"My Lord Alcinoüs; your guest, the far wanderer, having partaken of your golden hospitality, is now fain to open his heart to you, and tell you of himself and his race, his home and his loved ones across the wine-dark sea, and such of his adventures as may give pleasure to your ears" ... though, having no talents in that direction, I was glad enough to abandon my lame attempt at his Homeric style for a plain straightforward narrative of the events of the past three months.
I had not, however, proceeded very far, when, with a courteous raising of his hand, King Alcinoüs suggested a pause.
"If you would not mind," he said, "I would like my daughter to hear this too, for it is of the very stuff of romantic adventure in which she delights. She is a brave girl, and, as I often tell her, would have made a very spirited dare-devil boy, if she hadn't happened to be born a girl."
This phrase seemed to flash a light upon the questionings that had stirred at the back of my mind since I had first heard that voice in Sweeney's store.
"By the way, dear King," I said, assuming a casual manner, "do you happen to have a son?"
"No!" he answered, "Calypso is my only child."
"Very strange!" I said, "we met a whimsical lad in our travels whom I would have sworn was her brother."
"That's odd!" said the "King" imperturbably, "but no! I have no son"; and he seemed to say it with a certain sadness.
Then Calypso came in to join my audience, having, meanwhile, taken the opportunity of twining a scarlet hibiscus among her luxuriant dark curls. I should certainly have told the story better without her, yet I was glad--how glad!--to have her seated there, an attentive presence in a simple gown, white as the seafoam--from which, there was no further doubt in my mind, she had magically sprung.
I gave them the whole story, much as I had told it in John Saunders's snuggery--John P. Tobias, Jr.; dear old Tom and his sucking fish, his ghosts, sharks, skeletons, and all; and when I had finished, I found that the interest of my story was once more chiefly centred in my pock-marked friend of "The wonderful works of God."
"I should like to meet your pock-marked friend," said King Alcinoüs, "and I have a notion that, with you as a bait, I shall not long be denied the pleasure."