ll of gifts, to require an
audience.

After a little while, Arvina penetrated far enough through the crowd to
command a view of the consul's seat; and for a time he amused himself by
watching his movements and manner toward each of his visitors, perhaps not
altogether without reference to the conversation he had recently held with
Catiline; and certainly not without a desire to observe if the tales he
had heard of shameless bribery and corruption, as practiced by many of the
great officers of the republic, had any confirmation in the conduct of
Cicero.

But he soon saw that the courtesies of that great and virtuous man were
regulated neither by the value of the gifts offered, nor by the rank of
the visitors; and that his personal predilections even were not allowed to
interfere with the division of his time among all worthy of his notice.

Thus he remarked that a young noble, famed for his dissoluteness and evil
courses, although he brought an exquisite sculpture of Praxiteles, was
received with the most marked and formal coldness, and his gift, which
could not be declined, consigned almost without eliciting a glance of
approbation, to the hand of a freedman; while, the next moment, as an old
white-headed countryman, plainly and almost meanly clad, although with
scrupulous cleanliness, approached his presence, the consul rose to meet
him; and advancing a step or two took him affectionately by the hand, and
asked after his family by name, and listened with profound consideration
to the garrulous narrative of the good farmer, who, involved in some petty
litigation, had come to seek the advice of his patron; until he sent him
away happy and satisfied with the promise of his protection.

By and by his own turn arrived; and, although he was personally unknown to
the orator, and the assistance of the nomenclator, who stood behind the
curule chair, was required before he was addressed by name, he was
received with the utmost attention; the noble house to which the young man
belonged being as famous for its devotion to the common weal, as for the
ability and virtue of its sons.

After a few words of ordinary compliment, Paullus proceeded to intimate to
his attentive hearer that his object in waiting at his levee that morning
was to communicate momentous information. The thoughtful eye of the great
orator brightened, and a keen animated expression came over the features,
which had before worn an air almost of lassitude; and