and pushed some
of the sweetmeats toward me. I would not have them, and, when he tried
to make me take them, I threw them into the road."

"And you remember all that?" said Melissa.

"More things than these are indelibly stamped on my mind from that day,"
said Caesar. "I can see before me now the pile on which Pertinax was to
be burned. It was splendidly decorated, and on the top stood the gilt
chariot in which he had loved to ride. Before the consuls fired the logs
of Indian wood, my father led us to the image of Pertinax, that we might
kiss it. He held me by the hand. Wherever we went, the senate and people
hailed us with acclamations. My mother carried Geta in her arms.
This delighted the populace. They shouted for her and my brother as
enthusiastically as for us, and I recollect to this day how that went to
my heart. He might have the sweets and welcome, but what the people had
to offer was due only to my father and me, not to my brother. At that
moment I first fully understood that Severus was the present and I the
future Caesar. Geta had only to obey, like every one else.

"After kissing the image, I stood, still holding my father's hand, to
watch the flames. I can see them now, crackling and writhing as they
gained on the wood, licking it and fawning, as it were, till it caught
and sent up a rush of sparks and fire. At last the whole pile was one
huge blaze. Then, suddenly, out of the heart of the flames an eagle
rose. The creature flapped its broad wings in the air, which was golden
with sunshine and quivering with heat, soaring above the smoke and
fire, this way and that. But it soon took flight, away from the furnace
beneath. I shouted with delight, and cried to my father: 'Look at the
bird! Where is he flying?' And he eagerly answered: 'Well done! If
you desire to preserve the power I have conquered for you always
undiminished, you must keep your eyes open. Let no sign pass unnoticed,
no opportunity neglected.'

"He himself acted on this rule. To him obstacles existed only to be
removed, and he taught me, too, to give myself neither peace nor rest,
and not to spare the life of a foe.--That festival secured my father the
suffrages of the Romans. Meanwhile Pescennius Niger rose up in the East
with a large army and took the field against Severus. But my father
was not the man to hesitate. Within a few months of the obsequies of
Pertinax his opponent was a headless corpse.

"There was yet another obstacle t