ALCESTIS 225
'* The guest-rooms, whither we shall lead thee, lie Apart from ours."
" Nay, let me go my way ! Ten thousandfold the favor I shall thank ! "
" It may not be thou goest to the hearth
Of any man but me ! " so made an end eao
Admetos, softly and decisively.
Of the altercation. Herahles forbore :
And the king hade a servant lead the way^
Open the guestrooms ranged remote from view
O' the main hall ; tell the functionaries, next, 835
They had to furnish forth a plenteous feast.
And then shut close the doors o' the hall, midway,
" Because it is not proper friends who feast
Should hear a groaning or be grieved," quoth he.
The Icing, too, watched great Herahles go off 860
All faith, love, and obedience to a friend.
And when they questioned him, the simple ones,
" What dost thou ? Such calamity to face,
Lies full before thee — and thou art so bold
As play the host, Admetos ? Hast thy wits ? " 865
He replied calmly to each chiding tongue :
" But if from house and home I forced away
A coming guest, wouldst thou have praised me more ?
No, truly ! since calamity were mine.
Nowise diminished ; while I showed myself sto
Unhappy and inhospitable too :
So adding to my ills this other ill.
That mine were styled a stranger-hating house.
Myself have ever found this man the best
Of entertainers when I went his way 875
To parched and thirsty Argos."
