“Then you think that he began to study too late?” asked Daphne eagerly.

“Not too late,” was the reply, “but with his passionate struggle to advance, an earlier commencement would have been more favourable.  While the companions of his own age were already doing independent work, he was still a student, and so it happened that he began for himself too soon.”

“Yet,” Daphne answered, “can you deny that, directly after Hermon produced his first work which made his talent undeniable, my father again treated him like his own son?”

“On the contrary,” replied Myrtilus, “I remember only too well how Archias at that time, probably not entirely without your intercession, fairly showered gold upon his nephew, but unfortunately this abundance was by no means to his advantage.”

“What do you mean?” asked Daphne.  “Were not you, at that very time, in full possession of the great wealth inherited from your father and mother, and yet did you not work far beyond your strength?  Bryaxis—­I heard him—­was full of your praises, and yet entreated my father to use all his influence, as guardian, to warn you against overwork.”

“My kind master!” cried Myrtilus, deeply moved.  “He was as anxious about me as a father.”

“Because he perceived that you were destined for great achievements.”

“And because it did not escape his penetration how much I needed care.  My lungs, Daphne, my lungs—­surely you know how the malicious disease became fatal to my clear mother, and to my brother and sister also.  All three sank prematurely into the grave, and for years the shades of my parents have been beckoning to me too.  When the cough shakes my chest, I see Charon raise his oar and invite me also to enter his sable boat.”

“But you just assured me that you were doing well,” observed the girl.  “The cough alone makes me a little anxious.  If you could only see for yourself what a beautiful colour the pure air has given your cheeks!”

“This flush,” replied Myrtilus gravely, “is the sunset of life’s closing day, not the dawn of approaching convalescence.  But let us drop the subject.  I allude to these sorrowful things only to prevent your praises of me at Hermon’s expense.  True, even while a student I possessed wealth far beyond my needs, but the early deaths of my brother and sister had taught me even then to be economical of the brief span of life allotted to me.  Hermon, on the contrary, was overflowing with manly vigour, and the strongest among the Ephebi in the wrestling school.  After three nights’ revel he would not even feel weary, and how difficult the women made it for the handsome, black-bearded fellow to commence his work early!  Did you ever ask yourself why young steeds are not broken in flowery meadows, but upon sand?  Nothing which attracts their attention and awakens their desires must surround them; but your father’s gold led Hermon, ere the season of apprenticeship was over, into the most luxuriant clover fields.  Honour and respect the handsome, hot-blooded youth that, nevertheless, he allowed himself to be diverted from work only a short time and soon resumed it with ardent zeal, at first in superabundance, and then amid fresh need and privation.”