the
scene. This he did after his own fashion, studying carefully each effect
that she should make, with an artist's eye and a mind that would stop at
no subterfuge to gain its end.

Livinius was convalescent, though still weak and unable to leave his
bed, when Eudemius went upon a day to his apartments and was admitted.
Livinius lay in bed, looking gentler and frailer than of old, with a
slave reading to him from the _De ira_ of Seneca. He signed to the
latter to leave, and held out a hand to his friend.

"Sit by me here, if you will," he said. "I have much to ask, and, I
doubt not, you to tell. That worthy physician of yours is dumb as any
oyster. Were it not for my boy bringing me scraps of news now and again,
I should indeed feel out of touch with the world."

Eudemius seated himself beside the bed, his back, as usual, to the
light.

"The world wags to its own appointed end," he said carelessly. "Have you
heard, then, that Rome has again refused to send troops to our aid?
Verily, Britain is left to struggle with her independence like a dog
with a bone too large for it. There is but a sorry time in store for us,
if present indications point aright. You have asked me often to go back
with you to Rome, and I have been long considering it. But Rome has
twenty strong men where Britain has one, and I think that my place is
here. To my mind, the people of the land, seeing those in power
withdrawing, and not knowing what to do of themselves, will turn like
sheep to any who will stand by them. Why, man, if one played his game
with skill in this coming crisis, and kept from joining in the panic
into which others have flung themselves headlong, he might make his
power here little short of absolute, and reap his reward when Rome has
settled her affairs and the storm has blown over. One might become a
second Carausius, another Constantine. Already, since the troops of
AEtius have gone, folk believe they hear that endless storm muttering
again in the West and South, and tell tales of new invasions of Jutes
and Saxons. It is a fact also that merchants going north require a
double bonus on the goods they take. What Britain will do without the
hand to hold to which has led her for so long, is a question which no
man can answer and all men ask. But these be weighty topics to concern a
sickroom, and I have other matters to discuss with thee."

Livinius turned inquiring eyes upon him, but Eudemius was staring past
him, thoughtful