PAULA
I think I had cause to be ill.
HELIOGABALUS
What had you been eating?
PAULA
Yes, laugh while I suffer! You never think of me! Here am I, so faint I can hardly walk—and you give banquets, and bring in women off the street, and turn the palace into a—
HELIOGABALUS
[Sternly] My dear, you talk pish. This lady is Lucia. Lucia, the Empress. Lucia was arrested—by a grievous error—and brought before me—and we have been discussing certain problems—chiefly sociological.
PAULA
Yes, I know what your problems are—whether to make love to her and fill her with nonsense, or just grab her.