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AGRIPPIXA AND XEKO 15
Go back to the hall, my boy, and keep your eyes open always
as to what is going on.'
'
I will '
go back,' said Nero ; but, mother, I sometimes wish
that all this was over. I wish I had not been forced to marry
Octavia. I shall never like her. I should like to have
'
He stopped, and blushed crimson, for his mother's eagle
eye was upon him, and he had almost let out the secret of
his sudden and passionate love for Acte, the beautiful freedwoman
of his wife.
'
Well ?
'
said Agrippina suspiciously, but not ill-pleased to
see how her son quailed before her imperious glance.
'
Go on.'
4
1 meant nothing particular,' he stammered, his cheek still
dyed with its deep blush, ' but that I sometimes wish I were
not going to be Emperor at all Julius was murdered.
Augustus, they say, was poisoned. Tiberius was suffocated.
My uncle Gaius was stabbed with many wounds. The life is
not a happy one, and the dagger-stab too often finds its
way
through the purple.'
'
Degenerate boy ! said Agrippina ; I do not wonder that
'
'
you blush. Is it such a nothing to be a Lord of the World ?
Have you forgotten that you are a grandson of Germanicus,
and that the blood of the Caesars as well as of the Douiitii
flows in your veins? One would think you were as ordinary
a boy as Britannicus. For shame !
4
'
Well, well, mother,' he said, you always get your own
way with every ona Pallas is in the anteroom, and I must
go-'
Nero kissed her, and took his leave. Immediately afterwards
the slave announced that Pallas was awaiting the
pleasure of the Empress.
'