By some supreme subtlety,
Marcian had got the beautiful maiden into his power, and doubtless
the letter he was sending to Totila contained some device for the
concealing of what had happened.
Now to the Syrian this would have been a matter of indifference, but
for his secret communications with Heliodora and all that had
resulted therefrom. Heliodora's talk was of three persons--of
Marcian, of Basil, of Veranilda--and Sagaris, reasoning from all
the gossip he had heard, and from all he certainly knew, concluded
that the Greek lady had once loved Basil, but did so no more, that
her love had turned to Marcian, and that she either knew or
suspected Marcian to be a rival of Basil for the love of Veranilda.
Thus had matters stood (he persuaded himself) until his own entrance
on the scene. That a woman might look with ardent eyes on more than
one man in the same moment, seemed to Sagaris the simplest of facts;
he consequently found it easy to believe that, even whilst loving
Marcian, Heliodora should have conceived a tenderness for Marcian's
slave. That Heliodora's professions might be mere trickery, he never
imagined; his vanity forbade it; at each successive meeting he
seemed to himself to have strengthened his hold upon the luxurious
woman; each time he came away with a fiercer hatred of Marcian, and
a deeper resolve to ruin him.
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