stalwart son:--he gives it gladly and with confidence. Whithersoever she
may go she will always remain a Greek, and it comforts me to think that
in her new home she will bring honor to the Greek name and friends to our
nation, Child, I thank thee for those tears. I can command my own, but
fate has made me pay an immeasurable price for the power of doing so.
The gods have heard your oath, my noble Bartja. Never forget it, but
take her as your own, your friend, your wife. Take her away as soon as
your friends return; it is not the will of the gods that the Hymenaeus
should be sung at Sappho's nuptial rites."

As she said these words she laid Sappho's hand in Bartja's, embraced her
with passionate tenderness, and breathed a light kiss on the forehead of
the young Persian. Then turning to her Greek friends, who stood by, much
affected:

"That was a quiet nuptial ceremony," she said; "no songs, no torch-light!
May their union be so much the happier. Melitta, bring the bride's
marriage-ornaments, the bracelets and necklaces which lie in the bronze
casket on my dressing-table, that our darling may give her hand to her
lord attired as beseems a future princess."

"Yes, and do not linger on the way," cried Kallias, whose old
cheerfulness had now returned. "Neither can we allow the niece of the
greatest of Hymen's poets to be married without the sound of song and
music. The young husband's house is, to be sure, too far off for our
purpose, so we will suppose that the andronitis is his dwelling.

[The Hymenaeus was the wedding-song, so called because of its
refrain "Hymen O! Hymenae' O!" The god of marriage, Hymen, took
his origin and name from the hymn, was afterwards decked out richly