his guests.

The merchant affected greatly the man of letters, and, therefore, he
also affected a passion for everything Greek; he paid particular
attention to Glaucus.

'You will see, my friend,' said he, with a wave of his hand, 'that I am
a little classical here--a little Cecropian--eh? The hall in which we
shall sup is borrowed from the Greeks. It is an OEcus Cyzicene. Noble
Sallust, they have not, I am told, this sort of apartment in Rome.'

'Oh!' replied Sallust, with a half smile; 'you Pompeians combine all
that is most eligible in Greece and in Rome; may you, Diomed, combine
the viands as well as the architecture!'

'You shall see--you shall see, my Sallust,' replied the merchant. 'We
have a taste at Pompeii, and we have also money.'

'They are two excellent things,' replied Sallust. 'But, behold, the
lady Julia!'

The main difference, as I have before remarked, in the manner of life
observed among the Athenians and Romans, was, that with the first, the
modest women rarely or never took part in entertainments; with the
latter, they were the common ornaments of the banquet; but when they
were present at the feast, it usually terminated at an early hour.

Magnificently robed in white, interwoven with pearls and threads of
gold, the handsome Julia entered the apartment.

Scarcely had she received the salutation of the two guests, ere Pansa
and his wife, Lepidus, Clodius, and the Roman senator, entered almost
simultaneously; then came the widow Fulvia; then the poet Fulvius, like
to the widow in name if in nothing else; the warrior from Herculaneum,
accompanied by his umbra, next stalked in; afterwards, the less eminent
of the guests. Ione yet tarried.

It was the mode among the courteous ancients to flatter whenever it was
in their power: accordingly it was a sign of ill-breeding to seat
themselves immediately on entering the house of their host. After
performing the salutation, which was usually accomplished by the same
cordial shake of the right hand which we ourselves retain, and
sometimes, by the yet more familiar embrace, they spent several minutes
in surveying the apartment, and admiring the bronzes, the pictures, or
the furniture, with which it was adorned--a mode very impolite according
to our refined English notions, which place good breeding in
indifference. We would not for the world express much admiration of
another man's house, for fear it should be thought we had never seen
anythin