Indeed, what institution but grows ruinous and moss-covered in these our days?

Moreover, while the gods were held to commend all lawful unions, they themselves could not deny that even in celestial circles the marital state worked not to much edification.

No shadow, however, had crept over marriage when the woodman, Festus, desired to wed Livia, the daughter of Carmenta, the washerwoman. For their humble class, a vernal bloom of youth still graced the rite. They were themselves pioneers--the very first in that hamlet to venture upon the doubtful privileges and certain obligations of wedlock. It was, indeed, counted something of an eccentricity when the young man's intentions proved strictly honourable, and the pagan folk doubted whether Festus were not taking himself and Livia almost too seriously.

There needed a pinch of the heroine in your soul, also, to wed if you happened to be a washerwoman's daughter in those days, and Livia, when she accepted the woodman, while earning uneasy admiration from certain of her

friends, won some sneers among her more conservative sisters, who professed to prefer freedom and evaded the rite from choice, or missed it from necessity.

Indeed, the Mrs. Grundy of that village looked with doubting eye on marriage and feared that it might open a door to many things not convenient.

But as soon as Festus won Livia's love, they agreed to snap their fingers at convention, pretend to be patricians and enter into the great mystery of united life. After she accepted him, he begged her to fix the day and let it be soon; but the careless wight was not aware that May must be avoided and that the first half of June would fail their purpose. Indeed all the dies religiosi and the calends, nones and ides were equally out of the question, if he desired Fortuna to smile upon their experiment.

"The better the day, the better the deed," said Festus, a free and easy spirit who took no thought for the morrow.

"Not at all," answered more cautious Livia.

"We must court no needless risks, sweetheart. It is well known that a great many months are unpropitious to the marriage of men; and did we take our vows on some day sacred to a god, or goddess, we should make a powerful enemy from the first. But all are agreed that marriage must be entered into with as few handicaps as possible, and we will not go out of our way to complicate what may prove difficult enough in any case."

66

I am no

"Be hopeful," said Festus. authority on the sacred days, Jupiter forgive me, but so that Bacchus smiles, all will be well. Find an occasion that promises to give us a run for our money, my sweet treasure, and the quicker, the better."

She obeyed him and at a time when religion was powerless to frown, they wedded.

The pair dwelt in a rude village beside Lake Larius, and since this was the first enterprise of the kind celebrated among those purple hills, they sent for a flamen skilled in the rite, who directed them how to proceed. Livia's hair was arranged in six dark locks,

and she had more than enough. Upon her head she wore a wreath of valley lilies and alpenroses of her own gathering, and she shrouded her brow in a scarlet veil. Her tunica was of spotless white, woven without seam and fastened by a girdle of wool. A victim being slain a little lamb-the auspices were taken and the contract completed. Then her mother having led Livia to Festus, they joined hands and lifted their prayers to the watching gods. There followed the sacrifice of a bull calf on the public altar, and the smoke of it ascending, drifted far over the lake.

A feast came next, and Carmenta, the washerwoman, did the best in this matter that her means allowed. There was a mess of flesh and fowl with onions and olives; white bread, lettuces and curded cheese; chestnut cakes with herbs; dried figs and apricots and withered fruit of the wild pear. Much red wine went to the banqueting and sweet liqueurs made of heart's-ease and cypress. Not till the shadows fell huge from the hills to the waters spread beneath them, did they stop

eating; not before the first firefly twinkled. a little lamp along the ilex groves, had the wedding guests drunk all there was to drink.

Then night fell and Festus, taking Livia in his arms, bore her from her mother with show of violence, to the shrill cackling of women and laughter of the men.

Torch-bearers led the way, their pitchpines blazing and making the blue dusk red; flute-players pierced the Italian

peace and gaily squeaked; while the folk sang the Fescennini in rough Saturnian verse. They belonged to Silvanus-his festival, but chimed with the business of the time, and the jesters with raddled faces, who rollicked to right and left of the bridal pair, spared no wit to give point to the pagan humour and ribald merriment of their ancient song.

Through the trees, or at the edge of the waters, there peeped nymphs, goat-foot fauns. and other immortal creatures of lake and mountain, vale and forest, who spied upon humanity with wonder when the world was young. They perceived that an event out of