“Helen,” said Menelaus, “you and I have had difficult moments, and I’ve said hard things about you, to your face, but I don’t believe a sister of yours would do that. I can’t believe it of a woman so near to us, of your blood. This murder is just the kind of thing a coward like Ægisthus would plan. If Clytemnestra had been the leader, the murder would have been bold and dramatic. I can imagine her doing it in the open and boasting about it, but not springing this dastardly trap. My brother! He said we should never see each other again!”

“I think father is right,” said Hermione. “My aunt has a fearful temper, at all times, and when she is angry, as she was with Agamemnon, she is a downright fury, Orestes says. This secret murder wouldn’t appeal to her; it would conceal the justice of her cause. If she had thought of killing Agamemnon, it would have been by way of a public execution; she did consider him the murderer of her child, and he really was that, wasn’t he? But stabbing him in the back wouldn’t make her case any stronger.”

“There was something in Clytemnestra’s character I never understood,” said Helen, “and never trusted. She was rather sentimental, and you might think she was soft, but underneath I always had an unpleasant conviction she was inhuman. I’d give everything to know she did not murder Agamemnon, but I’m perfectly sure she did.”

“If she had done it,” said Menelaus, “the people would have killed her in revenge before this. My brother was never what you could call popular, in his country, but his men were devoted to him, and they must have been around him at the time. It’s fairly clear to me that Ægisthus set the snare, and now the story is afloat that Clytemnestra helped. That’s the effect of her improper life with him; people will naturally think she planned it.”

“There’s another thing, too,” said Hermione. “Clytemnestra knows there will be some sort of revenge for this murder. Orestes will exact a terrible penalty from Ægisthus, but if Clytemnestra were implicated, he would have to punish her too—all the murderers, in fact. She understands where such a deed would end.”

“Orestes wouldn’t kill his mother,” said Menelaus; “otherwise I agree with your argument. I think Helen is unjust to her sister … Eteoneus, did the messenger give you any further details?”

“I haven’t told you the details yet,” said Eteoneus. “I gave you a mere outline.”

“Then there’s more?” said Helen.