hinomus gave him two loaves, and filled a cup with
wine. "Hail, old friend!" he said, offering the cup, "and mayest thou
live to see happier days."

This Amphinomus differed in character from the other suitors, being a
prudent and fair-minded man. Odysseus knew him and his father well,
and being willing to save him, if possible, he looked earnestly at
him, and said: "Amphinomus, thou seemest to be a man of understanding,
and therefore I will give thee a word of warning. Hark, in thine ear!
Quit this company at once! The day of doom is very near to them all,
and I would not that thou shouldst perish with them."

These words, spoken in a low and solemn tone, so that none besides
might hear, sent a chill to the heart of Amphinomus. Slowly and sadly
he went back to his seat, his mind full of dark foreboding.
Nevertheless, he did not profit by the warning; for he had thrown in
his lot with that guilty band, and had to drink of the same cup.

Penelope and the Wooers

I

"How slowly move the hours," said Penelope to Eurycleia, yawning and
then laughing in sheer vacancy of spirit. "How would it be if I showed
myself to the wooers? I hate them, it is true, but it would serve to
pass the time, and I could caution my son not to be so familiar with
these treacherous friends."

"Do so, my child," answered Eurycleia, "but first wash and anoint
thyself, and go not among them with this tear-stained face. And waste
not thy life in perpetual mourning; think what a comfort thou hast in
thy son."

"Speak not to me of such vanities," answered Penelope; "why should I
wish to preserve this poor remnant of my beauty? Foul or fair, what
matters it in my widowed state? But send two of my handmaids hither to
attend me, for it is not seemly that I should go alone among the men."

While the nurse was gone to fetch the maidens, a sudden drowsiness
overpowered Penelope, and she sank back in her chair, subdued by a
short but trancelike sleep. And while she slumbered, invisible hands
were busy with her person, washing away all the stains which sorrow
had left on her face, and shedding upon her immortal loveliness, such
as clothes the Queen of Love herself, when she joins the sister Graces
in the dance. The voices of the women entering her chamber roused her
from that strange sleep, and sitting up she rubbed her cheeks and
said: "Wondrous soft was the slumber which overtook me in my sorrow!
Would that it were death which had come upon