person from whom he receives benefits which it is out of his power to
repay. That is wise, and before I will see my great love for Daphne
transformed to hate, I will again try the starving which, while I was a
sculptor at Rhodes, I learned tolerably well."

"But would not a great love," asked Thyone, "suffice to repay tenfold the
perishable gifts that can be bought with gold and silver?"

"No, and again no!" Hermon answered in an agitated tone. "Something else
would blend with the love I brought to the marriage, something that must
destroy all the compensation it might offer; for I see myself becoming a
resentful misanthrope if I am compelled to relinquish the pleasure of
creating and, condemned to dull inaction, can do nothing except allow
myself to be tended, drink, eat, and sleep. The gloomy mood of her
unfortunate husband would sadden Daphne's existence even more than my
own; for, Thyone, though I should strive with all my strength to bear
patiently, with her dear aid, the burden imposed upon me, and move on
through the darkness with joyous courage, like many another blind man,
I could not succeed."

"You are a man," the matron exclaimed indignantly, "and what thousands
have done before you--"

"There," he loudly protested, "I should surely fail; for, you dear
woman, who mean so kindly by me, my fate is worse than theirs. Do you
know what just forced from my lips the exclamation of pain which alarmed
you? I, the only child of the devout Erigone, for whose sake you are so
well disposed toward me, am doomed to misfortune as surely as the victim
dragged to the altar is certain of death. Of all the goddesses, there is
only one in whose power I believe, and to whom I just raised my hands in