melancholy, what gloomy sorrow, can keep you in these woods when all
are gone in crowds to the magnificent festival which the Prince
Iphicrates has just given upon the sea to the princesses. There they
are treated to wonderful music and dancing, and even the rocks and the
waves deck themselves with divinities to do homage to their beauty.

SOS. I can fancy all this magnificence, and as there are generally so
many people to cause confusion at these festivals, I did not care to
increase the number of unwelcome guests.

CLI. You know that your presence never spoils anything, and that you
are never in the way wherever you go. Your face is welcome everywhere,
and is not one of those ill-favoured countenances which are never well
received by sovereigns. You are equally in favour with both
princesses, and the mother and the daughter show plainly enough the
regard they have for you; so that you need not fear to be accounted
troublesome. In short, it was not this fear that kept you away.

SOS. I acknowledge that I have no inclination for such things.

CLI. Oh indeed! Yet, although we may not care to see things, we like
to go where we find everybody else; and whatever you may say, people
do not, during a festival, stop all alone among the trees to dream
moodily as you do, unless they have something to disturb their minds.

SOS. Why? What do you think could disturb my mind?

CLI. Well, I can't say; but there is a strong scent of love about
here, and I am sure it does not come from me, and it must come from
you.