They must find it very tiresome to be kept waiting like that! LIGHT Nothing is ever tiresome in infinity. Besides they have to learn here all that they will forget on earth. TYLTYL It seems hardly worth while then, to take so much trouble! LIGHT Oh, but it is! Something always remains and helps to build up the deep happiness of life. TYLTYL Well, so much the better for them! As for me, I shall soon know what I am to do. I hope we shall get through to-day, because, you see, I'd like to have things settled.... But where on earth can they be, those girls of mine and Destiny? (_Looking below him, on the right_.) The poor little dears are up to their knees in the snow. This place is even higher and more difficult to get at than where the Ancestors lived. LIGHT (_Looking down_.) They are not very far away.... But you have taken off your hat again; that's a bad habit of yours. Put it on quickly, before they come, and be careful to make no mistake this time, for, if you do, the result may be very unpleasant. (TYLTYL _puts on his hat and turns the sapphire. Forthwith from the earth and from every side little creatures of different sizes appear, dressed like him and resembling him in nearly every respect. They surround him, rush against him, hustle him and try to drag him, some to the right, others to the left, while he struggles in the midst of them without knowing to which he should give his attention_.) TYLTYL (_Distraught_.) Hullo, hullo, what's all this? What does it mean? That sapphire really is becoming impossible! LIGHT Don't worry: you'll have turned it the wrong way again. What did you do? TYLTYL How can I tell?... This is getting too much for me! Too mixed up, really.... I must have pressed it instead of turning it. LIGHT That's what I thought. You have simply released some of your other "You's." TYLTYL (_Dumbfounded_.) Some of my other "Me's"? LIGHT Yes, what I mean is that you are not alone inside yourself and that.... TYLTYL (_More and more dumbfounded_.) I am not alone inside myself?... LIGHT Why, no, there are a number of other personalities there, more or less like you and all the time trying to get the upper hand. TYLTYL No, but really, what else is there inside me? I must be a sort of menagerie or Noah's ark! There's no end to it! LIGHT That's true: there would be no end if we had the time to go into it all.... But press the sapphire down now and all will be well. (TYLTYL _presses the sapphire and all his_ DOUBLES _disappear_.) TYLTYL My word! A good riddance!... Well, as you say, they may be the least bit like me, but some of them are very ugly. Particularly a big dark one, who kept on tripping me up and very nearly made me fall. LIGHT Of course, there are some of all kinds, as in every man. One must learn to choose the best and avoid the worst.... But here come your little friends. (_Enter first_ THE WHITE PHANTOM.) TYLTYL