Page:Woman in the Nineteenth Century 1845.djvu/196

190 But to return to Iphigenia,—how infinitely melting is her appeal to Orestes, whom she holds in her robe.

The mention of Orestes, then an infant, all through, though slight, is of a domestic charm that prepares the mind to feel the tragedy of his after lot. When the Queen says

We understand the horror of the doom which makes this cherished child a parricide. And so when Iphigenia takes leave of him after her fate is by herself accepted.

We know not how to blame the guilt of the maddened wife and mother. In her last meeting with