| DAY of my life! Where can she get? | |
| BABETTE! I say! BABETTE!—BABETTE!! | |
| |
BABETTE (entering hurriedly) Coming, M’sieu! If M’sieu speaks | |
| So loud he won’t be well for weeks! | |
| |
M. VIEUXBOIS Where have you been?
BABETTE Why, M’sieu knows:— | 5 |
| April!… Ville-d’Avray!… Ma’am’selle ROSE! | |
| |
M. VIEUXBOIS Ah! I am old,—and I forget. | |
| Was the place growing green, BABETTE? | |
| |
BABETTE But of a greenness!—yes, M’sieu! | |
| And then the sky so blue!—so blue! | 10 |
| And when I dropped my immortelle, | |
| How the birds sang! (Lifting her apron to her eyes) This poor Ma’am’selle! | |
| |
M. VIEUXBOIS You’re a good girl, BABETTE, but she,— | |
| She was an Angel, verily. | |
| Sometimes I think I see her yet | 15 |
| Stand smiling by the cabinet; | |
| And once, I know, she peep’d and laugh’d | |
Betwixt the curtains …
Where ’s the draught? | |
(She gives him a cup) Now I shall sleep, I think, BABETTE;— | |
| Sing me your Norman chansonnette. | 20 |
| |
BABETTE (sings) ‘Once at the Angelus | |
| (Ere I was dead), | |
| Angels all glorious | |
| Came to my Bed;— | |
| Angels in blue and white | 25 |
| Crown’d on the Head.’ | |
| |
M. VIEUXBOIS (drowsily) ‘She was an Angel’ … ‘Once she laugh’d’ … | |
What, was I dreaming?
Where ’s the draught? | |
| |
BABETTE (showing the empty cup) The draught, M’sieu?
M. VIEUXBOIS How I forget! | |
| I am so old! But sing, BABETTE! | 30 |
| |
BABETTE (sings) ‘One was the Friend I left | |
| Stark in the Snow; | |
| One was the Wife that died | |
| Long,—long ago; | |
| One was the Love I lost … | 35 |
| How could she know?’ | |
| |
M. VIEUXBOIS (murmuring) Ah, PAUL!… old PAUL!… EULALIE too! | |
| And ROSE!… And O! ‘the sky so blue!’ | |
| |
BABETTE (sings) ‘One had my Mother’s eyes, | |
| Wistful and mild; | 40 |
| One had my Father’s face; | |
| One was a Child: | |
| All of them bent to me,— | |
| Bent down and smiled!’ | |
(He is asleep!)
M. VIEUXBOIS (almost inaudibly) How I forget! | 45 |
| I am so old! … Good night, BABETTE! | |
| |
