Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/280

254 Thaisa inherited her father’s spirit. To her, the young hero who had shown himself brave in arms, skilled in the elegant arts, and whose conversation she found each day sparkling with wit and knowledge, was worthy of her love, even if he were beggared by adverse fortune. So when at length one day her father pressed her to decide on some one to whom she would give herself in marriage, she went to her chamber and pouring out her heart in a letter to Simonides, she informed him that the shipwrecked stranger had gained her love, and she desired him only, of all men she had ever seen, to be her lord and husband.

Simonides was delighted at this answer, and sent to bring the young people together in his presence. At first, affecting to be angry, he accused Pericles of having secretly won his daughter’s affections. Pericles answered that he did love the princess. He confessed so much, for who could look on her and fail to love her? But he declared that, knowing his forlorn and beggared condition, he would sooner have died than made known his love.

At this Simonides could no longer dissemble, but, joining the hands of the young couple, he blessed them as his son and daughter, and went instantly out to vent his great joy in preparations for their immediate nuptials. Thus