How dark lies honour hid!  And what turmoil
In all things human:  sons of mighty men
Fallen to naught, and from ill seed again
Good fruit:  yea, famine in the rich man’s scroll
Writ deep, and in poor flesh a lordly soul. 
As, lo, this man, not great in Argos, not
With pride of house uplifted, in a lot
Of unmarked life hath shown a prince’s grace.
                [To the PEASANT, who has returned.
All that is here of Agamemnon’s race,
And all that lacketh yet, for whom we come,
Do thank thee, and the welcome of thy home
Accept with gladness.—­Ho, men; hasten ye
Within!—­This open-hearted poverty
Is blither to my sense than feasts of gold.

Lady, thine husband’s welcome makes me bold;
Yet would thou hadst thy brother, before all
Confessed, to greet us in a prince’s hall! 
Which may be, even yet.  Apollo spake
The word; and surely, though small store I make
Of man’s divining, God will fail us not.

[ORESTES and PYLADES go in, following the SERVANTS.

LEADER.

O never was the heart of hope so hot
Within me.  How?  So moveless in time past,
Hath Fortune girded up her loins at last?

ELECTRA.

Now know’st thou not thine own ill furniture,
To bid these strangers in, to whom for sure
Our best were hardship, men of gentle breed?

PEASANT.

Nay, if the men be gentle, as indeed
I deem them, they will take good cheer or ill
With even kindness.

ELECTRA.

’Twas ill done; but still—­
Go, since so poor thou art, to that old friend
Who reared my father.  At the realm’s last end
He dwells, where Tanaos river foams between
Argos and Sparta.  Long time hath he been
An exile ’mid his flocks.  Tell him what thing
Hath chanced on me, and bid him haste and bring
Meat for the strangers’ tending.—­Glad, I trow,
That old man’s heart will be, and many a vow
Will lift to God, to learn the child he stole
From death, yet breathes.—­I will not ask a dole
From home; how should my mother help me?  Nay,
I pity him that seeks that door, to say
Orestes liveth!

PEASANT.

Wilt thou have it so? 
I will take word to the old man.  But go
Quickly within, and whatso there thou find
Set out for them.  A woman, if her mind
So turn, can light on many a pleasant thing
To fill her board.  And surely plenishing
We have for this one day.—­’Tis in such shifts
As these, I care for riches, to make gifts
To friends, or lead a sick man back to health
With ease and plenty.  Else small aid is wealth
For daily gladness; once a man be done
With hunger, rich and poor are all as one.

[The PEASANT goes off to the left; ELECTRA goes into the house.

* * * * *

CHORUS.