Satni. Why should you lie to her?
Rheou. It was not wholly lying. Besides, it was fortunate I could thus explain the event. Had you but seen her—
Satni. All my efforts of these two months past, in vain!
Rheou. You remember when you left us yesterday. You might have thought that all her superstitions were banished at last. She no longer answered you, she questioned you no more, and at your last words her silence confirmed the belief that at length you had won her away from Ammon. Yet after you were gone, at the moment of entering her hiding place, she was swept with sudden fury as though an evil spirit had entered her, wept, cried and tore her hair—
Satni. What said she?
Rheou. "To the temple! to the temple! I would go to the temple! The God has chosen me! The God awaits me! Egypt will perish!" In short, words of madness. She would have killed herself!
Satni. Killed herself!
Rheou. We had to put constraint on her. And 'twas only when I led her to this terrace, after the thunderbolt, and pointed out the scattered soldiery, that she came to herself, that at length she perceived that your God was the most powerful. "What," she cried, "'tis he, he, my Satni, who shakes the heavens and the earth for me! For me!" she murmured, "for me!" She would have kissed your sandals, offered you a sacrifice, worshipped, adored you. See where she comes, with Mieris! Stay.
Satni. No.
He goes. Rheou accompanies him. Mieris enters, bearing flowers and led by Yaouma.