A short conversation with the steward confirmed this opinion.

Then Erasistratus appointed the next morning for the operation.  During the ceremony of consecrating the temple it would be quiet in the house and its vicinity.  The preliminary fasting which he imposed upon his patients Hermon had already undergone.

“The pure desert air here,” he added, “will be of the utmost assistance in recovery.  The operation is slight, and free from danger.  A few days will determine its success.  I shall remain here with their Majesties, only—­” and here he hesitated doubtfully—­” where shall I find a competent assistant?”

Herophilus looked his colleague in the face with a sly smile, saying, “If you credit the old man of Chalcedon with the needful skill, he is at your disposal.”

“Herophilus!” cried Thyone, and tears of emotion wet her aged eyes, which easily overflowed; but when Hermon tried to give expression to his fervent gratitude in words, Erasistratus interrupted him, exclaiming, as he grasped his comrade’s hand, “It honours the general in his purple robe, when he uses the spade in the work of intrenchment.”

Many other matters were discussed before the professional friends withdrew, promising to go to work early the next morning.

They kept their word, and while the temple of the god Turn resounded with music and the chanting of hymns by the priests, whose dying notes entered the windows of the sick-room, while Queen Arsinoe-Philadelphus led the procession, and the King, who was prevented by the gout from entering and passing around the sanctuary at her side, ordered a monument to be erected in commemoration of this festival, the famous leeches toiled busily.

When the music and the acclamations of the crowd died away, their task was accomplished.  The great Herophilus had rendered his equally distinguished colleague the aid of an apprentice.  When Hermon’s lips again tried to pour forth his gratitude, Herophilus interrupted him with the exclamation:  “Use the sight you have regained, young master, in creating superb works of art, and I shall be in your debt, since, with little trouble, I was permitted to render a service to the whole Grecian world.”

Hermon spent seven long days and nights full of anxious expectation in a darkened room.  Bias and a careful old female slave of the Lady Thyone watched him faithfully.  Philippus, his wife, and his famous son Eumedes were allowed to pay him only brief visits; but Erasistratus watched the success of the operation every morning.  True, it had been by no means dangerous, and certainly would not have required his frequent visits, but it pleased the investigator, reared in the school of Stoics, to watch how this warm-blooded young artist voluntarily submitted to live in accord with reason and Nature—­the guiding stars of his own existence.

But Hermon opened his soul to his learned friend, and what Erasistratus thus learned strengthened the conviction of this great alleviator of physical pain that suffering and knowledge of self were the best physicians for the human soul.  The scientist, who saw in the arts the noblest ornament of mortal life, anticipated with eager interest Hermon’s future creative work.