With the simple frankness so innocent of guile as to
make charming that which upon other lips would have been the broadest
insincerity, he put that moment's thought into words.
"I thought," he said slowly, "because your horse is so white and your
dress so golden and your face so beautiful that I would have but to
ask--and I would have my sheep again."
Titus looked at him, not with the idea that his compliment was
effective, but with the thought that the boy was yet too young to have
lost faith in attractive things; that another than himself would have
to teach the shepherd that lesson in disappointment.
"Have you examined these sheep for disease, Sergius?" he demanded,
with a show of severity. "I never saw a flock in this country that was
not full of peril for the cavalry."
Sergius, wisely catching excuse in this demand, saluted.
"I did not," he replied.
"So? Well, do it hereafter. Go stop those legionaries and turn loose
that flock. We lost five hundred horse in Caesarea for just such
negligence."
Joseph flung up his head, his eyes sparkling, his cheeks aglow, his
whole figure alive with a gratitude so potent that it was painful.
Titus, with the deep tide of a blush crawling over his forehead,
scowled down at this joy.
"Look well," he continued severely to Sergius, "and if they are
healthy--"
But Joseph laughed and stepped out of the young general's path.
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