Mrs. Vaudrey was for tea this evening. She is a very charming little person. I remember her presence and voice now though it is 7 years since she was here. – Rushed through some lessons, didn’t finish and went with Mám to ‘Helen of Troy’. I think I never enjoyed anything so much. For the first part, each of the characters were purely classical – Helen, Paris, Achilles, Menelaus, Agamemnon had countenances which might have been taken from statues on the Acropolis, there was no modernism about them, but severe and rigidly beautiful. The setting was most beautiful, the galleys, the attack on Troy, the wooden horse, the conflicts between the opposing armies were something wonderful in their perfection. Old King Priam and Andromache were the most touching figures, and Hecuba – ‘What is Hecuba to him and he to Hecuba’! – The whole picture made me think of the great kingdoms of Bithynia, Sydia, Karia, Pontus, Syria, Pathia and all their glory. Where are they now?
