Then he went on: "So be it! Who sees a god, they say, must die.

And it is well, for he has known something more glorious than other men.

Our brother Philip, too, lives with his heart in bonds to that one alone, unless a demon has cheated his senses.

I am troubled about him, and you must help me." He sprang up, pacing the room again with long strides, but his sister clung to his arm and besought him to shake off the bewitching vision.
How earnest was her prayer, what eager tenderness rang in her every word, as she entreated him to tell her when and where her elder brother, too, had met the daughter of Seleukus! The artist's soft heart was easily moved.

Stroking the hair of the loving creature at his side--so helpful as a rule, but now bewildered--he tried to calm her by affecting a lighter mood than he really felt, assuring her that he should soon recover his usual good spirits.