 In the second scene of Act II, following the "Méditation", Thaïs tells Athanaël that she will follow him to the desert.The piece is in D major and is approximately five minutes long (although there are a number of interpretations that stretch the piece to over six minutes).Massenet may also have written the piece with religious intentions; the tempo marking is "Andante religioso," signifying his intention that it should be played religiously (which could mean either strictly in the tempo or literally with religiously-founded emotion) and at walking tempo, or around 60 BPM.