lord had led at Constantinople, whither he had accompanied him. He
described the three races he had won in the Circus with his own horses;
gave a lively picture of his forcing his way with only five followers
through a raging mob of rioters, from the palace to the church of St.
Sophia; and then enlarged on Orion's successes among the beauties of the
Capital.

"The queen of them all," he went on in boastful accents, "was Heliodora
--no flute-player nor anything of that kind; no indeed, but a rich,
elegant, and virtuous patrician lady, the widow of Flavianus, nephew to
Justinus the senator, and a relation of the Emperor. All Constantinople
was at her feet, the great Gratian himself sought to win her, but of
course, in vain. There is no palace to compare with hers in all Egypt,
not even in Alexandria. The governor's residence here--for I think
nothing of mere size--is a peasant's hut--a wretched barn by comparison!
I will tell you another time what that casket of treasures is like. Its
door was besieged day and night by slaves and freedmen bringing her
offerings of flowers and fruit, rare gifts, and tender verses written on
perfumed, rose-colored silk; but her favors were not to be purchased till
she met Orion. Would you believe it: from the first time she saw him in
Justinus' villa she fell desperately in love with him; it was all over
with her; she was his as completely as the ring on my finger is mine!"

And in his vanity he showed his hearers a gold ring, with a gem of some
value, which he owed to the liberality of his young master. "From that
day forth," he eagerly went on, "the names of Orion and Heliodora were in
every mouth, and how often have I seen men quite beside themselves over
the beauty of this divine pair. In the Circus, in the theatre, or
sailing about the Bosphorus--they were to be seen everywhere together;
and through the hideous, bloody struggle for the throne they lived in a