erating on his passions, his prejudices,
his weakness, or his pride; a most sagacious judge of human nature,
reading the character of every man as it were in a written book, Cataline
had long before remarked young Arvina. He had noted several points of his
mental constitution, which he considered liable to receive such
impressions as he would--his proneness to defer to the thoughts of others,
his want of energetic resolution, and not least his generous indignation
against every thing that savored of cruelty or oppression. He had resolved
to operate on these, whenever he might find occasion; and should he meet
success in his first efforts, to stimulate his passions, minister to his
voluptuous pleasures, corrupt his heart, and make him in the end, body and
soul, his own.

Such were the intentions of the conspirator, when he first addressed
Paullus. His desire to increase the strength of his party, to whom the
accession of any member however humble of the great house of Caecilii could
not fail to be useful, alone prompting him in the first instance. But,
when he saw by the young man's startled aspect that he was prepossessed
against him, and had listened probably to the damning rumors which were
rife everywhere concerning him, a second motive was added, in his pride of
seduction and sophistry, by which he was wont to boast, that he could
bewilder the strongest minds, and work them to his will. When by the
accidental disarrangement of Arvina's gown, and the discovery of his own
dagger, he perceived that the intended victim of his specious arts was
probably cognizant in some degree of his last night's crime, a third and
stronger cause was added, in the instinct of self-preservation. And as
soon as he found out that Paullus was bound for the house of Cicero, he
considered his life, in some sort, staked upon the issue of his attempt on
Arvina's principles.

No part could have been played with more skill, or with greater knowledge
of his character whom he addressed. He said just enough to set him
thinking, and to give a bias and a colour to his thoughts, without giving
him reason to suspect that he had any interest in the matter; and he had
withdrawn himself in that careless and half contemptuous manner, which
naturally led the young man to wish for a renewal of the subject.

And in fact Paul, while walking down the hill, toward the house of the
Consul, was busied in wondering why Cataline had left so much unsaid,
departing s