`` But just listen to the pleasant voices of those maidens , and that buzz of the loom , as the shuttle passes to and fro , '' said another comrade . `` What a domestic , household , home-like sound it is ! Ah , before that weary siege of Troy , I used to hear the buzzing loom and the women 's voices under my own roof . Shall I never hear them again ? nor taste those nice little savory dishes which my dearest wife knew how to serve up ? '' `` Tush ! we shall fare better here , '' said another . `` But how innocently those women are babbling together , without guessing that we overhear them ! And mark that richest voice of all , so pleasant and so familiar , but which yet seems to have the authority of a mistress among them . Let us show ourselves at once . What harm can the lady of the palace and her maidens do to mariners and warriors like us ? '' `` Remember , '' said Eurylochus , `` that it was a young maiden who beguiled three of our friends into the palace of the king of the Laestrygons , who ate up one of them in the twinkling of an eye . '' No warning or persuasion , however , had any effect on his companions . They went up to a pair of folding doors at the farther end of the hall , and throwing them wide open , passed into the next room . Eurylochus , meanwhile , had stepped behind a pillar . In the short moment while the folding doors opened and closed again , he caught a glimpse of a very beautiful woman rising from the loom , and coming to meet the poor weather-beaten wanderers , with a hospitable smile , and her hand stretched out in welcome . There were four other young women , who joined their hands and danced merrily forward , making gestures of obeisance to the strangers . They were only less beautiful than the lady who seemed to be their mistress . Yet Eurylochus fancied that one of them had sea-green hair , and that the close-fitting bodice of a second looked like the bark of a tree , and that both the others had something odd in their aspect , although he could not quite determine what it was , in the little while that he had to examine them . The folding doors swung quickly back , and left him standing behind the pillar , in the solitude of the outer hall .
There Eurylochus waited until he was quite weary , and listened eagerly XXXXX every sound , but without hearing anything that could help him to guess what had become of his friends .
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