Word: menelaus
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...Troy-she had been staying with a lady and gentleman in Egypt. Helen will have nothing of such an alibi. She tells her neighbors that she is not repentant of "the bitter bridal bed where the fair mischief lay by Paris' side." It was inevitable. In fact Menelaus was to blame. Helen says: "I think a decent man could lose his wife without bringing...
Hermione is shocked. Hermione wants to marry her cousin Orestes. Helen does not like the straight-laced young fellow and would prefer her to marry Pyrrhus, the daredevil son of Achilles. Then there is the rumor that Eteoneus, the gatekeeper, brings to Menelaus: "Your sister-in-law Clytemnestra-your double sister-in-law, I might say; your wife's sister and your brother's wife-has been living with Aegisthus ever since Agamemnon went to Troy...
...There! I never liked her," exclaims Menelaus. "I'm shocked, but not surprised. . . . But after all it may be only gossip...
Helen nags Menelaus to have Pyrrhus come on a visit but he recalls to her that he had admitted one good looking young man to the house with no good result. Insulted, Helen ejaculates, "I left this house once, and I can do it again. . . . I'll stay on the one condition, that you insult me no more. Do you wish me to stay...
Then it is Helen who is more inclined to look with favor on Orestes than is Menelaus-and Hermione grows jealous, for Helen is still Helen. The last scene is laid as Telemachus comes to the house seeking tidings of his father, Odysseus. Helen gives him a cup of wine. "He took it from her, his hand touched hers, and she smiled at him. It was as she had said; he forgot all his sorrows-as it seemed, forever. But the magic, he knew, was not in the wine...