GAFFER TYL Very well; there's more where that came from, if you like them.... (_The clock strikes half-past eight_) TYLTYL (_starting up_) Half-past eight!... (_He flings down his spoon_.) Mytyl, we've only just got time!... GRANNY TYL Oh, I say!... Just a few minutes more!... Your house isn't on fire!... We see you so seldom.... TYLTYL No, we can't possibly.... Light is so kind.... And I promised her.... Come, Mytyl, come!... GAFFER TYL Goodness gracious, how tiresome the Living are with all their business and excitement!... TYLTYL (_taking his cage and hurriedly kissing everybody all round_) Good-bye, grandad.... Good-bye, granny.... Good-bye, brothers and sisters, Pierrot, Robert, Pauline, Madeleine, Riquette and you, too, Kiki.... I feel we mustn't stay.... Don't cry, granny; we will come back often.... GRANNY TYL Come back every day!... TYLTYL Yes, yes; we will come back as often as we can.... GRANNY TYL It's our only pleasure and it's such a treat for us when your thoughts visit us!... GAFFER TYL We have no other amusements.... TYLTYL Quick, quick!... My cage!... My bird!... GAFFER TYL (_handing him the cage_) Here they are!... You know, I don't warrant him; and if he's not the right colour... TYLTYL Good-bye! Good-bye!... THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS TYL Good-bye, Tyltyl! Good-bye, Mytyl!... Remember the barley-sugar!... Good-bye!... Come again!... Come again!... (_They all wave their handkerchiefs while_ TYLTYL _and_ MYTYL _slowly move away. But already, during the last sentences, the fog of the beginning of the scene has been gradually re-forming, so that, at the end, all has disappeared in the mist and, at the fall of the curtain_, TYLTYL _and_ MYTYL _are again alone visible under the big oak_.) TYLTYL It's this way, Mytyl.... MYTYL Where is Light?... TYLTYL I don't know.... (_Looking at the bird in the cage_.) But the bird is no longer blue!... He has turned black!... MYTYL Give me your hand, little brother.... I feel so frightened and so cold.... CURTAIN ACT III. SCENE 1.--_The Palace of_ NIGHT. _A large and wonderful hall of an austere, rigid, metallic and sepulchral magnificence, giving the impression of a Greek temple with columns, architraves, flagstones and ornaments of black marble, gold and ebony. The hall is trapezium-shaped. Basalt steps, occupying almost the entire width, divide it into three successive stages, which rise gradually toward the back. On the right and left, between the columns, are doors of sombre bronze. At the back, a monumental door of brass. The palace is lit only by a vague light that seems to emanate mainly from the brilliancy of the marble and the ebony. At the rise of the curtain_, NIGHT, _in the form of a very old woman, clad in long, black garments, is seated on the steps of the second stage between two children, of whom one, almost naked, like Cupid, is smiling in a deep sleep, while the other is standing up, motionless and veiled from head to foot_.