And then, while the slaves still shouted their aves and salves, Mamercus led Drusus and Cornelia through the old villa, through the atrium where the fountain tinkled, and the smoky, waxen death-masks of Quintus’s noble ancestors grinned from the presses on the wall; through the handsomely furnished rooms for the master of the house; out to the barns and storehouses, that stretched away in the rear of the great farm building.  Much pride had the veteran when he showed the sleek cattle, the cackling poultry-yard, and the tall stacks of hay; only he growled bitterly over what he termed the ill-timed leniency of his young patron in releasing the slaves in the chain-gang.

“Oh, such times!” he muttered in his beard; “here’s this young upstart coming home, and teaches me that such dogs as I put in fetters are better set at large!  There’ll be a slave revolt next, and some night all our throats will be cut.  But it’s none of my doing.”

“Well,” said Drusus, smiling, “I’ve been interested at Athens in learning from philosophy that one owes some kindness even to a slave.  But it’s always your way, Mamercus, to tell how much better the old times were than the new.”

“And I am right,” growled the other.  “Hasn’t a man who fought with Marius, and helped to beat those northern giants, the Cimbri and Teutones, a right to his opinion?  The times are evil—­evil!  No justice in the courts.  No patriotism in the Senate.  Rascality in every consul and praetor.  And the ‘Roman People’ orators declaim about are only a mob! Vah! We need an end to this game of fauns and satyrs!”

“Come,” said Drusus, “we are not at such a direful strait yet.  There is one man at least whom I am convinced is not altogether a knave; and I have determined to throw in my lot with him.  Do you guess, Mamercus?”

“Caesar?”

Drusus nodded.  Mamercus broke out into a shout of approval.

“Euge! Unless my son Decimus, who is centurion with him, writes me false, he is a man!”

But Cornelia was distressed of face.

“Quintus,” she said very gravely, “do you know that I have often heard that Caesar is a wicked libertine, who wishes to make himself tyrant?  What have you done?”

“Nothing rashly,” said Drusus, also quite grave; “but I have counted the matter on both sides—­the side of Pompeius and the Senate, and the side of Caesar—­and I have written to Balbus, Caesar’s manager at Rome, that I shall use my tiny influence for the proconsul of the Gauls.”

Cornelia seemed greatly affected; she clasped and unclasped her hands, pressed them to her brows; then when she let them fall, she was again smiling.

“Quintus,” she said, putting her arm around him, “Quintus, I am only a silly little girl.  I do not know anything about politics.  You are wiser than I, and I can trust you.  But please don’t quarrel with my uncle Lentulus about your decision.  He would be terribly angry.”