r, I do; but you can't do
impossibilities--you can't alter facts. The laws of the empire allow you to
have her in a certain definite way, and no other; and you cannot help the
law being what it is. I say all this, even on the supposition of her being
a freewoman; but it is just possible she may be in law a slave. Don't
start in that way; the pretty thing is neither better nor worse for what
she cannot help. I say it for your good. Well, now I'm coming to my point.
There is a third kind of marriage, and that is what I should recommend for
you. It's the _matrimonium ex usu_, or _consuetudine_; the great advantage
here is, that you have no ceremonies whatever, nothing which can in any
way startle your sensitive mind. In that case, a couple are at length man
and wife _praescriptione_. You are afraid of making a stir in Sicca; in
this case you would make none. You would simply take her home here; if, as
time went on, you got on well together, it would be a marriage; if
not,"--and he shrugged his shoulders--"no harm's done; you are both free."

Agellius had been sitting on a gate of one of the vineyards; he started on
his feet, threw up his arms, and made an exclamation.

"Listen, listen, my dear boy!" cried Jucundus, hastening to explain what
he considered the cause of his sudden annoyance; "listen, just one moment,
Agellius, if you can. Dear, dear, how I wish I knew where to find you!
What _is_ the matter? I'm not treating her ill, I'm not indeed. I have not
had any notion at all even of hinting that you should leave her, unless
you both wished the bargain rescinded. No, but it is a great rise for her;
you are a Roman, with property, with position in the place; she's a
stranger, and without a dower: nobody knows whence she came, or anything
about her. She ought to have no difficulty about it, and I am confident
will have none."

"O my good, dear uncle! O Jucundus, Jucundus!" cried Agellius, "is it
possible? do my ears hear right? What is it you ask me to do?" and he
burst into tears. "Is it conceivable," he said, with energy, "that you are
in earnest in recommending me--I say in recommending me--a marriage which
really would be no marriage at all?"

"Here is some very great mistake," said Jucundus, angrily; "it arises,
Agellius, from your ignorance of the world. You must be thinking I
recommend you mere _contubernium_, as the lawyers call it. Well, I confess
I did think of that for a moment, it occurred to me; I should ha