"Or I for love in a cold lizard!" cried Sempronia, laughing.
"You found some love in the barbarian, I think, my Sempronia?" exclaimed Cethegus.
"More warmth than wit, I assure you," she replied still laughing. "I acted my part with him rarely. If he were inclined once to play us false, he is bound to us now by chains"—
"Of roses, fair one?"
"Never mind. If he break them, call me"—
"Chaste? Sempronia"—enquired Cæparius, interrupting her.
"Audacious!" she answered with an affected frown, amid the laugh which followed the retort.
"What do you think of it, my Lentulus?" asked Cethegus, who although he had jested with the others, did not by any means appear satisfied in his mind, or convinced of the good faith of the Highlanders.
"That it is two hours now past midnight," answered Lentulus yawning, "and that I am amazing sleepy. I was not in bed till the third watch last night, writing those letters, ill luck to them. That is what I think, Cethegus. And that I am going to bed now, to trouble myself about the matter no more, until the Saturnalia."
And so that company broke up, never to meet again, on this side Hades.