CLARA (folding the letter). There it is...

CLARA (folding the letter). There it is decided! A few days, and we are parted forever! a few weeks, and another will bear his name--his wife! Oh, happy fate! She will have the right to say to him--though the whole world should hear her "I am thine!" And I embitter their lot--I am the cloud upon their joyous sunshine! And yet, O Alfred! if she loves thee--if she knows thee--if she values thee--and, when thou wrong'st her, if she can forgive, as I do, I can bless her, when far away, and join her name in my prayers for thee!

EVELYN (without). Miss Vesey just gone? Well, I will write a line.. (Aside.) So--Clara! Do not let me disturb you, Miss Douglas.

CLARA (going). Nay, I have done.

EVELYN. I see that my presence is always odious to you. It is a reason why I come so seldom. But be cheered, Madam: I am here but to fix the day of my marriage, and I shall then go into the country--till--till--In short, this is the last time my visit will banish you from the room I enter.

CLARA (aside). The last time!--and we shall then meet no more! And to part thus for ever--in scorn--in anger--I cannot bear it! (Approaching him.) Alfred, my cousin, it is true this may be the last time we shall meet; I have made my arrangements to quit England.

EVELYN. To quit England?

CLARA. But, before I go, let me thank you for many a past kindness, which it is not for an orphan easily to forget.

EVELYN (mechanically). To quit England!

CLARA. I have long wished it: but enough of me--Evelyn, now that you are betrothed to another, now, without recurring to the past--now, without the fear of mutual error and mistake--something of our old friendship may at least return to us. And if, too, I dared, I have that on my mind which only a friend--a sister--might presume to say to you.

EVELYN (moved). Miss Douglas--Clara--if there is aught that I could do--if, while hundreds--strangers--beggars--tell me that I have the power, by opening or shutting this worthless hand, to bid sorrow rejoice or poverty despair if--iif my life--my heart's blood--could render to you one such service as my gold can give to others why, speak! and the past you allude to,yes, even that bitter past--I will cancel and forget!

CLARA (holding out her hand). We are friends, then!--you are again my cousin!--my brother!

EVELYN (dropping her hand). Ah! say on!

CLARA. I speak, then, as a sister--herself weak, inexperienced, ignorant, nothing--might speak to a brother, in whose career she felt the ambition of a man. Oh, Evelyn! when you inherited this vast wealth I pleased myself with imagining how you would wield the power delegated to your hands. I knew your benevolence your intellect--your genius!--the ardent mind couched beneath the cold sarcasm of a long−baffled spirit! I saw before me the noble and bright career open to you at lastand I often thought that, in after years, when far away as I soon shall be, I should hear your name identified, not with what fortune can give the base, but with deeds and ends to which, for the great, fortune is but the instrument;I often thought that I should say to my own heart--weeping proud and delicious tears--"And once this man loved me!"

EVELYN. No more, Clara! (oh, heavens!) no more!

CLARA. But has it been so? have you been true to your own self? Pomp, parade, luxuries, pleasures, follies--all these might distinguish others, they do but belie the ambition and the soul of Alfred Evelyn! Oh! pardon me--I am too bold--I pain--I offend you. Ah, I should not have dared thus much had I not thought, at times, that--that--

EVELYN. That these follies--these vanities--this dalliance with a loftier fatewere your own work! You thought that, and you were right! Perhaps, indeed, after a youth steeped to the lips in the hyssop and gall of penury--perhaps I might have wished royally to know the full value of that dazzling and starry life which, from the last step in the ladder, I had seen indignantly and from afar. But a month--a week would have sufficed for that experience. Experience!--Oh, how soon we learn that hearts are as cold and souls as vileno matter whether the sun shine on the noble in his palace, or the rain drench the rags of the beggar cowering at the porch. The extremes of life differ but in this: Above, Vice smiles and revels--below, Crime frowns and starves. But you--did not you reject me because I was poor? Despise me if you please! my revenge might be unworthy--I wished to show you the luxuries, the gaud, the splendour I thought you prized,to surround with the attributes your sex seems most to value the station that, had you loved me, it would have been yours to command. But vain--vain alike my poverty and my wealth! You loved me not in either, and my fate is sealed!

CLARA. A happy fate, Evelyn! you love!

EVELYN. And at last I am beloved.(After a pause, and turning to her abruptly) Do you doubt it?

CLARA. No, I believe it firmly! (Aside) Were it possible for her not to love him?

EVELYN. Georgina, perhaps, is vain, and light--and--

CLARA. No--think it not! Once removed from the worldly atmosphere of her father's councils, and you will form and raise her to your own level. She is so young yet--she has beauty, cheerfulness, and temper;the rest you will give, if you will but yet do justice to your own nature. And, now that there is nothing unkind between us--not even regret--and surely (with a smile) not revenge, my cousin; you will rise to your nobler self--and so, farewell!

EVELYN. No; stay--one moment;you still feel interest in my fate! Have I been deceived? Oh, why, why did you spurn the heart whose offerings were lavished at your feet? Could you still--still?--Distraction--I know not what I say!my honour pledged to another--my vows accepted and returned! Go, Clara; it is best so! Yet you will miss some one, perhaps, more than me--some one to whose follies you have been more indulgent--some one to whom you would permit a yet tenderer name than that of brother!

CLARA (aside). It will make him, perhaps, happier to think it!--Think so, if you will!--but part friends.

EVELYN. Friends--and that is all! Look you, this is life! The eyes that charmed away every sorrow--the hand whose lightest touch thrilled to the very core--the presence that, like moonlight, shed its own hallowing beauty over the meanest things; a little while--a year--a month--a day--and we smile that we could dream so idly. All--all--the sweet enchantment, known but once, never to return again, vanished from the world! And the one who forgets the soonest--the one who robs your earth for ever of its summer, comes to you with a careless lip, and says"Let us part friends!" Go, Clara,go,and be happy if you can!

CLARA (weeping). Cruel, cruel, to the last! Heaven forgive you, Alfred! [Exit.]

EVELYN. Soft!--let me recall her words, her tones, her looks. Does she love me? She defends her rival--she did not deny it when I charged her with attachment to another: and yet--and yet--there is a voice at my heart which tells me I have been the rash slave of a jealous anger.But I have made my choice--I must abide the issue!

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, “Money” in Nineteenth Century Plans. Ed. George Rowell. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, pp.81-4.

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