precious gift on our mother-country and
her colonies! would the tribes of our native land but forget their
Dorian, Ionian or AEolian descent, and, contenting themselves with the
one name of Hellenes, live as the children of one family, as the sheep
of one flock,--then indeed we should be strong against the whole world,
and Hellas would be recognized by all nations as the Queen of the
Earth!"

[This longing desire for unity was by no means foreign to the
Greeks, though we seldom hear it expressed. Aristotle, for example,
says VII. 7.: "Were the Hellenes united into one state, they could
command all the barbarous nations."]

A fire glowed in the eyes of the grey-haired woman as she uttered these
words; and the Spartan, grasping her hand impetuously and stamping on
the floor with his wooden leg, cried: "By Zeus, I will not let a hair
of their heads be hurt; but thou, Rhodopis, thou art worthy to have been
born a Spartan woman."

"Or an Athenian," cried Phanes.

"An Ionian," said the Milesians, and the sculptor: "A daughter of the
Samian Geomori--"

"But I am more, far more, than all these," cried the enthusiastic woman.
"I am a Hellene!"

The whole company, even to the Jew and the Syrian, were carried away by
the intense feeling of the moment; the Sybarite alone remained
unmoved, and, with his mouth so full as to render the words almost
unintelligible, said:

"You deserve to be a Sybarite too, Rhodopis, for your roast beef is the
best I have tasted since I left Italy, and your Anthylla wine' relishes
almost as well as Vesuvian or Chian!"

Every one laughed, except the Spartan, who darted a look of indignation
and contempt at the epicure.

In this moment a deep voice, hitherto unknown to us, shouted suddenly
through the window, "A glad greeting to you, my friends!"

"A glad greeting," echoed the chorus of revellers, questioning and
guessing who this late arrival might prove to be.

They had not long to wait, for even before the Sybarite had had time
carefully to test and swallow another mouthful of wine, the speaker,
Kallias, the son of Phaenippus of Athens, was already standing by the
side of Rhodopis. He was a tall thin man of over sixty, with a head of
that oval form which gives the impression of refinement and intellect.
One of the richest among the Athenian exiles, he had twice bought the
possessions of Pisistratus from the state, and twice been obliged to
surrender them, on the tyrant's retu