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 scabbards against the benches so that we frighten the Queen. She will run from the palace then, and we will go after her with all our merry company.
MOOMOOMON: Yes, let us drum all together. I will give the word. All together and she will run from the palace. We will go after and our cloaks will stream behind us.
HUZ: Brave! And our scabbards will show bright beneath them.
MELIFLOR: No, I will give the word. When she flees from the palace I will follow her first. Crowd not about my cloak as it streams in the wind. We must throw up our heels as we run to make our shoes twinkle. We must show gaily in the little street. Afterwards we can run more easily.
HUZ: Aye, in the street we must run beautifully.
MOOMOOMON: I think that I should give the word when we rattle our scabbards and all drum with our heels; but I waive the point. But I do not think that the Queen can run far. She has never left the palace. How could she run over the moor as far as Aether Mountain. She will faint at the end of the street and we shall come up with her and bow and offer her our assistance.
MELIFLOR: Good, good. It would be cold and rocky on Aether Mountain.
MOOMOOMON: The Queen could never go there over the moor.
HUZ: No, she is too dainty.
XIMENUNG: They say she could.
MELIFLOR: They; what do they know? Common workers. What should they know of queens?
XIMENUNG: They have the old prophesies that came over the fields from the dawn.
MELIFLOR: Yet they cannot understand the Queen.
XIMENUNG: They say her mother went there.
MELIFLOR: That was long ago. Women are quite different now.
XIMENUNG: Well, give the word.
MELIFLOR: Nay. You shall give the word, Moomoomon. When you raise your hand we will all drum with our heels together and rattle our scabbards together, and frighten the Queen.
MOOMOOMON: I honour your courtesy, lord of the deep meadows.
MELIFLOR: We are ready then. When you raise your hand--
[A gust of laughter is heard off, from a far part of the palace.
MOOMOOMON: Hark! Hark!
MELIFLOR: It is the Queen! She laughed.
HUZ: Could she have guessed...?
MOOMOOMON: I trust not.
MELIFLOR: She-she-cannot have been thinking of us.
MOOMOOMON: She-she-seldom laughs.
HUZ: What can it be?
MOOMOOMON: Perhaps it was nothing and yet ...
MELIFLOR: Yet it makes me uneasy.
MOOMOOMON: It is not that I fear, but, when a queen laughs-it makes a feeling in the palace-as though all were not well.
HUZ: It makes one have forebodings. One cannot help it.
MELIFLOR: Perhaps; perhaps later we could return to our gallant scheme; for the present I think I'll hide a while.
MOOMOOMON: Yes, let us hide.
MELIFLOR: So that if there be anything wrong in the palace it will not find us.
[Exeunt MOOMOOMON and MELIFLOR.
HUZ: Let us hide.
[Exeunt all but ZOON and OOMUZ.
[ZOON has sat always with bent head at table. He sits so, still.
ZOON (bitterly): They would follow the Queen.
OOMUZ: Mighty Highness--