been given him which I did not wish him to have. And how often that
happened! For I--I was only Bassianus to my mother; but her youngest was
her dear little Geta.

"So the years passed. We had, while still quite young, our own teams in
the circus. One day, when we were driving for a wager-we were still
boys, and I was ahead of the other lads--the horses of my chariot shied
to one side. I was thrown some distance on the course. Geta saw this.
He turned his horses to the right where I lay. He drove over his brother
as he would over straw and apple-parings in the dust; and his wheel broke
my thigh. Who knows what else it crushed in me? One thing is certain--
from that date the most painful of my sufferings originated. And he, the
mean scoundrel, had done it intentionally. He had sharp eyes. He knew
how to guide his steeds. He had never driven his wheel over a hazel-nut
in the sand of the arena against his will; and I was lying some distance
from the driving course."

Caesar's eyelids blinked spasmodically as he uttered this accusation, and
his very glance revealed the raging fire that was burning in his soul.
Melissa's sad cry of:

"What terrible suspicion!" he answered with a short, scornful laugh and
the furious assertion:

"Oh, there were friends enough who informed me what hope Geta had founded
on this act of treachery. The disappointment made him irritable and
listless, when Galenus had succeeded in curing me so far that I was able
to throw away my Crutch; and my limp--at least so they tell me--is hardly
perceptible."