He rose to his feet and listened, leaning on the shield-rim.
'I think that's Dan--my brother,' said Una.
'Yes; and the Faun is with him,' he replied, as Dan with Puck stumbled through the copse.
'We should have come sooner,' Puck called, 'but the beauties of your native tongue, O Parnesius, have enthralled this young citizen.'
Parnesius looked bewildered, even when Una explained.
'Dan said the plural of "dominus" was "dominoes", and when Miss Blake said it wasn't he said he supposed it was "backgammon", and so he had to write it out twice--for cheek, you know.'
Dan had climbed into Volaterrae, hot and panting.
'I've run nearly all the way,' he gasped, 'and then Puck met me. How do you do, Sir?'
'I am in good health,' Parnesius answered. 'See! I have tried to bend the bow of Ulysses, but----' He held up his thumb.
'I'm sorry. You must have pulled off too soon,' said Dan. 'But Puck said you were telling Una a story.'
'Continue, O Parnesius,' said Puck, who had perched himself on a dead branch above them. 'I will be chorus. Has he puzzled you much, Una?'
'Not a bit, except--I didn't know where Ak--Ak something was,' she answered.
'Oh, Aquae Solis. That's Bath, where the buns come from. Let the hero tell his own tale.'
Parnesius pretended to thrust his spear at Puck's legs, but Puck reached down, caught at the horse-tail plume, and pulled off the tall helmet.
'Thanks, jester,' said Parnesius, shaking his curly dark head. 'That is cooler. Now hang it up for me....
'I was telling your sister how I joined the Army,' he said to Dan.
'Did you have to pass an Exam?' Dan asked eagerly.
'No. I went to my Father, and said I should like to enter the Dacian Horse (I had seen some at Aquae Solis); but he said I had better begin service in a regular Legion from Rome. Now, like many of our youngsters, I was not too fond of anything Roman. The Roman-born officers and magistrates looked down on us British-born as though we were barbarians. I told my Father so.
'"I know they do," he said; "but remember, after all, we are the people of the Old Stock, and our duty is to the Empire."
'"To which Empire?" I asked. "We split the Eagle before I was born."
'"What thieves' talk is that?" said my Father. He hated slang.