At this point the Grand Chamberlain interposed.
"Were it not wise," he drawled, looking from the one to the other, "to acquaint this holy man with the perils that beset his soul, since the two most beautiful and virtuous ladies in Rome seem resolved to guide him on his Way of the Cross?"
There was a moment of silence, then he continued in the same drawl, which veiled emotions he dared not reveal in this assembly.
"Deem you, the man who journeyed hundreds of leagues to obtain absolution for having kissed a woman in wedlock has aught to fear from such as you?"
Ere Theodora could make reply the tantalizing purring voice of Roxana struck her ear.
"Surely this is no man—"
"A man he is, nevertheless," Basil retorted hotly. "One night I wandered out upon the silent Aventine. Losing myself among the ruins, I heard voices in the abode of the Monk of Cluny. Fearing, lest some one should attempt to harm this holy friar," he continued, with a side glance at Theodora, "I entered unseen. I overheard his confession."
There was profound silence.
It seemed too monstrously absurd. Absolution for a kiss!
Roxana spoke at last, and her veiled mockery strained her rival's temper to the breaking point. Her words stung, as needles would the naked flesh.