midnight
She felt as if the point of a thin , keen knife was being driven obliquely through her brain from right to left , as it now flashed through her mind that it was against him , against Publius , that the wild beasts , disguised in human form , were directed by Eulaeus , and face to face with this -- the most hideous , the most incredible of horrors -- she suddenly recovered the full use of her senses . She softly slipped close to that rift in the partition through which the broadest beam of light fell into the room , put her ear close to it , and drank in , with fearful attention , word for word the report made by the eunuch to his iniquitous superior , who frequently interrupted him with remarks , words of approval or a short laugh-drank them in , as a man perishing in the desert drinks the loathsome waters of a salt pool . And what she heard was indeed well fitted to deprive her of her senses , but the more definite the facts to which the words referred that she could overhear , the more keenly she listened , and the more resolutely she collected her thoughts . Eulaeus had used her own name to induce the Roman to keep an assignation at midnight in the desert close to the Apis - tombs . He repeated the words that he had written to this effect on a tile , and which requested Publius to come quite alone to the spot indicated , since she dare not speak with him in the temple . Finally he was invited to write his answer on the other side of the square of clay . As Klea heard these words , put into her own mouth by a villain , she could have sobbed aloud heartily with anguish , shame , and rage ; but the point now was to keep her ears wide open , for Euergetes asked his odious tool : `` And what was the Roman 's answer ? ''