what Pertinax had said about the value of an oath; but his own dignity
obliged him to protest.

"I am not one of your Christians," he answered, stiffening himself. "I
am old-fashioned enough to hold that an oath made at the altar of our
Roman Jupiter is sacred and inviolable."

"When you took your oath of office you swore to be in all things true to
Caesar," Marcia retorted. "Do you prefer to tell Caesar how true you
have been to that oath? Which oath holds the first one or the second?"

"I could ask to be released from the second one," said Livius. "If you
will give me time--"

Marcia's laugh interrupted him. It was soft, melodious, like wavelets
on a calm sea, hinting unseen reefs.

"Time," she said, "Is all that death needs! Death does not wait on
oaths; it comes to us. I wish to know just how far I can trust you,
Livius."

Nine Roman nobles out of ten in Livius' position would have recognized
at once the deadliness of the alternatives she offered and, preserving
something of the shreds of pride, would have accepted suicide as
preferable. Livius had no such stamina. He seized the other horn of
the dilemma.

"I perceive Pertinax has betrayed me," he sneered, looking sharply at
Cornificia; but she was watching Marcia and did not seem conscious of
his glance. "If Pertinax has broken his oath, mine no longer binds me.