y. 'My father held it a prophecy his father before him.--But
forgive me, I am expecting anxiously the return of Basil; yonder
sail--is it his? Your eyes see further than mine.'

Decius at once put aside his own reflections, and watched the oncoming
bark. Before long there was an end of doubt. Rising in agitation to his
feet, Maximus gave orders that the litter, which since yesterday
morning had been in readiness, should at once be borne with all speed
down to the landing-place. Sail and oars soon brought the boat so near
that Decius was able to descry certain female figures and that of a
man, doubtless Basil, who stood up and waved his arms shoreward.

'She has come,' broke from Maximus; and, in reply to his kinsman's face
of inquiry, he told of whom it was he spoke.

The landing-place was not visible from here. As soon as the boat
disappeared beneath the buildings of the town, Maximus requested of his
companion a service which asked some courage in the performance: it
was, to wait forthwith upon the Lady Petronilla, to inform her that
Aurelia had just disembarked, to require that three female slaves
should be selected to attend upon the visitor. This mission Decius
discharged, not without trembling; he then walked to the main entrance
of the villa, and stood there, the roll of Virgil still in his hand,
until the sound of a horse's hoofs on the upward road announced the
arrival of the travellers. The horseman, who came some yards in advance
of the slave-borne litter, was Basil. At sight of Decius, he
dismounted, and asked in an undertone: 'You know?' The other replied
with the instructions given by Maximus, that the litter, which was
closed against curious eyes, should be straightway conveyed to the
Senator's presence, Basil himself to hold apart until summoned.

And so it was done. Having deposited their burden between two columns
of the portico, the bearers withdrew. The father's voice uttered the
name of Aurelia, and, putting aside the curtains that had concealed
her, she stood before him. A woman still young, and of bearing which
became her birth; a woman who would have had much grace, much charm,
but for the passion which, turned to vehement self-will, had made her
blood acrid. Her great dark eyes burned with quenchless resentment; her
sunken and pallid face told of the sufferings of a tortured pride.

'Lord Maximus,' were her first words, as she stood holding by the
litter, glancing distrustfully about her, 'y