July, 1914 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
35 
when she came! How her sweet radiance did cheer and 
hearten, where his sternness chilled. 
CARDINAL FLOWER — And so the quarrel be¬ 
tween them? Was that th' occasion? 
AUREA —It was, and it was not. Say, rather, ’twas 
matrix to the occasion. 
CARDINAL FLOWER —The Queen, I’ve heard, 
had lingered on her way — perchance forgetting, as her 
happy mood is, that Time will not wait. 
TEA ROSE — Ay, that she did—and came late! 
CARDINAL FLOWER —And so, belike, his majesty hath 
chid her tardiness — and that was an occasion. 
TEA ROSE — Ay, that he did—and so it was; one point at 
least of difference whereon offense did hang. But most of all, 
methinks, that discontent which follows over-doing — that turbid 
state that waits on all extremes — did egg on every circumstance. 
Filled with its swelling tumult, thoughtless mobs did hail the 
Queen as saviour! — liberator! — the while they poured into her 
ears base treason tales of how his majesty unfairly hath entreated ; 
that he hath tyrannized, oppressed, misruled — hath been in other 
word, extreme. 
AUREA — Yet how could lie be other than he was, when she 
her tasks neglected ? And naught of counsel would she heed, 
when these tales rang, from my Purpurius — or from any sober- 
minded ! 
TEA ROSE — That's true, indeed ; but he's too near a kinsman 
of the King, is thy Purpurius, Aurea. And how the kingdom up 
and down and through did clamor and rejoice, and set her up 
and hail her ! Not one dissented, by my faith ! Not one ! 
AUREA —And Mortals, too! 
TEA ROSE — Yea, many Mortals, too! Loudest of all their 
voices in acclamation of "The Queen! The Queen!" As loudest 
their complaints against the King! 
CARDINAL FLOWER ( nodding )—Well, I can see, of 
course, how reasonable a quarrel should easy grow, from reasons 
such as these. But why the King should abdicate - 
TEA ROSE ( emphatically ) — He lias not! 
CARDINAL FLOWER —Or run away - 
AUREA (positively )— He has not! 
CARDINAL FLOWER — Well, what is it that he's done? 
He's not been kinging very recently! 
TEA ROSE (hanging her head ) — Dost thou not know, in¬ 
deed ? — he’s — banished! 
CARDINAL FLOWER— Banished! 
Why !—Who could — who'd dare — banish 
the King? 
AUREA — Who — but the Queen? 
CARDINAL FLOWER —But why 
should he take banishment? Is he not 
King? 
TEA ROSE — To the second, yes! 
But to the first, only his sovereign maj¬ 
esty himself can answer make. 'Tis 
known to all that she hath believed, and 
believes, these acclamations were a very 
call she could not choose but follow. 
Perchance she thus convinced 
him. 
AUREA — Oh, fie! no. Tea 
Rose. The King hath better 
wit than that — finer discrimina¬ 
tion ! Her heart was turned 
from him, we all do believe, by 
all these slanderous sayings; 
and ’tis my thought she reck¬ 
oned fair, a deed her one-time 
fair mindedness had reckoned foul — 
and brought herself to trick him ! 
CARDINAL FLOWER ( shocked) 
—Oh! 
TEA ROSE —Mind you!—that’s not 
to say that she loves trickery, nor the 
task that she believed circumstance was 
bent upon her serving. But, if he were 
a bad King, and if his overthrow were 
veritably her duty, what other means 
than strategy hath she whereby to compass his 
undoing? 
CARDINAL FLOWER— And so a spell’s 
upon him? 
TEA ROSE —That's what 'tis said — that 
mighty though he be, he and his legions are 
duressed in some sad fashion through witchery 
by her Sunbeams, who scatter all his troops and 
circumvent their unity. 
CARDINAL FLOWER — But surely she must 
know, by now, how she's mistaken! ( All shake 
their heads sadly.) Then will / tell her out of 
mine own lot; she must believe that! 
TEA ROSE — Twould do no good, child. Indeed, she has- 
been told; tales of distress have reached her, murmurings and 
sighings and the discontent that’s rife through all the land; but 
all her heart is fixed in the belief that what she’s done is right— 
and she is obdurate to abide by it. 
AUREA — Indeed, she is! Why, on this very morn she hath 
sent forth a bevy—the fairest Sunbeams of the Court, wherein 
are many who were to attend on me here at my bridal—to seek 
of Mortals favor, alliance, encouragement, endorsement of her 
reign, approval of her course. 
TEA ROSE —Mortal acclaim hath turned her very soul! 
AUREA— Yet what of them? What can they do? What can 
be done, forsooth, by any, save the King. (A flourish in the dis¬ 
tance R. 1. All look into the zuoods zvhence this comes, and 
AUREA clasps her hands delightedly.) 'Tis he, 'tis he! Pur¬ 
purius, my prince! Oh—Tea Rose, he has come! (PURPUR¬ 
IUS, zvith his retinue of S ha dozes, comes rapidly through the 
wood into the glade , running to catch AUREA in his arms.) 
PURPURIUS —My dearest love ! My sweet one ! At last I'm 
come to claim thee! For on this day of days the King, my noble 
cousin Rain, hath sworn thou shouldst be mine. Art glad, rare, 
fair Aurea ? ( TEA ROSE, CARDINAL FLOWER and attend¬ 
ant Wild Roses go away through woods up R.) 
AUREA —Ay, that I am, my lord — for in my heart I feared! 
Oh—I was afraid, Purpurius! 
PURPURIUS- — What didst thou fear, my dear one? 
AUREA —Oh, that the Queen !—that you!—that something!' 
—Oh, Purpurius, that somehow it might not be! 
PURPURIUS (laughing)- —That a poor, misguided lady like 
to Queen Helia would fright me off? Thou never didst, Aurea! 
Oh, fie!—thou foolish sweet one ! 
AUREA —But she likes thee not, Purpurius—for thou’rt kins¬ 
man to the King; and all that’s of him she suspects, and scarcely 
holds in toleration. 
PURPURIUS — Alas, that’s true, sweet wife; and 
thou hadst ground, perchance, for some misgiving. But 
here are we (drazvs his cloak about her), here will I 
ever hide thee- 
AUREA — Here will I ever bide me - 
PURPURIUS —And naught shall sever! (They 
kiss; roll of a drum breaks in from L. 1/ movement of 
elves in the distant wood tozvards R. 2, as ip hurrying 
to an assemblage, resumes; DUNDUM rushes into 
Campanula head 
