gave way, and Flavian told the story of his father--a
freedman, presented late in life, and almost against his will, with the
liberty so fondly desired in youth, but on condition of the sacrifice
of part of his peculium--the slave's diminutive hoard--amassed by many
a self-denial, in an existence necessarily hard. The rich man,
interested in the promise of the fair child born on his estate, had
sent him to school. The meanness and dejection, nevertheless, of that
unoccupied old age defined the leading memory of Flavian, revived
sometimes, after this first confidence, with a burst of angry tears
amid the sunshine. But nature had had her economy in nursing the
strength of that one natural affection; for, save his half-selfish care
for Marius, it was the single, really generous part, the one piety, in
the lad's character. In him Marius saw the spirit of unbelief,
achieved as if at one step. The much-admired freedman's son, as with
the privilege of a natural aristocracy, believed only in himself, in
the brilliant, and mainly sensuous gifts, he had, or meant to acquire.

And then, he had certainly yielded himself, [53] though still with
untouched health, in a world where manhood comes early, to the
seductions of that luxurious town, and Marius wondered sometimes, in
the freer revelation of himself by conversation, at the extent of his
early corruption. How often, afterwards, did evil things present
themselves in malign association with the memory of that beautiful
head, and with a kind of borrowed sanction and charm in its natural
grace! To Marius, at a later time, he counted for as it were an
epitome of the whole pagan world, the depth of its corruption, and its
perfection of form. And still, in his mobility, his animation, in his
eager capacity for various life, he was so real an object, after that
visionary idealism of the villa. His voice, his glance, were like the
breaking in of the solid world upon one, amid the flimsy fictions of a
dream. A shadow, handling all things as shadows, had felt a sudden
real and poignant heat in them.

Meantime, under his guidance, Marius was learning quickly and
abundantly, because with a good will. There was that in the actual
effectiveness of his figure which stimulated the younger lad to make
the most of opportunity; and he had experience already that education
largely increased one's capacity for enjoyment. He was acquiring what
it is the chief function of all higher educa