end he crept along through the shadow beneath the walls; and
presently, as he came, heard a voice speaking softly, yet with passion.
The words were plainly audible, and Marcus heard, and crept closer yet
and listened,--listened to words such as in all his stunted life he had
never heard before; words which stirred forgotten memories of other
things once known, once loved and lost, which he understood in part, and
felt more than he understood. He crouched in the shelter of a
wide-leaved plant, seeing only the outline of a black figure on the
stone bench, and a white one half lost in the darkness beside it. The
spell of the voice wrapped him round, deep-toned, vibrant, yet hushed
into accord with the stillness of the night. Bent on capture, he found
himself all at once held captive, his mind swayed as grass in the wind
to the sweep of that other's fancy. But abruptly the voice ceased, and
the stillness settled deeper. Marcus heard a rustle of soft garments
upon the bench; a low voice saying:

"More--more! Cease not, I pray thee, friend!"

And that other voice, answering:

"Nay, lady; what use? Something is wanting--the words will not come. I
know not why, whether it be in me, or whether--"

"Nay, but I'll have one more. Once thou didst begin to tell of a youth
who was poor and lowly, who lived in the country of the north--"

"Does she, then, remember that?" Marcus muttered, "she, whose mind is
water, where an image fades with the changing light? Eh, thou
black-headed slaveling, what miracle hast thou wrought?"

"Wouldst have that tale?" Nicanor asked. "Ay, lady, once I did begin,
and dared not finish. Dare I now? My faith! the trouble will not be for
lack of words in this! So then; it was even as thou hast said. The youth
lived in the gray northlands, up by the Great Wall, where gray hills
roll over all the earth and gray skies look down upon them. He tended
sheep upon these hills for his father's lord, and lived upon black
porridge and sour bread, and went clad in a sheepskin. And because he
had never known that life held other things than these, it was all to
him as it should have been. But there came a time when this youth went
out into the world. He left his flocks and herds, with his lord's
permission, and went down the long road to the south, past great cities
where men lived in luxury and ease and other men toiled and sweated that
this might be. He saw many strange faces, heard the babble of many
tongues; an