carried her to the couch, and laid her
there, and a moment she clung to his hand desperately. He was something
human to hold to; so she would have clung to Nerissa, or even to Mycon.

"Afraid of the dark!" Marius scoffed gently. "Well, I am here now, and
there is nothing shall harm thee. Of a truth, I did begin to think the
feast would never have an end. The more I burned to be done with it and
come to thee, the more the minutes dragged. I pictured thee, awaiting me
here in thy secret bower; thy flushing face and the veiling shadow of
thy hair, thy denying hands and averted glances--and thy father's guests
might well have thought me a love-sick fool, thinking of nothing but his
secret hope that his mistress might prove kind."

Varia sat upright on the couch and put her feet upon the floor, and his
eyes followed the gracious outlines of her form beneath its drapery of
rose. She pushed her hair back from her eyes and looked at him. Slow
crimson spread from throat to brow; her glance wavered and fell. Quite
suddenly she put both hands to her face, hiding her eyes from his, and
turned her face away. It was a gesture of a child, infinitely touching,
all-betraying in its pure artlessness. He started toward her, his dark
eyes keen; and she sat quite still, passive to this fate of hers from
which flight no longer might avail her. But with the touch of his hand
upon her shoulder there came a soft insistent knocking at the door.

Marius smothered a curse and strode to open it. Mycon stood upon the
threshold, and in the lamplight his face showed gray. He stammered like
one caught in guilt.

"Lord, thy pardon! There is trouble without, and the master sends to ask
my lord's presence. We be encompassed by barbarians who have crept upon
us."

"Tell thy lord I come," said Marius. Varia was forgotten; scarcely had
the slave vanished down the corridor when Marius was after him, leaving
his bride alone.

Now in the villa were to be heard the first sounds of people aroused
from sleep to find themselves in the midst of unknown dangers. Voices,
frightened and impatient, echoed back and forth along the corridors;
lights gleamed across the courts. Men and women, half dressed, began to
appear, questioning feverishly, delivering themselves of theories to any
who would listen.

"They say that if he will surrender Felix they will depart at once in
peace."

"How came they to know that he was here? Who told them?"

"He will not surrender