"Mary Renault - Greece 4 - The Last Of The Wine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Renault Mary)

The accuser, who had a slave at hand, asked for an immunity, and for all who were not initiates to
depart. This being done, the slave recited aloud the central Words, which, he said, Alkibiades had
profaned before him.

It was the day after this that I missed Sokrates in the palaestra.

His absence in itself I should have thought nothing of; for he used to talk with all kinds of people, all
about the City. I was not disturbed till I went out on the running-track, and saw among the onlookers a
group of his friends, talking together like troubled men. At once it sprang into my mind that someone had
denounced him, because he had taught Alkibiades, and refused to be initiated. Eryximachos the doctor
had now joined the others. I could not endure my ignorance any longer, I leaned on one foot as I ran,
stopped as if hurt, and I went halting off the track. The trainer was too busy to come after me: I sat down
near them to listen.

Eryximachos must just have asked whether Sokrates was ill; for Kriton was saying that nothing ever
ailed him. He went on, No, Sokrates is at home, sacrificing and praying for the army of the Athenians.
And Chairophon said, His daimon has spoken to him.

They exchanged looks. I too was silent, nursing my foot in my hand, and remembering the nest in the
tree.

As I sat lost in thought, scarcely hearing the noises of the track, I became aware of someone's shadow
falling on me, and a voice. Looking up I saw Lysis son of Demokrates. He had been with Sokrates'
friends when I first sat down, but almost at once he had gone away. I saw you twist your foot, he said.
Does it hurt much? You ought to bind it with cold water, before it swells up.

I thanked him stammeringly, being taken by surprise, and overwhelmed that such a person should speak
to me. Seeing I had a long way to look up, he came down on one knee; I saw that he had a wet cloth in
his hand, which he must just have got from the bath. He paused a moment and then said, Shall I do it?

At this I remembered that nothing was wrong with me. I was so ashamed at the thought of his finding it
out, and thinking I had sat down out of weakness, or the fear of being outrun, that I felt my face and my
whole body grow burning hot, and sat unable to answer anything. I thought he would be disgusted by my
boorishness; but holding out the cloth he said gently, If you would rather, then, do it yourself.

All this while Midas, thinking me safe in the trainer's care, had been taking his ease. Now for the first
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time he saw where I was. He came up breathless, almost snatched the cloth from Lysis' hands, and said
he would attend to it. He was doing no more than his duty; but, at the time, it seemed to me barbarous; I
looked up at Lysis at a loss for words to excuse it. But he, without showing any offence, bade me
goodbye smiling, and went away.

I was so angry and confused that I pushed Midas away from me, saying that my foot was better and I
was now able to run. The impression this made on him, he is hardly to be blamed for. Going home he
asked me whether I would take a beating from him, or would rather he told my father. I could imagine
the kind of story he would make of it, and chose the first. Though he laid it well on, I bore it in silence; I