“I don’t care a damn!” She put the case down on the toilet table in despair, while he, resuming the usual current of his thoughts, growled out: “There’s no mistake about it! I will do for one of them!” She looked at him doubtfully, for she had noticed that he was always threatening to kill everybody, and that he killed no one. He divined her hidden thought. It was dreadful. “I knew that you despised me too,” he said. He nearly struck her, and she wept bitterly; eventually he calmed down, however, and drew her a terrible picture of his financial embarrassments. She wept at the picture, but did not promise to give him much, because it was against her principles to give money to a lover, and, besides, she feared he might go away altogether if he had the means to do so. When she left the little blue rooms she was so upset that she quite forgot the amethyst ring lying on the toilet table. CHAPTER XXIII “Are you working, dear Master, do I disturb you?” asked M. Goubin, entering M. Bergeret’s study. “Not at all,” replied the professor. “I was amusing myself by translating a Greek text of the Alexandrine period, discovered in a tomb at Philæ.” “I should be very glad if you would read me your translation, dear Master,” said M. Goubin. “With pleasure,” replied M. Bergeret, and he began: CONCERNING HERCULES ATIMOS. Deeds are commonly ascribed to the one and only Hercules which in reality have been accomplished by other heroes bearing the same name. That which Orpheus teaches us concerning the Thracian Hercules relates to the god rather than to the hero. I will not dwell upon this. The Tyrians tell of another Hercules to whom they attribute labours so prodigious that they are difficult to accept. What is less known is that Alcmena gave birth to twins who were exactly alike, and who each received the name of Hercules. The one was the son of Jupiter and the other of Amphitryon. On account of his great deeds, the former attained the right to drink from the cup of Hebe at the table of the gods, and we look upon him as a god. The second was unworthy, that is why he was called Hercules Atimos. What I know of him I have learned from an inhabitant of Eleusis, a wise and prudent man who has collected together many ancient legends. This is what he told me: Hercules Atimos, the son of Amphitryon, when nearing manhood, received from his father a bow and arrows, forged by Vulcan, which dealt certain death to any creature whom they struck. Now one day, when shooting wild cranes on the slopes of Cithæron, he met a herdsman who addressed him thus: “Son of Amphitryon, there is an evil man who daily steals some of our cattle. Thou art full of youth and vigour. If thou canst find the thief and strike him with one of thy magic arrows, thou wilt gain great praise. But he is not easy of approach, for his feet are larger than the feet of other men, and he is very fleet.”