MENELAUS [with unbudgeable conviction]. Helena must elope with him!
ANALYTIKOS [falling into a seat]. Ye Gods!
MENELAUS [quickly]. I couldn't divorce the Queen. That would set a bad
example.
ANALYTIKOS. Yes, very.
MENELAUS. I couldn't desert her. That would be beneath my honor.
ANALYTIKOS [deeply]. Was there no other way?
MENELAUS [pompously]. The King can do no wrong, and besides I hate the
smell of blood. Are you a prophet as well as a scholar? Will she go?
ANALYTIKOS. To-night I will read the stars.
MENELAUS [meaningfully]. By to-night I'll not need you to tell me.
[ANALYTIKOS sits deep in thought.] Well?
ANALYTIKOS. Ethics cite no precedent.
MENELAUS. Do you mean to say I'm not justified?
ANALYTIKOS [cogitating]. Who can establish the punctilious ratio between
necessity and desire?
MENELAUS [beginning to fume]. This is no time for language. Just put
yourself in my place.
ANALYTIKOS. Being you, how can I judge as I?
MENELAUS [losing control]. May you choke on your dialectics! Zeus
himself could have stood it no longer.
ANALYTIKOS. Have you given her soul a chance to grow?
MENELAUS. Her soul, indeed! It's shut in her rouge pot. [He has been
strutting about. Suddenly he sits down crushing a roll of papyrus.
He takes it up and in utter disgust reads.] "The perfect hip, its
development and permanence." Bah! [He flings it to the floor.] I've done
what I had to do, and Gods grant the bait may be sweet enough to catch
the Queen.
ANALYTIKOS. If you had diverted yourself with a war or two you might
have forgotten your troubles at home.
MENELAUS [frightened]. I detest dissension of any kind--my dream was
perpetual peace in comfortable domesticity with a womanly woman to warm
my sandals.
ANALYTIKOS. Is not the Queen----?
MENELAUS. No! No! The whole world is but her mirror. And I'm expected to
face that woman every morning at breakfast for the rest of my life, and
by Venus that's more than even a King can bear!
ANALYTIKOS. Even a King cannot alter destiny. I warn you, whom the Gods
have joined together----
MENELAUS [in an outburst]. Is for man to break asunder!
ANALYTIKOS [deeply shocked]. You talk like an atheist.
MENELAUS. I never allow religion to interfere with life. Go call the
victim and see that he be left alone with the Queen. [MENELAUS exits and
ANALYTIKOS goes over to the door of the library and summons PARIS, who
enters clad in a gorgeous robe.]
PARIS. I found this in there. It looks rather well, doesn't it? Ah! So
you're alone. I suppose that stupid friend of yours has gone to tell the
King. When do I see the Queen?
ANALYTIKOS. At once. [He goes to the door of the QUEEN'S apartment and
claps his hand. TSUMU enters and at the sight of her PARIS recoils the
full length of the room.]
PARIS. I thought the Queen was a blonde!
ANALYTIKOS. Tell Her Majesty a stranger awaits her here. [TSUMU exits,
her eyes wide on PARIS.] You should thank the Gods for this moment.
PARIS [his eyes on the door]. You do it for me. I can never remember all
their names.
[HELENA enters clad in her Sicily blue, crowned with a garland of golden
flowers. She and PARIS stand riveted, looking at each other. Their
attitude might be described as fatalistic. ANALYTIKOS watches them for
a moment and then with hands and head lifted to heaven he goes into the
library.]
PARIS [quivering with emotion]. I have the most strange sensation of
having seen you before. Something I can't explain----
HELENA [quite practically]. Please don't bother about all sorts of fine
distinctions. Under the influence of Analytikos and my husband, life has
become a mess of indecision. I'm a simple, direct woman and I expect you
to say just what you think.
PARIS. Do you? Very well, then---- [He comes a step nearer to her.] Fate
is impelling me toward you.
HELENA. Yes. That's much better. So you're a fatalist. It's very Greek.
I don't see what our dramatists would do without it.
PARIS. In my country there are no dramatists. We are too busy with
reality.
HELENA. Your people must be uncivilized barbarians.
PARIS. My people are a genuine people. There is but one thing we
worship.
HELENA. Don't tell me it's money.