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He had been gone but a very short time when the door opened and in came.... Tanno! He shut the door fast and, without a word, we were clasped in a close embrace. When our emotions quieted sufficiently I pressed Tanno into a chair and resumed mine. We gazed at each other some time before either mastered himself enough for words.
He covered the last hundred paces at a furious gallop, pulled up his snorting mare abruptly, and dismounted jauntily. Plainly, at first sight, he and Tanno liked each other.
Tanno blinked at the soft, hazy view and swept his arm southward. "That is all Satronian over there?" he asked. "All," I said, "as far as the Aemilian domain." "Which way," he queried, "is Villa Vedia?" "To see it from here," I said, "you would have to look straight through this house and half a dozen hills. It is almost due north."
I sent for Ofatulena and she came in, pleased and embarrassed, flushed brick-red all over her full moon of a face, diffident and elated, trembling and giggling. Tanno questioned her and satisfied himself that she had prepared the dishes which had won his approbation and also that she was no hit-or-miss cook, but a real artist in the kitchen, and really knew what she was doing.
Tanno turned to Agathemer. "Do you feel that way too?" he demanded. "I most certainly do," said Agathemer, "I have a feeling that my remaining a slave is going to be of vital service to Hedulio, somehow, sometime." "Then you are content to remain a slave?" Tanno queried.
"I suppose," I said, "that Tanno and I have mostly been together at Rome. Animals are scarcer there than in the country and human beings more plentiful. He knows more of my dealings with men and women than with other creatures."
"Praise be to Hercules and all the gods," said Tanno. "I love the country frantically, especially when I am in the city. I love it so that three days on the road is enough country for me. I have been bored to death and do so want a bath." "The bath is all hot and ready," said I, "and the slaves waiting. But I am giving a dinner this evening and nearly all my neighbors are coming.
Somehow this realization, along with the recollection of what Tanno had said of the fellow, woke me to a sense of the danger to which I was exposed by being with Capito and also to a sense of the craziness of his ideas and plans. I felt my face redden. "You have said enough!" I cut him short. "I perfectly understand.
Tanno and I will see that you are supplied with cash for the journey and for your needs after you reach your haven." The cocks crowed vociferously at all the neighboring farmsteads and we could hear them plainly across the considerable distances from us to each. The moon hung low and the pale first light of day began to overcome the moonlight.
Hereabouts we do not give them such high-sounding names as you apply to them, we call them hashes or stews. Ofatulena, the wife of my villa-farm bailiff, devised them and prepared them. She is famous hereabouts for her cooking." "What," cried Tanno, "a woman cook! Never saw a woman cook, never heard of one, never read of one.
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