He had been playing at fencing with old Mamercus, and his face was all aglow with a healthy colour; there was a bright light in his eye.

When he saw Cornelia in the doorway he gave a laugh and broke into a run, which brought him up to her panting and merry.
Then as he saw Lentulus he paused, half ashamed of his display of boyish ardour, and yet, with a smile and a gracious salutation, asked the older man if he was enjoying good health, and congratulated him on his election.
The consul-designate was a little disarmed by this straightforward mode of procedure.

He dropped unuttered the elaborate exordium he had been preparing on the tendency of young men to be led astray by speciously pleading schemers, and found himself replying mildly to questions about himself and various old friends of his, whom Drusus had known as a boy before he went to Athens.

But finally the young man interrupted this pacific discourse with the query:-- "And, most noble Lentulus, what is the business on which you sent for me?
So far as I am able, the uncle of Cornelia has but to command." Lentulus glanced at Claudia, as if expecting her to open a delicate subject; but that excellent lady only fingered her _palla_,[80] and gave vent to a slight cough.

Cornelia, whose fears had all passed away, stood beside Drusus, with one arm resting on his shoulder, glancing pertly from one man to the other.