Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/301

Rh his donation, and would have left the ship; but Athanagoras stopped her. "Whither are you going?" said he; "you have as yet done no good: is your heart so pitiless, that you can suffer a man to destroy himself without striving to prevent it?" "I have done every thing that I could," answered Tharsia: "he gave me a hundred gold pieces, and desired me to depart."

"I will give you two hundred pieces, if you will return the money to him, and say, 'My lord, I seek your safety, not your money.

Tharsia complied; and seating herself near to the king, said, "If you are determined to continue in the squalid state to which you have accustomed yourself, give me leave to reason with you. I will propose a question; if you can answer it I will depart; if not, I will return your present, and go."

"Keep what I have given; I will not deny your request. For though my evils admit of no cure, yet I determine to hearken to you. Put your question then, and depart."

"Hear me; there is a house in a certain part of the world which bounds and rebounds,