‘None!  I have shrunk ever from the sight of her.’

’Such abhorrence of error witnesses to the purity and the illumination of your soul:  I could have expected nothing less from Petronilla.  You know not whether the misguided woman shows any disposition to return to the true faith?’

‘I fear not,’ replied Petronilla, looking rather as if the fear were a hope.  ’Her nature is stubborn:  she has the pride of the fallen angels.’

’And her father, I am afraid, has no longer the strength to treat her sin with due severity?’

‘Earthly affection has subdued him,’ replied the lady, shaking her head.  ‘Who knows,’ she added, ’how far his weakness may lead my poor brother?’

She glanced about the hall, and Leander perfectly understood what was in her mind.

‘Be not over anxious,’ he replied soothingly.  ’Leave this in my hands.  Should it be necessary, I can dispose of some days before pursuing my journey.  Take comfort, noble and pious lady!  The truth will prevail.’

The deacon’s first step was to obtain a private interview with the physician.  He then made known his desire to wait upon Maximus, and with no great delay was admitted.  Tactfully, sagaciously, he drew the sufferer to confide in him, to see in him, not so much a spiritual admonisher as a counsellor and a support in worldly difficulties.  Leander was already well aware that the Senator had small religious zeal, but belonged to the class of men, numerous at this time, who, whilst professing the Christian and the orthodox faith, were in truth philosophers rather than devotees, and regarded dogmatic questions with a calm not easily distinguished from indifference.  Maximus had scarcely spoken of his daughter, when the deacon understood it was Aurelia’s temporal, much more than her eternal, interests which disturbed the peace of the dying man.  Under Roman law, bequests to a heretic were null and void; though this enactment had for the most part been set aside in Italy under Gothic rule, it might be that the Imperial code would henceforth prevail.  Maximus desired to bestow upon his daughter a great part of his possessions.  Petronilla, having sufficient means of her own, might well be content with a moderate bequest; Basil, the relative next of kin, had a worthy claim upon his uncle’s generous treatment, and Decius, who needed but little, must have that little assured.  The father had hoped that his entreaties, together with a prospect of substantial reward, would prevail against Aurelia’s pride-rooted heresy, but as yet he pleaded and tempted in vain.  Could the deacon help him?

Leander seemed to meditate profoundly.  The subject of his thought was what seemed to him a glaring omission in this testament of Maximus.  He breathed an intimate inquiry:  Was the sick man at peace with his own soul?  Had he sought strength and solace from the reverend presbyter of Surrentum, his spiritual father in this district?  Maximus replied that he had neglected no ordinary means of grace.  Whilst speaking, he met the deacon’s eye; its significance was not to be mistaken.