[Homo Sum Complete by Georg Ebers]@TWC D-Link bookHomo Sum Complete CHAPTER IX 18/19
You will probably need them at any rate to pay your passage.
Now be off, and get to Raithu in good time." Hermas hurried up the mountain, his head full of the important task that had been laid upon him; dazzling visions of the great deeds he was to accomplish eclipsed the image of the fair Sirona, and he was so accustomed to believe in the superior insight and kindness of Paulus that he feared no longer for Sirona now that his friend had made her affair his own. The Alexandrian looked after him, and breathed a short prayer for him; then he went down again into the valley. It was long past midnight, and the moon was sinking; it grew cooler and cooler, and since he had given his sheepskin to Hermas he had nothing on, but his thread-bare coat.
Nevertheless he went slowly onwards, stopping every now and then, moving his arms, and speaking incoherent words in a low tone to himself. He thought of Hermas and Sirona, of his own youth, and of how in Alexandria he himself had tapped at the shutters of the dark-haired Aso, and the fair Simaitha. "A child--a mere boy," he murmured.
"Who would have thought it? The Gaulish woman no doubt may be handsome, and as for him, it is a fact, that as he threw the discus I was myself surprised at his noble figure. And his eyes--aye, he has Magdalen's eyes! If the Gaul had found him with his wife, and had run his sword through his heart, he would have gone unpunished by the earthly judge--however, his father is spared this sorrow.
In this desert the old man thought that his darling could not be touched by the world and its pleasures.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|