“Why, if they were married and the wife ran off with another man, I’d call that wrong,” said Eteoneus. “And if the husband forgave her and took her back, or took her back without forgiving her, I’d call that wrong, or at least a grave error. But these young people are in love, and neither of them is of much importance out of love. I worried over Orestes and Hermione for fear they might do this very thing; in fact, I don’t think much of Orestes for not justifying my fears. With a girl so important as Hermione, and you told me to take care of her, it would have been serious, but I’d like to know what’s the harm if these two have done the natural thing? Helen doesn’t like it because she thinks Damastor isn’t good enough for the girl. Charitas is angry because she thinks the girl isn’t good enough for Damastor. Between the two I rather side with Helen, but really they are both wrong.”

“And the girl is going to have a child—in my house!”

“Yes, and Charitas is sending her boy away, so that he may not marry the girl, nor even see his own child occasionally,” said Eteoneus. “I call that unnecessarily mean.”

“I must see what can be done about it,” said Menelaus.

“Nothing to do now but wait,” said Eteoneus.

“Oh, yes, there is!” said Menelaus. “The child can be born somewhere else. My house can do very well without another scandal for a while, and I hate to think of the effect of such an episode upon my daughter. But to return to you, Eteoneus. There’s another complaint against you, and your free ideas about Adraste fit in with it all too closely. You had a conversation with Hermione recently. I can’t believe you said the things she reports, yet I trust her absolutely if she says so. About sex, of all subjects. You told her the lawless attitude men take toward women, and the sort of response women make to their advances, and to prove you knew what you were talking about, you told her of your own escapades in your youth. Hermione says it was the most suggestive talk she has heard, and she is profoundly shocked.”

“I told her how we used to treat the women in war,” said Eteoneus, “and I implied very delicately that the women rather liked it. Not a word that wasn’t perfectly delicate, nor a syllable that wasn’t true.”

“But we don’t tell that sort of truth to young girls now-a-days, Eteoneus. Hermione has led a sheltered life, and I want her to keep the innocence of youth as long as possible.”