"Will you remember your promise, Monsieur, and allow me to examine a
little more closely? Ah, but it is wonderful! That Pentheus! And the
Maenad there, carrying the torn limb! Also the border of vine-leaves
and crossed thyrsi; though that, to be sure, is usual enough. And this
next? Ah, I remember--_'Tu cum parentis regna per arduum'_; but what a
devil of a design! And, above all, what mellowness! You will, I know,
pardon the enthusiasm of one who comes from the Provence, a few miles
out of Arles, and whose mother's family boasts itself to be descended
from Roman colonists."

Narcissus beamed.

"To you then, M. Raoul, after your Forum and famous Amphitheatre, our
pavement must seem a poor trifle--though it by no means exhausts our
list of interesting remains. The praefurnium, for instance; I must
show you our praefurnium."

"The house would be remarkable anywhere--even in my own Provence--so
closely has it kept the original lines. In half-an-hour one could
reconstruct--"

"Ay!" chimed in the delighted Narcissus. "You shall try, M. Raoul,
you shall try! I promise to catch you tripping."

"Yonder runs the Fosse Way, west by south. The villa stands about two
hundred yards back from it, facing the south-east--"

"A little east of south. The outer walls did not run exactly true with
the enclosed quadrangle."