“Do you now?”
She looked, her eyes so deep with gratitude that he caught his breath.
“It will never be beyond you, Eëtíon. My whole life goes to you and there rests.”
“And you gave me my freedom. It’s there that my love rests.”
“But that was so easy to do. Who would not have done it?”
“Nobody but you, Theria. And with what quickness you did it, so spontaneously, so effectively—just you, you! Darling, I would live my life on a frozen coast if that were the only way to give you, too, the gift of freedom.”
“But you must be happy,” she insisted. “Can’t you see I cannot be glad unless——”
“Yes, yes, I am happy,” he interrupted her. “Theria, have you ever thought how humiliating it is to be a metic? In Argos I belonged to an honoured clan. Here in Delphi I am a metic, an alien, nor can I ever be otherwise. In the new city I will be a citizen—the first citizen of all.”
“Eëtíon!” she exclaimed.