“See what it is to spoil children,” said Pog, with a disdainful smile, as he released the hand of Erebus.
“And to allow them to play with knives,” replied Trimalcyon, picking up the knife that Erebus had let fall in the struggle.
A look from Pog warned him that he must not push the young man too far.
“Do you wish to kill the one who has brought you up, dear child?” said Pog, sarcastically. “Come, you have your dagger in your belt, strike.”
Erebus looked at him with a surly air, and said, with an angry sneer:
“It is in the name of gratitude, then, that you ask me to spare your life? Then why have you preached to me the forgetfulness of benefits and the remembrance of injuries?”
Notwithstanding his impudence, Trimalcyon looked at Pog in amazement, not knowing how his companion would reply to that question.
Pog gave Erebus a look of withering contempt, as he said to him:
“I wished to test you, when I spoke of gratitude. Yes, the truly brave man forgets all benefits, and only remembers injuries. I offered you the most outrageous insult, I told you that you did not have the courage to avenge the death of your parents. You ought to have struck me at once,—but you are a coward.”