Lucius muttered some polite and conventional terms of regret, and fell back to join Servius Flaccus and Gabinius, who were near him.

“I invited him and he refused,” he said half scornfully, half bitterly.  “That little minx, Cornelia, has been complaining of me to him, I am sure.  The gods ruin him!  If he wishes to become my enemy, he’ll have good cause to fear my bite.”

“You say he’s from Praeneste,” said Gabinius, “and yet can he speak decent Latin?  Doesn’t he say ‘conia’ for ‘ciconia,’ and ‘tammodo’ for ’tantummodo’_?_ I wonder you invite such a boor.”

“Oh! he can speak good enough Latin,” said Lucius.  “But I invited him because he is rich; and it might be worth our while to make him gamble.”

“Rich!” lisped Servius Flaccus.  “Rich (h)as my (h)uncle the broker?  That silly straightlac(h)ed fellow, who’s (h)a C(h)ato, (h)or worse?  For shame!”

“Well,” said Lucius, “old Crassus used to say that no one who couldn’t pay out of his own purse for an army was rich.  But though Drusus cannot do quite that, he has enough sesterces to make happy men of most of us, if his fortune were mine or yours.”

“(H)its (h)an (h)outrage for him to have (h)it,” cried Servius Flaccus.

“It’s worse than an outrage,” replied Ahenobarbus; “it’s a sheer blunder of the Fates.  Remind me to tell you about Drusus and his fortune, before I have drunk too much to-night.”

* * * * *

Agias went away rejoicing with his new master.  Drusus owned an apartment house on the Vicus Longus, and there had a furnished suite of rooms.  He gave Agias into the charge of the porter[56] and ordered him to dress the boy’s wounds.  Cappadox waited on his master when he lunched.

  [56] Porter—­Insularius.

“Master Quintus,” said he, with the familiar air of a privileged servant, “did you see that knavish-looking Gabinius following Madame Fabia all the way back to the Temple of Vesta?”

“No,” said Drusus; “what do you mean, you silly fellow?”

“Oh, nothing,” said Cappadox, humbly.  “I only thought it a little queer.”

“Perhaps so,” said his master, carelessly.

Chapter IV

Lucius Ahenobarbus Airs His Grievance

I

The pomp and gluttony of Roman banquets have been too often described to need repetition here; neither would we be edified by learning all the orgies that Marcus Laeca (an old Catilinian conspirator) and his eight guests indulged in that night:  only after the dinner had been cleared, and before the Gadesian[57] dancing girls were called in, the dice began to rattle, and speedily all were engrossed in drink and play.

  [57] From Cadiz, Spain.

Lucius Ahenobarbus soon lost so heavily that he was cursing every god that presided over the noble game.