Leonardo. Then you are not going to Suavia? Prince Michael has returned solely for you. Must he go back alone to rule his empire?
Imperia. He says that without me he cannot accept the crown. His ship will be lost forever on the deep, cast up on some unknown coast, where his days will be spent in obscurity, and he will slip from the world unnoticed at the close. By nature he is indolent; all his energy, his hope are in me.
Leonardo. But you?
Imperia. While my child lives, my place is with her.
Leonardo. It will not be long.
Imperia. I never wished till now to stop the hand of time. On a day like this, it seems as if we should never die; as if it were impossible that we should be passing through life like shadows, looking out for a little while upon the earth, the sea, and the sky which whisper to us of their eternity and our sudden death. Life cannot be all a cheat—it would be too cruel! No, there is, there must be something higher, something more eternal in us than this sea and this sky.
Leonardo. But what is there in our lives which deserves to endure? Is it what we are, or what we appear to be?—the love that was in us once? what we long for and dream? Where are our true selves to be found?
Donina and Nunu come forward with armfuls of roses.
Donina. Look what lovely roses! They are all colors. Bring them here, Nunu; we picked them all. What difference does it make? The bushes will be covered with them again to-morrow.
Imperia. There never were such beautiful flowers.
Leonardo. Nor none more suggestive of life. All the colors of the flesh—red, like blood, like lovers' lips; pink, like the skins of children; amber pale, with a languorous carmine
