y."

"What does that mean?"

"That means, that my business is not merely with the fifty miserable
solidi with interest. Thou art my debtor for more than twenty times
that sum; mine is the house, mine the whole possession, most probably
thyself also, at this moment, with every bone in thy body; mine also
that slave daughter, who peeps anxiously there between the curtains,
with the child at her breast. Mother-sheep and lamb are my own."

So maliciously were these words uttered, at first lightly whispered,
then in rising anger, ever louder and more threatening, that Fulvius,
alarmed, looked back to see if his young wife had perceived this
disaster.

But Felicitas had again disappeared behind the curtain, satisfied that
the wild officer, whom she feared, she knew not why, was no longer
there. She knew well that the money was ready for the usurer.

Smiling, she bade farewell to her guest, who had emptied his beaker and
now took his departure. Not a cloud overshadowed her white brow as she
now sat down on the couch, and with a sweet smile on her maiden-like
countenance raised the waking child, and proceeded to give it
nourishment.

Zeno still delaying, Fulvius in fear and anger pushed him with his
elbow a step farther from the entrance; the muscles of his naked arms
tightened, his hands clenched; threatening but speechless, he stood
before the man who had spoken such fearful words.

Crispus now came forward; he seized his young nephew firmly by the
wrist of his right arm, which he was slowly raising for a blow.

"What means this?" cried the fat uncle, anxiously.

Fulvius spoke not a word.

But Zeno answered: "This means, that I have bought this property from
the Imperial Exchequer, with all the old claims for State taxes, and
seven times the rent due to the Emperor, for which, according to the
accounts, this tenant and his father are many decades in arrear; this
makes, together with the fines, a debt of seven thousand solidi."

Crispus calculated in an instant that if even he gave his whole
possessions to save his nephew, they would not amount to a seventh part
of this sum.

"That means," continued Zeno, "that as there is no doubt about the
inability of the debtor to pay, I claim him as my slave for debt, and
shall to-morrow be installed by the magistrate into the property."

"Oh, Felicitas!" groaned Fulvius.

"Be calm; I will take mother and child home with me till the suit is
decided," comforted the good-n