side
of the head with his open hand that the youngster staggered. The result
of this, Basil had well foreseen; he stood watchful, and in an instant,
as a dagger gleamed before his eyes, grasped the descending arm that
wielded it. Vivian struggled furiously, but was overcome by the other's
strength. Flung violently to the ground, his head struck against the
edge of a marble seat, and he lay senseless.

Heliodora looked on with the eyes with which she had often followed a
fight between man and beast in the amphitheatre. Pride, and something
more, lit up her countenance as she turned to Basil.

'Brave generous!' she exclaimed, her hands clasped against her bosom.
'Not even to draw your dagger! Noble Basil!'

'Have him looked to,' was the reply; 'and console him as you choose.
Lady, I bid you farewell.'

For a moment Heliodora stood as though she would let him thus depart.
Basil was nearing the entrance to the corridor, when she sprang after
him. Her arms were about his neck; her body clung against his; she
breathed hotly into his eyes as she panted forth words, Latin, Greek,
all burning with shameless desire. But Basil was not thus to be
subdued. The things that he had heard and seen, and now at last the
hand-to-hand conflict, had put far from him all temptation of the
flesh; his senses were cold as the marbles round about him. This woman,
who had never been anything to him but a lure and a peril, whom he had
regarded with the contempt natural in one of his birth towards all but
a very few of her sex, now disgusted him. He freed himself from her
embrace with little ceremony.

'Have I deceived you?' he asked. 'Have I pretended to come here for
anything but my own purpose, which you pretended to serve?'

Heliodora stood in a strange attitude, her arms thrown back, her body
leaning forward--much like some fierce and beautiful animal watching
the moment to spring.

'Do you believe what that harlot said?' she asked in a thick voice.

'Enough of it to understand my folly in hoping to learn anything
through you. Let us part, and think of each other no more.'

She caught his arm and put her face close to his.

'Leave me thus, and your life shall pay for it.'

Basil laughed scornfully.

'That cockerel,' he replied, pointing to Vivian, who was just stirring,
'sent me a message this morning, that if I valued my life I should not
come here. I heed your threat no more than his.'

They looked into each other's eyes, and