Caesar Dies by Talbot Mundy
page 78 of 185 (42%)
page 78 of 185 (42%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
scuffled a moment and raised him struggling in the air, then flung him
into the nearest group, who broke his fall and set him on his feet again. "Am I strong enough to face my Marcia?" he asked and, laughing, passed into the other room, where half a dozen women grouped themselves around the imperial mistress. "What now?" he demanded. "Why am I called Commodus?" He stood magnificent, with folded arms, confronting her, play-acting the part of a guiltless man arraigned before the magistrate. "O Roman Hercules," she said, "I spoke in haste, you came so much sooner than expected. What woman can remember you are anything but Caesar when you smile at her? I am in love, and being loved, I am--" "Contriving some new net for me, I'll wager! Come and watch the new men training with the caestus; I will listen to your plan for ruling me and Rome while the sight of a good set-to stirs my genius to resist your blandishments!" "Caesar," she said, "speak first with me alone." Instantly his manner changed. He made a gesture of impatience. His sudden scowl frightened the women standing behind Marcia, although she appeared not to notice it, with the same peculiar trick of seeming not to see what she did not wish to seem to see that she had used when she walked naked through the Thermae. "Send your scared women away then," he retorted. "I trust Narcissus. |
|