“By Hercules!” said he, “you have committed an actionable offense.”
“Of course, you look on it from a legal point of view,” said Callipodius, a little nettled. “I tell you it was a matter of life or death.”
“I do not complain of your having conveyed the young lady to Ad Fines, but of your not having taken her mother there along with her. You have put me in a very awkward predicament.”
“How was I to judge that the old woman was to be deported as well?”
“You might have judged that I would cut off my [pg 188]right hand rather than do aught that might cause people to speak lightly of Perpetua.”
The client shrugged his shoulders. “You seem to breed new scruples.”
“I thank you,” said Æmilius, “that you have shown so good a will, and have been so successful in your enterprise. I am, perhaps, over hasty and exacting. I desired you to do a thing more perfectly than perhaps you were able to perform it. Leave me now. I must clear my mind and discover what is now to be done.”
“There is no pleasing some folk,” said Callipodius moodily.