Thinking to do the king a pleasure, he told him of Veranilda, of the commands regarding her which had come from the East, and of her vanishing no one knew whither.

And of these things, O Basil, did Totila himself, with his royal mouth, speak unto me not many days gone by.' 'I see not how that concerns me,' said Basil wearily.
'True, it may not.

Yet, if I were wooing a wife, I had rather seek her at the hands of Totila than at those of Justinian.

To be sure, I did not speak of you to the king; that would have been less than discreet.
But Totila will ere long be lord of all Italy, and who knows but the deacon Leander, no friend of Constantinople, might see his interest and his satisfaction in yielding Veranilda rather to the Goth than to the Greek ?' Basil started.

Such a thought had never entered his mind, yet he saw probability in the suggestion.
'You assure me,' he said, 'that she has not yet been surrendered.