'For no long time. Here I am but a guest. We must dwell where I am lord and you lady of all about us.'
He told her of his possessions, of the great house in Rome with the villa at Arpinum. Then he asked her, playfully, but with a serious purpose in his mind, which of the two she would prefer for an abode.
'I have no choice but yours,' she replied. 'Where it seems good to my dear lord to dwell, there shall I be at rest.'
'We must be safe against our enemies,' said Basil, with graver countenance.
'Our enemies?'
'Has not Aurelia talked to you of the war? You know that the Gothic king is conquering all before him, coming from the north?'
Veranilda looked into her lover's face with a tender anxiety.
'And you fear him, O Basil? It is he that is our enemy?'
'Not so, sweetest. No foe of mine is he who wears the crown of Theodoric. They whom I fear and abhor are the slaves of Justinian, the robber captains who rule at Ravenna and in Rome.'
As she heard him, Veranilda trembled with joy. She caught his hand, and bent over it, and kissed it.