Happily, Basil did not take the matter very
much to heart; he scarce pretended to himself that he cared whether
Heliodora was his for a day only or for a month; and he had already
turned his thoughts to the sweetness of Aemiliana, that young sister
of Gordian, whom, if he chose, he might make his wife.
Now again had sluggishness taken possession of him, and with it came
those promptings of the flesh which, but a few months ago, he easily
subdued, but which the lapse of time had once more made perilous. To
any who should have ventured to taunt him with forgetfulness of
Veranilda, he would have fiercely given the lie; and with reason,
for Veranilda's image was as vivid to him as on the day when he lost
her, and she alone of women had the power to excite his deepest and
tenderest emotions. Nevertheless, he had more than once of late
visited Heliodora, and though these visits were in appearance only
such as he might have paid to any lady of his acquaintance, Basil
knew very well whither they tended. As yet Heliodora affected a
total forgetfulness of the past; she talked of Veranilda, and
confessed that her efforts to make any discovery regarding the
captive were still fruitless, though she by no means gave up hope;
therewithal, she treated Basil only half seriously, with
good-naturedly mocking smiles, as a mere boy, a disdain to her
mature womanhood.
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