least, I cannot sleep in this heat, and I am weary of the thoughts of
State, for many matters trouble me just now. Come, change my mind, if
you can, for if so I'll thank you. Tell me of yourself when you were
young. Why did you leave your northern home, where I've heard you were a
barbarian chief, and wander hither to Byzantium?"

"Because of a woman," I answered.

"Ah!" she said, clapping her hands; "I knew it. Tell me of this woman
whom you love."

"The story is short, Augusta. She bewitched my foster-brother, and
caused him to be sacrificed to the northern gods as a troth-breaker, and
I do not love her."

"You'd not admit it if you did, Olaf. Was she beautiful, well, say as I
am?"

I turned and looked at the Empress, studying her from head to foot. She
was shorter than Iduna by some inches, also older, and therefore of a
thicker build; but, being a fair Greek, her colour was much the same,
save that the eyes were darker. The mouth, too, was more hard. For the
rest, she was a royal-looking and lovely woman in the flower of her age,
and splendidly attired in robes broidered with gold, over which she wore
long strings of rounded pearls. Her rippling golden hair was dressed in
the old Greek fashion, tied in a simple knot behind her head, and over
it was thrown a light veil worked with golden stars.

"Well, Captain Olaf," she said, "have you finished weighing my poor
looks against those of this northern girl in the scales of your