Even my son hates me, Olaf, my only child for whose true
welfare I strive night and day."

"I have heard as much, Augusta," I said.

"You have heard, like all the world. But what else of ill have you heard
of me, Olaf? Speak out, man; I'm here to learn the truth."

"I have heard that you are very ambitious, Augusta, and that you hate
your son as much as he hates you, because he is a rival to your power.
It is rumoured that you would be glad if he were dead and you left to
reign alone."

"Then a lie is rumoured, Olaf. Yet it is true that I am ambitious, who
see far and would build this tottering empire up afresh. Olaf, it is a
bitter thing to have begotten a fool."

"Then why do you not marry again and beget others, who might be no
fools, Augusta?" I asked bluntly.

"Ah! why?" she answered, flashing a curious glance upon me. "In truth, I
do not quite know why; but from no lack of suitors, since, were she but
a hideous hag, an empress would find these. Olaf, you may have learned
that I was not born in the purple. I was but a Greek girl of good race,
not even noble, to whom God gave a gift of beauty; and when I was young
I saw a man who took my fancy, also of old race, yet but a merchant of
fruits which they grow in Greece and sell here and at Rome. I wished to
marry him, but my mother, a far-seeing woman, said that such beauty
as mine--though less than that of your Iduna the Fair, Olaf--was worth
money or rank. So they sent away my merchant of fruits, who married the
daughter of another merchant of fruits and throve very well in business.
He came to see me some years ago, fat as a tub, his face scored all over
with the marks of the spotted sickness, and we talked about old times.
I gave him a concession to import dried fruits into Byzantium--that
is what he came to see me for--and now he's dead. Well, my mother was
right, for afterwards this poor beauty of mine took the fancy of the
late Emperor, and, being very pious, he married me. So the Greek girl,
by the will of God, became Augusta and the first woman in the world."

"By the will of God?" I repeated.

"Aye, I suppose so, or else all is raw chance. At least, I, who to-day
might have been bargaining over dried fruits, as I should have done had
I won my will, am--what you know. Look at this robe," and she spread her
glittering dress before me. "Hark to the tramp of those guards before my
door. Why, you are their captain. Go into the antechambers, and see the
am