TYLTYL Tylô!... Here, Tylô!... Come here at once, will you? Do you hear?... And you too, Sugar and Bread, who told you to leave me?... What are you doing there, without permission?
BREAD (speaking with his mouth full) Can't you keep a civil tongue in your mouth?...
TYLTYL What? Is Bread daring to be impertinent?... Why, what's come over you?... And you, Tylô?... Is that the way you obey? Now then, come here, on your knees, on your knees!... And look sharp!...
THE DOG (muttering, from the end of the table) When I'm eating, I'm at home to nobody and I hear nothing....
SUGAR (honey-mouthed) Pardon us, we could not possibly leave such charming hosts so abruptly: they would be offended....
THE LUXURY You see!... They are setting you an example.... Come, we are waiting for you.... We won't hear of a refusal.... We shall have to resort to a gentle violence.... Come, you Luxuries, help me!... Let us push them to the table by force, so that they may be happy in spite of themselves!... (All the LUXURIES, uttering cries of joy and skipping about as nimbly as they are able, drag the CHILDREN, who struggle, while FAT LAUGHTER seizes LIGHT vigorously round the waist.)
LIGHT Turn the diamond, it is time!...
(TYLTYL obeys LIGHT'S order. Forthwith, the stage is lit up with an ineffably pure, divinely roseate, harmonious and ethereal brightness. The heavy ornaments in the foreground, the thick red hangings become unfastened and disappear, revealing an immense and magnificent hall, a sort of cathedral of gladness and serenity, tall, innocent and almost transparent, whose endless fabric rests upon innumerous long and slender, limpid and blissful columns, suggesting the architecture of the Palladian churches or certain drawings by Carpaccio, notably the "Presentation of the Virgin" in the Uffizi Gallery. The table of the orgie melts away without leaving a trace; the velvets, the brocades, the garlands of the LUXURIES rise before the luminous gust that invades the temple tear asunder and fall, together with the grinning masks, at the feet of the astounded revellers. These become visibly deflated, like burst bladders, exchange glances, blink their eyes in the unknown rays that hurt them; and, seeing themselves at last as they really are, that is to say, naked, hideous, flabby and lamentable, they begin to utter yells of shame and dismay, amid which those of FAT LAUGHTER are clearly distinguishable above all the rest. The LUXURY OF UNDERSTANDING NOTHING alone remains perfectly calm, while his friends rush about madly, trying to flee, to hide themselves in corners which they hope to find dark. But there is not a shadow left in the dazzling room. And so the majority, in their despair, decide to pass through the threatening curtain which, in an angle on the right, closes the vault of the Cave of Miseries. Each time that one of them, in his panic, raises a skirt of the curtain, a storm of oaths, imprecations and maledictions is heard to issue from the hollow depths of the cave. As for the DOG, BREAD and SUGAR, they hang their heads, join the group of the CHILDREN and hide behind them very sheepishly.)
TYLTYL (watching the LUXURIES flying) Goodness, how ugly they are!... Where are they going?...
LIGHT I really believe that they have lost their heads.... They are going to take refuge with the Miseries, where I very much fear that they will be kept for good....