'False to me?' she murmured. 'How false?'
'He loves another woman, and for her sake has turned to the Greeks.'
Still Veranilda gazed wonderingly.
'Things have come to pass of which you know nothing,' pursued
Marcian, forcing his voice to a subdued evenness, a sad gravity.
'Listen whilst I tell you all. Had you remained but a few days
longer at Cumae, you would have been seized by the Greeks and sent
to Constantinople; for the Emperor Justinian himself had given this
command. You came to Surrentum; you plighted troth with Basil; he
would have wedded you, and--not only for safety's sake, but
because he wished well to the Goths--would have sought the
friendship of Totila. But you were carried away; vainly we searched
for you; we feared you had been delivered to the Greeks. In Rome,
Basil was tempted by a woman, whom he had loved before ever he saw
you, a woman beautiful, but evil hearted, her name Heliodora. She
won him back to her; she made him faithless to you and to the cause
of the Goths. Little by little, I learnt how far he had gone in
treachery. He had discovered where you were, but no longer desired
to release you that you might become his wife.
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