We Push Back And Fiercely Try For Wilful Misery. - Dearest, Forgive Me Being Cruel To You, You Who Are In Life Like A Heavenly Dream In The Evil Sleep Of A Sinner. Katrina. No, You Hate Me. Sylvan (Kissing Her). Is This Like Hatred? Katrina (In His Arms). Sylvan, I Have Been So Wrencht And Fearfully Used. It Was As If This Being That I Live In Had Become A Savage Endless Water, Wild With Purpose To Tire Me Out And Drown Me. Sylvan. Yes, I Know: Like Swimming Against A Mighty Will, That Wears The Cruelty, The Race And Scolding Spray Of Monstrous Passionate Water. Katrina. Hold Me, Sylvan I'm Bruised With My Sore Wrestling. Sylvan. Ah, But Now We Are Not Swimmers In This Dangerous Life. It Cannot Beat Upon Our Limbs With Surf Of Water Clencht Against Us, Nor Can Waves Now Wrangle With Our Breath. Out Of It We Are Lifted; And Henceforward Now We Are Sailors Travelling In A Lovely Ship, The Shining Sails Of It Holding A Wind Immortally Pleasant, And The Malicious Sea Smoothed By A Keel That Cannot Come To Wreck. Katrina. Alas, We Must Not Stay Together Here. Grannam Will Come Upon Us. Sylvan. Where Is She? Katrina. Yonder, Gathering Driftwood For Her Fire. There Is A Little Bay Not Far From Here, The Shingle Of It A Thronging City Of Flies, Feeding On The Dead Weed That Mounds The Beach; And The Sea Hoards There Its Vain Avarice, - Old Flotsam, And Decaying Trash Of Ships. An Arm Of Reef Half Locks It In, And Holds The Bottom Of The Bay Deep Strewn With Seaweed, A Barn Full Of The Harvesting Of Storms; And At Full Tide, The Little Hampered Waves Lift Up The Litter, So That, Against The Light, The Yellow Kelp And Bracken Of The Sea, Held Up In Ridges Of Green Water, Show Like Moss In Agates. And There Is No Place In All The Coast For Wreckage Like This Bay; There Often Will My Grannam Be, A Sack Over Her Shoulders, Turning Up The Crust Of Sun-Dried Weed To Find Her Winter'S Warmth. Sylvan. Is That She Coming? Katrina. O Sylvan, Has She Seen Us? Sylvan. What Matter If She Has? Katrina. But It Would Matter! Sylvan. Katrina, Come With Me Now! We'll Go Together Back To My House. Katrina. No, No, Not Now! I Must Carry My Grannam'S Load For Her: 'Tis Heavy. Sylvan. We Must Not Part Again. Katrina. No, Not For Long; For If We Do, There Will Be Storms Again, I Know; And A Fierce Reluctance - O, A Mad Tormenting Thing! - Will Shake Me. Sylvan. Then Come Now! Katrina. Not Now, Not Now! Look How My Poor Grannam Shuffles Under The Weight; SHe's Old For Burdens. I Must Carry Her Sack For Her. Sylvan. Well, To-Night! Katrina. To-Night? - O Sylvan! Dare I? Sylvan. Yes, You Dare! You Will Be Knowing I'm Outside In The Darkness, And You Will Come Down Here And Give Me Yourself Wholly And Forever. Katrina. O Not To-Night! Sylvan. I Shall Be Here, Katrina, Waiting For You. [He Goes.] The Old Woman Comes In Burdened With Her Sack. Grandmother. Katrina, That Was A Young Man With You. Katrina. O Grannam, You've Had Luck To-Day; But Now It's I Must Be The Porter. Grandmother (Giving Up The Sack). Ay, You Take It. It's Sore Upon My Back. You Should Have Care Of These Young Fellows; There'S A Devil In Them. Never You Talk With A Man On The Seashore Or On Hill-Tops Or In Woods And Suchlike Places, Especially If He's One You Think Of Marrying. Katrina. Marrying? I Shall Never Be Married! Grandmother. Pooh! That's Nonsense. Katrina. I Should Think 'Twas Horrible Even To Be In Love And Wanting To Give Yourself To Another; But To Be Married Too, A Man Holding The Very Heart Of You, - Grandmother. He Never Does, Honey, He Never Does. - We're Late; Come Along Home. Ii In Sylvan'S House. Sylvan And Katrina Talking To Each Other And Betweenwhiles Thinking To Themselves. Sylvan. How Pleasant And Beautiful It Is To Be At Last Obedient To Love! (To Know Also, I've Sold Myself, - Is That So Pleasant?) Katrina. I Cannot Think, Why Such A Glorious Wealth As This Of Love On Our Hearts Should Be Spent. What Have We Done, That All This Gain Be Ours? (Nor Can I Think Why My Life Should Be Mixt, Even Its Dearest Secrecy, With Another.) Sylvan. Ay, There'S The Marvel! If To Enter Life Needed Some Courage, 'Twere A Kind Of Wages, As They Let Sacking Soldiers Take Home Loot: But We Are Shuffled Into Life Like Puppets Emptied Out Of A Showman'S Bag; And Then Made Spenders Of The Joys Current In Heaven! (Not Such A Marvel Neither, If This Love Be But The Price I'm Paid For My Free Soul. Who's The Old Trader That Has Lent This Girl The Glittering Cash Of Pleasure To Pay Me With? Who Is It, - The World, Or The Devil, Or God - That Wants To Buy Me From Myself?) Katrina. And Then How Vain To Think We Can Hold Back From Being Enricht! It Is Not Only Offered - Sylvan. No, 'Tis A Need As Irresistible Within Our Hearts As Body'S Need Of Breathing. (That I Should Be So Avaricious Of His Gleaming Price!) Katrina. And The Instant Force It Has Upon Us, When We Think To Use Love As A Privilege! We Are Like Bees That, Having Fed All Day On Mountain-Heather, Go To A Tumbling Stream To Please Their Little Honey-Heated Thirsts; And Soon As They Have Toucht The Singing Relief, The Swiftness Of The Water Seizes Them. Sylvan. And Onward, Sprawling And Spinning, They Are Carried Down To A Drowning Pool. Katrina. O Sylvan, Drowning? (Deeper Than Drowning! Why Should It Not Be Our Hearts Need Wish Only What They Delight In?) Sylvan. Well, Altogether Gript By The Being Of Love. (Yes, Now The Bargain'S Done; And I May Wear, Like A Cheated Savage, Scarlet Dyes And Strings Of Beaded Glass, All The Pleasure Of Love!) Katrina. It Is A Wonderful Tyranny, That Life Has No Choice But To Be Delighted Love! (I Know What I Must Do: I Am To Abase My Heart Utterly, And Have Nothing In Me That Dare Take Pleasure Beyond Serving Love. Thus Only Shall I Bear It; And Perhaps - Might I Even Of My Abasement Make A Passion, Fearfully Enjoying It?) Sylvan. You Are Full Of Thoughts, Sweetheart? Katrina. And So Are You: A Long While Since You Kist Me! (What Have I Said? O Fool So To Remind Him! I Shall Scarce Help Crying Out Or Shuddering This Time! - Ah No; I Am Again A Fool! Not Thus I Am To Do, But In My Heart To Break All The Reluctance; It Must Have On Me No Pleasure; Else I Am Endlessly Tortured.) Then I Must Kiss You, Sylvan! [She Kisses Him.] Sylvan. Ah, My Darling! (God! It Went Through My Flesh As Thrilling Sound Must Shake A Fiddle When The Strings Are Snatcht! Will She Make The Life In Me All A Slave Of My Kist Body, - A Trembling, Eager Slave? It Ran Like A Terror To My Heart, The Sense, The Shivering Delight Upon My Skin, Of Her Lips Touching Me.) My Beloved, - It May Be It Were Wise, That We Took Care Our Pleasant Love Come Never In The Risk Of Being Too Much Known. Katrina. O What A Risk To Think Of Here! Love Is Not Common Life, But Always Fresh And Sweet. Can This Grow Stale? [She Kisses Him Again.] Sylvan. O Never! I Meant Not So. - Yes, Always Sweet! (She Must Not Kiss Me! Ah, It Leaves My Heart Aghast, And Stopt With Pain Of The Joy Of Her; And Her Loved Body Is Like An Agony Clinging Upon Me. O She Must Not Kiss Me! I Will Not Be A Thing Excruciated To Please Her Passion, An Anguish Of Delight!)