rs arrives, why, I'll hear of it, and you shall know."

Eldris hesitated and lost her game. Chloris clapped her hands. Sada
entered, with a glance full of curiosity.

"Take the girl to the kitchen," Chloris gave command. "Tell the cooks
she will serve as scullery maid and naught else. And hark you, Sada
girl! No word of last night's doings, or it will go hard with you. Now
go, the two of you."

She waved them away, and they went out and left her sitting there.

"She is strange!" said Eldris, pondering deeply.

"Ay, strange!" Sada echoed. "Us she rules with a rod of iron, and
yet--we love her, every one."

"I fear her," said Eldris, trying, after her nature, to analyze the
emotions in her. "For she is old and very evil. And I was helpless, and
she gave me help; homeless, and she took me in."

III

The Winter wore away and the great house hummed with preparation for the
marriage festivities of Marius and Varia. All the friends of Eudemius
and of Livinius and Marius were bidden; rich men and powerful, these,
foremost of the circle of feudal lords whose power in Britain had become
supreme, and whose allegiance to the Empire was long since merely
nominal. Of them were Quintus Fabius, a senator in the curia, or
governing body of Londinium; Caius Julius Valens, duumvir--chief
magistrate, with rank corresponding in some sort to that of governor--of
Isca Silurum, that great city which in the old days the Second Legion,
the Augustan, had made famous. Also came the Comes Litoris Saxonici,
Marcus Silenus Pomponius, Count of the Saxon Shore, in whose ward were
the Eastern Marches and the Fens, of whose ancient power all the
responsibilities and few of the prerogatives were left; Maximus Crispis,
who owned the largest villa at the fashionable Aquae Solis, and boasted
his own private and complete system of mineral baths; and fifty others
with names as great as these.

Eudemius threw himself into the arrangements with an energy which made
light of all obstacles. And of these there were many, since inevitably
the disordered state of the country reacted on private concerns. From
all the ends of the earth treasures were brought at his command.
Swift-winged vessels, manned by tireless rowers whose one law of life
was speed, came laden with rich stuffs and gems from the East; cups and
dishes of virgin gold, crusted with uncut jewels; statuettes of Bacchus,
the god of feasts, crowned with grapes of purple amethyst and leaves of