TYLTYL And how well they dance!... MYTYL And how sweet they smell!... TYLTYL And how beautifully they sing!... MYTYL What are those, whom one can hardly see?... NIGHT Those are the Perfumes of my Shadow. TYLTYL And those others, over there, in spun glass?... NIGHT They are the Dew of the plains and forests.... But enough!... They would never have done.... It is the devil's own business to get them back, once they begin to dance.... (_Clapping her hands together_.) Now then, Stars, quick!... This is not the time for dancing.... The sky is overcast and heavily clouded.... Come, quick, in with you, or I will go and fetch a ray of sunlight!... (_The_ STARS, PERFUMES, _etc., take to flight in dismay and rush back into the cavern; and the door is closed upon them. At the same time, the song of the_ NIGHTINGALE _ceases_.) TYLTYL (_going to the door at the back_) Here is the great middle door.... NIGHT (_gravely_) Do not open that one... TYLTYL Why not?.... NIGHT Because it's not allowed.... TYLTYL Then it's here that the Blue Bird is hidden; Light told me so.... NIGHT (_maternally_) Listen to me, child ... I have been kind and indulgent ... I have done for you what I have never done for any one before ... I have given up all my secrets to you.... I like you, I feel pity for your youth and innocence and I am speaking to you as a mother.... Listen to me, my child, and believe me; relinquish your quest, go no further, do not tempt fate, do not open that door.... TYLTYL (_a little shaken_) But why?... NIGHT Because I do not wish you to be lost.... Because not one of those, do you hear, not one of those who have opened it, were it but by a hair's breadth, has ever returned alive to the light of day.... Because every awful thing imaginable, because all the terrors, all the horrors of which men speak on earth are as nothing compared with the most harmless of those which assail a man from the moment when his eye lights upon the first threats of the abyss to which no one dares give a name.... So much so that I myself, if you are bent, in spite of everything, upon touching that door, will ask you to wait until I have sought safety in my windowless tower... Now it is for you to know, for you to reflect.... (MYTYL, _all in tears, utters cries of inarticulate terror and tries to drag_ TYLTYL _away_.) BREAD (_with chattering teeth_) Don't do it, master dear!... (_Flinging himself on his knees_) Take pity on us!... I implore you on my knees.... You see that Night is right.... THE CAT You are sacrificing the lives of all of us.... TYLTYL I must open the door.... MYTYL (_stamping her feet, amid her sobs_) I won't!... I sha'n't!... TYLTYL Sugar and Bread, take Mytyl by the hand and run away with her.... I am going to open the door.... NIGHT Run for your lives!... Come quickly!... It is time!... (_She flees._) BREAD (_fleeing wildly_) At least wait till we are at the end of the hall!... THE CAT (_also fleeing_) Wait! Wait!...