[125] Marius had made young Caesar, Flamen Dialis:  priest of Jupiter.

The voice of the conqueror of Gaul and German sank with a half tremor; his eye was moist, his lips continued moving after his words had ceased to flow.  Drusus felt himself searched through and through by glance and speech.  Was the proconsul a diviner to find all that was deepest in his soul and give it an utterance which Drusus had never expressed even to himself?  The young man was thrilled, fascinated.  And Caesar, in quite another tone, recovered himself and spoke.

“Wherefore, O Drusus! be ashamed to tell how the Lady Cornelia loves you and you love her?  What if the grim old consul-elect, like the jealous elder in the comedy, will stand in your way! Phui! What are the complaints, threats, and prohibitions of such as he?  At present, the wind blows from his quarter, but it will not be ever so.  Either Lentulus will be in no place to hinder you before long, or we all shall be beyond caring for his triumph or failure.”

“Your excellency bids me hope!” cried Drusus.

“I bid you love,” replied Caesar, smiling.  “I bid you go to Baiae, for there I have heard your dear lady waits her long-absent Odysseus, and tell her that all will be well in time; for Caesar will make it so.”

“For Caesar will make it so,” repeated the young man, half-unconscious that he was speaking aloud.

“For Caesar will make it so,” reiterated the proconsul, as though Zeus on Olympus were nodding his head in awful and irrevocable promise.

And the proconsul took both of his guest’s hands in his own, and said, with seriousness:—­

“Quintus Drusus, why did you abandon your bride to support my cause?”

“Because,” replied the other, with perfect frankness, “I should not be worthy to look Cornelia in the face, if I did not sacrifice all to aid the one Roman who can save the state.”

“Young man,” replied the proconsul, “many follow me for selfish gain, many follow me to pay off a grudge, but few follow me because they believe that because Caesar is ambitious, he is ambitious as a god should be ambitious—­to bestow the greatest benefits possible upon the men entrusted to his charge.  I know not what thread for me the Fates have spun; but this I know, that Caesar will never prove false to those who trust him to bring righteousness to Rome, and peace to the world.”

* * * * *

That night, as Drusus was retiring, Curio spoke to him:—­

And what manner of man do you think is the proconsul?”

“I think,” replied Drusus, “that I have discovered the one man in the world whom I craved to find.”

“And who is that?”

“The man with an ideal.”

Chapter XII

Pratinas Meets Ill-Fortune

I