He could not resist the inexorable logic of this train of reasoning, all the premises of which he fully accepted.

Perhaps, we should add, he was not very unwilling to have his wine-befuddled intellect satisfied, and his conscience stilled.

He turned down a huge beaker of liquor, and coughed forth:-- "Right as usual, Pratinas! By all the gods, but I believe you can save me!" "Yes; as soon as Drusus is dead," insinuated the Greek who was already computing his bill for brokerage in this little affair, "you can raise plenty of loans, on the strength of your coming marriage with Cornelia." "But how will you manage it ?" put in the alert Gabinius.

"There mustn't be any clumsy bungling." "Rest assured," said Pratinas, with a grave dignity, perhaps the result of his drinking, "that in my affairs I leave no room for bungling." "And your plan is--" asked Lucius.
"Till to-morrow, friend," said the Greek; "meet me at the Temple of Saturn, just before dusk.

Then I'll be ready." II Lucius Ahenobarbus's servants escorted their tipsy master home to his lodgings in a fashionable apartment house on the Esquiline.