Gracchus, exclaiming, as he approached us from the great hall of the
palace, 'How now!--How now!--whom have we here? Are my eyes and ears true
to their report--Lucius Piso? It is he indeed. Thrice welcome to Palmyra!
May a visit from so good and great a house be an augury of good. You are
quick indeed upon the track of your letter. How have you sped by the way?
I need not ask after your own welfare, for I see it, but I am impatient to
learn all that you can tell me of friends and enemies in Rome. I dare say,
all this has been once told to Fausta, but, as a penalty for arriving
while I was absent, it must be repeated for my special pleasure. But come,
that can be done while we sit at table; I see the supper waits.'

In this pleasant mood did the father of Fausta, and now, as you know, one
of the chief pillars of the province or kingdom--whichever it must be
called--receive me. I was struck with the fine union in his appearance
and manner of courtly ease, and a noble Roman frankness. His head,
slightly bald, but cast in the truest mould of manly beauty, would have
done honor to any of his illustrious ancestors; and his figure was
entirely worthy of that faultless crown. I confess I experienced a pang
of regret that one so fitted to sustain and adorn the greatness of his
parent country had chosen to cast his fortunes so far from the great
centre and heart of the Empire. After the first duties of the table had
been gone through with, and my hunger--real hunger--had been appeased by
the various delicacies which my kind hostess urged upon me noways
unwilling to receive such tokens of regard, I took up the questions of
Gracchus, and gave him a full account of our social and political state
in Rome, to all which Fausta too lent a greedy ear, her fine face
sparkling with the intelligence which beamed out from every feature. It
was easy to see how deep an interest she takes in matters to which her
sex are usually so insensible. It is indescribable, the imperial pride
and lofty spirit of independence which at times sat upon her brow and