Part 10 (1/2)

TYLTYL Yes, yes; we will come back as often as we can....

GRANNY TYL It's our only pleasure and it's such a treat for us when your thoughts visit us!...

GAFFER TYL We have no other amus.e.m.e.nts....

TYLTYL Quick, quick!... My cage!... My bird!...

GAFFER TYL (_handing him the cage_) Here they are!... You know, I don't warrant him; and if he's not the right colour...

TYLTYL Good-bye! Good-bye!...

THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS TYL Good-bye, Tyltyl! Good-bye, Mytyl!... Remember the barley-sugar!...

Good-bye!... Come again!... Come again!...

(_They all wave their handkerchiefs while_ TYLTYL _and_ MYTYL _slowly move away. But already, during the last sentences, the fog of the beginning of the scene has been gradually re-forming, so that, at the end, all has disappeared in the mist and, at the fall of the curtain_, TYLTYL _and_ MYTYL _are again alone visible under the big oak_.)

TYLTYL It's this way, Mytyl....

MYTYL Where is Light?...

TYLTYL I don't know.... (_Looking at the bird in the cage_.) But the bird is no longer blue!... He has turned black!...

MYTYL Give me your hand, little brother.... I feel so frightened and so cold....

CURTAIN

ACT III.

SCENE 1.--_The Palace of_ NIGHT.

_A large and wonderful hall of an austere, rigid, metallic and sepulchral magnificence, giving the impression of a Greek temple with columns, architraves, flagstones and ornaments of black marble, gold and ebony. The hall is trapezium-shaped. Basalt steps, occupying almost the entire width, divide it into three successive stages, which rise gradually toward the back. On the right and left, between the columns, are doors of sombre bronze. At the back, a monumental door of bra.s.s. The palace is lit only by a vague light that seems to emanate mainly from the brilliancy of the marble and the ebony. At the rise of the curtain_, NIGHT, _in the form of a very old woman, clad in long, black garments, is seated on the steps of the second stage between two children, of whom one, almost naked, like Cupid, is smiling in a deep sleep, while the other is standing up, motionless and veiled from head to foot_.

_Enter from the right, in the foreground, the_ CAT

NIGHT Who goes there?

THE CAT (_sinking heavily upon the marble steps_) It is I, Mother Night.... I am worn out....

NIGHT What's the matter, child?... You look pale and thin and you are splashed with mud to your very whiskers.... Have you been fighting on the tiles again, in the snow and rain?...

THE CAT It has nothing to do with the tiles!... It's our secret that's at stake!...

It's the beginning of the end!... I have managed to escape for a moment to warn you; but I greatly fear that there is nothing to be done....

NIGHT Why?... What has happened?...