At once he perceived her insight, and answered it: "So you see myself? Your fixed regard can strip me of my 'accidents,' as the sophists say?" But neither should this disconcert him: "Thank your eyes' searching; undisguised I stand: The merest female child may question me. Spare not, speak bold, Balaustion!" She, searching thus his face, had learnt already that "what she had disbelieved most proved most true." Drunk though he was, "There was a mind here, mind a-wantoning At ease of undisputed mastery Over the body's brood, those appetites. Oh, but he grasped them grandly!" It was no "ignoble presence": the broad bald brow, the flushed cheek, great imperious fiery eyes, wide nostrils, full aggressive mouth, all the pillared head: "These made a glory, of such insolence-- I thought--such domineering deity . . . Impudent and majestic . . ." Instantly on her speaking face the involuntary homage had shown; and it was to this that Aristophanes, keen of sight as she, had confidently addressed himself when he told her to speak boldly. And in the very spirit of her face she did speak: "Bold speech be--welcome to this honoured hearth, Good Genius!" Here sounds the essential note of generous natures. Proved mistaken, their instant impulse is to rejoice in defeat, if defeat means victory for the better thing. Thus, as Balaustion speaks, her ardour grows with every word. He is greater than she had supposed, and so she must even rhapsodise--she must crowd praise on praise, until she ends with the exultant cry: "O light, light, light, I hail light everywhere! No matter for the murk that was--perchance That will be--certes, never should have been Such orb's associate!" Mark that Aristophanes has not yet _said_ anything to justify her change of attitude: the seeing of him is enough to draw from her this recantation--for she trusts her own quick insight, and so, henceforth trusts him. Now begins the long, close argument between them which constitutes _Aristophanes' Apology_. It is (from him) the defence of comedy as he understands and practises it--broad and coarse when necessary; violent and satiric against those who in any way condemn it. Euripides had been one of these, and Balaustion now stands for him. . . . In the long run, it is the defence of "realism" against "idealism," and, as such, involves a whole philosophy of life. We cannot follow it here; all we may do is to indicate the points at which it reveals, as she speaks in it, the character of Balaustion, and the growing charm which such revelation has for her opponent.