In the last hour Amyntas had become fully alive to his great importance, and carried himself accordingly. He took long, dignified steps, and held one hand on the jewelled hilt of his sword, with his elbows stuck out at right angles to his body; his head was thrown back proudly and his nostrils dilated with appropriate scorn. At last he came to a door closed by a curtain; he raised it. But he started back and was so surprised that he found no words to express his emotions. Four maidens were sitting in the room, more beautiful than he had thought possible in his most extravagant dreams. The gods had evidently not intended Amyntas for single blessedness.... The young persons appeared not to have noticed him. Two of them were seated on rugs playing a languid game of chess, the others were lazily smoking cigarettes. 'Mate!' murmured one of the players. 'Oh!' sighed the other, yawning, 'another game finished! That makes five million and twenty-three games against your five million and seventy-nine.' They all yawned. But Amyntas felt he must give notice of his presence, and suddenly remembering an expression he had learnt on board ship, he put on a most ferocious look and cried out,-- 'Shiver my timbers!' The maidens turned towards him with a little cry, but they quickly recovered themselves and one of them came towards him. 'You speak like a king's son, oh youth!' she said. There was a moment's hesitation, and the lady, with a smile, added, 'Oh, ardently expected one, you are a compendium of the seven excellences!' Then they all began to pay him compliments, each one capping the other's remark. 'You have a face like the full moon, oh youth; your eyes are the eyes of the gazelle; your walk is like the gait of the mountain partridge; your chin is as an apple; your cheeks are pomegranates.' But Amyntas interrupted them. 'For God's sake, madam,' he said, 'let us have no palavering, and if you love me give me some victuals!...' Immediately female slaves came in with salvers laden with choice food, and the four maidens plied Amyntas with delicacies. At the end of the repast they sprinkled him with rose-water, and the eldest of them put a crown of roses on his hair. Amyntas thought that after all life was not an empty dream. XIII 'And now, may it please you, oh stranger, to hear our story.