d onyx, stood a Vulci black bowl or vase, decorated
in vermilion with Bacchanal figures; and this Leo filled in summer with
creamy roses, in winter, with camellias. Where the shrines and Lares
stood in ancient houses, a square, burnished copper pedestal fashioned
like an altar had been placed, and upon it rose from a bed of carved
lilies, a copy in white marble of Palmer's "Faith".

From the front portico, one could look through the vestibule, the
atrium, the aviary, and on into the peristyle, where among vine
branches and lemon boughs, the vista was closed by a flight of stone
steps with carved cedar balustrade, leading up to the flat roof, where
it sometimes pleased the mistress to take her tea, or watch the sunset.
In selecting and ordering designs for the furniture, a strict adherence
to archaic types had been observed; hence the couches, divans, chairs,
and tables, the pottery and bric-a-brac, the mirrors and draperies,
were severely classic.

An expensive whim certainly, far exceeding the original estimate of its
cost; and Miss Patty bewailed the "wicked extravagance of squandering
money that would have built a handsome church, and supported for life
two missionaries in mid-China"; but Judge Dent encouraged and approved,
reviving his classical studies to facilitate the successful
accomplishment of the scheme. When the structure was completed and Leo
declared herself perfectly satisfied with the result, it was her uncle
who had proposed to celebrate her twenty-fourth birthday by a mask-ball
in which every costume should be classic, distinctively Roman or Greek;
and where the mulsum dispensed to the guests should be mixed in a
genuine Cratera.

To this brilliant fete, one cloudless June night, friends from distant
States were invited; and fragrant with the breath of its glowing roses,
the occasion became memorable, embalmed forever in Leo's happy heart,
because then and there, beside the fountain in the peristyle, she had
pledged her hand and faith to Mr. Dunbar.

Sitting to-day in front of the library window, whence she had looped
back the crimson curtains, to admit the November sunshine, Leo was
absorbed in reading the description of the private Ambar-valia
celebrated by Marius at "White Nights". Under the spell of the Apostle
of Culture, whose golden precept: "BE PERFECT IN REGARD TO WHAT IS HERE
AND NOW," had appealed powerfully to her earnest exalted nature, she
failed to observe the signals of her pet ring