Our women differ little from yours, that is to say that they bear the same relation to us as yours to you. We do not consider them inferior but different, and this difference makes our common happiness. They are admirable creatures of pleasure, but the pride that is natural to them makes them selfish. My friend, even for a god, above all for a god, perhaps, your women equal ours. They know how to forget themselves in love; they know how to find their happiness in the happiness that they give. If their senses are less delicate, their flesh less odorous, their arts of pleasure more rudimentary, their hearts are more sensitive. Ah! to read in their eyes their gratitude for the pleasure they have given. The three young women, who had listened attentively, lowered their heads, smiling at each other out of the corners of their eyes. My friend, however, dared to speak. ELISE But we are also grateful for the pleasure that is given us. Our sensibility is not only in our hearts. I Women do seem to have no other pleasure than the pleasure they give. ELISE I do not believe that. HE Dear creature of pleasure, it is none the less true. ELISE It is true, since you say it, but these women are not true women. HE They are different from you, my friend; that is all. But I agree with you; true women both give and receive. ELISE That is true indeed! I Divine friend, how I love you! ELISE And I, I detest you. I stretched out my arms to draw to me those lips that I desired, but she took my hands in hers, and kissed them passionately. HE And you envy the gods! I I envy neither the gods nor any man, and I desire no other woman, since I have known Elise. HE My coming upon earth, this time, will at least have given happiness to one human being. ELISE Or two. I What a dream! Do not awake us! HE You shall not be awakened. The two young women looked at me curiously. I even thought that I discerned some sort of pity in their eyes. My master divined my thought. HE Yes, my friend, they are immortals. They came as I have come. Is it more surprising to see goddesses on earth than to see a god? I turned towards Elise, paling with emotion. HE She too. But do not be afraid, for she loves you, and love has given her a heart exactly like your man's heart. She has become a woman in giving herself to you, and she will never leave you. ELISE Never. Never so long as you live, my mortal lover. Never, and your memory shall share my immortality. I Now I understand the superhuman happiness I found in your arms, O queen! But is that possible? Have the times of mythology returned? HE