et place in the pure
air, not in the city. Refrain from everything with which the Greeks
intoxicate themselves. Shun wine, and whatever heats the blood. Recovery
is coming; I see it drawing near. You will see again as surely as I now
curse the woman who abandoned the husband to whom she vowed fidelity. She
rejoiced over your blindness, and she will gnash her teeth with rage and
grief when she hears that it was Tabus who brought light into the
darkness that surrounds you."

With these words she pushed off the freedman's supporting arms and sank
back upon the couch.

Again Hermon tried to thank her; but she would not permit it, and said in
an almost inaudible tone: "I really did not give the salve to do you
good--the last act of all--"

Finally she murmured a few words of direction for its use, and added that
he must keep the sunlight from his blind eyes by bandages and shades, as
if it were a cruel foe.

When she paused, and Bias asked her another question, she pointed to the
door, exclaiming as loudly as her weakness permitted, "Go, I tell you,
go!"

Hermon obeyed and left her, accompanied by the freedman, who carried the
box of salve so full of precious promise.

The next morning Bias delivered to the astonished priest of Nemesis the
large gifts intended for the avenging goddess.

Before Hermon entered the boat with him and his Egyptian slave, the
freedman told his master that Gula was again living in perfect harmony
with the husband who had cast her off, and Taus, Ledscha's younger
sister, was the wife of the young Biamite who, she had feared, would give
up his wooing on account of her visit to Hermon's studio.

After a long voyage through the canal which had been dug a short time
before, connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, the three men
reached Clysma. Opposite to it, on the eastern shore of the narrow
northern point of the Erythraean sea--[Red Sea]--lay the goal of their
journey, and thither Bias led his blind master, followed by the slave, on
shore.

CHAPTER XII.

It was long since Hermon had felt so free and light-hearted as during
this voyage.

He firmly believed in his recovery.

A few days before he had escaped death in the royal palace as if by a
miracle, and he owed his deliverance to the woman he loved.

In the Temple of Nemesis at Tennis the conviction that the goddess had
ceased to persecute him took possession of his mind.

True, his blind eyes had been unable to see he