True, true, and he weighs heavier than yourself, For just as he loves no one, he hates no one, And just he is like ghosts devoid of blood. Now leave me, for I am awaiting him. SALOME. I vow this dance shall never be forgotten In which, responsive to the music’s beat, She trod the floor as though she knew for sure That you lay underneath. By God, I would I were not forced to say it, for I know How inly you, who gave her mother, sister, And what not for her victims, must rebel. And yet it was so. [_Exit._ SCENE 2 HEROD _alone_. HEROD. Titus said to me The very same. Myself I saw enough, And she is right. I gave to her a sister, A mother almost, for her victims. Would they Not counterpoise the brother whom she lost? In her eyes they do not. [_Enter_ TITUS. SCENE 3 HEROD. TITUS. HEROD. Well, Titus, well? Admits Soemus----? TITUS. What you know. Not more. HEROD. Naught of----? TITUS. Oh no! He leapt to feet as raving If I but cast the lightest hint thereat. HEROD. I could expect it. TITUS. “Never could,” he answered, “A wife like yours have lived, and never was A man so little worth the precious jewel That God vouchsafed to him----” HEROD. As I myself! Yes, yes! “He did not know the worth of pearls Wherefore I took them from him,” said the thief. I know not if that helped. TITUS. “Her heart was nobler Than gold.” HEROD. And so he knows it! Swimming-brained He lauds the wine. Does not that furnish proof That he has drunk.[17] And what veneer used he To coat it? Why betrayed he my commission To her? TITUS. From loathing, as he said. HEROD. From loathing? And he ne’er gave the loathing words to me? TITUS. Would not the event have been his bane? Could you Have granted life unto the stockish servant If once he had received from you command And pushed it from him? HEROD. Why, in such a case, Was’t not enough to leave it unfruitioned? TITUS. Yes; but if he went further he has done it Perchance because he deemed you as one lost And now was fain to have the Queen’s good grace A bargain at your cost for his own profit, Since it was in her hands his future lay. HEROD.