"There's no woman so perfect that her husband does not, at least once a
day, repent that he ever took a wife. Be merry, old friend, and remember
that it's all your own fault. If you thought a wife would make you
happy, why did not you do as I have done? I am only twenty-two years old
and have five stately wives and a troop of the most beautiful slaves in
my house."

Araspes smiled bitterly.

"And what hinders you from marrying now?" said Gyges. "You are a
match for many a younger man in appearance, strength, courage and
perseverance. You are one of the king's nearest relations too--I tell
you, Araspes, you might have twenty young and beautiful wives."

"Look after your own affairs," answered Araspes. "In your place, I
certainly should not have waited to marry till I was thirty."

"An oracle has forbidden my marrying."

"Folly? how can a sensible man care for what an oracle says? It is
only by dreams, that the gods announce the future to men. I should have
thought that your own father was example enough of the shameful way in
which those lying priests deceive their best friends."

"That is a matter which you do not understand, Araspes."

"And never wish to, boy, for you only believe in oracles because you
don't understand them, and in your short-sightedness call everything
that is beyond your comprehension a miracle. And you place more
confidence in anything that seems to you miraculous, than in the plain
simple truth that lies before your face. An oracle deceived your father
and plunged him into ruin, but the oracle is miraculous, and so you too,
in perfect confidence, allow it to rob you of happiness!"

"That is blasphemy, Araspes. Are the gods to be blamed because we
misunderstand their words?"

"Certainly: for if they wished to benefit us they would give us, with
the words, the necessary penetration for discovering their meaning. What
good does a beautiful speech do me, if it is in a foreign language that
I do not understand?"

"Leave off this useless discussion," said Darius, "and tell us instead,
Araspes, how it is that, though you congratulate every man on becoming
a bridegroom, you yourself have so long submitted to be blamed by the
priests, slighted at all entertainments and festivals, and abused by the
women, only because you choose to live and die a bachelor?"

Araspes looked down thoughtfully, then shook himself, took a long
draught from the wine-cup, and said, "I have my reasons, friends, but I