[Defiantly] The change is for the better, Cæsar!

HELIOGABALUS

Morally, yes. Spiritually, yes. But—er, socially, so to speak,—[a pause]—hardly. [He climbs wearily into bed] Almost I am persuaded—

LUCIA

[Sniffling] You are longing for those awful women. You want them back.

HELIOGABALUS

[Trying to convince himself of his own earnestness] No, no. Really not, I assure you. I feel like—like a man who has come out of a lion's cage into a—

LUCIA

Into a what?

HELIOGABALUS