eius Magnus. The fools
thought to give Caesar a great delight."

"And what did the Imperator do or say?" asked Cornelia.

"He shrank back from the horror as though the Egyptian had been a
murderer, as indeed all of his race are. Caesar said nothing. Yet all
saw how great was his grief and anger. Soon or late he will requite
the men who slew thus foully the husband of his daughter Julia."

"You must take me away from them," said Cornelia, shuddering; "I am
afraid every hour."

"And I, till you are safe among our troops at Alexandria," replied
Drusus. "I doubt if they would have let me see you, but for Agias. He
met us on the road from Alexandria and told me about you. I had
received a special despatch from Caesar to bear with all haste to the
king. So across the Delta I started, hardly waiting for the troops to
disembark, for there was need for speed. Agias I took back with me,
and my first demand when I came here was to see the king and deliver
my letter, which was easily done an hour ago; and my next to see you.
Whereat that nasty sheep Pothinus declared that you had been sent some
days before up the river on a trip to the Memphis palace to see the
pyramids. But Agias was close at hand, and I gave the eunuch the lie
without difficulty. The rascal blandly said, 'that he had not seen you
of late; had only spoken by hearsay about you, and he might have been
misinformed;' and so--What do I look like?"

"You look like Quintus Livius Drusus, the Roman soldier," said
Cornelia, "and I would not have you otherwise than what you are."

"_Eho!_" replied Drusus, passing his hand over her hair. "Do you want
me to tell you something?"

"What is it?" said Cornelia, pressing closer.

"I can never write a cosmology. I shall never be able to evolve a new
system of ethics. I cannot improve on Plato's ideal state. I know I am
a very ignorant man, with only a few ideas worth uttering, with a hand
that is very heavy, with a mind that works to little purpose save when
it deals with politics and war. In short"--and Drusus's voice grew
really pathetic--"all my learning carries me no farther than did the
wisdom of Socrates, 'I know that I know nothing;' and I have no time
to spend in advancing beyond that stage."

"But Socrates," said Cornelia, laughing, "was the wisest man in
Greece, and for that very reason."

"Well," said Drusus, ignoring the compliment, as a certain type of men
will when the mood is on them, "what do you wish me