[_Apart to_ PRIEST.] She is over-wise, methinks; but not evil. I fear her not. [_Coming back as though on impulse._] I give you my hand, wife of Hector!
ANDROMACHE.
It is well, my guest. [_Taking his hand._
PRIEST.
Till the King returns!
[_Exeunt_ PRIEST _and_ ORESTES R.
ALCIMEDON.
[_As_ ANDROMACHE _and the women draw water at the well_.] Lazy hounds, to let Hector"s wife draw water! Fill her pails for her, little foxes!
FIRST MAID.
Better _she_ fill mine! Perhaps she knows charms for filling them.
ANDROMACHE.
It is well, fellow slave. Let our work be even.
_Enter, by the path from the Castle_, HERMIONE, _with two attendants carrying libations. She does not notice the slaves._
ALCIMEDON.
Greeting, O Queen.
HERMIONE.
Greeting, old man. [_Going up to the altar._] Hail, Thetis, and have joy! Accept this wine and the blood of an ewe with two lambs that I bring to thee; and take off from me, I beseech---- [_She stops, looks round, and sees_ ANDROMACHE, _on whom she turns with vehemence_.] You?
[_Flings out the blood on the ground._
ALCIMEDON.
Queen, you have flung out the blood upon the ground!
HERMIONE.
What would my sacrifice profit, with that woman"s eyes upon me? [_To_ ANDROMACHE.] Get you back to the castle! Is the water not drawn yet?
ANDROMACHE.
I go, O Queen!
ALCIMEDON.
You are over-proud, my Queen, over-proud.
HERMIONE.
May a Queen in Phthia not give commands to her own slaves?
MAID.
[_At the shrine._] Holy Aphrodite! some one has put gold upon the shrine!
ALCIMEDON.
"Twas a stranger that the Priest has taken in. Have a care: the dog laid a curse on any who should move it.
HERMIONE.
A stranger! He comes from the South, then; from Athens, or Argos, or Mycenae----
ALCIMEDON.
No, Queen, he is only an Acarnanian. But belike he has journeyed to the South.
HERMIONE.
That is no Acarnanian gold! [_Taking it up._] See you the sea-beast wrought on it, with many feet?
[_To_ MAID.
MAID.
Yes, but the curse, Queen----
HERMIONE.
[_Not heeding her._] It brings my home back to me. In Lacedaemon we all wore chains of gold about our necks.
MAID.
Queen, the man laid a curse upon it!
HERMIONE.
[_Putting it back._] I meant no evil; and that dear gold of the South will never hurt me---- In Agamemnon"s palace the men had gold in their armour, and even in the blades of their swords! And the gold was wrought into lions and wild bulls and trees, and strange sea-beasts like this.
ALCIMEDON.
A plain haft and a plain blade cuts the steadiest.
HERMIONE.