ength? Bryaxis--I
heard him--was full of your praises, and yet entreated my father to use
all his influence, as guardian, to warn you against overwork."

"My kind master!" cried Myrtilus, deeply moved. "He was as anxious about
me as a father."

"Because he perceived that you were destined for great achievements."

"And because it did not escape his penetration how much I needed care. My
lungs, Daphne, my lungs--surely you know how the malicious disease became
fatal to my clear mother, and to my brother and sister also. All three
sank prematurely into the grave, and for years the shades of my parents
have been beckoning to me too. When the cough shakes my chest, I see
Charon raise his oar and invite me also to enter his sable boat."

"But you just assured me that you were doing well," observed the girl.
"The cough alone makes me a little anxious. If you could only see for
yourself what a beautiful colour the pure air has given your cheeks!"

"This flush," replied Myrtilus gravely, "is the sunset of life's closing
day, not the dawn of approaching convalescence. But let us drop the
subject. I allude to these sorrowful things only to prevent your praises
of me at Hermon's expense. True, even while a student I possessed wealth
far beyond my needs, but the early deaths of my brother and sister had
taught me even then to be economical of the brief span of life allotted
to me. Hermon, on the contrary, was overflowing with manly vigour, and
the strongest among the Ephebi in the wrestling school. After three
nights' revel he would not even feel weary, and how difficult the women
made it for the handsome, black-bearded fellow to commence his work
early! Did you ever ask yourself why young steeds are not broken in
flowery meadows, but upon sand? Nothing which attracts their attention
and awakens their desires must surround them; but your father's gold led
Hermon, ere the season of apprenticeship was over, into the most
luxuriant clover fields. Honour and respect the handsome, hot-blooded
youth that, nevertheless, he allowed himself to be diverted from work
only a short time and soon resumed it with ardent zeal, at first in
superabundance, and then amid fresh need and privation."

"O Myrtilus," the girl interrupted, "how terribly I suffered in those
days! For the first time the gods made me experience that there are black
clouds, as well as bright sunshine, in the human soul. For weeks an
impassable gulf separated me from my fa