or rather in reviling dreams, while Vestinius believed in them, turned
to Petronius, and though he had not the least idea touching that of
which they were talking, he said,--"Thou art mistaken! I hold with
Casar."

"Very well," answered Petronius. "I have just maintained that thou hast
a glimmer of understanding, but Cæsar insists that thou art an ass pure
and simple."

"Habet!" said Cæsar, laughing, and turning down the thumb, as was done
in the Circus, in sign that the gladiator had received a blow and was to
be finished.

But Vestinius, thinking that the question was of dreams, exclaimed,--
"But I believe in dreams, and Seneca told me on a time that he believes
too."

"Last night I dreamt that I had become a vestal virgin," said Calvia
Crispinilla, bending over the table.

At this Nero clapped his hands, other followed, and in a moment clapping
of hands was heard all around,--for Crispinilla had been divorced a
number of times, and was known throughout Rome for her fabulous
debauchery.

But she, not disconcerted in the least, said,--"Well! They are all old
and ugly. Rubria alone has a human semblance, and so there would be two
of us, though Rubria gets freckles in summer."

"But admit, purest Calvia," said Petronius, "that thou couldst become a