TYLTYL (going to another door) What's behind this one?....
NIGHT What is the good?...I have already told you the Blue Bird has never been here.... However, as you please.... Open the doors if you like.... It's the Sicknesses....
TYLTYL (with the key in the lock.) Must I be careful in opening?...
NIGHT No, it is not worth while.... They are very quiet, the poor little things.... They are not happy.... Man, for some time, has been waging such a determined war upon them!... Especially since the discovery of the microbes.... Open, you will see....
(TYLTYL opens the door quite wide. Nothing appears.)
TYLTYL Don't they come out?
NIGHT I told you they are almost all poorly and very much discouraged.... The doctors are so unkind to them.... Go in for a moment and see for yourself....
(TYLTYL enters the cavern and comes out again immediately.)
TYLTYL The Blue Bird is not there.... They look very ill, those Sicknesses of yours.... They did not even lift their heads.... (One little Sickness in slippers, a dressing-gown and a cotton nightcap escapes from the cavern and begins to frisk about the hall.) Look!... There's a little one escaping.... Which one is it?...
NIGHT It's nothing, one of the smallest; it's Cold-in-the-Head.... It is one of those which are least persecuted and which enjoy the best health.... (Calling to COLD-IN-THE-HEAD) Come here, dear....It's too soon yet; you must wait for the winter.... (COLD-IN-THE-HEAD, sneezing, coughing and blowing its nose, returns to the cavern and TYLTYL shuts the door.)