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'Assuredly! at once without delay! stammered Vetranio, returning the stern and inquiring gaze of the Pagan with a bewildered, uneasy stare.
With the elaborate deliberation of a man who disdains to exhibit himself as liable to be hurried by any mortal affair, Vetranio slowly folded up the vellum he had now filled with writing, and depositing it in his bosom, made a sign to a slave who happened to be then passing near him with a dish of fruit.
To prepare for my banquet is an excuse to the Court for my sudden departure from this place; the real object of my journey is Antonina alone. 'Ah, now I recognise my friend again in his own character, remarked the lady approvingly. 'You will ask me how I purpose to obtain another interview with her? continued Vetranio.
Blasphemous comments upon life, death, and immortality were eagerly awaited. The general impatience for the withdrawal of the curtain was perceived by Vetranio, who, waving his hand for silence, authoritatively exclaimed 'The hour has not yet arrived. More draughts must be drunk, more libations poured out, ere the mystery of the curtain is revealed!
'Listen, said Vetranio; 'since I first saw her, a change came over my whole being; it was as if her life was mingled with mine! I had no influence over her, save an influence for ill: I loved her, and she was driven defenceless from her home!
It may be translated thus: Stop, Spectator! If thou has reverently cultivated the pleasures of the taste, pause amid these illustrious ruins of what was once a palace, and peruse with respect on this stone the epitaph of VETRANIO, a senator.
Pronouncing these words with an easy and benevolent smile, and looking round complacently on the display of luxurious confusion about him, Vetranio retired to the bath that was to prepare him for his approaching triumph. Meanwhile a scene of a very different nature was proceeding without, at Numerian's garden-gate.
'Begin then, retorted Vetranio, 'by imagining that the strangeness of this girl's situation, and the originality of her ideas, invested her with an attraction for me, which the charms of her person and age contributed immensely to heighten.
Whether as he looked on Vetranio's disturbed countenance, and marked his unsteady gait, the heart of Ulpius, for the first time since his introduction to the senator, misgave him when he thought of their monstrous engagement; or whether the near approach of the moment that was henceforth, as he wildly imagined, to fix Vetranio as his assistant and ally, so powerfully affected his mind that it instinctively sought to vent its agitation through the natural medium of words, it is useless to inquire.
I have seen the old die from injuries that the young recover, because life in them was losing its powers of resistance; she is in the position of the old! 'They have died before me, and she will die before me! I shall lose all all! sighed Vetranio bitterly to himself. 'The resources of our art are exhausted, continued the other; 'nothing remains but to watch carefully and wait patiently.
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