the evening.

XIMENUNG: I too will be there.

MELIFLOR: And when they see me ...

XIMENUNG: They will see me too ...

MELIFLOR (_rising_): Behold me.

XIMENUNG: So I do.

MELIFLOR: Will they look towards you when this is there?

XIMENUNG: Are birch-trees seen at dawn fairer than I?

MELIFLOR: Behold me; not a poplar is straighter, not a flower is
fairer. I will loiter along the lanes at evening.

[_He draws his sword._ XIMENUNG _does the same._ MOOMOOMON _draws his
too and places it between them._

MOOMOOMON: Be at peace. _I_ will go to the lanes, and there need be no
quarrel between you, for _I_....

OTHERS: No, no, no....

HUZ: We will all go.

ANOTHER: We will all love. Hurrah for love.

[_They have all risen. They wave their swords on high, not threatening
each other. Zoon alone has not risen._

MOOMOOMON (_to_ ZOON): You do not speak, Prince of Zoon. Will you not
love along the idle hours?

ZOON: Yes, yes. I love.

MOOMOOMON: Come then to the lanes to loiter. It draws towards evening.
Let us all come to the lanes, where the honeysuckle is hanging.

ZOON: I love not in the lanes.

MOOMOOMON: Not in the lanes? Then...!

OTHERS: Not in the lanes?

ZOON: I love her than whom there is no greater on earth--(_Some_
PRINCES: Ah!) unless it be that name that frightens Oomuz.

MOOMOOMON: He loves the...!

XIMENUNG: The ...

MELIFLOR: The Queen!

[OOMUZ _nods his head again._

ZOON: The Queen.

MOOMOOMON: If the Queen knew such a thing she would flee from the
palace.

ZOON: I would pursue.

MOOMOOMON: She would go by Aether Mountain, where her mother went once
before her.

ZOON: I would follow.

HUZ: We would all follow.

MELIFLOR: I would follow too. I would dance after her down the little
street: the bright heels of my shoes would twinkle: my cloak would float
out behind me: I would pursue her and call her name, beyond the street
and over the moor as far as Aether Mountain: but I would not come up
with her: that would be _too_ daring.

ZOON: Love is not a toy, Prince Meliflor. Love is no less than a mood of
Destiny.

MELIFLOR: Pooh! We must enjoy the idle hours that are for us alone.

ZOON: There will be no idle hours on Aether Mountain, following from
crag to crag; if it be true that she would go that way.

MOOMOOMON: It is true. They know it. They say her mother went that way
before. It is one of the royal impulses.

ZOON: Oomuz, did the mother of the Queen go once up A