mansion.

"On the road I will tell thee the story of Rufinus," said he, "as proof
of what vanity in an author may be."

But before he had begun, they turned in to the Vicus Patricius, and
soon found themselves before the dwelling of Aulus. A young and sturdy
"janitor" opened the door leading to the ostium, over which a magpie
confined in a cage greeted them noisily with the word, "Salve!"

On the way from the second antechamber, called the ostium, to the atrium
itself, Vinicius said,--"Hast noticed that thee doorkeepers are
without chains?" "This is a wonderful house," answered Petronius, in
an undertone. "Of course it is known to thee that Pomponia Graecina is
suspected of entertaining that Eastern superstition which consists in
honoring a certain Chrestos. It seems that Crispinilla rendered her
this service,--she who cannot forgive Pomponia because one husband has
sufficed her for a lifetime. A one-man Woman! To-day, in Rome, it is
easier to get a half-plate of fresh mushrooms from Noricum than to find
such. They tried her before a domestic court--"

"To thy judgment this is a wonderful house. Later on I will tell thee
what I heard and saw in it."

Meanwhile they had entered the atrium. The slave appointed to it, called
atriensis, sent a nomenclator to announce the guests; and Petronius,
who, imagining that eternal sadness reigned in this severe house, had
never been in it, looked around with astonishment, and as it were with a
feeling of disappointment, for the atrium produced rather an impression
of cheerfulness. A sheaf of bright light falling from above through
a large opening broke into a thousand sparks on a fountain in a
quadrangular little basin, called the impluvium, which was in the middle
to receive rain falling through the opening during bad weather; this
was surrounded by anemones and lilies. In that house a special love for
lilies was evident, for there were whole clumps of them, both white and
red; and, finally, sapphire irises, whose delicate leaves were as if
silvered from the spray of the fountain. Among the moist mosses, in
which lily-pots were hidden, and among the bunches of lilies were little
bronze statues representing children and water-birds. In one corner a
bronze fawn, as if wishing to drink, was inclining its greenish head,
grizzled, too, by dampness. The floor of the atrium was of mosaic; the
walls, faced partly with red marble and partly with wood, on which were
painted fish, birds,