. He's a man of science and an alchemist. |
| Wil. | Well, whatever he is, he won't be one long, for he's to be beheaded to-day for dealings with the devil. His master nearly had him last night, when the fire broke out in the Beauchamp Tower. |
| Phœ. | Oh ! how I wish he had escaped in the confusion ! But take care ; there's still time for a reply to his petition for mercy. |
| Wil. | Ah ! I'm content to chance that. This evening at half-past-seven—ah ! |
| Phœ. | You're a cruel monster to speak so unfeelingly of the death of a young and handsome soldier. |
| Wil. | Young and handsome ! How do you know he's young and handsome ? |
| Phœ. | Because I've seen him every day for weeks past taking his exercise on the Beauchamp Tower. |
| Wil. | Curse him ! |
| Phœ. | There, I believe you're jealous of him, now. Jealous of a man I've never spoken to ! Jealous of a poor soul who's to die in an hour ! |
| Wil. | I am ! I'm jealous of everybody and everything. I'm jealous of the very words I speak to you—because they reach your ears—and I mustn't go near 'em ! |
| Phœ. | How unjust you are ! Jealous of the words you speak to me ! Why, you know as well as I do that I don't even like them. |
| Wil. | You used to like 'em. |
| Phœ. | I used to pretend I liked them. It was mere politeness to comparative strangers. [Exit Phœbe, with spinning wheel. |
| Wil. | I don't believe you know what jealousy is ! I don't believe you know how it eats into a man's heart—and disorders his digestion—and turns his interior into boiling lead. Oh, you are a heartless jade to trifle with the delicate organization of the human interior ! [Exit Wilfred. |
Enter crowd of Men and Women, followed by Yeomen of the Guard.
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