CHAPTER XXXIII
IMPOSTURE
We had no bad weather on our voyage to Rome nor any adventure. The daybefore we sailed I had conned my image in the mirror in my dressing-roomand had comforted myself with the decision that no human creature couldconceivably suspect of being a Roman this full-bearded, longhaired, long-nailed, frizzed, curled, oiled, perfumed, gaudy, tawdry, bedizened,bejeweled, powdered, rouged, painted popinjay.
I laid in an extra supply of nail-polish, nail-tint, rouge, face-paint,blackening for painting eyebrows and eyelashes, and of perfumery,cosmetics, unguents and such like. If I were sufficiently whitened,reddened, rouged, and painted I hoped I should be well enough disguised toface Gratillus or even Flavius Clemens without a qualm. Actually mybizarre and fantastic appearance was an almost complete protection to me.
And I needed protection. For Falco was related to many prominent familiesand men in Rome; for instance, he was a cousin of Senator Sosius Falco,who was consul two years later. He was introduced widely and at once andinvited everywhere. I was constantly in attendance on him.
My experiences during my long stay at Rome with Falco were, in truth,amazing. He bought a fine palace on the Esquiline, near the Baths ofTitus, furnished it lavishly, entertained magnificently and revelled inthe life of Rome. At first I was busy showing him the chief sights of theCity, then the minor sights, then coaching him in the niceties of socialusages, then convoying him on the round of all notable sculptures, picturegalleries, private collections of pictures or statuary, famous museums,repositories of all kinds of art objects and, especially, the gemcollections, both private and public, particularly the large exhibit inthe temple of Venus Genetrix, placed there by the Divine Julius, and thesmaller exhibit in the temple of Apollo on the Palatine, donated byOctavia's son, Marcellus.
Later he divided his time between giving dinners and going out to dinnersand haunting the houses of gem collectors and the shops of jewelers.
He began visiting jewelers' shops, to be sure, within a few days of ourarrival in Rome. We had not been there ten days, in fact, when he made meconduct him to the Porticus Margaritaria, on the Via Sacra, near the greatForum, which was and is the focus of pearl dealers and gem dealers ingeneral in Rome.
There we entered several shops and, at last, I could not keep him out ofthat of Orontides, who had known me perfectly. His was unique among shopsin Rome and probably was the largest and most splendid jewelry shop in allthe world: more like a small temple of Hercules or a temple-treasury thana shop. It was not in the Pearl-Dealers' Arcade, where only small, square,usual shops were possible, but adjacent to it and entered from the ViaSacra. It was circular, with a door of cast bronze, beautifully ornamentedwith reliefs of pearl-divers, tritons, nereids and other marine subjects.Inside its dome-shaped roof was lined with an intricate mosaic of bits ofglass as brilliant as rubies, emeralds and sapphires, or as gold andsilver. The roof rested on a circular entablature with a very ornatecornice, under which was a frieze ornamented with reliefs, representingwinged cupids working as gem-cutters and polishers, as chasers of salversand goblets, and as goldsmiths and silversmiths. The architrave was asornate as the cornice. The entablature was supported by eight Ioniccolumns of the slenderest and most delicate type, of dark yellow Numidianmarble, while the lining of the wall-spaces was of the lighter yellowMauretanian marble. Of the eight wall-spaces one was occupied by thedoorway, over which was a bronze group representing a combat of twocentaurs. On either side of the door was a wall-space ennobled by a nichewith a life-size, bronze statue, one of Orontides' father, the other ofhis grandfather, both of whom had been distinguished gem-dealers atAntioch. Two more wall-spaces were occupied by ample windows, not of openlattices, but glazed with almost crystalline glass set in bronze, a formof window seldom seen except in great temples, the Imperial Palace, andthe residences of the most opulent senators and noblemen.
The three wall-spaces behind the counter were filled from column to columnwith tiers of superposed recesses, in size like the urn niches of a burialcolumbarium, but each closed with a door of cornel-wood carved andpolished, behind which doors Orontides kept his precious merchandise.
The counter divided the shop across from window to window. It had in themiddle a narrow wicket through which Orontides and his assistants couldcrawl in and out. Otherwise the outer face of the counter was of twoblocks of Numidian marble, carved in patterns of twining vines; its topwas of one long slab of the exquisitely delicate white marble from Luna.On it lay always squares of velvet, in color dark blue, black, dark green,and crimson, on which were admirably displayed his goldsmith work andjewelries.
Below the panels about each statued niche was a curved seat of Numidianmarble amply large for four persons at once, so that eight prospectivecustomers could sit and wait while as many stood at the counter; and,according to my recollection of the shop in the days of my prosperity, ashop crowded with customers was the rule rather than the exception withOrontides.
It was crowded when we entered. I, endeavoring to conserve a naturaldemeanor, felt my sight blur. I saw, as we entered, only a row of backs ofcustomers standing at the counter: three in noblemen's togas, one in thetoga of a senator, their fulldress boots conspicuously red beneath theirrobes; four in the silken garments of wealthy ladies, all in pale softhues of exquisite Coan dyes.
Of these eight backs two, one of the lady midway of the counter, the otherof her escort, appeared terrifyingly familiar.
In fact, when we entered I had three distinct shocks in quick succession.Flashy, painted and rouged as I was I dreaded Orontides' eyes. There hewas behind his counter, visible through a rift in the press of handsomelydressed customers of both sexes.
Instinctively I glanced at the only other interval in the line of absorbedopulent backs.
Through it I recognized Agathemer smiling at me!
I saw that _he_, at least, recognized me at once and my dread of Orontidesintensified tenfold. I knew Agathemer would be discreet, loyal and trusty.I dreaded to lose countenance if I kept my eyes on his face and I lookedelsewhere.
I recognized the back of Flavius Clemens!
If he turned round I felt I was lost. Yet I could not flee. Falco wascertain to linger in the shop. I must keep my self-control and prepare tobrazen out anything.
The next instant I recognized the back of the lady next Flavius Clemens.
Vedia!
As I recognized her she turned, saw me, knew me through my disguise,flushed, and turned back.
I should not have been surprised if she had fainted and crumpled up on thewhite and brown mosaic floor in front of the counter. She kept her feetand her outward self-possession.
Clemens spoke to her in an undertone.
"No," she answered him, in a choked voice, "I have changed my mind. Iwon't take these."
She was handling an unsurpassable necklace of big pearls.
He whispered to her.
"No," she said, curtly. "I won't look at any others. I think I'll gohome."
He was so amazed that he never saw me or, I think, anything or anybodyelse in that shop just then. He escorted her out.
When I regained my self-possession enough to feel that I appeared at easeand could trust myself to glance at the other customers as I should havedone had I been in fact what I was trying to appear, I was relieved tofind that not one of them was more than distantly known to me.
The idlers on the benches showed no inclination to rise and approach thecounter. Falco and I occupied the interval vacated by Clemens and Vedia.Agathemer, of all men on earth, asked what he could do for us. Falco stoodthere a long time, saw a goodly fraction of the finest jewels inOrontides' possession and, manifestly, made as favorable impression ofconnoisseurship on Agathemer as Agathemer made on him. They eyed eachother as fellow-adepts. Falco asked that he reserve an antique Babylonianseal cut in sardonyx and promised to send a messenger with its pricebefore dark. Agathemer, who was passing under the name of Eucleides,blandly replied that Orontides would prefer to
send the seal to Falco'sresidence. Falco agreed, of course, and to my unutterable relief wefinally departed.
Agathemer--Eucleides--brought the seal; and timed his arrival neatly asFalco returned from the Baths of Titus just before dinner time. He wasgiving a big formal dinner and my dinner was to be served in my apartment,which had a tiny _triclinium_; being as lavishly appointed, and one inwhich I was as luxuriously lodged and served, as those I had had inCarthage and Utica.
I asked Agathemer if he could stay and dine with me and he accepted. Wehad a wonderful dinner. The food, of course, was unsurpassable and ourappetites keyed up by our mutual emotions. When the dessert and wine werebrought in I dismissed the waiters, made sure that no man or boy of myretinue was in my apartment and bolted its door.
Then we fell into each other's arms.
After we had expressed our mutual affection I told him my story from themorning after the massacre and he told me his, which was commonplace.
He had easily escaped from the slave-convoy between Narnia and Interamnia,had made his way to Ameria and found shelter there with slaves as anordinary runaway slave. After a discreet interval he had travelled toRome. There he had found old acquaintances to protect and shield him. Iwas presumed to be dead and any fellow-slave would help him in hissituation, he being presumed to be legally a slave of the _fiscus_. He hadno difficulty in disposing of a gem out of his amulet-bag and then rentedlodgings, passed as a freedman, by the name of Eucleides, and graduallymade himself known to various gem-experts who gave him as much protectionas had his fellow-slaves, his former acquaintances. Orontides perfectlyknew who he was, yet engaged him as an assistant by the name of Eucleidesand as being a freedman. Ever since then he had lived safe in hislodgings, and spent his days at Orontides' shop or about Rome at gem-dealers. He declared that he was, if possible, more of a gem-expert thanbefore our adventures began, which was saying a great deal.
He laughed heartily and often at my disguise, acclaimed it a work of artin every detail and in its total effect and vowed that he believed that Icould spend years in Rome in Falco's retinue and encounter all my oldacquaintances and be in little danger from any and in no danger exceptfrom such professional physiognomists as Galen and Gratillus.
I told him of what Galen had said to Tanno. Agathemer said he had had onlytwo interviews with Tanno, at which they had deplored my death, I havingbeen believed to have perished with Nonius Libo. They had also agreed toavoid each other, for fear of attracting the notice of some secret-serviceagent or volunteer spy. Tanno had not mentioned Galen.
We agreed that we, also, must avoid each other and not meet oftener thansay four times a year, for fear of leading to my detection.
He told me of Marcia's unlimited power over Commodus, the whole Palace andthe entire social and governmental world of Rome. He also said that he wasconvinced that Ducconius Furfur was domiciled in the Palace and thatCommodus used him as dummy ceremonial Emperor, when he himself wasmasquerading as Palus, the Gladiator, for he was now developing for publicexhibitions of his swordsmanship a mania as insensate as those he had hadfor charioteering and beast-fighting.
Next day, naturally, I had a visit from Tanno, who even sacrificed hisafternoon bath and came to see me while Falco was at the Baths of Titus.
He embraced me heartily, when we were alone, and talked with his habitualmask of jocularity.
"Three times dead, Caius," he said, "and still alive and fit. Dying seemsto agree with you, whether it is military execution, rural assassination,or drowning at sea. I am still incredulous that you are really alive; wehad the most circumstantial accounts of the loss of poor Libo's yacht withall on board."
"That is odd," I said, "Rufius Libo survived and succeeded to his uncle'sproperty."
"I knew he inherited all Nonius left," Tanno stated, "but I had no ideathat Nonius had Rufius with him here in Rome and that he was on the yacht;I thought he was in Carthage all the while. Certainly every account we hadspecified that no one was rescued from that yacht."
I told him that Rufius had promised me to write him of my survival andthat I had despatched at least a score of letters to him and as many toVedia. He was as puzzled as I that not one had reached either of them.
I gave him an account of my life since he had seen me and he approved ofmy disguise as much as had Agathemer and laughed at it even more heartily.
He said:
"Poor Flavius Clemens is in a daze. He cannot conjecture what has gonewrong with his wooing again a second time. He behaved very tactfully afterhis first rebuff ensuing on Galen's tip to me and mine to Vedia. He was socautious about not thrusting himself on Vedia that their acquaintance,quite naturally, warmed again gradually into mutual interest and romanticaffection and was ripening into love when the sight of you yesterdayannihilated his excellent chances of marrying her. He was just about tobuy for her a two-million-sesterce pearl necklace. If she had accepted thegift it would have been tantamount to a public pledge to marry him. Poorfellow!"
When he left he gave me a letter from Vedia, a letter as loving as a lovercould wish for. She declared that she would not marry Flavius Clemens noranybody except me and would wait for me as long as might be necessary orstay unmarried until the end of her days, if, by any misfortune, the endcame to her before she and I were free to marry.
She said that we must avoid each other as much as possible and that I mustnot spoil my chances of safety either by relying too recklessly on mydisguise or through risking arousing suspicion in Falco by any attempt atconfining myself to my apartment, which would have been altogetherincongruous with the character I had assumed.
The rest of that year and all the winter I passed living the normal lifeof an indulged and pampered favorite of an opulent bachelor dilettantenoble. It was a life almost as enjoyable as the life of a wealthy noblemanto which I had been born and brought up.
I had but one anxiety and that was not small and it steadily increased. Itwas caused by a progressive alteration and deterioration in the characterof my master. In all other respects he remained the man he had been whenhe first bought me, but as a gem-fancier his hobby became a passion whichdeepened into a mania and colored, or discolored, all he did. He had, ashe always had had, a very large surplus of income over and above what wasneedful to maintain his huge estates in Africa, his many luxurious villasand town-palaces there, his yacht and his palaces in Italy at Baiae and atRome. The normal accumulation of this surplus had taxed his sagacity as aninvestor, for it was always harder for him to find advantageousinvestments for his redundant cash than to find cash for temptinginvestments. Certainly his excess income more than sufficed for anyreasonable indulgence in gem-collecting.
Yet his outlay for rare gems ran up to and outran and far outran hisresources. The strange result was that he, who had huge revenues fromestates and safe investments, desired a still greater income. He began toembark in risky ventures which promised large and quick returns. He wentinto partnership with two different nobles, who made a practice of biddingon the taxes of frontier provinces exposed to enemy raids. Bidders wereshy of investing their cash in the problematical returns of such regionsand those who had the hardihood to enter into contracts with thegovernment made huge profits if lucky. Falco was lucky each time. Heplunged again and again.
He also embarked similarly in bidding for unpromising contracts and inbuying up estates thrown unexpectedly on the market. All his venturesturned out successfully, he gained great resources for indulging his fadfor gems and rare curios, his collection grew and became one of the mostfamous private collections in Rome.
Also his mania for speculation grew as fast as his mania for collectinggems.
This led to my exposure to the oddest and most alarming peril which I hadrun since Agathemer and I crawled through the drain-pipe at Villa Andivia;greater I think, than the risk I ran when I nearly encountered Gratillusat Placentia. This happened about eleven months after I came to Rome withFalco, in the spring of the year when Pedo Apronianus and Valerius Braduawere consuls.
This occurrence and the circumstances which led up to it I cannot forbearnarrating, but I shall not go into details, for it involves at leastallusion to behavior not at all creditable to my owner and I am unwillingto disparage or seem to disparage one who was to me a dear friend and agenerous benefactor. The truth is that his passion for gem-collecting hadnot only undermined his character but had, in a way, sapped thefoundations of his native uprightness. If he had remained the man he waswhen he bought me he would not have been capable of entertaining, letalone of acting on, the considerations which actuated him.
He thought he saw a chance to make vast profits quickly with no risks. Butto achieve this he needed the presence and the countenance of anotherwealthy nobleman of the African province, who, like him when he purchasedme, had never been in Rome or, indeed, out of the colony. The name of thisman, whom I had met while in Thysdrus, was Salsonius Salinator. Hiswealth, inherited by his father and grandfather from a long line ofwealthy ancestors, came from many vast salt works along the coast, which,by the custom of the province, remained private property and merely paidthe government a lease-tax or rent. The family had been, many generationsbefore, named from these works and was very proud of its names.
Now Falco had so far progressed with his negotiations that the otherparties to the proposed bargain were unwilling to close the deal and signa contract with Falco and his associates unless Salsonius Salinator, inperson, appeared to make some necessary statements, and were willing andeager to sign and seal, the projected agreement if he did appear in personand did make those required statements. I am averse to smirching Falco'smemory by going more minutely into detail.
Now Salinator had written Falco that he was coming to Rome and later, whenhe received a letter from Falco outlining the pending negotiations andtheir object, he had written promising to be in Rome by a specified date.He was most enthusiastic as to Falco's project and thought as well of itas did Falco. Falco told his associates of Salinator's letter and promiseand they adjusted their outstanding investments so as to be able to closethe contract as soon as Salinator appeared.
He did not appear on the date specified. Naturally Falco was perturbed,his associates vexed and the men with whom they were dealing increasinglyrestive. They threatened to break off the negotiations and close acontract with other bidders. Falco begged for an extension of the time andthey grudgingly granted it. Still no signs of or word from Salinator. Thenegotiations appeared likely to fall through.
In his distress Falco conceived and set about putting into practice ascheme such as he would never have thought of or entertained if he hadbeen the man he was when he bought me. When he was himself he had been thereverse of dishonorable. He came to me and said:
"We are at the end of our tether, Pullanius and his gang will break offnegotiations tomorrow if I can't get hold of Salinator. I have no hope ofhis arrival, he may have not yet sailed from Carthage; he may have changedhis mind about coming at all. I am not willing to lose so brilliant achance. I have thought of just what to do.
"You would look like a Roman if you had your beard trimmed and your haircut and all that powder and paint and rouge washed off your face: I tookyou for a full-blooded Roman when I first set eyes on you. What is moreyou would look so utterly unlike what you look like in your fantasticfripperies that no one would even suspect you of being the same man.Anyhow, Pullanius and his crowd have never set eyes on you, not one ofthem.
"All you have to do is to have your beard cut to about the fashionablelength and your hair trimmed to conform similarly with current fashionsfor Roman noblemen and get into full-dress shoes, a nobleman's tunic andtoga, and you'll pass anywhere for a genuine, free-born, full-bloodedRoman.
"I'll take you to Pullanius tomorrow and introduce you as SalsoniusSalinator. I'll coach you carefully as to how to behave and what to say.You are clever enough to assume the natural Roman demeanor to a nicety:also to rise to any unexpected situations and act and talk precisely aswould Salinator himself.
"It will be sharp practice, in a sense. But I know Salinator would say allI want him to say, all Pullanius requires him to say, and more, if he wereactually here. He is as keen on closing this contract as I am. So I am notasking you to be a party to an actual fraud. You will only be bringingabout what would come about without you if something unforeseen had notprevented Salinator from getting here in time."
Now I had often differed with Falco, argued with him, opposed him, refusedrequests of his, and he had acquiesced and had acted as if I were not hisproperty, but a free man and his complete social equal. But this was asituation wholly different from any I had encountered before. When it cameto gem-collecting or to anything which gave him or would give him or wasexpected to yield him surplus cash for buying more gems for hiscollection, Falco was a monomaniac. I dared not refuse, or oppose him orargue or show any hesitation. A master can change in a twinkling from anindulgent friend to an infuriated despot. In spite of the laws passed byHadrian and his successors limiting the authority of masters over theirslaves and giving slaves certain rights before magistrates, in practice anangry master can go to any length to coerce a recalcitrant slave. I sawnot only privations, discomforts, hunger, confinement and chainsthreatening me, but scourging and torture.
I acquiesced.
Now I am not going into any details as to what I did and said to inducePullanius and his associates to execute the desired contract. I acted thepart of Salinator to perfection and my imposture succeeded completely.
But the negotiations dragged, for all that, and I had to impersonateSalsonius Salinator not only before Pullanius and his partners butgenerally all over Rome: had to submit to being shown the sights in mycharacter of a provincial magnate in Rome for the first time; had to allowmyself to be dragged to morning receptions of senators and wealthynoblemen and introduced to them; had to accept invitations to dinnersgiven by noblemen and senators; even had to attend a public morningreception in the Audience Hall of the Palace. That I escaped undetectedwas more than miraculous; I could not believe it myself. But I did escape.
I escaped unsuspected the ordeal of being haled to a morning reception ofVedius Vedianus and presented to him as Salsonius Salinator of Carthage,Nepte and Putea. I should have been lost had he had at his elbow to joghis memory if he forgot a visitor's name the slave he had had in thatcapacity seven years before, since that alert _nomenclator_ would haverecognized me at once. But he had died of the plague and his successor hadnever set eyes on me. Vedius himself would certainly have known me for mytrue self but for his inveterate selfishness, and self-absorption and hisincapacity for being diverted from whatever thought or idea happened to beuppermost in his narrow mind. He was, for some reason, eager to be donewith his reception and had no eyes for any visitors except those from whomhe expected immediate and positive advantage to himself. I escaped, but Iwent out sweating and limp with excitement.
I was even more faint and weak after having to attend a Palace levee.Fortunately Commodus had wearied of his father's methods of holdingreceptions and had reverted to the regulations in vogue under Trajan andHadrian, according to which only such senators as were summoned approachedthe throne and were personally greeted by the Prince; the rest of thesenators and all the lesser noblemen merely passed before the Emperor ashe stood in front of the throne, passing four abreast along the mainpavement at the foot of the steps of the dais and saluting him as theypassed. Amid this crush of mediocrities I passed unnoticed, unremarked,unscathed.
But I marvelled at my luck, for I knew many eyes of secret-service expertsscanned that slow-moving column of togaed noblemen and such adepts have amarvellous memory for the shape of an ear, a nose, a chin, or any suchfeature. After my hair and beard had been trimmed to suit Falco's notionsand my face was innocent of powder, rouge and paint and I was habited in atunic and toga with stripes of the width belonging to Salinator's rank anddress-boots of the cut and color proper for him I conned my reflection inthe mirror in my dressing-room and was certain that anyone who had
knownme as myself must recognize me at first glance.
My two worst ordeals came when I went out with Falco to my second andfourth formal dinner in Rome in my character of provincial magnate. I wentwith him, altogether, to eight different dinners at the houses ofcapitalists associated with or supposed to have influence with Pullanius.Not once, in any of these eight perilous expeditions, did it occur toFalco to inform me beforehand where I was to dine. And I thought it bestnot to ask him, since I reflected that his complete ignorance of my pastwas an important factor in my chances of continued concealment and safety;and since I felt that some word, tone or look of mine might put him on theroad to suspecting the truth about me. Therefore I set out to each ofthese eight dinners totally ignorant of our destination.
The first time I knew I was to dine with Appellasius Clavviger, a Syriancapitalist who had been in Rome not much longer than Falco himself. Judgeof my feelings when, in the mellow light which bathes Rome just after thesun has set from a clear sky and before day has begun to fade, I perceivedthat my litter-bearers, following Falco's, were turning into the streetwhere I had lived before my ruin! Imagine my sensations when we haltedbefore the palatial dwelling which had been my uncle's abode and mine! Iwas even more perturbed and overwhelmed by my emotions when on enteringbehind Falco I found nothing changed, scarcely anything altered from whathad been there on the fatal morning on which, without any premonition ofdisaster, I had set off to the Palace levee and had, on my way, been savedby Vedia's intervention and letter. The appointments of the vestibule, ofthe porter's lodge, were as I had known them in my uncle's lifetime. Sowere the furnishings of the atrium and _tablinum_. Scarcely a statue hadbeen added or so much as moved, most of the pictures being where my unclehad had them hung. Appellasius, a fat, jovial, jolly man, did not see myconfusion. We were the last guests to arrive and he was hungry. We passedat once into the _triclinium_. There also the wall-decorations wereprecisely as I had last seen them; but the square table and three squaresofas had vanished and, in their place, was a new C-shaped sofa and acircular table covered with a magnificent embroidered cloth. In thecourse of the dinner, the company, as was natural with vulgarians newlyenriched, fell to talking of their residences, of their size, convenience,and cost. I took the opportunity to compliment Appellasius on his abodeand, as he warmed to the subject, I inquired whether he had inherited itor bought it.
"Neither," said he. "I have merely leased it, and leased it furnished. Itbelongs to the _fiscus_; it was confiscated some years ago when its ownerwas proscribed for joining in one of the conspiracies against, theEmperor. It is a pearl. I am told that the father of its last owner was anart connoisseur. Anyhow I could not improve on its decorations orfurnishings. I have made few changes, chiefly installing this up-to-datedining-outfit. The fittings of this room were all of one hundred yearsold, very fine in material and ornamentation, but unbearablyinconvenient."
I had learned all I hoped for or dared attempt, and for the rest of theentertainment I kept to subjects as far as possible from anything likelyto compromise me.
My second and far my severest ordeal was when a few evenings later I wasdazed to realize that my litter, behind Falco's, was halting before thewell-known residence of that booby, Faltonius Bambilio. But I was notafraid of him. I rated him such a dolt, such an ass, that even if heexclaimed that I was the image of Andivius Hedulio I had no doubt I couldconvince him that I was what I pretended to be and could even expunge fromhis mind any recollections of his having noticed such a strikingresemblance. In fact he did not make any remark on my appearance or seemto have any inkling that he had ever seen me before, but accepted me as aninteresting stranger.
I dreaded what guests he might have and the actuality surpassed mycapacities to forecast possibilities.
I found the middle sofa at his table, for he adhered to the old-fashionedfurnishings for a _triclinium_, occupied by his wife, Nemestronia andVedia! Vedia, after one tense moment of incredulous numb staring,regained her composure.
Evidently she had not confided in anyone the fact of my survival andexistence. For, if she had, she would have taken dear old Nemestronia intoher confidence, since she was as able to keep a secret as any woman whoever lived and had loved me as if I had been her own and only grandson.For Nemestronia manifestly had believed me dead. At sight of me she was asthunderstruck as if she had seen an indubitable specter. She was smittendumb and rigid and her discomposure was remarked by all present. But sherecovered herself in time, passed off her agitation as having been due toone of her sudden attacks of pain in the chest. After that she did as muchas Vedia to dispel any tendency to suspicions which she might havearoused. She was plainly, to my eyes, overjoyed at the sight of me in theflesh.
I have branded on my memory for life the picture I saw as I entered the_triclinium_. Its wall decorations expressed old Bambilio's enthusiasm forAlexandrian art and literature. The ceiling was adorned with a copy ofApellides' Dance of the Loves; and the walls were decorated with copies ofequally celebrated paintings by masters of similar fame. The wall nicheswere filled with statues of the Alexandrian poets, the two opposite theentrance door with those of Euphorion and Philetas, the brilliant hues ofthe paint on them depicting garments as gaudy as I myself had been wearinga few days before. From the pink faces of the bedizened poets theirjeweled eyes sparkled as if they were chuckling at the situation. Underthe mellow light shed by the numerous hanging lamps, against the intricateparticolored patterns of the wall between the statue-niches, I saw thevacuous baby face of Asellia, Bambilio's pretty doll of a wife, betweenVedia's countenance cleverly assuming a normal social expression after herbrief glare at me, and Nemestronia's mask of horror, accentuated by theagony of the gripping spasm which throttled her, for the pain in her chestwas induced by anything which startled her, and was not assumed.
Once we were composed on the sofas the dinner passed off almostcomfortably. For Nemestronia played her part in my behalf fully as well asdid Vedia, who conversed with me easily, her demeanor precisely as if Ihad been Salsonius Salinator, a stranger whom she had just met, our talkmostly about Carthage, salt-works, the lagoons of the edge of the desert,date palms, local fruits, gazelles and such like topics, Nemestroniaseconding her with questions about temple libraries, the cult of Isis inHippo, and such matters. I became almost gay, I was enjoying myself.
The enjoyment, toward the close of the banquet, was marred by Bambilio,who, inevitably, had told Falco of his capture by brigands on theFlaminian Highway and, after his tale was told at great length, insistedon Vedia telling hers.
Worst of all, when she came to her night in her travelling carriage, alone(as of course all supposed) and surrounded by escaped beasts, hyenas,leopards, panthers, tigers and lions, Bambilio must needs remark:
"I'll wager you wished that the ghost of your old lover, Hedulio, had cometo your assistance. He could wrestle with leopards; perhaps even his ghostmight be able to control wild beasts."
"Perhaps," Vedia rejoined, unruffled, "maybe he was there to help me andmaybe that was why I never felt really afraid that any beast would burstinto my coach and seize me, though several snuffed at its panels and Icould see them plain in the clear moonlight. Perhaps, in spirit, he wasclose to me to keep off the ravenous beasts and to strengthen my heart."
After she also had ended her story Bambilio eyed me:
"Did you ever hear a story excel hers and mine, Salsonius?" he queried.
"Never," I admitted, my gaze full on his.
The booby showed not a gleam of suspicion!
Inwardly I could not but remark that whereas I despised and loathedBambilio for his pomposity and self-esteem, he made and kept friends.Plainly both Nemestronia and Vedia liked him, esteemed him and respectedhim.
After we left, I felt positively exhilarated at having had an evening inVedia's company and having talked with her. Her escort, fortunately forme, had not been Flavius Clemens but young Duillius Silanus, son of theconsul, who had never met me before.
Andivius Hedulio: Adventures of a Roman Nobleman in the Days of the Empire Page 34
