; it comes to us. I wish to know just how far I can trust you,
Livius."

Nine Roman nobles out of ten in Livius' position would have recognized
at once the deadliness of the alternatives she offered and, preserving
something of the shreds of pride, would have accepted suicide as
preferable. Livius had no such stamina. He seized the other horn of
the dilemma.

"I perceive Pertinax has betrayed me," he sneered, looking sharply at
Cornificia; but she was watching Marcia and did not seem conscious of
his glance. "If Pertinax has broken his oath, mine no longer binds me.
This is the fact then: I discovered how he helped Sextus, son of
Maximus, to avoid execution by a ruse, making believe to be killed.
Pertinax was also privy to the execution of an unknown thief in place of
Norbanus, a friend of Sextus, also implicated in conspiracy. Pertinax
has been secretly negotiating with Sextus ever since. Sextus now calls
himself Maternus and is notorious as a highwayman."

"What else do you know about Maternus?" Marcia inquired. There was a
trace at last of sharpness in her voice. A hint conveyed itself that
she could summon the praetorians if he did not answer swiftly.

"He plots against Caesar."

"You know too little or too much!" said Marcia. "What else?"

He closed his lips tight. "I know nothing else."

"Have you had any dealings with Sextus?"

"Never."

He was shifting now from one foot to the other, hardly noticeably, but
enough to make Marcia smile. "Shall we hear what Sextus has to say to
that?" asked Cornificia, so confidently that there was no doubt Marcia
had given her the signal.

Marcia moved her melting, lazy, laughing eyes and Cornificia clapped her
hands. A slave came.

"Bring the astrologer."

Sextus must have been listening, he appeared so instantly. He stood
with folded arms confronting them, his weathered face in sunlight.
Pigment was not needed to produce the healthy bronze hue of his skin;
his curly hair, bound by a fillet, was unruly from the outdoor life he
had been leading; the strong sinews of his arms and legs belied the ease
of his pretended calling and the starry cloak he wore was laughable in
its failure to disguise the man of action. He saluted the three women
with a gesture of the raised right hand that no man unaccustomed to the
use of arms could imitate, then turning slightly toward Livius,
acknowledged his nod with a humorous grin.

"So we meet again, Bultius Livius