THE MAIDEN.  It is not the ageing that is so rapid.  It is the realization of it when it has actually happened.  Now that I have made up my mind to the fact that I have left childhood behind me, it comes home to me in leaps and bounds with every word you say.

STREPHON.  But your vow.  Have you forgotten that?  We all swore together in that temple:  the temple of love.  You were more earnest than any of us.

THE MAIDEN [with a grim smile] Never to let our hearts grow cold!  Never to become as the ancients!  Never to let the sacred lamp be extinguished!  Never to change or forget!  To be remembered for ever as the first company of true lovers faithful to this vow so often made and broken by past generations!  Ha! ha!  Oh, dear!

STREPHON.  Well, you need not laugh.  It is a beautiful and holy compact; and I will keep it whilst I live.  Are you going to break it?

THE MAIDEN.  Dear child:  it has broken itself.  The change has come in spite of my childish vow. [She rises].  Do you mind if I go into the woods for a walk by myself?  This chat of ours seems to me an unbearable waste of time.  I have so much to think of.

STREPHON [again collapsing on the altar and covering his eyes with his hands] My heart is broken. [He weeps].

THE MAIDEN [with a shrug] I have luckily got through my childhood without that experience.  It shews how wise I was to choose a lover half my age. [She goes towards the grove, and is disappearing among the trees, when another youth, older and manlier than Strephon, with crisp hair and firm arms, comes from the temple, and calls to her from the threshold].

THE TEMPLE YOUTH.  I say, Chloe.  Is there any sign of the Ancient yet?  The hour of birth is overdue.  The baby is kicking like mad.  She will break her shell prematurely.

THE MAIDEN [looks across to the hill path; then points up it, and says] She is coming, Acis.

The Maiden turns away through the grove and is lost to sight among the trees.

Acis [coming to Strephon] Whats the matter?  Has Chloe been unkind?

STREPHON.  She has grown up in spite of all her promises.  She deceived us about her age.  She is four.

ACIS.  Four!  I am sorry, Strephon.  I am getting on for three myself; and I know what old age is.  I hate to say ‘I told you so’; but she was getting a little hard set and flat-chested and thin on the top, wasn’t she?

STREPHON [breaking down] Dont.

ACIS.  You must pull yourself together.  This is going to be a busy day. 
First the birth.  Then the Festival of the Artists.

STREPHON [rising] What is the use of being born if we have to decay into unnatural, heartless, loveless, joyless monsters in four short years?  What use are the artists if they cannot bring their beautiful creations to life?  I have a great mind to die and have done with it all. [He moves away to the corner of the curved seat farthest from the theatre, and throws himself moodily into it].