."

"Again?" asked Marcia.

"Why yes, I met him in the house of Pertinax. It is three days since we
spoke together. Three, or is it four, Livius? I have been busy. I
forget."

"Can Livius have lied?" asked Marcia. She seemed to be enjoying the
entertainment.

Livius threw caution to the winds.

"Is this a tribunal?" he demanded. "If so, of what am I accused?" He
tried to speak indignantly, but something caught in his throat. The
cough became a sob and in a moment he was half-hysterical. "By
Hercules, what judges! What a witness! Is he a two-headed witness who
shall swear my life away? I understand you, Marcia!"

(At least two witnesses were necessary under Roman law.)

"You?" she laughed. "You understand me?"

He recovered something of his self-possession, a wave of virility
returning. High living and the feverish excitement of the palace regime
had ruined his nerves but there were traces still of his original
astuteness. He resumed his air of dignity.

"Pardon me," he said. "I have been overworked of late. I must see
Galen about this jumpiness. When I said I understand you I meant, I
realize that you are joking. Naturally you would not receive a
highwayman in Cornificia's house, and at the same time accuse me of
treason! Pray excuse my outburst--set it to the score of ill-health. I
will see Galen."

"You shall see him now!" laughed Marcia, and Cornificia clapped her
hands.

Less suddenly than Sextus had appeared, because his age was beginning to
tell on him, Galen entered the court through a door behind the palm-
trees and stood smiling, making his old-world, slow salute to Marcia.
His bright eyes moved alertly amid wrinkles. He looked something like
the statues of the elder Cato, only with a kindlier humor and less
obstinacy at the corners of the mouth. Two slaves brought out a couch
for him and vanished when he had taken his ease on it after fussing a
little because the sun was in his eyes.

"My trade is to oppose death diplomatically," he remarked. "I am a poor
diplomatist. I only gain a little here and there. Death wins
inevitably. Nevertheless, they only summon me for consultation when
they hope to gain a year or two for somebody. Marcia, unless you let
Bultius Livius use that couch he will swoon. I warn you. The man's
heart is weak. He has more brain than heart," he added. "How is our
astrologer?"

He greeted Sextus with a wrinkled grin and beckoned him to share hi