!--of him who is both Jew and Roman--by
Phoebus, a combination to make a Centaur lovely! What garments
cloth he affect, my Drusus?"

"Those of the Jews."

"Hearest thou, Caius?" said Messala. "The fellow is young--one;
he hath the visage of a Roman--two; he loveth best the garb of a
Jew--three; and in the palaestrae fame and fortune come of arms to
throw a horse or tilt a chariot, as the necessity may order--four.
And, Drusus, help thou my friend again. Doubtless this Arrius hath
tricks of language; otherwise he could not so confound himself,
to-day a Jew, to-morrow a Roman; but of the rich tongue of
Athene--discourseth he in that as well?"

"With such purity, Messala, he might have been a contestant in
the Isthmia."

"Art thou listening, Caius?" said Messala. "The fellow is qualified
to salute a woman--for that matter Aristomache herself--in the
Greek; and as I keep the count, that is five. What sayest thou?"

"Thou hast found him, my Messala," Caius answered; "or I am not
myself."

"Thy pardon, Drusus--and pardon of all--for speaking in riddles
thus," Messala said, in his winsome way. "By all the decent gods,
I would not strain thy courtesy to the point of breaking, but now
help thou me. See!"--he put his hand on the dice-box again,
laughing--"See how close I hold the Pythias and their secret!
Thou didst speak, I think, of mystery in connection with the
coming of the son of Arrius. Tell me of that."

"'Tis nothing, Messala, nothing," Drusus replied; "a child's story.
When Arrius, the father, sailed in pursuit of the pirates, he was
without wife or family; he returned with a boy--him of whom we
speak--and next day adopted him."

"Adopted him?" Messala repeated. "By the gods, Drusus, thou dost,
indeed, interest me! Where did the duumvir find the boy? And who
was he?"

"Who shall answer thee that, Messala? who but the young Arrius
himself? Perpol! in the fight the duumvir--then but a tribune--lost
his galley. A returning vessel found him and one other--all of the
crew who survived--afloat upon the same plank. I give you now the
story of the rescuers, which hath this excellence at least--it
hath never been contradicted. They say, the duumvir's companion
on the plank was a Jew--"

"A Jew!" echoed Messala.

"And a slave."

"How Drusus? A slave?"

"When the two were lifted to the deck, the duumvir was in his
tribune's armor, and the other in the vesture of a rower."

Messala rose from leaning against th