OLD MAN.

The strangers!  Where are they?  I fain
Would see them, aye, and bid them answer plain...

ELECTRA.

Here at the door!  How swift upon the thought!

Enter ORESTES and PYLADES.

OLD MAN.

High-born:  albeit for that I trust them not. 
The highest oft are false....  Howe’er it be,

[Approaching them.

I bid the strangers hail!

ORESTES.

All hail to thee,
Greybeard!—­Prithee, what man of all the King
Trusted of old, is now this broken thing?

ELECTRA.

’Tis he that trained my father’s boyhood.

ORESTES.

How? 
And stole from death thy brother?  Sayest thou?

ELECTRA.

This man was his deliverer, if it be
Deliverance.

ORESTES.

How his old eye pierceth me,
As one that testeth silver and alloy! 
Sees he some likeness here?

ELECTRA.

Perchance ’tis joy,
To see Orestes’ comrade, that he feels.

ORESTES.

None dearer.—­But what ails the man?  He reels
Dizzily back.

ELECTRA.

I marvel.  I can say
No more.

OLD MAN (in a broken voice).

Electra, mistress, daughter, pray! 
Pray unto God!

ELECTRA.

Of all the things I crave,
The thousand things, or all that others have,
What should I pray for?

OLD MAN.

Pray thine arms may hold
At last this treasure-dream of more than gold
God shows us!

ELECTRA.

God, I pray thee!...  Wouldst thou more?

OLD MAN.

Gaze now upon this man, and bow before
Thy dearest upon earth!

ELECTRA.

I gaze on thee! 
O, hath time made thee mad?

OLD MAN.

Mad, that I see
Thy brother?

ELECTRA.

My ...  I know not what thou say’st: 
I looked not for it...

OLD MAN.

I tell thee, here confessed
Standeth Orestes, Agamemnon’s son!

ELECTRA.

A sign before I trust thee!  O, but one! 
How dost thou know...?

OLD MAN.

There, by his brow, I see
The scar he made, that day he ran with thee
Chasing thy fawn, and fell.

ELECTRA (in a dull voice).

A scar?  ’Tis so. 
I see a scar.

OLD MAN.

And fearest still to throw
Thine arms round him thou lovest?

ELECTRA.

O, no more! 
Thy sign hath conquered me.... (throwing herself into ORESTES’ arms). 
At last, at last! 
Thy face like light!  And do I hold thee fast,
Unhoped for?

ORESTES.

Yea, at last!  And I hold thee.

ELECTRA.

I never knew...

ORESTES.

I dreamed not.

ELECTRA.