midnight
And , to conclude , a bookcase of polished maple wood , one of the doors of which stood open , displayed a rare collection of about three hundred volumes , each in its circular case of purple parchment , having the name inscribed in letters of gold , silver , or vermilion . A noble bust in bronze of the Phidian Jupiter , with the sublime expanse of brow , the ambrosian curls and the beard loosely waving , as when he shook Olympus by his nod , and the earth trembled and the depth of Tartarus , stood on a marble pedestal facing the bookcase ; and on the table , beside writing materials , leaves of parchment , an ornamental letter-case , a double inkstand and several reed pens , were scattered many gems and trinkets ; signets and rings engraved in a style far surpassing any effort of the modern graver , vases of onyx and cut glass , and above all , the statue of a beautiful boy , holding a lamp of bronze suspended by a chain from his left hand , and in his right the needle used to refresh the wick . Nurtured as he had been from his youth upward among the magnates of the land , accustomed to magnificence and luxury till he had almost fancied that the world had nothing left of beautiful or new that he had not witnessed , Paul stood awhile , after the freedman had departed , gazing with mute admiration on the richness and taste displayed in all the details of this the scholar 's sanctum . The very atmosphere of the chamber , filled with the perfume of the cedar wood employed as a specific against the ravages of the moth and bookworm , seemed to the young man redolent of midnight learning ; and the superb front of the presiding god , calm in the grandeur of its ineffable benignity , who appeared to his excited fancy to smile serene protection on the pursuits of the blameless consul , inspired him with a sense of awful veneration , that did not easily or quickly pass away . For some moments , as he gradually recovered the elasticity of his spirits , he amused himself by examining the exquisitely wrought gems on the table ; but after a little while , when Cicero came not , he crossed the room quietly to the bookshelves , and selecting a volume of Homer , drew it forth from its richly embossed case , and seating himself on the bronze settle with his back toward the door , had soon forgotten where he was , and the grave business which brought him thither , in the sublime simplicity of the blind rhapsodist . An hour or more elapsed thus ; yet Paul took no note of time , nor moved at all except to unroll with his right hand the lower margin of the parchment as he read , while with the left he rolled up the top ; so that nearly the same space of the manuscript remained constantly before his eyes , although the reader was continually advancing in the poem . At length the door opened noiselessly , and with a silent foot , shod in the light slippers which the Romans always wore when in the house , Cicero entered the apartment .