a fortnight after Epiphany.

THE FAIRY

(Growing angry again.) A fortnight after Epiphany!... What a way of reckoning!... And here am I without my almanack, having left it with Destiny last time I called on him, fifty years ago!... I don't know where I stand.... However, never mind: I'll make the calculation when we see him, for we shall have to get it exactly right.... And what have you been doing these seven years since we met?

TYLTYL

I have been working in the forest with daddy.

THE FAIRY

That means you've been helping him cut down trees. I don't like that very much. You call that working, do you? Ah, well, men evidently can't live without destroying the last things of beauty that remain on the earth!... So let's talk of something else.... (Mysteriously.) Can any one hear us?

TYLTYL

I don't think so.

THE FAIRY

(Growing angry once more.) It doesn't matter what you think, but whether you're sure. What I have to say is tremendously important ... and strictly private. Come here, quite close, so that I can whisper it.... Whom are you in love with?

TYLTYL

(In amazement.) Whom am I in love with?

THE FAIRY

(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....

THE FAIRY

Well, that's enough; that's the truth; and one doesn't need anything more. You'll find that's the way people tell each other in the world where I'm going to take you, the world of real things. The rest doesn't matter.... They make no mistake. You'll see, once we are there, how well they know all that has to be known; for what we see is nothing: it is what we do not see that makes the world go round.... And now, watch me!... I'm taking the little green hat out of my bag again!... Do you remember it?

TYLTYL

Yes, but it's bigger....

THE FAIRY

(Angrily.) Of course it's bigger! So's your head: they grew up together.... Always making those unnecessary remarks!...

TYLTYL

And the diamond has changed colour. I should call it blue....

THE FAIRY

But, you see, it isn't the diamond! This time we're not concerned with the souls of Bread, Sugar and other simple and unimportant things. We have to choose the great and only love of your life; for each man has only one. If he misses it, he wanders miserably over the face of the earth. The search goes on till he dies, with the great duty unfulfilled which he owes to all those who are within him. But he seldom has an idea of this. He walks along, his eyes shut; seizes some woman whom he chances to meet in the dark; and shows her to his friends as proudly as though the gates of Paradise were opening. He fancies himself alone in the world and imagines that in his own heart all things begin and end.... Which is absurd.... But no more of that! Is everything ready? Put on your hat and turn the sapphire; then they'll come in....

TYLTYL

(Scared.) But I'm not dressed!... Wait, wait!... What shall I put on?... Oh, what luck!... There are my Sunday clothes on the chair: my breeches—they're almost new—and my clean shirt!... (He dresses hurriedly.)

THE FAIRY

Come, come, have done! All this doesn't matter; they won't mind your clothes.... You're not going to meet a lot of silly children. You won't find them the same as they were in the other life, because this is the real one; and it's the truth in them that you'll see here.

TYLTYL

(Very uneasy.) Will they all come in together? There are six of them, at least: I can't remember.... Suppose they started quarrelling and pulling one another's hair?

THE FAIRY

Just the least bit conceited, aren't you?

TYLTYL

No, but I'm afraid of their making a noise, because of daddy.

THE FAIRY

Haven't I told you again and again, we're no longer in the world below!... Can't you feel that the air is much purer and the light quite different?... We are now in a sphere in which men and women don't quarrel or wish one another harm. All of that was merely make-believe and doesn't exist deep down.... If some of them are unhappy because you hesitate in your choice, they will none the less hope on until the end; and they know very well that where there is love there must also be sorrow....

TYLTYL

How will they come in?

THE FAIRY

Upon my word, I don't know. Each of them will do what occurs to her: one will choose the window, another the roof, the wall, the cellar or the chimney ... one or two even will come in by the door; but those are the least interesting: they lack imagination.... However, we shall see when the time comes. We've talked enough; time presses; come, turn the sapphire....

TYLTYL

(Trying to gain time, in order to conceal his terror.) Which way round am I to turn it?