is nephew; but, be it said without disrespect to him, he was
more attached to his own reputation; and, while he would have been
seriously annoyed at seeing Agellius exposed to one of the panthers of the
neighbouring forest, or hung up by the feet, with the blood streaming from
his nose and mouth, as one of the dogs or kids of the market, he would
have disliked the _eclat_ of the thing still more. He felt both anger and
alarm at the prospect; he was conscious he did not understand his nephew,
or (to use a common phrase) know where to find him; he was aware that a
great deal of tact was necessary to manage him; and he had an instinctive
feeling that Juba was right in saying that it would not do to threaten him
with the utmost severity of the law. He considered Callista's hold on him
was the most promising quarter of the horizon; so he came to a resolution
to do as little as he could personally, but to hold Agellius's head, as
far as he could, steadily in the direction of that lady, and to see what
came of it. As to Juba's assurance that Agellius was not a Christian at
heart, it was too good news to be true; but still it might be only an
anticipation of what would be, when the sun of Greece shone out upon him,
and dispersed the remaining mists of Oriental superstition.

In this state of mind the old gentleman determined one afternoon to leave
his shop to the care of a slave, and to walk down to his nephew, to judge
for himself of his state of mind; to bait his hook with Callista, and to
see if Agellius bit. There was no time to be lost, for the publication of
the edict might be made any day; and then disasters might ensue which no
skill could remedy.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE NEW GENERATION.

Jucundus, then, set out to see how the land lay with his nephew, and to do
what he could to prosper the tillage. His way led him by the temple of
Mercury, which at that time subserved the purpose of a boy's school, and
was connected with some academical buildings, the property of the city,
which lay beyond it. It cannot be said that our friend was any warm patron
of literature or education, though he had not neglected the schooling of
his nephews. Letters seemed to him in fact to unsettle the mind; and he
had never known much good come of them. Rhetoricians and philosophers did
not know where they stood, or what were their bearings. They did not know
what they held, and