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The broken wine-cups lay at their feet — the low, stone benches were devoid of all but the trophied skins of strange, wild beasts — and Dacia and Marius were alone at last. Home from a series of hardwon victories in Gaul, the wounds of Marius had been healed and well anointed by the homage of all his well-loved Rome, and chiefest among those who bowed to his heroism was his pagan concubine, Dacia.
In the heart of Marius, cultured, a patrician, an Epicurean, and something of a philosopher, there dwelt two persons, separate and distinct. Only the one had been aroused — the one of blood, of fierce lusts, of sensual cravings and licentious appetites. This nature he glutted with the gore of his many battlefields; with the revelries of the banquet and the baths — primarily with Dacia. To this side only did the voluptuous beauty appeal—only to the lock of the Scarlet Door did she hold the key. The other side lay sleeping — a side dedicated, all unconsciously, to victories not of the battle-field of blood; to dim twilights and forest aisle; to achieve
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ments made of sterner stuff than flesh ; to a love that would know the beauty of sacrifice and the purging of renunciation ; to fires long burned to ash. And it would take a finer charm than possessed by Dacia to probe that inner shrine.
In the heart of Dacia, daughter of a freedman. reared in a certain, untutored luxury, there dwelt but one person — herself. And this self was ministered to by the handmaids of Materialism, robed in their vestures of scarlet and gold. More potently still was the wanton nature ruled by her mighty passion for Marius — a passion that knew no scope beyond immediate possession. All the wild animalism of a creature strong in her desires was concentrated upon the young patrician, and the animal thwarted of its mate is a powerful foe for any steel.
' 'Dacia." spoke Marius, as he toyed with the unbound tresses of her long, dark hair, "hast ever given thought to this — er — Christianity, of which there is much talk?"
"It is a petty thing, Marius." petulantly returned the beauty, for,