but that summer , when he should have been concentrating on planting out the new vineyards his father had acquired , he 'd drifted into an acquaintance with a number of younger men who had ideas about developing more trade with the north - through spina in the northern marshes , and even through massilia and up the rhone - and tanaquil always seemed to be meeting one or another of them , so that he inevitably ended up talking to her .