have never taken to marrying myself; it has not lain in my
way, or been to my taste. Your father did not set me an encouraging
example; but here you are living by yourself, in this odd fashion, unlike
any one else. Perhaps you may come in time and live in Sicca. We shall
find some way of employing you, and it will be pleasant to have you near
me as I get old. However, I mean it to be some time yet before Charon
makes a prize of me; not that I believe all that rubbish more than you,
Agellius, I assure you."

"It strikes me," Agellius began, "that perhaps you may think it
inconsistent in me taking such a step, but--"

"Ay, ay, that's the rub," thought Jucundus; then aloud, "Inconsistent, my
boy! who talks of inconsistency? what superfine jackanapes dares to call
it inconsistent? You seem made for each other, Agellius--she town, you
country; she so clever and attractive, and up to the world, you so fresh
and Arcadian. You'll be quite the talk of the place."

"That's just what I don't want to be," said Agellius. "I mean to say," he
continued, "that if I thought it inconsistent with my religion to think of
Callista--"

"Of course, of course," interrupted his uncle, who took his cue from Juba,
and was afraid of the workings of Agellius's human respect; "but who knows
you have been a Christian? no one knows anything about it. I'll be bound
they all think you an honest fellow like themselves, a worshipper of the
gods, without crotchets or hobbies of any kind. I never told them to the
contrary. My opinion is, that if you were to make your libation to Jove,
and throw incense upon the imperial altar to-morrow, no one would think it
extraordinary. They would say for certain that they had seen you do it
again and again. Don't fancy for an instant, my dear Agellius, that you
have anything whatever to get over."

Agellius was getting awkward and mortified, as may be easily conceived,
and Jucundus saw it, but could not make out why. "My dear uncle," said the
youth, "you are reproaching me."

"Not a bit of it," said Jucundus, confidently, "not a shadow of reproach;
why should I reproach you? We can't be wise all at once; _I_ had my
follies once, as you may have had yours. It's natural you should grow more
attached to things as they are,--things as they are, you know,--as time goes
on. Marriage, and the preparation for marriage, sobers a man. You've been
a little headstrong, I can't deny, and had your fling in your own way; but
'n