call the fast set. Naturally, therefore, Brinnaria and Faustina had
never had any familiar intercourse. This was their first real
conversation.

Faustina was not a large woman. She was of medium height,
slender and graceful. She was noted for the originality of her
coiffures, which made the most of her magnificent hair. Her
hair Brinnaria noticed the moment her eyes fell on her.

Her habitual expression of haughtiness and boredom had
vanished from the Empress's face and she was all kindliness and solicitude.

Faustina put her at her ease at once.

"I have always been so sorry," she began, "that I was ill the day
you climbed over the balustrade of the podium and rescued the
retiarius. I've missed many a sight I regretted, I miss so much by
falling ill again and again, but I never missed a sight I regretted
missing more than that. Nothing more worth seeing ever happened
in the Colosseum."

"I was terribly ashamed when I found what I had done," said Brinnaria.

"Of course you were," the Empress agreed.

This broke the ice between them and Faustina led her into a long
talk about all her past, her love affair, her life as a Vestal, her
bereavements, her embarrassing circumstances, her future, her hopes.

Brinnaria left the Empress, feeling that she had found a real