Society never failed; opportunity for
clandestine meetings could always be found; all the business and the
pleasure of a day were regulated with reference to this immemorial
habit. Now, to enter the Thermae was to hear one's footsteps resound
in a marble wilderness; to have statues for companions and a sense
of ruin for one's solace. Basil, who thought more than the average
Roman about these changes, and who could not often amuse himself
with such spectacles as the theatres or the circus offered, grew
something of a solitary in his habits, and was supposed by those who
did not know him intimately, to pass most of his time in religious
meditation, the preface, perhaps, to retirement from the world.
Indolence bringing its wonted temptations, he fell into acquaintance
with Heliodora, a Neapolitan Greek of uncertain origin, whose
husband that year held the office of City Prefect. Acquaintance with
Heliodora was, in his case, sure to be a dangerous thing, and might
well prove fatal, for many and fierce were the jealousies excited by
that brilliant lady, whose husband alone regarded with equanimity
her amorous adventures.
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