- —Oh, as I live this life of revel and riot, I often
wonder whether truth is indeed the enemy of beauty!
Basil.
And in such an hour can you sigh after beauty? Can you so easily forget what you have just heard?
Julian.
[Stopping his ears.] Not a word more of those horrors! We will shake off all thoughts of Antioch
Tell me, what does Makrina write further? There was something more; I remember, you said; what was it you called the rest of her news?
Basil.
Strange.
Julian.
Yes, yes;—what was it?
Basil.
She writes of Maximus in Ephesus
Julian.
[Eagerly.] The Mystic?
Basil
Yes; that inscrutable man. He has appeared once more; this time in Ephesus. All the region around is in a ferment. Maximus is on all lips. Either he is a juggler or he has made a baleful compact with certain spirits. Even Christians are strangely allured by his impious signs and wonders.
