He threw
it down, next stood staring over it like a man possessed. The friendly
eunuchs watched his strange movements. He could not endure to have them
follow him.

"Give me a torch. I return in a moment."

He went up the stair alone to the upper story, to the chambers of the
women. Confusion here also,--the more valuable possessions gone, but much
remaining. In one corner stood the loom and stretched upon it the
half-made web of a shawl. He could trace the pattern clearly wrought in
bright wools,--Ariadne sitting desolate awaiting the returning of Theseus.
Would the wife or the betrothed of Democrates busy herself with _that_,
whatever the griefs in her heart? Glaucon's temples now were throbbing as
if to burst.

A second room, and more littered confusion, but in one corner stood a
bronze statue,--Apollo bending his bow against the Achaeans,--which Glaucon
had given to Hermione. At the foot of the statue hung a wreath of purple
asters, dead and dry, but he plucked it asunder and set many blossoms in
his breast.

A third room, and almost empty. He was moving back in disappointment, when
the torch-light shook over something that swung betwixt two beams,--a
wicker cradle. The woollen swaddling bands were still in it. One could see
the spot on the little pillow with the impress of the tiny head. Glaucon
almost dropped the torch. He pressed his hand to his brow.

"Zeus pity me!" he groaned, "preserve my reason. How can I serve Hellas
and those I love if thou strikest me mad?"

With feverish anxiety he sent his eyes around that chamber. His search was
not in vain. He almost trampled upon the thing that lay at his feet,--a
wooden rattle, the toy older than the Egyptian pyramids. He seized it,
shook it as a warrior his sword. He scanned it eagerly. Upon the handle
were letters carved, but there was a mist before his eyes which took long
to pass away. Then he read the rude inscription: "{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER XI~} : {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA~} :
{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK CAP