And he was to marry Cornelia.
No thought of thwarting his father's mandate crossed his mind; he was bound by the decree of the dead.

He had not seen his betrothed for four years.

He remembered her as a bright-eyed, merry little girl, who had an arch way of making all to mind her.

But he remembered too, that her mother was a vapid lady of fashion, that her uncle and guardian was Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus, Consul-elect,[16] a man of little refinement or character.

And four years were long enough to mar a young girl's life.