A COUNTRY DINNER Just then Tanno caught sight of a horseman approaching up the valley.

I looked where he pointed.
"That will be Entedius Hirnio," I said.

"Of my dinner guests he lives furthest away and so he always comes in first to any festivity." "How far beyond Vediamnum does he live ?" Tanno enquired.
"On the other side of the Vedian lands," I explained.

"His property is over the divide towards the Tolenus, in between Villa Vedia and Villa Aemilia." Entedius it was, as I made sure, when he drew nearer, by his magnificent black mare.

He covered the last hundred paces at a furious gallop, pulled up his snorting mare abruptly, and dismounted jauntily.