We are beyond earth's
story as 'tis told, sir. All's shallower than the heart of man....
Indeed, 'twas one more shattered altar to Hymen."
"'Hymen!'" I said.
He brooded long and silently, clipping his small beard. And while he
was so brooding, a mouse, a moth, dust--I know not what, stirred the
listening strings of his viol to sound, and woke him with a start.
"I vowed, sir, then, to dismiss all memory of such unhappy deeds from
mind--never to speak again that broken lady's name. Oh! I have seen
sad ends--pride abased, splendour dismantled, courage to terror come,
guilt to a crying guilelessness."
"'Guilelessness?'" I said. "Lady Macbeth at least was past all
changing."
The doctor stood up and cast a deep scrutiny on me, which yet,
perhaps, was partly on himself.
"Perceive, sir," he said, "this table--broader, longer, splendidly
burdened; and all adown both sides the board, thanes and their
ladies, lords, and gentlemen, guests bidden to a royal banquet. 'Twas
then in that bleak and dismal country--the Palace of Forres. Torches
flared in the hall; to every man a servant or two: we sat in pomp.
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