“Well, then, remember this while you ride home. The day after you brought her back to her father, she wrote to me saying that she would reach Aornos shortly, and bring you to see me. And in that letter she reminded me that I had often told her that all I had was hers, which is true. Then she went on to say that she desired me to give you my old mail as a thank offering. She was careful to emphasize the object of the gift lest I might think there was any other reason for it. It is always well to note carefully anything that a woman emphasizes.”
“Why so, Paulos?”
“Because you will often find that they mean something entirely different, and later on the knowledge may be valuable. But I hear the horses. I’m sorry I cannot read Aryenis’s thoughts for you. But I have told you some things which may help you to read them yourself if ever you should like to take up magic.”
I had a lot of things to ponder as I rode home, but somehow I did not feel so sand-papery inside as I had been. Paulos is a most soothing person.
CHAPTER XX
I MAKE A BET WITH ARYENIS
I had to hurry to get back in time for the evening meal, and it was dark before I rode up the paved street into Kyrlos’s palace.
Fortune sent me to sit next to Aryenis that night, an honour I had not enjoyed for the last two or three days. An Aryenis in dress of flowing silk, with low square-cut neck—the offending bandage had been removed—which showed the faultless turn of her slim throat above her beautifully modelled shoulders. Simple clothes, and but little in the way of ornament, save for the sapphire pendant on the thinnest of gold chains, which gleamed against the rose ivory of her bosom, and the little gold clasps that sparkled in the gold-flecked wealth of her auburn hair.
“And where have you been all day, Harilek?” she asked. “I was looking for you this evening to ride with me.”
“I wish I had known that. But I thought you would be engaged all day, and so, as every one else seemed occupied, I rode out this morning with Payindah down the Aornos road.”
“You were a long time, since you were not at breakfast, and have but just come in. How far did you go?”