in love. On this subject
lovers know more than philosophers."

"Do not jest, Thais. I bring thee the unknown love."

"Friend, you come too late. I know every kind of love."

"The love that I bring thee abounds with glory, whilst the loves that
thou knowest breed only shame."

Thais looked at him with an angry eye, a frown gathered on her beautiful
face.

"You are very bold, stranger, to offend your hostess. Look at me, and
say if I resemble a creature crushed down with shame. No, I am not
ashamed, and all others who live like me are not ashamed either,
although they are not so beautiful or so rich as I am. I have sown
pleasure in my footsteps, and I am celebrated for that all over the
world. I am more powerful than the masters of the world. I have seen
them at my feet. Look at me, look at these little feet; thousands of men
would pay with their blood for the happiness of kissing them. I am not
very big, and I do not occupy much space on the earth. To those who look
at me from the top of the Serapeium, when I pass in the street, I look
like a grain of rice; but that grain of rice has caused among men,
griefs, despairs, hates, and crimes enough to have filled Tartarus. Are
you not mad to talk to me of shame when all around proclaims my glory?"

"That which is glory in the eyes of men, is infamy before God. O
woman, we have been nourished in countries so different, that it is not
surprising we have neither the same language nor the same thoughts! Yet
Heaven is my witness that I wish to agree with thee, and that it is my
intention not to leave thee until we share the same sentiments. Who will
inspire me with burning words that will melt thee like wax in my breath,
O woman, that the fingers of my desires may mould thee as they wish?
What virtue will deliver thee to me, O dearest of souls, that the spirit
which animates me, creating thee a second time, may imprint on thee a
fresh beauty, and that thou mayest cry, weeping for joy, 'It is only now
that I am born'? Who will cause to gush in my heart a fount of Siloam,
in which thou mayest bathe and recover thy first purity? Who will change
me into a Jordan, the waves of which sprinkled on thee, will give thee
life eternal?"

Thais was no longer angry.

"This man," she thought, "talks of life eternal and all that he says
seems written on a talisman. No doubt he is a mage, and knows secret
charms against old age and death," and she resolved to offer herself to
him. Ther