'In this house, believe me, no one dare play the eavesdropper.' 'I have to speak,' said Marcian, bending forward, 'of things perilous--a life hanging on every word.

Only to one of whose magnanimity I felt assured should I venture to disclose my thought.

You have heard,' he proceeded after a pause, 'and, yet I am perchance wrong in supposing that such idle talk could reach your ears, let me make known to you then, that with Bessas in the palace dwells a fair woman (or so they say, for I have not seen her) named Muscula.

She is said to have much power with the commander.' The listener's countenance had darkened.

Regarding Marcian with haughty coldness, she asked him how this could concern _her_.