“But you got home again. How ever did you manage that?” she questioned.
“For long I was a galley slave. But one day, when the ship stopped at Corinth, I won the captain’s attention and told him of my skill in making gods of stone. Then he sold me to an image maker, and the image maker again to the owner of the pottery here. Oh, those days at the pottery! Those endless days! The dirt, the sweat, the low talk, the beatings if work was not swift enough. For I was not a swift worker. I had to make even those poor slight drawings as beautiful as I could. My only life was in them. I would dream over them. Then the overseer would beat me. But those days are over. Think of it, lady. Can you think how happy I am being away from that?”
“Great Hermes, yes! And then you went up the Precinct with my jewels?”
“Yes, blessed one. The next morning after you gave me them the good god freed me. I came down out of the Precinct gate knowing that I was free. I went straight to Argos. I think I sang all the way. Argos is my home.”
His face saddened unexpectedly. “Dear lady, I had been long away. I found that my father was dead and also my lady-mother, for grief at losing me—and—and I found something worse than that—even than that. Great Hera!” he lowered his voice. “Argos had Medized. My father’s dearest friend confessed it to me. The Argives say they are bargaining for the headship of the All-Greek army. They are really doing nothing of the kind. They have Medized. They have made a real compact with Persia—nothing less! Lady, I had lived so long in dread of Persian slavery and there at home to meet it again! But I will not meet it,” he cried with sudden energy. “I will not! So I have come back here to Delphi. But I loved Argos so dearly!”
“Of course you did. Your home! Dreadful! Argos Medized!” Theria hardly know that she spoke.
“I’ll fight the Persians here. Here in Delphi. You will surely need every man you can get. I shall become a Delphian. I have a little fortune, lady,” he added, very businesslike. “My father’s good friend saved it for me. I can buy citizenship in Delphi.”
Then suddenly the moral of the tale was out.
“And, lady, with my fortune and my citizenship, I shall ask your father for your hand in marriage. But not against your will. I will not enslave you who have made me free. Oh, dearest lady, love me, love me, love me!” he hurried on. “Cannot you see what the Cyprian has done to me toward you?”