THE -ROOM OF A POMPEIAN BEAUTY. IMPORTANT CONVERSATION BETWEEN JULIA AND NYDIA.  
THE elegant Julia sat in her , with her slaves around her—like the cubiculum which adjoined it, the room was small, but much larger than the usual apartments appropriated to sleep, which were so , that few who have not seen the bed-, even in the gayest , can form any notion of the petty pigeon-holes in which the citizens of Pompeii evidently thought it desirable to pass the night. But, in fact, 'bed' with the ancients was not that grave, serious, and important part of domestic mysteries which it is with us. The couch itself was more like a very narrow and small sofa, light enough to be transported easily, and by the occupant himself, from place to place; and it was, no doubt, constantly shifted from chamber to chamber, according to the caprice of the , or the changes of the season; for that side of the house which was crowded in one month, might, perhaps, be carefully avoided in the next. There was also among the Italians of that period a singular and fastidious of too much daylight; their darkened chambers, which first appear to us the result of a architecture, were the effect of the most elaborate study. In their and gardens they courted the sun whenever it so pleased their tastes. In the interior of their houses they sought rather the coolness and the shade.
 
Julia's apartment at that season was in the lower part of the house, immediately beneath the state rooms above, and looking upon the garden, with which it was on a level. The wide door, which was , alone admitted the morning rays: yet her eye, accustomed to a certain darkness, was acute to perceive exactly what colors were the most becoming—what shade of the delicate gave the brightest beam to her dark glance, and the most youthful freshness to her cheek.
 
On the table, before which she sat, was a small and circular mirror of the most polished steel: round which, in precise order, were ranged the and the unguents—the perfumes and the paints—the jewels and combs—the ribands and the gold pins, which were to add to the natural attractions of beauty the assistance of art and the capricious of fashion. Through the dimness of the room glowed brightly the vivid and various colourings of the wall, in all the dazzling of Pompeian taste. Before the dressing-table, and under the feet of Julia, was spread a carpet, woven from the of the East. Near at hand, on another table, was a silver basin and ; an extinguished lamp, of most workmanship, in which the artist had represented a Cupid under the spreading branches of a myrtle-tree; and a small roll of , containing the softest of Tibullus. Before the door, which communicated with the cubiculum, hung a curtain richly broidered with gold flowers. Such was the dressing-room of a beauty eighteen centuries ago.
 
The fair Julia leaned indolently back on her seat, while the ornatrix (i.e. hairdresser) slowly piled, one above the other, a mass of small curls, weaving the false with the true, and carrying the whole to a height that seemed to place the head rather at the centre than the summit of the human form.
 
Her , of a deep , which well set off her dark hair and somewhat embrowned , swept in ample folds to her feet, which were cased in , fastened round the slender ankle by white ; while a of pearls were in the itself, which was of purple, and turned slightly upward, as do the Turkish slippers at this day. An old slave, skilled by long experience in all the arcana of the toilet, stood beside the hairdresser, with the broad and studded girdle of her mistress over her arm, and giving, from time to time (mingled with flattery to the lady herself), instructions to the mason of the pile.
 
'Put that pin rather more to the right—lower—stupid one! Do you not observe how even those beautiful are?—One would think you were dressing Corinna, whose face is all of one side. Now put in the flowers—what, fool!—not that dull pink—you are not suiting colors to the dim cheek of Chloris: it must be the brightest flowers that can alone suit the cheek of the young Julia.'
 
'Gently!' said the lady, stamping her small foot violently: 'you pull my hair as if you were plucking up a weed!'
 
'Dull thing!' continued the directress of the ceremony. 'Do you not know how delicate is your mistress?—you are not dressing the coarse horsehair of the widow Fulvia. Now, then, the riband—that's right. Fair Julia, look in the mirror; saw you ever anything so lovely as yourself?'
 
When, after innumerable comments, difficulties, and delays, the intricate tower was at length completed, the next preparation was that of giving to the eyes the soft , produced by a dark powder to the lids and brows; a small patch cut in the form of a crescent, skillfully placed by the lips, attracted attention to their dimples, and to the teeth, to which already every art had been applied in order to heighten the dazzle of their natural whiteness.
 
To another slave, hitherto idle, was now the charge of arranging the jewels—the ear-rings of pearl (two to each ear)—the massive of gold—the chain formed of rings of the same metal, to which a cut in crystals was attached—the on the left shoulder, in which was set an exquisite cameo of Psyche—the girdle of purple riband, richly with threads of gold, and clasped by interlacing serpents—and lastly, the various rings, fitted to every of the white and slender fingers. The toilet was now arranged according to the last mode of Rome. The fair Julia regarded herself with a last gaze of vanity, and reclining again upon her seat, she bade the youngest of her slaves, in a listless tone, read to her the enamoured couplets of Tibullus. This lecture was still , when a female slave admitted Nydia into the presence of the lady of the place.
 
'Salve, Julia!' said the flower-girl, arresting her steps within a few paces from the spot where Julia sat, and crossing her arms upon her breas............