in so many words that every tie
that bound her to him must be broken in favor of another, and the
hypocritical regret with which she sought to cover up the hard facts only
made him doubly indignant.

Lies, lies--even in this letter nothing but lies and heartless
dissimulation!

How it stabbed his heart! But he possessed the power to wound her in
return. Wild beasts should tear her fair body limb from limb, as she had
torn his soul in this hour.

One wish alone filled his heart--to see her whom he had loved above all
others, to whom he had revealed his inmost soul, for whose sake he had
amended his actions as he had never done for his own mother--to see her
lying in the dust before him, and to inflict upon her such tortures as no
mortal had ever endured before. And not only she, but all whom she loved
and who were her accomplices, should atone for the torment of this hour.
The time of reckoning had come, and every evil instinct of his nature
mingled its exulting voice with the anguished cries of his bleeding
heart.

The prefect knew his master well, and watched his every expression while
apparently listening to the voluble physician, but in reality absorbed in
a train of thought. By the twitching of his eyelids, the sharply outlined
red patches on his cheeks, the quivering nostrils, and the deep furrows
between his eyes, he must be revolving some frightful plan in his mind.

Yesterday, had he found him in this condition, Macrinus would have
endeavored by every means in his power to calm his wrath; but to-day, if
Caesar had set the world in flames, he would only have added fuel to the
fire, for who could more surely upset the firmly established power of
this emperor and son of emperors as Caracalla himself? The people of Rome
had endured unimaginable sufferings at his hands; but the cup was full,
and, judging from Caesar's looks, he would cause it to overflow this day.
Then the rising flood which tore the son of an idolized father from the
throne, might possibly bear him, the child of lowliness and poverty, into
the palace.

But Macrinus remained silent. No word from him should change the tenor of
the emperor's thoughts. The plan he was thinking out must be allowed to
ripen to its full horror. The lowering, uncertain glance that Caracalla
cast round the tablinum at the close of the physician's narrative showed
that the prefect's reticence was an unnecessary precaution.

Caesar's mind and tongue still seemed paraly