LANCÉOR. But what, when all is told, was that fearful proof?... MERLIN. Joyzelle will tell you in the first kisses, free from all anxiety, which you will exchange after this victory. They will veil better than my poor words what, in this proof, appears unpardonable.... The proof was dangerous and almost insurmountable.... Joyzelle could have chosen a different course.... She might have yielded, sacrificed herself, sacrificed her love, despaired, I know not what!... She would not have been the Joyzelle that was expected.... There was but one path traced by destiny; she entered upon it, followed it to the end and saved your life in saving her own love.... JOYZELLE. It is ordained, then, that love strikes and kills all that tries to bar its way?... MERLIN. No, Joyzelle, I do not know.... Let us not make laws with a few scraps picked up in the darkness that surrounds our thoughts.... But she who was to do what you were willing to do was she whom fate intended for my son.... It was therefore written, for you and for you alone and perhaps for those who resemble you a little, that they have a right to the love which fate points out to them; and that that love must break down injustice.... I do not judge you: it is fate that approves you; but I am over-joyed that it has thus chosen you among all women.... JOYZELLE. Father!... I tremble still when I see that weapon which, for a moment.... Forgive me, father, I loved you already.... MERLIN. It is I who ask you now to offer me a forgiving hand.... JOYZELLE. No, no, these are not the cold hands of forgiveness!... These are the hands that caress, worship and give thanks!... I know now why, despite my hatred, I could not hate!... What you have done was more difficult than all that I have done, because it was cruel; and, when I think again on what has happened, it is you, it is you, father, who have endured the heaviest and the most deserving proof.... MERLIN. No, the most deserving was not among those which you can discover.... It will remain the secret of this heart which loves you both and unites you within itself and which, to change this too-deep secret into happiness, asks my two children for but a moment of their joy and perhaps for a kiss a little longer than those granted in passing to old men whose time on earth is short.... LANCÉOR. (_Throwing himself in MERLIN'S arms._) Father!... JOYZELLE. (_Also embracing MERLIN._) My father too!... ARIELLE. (_Trying to mingle with the closely entwined group._) No one sees me and no one thinks of giving me my share of the love snatched by my invisible hands from the miserly hands of the days and years.... MERLIN. (_Smiling._) I see you, Arielle: you love all three of us; but a more ardent kiss ascends towards Joyzelle than those which you give to us.... There, kiss her; the proof is finished in my old heart too.... Yet a little while and we shall be far from her and far from all love.... [_ARIELLE kisses JOYZELLE long and slowly._