He saw the glow of enthusiasm rise to Dea Flavia's face, suffusing her
eyes, her lips, her throat. He believed that that glow had been partly
kindled by his glance, and was too much blinded by his own ambition and
his own desires to note that the young girl's averted gaze was
persistently fixed upon the door of the inner room.

Dea Flavia, of a truth, had little thought of my lord Hortensius
Martius, of his ambition or of his love; she could not tear her eyes
away from the spot beyond the stuccoed walls where lay a man--helpless
now--but a man whose every deed proclaimed him the born ruler of men.

Then, as those around her were silent, hanging expectant upon her lips,
she forced her thoughts back to them and to all that they had said.

"What would ye have me do, my lords?" she murmured.

"Make thy choice, O Augusta!" urged Caius Nepos eagerly. "Choose thy
lord and master from among those who are ready to acclaim thy choice as
final. The praetorian guard is prepared I tell thee. The mad Caesar
yesterday paved the way for our success. Choose thy husband, Augusta,
and the praetorian guard will forthwith proclaim him as the greatest and
best of Caesars, princeps, imperator, the father of his armies. The
people will go wild with joy and will deify thee and thy lord."

"But the Caesar ... my kinsman...?"

"He will end his days in contentment and in peace," said Ancyrus, the
elder, dryly, "in a villa on the island of Capraea. No harm shall come to
him. We here present do pledge thee our oath."

"But I must have time to think," she said earnestly; "'tis no small
matter ye ask of me, my lords. I am but a woman and still young in
years, and ye ask me to weigh the destinies of this mighty Empire in the
balance of mine own desires."

"We would not ask it of thee, O Augusta! were thou an ordinary mortal,"
said Hortensius Martius, speaking with passionate warmth, "but thou art
a goddess; the blood of great Augustus doth deify thee."

"A goddess? I?" she retorted coldly; "nay! I am but a lonely woman who
hath need of counsel to guide her in this supreme moment of her life."

"Are we not here to guide thee?" came in dulcet tones from Ancyrus, the
elder; "we, thy faithful servants, thy obedient slaves? Have we not
spoken and counselled thee?"

"Aye! you have spoken, my lords, and I have read the thoughts that lie
behind your words. 'Tis not loyalty to dead Augustus that alone led your
footsteps to my door."

"Our love