The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-10-13

! W4rEloF, to the ne8rtn ana nome from which had been absent so long-so long-to be ruthlessly parboiled the very moment after my arrival by the partner of my throne! Was this kind was this wifely, Clytemnestra?"
 "That comes so we'll from you, does it not?" she retorted.
 "Why-why-what do you mean?" he stammered.
 "4ou know very we'll what mean" she said. "Bah! why play the hypo- crite with me?"
 'Is it possible" he cried, "that you can suspect me of not having been near Troy all this time-tell me. Civ temnestra, is this monstrous thing possible?"
 "Quite," she replied. q know you haven'tp'
 "What-when tell you that there is poet, fellow called Homer or something, who has got sort of rep utation already by putting the cam paign into verses, rather long, but quite readable (you must order them); well, there's lot about me in them" "Did Homer see you there?'' "Now that's most ridiculous ques- tion," he protested, with 8 feeling that she was coming around, and that he should convince her directly; "the poets blind, Clytemnestra, quite blind. But will not argue-you must be content with a warriors assurance"
 She laughed. "I'm afraid" she said, "that even 8 warriors assurance will find it difficult to account satisfactorily for this-and this-and these!" And as she spoke she handed him variety of articles-a folding hat, guide to Corinth, a conversation manual, several unused tourist tickets. one or two theatre programmes, a green veil, some supper bills, a cor rect card for the Olympian races, with the names of probable starters, and three little jointed wooden dolls.
 Agamemnon took them all help lessly; all his virtuous indignation had evaporated and he looked very red and foolish as he said, with kind of nervous la1gh, "You've been look ing in my pockets"
 "I have," she said, "and now what have you to say for yourself? don't believe there is any such place as Troy"
 "There is, indeed," he pleaded; .T can show it to you on the mapl"
 "Well," she said, eff there is, you never went near itt'
 "Send those people away" he said, "and will tell you all p
 And when they had gone he con- fessed everything, explaining that he really had meant to go to Troy at first, and how, as he got nearer, he found himself less and less inclined for fighting-until at last he deter mined to travel about and see life in- stead, and as he expressed it, "pick up 8 little character"
 "Well," said Clytemnestra, "I will have no little characters in my palace, Agamemnon."
 But he protested that she had not understood him. "And if have erred, my love-" he suggested, humbly, tex cuse me, but I cannot help thinking that the means devised for my correc- tion were unnecessarily tevere!"
 "They were nothing of the sort" she said; "you deserved it all-and worsew
 Upon this Agamemnon made haste to assure her that she had showna very proper spirit, and he respected her the more for it. And now,~ he put it to her, "why not let bygones be bygones?" But Clytemnestra's reply was that she would be quite willing to permit this when they were by gones, which at present, she added, they were very far from being.
 The king was in despair, until be- neficent nature came to his assistance; faint chirrup was heard from a neighbOring bush, a circumstance which he turned to admirable account.
 "You hear it," he asked tenderly, "the dulcet strain? Know ye the note? An, Clytemnestra, 'tis the owl-the blithe and tuneful owl! Owls sang on our bridal night-can you hear their melody now and be unmoved2 No, I did but wrong ye 8 tear trembles on that eyelash, smile flick CTS upon that lip! I am pardoned. Clytemnestra-wife, embrace me we have much to forgive!"
 This speech (which was not unlike some he had heard in thrilling dramas at the H@mabronteion, Corinth, where the prophecies Cassandra had been greatly admired in her impersonations of persecuted and distracted heroines) touched Clytemnestra's heart, in which, hard as it was, there was a strain of sentiment-and she fell sob ping into her husbands arms.
 And SO all was forgotten and for given in the most satisfactory manner, the chorus (who had been considering themselves arrested until the intellec- tual strain had proved almost too much for them) were released, while