But another employment than
this now claims our care. It is to an individual, and not to a divided
source of interest, that our attention turns; we relinquish all
observations on the general mass of the populace to revert to Numerian
and Antonina alone--to penetrate once more into the little dwelling on
the Pincian Hill.
The apartment where the father and daughter had suffered the pangs of
famine together during the period of the blockade, presented an
appearance far different from that which it had displayed on the
occasion when they had last occupied it. The formerly bare walls were
now covered with rich, thick hangings; and the simple couch and scanty
table of other days had been exchanged for whatever was most luxurious
and complete in the household furniture of the age. At one end of the
room three women, attended by a little girl, were engaged in preparing
some dishes of fruit and vegetables; at the other, two men were occupied
in low, earnest conversation, occasionally looking round anxiously to a
couch placed against the third side of the apartment, on which Antonina
lay extended, while Numerian watched by her in silence.
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