The news which afforded Malchus such delight was not viewed with the same unmixed satisfaction by the members of his family.  Thyra had for the last year been betrothed to Adherbal, and he, too, was to accompany Hamilcar to Spain, and none could say how long it might be before they would return.

While the others were sitting round the festive board, Adherbal and Thyra strolled away among the groves in the garden.

“I do not think you care for me, Adherbal,” she said reproachfully as he was speaking of the probabilities of the campaign.  “You know well that this war may continue in Spain for years, and you seem perfectly indifferent to the fact that we must be separated for that time.”

“I should not be indifferent to it, Thyra, if I thought for a moment that this was to be the case.  I may remain, it is true, for years in Spain; but I have not the most remote idea of remaining there alone.  At the end of the first campaign, when our army goes into winter quarters, I shall return here and fetch you.”

“That’s all very well,” the girl said, pouting; “but how do you know that I shall be willing to give up all the delights of Carthage to go among the savage Iberians, where they say the ground is all white in winter and even the rivers stop in their courses?”

Adherbal laughed lightly.  “Then it is not for you to talk about indifference, Thyra; but it won’t be so bad as you fear.  At Carthagena you will have all the luxuries of Carthage.  I do not say that your villa shall be equal to this; but as you will have me it should be a thousand times dearer to you.”

“Your conceit is superb, Adherbal,” Thyra laughed.  “You get worse and worse.  Had I ever dreamed of it I should never have consented so submissively when my father ordered me to regard you as my future husband.”

“You ought to think yourself a fortunate girl, Thyra,” Adherbal said, smiling; “for your father might have taken it into his head to have done as Hamilcar Barca did, and married his daughters to Massilian and Numidian princes, to become queens of bands of nomad savages.”

“Well, they were queens, that was something, even if only of nomads.”

“I don’t think that it would have suited you, Thyra —­ a seat on horseback for a throne, and a rough tent for a palace, would not be in your way at all.  I think a snug villa on the slopes of the bay of Carthagena, will suit you better, not to mention the fact that I shall make an infinitely more pleasant and agreeable master than a Numidian chief would do.”

“You are intolerable, Adherbal, with your conceit and your mastership.  However, I suppose when the time comes I shall have to obey my father.  What a pity it is we girls cannot choose our husbands for ourselves!  Perhaps the time may come when we shall do so.”

“Well, in your case, Thyra,” Adherbal said, “it would make no difference, because you know you would have chosen me anyhow; but most girls would make a nice business of it.  How are they to know what men really are?  They might be gamesters, drunkards, brutal and cruel by nature, idle and spendthrift.  What can maidens know of a man’s disposition?  Of course they only see him at his best.  Wise parents can make careful inquiries, and have means of knowing what a man’s disposition and habits really are.”