eat Pyrrhus who wept for him as for a
brother. My father was a captain of mercenaries in the service of
Carthage, and was cruelly assassinated in the war called 'inexorable.'"

He was silent a moment as if overcome by this recollection. His voice
choked, but presently he added: "I fought until recently under the
orders of Cleomenes, the last Lacedaemonian. I was one of his companions,
and when the hero suffered defeat I accompanied him to Alexandria,
afterward traveling over the world because I could not endure the
inactivity of exile. I have also been a merchant in Rhodes, a fisherman
on the Bosphorus, a farmer in Egypt, and a satirical poet in Athens."

The handsome Sonnica approached him smiling. He was an Athenian
possessed of all the qualities so loved by her; one of those adventurers
accustomed to rapid changes of fortune, rounders of the world, who
frequently chronicle their achievements when they have reached old age.

"And why have you come hither?"

"I have come by chance. Your pilot offered to bring me to Zacynthus, and
I came. I felt stifled in New Carthage. I might have enlisted in
Hannibal's army; it would have been sufficient perhaps to have revealed
my origin to meet with welcome. The Greeks are paid great prices in
every army. But a war is in progress here also, and I prefer to go
against the Turdetani, to serve a city which I do not know, but which
has never done me any harm."

"And did you sleep here last night? Could you not find a bed in any of
the inns?"

"What I could not find was an obolus in my pouch. If I appeased my
hunger, it was due to the charity of a forlorn harlot who shared her
meagre supper with me. I am poor, and I was faint for food. Do not pity
me, Sonnica. Do not look upon me with eyes of compassion. I have given
banquets which lasted from sunset until dawn. In Rhodes, at the hour of
the songs, we used to throw the metal plates out of the windows to the
slaves. The life of a man should be thus, like Homer's heroes, a king in
one place and a beggar in another."

Polyanthus looked upon the adventurer with interest, and the elegant
Lachares, who had at first opposed Sonnica when she wished to awaken so
ill-dressed a Greek, approached him, recognizing Athenian refinement
beneath his humble exterior, thinking to make a friend of him in the
hope of receiving lessons to his advantage.

"Come to my villa at sunset to-day," said Sonnica. "You shall dine with
us. Anyone can guide you