Under these conditions Brinnaria throve. Her natural vigor had always been such that she never had showed any outward signs of the strain to which she had been subjected. Uniformly she had looked handsome and healthy. But now, if anything, she looked healthier and handsomer than ever. She was then thirty-two years old. At ten years of age she had looked eighteen, at eighteen she had looked twenty-four. At thirty-two she still looked no more than twenty-five. Her hair was abundant and glossy, her eyes bright, her cheeks rosy; she was neither slender nor plump, but a well-muscled, graceful woman, decidedly young-looking, and altogether statuesque in build and carriage, but very much alive in her springy suppleness. About a year after Almo’s departure for Syria Lutorius came to see her one morning, his face grave. He indicated that they had best confer alone. In her tiny sanctum he came straight to the point. “Daughter,” he said, “my news is as bad as possible. You are formally accused of the worst misconduct.” “Why look so gloomy?” said Brinnaria. “That is comic, not tragic. Who’s the fool accuser?” “Calvaster, as you might conjecture,” he answered; “and grieve to have to inform you,” he added, “that this is no laughing matter.” “Pooh!” said Brinnaria. “I’m not a bit afraid of Calvaster. Aurelius gave Commodus emphatic injunctions about me. And he went into details. Commodus can’t have forgotten his reprimand to Calvaster nor his categorical threat.” “I fear,” said Lutorius, “that his father’s instructions on that particular point are not well to the front of the Emperor’s mind.” “Well, anyhow,” said Brinnaria, “everybody knows my preoccupation with Almo and everybody saw my behavior in the Amphitheatre. I feel pretty safe in respect to my general reputation. As to particulars, I’ve been vigilantly careful to keep away from Almo. Except twice, in the presence of Aurelius, I haven’t been within speaking distance of him in twenty-two years. Between the fact that no one can prove that I have had anything to do with him and the improbability that anyone would suspect me of interest in any other man, let alone misconduct with any other man, I feel entirely secure.” Lutorius wagged his head. “You are accused of misconduct with another man,” he said. “Absurd!” said Brinnaria, “easy to confute. Who is the man?” “Not so easy to confute, I fear,” said Lutorius. “The man named is Quintus Istorius Vocco.”