Minerva answered, "Do not try to keep me, for I would be on my way at once.
As for any present you may be disposed to make me,
keep it till I come again, and I will take it home with me.
You shall give me a very good one, and I will give you one of no less value in return."
u15: "Stephen laid the coin in her uneager hand.
— We'll owe twopence, he said.
— Time enough, sir, she said, taking the coin. Time enough. Good morning, sir."
With these words she flew away like a bird into the air,
but she had given Telemachus courage,
and had made him think more than ever about his father.
He felt the change, wondered at it, and knew that the stranger had been a god,
so he went straight to where the suitors were sitting.
u19: "What's bred in the bone cannot fail me to fly
And Olivet's breezy... Goodbye, now, goodbye."
u8: "He had spoken himself into boldness."
u13: "Old and secret she had entered from a morning world, maybe a messenger."
(the flying was a tipoff)
Phemius was still singing,
and his hearers sat rapt in silence as he told the sad tale of the return from Troy,
and the ills Minerva had laid upon the Achaeans.
Penelope, daughter of Icarius, heard his song from her room upstairs,
and came down by the great staircase,
not alone, but attended by two of her handmaids.
u6: "The aunt always keeps plainlooking servants for Malachi."
When she reached the suitors she stood
by one of the bearing posts that supported the roof of the cloisters
with a staid maiden on either side of her.
She held a veil, moreover, before her face, and was weeping bitterly.
u9: 'Fergus' song: I sang it alone in the house, holding down the long dark chords. Her door was open: she wanted to hear my music. Silent with awe and pity I went to her bedside. She was crying in her wretched bed. For those words, Stephen: love's bitter mystery.'
"Phemius," she cried, "you know many another feat of gods and heroes,
such as poets love to celebrate.
Sing the suitors some one of these, and let them drink their wine in silence,
but cease this sad tale, for it breaks my sorrowful heart,
and reminds me of my lost husband whom I mourn ever without ceasing,
and whose name was great over all Hellas and middle Argos."
