“You speak as I would have spoken when I was your age and a whole man. But not all men would consider that the war was their affair because they had saved Aryenis. Rather would they incline to say they had done their part and somewhat over. I think that all the fortune was not with you; some large portion goes to Aryenis.” “So also think I,” said she. “Life is sweet, but when with the gift of life one gets the gift of friends as well, then is one doubly blest.” “True, child. You seem to have had both given to you in the gate”--and he was silent a space. Then he clapped his hands, and a servant brought us out wine and sweet cakes on little silver trays. We talked awhile, and he asked many questions about the countries we came from. He was well read, and told me that he had some old manuscripts which he would show me one day. He knew the classics, Arrian and Herodotus amongst them, and could follow a little about India when I tried to explain our journey to him. Then Aryenis went into the house to see the old servants, and he and I were left alone. He looked after her as she walked across the lawn. “Aryenis is just like her mother--I sometimes think she is her mother when she comes here.” “Her mother is dead, is she not?” I asked. “Yes, many years ago. And yet it seems but yesterday that she sat here as Aryenis does now. She and Kyrlos often came to see me.” He sighed a little. “And to-morrow you ride to Miletis. When things are settled you will come and see me again, will you not? ’Tis nice to see one who has seen places that I have read of, but none I know have ever seen.” “Surely,” said I. “You are Christians also, Aryenis tells me. She wrote me a letter which came by a fast messenger yesterday. Your faith was a matter of some surprise, since we believed that most of those who lived beyond the desert were pagans.” “We are. All the countries around us, even the old Greece, are Christian now.” “Yes. That, of course, I knew. But we had no idea you came from so far, thinking rather you came from the nearer lands which were overrun by the slant-eyed folk, who--so our old books tell us--drove our people out across the desert.” “I should like to see those old books when we have time. We wondered whence came your folk. Are you Greeks?” “No, or so the books tell us. But there were some Greeks who came among us, bringing with them much knowledge of the arts, and, above all, of the true faith. It is a long story that I shall be pleased to tell you one day. But Aryenis comes, and you must ride. One should not be abroad after dark in time of war. We are not over-distant from the frontier even here, though it is many years since raiders came as far as Aornos.” Aryenis joined us and said that we must go. The horses waited saddled. “Good-bye, uncle mine. All will be ready, will it not?” “It will, child. I see that you were right--as ever--in what you wrote.” Then he said good-bye, and we went out to the horses.