'And you swear to me,' said Basil, who quivered as he listened,
'that this is the truth and all you know?'
Leo's wife swore by everything sacred on earth, and by all the
powers of heaven, that she had falsified nothing, concealed nothing.
Thereupon Basil turned to go away. In the vestibule, the slaves
knelt weeping before him, some with entreaties to be permitted to
leave this stricken house, some imploring advice against the plague;
men and women alike, all were beside themselves with terror. In this
moment there came a knocking at the entrance; the porter ran to
open, and admitted Gordian. Basil and he, who had not met since the
day of the family gathering, spoke together in the portico. He had
come, said Gordian, in the fear that Petronilla had been forsaken by
all her household, as sometimes happened to those infected. Had it
been so, he would have held it a duty to approach her with what
solace he could. As it was, physician and priest and servants being
here, he durst not risk harm to his own family; but he would hold
himself in readiness, if grave occasion summoned him.
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