May come: for very dear to heaven we are,
And dwell apart amid the surging sea.
“... But to our abode
We must make welcome this poor wanderer.
Strangers and beggars all are dear to God.
“... With this stranger be it so.
Give him to eat and drink, and make him bathe
In shelter, down the windswept bank below.“[[12]]
So Odysseus is bathed and clothed and fed; and Nausicaa, looking shyly at him as he reappears, is astonished at the wonderful change that has come over him. She speaks apart to the women, a little wistfully.
“Listen, O white-armed girls, to what I say.