Many of the doorways around this elegant hall are closed by heavy curtains, of rich saffron, purple, olivine, or blue, the hues being selected to blend marvelously with the tints of the columns. Where the walls are not a sheen of marble, they are spread with elaborate and wonderfully decorative frescos--of which more hereafter. On special pedestals of honor are fine art objects, valuable bric-a-brac, tripods, vases, silver cups, war trophies. The mosaics on the floor (could we stop to gaze) are more beautiful than any carpet. In brilliant jewel work, for it is little else, has been wrought out a series of pictures showing the campaigns of Alexander. There is another series giving the legend of Perseus. The sunlight, the spray from the fountain, the sheen of the marbles, the brilliance of the frescos, all combine in an effect that is dazzling. =34. The Rooms in the Rear and the _Peristylium_.=--But this hall is merely the beginning, not the end of the domus. In the rear of the atrium there is the master’s office, the _tablinum_, a very large alcove, a handsome apartment where he will receive those guests who are come strictly on business. This and the atrium, however, are merely the public rooms of the house; the real living rooms are beyond, although, by a survival of old custom, the symbolic marriage couch of the master and mistress stands on a back wall by the tablinum. The heavy curtains have been swept aside from the broad passageways (_fauces_) which lead into the second court--the _peristylium_. [Illustration: INTERIOR OF A ROMAN MANSION, LOOKING FROM THE ATRIUM INTO THE PERISTYLIUM: restored.] Here the atrium is duplicated--but on a much more elaborate scale. There is another column-girdled court; but the pillars are taller and of an exquisite blue-veined marble. A huge curtain swings on its cords ready for expansion as the sun grows hot. Beneath the light-opening, there is not merely a second fountain, but a real plat of greensward, a _viridarium_, with a bright bed of rare flowers and even a few tropical plants. There is another phalanx of statues. Under the long quadrangular colonnades around the court are spread out deeply upholstered couches, easy chairs, small tables, and other appurtenances for luxurious existence. The ceilings of the colonnades and of the rooms leading thence are covered with metallic fretwork gilded in a soft sheen, while the intense light filters down gratefully between the columns, and sinks to a pleasant twilight in the niches and nooks in the walls of the peristylium. [Illustration: SCENE IN A PERISTYLIUM.] =35. The Dining Room (_Triclinium_) and the Chapel.=--From this second court to left and to right open doors which lead to the master’s and mistress’s sleeping chambers, and those of their children, their guests, and their upper servants. The rooms are small, but are always daintily frescoed. [Illustration: ROMAN TYPE OF HOUSE AT POMPEII, LOOKING ACROSS THE ATRIUM: present condition.]