Quartilla.
Peace, brazen one! [She goes to the curtains.] Enter, Pertinax, and gaze on our distinguished guest!
Nerva.
Distinguished guest! A jail-bird whom the jail is too full to hold, and so committed by the Prefect Calpurnius to the care of my master, Asterius, and in his absence to mine! Distinguished guest, forsooth!
Pertinax.
[Enters, a manly young fellow of pleasing personality. His arms are full of flowering branches, also he carries a basket of flowers.] So this is Quartilla’s wizard!
Nerva.
Quartilla’s wizard, everybody’s wizard. Well may you say so! How else but by wizardry do you account for Asterius sending him dainties from his own table ... Asterius who seals up the very salt-cellar in his thrift!
Quartilla.