The Blue Bird: The Wonderful Adventures of Tyltyl and Mytyl in Search of Happiness by Maurice Maeterlinck & Georgette Leblanc

Author:Maurice Maeterlinck & Georgette Leblanc
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Children -- Juvenile fiction, Children's stories
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
Published: 2023-06-06T22:00:47+00:00

VI

In the Temple of Light

Tyltyl had en­joyed him­self thor­oughly in the King­dom of the Fu­ture. He had seen many won­der­ful things and thou­sands of little play­fel­lows and then, without tak­ing the least pains or trouble, had found the Blue Bird in his arms in the most ma­gic­al way. He had nev­er pic­tured any­thing more beau­ti­ful, more blue or bril­liant; and he still felt it flut­ter­ing against his heart and kept hug­ging his arms to his breast as though the Blue Bird were there.

Alas, it had van­ished like a dream!

He was think­ing sadly of this latest dis­ap­point­ment as he walked hand-in-hand with Light. They were back in the Temple and were go­ing to the vaults where the An­im­als and Things had been shut up. What a sight met their eyes! The wretches had eaten and drunk such a lot that they were ly­ing on the floor quite tipsy! Tylô him­self had lost all his dig­nity. He had rolled un­der the table and was snor­ing like a por­poise. His in­stinct re­mained; and the sound of the door made him prick up his ears. He opened one eye, but his sight was troubled by all that he had had to drink and he did not know his little mas­ter when he saw him. He dragged him­self to his feet with a great ef­fort, turned round sev­er­al times and then dropped on the floor again with a grunt of sat­is­fac­tion.

Bread and the oth­ers were as bad; and the only ex­cep­tion was the Cat, who was sit­ting up pret­tily on a marble and gold bench and seemed in full pos­ses­sion of her senses. She sprang nimbly to the ground and stepped up to Tyltyl with a smile:

“I have been long­ing to see you,” she said, “for I have been very un­happy among all these vul­gar people. They first drank all the wine and then star­ted shout­ing and singing and dan­cing, quar­rel­ling and fight­ing and mak­ing such a noise that I was very glad when, at last, they fell in­to a tipsy sleep.”

The chil­dren praised her warmly for her good be­ha­viour. As a mat­ter of fact, there was no great mer­it in this, for she could not stand any­thing stronger than milk; but we are sel­dom re­war­ded when by rights we ought to be and some­times are when we have not de­served it.

After fondly kiss­ing the chil­dren, Tylette asked a fa­vour of Light:

“I have had such a wretched time,” she whined. “Let me go out for a little while; it will do me good to be alone.”

Light gave her con­sent without sus­pect­ing any­thing; and the Cat at once draped her cloak round her, put her hat straight, pulled up her soft grey boots over her knees, opened the door and ran and bounded out in­to the forest. We shall know, a little later, where treach­er­ous Tylette was go­ing so gaily and what was the hor­rid plot which she was mys­ter­i­ously con­coct­ing.

As on the oth­er days, the Chil­dren had their din­ner with Light in a large room all en­crus­ted with dia­monds.

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