Hand me your tablets; if the others are no worse--" "But they are," Alexander exclaimed, anxiously, "and I only regret that I should be the instrument of your tormenting yourself--" "Tormenting ?" echoed Caesar, disdainfully.

"The verses amuse me, and I find them most edifying.

That is all.

Hand me the tablets." The command was so positive, that Alexander drew out the little diptych, with the remark that painters wrote badly, and that what he had noted down was only intended to aid his memory.

The idea that Caesar should hear a few home-truths through him had struck him as pleasant, but now the greatness of the risk was clear to him.