'Many things. He ended by asking me to sup at the palace. You will own
that the invitation was tempting.'

Sagaris glared fiercely at her, and drew upon himself a look no less
fierce.

'Fool!' she exclaimed, once more speaking in a natural voice. 'How
shall we live a month hence? Have you a mind to steal away to the
Goths? If you do so, you can't expect me to starve here alone.
Thick-willed slave! Can you see no further than the invitation to sup
with that thievish brute?--which I should have accepted, had I not
foreseen the necessity of explaining to your dulness all that might
follow upon it.'

Esteeming himself the shrewdest of mankind, Sagaris deeply resented
these insults, not for the first time thrown at him by the woman whom
he regarded with an Oriental passion and contempt.

'Of course I know what you mean,' he replied disdainfully. 'I know,
too, that you will be no match for the Thracian robber.'

Heliodora caught his arm.

'What if I can make him believe that Belisarius has the Emperor's
command to send him in chains to Constantinople! Would he not rather
come to terms with Totila, who, as I know well, long ago offered to let
him carry off half his plunder?'

'You know that? How?'

'Clod-pate! Have you forgotten your master whom Basil slew? Did I not
worm out of him, love-sick simpleton that he was, all the secrets of
his traffic with Greeks and Goths?'

Again they glanced at each other like wild creatures before the leap.

'Choose,' said Heliodora. 'Leave me free to make your fortune, for
Totila is generous to those who serve him well; or stay here and spy
upon me till your belly pinches, and the great opportunity of your life
is lost.'

There was a silence. The Syrian's features showed how his mind was
rocking this way and that.

'You have not cunning for this,' he snarled. 'The Thracian will use you
and laugh at you. And when you think to come back to me....'

He touched the dagger at his waist.

In that moment there came confused sounds from without the room.
Suddenly the curtain was pulled aside, and there appeared the face of a
frightened woman, who exclaimed: 'Soldiers, lady, soldiers are in the
house!'

Heliodora started up. Sagaris, whose hand was still on the dagger's
hilt, grasped her by the mantle, his look and attitude so like that of
a man about to strike that she sprang away from him with a loud cry.
Again the curtain was raised, and there entered hurriedly several armed
me