How went it by report?' I asked.

'O, it would be long telling,' said Lucilia. 'Only, for one thing, we
heard that there was a massacre of the Christians, in which some said
hundreds, and some, thousands fell. For a moment, I assure you, we
trembled for you. It was quickly contradicted, but the confirmation
afforded by your actual presence, of your welfare, is not unwelcome. You
must lay a part of the heartiness of our reception, especially the old
Falernian, to the account of our relieved fears. But let us hear.'

I then went over the last days in Rome, adding what I had been able to
gather from Milo, when it was such that I could trust to it. When I had
satisfied their curiosity, and had moreover described to Lucilia the
dresses of Livia on so great an occasion, and the fashions which were
raging, Marcus proposed that I should accompany him over his farm, and
observe his additions and improvements, and the condition of his slaves.
I accepted the proposal with pleasure, and we soon set forth on our
ramble, accompanied by Gallus, now riding his stick and now gambolling
about the lawns and fields with his dog.

I like this retreat of Curtius better almost than any other of the
suburban villas of our citizens. There is an air of calm senatorial
dignity about it which modern edifices want. It looks as if it had seen
more than one generation of patrician inhabitants. There is little unity
or order--as those words are commonly understood--observable in the
structure of the house, but it presents to the eye an irregular
assemblage of forms, the work of different ages, and built according to
the taste and skill of distant and changing times. Some portions are
new, some old and covered with lichens, mosses, and creeping plants.
Here is a portico of the days of Trajan, and there a tower that seems as
if it were of the times of the republic. Yet is there a certain harmony
and congruity running through the whole, for the material used is
everywhere the same--a certain fawn-colored stone drawn from the
quarries in the neighborhood; and each successive owner and architect
has evidently paid some regard to preceding erections in the design and
proportions of the part he has added. In this unity of character, as
well as in the separate beauty or greatness of distinct parts, is it
made evident that persons of accomplishment and rank have alone
possessed it. Of its earlier history all that Curtius has with certainty
ascertained is, th