Scene III
The preceding. Viscount de Gif, M. de Morlaix, M. de Chevreuse, Madame de Gondelaurier, Fleur-de-lys, Diana, Bérangère. Ladies, Lords
VISCOUNT DE GIF.
My salutations, noble hostesses!
MADAME ALOISE, PHŒBUS, FLEUR-DE-LYS (bowing).
Good-evening, noble viscount!
Forget all care and grief
Beneath this hospitable roof.
M. DE MORLAIX.
Ladies, may God send you
Health, pleasure, and happiness!
MADAME ALOISE, PHŒBUS, FLEUR-DE-LYS.
May Heaven return with interest
All your good wishes, my lord!
M. DE CHEVREUSE.
Ladies, from the bottom of my soul
I belong to you, as I do to God!
MADAME ALOISE, PHŒBUS, FLEUR-DE-LYS.
Kind sir, may our good Lady
Come always to your aid!
[All the guests enter.
CHORUS.
Come to the festival, come!
Page, lordship, and ladyship, come!
With flowers in your hand,
A joy-seeking band,
Come to the festival, come!
[The guests greet and salute each other; servants circulate among the crowd, bearing platters laden with flowers and fruits. A group of young girls forms itself near a window to the left. Suddenly one of them calls to the others, and motions to them to look out of the window.
DIANA (looking out).
Come and look! come and look, Bérangère!
BÉRANGÈRE (looking into the street).
Isn’t she quick? Isn’t she light?
DIANA.
It is a fairy or it is love.
VISCOUNT DE GIF (laughing).
Who dances in the public square?
M. DE CHEVREUSE (after having looked).
Indeed! it is the magician.
Phœbus, it is your gypsy
Whom, the other night, with valor
You saved from a robber.
VISCOUNT DE GIF.
Oh, yes, it is the gypsy.
M. DE MORLAIX.
She’s as beautiful as the day.
DIANA (to Phœbus).
If you know her, tell her to come
And dance for us.
PHŒBUS (looking out with an absent air).
It might be she!
[To M. de Gif.] Do you think she would remember?
FLEUR-DE-LYS (who watches and listens).
Every one remembers you.
Come, call her, tell her to come up.
[Aside.] I will see whether to believe what I am told.
PHŒBUS (to Fleur-de-lys).
You wish it? Well, let us try!
[He motions to the dancer to come up.
THE YOUNG GIRLS.
She is coming!
M. DE CHEVREUSE.
She has disappeared under the porch.
DIANA.
She has left the mob, stupefied.
VISCOUNT DE GIF.
Ladies, you will see the nymph of the streets.
FLEUR-DE-LYS (aside).
How quickly she obeyed that sign from Phœbus!