t you in marriage before?"

Varia shook her head. She knew not how to parry their curiosity; they,
seeing this, were the more curious.

"No," she confessed, low-voiced.

They looked at her and at each other with round eyes of wonder in which
laughter lurked.

"Thy husband thy first lover!" Nigidia exclaimed, as one incredulous.
"Poor little thing! Girls, is this not sad to hear? But then, poor
child, how couldst thou help it, shut away in here where thou canst see
never a man at all?"

"Oh, I have seen a man!" Varia cried eagerly. "It is not quite so bad
with me as that! A man like unto no other man in the world, I think!"
Her face flushed, her eyes shone. Again a glance went round. "He, too,
is strong and masterful, but tender--ah, so tender!" She clasped her
hands; her lips trembled.

"So, it is he whom thou lovest?" said Paula.

Again the old pained bewilderment grew in Varia's eyes.

"I--do not know," she faltered.

"But I do!" said Paula. "See, then, is this how it is with thee?" She
glanced at her companions with lowered lids; they drew closer, silent.
"Night and day his voice, his eyes, are with thee. His name is a song
which thy heart singeth dumbly; when it is spoken it makes thee quiver
like a harp on which a certain note is touched. At the very thought of
him, of his words, and his caresses, thou dost flush and tremble as
though his hands had touched thee. (Girls, see the color burn!) A dear
and tender pain is at thy heart; thou livest in dreams, and art
possessed by aching unrest which yet is sweet. Is it not even thus with
thee?"

"Ay," said Varia, very low. "It is even thus."

"Then thou dost love this man," said Paula. Her tone was final,
admitting of no doubt.

Varia, flushed from throat to brow, looked at her with shining eyes.

"Ay, I love him--I know it now! For night and day his voice and eyes are
with me, and his name and the words he hath said are a song to me. And
night and day I hear him calling me, from far and far away, as so many
times he hath called me to the garden. But now--woe is me! I may not
come."

"Get married, sweet, to him who loves thee, and then thou mayest have
him whom thou dost love," said Nigidia. "If one has courage to do as one
wills, and cleverness not to be found out, may not one do as one
chooses? I know that Rubria, wife of Maximus Crispus, hath two lovers,
and one of them is guest in this house. Who is thy lover, dear? What his
name and station?"

Va