"What did Agrippa, then, but wheel his horses, drive over to the soldiers' favorite and take him into the car!"
"What! Did that thing openly?"
"Deliberately! The boy paled, flushed, and whirling about, stalked back inside of the walls, before I could invent an excuse to cover Agrippa's slight. And after him rushed a crowd of senators and ædiles—his umbræ—to feed his hate of the Herod!"
"What did Agrippa, then?" Junia asked after a dismayed silence.
"He was long gone up the road to Tusculum with Caligula by that time."
"It is not hard to guess how he lost Fortune before," Junia declared.
"He plays at legerdemain with Cæsar's favor," Marsyas said, annoyed at his own narrative. "Tiberius, most solemnly commended the boy Tiberius to Agrippa's care and companionship. Cæsar will hear of this!"
"Inevitably! Tale-bearing is a fine art in Rome and Tiberius is its patron. And thus he conducts himself in the face of Cypros' peril, who gave herself in hostage for him that he might succeed!"
"Cypros' peril!" Marsyas repeated, with startled eyes.
"Of Flaccus!"