(_Still cross and quite forgetting the importance of speaking in a low voice_.) Yes, yes! I'm not talking Greek, am I? I want to know if you're in love with any one. TYLTYL Yes, certainly; I love everybody: my parents, my friends, my sister, my neighbours, all the people I know. THE FAIRY Now oblige me and don't play the fool.... You know perfectly well what I mean.... I'm asking whether there's any one girl among those you meet whom you love more than the rest. TYLTYL (_Blushing and considering_.) I don't know.... THE FAIRY (_Angrier than ever_.) What do you mean; you don't know? Who does know, if you don't? At your age a boy ought to think of nothing else: if he doesn't, he's a booby, a nincompoop and not worth bothering about!... There's nothing to blush at: it's when one's not in love that one should feel ashamed.... You and I are miles away just now from the falsehood of words: we are with the truth of our thoughts, which is a very different thing.... Come, among all the girls you've met.... TYLTYL (_Timidly_.) I don't meet very many.... THE FAIRY That's no reason; it's not necessary to meet them by the dozen. Very often it's enough if you come across just one: when you've nobody else, you love that one and are not to be pitied.... But come, among those close by.... TYLTYL There aren't any close by.... THE FAIRY There are at the neighbours'. TYLTYL There are hardly any neighbours.... THE FAIRY There are girls in the village, in the town, way back in the forest and in every house. You find them everywhere when your heart's awake.... Which is the prettiest? TYLTYL Well, they're all very pretty. THE FAIRY How many do you know? TYLTYL Four in the village, one in the forest and one by the bridge. THE FAIRY Oho! That's not bad, for a beginning! TYLTYL We don't see many people here, you know. THE FAIRY You're not the baby one would think.... But tell me, between ourselves, do they love you too? TYLTYL They haven't told me so; they don't know that I love them. THE FAIRY But these are things which it isn't necessary to know or to tell!... You see that at once when you're living in the truth. A look is enough; there's no mistaking it; and the words which people say merely hide the real ones which the heart has spoken.... But I'm in a hurry: would you like me to make them come here? TYLTYL (_Terrified_.) Make them come here? They wouldn't want to! They hardly know me. They know I'm poor. They don't know where I live, especially those in the village: they never come this way.... It's an hour's walk from the church to the house; the roads are bad; it's dark.... THE FAIRY Dear, dear, anything more? Don't let us talk about that. Remember, we've done with untruths. I've only to lift my finger and they'll come.... TYLTYL But I'm not even sure that they've noticed me at all. THE FAIRY Have you looked at them? TYLTYL Yes, sometimes.... THE FAIRY And have they looked back at you? TYLTYL Yes, sometimes....