Not far away she discovered three little boys, two of them her own, who were playing at battles and sieges upon stairs which descended from this terrace to the hippodrome below.  After watching them awhile, with laughter and applause, she threw an arm round Veranilda’s waist, and drew her on to a curved portico where, in a niche, stood a statue of Antinous.

‘Is that one of their gods, or an emperor?’ asked Athalfrida.  ’I have seen his face again and again since we came here.’

‘Indeed, I know not,’ answered her companion.  ’But surely he is too beautiful for a man.’

’Beautiful?  Never say that, child; for if it be as you think, it is the beauty of a devil, and has led who knows how many into the eternal fire.  Had I a hammer here, I would splinter the evil face.  I would not have my boys look at it and think it beautiful.’

A heavy footstep sounded on the terrace.  Turning, they saw Osuin, an armed giant, with flowing locks, and thick, tawny beard.

‘Wife, a word with you,’ he shouted, beckoning from some twenty paces away.

They talked together; then the lady returned, a troubled smile on her face, and said softly to Veranilda: 

’Some one wishes to speak with you—­some one who comes with the king’s good-will.’

Veranilda looked towards Osuin.

‘You cannot mean—?’ she faltered.

‘No other,’ replied Athalfrida, nodding gaily.  ’Are you at leisure?  Some other day, perhaps?  I will say you would be private—­that you cannot now give audience.’

This pleasantry brought only the faintest smile to the listener’s face.

‘Is it hither that he would come?’ she asked, again looking anxiously towards the ruddy giant, who stamped with a beginning of impatience.

‘If so it please you, little one,’ answered Athalfrida, changing all at once to her softest mood.  ’The king leaves all to my discretion, and I ask nothing better than to do you kindness.  Shall it be here, or within?’

Veranilda whispered ‘Here’; whereupon Osuin received a sign, and stalked off.  A few minutes passed, and Athalfrida, who, after caresses and tender words, had drawn apart, as if to watch her children playing, beheld the expected visitor.  Her curiosity was not indiscreet; she would have glimpsed the graceful figure, the comely visage, and then have turned away; but at this moment the new comer paused, looked about him in hesitation, and at length advanced towards her.  She had every excuse for looking him straight in the face, and it needed not the pleasant note of his speech to dispose her kindly towards him.

’Gracious lady, I seek the lady Veranilda, and was bidden come hither along the terrace.’

Totila’s sister had but little of the Latin tongue; now, for perhaps the first time in her life, she regretted this deficiency.  Smiling, she pointed to a group of cypresses which hid part of the portico, and her questioner, with a courtly bow, went on.  He wore the ordinary dress of a Roman noble, and had not even a dagger at his waist.  As soon as he had passed the cypresses, he saw, within the shadow of the portico, the figure his eyes had sought; then he stood still, and spoke with manly submissiveness.