han another whole day's journey
before him, so here be harboured for the night.

His wily and unscrupulous mind had all day long been busy with
speculations as to the errand on which he was sent. Knowing that his
master wrote to Goths in the Gothic tongue, he was spared temptation to
break open the letter he carried; otherwise he would assuredly have
done so, for the hatred which Sagaris naturally felt for any one in
authority over him was now envenomed by jealousy, and for the last
month or two he had only waited an opportunity of injuring Marcian and
of advancing, by the same stroke, his own fortunes.

Having started from Rome in ignorance of his master's purpose, the
events of the night at Praeneste at once suggested to him the name of
the person who was being so cautiously and hurriedly conveyed under
Marcian's guard, and by the end of the journey he had no doubt left.
Here, at last, was the Gothic maiden who had been sought so
persistently by Marcian, by Basil, by Bessas, by Heliodora, and
doubtless by many others, since her disappearance from Surrentum.
Whither was she now being conducted? Sagaris did not know that among
her seekers was King Totila himself; on the other hand, he had much
reason for suspecting that Marcian pursued Veranilda with a lover's
passion, and when the journey ended at the island villa, when the
convoy of horsemen was dismissed, when he himself was sent off to a
distance, he saw his suspicion confirmed. By some supreme subtlety,
Marcian had got the beautiful maiden into his power, and doubtless the
letter he was sending to Totila contained some device for the
concealing of what had happened.

Now to the Syrian this would have been a matter of indifference, but
for his secret communications with Heliodora and all that had resulted
therefrom. Heliodora's talk was of three persons--of Marcian, of Basil,
of Veranilda--and Sagaris, reasoning from all the gossip he had heard,
and from all he certainly knew, concluded that the Greek lady had once
loved Basil, but did so no more, that her love had turned to Marcian,
and that she either knew or suspected Marcian to be a rival of Basil
for the love of Veranilda. Thus had matters stood (he persuaded
himself) until his own entrance on the scene. That a woman might look
with ardent eyes on more than one man in the same moment, seemed to
Sagaris the simplest of facts; he consequently found it easy to believe
that, even whilst loving Marcian, Heliodora