“Oh, not in that way,” pleaded the wounded girl; and Thyone exclaimed:  “What is the story of the man you mention?  We don’t talk about Aristotle and such subjects in Pelusium.”

“Perhaps they are only too much discussed in Alexandria,” said the blind artist.  “The Stagirite, as you have just heard, seeks to prove the existence of the gods by the man of whom I spoke.”

“No, he does prove it,” protested Daphne.  “Just listen, Mother Thyone.  A little boy grows up from earliest childhood into a youth in a dark cave.  Then suddenly its doors are opened to him.  For the first time he sees the sun, moon, and stars, flowers and trees, perhaps even a beautiful human face.  But at the moment when all these things rush upon him like so many incomprehensible marvels, must he not ask himself who created all this magnificence?  And the answer which comes to him—­”

“There is only one,” cried the matron; “the omnipotent gods.  Do you shrug your shoulders at that, son of the pious Erigone?  Why, of course!  The child who still feels the blows probably rebels against his earthly father.  But if I see aright, the resentment will not last when you, like the man, go out of the cave and your darkness also passes away.  Then the power from which you turned defiantly will force itself upon you, and you will raise your hands in grateful prayer to the rescuing divinity.  As to us women, we need not be drawn out of a cave to recognise it.  A mother who reared three stalwart sons—­I will say nothing of the daughters—­can not live without them.  Why are they so necessary to her?  Because we love our children twice as much as ourselves, and the danger which threatens them alarms the poor mother’s heart thrice as much as her own.  Then it needs the helping powers.  Even though they often refuse their aid, we may still be grateful for the expectation of relief.  I have poured forth many prayers for the three, I assure you, and after doing so with my whole soul, then, my son, no matter how wildly the storm had raged within my breast, calmness returned, and Hope again took her place at the helm.  In the school of the denier of the gods, you forgot the immortals above and depended on yourself alone.  Now you need a guide, or even two or three of them, in order to find the way.  If your mother were still alive, you would run back to her to hide your face in her lap.  But she is dead, and if I were as proud as you, before clasping the sustaining hand of another mortal I would first try whether one would not be voluntarily extended from among the Olympians.  If I were you, I would begin with Demeter, whom you honoured by so marvellous a work.”