restore his
blind nephew's sight. But the kindly physician, who gladly aided even the
poorest sufferer, curtly and positively refused. To devote his time and
skill to a blind man who, under the severest of visitations, lulled
himself so contentedly in happiness, he considered unjust to others who
desired recovery more ardently.

"When the intoxication of this unbridled strength passes away, and is
followed by a different mood," remarked the merchant, "we will talk of
this matter again," and the confident tone of his deep voice gave the
simple sentence such significance that the learned leech held out his
hand, saying: "Only where deep, earnest longing for recovery fills the
sufferer's mind will the gods aid the physician. We will wait for the
change which you predict, Archias!"

The guests did not disperse until late, and the best satisfied of all was
the grammateus Proclus, who had taken advantage of the rich merchant's
happy mood, and his own warm intercession in behalf of his nephew's work,
to persuade Archias to advance Queen Arsinoe a large sum of money for an
enterprise whose object he still carefully concealed.

The highly honoured blind artist spent the night under his uncle's roof.

CHAPTER VI.

Hermon rose from his couch the next morning alert and ready for new
pleasures.

He had scarcely left the bath when envoys from the Ephebi and the younger
artists invited him to the festivities which they had arranged in his
honour. He joyously accepted, and also promised messengers from many of
Archias's friends, who wished to have the famous blind sculptor among
their guests, to be present at their banquets.

He still felt as if he were intoxicated, and found neither disposition
nor time for quiet reflection. His great strength, fettered as it were by
his loss of sight, now also began to stir. Fate itself withheld him from
the labour which he loved, yet in return it offered him a wealth of
varying pleasure, whose stimulating power he had learned the day before.
He still relished the draught from the beaker of homage proffered by his
fellow-citizens; nay, it seemed as if it could not lose its sweetness for
a long time.

He joined the ladies before noon, and his newly awakened feeling of joy
beamed upon them scarcely less radiantly than yesterday. Though Thyone
might wonder that a man pursued by Nemesis could allow himself to be
borne along so thoughtlessly by the stream of pleasure, Daphne certainly
did