Were as little shaken as this holy flame!

(She goes slowly into the
chapel. The two MERCHANTS enter.)
FIRST MERCHANT. Although I bid you rob her treasury,
I find you sitting drowsed and motionless,
And yet you understand that while it's full
She'll bid against us and so bribe the poor
That our great Master'll lack his merchandise.
You know that she has brought into this house
The old and ailing that are pinched the most
At such a time and so should be bought cheap.
You've seen us sitting in the house in the wood,
While the snails crawled about the window-pane
And the mud floor, and not a soul to buy;
Not even the wandering fool's nor one of those
That when the world goes wrong must rave and talk,
Until they are as thin as a cat's ear.
But all that's nothing; you sit drowsing there
With your back hooked, your chin upon your knees.

SECOND MERCHANT. How could I help it? For she prayed so hard
I could not cross the threshold till her lover
Had turned her thoughts to dream.

FIRST MERCHANT, Well, well, to labour.
There is the treasury door and time runs on.

(SECOND MERCHANT goes Out. FIRST MERCHANT sits cross-legged
against a pillar, yawns and stretches.)