And then Anna hurried on, and Casca was accosted by a man.
“Do you know the woman and the old man?”
Casca shook his head. “The old man is a stranger to me, but not the woman,” was the rejoinder.
“I would have you beware, Casca, the son of Severus: that woman is one of the Christians, though she lives with an old Jew, a dealer in precious stones and pearls, a charlatan and sorcerer. Beware!”
“I know not,” said Casca, with some dignity, “why you should issue these commands against me.”
“I have the best reason. I have to-day, by the special messenger from Verulam, received commands from your father, the noble Severus, that you are to be committed to my care till you come to man’s estate. I went to seek you at the house of Clœlia Pudentia, and she bade me seek you at the schools, and thence again I was sent to the Circus Maximus. Return with me and watch the race out.”
“Nay!” Casca said, “I have had quite enough of the race.”
“You will prefer the Coliseum to-morrow,” the man said, with a malignant smile. “There is fine sport coming on there, to which I bid you. But you must see my credentials for thus accosting you. If you will not return to the Circus, accompany me to my house at the foot of the Quirinal Hill, and I will lay before you your father’s letter. Surely you have heard my name—Antonius Scæva—I hold a high office in the Emperor’s household. I am as well known as the Palatine,” he said, with a cynical smile.
Casca accompanied his new companion rather reluctantly, and listened to his somewhat bombastic talk with disgust.
He would greatly have preferred remaining with Clœlia, in the quiet retirement of her humble home. He dreaded the return to the life that he had led at Verulam, and yet the commands of his father, he knew too well, could not be set aside, and he had no alternative but to obey.