The Unwilling Vestal | Page 2

the actuality. The details of rule and ritual, of dress and duties, of privileges and punishments are set forth in accordance with a full first-hand and intimate acquaintance with all available evidence touching the Vestals; including all known inscriptions relating to them, every passage in Roman or Greek literature in any way concerning them, the inferences drawn from all existing or recorded sculptures and coins which add to our knowledge of them, and every treatise written since the revival of learning in Europe in which the Vestals are discussed. The story contains no preposterous anachronisms or fatuous absurdities. Throughout, it either embodies the known facts or is invented in conformity with the known facts.
Any one to whom chapter twenty-one seems incredible should consult an adequate encyclopedia article or an authoritative treatise on physics and read up on the surface tension of liquids.
End of Preface by Author
Contents

Book I
The Rage of Disappointment
I. Precocity II. Sieves III. Stutterings IV. Pestilence V. Escapades VI. Notoriety VII. Audience
Book II
The Revolt of Despondency
VIII. Scourging IX. Alarms X. Conference XI. Farewell XII. Observances XIII. Perversity XIV. Amazement
Book III
The Rebellion of Desperation
XV. Rehabilitation XVI. Vagary XVII. Recklessness XVIII. Fury XIX. Comfort
Book IV
The Revulsion of Delight
XX. Accusation XXI. Ordeal XXII Triumph XXII. Salvage

Book I

The Rage of Disappointment


Chapter I
- Precocity

"Brinnaria!" he said severely, "you will marry any man I designate."
"I never shall marry any man," she retorted positively, "except the man I want to marry."
She gazed unflinchingly into her father's imperious eyes, wide-set on either side of a formidable Roman nose. His return gaze was less incensed than puzzled. All his life he had been habituated to subserviency, had never met opposition, and to find it from his youngest daughter, and she a mere child, amazed him. As she faced him she appeared both resolute and tremulous. He looked her up and down from the bright blue velvety leather of her little shoes on which the gilt sole-edges and gilt laces glittered to the red flower in her brown hair. Inside her clinging red robe the soft outlines of her young shape swelled plump and healthy, yet altogether she seemed to him but a fragile creature. Resistance from her was incredible.
Perhaps this was one more of her countless whims. While he considered her meditatively he did not move his mighty arms or legs; the broad crimson stripe down his tunic rose and fell slowly above his ample paunch and vaster chest as his breath came evenly; on his short bull neck his great bullet head was as moveless as if he had been one of the painted statues that lined the walls all about. As the two regarded each other they could hear the faint splash of the fountain in the tank midway of the courtyard.
Her father, a true Roman to his marrow, with all a Roman's arbitrary instincts, reverted to the direct attack.
"You will marry Pulfennius Calvaster," he commanded.
"I will not!" she declared.
He temporized.
"Why not?" he queried.
The obstinacy faded from Brinnaria's handsome, regular face. She looked merely reflective
"In the first place," she said, "because I despise him and hate him worse than any young man I ever knew; I would not marry Calvaster if he were the only man left alive. In the second place, because, if all the men on earth were courting me at once, all rich and all fascinating and Caius were poor and anything and everything else that he isn't, I'd marry nobody ever except Caius. You hear me, Father. Caius Segontius Almo is the only, only man I'll ever marry. Nothing can shake my resolution, never."
She was breathing eagerly, her cheeks flushed a warm red through her olive complexion, her eyes shining till tiny specks sparkled green and yellow in the wide brown of her big irises.
Her father's jaw set.
"I've listened to you, daughter," he said. "Now you listen to me. I have no objections to Almo; I rather like him. I have thought of marrying you to him; if Segontius and I had not quarreled, we might have arranged it. There is no possibility of it now. And just now, for some reason or other, Pulfennius is keen on arranging a marriage between you and Calvaster. His offers are too tempting to be rejected and the chance is to good to be missed. Our properties adjoin not only here and at Baiae, but also at Praeneste, at Grumentum 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