[As PAULA slinks into the peristyle, HELIOGABALUS enters from the triclinium, with DACIA on his arm. He is tall, sallow and apparently somewhat liquored; his bad humour is obvious. He stalks across the stage to the solium without a word, hands up DACIA, and takes his seat beside her with a scowl. He wears a magnificent toga of imperial purple, with a wide band of cloth-of-gold at the bottom. He carries a small baton, with a gigantic ruby at one end. He is bareheaded
[DACIA is a very pretty blonde of, say, nineteen. It is plain that she admires HELIOGABALUS vastly, but there is a touch of awe in her admiration, and it gives her a bit of stage-fright to be with him as here. She is dressed in the white garment of a Roman matron
[Following the two come several slaves, and two or three army officers. The latter have been guests at the banquet and are more or less tight
[HELIOGABALUS, seated upon the solium, claps his hand to his tummy and turns to DACIA]
HELIOGABALUS
There it is again—that grinding pain.
DACIA
I'm so sorry, dear. Shall I send for something?
HELIOGABALUS
The oyster-soup, I dessay. [DACIA pats his arm] Or the speeches.
[He dismisses the subject and sweeps the atrium with his eye. It alights upon the two doctors, who immediately drop to their knees]
HELIOGABALUS