one chance, but one alone;
I'll see Cynisca, and prevail on her
To meet Pygmalion but once again.

GAL. But should she come too late? He may not live
Till she returns.

MYR. I'll send him now to thee,
And tell him that his wife awaits him here.
He'll take thee for Cynisca; when he speaks
Answer thou him as if thou wast his wife.

GAL. Yes, yes, I understand.

MYR. Then I'll be gone.
The gods assist thee in this artifice! [_Exit_ MYRINE.

GAL. The gods will help me, for the gods are good.
[_Kneels._] Oh, heaven, in this great grief I turn to thee,
Teach me to speak to him, as, ere I lived,
Cynisca spake to him. Oh, let my voice
Be to Pygmalion as Cynisca's voice,
And he will live--for her and not for me--
Yet he will live. I am the fountain head

_Enter_ PYGMALION, _unobserved, led in by_ MYRINE

Of all the horrors that surround him now,
And it is fit that I should suffer this;
Grant this, my first appeal--I do not ask
Pygmalion's love; I ask Pygmalion's life.

[PYGMALION _utters an exclamation of joy. She rushes to him and seizes
his hand_.

Pygmalion!

PYG. I have no words in which
To tell the joy with which I heard that prayer.
Oh, take me to thine arms, my dearly loved!
And teach me once again how much I risked
In risking such a heaven-sent love as thine.

GAL. [_believing that he refers to her_]. Pygmalion! my love!
Pygmalion!
Once more those words! again! say them again!
Tell me that thou forgivest me the ill
That I unwittingly have worked on thee!

PYG. Forgive thee? Why, my wife, I did not dare
To ask thy pardon, and thou askest mine.
The compact with thy mistress, Artemis,
Gave thee a heaven-sent right to punish me.
I've learnt to take whate'er the gods may send.

[GALATEA, _at first delighted, learns in the course of this speech that_
PYGMALION _takes her for_ CYNISCA, _and expresses extreme horror_.

GAL. [_with an effort_]. But then, this woman, Galatea--

PYG. Well?

GAL. Thy love for her is dead?

PYG. I had no love. A miracle
Did crown my handiwork, and brought to life
The fair creation of my sculptor's skill,
I yielded to h