e wore, alternately checked with
scarlet, black, and gold.

He also, as he passed, turned his deep grey eye toward the little group on
the green, and his face lightened up, as he surveyed the athletic form and
vigorous proportions of the young patrician, and he leaned toward the
officer, who rode beside him, a high crested tribune of the tenth legion,
and enquired his name audibly.

The soldier, who had been nodding drowsily over his charger's neck, tired
by the long and dusty ride, looked up half bewildered, for he had taken no
note of the spectators, but as his eyes met those of Arvina, he smiled and
waved his hand, for they were old companions, and he laughed as he gave
the required information to the ancient warrior.

The gaze of the old man fell next on the lovely lineaments of Julia, and
dwelt there so long that the girl lowered her eyes abashed; but, when she
again raised them, supposing that he had passed by, she still met the
firm, penetrating, quiet gaze, rivetted on her face, for he had turned
half round in the saddle as he rode along.

A milder light came into his keen, hawk-like eye, and a benignant smile
illuminated his gray weather-beaten features, as he surveyed and marked
the ingenuous and artless beauty of her whole form and face; and he
whispered into the tribune's ear something that made him too turn back,
and wave his hand to Paul, and laugh merrily.

"Now, drive us homeward, Paullus," said Hortensia, as the cohort of
infantry which closed the procession, marched steadily along, dusty and
dark with sweat, yet proud in their magnificent array, and solid in their
iron discipline. "Drive us homeward as quickly as you may. You will dine
with us, and if you must need go early to your meeting, we will not hinder
you."

"Gladly will I dine with you; but I must say farewell soon after the third
hour!"

They soon arrived at the hospitable villa, and shortly afterward the
pleasant and social meal was served. But Paul was not himself, though the
lips he loved best poured forth their fluent music in his ear, and the
eyes which he deemed the brightest, laughed on him in their speaking
fondness.

Still he was sad, silent, and abstracted, and Julia marked it all; and
when he rose to say farewell, just as the earliest shades of night were
falling, she arose too; and as she accompanied him to the door, leaning
familiarly on his arm, she said--

"You have not told me all, Paullus. I thought so while you we