His cheeks seemed hollower and more drawn, and his glance was haggard and restless. For the rest, his attire and bearing were unchanged in their faultless taste and neatness. Plautia did not quit her position, but simply turned her back against the wall, with her elbows thrust behind her on the top of the stones. The grace of her splendid form was thus admirably displayed, but the posture was strongly suggestive of careless indifference. The languid gaze, and the lifeless drawl of her salutation, were even more devoid of the sense of politeness; but he, nevertheless, drew nearer to her.
‘They told me you were here, so I made bold to follow you,’ he said. ‘No wonder the evening has tempted you forth with its loveliness.’
She gave a faint yawn, and turned her glance languidly another way, in a manner distinctly rude and heedless.
His gloomy eyes flashed, and his hand clenched for a moment in anger.
‘I have interfered with your solitary enjoyment of the scene.’
‘I was thinking nothing of it,’ she replied carelessly.
‘Intent, perhaps, upon the thoughts of Rome, far away across the waters there—your eyes seemed fixed in that direction.’
‘You are mistaken.’
‘Pardon, Plautia, for having intruded myself so unpleasantly and untimely. It is all the more to be regretted, inasmuch as I sought you with the hope of your favour, having just received letters from Rome.’
‘And how could the letters of Titus Afer possibly concern me?’