The Betrothal Part 22

THE CHILD

(_Bursting into laughter_.) Why, it's you!

TYLTYL

(_Dumbfounded_.) I? Am I a grandpapa already?

THE CHILD

Of course you are, eighty times over!... We are the first to arrive. The others are on their way.... (_To the other_ CHILDREN.) He doesn't seem to believe it!

ANOTHER CHILD

You might give us a kiss.

TYLTYL

(_Kissing them all_.) I will! I will!... But how do I come to be a grandpapa?

THE CHILD

Surely it's quite simple: you will be our grandpapa when we are your grandchildren.

TYLTYL

Obviously, that's clear.... So you exist already?

THE CHILD

Naturally, since you yourself exist.... I say, are those the grandmammas you're bringing us?

TYLTYL

Yes; it seems you're to pick out the best one.

ANOTHER CHILD

(_Clapping his hands and dancing for joy_.) Oh, how pretty they are!...

(_Throwing himself into_ JALLINE'S _arms_.) I take this one, because she is so soft!...

ANOTHER CHILD

(_Throwing his arms round_ AIMETTE'S _neck_.) And I this one, because she is so sad!...

ANOTHER CHILD

(_Kissing_ ROSELLE.) I choose this one, because's she's always laughing!...

THREE OTHER CHILDREN

(_Each taking one of_ THE GIRLS, _kissing and fondling her and laughing and skipping with delight_.) And I choose this one, because she smells so nice!... I choose this one!... I choose this one!...

THE FIRST CHILD

(_Intervening_.) One moment, one moment, if you please.... This has nothing to do with us; our turn will come. You know that only the smallest have the right to choose who is to be their mother. All we have to do is to help them with our advice and to stop them if they make mistakes; but that's a thing which has never happened yet. They were quite some distance away, at the princ.i.p.al gate, but they won't be long now.

TYLTYL

Here come some bigger ones!

(_Enter a new group of_ CHILDREN, _apparently about fifteen years of age. The oldest goes to_ TYLTYL _and shakes hands with him_.)

THE OLDEST CHILD

Good-evening, great-grandfather!...

TYLTYL

Who's that? I? I'm a great-grandfather now!...

THE OLDEST CHILD

Of course you are!... I am very glad to see you for a minute, for we shall most nicely not have the pleasure of meeting on earth.... Well, I understand that your visit to the Ancestors was not much of a success.

TYLTYL

Let's rather put it that they hadn't quite made up their minds. But how is it that you already know what happened there?

THE OLDEST CHILD

Why, of course we know everything that happens inside you; we're there ourselves. Besides, there's very little that separates us from the Ancestors: our interests are the same and our paths often meet.

THE FIRST CHILD

Look out! Here are the little ones!... I see five coming.... There's only one missing, the littlest....

(_From the back of the halls come five_ LITTLE CHILDREN _holding one another's hands_.)

TYLTYL

Who are those five little ones? They are very sweet.

THE FIRST CHILD

Why, they are your children: two boys and three girls!

TYLTYL

Mine? Shall I have five children?