ar would outweigh.

Meanwhile silence fell after his words. Poppaea and all present were
looking at Nero's eyes as at a rainbow. He began to raise his lips,
drawing them to his very nostrils, as was his custom when he knew not
what to do; at last disgust and trouble were evident on his features.

"Lord," cried Tigellinus, on noting this, "permit me to go; for when
people wish to expose thy person to destruction, and call thee, besides,
a cowardly Caesar, a cowardly poet, an incendiary, and a comedian, my
ears cannot suffer such expressions!"

"I have lost," thought Petronius. But turning to Tigellinus, he measured
him with a glance in which was that contempt for a ruffian which is felt
by a great lord who is an exquisite.

"Tigellinus," said he, "it was thou whom I called a comedian; for thou
art one at this very moment."

"Is it because I will not listen to thy insults?"

"It is because thou art feigning boundless love for Caesar,--thou who
a short while since wert threatening him with pretorians, which we all
understood as did he!"

Tigellinus, who had not thought Petronius sufficiently daring to throw
dice such as those on the table, turned pale, lost his head, and was
speechless. This was, however, the last victory of the arbiter over his
rival, for that moment Poppaea said,--

"Lord, how permit that such a thought should even pass through the head
of any one, and all the more that any one should venture to express it
aloud in thy presence!"

"Punish the insolent!" exclaimed Vitelius.

Nero raised his lips again to his nostrils, and, turning his
near-sighted, glassy eyes on Petronius, said,--

"Is this the way thou payest me for the friendship which I had for
thee?"

"If I am mistaken, show me my error," said Petronius; "but know that I
speak that which love for thee dictates."

"Punish the insolent!" repeated Vitelius.

"Punish!" called a number of voices.

In the atrium there was a murmur and a movement, for people began to
withdraw from Petronius. Even Tullius Senecio, his constant companion at
the court, pushed away, as did young Nerva, who had shown him hitherto
the greatest friendship. After a while Petronius was alone on the left
side of the atrium, with a smile on his lips; and gathering with his
hands the folds of his toga, he waited yet for what Caesar would say or
do.

"Ye wish me to punish him" said Caesar; "but he is my friend and comrade.
Though he has wounded my heart, let him kno