lave Bias summoned him.

CHAPTER VI.

As soon as Hermon had disappeared behind the door Daphne begged Myrtilus
to accompany her into the tent.

After taking their seats there, the anxious exclamation escaped her
lips: "How excited he became again! The stay in Tennis does not seem to
agree with you--you are coughing, and father expected so much benefit to
your ailment from the pure moist air, and to Hermon still more from
the lonely life here in your society. But I have rarely seen him more
strongly enlisted in behalf of the tendency opposed to beauty."

"Then your father must be satisfied with the good effect which our
residence here has exerted upon me," replied Myrtilus. "I know that
he was thinking of my illness when he proposed to us to complete his
commissions here. Hermon--the good fellow!--could never have been
induced to leave his Alexandria, had not the hope of thereby doing me a
kindness induced him to follow me. I will add it to the many for which
I am already indebted to his friendship. As for art, he will go his
own way, and any opposition would be futile. A goddess--he perceives it
himself--was certainly the most unfortunate subject possible for his--"

"Is his Demeter a complete failure?" asked Daphne anxiously.

"Certainly not," replied Myrtilus eagerly.

"The head is even one of his very best. Only the figure awakens grave
doubts. In the effort to be faithful to reality, the fear of making
concessions to beauty, he lapsed into ungraceful angularity and a
sturdiness which, in my opinion, would be unpleasing even in a mortal
woman. The excess of unbridled power again makes it self visible in the
wonderfully gifted man. Many things reached him too late, and others too
soon."

Daphne eagerly asked what he meant by these words, and Myrtilus replied:
"Surely you know how he became a sculptor. Your father had intended him
to be his successor in business, but Hermon felt the vocation to become
an artist--probably first in my studio--awake with intense force. While
I early placed myself under the instruction of the great Bryaxis, he was
being trained for a merchant's life. When he was to guide the reed in
the counting-house, he sketched; when he was sent to the harbour to
direct the loading of the ships, he became absorbed in gazing at the
statues placed there. In the warehouse he secretly modelled, instead
of attending to the bales of goods. You are certainly aware what a
sad breach occurred then