He went inside, and proceeded to one of the doorways which opened off the spacious hall, or atrium, as it was called, which had a tesselated floor and a small fountain in the midst. At the sound of his foot appeared two or three slaves to wait upon him. Cestus followed more slowly, with a keen, wary glance at the various doors and passages around, as though they might, at any moment, belch forth vassals to fasten on him. The knight lifted the curtain of an apartment and beckoned him to follow. He did so, and found himself, with no small amount of misgiving, in a small room, lighted by a narrow window of glass. There were a couple of couches, for furniture, and a small carved table, and, for ornament, three or four bronze statues of exquisite workmanship. In addition to these the walls were adorned with frescoes of mythological subjects, done by no unskilful hand. Afer, standing with the curtain still uplifted in one hand, pointed with the other to a couch, and, bidding his follower wait, disappeared. Cestus remained motionless, watching the screen of the doorway, with all his senses strained like a beast of prey, to catch the least [pg 31]sound. But nothing reached his ear, till, at the end of a quarter of an hour, his patron returned. He came to the table and threw a bag thereon. It jingled as it fell, and the eyes of Cestus flashed and fastened on the precious object.
‘There, my worthy Cestus, are six thousand sesterces; take them and use them economically.’
The broad hand of the man fell upon the bag and thrust it away in the breast of his tunic.
‘What—are you not going to tell it over to see that I cheat you not?’ said Afer mockingly.
‘No—I can trust your counting, noble patron,’ answered Cestus hurriedly; ‘and now I will go, for I am craving with hunger.’
‘And thirst!’ added Afer, clapping his hands loudly.
The echo had hardly died away when a young Greek slave entered, bearing a cup and a larger vessel of variegated glass. At a nod from his master he filled the cup with wine from the flagon and handed it to Cestus. But that individual hesitated and declined with some amount of confusion. Nothing but the direst need could have compelled him to make such a sacrifice.
‘I dare not drink with an empty stomach—I dare not indeed; ’tis rare wine, but allow me to go, or I shall drop from sheer want of food, most noble patron—indeed I shall!’
‘Then I will drink it for you, O man of tender stomach—you grow delicate,’ said Afer, with a derisive laugh; ‘fortune to us both!’
He drained it off, and the slave disappeared with the emptied cup.