tyled; and of the ceiling, which was finished
in like manner with slabs of stained glass, between the intersecting beams
of gilded scroll work.

The floor was of beautiful mosaic, partially covered by a foot-cloth woven
from the finest wool, and dyed purple with the juice of the cuttle-fish;
and all the furniture corresponded, both in taste and magnificence, to the
other decorations of the room. A circular table of cedar wood, inlaid with
ivory and brass, so that its value could not have fallen far short of ten
thousand sesterces(5), stood in the centre of the floor-cloth; with a
_bisellium_, or double settle, wrought in bronze, and two beautiful chairs
of the same material not much dissimilar in form to those now used. And,
to conclude, a bookcase of polished maple wood, one of the doors of which
stood open, displayed a rare collection of about three hundred volumes,
each in its circular case of purple parchment, having the name inscribed
in letters of gold, silver, or vermilion.

A noble bust in bronze of the Phidian Jupiter, with the sublime expanse of
brow, the ambrosian curls and the beard loosely waving, as when he shook
Olympus by his nod, and the earth trembled and the depth of Tartarus,
stood on a marble pedestal facing the bookcase; and on the table, beside
writing materials, leaves of parchment, an ornamental letter-case, a
double inkstand and several reed pens, were scattered many gems and
trinkets; signets and rings engraved in a style far surpassing any effort
of the modern graver, vases of onyx and cut glass, and above all, the
statue of a beautiful boy, holding a lamp of bronze suspended by a chain
from his left hand, and in his right the needle used to refresh the wick.

Nurtured as he had been from his youth upward among the magnates of the
land, accustomed to magnificence and luxury till he had almost fancied
that the world had nothing left of beautiful or new that he had not
witnessed, Paul stood awhile, after the freedman had departed, gazing with
mute admiration on the richness and taste displayed in all the details of
this the scholar's sanctum. The very atmosphere of the chamber, filled
with the perfume of the cedar wood employed as a specific against the
ravages of the moth and bookworm, seemed to the young man redolent of
midnight learning; and the superb front of the presiding god, calm in the
grandeur of its ineffable benignity, who appeared to his excited fancy to
smile serene protection on