performer on the water-organ and had interested himself in some
improvements in its mechanism.

As with the modern organ, so with the Roman water-organ, the
sonorous, sustained and resonant notes lent themselves naturally to
the expression of religious emotion.

Religious emotions, Brinnaria, at this period of her life, felt to an
overwhelming extent. She expressed them in long colloquies with
Numisia and Causidiena, in a tendency to be unnecessarily careful
about her duties, to pet her daily routine, as it were; and in an
awakening to the charms of music in general and of organ music
in particular. She developed into a capable performer on the
water-organ, bought for herself the finest to be found in all Rome,
had it set up in the Atrium in place of the old one which had
belonged to the order of Vestals, and sat before it for hours
at a time.

Her solitary communings with her favorite instrument became
her chief solace when she was: low-spirited, which was seldom,
and her favorite diversion when she was high-spirited, which was
often. Moreover, her rendition of well-known airs and he
improvisings came to be a great pleasure to all the inmates of the
Atrium, most of all to Causidiena.

Besides her many duties and her indoor amusements, Brinnaria
found time for much activity outside the Atrium. She had kept up
her girlish friendship for the sieve-maker Truttidius, and saw
him occasionally, sometimes ordering her litter halted before
his shop and leaning out to ask after his health and that of his