Lily visits Cory
LILY VISITS CORY AT HER TEMPLE SOUND OF A CAR APPROACHING. HEADLIGHTS SWING ACROSS THROUGH THE TREES. SCREECH OF TYRES ON GRAVEL LILY ENTERS. CORY RISES, DISGUISED IN HER BOATER CORYBeautiful signorina - let me carry your net and hat. LILYSuddenly, I meet a beautiful, dusky native, who carries my net and hat. He might be my soul mate. What are the chances? CORYLook, Signorina: nature is all around us! NOTE: CORY AND LILY ARE COMPLETELY SEPARATE DURING THE FOLLOWING EXCHANGE LILYWe lie in each other’s arms in the drowsy heat and I promise myself that if I feel one spark of passion I will not hesitated to yield all, and be lost for ever in the eyes of the world. For he tells me he takes no precautions in his intercourse with women, saying it matters not to him. I have no idea til now that the passions of men are such a mixture of tenderness and brutality. CORYAnd the birds, the butterflies and the flowers are all making love with one another. Why should we who are man and woman, and who come here day by day, why should we remain unjoined? LILYAnd indeed there seems to be no reason why -but alas - my heart remains unmoved, and the dark eyes that flash upon me see no return for their fire. “Well” I think, “if this is what it’s like to be kissed by a man, the less I get of it the better pleased I shall be.” CORY…red, exotic rose. LILYLILY. CORYI am forever waiting here, loving you forever. LILYHe’s the most awful liar, so I soon see he might be extremely useful. Will you work for me for very low wages, slave night and day for a smile from me and never, never, look at another woman whenever we are together? Will you allow me to glance at any man without expressing jealousy - though you must feel the burning pangs sear your very vitals - and when I go away home to Edinburgh, which I shall whenever I fancy, will you always be here when I return? CORYI will. LILYI decide, there and then, to be in love with him. I’m yours. CORYI’m yours. LILYI agree. Should I stay with you I wonder and make a home? Plenty of butterflies here. CORYPlenty of butterflies here. LILYBut no. I must move on. Freely. I catch a splendid specimen of male Brimstone, SHE TAKES OUT AN INSTAMATIC AND PHOTOGRAPHS CORY thinking that though it’s common enough at home I shall always love to think it has been caught abroad. It gives me a pang of remorse to take this beautiful creature away from his flowers and his sunshine, which I too know so well how to enjoy. SHE TEARS UP THE PHOTOGRAPH The Death of the Butterfly is the one Drawback to an Etymological Career. TO CORY: Let me give you a piece of advice. It is the affections that hold us back from great enterprises; it’s the affections that tie us down to one spot on earth - if not in body, in spirit. And then at the end of it all life is over and we have accomplished none of those great things our soaring imaginations once led us to suppose were to be achieved. CORY HAS LAIN DOWN AS THOUGH DEAD.After that - it’s easy. Being passionate, and not loving.