PIERROT (sighing)

Only three years! (Then bitterly—to Pierrette) Here!—I’ll give you a sign. Look!

(He walks with flat, listless feet up and down the room; then speaks, with a hopeless sob in his voice) I no longer walk on my toes! See! Flat—like that! No songs ever walked that way! Songs? No—here’s the way—

(He rises momentarily to his toes and sings.)

Oh, a merry, merry fellow,

And a sweet, fair maid,

Danced on the meadow in the gypsy time—

Said the merry, merry fellow

To the sweet, fair maid—

(He breaks off.)