his first day in Rome were to be also
his last, the two friends descended along the Vicus Tuscus, with its
rows of incense-stalls, into the Via Nova, where the fashionable people
were busy shopping; and Marius saw with much amusement the frizzled
heads, then a la mode. A glimpse of the Marmorata, the haven at the
river-side, where specimens of all the precious marbles of the world
were lying amid great white blocks from the quarries of Luna, took his
thoughts for a moment to his distant home. They visited the
flower-market, lingering where the coronarii pressed on them the newest
species, and purchased zinias, now in blossom (like painted flowers,
thought Marius), to decorate the folds of their togas. Loitering to
the other side of the Forum, past the great Galen's drug-shop, after a
glance at the announcements of new poems on sale attached to the
doorpost of a famous bookseller, they entered the curious [176] library
of the Temple of Peace, then a favourite resort of literary men, and
read, fixed there for all to see, the Diurnal or Gazette of the day,
which announced, together with births and deaths, prodigies and
accidents, and much mere matter of business, the date and manner of the
philosophic emperor's joyful return to his people; and, thereafter,
with eminent names faintly disguised, what would carry that day's news,
in many copies, over the provinces--a certain matter concerning the
great lady, known to be dear to him, whom he had left at home. It was
a story, with the development of which "society" had indeed for some
time past edified or amused itself, rallying sufficiently from the
panic of a year ago, not only to welcome back its ruler, but also to
relish a chronique scandaleuse; and thus, when soon after Marius saw
the world's wonder, he was already acquainted with the suspicions which
have ever since hung about her name. Twelve o'clock was come before
they left the Forum, waiting in a little crowd to hear the Accensus,
according to old custom, proclaim the hour of noonday, at the moment
when, from the steps of the Senate-house, the sun could be seen
standing between the Rostra and the Graecostasis. He exerted for this
function a strength of voice, which confirmed in Marius a judgment the
modern visitor may share with him, that Roman throats and Roman chests,
namely, must, in some peculiar way, be differently [177] constructed
from those of other people. Such judgment indeed he had formed in part
the