title="[47]"/> it is time to act. Go and find Joyzelle and leave your son to me.... Go, lest you should spoil the proof.... I shall revive him, I shall renew and make still deeper and blinder the intoxication into which I have plunged him; and I shall become visible to his eyes in order to deceive his kisses....

Merlin.

(In a voice of smiling reproach.) Arielle....

Arielle.

Go, let me be.... You know that kisses given to poor Arielle pass like the flash of a wing that closes over running water....

[Merlin retires to a distance. Arielle goes towards the marble basin; and there, half-hidden behind the hedge of oleanders, she half opens the veils that cover her, sits on the grassy steps that surround the basin and slowly unties her long hair, while Lancéor awakes, groping with his hands.

Lancéor.

Where did I fall asleep? Some strange poison has entered my heart.... I am no longer the same and my mind is wandering.... I am struggling against the intoxication and I do not know where I am going.... (Catches sight of Arielle.) But who is that woman behind the oleanders? (Approaching the hedge and looking.) She is beautiful!... She is half unclad and her curved foot, like a prudent flower, is trying the water, which smiles and encircles it with pearls.... She raises her arms to bind her hair; and the light of the sky glides between her shoulders, like gleaming water over marble wings. (Approaching closer.) She is beautiful, she is beautiful!... I must see her.... She is turning round and one of her bare breasts, peeping through her tresses, adds rays to the rays that strike it.... She is listening, she hears; and her wide-open eyes are questioning the roses.... She has seen me, she hides herself, she is going to fly.... (Passing through the hedge.) No, no, do not fly from me!... I have seen you.... It is too late!... (Taking Arielle in his arms.) I want to know the name of so pure a vision, which plunges into darkness all that I have loved!... I want to know also what too faithful shadow, what profound retreat concealed the marvel which I hold in my arms!... What trees, what caves, what towers, what walls were able to stifle the brilliancy of that flesh, the fragrance of that life, the fire of those eyes?... Where were you hiding, you whom even a blind man would find without difficulty in a holiday crowd?... No, do not thrust me away; this is not the passion, the intoxication of a moment; it is the lasting dizziness of love!... I am at your knees; I humbly embrace them.... I give myself to you alone.... I am only yours.... I ask for nothing but a kiss from your lips to forget the rest and seal the future.... Bow down your head.... I see it bending towards me, I see it consenting; and I call for the token which nothing can efface henceforth.... (He kisses her passionately. A cry of distress is heard from behind the bushes.) What is it?...

[Arielle releases herself from his embrace, flies and disappears. Enter Joyzelle.

Joyzelle.

(Dismayed.) Lancéor!...

Lancéor.

Why, where do you come from, Joyzelle?

Joyzelle.

I have seen and heard....

Lancéor.

Well, what?... What have you seen?... Look around you: there is nothing to see.... The oleanders are in flower, the water in the basin sleeps, the doves are cooing, the water-lilies are opening their petals: that is all that I see, all that you can see....

Joyzelle.

Do you love her?

Lancéor.

Whom?...

Joyzelle.

The woman who has just fled....

Lancéor.

How should I love her?... I had never seen her.... The woman was there; I happened to pass.... She gave a loud scream.... I ran up.... She seemed to have lost her footing and, as I held out my hand to her, she gave me the kiss which you heard....

Joyzelle.

Is it really you speaking?

Lancéor.

Yes, look at me: it is really and wholly I.... Come nearer, touch me if you doubt it....

Joyzelle.

The proof was terrible; but this is mortal....

Lancéor.

What?...

Joyzelle.

Was this the first time that you saw that woman?...

Lancéor.

Yes.

Joyzelle.

I shall not speak of it again.... I shall understand, perhaps; in any case, I forgive....

Lancéor.

There is nothing to forgive.

Joyzelle.

What do you say?...

Lancéor.

I say that I have no need for the pardon with which you overwhelm a fault which I have not committed.

Joyzelle.

Which you have not committed?... Then I did not see what I saw nor hear what I heard?...

Lancéor.