Telemachus,
summoning up his newfound tact, replied,
"Please, Menelaus, don’t keep me quite so long.
True, I’d gladly sit beside you one whole year
without a twinge of longing for home or parents.
It’s wonderful how you tell your stories, all you say –
I delight to listen! Yes, but now, I’m afraid,
my comrades must be restless in sacred Pylos,
and here you’d hold me just a little longer."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 4, lines 666-674. Menelaus has grown so fond of Telemachus during his visit to him in Sparta that he wants him to stay longer: "But come, my boy, stay on in my palace now with me, at least till ten or a dozen days have passed." But Telemachus, on a mission to get information on his missing father Odysseus, cannot stay and is anxious to get back to his restless comrades in Pylos. In the course of his journey and search for his father, Telemachus has shown that he has matured and has good speaking skills.