This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
By Georg Ebers
Agne's flight remained unperceived for some little time, for every memberof the merchant's household was at the moment intent on some personalinterest. When Karnis and Orpheus had set out Gorgo was left with hergrandmother and it was not till some little time after that she went outinto the colonade on the garden side of the house, whence she had a viewover the park and the shore as far as the ship-yard. There, leaningagainst the shaft of a pillar, under the shade of the blossoming shrubs,she stood gazing thoughtfully to the southward.
She was dreaming of the past, of her childhood's joys and privations.Fate had bereft her of a mother's love, that sun of life's spring. Belowher, in a splendid mausoleum of purple porphyry, lay the mortal remainsof the beautiful woman who had given her birth, and who had been snatchedaway before she could give her infant a first caress. But all round thesolemn monument gardens bloomed in the sunshine, and on the further sideof the wall covered with creepers, was the ship-yard, the scene ofnumberless delightful games. She sighed as she looked at the tall hulks,and watched for the man who, from her earliest girlhood, had owned herheart, whose image was inseparable from every thing of joy and beautythat she had ever known, and every grief her young soul had sufferedunder.
Constantine, the younger son of Clemens the shipbuilder, had been herbrothers' companion and closest friend. He had proved himself theirsuperior in talents and gifts, and in all their games had been therecognized leader. While still a tiny thing she would always be at theirheels, and Constantine had never failed to be patient with her, or tohelp and protect her, and then came a time when the lads were all eagerto win her sympathy for their games and undertakings. When hergrandmother read in the stars that some evil influences were to crossthe path of Gorgo's planet, the girl was carefully kept in the house;at other times she was free to go with the boys in the garden, on thelake or to the ship-yard. There the happy playmates built houses orboats; there, in a separate room, old Melampus modelled figure-heads forthe finished vessels, and he would supply them with clay and let themmodel too. Constantine was an apt pupil, and Gorgo would sit quiet whilehe took her likeness, till, out of twenty images that he had made of her,several were really very like. Melampus declared that his young mastermight be a very distinguished sculptor if only he were the son of poorparents, and Gorgo's father appreciated his talent and was pleased whenthe boy attempted to copy the beautiful busts and statues of which thehouse was full; but to his parents, and especially his mother, hisartistic proclivities were an offence. He himself, indeed, neverseriously thought of devoting himself to such a heathenish occupation,for he was deeply penetrated by the Christian sentiments of his family,and he had even succeeded in inflaming the sons of Porphyrius, who hadbeen baptized at an early age, with zeal for their faith. The merchantperceived this and submitted in silence, for the boys must be and remainChristians in consequence of the edict referring to wills; but thenecessity for confessing a creed which was hateful to him was so painfuland repulsive to a nature which, though naturally magnanimous was n