: "It
is better to choke than to swallow down the thing you think right, and
it never hurt a man yet to make a clean breast of his feelings, even if
we do not quite agree we understand each other the better for it. I have
my way of thinking, you have yours; thus we each know what the other
means; but after the tragedy comes the satyr play, and we may as well
finish this agitating evening with an hour's friendly chat."

So saying Demetrius stretched himself on a divan and invited Marcus
to do the same, and in a few minutes their conversation had turned,
as usual, to the subject of horses. Marcus was full of praises of the
stallions his brother had bred for him, and which he had ridden that
very day round the Myssa--[The Myssa was the Meta, or turning-post]--in
the Hippodrome, and his brother added with no small complacency:

"They were all bred from the same sire and from the choicest mares. I
broke them in myself, and I only wish.... But why did you not come to
the stables this morning?"

"I could not," replied Marcus coloring slightly. Then we will go
to-morrow to Nicopolis and I will show you how to get Megaera past the
Taraxippios."--[The terror of the horses.]

"To-morrow?" said Marcus somewhat embarrassed. "In the morning I must go
to see Eusebius and then...."

"Well, then?"

"Then I must--I mean I should like...."

"What?"

"Well, to be sure I might, all the same.--But no, it is not to be
done--I have...."

"What, what?" cried Demetrius with increasing impatience: "My time is
limited and if you start the horses without knowing my way of managing
them they will certainly not do their best. As soon as the market begins
to fill we will set out. We shall need a few hours for the Hippodrome,
then we will dine with Damon, and before dark...."

"No, no," replied Marcus, "to-morrow, certainly, I positively
cannot...."

"People who have nothing to do always lack time," replied the other. "Is
to-morrow one of your festivals?"

"No, not that=-and Good Heavens! If only I could...."

"Could, could!" cried Demetrius angrily and standing close in front of
his brother with his arms folded. "Say out honestly: 'I will not go,' or
else, 'my affairs are my own secret and I mean to keep it.'--But give me
no more of your silly equivocations."

His vehemence increased the younger man's embarrassment, and as he stood
trying to find an explanation which might come somewhat near the truth
and yet not betray him, Demetri