ich she looked from one to the other, that the
shaft had told.

"I have wondered sometimes," he said, "in an idle moment, whether
they ever met before. The Carthaginians were for some time among the
Cisalpine Gauls, and the girl was, you have told me, the daughter of a
chief there; they may well have met."

Julia made no reply, and Sempronius, feeling that he had said enough,
began to talk on other subjects. Julia scarcely answered him, and at
last impatiently waved him away. She sat silent and abstracted until the
last of the visitors had left, then she rose from her seat and walked
quietly up to her mother and said abruptly to Clotilde, who was standing
behind her mistress: "Did you know the slave Malchus before you met
here?"

The suddenness of the question sent the blood up into the cheeks of the
Gaulish maiden, and Julia felt at once that the hints of Sempronius were
fully justified.

"Yes," Clotilde answered quietly, "I met him when, with Hannibal, he
came down from the Alps into our country."

"Why did you not say so before?" Julia asked passionately. "Mother, the
slaves have been deceiving us."

"Julia," Flavia said in surprise, "why this heat? What matters it to us
whether they have met before?"

Julia did not pay any attention, but stood with angry eyes waiting for
Clotilde's answer.

"I did not know, Lady Julia," the girl said quietly, "that the affairs
of your slaves were of any interest to you. We recognized each other
when we first met. Long ago now, when we were both in a different
position--"

"And when you loved each other?" Julia said in a tone of concentrated
passion.

"And when we loved each other," Clotilde repeated, her head thrown back
now, and her bearing as proud and haughty as that of Julia.

"You hear that, mother? you hear this comedy that these slaves have been
playing under your nose? Send them both to the whipping post."

"My dear Julia," Flavia exclaimed, more and more surprised at her anger,
"what harm has been done? You astonish me. Clotilde, you can retire.
What means all this, Julia?" she went on more severely when they were
alone; "why all this strange passion because two slaves, who by some
chance have met each other before, are lovers? What is this Gaulish
girl, what is this Carthaginian slave, to you?"

"I love him, mother!" Julia said passionately.

"You!" Flavia exclaimed in angry surprise; "you, Julia, of the house of
Gracchus, love a slave! You are mad, girl