'If I kissed my Father's hand, he'd laugh,' said Dan.
'Customs change; but if you do not obey your Father, the Gods remember it. You may be quite sure of _that_.
'After our talk, seeing I was in earnest, the Pater sent me over to Clausentum to learn my foot-drill in a barrack full of foreign auxiliaries--as unwashed and unshaved a mob of mixed barbarians as ever scrubbed a breastplate. It was your stick in their stomachs and your shield in their faces to push them into any sort of formation. When I had learned my work the Instructor gave me a handful--and they were a handful!--of Gauls and Iberians to polish up till they were sent to their stations up-country. I did my best, and one night a villa in the suburbs caught fire, and I had my handful out and at work before any of the other troops. I noticed a quiet-looking man on the lawn, leaning on a stick. He watched us passing buckets from the pond, and at last he said to me: "Who are you?"
'"A probationer, waiting for a command," I answered. _I_ didn't know who he was from Deucalion!
'"Yes, if you were born in Spain," I said, for he neighed his words like an Iberian mule.
'"And what might you call yourself when you are at home?" he said, laughing.
'"That depends," I answered; "sometimes one thing and sometimes another. But now I'm busy."
'He said no more till we had saved the family gods (they were respectable householders), and then he grunted across the laurels: "Listen, young sometimes-one-thing-and-sometimes-another. In future call yourself Centurion of the Seventh Cohort of the Thirtieth, the Ulpia Victrix. That will help me to remember you. Your Father and a few other people call me Maximus."
'He tossed me the polished stick he was leaning on, and went away. You might have knocked me down with it!'
'Maximus himself, our great General! _The_ General of Britain who had been Theodosius's right hand in the Pict War! Not only had he given me my Centurion's stick direct, but three steps in a good Legion as well! A new man generally begins in the Tenth Cohort of his Legion, and works up.'
'Very. I thought Maximus had chosen me for my good looks and fine style in marching, but, when I went home, the Pater told me he had served under Maximus in the great Pict War, and had asked him to befriend me.'