A few minutes passed, and Athalfrida, who, after caresses and tender words, had drawn apart, as if to watch her children playing, beheld the expected visitor.

Her curiosity was not indiscreet; she would have glimpsed the graceful figure, the comely visage, and then have turned away; but at this moment the new comer paused, looked about him in hesitation, and at length advanced towards her.

She had every excuse for looking him straight in the face, and it needed not the pleasant note of his speech to dispose her kindly towards him.
'Gracious lady, I seek the lady Veranilda, and was bidden come hither along the terrace.' Totila's sister had but little of the Latin tongue; now, for perhaps the first time in her life, she regretted this deficiency.

Smiling, she pointed to a group of cypresses which hid part of the portico, and her questioner, with a courtly bow, went on.

He wore the ordinary dress of a Roman noble, and had not even a dagger at his waist.