modest, and never dejected or low of heart; but
when comfort was asked of her she gave it, and when solace, solace; and
when he cried, "Oh for a deep draught of thee!" she gave him his desire.
In these days he seldom left his hall, where she sat at the loom with
her maids, or had them comb and braid her long hair. But of other women,
wives and widows of heroes, Andromache mourned Hector dead and outraged,
and Cassandra the wrath to come. Through the halls of the King's house
came little sound but of women weeping loss; therefore, if love made
Helen laugh sometimes, she laughed low and softly, lest some other
should be offended. The streets were all silent, and the dogs ate one
another. In the temples of the Gods they neglected the sacrifice, and
what little might be offered was eaten by clouds of birds.
Anniversaries and feasts were like common days. If the Gods were
offended with Troy, there was no help for it. Men must live first,
before they can serve God.

* * * * *

Now the tenth year was come to the Spring, when young men and virgins
worship Artemis the Bright; and abroad on the plains the crocus was
aflower, and the anemone; and the blades of the iris were like swords
stuck hilt downward in the earth. A green veil spread lightly over the
land, and men might see a tree scorched black upon one side and budded
with gold upon the other. Melted snow brimmed Simois and Scamander;
cranes and storks built their nests, and one stood sentinel while his
mate sat close, watchful in the reeds. On the mild, westerly airs came
tenderness to bedew the hearts of men war-weary. They stepped carefully
lest they should crush young flowers, thinking in their minds, "God's
pity must restrain me. If so fair a thing can thrive in place so foul,
who am I to mar it?" But upon Menelaus, the King, the season worked like
a ferment, so that he could never stay long in one place. All night long
he turned and stretched himself out; but in the gray of the morning he
would rise, and walk abroad by himself over the silent land, and about
the sleeping walls of the city. So found he balm for his ache, and so he
did every day.

* * * * *

The house of Paris stood by the wall, and the garden upon the roof of
the women's side was there upon it, and stretched far along the ramparts
of Troy. King Menelaus knew it very well, for he had often seen Helen
there with her maids when, with a veil