“I have always loved you, curly-head, and Xanthe wants you for her husband.  Then I, too, should have a son!—­Hear, lofty Olympians, a good, strong, noble son!  Help me up, my boy.  How well I feel!  Haven’t I gained in you two stout legs and arms?  Only let the old woman come to me to-day!  The conjurer taught me how to meet her.”

Leaning on Phaon’s strong shoulder he joyously went out of the house, greeted his handsome young nephew as well as his brother, and said: 

“Let Phaon live with Xanthe in my house, which will soon be his own, for I am feeble and need help.”

“With all my heart,” cried Protarch, “and it will be well on every account, for, for—­well, it must come out, for I, foolish graybeard—­”

“Well?” asked Lysander, and Semestre curved her hand into a shell and held it to her ear to hear better.

“I—­just look at me—­I, Protarch, Dionysius’s son, can no longer bear to stay in the house all alone with that silent youth and old Jason, and so I have—­perhaps it is a folly, but certainly no crime—­so I have chosen a new wife in Messina.”

“Protarch!” cried Lysander, raising his hands in astonishment; but Phaon nodded to his father approvingly, exchanging a joyous glance with Xanthe.

“He has chosen my mother’s younger sister,” said Leonax.

“The younger, yes, but not the youngest,” interrupted Protarch.  “You must have your wedding in three days, children.  Phaon will live here in your house, Lysander, with his Xanthe, end I in the old one yonder with my Praxilla.  Directly after your marriage I shall go back to Messina with Leonax and bring home my wife.”

“We have long needed a mistress in the house, and I bless your bold resolution!” exclaimed Jason.

“Yes, you were always brave,” said the invalid.

“But not so very courageous this time as it might seem,” answered Protarch, smiling.  “Praxilla is an estimable widow, and it was for her I purchased in Messina the matron’s robes for which you asked, Semestre.”

“For her?” murmured the old woman.  “There is a blue one among them too, which will be becoming, for she has light brown hair very slightly mixed with gray.  But she is cheerful, active, and clever, and will aid Phaon and Xanthe in their young house-keeping with many a piece of good advice.”

“I shall go to my daughter in Agrigentum,” said Semestre, positively.

“Go,” replied Lysander, kindly, “and enjoy yourself in your old age on the money you have saved.”

“Which my father,” added Leonax, “will increase by the sum of a thousand drachmae.

“My Alciphron has a heart!” cried the house-keeper.

“You shall receive from me, on the day of your departure, the same sum and a matron’s blue robe,” said Lysander.

Shortly after the marriage of Xanthe and Phaon, Semestre went to live with her daughter.

The dike by the sea was splendidly repaired without any dispute, for the estate once more belonged to the two brothers in common, and Xanthe found in Praxilla a new, kind mother.