But now that Joyzelle is here, close to us; now that he is coming towards her, does the future become more clear, can you read further into it?... ARIELLE. (_Gazing upon the sea and the night, in a sort of trance._) I read in it what I read from the first moment.... Your son's fate is wholly inscribed within a circle of love. If he love, if he be loved with a wondrous love, which should be that of all men, but which is becoming so rare that at present it seems to them a dazzling folly; if he love, if he be loved with an ingenuous and yet clear-seeing love, with a love simple and pure and all-powerful as the mountain stream, with an heroic love, yet one that shall be gentler than a flower, with a love which takes all and gives back more than it takes, which never hesitates, which is not deceived; a love which nothing disconcerts and nothing repels, a love which hears and sees naught save a mysterious happiness invisible to all beside, which perceives it everywhere, in every form and every trial, and which, with a smile, will even commit crime to claim it.... If he obtain that love, which exists somewhere and is waiting for him in a heart that I seem to have recognized, his life will be longer, fairer and happier than that of other men. But, if he do not find it before the month is past, for the circle is closing; if Joyzelle's love be not that which the future holds out to him from the high skies; if the flame do not burn its full span, if a regret veil or a doubt obscure it, then death triumphs and your son is lost.... MERLIN. Ay, for all men the hour of love is an important hour!... ARIELLE. For Lancéor, alas, it is the inexorable hour!... Within these next few days he will reach the summit of his life. With groping hands, he touches happiness and the tomb.... He is dependent entirely on the last steps which he is taking and on the act of the virgin who is coming to meet him.... MERLIN. And if Joyzelle be not she whom fate selects?... ARIELLE. Indeed, I fear that the proof which we are about to attempt is the only one which it offers; but man must never lose courage in face of the future.... MERLIN. Why attempt the proof if it be uncertain?... ARIELLE. If we do not offer it, fate will offer it; it is inevitable, but it is left to chance; and that is why I try to direct its course.... MERLIN. And if he love Joyzelle and she do not love him with the love which fate demands?... ARIELLE. Then we shall have to intervene more openly. MERLIN. How? ARIELLE. I will try to learn. MERLIN.