Perdita

“ Perdita had grown up under the roof of the rude peasants who had fostered her, a beautiful maiden, fair and pure as a lily, with a delicate refinement in all her looks and words, a grace in all her motions, which made the peasants look upon her with admiration, and regard her almost as a queen, She ruled them with a gentle sway, and at all their rustic festivals her wish was law. ”

“ Leontes clasped Perdita in his arms, crying out that she was his lost daughter; Paulina listened to the account of her husband’s death with tears of grief, which were softened by her joy in seeing the oracle fulfilled; Camillo was dumb with amazement, and Florizel scarcely knew whether he waked or dreamed. There were laughter and tears, and explanations and rejoicings, till the whole court of Sicily seemed to have gone quite mad. ”

“ Prince Florizel, who was the heir and only son of Polixenes, was a romantic youth of twenty, who spent much of his time in wandering about the woods and fields of his father’s kingdom. It was not strange that he should hear of the radiant beauty of this peasant maid, who was called Perdita, and whose birth was so enveloped in mystery. It was not strange that the youth should seek to see her, to prove for himself if report had spoken truly. ”

“ I told Perdita, as I joined her.
"You are much more as a doctor," she retorted.
I looked back. Miss Fuller had kindly vanished. I have always believed that no one in the wide world whom I have ever met had so much vicarious sentiment as Miss Fuller. She was a thoroughly nice woman, and quite handsome.
Perdita leaned over the gate, observing the morning eights of the village, and I followed her example. Her face was of a fine clarity charged with life, and neither pale nor rosy. ”

“ Perdita smiled faintly—her guest left her; the carriage rolling down the street assured the final departure. Then, as if pursued by an enemy, as if wings had been at her feet, she flew to her own apartment, she dismissed her attendants, she locked the doors, she threw herself wildly on the floor, she bit her lips even to blood to suppress her shrieks, and lay long a prey to the vulture of despair, striving not to think, while multitudinous ideas made a home of her heart ”

“ Yet though lovely and full of noble feeling, my poor Perdita (for this was the fanciful name my sister had received from her dying parent) , was not altogether saintly in her disposition. Her manners were cold and repulsive. If she had been nurtured by those who had regarded her with affection, she might have been different; but unloved and neglected, she repaid want of kindness with distrust and silence. She was submissive to those who held authority over her, but a perpetual cloud dwelt on her brow ”

“ Miss Fuller pinned hers to the yoke of her gown just below her shoulder. Miss Harvey set hers in what I believe is called her corsage, and Perdita inserted hers in her belt. I was a little disappointed by this distribution, but I will admit it had a certain propriety, and at least suggested differentiation of character. They say all women are alike; but there were impassable chasms between these three. I liked to hug the fancy, that, though the disparity of sex yawned between us, Perdita and I were nearer akin than the others. ”

“ Florizel and Perdita, however, were taking no part in this gay scene, but sat quietly together talking. The King noticed the charming manners and great beauty of Perdita, never guessing that she was the daughter of his old friend, Leontes. He said to Camillo--
“This is the prettiest low-born lass that ever ran on the green sward. Nothing she does or seems but smacks of something greater than herself--too noble for this place.” ”

“ It was so funny to think of Norroy's bottled ale. If I could only hypnotize Perdita into sleep!
"I shut my eyes," I said, "and I see a shore and it is rosy with dawn, and the sun goes ever higher, and the shore gets ever brighter. And it is n't far away."
"That's the shore we never reach; it is the shore we dream of," said Perdita, in a low voice.
"Our dreams are best, Perdita," said I.
"Yes, dreams are best," she sighed and crept closer. "You once said I was cynical about ideals. But I'm not really. I believe in ideals. I am glad I have had ideals." ”

“ Good augury should this festival be of the happiness of future years. First, he would look in on Evadne; he would not stay; but he owed her some account, some compensation for his long and unannounced absence; and then to Perdita, to the forgotten world, to the duties of society, the splendour of rank, the enjoyment of power.
After the scene sketched in the preceding pages, Perdita had contemplated an entire change in the manners and conduct of Raymond. She expected freedom of communication, and a return to those habits of affectionate intercourse which had formed the delight of her life. ”

“ He recognised the hand-writing of Evadne, and the colour mounted in his cheeks. With lightning-speed he conceived the contents of the letter; all was now cast on one die; falsehood and artifice were trifles in comparison with the impending ruin. He would either entirely dispel Perdita’s suspicions, or quit her for ever. “My dear girl,” he said, “I have been to blame; but you must pardon me. I was in the wrong to commence a system of concealment; but I did it for the sake of sparing you pain; and each day has rendered it more difficult for me to alter my plan. ”

“ Was there ever such sweet charity? Friends, quoth she! Lord, did friend ever show herself in so self-sacrificing and generous a light For me she had foregone the integrity of her chamber, and for me had she violated the sanctities of her boudoir. I strove to open the wardrobe, but it was not possible from within, and then in the very air of Perdita I pondered happily until brought up by a horrid thought. Did she, then, regard me as the incapable and reckless fool I had painted Norroy. ”

“ Her bright lips and shifting blushes bade the strangers welcome to their simple pastimes. But Polixenes could not long endure with patience the spectacle of his son at the feet of a peasant girl, and throwing oft his disguise before them all, he bitterly reproached Florizel, and threatened to have both Perdita and her father punished for the share they had had in leading his son from his duty. After this the king marched off in great rage, leaving the poor young lovers quite overwhelmed with astonishment and fear. ”

“ The position of Perdita Robinson at this time was peculiar: her husband was living in profligacy upon the wages of her labour, and she had refused the most brilliant offers made to her on condition of separating from him. She refused them all; but lent too ready an ear to the princely suitor, who now besieged her with indifferently-written letters and promises of never-dying affection. ”

“ The kind-hearted Camillo was charmed with the spirit and propriety of Perdita’s behavior; and, perceiving that the young prince was too deeply in love to give up his mistress at the command of his royal father, he thought of a way to befriend the lovers and at the same time to execute a favorite scheme he had in his mind. ”

“ When the old shepherd heard that the King had lost a baby daughter, who had been left upon the coast of Bohemia, he felt sure that Perdita, the child he had reared, must be the King's daughter, and when he told his tale and showed the jewels and the paper, the King perceived that Perdita was indeed his long-lost child. ”

“ Perdita, notwithstanding she occupies so little room in the play, fills a large space in the reader's thoughts, almost disputing precedence with the Queen. And her mother's best native qualities reappear in her, sweetly modified by pastoral associations; her nature being really much the same, only it has been developed and seasoned in a different atmosphere; a nature too strong indeed to be displaced by any power of circumstances or supervenings of art, but at the same time too delicate and susceptive not to take a lively and lasting impress of them. ”

“ No one was more distressed than Peter. “I’d ought to tooken care of Perdita better,” he would sob. “I’d ought to watched her better.”
“There, there, boy,” Catherine and Polly soothed him. “You did your best, and she’s home now, all safe, and won’t go journeying again, ever. She didn’t like Hotspur’s house, and she will stay home with Peter.”
“O, Catherine,” sighed Polly. “You are an only child, and you don’t know what agonies you can have over your brothers and sisters. It seems to me ever since Peter and Perdita were born I’ve been worrying about one or both of them!” ”

“ A month had gone by, and during that time he had not seen Evadne. Her power, which was linked to few of the enduring emotions of his heart, had greatly decayed. He was no longer her slave—no longer her lover: he would never see her more, and by the completeness of his return, deserve the confidence of Perdita.
Yet, as he thus determined, fancy conjured up the miserable abode of the Greek girl. An abode, which from noble and lofty principle, she had refused to exchange for one of greater luxury. ”

“ I took a bold leap.
"The master of this ancient domain has provided a book which he begs his visitors to honor with their names," I said elaborately. "As I am his temporary custodian, will you be so good—"
Perdita cast a quick glance at my face, and the American smiled affably.
"I should love to," she said indulgently. ”

“ Perdita prepared with a breaking heart to give up her lover. She had often warned him what would come of this; she was no fitting mate for a Prince. Her dream of happiness was over.
“Being now awake, I’ll queen it no inch further, but milk my ewes and weep,” she murmured sorrowfully.
But Florizel had no intention of giving up the bride to whom he had plighted his troth. Not for Bohemia, nor for all the pomp that the sun saw, or the earth held, or the sea hid, would he break his oath to his beloved. ”

“ But unfortunately for those whose company he admires, they obsess him."
Perdita bit her lip, as if she would thus refrain from laughter. Miss Fuller looked more puzzled than ever.
"How strange!" she said most civilly, but most blankly.
We reached the bottom of the lane where the village opens out, and Perdita broke her long silence.
"There it is," she said.
I looked, and on the village green was a motor-car. Harvey! Harvey! The name suddenly rang in my memory. Of course I recalled her now. It was the name of my American, and here was her car. ”

“ Look here, cousin, you ought to visit Pompeii," he concluded with avuncular wisdom.
"Perdita is going with me when I go," I said. "Pray, address your remarks to me, Sir Gilbert Norroy. What, by the way, did you say you were going to do when we 'got out'?" I asked Perdita.
"I did n't say anything," said she.
"Well, tell the kind gentleman now," I enjoined.
"You don't seem to realize," murmured Perdita, "that I am not subject to your orders."
"I always begin as I mean to go on," I told her. "Some people enter into the bonds of matrimony with their eyes wilfully shut. ”

“ She whom he called Perdita knew it well; and, as a pious soul awaits from God some supernatural help that shall work out its salvation, so she seemed to be waiting for him to put her into the state of grace necessary to enable her to elevate and maintain herself in those fiery regions toward which a mad desire to be consumed impelled her, despairing as she was at the thought of her [12] vanished youth, and the fear of finding herself left alone at last in a desert of ashes.
"It is you now, Stelio," she said, with the slight smile she used to hide her sadness, "who wish to intoxicate me." ”

“ But the refusal changed the American girl's decision, not in the least, I gathered, out of any ridiculous prudery, but merely because a new thought cut across the proposal and her acceptance.
"Oh, let me take you along, if you 're going my way," she exclaimed to Perdita. "I 've got a car outside."
Perdita made her characteristic little pause. "It is kind of you," she said, by way of acquiescence. ”

“ My companion frankly went forward and stood by her with her native sang-froid, and Perdita started. The girls exchanged glances, and Perdita turned.
"Would n't you like this old room just set down in your house?" asked my American visitor genially.
Perdita hesitated. "Yes," she said with a little smile on her lips, and then gave me a decided but formal bow.
The American took it for granted that we should now move on in company. I think that remark of hers was, in her eyes, quite as much introduction as was necessary. Royalty has its prerogatives. ”

“ One day, in a hunt, Prince Florizel sees Perdita and falls in love with her; but Polixenês, his father, tells her that she and the shepherd shall be put to death if she encourages the foolish suit. Florizel and Perdita now flee to Sicily, and being introduced to Leontês, it is soon discovered that Perdita is his lost daughter. Polixenês tracks his son to Sicily, and being told of the discovery, gladly consents to the union he had before forbidden. Pauli ́na now invites the royal party to inspect a statue of Hermionê in her house, and the statue turns out to be the living queen. ”

“ I listened, rapt, while Perdita's gallant adventurer braved the terrors of the cliffs, and penetrated into the cavern in the moonlight to find the beautiful Loreley who sang. And I heard how the gnomes and the evil spirits of the underworld tormented him, and how he fought them, and at infinite cost to himself conquered them, and how at last he found the maiden, and, behold, she was but a hag in seaweed and kelp, and her face wore the wrinkles of a thousand years of evil ”