[9]
Later, when they were drinking after their1 meal, Hystaspas asked: “Pray, Cyrus, would you be displeased with me, if I were to ask you something that I wish to know from you?”“Why, no; by the gods, no,” he answered; “on the contrary, I should be displeased with you if I found that you refrained from asking something that you wished to ask.”“Tell me, then,” said the other, “did I ever fail to come when you sent for me?”“Hush!”2 said Cyrus.“Or, obeying, did I ever obey reluctantly?”“No; nor that.”“Or did I ever fail to do your bidding in anything?”“I make no such accusation,” answered Cyrus.“And is there anything I did that you found me doing otherwise than eagerly or cheerfully?”“That, least of all,” answered Cyrus.
Xenophon. Xenophon in Seven Volumes, 5 and 6. Walter Miller. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA; William Heinemann, Ltd., London. 1914.
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