Beneath her window he paused and shifted his lute before him. Then he began to sing, exultant in the unreality of everything and of himself in particular.
"Speed forth, my song, the sun's ambassador, Lest in the east night prove the conqueror, The day be slain, and darkness triumph,--for The sun is single, but her eyes are twain.
"And now the sunlight and the night contest A doubtful battle, and day bides at best Doubtful, until she waken. 'Tis attest The sun is single.
"But her eyes are twain,-- And should the light of all the world delay, And darkness prove victorious? Is it day Now that the sun alone is risen?
"Nay, The sun is single, but her eyes are twain,-- Twain firmaments that mock with heavenlier hue The heavens' less lordly and less gracious blue, And lit with sunlier sunlight through and through,
"The sun is single, but her eyes are twain, And of fair things this side of Paradise Fairest, of goodly things most goodly,"
He paused here and smote a resonant and louder chord. His voice ascended in dulcet supplication.
"Rise, And succor the benighted world that cries, _The sun is single, but her eyes are twain!_"
"Eh--? So it is you, is it?" Claire was peeping disdainfully from the window. Her throat was bare, and her dusky hair was a shade dishevelled, and in her meditative eyes he caught the flicker of her tardiest dream just as it vanished.
"It is I," John Bulmer confessed--"come to awaken you according to the ancient custom of Poictesme."
"I would much rather have had my sleep out," said she, resentfully. "In perfect frankness, I find you and your ancient customs a nuisance."
"Oh--?" She was a person of many cryptic exclamations, this bride of his. Presently she said: "Indeed, Monsieur Bulmer, I entreat you to leave Poictesme. I have informed Louis of everything, and he is rather furious."
John Bulmer said, "Do you comprehend why I have not already played the emigrant?"
After a little pause, she answered, "Yes."
"And for the same reason I can never leave you so long as this gross body is at my disposal. You are about to tell me that if I remain here I shall probably be hanged on account of what happened yesterday. There are grounds for my considering this outcome unlikely, but if I knew it to be inevitable--if I had but one hour's start of Jack Ketch,--I swear to you I would not budge."