"Ah!"

Aurelius selected a large, rosy peach, covered with burnished down and
deliciously cold, from the dish presented to him by Alexis. The figs,
grapes and peaches were laid in snow and cracked ice, brought from
distant lands and preserved in this tropical clime by some process
known to the Romans. If Aurelius Lucanus had not been one of the most
prominent advocates in the city, receiving a large pension from the
Emperor himself, he could not have afforded these luxuries.

There was a scowl on his forehead as he pared the peach daintily with
a sharp silver knife. These Christians were beginning to make him
nervous.

There was the Lady Octavia, for instance, who must needs be so foolish
as to release all her slaves just because of a silly fancy that
Christians should not possess human beings as property. She would lose
half her income by this freak, and a good share of her principal
invested in these slaves. What would Aureus Cantus have said to such a
wild thing as this? He should have tied up his affairs in a way which
would have prevented the widow from having the rights to do it. She
was now in for trouble and he did not know how to get her out of it.
His own reputation would suffer if he lost her case.

And then, he had to deal with Martius and Virgilia. That was even more
difficult, for he loved them both very dearly, and hated to be severe
with them. The illness of Claudia could be traced to the same cause,
the singular fanaticism of the members of this new sect.