'Were you at the Circus?' she next inquired, using the large hood to avoid his gaze without seeming to do so.
'I was there, gracious lady. Not, of course, in such an exalted place as that in which I saw you.'
'I did not choose that place,' said Heliodora, her voice almost conciliatory. 'Being sent for, I could not refuse to go.'
Sagaris set a stool near to his mistress, seated himself, and looked up into her face. She, for an instant, bore it impatiently, but of a sudden her countenance changed, and she met the gaze with a half-mocking smile.
'Is this one of your jealous days?' she asked, with what was meant for playfulness, though the shining of her eyes and teeth in the lamplight gave the words rather an effect of menace.
'Perhaps it is,' answered the Syrian. 'What did Bessas say to you?'
'Many things. He ended by asking me to sup at the palace. You will own that the invitation was tempting.'
Sagaris glared fiercely at her, and drew upon himself a look no less fierce.
'Fool!' she exclaimed, once more speaking in a natural voice. 'How shall we live a month hence? Have you a mind to steal away to the Goths? If you do so, you can't expect me to starve here alone. Thick-willed slave! Can you see no further than the invitation to sup with that thievish brute?—which I should have accepted, had I not foreseen the necessity of explaining to your dulness all that might follow upon it.'
Esteeming himself the shrewdest of mankind, Sagaris deeply resented these insults, not for the first time thrown at him by the woman whom he regarded with an Oriental passion and contempt.