, an unexpected guest!"

Thus she spake with piteous tears falling down her cheeks, and to her
Jason replied: "Let the empty blasts wander at will, lady, and the
messenger-bird, for vain is thy talk. But if thou comest to those abodes
and to the land of Hellas, honoured and reverenced shalt thou be by
women and men; and they shall worship thee even as a goddess, for that
by thy counsel their sons came home again, their brothers and kinsmen,
and stalwart husbands were saved from calamity. And in our bridal
chamber shalt thou prepare our couch; and nothing shall come between our
love till the doom of death fold us round."

Thus he spake; and her soul melted within her to hear his words;
nevertheless she shuddered to behold the deeds of destruction to come.
Poor wretch! Not long was she destined to refuse a home in Hellas. For
thus Hera devised it, that Aeaean Medea might come to Iolcus for a bane
to Pelias, forsaking her native land.

And now her handmaids, glancing at them from a distance, were grieving
in silence; and the time of day required that the maiden should return
home to her mother's side. But she thought not yet of departing, for her
soul delighted both in his beauty and in his winsome words, but Aeson's
son took heed, and spake at last, though late: "It is time to depart,
lest the sunlight sink before we know it, and some stranger notice all;
but again will we come and meet here."

So did they two make trial of one another thus far with gentle words;
and thereafter parted. Jason hastened to return in joyous mood to his
comrades and the ship, she to her handmaids; and they all together came
near to meet her, but she marked them not at all as they thronged
around. For her soul had soared aloft amid the clouds. And her feet of
their own accord mounted the swift chariot, and with one hand she took
the reins, and with the other the whip of cunning workmanship, to drive
the mules; and they rushed hasting to the city and the palace. And when
she was come Chalciope in grief for her sons questioned her; but Medea,
distraught by swiftly-changing thoughts, neither heard her words nor was
eager to speak in answer to her questions. But she sat upon a low stool
at the foot of her couch, bending down, her cheek leaning on her left
hand, and her eyes were wet with tears as she pondered what an evil deed
she had taken part in by her counsels.

Now when Aeson's son had joined his comrades again in the spot where he
had le