]. In a
moment I shall be killed.

HELENA. Killed?

PARIS. Save me and save yourself!

HELENA. Myself?

PARIS. I shall rescue you and lead you on to life.

HELENA. No one has ever spoken to me like that before.

PARIS. This is the first time your ears have heard the truth.

HELENA. Was it of you I've been dreaming?

PARIS. Your dream was but your unrealized desire.

HELENA. Menelaus has never made me feel like this. [And then with a
sudden shriek.] Oh! I'm a wicked woman!

PARIS. No! No!

HELENA. For years I've been living with a man I didn't love.

PARIS. Yes! Yes!

HELENA. I'm lost!

PARIS [at a loss]. No! Yes! Yes! No!

HELENA. It was a profanation of the most holy.

PARIS. The holiest awaits you, Helena! Our love will lighten the
Plutonian realms.

HELENA. Menelaus never spoke to me like that.

PARIS. 'Tis but the first whisper of my adoration.

HELENA. I can't face him every morning at breakfast for the rest of my
life. That's even more than a Queen can bear.

PARIS. I am waiting to release you.

HELENA. I've stood it for seven years.

PARIS. I've been coming to you since the beginning of time.

HELENA. There is something urging me to go with you, something I do not
understand.

PARIS. Quick! There is but a moment left us. [He takes her rapturously
in his arms. There is a passionate embrace in the midst of which TSUMU
enters.]

TSUMU. The chiropodist has come.

HELENA. Bring me my outer garment and my purse.

[TSUMU exits, her eyes wide on PARIS.]

PARIS. Helena! Helena!

[HELENA looks about her and takes up the papyrus that MENELAUS has flung
to the floor.]

HELENA. A last word to the King. [She looks at the papyrus.] No, this
won't do; I shall have to take this with me.

PARIS. What is it?

HELENA. Maskanda's discourse on the hip.

[A trumpet sounds below in the courtyard.]

PARIS [excitedly]. Leave it--or your hip may cost me my head. We haven't
a minute to spare. Hurry! Hurry!

[HELENA takes up an eyebrow pencil and writes on the back of the
papyrus. She looks for a place to put it and seeing the shield she
smears it with some of the ointment and sticks the papyrus to it.]

PARIS [watching her in ecstasy]. You are the fairest of all fair women
and your name will blaze as a symbol throughout eternity. [TSUMU enters
with the purse and the QUEEN'S outer robe.]

HELENA [tossing the purse to PARIS]. Here, we may need this.

PARIS [throwing it back to TSUMU]. This