"Why?" said Rupert. "It hasn't got hold of me so."
"Wait, and it will. I seem to be touching the history of the world here, till I don't know whereabouts in the ages I am. Is this the nineteenth century?--Here we are."
Half an hour later, the two found themselves in the Hall of the Emperors.
"Do you know Roman history, Rupert?"
"A little. Not much. Not far down, you see. I know about Romulus and Remus."
"Then you know more than anybody else knows. That's a myth. Look here.
Let us begin at the beginning. Do you know this personage?"
"Julius Caesar? Yes. I have read about him."
"Did you ever read Plutarch's Lives? They used to be my delight when I was a little girl. I was very fond of Julius Caesar then. I know better now. But I am glad to see him."
"Why, wasn't he a great man?"
"Very. So the world says. I have come to perceive, Rupert, that that don't mean much."
"Why not? I thought the world was apt to be right."
"In some things. No doubt this man _might_ have been a very great man; he had power; but what good did he do to the world? He just worked for himself. I tell you what the Bible says, Rupert; 'The things which are highly esteemed among men, are abomination in the sight of God.' Look, and you will see it is so."
"If you go by _that_---- Who is this next man? Augustus. He was the first Roman emperor, wasn't he?"
"And all around here are ranged his successors. What a set they were!
and they look like it."
"How do you know they are likenesses?"
"Know from coins. Do you know, almost all these men, the emperors, died a violent death? Murdered, or else they killed themselves. That speaks, don't it, for the beauty and beneficence of their reigns, and the loveliness of their characters?"
"I don't know them very well. Some of them were good men, weren't they?"
"See here, Nos. 11 and 12. Here are Caligula and Claudius. Caligula was murdered. Then Claudius was poisoned by his wife Agrippina; there she is, No. 14. She was killed by her son Nero; and Nero killed himself; and No. 13, there is another wife of Claudius whom he killed before he married Agrippina; and here, No. 17, was a wife of Nero whom he killed by a kick. And that is the way, my dear Rupert, they went on. Don't you wish you had belonged to the Imperial family? There's greatness for you!"
"But there were some really great ones, weren't there? Which are they?"
"Well, let us see. Come on. Here is Trajan. He was not a brute; he was a philosopher and a sceptic. He was quite a distinguished man in the arts of war and peace. But he ordered that the profession of Christianity should be punished with death. He legalised all succeeding persecutions, by his calm enactments. Do you think he was a great man in the sight of God?"
"Were the Christians persecuted in his reign?"
"Certainly. In Asia Minor, under the good governor Pliny. Simon the son of Cleophas was crucified at that time."
"Perhaps Trajan did not know any better."
"He might have known better, though. Ignorance is no plea that will stand, when people have the means of knowledge. But come on. Here is Marcus Aurelius; here, Rupert, Nos. 37 and 38. He was what the world calls a very great man. He was cultivated, and wise, and strong, a great governor, and for a heathen a good man; and how he treated the Christians! East and west, and at Rome here itself, how they were sought out and tortured and killed! What do you think the Lord thinks of such a great man as that? Remember the Bible says of His people, 'He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of His eye.' What do you think the Lord thought of Marcus Aurelius' greatness? Look here, Rupert--here is Decius, and here is Diocletian."
"Were they persecutors too?"
"Great. It is so strange to look at their faces here, in this museum, after so many centuries. I suppose they will stand here, maybe, till the end of the world. Come away--we have been so long in this gallery we have not left time enough for the other rooms."
They went to the Hall of the Gladiator; and there Dolly studied the figure which gives name to the place, with a kind of rapt intensity.
She described to her companion the meaning of the marble; but it was not the same thing to them both. Dolly was lost in delighted contemplation. Rupert looked on with a kind of incredulous scorn.
"You don't care for it?" she said suddenly, catching a sight of his face.
"What's it good for?" said Rupert. "This ain't a likeness of anybody, is it?"
"It is a likeness of a great many people. Hundreds and hundreds died in such fashion as that, for the pleasure of the Roman people."
"Well, would it have been any satisfaction to you to see it?"
"Why, no! I hope not."
"Then why do you like to see it here now?"
"I don't! this is not reality, but an image."
"I can't see why you should like to look at the image, when you couldn't bear the reality."
"Why, Rupert"---- Dolly began, but her further words were cut off.
"Met again!" said a soft voice. "You here! we did not know you would be in Rome so soon."
"Dolly!" exclaimed Christina, who followed her mother. "That's delightful. Dolly Copley in Rome! and in the Museo Capitolino. Who is with you?"
"We are all here," said Dolly, smiling.
"Yes, yes, in Rome, of course; but you are not in the museum alone?"
Dolly presented Mr. Babbage.
"And how is your mother?" Mrs. Thayer went on. "Better! I am so glad. I thought she would be better in Italy. And what have you done with your handsome _cavaliero servente_--Mr. St. Leger?"
"I left him at home with a magazine, in which I _think_ there was a story," said Dolly.
"Impossible! his gallantry allowed you to come alone?"
"Not his gallantry, but perhaps his sense of weakness," Dolly answered.
"Of weakness, my dear? Is he a weak young man? He does not look it."
"Very good muscular power, I daresay; but when we talk of power of will, you know 'weakness' is relative. I forbade him, and he did not dare to come."
"You forbade him! and he obeyed? But, Christina, I do not think you have Mr. Shubrick in such training as that. Would he obey, if you gave him orders?"
"Probably the relations are different," said Dolly, obliging herself to keep a grave face. "I am in a happy independence of Mr. St. Leger which allows me to command him."