For the rest he let the days go by unprotestingly, and enjoyed Roderick's serene efflorescence as he would have done a beautiful summer sunrise.

Rome, for the past month, had been delicious.

The annual descent of the Goths had not yet begun, and sunny leisure seemed to brood over the city.
Roderick had taken out a note-book and was roughly sketching a memento of the great Juno.

Suddenly there was a noise on the gravel, and the young men, looking up, saw three persons advancing.

One was a woman of middle age, with a rather grand air and a great many furbelows.