“Don’t worry about that curse, father—it isn’t going to come off. I’ve still the same mind I inherited, and you used to say I took after you. Mother and I disagreed about Orestes, and in general she and I are quite different, but I’m just beginning to see her quality. There’s nothing little about her. She’s magnanimous.”

“I never heard such nonsense in my life, and if you still have your wits about you, Hermione, you won’t try to tell me that I’ve been less than generous to your mother. She’s the magnanimous one, is she?”

“I didn’t mean to set up a contrast between you,” said Hermione, “but only to speak of her large-mindedness. Since you mention it, however, there was a contrast on the occasion when I first noticed this remarkable trait in her. You know how she always says you should do your criticising in advance, and afterwards drop it? I had no idea she would live up to that if she had to do the forgiving. But when we learned that Orestes had killed her sister, did you notice how quickly she pulled herself together, and refused to expel Orestes from the family circle?”

“A parable for my benefit, eh?” said Menelaus. “It’s clever—I see your brain is still working, daughter, but so is mine. Orestes is outside the family circle, so far as I’m concerned. I’ve my own opinion of your mother’s magnanimity.”

“May I hear what it is?” said Hermione. “I can’t imagine anything finer than such a prompt reaching out of kindness to a person who had brought so great a sorrow on you. It’s the first time I saw the unselfish side of mother; perhaps I’ve been overlooking the other occasions when she was equally generous.”

“They haven’t been many, even granting this one, which I don’t. You say I fail to understand your mother. You’re quite right. The only thing about her I understand is her looks, and I don’t understand how they last so well. To my eyes, she never has been so splendid as during these weeks, when heavy blows have fallen on her. She was the same way that night at Troy. Her beauty can rise to a critical moment!”

“Of course she’s very handsome,” said Hermione, “but it was of her character I was speaking.”