d close to her
head, was gathered in a large roll that fell low on her neck behind, and
held by a silver _spadina_ or pin, that, if occasion demanded, would
make a serviceable stiletto; her full face was brown, while the red
blood shone through her cheeks, and her lips were full and ripe. Her
eyes of deep gray, shaded with long black lashes, sparkled with light
when she was aroused. Her sisters resembled her strikingly, except Rita,
the youngest, whose face was of that singularly delicate hue of white,
the color of the magnolia-flower, as one of our American writers has it;
or like the white of a boiled egg next to the yolk, as Caper expressed
it. Be this as it may, there was something very attractive in this
pallor, since it was accompanied by an _embonpoint_ indicating any thing
but romantic meagerness of constitution.

Dominica had, without exaggeration, the value of a dozen or two pairs of
patent-leather boots hung on her neck, arms, fingers, ears, and bosom,
in the shape of furious-sized pieces of gold jewelry; and it was solid
gold. The Roman women, from the earliest days--from the time when
Etruscan artists made those ponderous chains and bracelets down to this
present date--have had the most unbridled love for jewelry. Do we not
know[D] that--

Sabina's garters were worth,... $200,000
Faustina's finger-ring,... 200,000
Domitia'a ring,... 300,000
Caeesonia's bracelet,... 400,000
Poppaea's earrings,... 600,000
Calpurina's (Caesar's wife) earrings,
'above suspicion,'... 1,200,000
Sabina's diadem,... 1,200,000

And after this, is it at all astonishing that the desire remains for it,
even if the substance has been plundered and carried off by those
_forestieri_, the Huns, Vandals, Goths, Visigoths, Norsemen, and other
heretics who have visited Rome?

While they were all busily drinking and talking, Caper had noticed that
the wine was beginning to have its effects on the large crowd who had
assembled at the Osterias and Trattorias around the foot of the Bacchic
mountain. Laughing and talking, shouting and singing, began to be in the
ascendant, and gravity was voted indecent.

'Ha!' said Rocjean, 'for one hour of the good old classic days!'

'What!' answered Caper, 'with those seventy thousand old Jews you were
preaching about the other day?'

'Never!--with the Bacchante. But here our friends are off: let us help
them into the carriage.'

As the sun went down, the _minenti_ began to crowd