on the banks of
the Orontes. She gave herself to all, for she knew nothing of the price
of love. But one night that she had danced before the most fashionable
young men of the city, the son of the pro-consul came to her, radiant
with youth and pleasure, and said, in a voice that seemed redolent of
kisses--

"Why am I not, Thais, the wreath which crowns your hair, the tunic which
enfolds your beautiful form, the sandal on your pretty foot? I wish you
to tread me under foot as a sandal; I wish my caresses to be your tunic
and your wreath. Come, sweet girl! come to my house, and let us forget
the world."

She looked at him whilst he was speaking, and saw that he was handsome.
Suddenly she felt a cold sweat on her face. She turned green as grass;
she reeled; a cloud descended before her eyes. He again implored her to
come with him, but she refused. His ardent looks, his burning words were
vain, and when he took her in his arms to try and drag her away, she
pushed him off rudely. Then he implored her, and shed tears. But a
new, unknown, and invincible passion dominated her heart, and she still
resisted.

"What madness!" said the guests. "Lollius is noble, handsome, and rich,
and a dancing-girl treats him with scorn!"

Lollius returned home alone that night, quite love-sick. He came in the
morning, pale and red-eyed, and hung flowers at the dancing-girl's door.

But Thais was frightened and troubled; she avoided Lollius, and yet
he was continually in her mind. She suffered, and she did not know the
cause of her complaint. She wondered why she had thus changed, and why
she was melancholy. She recoiled from all her lovers; they were hateful
to her. She loathed the light of day, and lay on her bed all day,
sobbing, and with her head buried in the pillows. Lollius contrived to
gain admittance, and came many times, but neither his pleadings nor his
execrations had any effect on the obdurate girl. In his presence, she
was as timid as a virgin, and would say nothing but--

"I will not! I will not!"

But at the end of a fortnight she gave in, for she knew that she loved
him; she went to his house and lived with him. They were supremely
happy. They passed their days shut up together, gazing into each other's
eyes, and babbling a childish jargon. In the evening, they walked on the
lonely banks of the Orontes, and lost themselves in the laurel woods.
Sometimes they rose at dawn, to go and gather hyacinths on the slopes of
Sulp