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
The day had flown swiftly for Dada under the roof of Medius; there werecostumes and scenery in wonderful variety for her to look over; thechildren were bright and friendly, and she had enjoyed playing with them,for all her little tricks and rhymes, which Papias was familiar with bythis time, were to them new and delightful. It amused her, too, to seewhat the domestic difficulties were of which the singer had describedhimself as being a victim.
Medius was one of those men who buy everything that strikes them ascheap—for instance, that very morning, at Kibotus he had stood to watcha fish auction and had bought a whole tub-full of pickled fish for "amere trifle;" but when, presently, the cargo was delivered, his wife flewinto a great rage, which she vented first on the innocent lad who broughtthe fish, and then on the less innocent purchaser. They would not get tothe bottom of the barrel and eat the last herring, she asserted, tillthey were a century old. Medius, while he disputed so monstrous astatement, vehemently declared that such wholesome and nutritious food asthose fish was undoubtedly calculated to prolong the lives of the wholefamily to an exceptionally great age.
This discussion, which was not at all by way of a jest, amused Dadafar more than the tablets, cylinders and cones covered with numbersand cabalistic signs, to which Medius tried to direct her attention.She darted off in the midst of his eager explanations to show hisgrandchildren how a rabbit sniffs and moves his ears when he is offereda cabbage-leaf.
The report, which reached them in the afternoon, of the proceedings inthe square by the Prefect's house, disturbed Medius greatly, and he setoff at once for the scene of action.
He did not return till evening, and then he looked like an altered man.He must have witnessed something very terrible, for his face was as paleas death, and his usually confident and swaggering manner had given placeto a stricken and care-worn air. He walked up and down the room,groaning as he went; he flung himself on the divan and stared fixedly atthe ground; he wandered into the atrium and gazed cautiously out on thestreet. Dada's presence seemed suddenly to be the source of much anxietyto him, and the girl, painfully conscious of this, hastened to tell himthat she would prefer to return home at once to her uncle and aunt.
"You can please yourself," was all he said, with a shrug and a sigh.
"You may stay for aught I care. It is all the same now!"
So far his wife had left him to himself, for she was used to his violentand eccentric behavior whenever anything had crossed him; but now sheperemptorily desired to be informed what had happened to him and he atonce acceded. He had been unwilling to frighten them sooner than wasneedful, but they must learn it sooner or later: Cynegius had arrived tooverthrow the image of Serapis, and what must ensue they knew only toowell. "To-day," he cried, "we will live; but by to-morrow—a thousand toone-by to-morrow there will be an end of all our joys and the earth willswallow up the old home and us with it!"
His words fell on prepared ground; his wife and daughter were appalled,and as Medius went on to paint the imminent catastrophe in