the Numidian swept into Gabii, Agias drew rein, telling himself
that the horse would make better speed for a little rest and baiting.
The tavern court into which he rode was exceedingly filthy; the whole
building was in a state of decay; the odours were indescribable. In
the great public-room a carter was trolling a coarse ditty, while
through the doorway ran a screaming serving-maid to escape some low
familiarity.

A shock-headed boy with a lantern took Agias's bridle, and the Greek
alighted; almost under his eyes the dim light fell on a handsome,
two-horse gig, standing beside the entrance to the court. Agias gave
the vehicle close attention.

"It belongs to a gentleman from Rome, now inside," explained the boy,
"one horse went lame, and the veterinary[103] is coming." Agias's eye
caught a very peculiar bend in the hollow in the neck-yoke. He had
seen that carriage before, on the fashionable boulevards--along the
Tiber, in the Campus Martius--the carriage of Lucius Ahenobarbus.
Phaon was waiting in the tavern!

[103] _Equarius_.

"Care for my horse at once," remarked Agias, a little abruptly. "Time
presses." And he turned on his heel, and leaving the boy gaping after
him, went into the squalid public-room of the tavern.

The landlord of the establishment, a small, red-faced, bustling man,
was fussing over some lean thrushes roasting on a spit before the open
fire that was roaring on the hearth. The landlady, lazy, muscular,
corpulent, and high-voiced, was expostulating with a pedler who was
trying to slip out without settling. Four other persons, slaves and
peasants, were sitting on two low benches beside a small, circular
table, and were busy pouring down the liquor which a young serving-boy
brought them in tumbler-shaped cups, or eating greedily at loaves of
coarse bread which they snatched from the table. It was so late that
little light came into the room from the door and windows. The great
fire tossed its red, flickering glow out into the apartment and cast a
rosy halo over the hard brown marble pavement of the floor. Upon the
dingy walls and rafters hung from pegs flitches of bacon, sausages,
and nets of vegetables. Agias stopped in the doorway and waited till
his eyes were fairly accustomed to the fire-light. Over in a remote
corner he saw a lamp gleaming, and there, sprawling on a bench, beside
a table of his own, well piled with food and drink, he distinguished
in solitary majesty Phaon--too exquisit