The Ruinous Face | Page 6

for me here, before the sun rise." And he was satisfied with what
she said.
* * * * *
Now, it was toward morning; and Odysseus watched in the hall of Paris.
Then came Helen in, and stepped lightly over the bodies of sleeping
men, and touched him on the shoulder where he sat by the wall with his
chin upon his knees. Over her head was the hood of a dark blue cloak;
and the cloak fell to her feet. Her face was covered, not so but that he
could see the good intention of her eyes. And he arose and stood beside
her, and she beckoned him to follow after. Then she took him to the
grove of olive-trees in the garden, and burned incense upon the altar
she had set up, and laid her hand upon the altar of Artemis the Bright.
"So do that quick Avenger to me," she said, "as she did to Amphion's
wife, whenas her nostrils were filled with the wind of her rage, if I play
false to thee, Odysseus." And Odysseus praised her. Then stooping,
with her finger she traced the lines of Troy in the sand, and all the gates
of it; and told over the number of the guard at each; and revealed the
houses of the chiefs, where they stood, and the watches set.

Odysseus marked all in his heart. But he asked, "And which is the
golden house of King Priam?"
She said, "Nay, but that I will not tell thee. For he has been always kind
to me from the very first; and even when Hector, his beloved, was slain,
he had no ill words for me, though all Troy hissed me in the shrines of
the Gods, and women spat upon the doors of Paris' house as they
passed by. Him, an old man, thou shalt spare for my sake who am
about to betray him."
Odysseus said, "Be it so. One marvel I have, lady, and it is this: If now,
in these last days, thou wilt help thy people, why didst thou not
before?"
She was silent for a while. Then she said, "I knew not then what now I
know, that my lord, the King, loves me."
Odysseus marvelled. "Why," said he, "when all the hosts of the
Achæans were gathered at his need, and out of all the nations of Hellas
arose the cry of women bereaved and children fatherless, so that he
might have thee again! And thou sayest, 'He loved thee not!'"
"Nay," said she quickly, "not so. But I knew very well that he desired
me for his solace and delight, as other men have done and still do: but
to be craved is one thing and to be loved is another thing. I am not all
fair flesh, Odysseus: I am wife and mother and I would be companion
and comforter of a man. Now I know of a truth that my husband loveth
me dearly; and I sicken of Paris, who maketh me his delight. Hateful to
me are the ways of men with women. Have I not cause enough to hate
them, these long years a plaything for his arms, and a fruit to allay the
drouth of his eyes? Am I less a woman in that I am fair, or less woman
grown because I can never be old? Now I loathe the sweet lore of
Aphrodite, which she taught me too well; and all my hope is in that
Blessed One whom men call Of Good Counsel. For, behold, love is a
cruel thing of unending strife and wasting thought; but the ways of
Artemis are ways of peace and they shall be my ways."
A little longer he reasoned with her, and appointed a day when the

entry should be made; but then afterward, when light filled the earth
and the coming of the sun was beaconed upon the tops of the
mountains, she arose and said:
"My husband awaits me. I must go to him;" and left Odysseus, and
went to the wall to talk with Menelaus below it. In her hand was a
yellow crocus, sacred to Artemis the Bright. And Helen put it to her
lips, and touched her eyes with it, and dropped it down the wall to
Menelaus her husband.
Then the Greeks fashioned a great horse out of wood, and set the
images of two young kings upon it, with spears of gold, and stars upon
their foreheads made of gold. And they caused it to be drawn to the
Skæan Gate in the nighttime, and left it there for the Trojans to see.
Dolon made it; but Odysseus devised the images of the two kings. And
his craft was justified of itself. For the Trojans hailed