as they are able, drag the_ CHILDREN, _who struggle, while_ FAT
LAUGHTER _seizes_ LIGHT _vigorously round the waist_.)

LIGHT
Turn the diamond, it is time!...

(TYLTYL _obeys_ LIGHT'S _order. Forthwith, the stage is lit up with
an ineffably pure, divinely roseate, harmonious and ethereal brightness.
The heavy ornaments in the foreground, the thick red hangings become
unfastened and disappear, revealing an immense and magnificent hall, a
sort of cathedral of gladness and serenity, tall, innocent and almost
transparent, whose endless fabric rests upon innumerous long and slender,
limpid and blissful columns, suggesting the architecture of the Palladian
churches or certain drawings by Carpaccio, notably the "Presentation of the
Virgin" in the Uffizi Gallery. The table of the orgie melts away without
leaving a trace; the velvets, the brocades, the garlands of the_
LUXURIES _rise before the luminous gust that invades the temple tear
asunder and fall, together with the grinning masks, at the feet of the
astounded revellers. These become visibly deflated, like burst bladders,
exchange glances, blink their eyes in the unknown rays that hurt them;
and, seeing themselves at last as they really are, that is to say, naked,
hideous, flabby and lamentable, they begin to utter yells of shame and
dismay, amid which those of_ FAT LAUGHTER _are clearly distinguishable
above all the rest. The_ LUXURY OF UNDERSTANDING NOTHING _alone
remains perfectly calm, while his friends rush about madly, trying to flee,
to hide themselves in corners which they hope to find dark. But there is
not a shadow left in the dazzling room. And so the majority, in their
despair, decide to pass through the threatening curtain which, in an angle
on the right, closes the vault of the Cave of Miseries. Each time that one
of them, in his panic, raises a skirt of the curtain, a storm of oaths,