[69] To whose mysteries only women were admitted.

“I believe I can be confident you will not betray me,” said Pratinas, who in fact considered precautions that were necessary to take among so blundering and thick-witted people as the Latins, almost superfluous.  He muttered to himself, “I wouldn’t dare to do this in Alexandria,—­prate of a murder,—­” and then glanced again toward Pisander.

“Pisander,” said Valeria, sharply, noting Pratinas’s disquietude, “go out of the room.  I don’t need you at present.”

Pisander, unlike many contemporaries, was affected by a sensitive conscience.  But if there was one man whom he despised to the bottom of his soul, it was Pratinas.  Pratinas had lorded it over him and patronized him, in a way which drove the mild-tempered man of learning to desperation.  The spirit of evil entered into the heart of Pisander as he left the room.  The average chatter of Pratinas and Valeria had been gall and wormwood to him, and he had been glad enough to evade it; but here was Pratinas with a secret which he clearly did not wish Pisander to know.  And Pisander, prompted by most unphilosophical motives, resolved within himself to play the eavesdropper.  The boudoir was approached by three doors, one from the peristylium, one from Valeria’s private sleeping chamber, one from the servants’ quarters.  Pisander went out through the first, and going through other rooms to the third, took his station by that entrance.  He met Arsinoe, and took the friendly maid into his plot, by stationing her on guard to prevent the other servants from interfering with him.  Then applying his ear to the large keyhole of the door, he could understand all that was passing in the boudoir.  What Pratinas was saying it is hardly necessary to repeat.  The Greek was relating with infinite zest, and to Valeria’s intense delight and amusement, the story of the two wills which placed Drusus’s estate and the hand of Cornelia within reach of Lucius Ahenobarbus; of the manner in which this last young man had been induced to take steps to make way with an unfortunate rival.  Finally, in a low, half-audible tone, he told of the provisional arrangements with Dumnorix, and how very soon the plan was to be put in execution.

“And you must be sure and tell me,” cried Valeria, clapping her hands when Pratinas concluded, “what the details of the affair all are, and when and how you succeed.  Poor Quintus Drusus!  I am really sorry for him.  But when one doesn’t make use of what Fortune has given him, there is nothing else to do!”

“Yes,” said Pratinas, sententiously.  “He who fails to realize what is for him the highest good, forfeits, thereby, the right to life itself.”

Pisander slipped away from the keyhole, with a white face, and panting for breath.  Briefly, he repeated what he had gathered to Arsinoe, then blurted out:—­

“I will go in and meet that well-oiled villain face to face.  By Zeus!  I will make him feel the depths of an honest man’s scorn and indignation!”