The Hot Swamp | Page 3

men. Indeed, at the high
jump he equalled, and at the short race had even excelled him.
"Dromas," said the prince impressively--"Come, now, my old friend
and comrade," interrupted the Greek youth lightly, "don't put on such a
long face. I foresee that you are about to give me a lecture, and I don't
want the tone of remonstrance to be the last that I shall hear. I know
that I'm a wild, good-for-nothing fellow, and can guess all you would
say to me. Let us rather talk of your speedy return to Hellas, for, to tell
you the truth, I feel as if the loss of you would leave me like a poor
man who has been crippled in the wars. I shall be a mere shadow till
you return."
There was a slight tremor in the voice, which showed that much of the
gaiety of the young man was forced.
"Nay, I have no mind to give you a lecture," returned Bladud, "I only
ask you to grant me two requests."
"Granted, before mentioned, for you have ever been a reasonable
creature, Bladud, and I trust you to retain your character on the present
occasion."
"Well, then, my first request is that you will often remember the many
talks that you and I have had about the gods, and the future life, and the
perplexing conditions in which we now live."
"Remember them," exclaimed Dromas with animation, "my difficulty
would be to forget them! The questions which you have propounded
and attempted to answer--for I do not admit that you have been quite
successful in the attempt--have started up and rung in my ears at all
kinds of unseasonable times. They haunt me often in my
dreams--though, to say truth, I dream but little, save when good

fellowship has led me to run supper into breakfast--they worry me
during my studies, which, you know, are frequent though not prolonged;
they come between me and the worthy rhapsodist when he is in the
middle of the most interesting-- or least wearisome--passage of the
poem, and they even intrude on me at the games. The very last race I
ran was lost, only by a few inches, because our recent talk on the future
of cats caused a touch of internal laughter which checked my pace at
the most critical moment. You may rest assured that I cannot avoid
granting your first request. What is your second?"
"That you promise to visit me in my home in Albion. You know that it
will be impossible for me ever again to re-visit these shores, where I
have been so happy. My father, if he forgives my running away from
him, will expect me to help him in the management of his affairs. But
you have nothing particular to detain you here--"
"You forget--the old woman," interrupted Dromas gravely.
"What old woman?" asked Bladud in surprise.
"My mother!" returned his friend.
The prince looked a little confused and hastened to apologise. Dromas'
mother was one of those unfortunate people who existed in the olden
time as well as in modern days, though perhaps not so numerously. She
was a confirmed invalid, who rarely quitted her house, and was seldom
seen by any one save her most intimate friends, so that she was apt to
be forgotten--out of sight out of mind, then as now.
"Forgive me, Dromas--," began Bladud, but his friend interrupted him.
"I cannot forgive when I have nothing to forgive! Say no more about
that. But, now I come to consider of it, I grant your second request
conditionally. If my mother agrees to accompany me to Albion, you
may expect to see me some day or other--perhaps a year or two hence.
You see, since my father and brother were slain in the last fight with
our neighbours, I am the only one left to comfort her, so I cannot
forsake her."

"Then this will be our final parting," returned Bladud, sadly, "for your
mother will never consent to leave home."
"I don't know that," returned Dromas with a laugh. "The dear old soul
is intensely adventurous, like myself, and I do believe would venture
on a voyage to the Cassiterides, if the fancy were strong upon her. You
have no idea how powerfully I can work upon her feelings. I won't say
that I can make much impression on her intellect. Indeed, I have reason
to know that she does not believe in intellect except as an unavoidable
doorway leading into the feelings. The fact is, I tried her the other day
with the future of cats, and do you know, instead of treating that subject
with the gravity it merits, she laughed in my face and called me
names--not exactly bad names, such as the gods might object