‘A beautiful statue this of Bacchus!’ said the Roman senator.

‘A mere trifle!’ replied Diomed.

‘What charming paintings!’ said Fulvia.

‘Mere trifles!’ answered the owner.

‘Exquisite candelabra!’ cried the warrior.

‘Exquisite!’ echoed his umbra.

‘Trifles! trifles!’ reiterated the merchant.

Meanwhile, Glaucus found himself by one of the windows of the gallery, which communicated with the terraces, and the fair Julia by his side.

‘Is it an Athenian virtue, Glaucus,’ said the merchant’s daughter, ’to shun those whom we once sought?’

‘Fair Julia—­no!’

‘Yet methinks, it is one of the qualities of Glaucus.’

‘Glaucus never shuns a friend!’ replied the Greek, with some emphasis on the last word.

‘May Julia rank among the number of his friends?’

’It would be an honour to the emperor to find a friend in one so lovely.’

‘You evade my question,’ returned the enamoured Julia.  ’But tell me, is it true that you admire the Neapolitan Ione?’

‘Does not beauty constrain our admiration?’

’Ah! subtle Greek, still do you fly the meaning of my words.  But say, shall Julia be indeed your friend?’

’If she will so favor me, blessed be the gods!  The day in which I am thus honored shall be ever marked in white.’

’Yet, even while you speak, your eye is resting—­your color comes and goes—­you move away involuntarily—­you are impatient to join Ione!’

For at that moment Ione had entered, and Glaucus had indeed betrayed the emotion noticed by the jealous beauty.

’Can admiration to one woman make me unworthy the friendship of another?  Sanction not so, O Julia the libels of the poets on your sex!’

’Well, you are right—­or I will learn to think so.  Glaucus, yet one moment!  You are to wed Ione; is it not so?’

‘If the Fates permit, such is my blessed hope.’

’Accept, then, from me, in token of our new friendship, a present for your bride.  Nay, it is the custom of friends, you know, always to present to bride and bridegroom some such little marks of their esteem and favoring wishes.’

’Julia!  I cannot refuse any token of friendship from one like you.  I will accept the gift as an omen from Fortune herself.’

’Then, after the feast, when the guests retire, you will descend with me to my apartment, and receive it from my hands.  Remember!’ said Julia, as she joined the wife of Pansa, and left Glaucus to seek Ione.

The widow Fulvia and the spouse of the aedile were engaged in high and grave discussion.

’O Fulvia!  I assure you that the last account from Rome declares that the frizzling mode of dressing the hair is growing antiquated; they only now wear it built up in a tower, like Julia’s, or arranged as a helmet—­the Galerian fashion, like mine, you see:  it has a fine effect, I think.  I assure you, Vespius (Vespius was the name of the Herculaneum hero) admires it greatly.’