ll have any house in
Rome you will, for your abode. What say you to Cicero's, in the Carinae? or
the grand portico of Quintus Catulus, rich with the Cimbric spoils? or,
better yet, that of Crassus, with its Hymettian columns, on the Palatine?
Aye! aye! the speech of Marcus Brutus was prophetic; who termed it, the
other day, the house of _Venus_ on the Palatine! And you, my love, shall
be the goddess of that shrine! It shall be yours _to-morrow_, if you
will--so you will drive away the clouds from that sweet brow, and let those
eyes beam forth--by all the Gods!"--he interrupted himself--"I _will_ kiss
thee!"

"By all the Gods! thou shalt not--now, nor for evermore!" she replied, in
her turn growing very angry.--"Thou foolish and mendacious boaster! what?
dost thou deem me mad or senseless, to assail me with such drivelling
folly? Begone, fool! or I will call my slaves--I _have_ slaves yet, and, if
it be the last deed of service they do for me, they shall spurn thee, like
a dog, from my doors.--Art thou insane, or only drunken, Curius?" she
added, breaking off from her impetuous railing, into a cool sarcastic
tone, that stung him to the quick.

"You shall see whether of the two, Harlot!" he replied furiously,
thrusting his hand into the bosom of his tunic, as if to seek a weapon.

"Harlot!" she exclaimed, springing to her feet, the hot blood rushing to
her brow in torrents--"dare you say this to me?"

"Dare! do you call this daring?" answered the savage. "This? what would
you call it, then, to devastate the streets of Rome with flame and
falchion--to hurl the fabric of the state headlong down from the blazing
Capitol--to riot in the gore of senators, patricians, consulars!--What, to
aspire to be the lords and emperors of the universe?"

"What mean you?" she exclaimed, moved greatly by his vehemence, and
beginning to suspect that this was something more than his mere ordinary
boasting and exaggeration. "What can you mean? oh! tell me; if you do love
me, as you once did, tell me, Curius!" and with rare artifice she altered
her whole manner in an instant, all the expression of eye, lip, tone and
accent, from the excess of scorn and hatred, to blandishment and fawning
softness.

"No!" he replied sullenly. "I will not tell you--no! You doubt me, distrust
me, scorn me--no! I will tell you nothing! I will have all I wish or ask
for, on my own terms--you shall grant all, or die!"

And he unsheathed his dagger, as he spoke,