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Updated: June 22, 2025
Faint with a sudden nausea, Marcian performed no courtesy, but stood regarding the living woman much as he had gazed at the face in marble, absent and sombre-browed. 'What now? were Heliodora's first words, her smile fading in displeasure. 'Must we needs converse in your torture-chamber? asked Marcian. 'Are your senses more delicate than mine? 'It seems so.
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.
Katharina's whole being was in wild revolt; she did not know how she was able to return Heliodora's greeting, and to ask her how she could possibly play the lute with a headache. "Just gliding my fingers over the strings calms and refreshes my blood," she replied pleasantly. "But you, child, look as if you were suffering far worse than I. Did you come home in the chariot that drove up just now?"
A day or two after, early in the morning, he went to Heliodora's house, and sent in a message begging private speech with the lady. As he had expected, he was received forthwith, Heliodora being aware of his friendship with Basil. Between her and Marcian the acquaintance was but slight; he had hitherto regarded her as unserviceable, because too dangerous.
Marcian stood watching her for a moment, then turned to look at the wide prospect. A minute or two passed; he heard Heliodora's step approaching. 'What keeps you here? she asked coldly. 'Lady, I am thinking. 'Of what? 'Of the day soon to come when Totila will be king in Rome. Heliodora's countenance relaxed in a smile.
She would have won her bet; for Orion, who had remained unmoved by his sister-in-law's letter, by the warning voice of the faith of his childhood, by the faithful council of his honest servant Nilus, or by the senator's convincing arguments had yielded to Heliodora's sweet blandishments. How ardently had her loving heart flamed up, when she saw him so deeply agitated at the sight of her!
Just as she exclaimed: "Another kiss there-it burns so dreadfully," she felt two hands on her temples and two lips, not Heliodora's, were pressed on her head. She looked up in astonishment and saw the smiling face of her mother, who had come after her to ask how the bishop was, and who wished to take her share in soothing the pain of her darling. How well her little surprise had succeeded!
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.
Add to this her full, supple figure and how perfectly she dressed, how exquisitely she sang and struck the lute! It was not for nothing that she was courted by every youth of rank in Constantinople and if the old Mukaukas could but hear her laugh! There was not a sound on earth more clear, more glad than Heliodora's laugh.
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.
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