Helen looked up at him, very steadily. “How could I oppose you,” she said, “in any generous and proper intention? I assume that Adraste will stay.”

“I have just told you with the utmost positiveness, that she will not stay!”

“I am sure you will change your mind,” said Helen, “I have complete confidence in you.”

“No,” said Menelaus, “on other occasions I have given in to you, but this time I can’t. I’ve made the decision.”

“Have you?” said Helen.

“I say I have!” said her husband.

“Then you have, and no doubt of it,” said his wife.

“I’m glad you see it my way,” said Menelaus. “I thought you would.”

“Menelaus, you thought nothing of the kind!” said Helen. “You knew I should never agree to sending the girl away. I never shall. Adraste remains in this house as long as I do.”

Menelaus hated to believe his eyes; she was laughing at him.

“If you make me angry,” he said, “I’ll have that girl carried out and thrown into the street!”

“I don’t wish to make you angry,” she said, “but I doubt if you can get anyone to execute your amiable commands. The household are all fairly kind-hearted, and Adraste is exceedingly popular with them.”

“Take your choice,” said Menelaus. “Either you will aid me in sending that girl to a place we agree on, or I’ll have her put out of this house!”

“I dare you to!” said Helen. “Now, that’s a fair challenge! Your men wouldn’t lay a finger on that girl. I defy you to give the order. They will think you have gone crazy, and I will tell them, quite sincerely, that I think so, too. It will make a stir, won’t it, though! And you wished to avoid further notoriety! Wouldn’t it be rare justice if Pyrrhus came along just as the heroic Menelaus was throwing out into the street a sick and helpless girl, about to become a mother! You could explain it to him afterwards, couldn’t you! You could say it was a belated but needed house-cleaning. The servants, you could say, were beginning to behave as badly as the gentle folk, and since you couldn’t reform your relatives, you had decided to discharge the domestics. I wish Achilles could hear that!”

“Very witty, I’m sure,” said Menelaus, “but you can’t talk me out of it. Adraste can leave quietly, or if she insists on staying where she isn’t wanted, I’ll have her put out!”

He waited for Helen to speak, but she said nothing. She looked calm and much at her ease.

“You can’t prevent me, you know, if I’ve made up my mind.”