Veranilda | Page 9

wont. Anything else? Why,
yes; the freedman Chrysanthus glories in an ex-consulate. It cost him
the trifle of thirty pounds of gold.'
Basil laughed contemptuously, half angrily.
'We must look to our honours,' he exclaimed. 'If Chrysanthus be
ex-consul, can you and I be satisfied with less than
ex-Praetorian-Prefect? What will be the price, think you? Has Bessas
hung out a tariff yet in the Forum?'
'He knows better than to fix a maximum, as long as a wealthy fool
remains in the city--though that won't be much longer, I take it.'
'Why come you hither, dear my lord?' urged Basil, with more
seriousness.
Regarding him with a grave eye, his friend replied in an undertone:
'To spy upon you.'
'Ha!--In very truth?'
'You could wish me a more honourable office,' Marcian went on,
smiling sadly. 'Yet, if you think of it, in these days, it is some honour to
be a traitor to both sides. There has been talk of you in Rome. Nay,
who knows how or why l They have nothing to do but talk, and these

victories of the Goth have set up such a Greek cackle as was never
heard since Helen ran away to Troy,--and, talking of Greek, I bear a
letter for you from Heliodora.'
Basil, who had been listening gravely, started at this name and uttered
an idle laugh. From a wallet hanging at his girdle, Marcian drew forth
the missive.
'That may wait,' said Basil, glancing indifferently at the folded and
sealed paper before he hid it away. 'Having said so much, you must tell
me more. Put off that sardonic mask--I know very well what hides
beneath it--and look me in the eye. You have surprised some danger?'
'I heard you spoken of--by one who seldom opens his lips but to ill
purpose. It was not difficult for me to wade through the shallows of the
man's mind, and for my friend's sake to win his base confidence.
Needing a spy, and being himself a born traitor, he readily believed me
at his beck; in truth he had long marked me, so I found, for a cankered
soul who waited but the occasion to advance by infamy. I held the
creature in my hand; I turned him over and over, and he, the while,
thinking me his greedy slave. And so, usurping the place of some other
who would have ambushed you in real enmity, I came hither on his
errand.'
'Marcian,' said the listener, 'I could make a guess at that man's name.'
'Nay, I doubt if you could, and indeed it matters nothing. Enough that I
may do you some little service.'
'For which,' replied Basil, 'I cannot pay you, since all my love is
already yours. And she--Heliodora,' he added, with a careless gesture,
'knows of your mission?'
'Of my mission, no; but of my proposed journey. Though indeed she
may know more than I suppose. Who shall say what reaches the ear of
Heliodora--?'
'You have not heard perhaps that her husband is dead?'
'The Prefect dead?' exclaimed Basil.
'Three weeks ago.--Rather suddenly--after supper. An indigestion, no
doubt.'
Marcian spoke with peculiar dryness, averting his eyes from the listener.
Upon Basil's face came a deep flush; he took out the folded paper again,
and held it at arm's length.
'You mean--? You think--?' he stammered.

'About women I think not at all,' said the other, 'as you well know.
There is talk, talk--what care I?'
Basil tore the letter open. It contained a lock of raven-black hair, tied
with gold thread, and on the paper was written, in Greek, 'I am free.'
Again his cheek flushed; he crushed paper and hair together in his
hand.
'Let us never again speak of her,' he exclaimed, moving away from the
spot. 'Before I left Rome, I told you that I would gladly see her no more,
and you smiled dubiously. Believe me now. I abhor the thought of her.
If she ask you for my reply, repeat those words.'
'Nay, dear my lord, in that I will beg to be excused,' replied Marcian
with his melancholy smile.
They were walking silently, side by side, when the servant Felix again
presented himself before them. Maximus, having heard of the arrival of
Marcian from Rome, requested that he and Basil would grant him a
moment of their leisure. At once the young men turned to obey this
summons. On the way, Basil communicated to his friend in a whisper
the event of the day. A couple of hours having passed since Aurelia's
coming, the Senator had in some degree recovered from his agitation;
he lay now in a room which opened upon the central court of the villa,
a room adorned with rich marbles and with wall-paintings which were
fading under the