smiling as he slowly sipped his wine,
"verses eighty-two to one hundred and forty-nine: they are very pretty,
especially the euphony."

"Oh, never mind the euphony. I read it in the evening, and fell
asleep."

"Barbarian!" exclaimed the poet. "But in my dreams I saw before me the
most delicious fish; the salm--"

"'Thee, too, I praise, O salmon, with thy roseate flesh!'"

Ausonius quoted.

"The trout."

"'Then the trout, its back besprinkled with tiny crimson
stars.'

"That's what I call a fine line."

"The grayling."

"'And the swift grayling, escaping from the eye with
rapid leaps!'"

"Yes, but not as you describe them, alive in the Mosella--there is
nothing I enjoy eating more than a fine fish! No, I saw them before me
on silver dishes, baked, broiled, and in dainty stews; and in my dream
I tasted them all. When I woke, I licked my lips and blessed Ausonius:
no poet has ever given me so much pleasure."

He laughed and drained his goblet.

CHAPTER X.

"I am generous," replied Ausonius. "It pleases me to discover in this
way a favorite dish of my usually Spartan friend. I will avenge myself
by placing before you, if possible, the delicious fish this lake
contains; for in its green depths are balche and trout of the most
delicate flavor. They are even better than those of the Mosella: I
could surely have supplied you with them if the Barbarians had not all
fled from the shore before our troops. When, five years ago, I spent
several months on the opposite side in Arbor Felix, to investigate the
condition of the frontiers, what magnificent fish I had!" Then, as if
lost in reverie, he sighed: "Ah, those were happy days! My dear wife,
my gentle Sabina, was living."

"Hail to thy memory, Attusia Lucana Sabina!" said the nephew.

"And my dear children! Then my beautiful, spacious house in the city,
and the charming villa outside the Garumna gate were not empty and
desolate. How gaily the songs of the young girls echoed through the
country during the season when the vine blossoms poured forth their
fragrance! Then I still saw around me the beloved faces of my kindred,
did not stand alone, poor with all my wealth, as now--"

"Uncle!" interrupted Herculanus, trying to assume a tone of most tender
reproach, in which, however, he was not entirely successful. "Stand
alone? Have you not me, who love you so tenderly?"

The Tribune gazed coldly at the