Though he smiled, there was no mistaking Marcian’s earnestness.  For the moment he had shaken off his visions of Tartarus, and was his saner self once more.

‘If I knew that she has gone!’ cried Basil wretchedly.  ‘If I knew!’

‘So you take your chance?’

’Listen!  You speak of prison, of torture.  Marcian, can you not help, me to capture that woman, and to get from her the truth?’

Basil’s face grew terrible as he spoke.  He quivered, his teeth ground together.

‘I, too, have thought of it,’ replied the other coldly.  ’But it is difficult and dangerous.’

They talked yet awhile, until Marcian, who looked cadaverous, declared his need of food, and they went to the mid-day meal.

A few days went by.  Basil was occupied with the business of his inheritance.  He had messengers to despatch to estates in Lucania and Apulia.  Then came news that a possession of Maximus’ in the south had been invaded and seized by a neighbour; for which outrage there was little hope of legal remedy in the present state of affairs; only by the strong hand could Basil vindicate his right.  Trouble was caused him by a dispute with one of the legatees, a poor kinsman who put an unexpected interpretation upon the item of the will which concerned him.  Another poor kinsman, to whom Maximus had bequeathed a share in certain property in Rome, wished to raise money on this security.  Basil himself could not lend the desired sum, for, though lord of great estates, he found himself after Chorsoman’s pillage of the strong room at Surrentum, scarcely able to meet immediate claims upon him under the will; but he consented to accompany his relative to a certain moneychanger, of whom perchance a loan might be obtained.  This man of business, an Alexandrian, had his office on the Capitoline Hill, in that open space between the Capitol and the Arx, where merchants were still found; he sat in a shadowed corner of a portico, before him a little table on which coins were displayed, and at his back a small dark shop, whence came a confused odour of stuffs and spices.  Long and difficult were the negotiations.  To Basil’s surprise, the Alexandrian, though treating him with the utmost respect, evidently gave little weight to his guarantee in money matters; as to property in Rome, he seemed to regard it as the most insubstantial of securities.  Only on gems and precious metals would he consent to lend a sum of any importance.

Whilst this debate was in progress, a litter, gaudy and luxurious, borne by eight slaves clad in yellow, with others like them before and behind, came to a stop close by, and from it alighted a lady whose gorgeous costume matched the brilliance of her vehicle and retinue.  She was young and beautiful, with dark, oriental features, and a bearing which aimed at supremity of arrogance.  Having stepped down, she stood at the edge of the portico, languidly gazing this way and that, with the plain intention of exhibiting herself to the loiterers whom her appearance drew together; at every slightest movement, the clink of metal sounded from her neck, her arms, her ankles; stones glistened on her brow and on her hands; about her she shed a perfume like that wafted from the Arabian shore.