ed quietly. "There is no
treachery in my desire to serve Caesar in single maidenhood, or to offer
thee my life rather than my freedom."

"There is black treachery," he said with tremulous voice like one in
deep sorrow, "in refusing to obey the Caesar."

"In this alone----"

But it was his turn now to interrupt her with a quick raising of the
hand.

"Aye! That is what the waverer says: 'Good my lord, I'll obey in all
save in what doth not please me!' Dea Flavia Augusta, I had thought thee
above such monstrous selfishness."

"Selfishness, my lord?"

"Aye! Art thou not of the House of Caesar? Art thou not my kinswoman?
Dost thou not receive at my hands honour, position, everything that
places thee above the common herd of humanity? Were I not the Caesar,
where wouldst thou be? Not in this palace surely, not the virtual queen
of Rome, but, mayhap, a handmaid to another Caesar's wife, an attendant
on his daughter.... Thou dost seem to have forgot all this, Augusta."

"Nay, gracious lord, I have forgot nothing! Your goodness to me----"

"And yet wouldst deliver me over into the hands of mine enemies," he
said with increased dolefulness, "and not raise a finger to save me."

"I would give my life for the Caesar," she interposed firmly, "and this
the Caesar knows."

"Wouldst not even take a husband, when by so doing thou wouldst save the
Caesar from death."

"My gracious lord speaks in riddles ... I do not understand."

"Didst not understand, girl, that I but wished to test thy loyalty to
me? Thou--like so many alas!--dost so oft prate of unbounded attachment
to Caesar. To-day, for the first time, did I put that attachment to the
test, and lo! it hath failed me."

"Try me, my lord," she said, "and I'll not fail thee. But give me thy
trust as well as thy commands."

She advanced close to where he sat, apparently a broken-down, sorrowful
man, stricken with grief. The mighty Caesar now was far more powerful
than he had been a while ago when he raged and stormed and threatened,
for he had appealed to the strongest feeling within her--he had appealed
to her loyalty.

Slowly she sank once more on her knees, not in entreaty now, not with
thoughts of self, but in the humble subjection of herself to the needs
of him whom the gods had anointed. She sank upon her knees, and with
that simple action she offered her happiness on the altar of her loyalty
to him and to her house.

Gone was the look of defiance from her eye