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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

“Nothing is stable in this world, Hermione, unless we ourselves are so,” said Helen. “Loyalty is an achievement in our character—you don’t find it growing round you like a plant, or hitting you like lightning. There’s a world of difference between loyalty and love. Lovers are often loyal, from youth to old age, and their constancy is all the more admired for not being natural. When once you marry, love may leave you, but the problem of loyalty never will. I want you to choose the man to whom it will be easiest in the long run for you to be loyal, and I insist it’s more a matter of choice than you think. You say you are in love with Orestes now, and you can’t resist this fatal passion. I warn you, though of course you won’t believe me, that you may be quite as much in love later with someone else. You would tell me, I’m sure, that the second love can be resisted and should be. I agree that it can be—and so can the first.”

“If you are drawing on your experience to advise me,” said Hermione, “I’d like to ask you more about your life than seems quite proper; I doubt if a girl ought to ask such things of her mother.”

“I’ll tell you anything I know,” said Helen, “and you are welcome to ask anything you can think of.”

“Well, if you feel this way about love,” said Hermione, “I can’t see why you didn’t stay with my father. You could very well have resisted your love for Paris; you could have set me an example of loyalty. I am confused, I must confess, between what you have done and what you advise,”

“Dear child,” said Helen, “there’s no connection between them!”

“That’s what I thought,” said Hermione.

“No, indeed,” said Helen. “I should never in the world advise you to do what I’ve done. It would be useless. You couldn’t do it. And even if you could, you haven’t my reasons for it.”

“I agree that I couldn’t imitate your life,” said Hermione, “but I don’t think you ought to say it as though it were a gift which I didn’t inherit. We shall never think the same way as to what kind of life is desirable. I fear I can’t imagine any reason which would justify your going off with Paris.”