and was calm ;- -so calm that I sometimes asked myself if my heart yet beat in my bosom, and the blood yet ran warm in my veins?

And thus the weary sands dropped, dropped, dropped daily, in the great hour-glass of Time.

138

CHAPTER X.

TIME PAST AND TIME PRESENT.

“Parvum parva decent. Mihi jam non regia Roma Sed vacuum Tibur placet.”—HORACE.

"Cypress and ivy, weed and wall-flower grown Matted and massed together, hillocks heap'd

On what were chambers, arch crush'd, column strown In fragments, choked-up vaults, and frescoes steep'd In subterranean damps."-BYRON.

THERE was a tap at the door.

May I come in?" said a well-known voice. The voice was followed by the shaggy grey head of the Herr Professor, and the head was duly ṣucceeded by the rest of his gaunt person.

"Are you not always welcome?" I replied, answering a question with a question. "I am making

the coffee, while Goody is gone to the Via Condotti for the rolls. Will you breakfast with us?" "Breakfast! I breakfasted two hours ago, by candle-light."

"You are a Spartan, mein Professor."

"You are a Sybarite, meine liebe Schülerinn. Who ever heard of such an hour as eight for breakfast at the Zollenstrasse College? Madame Brenner would be ashamed of you."

"My dear friend," I said, smiling and sighing together, "that was at least fifty years ago when I was young."

"Pooh! you are a child now," growled the Professor; "and because you are a child, I come to propose a holiday. Will you go to Tivoli ?" "To Tivoli? When?"

"To-day. It is still early enough, and will do you good. Yes, or no?"

I had no desire to go; but feared to disappoint him by a refusal.

"If you can spare the time," I began, "and would enjoy it..."

"I can spare the time," he interrupted; "but my stay in Rome draws to an end; and in another week I may be no longer here. Shall I order a carriage to be at the door in half an hour?"

"In twenty minutes, if you like, mein Pro

fessor."

"No, no-eat your breakfast in peace. And, remember, your friend Goody is a charming old woman; but she may as well stay at home, and keep house."

With this, he strode away downstairs, three steps at a time, and I presently saw him in the yard of the remise, several gardens off, inspecting the condition of an open carriage which was being cleaned by one of the stablemen.

The drive was less beautiful than most of those which lie round Rome, and the Professor was more than usually silent. Thus two hours and a half went by, dully; and I was not sorry when, turning aside from the castellated tomb of the Plautia family, we passed down a shady lane, and stopped at the gate of Hadrian's Villa. Alighting here, we passed into that wide and wondrous wilderness of ruin, through avenues dark with cypress, and steep banks purple with violets. The air was heavy with perfume. The glades were carpeted with daisies, wild periwinkle, and white and yellow crocus-blooms. We stepped aside into a grassy arena which was once the Greek theatre, and sat upon a fallen cornice. There was the narrow shelf of stage on which the agonies of Edipus and Prometheus were once rehearsed; there was the tiny altar which stood between the audience and the actors, and consecrated the

play; there, row above row, were the seats of the spectators. Now, the very stage was a mere thicket of brambles, and a little thrush lighted on the altar, while we were sitting by, and filled all the silent space with song.

Passing hence, we came next upon open fields, partly cultivated, and partly cumbered with shapeless mounds of fallen masonry. Here, in the shadow of a gigantic stone pine, we found a sheet of mosaic pavement glowing with all its marbles in the sun; and close by, half buried in deep grass, a shattered column of the richest porphyry. Then came an olive plantation; another theatre; the fragments of a temple; and a long line of vaulted cells, some of which contained the remains of baths and conduits, and were tapestried within with masses of the delicate maiden-hair fern. Separated from these by a wide space of grass, amid which a herd of goats waded and fed at their pleasure, rose a pile of reticulated wall, with part of a vast hall yet standing, upon the vaulted roof of which, sharp and perfect as if moulded yesterday, were encrusted delicate bas-reliefs of white stucco, representing groups of Cupids, musical instruments, and figures reclining at table. Near this spot, on a rising ground formed all of ruins overgrown with grass and underwood, we sat down to rest, and contemplate the view.