Necessity, he thought, would bring him back to where he had a life free from anxiety awaiting him.

But the result was different.

Far be it from me to blame the admirable Archias, yet had he permitted his ward to follow his true vocation earlier, it would have been better for him." "Then you think that he began to study too late ?" asked Daphne eagerly.
"Not too late," was the reply, "but with his passionate struggle to advance, an earlier commencement would have been more favourable.

While the companions of his own age were already doing independent work, he was still a student, and so it happened that he began for himself too soon." "Yet," Daphne answered, "can you deny that, directly after Hermon produced his first work which made his talent undeniable, my father again treated him like his own son ?" "On the contrary," replied Myrtilus, "I remember only too well how Archias at that time, probably not entirely without your intercession, fairly showered gold upon his nephew, but unfortunately this abundance was by no means to his advantage." "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.