  Some days subsequently, Plautia stood with her arms resting on the parapet of the garden wall which edged the cliffs. Her mood was one of profound abstraction, and the fixed gaze of her eyes seemed to be unconscious of the endless beauties of the scene which lay within the scan of that giddy height. The rays of the autumn sunlight, mingling with the opal-coloured light, the deepening shades of the whispering sea, the changing tints of the mountains, and the white gleam of the cities fringing the sweep of the distant shores, were far from her mind. No sound arose to the secluded spot on high, save the mysterious murmur of nature, so favourable to an utter absorption of mind, until the grate of a human foot behind aroused her with a start. Turning round she beheld Afer standing within a few yards, gazing at her intently. Since the banquet the manner of Plautia had become that of one quite reconciled to her situation. Nay, it rather betokened satisfaction and pleasure judging by outward manifestation. She had seemingly earned complete freedom also, since she came and went wherever and whenever she pleased, without being subjected to any galling symptom of restraint. Her apartments were free of access to whosoever chose to visit her, though these were necessarily few in number. To Tiberius himself she jestingly contrasted her later freedom with her first day’s experience. He lightly returned, that he prided himself upon the better judgment he had shown, in perceiving the unreality of her momentary dissatisfaction; and that now, since time had proved him to be right, she might call herself the Queen of Capreae, and do aught her mind might fancy, save attempt to quit the island. This he added [pg 301] In accordance with this disposition of affairs Afer had first presented himself at her apartments, and, by direction of her attendants, had followed her to the garden. His cheeks seemed hollower and more drawn, and his glance was haggard and restless. For the rest, his attire and bearing were unchanged in their faultless taste and neatness. Plautia did not quit her position, but simply turned her back against the wall, with her elbows thrust behind her on the top of the stones. The grace of her splendid form was thus admirably displayed, but the posture was strongly suggestive of careless indifference. The languid gaze, and the lifeless drawl of her salutation, were even more devoid of the sense of politeness; but he, nevertheless, drew nearer to her. ‘They told me you were here, so I made bold to follow you,’ he said. ‘No wonder the evening has tempted you forth with its loveliness.’ She gave a faint yawn, and turned her glance languidly another way, in a manner distinctly rude and heedless. His gloomy eyes flashed, and his hand clenched for a moment in anger. ‘I have interfered with your solitary enjoyment of the scene.’ ‘I was thinking nothing of it,’ she replied carelessly. ‘Intent, perhaps, upon the thoughts of Rome, far away across the waters there—your eyes seemed fixed in that direction.’ ‘You are mistaken.’ ‘Pardon, Plautia, for having intruded myself so unpleasantly and untimely. It is all the more to be regretted, inasmuch as I sought you with the hope of your favour, having just received letters from Rome.’ ‘And how could the letters of Titus Afer possibly concern me?’ ‘Being discursive they might probably contain something to interest you, in the current affairs of the city we love so well.’ [pg 302]‘Humph!’ she said drily, with her gaze still fixed down the garden. ‘You are speaking for yourself. You are growing thin and pale, Afer, and absence from the city you love so well is trying you. You are fretting after the airy height of the Esquiline, and the view of the housetops from your own portico.’ ‘You, who have left it so recently, can so far afford to mock me,’ he retorted sarcastically. ‘I will plead guilty to the charge in order not to spoil the jest.’ ‘It is not worth another word.’ ‘My correspondent tells me that Rome is wondering what is passing in the island here.’ ‘It is not surprising in the city, when one considers the power and importance of the absentees—including yourself!’ said she. ‘Of course,’ responded Afer, growing paler; ‘nor, at the same time, must such a powerful factor in the Imperial destinies as the beauty of Plautia be omitted.’ Plautia smiled and showed her pearly teeth, and the face of the knight grew whiter than ever. ‘It seems that, surprised as the poor exiles on this island were at your appearance, the citizens are even more mystified at your disappearance there. It is totally inexplicable. Rumour says you have been stolen, murdered, and so on’ (Plautia’s smile deepened as she caught the fiercely suppressed tremor of anger in his voice); ‘or translated to the companionship of the immortals, after the fashion of old,’ he continued; ‘that is even believed in. One individual, at least, is inconsolable, frantic, desperate—mad, if you like. Searching day and night—wandering sleepless like a spectre.’ ‘Only one, Afer—do they tell you of only one?’ she said ironically. ‘Only one in such sad straits,’ he responded. ‘You can guess probably who it is.’ Plautia shrugged her shoulders carelessly. ‘So may one love you and perish—O wretched example!’ he said bitterly. ‘If the miserable man could only have seen that careless shrug of your pitiless shoulders.’ ‘The idiot—he has seen many such, doubtless. Am I to be answerable for the presumption of such fools?’ said she, [pg 303] The knight’s face became like pallid marble, but, apparently impenetrable, he replied— ‘Surely not, if it be of their own cultivation. There can be no blame to you.’ ‘Thanks!’ ‘Nevertheless one should feel pity and not scorn; for who knows how soon the same fate may overtake oneself? Ill-starred Martialis is not the first nor the last who has suffered from misplaced infatuation.’ Her face was in profile, and his eyes scanned it keenly. ‘Of course Plautia knows I am speaking of Caius Martialis, the bosom friend of Apicius,’ he went on, with slow distinctness. ‘There is also another Martialis, his brother Lucius, a Centurion of the Pretorian guard, at present in attendance here on our worthy friend the Prefect. Do you know this one?’ ‘It matters not whether I do or not; it is not worth the trouble to try and remember. I am ever grateful for your visit, your company, your entertaining conversation, which has beguiled my loneliness. And now I must bid good-night—it grows chilly.’ She roused herself from her leaning posture, and gathered up her drapery preparatory to moving off. Afer’s eyes were still riveted on her countenance. Her mocking words were easily borne after the insulting demeanour already experienced. Something like a cold smile rested on his lips as he watched her. He did not feel disposed to leave her yet. Her behaviour had stung him deeply, and the bitterness which gnawed him so grievously was too keen to be borne without the solace of retaliation. He waited a few moments until she was on the point of retiring, without any further notice of him, and then said, in a low voice— ‘It would be better worth your while than you think, Plautia, to strive to remember if the soldier-brother be amongst your acquaintance or not.’ ‘Another time when I am more disposed,’ she sternly answered, beginning to descend the grassy mound on which they stood. [pg 304]‘At your own gracious pleasure,’ he repined, as he leisurely followed. ‘I mentioned it, because I thought it might interest you to know, that whether the acquaintance really exist or not, there are rumours in the island of a somewhat close relationship between you.’ She stopped short, and turned round upon him—so swiftly and sharply, that the skirts and folds of her garments whirled out on the air. ‘Rumours—what rumours? What close relationship? What do you mean?’ she said, with the haughtiness of a queen to a slave. ‘Nothing, but what my words plainly convey. Let me repeat—it is said in the island that a warm friendship exists between yourself and the Centurion Martialis.’ ‘And what of that? Is it not permitted to me to have warm friends as well as others?’ He gently shrugged his shoulders, and the action brought the sudden fire to her eyes and the colour to her cheeks. Noting the signs he looked down and smiled covertly, to her intense irritation. ‘Do you wish to trifle with me, Afer?’ she said, in a dangerous tone. ‘I would rather brave Tiberius himself,’ he replied, with a bow, which was lower than humility itself; ‘far from trifling, I merely alluded to that which passes current in the island; but, if it be distasteful to you, I regret I was the unlucky means of making it known.’ ‘My friends are always of my choosing; I ever abide by my choice and suffer no other interference. It is true I remember to have met the younger Martialis on chance occasions in the city. It is hardly possible that it should be otherwise, since the brother haunts me like a pestilent shadow. That should all the more predispose me to increase the intimacy with the name as little as possible. The tale of the elder brother’s folly has followed even here, Afer, and the good idle Capreans have saddled it on the wrong man—the mistake is obvious.’ ‘That would have been the most probable explanation doubtless, if I were sure that the idle babbling had arisen amongst the islanders themselves.’ [pg 305]‘Psa!’ ejaculated she, sweeping round again, as if contemptuously dropping all further thought of the subject. She walked on a few yards with the knight following. Then she turned sharply round on her heel and confronted him again. The movement was unexpected, and she caught a smile on his lip. She stamped her foot. ‘Tell me, what this is—what it all means! Quick, man!’ ‘The thorn has stuck,’ he murmured imperceptibly, as he hesitated and looked down. ‘Speak!’ continued the angry imperious tones. ‘I knew she could not rest with that prickle rankling in her mind,’ he continued inwardly; ‘now her haughtiness shall dance to my piping and pay for her insolence.’ A vehement snatch of her hand at his arm roused him. ‘Do you hear, Afer? Speak when I ask you!’ Raising his head he looked at her with provoking gravity, and his studied deliberate manner easily attained the effect he designed for it. At no time did she appear so superb, as when her impetuous blood was stirred, and the excitement of anger glowed in her cheeks and flashed in her eyes. He gazed upon her with a double gratification, for, while his glance drank in the spectacle of her kindled beauty, his heart warmed with a savage joy of power. Her contemptuous bearing had filled him with a devouring tumult of passions, none the less fierce, because of the powerful restraint which stifled them. All the arts of sympathetic love and compassion may be lavished on a mind which lies numb in the chill death of its hope of hopes; but let the venom of contempt be flung upon it, from a certain eye or lip, and it straightway surges from its icy torpor with the fire and fury of deadly hate. Above the wild passion which sickened in the heart of Afer, struggled resentment and profound indignation. He calmly looked back the flashing gaze of his companion, and a faintly mocking smile curved his lips. ‘Yes, I hear,’ he said at length; ‘of what do you wish me to speak?’ ‘Of what? You are bent on provoking me. Are we not [pg 306] ‘Since your appearance in Caesar’s villa, as a guest, the island is mightily interested in you, and, naturally, the tongue follows the bent of the mind. Many rumours and conjectures are doubtless rife concerning you. To which would you have me refer?’ ‘You are playing with me, I repeat—you dare to do so,’ she replied; and he plainly saw the effort it cost her to speak, as she did, in a quiet tone. ‘You either know something, or nothing—to the point then, quickly.’ ‘Your displeasure is so swift and heavy that it behoves me to be most prudent and cautious. Give me to understand of what I am to speak——’ ‘People call you wise and subtle, but, to me, your prudence and caution savours very much of the profound wisdom of the bird of Minerva.’ ‘It is a sapient fowl which flies about in the night-time only, and, doubtless, sees many strange things in moonlight and shade,’ said he. ‘Once again—do you refuse to answer me?’ ‘Surely not, in reply to a direct question,’ he answered, as if taking a malicious pleasure in forcing her to mention names. ‘I will give you a cue then,’ said she; ‘you mentioned rumours concerning me—tell me all you know.’ ‘There is only one worth repeating.’ ‘And that refers to Martialis.’ She was pale, with the exception of a bright, red spot on either cheek, and, perceiving by her look and tone, that it would be imprudent to try her further, he nodded affirmatively. ‘And could you not say so before?’ she asked, with an indescribable sneer which stung him to the quick. ‘Not until you yourself had uttered the name, should I have dared to mention what might prove disagreeable,’ he replied derisively. ‘Proceed, then, and without fear.’ ‘It will require but few words. You arrived in a mysterious manner; and, it is said, you came hither of your own [pg 307] ‘Psa! You are too ridiculous.’ She laughed outright, but the knight, though he could not but admire her self-possession, could hardly fail to detect the false ring on her tones. ‘And this is the portentous secret you drag forth so mysteriously,’ she cried; ‘this is what you have heard in the wine-shops and on the Marina! Worthy, idle Capreans! And you, Titus Afer—subtle Titus Afer—to what an empty, pitiful condition of mind, has the sleepy stagnation of this pile of rocks amid the sea brought you, that such an idle fable should so occupy your thoughts as to relate it seriously and solemnly to me.’ ‘I admit that one’s faculties are apt to rust amid the sluggish tranquillity of this place,’ replied Afer, with a sigh of charming softness. ‘The whole thing is absurd, but for the extraordinary fact, that the wonderful story is not the production of the gossips themselves. Instead of being born in the village below, it has flowed from the villa above—from headquarters itself.’ As a matter of fact, the details of Plautia’s romantic adventure had spread no further than the reader is already aware of, but the unscrupulous knight knew the power of such a statement, false as it was, and, therefore, made it without hesitation. To have given the rumour on the authority of the simple islanders themselves, was to have rendered it of no weight with her; but to boldly state that it proceeded from the villa, was at once to load her with the maddening suspicion that she had been betrayed. Thus to include the man he hated, by one master-stroke, was a worthy revenge, and he perpetrated the falsehood with an utter recklessness of discovery. He was prepared to exult over an explosion of wrath, or, better still, to gloat over an exhibition of shame and abasement, which would have left him master of the field, in a triumph to last as long as life. But to have reckoned on any mood of weakness, he perceived, at once, was vain. His quiet words fell on her ears with an unexpectedness that struck her dumb for a few moments. Martialis must have betrayed her—had probably told all [pg 308] ‘Infamous!’ she cried, at length, in a choking voice. ‘But say you are trifling with me, Afer, and this is the crown of your jest.’ ‘I am not so mad,’ he replied, dwelling with complete satisfaction on the effect of his communication. ‘From whom, then, in the villa, has such a slander sprung?’ ‘That I cannot say.’ ‘I must know.’ ‘Drowning were too good for him.’ ‘Him!’ ‘Him,’ repeated the knight, with a nod. ‘There are no women in the villa who could possibly be the author of such a story. It is certain to be a man. Have you no suspicion?’ He could hear the grate of her teeth as she breathed heavily and rapidly through her nostrils. ‘Suspicion!’ she cried, after some inarticulate sounds. ‘How am I to know? A lie—it is for any one—what is easier? A scullion—Caesar—any one can make a lie! It is another matter to discover it—the coward!’ ‘Who?’ demanded Afer, starting at the fierce intensity of the epithet. ‘The coward—the liar, whoever he may be.’ ‘Humph, that is true; if we could only find him out.’ He looked at her with a sidelong glance. Her face had taken a cadaverous hue, and her forehead seemed to shine as if bedewed with moisture. Her eyes, under their knitted eyebrows, were directed for the moment in fierce abstraction among the thickets of the gardens, so that he had ample opportunity for observing her. ‘Such a fabrication, mischievous as it is, is too idle to cause you concern, Plautia,’ he said, breaking silence. ‘I see it has troubled you as I dreaded; but, in my humble opinion, you consider it too much.’ [pg 309]‘Can I help, and I a woman?’ she retorted fiercely; ‘but I will be even with the coward.’ ‘He must first be found; and I think the best plan would be to commence with the individual with whom your name has been linked in such a shameless fashion.’ ‘Do you think it is he?’ ‘Nay, I cannot say. But as a beginning must be made somewhere in the inquiry, that is the point I should select. I don’t see but what it is as likely as any. He is tall, well-favoured, conceited, like all Pretorians, and more so, probably, since the Prefect makes much of him. He has probably told his comrades some such story, as a boast of his own superior attractions. It is a weakness of the military nature, and of the gorgeous Pretorian nature in particular, to be vain of a supposed fascination over females.’ Plautia smiled disdainfully. ‘I had the opportunity of coming in contact with one of his conquests the other day,’ continued Afer, ‘a young girl with whom he is infatuated, they say. One of the lower people only. The daughter of a potter in Surrentum, who has some sort of reputation for his work. Wishing for some specimens of his handicraft, as a memento of Surrentum, I went thither to purchase, and the girl herself attended on me in the shop. A tall, lithe, handsome girl, undoubtedly, and with a manner altogether superior to that of her class, however she came by it.’ ‘And do you think it likely, with such a paragon as this under his sway, he would ever trouble himself to invent a lie concerning another?’ said Plautia. ‘Oh, in the most natural manner possible,’ laughed Afer. ‘You know not these men. Victory does not appease them. They are insatiable after fresh conquests, like Alexander.’ ‘Indeed—is it possible?’ She proceeded calmly to gather together the skirts of her garments; and beyond the pallor of her face, the result of her great mental excitement, there was nothing unusual in her manner. ‘If I can help you in the matter, command me, Plautia,’ said Afer. ‘I ask nothing save your profound silence—I will take the affair into my own hands.’ [pg 310]‘It will be well dealt with.’ She bowed her head. ‘I suppose the Centurion is to be found somewhere in the vicinity of the villa?’ ‘He left yesterday for Rome on an errand for the Prefect.’ ‘You appear to be very intimate with him and his movements,’ remarked Plautia drily. ‘The place is so small, and its events so few, that every one seems to know everything that passes. As for his departure, I happened to be idling on the Marina at the moment he took boat, so that there is no mystery in my knowledge.’ ‘No matter; he will return, I presume.’ ‘Ah yes, for his sweetheart’s sake as well as his commander’s. It is a matter of jest how he invariably posts to Rome, when often he might save himself and the Imperial horses the labour. For instance, what a fine breeze has been blowing these three days past—a fair wind which would have taken a swift-sailing galley straight from the Marina to Ostia or Puteoli without the touch of an oar.’ ‘Winds are apt to fail and change when least desired. He probably prefers the surer method of travelling.’ ‘Yes, but why?’ said Afer, with a cunning smile, ‘because his sweetheart’s home is but a few paces from the road to Rome, and thereby he gains the opportunity of seeing her for a few moments, going and coming—that is the real reason.’ ‘And an excellent one too, Afer. He shows his devotion as well as his sense. The woman ought to be proud of him,’ she replied, with a perceptible sneer which filled the listener’s heart with transport. ‘Lest it be of use to me, you may as well tell me this girl’s name.’ ‘I do not know, I grieve to say, but it may be obtained. Her father is well known, and lives on the further side of the town, close by the main road; he is a potter, as I have said.’ ‘Surrentum, I understand, contains many of them. Have you not his name?’ Afer considered for a few moments. ‘Ah, I know—it had almost slipped my memory. His name is Masthlion.’ ‘Masthlion—good!’ said Plautia; ‘it may help or it may not. It is as well to know it.’ [pg 311]She turned and walked quickly toward the villa, and Afer attended her in silence up to the door of her apartments. ‘I have been the unwitting cause of bringing you great unpleasantness,’ he said as he took leave; ‘but you will admit that I was unwilling to relate what I did.’ ‘I admit it. It was necessary for me to hear eventually—the sooner the better. I now perceive I gave way to my anger more than the occasion warranted, but on a woman slander falls heavier than on a man. Vale!’ She entered the room swiftly and shut the door, and the knight burst into a laugh and strode off. ‘If I have not opened a Pandora’s box in my own small way, I am mistaken. I am not to be treated as she treats that spiritless dog of a Martialis in Rome—no, by Hercules!’ |
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