live, long of leaf, and most goodly of growth, within the inner court,
and the stem as large as a pillar. Round about this I built the chamber,
till I had finished it, with stones close set, and I roofed it over well
and added thereto compacted doors fitting well. Next I sheared off all
the light wood of the long-leaved olive, and rough-hewed the trunk
upwards from the root, and smoothed it around with the adze, well and
skilfully, and made straight the line thereto and so fashioned it into
the bedpost, and I bored it all with the auger. Beginning from this
headpost, I wrought at the bedstead till I had finished it, and made it
fair with inlaid work of gold and of silver and of ivory. Then I made
fast therein a bright purple band of oxhide. Even so I declare to thee
this token, and I know not, lady, if the bedstead be yet fast in its
place, or if some man has cut away the stem of the olive tree and set
the bedstead otherwhere.'

"So he spake, and at once her knees were loosened, and her heart melted
within her, as she knew the sure tokens that Odysseus showed her. Then
she fell a-weeping, and ran straight towards him and cast her hands
about his neck, and kissed his head and spake, saying:

"'Murmur not against me, Odysseus, for thou wert ever at other times the
wisest of men. It is the gods that gave us sorrow, the gods who were
jealous that we should abide together and have joy of our youth and come
to the threshold of old age. So now be not wroth with me hereat nor full
of indignation because I did not welcome thee gladly as now, when I
first saw thee. For always my heart within my breast shuddered for fear
lest some man should come and deceive me with his words, for many there
be that devise gainful schemes and evil. Nay, even Argive Helen,
daughter of Zeus, would not have lain with a stranger, and taken him for
a lover, had she known that the warlike sons of the Achaeans would bring
her home again to her own dear country. Howsoever, it was the god that
set her upon this shameful deed; nor ever, ere that, did she lay up in
her heart the thought of this folly, a bitter folly, whence on us, too,
first came sorrow. But now that thou hast told all the sure tokens of
our bed, which never was seen by mortal man, save by thee and me, and
one maiden only, the daughter of Actor, that my father gave me ere yet I
had come hither, she who kept the doors of our strong bridal chamber,
even now dost thou bend my soul, all ungentle