What might be the realities of the
scenes there enacted, none could truly tell, except the few most
intimate frequenters of the place; but report gave no flattering
description of them. Even among the Roman ladies with whom she was
associated, and whose information was confined to such stray bits of
gossip as they had picked up from slaves and menials, and who, standing
in unconscious awe of her simple purity of heart, often forebore to
speak with her as freely and unguardedly as with each other, she had
occasionally heard such startling tales of the wild dissipations there
enacted, as surpassed conception, and left her horrified senses no calm
refuge except in unbelief. The gorgeous feasts, the night-long
libations, the social intimacy with dancing girls and gladiators, the
mockery of all that was pure and holy, the derisive insults to the gods
themselves--these were practices which the public voice connected with
the house of Emilius, not as occasional outbreaks of wild frivolity, but
as the fixed habits of his daily life. And if these things were true,
what claim of pride or policy could such a place advance to distract her
lord from the allegiance due to his own home alone?
But possibly these things might not be true. She reflected that the poet
was wealthy; and as long as the world continues to be envious, riches
will seldom fail to bring false report upon their possessor.
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