Valentinus.
Not so, judging by the fruits of your husbandry! [Indicating the flowers.]
Pertinax.
Ah-h! These are different! These are sacred blooms ... my source of inspiration! These come from Tertulla’s garden!
Valentinus.
[Understanding the position.] Hm! Tertulla!
Pertinax.
[Corroborating.] Even so! Tertulla! I have looked with inclination on the maid from the day when I, a by-standing youth, drew her from the reach of the fateful flames of her mother’s funeral pile into which in her grief she was about to cast herself ... an act of filial piety which, combined with excessive weeping, cost her the sight of her lovely eyes! When, rewarding me, Asterius purchased me, I rejoiced in the exchange of masters, for the opportunity this would afford me constantly to behold my divinity-on-earth! I have watched her grow like the sapling trees under my care ... and with her growth and mine my love has kept apace! The garden she calls her own have I made my especial care, tending it not only by day, but also by night when none might guess my secret, till the fame of Tertulla’s garden is a proverb! [He pauses a second for breath.] To me she is the breath of life! But.... Eheu! Woe’s me!
Valentinus.