Afer considered for a few moments.
‘Ah, I know—it had almost slipped my memory. His name is Masthlion.’
‘Masthlion—good!’ said Plautia; ‘it may help or it may not. It is as well to know it.’
She turned and walked quickly toward the villa, and Afer attended her in silence up to the door of her apartments.
‘I have been the unwitting cause of bringing you great unpleasantness,’ he said as he took leave; ‘but you will admit that I was unwilling to relate what I did.’
‘I admit it. It was necessary for me to hear eventually—the sooner the better. I now perceive I gave way to my anger more than the occasion warranted, but on a woman slander falls heavier than on a man. Vale!’
She entered the room swiftly and shut the door, and the knight burst into a laugh and strode off.
‘If I have not opened a Pandora’s box in my own small way, I am mistaken. I am not to be treated as she treats that spiritless dog of a Martialis in Rome—no, by Hercules!’