“Neither of us,” said Helen. “Just stay. If you tell him you are going to, he’ll ask you why, and you won’t have a good reason unless you say I asked you to, and then he may discharge you. Stay with us, Eteoneus, without words, and I think the house will be at peace.”

V

V

“This is as good a place as any to stop at,” said Orestes. “The view is very fine from this bend in the road, and the shade of this lonely tree is welcome. I’ve had my eye on it for the last half-mile. If I had known how heavy your father’s supplies would prove, I would have declined at least half of them.”

“We needn’t walk much farther to-day,” said Hermione. “What’s the use of hurrying on as if we were afraid of being late somewhere? We aren’t going to any particular place, and it doesn’t matter when we arrive. I am tired!”

“Now, don’t lose your courage!” said Orestes. “The main reason for moving on is that no one seems eager to have us stop. That house last night barely put up with us—I was fearful to the end that they’d risk the sin of inhospitality, and invite us to try some other door.”

“The trouble is, they’ve all heard about you,” said Hermione. “You have as wide a reputation as my mother. They are afraid you’ll murder them in their sleep. Poor Orestes!”

“Partly,” said Orestes, “but when they see a woman with me, they immediately conclude that you are not formally my wife. I suppose they think no one would marry me permanently. They don’t like to take in women who are not strictly married or unmarried.”

“Isn’t it strange how people will miss the essentials,” said Hermione, “and fasten on the mere formalities! If I had brought a marriage certificate with me, they would be cordial, but without it they are frigid. Yet I couldn’t be more your wife than I am, even if there had been no ceremony at all.”

“I feel thoroughly married myself,” said Orestes. “Homeless, but domesticated. I wonder who is calling on your mother about this time.”

“What made you think of her?”

“Nothing particular,” said Orestes. “I find it comes natural. Walking up that hill, when you were too much out of breath for conversation, I was going over some of the things she said, and what I intended to say if we had met again. Hermione, I accepted your father’s offer of reconciliation in as ugly a mood as I have had towards him. I wouldn’t have done it but for you!”

“It was too bad, the way it turned out,” said Hermione. “You wanted to devote those last minutes to mother. I’m sure she was disappointed too, she has so few opportunities for the kind of talk she likes.”