'It is.'
'Then we may be the fastest friends.'
'And what say Lucius and Venusta?'
'Delighted.'
'Good, very good!'
'And—yet another bit of news for you, Chios, for it seems thou art not a fruitful newsmonger.'
'What is it?'
'The sudden death of the High Priestess of Artemis.'
'Is it so?' and a deathly pallor spread over the face of Chios.
'Art thou ill?'