THE CHILD That's Time!... He is going to open the gates!...
(_A great change comes over the crowd of_ BLUE CHILDREN, _Most of them leave their machines and their labours, numbers of sleepers awake and all turn their eyes towards the opal doors and go nearer to them_.)
LIGHT (_joining_ TYLTYL) Let us try to hide behind the columns.... It will not do for Time to discover us....
TYLTYL Where does that noise come from?...
A CHILD It is the Dawn rising.... This is the hour when the children who are to be born to-day go down to earth....
TYLTYL How will they go down?... Are there ladders?...
THE CHILD You shall see.... Time is drawing the bolts....
THE CHILD An old man who comes to call those who are going....
THE CHILD No; but he hears nothing.... Beg as they may, if it's not their turn, he pushes back all those who try to go....
THE CHILD We are sorry when we are left behind, but we are sad when we go.... There! There!... He is opening the doors!...
(_The great opalescent doors turn slowly on their hinges. The sounds of the earth are heard like a distant music. A red and green light penetrates into the hall_; TIME, _a tall old man with a streaming beard, armed with his scythe and hourglass, appears upon the threshold; and the spectator perceives the extremity of the white and gold sails of a galley moored to a sort of quay, formed by the rosy mists of the Dawn_.)
TIME (_on the threshold_) Are they ready whose hour has struck?...
BLUE CHILDREN (_elbowing their way and running up from all sides_) Here we are!... Here we are!... Here we are!...
TIME (_in a gruff voice to the_ CHILDREN _defiling before him to go out_) One at a time!... Once again, there are many more of you than are wanted!... It's always the same thing!... You can't deceive me!...(_Pushing back a_ CHILD.) It's not your turn!... Go back and wait till to-morrow.... Nor you either; go in and return in ten years.... A thirteenth shepherd?... There are only twelve wanted; there is no need for more; the days of Theocritus and Virgil are past.... More doctors?... There are too many already; they are grumbling about it on earth.... And where are the engineers?... They want an honest man, only one, as a phenomenon.... Where is the honest man?... Is it you?... (THE CHILD _nods yes_.) You appear to me to be a very poor specimen!... Hallo, you, over there, not so fast, not so fast!... And you, what are you bringing?... Nothing at all, empty-handed?... Then you can't go through.... Prepare something, a great crime, if you like, or a fine sickness, I don't care ... but you mast have something.... (_Catching sight of a little_ CHILD _whom the others are pushing forward, while he resists with all his strength_.) Well, what's the matter with you?... You know that the hour has come.... They want a hero to fight against injustice; you're the one: you most start....