midnight
Twenty times he started up to collect his thoughts , and as often flung away his reed as the figure of the water-bearer interposed between him and the writing under his hand ; at last , out of patience with himself , he struck the table in front of him with some force , set his fists in his sides hard enough to hurt himself , and held them there for a minute , ordering himself firmly and angrily to do his duty before he thought of anything else . His iron will won the victory ; by the time it was growing dusk the despatch was written . He was in the very act of stamping the wax of the seal with the signet of his family -- engraved on the sardonyx of his ring - - when one of his servants announced a black slave who desired to speak with him . Publius ordered that he should be admitted , and the negro handed him the tile on which Eulaeus had treacherously written Klea 's invitation to meet her at midnight near the Apis-tombs . His enemy 's crafty-looking emissary seemed to the young man as a messenger from the gods ; in a transport of haste and , without the faintest shadow of a suspicion he wrote , `` I will be there , '' on the luckless piece of clay . Publius was anxious to give the letter to the Senate , which he had just finished , with his own hand , and privately , to the messenger who had yesterday brought him the despatch from Rome ; and as he would rather have set aside an invitation to carry off a royal treasure that same night than have neglected to meet Klea , he could not in any case be a guest at the king 's banquet , though Cleopatra would expect to see him there in accordance with his promise . At this juncture he was annoyed to miss his friend Lysias , for he wished to avoid offending the queen ; and the Corinthian , who at this moment was doubtless occupied in some perfectly useless manner , was as clever in inventing plausible excuses as he himself was dull in such matters .