I had written you some days before and explained my inability to avail myself of your kind invitation to dinner on the Nones.

I purposed sending you, with this, what flowers my gardens afford towards decorating your _triclinium_ for your feast.

I beg that you accept these as a token of my good will.

When you reach Rome I beg that, at your leisure and convenience, you transmit my best wishes to my kinswoman, Vedia Venusta.
"Farewell." This note staggered me more than the sight of the flowers.

It was amazing that Vedius should have taken the trouble to be so gracious to me; that he should go out of his way to write me the vague and veiled, but unequivocal intimation of his approval of my suit for Vedia implied in the last sentences of his letter was astounding.