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EL.
Wherefore?

OR.
Hush! speak not loud, lest one within should hearken.

EL.
By ever-virgin Artemis, ne’er will I
Think worthy of my fear
This useless mass of woman-cowardice
Burdening the house within,
Not peering out of door.

OR.
Yet know that women too have might in war.
Of that methinks thou hast feeling evidence.

EL.
Ah me! thou hast unveiled
And thrust before my gaze
That burning load of my distress
No time will soothe, no remedy will heal.

OR.
I know that too. But when we are face to face
With the evildoers,–then let remembrance work.

EL.
All times alike are fit with instant pain
Justly to mind me of that dreadful day;
Even now but hardly hath my tongue been free.

OR.
Yes, that is it. Therefore preserve this boon.

EL.
Whereby?

OR.
Put limits to unseasonable talk.

EL.
Ah! brother, who, when thou art come,
Could find it meet to exchange
Language for silence, as thou bidst me do?
Since beyond hope or thought
Was this thy sight to me.

OR.
God gave me to your sight when so he willed.

EL.
O heaven of grace beyond
The joy I knew but now!
If God hath brought thee to our roof,
A miracle of bounty then is here.

OR.
I hate to curb the gladness of thy spirit,
But yet I fear this ecstasy of joy.

EL.
Oh! after all these years,
Now thou at length hast sped
Thy dearest advent on the wished-for way,
Do not, in all this woe
Thou seest surrounding me–

OR.
What means this prayer?

EL.
Forbid me not my joy,
Nor make me lose the brightness of thy face!

OR.
Deep were my wrath at him who should attempt it.

EL.
Is my prayer heard?

OR.
Why doubt it?

EL.
Friends, I learned
A tale beyond my thought; and hearing I restrained
My passion, voiceless in my misery,
Uttering no cry. But now
I have thee safe; now, dearest, thou art come,
With thy blest countenance, which I
Can ne’er forget, even at the worst of woe.

OR.
A truce now to unnecessary words.
My mother’s vileness and Aegisthus’ waste,
Draining and squandering with spendthrift hand
Our patrimony, tell me not anew.
Such talk might stifle opportunity.
But teach me, as befits the present need,
What place may serve by lurking vigilance
Or sudden apparition to o’erwhelm
Our foes in the adventure of to-day.
And, when we pass within, take heedful care
Bright looks betray thee not unto our mother.
But groan as for the dire calamity
Vainly reported:–Let’s achieve success,
Then with free hearts we may rejoice and laugh.

EL.
Dear brother, wheresoe’er thy pleasure leads,
My will shall follow, since the joys I know,
Not from myself I took them, but from thee.
And ne’er would I consent thy slightest grief
Should win for me great gain. Ill should I then
Serve the divinity of this high hour!
Thou knowest how matters in the palace stand.
Thou hast surely heard, Aegisthus is from home,
And she, our mother, is within. Nor fear
She should behold me with a smiling face.
Mine ancient hate of her hath sunk too deep.
And from the time I saw thee, tears of joy
Will cease not. Wherefore should I stint their flow?
I, who in this thy coming have beheld
Thee dead and living? Strangely hast thou wrought
On me;–that should my father come alive,
I would not think the sight were miracle,
But sober truth. Since such thy presence, then,
Lead as thy spirit prompts. For I alone
Of two things surely had achieved one,
Noble deliverance or a noble death.