Page:Joseph and His Brethren A Pageant Play.djvu/73

Joseph. Joy to this house, whose threshold your feet have crossed.

Asenath. We come to welcome the bride; we come to deck her bower with the lily and the lotus; with the red pomegranate, and with the purple passion flower.

[The Girls divide. Some go to the inner chamber, L. Others hang their flowers round the pillars at the back, and over the door R. Sebni and Tehuti help the latter. Tamai is one of these, and she constantly interrupts her work to gaze at Joseph]

Joseph. [Gazing at Asenath] Happy the bride, with such flowers to greet her.

Asenath. [Laughing roguishly] Yet thou seest them not!

Joseph. [Eagerly] I see the fairest.

Asenath. [Demurely] The Shepherd of Dothan is soft of speech.

Joseph. [Starting back] The Shepherd of Dothan—! Alas! I had forgotten.

Asenath. [Coming towards him anxiously] What had Joseph forgotten?

Joseph. I had forgotten I am a bondman to Potiphar; a stranger in Egypt; a slave; a straw, blown by the wind; a leaf floating on the water. Mine eyes are the eyes of a slave, and must see nought; my tongue is a slave's tongue, and must utter no sound [Passionately] though here—here—a man's heart be beating.

Asenath. [Trying to touch him with her hand—but he avoids her touch] Poor heart! Is it beating for freedom?

Joseph. It is beating—[With intense eagerness] Asenath, Asenath, they whisper that war is at hand,