from this much-lauded work."

"And therefore," he interrupted with passionate delight, "therefore
alone you withheld the enthusiastic praise with which the others
intoxicated me? And I, fool, blinded also in mind, could be vexed with
you for it! But only wait, wait! Soon-to-morrow even--there will be
no one in Alexandria who can accuse me of deserting my own honest
aspiration, and, if the gods will only restore my sight and the ability
to use my hands as a sculptor, then, girl, then--"

Here he was interrupted by a loud knocking at the door.

The time allowed had expired.

Hermon again warmly embraced Daphne, saying: "Then go! Nothing can cloud
what these brief moments have bestowed. I must remain blind; but you
have restored the lost sight to my poor darkened soul. To-morrow I shall
stand in the palaestra before my comrades, and explain to them what a
malicious accident deceived me, and with me this whole great city. Many
will not believe me, and even your father will perhaps consider it a
disgrace to give his arm to his scorned, calumniated nephew to guide
him home. Bring this before your mind, and everything else that you must
accept with it, if you consent, when the time arrives, to become mine.
Conceal and palliate nothing! But should the Lady Thyone speak of the
Eumenides who pursued me, tell her that they had probably again extended
their arms toward me, but when I return to-morrow from the palaestra I
shall be freed from the terrible beings."

Lastly, he asked to be told quickly how she had happened to come to the
palace at the right time at so late an hour, and Daphne informed him
as briefly and modestly as if the hazardous venture which, in strong
opposition to her retiring, womanly nature, she had undertaken, was a
mere matter of course.

When Thyone in her presence heard from Gras that Hermon intended to go
to Proclus's banquet, she started up in horror, exclaiming, "Then the
unfortunate man is lost!"

Her husband, who had long trusted even the gravest secrets to his
discreet old wife, had informed her of the terrible office the King had
confided to him. All the male guests of Proclus were to be executed; the
women--the Queen at their head--would be sent into exile.

Then Daphne, on her knees, besought the matron to tell her what
threatened Hermon, and succeeded in persuading her to speak.

The terrified girl, accompanied by Gras, went first to her lover's house
and, when she did not find him ther