is present time, in any more danger of derangement than most of the
senators and nobles with whom he associates. Yet you are correct in being
uneasy. Don't antagonize him, but do all you can, tactfully and
unobtrusively, to keep him away from those jewels and to get him out to
the Baths of Titus or to dinners. Do your utmost to induce him to
entertain. A jolly dinner with a bevy of jovial guests will be the very
medicine for him."

Had I been a Greek I could not have been, more wily or more successful. He
spent less time with his gems, went out to the Baths oftener, accepted
some dinner invitations and gave a few dinners. He even took some interest
in preparing for these and in giving orders about them. He had five
complete sets of silverware for his _triclinium_ and had a fancy for using
this or that set, according to the characters of his prospective guests.

Early in May he had invited a carefully selected company of concordant
guests, three senators and the rest nobles like himself, and was
anticipating a delightful evening. He had bidden me to see to the
selection of the flowers for decorating the _triclinium_, for the
garlands, and for sprinkling on the floor; to choose the wines I thought
would be most appropriate and to have brought out and used his most prized
set of silver, the work of Corinnos of Rhodes, embossed with scenes from
Ovid's Metamorphoses and acclaimed one of the finest services in Rome.
Besides the two tall mixing-bowls for tempering the wine before serving
it, the set had four smaller ones, about the size of well-buckets, and
much like them, for each was provided with two hinged handles, just like a
water-pail. I saw to the polishing of every piece in this magnificent
service, to their proper disposal, to the decoration of the _triclinium_
with flowers, verified the wines I had chosen, inspected every detail of
the preparations for the feast, and, just before the first guest might be
expected to arrive, went out and back into the kitchen to make sure that
every dish of each course was being properly prepared and that nothing
would be lacking.

When I returned to the _triclinium_ I found it swept clean of silver,
except the two big wine mixers. The four two-handled pails were gone and
with them the salt-cellars, the wine strainers, every soup-spoon, every
oyster-spoon, in fact every small piece, to the last. The thieves must
have been deft, agile and keen, for nothing was overset or disturbed an