ed that
this was not the place to say what he missed in her. Yet that she did
lack it awakened in him an emotion of pain, for this, Hermon's last
work, apparently gave the followers of the ancients a right to number
him in their ranks.

His cautious expression of regret must refer to the head of his Demeter.
Yet surely it was not his fault that Daphne's features bore the impress
of that gentle, winning kindness which he himself and Soteles, imitating
him, had often condemned as weak and characterless.

The correctness of his belief was instantly proved to him by the address
of gray-haired, highly praised Euphranor, who spoke of the Demeter's
countenance with warm admiration. And how ardently the poets Theocritus
and Zenodotus extolled his work to the skies!

Amid so much laudation, one faint word of dissatisfaction vanished like
a drop of blood that falls into a clear stream.

The welcome concluded with a final chant by the chorus, and continued to
echo in Hermon's ears as he entered his uncle's chariot and drove away
with him, crowned with laurel and intoxicated as if by fiery wine.

Oh, if he could only have seen his fellow-citizens who so eagerly
expressed their good will, their sympathy, their admiration! But the
black and coloured mist before his eyes revealed no human figure, not
even that of the woman he loved, who, he now learned for the first time
from her father, had appeared among the priestesses of Demeter to greet
him.

Doubtless he was gladdened by the sound of her voice, the clasp of her
hand, the faint fragrance of violets exhaling from her fair hair, which
he had often remembered with so much pleasure when alone in Tennis; but
the time to devote himself to her fully and completely had not yet come,
for what manifold and powerful impressions, how much that was elevating,
delightful, and entertaining awaited him immediately!

The Queen's envoy had expressed his mistress's desire to receive the
creator of the Demeter, the Ephebi and his fellow-artists had invited
him to a festival which they desired to give in his honour, and on
the way Archias informed him that many of his wealthy friends in the
Macedonian Council expected that he, the honoured hero of the day, would
adorn with his presence a banquet in their houses.

What a rich, brilliant life awaited him in spite of his blindness!
When he entered his uncle's magnificent city home, and not only all the
servants and clients of the family, but al