A Question

A Question

The Project Gutenberg EBook A Question, by Georg Ebers #149 in our
series by Georg Ebers
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Title: A Question
Author: Georg Ebers
Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5588] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on August 17, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A
QUESTION, BY GEORG EBERS ***

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A QUESTION
By Georg Ebers
Translated from the German by Mary J. Safford
PRELUDE.
In the Art-Palace on green Isar's strand, Before one picture long I kept
my seat, It held me spellbound by some magic band, Nor when my
home I sought, could I forget.
A year elapsed, came winter's frost and snow, 'Twas rarely now we saw
the bright sun shine, I plucked up courage and cried: "Be it so!" Then
southward wandered with those I call mine.
Like birds of passage built we there a nest On a palm-shaded shore, all
steeped in light, Life was a holiday, enjoyed with zest And grateful
hearts, the while it winged its flight.
Oft on the sea's wide purplish-blue expanse, With ever new delight I
fixed my eyes, Alma Tadema's picture, at each glance Recalled to mind,
a thousand times would rise.
Once a day dawned, glad as a bride's fair face, Perfume, and light, and
joy it did enfold, Then-without search, flitted from out of space Words
for the tale that my friend's picture told.

A QUESTION

CHAPTER I.

THE HOUSE-KEEPER AND THE STEWARD.
"Salt sea-water or oil, it's all the same to you! Haven't I put my lamp
out long ago? Doesn't the fire on the hearth give light enough? Are
your eyes so drowsy that they don't see the dawn shining in upon us
more and more brightly? The olives are not yet pressed, and the old oil
is getting toward the dregs. Besides, you know how much fruit those
abominable thieves have stolen. But sparrows will carry grain into the
barn before you'll try to save your master's property!"
So Semestre, the ancient house-keeper of Lysander of Syracuse,
scolded the two maids, Chloris and Dorippe, who, unheeding the
smoking wicks of their lamps, were wearily turning the hand-mills.
Dorippe, the younger of the two, grasped her disordered black tresses,
over which thousands of rebellious little hairs seemed to weave a veil
of mist, drew from the mass of curls falling on her neck a bronze arrow,
with which she extinguished the feeble light of both lamps, and, turning
to the house-keeper, said:
"There, then! We can't yet tell a black thread from a white one, and I
must put out the lamps, as if this rich house were a beggar's hut. Two
hundred jars of shining oil were standing in the storehouses a week ago.
Why did the master let them be put on the ship and taken to Messina by
his brother and Mopsus?"
"And why isn't the fruit gathered yet?" asked Chloris. "The olives are
overripe, and the thieves have an easy task, now the watchmen have
gone to Messina as rowers. We must save by drops, while we own
more gnarled olive-trees than there are days in the year. How many jars
of oil might be had from the fruit that has dropped on the ground alone!
The harvest at neighbor Protarch's was over long ago, and if I were like
Lysander--"
"There would probably be an end of saving," cried the house-keeper,
interrupting the girl. "Well, I confess it wasn't easy for me to part with
the golden gift of the gods, but what could I do? Our master's brother,
Alciphron, wanted