of Maternal Love!...

(_The other_ JOYS, _who have run up from every side, acclaim the_
JOY OF MATERNAL LOVE _with their cheers and then fall back before her in
silence_.)

THE JOY OF MATERNAL LOVE
Tyltyl! And Mytyl!... What, do I find you here?... I never expected it!...
I was very lonely at home; and here are you two climbing to that Heaven
where the souls of all mothers beam with joy!... But first kisses, heaps
and heaps of kisses!... Into my arms, the two of you; there is nothing on
earth that gives greater happiness!... Tyltyl, aren't you laughing?... Nor
you either, Mytyl?... Don't you know your mother's love when you see it?...
Why, look at me: are these not my eyes, my lips, my arms?...

TYLTYL
Yes, yes, I recognise them, but I did not know.... You are likepink one, who looks so serious and is sucking his thumb,
what is he?...

THE CHILD
It appears that he is to wipe out injustice from the earth....

TYLTYL
Oh!...

THE CHILD
They say it's a tremendous work....

TYLTYL
And the little red-haired one, who walks as if he did not see where he was
going, is he blind?...

THE CHILD
Not yet; but he will become so....Look at him well; it seems that he is to
conquer Death....

TYLTYL
What does that mean?...

THE CHILD
I don't exactly know; but they say it's a great thing....

TYLTYL (_pointing to a crowd of_ CHILDREN _sleeping at the foot of
the columns, on the steps, the benches, etc_.)
And all those asleep, what a number of them there are asleep!... Do they do
nothing?...

THE CHILD
They are thinking of something....

TYLTYL
Of what?...

THE CHILD
They do not know yet; but they must take something