more cruelly than ever, he devoted himself to me like a
loving brother. While formerly, in the overflowing joy of existence, he
had revelled all day and caroused all night, how often he paused in the
rush of gaiety to exchange the festal hall for a place beside my couch,
frequently remaining there until Eos dyed the east, that he might
hold my fevered hand and support my shaken frame! Frequently too, when
already garlanded for some gay banquet, he took the flowers from his
head and devoted the night to his friend, that he might not leave him to
the attendance of the slaves. It is owing to him, and the care and skill
of the great leech Erasistratus, that I am still standing before you
alive and can praise what my Hermon was and proved himself to me in
those days. Yet I must also accuse him of a wrong; to this hour I bear
him a grudge for having, in those sorrowful hours, refused to share my
property with me fraternally. What manly pride would have cheerfully
permitted him to accept was opposed by the defiant desire to show me,
your father, you, the whole world, that he would depend upon himself,
and needed assistance neither from human beings nor even the gods. In
the same way, while working, he obstinately rejected my counsel and
my help, though the Muse grants me some things which he unfortunately
lacks. Great as his talent is, firmly as I believe that he will yet
succeed some day in creating something grand, nay, perhaps something
mighty, the unbelieving disciple of Straton lacks the power of
comprehending the august dignity, the superhuman majesty of the divine
nature, and he does not succeed in representing the bewitching charm
of woman, because he hates it as the bull hates a red rag. Only once
hitherto has he been successful, and that was with your bust."

Daphne's cheeks suddenly flamed with a burning flush, and feeling it
she raised her feather fan to her eyes, and with forced indifference
murmured: "We were good friends from our earliest childhood. And,
besides, how small is the charm with which the artist who chooses me for
a model has to deal!"

"It is rather an unusually fascinating one," Myrtilus asserted
resolutely. "I have no idea of flattering you, and you are certainly
aware that I do not number you among the beauties of Alexandria. But
instead of the delicate, symmetrical features which artists need, the
gods bestowed upon you a face which wins all hearts, even those of
women, because it is a mirror