The Unwilling Vestal | Page 3

and at Ceneta. With our
estates so marvellously paired the marriage seems divinely ordained
when one comes to think it over. Don't be a fool. Anyhow, if you insist
on making trouble for yourself, it will do you no good. My mind is
made up. You are to marry Calvaster."
"I won't!" Brinnaria maintained
Her father smiled, a menacing smile
"Perhaps not," he said, "but there will be only one alternative. Unless
you agree to obey me I shall go at once to the Pontifex and offer you
for a Vestal."
Every trace of apprehension vanished from Brinnaria's expression. She
grinned saucily, almost impudently, at her father, and snapped her
fingers in his face.
"You can't scare me that way, Daddy!" she mocked him. "I know better
than that. There can be only six Vestals. You can offer, if you like, but
the Emperors themselves can't take me for a Vestal while the six are

alive."
The laugh muffled in her throat; she was fairly daunted. Never had she
seen her father's face so dark, so threatening. Not in all her life had he
so much as spoken harshly to her; she had been his pet since she had
begun to remember. But now, for one twinkling, she feared a blow
from him. She almost shrank back from him.
He did not move and he spoke softly.
"Rabulla died this morning before dawn," was all he said.
Instantly Brinnaria. was fluttering with panic.
"You aren't in earnest, Daddy!" she protested. "You can't be in earnest.
You're only fooling; you're only trying to frighten me. You don't really
mean it; oh, please, Daddy, say you don't really mean it!"
"I really mean it," her father answered heavily. "I never meant anything
more genuinely in my life. You know my influence with the Emperors
and with the Pontifex of Vesta. You know that if I made the proposal
they would disregard any rival petitioners, would override all
unnecessary formalities, would have the matter despatched at once.
Unless you obey me you will be a Vestal before sunset to-morrow."
Brinnaria was now fairly quivering with terror.
"Oh, Daddy!" she quivered, "you couldn't be so cruel. I'd rather die
than have to be a Vestal. I couldn't imagine any life so terrible. Oh,
Daddy, please say you are not in earnest."
He frowned.
"I swear," he said, "that I was never more in earnest. I say it solemnly,
as sure as my name is Marcus Brinnarius Epulo, I'll have you made a
Vestal unless you agree this moment to give up all thoughts of Almo, to
obey me about marrying Calvaster, and to be properly polite to him and
Pulfennius."
"Daddy!" Brinnaria cried. "Only don't have me made a Vestal and I'll
do anything. I'll forget there ever was an Almo. I'll be sweet as honey to
Pulfennius till he loves me better than Secunda, and I'll marry Calvaster;
I'll marry anybody. Why, Daddy, I'd marry a boar pig rather than be a
Vestal."
Her father smiled.
"I thought my little daughter would behave properly," he soothed her,
"and you are just in time. That may be your future husband and
father-in-law coming now."

In fact they were in a moment ushered in. Pulfennius was a tall man,
lean and loose-jointed, with straggling, greenish-gray hair; a long,
uneven head, broad at the skull and narrow at the chin; puffy, white
bags of flabby flesh under his eyes; irregular yellow teeth and sagging
cheeks that made his face look squarish. Calvaster was a mere boy,
with a leaden complexion, shifty gray eyes, thin lips, and an expression
at once sly and conceited.
"You come opportunely," said their host after the greetings had been
exchanged, "for you happen to find me alone with the very daughter of
whom you and I were talking. This is Brinnaria."
"This!" Pulfennius exclaimed. "This the girl we were talking about?
Impossible! Incredible! There must be some mistake."
"There is no mistake," his host assured him. "This is the girl we were
talking about, this is Brinnaria."
The visitor regarded her, respectfully standing now, her brown eyes
down-cast, the flush faded from her olive-skinned cheeks, her arms
hanging limply at her sides. She was tall for a girl and while slenderly
built was well muscled, a fine handsome figure in her red robe.
"This!" he exclaimed again. "Indeed. So this is Brinnaria. I am very
glad to have seen her. And now having seen her, do you not think that
our business would be better transacted by us three males together?"
"Certainly, if you prefer," Brinnarius asserted.
He patted Brinnaria and kissed her.
"Run away now, little girl," he said, "and wait in the peristyle until I
want you."
Brinnaria, once in the rear courtyard, instantly called:
"Guntello!"
Her call was answered by