Resources for students & teachers

Horace Holley. 
New York City.

HER HAPPINESS

Darkness.  A door opens swiftly.  Light from outside shows a woman entering.  She is covered by a large cape, but the gleam of hair and brow indicates beauty.  She closes the door behind her.  Darkness.

THE WOMAN

Paul!  Paul!  Are you here, Paul?

A VOICE

Yes, Elizabeth, I am here.

THE WOMAN

Oh thank God!  You are here!  I felt so strange—­I thought ...  Oh, I cannot tell you what I have been thinking!  Turn on the light, Paul.

THE VOICE

You are troubled, dear.  Let the darkness stay a moment.  It will calm you.  Sit down, Elizabeth.

THE WOMAN

Yes....  I am so faint!  I had to come, Paul!  I had to see you, to know that you were....  I know I promised not to, but I was going mad!  Just to touch you, to hold you ... but it’s all right now.

THE VOICE

It is all right now, Elizabeth.

THE WOMAN

I thought I could stand it, dear, I thought I could stand it.  It wasn’t myself—­I swear to you it wasn’t—­nor him.  I, I can stand all that, now.  It was something else, something that came over me all at once.  I saw—­Oh Paul! the thing I saw!  But it’s all right now....

THE VOICE

It is all right, Elizabeth, because ours is love, love that is made of light, and not merely blind desire.

THE WOMAN

Ours is love.  We are love!

THE VOICE

So that even if we are separated—­even if you cannot come to me yet, we shall not lose conviction nor joy.

THE WOMAN

Yes, Paul.  I will not make it harder for you.  I know it is hard, and that it was for my sake you could bring yourself to bind me not to see you again.

THE VOICE

Love is, world without end.  That is all we need to know.

THE WOMAN

World without end, amen.

THE VOICE

And because I knew the power and truth of love in you I put this separation upon us.

THE WOMAN

For my sake.  I know it now, Paul!  And trust me!  You can trust me, Paul!  Not time, nor distance, nor trouble nor change shall move me from the heights of love where I dwell.