wanted me around you. And now, NOW----
[She can contain the tears no longer.] Because I have neglected my
beauty and because I am old and ugly, you regret that Ulysses or
Agamemnon didn't marry me when you all wanted me, and I know you curse
the day you ever saw me. [She is breathless.]

MENELAUS [fuming]. Well! Have you done?

HELENA. No. I could say a great deal more, but I'm not a talkative
woman.

[ANALYTIKOS comes in from the library.]

ANALYTIKOS. Your Majesty, are we to read no longer to-day?

HELENA. I have something to say to the King. [ANALYTIKOS goes toward the
library. MENELAUS anxiously stops him.]

MENELAUS. No. Stay here. You are a wise man and will understand the
wisdom of the Queen.

ANALYTIKOS [bowing to HELENA]. Helena is wise as she is beautiful.

MENELAUS. She is attempting to prove to me in a thousand words that
she's a silent woman.

ANALYTIKOS. Women are seldom silent. [HELENA resents this.] Their beauty
is forever speaking for them.

HELENA. The years have, indeed, taught you wisdom. [TSUMU enters.]

TSUMU. The almond water awaits Your Majesty.

HELENA. I hope you haven't forgotten the chiropodist.

TSUMU. He has been commanded but he's always late. He's so busy.

HELENA [in a purring tone to MENELAUS]. Moo Moo.

[MENELAUS, bored, turns away.]

HELENA [to TSUMU]. I think after all I'll wear my Sicily blue.

[She and TSUMU go into the QUEEN'S apartment.]

ANALYTIKOS. Shall we go back to the library?

MENELAUS. My mind is unhinged again--that woman with her endless
protestations.

ANALYTIKOS. I am sorry the poets no longer divert you.

MENELAUS. A little poetry is always too much.

ANALYTIKOS. To-morrow we will try the historians.

MENELAUS. No! Not the historians. I want the truth for a change.

ANALYTIKOS. The truth!

MENELAUS. Where in books can I find escape from the grim reality of
being hitched for life to such a wife? Bah!

ANALYTIKOS. Philosophy teaches----

MENELAUS. Why have the Gods made woman necessary to man, and made them
fools?

ANALYTIKOS. For seventy years I have been resolving the problem of woman
and even at my age----

MENELAUS. Give it up, old man. The answer is--don't.

ANALYTIKOS. Such endless variety, and yet----

MENELAUS [with the conviction of finality]. There are only two sorts of
women! Those who are failures and those who realize it.

ANALYTIKOS. Is not Penelope, the model wife of your cousin Ulysses, an
exception?

MENELAU