]
Stay!
The leper must appear before the priest,
The only one who can pronounce him clean.
[NAAMAN turns; they stand looking each other in the face.]
Yea,--thou art cleansed: Rimmon hath pardoned thee,--
In answer to the daily prayers of her
Whom he restores to thine embrace,--thy wife.
[TSARPI comes slowly toward NAAMAN.]
NAAMAN:
From him who rules this House will I receive
Nothing! I seek no pardon from his priest,
No wife of mine among his votaries!
TSARPI: [Holding out her hands.]
Am I not yours? Will you renounce our vows?
NAAMAN:
The vows were empty,--never made you mine
In aught but name. A wife is one who shares
Her husband's thought, incorporates his heart
With hers by love, and crowns him with her trust.
She is God's remedy for loneliness,
And God's reward for all the toil of life.
This you have never been to me,--and so
I give you back again to Rimmon's House
Where you belong. Claim what you will of mine,--
Not me! I do renounce you,--or release you,--
According to the law.
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