THOAS. I guess you rose Once ere this. GYGES. If I went to bed, why yes! THOAS. Just what I’d like to know; for if he’s heard What I have heard--Pooh! no--I’ll vow he can’t have. [_Slowly retires._ GYGES. She slumbers still! O blest, who dares to wake her! ’Tis dared by the nightingale that even now Still half in dream sweet orison begins; ’Tis dared--He comes! What can he think of me? [_Enter_ KANDAULES. She wakes, and yet she offers show of sleeping. KAN. Gyges! So soon? Or should I ask you--still? But no, I have your word. GYGES. Here is the ring! KAN. So early and so hasty? GYGES. ’Tis your own. KAN. You trust yourself no longer to retain it? GYGES. Why not? And yet why should I? Take the thing! KAN. This tells me even more than what your sigh Already told i’ the night. GYGES. Forgive it, Sire! KAN. Why, what a thing you say! It was my triumph! GYGES. And did you only hear it then? KAN. Oh no-- She started up, she shrieked--and did all that So fully slip your eyes? No further then I need to ask if I am conqueror. GYGES. It did not slip my eyes. KAN. Keep on--deny Your wits were all a pother. Nay, I have Still better proof to clinch the thing--you went So far to turn the ring and know it not! GYGES. And know it not! KAN. She trembled, and when she Grew ’ware o’ the noise, she cried, “Arise, Arise! I’ the corner lurks a man! It is his will Thy bane to be, or mine! Where is thy sword?” I made pretence I felt her fear, and did so-- When lo, revealed stood--you, before me there, Sharp outlined by the lamp’s intensest beam. Is that enough? Now are you dumb to me? GYGES. My will was to be seen. KAN. You say that now To rob my victory of its edge. Had I Not stepped between to shut you from her glances Or ere they lit on you, I had been forced To strike you dead. GYGES. Sire, this I knew right well, And just because I’d force you to the action I turned the ring around with hasty twitch. KAN. What, Gyges? GYGES. Yes, it shocked the sight of heaven This boldness--yes, I felt it. KAN. I allowed it. GYGES. But in the stifling closeness of that moment, It seemed as though you had no right thereto, And I would punish you with me; for fain You had not been to strike me dead. KAN. You varlet! GYGES.