Play on, O waltz of Strauss ! Whirl on,
O love and youth! For you cannot whirl
so swiftly but that this receding world will
return again with narrowing circle to hem
you in. Faster, O cracked clarionet ! Louder,
O too brazen bassoon ! Keep back, O dull
and earthy environment, till master and pupil
have dreamed their foolish dream !

They are in fancy alone on the river-bank,
only the round moon above them and their
linked shadows faintly fluttering in the
stream. They have drawn so closely together
now that her arm is encircling his neck, her
soft eyes uplifted like the moon's reflection
and drowning into his ; closer and closer tUl
their hearts stop beating and their lips have
met in a first kiss. Faster, O little feet!
swing clear, O Cressy's skirt and keep the
narrowing circle back ! . . . They are again
alone ; the judges' dais and the emblazoning
of the State caught in a single whirling flash
of consciousness are changed to an altar,
seen dimly through the bridal veil that cov-
ers her fair head. There is the murmur of
voices mingling two lives in one. They turn



122 CRES8T.
and pass proudly down between the aisles of
wondering festal faces. Ah! the circle is
drawing closer. One more quick whirl to
keep them back, O flying skirt and dainty-
winged feet ! Too late ! The music stops.
The tawdry walls shut in again, the vulgar
crowds return, they stand pale and quiet,
the centre of a ring of breathless, admiring,
frightened, or forbidding* faces. Her arms
fold like wings at her side. The waltz is
over.
