during the ride through the coast and desert
regions was not less jovial and luxurious than on the ship.

It seemed to the blind man like one vast banquet in the dark, interrupted
only by sleep.

The hope of counsel from the gods cheered the depressed mood which had
weighed upon him for several weeks, and rich young Silanus praised the
lucky fate which had enabled him to find a travelling companion whose
intellect and wit charmed him and the others, and often detained them
over the wine until late into the night.

Here, too, Hermon felt himself the most distinguished person, the
animating and attracting power, until it was said that the voyage was
over, and the company pitched their tents in the famous oasis near the
Temple of Amon.

The musicians and dancers, with due regard to propriety, had been left
behind in the seaport of Paraetonium. Yet the young travellers were
sufficiently gay while Silanus and Hermon waited for admission to the
place of the oracle. A week after their arrival it was opened to them,
yet the words repeated to them by the priest satisfied neither Hermon nor
Archon's son, for the oracle advised the latter to bring his mother
herself to the oasis by the land road if she earnestly desired recovery,
while to Hermon was shouted the ambiguous saying:

"Only night and darkness spring from the rank marsh of pleasure;
Morning and day rise brightly from the starving sand."

Could Silanus's mother, who was unable to move, endure the desert
journey? And what was the meaning of the sand, from which morning and
day--which was probably the fresh enjoyment of the light--were to rise
for Hermon? The sentence of the oracle weighed heavily upon him, as well
as on Archon's son, who loved his mother, and the homeward journey became
to the blind man by no means a cheerful but rather a very troubled dream.

Thoughtful, very disturbed, dissatisfied with himself, and resolved to
turn his back upon the dreary life of pleasure which for so long a time
had allowed him no rest, and now disgusted him, he kept aloof from his
travelling companions, and rejoiced when, at Alexandria, he was led
ashore in the harbour of Eunostus.

CHAPTER VII.

Hermon entered his house with drooping head.

Here he was informed that the grammateus of the Dionysian artists had
already called twice to speak to him concerning an important matter. When
he came from the bath, Proclus visited him again. His errand was to
invite hi