since yesterday morning had been in readiness, should at once be
borne with all speed down to the landing-place. Sail and oars soon
brought the boat so near that Decius was able to descry certain
female figures and that of a man, doubtless Basil, who stood up and
waved his arms shoreward.

'She has come,' broke from Maximus; and, in reply to his kinsman's
face of inquiry, he told of whom it was he spoke.

The landing-place was not visible from here. As soon as the boat
disappeared beneath the buildings of the town, Maximus requested of
his companion a service which asked some courage in the performance:
it was, to wait forthwith upon the Lady Petronilla, to inform her
that Aurelia had just disembarked, to require that three female
slaves should be selected to attend upon the visitor. This mission
Decius discharged, not without trembling; he then walked to the main
entrance of the villa, and stood there, the roll of Virgil still in
his hand, until the sound of a horse's hoofs on the upward road
announced the arrival of the travellers. The horseman, who came some
yards in advance of the slave-borne litter, was Basil. At sight of
Decius, he dismounted, and asked in an undertone: 'You know?' The
other replied with the instructions given by Maximus, that the
litter, which was closed against curious eyes, should be straightway
conveyed to the Senator's presence, Basil himself to hold apart
until summoned.

And so it was done. Having deposited their burden between two
columns of the portico, the bearers withdrew. The father's voice
uttered the name of Aurelia, and, putting aside the curtains that
had concealed her, she stood before him. A woman still young, and of