pair there the first hour in which
the doors are opened, and remain till that in which the doors are
closed. They seem as if they knew nothing of the rest of Rome, as if
they despised all other existence.'

'By Pollux! you amaze me.'

'Even those who bathe only thrice a day contrive to consume their lives
in this occupation. They take their exercise in the tennis-court or the
porticoes, to prepare them for the first bath; they lounge into the
theatre, to refresh themselves after it. They take their prandium under
the trees, and think over their second bath. By the time it is prepared,
the prandium is digested. From the second bath they stroll into one of
the peristyles, to hear some new poet recite: or into the library, to
sleep over an old one. Then comes the supper, which they still consider
but a part of the bath: and then a third time they bathe again, as the
best place to converse with their friends.'

'Per Hercle! but we have their imitators at Pompeii.'

'Yes, and without their excuse. The magnificent voluptuaries of the
Roman baths are happy: they see nothing but gorgeousness and splendor;
they visit not the squalid parts of the city; they know not that there
is poverty in the world. All Nature smiles for them, and her only frown
is the last one which sends them to bathe in Cocytus. Believe me, they
are your only true philosophers.'

While Glaucus was thus conversing, Lepidus, with closed eyes and scarce
perceptible breath, was undergoing all the mystic operations, not one of
which he ever suffered his attendants to omit. After the perfumes and
the unguents, they scattered over him the luxurious powder which
prevented any further accession of heat: and this being rubbed away by
the smooth surface of the pumice, he began to indue, not the garments he
had put off, but those more festive ones termed 'the synthesis', with
which the Romans marked their respect for the coming ceremony of supper,
if rather, from its hour (three o'clock in our measurement of time), it
might not be more fitly denominated dinner. This done, he at length
opened his eyes and gave signs of returning life.

At the same time, too, Sallust betokened by a long yawn the evidence of
existence.

'It is supper time,' said the epicure; 'you, Glaucus and Lepidus, come
and sup with me.'

'Recollect you are all three engaged to my house next week,' cried
Diomed, who was mightily proud of the acquaintance of men of fashion.

'Ah, ah! w