of
her conversation with Bessas. She smiled disdainfully when I mentioned
his name, and tried to continue smiling when I carelessly explained the
interest he had in finding Veranilda; but she was frightened, I heard
it in her hoarse voice when she began to speak evil of Veranilda.'

'What!' cried Basil. 'Evil of Veranilda!'

'Such as naturally comes to the tongue of an angry woman.'

The lover raged, Marcian listening with a sad, half-absent look. Their
talk continued for a long time, arid, because of the lateness of the
hour, Marcian stayed to sleep in his friend's house. Before sunrise on
the morrow, Basil sent forth his invitations to all of the Anician
blood in Rome. The first to respond was Gordianus, whose dwelling on
the Clivus Scauri stood but a few minutes' walk away. Though but a
little older than Basil, Gordian had been for several years a husband
and a father; he was in much esteem for his worldly qualities, and more
highly regarded for the fervour of his religious faith. A tall,
handsome, dignified man, he looked straight before him with frank eyes,
and his lips told of spirit tempered by kindliness. Between him and his
relative no great intimacy existed, for their modes of life and of
thought were too dissimilar, but each saw the good in the other, and
was attracted by it. Not long ago Gordian had conceived the project of
giving his young sister Aemiliana as wife to Basil. Maximus favoured
this design, but his nephew showed no eagerness to carry it out, and
Roman gossip presently found a reason for that. Among the leaders of
fashion and of pleasure--for fashion and pleasure did not fail to
revive in Rome soon after the horrors of the siege--shone a lady named
Heliodora, the Greek wife of a little-respected senator, who, favoured
by Bessas, rose to the position of City Prefect. With Heliodora's
character rumour made very free; the captives of her beauty were said
to be numerous, and one of the names mentioned by those who loved such
scandal was that of the young Basil. Gordian, finding that there was
some ground for this suspicion, spoke no more of the suggested
marriage, and it was at his instance that Maximus, ill in Campania,
summoned Basil away from the city. Reports from Surrentum gave reason
to hope that this measure had succeeded. But to-day, as he entered
Basil's house, Gordian's face wore a troubled look, and there was no
warmth in his response to the greeting which met him.

'You have sent fo