stark naked.




X. "ROME IS TOO MUCH RULED BY WOMEN!"



"He is in the bath," said Marcia. She and Galen were alone with
Pertinax, who looked splendid in his official toga. She was herself in
disarray. Her woman had tried to dress her hair on the way in the
litter; one long coil of it was tumbling on her shoulder. She looked
almost drunken.

"Where is Flavia Titiana?" she demanded.

"Out," said Pertinax and shut his lips. He never let himself discuss
his wife's activities. The peasant in him, and the orthodox grammarian,
preferred less scandalous subjects.

Marcia stared long at him, her liquid, lazy eyes, suggesting banked
fires in their depths, looking for signs of spirit that should rise to
the occasion. But Pertinax preferred to choose his own occasions.

"Commodus is in the bath," Marcia repeated. "He will stay there until
night comes. He is sulking. He has his tablets with him--writes and
writes, then scratches out. He has shown what he writes to nobody, but
he has sent for Livius."