f his estates in Britain and in Rome; houses, lands,
personal effects, and slaves. Also, since an imperial alliance could
have been effected with scarcely greater pomp and circumstance than
Eudemius planned, six months was the shortest time in which the
festivities could be arranged.

"While I live," said Eudemius, in one of their daily talks together, "I
shall retain nominal control as head of the family. When you write _Diis
manibus_ over me, every denarius will belong to you and the heirs of
your body forever. But should the gods of the shades claim me before you
are legally my inheritor, all will revert to our lord the emperor as
guardian of the girl, to be parcelled out among his minions, and there
will be left nothing. Therefore my haste."

With this, Marius had entire sympathy. He also welcomed the speed with
which the business was being put through. If Eudemius had changed,
Marius was changing also. For no man can look on power well-nigh as
limitless as any man below a sovereign may wield, knowing that power
between his own hands for good or ill, and not become either a despot or
a chastened man. And there comes a moment in the transition when it is
doubtful which role will fit. Marius, in the natural course of events,
had reached this stage. He was sobered at the prospect opening before
him; withal his ambition was mounting by leaps and bounds. There seemed
nothing which he could not do. He thrilled at the contemplation of the
position which would be his; for he was human and Roman, and power, and
still more power, was as the breath of life to his nostrils. And he
thrilled again at the absolute confidence placed in his integrity by
Eudemius; for he was honorable, and that his honor should remain
untarnished as his sword was the only law to which he owned. But since
this would generally serve all other purposes, it sufficed.

II

Over the marshes twilight was falling. The sun had set; the western sky
was tinged with cold pale lemon; further, where the color faded into the
dusky dome of night, hung a wan evening star. The land was snow-bound
and desolate as far as the eye could see. The marsh-ford was glazed with
a thin sheet of ice, through which, by the banks, clumps of black frozen
reeds protruded. Through this ice, much broken by wheels, dark shallow
water showed. On the other side of Thorney the river flowed sluggish and
sullen, ice-bound along its banks. Midstream, making slow way to the
island, a rou