[With a bitter grin] Well, now he's gone.
[She continues disrobing]
HELIOGABALUS
But, but—this is really quite irregular. Let us wait until we are all a bit less excited, as it were. Now be a good girl. [Wheedlingly] Go back to bed in the North Wing, and let me collect my thoughts a bit.
PAULA
Here I am, and here I stay.
[She throws her girdle over one of the coat-racks]
HELIOGABALUS
But in a minute Lucia'll be coming back, and then—
[He frantically begins dressing and racing against the undressers]