ZOON: Lady, look down. (_She looks._) The earth is sorrowful. (_She sighs._) Cares. Cares. All over the wide surface we can see are troubles; troubles far off and grey, that harm not Aether Mountain. QUEEN: It looks a long way off and long ago. ZOON (_wonderingly_): Only to-day we came to Aether Mountain. QUEEN: Only to-day? ZOON: We crossed a gulf of time. QUEEN: It lies below us, all drowsy with years. ZOON: Lady, here is your home, this peak that has entered heaven. Let us never leave your home. QUEEN: I knew not until to-day of Aether Mountain. None had told me. ZOON: Knew you never, lady, of love? QUEEN: None had told me. ZOON: This is your home; not Earth; no golden palace. Reign here alone, not knowing the cares of men, without yesterday or to-morrow, untroubled by history or council. QUEEN: Yes, yes, we will return no more. ZOON: See, lady, see the Earth. Is it not as a dream just faded? QUEEN: It is dim indeed, grey and dream-like. ZOON: It is the Earth we knew. QUEEN: It is all dream-like. ZOON: It is gone; we can dimly see it. QUEEN: Was it a dream? ZOON: Perhaps. It is gone now and does not matter. QUEEN: Poor Earth. I hope it was real. ZOON (_seizing her hand_): Oh, Zoomzoomarma, say not you hope that Earth was real. It is gone now. See; it is so far away. Sigh not for Earth, oh lady, sigh not for Earth. QUEEN: Why not, King of Aether Mountain? ZOON: Because when you sigh for tiny things I tremble for your love. See how faint and small it is and how far away. QUEEN: I do not sigh for Earth, King of the Mountain. I only wish it well. ZOON: Oh, wish it not well, lady. QUEEN: Let us wish the poor Earth well. ZOON: No, lady, no. Be with me always wholly, living not partly in dreams. There is no Earth. It is but a dream that left us. See, see (_pointing down_) it is a dim dream. QUEEN (_looking down_): The people move there still. See, there is Prince Ximenung. Something down there seems almost unlike dreams. ZOON: No, lady, it cannot be. QUEEN: How know you, Lord of the Mountain? ZOON: It was too unreal for life. Love was not there. Surely it was a dream. QUEEN: Yes, I knew not love in the golden palace of Zoorm. ZOON: Then indeed it was unreal, Golden Lady. Forget the dream of Earth. QUEEN: If love be real ... ZOON: Can you doubt it? QUEEN: No. It was a dream. Just now I dreamt it. Are dreams bad, my Prince? ZOON: No. They are just dreams. QUEEN: We will think of dreams no more. ZOON: This is where love is, and here only. We should not dream too much or think of dreams, because the place is holy. QUEEN: Is love here only, darling? ZOON: Here only, Golden Queen. Do any others elsewhere love as we. QUEEN: No, I think not. ZOON: Then how can pure love be elsewhere? QUEEN: It is true. ZOON: On this clear peak that just enters Heaven love is and only here. The rest is dreams. QUEEN: Could we awake from love and find Earth true? ZOON: No, no, no. Sweet Lady, let not such fancies alarm you.