'Oh!' replied Sallust, with a half smile; 'you Pompeians combine all that is most eligible in Greece and in Rome; may you, Diomed, combine the viands as well as the architecture!' 'You shall see--you shall see, my Sallust,' replied the merchant. 'We have a taste at Pompeii, and we have also money.' 'They are two excellent things,' replied Sallust. 'But, behold, the lady Julia!' The main difference, as I have before remarked, in the manner of life observed among the Athenians and Romans, was, that with the first, the modest women rarely or never took part in entertainments; with the latter, they were the common ornaments of the banquet; but when they were present at the feast, it usually terminated at an early hour. Magnificently robed in white, interwoven with pearls and threads of gold, the handsome Julia entered the apartment. Scarcely had she received the salutation of the two guests, ere Pansa and his wife, Lepidus, Clodius, and the Roman senator, entered almost simultaneously; then came the widow Fulvia; then the poet Fulvius, like to the widow in name if in nothing else; the warrior from Herculaneum, accompanied by his umbra, next stalked in; afterwards, the less eminent of the guests. Ione yet tarried. It was the mode among the courteous ancients to flatter whenever it was in their power: accordingly it was a sign of ill-breeding to seat themselves immediately on entering the house of their host. After performing the salutation, which was usually accomplished by the same cordial shake of the right hand which we ourselves retain, and sometimes, by the yet more familiar embrace, they spent several minutes in surveying the apartment, and admiring the bronzes, the pictures, or the furniture, with which it was adorned--a mode very impolite according to our refined English notions, which place good breeding in indifference. We would not for the world express much admiration of another man's house, for fear it should be thought we had never seen anything so fine before! 'A beautiful statue this of Bacchus!' said the Roman senator. 'A mere trifle!' replied Diomed. 'What charming paintings!' said Fulvia. 'Mere trifles!' answered the owner. 'Exquisite candelabra!' cried the warrior. 'Exquisite!' echoed his umbra. 'Trifles! trifles!' reiterated the merchant. Meanwhile, Glaucus found himself by one of the windows of the gallery, which communicated with the terraces, and the fair Julia by his side. 'Is it an Athenian virtue, Glaucus,' said the merchant's daughter, 'to shun those whom we once sought?' 'Fair Julia--no!' 'Yet methinks, it is one of the qualities of Glaucus.' 'Glaucus never shuns a friend!' replied the Greek, with some emphasis on the last word. 'May Julia rank among the number of his friends?' 'It would be an honour to the emperor to find a friend in one so lovely.' 'You evade my question,' returned the enamoured Julia. 'But tell me, is it true that you admire the Neapolitan Ione?'