You mean—?
RUFINIUS
Well, he hasn't ordered any guard to take her away in the morning.
PAULA
[Hysterically] There! I knew it! He'll marry her, and then I'll have another on my hands. Eleven already—and now one more! I'll go crazy if he keeps this up.
RUFINIUS
[Reassuringly] Well, maybe I'm wrong, after all. Perhaps he's merely interested in her talk.
PAULA
[Inconsolable] Yes, that's the worst of it. If it was only her looks I wouldn't care. A man gets his fill of looking in no time. But when he begins to listen he's lost. [Bursting into tears] I think this is too much. I've tried to be a good chief wife to the Emperor. Have you ever heard me complain when he came home with a girl and—sent for the musicians? Never! But I'm getting tired of this marrying. When he marries another one I have her on my hands. Who has to keep order among them? Who protects them when he gets into a bad humour and begins to talk of throwing half a dozen of them to the crocodiles?
[She blubbers]