“I must apologize.  Let me see, what could I say to Monsieur Charnot?  As a matter of fact, it’s to the Early Text that I ought to apologize.  I have spilled no ink over Monsieur Charnot.  He is spotless, collar and cuffs; the blot, the splashes, all fell on the Text.  I will say to him, ’Sir, I am exceedingly sorry to have interrupted you so unfortunately in your learned studies!  ‘Learned studies’ will tickle his vanity, and should go far to appease him.”

I was on the point of rising.  M. Charnot anticipated me.

Grief is not always keenest when most recent.  As he approached I saw he was more irritated and upset than at the moment of the accident.  Above his pinched, cleanshaven chin his lips shot out with an angry twitch.  The portfolio shook under his arm.  He flung me a look full of tragedy and went on his way.

Well, well; go your way, M. Charnot!  One doesn’t offer apologies to a man in his wrath.  You shall have them by-and-bye, when we meet again.

CHAPTER II

THE JUNIAN LATINS

December 28, 1884.

This afternoon I paid M. Flamaran a visit.  I had been thinking about it for the last week, as I wanted him to help my Junian Latins out of a mess.  I am acquiring a passion for that interesting class of freedmen.  And really it is only natural.  These Junian Latins were poor slaves, whose liberation was not recognized by the strict and ancient laws of Rome, because their masters chose to liberate them otherwise than by ‘vindicta, census, or testamentum’.  On this account they lost their privileges, poor victims of the legislative intolerance of the haughty city.  You see, it begins to be touching, already.  Then came on the scene Junius Norbanus, consul by rank, and a true democrat, who brought in a law, carried it, and gave them their freedom.  In exchange, they gave him immortality.  Henceforward, did a slave obtain a few kind words from his master over his wine? he was a Junian Latin.  Was he described as ’filius meus’ in a public document?  Junian Latin.  Did he wear the cap of liberty, the pileus, at his master’s funeral?  Junian Latin.  Did he disembowel his master’s corpse?  Junian Latin, once more, for his trouble.

What a fine fellow this Norbanus must have been!  What an eye for everything, down to the details of a funeral procession, in which he could find an excuse for emancipation!  And that, too, in the midst of the wars of Marius and Sylla in which he took part.  I can picture him seated before his tent, the evening after the battle.  Pensive, he reclines upon his shield as he watches the slave who is grinding notches out of his sword.  His eyes fill with tears, and he murmurs, “When peace is made, my faithful Stychus, I shall have a pleasant surprise for you.  You shall hear talk of the Lex Junia Norband, I promise you!”

Is not this a worthy subject for picture or statue in a competition for the Prix de Rome?