The Roman by Mika Waltari

was carried toward us from the island on the wind like a dirge from the underworld. The girl leaned over the bridge and spat into the Tiber as a sign of her contempt. �You spit too,� she said, �or are you afraid of the River Cod?� I had no desire to dishonor the Tiber, but after she had teased me for a while I spat too, childish as I was. Simultaneously a shooting star flew over the Tiber in a flashing arc. I think I shall
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    remember until my dying day the swirl of the waters, the uneasy shimmering red clouds, the wine fumes in my head and the crystal star curving across the glossy black Tiber. The girl pressed herself against me so that 1 could feel how supple her body was, although she was a head shorter than I. �Your shooting star went from east to west,� she whispered. �I tin superstitious. You have lines of happiness on your hands, I�ve noticed. Perhaps you will bring happiness to me too.� �At least tell me now what your name is,� I said irritably. �I�ve told you mine and I�ve told you about my father. I�m bound to � get into trouble at home for staying out so late.� �Yes, yes, you are but a child,� sighed the girl, taking off her � shoes. �I�ll go now, and barefoot too. My shoes have already rubbed my feet so much that I had to lean on you as we walked. Now I no longer need your support. You go home so that you don�t get into trouble because of me.� But I insisted stubbornly that she should tell me her name. Finally she sighed deeply. �Do you promise to kiss me on the mouth with your innocent boys lips,� she said, �and not be frightened when I tell you my name?� I said I was neither able nor allowed to touch any girl until I had fulfilled the promise given to the oracle in Daphne, so she was curious. �We might at least try,� she suggested. �My name is Claudia Plautia Urgulanilla.� �Claudia,� I repeated. �Are you a Claudian, then?� She was surprised that I had not recognized her name. �Do you seriously mean to say that you know nothing about rile?� she said. �I can well believe you were born in Syria. My father separated from my mother and I was born five months after the divorce. My father did not take me in his arms but sent me naked to my mother�s threshold. It would have been better if he�d thrown me in the sewers. I have a legal right to bear the name of Claudia, but no honest man either can or will marry me because my father, by his action, illegally declared me to have been born out of wedlock. Do you see why I read his hooks to find out how mad he really is and why I spit on his image? �By all the gods, both known and unknown,� I cried in astonishment
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    �are you trying to tell me that you are the daughter of Emperor Claudius, you silly girl?� �Everyone in Rome knows it,� she snapped. �That�s why the senators and knights daren�t greet me in the streets. That�s why I�m hidden away in the country behind Vatican. But fulfill your promise now, now I�ve told you my name, although of course I oughtn�t to have done so.� She dropped her shoes and put her arms around me, although I resisted her. But then both she and the whole affair began to annoy me. I pressed her hard against me and kissed her warm lips in the darkness. And nothing happened to me, although I had broken my promise. Or perhaps the goddess was not offended as I did not even begin to tremble when I kissed the girl. Or perhaps it was because of the promise that I could not tremble when I kissed a girl. I do not know. Claudia let her hands rest on my shoulders and breathed warmly on my face. �Promise me, Minutus,� she said, �that you�ll come and see me when you�ve received the man-toga.� I mumbled that even then I should have to obey my father. But Claudia persisted. �Now you�ve kissed me,� she said decisively, �you�re bound to me in some way.� She bent down and hunted for her shoes in the darkness. Then she patted my cold