dine with me, Paullus," he said, "to-day, and meet the loveliest
women you can see in Rome, and no prudes either?"

"Willingly," he replied; "but I must swim first in the Tiber!"

"Be it so, there is time enough; I will swim also." And they moved down in
company toward the river.

CHAPTER VI.

THE FALSE LOVE.

Fie, fie, upon her;
There's a language in her eye, her cheek, her lip;
Nay, her foot speaks, her wanton spirits look out
At every joint and motive of her body.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

About three hours later than the scene in the Campus Martius, which had
occurred a little after noon, Catiline was standing richly dressed in a
bright saffron(13) robe, something longer than the ordinary tunic,
flowered with sprigs of purple, in the inmost chamber of the woman's
apartments, in his own heavily mortgaged mansion. His wife, Aurelia
Orestilla, sat beside him on a low stool, a woman of the most superb and
queenly beauty--for whom it was believed that he had plunged himself into
the deepest guilt--and still, although past the prime of Italian womanhood,
possessing charms that might well account for the most insane passion.

A slave was listening with watchful and half terrified attention to the
injunctions of his lord--for Catiline was an unscrupulous and severe
master--and, as he ceased speaking, he made a deep genuflexion and retired.

No sooner had he gone than Catiline turned quickly to the lady, whose
lovely face wore some marks of displeasure, and said rather shortly,

"You have not gone to her, my Aurelia. There is no time to lose; the young
man will be here soon, and if they meet, ere you have given her the cue,
all will be lost."

"I do not like it, my Sergius," said the woman, rising, but making no
movement to leave the chamber.

"And why not, I beseech you, madam?" he replied angrily; "or what is there
in that which I desire you to tell the girl to do, that you have not done
twenty times yourself, and Fulvia, and Sempronia, and half Rome's noblest
ladies? Tush! I say, tush! go do it."

"She is my daughter, Sergius," answered Aurelia, in a tone of deep
tenderness; "a daughter's honor must be something to every mother!"

"And a son's life to every father!" said Catiline with a fierce sneer. "I
had a son once, I remember. You wished to enter an (14)_empty_ house on
the day of your marriage feast. I do not think you found