Lucius had almost cut himself clear from his relations.

He had his own bachelor apartments, and Domitius had been glad to have him out of the way.

A sort of fiction existed that he was legally under _the patria potestas_,[95] and could only have debts and assets on his father's responsibility, but as a matter of fact his parent seldom paid him any attention; and only called on him to report at home when there was a public or family festival, or something very important.

Consequently he knew that matters serious were on foot, when he read in his father's note a request to visit Domitius's palace as soon as convenient.

Lucius was just starting, in his most spotless toga,--after a prolonged season with his hairdresser,--to pay a morning call on Cornelia, and so he was the more vexed and perturbed.
[95] Sons remained under the legal control of a father until the latter's death, unless the tie was dissolved by elaborate ceremonies.
"Curses on Cato,[96] my old uncle," he muttered, while he waited in the splendid atrium of the house of the Ahenobarbi.