From house-door to house-door the streets were packed with crowds eager to see her pass and loud to acclaim her. Through cheers, good wishes, loud jokes, merry longs and cries of “Talassio! Talassio!” she passed along the upper part of the Fagutal, and past the flank of the Baths of Titus to the Carinae. Her bridal dress of pearl-gray, with the flame-colored bridal veil, reminded her more than a little of that costume of Flexinna’s which she had worn to Aricia and back, only that was mostly pink, this mostly gray. She looked well in it and wore the six braids and the headband more naturally than most brides, having been habituated to them for thirty years, since all Vestals always wore the bridal coiffure. At the doorway of Almo’s house, the bearer of the white-thorn torch halted and faced about inside the door, his two little brothers let go her hands, Almo himself caught her up clear of the pavement and swung her clear of the door-sill. As he held her in the air, nestling to him, she repeated the formula: “Where you are Caius, I am Caia.” When he set her down inside the house she was at last a married woman. She turned and watched the scramble for the white-thorn torch which its bearer first put out and then threw among the crowd after the slaves had also put out their torches. So watching, Almo’s arm about her, she became aware of a strange something in the look of the crowd and of the street. “What makes it so light?” she asked Almo. “Why are the tops of their heads all bright that way?” Lutorius, who was near them, explained: “There is a big fire somewhere the other side of the Capitol. I noticed it at the top of the street. The Capitol stood out black, the outline of both temples plain as in the daylight, against the red smoke behind it.” “Send some of the slaves,” said Brinnaria, “to find out where the fire is, and let us lie down to dinner. I’m as hungry as a wolf.” And like a true Roman she began with a trifle of three hard-boiled eggs, merely to take the edge off her appetite. There were six tables set in Almo’s dining-room and an ample crescent-shaped sofa to each. The sixty guests made the big room buzz with talk and echo with laughter. Nemestronia called across to Brinnaria: “Now you have what you’ve always wanted. You’re a married woman at last.” “And I’ll soon have what I’ve wanted almost as much,” Brinnaria replied. “What’s that?” several voices called. “Two desires,” Brinnaria explained, “haunted me all the while I was a Vestal. One was the longing for a horseback ride. I used to revel in galloping bareback. I haven’t been astraddle of a horse for thirty years. It won’t be many days now before I shall enjoy a good canter on a good horse. “Then, by to-morrow night, I trust, I shall have had a fine long swim with my husband and six hundred other couples in the big basin of one of the City Baths.