"Will Eudemius return with you to Rome?"
Livinius shook his head thoughtfully.
"I fear not. I have tried to persuade him, but—I think his plans lie here. For one thing, he does not like the idea of going back with that daughter of his."
Marius turned a slow glance on his father.
"It is a pity about that girl," he said indifferently. "She is very fair—as fair as any of Rome's beauties."
"And as wealthy. When her father hath undergone his fate, his estates will pass to her," said Livinius. He did not look at his son, and his voice was careless.
"It is a pity," Marius repeated, noncommittally. Livinius put his own construction upon the words.
"You mean—her misfortune? Ay, true. But many a man would overlook even that for sake of the gold she would bring him."
"And that is true also," Marius said. "And yet—it were a risky thing for a man to give his sons a mother found so wanting."
So that Livinius knew that Marius's thoughts, like his own, had strayed into those paths wherein Eudemius would lead them. He changed the subject then, speaking of the delayed transport and affairs in Gaul. Then he became weary, being still weak, and Marius left him.