stood and the palace of King Aegeus.

Theseus drove through to the courtyard, and left his chariot at the
gate. In the court young men were throwing spears at a mark, while
others sat at the house door, playing draughts, and shouting and
betting. They were heavy, lumpish, red-faced young men, all rather like
each other. They looked up and stared, but said nothing. Theseus knew
that they were his cousins, the sons of Pallas, but as they said nothing
to him he walked through them, iron club on shoulder, as if he did not
see them, and as one tall fellow stood in his way, the tall fellow spun
round from a thrust of his shoulder. At the hall door Theseus stopped
and shouted, and at his cry two or three servants came to him.

'Look to my horses and man,' said Theseus; 'I come to see your master.'
And in he went, straight up to the high chairs beside the fire in the
centre. The room was empty, but in a high seat sat, fallen forward and
half-asleep, a man in whose grey hair was a circlet of gold and a golden
grasshopper. Theseus knew that it was his father, grey and still, like
the fallen fire on the hearth. As the king did not look up, Theseus
touched his shoulder, and then knelt down, and put his arms round the
knees of the king. The king aroused himself with a start. 'Who? What
want you?' he said, and rubbed his red, bloodshot eyes.

'A suppliant from Troezene am I, who come to your knees, oh, king, and
bring you gifts.'

'From Troezene!' said the king sleepily, as if he were trying to
remember something.

'From Aethra, your wife, your son brings your sword and your shoon,' said
Theseus; and he laid the sword and the shoon at his father's feet.

The king rose to his feet with a great cry. 'You have come at last,' he
cried, 'and the gods have forgiven me and heard my prayers. But gird on
the sword, and hide the shoon, and speak not the name of "wife," for
there is one that hears.'

'One that has heard,' said a sweet silvery voice; and from behind a
pillar came a woman, dark and pale, but very beautiful, clothed in a
rich Eastern robe that shone and shifted from colour to colour. Lightly
she threw her white arms round the neck of Theseus, lightly she kissed
his cheeks, and a strange sweet fragrance hung about her. Then, holding
him apart, with her hands on his shoulders, she laughed, and
half-turning to Aegeus, who had fallen back into his chair, she said:
'My lord, did you think that you could hide anything from me?'