d for my sake, and to my shame,
but the shame is living yet. Begone! Never in life or death shall my
lips touch the false lips that lied away my honour, and the false face
that wore the favour of my lord's."

For it was by shape-shifting and magic art, as poets tell, that Paris
first beguiled Fair Helen.

Then the Wanderer spoke again with the sweet, smooth voice of Paris, son
of Priam.

"As I passed up the shrine where thy glory dwells, Helen, I heard thee
sing. And thou didst sing of the waking of thy heart, of the arising of
Love within thy soul, and of the coming of one for whom thou dost wait,
whom thou didst love long since and shalt love for ever more. And as
thou sangest, I came, I Paris, who was thy love, and who am thy love,
and who alone of ghosts and men shall be thy love again. Wilt thou still
bid me go?"

"I sang," she answered, "yes, as the Gods put it in my heart so I
sang--for indeed it seemed to me that one came who was my love of old,
and whom alone I must love, alone for ever. But thou wast not in my
heart, thou false Paris! Nay, I will tell thee, and with the name will
scare thee back to Hell. He was in my heart whom once as a maid I saw
driving in his chariot through the ford of Eurotas while I bore water
from the well. He was in my heart whom once I saw in Troy, when he crept
thither clad in beggar's guise. Ay, Paris, I will name him by his name,
for though he is long dead, yet him alone methinks I loved from the
very first, and him alone I shall love till my deathlessness is
done--Odysseus, son of Laertes, Odysseus of Ithaca, he was named among
men, and Odysseus was in my heart as I sang and in my heart he shall
ever be, though the Gods in their wrath have given me to others, to my
shame, and against my will."

Now when the Wanderer heard her speak, and heard his own name upon her
lips, and knew that the Golden Helen loved him alone, it seemed to him
as though his heart would burst his harness. No word could he find in
his heart to speak, but he raised the visor of his helm.

She looked--she saw and knew him for Odysseus--even Odysseus of Ithaca.
Then in turn she hid her eyes with her hands, and speaking through them
said:

"Oh, Paris! ever wast thou false, but, ghost or man, of all thy shames
this is the shamefullest. Thou hast taken the likeness of a hero dead,
and thou hast heard me speak such words of him as Helen never spoke
before. Fie on thee, Paris! fie on thee! who wouldest tric