Part 19 (2/2)
TYLTYL And over there, right at the back, those who are veiled and who do not come near?...
THE HAPPINESS Those are the Joys whom men do not yet know....
TYLTYL What do the others want with us?... Why are they standing aside?...
THE HAPPINESS It is before a new Joy who is arriving, perhaps the purest that we have here....
TYLTYL Who is it?
THE HAPPINESS Don't you recognise her yet?... But take a better look at her, open your two eyes down to the very heart of your soul!... She has seen you, she has seen you!... She runs up to you, holding out her arms!... It is your mother's Joy, it is the peerless Joy of Maternal Love!...
(_The other_ JOYS, _who have run up from every side, acclaim the_ JOY OF MATERNAL LOVE _with their cheers and then fall back before her in silence_.)
THE JOY OF MATERNAL LOVE Tyltyl! And Mytyl!... What, do I find you here?... I never expected it!...
I was very lonely at home; and here are you two climbing to that Heaven where the souls of all mothers beam with joy!... But first kisses, heaps and heaps of kisses!... Into my arms, the two of you; there is nothing on earth that gives greater happiness!... Tyltyl, aren't you laughing?... Nor you either, Mytyl?... Don't you know your mother's love when you see it?...
Why, look at me: are these not my eyes, my lips, my arms?...
TYLTYL Yes, yes, I recognise them, but I did not know.... You are like Mummy, but you are much prettier....
MATERNAL LOVE Why, of course, I have stopped growing old.... And every day brings me fresh strength and youth and happiness.... Each of your smiles makes me younger by a year.... At home, that does not show; but here everything is seen and it is the truth....
TYLTYL (_wonder-struck, gazing at her and kissing her by turns_) And that beautiful dress of yours: what is it made of?... Is it silk, silver or pearls?...
MATERNAL LOVE No, it is made of kisses and caresses and loving looks.... Each kiss you give me adds a ray of moon-light or suns.h.i.+ne to it....
TYLTYL How funny, I should never have thought that you were so rich!... Where used you to hide it?... Was it in the cupboard of which Daddy has the key?...
MATERNAL LOVE No, no, I always wear it, but people do not see it, because people see nothing when their eyes are closed.... All mothers are rich when they love their children.... There are no poor mothers, no ugly ones, no old ones.
Their love is always the most beautiful of the Joys.... And, when they seem most sad, it needs but a kiss which they receive or give to turn all their tears into stars in the depths of their eyes....
TYLTYL (_looking at her with astonishment_) Why, yes, it's true, your eyes are filled with stars.... And they are really your eyes, only they are much more beautiful.... And this is your hand too, with the little ring on it.... It even has the burn which you gave it one evening when lighting the lamp.... But it is much whiter; and how delicate the skin is!... There seems to be light flowing through it....
Doesn't it do any work like the one at home?...
MATERNAL LOVE Why yes, it is the very same: did you never see that it becomes quite white and fills with light the moment it fondles you?...
TYLTYL It's wonderful, Mummy: you have the same voice also; but you speak much better than you do at home....
MATERNAL LOVE At home, one has too much to do and there is no time.... But what one does not say one hears all the same.... Now that you have seen me, will you know me again, in my torn dress, when you go back to the cottage tomorrow?...
TYLTYL I don't want to go back.... As you are here, I want to stay also, as long as you remain....
MATERNAL LOVE But it's just the same thing: I am down below, we are all down below....
You have come up here only to realise and to learn, once and for all, how to see me when you see me down below.... Do you understand, Tyltyl dear?...
You believe yourself in Heaven; but Heaven is wherever you and I kiss each other.... There are not two mothers; and you have no other.... Every child has only one; and it is always the same one and always the most beautiful; but you have to know her and to know how to look.... But how did you manage to come up here and to find a road for which men have been seeking ever since they began to dwell upon the Earth?...
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