THE house of Vinicius was indeed decked in the green of myrtle and ivy, which
had been hung on the walls and over the doors. The columns were wreathed
with grape vine. In the atrium, which was closed above by a purple woollen cloth
as protection from the night cold, it was as clear as in daylight. Eight and twelve
flamed lamps were burning; these were like vessels, trees, animals, birds, or
statues, holding cups filled with perfumed olive oil, lamps of alabaster, marble, or
gilded Corinthian bronze, not so wonderful as that famed candlestick used by
Nero and taken from the temple of Apollo, but beautiful and made by famous
masters. Some of the lights were shaded by Alexandrian glass, or transparent
stuffs from the Indus, of red, blue, yellow, or violet color, so that the whole atrium
was filled with many colored rays. Everywhere was given out the odor of nard, to
which Vinicius had grown used, and which he had learned to love in the Orient.
The depths of the house, in which the forms of male and female slaves were
movmg, gleamed also with light. In the triclinium a table was laid for four persons.
At the feast were to sit, besides Vinicius and Lygia, Petronius and Chrysothemis.
Vimcius had followed in everything the words of Petronius, who advised him not
to go for Lygia, but to send Atacinus with the permission obtained from Caesar,
to receive her himself in the house, receive her with friendliness and even with
marks of honor.
"Thou wert drunk yesterday," said he; "I saw thee. Thou didst act with her like a
quarryman from the Alban Hills. Be not over-insistent, and remember that one
should drink good wine slowly. Know too that it is sweet to desire, but sweeter to
be desired."
Chrysothemis had her own and a somewhat different opinion on this point; but
Petronius, calling her his vestal and his dove, began to explain the difference
which must exist between a trained charioteer of the Circus and the youth who
sits on the quadriga for the first time. Then, turning to Vinicius, he continued, --
"Win her confidence, make her joyful, be magnanimous. I have no wish to see a
gloomy feast. Swear to her, by Hades even, that thou wilt return her to
Pomponia, and it will be thy affair that to-morrow she prefers to stay with thee."
Then pointing to Chrysothemis, he added, -- "For five years I have acted thus
more or less with this timid dove, and I cannot complain of her harshness."
Chrysothemis struck him with her fan of peacock feathers, and said, -- "But I did
not resist, thou satyr!"
"Out of consideration for my predecessor --"
"But wert thou not at my feet?"
"Yes; to put rings on thy toes."
Chrysothemis looked involuntarily at her feet, on the toes of which diamonds
were really glittering; and she and Petronius began to laugh. But Vinicius did not
give ear to their bantering. His heart was beating unquietly under the robes of a
Syrian priest, in which he had arrayed himself to receive Lygia.
"They must have left the palace," said he, as if in a monologue.
