t as much over the
probable disquiet of Agathemer, Tanno and even of Galen. But I was
helpless and endeavored to be calm. I was certainly comfortable and
hopeful, though impatient.

At last, after six days of this luxurious imprisonment, on the day before
the Ides of July, sometime before noon, my apartment was entered by
Juvenalis himself in the full regalia of Prefect of the Palace. He greeted
me deferentially and was most respectful. He informed me that the Emperor
desired an interview with me and through him conveyed to me his regrets
that it had had to be postponed so long and that I had been so long kept
in confinement and seclusion. He had now come to conduct me to the
Emperor, who was at last free to spend with me an hour or more. When my
valet had made me comfortable and had prepared me for my private audience,
Juvenalis escorted me to the upper private audience-hall, a chamber
spacious and magnificent, though somewhat smaller than the lower private
audience-hall and far smaller than the great hall for public audiences or
the vast throne-room.

I followed Juvenalis along the corridors, elated by my nobleman's attire,
but nervous at the prospect of coming face to face with the master of Rome
and Italy, with the prospective (as he turned out to be in fact) master of
the world.

I was ushered in and Juvenalis withdrew, shutting the door and leaving me
alone with the great man. He rose from his chair, for it could not be
called a throne, took a step or two towards me and greeted me affably, as
one nobleman another. He bade me be seated, did not sit down himself until
I had taken the chair he indicated; then he settled himself deliberately.

We eyed each other, in silence. I cannot conjecture what he thought of me,
but I can never forget the impression made on me by him.

He wore the Imperial robes consciously. I had often noted how Commodus
wore his without thought, as any fisherman wears his rags. Severus was
aware of his regalia, and especially of the sky-blue shoes with the
Imperial Eagles embroidered on them in gold thread. He looked a man in the
best of health, completely fit for a frontier command, for open
campaigning, full of surplus energy, hard-muscled, spare and enduring.
Also he looked as competent, discerning, clear-headed and ruthless as a
man could be. Most of all I diagnosed him as economical of himself, of his
men and of his possessions, especially of cash; as swayed by self-interest
alone, as