Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/130

118 dragged along Roman thoroughfares, and the moles, which stem hitherto resistless seas, and protect the fish against the sway of winter, is set over against the simplicity of Tibullus's ménage and primitive establishment; but, as if he knew beforehand that her taste would repudiate such simplicity, he affirms that if luxury and expense be the penchant of Nemesis, he will turn his thoughts to pillage and rapine, to procure her the means of it. His own tastes recoil from fashion and finery, and go back to the pastoral way of their ancestors, but he is prepared to sink his tastes—

Such promises and professions were no doubt the condition of his retaining even a share in her favour, but a misgiving arises that he competes at unequal odds with a richer upstart, of whom he bitterly hints—

Professions, however, in Nemesis's school, are nothing without practice. The more she exacts, the faster becomes his bondage; and he is not long in finding that it was a delusion to dream that songs and love-ditties would countervail more substantial presents—