At this juncture Aufidius Crispus rose in order to pour himself some wine at a pedestal table. I declined. He inflicted some on Helena without consulting her.
'This is not the woman you came with!' he commented satirically to me.
'No, sir. This is a kind-hearted lady who volunteered to help me find you. She's good at blind man's buff.'
Helena Justina, who had not previously spoken, put down the wine cup untasted. 'The lady Didius Falco came with is my friend. I shall never mention this conversation to Fausta but I do feel concern about what you intend for her.'
Crispus looked astounded by this female initiative, but soon managed to answer with the same frankness he had shown me: 'It might be tempting to reconsider my position there!'
'I can see that! Hypothetically, of course,' Helena challenged.
'Of course!' he interrupted in a laughingly suave tone.
'A man with his sights on the Palatine might reflect that Aemilia Fausta comes from a good family with one consul among her ancestors and a brother who promises to duplicate the honour. Her face would look dignified on the back of a silver denarius; she is young enough to bear a dynasty, sufficiently devoted to prevent any scandal-'
'Too devoted!' he exclaimed.
'Is that your problem?' I chipped in.
'It was. Indeed it is.'
'Why did you let her dine with you?' Helena hectored him.
'Because I see no reason to humiliate the lady. If you are her friend, try to explain to her that I could marry for policy-but not with such intensity on her side and such lack of it on mine.' He prevented himself from shuddering, but only just. 'Our marriage would be a disaster. For her own sake Aemilia Fausta's brother ought to give her to somebody else-'
'That would be extremely unfair to some other poor man.' Helena plainly thought him selfish. Perhaps he was; perhaps he should have tried to make a go of it-and plunged them both into domestic misery, like everybody else. 'What will you do?' she asked in a low voice.
'At the end of the evening take her home to Herculaneum on my ship. Tell her decently, in privacy, that I cannot oblige her. Don't worry. She won't be upset; she won't believe me; she never did before.'
His briskness closed the subject, though none of us objected to letting it rest. Aemilia Fausta's predicament embarrassed us all.