Page:Best Russian Short Stories.djvu/128

108 them back from your widow at a quarter their value. Then wasn't I right when I said that you were in possession of your bed only part of the time?"

"Yes, you were right."

"Well, and I, too, was in possession of the bed in which I died part of the time. Proteus, the good guard of the prison, lent it to me for a period."

"Oh, if I had known what you were aiming at with your talk, I wouldn't have answered your wily questions. By Hercules, such profanation is unheard of—he compares himself with me! Why, I could put an end to you with two words, if it came to it"

"Say them, Elpidias, without fear. Words can scarcely be more destructive to me than the hemlock."

"Well, then, that is just what I wanted to say. You unfortunate man, you died by the sentence of the court and had to drink hemlock!"

"But I have known that since the day of my death, even long before. And you, unfortunate Elpidias, tell me what caused your death?"

"Oh, with me it was different, entirely different! You see I got the dropsy in my abdomen. An expensive physician from Corinth was called who promised to cure me for two minas, and he was given half that amount in advance, I am afraid that Larissa in her lack of experience in such things gave him the other half, too"

"Then the physician did not keep his promise?"

"That's it."

"And you died from dropsy?"

"Ah, Socrates, believe me, three times it wanted to vanquish me, and finally it quenched the flame of my life!"

"Then tell me—did death by dropsy give you great pleasure?"

"Oh, wicked Socrates, don't make sport of me. I told you it wanted to vanquish me three times. I bellowed like a steer under the knife of the slaughterer, and begged the Parcæ to cut the thread of my life as quickly as possible."

"That doesn't surprise me. But from what do you conclude that the dropsy was pleasanter to you than the