Then, loveliest of her sex, turning away,
She sought her chamber, whom her maidens fair
Attended, charged with those illustrious gifts.
Then turn'd, they all to dance and pleasant song 370
Joyous, expecting the approach of ev'n.
Ere long the dusky evening came, and them
Found sporting still. Then, placing in the hall
Three hearths that should illumine wide the house,
They compass'd them around with fuel-wood 375
Long-season'd and new-split, mingling the sticks
With torches. The attendant women watch'd
And fed those fires by turns, to whom, himself,
Their unknown Sov'reign thus his speech address'd.
Ye maidens of the long-regretted Chief 380
Ulysses! to the inner-courts retire,
And to your virtuous Queen, that following there
Your sev'ral tasks, spinning and combing wool,
Ye may amuse her; I, meantime, for these
Will furnish light, and should they chuse to stay 385
Till golden morn appear, they shall not tire
My patience aught, for I can much endure.
He said; they, titt'ring, on each other gazed.
But one, Melantho with the blooming cheeks,
Rebuked him rudely. Dolius was her sire, 390
But by Penelope she had been reared
With care maternal, and in infant years
Supplied with many a toy; yet even she
Felt not her mistress' sorrows in her heart,
But,
