class="smcap">Meliflor: It is like all things, the gift of the idle hours. The workers never love. Their fancies are fastened to the work they do, and do not roam towards love.

All: Love! Let us love.

Meliflor: We will love in idleness and praise the idle hours.

Ximenung: Whom will you love, lord of the shimmering fields?

Meliflor: I have but to show myself loitering by lanes in the evening.

Ximenung: I too will be there.

Meliflor: And when they see me ...

Ximenung: They will see me too ...

Meliflor (rising): Behold me.

Ximenung: So I do.

Meliflor: Will they look towards you when this is there?

Ximenung: Are birch-trees seen at dawn fairer than I?

Meliflor: Behold me; not a poplar is straighter, not a flower is fairer. I will loiter along the lanes at evening.

[He draws his sword. Ximenung does the same. Moomoomon draws his too and places it between them.

Moomoomon: Be at peace. I will go to the lanes, and there need be no quarrel between you, for I....

Others: No, no, no....

Huz: We will all go.

Another: We will all love. Hurrah for love.

[They have all risen. They wave their swords on high, not threatening each other. Zoon alone has not risen.

Moomoomon (to Zoon): You do not speak, Prince of Zoon. Will you not love along the idle hours?

Zoon: Yes, yes. I love.

Moomoomon: Come then to the lanes to loiter. It draws towards evening. Let us all come to the lanes, where the honeysuckle is hanging.

Zoon: I love not in the lanes.

Moomoomon: Not in the lanes? Then...!

Others: Not in the lanes?

Zoon: I love her than whom there is no greater on earth—(Some Princes: Ah!) unless it be that name that frightens Oomuz.

Moomoomon: He loves the...!

Ximenung: The ...

Meliflor: The Queen!

[Oomuz nods his head again.

Zoon: The Queen.

Moomoomon: If the Queen knew such a thing she would flee from the palace.

Zoon: I would pursue.

Moomoomon: She would go by Aether Mountain, where her mother went once before her.

Zoon: I would follow.

Huz: We would all follow.

Meliflor: I would follow too. I would dance after her down the little street: the bright heels of my shoes would twinkle: my cloak would float out behind me: I would pursue her and call her name, beyond the street and over the moor as far as Aether Mountain: but I would not come up with her: that would be too daring.

Zoon: Love is not a toy, Prince Meliflor. Love is no less than a mood of Destiny.

Meliflor: Pooh! We must enjoy the idle hours that are for us alone.

Zoon: There will be no idle hours on Aether Mountain, following from crag to crag; if it be true that she would go that way.

Moomoomon: It is true. They know it. They say her mother went that way before. It is one of the royal impulses.

Zoon: Oomuz, did the mother of the Queen go once up Aether Mountain?

Oomuz: Aye, and her mother.

Zoon: It is true.

Ximenung: You are sure of this?

Oomuz: We know it. It has been said.

Huz: We will all follow her up Aether Mountain.

Meliflor: We will follow merrily.

Ximenung: If we did this what would they do when we returned?

Meliflor: Who?

Ximenung: They.

Meliflor: They? They would not dare to speak to us.

Ximenung: Who knows what they would dare if we dared go after the Queen?

Moomoomon: They would dare nothing, knowing whence we come.

Ximenung: They care not whence we come.

Moomoomon: But they care for the event that is in our hands. They dare never touch us because of the event.

Meliflor: We are the heirs of the idle hours. For them is work. Surely they dare not leave their work to touch us.

Moomoomon: They care only for the event. Because it is prophesied that we are needed for the event we are sacred. Were it not for the event, why ...

Meliflor: Were it not for the event we might not dare to do it; but, being sacred, let us enjoy our idle hours.

Ximenung: What if the event should one day befall?

Meliflor: It was prophesied long ago and has not come. It will not come for a long time.

Moomoomon: No, not for a long time.

[A sentry passes.

Meliflor: So we will follow the Queen.

Huz: Yes, we will follow.

Moomoomon: We shall be a merry company.

Meliflor: Splendid to see.

Zoon: I would follow though I were not guarded for the event. Though the event should befall and we be immune no longer, still I should dare it.

Meliflor: I would dare it if I knew what they would do. But knowing not ...

Moomoomon: What matter? We are guarded by the event.

Zoon: I say I care not.

Meliflor: Let us drum with our heels and beat with our