Something I carry with
me which has power over such dogs as Chorsoman.'
'I saw that, best Marcian. But it did not avail to save my cousin
Aurelia from robbery.'
'Nothing would, where Chorsoman was sure of a week's--nay, of an
hour's--impunity. But did he steal aught belonging to the Gothic
maiden?'
'To Veranilda? She has but a bracelet and a ring, and those she was
wearing. They came from her mother, a woman of noblest heart, who,
when her husband Ebrimut played the traitor, and she was left behind
in Italy, would keep nothing but these two trinkets, which once were
worn by Amalafrida.'
'You know all that now,' observed Marcian quietly.
'The story of the trinkets only since an hour or two ago. That of
Veranilda's parentage I learned from Aurelia, Veranilda refusing to
converse with me until I knew.'
'Since when you have conversed, I take it, freely enough.'
'Good my lord,' replied Basil, with a look of some earnestness, 'let
us not jest on this matter.'
'I am little disposed to do so, O fiery lover!' said Marcian, with a
return of his wonted melancholy.
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