w false she is, and what a wretch I am!
Spite of myself I love; and knowing, feeling,
With open eyes run on to my destruction;
And what to do I know not.

PAR. What to do?
What should you do, Sir, but redeem yourself
As cheaply as you can?--at easy rates
If possible--if not--at any rate----
And never vex yourself.

PHAED. Is that your counsel?

PAR. Aye, if you're wise; and do not add to love
More troubles than it has, and those it has
Bear bravely! But she comes, our ruin comes;
For she, like storms of hail on fields of corn,
Beats down our hopes, and carries all before her.

SCENE II.

_Enter THAIS._

THAIS. Ah me! I fear lest Phaedria take offense
And think I meant it other than I did,
That he was not admitted yesterday. (_To herself, not seeing them._)

PHAED. I tremble, Parmeno, and freeze with horror.

PAR. Be of good cheer! approach yon fire--she'll warm you.

THAIS. Who's there? my Phaedria? Why did you stand here?
Why not directly enter?

PAR. Not one word
Of having shut him out!

THAIS. Why don't you speak?

PHAED. Because, forsooth, these doors will always fly
Open to me, or that because I stand
The first in your good graces. (_Ironically._)

THAIS. Nay, no more!

PHAED. No more?--O Thais, Thais, would to Heaven
Our loves were parallel, that things like these
Might torture you, as this has tortur'd me:
Or that your actions were indifferent to me!

THAIS. Grieve not, I beg, my love, my Phaedria!
Not that I lov'd another more, I did this.
But I by circumstance was forc'd to do it.

PAR. So then, it seems, for very love, poor soul,
You shut the door in 's teeth.

THAIS. Ah Parmeno!
Is't thus you deal with me? Go to!--But hear
Why I did call you hither?

PHAED. Be it so.

THAIS. But tell me first, can yon slave hold his peace?

PAM. I? oh most faithfully: But hark ye, madam!
On this condition do I bind my faith:
The truths I hear, I will conceal; whate'er
Is false, or vain, or feign'd, I'll publish it.
I'm full of chinks, and run through here and there:
So if you claim my secrecy, speak truth.

THAIS. My mother was a Samian, liv'd at Rhodes.

PAR. This sleeps in silence. (_Archly._)

THAIS. There a certain merchant
Made her a present of a little girl,
Stol'n hence from Attica.

PHAED. A citizen?

THAIS. I think so, but we can not tell for certain.
Her father's and her mother's name she told
Herself; her country and the other marks
Of her original, she neither kn