Part 22 (2/2)
”No thought of marriage?” he repeated, with one of his mirthless laughs, ”no thought, mayhap, of the husband whom I would choose for thee? No doubt there is even now lurking somewhere in this palace a young gallant who alone has the right to aspire to Dea Flavia's grace.”
”My lord is pleased to jest,” she said coolly, ”and knows as well as I do that no patrician can boast of a single favour obtained from me.”
”Then 'tis on a slave thou hast chosen to smile,” he said roughly.
Then as she did not deign to make reply to this insult, he continued:
”Come! Art mute that thou dost not speak when Caesar commands?”
”What does my lord wish me to say?”
”Hast a lover, girl?”
”No, my lord.”
”Thou liest.”
”Did I deceive my lord in this, then had I not the courage to look boldly in the Caesar's face.”
”Bah!” he said with a snarl, ”I mistrust that maidenly reserve which men call pride, and I, clever coquetry. The women of Rome have realised, fortunately by now, that they are the slaves of their masters, to be bought and sold as he directs. The wife must learn that she is the slave of her husband, the daughter that she belongs to the father; the women of the House of Caesar that they belong to me.”
”It is a hard lesson my lord would teach to one half of his subjects.”
”It is,” he said with brutal cynicism, ”but I like teaching it. I hope to live long enough--nay! I mean to live long enough--to establish a marriage market in Rome, where the lords of the earth can buy what women they want openly, for so many sesterces, as they can their cattle and their pigs.”
She recoiled from the man a little at these words and a blush of shame slowly rose to her cheek. But she retorted calmly:
”The G.o.ds do speak through Caesar's mouth and he frames the laws even as they wish.”
Her words flattered his egregious vanity which had even as great, if not a greater, hold upon him than his tyrannical temper. He knew that to this proud girl he was as a G.o.d, and that her respect for his Caesars.h.i.+p made her blind to every one of his faults, but this additional simple testimony from her pure lips caused him to relent towards her, and quite instinctively made him curb the violent grossness of his tongue.
”Thou speakest truly, O Dea Flavia,” he said complacently. ”The G.o.ds will, when the time comes, speak through my mouth and make known their will through my dictates even as they have done hitherto--even as they do at this moment when I tell thee that I desire to see thee married.”
”My lord hath spoken,” she said calmly.
”Do not think, O Dea Flavia,” he continued, carried away by his own eloquence, ”that I desire aught but thy happiness. If I decide to give thee for wife to a man, it shall only be to one who is worthy of thee in every respect. Thou shalt help me to choose him ... for I have not yet made my choice ... he shall testify before thee as to his n.o.bility and his bravery.... An thou dost a.s.sure me that thou hast not yet bestowed thy regard on any man----”
He paused midway in his phrase with indrawn breath, waiting for her reply. She gave it firmly and without hesitation.
”I have cast my eyes on no man, my lord, and have no desire to marry.”
”Wouldst consecrate thy virginity to Vesta then?” he asked with a sneer.
”Rather that,” she replied, ”if my lord would so deign to command.”
”Tus.h.!.+” he broke in impatiently. ”Herein thou dost offend the G.o.ds and me! 'Tis impious to waste thy beauty in barren singleness; the G.o.ds hate the solitary maid unless she be ill-favoured and unpleasing to every man. Thou of the House of Caesar hast a mission to fulfil and canst not fulfil it thus in isolation, fas.h.i.+oning clay figures that have no life which they can consecrate to Caesar. But have no fear, for I, thy lord, do watch over thy future--the man whom I will choose for thee will be worthy of thy smiles.”
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