The Unwilling Vestal

odd mingling of awe and elation. The mere size of it was impressive, for it was nearly two hund

famous of all city squares, and under the very shadow of the Imperial Palace, the walls of which towered nearly thr

companion, make herself agreeable, read aloud, if requested, accompany her on her outings and help to pass her leisure pleasantly. As she was a mere child in years she had a sort of governess to instruct her in all those subjects in which a Roman girl of good family was generally given lessons: correct reading; a smattering of mathematics, about equivalent to the simple arithmetic of our days; some knowledge of literature; a steady and efficient drill in reading and talking Greek; instrumental music, similar to the guitar-playing of modern times, and embroidery. She had a personal maid to bathe her, arrange her hair and otherwise make her comfortable; also a special maid to attend to her private apartment, which included what we would call a sitting-room, a tiny bedroom, and a large bath-room. The largest room was used mostly as a school-room for lessons with her instructress. Outside the Atrium Brinnaria had her private stab

rinnaria thought her merely innately lazy and a natural shirk. The more she saw of her the more her loathing for her and her hatred of her intensified. Quite the reverse with the others. Manlia was a large young woman of about twenty-two, a typical Roman aristocrat, her hair between dark brown and black, her complexion swarthy, her figure abundant. Gargilia was older than Manlia; a tall, slender creature with intensely black hair and piercing black eyes that looked stra

he Atrium of Vesta, had found it difficult to learn the etiquette of the order, had wanted to s

rude to Meffia. This Causidiena noticed at once and set herself to obliterate. Brinnaria unbosomed herself and Causidiena listened so sympathetically that Brinna

e's been tubbed and scrubbed and massaged and perfumed twice a day ever since I came here and she smells worse than a polecat, anyhow, all day

turing f

ll of a dirty girl or of an ill girl, nor the smell of a girl at all or of any kind of a human being. I can't describe it, but it's a

k and pliable, or so professed herself. For at least five days Brinnaria kept up her effort to be comrad

s of deportment. Outwardly she controlled herself from the first; for, before her first cowed sensations had worn off, her adoration of Causidiena had gained full sway

st and most undignified prank. It was a terrific

le colonnade, two tiers of pillars, one above the other, the lower of delicately mottled Carystian marble wavily veined with green streaks

the edge of the tank. There was no earthly reason for her so doing, as Brinnaria was barely a yard from the mar

ar thin, sour odor which Meffia exhaled. At the sight of Meffia's elaborately disagreeable demeanor of isolation, all Brinnaria's natural self began to boil

l and a great splash

in, but she went

der and did

shamming to scare her; but, in a twinkl

unged in and re

ripping Vestal toiling up the steps of the tank carrying over her shoulder another V

It so happened that Causidiena first questioned some of the maid-servants, who all hated Meffia and liked

the thought of her pained, silent displeasure. Hours passed, long hours passed and nothing was said on the subject. From none

rivate audience with Causidiena. First she made sure that none of the m

She talked mildly and gently, yet made Brinnaria fe

nterview was tha

o nights and one day, if the trouble seems trifling. But, if any Vestal is ill for a longer time, she is promptly removed from the Atrium for nursing. I fear that Meffia may not recover within the permitted time. I am most anxious that ther

a day and a night! Whew! Pretty severe punishment! But I des

se. But the very sight of Brinnaria was to her an irritant tonic. She was entirely

rks without herself knowing what she was going to say and was overwhelmed with confusion when her own ears heard the totally unexpected words which she had uttered; she contemplated aghast the havoc she had wrought. Generally she made a pretty fair

f notoriety, brought her name to

d of her age with a set of new toys, as warily insisten

e great property which was her jointure as a Vestal, made sure of the exact income from each of its components, also the total amount; both how far she was allowed to have her way in spending it and how soon she would b

thoroughfares leading to the city gates. The owner of one, unless he happened to live on one of those chief arteries of the traffic, might not step from his house door into his carriage but must have it halted at some point on the permitted avenues and must reach it on foot or by litter. But there was no street or alley in Rome wide enough for a carria

ose of the Emperor and the Vestals were

e her great pleasure to drive up the long zigzag approach to the Capitol, where no human being save the Vestals and the Empress might be driven, and where few Empresses had ever ventured to drive, to have her carriage halted before the great Temple of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, where no carriage except the carriages of the Vestals ha

ccompanied by a maid-servant. This had been the custom from time immemorial and had come to have the force of a moral law. The sight of a woman of wealth and position entirely alone in her car

Vestal might never go abroad on foot, except in one of the solemn processions. But, in her litter or her carriage, she might go anywhere in Rome unaccompanied, prote

oyed her outing far more when she had a companion, yet she drove alone day after day, merely because it was her prerogative. So driving she

uring the busy days preceding his departure for Antioch and his great campaign against the Parthians. Verus, roused from his devotion to sport and pleasure, was f

her eyes filled with tears; she turned hot and cold and almost fainted with emotion, when the Emperor's twenty-four lictors lowered their fasces, the whole procession halted, the escort and t

to her exalted station, that she must never, never, never for such as one instant, forget herself or behave otherwi

muddy little cur. Brinnaria called imperiously to her lictor to interfere. He was too far ahead to hear her. Her coachman had all he could do to control her mettlesome span of Spanish mares. She spoke to the boy

lio, diffusing pomposity. From him she had to listen to a long lecture on deportment and to a readin