PAPHNUTIUS. Your blessing.
SCENE XII
PAPHNUTIUS. Thais, my little daughter! Thais! Open the window and let me see you.
THAIS. Who speaks?
PAPHNUTIUS. Paphnutius.
THAIS. Why should you visit a poor sinner? Why should I be given this great joy and happiness?
PAPHNUTIUS. These years that I have been absent from you in the body have been weary to me too. I have thought of you night and day. I have yearned for your salvation.
THAIS. I never doubted that.
PAPHNUTIUS. Tell me how things are with you. How have you lived here? What have you been doing?
THAIS. Nothing worth the telling! I have nothing to offer God.
PAPHNUTIUS. The offering He loves best is a humble spirit.
THAIS. All I have done is to gather up the many sins on my conscience into a mighty bundle and keep them always in mind. All day I have sat gazing towards the East, saying only this one prayer: "O God Who made me, pity me!" If my bodily senses have always been conscious of the offensiveness of this place, my heart's eyes have never been blind to the dreadfulness of hell.
