inly do to
taste. Whatever I eat and drink--langustae and melons, light Mareotic
wine and the dark liquor of Byblus my tongue can scarcely distinguish
it. The leech assures me that this will pass away, but until the chaos
within merges into endurable order there is nothing better for me than
solitude and rest, rest, rest."

"We will not deny them to you," replied Thyone, glancing significantly
at Daphne. "Proclus's enthusiastic judgment was sincerely meant. Begin
by rejoicing over it in the inmost depths of your heart, and vividly
imagining what a wealth of exquisite joys will be yours through your
last masterpiece."

"Willingly, if I can," replied the blind man, gratefully extending his
hand. "If I could only escape the doubt whether the most cruel tyrant
could devise anything baser than to rob the artist, the very person to
whom it is everything, of his sight."

"Yes, it is terrible," Daphne assented. "Yet it seems to me that a
richer compensation for the lost gift is at the disposal of you artists
than of us other mortals, for you understand how to look with the eyes
of the soul. With them you retain what you have seen, and illumine it
with a special radiance. Homer was blind, and for that very reason, I
think, the world and life became clear and transfigured for him though a
veil concealed both from his physical vision."

"The poet!" Hermon exclaimed. "He draws from his own soul what sight,
and sight alone, brings to us sculptors. And, besides, his spirit
remained free from the horrible darkness that assailed mine. Joy itself,
Daphne, has lost its illuminating power within. What, girl, what is to
become of the heart in which even hope was destroyed?"

"Defend it manfully and keep up your courage," she answered softly;
but he pressed her hand firmly, and, in order not to betray how
self-compassion was melting his own soul, burst forth impetuously: "Say
rather: Crush the wish whose fulfilment is self-humiliation! I will go
back to Alexandria. Even the blind and crippled can find ways to earn
their bread there. Now grant me rest, and leave me alone!"

Thyone drew the girl away with her into the ship's cabin.

A short time after, the steward Gras went to Hermon to entreat him to
yield to Thyone's entreaties and leave the deck.

The leech had directed the sufferer to protect himself from draughts
and dampness, and the cool night mists were rising more and more densely
from the water.

Hermon doubtless felt the