THE ANCIENT.  Signs of maturity.  Soon you will give up all these toys and games and sweets.

THE YOUTH.  What!  And be as miserable as you?

THE ANCIENT.  Infant:  one moment of the ecstasy of life as we live it would strike you dead. [He stalks gravely out through the grove].

They stare after him, much damped.

THE YOUTH [to the musicians] Let us have another dance.

The musicians shake their heads; get up from their seats on the steps; and troop away into the temple.  The others follow them, except the Maiden, who sits down on the altar.

A MAIDEN [as she goes] There!  The ancient has put them out of countenance.  It is your fault, Strephon, for provoking him. [She leaves, much disappointed].

A YOUTH.  Why need you have cheeked him like that? [He goes grumbling].

STREPHON [calling after him] I thought it was understood that we are always to cheek the ancients on principle.

ANOTHER YOUTH.  Quite right too!  There would be no holding them if we didn’t. [He goes].

THE MAIDEN.  Why don’t you really stand up to them? I did.

ANOTHER YOUTH.  Sheer, abject, pusillanimous, dastardly cowardice.  Thats why.  Face the filthy truth. [He goes].

ANOTHER YOUTH [turning on the steps as he goes out] And don’t you forget, infant, that one moment of the ecstasy of life as I live it would strike you dead.  Haha!

STREPHON [now the only one left, except the Maiden] Arnt you coming, Chloe?

THE MAIDEN [shakes her head]!

THE YOUTH [hurrying back to her] What is the matter?

THE MAIDEN [tragically pensive] I dont know.

THE YOUTH.  Then there is something the matter.  Is that what you mean?

THE MAIDEN.  Yes.  Something is happening to me.  I dont know what.

THE YOUTH.  You no longer love me.  I have seen it for a month past.

THE MAIDEN.  Dont you think all that is rather silly?  We cannot go on as if this kind of thing, this dancing and sweethearting, were everything.

THE YOUTH.  What is there better?  What else is there worth living for?

THE MAIDEN.  Oh, stuff!  Dont be frivolous.

THE YOUTH.  Something horrible is happening to you.  You are losing all heart, all feeling. [He sits on the altar beside her and buries his face in his hands].  I am bitterly unhappy.

THE MAIDEN.  Unhappy!  Really, you must have a very empty head if there is nothing in it but a dance with one girl who is no better than any of the other girls.

THE YOUTH.  You did not always think so.  You used to be vexed if I as much as looked at another girl.

THE MAIDEN.  What does it matter what I did when I was a baby?  Nothing existed for me then except what I tasted and touched and saw; and I wanted all that for myself, just as I wanted the moon to play with.  Now the world is opening out for me.  More than the world:  the universe.  Even little things are turning out to be great things, and becoming intensely interesting.  Have you ever thought about the properties of numbers?