He had said that it was wicked to give so fair a maiden as
Virgilia to this old and feeble man. Now, Claudia thanked the gods,
the objection had been removed by Virgilia's own fault.
She arrayed herself to receive the Senator with as much care as if she
were going to be a guest at Caesar's table. This marriage of
Virgilia's would bring her and her husband into the first rank of
society, a thing for which her soul had longed for many a year. A
lawyer, though a man highly honored and received at the palace, was
nevertheless, considered of medium rank. The mother of a Senator took
a different position. And all this had been caused merely by a chance
meeting with Adrian Soderus, when he had been charmed by Virgilia's
lovely face. Well, she was lovely, Claudia acknowledged, in the
intervals of scolding her waiting-woman because she did not arrange
the curls on her forehead to her satisfaction; no lovelier could be
found in the whole province, even the emperor himself had smiled upon
her one day, when she had gone with her father and mother to the
palace.
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