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A faint attempt on Heliodora's part to detain him met with a decisive, nay, stern refusal. This journey was indeed sheer flight from his own weakness and from the beautiful creature who could never be anything to him. Early in the day he had found time to write to Paula; but he had cast aside more than one unfinished letter before he could find the right words.
We talked, and I learnt from him that you were the hot rival of Vivian for Heliodora's favour. Nay, I do but repeat what you ought to hear. Can such gossip begin without cause? Tell me now, how often have you been yonder since I left Rome? Basil could scarce contain himself.
One of these funerals, so she vaguely fancied, was Heliodora's; the other her own perhaps or her mother's and she shivered at the thought. The long train wandered on under its shroud of dust, and stood still when it reached the Necropolis; then the sledge with the bier came back empty on red hot runners but she was not one of the mourners she was imprisoned in the pestiferous house.
The words were hard and unkind, and as the door closed on the young woman Katharina's eyes glared after her. Why had this doom passed over Heliodora's head and demanded the sacrifice of one whose loss she could never cease to mourn? This brought her mother vividly to her mind.
The words were hard and unkind, and as the door closed on the young woman Katharina's eyes glared after her. Why had this doom passed over Heliodora's head and demanded the sacrifice of one whose loss she could never cease to mourn? This brought her mother vividly to her mind.
Then, turning to Heliodora's kettle she said sternly, as if in obedience to some higher power: "Seven gold pieces to complete the work," and while the young widow drew out her purse the sorceress lighted the lamps, singing as she did so and as she dropped the coin into the boiling fluid: "Pure, bright gold! Sunlight buried in a mine! Holy Seven. Shashef, Shashef!
Since her last visit a bird had died, and Heliodora's eyes were still moist from the tears she had shed over it. 'You do not love birds, she said, after gazing fixedly at Marcian a moment through the trellis. 'I never thought, was the reply, 'whether I loved them or not. 'I had rather give my love to them than to any of mankind. They repay it better.
And, as the tender-hearted Heliodora's fresh lips rested on the plague-tainted hair, Katharina closed her eyes and felt as a gladiator might who hitherto has only tried his weapons on the practising ground, and now for the first time uses them in the arena to pierce his opponent's heart.
Gloomily thoughtful, standing with eyes fixed upon those of the great bust of Berenice, he was startled by a sudden cry from within the house, the hoarse yell of a man in agony; it was repeated, and became a long shriek, rising and falling in terrible undulation. He had stepped forward to seek an explanation, when Heliodora's eunuch smilingly came to meet him.
So he cherished Silvia's letter, and flung Heliodora's contemptuously aside.
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