“Now that he has married Hermione,” said Eteoneus. “If they had cut him down before, I could have stood it. But the difficulty isn’t in that sort of adventure; it’s in the general atmosphere of the home. When you married Menelaus and came here, I could see at once that something was going to happen. The presentiment grew each year, until you finally ran away. That was a great relief to me, not because I disliked you, but because it cleared the air; I knew just where we stood. Menelaus would go after you, I would guard the house, he would return finally, and whatever our grief, we should go on again normally from that point.”

“You are quite right,” said Helen. “I should have died at Troy.”

“I don’t like to say that,” said Eteoneus, “but you see for yourself! Now we are back where we were when you first arrived. There is no prospect of a solution, I should say.”

“I have an idea the solution has been found without our help,” said Helen. “We have been concerned about Hermione’s future. Any uneasiness of mind which the household have felt on that score, should be blamed entirely on me. I deserted Hermione when she needed my guidance. Since my return I’ve seen clearly what she lost by my absence, and I’m only sorry I can’t bear all the annoyance of her behaviour myself. As for my love of Paris, I maintain it was unavoidable, and I have no regrets for it. Deserting my daughter was another matter.”

“It would be hard to keep the two episodes apart, I should think,” said Eteoneus. “Do you mean that if you fell in love with another visitor to the same extent, you would run away again?”

“Certainly,” said Helen.

“I’ll leave now while it’s quiet,” said Eteoneus. “I couldn’t go through it all again, I simply couldn’t.”

“If you stayed, you might protect me,” said Helen. “You know how to protect my husband’s interests better than any man he’s likely to find. Very probably I shall never fall in love again, nor anyone will lose his heart to me.”

“I wouldn’t put the slightest faith in that. I didn’t blame Paris,” said Eteoneus. “In a way, I didn’t blame you, since, as you say, you were infatuated with him. All that was natural enough, and I knew what to think of it. And besides, I could see that Menelaus didn’t understand you. He’s had no experience at all with women.”

“He may not have understood me then, but he has no difficulty now. That’s not the trouble with Menelaus. He’s too soft, I’d rather say. He never lives out his wisdom. He knows far more than he knows what to do with, as to me and other things.”