usher begged
her to have patience until the merchants' audience was over. They were
the last who would be received that day. He invited her to rest on the
couch on which was spread a bright giraffe's skin, but she preferred
to walk up and down, for her heart was beating violently. And while the
usher vanished from the room, one of the warriors turned his head to
look about him, and directly he caught sight of Melissa he gave his
comrade a push, and said to him, loud enough for Melissa to hear:

"A wonder! Apollonaris, by Eros and all the Erotes, a precious wonder!"

The next moment they both stepped back from the window and stared at the
girl, who stood blushing and embarrassed, and gazed at the floor when
she found with whom she had been left alone.

They were two tribunes of the praetorians, but, notwithstanding their
high grade, they were only young men of about twenty. Twin brothers
of the honorable house of the Aurelia, they had entered the army as
centurions, but had soon been placed at the head of a thousand men, and
appointed tribunes in Caesar's body-guard. They resembled one another
exactly; and this likeness, which procured them much amusement, they
greatly enhanced by arranging their coal-black beards and hair in
exactly the same way, and by dressing alike down to the rings on their
fingers. One was called Apollonaris, the other Nemesianus Aurelius. They
were of the same height, and equally well grown, and no one could say
which had the finest black eyes, which mouth the haughtiest smile, or
to which of them the thick short beard and the artistically shaved
spot between the under lip and chin was most becoming. The beautifully
embossed ornaments on their breast-plates and shirts of mail, and on the
belt of the short sword, showed that they grudged no expense; in fact,
they thought only of enjoyment, and it was merely for the honor of it
that they were serving for a few years in the imperial guard. By and
by they would rest, after all the hardships of the campaign, in their
palace at Rome, or in the villas on the various estates that they had
inherited from their father and mother, and then, for a change, hold
honorary positions in the public service. Their friends knew that they
also contemplated being married on the same day, when the game of war
should be a thing of the past.

In the mean time they desired nothing in the world but honor and
pleasure; and such pleasure as well-bred, healthy, and genial y