r?" he asked
calmly.

"None," she replied curtly.

And calling her slaves to her she entered her litter, and drew its
curtains closely round her so that she should no longer be offended by
his sight.

CHAPTER VII

"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."--PSALM XIV. 1.

And late that day when Dea Flavia was preparing for rest she dismissed
her tire-women, keeping only her young slaves around her, and then
ordered Licinia to attend on her this night.

Licinia was highly privileged in the house of Dea Flavia. She had nursed
the daughter of proud Claudius Octavius at her breast, and between the
wizened old woman and the fresh young girl there existed perfect
friendship and the confidence born of years. Dea's first tooth was in
Licinia's keeping and so was the first lock of hair cut from Dea's head.
Licinia had been the confidante of Dea's first childish sorrow and was
the first to hear the tales of the young girl's social triumphs.

No one but Licinia was allowed to handle Dea's hair. It was her
shrivelled fingers that plaited every night the living stream of gold
into innumerable little plaits, so that the ripple in it might continue
to live again on the morrow. It was Licinia who rubbed Dea's exquisite
limbs with unguents after the bath, and she who trimmed the rose-tinted
nails into their perfect, pointed shape.

To-night Dea Flavia was lying on a couch covered with crimson silk. Her
elbows were buried in a cushion stuffed with eiderdown, her chin rested
in her two hands and her eyes were fixed on a mirror of polished bronze
held up by one of her younger slaves.

Licinia, stooping over the reclining body of her mistress, was gently
rubbing the white shoulders and spine with sweet-scented oil.

"And didst see it all, Licinia?" asked Dea Flavia, as with a lazy
stretch of her graceful arms she suddenly swung herself round on to her
back and looked straight up at the wrinkled old face bending tenderly
over her.

"Aye, my precious," replied Licinia eagerly, "everything did I see; for
thou didst draw the curtains of thy litter together so quickly, I had no
time to take my place by thy side. I meant to follow immediately, and
was only waiting there for a moment or two until the crowd of thy
retinue had dispersed along the various streets. Then it was that I
spied my lord Hortensius, and something in the expression of his face
made me pause then and there to see if there was aught amiss."

"An