Arria Marcella. 113
��ARRIA MARCELLA: A SOUVENIR OF POMPEIL
By Frank West Rollins.
Three young men, who were travel- too much absorbed to hear their ap-
Hng together in Italy, found themselves proach.
one day in the museum at Naples, where " Come, Octavio," said Max, " don't
the results of the excavations in Hercu- spend the day at each alcove, or we
laneum and Pompeii are exhibited. shall miss the train, and not get to
They strolled through the halls ; and Pompeii till night."
when one of them discovered any "What are you looking at ? " added
thing curious he called his companions Fabio. " Ah ! the cast found in the
in a loud tone, to the great scandal of house of Arrius Diomedes." And he
the taciturn English people who were gave a rapid and curious glance at
present. Octavio.
But the youngest of these three stood The latter blushed, and taking Max's
absorbed before one of the alcoves, and arm they finished the museum without
paid no attention to the cries of his further incident. On getting outside,
friends. The object that he was look- they at once called a carriage, and pro-
ing at so intently was a mass of hard- ceeded to the railway station. The
ened ashes which contained the imprint corricolo, with its huge red wheels, is
of a human form. It had the appear- too well known to need a description
ance of a piece of the mould for a here ; and, besides, we are not writing statue, broken by a fall : the eye of a story of Naples, but a simple, though
an artist would readily detect the form strange, adventure, which may seem
of the side and breast of a beautiful incredible, yet still is true,
figure, as pure in style as a Greek The road to Pompeii follows the sea
statue. The traveller's guide will tell almost all the way, and the long white
you that this lava formed around the waves come rolling in upon the dark
body of a woman, and preserved its sand with a pleasant murmur. This
beautiful contour. Thanks to a caprice beach is formed of powdered lava and
of the eruption which destroyed four cinders, and makes a fine contrast to
cities, this noble form, turned into dust the deep blue of the heavens and the
centuries ago, has been preserved for white foam of the breakers,
us : the soft roundness of a neck has On the way you pass through Portici,
survived the centuries in which so many — made famous by M. Auber's opera,
empires have disappeared, leaving no "Torre del Greco, and Torre del An-
trace. nunziata," — with its galleried houses
Seeing that he obstinately refused to and terraced roofs. The sand here is
be turned from his contemplation. Max black, and an almost impalpable soot
and Fabio returned to him, and touched covers every thing. One feels the near-
him on the shoulder, upon which he ness of the fiery Vesuvius,
trembled like a man surprised in some The three friends got out at the sta-
guilty action. Evidently he had been tion at Pompeii, laughing at the strange
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