“You will allow me then?”
“I beg you to be so good.”
“And when?”
“That we will settle presently; just now, I see, they are going to table.”
“Where have you hidden yourselves?” cried Lucilia flying into the hall as lightly as a deer. “I have been seeking you everywhere. Come, make haste; I am desperately hungry.”
“She is hungry!” thought Claudia with a glance up to heaven. “I hardly know whether to envy her or to pity her!”
CHAPTER XI.
The meal was ended; Cocceius Nerva had proposed the health of Cornelia as the heroine of the day. After offering a libation, according to the ancient custom, he invoked the favor and mercy of the Immortals on the young girl; then he rose and left the triclinium. The whole company followed him, to listen to the sweet tones of soft music in the fresher air of the peristyle, and to walk up and down on the inlaid marble floor, chatting in low tones. Bronze lamps shed their light from between the Corinthian pillars, and the stars shone down from the cloudless skies; in the court itself a confidential twilight prevailed.
“Now, my sweet Claudia, tell me, how do you like Trajan?"[237] whispered Lucilia in her sister’s ear as she stood meditatively by the fountain.