Neæra: A Tale of Ancient Rome

by Joel Chandler Harris

  CHAPTER XV.

  When they were called in to supper the two women were awaiting them,bright-eyed and radiant, at a modest, but well-filled table. Their new-found cheerfulness, however, was doomed to a brief existence. Cestusremained silent and gloomy; and Masthlion, equally taciturn, despatchedhis meal rapidly, as though it were a task to be well rid of. Theirdampened spirits were still more depressed, when the potter, immediatelyon swallowing the last mouthful, announced, in a blunt, matter-of-factway, his intended visit to Capreae. With a certain amount of dismay theyat once expressed their disapprobation of the undertaking. It oppressedthem with a sense of dread--it was of too great a magnitude. The very nameof Caesar filled them with awe. They used their best efforts to dissuadethe potter, assisted by the interjectory remarks and sarcasms of Cestus;but they plainly saw that their efforts were doomed to be vain. Masthlionbade them put away their fears, and, with something of his natural manner,clapped his wife gently on the shoulder as he went back to his workshop.Without being reassured, the women went silently about their work ofremoving the supper things, their hearts as heavy as before they had beencheerful.

  'Have _you_ put this into his head?' demanded Tibia suddenly of herbrother. Her glance was suspicious and her tone unusually sharp.

  'Have I put it into his head?' replied Cestus, with concentrated scorn.'Oh, to be sure. Had I put it into his head, in the first place, I shouldhardly have taken the trouble I have to drive it out again.'

  His sister being silenced he said no more, and sat tilting himselfbackward and forward, in moody silence, on his stool.

  Neaera bestowed on him one or two lofty glances, which plainly showed thather ideas flowed in the same direction as the dame's. She said nothing,however, and glided hither and thither, in and out, in her occupation.Presently she went quietly to the door of the workshop, and, tappinggently, asked for admission. Cestus caught the sounds and stopped hisrestless motion. The door creaked open, and by and by it closed again, andNeaera returned into the passage. The Suburan's quick ear heard the voicesof the two females mingling outside. There was a smothered sob, andpresently a light foot sped up the stairs. Tibia then came into the roomto give a parting touch to its arrangements before retiring for the night.Her face was more dejected than ever.

  'She has been in to see him,' observed Cestus.

  Tibia nodded yes.

  'And did no good, I can tell.'

  The dame this time shook her head, and remained standing, with one hand onher hip and the other underneath a kind of apron which she wore over hergown, as if ready to lift it to stanch the drops which struggled into herpatient eyes.

  'Very well, then,' continued her brother, 'we may as well give the matterup, for the man will go his own way. It's of no use to show him hismadness. That being the case, there is something you must know without anyfurther delay, since he is determined to throw himself away. Wait and Iwill bring him in.'

  'He is busy, Cestus,' dissuaded she.

  'He will have to make a few moments' leisure, however,' was the reply, andthe Suburan went accordingly to summon the potter.

  The latter obeyed without demur on learning the reason for his requiredpresence. Cestus shut the door and took his former position on his stool.

  'Brother-in-law, since you will not listen to reason concerning thiserrand of yours to Capreae, and since I have small hope of ever seeing youreturn, Tibia must hear, in your presence, what I have already told youalone. Your life is your own, and if you are determined to shorten it atonce you can do so, I suppose. That is your own matter, and you can settleit with or without your wife's help. But in the matter of the child calledNeaera, I am concerned; and as you are about to rob me of my best witnessin her case, I must arrange matters as best I may, so as to be able to dowithout you.'

  'You put it in a pleasant way, kinsman,' returned Masthlion, smiling; 'butas you are bent on putting me to death I won't argue the point.Nevertheless I agree with you that it is time Tibia should know what weknow about our child--I still call her ours, you see. It was only at yourwish that I have kept silence as long as this. Tell her the story--Icannot.'

  Tibia sat looking from one to the other in her mute way, her hands lyingfolded in her lap, and her eyes full of anxious curiosity. What newtrouble was this which was about to be launched upon her? Was it thesecret which had darkened her husband's face so long? Was it not enough tobe told that he was about to throw away his life on the morrow? Cestus,her brother, was the cloud upon her house. It was time he left it, sincematters had seemed to go strangely wrong with the hour of his arrival.What of the child Neaera? He had brought her there--did he want to take heraway again?

  Her gaze fixed on the Suburan as this thought broke upon her slow brain.Her brows knitted slightly, and her eyes seemed to contract and congeal,for a moment, into lifeless glassy balls. She had a manner of meetingbitter trouble, as it were, with a motionless, voiceless, passivenumbness. It resembled the action of some animals and reptiles when seizedin the grip of a ferocious enemy. The functions of body and brain seemedwithdrawn into an impenetrable inner casket, leaving all else relaxed,lifeless, and torpid. It is the supreme effort to resist exquisitetorture, this power of self-paralysation, this contraction of all senseinto the numbness of oblivion; whilst to the beholder the spectacle ofmute suffering is the most heartrending of all.

  Cestus, without further delay, began the same narrative he had alreadyrelated to Masthlion. Tibia sat like a carven image, with her handsclenched in her lap and her head half bowed. Once only during the recitalshe started slightly, when she heard the noble parentage of the child shehad tended, and she gave a swift, half-startled glance, first at Cestus,and then at her husband. When the end came and the speaker's voice ceased,and she heard the decree that Neaera was to be given up to her own people,her fingers twitched nervously for a time.

  'This, then, is what has haunted thee and darkened the house!' she criedout sharply to her husband, as she threw her apron over her head.

  The anguish of her glance cut the potter to the heart. A silence fell onthe room for a minute. Masthlion could not summon a word, and Cestus swunguneasily on his stool. Then the latter cleared his throat and tried tosmooth matters, with arguments already familiar to the reader.

  'Why, Tibia, you have tended the child till she has become like your own,and it is hard, I admit, to hear she must leave you. But consider, she wasbound to go, for the Centurion will marry her and take her away to Rome,at all events. Why trouble them? The only way, if you cannot abide withoutbeing near her, is to go after her. I have already told Masthlion this,with all the common sense one can be capable of, and shown him how it isthe best place for employment in all his work.'

  'I have already agreed; if Tibia is willing we will go to the great city,'said Masthlion.

  'Ay--but not now--not at once!' replied Cestus sharply. 'Only, as you say,when you come back from Capreae. That is another thing altogether. It is apromise on condition with a vengeance, when there is every chance you willnot be alive to perform it. Hark'ee, Tibia, I am eager for us all to go atonce, for this reason, that I am anxious concerning the girl. There havebeen a couple of fellows from Capreae in the shop lately, for nothing inthe world but to see the child herself. I saw them, heard them, watchedthem. What does this mean? Why, that some fine night your house may bebroken into, and the girl carried off to the island by a gang of Caesar'sblackguards. Once there, you may cry for ever to get her back. Is it nottime, think you, to be moving such a good-looking lass out of the reach ofthe tiger's claws? Will you leave her to the chance of such a fate, forthe sake of a fool's errand, on the score of a glass bowl?'

  'The fool's errand shall be carried out, look you,' interposed Masthlionsternly, 'so no more of that. Nevertheless, if you scent danger so close,there is nothing to prevent you all taking ship or horse to-morrow, ifneed be. I will follow when I am ready to bid farewell to Surrentum.'

  'And that is your determination?'

  'It is--
I leave the rest to Tibia.'

  'Then she and the girl and myself will go hence without delay.'

  'Speak for yourself, brother,' said Tibia, standing. 'When I go my husbandgoes also.'

  'The girl, then, I shall take alone,' cried Cestus furiously.

  'If she will go with thee,' said Tibia.

  He started up so violently that he upset his stool, and he stood, for amoment, stuttering with passion. Failing to produce an intelligible sound,he stamped his foot savagely and rushed out of the room.

  Masthlion gave a grim sort of a smile and went to his workshop. Ere hecould shut the door, Tibia slipped silently after him.