"You are right, Manlius. Speak of other things."
"My experiences are at your command. I saw the marvels of Barbarian lands, and always thought of you. In Africa I saw horses whose shining skins were streaked with stripes, animals whose like no Imperator has ever shown in our circus games. I left orders with the commandant of Alexandria to send several of them to you. In the Indian seas a kind of snail was discovered, which fastened itself to the rocks by means of threads as fine as a cobweb. From these threads the people there manufacture a fabric even more brilliant than sericum, and I brought a velamen of it for you, such as only the princes of that country wear."
As he spoke, Manlius gave the Imperator a superb textile which he had brought with him from India in the hope that it would be Sophronia's bridal veil.
The Cæsar was filled with admiration at the sight of the unusually brilliant, delicate texture.
"Manlius, I appoint you Senator."
The courtiers began to stare enviously at Manlius. As the barber, who was the most jealous of any sign of favour from the Cæsar, could find no fault with the velamen, he vented his anger upon Manlius' face.
"Where did you get those freckles, Manlius? You look as if the flies had played an evil trick with your features."
"You are a barber, Marcius. I painted these freckles. It is a very aristocratic fashion which I learned at the court of Persia."
"Is it the fashion there to wear freckles?" asked Carinus, whose cheeks Marcius was in the habit of painting white and pink.
"Only among the aristocrats. It is the distinguishing mark between the dignitaries of the kingdom and the common people. True, it requires a more refined taste than yours, Marcius, to appreciate this; one must understand, too, why and in what degree these freckles embellish the face. The empty, smooth face, like yours, for instance, which, when one looks at it, shows only white and pink, is the beauty of the plebeian; Apollo's countenance is freckled."