was because I sought at a distance that which was near.
A beautiful woman is worth her weight always in gold; but if she loves
in addition, she has simply no price. Such a one thou wilt not buy with
the riches of Verres. I say now to myself as follows: I will fill my
life with happiness, as a goblet with the foremost wine which the earth
has produced, and I will drink till my hand becomes powerless and
my lips grow pale. What will come, I care not; and this is my latest
philosophy."

"Thou hast proclaimed it always; there is nothing new in it."

"There is substance, which was lacking."

When he had said this, he called Eunice, who entered dressed in white
drapery,--the former slave no longer, but as it were a goddess of love
and happiness.

Petronius opened his arms to her, and said,--"Come."

At this she ran up to him, and, sitting on his knee, surrounded his neck
with her arms, and placed her head on his breast. Vinicius saw how a
reflection of purple began to cover her cheeks, how her eyes melted
gradually in mist. They formed a wonderful group of love and happiness.
Petronius stretched his hand to a flat vase standing at one side on a
table, and, taking a whole handful of violets, covered with them the
head, bosom, and robe of Eunice; then he pushed the tunic from her arms,
and said,--

"Happy he who, like me, has found love enclosed in such a form! At times
it seems to me that we are a pair of gods. Look thyself! Has Praxiteles,
or Miron, or Skopas, or Lysias even, created more wonderful lines? Or
does there exist in Paros or in Pentelicus such marble as this,--warm,
rosy, and full of love? There are people who kiss off the edges of
vases, but I prefer to look for pleasure where it may be found really."

He began to pass his lips along her shoulders and neck. She was
penetrated with a quivering; her eyes now closed, now opened, with an
expression of unspeakable delight. Petronius after a while raised her
exquisite head, and said, turning to Vinicius,--"But think now, what are
thy gloomy Christians in comparison with this? And if thou understand
not the difference, go thy way to them. But this sight will cure thee."

Vinicius distended his nostrils, through which entered the odor of
violets, which filled the whole chamber, and he grew pale; for he
thought that if he could have passed his lips along Lygia's shoulders
in that way, it would have been a kind of sacrilegious delight so great
that let the world v