The Betrothal Part 9

(_Looming up out of the shadow_.) This way!

TYLTYL

Hullo! You're there, are you? I thought you had deserted me....

DESTINY

(_Grasping his hand_.) I was here all the time.... I never lose sight of you....

TYLTYL

Yes, but, I say, don't walk so fast!... My bag's frightfully heavy....

It would be much kinder of you if you helped me to carry it a little, instead of making me rush along like this....

DESTINY

I am not man's servant.... Forward, forward, forward!...

(_They go out_.)

SCENE IV

_A Closet in the Fairy's Palace_

_A sort of waiting-room or lumber-room containing the princ.i.p.al accessories of the Tales of Mother Goose: Cinderella's pumpkin and gla.s.s slipper; Red Ridinghood's cake and bowl; Hop-o'-my-Thumb's pebbles; the Ogre's daughters' golden crowns; the Sleeping Beauty's distaff and snake-tub; the Giant's seven-leagued hoots; Blue Beard's key; the Blue Bird in his silver cage; and, hanging from the wall, Catskin's weather-coloured, moon-coloured and sun-coloured dresses. All these things look rather tawdry in the grey and unbecoming light_. TYLTYL'S _seven little friends are locked up in this room. In the same unsympathetic light they look much less pretty than when they entered the cottage and they seem rather tired, discontented and glum, except_ THE VEILED GIRL, _who stands on one side, motionless, impa.s.sive and unrevealing_.

BELLINE

Where have they brought us?

ROSARELLE

I don't know; but I must say that it's not a nice place in which to keep young ladies waiting.

BELLINE

Yes, it looks like a lumber-room where they've stored all the odds and ends and litter of the house.

ROSARELLE

(_Touching the various objects in disgust_.) What's this? A distaff?

Bless me, what for?... A pumpkin, a cake, an old bowl and goodness knows what else!... A tub full of dead eels! Gracious, how they smell!... It's all disgracefully kept.... And that lot of old fly-blown, spun-gla.s.s dresses!... My dear, how horrible!... What sort of place can this be? A potting-shed, a rag-and-bone shop, a p.a.w.n-broker's, or a thieves'

kitchen? Whom can it belong to? A receiver of stolen goods? (_Touching the more bizarre dresses_.) Or a Hottentot dressmaker?

BELLINE

There's something of everything ... except a broom and a duster.

ROSARELLE

One wouldn't be enough.

BELLINE

And nothing to sit on but an old wooden bench....

ROSARELLE

But it's carved, my love!...

BELLINE

Yes, carved in dust.

ROSARELLE

Reach me one of those hideous rags and let me wipe it....

BELLINE

(_Eagerly and obsequiously_.) Wait, miss, I'll do that.... (_She takes the moon-coloured dress and dusts the seat with it_.) There, that's a little better; that's at least one corner nearly clean enough to sit on.

ROSARELLE

(_Sitting down_.) I'm tired out!

BELLINE

(_Sitting down beside her_.) So am I; my feet are dreadfully sore.

ROSARELLE

(_Looking around through her lorgnette_.) But what I want to know is where have we got to? My dear, have we fallen into a trap?

BELLINE

The company certainly is a little mixed. There's the miller's daughter, the girl from the inn, the wood-cutter....

ROSARELLE

Or rather, to be accurate, the wood-stealer.... There's even the little beggar-girl from the bridge by the Hermitage, to whom I refused a penny last Sunday.... My dear, you should have heard the insolent way in which she asked for it!...

BELLINE