gladiator
is down; and laughed again. "Ay, child; once one loved me, and once I
loved. Thou canst not credit such softness in me? Well, I do not blame
thee; but it is truth."

"I believe," said Varia, "for thou hast told me truth before, to-night.
If thou hadst said my father loved me, I should never have believed thy
word again, but thou gavest me truth for the truth I gave to thee. I am
a fool, and sometimes it is given to fools to know the truth."

"And therein to be wiser than the sane," Eudemius muttered. "And that is
truth also." He looked at her a moment with something awakened in his
face.

"Is there a change then, after all, in thee?" he said suddenly, deep in
thought and study of her face. "Thrice to-night hast thou said what I
did not understand, and never thought to hear thee say. Can it be that
sometime in the future the dawn will break?"

Varia looked at him in her turn, a curious sidelong glance. In the dim
light her face all at once showed strange to him, as occasionally one
will see a well-known face in a new aspect--pale, with scarlet mouth and
long veiled eyes. "Thou art something besides the child I've known;
though whether that thing be good or evil--" His speech died; he gazed
at her as though he would pierce the mystery which shrouded her and
learn what it was that made her alien, forgetting to finish his words.
"There is a change, and I cannot fathom it. What is working in thee? Or
is it the delusion of mine own imaginings? Thy face--thy eyes--have they
changed also? Mine own imaginings--vain imaginings! What is there in thy
life which could have changed thee? Ah, if but these next months might
see thee still more changed!"

Varia rose from her knees beside him.

"Why should I be changed?" she asked. "And why wouldst have me changed?
I am happy--I have been happy as I am. If the joy of life is not mine,
as thou hast said so often, the sorrow of life is not mine either; and I
do not wish to change!" Her voice grew and gathered passion. "I fear to
change, for I know not what the change might bring. I do not understand.
Oh, father--do not wish that I should change!"

She took a step toward him with outstretched, appealing hands. Eudemius
watched her with critical eyes.

But even as he watched, his own face changed and went gray, and he
caught his breath and put a hand against his side. His body stiffened
and grew rigid, while at the same time long shudders ran through it,
dumb protest of