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Brinnaria's eager scrutiny could detect no limp in his gait, could barely descry the scar on his chin, even when she knew so well where to look for it. She noted that he looked well, vigorous and very handsome in his gilded armor and scarlet cloak. She contrasted their magnificent surroundings with the rough frontier to which he was going. Almo tried to speak and choked.
"Yes," Quartilla said, "everybody is surprised at Brinnaria's growth. I was scared, when she first began to grow so fast, and had special prayers offered and sacrifices made at the temples of Youth and Health. Also I had a Babylonian seer consult the stars concerning her birth-signs. Everybody said she was born to long life, good health and great luck. But I can't fancy what ever made her grow so.
He had not, however, eluded the vigilance of Brinnaria's agents, of the men Vocco had employed to keep him in view. They understood that Egnatius was to be kept in ignorance of their activity, and gave no aid to the police of the neighborhood in their efforts to retake him. They had reported only to Vocco. Almo had money with him and at Arpinum had garbed himself decently for the road.
Brinnaria, to be sure, was holding out her right arm, thumb flat, and doing her best to attract the secutor's attention. She failed. He glanced, indeed, at the Vestals, but as three of them sat impassive he missed Brinnaria's imperious gesture. He prepared to put his foe to death.
No clue, no ghost of a clue came to light. The Greens, like the other companies, could find among their charioteers, their jockeys, their free employees, their slaves, no individual in the least answering to descriptions of Almo. All governmental efforts, all professional efforts, all private efforts, all Vocco's efforts, all Brinnaria's efforts, were completely baffled.
She kept still and silent, but she felt her inward tornado of emotion gaining strength. When Numisia spoke Bambilio let go Brinnaria's arm and stepped back a pace. "My daughter," he said, "you have been punished enough. Your punishment is accomplished. This is sufficient." Then Brinnaria spoke, in a voice tense, not with pain, but with fury: "You won't hit me again?"
Without qualification or doubt the people of Brinnaria's world believed that, as long as Vesta's holy fire burned steadily and brightly, Rome was assured the favor and protection of her gods; that, should it die out, their wrath was certain to be manifested in terrible afflictions involving the entire population.
When Brinnaria's term of service was drawing to an end and only about eleven months of it remained, all Roman society was convulsed by what was variously referred to as the Calvaster scandal, the great poisoning trial or the murder of Pulfennia. Pulfennia Ulubrana, one of Calvaster's great-aunts, was a dwarfish creature, humpbacked and clubfooted.
"I am afraid," she said, "that my appetite is not as reliable as it was ten years ago. I think we had best eat our dinner first and discuss our bad news afterwards." Vocco and Flexinna looked distinctly relieved. Brinnaria's appetite seemed excellent. She ate abundantly, and, after the dinner tray was removed and the dessert tray brought in, she relished a half a dozen of her favorite purple figs.
That this immense and magnificent building was to be her home gave her sense of her own importance that thrilled her through and through. Its numerous retinue of deft and obsequious maid-servants added to this impression. Brinnaria's personal attendants, entirely at her beck and call and serving her alone, made up a considerable retinue by themselves.
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