rror. He sank back with a
groan of sheer physical sickness, and tried again, his teeth set, the
sweat starting on his forehead. His legs trembled under him, and his
eyes were dazed, but he got to the door and leaned against it, his hands
over his face.

"If I have done this thing thou sayest," he said hoarsely, "my life is
rightly forfeit, and I shall give it into my lord's hand. I do not
understand--I am my lord's man, and loyal." He turned to her in stunned
appeal. "Sada girl, am I drunk, that thou shouldst fill me with this
madness?"

Her eyes filled with tears.

"Nay," she answered sadly. "Thou art sober now."

The fresh air aided what the shock of her words had begun. He mounted,
heavily, yet in feverish desperate haste, whirled his horse about with
scarcely a word of farewell to her, and struck the heavy spurs deep. The
beast sprang forward, with a shower of sparks from the cobbles.

Sada, returning from the door, ran into the arms of a thin slip of a
girl, white-faced and with burning eyes, who caught her and cried
desperately:

"What said he of Nicanor? What have they done to him? Does he live
still?"

"Peace, child!" said Sada. "Now he hath thought for nothing but this
thing which he hath done, and I with him. But last night he did tell me
that this friend of his, thy lover, hath been sent to the mines, and
that he had been of the guard."

"And I not to know!" cried Eldris, bitterly. "He might have told me how
he looked and what he said; and now he hath gone, and I may not ask
him--"

"Ay, and I think that I shall never see him more. For surely his lord
will slay him when he knows what he hath done," said Sada.

Suddenly she put her head on Eldris's shoulder and wept; and Eldris, by
way of showing sympathy, having love sorrows of her own, put her arms
about her and wept also.

II

The lord Eudemius laid himself upon his couch of ebon and carved ivory
with the air of a man whose work has been well done. Midnight was long
gone, the great house was quiet, and the desire of his heart stood forth
in fulfilment. He had a son; his dying house was propped with fresh
strength and vigor, and the gods of the shades might claim him when they
would. One week ago had the marriage been celebrated. Each night since
there had been feasts, with at every feast new dishes contrived, new
sports and entertainments offered, new souvenirs of price distributed,
to provide the jaded senses of his guests with fresh gra