principle, and only after the subjugation of the land by Belisarius
had Arianism in Italy been formally condemned. Of course it was
protected by the warring Goths: Totila's victories had now once more
extended religious tolerance over a great part of the country; the
Arian priesthood re-entered their churches; and even in Rome the
Greek garrison grew careless of the reviving heresy. Of these things
did Decius speak, when the distressed lover sought his counsel. No
one more liberal than Decius; but he bore a name which he could not
forget, and in his eyes the Goth was a barbarian, the Gothic woman
hardly above the level of a slave. That Basil should take a Gothic
wife, even one born of a royal line, seemed to him an indignity.
Withheld by the gentleness of his temper from saying all he thought,
he spoke only of the difficulties which would result from such a
marriage, and when, in reply, Basil disclosed his mind, though less
vehemently than to Aurelia, Decius fell into meditation. He, too,
had often reflected with bitterness on the results of that
restoration of Rome to the Empire which throughout the Gothic
dominion most of the Roman nobles had never ceased to desire; all
but was he persuaded to approve the statesmanship of Cassiodorus.
Nevertheless, he could not, without shrinking, see a kinsman pass
over to the side of Totila.

'I must think,' he murmured. 'I must think.'

He had not yet seen Veranilda. When, in the afternoon, Basil led him
into the ladies' presence, and his eyes fell upon that white-robed
loveliness, censure grew faint in him. Though a Decius, he was a man
of the sixth century after Christ; his mind conceived an ideal of
human excellence which would have been unintelligible to the Decii
of old; in his heart meekness and chastity had more reverence than