aves on the second floor; there also were two or three small
bedrooms, the walls of which portrayed the rape of Europa, the battle of
the Amazons, etc.

You now enter the tablinum, across which, at either end, hung rich
draperies of Tyrian purple, half withdrawn. On the walls was depicted a
poet reading his verses to his friends; and in the pavement was inserted
a small and most exquisite mosaic, typical of the instructions given by
the director of the stage to his comedians.

You passed through this saloon and entered the peristyle; and here (as I
have said before was usually the case with the smaller houses of
Pompeii) the mansion ended. From each of the seven columns that adorned
this court hung festoons of garlands: the centre, supplying the place of
a garden, bloomed with the rarest flowers placed in vases of white
marble, that were supported on pedestals. At the left hand of this
small garden was a diminutive fane, resembling one of those small
chapels placed at the side of roads in Catholic countries, and dedicated
to the Penates; before it stood a bronzed tripod: to the left of the
colonnade were two small cubicula, or bedrooms; to the right was the
triclinium, in which the guests were now assembled.

This room is usually termed by the antiquaries of Naples 'The Chamber of
Leda'; and in the beautiful work of Sir William Gell, the reader will
find an engraving from that most delicate and graceful painting of Leda
presenting her newborn to her husband, from which the room derives its
name. This charming apartment opened upon the fragrant garden. Round
the table of citrean wood, highly polished and delicately wrought with
silver arabesques, were placed the three couches, which were yet more
common at Pompeii than the semicircular seat that had grown lately into
fashion at Rome: and on these couches of bronze, studded with richer
metals, were laid thick quiltings covered with elaborate broidery, and
yielding luxuriously to the pressure.

'Well, I must own,' said the aedile Pansa, 'that your house, though
scarcely larger than a case for one's fibulae, is a gem of its kind.
How beautifully painted is that parting of Achilles and Briseis!--what a
style!--what heads!--what a-hem!'

'Praise from Pansa is indeed valuable on such subjects,' said Clodius,
gravely. 'Why, the paintings on his walls!--Ah! there is, indeed, the
hand of a Zeuxis!'

'You flatter me, my Clodius; indeed you do,' quoth the aedile, who was