"Hermon!" the matron now exclaimed reproachfully; but he repeated with
strong emphasis: "Yes, it would be baseness so great that even her most
ardent love could not save me from the reproach of having committed it.
I will not speak of her father, to whom I am so greatly indebted. It may
be that it might satisfy Daphne, full of kindness as she is, to devote
herself, body and soul, to the service of her helpless companion. But I?
Far from thinking constantly, like her, solely of others and their
welfare, I should only too often, selfish as I now am, be mindful of
myself. But when I realize who I am, I see before me a blind man who is
poorer than a beggar, because the scorching flames melted even the gold
which was to help him pay his debts."

"Folly!" cried the matron. "For what did Archias gather his boundless
treasures? And when his daughter is once yours--"

"Then," Hermon went on bitterly, "the blinded artist's poverty will be
over. That is your opinion, and the majority of people will share it.
But I have my peculiarities, and the thought of being rescued from hunger
and thirst by the woman I love, and who ought to see in me the man from
whom she receives the best gifts--to be dependent on her as the recipient
of her alms--seems to me worse than if I were once more to lose my sight.
I could not endure it at all! Every mouthful would choke me. Just
because she is so dear to me, I can not seek her hand; for, in return for
her great self-sacrificing love, I could give her nothing save the keen
discontent which seizes the proud soul that is forced constantly to
accept benefits, as surely as the ringing sound follows the blow upon
the brass. My whole future life would become a chain of humiliations,
and do you know whither this unfortunate marriage would lead? My teacher
Straton once said that a man learns to hate no one more easily than the