’He came to me, as if from my father; but I soon discovered that he had another mission, his main purpose being to seek for Veranilda.  By whom sent, I could not learn; but he told me that Ebrimut was dead, and that his son, Veranilda’s only brother, was winning glory in the war with the Persians.  For many days I lived in fear lest my pearl should be torn from me.  Olybrius it was, no doubt, who bade the Hun keep watch upon us, and it can only have been by chance that I was allowed to go forth unmolested when you led me hither the first time.  He returned to Byzantium, and I have heard no more.  But a suspicion haunts my mind.  What if Marcian were also watching Veranilda?’

‘Marcian!’ cried the listener incredulously.  ’You do not know him.  He is the staunchest and frankest of friends.  He knows of my love; we have talked from heart to heart.’

’Yet it was at his intercession that the Hun allowed us to go; why, you cannot guess.  What if he have power and motives which threaten Veranilda’s peace?’

Basil exclaimed against this as the baseless fear of a woman.  Had there been a previous command from some high source touching the Gothic maiden, Chorsoman would never have dared to sell her freedom.  As to Marcian’s power, that was derived from the authorities at Rome, and granted him for other ends; if he used it to release Veranilda, he acted merely out of love to his friend, as would soon be seen.

‘I will hope so,’ murmured Aurelia.  ’Now you have heard what she herself desired that I should tell you, for she could not meet your look until you knew it.  Her father’s treachery is Veranilda’s shame; she saw her noble mother die for it, and it has made her mourning keener than a common sorrow.  I think she would never have dared to wed a Goth; all true Goths, she believes in her heart, must despise her.  It is her dread lest you, learning who she is, should find your love chilled.’

‘Call her,’ cried Basil, starting to his feet.  ’Or let me go to her.  She shall not suffer that fear for another moment.  Veranilda!  Veranilda!’

His companion retained and quieted him.  He should see Veranilda ere long.  But there was yet something to be spoken of.

‘Have you forgotten that she is not of your faith?’

‘Do I love her, adore her, the less?’ exclaimed Basil.  ’Does she shrink from me on that account?’

‘I know,’ pursued his cousin, ’what the Apostle of the Gentiles has said:  “For the husband who believes not is sanctified by the wife, and the wife who believes not is sanctified by the husband.”  None the less, Veranilda is under the menace of the Roman law; and you, if it be known that you have wedded her, will be in peril from all who serve the Emperor—­at least in dark suspicion; and will be slightly esteemed by all of our house.’

The lover paced about, and all at once, with a wild gesture, uttered his inmost thought.

’What if I care naught for those of our house?  And what if the Emperor of the East is of as little account to me?  My country is not Byzantium, but Rome.’