Once I invited Horace to dine with me, and got no answer.

He was a proud man"-- this with a merry smile.

"Again I invited him, and then he deigned to write me a sentence, merely, and said: 'Thanks, I am happy out here on my farm.' I did not know what to do, but I wrote a letter and said to the great man: 'You may not desire my friendship, but that is no reason for my failing to value yours.' I am proud to say that he was my friend ever after.

But I weary you." A female slave, thickly veiled, stood behind him.

He made a signal and she quickly put in his hand a little box of ivory, finely wrought.
"I have here," said the great father, "nine disks of wax.