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OTHO'S SUPPER AND WHAT CAME OF IT 149
of
She had divined the reasons which led Otho to prevent
her from meeting the Emperor but she was ambitious of a
;
throne, and, while using neither look nor word which awoke
suspicion in her husband's mind, she smiled to think how
vain would be his attempt to set a man's clumsy diplomacy
against a woman's ready wit.
'
My Otho,' she had said to him, ' you are about to entertain
the Emperor this evening at a supper such as Borne has
not yet seen. The feast which Sestius Gallus gave to Tiberius,
the supper which Agrippa the Elder gave to Gaius, and which
helped him to a kingdom, were very well in their way ;
but
they were vulgar and incomplete in comparison with that
which your guests will partake, to-night.'
I know it, Poppasa,' he said ;
and though my own taste
'
'
sets the standard in Rome, I know how much the arrangements
of my banquet will owe to the suggestions of my
beautiful wife.'
'
And ought not the wife, whom you are pleased to call
beautiful, at least to welcome into the house our imperial
guest
? Will it not be a marked rudeness if the matron of
the house has no word wherewith to greet the Csesar as he
steps across her threshold ? Will he be content with the
croaking " Salve, Ccesar " ! of the parrot whom you have hung
in his gilded cage at the entrance of the atrium ?'
'
Poppsea is lovely,' said Otho, ' and Nero is what he is.
Would you endanger the life of the last of the Salvii, merely
for the pleasure of letting a short-sighted youth, perhaps a
would-be lover, stare at you a little more '
closely
A ? pout settled on the delicate lips of Poppsea, as she turned
'
away with the remark : I thought, Otho, that I had been to
an unreasonable hus-
you too faithful a bride to find in you
band. Is there any lady in Rome except myself who would
be deemed unworthy to see the Emperor when he sups in her
house ? Have I deserved that you should cast this slur upon
me as though I I, whose piety is known to all the Romans
were a Julia or an Agr I mean, a Messalina ? '
Otho tried to bring back her lips to their usual smile,
but he did not wish to give way unless he were absolutely
obliged to do so. He said :
You must not adopt these tragic tones, my sweet Poppasa.
'
This is but a bachelor's party. You shall meet Nero some