But a rumour sprang up among those who still took interest
in the matter that some one writing from Sicily professed to have
seen the Gothic maiden on board a vessel which touched there on its
way to the East. This came to the ears of Marcian on the day after
his conversation with Heliodora. Whether it were true or not he
cared little, but he was disturbed by its having become subject of
talk at this moment, for Heliodora could not fail to hear the story.
The death of Muscula set him quivering with expectancy. That it
resulted from his plotting he could not be assured. Sagaris, who
wore a more than usually self-important air when speaking of the
event, had all manner of inconsistent reports on his tongue Not many
days passed before Marcian received a letter, worded like an
ordinary invitation, summoning him to the house on the Quirinal.
He went at the third hour of the morning, and was this time led
upstairs to a long and wide gallery, which at one side looked down
upon the garden in the rear of the house, and at the other offered a
view over a great part of Rome.
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