"Whenever there is any thing to eat with you, my Apicius," said Lucius Piso, "unless there be something to drink with my Pomponius here, may I be alive to do either the one or the other."
"Why not do both?" wheezed Vedius Pollio. "Whither are you even now going?"
"To the camp for an appetite," said Pomponius Flaccus, descending the steps out of the palace hall into the street, and reeling against Paulus, who held him from staggering next against Benigna.
"What do you two want here?" he suddenly asked steadying himself.
"I am accompanying," replied Paulus, "this damsel, who comes hither by Cæsar's order."
"What Cæsar?" asked Pomponius.
"Tiberius Claudius Nero," returned Paulus.
He naturally supposed that this formal-sounding answer would have struck some awe into the curious company among whom he had so unwittingly alighted with his rustic charge.
"What!" exclaimed Pomponius Flaccus, "Biberius Caldius Mero, say you?"