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Updated: May 20, 2025
BRINNARIA found that, with Almo definitely and permanently out of the way, she did not worry about Calvaster. She also found that she did not worry about Almo and that her glimpse of him had rather calmed her feelings. She confessed as much to Aurelius when she had a third audience with him before he left for the Rhine frontier, and she thanked him for his insistence.
Close beside her she saw the white horse and astride of it, vague in the mist, but unmistakable in his lop-sided, bony leanness, outlined against the glare of the torches behind him, she recognized Calvaster. Instantly she shrank behind her litter curtains. Almost at once a relief bearer who had gone to scout reported a free path through the fields by the road. They continued on their way.
Each was read aloud to a concourse of expectant and envious legatees. Each specified scores of legacies of no despicable amount, and yet more numerous sops to numerous acquaintances. In every will Calvaster, her nearest relative and favorite grandnephew, was named as chief legatee. She kept on making wills, and, what was more, she kept on living.
They chaffered a long time about the marriage settlement,Calvaster sitting silent, biting his lips, staring about him and fidgetting; Quartilla equally silent, but entirely placid, without the twitch of a muscle or any shift of gaze; the two men doing all the talking. Some of the talking was almost vehement, Pulfennius disclaiming promises which his host declared he had made.
Brinnaria thereupon related her encounter with Calvaster and her conversation with Flexinna. The Emperor stroked his beard and reflected. "I have never liked Calvaster," he said, "and if I had been in the city to consider recommendations for appointments he would, assuredly, never have become a member of Rome's hierarchy. I deem him gravely unsuited for even the most minor grade of Pontiff.
Calvaster was a mere boy, with a leaden complexion, shifty gray eyes, thin lips, and an expression at once sly and conceited. "You come opportunely," said their host after the greetings had been exchanged, "for you happen to find me alone with the very daughter of whom you and I were talking. This is Brinnaria." "This!" Pulfennius exclaimed. "This the girl we were talking about? Impossible!
Of the younger men only Calvaster has displayed any aptitude for learning this delicate and complex art, only he has attained any reputation. He is, in the circumstances, indispensable, I cannot banish him merely to please you. You will have to endure Calvaster." Brinnaria pulled a wry face, as in her mutinous girlhood. She felt entirely at ease with Aurelius.
I am prejudiced against Calvaster, as I have told you, yet I am by no means ready to admit that your beliefs about him are evidence against him, more particularly as they rest solely on Flexinna's ingenious conjectures. The notion is plausible and it is entirely congruent with Calvaster's character as I imagine it. Yet it is, after all, merely a plausible surmise.
I counted on leaving before you arrived. I miscalculated, that is all. Awkward for both of us, but unintentional on my part." "I don't believe half of that rigmarole," snapped Brinnaria. "It is all true, nevertheless," Calvaster asserted with an air of injured innocence. "One thing is plain, anyhow," Brinnaria declared. "You bribed one of my slaves. Which one did you bribe?"
He did not speak, trying to appear unconcerned. "What are you doing in my house?" Brinnaria demanded. "I do not wonder that you are astonished to see me here and angry as well," Calvaster replied, "but the explanation is simple. I learned that you were proposing to sell the property. I had a curiosity to see it as it is. I found means to slip in and go over the building.
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