“Humbug!” said Helen. “You don’t mean what you say, or you don’t know what you’re saying. If you are resolved to marry Orestes in order to illustrate a propriety, stop now. The man will not want propriety—he will ask for love.”

“I hardly need to say that I love him, but I do need to remind you, mother, that with Orestes and me love is not necessarily a contrast to propriety. Let me say I’m trying to stand for what I’ve always admired. I haven’t changed, and I can’t say you have, but father has. A few weeks ago he agreed with all my sentiments; now he agrees with yours. Quite within his rights, to agree with you if he can. But I ought not to be persecuted just because I refuse to change.”

“Yes, in the last few weeks I’ve adopted another attitude toward Orestes,” said Menelaus, “and if you can’t see why, I’m sorry for you. You think your mother’s influence caused the defection. Your sense of what is proper permits you to overlook the fact in the last few weeks Orestes’ mother has murdered my brother. That would strain even the friendliest relations. You have very little delicacy of sentiment, Hermione, or you wouldn’t be so ambitious to marry into that family.”

“I’ve delicacy enough to be sorry for the murder, but—”

“Well, I’m thankful you go even so far,” said Menelaus.

“If you’re sarcastic, I shan’t continue!” said Hermione.

“Don’t continue,” said Helen. “Enough has been said. But I’d like to ask you a question—coming back to Adraste. When you entered just now you told us you had hurried in as soon as you heard the news. Who gave you the news?”

“Charitas,” said Hermione. “She wasn’t gossiping; it came about in the most natural way. I looked in there for a minute, and she had to explain Damastor’s absence. She feels very bitter about the whole thing. It seems you took Adraste there one day, and she saw the boy.”

“Helen,” said Menelaus, “you assured me that Charitas wouldn’t talk!”

“I underrated her sense of the proprieties,” said Helen. “So she’s the one who gave you that character-portrait of Adraste! Did she imply in any way that Damastor may have collaborated in wrong doing?”

“Certainly not!” said Hermione. “You can’t blame a mere boy, in the hands of such a person. That kind of woman can do what she likes with a man.”

“Oh, I don’t know!” said Menelaus. “It depends on the man.”

“And on the woman,” said Helen. “Continue, Hermione—what else did she say?”

“She says you brought it all about. When you first came home, she says, you called on her—”

“I called on her!”