A Friend of Caesar | Page 8

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
prætor. 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?"
"Cæsar?"
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 Cæsar 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 Cæsar--and I have written to Balbus, Cæsar'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."
Quintus smiled in turn, and kissing her, said: "Can you trust me? I hope
so. And be assured I will do all I may, not to quarrel with your uncle.
And now away with all this silly serious talk! What a pity for
Mamercus to have been so gloomy as to introduce it! What a pity I
must go to Rome to-morrow, and leave this dear old place! But then, I
have to see my aunt Fabia, and little Livia, the sister I haven't met since
she was a baby. And while I am in Rome I will do something else--can
you guess?" Cornelia shook her head. "Carpenters, painters, masons! I
will send them out to make this old villa fresh and pretty for some one
who, I hope, will come here to live in about a month. No, don't run
away," for Cornelia was trying to hide her flushed face by flight; "I
have something else to get--a present for your own dear self. What shall
it be? I am rich; cost does not matter."
Cornelia pursed her lips in thought.
"Well," she remarked, "if you could bring me out a pretty boy, not too
old or too young, one that was honest and quick-witted, he would be
very convenient to carry messages to you, and to do any little business
for me."

Cornelia asked for a slave-boy just as she might have asked for a new
pony, with that indifference to the question of humanity which
indicated that the demarcation between a slave and an animal was very
slight in her mind.
"Oh! that is nothing," said Drusus; "you shall have the handsomest and
cleverest in all Rome. And if Mamercus complains that I am
extravagant in remodelling the house, let him remember that his
wonderful Cæsar, when a young man, head over ears in debt, built an
expensive villa at Aricia, and then pulled it down to the foundations
and rebuilt on an improved plan. Farewell, Sir Veteran, I will take
Cornelia home, and then come back for that dinner which I know the
cook has made ready with his best art."
Arm in arm the young people went away down the avenue of shade
trees, dim in the gathering twilight. Mamercus stood gazing after them.
"What a pity! What a pity!" he repeated to himself, "that Sextus and
Caius are not alive; how they would have rejoiced in their children!
Why do the fates order things as they do? Only let them be kind enough
to let me live until I hold another little Drusus on my knee, and tell him
of the great battles! But the Gods forbid, Lentulus should find out
speedily that his lordship has gone over to Cæsar; or there will be
trouble enough for both his lordship and my lady. The consul-elect is a
stubborn, bitter man. He