The eager impatience of the prætor and mother of Correliana, in joyful manifestation, proclaimed that they, in the protective solace of the second union, had been blest with sons. Looking through the fissures in the rudely constructed doors, two youths, one past, and the other verging upon puberty, were seen standing upon the pedestal plinth of one of the pillars of the court colonnade, nearest to the gates, with eyes fixed in expectant gaze upon the closing portals through which had been admitted the groups of happy parents around whose necks were clasped the arms of loving children. In their appearance, as they stood motionless in the trustful support of each other’s arms, watching for the entrance of their primal source of affection with eager eyes, we discovered their relationship from the remarkable resemblance they bore in likeness to Correliana. Although strikingly preëminent in the distinctive halo that becomes inbred from the hereditary impression of matured judgment in parental bequeathment, they did not greatly excel their companions in personal beauty. Tall and graceful, they possessed in common with their companions complexions of clear transparency, which disclosed the movements of expression under emotional control, in freedom from speck or taint. As the portals closed their eyes questioned each other with a shadow of curious inquiry, not in doubt or anxiety, for the welfare of their parents, but for the cause of their unwonted delay. Without being heedless or lacking in sympathy for the happiness of their associates, or unmindful of the cheering salutations of parents and children, it was easy to trace in their faces emotional changes akin to sorrowful disappointment. To restrain the mother’s yearning longer was impossible; pushing wide apart the inner gates she stood revealed, uttering the call, “Plautus—Adestus!” But affection in premonition had beckoned their eyes to the source before the words reached them, and the eager parents had hardly overstepped the threshold ere they were clasped in their arms. The consummation of this greeting gave a freer flow to the general expression of joy; the scholars, old and young, soon clustered around us, eager to become known and recognized in the current reciprocation of affection by name, bestowing in love such endearments, that for the moment, with sadness, our own youthful impressions, barren of their cheer, reappeared in contrasted desolation. But translated back to the reality, by the warmth of glowing sympathy, with its unspeakable thrill of tender emotions, the void of our past lives was relieved of its selfish regrets. The teachers we had frequently met, and had found in them such worth garnered with experience in the practical dispensation of exampled goodness, that our nearest of kin stood afar off in comparison with the reverent warmth of affection that these guardian exemplars of youth attracted with the genial current of their sympathy.