Marcia helps Cornificia to persuade him! Isn't that a confusion for
you? And now there's Bultius Livius. As I understand it, Marcia caught
him spying on her. No woman in her senses would trust Livius; the man
has snowbroth in his veins and slow fire in his head. Yet Marcia now
heaps favors on him!"

"That is my doing," said Sextus.

"Are you mad then, too?"

"Maybe! I have persuaded Marcia that, now she has possession of the
journal Livius was keeping, she can henceforth hold that over him and
use him to advantage. She can win his gratitude--"

"He has none!"

"--and at the same time hold over him the threat of exposure for
connection with the Severus faction, and the Pescennius faction, and the
Clodius Albinus faction. He had it all down in his journal. He can
easily be involved in those conspiracies if Marcia isn't satisfied with
his spying in her behalf."

"Gemini! The man will break down under the strain. He has no stamina.
He will denounce us all."

"Let us hope so," Sextus answered. "I am counting on it. Nothing but
sudden danger will ever bring Pertinax up to the mark! I gave a bond to
Marcia for Livius' life."

"Jupiter! What kind of bond? And what has come over Marcia that she