Part 12 (1/2)

NIGHT You may be sure they haven't.... If they had, they would eat him at once.... Well, have you had enough of it?... You see there is nothing to be done....

TYLTYL I must see everything.... Light said so....

NIGHT Light said so!... It's an easy thing to say when one's afraid and stays at home....

TYLTYL Let us go to the next.... What is in here?...

NIGHT This is where I lock up the Shades and the Terrors....

TYLTYL Can I open the door?...

NIGHT Certainly.... They are pretty quiet; they are like the Sicknesses....

TYLTYL (_half-opening the door, with a certain mistrustfulness, and taking a look into the cavern_) Are they not there?...

NIGHT (_looking into the cavern in her turn_) Well, Shades, what are you doing?... Come out for a moment and stretch your legs; it will do you good.... And the Terrors also.... There is nothing to be afraid of.... (_A few_ SHADES _and a few_ TERRORS, _in the shape of women, shrouded, the former in black veils and the latter in greenish veils, piteously venture to take a few steps outside the cavern; and then, upon a movement of_ TYLTYL'S, _hastily run back again_.) Come, don't be afraid.... It's only a child; he won't hurt you....

(_To_ TYLTYL) They have become extremely timid, except the great ones, those whom you see at the back....

TYLTYL (_looking into the depths of the cave_) Oh, how terrifying they are!...

NIGHT They are chained up.... They are the only ones that are not afraid of Man.... But shut the door, lest they should grow angry....

TYLTYL (_going to the next door_) I say!... This is a darker one.... What is here?

NIGHT There are several Mysteries behind this one.... If you are absolutely bent upon it, you may open it too.... But don't go in.... Be very cautious and let us get ready to push back the door, as we did with the Wars....

TYLTYL (_half-opening the door; with unparalleled precautions and pa.s.sing his head fearsomely through the aperture_) Oh!... How cold!... My eyes are smarting!... Shut it quickly!... Push, oh, pus.h.!.+ They are pus.h.i.+ng against us!... (NIGHT, _the_ DOG, _the_ CAT _and_ SUGAR _push back the door_.) Oh, I saw!...

NIGHT What?...

TYLTYL (_upset_) I don't know, it was awful!... They were all seated like monsters without eyes.... Who was the giant who tried to seize me?...

NIGHT It was probably Silence; he has charge of this door.... It appears to have been alarming?... You are quite pale still and trembling all over....

TYLTYL Yes, I would never have believed.... I had never seen.... And my hands are frozen....

NIGHT It will be worse presently if you go on....

TYLTYL (_going to the next door_) And this one?... Is this terrible also?...

NIGHT No; there is a little of everything here.... It is where I keep the unemployed Stars, my personal Perfumes, a few Glimmers that belong to me, such as Will-o'-the-Wisps, Glow-worms and Fireflies, also the Dew, the Song of the Nightingales and so on....

TYLTYL Just so, the Stars, the Song of the Nightingales.... This must be the door....

NIGHT Open it, if you like; there Is nothing very bad inside....

(TYLTYL _throws the door wide open. The_ STARS, _in the shape of beautiful young girls veiled in many-coloured radiancy, escape from their prison, disperse over the hall and form graceful groups on the steps and around the columns, bathed in a sort of luminous penumbra. The_ PERFUMES OF THE NIGHT, _who are almost invisible, the_ WILL-O'-THE-WISPS, _the_ FIREFLIES _and the transparent_ DEW _join them, while the_ SONG OF THE NIGHTINGALES _streams from the cavern and floods the Palace of_ NIGHT.)

MYTYL (_clapping her hands with delight_) Oh, what pretty ladies!...