I resented the possibility of an Imperial jest. I was more and more dazed
and puzzled the nearer I approached the inevitable interview and the
nearer I approached it the more futile and hopeless it seemed and the more
despondent I grew.
The page paused at a door, opened it, waved me in and shut it.
I was in a small parlor, and there was no other man in it; I saw only one
seated human figure, a woman, a lady, a graceful young woman, a charming
young woman.
Then, suddenly, I saw through it all.
My troubles were indeed at an end.
I recognized Vedia!
EPILOGUE
I do not think it necessary to describe in detail my marriage to Vedia,
nor our dinners at Nemestronia's, at Tanno's, at Segontius Almo's; nor the
dinners we gave at my old home, after it had been fitted up to our liking,
all trace of its occupancy by tenants effaced and we had settled there.
Why tell at length of my manumission of Agathemer, of my endowment of him
with a goodly share of my heritage from poor Falco, or of his disposition
of Falco's gems and his rapid acquisition of vast wealth and of his
continued prosperity?
When my misfortunes began Nemestronia was past her eighty-fourth birthday.
After my rehabilitation Vedia and I helped at the celebration of her
ninety-fifth, and of three more.
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