"What do you mean?" asked Daphne. "Were not you, at that very time,
in full possession of the great wealth inherited from your father and
mother, and yet did you not work far beyond your strength? Bryaxis--I
heard him--was full of your praises, and yet entreated my father to use
all his influence, as guardian, to warn you against overwork."

"My kind master!" cried Myrtilus, deeply moved. "He was as anxious
about me as a father."

"Because he perceived that you were destined for great achievements."

"And because it did not escape his penetration how much I needed care.
My lungs, Daphne, my lungs--surely you know how the malicious disease
became fatal to my clear mother, and to my brother and sister also. All
three sank prematurely into the grave, and for years the shades of my
parents have been beckoning to me too. When the cough shakes my chest,
I see Charon raise his oar and invite me also to enter his sable boat."

"But you just assured me that you were doing well," observed the girl.
"The cough alone makes me a little anxious. If you could only see for
yourself what a beautiful colour the pure air has given your cheeks!"

"This flush," replied Myrtilus gravely, "is the sunset of life's closing
day, not the dawn of approaching convalescence. But let us drop the
subject. I allude to these sorrowful things only to prevent your praises
of me at Hermon's expense. True, even while a student I possessed wealth
far beyond my needs, but the early deaths of my brother and sister had
taught me even then to be economical of the brief span of life allotted
to me. Hermon, on the contrary, was overflowing with manly vigour, and
the strongest among the Ephebi in the wrestling school. After three