Your father remains
in the old place, and never goes near the town; he is very badly
off, and has neither bed nor bedding, nor a stick of furniture of
any kind. In winter he sleeps on the floor in front of the fire
with the men, and his clothes are in a shocking state, but in
summer, when the warm weather comes on again, he sleeps out in the
vineyard on a bed of vine leaves. He takes on very much about your
not having returned, and suffers more and more as he grows older:
as for me I died of nothing whatever in the world but grief about
yourself. There was not a thing the matter with me, but my
prolonged anxiety on your account was too much for me, and in the
end it just wore me out.'"
In the course of time Ulysses comes to a pause in his narrative and
Queen Arete makes a little speech.
"'What do you think,' she said to the Phaeacians, 'of such a guest
as this? Did you ever see anyone at once so good-looking and so
clever? It is true, indeed, that his visit is paid more
particularly to myself, but you all participate in the honour
conferred upon us by a visitor of such distinction.
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