"The blasted ears announce famine, and the torn chlamys ... I dare not...."
"Sickness?"
"Worse still, I'm afraid, if possible. Gaudentius' wife confessed to me that he had consulted the augurs. God knows what they told him!"
"Well, well! We will discuss it. Come again this evening."
"No! I will come this afternoon. Permit me to mention a slight matter, something not so grievous.... There is also the matter of the table-cloths...."
"Have you forgotten? At a supper in Aquitaine the table was spread with two table-covers with purple borders—borders as wide as those on the Imperial chlamys!"
"Do you mean to say they were more than two fingers wide? Remember, I've authorised the width of two fingers."
"Ah, much, much wider I fear! It was a regular Imperial chlamys. Can such sacrilege be permitted?"
Mercury did not succeed however in reciting all his reports: