y action, all your
philanthropy will evaporate in a cloud of words.'

'But that will be the way, I think, to restore my equanimity. I believe
I shall feel quite easy after a little declamation. Here, Lucius, regale
thyself upon these grapes. These are from the isles of the Grecian
Archipelago, and for sweetness are not equalled by any of our own.
Gallus, Gallus, go not so near to the edge of the pond; it is deep, as I
have warned you. I have lampreys there, Piso, bigger than any that
Hortensius ever wept for. Gallus, you dog! away, I say.'

But Gallus heeded not the command of his father. He already was
beginning to have a little will of his own. He continued playing upon
the margin of the water, throwing in sticks for his dog to bring to him
again. Perceiving his danger to be great, I went to him and forcibly
drew him away, he and his dog setting up a frightful music of screams
and yelping. Marcus was both entertained and amazed at the feat.

'Piso,' he jocosely cried out, 'there is a good deal of the old
republican in you. You even treat free men as slaves. That boy--a man in
will--never had before such restraint upon his liberty.'

'Liberty with restraint,' I answered, 'operating upon all, and equally
upon all, is the true account of a state of freedom. Gallus unrestrained
is a slave--a slave of passion and the sport of chance. He is not truly
free until he is bound.'

With such talk we amused ourselves as we wandered over the estate,
through its more wild and more cultivated parts. Dinner was presently
announced, and we hastened to the house.

Lucilia awaited us in a small six-sided cabinet, fitted up purposely for
a dining-room for six or eight persons. It was wholly cased with a rich
marble of a pale yellow hue, beautifully panelled, having three windows
opening upon a long portico with a southern aspect, set out with exotics
in fancifully arranged groups. The marble panels of the room were so
contrived that, at a touch, they slipped aside and disclosed in rich
array, here the choicest wines, there sauces and spices of a thousand
sorts, and there again the rarest confections brought from China and the
East. Apicius himself could have fancied nothing more perfect--for the
least dissatisfaction with the flavor of a dish, or the kind of wine,
could be removed by merely reaching out the hand and drawing, from an
inexhaustible treasure-house, both wines and condiments, such as scarce
Rome itself could equal. This