were Cæsar to believe that Lygia had cast spells on the infant, the
responsibility might fall on him also, for the girl had been brought at
his request to the palace. But he could reckon on this, that at the
first interview with Cæsar he would be able in some way to show the
utter absurdity of such an idea; he counted a little, too, on a certain
weakness which Poppæa had for him,--a weakness hidden carefully, it is
true, but not so carefully that he could not divine it. After a while
he shrugged his shoulders at these fears, and decided to go to the
triclinium to strengthen himself, and then order the litter to bear him
once more to the palace, after that to the Campus Martius, and then to
Chrysothemis.

But on the way to the triclinium at the entrance to the corridor
assigned to servants, he saw unexpectedly the slender form of Eunice
standing, among other slaves, at the wall; and forgetting that he had
given Tiresias no order beyond flogging her, he wrinkled his brow again,
and looked around for the atriensis. Not seeing him among the servants,
he turned to Eunice.

"Hast thou received the lashes?"

She cast herself at his feet a second time, pressed the border of his
toga to her lips, and said,--"Oh, yes, lord, I have received them! Oh,
yes, lord!" In her voice were heard, as it were, joy and gratitude. It
was clear that she looked on the lashes as a substitute for her removal
from the house, and that now she might stay there. Petronius, who
understood this, wondered at the passionate resistance of the girl; but
he was too deeply versed in human nature not to know that love alone
could call forth such resistance.