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Chapters (39)
  1. Cover
  2. The Private Life of Helen of Troy
  3. Contents
  4. NOTE
  5. PART I
  6. I
  7. II
  8. III
  9. IV
  10. V
  11. VI
  12. VII
  13. PART II
  14. I
  15. II
  16. III
  17. IV
  18. V
  19. VI
  20. PART III
  21. I
  22. II
  23. III
  24. IV
  25. V
  26. PART IV
  27. I
  28. II
  29. III
  30. IV
  31. V
  32. PART V
  33. I
  34. II
  35. III
  36. IV
  37. V
  38. VI
  39. VII

“There’s no parallel between these people and Orestes and me,” said Hermione. “We have done our best to lead good lives, whereas Adraste and Damastor have been purely selfish—if I must say it right out, they have been sensual and beastly. I have felt for a long time that our home was deteriorating, but I never thought it would come to this, that you and mother would countenance impropriety of a gross kind, and would even ask me to aid the culprits. Mother repeats her sneers at the respectable, but worse than anything she says is the lax attitude you both take toward ordinary morals. Damastor should never have had anything to do with that girl, but since he made one mistake, I admire his mother’s resolution to prevent him from repeating it. My contempt for Adraste I cannot express. I will do nothing to cover over her faults and restore her to a place in society which she does not deserve. And if she is to remain here, I repeat what I said when I came in—I will not stay in the same house with her!”

“You give up your parents as hopeless, do you?” said Menelaus. “You pretend to judge me, burdened as I am with this and many other problems, yet you will not do what I ask to relieve one of them? Who is selfish now, I’d like to know?”

“You are,” said Hermione. “You and mother have piled up one difficulty after another for yourselves, and you wish me to help you out even at the loss of my self-respect and the sacrifice of my principles. It would do no good for me to speak to Charitas, and I should have lost the reputation I enjoy—the only member of the family—for acceptable behaviour. Don’t think I’m without affection for you, or that I relish the idea of leaving my home for such a reason as this. But I have a right to be myself. People who talk most about leading their own lives—people like mother—usually have to involve others before they get through.”

“You break my heart,” said Menelaus; “I’ve done nothing, and asked you to do nothing, which would justify such talk as this. If you wish to leave this house, do so. I’ll have a talk with Orestes as soon as I can. He ought to know about this from our point of view. You’ll give him your own version.”

“Hermione,” said Helen, “you didn’t want to marry Damastor, did you?”

“I certainly did not!”

“I never could understand why women are so jealous of men they don’t themselves want to marry,” said Helen. “Nor why murder is easier to forgive than beauty.”

IV

IV