Again, in Alkestis, the last words of the heroine before she goes to her sacrifice are a demand of Admetus that the integrity of their home shall be preserved, and no step-dame take her place with the children. Both Alkestis and Admetus, in that wonderful scene, are imaged to the eye as part of a group, and, though the children themselves do not speak, the words and the very gestures are directed toward them. _Alkestis._ My children, ye have heard your father’s pledge Never to set a step-dame over you, Or thrust me from the allegiance of his heart. _Admetus._ What now I say shall never be unsaid. _Alkestis._ Then here our children I entrust to thee. _Admetus._ And I receive them as the gage of love. _Alkestis._ Be thou a mother to them in my place. _Admetus._ Need were, when such a mother has been lost. _Alkestis._ Children, I leave you when I fain would live. _Admetus._ Alas! what shall I do, bereft of thee? _Alkestis._ Time will assuage thy grief: the dead are nought. _Admetus._ Take, take me with thee to the underworld. _Alkestis._ It is enough that I must die for thee. _Admetus._ O Heaven! of what a partner I am reft! _Alkestis._ My eyes grow dim and the long sleep comes on. _Admetus._ I too am lost if thou dost leave me, wife. _Alkestis._ Think of me as of one that is no more. _Admetus._ Lift up thy face, quit not thy children dear. _Alkestis._ Not willingly; but, children, fare ye well. _Admetus._ Oh, look upon them, look! _Alkestis._ My end is come. _Admetus._ Oh, leave us not. _Alkestis._ Farewell. _Admetus._ I am undone. _Chorus._ Gone, gone; thy wife, Admetus, is no more.[6] A fragment of Danaë puts into the mouth of Danaë herself apparently lines which send one naturally to Simonides:— “He, leaping to my arms and in my bosom, Might haply sport, and with a crowd of kisses Might win my soul forth; for there is no greater Love-charm than close companionship, my father.”[7]