A servant, assisted by the porter, Alyrus, brought the food in on huge
trays, roast kid and vegetables, green salad fresh from the market in
the Forum Boarium, dressed with oil from the groves of Lucca and
vinegar made of sour red wine. Then came a delicious pudding, made
from honey brought from Hymetus in Greece to add luxury to the food of
the already too luxurious Romans, and fruit strawberries, dipped in
fine sugar and sprinkled with lemon.
Virgilia ate little; the main portions of the food she sent away
untouched. The salad and fruit were more to her liking. She was very
pale. The scene in the Circus, followed by the sudden confession of
her faith, had taxed her strength. This, her anxiety for her mother
and the unusual heat of the evening caused her to feel faint, so that
she excused herself and went away, climbing a narrow staircase to the
flat, tiled roof. Here were many plants, blossoming vines and the
gurgling of cool water, as it passed through the mouth of a hideous
gorgan mask and fell into a basin where soft green mosses clung and
ferns waved their feathery fronds.
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