Who could have been back of Dumnorix when he blundered so evidently ?" Ahenobarbus felt that it was hardly possible Lentulus would condemn his plot very severely; but he replied diplomatically:-- "One has always plenty of enemies." "_Mehercle!_ of course," laughed the consul-elect, "what would life be without the pleasure of revenge! But why does my niece keep us waiting?
Jupiter, what can she want of us ?" "Uncle, Lucius, I am here." And before them, standing illumined in the panel of sunlight, stood Cornelia.

Ahenobarbus had never seen her so beautiful before.

She wore a flowing violet-tinted stola, that tumbled in soft, silky flounces down to her ankles, and from beneath it peered the tint of her shapely feet bound to thin sandals by bright red ribbons.

Her bare rounded arms were clasped above and below the elbow and at the wrists by circlets shaped as coiled serpents, whose eyes were gleaming rubies.

At her white throat was fastened a necklace of interlinked jewel-set gold pendants that shimmered on her half-bare shoulders and breast.