"Thais, I love you, although it is unseemly in me to love a woman."

THAIS. Why did you not love me before?

DORION. Because I had not supped.

THAIS. But I, my poor friend, have drunk nothing but water; therefore
you must excuse me if I do not love you.

Dorion did not wait to hear more, but made towards Drosea, who had made
a sign to him in order to get him away from her friend. Zenothemis took
the place he had left, and gave Thais a kiss on the mouth.

THAIS. I thought you more virtuous.

ZENOTHEMIS. I am perfect, and the perfect are subject to no laws.

THAIS. But are you not afraid of sullying your soul in a woman's arms?

ZENOTHEMIS. The body may yield to lust without the soul being concerned.

THAIS. Go away! I wish to be loved with body and soul. All these
philosophers are old goats.

The lamps died out one by one. The pale rays of dawn, which entered
between the openings of the hangings, shone on the livid faces and
swollen eyes of the guests. Aristobulus was sleeping soundly by the side
of Chereas, and, in his dreams, devoting all his grooms to the ravens.
Zenothemis pressed in his arms the yielding Philina; Dorion poured on
the naked bosom of Drosea drops of wine, which rolled like rubies on the
white breast, which was shaking with laughter, and the philosopher
tried to catch these drops with his lips, as they rolled on the slippery
flesh. Eucrites rose, and placing his arm on the shoulder of Nicias, led
him to the end of the hall.

"Friend," he said, smiling, "if you can still think at all--of what are
you thinking?"

"I think that the love of women is like a garden of Adonis."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Do you not know, Eucrites, that women make little gardens on the
terraces, in which they plant boughs in clay pots in honour of the lover
of Venus? These boughs flourish a little time, and then fade."

"What does that signify, Nicias? That it is foolish to attach importance
to that which fades?"

"If beauty is but a shadow, desire is but a lightning flash. What
madness it is, then, to desire beauty! Is it not rational, on the
contrary, that that which passes should go with that which does not
endure, and that the lightning should devour the gliding shadow?"

"Nicias, you seem to me like a child playing at knuckle-bones. Take my
advice--be free! By liberty only can you become a man."

"How can a man be free, Eucrites, when he has a body?"

"You shall see presently, my son. Present