ld have spoken had things been as you pretend.'

Gaudiosus, bent double, a hand propping his white-bearded chin, mused
for a little with sadded air.

'Lord Basil,' he resumed at length, 'somewhat more have I to say to
you. I live far from the world, and hear little of its rumour. Until
this day your name was unknown to me, and of good concerning you I have
to this hour heard nothing save from your own lips. May I credit this
report you make of yourself? Or should I rather believe what Marcian,
in brief words, declared to me when he heard that you were at his gate?'

The speaker paused, as if to collect courage.

'He spoke ill of me?' asked Basil.

'He spoke much ill. He accused you of disloyalty in friendship, saying
that he had but newly learnt how you had deceived him. More than this
he had not time to tell.'

Basil looked into the old man's rheumy eyes.

'You do well to utter this, good father. Tell me one thing more. Yonder
maiden, does she breathe the same charge against me?'

'Not so,' replied Gaudiosus. 'Of you she said no evil.'

'Yet I scarce think'--he smiled coldly--'that she made profession of
love for me?'

'My son, her speech was maidenly. She spoke of herself as erstwhile
your betrothed; no more than that.'

As he uttered these words, the priest rose. He had an uneasy look, as
if he feared that infirmity of will and fondness for gossip had
betrayed him into some neglect of spiritual obligation.

'It is better,' he said, 'that we should converse no more. I know not
what your purposes may be, nor do they concern me I remain here to pray
by the dead, and I shall despatch a messenger to my brother presbyter,
that we may prepare for the burial. Remember,' he raised his head, and
his voice struck a deeper note, 'that the guilt of blood is upon you,
and that no plea of earthly passion will avail before the Almighty
Judge. Behold your hand--even so, but far more deeply have you stained
your soul.'

Basil scarce heard. Numbness had crept over him again; he stared at the
doorway by which the priest re-entered the house, and only after some
minutes recalled enough of the old man's last words to look upon his
defiled hand. Then he called aloud, summoning any slave who might hear
him, and when the doorkeeper came timidly from a recess where he had
been skulking, bade him bring water. Having cleansed himself, he walked
by an outer way to the rear of the villa; for he durst not pass through
the atrium.