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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Emperor, Complete, by Georg Ebers
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Emperor, Complete
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: October 16, 2006 [EBook #5493]
+Last Updated: August 25, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EMPEROR, COMPLETE ***
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR, Complete
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+
+Translated by Clara Bell
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+It is now fourteen years since I planned the story related in these
+volumes, the outcome of a series of lectures which I had occasion to
+deliver on the period of the Roman dominion in Egypt. But the pleasures
+of inventive composition were forced to give way to scientific labors,
+and when I was once more at leisure to try my wings with increase of
+power I felt more strongly urged to other flights. Thus it came to pass
+that I did I not take the time of Hadrian for the background of a tale
+till after I had dealt with the still later period of the early monastic
+move in “Homo Sum.” Since finishing that romance my old wish to depict,
+in the form of a story, the most important epoch of the history of that
+venerable nation to which I have devoted nearly a quarter century of my
+life, has found its fulfilment. I have endeavored to give a picture of
+the splendor of the Pharaonic times in “Uarda,” of the subjection of
+Egypt to the new Empire of the Persians in “An Egyptian Princess,” of
+the Hellenic period under the Lagides in “The Sisters,” of the Roman
+dominion and the early growth of Christianity in “The Emperor,” and
+of the anchorite spirit--in the deserts and rocks of the Sinaitic
+Peninsula--in “Homo Sum.” Thus the present work is the last of which the
+scene will be laid in Egypt. This series of romances will not only
+have introduced the reader to a knowledge of the history of manners and
+culture in Egypt, but will have facilitated his comprehension of certain
+dominant ideas which stirred the mind of the Ancients. How far I may
+have succeeded in rendering the color of the times I have described and
+in producing pictures that realize the truth, I myself cannot venture
+to judge; for since even present facts are differently reflected in
+different minds, this must be still more emphatically the case with
+things long since past and half-forgotten. Again and again, when
+historical investigation has refused to afford me the means of
+resuscitating some remotely ancient scene, I have been obliged to take
+counsel of imagination and remember the saying that ‘the Poet must be a
+retrospective Seer,’ and could allow my fancy to spread her wings, while
+I remained her lord and knew the limits up to which I might permit her
+to soar. I considered it my lawful privilege to paint much that was
+pure invention, but nothing that was not possible at the period I was
+representing. A due regard for such possibility has always set the
+bounds to fancy’s flight; wherever existing authorities have allowed
+me to be exact and faithful I have always been so, and the most
+distinguished of my fellow-professors in Germany, England, France and
+Holland, have more than once borne witness to this. But, as I need
+hardly point out, poetical and historical truth are not the same thing;
+for historical truth must remain, as far as possible, unbiassed by the
+subjective feeling of the writer, while poetical truth can only find
+expression through the medium of the artist’s fancy.
+
+As in my last two romances, so in “The Emperor,” I have added no notes:
+I do this in the pleasant conviction of having won the confidence of my
+readers by my historical and other labors. Nothing has encouraged me to
+fresh imaginative works so much as the fact that through these romances
+the branch of learning that I profess has enlisted many disciples whose
+names are now mentioned with respect among Egyptologists. Every one who
+is familiar with the history of Hadrian’s time will easily discern by
+trifling traits from what author or from which inscription or monument
+the minor details have been derived, and I do not care to interrupt the
+course of the narrative and so spoil the pleasure of the larger class
+of readers. It would be a happiness to me to believe that this tale
+deserves to be called a real work of art, and, as such, its first
+function should be to charm and elevate the mind. Those who at the same
+time enrich their knowledge by its study ought not to detect the fact
+that they are learning.
+
+Those who are learned in the history of Alexandria under the Romans may
+wonder that I should have made no mention of the Therapeutai on Lake
+Mareotis. I had originally meant to devote a chapter to them, but Luca’s
+recent investigations led me to decide on leaving it unwritten. I have
+given years of study to the early youth of Christianity, particularly
+in Egypt, and it affords me particular satisfaction to help others to
+realize how, in Hadrian’s time, the pure teaching of the Saviour, as yet
+little sullied by the contributions of human minds, conquered--and could
+not fail to conquer--the hearts of men. Side by side with the triumphant
+Faith I have set that noble blossom of Greek life and culture--Art which
+in later ages, Christianity absorbed in order to dress herself in her
+beautiful forms. The statues and bust of Antinous which remain to us of
+that epoch, show that the drooping tree was still destined to put forth
+new leaves under Hadrian’s rule.
+
+The romantic traits which I have attributed to the character of my hero,
+who travelled throughout the world, climbing mountains to rejoice in
+the splendor of he rising sun, are authentic. One of the most difficult
+tasks I have ever set myself was to construct from the abundant but
+essentially contradictory accounts of Hadian a human figure in which I
+could myself at all believe; still, how gladly I set to work to do so!
+There was much to be considered in working out this narrative, but the
+story itself has flowed straight from the heart of the writer; I can
+only hope it may find its way to that of the reader.
+
+   LEIPZIG, November, 1880.
+
+                    GEORG EBERS.
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 1.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+The morning twilight had dawned into day, and the sun had risen on the
+first of December of the year of our Lord 129, but was still veiled by
+milk-white mists which rose from the sea, and it was cold.
+
+Kasius, a mountain of moderate elevation, stands on a tongue of land
+that projects from the coast between the south of Palestine and
+Egypt. It is washed on the north by the sea which, on this day, is not
+gleaming, as is its wont, in translucent ultramarine; its more distant
+depths slowly surge in blue-black waves, while those nearer to shore are
+of quite a different hue, and meet their sisters that lie nearer to the
+horizon in a dull greenish-grey, as dusty plains join darker lava beds.
+The northeasterly wind, which had risen as the sun rose, now blew more
+keenly, wreaths of white foam rode on the crests of the waves, though
+these did not beat wildly and stormily on the mountain-foot, but rolled
+heavily to the shore in humped ridges, endlessly long, as if they were
+of molten lead. Still the clear bright spray splashed up when the gulls
+dipped their pinions in the water as they floated above it, hither and
+thither, restless and uttering shrill little cries, as though driven by
+terror.
+
+Three men were walking slowly along the causeway which led from the top
+of the hill down into the valley, but it was only the eldest, who walked
+in front of the other two, who gave any heed to the sky, the sea, the
+gulls, and the barren plain that lay silent at his feet. He stopped,
+and as soon as he did so, the others followed his example. The landscape
+below him seemed to rivet his gaze, and it justified the disapproval
+with which he gently shook his head, which was somewhat sunk into his
+beard. A narrow strip of desert stretched westward before him as far as
+the eye could reach, dividing two levels of water. Along this natural
+dyke a caravan was passing, and the elastic feet of the camels fell
+noiselessly on the road they trod. The leader, wrapped in his white
+mantle, seemed asleep, and the camel-drivers to be dreaming; the
+dull-colored eagles by the road-side did not stir at their approach.
+To the right of the stretch of flat coast along which the road ran from
+Syria to Egypt, lay the gloomy sea, overhung by grey clouds; to the left
+lay the desert, a strange and mysterious feature in the landscape, of
+which the eye could not see the end, either to the east or to the west,
+and which looked here like a stretch of snow, there like standing water,
+and again like a thicket of rushes.
+
+The eldest of our travellers gazed constantly towards heaven or into the
+distance; the second, a slave who carried rugs and cloaks on his broad
+shoulders, never took his eyes off his master; and the third, a young,
+free-man, looked wearily and dreamily down the road.
+
+A broad path, leading to a stately temple, crossed that which led from
+the summit of the mountain to the coast, and the bearded pedestrian
+turned up it; but he followed it only for a few steps, then he turned
+his head with a dissatisfied air, muttered a few unintelligible words
+into his beard, turned round and hastily retraced his steps to the
+narrow way, down which he went towards the valley. His young companion
+followed him without raising his head or interrupting his reverie, as
+if he were his shadow, but the slave lifted his cropped fair head and
+a stolen smile crossed his lips as on the left hand side of the Kasius
+road he caught sight of a black kid, and close beside it an old woman
+who, at the approach of the three men covered her wrinkled face in alarm
+with her dark blue veil.
+
+“That is the reason then!” said the slave to himself with a nod, and
+blowing a kiss into the air to a black-haired girl who crouched at the
+old woman’s feet. But she, for whom the greeting was intended, did not
+observe this mute courtship, for her eyes followed the travellers, and
+especially the young man, as if spellbound. As soon as the three were
+far enough off not to hear her, the girl asked with a shiver, as if some
+desert-spectre had passed by-and in a low voice “Grandmother, who was
+that?”
+
+The old woman raised her veil, laid her hand on her grandchild’s mouth,
+and whispered:
+
+“It was he.”
+
+“The Emperor?”
+
+The old woman answered with a significant nod, but the girl squeezed
+herself up, against her grandmother, with vehement curiosity stretching
+out her dusky head to see better, and asked softly: “The young one?”
+
+“Silly child! the one in front with a grey beard.”
+
+“He? Oh, I wish the young one was the Emperor!”
+
+It was in fact Hadrian, the Roman Emperor, who walked on in silence
+before his escort, and it seemed as though his advent had given life to
+the desert, for as he approached the reed-swamp, the kites flew up in
+the air, and from behind a sand-hill on the edge of the broader road
+which Hadrian had avoided, came two men in priestly robes. They both
+belonged to the temple of Baal of Kariotis, a small structure of solid
+stone, which faced the sea, and which the Emperor had yesterday visited.
+
+“Do you think he has lost his way?” said one to the other, in the
+Phoenician tongue.
+
+“Hardly,” was the answer. “Master said that he could always find a road
+again by which he had once gone, even in the dark.”
+
+“And yet he is gazing more at the clouds than at the road.”
+
+“Still, he promised us yesterday.”
+
+“He promised nothing for certain,” interrupted the other.
+
+“Indeed he did; at parting he called out--and I heard him distinctly:
+‘Perhaps I shall return and consult your oracle.’”
+
+“Perhaps.”
+
+“I think he said ‘probably.’”
+
+“Who knows whether some sign he has seen up in the sky may not have
+turned him back; he is going to the camp by the sea.”
+
+“But the banquet is standing ready for him in our great hall.”
+
+“He will find what he needs down there. Come, it is a wretched morning,
+and I am being frozen.”
+
+“Wait a little longer-look there.”
+
+“What?”
+
+“He does not even wear a hat to cover his grey hair.”
+
+“He has never yet been seen to travel with anything on his head.”
+
+“And his grey cloak is not very imperial looking.”
+
+“He always wears the purple at a banquet.”
+
+“Do you know who his walk and appearance remind me of?”
+
+“Who?”
+
+“Of our late high-priest, Abibaal; he used to walk in that ponderous,
+meditative way, and wear a beard like the Emperor’s.”
+
+“Yes, yes--and had the same piercing grey eye.”
+
+“He too used often to gaze up at the sky. They have both the same broad
+forehead, too; but Abibaal’s nose was more aquiline, and his hair curled
+less closely.”
+
+“And our governor’s mouth was grave and dignified, while Hadrian’s lips
+twitch and curl at all he says and hears, as if he were laughing at it
+all.”
+
+“Look, he is speaking now to his favorite--Antonius I think they call
+the pretty boy.”
+
+“Antinous, not Antonius. He picked him up in Bithynia, they say.”
+
+“He is a beautiful youth.”
+
+“Incomparably beautiful! What a figure and what a face! Still, I cannot
+wish that he were my son.”
+
+“The Emperor’s favorite!”
+
+“For that very reason. Why, he looks already as if he had tried every
+pleasure, and could never know any farther enjoyment.”
+
+         ............................
+
+On a little level close to the sea-shore, and sheltered by crumbling
+cliffs from the east wind, stood a number of tents. Between them fires
+were burning, round which were gathered groups of Roman soldiers and
+imperial servants. Half-naked boys, the children of the fishermen and
+camel-drivers who dwelt in this wilderness, were running busily hither
+and thither, feeding the flames with dry stems of sea-grass and dead
+desert-shrubs; but though the blaze flew high, the smoke did not rise;
+but driven here and there by the squalls of wind, swirled about close to
+the ground in little clouds, like a flock of scattered sheep. It seemed
+as though it feared to rise in the grey, damp, uninviting atmosphere.
+The largest of the tents, in front of which Roman sentinels paced up and
+down, two and two, on guard, was wide open on the side towards the
+sea. The slaves who came out of the broad door-way with trays on their
+cropped heads-loaded with gold and silver vessels, plates, wine-jars,
+goblets, and the remains of a meal had to hold them tightly with both
+hands that they might not be blown over.
+
+The inside of the tent was absolutely unadorned. The Emperor lay on a
+couch near the right wall, which was blown in and bulged by the wind;
+his bloodless lips were tightly set, his arms crossed over his breast,
+and his eyes half closed. But he was not asleep, for he often opened his
+mouth and smacked his lips, as if tasting the flavor of some viand.
+From time to time he raised his eyelids--long, finely wrinkled, and
+blue-veined--turning his eyes up to heaven or rolling them to one side
+and then downwards towards the middle of the tent. There, on the skin
+of a huge bear trimmed with blue cloth, lay Hadrian’s favorite Antinous.
+His beautiful head rested on that of the beast, which had been slain
+by his sovereign, and its skull and skin skilfully preserved, his right
+leg, supported on his left knee, he flourished freely in the air, and
+his hands were caressing the Emperor’s bloodhound, which had laid its
+sage-looking head on the boy’s broad, bare breast, and now and then
+tried to lick his soft lips to show its affection. But this the youth
+would not allow; he playfully held the beast’s muzzle close with his
+hands or wrapped its head in the end of his mantle, which had slipped
+back from his shoulders.
+
+The dog seemed to enjoy the game, but once when Antinous had drawn the
+cloak more tightly round its head and it strove in vain to be free from
+the cloth that impeded its breathing, it set up a loud howl, and this
+doleful cry made the Emperor change his attitude and cast a glance of
+displeasure at the boy lying on the bear-skin, but only a glance, not a
+word of blame. And soon the expression, even of his eyes, changed, and
+he fixed them on the lads’s figure with a gaze of loving contemplation,
+as though it were some noble work of art that he could never tire of
+admiring. And truly the Immortals had moulded this child of man to such
+a type; every muscle of that throat, that chest, those arms and legs was
+a marvel of softness and of power; no human countenance could be more
+regularly chiselled. Antinous observing that his master’s attention had
+been attracted to his play with the dog, let the animal go and turned
+his large, but not very brilliant, eyes on the Emperor.
+
+“What are you doing here?” asked Hadrian kindly.
+
+“Nothing,” said the boy.
+
+“No one can do nothing. Even if we fancy we have succeeded in doing
+nothing we still continue to think that we are unoccupied, and to think
+is a good deal.”
+
+“But I cannot even think.”
+
+“Every one can think; besides you were not doing nothing, for you were
+playing.”
+
+“Yes, with the dog.” With these words Antinous stretched out his legs
+on the ground, pushed away the dog, and raised his curly head on both
+hands.
+
+“Are you tired?” asked the Emperor.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“We both kept watch for an equal portion of the night, and I, who am so
+much older, feel quite wide awake.”
+
+“It was only yesterday that you were saying that old soldiers were the
+best for night-watches.”
+
+The Emperor nodded, and then said:
+
+“At your age while we are awake we live three times as fast as at mine,
+and so we need to sleep twice as long. You have every right to be tired.
+To be sure it was not till three hours after midnight that we climbed
+the mountain, and how often a supper party is not over before that.”
+
+“It was very cold and uncomfortable up there.”
+
+“Not till after the sun had risen.”
+
+“Ah! before that you did not notice it, for till then you were busy
+thinking of the stars.”
+
+“And you only of yourself--very true.”
+
+“I was thinking of your health too when that cold wind rose before
+Helios appeared.”
+
+“I was obliged to await his rising.”
+
+“And can you discern future events by the way and manner of the rising
+of the sun?”
+
+Hadrian looked in surprise at the speaker, shook his head in negation,
+looked up at the top of the tent, and after a long pause said, in abrupt
+sentences, with frequent interruptions:
+
+“Day is the present merely, and the future is evolved out of darkness;
+the corn grows from the clods of the field; the rain falls from the
+darkest clouds; a new generation is born of the mother’s womb; the limbs
+recover their vigor in sleep. And what is begotten of the darkness of
+death--who can tell?”
+
+When, after saying this, the Emperor had remained for some time silent,
+the youth asked him:
+
+“But if the sunrise teaches you nothing concerning the future why should
+you so often break your night’s rest and climb the mountain to see it?”
+
+“Why? Why?” repeated Hadrian, slowly and meditatively, stroking his
+grizzled beard; then he went on as if speaking to himself:
+
+“That is a question which reason fails to answer, before which my lips
+find no words; and, if I had them at my command, who among the rabble
+would understand me? Such questions can best be answered by means of
+parables. Those who take part in life are actors, and the world is their
+stage. He who wants to look tall on it wears the cothurnus, and is not a
+mountain the highest vantage ground that a man can find for the sole of
+his foot? Kasius there is but a hill, but I have stood on greater giants
+than he, and seen the clouds rise below me, like Jupiter on Olympus.”
+
+“But you need climb no mountains to feel yourself a god,” cried
+Antinous; “the godlike is your title--you command and the world must
+obey. With a mountain beneath his feet a man is nearer to heaven no
+doubt than he is on the plain.”
+
+“Well?”
+
+“I dare not say what came into my mind.”
+
+“Speak out.”
+
+“I knew a little girl who when I took her on my shoulder would stretch
+out her arms and exclaim, ‘I am so tall!’ She fancied that she was
+taller than I then, and yet was only little Panthea.”
+
+“But in her own conception of herself, it was she who was tall, and that
+decides the issue, for to each of us a thing is only that which it seems
+to us. It is true they call me godlike, but I feel every day, and a
+hundred times a day, the limitations of the power and nature of man, and
+I cannot get beyond them. On the top of a mountain I cease to feel them;
+there I feel as if I were great, for nothing is higher than my head, far
+or near. And when, as I stand there, the night vanishes before my eyes,
+when the splendor of the young sun brings the world into new life for
+me, by restoring to my consciousness all that just before had been
+engulfed in gloom, then a deeper breath swells my breast, and my lungs
+fill with the purer and lighter air of the heights. Up there, alone and
+in silence, no hint can reach me of the turmoil below, and I feel myself
+one with the great aspect of nature spread before me. The surges of the
+sea come and go, the tree-tops in the forest bow and rise, fog and
+mist roll away and part asunder hither and thither, and up there I feel
+myself so merged with the creation that surrounds me that often it
+even seems as though it were my own breath that gives it life. Like the
+storks and the swallows, I yearn for the distant land, and where should
+the human eye be more likely to be permitted, at least in fancy, to
+discern the remote goal than from the summit of a mountain?
+
+“The limitless distance which the spirit craves for seems there to
+assume a form tangible to the senses, and the eye detects its border
+line. My whole being feels not merely elevated, but expanded, and that
+vague longing which comes over me as soon as I mix once more in the
+turmoil of life, and when the cares of state demand my strength,
+vanishes. But you cannot understand it, boy. These are things which no
+other mortal can share with me.”
+
+“And it is only to me that you do not scorn to reveal them!” cried
+Antinous, who had turned round to face the Emperor, and who with wide
+eyes had not lost one word.
+
+“You?” said Hadrian, and a smile, not absolutely free from mockery,
+parted his lips. “From you I should no more have a secret than from the
+Cupid by Praxiteles, in my study at Rome.”
+
+The blood mounted to the lad’s cheeks and dyed them flaming crimson. The
+Emperor observed this and said kindly:
+
+“You are more to me than the statue, for the marble cannot blush. In the
+time of the Athenians Beauty governed life, but in you I can see that
+the gods are pleased to give it a bodily existence, even in our own
+days, and to look at you reconciles me to the discords of existence. It
+does me good. But how should I expect to find that you understand me;
+your brow was never made to be furrowed by thought; or did you really
+understand one word of all I said?”
+
+Antinous propped himself on his left arm, and lifting his right hand, he
+said emphatically:
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“And which,” asked Hadrian.
+
+“I know what longing is.”
+
+“For what?”
+
+“For many things.”
+
+“Tell me one.”
+
+“Some enjoyment that is not followed by depression. I do not know of
+one.”
+
+“That is a desire you share with all the youth of Rome, only they are
+apt to postpone the reaction. Well, and what next?”
+
+“I cannot tell you.”
+
+“What prevents your speaking openly to me?”
+
+“You, yourself did.” “I?”
+
+“Yes, you; for you forbid me to speak of my home, my mother, and my
+people.”
+
+The Emperor’s brow darkened, and he answered sternly:
+
+“I am your father and your whole soul should be given to me.”
+
+“It is all yours,” answered the youth, falling back on to the bear-skin,
+and drawing the pallima closely over his shoulders, for a gust blew
+coldly in at the side of the tent, through which Phlegon, the Emperor’s
+private secretary, now entered and approached his master. He was
+followed by a slave with several sealed rolls under his arms.
+
+“Will it be agreeable to you, Caesar, to consider the despatches
+and letters that have just arrived?” asked the official, whose
+carefully-arranged hair had been tossed by the sea-breeze.
+
+“Yes, and then we can make a note of what I was able to observe in the
+heavens last night. Have you the tablets ready?”
+
+“I left them in the tent set up especially for the work, Caesar.”
+
+“The storm has become very violent.”
+
+“It seems to blow from the north and east both at once, and the sea is
+very rough. The Empress will have a bad voyage.”
+
+“When did she set out?”
+
+“The anchor was weighed towards midnight. The vessel which is to fetch
+her to Alexandria is a fine ship, but rolls from side to side in a very
+unpleasant manner.”
+
+Hadrian laughed loudly and sharply at this, and said:
+
+“That will turn her heart and her stomach upside down. I wish I were
+there to see--but no, by all the gods, no! for she will certainly forget
+to paint this morning; and who will construct that edifice of hair if
+all her ladies share her fate. We will stay here to-day, for if I meet
+her soon after she has reached Alexandria she will be undiluted gall and
+vinegar.”
+
+With these words Hadrian rose from his couch, and waving his hand to
+Antinous, went out of the tent with his secretary.
+
+A third person standing at the back of the tent had heard the Emperor’s
+conversation with his favorite; this was Mastor, a Sarmatian of the race
+of the Taryges. He was a slave, and no more worthy of heed than the dog
+which had followed Hadrian, or than the pillows on which the Emperor had
+been reclining. The man, who was handsome and well grown, stood for
+some time twisting the ends of his long red moustache, and stroking his
+round, closely-cropped head with his bands; then he drew the open
+chiton together over his broad breast, which seemed to gleam from the
+remarkable whiteness of the skin. He never took his eyes off Antinous,
+who had turned over, and covering his face with his hands had buried
+them in the bear’s hairy mane.
+
+Mastor had something he wanted to say to him, but he dared not address
+him for the young favorite’s demeanor could not be reckoned on. Often
+he was ready to listen to him and talk with him as a friend, but often,
+too, he repulsed him more sharply than the haughtiest upstart would
+repel the meanest of his servants. At last the slave took courage and
+called the lad by his name, for it seemed less hard to submit to a
+scolding than to smother the utterance of a strong, warm feeling,
+unimportant as it might be, which was formed in words in his mind.
+Antinous raised his head a little on his hands and asked:
+
+“What is it?”
+
+“I only wanted to tell you,” replied the Sarmatian, “that I know who the
+little girl was that you so often took upon your shoulders. It was your
+little sister, was it not, of whom you were speaking to me lately?”
+
+The lad nodded assent, and then once more buried his head in his hands,
+and his shoulders heaved so violently that it would seem that he was
+weeping.--Mastor remained silent for a few minutes, then he went up to
+Antinous and said:
+
+“You know I have a son and a little daughter at home, and I am always
+glad to hear about little girls. We are alone and if it will relieve
+your heart.”
+
+“Let me alone, I have told you a dozen times already about my mother and
+little Parthea,” replied Antinous, trying to look composed.
+
+“Then do so confidently for the thirteenth,” said the slave. “In the
+camp and in the kitchen I can talk about my people as much as I like.
+But you--tell me, what do you call the little dog that Panthea made a
+scarlet cloak for?”
+
+“We called it Kallista,” cried Antinous wiping his eyes with the back
+of his hand. “My father would not allow it but we persuaded my mother.
+I was her favorite, and when I put my arms round her and looked at her
+imploringly she always said ‘yes’ to anything I asked her.”
+
+A bright light shone in the boy’s weary eyes; he had remembered a whole
+wealth of joys which left no depression behind them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+One of the palaces built in Alexandria by the Ptolemaic kings stood on
+the peninsula called Lochias which stretched out into the blue sea like
+a finger pointing northwards; it formed the eastern boundary of the
+great harbor. Here there was never any lack of vessels but to-day they
+were particularly numerous, and the quay-road paved with smooth blocks
+of stone, which led from the palatial quarter of the town--the Bruchiom
+as it was called--which was bathed by the sea, to the spit of land
+was so crowded with curious citizens on foot and in vehicles, that
+all conveyances were obliged to stop in their progress before they had
+reached the private harbor reserved for the Emperor’s vessels.
+
+But there was something out of the common to be seen at the
+landing-place, for there lying under the shelter of the high mole were
+the splendid triremes, galleys, long boats and barges which had brought
+Hadrian’s wife and the suite of the imperial couple to Alexandria. A
+very large vessel with a particularly high cabin on the after deck
+and having the head of a she-wolf on the lofty and boldly-carved prow
+excited the utmost attention. It was carved entirely in cedar wood,
+richly decorated with bronze and ivory, and named the Sabina. A young
+Alexandrian pointed to the name written in gold letters on the stern,
+nudging his companion and saying with a laugh:
+
+“Sabina has a wolf’s head then!”
+
+“A peacock’s would suit her better. Did you see her on her way to the
+Caesareum?” replied the other.
+
+“Alas! I did,” said the first speaker, but he said no more perceiving,
+close behind him, a Roman lictor who bore over his left shoulder his
+fasces, a bundle of elmrods skilfully tied together, and who, with
+a wand in his right-hand and the assistance of his comrades, was
+endeavoring to part the crowd and make room for the chariot of his
+master, Titianus, the imperial prefect, which came slowly in the rear.
+This high official had overheard the citizens’ heedless words, and
+turning to the man who stood beside him, while with a light fling he
+threw the end of his toga into fresh folds, he said:
+
+“An extraordinary people! I cannot feel annoyed with them, and yet I
+would rather walk from here to Canopus on the edge of a knife than on
+that of an Alexandrian’s tongue.”
+
+“Did you hear what the stout man was saying about Verus?”
+
+“The lictor wanted to take him up, but nothing is to be done with them
+by violence. If they had to pay only a sesterce for every venomous word,
+I tell you Pontius, the city would be impoverished and our treasury
+would soon be fuller than that of Gyges at Sardis.”
+
+“Let them keep their money,” cried the other, the chief architect of the
+city, a man of about thirty years of age with highly-arched brows and
+eager piercing eyes; and grasping the roll he held in his hand with a
+strong grip, he continued:
+
+“They know how to work, and sweat is bitter. While they are busy they
+help each other, in idleness they bite each other, like unbroken horses
+harnessed to the same pole. The wolf is a fine brute, but if you break
+out his teeth he becomes a mangy hound.”
+
+“You speak after my own heart,” cried the prefect. “But here we are,
+eternal gods! I never imagined anything so bad as this. From a distance
+it always looked handsome enough!”
+
+Titianus and the architect descended from the chariot, the former
+desired a lictor to call the steward of the palace, and then he and his
+companion inspected first the door which led into it. It looked fine
+enough with its double columns which supported a lofty pediment, but,
+all the same, it did not present a particularly pleasing aspect, for the
+stucco had, in several places, fallen from the walls, the capitals of
+the marble columns were lamentably injured and the tall doors, overlaid
+with metal, hung askew on their hinges. Pontius inspected every portion
+of the door-way with a keen eye and then, with the prefect, went into
+the first court of the palace, in which, in the time of the Ptolemies,
+the tents had stood for ambassadors, secretaries, and the officers in
+waiting on the king. There they met with an unexpected hindrance, for
+across the paved court-yard, where the grass grew in tufts, and tall
+thistles were in bloom, a number of ropes were stretched aslant from
+the little house in which dwelt the gate-keeper; and on these ropes were
+hung newly-washed garments of every size and shape.
+
+“A pretty residence for an Emperor,” sighed Titianus, shrugging his
+shoulders, but stopping the lictor, who had raised his fasces to cut the
+ropes.
+
+“It is not so bad as it looks,” said the architect positively.
+“Gate-keeper! hi, gate-keeper! Where is the lazy fellow hiding himself?”
+
+While he called out and the lictor hurried forward into the interior
+of the palace, Pontius went towards the gate-keeper’s lodge, and having
+made his way in a stooping attitude through the damp clothes, there
+he stood still. Ever since he had come in at the gate annoyance and
+vexation had been stamped on his countenance, but now his large mouth
+spread into a smile, and he called to the prefect in an undertone:
+
+“Titianus, just take the trouble to come here.”
+
+The elderly dignitary, whose tall figure exceeded that of the architect
+in height by a full head, did not find it quite so easy to pass under
+the ropes with his head bent down; but he did it with good humor, and
+while carefully avoiding pulling down the wet linen, he called out:
+
+“I am beginning to feel some respect for children’s shirts; one can
+at any rate get through them without breaking one’s spine. Oh! this is
+delicious--quite delicious!”
+
+This exclamation was caused by the sight which the architect had invited
+the prefect to come and enjoy, and which was certainly droll enough.
+The front of the gate-keeper’s house was quite grown over with ivy which
+framed the door and window in its long runners. Amidst the greenery hung
+numbers of cages with starlings, blackbirds, and smaller singing-birds.
+The wide door of the little house stood open, giving a view into a
+tolerably spacious and gaily-painted room. In the background stood a
+clay model of an Apollo of admirable workmanship; above, and near this,
+the wall was hung with lutes and lyres of various size and form.
+
+In the middle of the room, and near the open door, was a table, on which
+stood a large wicker cage containing several nests of young goldfinches,
+and with green food twined among the osiers. There were, too, a large
+wine-jar and an ivory goblet decorated with fine carving. Close to the
+drinking-vessels, on the stone top of the table, rested the arm of an
+elderly woman who had fallen asleep in the arm-chair in which she sat.
+Notwithstanding the faint grey moustache that marked her upper-lip
+and the pronounced ruddiness of her fore head and cheeks, she looked
+pleasant and kind. She must have been dreaming of something that pleased
+her, for the expression of her lips and of her eyes-one being half open
+and the other closely shut-gave her a look of contentment. In her lap
+slept a large grey cat, and by its side--as though discord never could
+enter this bright little abode which exhaled no savor of poverty, but,
+on the contrary, a peculiar and fragrant scent--lay a small shaggy dog,
+whose snowy whiteness of coat could only be due to the most constant
+care. Two other dogs, like this one, lay stretched on the floor at the
+old lady’s feet, and seemed no less soundly asleep.
+
+As the prefect came up, the architect pointed to this study of
+still-life, and said in a whisper:
+
+“If we had a painter here it would make a lovely little picture.”
+
+“Incomparable,” answered Titianus, “only the vivid scarlet on the dame’s
+cheeks seems to me suspicious, considering the ample proportions of the
+wine-jar at her elbow.”
+
+“But did you ever see a calmer, kindlier, or more contented
+countenance?”
+
+“Baucis must have slept like that when Philemon allowed himself leave of
+absence for once! or did that devoted spouse always remain at home?”
+
+“Apparently he did. Now, peace is at an end.” The approach of the
+two friends had waked one of the little dogs. He gave tongue, and his
+companion immediately jumped up and barked as if for a wager. The old
+woman’s pet sprang out of her lap, but neither his mistress nor the cat
+let themselves be disturbed by the noise, and slept on.
+
+“A watcher among a thousand!” said the architect, laughing.
+
+“And this phalanx of dogs which guard the palace of a Caesar,” added
+Titianus, “might be vanquished with a blow. Take heed, the worthy matron
+is about to wake.”
+
+The dame had in fact been disturbed by the barking. She sat up a little,
+lifted her hands, and then, half singing, half muttering a few words,
+she sank back again in her chair.
+
+“This is delicious!” cried the prefect.
+
+“Begone dull care” she sang in her sleep.
+
+“How may this rare specimen of humanity look when she is awake?”
+
+“I should be sorry to drive the old lady out of her nest!” said the
+architect unrolling his scroll.
+
+“You shall touch nothing in the little house,” cried the prefect
+eagerly. “I know Hadrian; he delights in such queer things and queer
+people, and I will wager he will make friends with the old woman in his
+own way. Here at last comes the steward of this palace.”
+
+The prefect was not mistaken; the hasty step he had heard was that of
+the official they awaited. At some little distance they could already
+hear the man, panting as he hurried up, and as he came, before Titianus
+could prevent him, he had snatched down the cords that were stretched
+across the court and flung all the washing on the ground. As soon as
+the curtain had thus dropped which had divided him from the Emperor’s
+representative and his companion, he bowed to the former as low as the
+rotund dimensions of his person would allow; but his hasty arrival, the
+effort of strength he had made, and his astonishment at the appearance
+of the most powerful personage in the Nile Province in the building
+entrusted to his care, so utterly took away his breath--of which he
+at all times was but “scant”--that he was unable even to stammer out
+a suitable greeting. Titianus gave him a little time, and then, after
+expressing his regret at the sad plight of the washing, now strewn upon
+the ground, and mentioning to the steward the name and position of his
+friend Pontius, he briefly explained to him that the Emperor wished
+to take up his abode in the palace now in his charge; that
+he--Titianus--was cognizant of the bad condition in which it then was,
+and had come to take council with him and the architect as to what could
+be done in the course of a few days to make the dilapidated residence
+habitable for Hadrian, and to repair, at any rate, the more conspicuous
+damage. He then desired the steward to lead him through the rooms.
+
+“Directly--at once,” answered the Greek, who had attained his present
+ponderous dimensions through many years of rest: “I will hasten to fetch
+the keys.” And as he went, puffing and panting, he re-arranged with
+his short, fat fingers the still abundant hair on the right side of his
+head. Pontius looked after him.
+
+“Call him back, Titianus,” said he. “We disturbed him in the midst of
+curling his hair; only one side was done when the lictor called him
+away, and I will wager my own head that he will have the other side
+frizzled before he comes back. I know your true Greek!”
+
+“Well, let him,” answered Titianus. “If you have taken his measure
+rightly he will not be able to give his attention without reserve to our
+questions till the other half of his hair is curled. I know, too, how to
+deal with a Hellene.”
+
+“Better than I, I perceive,” said the architect in a tone of conviction.
+“A statesman is used to deal with men as we do with lifeless materials.
+Did you see the fat fellow turn pale when you said that it would be but
+a few days before the Emperor would make his entry here? Things must
+look well in the old house there. Every hour is precious, and we have
+lingered here too long.”
+
+The prefect nodded agreement and followed the architect into the inner
+court of the palace. How grand and well-proportioned was the plan of
+this immense building through which the steward Keraunus, who returned
+with his fine curls complete all round, now led the Romans. It stood on
+an artificial hill in the midst of the peninsula of Lochias, and from
+many a window and many a balcony there were lovely prospects of the
+streets and open squares, the houses, palaces and public buildings of
+the metropolis, and of the harbor, swarming with ships. The outlook from
+Lochias was rich, gay and varied to the south and west, but east and
+north from the platform of the palace of the Ptolemies, the gaze fell
+on the never-wearying prospect of the eternal sea, limited only by the
+vault of heaven. When Hadrian had sent a special messenger from Mount
+Kasius to desire his prefect Titianus to have this particular building
+prepared for his reception, he knew full well what advantages its
+position offered; it was the part of his officials to restore order in
+the interior of the palace, which had remained uninhabited from the time
+of Cleopatra’s downfall. He gave them for the purpose eight, or perhaps
+nine, days--little more than a week. And in what a condition did
+Titianus and Pontius find this now dilapidated and plundered scene of
+former magnificence--the sweat pouring from their foreheads with their
+exertions as they inspected and sketched, questioned and made notes of
+it all.
+
+The pillars and steps in the interior were tolerably well preserved,
+but the rain had poured in through the open roofs of the banqueting and
+reception-lulls, the fine mosaic pavements had started here and there,
+and in other places a perfect little meadow had grown in the midst of a
+hall, or an arcade; for Octavianus Augustus, Tiberius, Vespasian, Titus
+and a whole series of prefects, had already carefully removed the finest
+of the mosaics from the famous palace of the Ptolemies, and carried them
+to Rome or to the provinces, to decorate their town houses or country
+villas. In the same way the best of the statues were gone, with which
+a few centuries previously the art-loving Lagides had decorated
+this residence--besides which they had another, still larger, on the
+Bruchiom.
+
+In the midst of a vast marbled hall stood an elegantly-wrought fountain,
+connected with the fine aqueduct of the city. A draught of air rushed
+through this hall, and in stormy weather switched the water all over the
+floor, now robbed of its mosaics, and covered, wherever the foot could
+tread, with a thin, dark green, damp and slippery coating of mossy
+plants and slime. It was here that Keraunus leaned breathless against
+the wall, and, wiping his brow, panted rather than said: “At last, this
+is the end!”
+
+The words sounded as if he meant his own end and not that of their
+excursion through the palace, and it seemed like a mockery of the man
+himself when Pontius unhesitatingly replied with decision:
+
+“Good, then we can begin our re-examination here, at once.”
+
+Keraunus did not contradict him, but, as he remembered the number of
+stairs to be climbed over again, he looked as if sentence of death had
+been passed upon him.
+
+“Is it necessary that I should remain with you during the rest of
+your labors, which must be principally directed to details?” asked the
+prefect of the architect.
+
+“No,” answered Pontius, “provided you will take the trouble to look
+at once at my plan, so as to inform yourself on the whole of what I
+propose, and to give me full powers to dispose of men and means in each
+case as it arises.”
+
+“That is granted,” said Titianus. “I know that Pontius will not demand a
+man or a sesterce more or less than is needed for the purpose.”
+
+The architect bowed in silence and Titianus went on.
+
+“But above all things, do you think you can accomplish your task in
+eight days and nine nights?”
+
+“Possibly, at a pinch; and if I could only have four days more at my
+disposal, most probably.”
+
+“Then all that is needed is to delay Hadrian’s arrival by four days and
+nights.”
+
+“Send some interesting people--say the astronomer Ptolemaeus, and
+Favorinus, the sophist, who await him here--to meet him at Pelusium.
+They will find some way of detaining him there.”
+
+“Not a bad idea! We will see. But who can reckon on the Empress’s moods?
+At any rate, consider that you have only eight days to dispose of.”
+
+“Good.”
+
+“Where do you hope to be able to lodge Hadrian?”
+
+“Well, a very small portion of the old building is, strictly speaking,
+fit to use.”
+
+“Of that, I regret to say, I have fully convinced myself,” said the
+prefect emphatically, and turning to the steward, he went on in a tone
+less of stern reproof than of regret.
+
+“It seems to me, Keraunus, that it would have been your duty to inform
+me earlier of the ruinous condition of the building.”
+
+“I have already lodged a complaint,” replied the man, “but I was told in
+answer to my report that there were no means to apply to the purpose.”
+
+“I know nothing of these things,” cried Titianus.
+
+“When did you forward your petition to the prefect’s office?”
+
+“Under your predecessor, Haterius Nepos.”
+
+“Indeed,” said the prefect with a drawl.
+
+“So long ago. Then, in your place, I should have repeated my application
+every year, without any reference to the appointment of a new prefect.
+However, we have now no time for talking. During the Emperor’s residence
+here, I shall very likely send one of my subordinates to assist you!”
+
+Titianus turned his back on the steward, and asked the architect:
+
+“Well, my good Pontius, what part of the palace have you your eye upon?”
+
+“The inner halls and rooms are in the best repair.”
+
+“But they are the last that can be thought of,” cried Titianus. “The
+Emperor is satisfied with everything in camp, but where fresh air and a
+distant prospect are to be had, he must have them.”
+
+“Then let us choose the western suite; hold the plan my worthy friend.”
+
+The steward slid as he was desired, the architect took his pencil and
+made a vigorous line in the air above the left side of the sketch,
+saying:
+
+“This is the west front of the palace which you see from the harbor.
+From the south you first come into the lofty peristyle, which may be
+used as an antechamber; it is surrounded with rooms for the slaves
+and body-guard. The next smaller sitting-rooms by the side of the main
+corridor we may assign to the officers and scribes, in this spacious
+hypaethral hall--the one with the Muses--Hadrian may give audience and
+the guests may assemble there whom he may admit to eat at his table in
+this broad peristyle. The smaller and well-preserved rooms, along this
+long passage leading to the steward’s house, will do for the pages,
+secretaries and other attendants on Caesar’s person, and this long
+saloon, lined with fine porphyry and green marble, and adorned with the
+beautiful frieze in bronze will, I fancy, please Hadrian as a study and
+private sitting-room.”
+
+“Admirable!” cried Titianus, “I should like to show your plan to the
+Empress.”
+
+“In that case, instead of eight days I must have as many weeks,” said
+Pontius coolly.
+
+“That is true,” answered the prefect laughing. “But tell me, Keraunus,
+how comes it that the doors are wanting to all the best rooms?”
+
+“They were of fine thyra wood, and they were wanted in Rome.”
+
+“I must have seen one or another of them there,” muttered the prefect.
+
+“Your cabinet-workers will have a busy time, Pontius.”
+
+“Nay, the hanging-makers may be glad; wherever we can we will close the
+door-ways with heavy curtains.”
+
+“And what will you do with this damp abode of fogs, which, if I mistake
+not, must adjoin the dining-hall?”
+
+“We will turn it into a garden filled with ornamental foliage.”
+
+“That is quite admissable--and the broken statues?”
+
+“We will get rid of the worst.”
+
+“The Apollo and the nine Muses stand in the room you intend for an
+audience-hall--do they not?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“They are in fairly good condition, I think.”
+
+“Urania is wanting entirely,” said the steward, who was still holding
+the plan out in front of him.
+
+“And what became of her?” asked Titianus, not without excitement.
+
+“Your predecessor, the prefect Haterius Nepos, took a particular fancy
+to it and carried it with him to Rome.”
+
+“Why Urania of all others?” cried Titianus angrily. “She, above all,
+ought not to be missing from the hall of audience of Caesar the pontiff
+of heaven! What is to be done?”
+
+“It will be difficult to find an Urania ready-made as tall as her
+sisters, and we have no time to search one out, a new one must be made.”
+
+“In eight days?”
+
+“And eight nights.”
+
+“But my good friend, only to get the marble--”
+
+“Who thinks of marble? Papias will make us one of straw, rags and
+gypsum--I know his magic hand--and in order that the others may not be
+too unlike their new-born sister they shall be whitewashed.”
+
+“Capital--but why choose Papias when we have Harmodius?”
+
+“Harmodius takes art in earnest, and we should have the Emperor
+here before he had completed his sketches. Papias works with thirty
+assistants at anything that is ordered of him, so long as it brings him
+money. His last things certainly amaze me, particularly the Hygyeia for
+Dositheus the Jew, and the bust of Plutarch put up in the Caesareum;
+they are full of grace and power. But who can distinguish what is his
+work and what that of his scholars? Enough, he knows how things should
+be done; and if a good sum is to be got by it he will hew you out a
+whole sea-fight in marble in five days.”
+
+“Then give Papias the commission but the hapless mutilated
+pavements-what will you do with them?”
+
+“Gypsum and paint must mend them,” said Pontius, “and where that
+will not do, we must lay carpets on the floor in the Eastern fashion.
+Merciful night! how dark it is growing; give me the plan Keraunus and
+provide us with torches and lamps for to-day, and the next following
+ones must have twenty-four hours apiece, full measure. I must ask you
+for half a dozen trustworthy slaves Titianus; I shall want them for
+messengers. What are you standing there for man? Lights, I said. You
+have had half a lifetime to rest in, and when Caesar is gone you will
+have as many more years for the same laudable purpose--”
+
+As he spoke the steward had silently gone off, but the architect did not
+spare him the end of the sentence; he shouted after him:
+
+“Unless by that time you are smothered in your own fat. Is it Nile-mud
+or blood that runs in that huge mortal’s veins?”
+
+“I am sure I do not care,” said the prefect, “so long as the glorious
+fire that flows in yours only holds out till the work is done. Do not
+allow yourself to be overworked at first, nor require the impossible of
+your strength, for Rome and the world still expect great things of you.
+I can now write in perfect security to the Emperor that all will be
+ready for him in Lochias, and as a farewell speech, I can only say, it
+is folly to be discouraged if only Pontius is at hand to support and
+assist me.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The prefect ordered the lictors, who were awaiting him with his chariot,
+to hasten to his house, and to conduct to Pontius several most worthy
+slaves, familiar with Alexandria--some of whom he named--and at the same
+time to send the architect a good couch with pillows and coverlets, and
+to despatch a good meal and fine wine to the old palace at Lochias. Then
+he mounted his chariot and drove through the Bruchiom along the shore to
+the great edifice known as the Caesareum. He got on but slowly, for
+the nearer he approached his destination the denser was the crowd
+of inquisitive citizens, who stood closely packed round the vast
+circumference of the building. Quite from a distance the prefect could
+see a bright light; it rose to heaven from the large pans of pitch which
+were placed on the towers on each side of the tall gate of the Caesareum
+which faced the sea. To the right and left of this gate stood a tall
+obelisk, and on each of these, men were lighting lamps which had been
+attached to the sides and placed on the top, on the previous day.
+
+“In honor of Sabina,” said the prefect to himself. “All that this
+Pontius does is thoroughly done, and there is no more complete sinecure
+than the supervision of his arrangements.”
+
+Fully persuaded of this he did not think it necessary to go up to the
+illuminated door-way which led into the temple erected by Octavian in
+honor of Julius Caesar; on the contrary, he directed the charioteer to
+stop at a door built in the Egyptian style, which faced the garden of
+the palace of the Ptolemies, and which led to the imperial residence
+that had been built by the Alexandrians for Tiberius, and had been
+greatly extended and beautified under the later Caesars. A sacred grove
+divided it from the temple of Caesar, with which it communicated by
+a covered colonnade. Before this door there were several chariots and
+horses, and a whole host of slaves, black and white, were in attendance
+with their masters’ litters. Here lictors kept back the sight-seeking
+crowd, officers were lounging against the pillars, and the Roman guard
+were just assembling with a clatter of arms, to the sound of a trumpet
+within the door, to await their dismissal.
+
+Everything gave way respectfully before the chariot of the prefect, and
+as Titianus walked through the illuminated arcades of the Caesareum,
+passing by the masterpieces of statuary placed there, and the rows of
+pictures--and reached the halls in which the library of the palace was
+kept, he could not help thinking of all the care and trouble which with
+the assistance of Pontius, he had for months devoted to rendering this
+palace which had not been used since Titus had set out for Judaea, fit
+quarters for Hadrian’s reception. The Empress now lived in the rooms
+intended for her husband, and decorated with the choicest works of art,
+and Titianus reflected with regret that, after Sabina had once become
+aware of their presence there, it would be quite impossible to transfer
+them to Lochias. At the door of the splendid room which he had intended
+for Hadrian he was met by Sabina’s chamberlain who undertook to conduct
+him at once into the presence of his mistress.
+
+The roof of the hall in which the prefect found the Empress, in summer
+was open to the sky; but at this season was suitably covered in by a
+movable copper roof, partly to keep off the rain of the Alexandrian
+winter, and partly too because, even in the warmer season Sabina was
+wont to complain of cold; but beneath it a wide opening allowed the
+air free entrance and exit. As Titianus entered the room a comfortable
+warmth and subtle perfume met his senses; the warmth was produced by
+stoves of a peculiar form standing in the middle of the room; one of
+these represented Vulcan’s forge. Brightly glowing charcoal lay in
+front of the bellows which were worked by an automaton, at short regular
+intervals, while the god and his assistants modelled in brass, stood
+round the genial fire with tongs and hammers. The other stove was a
+large silver bird’s-nest, in which likewise charcoal was burning. Above
+the glowing fuel a phoenix, also in brass, and in the likeness of an
+eagle, seemed striving to soar heavenwards. Besides these a number of
+lamps lighted the saloon, which in truth looked too large for the
+number of people assembled in it, and which was lavishly furnished
+with gracefully-formed seats, couches, and tables, vases of flowers and
+statues.
+
+The prefect and Pontius had intended a quite different room to serve for
+smaller assemblies, and had fitted it up suitably for the purpose,
+but the Empress had preferred the great hall to the smaller room. The
+venerable and nobly-born statesman was filled with vexation, nay, with
+an embarrassment that made him feel estranged, when he had to glance
+round the room to find the persons in it, collected, as they were,
+into small knots. He could hear nothing but hushed voices; here an
+unintelligible murmur and there a suppressed laugh, but from no one a
+frank speech or full utterance. For a moment he felt as if he had found
+admittance to the abode of whispering calumny, and yet he knew why
+here no one dared to speak out or above a murmur. Loud voices hurt
+the Empress, and a clear voice was a misery to her, and yet few men
+possessed so loud and penetrating a chest voice as her husband, who was
+not wont to lay restraint upon himself for any human being, not even for
+his wife.
+
+Sabina sat on a large divan, more like a couch than a chair; her feet
+were buried in the shaggy fell of a buffalo, and her knees and ankles
+wrapped round with down-cushions covered with silk. Her head she held
+very upright, and it was difficult to imagine how her slender throat
+could support it, loaded as it was with strings of pearls and precious
+stones which were braided in the tall structure of her reddish-gold
+hair, that was arranged in long cylindrical curls pinned closely side by
+side. The Empress’s thin face looked particularly small under the
+mass of natural and artificial adornment which towered above her brow.
+Beautiful she could never have been, even in her youth, but her features
+were regular, and the prefect confessed to himself as he looked at
+Sabina’s face, marked as it was with minute wrinkles and touched up with
+red and white, that the sculptor who a few years previously had been
+commissioned to represent her as ‘Venus Victrix’ might very well have
+given the goddess a certain amount of resemblance to the imperial model.
+If only her eyes, which were absolutely bereft of lashes, had not
+been quite so small and keen--in spite of the dark lines painted round
+them--and if only the sinews in her throat had not stood out quite so
+conspicuously from the flesh which formerly had covered them!
+
+With a deep bow Titianus took the Empress’s right hand, covered with
+rings; but she withdrew it quickly from that of her husband’s friend and
+relative, as if she feared that the carefully-cherished limb--useless as
+it was for any practical purpose, a mere toy among hands--might suffer
+some injury, and wrapped it and her arm in her upper-robe. But she
+returned the prefect’s friendly greeting with all the warmth at her
+command. Though formerly at Rome she had been accustomed to see Titianus
+every day at her house, this was their first meeting in Alexandria; for
+the previous day, exhausted by the sufferings of her sea-voyage, she had
+been carried in a closed litter to the Caesareum, and this morning she
+had declined to receive his visit, as her whole time was given up to her
+physicians, bathing-women, and coiffeurs.
+
+“How can you survive in this country?” she said in a low but harsh
+voice, which always made the hearer feel that it was that of a dull,
+fractious, childless woman. “At noon the sun burns you up, and in the
+evening it is so cold--so intolerably cold!’ As she spoke she drew
+her robe closer round her, but Titianus, pointing to the stoves in the
+middle of the hall, said:
+
+“I hoped we had succeeded in cutting the bowstrings of the Egyptian
+winter, and it is but a feeble weapon.”
+
+“Still young, still imaginative, still a poet!” said the Empress
+wearily. “I saw your wife a couple of hours since. Africa seems to
+suit her less well; I was shocked to see Julia, the handsome matron, so
+altered. She does not look well.”
+
+“Years are the foe of beauty.”
+
+“Frequently they are, but true beauty often resists their attacks.”
+
+“You are yourself the living proof of your assertion.”
+
+“That is as much as to say that I am growing old.”
+
+“Nay--only that you know the secret of remaining beautiful.”
+
+“You are a poet!” murmured the Empress with a twitch of her thin
+under-lip.
+
+“Affairs of state do not favor the Muses.”
+
+“But I call any man a poet who sees things more beautiful than they are,
+or who gives them finer names than they deserve--a poet, a dreamer, a
+flatterer--for it comes to that.”
+
+“Ah! modesty can always find words to repel even well-merited
+admiration.”
+
+“Why this foolish bandying of words?” sighed Sabina, flinging herself
+back in her chair. “You have been to school under the hair-splitting
+logicians in the Museum here, and I have not. Over there sits Favorinus,
+the sophist; I dare say he is proving to Ptolemaeus that the stars are
+mere specks of blood in our eyes, which we choose to believe are in the
+sky. Florus, the historian, is taking note of this weighty discussion;
+Pancrates, the poet, is celebrating the great thoughts of the
+philosopher. As to what part the philologist there can find to take in
+this important event you know better than I. What is the man’s name?”
+
+“Apollonius.”
+
+“Hadrian has nick-named him ‘the obscure.’ The more difficult it is to
+understand the discourses of these gentlemen the more highly are they
+esteemed.”
+
+“One must dive to obtain what lies at the bottom of the water--all that
+floats on the surface is borne by the waves, a plaything for children.
+Apollonius is a very learned man.”
+
+“Then my husband ought to leave him among his disciples and his books.
+It was his wish that I should invite these people to my table. Florus
+and Pancrates I like--not the others.”
+
+“I can easily relieve you of the company of Favorinus and Ptolemaeus;
+send them to meet the Emperor.”
+
+“To what end?”
+
+“To entertain him.”
+
+“He has his plaything with him,” said Sabina, and her thin lips curled
+with an expression of bitter contempt.
+
+“His artistic eye delights in the beauty of Antinous, which is
+celebrated, but which it has not yet been my privilege to see.”
+
+“And you are very anxious to see this marvel?”
+
+“I cannot deny it.”
+
+“And yet you want to postpone your meeting with Caesar?” said Sabina,
+and a keen glance of inquiry and distrust twinkled in her little eyes.
+
+“Why do you want to delay my husband’s arrival?”
+
+“Need I tell you,” said Titianus eagerly, “how greatly I shall rejoice
+to see once more my sovereign, the companion of my youth, the greatest
+and wisest of men, after a separation of four years? What would I not
+give if he were here already! And yet I would rather that he should
+arrive in fourteen days than in eight.”
+
+“What reason can you have?”
+
+“A mounted messenger brought me a letter to-day in which the Emperor
+tells me that he proposes to inhabit the old palace at Lochias, and not
+the Caesareum.”
+
+At these words Sabina’s forehead clouded, her gaze, dark and blank, was
+fixed on her lap, and biting her under-lip, she muttered:
+
+“Because I am here.”
+
+Titianus made as though he had not heard these words, and continued in
+an easy tone:
+
+“There he has a wide outlook into the distance, which is what he has
+loved from his youth up. But the old building is much dilapidated, and
+though I have already begun to exert all the forces at my command, with
+the assistance of our admirable architect, Pontius, to restore a portion
+of it at any rate, and make it a habitable and not too uncomfortable
+residence, the time is too short to do anything thoroughly worthy--”
+
+“I wish to see my husband here, and the sooner the better,” interrupted
+the Empress with decision. Then she turned towards the row of pillars
+which stood by the right-hand wall of the hall, and which were at some
+distance from her couch, calling out “Verus.” But her voice was so weak
+that it did not reach the person addressed, so turning to the prefect,
+she said: “I beg of you to call Verus to me, the praetor Lucius Aurelius
+Verus.” Titianus immediately obeyed.
+
+As he entered the hall he had already exchanged friendly greetings with
+the man to whom the Empress wished to speak. He now did not succeed in
+attracting his attention till he stood close at his elbow, for he formed
+the centre of a small group of men and women who were hanging on
+his words. What he was saying in a subdued voice must have been
+extraordinarily diverting, for it could be seen that his hearers were
+making the greatest efforts to keep their suppressed laughter from
+breaking out into a shout that would shake the very hall, a noise the
+Empress detested. When the prefect came up to Verus, a young girl, whose
+pretty head was crowned by a perfect thicket of little ringlets, was
+just laying her hand on his arm and saying:
+
+“Nay-that is too much; if you go on like this, for the future whenever
+you speak I shall stop my ears with my hands, as sure as my name is
+Balbilla.”
+
+“And as sure as you are descended from King Antiochus,” added Verus
+bowing.
+
+“Always the same,” laughed the prefect, nodding to the audacious jester.
+
+“Sabina wants to speak to you.”
+
+“Directly, directly,” said Verus. “My story is a true one, and you all
+ought to be grateful to me for having released you from that tedious
+philologer who has now button-holed my witty friend Favorinus. I like
+your Alexandria, Titianus; still it is not a great capital like
+Rome. The people have not yet learned not to be astonished; they are
+perpetually in amazement. When I go out driving--”
+
+“Your runners ought to fly before you with roses in their hair and wings
+on their shoulders like Cupids.”
+
+“In honor of the Alexandrian ladies?”
+
+“As if the Roman ladies in Rome, and the fair Greeks at Athens,”
+ interrupted Balbilla.
+
+“The praetor’s runners go faster than Parthian horses,” cried the
+Empress’s chamberlain. “He has named them after the winds.”
+
+“As they deserve,” added Verus “Come, Titianus.” He laid his hand in a
+confidential manner on the arm of the prefect, to whom he was related;
+and as they went towards Sabina he whispered in his ear:
+
+“I can keep her waiting as if I were the Emperor.”
+
+Favorinus who had been engaged in talk with Ptolemaeus, the astronomer,
+Apollonius, and the philosopher and poet Pancrates in another part of
+the hall, looked after the two men and said:
+
+“A handsome couple. One the personification of imperial and dignified
+Rome; the other with his Hermes-like figure.”
+
+“The other”--interrupted the philologist with stern displeasure, “the
+other is the very incarnation of the haughtiness, the luxury pushed to
+insanity, and the infamous depravity of the metropolis. That dissipated
+ladies-man.”
+
+“I will not defend his character,” said Favorinus in his pleasant voice,
+and with an elegance in his pronunciation of Greek which delighted even
+the grammarian. “His ways and doings are disgraceful; still you must
+allow that his manners are tinged with the charm of Hellenic beauty,
+that the Charites kissed him at his birth, and though, by the stern laws
+of virtue we must condemn him, he deserves to be crowned with praise and
+garlands from the point of view of the feeling for beauty.”
+
+“Oh! for the artist who wants a model he is a choice morsel.”
+
+“The Athenian judges acquitted Phryne because she was beautiful.”
+
+“They did wrong.”
+
+“Hardly in the eyes of the gods, whose fairest works must deserve our
+respect.”
+
+“Still poison may be kept in the most beautiful vessels.”
+
+“And yet body and soul always to a certain extent correspond.”
+
+“And can you dare to call the handsome Verus the admirable Verus?”
+
+“No, but the reckless Lucius Aurelius Verus is at the same time the
+gayest and pleasantest of all the Romans, free alike from spite or
+carefulness, he troubles himself with no doctrines of virtue, and as
+when a thing pleases him, he desires to possess it, he endeavors to give
+pleasure to every one else.”
+
+“He has wasted his pains so far as I am concerned.”
+
+“I do as he wishes.”
+
+The last words both of the philologer and the sophist were spoken
+somewhat louder than was usual in the presence of the Empress. Sabina,
+who had just told the praetor which residence her husband had decided
+on inhabiting, drew up her shoulders and pinched her lips as if in pain,
+while Verus turned a face of indignation--a face which was manly in
+spite of all the delicacy and regularity of the features--on the
+two speakers, and his fine bright eyes caught the hostile glance of
+Apollonius.
+
+An intimation of aversion to his person was one of the things which
+to him were past endurance; he hastily passed his hand through his
+blue-black hair, which was only slightly grizzled at the temples and
+flowed uncurled, but in soft waving locks round his head, and said,
+not heeding Sabina’s question as to his opinion of her husband’s latest
+instructions:
+
+“He is a repulsive fellow, that wrangling logician; he has an evil eye
+that threatens mischief to us all, and his trumpet voice cannot hurt you
+more than it does me. Must we endure him at table with us every day?”
+
+“So Hadrian desires.”
+
+“Then I shall start for Rome,” said Verus decidedly. “My wife wants to
+be back with her children, and as praetor, it is more fitting that I
+should stay by the Tiber than by the Nile.”
+
+The words were spoken as lightly as though they were nothing more than
+a proposition to go to supper, but they seemed to agitate the Empress
+deeply, for her head, which had seemed almost a fixture during her
+conversation with Titianus, now shook so violently that the pearls and
+jewels rattled in the erection of curls. There she sat for some seconds
+staring into her lap.
+
+Verus stooped to pick up a gem that had fallen from her hair, and as he
+did so she said hastily:
+
+“You are right. Apollonius is intolerable. Let us send him to meet my
+husband.”
+
+“Then I will remain,” answered Verus, as pleased as a wilful boy who has
+got his own way.
+
+“Fickle as the wind,” murmured Sabina, threatening him with her finger.
+“Show me the stone--it is one of the largest and finest; you may keep
+it.”
+
+When an hour later, Verus quitted the hall with the prefect, Titianus
+said:
+
+“You have done me a service cousin, without knowing it. Now can you
+contrive that Ptolemaeus and Favorinus shall go with Apollonius to meet
+the Emperor at Pelusium?”
+
+“Nothing easier” was the answer.
+
+And the same evening the prefect’s steward conveyed to Pontius the
+information that he might count on having probably fourteen days for his
+work, instead of eight or nine only.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+In the Caesareum, where the Empress dwelt, the lights were extinguished
+one after another; but in the palace of Lochias they grew more numerous
+and brighter. In festal illuminations of the harbor pitch cressets on
+the roof, and long rows of lamps that accumulated architectonic features
+of the noble structure, were always kindled; but inside it, no blaze
+so brilliant had ever lighted it within the memory of man. The harbor
+watchmen at first gazed anxiously up at Lochias, for they feared that
+a fire must have broken out in the old palace; they were soon reassured
+however, by one of the prefect’s lictors, who brought them a command to
+keep open the harbor gates that night, and every night till the Emperor
+should have arrived, to all who might wish to proceed from Lochias to
+the city, or from the city to the peninsula, under the orders of Pontius
+the architect. And till long past midnight not a quarter of an hour
+passed in which the people whom the architect had summoned to his aid
+were not knocking at the harbor gates, which, though not locked were all
+guarded. The little house belonging to the gate-keeper was also brightly
+lighted up; the birds and cats belonging to the old woman whom the
+prefect and his companions had found slumbering by her wine-jar, were
+now fast asleep, but the little dogs still flew loudly yelping into the
+yard each time a new-comer entered by the open gate.
+
+“Come, Aglaia, what will folks think of you? Thalia, my beauty, behave
+like a good dog; come here, Euphrosyne, and don’t be so silly!” cried
+the old lady in a voice which was both pleasant and peremptory, as
+she stood-wide awake now-behind her table, folding together the dried
+clothes. The little barking beasts who were thus endowed with the
+names of the three Graces did not trouble themselves much about her
+affectionate admonitions; to their sorrow, for it happened more
+than once to each of them, when they had got under the feet of some
+new-comer, to creep, whining and howling, into the house again to seek
+consolation from their mistress, who would pick up the sufferer and
+soothe it with kisses and coaxing.
+
+The old lady was no longer alone, for in the background, on a long and
+narrow couch which stood in front of the statue of Apollo, lay a tall,
+lean man, wearing a red chiton. A little lamp hanging from the ceiling
+threw a dull light on him and on the lute he was playing. To the faint
+sound of the instrument, which was rather a large one, and which he had
+propped on the pillow by his side, he was singing, or rather murmuring
+a long ditty. Twice, thrice, four times he repeated it in the same way.
+Now and again he suddenly let his voice sound more loudly--and though
+his hair was quite grey his voice was not unpleasing--and sang a few
+phrases full of expression and with artistic delivery; and then, when
+the dogs barked too vehemently, he would spring up, and with his lute in
+his left-hand and a long pliable rattan in his right, he would rush into
+the court-yard, shout the names of the dogs, and raise his cane as if he
+would kill them; but he always took care not to hit them, only to beat
+on the pavement near them. When, returning from such an excursion, he
+stretched himself again on his couch, the old woman, pointing to the
+hanging-lamp which the impatient creature often knocked with his head,
+would call out, “Euphorion, mind the oil.”
+
+And he each time answered with the same threatening gesture and the same
+glare in his black eyes:
+
+“The little brutes!”
+
+The singer had been diligently practising his musical exercises for
+about an hour, when the dogs rushed into the court-yard, not barking
+this time, but yelping loudly with joy. The old woman laid aside the
+washing and listened, but the tall man said:
+
+“As many birds come flying before the Emperor as gulls before a storm.
+If only they would leave us in peace--”
+
+“Hark, that is Pollux; I know by the dogs,” said the woman, hastening
+as fast as she could over the threshold and out to meet him. But
+the expected visitor was already at the door. He picked up the three
+four-footed Graces who leaped round him, one after the other by the
+skin of the neck, and gave each a tap on its nose. Then, seeing the
+old woman, he took her head between his hands, and kissed her forehead,
+saying, “Good-evening, little Mother,” and shook hands with the singer,
+adding, “How are you, great, big Father?”
+
+“You are as big as I am,” replied the man thus addressed, and he drew
+the younger man towards him, and laid one of his broad hands on his own
+grey head and the other on that of his first-born, with its wealth of
+brown hair.
+
+“As if we were cast in the same mould,” cried the youth; and in fact he
+was very like his father--like, no doubt, as a noble hunter is like
+a worn-out hack--as marble is like limestone--as a cedar is like a
+fir-tree. Both were remarkably tall, had thick hair, dark eyes, and
+strongly aquiline noses, exactly of the same shape; but the cheerful
+brightness which irradiated the countenance of the youth had certainly
+not been inherited from the lute-player, but from the little woman who
+looked up into his face and patted his arm.
+
+But whence did he derive the powerful, but indescribable something which
+gave nobility to his head, and of which it was impossible to say whether
+it lay in his eye, or in the lofty brow, arched so differently to that
+of either parent?
+
+“I knew you would come,” cried his mother. “This afternoon I dreamed it,
+and I can prove that I expected you, for there, on the brazier, stands
+the stewed cabbage and sausage waiting for you.”
+
+“I cannot stay now,” replied Pollux. “Really, I cannot, though your
+kind looks would persuade me, and the sausage winks at me out of the
+cabbage-pan. My master, Papias, is gone on ahead, and in the palace
+there we are to work wonders in less time than it generally takes to
+consider which end the work should be begun at.”
+
+“Then I will carry the cabbage into the palace for you,” said Doris,
+standing on tip-toe to hold a sausage to the lips of her tall son.
+Pollux bit off a large mouthful and said, as he munched it:
+
+“Excellent! I only wish that the thing I am to construct up there
+may turn out as good a statue as this savory cylinder--now fast
+disappearing--was a superior and admirable sausage.”
+
+“Have another?” said Doris.
+
+“No mother; and you must not bring the cabbage either. Up to midnight
+not a minute must be lost, and if I then leave off for a little while
+you must by that time be dreaming of all sorts of pleasant things.”
+
+“I will carry you the cabbage then,” said his father, “for I shall
+not be in bed so early at any rate. The hymn to Sabina, composed by
+Mesomedes, is to be performed with the chorus, as soon as the Empress
+visits the theatre, and I am to lead the upper part of the old men,
+who grow young again at the sight of her. The rehearsal is fixed for
+to-morrow, and I know nothing about it yet. Old music, note for note, is
+ready and safe in my throat, but new things--new things!”
+
+“It is according to circumstances,” said Pollux, laughing.
+
+“If only they would perform your father’s Satyr-play, or his Theseus!”
+ cried Doris.
+
+“Only wait a little, I will recommend him to Caesar as soon as he is
+proud to call me his friend, as the Phidias of the age. Then, when
+he asks me ‘Who is the happy man who begot you?’ I will answer: It is
+Euphorion, the divine poet and singer; and my mother, too, is a worthy
+matron, the gate-keeper of your palace, Doris, the enchantress, who
+turns dingy clothes into snow-white linen.”
+
+These last words the young artist sang in a fine and powerful voice to a
+mode invented by his father.
+
+“If only you had been a singer!” exclaimed Euphorion.
+
+“Then I should have enjoyed the prospect,” retorted Pollux, “of spending
+the evening of my life as your successor in this little abode.”
+
+“And now for wretched pay, you plant the laurels with which Papias
+crowns himself!” answered the old man shrugging his shoulders.
+
+“His hour is coming, too,” cried Doris, “his merit will be recognized; I
+saw him in my dreams, with a great garland on his curly head!”
+
+“Patience, father-patience,” said the young man, grasping his father’s
+hand. “I am young and strong, and do all I can. Here, behind this
+forehead, good ideas are seething; what I have succeeded in carrying out
+by myself, has at any rate brought credit and fame to others, although
+it is all far from resembling the ideal of beauty that here--here--I
+seem to see far away and behind a cloud; still I feel that if, in a
+moment of kindness, Fortune will but shed a few fresh drops of dew on
+it all I shall, at any rate, turn out something better than the mere
+ill-paid right-hand of Papias, who, without me does not know what he
+ought to do, or how to do it.”
+
+“Only keep your eyes open and work hard,” cried Doris.
+
+“It is of no use without luck,” muttered the singer, shrugging his
+shoulders.
+
+The young artist bid his parents good-night, and was about to leave, but
+his mother detained him to show him the young goldfinches, hatched only
+the day before. Pollux obeyed her wish, not merely to please her, but
+because he liked to watch the gay little bird that sat warming and
+sheltering her nestlings. Close to the cage stood the huge wine-jar and
+his mother’s cup, decorated by his own hand. His eye fell on these,
+and he pushed them aside in silence. Then, taking courage, he said,
+laughing: “The Emperor will often pass by here, mother; give up
+celebrating your Dionysiac festival. How would it do if you filled the
+jar with one-fourth wine and three-fourths water? It does not taste
+badly.”
+
+“Spoiling good gifts,” replied his mother.
+
+“One-fourth wine-to please me,” Pollux entreated, taking his mother by
+the shoulders and kissing her forehead.
+
+“To please you, you great boy!” said Doris, as her eyes filled with
+tears. “Why for you, if I must, I would drink nothing but wretched
+water. Euphorion you may finish what is left in the jar presently.”
+
+         .........................
+
+Pontius had already begun his labors, at first with aid only of his
+assistants who had followed him on foot. Measuring, estimating, sending
+short notes and writing figures, names and suggestions on the plan,
+and on his folding wax-tablets, he was not idle for an instant, though
+frequently interrupted by the appointed superintendents of the workshops
+and manufactures in Lochias, whose co-operation he required. They only
+came at this late hour because they were called upon by the prefect’s
+orders.
+
+Papias, the sculptor, introduced himself among the latest, though
+Pontius had written to him with his own hand that he had to communicate
+to him a very remunerative and particularly pressing commission for the
+Emperor, which might, perhaps, be taken in hand that very night. The
+matter in question was a statue of Urania, which must be completed in
+eight days by the same method which Papias had introduced at the last
+festival of Adonis, and to the scale which he, Pontius, indicated,
+in the palace of Lochias itself. With regard to several works of
+restoration which had to be carried out with equal rapidity, and as to
+the price to be paid, they could agree at the same time and place.
+
+The sculptor was a man of foresight and did not appear on the scene
+alone but with his best assistant, Pollux, the son of the worthy couple
+at the gate, and several slaves who dragged after him sundry trunks and
+carts loaded with tools, boards, clay, gypsum and other raw materials
+of his art. On the road to Lochias he had informed the young sculptor of
+the business in hand, and had told him in a condescending tone that he
+would be permitted to try his skill in reconstructing the Urania. At the
+gate he had permitted Pollux to greet his parents, and had gone alone
+into the palace to open his bargain with the architect without the
+presence of witnesses.
+
+The young artist perfectly understood his master. He knew that he would
+be expected to carry out the statue of Urania, while his task-master,
+after making some trifling alterations in the completed work, would
+declare that it was his own. Pollux had for two years been obliged,
+more than once, to put up with similar treatment; and now, as usual, he
+submitted to this dishonest manoeuvre because, under his master there
+was plenty to do, and the delight of work was to him the greatest he
+could have.
+
+Papias, to whom he had gone early as an apprentice and to whom he owed
+the knowledge he possessed, was no miser, still Pollux needed money, not
+for himself alone but because he had taken on himself the charge of a
+widowed sister and her children as if they were his own family. He was
+always glad to take some comfort into the narrow home of his parents,
+who were poor, and to maintain his younger brother Teuker--who had
+devoted himself to the same art--during the years of his apprenticeship.
+Again and again he had thought of telling his master that he should
+start on his own footing and earn laurels for himself, but what then
+would become of those who relied on his help, if he gave up his regular
+earnings and if he got no commissions when there were so many unknown
+beginners eager for them? Of what avail were all his ability and the
+most honest good-will if no opportunity offered for his executing his
+work in noble materials? With his own means he certainly was in no
+position to do so.
+
+While he was talking to his parents Papias had opened his transactions
+with the architect. Pontius explained to the sculptor what was required
+and Papias listened attentively; he never interrupted the speaker, but
+only stroked his face from time to time, as if to make it smoother than
+it was already, though it was shaved with peculiar care and formed and
+colored like a warm mask; meanwhile draping the front of his rich blue
+toga, which he wore in the fashion of a Roman senator, into fresh folds.
+
+But when Pontius showed him, at the end of the rooms destined for the
+Emperor, the last of the statues to be restored, and which needed a new
+grin, Papias said decisively:
+
+“It cannot be done.”
+
+“That is a rash verdict,” replied the architect. “Do you not know
+the proverb, which, being such a good one, is said to have been first
+uttered by more than one sage: ‘That it shows more ill-judgment to
+pronounce a thing impossible than to boast that we can achieve a task
+however much it may seem to transcend our powers.’”
+
+Papias smiled and looked down at his gold-embroidered shoes as he said:
+
+“It is more difficult to us sculptors to imagine ourselves waging
+Titanic warfare against the impossible, than it is to you who work with
+enormous masses. I do not yet see the means which would give me courage
+to begin the attack.”
+
+“I will tell you,” replied Pontius quickly and decidedly. “On your
+side good-will, plenty of assistants and night-watchers; on ours, the
+Caesar’s approval and plenty of gold.”
+
+After this the transaction came to a prompt and favorable issue, and the
+architect could but express his entire approbation, in most cases, of
+the sculptor’s judicious and well-considered suggestions.
+
+“Now I must go home,” concluded Papias. “My assistants will proceed at
+once with the necessary preparations. The work must be carried on behind
+screens, so that no one may disturb us or hinder us with remarks.”
+
+Half an hour later a scaffolding was already erected in the middle of
+the hall where the Urania was to stand.
+
+It was concealed from; public gaze by thick linen stretched on tall
+wooden frames, and behind these screens Pollux was busied in framing
+a small model in wax, while his master had returned home to make
+arrangements for the labors of the following day.
+
+It wanted only an hour of midnight, and still the supper sent to the
+palace for the architect by the prefect remained untouched. Pontius was
+hungry enough, but before attacking the meal that a slave had set out on
+a marble table--the roast meat which looked so inviting, the orange-red
+crayfish, the golden-brown pasty and the many-hued fruits--he conceived
+it his duty to inspect the rooms to be restored. It was needful to see
+whether the slaves who had been set, in the first place to clean out all
+the rooms, were being intelligently directed by the men set over them,
+whether they were doing their duty and had all that they required; they
+had got some hours to work, then they were to rest and to begin again at
+sunrise, reinforced by other laborers both slave and free.
+
+More and better lighting was universally demanded, and when, in the hall
+of the Muses, the men who were cleaning the pavement and scraping the
+columns loudly clamored for torches and lamps, a young man’s head peered
+over the screen which shut in the place reserved for the restoration of
+the Urania, and a lamentable voice cried out:
+
+“My Muse, with her celestial sphere, is the guardian of star-gazers and
+is happiest in the dark--but not till she is finished. To form her we
+must have light and more light--and when it is lighter here the voice of
+the people down there, which does not sound very delightful up in this
+hollow space, will diminish somewhat also. Give light, then, O, men!
+Light for my goddess, and for your scrubbers and scourers.”
+
+Pontius looked up smiling at Pollux, who had uttered this appeal, and
+answered:
+
+“Your cry of distress is fully justified, my friend. But do you really
+believe in the power of light to diminish noise?”
+
+“At any rate,” replied Pollux, “where it is absent, that is to say in
+the dark, every noise seems redoubled.”
+
+“That is true, but there are other reasons for that,” answered the
+architect. “To-morrow in an interval of work we will discuss these
+matters. Now I will go to provide you with lamps and lights.”
+
+“Urania, the protectress of the fine arts, will be beholden to you,”
+ cried Pollux as the architect went away.
+
+Pontius meanwhile sought his chief foreman to ask him whether he had
+delivered his orders to Keraunus, the palace-steward, to come to
+him, and to put the cressets and lamps commonly used for the external
+illuminations, at the service of his workmen.
+
+“Three times,” was the answer “have I been myself to the man, but each
+time he puffed himself out like a frog and answered me not a word, but
+only sent me into a little room with his daughter--whom you must see,
+for she is charming--and a miserable black slave, and there I found
+these few wretched lamps that are now burning.”
+
+“Did you order him to come to me?”
+
+“Three hours ago, and again a second time, when you were talking with
+Papias.”
+
+The architect turned his back upon the foreman in angry haste,
+unrolled the plan of the palace, quickly found upon it the abode of the
+recalcitrant steward, seized a small red-clay lamp that was standing
+near him, and being quite accustomed to guide himself by a plan, went
+straight through the rooms, which were not a few, and by a long corridor
+from the hall of the Muses, to the lodging of the negligent official. An
+unclosed door led him into a dark ante-chamber followed by another room,
+and finally into a large, well-furnished apartment. All these door-ways,
+into what seemed to be at once the dining and sitting-room of the
+steward, were bereft of doors, and could only be closed by stuff
+curtains, just now drawn wide open. Pontius could therefore look in,
+unhindered and unperceived, at the table on which a three-branched
+bronze lamp was standing between a dish and some plates. The stout man
+was sitting with his rubicund moon-face towards the architect, who,
+indignant as he was, would have gone straight up to him with swift
+decision, if, before entering the second room, a low but pitiful sob had
+not fallen on his ear.
+
+The sob proceeded from a slight young girl who came forward from a door
+beyond the sitting-room, and who now placed a platter with a loaf on the
+table by the steward.
+
+“Come, do not cry, Selene,” said the steward, breaking the bread slowly
+and with an evident desire to soothe his child.
+
+“How can I help crying,” said the girl. “But tomorrow morning let me buy
+a piece of meat for you; the physician forbade you to eat bread.”
+
+“Man must be filled,” replied the fat man, “and meat is dear. I have
+nine mouths to fill, not counting the slaves. And where am I to get the
+money to fill us all with meat?”
+
+“We need none, but for you it is necessary.”
+
+“It is of no use, child. The butcher will not trust us any more, the
+other creditors press us, and at the end of the month we shall have just
+ten drachmae left us.”
+
+The girl turned pale, and asked in anxiety:
+
+“But, father, it was only to-day that you showed me the three gold
+pieces which you said had been given you as a present out of the money
+distributed on the arrival of the Empress.”
+
+The steward absently rolled a piece of bread-crumb between his fingers
+and said:
+
+“I spent that on this fibula with an incised onyx--and as cheap as dirt,
+I can tell you. If Caesar comes he must see who and what I am; and if I
+die any one will give you twice as much for it as I paid. I tell you the
+Empress’s money was well laid out on the thing.” Selene made no answer,
+but she sighed deeply, and her eye glanced at a quantity of useless
+things which her father had acquired and brought home because they were
+cheap, while she and her seven sisters wanted the most necessary things.
+
+“Father,” the girl began again after a short silence, “I ought not to
+go on about it, but even if it vexes you, I must--the architect, who is
+settling all the work out there, has sent for you twice already.”
+
+“Be silent!” shouted the fat man, striking his hand on the table. “Who
+is this Pontius, and who am I!”
+
+“You are of a noble Macedonian family, related perhaps even to the
+Ptolemies; you have your seat in the Council of the Citizens--but do,
+this time, be condescending and kind. The man has his hands full, he is
+tired out.”
+
+“Nor have I been able to sit still the whole day, and what is fitting,
+is fitting. I am Keraunus the son of Ptolemy, whose father came into
+Egypt with Alexander the Great, and helped to found this city, and every
+one knows it. Our possessions were diminished; but it is for that very
+reason that I insist on our illustrious blood being recognized. Pontius
+sends to command the presence of Keraunus! If it were not infuriating it
+would be laughable--for who is this man, who? I have told you his father
+was a freedman of the former prefect Claudius Balbillus, and by the
+favor of the Roman his father rose and grew rich. He is the descendant
+of slaves, and you expect that I shall be his obedient humble servant,
+whenever he chooses to call me?”
+
+“But father, my dear father, it is not the son of Ptolemy, but the
+palace-steward that he desires shall go to hire.”
+
+“Mere chop-logic!--you have nothing to say, not a step do I take to go
+to him.”
+
+The girl clasped her hands over her face, and sobbed loudly and
+pitifully. Keraunus started up and cried out, beside himself.
+
+“By great Serapis. I can bear this no longer. What are you whimpering
+about?”
+
+The girl plucked up courage and going up to the indignant man she said,
+though more than once interrupted by tears.
+
+“You must go father--indeed you must. I spoke to the foreman, and he
+told me coolly and decidedly that the architect was placed here in
+Caesar’s name, and that if you do not obey him you will at once be
+superseded in your office. And if that were to happen, if that--O
+father, father, only think of blind Helios and poor Berenice! Arsinoe
+and I could earn our bread, but the little ones--the little ones.”
+
+With these words the girl fell on her knees lifting her hands in
+entreaty to her obstinate parent. The blood had mounted to the man’s
+face and eyes, and pressing his hand to his purple forehead he sank back
+in his chair as if stricken with apoplexy. His daughter sprang up and
+offered him the cup full of wine and water which was standing on the
+table; but Keraunus pushed it aside with his hands, and panted out,
+while he struggled for breath:
+
+“Supersede me--in my place--turn me out of this palace! Why there,
+in that ebony trunk, lies the rescript of Euergetes which confers the
+stewardship of this residence on my ancestor Philip, and as a hereditary
+dignity in his family. Now Philip’s wife had the honor of being the
+king’s mistress--or, as some say, his daughter. There lies the document,
+drawn up in red and black ink on yellow papyrus and ratified with the
+seal and signature of Euergetes the Second. All the princes of the
+Lagides have confirmed it, all the Roman prefects have respected it, and
+now--now.”
+
+“But father” said the girl interrupting her father, and wringing her
+hands in despair, “you still hold the place and if you will only give
+in.”
+
+“Give in, give in,” shrieked the corpulent steward shaking his fat hands
+above his blood-shot face. “I will give in--I will not bring you all to
+misery--for my children’s sake I will allow myself to be ill-treated
+and down-trodden, I will go--I will go directly. Like the pelican I will
+feed my children with my heart’s blood. But you ought to know what it
+costs me, to humiliate myself thus; it is intolerable to me, and my
+heart is breaking--for the architect, the architect has trampled upon
+me as if I were his servant; he wished--I heard him with these ears--he
+shrieked after me a villainous hope that I might be smothered in my
+own fat--and the physician has told me I may die of apoplexy! Leave me,
+leave me. I know those Romans are capable of anything. Well--here I am;
+fetch me my saffron-colored pallium, that I wear in the council, fetch
+me my gold fillet for my head. I will deck myself like a beast for
+sacrifice, and I will show him--”
+
+Not a word of this harangue had escaped the ears of the architect who
+had been at first indignant and then moved to laughter, and withal it
+had touched his heart. A sluggish and torpid character was repugnant to
+his vigorous nature, and the deliberate and indifferent demeanor of the
+stout steward, on an occasion which had prompted him and all concerned
+to act as quickly and energetically as possible, had brought words to
+his lips which he now wished that he had never spoken. It is true that
+the steward’s false pride had roused his indignation, and who can listen
+calmly to any comment on a stain on his birth? But the appeal of this
+miserable father’s daughter had gone to his heart. He pitied the fatuous
+simpleton whom, with a turn of his hand, he could reduce to beggary, and
+who had evidently been far more deeply hurt by his words than Pontius
+had been by what he had overheard, and so he followed the kindly impulse
+of a noble nature to spare the unfortunate.
+
+He rapped loudly with his knuckles on the inside of the door-post of the
+ante-room, coughed loudly, and then said, bowing deeply to the steward
+on the threshold of the sitting-room:
+
+“Noble Keraunus--I have come, as beseems me, to pay you my respects.
+Excuse the lateness of the hour, but you can scarcely imagine how busy I
+have been since we parted.”
+
+Keraunus had at first started at the late visitor, then he stared at him
+in consternation. He now went towards him, stretched out both hands as
+if suddenly relieved of a nightmare, and a bright expression of such
+warm and sincere satisfaction overspread his countenance that Pontius
+wondered how he could have failed to observe what a well-cut face this
+fat original had.
+
+“Take a seat at our humble table,” said Keraunus. “Go Selene and call
+the slaves. Perhaps there is yet a pheasant in the house, a roast fowl
+or something of the kind--but the hour, it is true, is late.”
+
+“I am deeply obliged to you,” replied the architect, smiling. “My supper
+is waiting for me in the hall of the Muses, and I must return to my
+work-people. I should be grateful to you if you would accompany me. We
+must consult together as to the lighting of the rooms, and such matters
+are best discussed over a succulent roast and a flask of wine.”
+
+“I am quite at your service,” said Keraunus with a bow.
+
+“I will go on ahead,” said the architect, “but first will you have the
+goodness to give all that you have in the way of cressets, lights and
+lamps to the slaves, who, in a few minutes, shall await your orders at
+your door.”
+
+When Pontius had departed, Selene exclaimed with a deep sigh
+
+“Oh! what a fright I have had! I will go now and find the lamps. How
+terribly it might have ended.”
+
+“It is well that he should have come,” murmured Keraunus. “Considering
+his birth and origin, the architect is certainly a well-bred man.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Pontius had gone to the steward’s room, with a frowning brow, but it
+was with a smile on his strongly-marked lips, and a brisk step that he
+returned to his work-people. The foreman came to meet him with looks of
+enquiry as he said. “The steward was a little offended and with reason;
+but now we are capital friends and he will do what he can in the matter
+of lighting.”
+
+In the hall of the Muses he paused outside the screen, behind which
+Pollux was working, and called out:
+
+“Friend sculptor, listen to me, it is high time to have supper.”
+
+“It is, indeed,” replied Pollux, “else it will be breakfast.”
+
+“Then lay aside your tools for a quarter of an hour and help me and the
+palace-steward to demolish the food that has been sent me.”
+
+“You will need no second assistant if Keraunus is there. Food melts
+before him like ice before the sun.”
+
+“Then come and save him from an overloaded stomach.”
+
+“Impossible, for I am just now dealing most unmercifully with a bowl
+full of cabbage and sausages. My mother had cooked that food of the gods
+and my father has brought it in to his first-born son.”
+
+“Cabbage and sausages!” repeated the architect, and its tone betrayed
+that his hungry stomach would fain have made closer acquaintance with
+the savory mess.
+
+“Come in here,” continued Pollux, “and be my guest. The cabbage has
+experienced the process which is impending over this palace--it has been
+warmed up.”
+
+“Warmed-up cabbage is better than freshly-cooked, but the fire over
+which we must try to make this palace enjoyable again, burns too hotly
+and must be too vigorously stirred. The best things have been all taken
+out, and cannot be replaced.”
+
+“Like the sausages, I have fished out of my cabbages,” laughed the
+sculptor. “After all I cannot invite you to be my guest, for it would
+be a compliment to this dish if I were now to call it cabbage with
+sausages. I have worked it like a mine, and now that the vein of
+sausages is nearly exhausted, little remains but the native soil in
+which two or three miserable fragments remain as memorials of past
+wealth. But my mother shall cook you a mess of it before long, and she
+prepares it with incomparable skill.”
+
+“A good idea, but you are my guest.”
+
+“I am replete.”
+
+“Then come and spice our meal with your good company.”
+
+“Excuse me, sir; leave me rather here behind my screen. In the first
+place, I am in a happy vein, and on the right track; I feel that
+something good will come of this night’s work.”
+
+“And tomorrow--”
+
+“Hear me out.”
+
+“Well.”
+
+“You would be doing your other guest an ill-service by inviting me.”
+
+“Do you know the steward then?”
+
+“From my earliest youth, I am the son of the gatekeeper of the palace.”
+
+“Oh, ho! then you came from that pretty little lodge with the ivy and
+the birds, and the jolly old lady.”
+
+“She is my mother--and the first time the butcher kills she will concoct
+for you and me a dish of sausages and cabbage without an equal.”
+
+“A very pleasing prospect.”
+
+“Here comes a hippopotamus--on closer inspection Keraunus, the steward.”
+
+“Are you his enemy?”
+
+“I, no; but he is mine--yes,” replied Pollux. “It is a foolish story.
+When we sup together don’t ask me about it if you care to have a jolly
+companion And do not tell Keraunus that I am here, it will lead to no
+good.”
+
+“As you wish, and here are our lamps too.”
+
+“Enough to light the nether world,” exclaimed Pollux, and waving his
+hand to the architect in farewell he vanished behind the screens to
+devote himself entirely to his model.
+
+It was long past midnight, and the slaves who had set to work with much
+zeal had finished their labors in the hall of the Muses. They were now
+allowed to rest for some hours on straw that had been spread for them
+in another wing of the building. The architect himself wished to take
+advantage of this time to refresh himself by a short sleep, for the
+exertions of the morrow, but between this intention and its fulfilment
+an obstacle was interposed, the preposterous dimensions namely of his
+guest. He had invited the steward on purpose to give him his fill of
+meat, and Keraunus had shown himself amenable to encouragement in this
+respect. But after the last dish bad been removed the steward thought
+that good manners demanded that he should honor his entertainer by
+his illustrious presence, and at the same time the prefect’s good wine
+loosened the tongue of the man, who was not usually communicative.
+
+First he spoke of the manifold infirmities which tormented him and
+endangered his life, and when Pontius, to divert his talk into other
+channels, was so imprudent as to allude to the Council of Citizens,
+Keraunus gave full play to his eloquence, and, while he emptied cup
+after cup of wine, tried to lay down the reasons which had made him and
+his friends decide on staking everything in order to deprive the members
+of the extensive community of Jews in the city of their rights as
+citizens, and to expel them, if possible, from Alexandria. So warm was
+his zeal that he totally forgot the presence of the architect, and
+his humble origin, and declared to be indispensable, that even the
+descendants of freed-slaves should be disenfranchised.
+
+Pontius saw in the steward’s inflamed eyes and cheeks that it was the
+wine which spoke within him, and he made no answer; and determined that
+the rest he needed should not be thus abridged, he rose from table and
+briefly excusing himself he retired to the room in which the couch had
+been prepared for him. After he had undressed he desired his slave
+to see what Keraunus was about, and soon received the reassuring
+information that the steward was fast asleep and snoring.
+
+“Only listen,” said the slave, to confirm his report. “You can hear him
+grunting and snuffing as far as this. I pushed a cushion under his head,
+for otherwise, so full as he is, the stout gentleman might come to some
+harm.”
+
+Love is a plant which springs up for many who have never sown it, and
+grows into a spreading tree for many who have neither fostered nor
+tended it. How little had Keraunus ever done to win the heart of his
+daughter, how much on the contrary which could not fail to overshadow
+and trouble her young life. And yet Selene, whose youth--for she was
+but nineteen--needed repose and to whom the evening with the reprieve of
+sleep brought more pleasure than the morning with its load of cares and
+labor, sat by the three-branched lamp and watched, and tormented herself
+more and more as it grew later and later, at her father’s long absence.
+About a week before the strong man had suddenly lost consciousness;
+only, it is true, for a few minutes, and the physician had told her that
+though he appeared to be in superabundant health, the attack indicated
+that he must follow his prescriptions strictly and avoid all kinds
+of excess. A single indiscretion, he had declared, might swiftly and
+suddenly cut the thread of his existence. After her father had gone out
+in obedience to the architect’s invitation, Selene had brought out her
+youngest brothers’ and sisters’ garments, in order to mend them. Her
+sister Arsinoe, who was her junior by two years, and whose fingers were
+as nimble as her own, might indeed have helped her, but she had gone
+to bed early and was sleeping by the children who could not be left
+untended at night. Her female slave, who had been in her grandmother’s
+service, ought to have assisted her; but the old half-blind negress
+saw even worse by lamp-light than by daylight, and after a few stitches
+could do no more. Selene sent her to bed and sat down alone to her work.
+
+For the first hour she sewed away without looking up, considering,
+meanwhile, how she could best contrive to support the family till the
+end of the month on the few drachmae she could dispose of. As it got
+later she grew wearier and wearier, but still she sat at the work,
+though her pretty head often sank upon her breast. She must await her
+father’s return, for a potion prepared by the physician stood waiting
+for him, and she feared he would forget it if she did not remind him.
+
+By the end of the second hour sleep overcame her, and she felt as if
+the chair she was sitting on was giving way under her, and as if it was
+sinking at first slowly and then quicker and quicker, into a deep abyss
+that opened beneath her. Looking up for help in her dream, she could see
+nothing but her father’s face, which looked aside with indifference. As
+her dream went on she called him and called him again, but for a long
+time he did not seem to hear her. At last he looked down at her and
+when he perceived her he smiled, but instead of helping her he picked up
+stones and clods from the edge of the gulf and threw them on her hands
+with which she had clutched the brambles and roots that grew out of the
+rift of the rocks. She entreated him to cease, implored him, shrieked
+to him to spare her, but not a muscle moved in the face above her; it
+seemed set in a vacant smile, and even his heart was dead too, for he
+ruthlessly flung down now a pebble, now a clod, one after the other,
+till her hands were losing their last feeble hold and she was on the
+point of falling into the fatal gulf below. Her own cry of terror
+aroused her, but during the brief process of returning from her dream to
+actuality, she saw through swiftly parting mists--only for an instant,
+and yet quite plainly--the tall grass of a meadow, spangled with
+ox-eye daisies, white and gold, with violet-hued blue bells and scarlet
+poppies, among which she was lying--as in a soft green bed, while
+near the sward lay a sparkling blue lake and behind it rose beautiful
+swelling hills, with red cliffs, and green groves, and meadows bright in
+the clear sunshine. A clear sky, across which a soft breeze gently
+blew light silvery flakes of cloud, bent over the lovely but fleeting
+picture, which she could not compare with anything she had ever seen
+near her own home.
+
+She had only slept for a short time, but when, once more thoroughly
+awake, she rubbed her eyes, she thought her dream must have lasted for
+hours.
+
+One flame of the three-branched lamp had flickered into extinction and
+the wick of another was beginning to waste. She hastily put it out with
+a pair of tongs that hung by a chain, and then after pouring fresh oil
+into the lamp that was still burning she carried the light into her
+father’s sleeping room.
+
+He had not yet returned. She was seized with a mortal terror. Had the
+architect’s wine bereft him of his senses? Had he on his way back to his
+rooms been seized with a fresh attack of giddiness? In spirit she saw
+the heavy man incapable of raising himself, dying perhaps where he had
+fallen.
+
+No choice remained to her; she must go at once to the hall of the Muses
+and see what had happened to her father, pick him up, give him help
+or--if he still were feasting--endeavor to tempt him back by any excuse
+she could find. Everything was at stake; her father’s life and with it
+maintenance and shelter for eight helpless creatures.
+
+The December night was stormy, a keen and bitter wind blew through the
+ill-closed opening in the roof of the room as Selene, before she began
+her expedition, tied a handkerchief over her head and threw over her
+shoulders a white mantle which had been worn by her dead mother. In the
+long corridor which lay between her father’s rooms and the front portion
+of the palace, she had to screen the flickering light of the little lamp
+with her left hand, carrying it in her right; the flame blown about
+by the draught and her own figure were mirrored here and there in the
+polished surface of the dark marble. The thick sandals she had tied on
+to her feet roused loud echoes in the empty rooms as they fell on the
+stone pavements, and terror possessed Selene’s anxious soul. Her fingers
+trembled as they held the lamp and her heart beat audibly as, with bated
+breath, she went through the cupolaed hall in which Ptolemy Euergetes
+‘the fat’ was said, some years ago, to have murdered his own son, and in
+which even a deep breath roused an echo.
+
+But even in this room she did not forget to look to the right and left
+for her father. She breathed a sigh of relief when she perceived
+a streak of light which shone through the gaping rift of a cracked
+side-door of the hall of the Muses and fell in a broken reflection on
+the floor and the wall of the last room through which she had to pass.
+She now entered the large hall which was dimly lighted by the lamps
+behind the sculptor’s screen, and by several tapers, now burnt down low.
+These were standing on a table knocked together out of blocks of wood
+and planks at the extreme end of the hall, and behind this her father
+was sound asleep.
+
+The deep notes brought out of the sleeper’s broad chest, were echoed in
+a very uncanny way from the bare walls of the vast empty room, and she
+was frightened by them and still more by the long black shadows of the
+pillars, that lay, like barriers, across her path. She stood listening
+in the middle of the hall and soon recognized in the alarming tones
+a sound that was only too familiar. Without a moment’s hesitation she
+started to run, and hastened to the sleeper, shook him, pushed him,
+called him, sprinkled his forehead with water, and appealed to him by
+the tenderest names with which her sister Arsinoe was wont to coax him.
+When, in spite of all this, he neither spoke nor stirred, she flung the
+full light of the lamp on his face. Then she thought she perceived that
+a bluish tinge had overspread his bloated features, and she broke into
+the deep, agonized, weeping which, a few hours previously had touched
+the architect’s heart.
+
+There was a sudden stir behind the screens which enclosed the sculptor
+and the work in progress. Pollux had been working for a long time
+with zeal and pleasure, but at last the steward’s snoring had begun to
+disturb him. The body of the Muse had already taken a definite form and
+he could begin to work out the head with the earliest dawn of day. He
+now dropped his arms wearily, for as soon as he ceased to create with
+his whole heart and mind he felt tired, and saw plainly that without a
+model he could do nothing satisfactory with the drapery of his Urania.
+So he pulled his stool up to a great chest full of gypsum to get a
+little repose by leaning against it.
+
+But sleep avoided the artist who was too much excited by his rapid
+night’s work, and as soon as Selene opened the door he sat upright and
+peeped through an opening between the frames of his place of retirement.
+When he saw the tall draped figure in whose hand a lamp was trembling,
+when he watched her cross the spacious hall, and then suddenly stand
+still, he was not a little startled, but this did not hinder him from
+noting every step of the nocturnal spectre with far more curiosity than
+alarm. Then, when Selene looked round her, and the lamp illuminated her
+face, be recognized the steward’s daughter, and immediately knew what
+she must be seeking.
+
+Her vain attempts to rouse the sleeper, though somewhat pathetic, had in
+them at the same time something irresistibly ludicrous, and Pollux felt
+sorely tempted to laugh. But as soon as Selene began to weep so bitterly
+he hastily pushed apart two of the laths of the screen, went up and
+called her name, at first softly not to frighten her, and then more
+loudly. When she turned her head he begged her warmly not to be alarmed
+far he was no ghost, only a very humble and ordinary mortal, in fact-as
+she might see--nothing more, alas! than the son of Euphorian, the
+gate-keeper, good for nothing as yet, but treading the path to something
+better.
+
+“You, Pollux?” asked the girl with surprise.
+
+“The very man. But you--can I help you?”
+
+“My poor father,” sobbed Selene. “He does not stir, he is immovable--and
+his face--oh! merciful gods.”
+
+“A man who snores is not dead,” said the sculptor. “But the doctor told
+him--”
+
+“He is not even ill! Pontius only gave him stronger wine to drink than
+he is used to. Let him be; he is sleeping with the pillow under his
+neck, as comfortably as a child. When he began just now to trumpet a
+little too loud I whistled as loud as a plover, for that often silences
+a snorer; but I could more easily have made those stone Muses dance than
+have roused him.”
+
+“If only we could get him to bed.”
+
+“Well, if you have four horses at hand.”
+
+“You are as bad as you ever were!”
+
+“A little less so, Selene, only you must become accustomed again to
+my way of speaking. This time I only mean that we two together are not
+strong enough to carry him away.”
+
+“But what can I do, then? The doctor said--”
+
+“Never mind the doctor. The complaint your father is suffering from is
+one I know well. It will be gone to-morrow, perhaps by sundown, and the
+only pain it will leave behind, he will feel under his wig. Only leave
+him to sleep.”
+
+“But it is so cold here.”
+
+“Take my cloak and cover him with that.”
+
+“Then you will be frozen.”
+
+“I am used to it. How long has Keraunus had dealings with the doctor?”
+
+Selene related the accident that had befallen her father and how
+justified were her fears. The sculptor listened to her in silence and
+then said in a quite altered tone:
+
+“I am truly sorry to hear it. Let us put some cold water on his
+forehead, and until the slaves come back again I will change the wet
+cloth every quarter of an hour. Here is a jar and a handkerchief--good,
+they might have been left on purpose. Perhaps, too, it will wake him,
+and if not the people shall carry him to his own rooms.”
+
+“Disgraceful, disgraceful!” sighed the girl.
+
+“Not at all; the high-priest of Serapis even is sometimes unwell. Only
+let me see to it.”
+
+“It will excite him afresh if he sees you. He is so angry with you--so
+very angry.”
+
+“Omnipotent Zeus, what harm have I done you, fat father! The gods
+forgive the sins of the wise, and a man will not forgive the fault
+committed by a stupid lad in a moment of imprudence.”
+
+“You mocked at him.”
+
+“I set a clay head that was like him on the shoulders of the fat Silenus
+near the gate, that had lost its own head. It was my first piece of
+independent work.”
+
+“But you did it to vex my father.”
+
+“Certainly not, Selene; I was delighted with the joke and nothing more.”
+
+“But you knew how touchy he is.”
+
+“And does a wild boy of fifteen ever reflect on the consequences of his
+audacity? If he had but given me a thrashing his annoyance would have
+discharged itself like thunder and lightning, and the air would have
+been clear again. But, as it was, he cut the face off the work with a
+knife, and deliberately trod the pieces under foot as they lay on the
+ground. He gave me one single blow--with his thumb--which I still feel,
+it is true, and then he treated me and my parents with such scorn, so
+coldly and hardly, with such bitter contempt--”
+
+“He never is really violent, but wrath seems to eat him inwardly, and I
+have rarely seen him so angry as he was that time.”
+
+“But if he had only settled the account with me on the spot! but my
+father was by, and hot words fell like rain, and my mother added her
+share, and from that time there has been utter hostility between our
+little house and you up here. What hurt me most was that you and your
+sister were forbidden to come to see us and to play with me.”
+
+“That has spoilt many pleasant hours for me, too.”
+
+“It was nice when we used to dress up in my father’s theatrical finery
+and cloaks.”
+
+“And when you made us dolls out of clay.”.
+
+“Or when we performed the Olympian games.”
+
+“I was always the teacher when we played at school with our little
+brothers and sisters.”
+
+“Arsinoe gave you most trouble.”
+
+“Oh! and what fun when we went fishing!”
+
+“And when we brought home the fishes and mother gave us meal and raisins
+to cook them.”
+
+“Do you remember the festival of Adonis, and how I stopped the runaway
+horse of that Numidian officer?”
+
+“The horse had knocked over Arsinoe, and when we got home mother gave
+you an almond-cake.”
+
+“And your ungrateful sister bit a great piece out of it and left me only
+a tiny morsel. Is Arsinoe as pretty as she promised to become? It is
+two years since I last saw her; at our place we never have time to leave
+work till it is dark. For eight months I had to work for the master at
+Ptolemais, and often saw the old folks but once in the month.”
+
+“We go out very little, too, and we are not allowed to go into your
+parents’ house. My sister--”
+
+“Is she pretty?”
+
+“Yes, I think she is. Whenever she can get hold of a piece of ribbon she
+plaits it in her hair, and the men in the street turn round to look at
+her. She is sixteen now.”
+
+“Sixteen! What, little Arsinoe! Why, how long then is it since your
+mother died?”
+
+“Four years and eight months.”
+
+“You remember the date very exactly; such a mother is not easily
+forgotten, indeed. She was a good woman and a kinder I never met. I
+know, too, that she tried to mollify your father’s feeling, but she
+could not succeed, and then she need must die!”
+
+“Yes,” said Selene gloomily. “How could the gods decree it! They are
+often more cruel than the hardest hearted man.”
+
+“Your poor little brothers and sisters!”
+
+The girl bowed her head sadly and Pollux stood for some time with his
+eyes fixed on the ground. Then he raised his head and exclaimed:
+
+“I have something for you that will please you.”
+
+“Nothing ever pleases me now she is dead.”
+
+“Yes, yes indeed,” replied the young sculptor eagerly. “I could not
+forget the good soul, and once in my idle moments I modelled her bust
+from memory. To-morrow I will bring it to you.”
+
+“Oh!” cried Selene, and her large heavy eyes brightened with a sunny
+gleam.
+
+“Now, is not it true, you are pleased?”
+
+“Yes indeed, very much. But when my father learns that it is you who
+have given me the portrait--”
+
+“Is he capable of destroying it?”
+
+“If he does not destroy it, he will not suffer it in the house as soon
+as he knows that you made it.” Pollux took the handkerchief from the
+steward’s head, moistened it afresh, and exclaimed as he rearranged it
+on the forehead of the sleeping man:
+
+“I have an idea. All that matters is that my bust should serve to remind
+you often of your mother; the bust need not stand in your rooms. The
+busts of the women of the house of Ptolemy stand on the rotunda, which
+you can see from your balcony, and which you can pass whenever you
+please; some of them are badly mutilated and must be got rid of. I will
+undertake to restore the Berenice and put your mother’s head on her
+shoulders. Then you have only to go out and look at her. Will that do?”
+
+“Yes, Pollux; you are a good man.”
+
+“So I told you just now. I am beginning to improve. But time--time! if I
+am to undertake to repair Berenice I must begin by saving the minutes.”
+
+“Go back to your work now; I know how to apply a wet compress only too
+well.”
+
+With these words Selene threw back her mantle over her shoulders so as
+to leave her hands free for use, and stood with her slender figure,
+her pale face, and the fine broadly-flowing folds of rich stuff, like a
+statue in the eyes of the young sculptor.
+
+“Stop--stay so--just so,” cried Pollux to the astonished girl, so loudly
+and eagerly that she was startled.
+
+“Your cloak hangs with a wonderfully-free flow from your shoulders--in
+the name of all the gods do not touch it. If only I might model from it
+I should in a few minutes gain a whole day for our Berenice. I will
+wet the handkerchief at intervals in the pauses.” Without waiting for
+Selene’s answer the sculptor hastened into his nook and returned first
+with one of the lamps he worked by in each hand, and some small tools in
+his mouth, and then fetched his wax model which he placed on the outer
+side of the table, behind which the steward was sleeping. The tapers
+were put out, the lamps pushed aside, and raised or lowered, and when at
+last a tolerably suitable light was procured Pollux threw himself on a
+stool, straddled his legs, craned his head forward as far as his neck
+would allow, looking, with his hooked nose, like a vulture that strives
+to descry his distant prey-cast his eyes down, raised them again to take
+in something fresh, and after a long gaze looked down again while his
+fingers and nails moved over the surface of the wax-figure, sinking
+into the plastic material, applying new pieces to apparently complete
+portions, removing others with a decided nip and rounding them off with
+bewildering rapidity to use them for a fresh purpose.
+
+He seemed to be seized with cramp in his hands, but still under his
+knotted brow his eye shone earnest, resolute and calm, and yet full of
+profound and speechless inspiration. Selene had said not a word that
+permitted his using her as a model; but, as if his enthusiasm was
+infectious, she remained motionless, and when, as he worked, his gaze
+met hers she could detect the stern earnestness which at this moment
+possessed her eager companion.
+
+Neither of them opened their lips for some time. At last he stood back
+from his work, stooping low to look first at Selene and then at his
+statuette with keen examination from head to foot; and then, drawing a
+deep breath, and rubbing the wax over with his finger, he said:
+
+“There, that is how it must go! Now I will wet your father’s
+handkerchief and then we can go on again. If you are tired you can
+rest.”
+
+She availed herself but little of this permission and presently he
+began work again. As he proceeded carefully to replace some folds of her
+drapery which had fallen out of place, she moved her foot as if to draw
+back, but he begged her earnestly to stand still and she obeyed his
+request.
+
+Pollux now used his fingers and modelling tools more calmly; his gaze
+was less wistful and he began to talk again.
+
+“You are very pale,” he said. “To be sure the lamp-light and a sleepless
+night have something to do with it.”
+
+“I look just the same by daylight, but I am not ill.”
+
+“I thought Arsinoe would have been like your mother, but now I see many
+features of her face in yours again. The oval of their form is the same
+and, in both, the line of the nose runs almost straight to the forehead;
+you have her eyes and the same bend of the brow, but your mouth is
+smaller and more sharply cut, and she could hardly have made such a
+heavy knot of her hair. I fancy, too, that yours is lighter than hers.”
+
+“As a girl she must have had still more hair, and perhaps she may have
+been as fair as I was--I am brown now.”
+
+“Another thing you inherit from her is that your hair, without being
+curly, lies upon your head in such soft waves.”
+
+“It is easy to keep in order.”
+
+“Are not you taller than she was?”
+
+“I fancy so, but as she was stouter she looked shorter. Will you soon
+have done?”
+
+“You are getting tired of standing?”
+
+“Not very.”
+
+“Then have a little more patience. Your face reminds me more and more
+of our early years; I should be glad to see Arsinoe once more. I feel
+at this moment as if time had moved backwards a good piece. Have you the
+same feeling?”
+
+Selene shook her head.
+
+“You are not happy?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“I know full well that you have very heavy duties to perform for your
+age.”
+
+“Things go as they may.”
+
+“Nay, nay. I know you do not let things go haphazard. You take care of
+your brothers and sisters like a mother.”
+
+“Like a mother!” repeated Selene, and she smiled a bitter negative.
+
+“Of course a mother’s love is a thing by itself, but your father and the
+little ones have every reason to be satisfied with yours.”
+
+“The little ones are perhaps, and Helios who is blind, but Arsinoe does
+what she can.”
+
+“You certainly are not content, I can hear it in your voice, and you
+used formerly to be as merry and happy as your sister, though perhaps
+not so saucy.”
+
+“Formerly--”
+
+“How sadly that sounds! And yet you are handsome, you are young, and
+life lies before you.”
+
+“But what a life!”
+
+“Well, what?” asked the sculptor, and taking his hands from his work
+he looked ardently at the fair pale girl before him and cried out
+fervently:
+
+“A life which might be full of happiness and satisfied affection.”
+
+The girl shook her head in negation and answered coldly:
+
+“‘Love is joy,’ says the Christian woman who superintends us at work
+in the papyrus factory, and since my mother died I have had no love. I
+enjoyed all my share of happiness once for all in my childhood, now I
+am content if only we are spared the worst misfortunes. Otherwise I take
+what each day brings, because I can not do otherwise. My heart is empty,
+and if I ever feel anything keenly, it is dread. I have long since
+ceased to expect any thing good of the future.”
+
+“Girl!” exclaimed Pollux. “Why, what has been happening to you? I do
+not understand half of what you are saying. How came you in the papyrus
+factory?”
+
+“Do not betray me,” begged Selene. “If my father were to hear of it.”
+
+“He is asleep, and what you confide to me no one will ever hear of
+again.”
+
+“Why should I conceal it? I go every day with Arsinoe for two hours to
+the manufactory, and we work there to earn a little money.”
+
+“Behind your father’s back?”
+
+“Yes, he would rather that we should starve than allow it. Every day I
+feel the same loathing for the deceit; but we could not get on without
+it, for Arsinoe thinks of nothing but herself, plays draughts with my
+father, curls his hair, plays with the children as if they were dolls,
+but it is my part to take care of them.”
+
+“And you, you say, have no share of love. Happily no one believes you,
+and I least of all. Only lately my mother was telling me about you, and
+I thought you were a girl who might turn out just such a wife as a woman
+ought to be.”
+
+“And now?”
+
+“Now, I know it for certain.”
+
+“You may be mistaken.”
+
+“No, no! your name is Selene, and you are as gentle as the kindly
+moonlight; names, even, have their significance.”
+
+“And my blind brother who has never even seen the light is called
+Helios!” answered the girl.
+
+Pollux had spoken with much warmth, but Selene’s last words startled him
+and checked the effervescence of his feelings. Finding he did not answer
+her bitter exclamation, she said, at first coolly, but with increasing
+warmth:
+
+“You are beginning to believe me, and you are right, for what I do for
+the children is not done out of love, or out of kindness, or because I
+set their welfare above my own. I have inherited my father’s pride, and
+it would be odious to me if my brothers and sisters went about in rags,
+and people thought we were as poor and helpless as we really are. What
+is most horrible to me is sickness in the house, for that increases the
+anxiety I always feel and swallows up my last coin; the children must
+not perish for want of it. I do not want to make myself out worse than I
+am; it grieves me too to see them drooping. But nothing that I do brings
+me happiness--at most it moderates my fears. You ask what I am afraid
+of?--of everything, everything that can happen to me, for I have no
+reason to look forward to anything good. When there is a knock, it may
+be a creditor; when people look at Arsinoe in the street, I seem to see
+dishonor lurking round her; when my father acts against the advice of
+the physician I feel as if we were standing already roofless in the open
+street. What is there that I can do with a happy mind? I certainly am
+not idle, still I envy the woman who can sit with her hands in her
+lap and be waited on by slaves, and if a golden treasure fell into my
+possession, I would never stir a finger again, and would sleep every
+day till the sun was high and make slaves look after my father and the
+children. My life is sheer misery. If ever we see better days I shall
+be astonished, and before I have got over my astonishment it will all be
+over.”
+
+The sculptor felt a cold chill, and his heart which had opened wide to
+his old playfellow shrank again within him. Before he could find the
+right words of encouragement which he sought, they heard in the hall,
+where the workmen and slaves were sleeping, the blast of a trumpet
+intended to awake them. Selene started, drew her mantle more closely
+round her, begged Pollux to take care of her father, and to hide the
+wine-jar which was standing near him from the work-people and then,
+forgetting her lamp, she went hastily toward the door by which she
+had entered. Pollux hurried after her to light the way and while he
+accompanied her as far as the door of her rooms, by his warm and urgent
+words which appealed wonderfully to her heart, he extracted from her a
+promise to stand once more in her mantle as his model.
+
+A quarter of an hour later the steward was safe in bed and still
+sleeping soundly, while Pollux, who had stretched himself on a mattress
+behind his screen, could not for a long time cease to think of the pale
+girl with her benumbed soul. At last sleep overcame him too, and a sweet
+dream showed him pretty little Arsinoe, who but for him must infallibly
+have been killed by the Numidian’s restive horse, taking away her sister
+Selene’s almond-cake and giving it to him. The pale girl submitted
+quietly to the robbery and only smiled coldly and silently to herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Alexandria was in the greatest excitement.
+
+The Emperor’s visit now immediately impending had tempted the busy
+hive of citizens away from the common round of life in which, day after
+day,--swarming, hurrying, pushing each other on, or running each other
+down--they raced for bread and for the means of filling their hours of
+leisure with pleasures and amusements. The unceasing wheel of industry
+to-day had pause in the factories, workshops, storehouses and courts of
+justice, for all sorts and conditions of men were inspired by the same
+desire to celebrate Hadrian’s visit with unheard-of splendor. All that
+the citizens could command of inventive skill, of wealth, and of beauty
+was called forth to be displayed in the games and processions which were
+to fill up a number of days. The richest of the heathen citizens had
+undertaken the management of the pieces to be performed in the Theatre,
+of the mock fight on the lake, and of the sanguinary games in the
+Amphitheatre; and so great was the number of opulent persons that many
+more were prepared to pay for smaller projects, for which there was
+no opening. Nevertheless the arrangements for certain portions of the
+procession, in which even the less wealthy were to take a share, the
+erection of the building in the Hippodrome, the decorations in the
+streets, and the preparations for entertaining the Roman visitors
+absorbed sums so large that they seemed extravagant even to the prefect
+Titianus, who was accustomed to see his fellow-officials in Rome
+squander millions.
+
+As the Emperor’s viceroy it behoved him to give his assent to all that
+was planned to feast his sovereign’s eye and ear. On the whole, he left
+the citizens of the great town free to act as they would; but he had,
+more than once, to exert a decided opposition to their overdoing the
+thing; for though the Emperor might be able to endure a vast amount of
+pleasure, what the Alexandrians originally proposed to provide for
+him to see and hear would have exhausted the most indefatigable human
+energy.
+
+That which gave the greatest trouble, not merely to him, but also to the
+masters of the revels chosen by the municipality, were the never-dormant
+hostility between the heathen and the Jewish sections of the
+inhabitants, and the processions, since no division chose to come last,
+nor would any number be satisfied to be only the third or the fourth.
+
+It was from a meeting, where his determined intervention had at last
+brought all these preliminaries to a decision beyond appeal, that
+Titianus proceeded to the Caesareum to pay the Empress the visit which
+she expected of him daily. He was glad to have come to some conclusion,
+at any rate provisionally, with regard to these matters, for six
+days had slipped away since the works had been begun in the palace of
+Lochias, and Hadrian’s arrival was nearing rapidly.
+
+He found Sabina, as usual, on her divan, but on this occasion the
+Empress was sitting upright on her cushions. She seemed quite to have
+got over the fatigues of the sea-voyage, and in token that she felt
+better she had applied more red to her cheeks and lips than three days
+ago, and because she was to receive a visit from the sculptors, Papias
+and Aristeas, she had had her hair arranged as it was worn in the
+statue of Venus Victrix, with whose attributes she had, five years
+previously--though not, it is true, without some resistance--been
+represented in marble. When a copy of this statue had been erected in
+Alexandria, an evil tongue had made a speech which was often repeated
+among the citizens.
+
+“This Aphrodite is triumphant to be sure, for all who see her make haste
+to fly; she should be called Cypris the scatterer.”
+
+Titianus was still under the excitement of the embittered squabbles and
+unpleasing exhibitions of character at which he had just been present
+when he entered the presence of the Empress, whom he found in a small
+room with no one but the chamberlain and a few ladies-in-waiting. To
+the prefect’s respectful inquiries after her health, she shrugged her
+shoulders and replied:
+
+“How should I be? If I said well it would not be true; if I said ill, I
+should be surrounded with pitiful faces, which are not pleasant to look
+at. After all we must endure life. Still, the innumerable doors in these
+rooms will be the death of me if I am compelled to remain here long.”
+
+Titianus glanced at the two doors of the room in which the Empress was
+sitting, and began to express his regrets at their bad condition, which
+had escaped his notice; but Sabina interrupted him, saying:
+
+“You men never do observe what hurts us women. Our Verus is the only man
+who can feel and understand--who can divine it, as I might say. There
+are five and thirty doors in my rooms! I had them counted-five and
+thirty! If they were not old and made of valuable wood I should really
+believe they had been made as a practical joke on me.”
+
+“Some of them might be supplemented with curtains.”
+
+“Oh! never mind--a few miseries, more or less in any life do not matter.
+Are the Alexandrians ready at last with their preparations?”
+
+“I am sure I hope so,” said the prefect with a sigh. “They are bent on
+giving all that is their best; but in the endeavor to outvie each other
+every one is at war with his neighbor, and I still feel the effects of
+the odious wrangling which I have had to listen to for hours, and that
+I have been obliged to check again and again with threats of ‘I shall be
+down upon you.’”
+
+“Indeed,” said the Empress with a pinched smile, as if she had heard
+some thing that pleased her.
+
+“Tell me something about your meeting. I am bored to death, for Verus,
+Balbilla and the others have asked for leave of absence that they may
+go to inspect the work doing at Lochias; I am accustomed to find that
+people would rather be any where than with me. Can I wonder then that
+my presence is not enough to enable a friend of my husband’s to forget
+a little annoyance--the impression left by some slight misunderstanding?
+But my fugitives are a long time away; there must be a great deal that
+is beautiful to be seen at Lochias.”
+
+The prefect suppressed his annoyance and did not express his anxiety
+lest the architect and his assistants should be disturbed, but began in
+the tone of the messenger in a tragedy:
+
+“The first quarrel was fought over the order of the procession.”
+
+“Sit a little farther off,” said Sabina pressing her jewelled right-hand
+on her ear, as if she were suffering a pain in it. The prefect colored
+slightly, but he obeyed the desire of Caesar’s wife and went on with his
+story, pitching his voice in a somewhat lower key than before:
+
+“Well, it was about the procession, that the first breach of the peace
+arose.”
+
+“I have heard that once already,” replied the lady, yawning. “I like
+processions.”
+
+“But,” said the prefect, a man in the beginning of the sixties--and he
+spoke with some irritation, “here as in Rome and every where else, where
+they are not controlled by the absolute will of a single individual,
+processions are the children of strife, and they bring forth strife,
+even when they are planned in honor of a festival of Peace.”
+
+“It seems to annoy you that they should be organized in honor of
+Hadrian?”
+
+“You are in jest; it is precisely because I care particularly that they
+should be carried out with all possible splendor, that I am troubling
+myself about them in person, even as to details; and to my great
+satisfaction I have been able even to subdue the most obstinate; still
+it was scarcely my duty--”
+
+“I fancied that you not only served the state but were my husband’s
+friend.”
+
+“I am proud to call myself so.”
+
+“Aye--Hadrian has many, very many friends since he has worn the purple.
+Have you got over your ill temper Titianus? You must have become very
+touchy. Poor Julia has an irritable husband!”
+
+“She is less to be pitied than you think,” said Titianus with dignity,
+“for my official duties so entirely claim my time that she is not often
+likely to know what disturbs me. If I have forgotten to dissimulate my
+vexation before you, I beg you to pardon me, and to attribute it to my
+zeal in securing a worthy reception for Hadrian.”
+
+“As if I had scolded you! But to return to your wife--as I understand
+she shares the fate I endure. We poor women have nothing to expect from
+our husbands, but the stale leavings that remain after business has
+absorbed the rest! But your story--go on with your story.”
+
+“The worst moments I had at all were given me by the bad feeling of the
+Jews towards the other citizens.”
+
+“I hate all these infamous sects--Jews, Christians or whatever they are
+called! Do they dare to grudge their money for the reception of Caesar?”
+
+“On the contrary Alabarchos, their wealthy chief, has offered to defray
+all the cost of the Naumachia and his co-religionist Artemion.”
+
+“Well, take their money, take their money.”
+
+“The Greek citizens feel that they are rich enough to pay all the
+expenses, which will amount to many millions of sesterces, and they wish
+to exclude the Jews, if possible, from all the processions and games.”
+
+“They are perfectly right.”
+
+“But allow me to ask you whether it is just to prohibit half the
+population of Alexandria doing honor to their Emperor!”
+
+“Oh! Hadrian will, with pleasure, dispense with the honor. Our
+conquering heroes have thought it redounded to their glory to be called
+Africanus, Germanicus and Dacianus, but Titus refused to be called
+Judaicus when he had destroyed Jerusalem.”
+
+“That was because he dreaded the remembrance of the rivers of blood
+which had to be shed in order to break the fearfully obstinate
+resistance of that nation. The besieged had to be conquered limb by
+limb, and finger by finger, before they would make up their minds to
+yield.”
+
+“Again you are speaking half poetically, or have these people elected
+you as their advocate?”
+
+“I know them and make every effort to secure them justice, just as much
+as any other citizen of this country which I govern in the name of
+the Empire and of Caesar. They pay taxes as well as the rest of the
+Alexandrians; nay more, for there are many wealthy men among them who
+are honorably prominent in trade, in professions, learning and art, and
+I therefore mete to them the same measure as to the other inhabitants
+of this city. Their superstition offends me no more than that of the
+Egyptians.”
+
+“But it really is above all measure. At Aelia Capitolina which Hadrian
+had decorated with several buildings, they refused to sacrifice to the
+statues of Zeus and Hera. That is to say they scorn to do homage to me
+and my husband!”
+
+“They are forbidden to worship any other divinity than their own God.
+Aelia rose up on the very soil where their ruined Jerusalem had stood,
+and the statues of which you speak stand in their holy places.”
+
+“What has that to do with us?”
+
+“You know that even Caius--[Caligula]--could not reduce them by placing
+his statue in the Holy of Holies of their temple; and Petronius, the
+governor, had to confess that to subdue them meant to exterminate them.”
+
+“Then let them meet with the fate they deserve, let them be
+exterminated!” cried Sabina.
+
+“Exterminated?” asked the prefect. “In Alexandria they constitute
+nearly half of the citizens, that is to say several hundred thousand of
+obedient subjects, exterminated!”
+
+“So many?” asked the Empress in alarm. “But that is frightful.
+Omnipotent Jove! supposing that mass were to revolt against us! No one
+ever told me of this danger. In Cyrenaica, and at Salamis in Cyprus,
+they killed their fellow-citizens by thousands.”
+
+“They had been provoked to extremities and they were superior to their
+oppressors in force.”
+
+“And in their own land one revolt after another is organized.”
+
+“By reason of the sacrifices of which we were speaking.”
+
+“Tinnius Rufus is at present the legate in Palestine. He has a horribly
+shrill voice--but he looks like a man who will stand no trifling, and
+will know how to quell the venomous brood.”
+
+“Possibly” replied Titianus. “But I fear that he will never attain his
+end by mere severity; and if he should he will have depopulated his
+province.”
+
+“There are already too many men in the empire.”
+
+“But never enough good and useful citizens.”
+
+“Outrageous contemners of the gods and useless citizens!”
+
+“Here in Alexandria, where many have accommodated themselves to Greek
+habits of life and thought, and where all have adopted the Greek tongue,
+they are undoubtedly good citizens, and wholly devoted to Caesar.”
+
+“Do they take part in the rejoicings?”
+
+“Yes, as far as the Greek citizens will allow them.”
+
+“And the arrangement of the water-fight?”
+
+“That will not be given over to them, but Artemion will be permitted to
+supply the wild beasts for the games in the Amphitheatre.”
+
+“And he was not avaricious about it?”
+
+“So far from it that you will be astonished. The man must know the
+secret of Midas, of turning stones into gold.”
+
+“And are there many like him among your Jews?”
+
+“A good number.”
+
+“Then I wish that they would attempt a revolt, for if this led to the
+destruction of the rich ones, their gold, at any rate, would remain.”
+
+“Meanwhile I will try and keep them alive, as being good rate-payers.”
+
+“And does Hadrian share your wish?”
+
+“Without doubt.”
+
+“Your successor may perhaps bring him to another mind.”
+
+“He always acts according to his own judgment, and for the present I am
+in office,” answered Titianus haughtily.
+
+“And may the God of the Jews long preserve you in it!” retorted Sabina
+scornfully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Before Titianus could open his lips to reply, the principal door of the
+room was opened cautiously but widely, and the praetor Lucius Aurelius
+Verus, his wife Domitia Lucilla, the young Balbilla and, last of all,
+Annaeus Florus, the historian, entered. All four were in the best
+spirits, and immediately after the preliminary greetings, were eager to
+report what they had seen at Lochias; but Sabina waved silence with her
+hand, and breathed out:
+
+“No, no; not at present. I feel quite exhausted. This long waiting, and
+then--my smelling-bottle, Verus. Leukippe, bring me a cup of water with
+some fruit-syrup--but not so sweet as usual.”
+
+The Greek slave-girl hastened to execute this command, and the Empress,
+as she waved an elegant bottle carved in onyx, under her nostrils, went
+on:
+
+“It is a little eternity--is it not, Titianus, that we have been
+discussing state affairs? You all know how frank I am and that I cannot
+be silent when I meet with perverse opinions. While you have been away
+I have had much to hear and to say; it would have exhausted the strength
+of the strongest. I only wonder you don’t find me more worn out, for
+what can be more excruciating for a woman, that to be obliged to enter
+the lists for manly decisiveness against a man who is defending a
+perfectly antagonistic view? Give me water, Leukippe.”
+
+While the Empress drank the syrup with tiny sips twitching her thin lips
+over it, Verus went up to the prefect and asked him in an under tone:
+
+“You were a long while alone with Sabina, cousin?”
+
+“Yes,” replied Titianus, and he set his teeth as he spoke and clenched
+his fist so hard that the praetor could not misunderstand, and replied
+in a low voice:
+
+“She is much to be pitied, and particularly just now she has hours--”
+
+“What sort of hours?” asked Sabina taking the cup from her lips.
+
+“These,” replied Verus quickly, “in which I am not obliged to occupy
+myself in the senate or with the affairs of state. To whom do I owe them
+but to you?”
+
+With these words he approached the mature beauty, and taking the goblet
+out of her hand with affectionate subservience, as a son might wait on
+his honored and suffering mother, he gave it to the Greek slave. The
+Empress bowed her thanks again and again to the praetor with much
+affability, and then said, with a slight infusion of cheerfulness in her
+tones:
+
+“Well--and what is there to be seen at Lochias?”
+
+“Wonderful things,” answered Balbilla readily and clasping her little
+hands.
+
+“A swarm of bees, a colony of ants, have taken possession of the palace.
+Hands black, white and brown--more than we could count, are busy there
+and of all the hundreds of workmen which are astir there, not one got in
+the way of another, for one little man orders and manages them all,
+just as the prescient wisdom of the gods guides the stars through the
+‘gracious and merciful night’ so that they may never push or run against
+each other.”
+
+“I must put in a word on behalf of Pontius the architect,” interposed
+Verus. “He is a man of at least average height.”
+
+“Let us admit it to satisfy your sense of justice,” returned Balbilla.
+“Let us admit it--a man of average height, with a papyrus-roll in his
+right-hand and a stylus in the left, controls them. Now, does my way of
+stating it please you better?”
+
+“It can never displease me,” answered the praetor. “Let Balbilla go on
+with her story,” commanded the Empress.
+
+“What we saw was chaos,” continued the girl, “still in the confusion we
+could divine the elements of an orderly creation in the future; nay, it
+was even visible to the eye.”
+
+“And not unfrequently stumbled over with the foot,” laughed the praetor.
+“If it had been dark, and if the laborers had been worms, we must have
+trodden half of them to death--they swarmed so all over the pavement.”
+
+“What were they doing?”
+
+“Every thing,” answered Balbilla quickly. “Some were polishing damaged
+pieces, others were laying new bits of mosaic in the empty places from
+which it had formerly been removed, and skilled artists were painting
+colored figures on smooth surfaces of plaster. Every pillar and every
+statue was built round with a scaffolding reaching to the ceiling on
+which men were climbing and crowding each other just as the sailors
+climb into the enemy’s ships in the Naumachia.”
+
+The girl’s pretty cheeks had flushed with her eager reminiscence of
+what she had seen, and, as she spoke, moving her hands with expressive
+gestures, the tall structure of curls which crowned her small head shook
+from side to side.
+
+“Your description begins to be quite poetical,” said the Empress,
+interrupting her young companion. “Perhaps the Muse may even inspire you
+with verse.”
+
+“All the Pierides,” said the praetor, “are represented at Lochias.
+We saw eight of them, but the ninth, that patroness of the arts, who
+protects the stargazer, the lofty Urania, has at present, in place of a
+head--allow me to leave it to you to guess divine Sabina?”
+
+“Well--what?”
+
+“A wisp of straw.”
+
+“Alas,” sighed the Empress. “What do you say, Florus? Are there not
+among your learned and verse spinning associates certain men who
+resemble this Urania?”
+
+“At any rate,” replied Florus, “we are more prudent than the goddess,
+for we conceal the contents of our heads in the hard nut of the skull,
+and under a more or less abundant thatch of hair. Urania displays her
+straw openly.”
+
+“That almost sounds,” said Balbilla laughing and pointing to her
+abundant locks, “as if I especially needed to conceal what is covered by
+my hair.”
+
+“Even the Lesbian swan was called the fair-haired,” replied Florus.
+
+“And you are our Sappho,” said the praetor’s wife, drawing the girl’s
+arm to her bosom.
+
+“Really! and will you not write in verse all that you have seen to-day?”
+ asked the Empress.
+
+Balbilla looked down on the ground a minute and then said brightly:
+“It might inspire me, everything strange that I meet with prompts me to
+write verse.”
+
+“But follow the counsel of Apollonius the philologer,” advised Florus.
+“You are the Sappho of our day, and therefore you should write in the
+ancient Aeolian dialect and not Attic Greek.” Verus laughed, and the
+Empress, who never was strongly moved to laughter, gave a short sharp
+giggle, but Balbilla said eagerly:
+
+“Do you think that I could not acquire it and do so? To-morrow morning I
+will begin to practise myself in the old Aeolian forms.”
+
+“Let it alone,” said Domitia Lucilla; “your simplest songs are always
+the prettiest.”
+
+“No one shall laugh at me!” declared Balbilla pertinaciously. “In a few
+weeks I will know how to use the Aeolian dialect, for I can do anything
+I am determined to do--anything, anything.”
+
+“What a stubborn little head we have under our curls!” exclaimed the
+Empress, raising a graciously threatening finger.
+
+“And what powers of apprehension,” added Florus.
+
+“Her master in language and metre told me his best pupil was a woman of
+noble family and a poetess besides--Balbilla in short.”
+
+The girl colored at the words, and said with pleased excitement:
+
+“Are you flattering me or did Hephaestion really say that?”
+
+“Woe is me!” cried the praetor, “for Hephaestion was my master too, and
+I am one of the masculine scholars beaten by Balbilla. But it is no news
+to me, for the Alexandrian himself told me the same thing as Florus.”
+
+“You follow Ovid and she Sappho,” said Florus; “you write in Latin and
+she in Greek. Do you still always carry Ovid’s love-poems about with
+you?”
+
+“Always,” replied Verus, “as Alexander did his Homer.”
+
+“And out of respect for his master your husband endeavors, by the grace
+of Venus, to live like him,” added Sabina, addressing herself to Domitia
+Lucilla.
+
+The tall and handsome Roman lady only shrugged her shoulders slightly
+in answer to this not very kindly-meant speech; but Verus said, while
+he picked up Sabina’s silken coverlet, and carefully spread it over her
+knees:
+
+“My happiest fortune consists in this: that Venus Victrix favors me. But
+we are not yet at the end of our story; our Lesbian swan met at Lochias
+with another rare bird, an artist in statuary.”
+
+“How long have the sculptors been reckoned among birds?” asked Sabina.
+“At the utmost can they be compared to woodpeckers.”
+
+“When they work in wood,” laughed Verus. “Our artist, however, is an
+assistant of Papias, and handles noble materials in the grand style.
+On this occasion, however, he is building a statue out of a very queer
+mixture of materials.”
+
+“Verus may very well call our new acquaintance a bird,” interrupted
+Balbilla, “for as we approached the screen behind which he is working he
+was whistling a tune with his lips, so pure and cheery, and loud, that
+it rang through the empty hall above all the noise of the workmen. A
+nightingale does not pipe more sweetly. We stood still to listen till
+the merry fellow, who had no idea that we were by, was silent again; and
+then hearing the architect’s voice, he called to him over the screen.
+‘Now we must clap Urania’s head on; I saw it clearly in my mind and
+would have had it finished with a score of touches, but Papias said he
+had one in the workshop. I am curious to see what sort of a sugarplum
+face, turned out by the dozen, he will stick on my torso--which will
+please me, at any rate, for a couple of days. Find me a good model for
+the bust of the Sappho I am to restore. A thousand gadflies are buzzing
+in my brain--I am so tremendously excited! What I am planning now will
+come to something!’”
+
+Balbilla, as she spoke the last words, tried to mimic a man’s deep
+voice, and seeing the Empress smile she went on eagerly.
+
+“It all came out so fresh, from a heart full to bursting of happy
+vigorous creative joy, that it quite fired me, and we all went up to the
+screen and begged the sculptor to let us see his work.”
+
+“And you found?” asked Sabina.
+
+“He positively refused to let us into his retreat,” replied the praetor;
+“but Balbilla coaxed the permission out of him, and the tall young
+fellow seems to have really learnt something. The fall of the drapery
+that covers the Muse’s figure is perfectly thought out with reference to
+possibility--rich, broadly handled, and at the same time of surprising
+delicacy. Urania has drawn her mantle closely round her, as if to
+protect herself from the keen night-air while gazing at the stars. When
+he has finished his Muse, he is to repair some mutilated busts of women;
+he was fixing the head of a finished Berenice to-day, and I proposed to
+him to take Balbilla as the model for his Sappho.”
+
+“A good idea” said the Empress. “If the bust is successful I will take
+him with me to Rome.”
+
+“I will sit to him with pleasure,” said the girl. “The bright young
+fellow took my fancy.”
+
+“And Balbilla his,” added the praetor’s wife; “he gazed at her as a
+marvel, and she promised him that, with your permission, she would place
+her face at his disposal for three hours to-morrow.”
+
+“He begins with the head,” interposed Verus. “What a happy man is an
+artist such as he! He may turn about her head, or lay her peplum in
+folds without reproof or repulse, and to-day when we had to get past
+bogs of plaster, and lakes of wet paint, she scarcely picked up the hem
+of her dress, and never once allowed me--who would so willingly have
+supported her--to lift her over the worst places.”
+
+Balbilla reddened and said angrily:
+
+“Really Verus, in good earnest, I will not allow you to speak to me in
+that way, so now you know it once for all; I have so little liking
+for what is not clean that I find it quite easy to avoid it without
+assistance.”
+
+“You are too severe,” interrupted the Empress with a hideous smile. “Do
+not you think Domitia Lucilla, that she ought to allow your husband to
+be of service to her?”
+
+“If the Empress thinks it right and fitting,” replied the lady raising
+her shoulders, and with an expressive movement of her hands. Sabina
+quite took her meaning, and suppressing another yawn she said angrily:
+
+“In these days we must be indulgent toward a husband who has chosen
+Ovid’s amatory poems as his faithful companion. What is the matter
+Titianus?”
+
+While Balbilla had been relating her meeting with the sculptor Pollux, a
+chamberlain had brought in to the prefect an important letter, admitting
+of no delay. The state official had withdrawn to the farther side of the
+room with it, had broken the strong seal and had just finished reading
+it, when the Empress asked her question.
+
+Nothing of what went on around her escaped Sabina’s little eyes, and
+she had observed that while the governor was considering the document
+addressed to him he had moved uneasily. It must contain something of
+importance.
+
+“An urgent letter,” replied Titianus, “calls me home. I must take my
+leave, and I hope ere long to be able to communicate to you something
+agreeable.”
+
+“What does that letter contain?”
+
+“Important news from the provinces,” said Titianus.
+
+“May I inquire what?”
+
+“I grieve to say that I must answer in the negative. The Emperor
+expressly desired that this matter should be kept secret. Its settlement
+demands the promptest haste, and I am therefore unfortunately obliged to
+quit you immediately.”
+
+Sabina returned the prefect’s parting salutations with icy coldness
+and immediately desired to be conducted to her private rooms to dress
+herself for supper.
+
+Balbilla escorted her, and Florus betook himself to the “Olympian
+table,” the famous eating-house kept by Lycortas, of whom he had been
+told wonders by the epicures at Rome.
+
+When Verus was alone with his wife he went up in a friendly manner and
+said:
+
+“May I drive you home again?”
+
+Domitia Lucilla had thrown herself on a couch, and covered her face with
+her hands, and she made no reply. “May I?” repeated the praetor. As his
+wife persisted in her silence, he went nearer to her, laid his hand on
+her slender fingers that concealed her face, and said:
+
+“I believe you are angry with me!” She pushed away his hand, with a
+slight movement, and said: “Leave me.”
+
+“Yes, unfortunately I must leave you. Business takes me into the city
+and I will--”
+
+“You will let the young Alexandrians, with whom you revelled through the
+night, introduce you to new fair ones--I know it.”
+
+“There are in fact women here of incredible charm,” replied Verus quite
+coolly. “White, brown, copper-colored, black--and all delightful in
+their way. I could never be tired of admiring them.”
+
+“And your wife?” asked Lucilla, facing him, sternly. “My wife? yes, my
+fairest. Wife is a solemn title of honor and has nothing to do with the
+joys of life. How could I mention your name in the same hour with those
+of the poor children who help me to beguile an idle hour.”
+
+Domitia Lucilla was used to such phrases, and yet on this occasion they
+gave her a pang. But she concealed it, and crossing her arms she said
+resolutely and with dignity:
+
+“Go your way--through life with your Ovid, and your gods of love, but do
+not attempt to crush innocence under the wheels of your chariot.”
+
+“Balbilla do you mean,” asked the praetor with a loud laugh. “She knows
+how to take care of herself and has too much spirit to let herself get
+entangled in erotics. The little son of Venus has nothing to say to two
+people who are such good friends as she and I are.”
+
+“May I believe you?”
+
+“My word for it, I ask nothing of her but a kind word,” cried he,
+frankly offering his hand to his wife. Lucilla only touched it lightly
+with her fingers and said:
+
+“Send me back to Rome. I have an unutterable longing to see my children,
+particularly the boys.”
+
+“It cannot be,” said Verus. “Not at present; but in a few weeks, I
+hope.”
+
+“Why not sooner?”
+
+“Do not ask me.”
+
+“A mother may surely wish to know why she is separated from her baby in
+the cradle.”
+
+“That cradle is at present in your mother’s house, and she is taking
+care of our little ones. Have patience, a little longer for that which I
+am striving after, for you, and for me, and not last, for our son, is so
+great, so stupendously great and difficult that it might well outweigh
+years of longing.”
+
+Verus spoke the last words in a low tone, but with a dignity which
+characterized him only in decisive moments, but his wife, even before he
+had done speaking, clasped his right-hand in both of hers and said in a
+low frightened voice:
+
+“You aim at the purple?” He nodded assent.
+
+“That is what it means then!”
+
+“What?”
+
+“Sabina and you--”
+
+“Not on that account only; she is hard and sharp to others, but to me
+she has shown nothing but kindness, ever since I was a boy.”
+
+“She hates me.”
+
+“Patience, Lucilla; patience! The day is coming when the daughter of
+Nigrinus, the wife of Caesar, and the former Empress--but I will not
+finish. I am, as you know, warmly attached to Sabina, and sincerely wish
+the Emperor a long life.”
+
+“And he will adopt.”
+
+“Hush!--he is thinking of it, and his wife wishes It.”
+
+“Is it likely to happen soon?”
+
+“Who can tell at this moment what Caesar may decide on in the very
+next hour. But probably his decision may be made on the thirtieth of
+December.”
+
+“Your birthday.”
+
+“He asked what day it was, and he is certainly casting my horoscope, for
+the night when my mother bore me--”
+
+“The stars then are to seal our fate?”
+
+“Not they alone. Hadrian must also be inclined to read them in my
+favor.”
+
+“How can I be of use to you?”
+
+“Show yourself what you really are in your intercourse with the Emperor”
+
+“I thank you for those words--and I beg you do not provoke me any more.
+If it might yet be something more than a mere post of honor to be the
+wife of Verus, I would not ask for the new dignity of becoming wife to
+Caesar.”
+
+“I will not go into the town to-day; I will stay with you. Now are you
+happy?”
+
+“Yes, yes,” cried she, and she raised her arm to throw it round her
+husband’s neck, but he held her aside and whispered:
+
+“That will do. The idyllic is out of place in the race for the purple.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Titianus had ordered his charioteer to drive at once to Lochias. The
+road led past the prefect’s palace, his residence on the Bruchiom, and
+he paused there; for the letter which lay hidden in the folds of his
+toga, contained news, which, within a few hours, might put him under
+the necessity of not returning home till the following morning. Without
+allowing himself to be detained by the officials, subalterns, or
+lictors, who were awaiting his return to make communications, or to
+receive his orders, he went straight through the ante-room and the large
+public rooms for men, to find his wife in the women’s apartments which
+looked upon the garden. He met her at the door of her room, for she had
+heard his step approaching and came out to receive him.
+
+“I was not mistaken,” said the matron with sincere pleasure. “How
+pleasant that you have been released so early to-day. I did not expect
+you till supper was over.”
+
+“I have come only to go again,” replied Titianus, entering his
+wife’s room. “Have some bread brought to me and a cup of mixed wine;
+why--really! here stands all I want ready as if I had ordered it. You
+are right, I was with Sabina a shorter time than usual; but she exerted
+herself in that short time to utter as many sour words as if we had been
+talking for half a day. And in five minutes I must quit you again, till
+when?--the gods alone know when I shall return. It is hard even to speak
+the words, but all our trouble and care, and all poor Pontius’ zeal and
+pains-taking labor are in vain.”
+
+As he spoke the prefect threw himself on a couch; his wife handed him
+the refreshment he had asked for, and said, as she passed her hand over
+his grey hair:
+
+“Poor man! Has Hadrian then determined after all to inhabit the
+Caesareum?”
+
+“No. Leave us, Syra--you shall see directly. Please read me Caesar’s
+letter once more. Here it is.” Julia unfolded the papyrus, which was of
+elegant quality, and began:
+
+“Hadrian to his friend Titianus, the Governor of Egypt. The deepest
+secrecy--Hadrian greets Titianus, as he has so often done for years at
+the beginning of disagreeable business letters, and only with half his
+heart. But to-morrow he hopes to greet the dear friend of his youth, his
+prudent vicegerent, not merely with his whole soul, but with hand
+and tongue. And now to be more explicit, as follows: I come to-morrow
+morning, the fifteenth of December, towards evening, to Alexandria, with
+none but Antinous, the slave Mastor, and my private secretary, Phlegon.
+We land at Lochias, in the little harbor, and you will know my ship by
+a large silver star at the prow. If night should fall before I arrive
+there, three red lanterns at the end of the mast shall inform you of the
+friend that is approaching. I have sent home the learned and witty men
+whom you sent to meet me, in order to detain me, and gain time for
+the restoration of the old nest in which I had a fancy to roost with
+Minerva’s birds--which have not, I hope, all been driven out of it--in
+order that Sabina and her following may not lack entertainment, nor the
+famous gentlemen themselves be unnecessarily disturbed in their labors.
+I need them not. If perchance it was not you who sent them, I ask
+your pardon. An error in this matter would certainly involve some
+humiliation, for it is easier to explain what has happened than to
+foresee what is to come. Or is the reverse the truth? I will indemnify
+the learned men for their useless journey by disputing this question
+with them and their associates in the Museum. The rapid movement
+to which the philologer was prompted on my account will prolong his
+existence; he bristles with learning at the tip of every hair, and he
+sits still more than is good for him.
+
+“We shall arrive in modest disguise and will sleep at Lochias; you know
+that I have rested more than once on the bare earth, and, if need
+be, can sleep as well on a mat as on a couch. My pillow follows at my
+heels--my big dog, which you know; and some little room, where I can
+meditate undisturbed on my designs for next year, can no doubt be found.
+
+“I entreat you to keep my secret strictly. To none--man nor woman--and
+I beseech you as urgently as friend or Caesar ever besought a favor--let
+the least suspicion of my arrival be known. Nor must the smallest
+preparation betray whom it is you receive. I cannot command so dear a
+friend as Titianus, but I appeal to his heart to carry out my wishes.
+
+“I rejoice to see you again; what delight I shall find in the whirl of
+confusion that I hope to find at Lochias. You shall take me to see the
+artists, who are, no doubt, swarming in the old castle, as the architect
+Claudius Venator from Rome, who is to assist Pontius with his advice.
+But this Pontius, who carried out such fine works for Herodes Atticus,
+the rich Sophist, met me at his house, and will certainly recognize
+me. Tell him, therefore, what I propose doing. He is a serious and
+trustworthy man, not a chatterbox or scatter-brained simpleton who loses
+his head. Thus you may take him into the secret, but not till my vessel
+is in sight. May all be well with you.”
+
+“Well, what do you say to that?” asked Titianus, taking the letter from
+his wife’s hand. “Is it not more than vexatious--our work was going on
+so splendidly.”
+
+“But,” said Julia thoughtfully and with a meaning smile. “Perhaps it
+might not have been finished in time. As matters now stand it need not
+be complete, and Hadrian will see the good intention all the same. I
+am glad about the letter, for it takes a great responsibility off your
+otherwise overloaded shoulders.”
+
+“You always see the right side,” cried the prefect. “It is well that I
+came home, for I can await Caesar with a much lighter heart. Let me lock
+up the letter, and then farewell. This parting is for some hours from
+you, and from all peace for many days.”
+
+Titianus gave her his hand. She held it firmly and said:
+
+“Before you go I must confess to you that I am very proud.”
+
+“You have every right to be.”
+
+“But you have not said a word to me about keeping silence.”
+
+“Because you have kept other tests--still, to be sure, you are a woman,
+and a very handsome one besides.”
+
+“An old grandmother, with grey hair!”
+
+“And still more upright and more charming than a thousand of the most
+admired younger beauties.”
+
+“You are trying to convert my pride into vanity, in my old age.”
+
+“No, no! I was only looking at you with an examining eye, as our talk
+led me to do, and I remembered that Sabina had lamented that handsome
+Julia was not looking well. But where is there another woman of your age
+with such a carriage, such unwrinkled features, so clear a brow, such
+deep kind eyes, such beautifully-polished arms--”
+
+“Be quiet,” exclaimed his wife. “You make me blush.”
+
+“And may I not be proud that a grandmother, who is a Roman, as my wife
+is, can find it so easy to blush? You are quite different from other
+women.”
+
+“Because you are different from other men.”
+
+“You are a flatterer; since all our children have left us, it is as if
+we were newly married again.”
+
+“Ah! the apple of discord is removed.”
+
+“It is always over what he loves best that man is most prompt to be
+jealous. But now, once more, farewell.”
+
+Titianus kissed his wife’s forehead and hurried towards the door; Julia
+called him back and said:
+
+“One thing at any rate we can do for Caesar. I send food every day down
+to the architect at Lochias, and to-day there shall be three times the
+quantity.”
+
+“Good; do so.”
+
+“Farewell, then.”
+
+“And we shall meet again, when it shall please the gods and the
+Emperor.”
+
+         ........................
+
+When the prefect reached the appointed spot, no vessel with a silver
+star was to be seen.
+
+The sun went down and no ship with three red lanterns was visible.
+
+The harbor-master, into whose house Titianus went, was told that he
+expected a great architect from Rome, who was to assist Pontius with his
+counsel in the works at Lochias, and he thought it quite intelligible
+that the governor should do a strange artist the honor of coming to meet
+him; for the whole city was well aware of the incredible haste and the
+lavish outlay of means that were being given to the restoration of the
+ancient palace of the Ptolemies as a residence for the Emperor.
+
+While he was waiting, Titianus remembered the young sculptor Pollux,
+whose acquaintance he had made, and his mother in the pretty little
+gate-house. Well disposed towards them as he felt, he sent at once to
+old Doris, desiring her not to retire to rest early that evening, since
+he, the prefect, would be going late to Lochias.
+
+“Tell her, too, as from yourself and not from me,” Titianus instructed
+the messenger, “that I may very likely look in upon her. She may light
+up her little room and keep it in order.”
+
+No one at Lochias had the slightest suspicion of the honor which awaited
+the old palace.
+
+After Verus had quitted it with his wife and Balbilla, and when he had
+again been at work for about an hour the sculptor Pollux came out of his
+nook, stretching himself, and called out to Pontius, who was standing on
+a scaffold:
+
+“I must either rest or begin upon something new. One cures me of fatigue
+as much as the other. Do you find it so?”
+
+“Yes, just as you do,” replied the architect, as he continued to direct
+the work of the slave-masons, who were fixing a new Corinthian capital
+in the place of an old one which had been broken.
+
+“Do not disturb yourself,” Pollux cried up to him. “I only request you
+to tell my master Papias when he comes here with Gabinius, the dealer in
+antiquities, that he will find me at the rotunda that you inspected
+with me yesterday. I am going to put the head on to the Berenice; my
+apprentice must long since have completed his preparations; but the
+rascal came into the world with two left-hands, and as he squints with
+one eye everything that is straight looks crooked to him, and--according
+to the law of optics--the oblique looks straight. At any rate, he drove
+the peg which is to support the new head askew into the neck, and as no
+historian has recorded that Berenice ever had her neck on one side, like
+the old color-grinder there, I must see to its being straight myself. In
+about half an hour, as I calculate, the worthy Queen will no longer be
+one of the headless women.”
+
+“Where did you get the new head?” asked Pontius. “From the secret
+archives of my memory,” replied Pollux. “Have you seen it?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“And do you like it?”
+
+“Very much.”
+
+“Then it is worthy to live,” sang the sculptor, and, as he quitted the
+hall, he waved his left-hand to the architect, and with his right-hand
+stuck a pink, which he had picked in the morning, behind his ear.
+
+At the rotunda his pupil had done his business better than his master
+could have expected, but Pollux was by no means satisfied with his own
+arrangements. His work, like several others standing on the same side
+of the platform, turned its back on the steward’s balcony, and the only
+reason why he had parted with the portrait of Selene’s mother, of which
+he was so fond, was that his playfellow might gaze at the face whenever
+she chose. He found, however, to his satisfaction, that the busts were
+held in their places on their tall pedestals only by their own weight,
+and he then resolved to alter the historical order of the portrait-heads
+by changing their places, and to let the famous Cleopatra turn her back
+upon the palace, so that his favorite bust might look towards it.
+
+In order to carry out this purpose then and there, he called some slaves
+up to help him in the alteration. This gave rise, more than once, to a
+warning cry, and the loud talking and ordering on this spot, for so many
+years left solitary and silent, attracted an inquirer, who, soon after
+the apprentice had begun his work, had shown herself on the balcony, but
+who had soon retreated after casting a glance at the dirty lad, splashed
+from head to foot with plaster. This time, however, she remained to
+watch, following every movement of Pollux as he directed the slaves;
+though, all the time and whatever he was doing, he turned his back upon
+her.
+
+At last the portrait-head had found its right position, shrouded still
+in a cloth to preserve it from the marks of workmen’s hands. With a deep
+breath the artist turned full on the steward’s house, and immediately a
+clear merry voice called out:
+
+“What, tall Pollux! It really is tall Pollux; how glad I am!”
+
+With these words the girl on the balcony loudly clapped her hands; and
+as the sculptor hailed her in return, and shouted:
+
+“And you are little Arsinoe, eternal gods! What the little thing has
+come to!” She stood on tip-toe to seem taller, nodded at him pleasantly,
+and laughed out: “I have not done growing yet; but as for you, you look
+quite dignified with the beard on your chin, and your eagle’s nose.
+Selene did not tell me till to-day that you were living down there with
+the others.”
+
+The artist’s eyes were fixed on the girl, as if spellbound. There are
+poetic natures in which the imagination immediately transmutes every
+new thing that strikes the eyes or the intelligence, into a romance,
+or rapidly embodies it in verse; and Pollux, like many of his calling,
+could never set his eyes on a fine human form and face, without
+instantly associating them with his art.
+
+“A Galatea--a Galatea without an equal!” thought he, as he stood with
+his eyes fixed on Arsinoe’s face and figure. “Just as if she had this
+instant risen from the sea--that form is just as fresh, and joyous, and
+healthy; and her little curls wave back from her brow as if they were
+still floating on the water; and now as she stoops, how full and supple
+in every movement. It is like a daughter of Nereus following the line
+of the as the waves as they rise into crests and dip again into watery
+valleys. She is like Selene and her mother in the shape of her head and
+the Greek cut of her face, but the elder sister is like the statue of
+Prometheus before it had a soul, and Arsinoe is like the Master’s work
+after the celestial fire coursed through her veins.”
+
+The artist had felt and thought all this out in a few seconds, but the
+girl found her speechless admirer’s silence too long, and exclaimed
+impatiently:
+
+“You have not yet offered me any proper greeting. What are you doing
+down there?”
+
+“Look here,” he replied, lifting the cloth from the portrait, which was
+a striking likeness.
+
+Arsinoe leaned far over the parapet of the balcony, shaded her eyes with
+her hand and was silent for more than a minute. Then she suddenly cried
+out loudly and exclaiming:
+
+“Mother--it is my mother!” She flew into the room behind her.
+
+“Now she will call her father and destroy all poor Selene’s comfort,”
+ thought Pollux, as he pushed the heavy marble bust on which his gypsum
+head was fixed, into its right place.
+
+“Well, let him come. We are the masters here now, and Keraunus dare not
+touch the Emperor’s property.” He crossed his arms and stood gazing at
+the bust, muttering to himself:
+
+“Patchwork--miserable patchwork. We are cobbling up a robe for the
+Emperor out of mere rags; we are upholsterers and not artists. If it
+were only for Hadrian, and not for Diotima and her children, not another
+finger would I stir in the place.”
+
+The path from the steward’s residence led through some passages and up
+a few steps to the rotunda, on which the sculptor was standing, but in
+little more than a minute from Arsinoe’s disappearance from the balcony
+she was by his side. With a heightened color she pushed the sculptor
+away from his work and put herself in the place where he had been
+standing, to be able to gaze at her leisure at the beloved features.
+Then she exclaimed again:
+
+“It is mother--mother!” and the bright tears ran over her cheeks,
+without restraint from the presence of the artist, or the laborers and
+slaves whom she had flown past on her way, and who stared at her with as
+much alarm as if she were possessed.
+
+Pollux did not disturb her. His heart was softened as he watched the
+tears running down the cheeks of this light-hearted child, and he could
+not help reflecting that goodness was indeed well rewarded when it could
+win such tender and enduring love as was cherished for the poor dead
+mother on the pedestal before him.
+
+After looking for some time at the sculptor’s work Arsinoe grew calmer,
+and turning to Pollux she asked:
+
+“Did you make it?”
+
+“Yes,” he replied, looking down.
+
+“And entirely from memory?”
+
+“To be sure.”
+
+“Do you know what?”
+
+“Well.”
+
+“This shows that the Sibyl at the festival of Adonis was right when she
+sang in the Jalemus that the gods did half the work of the artist.”
+
+“Arsinoe!” cried Pollux, for her words made him feel as if a hot spring
+were seething in his heart, and he gratefully seized her hand; but she
+drew it away, for her sister Selene had come out on the balcony and was
+calling her.
+
+It was for his elder playfellow and not for Arsinoe that Pollux had set
+his work in this place, but, just now, her gaze fell like a disturbing
+chill on his excited mood.
+
+“There stands your mother’s portrait,” he called up to the balcony in an
+explanatory tone, pointing to the bust.
+
+“I see it,” she replied coldly. “I will look at it presently more
+closely. Come up Arsinoe, father wants to speak to you.”
+
+Again Pollux stood alone.
+
+As Selene withdrew into the room, she gently shook her pale head, and
+said to herself:
+
+“‘It was to be for me,’ Pollux said; something for me, for once--and
+even this pleasure is spoilt.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The palace-steward, to whom Selene had called up his younger daughter,
+had just returned from the meeting of the citizens; and his old
+black slave, who always accompanied him when he went out, took the
+saffron-colored pallium from his shoulders, and from his head the golden
+circlet, with which he loved to crown his curled hair when he quitted
+the house. Keraunus still looked heated, his eyes seemed more prominent
+than usual and large drops of sweat stood upon his brow, when his
+daughter entered the room where he was. He absently responded to
+Arsinoe’s affectionate greeting with a few unmeaning words, and before
+making the important communication he had to disclose to his daughters,
+he walked up and down before them for some time, puffing out his fat
+cheeks and crossing his arms. Selene was alarmed, and Arsinoe had long
+been out of patience, when at last he began:
+
+“Have you heard of the festivals which are to be held in Caesar’s
+honor?”
+
+Selene nodded and her sister exclaimed:
+
+“Of course we have! Have you secured places for us on the seats kept for
+the town council?”
+
+“Do not interrupt me,” the steward crossly ordered his daughter. “There
+is no question of staring at them. All the citizens are required to
+allow their daughters to take part in the grand things that are to be
+carried out, and we all were asked how many girls we had.”
+
+“And how are we to take part in the show?” cried Arsinoe, joyfully
+clapping her hands.
+
+“I wanted to withdraw before the summons was proclaimed, but Tryphon,
+the shipwright, who has a workshop down by the King’s Harbor, held me
+back and called out to the assembly that his sons said that I had two
+pretty young daughters. Pray how did he know that?”
+
+With these words the steward lifted his grey brows and his face grew
+red to the roots of his hair. Selene shrugged her shoulders, but Arsinoe
+said:
+
+“Tryphon’s shipyard lies just below and we often pass it; but we do not
+know him or his sons. Have you ever seen them Selene? At any rate it is
+polite of him to speak of us as pretty.”
+
+“Nobody need trouble themselves about your appearance unless they want
+to ask my permission to marry you,” replied the steward with a growl.
+
+“And what did you say to Tryphon?” asked Selene.
+
+“I did as I was obliged. Your father is steward of a palace which at
+present belongs to Rome and the Emperor; hence I must receive Hadrian as
+a guest in this, the dwelling of my fathers, and therefore I, less than
+any other citizen--cannot withhold my share in the honors which the city
+council has decreed shall be paid to him.”
+
+“Then we really may,” said Arsinoe, and she went up to her father to
+give him a coaxing pat. But Keraunus was not in the humor to accept
+caresses; he pushed her aside with an angry: “Leave me alone,” and then
+went on:
+
+“If Hadrian were to ask me ‘Where are your daughters on the occasion of
+the festival?’ and if I had to reply, ‘They were not among the daughters
+of the noble citizens,’ it would be an insult to Caesar, to whom in fact
+I feel very well disposed. All this I had to consider, and I gave your
+names and promised to send you to the great Theatre to the assembly of
+young girls. There you will be met by the noblest matrons and maidens of
+the city, and the first painters and sculptors will decide to what part
+of the performance your air and appearance are best fitted.”
+
+“But, father,” cried Selene, “we cannot show ourselves in such an
+assembly in our common garments, and where are we to find the money to
+buy new ones?”
+
+“We can quite well show ourselves by any other girls, in clean, white
+woollen dresses, prettily smartened with fresh ribbons,” declared
+Arsinoe, interposing between her father and her sister.
+
+“It is not that which troubles me,” replied the steward; “it is the
+costumes, the costumes! It is only the daughters of the poorer citizens
+who will be paid by the council, and it would be a disgrace to be
+numbered among the poor--you understand me, children.”
+
+“I will not take part in the procession,” said Selene resolutely, but
+Arsinoe interrupted her.
+
+“It is inconvenient and horrible to be poor, but it certainly is no
+disgrace! The most powerful Romans of ancient times, regarded it as
+honorable to die poor. Our Macedonian descent remains to us even if the
+state should pay for our costumes.”
+
+“Silence,” cried the steward. “This is not the first time that I have
+detected this low vein of feeling in you. Even the noble may submit to
+the misfortunes entailed by poverty, but the advantages it brings with
+it he can never enjoy unless he resigns himself to being so no longer.”
+
+It had cost the steward much trouble to give due expression to this
+idea, which he did not recollect to have heard from another, which
+seemed new to him, and which nevertheless fully represented what he
+felt; and he slowly sank, with all the signs of exhaustion, into a couch
+which formed a divan round a side recess in the spacious sitting-room.
+
+In this room Cleopatra might have held with Antony those banquets of
+which the unequalled elegance and refinement had been enhanced by every
+grace of art and wit. On the very spot where Keraunus now reclined the
+dining-couch of the famous lovers had probably stood; for, though the
+whole hall had a carefully-laid pavement, in this recess there was a
+mosaic of stones of various colors of such beauty and delicacy of finish
+that Keraunus had always forbidden his children to step upon it. This,
+it is true, was less out of regard for the fine work of art than because
+his father had always prohibited his doing so, and his father again
+before him. The picture represented the marriage of Peleus and Thetis,
+and the divan only covered the outer border of the picture, which was
+decorated with graceful little Cupids.
+
+Keraunus desired his daughter to fetch him a cup of wine, but she mixed
+the juice of the grape with a judicious measure of water. After he
+had half drunk the diluted contents of the goblet, with many faces of
+disgust, he said:
+
+“Would you like to know what each of your dresses will cost if it is to
+be in no respect inferior to those of the others?”
+
+“Well,” said Arsinoe anxiously.
+
+“About seven hundred drachmae;--[$115 in 1880]--Philinus, the tailor,
+who is working for the theatre, tells me it will be impossible to do
+anything well for less.”
+
+“And you are really thinking of such insane extravagance,” cried Selene.
+“We have no money, and I should like to know the man who would lend us
+any more.”
+
+The steward’s younger daughter looked doubtfully at the tips of her
+fingers and was silent, but her eyes swimming in tears betrayed what she
+felt. Keraunus was rejoiced at the silent consent which Arsinoe seemed
+to accord to his desire to let her take part in the display at whatever
+cost. He forgot that he had just reproached her for her low sentiments,
+and said:
+
+“The little one always feels what is right. As for you, Selene, I beg
+you to reflect seriously that I am your father, and that I forbid you to
+use this admonishing tone to me; you have accustomed yourself to it with
+the children and to them you may continue to use it. Fourteen hundred
+drachmae certainly, at the first thought of it, seems a very large sum,
+but if the material and the trimming required are bought with judgment,
+after the festival we may very likely sell it back to the man with
+profit.”
+
+“With profit!” cried Selene bitterly, “not half is to be got for old
+things-not a quarter! And even if you turn me out of the house--I will
+not help to drag us into deeper wretchedness; I will take no part in the
+performances.”
+
+The steward did not redden this time, he was not even violent; on the
+contrary, he simply raised his head and compared his daughters as they
+stood--not without an infusion of satisfaction. He was accustomed to
+love his daughters in his own way, Selene as the useful one, and Arsinoe
+as the beauty; and as on this occasion all he cared for was to satisfy
+his vanity, and as this end could be attained through his younger
+daughter alone, he said:
+
+“Stay with the children then, for all I care. We will excuse you on the
+score of weak health, and certainly, child, you do look extremely pale.
+I would far rather find the means for the little one only.”
+
+Two sweet dimples again began to show in Arsinoe’s cheeks, but Selene’s
+lips were as white as her bloodless cheeks as she exclaimed:
+
+“But, father--father! neither the baker nor the butcher has had a coin
+paid him for the last two months, and you will squander seven hundred
+drachmae!”
+
+“Squander!” cried Keraunus indignantly, but still in a tone of disgust
+rather than anger. “I have already forbidden you to speak to me in
+that way. The richest of our noble youths will take part in the games;
+Arsinoe is handsome and perhaps one of them may choose her for his wife.
+And do you call it squandering, when a father does his utmost to find a
+suitable husband for his daughter. After all, what do you know of what I
+may possess?”
+
+“We have nothing, so I cannot know of it,” cried the girl beside
+herself.
+
+“Indeed!” drawled Keraunus with an embarrassed smile. “And is that
+nothing which lies in the cup board there, and stands on the cornice
+shelf? For your sakes I will part with these--the onyx fibula, the
+rings, the golden chaplet, and the girdle of course.”
+
+“They are of mere silver-gilt!” Selene interrupted, ruthlessly. “All my
+grandfather’s real gold you parted with when my mother died.”
+
+“She had to be cremated and buried as was due to our rank,” answered
+Keraunus; “but I will not think now of those melancholy days.”
+
+“Nay, do think of them, father.”
+
+“Silence! All that belongs to my own adornment of course I cannot do
+without, for I must be prepared to meet Caesar in a dress befitting
+my rank; but the little bronze Eros there must be worth something,
+Plutarch’s ivory cup, which is beautifully carved, and above all, that
+picture; its former possessor was convinced that it had been painted
+by Apelles himself herein Alexandria. You shall know at once what these
+little things are worth, for, as the gods vouchsafed, on my way home I
+met, here in the palace, Gabinius of Nicaea, the dealer in such objects.
+He promised me that when he had done his business with the architect
+he would come to me to inspect my treasures, and to pay money down for
+anything that might suit him. If my Apelles pleases him, he will give
+ten talents for that alone, and if he buys it for only the half or even
+the tenth of that sum, I will make you enjoy yourself for once, Selene.”
+
+“We will see,” said the pale girl, shrugging her shoulders, and her
+sister exclaimed:
+
+“Show him the sword too, that you always declared belonged to Caesar,
+and if he gives you a good sum for it you will buy me a gold bracelet.”
+
+“And Selene shall have one, too. But I have the very slenderest hopes
+of the sword, for a connoisseur would hardly pronounce it genuine. But I
+have other things, many others. Hark! that is Gabinius, no doubt.
+Quick, Selene, throw the chiton round me again. My chaplet, Arsinoe.
+A well-to-do man always gets a higher price than a poor one. I have
+ordered the slave to await him in the ante-room; it is always done in
+the best houses.”
+
+The curiosity dealer was a small, lean man, who, by prudence and good
+luck, had raised himself to be one of the most esteemed of his class and
+a rich man. Having matured his knowledge by industry, and experience, he
+knew better than any man how to distinguish what was good from what was
+indifferent or bad, what was genuine from what was spurious. No one had
+a keener eye; but he was abrupt in his dealings with those from whom he
+had nothing to gain. In circumstances where there was profit in view, he
+could, to be sure, be polite even to subservience and show inexhaustible
+patience. He commanded himself so far as to listen with an air of
+conviction to the steward as he told him in a condescending tone that
+he was tired of his little possessions, that he could just as well
+keep them as part with them; he merely wanted to show them to him as
+a connoisseur and would only part with them if a good round sum were
+offered for what was in fact idle capital. One piece after another
+passed through the dealer’s slender fingers, or was placed before him
+that he might contemplate it; but the man spoke not, and only shook
+his head as he examined every fresh object. And when Keraunus told him
+whence this or that specimen of his treasures had been obtained, he only
+murmured--“Indeed” or “Really.”
+
+“Do you think so?” After the last piece of property had passed through
+his hands, the steward asked:
+
+“Well, what do you think of them?”
+
+The beginning of the sentence was spoken confidently, the end almost
+in fear, for the dealer only smiled and shook his head again before he
+said:
+
+“There are some genuine little things among them, but nothing worth
+speaking of. I advise you to keep them, because you have an affection
+for them, while I could get very little by them.”
+
+Keraunus avoided looking towards Selene, whose large eyes, full of
+dread, had been fixed on the dealer’s lips; but Arsinoe, who had
+followed his movements with no less attention, was less easily
+discouraged, and pointing to her father’s Apelles, she said: “And that
+picture, is that worth nothing?”
+
+“It grieves me that I cannot tell so fair a damsel that it is
+inestimably valuable,” said the dealer, stroking his gray whiskers.
+“But we have here only a very feeble copy. The original is in the
+Villa belonging to Phinius on the Lake of Larius, and which he calls
+Cothurnus. I have no use whatever for this piece.”
+
+“And this carved cup?” asked Keraunus. “It came from among the
+possessions of Plutarch, as I can prove, and it is said to have been the
+gift of the Emperor Trajan.”
+
+“It is the prettiest thing in your collection,” replied Gabinius; “but
+it is amply paid for with four hundred drachmae.”
+
+“And this cylinder from Cyprus, with the elegant incised work?” The
+steward was about to take up the polished crystal, but his hand was
+trembling with agitation and pushed instead of lifting it from the
+table. It rolled away on the floor and across the smooth mosaic picture
+as far as the couches. Keraunus was about to stoop to pick it up, but
+his daughters both held him back, and Selene cried out:
+
+“Father, you must not; the physician strictly forbade it.”
+
+While the steward pushed the girls away grumbling, the dealer had gone
+down on his knees to pick up the cylinder, but it seemed to cost the
+slightly-built man much less effort to stoop than to get up again, for
+some minutes had elapsed before he once more stood on his feet, in
+front of Keraunus. His countenance had put on an expression of eager
+attention, and he once more took up the painting attributed to Apelles,
+sat down with it on the couch, and appeared wholly absorbed in the
+contemplation of the picture, which hid his face from the bystanders.
+
+But his eye was not resting on the work before him, but on the
+marriage-scene at his feet, in which he detected each moment some fresh
+and unique beauty. As the dealer sat there for some minutes with the
+little picture on his knee, the steward’s face brightened, Selene drew
+a deep breath, and Arsinoe went up to her father to cling to his arm and
+whisper in his ear:
+
+“Do not let him have the Apelles cheap--remember my bracelet.”
+
+Gabinius now rose, glanced at the various objects lying on the table and
+said in a much shorter and more business-like tone than before:
+
+“For all these things I can give you--wait a minute--twenty-seventy-four
+hundred--four hundred and fifty--I can give you six hundred and fifty
+drachmae, not a sesterce more!”
+
+“You are joking,” cried Keraunus.
+
+“Not a sesterce more,” answered the other coldly. “I do not want to make
+anything, but you as a business man will understand that I do not wish
+to buy with a certain prospect of loss. As regards the Apelles--”
+
+“Well?”
+
+“It may be of some value to me, but only under certain conditions.
+The case is quite different as regards buying pictures. Your two young
+damsels know of course that my line of business leads me to admire and
+value all that is beautiful, but still I must request you to leave me
+alone with your father for a little while. I want to speak with him
+about this curious painting.” Keraunus signed to his daughters, who
+immediately left the room. Before the door was closed upon them the
+dealer called after them:
+
+“It is already growing dark, might I ask you to send me as bright a
+light as possible by one of your slaves.”
+
+“What about the picture?” asked Keraunus.
+
+“Till the light is brought let us talk of something else,” said
+Gabinius.
+
+“Then take a seat on the couch,” said Keraunus. “You will be doing me a
+pleasure and perhaps yourself as well.”
+
+As soon as the two men were seated on the divan, Gabinius began:
+
+“Those little things which we have collected with particular liking, we
+do not readily part with--that I know by long experience. Many a man who
+has come into some property after he has sold all his little antiquities
+has offered me ten times the price I have paid him to get them back
+again, generally in vain, unfortunately. Now, what is true of others
+is true of you, and if you had not been in immediate need of money you
+would hardly have offered me these things.”
+
+“I must entreat you,” began the steward, but the dealer interrupted him,
+saying:
+
+“Even the richest are sometimes in want of ready money; no one knows
+that better than I, for I--I must confess--have large means at my
+command. Just at present it would be particularly easy for me to free
+you from all embarrassment.”
+
+“There stands my Apelles,” exclaimed the steward. “It is yours if you
+make a bid that suits me.”
+
+“The light--here comes the light!” exclaimed Gabinius, taking from the
+slave’s hand the three-branched lamp which Selene had hastily supplied
+with a fresh wick, and he placed it, while he murmured to Keraunus, “By
+your leave,” down on the centre of the mosaic. The steward looked at the
+man on his left hand, with puzzled inquiry, but Gabinius heeded him not
+but went down on his knees again, felt the mosaic over with his hand,
+and devoured the picture of the marriage of Peleus with his eyes.
+
+“Have you lost anything?” asked Keraunus.
+
+“No-nothing whatever. There in the corner--now I am satisfied. Shall I
+place the lamp there, on the table? So--and now to return to business.”
+
+“I beg to do so, but I may as well begin by telling you that in my case
+it is a question not of drachmae but of Attic talents.”--[ The Attic
+talent was worth about L200, or $1000 dollars in the 1880 exchange
+rate.]
+
+“That is a matter of course, and I will offer you five; that is to say a
+sum for which you could buy a handsome roomy house.”
+
+Once more the blood mounted to the steward’s head; for a few minutes he
+could not utter a word, for his heart thumped violently; but presently
+be so far controlled himself as to be able to answer. This time at any
+rate, he was determined to seize Fortune by the forelock and not to be
+taken advantage of, so he said:
+
+“Five talents will not do; bid higher.”
+
+“Then let us say six.”
+
+“If you say double that we are agreed.”
+
+“I cannot put it beyond ten talents; why, for that sum you might build a
+small palace.”
+
+“I stand out for twelve.”
+
+“Well, be it so, but not a sesterce more.”
+
+“I cannot bear to part with my splendid work of art,” sighed Keraunus.
+“But I will take your offer, and give you my Apelles.”
+
+“It is not that picture I am dealing for,” replied Gabinius. “It is of
+trifling value, and you may continue to enjoy the possession of it. It
+is another work of art in this room that I wish to have, and which has
+hitherto seemed to you scarcely worth notice. I have discovered it, and
+one of my rich customers has asked me to find him just such a thing.”
+
+“I do not know what it is.”
+
+“Does everything in this room belong to you?”
+
+“Whom else should it belong to?”
+
+“Then you may dispose of it as you please?”
+
+“Undoubtedly.”
+
+“Very well, then--the twelve Attic talents which I offer you are to be
+paid for the picture that is under our feet.”
+
+“The mosaic! that? It belongs to the palace.”
+
+“It belongs to your residence, and that, I heard you say yourself, has
+been inhabited for more than a century by your forefathers. I know the
+law; it pronounces that everything which has remained in undisputed
+possession in one family, for a hundred years, becomes their property.”
+
+“This mosaic belongs to the palace.”
+
+“I assert the contrary. It is an integral portion of your family
+dwelling, and you may freely dispose of it.”
+
+“It belongs to the palace.”
+
+“No, and again no; you are the owner. Tomorrow morning early you shall
+receive twelve Attic talents in gold, and, with the help of my son,
+later in the day I will take up the picture, pack it, and when it grows
+dark, carry it away. Procure a carpet to cover the empty place for the
+present. As to the secrecy of the transaction--I must of course insist
+on it as strongly--and more so--than yourself.”
+
+“The mosaic belongs to the palace,” cried the steward, this time in a
+louder voice, “Do you hear? it belongs to the palace, and whoever dares
+touch it, I will break his bones.”
+
+As he spoke Keraunus stood up, his huge chest panting, his cheeks and
+forehead dyed purple, and his fist, which he held in the dealer’s face,
+was trembling. Gabinius drew back startled, and said:
+
+“Then you will not have the twelve talents!”
+
+“I will--I will!” gasped Keraunus, “I will show you how I beat those
+who take me for a rogue. Out of my sight, villain, and let me hear not
+another word about the picture, and the robbery in the dark, or I will
+send the prefect’s lictors after you and have you thrown into irons, you
+rascally thief!”
+
+Gabinius hurried to the door, but he there turned round once more to
+the groaning and gasping colossus, and cried out, as he stood on the
+threshold:
+
+“Keep your rubbish! we shall have more to say to each other yet.”
+
+When Selene and Arsinoe returned to the sitting-room they found their
+father breathing hard and sitting on the couch, with his head drooping
+forward. Much alarmed, they went close up to him, but he exclaimed quite
+coherently:
+
+“Water--a drink of water!--the thief!--the scoundrel!”
+
+Though hardly pressed, it had not cost him a struggle or a pang to
+refuse what would have placed him and his children in a position of
+ease; and yet he would not have hesitated to borrow it, aye, or twice
+the sum, from rich or poor, though he knew full certainly that he would
+never be in a position to restore it. Nor was he even proud of what he
+had done; it seemed to him quite natural in a Macedonian noble. It
+was to him altogether out of the pale of possibility that he should
+entertain the dealer’s proposition for an instant.
+
+But where was he to get the money for Arsinoe’s outfit? how could he
+keep the promise given at the meeting?
+
+He lay meditating on the divan for an hour; then he took a wax tablet
+out of a chest and began to write a letter on it to the prefect. He
+intended to offer the precious mosaic picture which had been discovered
+in his abode, to Titianus for the Emperor, but he did not bring his
+composition to an end, for he became involved in high-flown phrases. At
+last he doubted whether it would do at all, flung the unfinished letter
+back into the chest, and disposed himself to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+While anxiety and trouble were brooding over the steward’s dwelling,
+while dismay and disappointment were clouding the souls of its
+inhabitants, the hall of the Muses was merry with feasting and laughter.
+
+Julia, the prefect’s wife, had supplied the architect at Lochias with
+a carefully-prepared meal,--sufficient to fill six hungry maws, and
+Pontius’ slave--who had received it on its arrival and had unpacked it
+dish after dish, and set them out on the humblest possible table had
+then hastened to fetch his master to inspect all these marvels of
+the cook’s art. The architect shook his head as he contemplated the
+superabundant blessing, and muttered to himself:
+
+“Titianus must take me for a crocodile, or rather for two crocodiles,”
+ and he went to the sculptor’s little tabernacle, where Papias the master
+was also, to invite the two men to share his supper.
+
+Besides them he asked two painters, and the chief mosaic worker of the
+city, who all day long had been busied in restoring the old and faded
+pictures on the ceilings and pavements, and under the influence of
+good wine and cheerful chat they soon emptied the dishes and bowls and
+trenchers. A man who for several hours has been using his hands or his
+mind, or both together, waxes hungry, and all the artists whom Pontius
+had brought together at Lochias had now been working for several days
+almost to the verge of exhaustion. Each had done his best, in the first
+place, no doubt, to give satisfaction to Pontius, whom all esteemed, and
+to himself; but also in the hope of giving proof of his powers to the
+Emperor and of showing him how things could be done in Alexandria. When
+the dishes had been removed and the replete feasters had washed and
+dried their hands, they filled their cups out of a jar of mixed wine, of
+which the dimensions answered worthily to the meal they had eaten.
+One of the painters then proposed that they should hold a regular
+drinking-bout, and elect Papias, who was as well known as a good table
+orator as he was as an artist, to be the leader of the feast. However,
+the master declared that he could not accept the honor, for that it was
+due to the worthiest of their company; to the man namely, who, only
+a few days since, had entered this empty palace and like a second
+Deucalion had raised up illustrious artists, such as he then saw around
+him in great numbers, and skilled workmen by hundreds, not out of
+plastic stone but out of nothing. And then--while declaring that he
+understood the use of the hammer and chisel better than that of the
+tongue, and that he had never studied the art of making speeches--he
+expressed his wish that Pontius would lead the revel, in the most
+approved form.
+
+But he was not allowed to get to the end of this evidence of his skill,
+for Euphorion the door-keeper of the palace, Euphorion the father of
+Pollux, ran hastily into the hall of the Muses with a letter in his hand
+which he gave to the architect.
+
+“To be read without an instant’s delay,” he added, bowing with
+theatrical dignity to the assembled artists. “One of the prefect’s
+lictors brought this letter, which, if my wishes be granted, brings
+nothing that is unwelcome. Hold your noise you little blackguards or I
+will be the death of you.”
+
+These words, which so far as the tone was concerned, formed a somewhat
+inharmonious termination to a speech intended for the ears of great
+artists, were addressed to his wife’s four-footed Graces who had
+followed him against his wish, and were leaping round the table barking
+for the slender remains of the consumed food.
+
+Pontius was fond of animals and had made friends with the old woman’s
+pets, so, as he opened the prefect’s letter, he said:
+
+“I invite the three little guests to the remains of our feast. Give them
+anything that is fit for them, Euphorion, and whatever seems to you most
+suitable to your own stomach you may put into it.”
+
+While the architect first rapidly glanced through the letter and then
+read it carefully, the singer had collected a variety of good morsels
+for his wife’s favorites on a plate, and finally carried the last
+remaining pasty, with the dish on which it reposed, to the vicinity of
+his own hooked nose.
+
+“For men or for dogs?” he asked his son, as he pointed to it with a
+rigid finger.
+
+“For the gods!” replied Pollux. “Take it to mother; she will like to eat
+ambrosia for once.”
+
+“A jolly evening to you!” cried the singer, bowing to the artists who
+were emptying their cups, and he quitted the hall with his pasty and his
+dogs. Before he had fairly left the hall with his long strides, Papias,
+whose speech had been interrupted, once more raised his wine-cup and
+began again:
+
+“Our Deucalion, our more than Deucalion--”
+
+“Pardon me,” interrupted Pontius. “If I once more stop your discourse
+which began so promisingly; this letter contains important news and our
+revels must be over for the night. We must postpone our symposium and
+your drinking-speech.”
+
+“It was not a drinking-speech, for if ever there was a moderate man--”
+ Papias began. But Pontius stopped him again, saying:
+
+“Titianus writes me word that he proposes coming to Lochias this
+evening. He may arrive at any moment; and not alone, but with my
+fellow-artist, Claudius Venator from Rome, who is to assist me with his
+advice.”
+
+“I never even heard his name,” said Papias, who was wont to trouble
+himself as little about the persons as about the works of other artists.
+
+“I wonder at that,” said Pontius, closing the double tablets which
+announced the Emperor’s advent.
+
+“Can he do anything?” asked Pollux.
+
+“More than any one of us,” replied Pontius. “He is a mighty man.”
+
+“That is splendid!” exclaimed Pollux. “I like to see great men. When
+one looks me in the eye I always feel as if some of his superabundance
+overflowed into me, and irresistibly I draw myself up and think how fine
+it would be if one day I might reach as high as that man’s chin.”
+
+“Beware of morbid ambition,” said Papias to his pupil in a warning
+voice. “It is not the man who stands on tiptoe, but he who does his duty
+diligently, that can attain anything great.”
+
+“He honestly does his,” said the architect rising, and he laid his hand
+on the young sculptor’s shoulder. “We all do; to-morrow by sunrise each
+must be at his post again. For my colleague’s sake it will be well that
+you should all be there in good time.”
+
+The artists rose, expressing their thanks and regrets. “You will not
+escape the continuation of this evening’s entertainment,” cried one of
+the painters, and Papias, as he parted from Pontius, said:
+
+“When we next meet I will show you what I understand by a
+drinking-speech. It will do perhaps for your Roman guest. I am curious
+to hear what he will say about our Urania. Pollux has done his share
+of the work very well, and I have already devoted an hour’s work to it,
+which has improved it. The more humble our material, the better I shall
+be pleased if the work satisfies Caesar; he himself has tried his hand
+at sculpture.”
+
+“If only Hadrian could hear that!” cried one of the painters. “He likes
+to think himself a great artist--one of the foremost of our time. It is
+said that he caused the life of the great architect, Apollodorus--who
+carried out such noble works for Trajan--to be extinguished--and why?
+because formerly that illustrious man had treated the imperial bungler
+as a mere dabbler, and would not accept his plan for the temple of Venus
+at Rome.”
+
+“Mere talk!” answered Pontius to this accusation. “Apollodorus died in
+prison, but his incarceration had little enough to do with the Emperor’s
+productions--excuse me, gentlemen, I must once more look through the
+sketches and plans.”
+
+The architect went away, but Pollux continued the conversation that had
+been begun by saying:
+
+“Only I cannot understand how a man who practises so many arts at once
+as Hadrian does, and at the same time looks after the state and its
+government, who is a passionate huntsman and who dabbles in every kind
+of miscellaneous learning, contrives, when he wants to practise one
+particular form of art, to recall all his five senses into the nest from
+which he has let them fly, here, there, and everywhere. The inside
+of his head must be like that salad-bowl--which we have reduced to
+emptiness--in which Papias discovered three sorts of fish, brown and
+white meat, oysters and five other substances.”
+
+“And who can deny,” added Papias, “that if talent is the father, and
+meat the mother of all productiveness, practice must be the artist’s
+teacher! Since Hadrian took to sculpture and painting it has become the
+universal fashion here to practise these arts, and among the wealthier
+youth who come to my workroom, many have very good abilities; but not
+one of them brings anything to any good issue, because so much of their
+time is taken up by the gymnasium, the bath, the quail-fights, the
+suppers, and I know not what besides, so that they do nothing by way of
+practice.”
+
+“True,” said a painter. “Without the restraint and worry of
+apprenticeship no one can ever rise to happy and independent
+creativeness; and in the schools of rhetoric or in hunting or fighting
+no one can study drawing. It is not till a pupil has learned to sit
+steady and worry himself over his work for six hours on end that I begin
+to believe he will ever do any good work. Have you any of you seen the
+Emperor’s work?”
+
+“I have,” answered a mosaic worker. “Many years ago Hadrian sent a
+picture to me that he had painted; I was to make a mosaic from it. It
+was a fruit piece. Melons, gourds, apples, and green leaves. The drawing
+was but so-so, and the color impossibly vivid, still the composition was
+pleasing from its solidity and richness. And after all, when one sees
+it, one cannot but feel that such superfluity is better than meagreness
+and feebleness. The larger fruits, especially under the exuberant sappy
+foliage, were so huge that they might have been grown in the garden of
+luxury itself, still the whole had a look of reality. I mitigated
+the colors somewhat in my transcript; you may still see a copy of the
+picture at my house, it hangs in the studio where my men draw. Nealkes,
+the rich hanging-maker, has had a tapestry woven from it which Pontius
+proposes to use as a hanging for a wall of the work-room, but I have
+made a fine frame on purpose for it.”
+
+“Say rather for its designer.”
+
+“Or yet rather,” added the most loquacious of the painters, “for the
+visit he may possibly pay your workshops.”
+
+“I only wish the Emperor may come to ours too! I should like to sell him
+my picture of Alexander saluted by the priests in the temple of Jupiter
+Ammon.”
+
+“I hope that when you agree about the price you will remember we are
+partners,” said his fellow-artist smugly.
+
+“I will follow your example strictly,” replied the other.
+
+“Then you will certainly not be a loser,” cried Papias, “for Eustorgius
+is fully aware of the worth of his works. And if Hadrian is to order
+works from every master whose art he dabbles in, he will require a fleet
+on purpose to carry his purchases to Rome.”
+
+“It is said,” continued Eustorgius, laughing, “that he is a painter
+among poets, a sculptor among painters, an astronomer among musicians,
+and a sophist among artists--that is to say, that he pursues every art
+and science with some success as his secondary occupation.”
+
+As he spoke the last words Pontius returned to the table where the
+artists were standing round the winejar; he had heard the painter’s last
+remark and interrupted him by saying:
+
+“But my friend you forget that he is a monarch among monarchs--and not
+merely among those of today--in the fullest meaning of the word. Each of
+us separately can produce something better and more perfect in his own
+line; but how great is the man who by earnestness and skill can even
+apprehend everything that the mind has ever been able to conceive of, or
+the creative spirit of the artist to embody! I know him, and I know
+that he loves a really thorough master, and tries to encourage him
+with princely liberality. But his ears are everywhere, and he promptly
+becomes the implacable enemy of those who provoke his resentment. So
+bridle your restive Alexandrian tongues, and let me tell you that my
+colleague from Rome is in the closest intimacy with Hadrian. He is of
+the same age, resembles him greatly, and repeats to him everything
+that he hears said about him. So cease talking about Caesar and pass
+no severer judgments on dilettanti in the purple than on your wealthy
+pupils, who paint and chisel for the mere love of it, and for whom you
+find it so easy to lisp out ‘charming,’ or ‘wonderfully pretty,’ or
+‘remarkably nice.’ Take my warning in good part, you know I mean it
+well.”
+
+He spoke the last words with a cordial, manly feeling, of which his
+voice was peculiarly capable, and which was always certain to secure him
+the confidence even of the recalcitrant.
+
+The artists exchanged greetings and hand-shakings and left the hall; a
+slave carried away the wine-jar and wiped the table, on which Pontius
+proceeded to lay out his sketches and plans. But he was not alone, for
+Pollux was soon at his side, and with a comical expression of pathos and
+laying his finger on his nose, he said:
+
+“I have come out of my cage to say something more to you.”
+
+“Well?”
+
+“The hour is approaching when I may hope to repay the beneficent deeds,
+which, at various times, you have done to my interior. My mother will
+to-morrow morning, set before you that dish of cabbage. It could not be
+done sooner, because the only perfect sausage-maker, the very king of
+his trade, prepares these savory cylinders only once a week. A few hours
+ago he completed the making of the sausages, and to-morrow morning my
+mother will warm up for our breakfasts the noble mess, which she is
+preparing for us this evening--for, as I have told you, it is in its
+warmed-up state that it is the ideal of its kind. What will follow by
+way of sweets we shall owe again to my mother’s art; but the cheering
+and invigorating element--I mean the wine that I drives dull care away,
+we owe to my sister.”
+
+“I will come,” said Pontius, “if my guest leaves me an hour free, and I
+shall enjoy the excellent dish. But what does a gay bird like you know
+of dull care?”
+
+“The words fit into the metre,” replied Pollux. “I inherit from
+my father--who, when he is not gate-keeping, sings and recites--a
+troublesome tendency whenever anything incites me to drift into rhythm.”
+
+“But to-day you have been more silent than usual, and yet you seemed
+to me to be extraordinarily content. Not your face only, but your whole
+length--a good measure--from the sole of your foot to the crown of your
+head was like a brimming cask of satisfaction.”
+
+“Well, there is much that is lovely in this world!” cried Pollux,
+stretching himself comfortably and lifting his arms with his hands
+clasped far above his head towards heaven.
+
+“Has anything specially pleasant happened to you?”
+
+“There is no need for that! Here I live in excellent company, the
+work progresses, and--well, why should I deny it? There was something
+specially to mark to-day; I met an old acquaintance again.”
+
+“An old one?”
+
+“I have already known her sixteen years; but when I first saw her she
+was in swaddling clothes.”
+
+“Then this venerable damsel friend is more than sixteen, perhaps
+seventeen! Is Eros the friend of the happy, or does happiness only
+follow in his train?” As the architect thoughtfully said these words to
+himself, Pollux listened attentively to a noise outside, and said:
+
+“Who can be passing out there at this hour? Do you not hear the bark of
+a big dog mingle with the snapping of the three Graces?”
+
+“It is Titianus conducting the architect from Rome,” replied Pontius
+excitedly.
+
+“I will go to meet him. But one thing more my friend, you too have an
+Alexandrian tongue. Beware of laughing at the Emperor’s artistic efforts
+in the presence of this Roman. I repeat it: the man who is now coming is
+superior to us all, and there is nothing more repellant to me than when
+a small man assumes a strutting air of importance because he fancies he
+has discovered in some great man a weak spot where his own little body
+happens to be sound. The artist I am expecting is a grand man, but
+the Emperor Hadrian is a grander. Now retire behind your screens, and
+tomorrow morning I will be your guest.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Pontius threw his pallium over the chiton he commonly wore at his work
+and went forward to meet the sovereign of the world, whose arrival had
+been announced to him in the prefect’s letter. He was perfectly calm,
+and if his heart beat a little faster than usual, it was only because
+he was pleased once more to meet the wonderful man whose personality had
+made a deep impression on him before.
+
+In the happy consciousness of having done all that lay in his power
+and of deserving no blame, he went through the ante-chambers and chief
+entrance of the palace into the fore-court, where a crowd of slaves were
+busied by torch-light in laying new marble slabs. Neither these workmen
+nor their overseers had paid any heed to the barking of the dogs and the
+loud talking which had for some little time been audible in the vicinity
+of the gate-keeper’s lodge; for a special rate of payment had been
+promised to the laborers and their foremen if they should have finished
+a set piece of the new pavement by a certain hour, to the satisfaction
+of the architect. No one who heard the deep man’s-voice ring through the
+court from the doorway guessed to whom it belonged.
+
+The Emperor had been delayed by adverse winds and had not run into the
+harbor till a little before midnight.
+
+Titianus, who was watching for him, he greeted as an old friend
+with heartfelt warmth, and with him and Antinous he stepped into
+the prefect’s chariot, while Phlegon the secretary, Hermogenes his
+physician, and Mastor with the luggage, among which were their campbeds,
+were to follow in another vehicle. The harbor watchmen hastened to array
+themselves indignantly to oppose the chariot, as it rolled noisily along
+the street, and the huge dog that destroyed the peace of the night with
+its baying; but as soon as they recognized Titianus they respectfully
+made way. The gate-keeper and his wife, obedient to the prefect’s
+warning, had remained up, and as soon as the singer heard the
+chariot approaching which bore the Emperor, he hastened to open the
+palace-gates. The broken-up pavement and the swarms of men engaged in
+repairing it, obliged Titianus and his companions to quit the chariot
+here and to pass close to the little gate-house. Hadrian, whose
+observation nothing ever escaped which came in his way and seemed
+worth noticing, stood still before Euphorion’s door and looked into the
+comfortable little room, with its decoration of flowers and birds and
+the statue of Apollo; while dame Doris in her newest garments, stood on
+the threshold to watch for the prefect. And Titianus greeted her warmly,
+for he was wont whenever he came to Lochias to exchange a few merry
+or wise words with her. The little dogs had already crept into their
+basket, but as soon as they caught sight of a strange dog they rushed
+past their mistress into the open air, and dame Doris found herself
+obliged, while she returned the kindly greeting of her patron, to shout
+at Euphrosyne, Thalia and Aglaia more than once by their pretty names.
+
+“Splendid, splendid!” cried Hadrian, pointing into the little house.
+“An idyl, a perfect idyl. Who would have expected to find such a smiling
+nook of peace in the most restless and busy town in the empire.”
+
+“I and Pontius were equally surprised at this little nest, and we
+therefore left it untouched,” said the prefect.
+
+“Intelligent people understand each other, and I owe you thanks for
+preserving this little home,” answered the Emperor. “What an omen, what
+a favorable, in every way favorable augury, it offers me. The Graces
+receive me here into these old walls, Aglaia, Thalia and Euphrosyne!”
+
+“Good luck to you, Master,” old Doris called out to the prefect.
+
+“We come late,” said Hadrian.
+
+“That does not matter,” said the old woman. “Here at Lochias for the
+last week we have quite forgotten to distinguish day from night, and a
+blessing can never come too late.”
+
+“I have brought with me to-day an illustrious guest,” said Titianus.
+“The great Roman architect Claudius Venator. He only disembarked a few
+minutes since.”
+
+“Then a draught of wine will do him good. We have in the house some good
+white Mareotic from my daughter’s garden by the lake. If your friend
+will do us humble folks so much honor, I beg he will step into our room;
+it is clean, is it not sir? and the cup I will give him to drink it out
+of would not disgrace the Emperor himself. Who knows what you will find
+up in the midst of all the muddle yonder?”
+
+“I will accept your invitation with pleasure,” answered Hadrian. “I can
+see by your face that you have a pleasure in entertaining us, and any
+one might envy you your little house.”
+
+“When the climbing-rose and the honey-suckle are out it is much
+prettier,” said Doris, as she filled the cup. “Here is some water for
+mixing.”
+
+The Emperor took the cup carved by Pollux, looked at it with admiration,
+and before putting it to his lips said:
+
+“A masterpiece, dame; what would Caesar find to drink out of here where
+the gate-keeper uses such a treasure? Who executed this admirable work,
+pray?”
+
+“My son carved it for me in his spare time.”
+
+“He is a highly-skilled sculptor,” Titianus explained.
+
+When the Emperor had half emptied the cup with much satisfaction he set
+it on the table, and said:
+
+“A very noble drink! I thank you, mother.”
+
+“And I you, for styling me mother: there is no better title a woman can
+have who has brought up good children; and I have three who need never
+be ashamed to be seen.”
+
+“I wish you all luck with them, good little mother,” replied the
+Emperor.
+
+“We shall meet again, for I am going to spend some days at Lochias.”
+
+“Now, in all this bustle?” asked Doris.
+
+“This great architect,” said Titianus, in explanation, “is to advise and
+help our Pontius.”
+
+“He needs no help!” cried the old woman. “He is a man of the best stamp.
+His foresight and energy, my son says, are incomparable. I have seen him
+giving his orders myself, and I know a man when I see him!”
+
+“And what particularly pleased you in him?” asked Hadrian, who was much
+amused with the shrewd old woman’s freedom.
+
+“He never for a moment loses his temper in all the hurry, never speaks
+a word too much or too little; he can be stern when it is necessary, but
+he is kind to his inferiors. What his merits are as an artist I am not
+capable of judging, but I am quite certain that he is a just and able
+man.”
+
+“I know him myself,” replied Caesar, “and you describe him rightly; but
+he seemed to me sterner than he has shown himself to you.”
+
+“Being a man he must be able to be severe; but he is so only when it
+is necessary, and how kind he can be he shows himself every day. A man
+grows to the mould of his own mind when he is a great deal alone; and
+this I have noticed, that a man who is repellant and sharp to those
+beneath him is not in himself anything really great; for it shows that
+he considers it necessary to guard against the danger of being looked
+upon as of no more consequence than the poorer folks he deals with. Now,
+a man of real worth knows that it can be seen in his bearing, even when
+he treats one of us as an equal. Pontius does so, and Titianus, and you
+who are his friend, no less. It is a good thing that you should have
+come--but, as I said before, the architect up there can do very well
+without you.”
+
+“You do not seem to rate my capacity very highly, and I regret it,
+for you have lived with your eyes open and have learned to judge men
+keenly.”
+
+Doris looked shrewdly at the Emperor with her kindly glance, as if
+taking his mental measure, and then answered confidently:
+
+“You--you are a great man too--it is quite possible that you might see
+things that would escape Pontius. There are a few choice souls whom the
+Muses particularly love and you are one of them.”
+
+“What leads you to suppose so?”
+
+“I see it in your gaze--in your brow.”
+
+“You have the gift of divination, then?”
+
+“No, I am not one of that sort; but I am the mother of two sons on
+whom also the Immortals have bestowed the special gift, which I cannot
+exactly describe. It was in them I first saw it, and wherever I have
+met with it since in other men and artists--they have been the elect of
+their circle. And you too--I could swear to it, that you are foremost of
+the men among whom you live.”
+
+“Do not swear lightly,” laughed the Emperor. “We will meet and talk
+together again little mother, and when I depart I will ask you again
+whether you have not been deceived in me. Come now, Telemachus, the
+dame’s birds seem to delight you very much.”
+
+These words were addressed to Antinous, who had been going from cage to
+cage contemplating the feathered pets, all sleeping snugly, with much
+curiosity and pleasure.
+
+“Is that your son?” asked Doris.
+
+“No, dame, he is only my pupil; but I feel as if he were my son.”
+
+“He is a beautiful lad!”
+
+“Why, the old lady still looks after the young men!”
+
+“We do not give that up till we are a hundred or till the Parcae cut the
+thread of life.”
+
+“What a confession!”
+
+“Let me finish my speech.--We never cease to take pleasure in seeing a
+handsome young fellow, but so long as we are young we ask ourselves
+what he may have in store for us, and as we grow old we are perfectly
+satisfied to be able to show him kindness. Listen young master. You will
+always find me here if you want anything in which I can serve you. I am
+like a snail and very rarely leave my shell.”
+
+“Till our next meeting,” cried Hadrian, and he and his companions went
+out into the court.
+
+There the difficulty was to find a footing on the disjointed pavement.
+Titianus went on in front of the Emperor and Antinous, and so but few
+words of friendly pleasure could be exchanged by the monarch and his
+vicegerent on the occasion of their meeting again. Hadrian stepped
+cautiously forward, his face wearing meanwhile a satisfied smile. The
+verdict passed by the simple shrewd woman of the people had given him
+far greater pleasure than the turgid verse in which Mesomedes and his
+compeers were wont to sing his praises, or the flattering speeches with
+which he was loaded by the sophists and rhetoricians.
+
+The old woman had taken him for no more than an artist; she could
+not know who he was, and yet she had recognized--or had Titianus been
+indiscreet? Did she know or suspect whom she was talking to? Hadrian’s
+deeply suspicious nature was more and more roused; he began to fancy
+that the gate-keeper’s wife had learnt her speech by heart, and that
+her welcome had been preconcerted; he suddenly paused and desired the
+prefect to wait for him, and Antinous to remain behind with the clog. He
+turned round, retraced his steps to the gatehouse and slipped close up
+to it in a very unprincely way. He stood still by the door of the little
+house which was still open, and listened to the conversation between
+Doris and her husband.
+
+“A fine tall man,” said Euphorion, “he is a little like the Emperor.”
+
+“Not a bit,” replied Doris. “Only think of the full-length statue of
+Hadrian in the garden of the Paneum; it has a dissatisfied satirical
+expression, and the architect has a grave brow, it is true, but pure
+friendly kindness lights up his features. It is only the beard that
+reminds you of the one when you look at the other. Hadrian might be very
+glad if he were like the prefect’s guest.”
+
+“Yes, he is handsomer--how shall I say it--more like the gods than that
+cold marble figure,” Euphorion declared. “A grand noble, he is no doubt,
+but still an artist too; I wonder whether he could be induced by Pontius
+or Papias or Aristeas or one of the great painters to take the part of
+Calchas the soothsayer in our group at the festival? He would perform it
+in quite another way than that dry stick Philemon the ivory carver. Hand
+me my lute; I have already forgotten again the beginning of the last
+verse. Oh! my wretched memory! Thank you.”
+
+Euphorion loudly struck the strings and sang in a voice that was still
+tolerably sweet and very well trained:
+
+“‘Sabina hail! Oh Sabina!--Hail; victorious hail to the conquering
+goddess Sabina!’ If only Pollux were here he would remind me of the
+right words. ‘Hail; victorious hail, to the thousand-fold Sabina!’--That
+is nonsense. ‘Hail, hail! divine hail to thee O all-conquering Sabina.’
+No it was not that either. If a crocodile would only swallow this Sabina
+I would give him that hot cake in yonder dish with pleasure, for
+his pudding. But stay--I have it. ‘Hail, a thousand-fold hail to the
+conquering goddess Sabina!’”
+
+Hadrian had heard all he wanted; while Euphorion went on repeating his
+line a score or more of times to impress it on his recalcitrant
+memory. Caesar turned his back on the gate-house, and while he and his
+companions picked their way not without difficulty through the workmen
+who squatted here and there and everywhere on the ground, he clapped
+Titianus more than once on his shoulder, and after he had been received
+and welcomed by Pontius, he exclaimed:
+
+“I bless my decision to come here now! I have had a good evening, a
+quite delightful evening.”
+
+The Emperor had not felt so cheerful and free from care for years as on
+this occasion, and when in spite of the late hour he found the workmen
+still busy everywhere, and saw all that had already been restored in the
+old palace and what was being done for its renovation, the restless man
+could not resist expressing his satisfaction, and exclaimed to Antinous:
+
+“Here we may see that even in our sordid times miracles may be wrought
+by good-will, industry, and skill. Explain to me my good Pontius how you
+were able to construct that enormous scaffold.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+More pleasant hours were to follow on the amusing arrival of the Emperor
+at his half-finished residence at Lochias that night. Pontius proposed
+to him to inspect several well-preserved rooms, which had in the first
+instance been reserved for the gentlemen of his suite; and one of
+these with an open outlook on the harbor, the town, and the island
+of Antirrhodus he suggested should be provisionally furnished for the
+Emperor’s reception. Thanks to the architect’s foresight, to Mastor’s
+practised hand, and to the numbers of men employed in the palace who
+were accustomed to all kinds of service--provision was soon made for the
+night, for Hadrian and his companions. The comfortable couch which the
+prefect had sent to Lochias for Pontius was carried into the Emperor’s
+sleeping-room, and the camp-beds for Antinous and the suite were soon
+set up in the other rooms. Tables, pillows, and various household
+vessels which had already been sent in from the manufactories of
+Alexandria, and which stood packed in bales and cases in the large
+central court of the palace were soon taken out, and so far as they were
+applicable for use were carried into the hastily-arranged rooms. Even
+before Hadrian, under the prefect’s guidance, had reached the last room
+in which restorations were being carried out, Pontius was ready with his
+arrangements, and could assure the Emperor that to-night he would find
+a good bed and very tolerable quarters, and that by to-morrow he should
+have a really elegantly-furnished room.
+
+“Charming, quite delightful,” cried the Emperor, as he entered his room.
+“One might fancy you had some industrious demons at your command. Pour
+some water over my hands, Mastor, and then to supper! I am as hungry as
+a beggar’s clog.”
+
+“I think we shall find all you need,” replied Titianus, while Hadrian
+washed his hands and his bearded face.
+
+“Have you eaten all that I sent down to Lochias to-day, my dear
+Pontius?”
+
+“Alas! we have,” sighed Pontius.
+
+“But I gave orders that a supper for five should be sent.”
+
+“It sufficed for six hungry artists,” answered the architect, “if only I
+could have guessed for whom the food was intended! And now what is to
+be done? There are wine and bread still in the hall of the Muses,
+meanwhile.”
+
+“That must satisfy us,” said the Emperor, as he wiped his face. “In the
+Dacian war, in Numidia, and often when out hunting, I have been glad if
+only one or the other was to be obtained.”
+
+Antinous, who was very hungry and tired, made a melancholy face at these
+words of his master, and Hadrian perceiving it, added with a smile:
+
+“But youth needs something more to live upon than bread and wine. You
+pointed out to me just now the residence of the palace-steward. Might we
+not find there a morsel of meat or cheese, or something of the kind?”
+
+“Hardly,” replied Pontius. “For the man stuffs his fat stomach and his
+eight children with bread and porridge. But an attempt will at any rate
+be worth making.”
+
+“Then send to him; but conduct us at once to the hall where the Muses
+have preserved some bread and wine for me and these good fellows, though
+they do not always provide them for their disciples.”
+
+Pontius at once conducted the Emperor into the hall. On the way thither,
+Hadrian asked:
+
+“Is the steward so miserably paid that he is forced to content himself
+with such meagre fare?”
+
+“He has a residence rent free, and two hundred drachmae a month.”
+
+“That is not so very little. What is the man’s name, and of what kith
+and kin is he?”
+
+“He is called Keraunus, and is of ancient Macedonian descent. His
+ancestors from time immemorial have held the office he now fills, and he
+even supposes himself to be related to the extinct royal dynasty through
+the mistress of some one of the Lagides. Keraunus sits in the town
+council and never stirs out in the streets without his slave, who is
+one of the sort which the merchants in the slave market throw into the
+bargain with the buyer. He is as fat as a stuffed pig, dresses like
+a senator, loves antiquities and curiosities, for which he will let
+himself be cheated of his last coin, and bears his poverty with more of
+pride than of dignity; and still he is an honorable man, and can be made
+useful, if he is taken on the right side.”
+
+“Altogether a queer fellow. And you say he is fat, is he jolly?”
+
+“As far from it as possible.”
+
+“Ah, people who are fat and cross are my aversion. What is this by way
+of an erection?”
+
+“Behind that screen works Papias’ best scholar. His name is Pollux, and
+he is the son of the couple who keep the gate-house. You will be pleased
+with him.”
+
+“Call him here,” said the Emperor.
+
+But before the architect could comply with his desire the sculptor’s
+head had appeared above the screen. The young man had heard the
+approaching voices and steps; he greeted the prefect respectfully from
+his elevated position, and after satisfying his curiosity was about to
+spring down from the stool on which he had climbed when Pontius called
+to him that Claudius Venator, the architect from Rome, wished to make
+his acquaintance.
+
+“That is very kind in him, and still more kind in you,” Pollux answered
+from above, “since it is only from you that he can know that I exist
+beneath the moon, and use the hammer and chisel. Allow me to descend
+from my four-legged cothurnus, for at present you are forced to look up
+to me, and from all I have heard of your talents from Pontius, nothing
+can be more absolutely the reverse of what it ought to be.”
+
+“Nay, stop where you are,” answered Hadrian. “We, as fellow-artists, may
+waive ceremony.--What are you doing in there?”
+
+“I will push the screen back in a moment and show you our Urania. It
+is very good for an artist to hear the opinion of a man who thoroughly
+understands the thing.”
+
+“Presently, friend-presently; first let me enjoy a scrap of bread, for
+the severity of my hunger might very possibly influence my judgment.”
+
+As he was speaking the architect offered the Emperor a salver with
+bread, salt, and a cup of wine, which his own slave had carried to him.
+When Pollux observed this modest meal, he called out:
+
+“That is prisoners’ fare, Pontius; have we nothing better in the house
+than that?”
+
+“Possibly you yourself assisted in demolishing the dainty dishes I had
+sent down for the architect,” cried Titianus, pretending to threaten
+him.
+
+“You are defacing a fair memory,” sighed the sculptor, with mock
+melancholy. “But, by Hercules, I did my fair share of the work of
+destruction. If only now--but stay! I have an idea worthy of Aristotle
+himself! that breakfast, to which I invited you to-morrow morning, most
+noble Pontius, is all ready at my mother’s, and can be warmed up in a
+few minutes. Do not be alarmed, worthy sir, but the dish in question
+is cabbage with sausages--a mess which, like the soul of an Egyptian,
+possesses at the instant of resurrection, nobler qualities than when it
+first sees the light.”
+
+“Excellent,” cried Hadrian. “Cabbage and sausages!” He wiped his full
+lips with his hand, smiling with gratification, and he broke into a
+hearty laugh of amusement as he heard a loud “Ah!” of satisfaction from
+Antinous, who drew nearer to the canvas screen. “There is another whose
+mouth waters and whose imagination revels in a happy future,” said the
+Emperor to the prefect, pointing to his favorite.
+
+But he had misinterpreted the lad’s exclamation, for it was the mere
+name of the dish--which his mother had often set on the table of his
+humble home in Bithynia--which reminded him of his native country and
+his childhood, and transplanted him in thought back into their midst. It
+was a swift leap at his heart, and not merely the pleasant watering of
+his gums, that had forced the “Ah” to his lips. Still, he was glad to
+see his native dish again, and would not have exchanged it against the
+richest banquet. Pollux had meanwhile come out of his nook, and said:
+
+“In a quarter of an hour I shall set before you the breakfast which has
+been turned into a supper. Mitigate your worst hunger with some bread
+and salt, and then my mother’s cabbage-stew will not only satisfy you,
+but will be enjoyed with calm appreciation.”
+
+“Greet dame Doris from me,” Hadrian called after the sculptor; and when
+Pollux had quitted the hall he turned to Titianus and Pontius and said:
+
+“What a splendid young fellow. I am curious to see what he can do as an
+artist.”
+
+“Then follow me,” replied Pontius, leading the way.
+
+“What do you say to this Urania? Papias made the head of the Muse, but
+the figure and the drapery Pollux formed with his own hand in a few
+days.”
+
+The imperial artist stood in front of the statue, with his arms crossed,
+and remained there for some time in silence. Then he nodded his bearded
+head approvingly, and said gravely:
+
+“A well-considered work, and carried out with remarkable freedom; this
+mantle drawn over the bosom would not disgrace a Phidias. All is broad,
+characteristic and true. Did the young artist work from the model here
+at Lochias?”
+
+“I have seen no model, and I believe that he evolved the whole figure
+out of his head,” replied Pontius.
+
+“Impossible, perfectly impossible,” cried the Emperor, in the tone of a
+man who knows well what he is talking about. “Such lines, such forms
+not Praxiteles himself could have invented. He must have seen them, have
+formed them as he stood face to face with the living copy. We will ask
+him. What is to be made out of that newly-set-up mass of clay?”
+
+“Possibly the bust of some princess of the house of the Lagides.
+To-morrow you shall see a head of Berenice by our young friend, which
+seems to me to be one of the best things ever done in Alexandria.”
+
+“And is the lad a proficient in magic?” asked Hadrian. “It seems to
+me simply impossible that he should have completed this statue and a
+woman’s bust in these few days.”
+
+Pontius explained to the Emperor that Pollux had mounted the head on a
+bust already to hand, and as he answered his questions without reserve,
+he revealed to him what stupendous exertions of the arts had been called
+into requisition to give the dilapidated palace a suitable and, in its
+kind, even brilliant appearance. He frankly confessed that here he was
+working only for effect, and talked to Hadrian exactly as he would have
+discussed the same subject with any other fellow-artist.
+
+While the Emperor and the architect were thus eagerly conversing, and
+the prefect was hearing from Phlegon, the secretary, all the experience
+of their journey, Pollux reappeared in the hall of the Muses accompanied
+by his father. The singer carried before him a steaming mess, fresh
+cakes of bread, and the pasty which a few hours previously he had
+carried home to his wife from the architect’s table. Pollux held to his
+breast a tolerably large two-handled jar full of Mareotic wine, which he
+had hastily wreathed with branches of ivy.
+
+A few minutes later the Emperor was reclining on a mattress that had
+been laid for him, and was making his way valiantly through the
+savory mess. He was in the happiest humor; he called Antinous and his
+secretary, heaped abundant portions with his own hand on their plates,
+which he bade them hold out to him, declaring as he did so that it was
+to prevent their fishing the best of the sausages out of the cabbage for
+themselves. He also spoke highly of the Mareotic wine. When they came
+to opening the pasty the expression of his face changed; he frowned and
+asked the prefect in a suspicious tone, severely and sternly:
+
+“How came these people by such a pasty as this?”
+
+“Where did you get it from?” asked the prefect of the singer.
+
+“From the banquet which the architect gave to the artists here,”
+ answered Euphorion. “The bones were given to the Graces and this dish,
+which had not been touched, to me and my wife. She devoted it with
+pleasure to Pontius’ guest.”
+
+Titianus laughed and exclaimed:
+
+“This then accounts for the total disappearance of the handsome supper
+which we sent down to the architect. This pasty-allow me to look at
+it--this pasty was prepared by a recipe obtained from Verus. He invited
+us to breakfast yesterday and instructed my cook how to prepare it.”
+
+“No Platonist ever propagated his master’s doctrines with greater zeal
+than Verus does the merits of this dish,” said the Emperor, who
+had recovered his good humor as soon as he perceived that no artful
+preparation for his arrival was to be suspected in this matter. “What
+follies that spoilt child of fortune can commit! Does he still insist on
+cooking with his own hands?”
+
+“No, not quite that,” replied the prefect. “But he had a couch placed
+for him in the kitchen on which he stretched himself at full length
+and told my cook exactly how to prepare the pasty, of which you are--I
+should say, of which the Emperor is particularly fond. It consists of
+pheasant, ham, cow’s udder and a baked crust.”
+
+“I am quite of Hadrian’s opinion,” laughed the Emperor; doing all
+justice to the excellent pie. “You entertain me splendidly my friend,
+and I am very much your debtor. What did you say your name is young
+man?”
+
+“Pollux.”
+
+“Your Urania, Pollux, is a fine piece of work, and Pontius says you
+executed the drapery without a model. I said, and I repeat, that it is
+simply impossible.”
+
+“You judge rightly, a young girl stood for it.”
+
+The Emperor glanced at the architect, as much as to say, I knew it!
+
+Pontius asked in astonishment:
+
+“When? I have never seen a female form within these walls.”
+
+“Recently.”
+
+“But I have never quitted Lochias for a minute. I have never gone
+to rest before midnight, and have been on my legs again long before
+sunrise.”
+
+“But still there were several hours between your going to sleep, and
+waking up again,” replied Pollux. “Ah, youth--youth!” exclaimed the
+Emperor, and a satirical smile played upon his lips.
+
+“Part Damon and Phyllis by iron doors, and they will find their way to
+each other through the key-hole.”
+
+Euphorion looked seriously at his son, the architect shook his head
+and refrained from further questions, but Hadrian rose from his couch,
+dismissed Antinous and his secretary to bed, requested Titianus to go
+home and to give his wife his kindly greetings, and then desired Pollux
+to conduct him within this screen, since he himself was not tired and
+was accustomed to do with only a few hours sleep.
+
+The young sculptor was strongly attracted by this commanding personage.
+It had not escaped him that the gray-bearded stranger greatly resembled
+the Emperor; but Pontius had prepared him for the likeness, and in fact
+there was much in the eyes and mouth of the Roman architect that he had
+never traced in any portrait of Hadrian ‘Imperator.’ And as they stood
+before his scarcely-finished statue his respect increased for the new
+visitor to Lochias; for, with earnest frankness, he pointed out to him
+certain faults, and while praising the merits of the rapidly-executed
+figure he explained in a few brief and pithy phrases his own conception
+of the ideal Urania. Then shortly but clearly, he stated his views as to
+how the plastic artist must deal with the problems of his art.
+
+The young man’s heart beat faster, and more than once he turned hot and
+cold by turns as he heard things uttered by the bearded lips of this
+imposing man, in a rich voice and in lucid phrases, which he had often
+divined or vaguely felt, but for which, while learning, observing, and
+working, he had never sought expression in words. And how kindly
+the great master took up his timid observations, how convincingly he
+answered them. Such a man as this he had never met, never had he bowed
+with such full consent before the superiority and sovereign power of
+another mind.
+
+The second hour after midnight had begun, when Hadrian, standing before
+the rough-cast clay bust, asked Pollux:
+
+“What is this to be?”
+
+“A portrait of a girl.”
+
+“Probably of the complaisant model who ventures into Lochias at night?”
+
+“No; a lady of rank will sit to me.”
+
+“An Alexandrian?”
+
+“Oh, no. A beauty in the train of the Empress.”
+
+“What is her name? I know all the Roman ladies.”
+
+“Balbilla.”
+
+“Balbilla? There are many of that name. What is she like, the lady you
+mean?” asked Hadrian, with a cunning glance of amusement.
+
+“That is easier to ask than to answer,” replied the artist, who, seeing
+his gray-bearded companion smile, recovered his gay vivacity, “But
+stay--you have seen a peacock spread its tail--now only imagine that
+every eye in the train of Hera’s bird was a graceful round curl, and
+that in the middle of the circle there was a charming, intelligent
+girl’s face, with a merry little nose, and a rather too high forehead,
+and you will have the portrait of the young damsel who has graciously
+permitted me to model from her person.”
+
+Hadrian laughed heartily, threw off his cloak, and exclaimed:
+
+“Stand aside--I know your maiden--and if I mean a different one you
+shall tell me.”
+
+While he was still speaking he had plunged his powerful hands into the
+yielding clay, and kneading and pinching like a practised modeller,
+wiping off and pressing on, he formed a woman’s face with a towering
+structure of curls, which resembled Balbilla, but which reproduced every
+conspicuous peculiarity with such whimsical exaggeration that Pollux
+could not contain his delight. When at last Hadrian stepped back from
+the happy caricature and called upon him to say whether that were not
+indeed the Roman lady, Pollux exclaimed:
+
+“It is as surely she, as you are not merely a great architect, but
+an admirable sculptor. The thing is coarse, but unmistakably
+characteristic.”
+
+The Emperor himself seemed to enjoy his artistic joke hugely, for he
+looked at it, and laughed again and again. Pontius, however, seemed
+to view it differently; he had listened with eager sympathy to the
+conversation between Hadrian and the sculptor, and had watched the
+former as he began his work; but as it went on he turned away, for
+he hated that distortion of fine forms, which he often found that the
+Egyptians took a special delight in. It was positively painful to him to
+see a graceful, highly-gifted and defenceless creature, to whom, too, he
+felt himself bound by ties of gratitude, mocked at in this way by such a
+man as Hadrian. He had only to-day met Balbilla for the first time, but
+he had heard from Titianus that she was staying at the Caesareum
+with the Empress, and the prefect had also told him that she was the
+granddaughter of that same governor, Claudius Balbillus, who had granted
+freedom to his own grandfather, a learned Greek slave.
+
+He had met her with grateful sympathy and devotion; her bright and
+lively nature had delighted him, and at each thoughtless word she
+uttered he would have liked to give her some warning sign, as though
+she were near to him through some tie of blood, or some old established
+friendship that might warrant his right to do so. The defiant, half
+gallant way in which Verus, the dissipated lady-killer, had spoken to
+her had enraged him and filled him with anxiety, and long after the
+illustrious visitors had left Lochias he had thought of her again and
+again, and had resolved, if it were possible, to keep a watchful eye on
+the descendant of the benefactor of his family. He felt it as a sacred
+duty to shelter and protect her, seeming to him as she did, an airy,
+pretty, defenceless song-bird.
+
+The Emperor’s caricature had the same effect on his feelings as though
+some one had insulted and scorned, before his eyes, something that ought
+to be regarded as sacred. And there stood the monarch, a man no longer
+young, gazing at his performance and never weary of the amusement it
+afforded him. It pained Pontius keenly, for like all noble natures, he
+could not bear to discover anything mean or vulgar in a man to whom he
+had always looked up as to a strong exceptional character. As an artist
+Hadrian ought not to have vilified beauty, as a man he ought not to have
+insulted unprotected innocence.
+
+In the soul of the architect, who had hitherto been one of the Emperor’s
+warmest admirers, a slight aversion began to dawn, and he was glad,
+when, at last, Hadrian decided to withdraw to rest.
+
+The Emperor found in his room every requisite he was accustomed to use,
+and while his slave undressed him, lighted his night-lamp and adjusted
+his pillows, he said:
+
+“This is the best evening I have enjoyed for years. Is Antinous
+comfortably in bed?”
+
+“As much so as in Rome.”
+
+“And the big dog?”
+
+“I will lay his rug in the passage at your door.”
+
+“Has he had any food?”
+
+“Bones, bread and water.”
+
+“I hope you have had something to eat this evening.”
+
+“I was not hungry, and there was plenty of bread and wine.”
+
+“To-morrow we shall be better supplied. Now, good-night. Weigh your
+words for fear you should betray me. A few days here undisturbed would
+be delightful!”
+
+With these words the Emperor turned over on his couch and was soon
+asleep.
+
+Mastor, too, lay down to rest after he had spread a rug for the dog in
+the corridor outside the Emperor’s sleeping-room. His head rested on a
+curved shield of stout cowhide under which lay his short sword; the
+bed was but a hard one, but Mastor had for years been used to rest on
+nothing better, and still had enjoyed the dreamless slumbers of a child;
+but to-night sleep avoided him, and from time to time he pressed his
+hand on his wearily open eyes to wipe away the salt dew which rose to
+them again and again. For a long time he had restrained these tears
+bravely enough, for the Emperor liked to see none but cheerful faces
+among his servants; nay, he had once said that it was in consequence
+of his bright eyes that he had entrusted to him the care of his person.
+Poor, cheerful Mastor! He was nothing but a slave, still he had a heart
+which lay open to joy and suffering, to pleasure and trouble, to hatred
+and to love.
+
+In his childhood his native village had fallen into the hands of the
+foes of his race. He and his brother had been carried away as slaves,
+first into Asia Minor, and then as they were both particularly pretty
+fair-haired boys, to Rome. There they had been bought for the Emperor;
+Mastor had been chosen to wait on Hadrian’s person, his brother had been
+put to work in the gardens. Nothing was lacking to either except his
+liberty; nothing tormented them but their longing for their native home,
+and even this altogether faded away after he had married the pretty
+little daughter of a superintendent of the gardens, a slave like
+himself. She was a lively little woman with sparkling eyes, whom no one
+could pass by without noticing.
+
+The slave’s duties left him but little time to enjoy the society of
+his pretty partner and of the two children she bore him, but the
+consciousness of possessing them made him happy when he followed his
+master to the chase, or in the journeys through the empire. Now, for
+seven months he had heard nothing of his family; but a short letter had
+reached him at Pelusium, which had been sent with the despatches for the
+Emperor from Ostia to Egypt. He could not read, and in consequence of
+the Emperor’s rapid travelling, it was not till he reached Lochias, that
+he was put in possession of its contents.
+
+Before going to rest Antinous had read him the letter, which had been
+written for his brother by a public scribe, and its contents were enough
+to wreck the heart even of a slave. His pretty little wife had fled from
+her home and from the Emperor’s service to follow a Greek ship’s captain
+across the world; his eldest child, a boy, the darling of his heart, was
+dead; and his fair-haired tender little Tullia, with her pearly teeth,
+her round little arms, and her pretty tiny fingers that had often tried
+to pull his close-cropped hair, and had fondly stroked and patted it,
+had been carried off to the miserable refuge, under whose squalid roof
+the children of deceased slaves were reared. Only two hours since, and
+in fancy he had possessed a home, and a group of human beings, whom
+he could love. Now, this was all over and with however hard a hand the
+deepest woes might fall on him, he might not sob or groan aloud, or even
+roll from side to side as again and again he was violently prompted to
+do, for his lord slept lightly and the least noise might wake him. At
+sunrise he must appear before the Emperor as cheerful as usual, and
+yet he felt as if he must himself perish miserably as his happiness had
+done. His heart was bursting with anguish, still he neither groaned nor
+stirred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+The night had been almost as sleepless to Keraunus’ daughter Selene as
+it had been to the hapless slave. Her father’s vain wish to let Arsinoe
+take a part with the daughters of the wealthier citizens had filled
+the girl’s heart with fresh terrors. It was the final blow which would
+demolish the structure of their social existence, standing as it did
+on quaking ground, and which must fling her family and herself into
+disgrace and want. When their last treasure of any value was sold,
+and the creditors could no longer be put off, particularly during the
+Emperor’s presence in the city, when they should try to sell up all her
+father’s little property, or to carry him off to a debtor’s prison, was
+it not then as good as certain that some one else would be appointed
+to fill his place, and that she and the other children would fall into
+misery? And there lay Arsinoe by her side, and slept with as calm and
+deep a breath as blind Helios and the other little ones.
+
+Before going to bed she had tried with all the fervency and eloquence of
+which she was mistress, to persuade, entreat, and implore the heedless
+girl to refuse as positively as she herself had refused to take any part
+in the processions; but Arsinoe had at first repulsed her crossly,
+and finally had defiantly declared that means might yet very likely
+be found, and that what her father permitted, Selene had no right to
+interfere in, still less to forbid. And when afterwards she saw Arsinoe
+sleeping so calmly by her side, she felt as if she would like to shake
+her; but she was so accustomed to bear all the troubles of the family
+alone, and to be unkindly repelled by her sister whenever she attempted
+to admonish her, that she forbore.
+
+Arsinoe had a good and tender heart, but she was young, pretty, and
+vain. With affectionate persuasion she might be won over to anything,
+but Selene, when ever she remonstrated with her, made her feel her
+superiority over herself, acquired from her care of the family and her
+maternal character. Thus, not a day passed without some quarrelling and
+tears between these two sisters who were so dissimilar, and yet, both
+so well disposed. Arsinoe was always the first to offer her hand for a
+reconciliation, but Selene would rarely have a kinder answer ready to
+her affectionate advances than, “Let be,” or “Oh yes, I know!” and their
+outward intercourse bore an aspect of coolness, which was easily worked
+up to an outbreak of hostile speeches. Hundreds of times they would go
+to bed without wishing each other ‘good-night,’ and still more often
+would they avoid any morning greeting when they first met in the day.
+
+Arsinoe liked talking, but in Selene’s presence she was taciturn;
+there were few things in which Selene took pleasure, while her sister
+delighted in every thing which can charm youth. It was the steward’s
+eldest daughter who attended to the daily needs of the children, their
+food and clothes; it was the second who superintended their games,
+and their dolls. The eldest watched and taught them with anxious care,
+detecting in every little fault the germ of some evil tendency in the
+future, while the other enticed them into follies, it is true, but
+opened their minds to joyous impressions, and attained more by kisses
+and kind words than Selene could by fault-finding. The children would
+call Selene when they wanted her, but would fly to Arsinoe as soon as
+they saw her. Their hearts were hers, and Selene felt this bitterly; it
+seemed to her to be unjust, for she saw clearly that her sister could
+reap, from mere frivolous play in her idle hours, a sweeter reward than
+she could earn by the anxiety, trouble and exhausting toil, in which she
+often spent her nights.
+
+But children are not unjust in this way. It is true that they keep an
+account in their heart and not in their head. Those who give them the
+warmth of affection they pay back most honestly.
+
+On this particular night it was not, it is certain, with very sisterly
+feelings that Selene looked at the sleeping Arsinoe, and the words on
+the girl’s lips as she had dropped asleep, had sounded very unkind;
+but, nevertheless, they felt warmly towards each other, and any one who
+should have attempted to say a word against the one in the presence of
+the other would soon have found out how close a bond held together these
+two hearts, dissimilar as they were. But no girl of nineteen can pass a
+night altogether without sleeping, however sadly she may turn and turn
+over and over again in her bed. So slumber overmastered Selene every
+now and then for a quarter of an hour, and each time she dreamed of her
+sister.
+
+Once she saw Arsinoe dressed out like a queen, followed by beggar
+children and pelted with bad words--then she saw her on the rotunda
+below the balcony romping with Pollux, and in their bold sport they
+broke her mother’s bust. At last she dreamed that she herself was
+playing--as in the days of her childhood--in the gate-keeper’s garden
+with the sculptor. They were making cakes of sand together, and Arsinoe
+jumped on the cakes as soon as they were made, and trod them all into
+dust.
+
+The pretty pale girl had for a long time ceased to know the refreshing,
+dreamless, sound sleep of youth, for the sweetest slumbers are more apt
+to seek out those who by day have some rest, than those who are worn
+out by fatigue, and evening after evening Selene was one of these. Every
+night she had dreams, but tonight they were almost exclusively sad in
+character, and so terrifying that she woke herself repeatedly with her
+own groaning, or disturbed Arsinoe’s peaceful sleep by loud cries.
+
+These cries did not disturb her father, he--to-night, as every
+night--had begun to snore soon after he had gone to rest, never to cease
+till it was time to rise again.
+
+Selene was always busy in the house before any one, even before the
+slaves; and the approach of day this time seemed to the sleepless girl
+a real release. When she rose it was still perfectly dark, but she knew
+that the rising of the December sun could not be long to wait for.
+
+Without paying any heed to the sleepers, or making any special effort to
+tread noiselessly, or to do what she had to do without disturbing them,
+she lighted her little lamp, at the night-lamp, washed herself, arranged
+her hair, and then knocked at the doors of the old slaves.
+
+As soon as they had yawned out “directly,” or a sleepy “very well,” she
+went into her father’s room and took his jug to fetch him fresh water in
+it. The best well in the palace was on a small terrace on the west
+side; it was supplied by the city aqueducts, and was constructed of five
+marble monsters, bearing up on twisted fishtails a huge shell, in which
+sat a bearded river-god. Their horse-shaped heads poured water into a
+vast basin, which, in the lapse of centuries, had grown full of a green
+and filmy vegetation.
+
+In order to reach this fountain, Selene had to go along the corridor
+where lay the rooms occupied by the Emperor and his followers. She only
+knew that an architect from Rome had taken up his quarters at Lochias,
+for, some time after midnight, she had been to get out meat and salt
+for him, but in what rooms the strangers had been lodged no one had told
+her. But this morning as she followed the path she was accustomed to
+tread day by day at the same hour, she felt an anxious shiver. She felt
+as if everything were not quite the same as usual, and just as she had
+set her foot on the cop step of the flight leading to the corridor, she
+raised her lamp to discover whence came the sound she thought she
+could hear, she perceived in the gloom a fearful something which as she
+approached it resembled a dog, and which was larger--much larger--than a
+dog should be.
+
+Her blood ran cold with terror; for a few moments she stood as if
+spellbound, and was only conscious that the growling and snarling that
+she heard meant mischief and threatening to herself. At last she found
+strength to turn to fly, but at the same instant a loud and furious bark
+echoed behind her and she heard the monster’s quick leaps as he flew
+after her along the stone pavement.
+
+She felt a violent shock, the pitcher flew out of her hand and was
+shattered into a thousand fragments, and she sank to the ground under
+the weight of a warm, rough, heavy mass. Her loud cries of alarm
+resounded from the hard bare walls, and roused the sleepers and brought
+them to her side.
+
+“See what it is,” cried Hadrian to his slave, who had immediately sprung
+up and seized his shield and sword.
+
+“The dog has attacked a woman who wanted to come this way,” replied
+Mastor.
+
+“Hold him off, but do not beat him,” the Emperor shouted after him.
+“Argus has only done his duty.” The slave hastened down the passage as
+fast as possible, loudly calling the dog by his name. But another
+had been beforehand and had dragged him off his victim, and this was
+Antinous, whose room was close to the scene of action, and who, as soon
+as he had heard the dog’s bark and Selene’s scream, had hurried to hold
+back the brute which was really dangerous when on guard and in the dark.
+
+When Mastor appeared the lad had just succeeded in dragging the dog away
+from Selene, who was lying on the stairs leading to the corridor. Before
+Antinous could reach her Argus was standing over her gnashing his teeth
+and growling. Argus, who was quickly quieted by his friends’ tone of
+kindly admonition, stood aside silent and with his head down while
+Antinous knelt by the senseless girl on whom the pale light of early
+dawn fell through--wide window. The boy looked with alarm on her pale
+face, lifted her helpless arm, and sought on her light-colored dress for
+any trace of blood that might have been drawn, but in vain. After he
+had assured himself that she still breathed, and that her lips moved, he
+called to Mastor:
+
+“Argus seems only to have pulled her down, not to have wounded her; she
+has lost consciousness however. Go quickly into my room and bring me the
+blue phial out of my medicine-case and a cup of water.”
+
+The slave whistled to the hound and obeyed the order as quickly as
+possible.
+
+Meanwhile Antinous remained on his knees by the senseless girl, and
+ventured to raise her head with its long soft weight of hair. How
+beautiful were those marble-white, and nobly-cut features! How touching
+did the silent accent of pain that lay on her lips seem to him, and how
+happy was the spoilt darling of the Emperor, who was loved by all who
+saw him, to be able to be tender and helpful, unasked!
+
+“Wake up, oh! wake up!” he cried to Selene--and when still she did not
+move, he repeated more urgently and tenderly, “Pray, pray wake up.”
+
+But she did not hear him, and remained motionless even when, with a
+slight blush, he drew over her shoulder her peplum, which the dog had
+torn away. Now Mastor returned with the water and the blue phial, and
+gave them to the Bithynian. While Antinous laid the girl’s head in his
+lap, the slave was hurrying away, saying: “Caesar called me.”
+
+The lad moistened Selene’s forehead with the reviving fluid, made her
+inhale the strong essence which the phial contained, and cried again
+loud and earnestly, “Wake, wake.”--And presently her lips parted,
+showing her small, white teeth, and then she slowly raised the lids
+which had veiled her eyes. With a deep sigh of relief he set the cup and
+the phial on the ground so as to support her when she slowly began to
+raise herself; but, scarcely had he turned his face towards her, when
+she sprang up suddenly and violently, and flinging both her arms round
+his neck, cried out:
+
+“Save me, Pollux, save me! The monster is devouring me.” Antinous much
+startled, seized the girl’s arms to release himself from their embrace,
+but, she had already freed him and sunk back on to the ground. The next
+moment she was shivering violently as if from an attack of fever; again
+she threw up her hands, pressed them to her temples, and gazed with
+terror and bewilderment into the face that bent above her.
+
+“What is it? Who are you?” she asked, in a low voice.
+
+He rose quickly, and while he supported her as she attempted to rise and
+stand upon her feet, he said:
+
+“The gods be praised that you are still alive. Our big hound threw you
+down-and he has terrible teeth.” Selene was now standing up, and face to
+face with the boy at whose last words she shuddered again.
+
+“Do, you feel any pain?” asked Antinous, anxiously.
+
+“Yes,” she said, dully.
+
+“Did he bite you?”
+
+“I think not--pick up that pin, it has fallen out of my dress.”
+
+The Bithynian obeyed her behest, and while the girl re-fastened her
+peplum over her shoulders she asked him again:
+
+“Who are you? How came the dog in our palace?”
+
+“He belongs--he belongs to us. We arrived late last night, and Pontius
+put us--”
+
+“Then you are with the architect from Rome?”
+
+“Yes, but who are you?”
+
+“Selene is my name, I am the daughter of the palace-steward.”
+
+“And who is Pollux, whom you were calling to help you when you recovered
+your senses?”
+
+“What does that matter to you?”
+
+Antinous colored, and answered in confusion:
+
+“I was startled when you suddenly roused up, with his name so loudly on
+your lips, when I brought you back to life with water and this essence.”
+
+“Well, I was roused--and now I can walk again. People who bring furious
+dogs into a strange place, should know how to take better care of
+them. Tie the dog up safely, for the children--my little brothers and
+sisters--come this way when they want to go out. Thank you for your
+help--and my pitcher?”
+
+As she spoke she looked down on the remains of the pretty jar, which was
+one her mother had particularly valued. When she saw the fragments lying
+on the ground, she gave a deep sob, but she shed no tears. Then she
+exclaimed angrily: “It is infamous!”
+
+With these words she turned her back on Antinous and returned to her
+father’s room, using her left foot, however, with caution, for it was
+very painful.
+
+The young Bithynian gazed in silence at Selene’s tall, slight form, he
+felt prompted to follow her, to say to her how very sorry he was for the
+mischance that had befallen her, and that the hound belonged not to him
+but to another man; but he dared not. Long after she had disappeared
+from sight he stood on the same spot. At last he collected his senses,
+and slowly went back to his room, where he sat on his couch with his
+eyes fixed dreamily on the ground, till the Emperor’s call roused him
+from his reverie.
+
+Selene had hardly vouchsafed Antinous a glance. She was in pain not
+merely in her left foot, but also in the back of her head where she
+found there was a deep cut; but her thick hair had staunched the blood
+that flowed from the wound. She felt very tired, and the loss of her
+pretty jug, which must also be replaced by another, vexed her far more
+than the beauty of the favorite had charmed her.
+
+She slowly and wearily entered the sitting-room, where her father was
+by this time waiting for her and his water. He was accustomed to have it
+regularly at the same hour, and as Selene was absent longer than usual,
+he could think of no better way of filling up the time than by grumbling
+and scolding to himself; when, at last, his daughter appeared on the
+threshold, he at once perceived that she had no jug, and said crossly:
+
+“And am I to have no water to-day?”
+
+Selene shook her head, sank into a seat, and began to cry softly.
+
+“What is the matter?” asked her father.
+
+“The pitcher is broken,” she said sadly.
+
+“You should take better care of such expensive things,” scolded her
+father. “You are always complaining of want of money, and at the same
+time you break half our belongings.”
+
+“I was thrown down,” answered Selene, drying her eyes.
+
+“Thrown down! by whom?” asked the steward, slowly rising.
+
+“By the architect’s big dog--the architect who came last night from
+Rome, and to whom we gave that meat and salt in the middle of the night.
+He slept here, at Lochias.”
+
+“And he set his clog on my child!” shouted Keraunus, with an angry
+glare.
+
+“The hound was alone in the passage when I went there.”
+
+“Did it bite you?”
+
+“No, but it pulled me down, and stood over me, and gnashed its
+teeth--oh! it was horrible.”
+
+“The cursed, vagabond scoundrel!” growled the steward, “I will teach him
+how to behave in a strange house!”
+
+“Let him be,” said Selene, as she saw her father about to don the
+saffron cloak.
+
+“What is done cannot be undone, and if quarrels and dissentions come of
+it, it will make you ill.”
+
+“Vagabonds! impudent rascals! who fill my palace with quarrelsome curs,”
+ muttered Keraunus without listening to his daughter, and as he settled
+the folds of his pallium he growled “Arsinoe! why is it that girl never
+hears me.”
+
+When she appeared he desired her to heat the irons to curl his hair.
+
+“They are ready by the fire,” answered Arsinoe. “Come into the kitchen
+with me.”
+
+Keraunus followed her, and had his locks curled and scented, while his
+younger children stood round him waiting for the porridge which Selene
+usually prepared for them at this hour.
+
+Keraunus responded to their morning greetings with nods as friendly as
+Arsinoe’s tongs, which held his head tightly by the hair, would allow.
+It was only the blind Helios, a pretty boy of six, that he drew to his
+side and gave a kiss on his cheek. He loved this child, who, though
+deprived of the noblest of the senses, was always merry and contented,
+with peculiar tenderness. Once he even laughed aloud when the child
+clung to his sister, as she brandished the tongs, and said:
+
+“Father, do you know why I am sorry I cannot see?”
+
+“Well?” said his father.
+
+“Because I should so like to see you for once with the beautiful curls
+which Arsinoe makes with the irons.” But the steward’s mirth was checked
+when his daughter, pausing in her labors, said half in jest, but half in
+earnest:
+
+“Have you thought any more about the Emperor’s arrival, father? I
+smarten and dress you so fine every day--but to-day you ought to think
+of dressing me.”
+
+“We will see about it,” said Keraunus evasively. “Do you know,” said
+Arsinoe, after a short pause, as she twisted the last lock in the
+freshly-heated tongs, “I thought it all over last night again. If we
+cannot succeed any way in scraping together the money for my dress, we
+can still--”
+
+“Well?”
+
+“Even Selene can say nothing against it.”
+
+“Against what?”
+
+“But, you will be angry!”
+
+“Speak out.”
+
+“You pay taxes like the rest of the citizens.”
+
+“What has that to do with it?”
+
+“Well then, we are justified in expecting something from the city.”
+
+“What for?”
+
+“To pay for my dress for the festival which is got up for the Emperor,
+not by an individual, but by the citizens as a body. We could not accept
+alone, but it is folly to refuse what a rich municipality offers. That
+is neither more nor less than making them a present.”
+
+“You be silent,” cried Keraunus, really furious, and trying in vain to
+remember the argument with which, only yesterday, he had refused the
+same suggestion. “Be silent, and wait till I begin to talk about such
+matters.”
+
+Arsinoe flung the tongs on the hearth with so much annoyance that
+they fell on the stone with a loud clatter; but her father quitted the
+kitchen and returned to the sitting-room. There he found Selene lying on
+a couch, and the old slave-woman, who had tied a wet handkerchief round
+the girl’s head, pressing another to her bare left foot.
+
+“Wounded!” cried Keraunus, and his eyes rolled slowly from right to left
+and from left to right.
+
+“Look at the swelling!” cried the old woman in broken Greek, raising
+Selene’s snow-white foot in her black hands for her father to see.
+“Thousands of fine ladies have hands that are not so small. Poor, poor
+little foot,” and as she spoke the old woman pressed it to her lips.
+
+Selene pushed her aside, and said, turning to her father:
+
+“The cut on my head is nothing to speak of, but the muscles and veins
+here at the ancle are swelled and my leg hurts me rather when I tread.
+When the dog threw me down I must have hit it against the stone step.”
+
+“It is outrageous!” cried Keraunus, the blood again mounting to his
+head, “only wait and I will show them what I think of their goings on.”
+
+“No, no,” entreated Selene, “only beg them politely to shut up the dog,
+or to chain it, so that it may not hurt the children.”
+
+Her voice trembled with anxiety as she spoke the words, for the dread,
+which, she knew not why, had so long been tormenting her lest her father
+should lose his place, seemed to affect her more than ever to-day.
+
+“What! civil words after what has now happened?” cried Keraunus
+indignantly, and as if something quite unheard of had been suggested to
+him.
+
+“Nay, nay, say what you mean,” shrieked the old woman. “If such a thing
+had occurred to your father he would have fallen on the strange builder
+with a good thrashing.”
+
+“And his son Keraunus will not let him off,” declared the steward,
+quitting the room without heeding Selene’s entreaty not to let himself
+be provoked.
+
+In the ante-chamber he found his old slave whom he ordered to take
+a stick and go before him to announce him to Pontius’ guest, the
+architect, who was lodging in the rooms in the wing near the fountain.
+This was the elegant thing to do, and by this means the black slave
+would meet the big dog before his master who held him and all dogs in
+the utmost abhorrence. As he approached his destination he found himself
+quite in the humor to speak his mind to the stranger who had come here
+with a ferocious hound to tear the members of his family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Hadrian had slept most comfortably; only a few hours it is true, but
+they had sufficed to refresh his spirit. He was now in his sitting-room
+and had gone to the window, which took up more than half the extent of
+the long west wall of the room, and opened on the sea. The wide opening,
+which extended downwards to within a few spans of the floor, was
+finished at either side by a tall pillar of fine reddish-brown porphyry,
+flecked with white, and crowned with gilt Corinthian capitals.
+
+Against one of these the Emperor was leaning stroking the blood-hound,
+whose prompt and vigorous watchfulness had pleased him greatly. What did
+he care for the terrors the dog might have caused a mere girl?
+
+By the other pillar stood Antinous; he had placed his right foot on the
+low window-sill, and with his chin resting on his hand and his elbow on
+his knee, his figure was well within the room.
+
+“This, Pontius, is really a first-rate man,” said Hadrian, pointing to
+a tapestry hanging across the narrow end of the room. “This hanging
+was copied from a fruit-piece that I painted some time since, and had
+executed here in mosaic. Yesterday this room was not even intended for
+my use, thus the hanging must have been put up between our arrival and
+this morning. And how many other beautiful things I see around me! The
+whole place looks habitable, and the eye finds an abundance of objects
+on which it can rest with pleasure.”
+
+“Have you examined that magnificent cushion?” asked Antinous; “and the
+bronze figures, there in the corner, look to me far from bad.”
+
+“They are admirable works,” said Hadrian. “Still, I would do without
+them with pleasure rather than miss this window. Which is the bluer, the
+sky or the sea? And what a delicious spring breeze fans us here, in the
+middle of December. Which are the more delightful to contemplate, the
+innumerable ships in the harbor, which communicate between this flowery
+land and other countries, and bless it with wealth, or the buildings
+which attract the eye in whichever direction it turns. It is difficult
+to know whether most to admire their stately dimensions or the beauty of
+their forms.”
+
+“And what is that long, huge dyke, which connects the island with the
+mainland? Only look! There is a huge trireme passing under one of the
+wide arches, on which it is supported--and there comes another.”
+
+“That is the great viaduct, called by the Alexandrians the Heptastadion,
+because it is said to be seven stadia in length; and in the upper
+portion it carries a stone water-course--as an elder tree has in it a
+vein of pith-which supplies water to the island of Pharos.”
+
+“What a pity it is,” said Antinous, “that we cannot overlook from here
+the whole of the structure with the men and the vehicles that swarm upon
+it like busy ants. That little island and the narrow tongue of land that
+runs out into the harbor with the tall slender building at the end of
+it, half hide it.”
+
+“But they serve to vary the picture,” replied the Emperor. “Cleopatra
+often dwelt in the little castle on the island with its harbor, and in
+that tall tower on the northern side of the peninsula, round which, just
+now, the blue waves are playing, while the gulls and pigeons fly happily
+over it--there Antony retreated after the fight of Actium.”
+
+“To forget his disgrace!” exclaimed Antinous.
+
+“He named it his Timonareum, because he hoped there to remain unmolested
+by other human beings, like the wise misanthrope of Athens. How would it
+be if I called Lochias my Timonareum?”
+
+“No man need try to hide fame and greatness.”
+
+“Who told you that it was shame that led Antony to hide himself in that
+place?” asked the imperial sophist; “he proved often enough, at the head
+of his cavalry, that he was a brave soldier; and though at Actium, when
+all was still going well, he let his ship be turned, it was out of no
+fear of swords and spears, but because Fate compelled him to subjugate
+his strong will to the wishes of a woman with whose destiny his was
+linked.”
+
+“Then do you excuse his conduct?”
+
+“I only seek to account for it, and never, for a moment, could allow
+myself to believe that shame ever prompted a single act in Antony. I--do
+you suppose I could ever blush? Nay, we cease to feel shame when we have
+lived to feel such profound contempt for the world.”
+
+“But why then should Marc Antony have shut himself up, in yonder
+sea-washed prison?”
+
+“Because, to every true man, who has dissipated whole years of his
+life with women, jesters and flatterers, a moment comes of satiety and
+loathing. In such an hour he feels that of all the men under the lights
+of heaven, he, himself, is the only one with whom it is worth his while
+to commune. After Actium, this was what Antony felt, and he quitted the
+society of men in order to find himself for once in good company.”
+
+“It is that, no doubt, which drives you now and again into solitude.”
+
+“No doubt-but you are always allowed to follow me.”
+
+“Then you regard me as better than others,” exclaimed Antinous joyfully.
+
+“As more beautiful at any rate,” replied Hadrian kindly. “Ask me some
+more questions.”
+
+But Antinous needed a few minutes pause before he could comply with this
+desire. At last he recollected himself and proceeded to inquire why most
+of the vessels were moored in the harbor beyond the Heptastadion, known
+as Eunostus. The entrance there was less dangerous than that between
+the Pharos and the point of Lochias which led into the eastern
+landing-places. And then Hadrian could give him information as to every
+building in the city about which his companion evinced any curiosity.
+But when the Emperor had pointed out the Soma, under which rested the
+remains of Alexander the Great, he became thoughtful, and said, as if to
+himself:
+
+“The Great--We may well envy the young Macedonian; not the mere name of
+Great, for many of small worth have had it bestowed on them, but because
+he really earned it!”
+
+There was not a question put by the handsome Bithynian that Hadrian
+could not answer; Antinous followed all his explanations with growing
+astonishment, exclaiming at last:
+
+“How perfectly well you know this place--and yet you never were here
+before.”
+
+“It is one of the greatest pleasures of travelling,” replied Hadrian,
+“that on our journeys we come to know many things in their actuality of
+which we have formed an idea from books and narratives. This requires us
+to compare the reality with the pictures in our own minds, seen with
+the inward eye, before we saw the reality. It is to me a far smaller
+pleasure to be surprised by something new and unexpected than to
+make myself more closely acquainted with something I know already
+sufficiently to deem it worthy to be known better. Do you understand
+what I mean?”
+
+“To be sure I do. We hear of a thing, and when we afterwards see it
+we ask ourselves whether we have conceived of it rightly. But I always
+picture people or places which I hear much praised, as much more
+beautiful than I ever find the reality.”
+
+“The balance of difference, which is to the disadvantage of reality,”
+ answered Hadrian, “stands not so much to its discredit, as to the credit
+of the eager and beautifying power of your youthful imagination. I--I--”
+ and the Emperor stroked his beard and gazed out into the distance. “I
+learn by experience that the older I grow, the more often I find it
+possible so to imagine men, places, and things that I have not seen as
+that when I meet them in real life for the first time, I feel justified
+in fancying that I have known them long since, visited them, and beheld
+them with my bodily eyes. Here, for instance, I feel as if I saw nothing
+new, but only gazed once more at what has long been familiar. But that
+is no wonder, for I know my Strabo, and have heard and read a hundred
+accounts of this city. Still there are many things which are quite
+strange to me, and yet as they come before me make me feel as if I had
+seen or known them long ago.”
+
+“I have felt something like that,” said Antinous. “Can our souls have
+ever lived in other bodies, and sometimes recall the impressions made in
+that former existence?
+
+“Favorinus once told me that some great philosopher, Plato, I think,
+asserts that before we are born our souls are wafted about in the
+firmament that they may contemplate the earth on which they are destined
+subsequently to dwell. Favorinus says too--”
+
+“Favorinus!” cried Hadrian, evasively. “That graceful elocutionist has
+plenty of skill in giving new and captivating forms to the thoughts of
+the great philosophers; but he has not been able to surprise the secret
+of his own soul--besides, he talks too much, and he cannot dispense with
+the excitement of life.”
+
+“Still you have recognized the phenomenon, but you disapprove of
+Favorinus’ explanation of it?”
+
+“Yes, for I have met men and things as old acquaintances which never saw
+the light till long after I was born. Possibly my own interpretation may
+not adapt itself to the consciousness of all--but in myself, I know for
+certain, there dwells a mysterious something which stirs and works in me
+independently of myself, which enters into me, and takes its departure
+at its will. Call it as you will, my Daimon, or even my Genius--the name
+matters not. Nor will this ‘something’ always come at my bidding, while
+it often possesses me when I least expect it. In those moments when it
+stirs within me, I am master of much which is peculiar to the experience
+and potentiality of that hour. What is known to that Daimon always
+appears to me the very same when I actually meet it. Thus Alexandria is
+not unknown to me, because my Genius has seen it in his flights. It has
+learnt and done much, both in me and for me; a hundred times, face to
+face with my own finished works I have asked myself: ‘Is it possible
+that you--Hadrian--your mother’s son-can have achieved this? What then
+is the mysterious power that aided you to do it?’ Now I also recognize
+it, and can see it work in others. The man in whom it dwells soon excels
+his fellows, and it is most manifest in artists. Or is it that mere
+common men become great artists simply because the Genius selects them
+as his temple to dwell in? Do you follow me, boy?”
+
+“Not altogether,” replied Antinous, and his large eyes which had
+sparkled brightly so long as he gazed with the Emperor on the city, were
+now cast down and fixed wearily on the ground. “Do not be angry with me,
+my Lord, but I shall never understand such things as these, for there is
+no man with whom your Genius, as you term it, has less concern than with
+me. Thoughts of my own have I none, and it is difficult to me to follow
+the thoughts of others; indeed I should like to know how I am ever to
+do anything right. When I want to work, to work something out, no Daimon
+helps my soul; no--it feels quite helpless, and drifts into dreaminess.
+And if I ever do complete anything, I am obliged to own to myself that I
+certainly might have been able to do it better.”
+
+“Self-knowledge,” laughed Hadrian, “is the climax of wisdom. A man has
+done something if he has only added a ‘thing of beauty’ to the joys of
+a friend’s imagination; what others do by hard work you do by mere
+existence. Be quiet, Argus!” For, while he was speaking, the hound
+had risen, and had gone snarling to the door. In spite of his master’s
+orders he broke into a loud bark when he heard a steady knock at
+the door. Hadrian looked round in bewilderment, and asked: “Where is
+Mastor?”
+
+Antinous shouted the slave’s name into the Emperor’s bedroom, which was
+next to the living-room, but in vain. “He generally is always at hand,
+and as brisk as a lark, but to-day he looked as if in a dream, and while
+he was dressing me he first let my shoe fall out of his hand and then my
+brooch.”
+
+“I read him yesterday a letter from Rome. His young wife has gone away
+with a ship’s captain.”
+
+“We may wish him joy of being free again.”
+
+“It does not seem to afford him any satisfaction.”
+
+“Oh! a handsome lad like my body-slave can find as many substitutes as
+he likes.”
+
+“But he has not done so. For the present he is still smarting under his
+loss.”
+
+“How wise! There, some one is knocking again. Just see who ventures--but
+to be sure any one has a right to knock, for at Lochias I am not the
+Emperor, but a simple private gentleman. Lie down Argus, are you crazy,
+old fellow? Why the dog maintains my dignity better than I do, and he
+does not seem altogether to like the architect’s part I am playing.”
+
+Antinous had already raised his hand to lift the handle, when the door
+was gently opened from outside, and the steward’s slave stood on the
+threshold. The old negro presented a lamentable spectacle. The Emperor’s
+dignified and awe-compelling figure, and his favorite’s rich garments
+made him feel embarrassed, and the hound’s threatening growl filled him
+with such terror that he huddled his lean negro-legs together, and, as
+far as its length would allow, tried to cover them for protection with
+his threadbare tunic.
+
+Hadrian gazed in astonishment at this image of fear, and then asked:
+
+“Well! what do you want, fellow?”
+
+The slave attempted to advance a step or two, but at a loud command
+from Hadrian he stood still, and as he looked down at his flat feet, he
+ruefully scratched his short-cropped grey hair, some of which had fallen
+off and left a bald patch.
+
+“Well,” repeated Hadrian, in a tone which was anything rather than
+encouraging, as he relaxed his hold on the hound’s collar in a somewhat
+suspicious manner. The slave’s bent knees began to quake, and holding
+out his broad palm to the grey-bearded gentleman, who seemed to
+him hardly less alarming than the dog, he began to stammer out in
+fearfully-mutilated Greek the speech which his master had repeated
+to him several times, and which set forth that he had come “into the
+presence of the architect, Claudius Venator, of Rome, to announce the
+visit of his master, a member of the town-council, a Macedonian, and a
+Roman citizen, Keraunus, the son of Ptolemy, steward of the once royal
+but now imperial palace at Lochias.”
+
+Hadrian unrelentingly allowed the poor wretch to finish his speech,
+rubbing his hands with amusement, while the sweat of anguish stood on
+the old slave’s face, and to prolong the delightful joke, he took good
+care not to help the miserable old man when his unaccustomed tongue came
+to some insuperable difficulty. When, at length, the negro had finished
+the pompous announcement, Hadrian said, kindly:
+
+“Tell your master he may come in.”
+
+Scarcely had the slave left the room, when the sovereign, turning to his
+favorite, exclaimed:
+
+“This is a delicious joke! What will the Jupiter be like, when the eagle
+is such a bird as this!”
+
+Keraunus was not long to wait for. While pacing up and down the passage
+outside the Emperor’s room, his bad humor had risen considerably, for he
+took it as a slight on the part of the architect, that he should allow
+him--whose birth and dignities he would have learnt from his slave--to
+wait several minutes, each of which seemed to him a quarter of an hour.
+His expectation too, that the Roman would come to conduct him in person
+into his apartment was by no means fulfilled, for the slave’s message
+was briefly--“He may come in.”
+
+“Did he say may? Did he not say ‘please to come in, or have the goodness
+to come in?’” asked the steward.
+
+“He may come in--was what he said,” replied the slave.
+
+Keraunus grunted out, “Well!” set his gold circlet straight on his head
+which he held very upright, crossed his arms over his broad chest with a
+sigh, and ordered the black man:
+
+“Open the door.”
+
+The steward crossed the threshold with much dignity: then, not to commit
+any breach of courtesy, he bowed low, and was about to begin to utter
+his reprimand in cutting terms, when a glance at the Emperor and at the
+splendid decoration which the room had undergone since the day previous,
+not to mention the very unpleasant growling of the big dog, prompted him
+to strike a milder string. His slave had followed him and had sought a
+safe corner near the door, between the wall of the room and a couch, but
+he himself, conquering his alarm at the dog, went forward some distance
+into the room. The Emperor had seated himself on the window-sill; he
+pressed his foot lightly on the head of the dog, and gazed at Keraunus
+as at some remarkable curiosity. His eye thus met that of the steward
+and made him clearly understand that he had to do with a greater
+personage than he had expected. There was something imposing in the
+person of the man who sat before him; for this very reason, however,
+his pride stood on tiptoe, and he asked in a tone of swaggering dignity,
+though not so sharply and abruptly as he had intended.
+
+“Am I standing before the new visitor to Lochias, the architect Claudius
+Venator of Rome?”
+
+“You are--standing--” replied the Emperor, with a roguish side glance at
+Antinous.
+
+“You have met with a friendly reception to this palace. Like my fathers,
+who have enjoyed the stewardship of it for centuries, I know how to
+exercise the sacred duties of hospitality.”
+
+“I am surprised to hear of the high antiquity of your family and bow
+to your pious sentiments,” answered Hadrian, in the same tone as the
+steward. “What farther may I learn from you?”
+
+“I did not come here to relate history,” said Keraunus, whose gall rose
+as he thought he detected a mocking smile on the stranger’s lips. “I
+did not come here to tell stories, but to complain that you, as a
+warmly-welcomed guest, show so little anxiety to protect your host from
+injury.”
+
+“How is that?” asked Hadrian, rising from his seat and signing to
+Antinous to hold back the hound, which manifested a peculiar aversion
+to the steward. It no doubt detected that he had come to show no special
+friendliness to his owner.
+
+“Is that dangerous dog, gnashing its teeth there, your property?” asked
+Keraunus.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“This morning it threw down my daughter and smashed a costly pitcher,
+which she is fond of carrying to fetch water in the dawn.”
+
+“I heard of that misadventure,” said Hadrian, “and I would give much if
+I could undo it. The vessel shall be amply made good to you.”
+
+“I beg you not to add insult to the injury, we have suffered by your
+fault. A father whose daughter has been knocked down and hurt--”
+
+“Then, Argus actually bit her?” cried Antinous, horrified.
+
+“No,” Keraunus replied. “But as she fell her head and foot have been
+injured, and she is suffering much pain.”
+
+“That is very sad,” said Hadrian, “and as I am not ignorant of the
+healing art, I will gladly try to help the poor girl.”
+
+“I pay a professional leech, who attends me and mine,” replied the
+steward, in a repellant tone, “and I came hither to request--or, to be
+frank with you--to require--”
+
+“What?”
+
+“First, that my pardon shall be asked.”
+
+“That, the artist, Claudius Venator, is always ready to do when any
+one has suffered damage by his fault. What has happened--I repeat
+it--grieves me sincerely, and I beg you tell the maiden to whom the
+accident happened, that her pain is mine. What more do you desire?”
+
+The steward’s features had calmed down at these last words, and he
+answered with less excitement than before:
+
+“I must request you to chain up your dog, or to shut it up, or in some
+way to keep it from mischief.”
+
+“That is pretty strong!” cried the Emperor.
+
+“It is only a reasonable demand, and I must stand by it,” replied
+Keraunus decidedly. “Neither I--nor my children’s lives are safe, so
+long as this wild beast is prowling about at pleasure.”
+
+Hadrian had, ere now, erected monuments to deceased favorites, both dogs
+and horses, and his faithful Argus was no less dear to him, than other
+four-footed companions have been to other childless men; hence the
+queer fat man’s demand seemed to him so audacious and monstrous, that he
+indignantly exclaimed:
+
+“Folly!--the dog shall be watched, but nothing farther.”
+
+“You will chain him up,” replied Keraunus, with an angry, glare, “or
+someone will be found who will make him harmless forever.”
+
+“That will be an evil attempt for the cowardly murderer!” cried Hadrian.
+“Eh! Argus, what do you think?”
+
+At these words the dog drew himself up, and would have sprung at the
+steward’s throat if his master and Antinous had not held him back.
+
+Keraunus felt that the dog had threatened him, but at this instant he
+would have let himself be torn by him without wincing, so completely was
+he overmastered by the fury born of his injured pride.
+
+“And am I--I too, to be hunted down by a dog, in this house?” he cried
+defiantly, setting his left fist on his hip. “Every thing has its
+limits, and so has my patience with a guest who, in spite of his ripe
+age forgets due consideration. I will inform the prefect Titianus of
+your proceedings here, and when the Emperor arrives he shall know--”
+
+“What?” laughed Hadrian.
+
+“The way you behave to me.”
+
+“Till then the dog shall stay where it is, and really under due
+restraint. But I can tell you man, that Hadrian is as much a friend of
+dogs as I am--and fonder of me than even of dogs.”
+
+“We will see,” growled Keraunus, “I or the dog!”
+
+“I am afraid it will be the dog then.”
+
+“And Rome will see a fresh revolt,” cried Keraunus, rolling his eyes.
+“You took Egypt from the Ptolemies.”
+
+“And with very good reason--besides that is a stale old story.”
+
+“Justice is never stale, like a bad debt.”
+
+“At any rate it perishes with persons it concerns; there have been no
+Lagides left here--how many years?”
+
+“So you believe, because it suits your ends to believe it,” replied
+the steward. “In the man who stands before you flows the blood of the
+Macedonian rulers of this country. My eldest son bears the name of
+Ptolemaeus Helios--that borne by the last of the Lagides, who perished
+as you pretend.”
+
+“Dear, good, blind Helios!” interrupted the black slave; for he was
+accustomed to avail himself of the hapless child’s name as a protection,
+when Keraunus was in a doubtful humor.
+
+“Then the last descendant of the Ptolemies is blind!” laughed the
+Emperor. “Rome may ignore his claims. But I will inform the Emperor how
+dangerous a pretender this roof yet harbors.”
+
+“Denounce me, accuse me, calumniate me!” cried the steward,
+contemptuously. “But I will not let myself be trodden on.
+Patience--patience! you will live to know me yet.”
+
+“And you, the blood-hound,” replied Hadrian, “if you do not this instant
+quit the room with your mouthing crow--”
+
+Keraunus signed to his slave and without greeting his foe in any way,
+turned his back upon him. He paused for a moment at the door of the room
+and cried out to Hadrian:
+
+“Rely upon this, I shall complain to the Council and write to Caesar how
+you presume to behave to a Macedonian citizen.”
+
+As soon as the steward had quitted the room, Hadrian freed the dog,
+which flew raging at the door which was closed between him and the
+object of his aversion. Hadrian ordered him to be quiet, and then
+turning to his companion, he exclaimed:
+
+“A perfect monster of a man! to the last degree ridiculous, and at the
+same time repulsive. How his rage seethed in him, and yet could not
+break out fairly and thoroughly. I am always on my guard with such
+obstinate fools. Pay attention to my Argus, and remember, we are in
+Egypt, the land of poison, as Homer long since said. Mastor must keep
+his eyes open--Here he is at last.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+After the Emperor’s body-slave had started up to go to the aid of
+Selene, who was attacked by his sovereign’s dog, something had happened
+to him which he could not forget; he had received an impression which
+he could not wipe out, and words and tones had stirred his mind and soul
+which incessantly echoed in them, so that it was in a preoccupied and
+half-dreamy way that he had done his master those little services which
+he was accustomed to perform every morning, briskly and with complete
+attention.
+
+Summer and winter Mastor was accustomed to leave his master’s bedroom
+before sunrise to prepare everything that Hadrian could need when he
+rose from his slumbers. There was the gold plating to clean on the
+narrow greaves and the leather straps which belonged to his master’s
+military boots, his clothes to air and to perfume with the slight,
+hardly perceptible scent that he liked, but the preparations for
+Hadrian’s bath were what took up most of his time. At Lochias there
+were not as yet--as there were in the imperial palace at
+Rome--properly-filled baths; still his servant knew that here, as there,
+his master would use a due abundance of water. He had been told that if
+he required anything for his master he was to apply to Pontius. Him
+he found, without seeking him, outside the room meant for Hadrian’s
+sitting-room, to which, while the Emperor still slept, he was
+endeavoring, with the help of his assistants, to give a comfortable and
+pleasing aspect. The architect referred the slave to the workmen who
+were busy laying the pavement in the forecourt of the palace; these
+men would carry in for him as much water as ever he could need. The
+body-servant’s position relieved him of such humble duties, still, when
+on the chase, when travelling, or as need arose, he was accustomed to
+perform them unasked, and very willingly.
+
+The sun had not yet risen when he went out into the court, a number of
+slaves were lying on their mats asleep, others had camped round a fire
+and were waiting for their early broth, which was being stirred with
+wooden sticks by an old man and a boy. Mastor would not disturb either
+group; he went up to a party of workmen, who seemed to be talking
+together, and yet remained attentive to the speech of an old man who was
+evidently telling them a story.
+
+The poor fellow’s heart was heavy and his mind was little bent on tales
+and amusements. All life was embittered. The services required of him
+usually seemed to him of paramount importance, beyond everything else;
+but to-day it was different. He had an obscure feeling as though fate
+herself had released him from all his duties, as if misfortune had cut
+the bonds which bound him to his service to the Emperor, and had made
+him an isolated and lonely being. It even came into his head whether he
+should not take in his hand all the gold pieces given him sometimes by
+Hadrian, or which the wealthy folks who wished to be the foremost of
+those introduced into the Emperor’s presence, after waiting in the
+antechamber, had flung to him or slipped into his hand--make his escape
+and carouse away all that he possessed in the taverns of the great city,
+in wine and the gay company of women. It was all the same to him what
+might happen to him.
+
+If he were caught he would probably be flogged to death; but he had had
+kicks and blows in plenty before he had got into the Emperor’s service,
+nay; when he was brought to Rome he had once even been hunted with dogs.
+If he lost his life, after all what would it matter? He would have done
+with it then, once for all, and the future offered him no prospect
+but perpetual fatigue in the service of a restless master, anxiety and
+contempt. He was a thoroughly good-hearted being who could not bear to
+hurt any one, and who found it equally hard to disturb a fellow-man in
+his pleasures or amusement. He felt particularly disinclined to do so
+just now, for a wounded soul is keenly alive to the moods and feelings
+of others; so, as he approached the group of workmen, from among whom
+he proposed to choose his water-carrier, he determined that he would not
+interrupt the story-teller, on whose lips the gaze of his audience was
+riveted with interest.
+
+The glare of the blaze under the soup-kettle fell full on the speaker’s
+face. He was an old laborer, but his long hair proclaimed him a freeman.
+His abundant white beard induced Mastor to suppose that he must be a Jew
+or a Phoenician, but there was nothing remarkable in the old man,
+who was dressed in a poor and scanty tunic, excepting his peculiarly
+brilliant eyes, which were immovably fixed on the heavens, and the
+oblique position in which he held his head, supporting it on the left
+side with his raised hands.
+
+“And now,” said the speaker, dropping his arms, “let us go back to our
+labors, my brethren. ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,’ it
+is written. It is often hard to us old men to heave stones and bend our
+stiff backs for so long together, but we are nearer than you younger
+ones to the happy future. Life is not easy to all of us, but it is we
+who labor and are heavy laden--we above all others--that the Lord has
+bidden to be his guests, and not last among us the slaves.”
+
+“Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh
+you,” interrupted one of the younger men repeating the words of Christ.
+
+“Yea, thus saith the Saviour,” said the old man approvingly, “and he
+surely then was thinking of us. I said just now our load is not light,
+but how much heavier was the burden he took upon him of his own free
+will to release us from woe. Every one must work, nay even Caesar
+himself, but he who could dwell in the glory of his Father let himself
+be mocked and scorned and spit in the face, let the crown of thorns be
+pressed on his suffering head, bore his heavy cross, sinking under its
+weight, and endured a death of torment, and all for our sakes, without
+a murmur. But he suffered not in vain, for God accepted the sacrifice of
+his Son, and did his will and said, ‘All that believe on Him should not
+perish, but have everlasting life.’ And though a new and weary day is
+now beginning, and though it should be followed by a thousand wearier
+still, though death is the end of life--still we believe in our
+Redeemer, we have God’s word bidding us out of sorrows and sufferings
+into his Heaven, promising us for a brief time of misery in this world,
+endless ages of joy.--Now go to work. Our sturdy friend Krates will
+work for you dear Knakias until your finger is healed. When the bread
+is distributed remember, each of you, the children of our poor deceased
+brother Philammon. You, poor Gibbus, will find your labors bitter
+to-day. This man’s master, my dear brethren, sold both his daughters
+yesterday to a dealer from Smyrna; but if you never see them again in
+Egypt, or in any other country, my friend, you will meet them in the
+home of your Heavenly Father--of that you may rest assured. Our life
+on earth is but a pilgrimage, and Heaven is the goal, and the Guide who
+teaches us never to miss the way, is our Saviour. Weariness and toil,
+sorrow and suffering are easy to bear, to him who knows that when
+the solemn hour is near, the King of Kings shall throw open his
+dwelling-place, and invite him to enter as a favored guest to inhabit
+there, where all we have loved have found joy and rest.”
+
+“Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh
+you,” said a man’s loud voice again from the circle that sat round the
+old man. The old man stood up, signed to a boy who distributed the bread
+in equal shares to the workmen, and took up a jar with handles, out of
+which he filled a large wooden cup with wine.
+
+Not a word of this discourse had escaped Mastor, and the often repeated
+verse, “Come unto me all ye that labor,” dwelt in his mind like the
+invitation of a hospitable friend bidding him to happy days of freedom
+and enjoyment. A distant gleam shone through the weight of his troubles,
+seeming to promise the dawn of a new day, and he reverently went up to
+the old man, in the first place to ask him if he was the overseer of the
+workmen who stood round him.
+
+“I am,” replied the old man, and as soon as he learnt what Mastor
+required as a commission from the controlling architect, he pointed out
+some young slaves who quickly brought the water that he needed.
+
+Pontius met the Emperor’s servant and his water-carriers and remarked,
+loudly enough for Mastor to understand him, to Pollux who was with him:
+
+“The architect’s servant is getting Christians to wait upon his master
+to-day. They are regular and sober workmen who do their duty silently
+and well.”
+
+While Mastor was giving his master towels, and helping to dry and dress
+him, he was far less attentive than usual, for he could not get the
+words he had heard from the overseer’s lips out of his mind. He had not
+understood them all, but he had fully comprehended that there was a kind
+and loving God who had suffered in his own person the utmost torments,
+who was especially gracious to the poor, the miserable, and the
+bondsman, and who promised to refresh them and comfort them, and to
+re-unite them to those who had once been dear to them. “Come unto me,”
+ sounded again and again in his ears, and struck so warmly to his heart
+that he could not help thinking first of his mother, who, so many a
+time, when he was a child, had called to him only to clasp him in her
+arms as he ran towards her, and to press him to her heart. Just so had
+he often called his poor little dead son, and the feeling that there
+could be any one who might still call to him--the forsaken lonely
+man--with loving words to release him from his griefs, to reunite him
+to his mother, his father, and all the dear ones left behind in his lost
+and distant home, took half the bitterness from his pain.
+
+He was accustomed to listen to all that was said in the Emperor’s
+presence, and year by year he had learnt to understand more of what
+he heard. He had often heard the Christians discussed, and usually as
+deluded but dangerous fools. Many of his fellow-slaves, too, he
+had heard called Christian idiots, but still not unfrequently very
+reasonable men, and sometimes even Hadrian himself, had taken the part
+of the Christians.
+
+This was the first time that Mastor had heard from their own lips what
+they believed and hoped, and now, while fulfilling his duties he
+could hardly bear the delay before he could once more seek out the old
+pavement-worker, to enquire of him, and to have the hopes confirmed
+which his words had aroused in his soul.
+
+No sooner had Hadrian and Antinous gone into the living-room than Mastor
+had hastened off across the court to find the Christians. There he tried
+to open a conversation with the overseer concerning his faith, but the
+old man answered that there was a season for everything; just now
+he could not interrupt the work, but that he might come again after
+sundown, and that he then would tell him of Him who had promised to
+refresh the sorrow-laden.
+
+Mastor thought no more of making his escape. When he appeared again in
+his master’s presence there was such a sunny light in his blue eyes that
+Hadrian left the angry words he had prepared for him unspoken, and cried
+to Antinous, laughing and pointing to the slave:
+
+“I really believe the rascal has consoled himself already, and found a
+new mate. Let us, too, follow the precept of Horace, so far as we may,
+and enjoy the present day. The poet may let the future go as it will,
+but I cannot, for, unfortunately, I am the Emperor.”
+
+“And Rome may thank the gods that you are,” replied Antinous.
+
+“What happy phrases the boy hits upon sometimes,” said Hadrian with a
+laugh, and he stroked the lad’s brown curls. “Now till noon I must work
+with Phlegon and Titianus, whom I am expecting, and then perhaps we
+may find something to laugh at. Ask the tall sculptor there behind the
+screens, at what hour Balbilla is to sit to him for her bust. We must
+also inspect the architect’s work, and that of the Alexandrian artists
+by daylight; that, their zeal has well deserved.”
+
+Hadrian retired to the room where his private secretary had ready for
+him the despatches and papers for Rome and the provinces, which the
+Emperor was required to read and to sign. Antinous remained alone in the
+sitting-room, and for an hour he continued to gaze at the ships which
+came to anchor in the harbor, or sailed out of the roads, and amused
+himself with watching the swift boats which swarmed round the larger
+vessels, like wasps round ripe fruit. He listened to the songs of the
+sailors, and the music of the flute-players, to the measured beat of
+the oars, which came up from the triremes in the private harbor of the
+Emperor as they went out to sea. Even the pure blue of the sky and the
+warmth of the delicious morning were a pleasure to him, and he asked
+himself whether the smell of tar, which pervaded the seaport, were
+agreeable or not.
+
+Presently as the sun mounted in the sky, its bright sphere dazzled him;
+he left the window with a yawn, stretched himself on a couch, and stared
+absently up at the ceiling of the room without thinking of the subject
+which the faded picture on it was intended to represent.
+
+Idleness had long since grown to be the occupation of his life; but
+accustomed to it as he was, he was sometimes conscious of its dark
+attendant shadow ennui--as of a disagreeable and intrusive interruption
+to the enjoyment of life. Generally in such lonely hours of idle reverie
+his thoughts reverted to his belongings in Bithynia, of whom he never
+dared to speak before the Emperor, or perhaps of the hunting excursions
+he had made with Hadrian, of the slaughtered game, of the fish he--an
+experienced angler--had caught, or such like. What the future might
+bring him troubled him not, for to the love of creativeness, to
+ambition--to all, in short, that bore any resemblance to a passionate
+excitement his soul had, so far, remained a stranger. The admiration
+which was universally excited by his beauty gave him no pleasure, and
+many a time he felt as though it was not worth while to stir a limb or
+draw a breath. Almost everything he saw was indifferent to him excepting
+a kind word from the lips of the Emperor, whom he regarded as great
+above all other men, whom he feared as Destiny incarnate, and to whom he
+felt himself bound as intimately as the flower to the tree, the blossom
+that must die when the stem is broken, on which it flaunts as an
+ornament and a grace.
+
+But, to-day, as he flung himself on the divan his visions took a new
+direction. He could not help thinking of the pale girl whom he had saved
+from the jaws of the blood-hound--of the white cold hand which for an
+instant had clung to his neck--of the cold words with which she had
+afterwards repelled him.
+
+Antinous began to long violently to see Selene. That same Antinous,
+to whom in all the cities he had visited with the Emperor, and in Rome
+particularly, the noble fair ones had sent branches of flowers and
+tender letters, and who nevertheless, since the day when he left his
+home, had never felt for any woman or girl half so tender a sentiment,
+as for the hunter the Emperor had given him, or for the big dog. This
+girl stood before his memory like breathing marble. Perchance the man
+might be doomed to death who should rest on her cold breast, but such a
+death must be full of ecstasy, and it seemed to him that it would be far
+more blissful to die with the blood frozen in his veins, than of the too
+rapid throbbing of his heart.
+
+“Selene,” he murmured, now and again, with soft hesitation; a strange
+unrest foreign to his calm nature seemed to propagate itself through all
+his limbs, and he who commonly would be stretched on a couch for hours
+without stirring, lost in dreams, now sprang up and paced the room,
+sighing deeply, and with long strides.
+
+It was a passionate longing for Selene that drove him up and down, and
+his wish to see her again crystallized into resolve, and prompted him
+to contrive the ways and means of meeting her once more before the
+Emperor’s return.
+
+Simply to invade her father’s lodging without farther ceremony, seemed
+to him out of the question, and yet he was certain of finding her there,
+since her injured foot would of course keep her at home. Should he once
+more go to the steward with a request for bread and salt? But he dared
+not ask anything of Keraunus in Hadrian’s name after the scene which had
+so recently taken place. Should he go there to carry her a new pitcher
+in the place of the broken one? But that would only freshly enrage the
+arrogant official.
+
+Should he--should he--should he not? But no, it was quite
+impossible--still, that no doubt--that was the right idea. In his
+medicine-chest there were a few extracts which had been given to him by
+the Emperor; he would offer her one of these to dilute with water and
+apply to her bruised foot. And this act of sympathy could not displease
+even his master, who liked to prove his healing art on the sick or
+suffering. He at once called Mastor, and desired him to take charge of
+the hound which had followed his steps as he paced the room, then he
+went into his sleeping-room, took out a phial of a most costly essence,
+which Hadrian had given him on his last birthday, and which had formerly
+belonged to Trajan’s wife, Kotina, and then proceeded to the steward’s
+rooms. On the steps where he had found Selene, he found the black slave
+with some children. The old man had sat down them and got no farther for
+fear of the Roman’s dog. Antinous went up to him and begged him to guide
+him to his master’s quarters, and the negro immediately showed him the
+way, opened the door of the antechamber, and pointing to the living-room
+said:
+
+“There--but Keraunus is absent.”
+
+Without troubling himself any further about Antinous the slave went back
+to the children, but the Bithyman stood irresolute, with his flask in
+his hand, for besides Selene’s voice he heard that of another girl and
+the deeper tones of a man. He was still hesitating when Arsinoe’s loud
+exclamation of “Who’s there?” obliged him to advance.
+
+In the sitting-room Selene was standing dressed in a long light-colored
+robe with a veil over her head, as if prepared to go out, but Arsinoe
+was perched on the edge of a table, in such a way as that the tips of
+her toes only touched the ground, and on the table lay a quantity of
+old-fashioned things. Before her stood a Phoenician, of middle age,
+holding in his hand a finely-carved cup; apparently he was in treaty for
+it with the young girl.
+
+Keraunus had been again to-day to a dealer in curiosities, but he had
+not found him at home, so he had left word at his shop that Hiram might
+call upon him in his rooms at Lochias, where he could show him several
+valuable rarities. The Phoenician had arrived before the return of the
+steward himself, who had been detained at a meeting of the town council,
+and Arsinoe was displaying her father’s treasures, whose beauties she
+was extolling with much eloquence. Hiram unfortunately offered a no
+higher price than Gabinius, whom the steward had sent off so indignantly
+the previous evening.
+
+Selene had been convinced from the first of the bootlessness of the
+attempt, and was now anxious to bring the transaction to a speedy
+conclusion, as the hour was approaching when she and Arsinoe had to go
+to the papyrus factory. To her sister’s refusal to accompany her, and to
+the old slave-woman’s entreaty that she would rest her foot, at any rate
+for to-day, she had responded only with a resolute, “I am going.”
+
+The appearance of the youth on the scene occasioned the girls some
+embarrassment. Selene recognized him at once, Arsinoe thought him
+handsome but awkward, while the curiosity-dealer gazed at him in perfect
+admiration, and was the first to offer him a greeting. Antinous returned
+it, bowed to the sisters, and then said turning to Selene:
+
+“We heard that your head was cut, and your foot hurt, and as we were
+guilty of your mishap, we venture to offer you this phial which contains
+a good remedy for such injuries.”
+
+“Thank you,” replied the girl. “But I feel already so well that I shall
+try to go out.”
+
+“That you certainly ought not to do,” said Antinous, beseechingly.
+
+“I must,” replied Selene, gravely.
+
+“Then, at any rate, take the phial to use for a lotion when you return.
+Ten drops in such a cup as that, full of water.”
+
+“I can try it when I come in.”
+
+“Do so, and you will see how healing it is. You are not vexed with us
+any longer?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“I am glad of that!” cried the boy, fixing his large dreamy eyes on
+Selene with silent passion. This gaze displeased her, and she said more
+coldly than before to the Bithyman.
+
+“To whom shall I give the phial when I have used the stuff in it?”
+
+“Keep it, pray keep it,” begged Antinous. “It is pretty, and will be
+twice as precious in my eyes when it belongs to you.”
+
+“It is pretty-but I do not wish for presents.”
+
+“Then destroy it when you have done with it. You have not forgiven us
+our dog’s bad behavior, and we are sincerely sorry that our dog--”
+
+“I am not vexed with you. Arsinoe pour the medicine into a saucer.”
+
+The steward’s younger daughter immediately obeyed, and noticing as she
+did so, how pretty the phial was, sparkling with various colors, she
+said frankly enough:
+
+“If my sister will not have it, give it to me. How can you make such a
+pother about nothing, Selene?”
+
+“Take it,” said Antinous, looking anxiously at the ground, for it had
+now just occurred to him how highly the Emperor had valued this little
+bottle, and that he might possibly ask him some time what had become of
+it. Selene shrugged her shoulders, and drawing her veil round her head,
+she exclaimed, with a glance of annoyance at her sister:
+
+“It is high time!”
+
+“I am not going to-day,” replied Arsinoe, defiantly, “and it is folly
+for you to walk a quarter of a mile with your swollen foot.”
+
+“It would be wiser to take some care of it,” observed the dealer,
+politely, and Antinous anxiously added:
+
+“If you increase your own suffering you will add to our self-reproach.”
+
+“I must go,” Selene repeated resolutely, “and you with me, sister.”
+
+It was not out of mere wilfulness that she spoke, it was bitter
+necessity, that forced her to utter the words. To-day, at any rate, she
+must not miss going to the papyrus factory, for the week’s wages for her
+work and Arsinoe’s were to be paid. Besides, the next day, and for four
+days after, the workshops and counting-house would be closed, for
+the Emperor had announced to the wealthy proprietor his intention of
+visiting them, and in his honor various dilapidations in the old rooms
+were to be repaired, and various decorations added to the bare-looking
+building. Hence, to remain away from the works to-day meant, not merely
+the loss of a week’s pay, but the sacrifice of twelve days, since it had
+been announced to the work-people, that as a token of rejoicing, and in
+honor of the imperial visit, full pay would be given for the unemployed
+days; and Selene needed money to maintain the family, and must therefore
+persist in her intention.
+
+When she saw that Arsinoe showed no sign of accompanying her, she once
+more asked with stern determination:
+
+“Are you coming?--Yes, or no.”
+
+“No,” cried Arsinoe, defiantly, and sitting farther on the table.
+
+“Then I am to go alone?”
+
+“You are to stay here.”
+
+Selene went close up to her sister and looked at her enquiringly and
+reproachfully; but Arsinoe adhered to her refusal. She pouted like a
+sulky child, and slapping the hand on which she was leaning three times
+on the table, she repeated, “No--no--no.”
+
+Selene called to the old slave-woman, and desired her to remain in the
+sitting-room till her father should return, greeted the dealer politely,
+and Antinous with a careless nod, and then left the room. The lad
+had followed her, and they both met the children. Selene pulled their
+dresses straight, and strictly enjoined them not to go near the corridor
+on account of the strange dog. Antinous stroked the blind boy’s pretty
+curly head, and then, as Selene was about to descend the stairs, he
+asked her:
+
+“May I help you?”
+
+“Yes,” said the girl, for at the very first step an acute pain in the
+ancle checked her, and she put out her arm to the young man that he
+might support her elbow on his hand. But her answer would assuredly
+have been “no,” if she had had the smallest feeling of liking for the
+Emperor’s favorite; but she bore the image of another in her heart,
+and did not even perceive that Antinous was beautiful. The Bithynian’s
+heart, on the other hand, had never beaten so violently as during
+the brief moments when he was permitted to hold Selene’s arm. He felt
+intoxicated, while he was alive to the fact that during the descent of
+the few steps she was suffering great pain.
+
+“Stay at home, and spare yourself!” he begged her once more in a
+trembling voice.
+
+“You worry me!” she said, in a tone of vexation. “I must go, and it is
+not far.”
+
+“May I accompany you?”
+
+She laughed aloud and answered somewhat scornfully:
+
+“Certainly not. Only conduct me through the corridor that the dog may
+not attack me again, then go where you will--but not with me.”
+
+He obeyed when at the end of the passage where it opened into a large
+hall, he bid her farewell, and she thanked him with a few friendly
+words.
+
+There were two ways out from her father’s rooms into the road, one led
+through the rotunda where the Ptolemaic Queens were placed, and across
+several terraces up and down steps through the forecourt; the other, on
+a level all the way, through the rooms and halls of the palace. She was
+forced to choose the latter, for it would have been impossible for her
+with her aching foot to clamber up a number of steps without help and
+down them again, but she came to this conclusion much against her
+will, for she knew what numbers of men were engaged in the works of
+restoration; and to get through them safely it struck her that she might
+ask her old playfellow to escort her through the crowd of workmen and
+rough slaves as far as his parent’s gatehouse. But she did not easily
+decide on this course, for, since the afternoon when Pollux had shown
+her mother’s bust to Arsinoe before showing it to her, she had felt a
+grudge towards the sculptor, who so lately before had touched and opened
+her weary and loveless soul; and this sore feeling had not diminished,
+but had rather increased with time. At every hour of the day, and
+whatever she was occupied in, she could not help repeating to herself,
+that she had every reason to be vexed with him.
+
+She had stood to him a second time as a model for his work, had spoken
+to him many times, and when last they parted had promised to allow him
+this very evening to study once more the folds of her mantle. With what
+pleasure she had looked forward to each meeting with Pollux, how truly
+lovable she had thought him on every fresh occasion; how frankly he
+too, expressed his pleasure as often as they met! They had talked of all
+sorts of things, even of love, and how eager he had been when he told
+her that the only thing she needed to make her happy was a good husband
+who would succor and comfort her as she deserved, and as he spoke he had
+looked at his own strong hands while she had turned red, and had thought
+to herself that if he liked it she would willingly make the experiment
+of enjoying life heartily by his side.
+
+It seemed to her as though they belonged to each other, as if she had
+been born for him alone, and he for her. Why then yesterday had he shown
+Arsinoe her mother’s bust before her?
+
+Well, now she would ask him plainly whether he had placed it on the
+rotunda for her or for her sister, and let him see she was not pleased.
+She must tell him, too, that she could not stand as his model that
+evening; if only on account of her foot that would be impossible.
+
+With increasing pain and effort she crossed the threshold of the hall
+of the Muses, and went up to the screen behind which her friend was
+concealed. He was not alone, for she heard voices within--and it was not
+a man but a woman who was with him; she could hear her clear laugh at
+some distance. When she came close up to the screen to call Pollux, the
+woman, who was certainly sitting to him as a model, spoke louder than
+before, and called out merrily:
+
+“But this is delicious! I am to let you fulfil the office of my maid,
+what audacity these artists have!”
+
+“Say yes,” begged the artist, in the gay and cordial tone which more
+than once had helped to ensnare Selene’s heart. “You are beautiful,
+Balbilla, but if you would allow me, you might be far handsomer than you
+are even.”
+
+And again there was a merry laugh behind the screen. The pleasant voice
+must have hurt poor Selene acutely for she drew up her shoulders, and
+her fair features were stamped with an expression of keen suffering, and
+she pressed both hands over her heart as she went on past the screen and
+her handsome flirting playfellow, limping across the courtyard and into
+the road.
+
+What tortured the poor child so cruelly? The poverty of her house, and
+her bodily pain, which increased at every step, or her numbed and sore
+heart, betrayed of her newly-blossoming, last, and fairest hope?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Usually when Selene went out walking, many people looked at her with
+admiration, but to-day a couple of street-boys composed her escort.
+They ran after her calling out impudently, ‘dot, and go one,’ and tried
+ruthlessly to snatch at the loosely-tied sandal on her injured foot,
+which tapped the pavement at every step. While Selene was thus making
+her way with cruel pain, satisfaction and happiness had visited Arsinoe;
+for hardly had Selene and Antinous quitted her father’s apartments, when
+Hiram begged her to show him the little bottle which the handsome youth
+had just given her. The dealer turned it over and over in the sunlight,
+tested its ring, tried to scratch it with the stone in his ring, and
+then muttered, “Vasa Murrhma.”
+
+The words did not escape the girl’s sharp ears, and she had heard her
+father say that the costliest of all the ornamental vessels with which
+the wealthy Romans were wont to decorate their reception-rooms, were
+those called Vasa Murrhina; so she explained to him at once, that she
+knew what high prices were paid for such vases, and that she had no mind
+to sell it cheaply. He began to bid, she laughingly demanded ten times
+the price, and after a long battle between the dealer and the owner,
+fought now half in jest, and now in grave earnest, the Phoenician said:
+
+“Two thousand drachmae; not a sesterce more. That is not enough by a
+long way, but then it is yours.”
+
+“I would hardly have given half to a less fair customer.”
+
+“And I only let you have it because you are such a polite man.”
+
+“I will send you the money before sundown.”
+
+At these words the girl, who had been radiant with surprise and delight,
+and who would have liked to throw her arms round the bald-headed
+merchant’s neck, or round that of her old slave, who was even less
+attractive, or for that matter, would have embraced the world--the
+triumphant girl became thoughtful; her father would certainly come
+home ere long, and she could not conceal from herself that he would
+disapprove of the whole proceeding, and would probably send the phial
+back to the young man, and the money to the dealer. She herself
+would never have asked the stranger for the bottle if she had had the
+slightest suspicion of its value; but now it certainly belonged to
+her, and if she had given it back again she would have given no one any
+pleasure; on the contrary, she would have offended the stranger, and
+probably have lost the greatest pleasure that she had ever enjoyed.
+
+What was to be done now? She was still perched on the table; she had
+taken her left foot in her right hand, and sitting in this quaint
+position, she looked down on the ground as gravely as if she were trying
+to find an idea, or a way out of the difficulty, in the pattern on the
+floor.
+
+The dealer for a moment amused himself in studying her bewilderment,
+which he thought charming--only wishing that his son, a young painter,
+were standing in his place. At last he broke the silence however,
+saying:
+
+“Your father, perhaps, will not agree to our bargain; and yet it is for
+him you want the money?”
+
+“Who says so?”
+
+“Would he have offered me his own treasures if he had not wanted money?”
+
+“It is only--I can--only--” stammered Arsinoe, who was unaccustomed to
+falsehood. “--I would merely not confess to him--”
+
+“I myself saw how innocently you came by the phial,” said the dealer,
+“and Keraunus never need know anything about such a trifle. Fancy
+yourself, that you have broken it, and that the pieces are lying at
+the bottom of the sea. Which of all these things does your father value
+least?”
+
+“This old sword of Antony,” answered the child, her face brightening
+once more. “He says it is much too long, and too slender to be what it
+pretends to be. For my part I do not believe that it is a sword at all,
+but a roasting-spit.”
+
+“I shall apply it to that very purpose to-morrow morning in my kitchen,”
+ said the dealer, “but I offer you two thousand drachmae for it, and will
+take it with me and send you the amount in a few hours. Will that do?”
+
+Arsinoe dropped her foot, glided from the table, and instead of
+answering, clapped her hands with glee.
+
+“Only tell him,” continued Hiram, “that I am able just now to pay so
+much for this kind of thing, because Caesar is certain to look about him
+for the things that belonged to Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Octavianus,
+Augustus, and other great Romans who have lived in Egypt. The old woman
+there may bring the spit after me. My slave is waiting outside, and can
+hide it under his chiton as far as my kitchen door, for if he carried it
+openly the connoisseurs passing by might covet the priceless treasure,
+and we must protect ourselves from the evil eye.”
+
+The dealer laughed, took the little bottle into his own keeping, gave
+the sword to the old woman, and then took a friendly leave of the young
+girl.
+
+As soon as Arsinoe was alone, she flew into the bedroom to put on her
+sandals, threw her veil over her head, and hastened to the papyrus
+manufactory. Selene must know of the unexpected good fortune that had
+befallen her, and all of them, and then she would have the poor girl
+carried home in a litter, for there were always plenty for hire on the
+quay.
+
+Things did not always go smoothly--very often very unsmoothly and
+stormily between the sisters, but still anything of importance that
+happened to Arsinoe, whether it were good or evil, she must at once tell
+Selene.
+
+Ye gods! what happiness! She could take her place among the daughters
+of the great citizens in the processions, no less richly apparelled than
+they, and still there would remain a nice little sum for her father and
+sister; and the work in the factory, the nasty dirty work, which she
+hated and loathed, would be at an end, it was to be hoped, for ever.
+
+The old slave was still sitting on the steps with the children; Arsinoe
+tossed them up one after the other, and whispered in each child’s ear:
+
+“Cakes this evening!” and she kissed the blind child’s eyes, and said:
+
+“You may come with me, dear little man. I will find a litter for Selene
+and put you in, and you will be carried home like a little prince.”
+
+The little blind boy threw his arms up with delight, exclaiming:
+“Through the air, and without falling.” While she was still holding him
+in her arms, her father came up the steps that led from the rotunda
+to the passage, his face streaming with heat and excitement; and after
+wiping his brow and panting to regain his breath, he said:
+
+“Hiram, the curiosity-dealer, met me just outside, with the sword that
+belonged to Antony; and you sold it to him for two thousand drachmae!
+you little fool!”
+
+“But, father, you would have given the old spit for a pasty and a
+draught of wine,” laughed Arsinoe.
+
+“I?” cried Keraunus. “I would have had three times the sum for that
+venerable relic, for which Caesar will give its weight in silver;
+however, sold is sold. And yet-and yet, the thought that I no longer
+possess the sword of Antony, will give me many sleepless nights.”
+
+“If this evening we set you down to a good dish of meat, sleep will
+soon follow,” answered Arsinoe, and she took the handkerchief out of her
+father’s hand, and coaxingly wiped his temples, going on vivaciously:
+“We are quite rich folks, father, and will show the other citizens’
+daughters what we can do.”
+
+“Now you shall both take part in the festival,” said Keraunus,
+decidedly. “Caesar shall see that I shun no sacrifice in his honor,
+and if he notices you, and I bring my complaint against that insolent
+architect before him--”
+
+“You must let that pass,” begged Arsinoe, “if only poor Selene’s foot is
+well by that time.”
+
+“Where is she?”
+
+“Gone out.”
+
+“Then her foot cannot be so very bad. She will soon come in, it is to be
+hoped.”
+
+“Probably--I mean to fetch her with a litter.”
+
+“A litter?” said Keraunus, in surprise.
+
+“The two thousand drachmae have turned the girl’s head.”
+
+“Only on account of her foot. It was hurting her so much when she went
+out.”
+
+“Then why did she not stay at home? As usual she has wasted an hour to
+save a sesterce, and you, neither of you have any time to spare.”
+
+“I will go after her at once.”
+
+“No--no, you at any rate, must remain here, for in two hours the matrons
+and maidens are to meet at the theatre.”
+
+“In two hours! but mighty Serapis, what are we to put on?”
+
+“It is your business to see to that,” replied Keraunus, “I myself
+will have the litter you spoke of, and be carried down to Tryphon, the
+ship-builder. Is there any money left in Selene’s box?”
+
+Arsinoe went into her sleeping-room, and said, as she returned:
+
+“This is all--six pieces of two drachmae.”
+
+“Four will be enough for me,” replied the steward, but after a moment’s
+reflection he took the whole half-dozen.
+
+“What do you want with the ship-builder?” asked Arsinoe.
+
+“In the Council,” replied Keraunus, “I was worried again about you
+girls. I said one of my daughters was ill, and the other must attend
+upon her; but this would not do, and I was asked to send the one who was
+well. Then I explained that you had no mother, that we lived a retired
+life for each other, and that I could not bear the idea of sending my
+daughter alone, and without any protectress to the meeting. So then
+Tryphon said that it would give his wife pleasure to take you to the
+theatre with her own daughter. This I half accepted, but I declared
+at once that you would not go, if your elder sister were not better. I
+could not give any positive consent--you know why.”
+
+“Oh, blessings on Antony and his noble spit!” cried Arsinoe. “Now
+everything is settled, and you can tell the ship-builder we shall go.
+Our white dresses are still quite good, but a few ells of new light blue
+ribbon for my hair, and of red for Selene’s, you must buy on the way, at
+Abibaal, the Phoenician’s.”
+
+“Very good.”
+
+“I will see at once to both the dresses--but, to be sure, when are we to
+be ready?”
+
+“In two hours.”
+
+“Then, do you know what, dear old father?”
+
+“Well?”
+
+“Our old woman is half blind, and does everything wrong. Do let me go
+down to dame Doris at the gate-house, and ask her to help me. She is so
+clever and kind, and no one irons so well as she does.”
+
+“Silence!” cried the steward, angrily, interrupting his daughter. “Those
+people shall never again cross my threshold.”
+
+“But look at my hair; only look at the state it is in,” cried Arsinoe,
+excitedly, and thrusting her fingers into her thick tresses which she
+pulled into disorder. “To do that up again, plait it with new ribbons,
+iron our dresses, and sew on the brooches--why the Empress’ ladies-maid
+could not do all that in two hours.”
+
+“Doris shall never cross this threshold,” repeated Keraunus, for all his
+answer.
+
+“Then tell the tailor Hippias to send me an assistant; but that will
+cost money.”
+
+“We have it, and can pay,” replied Keraunus, proudly, and in order not
+to forget his commissions he muttered to himself while he went to get a
+litter:
+
+“Hippias the tailor, blue ribbon, red ribbon, and Tryphon the
+ship-builder.”
+
+The tailor’s nimble apprentice helped Arsinoe to arrange her dress and
+Selene’s, and was never weary of praising the sheen and silkiness of
+Arsinoe’s hair, while she twisted it with ribbons, built it up and
+twisted it at the back so gracefully with a comb, that it fell in
+a thick mass of artfully-curled locks down her neck and back. When
+Keraunus came back, he gazed with justifiable pride at his beautiful
+child; he was immensely pleased, and even chuckled softly to himself
+as he laid out the gold pieces which were brought to him by the
+curiosity-dealer’s servant, and set them in a row and counted them.
+While he was thus occupied, Arsinoe went up to him and asked laughing:
+“Hiram has not cheated me then?” Keraunus desired her not to disturb
+him, and added:
+
+“Think of that sword, the weapon of the great Antony, perhaps the very
+one with which he pierced his own breast.--Where can Selene be?”
+
+An hour, an hour and a half had slipped by, and when the fourth
+half-hour was well begun, and still his eldest daughter did not return,
+the steward announced that they must set out, for that it would not
+do to keep the ship-builder’s wife waiting. It was a sincere grief to
+Arsinoe to be obliged to go without Selene. She had made her sister’s
+dress look as nice as her own, and had laid it carefully on the divan
+near the mosaic pavement. She had taken a great deal of trouble. Never
+before had she been out in the streets alone, and it seemed impossible
+to enjoy anything without the companionship and supervision of her
+absent sister. But her father’s assertion, that Selene would have a
+place gladly found for her, even later, among the maidens, reassured the
+girl who was overflowing with joyful expectation.
+
+Finally she perfumed herself a little with the fragrant extract which
+Keraunus was accustomed to use before going to the council, and begged
+her father to order the old slave-woman to go and buy the promised cakes
+for the little ones during her absence. The children had all gathered
+round her, admiring her with loud ohs! and ahs! as if she were some
+wondrous incarnation, not to be too nearly approached, and on no account
+to be touched. The elaborate dressing of her hair would not allow of her
+stooping over them as usual. She could only stroke little Helios’ curls,
+saying: “Tomorrow you shall have a ride in the air, and perhaps Selene
+will tell you a pretty story by-and-bye.”
+
+Her heart beat faster than usual as she stepped into the litter, which
+was waiting for her just in front of the gate-house. Old Doris looked at
+her from a distance with pleasure, and while Keraunus stepped out into
+the street to call a litter for himself, the old woman hastily cut the
+two finest roses from her bush, and pressing her fingers to her lips
+with a sly smile, put them into the girl’s hand.
+
+Arsinoe felt as if it were in a dream that she went to the
+ship-builder’s house, and from thence to the theatre, and on her way she
+fully understood, for the first time, that alarm and delight may find
+room side by side in a girl’s mind, and that one by no means hinders the
+existence of the other.
+
+Fear and expectation so completely overmastered her, that she neither
+saw nor heard what was going on around her; only once she noticed a
+young man with a garland on his head, who, as he passed her, arm in arm
+with another, called out to her gaily: “Long live beauty!”
+
+From that moment she kept her eyes fixed on her lap and on the roses
+dame Doris had given her. The flowers reminded her of the kind old
+woman’s son, and she wondered whether tall Pollux had perhaps seen her
+in her finery. That, she would have liked very much; and after all, it
+was not at all impossible, for, of course, since Pollux had been working
+at Lochias he must often have gone to his parents. Perhaps even he had
+himself picked the roses for her, but had not dared to give them to her
+as her father was so near.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+But the young sculptor had not been at the gatehouse when Arsinoe went
+by. He had thought of her often enough since meeting her again by
+the bust of her mother; but on this particular afternoon his time and
+thoughts were fully claimed by another fair damsel. Balbilla had arrived
+at Lochias about noon, accompanied, as was fitting, by the worthy
+Claudia, the not wealthy widow of a senator, who for many years had
+filled the place of lady-in-attendance and protecting companion to the
+rich fatherless and motherless girl. At Rome, she conducted Balbilla’s
+household affairs with as much sense and skill as satisfaction in the
+task. Still she was not perfectly content with her lot, for her ward’s
+love of travelling, often compelled her to leave the metropolis, and in
+her estimation, there was no place but Rome where life was worth living.
+A visit to Baiae for bathing, or in the winter months a flight to the
+Ligurian coast, to escape the cold of January and February--these she
+could endure; for she was certain there to find, if not Rome, at any
+rate Romans; but Balbilla’s wish to venture in a tossing ship, to visit
+the torrid shores of Africa, which she pictured to herself as a burning
+oven, she had opposed to the utmost. At last, however, she was obliged
+to put a good face on the matter, for the Empress herself expressed
+so decidedly her wish to take Balbilla with her to the Nile, that any
+resistance would have been unduteous. Still; in her secret heart, she
+could not but confess to herself that her high-spirited and wilful
+foster-child--for so she loved to call Balbilla--would undoubtedly have
+carried out her purpose without the Empress’ intervention.
+
+Balbilla had come to the palace, as the reader knows, to sit for her
+bust.
+
+When Selene was passing by the screen which concealed her playfellow and
+his work from her gaze, the worthy matron had fallen gently asleep on a
+couch, and the sculptor was exerting all his zeal to convince the noble
+damsel that the size to which her hair was dressed was an exaggeration,
+and that the super-encumbrance of such a mass must disfigure the effect
+of the delicate features of her face. He implored her to remember in
+how simple a style the great Athenian masters, at the best period of the
+plastic arts, had taught their beautiful models to dress their hair, and
+requested her to do her own hair in that manner next day, and to come
+to him before she allowed her maid to put a single lock through the
+curling-tongs; for to-day, as he said, the pretty little ringlets would
+fly back into shape, like the spring of a fibula when the pin was bent
+back. Balbilla contradicted him with gay vivacity, protested against
+his desire to play the part of lady’s maid, and defended her style of
+hair-dressing on the score of fashion.
+
+“But the fashion is ugly, monstrous, a pain to one’s eyes!” cried
+Pollux. “Some vain Roman lady must have invented it, not to make herself
+beautiful, but to be conspicuous.”
+
+“I hate the idea of being conspicuous by my appearance,” answered
+Balbilla. “It is precisely by following the fashion, however conspicuous
+it may be, that we are less remarkable than when we carefully dress far
+more simply and plainly--in short, differently to what it prescribes.
+Which do you regard as the vainer, the fashionably-dressed young
+gentleman on the Canopic way, or the cynical philosopher with his
+unkempt hair, his carefully-ragged cloak over his shoulders, and a heavy
+cudgel in his dirty hands?”
+
+“The latter, certainly,” replied Pollux. “Still he is sinning against
+the laws of beauty which I desire to win you over to, and which will
+survive every whim of fashion, as certainly as Homer’s Iliad will
+survive the ballad of a street-singer, who celebrates the last murder
+that excited the mob of this town.--Am I the first artist who has
+attempted to represent your face?”
+
+“No,” said Balbilla, with a laugh. “Five Roman artists have already
+experimented on my head.”
+
+“And did any one of their busts satisfy you?”
+
+“Not one seemed to me better than utterly bad.”
+
+“And your pretty face is to be handed down to posterity in five-fold
+deformity?”
+
+“Ah! no--I had them all destroyed.”
+
+“That was very good of them!” cried Pollux, eagerly. Then turning with
+a very simple gesture to the bust before him he said: “Hapless clay, if
+the lovely lady whom thou art destined to resemble will not sacrifice
+the chaos of her curls, thy fate will undoubtedly be that of thy
+predecessors.”
+
+The sleeping matron was roused by this speech. “You were speaking,” she
+said, “of the broken busts of Balbilla?”
+
+“Yes,” replied the poetess.
+
+“And perhaps this one may follow them,” sighed Claudia. “Do you know
+what lies before you in that case?”
+
+“No, what?”
+
+“This young lady knows something of your art.”
+
+“I learnt to knead clay a little of Aristaeus,” interrupted Balbilla.
+
+“Aha! because Caesar set the fashion, and in Rome it would have been
+conspicuous not to dabble in sculpture.”
+
+“Perhaps.”
+
+“And she tried to improve in every bust all that particularly displeased
+her,” continued Claudia.
+
+“I only began the work for the slaves to finish,” Balbilla threw in,
+interrupting her companion. “Indeed, my people became quite expert in
+the work of destruction.”
+
+“Then my work may, at any rate, hope for a short agony and speedy
+death,” sighed Pollux. “And it is true--all that lives comes into the
+world with its end already preordained.”
+
+“Would an early demise of your work pain you much?” asked Balbilla.
+
+“Yes, if I thought it successful; not if I felt it to be a failure.”
+
+“Any one who keeps a bad bust,” said Balbilla, “must feel fearful lest
+an undeservedly bad reputation is handed down to future generations.”
+
+“Certainly! but how then can you find courage to expose yourself for the
+sixth time to a form of calumny that it is difficult to counteract?”
+
+“Because I can have anything destroyed that I choose,” laughed the
+spoilt girl. “Otherwise sitting still is not much to my taste.”
+
+“That is very true,” sighed Claudia. “But from you I expect something
+strikingly good.”
+
+“Thank you,” said Pollux, “and I will take the utmost pains to complete
+something that may correspond to my own expectations of what a marble
+portrait ought to be, that deserves to be preserved to posterity.”
+
+“And those expectations require--?”
+
+Pollux considered for a moment, and then he replied:
+
+“I have not always the right words at my command, for all that I feel as
+an artist. A plastic presentiment, to satisfy its creator, must fulfil
+two conditions; first it must record for posterity in forms of eternal
+resemblance all that lay in the nature of the person it represents;
+secondly, it must also show to posterity what the art of the time when
+it was executed, was capable of.”
+
+“That is a matter of course--but you are forgetting your own share.”
+
+“My own fame you mean?”
+
+“Certainly.”
+
+“I work for Papias and serve my art, and that is enough; meanwhile Fame
+does not trouble herself about me, nor do I trouble myself about her.”
+
+“Still, you will put your name on my bust?”
+
+“Why not?”
+
+“You are as prudent as Cicero.”
+
+“Cicero?”
+
+“Perhaps you would hardly know old Tullius’ wise remark that the
+philosophers who wrote of the vanity of writers put their names to their
+books all the same.”
+
+“Oh! I have no contempt for laurels, but I will not run after a thing
+which could have no value for me, unless it came unsought, and because
+it was my due.”
+
+“Well and good; but your first condition could only be fulfilled in its
+widest sense if you could succeed in making yourself acquainted with my
+thoughts and feelings, with the whole of my inmost mind.”
+
+“I see you and talk to you,” replied Pollux. Claudia laughed aloud, and
+said:
+
+“If instead of two sittings of two hours you were to talk to her for
+twice as many years you would always find something new in her. Not a
+week passes in which Rome does not find in her something to talk about.
+That restless brain is never quiet, but her heart is as good as gold,
+and always and everywhere the same.”
+
+“And did you suppose that that was new to me?” asked Pollux. “I can see
+the restless spirit of my model in her brow and in her mouth, and her
+nature is revealed in her eyes.”
+
+“And in my snub-nose?” asked Balbilla.
+
+“It bears witness to your wonderful and whimsical notions, which
+astonish Rome so much.”
+
+“Perhaps you are one more that works for the hammer of the slaves,”
+ laughed Balbilla.
+
+“And even if it were so,” said Pollux, “I should always retain the
+memory of this delightful hour.” Pontius the architect here interrupted
+the sculptor, begging Balbilla to excuse him for disturbing the sitting;
+Pollux must immediately attend to some business of importance, but in
+ten minutes he would return to his work. No sooner were the two ladies
+alone, than Balbilla rose and looked inquisitively round and about the
+sculptor’s enclosed work-room; but her companion said:
+
+“A very polite young man, this Pollux, but rather too much at his ease,
+and too enthusiastic.”
+
+“An artist,” replied Balbilla, and she proceeded to turn over every
+picture and tablet with the sculptor’s studies in drawing, raised the
+cloth from the wax model of the Urania, tried the clang of the lute
+which hung against one of the canvas walls, was here, there, and
+everywhere, and at last stood still in front of a large clay model,
+placed in a corner of the studio, and closely wrapped in cloths.
+
+“What may that be?” asked Claudia.
+
+“No doubt a half-finished new model.”
+
+Balbilla felt the object in front of her with the tips of her fingers,
+and said: “It seems to me to be a head. Something remarkable at any
+rate. In these close covered dishes we sometimes find the best meat. Let
+its unveil this shrouded portrait.”
+
+“Who knows what it may be?” said Claudia, as she loosened a twist in the
+cloths which enveloped the bust. There are often very remarkable things
+to be seen in such workshops.
+
+“Hey, what, it is only a woman’s head! I can feel it,” cried Balbilla.
+
+“But you can never tell,” the older lady went on, untying a knot. “These
+artists are such unfettered, unaccountable beings.”
+
+“Do you lift the top, I will pull here,” and a moment later the young
+Roman stood face to face with the caricature which Hadrian had moulded
+on the previous evening, in all its grimacing ugliness. She recognized
+herself in it at once, and at the first moment, laughed loudly, but the
+longer she looked at the disfigured likeness, the more vexed, annoyed
+and angry she became. She knew her own face, feature for feature, all
+that was pretty in it, and all that was plain, but this likeness ignored
+everything in her face that was not unpleasing, and this it emphasized
+ruthlessly, and exaggerated with a refinement of spitefulness. The
+head was hideous, horrible, and yet it was hers. As she studied it in
+profile, she remembered what Pollux had declared he could read in her
+features, and deep indignation rose up in her soul.
+
+Her great inexhaustible riches, which allowed her the reckless
+gratification of every whim, and secured consideration, even for her
+follies, had not availed to preserve her from many disappointments which
+other girls, in more modest circumstances, would have been spared. Her
+kind heart and open hand had often been abused, even by artists, and it
+was self-evident to her, that the man who could make this caricature,
+who had so enjoyed exaggerating all that was unlovely in her face, had
+wished to exercise his art on her features, not for her own sake, but
+for that of the high price she might be inclined to pay for a flattering
+likeness. She had found much to please her in the young sculptor’s fresh
+and happy artist nature, in his frank demeanor and his honest way of
+speech. She felt convinced that Pollux, more readily than anybody else,
+would understand what it was that lent a charm to her face, which was in
+no way strictly beautiful, a charm which could not be disputed in spite
+of the coarse caricature which stood before her.
+
+She felt herself the richer by a painful experience, indignant, and
+offended. Accustomed as she was to give prompt utterance even to her
+displeasure, she exclaimed hotly, and with tears in her eyes:
+
+“It is shameful, it is base. Give me my wraps Claudia. I will not stay
+an instant longer to be the butt of this man’s coarse and spiteful
+jesting.”
+
+“It is unworthy,” cried the matron, “so to insult a person of your
+position. It is to be hoped our litters are waiting outside.”
+
+Pontius had overheard Balbilla’s last words. He had come into the
+work-place without Pollux, who was still speaking to the prefect, and he
+said gravely as he approached Balbilla:
+
+“You have every reason to be angry, noble lady. This thing is an insult
+in clay, malicious, and at the same time coarse in every detail; but
+it was not Pollux who did it, and it is not right to condemn without a
+trial.”
+
+“You take your friend’s part!” exclaimed Balbilla. “I would not tell a
+lie for my own brother.”
+
+“You know how to give your words the aspect of an honorable meaning in
+serious matters, as he does in jest.”
+
+“You are angry and unaccustomed to bridle your tongue,” replied the
+architect. “Pollux, I repeat it, did not perpetrate the caricature, but
+a sculptor from Rome.”
+
+“Which of them? I know them all.”
+
+“I may not name him.”
+
+“There--you see.--Come away Claudia.”
+
+“Stay,” said Pontius, decisively. “If you were any one but yourself, I
+would let you go at once in your anger, and with the double charge on
+your conscience of doing an injustice to two well-meaning men. But as
+you are the granddaughter of Claudius Balbillus, I feel it to be due
+to myself to say, that if Pollux had really made this monstrous bust he
+would not be in this palace now, for I should have turned him out and
+thrown the horrid object after him. You look surprised--you do not know
+who I am that can address you so.”
+
+“Yes, yes,” cried Balbilla, much mollified, for she felt assured that
+the man who stood before her, as unflinching as if he were cast in
+bronze, and with an earnest frown, was speaking the truth, and that he
+must have some right to speak to her with such unwonted decision. “Yes
+indeed, you are the principal architect of the city; Titianus, from whom
+we have heard of you, has told us great things of you; but how am I to
+account for your special interest in me?”
+
+“It is my duty to serve you--if necessary, even with my life.”
+
+“You,” said Balbilla, puzzled. “But I never saw you till yesterday.”
+
+“And yet you may freely dispose of all that I have and am, for my
+grandfather was your grandfather’s slave.”
+
+“I did not know”--said Balbilla, with increasing confusion.
+
+“Is it possible that your noble grandfather’s instructor, the venerable
+Sophinus, is altogether forgotten. Sophinus, whom your grandfather
+freed, and who continued to teach your father also.”
+
+“Certainly not--of course not,” cried Balbilla. “He must have been a
+splendid man, and very learned besides.”
+
+“He was my father’s father,” said Pontius.
+
+“Then you belong to our family,” exclaimed Balbilla, offering him a
+friendly hand.
+
+“I thank you for those words,” answered Pontius. “Now, once more, Pollux
+had nothing to do with that image.”
+
+“Take my cloak, Claudia,” said the girl. “I will sit again to the young
+man.”
+
+“Not to-day--it would spoil his work,” replied Pontius. “I beg of you to
+go, and let the annoyance you so vehemently expressed die out some
+where else. The young sculptor must not know that you have seen this
+caricature, it would occasion him much embarrassment. But if you can
+return to-morrow in a calmer and more happy humor, with your lively
+spirit tuned to a softer key, then Pollux will be able to make a
+likeness which may satisfy the granddaughter of Claudius Balbillus.”
+
+“And, let us hope, the grandson of his learned teacher also,” answered
+Balbilla, with a kindly farewell greeting, as she went with her
+companion towards the door of the hall of the Muses, where her slaves
+were waiting. Pontius escorted her so far in silence, then he returned
+to the work-place, and safely wrapped the caricature up again in its
+cloths.
+
+As he went out into the hall again, Pollux hurried up to meet him,
+exclaiming:
+
+“The Roman architect wants to speak to you, he is a grand man!”
+
+“Balbilla was called away, and bid me greet you,” replied Pontius. “Take
+that thing away for fear she should see it. It is coarse and hideous.”
+
+A few moments later he stood in the presence of the Emperor, who
+expressed the wish to play the part of listener while Balbilla was
+sitting. When the architect, after begging him not to let Pollux know of
+the incident, told him of what had occurred in the screened-off studio,
+and how angry the young Roman lady had been at the caricature, which
+was certainly very offensive, Hadrian rubbed his hands and laughed aloud
+with delight. Pontius ground his teeth, and then said very earnestly:
+
+“Balbilla seems to me a merry-hearted girl, but of a noble nature. I
+see no reason to laugh at her.” Hadrian looked keenly into the daring
+architect’s eyes, laid his hand on his shoulder, and replied with a
+certain threatening accent in his deep voice:
+
+“It would be an evil moment for you, or for any one, who should do so
+in my presence. But age may venture to play with edged tools, which
+children may not even touch.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Selene entered the gate-way in the endlessly-long walk of sun-dried
+bricks which enclosed the wide space where stood the court-yards,
+water-tanks and huts, belonging to the great papyrus manufactory of
+Plutarch, where she and her sister were accustomed to work. She could
+generally reach it in a quarter of an hour, but to-day it had taken more
+than four times as long and she herself did not know how she had managed
+to hold herself up, and to walk-limp-stumble along, in spite of the
+acute pain she was suffering. She would willingly have clung to every
+passer-by, have held on to every slow passing vehicle, to every beast
+of burden that overtook her--but man and beast mercilessly went on their
+way, without paying any heed to her. She got many a push from those who
+were hurrying by and who scarcely turned round to look at her, when
+from time to time she stopped to sink for a moment on to the nearest
+door-step, or some low cornice or bale of goods; to dry her eyes, or
+press her hand to her foot, which was now swollen to a great size,
+hoping, as she did so, to be able to forget, under the sense of a new
+form of pain, the other unceasing and unendurable torment, at least for
+a few minutes.
+
+The street boys who had run after her, and laughed at her, ceased
+pursuing her when they found that she constantly stopped to rest. A
+woman with a child in her arms once asked her, as she stopped to rest a
+minute on a threshold, whether she wanted anything, but walked on when
+Selene shook her head and made no other answer.
+
+Once she thought she must give up altogether, when suddenly the street
+was filled with jeering boys and inquisitive men and women--for Verus,
+the superb Verus, came by in his chariot, and what a chariot! The
+Alexandrian populace were accustomed to see much that was strange in
+the busy streets of their crowded city; but this vehicle attracted
+every eye, and excited astonishment, admiration and mirth, wherever
+it appeared, and not unfrequently the bitterest ridicule. The handsome
+Roman stood in the middle of his gilt chariot, and himself drove the
+four white horses, harnessed abreast; on his head he wore a wreath,
+and across his breast, from one shoulder, a garland of roses. On the
+foot-board of the quadriga sat two children, dressed as Cupids; their
+little legs dangled in the air, and they each held, attached by a long
+gilt wire, a white dove which fluttered in front of Verus.
+
+The dense and hurrying crowd, crushed Selene remorselessly against the
+wall; instead of looking at the wonderful sight she covered her face
+with her hands to hide the distortion of pain in her features; still she
+just saw the splendid chariot, the gold harness on the horses, and the
+figure of the insolent owner glide past her, as if in a dream that was
+blurred by pain, and the sight infused into her soul, that was already
+harassed by pain and anxiety, a feeling of bitter aversion, and
+the envious thought that the mere trappings of the horses of this
+extravagant prodigal would suffice to keep her and her family above
+misery for a whole year.
+
+By the time the chariot had turned the next corner, and the crowd had
+followed it, she had almost fallen to the ground. She could not take
+another step, and looked round for a litter, but, while generally there
+was no lack of them, in this spot, to-day there was not one to be seen.
+The factory was only a few hundred steps farther, but in her fancy they
+seemed like so many stadia. Presently some of the workmen and women from
+the factory came by, laughing and showing each other their wages, so the
+payment must be now going on. A glance at the sun showed her how long
+she had already been on her way, and remind her of the purpose of her
+walk.
+
+With the exertion of all her strength, she dragged herself a few steps
+farther; then, just as her courage was again beginning to fail, a
+little girl came running towards her who was accustomed to wait upon
+the workers at the table where Selene and Arsinoe were employed, and who
+held in her hand a pitcher. She called the dusky little Egyptian, and
+said:
+
+“Hathor, pray come back to the factory with me. I cannot walk any
+farther, my foot is so dreadfully painful; but if I lean a little on
+your shoulder, I shall get on better.”
+
+“I cannot,” said the child. “If I make haste home I shall have some
+dates,” and she ran on.
+
+Selene looked after her, and an inward voice, against which she had
+had to rebel before to-day, asked her why she of all people must be a
+sufferer for others, when they thought only of themselves, and with a
+heavy sigh, she made a fresh attempt to proceed on her way.
+
+When she had gone a few steps, neither seeing not hearing anything that
+passed her, a girl came up to her, and asked her timidly, but kindly,
+what was the matter. It was a leaf-joiner who sat opposite to her at the
+works, a poor, deformed creature, who, nevertheless, plied her nimble
+fingers contentedly and silently, and who at first had taught Selene
+and Arsinoe many useful tricks of working. The girl offered her crooked
+shoulder unasked as a support to Selene, and measured her step; to
+those of the sufferer with as much nicety as if she felt everything that
+Selene herself did; thus, without speaking, they reached the door of the
+factory; there, in the first court-yard the little hunchback made Selene
+sit down on one of the bundles of papyrus-stems which lay all about
+the place, by the side of the tanks in which the plants were dipped to
+freshen them, and arranged in order, built up into high heaps, according
+to the localities whence they were brought. After a short rest, they
+went on through the hall in which the triangular green stems were
+sorted, according to the quality of the white pith they contained. The
+next rooms, in which men stripped the green sheath from the pith, and
+the long galleries where the more skilled hands split the pith with
+sharp knives into long moist strips about a finger wide, and of
+different degrees of fineness, seemed to Selene to grow longer the
+farther she went, and to be absolutely interminable.
+
+Generally the pith-splitters sat here in long rows, each at his own
+little table, on each side of a gangway left for the slaves, who carried
+the prepared material to the drying-house; but, to-day, most of them
+had left their places and stood chatting together and packing up their
+wooden clips, knives, and sharpening-stones. Half way down this room
+Selene’s hand fell from her companion’s shoulder, she turned giddy, and
+said in a low tone:
+
+“I can go no farther--”
+
+The little hunchback held her up as well as she could, and though she
+herself was far from strong, she succeeded in dragging, rather than
+carrying, Selene to an empty couch and in laying her upon it. A few
+workmen gathered around the senseless girl, and brought some water, then
+when she opened her eyes again, and they found that she belonged to the
+rooms where the prepared papyrus-leaves were gummed together, some of
+them offered to carry her thither, and before Selene could consent they
+had taken up the bench and lifted it with its light burden. Her damaged
+foot hung down, and gave the poor girl such pain that she cried out,
+and tried to raise the injured limb and hold her ankle in her band;
+her comrade helped by taking the poor little foot in her own hand, and
+supporting it with tender and cautious care.
+
+As she thus went by, carried, as it were, in triumph by the men, and
+borne high in the air, everyone turned to look at her, and the suffering
+girl felt this rather as if she were some criminal being carried through
+the streets to exhibit her disgrace to the citizens. But when she found
+herself in the large rooms where, in one place men, and in another the
+most skilled of the women and girls were employed in laying the narrow
+strips of papyrus crosswise over each other, and gumming them together,
+she had recovered strength enough to pull her veil over her face which
+she held down. Arsinoe, and she herself, in order to remain unrecognized
+had always been accustomed to walk through these rooms closely veiled,
+and not to lay their wraps aside till they reached the little room where
+they sat with about twenty other women to glue the sheets together.
+
+Every one looked at her with curious enquiry. Her foot certainly hurt
+her, the cut in her head was burning, and she felt altogether intensely
+miserable; still there was room and to spare in her soul for the false
+pride that she inherited from her father, and for the humiliating
+consciousness that she was regarded by these people as one of
+themselves.
+
+In the room in which she worked, none but free women were employed, but
+more than a thousand slaves worked in the factory and she would as soon
+have eaten with beasts without plate or spoon, as have shared a meal
+with them. At one time, when every thing in their house seemed going to
+ruin, it was her own father who had suggested the papyrus factory to
+her attention, by telling her, with indignation, that the daughter of
+an impoverished citizen had degraded herself and her whole class by
+devoting herself to working in the papyrus factory to earn money. She
+was pretty well paid, to be sure, and in answer to Selene’s enquiry,
+he had stated the amount she earned and mentioned the name of the rich
+manufacturer to whom she had sold her social standing for gold.
+
+Soon after this Selene had gone alone to the factory, had discussed all
+that was necessary with the manager, and had then begun, with Arsinoe,
+to work regularly in the factory where they now for two years had spent
+some hours of every day in gumming the papyrus-leaves together.
+
+How many a time at the beginning of a new week, or when under the
+influence of a special fit of aversion to her work, had Arsinoe refused
+to go with her ever again to the factory; how much persuasive eloquence
+had she expended, how many new ribbons had she bought, how often had she
+consented to allow her to go to some spectacle, which consumed half a
+week’s wages, to induce Arsinoe to persist in her work, or to avert the
+fulfilment of her threat to tell her father, whither her daily walk--as
+she called it--tended.
+
+When Selene, who had been carried as far as the door of her own
+work-room, was sitting once more in her usual place in front of the long
+table on which she worked, and where hundreds of prepared papyrus strips
+were to be joined together, she felt scarcely able to raise the veil
+from her face. She drew the uppermost sheets towards her, dipped the
+brush in the gum-jar, and began to touch the margin of the leaf with
+it--but in the very act, her strength forsook her, the brush fell from
+her fingers, she dropped her hands on the table and her face in her
+hands, and began to cry softly.
+
+While she sat thus, her tears slowly flowing, her shoulders heaving, and
+her whole body shaken with shuddering sobs, a woman who sat opposite to
+her, beckoned to the deformed girl, and after whispering to her a few
+words grasped her hand firmly and warmly and looked straight into her
+eyes with her own, which though lustreless were clear and steady; then
+the little hunchback silently took Arsinoe’s vacant place by Selene,
+and pushed the smaller half of the papyrus leaves over to the woman, and
+both set diligently to work on the gumming.
+
+They had been thus occupied for some time when Selene at last raised her
+head and was about to take up her brush again. She looked round for
+it and perceived her companion, whom she had not even thanked for
+her helpfulness, busily at work in Arsinoe’s seat. She looked at her
+neighbor with eyes still full of tears, and as the girl, who was wholly
+absorbed in her task, did not notice her gaze, Selene said in a tone of
+surprise rather than kindliness.
+
+“This is my sister’s place; you may sit here to-day, but when the
+factory opens again she must sit by me again.”
+
+“I know, I know,” said the workwoman shyly. “I am only finishing your
+sheets because I have no more of my own to do, and I can see how badly
+your foot is hurting you.”
+
+The whole transaction was so strange and novel to Selene that she did
+not even understand her neighbor’s meaning, and she only said, with a
+shrug:
+
+“You may earn all you can, for aught I can do; I cannot do anything
+to-day.”
+
+Her deformed companion colored and looked up doubtfully at her opposite
+neighbor, who at once laid aside her brush and said, turning to Selene:
+
+“That is not what Mary means, my child. She is doing one-half of your
+day’s task and I am doing the other, so that your suffering foot may not
+deprive you of your day’s pay.”
+
+“Do I look so very poor then?” exclaimed Keraunus’ daughter, and a faint
+crimson tinged her pale cheeks.
+
+“By no means, my child,” replied the woman. “You and your sister are
+evidently of good family--but pray let us have the pleasure of being of
+some help to you.
+
+“I do not know--” Selene stammered.
+
+“If you saw that it hurt me to stoop when the wind blows the strips of
+papyrus on to the floor, would you not willingly pick them up for me?”
+ continued the woman. “What we are doing for you is neither less nor yet
+much more than that. In a few minutes we shall have finished and then we
+can follow the others, for every one else has left. I am the overseer
+of the room, as you know, and must in any case remain here till the last
+work-woman has gone.”
+
+Selene felt full well that she ought to be grateful for the kindness
+shown her by these two women, and yet she had a sense of having a deed
+of almsgiving forced upon her acceptance, and she answered quickly,
+still with the blood mounting to her cheeks. “I am very grateful for
+your good intentions, of course, very grateful; but here each one must
+work for herself, and it would ill-become me to allow you to give me the
+money you have earned.”
+
+The girl spoke these words with a decisiveness which was not free
+from arrogance, but this did not disturb the woman’s gentle
+equanimity--“widow Hannah,” as she was called by the workwoman--and
+fixing the calm gaze of her large eyes on Selene, she answered kindly:
+
+“We have been very happy to work for you, dear daughter, and a divine
+Sage has said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Do you
+understand all that that means? In our case it is as much as to say that
+it makes kind-hearted folks much happier to do others a pleasure than
+to receive good gifts. You said just now that you were grateful; do you
+want now to spoil our pleasure?”
+
+“I do not quite understand--” answered Selene. “No?” interrupted widow
+Hannah. “Then only try for once to do some one a pleasure with sincere
+and heartfelt love, and you will see how much good it does one, how it
+opens the heart and turns every trouble to a pleasure. Is it not true
+Mary, we shall he sincerely obliged to Selene if only she will not spoil
+the pleasure we have had in working for her?”
+
+“I have been so glad to do it,” said the deformed girl, “and there--now
+I have finished.”
+
+“And I too,” said the widow, pressing the last leaf on to its fellow
+with a cloth, and then adding her pile of finished sheets to Mary’s.
+
+“Thank you very much,” murmured Selene, with downcast eyes, and rising
+from her seat, but she tried to support herself on her lame foot and
+this caused her such pain, that with a low cry, she sank back on the
+stool. The widow hastened to her side, knelt clown by her, took the
+injured foot with tender care in her delicate and slender hands,
+examined it attentively, felt it gently, and then exclaimed with horror:
+
+“Good Lord! and did you walk through the streets with a foot in this
+state?” and looking up at Selene she said affectionately. “Poor child,
+poor child! it must have hurt you! Why the swelling has risen above your
+sandal-straps. It is frightful! and yet--do you live far from this?”
+
+“I can get home in half an hour.”
+
+“Impossible! First let me see on my tablets how much the paymaster owes
+you that I may go and fetch it, and then we will soon see what can be
+done with you. Meanwhile you sit still daughter dear, and you Mary rest
+her foot on a stool and undo the straps very gently from her ankle. Do
+not be afraid my child, she has soft, careful hands.” As she spoke she
+rose and kissed Selene on her forehead and eyes, and Selene clung to
+her and could only say with swimming eyes, and a voice trembling with
+feeling:
+
+“Dame Hannah, dear widow Hannah.”
+
+As the warm sunshine of an October clay reminds the traveller of the
+summer that is over, so the widow’s words and ways brought back to
+Selene the long lost love and care of her good mother; and something
+soothing mingled in the bitterness of the pain she was suffering. She
+looked gratefully at the kind woman and obediently sat still; it was
+such a comfort once more to obey an order, and to obey willingly--to
+feel herself a child again and to be grateful for loving care.
+
+Hannah went away, and Mary knelt down in front of Selene to loosen and
+remove the straps which were half buried in the swelled muscles. She did
+it with the greatest caution, but her fingers had hardly touched her,
+when Selene shrank back with a groan, and before she could undo the
+sandal, the patient had fainted away. Mary fetched some water and bathed
+her brow, and the burning wound in her head, and by the time Selene
+had once more opened her eyes, dame Hannah had returned. When the widow
+stroked her thick soft hair, Selene looked up with a smile and asked:
+“Have I been to sleep?”
+
+“You shut your eyes my child,” replied the widow. “Here are your wages
+and your sister’s, for twelve days; do not move, I will put it in your
+little bag. Mary has not succeeded in loosening your sandal, but the
+physician who is paid to attend on the factory people will be here
+directly, and will order what is proper for your poor foot. The manager
+is having a litter fetched for you.--Where do you live?”
+
+“We?” cried Selene, alarmed. “No, no, I must go home.”
+
+“But my child you cannot walk farther than the court-yard even if we
+both help you.”
+
+“Then let me get a litter out in the street. My father--no one must
+know--I cannot.”
+
+Hannah signed to Mary to leave them, and when she had shut the door on
+the deformed girl, she brought a stool, sat down opposite to Selene,
+laid a hand on the knee that was not hurt, and said:
+
+“Now, dear girl, we are alone. I am no chatterbox, and will certainly
+not betray your confidence. Tell me quietly who you belong to. Tell
+me--you believe that I mean well by you?”
+
+“Yes,” replied Selene, looking the widow full in the face--a
+regularly-cut face, set in abundant smooth brown hair, and with the
+stamp of genuine and heart-felt goodness. “Yes--you remind me of my
+mother.”
+
+“Well, I might be your mother.”
+
+“I am nineteen years old already.”
+
+“Already,” replied Hannah, with a smile. “Why my life has been twice as
+long as yours. I had a child, too, a boy; and he was taken from me when
+he was quite little. He would be a year older than you now, my child--is
+your mother still alive?”
+
+“No,” said Selene, with her old dry manner, that had become a habit.
+“The gods have taken her from us. She would have been, like you, not
+quite forty now, and she was as pretty and as kind as you are. When she
+died she left seven children besides me, all little, and one of them
+blind. I am the eldest, and do what I can for them, that they may not be
+starved.”
+
+“God will help you in the loving task.”
+
+“The gods!” exclaimed Selene, bitterly. “They let them grow up, the rest
+I have to see to--oh! my foot, my foot!”
+
+“Yes, we will think of that before anything else. Your father is alive?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“And he is not to know that you work here?”
+
+Selene shook her head.
+
+“He is in moderate circumstances, but of good family?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Here, I think, is the doctor. Well? May I know your father’s name? I
+must if I am to get you safe home.”
+
+“I am the daughter of Keraunus, the steward of the palace, and we have
+rooms there, at Lochias,” Selene answered, with rapid decision, but in a
+low whisper, so that the physician, who just then opened the room door,
+might not hear her. “No one, and least of all, my father, must know that
+I work here.”
+
+The widow made a sign to her to be easy, greeted the grey-haired leech
+who came in with his assistant; and then, while the old man examined
+the injured limb, and cut the straps with a sharp pair of scissors, she
+bathed the girl’s face and cut head with a wet handkerchief, supported
+the poor child in her arms, and, when the pain seemed too much for her,
+kissed her pale cheeks.
+
+Many sighs from the bottom of her heart, and many shrill little cries
+betrayed how intense was the pain Selene was enduring. When at length,
+her delicate and graceful foot-distorted just now by the extensive
+swelling,--was freed from the bands and straps, and the ankle had been
+felt and pressed in every direction by the leech, he exclaimed, turning
+to the assistant who stood ready to lend a helping hand:
+
+“Look here, Hippolytus, the girl came along the streets with her ankle
+in this state. If any one else had told me of such a thing, I should
+have desired him to keep his lies to himself. The fibula is broken at
+the joint, and with this injured limb the child has walked farther than
+I could trust myself at all--without my litter. By Sirius! child, if you
+are not crippled for life it will be a miracle.”
+
+Selene had listened with closed eyes, and exhausted almost to
+unconsciousness; but at his last words she slightly shrugged her
+shoulders with a faint smile of scorn on her lips.
+
+“You think nothing of being lame!” said the old man, who let no gesture
+of his patient escape him. “That, of course, is your affair, but it
+is mine to see that you do not become a cripple in my hands. The
+opportunity for working a miracle is not given to one of us every day,
+and happily for me, you yourself bring a powerful coadjutor to help me.
+I do not mean a lover or anything of that kind, though you are much too
+pretty, but your lovely, vigorous, healthy youth. The hole in your head
+is hotter than it need be--keep it properly cool with fresh water. Where
+do you live, child?”
+
+“Almost half an hour from here,” said Hannah, answering for Selene.
+
+“She cannot be taken so far as that, even in a litter, at present,” said
+the old man.
+
+“I must go home!” cried Selene, resolutely, and trying to sit up.
+
+“Nonsense,” exclaimed the physician. “I must forbid your moving at all.
+Be still, and be patient and obedient, or your foolish joke will come
+to a bad end; fever has already set in, and it will increase by the
+evening. It has nothing much to do with the leg, but all the more with
+the inflamed scalp-wound. Do you think,” he added, turning to the widow,
+“that perhaps a bed could be made here on which she might lie, and
+remain here till the factory reopens?”
+
+“I would rather die,” shrieked Selene, trying to draw away her foot from
+the leech.
+
+“Be still--be still, my dear child,” said the good woman, soothingly. “I
+know where I can take you. My house is in a garden belonging to Paulina,
+the widow of Pudeus, near this and close to the sea; it is not above
+a thousand paces off, and there you will have a soft couch and tender
+care. A good litter is waiting, and I should think--”
+
+“Even that is a good distance,” said the old man. “However, she cannot
+possibly be better cared for than by you, dame Hannah. Let us try it
+then, and I will accompany you to lash those accursed bearers’ skins if
+they do not keep in step.”
+
+Selene made no attempt to resist these orders, and willingly drank a
+potion which the old man gave her; but she cried to herself as she was
+lifted into the litter and her foot was carefully propped on pillows.
+In the street, which they soon reached through a side door, she again
+almost lost consciousness, and half awake but half as in a dream, she
+heard the leech’s voice as he cautioned the bearers to walk carefully,
+and saw the people, and vehicles, and horsemen pass her on their way.
+Then she saw that she was being carried through a large garden, and at
+last she dimly perceived that she was being laid on a bed. From
+that moment every thing was merged in a dream, though the frequent
+convulsions of pain that passed over her features and now and then a
+rapid movement of her hand to the cut in her head, showed that she was
+not altogether oblivious to the reality of her sufferings.
+
+Dame Hannah sat by the bed, and carried out the physician’s instructions
+with exactness; he himself did not leave his patient till he was
+perfectly satisfied with her bed and her position. Mary stayed with the
+widow helping her to wet handkerchiefs and to make bandages out of old
+linen.
+
+When Selene began to breathe more calmly Hannah beckoned her assistant
+to come close to her and asked in a low voice.
+
+“Can you stay here till early to-morrow, we must take it in turns to
+watch her, most likely for several nights--how hot this wound on her
+head is!”
+
+“Yes, I can stay, only I must tell my mother that she may not be
+frightened.”
+
+“Quite right, and then you may undertake another commission for I cannot
+leave the poor child just now.”
+
+“Her people will be anxious about her.”
+
+“That is just where you must go; but no one besides us two must know who
+she is. Ask for Selene’s sister and tell her what has happened; if you
+see her father tell him that I am taking care of his daughter, and that
+the physician strictly forbids her moving or being moved. But he must
+not know that Selene is one of us workers, so do not say a word about
+the factory before him. If you find neither Arsinoe nor her father at
+home, tell any one that opens the door to you that I have taken the sick
+child in, and did it gladly. But about the workshop, do your hear, not
+a word. One thing more, the poor girl would never have come down to the
+factory in spite of such pain, unless her family had been very much in
+need of her wages; so just give these drachmae to some one and say, as
+is perfectly true, that we found them about her person.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Plutarch was one of the richest citizens of Alexandria, and the owner of
+the papyrus manufactory where Selene and Arsinoe worked; and he had of
+his own free will offered to provide for the “suitable” entertainment of
+the wives and daughters of his fellow-citizens, who were, this very day,
+to assemble in one of the smaller theatres of the city. Every one that
+knew him, knew too that “suitable” with him meant as much as to say
+imperial splendor.
+
+The ship-builder’s daughter had prepared Arsinoe for grand doings,
+but by the time she had reached the entrance only of the theatre her
+expectations were exceeded, for as soon as she gave her father’s name
+and her own, a boy, who looked out from an arbor of flowers gave her a
+magnificent bunch of flowers, and another, who sat perched on a dolphin,
+handed her, as a ticket of admission, a finely-cut ornament of ivory
+mounted in gold, with a pin, by which the invited owner was intended to
+fix it like a brooch in her peplum; and at each entrance to the theatre,
+the ladies, as they came in, had a similar present made them.
+
+The passage leading to the auditorium was full of perfume, and Arsinoe,
+who had already visited this theatre two or three times, hardly
+recognized it, it was so gaily decorated with colored scarfs. And who
+had ever seen ladies and young girls filling the best places instead
+of men, as was the case to-day? Indeed the citizens’ daughters were in
+general not permitted to see a theatrical performance at all, unless on
+very special and exceptional occasions. She looked up with a smile
+at the empty topmost rows of the cheapest seats of the semicircular
+auditorium, as one looks at an old playfellow one had outgrown by a
+head, for it was there--when she had occasionally been permitted to dip
+into their scanty common purse--that she had almost fainted many a time,
+with pleasure, fear, or sympathy, though the draught so high up and
+under the open heaven which was the only roof, was incessantly blowing;
+and in summer the discomforts were even greater from the awning which
+shaded the amphitheatre on the sunny side. The wide breadths of canvas
+were managed by means of stout ropes, and when these were pulled through
+the rings they rode in, they made a screech which compelled the bearer
+to stop his ears; and often it was necessary to duck his head not to
+be hit by the heavy ropes or by the awning itself. But Arsinoe only
+remembered these things to-day as a butterfly sporting in the sun may
+remember the hideous pupa-case that it has burst and left behind it.
+
+Radiant with happy excitement, she was led to her seat with her young
+companion, the black-haired daughter of the shipwright. She perceived
+indeed that numerous eyes turned upon her, but that only added to her
+pleasure, for she knew that she could well bear looking at, and there
+could be no greater pleasure, as she thought, than to give pleasure to a
+multitude.
+
+To-day at any rate! For those who were looking at her were the chief
+citizens of Alexandria; they stood on the stage, and among them stood
+kind tall Pollux, waving his hand to her. She could not keep her feet
+quiet, but she did contrive to keep her arms still by crossing them in
+front of her, so that they might not betray how excited she was.
+
+This distribution of parts had already begun, for, by waiting for
+Selene, she had come in almost half an hour too late. As soon as she
+saw that the eyes that had been attracted to herself as she entered the
+theatre had turned to other objects she herself looked round her. She
+was sitting on a bench at the lowest and narrowest end of one of the
+wedge-shaped sections of seats, which grew wider at the upper end, and
+which were divided from each other by gangways for those who came and
+went, thus forming the semicircular area of the auditorium.
+
+Here she was surrounded only by young girls and women who were to have
+a part or place in the performances. The places for these interested
+persons were divided from the stage by a space for the orchestra, whence
+the stage was easily reached by steps up which the chorus were wont to
+mount to it.
+
+Behind Arsinoe, in the larger circular rows, sat the parents and
+husbands of the performers, among whom Keraunus, in his saffron robe,
+had taken a place, besides a considerable number of sight-loving matrons
+and older citizens who had accepted Plutarch’s invitation.
+
+Among the young women and girls Arsinoe saw several whose beauty struck
+her, but she admired them ungrudgingly, and it never came into her head
+to compare herself with them, for she knew very accurately that she
+was pretty, and that even here she had nothing to conceal, and this was
+enough for her.
+
+The many-voiced hum which incessantly buzzed in her ears, and the
+perfume which rose from the attar in the orchestra had something
+intoxicating in them. Her gaze round the assembled multitude could not
+disturb any one, and her companion had found some friends with whom she
+was chattering and laughing. Other ladies and young girls sat staring
+silently in front of them, or studying the appearance of the rest of the
+audience, male and female; while others again concentrated their whole
+attention on the stage. Arsinoe soon followed this example, nor was
+this solely on account of Pollux who, by the prefect’s orders, had been
+enlisted among the artists to whom the arrangement of the display was
+entrusted, in spite of the objections of his master Papias. More than
+once before had she seen the afternoon sun shine as brightly into the
+theatre as it did to-day, and the blue sky overarching it without a
+cloud, but with what different feelings did she now direct her gaze to
+the raised level behind the orchestra. The background, it is true, was
+the same as usual, the pillared front of a palace built entirely of
+colored marbles, and ornamented with gold; but on this occasion fresh
+garlands of fragrant flowers hung gracefully between the pilasters and
+across from column to column. Several artists, the first of the city,
+with tablets and styla in their hands were moving about among fifty
+girls and ladies, and Plutarch himself, and the gentlemen with him,
+composed, as it were a grand chorus which sometimes divided, and
+sometimes stood all together.
+
+On the right side of the stage were three purple-covered couches. On
+one of them sat Titianus, the prefect, who, like the artists, used his
+pencil; with him was his wife Julia. On another reclined Verus, at full
+length, and as usual, crowned with roses; the third was for Plutarch,
+but was unoccupied. The praetor did not hesitate to interrupt any
+speaker, as though he were the host of the entertainment, and many of
+his remarks were followed by loud applause, or approving laughter.
+
+The face and figure of the wealthy Plutarch, which could never be
+forgotten, were not altogether strange to Arsinoe, for, a few days
+previously he had shown himself for the first time in many years in his
+papyrus factory, with an architect to settle with him how the courts
+and rooms could best be cleaned and decorated for the reception of the
+Emperor; and on this occasion he had gone into the room where she worked
+and had pinched her cheek with a few roguish and flattering words.
+
+There he was, walking across the stage. He was an old man, said to
+be about seventy years of age, his legs were half-paralyzed, and they
+nevertheless moved with a series of incessant and rapid but unvoluntary
+jerks under his heavy bowed body, and he was supported on either hand by
+a tall young fellow. His nobly-formed head, must have been in his youth,
+of extraordinary beauty. Now his head was covered by a wig of long brown
+hair, his eyebrows and lashes were darkly dyed, his cheeks daubed with
+red and white paint, which gave his countenance a fixed expression, as
+if he had been stricken in the very act of smiling. On his curls he wore
+a wreath of rare flowers in long racemes. An abundance of red and white
+roses stuck out from the front folds of his ample toga, and were held
+in their place by gold brooches, sparkling with precious stones of large
+size. The hems of his mantle were all edged with rose-buds, and each
+was fastened in with an emerald that shone like some bright insect. The
+young men who supported him seemed like a portion of himself; he took
+no more heed of them than if they had been crutches, and they needed not
+command to tell them where he wished to go, where to stand still, and
+where to rest.
+
+At a distance his face was like that of a youth, but seen close it
+looked like a painted plaster mask, with regular features and large
+movable eyes.
+
+Favorinus, the sophist, had said of him that one might cry over his
+handsome locomotive corpse, if one were not obliged to laugh at it,
+and it was said that he had himself declared that he would force his
+faithless youth to remain with him. The Alexandrians called him the
+Adonis with six legs, on account of the lads who supported him, and
+without whom no one ever saw him and who always accompanied him when he
+went out. The first time he heard this nickname he remarked: “They had
+better have called me sixhanded;” and in fact he had a thoroughly
+good heart, he was liberal and benevolent, took fatherly care of his
+work-people, treated his slaves well, enriched those whom he set free,
+and from time to time distributed large sums among the people in money
+and in grain.
+
+Arsinoe looked compassionately on the poor old man who could not buy
+back his youth with all his money and all his art.
+
+In the supercilious man who at once came up to Plutarch she recognized
+the art-dealer Gabinius to whom her father had shown the door,
+on account of the mosaic picture in their sitting-room, but their
+conversation was interrupted, for the distribution of the women’s part
+for the group of Alexander’s entry into Babylon, was now about to take
+place; about fifty girls and young women were sent away from the stage
+and went down into the orchestra. The Exegetes, the highest official in
+the town, now came forward and took a new list out of the hand of Papias
+the sculptor. After rapidly casting an eye on this, he handed it to a
+herald who followed him, who proclaimed to all the assembly:
+
+“In the name of the most noble Exegetes I request your attention, all
+you ladies here assembled, the wives and daughters of Macedonians and of
+Roman citizens. We now come to a distribution of the characters in our
+representation of the life and history of the great Macedonian, of the
+‘Marriage of Alexander and Roxana,’ and I hereby request those among you
+to come upon the stage whom our artists have selected to take part in
+this scene in the procession.” After this exordium he shouted in a deep
+and resonant voice a long list of names, and while this was going on
+every other sound was hushed in the wide amphitheatre.
+
+Even on the stage all was still; only Verus whispered a few remarks
+to Titianus, and the curiosity-dealer spoke into Plutarch’s ear, long
+sentences with the stringent emphasis which was peculiar to him; and the
+old man answered sometimes with an assenting nod, and sometimes with a
+deprecatory motion of his hands.
+
+Arsinoe listened with suspended breath to the herald’s proclamation;
+she started and colored all over, with her eyes fixed on the bunch of
+flowers in her hand, when she heard from the stage loudly uttered and
+plain to be heard by all present:
+
+“Arsinoe, the second daughter of Keraunus, the Macedonian and a Roman
+citizen.”
+
+The ship-builder’s daughter had already been called before her, and had
+immediately left her seat, but Arsinoe waited modestly till some older
+ladies rose. She then joined them and went among the last members of the
+little procession which went down to the orchestra and from thence up
+the steps for the chorus, on to the stage.
+
+There the ladies and young girls were placed in two ranks, and looked
+at with amiable consideration by the artists. Arsinoe was not long in
+perceiving that these gentlemen looked at her longer and more often
+than at the others; and then, after the masters of the festival had gone
+aside in groups to discuss the matter they looked at her constantly and
+were talking, she felt sure, about her. Nor did it escape her that
+she had become the centre of many glances from the lookers-on who were
+sitting in the theatre, and it occurred to her that on several sides
+people were pointing at her with their fingers. She did not know which
+way she should look and began to feel bashful; still she was pleased at
+being remarked by so many people, and as she stood looking at the ground
+out of sheer embarrassment to hide the delight she felt, Verus, who had
+gone up to the group of artists, called out, putting his hand on the
+prefect’s arm.
+
+“Charming-charming! a Roxana that might have sprung straight out of the
+picture.”
+
+Arsinoe heard these words, and guessing that they referred to her
+she became more confused than ever, while her awkward smile gradually
+changed to an expression of joyful but anxious expectation of a delight
+which was almost painful in its magnitude.
+
+Now one of the artists pronounced her name, and as she ventured to raise
+her eyes to see if it were not Pollux who had spoken, she observed the
+wealthy Plutarch who, with his two living crutches and Gabinius, the
+lean curiosity-dealer, was inspecting the ranks of her companions.
+Presently he had come quite close to her, and as he was helped towards
+her with tottering steps, he dug the dealer in the ribs and said,
+kissing the back of his hand, and winking his great eyes: “I know--I
+know! It is not easily forgotten. Ivory and red coral!”
+
+Arsinoe started, the blood left her cheeks, and all satisfaction fled
+from her heart when the old man came to a stand-still in front of her,
+and said kindly:
+
+“Ah! ah! a bud out of the papyrus factory among all these proud roses
+and lilies. Ah! ah! out of my work-rooms to join my assembly! Never
+mind-never mind, beauty is everywhere welcome. I do not ask how you got
+here. I am only glad that you are here.”
+
+Arsinoe covered part of her face with her hand, but he tapped her white
+arm three times with his middle finger, and then tottered on laughing
+to himself. The dealer had caught Plutarch’s words, and asked him, when
+they had gone a few steps from Arsinoe, with eager indignation:
+
+“Did I hear you rightly? a work-woman in your factory, and here among
+our daughters?”
+
+“So it is--two busy hands among so many idle ones,” said the old man,
+gaily.
+
+“Then she must have forced her way in, and must be turned out.”
+
+“Certainly she shall not--Why, she is charming.”
+
+“It is revolting! here, in this assembly!”
+
+“Revolting?” interrupted Plutarch. “Oh dear, no! we must not be
+too particular. And how are we to obtain mere children from you
+antiquity-mongers?” Then he added pleasantly:
+
+“This lovely creature must I should think, delight your fine sense of
+beauty; or are you afraid that she may seem better suited to the part of
+Roxana than your own charming daughter? Only listen to the men up there!
+Let us see what is going on.”
+
+These words referred to a loud discussion which had arisen close by the
+couches of the prefect and Verus, the praetor. They, and with them most
+of the painters and sculptors present, were of opinion that Arsinoe
+would be a wonderfully effective Roxana; they maintained that her face
+and figure answered perfectly to those of the Bactrian princes as they
+were represented by Action, whose picture was, to a certain extent,
+to serve as the basis of the living group. Only Papias and two of his
+fellow-artists, declared against this choice, and eagerly asserted that
+among all the damsels present one, and one alone, was worthy to appear
+before the Emperor as Alexander’s bride, and that one was Praxilla, the
+daughter of Gabinius. All three were in close business relations with
+the father of the young girl, who was tall, and slim, and certainly
+very lovely, and they wanted to do a pleasure to the rich and knowing
+purchaser. Their zeal even assumed a tone of vehemence, when the dealer,
+following in the wake of Plutarch, joined the group of disputants, and
+they were certain of being heard by him.
+
+“And who is this girl yonder?” asked Papias, pointing to Arsinoe, as the
+two came up. “Nothing can be said against her beauty, but she is dressed
+less than simply, and wears no kind of ornament worth speaking of--it is
+a thousand to one against her parents being in a position to provide her
+with such a rich dress, and such costly jewels as Roxana certainly ought
+to display when about to be married to Alexander. The Asiatic princess
+must appear in silk, gold and precious stones. Now my friend here will
+be able so to dress his Praxilla that the splendor of her attire might
+have astonished the great Macedonian himself, but who is the father of
+that pretty child who is satisfied with the blue ribbon in her hair, her
+two roses, and her little white frock?”
+
+“Your reflections are just, Papias,” interrupted the dealer, with
+dry incisiveness. “The girl you are speaking of is quite out of the
+question. I do not say so for my daughter’s sake, but because everything
+in bad taste is odious to me; it is hardly conceivable how such a young
+thing could have had the audacity to force herself in here. A pretty
+face, to be sure, opens locks and bars. She is--do not be too much
+startled--she is nothing more than a work-girl in the papyrus factory of
+our excellent host, Plutarch.”
+
+“That is not the truth,” Pollux interrupted, indignantly, as he heard
+this assertion.
+
+“Moderate your tongue, young man,” replied the dealer. “I can call you
+to witness, noble Plutarch.”
+
+“Let her be whom she may,” answered the old man, with annoyance. “She
+is very one of my workwomen, but even if she had come straight here from
+the gumming-table with such a face and such a figure, she is perfectly
+in place here and everywhere. That is my opinion.”
+
+“Bravo! my fine friend!” cried Verus, nodding to the old man. “Caesar
+will be far better pleased with such a paragon of charmers as that sweet
+creature, than with all your old writs of citizenship and heavy purses.”
+
+“That is true,” the prefect said, confirming this statement. “And I dare
+swear she is a free maiden, and not a slave. But you stood up for her
+friend Pollux--what do you know about her?”
+
+“That she is the daughter of Keraunus, the palace-steward, and that
+I have known her from her childhood,” answered the youthful artist
+emphatically. “He is a Roman citizen, and of an old Macedonian house as
+well.”
+
+“Perhaps even of royal descent,” added Titianus, laughing.
+
+“I know the man,” answered the dealer hastily. “He is an impecunious
+insolent old fool.”
+
+“I should think,” interrupted Verus with lofty composure, but rather as
+being bored, than as reproving the irritated speaker, “it seems to me
+that this is hardly the place to conduct a discussion as to the nature
+and disposition of the fathers of all those ladies and young girls.”
+
+“But he is poor,” cried the dealer angrily. “A few days since he offered
+to sell me his few miserable curiosities, but really I could not--”
+
+“We are sorry for your sake if the transaction was unsuccessful,” Verus
+again interposed, this time with excessive politeness. “Now, first let
+us decide on the persons and afterwards on the costumes. The father of
+the girl is a Roman citizen then?”
+
+“A member of the council, and in his way a man of position,” replied
+Titianus.
+
+“And I,” added his wife Julia, “have taken a great fancy to the sweet
+little maid, and if the principal part is given to her, and her noble
+father is without adequate means, as you assert my friend, I will
+undertake to provide for her costume. Caesar will be charmed with such a
+Roxana.”
+
+The dealer’s clients were silent, he himself was trembling with
+disappointment and vexation, and his fury rose to the utmost when
+Plutarch, whom till then he thought he had won over to his daughter’s
+side, tried to bow his bent old body before dame Julia, and said with a
+graceful gesture of regret:
+
+“My old eyes have deceived me again on this occasion. The little girl is
+very like one of my workwomen; very like--but I see now that there is
+a certain something which the other lacks. I have done her an injustice
+and remain her debtor. Permit, me, noble lady to add the ornaments to
+the dress you provide for our Roxana. I may be lucky enough to find
+something pretty for her. A sweet child! I shall go at once and beg her
+forgiveness and tell her what we propose. May I do so noble Julia? Have
+I your permission gentlemen?”
+
+In a very few minutes it was known all over the stage, and soon after
+all through the amphitheatre, that Arsinoe, the daughter of Keraunus,
+had been selected to represent the character of Roxana.
+
+“But who was Keraunus?”
+
+“How was it that the children of the most illustrious and wealthy
+citizens had been overlooked in assigning this most prominent part?”
+
+“This was just what might be expected when every thing was left to those
+reckless artists!”
+
+“And where was a poor little girl like that to find the talents which
+it would cost to procure the costume of an Asiatic princess, Alexander’s
+bride?”
+
+“Plutarch, and the prefect’s wife had undertaken that.”
+
+“A mere beggar.”
+
+“How well the family jewels would have suited our daughters!”
+
+“Do we want to show Caesar nothing but a few silly pretty faces?--and
+not something of our wealth and taste?”
+
+“Supposing Hadrian asks who this Roxana is, and had to be told that a
+collection had to be made to get her a proper costume.”
+
+“Such things never could happen anywhere but in Alexandria.”
+
+“Every one wants to know whether she worked in Plutarch’s factory. They
+say it is not true--but the painted old villain still loves a pretty
+face. He smuggled her in, you may be sure; where there is smoke there is
+fire, and it is beyond a doubt that she gets money from the old man.”
+
+“What for?”
+
+“Ah! you had better enquire of a priest of Aphrodite. It is nothing to
+laugh at, it is scandalous, audacious!”
+
+Thus and on this wise ran the comments with which the announcement of
+Arsinoe’s preferment to the part of Roxana was received, and hatred
+and bitter animosity had grown up in the souls of the dealer and his
+daughter. Praxilla was selected as a companion to Alexander’s bride,
+and she yielded without objecting, but on her way homewards she nodded
+assent when her father said:
+
+“Let things go on now as they may, but a few hours before the
+performance begins, I will send them word that you are ill.”
+
+The selection of Arsinoe had however, on the other hand, given pleasure
+as well as pain. Up in the middle places in the amphitheatre sat
+Keraunus, his legs far apart, his face glowing, panting and choking with
+sheer delight, and too haughty to draw in his feet even when the brother
+of the archidikastes tried to squeeze by his bulky person which filled
+two seats at once. Arsinoe, whose sharp ears had not failed to catch the
+dealer’s remonstrances, and the words in which brave Pollux had taken
+her part, had, at first, felt dying of shame and terror, but now she
+felt as though she could fly on the wings of her delight. She had never
+been so happy in her life, and when she got out with her father, in the
+first dark street she threw her arms round his neck, kissed both his
+cheeks, and then told him how kind the lady Julia, the prefect’s
+wife had been to her, and that she had undertaken, with the warmest
+friendliness, to have her costly dress made for her.
+
+Keraunus had no objection to offer, and, strange to say, he did not
+consider it beneath his dignity to allow Arsinoe to be supplied with
+jewels by the wealthy manufacturer.
+
+“People have seen,” he said, pathetically, “that we need not shrink from
+doing as much as other citizens do, but to dress a Roxana as befits
+a bride would cost millions, and I am very willing to confess to my
+friends that I have not millions. Where the costume comes from is all
+the same, be that as it may you will still stand the first of all the
+maidens in the city, and I am pleased with you for that, my child.
+To-morrow will be the last meeting, and then perhaps Selene too, may
+have a prominent part given to her. Happily we are able to dress her as
+befits. When will the prefect’s wife fetch you?”
+
+“To-morrow about noon.”
+
+“Then early to-morrow buy a nice new dress.”
+
+“Will there not be enough for a new bracelet too?” asked Arsinoe,
+coaxingly. “This one of mine is too narrow and trumpery.”
+
+“You shall have one, for you have deserved it,” replied Keraunus, with
+dignity. “But you must have patience till the day after to-morrow;
+to-morrow the goldsmiths will be closed on account of the festival.”
+
+Arsinoe had never seen her father so cheerful and talkative as he was
+to-day, and yet the walk from the theatre to Lochias was not a
+very short one, and it was long past the early hour at which he was
+accustomed to retire to bed.
+
+By the time the father and daughter reached the palace it was already
+tolerably late, for, after Arsinoe had quitted the stage, suitable
+representatives of parts had been selected for three other scenes from
+the life of Alexander, by the light of torches, lamps and tapers; and
+before the assemblage broke up, Plutarch’s guests were entertained with
+wine, fruit, syrups, sweet cakes, oyster pasties, and other delicacies.
+The steward had fallen with good will on the noble drink and excellent
+food, and when he was replete, he was wont to be in a better humor, and
+after a modicum of wine, in a more cheerful mood than usual. Just now
+he was content and kind, for although he had done all that lay in his
+power, the entertainment had not lasted long enough, for him to arrive
+at a state of intoxication which could make him surly, or to overload
+his digestion. Towards the end of their walk, he turned thoughtful and
+said:
+
+“To-morrow the council does not sit on account of the festival, and that
+is well; all the world will congratulate me, question me, and notice me,
+and the gilding on my circlet is quite shabby; and in some places the
+silver shines through. Your outfit will now cost nothing, and it is
+quite necessary that before the next meeting I should go to a goldsmith
+and exchange that wretched thing for one of real gold. A man should show
+what he is.”
+
+He spoke the words pompously, and Arsinoe eagerly acquiesced, and
+only begged him, as they went in at the open door, to leave enough for
+Selene’s costume; he laughed quietly to himself, and said:
+
+“We need no longer be so very cautious. I should like to know who the
+Alexander will be who will be the first to ask for my Roxana as his
+wife. Rich old Plutarch’s only son already has a seat in the council,
+and has not yet taken a wife. He is no longer very young, but he is a
+fine man still.”
+
+The radiant father’s dream of the future was interrupted by Doris, who
+came out of the gate-house and called him by his name. Keraunus stood
+still. When the old woman went on:
+
+“I must speak with you.”
+
+He answered, repellently: “But I shall not listen to you--neither now
+nor at any time.”
+
+“It was certainly not for my pleasure,” retorted Doris, “that I called
+to you; I have only to tell you that you will not find your daughter
+Selene at home.”
+
+“What do you say?” cried Keraunus.
+
+“I say that the poor girl with her damaged foot could at last walk no
+farther, and that she had to be carried into a strange house where she
+is being taken care of.”
+
+“Selene!” cried Arsinoe, falling from all her clouds of happiness,
+startled and grieved--“do you know where she is?”
+
+Before Doris could reply, Keraunus stormed out:
+
+“It is all the fault of the Roman architect and his raging beast of
+a dog. Very good! very good! now Caesar will certainly help me to my
+rights. He will give a lesson to those who throw Roxana’s sister into a
+sick-bed, and hinder her from taking any part in the processions. Very
+good! very good indeed!”
+
+“It is sad enough to cry over!” said the gatekeeper’s wife, indignantly.
+“Is this the thanks she gets for all her care of her little brothers and
+sisters! Only to think that a father can speak so, when his best child
+is lying with a broken leg, helpless among strangers!”
+
+“With a broken leg,” whimpered Arsinoe.
+
+“Broken!” repeated Keraunus slowly, and now sincerely anxious. “Where
+can I find her?”
+
+“At dame Hannah’s little house at the bottom of the garden belonging to
+the widow of Pudeus.”
+
+“Why did they not bring her here?”
+
+“Because the physician forbade it. She is in a fever, but she is well
+cared for. Hannah is one of the Christians. I cannot bear the people,
+but they know how to nurse the sick better than any one.”
+
+“With Christians! my child is with Christians!” shrieked Keraunus,
+beside himself. “At once Arsinoe, at once come with me; Selene shall not
+stay a moment longer among that accursed rabble. Eternal gods! besides
+all our other troubles this disgrace too!”
+
+“Nay, it is not so bad as that,” said Doris soothingly. “There are
+very estimable folks even among the Christians. At any rate they are
+certainly honorable, for the poor hunch-backed creature who first
+brought the bad news gave me this little bag of money which dame Hannah
+had found in Selene’s pocket.”
+
+Keraunus took his daughter’s hard-won wages as contemptuously as though
+he was quite accustomed to gold, and thought nothing of more wretched
+silver; but Arsinoe began to cry at the sight of the drachmae, for she
+knew it was for the sake of that money that Selene had left her home,
+and could divine what frightful pain she must have suffered on the way.
+
+“Honorable this, and honorable that!” cried Keraunus, as he tied up
+his money-bag. “I know well enough how shameless are the goings on in
+assemblies of that stamp; kissing and hugging slaves! quite the right
+sort of thing for my daughter! Come Arsinoe, let us find a litter at
+once!”
+
+“No, no!” exclaimed Doris eagerly. “For the present you must leave her
+in peace. I should be glad to conceal it from you as a father--but the
+physician declared it might cost her her life if she were not left just
+now in perfect quiet. No one goes to any kind of assembly with a burning
+wound in the head, a high fever and a broken leg.--Poor dear child!”
+
+Keraunus stood silent in grave consternation, while Arsinoe exclaimed
+through her tears:
+
+“But I must go to her, I must see her Doris.”
+
+“That I cannot blame you for, my pretty one,” said the old woman. “I
+have already been to the house of the Christians, but they would not let
+me in to see the patient. With you it is rather different as you are her
+sister.”
+
+“Come father,” begged Arsinoe, “first let us see to the children, and
+then you shall come with me to see Selene. Oh! why did I not go with
+her. Oh! if she should die.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Keraunus and his daughter reached their rooms less quickly than usual,
+for the steward dreaded a fresh attack from the blood-hound, which,
+to-night however, was sharing Antinous’ room. They found the old
+slavewoman up, and in great excitement, for she loved Selene, she was
+frightened at her absence, and in the children’s sleeping-room all was
+not as it should be.
+
+Arsinoe went without delay to see the little ones, but the black
+woman remained with her master, and told him with many tears, while he
+exchanged his saffron-colored pallium for an old cloak, that the joy of
+her heart, little blind Helios had been ill, and could not sleep, even
+after she had given him some of the drops which Keraunus himself was
+accustomed to take.
+
+“Idiotic animal!” exclaimed Keraunus, “to give my medicine to the
+child,” and he kicked off his new shoes to replace them with shabbier
+ones. “If you were younger I would have you flogged.”
+
+“But you did say the drops were good,” stammered the old woman.
+
+“For me,” shouted the steward, and without fastening his shoe-straps
+round his ankles, so that they flapped and pattered on the ground, he
+hurried off into the children’s room. There sat his darling blind child,
+his ‘neir’ as he liked to call him, with his pretty, fair, curly head
+resting on Arsinoe’s breast. The child recognized his step, and began
+his little lament:
+
+“Selene was away, and I was frightened, and I feel so sick, so sick.”
+
+The steward laid his hand on the child’s forehead, and feeling how hot
+it was he began to walk restlessly up and down by the little bed.
+
+“That is just how it always happens,” he said. “When one misfortune
+comes another always follows. Look at him Arsinoe. Do you remember
+how the fever took poor Berenice? Sickness, uneasiness, and a burning
+head.--Have you any pain in your head my boy?”
+
+“No,” answered Helios, “but I feel so sick.”
+
+The steward opened the child’s little shirt to see if he had any spots
+on his breast, but Arsinoe said, as she bent over him:
+
+“It is nothing much, he has only overloaded his stomach. The stupid old
+woman gives him every thing he asks for, and she let him have half of
+the currant cake, which we sent her to fetch before we went out.”
+
+“But his head is burning,” repeated Keraunus.
+
+“He will be quite well again by to-morrow morning,” replied Arsinoe.
+“Our poor Selene needs us far snore than he does. Come father. The old
+woman can stay with him.”
+
+“I want Selene to come,” whimpered the child. “Pray, pray, do not leave
+me alone again.”
+
+“Your old father will stay with you my pet,” said Keraunus tenderly, for
+it cut him to the soul to see this child suffer. “You none of you know
+what this boy is to us all.”
+
+“He will soon go to sleep,” Arsinoe asserted. “Do let us go, or it will
+be too late.”
+
+“And leave the old woman to commit some other stupid blunder?” cried
+Keraunus. “It is my duty to stay with the poor little boy. You can go to
+your sister and take the old woman with you.”
+
+“Very good, and to-morrow early I will come back.”
+
+“To-morrow morning?” said Keraunus surprised. “No, no, that will not do.
+Doris said just now that Selene will be well nursed by the Christians.
+Only see how she is, give her my love, and then come back.”
+
+“But father--”
+
+“Besides you must remember that the prefect’s wife expects you to-morrow
+at noon to choose the stuff for your dress, and you must not look as if
+you had been sitting up all night.”
+
+“I will rest a little while in the morning.”
+
+“In the morning? And how about curling my hair? And your new frock? And
+poor little Helios?--No child, you are only just to see Selene and then
+come back again. Early in the morning too the holiday will have begun,
+and you know what goes on then; the old woman would be of no use to you
+in the throng. Go and see how Selene is, you are not to stay.”
+
+“I will see--”
+
+“Not a word about seeing--you come home again. I desire it; in two hours
+you are to be in bed.”
+
+Arsinoe shrugged her shoulders, and two minutes after she was standing
+with the old slave-woman in front of the gate-house.
+
+A broad beam of light still fell through the half-open door of the
+bowery little room, so Euphorion and Doris had not retired to rest and
+could at once open the palace-gate for her. The Graces set up a bark as
+Arsinoe crossed the threshold of her old friends’ house, but they did
+not leave their cushion for they soon recognized her.
+
+It was several years since Arsinoe, in obedience to her father’s strict
+prohibition had set foot in the snug the house, and her heart was deeply
+touched as she saw again all the surroundings she had loved as a child,
+and had not forgotten as she grew into girlhood. There were the birds,
+the little dogs, and the lutes on the wall near the Apollo. On worthy
+dame Doris’ table there had always been something to eat, and there,
+now, good a lovely, golden-brown cake, by the side of the wine-jar. How
+often as a child had she sneaked in to beg a sweet morsel, how often to
+see whether tall Pollux were not there, Pollux, whose bold devices and
+original suggestions, gave his work and his play alike, the stamp
+of genius, and lent them a peculiar charm. And there sat her saucy
+playfellow in person, his legs stretched at full length in front of him,
+and talking, eagerly. Arsinoe heard him relating the end of the history
+of her being chosen for Roxana, and caught her own name, graced with
+such epithets as brought the blushes to her cheeks, and gave her double
+pleasure because he could not guess that she could overhear them. From
+a boy he had grown to a man, and a fine man, and a great artist--but he
+was still the old kind and audacious Pollux.
+
+The sudden leap with which he sprang from his seat to welcome her, the
+frank laughter with which he several times interrupted her speech, the
+childlike loving way in which he held his arm round his little mother
+while he greeted her, and asked why she was going out so late, the
+winning, touching tone of his voice as he expressed his regret at
+Selene’s mishaps--all went home to Arsinoe as a thing known and loved,
+of which she had long been deprived, and she clung to the two strong
+hands he held out to her. If at that moment he had taken her up, and
+clasped her to his heart before the very eyes of Eupliorion and his
+mother she really would have been incapable of resisting him.
+
+It was with a heavy heart that Arsinoe had gone into dame Doris, but in
+the gate-keeper’s house there reigned an atmosphere in which care and
+anxiety could not breathe, and the light-hearted girl’s vision of her
+sister as tormented with pain and threatened with danger was changed in
+a wonderfully short time to that of a sufferer comfortably in bed, with
+only a severely-injured foot. In the place of consuming anxiety she felt
+only hearty sympathy, and this sounded in her voice as she begged the
+singer Euphorion to open the gate for her, because she wanted to go out
+with her slave-woman to ascertain how Selene was.
+
+Doris soothed her, repeating her assurance that the patient would be
+nursed with the utmost care in dame Hannah’s hands; still, she thought
+her wish to see her sister very justifiable, and eagerly seconded Pollux
+when he entreated Arsinoe to accept his escort; for the festival would
+be beginning soon after midnight, the streets would be full of rough
+and impudent people, and a bunch of feathers would be about as much use
+against the drunken slaves as her black scarecrow, who had been falling
+into decrepitude even before she had done the stupidest deed of her life
+and roused the steward’s anger against herself.
+
+So they went along the dark streets which grew full of people the
+farther they went, side by side in silence. Presently Pollux said:
+
+“Put your arm through mine; you ought to feel that I am protecting you,
+and I--I should like to feel at every step that I have found you once
+more, and am allowed to be near you--so sweet a creature.”
+
+The words did not sound impertinent, on the contrary, they sounded very
+much in earnest, and the sculptor’s deep voice trembled with emotion
+as he spoke them with deep tenderness. They knocked at the door of the
+girl’s heart with the urgent hand of love; she unhesitatingly put her
+hand through his arm and answered softly:
+
+“You will take care of me now.”
+
+“Yes,” said he, and he took her little hand, which rested on his right
+arm, in his left hand. She did not draw it away, and after they had gone
+on thus for a few paces he sighed and said:
+
+“Do you know how I feel?”
+
+“Well!”
+
+“Nay, I myself cannot put it into words. Rather as if I had triumphed
+in the Olympian games, or as if Caesar had invested me with the
+purple!--But who cares for the wealth or the purple! You are hanging
+on my arm, and I have hold of your hand; compared with this, all is
+as nought. If it were not for the people about I--I do not know what I
+could do.”
+
+She looked up at him with happy content, but he lifted her hand to his
+lips and pressed it to them long and fervently. Then he let it go again
+and said, with a sigh that came up from the bottom of his heart:
+
+“Oh Arsinoe, my sweet Arsinoe, how I love you!”
+
+As the words came softly yet hotly from his lips the girl clasped his
+arm closely to her bosom, leaned her head on his shoulder, looked up at
+him with a wide-eyed, tender gaze, and said softly:
+
+“Oh Pollux, I am so happy, the world is so good!”
+
+“Nay, I could hate it!” cried the sculptor. “To hear this--and to have
+an old mother wide awake at home, and to be obliged to walk steadily on
+in a street crowded with men--it is unendurable! I shall not hold out
+much longer--sweetest of girls--here it is quiet and dark.”
+
+Yes, in a little nook made by two contiguous houses, and into which
+Pollux drew Arsinoe, it was pitch dark, as he hastily pressed his first
+kiss on her innocent lips; but in their hearts it was light-radiant
+sunshine.
+
+She had thrown her arms round his neck and would willingly have clung
+to him till day should end; but they heard the approach of a noisy
+procession of slaves. These unfortunate creatures began soon after
+midnight singing and shouting so as to avail themselves to the extremist
+limit of the holiday, which released them for a short time from their
+tasks and duties; Pollux knew well how unbounded the license of their
+pleasures could be, and as he walked on with Arsinoe he enjoined her to
+keep with him as close as possible to the houses.
+
+“How jolly they are!” he said pointing to the merry-makers. “Their
+masters will wait on themselves a little to-day, and the best day in
+the year is just beginning for them, but for us the best day in all our
+lives.”
+
+“Yes, yes,” cried Arsinoe, and she clasped his strong arm with both her
+hands.
+
+Then they both laughed merrily, for Pollux had noticed that the old
+slave-woman had gone on past them with her head sunk on her breast, and
+was following another pair.
+
+“I will call her,” Arsinoe said.
+
+“No, no, let her be,” said the artist. “The couple in front certainly
+require her protection more than we do.”
+
+“But how could she possibly mistake that little man for you?” laughed
+Arsinoe.
+
+“I wish I were a little smaller,” replied Pollux with a sigh. “Only
+picture to yourself the vast amount of burning love and tormenting
+longing that can be contained in so large a body as mine!” She slapped
+him on the arm, and to punish her he hastily pressed his lips on her
+forehead.
+
+“Don’t--think of the people,” she said reprovingly, but he gaily
+answered:
+
+“It is not a misfortune to be envied.”
+
+Here the streets came to an end, and they found themselves in front of
+the garden belonging to Pudeus’ widow; Pollux knew it, for Paulina who
+owned it was the sister of Pontius, the architect, who himself owned a
+magnificent house in the city. But could it be possible? Had invisible
+hands brought them here already? The gate of the enclosure was locked.
+Pollux roused a porter, told him what he wanted, and was conducted by
+him with Arsinoe to apart of the grounds where a bright light shone out
+from dame Hannah’s little abode, for he had had instructions to admit
+the sick girl’s friends even during the night.
+
+A crescent moon lighted the paths, which were strewed with shells; the
+shrubs and trees in the garden threw sharply-defined shadows on their
+gleaming whiteness, the sea sparkled brightly, and as soon as the porter
+had left the happy young pair together, and they found themselves in a
+shadowy alley, Pollux said, opening his arms to the girl:
+
+“Now--one more kiss, just for a remembrance, while I wait.”
+
+“Not now,” begged Arsinoe.
+
+“I am no longer happy since we came in here. I cannot help thinking of
+poor Selene.”
+
+“I have not a word to say against that,” replied Pollux submissively.
+“Then when waiting is over may I have my reward?”
+
+“No, no, now, at once,” cried Arsinoe throwing herself on his breast,
+and then she hurried towards the house.
+
+He followed her, and when she paused in front of a brightly-lighted
+window on the ground floor, he stopped also. They both looked in on a
+lofty and spacious room, kept in the most perfect order and cleanliness;
+it had one door only opening on the roofless forecourt of the house; the
+walls of the room were plainly painted of a light green color, and the
+only ornament it contained was one piece of carved work over the door.
+
+On the farther side stood the bed on which Selene was lying; a few paces
+from it sat the deformed girl asleep, while dame Hannah softly went up
+to the patient with a wet compress in her hand which she carefully laid
+on her head.
+
+Pollux touched Arsinoe and whispered to her:
+
+“Your sister lies there in her sleep like an Ariadne deserted by
+Dionysus. How wretched she will feel when she comes to herself.”
+
+“She looks to me less pale than usual.”
+
+“Look now, how she bends her arm, and what a lovely attitude as she puts
+her hand to her head!”
+
+“Go--” said Arsinoe. “You ought not to be spying here.”
+
+“Directly, directly--but if you were lying there no power should stir me
+from the spot. How carefully Hannah lifts the wet wrapper from her poor
+broken ankle. You could not touch your eye more gently than the good
+woman handles Selene’s foot.”
+
+“Go back, she is looking straight this way.”
+
+“What a wonderful face! It would do for a Penelope, but there is
+something singular in her eyes. Now if I had to make another star-gazing
+Urania, or a Sappho full of the deity, and with eyes fixed on the
+heavens in poetic rapture, that is what I would put into her! She is no
+longer young, but how pure her face is! It is like a sky when the wind
+has swept it clear of clouds.”
+
+“Seriously you must go now,” said Arsinoe drawing away her hand, which
+he had again taken. Pollux saw that his praise of another woman’s beauty
+annoyed her, and he said soothingly:
+
+“Be easy child. You have not your match here in Alexandria, no, nor so
+far as Greek is spoken. A perfectly clear sky is certainly not the most
+beautiful to my taste. Pure light, and pure blue, give no satisfaction
+to the artist, it is only behind a few moving clouds, lighted up by
+changing gleams of gold and silver, that the firmament has any true
+charm, and though your face too is like heaven to me it does not lack
+sweet movement, never twice alike. Now this matron--”
+
+“Only look,” interrupted Arsinoe, “how tenderly dame Hannah bends over
+Selene, and now she is gently kissing her brow. No mother could tend
+her own daughter more lovingly. I have known her for a long time; she is
+good, very good; it is hardly credible for she is a Christian.”
+
+“The cross up there over the door,” said Pollux “is the token by which
+these extraordinary people recognize each other.”
+
+“And what is signified by the dove and fish and anchor round it?” asked
+Arsinoe.
+
+“They are emblems of the mysteries of the Christians,” replied Pollux.
+“I do not understand them; the things are wretchedly painted; the
+adherents of the crucified God contemn all art, and particularly my
+branch of it, for they hate all images of the gods.”
+
+“And yet among such blasphemers we find such good men; I will go in at
+once; Hannah is wetting another handkerchief.”
+
+“And how unwearied and kind she looks as she does it; still there is
+something strange, deserted, and graceless in this large bare room. I
+should not like to live there.”
+
+“Have you noticed the faint scent of lavender that comes through the
+window?”
+
+“Long since--there your sister is moving and has opened her eyes--now
+she has shut them again.”
+
+“Go back into the garden and wait till I come,” Arsinoe commanded him
+decidedly. “I will only see how Selene is going on; I will not stop long
+for my father wishes me to return soon, and no one can nurse her better
+than Hannah!”
+
+The girl drew her hand out of her lover’s and knocked at the door of
+the little house; it was opened and the widow herself led Arsinoe to
+the bedside of her sister. Pollux at first sat a while on a bench in
+the garden, but soon sprang up and paced with long steps the path he had
+previously trodden with Arsinoe. A stone table across the path, brought
+him to a stand-still, and he took a fancy for leaping it. The third time
+he came up to it he sprang over it with a long jump. But no sooner had
+he done the frolicsome deed than he paused, shook his head at himself
+and muttered to himself: “Like a boy!”--He felt indeed like a happy
+child. But as he waited he became calmer and graver. He acknowledged
+to himself, with sincere thankfulness, that he had now found the ideal
+woman, of whom he had dreamed in his hours of best inspiration, and that
+she was his, wholly and alone. And after all, what was he? A poor rascal
+who had many mouths to fill, and was no more than two fingers of his
+master’s hand. This must be altered. He would not reduce his sister’s
+comforts in any way but he must break with Papias, and stand henceforth
+on his own feet. His courage mounted fast, and when at last, Arsinoe
+returned from her sister, he had resolved that he must first finish
+Balbilla’s bust with all diligence in his own workshop, and that then
+he would model his beloved; these two female heads he could not fail in.
+Caesar must see them, they must be exhibited, and already in his mind’s
+eye, he saw himself refusing order after order, and accepting only the
+most splendid where all were good.
+
+Arsinoe went home comforted. Selene’s sufferings were certainly less
+than she had pictured them; she did not wish to be nursed by any one
+besides dame Hannah. She might perhaps have a little fever, but any one
+who was capable of discussing every little question of house-keeping,
+and all that related to the children could not be--as Arsinoe thought
+while she walked back through the garden, leaning on the artist’s
+arm--really and properly ill.
+
+“It must revive and delight her to have Roxana for a sister!” cried
+Pollux; but his pretty companion shook her head and said: “She is always
+so odd; what most delights me is averse to her.”
+
+“Well Selene is of course the moon, and you are the sun.”
+
+“And what are you?” asked Arsinoe.
+
+“I am tall Pollux, and to-night I feel as if I might some day be great
+Pollux.”
+
+“If you succeed I shall grow with you.”
+
+“That will be your right, since it is only through you that I can ever
+succeed in that which I propose to do.
+
+“And how should a simple little thing, such as I am, be able to help an
+artist?”
+
+“By living, and by loving him,” cried the sculptor, lifting her up in
+his arms before she could prevent him.
+
+Outside the garden-gate the old slave-woman was sitting asleep. She had
+learnt from the porter that her young mistress had been admitted with
+her companion, but she herself had been forbidden to enter the grounds.
+A curbstone had served her for a seat, and as she waited her eyes had
+closed, in spite of the increasing noise in the street. Arsinoe did not
+waken her, but asked Pollux, with a roguish laugh:
+
+“We shall find our way alone, shall we not?”
+
+“If Eros does not lead us astray,” answered the artist. And so, as they
+went on their way, they jested and exchanged little tender speeches.
+
+The nearer they got to Lochias and to the main lines of traffic which
+intersected at right angles the Canopic way--the widest and longest road
+in the city--the fuller was the stream of people that flowed onwards in
+the direction in which they were going; but this circumstance favored
+them, for those who wish to be unobserved, when they cannot be
+absolutely alone, have only to mix with the crowd. As they were borne
+towards the focus and centre of the festive doings, they clung closely
+together, she to him, and he to her, so that they might not be torn
+apart by any of the rushing and tumultuous processions of excited
+Thracian women who, faithful to their native usages, came storming by
+with a young bull, on this particular night of the year, that following
+the shortest day. They had hardly gone a hundred paces beyond the
+Moon-street when they heard proceeding from it a wild roving song of
+tipsy jollity, and loud above it the sound of drums and pipes, cymbals
+and noisy shouting, and at the same time in the King’s street, a road
+which crossed the Bruchiom and opened on Lochias, a merry troup came
+towards them.
+
+At their head, among other acquaintances, came Teuker, the gem-cutter,
+the younger brother of Pollux. Crowned with ivy, and flourishing a
+thyrsus he came dancing on, and behind him, leaping and shouting, a
+train of men and women, all excited to the verge of folly, singing,
+hollooing, and dancing.
+
+Garlands of vine, ivy and asphodel fluttered from a hundred heads;
+poplar, lotus, and laurel wreaths overhung their heated brows;
+panther-skins, deer and goatskins hung from their bare shoulders and
+waved in the wind as their bearers hurried onwards. This procession had
+been first formed by some artists and rich youths returning with some
+women from a banquet, with a band of music; every one who met this
+festal party had joined it or had been forced to enlist with it.
+Respectable citizens and their wives, laborers, maid-servants,
+slaves, soldiers and sailors, officers, women flute-players, artisans,
+ship-captains, the whole chorus of a theatre invited by a friend of art,
+excited women who dragged with them a goat that was to be slaughtered
+to Dionysus--none had been able to resist the temptation to join the
+procession. It turned down the Moon-street, keeping to the middle of the
+road which was planted with elms, and had on each side of it a raised
+foot-way, which at this time of night no one used. How clear was the
+sound of the double-pipes, how bravely the girls hit the calf-skin of
+the tambourines with their soft fists, how saucily the wind tossed and
+tangled the dishevelled hair of the riotous women and played with the
+smoke of the torches which were wielded in the air by audacious youths,
+disguised as Pan or as Satyrs, and shouting as they went.
+
+Here a girl, holding her tambourine high in the air, rattled the little
+bells on its hoop, as she flew along, as violently as though she wanted
+to shake the hollow metal balls out of their frame, and send them
+whistling through the air on their own account-there, side by side with
+his comrades, who were excited almost to madness, a handsome lad came
+skipping along in elaborately graceful leaps, but carrying over his arm,
+with comic care, a long bull’s-tail that he had tied on, and blowing
+alternately up and down the short scale from the shortest to the longest
+of the reeds composing his panpipes. Through the noisy crowd as they
+rushed by, sounded, now and again, a loud roar, that might as easily
+have been caused by pain as joy; but it was each time hastily drowned in
+mad laughter, extravagant singing and jubilant music.
+
+Old and young, great and small, all in short that came near this rabble
+train, were carried off with irresistible force to follow it with shouts
+of triumph. Even Pollux and Arsinoe had for some time ceased to walk
+soberly side by side, but moved their feet, laughingly in time to the
+merry measure.
+
+“How nice it sounds,” cried the artist. “I could dance and be merry too
+Arsinoe, dance and make merry with you like a madman!”
+
+Before she could find time to say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ he shouted a loud “To,
+To, Dionysus,” and flung her up in the air. She too was caught by the
+spirit of the thing, and waving her hand above her head she joined in
+his shout of triumph, and let him drag her along to a corner of the
+Moon-street where a seller of garlands offered her wares for sale. There
+she let him wreathe her with ivy, she stuck a laurel wreath on his head,
+twisted a streamer of ivy round his neck and breast, and laughed loudly
+as she flung a large silver coin into the flower-woman’s lap and clung
+tightly to his arm. It was all done in swift haste without reflection,
+as if in a fit of intoxication, and with trembling hands.
+
+The procession was drawing to an end. Six women and girls in wreaths
+closed it, walking arm in arm with loud singing. Pollux drew his
+sweetheart behind this jovial crew, threw his arm around Arsinoe once
+more, while she put hers round him, and then both of them stepped out
+in a brisk dance-step flinging their arms left free, throwing back their
+heads, shouting and singing loudly, and forgetting all that surrounded
+them; they felt as though they were bound to each other by a glory of
+sunbeams, while some god lifted them above the earth and bore them up
+through a realm of delight and joy beyond the myriad stars and through
+the translucent ether; thus they let themselves be led away through the
+Moon-street into the Canopic way and so back to the sea, and as far as
+the temple of Dionysus.
+
+There they paused breathless and it suddenly struck them that he was
+Pollux and she Arsinoe, and that she must get back again to her father
+and the children.
+
+“Come home,” she said softly, and as she spoke she dropped her arm and
+began to gather up her loosened hair.
+
+“Yes, yes,” he said as if in a dream. He released her, struck his hand
+against his brow, and turning to the open cella of the temple he said:
+
+“Long have I known that thou art mighty O Dionysus, and that thou
+O Aphrodite art lovely, and that thou art sweet O Eros! but how
+inestimable your gifts, that I have learnt to-day for the first time.”
+
+“We were indeed full of the deity,” said Arsinoe. “But here comes
+another procession and I must go home.”
+
+“Then let us go by the Little Harbor,” answered Pollux.
+
+“Yes--I must pick the leaves out of my hair and no one will see us
+there.”
+
+“I will help you--”
+
+“No, you are not to touch me,” said Arsinoe decidedly. She grasped her
+abundant soft and shiny hair, and cleared it of the leaves that had got
+entangled in it, as tiny beetles do in a double flower. Finally she hid
+her hair under her veil, which had slipped off her head long since, but,
+almost by a miracle, had caught and remained hanging on the brooch of
+her peplum. Pollux stood looking at her, and overmastered by the passion
+that possessed him, he exclaimed:
+
+“Eternal gods! how I love you! Till now my soul has been like a careless
+child, to-day it is grown to heroic stature.--Wait--only wait, it will
+soon learn to use its weapons.”
+
+“And I will help it in the fight,” she said happily, as she put her hand
+through his arm again, and they hurried back to the old palace, dancing
+rather than walking.
+
+The late December sun was already giving warning of his approaching
+rising by cold yellowish-grey streaks in the sky as Pollux and his
+companion entered the gate, which had long since been opened for the
+workmen. In the hall of the Muses they took a first farewell, in the
+passage leading to the steward’s room, a second--sad and yet most happy;
+but this was but a short one for the gleam of a lamp made them start
+apart, and Arsinoe instantly fled.
+
+The disturber was Antinous who was waiting here for the Emperor who was
+still gazing at the stars from the watch-tower Pontius had erected for
+him. As she vanished he turned to Pollux and said gaily:
+
+“I need your forgiveness for I have disturbed you in an interview with
+your sweetheart.”
+
+“She will be my wife,” said the sculptor proudly.
+
+“So much the better!” replied the favorite, and he drew a deep breath,
+as though the artist’s words had relieved his mind of a burden.
+
+“Ah! so much the better. Can you tell me where to find the fair
+Arsinoe’s sister?”
+
+“To be sure,” replied the artist, and he felt pleased that the young
+Bithynian should cling to his arm. Within the next hour, Pollux, from
+whose lips there flowed a stream of eager and enthusiastic words, like
+water from a spring, had completely won the heart of the Emperor’s
+favorite.
+
+The girl found both her father and Helios, who no longer looked like
+a sick patient--fast asleep. The old slave-woman came in a few minutes
+after her, and when at last, after unbinding her hair, Arsinoe threw
+herself on her bed she fell asleep instantly, and in her dreams found
+herself once more by the side of her Pollux, while they both were flying
+to the sound of drums, flutes, and cymbals high above the dusty ways of
+earth, like leaves swept on by the wind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The steward awoke soon after sunrise. He had slept no less soundly,
+it is true, in his arm-chair than in his bed, but he did not feel
+refreshed, and his limbs ached.
+
+In the living-room everything was in the same disorder as on the
+previous evening, and this annoyed him, for he was accustomed to find
+his room in order when he entered it in the morning. On the table,
+surrounded by flies, stood the remains of the children’s supper,
+and among the bread crusts and plates lay his own ornaments and his
+daughter’s! Wherever he turned he saw articles of dress and other things
+out of their place. The old slave-woman came in yawning, her woolly grey
+hair hung in disorder about her face, and her eyes seemed fixed, her
+feet carried her unsteadily here and there.
+
+“You are drunk,” cried Keraunus; nor was he mistaken, for when the old
+woman had waked up, sitting by the house of Pudeus, and had learned from
+the gate keeper that Arsinoe had quitted the garden, she had gone into a
+tavern with other slave-women. When her master seized her arm and shook
+her, she exclaimed with a stupid grin on her wet lips:
+
+“It is the feast-day. Every one is free, to-day is the feast.”
+
+“Roman nonsense!” interrupted the steward. “Is my breakfast ready?”
+
+While the old woman stood muttering some inaudible words, the slave came
+into the room and said:
+
+“To-day is a general holiday, may I go out too?”
+
+“Oh that would suit me admirably!” cried the steward.
+
+“This monster drunk, Selene sick, and you running about the streets.”
+
+“But no one stops at home to-day,” replied the slave timidly.
+
+“Be off then!” cried Keraunus. “Walk about from now till midnight! Do as
+you please, only do not expect me to keep you any longer. You are still
+fit to turn the hand-mill, and I dare say I can find a fool to give me a
+few drachmae for you.”
+
+“No, no, do not sell me,” groaned the old man, raising his hands in
+entreaty; Keraunus however would not hear him, but went on angrily:
+
+“A dog at least remains faithful to his master, but you slaves eat him
+out of house and home, and when he most needs you, you want to run about
+the streets.”
+
+“But I will stay,” howled the old man.
+
+“Nay, do as you please. You have long been like a lame horse which makes
+its rider a butt for the laughter of children. When, you go out with
+me everyone looks round as if I had a stain on my pallium. And then
+the mangy dog wants to keep holiday, and stick himself up among the
+citizens!”
+
+“I will stay here, only do not sell me!” whimpered the miserable old
+man, and he tried to take his master’s hand; but the steward shoved him
+off, and desired him to go into the kitchen and light a fire, and throw
+some water on the old woman’s head to sober her. The slave pushed his
+companion out of the room, while Keraunus went into his daughter’s
+bedroom to rouse her.
+
+There was no light in Arsinoe’s room but that which could creep in
+through a narrow opening just below the ceiling; the slanting rays fell
+directly on the bed up to which Keraunus went. There lay his daughter
+in sound sleep; her pretty head rested on her uplifted right arm, her
+unbound brown hair flowed like a stream over her soft round shoulders
+and over the edge of the little bed. He had never seen the child look
+so pretty, and the sight of her really touched his heart, for Arsinoe
+reminded him of his lost wife, and it was not vain pride merely, but
+a movement of true paternal love, which involuntarily transformed his
+earnest wish that the gods night leave him this child and let her be
+happy, into an unspoken but fervent prayer.
+
+He was not accustomed to waking his daughter who was always up and busy
+before he was, and he could hardly bear to disturb his darling’s sweet
+sleep; but it had to be done, so he called Arsinoe by her name, shook
+her arm and said, as at last she sat up and looked at him enquiringly:
+
+“It is I, get up, remember what has to be done today.”
+
+“Yes--yes,” she said yawning, “but it is so early yet!”
+
+“Early,” said Keraunus, smiling. “My stomach says the contrary. The sun
+is already high, and I have not yet had my porridge.”
+
+“Make the old woman cook it.”
+
+“No, no, my child--you must get up. Have you forgotten whom you are to
+represent? And my hair is to be curled, and the prefect’s wife, and then
+your dress.”
+
+“Very well--go; I do not care the least bit about Roxana and all the
+dressing-up.”
+
+“Because you are not yet quite awake,” laughed the steward. “How did
+this ivy-leaf get into your hair?” Arsinoe colored, put her hand to the
+spot indicated by her father, and said reluctantly:
+
+“Out of some bough or another, but now go that I may get up.”
+
+“In a minute--tell me how did you find Selene?”
+
+“Not so very bad--but I will tell you all about that afterwards. Now I
+want to be alone.”
+
+When, half an hour later, Arsinoe brought her father his porridge he
+gazed at the child in astonishment. Some extraordinary change seemed
+to have come over his daughter. Something shone in her eyes that he
+had never observed before, and that gave her childlike features an
+importance and significance that almost startled him. While she was
+making the porridge, Keraunus, with the slave’s help, had taken the
+children up and dressed them; now they were all sitting at breakfast;
+Helios among them fresh and blooming. Now, while Arsinoe told her father
+all about Selene, and the nursing she was having at dame Hannah’s hands,
+Keraunus kept his eyes fixed on her, and when she noticed this and asked
+impatiently what there was peculiar in her appearance to-day, he shook
+his head and answered:
+
+“What strange things are girls! A great honor has been done you. You are
+to represent the bride of Alexander, and pride and delight have changed
+you wonder fully in a single night--but I think to your disadvantage.”
+
+“Folly,” said Arsinoe reddening, and stretching herself with fatigue she
+threw herself back on a couch. She did not feel weary exactly, for the
+lassitude she felt in every limb had a peculiar pleasure in it. She felt
+as if she had come out of a hot bath, and since her father had roused
+her she seemed to hear, again and again, the sound of the inspiriting
+music which she had followed arm in arm with Pollux. Now and again she
+smiled, now and again she gazed straight before her, and at the same
+time she said to herself that if at this very moment her lover were to
+ask her, she would not lack strength to fling herself at once, with him,
+once more into the mad whirl. Yes--she felt perfectly fresh! only her
+eyes burned a little; and if Keraunus fancied he saw anything new in
+his daughter it must be the glowing light which now lurked in them along
+with the playful sparkle he had always seen there.
+
+When breakfast was over the slave took the children out, and Arsinoe had
+begun to curl her father’s hair, when Keraunus put on his most dignified
+attitude and said ponderously.
+
+“My child.”
+
+The girl dropped the heated tongs and calmly asked. “Well”--fully
+prepared to hear one of the wonderful propositions which Selene was wont
+to oppose.
+
+“Listen to me attentively.”
+
+Now, what Keraunus was about to say had only occurred to him an hour
+since when he had spoiled his slave’s desire to go out; but as he said
+it he pressed his hand to his forehead assuming the expression of a
+meditative philosopher.
+
+“For a long time I have been considering a very important matter. Now I
+have come to a decision and I will confide it to you. We must buy a new
+manslave.”
+
+“But father!” cried Arsinoe, “think what it will cost you. If we have
+another man to feed--”
+
+“There is no question of that,” replied Keraunus. “I will exchange the
+old one for a younger one that I need not be ashamed to be seen with.
+Yesterday I told you that henceforth we shall attract greater attention
+than hitherto, and really if we appear with that black scarecrow at our
+heels in the streets or elsewhere--”
+
+“Certainly we cannot make much show Sebek,” interrupted Arsinoe, “but we
+can leave him at home for the future.”
+
+“Child, child!” exclaimed Keraunus reproachfully, “will you never
+remember who and what we are. How would it beseem us to appear in the
+streets without a slave?”
+
+The girl shrugged her shoulders, and put it to her father that Sebek was
+an old piece of family property, that the little ones were fond of him
+because he cared for them like a nurse, that a new slave would cost a
+great deal and would only be driven by force to many services which the
+old one was always ready and willing to fulfil.
+
+But Arsinoe preached to deaf ears. Selene was not there; secure from her
+reproaches and as anxious as a spoiled boy for the thing that was denied
+him, Keraunus adhered to his determination to exchange the faithful old
+fellow for a new and more showy slave. Not for a moment did he think of
+the miserable fate that threatened the decrepit creature, who had grown
+old in his house, if he were to sell him; but he still had a feeling
+that it was not quite right to spend the last money that had chanced to
+come into the house, on a thing that really and truly was not in any way
+necessary. The more justifiable Arsinoe’s doubts seemed to be and
+the more loudly did an inward voice warn him not to offer this fresh
+sacrifice to his vain-gloriousness, the more firmly and desperately did
+he defend his wish to do so; and as he fought for the thing he desired,
+it acquired in his eyes a semblance of necessity and a number of reasons
+suggested themselves which made it appear both justifiable and easy of
+attainment.
+
+There was money in hand; after Arsinoe’s being chosen for the part of
+Roxana he might expect to be able to borrow more; it was his duty to
+appear with due dignity that he might not scare off the illustrious
+son-in-law of whom he dreamed, and in the extremity of need he could
+still fall back on his collection of rarities. The only thing was to
+find the right purchaser; for, if the sword of Antony had brought him
+so much, what would not some amateur give him for the other, far more
+valuable, objects.
+
+Arsinoe turned red and white as her father referred again and again to
+the bargain she had made; but she dared not confess the truth, and she
+rued her falsehood all the more bitterly the more clearly she saw with
+her own sound sense, that the Honor which had fallen upon her yesterday,
+threatened to develop all her father’s weaknesses in an absolutely fatal
+manner.
+
+To-day she would have been amply satisfied with pleasing Pollux, and she
+would, without a regret have transferred to another her part with
+all the applause and admiration it would procure her, and which, only
+yesterday, had seemed to her so inestimably precious. This she said; but
+Keraunus would not take the assertion in earnest, laughed in her face,
+went off into mysterious allusions to the wealth which could not fail to
+come into the house and--since an obscure consciousness told him that
+it would be becoming him to prove that it was not solely personal vanity
+and self-esteem that influenced all his proceedings--he explained that
+he had made up his mind to a great sacrifice and would be content on the
+coming occasion to wear his gilt fillet and not buy a pure gold one.
+By this act of self-denial he fancied he had acquired a full right to
+devote a very pretty little sum to the acquisition of a fine-looking
+slave. Arsinoe’s entreaties were unheeded, and when she began to cry
+with grief at the prospect of losing her old house-mate he forbid her
+crossly to shed a tear for such a cause, for it was very childish,
+and he would not be pleased to conduct her with red eyes to meet the
+prefect’s wife.
+
+During the course of this argument his hair had got itself duly curled,
+and he now desired Arsinoe to arrange her own hair nicely and then to
+accompany him.
+
+They would buy a new dress and peplum, go to see Selene, and then be
+carried to the prefect’s.
+
+Only yesterday he had thought it too bold a step to use a litter, and
+to-day he was already considering the propriety of hiring a chariot.
+
+No sooner was he alone than a new idea occurred to him. The insolent
+architect should be taught that he was not the man to be insulted and
+injured with impunity. So he cut a clean strip of papyrus off a letter
+that lay in his chest, and wrote upon it the following words:
+
+“Keraunus, the Macedonian, to Claudius Venator, the architect, of Rome:”
+
+“My eldest daughter, Selene, is by your fault, so severely hurt that she
+is in great danger, is kept to her bed and suffers frightful pain.
+My other children are no longer safe in their father’s house, and I
+therefore require you, once more, to chain up your dog. If you refuse to
+accede to this reasonable demand I will lay the matter before Caesar.
+I can tell you that circumstances have occurred which will determine
+Hadrian to punish any insolent person who may choose to neglect the
+respect due to me and to my daughters.”
+
+When Keraunus had closed this letter with his seal he called the slave
+and said coldly:
+
+“Take this to the Roman architect, and then fetch two litters; make
+haste, and while we are out take good care of the children. To-morrow or
+next day you will be sold. To whom? That must depend on how you behave
+during the last hours that you belong to us.” The negro gave a loud cry
+of grief that came from the depth of his heart, and flung himself on
+the ground at the steward’s feet. His cry did indeed pierce his master’s
+soul--but Keraunus had made up his mind not to let himself be moved nor
+to yield. But the negro clung more closely to his knees, and when the
+children, attracted to the spot by their poor old friend’s lamentation,
+cried loudly in unison, and little Helios began to pat and stroke the
+little remains of the negro’s woolly hair, the vain man felt uneasy
+about the heart, and to protect himself against his own weakness he
+cried out loudly and violently:
+
+“Now, away with you, and do as you are ordered or I will find the whip.”
+
+With these words he tore himself loose from the miserable--old man who
+left the room with his head hanging down, and who soon was standing at
+the door of the Emperor’s rooms with the letter in his hand. Hadrian’s
+appearance and manner had filled him with terror and respect, and he
+dared not knock at the door. After he had waited for some time, still
+with tears in his eyes, Mastor came into the passage with the remains
+of his master’s breakfast. The negro called to him and held out the
+steward’s letter, stammering out lamentably:
+
+“From Keraunus, for you master.”
+
+“Lay it here on the tray,” said the Sarmatian. “But what has happened to
+you, my old friend? you are wailing most pitifully and look miserable.
+Have you been beaten?”
+
+The negro shook his head and answered, whimpering: “Keraunus is going to
+sell me.”
+
+“There are better masters than he.”
+
+“But Sebek is old, Sebek is weak--he can no longer lift and pull, and
+with hard work he will certainly die.”
+
+“Has life been so easy and comfortable then at the steward’s?”
+
+“Very little wine, very little meat, very much hunger,” said the old
+man.
+
+“Then you must be glad to leave him.”
+
+“No, no,” groaned Sebek.
+
+“You foolish old owl,” said Mastor. “Why do you care then for that
+grumpy niggard?”
+
+The negro did not answer for some time, then his lean breast heaved
+and fell, and, as if the dam were broken through that had choked his
+utterance, he burst out with a mixture of loud sobs:
+
+“The children, the little ones, our little ones. They are so sweet;
+and our little blind Helios stroked my hair because I was to go away,
+here--just here he stroked it”--and he put his hand on a perfectly bald
+place--“and now Sebek must go and never see them all again, just as if
+they were all dead.”
+
+And the words rolled out and with difficulty, as if carried on in the
+flood of his tears. They went to Mastor’s heart, rousing the memory
+of his own lost children and a strong desire to comfort his unhappy
+comrade.
+
+“Poor fellow!” he said, compassionately. “Aye, the children! they are so
+small, and the door into one’s heart is so narrow--and they dance in at
+it a thousand times better and more easily than grown-up folks. I, too,
+have lost dear children, and they were my own, too. I can teach any
+one what is meant by sorrow--but I know too now where comfort is to be
+found.” With these words Mastor held the tray he was carrying on his hip
+with his right hand, while he put the left on the negro’s shoulder and
+whispered to him:
+
+“Have you ever heard of the Christians?”
+
+Sebek nodded eagerly as if Mastor were speaking of a matter of which he
+had heard great things and expected much, and Mastor went on in a low
+voice “Come early to-morrow before sunrise to the pavement-workers in
+the ‘court, and there you will hear of One who comforts the weary and
+heavy-laden.”
+
+The Emperor’s servant once more took his tray in both hands and hurried
+away, but a faint gleam of hope had lighted up in the old slave’s eyes.
+He expected no happiness, but perhaps there might be some way of bearing
+the sorrows of life more easily.
+
+Mastor as soon he had given his tray to the kitchen slaves--who were now
+busy again in the palace at Lochias--returned to his lord and gave him
+the steward’s letter. It was an ill-chosen hour for Keraunus, for the
+Emperor was in a gloomy mood. He had sat up till morning, had rested
+scarcely three hours, and now, with knitted brows, was comparing the
+results of his night’s observation of the starry sky with certain
+astronomical tables which lay spread out before him. Over this work he
+frequently shook his head which was covered with crisp waves of
+hair; nay--he once flung the pencil, with which he was working his
+calculations, down on the table, leaned back in his seat and covered his
+eyes with both hands. Then again he began to write fresh numbers, but
+his new results seemed to be no more satisfactory than the former one.
+
+The steward’s letter had been for a long time lying before him when at
+last it again caught his attention as he put out his hand for another
+document. Needing some change of ideas he tore it open, read it and
+flung it from him with annoyance. At any other time he would have
+expressed some sympathy with the suffering girl, have laughed at the
+ridiculous man, and have thought out some trick to tease or to terrify;
+but just now the steward’s threats made him angry and increased his
+dislike for him.
+
+Tired of the silence around him he called to Antinous, who sat gazing
+dreamily down on the harbor; the youth immediately approached his
+master. Hadrian looked at him and said, shaking his head:
+
+“Why you too look as if some danger were threatening you. Is the sky
+altogether overcast?”
+
+“No my lord, it is blue over the sea, but towards the south the black
+clouds are gathering.”
+
+“Towards the south?” said Hadrian thoughtfully. “Any thing serious can
+hardly threaten us from that quarter.--But it comes, it is near, it is
+upon us before we suspect it.”
+
+“You sat up too long, and that has put you out of tune.”
+
+“Out of tune?” muttered Hadrian to himself. “And what is tune? That
+subtle harmony or discord is a condition which masters all the emotions
+of the soul at once; and not without reason--to-day my heart is
+paralyzed with anxiety.”
+
+“Then you have seen evil signs in the heavens?”
+
+“Direful signs!”
+
+“You wise men believe in the stars,” replied Antinous. “No doubt you
+are right, but my weak head cannot understand what their regular courses
+have to do with my inconstant wanderings.”
+
+“Grow gray,” replied the Emperor, “learn to comprehend the universe with
+your intellect, and not till then speak of these things for not till
+then will you discern that every atom of things created, and the
+greatest as well as the least, is in the closest bonds with every other;
+that all work together, and each depends on all. All that is or ever
+will be in nature, all that we men feel, think or do, all is dependent
+on eternal and immutable causes; and these causes have each their Daimon
+who interposes between us and the divinity and is symbolized in golden
+characters on the vault of heaven. The letters are the stars, whose
+orbits are as unchanging and everlasting as are the first causes of all
+that exists or happens.”
+
+“And are you quite sure that you never read wrongly in this great
+record?” asked Antinous.
+
+“Even I may err,” replied Hadrian. “But this time I have not deceived
+myself. A heavy misfortune threatens me. It is a strange, terrible and
+extraordinary coincidence!”
+
+“What?”
+
+“From that accursed Antioch--whence nothing good has ever come to me--I
+have received the saying of an oracle which foretells that, that--why
+should I hide it from you--in the middle of the year now about to begin
+some dreadful misfortune shall fall upon me, as lightning strikes the
+traveller to the earth; and tonight--look here. Here is the house of
+Death, here are the planets--but what do you know of such things? Last
+night--the night in which once before such terrors were wrought, the
+stars confirmed the fatal oracle with as much naked plainness, as much
+unmistakable certainty as if they had tongues to shout the evil forecast
+in my ear. It is hard to walk on with such a goal in prospect. What may
+not the new year bring in its course?”
+
+Hadrian sighed deeply, but Antinous went close up to him, fell on his
+knees before him and asked in a tone of childlike humility:
+
+“May I, a poor foolish lad, teach a great and wise man how to enrich his
+life with six happy months?” The Emperor smiled, as though he knew what
+was coming, but his favorite felt encouraged to proceed.
+
+“Leave the future to the future,” he said. “What must come will come,
+for the gods themselves have no power against Fate. When evil is
+approaching it casts its black shadow before it; you fix your gaze on
+it and let it darken the light of day. I saunter dreamily on my way
+and never see misfortune till it runs up against me and falls upon me
+unawares--”
+
+“And so you are spared many a gloomy day,” interrupted Hadrian.
+
+“That is just what I would have said.”
+
+“And your advice is excellent, for you and for every other loiterer
+through the gay fair-time of an idle life,” replied the Emperor, “but
+the man whose task it is to bear millions in safety and over abysses,
+must watch the signs around him, look out far and near, and never dare
+close his eyes, even when such terrors loom as it was my fate to see
+during the past night.”
+
+As he spoke, Phlegon, the Emperor’s private secretary, came in with
+letters just received from Rome, and approached his master. He bowed
+low, and taking up Hadrian’s last words he said:
+
+“The stars disquiet you, Caesar?”
+
+“Well, they warn me to be on my guard,” replied Hadrian.
+
+“Let us hope that they be,” cried the Greek, with cheerful vivacity.
+“Cicero was not altogether wrong when he doubted the arts of Astrology.”
+
+“He was a mere talker!” said the Emperor, with a frown.
+
+“But,” asked Phlegon, “would it not be fair that if the horoscopes cast
+for Cneius or Caius, let us say, were alike, to expect that Cneius or
+Caius must have the same temperament and the same destiny through life
+if they had happened to be born in the same hour?”
+
+“Always the old commonplaces, the old silly objections!” interrupted
+Hadrian, vexed to the verge of rage. “Speak when you are spoken to, and
+do not trouble yourself about things you do not understand and which do
+not concern you. Is there anything of importance among these papers?”
+
+Antinous gazed at his sovereign in astonishment; why should Phlegon’s
+objections make him so furious when he had answered his so kindly?
+
+Hadrian paid no farther heed to him, but read the despatches one after
+another, hastily but attentively, wrote brief notes on the margins,
+signed a decree with a firm hand, and, when his work was finished
+desired the Greek to leave him. Hardly was he alone with Antinous when
+the loud cries and jovial shouting of a large multitude came to their
+ears through the open window.
+
+“What does this mean?” he asked Mastor, and as soon as he had been
+informed that the workmen and slaves had just been let out to give
+themselves up to the pleasures of their holiday, he muttered to himself:
+
+“These creatures can riot, shout, dress themselves with garlands, forget
+themselves in a debauch--and I, I whom all envy--I spoil my brief
+span of life with vain labors, let myself be tormented with consuming
+cares--I--” here he broke off and cried in quite an altered tone:
+
+“Ha! ha! Antinous, you are wiser than I. Let us leave the future to the
+future. The feast-day is ours too; let us take advantage of this day
+of freedom. We too will throw ourselves into the holiday whirlpool
+disguised, I as a satyr, and you as a young faun or something of the
+kind; we will drain cups, wander round the city and enjoy all that is
+enjoyable.”
+
+“Oh!” exclaimed Antinous, joyfully clapping his hands.
+
+“Evoe Bacche!” cried Hadrian, tossing up his cup that stood on his
+table. “You are free till this evening, Mastor, and you my boy, go and
+talk to Pollux, the sculptor. He shall be our guide and he will provide
+us with wreaths and some mad disguise. I must see drunken men, I must
+laugh with the jolliest before I am Caesar again. Make haste, my friend,
+or new cares will come to spoil my holiday mood.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Antinous and Mastor at once quitted the Emperor’s room; in the corridor
+the lad beckoned the slave to him and said in a low voice:
+
+“You can hold your tongue I know, will you do me a favor?”
+
+“Three sooner than one,” replied the Sarmatian.
+
+“You are free to-day--are you going into the city?”
+
+“I think so.”
+
+“You are not known here, but that does not matter. Take these gold
+pieces and in the flower-market buy with one of them the most beautiful
+bunch of flowers you can find, with another you may make merry, and
+out of the remainder spend a drachma in hiring an ass. The driver will
+conduct you to the garden of Pudeus’ widow where stands the house of
+dame Hannah; you remember the name?”
+
+“Dame Hannah and the widow of Pudeus.”
+
+“And at the little house, not the big one, leave the flowers for the
+sick Selene.”
+
+“The daughter of the fat steward, who was attacked by our big dog?”
+ asked Mastor, curiously.
+
+“She or another,” said Antinous, impatiently, “and when they ask you
+who sent the flowers, say ‘the friend at Lochias,’ nothing more. You
+understand.”
+
+The slave nodded and said to himself: “What! you too-oh! these women.”
+
+Antinous signed to him to be silent, impressed on him in a few hasty
+words that he was to be discreet and to pick out the very choicest
+flowers, and then betook himself into the hall of the Muses to seek
+Pollux. From him he had learnt where to find the suffering Selene, of
+whom he could not help thinking incessantly and wherever he might be. He
+did not find the sculptor in his screened-off nook; prompted by a wish
+to speak to his mother, Pollux had gone down to the gatehouse where
+he was now standing before her and frankly narrating, with many eager
+gestures of his long arms, all that had occurred on the previous night.
+His story flowed on like a song of triumph, and when he described how
+the holiday procession had carried away Arsinoe and himself, the old
+woman jumped up from her chair and clapping her fat little hands, she
+exclaimed:
+
+“Ah! that is pleasure, that is happiness! I remember flying along with
+your father in just the same way thirty years ago.”
+
+“And since thirty years,” Pollux interposed. “I can still remember very
+well how at one of the great Dionysiac festivals, fired by the power
+of the god, you rushed through the streets with a deer-skin over your
+shoulders.”
+
+“That was delightful--lovely!” cried Doris with sparkling eyes. “But
+thirty years since it was all different, very different. I have told you
+before now how I went with our maid-servant into the Canopic way to the
+house of my aunt Archidike to look on at the great procession. I had not
+far to go for we lived near the Theatre, my father was stage-manager and
+yours was one of the chief singers in the chorus. We hurried along, but
+all sorts of people stopped us, and drunken men wanted to joke with me.”
+
+“Ah, you were as sweet as a rose-bud then,” her son interrupted.
+
+“As a rose-bud, yes, but not like your lovely rose,” said the old woman.
+“At any rate I looked nice enough for the men in disguise--fauns and
+satyrs and were the cynic hypocrites in their ragged cloaks, to think
+it worth while to look at me and to take a rap on the knuckles when they
+tried to put an arm round me or to steal a kiss, I did not care for
+the handsomest of them, for Euphorion had done for me with his fiery
+glances--not with words for I was very strictly kept and he had never
+been able to get a chance to speak to me. At the corner of the Canopic
+way and the Market street we could get no farther, for the crowd had
+blocked the way and were howling and storming as they stared at a party
+of Klodones and other Maenads, who in their sacred fury were tearing
+a goat to pieces with their teeth. I shuddered at the spectacle, but I
+must need stare with the rest and shout and halloo as they did. My maid,
+who I held on to tightly, was seized with the frenzy and dragged me into
+the middle of the circle close up to the bleeding sacrifice. Two of the
+possessed women sprang upon us, and I felt one clasping me tightly and
+trying to throw me down. It was a horrible moment but I defended myself
+bravely and had succeeded in keeping on my feet when your father sprang
+forward, set me free and led me away. What happened after I could not
+tell you now; it was one of those wild happy dreams in which you must
+hold your heart with both hands for fear it should crack with joy, or
+fly out and away up to the sky and in the very eye of the sun. Late in
+the evening I got home and a week after I was Euphorion’s wife.”
+
+“We have exactly followed your example,” said Pollux, “and if Arsinoe
+grows to be like my dear old woman I shall be quite satisfied.”
+
+“Happy and contented,” replied Doris. “Keep you health, snap your
+fingers at care and sorrow, do your duty on work-days and drink till you
+are jolly in honor of the god on holidays, and then all will be well.
+Those who do all they are able and enjoy as much as they can get, make
+good use of their lives and need feel no remorse in their last hours.
+What is past is done for, and when Atropos cuts our thread some one else
+will stand in our place and joys will begin all over again. May the gods
+bless you!”
+
+“You are right,” said Pollux embracing his mother, “and two together
+can turn the work out of hand more lightly and enjoy the pleasures of
+existence better than each alone--can they not?”
+
+“I am sure of it; and you have chosen the right mate,” cried the old
+woman. “You are a sculptor and used to simple things; you need no
+riches, only a sweet face which may every day rejoice your heart, and
+that you have found.”
+
+“There is nowhere a sweeter or a lovelier,” said Pollux.
+
+“No, that there is not,” continued Doris. “First I cast my eyes on
+Selene. She need not be ashamed to show herself either, and she is a
+pattern for girls; but then as Arsinoe grew older, whenever she passed
+this way I thought to myself: ‘that girl is growing up for my boy,’ and
+now that you have won her I feel as if I were once more as young as your
+sweetheart herself. My old heart beats as happily as if the little Loves
+were touching it with their wings and rosy fingers. If my feet had
+not grown so heavy with constantly standing over the hearth and at
+washing--really and truly I could take Euphorion by the arm and dance
+through the streets with him to-day.”
+
+“Where is father?”
+
+“Out singing.”
+
+“In the morning! where?”
+
+“There is some sect that are celebrating their mysteries. They pay well
+and he had to sing dismal hymns for them behind a curtain; the wildest
+stuff, in which he does not follow a word, and that I do not understand
+a half of.”
+
+“It is a pity for I wanted to speak to him.”
+
+“He will not be back till late.”
+
+“There is plenty of time.”
+
+“So much the better, otherwise I might have told him what you had to
+say.”
+
+“Your advice is as good as his. I think of giving up working under
+Papias and standing on my own feet.”
+
+“You are quite right; the Roman architect told me yesterday that a great
+future was open to you.”
+
+“There are only my poor sister and the children to be considered. If,
+during the first few months I should find myself falling short--”
+
+“We will manage to pull through. It is high time that you yourself
+should reap from what you sow.”
+
+“So it seems to me, for my own sake and Arsinoe’s; if only Keraunus--”
+
+“Aye--there will be a battle to fight with him.”
+
+“A hard one, a hard one,” sighed Pollux.
+
+“The thought of the old man troubles my happiness.”
+
+“Folly!” cried Doris. “Avoid all useless anxiety. It is almost as
+injurious as remorse gnawing at your heart. Take a workshop of your own,
+do some great work in a joyful spirit, something to astonish the world,
+and I will wager anything that the old fool of a steward will only
+be vexed to think that he destroyed the first work of the celebrated
+Pollux, instead of treasuring it in his cabinet of curiosities.
+Just imagine that no such person exists in the world and enjoy your
+happiness.”
+
+“I will stick to that.”
+
+“One thing more my lad: take good care of Arsinoe. She is young and
+inexperienced and you must not persuade her to do anything you would
+advise her not to do if she were betrothed to your brother instead of to
+yourself.”
+
+Doris had not done speaking when Antinous came into the gate-house and
+delivered the commands of the architect Claudius Venator, to escort him
+through the city. Pollux hesitated with his answer, for he had still
+much to do in the palace, and he hoped to see Arsinoe again in the
+course of the day. After such a morning what could noon and evening be
+to him without her? Dame Doris noticed his indecision and cried:
+
+“Yes, go; the festival is for pleasure, besides, the architect can
+perhaps advise you on many points, and recommend you to his friends.”
+
+“Your mother is right,” said Antinous. “Claudius Venator can be very
+touchy, but he can also be grateful, and I wish you sincerely well--”
+
+“Good then, I will come,” Pollux interposed while the Bithynian was
+still speaking, for he felt himself strongly attracted by Hadrian’s
+imposing personality and considered that under the circumstances, it
+might be very desirable to revel with him for a while.
+
+“I will come, but first I must let Pontius know that I am going to fly
+from the heat of the fray for a few hours to-day.”
+
+“Leave that to Venator,” replied the favorite, “and you must find some
+amusing disguise and procure masks for him and for me and, if you like,
+for yourself too. He wants to join the revel as a satyr and I in some
+other disguise.”
+
+“Good,” replied the sculptor. “I will go at once and order what is
+requisite. A quantity of dresses for the Dionysiac processions are lying
+in our workshop and in half an hour I will be back with the things.”
+
+“But pray make haste,” Antinous begged him. “My master cannot bear to be
+kept waiting, and besides--one thing--”
+
+At these words Antinous had grown embarrassed and had gone quite close
+up to the artist. He laid his hand on his shoulder and said in a low
+voice but impressively:
+
+“Venator stands very near to Caesar. Beware of saying anything before
+him that is not in Hadrian’s favor.”
+
+“Is your master Caesar’s spy?” asked Pollux, looking suspiciously at
+Antinous. “Pontius has already, given me a similar warning, and if that
+is the case--”
+
+“No, no,” interrupted the lad hastily.
+
+“Anything but that; but the two have no secrets from each other and
+Venator talks a good deal--cannot hold his tongue--”
+
+“I thank you and will be on my guard.”
+
+“Aye do so--I mean it honestly.” The Bithynian held out his hand to the
+artist with an expression of warm regard on his handsome features and
+with an indescribably graceful gesture. Pollux took it heartily, but
+dame Doris, whose old eyes had been fixed as if spellbound on Antinous,
+seized her son’s arm and quite excited by the sight of his beauty cried
+out:
+
+“Oh! what a splendid creature! moulded by the gods! sacred to the gods!
+Pollux, boy! you might almost think one of the immortals had come down
+to earth.”
+
+“Look at my old woman!” exclaimed Pollux laughing, “but in truth friend,
+she has good reasons for her ecstasies, I could follow her example.”
+
+“Hold him fast, hold him fast!” cried Doris. “If he only will let you
+take his likeness you can show the world a thing worth seeing.”
+
+“Will you?” interrupted Pollux turning to Hadrian’s favorite.
+
+“I have never yet been able to keep still for any artist,” said
+Antinous. “But I will do any thing you wish to please you. It only vexes
+me that you too should join in the chorus with the rest of the world.
+Farewell for the present, I must go back to my master.”
+
+As soon as the youth had left the house Doris exclaimed:
+
+“Whether a work of art is good for any thing or not I can only guess at,
+but as to what is beautiful that I know as well as any other woman
+in Alexandria. If that boy will stand as your model you will produce
+something that will delight men and turn the heads of the women, and you
+will be sought after even in a workshop of your own. Eternal gods! such
+beauty as that is sublime. Why are there no means of preserving such a
+face and such a form from old age and wrinkles?”
+
+“I know the means, mother,” said Pollux, as he went to the door. “It is
+called Art: to her it is given to bestow eternal youth on this mortal
+Adonis.”
+
+The old woman glanced at her son with pardonable pride, and confirmed
+his words by an assenting nod. While she fed her birds, with many
+coaxing words, and made one which was a special favorite pick crumbs
+from her lips, the young sculptor was hurrying through the streets with
+long steps.
+
+He was greeted as he went with many a cross word, and many exclamations
+rose from the crowd he left behind him, for he pushed his way by the
+weight of his tall person and his powerful arms, and saw and heard,
+as he went, little enough of what was going around him. He thought of
+Arsinoe, and between whiles of Antinous and of the attitude in which he
+best might represent him--whether as hero or god.
+
+In the flower-market, near the Gymnasium, he was for a moment roused
+from his reverie by a picture which struck him as being unusual and
+which riveted his gaze, as did every thing exceptional that came under
+his eyes. On a very small dark-colored donkey sat a tall, well-dressed
+slave, who held in his right hand a nosegay of extraordinary size and
+beauty. By his side walked a smartly dressed-up man with a splendid
+wreath, and a comic mask over his face followed by two garden-gods of
+gigantic stature, and four graceful boys. In the slave, Pollux at once
+recognized the servant of Claudius Venator, and he fancied he must have
+seen the masked gentlemen too before now, but he could not remember
+where, and did not trouble himself to retrace him in his mind. At any
+rate, the rider of the donkey had just heard something he did not like,
+for he was looking anxiously at his bunch of flowers.
+
+After Pollux had hurried past this strange party his thoughts reverted
+to other, and to him far nearer and dearer subjects. But Mastor’s
+anxious looks were not without a cause, for the gentleman who was
+talking to him was no less a person than Verus, the praetor, who was
+called by the Alexandrians the sham Eros. He had seen the Emperor’s
+body-slave a hundred times about his person; he therefore recognized
+him at once, and his presence here in Alexandria led him directly to the
+simple and correct inference that his master too must be in the city.
+The praetor’s curiosity was roused, and he at once proceeded to ply
+the poor fellow with bewildering cross-questions. When the donkey-rider
+shortly and sharply refused to answer, Verus thought it well to reveal
+himself to him, and the slave lost his confident demeanor when he
+recognized the grand gentleman, the Emperor’s particular friend.
+
+He lost himself in contradictory statements, and although he did not
+directly admit it, he left his interrogator in the certainty that
+Hadrian was in Alexandria.
+
+It was perfectly evident that the beautiful nosegay, which had attracted
+the praetor’s attention to Mastor could not belong to himself. What
+could be its destination? Verus recommenced his questioning, but the
+Sarmatian would betray nothing, till Verus tapped him lightly first on
+one cheek and then on the other, and said gaily:
+
+“Mastor, my worthy friend Mastor, listen to me. I will make you certain
+proposals, and you shall nod your head, towards that of the estimable
+beast with two pairs of legs on which you are mounted, as soon as one of
+them takes your fancy.”
+
+“Let me go on my way,” the slave implored, with growing anxiety.
+
+“Go, by all means, but I go with you,” retorted Verus, “until I have hit
+on the thing that suits you. A great many plans dwell in my head, as you
+will see. First I must ask you, shall I go to your master and tell him
+that you have betrayed his presence in Alexandria?”
+
+“Sir, you will never do that!” cried Mastor.
+
+“To proceed then. Shall I and my following hang on to your skirts and
+stay with you till nightfall, when you and your steed must return home?
+You decline--with thanks! and very wisely, for the execution of this
+project would be equally unpleasant to you and to me, and would probably
+get you punished. Whisper to me then, softly, in my ear, where your
+master is lodging, and from whom and to whom you are carrying those
+flowers; as soon as you have agreed to that proposal I will let you go
+on alone, and will show you that I care no more for my gold pieces here,
+in Alexandria, than I do in Italy.”
+
+“Not gold--certainly I will not take gold!” cried Mastor.
+
+“You are an honest fellow,” replied Verus in an altered tone, “and you
+know of me that I treat my servants well and would rather be kind to
+folks than hard upon them. So satisfy my curiosity without any fear, and
+I will promise you in return, that not a soul, your master least of all,
+shall ever know from me what you tell me.” Mastor hesitated a little,
+but as he could not but own to himself that he would be obliged at last
+to yield to the stronger will of this imperious man, and as moreover
+he knew that the haughty and extravagant praetor was in fact one of the
+kindest of masters, he sighed deeply and whispered:
+
+“You will not be the ruin of a poor wretch like me, that I know, so I
+will tell you, we are living at Lochias.”
+
+“There,” exclaimed Verus clapping his hands. “And now as to the
+flowers?”
+
+“Mere trifling.”
+
+“Is Hadrian then in a merry mood?”
+
+“Till to-day he was very gay--but since last night--”
+
+“Well?”
+
+“You know yourself what he is when he has seen lead signs in the sky.”
+
+“Bad signs,” said Verus gravely.
+
+“And yet he sends flowers?”
+
+“Not he, can you not guess?”
+
+“Antinous?”
+
+Mastor nodded assent.
+
+“Only think,” laughed Verus. “Then he too is beginning to think it
+better worth while to admire than to be admired. And who is the fair one
+who has succeeded in waking up his slumbering heart?”
+
+“Nay--I promised him not to chatter.”
+
+“And I promise you the same. My powers of reserve are far greater than
+my curiosity even.”
+
+“Be content, I beseech you with what you already know.”
+
+“But to know half is less endurable than to know nothing.”
+
+“Nay--I cannot tell you.”
+
+“Then am I to begin with fresh suggestions, and all over again?”
+
+“Oh! my lord. I beg you, entreat you--”
+
+“Out with the word, and I go on my way, but if you persist in
+refusing--”
+
+“Really and truly it only concerns a white-faced girl whom you would not
+even look at.”
+
+“A girl-indeed!”
+
+“Our big dog threw the poor thing down.”
+
+“In the street?”
+
+“No, at Lochias. Her father is Keraunus the palace-steward.”
+
+“And her name is Arsinoe?” asked Verus with undisguised concern, for he
+had a pleasant recollection of the beautiful child who had been selected
+to fill the part of Roxana.
+
+“No, her name is Selene, Arsinoe indeed is her younger sister.”
+
+“Then you bring these flowers from Lochias?”
+
+“She went out, and she could not get back home again, she is now lying
+in the house of a stranger.”
+
+“Where?”
+
+“That must be quite indifferent to you--”
+
+“By no means, quite the contrary. I beg you to tell me the whole truth.”
+
+“Eternal gods! what can you care about the poor sick creature?”
+
+“Nothing whatever; but I must know whither you are riding.”
+
+“Down by the sea. I do not know the house, but the donkey driver--”
+
+“Is it far from here?”
+
+“About half an hour yet,” said the lad.
+
+“A good way then,” replied Verus. “And Hadrian is particularly anxious
+to remain unknown.”
+
+“Certainly.”
+
+“And you his body-servant, who are known to numbers of others here from
+Rome, like myself, you propose to ride half a mile through the streets
+where every creature that can stand or walk is swarming, with a large
+nosegay in your hand which attracts every body’s attention. Oh Mastor
+that is not wise!”
+
+The slave started, and seeing at once that Verus was right, he asked in
+alarm:
+
+“What then can I do?”
+
+“Get off your donkey,” said the praetor. “Disguise yourself and make
+merry to your heart’s content with these gold pieces.”
+
+“And the flowers?”
+
+“I will see to that.”
+
+“You will? I may trust you; and never betray to Antinous what you
+compelled me to do?”
+
+“Positively not.”
+
+“There--there are the flowers, but I cannot take the gold.”
+
+“Then I shall fling it among the crowd. Buy yourself a garland, a mask
+and some wine, as much as you can carry. Where is the girl to be found?”
+
+“At dame Hannah’s. She lives in a little house in a garden belonging to
+the widow of Pudeus. And whoever gives it to her is to say that it is
+sent by the friend at Lochias.”
+
+“Good. Now go, and take care that no one recognizes you. Your secret is
+mine, and the friend at Lochias shall be duly mentioned.”
+
+Mastor disappeared in the crowd. Verus put the nosegay into the hands of
+one of the garden-gods that followed in his train, sprang laughing on
+to the ass, and desired the driver to show him the way. At the corner of
+the next street, he met two litters, carried with difficulty through the
+crowd by their bearers. In the first sat Keraunus, whose saffron-colored
+cloak was conspicuous from afar, as fat as Silenus the companion of
+Dionysus, but looking very sullen. In the second sat Arsinoe, looking
+gaily about her, and so fresh and pretty that the Roman’s easily-stirred
+pulses beat more rapidly.
+
+Without reflecting, he took the flowers from the hand of the
+garden-god--the flowers intended for Selene--laid them on the girl’s
+litter, and said:
+
+“Alexander greets Roxana, the fairest of the fair.” Arsinoe colored,
+and Verus, after watching her for some time as she was carried onwards,
+desired one of his boys to follow her litter, and to join him again in
+the flower-market, where he would wait, to inform him whither she had
+gone.
+
+The messenger hurried off, and Verus, turning his ass’s head soon
+reached a semicircular pillared hall on the shady side of a large open
+space, under which the better sort of gardeners and flower dealers
+of the city exposed their gay and fragrant wares to be sold by pretty
+girls. To-day every stall had been particularly well supplied, but the
+demand for wreaths and flowers had steadily increased from an early
+hour, and although Verus had all that he could find of fresh flowers
+arranged and tied together, still the nosegay, though much larger, was
+not half so beautiful as that intended for Selene, and for which he
+substituted it.
+
+Now this annoyed the Roman. His sense of justice prompted him to make
+good the loss he had inflicted on the sick girl. Gay ribbons were wound
+round the stalks of the flowers, and the long ends floated in the air,
+so Verus took a brooch from his dress and stuck it into the bow which
+ornamented the stem of the nosegay; then he was satisfied, and as he
+looked at the stone set in a gold border--an onyx on which was engraved
+Eros sharpening his arrows--he pictured to himself the pleasure, the
+delight of the girl that the handsome Bithynian loved, as she received
+the beautiful gift.
+
+His slaves, natives of Britain, who were dressed as garden-gods, were
+charged with the commission to proceed to dame Hannah’s under the
+guidance of the donkey-driver to deliver the nosegay to Selene from
+‘the friend at Lochias,’ and then to wait for him outside the house
+of Titianus, the prefect; for thither, as he had ascertained from his
+swift-footed messenger, had Keraunus and his daughter been carried.
+
+Verus needed a longer time than the boy, to make his way through the
+crowd. At the door of the prefect’s residence he laid aside his mask,
+and in an anteroom where the steward was sitting on a couch waiting for
+his daughter, he arranged his hair and the folds of his toga, and was
+then conducted to the lady Julia with whom he hoped, once more, to see
+the charming Arsinoe.
+
+But in the reception-room, instead of Arsinoe he found his own wife and
+the poetess Balbilla and her companion. He greeted the ladies gaily,
+amiably and gracefully, as usual, and then, as he looked enquiringly
+round the large room without concealing his disappointment, Balbilla
+came up to him and asked him in a low voice:
+
+“Can you be honest, Verus?”
+
+“When circumstances allow it, yes.”
+
+“And will they allow it here?”
+
+“I should suppose so.”
+
+“Then answer me truly. Did you come here for Julia’s sake, or did you
+come--”
+
+“Well?”
+
+“Or did you expect to find the fair Roxana with the prefect’s wife?”
+
+“Roxana?” asked Verus, with a cunning smile. “Roxana! Why she was the
+wife of Alexander the Great, and is long since dead, but I care only
+for the living, and when I left the merry tumult in the streets it was
+simply and solely--”
+
+“You excite my curiosity.”
+
+“Because my prophetic heart promised me, fairest Balbilla, that I should
+find you here.”
+
+“And that you call honest!” cried the poetess, hitting the praetor a
+blow with the stick of the ostrich-feather fan she held in her hand.
+“Only listen, Lucilla, your husband declares he came here for my sake.”
+ The praetor looked reproachfully at the speaker, but she whispered:
+
+“Due punishment for a dishonest man.” Then, raising her voice, she said:
+
+“Do you know, Lucilla, that if I remain unmarried, your husband is not
+wholly innocent in the matter.”
+
+“Alas! yes, I was born too late for you,” interrupted Verus, who knew
+very well what the poetess was about to say.
+
+“Nay--no misunderstanding!” cried Balbilla. “For how can a woman venture
+upon wedlock when she cannot but fear the possibility of getting such a
+husband as Verus.”
+
+“And what man,” retorted the praetor, “would ever be so bold as to court
+Balbilla, could he hear how cruelly she judges an innocent admirer of
+beauty?”
+
+“A husband ought not to admire beauty--only the one beauty who is his
+wife.”
+
+“Ah Vestal maiden,” laughed Verus. “I am meanwhile punishing you by
+withholding from you a great secret which interests us all. No, no, I am
+not going to tell--but I beg you my lady wife to take her to task, and
+teach her to exercise some indulgence so that her future husband may not
+have too hard a time of it.”
+
+“No woman can learn to be indulgent,” replied Lucilla. “Still we
+practise indulgence when we have no alternative, and the criminal
+requires us to make allowance for him in this thing or the other.”
+
+Verus made his wife a bow and pressed his lips on her arm, then he
+asked. “And where is dame Julia?”
+
+“She is saving the sheep from the wolf,” replied Balbilla.
+
+“Which means--?”
+
+“That as soon as you were announced she carried off little Roxana to a
+place of safety.”
+
+“No, no,” interrupted Lucilla. “The tailor was waiting in an inner room
+to arrange the charming child’s costume. Only look at the lovely nosegay
+she brought to Julia. And do you deny my right to share your secret?”
+
+“How could I?” replied Verus.
+
+“He is very much in need of your making allowances!” laughed Balbilla,
+while the praetor went up to, his wife and told her in a whisper what he
+had learnt from Mastor. Lucilla clasped her hands in astonishment, and
+Verus cried to the poetess:
+
+“Now you see what a satisfaction your cruel tongue has deprived you of?”
+
+“How can you be so revengeful most estimable Verus,” said the lady
+coaxingly. “I am dying of curiosity.”
+
+“Live but a few days longer fair Balbilla, for my sake,” replied the
+Roman, “and the cause of your early death will be removed.”
+
+“Only wait, I will be revenged!” cried the girl threatening him with her
+finger, but Lucilla led her away saying:
+
+“Come now, it is time we should give Julia the benefit of our advice.”
+
+“Do so,” said Verus. “Otherwise I am afraid my visit to-day would seem
+opportune to no one.--Greet Julia from me.”
+
+As he went away he cast a glance at the nosegay which Arsinoe had given
+away as soon as she had received it from him, and he sighed: “As we grow
+old we have to learn wisdom.”
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 2.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Dame Hannah had watched by Selene till sunrise and indefatigably cooled
+both her injured foot and the wound in her head. The old physician was
+not dissatisfied with the condition of his patient, but ordered the
+widow to lie down for a time and to leave the care of her for a few
+hours to her young friend. When Mary was alone with the sick girl and
+had laid the fresh cold handkerchief in its place, Selene turned her
+face towards her and said:
+
+“Then you were at Lochias yesterday. Tell me how you found them all
+there. Who guided you to our lodgings and did you see my little brother
+and sisters?”
+
+“You are not yet quite free of fever, and I do not know how much I ought
+to talk to you--but I would with all my heart.”
+
+The words were spoken kindly and there was a deep loving light in the
+eyes of the deformed girl as she said them. Selene excited not merely
+her sympathy and pity, but her admiration too, for she was so beautiful,
+so totally different from herself, and in every little service she
+rendered her, she felt like some despised beggar whom a prince might
+have permitted to wait upon him. Her hump had never seemed to her so
+bent, nor her brown skin so ugly at any other time as it did to-day,
+when side by side with this symmetrical and delicate girlish form,
+rounded to such tender contours.
+
+But Mary felt not the smallest movement of envy. She only felt happy to
+help Selene, to serve her, to be allowed to gaze at her although she was
+a heathen. During the night too, she had prayed fervently that the Lord
+might graciously draw to himself this lovely, gentle creature, that He
+might permit her to recover, and fill her soul with the same love for
+the Saviour that gave joy to her own. More than once she had longed to
+kiss her, but she dared not, for it seemed to her as though the sick
+girl were made of finer stuff than she herself.
+
+Selene felt tired, very tired, and as the pain diminished, a comfortable
+sense stole over her of peace and respite in the silent and loving
+homeliness of her surroundings; a feeling that was new and very
+soothing, though it was interrupted, now and again, by her anxiety for
+those at home. Dame Hannah’s presence did her good, for she fancied
+she recognized in her voice something that had been peculiar to her
+mother’s, when she had played with her and pressed her with special
+affection to her heart.
+
+In the papyrus factory, at the gumming-table, the sight of the little
+hunchback had disgusted Selene, but here she observed what good eyes
+she had, and how kind a voice, and the care with which Mary lifted the
+compress from her foot--as softly, as if in her own hands she felt the
+pain that Selene was suffering--and then laid another on the broken
+ankle, aroused her gratitude. Her sister Arsinoe was a vain and thorough
+Alexandrian girl, and she had nicknamed the poor thing after the ugliest
+of the Hellenes who had besieged Troy. “Dame Thersites,” and Selene
+herself had often repeated it. Now she forgot the insulting name
+altogether, and met the objections of her nurse by saying:
+
+“The fever cannot be much now; if you tell me something I shall not
+think so constantly of this atrocious pain. I am longing to be at home.
+Did you see the children?”
+
+“No, Selene. I went no farther than the entrance of your dwelling, and
+the kind gate-keeper’s wife told me at once that I should find neither
+your father nor your sister, and that your slave-woman was gone out to
+buy cakes for the children.”
+
+“To buy them!” exclaimed Selene in astonishment. “The old woman told me
+too that the way to your apartments led through several rooms in which
+slaves were at work, and that her son, who happened to be with her,
+should accompany me, and so he did, but the door was locked, and he
+told me I might entrust his mother with my commission. I did so, for she
+looked as if she were both judicious and kind.”
+
+“That she is.”
+
+“And she is very fond of you, for when I told her of your sufferings the
+bright tears rolled down her cheeks, and she praised you as warmly, and
+was as much troubled as if you had been her own daughter.”
+
+“You said nothing about our working in the factory?” asked Selene
+anxiously.
+
+“Certainly not, you had desired me not to mention it. I was to say
+everything that was kind to you from the old lady.”
+
+For several minutes the two girls were silent, then Selene asked:
+
+“Did the gate-keeper’s son who accompanied you also hear of the disaster
+that had befallen me?
+
+“Yes, on the way to your rooms he was full of fun and jokes, but when I
+told him that you had gone out with your damaged foot and now could not
+get home again, and were being treated by the leech, he was very angry
+and used blasphemous language.”
+
+“Can you remember what he said?”
+
+“Not perfectly, but one thing I still recollect. He accused his gods of
+having created a beautiful work only to spoil it, nay he abused them”
+ Mary looked down as she spoke, as if she were repeating something ill to
+tell, but Selene colored slightly with pleasure, and exclaimed eagerly,
+as if to outdo the sculptor in abuse:
+
+“He is quite right, the powers above act in such a way--”
+
+“That is not right,” said the deformed girl reprovingly.
+
+“What?” asked the patient. “Here you live quietly to yourselves in
+perfect peace and love. Many a word that I heard dame Hannah say has
+stuck in my mind, and I can see for myself that you act as kindly as you
+speak. The gods no doubt are good to you!”
+
+“God is for each and all.”
+
+“What!” exclaimed Selene with flashing eyes. “For those whose every
+pleasure they destroy? For the home of eight children whom they rob of
+their mother? For the poor whom they daily threaten to deprive of their
+bread-winner?”
+
+“For them too, there is a merciful God,” interrupted dame Hannah who had
+just come into the room. “I will lead you to the loving Father in Heaven
+who cares for us all as if we were His children; but not now--you must
+rest and neither talk nor hear of anything that can excite your fevered
+blood. Now I will rearrange the pillow under your head. Mary will wet a
+fresh compress and then you must try to sleep.”
+
+“I cannot,” replied Selene, while Hannah shook her pillows and arranged
+them carefully. “Tell me about your God who loves us.”
+
+“By-and-bye, dear child. Seek Him and you will find Him, for of all His
+children He loves them best who suffer.”
+
+“Those who suffer?” asked Selene, in surprise. “What has a God in his
+Olympian joys to do with those who suffer?”
+
+“Be quiet, child,” interrupted Hannah, patting the sick girl with a
+soothing hand, “you soon will learn how God takes care of you and that
+Another loves you.”
+
+“Another,” muttered Selene, and her cheeks turned crimson.
+
+She thought at once of Pollux, and asked herself why the story of her
+sufferings should have moved him so deeply if he were not in love with
+her. Then she began to seek some colorable ground for what she had heard
+as she went past the screen behind which he had been working. He had
+never told her plainly that he loved her. Why should he, an artist and a
+bright, high spirited young fellow, not be allowed to jest with a pretty
+girl, even if his heart belonged to another. No, she was not indifferent
+to him: that she had felt that night when she had stood as his model,
+and now--as she thought--I could guess, nay, feel sure of, from Mary’s
+story.
+
+The longer she thought of him, the more she began to long to see him
+whom she had loved so dearly even as a child. Her heart had never yet
+beat for any other man, but since she had met Pollux again in the hall
+of the Muses, his image had filled her whole soul, and what she now felt
+must be love--could be nothing else. Half awake, but half asleep, she
+pictured him to herself, entering this quiet room, sitting down by the
+head of her couch, and looking with his kind eyes into hers. Ah! and how
+could she help it--she sat up and opened her arms to him.
+
+“Be still, my child, he still,” said Hannah. “It is not good for you to
+move about so much.”
+
+Selene opened her eyes, but only to close them again and to dream for
+some time longer till she was startled from her rest by loud voices in
+the garden. Hannah left the room, and her voice presently mingled with
+those of the other persons outside, and when she returned her cheeks
+were flushed and she could not find fitting words in which to tell her
+patient what she had to say.
+
+“A very big man, in the most outrageous dress,” she said at last,
+“wanted to be let in; when the gatekeeper refused, he forced his way in.
+He asked for you.”
+
+“For me,” said Selene, blushing.
+
+“Yes, my child, he brought a large and beautiful nosegay of flowers, and
+said ‘your friend at Lochias sends you his greeting.’”
+
+“My friend at Lochias?” murmured thoughtfully Selene to herself. Then
+her eyes sparkled with gladness, and she asked quickly:
+
+“You said the man who brought the flowers was very tall.”
+
+“He was.”
+
+“Oh please, dame Hannah, let me see the flowers?” cried Selene, trying
+to raise herself.
+
+“Have you a lover, child?” asked the widow.
+
+“A lover?--no, but there is a young man with whom we always used to play
+when we were quite little--an artist, a kind, good man--and the nosegay
+must be from him.”
+
+Hannah looked with sympathy at the girl, and signing to Mary she said:
+
+“The nosegay is a very large one. You may see it, but it must not remain
+in the room; the smell of so many flowers might do you harm.”
+
+Mary rose from her seat at the head of the bed, and whispered to the
+sick girl:
+
+“Is that the tall gate-keeper’s son?” Selene nodded, smiling, and as
+the women went away she changed her position from lying on one side,
+stretched herself out on her back, pressed her hand to her heart, and
+looked upwards with a deep sigh. There was a singing in her ears, and
+flashes of colored light seemed to dance before her closed eyes. She
+drew her breath with difficulty, but still it seemed as though the air
+she drew in was full of the perfume of flowers.
+
+Hannah and Mary carried in the enormous bunch of flowers. Selene’s eyes
+shone more brightly, and she clasped her hands in admiration. Then she
+made them show her the lovely, richly-tinted and fragrant gift, first
+on one side and then on the other, buried her face in the flowers, and
+secretly kissed the delicate petals of a lovely, half-opened rose-bud.
+She felt as if intoxicated, and the bright tears flowed in slow
+succession down her cheeks. Mary was the first to detect the brooch
+stuck into the ribbons that tied the stems of the flowers. She
+unfastened it and showed it to Selene, who hastily took it out of her
+hand. Blushing deeper and deeper, she fixed her eyes on the intaglio
+carved on the stone of the love god sharpening his arrows. She felt
+her pain no more pain, she felt quite well, and at the same time glad,
+proud, too happy. Dame Hannah noted her excitement with much anxiety;
+she nodded to Mary and said:
+
+“Now my daughter, this must do; we will place the flowers outside the
+window so that you may see them.”
+
+“Already,” said Selene, in a regretful tone, and she broke off a few
+violets and roses from the crowded mass. When she was alone again, she
+laid the flowers down and once more tenderly contemplated the figures on
+the handsome gem. It had no doubt been engraved by Teuker, the brother
+of Pollux. How fine the carving was, how significant the choice of the
+subject represented! Only the heavy gold setting disturbed the poor
+child, who for so many years had had to stint and contrive with her
+money. She said to herself that it was wrong of the young fellow, who,
+besides being poor, had to support his sister, to rush into such an
+outlay for her. But his gift gave her none the less pleasure, out of her
+own possessions nothing would have seemed too precious to give him. She
+would teach him to be saving by-and-bye.
+
+The women presently returned after they had with much trouble set up
+the nosegay outside the window, and they renewed the wet handkerchief
+without speaking. She did not in the least want to talk, she was
+listening with so much pleasure to the fair promises which her fancy
+was making, and wherever she turned her eyes they fell on something she
+could love, The flowers on her bed, the brooch in her hand, the nosegay
+outside the window, and never dreaming that another--not the man she
+loved--could have sent it to her, another for whom she cared even less
+than for the Christians who walked up and down in Paulina’s garden,
+under her window. There she lay, full of sweet contentment and secure
+of a love that had never been hers--of possessing the heart of a man who
+never once thought of her, but who, only a few hours since, had rushed
+off with her sister, intoxicated with joy and delight. Poor Selene!
+
+And her next dreams were of untroubled happiness, but the minutes flew
+after each other, each bringing her nearer to waking--and what a waking!
+
+Her father had not come, as he had intended, to see her before going to
+the prefect’s house with Arsinoe. His desire to conduct his daughter to
+Julia in a dress worthy of her prospects had detained him a long time,
+and even then he had not succeeded in his object. All the weavers, and
+the shops were closed, for every workman, whether slave or free, was
+taking part in the festivities, and when the hour fixed by the prefect
+drew near, his daughter was still sitting in her litter, in her simple
+white dress and her modest peplum, bound with blue ribbon, which looked
+even more insignificant by day than in the evening.
+
+The nosegay which had been given to Arsinoe by Verus gave her much
+pleasure, for a girl is always pleased with beautiful flowers--nay, they
+have something in common. As she and her father approached the prefect’s
+house Arsinoe grew frightened, and her father could not conceal his
+vexation at being obliged to take her to the lady Julia in so modest a
+garb. Nor was his gloomy humor at all enlivened when he was left to wait
+in the anteroom while Julia and the wife of Verus, aided by Balbilla
+chose for his daughter the finest colored and costliest stuffs of the
+softest wool, silk, and delicate bombyx tissue. This sort of occupation
+has this peculiarity, that the longer time it takes the more assistance
+is needed, and the steward had to submit to wait fully two hours in the
+prefect’s anteroom, which gradually grew fuller and fuller of clients
+and visitors. At last Arsinoe came back all glowing and full of the
+beautiful things that were to be prepared for her.
+
+Her father rose slowly from his easy seat, and as she hastened towards
+him the door opened, and through it came Plutarch, freshly wreathed,
+freshly decked with flowers which were fastened to the breast-folds of
+his gallium, and lifted into the room by his two human crutches. Every
+one rose as he came in, and when Keraunus saw that the chief lawyer of
+the city, a man of ancient family, bowed before him, he did likewise.
+Plutarch’s eyesight was stronger than his legs were, and where a pretty
+woman was to be seen, it was always very keen. He perceived Arsinoe as
+soon as he had crossed the threshold and waved both hands towards her,
+as if she were an old and favorite acquaintance.
+
+The sweet child had quite bewitched him; in his younger days he
+would have given anything and everything to win her favor; now he was
+satisfied to make his favor pleasing to her; he touched her playfully
+two or three times on the arm and said gaily:
+
+“Well pretty Roxana, has dame Julia done well with the dresses?”
+
+“Oh! they have chosen such pretty, such really lovely things!” exclaimed
+the girl.
+
+“Have they?” said Plutarch, to conceal by speech the fact that he was
+meditating on some subject; “Have they? and why should they not?”
+
+Arsinoe’s washed dress had caught the old man’s eye, and remembering
+that Gabinius the curiosity-dealer had that very morning been to him to
+enquire whether Arsinoe were not in fact one of his work-girls, and
+to repeat his statement that her father was a beggarly toady, full of
+haughty airs, whose curiosities, of which he contemptuously mentioned
+a few, were worth nothing, Plutarch was hastily asking himself how he
+could best defend his pretty protege against the envious tongues of her
+rivals; for many spiteful speeches of theirs had already come to his
+ears.
+
+“Whatever the noble Julia undertakes is always admirably done,” he said
+aloud, and he added in a whisper: “The day after to-morrow when the
+goldsmiths have opened their workshops again, I will see what I can find
+for you. I am falling in a heap, hold me up higher Antaeus and Atlas.
+So.--Yes, my child you look even better from up here than from a lower
+level. Is the stout man standing behind you your father?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Have you no mother?”
+
+“She is dead.”
+
+“Oh!” said Plutarch in a tone of regret. Then turning to the steward he
+said:
+
+“Accept my congratulations on having such a daughter Keraunus. I hear
+too that you have to supply a mother’s place to her.”
+
+“Alas sir! she is very like my poor wife, since her death I live a
+joyless life.”
+
+“But I hear that you take pleasure in collecting rare and beautiful
+objects. This is a taste we have in common. Are you inclined to part
+with the cup that belonged to my namesake Plutarch? It must be a fine
+piece of work from what Gabinius tells me.”
+
+“That it is,” replied the steward proudly. “It was a gift to the
+philosopher from Trajan; beautifully carved in ivory. I cannot bear to
+part with such a gem but,” and as he spoke he lowered his voice. “I am
+under obligations to you, you have taken charge of my daughter’s outfit
+and to offer you some return I will--”
+
+“That is quite out of the question,” interrupted Plutarch, who knew men,
+and who saw from the steward’s pompous pretentiousness that the dealer
+had done him no injustice in describing him as overbearing. “You are
+doing me an honor by allowing me to contribute what I can towards
+decorating our Roxana. I beg you to send me the cup, and whatever price
+you put upon it, I, of course, shall pay, that is quite understood.”
+
+Keraunus had a brief internal conflict with himself. If he had not so
+sorely needed money, if he had not so keenly desired to see a young and
+comely slave walking behind him, he would have adhered to his purpose of
+presenting the cup to Plutarch; as it was he cleared his throat, looked
+at the ground, and said with an embarrassed manner and without a trace
+of his former confidence:
+
+“I remain your debtor, and it seems you do not wish this business to be
+mixed up with other matters. Well then, I had two thousand drachmae for
+a sword that belonged to Antony.”
+
+“Then certainly,” interrupted Plutarch, “the cup, the gift of Trajan,
+must be worth double, particularly to me who am related to the
+illustrious owner. May I offer you four thousand drachmae for your
+precious possession?”
+
+“I am anxious to oblige you, and so I say yes,” replied the steward
+with much dignity, and he squeezed Arsinoe’s little finger, for she was
+standing close to him. Her hand had for some time been touching his in
+token of warning that he should adhere to his first intention of making
+the cup a present to Plutarch.
+
+As the pair, so unlike each other, quitted the anteroom, Plutarch looked
+after them with a meaning smile and thought to himself: “That is well
+done. How little pleasure I generally have from my riches! How often
+when I see a sturdy porter I would willingly change places with him! But
+to-day I am glad to have as much money as I could wish. Sweet child! She
+must have a new dress of course for the sake of appearance, but really
+her beauty did not suffer from the washed-out rag of a dress. And she
+belongs to me, for I have seen her at the factory among the workwomen,
+of that I am certain.”
+
+Keraunus had gone out with his daughter and once outside the prefect’s
+house, he could not help chuckling aloud, while he patted his daughter
+on the shoulder, and whispered to her:
+
+“I told you so child! we shall be rich yet, we shall rise in life again
+and need not be behind the other citizens in any thing.”
+
+“Yes, father, but it is just because you believe that, that you ought to
+have given the cup to the old man.”
+
+“No,” replied Keraunus, “business is business, but by and bye I will
+repay him tenfold for all he does for you now, by giving him my painting
+by Apelles. And Julia shall have the pair of sandal-straps set with
+cut-gems that came off a sandal of Cleopatra’s.”
+
+Arsinoe looked down, for she knew what these treasures were worth, and
+said:
+
+“We can consider all that later.”
+
+Then she and her father got into the litters that had been waiting for
+them, and without which Keraunus thought he could no longer exist, and
+they were carried to the garden of Pudeus’ widow.
+
+Their visit came to interrupt Selene’s blissful dreams. Keraunus
+behaved with icy coldness to dame Hannah, for it afforded him a certain
+satisfaction to make a display of contempt for every thing Christian.
+When he expressed his regret that Selene should have been obliged to
+remain in her house, the widow replied:
+
+“She is better here than in the street, at any rate.” And when Keraunus
+went on to say that he would take nothing as a gift and would pay her
+for her care of his daughter, Hannah answered:
+
+“We are happy to do all we can for your child, and Another will reward
+us.”
+
+“That I certainly forbid,” exclaimed the steward wrathfully.
+
+“We do not understand each other,” said the Christian pleasantly. “I do
+not allude to any mortal being, and the reward we work for is not gold
+and possessions, but the happy consciousness of having mitigated the
+sufferings of a fellow-creature.”
+
+Keraunus shrugged his shoulders, and after desiring Selene to ask the
+physician when she might be taken home, he went away.
+
+“I will not leave you here an instant longer than is necessary,” he said
+as urgently as though she were in some infected house; he kissed her
+forehead, bowed to Hannah as loftily as though he had just bestowed an
+alms upon her, and departed, without listening to Selene’s assurances
+that she was extremely happy and comfortable with the widow.
+
+The ground had long burnt under his feet, and the money in his pocket,
+he was now possessed of ample means to acquire a good new slave,
+perhaps, if he threw old Sebek into the bargain, they might even suffice
+to procure him a handsome Greek, who might teach the children to
+read and write. He could direct his first attention to the external
+appearance of the new member of his household, if he were a scholar
+as well, he would feel justified in the high price he expected to be
+obliged to pay for him.
+
+As Keraunus approached the slave-market he said, not without some
+conscious emotion at his own paternal devotion:
+
+“All for the credit of the house, all, and only, for the children.”
+
+Arsinoe carried out her intention of staying with Selene; her father was
+to fetch her on his way home. After he was gone, Hannah and Mary left
+the two sisters together, for they supposed that they must wish to
+discuss a variety of things without the presence of strangers.
+
+As soon as the girls were alone Arsinoe began: “Your cheeks are rosy,
+Selene, and you look cheerful--ah! and I, I am so happy--so happy!”
+
+“Because you are to fill the part of Roxana?”
+
+“That is very nice too, and who would have thought only yesterday
+morning that we should be so rich today. We hardly know what to do with
+all the money.”
+
+“We?”
+
+“Yes, for father has sold two objects out of his collection for six
+thousand drachmae.”
+
+“Oh!” cried Selene clasping her hands, “then we can pay our most
+pressing debts.”
+
+“To be sure, but that is not nearly all.”
+
+“No?”
+
+“Where shall I begin? Ah! Selene, my heart is so full. I am tired, and
+yet I could dance and sing and shout all day and all the night through
+till to-morrow. When I think how happy I am, my head turns, and I feel
+as if I must use all my self-control to keep myself from turning giddy.
+You do not know yet how you feel when the arrow of Eros has pierced you.
+Ah! I love Pollux so much, and he loves me too.”
+
+At these words all the color fled from Selene’s cheeks, and her pale
+lips brought out the words:
+
+“Pollux? The son of Euphorion, Pollux the sculptor?”
+
+“Yes, our dear, kind, tall Pollux!” cried Arsinoe. “Now prick up your
+ears, and you shall hear how it all came to pass. Last night on our way
+to see you he confessed how much he loved me, and now you must advise me
+how to win over my father to our side, and very soon too. By-and-bye he
+will of course say yes, for Pollux can do anything he wants, and some
+day he will be a great man, as great as Papias, and Aristaeus,
+and Kealkes all put together. His youthful trick with that silly
+caricature--but how pale you are, Selene!”
+
+“It is nothing--nothing at all--a pain--go on,” said Selene.
+
+“Dame Hannah begged me not to let you talk much.”
+
+“Only tell me everything; I will be quiet.”
+
+“Well, you have seen the lovely head of mother that he made,” Arsinoe
+went on. “Standing by that we saw each other and talked for the first
+time after long years, and I felt directly that there was not a dearer
+man than he in the whole world, wide as it is. And he fell in love too
+with a stupid little thing like me. Yesterday evening he came here with
+me; and then as I went home, taking his arm in the dark through the
+streets, then--Oh, Selene, it was splendid, delightful! You cannot
+imagine!--Does your foot hurt you very much, poor dear? Your eyes are
+full of tears.”
+
+“Go on, tell me all, go on.”
+
+And Arsinoe did as she was desired, sparing the poor girl nothing that
+could widen and deepen the wound in her soul. Full of rapturous memories
+she described the place in the streets where Pollux had first kissed
+her. The shrubs in the garden where she had flung herself into his arms,
+her blissful walk in the moonlight, and all the crowd assembled for
+the festival, and finally how, possessed by the god, they had together
+joined the procession, and danced through the streets. She described,
+with tears in her eyes, how painful their parting had been, and laughed
+again, as she told how an ivy leaf in her hair had nearly betrayed
+everything to her father. So she talked and talked, and there was
+something that intoxicated her in her own words.
+
+How they were affecting Selene she did not observe. How could she know
+that it was her narrative and no other suffering which made her sister’s
+lips quiver so sorrowfully? Then, when she went on to speak of the
+splendid garments which Julia was having made for her, the suffering
+girl listened with only half an ear, but her attention revived when she
+heard how much old Plutarch had offered for the ivory cup, and that her
+father proposed to exchange their old slave for a more active one.
+
+“Our good black mouse-catching old stork looks shabby enough it is
+true,” said Arsinoe, “still I am very sorry he should go away. If you
+had been at home, perhaps father would have waited to consider.”
+
+Selene laughed drily, and her lips curled scornfully as she said:
+
+“That is the way! go on! two days before you are turned out of house and
+home you ride in a chariot and pair!”
+
+“You always see the worst side,” said Arsinoe with annoyance. “I tell
+you it will all turn out far better and nicer and more happily than we
+expect. As soon as we are a little richer we will buy back the old man,
+and keep him and feed him till he dies.”
+
+Selene shrugged her shoulders, and her sister jumped up from her seat
+with her eyes full of tears. She had been so happy in telling how happy
+she was that she firmly believed that her story must bring brightness
+into the gloom of the sick girl’s soul, like sunshine after a dark
+night; and Selene had nothing to give her but scornful words and looks.
+If a friend refuses to share in joys it is hardly less wounding than if
+he were to abandon us in trouble.
+
+“How you always contrive to embitter my happiness!” cried Arsinoe. “I
+know very well that nothing that I can do can ever be right in your
+eyes; still, we are sisters, and you need not set your teeth and grudge
+your words, and shrug your shoulders when I tell you of things which,
+even a stranger, if I were to confide them to her, would rejoice over
+with me. You are so cold and heartless! I dare say you will betray me to
+my father--”
+
+But Arsinoe did not finish her sentence, for Selene looked up at her
+with a mixture of suffering and alarm, and said:
+
+“I cannot be glad--I am in too much pain.” As she spoke the tears ran
+down her cheeks and as soon as Arsinoe saw them she felt a return of
+pity for the sick girl, bent over and kissed her cheeks once, twice,
+thrice; but Selene pushed her aside and murmured piteously:
+
+“Leave me--pray leave me; go away, I can bear it no longer.” She turned
+her face to the wall, sobbing aloud. Arsinoe attempted once more to show
+her some marks of affection, but her sister pushed her away still more
+decidedly, crying out loudly, as if in desperation: “I shall die if you
+do not leave me alone.”
+
+And the happier girl, whose best offerings were thus disdained by her
+only female friend, went weeping away to await her father’s return
+outside the door of the widow’s house.
+
+When Hannah went to lay fresh handkerchiefs on Selene’s wounds she saw
+that she had been crying, but she did not enquire into the reason of her
+tears. Towards evening the widow explained to her patient that she must
+leave her alone for half an hour, for that she and Mary were going out
+to pray to their God with their brethren and sisters, and they would
+pray for her also.
+
+“Leave me, only leave me,” said Selene, “as it is, so it is--there are
+no gods.”
+
+“Gods?” replied Hannah. “No. But there is one good and loving Father in
+Heaven, and you soon shall learn to know him.”
+
+“I know him, well!” muttered the sick girl with keen irony.
+
+No sooner was she alone than she sat up in bed, and flung the flowers,
+which had been lying on it, far from her across the room, twisted the
+pin of the brooch till it was broken, and did not stir a finger to save
+the gold setting and engraved stone when they fell between the bed and
+wall of the room. Then she lay staring at the ceiling, and did not stir
+again. It was now quite dark. The lilies and honeysuckle in the great
+nosegay outside the window began to smell more strongly, and their
+perfume forced itself inexorably on her senses, rendered painfully
+acute by fever. She perceived it at every breath she drew, and not for
+a minute would it let her forget her wrecked happiness, and the
+wretchedness of her heart, till the heavy sweetness of the flowers
+became more unendurable than the most pungent odor, and she drew the
+coverlet over her head to escape this new torment; but she soon cast
+it off again, for she thought she should be suffocated under it. An
+intolerable restlessness took possession of her, while the pain in her
+injured foot throbbed madly, the cut in her head seemed to burn, and her
+temples beat with an agonizing headache that contracted the muscles
+of her eyes. Every nerve in her body, every thought of her brain was a
+separate torture, and at the same time she felt herself without a stay,
+without protection, and wholly abandoned to some cruel influence,
+which tossed and tore her soul as the storm tosses the crowns of the
+palm-trees.
+
+Without tears, incapable of lying still and yet punished for the
+slightest movement by some fresh pain, racked in every joint, not strong
+enough in her bewilderment to carry through a single connected thought,
+and yet firmly convinced that the perfume she was forced to inhale at
+every breath was poisoning her--destroying her--driving her mad--she
+lifted her damaged foot out of bed, dragged the other after it, and sat
+up on her couch regardless of the pain she felt, and the warnings of the
+physician. Her long hair fell dishevelled over her face, her arms, and
+her hands, in which she held her aching head; and in this new attitude
+the excitement of her brain and heart took fresh development.
+
+She sat gazing at the floor with a freezing gaze, and bitter enmity
+towards her sister, hatred towards Pollux, contempt for her father’s
+miserable weakness, and her own utter blindness, rang wild changes in
+her soul. Outside all lay in peaceful calm, and from the house in which
+Paulina lived the evening breeze now and again bore the pure tones of
+a pious hymn upon her ear. Selene never heeded it, but as the same air
+wafted the scent of the flowers in her face even stronger than before,
+she clutched her hair in her fingers and pulled it so violently that she
+actually groaned with the pain she gave herself.
+
+The question as to whether her hair was less abundant and beautiful than
+her sister’s suddenly occurred to her, and like a flash in the darkness
+the wish shot through her soul that she could fling Arsinoe to the
+ground by the hair, with the hand which was now hurting herself.
+
+That perfume! that horrible perfume!
+
+She could bear it no longer. She stood up on her uninjured foot, and
+with very short steps she dragged herself half crying to the window,
+and flung the nosegay with the great jar of burnt clay down on to
+the ground. The vessel was broken.--It had cost poor Hannah many
+hardly-saved pieces not long since. Selene stood on one foot, leaning,
+to recover herself, against the right-hand post of the window-opening,
+and there she could hear more distinctly than from her couch, the voice
+of the waves as they broke on the stone quay just behind dame Hannah’s
+little house. The child of the Lochias was familiar with their tones,
+but the clashing and gurgling of the cool, moist element against the
+stones had never affected her before as they did now. Her fevered blood
+was on fire, her foot was burning, her head was hot, and hatred seemed
+to consume her soul as in a slow fire; she felt as if every wave that
+broke upon the seawall was calling out to her: “I am cool, I am moist, I
+can extinguish the flame that is consuming you. I can refresh and revive
+you.”
+
+What had the world to offer her but new torment and new misery? But
+the sea--the blue dark sea was wide, and cold, and deep, and its waves
+promised her in insidious tones to relieve her at once of the rage of
+her fever, and of the burden of her life. Selene did not pause, did not
+reflect; she remembered neither the children whom she had so long
+cared for as a mother, nor her father, whose comfort and support she
+was--vague voices in her brain seemed to be whispering to her that the
+world was evil and cruel, and the abode of all the torment and care that
+gnawed at her heart. She felt as if she had been plunged to the temples
+in a pool of fire, and, like some poor wretch whose garments have been
+caught by the flames, she had an instinct to fly to the water, at the
+bottom of which she might hope to find the fulfilment of her utmost
+longing, sweet cold death, in which all is forgotten.
+
+Groaning and tottering she pushed her way through the door into the
+garden and hobbled down to the sea, grasping her temples in her hands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The Alexandrians were a stiff-necked generation. Only some phenomenal
+sight far transcending their every-day experience could avail to make
+them turn their heads to stare at it, but just now there was something
+to look at, at every moment and in every street of the city. To-day
+too each one thought only of himself and of his own pleasure. Some
+particularly pretty, tall, or well-dressed figure would give rise to
+a smile or an exclamation of approval, but before one sight had been
+thoroughly enjoyed the inquisitive eye was seeking a fresh one.
+
+Thus it happened that no one paid any special attention to Hadrian and
+his companions who allowed themselves to be unresistingly carried along
+the streets by the current of the crowd; and yet each one of them was,
+in his way, a remarkable object. Hadrian was dressed as Silenus, Pollux
+as a faun. Both wore masks and the disguise of the younger man was as
+well suited to his pliant and vigorous figure as that of the elder to
+his powerful stately person. Antinous followed his master, dressed as
+Eros. He wore a crimson mantle and was crowned with roses, while the
+silver quiver on his shoulder and the bow in his hand clearly symbolized
+the god he was intended to represent. He too wore a mask, but his figure
+attracted many gazers, and many a greeting of “Long live the god of
+love” or “Be gracious to me oh! son of Aphrodite” was spoken as he
+passed.
+
+Pollux had obtained all the things requisite for these disguises from
+the store of drapery belonging to his master. Papias had been out, but
+the young man did not deem it necessary to ask his consent, for he and
+the other assistants had often used the things for similar purposes with
+his full permission. Only as he took the quiver intended for Antinous,
+Pollux hesitated a little for it was of solid silver and had been
+given to his master by the wife of a wealthy cone-dealer, whom he had
+represented in marble as Artemis equipped for the chase.
+
+“The Roman’s handsome companion,” thought the young artist as he placed
+the costly object in with the others in a basket, which a squinting
+apprentice was to carry behind him--“The Roman’s handsome companion must
+be made a splendid Eros--and before sunrise the useless thing will be
+hanging on its hook again.”
+
+Indeed Pollux had not much time to admire the splendid appearance of
+the god of love he had so richly adorned, for the Roman architect was
+possessed by such thirst for knowledge and such inexhaustible curiosity
+as to the minutest details that even Pollux who was born in Alexandria,
+and had grown up there with his eyes very wide open, was often unable to
+answer his indefatigable questioning.
+
+The grey-bearded master wanted to see every thing and to be informed
+on every subject. Not content with making acquaintance with the main
+streets and squares the public sites and buildings, he peeped into the
+handsomest of the private houses and asked the names, rank and fortunes
+of the owners. The decided way in which he told Pollux the way he wished
+to be conducted proved to the artist that he was thoroughly familiar
+with the plan of the city. And when the sagacious and enlightened man
+expressed his approval, nay his admiration of the broad clean streets of
+the town, the handsome open places, and particularly handsome buildings
+which abounded on all sides, the young Alexandrian who was proud of his
+city was delighted.
+
+First Hadrian made him lead him along the seashore by the Bruchiom
+to the temple of Poseidon, where he performed some devotions, then he
+looked into the garden of the palace and the courts of the adjoining
+museum. The Caesareum with its Egyptian gateway excited his admiration
+no less than the theatre, surrounded with pillared arcades in stories,
+and decorated with numerous statues. From thence deviating to the left
+they once more approached the sea to visit the great Emporium, to see
+the forest of masts of Eunostus, and the finely-constructed quays. They
+left the viaduct known as the Heptastadion to their right and the harbor
+of Kibotus, swarming with small merchant craft, did not detain them
+long.
+
+Here they turned backs on the sea following a street which led inland
+through the quarter called Khakotis inhabited only by native Egyptians,
+and here the Roman found much to see that was noteworthy. First he and
+his companions met a procession of the priests who serve the gods of the
+Nile valley, carrying reliquaries and sacred vessels, with images of the
+gods and sacred animals, and tending towards the Serapeum which towered
+high above the streets in the vicinity. Hadrian did not visit the
+temple, but he inspected the chariots which carried people along an
+inclined road which led up the hill on which was the sanctuary, and
+watched devotees on foot who mounted by an endless flight of steps
+constructed on purpose; these grew wider towards the top, terminating
+in a platform where four mighty pillars bore up a boldly-curved cupola.
+Nothing looked down upon the temple-building which with its halls,
+galleries and rooms rose behind this huge canopy.
+
+The priests with their white robes, the meagre, half-naked Egyptians
+with their pleated aprons and headcloths, the images of beasts and the
+wonderfully-painted houses in this quarter of the city, particularly
+attracted Hadrian’s attention and made him ask many questions, not all
+of which could Pollux answer.
+
+Their walk which now took them farther and farther from the sea extended
+to the extreme south of the town and the shores of lake Mareotis. Nile
+boats and vessels of every form and size lay at anchor in this deep and
+sheltered inland sea; here the sculptor pointed out to Hadrian the canal
+through which goods were conveyed to the marine fleet which had been
+brought down the river to Alexandria. And he pointed out to the Roman
+the handsome country-houses and well-tended vineyards on the shores of
+the lake.
+
+“The bodies in this city ought to thrive,” said Hadrian meditatively.
+“For here are two stomachs and two mouths by which they absorb
+nourishment; the sea, I mean, and this lake.”
+
+“And the harbors in each,” added Pollux.
+
+“Just so; but now it is time we should turn about,” replied Hadrian, and
+the party soon took a road leading eastward; they walked without pause
+through the quiet streets inhabited by the Christians, and finally
+through the Jews’ quarter. In the heart of this quarter many houses
+were shut up, and there were no signs to be seen of the gay doings which
+crowded on the sense and fancy in the heathen part of the town, for
+the stricter among the Hebrews held sternly aloof, from the holiday
+festivities in which most of their nation and creed who dwelt among the
+Greeks, took part.
+
+For a third time Hadrian and his companions crossed the Canopic way
+which formed the main artery of the city and divided it into the
+northern and southern halves, for he wished to look down from the hill
+of the Paneum on the combined effect as a whole of all that he had seen
+in detail. The carefully-kept gardens which surrounded this elevation
+swarmed with men, and the spiral path which led to the top was crowded
+with women and children, who came here to see the most splendid
+spectacle of the whole day, which closed with performances in all the
+theatres in the town. Before the Emperor and his escort could reach
+the Paneum itself the crowd suddenly packed more closely and began
+exclaiming among themselves, “Here they come!” “They are early to-day!”
+ “Here they are!”
+
+Lictors with their fasces over their shoulders were clearing the broad
+roadway, which led from the prefect’s on the Bruchiom to the Paneum,
+with their staves and paying no heed to the mocking and witty speeches
+addressed to them by the mob wherever they appeared. One woman, as she
+was driven back by a Roman guardian of the peace, cried scornfully,
+“Give me your rods for my children and do not use them on unoffending
+citizens.”
+
+“There is an axe hidden among the faggots,” added an Egyptian
+letter-writer in a warning voice.
+
+“Bring it here,” cried a butcher. “I can use it to slaughter my beasts.”
+ The Romans as they heard these bandied words felt the blood mounting
+to their faces, but the prefect, who knew his Alexandrians well, had
+counselled them to be deaf; to see everything but to hear nothing. Now
+there appeared a cohort of the Twelfth Legion, who were quartered in
+garrison in Egypt, in their richest arms and holiday uniforms. Behind
+them came two files of particularly tall lictors wearing wreaths,
+and they were followed by several hundred wild beasts, leopards
+and panthers, giraffes, gazelles, antelopes, and deer, all led by
+dark-colored Egyptians. Then came a richly-dressed and much be-wreathed
+Dionysian chorus with the sound of tambourines and lyres, double flutes
+and triangles, and finally, drawn by ten elephants and twenty white
+horses, a large ship, resting on wheels and gilt from stem to stern,
+representing the vessel in which the Tyrrhenian pirates were said to
+have carried off the young Dionysus when they had seen the black-haired
+hero on the shore in his purple garments. But the miscreants--so the
+myth went on to say--were not allowed long to rejoice in their violence,
+for hardly had the ship reached the open sea when the fetters dropped
+from the god, vines entwined the sails in sudden luxuriance, tendrils
+encumbered the oars and rudder, heavy grapes clustered round the ropes,
+and ivy clung to the mast and shrouded the seats and sides of the
+vessel. Dionysus is equally powerful on sea and on land; in the pirates’
+ship he assumed the form of a lion, and the pirates, filled with terror,
+flung themselves into the sea, and in the form of dolphins followed
+their lost bark.
+
+All this Titianus had caused to be represented just as the Homeric
+hymns described it, out of slight materials, but richly and elegantly
+decorated, in order to provide a feast for the eyes of the Alexandrians,
+with the intention of riding in it himself, with his wife and the most
+illustrious of the Romans who formed the Empress’ suite, to enjoy all
+the Holiday doings in the chief streets of the city. Young and old,
+great and small, men and women, Greeks, Romans, Jews, Egyptians,
+foreigners dark and fair, with smooth hair or crisp wool, crowded with
+equal eagerness to the edge of the roadway to see the gorgeous boat.
+
+Hadrian, far more anxious to see the show than his younger but less
+excitable favorite, pushed into the front rank, and as Antinous was
+trying to follow him, a Greek boy, whom he had shoved aside, snatched
+his mask from his face, threw himself on the ground, and slipped nimbly
+off with his booty. When Hadrian looked round for the Bithyman, the
+ship-in which the prefect was standing between the images of the Emperor
+and Empress, while Julia, Balbilla, and her companion, and other Roman
+lords and ladies were sitting in it--had come quite near to them. His
+sharp eye had recognized them all, and fearing that the lad’s uncovered
+face would betray them he cried out:
+
+“Turn round and get into the crowd again.” The favorite immediately
+obeyed, and only too glad to escape from the crowd, which was a thing
+he detested, he sat down on a bench close to the Paneum, and looked
+dreamily at the ground while he thought of Selene and the nosegay he
+had sent her, neither seeing nor hearing anything of what was going on
+around him.
+
+When the gaudy ship left the gardens of the Paneum and turned into
+the Canopic way, the crowd pursued it in a dense mass, hallooing and
+shouting. Like a torrent suddenly swelled by a storm it rushed on,
+surging and growing at each moment, and carrying with it even those who
+tried to resist its force. Thus even Hadrian and Pollux were forced to
+follow in its wake, and it was not till they found themselves in the
+broad Canopic way that they were able to come to a stand-still. The
+broad roadway of this famous street was bordered on each side by a long
+vista of colonnade, and it extended from one end of the city to the
+other. There were hundreds of the Corinthian columns which supported the
+roof that covered the footway, and near to one of these the Emperor and
+Pollux succeeded at last in effecting a halt and taking breath.
+
+Hadrian’s first thought was for his favorite, and being averse to
+venturing himself once more to mix with the crowd, he begged the
+sculptor to go and seek him and conduct him safely.
+
+“Will you wait for me here?” asked Pollux.
+
+“I have known a pleasanter halting place,” sighed the Emperor.
+
+“So have I,” answered the artist. “But that tall door there, wreathed
+round with boughs of poplar and ivy, leads into a cook-shop where the
+gods themselves might be content to find themselves.”
+
+“Then I will wait there.”
+
+“But I warn you to eat as much as you can, for the Olympian table’ as
+kept by Lykortas, the Corinthian, is the dearest eating-house in the
+whole city. None but the richest are his guests.”
+
+“Very good,” laughed Hadrian. “Only find my assistant a new mask and
+bring him back to me. It will not ruin me quite, even if I pay for
+a supper for all three of us, and on a holiday one expects to spend
+something.”
+
+“I hope you may not live to repent,” retorted Pollux. “But a long fellow
+like me is a good trencherman, and can do his part with the wine-jar.”
+
+“Only show me what you can do,” cried Hadrian after him as Pollux
+hurried off. “I owe you a supper at any rate, for that cabbage stew of
+your mother’s.”
+
+While Pollux went to seek the Bithyman in the vicinity of the Paneum,
+the Emperor entered the eating house, which the skill of the cook had
+made the most frequented and fashionable in Alexandria. The place in
+which most of the customers of the house dined, consisted of a large
+open hall, surrounded by arcades which were roofed in on three of
+its sides and closed by a wall on its fourth; in these arcades stood
+couches, on which the guests reclined singly, or in couples, or in
+larger groups, and ordered the dishes and liquors which the serving
+slaves, pretty boys with curling hair and hand some dresses, placed
+before them on low tables. Here all was noise and bustle; at one
+table an epicure devoted himself silently to the enjoyment of some
+carefully-prepared delicacy, at another a large circle of men seemed to
+be talking more eagerly than they either eat or drank, and from several
+of the smaller rooms behind the wall at the back of the hall came sounds
+of music and song, and the bold laughter of men and women.
+
+The Emperor asked for a private room, but they were all occupied, and
+he was requested to wait a little while, for that one of the adjoining.
+rooms would very soon be vacant. He had taken off his mask, and though
+he was not particularly afraid of being recognized in his disguise he
+chose a couch that was screened by a broad pillar in one of the
+arcades at the inner side of the court, and which, now that evening was
+beginning to fall was already in obscurity. There he ordered, first some
+wine and then some oysters to begin, with; while he was eating these he
+called one of the superintendents and discussed with him the details
+of the supper he wished presently to be served to himself and his two
+guests. During this conversation the bustling host came to make his
+bow to his new customer, and seeing that he had to do with a man fully
+conversant with all the pleasures of the table, he remained to attend on
+him, and entered with special zeal into Hadrian’s various requirements.
+
+There was, too, plenty to be seen in the court, which roused the
+curiosity of the most inquisitive and enquiring man of his time. In the
+large space enclosed by the arcades, and under the eyes of the guests,
+on gridirons and hearths, over spits and in ovens the various dishes
+were prepared which were served up by the slaves. The cooks prepared
+their savory messes on large, clean tables, and the scene of their
+labors, which, though enclosed by cords was open to public gaze was
+surrounded by a small market, where however only the choicest of wares
+were displayed.
+
+Here in tempting array was every variety of vegetable reared on Greek or
+Egyptian soil; here speckless fruits of every size and hue were set out,
+and there ready baked, shining, golden-brown pasties were displayed.
+Those containing meat, fish or the mussels of Canopus were prepared in
+Alexandria itself, but others containing fruit or the leaves of flowers
+were brought from Arsinoe on the shores of Lake Moeris, for in that
+neighborhood the cultivation of fruit and horticulture generally were
+pursued with the greatest success. Meat of all sorts lay or hung in
+suitable places; there were juicy hams from Cyrene, Italian sausages and
+uncooked joints of various slaughtered beasts. By them lay or hung game
+and poultry in select abundance, and a large part of the court was taken
+up by a tank in which the choicest of the scaly tribes of the Nile,
+and of the lakes of Northern Egypt, were swimming about as well as
+the Muraena and other fish of Italian breed. Alexandrian crabs and the
+mussels, oysters, and cray-fish of Canopus and Klysma were kept alive in
+buckets or jars. The smoked meats of Mendes and the neighborhood of
+Lake Moeris hung on metal pegs, and in a covered but well-aired room,
+sheltered from the sun lay freshly-imported fish from the Mediterranean
+and Red Sea. Every guest at the ‘Olympian table’ was allowed here to
+select the meat, fruit, asparagus, fish, or pasty which he desired to
+have cooked for him. The host, Lykortas, pointed out to Hadrian an old
+gentleman who was busy in the court that was so prettily decorated with
+still-life, engaged in choosing the raw materials of a banquet he wished
+to give some friends in the evening of this very day.
+
+“It is all very nice and extremely good,” said Hadrian, “but the gnats
+and flies which are attracted by all those good things are unendurable,
+and the strong smell of food spoils my appetite.”
+
+“It is better in the side-rooms,” said the host. “In the one kept for
+you the company is now preparing to depart. In behind here the sophists
+Demetrius and Pancrates are entertaining a few great men from Rome,
+rhetoricians or philosophers or something of the kind. Now they are
+bringing in the fine lamps and they have been sitting and talking at
+that table ever since breakfast. There come the guests out of the side
+room. Will you take it?”
+
+“Yes,” said Hadrian. “And when a tall young man comes to ask for the
+architect Claudius Venato, from Rome, bring him in to me.”
+
+“An architect then, and not a sophist or a rhetorician,” said mine host,
+looking keenly at the Emperor.
+
+“Silenus,--a philosopher!”
+
+“Oh the two vociferous friends there go about even on other days naked
+and with ragged cloaks thrown over their lean shoulders. To-day they are
+feeding at the expense of rich Josephus.”
+
+“Josephus! he must be a Jew and yet he is making a large hole in the
+ham.”
+
+“There would be more swine in Cyrene if there were no Jews; they are
+Greeks like ourselves, and eat everything that is good.”
+
+Hadrian went into the vacant room, lay down on a couch that stood by the
+wall, and urged the slaves who were busied in removing the dishes and
+vessels used by his predecessors, and which were swarming with flies.
+As soon as he was alone he listened to the conversation which was being
+carried on between Favorinus, Florus, and their Greek guests. He knew
+the two first very well, and not a word of what they were saying escaped
+his keen ear.
+
+Favorinus was praising the Alexandrians in a loud voice, but in flowing
+and elegantly-accented Greek. He was a native of Arelas--[Arles]--in
+Gaul, but no Hellene of them all could pour forth a purer flow of the
+language of Demosthenes than he. The self-reliant, keen, and vivacious
+natives of the African metropolis were far more to his taste than the
+Athenians; these dwelt only in, and for, the past; the Alexandrians
+rejoiced in the present. Here an independent spirit still survived,
+while on the shores of the Ilissus there were none but servile souls who
+made a merchandise of learning, as the Alexandrians did of the products
+of Africa and the treasures of India. Once when he had fallen into
+disgrace with Hadrian, the Athenians had thrown down his statue, and
+the favor or disfavor of the powerful weighed with him more than
+intellectual greatness, valuable labors, and true merit.
+
+Florus agreed with Favorinus on the whole, and declared that Rome must
+be freed from the intellectual influence of Athens; but Favorinus did
+not admit this; he opined that it was very difficult for any one who had
+left youth behind him, to learn anything new, thus referring, with light
+irony, to the famous work in which Florus had attempted to divide the
+history of Rome into four periods, corresponding to the ages of man,
+but had left out old age, and had treated only of childhood, youth, and
+manhood. Favorinus reproached him with overestimating the versatility of
+the Roman genius, like his friend Fronto, and underrating the Hellenic
+intellect.
+
+Florus answered the Gaulish orator in a deep voice, and with such a
+grand flow of words, that the listening Emperor would have enjoyed
+expressing his approbation, and could not help considering the question
+as to how many cups of wine his usually placid fellow-countryman might
+have taken since breakfast to be so excited. When Floras tried to prove
+that under Hadrian’s rule Rome had risen to the highest stage of its
+manhood, his friend, Demetrius, of Alexandria, interrupted him, and
+begged him to tell him something about the Emperor’s person. Florus
+willingly acceded to this request, and sketched a brilliant picture
+of the administrative talent, the learning, and the capability of the
+Emperor.
+
+“There is only one thing,” he cried eagerly, “that I cannot approve of;
+he is too little at Rome, which is now the core and centre of the world.
+He must need see every thing for himself, and he is always wandering
+restlessly through the provinces. I should not care to change with him!”
+
+“You have expressed the same ideas in verse,” said Favorinus.
+
+“Oh! a jest at supper-time. So long as I am in Alexandria and waiting
+on Caesar I can make myself very comfortable every day at the ‘Olympian
+table’ of this admirable cook.”
+
+“But how runs your poem?” asked Pancrates.
+
+“I have forgotten it, and it deserved no better fate,” replied Florus.
+
+“But I,” laughed the Gaul, “I remember the beginning. The first lines, I
+think, ran thus:
+
+         “‘Let others envy Caesar’s lot;
+          To wander through Britannia’s dales
+          And be snowed up in Scythian vales
+          Is Caesar’s taste--I’d rather not?’”
+
+As he heard these words Hadrian struck his fist into the palm of his
+left hand, and while the feasters were hazarding guesses as to why he
+was so long in coming to Alexandria, he took out the folding tablet he
+was in the habit of carrying in his money-bag, and hastily wrote the
+following lines on the wax face of it:
+
+          ‘Let others envy Florus’ lot;
+          To wander through the shops for drink,
+          Or, into foolish dreaming sink
+          In a cook-shop, where sticky flies
+          Buzz round him till he shuts his eyes
+          Is Florus’ taste--I’d rather not?’
+
+   [From verses by Hadrian and Florus, preserved in Spartianus.]
+
+Hardly had he ended the lines, muttering them to himself with much
+relish as he wrote, when the waiter showed in Pollux. The sculptor had
+failed to find Antinous, and suggested that the young man had probably
+gone home; he also begged that he might not be detained long at supper,
+for he had met his master Papias, who had been extremely annoyed by his
+long absence. Hadrian was no longer satisfied with the artist’s society,
+for the conversation in the next room was to him far more attractive
+than that of the worthy young fellow. He himself was anxious to quit
+the meal soon, for he felt restless and uneasy. Antinous could no doubt
+easily find his way to Lochias, but recollections of the evil omens he
+had observed in the heavens last night flitted across his soul like bats
+through a festal hall, marring the pleasure on which he again tried to
+concentrate it, in order to enjoy his hours of liberty.
+
+Even Pollux was not so light-hearted as before. His long walk had made
+him hungry, and he addressed himself so vigorously to the excellent
+dishes which rapidly followed each other by his entertainer’s orders,
+and emptied the cup with such unfailing diligence, that the Emperor was
+astonished: but the more he had to think about, the less did he talk.
+
+Pollux, to be sure, had had his answer ready for his master, and without
+considering how easy it would have been to part from him in kindness, he
+had shortly and roundly quitted his service. Now indeed he stood on his
+own feet, and he was longing to tell Arsinoe and his parents of what he
+had done.
+
+During the course of the meal his mother’s advice recurred to his mind:
+to do his best to win the favor and good will of the architect whose
+guest he was; but he set it aside, for he was accustomed to owe all he
+gained to his own exertions, and though he still keenly felt in Hadrian
+the superiority of a powerful mind, their expedition through the city
+had not brought him any nearer to the Roman. Some insurmountable barrier
+stood fixed between himself and this restless, inquisitive man, who
+required so many answers that no one else had time to ask a question,
+and who when he was silent looked so absorbed and unapproachable that
+no one would have ventured to disturb him. The bold young artist had,
+however, tried now and again to break through the fence, but each time,
+he had at once been seized with a feeling, of which he could not rid
+himself, that he had done something awkward and unbecoming. He felt
+in his intercourse with the architect as a noble dog might feel that
+sported with a lion, and such sport could come to no good. Thus, for
+various reasons, host and guest were well content when the last dish was
+removed. Before Pollux left the room the Emperor gave him the tablets
+with the verses and begged him, with a meaning smile, to desire the
+gate-keeper at the Caesareum to give them to Annaeus Florus the Roman.
+He once more urgently charged the sculptor to look about for his young
+friend and, if he should find him at Lochias, to tell him that he,
+Claudius Venator, would return home ere long. Then the artist went his
+way.
+
+Hadrian still sat a long time listening to the talk close by; but after
+waiting for above an hour to hear some fresh mention made of himself,
+he paid his reckoning and went out into the Canopic way, now brilliantly
+lighted. There he mingled with the revellers, and walked slowly onward,
+seeking suspiciously and anxiously for his vanished favorite.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Antinous, searching for his master, had wandered about in the crowd.
+Whenever he saw any figures of exceptional stature he followed them, but
+each time only to discover that he had entered on a false track. Long
+and persistent effort was not in his nature, so as soon as he began to
+get tired, he gave up the search and sat down again on a stone bench in
+the garden of the Paneum.
+
+Two cynic philosophers, with unkempt hair, tangled beards, and ragged
+cloaks flung over their shivering bodies, sat down by him and fell into
+loud and contemptuous abuse of the deference shown, ‘in these days,’
+to external things and vulgar joys, and of the wretched sensualists who
+regarded pleasure and splendor, rather than virtue, as the aim and end
+of existence. In order to be heard by the by-standers they spoke in
+loud tones, and the elder of the two, flourished his knotted stick
+as viciously, as though he had to defend himself against an attack.
+Antinous felt much disgusted by the hideous appearance, the coarse
+manners, and shrill voices of these persons, and when he rose--as the
+cynics’ diatribe seemed especially directed against him--they scoffed at
+him as he went, mocking at his costume and his oiled and perfumed hair.
+The Bithynian made no reply to this abuse. It was odious to him, but he
+thought it might perhaps have amused Caesar.
+
+He wandered on without thinking; the street in which he presently found
+himself must no doubt lead to the sea, and if he could once find himself
+on the shore he could not fail to make his way to Lochias. By the
+time it was growing dark he was once more standing outside the little
+gate-house, and there he learnt from Doris that the Roman and her son
+had not yet returned.
+
+What was he to do alone in the vast empty palace? Were not the
+very slaves free to-day? Why should not he too for once enjoy life
+independently and in his own way? Full of the pleasant sense of being
+his own master and at liberty to walk in a road of his own choosing,
+he went onwards, and when he presently passed by the stall of a
+flower-seller, he began once more to think eagerly of Selene and the
+nosegay, which must long since have reached her hands.
+
+He had heard from Pollux in the morning that the steward’s daughter was
+being tended by Christians in a little house not far from the sea-shore;
+indeed the sculptor himself had been quite excited as he told Antinous
+that he himself had peeped into the lighted room and had seen her. ‘A
+glorious creature’ he had called her, and had said that she had never
+looked more beautiful than in a recumbent attitude on her bed.
+
+Antinous recalled all this and determined to venture on an attempt to
+see again the maiden whose image filled his heart and brain.
+
+It was now dark and the same light which had allowed of the sculptor’s
+seeing Selene’s features might this evening reveal them to him also.
+Full of passion and excitement, he got into the first litter he met
+with. The swarthy bearers were far too slow for his longing, and more
+than once he flung to them as much money as they were wont to earn in
+a week, to urge them to a brisker pace. At last he reached his
+destination; but seeing that several men and women robed in white, were
+going into the garden, he desired the bearers to carry him farther.
+Close to a dark narrow lane which bounded the widow’s garden-plot on the
+east and led directly to the sea, he desired them to stop, got out of
+the litter and bid the slaves wait for him. At the garden door he still
+found two men dressed in white, and one of the cynic philosophers who
+had sat by him on the bench near the Paneum. He paced impatiently up
+and clown, waiting till these people should have disappeared, and thus
+passing again and again under the light of the torches that were stuck
+up by the gate.
+
+The dry cynic’s prominent eyes were everywhere at once, and as soon as
+he perceived the peripatetic Bithynian he flung up his arm, exclaiming,
+as he pointed to him with a long, lean, stiff forefinger--half to the
+Christians with whom he had been talking and half to the lad himself:
+
+“What does he want. That fop! that over-dressed minion! I know the
+fellow; with his smooth face and the silver quiver on his shoulder he
+believes he is Eros in person. Be off with you, you house-rat. The women
+and girls in here know how to protect themselves against the sort who
+parade the streets in rose-colored draperies. Take yourself off, or you
+will make acquaintance with the noble Paulina’s slaves and clogs. Hi!
+gate-keeper, here! keep an eye on this fellow.”
+
+Antinous made no answer, but slowly went back to his litter.
+
+“To-morrow perhaps, if I cannot manage it tonight,” he thought to
+himself as he went; and he never thought of any other means of attaining
+his end, much as he longed for it. A hindrance that came in his way
+ceased to be a hindrance as soon as he had left it behind him, and after
+this reflection he acted on this occasion as on many former ones. The
+litter was no longer standing where he had left it; the bearers had
+carried it into the lane leading to the sea, for the only little abode
+which stood on the eastern side of it belonged to a fisherman whose wife
+sold thin potations of Pelusium beer.
+
+Antinous went down the green alley overarched with boughs of fig, to
+call the negroes who were sitting in the dull light of a smoky oil-lamp.
+Here it was dark, but at the end of the alley the sea shone and sparkled
+in the moonlight; the splashing of the waves tempted him onwards and he
+loitered clown to the stone-bound shore. There he spied a boat dancing
+on the water between two piles and it came into his head that it might
+be possible to see the house where Selene was sleeping, from the sea.
+
+He undid the rope which secured the boat without any difficulty; he
+seated himself in it, laid aside the quiver and bow, pushed off with one
+of the oars that lay at the bottom of the boat and pulled with steady
+strokes towards the long path of light where the moon touched the crest
+of each dancing wavelet with unresting tremulous flecks of silver.
+
+There lay the widow’s garden. In that small white house must the
+fair pale Selene be sleeping, but though he rowed hither and thither,
+backwards and forwards, he could not succeed in discovering the window
+of which Pollux had spoken. Might it not be possible to find a spot
+where he could disembark and then make his way into the garden? He could
+see two little boats, but they lay in a narrow walled canal and this
+was closed by an iron railing. Beyond, was a terrace projecting into the
+sea, and surrounded by an elegant balustrade of little columns, but it
+rose straight out of the sea on smooth high walls. But there--what was
+that gleaming under the two palm-trees which, springing from the same
+root, had grown together tall and slender--was not that a flight of
+marble steps leading down to the sea?
+
+Antinous dipped his right oar in the waves with a practised hand to
+alter the head of the boat and was in the act of pulling his hand up
+to make his stroke against the pressure of the waves--but he did not
+complete the movement, nay he counteracted the stroke by a dexterous
+reverse action; a strange vision arrested his attention. On the terrace,
+which lay full in the bright moonlight, there appeared a white-robed
+figure with long floating hair.
+
+How strangely it moved! It went now to one side and now to the other,
+then again it stood still and clasped its head in its hands. Antinous
+shuddered, he could not help thinking of the Daimons of which Hadrian so
+often spoke. They were said to be of half-divine and half-human nature,
+and sometimes appeared in the guise of mortals.
+
+Or was Selene dead and was the white figure her wandering shade?
+Antinous clutched the handles of the oars, now merely floating on the
+water, and bending forward gazed fixedly and with bated breath at the
+mysterious being which had now reached the balustrade of the terrace,
+now--he saw quite plainly--covered its face with both hands, leaned far
+over the parapet, and now as a star falls through the sky on a clear
+night, as a fruit drops from the tree in autumn, the white form of the
+girl dropped from the terrace. A loud cry of anguish broke the silence
+of the night which veiled the world, and almost at the same instant the
+water splashed and gurgled up, and the moonbeams, cold and bright as
+ever, were mirrored in the thousand drops that flew up from its surface.
+
+Was this Antinous, the indolent dreamer, who so promptly plunged his
+oars in the water, pulled a powerful stroke, and then, when in a few
+seconds after her fall, the form of the drowning girl came to the
+surface again quite close to the boat, flung aside the oar that was in
+his way? Leaning far over the edge of the boat he seized the floating
+garment of the drowning creature--it was a woman, no Daimon nor
+shade--and drew her towards him. He succeeded in raising her high out of
+the waves, but when he tried to pull her fairly out of her watery bed,
+the weight, all on one side of the boat, was too great; it turned over
+and Antinous was in the sea.
+
+The Bithyman was a good swimmer. Before the white form could sink a
+second time he had caught at it once more with his right hand and taking
+care that her head should not again touch the surface of the water, he
+swam with his left arm and legs towards the spot where he remembered
+he had seen the flight of steps. As soon as his feet felt the ground he
+lifted the girl in both arms and a groan of relief broke from his lips
+as he saw the marble steps close below him. He went up them without
+hesitation, and then, with a swift elastic step, carried his dripping
+and senseless burden to the terrace where he had observed that there
+were benches. The wide floor of the sea-terrace, paved with smooth
+flags of marble, was brightly lighted by the broad moonshine, and the
+whiteness of the stone reflected and seemed to increase the light. There
+stood the benches which Antinous had seen from afar.
+
+He laid his burden on the first he came to, and a thrill of thankful joy
+warmed his shivering body when the rescued woman uttered a low cry of
+pain which told him that he had not toiled in vain. He gently slipped
+his arm between the hard elbow of the marble seat and her head, to give
+it a somewhat softer resting-place. Her abundant hair fell in clammy
+tresses, covering her face like a thick but fine veil; he parted it to
+the right and left and then--then he sank on his knees by her side as if
+a sudden bolt had fallen from the blue sky above them; for the features
+were hers, Selene’s, and the pale girl before whom he was kneeling was
+she herself, the woman he loved.
+
+Almost beside himself and trembling in every limb, he drew her closer
+to him and put his ear against her mouth to listen whether he had not
+deceived himself, whether she had not indeed fallen a victim to the
+waves or whether some warm breath were passing the portals of her lips.
+
+Yes she breathed! she was alive! Full of thankful ecstasy he pressed his
+cheek to hers. Oh! how cold she was, icy, cold as death!
+
+The torch of life was flickering, but he would not--could not--must not
+let it die out: and with all the care, rapidity and decision of the most
+capable man, he once more raised her, lifted her in both arms as if she
+were a child, and carried her straight to the house whose white walls he
+could see gleaming among the shrubs behind the terrace. The little lamp
+was still burning in dame Hannah’s room, which Selene had so lately
+quitted; in front of the window through which the dim light came to
+mingle with the moonbeams, lay the flowers whose perfume had so troubled
+the suffering girl, and with them Hannah’s clay jar, all still strewn on
+the ground.
+
+Was this nosegay his gift? Very likely.
+
+But the lamp-lighted room into which he now looked could be none other
+than the sick-room, which he recognized from the sculptor’s account. The
+housedoor was open and even that of the room in which he had seen the
+bed was unfastened; he pushed it open with his foot, entered the room,
+and laid Selene on the vacant couch.
+
+There she lay as if dead; and as he looked at her immovable features,
+hallowed to solemnity by sorrow and suffering, his heart was touched
+with an ineffable solicitude, sympathy and pity; and, as a brother
+might bend over a sleeping sister, he bent over Selene and kissed her
+forehead. She moved, opened her eyes, gazed into his face--but her
+glance was so full of horror, so vague, glassy and bewildered, that he
+drew back with a shudder, and with hands uplifted could only stammer
+out: “Oh! Selene, Selene! do you not know me?” and as he spoke he looked
+anxiously in the face of the rescued girl; but she seemed not to hear
+him and nothing moved but her eyes which slowly followed his every
+movement.
+
+“Selene!” he cried again, and seizing her inanimate hand which hung
+down, he pressed it passionately to his lips.
+
+Then she gave a loud cry, a violent shiver shook her in every limb, she
+turned aside with sighs and groans, and at the same instant the door
+was opened, the little deformed girl entered the room and gave a shrill
+scream of terror as she saw Antinous standing by the side of her friend.
+
+The lad himself started and, like a thief who has been caught in the
+act, he fled out into the night, through the garden, and as far as the
+gate which led into the street without being stopped by any one. Here
+the gate-keeper met him, but he threw him aside with a powerful fling,
+and while the old man--who had grown gray in his office--caught hold of
+his wet chiton he tore the door open and ran on, dragging his pursuer
+with him for some paces. Then he flew down the street with long steps as
+if he were racing in the Gymnasium, and soon he felt that his pursuer,
+in whose hand he had left a piece of his garment, had given up the
+chase.
+
+The gate-keeper’s outcry had mingled with the pious hymns of the
+assembled Christians in Paulina’s villa, and some of them had hurried
+out to help capture the disturber of the peace. But the young Bithynian
+was swifter than they and might consider himself perfectly safe when
+once he had succeeded in mixing with a festal procession. Half-willingly
+and half-perforce, he followed the drunken throng which was making its
+way from the heart of the city towards the lake, where, on a lonely spot
+on the shore to the east of Nikropolis, they were to celebrate certain
+nocturnal mysteries. The goal of the singing, shouting, howling mob with
+whom Antinous was carried along, was between Alexandria and Canopus and
+far enough from Lochias; thus it fell out that it was long past midnight
+when Hadrian’s favorite, dirty, out of breath, and his clothes torn, at
+last appeared in the presence of his master.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Hadrian had expected Antinous many hours since, and the impatience and
+vexation which had been long seething in him were reflected plainly
+enough in his sternly-bent brow and the threatening fire of his eye.
+
+“Where have you been?” he imperiously asked.
+
+“I could not find you, so I took a boat and went out on the lake.”
+
+“That is false.”
+
+Antinous did not answer, but merely shrugged his shoulders.
+
+“Alone?” asked the Emperor more gently. “Alone.”
+
+“And for what purpose?”
+
+“I was gazing at the stars.”
+
+“You!”
+
+“And may I not, for once, tread in your footsteps?”
+
+“Why not indeed? The lights of heaven shine for the foolish as well as
+for the wise. Even asses must be born under a good or an evil star. One
+donkey serves a hungry grammarian and feeds on used-up papyrus, while
+another enters the service of Caesar and is fattened up, and finds time
+to go star-gazing at night. What a state you are in.”
+
+“The boat upset and I fell into the water.” Hadrian was startled, and
+observing his favorite’s tangled hair in which the night wind had dried
+the salt water, and his torn chiton, he anxiously exclaimed:
+
+“Go this instant and let Mastor dry you and anoint you. He too came
+back with a bruised hand and red eyes. Everything is upside clown this
+accursed evening. You look like a slave that has been hunted by clogs.
+Drink a few cups of wine and then lie down.”
+
+“I obey your orders, great Caesar.”
+
+“So formal? The donkey simile vexed you.”
+
+“You used always to have a kind word for me.”
+
+“Yes, yes, and I shall have them again, I shall have them again. Only
+not to-night--go to bed.”
+
+Antinous left him, but the Emperor paced his room, up and down with
+long steps, his arms crossed over his breast and his eyes fixed on the
+ground. His superstitious soul had been deeply disturbed by a series of
+evil signs which he had not only seen the previous night in the sky, but
+had also met on his way to Lochias, and which seemed to be beginning to
+be fulfilled already.
+
+He had left the eating house in an evil humor, the bad omens made him
+anxious, and though on his arrival at home he had done one or two things
+which he already regretted, this had certainly not been due to any
+adverse Daimons but to the brooding gloom of his clouded mind. Eternal
+circumstances, it is true, had led to his being witness to an attack
+made by the mob on the house of a wealthy Israelite, and it was
+attributable to a vexatious accident that at this juncture, he should
+have met Verus, who had observed and recognized him. Yes, the Spirits of
+evil were abroad this day, but his subsequent experiences and deeds
+upon reaching Lochias, would certainly not have taken place on any more
+fortunate day, or, to be more exact, if he had been in a calmer frame of
+mind; he himself alone was in fault, he alone, and no spiteful accident,
+nor malicious and tricky Daimon. Hadrian, to be sure, attributed to
+these sprites all that he had done, and so considered it irremediable;
+an excellent way, no doubt, of exonerating oneself from a burdensome
+duty, or from repairing some injustice, but conscience is a register in
+which a mysterious hand inexorably enters every one of our deeds, and
+in which all that we do is ruthlessly called by its true name. We often
+succeed, it is true, in effacing the record for a longer or a shorter
+period, but often, again, the letters on the page shine with an uncanny
+light, and force the inward eye to see them and to heed them.
+
+On this particular night Hadrian felt himself compelled to read the
+catalogue of his actions and among them he found many a sanguinary
+crime, many a petty action unworthy of a far meaner soul than he; still
+the record commemorated many duties strictly fulfilled, much honest
+work, an unceasing struggle towards high aims, and an unwearied effort
+to feel his way intellectually, to the most remote and exalted limits
+possible to the human mind and comprehension.
+
+In this hour Hadrian thought of none but his evil deeds, and vowed to
+the gods--whom he mocked at with his philosophical friends, and to whom
+he nevertheless addressed himself whenever he felt the insufficiency of
+his own strength and means--to build a temple here, to offer a sacrifice
+there, in order to expiate old crimes and divert their malice. He
+felt like a great man must who is threatened with the disfavor of his
+superiors, and who hopes to propitiate them with gifts. The haughty
+Roman quailed at the thought of unknown dangers, but he was far from
+feeling the wholesome pangs of repentance.
+
+Hardly an hour since he had forgotten himself and had disgracefully
+abused his power over a weaker creature, and now he was vexed at having
+behaved so and not otherwise; but it never entered his head to humiliate
+his pride or, by offering some compensation to the offended party,
+tacitly to confess the injustice he had committed. Often he deeply
+felt his human weakness, but he was quite capable of believing in the
+sacredness of his imperial person, and this he always found most easy
+when he had trodden under foot some one who had been rash enough to
+insult him, or not to acknowledge his superiority. And was it not on the
+contemners of the gods that their heaviest punishments fell?
+
+To-day the terrestrial Jupiter had again crushed into the earth with his
+thunderbolts, an overbold mortal, and this time the son of the worthy
+gate-keeper was his victim. The sculptor certainly had been so unlucky
+as to touch Hadrian in his most sensitive spot, but a cordially
+benevolent feeling is not easily converted into a relentless opposition
+if we are not ourselves--as was the case with the Emperor--accustomed to
+jump from one mood to the other, are not conscious--as he was--of having
+it in our power directly to express our good-will or our aversion in
+action.
+
+The sculptor’s capacities had commanded the Emperor’s esteem, his fresh
+and independent nature had at first suited and attracted him, but
+even during the walk together through the streets, the young man’s
+uncompromising manner of treating him as an equal had become unpleasing
+to him. In his workshop he saw in Pollux only the artist, and delighted
+in his original and dashing powers; but out of it, and among men of a
+commoner stamp, from whom he was accustomed to meet with deference, the
+young man’s speech and demeanor seemed unbecoming, bold, and hard to be
+endured. In the eating-house the huge eater and drinker, who laughingly
+pressed him to do his part, so as not to make a present to the landlord,
+had filled Hadrian with repulsion. And after this, when Hadrian had
+returned to Lochias, out of humor and rendered apprehensive by evil
+omens, and even then had not found his favorite, he impatiently paced up
+and down the hall of the Muses and would not deign to offer a greeting
+to the sculptor, who was noisily occupied behind his screens.
+
+Pollux had passed quite as bad an evening as the Emperor. When, in
+his desire to see Arsinoe once more, he penetrated to the door of the
+steward’s apartment, Keraunus had stopped his way, and sent him about
+his business with insulting words. In the hall of the Muses he had
+met his master, and had had a quarrel with him, for Papias, to whom he
+repeated his notice to quit, had grown angry, and had desired him then
+and there to sort out his own tools, and to return those that belonged
+to him, his master, and for the future to keep himself as far as
+possible from Papias’ house, and from the works in progress at Locluas.
+On this, hard words had passed on both sides, and when Papias had left
+the palace and Pollux went to seek Pontius the architect, in order to
+discuss his future plans with him, he learnt that he too had quitted
+Lochias a short time before, and would not return till the following
+morning.
+
+After brief reflection he determined to obey the orders of Papias and
+to pack his own tools together. Without paying any heed to Hadrian’s
+presence he began to toss some of the hammers, chisels, and wooden
+modelling tools into one box, and others into another, doing it as
+recklessly as though he were minded to punish the unconscious tools as
+adverse creatures who had turned against him.
+
+At last his eye fell on Hadrian’s bust of Balbilla. The hideous
+caricature at which he had laughed only yesterday, made him angry now,
+and after gazing at it thoughtfully for a few minutes his blood boiled
+up furiously, he hastily pulled a lath out of the partition and struck
+at the monstrosity with such fury that the dry clay flew in pieces, and
+the fragments were strewed far and wide about the workshop. The wild
+noise behind the sculptor’s screen made the Emperor pause in his walk to
+see what the artist was doing; he looked on at the work of destruction,
+unobserved by Pollux, and as he looked the blood mounted to his head; he
+knit his brows in anger, a blue vein in his forehead swelled and stood
+out, and ominous lines appeared above his brow. The great master of
+state-craft could more easily have borne to hear himself condemned as a
+ruler than to see his work of art despised. A man who is sure of having
+done some thing great can smile at blame, but he, who is not confident
+in himself has reason to dread it, and is easily drawn into hating the
+critic who utters it. Hadrian was trembling with fury, he doubled his
+first as he lifted it in Pollux’s face, and going close up to him asked
+in a threatening tone:
+
+“What do you mean by that?”
+
+The sculptor glanced round at the Emperor and answered, raising his
+stick for another blow:
+
+“I am demolishing this caricature for it enrages me.”
+
+“Come here,” shouted Hadrian, and clutching the girdle which confined
+the artist’s chiton, in his strong sinewy hand, he dragged the startled
+sculptor in front of his Urania wrenched the lath out of his hand,
+struck the bust of the scarcely-finished statue off the body, exclaiming
+as he did so, in a voice that mimicked Pollux:
+
+“I am demolishing this bungler’s work for it enrages me!”
+
+The artist’s arms fell by his side; astonished and infuriated he stared
+at the destroyer of his handiwork, and cried out:
+
+“Madman! this is enough. One blow more and you will feel the weight of
+my fists.”
+
+Hadrian laughed aloud, a cold hard laugh, flung the lath at Pollux’s
+feet and said:
+
+“Judgment against judgment--it is only fair.”
+
+“Fair?” shrieked Pollux, beside himself.
+
+“Your wretched rubbish, which my squinting apprentice could have done as
+well as you, and this figure born in a moment of inspiration! Shame
+upon you! Once more, if you touch the Urania again I warn you, you shall
+learn--”
+
+“Well, what?”
+
+“That in Alexandria grey hairs are only respected so long as they
+deserve it.”
+
+Hadrian folded his arms, stepped quite close up to Pollux, and said:
+
+“Gently, fellow, if you value your life.”
+
+Pollux stepped back before the imposing personage that stood before him,
+and, as it were scales, fell from his eyes. The marble statue of
+the Emperor in the Caesareum represented the sovereign in this same
+attitude. The architect, Claudius Venator, was none other than Hadrian.
+
+The young artist turned pale and said with bowed head, and in low voice
+as he turned to go:
+
+“Right is always on the side of the strongest. Let me go. I am nothing
+but a poor artist--you are some thing very different. I know you now;
+you are Caesar.”
+
+“I am Caesar,” snarled Hadrian, “and if you think more of yourself as an
+artist than of me, I will show you which of us two is the sparrow, and
+which the eagle.”
+
+“You have the power to destroy, and I only desire--”
+
+“The only person here who has a right to desire is myself,” cried the
+Emperor, “and I desire that you shall never enter this palace again, nor
+ever come within sight of me so long as I remain here. What to do with
+your kith and kin I will consider. Not another word! Away with you, I
+say, and thank the gods that I judge the misdeed of a miserable boy more
+mercifully than you dared to do in judging the work of a greater man
+than yourself, though you knew that he had done it in an idle hour with
+a few hasty touches. Be off, fellow; my slaves will finish destroying
+your image there, for it deserves no better fate, and because--what was
+it you said just now? I remember--and because it enrages me.”
+
+A bitter laugh rang after the lad as he quitted the hall. At the
+entrance, which was perfectly dark, he found his master, Papias, who
+had not missed a word of what had passed between him and the Emperor. As
+Pollux went into his mother’s house he cried out:
+
+“Oh mother, mother, what a morning, and what an evening. Happiness is
+only the threshold to misery.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+While Pollux and his mother, who was much grieved, waited for
+Euphorion’s return, and while Papias was ingratiating himself with the
+Emperor by pretending still to believe that Hadrian was nothing more
+than Claudius Venator, the architect, Aurelius Verus, nicknamed by the
+Alexandrians, “the sham Eros” had lived through strange experiences.
+
+In the afternoon he had visited the Empress, in the hope of persuading
+her to look on at the gay doings of the people, even if incognito; but
+Sabina was out of spirits, declared herself unwell, and was quite sure
+that the noise of the rabble would be the death of her. Having, as she
+said, so vivacious a reporter as Verus, she might spare herself from
+exposing her own person to the dust and smell of the town, and the
+uproar of men. As soon as Lucilla begged her husband to remember his
+rank and not to mingle with the excited multitude, at any rate after
+dark, the Empress strictly enjoined him to see with his own eyes
+everything that could be worth notice in the festival, and more
+particularly to give attention to everything that was peculiar to
+Alexandria and not to be seen in Rome.
+
+After sunset Verus had first gone to visit the veterans of the Twelfth
+Legion who had been in the field with him against the Numidians, and
+to whom he gave a dinner at an eating-house, as being his old
+fellow-soldiers. For above an hour he sat drinking with the brave old
+fellows; then, quitting them, he went to look at the Canopic way
+by night, as it was but a few paces thither from the scene of his
+hospitality. It was brilliantly lighted with tapers, torches, and
+lamps, and the large houses behind the colonnades were gaudy with rich
+hangings; only the handsomest and stateliest of them all had no kind of
+decoration. This was the abode of the Jew Apollodorus.
+
+In former years the finest hangings had decorated his windows, which had
+been as gay with flowers and lamps as those of the other Israelites
+who dwelt in the Canopic way, and who were wont to keep the festival
+in common with their heathen fellow-citizens as jovially as though they
+were no less zealous to do homage to Dionysus. Apollodorus had his own
+reasons for keeping aloof on this occasion from all that was connected
+with the holiday doings of the heathen. Without dreaming that his
+withdrawal could involve him in any danger, he was quietly sitting in
+his house, which was so splendidly furnished as to seem fitted for some
+princely Greek rather than for a Hebrew. This was especially the case
+with the men’s living-room, in which Apollodorus sat, for the pictures
+on the walls and pavement of this beautiful hall--of which the
+roof, which was half open, was supported on columns of the finest
+porphyry--represented the loves of Eros and Psyche; while between the
+pillars stood busts of the greatest heathen philosophers, and in the
+background a fine statue of Plato was conspicuous. Among all the Greeks
+and Romans there was the portrait of only one Jew, and this was that of
+Philo, whose intellectual and delicate features greatly resembled those
+of the most illustrious of his Greek companions.
+
+In this splendid room, lighted by silver lamps, there was no lack
+of easy couches, and on one of these Apollodorus was reclining; a
+fine-looking man of fifty, with his mild but shrewd eyes fixed on a tall
+and aged fellow-Israelite who was pacing up and down in front of him and
+talking eagerly; the old man’s hands too were never still, now he used
+them in eager gesture, and again stroked his long white beard. On an
+easy seat opposite to the master of the house sat a lean young man with
+pale and very regular finely-cut features, black hair and a black beard;
+he sat with his dark glowing eyes fixed on the ground, tracing lines and
+circles on the pavement with the stick he held in his hand, while the
+excited old man, his uncle, urgently addressed Apollodorus in a vehement
+but fluent torrent of words. Apollodorus, however, shook his head
+from time to time at his speech and frequently met him with a brief
+contradiction.
+
+It was easy to see that what he was listening to touched him painfully,
+and that the two diametrically different men were fighting a battle
+which could never lead to any satisfactory issue. For, though they both
+used the Greek tongue and confessed the same religion, all they felt and
+thought was grounded on views, as widely dissimilar as though the two
+men had been born in different spheres. When two opponents of such
+different calibre meet, there is a great clatter of arms but no bloody
+wounds are dealt and neither rout nor victory can result.
+
+It was on account of this old man and his nephew that Apollodorus had
+forborne to-day to decorate his house, for the Rabbi Gamaliel, who had
+arrived only the day before from Palestine, and had been welcomed by
+his Alexandrian relatives, condemned every form of communion with the
+gentiles, and would undoubtedly have quitted the residence of his host
+if he had ventured to adorn it in honor of the feast-day of the false
+gods. Gamaliel’s nephew, Rabbi Ben Jochai, enjoyed a reputation little
+inferior to that of his father, Ben Akiba. The elder was the greatest
+sage and expounder of the law--the son the most illustrious astronomer
+and the most skilled interpreter of the mystical significance of the
+position of the heavenly bodies, among the Hebrews.
+
+It redounded greatly to the honor of Apollodorus that he should be
+privileged to shelter under his roof the sage Gamaliel and the famous
+son of so great a father, and in his hours of leisure he loved to occupy
+himself with learned subjects, so he had done his utmost to make their
+stay in his house in every way agreeable to them. He had bought, on
+purpose for them, a kitchen slave, himself a strict Jew and familiar
+with the requirements of the Levitical law as to food, who during their
+stay was to preside over the mysteries of the hearth, instead of the
+Greek cook who usually served him, so that none but clean meat should be
+prepared according to the Jewish ritual. He had forbidden his grown-up
+sons to invite any of their Greek friends into the house during the
+visit of the illustrious couple or to discuss the festival; they were
+also enjoined to avoid using the names of the gods of the heathen in
+their conversation--but he himself was the first to sin against this
+prohibition.
+
+He, like all the Hebrews of good position in Alexandria, had acquired
+Greek culture, felt and thought in Greek modes, and had remained a Jew
+only in name; for though they still believed in the one God of their
+fathers instead of in a crowd of Olympian deities, the One whom they
+worshipped was no longer the almighty and jealous God of their nation,
+but the all-pervading plasmic and life-giving Spirit with whom the
+Greeks had become familiar through Plato.
+
+Every hour that they had spent in each other’s company had widened
+the gulf between Apollodorus and Gamaliel, and the relations of the
+Alexandrian to the sage had become almost intolerable, when he learnt
+that the old man--who was related to himself--had come to Egypt with his
+nephew, in order to demand the daughter of Apollodorus in marriage. But
+the fair Ismene was not in the least disposed to listen to this grave
+and bigoted suitor. The home of her people was to her a barbarous land,
+the young astronomer filled her with alarm, and besides all this her
+heart was already engaged; she had given it to the son of Alabarchos,
+who was the Superior of all the Israelites in Egypt, and this young
+man possessed the finest horse in the whole city, with which he had won
+several races in the Hippodrome, and he also had distinguished her above
+all the maidens. To him, if to any one, would she give her hand, and she
+had explained herself to this effect to her father when he informed her
+of Ben Jochai’s suit, and Apollodorus, who had lost his wife several
+years before, had neither the wish nor the power to put any pressure on
+his pretty darling.
+
+To be sure the temporizing nature of the man rendered it very difficult
+to him to give a decided no to his venerable old friend; but it had
+to be done sooner or later, and the present evening seemed to him an
+appropriate moment for this unpleasant task.
+
+He was alone with his guests. His daughter had gone to the house of a
+friend to look on at the gay doings in the street, his three sons were
+out, all the slaves had leave to enjoy their holiday till midnight;
+nothing was likely to disturb them, and so, after many warm expressions
+of his deep respect, he found courage to confess to them that he could
+not support Ben Jochai’s pretensions. His child, he said, clung too
+fondly to Alexandria to wish to quit it, and his learned young friend
+would be but ill suited with a wife who was accustomed to freer manners
+and habits, and could hardly feel herself at ease in a home where the
+laws of her fathers were strictly observed, and in which therefore no
+kind of freedom of life would be tolerated.
+
+Gamaliel let the Alexandrian speak to the end, but then, as his nephew
+was beginning to argue against their host’s hesitancy, the old man
+abruptly interrupted him. Drawing up his figure, which was a little
+bent, to its full height, and passing his hand among the blue veins and
+fine wrinkles that marked his high forehead, he began:
+
+“Our house was decimated in our wars against the Romans, and among the
+daughters of our race Ben Akiba found not one in Palestine who seemed to
+him worthy to marry his son. But the report of the good fortune of
+the Alexandrian branch of our family had reached Judea, and Ben Akiba
+thought that he would do like our father Abraham, and he sent me, his
+Eliezer, into a strange land to win the daughter of a kinsman to wife
+for his Isaac. Now, who and what the young man is, and the esteem in
+which he and his father are held by men--”
+
+“I know well,” interrupted Apollodorus, “and my house has never been so
+highly honored as in your visit.”
+
+“And notwithstanding,” continued the Rabbi, “we must return home as we
+came; and indeed this will not only suit you best, but us too, and my
+brother, whose ambassador I am, for after what I have learnt from you
+within this last hour we must in any case withdraw our suit. Do not
+interrupt me! Your Ismene scorns to veil her face, and no doubt it is a
+very pretty one to look upon--you have trained her mind like that of a
+man, and so she seeks to go her own way. That may be all very well for
+a Greek woman, but in the house of Ben Akiba the woman must obey her
+husband’s will, as the ship obeys the helm, and have no will of her own;
+her husband’s will always coincides with what the law commands, which
+you yourself learnt to obey.”
+
+“We recognize its excellence,” replied Apolloderus, “but even if all the
+laws which Moses received on Sinai were binding on all mortals alike,
+the various ordinances which were wisely laid down for the regulation of
+the social life of our fathers, are not universally applicable for the
+children of our day. And least of all can we observe them here, where,
+though true to our ancient faith, we live as Greeks among Greeks.”
+
+“That I perceive,” retorted Gamaliel, “for even the language--that
+clothing of our thoughts--the language of our fathers and of the
+scriptures, you have abandoned for another, sacrificed to another.”
+
+“You and your nephew also speak Greek.”
+
+“We do it here, because the heathen, because you and yours, no longer
+understand the tongue of Moses and the prophets.”
+
+“But wherever the Great Alexander bore his arms Greek is spoken; and
+does not the Greek version of the scriptures, translated by the seventy
+interpreters under the direct guidance of our God, exactly reproduce the
+Hebrew text?”
+
+“And would you exchange the stone engraved by Bryasis that you wear
+on your finger, and showed me yesterday with so much pride, for a wax
+impression of the gem?”
+
+“The language of Plato is not an inferior thing; it is as noble as the
+costliest sapphire.”
+
+“But ours came to us from the lips of the Most High. What would you
+think of a child that, disdaining the tongue Of its father listened only
+to that of its neighbors and made use of an interpreter to be able to
+understand its parents’ commands?”
+
+“You are speaking of parents who have long since left their native land.
+The ancestor need not be indignant with his descendants when they use
+the language of their new home, so long as they continue to act in
+accordance with his spirit.”
+
+“We must live not merely in accordance with the spirit, but by the words
+of the Most High, for not a syllable proceeds from His lips in vain. The
+more exalted the spirit of a discourse is, the more important is every
+word and syllable. One single letter often changes the meaning of whole
+sentences.--What a noise the people outside are making! The wild tumult
+penetrates even into this room which is so far from the street, and
+your sons take delight in the disorders of the heathen! You do not even
+withhold them by force from adding to the number of those mad devotees
+of pleasure!”
+
+“I was young once myself, and I think it no sin to share in the
+universal rejoicing.”
+
+“Say rather the disgraceful idolatry of the worshippers of Dionysus. It
+is in name alone that you and your children belong to the elect people
+of God, in your hearts you are heathens!”
+
+“No, Father,” exclaimed Apollodorus eagerly. “The reverse is the case.
+In our hearts we are Jews but we wear the garments of Greeks.”
+
+“Why your name is Apollodorus--the gift of Apollo.”
+
+“A name chosen only to distinguish me from others. Who would ever
+enquire into the meaning of a name if it sounds well.”
+
+“You, everybody who is not devoid of sense,” cried the Rabbi. “You think
+to yourself ‘need Zenodotus or Hermogenes, some Greek you meet at the
+bath or else where, know at once that the wealthy personage, with whom
+he discussed the latest interpretation of the Hellenic myths, is a
+Jew?’ And how charming is the man who asks you whether you are not
+an Athenian, for your Greek has such a pure Attic accent! And what we
+ourselves like, we favor in our children, so we choose names for them
+too which flatter our own vanity.”
+
+“By Heracles!”
+
+A faint mocking smile crossed Gamaliel’s lips and interrupting the
+Alexandrian he said:
+
+“Is there any particularly worthy man among our Alexandrian
+fellow-believers whose name is Heracles?”
+
+“No one” cried the Alexandrian “ever thinks of the son of Alcmene when
+he asseverates--it only means ‘really,--truly--’”
+
+“To be sure you are not fastidiously accurate in the choice of your
+words and names, and where there is so much to be seen and enjoyed
+as there is here one’s thoughts are not always connected. That is
+intelligible--quite, peculiarly intelligible! And in this city folks are
+so polite that they are fain to wrap truth in some graceful disguise.
+May I, a barbarian from Judea, be allowed to set it before you, bare of
+clothing, naked and unadorned.”
+
+“Speak, I beg you, speak.”
+
+“You are Jews; but you had rather not be Jews, and you endure your
+origin as an inevitable evil. It is only when you feel the mighty hand
+of the Most High that you recognize it and claim your right to be one
+of His chosen people. In the smooth current of daily life you proudly
+number yourselves with his enemies. Do not interrupt me, and answer
+honestly what I shall ask you. In what hour of your life did you
+feel yourself that you owed the deepest gratitude to the God of your
+fathers?”
+
+“Why should I deny it?--In the hour when my lost wife presented me with
+my first-born son.”
+
+“And you called him?”
+
+“You know his name is Benjamin.”
+
+“Like the favorite son of our forefather Jacob, for in the hour when you
+thus named him you were honestly yourself, you felt thankful that it
+had been vouchsafed to you to add another link to the chain of your
+race--you were a Jew--you were confident in our God--in your own God.
+The birth of your second son touched your soul less deeply and you gave
+him the name of Theophilus, and when your third male child was born you
+had altogether ceased to remember the God of your fathers, for he is
+named after one of the heathen gods, Hephaestion. To put it shortly: You
+are Jews when the Lord is most gracious to you, or threatens to try you
+most severely but you are heathen whenever your way does not lead you
+over the high hills or through the dark abysses of life. I cannot change
+your hearts--but the wife of my brother’s son, the daughter of Ben
+Akiba, must be a daughter of our people, morning, noon, and night. I
+seek a Rebecca for my daughter and not an Ismene.”
+
+“I did not ask you here,” retorted Apollodorus. “But if you quit us
+to-morrow, you as will be followed by our reverent regard. Think no
+worse of us because we adapt ourselves, more, perhaps, than is fitting,
+to the ways and ideas of the people among whom we have grown up, and in
+whose midst we have been prosperous, and whose interests are ours. We
+know how high our faith is beyond theirs. In our hearts we still are
+Jews; but are we not bound to try to open and to cultivate and to
+elevate our spirits, which God certainly made of stuff no coarser than
+that of other nations, whenever and wherever we may? And in what school
+may our minds be trained better or on sounder principles than in ours--I
+mean that of the Greek sages? The knowledge of the Most High--”
+
+“That knowledge,” cried the old man, gesticulating vehemently with his
+arms. “The knowledge of God Most High and all that the most refined
+philosophy can prove, all the sublimest and purest of the thinkers
+of whom you speak can only apprehend by the gravest meditation and
+heart-searching--all this I say has been bestowed as a free gift of God
+on every child of our people. The treasures which your sages painfully
+seek out we already possess in our scriptures, our law and our moral
+ordinances. We are the chosen people, the first-born of the Lord, and
+when Messiah shall rise up in our midst--”
+
+“Then,” interrupted Apollodorus, “that shall be fulfilled which, like
+Philo, I hope for, we shall be the priests and prophets for all nations.
+Then we shall in truth be a race of priests whose vocation it shall be
+to call down the blessing of the Most High on all mankind.”
+
+“For us--for us alone shall the messenger of God appear, to make us the
+kings, and not the slaves of the nations.”
+
+Apollodorus looked with surprise into the face of the excited old man,
+and asked with an incredulous smile: “The crucified Nazarene was a false
+Messiah; but when will the true Messiah appear?”
+
+“When will He appear?” cried the Rabbi. “When? Can I tell when? Only one
+thing I do know; the serpent is already sharpening its fangs to sting
+the heel of Him who shall tread upon it. Have you heard the name of Bar
+Kochba?”
+
+“Uncle,” said Ben Jochai, interrupting the old Rabbi’s speech, and
+rising from his seat: “Say nothing you might regret.”
+
+“Nay, nay,” answered Gamaliel earnestly. “Our friends here prefer the
+human above the divine, but they are not traitors.” Then turning again
+to Apollodorus he continued:
+
+“The oppressors in Israel have set up idols in our holy places, and
+strive again to force the people to bow down to them; but rather shall
+our back be broken than we will bend the knee or submit!”
+
+“You are meditating another revolt?” asked the Alexandrian anxiously.
+
+“Answer me--have you heard the name of Bar Kochba?”
+
+“Yes, as that of the foolhardy leader of an armed troup.”
+
+“He is a hero--perhaps the Redeemer.”
+
+“And it was for him that you charged me to load my next corn vessel to
+Joppa with swords, shields and lance-heads?”
+
+“And are none but the Romans to be permitted to use iron?”
+
+“Nay--but I should hesitate to supply a friend with arms if he proposed
+to use them against an irresistible antagonist, who will inevitably
+annihilate him!”
+
+“The Lord of Hosts is stronger than a thousand legions!”
+
+“Be cautious uncle,” said Ben Jochai again in a warning voice.
+
+Gamaliel turned wrathfully upon his nephew, but before he could retort
+on the young man’s protest, he started in alarm, for a wild howling and
+the resounding clatter of violent blows on the brazen door of the house
+rang through the hall and shook its walls of marble.
+
+“They are attacking my house,” shouted Apollodorus.
+
+“This is the gratitude of those for whom you have broken faith with the
+God of your fathers,” said the old man gloomily. Then throwing up his
+hands and eyes he cried aloud: “Hear me Adonai! My years are many and I
+am ripe for the grave; but spare these, have mercy upon them.”
+
+Ben Jochai followed his uncle’s example and raised his arms in
+supplication, while his black eyes sparkled with a lowering glow in his
+pale face.
+
+But their prayers were brief, for the tumult came nearer and nearer;
+Apollodorus wrung his hands, and struck his fist against his forehead;
+his movements were violent--spasmodic. Terror had entirely robbed him
+of the elegant, measured demeanor which he had acquired among his Greek
+fellow-citizens, and mingling heathen oaths and adjurations with appeals
+to the God of his fathers, he flew first one way and then another. He
+searched for the key of the subterranean rooms of the house, but he
+could not find it, for it was in the charge of his steward, who, with
+all the other servants, was taking his pleasure in the streets, or over
+a brimming cup in some tavern.
+
+Now the newly-purchased kitchen-slave--the Jew to whom the keeping of
+the Dionysian feast was an abomination--rushed into the room shrieking
+out, as he plucked at his hair and beard:
+
+“The Philistines are upon us! save us Rabbi, great Rabbi! Cry for us
+to the Lord, oh! man of God! They are coming with staves and spears
+and they will tread us down as grass and burn us in this house like the
+locusts cast into the oven.”
+
+In deadly terror he threw himself at Gamaliel’s feet and clasped them in
+his hands, but Apollodorus exclaimed: “Follow me, follow me up on to the
+roof.”
+
+“No, no,” howled the slave, “Amalek is making ready the firebrand to
+fling among our tents. The heathen leap and rage, the flames they are
+flinging will consume us. Rabbi, Rabbi, call upon the Hosts of the Lord!
+God of the just! The gate has given way. Lord! Lord! Lord!”
+
+The terrified wretch’s teeth chattered and he covered his eyes with his
+hands, groaning and howling.
+
+Ben Jochai had remained perfectly calm, but he was quivering with rage.
+His prayer was ended, and turning to Gamaliel he said in deep tones:
+
+“I knew that this would happen, I warned you. Our evil star rose when we
+set forth on our wanderings.
+
+“Now we must abide patiently what the Lord hath determined. He will be
+our Avenger.”
+
+“Vengeance is His!” echoed the old man, and he covered his head with his
+white mantle.
+
+“In the sleeping-room--follow me! we can hide under the beds!” shrieked
+Apollodorus; he kicked away the slave who was embracing the Rabbi’s
+feet, and seized the old man by the shoulder to drag him away with him.
+But it was too late, for the door of the antechamber had burst open and
+they could hear the clatter of weapons. “Lost, lost, all is lost!” cried
+Apollodorus.
+
+“Adonai! help us Adonai!” murmured the old man and he clung more closely
+to his nephew, who overtopped him by a head and who held him clasped in
+his right arm as if to protect him.
+
+The danger which threatened Apollodorus and his guests was indeed
+imminent, and it had been provoked solely by the indignation of the
+excited mob at seeing the wealthy Israelite’s house unadorned for the
+feast.
+
+A thousand times had it occurred that a single word had proved
+sufficient to inflame the hot blood of the Alexandrians to prompt them
+to break the laws and seize the sword. Bloody frays between the heathen
+inhabitants and the Jews, who were equally numerous in the city, were
+quite the order of the day, and one party was as often to blame as the
+other for disturbing the peace and having recourse to the sword. Since
+the Israelites had risen in several provinces--particularly in Cyrenaica
+and Cyprus--and had fallen with cruel fury on their fellow-inhabitants
+who were their oppressors, the suspicion and aversion of the
+Alexandrians of other beliefs had grown more intense than in former
+times. Besides this, the prosperous circumstances of many Jews, and the
+enormous riches of a few, had filled the less wealthy heathen with envy
+and roused the wish to snatch the possessions of those who, it cannot be
+denied, had not unfrequently treated their gods with open contumely.
+
+It happened that just within a few days the disputes regarding the
+festival that was to be held in honor of the Imperial visit had added
+bitterness to the old grudge, and thus it came to pass that Apollodorus’
+unlighted house in the Canopic way had excited the populace to attack
+this palatial residence. And here again one single speech had sufficed
+to excite their fury.
+
+In the first instance Melampus, the tanner, a drunken swaggerer, who
+had failed in business, had marched up the street at the head of a tipsy
+crew, and pointing with his thyrsus to the dark, undecorated house, had
+shouted:
+
+“Look at that dismal barrack! All that the Jew used to spend on
+decorating the street, he is saving up now in his money chest!” The
+words were like a spark among tinder and others followed.
+
+“The niggard is robbing our father Dionysus,” cried a second citizen,
+and a third, flourishing his torch on high, croaked out:
+
+“Let us get at the drachmae he grudges the god; we can find a use for
+them.” Graukus, the sausage maker, snatched from his neighbor’s hand the
+bunch of tow soaked in pitch, and bellowed out, “I advise that we should
+burn the house over their heads!”
+
+“Stay, stay,” cried a cobbler who worked for Apollodorus’ slaves, as he
+placed himself in the butcher’s way. “Perhaps they are mourning for
+some one in there. The Jew has always decorated his house on former
+occasions.”
+
+“Not they,” replied a flute-player in a loud hoarse voice. “We met
+the old miser’s son on the Bruchiom with some riotous comrades and
+misconducted hussies, with his purple mantle fluttering far behind him.”
+
+“Let us see which is reddest, the Tyrian stuff or the blaze we shall
+make if we set the old wretch’s house on fire,” shouted a hungry-looking
+tailor, looking round to see the effects of his wit.
+
+“Ay! let us try!” rose from one man, and then, from a number of others:
+
+“Let us get into the house!”
+
+“The mean churl shall remember this day!”
+
+“Fetch him out!”
+
+“Drag him into the street!”
+
+Such shouts as these rose here and there from the crowd, which grew
+denser every instant as it was increased by fresh tributaries attracted
+by the riot.
+
+“Drag him out!” again shrieked an Egyptian slavedriver, and a woman
+shrieked an echo of his words. She snatched the deer-skin from her
+shoulders, flourished it round and round in the air above her tangled
+black hair, and bellowed furiously:
+
+“Tear him in pieces!”
+
+“In pieces, with your teeth!” roared a drunken Maenad who, like most of
+the mob that had collected, knew nothing whatever of the popular grudge
+against Apollodorus and his house.
+
+But words had already begun to be followed by deeds. Feet, fists, and
+cudgels stamped, drubbed, and thumped against the firmly-bolted brazen
+door of the darkened house, and a ship’s boy of fourteen sprang on
+the shoulders of a tall black slave and tried to climb the roof of the
+colonnade, and to fling the torch which the sausage-maker handed up to
+him into the open forecourt of the imperilled house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The clatter of arms which Apollodorus and his guests had heard proceeded
+not from the Jew’s besiegers, but from some Roman soldiers who brought
+safety to the besieged.
+
+It was Verus, who as he was returning from the supper he had given his
+veterans, with an officer of the Twelfth Legion and his British slaves,
+had crossed the Canopic way and had been impeded in his progress by the
+increasing crowd which stood before Apollodorus’ house. The praetor had
+met the Jew at the prefect’s house, and knew him for one of the richest
+and shrewdest men in Alexandria. This attack on his property roused his
+ire; still he would certainly not have remained an idle spectator even
+if the house in danger, instead of belonging to a man of mark, had been
+that of one of the poorest and meanest, even among the Christians. Any
+lawless act, any breach of constituted order was odious and intolerable
+to the Roman; he would not have been the man he was if he had looked on
+passively at an attack by the mob, in times of peace, on the life
+and property of a quiet and estimable citizen. This licentious man of
+pleasure, devoted to every enervating enjoyment, in battle, or whenever
+the need arose, was as prudent as he was brave.
+
+He now first ascertained what purpose the excited crowd had in view, and
+at once considered the ways and means of frustrating their project. They
+had already begun to batter the Jew’s door, and already several lads
+were standing on the roof of the arcades with burning torches in their
+hands.
+
+Whatever he did must be done on the instant, and happily Verus had the
+gift of thinking and acting promptly. In a few decisive words he begged
+his companion, Lucius Albinus, to hurry back to his old soldiers and
+bring them to the rescue; then he desired his slaves to force a way for
+him with their powerful arms up to the door of the house. This feat
+was accomplished in no time, but how great was his astonishment when he
+found the Emperor standing there.
+
+Hadrian stood in the midst of the crowd, and at the instant when Verus
+appeared on the scene had wrenched the torch out of the hand of the
+infuriated tailor. At the same time, in a thundering voice, he commanded
+the Alexandrians--who were not accustomed to the imperial tone--to
+desist from their mad project. Whistling, grunting, and words of scorn
+overpowered the mandate of the sovereign, and when Verus and his slaves
+had reached the spot where he stood, a few drunken Egyptians had gone
+up to him and were about to lay hands on the unwelcome counsellor. The
+praetor stood in their way. He first whispered to Hadrian that Jupiter
+ought to be ruling the world, and might well leave it to smaller folks
+to rescue a houseful of Jews; and that in a few seconds the soldiers
+would arrive. Then he shouted to him in a loud voice:
+
+“Away from this Sophist! Your place is in the Museum, or in the temple
+of Serapis with your books, and not among the misguided and ignorant.
+Am I right Macedonian citizens, or am I wrong?” A murmur of assent was
+heard which became a roar of laughter when Verus, after Hadrian had got
+away, went on:
+
+“He has a beard like Caesar, and so he behaves as if he wore the purple!
+You did well to let him escape, his wife and children are waiting for
+him over their porridge.”
+
+Verus had often been implicated in wild adventure among the populace and
+knew how to deal with them; if he now could only detain them till the
+advent of the soldiers he might consider the game as won. Hadrian could
+be a hero when it suited him; but here where no laurels were to be won,
+he left to Verus the task of quieting the crowd.
+
+As soon as he was fairly gone Verus desired his slaves to lift him on
+their shoulders; his handsome good-natured face looked down upon the
+crowd from high above them. He was immediately recognized, and many
+voices called out:
+
+“The crazy Roman! the praetor! the sham Eros!”
+
+“I am he, Macedonian citizens, yes, I am he,” answered Verus in a clear
+voice. “And I will tell you a story.”
+
+“Listen, Listen.”
+
+“No let us get into the Jew’s house.”
+
+“Presently--listen a minute to what the sham Eros says.”
+
+“I will knock your teeth down your throat boy, if you don’t hold your
+tongue.”
+
+All the crowd were shouting in wild confusion.
+
+Curiosity, on the one hand, to hear the noble gentleman’s speech, and
+the somewhat superficial fury of the mob contended together for a few
+minutes; at last curiosity seemed to be gaining the day, the tumult
+subsided, and the praetor began:
+
+“Once upon a time there was a child who had given to him ten little
+sheep made of cotton, little foolish toys such as the old women sell in
+the market place.”
+
+“Get into the Jew’s house, we don’t want to hear children’s stories--”
+
+“Be quiet there!”
+
+“Hush now listen; from the sheep he will go on to the wolves.”
+
+“Not wolves--it will be a she-wolf!” some one shouted in the throng.
+
+“Do not mention the horrid things!” laughed Verus, “but listen to
+me.--Well, the child set his little sheep up in a row each one close to
+the next. He was a weaver’s son. Are there any weavers here? You? and
+you--ah, and you out there. If I were not my father’s son I should like
+to be the son of an Alexandrian weaver. You need not laugh!--Well, about
+the sheep. All the little things were beautifully white but one which
+had nasty black spots, and the little boy could not bear that one. He
+went to the hearth, pulled out a burning stick and wanted to burn the
+little ugly sheep so as only to have pretty white ones. The lambkin
+caught fire and just as the flame had begun to burn the wooden skeleton
+of the toy a draught from the window blew the flame towards the other
+little sheep and in a minute they were all burned to ashes. Then thought
+the little boy, ‘If only I had let the ugly sheep alone! What can I
+play with now?’ and he began to cry. But this was not all, for while
+the little rascal was drying his eyes, the flame spread and burnt up the
+loom, the wool, the flax, the woven pieces, the whole house--the town
+in which he was born, and even, I believe, the boy himself!--Now worthy
+friends and Macedonian citizens, reflect a moment. Any man among you who
+is possessed of any property may read the moral of my fable.”
+
+“Put out the torches!” cried the wife of a charcoal dealer.
+
+“He is right; for by reason of the Jew, we are putting the whole town in
+danger!” cried the cobbler.
+
+“The mad fools have already thrown in some brands!”
+
+“If you fellows up there fling any more I will break your ankles for
+you,” shouted a flax-dealer.
+
+“Don’t try any burning,” the tailor commanded, “force open the door and
+have out the Jew.” These words raised a storm of applause and the mob
+pressed forward to the Jew’s abode. No one listened to Verus any more,
+and he slipped down from his slave’s shoulders, placed himself in front
+of the door and called out:
+
+“In the name of Caesar and the law I command you to leave this house
+unharmed.”
+
+The Roman’s warning was evidently quite in earnest, and the false Eros
+looked as if at this moment it would be ill-advised to try jesting with
+him. But in the universal uproar only a few had heard his words, and
+the hot-blooded tailor was so rash as to lay his hand on the praetor’s
+girdle in order to drag him away from the door with the help of his
+comrades. But he paid dearly for his temerity for the praetor’s
+fist fell so heavily on his forehead that he dropped as if struck by
+lightning. One of the Britons knocked down the sausage-maker and a
+hideous hand to hand fight would have been the upshot if help had not
+come to the hardly-beset Romans from two quarters at once. The veterans
+supported by a number of lictors were the first to appear, and soon
+after them came Benjamin, the Jew’s eldest son, who was passing down the
+great thoroughfare with his boon-companions and saw the danger that was
+threatening his father’s house.
+
+The soldiers parted the throng as the wind chases the clouds, and the
+young Israelite pressed forward with his heavy thyrsus fought and pushed
+his way so valiantly and resolutely through the panic-stricken mob, that
+he reached the door of his father’s house but a few moments later than
+the soldiers. The lictors battered at the door and as no one opened it,
+they forced it with the help of the soldiers in order to set a guard in
+the beleaguered house, and protect it against the raging mob.
+
+Verus and the officer entered the Jew’s dwelling with the armed men, and
+behind them came Benjamin and his friends--young Greeks with whom he
+was in the habit of consorting daily, in the bath or the gymnasium.
+Apollodorus and his guests expressed their gratitude to Verus, and when
+the old Jewish house-keeper, who had seen and heard from a hiding-place
+under the roof all that had taken place outside her master’s house, came
+into the men’s hall and gave a full report of the uproar from beginning
+to end, the praetor was overwhelmed with thanks; and the old woman
+embroidered her narrative with the most glowing colors. While this
+was going on Apollodorus’ pretty daughter, Ismene, came in, and after
+falling on her father’s neck and weeping with agitation the house keeper
+took her hand and led her to Verus, saying:
+
+“This noble lord--may the blessing of the Most High be on him--staked
+his life to save us. This beautiful robe he let be rent for our sakes,
+and every daughter of Israel should fervently kiss this torn chiton,
+which in the eyes of God is more precious than the richest robe--as I
+do.”
+
+And the old woman pressed the praetor’s dress to her lips, and tried to
+make Ismene do the same; but the praetor would not permit this.
+
+“How can I allow my garment,” he exclaimed, laughing, “to enjoy a favor
+of which I should deem myself worthy--to be touched by such lips.”
+
+“Kiss him, kiss him!” cried the old woman, and the praetor took the head
+of the blushing girl in his hands, and pressing his lips to her forehead
+with a by no means paternal air, he said gaily:
+
+“Now I am richly rewarded for all I have been so happy as to do for you,
+Apollodorus.”
+
+“And we,” exclaimed Gamaliel. “We--myself and my brother’s first-born
+son-leave it in the hands of God Most High to reward you for what you
+have done for us.”
+
+“Who are you?” asked Verus, who was filled with admiration for the
+prophet-like aspect of the venerable old man and the pale intellectual
+head of his nephew.
+
+Apollodorus took upon himself to explain to him how far the Rabbi
+transcended all his fellow Hebrews in knowledge of the law and the
+interpretation of the Kabbala, the oral and mystical traditions of
+their people, and how that Simeon Ben Jochai was superior to all the
+astrologers of his time. He spoke of the young man’s much admired work
+on the subject called Sohar, nor did he omit to mention that Gamaliel’s
+nephew was able to foretell the positions of the stars even on future
+nights.
+
+Verus listened to Apollodorus with increasing attention, and fixed a
+keen gaze on the young man, who interrupted his host’s eager encomium
+with many modest deprecations. The praetor had recollected the near
+approach of his birthday, and also that the position of stars in the
+night preceding it, would certainly be observed by Hadrian. What the
+Emperor might learn from them would seal his fate for life. Was that
+momentous night destined to bring him nearer to the highest goal of his
+ambition or to debar him from it?
+
+When Apollodorus ceased speaking, Verus offered Simeon Ben Jochai his
+hand, saying:
+
+“I am rejoiced to have met a man of your learning and distinction. What
+would I not give to possess your knowledge for a few hours!”
+
+“My knowledge is yours,” replied the astrologer. “Command my services,
+my labors, my time--ask me as many questions as you will. We are so
+deeply indebted to you--”
+
+“You have no reason to regard me as your creditor,” interrupted the
+praetor, “you do not even owe me thanks. I only made your acquaintance
+after I had rescued you, and I opposed the mob, not for the sake of any
+particular man, but for that of law and order.”
+
+“You were benevolent enough to protect us,” cried Ben Jochai, “so do not
+be so stern as to disdain our gratitude.”
+
+“It does me honor, my learned friend; by all the gods it does me honor,”
+ replied Verus. “And in fact it is possible, it might very will be--Will
+you do me the favor to come with me to that bust of Hipparchus? By the
+aid of that science which owes so much to him you may be able to render
+me an important service.”
+
+When the two men were standing apart from the others, in front of the
+white marble portrait of the great astronomer, Verus asked:
+
+“Do you know by what method Caesar is wont to presage the fates of men
+from the stars?”
+
+“Perfectly.”
+
+“From whom?”
+
+“From Aquila, my father’s disciple.”
+
+“Can you calculate what he will learn from the stars in the night
+preceding the thirtieth of December, as to the destinies of a man who
+was born in that night, and whose horoscope I possess?”
+
+“I can only answer a conditional yes to that question.”
+
+“What should prevent your answering positively?”
+
+“Unforeseen appearances in the heavens.”
+
+“Are such signs common?”
+
+“No, they are rare, on the contrary.”
+
+“But perhaps my fortune is not a common one-and I beg of you to
+calculate on Hadrian’s method what the heavens will predict on that
+night for the man whose horoscope my slave shall deliver to you early
+to-morrow morning.”
+
+“I will do so with pleasure.”
+
+“When can you have finished this work?”
+
+“In four days at latest, perhaps even sooner.”
+
+“Capital! But one thing more. Do you regard me as a man, I mean, as a
+true man?”
+
+“If you were not, would you have given me such reason to be grateful to
+you?”
+
+“Well then, conceal nothing from me, not even the worst horrors, things
+that might poison another man’s life, and crush his spirit. Whatever you
+read in the celestial record, small or great, good or evil. I require
+you to tell me all.”
+
+“I will conceal nothing, absolutely nothing.”
+
+The praetor offered Ben Jochai his right hand, and warmly pressed the
+Jew’s slender, well-shaped fingers. Before he went away he settled with
+him how he should inform him when he had finished his labors.
+
+The Alexandrian with his guests and children accompanied the praetor to
+the door. Only Ben Jamin was absent; he was sitting with his companions
+in his father’s dining-room, and rewarding them for the assistance they
+had given him with right good wine. Gamaliel heard them shouting and
+singing, and pointing to the room he shrugged his shoulders, saying, as
+he turned to his host:
+
+“They are returning thanks to the God of our fathers in the Alexandrian
+fashion.”
+
+And peace was broken no more in the Jew’s house but by the firm tramp of
+lictors and soldiers who kept watch over it, under arms.
+
+In a side street the praetor met the tailor he had knocked down, the
+sausage-maker, and other ringleaders of the attack on the Israelite’s
+house. They were being led away prisoners before the night magistrates.
+Verus would have set them at liberty with all his heart, but he knew
+that the Emperor would enquire next morning what had been done to the
+rioters, and so he forbore. At any other time he would certainly have
+sent them home unpunished, but just now he was dominated by a wish that
+was more dominant than his good nature or his facile impulses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+When he reached the Caesareum the high-chamberlain was waiting to
+conduct him to Sabina who desired to speak with him notwithstanding
+the lateness of the hour, and when Verus entered the presence of
+his patroness, he found her in the greatest excitement. She was not
+reclining as usual on her pillows but was pacing her room with strides
+of very unfeminine length.
+
+“It is well that you have come!” she exclaimed to the praetor. “Lentulus
+insists that he has seen Mastor the slave, and Balbilla declares--but it
+is impossible!”
+
+“You think that Caesar is here?” asked Verus.
+
+“Did they tell you so too?”
+
+“No. I do not linger to talk when you require my presence and there
+is something important to be told just now then--but you must not be
+alarmed.”
+
+“No useless speeches!”
+
+“Just now I met, in his own person--”
+
+“Who?”
+
+“Hadrian.”
+
+“You are not mistaken, you are sure you saw him?”
+
+“With these eyes.”
+
+“Abominable, unworthy, disgraceful!” cried Sabina, so loudly and
+violently that she was startled at the shrill tones of her own voice.
+Her tall thin figure quivered with excitement, and to any one else she
+would have appeared in the highest degree graceless, unwomanly, and
+repulsive: but Verus had been accustomed from his childhood to see her
+with kinder eyes than other men, and it grieved him.
+
+There are women who remind us of fading flowers, extinguished lights or
+vanishing shades, and they are not the least attractive of their sex:
+but the large-boned, stiff and meagre Sabina had none of the yielding
+and tender grace of these gentle creatures. Her feeble health, which was
+very evident, became her particularly ill when, as at this moment,
+the harsh acrimony of her embittered soul came to light with hideous
+plainness.
+
+She was deeply indignant at the affront her husband had put upon her.
+Not content with having a separate house established for her he kept
+aloof in Alexandria without informing her of his arrival. Her hands
+trembled with rage, and stammering rather than speaking she desired the
+praetor to order a composing draught for her. When Verus returned she
+was lying on her cushions, with her face turned to the wall, and said
+lamentably:
+
+“I am freezing; spread that coverlet over me. I am a miserable, ill-used
+creature.”
+
+“You are sensitive and take things too hardly,” the praetor ventured to
+remonstrate.
+
+She started up angrily, cut off his speech, and put him through as keen
+a cross-examination as if he were an accused person and she his judge.
+Ere long she had learnt that Verus also had encountered Mastor, that her
+husband was residing at Lochias, that he had taken part in the festival
+in disguise, and had exposed himself to grave danger outside the house
+of Apollodorus. She also made him tell her how the Israelite had been
+rescued, and whom her friend had met in his house, and she blamed Verus
+with bitter words for the heedless and foolhardy recklessness with
+which he had risked his life for a miserable Jew, forgetting the high
+destinies that lay before him. The praetor had not interrupted her, but
+now bowing over her, he kissed her hand and said:
+
+“Your kind heart foresees for me things that I dare not hope for.
+Something is glimmering on the horizon of my fortune. Is it the dying
+glow of my failing fortunes, is it the pale dawn of a coming and more
+glorious day? Who can tell? I await with patience whatever may be
+impending--an early day must decide.”
+
+“That will bring certainty, and put an end to this suspense,” murmured
+Sabina.
+
+“Now rest and try to sleep,” said Verus with a tender fervency, that was
+peculiar to his tones. “It is past midnight and the physician has often
+forbidden you to sit up late. Farewell, dream sweetly, and always be the
+same to me as a man, that you were to me in my childhood and youth.”
+
+Sabina withdrew the hand he had taken, saying:
+
+“But you must not leave me. I want you. I cannot exist without your
+presence.”
+
+“Till to-morrow--always--forever I will stay with you whenever you need
+me.”
+
+The Empress gave him her hand again, and sighed softly as he again bowed
+over it, and pressed it long to his lips.
+
+“You are my friend, Verus, truly my friend; yes, I am sure of it,” she
+said at last, breaking the silence.
+
+“Oh Sabina, my Mother!” he answered tenderly. “You spoiled me with
+kindness even when I was a boy, and what can I do to thank you for all
+this?”
+
+“Be always the same to me that you are to-day. Will you always--for all
+time be the same, whatever your fortunes may be?”
+
+“In joy and in adversity always the same; always your friend, always
+ready to give my life for you.”
+
+“In spite of my husband, always, even when you think you no longer need
+my favor!”
+
+“Always, for without you I should be nothing--utterly miserable.”
+
+The Empress heaved a deep sigh and sat bolt upright on her couch. She
+had formed a great resolve, and she said slowly, emphasizing every word:
+
+“If nothing utterly unforeseen occurs in the heavens on your
+birth-night, you shall be our son, and so Hadrian’s successor and heir.
+I swear it.”
+
+There was something solemn in her voice, and her small eyes were wide
+open.
+
+“Sabina, Mother, guardian spirit of my life!” cried Verus, and he fell
+on his knees by her couch. She looked in his handsome face with deep
+emotion, laid her hands on his temples, and pressed her lips on his dark
+curls.
+
+A moist brilliancy sparkled in those eyes, unapt to tears, and in a soft
+and appealing tone that no one had ever before heard in her voice she
+said:
+
+“Even at the summit of fortune, after your adoption, even in the purple
+all will be the same between us two. Will it? Tell me, will it?”
+
+“Always, always!” cried Verus. “And if our hopes are fulfilled--”
+
+“Then, then,” interrupted Sabina and she shivered as she spoke. “Then,
+still you will be to me the same that you are now; but to be sure, to be
+sure--the temples of the gods would be empty if mortals had nothing left
+to wish for.”
+
+“Ah! no. Then they would bring thank-offerings to the divinity,” cried
+Verus, and he looked up at the Empress; but she turned away from his
+smiling glance and exclaimed in a tone of reproof and alarm:
+
+“No playing with words, no empty speeches or rash jesting! in the name
+of all the gods, not at this time! For this hour, this night is among
+its fellows what a hallowed temple is among other buildings--what the
+fervent sun is among the other lights of heaven. You know not how I
+feel, nay, I hardly know myself. Not now, not now, one lightly-spoken
+word!”
+
+Verus gazed at Sabina with growing astonishment. She had always been
+kinder to him than to any one else in the world and he felt bound to her
+by all the ties of gratitude and the sweet memories of childhood. Even
+as a boy, out of all his playfellows he was the only one who, far from
+fearing her had clung to her. But to-night! who had ever seen Sabina in
+such a mood? Was this the harsh bitter woman whose heart seemed filled
+with gall, whose tongue cut like a dagger every one against whom she
+used it? Was this Sabina who no doubt was kindly disposed towards him
+but who loved no one else, not even herself? Did he see rightly, or was
+he under some delusion? Tears, genuine, honest, unaffected tears filled
+her eyes as she went on:
+
+“Here I he, a poor sickly woman, sensitive in body and in soul as if
+I were covered with wounds. Every movement, and even the gaze and the
+voice of most of my fellow-creatures is a pain to me. I am old, much
+older than you think and so wretched, so wretched, none of you can
+imagine how wretched. I was never happy as a child, never as a girl,
+and as a wife--merciful gods!--every kind word that Hadrian has ever
+vouchsafed me I have paid for with a thousand humiliations.”
+
+“He always treats you with the utmost esteem,” interrupted Verus.
+
+“Before you, before the world! But what do I care for esteem! I may
+demand the respect, the adoration of millions and it will be mine. Love,
+love, a little unselfish love is what I ask--and if only I were sure, if
+only I dared to hope that you give me such love, I would thank you
+with all that I have, then this hour would be hallowed to me above all
+others.”
+
+“How can you doubt me Mother? My dearly beloved Mother!”
+
+“That is comfort, that is happiness!” answered Sabina. “Your voice is
+never too loud for me, and I believe you, I dare trust you. This hour
+makes you my son, makes me your mother.”
+
+Tender emotion, the emotion that softens the heart, thrilled through
+Sabina’s dried-up nature and sparkled in her eyes. She felt like a young
+wife of whom a child is born, and the voice of her heart sings to her in
+soothing tones: “It lives, it is mine, I am the providence of a living
+soul, I am a mother.”
+
+She gazed blissfully into Verus’ eyes and exclaimed, “Give me your hand
+my son, help me up, for I will be here no longer. What good spirits I
+feel in! Yes, this is the joy that is allotted to other women before
+their hair is grey! But child--dear and only child--you must love me
+really as a mother. I am too old for tender trifling, and yet I could
+not bear it if you gave me nothing but a child’s reverence. No, no, you
+must be my friend whose heart warns him of my wishes, who can laugh with
+me to-day, and weep with me to-morrow--and who shows that he is happier
+when his eye meets mine. You are now my son; and soon you shall have
+the name of son; that is happiness enough for one evening. Not another
+word--this hour is like the finished masterpiece of some great painter;
+every touch that could be added might spoil it. You may kiss my
+forehead, I will kiss yours; now I will go to rest, and to-morrow when I
+wake I shall say to myself that I possess something worth living for--a
+child, a son.”
+
+When the Empress was alone she raised her hand in prayer but she could
+find no words of thanksgiving. One hour of pure happiness she had indeed
+enjoyed, but how many days, months, years of joylessness and suffering
+lay behind her! Gratitude knocked at the door of her heart but it was
+instantly met by bitter defiance; what was one hour of happiness in the
+balance against a ruined lifetime?
+
+Foolish woman! she had never sown the seeds of love, and now she blamed
+the gods for niggardliness and cruelty in denying her a harvest of love.
+And now, on what soil had the seed of maternal tenderness fallen?
+
+Verus it is true had left her content and full of hope--Sabina’s altered
+demeanor, it is true, had touched his heart--he purposed to cling to her
+faithfully even after his formal adoption; but the light in his eye was
+not that of a proud and happy son, on the contrary it sparkled like that
+of a warrior who hopes to gain the victory.
+
+Notwithstanding the late hour, his wife had not yet gone to bed. She had
+heard that he had been summoned to the Empress on his return home, and
+awaited him not without anxiety, for she was not accustomed to anything
+pleasant from Sabina. Her husband’s hasty step echoed loudly from the
+stone walls of the sleeping palace. She heard it at some distance, and
+went to the door of her room to meet him. Radiant, excited, and with
+flushed cheeks, he held out both his hands to her. She looked so fair
+in her white night-wrapper of fine white material, and his heart was
+so full that he clasped her in his arms as fondly as when she was his
+bride; and she loved him even now no less than she had done then,
+and felt for the hundredth time with grateful joy that the faithless
+scapegrace had once more returned to her unchangeable and faithful
+heart, like a sailor who, after wandering through many lands seeks his
+native port.
+
+“Lucilla,” he cried, disengaging her arms from round his neck.
+“Oh, Lucilla! what an evening this has been! I always judged Sabina
+differently from you, and have felt with gratitude that she really cared
+for me. Now all is clear between her and me! She called me her son. I
+called her mother. I owe it to her, and the purple--the purple is ours!
+You are the wife of Verus Caesar; you are certain of it if no signs and
+omens come to frighten Hadrian.”
+
+In a few eager words, which betrayed not merely the triumph of a lucky
+gambler, but also true emotion and gratitude, he related all that had
+passed in Sabina’s room. His frank and confident contentment silenced
+her doubts, her dread of the stupendous fate which, beckoning her, yet
+threatening her, drew visibly nearer and nearer. In her mind’s eye she
+saw the husband she loved, she saw her son, seated on the throne of the
+Caesars, and she herself crowned with the radiant diadem of the woman
+whom she hated with all the force of her soul. Her husband’s kindly
+feeling towards the Empress and the faithful allegiance which had tied
+him to her from his boyhood did not disquiet her; but a wife allows the
+husband of her choice every happiness, every gift excepting only the
+love of another woman, and will forgive her hatred and abuse rather than
+such love.
+
+Lucilla was greatly excited, and a thought, that for years had been
+locked in the inmost shrine of her heart, to-day proved too strong
+for her powers of reticence. Hadrian was supposed to have murdered
+her father, but no one could positively assert it, though either he or
+another man had certainly slain the noble Nigrinus. At this moment the
+old suspicion stirred her soul with revived force, and lifting her right
+hand, as if in attestation, she exclaimed:
+
+“Oh, Fate, Fate! that my husband should be heir of the man who murdered
+my father!”
+
+“Lucilla,” interrupted Verus, “it is unjust even to think of such
+horrors, and to speak of them is madness. Do not utter it a second time,
+least of all to-day. What may have occurred formerly must not spoil the
+present and the future which belong to us and to our children.”
+
+“Nigrinus was the grandfather of those children,” cried the Roman mother
+with flashing eyes.
+
+“That is to say that you harbor in your soul the wish to avenge your
+father’s death on Caesar.”
+
+“I am the daughter of the butchered man.”
+
+“But you do not know the murderer, and the purple must outweigh the life
+of one man, for it is often bought with many thousand lives. And then,
+Lucilla, as you know, I love happy faces, and Revenge has a sinister
+brow. Let us be happy, oh wife of Caesar! Tomorrow I shall have much to
+tell you, now I must go to a splendid banquet which the son of Plutarch
+is giving in my honor. I cannot stay with you--truly I cannot, I have
+been expected long since. And when we are in Rome never let me find you
+telling the children those old dismal stories--I will not have it.”
+
+As Verus, preceded by his slaves bearing torches, made his way through
+the garden of the Caesareum he saw a light in the rooms of Balbilla, the
+poetess, and he called up merrily:
+
+“Good-night, fair Muse!”
+
+“Good-night, sham Eros!” she retorted.
+
+“You are decking yourself in borrowed feathers, Poetess,” replied he,
+laughing. “It is not you but the ill-mannered Alexandrians who invented
+that name!”
+
+“Oh! and other and better ones,” cried she. “What I have heard and seen
+to-day passes all belief!”
+
+“And you will celebrate it in your poems?”
+
+“Only some of it, and that in a satire which I propose to aim at you.”
+
+“I tremble!”
+
+“With delight, it is to be hoped; my poem will embalm your memory for
+posterity.”
+
+“That is true, and the more spiteful your verses, the more certainly
+will future generations believe that Verus was the Phaon of Balbilla’s
+Sappho, and that love scorned filled the fair singer with bitterness.”
+
+“I thank you for the caution. To-day at any rate you are safe from my
+verse, for I am tired to death.”
+
+“Did you venture into the streets?”
+
+“It was quite safe, for I had a trustworthy escort.”
+
+“May I be allowed to ask who?”
+
+“Why not? It was Pontius the architect who was with me.”
+
+“He knows the town well.”
+
+“And in his care I would trust myself to descend, like Orpheus, into
+Hades.”
+
+“Happy Pontius!”
+
+“Most happy Verus!”
+
+“What am I to understand by those words, charming Balbilla?”
+
+“The poor architect is able to please by being a good guide, while to
+you belongs the whole heart of Lucilla, your sweet wife.”
+
+“And she has the whole of mine so far as it is not full of Balbilla.
+Good-night, saucy Muse; sleep well.”
+
+“Sleep ill, you incorrigible tormentor!” cried the girl, drawing the
+curtain across her window.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The sleepless wretch on whom some trouble has fallen, so long as night
+surrounds him, sees his future life as a boundless sea in which he is
+sailing round and round like a shipwrecked man, but when the darkness
+yields, the new and helpful day shows him a boat for escape close at
+hand, and friendly shores in the distance.
+
+The unfortunate Pollux also awoke towards morning with sighs many and
+deep; for it seemed to him that last evening he had ruined his whole
+future prospects. The workshop of his former master was henceforth
+closed to him, and he no longer possessed even all the tools requisite
+for the exercise of his art.
+
+Only yesterday he had hoped with happy confidence to establish himself
+on a footing of his own, to-day this seemed impossible, for the
+most indispensable means were lacking to him. As he felt his little
+money-bag, which he was wont to place under his pillow, he could not
+forbear smiling in spite of all his troubles, for his fingers sank into
+the flaccid leather, and found only two coins, one of which he knew
+alas! was of copper, and the dried merry-thought bone of a fowl, which
+he had saved to give to his little nieces.
+
+Where was he to find the money he was accustomed to give his sister on
+the first day of every month? Papias was on friendly terms with all the
+sculptors of the city, and it was only to be expected that he would warn
+them against him, and do his best to make it difficult to him to find
+a new place as assistant. His old master had also been witness of
+Hadrian’s anger against him, and was quite the man to take every
+advantage of what he had overheard. It is never a recommendation for any
+one that he is an object of dislike to the powerful, and least of all
+does it help him with those who look for the favor and gifts of the
+great men of the world. When Hadrian should think proper to throw
+off his disguise, it might easily occur to him to let Pollux feel the
+effects of his power. Would it not be wise in him to quit Alexandria and
+seek work or daily bread in some other Greek city?
+
+But for Arsinoe’s sake he could not turn his back on his native place.
+He loved her with all the passion of his artist’s soul, and his youthful
+courage would certainly not have been so quickly and utterly crushed
+if he could have deluded himself as to the fact that his hopes of
+possessing her had been driven into the remote background by the
+events of the preceding evening. How could he dare to drag her into his
+uncertain and compromised position? And what reception could he hope for
+from her father if he should now attempt to demand her for his wife. As
+these thoughts overpowered his mind he suddenly felt as if his eyes
+were smarting with sand that had blown into them, and he could not help
+springing out of bed; he paced his little room with long steps, and he
+held his forehead pressed against the wall.
+
+The dawn of a new day appeared as a welcome comfort, and by the time he
+had eaten the morning porridge which his mother set before him--and
+her eyes were red with weeping--the idea struck him that he would go to
+Pontius, the architect. That was the lifeboat he espied.
+
+Doris shared her son’s breakfast but, contrary to her usual custom, she
+spoke very little, only she frequently passed her hand over her son’s
+curly hair. Euphorion strode up and down the room, rummaging his brain
+for ideas for an ode in which he might address the Emperor and implore
+forgiveness for his son. Soon after breakfast Pollux went up to the
+rotunda where the Queens’ busts stood, hoping to see Arsinoe again,
+and a loud snatch of song soon brought her out on to the balcony. They
+exchanged greetings, and Pollux signed to her to come down to him. She
+would have obeyed him more than gladly, but her father had also heard
+the sculptor’s voice and drove her back into the room. Still the mere
+sight of his beloved fair one had done the artist good. Hardly had he
+got back to his father’s little house when Antinous came sauntering
+in--he represented in the artist’s mind the hospitable shores on which
+he might gaze. Hope revived his soul, and Hope is the sun before which
+despair flies as the shades of night flee at the rising of the day-star.
+
+His artistic faculties were once more roused into play, and found a
+field for their freest exercise when Antinous told him that he was at
+his disposal till mid-day, since his master--or rather Caesar as he was
+now permitted to name him--was engaged in business. The prefect Titianus
+had come to him with a whole heap of papers, to work with him and his
+private secretary. Pollux at once led the favorite into a side room of
+the little house, with a northern aspect; here on a table lay the wax
+and the smaller implements which belonged to himself and which he had
+brought home last evening. His heart ached, and his nerves were in a
+painful state of tension as he began his work. All sorts of anxious
+thoughts disturbed his spirit, and yet he knew that if he put his whole
+soul into it he could do something good. Now, if ever, he must put forth
+his best powers, and he dreaded failure as an utter catastrophe, for on
+the face of the whole earth there was no second model to compare with
+this that stood before him.
+
+But he did not take long to collect himself for the Bithynian’s beauty
+filled him with profound feeling and it was with a sort of pious
+exaltation that he grasped the plastic material and moulded it into a
+form resembling his sitter. For a whole hour not a word passed between
+them, but Pollux often sighed deeply and now then a groan of painful
+anxiety escaped him.
+
+Antinous broke the silence to ask Pollux about Selene. His heart was
+full of her, and there was no other man who knew her, and whom he could
+venture to entrust with his secret. Indeed it was only to speak to
+her that he had come to the artist so early. While Pollux modelled and
+scraped Antinous told him of all that had happened the previous night.
+He lamented having lost the silver quiver when he was upset into the
+water and regretted that the rose-colored chiton should afterwards
+have suffered a reduction in length at the hands of his pursuer. An
+exclamation of surprise, a word of sympathy, a short pause in the
+movement of his hand and tool, were all the demonstration on the
+artist’s part, to which the story of Selene’s adventure and the loss of
+his master’s costly property gave rise; his whole attention was absorbed
+in his occupation. The farther his work progressed the higher rose his
+admiration for his model. He felt as if intoxicated with noble wine
+as he worked to reproduce this incarnation of the ideal of umblemished
+youthful and manly beauty. The passion of artistic procreation fired
+his blood, and threw every thing else--even the history of Selene’s fall
+into the sea, and her subsequent rescue--into the region of commonplace.
+Still he had not been inattentive, and what he heard must have had some
+effect in his mind; for long after Antinous had ended his narrative, he
+said in a low voice and as if speaking to the bust, which was already
+assuming definite form:
+
+“It is a wonderful thing!” and again a little later; “There was always
+something grand in that unhappy creature.”
+
+He had worked without interruption for nearly four hours, when standing
+back from the table, he looked anxiously, first at his work and then at
+Antinous, and then asked him:
+
+“How will that do?”
+
+The Bithynian gave eager expression to his approbation, and Pollux had,
+in fact, done wonders in the short time. The wax began to display in a
+much reduced scale the whole figure of the beautiful youth and in the
+very same attitude which the young Dionysus carried off by the pirates,
+had assumed the day before. The incomparable modelling of the favorite’s
+limbs and form was soft but not effeminate; and, as Pollux had said to
+himself the day before, no artist in his happiest mood, could conceive
+the Nysaean god as different from this.
+
+While the sculptor in order to assure himself of the accuracy of his
+work was measuring his model’s limbs with wooden compasses and lengths
+of tape, the sound of chariot-wheels was heard at the gate of the
+palace, and soon after the yelping of the Graces. Doris called to the
+dogs to be quiet and another high-pitched woman’s voice mingled with
+hers. Antinous listened and what he heard seemed to be somewhat out of
+the common for he suddenly quitted the position in which the sculptor
+had placed him only a few minutes before, ran to the window and called
+to Pollux in a subdued voice:
+
+“It is true! I am not mistaken! There is Hadrian’s wife Sabina talking
+out there to your mother.”
+
+He had heard rightly; the Empress had come to Lochias to seek out her
+husband. She had got out of the chariot at the gate of the old palace
+for the paving of the court-yard would not be completed before that
+evening.
+
+Dogs, of which her husband was so fond, she detested; the shrewd beasts
+returned her aversion, so dame Doris found it more difficult than usual
+to succeed in reducing her disobedient pets to silence when they flew
+viciously at the stranger. Sabina terrified, vehemently desired the old
+woman to release her from their persecution, while the chamberlain
+who had come with her and on whom she was leaning kicked out at the
+irrepressible little wretches and so increased their spite. At last the
+Graces withdrew into the house. Dame Doris drew a deep breath and turned
+to the Empress.
+
+She did not suspect who the stranger was for she had never seen Sabina
+and had formed quite a different idea of her.
+
+“Pardon me good lady,” she said in her frank confiding manner. “The
+little rascals mean no harm and never bite even a beggar, but they never
+could endure old women. Whom do you seek here mother?”
+
+“That you shall soon know,” replied Sabina sharply, “what a state of
+things, Lentulus, your architect Pontius’ work has brought about. And
+what must the inside be like if this but is left standing to disgrace
+the entrance of the palace! It must go with its inhabitants. Desire that
+woman to conduct us to the Roman lord who dwells here.”
+
+The chamberlain obeyed and Doris began to suspect who was standing
+before her, and she said as she smoothed down her dress and bowed low:
+
+“What great honor befalls us illustrious lady; perhaps you are even the
+Emperor’s wife? If that be the case--”
+
+Sabina made an impatient sign to the chamberlain who interrupted the old
+woman exclaiming:
+
+“Be silent and show us the way.”
+
+Doris was not feeling particularly strong that day, and her eyes already
+red with weeping about her son again filled with tears. No one had ever
+spoken so to her before, and yet, for her son’s sake she would not repay
+sharp words in the same coin, though she had plenty at her command.
+
+She tottered on in front of Sabina, and conducted her to the hall of the
+Muses. There Pontius relieved her of the duty, and the respect he paid
+to the stranger made her sure that in fact she was none other than the
+Empress in person.
+
+“An odious woman!” said Sabina, as she went on pointing to Doris, whom
+her words could not escape. This was too much for the old woman; past
+all self-control she flung herself on to a seat that was standing by,
+covered her face with her hands and began crying bitterly. She felt as
+if the very ground were snatched from under her feet.
+
+Her son was in disgrace with Caesar, and she and her house were
+threatened by the most powerful woman in the world. She pictured herself
+as already turned into the streets with Euphorion and her dogs, and
+asked herself what was to become of them all when they had lost their
+place and the roof that covered them. Her husband’s memory grew daily
+weaker, soon his voice even might fail; and how greatly had her own
+strength failed during the last few years, how small were the savings
+that were hidden in their chest. The bright, genial old woman felt
+quite broken down. What hurt her was, not merely the pressing need that
+threatened her, but the disgrace too which would fall upon her, the
+dislike she had incurred--she who had been liked by every one from her
+youth up--and the painful feeling of having been treated with scorn and
+contempt in the presence of others by the powerful lady whose favor she
+had hoped to win.
+
+At Sabina’s advent all good spirits had fled from Lochias, so at least
+Doris felt, but she was not one of those who succumb helplessly to a
+hostile force. For a few minutes she abandoned herself to her sorrows
+and sobbed like a child. Now she dried her eyes, and her eased heart
+felt the beneficial relief of tears; by degrees she could compose
+herself and think calmly.
+
+“After all,” said she to herself, “none but Caesar can command here, and
+it is said that he gets on but badly with his spiteful wife, and cares
+very little what she wishes. Hadrian let Pollux feel his power, but he
+has always been friendly to me. My dogs and birds amused him, and did he
+not even do me the honor to relish a dish out of my kitchen? No, no, if
+only I can succeed in speaking with him alone all may yet be well,” and
+thus thinking she rose from her seat.
+
+As she was about to quit the anteroom the art dealer, Gabinius, of
+Nicaea, came in, to whom Keraunus had refused to sell the mosaic in the
+palace, and whose daughter had been deprived by Arsinoe of the part of
+Roxana. Pontius had desired him to come to the palace and he had made
+his appearance at once, for, since the evening before, a rumor had been
+afloat that the Emperor was staying in Alexandria, and was inhabiting
+the palace at Loehias. Whence it was derived, or on what facts it was
+supported no one could say; but there it was, passing from mouth to
+mouth in every circle and acquiring certainty every hour. Of all that
+grows on earth nothing grows so quickly as Rumor, and yet it is a
+miserable foundling that never knows its own parents.
+
+The dealer pushed on into the palace with a glance of astonishment at
+the old woman, while Doris debated whether see should seek Hadrian then
+and there, or return to her little gate-House, and wait till he should
+at some time be going out of the palace and passing by her dwelling.
+Before she could come to any decision Pontius appeared on the scene; he
+had always been very kind to her, and she therefore ventured to address
+him and tell him what had occurred between her son and the Emperor. This
+was no novelty to the architect; he advised her to have patience till
+Hadrian should have cooled, and he promised her that later he would do
+every thing in his power for Pollux, whom he loved and esteemed. On this
+very day he was obliged by Caesar’s command to start on a journey and
+for a long absence; his destination was Pelusium, where he was to erect
+a monument to the great Pompey on the spot where he had been murdered.
+Hadrian, as he passed the old ruined monument on his way from Mount
+Kasius to Egypt, had determined to replace it by a new one, and had
+entrusted the work to Pontius whose labors at Lochias were now nearly
+ended. All that might yet be lacking to the fitting of the restored
+palace Hadrian himself wished to select and procure and in this
+occupation so agreeable to his tastes, Gabinius, the curiosity-dealer,
+was to lend him a helping hand.
+
+While Doris was still speaking with Pontius, Hadrian and his wife came
+towards the anteroom. Hardly had the architect recognized the tones of
+Sabina’s voice, than he hastily said in a low voice:
+
+“Till by-and-bye this must do, dame. Stand aside; Caesar and the Empress
+are coming.”
+
+And he hastened away. Doris slipped into the doorway of a side room,
+which was closed only by a heavy curtain, for at that moment she would
+as soon have met a raging wild beast as the haughty lady from whom she
+had nothing to expect but insult and unkindness. Hadrian’s interview
+with his wife had lasted barely a quarter of an hour, and it must have
+been anything rather than amiable, for his face was scarlet, while
+Sabina’s lips were perfectly white, and her painted cheeks twitched with
+a restless movement. Doris was too much excited and terrified to listen
+to the royal couple, still she overheard these words uttered by the
+Emperor in a tone of the utmost decision.
+
+“In small matters and where it is fitting I let you have your way;
+more important things I shall this time, as always, decide by my own
+judgment--my own exclusively.”
+
+These words were fraught with the fate of the gatehouse and its
+inhabitants, for the removal of the “hideous hut” at the entrance of the
+palace was one of the “small matters” of which Hadrian spoke. Sabina
+had required this concession, since it could not be pleasant to any one
+visiting Lochias to be received on the threshold by an old Megaera of
+evil omen, and to be fallen upon by infuriated dogs. But Doris so little
+divined the import of Hadrian’s words that she rejoiced at them,
+for they told her how little he was disposed to yield to his wife in
+important things, and how could she suspect that her fate and that of
+her house should not be included among important matters, nay the most
+important?
+
+Sabina had quitted the anteroom leaning on her chamberlain and Hadrian
+was standing there alone with his slave Mastor. The old woman would not
+be likely to have another such favorable opportunity of supplicating
+the all-powerful man who stood before her, without the hindrance of
+witnesses, to exercise his magnaminity and clemency towards her son. His
+back turned to her; if she could have seen the threatening scowl with
+which he stood gazing on the ground she would surely have remembered the
+architect’s warning and have postponed her address till a future day.
+
+How often do we spoil our best chances by following an urgent instinct
+to arrive at certainty as early as possible, and by not being strong
+enough to postpone opening our business till a favorable moment offers.
+Uncertainty in the present often seems less endurable than adverse fate
+in the future.
+
+Doris stepped out of the side door. Mastor, who knew his master well,
+and whose friendly impulse was to spare the old woman any humiliation,
+made eager signs to warn her to withdraw and not to disturb Hadrian at
+that moment; but she was so wholly possessed by her anxiety and wishes
+that she did not observe them. As the Emperor turned to leave the room
+she gathered courage, stood in the doorway through which he must pass,
+and tried to fall on her knees before him. This was a difficult effort
+to her old joints and Doris was forced to clutch at the door-post in
+order not to lose her balance.
+
+Hadrian at once recognized the suppliant, but to-day he found no kind
+word for her, and the glance he cast down at her was anything rather
+than gracious. How had he ever been able to find amusement even in this
+woeful old body? Alas! poor Doris was quite a different creature in her
+little house, among her flowers, dogs and birds to what she seemed here
+in the spacious hall of a magnificent palace. This wide and gorgeous
+frame but ill-suited so modest a figure. Thousands of good people who in
+the midst of their everyday surroundings command our esteem and attract
+our regard give rise to very different feelings when they are taken out
+of the circle to which they belong.
+
+Doris had never worn so unpleasing an aspect to Hadrian as at this
+instant, in this decisive moment of her life. She had followed the
+Empress straight from the kitchen-hearth just as she was after passing a
+sleepless night and full of her many anxieties, she had scarcely set her
+grey hair in order, and her kind bright eyes, usually the best feature
+of her face, were red with many tears. The neat brisk little mother
+looked to-day anything rather than smart and bright; in the Emperor’s
+eyes she was in no way distinguished from any other old woman, and he
+regarded all old women as of evil omen, if he met them as he went out of
+any place he was in.
+
+“Oh, Caesar, Great Caesar!” cried Doris throwing up her hands which
+still bore many traces of her labors over the hearth. “My son, my
+unfortunate Pollux!”
+
+“Out of my way!” said Hadrian sternly.
+
+“He is an artist, a good artist, who already excels many a master, and
+if the gods--”
+
+“Out of the way, I told you. I do not want to hear anything about the
+insolent fellow,” said Hadrian angrily.
+
+“But Great Caesar, he is my son, and a mother, as you know--”
+
+“Mastor,” interrupted the monarch, “carry away this old woman and make
+way for me.”
+
+“Oh! my lord, my lord!” wailed the agonized woman while the slave pulled
+her up, not without difficulty. “Oh! my lord, how can you find it in
+your heart to be so cruel? And am I no longer old Doris whom you have
+even joked with, and whose food you have eaten?”
+
+These words recalled to the Emperor’s fancy the moment of his arrival at
+Lochias; he felt that he was somewhat in the old woman’s debt, and being
+wont to pay with royal liberality he broke in with:
+
+“You shall be paid for your excellent dish a sum with which you can
+purchase a new house, for the future your maintenance too shall be
+provided for, but in three hours you must have quitted Lochias.”
+
+The Emperor spoke rapidly as though desirous of bringing a disagreeable
+business to a prompt termination, and he stalked past Doris who was now
+standing on her feet and leaning as if stunned against the doorpost.
+Indeed if Hadrian had not left her there and had he been in the mood to
+hear her farther, she was not now in a fit state to answer him another
+word.
+
+The Emperor received the honors due to Zeus and his fiat had ruined the
+happiness of a contented home as completely as the thunderbolt wielded
+by the Father of the gods could have done.
+
+But this time Doris had no tears. The frightful shock that had fallen
+in her soul was perceptible also to her body; her knees shook, and being
+quite incapable just then of going home at once, she sunk upon a seat
+and stared hopelessly before her while she reflected what next, and what
+more would come upon her.
+
+Meanwhile the Emperor was standing in a room just behind the antechamber
+that had only been finished a few hours since. He began to regret his
+hardness upon the old woman--for had she not, without knowing who he
+was, been most friendly to him and to his favorite. “Where is Antinous?”
+ he asked Mastor.
+
+“He went out to the gate-house.”
+
+“What is he doing there?”
+
+“I believe he meant--there, perhaps he--”
+
+“The truth, fellow!”
+
+“He is with Pollux the sculptor.”
+
+“Has he been there long?”
+
+“I do not exactly know.”
+
+“How long, I ask you?”
+
+“He went after you had shut yourself in with Titianus.”
+
+“Three hours--three whole hours has he been with that braggart, whom
+I ordered off the premises!” Hadrian’s eye sparkled wrathfully as he
+spoke. His annoyance at the absence of his favorite, whose society
+he permitted no one to enjoy but himself, and least of all Pollux,
+smothered every kind feeling in his mind, and in a tone of anger
+bordering on fury he commanded Mastor to go and fetch Antinous, and then
+to have the gate-house utterly cleared out.
+
+“Take a dozen slaves to help you,” he cried. “For aught I care the
+people may carry all their rubbish into a new house, but I will never
+set eyes again on that howling old woman, nor her imbecile husband. As
+for the sculptor I will make him feel that Caesar has a heavy foot and
+can unexpectedly crush a snake that creeps across his path.”
+
+Mastor went sadly away and Hadrian returned to his work-room, and there
+called out to his secretary Phlegon:
+
+“Write that a new gate-keeper is to be found for this palace. Euphorion,
+the old one, is to have his pay continued to him, and half a talent is
+to be paid to him at the prefect’s office. Good--Let the man have at
+once whatever is necessary; in an hour neither he nor his are to be
+found in Lochias. Henceforth no one is to mention them to me again, nor
+to bring me any petition from them. Their whole race may join the rest
+of the dead.”
+
+Phlegon bowed and said:
+
+“Gabinius, the curiosity-dealer, waits outside.”
+
+“He comes at an appropriate moment,” cried the Emperor. “After all these
+vexations it will do me good to hear about beautiful things.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Aye, truly! Sabina’s advent had chased all good spirits from the palace
+at Lochias.
+
+The Emperor’s commands had come upon the peaceful little house as a
+whirlwind comes on a heap of leaves. The inhabitants were not even
+allowed time fully to realize their misfortune, for instead of bewailing
+themselves all they could do was to act with circumspection. The tables,
+seats, cushions, beds and lutes, the baskets, plants, and bird-cages,
+the kitchen utensils and the trunks with their clothes were all piled in
+confusion in the courtyard, and Doris was employing the slaves appointed
+by Mastor in the task of emptying the house, as briskly and carefully as
+though it was nothing more than a move from one house to another. A ray
+of the sunny brightness of her nature once more sparkled in her eyes
+since she had been able to say to herself that all that happened to her
+and hers was one of the things inevitable, and that it was more to the
+purpose to think of the future than of the past. The old woman was quite
+herself again over the work, and as she looked at Euphorion, who sat
+quite crushed on his couch with his eyes fixed on the ground, she cried
+out to him:
+
+“After bad times, come good ones! only let us keep from making ourselves
+miserable. We have done nothing wrong, and so long as we do not think
+ourselves wretched, we are not so. Only, hold up your head!
+
+“Up, old man, up! Go at once to Diotima and tell her that we beg her to
+give us hospitality for a few days, and house-room for our chattels.”
+
+“And if Caesar does not keep his word?” asked Euphorion gloomily. “What
+sort of a life shall we live then?”
+
+“A bad one-a dog’s life; and for that very reason it is wiser to enjoy
+now what we still possess. A cup of wine, Pollux, for me and your
+father. But there must be no water in it to-day.”
+
+“I cannot drink,” sighed Euphorion.
+
+“Then I will drink your share and my own too.”
+
+“Nay-nay, mother,” remonstrated Pollux.
+
+“Well put some water in, lad, just a little water, only do not make such
+a pitiful face. Is that the way a young fellow should look who has
+his art, and plenty of strength in his hands, and the sweetest of
+sweethearts in his heart?”
+
+“It is certainly not for myself, mother,” retorted the sculptor, “that
+I am anxious. But how am I ever to get into the palace again to see
+Arsinoe, and how am I to deal with that ferocious old Keraunus?”
+
+“Leave that question for time to answer,” replied Doris.
+
+“Time may give a good answer, but it may also give a bad one.”
+
+“And the best she only gives to those who wait for her in the
+antechamber of Patience.”
+
+“A bad place for me, and for those like me,” sighed Pollux.
+
+“You have only to sit still and go on knocking at the doors,” replied
+Doris, “and before you can look round you Time will call out, ‘come in.’
+Now show the men how they are to treat the statue of Apollo, and be my
+own happy, bright boy once more.”
+
+Pollux did as she desired, thinking as he went: “She speaks wisely--she
+is not leaving Arsinoe behind. If only I had been able to arrange with
+Antinous at least, where I should find him again; but at Caesar’s orders
+the young fellow was like one stunned, and he tottered as he went, as if
+he were going to execution.”
+
+Dame Doris had not been betrayed by her happy confidence, for Phlegon
+the secretary came to inform her of the Emperor’s purpose to give her
+husband half a talent, and to continue to pay him in the future his
+little salary.
+
+“You see,” cried the old woman, “the sun of better days is already
+rising. Half a talent! Why poverty has nothing to do with such rich
+folks as we are! What do you think--would it not be right to pour out
+half a cup of wine to the gods, and allow ourselves the other half?”
+
+Doris was as gay as if she were going to a wedding, and her cheerfulness
+communicated itself to her son, who saw himself relieved of part of the
+anxiety that weighed upon him with regard to his parents and sister. His
+drooping courage, and spirit for life, only needed a few drops of kindly
+dew to revive it, and he once more began to think of his art. Before
+anything else he would try to complete his successfully-sketched bust of
+Antinous.
+
+While he was gone back into the house to preserve his work from
+injury and was giving the slaves, whom he had desired to follow him,
+instructions as to how it should be carried so as not to damage it, his
+master Papias came into the palace-court. He had come to put the last
+touches to the works he had begun, and proposed to make a fresh attempt
+to win the favor of the man whom he now knew to be the Emperor. Papias
+was somewhat uneasy for he was alarmed at the thought that Pollux might
+now betray how small a share his master had in his last works--which had
+brought him higher praise than all he had done previously. It might even
+have been wise on his part to pocket his pride and to induce his former
+scholar, by lavish promises, to return to his workshop; but the evening
+before he had been betrayed into speaking before the Emperor with so
+much indignation at the young artist’s evil disposition, of his delight
+at being rid of him, that, on Hadrian’s account, he must give up that
+idea. Nothing was now to be done, but to procure the removal of Pollux
+from Alexandria, or to render him in some way incapable of damaging him,
+and this he might perhaps be able to do by the instrumentality of the
+wrathful Emperor.
+
+It even came into his mind to hire some Egyptian rascal to have him
+assassinated; but he was a citizen of peaceful habits, to whom a breach
+of the law was an abomination and he cast the thought from him as too
+horrible and base. He was not over-nice in his choice of means, he knew
+men, was very capable of finding his way up the backstairs, and did not
+hesitate when need arose to calumniate others boldly, and thus he had
+before now won the day in many a battle against his fellow-artists of
+distinction. His hope of succeeding in the tripping of a scholar of
+no great repute, and of rendering him harmless so long as the Emperor
+should remain in Alexandria, was certainly not an over-bold one. He
+hated the gate-keeper’s son far less than he feared him, and he did not
+conceal from himself that if his attack on Pollux should fail and the
+young fellow should succeed in proving independently of what he was
+capable he could do nothing to prevent his loudly proclaiming all that
+he had done in these last years for his master.
+
+His attention was caught by the slaves in Euphorion’s little house,
+who were carrying the household chattels of the evicted family into the
+street. He had soon learnt what was going forward, and highly pleased
+at the ill-will manifested by Hadrian towards the parents of his foe,
+he stood looking on, and after brief reflection desired a negro to call
+Pollux to speak to him.
+
+The master and scholar exchanged greetings with a show of haughty
+coolness and Papias said:
+
+“You forgot to bring back the things which yesterday, without asking my
+leave, you took out of my wardrobe. I must have them back to-day.”
+
+“I did not take them for myself, but for the grand lord in there, and
+his companion. If any thing is missing apply to him. It grieves me
+that I should have taken your silver quiver among them, for the Roman’s
+companion has lost it. As soon as I have done here, I will take home all
+of your things that I can recover, and bring away my own. A good many
+things belonging to me are still lying in your workshop.”
+
+“Good,” replied Papias. “I will expect you an hour before sunset, and
+then we will settle every thing,” and without any farewell he turned his
+back on his pupil and went into the palace.
+
+Pollux had told him that some of the properties, which he had taken
+without asking permission, had been lost-among them an object of
+considerable value--and this perhaps would give him a hold over him by
+which to prevent his injuring him. He remained in the palace scarcely
+half an hour and then, while Pollux was still engaged in escorting his
+mother and their household goods to his sister’s house, he went to visit
+the night magistrate, who presided over the safety of Alexandria.
+Papias was on intimate terms with this important official, for he had
+constructed for him a sarcophagus for his deceased wife, an altar with
+panels in relief for his men’s apartment, and other works, at moderate
+prices, and he could count on his readiness to serve him. When he
+quitted him he carried in his hand an order of arrest against his
+assistant Pollux, who had attacked his property and abstracted a quiver
+of massive silver. The magistrate had also promised him to send two of
+his guards who would carry the offender off to prison.
+
+Papias went home with a much lighter heart. His pupil, after he had
+accomplished the easy transfer of his parents, had returned to the
+palace, and there, to his delight, came across Mastor, who soon fetched
+him the garments and masks that he had lent the day before to Hadrian
+and Antinous. The Sarmatian at the same time told him, with tears in
+his eyes, a sad, very sad story, which stirred the young sculptor’s soul
+deeply, and which would have prompted him to penetrate into the palace
+at once, and at any risk, if he had not seen the necessity of being with
+Papias at the appointed hour, which was drawing near, to answer for the
+valuable property that was missing. Thinking of nothing, wishing nothing
+so much as to be back as promptly as possible at Lochias, where he was
+much needed, and where his heart longed to be, he took the bundle out
+of the slave’s hand and hurried away. Papias had sent all his assistants
+and even his slaves off the premises; he received the breathless Pollux
+quite alone, and took from him, with icy calmness, the things which had
+been borrowed from his property-room, asking for them one by one.
+
+“I have already told you,” cried Pollux, “that it is not I, but
+the illustrious Roman--you know as well as I do, who he is--who is
+answerable for the silver quiver and the torn chiton.” And he began to
+tell him how Antinous had commanded him, in the name of his master, to
+find masks and disguises for them both. But Papias cut off his speech
+at the very beginning, and vehemently demanded the restoration of his
+quiver and bow, of which Pollux could not work out the value in two
+years. The young man whose heart and thoughts were at Lochias and who,
+at any cost, did not want to be detained longer than was necessary,
+begged his master, with all possible politeness, to let him go now, and
+to settle the matter with him to-morrow after he had discussed it with
+the Roman, from whom he might certainly demand any compensation he
+chose. But when Papias interrupted him again and again, and obstinately
+insisted on the immediate restoration of his property, the artist whose
+blood was easily heated, grew angry and replied to the attacks and
+questions of the older man with vehement response.
+
+One angry word led to another, and at last Papias hinted of persons who
+took possession of other person’s silver goods, and when Pollux retorted
+that he knew of some who could put forward the works of others as their
+own, the master struck his fist upon the table, and going towards the
+door he cried out, as soon as he was at a safe distance from the furious
+lad’s powerful fists:
+
+“Thief! I will show you how fellows like you are dealt with in
+Alexandria.”
+
+Pollux turned white with rage, and rushed upon Papias, who fled, and
+before Pollux could reach him he had taken refuge behind the two guards
+sent by the magistrate, and who were waiting in the antechamber.
+
+“Seize the thief!” he cried. “Hold the villain who stole my silver
+quiver and now raises his hand against his master. Bind him, fetter him,
+carry him off to prison.”
+
+Pollux did not know what had come upon him; he stood like a bear that
+has been surrounded by hunters; doubtful but at bay. Should he fling
+himself upon his pursuers and fell them to the earth? should he
+passively await impending fate?
+
+He knew every stone in his master’s house; the anteroom in which he
+stood, and indeed the whole building was on the ground floor. In the
+minute while the guards were approaching and his master was giving the
+order to the lictor, his eye fell on a window which looked out upon
+the street, and possessed only by the single thought of defending his
+liberty and returning quickly to Arsinoe he leaped out of the opening
+which promised safety and into the street below.
+
+“Thief--stop thief!” he heard as he flew on with long strides; and like
+the pelting of rain driven by all the four winds came from all sides the
+senseless, odious, horrible cry: “Stop thief!--stop thief!” it seemed to
+deprive him of his senses.
+
+But the passionate cry of his heart: “To Lochias, to Arsinoe! keep free,
+save your liberty if only to be of use at Lochias!” drowned the shouts
+of his pursuers and urged him through the streets that led to the old
+palace.
+
+On he went faster and farther, each step a leap; the briny breeze from
+the sea already fanned his glowing cheeks and the narrow empty street
+yonder he well knew led to the quay by the King’s harbor, where he could
+hide from his pursuers among the tall piles of wood. He was just turning
+the corner into the alley when an Egyptian ox-driver threw his goad
+between his legs; he stumbled, fell to the ground, and instantly felt
+that a dog which had rushed upon him was tearing the chiton he wore,
+while he was seized by a number of men. An hour later and he found
+himself in prison, bitten, beaten, and bound among a crew of malefactors
+and real thieves.
+
+Night had fallen. His parents were waiting for him and he came not; and
+in Lochias which he had not been able to reach there were misery and
+trouble enough, and the only person in the world who could carry comfort
+to Arsinoe in her despair was absent and nowhere to be found.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+The story told by Mastor which had so greatly agitated Pollux and had
+prompted him to his mad flight was the history of events which had taken
+place in the steward’s rooms during the hours when the young artist
+was helping his parents to transfer their household belongings into
+his sister’s tiny dwelling. Keraunus was certainly not one of the most
+cheerful of men, but on the morning when Sabina came to the palace and
+the gate-keeper was driven from his home, he had worn the aspect of a
+thoroughly-contented man.
+
+Since visiting Selene the day before he had given himself no farther
+concern about her. She was not dangerously ill and was exceptionally
+well taken care of, and the children did not seem to miss her. Indeed,
+he himself did not want her back to-day. He avoided confessing this to
+himself it is true, still he felt lighter and freer in the absence
+of his grave monitor than he had been for a long time. It would be
+delightful, he thought, to go on living in this careless manner, alone
+with Arsinoe and the children, and now and again he rubbed his hands and
+grinned complacently. When the old slave-woman brought a large dish full
+of cakes which he had desired her to buy, and set it down by the side
+of the children’s porridge, he chuckled so heartily that his fat person
+shook and swayed; and he had very good reason to be happy in his way,
+for Plutarch quite early in the morning, had sent a heavy purse of gold
+pieces for his ivory cup, and a magnificent bunch of roses to Arsinoe;
+he might give his children a treat, buy himself a solid gold fillet,
+and dress Arsinoe as finely as though she were the prefect’s favorite
+daughter.
+
+His vanity was gratified in every particular.
+
+And what a splendid fellow was the slave who now--with a superbly
+reverential bow-presented him with a roast chicken and who was to walk
+behind him in the afternoon to the council-chamber. The tall Thessalian
+who marched after the Archidikastes to the Hall of justice, carrying his
+papers, was hardly grander than his “body-servant.” He had bought him
+yesterday at quite a low price. The well-grown Samian was scarcely
+thirty years old; he could read and write and was in a position
+therefore to instruct the children in these arts; nay, he could even
+play the lute. His past, to be sure, was not a spotless record, and
+it was for that reason that he had been sold so cheaply. He had stolen
+things on several occasions; but the brands and scars which he bore upon
+his person were hidden by his new chiton and Keraunus felt in himself
+the power to cure him of his evil propensities.
+
+After desiring Arsinoe to let nothing he about of any value, for their
+new house-mate seemed not to be perfectly honest, he answered his
+daughter’s scruples by saying:
+
+“It would be better, no doubt, that he should be as honest as the old
+skeleton I gave in exchange for him, but I reflect that even if my
+body-servant should make away with some of the few drachmae we carry
+about with us, I need not repent of having bought him, since I got him
+for many thousand drachmae less than he is worth, on account of his
+thefts, while a teacher for the children would have cost more than he
+can steal from us at the worst. I will lock up the gold in the chest
+with my documents. It is strong and could only be opened with a
+crow-bar. Besides the fellow will have left off stealing at any rate at
+first, for his late master was none of the mildest and had cured him of
+his pilfering I should think, once for all. It is lucky that in selling
+such rascals we should be compelled to state what their faults are; if
+the seller fails to do so compensation maybe claimed from him by the
+next owner for what he may lose. Lykophron certainly concealed nothing,
+and setting aside his thieving propensities the Samian is said to be in
+every respect a capital fellow.”
+
+“But father,” replied Arsinoe, her anxiety once more urging her to
+speak, “it is a bad thing to have a dishonest man in the house.”
+
+“You know nothing about it child!” answered Keraunus. “To us to live and
+to be honest are the same thing, but a slave!--King Antiochus is said to
+have declared that the man who wishes to be well served must employ none
+but rascals.”
+
+When Arsinoe had been tempted out on to the balcony by her lover’s
+snatch of song and had been driven in again by her father, the steward
+had not reproved her in any way unkindly, but had stroked her cheeks and
+said with a smile: “I rather fancy that lad of the gatekeeper’s--whom
+I once turned out of doors has had his eye on you since you were chosen
+for Roxana. Poor wretch! But we have very different suitors in view for
+you my little girl. How would it be, think you, if rich Plutarch had
+sent you those roses, not on his own behalf but as a greeting on the
+part of his son? I know that he is very desirous of marrying him but the
+fastidious man has never yet thought any Alexandrian girl good enough
+for him.”
+
+“I do not know him, and he does not think of a poor thing like me,” said
+Arsinoe.
+
+“Do you think not?” asked Keraunus smiling. “We are of as good family,
+nay of a better than Plutarch, and the fairest is a match for the
+wealthiest. What would you say child to a long flowing purple robe and a
+chariot with white horses, and runners in front?”
+
+At breakfast Keraunus drank two cups of strong wine, in which he allowed
+Arsinoe to mix only a few drops of water. While his daughter was curling
+his hair a swallow flew into the room; this was a good omen and raised
+the steward’s spirits. Dressed in his best and with a well-filled purse,
+he was on the point of starting for the council-chamber with his new
+slave when Sophilus the tailor and his girl-assistant were shown into
+the living-room. The man begged to be allowed to try the dress, ordered
+for Roxana by the prefect’s wife, on the steward’s daughter. Keraunus
+received him with much condescension and allowed him to bring in the
+slave who followed him with a large parcel of dresses,--and Arsinoe, who
+was with the children, was called.
+
+Arsinoe was embarrassed and anxious and would far rather have yielded
+her part to another; still, she was curious about the new dresses. The
+tailor begged her to allow her maid to dress her; his assistant would
+help her because the dresses which were only slightly stitched together
+for trying on, were cut, not in the Greek but in the Oriental fashion.
+
+“Your waiting woman,” he added turning to Arsinoe, “will be able to
+learn to-day the way to dress you on the great occasion.”
+
+“My daughter’s maid,” said Keraunus, winking slily at Arsinoe, “is not
+in the house.”
+
+“Oh, I require no help,” cried the tailor’s girl. “I am handy too at
+dressing hair, and I am most glad to help such a fair Roxana.”
+
+“And it is a real pleasure to work for her,” added Sophilus. “Other
+young ladies are beautified by what they wear, but your daughter adds
+beauty to all she wears.”
+
+“You are most polite,” said Keraunus, as Arsinoe and her handmaid left
+the room.
+
+“We learn a great deal by our intercourse with people of rank,” replied
+the tailor. “The illustrious ladies who honor me with their custom like
+not only to see but to hear what is pleasing. Unfortunately there are
+among them some whom the gods have graced with but few charms, and
+they, strangely enough, crave the most flattering speeches. But the poor
+always value it more than the rich when benevolence is shown them.”
+
+“Well said,” cried Keraunus. “I myself am but indifferently well off for
+a man of family, and am glad to live within my moderate means--so that
+my daughter--”
+
+“The lady Julia has chosen the costliest stuffs for her; as is
+fitting--as the occasion demands,” said the tailor. “Quite right, at the
+same time--”
+
+“Well, my lord?”
+
+“The grand occasion will be over and my daughter, now that she is grown
+up, ought to be seen at home and in the street in suitable and handsome,
+though not costly, clothes.
+
+“I said just now, true beauty needs no gaudy raiment.”
+
+“Would you be disposed now, to work for me at a moderate price?”
+
+“With pleasure; nay, I shall be indebted to her, for all the world will
+admire Roxana and inquire who may be her tailor.”
+
+“You are a very reasonable and right-minded man. What now would you
+charge for a dress for her?”
+
+“That we can discuss later.”
+
+“No, no, I beg you sincerely--”
+
+“First let me consider what you want. Simple dresses are more difficult,
+far more difficult to make, and yet become a handsome woman better than
+rich and gaudy robes. But can any man make a woman understand it? I
+could tell you a tale of their folly! Why many a woman who rides by in
+her chariot wears dresses and gems to conceal not merely her own limbs,
+but the poverty-stricken condition of her house.”
+
+Thus, and in this wise did Keraunus and the tailor converse, while the
+assistant plaited up Arsinoe’s hair with strings of false pearls that
+she had brought with tier, and fitted and pinned on her the costly white
+and blue silk robes of an Asiatic princess. At first Arsinoe was very
+still and timid. She no longer cared to dress for any one but Pollux;
+but the garments prepared for her were wonderfully pretty--and how well
+the fitter knew how to give effect to her natural advantages. While the
+neat-handed woman worked busily and carefully many merry jests passed
+between them--many sincere and hearty words of admiration--and before
+long Arsinoe had become quite excited and took pleased interest in the
+needle-woman’s labors.
+
+Every bough that is freshly decked by spring seems to feel gladness, and
+the simple child who was to-day so splendidly dressed was captivated by
+pleasure in her own beauty, and its costly adornment which delighted her
+beyond measure. Arsinoe now clapped her hands with delight, now had
+the mirror handed to her, and now, with all the frankness of a child,
+expressed her satisfaction not only with the costly clothes she wore,
+but with her own surprisingly grand appearance in them.
+
+The dress-maker was enchanted with her, proud and delighted, and could
+not resist the impulse to give a kiss to the charming girl’s white,
+beautifully round throat.
+
+“If only Pollux could see me so!” thought Arsinoe. “After the
+performance perhaps I might show myself in my dress to Selene, and then
+she would forgive my taking part in the show. It is really a pleasure to
+look so nice!”
+
+The children all stood round her while she was being dressed, and
+shouted with admiration each time some new detail of the princess’s
+attire was added. Helios begged to be allowed to feel her dress, and
+after satisfying herself that his little hands were clean she stroked
+them over the glistening white silk.
+
+She had now advanced so far that her father and the tailor could be
+called in. She felt remarkably content and happy. Drawn up to her
+tallest, like a real king’s daughter, and yet with a heart beating as
+anxiously as that of any girl would who is on the point of displaying
+her beauty--hitherto protected and hidden in her parents’ home--to
+the thousand eyes of the gaping multitude, she went towards the
+sitting-room; but she drew back her hand she had put forth to raise the
+latch, for she heard the voices of several men who must just now have
+joined her father.
+
+“Wait a little while, there are visitors,” she cried to the seamstress
+who had followed her, and she put her ear to the door to listen. At
+first she could not make out anything that was going on, but the end
+of the strange conversation that was being carried on within was so
+hideously intelligible that she could never forget it so long as she
+lived.
+
+Her father had ordered two new dresses for her, beating down the price
+with the promise of prompt payment, when Mastor came into the
+steward’s room and informed Keraunus that his master and Gabinius, the
+curiosity-dealer from Nicaea, wished to speak with him.
+
+“Your master,” said Keraunus haughtily, “may come in; I think that he
+regrets the injury he has done me; but Gabinius shall never cross this
+threshold again, for he is a scoundrel.”
+
+“It would be as well that you should desire that man to leave you for
+the present,” said the slave, pointing to the tailor.
+
+“Whoever comes to visit me,” said the steward loftily, “must be
+satisfied to meet any one whom I permit to enter my house.”
+
+“Nay, nay,” said the slave urgently, “my master is a greater man than
+you think. Beg this man to leave the room.”
+
+“I know, I know very well,” said Keraunus with a smile. “Your master
+is an acquaintance of Caesar’s. But we shall see, after the performance
+that is about to take place, which of us two Caesar will decide for.
+This tailor has business here and will stay at my pleasure. Sit in the
+corner there, my friend.”
+
+“A tailor!” cried Mastor, horrified. “I tell you he must go.”
+
+“He must!” asked Keraunus wrathfully. “A slave dares to give orders in
+my house? We will see.”
+
+“I am going,” interrupted the artisan who understood the case. “No
+unpleasantness shall arise here on my account, I will return in a
+quarter of an hour.”
+
+“You will stay,” commanded Keraunus. “This insolent Roman seems to think
+that Lochias belongs to him; but I will show him who is master here.”
+
+But Mastor paid no heed to these words spoken in a high pitch; he took
+the tailor’s hand and led him out, whispering to him:
+
+“Come with me if you wish to escape an evil hour.”
+
+The two men went off and Keraunus did not detain the artisan, for it
+occurred to his mind that his presence did him small credit. He purposed
+to show himself in all his dignity to the overbearing architect, but he
+also remembered that it was not advisable to provoke unnecessarily the
+mysterious bearded stranger, with the big clog. Much excited, and not
+altogether free from anxiety, he paced up and down his room. To give
+himself courage he hastily filled a cup from the wine-jar that stood on
+the breakfast table, emptied it, refilled it and drank it off a second
+time without adding any water, and then stood with his arms folded and a
+strong color in his face awaiting his enemy’s visit.
+
+The Emperor walked in with Gabinius. Keraunus expected some greeting,
+but Hadrian spoke not a word, cast a glance at him of the utmost
+contempt and passed by him without taking any more notice of him than if
+he had been a pillar or a piece of furniture. The blood mounted to the
+steward’s head and heated his eyes and for fully a minute he strove in
+vain to find words to give utterance to his rage. Gabinius paid no more
+heed to Keraunus than the Roman had done. He walked on ahead and paused
+in front of the mosaic for which he had offered so high a price, and
+over which a few days since he had been so sharply dealt with by the
+steward.
+
+“I would beg you,” he said, “to look at this masterpiece.”
+
+The Emperor looked at the ground, but hardly had he begun to study the
+picture, of which he quite understood and appreciated the beauty, when
+just behind him he heard in a hoarse voice these words uttered with
+difficulty:
+
+“In Alexandria--it is the custom, to greet--to say something--to the
+people you visit.” Hadrian half turned his head towards the speaker and
+said indifferently but with strong and insulting contempt:
+
+“In Rome too it is the custom to greet honest people.” Then looking down
+again at the mosaic he said, “Exquisite, exquisite an inestimable and
+precious work.” At Hadrian’s words Keraunus’ eyes almost started out of
+his head. His face was crimson and his lips pale; he went close up to
+him and as soon as he had found breath to speak he said:
+
+“What have you--what are your words intended to convey?”
+
+Hadrian turned suddenly and full upon the steward; in his eyes sparkled
+that annihilating fire which few could endure to gaze on and his deep
+voice rolled sullenly through the room as he said to the miserable man:
+
+“My words are intended to convey that you have been an unfaithful
+steward, that I know what you would rather I should not know, that
+I have learned how you deal with the property entrusted to you, that
+you--”
+
+“That I?”--cried the steward trembling with rage and stepping close up
+to the Emperor.
+
+“That you,” shouted Hadrian in his face, “tried to sell this picture
+to this man; in short that you are a simpleton and a scoundrel into the
+bargain.”
+
+“I--I,” gasped Keraunus slapping his hand on his fat chest.
+“I--a--a--but you shall repent of these words.”
+
+Hadrian laughed coldly and scornfully, but Keraunus sprang on Gabinius
+with a wonderful agility for his size, clutched him by the collar of
+his chiton and shook the feeble little man as if he were a sapling,
+shrieking meanwhile:
+
+“I will choke you with your own lies--serpent, mean viper!”
+
+“Madman!” cried Hadrian “leave hold of the Ligurian or by Sirius you
+shall repent it.”
+
+“Repent it?” gasped the steward. “It will be your turn to repent when
+Caesar comes. Then will come a day of reckoning with false witnesses,
+shameless calumniators who disturb peaceful households, while credulous
+idiots--”
+
+“Man, man,” interrupted Hadrian, not loudly but sternly and ominously,
+“you know not to whom you speak.”
+
+“Oh I know you--I know you only too well. But I--I--shall I tell you who
+I am?”
+
+“You--you are a blockhead,” replied the monarch shrugging his shoulders
+contemptuously. Then he added calmly, with dignity--almost with
+indifference:
+
+“I am Caesar.”
+
+At these words the steward’s hand dropped from the chiton of the
+half-throttled dealer. Speechless and with a glassy stare he gazed in
+Hadrian’s face for a few seconds. Then he suddenly started, staggered
+backwards, uttered a loud choking, gurgling, nameless cry, and fell
+back on the floor like a mass of rock shaken from its foundations by an
+earthquake. The room shook again with his fall.
+
+Hadrian was startled and when he saw him lying motionless at his feet
+he bent over him--less from pity than from a wish to see what was the
+matter with him; for he had also dabbled in medicine. Just as he was
+lifting the fallen man’s hand to feel his pulse Arsinoe rushed into the
+room. She had heard the last words of the antagonists with breathless
+anxiety and her father’s fall and now threw herself on her knees by the
+side of the unhappy man, just opposite to Hadrian, and as his distorted
+and grey-white face told her what had occurred she broke out in a
+passionate cry of anguish. Her brothers and sisters followed at her
+heels, and when they saw their favorite sister bewailing herself they
+followed her example without knowing at first what Arsinoe was crying
+for, but soon with terror and horror at their father lying there stiff
+and disfigured. The Emperor, who had never had either son or daughter
+of his own, found nothing so intolerable as the presence of crying
+children. However he endured the wailing and whimpering that surrounded
+him till he had ascertained the condition of the man lying on the ground
+before him.
+
+“He is dead,” he said in a few minutes. “Cover his face, Master.”
+
+Arsinoe and the children broke out afresh, and Hadrian glanced down at
+them with annoyance. When his eye fell on Arsinoe, whose costly robe,
+merely pinned and slightly stitched together had come undone with the
+vehemence of her movements and were hanging as flapping rags in tumbled
+disorder, he was disgusted with the gaudy fluttering trumpery which
+contrasted so painfully with the grief of the wearer, and turning his
+back on the fair girl he quitted the chamber of misery.
+
+Gabinius followed him with a hideous smirk. He had directed the
+Emperor’s attention to the mosaic pavement in the steward’s room, and
+had shamelessly accused Keraunus of having offered to sell him a work
+that belonged to the palace, contrasting his conduct with his own
+rectitude. Now the calumniated man was dead, and the truth could never
+come to light; this was necessarily a satisfaction to the miserable man,
+but he derived even greater pleasure from the reflection that Arsinoe
+could not now fill the part of Roxana, and that consequently there was
+once more a possibility that it might devolve on his daughter.
+
+Hadrian walked on in front of him, silent and thoughtful. Gabinius
+followed him into his writing-room, and there said with fulsome
+smoothness:
+
+“Ah, great Caesar, thus do the gods punish with a heavy hand the crimes
+of the guilty.”
+
+Hadrian did not interrupt him, but he looked him keenly and enquiringly
+in the face, and then said, gravely, but coolly:
+
+“It seems to me, man, that I should do well to break off my connection
+with you, and to give some other dealer the commissions which I proposed
+to entrust to you.”
+
+“Caesar!” stammered Gabinius, “I really do not know--”
+
+“But I do know,” interrupted the Emperor. “You have attempted to mislead
+me, and throw your own guilt on the shoulders of another.”
+
+“I--great Caesar? I have attempted--” began the Ligurian, while his
+pinched features turned an ashy grey. “You accused the steward of a
+dishonorable trick,” replied Hadrian. “But I know men well, and I know
+that no thief ever yet died of being called a scoundrel. It is only
+undeserved disgrace that can cost a man’s life.”
+
+“Keraunus was full-blooded, and the shock when he learnt that you were
+Caesar--”
+
+“That shock accelerated the end no doubt,” interrupted the monarch, “but
+the mosaic in the steward’s room is worth a million of sesterces, and
+now I have seen enough to be quite sure that you are not the man to save
+your money when a work like that mosaic is offered you for sale--be the
+circumstances what they may. If I see the case rightly, it was Keraunus
+who refused your demand that he should resign to you the treasure in his
+charge. Certainly, that was the case exactly! Now, leave me. I wish to
+be alone.”
+
+Gabinius retired with many bows, walking backwards to the door, and then
+turned his back on the palace of Lochias muttering many impotent curses
+as he went.
+
+The steward’s new ‘body-servant,’ the old black woman, Mastor, the
+tailor and his slave, helped Arsinoe to carry her father’s lifeless body
+and lay it on a couch, and the slave closed his eyes. He was dead--so
+each told the despairing girl, but she would not, could not believe it.
+As soon as she was alone with the old negress and the dead, she lifted
+up his heavy, clumsy arm, and as soon as she let go her hold it fell by
+his side like lead. She lifted the cloth from the dead man’s face, but
+she flung it over him again at once, for death had drawn his features.
+Then she kissed his cold hand and brought the children in and made them
+do the same, and said sobbing:
+
+“We have no father now; we shall never, never see him again.”
+
+The little blind boy felt the dead body with his hands, and asked his
+sister:
+
+“Will he not wake again to-morrow morning and make you curl his hair,
+and take me up on his knee?”
+
+“Never, never; he is gone, gone for ever.”
+
+As she spoke Mastor entered the room, sent by his master. Yesterday had
+he not heard from the overseer of the pavement-workers the comforting
+tidings that after our grief and suffering here on earth there would
+be another, beautiful, blissful and eternal life? He went kindly up to
+Arsinoe and said:
+
+“No, no, my children; when we are dead we become beautiful angels with
+colored wings, and all who have loved each other here on earth will meet
+again in the presence of the good God.”
+
+Arsinoe looked at the slave with disapproval.
+
+“What is the use,” she asked, “of cheating the children with silly
+tales? Their father is gone, quite gone, but we will never, never forget
+him.”
+
+“Are there any angels with red wings?” asked the youngest little girl.
+
+“Oh! I want to be an angel!” cried Helios, clapping his hands. “And can
+the angels see?”
+
+“Yes, dear little man,” replied Mastor, “and their eyes are wonderfully
+bright, and all they look upon is beautiful.”
+
+“Tell them no more Christian nonsense,” begged Arsinoe. “Ah! children,
+when we shall have burned our father’s body there will be nothing left
+of him but a few grey ashes.”
+
+But the slave took the little blind boy on his knees and whispered to
+him:
+
+“Only believe what I tell you--you will see him again in Heaven.”
+
+Then he set him down again, gave Arsinoe a little bag of gold pieces in
+Caesar’s name, and begged her--for so his master desired--to find a new
+abode and, after the deceased was burned on the morrow, to quit Lochias
+with the children. When Mastor was gone Arsinoe opened the chest, in
+which lay her father’s papyri and the money that Plutarch had paid for
+the ivory cup, put in the heavy purse sent by the Emperor, comforting
+herself while her tears flowed, with the reflection that she and the
+children were provided at any rate against immediate want.
+
+But where was she to go with the little ones? Where could she hope to
+find a refuge at once? What was to become of them when all they now
+possessed was spent. The gods be thanked! she was not forlorn; she still
+had friends. She could find protection and love with Pollux and look to
+dame Doris for motherly counsel.
+
+She quickly dried her eyes and changed the remains of her splendor
+for the dark dress in which she was accustomed to work at the papyrus
+factory; then, as soon as she had taken the pearls out of her hair, she
+went down to the little gate-house.
+
+She was only a few steps from the door--but why did not the Graces come
+springing out to meet her? Why did she see no birds, no flowers in the
+window? Was she deceived, was she dreaming or was she tricked by some
+evil spirit? The door of the dear home-like little dwelling was wide
+open and the sitting-room was absolutely empty, not a chattel was left
+behind, forgotten--not a leaf from a plant was lying on the ground; for
+dame Doris, in her tidy fashion, had swept out the few rooms where she
+had grown grey in peace and contentment as carefully as though she were
+to come into them again to-morrow.
+
+What had happened here? Where were her friends gone? A great terror came
+over her, all the misery of desolation fell upon her, and as she sank
+upon the stone bench outside the gate-house to wait for the inhabitants
+who must presently return, the tears again flowed from her eyes and fell
+in heavy drops on her hands as they lay in her lap.
+
+She was still sitting there, thinking with a throbbing heart of Pollux
+and of the happy morning of this now dying day, when a troup of Moorish
+slaves came towards the deserted house. The head mason who led them
+desired her to rise from the bench, and in answer to her questions, told
+her that the little building was to be pulled down, and that the couple
+who had inhabited it were evicted from their post, turned out of doors
+and had gone elsewhere with all their belongings. But where Doris and
+her son had taken themselves no one knew. Arsinoe as she heard these
+tidings felt like a sailor whose vessel has grounded on a rocky shore,
+and who realizes with horror that every plank and beam be neath him
+quivers and gapes. As usual, when she felt too weak to help herself
+unaided, her first thought was of Selene, and she decided to hasten off
+to her and to ask her what she could do, what was to become of her and
+the children.
+
+It was already growing dark. With a swift step, and drying her eyes from
+time to time on her peplum as she went, she returned to her own room
+to fetch a veil, without which she dared not venture so late into the
+streets. On the steps--where the dog had thrown down Selene--she met
+a man hurrying past her; in the dim light she fancied he bore some
+resemblance to the slave that her father had bought the day before;
+but she paid no particular heed, for her mind was full of so many other
+things. In the kitchen sat the old negress in front of a lamp and
+the children squatted round her; by the hearth sat the baker and the
+butcher, to whom her father owed considerable sums and who had come to
+claim their dues, for ill news has swifter wings than good tidings, and
+they had already heard of the steward’s death. Arsinoe took the lamp,
+begged the men to wait, went into the sitting-room, passing, not without
+a shudder, the body of the man who a few hours since had stroked her
+cheeks and looked lovingly into her eyes.
+
+How glad she felt to be able to pay her dead father’s debts and save the
+honor of his name! She confidently drew the key out of her pocket and
+went up to the chest. What was this? She knew, quite positively, that
+she had locked it before going out and yet it was now standing wide
+open; the lid, thrown back, hung askew by one hinge; the other was
+broken. A dread, a hideous suspicion, froze her blood; the lamp trembled
+in her hand as she leaned over the chest which ought to have contained
+every thing she possessed. There lay the old documents, carefully rolled
+together, side by side, but the two bags with Plutarch’s money and the
+Emperor’s, had vanished. She took out one roll after another; then she
+tossed them all out on to the floor till the bottom of the chest was
+bare--but the gold was really gone, nowhere to be found.
+
+The new slave had forced open the lid of the chest and stolen the whole
+possessions of the orphans of the man who, to gratify his own vanity,
+had brought him into the house.
+
+Arsinoe screamed aloud, called in her creditors, explained to them all
+that had occurred and implored them to pursue the thief; and when they
+only listened to her with an incredulous shrug, she swore that she was
+speaking the truth, and promised that whether the slave were caught
+or not she would pay them with the price of her own and her father’s
+personal ornaments. She knew the name of the dealer of whom her father
+had bought the slave and told it to the unsatisfied dealers, who at last
+left her to follow up the thief as promptly as possible.
+
+Once more Arsinoe was alone. Tearless, but shivering and scarcely
+mistress of herself from misery and agitation, she took out her veil,
+flung it over her head, and hurried through the court and along the
+streets to her sister.
+
+Verily, since Sabina’s visit to the palace all good spirits had deserted
+it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+In a perfectly dark spot by the wall of the widow’s garden, stood
+the cynic philosopher who had met Antinous with so little courtesy,
+defending himself eagerly, but in low tones against the rebukes of
+another man, who, dressed, like himself in a ragged cloak and bearing a
+beggar’s wallet, appeared to be one of the same kidney.
+
+“Do not deny,” said the latter, “that you cling much to the Christians.”
+
+“But hear me out,” urged the other.
+
+“I need hear nothing, for I have seen you for the tenth time sneaking in
+to one of their meetings.”
+
+“And do I deny it? Do I not honestly confess that I seek truth wherever
+I may, where I see even a gleam of hope of finding it?”
+
+“Like the Egyptian who wanted to catch the miraculous fish, and at last
+flung his hook into the sand.”
+
+“The man acted very wisely.”
+
+“What now!”
+
+“A marvel is not to be found just where everything else is. In hunting
+for truth you must not be afraid of a bog.”
+
+“And the Christian doctrine seems to be very much such a muddy thicket.”
+
+“Call it so for aught I care.”
+
+“Then beware lest you find yourself sticking in the morass.”
+
+“I will take care of myself.”
+
+“You said just now that there were decent folks among them.”
+
+“A few no doubt. But the others! eternal gods! mere slaves, beggars,
+ruined handicraftstmen, common people, untaught and unphilosophical
+brains, and women, for the most part.”
+
+“Avoid them then.”
+
+“You ought to be the last to give me that advice.”
+
+“What do you mean?”
+
+The other went close up to him and asked him in a whisper:
+
+“Why, where do you suppose I get the money with which I pay for our food
+and lodging?”
+
+“So long as you do not steal it, it is all the same to me.”
+
+“If I had no more, you would ask the question fast enough.”
+
+“Certainly not, we strive after virtue and ought to do everything to
+render ourselves independent of nature and her cravings. But to be
+sure she often asserts her rights--to return then: where do you get the
+money?”
+
+“Why, it burns in the purses of the people in there. It is their duty
+to give to the poor, and to tell the truth, their pleasure also; and so
+week by week they give me a few drachmae for my suffering brother.”
+
+“Bah! you are the only son of your father, and he is dead.”
+
+“‘All men are brethren’ say the Christians, consequently I may call you
+mine without lying.”
+
+“Join them then for aught I care,” laughed the other. “How would it
+be if I followed you among the Christians? Perhaps they would give
+me weekly money too, for my suffering brother, and then we could have
+double meals.”
+
+The cynics laughed loudly and parted; one went back into the city, the
+other into the garden belonging to the Christian widow.
+
+Arsinoe had entered here before the dishonest philosopher and had gone
+straight to Hannah’s house without being detained by the gate-keeper. As
+she got nearer to her destination, she tried more and more earnestly to
+devise some way in which she might inform her sister of all the dreadful
+things that had happened, and which she must learn sooner or later,
+without giving her too great a shock. Her dread was not much less than
+her grief. As she reflected on the last few days and on all that had
+occurred, it almost seemed as though she herself had been the cause of
+the misfortunes of her family.
+
+On the way to see Selene she could shed no tears, but she could not help
+softly moaning to herself now and then. A woman, who for some distance
+had kept pace with her, thought she must be suffering some severe bodily
+pain, and when the girl passed her, she looked after her with sincere
+compassion, the wailing of the desolate young creature had sounded so
+piteous.
+
+True, midway, Arsinoe had suddenly stopped and had thought that instead
+of going to Selene for advice, she would turn round and seek Pollux and
+ask him to help her. The thought of her lover forced its way through all
+her sorrow and anxiety, through the reproaches she heaped upon herself
+and the vague plans floating in the air which her brain--unaccustomed to
+any serious thought, vainly tried to sketch for the future. He was kind,
+and would certainly be ready to help her; but maidenly modesty held
+her back from seeking him at so late an hour; besides, how could she
+discover him or his parents?
+
+The place where her sister was she was now familiar with, and no one
+could judge of their position better or give sounder counsel than
+prudent Selene. So she had not turned round, but had hurried on to reach
+her destination as soon as possible; and now she was standing before
+the little house in the garden. Before opening the door she once more
+considered in what way she could prepare Selene and tell her terrible
+news, and, as all that happened stood vividly before her mind’s eye, she
+began to weep once more.
+
+In front of her, and following her, men and veiled women, singly or in
+couples or in larger groups, passed into Paulina’s garden. They came
+from workshops and writing-rooms, from humble houses in narrow lanes,
+and from the handsomest and largest in the main street. Each and all,
+from the wealthy merchant down to the slave who could not call the
+coarse tunic or scanty apron that he wore, his own, walked gravely and
+with a certain dignified reserve. All who met within that gate greeted
+each other as friends; the master gave a brotherly kiss to the servant,
+the slave to his owner; for the congregation to which they all belonged
+was as one body, animated and dwelt in by Christ, so that each member
+was esteemed as equal to the others however different their gifts of
+body or mind might be, or the worldly possessions with which they
+were endowed. Before God and his Saviour the rich ship-owner or the
+grey-haired sage stood no higher than the defenceless widow and the
+ignorant slave crippled with blows. Still, the members of the community
+submitted to those more implicitly than to these, for the special
+talents which graced certain superior Christians were gifts of grace
+from the Lord, readily acknowledged as such and, so far as they
+concerned the inner man, deemed worthy of honor.
+
+On Sunday, the day of the Resurrection of the Lord, all Christians,
+without exception, visited their place of assembly for divine worship.
+To-day, being the middle of the week, all who could or chose came to the
+love-feast at Paulina’s suburban house. She herself dwelt in the city
+and she had placed the banqueting hall of her villa, which would hold
+more than a hundred souls, at the disposal of her fellow Christians in
+that quarter of the town. The regular service was held in the morning,
+but after the day’s labor was ended the Christians met at one table to
+have an evening meal in common, or--on other occasions to partake of
+the sacramental supper. After sunset the elders, deacons, and
+deaconesses--most of whom, so long as it was light, had secular work to
+attend to--met to take counsel together.
+
+Paulina, the widow of Pudeus and sister of Pontius the architect, was a
+woman of considerable property and at the same time a prudent steward,
+who did not consider herself justified in seriously impairing her son’s
+inheritance. This son was residing at Smyrna as a partner in an uncle’s
+business, and always avoided Alexandria, as he did not like his mother’s
+intercourse with the Christians. Paulina took the most anxious care not
+to make any inroads on the capital intended for him, and never allowed
+her hospitality to her fellow-believers to cost her any more than it did
+the other wealthy members of the circle that met at her house. There
+the rich brought more than they needed for themselves and the poor were
+always welcome; not feeling themselves oppressed by the benevolence they
+profited by, for they were often told that their entertainer was not
+a mortal, but the Saviour, who invited each one who followed him
+faithfully to be his guest.
+
+The hour was approaching which would summon dame Hannah to join the
+assembly of her fellow Christians. She could not fail to appear, for she
+was one of the deaconesses entrusted with the distribution of alms and
+the care of the sick. She noiselessly made her preparations for going,
+carefully setting the lamp behind the water-pitcher so that it should
+not dazzle Selene, and she desired Mary to be exact in administering the
+medicine to her patient. She knew that the girl had yesterday attempted
+to make away with herself, and guessed the cause; but she asked no
+questions and disturbed the poor child, who slept a good deal or lay
+dreaming with open eyes, as little as possible. The old physician
+wondered at her sound constitution, for since her plunge into the water
+the fever had left her and even the injured foot was not much the worse.
+Hannah might now hope the best for Selene if no unforeseen contingency
+checked her recovery. To prevent this the unfortunate girl was never to
+be left alone, and Mary had gladly agreed with her friend to fill her
+place whenever she was obliged to leave the house.
+
+The meeting of the elders and guardians had already begun when Hannah
+took her tablets in her hand, on which was noted the distribution she
+had made of the money entrusted to her during the last week. She greeted
+the sick girl and Mary with a kindly look and whispered to the deformed
+girl:
+
+“I will think of thee in my prayers thou faithful soul. There is some
+food in the little cupboard--not much, for we must be sparing, the last
+medicine was so dear.”
+
+In the little anteroom a lamp was burning which Mary had lighted as
+it began to grow dark, and the widow paused for a moment, considering
+whether she should not extinguish it to save the oil. She had taken up
+the tongs that hung by it, and was about to put it out, when she heard
+a gentle tap at the house-door. Before she could enquire who it was
+that asked admission at so late an hour, the door was opened and Arsinoe
+entered the little hall. Her eyes were still full of tears and she had
+great difficulty in finding words to return Hannah’s greeting.
+
+“Why what ails you my child?” asked the Christian anxiously when by the
+dim light, she saw how tearful and sad the girl looked. Arsinoe was long
+before she could answer. At last she collected herself sufficiently to
+sob out amid her tears:
+
+“Oh dame Hannah! It is all over with us--my father, our poor father--”
+
+The widow guessed at the blow that bad fallen on the sisters and full of
+anxiety on Selene’s account she interrupted the weeping child saying:
+
+“Hush, hush my child-Selene must not hear you. Come out with me and then
+you can tell me all.” Once outside the door Hannah put her arm round
+Arsinoe drew her towards her, kissed her forehead, and said:
+
+“Now speak and tell me every thing; think that I am your mother or
+your sister. Poor Selene is still too weak to advise or help you. Take
+courage. What happened to your poor father?”
+
+“Struck by apoplexy, dead--dead!” wept the girl. “Poor, dear little
+orphan,” said the widow in a husky voice and she clasped Arsinoe closely
+in her arms. For some time she allowed the girl to weep silently on her
+bosom; then she spoke:
+
+“Give me your hand my daughter and tell me how it has all happened so
+suddenly. Your father was quite well yesterday and now? Yes my girl life
+is a grave matter, you have to learn it while you are still young. I
+know you have six little brothers and sisters and perhaps you may
+soon lack even the necessaries of life. But that is no disgrace; I am
+certainly even poorer than you and yet, by God’s help, I hope to be able
+to advise you and perhaps even to assist you. Every thing that I can
+possibly do shall be done, but first I must know how matters stand with
+you and what you need.”
+
+There was so much kindness and consolation in the Christian’s tones, so
+much to revive hope that Arsinoe willingly complied with her demand and
+began her story.
+
+At first, to be sure, her pride shunned confessing how poor, how
+absolutely destitute they were; but Hannah’s questions soon brought the
+truth to light; and when Arsinoe perceived that the widow understood the
+misfortunes of their house in their fullest extent, and that it would be
+unavailing to conceal how matters stood with her and the children, she
+yielded to the growing impulse to relieve her soul by pouring out her
+griefs and described frankly and without reserve the whole position of
+the family, to the good woman who listened with attention and sympathy.
+The widow asked about each child separately, and ended by enquiring who,
+in Arsinoe’s absence, was left in charge of the little ones; and when
+she heard that the old slave-woman to whose care the children were
+entrusted, was infirm and half-blind, she shook her head thoughtfully.
+
+“Here help is needed and at once,” she said decidedly. “You must go back
+to the little ones presently. Your sister must not at present hear of
+your father’s death; when your future lot is to some extent secure we
+will tell her by degrees all that has occurred. Now come with me, it is
+by the Lord’s guidance that you came here at the right moment.”
+
+Hannah conducted Arsinoe to Paulina’s villa, first into a small room
+at the side of the entrance hall, where the deaconesses took off their
+veils and their warm wraps in winter evenings. There the girl could be
+alone, and safe from inquisitive questionings which could not fail to be
+painful to her. Hannah desired her to await her return, and then joined
+her colleagues.
+
+In order to do so she had to pass through the room where the elders
+and deacons were sitting in council. The bishop, who presided over the
+assembly, sat on a raised seat at the head of an oblong table, and on
+his right hand and his left sat a number of elderly men, some of whom
+seemed to be of Jewish or Egyptian extraction but most of them were
+Greeks. In these the lofty intellectual brow was conspicuous, in those
+a bright, ecstatic expression particularly in the eyes. Hannah went
+past the assembly with a reverential greeting into the adjoining room in
+which the deaconesses sat waiting, for women were not admitted to join
+or hear the deliberations of the elders. The bishop, a fine old man
+with a full white beard; raised his kindly eyes as the door closed upon
+Hannah, fixed them for a few moments on the tips of his fingers that
+he had raised and then addressed the presbyter who had presented for
+baptism several candidates who had been grounded during the past year in
+the Christian faith and doctrine, as follows:
+
+“Most of the catechumens you have presented to me cling faithfully no
+doubt to the Redeemer. They believe in Him and love Him. But have they
+attained to that sanctification, that new birth in Christ, which alone
+can justify us in admitting them through baptism among the lambs of our
+Good Shepherd? Let us beware of the tainted sheep which may infect the
+whole flock. Verily, in these latter years there has been no lack of
+them, and they have been received among us and have brought the name of
+Christian into evil repute. Shall I give you an example? There was an
+Egyptian in Rhakotis; few seemed to strive so fervently as he for the
+remission of his sins. He could fast for many days, and yet no sooner
+was he baptized than he broke into a goldsmith’s shop. He was condemned
+to death, and before his end he sent for me and confessed to me that in
+former years he had soiled his soul with many robberies and murders. He
+had hoped to win forgiveness of his sins by the act of baptism, the mere
+washing in water, not by repentance and a new birth to a pure and holy
+life; and he had gone on boldly in new sin because he confidently hoped
+that he might again count on the unwearying mercy of the Saviour. Others
+again, who had been brought up in the practice of the ablutions which
+have to be performed by those who are initiated into the deeper secrets
+of the heathen mysteries, regarded baptism as an act of purification,
+a mystical process of happy augury, or at the best a figurative
+purification of the soul, and crowded to receive it. Here, in
+Alexandria, the number of these deluded ones is especially great; for
+where could any superstition find a more favorable soil than in this
+seat of philosophical half-culture, or over-culture; of the worship
+of Serapis, of astrology, of societies of Mystics, of visionaries
+and exorcisers, and of incredulity--the twin-sister of credulity. Be
+cautious then to hold back from baptism all those who regard it as a
+preserving charm or an act of good omen--remembering that the same water
+which, sprinkled on sanctified hearts, leads them to holy living, brings
+death to the unclean soul. It is your turn to speak, Irenaeus.”
+
+“I only have to say,” began the young Christian thus designated, “that
+I have recently met among the catechumens with some who have attached
+themselves to us from the basest motives. I mean the idlers who are glad
+to receive our alms. Have you noticed here a cynic philosopher whose
+starving brother we maintain? Our deacon Clemens has just ascertained
+that he is the only son of his father--”
+
+“We will investigate this matter more closely when we discuss the
+distribution of alms,” replied the bishop. “Here we have petitions from
+several women who desire to have their children baptized; this question
+we cannot decide here; it must be referred to the next Synod. So far
+as I am concerned, I should be inclined not to reject the prayer of the
+mothers. Wherein does the utmost aim of the Christian life consist?
+It seems to me in being perfectly conformable to the example of the
+Saviour. And was not he a Man among men, a Youth among the young, a
+Child among children? Did not His existence lend sanctity to every age,
+and especially childhood? He commanded that little children should be
+brought to Him, and He promised them the Kingdom of Heaven. Wherefore
+then should we exclude them and deny them baptism?”
+
+“I cannot share your views,” replied a presbyter with a high forehead
+and sunken eyes. “We ought no doubt to follow the Saviour, but those who
+tread in His steps should do so of their own free choice, out of love
+for Him, and after He has sanctified their souls. What is the sense of a
+new birth in a life that has scarcely begun.
+
+“Your discourse,” replied the bishop, “only confirms my opinion that
+this question is one for a higher assembly. We will now close our
+discussion of that point, and go on to the care of the poor. Call in the
+women, my good Justinius.”
+
+The deaconesses came into the room and took seats at the lower end of
+the table, Paulina, the widow of Pudeus, taking her place opposite the
+bishop in the middle of the other women. She had learnt from Selene’s
+kind nurse in what pressing difficulties the children of the deceased
+steward now found themselves, and that Hannah had promised to assist
+them.
+
+The deacons first gave their reports of what their works had been among
+the poor; after them the women were allowed to speak. Paulina, a tall,
+slight woman with black hair faintly streaked with gray, drew from her
+dress, which was perfectly plain, but made of particularly soft, fine
+white woollen stuff--a tablet that she placed before her, and slowly
+raising her eyes and looking at the assembly she said:
+
+“Dame Hannah has a melancholy story to tell you, for which I crave your
+sympathy. Will you be so good as to allow her to speak?”
+
+Paulina seemed to feel that she was the hostess to her brethren. She
+looked ill and suffering; a line of pain had settled about her lips, and
+there were always dark shades under her eyes; still, there was something
+firm and decisive in her voice, and her glance was anything rather than
+soft and winning. After her commanding tones Hannah’s tale sounded as
+soft as a song. She described the different natures of the two sisters
+as lovingly as though they were her own daughters, each in her own
+way seemed to her so worthy of compassion, and she spoke with pathetic
+lament of the unprotected, helpless orphans abandoned to misery, and
+among them a pretty little blind boy. And she ended her speech by
+saying:
+
+“The steward’s second daughter--she is sixteen and so beautiful that
+she must be exposed to every temptation--has now the whole charge of the
+nourishment and care of her six young brothers and sisters. Ought we
+to withhold from them a protecting hand? No, so surely as we love the
+Saviour we ought not. You agree with me? Well then, do not let us delay
+our help. The second daughter of the deceased Keraunus is here, in this
+house; to-morrow early the children must all quit the palace, and now,
+while I am speaking, are at home alone and but ill tended.”
+
+The Christian woman’s good words fell on kindly soil, and the presbyters
+and deacons determined to recommend the congregation who should assemble
+at the love-feast to give their assistance to the steward’s children.
+
+The elders had still much to discuss, so Hannah and Paulina were charged
+with the task of appealing to the hearts of the well-to-do members
+of the congregation to provide for the orphans. The poor widow first
+conducted her wealthy friend and hostess to the little room where
+Arsinoe was waiting with growing impatience. She looked paler than usual
+but, in spite of her tear-reddened eyes which she kept fixed on the
+ground, she was so lovely, so touchingly lovely, that the mere sight
+of her moved Paulina’s heart. She had once had two children, an only
+daughter besides her son. The girl bad died in the spring-time of her
+maidenhood, and Paulina thought of her at every hour of her life. It was
+for her sake that she had been baptized and devoted her existence to a
+series of painful sacrifices. She strove with all her might to be a good
+Christian--for surely she, the self-denying woman who had taken up the
+cross of her own free will, the suffering creature who loved stillness
+and who had made her country-house, which she visited daily, a scene of
+unrest, could not fail to win Heaven, and there she hoped to meet her
+innocent child.
+
+Arsinoe reminded her of her Helena, who certainly had been far less fair
+than the steward’s lovely daughter, but whose image had assumed new and
+glorified forms in the mother’s faithful heart. Since her son had left
+home for a foreign country she had often asked herself whether she
+might not find some young creature to take into her home, to attach to
+herself, to bring up as a Christian, and to bring as an offering to her
+Saviour’s feet.
+
+Her daughter had died a heathen, and nothing troubled Paulina so deeply
+as that her soul was lost, and that her own struggling and striving
+for grace could not lead her to the goal beyond the grave. No sacrifice
+seemed too great to purchase her child’s beatitude, and now, standing
+before Arsinoe and looking at her with deep emotion and admiration, she
+was seized with an idea which swiftly ripened to resolve. She would win
+this sweet soul for the Redeemer, and implore Him with ceaseless prayers
+to save her hapless child as a reward for the work of grace in Arsinoe’s
+soul; and she felt as if she had signed the compact with the Redeemer,
+when, fully determined on this course, she went up to the girl and asked
+her:
+
+“You are quite forlorn, quite without relations?” Arsinoe bowed her head
+in assent, and Paulina went on:
+
+“And do you bear your loss with resignation?”
+
+“What is resignation?” asked the girl modestly. Hannah laid her hand on
+the widow’s arm and whispered:
+
+“She is a heathen.”
+
+“I know it,” said Paulina shortly, and then went on kindly but
+positively:
+
+“You and yours have lost both parents and a home by your father’s death.
+You shall find a new home in my house, with me; I ask nothing of you in
+return but your love.”
+
+Arsinoe looked at the haughty lady in astonishment. She could not
+yet feel any impulse of affection towards her, and she did not as yet
+understand that what was required of her was the one gift which the best
+will, the most loving heart in the world, could not offer at a command.
+Paulina did not wait for her reply, but signed to Hannah to follow her
+to join the congregation now assembled at the evening meal.
+
+A quarter of an hour later the two women returned. The steward’s orphans
+were provided for. Two or three Christian families were ready and
+willing to take in some of them, and many a kindly house-mother had
+begged to have the blind child; but in vain, for Hannah had claimed the
+right to bring up the hapless little boy in her own house, at any rate
+for the present. She knew how Selene clung to him, and hoped by his
+presence to be able to work powerfully on the crushed and chilled heart
+of the poor girl.
+
+Arsinoe did not contravene the arrangements of the two women. She
+thanked them, indeed, for she felt that she once more stood on firm
+ground, but she also was immediately aware that it would be strewn
+with sharp stones. The thought of parting from her little brothers and
+sisters was terrible and cruel, and never left her mind for an instant,
+while, accompanied by Hannah in person, she made her way back to
+Lochias.
+
+The next morning her kind friend appeared again and led her and the
+little troup to Paulina’s town-house. The steward’s creditors divided
+his little possessions; nothing but the chest of papyri followed the
+girl to her new home. The hour in which the fondly-linked circle of
+children was riven asunder, when one child was taken here and another
+there, was the bitterest which Arsinoe had ever experienced or ever
+could experience through all the after years of her life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A lovely garden adjoined the Caesareum, the palace in which Sabina was
+residing. Balbilla was fond of lingering there, and as the morning of
+the twenty-ninth of December was particularly brilliant--the sky and its
+infinite mirror the sea, gleaming in indescribably deep blue, while
+the fragrance of a flowering shrub was wafted in at her window like
+an invitation to quit the house she had sought a certain bench which,
+though placed in a sunny spot, was slightly shaded by an acacia. This
+seat was screened from the more public paths by bushes; the promenaders
+who did not seek Balbilla could not observe her here, but she could
+command a view, through a gap in the foliage, of the path, which was
+strewn with small shells.
+
+To-day, however, the young poetess was far from feeling any curiosity;
+instead of gazing at the shrubbery enlivened by birds, at the clear
+atmosphere or the sparkling sea, her eyes were fixed on a yellow roll of
+papyrus and she was impressing very dry details on her retentive memory.
+
+She had determined to keep her word to learn to speak, write, and
+compose verses in the Aeolian dialect of the Greek tongue. She had
+chosen for her teacher Apollonius, the great grammarian, who was apt
+to call his scholars “the dullards;” and the work which was the present
+object of her studies was derived from the famous library of the
+Serapeum, which far exceeded in completeness that of the Museum since
+the siege of Julius Caesar in the Bruchiom, when the great Museum
+library was burnt.
+
+Any one observing Balbilla at her occupation could hardly have believed
+that she was studying. There was no fixed effort in her eyes or on her
+brow; still, she read line for line, not skipping a single word; only
+she did it not like a man who climbs a mountain with sweat on his brow,
+but like a lounger who walks in the main street of some great city, and
+is charmed at every new and strange thing that meets his eye. Each time
+she came upon some form of structure in the book she was reading that
+had been hitherto unknown to her, she was so delighted that she clapped
+her hands and laughed out softly. Her learned master had never before
+met with so cheerful a student, and it annoyed him, for to him science
+was a serious matter while she seemed to make a joke of it, as she did
+of every thing, and so desecrated it in his eyes. After she had been
+sitting an hour on the bench, studying in her own way, she rolled up the
+book and stood up to refresh herself a little. Feeling sure that no one
+could see her, she stretched herself in all her limbs and then stepped
+up to the gap in the shrubbery in order to see who a man in boots might
+be who was pacing up and down in the broad path beyond.
+
+It was the praetor--and yet it was not! Verus, under this aspect at any
+rate, she had never seen till now. Where was the smile that was wont
+to twinkle in his merry eye like the sparkle of a diamond and to play
+saucily about his lips--where the unwrinkled serenity of his brow and
+the defiantly audacious demeanor of his whole handsome person? He
+was slowly striding up and down with a gloomy fire in his eye, a
+deeply-lined brow, and his head sunk on his breast: and yet it was not
+bowed with sorrow. If so, could he have snapped his fingers in the air
+as he did just as he passed in front of Balbilla, as much as to say:
+“Come what may! to-day I live and laugh the future in the face!”
+
+But this vestige of his old reckless audacity did not last longer than
+the time it took to part his fingers again, and the next time Verus
+passed Balbilla he looked, if possible, more gloomy than before.
+Something very unpleasant must have arisen to spoil the good humor of
+her friend’s husband; and the poetess was sincerely sorry; for, though
+she herself had daily to suffer under the praetor’s impertinence, she
+always forgave it for the sake of the graceful form in which he knew how
+to clothe his incivilities.
+
+Balbilla longed to see Verus content once more, and she therefore
+came forth from her hiding place. As soon as he saw her he altered the
+expression of his features and cried out as brightly as ever:
+
+“Welcome, fairest of the fair!”
+
+She made believe not to recognize him, but, as she passed him and bowed
+her curly head, she said gravely and in deep tones:
+
+“Good day to you, Timon.”
+
+“Timon?” he asked, taking her hand.
+
+“Ah! is it you, Verus?” she answered, as though surprised. “I thought
+the Athenian misanthrope had quitted Hades and come to take the air in
+this garden.”
+
+“You thought rightly,” replied the praetor. “But when Orpheus sings the
+trees dance, the Muse can turn dull, motionless stones into a Bacchante,
+and when Balbilla appears Timon is at once transformed into the happy
+Verus.”
+
+“The miracle does not astonish me,” laughed the girl. “But is it
+permitted to ask what dark spirit so effectually produced the contrary
+result, and made a Timon of the fair Lucilla’s happy husband?”
+
+“I ought rather to beware of letting you see the monster, or our joyous
+muse Balbilla might easily become the sinister Hecate. But the malicious
+sprite is close at hand, for he is hidden in this little roll.”
+
+“A document from Caesar?”
+
+“Oh! no, only a letter from a Jew.”
+
+“Possibly the father of some fair daughter!”
+
+“Wrongly guessed--as wrong as possible!”
+
+“You excite my curiosity.”
+
+“Mine has already been satisfied by this roll. Horace is wise when he
+says that man should never trouble himself about the future.”
+
+“An oracle!”
+
+“Something of the kind.”
+
+“And can that darken this lovely morning to you? Did you ever see me
+melancholy? Yet my future is threatened by a prophecy--such a hideous
+prophecy.”
+
+“The fate of men is different to the destiny of women.”
+
+“Would you like to hear what was prophesied of me?”
+
+“What a question!”
+
+“Listen then; the saying I will repeat to you came to me from no less an
+oracle than the Delphic Pythia:
+
+    “‘That which thou boldest most precious and dear
+     Shall be torn from thy keeping,
+     And from the heights of Olympus,
+     Down shalt thou fall in the dust.’”
+
+“Is that all?”
+
+“Nay--two consolatory lines follow.”
+
+“And they are--?”
+
+     “Still the contemplative eye
+     Discerns under mutable sand drifts
+     Stable foundations of stone,
+     Marble and natural rock.”
+
+“And you are inclined to complain of this oracle?”
+
+“Is it so pleasant to have to wade through dust? We have enough of
+that intolerable nuisance here in Egypt--or am I to be delighted at the
+prospect of hurting my feet on hard stones?”
+
+“And what do the interpreters say?”
+
+“Only silly nonsense.”
+
+“You have never found the right one; but I--I see the meaning of the
+oracle.”
+
+“You?”
+
+“Ay, I! The stern Balbilla will at last descend from the lofty Olympus
+of her high-anti-mightiness and no longer disdain that immutable
+foundation-rock, the adoration of her faithful Verus.”
+
+“That foundation--that rock!” laughed the girl. “I should think it as
+well advised to try to walk on the surface of the sea out there as on
+that rock!”
+
+“Only try.”
+
+“It is not necessary; Lucilla has made the experiment for me. Your
+interpretation is wrong; Caesar gave me a far better one.”
+
+“What was that?”
+
+“That I should give up writing poetry and devote myself to strict
+scientific studies. He advised me to try astronomy.”
+
+“Astronomy,” repeated Verus, growing graver. “Farewell, fair one; I must
+go to Caesar!”
+
+“We were with him yesterday at Lochias. How everything is changed there!
+The pretty little gate house is gone, there is nothing more to be seen
+of all the cheerful bustle of builders and artists, and what were gay
+workshops are turned into dull, commonplace halls. The screens in
+the hall of the Muses had to go a week ago, and with them the young
+scatter-brain who set himself against my curls with so much energy that
+I was on the point of sacrificing them--”
+
+“Without them you would no longer be Balbilla,” cried Verus eagerly.
+“The artist condemns all that is not permanently beautiful, but we are
+glad to see any thing that is graceful, and can find pleasure in it with
+the other children of the time. The sculptor may dress his goddesses
+after the fashion of graver days and the laws of his art, but mortal
+women--if he is wise--after the fashion of the day. However, I am
+heartily sorry for that clever, genial young fellow. He has offended
+Caesar and was turned out of the palace, and now he is nowhere to be
+found.”
+
+“Oh!” cried Balbilla, full of regret, “poor man--and such a fine fellow!
+And my bust? we must seek him out. If the opportunity offers I will
+entreat Caesar--”
+
+“Hadrian will hear nothing about him. Pollux has offended him deeply.”
+
+“From whom do you know that?”
+
+“From Antinous.”
+
+“We saw him, too, only yesterday,” cried Balbilla, eagerly.
+
+“If ever a man was permitted to wear the form of a god among mortals, it
+is he.”
+
+“Romantic creature!”
+
+“I know no one who could look upon him with indifference. He is
+a beautiful dreamer, and the trace of suffering which we observed
+yesterday in his countenance is probably nothing more than the outward
+expression of that obscure regret, felt by all that is perfect, for the
+joy of development and conscious ripening into an incarnation of the
+ideal in its own kind, of which he is an instance in himself.”
+
+The poetess spoke the last words in a rapt tone, as if the form of a
+god was then and there before her eyes. Verus had listened to her with a
+smile, but now he interrupted her, and, holding up a warning finger, he
+said:
+
+“Poetess, philosopher, and sweetest maiden, beware of descending from
+your Olympus for the sake of this boy! When imagination and dreaminess
+meet half-way they make a pair which float in the clouds and never
+even suspect the existence of that firmer ground of which your oracle
+speaks.”
+
+“Nonsense,” said Balbilla crossly. “Before we can fall in love with a
+statue, Prometheus must animate it with a soul and fire from heaven.”
+
+“But often,” retorted the praetor, “Eros proves to be a substitute for
+that unhappy friend of the gods.”
+
+“The true or the sham Eros,” asked Balbilla testily.
+
+“Certainly not the sham Eros,” replied Verus. “On this occasion he
+merely plays the part of a kindly monitor, taking the place of Pontius,
+the architect, of whom your worthy matron-companion is so much afraid.
+During the tumult of the Dionysiac festival you are reported to have
+carried on as grave a discussion as any two gray-bearded philosophers
+walking in the Stoa among attentive students.”
+
+“With intelligent men, no doubt, we talk with intelligence!”
+
+“Aye, and with stupid ones gayly. How much reason have I to be thankful
+that I am one of the stupid ones. Farewell, till we meet again, fair
+Balbilla,” and the praetor hurried off.
+
+Outside the Caesareum he got into his chariot and set out for Lochias.
+The charioteer held the reins, while he himself gazed at the roll in his
+hand which contained the result of the calculations of the astrologer,
+Rabbi Simeon Ben Jochai; and this was certainly likely enough to disturb
+the cheerfulness of the most reckless of men.
+
+When, during the night which preceded the praetor’s birthday, the
+Emperor should study the heavens with special reference to the position
+of the stars at his birth, he would find that, as far as till the end of
+the second hour after midnight all the favorable planets promised Verus
+a happy lot, success and distinction. But, with the commencement of
+the third hour--so said Ben Jochai--misfortune and death would take
+possession of his house of destiny; in the fourth hour his star would
+vanish, and anything further that might declare itself in the sky during
+that night would have nothing more to do with him, or his destiny. The
+Emperor’s star would triumph over his. Verus could make out but little
+of the signs and calculations in the tables annexed by the Jew, but that
+little confirmed what was told in the written statement.
+
+The praetor’s horses carried him swiftly along while he reflected on
+what remained for him to do under these unfavorable circumstances,
+in order not to be forced to give up entirely the highest goal of his
+ambition. If the Rabbi’s observations were accurate--and of this Verus
+did not for a moment doubt--all his hopes of adoption were at an end
+in spite of Sabina’s support. How should Hadrian choose for his son and
+successor a man who was destined to die before him? How could he, Verus,
+expect that Caesar should ally his fortunate star with the fatal star of
+another doomed to die?
+
+These reflections did nothing to help him, and yet he could not escape
+from them, till suddenly his charioteer pulled up the horses abruptly
+by the side of the footway to make room for a delegation of Egyptian
+priests who were going in procession to Lochias. The powerful hand
+with which his servant had promptly controlled the fiery spirit of the
+animals excited his approbation, and seemed to inspire him to put a clog
+boldly on the wheels of speeding fate. When they were no longer detained
+by the Egyptian delegates he desired the charioteer to drive slowly, for
+he wished to gain time for consideration.
+
+“Until the third hour after midnight,” said he to himself, “all is to go
+well; it is not till the fourth hour that signs are to appear in the sky
+which are of evil augury for me. Of course the sheep will play round the
+dead lion, and the ass will even spurn him with his hoof so long as he
+is merely sick. In the short space of time between the third and fourth
+hours all the signs of evil are crowded together. They must be visible;
+but”--and this “but” brought sudden illumination to the praetor’s mind,
+“why should Caesar see them?”
+
+The anxious aspirant’s heart beat faster, his brain worked more
+actively, and he desired the driver to make a short circuit, for he
+wanted to gain yet more time for the ideas that were germinating in his
+mind to grow and ripen.
+
+Verus was no schemer; he walked in at the front door with a free
+and careless step, and scorned to climb the backstairs. Only for the
+greatest object and aim of his life was he prepared to sacrifice his
+inclinations, his comfort and his pride, and to make unhesitating use
+of every means at hand. For the sake of that he had already done many
+things which he regretted, and the man who steals one sheep out of the
+flock is followed by others without intending it. The first degrading
+action that a man commits is sure to be followed by a second and a
+third. What Verus was now projecting he regarded as being a simple act
+of self-defence; and after all, it consisted merely in detaining Hadrian
+for an hour, interrupting him in an idle occupation--the observation of
+the stars.
+
+There were two men who might be helpful to him in this matter--Antinous
+and the slave Mastor. He first thought of Mastor; but the Sarmatian
+was faithfully devoted to his master and could not be bribed. And
+besides!--No! it really was too far beneath him to make common cause
+with a slave. But he could count even less on support from Antinous.
+Sabina hated her husband’s favorite, and for her sake Verus had never
+met the young Bithynian on particularly friendly terms. He fancied, too,
+that he had observed that the quiet, dreamy lad kept out of his way. It
+was only by intimidation, probably, that the favorite could be induced
+to do him a service.
+
+At any rate, the first thing to be done was to visit Lochias and there
+to keep a lookout with his eyes wide open. If the Emperor were in a
+happy frame of mind he might, perhaps, be induced to appear during the
+latter part of the night at the banquet which Verus was giving on the
+eve of his birthday, and at which all that was beautiful to the eye
+and ear was to be seen and heard; or a thousand favoring and helpful
+accidents might occur--and at any rate the Rabbi’s forecast furnished
+him good fortune for the next few years.
+
+As he dismounted from his chariot in the newly-paved forecourt and was
+conducted to the Emperor’s anteroom he looked as bright and free from
+care as if the future lay before him sunny and cloudless.
+
+Hadrian now occupied the restored palace, not as an architect from Rome
+but as sovereign of the world; he had shown himself to the Alexandrians
+and had been received with rejoicings and an unheard-of display in his
+honor. The satisfaction caused by the imperial visit was everywhere
+conspicuous and often found expression in exaggerated terms; indeed
+the council had passed a resolution to the effect that the month of
+December, being that in which the city had had the honor of welcoming
+the ‘Imperator,’ should henceforth be called:
+
+“Hadrianus.” The Emperor had to receive one deputation after another
+and to hold audience after audience, and on the following morning the
+dramatic representations were to begin, the processions and games which
+promised to last through many days, or--as Hadrian himself expressed
+it--to rob him of at least a hundred good hours. Notwithstanding, the
+monarch found time to settle all the affairs of the state, and at night
+to question the stars as to the fate which awaited him and his dominions
+during all the seasons of the new year now so close at hand.
+
+The aspect of the palace at Lochias was entirely changed. In the place
+of the gay little gate-house stood a large tent of gorgeous purple
+stuff, in which the Emperor’s body-guard was quartered, and opposite to
+it another was pitched for lictors and messengers. The stables were full
+of horses. Hadrian’s own horse, Borysthenes, which had had too long a
+rest, pawed and stamped impatiently in a separate stall, and close at
+hand the Emperor’s retrievers, boar-hounds and harriers were housed in
+hastily-contrived yards and kennels.
+
+In the wide space of the first court soldiers were encamped, and
+close under the walls squatted men and women--Egyptians, Greeks and
+Hebrews--who desired to offer petitions to the sovereign. Chariots drove
+in and out, litters came and went, chamberlains and other officials
+hurried hither and thither. The anterooms were crowded with men of the
+upper classes of the citizens who hoped to be granted audience by the
+Emperor at the proper hour. Slaves, who offered refreshments to those
+who waited or stood idly looking on, were to be seen in every room, and
+official persons, with rolls of manuscript under their arms, bustled
+into the inner rooms or out of the palace to carry into effect the
+orders of their superior.
+
+The hall of the Muses had been turned into a grand banqueting-hall.
+Papias, who was now on his way to Italy by the Emperor’s command, had
+restored the damaged shoulder of the Urania. Couches and divans stood
+between the statues, and under a canopy at the upper end of the vast
+room stood a throne on which Hadrian sat when he held audience. On these
+occasions he always appeared in the purple, but in his writing-room,
+which he had not changed for another, he laid aside the imperial mantle
+and was no more splendid in his garb than the architect Claudius Venator
+had been.
+
+In the rooms that had belonged to the deceased Keraunus now dwelt an
+Egyptian without wife or children--a stern and prudent man who had
+done good service as house-steward to the prefect Titianus, and the
+living-room of the evicted family now looked dreary and uninhabited. The
+mosaic pavement which had indirectly caused the death of Keraunus, was
+now on its way to Rome, and the new steward had not thought it worth
+while to fill up the empty, dusty, broken-up place which had been left
+in the floor of his room by the removal of the work of art, nor even to
+cover it over with mats. Not a single cheerful note was audible in the
+abandoned dwelling but the twitter of the birds which still came morning
+and evening to perch on the balcony, for Arsinoe and the children had
+never neglected to strew the parapet with crumbs for them at the end of
+each meal.
+
+All that was gracious, all that was attractive in the old palace had
+vanished at Sabina’s visit, and even Hadrian himself was a different
+man to what he had been a few days previously. The dignity with which he
+appeared in public was truly imperial and unapproachable, and even when
+he sat with his intimates in his favorite room he was grave, gloomy and
+taciturn. The oracle, the stars, and other signs announced some terrible
+catastrophe for the coming year with a certainty that he could not
+evade; and the few careless days that he had been permitted to enjoy at
+Lochias had ended with unsatisfactory occurrences.
+
+His wife, whose bitter nature struck him in all its repellent harshness
+here in Alexandria--where everything assumed sharper outlines and more
+accentuated movement than in Rome--had demanded of him boldly that he
+should no longer defer the adoption of the praetor.
+
+He was anxious and unsatisfied; the infinite void in his heart yawned
+before him whenever he looked into his soul, and at every glance at the
+future of his external life a long course of petty trifles started up
+before him which could not fail to stand in the way of his unwearying
+impulse to work. Even the vegetative existence of his handsome favorite
+Antinous, untroubled as it was by the sorrows or the joys of life, had
+undergone a change. The youth was often moody, restless and sad. Some
+foreign influences seemed to have affected him, for he was no longer
+content to hang about his person like a shadow; no, he yearned for
+liberty, had stolen into the city several times, seeking there the
+pleasures of his age which formerly he had avoided.
+
+Nay, a change had even come over his cheerful and willing slave Mastor.
+Only his hound remained always the same in unaltered fidelity.
+
+And he himself? He was the same to-day as ten years since: different
+every day and at every hour of the day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+When Verus entered the palace Hadrian had returned thither but a few
+minutes previously from the city. The praetor was conducted through the
+reception-rooms to the private apartments, and here he had not long to
+wait, for Hadrian wished to speak with him immediately. He found the
+sovereign so thoroughly out of tune that he could not think of inviting
+him to his banquet. The Emperor restlessly paced the room while Verus
+answered his questions as to the latest proceedings of the Senate in
+Rome, but he several times interrupted his walk and gazed into the
+adjoining room.
+
+Just as the praetor had concluded his report Argus set up a howl of
+delight and Antinous came into the room. Verus at once withdrew into the
+window and pretended to be absorbed in looking out on the harbor.
+
+“Where have you been?” asked the Emperor, disregarding the praetor’s
+presence.
+
+“Into the city a little way,” was the Bithynian’s answer.
+
+“But you know I cannot bear to miss you when I come home.”
+
+“I thought you would have been longer absent.”
+
+“For the future arrange so that I may be able to find you at whatever
+time I may seek you. Tell me, you do not like to see me vexed and
+worried?”
+
+“No, my lord,” said the lad and he raised a supplicating hand and looked
+beseechingly at his master.
+
+“Then let it pass. But now for something else; how did this little phial
+come into the hands of the dealer Hiram?” As he spoke the Emperor took
+from his table the little bottle of Vasa Murrhina which the lad had
+given to Arsinoe and which she had sold to the Phoenician, and held it
+up before the favorite’s eyes. Antinous turned pale, and stammered
+in great confusion. “It is incomprehensible--I cannot in the least
+recollect--”
+
+“Then I will assist your memory,” said the Emperor decidedly. “The
+Phoenician appears to me to be an honester man than that rogue Gabinius.
+In his collection, which I have just been to see, I found this gem, that
+Plotina--do you hear me, boy--that Trajan’s wife Plotina, my heart’s
+friend, never to be forgotten, gave me years ago. It was one of my
+dearest possessions and yet I thought it not too precious to give to you
+on your last birthday.”
+
+“Oh, my lord, my dear lord!” cried Antinous in a low tone and again
+lifting his eyes and hands in entreaty.
+
+“Now, I ask you,” continued Hadrian, gravely, and without allowing
+himself to yield to the lad’s beseeching looks, “how could this object
+have passed into the possession of one of the daughters of the wretched
+palace-steward Keraunus from whom Hiram confessed that he had bought
+it?”
+
+Antinous vainly strove for utterance; Hadrian however came to his aid by
+asking him more angrily than before:
+
+“Did the girl steal it from you? Out with the truth!”
+
+“No, no,” replied the Bithynian quickly and decidedly. “Certainly not.
+I remember--wait a minute--yes, that was it.--You know it contained
+excellent balsam, and when the big dog threw down Selene--the steward’s
+daughter is called Selene--threw her down the steps so that she lay hurt
+on the stones I fetched the phial and gave her the balsam.”
+
+“With the bottle that held it?” asked the Emperor looking at Antinous.
+
+“Yes, my lord--I had no other.”
+
+“And she kept it and sold it at once.”
+
+“You know, of course, her father--”
+
+“A gang of thieves!” snarled Hadrian.
+
+“Do you know what has become of the girl?”
+
+“Yes my lord,” said Antinous trembling with alarm. “I will have her
+taken by the lictors,” asserted the infuriated sovereign.
+
+“No,” said the lad positively. “No, you positively must not do that.”
+
+“No--? we shall see!”
+
+“No, positively not, for at the same time you must know that Keraunus’
+daughter Selene--”
+
+“Well?”
+
+“She flung herself into the water in despair; yes, into the water, at
+night--into the sea.”
+
+“Oh!” said Hadrian more gently, “that certainly alters the case. The
+lictors would find it difficult to apprehend a shade and the girl has
+suffered the worst punishment of all.--But you? what shall I say to your
+perfidy? You knew the value of the gem. You knew how highly I valued it,
+and could part with it to such hands?”
+
+“It contained the salve,” stammered the boy. “How could I think--?”
+
+The Emperor interrupted the boy, striking his forehead with his hand as
+he spoke:
+
+“Aye, think--we have known unfortunately too long that thinking is not
+your strong point. This little bottle has cost me a pretty sum; still,
+as it once belonged to you I give it back to you again; I only require
+you to take better care of it this time. I shall ask for it again before
+long! But in the name of all the gods, boy, what is the matter? Am I so
+alarming that a simple question from me is enough to drive all the blood
+out of your cheeks? Really and truly, if I had not had the thing from
+Plotina I should have left it in the Phoenician’s hands and not have
+made all this coil about it.”
+
+Antinous went quickly up to the Emperor to kiss his hand, but Hadrian
+pressed his lips to his brow with fatherly affection.
+
+“Simpleton,” he said, “if you want me to be pleased with you, you must
+be again just what you were before we came to Alexandria. Leave it to
+others to do things to vex me. You are created by the gods to delight
+me.”
+
+During Hadrian’s last words a chamberlain had entered the room to inform
+the Emperor that the deputation of the Egyptian priesthood had arrived
+to do homage to him. He immediately assumed the purple mantle and
+proceeded to the hall of the Muses where, surrounded by his court, he
+received the high-priests and spiritual fathers of the different temples
+of the Nile Valley, to be hailed by them as the Son of Sun-god, and to
+assure them and the religion they cherished his gracious countenance.
+He vouchsafed his consent to their prayer that he would add sanctity and
+happiness to the temples of the immortals which they served by gracing
+them with his presence, but set aside for the moment the question as
+to which town might be permitted to have the care of the
+recently-discovered Apis.
+
+This audience took up several hours. Verus shirked the duty of attending
+it with Titianus and the other dignitaries of the court, and remained
+sitting motionless by the window; it was not till Hadrian was gone from
+the room that he came forward into it again. He was quite alone, for
+Antinous had left the room with the Emperor. The praetor’s remaining
+behind had not escaped the lad’s notice, but he sought to avoid him, for
+the domineering, mocking spirit of Verus repelled him. Besides this the
+terror which he had gone through, as well as the consciousness that he
+had been guilty of a lie and had daringly deceived his kind master, had
+upset a soul hitherto untainted by any subterfuge and had thrown him
+off his balance. He longed to be alone, for it would have been keenly
+painful to him at this moment to discuss indifferent subjects, or to be
+forced to affect an easy demeanor. He sat in his little room, before a
+table, with his face buried in his hands that rested on it.
+
+Verus did not immediately follow him, for he understood what was passing
+in his mind and knew that here he could not escape him. In a few minutes
+all was still alike in the large room and in the small one. Then the
+praetor heard the door between the smaller room and the corridor hastily
+opened and immediately the Bithynian’s exclamation:
+
+“At last, Mastor--have you seen Selene?”
+
+With two long, noiseless steps Verus went close to the door leading into
+the adjoining room, and listened for the slave’s answer, though a less
+sharp ear than that of the praetor might have heard every syllable.
+
+“How should I have seen her?” asked the Sarmatian sharply. “She is still
+suffering and in bed. I gave your flowers to the deformed girl who takes
+care of her; but I will not do it again, you may rely upon it, not if
+you coax even more fondly than you did yesterday and promise me all
+Caesar’s treasure into the bargain! And what can you want with that
+wretched, pale-faced, innocent creature? I am but a poor slave, but I
+can tell you this--”
+
+Here the Sarmatian broke off abruptly, and Verus rightly guessed that
+Antinous had remembered his presence in the Emperor’s room and had
+signed to the slave to be silent.
+
+But the listener had learnt enough. The favorite had told his master a
+lie, and the suicide of the steward’s daughter was a pure romance. Who
+would have believed that the silent, dreamy lad had so much presence of
+mind, and such cunning powers of invention? The praetor’s handsome face
+was radiant with satisfaction as he made these reflections, for now he
+had the Bithynian under his thumb, and now he knew how to accomplish all
+he wished. Antinous himself had indicated the right course when he had
+hastened to the Emperor with a gush of tenderness, in which the warmth
+was certainly not affected, to kiss his hand.
+
+The favorite loved his master, and Verus could ground his demands on
+this love without exposing himself, or having to dread the Emperor’s
+avenging hand in case of betrayal. He knocked at the door of the
+adjoining room with a firm hand, and then went confidently and
+composedly up to the Bithyman, told him that he had an important matter
+to discuss with him, begged him to return with him into the Emperor’s
+room and then said, as soon as they were alone together:
+
+“I am so unfortunate as not to be able to number you among my particular
+friends; but one strong sentiment we have in common. We both love
+Caesar.”
+
+“I love him, certainly,” replied the lad.
+
+“Well then, you must have it at heart to spare him all great sorrow, and
+to prevent grave apprehensions from paralyzing the pinions of his free
+and noble soul.”
+
+“No doubt.”
+
+“I knew I should find a colleague in you. See this roll. It contains the
+calculations and diagrams of the greatest astrologer of our time, and
+from these it is to be discovered that this night, from the end of the
+second hour of the morning till the beginning of the fourth, the stars
+will announce fearful disasters to our Sovereign. Do you understand?”
+
+“Alas! perfectly.”
+
+“After that the indications of evil disappear. Now if we could only
+succeed in preventing Hadrian observing the heavens merely during
+the third hour after midnight we should preserve him from trouble and
+anxiety, which will torment and spoil his life. Who knows whether the
+stars may not be? But even if they tell the truth, misfortune, when it
+does come, always comes much too soon. Do you agree with me?”
+
+“Your suggestion sounds a very sensible one--still I think--”
+
+“It is both sensible and wise,” said the praetor, shortly and decidedly,
+interrupting the boy. “And it must be your part to hinder Hadrian
+from marking the course of the stars from the end of the second to the
+beginning of the fourth hour after midnight.”
+
+“My part?” cried Antinous, startled.
+
+“Yours--for you are the only person who can accomplish it.”
+
+“I?” repeated the Bithynian, greatly perturbed. “I--disturb Caesar in
+his observations!”
+
+“It is your duty.”
+
+“But he never allows any one to disturb him at his studies, and if I
+were to attempt it he would be very angry and send me off in no time.
+No, no, what you ask is impossible.”
+
+“It is not only possible but imperatively necessary.”
+
+“That it certainly cannot be,” replied Antinous, clasping his forehead
+in his hand. “Only listen! Hadrian has known for several days past that
+some great misfortune threatens him. I heard it from his own lips. If
+you know him at all you must know that he gazes at the stars not merely
+to rejoice in future happiness, but also to fortify himself against the
+disasters which threaten him or the state. What would crush a weaker man
+only serves to arm his bold spirit. He can bear all that may befall, and
+it would be a crime to deceive him.”
+
+“To cloud his heart and mind would be a greater,” retorted Verus.
+“Devise some means of taking him away from his star-gazing for only an
+hour.”
+
+“I dare not, and even if I wished it, it could not be done. Do you
+suppose he follows me whenever I call?”
+
+“But you know him; invent something which will be sure to make him come
+down from his watchtower.”
+
+“I cannot invent or think of any thing.”
+
+“Nothing?” asked Verus, going close tip to the Bithynian. “You just now
+gave striking proof to the contrary.”
+
+Antinous turned pale and the praetor went on:
+
+“When you wanted to rescue the fair Selene from the lictors your swift
+invention threw her into the sea!”
+
+“She did throw herself in, as truly as that the gods--”
+
+“Stay, stay,” cried the praetor. “No perjury, at least! Selene is
+living, you send her flowers, and if I should think proper to conduct
+Hadrian to the house of Paulina--”
+
+“Oh!” cried Antinous lamentably enough, and grasping the Roman’s hand.
+“You will not--you can not. Oh Verus! you will not do that.”
+
+“Simpleton,” laughed the praetor, slapping the alarmed youth lightly
+on the shoulder. “What good could it do me to ruin you? I have only
+one thing at heart just now, and that is to save Caesar from care and
+anxiety. Keep him occupied only during the third hour after midnight
+and you may count on my friendship; but if out of fear or ill-will you
+refuse me your assistance you do not deserve your sovereign’s favor and
+then you will compel me--”
+
+“No more, no more!” cried Antinous interrupting his tormentor in
+despair.
+
+“Then you promise me to carry out my wish?”
+
+“Yes, by Hercules! Yes, what you require shall be done. But eternal
+gods! how am I to get Caesar--”
+
+“That, my young friend, I leave with perfect confidence to you and your
+shrewdness.”
+
+“I am not shrewd--I can devise nothing,” groaned the lad.
+
+“What you could do out of terror of your master you can do still better
+for love of him,” retorted the praetor. “The problem is an easy one; and
+if after all you should not succeed I shall feel it no less than my
+duty to explain to Hadrian how well Antinous can take care of his own
+interests and how badly of his master’s peace of mind. Till to-morrow,
+my handsome friend--and if for the future you have flowers to send, my
+slaves are quite at your service.”
+
+With these words the praetor left the room, but Antinous stood like
+one crushed, pressing his brow against the cold porphyry pillar by the
+window. What Verus required of him did not seem to have any harm in it,
+and yet it was not right. It was treason to his noble master, whom
+he loved with tender devotion as a father, a wise, kind friend, and
+preceptor, and whom he reverenced and feared as though he were a god. To
+plot to hide impending trouble from him, as if he were not a man but
+a feeble weakling, was absurd and contemptible, and must introduce an
+error of unknown importance and extent into his sovereign’s far-seeing
+predeterminations. Many other reasons against the praetor’s demands
+crowded on him, and as each occurred to his mind he cursed his tardy
+spirit which never let him see or think the right thing till it was too
+late. His first deceit had already involved him in a second.
+
+He hated himself; he hit his forehead with his fists and sobbed aloud
+bitterly again and again, though he shed no tears. Still, in the midst
+of his self-accusation, the flattering voice made itself heard in his
+soul: “It is only to preserve your master from sorrow, and it is nothing
+wrong that you are asked to do.” And each time that his inward ear heard
+these words he began to puzzle his brain to discover in what way it
+might be possible for him to tempt the Emperor, at the hour named, down
+from his watch-tower in the palace. But he could hit on no practicable
+plan.
+
+“It cannot be done, no--it cannot be done!” he muttered to himself and
+then he asked himself if it were not even his duty to defy the praetor
+and to confess to Hadrian that he had deceived him in the morning. If
+only it had not been for the little bottle! Could he ever confess that
+he had heedlessly parted with this gift of all others from his master?
+No, it was too hard, it might cost him his sovereign’s affection for
+ever. And if he contented himself with a half-truth and confessed,
+merely to anticipate the praetor’s accusation, that Selene was still
+living, then he would involve the daughters of the hapless Keraunus in
+persecution and disgrace Selene whom he loved with all the devotion of
+a first passion, which was enhanced and increased by the hindrances
+that had come in its way. It was impossible to confess his guilt-quite
+impossible. The longer he thought, tormenting himself to find some way
+out of it all, the more confused he became, and the more impotent his
+efforts at resistance. The praetor had entangled him with thongs and
+meshes, and at every struggle to escape they only seemed knotted more
+closely round him.
+
+His head began to ache sadly; and what an endless time Caesar was
+absent! He dreaded his return, and yet he longed for it. When at last
+Hadrian came in and signed to Master to relieve him of his imperial
+robes, Antinous slipped behind him, and silently and carefully fulfilled
+the slave’s office. He felt uneasy and worried, and yet he forced
+himself to appear in good spirits during supper when he had to sit
+opposite the Emperor.
+
+When, shortly before midnight, Hadrian rose from the table to go up to
+the watch-tower on the northern side of the palace, Antinous begged to
+be allowed to carry his instruments for him, and the Emperor, stroking
+his hair, said kindly:
+
+“You are my dear and faithful companion. Youth has a right to go astray
+now and then so long as it does not entirely forget the path in which it
+ought to tread.”
+
+Antinous was deeply touched by these words, and he secretly pressed to
+his lips a fold of the Emperor’s toga as he walked in front. It was as
+though he wanted to make amends in advance for the crime he had not yet
+committed.
+
+Wrapped in his cloak he kept the Emperor silent company during his
+studies, till the close of the first hour after midnight. The sharp,
+north wind which blew through the darkness did his aching head good, and
+still he racked his wits for some pretext to attract Hadrian from his
+labors, but in vain. His tormented brain was like a dried-up well;
+bucket after bucket did he send down, but not one brought up the
+refreshing draught he needed. Nothing--nothing could he think of
+that could conduce to his end. Once he plucked up courage and said
+imploringly as he went close up to the Emperor: “Go down earlier
+to-night my lord; you really do not allow yourself enough rest and will
+injure your health.”
+
+Hadrian let him speak, and answered kindly:
+
+“I sleep in the morning. If you are tired, go to bed now.”
+
+But Antinous remained, gazing, like his master, at the stars. He knew
+very few of the brilliant bodies by their names, but some of them were
+very dear to him, particularly the Pleiades which his father had pointed
+out to him and which reminded him of his home. There he had been so
+quiet and happy, and how wildly his anxious heart was throbbing now!
+
+“Go to bed, the second hour is beginning,” said Hadrian.
+
+“Already!” said the boy; and as he reflected how soon that must be
+done which Verus had required of him, and then looked up again at the
+heavens, it seemed to him as though all the stars in the blue vault
+over his head had glided from their places and were dancing in wild and
+whirling confusion between the sky and the sea. He closed his eyes in
+his bewilderment; then, bidding his master good-night he lighted a torch
+and by its flaring and doubtful light descended from the tower.
+
+Pontius had erected this slight structure expressly for Hadrian’s
+nightly observations. It was built of timber and Nile-mud and stood
+up as a tall turret on the secure foundation of an ancient watch-tower
+built of hewn stone, which, standing among the low buildings that served
+as storehouses for the palace, commanded a free outlook over all the
+quarters of the sky. Hadrian, who liked to be alone and undisturbed when
+observing the heavens, had preferred this erection--even after he had
+made himself known to the Alexandrians--to the great observatory of the
+Serapeum, from which a still broader horizon was visible.
+
+After Antinous had got out of the smaller and newer tower into the
+larger and older one he sat down on one of the lowest steps to collect
+his thoughts and to quiet his loudly-beating heart. His vain cogitations
+began all over again. Time slipped on-between the present moment and
+the deed to be done there were but a certain number of minutes. He told
+himself so, and his weary brain stirred more actively, suggesting to him
+to feign illness and bring the Emperor to his bedside. But Hadrian was
+physician enough to see that he was well, and even if he should allow
+himself to be deceived, he, Antinous, was a deceiver. This thought
+filled him with horror of himself and with dread for the future, and
+yet it was the only plan that gave any hope of success. And even when he
+sprang to his feet and walked hastily up and down among the out-houses
+he could hit upon no other scheme. And how fast the minutes flew!
+The third hour after midnight must be quite close at hand, and he had
+scarcely left himself time to rush back into the palace, throw himself
+on his couch, and call Mastor. Quite bewildered with agitation and
+tottering like a drunken man he hastened back into the old tower where
+he had left his torch leaning against the wall and looked up the stone
+stairs; it suddenly flashed through his mind that he might go up again
+to fling himself down them. What did he care for his miserable life.
+
+His fall, his cry, would bring the Emperor down from his observatory and
+he knew that he would not leave his bleeding favorite uncared for and
+untended he could count upon that. And if then Hadrian watched by his
+bed it would be that, perhaps, of a dying man, but not of a deceiver.
+Fully determined on extreme measures, he tightened the girdle which held
+his chiton above his hips and once more went out into the night to judge
+by the stars what hour it was. He saw the slender sickle of the waning
+moon-the same moon which at the full had been mirrored in the sea when
+he had gone into the water to save Selene. The image of the pale girl
+rose before him, tangibly distinct. He felt as if he held her once more
+in his arms--saw her once more lying on her bed-could once more press
+his lips to her cold brow. Then the vision vanished; instead he was
+possessed by a wild desire to see her, and he said to himself that he
+could not die without having seen her once more.
+
+He looked about him in indecision. Before him lay one of the largest of
+the storehouses that surrounded the tower. With his torch in one hand
+he went in at the open door. In the large shed lay the chests and cases,
+the hemp, linseed, straw and matting that had been used in packing the
+vessels and works of art with which the palace had been newly furnished.
+This he knew; and now, looking up at the stars once more and seeing
+that the second hour after midnight had almost run to an end, a fearful
+thought flashed through his mind, and without daring to consider, he
+flung the torch into the open shed, crammed to the roof with inflammable
+materials, and stood motionless, with his arms crossed, to watch through
+the door of the shed the rapidly spreading flame, the soaring smoke, the
+struggle and mingling of the noiseless wreaths of black vapor from the
+various combustibles with the ruddy light, the victory of the fire and
+the leaping flames as they flew upward.
+
+The roof, thatched with palm-leaves and reeds, had begun to crackle
+when Antinous rushed into the tower only a few paces off crying:
+“Fire--fire!” and up the stairs which led to the observatory of the
+imperial stargazer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+The entertainment which Verus was giving on the eve of his birthday
+seemed to be far from drawing to an end, even at the beginning of the
+third hour of the morning. Besides the illustrious and learned Romans
+who had accompanied the Emperor to Alexandria, the most famous and
+distinguished Alexandrians had also been invited by the praetor. The
+splendid banquet had long been ended, but jar after jar of mixed wine
+was still being filled and emptied. Verus himself had been unanimously
+chosen as the king and leader of the feast. Crowned with a rich garland,
+he reclined on a couch strewn with rose-leaves, an invention of his
+own, and formed of four cushions piled one on another. A curtain of
+transparent gauze screened him from flies and gnats, and a tightly-woven
+mat of lilies and other flowers covered his feet and exhaled sweet odors
+for him and for the pretty singer who sat by his side.
+
+Pretty boys dressed as little cupids watched every sign of the ‘sham
+Eros.’
+
+How indolently he lay on the deep, soft cushions! And yet his eyes were
+every where, and though he had not failed to give due consideration to
+the preparations for his feast, he devoted all the powers of his mind to
+the present management of it. As at the entertainments which Hadrian
+was accustomed to give in Rome, first of all short selections from new
+essays or poems were recited by their authors, then a gay comedy was
+performed; then Glycera, the most famous singer in the city, had sung a
+dithyramb to her harp, in a voice as sweet as a bell, and Alexander, a
+skilled performer on the trigonon, had executed a piece. Finally a
+troop of female dancers had rushed into the room and swayed and balanced
+themselves to the music of the double-flute and tambourine.
+
+Each fresh amusement had been more loudly applauded than the last. With
+every jar of wine a new torrent of merriment went up through the opening
+in the roof, by which the scent of the flowers and of the perfume burnt
+on beautiful little altars found an exit into the open air. The wine
+offered in libations to the gods already lay in broad pools upon the
+hard pavement of the hall, the music and singing were drowned in shouts
+the feast had become an orgy.
+
+Verus was inciting the more quiet or slothful of his guests to a freer
+enjoyment and encouraging the noisiest in their extravagant recklessness
+to still more unbridled license. At the same time he bowed to each one
+who drank to his health, entertained the singer who sat by his side,
+flung a sparkling jest into one and another silent group, and proved to
+the learned men who reclined on their couches near to his that whenever
+it was possible he took an interest in their discussions. Alexandria,
+the focus of all the learning of the East and the West, had seen other
+festivals than this riotous banquet. Indeed, even here a vein of grave
+and wise discourse flavored the meal of the circle that belonged to the
+Museum; but the senseless revelry of Rome had found its way into the
+houses of the rich, and even the noblest achievements of the human mind
+had been made, unawares, subservient to mere enjoyment. A man was a
+philosopher only that he might be prompt to discuss and always ready to
+take his share in the talk; and at a banquet a well-told anecdote
+was more heartily welcome than some profound idea that gave rise to a
+reflection or provoked a subtle discussion.
+
+What a noise, what a clatter was storming in the hall by the second
+hour after midnight! How the lungs of the feasters were choked with
+overpowering perfumes! What repulsive exhibitions met the eye! How
+shamelessly was all decency trodden under foot! The poisonous breath of
+unchecked license had blasted the noble moderation of the vapor of wine
+which floated round this chaos of riotous topers slowly rose the pale
+image of Satiety watching for victims on the morrow.
+
+The circle of couches on which lay Florus, Favorinus and their
+Alexandrian friends stood like an island in the midst of the surging sea
+of the orgy. Even here the cup had been bravely passed round, and Florus
+was beginning to speak somewhat indistinctly, but conversation had
+hitherto had the upper hand.
+
+Two days before, the Emperor had visited the Museum and had carried on
+learned discussions with the most prominent of the sages and professors
+there, in the presence of their assembled disciples. At last a formal
+disputation had arisen, and the dialectic keenness and precision with
+which Hadrian, in the purest Attic Greek, had succeeded in driving
+his opponents into a corner had excited the greatest admiration. The
+Sovereign had quitted the famous institution with a promise to reopen
+the contest at an early date. The philosophers, Pancrates and Dionysius
+and Apollonius, who took no wine at all, were giving a detailed account
+of the different phases of this remarkable disputation and praising the
+admirable memory and the ready tongue of the great monarch.
+
+“And you did not even see him at his best,” exclaimed Favorinus, the
+Gaul, the sophist and rhetorician. “He has received an unfavorable
+oracle and the stars seem to confirm the prophecy. This puts him out
+of tune. Between ourselves let me tell you I know a few who are
+his superiors in dialectic, but in his happiest moments he is
+irresistible-irresistible. Since we made up our quarrel he is like a
+brother to me. I will defend him against all comers, for, as I say,
+Hadrian is my brother.”
+
+The Gaul had poured out this speech in a defiant tone and with flashing
+eyes. He grew pale in his cups, touchy, boastful and very talkative.
+
+“No doubt you are right,” replied Apollonius, “but it seemed to us that
+he was bitter in discussion. His eyes are gloomy rather than gay.”
+
+“He is my brother,” repeated Favorinus, “and as for his eyes, I have
+seen them flash--by Hercules! like the radiant sun, or merry twinkling
+stars! And his mouth! I know him well! He is my brother, and I will
+wager that while he condescended--it is too comical--condescended to
+dispute with you--with you, there was a sly smile at each corner of his
+mouth--so--look now--like this he smiled.”
+
+“I repeat, he seemed to us gloomy rather than gay,” retorted Apollonius,
+with annoyance; and Pancrates added:
+
+“If he does really know how to jest he certainly did not prove it to
+us.”
+
+“Not out of ill-will,” laughed the Gaul, “you do not know him, but I--I
+am his friend and may follow wherever--he goes. Now only wait and I will
+tell you a few stories about him. If I chose I could describe his whole
+soul to you as if it lay there on the surface of the wine in my cup.
+Once in Rome he went to inspect the newly-decorated baths of Agrippa,
+and in the undressing-room he saw an old man, a veteran who had fought
+with him somewhere or other. My memory is greatly admired, but his is in
+no respect inferior. Scaurus was the old man’s name--yes--yes, Scaurus.
+He did not observe Caesar at first, for after his bath his wounds were
+burning and he was rubbing his back against the rough stone of a pillar.
+Hadrian however called to him: ‘Why are you scratching yourself, my
+friend?’ and Scaurus, not at once recognizing Caesar’s voice, answered
+without turning round: ‘Because I have no slave to do it for me.’
+You should have heard Caesar laugh! Liberal as he is sometimes--I
+say sometimes--he gave Scaurus a handsome sum of money and two sturdy
+slaves. The story soon got abroad, and when Caesar, who--as you
+believe--cannot jest, a short time after again visited the bath, two
+old soldiers at once placed themselves in his way, scrubbed their backs
+against the wall like Scaurus, and called out to him ‘Great Caesar,
+we have no slaves.’--‘Then scratch each other,’ cried he, and left the
+soldiers to rub themselves.”
+
+“Capital!” laughed Dionysius. “Now one more true story,” interrupted the
+loquacious Gaul. “Once upon a time a man with white hair begged of him.
+The wretch was a low fellow, a parasite who wandered round from one
+man’s table to another, feeding himself out of other folks’ wallets and
+dishes. Caesar knew his man and warned him off. Then the creature had
+his hair dyed that he might not be recognized, and tried his luck a
+second time with the Emperor. But Hadrian has good eyes; he pointed to
+the door, saying, with the gravest face: ‘I have just lately refused to
+give your father anything.’ And a hundred such jokes pass from mouth to
+mouth in Rome, and if you like I can give you a dozen of the best.”
+
+“Tell us, go on, out with your stories. They are all old friends!”
+ stammered Florus. “But while Favorinus chatters we can drink.”
+
+The Gaul cast a contemptuous glance at the Roman, and answered promptly:
+
+“My stories are too good for a drunken man.”
+
+Florus paused to think of an answer, but before he could find one, the
+praetor’s body-slave rushed into the hall crying out: “The palace at
+Lochias is on fire.”
+
+Verus kicked the mat of lilies off his feet on to the floor, tore down
+the net that screened him in, and shouted to the breathless runner.
+
+“My chariot-quick, my chariot! To our next merry meeting another evening
+my friends, with many thanks for the honor you have done me. I must be
+off to Lochias.”
+
+Verus flew out of the hall, without throwing on his cloak and hot as he
+was, into the cold night, and at the same time most of his guests had
+started up to hurry into the open air, to see the fire and to hear the
+latest news; but only very few went to the scene of the conflagration
+to help the citizens to extinguish it, and many heavily intoxicated
+drinkers remained lying on the couches.
+
+As Favorinus and the Alexandrians raised themselves on their pillows
+Florus cried:
+
+“No god shall make me stir from this place, not if the whole house is
+burnt down and Alexandria and Rome, and for aught I care every nest
+and nook on the face of the earth. It may all burn together. The Roman
+Empire can never be greater or more splendid than under Caesar! It may
+burn down like a heap of straw, it is all the same to me--I shall lie
+here and drink.”
+
+The turmoil and confusion on the scene of the interrupted feast seemed
+inextricable, while Verus hurried off to Sabina to inform her of what
+had occurred. But Balbilla had been the first to discover the fire and
+quite at the beginning, for after sitting industriously at her studies,
+and before going to bed, she had looked out toward the sea. She had
+instantly run out, cried “Fire!” and was now seeking for a chamberlain
+to awake Sabina.
+
+The whole of Lochias flared and shone in a purple and golden glow. It
+formed the nucleus of a wide spreading radiance of tender red of which
+the extent and intensity alternately grew and diminished. Verus met
+the poetess at the door that led from the garden into the Empress’
+apartments. He omitted on this occasion to offer his customary greeting,
+but hastily asked her:
+
+“Has Sabina been told?”
+
+“I think not yet.”
+
+“Then have her called. Greet her from me--I must go to Lochias”
+
+“We will follow you.”
+
+“No, stay here; you will be in the way there.”
+
+“I do not take much room and I shall go. What a magnificent spectacle.”
+
+“Eternal gods! the flames are breaking out too below the palace, by the
+King’s harbor. Where can the chariots be?”
+
+“Take me with you.”
+
+“No you must wake the Empress.”
+
+“And Lucilla?”
+
+“You women must stay where you are.”
+
+“For my part I certainly will not. Caesar will be in no danger?”
+
+“Hardly--the old stones cannot burn.”
+
+“Only look! how splendid! the sky is one crimson tent. I entreat you,
+Verus, let me go with you.”
+
+“No, no, pretty one. Men are wanted down there.”
+
+“How unkind you are.”
+
+“At last! here are the chariots! You women stay here; do you understand
+me?”
+
+“I will not take any orders; I shall go to Lochias.”
+
+“To see Antinous in the flames! such a sight is not to be seen every
+day, to be sure!” cried Verus, ironically, as he sprang into his
+chariot, and took the reins into his own hand.
+
+Balbilla stamped with rage.
+
+She went to Sabina’s rooms fully resolved to go to the scene of the
+fire. The Empress would not let herself be seen by any one, not even by
+Balbilla, till she was completely dressed. A waiting-woman told Balbilla
+that Sabina would get up certainly, but that for the sake of her health
+she could not venture out in the night-air.
+
+The poetess then sought Lucilla and begged her to accompany her to
+Lochias; she was perfectly willing and ready, but when she heard that
+her husband had wished that the women should remain at the Caesareum she
+declared that she owed him obedience and tried to keep back her friend.
+But the perverse curly-haired girl was fully determined, precisely
+because Verus had forbidden her--and forbidden her with mocking words,
+to carry out her purpose. After a short altercation with Lucilla she
+left her, sought her companion Claudia, told her what she intended
+doing, dismissed that lady’s remonstrance with a very positive command,
+gave orders herself to the house-steward to have horses put to a chariot
+and reached the imperilled palace an hour and a half after Verus.
+
+An endless, many-headed crowd of people besieged the narrow end of
+Lochias on the landward side and the harbor wharves below, where some
+stores and shipyards were in flames. Boats innumerable were crowded
+round the little peninsula. An attempt was being made, with much
+shouting, and by the combined exertions of an immense number of men, to
+get the larger ships afloat which lay at anchor close to the quay of the
+King’s harbor and to place them in security. Every thing far and wide
+was lighted up as brightly as by day, but with a ruddier and more
+restless light. The north-east breeze fanned the fire, aggravating the
+labors of the men who were endeavoring to extinguish it and snatching
+flakes of flame off every burning mass. Each blazing storehouse was a
+gigantic torch throwing a broad glare into the darkness of the night.
+The white marble of the tallest beacon tower in the world, on the island
+of Pharos, reflected a rosy hue, but its far gleaming light shone pale
+and colorless. The dark hulls of the larger ships and the flotilla of
+boats in the background were afloat in a fiery sea, and the still water
+under the shore mirrored the illumination in which the whole of Lochias
+was wrapped.
+
+Balbilla could not tire of admiring this varying scene, in which
+the most gorgeous hues vied with each other and the intensest light
+contrasted with the deepest shadows. And she had ample time to dwell
+on the marvellous picture before her eyes, for her chariot could only
+proceed slowly, and at a point where the street led up from the King’s
+harbor to the palace, lictors stood in her way and declared positively
+that any farther advance was out of the question. The horses, much
+scared by the glare of the fire and the crowd that pressed round them,
+could hardly be controlled, first rearing and then kicking at the front
+board of the chariot. The charioteer declared he could no longer be
+answerable. The people who had hurried to the rescue now began to abuse
+the women, who ought to have staid at home at the loom rather than come
+stopping the way for useful citizens.
+
+“There is time enough to go out driving by daylight!” cried one man;
+and another: “If a spark falls in those curls another conflagration will
+break out.”
+
+The position of the ladies was becoming every instant more unendurable
+and Balbilla desired the charioteer to turn round; but in the swarming
+mass of men that filled the street this was easier said than done. One
+of the horses broke the strap which fastened the yoke that rested on his
+withers to the pole, started aside and forced back the crowd which now
+began to scold and scream loudly. Balbilla wanted to spring out of the
+chariot, but Claudia clung tightly to her and conjured her not to leave
+her in the lurch in the midst of the danger. The spoilt patrician’s
+daughter was not timid, but on this occasion she would have given
+much not to have followed Verus. At first she thought, “A delightful
+adventure! still, it will not be perfect till it is over.” But presently
+her bold experiment lost every trace of charm, and repentance that she
+had ever undertaken it filled her mind. She was far nearer weeping than
+laughing already, when a man’s deep voice said behind her, in tones of
+commanding decision:
+
+“Make way there for the pumps; push aside whatever stops the way.”
+
+These terrible words reduced Claudia to sinking on to her knees, but
+Balbilla’s quelled courage found fresh wings as she heard them, for
+she had recognized the voice of Pontius. Now he was close behind the
+chariot, high on a horse. He then was the man on horseback whom she had
+seen dashing from the sea-shore up to the higher storehouses that were
+burning, down to the lake, and hither and thither.
+
+She turned full upon him and called him by his name. He recognized her,
+tried to pull up his horse as it was dashing forward, and smilingly
+shook his head at her, as much as to say: “She is a giddy creature and
+deserves a good scolding; but who could be angry with her?” And then
+he gave his orders to his subordinates just as if she had been a mere
+chattel, a bale of goods or something of the kind, and not an heiress of
+distinction.
+
+“Take out the horses,” he cried to the municipal guards; “we can use
+them for carrying water.”--“Help the ladies out of the chariot.”--“Take
+them between you Nonnus and Lucanus.”--“Now, stow the chariot in there
+among the bushes.”--“Make way there in front, make way for our pumps.”
+ And each of these orders was obeyed as promptly as if it was the word of
+command given by a general to his well-drilled soldiers.
+
+After the pumps had been fairly started Pontius rode close up to
+Balbilla and said:
+
+“Caesar is safe and sound. You no doubt wished to see the progress of
+the fire from a spot near it, and in fact the colors down there are
+magnificent. I have not time to escort you back to the Caesareum; but
+follow me. You will be safe in the harbor-guard’s stone house, and from
+the roof you can command a view of Lochias and the whole peninsula. You
+will have a rare feast for the eye, noble Balbilla; but I beg you not
+to forget at the same time how many days of honest labor, what rich
+possessions, how many treasures earned by bitter hardship are being
+destroyed at this moment. What may delight you will cost bitter tears
+to many others, and so let us both hope that this splendid spectacle may
+now have reached its climax, and soon may come to an end.”
+
+“I hope so--I hope it with all my heart!” cried the girl.
+
+“I was sure you would. As soon as possible I will come to look
+after you. You Nonnus and Lucanus, conduct these noble ladies to the
+harbor-guard’s house.
+
+“Tell him they are intimate friends of the Empress. Only keep the pumps
+going! Till we meet again Balbilla!” and with these words the architect
+gave his horse the bridle and made his way through the crowd.
+
+A quarter of an hour later Balbilla was standing on the roof of the
+little stone guard-house. Claudia was utterly exhausted and incapable of
+speech. She sat in the dark little parlor below on a rough-hewn wooden
+bench. But the young Roman now gazed at the fire with different eyes
+than before. Pontius had made her feel a foe to the flames which only a
+short time before had filled her with delight as they soared up to the
+sky, wild and fierce. They still flared up violently, as though they
+had to climb above the roof; but soon they seemed to be quelled and
+exhausted, to find it more and more difficult to rise above the black
+smoke which welled up from the burning mass. Balbilla had looked out
+for the architect and had soon discovered him, for the man on horseback
+towered above the crowd. He halted now by one and now by another burning
+storehouse. Once she lost sight of him for a whole hour, for he had
+gone to Lochias. Then again he reappeared, and wherever he stayed for a
+while, the raging element abated its fury.
+
+Without her having perceived it, the wind had changed and the air had
+become still and much warmer. This circumstance favored the efforts of
+the citizens trying to extinguish the fire, but Balbilla ascribed it
+to the foresight of her clever friend when the flames subsided in souse
+places and in others were altogether extinguished. Once she saw that he
+had a building completely torn down which divided a burning granary
+from some other storehouses that had been spared, and she understood
+the object of this order; it cut off the progress of the flames. Another
+time she saw him high on the top of a rise in the ground. Close before
+him in a sheet of flame was a magazine in which were kept tow and casks
+of resin and pitch. He turned his face full towards it and gave his
+orders, now on this side, now on that. His figure and that of his horse,
+which reared uneasily beneath him, were flooded in a crimson glow--a
+splendid picture! She trembled for him, she gazed in admiration at this
+calm, resolute, energetic man, and when a blazing beam fell close in
+front of him and after his frightened horse had danced round and
+round with him, he forced it to submit to his guidance, the praetor’s
+insinuation recurred to her mind, that she clung to her determination
+to go to Lochias because she hoped to enjoy the spectacle of Antinous in
+the flames. Here, before her, was a nobler display, and yet her lively
+imagination which often, sometimes indeed against her will, gave shape
+to her formless thoughts--called up the image of the beautiful youth
+surrounded by the glowing glory which still painted the horizon.
+
+Hour after hour slipped by; the efforts of the thousands who endeavored
+to extinguish the blaze were crowned by increasing success; one burning
+mass after another was quenched, if not extinguished, and instead
+of flames smoke, mingled with sparks, rose from Lochias blacker and
+blacker-and still Pontius came not to look after her. She could not see
+any stars for the sky was overcast with clouds, but the beginning of a
+new day could not be far distant. She was shivering with cold, and her
+friend’s long absence began to annoy her. When, presently, it began to
+rain in large drops, she went down the ladder that led from the roof
+and sat down by the fire in the little room where her companion had gone
+fast asleep.
+
+She had been sitting quite half an hour and gazing dreamily into the
+warming glow, when she heard the sound of hoofs and Pontius appeared.
+His face was begrimed, and his voice hoarse with shouting commands for
+hours. As soon as she saw him Balbilla forgot her vexation, greeted him
+warmly, and told him how she had watched his every movement; but the
+eager girl, so readily fired to enthusiasm, could only with the greatest
+difficulty bring out a few words to express the admiration that his mode
+of proceeding had so deeply excited in her mind.
+
+She heard him say that his mouth was quite parched and his throat was
+longing for a draught of some drink, and she--who usually had every pin
+she needed handed to her by a slave, and on whom fate had bestowed no
+living creature whom she could find a pleasure in serving--she, with her
+own hand dipped a cup of water out of the large clay jar that stood in
+a corner of the room and offered it to him with a request that he would
+drink it. He eagerly swallowed the refreshing fluid, and when the little
+cup was empty Balbilla took it from his hand, refilled it, and gave it
+him again.
+
+Claudia, who woke up when the architect came in, looked on at her
+foster-child’s unheard-of proceedings with astonishment, shaking her
+head. When Pontius had drained the third cupful that Balbilla fetched
+for him he exclaimed, drawing a deep breath:
+
+“That was a drink--I never tasted a better in the whole course of my
+life.”
+
+“Muddy water out of a nasty earthen pitcher!” answered the girl.
+
+“And it tasted better than wine from Byblos out of a golden goblet.”
+
+“You had honestly earned the refreshment, and thirst gives flavor to the
+humblest liquor.”
+
+“You forget the hand that gave it me,” replied the architect warmly.
+
+Balbilla colored and looked at the floor in confusion, but presently
+raised her face and said, as gayly and carelessly as ever:
+
+“So that you have been deliciously refreshed; and now that is done you
+will go home and the poor thirsty soul will once more become the great
+architect. But before that happens, pray inform us what god it was that
+brought you hither from Pelusium in the very nick of time when the fire
+broke out, and how matters look now in the palace at Lochias?”
+
+“My time is short,” replied Pontius, and he then rapidly told her
+that, after he had finished his work at Pelusium, he had returned to
+Alexandria with the imperial post. As he got out of the chariot at
+the post-house he observed the reflection of fire over the sea and
+was immediately after told by a slave that it was the palace that was
+burning. There were horses in plenty at the post-house; he had chosen a
+strong one and had got to the spot before the crowd had collected. How
+the fire had originated, so far remained undiscovered. “Caesar,” he
+said, “was in the act of observing the heavens when a flame broke out
+in a store-shed close to the tower. Antinous was the first to detect
+it, cried ‘Fire,’ and warned his master. I found Hadrian in the greatest
+agitation; he charged me to superintend the work of rescuing all that
+could be saved. At Lochias. Verus helped me greatly and indeed with so
+much boldness and judgment that I owe very much to him. Caesar himself
+kept his favorite within the palace, for the poor fellow burned both his
+hands.”
+
+“Oh!” cried Balbilla with eager regret. “How did that happen?”
+
+“When Hadrian and Antinous first came down from the tower they brought
+with them as many of the instruments and manuscripts as they could
+carry. When they were at the bottom Caesar observed that a tablet with
+important calculations had been left lying up above and expressed his
+regret. Meanwhile the fire had already caught the slightly-built turret
+and it seemed impossible to get into it again. But the dreamy Bithynian
+can wake out of his slumbers it would seem, and while Caesar was
+anxiously watching the burning bundles of flax which the wind kept
+blowing across to the harbor the rash boy rushed into the burning
+building, flung the tablet down from the top of the tower and then
+hurried down the stairs. His bold action would indeed have cost the poor
+fellow his life if the slave Mastor; who meanwhile had hurried to the
+spot, had not dragged him down the stone stair of the old tower on
+which the new one stood and carried him into the open air. He was half
+suffocated at the top of them and had dropped down senseless.”
+
+“But he is alive, the splendid boy, the image of the gods! and he is out
+of danger?” cried Balbilla, with much anxiety.
+
+“He is quite well; only his hands, as I said, are somewhat burnt, and
+his hair is singed, but that will grow again.”
+
+“His soft, lovely curls!” cried Balbilla. “Let us go home, Claudia. The
+gardener shall cut a magnificent bunch of roses, and we will send it to
+Antinous to please him.”
+
+“Flowers to a man who does not care about them?” asked Pontius, gravely.
+
+“With what else can women reward men’s virtues or do honor to their
+beauty?” asked Balbilla.
+
+“Our own conscience is the reward of our honest actions, or the laurel
+wreath from the hand of some famous man.”
+
+“And beauty?”
+
+“That of women claims and wins admiration, love too perhaps and
+flowers-that of men may rejoice the eye, but to do it Honor is a task
+granted to no mortal woman.”
+
+“To whom, then, if I may ask the question?”
+
+“To Art, which makes it immortal.”
+
+“But the roses may bring some comfort and pleasure to the suffering
+youth.”
+
+“Then send them-but to the sick boy, and not to the handsome man,”
+ retorted Pontius.
+
+Balbilla was silent, and she and her companion followed the architect
+to the harbor. There he parted from them, putting them into a boat which
+took them back to the Caesareum through one of the arch-gates under the
+Heptastadium.
+
+As they were rowed along the younger Roman lady said to the elder:
+
+“Pontius has quite spoilt my fun about the roses. The sick boy is the
+handsome Antinous all the same, and if anybody could think--well,
+I shall do just as I please; still it will be best not to cut the
+nosegay.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+The town was out of danger; the fire was extinct. Pontius had taken no
+rest till noonday. Three horses had he tired out and replaced by fresh
+ones, but his sinewy frame and healthy courage had till now defied every
+strain. As soon as he could consider his task at an end he went off to
+his own house, and he needed rest; but in the hall of his residence he
+already found a number of persons waiting, and who were likely to stand
+between him and the enjoyment of it.
+
+A man who lives in the midst of important undertakings cannot, with
+impunity, leave his work to take care of itself for several days. All
+the claims upon him become pent up, and when he returns home they deluge
+him like water when the sluice-gates are suddenly opened behind which it
+has been dammed up.
+
+At least twenty persons, who had heard of the architect’s return, were
+waiting for him in his outer hall, and crowded upon him as soon as he
+appeared. Among them he saw several who had come on important business,
+but he felt that he had reached the farthest limit of his strength, and
+he was determined to secure a little rest at any cost. The grave man’s
+natural consideration, usually so conspicuous, could not hold out
+against the demands made on his endurance, and he angrily and peevishly
+pointed to his begrimed face as he made his way through the people
+waiting for him.
+
+“To-morrow, to-morrow,” he cried; “nay, if necessary, to-day, after
+sunset. But now I need rest. Rest! Rest! Why, you yourselves can see the
+state I am in.”
+
+All--even the master-masons and purveyors who had come on urgent
+affairs, drew back; only one elderly man, his sister Paulina’s
+house-steward, caught hold of his chiton, stained as it was with smoke
+and scorched in many places, and said quickly and in a low tone:
+
+“My mistress greets you; she has things to speak of to you which will
+bear no delay; I am not to leave you till you have promised to go to see
+her to-day. Our chariot waits for you at the garden-door.”
+
+“Send it home,” said Pontius, not even civilly; “Paulina must wait a few
+hours.”
+
+“But my orders are to take you with me at once.”
+
+“But in this state--so--I cannot go with you,” cried the architect
+with vehemence. “Have you no sort of consideration? And yet--who can
+tell--well, tell her I will be with her in two hours.”
+
+When Pontius had fairly escaped the throng he took a bath; then he had
+some food brought to him, but even while he ate and drank, he was not
+unoccupied, for he read the letters which awaited him, and examined some
+drawings which his assistants had prepared during his absence.
+
+“Give yourself an hour’s respite,” said the old housekeeper, who had
+been his nurse and who loved him as her own son.
+
+“I must go to my sister,” he answered with a shrug. “We know her of
+old,” said the old woman. “For nothing, and less than nothing, she has
+sent for you be fore now; and you absolutely need rest. There--are your
+cushions right--so? And let me ask you, has the humblest stone-carrier
+so hard a life as you have? Even at meals you never have an hour of
+peace and comfort. Your poor head is never quiet; the nights are turned
+into day; something to do, always something to do. If one only knew who
+it is all for?”
+
+“Aye--who for, indeed?” sighed Pontius, pushing his arm under his head,
+between it and the pillow. “But, you see, little mother, work must
+follow rest as surely as day follows night or summer follows winter. The
+man who has something he loves in the House--a wife and merry children,
+it may be, for aught I care--who sweeten his hours of rest and make
+them the best of all the day, he, I say is wise when he tries to prolong
+them; but his case is not mine--”
+
+“But why is it not yours, my son Pontius?”
+
+“Let me finish my speech. I, as you know full well, do not care for
+gossip in the bath nor for reclining long over a banquet. In the
+pauses of my work I am alone, with myself and with you, my very worthy
+Leukippe. So the hours of rest are not for me the fairest scenes, but
+empty waits between the acts of the drama of life; and no reasonable man
+can find fault with me for trying to abridge them by useful occupation.”
+
+“And what is the upshot of this sensible talk? Simply this: you must get
+married.”
+
+Pontius sighed, but Leukippe added eagerly:
+
+“You have not far to look! The most respectable fathers and mothers are
+running after you and would bring their prettiest daughters into your
+door.”
+
+“A daughter whom I do not know, and who might perhaps spoil the pauses
+between the acts, which at present I can at any rate turn to some
+account.”
+
+“They say,” the old woman went on, “that marriage is a cast of the dice.
+One throws a high number, another a low one; one wins a wife who is a
+match for the busy bee, another gets a tiresome gnat. No doubt there
+is some truth in it; but I have grown grey with my eyes open and I have
+often seen it happen, that how the marriage turned out depended on the
+husband. A man like you makes a bee out of a gnat--a bee that brings
+honey to the hive. Of course a man must choose carefully.”
+
+“How, pray?”
+
+“First see the parents and then the child. A girl who has grown up
+surrounded by good habits, in the house of a sensible father and a
+virtuous mother--”
+
+“And where in this city am I to find such a miracle? Nay, nay, Leukippe,
+for the present all shall be left to my old woman. We both do our duty,
+we are satisfied with each other and--”
+
+“And time is flying,” said the housekeeper, interrupting her master in
+his speech. “You are nearly thirty-five years of age, and the girls--”
+
+“Let them be! let them be! They will find other men! Now send Cyrus with
+my shoes and cloak, and have my litter got ready, for Paulina has been
+kept waiting long enough.”
+
+The way from the architect’s house to his sister’s was long, and on
+his way he found ample time for reflection on various matters besides
+Leukippe’s advice to marry. Still, it was a woman’s face and form
+that possessed him heart and soul; at first, however, he did not feel
+inclined to feast his fancy on Balbilla’s image, lovely as it appeared
+to him; on the contrary, with self-inflicted severity he sought
+everything in her which could be thought to be opposed to the highest
+standard of feminine perfections. Nor did he find it difficult to detect
+many defects and deficiencies in the Roman damsel; still he was forced
+to admit that they were quite inseparable from her character, and that
+she would no longer be what she was, if she were wholly free from them.
+Each of her little weaknesses presently began to appear as an additional
+charm to the stern man who had himself been brought up in the doctrine
+of the Stoics.
+
+He had learnt by experience that sorrow must cast its shadow over the
+existence of every human being; but still, the man to whom it should be
+vouchsafed to walk through life hand-in-hand with this radiant child of
+fortune could, as it seemed to him, have nothing to look forward to but
+pure sunshine. During his journey to Pelusium and his stay there he had
+often thought of her, and each time that her image had appeared to his
+inward eye he had felt as though daylight had shone in his soul. To have
+met her he regarded as the greatest joy of his life, but he dared not
+aspire to claim her as his own.
+
+He did not undervalue himself and knew that he might well be proud of
+the position he had won by his own industry and talents; and still
+she was the grandchild of the man who had had the right to sell his
+grandfather for mere coin, and was so high-born, rich and distinguished
+that he would have thought it hardly more audacious to ask the Emperor
+what he would take for the purple than to woo her. But to shelter her,
+to warn her, to allow his soul to be refreshed by the sight of her and
+by her talk--this he felt was permissible, this happiness no one could
+deprive him of. And this she would grant him--she esteemed him and would
+give him the right to protect her, this he felt, with thankfulness and
+joy. He would, then and there, have gone through the exertions of the
+last few hours all over again if he could have been certain that he
+should once more be refreshed with the draught of water from her hand.
+Only to think of her and of her sweetness seemed greater happiness than
+the possession of any other woman.
+
+As he got out of his litter at the door of his sister’s town-house he
+shook his head, smiling at himself; for he confessed to himself that
+the whole of the long distance he had hardly thought of anything but
+Balbilla.
+
+Paulina’s house had but few windows opening upon the street and these
+belonged to the strangers’ rooms, and yet his arrival had been observed.
+A window at the side of the house, all grown round with creepers, framed
+in a sweet girlish head which looked down from it inquisitively on the
+bustle in the street. Pontius did not notice it, but Arsinoe--for it was
+her pretty face that looked out--at once recognized the architect whom
+she had seen at Lochias and of whom Pollux had spoken as his friend and
+patron.
+
+She had now, for a week, been living with the rich widow; she wanted
+for nothing, and yet her soul longed with all its might to be out in the
+city, and to inquire for Pollux and his parents, of whom she had heard
+nothing since the day of her father’s death. Her lover was no doubt
+seeking her with anxiety and sorrow; but how was he to find her?
+
+Three days after her arrival she had discovered the little window from
+which she had a view of the street. There was plenty to be seen, for
+it led to the Hippodrome and was never empty of foot-passengers and
+chariots that were proceeding thither or to Necropolis. No doubt it was
+a pleasure to her to watch the fine horses and garlanded youths and men
+who passed by Paulina’s house; but it was not merely to amuse herself
+that she went to the bowery little opening; no, she hoped, on the
+contrary, that she might once see her Pollux, his father, his mother,
+his bother Teuker or some one else they knew pass by her new home. Then
+she might perhaps succeed in calling them, in asking what had become
+of her friends, and in begging them to let her lover know where to seek
+her.
+
+Her adoptive mother had twice found her at the window and had forbidden
+her, not unkindly but very positively, to look out into the street.
+Arsinoe had followed her unresistingly into the interior of the house,
+but as soon as she knew that Paulina was out or engaged, she slipped
+back to the window again and looked out for him, who must at every hour
+of the day be thinking of her. And she was not happy amid her new and
+wealthy surroundings. At first she had found it very pleasant to stretch
+her limbs on Paulina’s soft cushions, not to stir a finger to help
+herself, to eat the best of food and to have neither to attend to the
+children nor to labor in the horrible papyrus-factory; but by the third
+day she pined for liberty--and still more for the children, for Selene
+and Pollux. Once she went out driving with Paulina in a covered carriage
+for the first time in her life. As the horses started she had enjoyed
+the rapid movement and had leaned out at one side to see the houses and
+men flying past her; but Paulina had regarded this as not correct--as
+she did so many other things that she herself thought right and
+permissible--had desired her to draw in her head, and had told her
+that a well-conducted girl must sit with her eyes in her lap when out
+driving.
+
+Paulina was kind, never was irritable, had her dressed and waited upon
+like her own daughter, kissed her in the morning and when she bid her
+good-night; and yet Arsinoe had never once thought of Paulina’s demand
+that she should love her. The proud woman, who was so cool in all the
+friendly relations of life, and who, as she felt was always watching
+her, was to her only a stranger who had her in her power. The fairest
+sentiments of her soul she must always keep locked up from her.
+
+Once, when Paulina, with tears in her eyes had spoken to her of her lost
+daughter, Arsinoe had been softened and following the impulse of her
+heart, had confided to her that she loved Pollux the sculptor and hoped
+to be his wife.
+
+“You love a maker of images!” Paulina had exclaimed, with as much horror
+as if she had seen a toad; then she had paced uneasily up and down and
+had added with her usual calm decision:
+
+“No, no, my child! you will forget all this as soon as possible; I know
+of a nobler Bridegroom for you; when once you have learned to know Him
+you will never long for any other. Have you seen one single image in
+this house?”
+
+“No,” replied Arsinoe, “but so far as regards Pollux--”
+
+“Listen to me” said the widow, “have I not told you of our loving Father
+in Heaven? Have I not told you that the gods of the heathen are unreal
+beings which the vain imaginings of fools have endowed with all the
+weaknesses and crimes of humanity? Can you not understand how silly it
+is to pray to stones? What power can reside in these frail figures of
+brass or marble?
+
+“Idols we call them. He who carves them, serves them and offers
+sacrifice to them; aye and a great sacrifice, for he devotes his best
+powers, to their service. Do you understand me?”
+
+“No--Art is certainly a lofty thing, and Pollux is a good man, full of
+the divinity as he works.”
+
+“Wait a while, only wait--you will soon learn to understand,” Paulina
+had answered, drawing Arsinoe towards her, and had added, at first
+speaking gently but then more sternly: “Now go to bed and pray to your
+gracious Father in Heaven that he may enlighten your heart. You must
+forget the carved image-maker, and I forbid you ever to speak in my
+presence again of such a man.”
+
+Arsinoe had grown up a heathen, she clung with affection to the gods of
+her fathers and hoped for happier days after the first bitterness of the
+loss of her father and the separation from her brothers and sisters was
+past. She was little disposed to sacrifice her young love and all
+her earthly happiness for spiritual advantages of which she scarcely
+comprehended the value. Her father had always spoken of the Christians
+with hatred and contempt. She now saw that they could be kind and
+helpful, and the doctrine that there was a loving God in Heaven who
+cared for all men as his children appealed to her soul; but that we
+ought to forgive our enemies, to remember our sins, and to repent of
+them, and to regard all the pleasure and amusement which the gay city
+of Alexandria could offer as base and worthless--this was absurd and
+foolish.
+
+And what great sins had she committed? Could a loving God require of
+her that she should mar all her best days because as a child she had
+pilfered a cake or broken a pitcher; or, as she grew older had sometimes
+been obstinate or disobedient? Surely not. And then was an artist, a
+kind faithful soul like her tall Pollux, to be odious in the eyes of God
+the Father of all, because he was able to make such wonderful things as
+that head of her mother, for instance? If this really was so she would
+rather, a thousand times rather, lift her hands in prayer to the smiling
+Aphrodite, roguish Eros, beautiful Apollo, and all the nine Muses who
+protected her Pollux, than to Him.
+
+An obscure aversion rose up in her soul against the stern woman who
+could not understand her, and of whose teaching and admonitions she
+scarcely took in half; and she rejected many a word of the widow’s which
+might otherwise easily have found room in her heart, only because it was
+spoken by the cold-mannered woman who at every hour seemed to try to lay
+some fresh restraint upon her.
+
+Paulina had never yet taken her with her to of the Christian assemblies
+in her suburban villa; wished first to prepare her and to open her soul
+to salvation. In this task no teacher of the congregation should assist
+her. She, and she alone, should win to the Redeemer the soul of this
+fair creature that had walked so resolutely in the ways of the heathen;
+this was required of her as the condition of the covenant that she felt
+she had made with Him, it was with the price of this labor that she
+hoped to purchase her own child’s eternal happiness. Day after day she
+had Arsinoe into her own room, that was decked with flowers and with
+Christian symbols, and devoted several hours to her instruction. But her
+disciple proved less impressionable and less attentive every day; while
+Paulina was speaking Arsinoe was thinking of Pollux, of the children, of
+the festival prepared for the Emperor or of the beautiful dress she
+was to have worn as Roxana. She wondered what young girl would fill her
+place, and how she could ever hope to see her lover again. And it was
+the same during Paulina’s prayers as during her instruction, prayers
+that often lasted more than hour, and which she had to attend, on her
+knees on Wednesday and Friday, and with hands uplifted on all the other
+days of the week.
+
+When her adoptive mother had discovered how often she looked out into
+the street she thought she had found out the reason of her pupil’s
+distracted attention and only waited the return of her brother, the
+architect, in order to have the window blocked up.
+
+As Pontius entered the lofty hall of his sister’s house, Arsinoe came to
+meet him. Her cheeks were flushed, she had hurried to fly down as fast
+as possible from her window to the ground floor, in order to speak to
+the architect before he went into the inner rooms or had talked with
+his sister, and she looked lovelier than ever. Pontius gazed at her with
+delight. He knew that he had seen this sweet face before, but he
+could not at once remember where; for a face we have met with only
+incidentally is not easily recognized when we find it again where we do
+not expect it.
+
+Arsinoe did not give him time to speak to her, for she went straight up
+to him, greeted him, and asked timidly:
+
+“You do not remember who I am?”
+
+“Yes, yes,” said the architect, “and yet--for the moment--”
+
+“I am the daughter of Keraunus, the palace-steward at Lochias, but you
+know of course!”
+
+“To be sure, to be sure! Arsinoe is your name; I was asking to-day after
+your father and heard to my great regret--”
+
+“He is dead.”
+
+“Poor child! How everything has changed in the old palace since I
+went away. The gate-house is swept away, there is a new steward and
+there-but, tell me how came you here?”
+
+“My father left us nothing and Christians took its in. There were eight
+of us.”
+
+“And my sister shelters you all?”
+
+“No, no; one has been taken into one house and others into others. We
+shall never be together again.” And as she spoke the tears ran down
+Arsinoe’s cheeks; but she promptly recovered herself, and before Pontius
+could express his sympathy she went on:
+
+“I want to ask of you a favor; let me speak before any one disturbs us.”
+
+“Speak, my child.”
+
+“You know Pollux--the sculptor Pollux?”
+
+“Certainly.”
+
+“And you were always kindly disposed toward him?”
+
+“He is a good man and an excellent artist.”
+
+“Aye that he is, and besides all that--may I tell you something and will
+you stand by me?”
+
+“Gladly, so far as lies in my power.”
+
+Arsinoe looked down at the ground in charming and blushing confusion and
+said in a low tone:
+
+“We love each other--I am to be his wife.”
+
+“Accept my best wishes.”
+
+“Ah, if only we had got as far as that! But since my father’s death we
+have not seen each other. I do not know where he and his parents are,
+and how are they ever to find me here?”
+
+“Write to him.”
+
+“I cannot write well, and even if I could my messenger--”
+
+“Has my sister had any search made for him?”
+
+“No--oh, no. I may not even let his name pass my lips. She wants to give
+me to some one else; she says that making statues is hateful to the God
+of the Christians.”
+
+“Does she? And you want me to seek your lover?”
+
+“Yes, yes, my dear lord! and if you find him tell him I shall be alone
+to-morrow early, and again towards evening, every day indeed, for then
+your sister goes to serve her God in her country house.”
+
+“So you want to make me a lover’s go-between. You could not find a more
+inexperienced one.”
+
+“Ah! noble Pontius, if you have a heart--”
+
+“Let me speak to the end, child! I will seek your lover, and if I find
+him he shall know where you are, but I cannot and will not invite him
+to an assignation here behind my sister’s back. He shall come openly to
+Paulina and prefer his suit. If she refuses her consent I will try to
+take the matter in hand with Paulina. Are you satisfied with this?”
+
+“I must need be. And tell me, you will let me know when you have found
+out where he and his parents have gone?”
+
+“That I promise you. And now tell the one thing. Are you happy in this
+house?”
+
+Arsinoe looked down in some embarrassment, then she hastily shook her
+head in vehement negation and hurried away. Pontius looked after her
+with compassion and sympathy.
+
+“Poor, pretty little creature!” he murmured to himself, and went on to
+his sister’s room.
+
+The house-steward had announced his visit, and Paulina met him on the
+threshold. In his sister’s sitting-room the architect found Eumenes, the
+bishop, a dignified old man with clear, kind eyes.
+
+“Your name is in everybody’s mouth to-day,” said Paulina, “after the
+usual greetings. They say you did wonders last night.”
+
+“I got home very tired,” said Pontius, “but as you so pressingly desired
+to speak to me, I shortened my hours of rest.”
+
+“How sorry I am!” exclaimed the widow.
+
+The bishop perceived that the brother and sister had business to discuss
+together, and asked whether he were not interrupting it.
+
+“On the contrary,” cried Paulina. “The subject under discussion is my
+newly-adopted daughter who, unhappily, has her head full of silly and
+useless things. She tells me she has seen you at Lochias, Pontius.”
+
+“Yes, I know the pretty child.”
+
+“Yes, she is lovely to look upon,” said the widow. “But her heart and
+mind have been left wholly untrained, and in her the doctrine falls upon
+stony ground, for she avails herself of every unoccupied moment to stare
+at the horsemen and chariots that pass on the way to the Hippodrome. By
+this inquisitive gaping she fills her head with a thousand useless and
+distracting fancies; I am not always at home, and so it will be best to
+have the pernicious window walled up.”
+
+“And did you send for me only to have that done?” cried Pontius, much
+annoyed. “Your house-slaves, I should think, might have been equal to
+that without my assistance.”
+
+“Perhaps, but then the wall would have to be freshly whitewashed--I know
+how obliging you always are.”
+
+“Thank you very much. To-morrow I will send you two regular workmen.”
+
+“Nay, to-day, at once if possible.”
+
+“Are you in such pressing haste to spoil the poor child’s amusement? And
+besides I cannot but think that it is not to stare at the horsemen and
+chariots that she looks out, but to see her worthy lover.”
+
+“So much the worse. I was telling you, Eumenes, that a sculptor wants to
+marry her.”
+
+“She is a heathen,” replied the bishop.
+
+“But on the road to salvation,” answered Paulina. “But we will speak of
+that presently. There is still something else to discuss, Pontius. The
+hall of my country villa must be enlarged.”
+
+“Then send me the plans.”
+
+“They are in the book-room of my late husband.” The architect left his
+sister to go into the library, which he knew well.
+
+As soon as the bishop was left alone with Paulina, he shook his head and
+said:
+
+“If I judge rightly, my dear sister, you are going the wrong way to work
+in leading this child intrusted to your care. Not all are called, and
+rebellious hearts must be led along the path of salvation with a gentle
+hand, not dragged and driven. Why do you cut off this girl, who still
+stands with both feet in the world, from all that can give her pleasure?
+Allow the young creature to enjoy every permitted pleasure which can add
+to the joys of life in youth. Do not hurt Arsinoe needlessly, do not let
+her feel the hand that guides her. First teach her to love you from her
+heart, and when she knows nothing dearer than you, a request from you
+will be worth more than bolts or walled-up windows.”
+
+“At first I wished nothing more than that she should love me,”
+ interrupted Paulina.
+
+“But have you proved her? Do you see in her the spark which may be
+fanned to a flame? Have you detected in her the germ which may possibly
+grow to a strong desire for salvation and to devotion to the Redeemer?”
+
+“That germ exists in every heart-these are your own words.”
+
+“But in many of the heathen it is deeply buried in sand and stories; and
+do you feel yourself equal to clearing them away without injury to the
+seed or to the soil in which it lies?”
+
+“I do, and I will win Arsinoe to Jesus Christ,” said Paulina firmly.
+
+Pontius interrupted the conversation; he remained with his sister some
+time longer discussing with her and with Eumenes the new building to be
+done at her country house; then he and the bishop left at the same time
+and Pontius proceeded to the scene of the fire by the harbor and in the
+old palace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Pontius did not find the Emperor at Lochias, for Hadrian had moved at
+mid-day to the Caesareum. The strong smell of burning in every room
+in the palace had sickened him and he had begun to regard the restored
+building as a doomed scene of disaster. The architect was waited for
+with much anxiety, for the rooms originally furnished for the Emperor in
+the Caesareum had been despoiled and disarranged to decorate the rooms
+at Lochias, and Pontius was wanted to superintend their immediate
+rehabilitation. A chariot was waiting for him and there was no lack of
+slaves, so he began this fresh task at once and devoted himself to
+it till late at night. It was in vain this time that his anteroom was
+filled with people waiting for his return.
+
+Hadrian had retired to some rooms which formed part of his wife’s
+apartments. He was in a grave mood, and when the prefect Titianus was
+announced he kept him waiting till, with his own hand, he had laid a
+fresh dressing on his favorite’s burns.
+
+“Go now, my lord,” begged the Bithynian, when the Emperor had finished
+his task with all the skill of a surgeon: “Titianus has been walking up
+and down in there for the last quarter of an hour.”
+
+“And so he may,” said the monarch. “And if the whole world is shrieking
+for me it must wait till these faithful hands have had their due. Yes,
+my boy! we will wander on through life together, inseparable comrades.
+Others indeed do the same, and each one who goes through life side by
+side with a companion sharing all he enjoys or suffers, comes to think
+at last that he knows him as he knows himself; still the inmost core of
+his friend’s nature remains concealed from him. Then, some day Fate lets
+a storm come raging down upon them; the last veil is torn, under the
+wanderer’s eyes, from the very heart of his companion, and at last he
+really sees him as he is, like a kernel stripped of its shell, a bare
+and naked body. Last night such a blast swept over us and let me see
+the heart of my Antinous, as plainly as this hand I hold before my eyes.
+Yes, yes, yes! for the man who will risk his young and happy existence
+for a thing his friend holds precious would sacrifice ten lives if he
+had them, for his friend’s person. Never, my friend, shall that night be
+forgotten. It gives you the right to do much that might pain me, and
+has graven your name on my heart, the foremost among those to whom I am
+indebted for any benefit.--They are but few.”
+
+Hadrian held out his hand to Antinous as he spoke. The boy, who had kept
+his eyes fixed on the ground in much confusion, raised it to his lips
+and pressed it against them in violent agitation. Then he raised his
+large eyes to the Emperor’s and said:
+
+“You must not speak to me so kindly, for I do not deserve such goodness.
+What is my life after all? I would let it go, as a child leaves go of a
+beetle it has caught, to spare you one single anxious day.”
+
+“I know it,” answered Hadrian firmly, and he went to the prefect in the
+adjoining room.
+
+Titianus had come in obedience to Hadrian’s orders; the matter to be
+settled was what indemnification was to be paid to the city and to
+the individual owners of the storehouses that had been destroyed, for
+Hadrian had caused a decree to be proclaimed that no one should suffer
+any loss through a misfortune sent by the gods and which had originated
+in his residence. The prefect had already instituted the necessary
+inquiries and the private secretaries, Phlegon, Heliodorus and Celer,
+were now charged with the duty of addressing documents to the injured
+parties in which they were invited, in the name of Caesar, to declare
+the truth as to the amount of the loss they had suffered. Titianus
+also brought the information that the Greeks and Jews had determined
+to express their thankfulness for Caesar’s preservation by great
+thank-offerings.
+
+“And the Christians,” asked Hadrian.
+
+“They abominate the sacrifice of animals, but they will unite in a
+common act of thanksgiving.”
+
+“Their gratitude will not cost them much,” said Hadrian.
+
+“Their bishop, Eumenes, brought me a sum of money for which a hundred
+oxen might be bought, to distribute among the poor. He said the God of
+the Christians is a spirit and requires none but spiritual sacrifices;
+that the best offering a man can bring him is a prayer prompted by the
+spirit and proceeding from a loving heart.”
+
+“That sounds very well for us,” said Hadrian. “But it will not do for
+the people. Philosophical doctrines do not tend to piety; the populace
+need visible gods and tangible sacrifices. Are the Christians here good
+citizens and devoted to the welfare of the state?”
+
+“We need no courts of justice for them.”
+
+“Then take their money and distribute it among the needy; but I must
+forbid their meeting for a general thanksgiving; they may raise their
+hands to their great spirit in my behalf, in private. Their doctrine
+must not be brought into publicity; it is not devoid of a delusive charm
+and it is indispensable to the safety of the state that the mob should
+remain faithful to the old gods and sacrifices.”
+
+“As you command, Caesar.”
+
+“You know the account given of the Christians by Pliny and Trajan?”
+
+“And Trajan’s answer.”
+
+“Well then let us leave them to follow their own devices in private
+after their own fashion; only they must not commit any breach of the
+laws of the state nor force themselves into publicity. As soon as they
+show any disposition to refuse to the old gods the respect that is due
+to them, or to raise a finger against them, severity must be exercised
+and every excess must be punished by death.”
+
+During this conversation Verus had entered the room; he was following
+the Emperor everywhere to-day for he hoped to hear him say a word as to
+his observation of the heavens, and yet he did not dare to ask him what
+he had discovered from them.
+
+When he saw that Hadrian was occupied he made a chamberlain conduct him
+to Antinous. The favorite turned pale as he saw the praetor, still
+he retained enough presence of mind to wish him all happiness on his
+birthday. It did not escape Verus that his presence had startled
+the lad; he therefore plied him at first with indifferent questions,
+introduced pleasing anecdotes into his conversation and then, when he
+had gained his purpose, he added carelessly:
+
+“I must thank you in the name of the state and of every friend of
+Caesar’s. You carried out your undertaking well to the end, though by
+somewhat overpowering means.”
+
+“I entreat you say no more,” interrupted Antinous eagerly, and looking
+anxiously at the door of the next room.
+
+“Oh! I would have sacrificed all Alexandria to preserve Caesar’s mind
+from gloom and care. Besides we have both paid dearly for our good
+intentions and for those wretched sheds.”
+
+“Pray talk of something else.”
+
+“You sit there with your hands bound up and your hair singed, and I feel
+very unwell.”
+
+“Hadrian said you had helped valiantly in the rescue.”
+
+“I was sorry for the poor rats whose gathered store of provisions the
+flames were so rapidly devouring, and all hot as I was from my supper, I
+flung myself in among the men who were extinguishing the fire. My first
+reward was a bath of cold, icy-cold sea-water, which was poured over my
+head out of a full skin. All doctrines of ethics are in disgrace with
+me, and I have long considered all the dramatic poets, in whose pieces
+virtue is rewarded and crime punished, as a pack of fools; for my
+pleasantest hours are all due to my worst deeds; and sheer annoyance and
+misery, to my best. No hyena can laugh more hoarsely that I now speak;
+some portion of me inside here, seems to have been turned into a
+hedgehog whose spines prick and hurt me, and all this because I allowed
+myself to be led away into doing things which the moralists laud as
+virtuous.”
+
+“You cough, and you do not look well. He down awhile.”
+
+“On my birthday? No, my young friend. And now let me just ask you before
+I go: Can you tell me what Hadrian read in the stars?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“Not even if I put my Perseus at your orders for every thing you may
+require of him? The man knows Alexandria and is as dumb as a fish.”
+
+“Not even then, for what I do not know I cannot tell. We are both of
+us ill, and I tell you once more you will be wise to take care of
+yourself.” Verus left the room, and Antinous watched him go with much
+relief.
+
+The praetor’s visit had filled him with disquietude, and had added to
+the dislike he felt for him. He knew that he had been used to base ends
+by Verus, for Hadrian had told him so much as that he had gone up to
+the observatory not to question the stars for himself but to cast the
+praetor’s horoscope, and that he had informed Verus of his intention.
+
+There was no excuse, no forgiveness possible for the deed he had done;
+to please that dissolute coxcomb, that mocking hypocrite, he had
+become a traitor to his master and an incendiary, and must endure to
+be overwhelmed with praises and thanks by the greatest and most
+keen-sighted of men. He hated, he abhorred himself, and asked himself
+why the fire which had blazed around him had been satisfied only to
+inflict slight injuries on his hands and hair. When Hadrian returned to
+him he asked his permission to go to bed. The Emperor gladly granted
+it, ordered Mastor to watch by his side, and then agreed to his wife’s
+request that he would visit her.
+
+Sabina had not been to the scene of the fire, but she had sent a
+messenger every hour to inquire as to the progress of the conflagration
+and the well-being of her husband. When he had first arrived at the
+Caesareum she had met and welcomed him and then had retired to her own
+apartments.
+
+It wanted only two hours of midnight when Hadrian entered her room; he
+found her reclining on a couch without the jewels she usually wore in
+the daytime but dressed as for a banquet.
+
+“You wished to speak with me?” said the Emperor. “Yes, and this day--so
+full of remarkable events as it has been--has also a remarkable close
+since I have not wished in vain.”
+
+“You so rarely give me the opportunity of gratifying a wish.”
+
+“And do you complain of that?”
+
+“I might--for instead of wishing you are wont to demand.”
+
+“Let us cease this strife of idle words.”
+
+“Willingly. With what object did you send for me?”
+
+“Verus is to-day keeping his birthday.”
+
+“And you would like to know what the stars promise him?”
+
+“Rather how the signs in the heavens have disposed you towards him.”
+
+“I had but little time to consider what I saw. But at any rate the stars
+promise him a brilliant future.”
+
+A gleam of joy shone in Sabina’s eyes, but she forced herself to keep
+calm and asked, indifferently:
+
+“You admit that, and yet you can come to no decision?”
+
+“Then you want to hear the decisive word spoken at once, to-day?”
+
+“You know that without my answering you.”
+
+“Well, then, his star outshines mine and compels me to be on my guard
+against him.”
+
+“How mean! You are afraid of the praetor?”
+
+“No, but of his fortune which is bound up with you?”
+
+“When he is our son his greatness will be ours.”
+
+“By no means, since if I make him what you wish him to be, he will
+certainly try to make our greatness his. Destiny--”
+
+“You said it favored him; but unfortunately I must dispute the
+statement.”
+
+“You? Do you try too, to read the stars?”
+
+“No, I leave that to men. Have you heard of Ammonius, the astrologer?”
+
+“Yes. A very learned man who observes from the tower of the Serapeum,
+and who, like many of his fellows in this city has made use of his art
+to accumulate a large fortune.”
+
+“No less a man than the astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus referred me to
+him.”
+
+“The best of recommendation.”
+
+“Well, then, I commissioned Ammonius to cast the horoscope for Verus
+during the past night and he brought it to me with an explanatory key.
+Here it is.”
+
+The Emperor hastily seized the tablet which Sabina held out to him, and
+as he attentively examined the forecasts, arranged in order according to
+the hours, he said:
+
+“Quite right. That of course did not escape me! Well done, exactly the
+same as my own observations--but here--stay--here comes the third hour,
+at the beginning of which I was interrupted. Eternal gods! what have we
+here?”
+
+The Emperor held the wax tablet prepared by Aminonius at arm’s length
+from his eyes and never parted his lips again till he had come to the
+end of the last hour of the night. Then he dropped the hand that held
+the horoscope, saying with a shudder:
+
+“A hideous destiny. Horace was right in saying the highest towers fall
+with the greatest crash.”
+
+“The tower of which you speak,” said Sabina, “is that darling of
+fortune of whom you are afraid. Vouchsafe then to Verus a brief space of
+happiness before the horrible end you foresee for him.”
+
+While she spoke Hadrian sat with his eyes thoughtfully fixed on the
+ground, and then, standing in front of his wife, he replied:
+
+“If no sinister catastrophe falls upon this man, the stars and the fate
+of men have no more to do with one another than the sea with the heart
+of the desert, than the throb of men’s pulses with the pebbles in the
+brook. If Ammonius has erred ten times over still more than ten signs
+remain on this tablet, hostile and fatal to the praetor. I grieve for
+Verus--but the state suffers with the sovereign’s misfortunes.--This man
+can never be my successor.”
+
+“No?” asked Sabina rising from her couch. “No? Not when you have seen
+that your own star outlives his? Not though a glance at this tablet
+shows you that when he is nothing but ashes the world will still
+continue long to obey your nod?”
+
+“Compose yourself and give me time.--Yes, I still say not even so.”
+
+“Not even so,” repeated Sabina sullenly. Then, collecting herself, she
+asked in a tone of vehement entreaty:
+
+“Not even so--not even if I lift my hands to you in supplication and
+cry in your face that you and Fate have grudged me the blessing, the
+happiness, the crown and aim of a woman’s life, and I must and I will
+attain it; I must and I will once, if only for a short time, hear
+myself called by some dear lips by the name which gives the veriest
+beggar-woman with her infant in her arms preeminence above the Empress
+who has never stood by a child’s cradle. I must and I will, before I
+die, be a mother, be called mother and be able to say, ‘my child, my
+son--our son.’” And as she spoke she sobbed aloud and covered her face
+with her hands.
+
+The Emperor drew back a step from his wife. A miracle had been
+wrought before his eyes. Sabina--in whose eyes no tear had ever been
+seen--Sabina was weeping, Sabina had a heart like other women. Greatly
+astonished and deeply moved he saw her turn from him, utterly shaken by
+the agitation of her feelings, and sink on her knees by the side of
+the couch she had quitted to hide her face in the cushions. He stood
+motionless by her side, but presently going nearer to her:
+
+“Stand up, Sabina,” he said. “Your desire is a just one. You shall have
+the son for whom your soul longs.”
+
+The Empress rose and a grateful look in her eyes, swimming in tears, met
+his glance. Sabina could smile too, she could look sweet! It had taken a
+lifetime, it had needed such a moment as this to reveal it to Hadrian.
+
+He silently drew a seat towards her and sat down by her side; for some
+time he sat with her hand clasped in his, in silence. Then he let it go
+and said kindly:
+
+“And will Verus fulfil all you expect of a son?” She nodded assent.
+
+“What makes you so confident of that?” asked the Emperor. “He is a Roman
+and not lacking in brilliant and estimable gifts. A man who shows such
+mettle alike in the field and in the council-chamber and yet can play
+the part of Eros with such success will also know how to wear the purple
+without disgracing it. But he has his mother’s light blood, and his
+heart flutters hither and thither.”
+
+“Let him be as he is. We understand each other and he is the only man on
+whose disposition I can build, on whose fidelity I can count as securely
+as if he were my favorite son.”
+
+“And on what facts is this confidence based?”
+
+“You will understand me, for you are not blind to the signs which Fate
+vouchsafes to us. Have you time to listen to a short story?”
+
+“The night is yet young.”
+
+“Then I will tell you. Forgive me if I begin with things that seem dead
+and gone; but they are not, for they live and work in me to this hour. I
+know that you yourself did not choose me for your wife. Plotina chose
+me for you--she loved you, whether your regard for her was for the
+beautiful woman or for the wife of Caesar to whom everything belonged
+that you had to look for--how should I know?”
+
+“It was Plotina, the woman, that I honored and loved--”
+
+“In choosing me she chose you a wife who was tall and so fitted to wear
+the purple, but who was never beautiful. She knew me well and she knew
+that I was less apt than any other woman to win hearts; in my parents’
+house no child ever enjoyed so slender a share of the gifts of love,
+and none can know better than you that my husband did not spoil me with
+tenderness.”
+
+“I could repent of it at this moment.”
+
+“It would be too late now. But I will not be bitter--no, indeed I will
+not. And yet if you are to understand me I must own that so long as I
+was young I longed bitterly for the love which no one offered me.”
+
+“And you yourself have never loved?”
+
+“No--but it pained me that I could not. In Plotina’s apartments I often
+saw the children of her relations, and many a time I tried to attract
+them to me, but while they would play confidently with other women they
+seemed to shun me. Soon I even grew cross to them--only our Verus, the
+little son of Celonius Commodus, would give me frank answers when I
+spoke to him, and would bring me his broken toys that I might mend their
+injuries. And so I got to love the child.”
+
+“He was a wonderfully sweet, attractive boy.”
+
+“He was indeed. One day we women were all sitting together in Caesar’s
+garden. Verus came running out with a particularly fine apple that
+Trajan himself had given him. The rosy-cheeked fruit was admired by
+every one. Then Plotina, in fun took the apple out of the boy’s hand and
+asked him if he would not give his apple to her. He looked at her with
+wide-open puzzled eyes, shook his curly head, ran up to me and gave
+me--yes, me, and no one else--the fruit, throwing his arms round my neck
+and saying, ‘Sabina you shall have it.’”
+
+“The judgment of Paris.”
+
+“Nay, do not jest now. This action of an unselfish child gave me courage
+to endure the troubles of life. I knew now that there was one creature
+that loved me, and that one repaid all that I felt for him, all that
+I was never weary of doing for him with affectionate liking. He is the
+only being, of whom I know, that will weep when I die. Give him the
+right to call me his mother and make him our son.”
+
+“He is our son,” said Hadrian, with dignified gravity, and held out his
+hand to Sabina. She tried to lift it to her lips but he drew it away and
+went on:
+
+“Inform him that we accept him as our son. His wife is the daughter of
+Nigrinus--who had to go, as I desired to stay and stand firm. You do
+not love Lucilla, but we must both admire her for I do not know another
+woman in Rome whose virtue a man might vouch for. Besides, I owe her a
+father, and am glad to have such a daughter; thus we shall be blessed
+with children. Whether I shall appoint Verus my successor and proclaim
+to the world who shall be its future ruler I cannot now decide; for
+that I need a calmer hour. Till to-morrow, Sabina. This day began with
+a misfortune; may the deed with which we have combined to end it prosper
+and bring us happiness.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+There are often fine warm days in February, but those who fancy the
+spring has come find themselves deceived. The bitter, hard Sabina could
+at times let soft and tender emotions get the mastery over her, but as
+soon as the longing of her languishing soul for maternal happiness was
+gratified, she closed her heart again and extinguished the fire that had
+warmed it. Every one who approached her, even her husband, felt himself
+chilled and repelled again by her manner.
+
+Verus was ill. The first symptoms of a liver complaint which his
+physicians had warned him might ensue, if he, an European, persisted
+in his dissipated life at Alexandria as if it were Rome, now began to
+occasion him many uneasy hours, and this, the first physical pain that
+fate had ever inflicted on him, he bore with the utmost impatience.
+Even the great news which Sabina brought him, realizing his boldest
+aspirations, had no power to reconcile him to the new sensation of
+being ill. He learnt, at the same time, that Hadrian’s alarm at the
+transcendent brightness of his star had nearly cost him his adoption,
+and as he firmly believed that he had brought on his sufferings by his
+efforts to extinguish the fire that Antinous had kindled, he bitterly
+rued his treacherous interference with the Emperor’s calculations. Men
+are always ready to cast any burden, and especially that of a fault they
+have committed, on to the shoulders of another; and so the suffering
+praetor cursed Antinous and the learning of Simeon Ben Jochai, because,
+if it had not been for them the mischievous folly which had spoilt his
+pleasure in life would never have been committed.
+
+Hadrian had requested the Alexandrians to postpone the theatrical
+displays and processions that they had prepared for him, as his
+observations as to the course of destiny during the coming year were
+not yet complete. Every evening he ascended the lofty observatory of
+the Serapeum and gazed from thence at the stars. His labors ended on
+the tenth of January; on the eleventh the festivities began. They lasted
+through many days, and by the desire of the praetor the pretty daughter
+of Apollodorus the Jew was chosen to represent Roxana. Everything
+that the Alexandrians had prepared to do honor to their sovereign was
+magnificent and costly. So many ships had never before been engaged in
+any Naumachia as were destroyed here in the sham sea-fight, no greater
+number of wild beasts had ever been seen together on any occasion even
+in the Roman Circus; and how bloody were the fights of the gladiators,
+in which black and white combatants afforded a varied excitement for
+both heart and senses. In the processions, the different elements which
+were supplied by the great central metropolis of Egyptian, Greek and
+Oriental culture afforded such a variety of food for the eye that, in
+spite of their interminable length, the effect was less fatiguing than
+the Romans had feared. The performances of the tragedies and comedies
+were equally rich in startling effects; conflagrations and floods were
+introduced and gave the Alexandrian actors the opportunity of displaying
+their talents with such brilliant success that Hadrian and his
+companions were forced to acknowledge that even in Rome and Athens they
+had never witnessed any representations equally perfect.
+
+A piece by the Jewish author Ezekiel who, under the Ptolemies, wrote
+dramas in the Greek language of which the subject was taken from the
+history of his own people, particularly claimed the Emperor’s attention.
+
+Titianus during all this festive season was unluckily suffering from an
+attack of old-standing breathlessness, and he also had his hands full;
+at the same time he did his best in helping Pontius in seeking out the
+sculptor Pollux. Both men did their utmost, but though they soon were
+able to find Euphorion and dame Doris, every trace of their son had
+vanished. Papias, the former employer of the man who had disappeared,
+was no longer in the city, having been sent by Hadrian to Italy to
+execute centaurs and other figures to decorate his villa at Tibur. His
+wife who remained at home, declared that she knew nothing of Pollux
+but that he had abruptly quitted her husband’s service. The unfortunate
+man’s fellow-workmen could give no news of him whatever, for not one
+of them had been present when he was seized; Papias had had foresight
+enough to have the man he dreaded placed in security without the
+presence of any witnesses. Neither the prefect nor the architect thought
+of seeking the worthy fellow in prison, and even if they had done so
+they would hardly have found him, for Pollux was not kept in durance
+in Alexandria itself. The prisons of the city had overflowed after the
+night of the holiday and he had been transferred to Canopus and there
+detained and brought up for trial.
+
+Pollux had unhesitatingly owned to having taken the silver quiver and to
+having been very angry at his master’s accusation. Thus he produced from
+the first an unfavorable impression on the judge, who esteemed Papias
+as a wealthy man, universally respected. The accused had hardly been
+allowed to speak at all and judgment was immediately pronounced against
+him, on the strength of his master’s accusation and his own admissions.
+It would have been sheer waste of time to listen to the romances with
+which this audacious rascal--who forgot all the respect he owed to
+his teacher and benefactor--wanted to cram the judges. Two years of
+reflection, the protectors of the law deemed, might suffice to teach
+this dangerous fellow to respect the property of others and to keep him
+from outbreaks against those to whom he owed gratitude and reverence.
+
+Pollux, safe in the prison at Canopus, cursed his destiny and indulged
+in vain hopes of the assistance of his friends. These were at last weary
+of the vain search and only asked about him occasionally. He at first
+was so insubordinate under restraint that he was put under close ward
+from which he was not released until, instead of raging with fury he
+dreamed away his days in sullen brooding. The gaoler knew men well, and
+he thought he could safely predict that at the end of his two years’
+imprisonment this young thief would quit his cell a harmless imbecile.
+
+Titianus, Pontius, Balbilla and even Antinous had all attempted to speak
+of him to the Emperor, but each was sharply repulsed and taught that
+Hadrian was little inclined to pardon a wound to his artist’s vanity.
+But the sovereign also proved that he had a good memory for benefits
+he had received, for once, when a dish was set before him consisting of
+cabbage and small sausages he smiled, and taking out his purse filled
+with gold pieces, he ordered a chamberlain to take it in his name to
+Doris, the wife of the evicted gate-keeper. The old couple now resided
+in a little house of their own in the neighborhood of their widowed
+daughter Diotima. Hunger and external misery came not nigh them, still
+they had experienced a great change. Poor Doris’ eyes were now red and
+bloodshot, for they were accustomed to many tears, which were seldom far
+off and overflowed whenever a word, an object, a thought reminded her
+of Pollux, her darling, her pride and her hope; and there were few
+half-hours in the day when she did not think of him.
+
+Soon after the steward’s death she had sought out Selene, but dame
+Hannah could not and would not conduct her to see the sick girl, for
+she learnt from Mary that she was the mother of her patient’s faithless
+lover; and on a second visit Selene was so shy, so timid and so strange
+in her demeanor, that the old woman was forced to conclude that her
+visit was an unpleasant intrusion.
+
+And from Arsinoe, whose residence she discovered from the deaconess, she
+met with even a worse reception. She had herself announced as the mother
+of Pollux the sculptor and was abruptly refused admission, with the
+information that Arsinoe was not to be spoken with by her and that her
+visits were, once for all, prohibited. After the architect Pontius had
+been to seek her out and had encouraged her to make another attempt
+to see and speak to Arsinoe, who clung faithfully to Pollux, Paulina
+herself had received her and sent her away with such repellent words
+that she went home to her husband deeply insulted and distressed to
+tears. Nor had she resisted Euphorion’s decision when he prohibited her
+ever again crossing the Christian’s threshold.
+
+The Emperor’s donation had been most welcome and timely to the poor old
+couple, for Euphorion had completely lost the softness of his voice as
+well as his memory through the agitations and troubles of the last few
+months; he had been dismissed from the chorus of the theatre and could
+only find employment and very small pay of a few drachmae, in the
+mysteries of certain petty sectarians or in singing at weddings or in
+hymns of lamentation. At the same time the old folks had to maintain
+their daughter whom Pollux could no longer provide for, and the birds,
+the Graces and the cat all must eat. That it would be possible to get
+rid of them was an idea which never occurred to either Euphorion or
+Doris.
+
+By day the old folks had ceased to laugh; but at night they still
+had many cheerful hours, for then Hope would beguile them with bright
+pictures of the future, and tell them all sorts of possible and
+impossible romances which filled their souls with fresh courage. How
+often they would see Pollux returning from the distant city whither he
+had probably fled-from Rome, or even from Athens--crowned with laurels
+and rich in treasure. The Emperor, who still so kindly remembered them,
+could not always be angry with him; perhaps he might some day send a
+messenger to seek Pollux and to make up to him by large commissions for
+all he had made him suffer. That her darling was alive she was sure; in
+that she could not be mistaken, often as Euphorion tried to persuade her
+that he must be dead. The singer could tell many tales of luckless men
+who had been murdered and never seen or heard of again; but she was not
+to be convinced, she persisted in hope, and lived wholly in the purpose
+of sending her younger son, Teuker, on his travels to seek his lost
+brother as soon as his apprenticeship was over, which would be in a few
+months.
+
+Antinous, whose burnt hands had soon got well under the Emperor’s care,
+and who had never felt a liking and friendship for any other young man
+but Pollux, lamented the artist’s disappearance and wished much to seek
+out dame Doris; but he found it harder than ever to leave his master,
+and was so eager always to be at hand that Hadrian often laughingly
+reproached him with making his slaves’ duties too light.
+
+When at last he really was master of an hour to himself he postponed his
+intention of seeing his friend’s parents; for with him there was always
+a wide world between the purpose and the deed which he never could
+overleap, if not urged by some strong impulse; and his most pressing
+instincts prompted him, when the Emperor was disputing in the Museum
+or receiving instructions from the chiefs of the different religious
+communities as to the doctrines they severally professed, to visit the
+suburban villa where, when February had already begun, Selene was still
+living. He had often succeeded in stealing into Paulina’s garden, but
+he could not at first realize his hope of being observed by Selene of
+obtaining speech with her. Whenever he went near Hannah’s little house,
+Mary, the deformed girl, would come in his way, tell him how her friend
+was, and beg or desire him to go away. She was always with the sick
+girl, for now her mother was nursed by her sister, and dame Hannah
+had obtained permission for her to work at home in gumming the
+papyrus-strips together.
+
+The widow herself was obliged to be at her post in the factory, for her
+duties as overseer made her presence indispensable in the work-room.
+
+Thus it came to pass that it was always by Mary and never by Hannah that
+Antinous was received and dismissed. A certain understanding had
+arisen between the beautiful youth and the deformed girl. When Antinous
+appeared and she called out to him: “What, again already!” he would
+grasp her hand and implore her only once to grant his wish; but she was
+always firm, only she never sent him away sternly but with smiles and
+friendly admonitions. When he brought rare and lovely flowers in his
+pallium and entreated her to give them to Selene in the name of her
+friend at Lochias, she would take them and promise to place them in her
+room; but she always said it would do neither him nor her any good at
+all that Selene should know from whom they came. After such repulses he
+well knew how to flatter and coax her with appealing words, but he had
+never dared to defy her or to gain his end by force. When the flowers
+were placed in the room Mary looked at them much oftener than Selene
+did, and when Antinous had been long absent the deformed girl longed to
+see him again, and would pace restlessly up and down between the garden
+gate and her friend’s little house. She, like him, dreamed of an angel,
+and the angel of whom she dreamed was exactly like himself. In all
+her prayers she included the name of the handsome heathen and a soft
+tenderness in which a gentle pity was often infused, a grief for his
+unredeemed soul, was inseparable from all her thoughts of him.
+
+Hannah was informed by her of each of the young man’s visits, and
+as often as Mary mentioned Antinous the deaconess seemed anxious and
+desired her to threaten to call the gate-keeper to him. The widow knew
+full well who her patient’s indefatigable admirer was, for she had once
+heard him speaking to Mastor, and she had asked the slave, who availed
+himself of every spare moment to attend the services of the Christians,
+who the lad was. All Alexandria, nay all the Empire, knew the name of
+the most beautiful youth of his time, the spoilt favorite of Caesar.
+Even Hannah had heard of him and knew that poets sang his praises and
+heathen women were eager to obtain a glance from his eyes. She knew
+how devoid of all morality were the lives of the nobles at Rome, and
+Antinous appeared to her as a splendid falcon that wheels above a dove
+to swoop down upon it at a favorable moment and to tear it in its beak
+and talons. Hannah also knew that Selene was acquainted with Antinous,
+that it was he who had formerly rescued her from the big dog and
+afterward saved her from the water; but that Selene, who was now
+recovering, did not know who her preserver had been on this second
+occasion was clear from all that she said.
+
+Towards the end of February Antinous had come on three days in
+succession, and Hannah now took the step of begging the bishop, Eumenes,
+to give the gate keeper strict injunctions to look out for the young
+man and to forbid his entering the garden, even with force if it should
+prove necessary.
+
+But “love laughs at locksmiths” and finds its way through locked doors,
+and Antinous succeeded all the same in finding his way into Paulina’s
+garden. On one of these occasions he was so happy to surprise Selene,
+as, supported on a stick and accompanied by a fair-haired boy and dame
+Hannah herself, she hobbled up and down.
+
+Antinous had learnt to regard everything crippled or defective with
+aversion, as a monstrous failure of nature’s plastic harmony, but to
+pity it tenderly; but now he felt quite differently. Mary with her
+humpback had at first horrified him; now he was always glad to see her
+though she always crossed his wishes; and poor lame Selene, who had been
+mocked at by the street boys as she limped along, seemed to him more
+adorable than ever. How lovely were her face and form, how peculiar her
+way of walking--she did not limp--no, she swayed along the garden. Thus,
+as he said to himself afterwards, the Nereids are borne along on the
+undulating waves. Love is easily satisfied, nor is this strange, for
+it raises all that comes within its embrace to a loftier level of
+existence. In the light of love weakness is a virtue and want an
+additional charm.
+
+But the Bithynian’s visits were not the widow’s only cares; though
+she bore the others, it is true, not anxiously but with pleasure. Her
+household had increased by two living souls, and her income was very
+small. That her patient might not want, she had to work with her own
+hands while she superintended the girls in the factory, and to carry
+home with her in the evening papyrus-leaves, not only for Mary, but
+for herself too, and to glue them together during the long hours of the
+night. As soon as Selene’s condition improved, she too helped willingly
+and diligently, but for many weeks the convalescent had to give up every
+kind of employment.
+
+Mary often looked at Hannah in silent trouble, for she looked very pale.
+After she had, on one occasion fallen in a fainting fit, the deformed
+girl had gathered courage and had represented to her that though she
+ought indeed to put out at interest the talent intrusted to her by the
+Lord, she ought not to spend it recklessly. She was giving herself no
+rest, working day and night; visiting the poor and sick in her hours of
+recreation just as she used, and if she did not give herself more rest
+would soon need nursing instead of nursing others.
+
+“At any rate,” urged Mary, “give yourself a little indispensable sleep
+at night.”
+
+“We must live,” replied Hannah, “and I dare not borrow, for I may never
+be able to repay.”
+
+“Then beg Paulina to remit your house-rent; she will do so gladly.”
+
+“No,” said Hannah, decidedly. “The rent of this little house goes to
+benefit my poor people, and you know how badly they want it. What we
+give we lend to the Lord, and he taxes no man above his ability.”
+
+Selene was now well, but the physician had said that no human skill
+could ever cure her of her lameness. She had become Hannah’s daughter,
+and blind Helios the son of the house.
+
+Arsinoe was only allowed to see her sister rarely and always accompanied
+by her protectress, and she and Selene never were able to have any
+unchecked and open conversation. The steward’s eldest daughter was now
+contented and cheerful, while the younger was not only saddened by the
+disappearance of her lover, but also, from being unhappy in her new
+home, she had become fractious and easily moved to shed tears. All was
+well with the younger orphans; they were often taken to see Selene, and
+spoke with affection of their new parents.
+
+As she got well her help diminished the strain on her two friends,
+and in the beginning of March a call came to the widow which, if she
+followed it, must give their simple existence a new aspect.
+
+In Upper Egypt certain Christian fraternities had been established, and
+one of these had addressed a prayer to the great mother-community at
+Alexandria, that it would send to them a presbyter, a deacon and
+a deaconess capable of organizing and guiding the believers and
+catechumens in the province of Hermopolis where they were already
+numbered by thousands. The life of the community and the care of the
+poor, and sick in the outlying districts required organization by
+experienced hands, and Hannah had been asked whether she could make up
+her mind to leave the metropolis and carry on the work of benevolence at
+Besa in an extended sphere.
+
+She would there have a pleasant house, a palm-garden, and gifts from the
+congregation which would secure not merely her own maintenance, but that
+of her adopted children.
+
+Hannah was bound to Alexandria by many ties; in the first place she
+clung to the poor and sick, many of whom had grown very dear to her,
+and how many girls who had gone astray had she rescued from evil in the
+factory alone! She begged for a short time for reflection, and this was
+granted to her. By the fifteenth of March she was to decide, but by
+the fifth she had already made up her mind, for while Hannah was in the
+papyrus-factory Antinous had succeeded in getting into Paulina’s garden
+shortly before sunset and in stealing close up to Hannah’s house. Mary
+again observed him as he approached and signed to him to go, in her
+usual pleasant way; but the Bithynian was more excited than usual; he
+seized her hand and clasped her with urgent warmth as he implored her
+to be merciful. She endeavored at once to free herself, but he would not
+let her go, but cried in coaxing tones:
+
+“I must see her and speak to her to-day, dear, good Mary, only this
+once!” And before she could prevent it he had kissed her forehead and
+had flown into the house to Selene. The little hunchback did not know
+what had happened to her; confused and almost paralyzed by conflicting
+feelings she stood shame-faced, gazing at the ground. She felt that
+something quite extraordinary had happened to her, but this wonderful
+something radiated a dazzling splendor, and since this had risen for
+her, for poor Mary, a feeling of pride quite new to her mingled with the
+shame and indignation that filled her soul. She needed a few minutes
+to collect herself and to recover a sense of her duty, and those few
+minutes were made good use of by Antinous.
+
+He flew with long steps into the room in which, on that
+never-to-be-forgotten night, he had laid Selene on the couch, and even
+at the threshold he called her by her name. She started and laid aside
+the book out of which she was reading to her blind brother. He called a
+second time, beseechingly. Selene recognized him and asked calmly:
+
+“Do you want me, or dame Hannah?”
+
+“You, you!” he cried passionately. “Oh Selene, I pulled you out of the
+water, and since that night I have never ceased to think of you and I
+must die for love of you. Have your thoughts never, never met mine on
+the way to you? Are you still and always as cold, as passive as you were
+then when you belonged half to life and half to death? For months have
+I prowled round this house as the shade of a dead man haunts the spot
+where he had left all that was dear to him on earth, and I have never
+been able to tell you what I feel for you?” As he spoke the lad fell
+on the ground before her and tried to clasp her knees; but she said
+reproachfully:
+
+“What does all this mean? Stand up and compose yourself.”
+
+“Oh! let me, let me--” he besought her. “Do not be so cold and so hard;
+have pity on me and do not reject me!”
+
+“Stand up,” repeated the girl. “I will certainly not reproach you--I owe
+you thanks on the contrary.”
+
+“Not thanks, but love--a little love is all I ask.”
+
+“I try to love all men,” replied the girl, “and so I love you because
+you have shown me very much kindness.”
+
+“Selene, Selene!” he exclaimed in joyful triumph. He threw himself again
+at her feet and passionately seized her right hand; but hardly had he
+taken it in his own when Mary, scarlet with agitation, rushed into the
+room. In a husky voice, full of hatred and fury, she commanded him to
+leave the house at once, and when he attempted again to besiege her ear
+with entreaties she cried out:
+
+“If you do not obey I will call the men in to help us, who are out there
+attending to the flowers. I ask you, will you obey or will you not?”
+
+“Why are you so cruel, Mary?” asked the blind boy. “This man is good and
+kind and tells Selene he loves her.”
+
+Antinous pointed to the child with an imploring gesture but Mary was
+already by the window and was raising her hand to her mouth to make her
+call heard.
+
+“Don’t, don’t,” cried Antinous. “I am going at once.”
+
+And he went slowly and silently towards the door, still gazing at Selene
+with passionate ardor; then he quitted the room groaning with shame and
+disappointment, though still with a look of radiant pride as though he
+had achieved some great deed. In the garden he was met by Hannah, who
+immediately hastened with accelerated steps to her own house where she
+found Mary sobbing violently and dissolved in tears.
+
+The widow was soon informed of all that had occurred in her absence, and
+an hour later she had announced to the bishop that she would accept the
+call to Besa and was ready to start for Upper Egypt.
+
+“With your foster-children?” asked Eumenes.
+
+“Yes. It was indeed Selene’s most earnest wish to be baptized by you,
+but as a year of probation is required--”
+
+“I will perform the rite to-morrow morning.”
+
+“To-morrow, Father?”
+
+“Yes, Sister, in all confidence. She buried the old man in the waves of
+the sea, and before we were her teachers she had gone through the school
+and discipline of life. While she was yet a heathen she had taken up her
+cross and proved herself as faithful as though she were a child of the
+Lord. All that was lacking to her--Faith, Love and Hope--she has found
+under your roof. I thank thee for this soul thou hast found Sister, in
+the name of the Lord.”
+
+“Not I, not I,” said the widow. “Her heart was frozen, but it is not I
+but the innocent faith of the blind child that has melted it.”
+
+“She owes her salvation to him and to you,” replied the bishop, “and
+they both shall be baptized together. We will give the lovely boy the
+name of the fairest of the disciples, and call him John. Selene for the
+future, if she herself likes it, shall be known as Martha.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Selene and Helios were baptized, and two days after dame Hannah with
+her adopted children and Mary, escorted by the presbyter Hilarion and
+a deacon, embarked in the harbor of Mareotis on board a Nile-boat which
+was to convey them to their new home, the town of Besa in Upper Egypt.
+The deformed girl had hesitated as to her answer to the widow’s question
+whether she would accompany her. Her old mother dwelt in Alexandria, and
+then--but it was this “then” which helped her abruptly to cut short
+all reflection and to pronounce a decided “yes,” for it referred to
+Antinous.
+
+For a few minutes it had seemed unendurable to think that she should
+never see him again, for she could not help often thinking of the
+beautiful youth, and her whole heart ought to belong solely to the One
+who had with His blood purchased peace for her on earth and bliss in the
+world to come.
+
+The day after being baptized, Selene had gone to Paulina’s town-house,
+and there, with many tears had taken leave of Arsinoe. All the affection
+which bound the sisters together found expression at this moment of
+parting. Selene had heard from Paulina that Pollux was dead, and she
+no longer grudged her rival sister that she grieved for him more
+passionately than herself, though at first her peace of mind had more
+than once been disturbed by memories of her old playfellow.
+
+She felt it hard to leave Alexandria, where most of her brothers and
+sisters were left behind, and yet she rejoiced to think of a distant
+home, for she was no longer the same creature that she had been a few
+months since, and she longed for a remote scene of a new and sanctified
+life.
+
+Eumenes and Hannah were in the right. It was not the widow but the
+little blind boy who had won her to Christianity. The child’s influence
+had proceeded in a strange course. In the first instance the promises of
+the slave Master that Helios should some day meet his father again in a
+shining realm among beautiful angels had a powerful effect on the blind
+child’s tender heart and vivid imagination. In Hannah’s house his hopes
+had received fresh nurture, and Mary and the widow told him much about
+their kind and loving God and His Son who loved children and had invited
+them to come to Him. When Selene began to recover and he was permitted
+to talk to her he poured out to her all his delight at what he had heard
+from the women. At first, to be sure, his sister took no pleasure in
+these fanciful fables and tried to shake his belief and lead back
+his heart to the old gods. But while she tried to guide the child, by
+degrees she felt compelled to follow in his path; at first with wavering
+steps, but dame Hannah helped her by her example and with many words
+of good counsel. She only taught her doctrine when the girl asked her
+questions and begged for information. All that here surrounded Selene
+breathed of love and peace, and the child felt this, spoke of it, forced
+her to acknowledge it, and, in his own person, was the first object on
+which to exercise a wish hitherto unknown to her, to be herself loving
+and lovable. The boy’s firm faith, which was not to be shaken by any
+reasoning or by any of the myths which she knew, touched her deeply and
+led to her asking Hannah what was the real bearing of one and another of
+his statements. It had always seemed a comfort to her that the miseries
+of our earthly life would come to an end with death; but Helios left her
+without a reply when he said in a sad voice:
+
+“Do you feel no longing, then, to see our father and mother again?”
+
+To see her mother again! This thought gave her an interest in the next
+world, and dame Hannah fanned the spark of hope in her soul into flame.
+
+Selene had seen and suffered much misery, and was accustomed to call the
+gods cruel. Helios told her that God and the Saviour were good and kind,
+and loved human beings as their children.
+
+“Is it not good and kind,” asked he, “of our Heavenly Father to lead us
+to dame Hannah?”
+
+“Yes, but we have all been torn apart,” said Selene. “Never mind,” said
+the child confidently, “we shall all meet in Heaven.”
+
+As she got well Selene asked after each of the children and Hannah
+described all the families into which they had been received. The widow
+did not look as if she spoke falsely, and the little ones, when they
+came to see her, confirmed her report, and yet Selene could hardly
+believe in the accuracy of the pictures drawn of their lives in the
+houses of the Christians.
+
+The mother of a Christian family--says a great Christian teacher--should
+be the pride of her children, the wife the pride of her husband, husband
+and children the pride of the wife, and God the pride and glory of every
+member of the household. Love and faith in fact the bond, contentment
+and virtuous living the law of the family; and it was in just such a
+pure and beneficent atmosphere, as Selene herself and Helios felt the
+blessing of in Hannah’s house, that each and all of her brothers and
+sisters were growing up. Her upright sense gave an honest answer when
+she asked herself what would have become of them all if her father had
+remained alive and had been dispossessed of his office? They must all
+have perished in misery and degradation.
+
+And now?--Perhaps in truth the Divine Being had dealt in kindness with
+the children.
+
+Love, love, and again love, was breathed from all she saw and heard, and
+yet--was it not love that had caused her greatest sorrows. Wherefore
+had it been her lot to endure so much through the same sentiment which
+beautified life to others? Had any one ever had more to suffer than
+she? Aye indeed! A vivacious, eager youth had duped her and had promised
+happiness to her sister instead of to her; it had been hard to bear--and
+yet, the Saviour of whom Hellos had told her, had been far more severely
+tried. Mankind, for whom He--the Son of God--had come down upon earth,
+to save from misery and guilt, had rewarded His loving kindness by
+hanging Him on the cross. In Him she could see a companion in suffering
+and she asked the widow to tell her all about Him. Selene had made
+many sacrifices to her family--she could never forget her walk to the
+papyrus-factory--but He had let them mock Him and had shed His blood
+for His own. And who was she?--and who was He? The Son of God. His image
+became dear to her; she was never weary of hearing about His life and
+fate, His words and deeds; and without her observing it the day came
+when her soul was free to receive the teaching of Christ with fervent
+longing. With faith she acquired that consciousness of guilt which had
+previously been unknown to her. She had been busy and industrious out
+of pride and fear, but never from love; she had selfishly tried to fling
+from her the sacred gift of life without ever thinking what would become
+of those whom it was her duty to care for. She had cursed her lovely
+sister who needed her protection and care, and even Pollux, her
+childhood’s playfellow; and a thousand times had she imprecated the
+ruler of human destinies. All this she now keenly felt with all the
+earnestness natural to her, but she was soothed by the tidings that
+there was One who had redeemed the world, and taken on Himself the sins
+of every repentant sinner.
+
+After Selene had once expressed to the widow her desire to be a
+Christian, Hannah brought the bishop to see her. He himself undertook to
+instruct the girl and he found in her a disciple anxious and craving for
+knowledge. Just like those dried-up and dull-colored plants which,
+when they are plunged in water, open out and revive, so did her heart,
+untimely withered and dry; and she longed to be perfectly recovered
+that she, like Hannah, might tend the sick and exercise that love which
+Christ demands of His followers. That which most particularly appealed
+to her in her new faith was that it did not promise joys to the rich
+who could make great sacrifices, but to the miserable sinner who with a
+contrite heart yearned for forgiveness, to the poor and abject, towards
+whom she felt as though they belonged to the same family as herself. And
+her valiant spirit could not be satisfied with intentions but longed
+to act upon them. In Besa she could set to work with Hannah, and this
+prospect lightened her grief in quitting Alexandria.
+
+A favoring wind bore the voyagers southward safe to their destination.
+
+Two days after their departure Antinous once more stole into Paulina’s
+garden. He went up to the widow’s little house looking in vain for the
+deformed girl; the road was open; her absence could but be pleasing
+to him, and yet it disquieted him. His heart beat wildly, for
+to-day--perhaps he might find Selene alone. He opened the door without
+knocking, but he dared not cross the threshold, for in the anteroom
+stood a strange man, placing boards against the wall. The carpenter, a
+Christian to whom Paulina had given this little house for his family to
+live in, asked Antinous what he wanted.
+
+“Is dame Hannah at home?” stammered the Bithynian.
+
+“She no longer lives here.”
+
+“And her adopted daughter, Selene?”
+
+“She is gone with her into Upper Egypt. Have you any message for her?”
+
+“No,” said the lad, quite confounded.
+
+“When did they go?”
+
+“The day before yesterday.”
+
+“And they are not coming back.”
+
+“For the next few years, certainly not. Later may be, if it is the
+Lord’s pleasure.”
+
+Antinous left the garden by the public gate, unmolested. He was very
+pale, and he felt like a wanderer in the desert who finds the spring
+choked where he had hoped to find a refreshing draught.
+
+Next day, at the first moment he could dispose of, Antinous again
+knocked at the carpenter’s door to inquire in what town of Upper Egypt
+the travellers proposed to settle and the artisan told him frankly, “In
+Besa.”
+
+Antinous had always been a dreamer, but Hadrian had never seen him so
+listless, so vaguely brooding as in these days. When he tried to rouse
+him and spur him to greater energy his favorite would look at him
+beseechingly, and though he made every effort to be of use to him and
+to show him a cheerful countenance it was always with but brief success.
+Even on the hunting excursions into the Libyan desert which the Emperor
+frequently made, Antinous remained apathetic and indifferent to the
+pleasures of the sport to which he had formerly devoted himself with
+enjoyment and skill.
+
+The Emperor had remained in Alexandria longer than in any other place,
+and was weary of festivities and banquets, of the wordy war with the
+philosophers of the Museum, of conversing with the ecstatic mystics, the
+soothsayers; astrologers and empirics with whom the place swarmed. And
+the short audiences which he accorded to the heads of the different
+religious communities, and the inspection of the factories and workshops
+of this centre of industry, began to annoy him. One day he announced his
+intention of visiting the southern provinces of the Nile valley.
+
+The high-priests of the native Egyptian faith had craved this favor
+of him, and he was prompted, not only by his love of information and
+passion for travelling, but also by considerations of state-craft, to
+gratify this desire of a hierarchy which was extremely influential in
+those rich and important provinces. The prospect of seeing with his
+own eyes those marvels of Pharaonic times which attracted so many
+travellers, was also an incitement, and his good spirits rose as soon as
+he observed what a reviving effect his determination to visit southern
+Egypt had upon Antinous.
+
+His favorite had for the last few weeks expressed not the smallest
+pleasure at any single thing. The homage paid him no less by the
+Alexandrian than by the Roman ladies of rank sickened him. At banquets
+he sat a silent guest whose neighborhood could not add to anybody’s
+pleasure, and even the most brilliant and exciting exhibitions in the
+Circus and the best contests and races in the Hippodrome had hardly
+sufficed to attract his gaze. Formerly he had been an eager and
+attentive spectator of the plays of Menander and of his imitators,
+Alexis, Apollodorus and Posidippus; but now when they were performed he
+stared into vacancy and thought of Selene. The prospect of going to
+the place where she was living excited him powerfully and revived his
+drooping courage for life. He could hope once more, and to the man who
+sees light shining in the future the present is no longer dark.
+
+Hadrian rejoiced in this change in the lad and hastened the preparations
+for their departure; still, some months passed before he could begin his
+journey.
+
+In the first place he had to provide for newly colonizing Libya, which
+had been depopulated by a revolt of the Jews. Then he had to come to
+a determination as to certain new post-roads which were to connect the
+different parts of the empire more nearly, and finally he had to await
+the formal assent of the Roman Senate to some new resolutions concerning
+the hereditary reversion of conferred free-citizenship. This assent
+was, no doubt a matter of course, but the Emperor never issued an edict
+without it, and he was very desirous that his decree should come into
+operation as soon as possible.
+
+In the course of his visits to the Museum the sovereign had informed
+himself as to the position of the several members of that institution,
+and he was occupied in making certain regulations which should relieve
+them of the more sordid cares of life; the condition of the aged
+teachers and educators of the young had also attracted his observation,
+and he had endeavored to improve it.
+
+When Sabina represented to him what a large outlay these new measures
+would entail, he replied:
+
+“We do not allow the veterans to perish who placed their lives, and
+limbs at the service of the state. Why then should those who serve it
+with their intellect be burdened with petty cares? Which should we rank
+the higher, power and poverty or mental wealth? The harder I--as the
+sovereign--find it to answer the question the more positively do I feel
+it to be my duty to mete out the same measure to all veterans alike,
+whether officials, warriors or instructors.”
+
+The Alexandrians themselves detained him too by a succession of new acts
+of homage. They raised him to the rank of a divinity, dedicated a temple
+to him, and instituted a series of new festivals in his honor; partly
+no doubt to win his partiality for their city and to express their
+pride and satisfaction in his long stay there, but also because the
+pleasure-loving community was glad to seize this opportunity as a
+favorable one for gratifying their own inclinations and revelling in
+mere unusual enjoyment. Thus the Imperial visit swallowed up millions,
+and Hadrian, who enquired into every detail and contrived to obtain
+information as to the sums expended by the city, blamed the recklessness
+of his lavish entertainers. He wrote afterwards to his brother-in-law,
+Servianus, his fullest recognition of both the wealth and the industry
+of Alexandrians, saying, with terms of praise, that among them not one
+was idle. One made glass, another papyrus, another linen; and each of
+these restless mortals, said he, is busied in some handiwork. Even
+the lame, the blind and the maimed here sought and found employment.
+Nevertheless he calls the Alexandrians a contumacious and
+good-for-nothing community, with sharp and evil tongues that had spared
+neither Verus nor Antinous. Jews, Christians, and the votaries of
+Serapis, he adds in the same letter, serve but one God instead of the
+divinities of Olympus, and when he asserts of the Christians that they
+even worshipped Serapis he means to say that they were persuaded of
+the doctrine of the survival of the soul after death. The dispute as to
+which temple should be assigned as the residence of the newly-found Apis
+gave Hadrian much to do. From time immemorial this sacred bull had been
+kept in the temple of Ptah at Memphis, but this venerable city of the
+Pyramids had been outstripped by Alexandria, and the temple of Serapis
+outvied that at Memphis in the province of Sokari, tenfold in size and
+in magnificence. The Egyptians of Alexandria, who dwelt in the quarter
+called Rhakotis, close to the Serapeum, desired to have the incarnation
+of the god in the form of a bull, in their midst; but the Memphites
+would not abandon their old prescriptive rights, and the Emperor
+had found it far from easy to guide the contest, which proved a very
+exciting one to all parties, to a satisfactory issue. Memphis had its
+Apis, and the Serapeum was indemnified by certain endowments which had
+formerly been granted to the temple at Memphis.
+
+At last, in June, the Emperor could set out. He wished to traverse the
+province on foot and on horseback, and Sabina was to follow by boat as
+soon as the inundation should begin.
+
+The Empress would gladly have returned to Rome or to Tibur, for Verus
+had been obliged to quit Egypt by the orders of the physician as soon as
+the summer heat had set in. He departed with his wife, as the son of
+the Imperial couple, but no word on Hadrian’s part had justified him in
+hoping confidently to be nominated as his successor to the sovereignty.
+
+The handsome rake’s unlimited dissipations were severely checked by his
+sufferings, but not altogether prevented, and on his return to Rome he
+continued to indulge in all the pleasures of life. Hadrian’s hesitation
+and reluctance often disquieted him, for that imperial Sphinx had,
+only too frequently, given the most unexpected solutions to his
+mystifications. But the fatal end with which he had been threatened
+caused him small anxiety; nay, Ben Jochai’s prediction rather prompted
+him to enjoy to the utmost every hour of health and ease that Fate might
+still allow him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Balbilla and her companion, Publius Balbinus and other illustrious
+Romans, Favorinus the sophist, and a numerous suite of chamberlains
+and servants, were to accompany the Empress by water, while Hadrian
+set forth on his land journey with a small escort to which he added a
+splendid array of huntsmen. Before he reached Memphis, in crossing the
+Libyan desert, through which his road lay, he had killed a few lions and
+many other beasts of prey, and here he had once more found Antinous the
+best of sporting companions. Cool headed in danger, indefatigable on
+foot, content and serviceable in all circumstances, the young fellow
+seemed to Hadrian to be a comrade created by the gods themselves for
+his special delectation. When Hadrian was in the humor to brood and
+be silent the whole day long, he never disturbed him by a word; but in
+these moods the Emperor found his favorite’s society indispensable, for
+the mere consciousness of his presence soothed him.
+
+Antinous too, was happy on these occasions, for he felt that he was of
+some use to his venerated master and could thus alleviate the burden
+which had never ceased to weigh on his own soul ever since the crime
+he had committed. Besides, he preferred dreaming to talking, and the
+exercise in the open air preserved him from listless lassitude.
+
+In Memphis Hadrian was detained a whole month, for there he was expected
+to visit the Egyptian temples with Sabina, who had arrived before him,
+and to submit to many ceremonials invested with the regalia of the
+Pharaohs. Sabina often felt as if she must faint when, crowned with the
+ponderous vulture-headed fillet of the Queens of Egypt, weighed down
+with long robes and golden ornaments, she was conducted with her
+husband, in procession, through all the rooms, over the roof and
+finally into the holiest place of some vast sanctuary. What senseless
+ceremonials they had to go through in the course of these long circuits,
+and how many sacrifices had they to attend! When she returned from
+these visitations she was utterly exhausted, and indeed, it was no
+small exertion to undergo so many fumigations with incense and so many
+aspersions, to listen to so many litanies and hymns, to parade through
+such endless halls and while being elevated to the rank of celestial
+beings, to be crowned with so many crowns in turn and decorated with all
+kinds of fillets and symbolic adornments.
+
+Her husband set her a good example, however; through all the ceremonials
+he displayed the whole grave majesty of his nature, and among the
+Egyptians behaved as one of themselves. He even took pleasure in
+the mystical lore of the priests, with whom he often held long
+conversations.
+
+As at Memphis, so in all the principal temples of the great cities to
+the southward, the Imperial pair accepted the homage of the hierarchy
+and the honors due to divinity. Wherever Hadrian granted money for the
+extension of a temple, he was required to perform the ceremony of laying
+a stone with his own hand. But he always found time to hunt in
+the desert, to manage the affairs of state, and to visit the most
+interesting monuments of past times, and at Memphis especially, the city
+of the dead, with the Pyramids, the great Sphinx, the Serapeum and the
+tombs of the Apis.
+
+Before quitting the city he and his companions consulted the oracle of
+the sacred bull. The fairest future was promised to Balbilla; the bull
+to whom she had to offer a cake, with her face averted, had approved
+of her gift and had touched her hand with his moist muzzle. Hadrian was
+left in ignorance as to the sentence of the priests of Apis, for it
+was given to him in a sealed roll with an explanation of the signs it
+contained; but he was solemnly adjured not to open them before at least
+half a year had elapsed.
+
+It was only in the cities that Hadrian met his wife, for he pursued
+his journey by land and she hers by water. The boats almost invariably
+reached their destination sooner than the land-travellers, and when they
+at last arrived, there was always a grand festival to welcome them, in
+which however Sabina but rarely took part. Balbilla proved herself all
+the more eager to make their arrival pleasant by some kindly surprise.
+She sincerely reverenced Hadrian, and his favorite’s beauty had an
+irresistible charm for her artist’s soul. It was a delight to her only
+to look at him; his absence troubled her, and when he returned she was
+always the first to greet him. And yet the bright girl troubled herself
+about him neither more nor less than the other ladies in Sabina’s train;
+only Balbilla asked nothing of him but the pleasure of looking at him
+and rejoicing in his beauty.
+
+If he had dared to mistake her admiration for love and to have offered
+her his, the poetess would have indignantly brought him to his bearings;
+and yet she gave unqualified expression to her admiration of the
+Bithynian’s splendid person, and indeed with rather remarkable
+demonstrativeness.
+
+When the travellers made their appearance again after a prolonged
+absence Antinous would find in the room in the ship where he was to live
+flowers, and choice fruits sent by her, and verses in which she had sung
+his praises. He put it all aside with the rest and only esteemed the
+donor the less; but the poetess knew nothing of these sentiments in
+her beautiful idol, and indeed troubled herself very little about his
+feelings. She had hitherto found no difficulty in keeping within the
+limits of what was becoming. But lately there had been moments in
+which she had owned to herself that she might be carried away into
+overstepping these limits. But what did she care for the opinion
+of those around her, or about the inner life of the Bithyman, whose
+external perfection of form was all that pleased her. She did not shrink
+from the possibility of arousing hopes in him which she never could nor
+intended to fulfil, for the idea did not once enter her mind; still
+she felt dissatisfied with herself, for there was one person who
+might disapprove of her proceedings, one who had indeed in plain words
+reprehended her fancy for doing honor to the handsome boy with offerings
+of flowers, and the opinion of that one person weighed with her more
+than that of all the rest of the men and women she knew, put together.
+
+This one was Pontius the architect; and yet, strangely enough, it was
+precisely her remembrance of him that urged her on from one folly to
+another. She had often seen the architect in Alexandria, and when they
+parted she had allowed him to promise to follow her and the Empress, and
+to escort them at any rate for a part of their voyage up the Nile. But
+he came not, nor had he sent any report of himself, though he was alive
+and well, and every express that overtook them brought documents for
+Caesar in his handwriting.
+
+So he, on whose faithful devotion she had built as on a rock, was no
+less self-seeking and fickle than other men. She thought of him every
+day and every hour; and as soon as a vessel from the north cast anchor
+within sight, she watched the voyagers as they disembarked to detect him
+among them. She longed for Pontius as a traveller who has lost his way
+sighs for a sight of the guide who has deserted him; and yet she
+was angry with him, for he had betrayed by a thousand tokens that he
+esteemed and cared for her, that she had a certain power over his strong
+will--and now he had broken his word and did not come.
+
+And she? She had not been unmoved by his devotion, and had been gentler
+to this grandson of her father’s freed slave than to the best-born man
+of her own rank. And in spite of it all Pontius could spoil all the
+pleasure of her journey and stay in Alexandria instead of following
+in her wake. He could easily have intrusted his building to other
+architects--the great metropolis was swarming with them! Well, if he did
+not trouble himself about her she certainly need care even less about
+him. Perhaps at last, at the end of their travels he might yet come, and
+then he should see how much she cared for his admonitions.
+
+But she sighed impatiently for the hour when she might read him all the
+verses she had addressed to Antinous, and ask him how he liked them. It
+gave her a childish pleasure to add to the number of these little poems,
+to finish them elaborately, and display in them all her knowledge and
+ability. She gave the preference to artificial and massive metres; some
+of the verses were in Latin, others in the Attic, and others again in
+the Aeolian dialects of Greek, for she had now learnt to use this, and
+all to punish Pontius--to vex Pontius--and at the same time to appear in
+his eyes as brilliant as she could. She belauded Antinous, but she
+wrote for Pontius, and for every flower she gave the lad she had sent
+a thought to the architect, though with a curl on her lips of scornful
+defiance.
+
+But a young girl cannot be always praising the beauty of a youth in new
+and varied forms with complete impunity, and thus there were hours when
+Balbilla was inclined to believe that she really loved Antinous. Then
+she would call herself his Sappho, and he seemed destined to be her
+Phaon. During his long absences with the Emperor she would long to see
+him--nay, even with tears; but, as soon as he was by her side again, and
+she could look at his inanimate beauty and into his weary eyes, when she
+heard the torpid “Yes” or “No” with which he replied to her questions,
+the spell was entirely broken and she honestly confessed to herself that
+she would as soon see him before her hewn in marble as clothed in flesh
+and blood.
+
+In such moments as these her memory of the architect was particularly
+fresh, and once, when their ship was sailing through a mass of lotos
+leaves, above which one splendid full-blown flower raised its head, her
+apt imagination, which rapidly seized on everything noteworthy and gave
+it poetic form, entwined the incident in a set of verses, in which she
+designated Antinous as the lotos-flower which fulfils its destiny
+simply by being beautiful, and comparing Pontius to the ship which, well
+constructed and well guided, invited the traveller to new voyages in
+distant lands.
+
+The Nile voyage came to an end at Thebes of the hundred gates, and here
+nothing that could attract the Roman travellers remained unvisited. The
+tombs of the Pharaohs extending into the very heart of the rocky hills,
+and the grand temples that stood to the west of the city of the dead,
+shorn though they were of their ancient glory, filled the Emperor with
+admiration. The Imperial travellers and their companions listened to
+the famous colossus of Memnon, of which the upper portion had been
+overthrown by an earthquake, and three times in the dawn they heard it
+sound.
+
+Balbilla described the incident in several long poems which Sabina
+caused to be engraved on the stone of the colossus. The poetess imagined
+herself as hearing the voice of Memnon singing to his mother Eos while
+her tears, the fresh morning dew, fell upon the image of her son, fallen
+before the walls of Troy. These verses she composed in the Aeolian
+dialect, named herself as their writer and informed the readers--among
+whom she included Pontius--that she was descended from a house no less
+noble than that of King Antiochus.
+
+The gigantic structures on each bank of the Nile fully equalled
+Hadrian’s expectations, though they had suffered so much injury from
+earthquakes and sieges, and the impoverished priesthood of Thebes were
+no longer in a position to provide for their preservation even, much
+less for their restoration. Balbilla accompanied Caesar on a visit to
+the sanctuary of Ammon, on the eastern shore of the Nile. In the
+great hall, the most vast and lofty pillared hall in the world, her
+impressionable soul felt a peculiar exaltation, and as the Emperor
+observed how, with a heightened color she now gazed upward, and then
+again, leaning against a towering column, looked at the scene around
+her, he asked her what she felt, standing in this really worthy abode of
+the gods.
+
+“One thing--above all things one thing!” cried the girl. “That
+architecture is the sublimest of the arts! This temple is to me like
+some grand epode, and the poet who composed it conceived it not in
+feeble words but formed it out of almost immovable masses. Thousands
+of parts are here combined to form a whole, and each is welded with
+the rest into beautiful harmony and helps to give expression to the
+stupendous idea which existed in the brain of the builder of this
+hall. What other art is gifted with the power of creating a work so
+imperishable and so far transcending all ordinary standards?”
+
+“A poetess crowning the architect with laurels!” exclaimed the Emperor.
+“But is not the poet’s realm the infinite, and can the architect ever
+get beyond the finite and the limited?”
+
+“Then is the nature of the divinity a measurable unit?” asked Balbilla.
+“No, it is not; and yet this hall gives one the impression that the very
+divinity might find space in it to dwell in.”
+
+“Because it owes it existence to a master-mind, which while it conceived
+it stood on the boundary line of eternity. But do you think this temple
+will outlast the poems of Homer?”
+
+“No; but the memory of it will no more fade away that of the wrath of
+Achilles or the wanderings of the experienced Odysseus.”
+
+“It is a pity that our friend Pontius cannot hear you,” said Hadrian.
+“He has completed the plans for a work which is destined to outlive me
+and him and all of us.
+
+“I mean my own tomb. Besides that I intend him to erect gates, courts
+and halls in the Egyptian style at Tibur, which may remind us of our
+travels in this wonderful country. I expect him to-morrow.”
+
+“To-morrow!” exclaimed Balbilla, and her face fired with a scarlet flush
+to her very brow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Shortly after starting from Thebes--on the second day of
+November--Hadrian came to a great decision. Verus should be acknowledged
+not merely as his son but also as his successor.
+
+Sabina’s urgency would not alone have sufficed to put a term to his
+hesitancy, especially as it had lately been farther increased by a wish
+that was all his own. His wife’s heart had pined for a child, but he too
+had longed for a son, and he had found one in Antinous. His favorite was
+a boy he had picked up by chance, the son of humble though free parents,
+but it lay in the Emperor’s power to make him great, to confer on him
+the highest posts of honor in the Empire, and at last to recognize him
+publicly as his heir. Antinous, if any one, had deserved this at his
+hands, and on no other man could he so ungrudgingly bestow everything
+that he possessed.
+
+These ideas and hopes had now filled his mind for many months, but the
+nature and the mood of the young Bithyman had been more and more adverse
+to them.
+
+Hadrian had striven more earnestly than his predecessors to raise the
+fallen dignity of the Senate, and still he could count securely on its
+consent to any measure. The leading official authorities of the Republic
+had been recognized and allowed the full exercise of their powers. To be
+sure, be they whom they might, they all had to obey the Emperor, still
+they were always there; and even with a weak ruler at its head the
+Empire might continue to subsist within the limits established by
+Hadrian, and restricted with wise moderation. Nevertheless, only a few
+months previously he would not have ventured to think of the adoption
+of his favorite. Now he hoped to find himself somewhat nearer to the
+fulfilment of his wishes. It is true Antinous was still a dreamer; but
+in their wanderings and hunting excursions through Egypt he had proved
+himself gallant and prompt, intelligent, and, after their departure from
+Thebes, even bold and lively at times. Antinous, under this aspect, he
+himself might take in hand, and even name him as his successor in due
+time, when he had risen from one post of honor to another. For the
+present this plan must remain unrevealed.
+
+When he publicly adopted Verus any idea of a possible new selection of
+a son was excluded, and he might unhesitatingly venture to appoint
+Sabina’s darling his successor, for the most famous of the Roman
+physicians had written to Hadrian, by his desire, saying that the
+praetor’s undermined strength could not be restored, and that, at the
+best, he could only have a limited number of years to live. Well, then,
+Verus might die slowly and contentedly in the midst of the most splendid
+anticipations, and when he should have closed his eyes it would be time
+enough to set the dreamer--by that time matured to vigorous manhood--in
+the vacant place.
+
+On the return journey from Thebes to Alexandria Hadrian met his wife at
+Abydos, and revealed to her his intention of proclaiming the son of her
+choice as his successor. Sabina thanked him with an exclamation of
+“At last!” which expressed partly her satisfaction, but partly too her
+annoyance at her husband’s long delay. Hadrian gave her his permission
+to return to Rome from Alexandria, and on the very same day messages
+were despatched with letters both to the Senate and to the prefects of
+Egypt.
+
+The despatch intended for Titianus charged him to proclaim publicly
+the adoption of the praetor, to arrange at the same time for a grand
+festival, and on that occasion to grant to the people, in Caesar’s
+name, all the boons and favors which by the traditional law of Egypt the
+Sovereign was expected to bestow at the birth of an heir to the throne.
+The whole suite of the Imperial pair celebrated Hadrian’s decision by
+splendid banquets, but the Emperor did not himself take part in them,
+but crossed to the other bank of the Nile and went to Antaeopolis in the
+desert, meaning to penetrate from thence into the gorges of the Arabian
+desert and to chase wild beasts. No one was to accompany him but
+Antinous, Mastor, and a few huntsmen and some dogs.
+
+He meant to rejoin the ships at Besa. He had postponed his visit to
+this place till the return journey, because he had travelled up by the
+western shore of the Nile, and the passage across the river would have
+taken up too much time.
+
+The travellers’ tents were pitched one sultry evening in November,
+between the Nile and the limestone range, in which was arrayed a long
+row of tombs of the period of the Pharaohs. Hadrian had gone to visit
+these, for the remarkable pictures on the walls delighted him, but
+Antinous remained behind, for he had already looked at similar works
+oftener than he cared for, in Upper Egypt. He found these pictures
+monotonous and unlovely, and he had not the patience to investigate
+their meaning as his master did. He had been a hundred times into
+the ancient rock-tombs, only not to leave Hadrian and not for his own
+amusement; but to-day--he could hardly bear himself for impatience and
+excitement, for he knew that a ride, a walk, of a few hours, would carry
+him to Besa and to Selene. The Emperor would remain absent three or four
+hours at any rate, and if he made up his mind to it he could have sought
+out the girl for whom his heart was longing before his return, and still
+be back again before his master.
+
+But before acting he must reflect. There was the Emperor climbing the
+hill-side where he could see him, and messengers were expected and he
+had been charged to receive them. It they should bring bad news, his
+master must on no account be alone. Ten times did he go up to his
+good hunter to leap upon his back; once he even took down the horse’s
+head-gear to put on his bridle, but in the very act of slipping the
+complicated bit between the teeth of his steed his resolution gave way.
+During all this delay and hesitation the minutes slipped away, and at
+last it was so late that Hadrian might return and it was folly to think
+of carrying his plan into execution. The expected express arrived with
+several letters, but the Emperor did not come back. It grew dark, and
+heavy rain-drops fell from the overcast sky, and still Antinous
+was alone. His anxious longing was mingled with regret for the lost
+opportunity of seeing Selene and alarm at the Emperor’s prolonged
+absence.
+
+In spite of the rain, which began to fill more violently, he went out
+into the open air, of which the sweltering oppressiveness had helped to
+fetter his feeble volition, and called to the dogs, with whose help he
+proposed seeking the Emperor; but just then he heard the bark of Argus,
+and soon after Hadrian and Mastor stepped out of the darkness into the
+brightness which shone out from the tent, where lights were burning.
+
+The Emperor gave his favorite but a brief greeting and silently
+submitted while Antinous dried his hair and brought him some
+refreshments, and Mastor bathed his feet and dressed him in fresh
+garments. As he reclined with the Bithyman, before the supper which was
+standing ready, he said:
+
+“A strange evening! how hot and oppressive the atmosphere is. We must be
+on the lookout, something serious is brewing.”
+
+“What happened to you, my Lord?”
+
+“Many things. At the door of the very first tomb that I was about to
+enter I found an old black woman who stretched out her hands against us
+to keep us out and shrieked out words that sounded horrible.”
+
+“Did you understand her?”
+
+“No--who can learn Egyptian.”
+
+“Then you do not know what she said?”
+
+“I was to find out--she cried out ‘Dead!’ and again ‘Dead!’ and in
+the tomb which she was watching there were I know not how many persons
+attacked by the plague.”
+
+“You saw them?”
+
+“Yes, I had only heard of this disease till then. It is frightful, and
+quite answers to the descriptions I had read of it.”
+
+“But Caesar!” cried Antinous reproachfully and in alarm.
+
+“When we turned our backs on the tombs,” continued Hadrian, paying no
+heed to the lad’s exclamation, “we were met by an elderly man dressed
+in white and a strange-looking maiden. She was lame but of remarkable
+beauty.”
+
+“And she was going to the sick?”
+
+“Yes, she had brought medicine and food to them.”
+
+“But she did not go in among them?” asked Antinous eagerly.
+
+“She did, in spite of my warnings. In her companion I recognized an old
+acquaintance.”
+
+“An old one?”
+
+“At any rate older than myself. We had met in Athens when we still
+were young. At that time he was one of the school of Plato and the most
+zealous, nay, perhaps the most gifted of us all.”
+
+“How came such a man among the plague-stricken people of Besa? Is he
+become a physician?”
+
+“No. But at Athens he sought fervently and eagerly for the truth, and
+now he asserts that he has found it.”
+
+“Here, among the Egyptians?”
+
+“In Alexandria among the Christians.”
+
+“And the lame girl who accompanied the philosopher--does she too believe
+in the crucified God?”
+
+“Yes. She is a sick-nurse or something of the kind. Indeed there is
+something grand in the ecstatic craze of these people.”
+
+“Is it true that they worship an ass and a dove?”
+
+“Nonsense!”
+
+“I did not want to believe it; and at any rate they are kind, and succor
+all who suffer, even strangers who do not belong to their sect.”
+
+“How do you know?”
+
+“One hears a great deal about them in Alexandria.”
+
+“Alas! alas!--I never persecute an imaginary foe, as such I reckon the
+creeds and ideas of other men; still, I cannot but ask myself whether it
+can add to the prosperity of the state when citizens cease to struggle
+against the pressure and necessity of life and console themselves for
+them instead, by the hope of visionary happiness in another world which
+perhaps only exists in the fancy of those who believe in it.”
+
+“I should wish that life might end with death,” said Antinous
+thoughtfully; “and yet--”
+
+“Well?”
+
+“If I were sure that in that other world I should find those I long to
+see again, then I might long for a future life.”
+
+“And would you really like, throughout all eternity, to push and
+struggle in the crowd of old acquaintances which death does not diminish
+but rather multiplies?”
+
+“Nay, not that--but I should like to be permitted to live for ever with
+a few chosen friends.”
+
+“And should I be one of them?”
+
+“Yes--indeed,” cried Antinous warmly and pressing his lips to Hadrian’s
+hand.
+
+“I was sure of it--but even with the promise of never being obliged to
+part with you my darling, I would never sacrifice the only privilege
+which man enjoys above the immortals.”
+
+“What privilege can you mean?”
+
+“The right of withdrawing from the ranks of the living as soon as
+annihilation seems more endurable than existence and I choose to call
+death to release me.”
+
+“The gods, it is true, cannot die.”
+
+“And the Christians only to link a new life on to death.”
+
+“But a fairer and a happier than this on earth. They say it is a life of
+bliss. But the mother of this everlasting life is the ineradicable love
+of existence in even the most wretched of our race, and hope is its
+father. They believe in a complete freedom from suffering in that other
+world because He whom they call their Redeemer, the crucified Christ,
+has saved them from all sufferings by His death.”
+
+“And can a man take upon him the sufferings of others, think you, like a
+garment or a burden?”
+
+“They say so, and my friend from Athens is quite convinced. In books of
+magic there are many formulas by which misfortunes may be transferred
+not merely from men to beasts, but from one human being to another. Very
+remarkable experiments have even been carried out with slaves, and to
+this day I have to struggle in several, provinces to suppress human
+sacrifices by which the gods are to be reconciled or propitiated. Only
+think of the innocent Iphigenia who was dragged to the altar; did not
+the gulf in the Forum close when Curtius had leaped into it? When Fate
+shoots a fatal arrow at you and I receive it in my breast, perhaps she
+is content with the chance victim and does not enquire as to whom she
+has hit.”
+
+“The gods would be exorbitant indeed if they were not content with your
+blood for mine!”
+
+“Life is life, and that of the young is of better worth than that of the
+old. Many joys will yet bloom for you.”
+
+“And you are indispensable to the whole world.”
+
+“After me another will come. Are you ambitious, boy?”
+
+“No, my Lord.”
+
+“What then can be the meaning of this: that every one wishes me joy of
+my son Verus excepting you. Do you not like my choice?”
+
+Antinous colored and looked at the ground, and Hadrian went on:
+
+“Say honestly what you feel.”
+
+“The praetor is ill.”
+
+“He can have but a few years to live, and when he is dead--”
+
+“He may recover--”
+
+“When he is dead, I must look out for another son. What do you think
+now? Who is the being that every man, from a slave to a consul, would
+soonest hear call him ‘Father?”’
+
+“Some one he tenderly loved.”
+
+“True--and particularly when that one clung to him with unchangeable
+fidelity. I am a man like any other, and you, my good fellow, are always
+nearest to my heart, and I shall bless the day when I may authorize you,
+before all the world, to call me ‘Father.’ Do not interrupt me. If you
+resolutely concentrate your will and show as keen a sense for ruling
+men as you do for the chase, if you try to sharpen your wits and take
+in what I teach you, it may some day happen that Antinous instead of
+Verus--”
+
+“Nay, not that, only not that!” cried the lad, turning very pale and
+raising his hands beseechingly.
+
+“The greatness with which Destiny surprises us seems terrible so long
+as it is new to us,” said Hadrian. “But the seaman is soon accustomed to
+the storms, and we come to wear the purple as you do your chiton.”
+
+“Oh, Caesar, I entreat you,” said Antinous, anxiously, “put aside these
+ideas; I am not fit for great things.”
+
+“The smallest saplings grow to be palms.”
+
+“But I am only a wretched little herb that thrives awhile in your
+shadow. Proud Rome--”
+
+“Rome is my handmaid. She has been forced before now to be ruled by men
+of inferior stamp, and I should show her how the handsomest of her
+sons can wear the purple. The world may look for such a choice from a
+sovereign whom it has long known to be an artist, that is a high-priest
+of the Beautiful. And if not, I will teach it to form its taste on
+mine.”
+
+“You are pleased to mock me, Caesar,” cried the Bithynian. “You
+certainly cannot be in earnest, and if it is true that you love me--”
+
+“What now, boy?”
+
+“You will let me live unknown for you, care for you; you will ask
+nothing of me but reverence and love and fidelity.”
+
+“I have long had them, and I now would fain repay my Antinous for all
+these treasures.”
+
+“Only let me stay with you, and if necessary let me die for you.”
+
+“I believe, boy, you would be ready to make the sacrifice we were
+speaking of for me!”
+
+“At any moment without winking an eyelash.”
+
+“I thank you for those words. It has turned out a pleasant evening, and
+what a bad one I looked forward to--”
+
+“Because the woman by the tomb startled you?”
+
+“‘Dead,’ is a grim word. It is true that ‘death’--being dead--can
+frighten no wise man; but the step out of light into darkness is
+fearful. I cannot get the figure of the old hag and her shrill cry out
+of my mind. Then the Christian came up, and his discourse was strange
+and disturbing to my soul. Before it grew dark he and the limping girl
+went homewards; I stood looking after them and my eyes were dazzled by
+the sun which was sinking over the Libyan range. The horizon was clear,
+but behind the day-star there were clouds. In the west, the Egyptians
+say, lies the realm of death. I could not help thinking of this; and the
+oracle, the misfortunes that the stars threatened me with in the course
+of this year, the cry of the old woman--all these crowded into my mind
+together. But then, as I observed how the sun struggled with the clouds
+and approached nearer and nearer to the hill-tops on the farther side
+of the river, I said to myself: If it sets in full radiance you may look
+confidently to the future; if it is swallowed up by clouds before it
+sinks to rest, then destiny will fulfil itself; then you must shorten
+sail and wait for the storm.”
+
+“And what happened?”
+
+“The fiery globe burnt in glowing crimson, surrounded by a million rays.
+Each seemed separate from the rest and shone with glory of its own;
+it was as though the sinking disc had been the centre of bow-shots
+innumerable and golden arrow-shafts radiated to the sky in every
+direction. The scene was magnificent and my heart beat high with happy
+excitement, when suddenly and swiftly a dark cloud fell, as though
+exasperated by the wounds it had received from those fiery darts; a
+second followed, and a third, and sinister Daimons flung a dark and
+fleecy curtain over the glorious head of Helios, as the executioner
+throws a coarse black cloth over the head of the condemned, when he sets
+his knee against him to strangle him.”
+
+At this narrative Antinous covered his face with both hands, and
+murmured in terror:
+
+“Frightful, frightful! What can be hanging over us? Only listen, how it
+thunders, and the rain thrashes the tent.”
+
+“The clouds are pouring out torrents; see the water is coming in
+already. The slaves must dig gutters for it to run off. Drive the pegs
+tighter you fellows out there or the whirlwind will tear down the slight
+structure.”
+
+“And how sultry the air is!”
+
+“The hot wind seems to warm even the flood of rain. Here it is still
+dry; mix me a cup of wine, Antinous. Have any letters come?”
+
+“Yes, my Lord.”
+
+“Give them to me, Mastor.”
+
+The slave, who was busily engaged in damming up with earth and stones,
+the trickling stream of rain-water that was soaking into the tent,
+sprang up, hastily dried his hands, took a sack out of the chest in
+which the Emperor’s despatches were kept and gave it to his master.
+Hadrian opened the leather bag, took out a roll, hastily broke it open,
+and then, after rapidly glancing at the contents, exclaimed:
+
+“What is this? I have opened the record of the oracle of Apis. How did
+it come among to-day’s letters?”
+
+Antinous went up to Hadrian, looked at the sack, and said:
+
+“Mastor has made a mistake. These are the documents from Memphis. I will
+bring you the right despatch-bag.”
+
+“Stay!” said Hadrian, eagerly seizing his favorite’s hand. “Is this a
+mere trick of chance or a decree of Fate? Why should this particular
+sack have come into my hands to-day of all others? Why, out of twenty
+documents it contains, should I have taken out this very one? Look
+here.--I will explain these signs to you. Here stand three pairs of arms
+bearing shields and spears, close by the name of the Egyptian month that
+corresponds to our November. These are the three signs of misfortune.
+The lutes up there are of happier omen. The masts here indicate the
+usual state of affairs. Three of these hieroglyphics always occur
+together. Three lutes indicate much good fortune, two lutes and one mast
+good fortune and moderate prosperity, one pair of arms and two lutes
+misfortune, followed by happiness, and so forth. Here, in November,
+begin the arms with weapons, and here they stand in threes and threes,
+and portend nothing but unqualified misfortune, never mitigated by a
+single lute. Do you see, boy? Have you understood the meaning of these
+signs?”
+
+“Perfectly well; but do you interpret them rightly? The fighting arms
+may perhaps lead to victory.”
+
+“No. The Egyptians use them to indicate conflict, and to them conflict
+and unrest are identical with what we call evil and disaster.”
+
+“That is strange!”
+
+“Nay, it is well conceived; for they say that everything was originally
+created good by the gods, but that the different portions of the great
+All changed their nature by restless and inharmonious mingling. This
+explanation was given me by the priest of Apis, and here--here by the
+month of November are the three fighting arias--a hideous token. If one
+of the flashes which light up this tent so incessantly, like a living
+stream of light were to strike you, or me, and all of us--I should not
+wonder. Terrible--terrible things hang over us! It requires some courage
+under such omens as these, to keep an untroubled gaze and not to quail.”
+
+“Only use your own arms against the fighting arms of the Egyptian gods;
+they are powerful,” said Antinous; but Hadrian let his head sink on his
+breast, and said, in a tone of discouragement:
+
+“The gods themselves must succumb to Destiny.”
+
+The thunder continued to roar. More than once the storm snapped the
+tent-ropes, and the slaves were obliged to hold on to the Emperor’s
+fragile shelter with their hands; the chambers of the clouds poured
+mighty torrents out upon the desert range which for years had not known
+a drop of rain, and every rift and runlet was filled with a stream or a
+torrent.
+
+Neither Hadrian nor Antinous closed their eyes that fearful night. The
+Emperor had as yet opened only one of the rolls that were in the day’s
+letter-bag; it contained the information that Titianus the prefect was
+cruelly troubled by his old difficulty of breathing, with a petition
+from that worthy official to be allowed to retire from the service of
+the state and to withdraw to his own estate. It was no small matter for
+Hadrian to dispense for the future with this faithful coadjutor, to lose
+the man on whom he had had his eye to tranquillize Judaea--where a fresh
+revolt had raised its head, and to reduce it again to subjection without
+bloodshed. To crush and depopulate the rebellious province was within
+the power of other men, but to conquer and govern it with kindness
+belonged only to the wise and gentle Titianus. The Emperor had no heart
+to open a second letter that night. He lay in silence on his couch
+till morning began to grow gray, thinking over every evil hour of his
+life--the murders of Nigrinus, of Tatianus and of the senators, by which
+he had secured the sovereignty--and again he vowed to the gods immense
+sacrifices if only they would protect him from impending disaster.
+
+When he rose next morning Antinous was startled at his aspect, for
+Hadrian’s face and lips were perfectly bloodless. After he had read the
+remainder of his letters he started, not on foot but on horseback, with
+Antinous and Mastor for Besa, there to await the rest of the escort.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The unchained elements had raged that night with equal fury over the
+Nile city of Besa. The citizens of this ancient town had done all they
+could to give the Imperial traveller a worthy reception. The chief
+streets had been decked with ropes of flowers strung from mast to mast
+and from house to house, and by the harbor, close to the river shore,
+statues of Hadrian and his wife had been erected. But the storm tore
+down the masts and the garlands, and the lashed waters of the Nile had
+beaten with irresistible fury on the bank; had carried away piece after
+piece of the fertile shore, flung its waves, like liquid wedges into
+the rifts of the parched land; and excavated the high bank by the
+landing-quay.
+
+After midnight the storm was still raging with unheard-of fury; it swept
+the palm thatch from many of the houses, and beat the stream with such
+violence that it was like a surging sea. The full unbroken force of the
+flood beat again and again on the promontory on which stood the statues
+of the Imperial couple. Shortly before the first dawn of light the
+little tongue of land, which was protected by no river wall, could
+no longer resist the furious attack of the waters; huge clods of soil
+slipped and fell with a loud noise into the river and were followed by
+a large mass of the cliff, with a roar as of thunder the plateau behind
+sank, and the statue of the Emperor which stood upon it began to totter
+and lean slowly to its fall. When day broke it was lying with the
+pedestal still above ground, but the head was buried in the earth.
+
+At break of day the citizens left their houses to inquire of the
+fishermen and boatmen what had occurred in the harbor during the night.
+As soon as the storm had abated, hundreds, nay thousands, of men, women
+and children thronged the landing-place round the fallen statue--they
+saw the land-slip and knew that the current had torn the land from the
+bank and caused the mischief. Was it that Hapi, the Nile-god, was angry
+with the Emperor? At any rate the disaster that had befallen the image
+of the sovereign boded evil, that was clear.
+
+The Toparch, the chief municipal authority, at once set to work to
+reinstate the statue which was itself uninjured, for Hadrian might
+arrive in a few hours. Numerous men, both free and slaves, crowded to
+undertake the work, and before long the statue of Hadrian, executed
+in the Egyptian style, once more stood upright and gazing with a fixed
+countenance towards the harbor. Sabina’s was also put back by the side
+of her husband’s and the Toparch went home satisfied. With him most of
+the starers and laborers left the quay, but their place was taken by
+other curious folks who had missed the statue from its place, where the
+land had fallen, and now expressed their opinions as to the mode and
+manner of its fall.
+
+“The wind can never have overturned this heavy mass of limestone,” said
+a ropemaker: “And see how far it stands from the broken ground.”
+
+“They say it fell on the top of land-slip,” answered a baker.
+
+“That is how it was,” said a sailor.
+
+“Nonsense!” cried the ropemaker. “If the statue had stood on the ground
+now carried away, it must have fallen at once into the water and have
+sunk to the bottom--any child can see that other powers have been at
+work here.”
+
+“Very likely,” said a temple-servant who devoted himself to the
+interpretation of signs: “The gods may have overset the proud image to
+give a warning token to Hadrian.”
+
+“The immortals do not mix in the affairs of men in our day,” said the
+sailor; “but in such a fearful night as this peaceful citizens remain
+within doors and so leave a fair field for Caesar’s foes.”
+
+“We are all faithful subjects,” said the baker indignantly.
+
+“You are a pack of rebellious rabble,” retorted a Roman soldier, who
+like the whole cohort quartered in the province of Hermopolis, had
+formerly served in Judaea under the cruel Tinnius Rufus. “Among you
+worshippers of beasts squabbles never cease, and as to the Christians,
+who have made their nests out there on the other side of the valley, say
+the worst you can of them and still you would be flattering them.”
+
+“Brave Fuscus is quite right!” cried a beggar. “The wretches have
+brought the plague into our houses; wherever the disease shows itself
+there are Christian men and women to be seen. They came to my brother’s
+house; they sat all night by his sick children and of course both died.”
+
+“If only my old governor Tinnius Rufus were here,” growled the soldier,
+“they would none of them be any better off than their own crucified
+god.”
+
+“Well, I certainly have nothing in common with them,” replied the baker.
+“But what is true must continue true. They are quiet, kind folks and
+punctual in payment, who do no harm and show kindness to many poor
+creatures.”
+
+“Kindness?” cried the beggar, who had received alms himself from the
+deacon of the church at Besa, but had also been exhorted to work. “All
+the five priests of Sekket of the grotto of Artemis have been led away
+by them and have basely abandoned the sanctuary of the goddess. And is
+it good and kind that they should have poisoned my brother’s children
+with their potions?”
+
+“Why should they not have killed the children?” asked the soldier. “I
+heard of the same things in Syria; and as to this statue, I will never
+wear my sword again--”
+
+“Hark! listen to the bold Fuscus,” cried the crowd. “He has seen much.”
+
+“I will never wear my sword again if they did not knock over the statue
+in the dark.”
+
+“No, no,” cried the sailor positively. “It fell with the land that was
+washed away; I saw it lying there myself.”
+
+“And are you a Christian, too?” asked the soldier, “or do you suppose
+that I was in jest when I swore by my sword? I have served in Bithynia,
+in Syria, and in Judaea. I know these villains, good people. There were
+hundreds of Christians to be seen there who would throw away life like a
+worn-out shoe because they did not choose to sacrifice to the statues of
+Caesar and the gods.”
+
+“There, you hear!” cried the beggar. “And did you see a single man of
+them among the citizens who set to work to restore the statue to its
+place?”
+
+“There were none of them there,” said the sailor, who was beginning to
+share the soldier’s views.
+
+“The Christians threw down the Emperor’s statue,” the beggar shouted to
+the crowd. “It is proved, and they shall suffer for it. Every man who
+is a friend of the divine Hadrian come with me now and have them out of
+their houses.”
+
+“No uproar!” interrupted the soldier to the furious man. “There is the
+tribune, he will hear you.”
+
+The Roman officer, who now came past with a troop of soldiers to
+receive the Emperor outside the city, was greeted by the crowd with loud
+shouting. He commanded silence and made the soldier tell him what had so
+violently excited the people.
+
+“Very possibly,” said the tribune, a sinewy and stern-looking man, who,
+like Fuscus, had served under Tinnius Rufus, and had risen from a sutler
+to be an officer, “Very possibly--but where are your proofs?”
+
+“Most of the citizens helped in reerecting the statue, but the
+Christians held aloof from the work,” cried the beggar. “There was
+not one to be seen. Ask the sailor, my lord; he was by and he can bear
+witness to it.”
+
+“That certainly is more than suspicious. This matter must be strictly
+inquired into. Pay heed, you people.”
+
+“Here comes a Christian girl!” cried the sailor.
+
+“Lame Martha; I know her well,” interrupted the beggar. “She goes into
+all the plague-stricken houses and poisons the people. She stayed three
+days and three nights at my brother’s turning the children’s pillows
+till they were carried out. Wherever she goes death follows.”
+
+Selene, now known as Martha, paid no heed to the crowd, but with her
+blind brother Helios, now called John, went calmly on her way which led
+from the raised bank down to the landing-quay. There she wished to hire
+a boat to take her across the stream, for in a village on the island
+over against the town dwelt some sick Christians to whom she was
+carrying medicines and whom she was intending to watch. For months past
+her whole life had been devoted to the suffering. She had carried help
+even into heathen homes, and shrunk from neither fever nor plague. Her
+cheeks had gained no color, but her eyes shone with a gentler and purer
+light which glorified the severe beauty of her features. As the girl
+approached the captain he fixed his eyes on her, and called out:
+
+“Hey! pale-face--are you a Christian?”
+
+“Yes, my lord,” replied Selene, and she went on quietly and
+indifferently with her brother.
+
+The Roman looked after her, and as she passed by Hadrian’s statue, and,
+as she did so, dropped her head rather lower than before, he roughly
+ordered her to stop and to tell him why she had averted her face from
+the statue of Caesar.
+
+“Hadrian is our ruler as well as yours,” answered the young girl. “I am
+in haste for there are sick people on the island.”
+
+“You will bring them no good!” cried the beggar. “Who knows what is
+hidden there in the basket?”
+
+“Silence!” interrupted the tribune. “They say, girl that your
+fellow-believers overthrew the statue of Caesar in the night.”
+
+“How should that be? We honor Caesar no less than you do.”
+
+“I will believe you, and you shall prove it. There stands the statue
+of the divine Caesar. Come with me and worship it.” Selene looked with
+horror in the face of the stern man, and could not find a word of reply.
+
+“Well!” asked the captain, “will you come? Yes or no?”
+
+Selene struggled for self-possession, and when the soldier held out his
+hand to her she said with a trembling voice:
+
+“We honor the Emperor but we pray to no statue--only to our Father in
+Heaven.”
+
+“There you have it!” laughed the beggar.
+
+“Once more I ask you,” cried the tribune. “Will you worship this statue,
+or do you refuse to do so?”
+
+A fearful struggle possessed Selene’s soul. If she resisted the Roman
+her life was in danger, and the fury of the populace would be aroused
+against her fellow-believers--if, on the other hand, she obeyed him, she
+would be blaspheming God, breaking her faith to the Saviour who loved
+her, sinning against the truth and her own conscience. A fearful dread
+fell upon her, and deprived her of the power to lift her soul in prayer.
+She could not, she dared not, do what was required of her, and yet the
+overweening love of life which exists in every mortal led her feet to
+the base of the idol and there stayed her steps.
+
+“Lift up your hands and worship the divine Caesar,” cried the tribune,
+who with the rest of the lookers-on had watched her movements with keen
+excitement.
+
+Trembling, she set her basket on the ground and tried to withdraw
+her hand from her brother’s; but the blind boy held it fast. He fully
+understood what was required of his sister, he knew full well, from the
+history of many martyrs that had been told him, what fate awaited her
+and him if they resisted the Roman’s demand; but he felt no fear and
+whispered to her:
+
+“We will not obey his desires Martha; we will not pray to idols, we will
+cling faithfully to the Redeemer. Turn me away from the image, and I
+will say ‘Our Father.’”
+
+With a loud voice and his lustreless eyes upraised to Heaven, the boy
+said the Lord’s prayer. Selene had first set his face towards the river,
+and then she herself turned her back on the statue; then, lifting her
+hands, she followed the child’s example.
+
+Helios clung to her closely, her loudly uttered prayer was one with his,
+and neither of them saw or heard anything more of what befell them.
+
+The blind boy had a vision of a distant but glorious light, the maiden
+of a blissful life made beautiful by love, as she was flung to the
+ground in front of the statue of Hadrian, and the excited mob rushed
+upon her and her faithful little brother. The military tribune tried
+in vain to hold back the populace, and by the time the soldiers had
+succeeded in driving the excited mob away from their victims, both the
+young hearts, in the midst of the triumph of their faith, in the midst
+of their hopes of an eternal and blissful life, had ceased to beat for
+ever.
+
+The occurrence disturbed the captain and made him very uneasy. This
+girl, this beautiful boy, who lay before him pale corpses, had been
+worthy of a better fate, and he might be made to answer for them; for
+the law forbade that any Christian should be punished for his faith
+without a judge’s sentence. He therefore commanded that the dead should
+be carried at once to the house to which they belonged, and threatened
+every one, who should that day set foot in the Christian quarter, with
+the severest punishment.
+
+The beggar went off, shrieking and shouting, to his brother’s house
+to tell the mistress that lame Martha, who had nursed her daughter
+to death, was slain; but he gained an evil reward, for the poor woman
+bewailed Selene as if she had been her own child, and cursed him and her
+murderers.
+
+Before sundown Hadrian arrived at Besa, where he found magnificent tents
+pitched to receive him and his escort. The disaster that had befallen
+his statue was kept a secret from him, but he felt anxious and ill. He
+wished to be perfectly alone, and desired Antinous to go to see the
+city before it should be dark. The Bithynian joyfully embraced this
+permission as a gift of the gods; he hurried through the decorated
+high streets, and made a boy guide him from thence into the Christian
+quarter. Here the streets were like a city of the dead; not a door was
+open, not a man to be seen.
+
+Antinous paid the lad, sent him away, and with a beating heart went from
+one house to another. Each looked neat and clean, and was surrounded
+by trees and shrubs, but though the smoke curled up from several of the
+roofs every house seemed to have been deserted. At last he heard the
+sound of voices. Guided by these he went through a lane to an open place
+where hundreds of people, men, women and children, were assembled in
+front of a small building which stood in the midst of a palm grove.
+
+He asked where dame Hannah lived, and an old man silently pointed to
+the little house on which the attention of the Christians seemed to be
+concentrated. The lad’s heart throbbed wildly and yet he felt anxious
+and embarrassed, and he asked himself whether he had not better turn
+back and return next morning when he might hope to find Selene alone.
+
+But no! Perhaps he might even now be allowed to see her.
+
+He modestly made his way through the throng, which had set up a song in
+which he could not determine whether it was intended to express feelings
+of sadness or of triumph. Now he was standing at the gate of the garden
+and saw Mary the deformed girl. She was kneeling by a covered bier and
+weeping bitterly. Was dame Hannah dead? No, she was alive, for at this
+moment she came out of her house, leaning on an old man, pale, calm and
+tearless. Both came forward, the old man uttered a short prayer and then
+stooping down, lifted the sheet which covered the dead.
+
+Antinous pushed a step forward but instantly drew two steps back--then
+covering his eyes with his hand he stood as if rooted to the spot.
+
+There was no vehement lamentation. The old man began a discourse.
+All around were sounds of suppressed weeping, singing and praying but
+Antinous saw and heard nothing. He had dropped his hand and never took
+his eyes off the white face of the dead till Hannah once more covered it
+with the sheet. Even then he did not stir.
+
+It was not till six young girls lifted Selene’s modest bier and four
+matrons took up that of little Helios on their shoulders and the whole
+assembly moved away after them, that he too turned and followed the
+mourning procession. He looked on from a distance while the larger and
+the smaller coffins were carried into a rocktomb, while the entrance was
+carefully closed, and the procession dispersed some here and some there.
+
+At last he found himself alone and in front of the door of the vault.
+The sun went down, and darkness spread rapidly over hill and vale.
+When no one was to be seen who could observe him, he threw up his arms,
+clasped the pillar at the entrance of the tomb, pressed his lips against
+the rough wooden door and struck his forehead against it while his whole
+body trembled with the tearless anguish of his spirit.
+
+For some minutes he stood so and did not hear a light step which came up
+behind him. It was Mary, who had come once more to pray by the grave of
+her beloved friend. She at once recognized the youth and softly called
+him by his name.
+
+“Mary,” he answered, clasping her hand eagerly. “How did she die?”
+
+“Slain,” she said, sadly. “She would not worship Caesar’s image.”
+
+Antinous shuddered at the words, and asked, “And why would she not?”
+
+“Because she was faithful to our belief, and so hoped for the mercy of
+the Saviour. Now she is a blessed angel.”
+
+“Are you sure of that?”
+
+“As sure as I live in hope of meeting the martyr who rests here, again
+in Heaven!”
+
+“Mary.”
+
+“Leave go of my hand!”
+
+“Will you do me a service, Mary?”
+
+“Willingly, Antinous--but pray do not touch me.”
+
+“Take this money and buy the loveliest wreath that is to be had here.
+Hang it on this tomb, and say as you do so--call out--, From Antinous to
+Selene.’”
+
+The deformed girl took the money he gave her and said:
+
+“She often prayed for you.”
+
+“To her God?”
+
+“To our Redeemer, that he might give you also joy. She died for Christ
+Jesus; now she is with him, and he will grant her prayers.”
+
+Antinous was silent for a while, then he said:
+
+“Once more give me your hand, Mary, and now farewell. Will you sometimes
+think of me, and pray for me too, to your Redeemer?”
+
+“Yes, yes, and you will not quite forget me, the poor cripple?”
+
+“Certainly not, you good, kind girl! Perhaps we may some day meet
+again.” With these words Antinous hurried down the hill and through the
+town to the Nile.
+
+The moon had risen and was mirrored in the rough water. Just so had its
+image played upon the waves when Antinous had rescued Selene from the
+sea. The lad knew that Hadrian would be expecting him, still he did
+not seek his tent. A violent emotion had overpowered him; he restlessly
+paced up and down the river-bank rapidly reviewing in his memory the
+more prominent incidents of his past life. He seemed to hear again every
+word of the dialogue that had taken place yesterday between Hadrian
+and himself. Before his inward eye he saw once more his humble home in
+Bithynia, his mother, his brothers and sisters whom he should never see
+again. Once more he lived through the dreadful hour when he had deceived
+his beloved master and had been an incendiary. An overmastering dread
+fell upon him as he thought of Hadrian’s wish to put him in the place of
+the man whom the prudent sovereign had chosen as his successor--a choice
+that was perhaps the direct outcome of his own crime. He, Antinous, who
+to-day could not think of the morrow, who always kept out of the way of
+the discourse of grave men because he found it so hard to follow their
+meaning, he who knew nothing but how to obey, he who was never happy
+but alone with his master and his dreaming, far from the bustle of
+the world--he, to be burdened with the purple, with anxiety, with a
+mountain-load of responsibility!
+
+No, no; the idea was unheard-of--impossible! And yet Hadrian never gave
+up a wish he had once expressed in words. The future loomed before
+his soul like some overpowering foe. Suffering, unrest, and misfortune
+stared him in the face, turn which way he would.
+
+What was the hideous fatality that threatened his sovereign? It was
+approaching, it must come if no one--aye, if no one should be found
+to stand between him and the impending blow, and to receive in his own
+breast--in his own heart, bared to receive the wound--the spear hurled
+by the vengeful god. And he--he, and he alone was the one who might do
+this.
+
+The thought flashed into his mind like a sudden blaze of light; and
+if he should find the courage to devote himself to death for his dear
+master all his sins against him would be expiated; then--then--oh, how
+lovely a thought!--then might he not find entrance into the gates of
+that realm of bliss which Selene’s prayers had opened to him? There he
+would see his mother again and his father, and by and bye his brothers
+and sisters--but now, at once in a few minutes Her whom he loved and who
+had trodden the ways of death before him.
+
+An exquisite sense of hope such as he had never felt before flooded his
+soul. There lay the Nile--here was a boat. He gave it a strong push into
+the stream and with a powerful leap, as when hunting he had often sprung
+from rock to rock, he jumped into the boat. He had just seized an oar
+when Mastor, who had been desired by the Emperor to seek him, recognized
+him in the moonlight and desired him to return with him to the tents.
+
+But Antinous did not obey. As he pushed out into the stream he called
+out:
+
+“Greet my Lord from me--greet him lovingly, a thousand times, and tell
+him Antinous loved him more than his life. Fate demands a victim. The
+world cannot dispense with Hadrian, but Antinous is a mere nonentity,
+whom none will miss but Caesar, and for him Antinous flings himself into
+the jaws of death.”
+
+“Stay-stop! hapless boy, come back!” shouted the slave, and leaping into
+a boat he followed that of the Bithynian, which, impelled by strong and
+steady strokes, flew away into the current.
+
+Mastor rowed with all his might, but he could not gain upon the boat he
+was pursuing. Thus in a wild race both reached the middle of the stream.
+There, the slave saw Antinous fling away his oar, and an instant later
+he heard Antinous call loudly on the name of Selene, and then, in
+helpless inactivity, he saw the lad glide into the waters, and the Nile
+swallowed in its flood the noblest and fairest of victims.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+A night and a day had slipped away since the death of the Bithynian.
+Ships and boats from every part of the province had collected before
+Besa to seek for the body of the drowned youth, the shores swarmed with
+men, and cressets and torches had dimmed the moonlight on river and
+shore all through the night; but they had not yet succeeded in finding
+the body of the beautiful youth.
+
+Hadrian had heard in what way Antinous had perished. He had required
+Mastor to repeat to him more than once the last words of his faithful
+companion and neither to add nor to omit a single syllable. Hadrian’s
+accurate memory cherished them all and now he had sat till dawn and from
+dawn till the sun had reached the meridian, repeating them again and
+again to him self. He sat gloomily brooding and would neither eat nor
+drink. The misfortune which had threatened him had fallen--and what a
+grief was this! If indeed Fate would accept the anguish he now felt in
+the place of all other suffering it might have had in store for him he
+might look forward to years free from care, but he felt as though he
+would rather have spent the remainder of his existence in sorrow and
+misery with his Antinous by his side than enjoy, without him, all that
+men call happiness, peace and prosperity.
+
+Sabina and her escort had arrived-a host of men; but he had strictly
+ordered that no one, not even his wife, was to be admitted to his
+presence. The comfort of tears was denied him, but his grief gripped
+him at the heart, clouded his brain and made hint so irritably sensitive
+that an unfamiliar voice, though even at a distance, disturbed him and
+made him angry.
+
+The party who had arrived by water were not allowed to occupy the tents
+which had been pitched for them not far from his, because he desired to
+be alone, quite alone, with his anguish of spirit. Mastor, whom he had
+hitherto regarded rather a useful chattel than as a human creature, now
+grew nearer to him--had he not been the one witness of his darling’s
+strange disappearance. Towards the close of this, the most miserable
+night he had ever known, the slave asked him whether he should not fetch
+the physician from the ships, he looked so pale; but Hadrian forbade it.
+
+“If I could only cry like a woman,” he said, “or like other fathers
+whose sons are snatched away by death, that would be the best remedy.
+You poor souls will have a bad time now, for the sun of my life has lost
+its light and the trees by the way-side have lost their verdure.”
+
+When he was alone once more he sat staring into vacancy and muttered to
+himself:
+
+“All mankind should mourn with me for if I had been asked yesterday how
+perfect a beauty might be bestowed on one of their race I could have
+pointed proudly to you, my faithful boy and have said, ‘Beauty like that
+of the gods.’ Now the crown is cut off from the trunk of the palm
+and the maimed thing can only be ashamed of its deformity; and if all
+humanity were but one man it would look like one who has had his right
+eye torn out. I will not look on the monsters, lean and fat, that
+they may not spoil my taste for the true type! Oh faithful, lovable,
+beautiful boy! What a blind, mad fool have you been! And yet I cannot
+blame your madness. You have pierced my soul with the deepest thrust
+of all and yet I cannot even be angry with you. Superhuman! godlike was
+your faithful devotion. Aye, indeed, it was!” As he thus spoke he rose
+from his seat and went on resolutely and decidedly:
+
+“Here I stretch out this my right hand-hear me, ye Immortals! Every city
+in the Empire shall raise an altar to Antinous, and the friend of whom
+you have robbed me I will make your equal and companion. Receive him
+tenderly, oh, ye undying rulers of the world! Which among you can boast
+of beauty greater than his? and which of you ever displayed so much
+goodness and faithfulness as your new associate?”
+
+This vow seemed to have given Hadrian some comfort. For above half
+an hour he paced his tent with a firmer tread, then he desired that
+Heliodorus his secretary might be called.
+
+The Greek wrote what his sovereign dictated. This was nothing less than
+that henceforth the world should worship a new divinity in the person of
+Antinous.
+
+At noonday a messenger in breathless haste came to say that the body of
+the Bithynian had been found. Thousands flocked to see the corpse, and
+among them Balbilla, who had behaved like a distracted creature when she
+heard to what an end her idol had come. She had rushed up and down the
+river-bank, among the citizens and fishermen, dressed in black mourning
+robes and with her hair flying about her. The Egyptians had compared her
+to the mourning Isis seeking the body of her beloved husband, Osiris.
+She was beside herself with grief, and her companion implored her in
+vain to calm herself and remember her rank and her dignity as a woman.
+But Balbilla pushed her vehemently aside, and when the news was brought
+that Nile had yielded up his prey she rushed on foot to see the body,
+with the rest of the crowd.
+
+Her name was in every mouth, everyone knew that she was the Empress’
+friend, and so she was willingly and promptly obeyed when she commanded
+the bearers who carried the bier on which the recovered body lay to set
+it down and to lift up the sheet which shrouded it. Pale and trembling,
+she went up to it and gazed down at the drowned man; but only for a
+moment could she endure the sight. She turned away with a shudder,
+and desired the bearers to go on. When the funeral procession had
+disappeared and she could no longer hear the shrill wailing of the
+Egyptian women, and no longer see them streaking their breast, head, and
+hair with damp earth and flinging up their arms wildly in the air, she
+turned to her companion and said calmly: “Now, Claudia, let us go home.”
+
+In the evening at supper she appeared dressed in black, like Sabina and
+all the rest of the suite, but she was calm and ready with an answer to
+every observation.
+
+Pontius had travelled with them from Thebes to Besa, and she had
+spared him nothing that could punish him for his long absence, and had
+mercilessly compelled him to listen to all her verses on Antinous.
+
+He meanwhile had been perfectly cool about it, and had criticised her
+poems exactly as if they had referred not to a man of flesh and blood
+but to some statue or god. This epigram he would praise, the next he
+would disparage, a third condemn. Her confession that she had been in
+the habit of complimenting Antinous with flowers and fruit he heard with
+a shrug of the shoulders, saying pleasantly: “Give him as many presents
+as you will; I know that you expect no gifts from your divinity in
+return for your sacrifices.”
+
+His words had surprised and delighted her. Pontius always understood
+her, and did not deserve that she should wound him. So she let him gaze
+into her soul, and told him how much she loved Antinous so long as
+he was absent. Then she laughed and confessed that she was perfectly
+indifferent to him as soon as they were together.
+
+When, after the Bithynian’s death, she lost all self-control he simply
+let her alone, and begged Claudia to do the same.
+
+The same day that the body was found it was burnt on a pile of precious
+wood. Hadrian had refused to see it when he learnt that the death by
+drowning had terribly distorted the lad’s features.
+
+A few hours after the ashes of the Bithynian had been collected and
+brought in a golden vase to Hadrian, the Nile fleet was once more under
+sail, this time with the Emperor on board one of the boats, to proceed
+without farther halt to Alexandria.
+
+Hadrian remained alone with only his slave and his secretary on the boat
+that conveyed him; but he several times sent to Pontius to desire him
+to come from the ship on which he was and visit him on his. He liked to
+hear the architect’s deep voice, and discussed with him the plans which
+Pontius had sketched for his mausoleum in Rome and the monument to his
+lost favorite which he proposed to have erected from designs of his
+own in the large city which he intended should stand on the site of the
+little town of Besa, and which he had already named Antinoe. But
+these discussions only took up a limited number of hours, and then the
+architect was at liberty to return to Sabina’s boat, on which Balbilla
+also lived.
+
+A few days after they had quitted Besa he was sitting alone with the
+poetess on the deck of the Nile boat which, borne by the current and
+propelled by a hundred oars, was rapidly and steadily nearing its
+destination. Ever since the death of the hapless favorite Pontius had
+avoided mentioning him to her. She had now become as observant and as
+talkative as before, and in her eyes there even shone at times a ray
+of the old sunny gayety of her nature. The architect thought he
+comprehended the characteristic change in her sentiments, and would not
+allude to the cause of the violent but transient fever under which she
+had suffered. “What did you discuss with Caesar to-day?” asked Balbilla
+of her friend. Pontius looked down at the ground and considered whether
+he could venture to utter the name of Antinous before the poetess.
+Balbilla observed his hesitation and said:
+
+“Speak on; I can hear anything. That folly is past and over.”
+
+“Caesar is at work at the plans for a new town to be built and called
+Antinoe, and a sketch for a monument to his ill-fated favorite,” said
+Pontius. “He will not accept any help, but I have to teach him to
+discriminate what is possible from what is impossible.”
+
+“Ah! he is always gazing at the stars and you look steadily at the road
+on which you are walking.”
+
+“An architect can make no use of anything that is unsteady or that has
+no firm foundation.”
+
+“That is a hard saying, Pontius. It is true that during the last few
+weeks I have behaved like a fool.”
+
+“I only wish that every tottering structure could recover its balance as
+quickly and as certainly as you! Antinous was a demigod for beauty, and
+a good faithful fellow besides.”
+
+“Do not speak of him any more,” exclaimed Balbilla shuddering. “He
+looked dreadful. Can you forgive me for my conduct?”
+
+“I never was angry with you.”
+
+“But I lost your esteem.”
+
+“No, Balbilla. Beauty, which is dear to us all, and which the Muse has
+kissed, attracted your easily moved poet’s soul and it fluttered off at
+random. Let it fly! My friend’s true womanly nature was never carried
+away by it. She stands on a rock, that I am sure of.”
+
+“How good and kind in you to say so--too good, too kind! for I am a
+feeble creature, turned by every breeze that blows, a vain little fool
+who does not know one hour what she may do the next, a spoilt child that
+likes best to do the thing it ought to leave undone, a weak girl who
+finds a pleasure in doing battle with men. For all in all--”
+
+“For all in all a darling of the gods who to-day can climb the rocks
+with a firm step and to-morrow lies dreaming in the sunshine among
+flowers--for all in all a nature that has no equal and which lacks
+nothing, nothing whatever that constitutes a true woman excepting--”
+
+“I know what I lack,” cried Balbilla. “A strong man on whom I can
+depend, whose warnings I can respect. You, you are that man; you and
+none other, for as soon as I feel you by my side I find it difficult to
+do what I know to be wrong. Here I am, Pontius! Will you have me with
+all my moods, with all my faults and weaknesses?”
+
+“Balbilla!” cried the architect, beside himself with heartfelt agitation
+and surprise, and he pressed her hand long and fervently to-his lips.
+
+“You will? You will take me? You will never leave me, you will warn,
+support me and protect me?”
+
+“Till my last day, till death, as my child, as the apple of my eye,
+as--dare I say it and believe it?--as my love, my second self, my wife.”
+
+“Oh! Pontius, Pontius,” she exclaimed, grasping his broad, right hand in
+both her own. “This hour restores to the orphaned Balbilla, father and
+mother and gives her besides the husband that she loves.”
+
+“Mine, mine!” cried the architect. “Immortal gods! During half a
+lifetime I have never found time, in the midst of labor and fatigue,
+to indulge in the joys of love and now you give me with interest and
+compound interest the treasure you have so long withheld.”
+
+“How can you, a reasonable man, so over-estimate the value of your
+possession? But you shall find some good in it. Life can no longer be
+conceived of as worth having without the possessor.”
+
+“And to me it has so long seemed empty and cold without you, you
+strange, unique, incomparable creature.”
+
+“But why did you not come sooner, and so give me no time to behave like
+a fool?”
+
+“Because, because,” said Pontius, gravely, “such a flight towards the
+sun seemed to me too bold; because I remember that my father’s father--”
+
+“He was the noblest man that the ancestor of my house attracted to its
+greatness.”
+
+“He was--consider it duly at this moment--he was your grandfather’s
+slave.”
+
+“I know it, but I also know, that there is not a man on earth who is
+worthier of freedom than you are, or whom I could ask as humbly as I ask
+you: Take me, poor, foolish Balbilla, to be your wife, guide me and make
+of me whatever you can, for your own honor and mine.”
+
+The brief Nile voyage brought days and hours of the highest happiness to
+Balbilla and her lover. Before the fleet sailed into the Mareotic harbor
+of Alexandria, Pontius revealed his happy secret to the Emperor. Hadrian
+smiled for the first time since the death of his favorite, and desired
+the architect to bring Balbilla to him.
+
+“I was wrong in my interpretation of the Pythian oracle,” said he, as he
+laid the poetess’s hand in that of Pontius. “Would you like to know how
+it runs Pontius--do not prompt me, my child. Anything that I have read
+through once or twice I never forget. Pythia said:
+
+  ‘That which thou boldest most precious and dear shall be torn from
+     thy keeping,
+   And from the heights of Olympus, down shalt thou fall in the dust;
+   Still the contemplative eye discerns under mutable sand-drifts
+   Stable foundations of stone, marble and natural rock.’
+
+“You have chosen well girl. The oracle guaranteed you a safe road to
+tread through life. As to the dust of which it speaks, it exists no
+doubt in a certain sense, but this hand wields the broom that will sweep
+it away. Solemnize your marriage in Alexandria as soon as you will, but
+then come to Rome, that is the only condition I impose. A thing I always
+have at heart is the introduction of new and worthy members into the
+class of Knights, for it is in that way alone that its fallen dignity
+can be restored. This ring, my Pontius, gives you the rank of eques, and
+such a man as you are, the husband of Balbilla and the friend of Caesar
+may no doubt by-and-bye find a seat in the Senate. What this generation
+can produce in stone and marble, my mausoleum shall bear witness to.
+Have you altered the plan of the bridge?”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+In Alexandria the news of the nomination of the “sham Eros” to be
+the Emperor’s successor was hailed with joy, and the citizens availed
+themselves gladly of his fresh and favorable opportunity to hold one
+festival after another. Titianus took care to provide for the due
+performance of the usual acts of grace, and among others he threw open
+the prison-gates of Canopus, and the sculptor Pollux was set at liberty.
+
+The hapless artist had grown pale, it is true, in durance vile, but
+neither leaner nor enfeebled in body; on the other hand all the vigor
+of his intellect, all his bright courage for life and his happy creative
+instinct, seemed altogether crushed out of him. His face, as in his
+dirty and ragged chiton, he journeyed from Canopus to Alexandria,
+revealed neither eager thankfulness for the unexpected boon of liberty,
+nor happiness at the prospect of seeing again his own people and
+Arsinoe.
+
+In the town he went, unintelligently dreaming as he walked, from one
+street to another, but he was familiar with every stone of the way, and
+his feet found their way to his sister’s house. How happy was Diotima,
+how her children rejoiced, how impatient was each one to conduct him
+to the old folks! How high in the air the Graces frisked and leaped
+in front of the new little home to welcome the returned absentee! And
+Doris, poor Doris, almost fainted with joyful surprise and her husband
+had to support her in his arms when her long vanished son, whom she had
+never given up for lost, however, suddenly stood before her and said:
+“Here am I.” How fondly she kissed and caressed her dear, cruel,
+restored fugitive. The singer too loudly expressed his joy alike in
+verse and in prose, and fetched his best theatrical dress out of the
+chest to put it on his son in the place of his ragged chiton.
+
+A mighty torrent of curses and execrations flowed from the old man’s
+lips as Pollux told his story. The sculptor found it difficult to bring
+it to an end, for his father interrupted him at every word, and all the
+while he was talking his mother forced him to eat and drink incessantly,
+even when he could no more. After he had assured her that he was long
+since replete, she pushed two more pots on to the fire, for he must have
+been half-starved in prison, and what he did not want now he would find
+room for two hours hence. Euphorion himself conducted Pollux to the bath
+in the evening, and as they went home together he never for an instant
+left his side; the sense of being near him did him good and was like
+some comfortable physical sensation.
+
+The singer was not usually inquisitive, but on this occasion he never
+ceased asking questions till Doris led her son to the bed she had
+freshly made for him. After the artist had gone to rest, the old woman
+once more slipped into his room, kissed his forehead, and said:
+
+“To-day you have still been thinking too much of that hideous
+prison--but to-morrow my boy, to-morrow you will be the same as before,
+will you not?”
+
+“Only leave me alone mother; I shall soon be better,” he replied. “This
+bed is as good as a sleeping-draught; the plank in the prison was quite
+a different thing.”
+
+“You have never asked once for your Arsinoe,” said Doris.
+
+“What can she matter to me? Only let me sleep.” But the next morning
+Pollux was just the same as he had been the previous evening, and as the
+days went on his condition remained unchanged. His head drooped on his
+breast, he never spoke but when he was spoken to, and when Doris or
+Euphorion tried to talk to him of the future, he would ask: “Am I a
+burden to you?” or begged them not to worry him.
+
+Still, he was gentle and kind, took his sister’s children in his arms,
+played with the Graces, whistled to the birds, went in and out, and
+played a valiant part at every meal. Now and again he would ask after
+Arsinoe. Once he allowed himself to be guided to the house where she
+lived, but he would not knock at Paulina’s door and seemed overawed by
+the grandeur of the house. After he had been brooding and dreaming for
+a week, so idle, listless, and absent that his mother’s heart was filled
+with anxious fears every time she looked at him, his brother Teuker hit
+upon a happy idea.
+
+The young gem-cutter was not usually a frequent visitor to his parents’
+house, but since the return of the hapless Pollux he called there almost
+daily. His apprenticeship was over and he seemed on the high-road to
+become a great master in his art; nevertheless he esteemed his brother’s
+gifts as far beyond his own and had tried to devise some means of
+reawakening the dormant energies of the luckless man’s brain.
+
+“It was at this table,” said Teuker to his mother, “that Pollux used
+to sit. This evening I will bring in a lump of clay and a good piece
+of modelling wax. Just put it all on the table and lay his tools by
+the side of it; perhaps when he sees them he will take a fancy again
+to work. If he can only make up his mind to model even a doll for the
+children he will soon get into the vein again, and he will go on from
+small things to great.”
+
+Teuker brought the materials, Doris set them out with the modelling
+tools, and next morning watched her son’s proceedings with an anxious
+heart. He got up late, as he had always done since his return home, and
+sat a long time over the bowl of porridge which his mother had prepared
+for his breakfast. Then he sauntered across to his table, stood in front
+of it awhile, broke off a piece of clay and kneaded and moulded it in
+his fingers into balls and cylinders, looked at one of them more closely
+and then, flinging it on the ground, he said, as he leaned across
+the table supporting himself on both hands to put his face near his
+mother’s:
+
+“You want me to work again; but it is of no use--I could do no good with
+it.”
+
+The old woman’s eyes filled with tears, but she did not answer him. In
+the evening Pollux begged her to put away the tools.
+
+When he was gone to bed she did so, and while she was moving about with
+a light in the dark, lumber-room in which she had kept them with other
+disused things, her eye fell on the unfinished wax model which had been
+the last work of her ill-starred son. A new idea struck her. She called
+Euphorion, made him throw the clay into the court-yard and place the
+model on the table by the side of the wax. Then she put out the very
+same tools as he had been using on the fateful day of their expulsion
+from Lochias, close to the cleverly-sketched portrait, and begged her
+husband to go out with her quite early next morning and to remain absent
+till mid-day.
+
+“You will see,” she said, “when he is standing face to face with his
+last work and there is no one by to disturb him or look at him, he will
+find the ends of the threads that have been cut and perhaps be able to
+gather them up again and go on with the work where it was interrupted.”
+
+The mother’s heart had hit upon the right idea. When Pollux had eaten
+his breakfast he went to his table exactly as he had done the clay
+before; but the sight of the work in hand had quite a different effect
+to the mere raw clay and wax. His eyes sparkled; he walked round the
+table with an attentive gaze examining his work as keenly and as eagerly
+as if it were some fine thing he saw for the first time. Memory revived
+in his mind. He laughed aloud, clasped his hands and said to himself,
+“Capital! Something may be made of that!”
+
+His dull weariness slipped off him, as it were; a confident smile parted
+his lips and he seized the wax with a firm hand. But he did not begin
+to work at once; he only tried whether his fingers had not lost their
+cunning, and whether the yielding material was obedient to his will. The
+wax was no less docile to his touch than in former days, as he pinched
+or pulled it. Perhaps then the tormenting thought that blighted his
+life, the dread that in the prison he had ceased to be an artist, and
+had lost all his faculty was nothing more than a mad delusion! He must
+at any rate try how he could get on at the work.
+
+No one was by to observe him--he might dare the attempt at once.
+The sweat of anguish stood in large beads on his brow as he finally
+concentrated his volition, shook back the hair from his face and took
+up a lump of the wax in both hands. There stood the portrait of Antinous
+with the head only half-finished. Now--could he succeed in modelling
+that lovely head free-hand and from memory?
+
+His breath came fast, and his hands trembled as he set to work; but soon
+his hand was as steady as ever, his eye was calm and keen again, and the
+work progressed. The fine features of the young Bithynian were distinct
+to his mind’s eye, and when, about four hours after, his mother looked
+in at the window to see what Pollux was doing, whether her little
+stratagem had succeeded, she cried out with surprise, for the favorite’s
+bust, a likeness in every feature, stood on a plinth side by side with
+the original sketch. Before she could cross the threshold her son had
+run to meet her, lifted her in his arms, and kissing her forehead and
+lips he exclaimed, radiant with delight:
+
+“Mother, I still can work. Mother, mother, I am not lost!”
+
+In the afternoon his brother came in and saw what he had been doing, and
+now--and not till now--could Teuker honestly be glad to have found his
+brother again.
+
+While the two artists were sitting together, and the gem-cutter was
+suggesting to the sculptor, who had complained of the bad light in
+his parent’s house, that he should carry the statue to his master’s
+workshop--which was much lighter--to complete it, Euphorion had quietly
+gone to some remote corner of his provision-shed and brought to light an
+amphora full of noble Chian wine which had been given to him by a rich
+merchant, for whose wedding he had performed the part of Hymenaeus with
+a chorus of youths. For twenty years had he still preserved this jar of
+wine for some specially happy occasion. This jar and his best lute were
+the only objects which Euphorion had carried with his own hand from
+Lochias to his daughter’s house and then again to his own new abode.
+With an air of dignified pride the singer set the old amphora before his
+sons, but Doris laid hands upon it at once and said:
+
+“I am glad to bestow the good gift upon you, and would willingly drink a
+cup of it with you; but a prudent general does not celebrate his triumph
+before he has won the battle. As soon as the statue of the beautiful lad
+is completed, I myself, will wreathe this venerable jar with ivy, and
+beg you spare it to us, my dear old man--but not before.”
+
+“Mother is right,” said Pollux. “And if the amphora is really destined
+for me, if you will allow it, my father shall not remove the pitch wig
+from its venerable head, till Arsinoe is mine once more!”
+
+“That is well my boy,” cried Doris, “and then I will crown, not merely
+the jar but all of us too, with nothing but sweet roses.”
+
+The next day Pollux, with his unfinished statue, removed to the workshop
+of his brother’s master. The worthy man cleared the best place for the
+young sculptor, for he thought highly of him and wished to make good, as
+far as lay in his power, the injustice the poor fellow had suffered from
+the treachery of Papias. Now, from sunrise till evening fell, Pollux was
+constant to his work. He gave himself up to the resuscitated pleasure
+and power of creation with real passion. Instead of using wax he had
+recourse to clay, and formed a tall figure which represented Antinous as
+the youthful Bacchus, as the god might have appeared to the pirates. A
+mantle fell in light folds from his left shoulder to his ankles, leaving
+the broad breast and right aria entirely free; vine-leaves and grapes
+wreathed his flowing locks, and a pine-cone, flame-shaped, crowned
+his brow. The left arm was raised in a graceful curve, and his fingers
+lightly grasped a thyrsus which rested on the ground and stood taller
+than the god’s head; by the side of this magnificent figure stood a
+mighty wine-jar, half hidden by the drapery.
+
+For a whole week Pollux had devoted himself to this task during all the
+hours of daylight with unflagging zeal and diligence. Before night fell
+he was accustomed to leave his work and walk up and down in front of
+Paulina’s house, but for the present he refrained from knocking at the
+door and asking after the girl he loved. He had heard from his mother
+how anxiously she was guarded from him and his; still Paulina’s severity
+would certainly not have hindered the artist from making the attempt to
+possess himself of his dearest treasure. What held him back from even
+approaching Arsinoe, was the vow he had made to himself never to tempt
+her to quit her new and sheltered home till he had acquired a firm
+certainty of being once for all an artist, a true artist, who might hope
+to do something great, and who might dare to link the fate of the woman
+he loved, with his own.
+
+When, on the eighth morning of his labors, he was taking a few minutes
+rest, his brother’s master came past the rapidly advancing work, and
+after contemplating it for some time exclaimed:
+
+“Splendid, splendid! Our time has produced nothing to compare with it!”
+
+An hour later Pollux was standing at the door of Paulina’s town-house,
+and let the knocker fall heavily on the door. The steward opened to him
+and asked him what he wanted. He asked to speak with dame Paulina,
+but she was not at home. Then he asked after Arsinoe, the daughter of
+Keraunus, who had found a home with the rich widow. The servant shook
+his head.
+
+“My mistress is having her searched for,” he said. “She disappeared
+yesterday evening. The ungrateful creature! She has tried to run away
+several times before now.”
+
+The artist laughed, slapped the steward on the back, and said:
+
+“I will soon find her!” and he sprang away down the street, and back to
+his parents.
+
+Arsinoe had received much kindness in Paulina’s house, but she had also
+gone through many bad hours. For months she had been obliged to believe
+that her lover was dead. Pontius had told her that Pollux had entirely
+vanished and her benefactress persisted in al ways speaking of him as
+of one dead. The poor child had shed many tears for him, and when
+the longing to talk of him with some one who had known him had taken
+possession of her she had entreated Paulina to allow her to go to see
+his mother or to let Doris visit her. But the widow had desired her to
+give up all thought of the idol-maker and his belongings, speaking with
+contempt of the gate-keeper’s worthy wife. Just at that time Selene also
+left the city, and now Arsinoe’s longing for her old friends grew to a
+passionate craving to see them again.
+
+One day she yielded to the promptings of her heart and slipped out into
+the street to seek Doris; but the door-keeper, who had been charged by
+Paulina never to allow her to go outside the door without his
+mistress’s express permission, noticed her and brought her back to her
+protectress--not this time only, but, on several subsequent occasions
+when she attempted to escape.
+
+It was not merely her longing to talk about Pollux which made her new
+home unendurable to Arsinoe, but many other reasons besides. She felt
+like a prisoner; and in fact she was one, for after each attempt at
+flight her freedom of movement was still farther impeded. It is true
+that she had soon ceased to submit patiently to all that was required of
+her and even had often opposed her adoptive mother with vehement words,
+tears and execrations, but these unpleasant scenes, which always ended
+by a declaration on Paulina’s part that she forgave the girl, had
+always resulted in a long break in her drives and in a variety of
+small annoyances. Arsinoe was beginning to hate her benefactress and
+everything that surrounded her, and the hours of catechising and of
+prayer, which she could not escape, were a positive martyrdom. Ere long
+the doctrine to which Paulina sought to win her was confounded in her
+mind with that which it was intended to drive out, and she defiantly
+shut her heart against it.
+
+Bishop Eumenes, who had been elected in the spring Patriarch of the
+Christians of Alexandria, visited her oftener than usual during the
+summer when Paulina lived in her suburban villa. Paulina, it is true,
+had fancied she could do without his help, and that she could and must
+carry her task through to the end by herself; but the worthy old man had
+felt sympathetically drawn to the poor ill-guided child, and sought to
+soothe and calm her mind and show her the goal, towards which Paulina
+desired to lead her, in all its beauty. After such discourses Arsinoe
+would be softened and felt inclined to believe in God and to love
+Christ, but no sooner had her protectress called her again into the
+school-room and put the very same things before her in her own way than
+the girl’s heartstrings drew close again; and when she was desired to
+pray she raised her hands, indeed, but out of sheer defiance, she prayed
+in spirit to the Greek gods.
+
+Frequently Paulina received visits from heathen acquaintances in rich
+dresses and the sight of them always reminded Arsinoe of former days.
+How poor she had been then! and yet she had always had a blue or a red
+ribbon to plait in her hair and trim the edge of her peplum. Now
+she might wear none but white dresses and the least scrap of colored
+ornament to dress her hair or smarten her robe was strictly forbidden.
+Such vain trifles, Paulina would say, were very well for the heathen,
+but the Lord looked not at the body but at the heart.
+
+Ah! and the poor little heart of the hapless child could not offer a
+very pleasing sight to the Father in Heaven, for hatred and disgust,
+sadness, impatience, and blasphemy seethed in it from morning till
+night. This young nature was surely formed for love and contentment, and
+both had left her weeping. Still Arsinoe never ceased to yearn for them.
+
+When November had begun and another attempt to run away during their
+move back to the town-house had failed, Paulina tried to punish her by
+never speaking a word to her for a fortnight, and forbidding even the
+slave-women to speak to her. In these two weeks the talkative girl was
+reduced almost to desperation, and she even thought of throwing herself
+off the roof down into the court-yard. But she clung too dearly to life
+to carry this horrible project into execution. On the first of December
+Paulina once more spoke to her, forgave her ingratitude, as usual in a
+long, kind speech, and told her how many hours she had spent in praying
+for her enlightenment and improvement.
+
+Paulina spoke the truth, and yet but half the truth, for she had never
+felt a real love for Arsinoe, and had now for a long time watched her
+come and go with actual dislike; but she required her conversion in
+order that the warmest wish of her heart might find fulfilment. It
+was for the happiness of her daughter, and not for the sake of her
+recalcitrant companion, that she prayed for her enlightenment and never
+ceased in her efforts to open the callous heart of her adopted child to
+the true faith.
+
+In the afternoon preceding that morning when Pollux had at last knocked
+at the Christian widow’s door, the sun shone with particular brilliancy,
+and Paulina had allowed the girl to go out with her. They spent some
+little time with a Christian family who dwelt on the shore of Lake
+Mareotis, and so it fell out that they did not return home till late in
+the evening. Arsinoe had long learnt, while she sat apparently gazing at
+the ground, to keep her eyes out of the carriage and to see everything
+that was going on around her; and as the chariot turned into their
+own street she spied in the distance a tall man who looked like her
+long-wept Pollux. She fixed her eyes upon him, and had some difficulty
+in keeping herself from calling out aloud, for he it was who walked
+slowly down the street. She could not be mistaken, for the torches of
+two slaves who were walking in front of a litter had broadly lighted up
+his face and figure.
+
+He was not lost--he was living, and seeking her. She could have shouted
+aloud for joy, but she did not stir till Paulina’s chariot was standing
+still in front of her house. The door-keeper bustled out as usual to
+help his mistress to step out of the high-slung vehicle. Thus Paulina
+for an instant turned her back, and in that moment Arsinoe sprang out of
+the opposite side of the chariot, and was flying down towards the street
+where she had seen her lover. Before Paulina could discover that she was
+gone the runaway found herself in the midst of the throng which, when
+the day’s work was over, poured out from the workshops and factories on
+their way home.
+
+Paulina’s slaves, who were sent out at once to seek the fugitive, had
+to return home this time empty-handed; but Arsinoe, on her part, had not
+succeeded in finding him she sought. For an hour she looked round
+and about her in vain; then she perceived that her search must be
+unsuccessful, and wondered how she might find her way to his parents’
+house. Rather than return to her benefactress she would have joined the
+roofless crew who passed the night on the hard marble pavement of the
+forecourts of the temple.
+
+At first she rejoiced in the sense of recovered liberty, but when none
+of the passers-by could tell her where Euphorion, the singer, lived, and
+some young men followed her and addressed her with impudent speeches,
+terror made her turn aside into a street which led to the Bruchiom;
+her persecutors had not even then ceased to follow her, when a litter,
+escorted by lictors and several torch-bearers, was carried past. It was
+Julia, the kind wife of the prefect, who sat in it; Arsinoe recognized
+her at once, followed her, and reached the door of her residence at
+the same moment as she herself. As the matron got out of her litter she
+observed the girl who placed herself modestly, but with hands uplifted
+in entreaty, at the side of her path. Julia greeted the pretty creature
+in whom she had once taken a motherly interest with affectionate
+sympathy, beckoned Arsinoe to her, smiled as she listened to her
+request for a night’s shelter, and led her with much satisfaction to her
+husband.
+
+Titianus was ill; still he was glad once more to see the ill-fated
+palace-steward’s pretty daughter; he listened to her story of her flight
+with many signs of disapprobation, but kindly withal, and expressed the
+warmest satisfaction at hearing that the sculptor Pollux was still in
+the land of the living.
+
+The grand and lordly bed in one of the strangers’ rooms in the prefect’s
+house had held many a more illustrious guest, but never one whose
+sleep was brightened by happier dreams than the poor orphaned “little
+fugitive,” who, no longer ago than yesterday, had cried herself to
+sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Arsinoe was up betimes on the following morning; much embarrassed by
+all the splendor that surrounded her, she walked up and down her room
+thinking of Pollux. Then she stopped to take pleasure in her own image
+displayed in a large mirror which stood on a dressing-table, and between
+whiles she compared the couch, on which she lay clown again at full
+length, with those in Paulina’s house. Once more she felt herself a
+prisoner, but this time she liked her prison, and presently, when she
+heard slaves passing by her room, she flew to the door to listen, for
+it was just possible that Titianus might have sent to fetch Pollux,
+and would allow him to come to see her. At last a slave-woman came in,
+brought her some breakfast, and desired her from Julia to go into the
+garden and look at the flowers and aviaries till she should be sent for.
+
+Early that morning the news had reached the prefect that Antinous had
+sought his death in the Nile, and it had shocked him greatly, less on
+account of the hapless youth than for Hadrian’s sake. When he had given
+the proper officials orders to announce the melancholy news and to
+desire the citizens to give some public expression of their sympathy
+with the Emperor’s sorrow, he gave audience to the Patriarch Eumenes.
+
+This venerable man, ever since the transactions which he had
+conducted--with reference to the thanksgiving of the Christians for the
+safety of the Emperor after the fire, had been one of the most esteemed
+friends of Titianus and Julia. The prefect discussed with the Patriarch
+the inauspicious effects that the death of the young fellow might be
+expected to have on the Emperor, and as a result, on the government,
+although the favorite had had no qualities of mind to distinguish him.
+
+“Whenever Hadrian,” continued Titianus, “would give his unresting
+brain an hour’s relaxation, and release himself from disappointment and
+vexation and the severe toil and anxiety of which his life is overfull,
+he would go out hunting with the bold youth or would have the handsome,
+good-hearted boy into his own room. The sight of the Bithynian’s
+beauty delighted his eye, and how well Antinous knew how to listen to
+him--silent, modest and attentive! Hadrian loved him as a son, and
+the poor fellow clung to his master in return with more than a son’s
+fidelity; his death itself proved it. Caesar himself said to me once;
+‘In the midst of the turmoil of waking life, when I see Antinous a
+feeling comes over me as if a beautiful dream stood incorporate before
+my eyes.’
+
+“Caesar’s grief at losing him must indeed be great,” said the Patriarch.
+
+“And the loss will add to the gloom of his grave and brooding nature,
+render his restless scheming and wandering still more capricious, and
+increase his suspiciousness and irritability.”
+
+“And the circumstances under which Antinous perished,” added Eumenes,
+“will afford new ground for his attachment to superstitions.”
+
+“That is to be feared. We have not happy days before us; the revolt in
+Judaea, too, will again cost thousands of lives.”
+
+“If only it had been granted to you to assume the government of that
+province.”
+
+“But you know, my worthy friend, the condition I am in. On my bad days
+I am incapable of commanding a thought or opening my lips. When my
+breathlessness increases I feel as if I were being suffocated. I have
+placed many decades of my life at the disposal of the state, and I now
+feel justified in devoting the diminished strength which is left me to
+other things. I and my wife think of retiring to my property by lake
+Larius, and there to try whether we may succeed, she and I, in becoming
+worthy of the salvation and capable of apprehending the truth that you
+have offered us. You are there Julia? As the determination to retire
+from the world has matured in us, we have, both of us, remembered more
+than once the words of the Jewish sage, which you lately told us of.
+When the angel of God drove the first man out of Paradise, he said:
+‘Henceforth your heart must be your Paradise.’ We are turning our backs
+on the pleasure of a city life--”
+
+“And we do so without regret,” said Julia, interrupting her husband,
+“for we bear in our minds the germ of a more indestructible, purer, and
+more lasting happiness.”
+
+“Amen!” said the Patriarch. “Where two such as you dwell together there
+the Lord is third in the bond.” “Give us your disciple Marcianus to be
+our travelling-companion,” said Titianus.
+
+“Willingly,” said Eumenes. “Shall he come to visit you when I leave
+you?”
+
+“Not immediately,” replied Julia. “I have this morning an important and
+at the same time pleasant business to attend to. You know Paulina, the
+widow of Pudeus. She took into her keeping a pretty young creature--”
+
+“And Arsinoe has run away from her.”
+
+“We took her in here,” said Titianus. “Her protectress seems to have
+failed in attracting her to her, or in working favorably on her nature.”
+
+“Yes,” said the Patriarch. “There was but one key to her full, bright
+heart--Love--but Paulina tried to force it open with coercion and
+persistent driving. It remained closed--nay, the lock is spoiled.--But,
+if I may ask, how came the girl into your house?”
+
+“That I can tell you later, we did not make her acquaintance for the
+first time yesterday.”
+
+“And I am going to fetch her lover to her,” cried the prefect’s wife.
+
+“Paulina will claim her of you,” said the Patriarch. “She is having
+her sought for everywhere; but the child will never thrive under her
+guidance.”
+
+“Did the widow formally adopt Arsinoe?” asked Titianus.
+
+“No; she proposed doing so as soon as her young pupil--”
+
+“Intentions count for nothing in law, and I can protect our pretty
+little guest against her claim.”
+
+“I will fetch her,” said Julia. “The time must certainly have seemed
+very long to her already. Will you come with me, Eumenes?”
+
+“With pleasure,” replied the old man, “Arsinoe and I are excellent
+friends; a conciliatory word from me will do her good, and my blessing
+cannot harm even a heathen. Farewell, Titianus, my deacons are expecting
+me.”
+
+When Julia returned to the sitting-room with her protegee, the child’s
+eyes were wet with tears, for the kind words of the venerable old
+man had gone to her heart and she knew and acknowledged that she had
+experienced good as well as evil from Paulina.
+
+The matron found her husband no longer alone. Wealthy old Plutarch
+with his two supporters was with him, and in black garments, which were
+decorated with none but white flowers, instead of many colored garments;
+he presented a singular appearance. The old man was discoursing eagerly
+to the prefect; but as soon as he saw Arsinoe he broke off his harangue,
+clapped his hands and was quite excited with the pleasure of seeing
+once more the fair Roxana for whom he had once visited in vain all the
+gold-workers’ shops in the city.
+
+“But I am tired,” cried Plutarch, with quite youthful vivacity, “I am
+quite tired of keeping the ornaments for you. There are quite enough
+other useless things in my house. They belong to you, not to me, and
+this very day I will send them to the noble Julia, that she may give
+them to you. Give me your hand, dear child; you have grown paler but
+more womanly. What do you think, Titianus, she would still do for
+Roxana; only your wife must find a dress for her again. All in white,
+and no ribband in your hair!--like a Christian.”
+
+“I know some one who will find out the way to fitly crown these soft
+tresses,” replied Julia. “Arsinoe is the bride of Pollux, the sculptor.”
+
+“Pollux!” exclaimed Plutarch, in extreme excitement. “Move me forward,
+Antaeus and Atlas, the sculptor Pollux is her lover? A great, a splendid
+artist! The very same, noble Titianus, of whom I just now speaking to
+you.”
+
+“You know him?” asked the prefect’s wife.
+
+“No, but I have just left the work-shop of Periander, the gem-cutter,
+and there I saw the model of a statue of Antinous that is unique,
+marvellous, incomparable! The Bithynian as Dionysus! The work would do
+no discredit to a Phidias, to a Lysippus. Pollux was out of the way,
+but I laid my hand at once on his work; the young master must execute it
+immediately in marble. Hadrian will be enchanted with this portrait
+of his beautiful and devoted favorite. You must admire it, every
+connoisseur must! I will pay for it, the only question is whether I
+or the city should present it to Caesar. This matter your husband must
+decide.”
+
+Arsinoe was radiant with joy at these words, but she stepped modestly
+into the background as an official came in and handed Titianus a
+dispatch that had just arrived.
+
+The prefect read it; then turning to his friend and his wife, he said:
+
+“Hadrian ascribes to Antinous the honors of a god.”
+
+“Fortunate Pollux!” exclaimed Plutarch. “He has executed the first
+statue of the new divinity. I will present it to the city, and they
+shall place it in the temple to Antinous of which we must lay the first
+stone before Caesar is back here again. Farewell, my noble friends!
+Greet your bridegroom from me, my child. His work belongs to me. Pollux
+will be the first among his fellow-artists, and it has been my privilege
+to discover this new star--the eighth artist whose merit I have detected
+while he was still unknown. Your future brother-in-law too, Teuker,
+will turn out well. I am having a stone cut by him with a portrait of
+Antinous. Once more farewell; I must go to the Council. We shall have to
+discuss the subject of a temple to the new divinity. Move on you two!”
+
+An hour after Plutarch had quitted the prefect’s house Julia’s chariot
+was standing at the entrance of a lane, much too narrow to admit a
+vehicle with horses, and which ended in a little plot on which stood
+Euphorion’s humble house. Julia’s outrunners easily found out the
+residence of the sculptor’s parents, led the matron and Arsinoe to the
+spot, and showed them the door they should knock at.
+
+“What a color you have, my little girl!” said Julia. “Well, I will not
+intrude on your meeting, but I should like to deliver you with my own
+hand into those of your future mother. Go to that little house, Arctus,
+and beg dame Doris to step out here. Only say that some one wishes to
+speak with her, but do not mention my name.”
+
+Arsinoe’s heart beat so violently that she was incapable of saying a
+word of thanks to her kind protectress. “Step behind this palm-tree,”
+ said the lady. Arsinoe obeyed; but she felt as though it was some
+outside volition, and not her own, that guided her to her hiding-place.
+She heard nothing of the first words spoken by the Roman lady and Doris.
+She only saw the dear old face of her Pollux’s mother, and in spite of
+her reddened eyes and the wrinkles which trouble had furrowed in her
+face, she could not tire of looking at it. It reminded her of the
+happiest days of her childhood, and she longed to rush forward and throw
+her arms round the neck of the kindly, good-hearted woman. Then she
+heard Julia say: “I have brought her to you. She is just as sweet and
+as maidenly and lovely as she was the first time we saw her in the
+theatre.”
+
+“Where is she? Where is she?” asked Doris in a trembling voice.
+
+Julia pointed to the palm, and was about to call Arsinoe, but the girl
+could no longer restrain her longing to fall on the neck of some one
+dear to her, for Pollux had come out of the door to see who had asked
+for his mother, and to see him and to fly to his breast with a cry of
+joy had been one and the same act to Arsinoe.
+
+Julia gazed at the couple with moistened eyes, and when, after many kind
+words for old and young alike, she took leave of the happy group, she
+said:
+
+“I will provide for your outfit my child, and this time I think you will
+wear it, not merely for one transient hour but through a long and happy
+life.”
+
+Joyful singing sounded out that evening from Euphorion’s little home.
+Doris and her husband, and Pollux and Arsinoe, Diotima and Teuker,
+decked with garlands, reclined round the amphora which was wreathed with
+roses, drinking to pleasure and joy, to art and love, and to all the
+gifts of the present. The sweet bride’s long hair was once more plaited
+with handsome blue ribbons.
+
+Three weeks after these events Hadrian was again in Alexandria. He
+kept aloof from all the festivals instituted in honor of the new god
+Antinous, and smiled incredulously when he was told that a new star had
+appeared in the sky, and that an oracle had declared it to be the soul
+of his lost favorite.
+
+When Plutarch conducted the Emperor and his friends to see the Bacchus
+Antinous, which Pollux had completed in the clay, Hadrian was deeply
+struck and wished to know the name of the master who had executed this
+noble work of art. Not one of his companion’s had the courage to speak
+the name of Pollux in his presence; only Pontius ventured to come
+forward for his young friend. He related to Hadrian the hapless artist’s
+history and begged him to forgive him. The Emperor nodded his approval,
+and said:
+
+“For the sake of this lost one he shall be forgiven.”
+
+Pollux was brought into his presence, and Hadrian, holding out his hand
+said as he pressed the sculptor’s:
+
+“The Immortals have bereft me of his love and faithfulness, but your art
+has preserved his beauty for me and for the world--”
+
+Every city in the Empire vied in building temples and erecting statues
+to the new god, and Pollux, Arsinoe’s happy husband, was commissioned
+to execute statues and busts of Antinous for a hundred towns; but he
+refused most of the orders, and would send out no work as his own that
+he had not executed himself on a new conception. His master, Papias,
+returned to Alexandria, but he was received there by his fellow-artists
+with such insulting contempt, that in an evil hour he destroyed himself.
+Teuker lived to be the most famous gem-engraver of his time.
+
+Soon after Selene’s martyrdom dame Hannah quitted Besa; the office of
+Superior of the Deaconesses at Alexandria was intrusted to her, and she
+exercised it with much blessing till an advanced age. Mary, the deformed
+girl, remained behind in the Nile-port, which under Hadrian was extended
+into the magnificent city of Antmoe. There were there two graves from
+which she could not bear to part.
+
+Four years after Arsinoe’s marriage with Pollux, Hadrian called the
+young sculptor to Rome; he was there to execute the statue of the
+Emperor in a quadriga. This work was intended to crown and finish
+his mausoleum constructed by Pontius, and Pollux carried it out in so
+admirable a manner, that when it was ended, Hadrian said to him with a
+smile:
+
+“Now you have earned the right to pronounce sentence of death on the
+works of other masters.” Euphorion’s son lived in honor and prosperity
+to see his children, the children of his faithful wife Arsinoe--who
+was greatly admired by the Tiber-grow up to be worthy citizens. They
+remained heathen; but the Christian love which Eumenes had taught
+Paulina’s foster-daughter was never forgotten, and she kept a kindly
+place for it in her heart and in her household. A few months before
+the young couple left Alexandria, Doris had peacefully gone to her last
+rest, and her husband died soon after her; the want of his faithful
+companion was the complaint he succumbed to.
+
+On the shores of the Tiber, Pontius was still the sculptor’s friend.
+Balbilla and her husband gave their corrupt fellow-citizens the example
+of a worthy, faithful marriage on the old Roman pattern. The poetess’s
+bust had been completed by Pollux in Alexandria, and with all its
+tresses and little curls, it found favor in Balbilla’s eyes.
+
+Verus was to have enjoyed the title of Caesar even during Hadrian’s
+lifetime, but after a long illness he died the first. Lucilla nursed
+him with unfailing devotion and enjoyed the longed-for monopoly of his
+attentions through a period of much suffering. It was on their son that
+in later years the purple devolved.
+
+The predictions of the prefect Titianus were fulfilled, for the
+Emperor’s faults increased with years and the meaner side of his mind
+and nature came into sharper relief. Titianus and his wife led a retired
+life by lake Larius, far from the world, and both were baptized before
+they died. They never pined for the turmoil of a pleasure-seeking world
+or its dazzling show, for they had learnt to cherish in their own hearts
+all that is fairest in life.
+
+It was the slave Mastor who brought to Titianus the news of the
+sovereign’s death. Hadrian had given him his freedom before he died and
+had left him a handsome legacy.
+
+The prefect gave him a piece of land to farm and continued in friendly
+relations with his Christian neighbor and his pretty daughter, who grew
+up among her father’s co-religionists.
+
+When Titianus had told his wife the melancholy news he added solemnly:
+
+“A great sovereign is dead. The pettinesses which disfigured the man
+Hadrian will be forgotten by posterity, for the ruler Hadrian was one of
+those men whom Fate sets in the places they belong to, and who, true to
+their duty, struggle indefatigably to the end. With wise moderation he
+was so far master of himself as to bridle his ambition and to defy the
+blame and prejudice of all the Romans. The hardest, and perhaps the
+wisest, resolution of his life was to abandon the provinces which it
+would have exhausted the power of the Empire to retain. He travelled
+over every portion of his dominion within the limits he himself had
+set to it, shrinking from neither frost nor heat, and he tried to be as
+thoroughly acquainted with every portion of it as if the Empire were a
+small estate he had inherited. His duties as a sovereign forced him to
+travel, and his love of travel lightened the duty. He was possessed by
+a real passion to understand and learn everything. Even the
+Incomprehensible set no limits to his thirst for knowledge, but ever
+striving to see farther and to dig deeper than is possible to the mind
+of man, he wasted a great part of his mighty powers in trying to snatch
+aside the curtain which hides the destinies of the future. No one ever
+worked at so many secondary occupations as he, and yet no former Emperor
+ever kept his eye so unerringly fixed on the main task of his life,
+the consolidation and maintenance of the strength of the state and the
+improvement and prosperity of its citizens.”
+
+
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     A well-to-do man always gets a higher price than a poor one
+     Avoid all useless anxiety
+     Dried merry-thought bone of a fowl
+     Enjoy the present day
+     Facts are differently reflected in different minds
+     Happiness is only the threshold to misery
+     Have not yet learned not to be astonished
+     Have lived to feel such profound contempt for the world
+     I must either rest or begin upon something new
+     Idleness had long since grown to be the occupation of his life
+     If one only knew who it is all for
+     Ill-judgment to pronounce a thing impossible
+     In order to find himself for once in good company--(Solitude)
+     It was such a comfort once more to obey an order
+     Love laughs at locksmiths
+     More to the purpose to think of the future than of the past
+     Never speaks a word too much or too little
+     Philosophers who wrote of the vanity of writers
+     So long as we do not think ourselves wretched, we are not so
+     Temples would be empty if mortals had nothing left to wish for
+     They keep an account in their heart and not in their head
+     To know half is less endurable than to know nothing
+     When a friend refuses to share in joys
+     Who do all they are able and enjoy as much as they can get
+     Wide world between the purpose and the deed
+     Years are the foe of beauty
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Emperor, Complete, by Georg Ebers
+
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diff --git a/5493-0.zip b/5493-0.zip
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Emperor, Complete, by Georg Ebers
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    pre     { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Emperor, Complete, by Georg Ebers
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Emperor, Complete
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: October 16, 2006 [EBook #5493]
+Last Updated: August 25, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EMPEROR, COMPLETE ***
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <h1>
+      THE EMPEROR
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Georg Ebers
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      Translated by Clara Bell
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE. </a><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0002"> <b>THE EMPEROR</b> </a><br /><br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> <b>BOOK 1.</b> </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /><br /><br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> <b>BOOK 2.</b> </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0030"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0031"> CHAPTER IX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0032"> CHAPTER X. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0033"> CHAPTER XI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0034"> CHAPTER XII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0035"> CHAPTER XIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0036"> CHAPTER XIV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0037"> CHAPTER XV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0038"> CHAPTER XVI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0039"> CHAPTER XVII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0040"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0041"> CHAPTER XIX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0042"> CHAPTER XX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0043"> CHAPTER XXI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0044"> CHAPTER XXII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0045"> CHAPTER XXIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0046"> CHAPTER XXIV. </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PREFACE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It is now fourteen years since I planned the story related in these
+      volumes, the outcome of a series of lectures which I had occasion to
+      deliver on the period of the Roman dominion in Egypt. But the pleasures of
+      inventive composition were forced to give way to scientific labors, and
+      when I was once more at leisure to try my wings with increase of power I
+      felt more strongly urged to other flights. Thus it came to pass that I did
+      I not take the time of Hadrian for the background of a tale till after I
+      had dealt with the still later period of the early monastic move in &ldquo;Homo
+      Sum.&rdquo; Since finishing that romance my old wish to depict, in the form of a
+      story, the most important epoch of the history of that venerable nation to
+      which I have devoted nearly a quarter century of my life, has found its
+      fulfilment. I have endeavored to give a picture of the splendor of the
+      Pharaonic times in &ldquo;Uarda,&rdquo; of the subjection of Egypt to the new Empire
+      of the Persians in &ldquo;An Egyptian Princess,&rdquo; of the Hellenic period under
+      the Lagides in &ldquo;The Sisters,&rdquo; of the Roman dominion and the early growth
+      of Christianity in &ldquo;The Emperor,&rdquo; and of the anchorite spirit&mdash;in the
+      deserts and rocks of the Sinaitic Peninsula&mdash;in &ldquo;Homo Sum.&rdquo; Thus the
+      present work is the last of which the scene will be laid in Egypt. This
+      series of romances will not only have introduced the reader to a knowledge
+      of the history of manners and culture in Egypt, but will have facilitated
+      his comprehension of certain dominant ideas which stirred the mind of the
+      Ancients. How far I may have succeeded in rendering the color of the times
+      I have described and in producing pictures that realize the truth, I
+      myself cannot venture to judge; for since even present facts are
+      differently reflected in different minds, this must be still more
+      emphatically the case with things long since past and half-forgotten.
+      Again and again, when historical investigation has refused to afford me
+      the means of resuscitating some remotely ancient scene, I have been
+      obliged to take counsel of imagination and remember the saying that &lsquo;the
+      Poet must be a retrospective Seer,&rsquo; and could allow my fancy to spread her
+      wings, while I remained her lord and knew the limits up to which I might
+      permit her to soar. I considered it my lawful privilege to paint much that
+      was pure invention, but nothing that was not possible at the period I was
+      representing. A due regard for such possibility has always set the bounds
+      to fancy&rsquo;s flight; wherever existing authorities have allowed me to be
+      exact and faithful I have always been so, and the most distinguished of my
+      fellow-professors in Germany, England, France and Holland, have more than
+      once borne witness to this. But, as I need hardly point out, poetical and
+      historical truth are not the same thing; for historical truth must remain,
+      as far as possible, unbiassed by the subjective feeling of the writer,
+      while poetical truth can only find expression through the medium of the
+      artist&rsquo;s fancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As in my last two romances, so in &ldquo;The Emperor,&rdquo; I have added no notes: I
+      do this in the pleasant conviction of having won the confidence of my
+      readers by my historical and other labors. Nothing has encouraged me to
+      fresh imaginative works so much as the fact that through these romances
+      the branch of learning that I profess has enlisted many disciples whose
+      names are now mentioned with respect among Egyptologists. Every one who is
+      familiar with the history of Hadrian&rsquo;s time will easily discern by
+      trifling traits from what author or from which inscription or monument the
+      minor details have been derived, and I do not care to interrupt the course
+      of the narrative and so spoil the pleasure of the larger class of readers.
+      It would be a happiness to me to believe that this tale deserves to be
+      called a real work of art, and, as such, its first function should be to
+      charm and elevate the mind. Those who at the same time enrich their
+      knowledge by its study ought not to detect the fact that they are
+      learning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those who are learned in the history of Alexandria under the Romans may
+      wonder that I should have made no mention of the Therapeutai on Lake
+      Mareotis. I had originally meant to devote a chapter to them, but Luca&rsquo;s
+      recent investigations led me to decide on leaving it unwritten. I have
+      given years of study to the early youth of Christianity, particularly in
+      Egypt, and it affords me particular satisfaction to help others to realize
+      how, in Hadrian&rsquo;s time, the pure teaching of the Saviour, as yet little
+      sullied by the contributions of human minds, conquered&mdash;and could not
+      fail to conquer&mdash;the hearts of men. Side by side with the triumphant
+      Faith I have set that noble blossom of Greek life and culture&mdash;Art
+      which in later ages, Christianity absorbed in order to dress herself in
+      her beautiful forms. The statues and bust of Antinous which remain to us
+      of that epoch, show that the drooping tree was still destined to put forth
+      new leaves under Hadrian&rsquo;s rule.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The romantic traits which I have attributed to the character of my hero,
+      who travelled throughout the world, climbing mountains to rejoice in the
+      splendor of he rising sun, are authentic. One of the most difficult tasks
+      I have ever set myself was to construct from the abundant but essentially
+      contradictory accounts of Hadian a human figure in which I could myself at
+      all believe; still, how gladly I set to work to do so! There was much to
+      be considered in working out this narrative, but the story itself has
+      flowed straight from the heart of the writer; I can only hope it may find
+      its way to that of the reader.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   LEIPZIG, November, 1880.
+
+                    GEORG EBERS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      THE EMPEROR
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      BOOK 1.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The morning twilight had dawned into day, and the sun had risen on the
+      first of December of the year of our Lord 129, but was still veiled by
+      milk-white mists which rose from the sea, and it was cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kasius, a mountain of moderate elevation, stands on a tongue of land that
+      projects from the coast between the south of Palestine and Egypt. It is
+      washed on the north by the sea which, on this day, is not gleaming, as is
+      its wont, in translucent ultramarine; its more distant depths slowly surge
+      in blue-black waves, while those nearer to shore are of quite a different
+      hue, and meet their sisters that lie nearer to the horizon in a dull
+      greenish-grey, as dusty plains join darker lava beds. The northeasterly
+      wind, which had risen as the sun rose, now blew more keenly, wreaths of
+      white foam rode on the crests of the waves, though these did not beat
+      wildly and stormily on the mountain-foot, but rolled heavily to the shore
+      in humped ridges, endlessly long, as if they were of molten lead. Still
+      the clear bright spray splashed up when the gulls dipped their pinions in
+      the water as they floated above it, hither and thither, restless and
+      uttering shrill little cries, as though driven by terror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three men were walking slowly along the causeway which led from the top of
+      the hill down into the valley, but it was only the eldest, who walked in
+      front of the other two, who gave any heed to the sky, the sea, the gulls,
+      and the barren plain that lay silent at his feet. He stopped, and as soon
+      as he did so, the others followed his example. The landscape below him
+      seemed to rivet his gaze, and it justified the disapproval with which he
+      gently shook his head, which was somewhat sunk into his beard. A narrow
+      strip of desert stretched westward before him as far as the eye could
+      reach, dividing two levels of water. Along this natural dyke a caravan was
+      passing, and the elastic feet of the camels fell noiselessly on the road
+      they trod. The leader, wrapped in his white mantle, seemed asleep, and the
+      camel-drivers to be dreaming; the dull-colored eagles by the road-side did
+      not stir at their approach. To the right of the stretch of flat coast
+      along which the road ran from Syria to Egypt, lay the gloomy sea, overhung
+      by grey clouds; to the left lay the desert, a strange and mysterious
+      feature in the landscape, of which the eye could not see the end, either
+      to the east or to the west, and which looked here like a stretch of snow,
+      there like standing water, and again like a thicket of rushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eldest of our travellers gazed constantly towards heaven or into the
+      distance; the second, a slave who carried rugs and cloaks on his broad
+      shoulders, never took his eyes off his master; and the third, a young,
+      free-man, looked wearily and dreamily down the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A broad path, leading to a stately temple, crossed that which led from the
+      summit of the mountain to the coast, and the bearded pedestrian turned up
+      it; but he followed it only for a few steps, then he turned his head with
+      a dissatisfied air, muttered a few unintelligible words into his beard,
+      turned round and hastily retraced his steps to the narrow way, down which
+      he went towards the valley. His young companion followed him without
+      raising his head or interrupting his reverie, as if he were his shadow,
+      but the slave lifted his cropped fair head and a stolen smile crossed his
+      lips as on the left hand side of the Kasius road he caught sight of a
+      black kid, and close beside it an old woman who, at the approach of the
+      three men covered her wrinkled face in alarm with her dark blue veil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the reason then!&rdquo; said the slave to himself with a nod, and
+      blowing a kiss into the air to a black-haired girl who crouched at the old
+      woman&rsquo;s feet. But she, for whom the greeting was intended, did not observe
+      this mute courtship, for her eyes followed the travellers, and especially
+      the young man, as if spellbound. As soon as the three were far enough off
+      not to hear her, the girl asked with a shiver, as if some desert-spectre
+      had passed by-and in a low voice &ldquo;Grandmother, who was that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old woman raised her veil, laid her hand on her grandchild&rsquo;s mouth,
+      and whispered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was he.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Emperor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old woman answered with a significant nod, but the girl squeezed
+      herself up, against her grandmother, with vehement curiosity stretching
+      out her dusky head to see better, and asked softly: &ldquo;The young one?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silly child! the one in front with a grey beard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He? Oh, I wish the young one was the Emperor!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in fact Hadrian, the Roman Emperor, who walked on in silence before
+      his escort, and it seemed as though his advent had given life to the
+      desert, for as he approached the reed-swamp, the kites flew up in the air,
+      and from behind a sand-hill on the edge of the broader road which Hadrian
+      had avoided, came two men in priestly robes. They both belonged to the
+      temple of Baal of Kariotis, a small structure of solid stone, which faced
+      the sea, and which the Emperor had yesterday visited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think he has lost his way?&rdquo; said one to the other, in the
+      Phoenician tongue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hardly,&rdquo; was the answer. &ldquo;Master said that he could always find a road
+      again by which he had once gone, even in the dark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet he is gazing more at the clouds than at the road.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, he promised us yesterday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He promised nothing for certain,&rdquo; interrupted the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed he did; at parting he called out&mdash;and I heard him distinctly:
+      &lsquo;Perhaps I shall return and consult your oracle.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think he said &lsquo;probably.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows whether some sign he has seen up in the sky may not have turned
+      him back; he is going to the camp by the sea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the banquet is standing ready for him in our great hall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will find what he needs down there. Come, it is a wretched morning,
+      and I am being frozen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a little longer-look there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He does not even wear a hat to cover his grey hair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has never yet been seen to travel with anything on his head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And his grey cloak is not very imperial looking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He always wears the purple at a banquet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know who his walk and appearance remind me of?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of our late high-priest, Abibaal; he used to walk in that ponderous,
+      meditative way, and wear a beard like the Emperor&rsquo;s.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes&mdash;and had the same piercing grey eye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He too used often to gaze up at the sky. They have both the same broad
+      forehead, too; but Abibaal&rsquo;s nose was more aquiline, and his hair curled
+      less closely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And our governor&rsquo;s mouth was grave and dignified, while Hadrian&rsquo;s lips
+      twitch and curl at all he says and hears, as if he were laughing at it
+      all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look, he is speaking now to his favorite&mdash;Antonius I think they call
+      the pretty boy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Antinous, not Antonius. He picked him up in Bithynia, they say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a beautiful youth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Incomparably beautiful! What a figure and what a face! Still, I cannot
+      wish that he were my son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Emperor&rsquo;s favorite!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For that very reason. Why, he looks already as if he had tried every
+      pleasure, and could never know any farther enjoyment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+         ............................
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      On a little level close to the sea-shore, and sheltered by crumbling
+      cliffs from the east wind, stood a number of tents. Between them fires
+      were burning, round which were gathered groups of Roman soldiers and
+      imperial servants. Half-naked boys, the children of the fishermen and
+      camel-drivers who dwelt in this wilderness, were running busily hither and
+      thither, feeding the flames with dry stems of sea-grass and dead
+      desert-shrubs; but though the blaze flew high, the smoke did not rise; but
+      driven here and there by the squalls of wind, swirled about close to the
+      ground in little clouds, like a flock of scattered sheep. It seemed as
+      though it feared to rise in the grey, damp, uninviting atmosphere. The
+      largest of the tents, in front of which Roman sentinels paced up and down,
+      two and two, on guard, was wide open on the side towards the sea. The
+      slaves who came out of the broad door-way with trays on their cropped
+      heads-loaded with gold and silver vessels, plates, wine-jars, goblets, and
+      the remains of a meal had to hold them tightly with both hands that they
+      might not be blown over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The inside of the tent was absolutely unadorned. The Emperor lay on a
+      couch near the right wall, which was blown in and bulged by the wind; his
+      bloodless lips were tightly set, his arms crossed over his breast, and his
+      eyes half closed. But he was not asleep, for he often opened his mouth and
+      smacked his lips, as if tasting the flavor of some viand. From time to
+      time he raised his eyelids&mdash;long, finely wrinkled, and blue-veined&mdash;turning
+      his eyes up to heaven or rolling them to one side and then downwards
+      towards the middle of the tent. There, on the skin of a huge bear trimmed
+      with blue cloth, lay Hadrian&rsquo;s favorite Antinous. His beautiful head
+      rested on that of the beast, which had been slain by his sovereign, and
+      its skull and skin skilfully preserved, his right leg, supported on his
+      left knee, he flourished freely in the air, and his hands were caressing
+      the Emperor&rsquo;s bloodhound, which had laid its sage-looking head on the
+      boy&rsquo;s broad, bare breast, and now and then tried to lick his soft lips to
+      show its affection. But this the youth would not allow; he playfully held
+      the beast&rsquo;s muzzle close with his hands or wrapped its head in the end of
+      his mantle, which had slipped back from his shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog seemed to enjoy the game, but once when Antinous had drawn the
+      cloak more tightly round its head and it strove in vain to be free from
+      the cloth that impeded its breathing, it set up a loud howl, and this
+      doleful cry made the Emperor change his attitude and cast a glance of
+      displeasure at the boy lying on the bear-skin, but only a glance, not a
+      word of blame. And soon the expression, even of his eyes, changed, and he
+      fixed them on the lads&rsquo;s figure with a gaze of loving contemplation, as
+      though it were some noble work of art that he could never tire of
+      admiring. And truly the Immortals had moulded this child of man to such a
+      type; every muscle of that throat, that chest, those arms and legs was a
+      marvel of softness and of power; no human countenance could be more
+      regularly chiselled. Antinous observing that his master&rsquo;s attention had
+      been attracted to his play with the dog, let the animal go and turned his
+      large, but not very brilliant, eyes on the Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you doing here?&rdquo; asked Hadrian kindly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing,&rdquo; said the boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one can do nothing. Even if we fancy we have succeeded in doing
+      nothing we still continue to think that we are unoccupied, and to think is
+      a good deal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I cannot even think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every one can think; besides you were not doing nothing, for you were
+      playing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, with the dog.&rdquo; With these words Antinous stretched out his legs on
+      the ground, pushed away the dog, and raised his curly head on both hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you tired?&rdquo; asked the Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We both kept watch for an equal portion of the night, and I, who am so
+      much older, feel quite wide awake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was only yesterday that you were saying that old soldiers were the
+      best for night-watches.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor nodded, and then said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At your age while we are awake we live three times as fast as at mine,
+      and so we need to sleep twice as long. You have every right to be tired.
+      To be sure it was not till three hours after midnight that we climbed the
+      mountain, and how often a supper party is not over before that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was very cold and uncomfortable up there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not till after the sun had risen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! before that you did not notice it, for till then you were busy
+      thinking of the stars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you only of yourself&mdash;very true.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was thinking of your health too when that cold wind rose before Helios
+      appeared.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was obliged to await his rising.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And can you discern future events by the way and manner of the rising of
+      the sun?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian looked in surprise at the speaker, shook his head in negation,
+      looked up at the top of the tent, and after a long pause said, in abrupt
+      sentences, with frequent interruptions:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Day is the present merely, and the future is evolved out of darkness; the
+      corn grows from the clods of the field; the rain falls from the darkest
+      clouds; a new generation is born of the mother&rsquo;s womb; the limbs recover
+      their vigor in sleep. And what is begotten of the darkness of death&mdash;who
+      can tell?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When, after saying this, the Emperor had remained for some time silent,
+      the youth asked him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if the sunrise teaches you nothing concerning the future why should
+      you so often break your night&rsquo;s rest and climb the mountain to see it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why? Why?&rdquo; repeated Hadrian, slowly and meditatively, stroking his
+      grizzled beard; then he went on as if speaking to himself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a question which reason fails to answer, before which my lips
+      find no words; and, if I had them at my command, who among the rabble
+      would understand me? Such questions can best be answered by means of
+      parables. Those who take part in life are actors, and the world is their
+      stage. He who wants to look tall on it wears the cothurnus, and is not a
+      mountain the highest vantage ground that a man can find for the sole of
+      his foot? Kasius there is but a hill, but I have stood on greater giants
+      than he, and seen the clouds rise below me, like Jupiter on Olympus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you need climb no mountains to feel yourself a god,&rdquo; cried Antinous;
+      &ldquo;the godlike is your title&mdash;you command and the world must obey. With
+      a mountain beneath his feet a man is nearer to heaven no doubt than he is
+      on the plain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare not say what came into my mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knew a little girl who when I took her on my shoulder would stretch out
+      her arms and exclaim, &lsquo;I am so tall!&rsquo; She fancied that she was taller than
+      I then, and yet was only little Panthea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But in her own conception of herself, it was she who was tall, and that
+      decides the issue, for to each of us a thing is only that which it seems
+      to us. It is true they call me godlike, but I feel every day, and a
+      hundred times a day, the limitations of the power and nature of man, and I
+      cannot get beyond them. On the top of a mountain I cease to feel them;
+      there I feel as if I were great, for nothing is higher than my head, far
+      or near. And when, as I stand there, the night vanishes before my eyes,
+      when the splendor of the young sun brings the world into new life for me,
+      by restoring to my consciousness all that just before had been engulfed in
+      gloom, then a deeper breath swells my breast, and my lungs fill with the
+      purer and lighter air of the heights. Up there, alone and in silence, no
+      hint can reach me of the turmoil below, and I feel myself one with the
+      great aspect of nature spread before me. The surges of the sea come and
+      go, the tree-tops in the forest bow and rise, fog and mist roll away and
+      part asunder hither and thither, and up there I feel myself so merged with
+      the creation that surrounds me that often it even seems as though it were
+      my own breath that gives it life. Like the storks and the swallows, I
+      yearn for the distant land, and where should the human eye be more likely
+      to be permitted, at least in fancy, to discern the remote goal than from
+      the summit of a mountain?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The limitless distance which the spirit craves for seems there to assume
+      a form tangible to the senses, and the eye detects its border line. My
+      whole being feels not merely elevated, but expanded, and that vague
+      longing which comes over me as soon as I mix once more in the turmoil of
+      life, and when the cares of state demand my strength, vanishes. But you
+      cannot understand it, boy. These are things which no other mortal can
+      share with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And it is only to me that you do not scorn to reveal them!&rdquo; cried
+      Antinous, who had turned round to face the Emperor, and who with wide eyes
+      had not lost one word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You?&rdquo; said Hadrian, and a smile, not absolutely free from mockery, parted
+      his lips. &ldquo;From you I should no more have a secret than from the Cupid by
+      Praxiteles, in my study at Rome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The blood mounted to the lad&rsquo;s cheeks and dyed them flaming crimson. The
+      Emperor observed this and said kindly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are more to me than the statue, for the marble cannot blush. In the
+      time of the Athenians Beauty governed life, but in you I can see that the
+      gods are pleased to give it a bodily existence, even in our own days, and
+      to look at you reconciles me to the discords of existence. It does me
+      good. But how should I expect to find that you understand me; your brow
+      was never made to be furrowed by thought; or did you really understand one
+      word of all I said?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous propped himself on his left arm, and lifting his right hand, he
+      said emphatically:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And which,&rdquo; asked Hadrian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know what longing is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For many things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some enjoyment that is not followed by depression. I do not know of one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a desire you share with all the youth of Rome, only they are apt
+      to postpone the reaction. Well, and what next?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What prevents your speaking openly to me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You, yourself did.&rdquo; &ldquo;I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you; for you forbid me to speak of my home, my mother, and my
+      people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor&rsquo;s brow darkened, and he answered sternly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am your father and your whole soul should be given to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is all yours,&rdquo; answered the youth, falling back on to the bear-skin,
+      and drawing the pallima closely over his shoulders, for a gust blew coldly
+      in at the side of the tent, through which Phlegon, the Emperor&rsquo;s private
+      secretary, now entered and approached his master. He was followed by a
+      slave with several sealed rolls under his arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will it be agreeable to you, Caesar, to consider the despatches and
+      letters that have just arrived?&rdquo; asked the official, whose
+      carefully-arranged hair had been tossed by the sea-breeze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and then we can make a note of what I was able to observe in the
+      heavens last night. Have you the tablets ready?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I left them in the tent set up especially for the work, Caesar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The storm has become very violent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems to blow from the north and east both at once, and the sea is
+      very rough. The Empress will have a bad voyage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When did she set out?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The anchor was weighed towards midnight. The vessel which is to fetch her
+      to Alexandria is a fine ship, but rolls from side to side in a very
+      unpleasant manner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian laughed loudly and sharply at this, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will turn her heart and her stomach upside down. I wish I were there
+      to see&mdash;but no, by all the gods, no! for she will certainly forget to
+      paint this morning; and who will construct that edifice of hair if all her
+      ladies share her fate. We will stay here to-day, for if I meet her soon
+      after she has reached Alexandria she will be undiluted gall and vinegar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words Hadrian rose from his couch, and waving his hand to
+      Antinous, went out of the tent with his secretary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A third person standing at the back of the tent had heard the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      conversation with his favorite; this was Mastor, a Sarmatian of the race
+      of the Taryges. He was a slave, and no more worthy of heed than the dog
+      which had followed Hadrian, or than the pillows on which the Emperor had
+      been reclining. The man, who was handsome and well grown, stood for some
+      time twisting the ends of his long red moustache, and stroking his round,
+      closely-cropped head with his bands; then he drew the open chiton together
+      over his broad breast, which seemed to gleam from the remarkable whiteness
+      of the skin. He never took his eyes off Antinous, who had turned over, and
+      covering his face with his hands had buried them in the bear&rsquo;s hairy mane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mastor had something he wanted to say to him, but he dared not address him
+      for the young favorite&rsquo;s demeanor could not be reckoned on. Often he was
+      ready to listen to him and talk with him as a friend, but often, too, he
+      repulsed him more sharply than the haughtiest upstart would repel the
+      meanest of his servants. At last the slave took courage and called the lad
+      by his name, for it seemed less hard to submit to a scolding than to
+      smother the utterance of a strong, warm feeling, unimportant as it might
+      be, which was formed in words in his mind. Antinous raised his head a
+      little on his hands and asked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only wanted to tell you,&rdquo; replied the Sarmatian, &ldquo;that I know who the
+      little girl was that you so often took upon your shoulders. It was your
+      little sister, was it not, of whom you were speaking to me lately?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lad nodded assent, and then once more buried his head in his hands,
+      and his shoulders heaved so violently that it would seem that he was
+      weeping.&mdash;Mastor remained silent for a few minutes, then he went up
+      to Antinous and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know I have a son and a little daughter at home, and I am always glad
+      to hear about little girls. We are alone and if it will relieve your
+      heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me alone, I have told you a dozen times already about my mother and
+      little Parthea,&rdquo; replied Antinous, trying to look composed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then do so confidently for the thirteenth,&rdquo; said the slave. &ldquo;In the camp
+      and in the kitchen I can talk about my people as much as I like. But you&mdash;tell
+      me, what do you call the little dog that Panthea made a scarlet cloak
+      for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We called it Kallista,&rdquo; cried Antinous wiping his eyes with the back of
+      his hand. &ldquo;My father would not allow it but we persuaded my mother. I was
+      her favorite, and when I put my arms round her and looked at her
+      imploringly she always said &lsquo;yes&rsquo; to anything I asked her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A bright light shone in the boy&rsquo;s weary eyes; he had remembered a whole
+      wealth of joys which left no depression behind them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      One of the palaces built in Alexandria by the Ptolemaic kings stood on the
+      peninsula called Lochias which stretched out into the blue sea like a
+      finger pointing northwards; it formed the eastern boundary of the great
+      harbor. Here there was never any lack of vessels but to-day they were
+      particularly numerous, and the quay-road paved with smooth blocks of
+      stone, which led from the palatial quarter of the town&mdash;the Bruchiom
+      as it was called&mdash;which was bathed by the sea, to the spit of land
+      was so crowded with curious citizens on foot and in vehicles, that all
+      conveyances were obliged to stop in their progress before they had reached
+      the private harbor reserved for the Emperor&rsquo;s vessels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there was something out of the common to be seen at the landing-place,
+      for there lying under the shelter of the high mole were the splendid
+      triremes, galleys, long boats and barges which had brought Hadrian&rsquo;s wife
+      and the suite of the imperial couple to Alexandria. A very large vessel
+      with a particularly high cabin on the after deck and having the head of a
+      she-wolf on the lofty and boldly-carved prow excited the utmost attention.
+      It was carved entirely in cedar wood, richly decorated with bronze and
+      ivory, and named the Sabina. A young Alexandrian pointed to the name
+      written in gold letters on the stern, nudging his companion and saying
+      with a laugh:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sabina has a wolf&rsquo;s head then!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A peacock&rsquo;s would suit her better. Did you see her on her way to the
+      Caesareum?&rdquo; replied the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! I did,&rdquo; said the first speaker, but he said no more perceiving,
+      close behind him, a Roman lictor who bore over his left shoulder his
+      fasces, a bundle of elmrods skilfully tied together, and who, with a wand
+      in his right-hand and the assistance of his comrades, was endeavoring to
+      part the crowd and make room for the chariot of his master, Titianus, the
+      imperial prefect, which came slowly in the rear. This high official had
+      overheard the citizens&rsquo; heedless words, and turning to the man who stood
+      beside him, while with a light fling he threw the end of his toga into
+      fresh folds, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An extraordinary people! I cannot feel annoyed with them, and yet I would
+      rather walk from here to Canopus on the edge of a knife than on that of an
+      Alexandrian&rsquo;s tongue.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you hear what the stout man was saying about Verus?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The lictor wanted to take him up, but nothing is to be done with them by
+      violence. If they had to pay only a sesterce for every venomous word, I
+      tell you Pontius, the city would be impoverished and our treasury would
+      soon be fuller than that of Gyges at Sardis.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let them keep their money,&rdquo; cried the other, the chief architect of the
+      city, a man of about thirty years of age with highly-arched brows and
+      eager piercing eyes; and grasping the roll he held in his hand with a
+      strong grip, he continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They know how to work, and sweat is bitter. While they are busy they help
+      each other, in idleness they bite each other, like unbroken horses
+      harnessed to the same pole. The wolf is a fine brute, but if you break out
+      his teeth he becomes a mangy hound.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You speak after my own heart,&rdquo; cried the prefect. &ldquo;But here we are,
+      eternal gods! I never imagined anything so bad as this. From a distance it
+      always looked handsome enough!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Titianus and the architect descended from the chariot, the former desired
+      a lictor to call the steward of the palace, and then he and his companion
+      inspected first the door which led into it. It looked fine enough with its
+      double columns which supported a lofty pediment, but, all the same, it did
+      not present a particularly pleasing aspect, for the stucco had, in several
+      places, fallen from the walls, the capitals of the marble columns were
+      lamentably injured and the tall doors, overlaid with metal, hung askew on
+      their hinges. Pontius inspected every portion of the door-way with a keen
+      eye and then, with the prefect, went into the first court of the palace,
+      in which, in the time of the Ptolemies, the tents had stood for
+      ambassadors, secretaries, and the officers in waiting on the king. There
+      they met with an unexpected hindrance, for across the paved court-yard,
+      where the grass grew in tufts, and tall thistles were in bloom, a number
+      of ropes were stretched aslant from the little house in which dwelt the
+      gate-keeper; and on these ropes were hung newly-washed garments of every
+      size and shape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A pretty residence for an Emperor,&rdquo; sighed Titianus, shrugging his
+      shoulders, but stopping the lictor, who had raised his fasces to cut the
+      ropes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not so bad as it looks,&rdquo; said the architect positively.
+      &ldquo;Gate-keeper! hi, gate-keeper! Where is the lazy fellow hiding himself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While he called out and the lictor hurried forward into the interior of
+      the palace, Pontius went towards the gate-keeper&rsquo;s lodge, and having made
+      his way in a stooping attitude through the damp clothes, there he stood
+      still. Ever since he had come in at the gate annoyance and vexation had
+      been stamped on his countenance, but now his large mouth spread into a
+      smile, and he called to the prefect in an undertone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Titianus, just take the trouble to come here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The elderly dignitary, whose tall figure exceeded that of the architect in
+      height by a full head, did not find it quite so easy to pass under the
+      ropes with his head bent down; but he did it with good humor, and while
+      carefully avoiding pulling down the wet linen, he called out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am beginning to feel some respect for children&rsquo;s shirts; one can at any
+      rate get through them without breaking one&rsquo;s spine. Oh! this is delicious&mdash;quite
+      delicious!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This exclamation was caused by the sight which the architect had invited
+      the prefect to come and enjoy, and which was certainly droll enough. The
+      front of the gate-keeper&rsquo;s house was quite grown over with ivy which
+      framed the door and window in its long runners. Amidst the greenery hung
+      numbers of cages with starlings, blackbirds, and smaller singing-birds.
+      The wide door of the little house stood open, giving a view into a
+      tolerably spacious and gaily-painted room. In the background stood a clay
+      model of an Apollo of admirable workmanship; above, and near this, the
+      wall was hung with lutes and lyres of various size and form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the middle of the room, and near the open door, was a table, on which
+      stood a large wicker cage containing several nests of young goldfinches,
+      and with green food twined among the osiers. There were, too, a large
+      wine-jar and an ivory goblet decorated with fine carving. Close to the
+      drinking-vessels, on the stone top of the table, rested the arm of an
+      elderly woman who had fallen asleep in the arm-chair in which she sat.
+      Notwithstanding the faint grey moustache that marked her upper-lip and the
+      pronounced ruddiness of her fore head and cheeks, she looked pleasant and
+      kind. She must have been dreaming of something that pleased her, for the
+      expression of her lips and of her eyes-one being half open and the other
+      closely shut-gave her a look of contentment. In her lap slept a large grey
+      cat, and by its side&mdash;as though discord never could enter this bright
+      little abode which exhaled no savor of poverty, but, on the contrary, a
+      peculiar and fragrant scent&mdash;lay a small shaggy dog, whose snowy
+      whiteness of coat could only be due to the most constant care. Two other
+      dogs, like this one, lay stretched on the floor at the old lady&rsquo;s feet,
+      and seemed no less soundly asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the prefect came up, the architect pointed to this study of still-life,
+      and said in a whisper:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If we had a painter here it would make a lovely little picture.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Incomparable,&rdquo; answered Titianus, &ldquo;only the vivid scarlet on the dame&rsquo;s
+      cheeks seems to me suspicious, considering the ample proportions of the
+      wine-jar at her elbow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But did you ever see a calmer, kindlier, or more contented countenance?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Baucis must have slept like that when Philemon allowed himself leave of
+      absence for once! or did that devoted spouse always remain at home?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Apparently he did. Now, peace is at an end.&rdquo; The approach of the two
+      friends had waked one of the little dogs. He gave tongue, and his
+      companion immediately jumped up and barked as if for a wager. The old
+      woman&rsquo;s pet sprang out of her lap, but neither his mistress nor the cat
+      let themselves be disturbed by the noise, and slept on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A watcher among a thousand!&rdquo; said the architect, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And this phalanx of dogs which guard the palace of a Caesar,&rdquo; added
+      Titianus, &ldquo;might be vanquished with a blow. Take heed, the worthy matron
+      is about to wake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dame had in fact been disturbed by the barking. She sat up a little,
+      lifted her hands, and then, half singing, half muttering a few words, she
+      sank back again in her chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is delicious!&rdquo; cried the prefect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Begone dull care&rdquo; she sang in her sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How may this rare specimen of humanity look when she is awake?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should be sorry to drive the old lady out of her nest!&rdquo; said the
+      architect unrolling his scroll.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall touch nothing in the little house,&rdquo; cried the prefect eagerly.
+      &ldquo;I know Hadrian; he delights in such queer things and queer people, and I
+      will wager he will make friends with the old woman in his own way. Here at
+      last comes the steward of this palace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prefect was not mistaken; the hasty step he had heard was that of the
+      official they awaited. At some little distance they could already hear the
+      man, panting as he hurried up, and as he came, before Titianus could
+      prevent him, he had snatched down the cords that were stretched across the
+      court and flung all the washing on the ground. As soon as the curtain had
+      thus dropped which had divided him from the Emperor&rsquo;s representative and
+      his companion, he bowed to the former as low as the rotund dimensions of
+      his person would allow; but his hasty arrival, the effort of strength he
+      had made, and his astonishment at the appearance of the most powerful
+      personage in the Nile Province in the building entrusted to his care, so
+      utterly took away his breath&mdash;of which he at all times was but
+      &ldquo;scant&rdquo;&mdash;that he was unable even to stammer out a suitable greeting.
+      Titianus gave him a little time, and then, after expressing his regret at
+      the sad plight of the washing, now strewn upon the ground, and mentioning
+      to the steward the name and position of his friend Pontius, he briefly
+      explained to him that the Emperor wished to take up his abode in the
+      palace now in his charge; that he&mdash;Titianus&mdash;was cognizant of
+      the bad condition in which it then was, and had come to take council with
+      him and the architect as to what could be done in the course of a few days
+      to make the dilapidated residence habitable for Hadrian, and to repair, at
+      any rate, the more conspicuous damage. He then desired the steward to lead
+      him through the rooms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Directly&mdash;at once,&rdquo; answered the Greek, who had attained his present
+      ponderous dimensions through many years of rest: &ldquo;I will hasten to fetch
+      the keys.&rdquo; And as he went, puffing and panting, he re-arranged with his
+      short, fat fingers the still abundant hair on the right side of his head.
+      Pontius looked after him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call him back, Titianus,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;We disturbed him in the midst of
+      curling his hair; only one side was done when the lictor called him away,
+      and I will wager my own head that he will have the other side frizzled
+      before he comes back. I know your true Greek!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, let him,&rdquo; answered Titianus. &ldquo;If you have taken his measure rightly
+      he will not be able to give his attention without reserve to our questions
+      till the other half of his hair is curled. I know, too, how to deal with a
+      Hellene.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better than I, I perceive,&rdquo; said the architect in a tone of conviction.
+      &ldquo;A statesman is used to deal with men as we do with lifeless materials.
+      Did you see the fat fellow turn pale when you said that it would be but a
+      few days before the Emperor would make his entry here? Things must look
+      well in the old house there. Every hour is precious, and we have lingered
+      here too long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prefect nodded agreement and followed the architect into the inner
+      court of the palace. How grand and well-proportioned was the plan of this
+      immense building through which the steward Keraunus, who returned with his
+      fine curls complete all round, now led the Romans. It stood on an
+      artificial hill in the midst of the peninsula of Lochias, and from many a
+      window and many a balcony there were lovely prospects of the streets and
+      open squares, the houses, palaces and public buildings of the metropolis,
+      and of the harbor, swarming with ships. The outlook from Lochias was rich,
+      gay and varied to the south and west, but east and north from the platform
+      of the palace of the Ptolemies, the gaze fell on the never-wearying
+      prospect of the eternal sea, limited only by the vault of heaven. When
+      Hadrian had sent a special messenger from Mount Kasius to desire his
+      prefect Titianus to have this particular building prepared for his
+      reception, he knew full well what advantages its position offered; it was
+      the part of his officials to restore order in the interior of the palace,
+      which had remained uninhabited from the time of Cleopatra&rsquo;s downfall. He
+      gave them for the purpose eight, or perhaps nine, days&mdash;little more
+      than a week. And in what a condition did Titianus and Pontius find this
+      now dilapidated and plundered scene of former magnificence&mdash;the sweat
+      pouring from their foreheads with their exertions as they inspected and
+      sketched, questioned and made notes of it all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pillars and steps in the interior were tolerably well preserved, but
+      the rain had poured in through the open roofs of the banqueting and
+      reception-lulls, the fine mosaic pavements had started here and there, and
+      in other places a perfect little meadow had grown in the midst of a hall,
+      or an arcade; for Octavianus Augustus, Tiberius, Vespasian, Titus and a
+      whole series of prefects, had already carefully removed the finest of the
+      mosaics from the famous palace of the Ptolemies, and carried them to Rome
+      or to the provinces, to decorate their town houses or country villas. In
+      the same way the best of the statues were gone, with which a few centuries
+      previously the art-loving Lagides had decorated this residence&mdash;besides
+      which they had another, still larger, on the Bruchiom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the midst of a vast marbled hall stood an elegantly-wrought fountain,
+      connected with the fine aqueduct of the city. A draught of air rushed
+      through this hall, and in stormy weather switched the water all over the
+      floor, now robbed of its mosaics, and covered, wherever the foot could
+      tread, with a thin, dark green, damp and slippery coating of mossy plants
+      and slime. It was here that Keraunus leaned breathless against the wall,
+      and, wiping his brow, panted rather than said: &ldquo;At last, this is the end!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The words sounded as if he meant his own end and not that of their
+      excursion through the palace, and it seemed like a mockery of the man
+      himself when Pontius unhesitatingly replied with decision:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good, then we can begin our re-examination here, at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus did not contradict him, but, as he remembered the number of
+      stairs to be climbed over again, he looked as if sentence of death had
+      been passed upon him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it necessary that I should remain with you during the rest of your
+      labors, which must be principally directed to details?&rdquo; asked the prefect
+      of the architect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; answered Pontius, &ldquo;provided you will take the trouble to look at
+      once at my plan, so as to inform yourself on the whole of what I propose,
+      and to give me full powers to dispose of men and means in each case as it
+      arises.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is granted,&rdquo; said Titianus. &ldquo;I know that Pontius will not demand a
+      man or a sesterce more or less than is needed for the purpose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The architect bowed in silence and Titianus went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But above all things, do you think you can accomplish your task in eight
+      days and nine nights?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly, at a pinch; and if I could only have four days more at my
+      disposal, most probably.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then all that is needed is to delay Hadrian&rsquo;s arrival by four days and
+      nights.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Send some interesting people&mdash;say the astronomer Ptolemaeus, and
+      Favorinus, the sophist, who await him here&mdash;to meet him at Pelusium.
+      They will find some way of detaining him there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bad idea! We will see. But who can reckon on the Empress&rsquo;s moods?
+      At any rate, consider that you have only eight days to dispose of.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where do you hope to be able to lodge Hadrian?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, a very small portion of the old building is, strictly speaking, fit
+      to use.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of that, I regret to say, I have fully convinced myself,&rdquo; said the
+      prefect emphatically, and turning to the steward, he went on in a tone
+      less of stern reproof than of regret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems to me, Keraunus, that it would have been your duty to inform me
+      earlier of the ruinous condition of the building.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have already lodged a complaint,&rdquo; replied the man, &ldquo;but I was told in
+      answer to my report that there were no means to apply to the purpose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know nothing of these things,&rdquo; cried Titianus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When did you forward your petition to the prefect&rsquo;s office?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Under your predecessor, Haterius Nepos.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; said the prefect with a drawl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So long ago. Then, in your place, I should have repeated my application
+      every year, without any reference to the appointment of a new prefect.
+      However, we have now no time for talking. During the Emperor&rsquo;s residence
+      here, I shall very likely send one of my subordinates to assist you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Titianus turned his back on the steward, and asked the architect:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my good Pontius, what part of the palace have you your eye upon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The inner halls and rooms are in the best repair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But they are the last that can be thought of,&rdquo; cried Titianus. &ldquo;The
+      Emperor is satisfied with everything in camp, but where fresh air and a
+      distant prospect are to be had, he must have them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let us choose the western suite; hold the plan my worthy friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The steward slid as he was desired, the architect took his pencil and made
+      a vigorous line in the air above the left side of the sketch, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the west front of the palace which you see from the harbor. From
+      the south you first come into the lofty peristyle, which may be used as an
+      antechamber; it is surrounded with rooms for the slaves and body-guard.
+      The next smaller sitting-rooms by the side of the main corridor we may
+      assign to the officers and scribes, in this spacious hypaethral hall&mdash;the
+      one with the Muses&mdash;Hadrian may give audience and the guests may
+      assemble there whom he may admit to eat at his table in this broad
+      peristyle. The smaller and well-preserved rooms, along this long passage
+      leading to the steward&rsquo;s house, will do for the pages, secretaries and
+      other attendants on Caesar&rsquo;s person, and this long saloon, lined with fine
+      porphyry and green marble, and adorned with the beautiful frieze in bronze
+      will, I fancy, please Hadrian as a study and private sitting-room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Admirable!&rdquo; cried Titianus, &ldquo;I should like to show your plan to the
+      Empress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that case, instead of eight days I must have as many weeks,&rdquo; said
+      Pontius coolly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is true,&rdquo; answered the prefect laughing. &ldquo;But tell me, Keraunus, how
+      comes it that the doors are wanting to all the best rooms?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They were of fine thyra wood, and they were wanted in Rome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must have seen one or another of them there,&rdquo; muttered the prefect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your cabinet-workers will have a busy time, Pontius.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, the hanging-makers may be glad; wherever we can we will close the
+      door-ways with heavy curtains.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what will you do with this damp abode of fogs, which, if I mistake
+      not, must adjoin the dining-hall?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will turn it into a garden filled with ornamental foliage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is quite admissable&mdash;and the broken statues?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will get rid of the worst.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Apollo and the nine Muses stand in the room you intend for an
+      audience-hall&mdash;do they not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are in fairly good condition, I think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Urania is wanting entirely,&rdquo; said the steward, who was still holding the
+      plan out in front of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what became of her?&rdquo; asked Titianus, not without excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your predecessor, the prefect Haterius Nepos, took a particular fancy to
+      it and carried it with him to Rome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why Urania of all others?&rdquo; cried Titianus angrily. &ldquo;She, above all, ought
+      not to be missing from the hall of audience of Caesar the pontiff of
+      heaven! What is to be done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will be difficult to find an Urania ready-made as tall as her sisters,
+      and we have no time to search one out, a new one must be made.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In eight days?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And eight nights.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But my good friend, only to get the marble&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who thinks of marble? Papias will make us one of straw, rags and gypsum&mdash;I
+      know his magic hand&mdash;and in order that the others may not be too
+      unlike their new-born sister they shall be whitewashed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Capital&mdash;but why choose Papias when we have Harmodius?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harmodius takes art in earnest, and we should have the Emperor here
+      before he had completed his sketches. Papias works with thirty assistants
+      at anything that is ordered of him, so long as it brings him money. His
+      last things certainly amaze me, particularly the Hygyeia for Dositheus the
+      Jew, and the bust of Plutarch put up in the Caesareum; they are full of
+      grace and power. But who can distinguish what is his work and what that of
+      his scholars? Enough, he knows how things should be done; and if a good
+      sum is to be got by it he will hew you out a whole sea-fight in marble in
+      five days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then give Papias the commission but the hapless mutilated pavements-what
+      will you do with them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gypsum and paint must mend them,&rdquo; said Pontius, &ldquo;and where that will not
+      do, we must lay carpets on the floor in the Eastern fashion. Merciful
+      night! how dark it is growing; give me the plan Keraunus and provide us
+      with torches and lamps for to-day, and the next following ones must have
+      twenty-four hours apiece, full measure. I must ask you for half a dozen
+      trustworthy slaves Titianus; I shall want them for messengers. What are
+      you standing there for man? Lights, I said. You have had half a lifetime
+      to rest in, and when Caesar is gone you will have as many more years for
+      the same laudable purpose&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke the steward had silently gone off, but the architect did not
+      spare him the end of the sentence; he shouted after him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unless by that time you are smothered in your own fat. Is it Nile-mud or
+      blood that runs in that huge mortal&rsquo;s veins?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure I do not care,&rdquo; said the prefect, &ldquo;so long as the glorious fire
+      that flows in yours only holds out till the work is done. Do not allow
+      yourself to be overworked at first, nor require the impossible of your
+      strength, for Rome and the world still expect great things of you. I can
+      now write in perfect security to the Emperor that all will be ready for
+      him in Lochias, and as a farewell speech, I can only say, it is folly to
+      be discouraged if only Pontius is at hand to support and assist me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The prefect ordered the lictors, who were awaiting him with his chariot,
+      to hasten to his house, and to conduct to Pontius several most worthy
+      slaves, familiar with Alexandria&mdash;some of whom he named&mdash;and at
+      the same time to send the architect a good couch with pillows and
+      coverlets, and to despatch a good meal and fine wine to the old palace at
+      Lochias. Then he mounted his chariot and drove through the Bruchiom along
+      the shore to the great edifice known as the Caesareum. He got on but
+      slowly, for the nearer he approached his destination the denser was the
+      crowd of inquisitive citizens, who stood closely packed round the vast
+      circumference of the building. Quite from a distance the prefect could see
+      a bright light; it rose to heaven from the large pans of pitch which were
+      placed on the towers on each side of the tall gate of the Caesareum which
+      faced the sea. To the right and left of this gate stood a tall obelisk,
+      and on each of these, men were lighting lamps which had been attached to
+      the sides and placed on the top, on the previous day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In honor of Sabina,&rdquo; said the prefect to himself. &ldquo;All that this Pontius
+      does is thoroughly done, and there is no more complete sinecure than the
+      supervision of his arrangements.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fully persuaded of this he did not think it necessary to go up to the
+      illuminated door-way which led into the temple erected by Octavian in
+      honor of Julius Caesar; on the contrary, he directed the charioteer to
+      stop at a door built in the Egyptian style, which faced the garden of the
+      palace of the Ptolemies, and which led to the imperial residence that had
+      been built by the Alexandrians for Tiberius, and had been greatly extended
+      and beautified under the later Caesars. A sacred grove divided it from the
+      temple of Caesar, with which it communicated by a covered colonnade.
+      Before this door there were several chariots and horses, and a whole host
+      of slaves, black and white, were in attendance with their masters&rsquo; 
+      litters. Here lictors kept back the sight-seeking crowd, officers were
+      lounging against the pillars, and the Roman guard were just assembling
+      with a clatter of arms, to the sound of a trumpet within the door, to
+      await their dismissal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everything gave way respectfully before the chariot of the prefect, and as
+      Titianus walked through the illuminated arcades of the Caesareum, passing
+      by the masterpieces of statuary placed there, and the rows of pictures&mdash;and
+      reached the halls in which the library of the palace was kept, he could
+      not help thinking of all the care and trouble which with the assistance of
+      Pontius, he had for months devoted to rendering this palace which had not
+      been used since Titus had set out for Judaea, fit quarters for Hadrian&rsquo;s
+      reception. The Empress now lived in the rooms intended for her husband,
+      and decorated with the choicest works of art, and Titianus reflected with
+      regret that, after Sabina had once become aware of their presence there,
+      it would be quite impossible to transfer them to Lochias. At the door of
+      the splendid room which he had intended for Hadrian he was met by Sabina&rsquo;s
+      chamberlain who undertook to conduct him at once into the presence of his
+      mistress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The roof of the hall in which the prefect found the Empress, in summer was
+      open to the sky; but at this season was suitably covered in by a movable
+      copper roof, partly to keep off the rain of the Alexandrian winter, and
+      partly too because, even in the warmer season Sabina was wont to complain
+      of cold; but beneath it a wide opening allowed the air free entrance and
+      exit. As Titianus entered the room a comfortable warmth and subtle perfume
+      met his senses; the warmth was produced by stoves of a peculiar form
+      standing in the middle of the room; one of these represented Vulcan&rsquo;s
+      forge. Brightly glowing charcoal lay in front of the bellows which were
+      worked by an automaton, at short regular intervals, while the god and his
+      assistants modelled in brass, stood round the genial fire with tongs and
+      hammers. The other stove was a large silver bird&rsquo;s-nest, in which likewise
+      charcoal was burning. Above the glowing fuel a phoenix, also in brass, and
+      in the likeness of an eagle, seemed striving to soar heavenwards. Besides
+      these a number of lamps lighted the saloon, which in truth looked too
+      large for the number of people assembled in it, and which was lavishly
+      furnished with gracefully-formed seats, couches, and tables, vases of
+      flowers and statues.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prefect and Pontius had intended a quite different room to serve for
+      smaller assemblies, and had fitted it up suitably for the purpose, but the
+      Empress had preferred the great hall to the smaller room. The venerable
+      and nobly-born statesman was filled with vexation, nay, with an
+      embarrassment that made him feel estranged, when he had to glance round
+      the room to find the persons in it, collected, as they were, into small
+      knots. He could hear nothing but hushed voices; here an unintelligible
+      murmur and there a suppressed laugh, but from no one a frank speech or
+      full utterance. For a moment he felt as if he had found admittance to the
+      abode of whispering calumny, and yet he knew why here no one dared to
+      speak out or above a murmur. Loud voices hurt the Empress, and a clear
+      voice was a misery to her, and yet few men possessed so loud and
+      penetrating a chest voice as her husband, who was not wont to lay
+      restraint upon himself for any human being, not even for his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sabina sat on a large divan, more like a couch than a chair; her feet were
+      buried in the shaggy fell of a buffalo, and her knees and ankles wrapped
+      round with down-cushions covered with silk. Her head she held very
+      upright, and it was difficult to imagine how her slender throat could
+      support it, loaded as it was with strings of pearls and precious stones
+      which were braided in the tall structure of her reddish-gold hair, that
+      was arranged in long cylindrical curls pinned closely side by side. The
+      Empress&rsquo;s thin face looked particularly small under the mass of natural
+      and artificial adornment which towered above her brow. Beautiful she could
+      never have been, even in her youth, but her features were regular, and the
+      prefect confessed to himself as he looked at Sabina&rsquo;s face, marked as it
+      was with minute wrinkles and touched up with red and white, that the
+      sculptor who a few years previously had been commissioned to represent her
+      as &lsquo;Venus Victrix&rsquo; might very well have given the goddess a certain amount
+      of resemblance to the imperial model. If only her eyes, which were
+      absolutely bereft of lashes, had not been quite so small and keen&mdash;in
+      spite of the dark lines painted round them&mdash;and if only the sinews in
+      her throat had not stood out quite so conspicuously from the flesh which
+      formerly had covered them!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a deep bow Titianus took the Empress&rsquo;s right hand, covered with
+      rings; but she withdrew it quickly from that of her husband&rsquo;s friend and
+      relative, as if she feared that the carefully-cherished limb&mdash;useless
+      as it was for any practical purpose, a mere toy among hands&mdash;might
+      suffer some injury, and wrapped it and her arm in her upper-robe. But she
+      returned the prefect&rsquo;s friendly greeting with all the warmth at her
+      command. Though formerly at Rome she had been accustomed to see Titianus
+      every day at her house, this was their first meeting in Alexandria; for
+      the previous day, exhausted by the sufferings of her sea-voyage, she had
+      been carried in a closed litter to the Caesareum, and this morning she had
+      declined to receive his visit, as her whole time was given up to her
+      physicians, bathing-women, and coiffeurs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can you survive in this country?&rdquo; she said in a low but harsh voice,
+      which always made the hearer feel that it was that of a dull, fractious,
+      childless woman. &ldquo;At noon the sun burns you up, and in the evening it is
+      so cold&mdash;so intolerably cold!&rsquo; As she spoke she drew her robe closer
+      round her, but Titianus, pointing to the stoves in the middle of the hall,
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hoped we had succeeded in cutting the bowstrings of the Egyptian
+      winter, and it is but a feeble weapon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still young, still imaginative, still a poet!&rdquo; said the Empress wearily.
+      &ldquo;I saw your wife a couple of hours since. Africa seems to suit her less
+      well; I was shocked to see Julia, the handsome matron, so altered. She
+      does not look well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Years are the foe of beauty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Frequently they are, but true beauty often resists their attacks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are yourself the living proof of your assertion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is as much as to say that I am growing old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay&mdash;only that you know the secret of remaining beautiful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a poet!&rdquo; murmured the Empress with a twitch of her thin
+      under-lip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Affairs of state do not favor the Muses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I call any man a poet who sees things more beautiful than they are,
+      or who gives them finer names than they deserve&mdash;a poet, a dreamer, a
+      flatterer&mdash;for it comes to that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! modesty can always find words to repel even well-merited admiration.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why this foolish bandying of words?&rdquo; sighed Sabina, flinging herself back
+      in her chair. &ldquo;You have been to school under the hair-splitting logicians
+      in the Museum here, and I have not. Over there sits Favorinus, the
+      sophist; I dare say he is proving to Ptolemaeus that the stars are mere
+      specks of blood in our eyes, which we choose to believe are in the sky.
+      Florus, the historian, is taking note of this weighty discussion;
+      Pancrates, the poet, is celebrating the great thoughts of the philosopher.
+      As to what part the philologist there can find to take in this important
+      event you know better than I. What is the man&rsquo;s name?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Apollonius.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hadrian has nick-named him &lsquo;the obscure.&rsquo; The more difficult it is to
+      understand the discourses of these gentlemen the more highly are they
+      esteemed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One must dive to obtain what lies at the bottom of the water&mdash;all
+      that floats on the surface is borne by the waves, a plaything for
+      children. Apollonius is a very learned man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then my husband ought to leave him among his disciples and his books. It
+      was his wish that I should invite these people to my table. Florus and
+      Pancrates I like&mdash;not the others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can easily relieve you of the company of Favorinus and Ptolemaeus; send
+      them to meet the Emperor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To what end?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To entertain him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has his plaything with him,&rdquo; said Sabina, and her thin lips curled
+      with an expression of bitter contempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His artistic eye delights in the beauty of Antinous, which is celebrated,
+      but which it has not yet been my privilege to see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you are very anxious to see this marvel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot deny it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet you want to postpone your meeting with Caesar?&rdquo; said Sabina, and
+      a keen glance of inquiry and distrust twinkled in her little eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you want to delay my husband&rsquo;s arrival?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Need I tell you,&rdquo; said Titianus eagerly, &ldquo;how greatly I shall rejoice to
+      see once more my sovereign, the companion of my youth, the greatest and
+      wisest of men, after a separation of four years? What would I not give if
+      he were here already! And yet I would rather that he should arrive in
+      fourteen days than in eight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What reason can you have?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A mounted messenger brought me a letter to-day in which the Emperor tells
+      me that he proposes to inhabit the old palace at Lochias, and not the
+      Caesareum.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At these words Sabina&rsquo;s forehead clouded, her gaze, dark and blank, was
+      fixed on her lap, and biting her under-lip, she muttered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I am here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Titianus made as though he had not heard these words, and continued in an
+      easy tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There he has a wide outlook into the distance, which is what he has loved
+      from his youth up. But the old building is much dilapidated, and though I
+      have already begun to exert all the forces at my command, with the
+      assistance of our admirable architect, Pontius, to restore a portion of it
+      at any rate, and make it a habitable and not too uncomfortable residence,
+      the time is too short to do anything thoroughly worthy&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish to see my husband here, and the sooner the better,&rdquo; interrupted
+      the Empress with decision. Then she turned towards the row of pillars
+      which stood by the right-hand wall of the hall, and which were at some
+      distance from her couch, calling out &ldquo;Verus.&rdquo; But her voice was so weak
+      that it did not reach the person addressed, so turning to the prefect, she
+      said: &ldquo;I beg of you to call Verus to me, the praetor Lucius Aurelius
+      Verus.&rdquo; Titianus immediately obeyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he entered the hall he had already exchanged friendly greetings with
+      the man to whom the Empress wished to speak. He now did not succeed in
+      attracting his attention till he stood close at his elbow, for he formed
+      the centre of a small group of men and women who were hanging on his
+      words. What he was saying in a subdued voice must have been
+      extraordinarily diverting, for it could be seen that his hearers were
+      making the greatest efforts to keep their suppressed laughter from
+      breaking out into a shout that would shake the very hall, a noise the
+      Empress detested. When the prefect came up to Verus, a young girl, whose
+      pretty head was crowned by a perfect thicket of little ringlets, was just
+      laying her hand on his arm and saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay-that is too much; if you go on like this, for the future whenever you
+      speak I shall stop my ears with my hands, as sure as my name is Balbilla.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And as sure as you are descended from King Antiochus,&rdquo; added Verus
+      bowing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Always the same,&rdquo; laughed the prefect, nodding to the audacious jester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sabina wants to speak to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Directly, directly,&rdquo; said Verus. &ldquo;My story is a true one, and you all
+      ought to be grateful to me for having released you from that tedious
+      philologer who has now button-holed my witty friend Favorinus. I like your
+      Alexandria, Titianus; still it is not a great capital like Rome. The
+      people have not yet learned not to be astonished; they are perpetually in
+      amazement. When I go out driving&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your runners ought to fly before you with roses in their hair and wings
+      on their shoulders like Cupids.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In honor of the Alexandrian ladies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As if the Roman ladies in Rome, and the fair Greeks at Athens,&rdquo;
+       interrupted Balbilla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The praetor&rsquo;s runners go faster than Parthian horses,&rdquo; cried the
+      Empress&rsquo;s chamberlain. &ldquo;He has named them after the winds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As they deserve,&rdquo; added Verus &ldquo;Come, Titianus.&rdquo; He laid his hand in a
+      confidential manner on the arm of the prefect, to whom he was related; and
+      as they went towards Sabina he whispered in his ear:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can keep her waiting as if I were the Emperor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Favorinus who had been engaged in talk with Ptolemaeus, the astronomer,
+      Apollonius, and the philosopher and poet Pancrates in another part of the
+      hall, looked after the two men and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A handsome couple. One the personification of imperial and dignified
+      Rome; the other with his Hermes-like figure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The other&rdquo;&mdash;interrupted the philologist with stern displeasure, &ldquo;the
+      other is the very incarnation of the haughtiness, the luxury pushed to
+      insanity, and the infamous depravity of the metropolis. That dissipated
+      ladies-man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not defend his character,&rdquo; said Favorinus in his pleasant voice,
+      and with an elegance in his pronunciation of Greek which delighted even
+      the grammarian. &ldquo;His ways and doings are disgraceful; still you must allow
+      that his manners are tinged with the charm of Hellenic beauty, that the
+      Charites kissed him at his birth, and though, by the stern laws of virtue
+      we must condemn him, he deserves to be crowned with praise and garlands
+      from the point of view of the feeling for beauty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! for the artist who wants a model he is a choice morsel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Athenian judges acquitted Phryne because she was beautiful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They did wrong.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hardly in the eyes of the gods, whose fairest works must deserve our
+      respect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still poison may be kept in the most beautiful vessels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet body and soul always to a certain extent correspond.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And can you dare to call the handsome Verus the admirable Verus?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, but the reckless Lucius Aurelius Verus is at the same time the gayest
+      and pleasantest of all the Romans, free alike from spite or carefulness,
+      he troubles himself with no doctrines of virtue, and as when a thing
+      pleases him, he desires to possess it, he endeavors to give pleasure to
+      every one else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has wasted his pains so far as I am concerned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do as he wishes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The last words both of the philologer and the sophist were spoken somewhat
+      louder than was usual in the presence of the Empress. Sabina, who had just
+      told the praetor which residence her husband had decided on inhabiting,
+      drew up her shoulders and pinched her lips as if in pain, while Verus
+      turned a face of indignation&mdash;a face which was manly in spite of all
+      the delicacy and regularity of the features&mdash;on the two speakers, and
+      his fine bright eyes caught the hostile glance of Apollonius.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An intimation of aversion to his person was one of the things which to him
+      were past endurance; he hastily passed his hand through his blue-black
+      hair, which was only slightly grizzled at the temples and flowed uncurled,
+      but in soft waving locks round his head, and said, not heeding Sabina&rsquo;s
+      question as to his opinion of her husband&rsquo;s latest instructions:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a repulsive fellow, that wrangling logician; he has an evil eye
+      that threatens mischief to us all, and his trumpet voice cannot hurt you
+      more than it does me. Must we endure him at table with us every day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So Hadrian desires.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I shall start for Rome,&rdquo; said Verus decidedly. &ldquo;My wife wants to be
+      back with her children, and as praetor, it is more fitting that I should
+      stay by the Tiber than by the Nile.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The words were spoken as lightly as though they were nothing more than a
+      proposition to go to supper, but they seemed to agitate the Empress
+      deeply, for her head, which had seemed almost a fixture during her
+      conversation with Titianus, now shook so violently that the pearls and
+      jewels rattled in the erection of curls. There she sat for some seconds
+      staring into her lap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus stooped to pick up a gem that had fallen from her hair, and as he
+      did so she said hastily:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are right. Apollonius is intolerable. Let us send him to meet my
+      husband.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I will remain,&rdquo; answered Verus, as pleased as a wilful boy who has
+      got his own way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fickle as the wind,&rdquo; murmured Sabina, threatening him with her finger.
+      &ldquo;Show me the stone&mdash;it is one of the largest and finest; you may keep
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When an hour later, Verus quitted the hall with the prefect, Titianus
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have done me a service cousin, without knowing it. Now can you
+      contrive that Ptolemaeus and Favorinus shall go with Apollonius to meet
+      the Emperor at Pelusium?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing easier&rdquo; was the answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the same evening the prefect&rsquo;s steward conveyed to Pontius the
+      information that he might count on having probably fourteen days for his
+      work, instead of eight or nine only.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In the Caesareum, where the Empress dwelt, the lights were extinguished
+      one after another; but in the palace of Lochias they grew more numerous
+      and brighter. In festal illuminations of the harbor pitch cressets on the
+      roof, and long rows of lamps that accumulated architectonic features of
+      the noble structure, were always kindled; but inside it, no blaze so
+      brilliant had ever lighted it within the memory of man. The harbor
+      watchmen at first gazed anxiously up at Lochias, for they feared that a
+      fire must have broken out in the old palace; they were soon reassured
+      however, by one of the prefect&rsquo;s lictors, who brought them a command to
+      keep open the harbor gates that night, and every night till the Emperor
+      should have arrived, to all who might wish to proceed from Lochias to the
+      city, or from the city to the peninsula, under the orders of Pontius the
+      architect. And till long past midnight not a quarter of an hour passed in
+      which the people whom the architect had summoned to his aid were not
+      knocking at the harbor gates, which, though not locked were all guarded.
+      The little house belonging to the gate-keeper was also brightly lighted
+      up; the birds and cats belonging to the old woman whom the prefect and his
+      companions had found slumbering by her wine-jar, were now fast asleep, but
+      the little dogs still flew loudly yelping into the yard each time a
+      new-comer entered by the open gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, Aglaia, what will folks think of you? Thalia, my beauty, behave
+      like a good dog; come here, Euphrosyne, and don&rsquo;t be so silly!&rdquo; cried the
+      old lady in a voice which was both pleasant and peremptory, as she
+      stood-wide awake now-behind her table, folding together the dried clothes.
+      The little barking beasts who were thus endowed with the names of the
+      three Graces did not trouble themselves much about her affectionate
+      admonitions; to their sorrow, for it happened more than once to each of
+      them, when they had got under the feet of some new-comer, to creep,
+      whining and howling, into the house again to seek consolation from their
+      mistress, who would pick up the sufferer and soothe it with kisses and
+      coaxing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old lady was no longer alone, for in the background, on a long and
+      narrow couch which stood in front of the statue of Apollo, lay a tall,
+      lean man, wearing a red chiton. A little lamp hanging from the ceiling
+      threw a dull light on him and on the lute he was playing. To the faint
+      sound of the instrument, which was rather a large one, and which he had
+      propped on the pillow by his side, he was singing, or rather murmuring a
+      long ditty. Twice, thrice, four times he repeated it in the same way. Now
+      and again he suddenly let his voice sound more loudly&mdash;and though his
+      hair was quite grey his voice was not unpleasing&mdash;and sang a few
+      phrases full of expression and with artistic delivery; and then, when the
+      dogs barked too vehemently, he would spring up, and with his lute in his
+      left-hand and a long pliable rattan in his right, he would rush into the
+      court-yard, shout the names of the dogs, and raise his cane as if he would
+      kill them; but he always took care not to hit them, only to beat on the
+      pavement near them. When, returning from such an excursion, he stretched
+      himself again on his couch, the old woman, pointing to the hanging-lamp
+      which the impatient creature often knocked with his head, would call out,
+      &ldquo;Euphorion, mind the oil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he each time answered with the same threatening gesture and the same
+      glare in his black eyes:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The little brutes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The singer had been diligently practising his musical exercises for about
+      an hour, when the dogs rushed into the court-yard, not barking this time,
+      but yelping loudly with joy. The old woman laid aside the washing and
+      listened, but the tall man said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As many birds come flying before the Emperor as gulls before a storm. If
+      only they would leave us in peace&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark, that is Pollux; I know by the dogs,&rdquo; said the woman, hastening as
+      fast as she could over the threshold and out to meet him. But the expected
+      visitor was already at the door. He picked up the three four-footed Graces
+      who leaped round him, one after the other by the skin of the neck, and
+      gave each a tap on its nose. Then, seeing the old woman, he took her head
+      between his hands, and kissed her forehead, saying, &ldquo;Good-evening, little
+      Mother,&rdquo; and shook hands with the singer, adding, &ldquo;How are you, great, big
+      Father?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are as big as I am,&rdquo; replied the man thus addressed, and he drew the
+      younger man towards him, and laid one of his broad hands on his own grey
+      head and the other on that of his first-born, with its wealth of brown
+      hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As if we were cast in the same mould,&rdquo; cried the youth; and in fact he
+      was very like his father&mdash;like, no doubt, as a noble hunter is like a
+      worn-out hack&mdash;as marble is like limestone&mdash;as a cedar is like a
+      fir-tree. Both were remarkably tall, had thick hair, dark eyes, and
+      strongly aquiline noses, exactly of the same shape; but the cheerful
+      brightness which irradiated the countenance of the youth had certainly not
+      been inherited from the lute-player, but from the little woman who looked
+      up into his face and patted his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But whence did he derive the powerful, but indescribable something which
+      gave nobility to his head, and of which it was impossible to say whether
+      it lay in his eye, or in the lofty brow, arched so differently to that of
+      either parent?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knew you would come,&rdquo; cried his mother. &ldquo;This afternoon I dreamed it,
+      and I can prove that I expected you, for there, on the brazier, stands the
+      stewed cabbage and sausage waiting for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot stay now,&rdquo; replied Pollux. &ldquo;Really, I cannot, though your kind
+      looks would persuade me, and the sausage winks at me out of the
+      cabbage-pan. My master, Papias, is gone on ahead, and in the palace there
+      we are to work wonders in less time than it generally takes to consider
+      which end the work should be begun at.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I will carry the cabbage into the palace for you,&rdquo; said Doris,
+      standing on tip-toe to hold a sausage to the lips of her tall son. Pollux
+      bit off a large mouthful and said, as he munched it:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excellent! I only wish that the thing I am to construct up there may turn
+      out as good a statue as this savory cylinder&mdash;now fast disappearing&mdash;was
+      a superior and admirable sausage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have another?&rdquo; said Doris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No mother; and you must not bring the cabbage either. Up to midnight not
+      a minute must be lost, and if I then leave off for a little while you must
+      by that time be dreaming of all sorts of pleasant things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will carry you the cabbage then,&rdquo; said his father, &ldquo;for I shall not be
+      in bed so early at any rate. The hymn to Sabina, composed by Mesomedes, is
+      to be performed with the chorus, as soon as the Empress visits the
+      theatre, and I am to lead the upper part of the old men, who grow young
+      again at the sight of her. The rehearsal is fixed for to-morrow, and I
+      know nothing about it yet. Old music, note for note, is ready and safe in
+      my throat, but new things&mdash;new things!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is according to circumstances,&rdquo; said Pollux, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If only they would perform your father&rsquo;s Satyr-play, or his Theseus!&rdquo;
+       cried Doris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only wait a little, I will recommend him to Caesar as soon as he is proud
+      to call me his friend, as the Phidias of the age. Then, when he asks me
+      &lsquo;Who is the happy man who begot you?&rsquo; I will answer: It is Euphorion, the
+      divine poet and singer; and my mother, too, is a worthy matron, the
+      gate-keeper of your palace, Doris, the enchantress, who turns dingy
+      clothes into snow-white linen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These last words the young artist sang in a fine and powerful voice to a
+      mode invented by his father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If only you had been a singer!&rdquo; exclaimed Euphorion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I should have enjoyed the prospect,&rdquo; retorted Pollux, &ldquo;of spending
+      the evening of my life as your successor in this little abode.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now for wretched pay, you plant the laurels with which Papias crowns
+      himself!&rdquo; answered the old man shrugging his shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His hour is coming, too,&rdquo; cried Doris, &ldquo;his merit will be recognized; I
+      saw him in my dreams, with a great garland on his curly head!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Patience, father-patience,&rdquo; said the young man, grasping his father&rsquo;s
+      hand. &ldquo;I am young and strong, and do all I can. Here, behind this
+      forehead, good ideas are seething; what I have succeeded in carrying out
+      by myself, has at any rate brought credit and fame to others, although it
+      is all far from resembling the ideal of beauty that here&mdash;here&mdash;I
+      seem to see far away and behind a cloud; still I feel that if, in a moment
+      of kindness, Fortune will but shed a few fresh drops of dew on it all I
+      shall, at any rate, turn out something better than the mere ill-paid
+      right-hand of Papias, who, without me does not know what he ought to do,
+      or how to do it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only keep your eyes open and work hard,&rdquo; cried Doris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is of no use without luck,&rdquo; muttered the singer, shrugging his
+      shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young artist bid his parents good-night, and was about to leave, but
+      his mother detained him to show him the young goldfinches, hatched only
+      the day before. Pollux obeyed her wish, not merely to please her, but
+      because he liked to watch the gay little bird that sat warming and
+      sheltering her nestlings. Close to the cage stood the huge wine-jar and
+      his mother&rsquo;s cup, decorated by his own hand. His eye fell on these, and he
+      pushed them aside in silence. Then, taking courage, he said, laughing:
+      &ldquo;The Emperor will often pass by here, mother; give up celebrating your
+      Dionysiac festival. How would it do if you filled the jar with one-fourth
+      wine and three-fourths water? It does not taste badly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spoiling good gifts,&rdquo; replied his mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One-fourth wine-to please me,&rdquo; Pollux entreated, taking his mother by the
+      shoulders and kissing her forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To please you, you great boy!&rdquo; said Doris, as her eyes filled with tears.
+      &ldquo;Why for you, if I must, I would drink nothing but wretched water.
+      Euphorion you may finish what is left in the jar presently.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+         .........................
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Pontius had already begun his labors, at first with aid only of his
+      assistants who had followed him on foot. Measuring, estimating, sending
+      short notes and writing figures, names and suggestions on the plan, and on
+      his folding wax-tablets, he was not idle for an instant, though frequently
+      interrupted by the appointed superintendents of the workshops and
+      manufactures in Lochias, whose co-operation he required. They only came at
+      this late hour because they were called upon by the prefect&rsquo;s orders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Papias, the sculptor, introduced himself among the latest, though Pontius
+      had written to him with his own hand that he had to communicate to him a
+      very remunerative and particularly pressing commission for the Emperor,
+      which might, perhaps, be taken in hand that very night. The matter in
+      question was a statue of Urania, which must be completed in eight days by
+      the same method which Papias had introduced at the last festival of
+      Adonis, and to the scale which he, Pontius, indicated, in the palace of
+      Lochias itself. With regard to several works of restoration which had to
+      be carried out with equal rapidity, and as to the price to be paid, they
+      could agree at the same time and place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sculptor was a man of foresight and did not appear on the scene alone
+      but with his best assistant, Pollux, the son of the worthy couple at the
+      gate, and several slaves who dragged after him sundry trunks and carts
+      loaded with tools, boards, clay, gypsum and other raw materials of his
+      art. On the road to Lochias he had informed the young sculptor of the
+      business in hand, and had told him in a condescending tone that he would
+      be permitted to try his skill in reconstructing the Urania. At the gate he
+      had permitted Pollux to greet his parents, and had gone alone into the
+      palace to open his bargain with the architect without the presence of
+      witnesses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young artist perfectly understood his master. He knew that he would be
+      expected to carry out the statue of Urania, while his task-master, after
+      making some trifling alterations in the completed work, would declare that
+      it was his own. Pollux had for two years been obliged, more than once, to
+      put up with similar treatment; and now, as usual, he submitted to this
+      dishonest manoeuvre because, under his master there was plenty to do, and
+      the delight of work was to him the greatest he could have.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Papias, to whom he had gone early as an apprentice and to whom he owed the
+      knowledge he possessed, was no miser, still Pollux needed money, not for
+      himself alone but because he had taken on himself the charge of a widowed
+      sister and her children as if they were his own family. He was always glad
+      to take some comfort into the narrow home of his parents, who were poor,
+      and to maintain his younger brother Teuker&mdash;who had devoted himself
+      to the same art&mdash;during the years of his apprenticeship. Again and
+      again he had thought of telling his master that he should start on his own
+      footing and earn laurels for himself, but what then would become of those
+      who relied on his help, if he gave up his regular earnings and if he got
+      no commissions when there were so many unknown beginners eager for them?
+      Of what avail were all his ability and the most honest good-will if no
+      opportunity offered for his executing his work in noble materials? With
+      his own means he certainly was in no position to do so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was talking to his parents Papias had opened his transactions
+      with the architect. Pontius explained to the sculptor what was required
+      and Papias listened attentively; he never interrupted the speaker, but
+      only stroked his face from time to time, as if to make it smoother than it
+      was already, though it was shaved with peculiar care and formed and
+      colored like a warm mask; meanwhile draping the front of his rich blue
+      toga, which he wore in the fashion of a Roman senator, into fresh folds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when Pontius showed him, at the end of the rooms destined for the
+      Emperor, the last of the statues to be restored, and which needed a new
+      grin, Papias said decisively:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It cannot be done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a rash verdict,&rdquo; replied the architect. &ldquo;Do you not know the
+      proverb, which, being such a good one, is said to have been first uttered
+      by more than one sage: &lsquo;That it shows more ill-judgment to pronounce a
+      thing impossible than to boast that we can achieve a task however much it
+      may seem to transcend our powers.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Papias smiled and looked down at his gold-embroidered shoes as he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is more difficult to us sculptors to imagine ourselves waging Titanic
+      warfare against the impossible, than it is to you who work with enormous
+      masses. I do not yet see the means which would give me courage to begin
+      the attack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will tell you,&rdquo; replied Pontius quickly and decidedly. &ldquo;On your side
+      good-will, plenty of assistants and night-watchers; on ours, the Caesar&rsquo;s
+      approval and plenty of gold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After this the transaction came to a prompt and favorable issue, and the
+      architect could but express his entire approbation, in most cases, of the
+      sculptor&rsquo;s judicious and well-considered suggestions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I must go home,&rdquo; concluded Papias. &ldquo;My assistants will proceed at
+      once with the necessary preparations. The work must be carried on behind
+      screens, so that no one may disturb us or hinder us with remarks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Half an hour later a scaffolding was already erected in the middle of the
+      hall where the Urania was to stand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was concealed from; public gaze by thick linen stretched on tall wooden
+      frames, and behind these screens Pollux was busied in framing a small
+      model in wax, while his master had returned home to make arrangements for
+      the labors of the following day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It wanted only an hour of midnight, and still the supper sent to the
+      palace for the architect by the prefect remained untouched. Pontius was
+      hungry enough, but before attacking the meal that a slave had set out on a
+      marble table&mdash;the roast meat which looked so inviting, the orange-red
+      crayfish, the golden-brown pasty and the many-hued fruits&mdash;he
+      conceived it his duty to inspect the rooms to be restored. It was needful
+      to see whether the slaves who had been set, in the first place to clean
+      out all the rooms, were being intelligently directed by the men set over
+      them, whether they were doing their duty and had all that they required;
+      they had got some hours to work, then they were to rest and to begin again
+      at sunrise, reinforced by other laborers both slave and free.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      More and better lighting was universally demanded, and when, in the hall
+      of the Muses, the men who were cleaning the pavement and scraping the
+      columns loudly clamored for torches and lamps, a young man&rsquo;s head peered
+      over the screen which shut in the place reserved for the restoration of
+      the Urania, and a lamentable voice cried out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Muse, with her celestial sphere, is the guardian of star-gazers and is
+      happiest in the dark&mdash;but not till she is finished. To form her we
+      must have light and more light&mdash;and when it is lighter here the voice
+      of the people down there, which does not sound very delightful up in this
+      hollow space, will diminish somewhat also. Give light, then, O, men! Light
+      for my goddess, and for your scrubbers and scourers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pontius looked up smiling at Pollux, who had uttered this appeal, and
+      answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your cry of distress is fully justified, my friend. But do you really
+      believe in the power of light to diminish noise?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At any rate,&rdquo; replied Pollux, &ldquo;where it is absent, that is to say in the
+      dark, every noise seems redoubled.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is true, but there are other reasons for that,&rdquo; answered the
+      architect. &ldquo;To-morrow in an interval of work we will discuss these
+      matters. Now I will go to provide you with lamps and lights.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Urania, the protectress of the fine arts, will be beholden to you,&rdquo; cried
+      Pollux as the architect went away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pontius meanwhile sought his chief foreman to ask him whether he had
+      delivered his orders to Keraunus, the palace-steward, to come to him, and
+      to put the cressets and lamps commonly used for the external
+      illuminations, at the service of his workmen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three times,&rdquo; was the answer &ldquo;have I been myself to the man, but each
+      time he puffed himself out like a frog and answered me not a word, but
+      only sent me into a little room with his daughter&mdash;whom you must see,
+      for she is charming&mdash;and a miserable black slave, and there I found
+      these few wretched lamps that are now burning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you order him to come to me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three hours ago, and again a second time, when you were talking with
+      Papias.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The architect turned his back upon the foreman in angry haste, unrolled
+      the plan of the palace, quickly found upon it the abode of the
+      recalcitrant steward, seized a small red-clay lamp that was standing near
+      him, and being quite accustomed to guide himself by a plan, went straight
+      through the rooms, which were not a few, and by a long corridor from the
+      hall of the Muses, to the lodging of the negligent official. An unclosed
+      door led him into a dark ante-chamber followed by another room, and
+      finally into a large, well-furnished apartment. All these door-ways, into
+      what seemed to be at once the dining and sitting-room of the steward, were
+      bereft of doors, and could only be closed by stuff curtains, just now
+      drawn wide open. Pontius could therefore look in, unhindered and
+      unperceived, at the table on which a three-branched bronze lamp was
+      standing between a dish and some plates. The stout man was sitting with
+      his rubicund moon-face towards the architect, who, indignant as he was,
+      would have gone straight up to him with swift decision, if, before
+      entering the second room, a low but pitiful sob had not fallen on his ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sob proceeded from a slight young girl who came forward from a door
+      beyond the sitting-room, and who now placed a platter with a loaf on the
+      table by the steward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, do not cry, Selene,&rdquo; said the steward, breaking the bread slowly
+      and with an evident desire to soothe his child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can I help crying,&rdquo; said the girl. &ldquo;But tomorrow morning let me buy a
+      piece of meat for you; the physician forbade you to eat bread.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Man must be filled,&rdquo; replied the fat man, &ldquo;and meat is dear. I have nine
+      mouths to fill, not counting the slaves. And where am I to get the money
+      to fill us all with meat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We need none, but for you it is necessary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is of no use, child. The butcher will not trust us any more, the other
+      creditors press us, and at the end of the month we shall have just ten
+      drachmae left us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl turned pale, and asked in anxiety:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, father, it was only to-day that you showed me the three gold pieces
+      which you said had been given you as a present out of the money
+      distributed on the arrival of the Empress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The steward absently rolled a piece of bread-crumb between his fingers and
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I spent that on this fibula with an incised onyx&mdash;and as cheap as
+      dirt, I can tell you. If Caesar comes he must see who and what I am; and
+      if I die any one will give you twice as much for it as I paid. I tell you
+      the Empress&rsquo;s money was well laid out on the thing.&rdquo; Selene made no
+      answer, but she sighed deeply, and her eye glanced at a quantity of
+      useless things which her father had acquired and brought home because they
+      were cheap, while she and her seven sisters wanted the most necessary
+      things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Father,&rdquo; the girl began again after a short silence, &ldquo;I ought not to go
+      on about it, but even if it vexes you, I must&mdash;the architect, who is
+      settling all the work out there, has sent for you twice already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be silent!&rdquo; shouted the fat man, striking his hand on the table. &ldquo;Who is
+      this Pontius, and who am I!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are of a noble Macedonian family, related perhaps even to the
+      Ptolemies; you have your seat in the Council of the Citizens&mdash;but do,
+      this time, be condescending and kind. The man has his hands full, he is
+      tired out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor have I been able to sit still the whole day, and what is fitting, is
+      fitting. I am Keraunus the son of Ptolemy, whose father came into Egypt
+      with Alexander the Great, and helped to found this city, and every one
+      knows it. Our possessions were diminished; but it is for that very reason
+      that I insist on our illustrious blood being recognized. Pontius sends to
+      command the presence of Keraunus! If it were not infuriating it would be
+      laughable&mdash;for who is this man, who? I have told you his father was a
+      freedman of the former prefect Claudius Balbillus, and by the favor of the
+      Roman his father rose and grew rich. He is the descendant of slaves, and
+      you expect that I shall be his obedient humble servant, whenever he
+      chooses to call me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But father, my dear father, it is not the son of Ptolemy, but the
+      palace-steward that he desires shall go to hire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mere chop-logic!&mdash;you have nothing to say, not a step do I take to
+      go to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl clasped her hands over her face, and sobbed loudly and pitifully.
+      Keraunus started up and cried out, beside himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By great Serapis. I can bear this no longer. What are you whimpering
+      about?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl plucked up courage and going up to the indignant man she said,
+      though more than once interrupted by tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must go father&mdash;indeed you must. I spoke to the foreman, and he
+      told me coolly and decidedly that the architect was placed here in
+      Caesar&rsquo;s name, and that if you do not obey him you will at once be
+      superseded in your office. And if that were to happen, if that&mdash;O
+      father, father, only think of blind Helios and poor Berenice! Arsinoe and
+      I could earn our bread, but the little ones&mdash;the little ones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words the girl fell on her knees lifting her hands in entreaty
+      to her obstinate parent. The blood had mounted to the man&rsquo;s face and eyes,
+      and pressing his hand to his purple forehead he sank back in his chair as
+      if stricken with apoplexy. His daughter sprang up and offered him the cup
+      full of wine and water which was standing on the table; but Keraunus
+      pushed it aside with his hands, and panted out, while he struggled for
+      breath:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Supersede me&mdash;in my place&mdash;turn me out of this palace! Why
+      there, in that ebony trunk, lies the rescript of Euergetes which confers
+      the stewardship of this residence on my ancestor Philip, and as a
+      hereditary dignity in his family. Now Philip&rsquo;s wife had the honor of being
+      the king&rsquo;s mistress&mdash;or, as some say, his daughter. There lies the
+      document, drawn up in red and black ink on yellow papyrus and ratified
+      with the seal and signature of Euergetes the Second. All the princes of
+      the Lagides have confirmed it, all the Roman prefects have respected it,
+      and now&mdash;now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But father&rdquo; said the girl interrupting her father, and wringing her hands
+      in despair, &ldquo;you still hold the place and if you will only give in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give in, give in,&rdquo; shrieked the corpulent steward shaking his fat hands
+      above his blood-shot face. &ldquo;I will give in&mdash;I will not bring you all
+      to misery&mdash;for my children&rsquo;s sake I will allow myself to be
+      ill-treated and down-trodden, I will go&mdash;I will go directly. Like the
+      pelican I will feed my children with my heart&rsquo;s blood. But you ought to
+      know what it costs me, to humiliate myself thus; it is intolerable to me,
+      and my heart is breaking&mdash;for the architect, the architect has
+      trampled upon me as if I were his servant; he wished&mdash;I heard him
+      with these ears&mdash;he shrieked after me a villainous hope that I might
+      be smothered in my own fat&mdash;and the physician has told me I may die
+      of apoplexy! Leave me, leave me. I know those Romans are capable of
+      anything. Well&mdash;here I am; fetch me my saffron-colored pallium, that
+      I wear in the council, fetch me my gold fillet for my head. I will deck
+      myself like a beast for sacrifice, and I will show him&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Not a word of this harangue had escaped the ears of the architect who had
+      been at first indignant and then moved to laughter, and withal it had
+      touched his heart. A sluggish and torpid character was repugnant to his
+      vigorous nature, and the deliberate and indifferent demeanor of the stout
+      steward, on an occasion which had prompted him and all concerned to act as
+      quickly and energetically as possible, had brought words to his lips which
+      he now wished that he had never spoken. It is true that the steward&rsquo;s
+      false pride had roused his indignation, and who can listen calmly to any
+      comment on a stain on his birth? But the appeal of this miserable father&rsquo;s
+      daughter had gone to his heart. He pitied the fatuous simpleton whom, with
+      a turn of his hand, he could reduce to beggary, and who had evidently been
+      far more deeply hurt by his words than Pontius had been by what he had
+      overheard, and so he followed the kindly impulse of a noble nature to
+      spare the unfortunate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rapped loudly with his knuckles on the inside of the door-post of the
+      ante-room, coughed loudly, and then said, bowing deeply to the steward on
+      the threshold of the sitting-room:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Noble Keraunus&mdash;I have come, as beseems me, to pay you my respects.
+      Excuse the lateness of the hour, but you can scarcely imagine how busy I
+      have been since we parted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus had at first started at the late visitor, then he stared at him
+      in consternation. He now went towards him, stretched out both hands as if
+      suddenly relieved of a nightmare, and a bright expression of such warm and
+      sincere satisfaction overspread his countenance that Pontius wondered how
+      he could have failed to observe what a well-cut face this fat original
+      had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take a seat at our humble table,&rdquo; said Keraunus. &ldquo;Go Selene and call the
+      slaves. Perhaps there is yet a pheasant in the house, a roast fowl or
+      something of the kind&mdash;but the hour, it is true, is late.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am deeply obliged to you,&rdquo; replied the architect, smiling. &ldquo;My supper
+      is waiting for me in the hall of the Muses, and I must return to my
+      work-people. I should be grateful to you if you would accompany me. We
+      must consult together as to the lighting of the rooms, and such matters
+      are best discussed over a succulent roast and a flask of wine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am quite at your service,&rdquo; said Keraunus with a bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go on ahead,&rdquo; said the architect, &ldquo;but first will you have the
+      goodness to give all that you have in the way of cressets, lights and
+      lamps to the slaves, who, in a few minutes, shall await your orders at
+      your door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Pontius had departed, Selene exclaimed with a deep sigh
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! what a fright I have had! I will go now and find the lamps. How
+      terribly it might have ended.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is well that he should have come,&rdquo; murmured Keraunus. &ldquo;Considering his
+      birth and origin, the architect is certainly a well-bred man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Pontius had gone to the steward&rsquo;s room, with a frowning brow, but it was
+      with a smile on his strongly-marked lips, and a brisk step that he
+      returned to his work-people. The foreman came to meet him with looks of
+      enquiry as he said. &ldquo;The steward was a little offended and with reason;
+      but now we are capital friends and he will do what he can in the matter of
+      lighting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the hall of the Muses he paused outside the screen, behind which Pollux
+      was working, and called out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Friend sculptor, listen to me, it is high time to have supper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is, indeed,&rdquo; replied Pollux, &ldquo;else it will be breakfast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then lay aside your tools for a quarter of an hour and help me and the
+      palace-steward to demolish the food that has been sent me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will need no second assistant if Keraunus is there. Food melts before
+      him like ice before the sun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then come and save him from an overloaded stomach.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible, for I am just now dealing most unmercifully with a bowl full
+      of cabbage and sausages. My mother had cooked that food of the gods and my
+      father has brought it in to his first-born son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cabbage and sausages!&rdquo; repeated the architect, and its tone betrayed that
+      his hungry stomach would fain have made closer acquaintance with the
+      savory mess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in here,&rdquo; continued Pollux, &ldquo;and be my guest. The cabbage has
+      experienced the process which is impending over this palace&mdash;it has
+      been warmed up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Warmed-up cabbage is better than freshly-cooked, but the fire over which
+      we must try to make this palace enjoyable again, burns too hotly and must
+      be too vigorously stirred. The best things have been all taken out, and
+      cannot be replaced.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like the sausages, I have fished out of my cabbages,&rdquo; laughed the
+      sculptor. &ldquo;After all I cannot invite you to be my guest, for it would be a
+      compliment to this dish if I were now to call it cabbage with sausages. I
+      have worked it like a mine, and now that the vein of sausages is nearly
+      exhausted, little remains but the native soil in which two or three
+      miserable fragments remain as memorials of past wealth. But my mother
+      shall cook you a mess of it before long, and she prepares it with
+      incomparable skill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A good idea, but you are my guest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am replete.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then come and spice our meal with your good company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excuse me, sir; leave me rather here behind my screen. In the first
+      place, I am in a happy vein, and on the right track; I feel that something
+      good will come of this night&rsquo;s work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And tomorrow&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hear me out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would be doing your other guest an ill-service by inviting me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know the steward then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From my earliest youth, I am the son of the gatekeeper of the palace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, ho! then you came from that pretty little lodge with the ivy and the
+      birds, and the jolly old lady.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is my mother&mdash;and the first time the butcher kills she will
+      concoct for you and me a dish of sausages and cabbage without an equal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A very pleasing prospect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here comes a hippopotamus&mdash;on closer inspection Keraunus, the
+      steward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you his enemy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I, no; but he is mine&mdash;yes,&rdquo; replied Pollux. &ldquo;It is a foolish story.
+      When we sup together don&rsquo;t ask me about it if you care to have a jolly
+      companion And do not tell Keraunus that I am here, it will lead to no
+      good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you wish, and here are our lamps too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough to light the nether world,&rdquo; exclaimed Pollux, and waving his hand
+      to the architect in farewell he vanished behind the screens to devote
+      himself entirely to his model.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was long past midnight, and the slaves who had set to work with much
+      zeal had finished their labors in the hall of the Muses. They were now
+      allowed to rest for some hours on straw that had been spread for them in
+      another wing of the building. The architect himself wished to take
+      advantage of this time to refresh himself by a short sleep, for the
+      exertions of the morrow, but between this intention and its fulfilment an
+      obstacle was interposed, the preposterous dimensions namely of his guest.
+      He had invited the steward on purpose to give him his fill of meat, and
+      Keraunus had shown himself amenable to encouragement in this respect. But
+      after the last dish bad been removed the steward thought that good manners
+      demanded that he should honor his entertainer by his illustrious presence,
+      and at the same time the prefect&rsquo;s good wine loosened the tongue of the
+      man, who was not usually communicative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First he spoke of the manifold infirmities which tormented him and
+      endangered his life, and when Pontius, to divert his talk into other
+      channels, was so imprudent as to allude to the Council of Citizens,
+      Keraunus gave full play to his eloquence, and, while he emptied cup after
+      cup of wine, tried to lay down the reasons which had made him and his
+      friends decide on staking everything in order to deprive the members of
+      the extensive community of Jews in the city of their rights as citizens,
+      and to expel them, if possible, from Alexandria. So warm was his zeal that
+      he totally forgot the presence of the architect, and his humble origin,
+      and declared to be indispensable, that even the descendants of
+      freed-slaves should be disenfranchised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pontius saw in the steward&rsquo;s inflamed eyes and cheeks that it was the wine
+      which spoke within him, and he made no answer; and determined that the
+      rest he needed should not be thus abridged, he rose from table and briefly
+      excusing himself he retired to the room in which the couch had been
+      prepared for him. After he had undressed he desired his slave to see what
+      Keraunus was about, and soon received the reassuring information that the
+      steward was fast asleep and snoring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only listen,&rdquo; said the slave, to confirm his report. &ldquo;You can hear him
+      grunting and snuffing as far as this. I pushed a cushion under his head,
+      for otherwise, so full as he is, the stout gentleman might come to some
+      harm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Love is a plant which springs up for many who have never sown it, and
+      grows into a spreading tree for many who have neither fostered nor tended
+      it. How little had Keraunus ever done to win the heart of his daughter,
+      how much on the contrary which could not fail to overshadow and trouble
+      her young life. And yet Selene, whose youth&mdash;for she was but nineteen&mdash;needed
+      repose and to whom the evening with the reprieve of sleep brought more
+      pleasure than the morning with its load of cares and labor, sat by the
+      three-branched lamp and watched, and tormented herself more and more as it
+      grew later and later, at her father&rsquo;s long absence. About a week before
+      the strong man had suddenly lost consciousness; only, it is true, for a
+      few minutes, and the physician had told her that though he appeared to be
+      in superabundant health, the attack indicated that he must follow his
+      prescriptions strictly and avoid all kinds of excess. A single
+      indiscretion, he had declared, might swiftly and suddenly cut the thread
+      of his existence. After her father had gone out in obedience to the
+      architect&rsquo;s invitation, Selene had brought out her youngest brothers&rsquo; and
+      sisters&rsquo; garments, in order to mend them. Her sister Arsinoe, who was her
+      junior by two years, and whose fingers were as nimble as her own, might
+      indeed have helped her, but she had gone to bed early and was sleeping by
+      the children who could not be left untended at night. Her female slave,
+      who had been in her grandmother&rsquo;s service, ought to have assisted her; but
+      the old half-blind negress saw even worse by lamp-light than by daylight,
+      and after a few stitches could do no more. Selene sent her to bed and sat
+      down alone to her work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the first hour she sewed away without looking up, considering,
+      meanwhile, how she could best contrive to support the family till the end
+      of the month on the few drachmae she could dispose of. As it got later she
+      grew wearier and wearier, but still she sat at the work, though her pretty
+      head often sank upon her breast. She must await her father&rsquo;s return, for a
+      potion prepared by the physician stood waiting for him, and she feared he
+      would forget it if she did not remind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the end of the second hour sleep overcame her, and she felt as if the
+      chair she was sitting on was giving way under her, and as if it was
+      sinking at first slowly and then quicker and quicker, into a deep abyss
+      that opened beneath her. Looking up for help in her dream, she could see
+      nothing but her father&rsquo;s face, which looked aside with indifference. As
+      her dream went on she called him and called him again, but for a long time
+      he did not seem to hear her. At last he looked down at her and when he
+      perceived her he smiled, but instead of helping her he picked up stones
+      and clods from the edge of the gulf and threw them on her hands with which
+      she had clutched the brambles and roots that grew out of the rift of the
+      rocks. She entreated him to cease, implored him, shrieked to him to spare
+      her, but not a muscle moved in the face above her; it seemed set in a
+      vacant smile, and even his heart was dead too, for he ruthlessly flung
+      down now a pebble, now a clod, one after the other, till her hands were
+      losing their last feeble hold and she was on the point of falling into the
+      fatal gulf below. Her own cry of terror aroused her, but during the brief
+      process of returning from her dream to actuality, she saw through swiftly
+      parting mists&mdash;only for an instant, and yet quite plainly&mdash;the
+      tall grass of a meadow, spangled with ox-eye daisies, white and gold, with
+      violet-hued blue bells and scarlet poppies, among which she was lying&mdash;as
+      in a soft green bed, while near the sward lay a sparkling blue lake and
+      behind it rose beautiful swelling hills, with red cliffs, and green
+      groves, and meadows bright in the clear sunshine. A clear sky, across
+      which a soft breeze gently blew light silvery flakes of cloud, bent over
+      the lovely but fleeting picture, which she could not compare with anything
+      she had ever seen near her own home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had only slept for a short time, but when, once more thoroughly awake,
+      she rubbed her eyes, she thought her dream must have lasted for hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One flame of the three-branched lamp had flickered into extinction and the
+      wick of another was beginning to waste. She hastily put it out with a pair
+      of tongs that hung by a chain, and then after pouring fresh oil into the
+      lamp that was still burning she carried the light into her father&rsquo;s
+      sleeping room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had not yet returned. She was seized with a mortal terror. Had the
+      architect&rsquo;s wine bereft him of his senses? Had he on his way back to his
+      rooms been seized with a fresh attack of giddiness? In spirit she saw the
+      heavy man incapable of raising himself, dying perhaps where he had fallen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No choice remained to her; she must go at once to the hall of the Muses
+      and see what had happened to her father, pick him up, give him help or&mdash;if
+      he still were feasting&mdash;endeavor to tempt him back by any excuse she
+      could find. Everything was at stake; her father&rsquo;s life and with it
+      maintenance and shelter for eight helpless creatures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The December night was stormy, a keen and bitter wind blew through the
+      ill-closed opening in the roof of the room as Selene, before she began her
+      expedition, tied a handkerchief over her head and threw over her shoulders
+      a white mantle which had been worn by her dead mother. In the long
+      corridor which lay between her father&rsquo;s rooms and the front portion of the
+      palace, she had to screen the flickering light of the little lamp with her
+      left hand, carrying it in her right; the flame blown about by the draught
+      and her own figure were mirrored here and there in the polished surface of
+      the dark marble. The thick sandals she had tied on to her feet roused loud
+      echoes in the empty rooms as they fell on the stone pavements, and terror
+      possessed Selene&rsquo;s anxious soul. Her fingers trembled as they held the
+      lamp and her heart beat audibly as, with bated breath, she went through
+      the cupolaed hall in which Ptolemy Euergetes &lsquo;the fat&rsquo; was said, some
+      years ago, to have murdered his own son, and in which even a deep breath
+      roused an echo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But even in this room she did not forget to look to the right and left for
+      her father. She breathed a sigh of relief when she perceived a streak of
+      light which shone through the gaping rift of a cracked side-door of the
+      hall of the Muses and fell in a broken reflection on the floor and the
+      wall of the last room through which she had to pass. She now entered the
+      large hall which was dimly lighted by the lamps behind the sculptor&rsquo;s
+      screen, and by several tapers, now burnt down low. These were standing on
+      a table knocked together out of blocks of wood and planks at the extreme
+      end of the hall, and behind this her father was sound asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The deep notes brought out of the sleeper&rsquo;s broad chest, were echoed in a
+      very uncanny way from the bare walls of the vast empty room, and she was
+      frightened by them and still more by the long black shadows of the
+      pillars, that lay, like barriers, across her path. She stood listening in
+      the middle of the hall and soon recognized in the alarming tones a sound
+      that was only too familiar. Without a moment&rsquo;s hesitation she started to
+      run, and hastened to the sleeper, shook him, pushed him, called him,
+      sprinkled his forehead with water, and appealed to him by the tenderest
+      names with which her sister Arsinoe was wont to coax him. When, in spite
+      of all this, he neither spoke nor stirred, she flung the full light of the
+      lamp on his face. Then she thought she perceived that a bluish tinge had
+      overspread his bloated features, and she broke into the deep, agonized,
+      weeping which, a few hours previously had touched the architect&rsquo;s heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a sudden stir behind the screens which enclosed the sculptor and
+      the work in progress. Pollux had been working for a long time with zeal
+      and pleasure, but at last the steward&rsquo;s snoring had begun to disturb him.
+      The body of the Muse had already taken a definite form and he could begin
+      to work out the head with the earliest dawn of day. He now dropped his
+      arms wearily, for as soon as he ceased to create with his whole heart and
+      mind he felt tired, and saw plainly that without a model he could do
+      nothing satisfactory with the drapery of his Urania. So he pulled his
+      stool up to a great chest full of gypsum to get a little repose by leaning
+      against it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But sleep avoided the artist who was too much excited by his rapid night&rsquo;s
+      work, and as soon as Selene opened the door he sat upright and peeped
+      through an opening between the frames of his place of retirement. When he
+      saw the tall draped figure in whose hand a lamp was trembling, when he
+      watched her cross the spacious hall, and then suddenly stand still, he was
+      not a little startled, but this did not hinder him from noting every step
+      of the nocturnal spectre with far more curiosity than alarm. Then, when
+      Selene looked round her, and the lamp illuminated her face, be recognized
+      the steward&rsquo;s daughter, and immediately knew what she must be seeking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her vain attempts to rouse the sleeper, though somewhat pathetic, had in
+      them at the same time something irresistibly ludicrous, and Pollux felt
+      sorely tempted to laugh. But as soon as Selene began to weep so bitterly
+      he hastily pushed apart two of the laths of the screen, went up and called
+      her name, at first softly not to frighten her, and then more loudly. When
+      she turned her head he begged her warmly not to be alarmed far he was no
+      ghost, only a very humble and ordinary mortal, in fact-as she might see&mdash;nothing
+      more, alas! than the son of Euphorian, the gate-keeper, good for nothing
+      as yet, but treading the path to something better.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You, Pollux?&rdquo; asked the girl with surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The very man. But you&mdash;can I help you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My poor father,&rdquo; sobbed Selene. &ldquo;He does not stir, he is immovable&mdash;and
+      his face&mdash;oh! merciful gods.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A man who snores is not dead,&rdquo; said the sculptor. &ldquo;But the doctor told
+      him&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is not even ill! Pontius only gave him stronger wine to drink than he
+      is used to. Let him be; he is sleeping with the pillow under his neck, as
+      comfortably as a child. When he began just now to trumpet a little too
+      loud I whistled as loud as a plover, for that often silences a snorer; but
+      I could more easily have made those stone Muses dance than have roused
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If only we could get him to bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, if you have four horses at hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are as bad as you ever were!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A little less so, Selene, only you must become accustomed again to my way
+      of speaking. This time I only mean that we two together are not strong
+      enough to carry him away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what can I do, then? The doctor said&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind the doctor. The complaint your father is suffering from is one
+      I know well. It will be gone to-morrow, perhaps by sundown, and the only
+      pain it will leave behind, he will feel under his wig. Only leave him to
+      sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it is so cold here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take my cloak and cover him with that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you will be frozen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am used to it. How long has Keraunus had dealings with the doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene related the accident that had befallen her father and how justified
+      were her fears. The sculptor listened to her in silence and then said in a
+      quite altered tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am truly sorry to hear it. Let us put some cold water on his forehead,
+      and until the slaves come back again I will change the wet cloth every
+      quarter of an hour. Here is a jar and a handkerchief&mdash;good, they
+      might have been left on purpose. Perhaps, too, it will wake him, and if
+      not the people shall carry him to his own rooms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Disgraceful, disgraceful!&rdquo; sighed the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all; the high-priest of Serapis even is sometimes unwell. Only let
+      me see to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will excite him afresh if he sees you. He is so angry with you&mdash;so
+      very angry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Omnipotent Zeus, what harm have I done you, fat father! The gods forgive
+      the sins of the wise, and a man will not forgive the fault committed by a
+      stupid lad in a moment of imprudence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mocked at him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I set a clay head that was like him on the shoulders of the fat Silenus
+      near the gate, that had lost its own head. It was my first piece of
+      independent work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you did it to vex my father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not, Selene; I was delighted with the joke and nothing more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you knew how touchy he is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And does a wild boy of fifteen ever reflect on the consequences of his
+      audacity? If he had but given me a thrashing his annoyance would have
+      discharged itself like thunder and lightning, and the air would have been
+      clear again. But, as it was, he cut the face off the work with a knife,
+      and deliberately trod the pieces under foot as they lay on the ground. He
+      gave me one single blow&mdash;with his thumb&mdash;which I still feel, it
+      is true, and then he treated me and my parents with such scorn, so coldly
+      and hardly, with such bitter contempt&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He never is really violent, but wrath seems to eat him inwardly, and I
+      have rarely seen him so angry as he was that time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if he had only settled the account with me on the spot! but my father
+      was by, and hot words fell like rain, and my mother added her share, and
+      from that time there has been utter hostility between our little house and
+      you up here. What hurt me most was that you and your sister were forbidden
+      to come to see us and to play with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That has spoilt many pleasant hours for me, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was nice when we used to dress up in my father&rsquo;s theatrical finery and
+      cloaks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And when you made us dolls out of clay.&rdquo;.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or when we performed the Olympian games.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was always the teacher when we played at school with our little
+      brothers and sisters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arsinoe gave you most trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! and what fun when we went fishing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And when we brought home the fishes and mother gave us meal and raisins
+      to cook them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you remember the festival of Adonis, and how I stopped the runaway
+      horse of that Numidian officer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The horse had knocked over Arsinoe, and when we got home mother gave you
+      an almond-cake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And your ungrateful sister bit a great piece out of it and left me only a
+      tiny morsel. Is Arsinoe as pretty as she promised to become? It is two
+      years since I last saw her; at our place we never have time to leave work
+      till it is dark. For eight months I had to work for the master at
+      Ptolemais, and often saw the old folks but once in the month.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We go out very little, too, and we are not allowed to go into your
+      parents&rsquo; house. My sister&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is she pretty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I think she is. Whenever she can get hold of a piece of ribbon she
+      plaits it in her hair, and the men in the street turn round to look at
+      her. She is sixteen now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sixteen! What, little Arsinoe! Why, how long then is it since your mother
+      died?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Four years and eight months.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You remember the date very exactly; such a mother is not easily
+      forgotten, indeed. She was a good woman and a kinder I never met. I know,
+      too, that she tried to mollify your father&rsquo;s feeling, but she could not
+      succeed, and then she need must die!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Selene gloomily. &ldquo;How could the gods decree it! They are often
+      more cruel than the hardest hearted man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your poor little brothers and sisters!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl bowed her head sadly and Pollux stood for some time with his eyes
+      fixed on the ground. Then he raised his head and exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have something for you that will please you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing ever pleases me now she is dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes indeed,&rdquo; replied the young sculptor eagerly. &ldquo;I could not forget
+      the good soul, and once in my idle moments I modelled her bust from
+      memory. To-morrow I will bring it to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; cried Selene, and her large heavy eyes brightened with a sunny
+      gleam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, is not it true, you are pleased?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes indeed, very much. But when my father learns that it is you who have
+      given me the portrait&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he capable of destroying it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he does not destroy it, he will not suffer it in the house as soon as
+      he knows that you made it.&rdquo; Pollux took the handkerchief from the
+      steward&rsquo;s head, moistened it afresh, and exclaimed as he rearranged it on
+      the forehead of the sleeping man:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have an idea. All that matters is that my bust should serve to remind
+      you often of your mother; the bust need not stand in your rooms. The busts
+      of the women of the house of Ptolemy stand on the rotunda, which you can
+      see from your balcony, and which you can pass whenever you please; some of
+      them are badly mutilated and must be got rid of. I will undertake to
+      restore the Berenice and put your mother&rsquo;s head on her shoulders. Then you
+      have only to go out and look at her. Will that do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Pollux; you are a good man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I told you just now. I am beginning to improve. But time&mdash;time!
+      if I am to undertake to repair Berenice I must begin by saving the
+      minutes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go back to your work now; I know how to apply a wet compress only too
+      well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words Selene threw back her mantle over her shoulders so as to
+      leave her hands free for use, and stood with her slender figure, her pale
+      face, and the fine broadly-flowing folds of rich stuff, like a statue in
+      the eyes of the young sculptor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop&mdash;stay so&mdash;just so,&rdquo; cried Pollux to the astonished girl,
+      so loudly and eagerly that she was startled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your cloak hangs with a wonderfully-free flow from your shoulders&mdash;in
+      the name of all the gods do not touch it. If only I might model from it I
+      should in a few minutes gain a whole day for our Berenice. I will wet the
+      handkerchief at intervals in the pauses.&rdquo; Without waiting for Selene&rsquo;s
+      answer the sculptor hastened into his nook and returned first with one of
+      the lamps he worked by in each hand, and some small tools in his mouth,
+      and then fetched his wax model which he placed on the outer side of the
+      table, behind which the steward was sleeping. The tapers were put out, the
+      lamps pushed aside, and raised or lowered, and when at last a tolerably
+      suitable light was procured Pollux threw himself on a stool, straddled his
+      legs, craned his head forward as far as his neck would allow, looking,
+      with his hooked nose, like a vulture that strives to descry his distant
+      prey-cast his eyes down, raised them again to take in something fresh, and
+      after a long gaze looked down again while his fingers and nails moved over
+      the surface of the wax-figure, sinking into the plastic material, applying
+      new pieces to apparently complete portions, removing others with a decided
+      nip and rounding them off with bewildering rapidity to use them for a
+      fresh purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He seemed to be seized with cramp in his hands, but still under his
+      knotted brow his eye shone earnest, resolute and calm, and yet full of
+      profound and speechless inspiration. Selene had said not a word that
+      permitted his using her as a model; but, as if his enthusiasm was
+      infectious, she remained motionless, and when, as he worked, his gaze met
+      hers she could detect the stern earnestness which at this moment possessed
+      her eager companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither of them opened their lips for some time. At last he stood back
+      from his work, stooping low to look first at Selene and then at his
+      statuette with keen examination from head to foot; and then, drawing a
+      deep breath, and rubbing the wax over with his finger, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, that is how it must go! Now I will wet your father&rsquo;s handkerchief
+      and then we can go on again. If you are tired you can rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She availed herself but little of this permission and presently he began
+      work again. As he proceeded carefully to replace some folds of her drapery
+      which had fallen out of place, she moved her foot as if to draw back, but
+      he begged her earnestly to stand still and she obeyed his request.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux now used his fingers and modelling tools more calmly; his gaze was
+      less wistful and he began to talk again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very pale,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;To be sure the lamp-light and a sleepless
+      night have something to do with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I look just the same by daylight, but I am not ill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought Arsinoe would have been like your mother, but now I see many
+      features of her face in yours again. The oval of their form is the same
+      and, in both, the line of the nose runs almost straight to the forehead;
+      you have her eyes and the same bend of the brow, but your mouth is smaller
+      and more sharply cut, and she could hardly have made such a heavy knot of
+      her hair. I fancy, too, that yours is lighter than hers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As a girl she must have had still more hair, and perhaps she may have
+      been as fair as I was&mdash;I am brown now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another thing you inherit from her is that your hair, without being
+      curly, lies upon your head in such soft waves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is easy to keep in order.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are not you taller than she was?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy so, but as she was stouter she looked shorter. Will you soon have
+      done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are getting tired of standing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not very.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then have a little more patience. Your face reminds me more and more of
+      our early years; I should be glad to see Arsinoe once more. I feel at this
+      moment as if time had moved backwards a good piece. Have you the same
+      feeling?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene shook her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not happy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know full well that you have very heavy duties to perform for your
+      age.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Things go as they may.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, nay. I know you do not let things go haphazard. You take care of
+      your brothers and sisters like a mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like a mother!&rdquo; repeated Selene, and she smiled a bitter negative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course a mother&rsquo;s love is a thing by itself, but your father and the
+      little ones have every reason to be satisfied with yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The little ones are perhaps, and Helios who is blind, but Arsinoe does
+      what she can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You certainly are not content, I can hear it in your voice, and you used
+      formerly to be as merry and happy as your sister, though perhaps not so
+      saucy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Formerly&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How sadly that sounds! And yet you are handsome, you are young, and life
+      lies before you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what a life!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what?&rdquo; asked the sculptor, and taking his hands from his work he
+      looked ardently at the fair pale girl before him and cried out fervently:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A life which might be full of happiness and satisfied affection.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl shook her head in negation and answered coldly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Love is joy,&rsquo; says the Christian woman who superintends us at work in
+      the papyrus factory, and since my mother died I have had no love. I
+      enjoyed all my share of happiness once for all in my childhood, now I am
+      content if only we are spared the worst misfortunes. Otherwise I take what
+      each day brings, because I can not do otherwise. My heart is empty, and if
+      I ever feel anything keenly, it is dread. I have long since ceased to
+      expect any thing good of the future.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Girl!&rdquo; exclaimed Pollux. &ldquo;Why, what has been happening to you? I do not
+      understand half of what you are saying. How came you in the papyrus
+      factory?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not betray me,&rdquo; begged Selene. &ldquo;If my father were to hear of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is asleep, and what you confide to me no one will ever hear of again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should I conceal it? I go every day with Arsinoe for two hours to the
+      manufactory, and we work there to earn a little money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behind your father&rsquo;s back?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he would rather that we should starve than allow it. Every day I
+      feel the same loathing for the deceit; but we could not get on without it,
+      for Arsinoe thinks of nothing but herself, plays draughts with my father,
+      curls his hair, plays with the children as if they were dolls, but it is
+      my part to take care of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you, you say, have no share of love. Happily no one believes you, and
+      I least of all. Only lately my mother was telling me about you, and I
+      thought you were a girl who might turn out just such a wife as a woman
+      ought to be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, I know it for certain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may be mistaken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no! your name is Selene, and you are as gentle as the kindly
+      moonlight; names, even, have their significance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And my blind brother who has never even seen the light is called Helios!&rdquo;
+       answered the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux had spoken with much warmth, but Selene&rsquo;s last words startled him
+      and checked the effervescence of his feelings. Finding he did not answer
+      her bitter exclamation, she said, at first coolly, but with increasing
+      warmth:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are beginning to believe me, and you are right, for what I do for the
+      children is not done out of love, or out of kindness, or because I set
+      their welfare above my own. I have inherited my father&rsquo;s pride, and it
+      would be odious to me if my brothers and sisters went about in rags, and
+      people thought we were as poor and helpless as we really are. What is most
+      horrible to me is sickness in the house, for that increases the anxiety I
+      always feel and swallows up my last coin; the children must not perish for
+      want of it. I do not want to make myself out worse than I am; it grieves
+      me too to see them drooping. But nothing that I do brings me happiness&mdash;at
+      most it moderates my fears. You ask what I am afraid of?&mdash;of
+      everything, everything that can happen to me, for I have no reason to look
+      forward to anything good. When there is a knock, it may be a creditor;
+      when people look at Arsinoe in the street, I seem to see dishonor lurking
+      round her; when my father acts against the advice of the physician I feel
+      as if we were standing already roofless in the open street. What is there
+      that I can do with a happy mind? I certainly am not idle, still I envy the
+      woman who can sit with her hands in her lap and be waited on by slaves,
+      and if a golden treasure fell into my possession, I would never stir a
+      finger again, and would sleep every day till the sun was high and make
+      slaves look after my father and the children. My life is sheer misery. If
+      ever we see better days I shall be astonished, and before I have got over
+      my astonishment it will all be over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The sculptor felt a cold chill, and his heart which had opened wide to his
+      old playfellow shrank again within him. Before he could find the right
+      words of encouragement which he sought, they heard in the hall, where the
+      workmen and slaves were sleeping, the blast of a trumpet intended to awake
+      them. Selene started, drew her mantle more closely round her, begged
+      Pollux to take care of her father, and to hide the wine-jar which was
+      standing near him from the work-people and then, forgetting her lamp, she
+      went hastily toward the door by which she had entered. Pollux hurried
+      after her to light the way and while he accompanied her as far as the door
+      of her rooms, by his warm and urgent words which appealed wonderfully to
+      her heart, he extracted from her a promise to stand once more in her
+      mantle as his model.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A quarter of an hour later the steward was safe in bed and still sleeping
+      soundly, while Pollux, who had stretched himself on a mattress behind his
+      screen, could not for a long time cease to think of the pale girl with her
+      benumbed soul. At last sleep overcame him too, and a sweet dream showed
+      him pretty little Arsinoe, who but for him must infallibly have been
+      killed by the Numidian&rsquo;s restive horse, taking away her sister Selene&rsquo;s
+      almond-cake and giving it to him. The pale girl submitted quietly to the
+      robbery and only smiled coldly and silently to herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      Alexandria was in the greatest excitement.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor&rsquo;s visit now immediately impending had tempted the busy hive of
+      citizens away from the common round of life in which, day after day,&mdash;swarming,
+      hurrying, pushing each other on, or running each other down&mdash;they
+      raced for bread and for the means of filling their hours of leisure with
+      pleasures and amusements. The unceasing wheel of industry to-day had pause
+      in the factories, workshops, storehouses and courts of justice, for all
+      sorts and conditions of men were inspired by the same desire to celebrate
+      Hadrian&rsquo;s visit with unheard-of splendor. All that the citizens could
+      command of inventive skill, of wealth, and of beauty was called forth to
+      be displayed in the games and processions which were to fill up a number
+      of days. The richest of the heathen citizens had undertaken the management
+      of the pieces to be performed in the Theatre, of the mock fight on the
+      lake, and of the sanguinary games in the Amphitheatre; and so great was
+      the number of opulent persons that many more were prepared to pay for
+      smaller projects, for which there was no opening. Nevertheless the
+      arrangements for certain portions of the procession, in which even the
+      less wealthy were to take a share, the erection of the building in the
+      Hippodrome, the decorations in the streets, and the preparations for
+      entertaining the Roman visitors absorbed sums so large that they seemed
+      extravagant even to the prefect Titianus, who was accustomed to see his
+      fellow-officials in Rome squander millions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Emperor&rsquo;s viceroy it behoved him to give his assent to all that was
+      planned to feast his sovereign&rsquo;s eye and ear. On the whole, he left the
+      citizens of the great town free to act as they would; but he had, more
+      than once, to exert a decided opposition to their overdoing the thing; for
+      though the Emperor might be able to endure a vast amount of pleasure, what
+      the Alexandrians originally proposed to provide for him to see and hear
+      would have exhausted the most indefatigable human energy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That which gave the greatest trouble, not merely to him, but also to the
+      masters of the revels chosen by the municipality, were the never-dormant
+      hostility between the heathen and the Jewish sections of the inhabitants,
+      and the processions, since no division chose to come last, nor would any
+      number be satisfied to be only the third or the fourth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was from a meeting, where his determined intervention had at last
+      brought all these preliminaries to a decision beyond appeal, that Titianus
+      proceeded to the Caesareum to pay the Empress the visit which she expected
+      of him daily. He was glad to have come to some conclusion, at any rate
+      provisionally, with regard to these matters, for six days had slipped away
+      since the works had been begun in the palace of Lochias, and Hadrian&rsquo;s
+      arrival was nearing rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found Sabina, as usual, on her divan, but on this occasion the Empress
+      was sitting upright on her cushions. She seemed quite to have got over the
+      fatigues of the sea-voyage, and in token that she felt better she had
+      applied more red to her cheeks and lips than three days ago, and because
+      she was to receive a visit from the sculptors, Papias and Aristeas, she
+      had had her hair arranged as it was worn in the statue of Venus Victrix,
+      with whose attributes she had, five years previously&mdash;though not, it
+      is true, without some resistance&mdash;been represented in marble. When a
+      copy of this statue had been erected in Alexandria, an evil tongue had
+      made a speech which was often repeated among the citizens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This Aphrodite is triumphant to be sure, for all who see her make haste
+      to fly; she should be called Cypris the scatterer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Titianus was still under the excitement of the embittered squabbles and
+      unpleasing exhibitions of character at which he had just been present when
+      he entered the presence of the Empress, whom he found in a small room with
+      no one but the chamberlain and a few ladies-in-waiting. To the prefect&rsquo;s
+      respectful inquiries after her health, she shrugged her shoulders and
+      replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How should I be? If I said well it would not be true; if I said ill, I
+      should be surrounded with pitiful faces, which are not pleasant to look
+      at. After all we must endure life. Still, the innumerable doors in these
+      rooms will be the death of me if I am compelled to remain here long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Titianus glanced at the two doors of the room in which the Empress was
+      sitting, and began to express his regrets at their bad condition, which
+      had escaped his notice; but Sabina interrupted him, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You men never do observe what hurts us women. Our Verus is the only man
+      who can feel and understand&mdash;who can divine it, as I might say. There
+      are five and thirty doors in my rooms! I had them counted-five and thirty!
+      If they were not old and made of valuable wood I should really believe
+      they had been made as a practical joke on me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some of them might be supplemented with curtains.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! never mind&mdash;a few miseries, more or less in any life do not
+      matter. Are the Alexandrians ready at last with their preparations?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure I hope so,&rdquo; said the prefect with a sigh. &ldquo;They are bent on
+      giving all that is their best; but in the endeavor to outvie each other
+      every one is at war with his neighbor, and I still feel the effects of the
+      odious wrangling which I have had to listen to for hours, and that I have
+      been obliged to check again and again with threats of &lsquo;I shall be down
+      upon you.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; said the Empress with a pinched smile, as if she had heard some
+      thing that pleased her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me something about your meeting. I am bored to death, for Verus,
+      Balbilla and the others have asked for leave of absence that they may go
+      to inspect the work doing at Lochias; I am accustomed to find that people
+      would rather be any where than with me. Can I wonder then that my presence
+      is not enough to enable a friend of my husband&rsquo;s to forget a little
+      annoyance&mdash;the impression left by some slight misunderstanding? But
+      my fugitives are a long time away; there must be a great deal that is
+      beautiful to be seen at Lochias.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prefect suppressed his annoyance and did not express his anxiety lest
+      the architect and his assistants should be disturbed, but began in the
+      tone of the messenger in a tragedy:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The first quarrel was fought over the order of the procession.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sit a little farther off,&rdquo; said Sabina pressing her jewelled right-hand
+      on her ear, as if she were suffering a pain in it. The prefect colored
+      slightly, but he obeyed the desire of Caesar&rsquo;s wife and went on with his
+      story, pitching his voice in a somewhat lower key than before:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it was about the procession, that the first breach of the peace
+      arose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard that once already,&rdquo; replied the lady, yawning. &ldquo;I like
+      processions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said the prefect, a man in the beginning of the sixties&mdash;and
+      he spoke with some irritation, &ldquo;here as in Rome and every where else,
+      where they are not controlled by the absolute will of a single individual,
+      processions are the children of strife, and they bring forth strife, even
+      when they are planned in honor of a festival of Peace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems to annoy you that they should be organized in honor of Hadrian?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are in jest; it is precisely because I care particularly that they
+      should be carried out with all possible splendor, that I am troubling
+      myself about them in person, even as to details; and to my great
+      satisfaction I have been able even to subdue the most obstinate; still it
+      was scarcely my duty&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancied that you not only served the state but were my husband&rsquo;s
+      friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am proud to call myself so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye&mdash;Hadrian has many, very many friends since he has worn the
+      purple. Have you got over your ill temper Titianus? You must have become
+      very touchy. Poor Julia has an irritable husband!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is less to be pitied than you think,&rdquo; said Titianus with dignity,
+      &ldquo;for my official duties so entirely claim my time that she is not often
+      likely to know what disturbs me. If I have forgotten to dissimulate my
+      vexation before you, I beg you to pardon me, and to attribute it to my
+      zeal in securing a worthy reception for Hadrian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As if I had scolded you! But to return to your wife&mdash;as I understand
+      she shares the fate I endure. We poor women have nothing to expect from
+      our husbands, but the stale leavings that remain after business has
+      absorbed the rest! But your story&mdash;go on with your story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The worst moments I had at all were given me by the bad feeling of the
+      Jews towards the other citizens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hate all these infamous sects&mdash;Jews, Christians or whatever they
+      are called! Do they dare to grudge their money for the reception of
+      Caesar?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the contrary Alabarchos, their wealthy chief, has offered to defray
+      all the cost of the Naumachia and his co-religionist Artemion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, take their money, take their money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Greek citizens feel that they are rich enough to pay all the
+      expenses, which will amount to many millions of sesterces, and they wish
+      to exclude the Jews, if possible, from all the processions and games.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are perfectly right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But allow me to ask you whether it is just to prohibit half the
+      population of Alexandria doing honor to their Emperor!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! Hadrian will, with pleasure, dispense with the honor. Our conquering
+      heroes have thought it redounded to their glory to be called Africanus,
+      Germanicus and Dacianus, but Titus refused to be called Judaicus when he
+      had destroyed Jerusalem.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was because he dreaded the remembrance of the rivers of blood which
+      had to be shed in order to break the fearfully obstinate resistance of
+      that nation. The besieged had to be conquered limb by limb, and finger by
+      finger, before they would make up their minds to yield.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Again you are speaking half poetically, or have these people elected you
+      as their advocate?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know them and make every effort to secure them justice, just as much as
+      any other citizen of this country which I govern in the name of the Empire
+      and of Caesar. They pay taxes as well as the rest of the Alexandrians; nay
+      more, for there are many wealthy men among them who are honorably
+      prominent in trade, in professions, learning and art, and I therefore mete
+      to them the same measure as to the other inhabitants of this city. Their
+      superstition offends me no more than that of the Egyptians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it really is above all measure. At Aelia Capitolina which Hadrian had
+      decorated with several buildings, they refused to sacrifice to the statues
+      of Zeus and Hera. That is to say they scorn to do homage to me and my
+      husband!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are forbidden to worship any other divinity than their own God.
+      Aelia rose up on the very soil where their ruined Jerusalem had stood, and
+      the statues of which you speak stand in their holy places.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has that to do with us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know that even Caius&mdash;[Caligula]&mdash;could not reduce them by
+      placing his statue in the Holy of Holies of their temple; and Petronius,
+      the governor, had to confess that to subdue them meant to exterminate
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let them meet with the fate they deserve, let them be exterminated!&rdquo;
+       cried Sabina.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exterminated?&rdquo; asked the prefect. &ldquo;In Alexandria they constitute nearly
+      half of the citizens, that is to say several hundred thousand of obedient
+      subjects, exterminated!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So many?&rdquo; asked the Empress in alarm. &ldquo;But that is frightful. Omnipotent
+      Jove! supposing that mass were to revolt against us! No one ever told me
+      of this danger. In Cyrenaica, and at Salamis in Cyprus, they killed their
+      fellow-citizens by thousands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They had been provoked to extremities and they were superior to their
+      oppressors in force.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And in their own land one revolt after another is organized.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By reason of the sacrifices of which we were speaking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tinnius Rufus is at present the legate in Palestine. He has a horribly
+      shrill voice&mdash;but he looks like a man who will stand no trifling, and
+      will know how to quell the venomous brood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly&rdquo; replied Titianus. &ldquo;But I fear that he will never attain his end
+      by mere severity; and if he should he will have depopulated his province.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are already too many men in the empire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But never enough good and useful citizens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Outrageous contemners of the gods and useless citizens!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here in Alexandria, where many have accommodated themselves to Greek
+      habits of life and thought, and where all have adopted the Greek tongue,
+      they are undoubtedly good citizens, and wholly devoted to Caesar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do they take part in the rejoicings?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, as far as the Greek citizens will allow them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the arrangement of the water-fight?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will not be given over to them, but Artemion will be permitted to
+      supply the wild beasts for the games in the Amphitheatre.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he was not avaricious about it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So far from it that you will be astonished. The man must know the secret
+      of Midas, of turning stones into gold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And are there many like him among your Jews?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A good number.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I wish that they would attempt a revolt, for if this led to the
+      destruction of the rich ones, their gold, at any rate, would remain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Meanwhile I will try and keep them alive, as being good rate-payers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And does Hadrian share your wish?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Without doubt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your successor may perhaps bring him to another mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He always acts according to his own judgment, and for the present I am in
+      office,&rdquo; answered Titianus haughtily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And may the God of the Jews long preserve you in it!&rdquo; retorted Sabina
+      scornfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Before Titianus could open his lips to reply, the principal door of the
+      room was opened cautiously but widely, and the praetor Lucius Aurelius
+      Verus, his wife Domitia Lucilla, the young Balbilla and, last of all,
+      Annaeus Florus, the historian, entered. All four were in the best spirits,
+      and immediately after the preliminary greetings, were eager to report what
+      they had seen at Lochias; but Sabina waved silence with her hand, and
+      breathed out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no; not at present. I feel quite exhausted. This long waiting, and
+      then&mdash;my smelling-bottle, Verus. Leukippe, bring me a cup of water
+      with some fruit-syrup&mdash;but not so sweet as usual.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Greek slave-girl hastened to execute this command, and the Empress, as
+      she waved an elegant bottle carved in onyx, under her nostrils, went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a little eternity&mdash;is it not, Titianus, that we have been
+      discussing state affairs? You all know how frank I am and that I cannot be
+      silent when I meet with perverse opinions. While you have been away I have
+      had much to hear and to say; it would have exhausted the strength of the
+      strongest. I only wonder you don&rsquo;t find me more worn out, for what can be
+      more excruciating for a woman, that to be obliged to enter the lists for
+      manly decisiveness against a man who is defending a perfectly antagonistic
+      view? Give me water, Leukippe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While the Empress drank the syrup with tiny sips twitching her thin lips
+      over it, Verus went up to the prefect and asked him in an under tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were a long while alone with Sabina, cousin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied Titianus, and he set his teeth as he spoke and clenched his
+      fist so hard that the praetor could not misunderstand, and replied in a
+      low voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is much to be pitied, and particularly just now she has hours&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What sort of hours?&rdquo; asked Sabina taking the cup from her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These,&rdquo; replied Verus quickly, &ldquo;in which I am not obliged to occupy
+      myself in the senate or with the affairs of state. To whom do I owe them
+      but to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words he approached the mature beauty, and taking the goblet
+      out of her hand with affectionate subservience, as a son might wait on his
+      honored and suffering mother, he gave it to the Greek slave. The Empress
+      bowed her thanks again and again to the praetor with much affability, and
+      then said, with a slight infusion of cheerfulness in her tones:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well&mdash;and what is there to be seen at Lochias?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wonderful things,&rdquo; answered Balbilla readily and clasping her little
+      hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A swarm of bees, a colony of ants, have taken possession of the palace.
+      Hands black, white and brown&mdash;more than we could count, are busy
+      there and of all the hundreds of workmen which are astir there, not one
+      got in the way of another, for one little man orders and manages them all,
+      just as the prescient wisdom of the gods guides the stars through the
+      &lsquo;gracious and merciful night&rsquo; so that they may never push or run against
+      each other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must put in a word on behalf of Pontius the architect,&rdquo; interposed
+      Verus. &ldquo;He is a man of at least average height.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us admit it to satisfy your sense of justice,&rdquo; returned Balbilla.
+      &ldquo;Let us admit it&mdash;a man of average height, with a papyrus-roll in his
+      right-hand and a stylus in the left, controls them. Now, does my way of
+      stating it please you better?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It can never displease me,&rdquo; answered the praetor. &ldquo;Let Balbilla go on
+      with her story,&rdquo; commanded the Empress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What we saw was chaos,&rdquo; continued the girl, &ldquo;still in the confusion we
+      could divine the elements of an orderly creation in the future; nay, it
+      was even visible to the eye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And not unfrequently stumbled over with the foot,&rdquo; laughed the praetor.
+      &ldquo;If it had been dark, and if the laborers had been worms, we must have
+      trodden half of them to death&mdash;they swarmed so all over the
+      pavement.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What were they doing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every thing,&rdquo; answered Balbilla quickly. &ldquo;Some were polishing damaged
+      pieces, others were laying new bits of mosaic in the empty places from
+      which it had formerly been removed, and skilled artists were painting
+      colored figures on smooth surfaces of plaster. Every pillar and every
+      statue was built round with a scaffolding reaching to the ceiling on which
+      men were climbing and crowding each other just as the sailors climb into
+      the enemy&rsquo;s ships in the Naumachia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl&rsquo;s pretty cheeks had flushed with her eager reminiscence of what
+      she had seen, and, as she spoke, moving her hands with expressive
+      gestures, the tall structure of curls which crowned her small head shook
+      from side to side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your description begins to be quite poetical,&rdquo; said the Empress,
+      interrupting her young companion. &ldquo;Perhaps the Muse may even inspire you
+      with verse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All the Pierides,&rdquo; said the praetor, &ldquo;are represented at Lochias. We saw
+      eight of them, but the ninth, that patroness of the arts, who protects the
+      stargazer, the lofty Urania, has at present, in place of a head&mdash;allow
+      me to leave it to you to guess divine Sabina?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well&mdash;what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A wisp of straw.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas,&rdquo; sighed the Empress. &ldquo;What do you say, Florus? Are there not among
+      your learned and verse spinning associates certain men who resemble this
+      Urania?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At any rate,&rdquo; replied Florus, &ldquo;we are more prudent than the goddess, for
+      we conceal the contents of our heads in the hard nut of the skull, and
+      under a more or less abundant thatch of hair. Urania displays her straw
+      openly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That almost sounds,&rdquo; said Balbilla laughing and pointing to her abundant
+      locks, &ldquo;as if I especially needed to conceal what is covered by my hair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even the Lesbian swan was called the fair-haired,&rdquo; replied Florus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you are our Sappho,&rdquo; said the praetor&rsquo;s wife, drawing the girl&rsquo;s arm
+      to her bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really! and will you not write in verse all that you have seen to-day?&rdquo;
+       asked the Empress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Balbilla looked down on the ground a minute and then said brightly: &ldquo;It
+      might inspire me, everything strange that I meet with prompts me to write
+      verse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But follow the counsel of Apollonius the philologer,&rdquo; advised Florus.
+      &ldquo;You are the Sappho of our day, and therefore you should write in the
+      ancient Aeolian dialect and not Attic Greek.&rdquo; Verus laughed, and the
+      Empress, who never was strongly moved to laughter, gave a short sharp
+      giggle, but Balbilla said eagerly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think that I could not acquire it and do so? To-morrow morning I
+      will begin to practise myself in the old Aeolian forms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let it alone,&rdquo; said Domitia Lucilla; &ldquo;your simplest songs are always the
+      prettiest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one shall laugh at me!&rdquo; declared Balbilla pertinaciously. &ldquo;In a few
+      weeks I will know how to use the Aeolian dialect, for I can do anything I
+      am determined to do&mdash;anything, anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a stubborn little head we have under our curls!&rdquo; exclaimed the
+      Empress, raising a graciously threatening finger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what powers of apprehension,&rdquo; added Florus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her master in language and metre told me his best pupil was a woman of
+      noble family and a poetess besides&mdash;Balbilla in short.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl colored at the words, and said with pleased excitement:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you flattering me or did Hephaestion really say that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Woe is me!&rdquo; cried the praetor, &ldquo;for Hephaestion was my master too, and I
+      am one of the masculine scholars beaten by Balbilla. But it is no news to
+      me, for the Alexandrian himself told me the same thing as Florus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You follow Ovid and she Sappho,&rdquo; said Florus; &ldquo;you write in Latin and she
+      in Greek. Do you still always carry Ovid&rsquo;s love-poems about with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Always,&rdquo; replied Verus, &ldquo;as Alexander did his Homer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And out of respect for his master your husband endeavors, by the grace of
+      Venus, to live like him,&rdquo; added Sabina, addressing herself to Domitia
+      Lucilla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tall and handsome Roman lady only shrugged her shoulders slightly in
+      answer to this not very kindly-meant speech; but Verus said, while he
+      picked up Sabina&rsquo;s silken coverlet, and carefully spread it over her
+      knees:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My happiest fortune consists in this: that Venus Victrix favors me. But
+      we are not yet at the end of our story; our Lesbian swan met at Lochias
+      with another rare bird, an artist in statuary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long have the sculptors been reckoned among birds?&rdquo; asked Sabina. &ldquo;At
+      the utmost can they be compared to woodpeckers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When they work in wood,&rdquo; laughed Verus. &ldquo;Our artist, however, is an
+      assistant of Papias, and handles noble materials in the grand style. On
+      this occasion, however, he is building a statue out of a very queer
+      mixture of materials.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Verus may very well call our new acquaintance a bird,&rdquo; interrupted
+      Balbilla, &ldquo;for as we approached the screen behind which he is working he
+      was whistling a tune with his lips, so pure and cheery, and loud, that it
+      rang through the empty hall above all the noise of the workmen. A
+      nightingale does not pipe more sweetly. We stood still to listen till the
+      merry fellow, who had no idea that we were by, was silent again; and then
+      hearing the architect&rsquo;s voice, he called to him over the screen. &lsquo;Now we
+      must clap Urania&rsquo;s head on; I saw it clearly in my mind and would have had
+      it finished with a score of touches, but Papias said he had one in the
+      workshop. I am curious to see what sort of a sugarplum face, turned out by
+      the dozen, he will stick on my torso&mdash;which will please me, at any
+      rate, for a couple of days. Find me a good model for the bust of the
+      Sappho I am to restore. A thousand gadflies are buzzing in my brain&mdash;I
+      am so tremendously excited! What I am planning now will come to
+      something!&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Balbilla, as she spoke the last words, tried to mimic a man&rsquo;s deep voice,
+      and seeing the Empress smile she went on eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It all came out so fresh, from a heart full to bursting of happy vigorous
+      creative joy, that it quite fired me, and we all went up to the screen and
+      begged the sculptor to let us see his work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you found?&rdquo; asked Sabina.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He positively refused to let us into his retreat,&rdquo; replied the praetor;
+      &ldquo;but Balbilla coaxed the permission out of him, and the tall young fellow
+      seems to have really learnt something. The fall of the drapery that covers
+      the Muse&rsquo;s figure is perfectly thought out with reference to possibility&mdash;rich,
+      broadly handled, and at the same time of surprising delicacy. Urania has
+      drawn her mantle closely round her, as if to protect herself from the keen
+      night-air while gazing at the stars. When he has finished his Muse, he is
+      to repair some mutilated busts of women; he was fixing the head of a
+      finished Berenice to-day, and I proposed to him to take Balbilla as the
+      model for his Sappho.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A good idea&rdquo; said the Empress. &ldquo;If the bust is successful I will take him
+      with me to Rome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will sit to him with pleasure,&rdquo; said the girl. &ldquo;The bright young fellow
+      took my fancy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Balbilla his,&rdquo; added the praetor&rsquo;s wife; &ldquo;he gazed at her as a
+      marvel, and she promised him that, with your permission, she would place
+      her face at his disposal for three hours to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He begins with the head,&rdquo; interposed Verus. &ldquo;What a happy man is an
+      artist such as he! He may turn about her head, or lay her peplum in folds
+      without reproof or repulse, and to-day when we had to get past bogs of
+      plaster, and lakes of wet paint, she scarcely picked up the hem of her
+      dress, and never once allowed me&mdash;who would so willingly have
+      supported her&mdash;to lift her over the worst places.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Balbilla reddened and said angrily:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really Verus, in good earnest, I will not allow you to speak to me in
+      that way, so now you know it once for all; I have so little liking for
+      what is not clean that I find it quite easy to avoid it without
+      assistance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are too severe,&rdquo; interrupted the Empress with a hideous smile. &ldquo;Do
+      not you think Domitia Lucilla, that she ought to allow your husband to be
+      of service to her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If the Empress thinks it right and fitting,&rdquo; replied the lady raising her
+      shoulders, and with an expressive movement of her hands. Sabina quite took
+      her meaning, and suppressing another yawn she said angrily:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In these days we must be indulgent toward a husband who has chosen Ovid&rsquo;s
+      amatory poems as his faithful companion. What is the matter Titianus?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While Balbilla had been relating her meeting with the sculptor Pollux, a
+      chamberlain had brought in to the prefect an important letter, admitting
+      of no delay. The state official had withdrawn to the farther side of the
+      room with it, had broken the strong seal and had just finished reading it,
+      when the Empress asked her question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing of what went on around her escaped Sabina&rsquo;s little eyes, and she
+      had observed that while the governor was considering the document
+      addressed to him he had moved uneasily. It must contain something of
+      importance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An urgent letter,&rdquo; replied Titianus, &ldquo;calls me home. I must take my
+      leave, and I hope ere long to be able to communicate to you something
+      agreeable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does that letter contain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Important news from the provinces,&rdquo; said Titianus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I inquire what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I grieve to say that I must answer in the negative. The Emperor expressly
+      desired that this matter should be kept secret. Its settlement demands the
+      promptest haste, and I am therefore unfortunately obliged to quit you
+      immediately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sabina returned the prefect&rsquo;s parting salutations with icy coldness and
+      immediately desired to be conducted to her private rooms to dress herself
+      for supper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Balbilla escorted her, and Florus betook himself to the &ldquo;Olympian table,&rdquo;
+       the famous eating-house kept by Lycortas, of whom he had been told wonders
+      by the epicures at Rome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Verus was alone with his wife he went up in a friendly manner and
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I drive you home again?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Domitia Lucilla had thrown herself on a couch, and covered her face with
+      her hands, and she made no reply. &ldquo;May I?&rdquo; repeated the praetor. As his
+      wife persisted in her silence, he went nearer to her, laid his hand on her
+      slender fingers that concealed her face, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe you are angry with me!&rdquo; She pushed away his hand, with a slight
+      movement, and said: &ldquo;Leave me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, unfortunately I must leave you. Business takes me into the city and
+      I will&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will let the young Alexandrians, with whom you revelled through the
+      night, introduce you to new fair ones&mdash;I know it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are in fact women here of incredible charm,&rdquo; replied Verus quite
+      coolly. &ldquo;White, brown, copper-colored, black&mdash;and all delightful in
+      their way. I could never be tired of admiring them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And your wife?&rdquo; asked Lucilla, facing him, sternly. &ldquo;My wife? yes, my
+      fairest. Wife is a solemn title of honor and has nothing to do with the
+      joys of life. How could I mention your name in the same hour with those of
+      the poor children who help me to beguile an idle hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Domitia Lucilla was used to such phrases, and yet on this occasion they
+      gave her a pang. But she concealed it, and crossing her arms she said
+      resolutely and with dignity:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go your way&mdash;through life with your Ovid, and your gods of love, but
+      do not attempt to crush innocence under the wheels of your chariot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Balbilla do you mean,&rdquo; asked the praetor with a loud laugh. &ldquo;She knows
+      how to take care of herself and has too much spirit to let herself get
+      entangled in erotics. The little son of Venus has nothing to say to two
+      people who are such good friends as she and I are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I believe you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My word for it, I ask nothing of her but a kind word,&rdquo; cried he, frankly
+      offering his hand to his wife. Lucilla only touched it lightly with her
+      fingers and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Send me back to Rome. I have an unutterable longing to see my children,
+      particularly the boys.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It cannot be,&rdquo; said Verus. &ldquo;Not at present; but in a few weeks, I hope.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not sooner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not ask me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A mother may surely wish to know why she is separated from her baby in
+      the cradle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That cradle is at present in your mother&rsquo;s house, and she is taking care
+      of our little ones. Have patience, a little longer for that which I am
+      striving after, for you, and for me, and not last, for our son, is so
+      great, so stupendously great and difficult that it might well outweigh
+      years of longing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus spoke the last words in a low tone, but with a dignity which
+      characterized him only in decisive moments, but his wife, even before he
+      had done speaking, clasped his right-hand in both of hers and said in a
+      low frightened voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You aim at the purple?&rdquo; He nodded assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is what it means then!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sabina and you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not on that account only; she is hard and sharp to others, but to me she
+      has shown nothing but kindness, ever since I was a boy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She hates me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Patience, Lucilla; patience! The day is coming when the daughter of
+      Nigrinus, the wife of Caesar, and the former Empress&mdash;but I will not
+      finish. I am, as you know, warmly attached to Sabina, and sincerely wish
+      the Emperor a long life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he will adopt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush!&mdash;he is thinking of it, and his wife wishes It.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it likely to happen soon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who can tell at this moment what Caesar may decide on in the very next
+      hour. But probably his decision may be made on the thirtieth of December.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your birthday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He asked what day it was, and he is certainly casting my horoscope, for
+      the night when my mother bore me&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The stars then are to seal our fate?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not they alone. Hadrian must also be inclined to read them in my favor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can I be of use to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Show yourself what you really are in your intercourse with the Emperor&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you for those words&mdash;and I beg you do not provoke me any
+      more. If it might yet be something more than a mere post of honor to be
+      the wife of Verus, I would not ask for the new dignity of becoming wife to
+      Caesar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not go into the town to-day; I will stay with you. Now are you
+      happy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; cried she, and she raised her arm to throw it round her
+      husband&rsquo;s neck, but he held her aside and whispered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will do. The idyllic is out of place in the race for the purple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Titianus had ordered his charioteer to drive at once to Lochias. The road
+      led past the prefect&rsquo;s palace, his residence on the Bruchiom, and he
+      paused there; for the letter which lay hidden in the folds of his toga,
+      contained news, which, within a few hours, might put him under the
+      necessity of not returning home till the following morning. Without
+      allowing himself to be detained by the officials, subalterns, or lictors,
+      who were awaiting his return to make communications, or to receive his
+      orders, he went straight through the ante-room and the large public rooms
+      for men, to find his wife in the women&rsquo;s apartments which looked upon the
+      garden. He met her at the door of her room, for she had heard his step
+      approaching and came out to receive him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was not mistaken,&rdquo; said the matron with sincere pleasure. &ldquo;How pleasant
+      that you have been released so early to-day. I did not expect you till
+      supper was over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have come only to go again,&rdquo; replied Titianus, entering his wife&rsquo;s
+      room. &ldquo;Have some bread brought to me and a cup of mixed wine; why&mdash;really!
+      here stands all I want ready as if I had ordered it. You are right, I was
+      with Sabina a shorter time than usual; but she exerted herself in that
+      short time to utter as many sour words as if we had been talking for half
+      a day. And in five minutes I must quit you again, till when?&mdash;the
+      gods alone know when I shall return. It is hard even to speak the words,
+      but all our trouble and care, and all poor Pontius&rsquo; zeal and pains-taking
+      labor are in vain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke the prefect threw himself on a couch; his wife handed him the
+      refreshment he had asked for, and said, as she passed her hand over his
+      grey hair:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor man! Has Hadrian then determined after all to inhabit the
+      Caesareum?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. Leave us, Syra&mdash;you shall see directly. Please read me Caesar&rsquo;s
+      letter once more. Here it is.&rdquo; Julia unfolded the papyrus, which was of
+      elegant quality, and began:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hadrian to his friend Titianus, the Governor of Egypt. The deepest
+      secrecy&mdash;Hadrian greets Titianus, as he has so often done for years
+      at the beginning of disagreeable business letters, and only with half his
+      heart. But to-morrow he hopes to greet the dear friend of his youth, his
+      prudent vicegerent, not merely with his whole soul, but with hand and
+      tongue. And now to be more explicit, as follows: I come to-morrow morning,
+      the fifteenth of December, towards evening, to Alexandria, with none but
+      Antinous, the slave Mastor, and my private secretary, Phlegon. We land at
+      Lochias, in the little harbor, and you will know my ship by a large silver
+      star at the prow. If night should fall before I arrive there, three red
+      lanterns at the end of the mast shall inform you of the friend that is
+      approaching. I have sent home the learned and witty men whom you sent to
+      meet me, in order to detain me, and gain time for the restoration of the
+      old nest in which I had a fancy to roost with Minerva&rsquo;s birds&mdash;which
+      have not, I hope, all been driven out of it&mdash;in order that Sabina and
+      her following may not lack entertainment, nor the famous gentlemen
+      themselves be unnecessarily disturbed in their labors. I need them not. If
+      perchance it was not you who sent them, I ask your pardon. An error in
+      this matter would certainly involve some humiliation, for it is easier to
+      explain what has happened than to foresee what is to come. Or is the
+      reverse the truth? I will indemnify the learned men for their useless
+      journey by disputing this question with them and their associates in the
+      Museum. The rapid movement to which the philologer was prompted on my
+      account will prolong his existence; he bristles with learning at the tip
+      of every hair, and he sits still more than is good for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall arrive in modest disguise and will sleep at Lochias; you know
+      that I have rested more than once on the bare earth, and, if need be, can
+      sleep as well on a mat as on a couch. My pillow follows at my heels&mdash;my
+      big dog, which you know; and some little room, where I can meditate
+      undisturbed on my designs for next year, can no doubt be found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I entreat you to keep my secret strictly. To none&mdash;man nor woman&mdash;and
+      I beseech you as urgently as friend or Caesar ever besought a favor&mdash;let
+      the least suspicion of my arrival be known. Nor must the smallest
+      preparation betray whom it is you receive. I cannot command so dear a
+      friend as Titianus, but I appeal to his heart to carry out my wishes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I rejoice to see you again; what delight I shall find in the whirl of
+      confusion that I hope to find at Lochias. You shall take me to see the
+      artists, who are, no doubt, swarming in the old castle, as the architect
+      Claudius Venator from Rome, who is to assist Pontius with his advice. But
+      this Pontius, who carried out such fine works for Herodes Atticus, the
+      rich Sophist, met me at his house, and will certainly recognize me. Tell
+      him, therefore, what I propose doing. He is a serious and trustworthy man,
+      not a chatterbox or scatter-brained simpleton who loses his head. Thus you
+      may take him into the secret, but not till my vessel is in sight. May all
+      be well with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what do you say to that?&rdquo; asked Titianus, taking the letter from
+      his wife&rsquo;s hand. &ldquo;Is it not more than vexatious&mdash;our work was going
+      on so splendidly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said Julia thoughtfully and with a meaning smile. &ldquo;Perhaps it might
+      not have been finished in time. As matters now stand it need not be
+      complete, and Hadrian will see the good intention all the same. I am glad
+      about the letter, for it takes a great responsibility off your otherwise
+      overloaded shoulders.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You always see the right side,&rdquo; cried the prefect. &ldquo;It is well that I
+      came home, for I can await Caesar with a much lighter heart. Let me lock
+      up the letter, and then farewell. This parting is for some hours from you,
+      and from all peace for many days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Titianus gave her his hand. She held it firmly and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Before you go I must confess to you that I am very proud.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have every right to be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you have not said a word to me about keeping silence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because you have kept other tests&mdash;still, to be sure, you are a
+      woman, and a very handsome one besides.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An old grandmother, with grey hair!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And still more upright and more charming than a thousand of the most
+      admired younger beauties.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are trying to convert my pride into vanity, in my old age.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no! I was only looking at you with an examining eye, as our talk led
+      me to do, and I remembered that Sabina had lamented that handsome Julia
+      was not looking well. But where is there another woman of your age with
+      such a carriage, such unwrinkled features, so clear a brow, such deep kind
+      eyes, such beautifully-polished arms&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be quiet,&rdquo; exclaimed his wife. &ldquo;You make me blush.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And may I not be proud that a grandmother, who is a Roman, as my wife is,
+      can find it so easy to blush? You are quite different from other women.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because you are different from other men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a flatterer; since all our children have left us, it is as if we
+      were newly married again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! the apple of discord is removed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is always over what he loves best that man is most prompt to be
+      jealous. But now, once more, farewell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Titianus kissed his wife&rsquo;s forehead and hurried towards the door; Julia
+      called him back and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One thing at any rate we can do for Caesar. I send food every day down to
+      the architect at Lochias, and to-day there shall be three times the
+      quantity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good; do so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Farewell, then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And we shall meet again, when it shall please the gods and the Emperor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+         ........................
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      When the prefect reached the appointed spot, no vessel with a silver star
+      was to be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun went down and no ship with three red lanterns was visible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The harbor-master, into whose house Titianus went, was told that he
+      expected a great architect from Rome, who was to assist Pontius with his
+      counsel in the works at Lochias, and he thought it quite intelligible that
+      the governor should do a strange artist the honor of coming to meet him;
+      for the whole city was well aware of the incredible haste and the lavish
+      outlay of means that were being given to the restoration of the ancient
+      palace of the Ptolemies as a residence for the Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was waiting, Titianus remembered the young sculptor Pollux, whose
+      acquaintance he had made, and his mother in the pretty little gate-house.
+      Well disposed towards them as he felt, he sent at once to old Doris,
+      desiring her not to retire to rest early that evening, since he, the
+      prefect, would be going late to Lochias.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell her, too, as from yourself and not from me,&rdquo; Titianus instructed the
+      messenger, &ldquo;that I may very likely look in upon her. She may light up her
+      little room and keep it in order.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No one at Lochias had the slightest suspicion of the honor which awaited
+      the old palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After Verus had quitted it with his wife and Balbilla, and when he had
+      again been at work for about an hour the sculptor Pollux came out of his
+      nook, stretching himself, and called out to Pontius, who was standing on a
+      scaffold:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must either rest or begin upon something new. One cures me of fatigue
+      as much as the other. Do you find it so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, just as you do,&rdquo; replied the architect, as he continued to direct
+      the work of the slave-masons, who were fixing a new Corinthian capital in
+      the place of an old one which had been broken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not disturb yourself,&rdquo; Pollux cried up to him. &ldquo;I only request you to
+      tell my master Papias when he comes here with Gabinius, the dealer in
+      antiquities, that he will find me at the rotunda that you inspected with
+      me yesterday. I am going to put the head on to the Berenice; my apprentice
+      must long since have completed his preparations; but the rascal came into
+      the world with two left-hands, and as he squints with one eye everything
+      that is straight looks crooked to him, and&mdash;according to the law of
+      optics&mdash;the oblique looks straight. At any rate, he drove the peg
+      which is to support the new head askew into the neck, and as no historian
+      has recorded that Berenice ever had her neck on one side, like the old
+      color-grinder there, I must see to its being straight myself. In about
+      half an hour, as I calculate, the worthy Queen will no longer be one of
+      the headless women.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did you get the new head?&rdquo; asked Pontius. &ldquo;From the secret archives
+      of my memory,&rdquo; replied Pollux. &ldquo;Have you seen it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do you like it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then it is worthy to live,&rdquo; sang the sculptor, and, as he quitted the
+      hall, he waved his left-hand to the architect, and with his right-hand
+      stuck a pink, which he had picked in the morning, behind his ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the rotunda his pupil had done his business better than his master
+      could have expected, but Pollux was by no means satisfied with his own
+      arrangements. His work, like several others standing on the same side of
+      the platform, turned its back on the steward&rsquo;s balcony, and the only
+      reason why he had parted with the portrait of Selene&rsquo;s mother, of which he
+      was so fond, was that his playfellow might gaze at the face whenever she
+      chose. He found, however, to his satisfaction, that the busts were held in
+      their places on their tall pedestals only by their own weight, and he then
+      resolved to alter the historical order of the portrait-heads by changing
+      their places, and to let the famous Cleopatra turn her back upon the
+      palace, so that his favorite bust might look towards it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In order to carry out this purpose then and there, he called some slaves
+      up to help him in the alteration. This gave rise, more than once, to a
+      warning cry, and the loud talking and ordering on this spot, for so many
+      years left solitary and silent, attracted an inquirer, who, soon after the
+      apprentice had begun his work, had shown herself on the balcony, but who
+      had soon retreated after casting a glance at the dirty lad, splashed from
+      head to foot with plaster. This time, however, she remained to watch,
+      following every movement of Pollux as he directed the slaves; though, all
+      the time and whatever he was doing, he turned his back upon her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last the portrait-head had found its right position, shrouded still in
+      a cloth to preserve it from the marks of workmen&rsquo;s hands. With a deep
+      breath the artist turned full on the steward&rsquo;s house, and immediately a
+      clear merry voice called out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, tall Pollux! It really is tall Pollux; how glad I am!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words the girl on the balcony loudly clapped her hands; and as
+      the sculptor hailed her in return, and shouted:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you are little Arsinoe, eternal gods! What the little thing has come
+      to!&rdquo; She stood on tip-toe to seem taller, nodded at him pleasantly, and
+      laughed out: &ldquo;I have not done growing yet; but as for you, you look quite
+      dignified with the beard on your chin, and your eagle&rsquo;s nose. Selene did
+      not tell me till to-day that you were living down there with the others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The artist&rsquo;s eyes were fixed on the girl, as if spellbound. There are
+      poetic natures in which the imagination immediately transmutes every new
+      thing that strikes the eyes or the intelligence, into a romance, or
+      rapidly embodies it in verse; and Pollux, like many of his calling, could
+      never set his eyes on a fine human form and face, without instantly
+      associating them with his art.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Galatea&mdash;a Galatea without an equal!&rdquo; thought he, as he stood with
+      his eyes fixed on Arsinoe&rsquo;s face and figure. &ldquo;Just as if she had this
+      instant risen from the sea&mdash;that form is just as fresh, and joyous,
+      and healthy; and her little curls wave back from her brow as if they were
+      still floating on the water; and now as she stoops, how full and supple in
+      every movement. It is like a daughter of Nereus following the line of the
+      as the waves as they rise into crests and dip again into watery valleys.
+      She is like Selene and her mother in the shape of her head and the Greek
+      cut of her face, but the elder sister is like the statue of Prometheus
+      before it had a soul, and Arsinoe is like the Master&rsquo;s work after the
+      celestial fire coursed through her veins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The artist had felt and thought all this out in a few seconds, but the
+      girl found her speechless admirer&rsquo;s silence too long, and exclaimed
+      impatiently:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have not yet offered me any proper greeting. What are you doing down
+      there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look here,&rdquo; he replied, lifting the cloth from the portrait, which was a
+      striking likeness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe leaned far over the parapet of the balcony, shaded her eyes with
+      her hand and was silent for more than a minute. Then she suddenly cried
+      out loudly and exclaiming:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mother&mdash;it is my mother!&rdquo; She flew into the room behind her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now she will call her father and destroy all poor Selene&rsquo;s comfort,&rdquo;
+       thought Pollux, as he pushed the heavy marble bust on which his gypsum
+      head was fixed, into its right place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, let him come. We are the masters here now, and Keraunus dare not
+      touch the Emperor&rsquo;s property.&rdquo; He crossed his arms and stood gazing at the
+      bust, muttering to himself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Patchwork&mdash;miserable patchwork. We are cobbling up a robe for the
+      Emperor out of mere rags; we are upholsterers and not artists. If it were
+      only for Hadrian, and not for Diotima and her children, not another finger
+      would I stir in the place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The path from the steward&rsquo;s residence led through some passages and up a
+      few steps to the rotunda, on which the sculptor was standing, but in
+      little more than a minute from Arsinoe&rsquo;s disappearance from the balcony
+      she was by his side. With a heightened color she pushed the sculptor away
+      from his work and put herself in the place where he had been standing, to
+      be able to gaze at her leisure at the beloved features. Then she exclaimed
+      again:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is mother&mdash;mother!&rdquo; and the bright tears ran over her cheeks,
+      without restraint from the presence of the artist, or the laborers and
+      slaves whom she had flown past on her way, and who stared at her with as
+      much alarm as if she were possessed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux did not disturb her. His heart was softened as he watched the tears
+      running down the cheeks of this light-hearted child, and he could not help
+      reflecting that goodness was indeed well rewarded when it could win such
+      tender and enduring love as was cherished for the poor dead mother on the
+      pedestal before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After looking for some time at the sculptor&rsquo;s work Arsinoe grew calmer,
+      and turning to Pollux she asked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you make it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he replied, looking down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And entirely from memory?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This shows that the Sibyl at the festival of Adonis was right when she
+      sang in the Jalemus that the gods did half the work of the artist.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arsinoe!&rdquo; cried Pollux, for her words made him feel as if a hot spring
+      were seething in his heart, and he gratefully seized her hand; but she
+      drew it away, for her sister Selene had come out on the balcony and was
+      calling her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was for his elder playfellow and not for Arsinoe that Pollux had set
+      his work in this place, but, just now, her gaze fell like a disturbing
+      chill on his excited mood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There stands your mother&rsquo;s portrait,&rdquo; he called up to the balcony in an
+      explanatory tone, pointing to the bust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see it,&rdquo; she replied coldly. &ldquo;I will look at it presently more closely.
+      Come up Arsinoe, father wants to speak to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again Pollux stood alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Selene withdrew into the room, she gently shook her pale head, and said
+      to herself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;It was to be for me,&rsquo; Pollux said; something for me, for once&mdash;and
+      even this pleasure is spoilt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The palace-steward, to whom Selene had called up his younger daughter, had
+      just returned from the meeting of the citizens; and his old black slave,
+      who always accompanied him when he went out, took the saffron-colored
+      pallium from his shoulders, and from his head the golden circlet, with
+      which he loved to crown his curled hair when he quitted the house.
+      Keraunus still looked heated, his eyes seemed more prominent than usual
+      and large drops of sweat stood upon his brow, when his daughter entered
+      the room where he was. He absently responded to Arsinoe&rsquo;s affectionate
+      greeting with a few unmeaning words, and before making the important
+      communication he had to disclose to his daughters, he walked up and down
+      before them for some time, puffing out his fat cheeks and crossing his
+      arms. Selene was alarmed, and Arsinoe had long been out of patience, when
+      at last he began:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you heard of the festivals which are to be held in Caesar&rsquo;s honor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene nodded and her sister exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course we have! Have you secured places for us on the seats kept for
+      the town council?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not interrupt me,&rdquo; the steward crossly ordered his daughter. &ldquo;There is
+      no question of staring at them. All the citizens are required to allow
+      their daughters to take part in the grand things that are to be carried
+      out, and we all were asked how many girls we had.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how are we to take part in the show?&rdquo; cried Arsinoe, joyfully
+      clapping her hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wanted to withdraw before the summons was proclaimed, but Tryphon, the
+      shipwright, who has a workshop down by the King&rsquo;s Harbor, held me back and
+      called out to the assembly that his sons said that I had two pretty young
+      daughters. Pray how did he know that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words the steward lifted his grey brows and his face grew red
+      to the roots of his hair. Selene shrugged her shoulders, but Arsinoe said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tryphon&rsquo;s shipyard lies just below and we often pass it; but we do not
+      know him or his sons. Have you ever seen them Selene? At any rate it is
+      polite of him to speak of us as pretty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nobody need trouble themselves about your appearance unless they want to
+      ask my permission to marry you,&rdquo; replied the steward with a growl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what did you say to Tryphon?&rdquo; asked Selene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did as I was obliged. Your father is steward of a palace which at
+      present belongs to Rome and the Emperor; hence I must receive Hadrian as a
+      guest in this, the dwelling of my fathers, and therefore I, less than any
+      other citizen&mdash;cannot withhold my share in the honors which the city
+      council has decreed shall be paid to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we really may,&rdquo; said Arsinoe, and she went up to her father to give
+      him a coaxing pat. But Keraunus was not in the humor to accept caresses;
+      he pushed her aside with an angry: &ldquo;Leave me alone,&rdquo; and then went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Hadrian were to ask me &lsquo;Where are your daughters on the occasion of
+      the festival?&rsquo; and if I had to reply, &lsquo;They were not among the daughters
+      of the noble citizens,&rsquo; it would be an insult to Caesar, to whom in fact I
+      feel very well disposed. All this I had to consider, and I gave your names
+      and promised to send you to the great Theatre to the assembly of young
+      girls. There you will be met by the noblest matrons and maidens of the
+      city, and the first painters and sculptors will decide to what part of the
+      performance your air and appearance are best fitted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, father,&rdquo; cried Selene, &ldquo;we cannot show ourselves in such an assembly
+      in our common garments, and where are we to find the money to buy new
+      ones?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We can quite well show ourselves by any other girls, in clean, white
+      woollen dresses, prettily smartened with fresh ribbons,&rdquo; declared Arsinoe,
+      interposing between her father and her sister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not that which troubles me,&rdquo; replied the steward; &ldquo;it is the
+      costumes, the costumes! It is only the daughters of the poorer citizens
+      who will be paid by the council, and it would be a disgrace to be numbered
+      among the poor&mdash;you understand me, children.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not take part in the procession,&rdquo; said Selene resolutely, but
+      Arsinoe interrupted her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is inconvenient and horrible to be poor, but it certainly is no
+      disgrace! The most powerful Romans of ancient times, regarded it as
+      honorable to die poor. Our Macedonian descent remains to us even if the
+      state should pay for our costumes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence,&rdquo; cried the steward. &ldquo;This is not the first time that I have
+      detected this low vein of feeling in you. Even the noble may submit to the
+      misfortunes entailed by poverty, but the advantages it brings with it he
+      can never enjoy unless he resigns himself to being so no longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It had cost the steward much trouble to give due expression to this idea,
+      which he did not recollect to have heard from another, which seemed new to
+      him, and which nevertheless fully represented what he felt; and he slowly
+      sank, with all the signs of exhaustion, into a couch which formed a divan
+      round a side recess in the spacious sitting-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this room Cleopatra might have held with Antony those banquets of which
+      the unequalled elegance and refinement had been enhanced by every grace of
+      art and wit. On the very spot where Keraunus now reclined the dining-couch
+      of the famous lovers had probably stood; for, though the whole hall had a
+      carefully-laid pavement, in this recess there was a mosaic of stones of
+      various colors of such beauty and delicacy of finish that Keraunus had
+      always forbidden his children to step upon it. This, it is true, was less
+      out of regard for the fine work of art than because his father had always
+      prohibited his doing so, and his father again before him. The picture
+      represented the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, and the divan only covered
+      the outer border of the picture, which was decorated with graceful little
+      Cupids.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus desired his daughter to fetch him a cup of wine, but she mixed
+      the juice of the grape with a judicious measure of water. After he had
+      half drunk the diluted contents of the goblet, with many faces of disgust,
+      he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you like to know what each of your dresses will cost if it is to be
+      in no respect inferior to those of the others?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Arsinoe anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About seven hundred drachmae;&mdash;[$115 in 1880]&mdash;Philinus, the
+      tailor, who is working for the theatre, tells me it will be impossible to
+      do anything well for less.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you are really thinking of such insane extravagance,&rdquo; cried Selene.
+      &ldquo;We have no money, and I should like to know the man who would lend us any
+      more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The steward&rsquo;s younger daughter looked doubtfully at the tips of her
+      fingers and was silent, but her eyes swimming in tears betrayed what she
+      felt. Keraunus was rejoiced at the silent consent which Arsinoe seemed to
+      accord to his desire to let her take part in the display at whatever cost.
+      He forgot that he had just reproached her for her low sentiments, and
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The little one always feels what is right. As for you, Selene, I beg you
+      to reflect seriously that I am your father, and that I forbid you to use
+      this admonishing tone to me; you have accustomed yourself to it with the
+      children and to them you may continue to use it. Fourteen hundred drachmae
+      certainly, at the first thought of it, seems a very large sum, but if the
+      material and the trimming required are bought with judgment, after the
+      festival we may very likely sell it back to the man with profit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With profit!&rdquo; cried Selene bitterly, &ldquo;not half is to be got for old
+      things-not a quarter! And even if you turn me out of the house&mdash;I
+      will not help to drag us into deeper wretchedness; I will take no part in
+      the performances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The steward did not redden this time, he was not even violent; on the
+      contrary, he simply raised his head and compared his daughters as they
+      stood&mdash;not without an infusion of satisfaction. He was accustomed to
+      love his daughters in his own way, Selene as the useful one, and Arsinoe
+      as the beauty; and as on this occasion all he cared for was to satisfy his
+      vanity, and as this end could be attained through his younger daughter
+      alone, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay with the children then, for all I care. We will excuse you on the
+      score of weak health, and certainly, child, you do look extremely pale. I
+      would far rather find the means for the little one only.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Two sweet dimples again began to show in Arsinoe&rsquo;s cheeks, but Selene&rsquo;s
+      lips were as white as her bloodless cheeks as she exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, father&mdash;father! neither the baker nor the butcher has had a
+      coin paid him for the last two months, and you will squander seven hundred
+      drachmae!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Squander!&rdquo; cried Keraunus indignantly, but still in a tone of disgust
+      rather than anger. &ldquo;I have already forbidden you to speak to me in that
+      way. The richest of our noble youths will take part in the games; Arsinoe
+      is handsome and perhaps one of them may choose her for his wife. And do
+      you call it squandering, when a father does his utmost to find a suitable
+      husband for his daughter. After all, what do you know of what I may
+      possess?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have nothing, so I cannot know of it,&rdquo; cried the girl beside herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed!&rdquo; drawled Keraunus with an embarrassed smile. &ldquo;And is that nothing
+      which lies in the cup board there, and stands on the cornice shelf? For
+      your sakes I will part with these&mdash;the onyx fibula, the rings, the
+      golden chaplet, and the girdle of course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are of mere silver-gilt!&rdquo; Selene interrupted, ruthlessly. &ldquo;All my
+      grandfather&rsquo;s real gold you parted with when my mother died.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She had to be cremated and buried as was due to our rank,&rdquo; answered
+      Keraunus; &ldquo;but I will not think now of those melancholy days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, do think of them, father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence! All that belongs to my own adornment of course I cannot do
+      without, for I must be prepared to meet Caesar in a dress befitting my
+      rank; but the little bronze Eros there must be worth something, Plutarch&rsquo;s
+      ivory cup, which is beautifully carved, and above all, that picture; its
+      former possessor was convinced that it had been painted by Apelles himself
+      herein Alexandria. You shall know at once what these little things are
+      worth, for, as the gods vouchsafed, on my way home I met, here in the
+      palace, Gabinius of Nicaea, the dealer in such objects. He promised me
+      that when he had done his business with the architect he would come to me
+      to inspect my treasures, and to pay money down for anything that might
+      suit him. If my Apelles pleases him, he will give ten talents for that
+      alone, and if he buys it for only the half or even the tenth of that sum,
+      I will make you enjoy yourself for once, Selene.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will see,&rdquo; said the pale girl, shrugging her shoulders, and her sister
+      exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Show him the sword too, that you always declared belonged to Caesar, and
+      if he gives you a good sum for it you will buy me a gold bracelet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Selene shall have one, too. But I have the very slenderest hopes of
+      the sword, for a connoisseur would hardly pronounce it genuine. But I have
+      other things, many others. Hark! that is Gabinius, no doubt. Quick,
+      Selene, throw the chiton round me again. My chaplet, Arsinoe. A well-to-do
+      man always gets a higher price than a poor one. I have ordered the slave
+      to await him in the ante-room; it is always done in the best houses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The curiosity dealer was a small, lean man, who, by prudence and good
+      luck, had raised himself to be one of the most esteemed of his class and a
+      rich man. Having matured his knowledge by industry, and experience, he
+      knew better than any man how to distinguish what was good from what was
+      indifferent or bad, what was genuine from what was spurious. No one had a
+      keener eye; but he was abrupt in his dealings with those from whom he had
+      nothing to gain. In circumstances where there was profit in view, he
+      could, to be sure, be polite even to subservience and show inexhaustible
+      patience. He commanded himself so far as to listen with an air of
+      conviction to the steward as he told him in a condescending tone that he
+      was tired of his little possessions, that he could just as well keep them
+      as part with them; he merely wanted to show them to him as a connoisseur
+      and would only part with them if a good round sum were offered for what
+      was in fact idle capital. One piece after another passed through the
+      dealer&rsquo;s slender fingers, or was placed before him that he might
+      contemplate it; but the man spoke not, and only shook his head as he
+      examined every fresh object. And when Keraunus told him whence this or
+      that specimen of his treasures had been obtained, he only murmured&mdash;&ldquo;Indeed&rdquo;
+       or &ldquo;Really.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think so?&rdquo; After the last piece of property had passed through his
+      hands, the steward asked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what do you think of them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The beginning of the sentence was spoken confidently, the end almost in
+      fear, for the dealer only smiled and shook his head again before he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are some genuine little things among them, but nothing worth
+      speaking of. I advise you to keep them, because you have an affection for
+      them, while I could get very little by them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus avoided looking towards Selene, whose large eyes, full of dread,
+      had been fixed on the dealer&rsquo;s lips; but Arsinoe, who had followed his
+      movements with no less attention, was less easily discouraged, and
+      pointing to her father&rsquo;s Apelles, she said: &ldquo;And that picture, is that
+      worth nothing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It grieves me that I cannot tell so fair a damsel that it is inestimably
+      valuable,&rdquo; said the dealer, stroking his gray whiskers. &ldquo;But we have here
+      only a very feeble copy. The original is in the Villa belonging to Phinius
+      on the Lake of Larius, and which he calls Cothurnus. I have no use
+      whatever for this piece.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And this carved cup?&rdquo; asked Keraunus. &ldquo;It came from among the possessions
+      of Plutarch, as I can prove, and it is said to have been the gift of the
+      Emperor Trajan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the prettiest thing in your collection,&rdquo; replied Gabinius; &ldquo;but it
+      is amply paid for with four hundred drachmae.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And this cylinder from Cyprus, with the elegant incised work?&rdquo; The
+      steward was about to take up the polished crystal, but his hand was
+      trembling with agitation and pushed instead of lifting it from the table.
+      It rolled away on the floor and across the smooth mosaic picture as far as
+      the couches. Keraunus was about to stoop to pick it up, but his daughters
+      both held him back, and Selene cried out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Father, you must not; the physician strictly forbade it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While the steward pushed the girls away grumbling, the dealer had gone
+      down on his knees to pick up the cylinder, but it seemed to cost the
+      slightly-built man much less effort to stoop than to get up again, for
+      some minutes had elapsed before he once more stood on his feet, in front
+      of Keraunus. His countenance had put on an expression of eager attention,
+      and he once more took up the painting attributed to Apelles, sat down with
+      it on the couch, and appeared wholly absorbed in the contemplation of the
+      picture, which hid his face from the bystanders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But his eye was not resting on the work before him, but on the
+      marriage-scene at his feet, in which he detected each moment some fresh
+      and unique beauty. As the dealer sat there for some minutes with the
+      little picture on his knee, the steward&rsquo;s face brightened, Selene drew a
+      deep breath, and Arsinoe went up to her father to cling to his arm and
+      whisper in his ear:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not let him have the Apelles cheap&mdash;remember my bracelet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabinius now rose, glanced at the various objects lying on the table and
+      said in a much shorter and more business-like tone than before:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For all these things I can give you&mdash;wait a minute&mdash;twenty-seventy-four
+      hundred&mdash;four hundred and fifty&mdash;I can give you six hundred and
+      fifty drachmae, not a sesterce more!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are joking,&rdquo; cried Keraunus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a sesterce more,&rdquo; answered the other coldly. &ldquo;I do not want to make
+      anything, but you as a business man will understand that I do not wish to
+      buy with a certain prospect of loss. As regards the Apelles&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be of some value to me, but only under certain conditions. The
+      case is quite different as regards buying pictures. Your two young damsels
+      know of course that my line of business leads me to admire and value all
+      that is beautiful, but still I must request you to leave me alone with
+      your father for a little while. I want to speak with him about this
+      curious painting.&rdquo; Keraunus signed to his daughters, who immediately left
+      the room. Before the door was closed upon them the dealer called after
+      them:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is already growing dark, might I ask you to send me as bright a light
+      as possible by one of your slaves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What about the picture?&rdquo; asked Keraunus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Till the light is brought let us talk of something else,&rdquo; said Gabinius.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then take a seat on the couch,&rdquo; said Keraunus. &ldquo;You will be doing me a
+      pleasure and perhaps yourself as well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the two men were seated on the divan, Gabinius began:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those little things which we have collected with particular liking, we do
+      not readily part with&mdash;that I know by long experience. Many a man who
+      has come into some property after he has sold all his little antiquities
+      has offered me ten times the price I have paid him to get them back again,
+      generally in vain, unfortunately. Now, what is true of others is true of
+      you, and if you had not been in immediate need of money you would hardly
+      have offered me these things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must entreat you,&rdquo; began the steward, but the dealer interrupted him,
+      saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even the richest are sometimes in want of ready money; no one knows that
+      better than I, for I&mdash;I must confess&mdash;have large means at my
+      command. Just at present it would be particularly easy for me to free you
+      from all embarrassment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There stands my Apelles,&rdquo; exclaimed the steward. &ldquo;It is yours if you make
+      a bid that suits me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The light&mdash;here comes the light!&rdquo; exclaimed Gabinius, taking from
+      the slave&rsquo;s hand the three-branched lamp which Selene had hastily supplied
+      with a fresh wick, and he placed it, while he murmured to Keraunus, &ldquo;By
+      your leave,&rdquo; down on the centre of the mosaic. The steward looked at the
+      man on his left hand, with puzzled inquiry, but Gabinius heeded him not
+      but went down on his knees again, felt the mosaic over with his hand, and
+      devoured the picture of the marriage of Peleus with his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you lost anything?&rdquo; asked Keraunus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No-nothing whatever. There in the corner&mdash;now I am satisfied. Shall
+      I place the lamp there, on the table? So&mdash;and now to return to
+      business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg to do so, but I may as well begin by telling you that in my case it
+      is a question not of drachmae but of Attic talents.&rdquo;&mdash;[ The Attic
+      talent was worth about L200, or $1000 dollars in the 1880 exchange rate.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a matter of course, and I will offer you five; that is to say a
+      sum for which you could buy a handsome roomy house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Once more the blood mounted to the steward&rsquo;s head; for a few minutes he
+      could not utter a word, for his heart thumped violently; but presently be
+      so far controlled himself as to be able to answer. This time at any rate,
+      he was determined to seize Fortune by the forelock and not to be taken
+      advantage of, so he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Five talents will not do; bid higher.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let us say six.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you say double that we are agreed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot put it beyond ten talents; why, for that sum you might build a
+      small palace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I stand out for twelve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, be it so, but not a sesterce more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot bear to part with my splendid work of art,&rdquo; sighed Keraunus.
+      &ldquo;But I will take your offer, and give you my Apelles.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not that picture I am dealing for,&rdquo; replied Gabinius. &ldquo;It is of
+      trifling value, and you may continue to enjoy the possession of it. It is
+      another work of art in this room that I wish to have, and which has
+      hitherto seemed to you scarcely worth notice. I have discovered it, and
+      one of my rich customers has asked me to find him just such a thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know what it is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does everything in this room belong to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whom else should it belong to?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you may dispose of it as you please?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Undoubtedly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, then&mdash;the twelve Attic talents which I offer you are to
+      be paid for the picture that is under our feet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The mosaic! that? It belongs to the palace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It belongs to your residence, and that, I heard you say yourself, has
+      been inhabited for more than a century by your forefathers. I know the
+      law; it pronounces that everything which has remained in undisputed
+      possession in one family, for a hundred years, becomes their property.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This mosaic belongs to the palace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I assert the contrary. It is an integral portion of your family dwelling,
+      and you may freely dispose of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It belongs to the palace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, and again no; you are the owner. Tomorrow morning early you shall
+      receive twelve Attic talents in gold, and, with the help of my son, later
+      in the day I will take up the picture, pack it, and when it grows dark,
+      carry it away. Procure a carpet to cover the empty place for the present.
+      As to the secrecy of the transaction&mdash;I must of course insist on it
+      as strongly&mdash;and more so&mdash;than yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The mosaic belongs to the palace,&rdquo; cried the steward, this time in a
+      louder voice, &ldquo;Do you hear? it belongs to the palace, and whoever dares
+      touch it, I will break his bones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke Keraunus stood up, his huge chest panting, his cheeks and
+      forehead dyed purple, and his fist, which he held in the dealer&rsquo;s face,
+      was trembling. Gabinius drew back startled, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you will not have the twelve talents!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will&mdash;I will!&rdquo; gasped Keraunus, &ldquo;I will show you how I beat those
+      who take me for a rogue. Out of my sight, villain, and let me hear not
+      another word about the picture, and the robbery in the dark, or I will
+      send the prefect&rsquo;s lictors after you and have you thrown into irons, you
+      rascally thief!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabinius hurried to the door, but he there turned round once more to the
+      groaning and gasping colossus, and cried out, as he stood on the
+      threshold:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep your rubbish! we shall have more to say to each other yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Selene and Arsinoe returned to the sitting-room they found their
+      father breathing hard and sitting on the couch, with his head drooping
+      forward. Much alarmed, they went close up to him, but he exclaimed quite
+      coherently:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Water&mdash;a drink of water!&mdash;the thief!&mdash;the scoundrel!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Though hardly pressed, it had not cost him a struggle or a pang to refuse
+      what would have placed him and his children in a position of ease; and yet
+      he would not have hesitated to borrow it, aye, or twice the sum, from rich
+      or poor, though he knew full certainly that he would never be in a
+      position to restore it. Nor was he even proud of what he had done; it
+      seemed to him quite natural in a Macedonian noble. It was to him
+      altogether out of the pale of possibility that he should entertain the
+      dealer&rsquo;s proposition for an instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But where was he to get the money for Arsinoe&rsquo;s outfit? how could he keep
+      the promise given at the meeting?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He lay meditating on the divan for an hour; then he took a wax tablet out
+      of a chest and began to write a letter on it to the prefect. He intended
+      to offer the precious mosaic picture which had been discovered in his
+      abode, to Titianus for the Emperor, but he did not bring his composition
+      to an end, for he became involved in high-flown phrases. At last he
+      doubted whether it would do at all, flung the unfinished letter back into
+      the chest, and disposed himself to sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      While anxiety and trouble were brooding over the steward&rsquo;s dwelling, while
+      dismay and disappointment were clouding the souls of its inhabitants, the
+      hall of the Muses was merry with feasting and laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Julia, the prefect&rsquo;s wife, had supplied the architect at Lochias with a
+      carefully-prepared meal,&mdash;sufficient to fill six hungry maws, and
+      Pontius&rsquo; slave&mdash;who had received it on its arrival and had unpacked
+      it dish after dish, and set them out on the humblest possible table had
+      then hastened to fetch his master to inspect all these marvels of the
+      cook&rsquo;s art. The architect shook his head as he contemplated the
+      superabundant blessing, and muttered to himself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Titianus must take me for a crocodile, or rather for two crocodiles,&rdquo; and
+      he went to the sculptor&rsquo;s little tabernacle, where Papias the master was
+      also, to invite the two men to share his supper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides them he asked two painters, and the chief mosaic worker of the
+      city, who all day long had been busied in restoring the old and faded
+      pictures on the ceilings and pavements, and under the influence of good
+      wine and cheerful chat they soon emptied the dishes and bowls and
+      trenchers. A man who for several hours has been using his hands or his
+      mind, or both together, waxes hungry, and all the artists whom Pontius had
+      brought together at Lochias had now been working for several days almost
+      to the verge of exhaustion. Each had done his best, in the first place, no
+      doubt, to give satisfaction to Pontius, whom all esteemed, and to himself;
+      but also in the hope of giving proof of his powers to the Emperor and of
+      showing him how things could be done in Alexandria. When the dishes had
+      been removed and the replete feasters had washed and dried their hands,
+      they filled their cups out of a jar of mixed wine, of which the dimensions
+      answered worthily to the meal they had eaten. One of the painters then
+      proposed that they should hold a regular drinking-bout, and elect Papias,
+      who was as well known as a good table orator as he was as an artist, to be
+      the leader of the feast. However, the master declared that he could not
+      accept the honor, for that it was due to the worthiest of their company;
+      to the man namely, who, only a few days since, had entered this empty
+      palace and like a second Deucalion had raised up illustrious artists, such
+      as he then saw around him in great numbers, and skilled workmen by
+      hundreds, not out of plastic stone but out of nothing. And then&mdash;while
+      declaring that he understood the use of the hammer and chisel better than
+      that of the tongue, and that he had never studied the art of making
+      speeches&mdash;he expressed his wish that Pontius would lead the revel, in
+      the most approved form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he was not allowed to get to the end of this evidence of his skill,
+      for Euphorion the door-keeper of the palace, Euphorion the father of
+      Pollux, ran hastily into the hall of the Muses with a letter in his hand
+      which he gave to the architect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be read without an instant&rsquo;s delay,&rdquo; he added, bowing with theatrical
+      dignity to the assembled artists. &ldquo;One of the prefect&rsquo;s lictors brought
+      this letter, which, if my wishes be granted, brings nothing that is
+      unwelcome. Hold your noise you little blackguards or I will be the death
+      of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These words, which so far as the tone was concerned, formed a somewhat
+      inharmonious termination to a speech intended for the ears of great
+      artists, were addressed to his wife&rsquo;s four-footed Graces who had followed
+      him against his wish, and were leaping round the table barking for the
+      slender remains of the consumed food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pontius was fond of animals and had made friends with the old woman&rsquo;s
+      pets, so, as he opened the prefect&rsquo;s letter, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I invite the three little guests to the remains of our feast. Give them
+      anything that is fit for them, Euphorion, and whatever seems to you most
+      suitable to your own stomach you may put into it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While the architect first rapidly glanced through the letter and then read
+      it carefully, the singer had collected a variety of good morsels for his
+      wife&rsquo;s favorites on a plate, and finally carried the last remaining pasty,
+      with the dish on which it reposed, to the vicinity of his own hooked nose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For men or for dogs?&rdquo; he asked his son, as he pointed to it with a rigid
+      finger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the gods!&rdquo; replied Pollux. &ldquo;Take it to mother; she will like to eat
+      ambrosia for once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A jolly evening to you!&rdquo; cried the singer, bowing to the artists who were
+      emptying their cups, and he quitted the hall with his pasty and his dogs.
+      Before he had fairly left the hall with his long strides, Papias, whose
+      speech had been interrupted, once more raised his wine-cup and began
+      again:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our Deucalion, our more than Deucalion&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me,&rdquo; interrupted Pontius. &ldquo;If I once more stop your discourse
+      which began so promisingly; this letter contains important news and our
+      revels must be over for the night. We must postpone our symposium and your
+      drinking-speech.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was not a drinking-speech, for if ever there was a moderate man&mdash;&rdquo;
+       Papias began. But Pontius stopped him again, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Titianus writes me word that he proposes coming to Lochias this evening.
+      He may arrive at any moment; and not alone, but with my fellow-artist,
+      Claudius Venator from Rome, who is to assist me with his advice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never even heard his name,&rdquo; said Papias, who was wont to trouble
+      himself as little about the persons as about the works of other artists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder at that,&rdquo; said Pontius, closing the double tablets which
+      announced the Emperor&rsquo;s advent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can he do anything?&rdquo; asked Pollux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More than any one of us,&rdquo; replied Pontius. &ldquo;He is a mighty man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is splendid!&rdquo; exclaimed Pollux. &ldquo;I like to see great men. When one
+      looks me in the eye I always feel as if some of his superabundance
+      overflowed into me, and irresistibly I draw myself up and think how fine
+      it would be if one day I might reach as high as that man&rsquo;s chin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beware of morbid ambition,&rdquo; said Papias to his pupil in a warning voice.
+      &ldquo;It is not the man who stands on tiptoe, but he who does his duty
+      diligently, that can attain anything great.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He honestly does his,&rdquo; said the architect rising, and he laid his hand on
+      the young sculptor&rsquo;s shoulder. &ldquo;We all do; to-morrow by sunrise each must
+      be at his post again. For my colleague&rsquo;s sake it will be well that you
+      should all be there in good time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The artists rose, expressing their thanks and regrets. &ldquo;You will not
+      escape the continuation of this evening&rsquo;s entertainment,&rdquo; cried one of the
+      painters, and Papias, as he parted from Pontius, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When we next meet I will show you what I understand by a drinking-speech.
+      It will do perhaps for your Roman guest. I am curious to hear what he will
+      say about our Urania. Pollux has done his share of the work very well, and
+      I have already devoted an hour&rsquo;s work to it, which has improved it. The
+      more humble our material, the better I shall be pleased if the work
+      satisfies Caesar; he himself has tried his hand at sculpture.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If only Hadrian could hear that!&rdquo; cried one of the painters. &ldquo;He likes to
+      think himself a great artist&mdash;one of the foremost of our time. It is
+      said that he caused the life of the great architect, Apollodorus&mdash;who
+      carried out such noble works for Trajan&mdash;to be extinguished&mdash;and
+      why? because formerly that illustrious man had treated the imperial
+      bungler as a mere dabbler, and would not accept his plan for the temple of
+      Venus at Rome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mere talk!&rdquo; answered Pontius to this accusation. &ldquo;Apollodorus died in
+      prison, but his incarceration had little enough to do with the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      productions&mdash;excuse me, gentlemen, I must once more look through the
+      sketches and plans.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The architect went away, but Pollux continued the conversation that had
+      been begun by saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only I cannot understand how a man who practises so many arts at once as
+      Hadrian does, and at the same time looks after the state and its
+      government, who is a passionate huntsman and who dabbles in every kind of
+      miscellaneous learning, contrives, when he wants to practise one
+      particular form of art, to recall all his five senses into the nest from
+      which he has let them fly, here, there, and everywhere. The inside of his
+      head must be like that salad-bowl&mdash;which we have reduced to emptiness&mdash;in
+      which Papias discovered three sorts of fish, brown and white meat, oysters
+      and five other substances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who can deny,&rdquo; added Papias, &ldquo;that if talent is the father, and meat
+      the mother of all productiveness, practice must be the artist&rsquo;s teacher!
+      Since Hadrian took to sculpture and painting it has become the universal
+      fashion here to practise these arts, and among the wealthier youth who
+      come to my workroom, many have very good abilities; but not one of them
+      brings anything to any good issue, because so much of their time is taken
+      up by the gymnasium, the bath, the quail-fights, the suppers, and I know
+      not what besides, so that they do nothing by way of practice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True,&rdquo; said a painter. &ldquo;Without the restraint and worry of apprenticeship
+      no one can ever rise to happy and independent creativeness; and in the
+      schools of rhetoric or in hunting or fighting no one can study drawing. It
+      is not till a pupil has learned to sit steady and worry himself over his
+      work for six hours on end that I begin to believe he will ever do any good
+      work. Have you any of you seen the Emperor&rsquo;s work?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have,&rdquo; answered a mosaic worker. &ldquo;Many years ago Hadrian sent a picture
+      to me that he had painted; I was to make a mosaic from it. It was a fruit
+      piece. Melons, gourds, apples, and green leaves. The drawing was but
+      so-so, and the color impossibly vivid, still the composition was pleasing
+      from its solidity and richness. And after all, when one sees it, one
+      cannot but feel that such superfluity is better than meagreness and
+      feebleness. The larger fruits, especially under the exuberant sappy
+      foliage, were so huge that they might have been grown in the garden of
+      luxury itself, still the whole had a look of reality. I mitigated the
+      colors somewhat in my transcript; you may still see a copy of the picture
+      at my house, it hangs in the studio where my men draw. Nealkes, the rich
+      hanging-maker, has had a tapestry woven from it which Pontius proposes to
+      use as a hanging for a wall of the work-room, but I have made a fine frame
+      on purpose for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say rather for its designer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or yet rather,&rdquo; added the most loquacious of the painters, &ldquo;for the visit
+      he may possibly pay your workshops.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only wish the Emperor may come to ours too! I should like to sell him
+      my picture of Alexander saluted by the priests in the temple of Jupiter
+      Ammon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope that when you agree about the price you will remember we are
+      partners,&rdquo; said his fellow-artist smugly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will follow your example strictly,&rdquo; replied the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you will certainly not be a loser,&rdquo; cried Papias, &ldquo;for Eustorgius is
+      fully aware of the worth of his works. And if Hadrian is to order works
+      from every master whose art he dabbles in, he will require a fleet on
+      purpose to carry his purchases to Rome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is said,&rdquo; continued Eustorgius, laughing, &ldquo;that he is a painter among
+      poets, a sculptor among painters, an astronomer among musicians, and a
+      sophist among artists&mdash;that is to say, that he pursues every art and
+      science with some success as his secondary occupation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke the last words Pontius returned to the table where the artists
+      were standing round the winejar; he had heard the painter&rsquo;s last remark
+      and interrupted him by saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But my friend you forget that he is a monarch among monarchs&mdash;and
+      not merely among those of today&mdash;in the fullest meaning of the word.
+      Each of us separately can produce something better and more perfect in his
+      own line; but how great is the man who by earnestness and skill can even
+      apprehend everything that the mind has ever been able to conceive of, or
+      the creative spirit of the artist to embody! I know him, and I know that
+      he loves a really thorough master, and tries to encourage him with
+      princely liberality. But his ears are everywhere, and he promptly becomes
+      the implacable enemy of those who provoke his resentment. So bridle your
+      restive Alexandrian tongues, and let me tell you that my colleague from
+      Rome is in the closest intimacy with Hadrian. He is of the same age,
+      resembles him greatly, and repeats to him everything that he hears said
+      about him. So cease talking about Caesar and pass no severer judgments on
+      dilettanti in the purple than on your wealthy pupils, who paint and chisel
+      for the mere love of it, and for whom you find it so easy to lisp out
+      &lsquo;charming,&rsquo; or &lsquo;wonderfully pretty,&rsquo; or &lsquo;remarkably nice.&rsquo; Take my warning
+      in good part, you know I mean it well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke the last words with a cordial, manly feeling, of which his voice
+      was peculiarly capable, and which was always certain to secure him the
+      confidence even of the recalcitrant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The artists exchanged greetings and hand-shakings and left the hall; a
+      slave carried away the wine-jar and wiped the table, on which Pontius
+      proceeded to lay out his sketches and plans. But he was not alone, for
+      Pollux was soon at his side, and with a comical expression of pathos and
+      laying his finger on his nose, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have come out of my cage to say something more to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The hour is approaching when I may hope to repay the beneficent deeds,
+      which, at various times, you have done to my interior. My mother will
+      to-morrow morning, set before you that dish of cabbage. It could not be
+      done sooner, because the only perfect sausage-maker, the very king of his
+      trade, prepares these savory cylinders only once a week. A few hours ago
+      he completed the making of the sausages, and to-morrow morning my mother
+      will warm up for our breakfasts the noble mess, which she is preparing for
+      us this evening&mdash;for, as I have told you, it is in its warmed-up
+      state that it is the ideal of its kind. What will follow by way of sweets
+      we shall owe again to my mother&rsquo;s art; but the cheering and invigorating
+      element&mdash;I mean the wine that I drives dull care away, we owe to my
+      sister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will come,&rdquo; said Pontius, &ldquo;if my guest leaves me an hour free, and I
+      shall enjoy the excellent dish. But what does a gay bird like you know of
+      dull care?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The words fit into the metre,&rdquo; replied Pollux. &ldquo;I inherit from my father&mdash;who,
+      when he is not gate-keeping, sings and recites&mdash;a troublesome
+      tendency whenever anything incites me to drift into rhythm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But to-day you have been more silent than usual, and yet you seemed to me
+      to be extraordinarily content. Not your face only, but your whole length&mdash;a
+      good measure&mdash;from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head
+      was like a brimming cask of satisfaction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there is much that is lovely in this world!&rdquo; cried Pollux,
+      stretching himself comfortably and lifting his arms with his hands clasped
+      far above his head towards heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has anything specially pleasant happened to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no need for that! Here I live in excellent company, the work
+      progresses, and&mdash;well, why should I deny it? There was something
+      specially to mark to-day; I met an old acquaintance again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An old one?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have already known her sixteen years; but when I first saw her she was
+      in swaddling clothes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then this venerable damsel friend is more than sixteen, perhaps
+      seventeen! Is Eros the friend of the happy, or does happiness only follow
+      in his train?&rdquo; As the architect thoughtfully said these words to himself,
+      Pollux listened attentively to a noise outside, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who can be passing out there at this hour? Do you not hear the bark of a
+      big dog mingle with the snapping of the three Graces?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Titianus conducting the architect from Rome,&rdquo; replied Pontius
+      excitedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go to meet him. But one thing more my friend, you too have an
+      Alexandrian tongue. Beware of laughing at the Emperor&rsquo;s artistic efforts
+      in the presence of this Roman. I repeat it: the man who is now coming is
+      superior to us all, and there is nothing more repellant to me than when a
+      small man assumes a strutting air of importance because he fancies he has
+      discovered in some great man a weak spot where his own little body happens
+      to be sound. The artist I am expecting is a grand man, but the Emperor
+      Hadrian is a grander. Now retire behind your screens, and tomorrow morning
+      I will be your guest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Pontius threw his pallium over the chiton he commonly wore at his work and
+      went forward to meet the sovereign of the world, whose arrival had been
+      announced to him in the prefect&rsquo;s letter. He was perfectly calm, and if
+      his heart beat a little faster than usual, it was only because he was
+      pleased once more to meet the wonderful man whose personality had made a
+      deep impression on him before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the happy consciousness of having done all that lay in his power and of
+      deserving no blame, he went through the ante-chambers and chief entrance
+      of the palace into the fore-court, where a crowd of slaves were busied by
+      torch-light in laying new marble slabs. Neither these workmen nor their
+      overseers had paid any heed to the barking of the dogs and the loud
+      talking which had for some little time been audible in the vicinity of the
+      gate-keeper&rsquo;s lodge; for a special rate of payment had been promised to
+      the laborers and their foremen if they should have finished a set piece of
+      the new pavement by a certain hour, to the satisfaction of the architect.
+      No one who heard the deep man&rsquo;s-voice ring through the court from the
+      doorway guessed to whom it belonged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor had been delayed by adverse winds and had not run into the
+      harbor till a little before midnight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Titianus, who was watching for him, he greeted as an old friend with
+      heartfelt warmth, and with him and Antinous he stepped into the prefect&rsquo;s
+      chariot, while Phlegon the secretary, Hermogenes his physician, and Mastor
+      with the luggage, among which were their campbeds, were to follow in
+      another vehicle. The harbor watchmen hastened to array themselves
+      indignantly to oppose the chariot, as it rolled noisily along the street,
+      and the huge dog that destroyed the peace of the night with its baying;
+      but as soon as they recognized Titianus they respectfully made way. The
+      gate-keeper and his wife, obedient to the prefect&rsquo;s warning, had remained
+      up, and as soon as the singer heard the chariot approaching which bore the
+      Emperor, he hastened to open the palace-gates. The broken-up pavement and
+      the swarms of men engaged in repairing it, obliged Titianus and his
+      companions to quit the chariot here and to pass close to the little
+      gate-house. Hadrian, whose observation nothing ever escaped which came in
+      his way and seemed worth noticing, stood still before Euphorion&rsquo;s door and
+      looked into the comfortable little room, with its decoration of flowers
+      and birds and the statue of Apollo; while dame Doris in her newest
+      garments, stood on the threshold to watch for the prefect. And Titianus
+      greeted her warmly, for he was wont whenever he came to Lochias to
+      exchange a few merry or wise words with her. The little dogs had already
+      crept into their basket, but as soon as they caught sight of a strange dog
+      they rushed past their mistress into the open air, and dame Doris found
+      herself obliged, while she returned the kindly greeting of her patron, to
+      shout at Euphrosyne, Thalia and Aglaia more than once by their pretty
+      names.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Splendid, splendid!&rdquo; cried Hadrian, pointing into the little house. &ldquo;An
+      idyl, a perfect idyl. Who would have expected to find such a smiling nook
+      of peace in the most restless and busy town in the empire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I and Pontius were equally surprised at this little nest, and we
+      therefore left it untouched,&rdquo; said the prefect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Intelligent people understand each other, and I owe you thanks for
+      preserving this little home,&rdquo; answered the Emperor. &ldquo;What an omen, what a
+      favorable, in every way favorable augury, it offers me. The Graces receive
+      me here into these old walls, Aglaia, Thalia and Euphrosyne!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good luck to you, Master,&rdquo; old Doris called out to the prefect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We come late,&rdquo; said Hadrian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That does not matter,&rdquo; said the old woman. &ldquo;Here at Lochias for the last
+      week we have quite forgotten to distinguish day from night, and a blessing
+      can never come too late.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have brought with me to-day an illustrious guest,&rdquo; said Titianus. &ldquo;The
+      great Roman architect Claudius Venator. He only disembarked a few minutes
+      since.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then a draught of wine will do him good. We have in the house some good
+      white Mareotic from my daughter&rsquo;s garden by the lake. If your friend will
+      do us humble folks so much honor, I beg he will step into our room; it is
+      clean, is it not sir? and the cup I will give him to drink it out of would
+      not disgrace the Emperor himself. Who knows what you will find up in the
+      midst of all the muddle yonder?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will accept your invitation with pleasure,&rdquo; answered Hadrian. &ldquo;I can
+      see by your face that you have a pleasure in entertaining us, and any one
+      might envy you your little house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When the climbing-rose and the honey-suckle are out it is much prettier,&rdquo;
+       said Doris, as she filled the cup. &ldquo;Here is some water for mixing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor took the cup carved by Pollux, looked at it with admiration,
+      and before putting it to his lips said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A masterpiece, dame; what would Caesar find to drink out of here where
+      the gate-keeper uses such a treasure? Who executed this admirable work,
+      pray?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My son carved it for me in his spare time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a highly-skilled sculptor,&rdquo; Titianus explained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Emperor had half emptied the cup with much satisfaction he set it
+      on the table, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A very noble drink! I thank you, mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I you, for styling me mother: there is no better title a woman can
+      have who has brought up good children; and I have three who need never be
+      ashamed to be seen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you all luck with them, good little mother,&rdquo; replied the Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall meet again, for I am going to spend some days at Lochias.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, in all this bustle?&rdquo; asked Doris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This great architect,&rdquo; said Titianus, in explanation, &ldquo;is to advise and
+      help our Pontius.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He needs no help!&rdquo; cried the old woman. &ldquo;He is a man of the best stamp.
+      His foresight and energy, my son says, are incomparable. I have seen him
+      giving his orders myself, and I know a man when I see him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what particularly pleased you in him?&rdquo; asked Hadrian, who was much
+      amused with the shrewd old woman&rsquo;s freedom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He never for a moment loses his temper in all the hurry, never speaks a
+      word too much or too little; he can be stern when it is necessary, but he
+      is kind to his inferiors. What his merits are as an artist I am not
+      capable of judging, but I am quite certain that he is a just and able
+      man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know him myself,&rdquo; replied Caesar, &ldquo;and you describe him rightly; but he
+      seemed to me sterner than he has shown himself to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Being a man he must be able to be severe; but he is so only when it is
+      necessary, and how kind he can be he shows himself every day. A man grows
+      to the mould of his own mind when he is a great deal alone; and this I
+      have noticed, that a man who is repellant and sharp to those beneath him
+      is not in himself anything really great; for it shows that he considers it
+      necessary to guard against the danger of being looked upon as of no more
+      consequence than the poorer folks he deals with. Now, a man of real worth
+      knows that it can be seen in his bearing, even when he treats one of us as
+      an equal. Pontius does so, and Titianus, and you who are his friend, no
+      less. It is a good thing that you should have come&mdash;but, as I said
+      before, the architect up there can do very well without you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not seem to rate my capacity very highly, and I regret it, for you
+      have lived with your eyes open and have learned to judge men keenly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Doris looked shrewdly at the Emperor with her kindly glance, as if taking
+      his mental measure, and then answered confidently:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&mdash;you are a great man too&mdash;it is quite possible that you
+      might see things that would escape Pontius. There are a few choice souls
+      whom the Muses particularly love and you are one of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What leads you to suppose so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see it in your gaze&mdash;in your brow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have the gift of divination, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I am not one of that sort; but I am the mother of two sons on whom
+      also the Immortals have bestowed the special gift, which I cannot exactly
+      describe. It was in them I first saw it, and wherever I have met with it
+      since in other men and artists&mdash;they have been the elect of their
+      circle. And you too&mdash;I could swear to it, that you are foremost of
+      the men among whom you live.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not swear lightly,&rdquo; laughed the Emperor. &ldquo;We will meet and talk
+      together again little mother, and when I depart I will ask you again
+      whether you have not been deceived in me. Come now, Telemachus, the dame&rsquo;s
+      birds seem to delight you very much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These words were addressed to Antinous, who had been going from cage to
+      cage contemplating the feathered pets, all sleeping snugly, with much
+      curiosity and pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that your son?&rdquo; asked Doris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, dame, he is only my pupil; but I feel as if he were my son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a beautiful lad!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, the old lady still looks after the young men!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We do not give that up till we are a hundred or till the Parcae cut the
+      thread of life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a confession!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me finish my speech.&mdash;We never cease to take pleasure in seeing
+      a handsome young fellow, but so long as we are young we ask ourselves what
+      he may have in store for us, and as we grow old we are perfectly satisfied
+      to be able to show him kindness. Listen young master. You will always find
+      me here if you want anything in which I can serve you. I am like a snail
+      and very rarely leave my shell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Till our next meeting,&rdquo; cried Hadrian, and he and his companions went out
+      into the court.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There the difficulty was to find a footing on the disjointed pavement.
+      Titianus went on in front of the Emperor and Antinous, and so but few
+      words of friendly pleasure could be exchanged by the monarch and his
+      vicegerent on the occasion of their meeting again. Hadrian stepped
+      cautiously forward, his face wearing meanwhile a satisfied smile. The
+      verdict passed by the simple shrewd woman of the people had given him far
+      greater pleasure than the turgid verse in which Mesomedes and his compeers
+      were wont to sing his praises, or the flattering speeches with which he
+      was loaded by the sophists and rhetoricians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old woman had taken him for no more than an artist; she could not know
+      who he was, and yet she had recognized&mdash;or had Titianus been
+      indiscreet? Did she know or suspect whom she was talking to? Hadrian&rsquo;s
+      deeply suspicious nature was more and more roused; he began to fancy that
+      the gate-keeper&rsquo;s wife had learnt her speech by heart, and that her
+      welcome had been preconcerted; he suddenly paused and desired the prefect
+      to wait for him, and Antinous to remain behind with the clog. He turned
+      round, retraced his steps to the gatehouse and slipped close up to it in a
+      very unprincely way. He stood still by the door of the little house which
+      was still open, and listened to the conversation between Doris and her
+      husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A fine tall man,&rdquo; said Euphorion, &ldquo;he is a little like the Emperor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bit,&rdquo; replied Doris. &ldquo;Only think of the full-length statue of
+      Hadrian in the garden of the Paneum; it has a dissatisfied satirical
+      expression, and the architect has a grave brow, it is true, but pure
+      friendly kindness lights up his features. It is only the beard that
+      reminds you of the one when you look at the other. Hadrian might be very
+      glad if he were like the prefect&rsquo;s guest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he is handsomer&mdash;how shall I say it&mdash;more like the gods
+      than that cold marble figure,&rdquo; Euphorion declared. &ldquo;A grand noble, he is
+      no doubt, but still an artist too; I wonder whether he could be induced by
+      Pontius or Papias or Aristeas or one of the great painters to take the
+      part of Calchas the soothsayer in our group at the festival? He would
+      perform it in quite another way than that dry stick Philemon the ivory
+      carver. Hand me my lute; I have already forgotten again the beginning of
+      the last verse. Oh! my wretched memory! Thank you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Euphorion loudly struck the strings and sang in a voice that was still
+      tolerably sweet and very well trained:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Sabina hail! Oh Sabina!&mdash;Hail; victorious hail to the conquering
+      goddess Sabina!&rsquo; If only Pollux were here he would remind me of the right
+      words. &lsquo;Hail; victorious hail, to the thousand-fold Sabina!&rsquo;&mdash;That is
+      nonsense. &lsquo;Hail, hail! divine hail to thee O all-conquering Sabina.&rsquo; No it
+      was not that either. If a crocodile would only swallow this Sabina I would
+      give him that hot cake in yonder dish with pleasure, for his pudding. But
+      stay&mdash;I have it. &lsquo;Hail, a thousand-fold hail to the conquering
+      goddess Sabina!&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian had heard all he wanted; while Euphorion went on repeating his
+      line a score or more of times to impress it on his recalcitrant memory.
+      Caesar turned his back on the gate-house, and while he and his companions
+      picked their way not without difficulty through the workmen who squatted
+      here and there and everywhere on the ground, he clapped Titianus more than
+      once on his shoulder, and after he had been received and welcomed by
+      Pontius, he exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I bless my decision to come here now! I have had a good evening, a quite
+      delightful evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor had not felt so cheerful and free from care for years as on
+      this occasion, and when in spite of the late hour he found the workmen
+      still busy everywhere, and saw all that had already been restored in the
+      old palace and what was being done for its renovation, the restless man
+      could not resist expressing his satisfaction, and exclaimed to Antinous:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here we may see that even in our sordid times miracles may be wrought by
+      good-will, industry, and skill. Explain to me my good Pontius how you were
+      able to construct that enormous scaffold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      More pleasant hours were to follow on the amusing arrival of the Emperor
+      at his half-finished residence at Lochias that night. Pontius proposed to
+      him to inspect several well-preserved rooms, which had in the first
+      instance been reserved for the gentlemen of his suite; and one of these
+      with an open outlook on the harbor, the town, and the island of
+      Antirrhodus he suggested should be provisionally furnished for the
+      Emperor&rsquo;s reception. Thanks to the architect&rsquo;s foresight, to Mastor&rsquo;s
+      practised hand, and to the numbers of men employed in the palace who were
+      accustomed to all kinds of service&mdash;provision was soon made for the
+      night, for Hadrian and his companions. The comfortable couch which the
+      prefect had sent to Lochias for Pontius was carried into the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      sleeping-room, and the camp-beds for Antinous and the suite were soon set
+      up in the other rooms. Tables, pillows, and various household vessels
+      which had already been sent in from the manufactories of Alexandria, and
+      which stood packed in bales and cases in the large central court of the
+      palace were soon taken out, and so far as they were applicable for use
+      were carried into the hastily-arranged rooms. Even before Hadrian, under
+      the prefect&rsquo;s guidance, had reached the last room in which restorations
+      were being carried out, Pontius was ready with his arrangements, and could
+      assure the Emperor that to-night he would find a good bed and very
+      tolerable quarters, and that by to-morrow he should have a really
+      elegantly-furnished room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Charming, quite delightful,&rdquo; cried the Emperor, as he entered his room.
+      &ldquo;One might fancy you had some industrious demons at your command. Pour
+      some water over my hands, Mastor, and then to supper! I am as hungry as a
+      beggar&rsquo;s clog.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think we shall find all you need,&rdquo; replied Titianus, while Hadrian
+      washed his hands and his bearded face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you eaten all that I sent down to Lochias to-day, my dear Pontius?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! we have,&rdquo; sighed Pontius.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I gave orders that a supper for five should be sent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It sufficed for six hungry artists,&rdquo; answered the architect, &ldquo;if only I
+      could have guessed for whom the food was intended! And now what is to be
+      done? There are wine and bread still in the hall of the Muses, meanwhile.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must satisfy us,&rdquo; said the Emperor, as he wiped his face. &ldquo;In the
+      Dacian war, in Numidia, and often when out hunting, I have been glad if
+      only one or the other was to be obtained.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous, who was very hungry and tired, made a melancholy face at these
+      words of his master, and Hadrian perceiving it, added with a smile:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But youth needs something more to live upon than bread and wine. You
+      pointed out to me just now the residence of the palace-steward. Might we
+      not find there a morsel of meat or cheese, or something of the kind?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hardly,&rdquo; replied Pontius. &ldquo;For the man stuffs his fat stomach and his
+      eight children with bread and porridge. But an attempt will at any rate be
+      worth making.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then send to him; but conduct us at once to the hall where the Muses have
+      preserved some bread and wine for me and these good fellows, though they
+      do not always provide them for their disciples.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pontius at once conducted the Emperor into the hall. On the way thither,
+      Hadrian asked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the steward so miserably paid that he is forced to content himself
+      with such meagre fare?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has a residence rent free, and two hundred drachmae a month.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is not so very little. What is the man&rsquo;s name, and of what kith and
+      kin is he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is called Keraunus, and is of ancient Macedonian descent. His
+      ancestors from time immemorial have held the office he now fills, and he
+      even supposes himself to be related to the extinct royal dynasty through
+      the mistress of some one of the Lagides. Keraunus sits in the town council
+      and never stirs out in the streets without his slave, who is one of the
+      sort which the merchants in the slave market throw into the bargain with
+      the buyer. He is as fat as a stuffed pig, dresses like a senator, loves
+      antiquities and curiosities, for which he will let himself be cheated of
+      his last coin, and bears his poverty with more of pride than of dignity;
+      and still he is an honorable man, and can be made useful, if he is taken
+      on the right side.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Altogether a queer fellow. And you say he is fat, is he jolly?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As far from it as possible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, people who are fat and cross are my aversion. What is this by way of
+      an erection?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behind that screen works Papias&rsquo; best scholar. His name is Pollux, and he
+      is the son of the couple who keep the gate-house. You will be pleased with
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call him here,&rdquo; said the Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But before the architect could comply with his desire the sculptor&rsquo;s head
+      had appeared above the screen. The young man had heard the approaching
+      voices and steps; he greeted the prefect respectfully from his elevated
+      position, and after satisfying his curiosity was about to spring down from
+      the stool on which he had climbed when Pontius called to him that Claudius
+      Venator, the architect from Rome, wished to make his acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is very kind in him, and still more kind in you,&rdquo; Pollux answered
+      from above, &ldquo;since it is only from you that he can know that I exist
+      beneath the moon, and use the hammer and chisel. Allow me to descend from
+      my four-legged cothurnus, for at present you are forced to look up to me,
+      and from all I have heard of your talents from Pontius, nothing can be
+      more absolutely the reverse of what it ought to be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, stop where you are,&rdquo; answered Hadrian. &ldquo;We, as fellow-artists, may
+      waive ceremony.&mdash;What are you doing in there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will push the screen back in a moment and show you our Urania. It is
+      very good for an artist to hear the opinion of a man who thoroughly
+      understands the thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Presently, friend-presently; first let me enjoy a scrap of bread, for the
+      severity of my hunger might very possibly influence my judgment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he was speaking the architect offered the Emperor a salver with bread,
+      salt, and a cup of wine, which his own slave had carried to him. When
+      Pollux observed this modest meal, he called out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is prisoners&rsquo; fare, Pontius; have we nothing better in the house
+      than that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly you yourself assisted in demolishing the dainty dishes I had
+      sent down for the architect,&rdquo; cried Titianus, pretending to threaten him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are defacing a fair memory,&rdquo; sighed the sculptor, with mock
+      melancholy. &ldquo;But, by Hercules, I did my fair share of the work of
+      destruction. If only now&mdash;but stay! I have an idea worthy of
+      Aristotle himself! that breakfast, to which I invited you to-morrow
+      morning, most noble Pontius, is all ready at my mother&rsquo;s, and can be
+      warmed up in a few minutes. Do not be alarmed, worthy sir, but the dish in
+      question is cabbage with sausages&mdash;a mess which, like the soul of an
+      Egyptian, possesses at the instant of resurrection, nobler qualities than
+      when it first sees the light.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excellent,&rdquo; cried Hadrian. &ldquo;Cabbage and sausages!&rdquo; He wiped his full lips
+      with his hand, smiling with gratification, and he broke into a hearty
+      laugh of amusement as he heard a loud &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; of satisfaction from Antinous,
+      who drew nearer to the canvas screen. &ldquo;There is another whose mouth waters
+      and whose imagination revels in a happy future,&rdquo; said the Emperor to the
+      prefect, pointing to his favorite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he had misinterpreted the lad&rsquo;s exclamation, for it was the mere name
+      of the dish&mdash;which his mother had often set on the table of his
+      humble home in Bithynia&mdash;which reminded him of his native country and
+      his childhood, and transplanted him in thought back into their midst. It
+      was a swift leap at his heart, and not merely the pleasant watering of his
+      gums, that had forced the &ldquo;Ah&rdquo; to his lips. Still, he was glad to see his
+      native dish again, and would not have exchanged it against the richest
+      banquet. Pollux had meanwhile come out of his nook, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a quarter of an hour I shall set before you the breakfast which has
+      been turned into a supper. Mitigate your worst hunger with some bread and
+      salt, and then my mother&rsquo;s cabbage-stew will not only satisfy you, but
+      will be enjoyed with calm appreciation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Greet dame Doris from me,&rdquo; Hadrian called after the sculptor; and when
+      Pollux had quitted the hall he turned to Titianus and Pontius and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a splendid young fellow. I am curious to see what he can do as an
+      artist.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then follow me,&rdquo; replied Pontius, leading the way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you say to this Urania? Papias made the head of the Muse, but the
+      figure and the drapery Pollux formed with his own hand in a few days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The imperial artist stood in front of the statue, with his arms crossed,
+      and remained there for some time in silence. Then he nodded his bearded
+      head approvingly, and said gravely:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A well-considered work, and carried out with remarkable freedom; this
+      mantle drawn over the bosom would not disgrace a Phidias. All is broad,
+      characteristic and true. Did the young artist work from the model here at
+      Lochias?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have seen no model, and I believe that he evolved the whole figure out
+      of his head,&rdquo; replied Pontius.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible, perfectly impossible,&rdquo; cried the Emperor, in the tone of a
+      man who knows well what he is talking about. &ldquo;Such lines, such forms not
+      Praxiteles himself could have invented. He must have seen them, have
+      formed them as he stood face to face with the living copy. We will ask
+      him. What is to be made out of that newly-set-up mass of clay?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly the bust of some princess of the house of the Lagides. To-morrow
+      you shall see a head of Berenice by our young friend, which seems to me to
+      be one of the best things ever done in Alexandria.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is the lad a proficient in magic?&rdquo; asked Hadrian. &ldquo;It seems to me
+      simply impossible that he should have completed this statue and a woman&rsquo;s
+      bust in these few days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pontius explained to the Emperor that Pollux had mounted the head on a
+      bust already to hand, and as he answered his questions without reserve, he
+      revealed to him what stupendous exertions of the arts had been called into
+      requisition to give the dilapidated palace a suitable and, in its kind,
+      even brilliant appearance. He frankly confessed that here he was working
+      only for effect, and talked to Hadrian exactly as he would have discussed
+      the same subject with any other fellow-artist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the Emperor and the architect were thus eagerly conversing, and the
+      prefect was hearing from Phlegon, the secretary, all the experience of
+      their journey, Pollux reappeared in the hall of the Muses accompanied by
+      his father. The singer carried before him a steaming mess, fresh cakes of
+      bread, and the pasty which a few hours previously he had carried home to
+      his wife from the architect&rsquo;s table. Pollux held to his breast a tolerably
+      large two-handled jar full of Mareotic wine, which he had hastily wreathed
+      with branches of ivy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes later the Emperor was reclining on a mattress that had been
+      laid for him, and was making his way valiantly through the savory mess. He
+      was in the happiest humor; he called Antinous and his secretary, heaped
+      abundant portions with his own hand on their plates, which he bade them
+      hold out to him, declaring as he did so that it was to prevent their
+      fishing the best of the sausages out of the cabbage for themselves. He
+      also spoke highly of the Mareotic wine. When they came to opening the
+      pasty the expression of his face changed; he frowned and asked the prefect
+      in a suspicious tone, severely and sternly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How came these people by such a pasty as this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did you get it from?&rdquo; asked the prefect of the singer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From the banquet which the architect gave to the artists here,&rdquo; answered
+      Euphorion. &ldquo;The bones were given to the Graces and this dish, which had
+      not been touched, to me and my wife. She devoted it with pleasure to
+      Pontius&rsquo; guest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Titianus laughed and exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This then accounts for the total disappearance of the handsome supper
+      which we sent down to the architect. This pasty-allow me to look at it&mdash;this
+      pasty was prepared by a recipe obtained from Verus. He invited us to
+      breakfast yesterday and instructed my cook how to prepare it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No Platonist ever propagated his master&rsquo;s doctrines with greater zeal
+      than Verus does the merits of this dish,&rdquo; said the Emperor, who had
+      recovered his good humor as soon as he perceived that no artful
+      preparation for his arrival was to be suspected in this matter. &ldquo;What
+      follies that spoilt child of fortune can commit! Does he still insist on
+      cooking with his own hands?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, not quite that,&rdquo; replied the prefect. &ldquo;But he had a couch placed for
+      him in the kitchen on which he stretched himself at full length and told
+      my cook exactly how to prepare the pasty, of which you are&mdash;I should
+      say, of which the Emperor is particularly fond. It consists of pheasant,
+      ham, cow&rsquo;s udder and a baked crust.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am quite of Hadrian&rsquo;s opinion,&rdquo; laughed the Emperor; doing all justice
+      to the excellent pie. &ldquo;You entertain me splendidly my friend, and I am
+      very much your debtor. What did you say your name is young man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pollux.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your Urania, Pollux, is a fine piece of work, and Pontius says you
+      executed the drapery without a model. I said, and I repeat, that it is
+      simply impossible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You judge rightly, a young girl stood for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor glanced at the architect, as much as to say, I knew it!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pontius asked in astonishment:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When? I have never seen a female form within these walls.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Recently.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I have never quitted Lochias for a minute. I have never gone to rest
+      before midnight, and have been on my legs again long before sunrise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But still there were several hours between your going to sleep, and
+      waking up again,&rdquo; replied Pollux. &ldquo;Ah, youth&mdash;youth!&rdquo; exclaimed the
+      Emperor, and a satirical smile played upon his lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Part Damon and Phyllis by iron doors, and they will find their way to
+      each other through the key-hole.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Euphorion looked seriously at his son, the architect shook his head and
+      refrained from further questions, but Hadrian rose from his couch,
+      dismissed Antinous and his secretary to bed, requested Titianus to go home
+      and to give his wife his kindly greetings, and then desired Pollux to
+      conduct him within this screen, since he himself was not tired and was
+      accustomed to do with only a few hours sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young sculptor was strongly attracted by this commanding personage. It
+      had not escaped him that the gray-bearded stranger greatly resembled the
+      Emperor; but Pontius had prepared him for the likeness, and in fact there
+      was much in the eyes and mouth of the Roman architect that he had never
+      traced in any portrait of Hadrian &lsquo;Imperator.&rsquo; And as they stood before
+      his scarcely-finished statue his respect increased for the new visitor to
+      Lochias; for, with earnest frankness, he pointed out to him certain
+      faults, and while praising the merits of the rapidly-executed figure he
+      explained in a few brief and pithy phrases his own conception of the ideal
+      Urania. Then shortly but clearly, he stated his views as to how the
+      plastic artist must deal with the problems of his art.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man&rsquo;s heart beat faster, and more than once he turned hot and
+      cold by turns as he heard things uttered by the bearded lips of this
+      imposing man, in a rich voice and in lucid phrases, which he had often
+      divined or vaguely felt, but for which, while learning, observing, and
+      working, he had never sought expression in words. And how kindly the great
+      master took up his timid observations, how convincingly he answered them.
+      Such a man as this he had never met, never had he bowed with such full
+      consent before the superiority and sovereign power of another mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second hour after midnight had begun, when Hadrian, standing before
+      the rough-cast clay bust, asked Pollux:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is this to be?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A portrait of a girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Probably of the complaisant model who ventures into Lochias at night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; a lady of rank will sit to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An Alexandrian?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no. A beauty in the train of the Empress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is her name? I know all the Roman ladies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Balbilla.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Balbilla? There are many of that name. What is she like, the lady you
+      mean?&rdquo; asked Hadrian, with a cunning glance of amusement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is easier to ask than to answer,&rdquo; replied the artist, who, seeing
+      his gray-bearded companion smile, recovered his gay vivacity, &ldquo;But stay&mdash;you
+      have seen a peacock spread its tail&mdash;now only imagine that every eye
+      in the train of Hera&rsquo;s bird was a graceful round curl, and that in the
+      middle of the circle there was a charming, intelligent girl&rsquo;s face, with a
+      merry little nose, and a rather too high forehead, and you will have the
+      portrait of the young damsel who has graciously permitted me to model from
+      her person.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian laughed heartily, threw off his cloak, and exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand aside&mdash;I know your maiden&mdash;and if I mean a different one
+      you shall tell me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was still speaking he had plunged his powerful hands into the
+      yielding clay, and kneading and pinching like a practised modeller, wiping
+      off and pressing on, he formed a woman&rsquo;s face with a towering structure of
+      curls, which resembled Balbilla, but which reproduced every conspicuous
+      peculiarity with such whimsical exaggeration that Pollux could not contain
+      his delight. When at last Hadrian stepped back from the happy caricature
+      and called upon him to say whether that were not indeed the Roman lady,
+      Pollux exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is as surely she, as you are not merely a great architect, but an
+      admirable sculptor. The thing is coarse, but unmistakably characteristic.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor himself seemed to enjoy his artistic joke hugely, for he
+      looked at it, and laughed again and again. Pontius, however, seemed to
+      view it differently; he had listened with eager sympathy to the
+      conversation between Hadrian and the sculptor, and had watched the former
+      as he began his work; but as it went on he turned away, for he hated that
+      distortion of fine forms, which he often found that the Egyptians took a
+      special delight in. It was positively painful to him to see a graceful,
+      highly-gifted and defenceless creature, to whom, too, he felt himself
+      bound by ties of gratitude, mocked at in this way by such a man as
+      Hadrian. He had only to-day met Balbilla for the first time, but he had
+      heard from Titianus that she was staying at the Caesareum with the
+      Empress, and the prefect had also told him that she was the granddaughter
+      of that same governor, Claudius Balbillus, who had granted freedom to his
+      own grandfather, a learned Greek slave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had met her with grateful sympathy and devotion; her bright and lively
+      nature had delighted him, and at each thoughtless word she uttered he
+      would have liked to give her some warning sign, as though she were near to
+      him through some tie of blood, or some old established friendship that
+      might warrant his right to do so. The defiant, half gallant way in which
+      Verus, the dissipated lady-killer, had spoken to her had enraged him and
+      filled him with anxiety, and long after the illustrious visitors had left
+      Lochias he had thought of her again and again, and had resolved, if it
+      were possible, to keep a watchful eye on the descendant of the benefactor
+      of his family. He felt it as a sacred duty to shelter and protect her,
+      seeming to him as she did, an airy, pretty, defenceless song-bird.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor&rsquo;s caricature had the same effect on his feelings as though
+      some one had insulted and scorned, before his eyes, something that ought
+      to be regarded as sacred. And there stood the monarch, a man no longer
+      young, gazing at his performance and never weary of the amusement it
+      afforded him. It pained Pontius keenly, for like all noble natures, he
+      could not bear to discover anything mean or vulgar in a man to whom he had
+      always looked up as to a strong exceptional character. As an artist
+      Hadrian ought not to have vilified beauty, as a man he ought not to have
+      insulted unprotected innocence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the soul of the architect, who had hitherto been one of the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      warmest admirers, a slight aversion began to dawn, and he was glad, when,
+      at last, Hadrian decided to withdraw to rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor found in his room every requisite he was accustomed to use,
+      and while his slave undressed him, lighted his night-lamp and adjusted his
+      pillows, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the best evening I have enjoyed for years. Is Antinous
+      comfortably in bed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As much so as in Rome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the big dog?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will lay his rug in the passage at your door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has he had any food?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bones, bread and water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you have had something to eat this evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was not hungry, and there was plenty of bread and wine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow we shall be better supplied. Now, good-night. Weigh your words
+      for fear you should betray me. A few days here undisturbed would be
+      delightful!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words the Emperor turned over on his couch and was soon asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mastor, too, lay down to rest after he had spread a rug for the dog in the
+      corridor outside the Emperor&rsquo;s sleeping-room. His head rested on a curved
+      shield of stout cowhide under which lay his short sword; the bed was but a
+      hard one, but Mastor had for years been used to rest on nothing better,
+      and still had enjoyed the dreamless slumbers of a child; but to-night
+      sleep avoided him, and from time to time he pressed his hand on his
+      wearily open eyes to wipe away the salt dew which rose to them again and
+      again. For a long time he had restrained these tears bravely enough, for
+      the Emperor liked to see none but cheerful faces among his servants; nay,
+      he had once said that it was in consequence of his bright eyes that he had
+      entrusted to him the care of his person. Poor, cheerful Mastor! He was
+      nothing but a slave, still he had a heart which lay open to joy and
+      suffering, to pleasure and trouble, to hatred and to love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In his childhood his native village had fallen into the hands of the foes
+      of his race. He and his brother had been carried away as slaves, first
+      into Asia Minor, and then as they were both particularly pretty
+      fair-haired boys, to Rome. There they had been bought for the Emperor;
+      Mastor had been chosen to wait on Hadrian&rsquo;s person, his brother had been
+      put to work in the gardens. Nothing was lacking to either except his
+      liberty; nothing tormented them but their longing for their native home,
+      and even this altogether faded away after he had married the pretty little
+      daughter of a superintendent of the gardens, a slave like himself. She was
+      a lively little woman with sparkling eyes, whom no one could pass by
+      without noticing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The slave&rsquo;s duties left him but little time to enjoy the society of his
+      pretty partner and of the two children she bore him, but the consciousness
+      of possessing them made him happy when he followed his master to the
+      chase, or in the journeys through the empire. Now, for seven months he had
+      heard nothing of his family; but a short letter had reached him at
+      Pelusium, which had been sent with the despatches for the Emperor from
+      Ostia to Egypt. He could not read, and in consequence of the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      rapid travelling, it was not till he reached Lochias, that he was put in
+      possession of its contents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before going to rest Antinous had read him the letter, which had been
+      written for his brother by a public scribe, and its contents were enough
+      to wreck the heart even of a slave. His pretty little wife had fled from
+      her home and from the Emperor&rsquo;s service to follow a Greek ship&rsquo;s captain
+      across the world; his eldest child, a boy, the darling of his heart, was
+      dead; and his fair-haired tender little Tullia, with her pearly teeth, her
+      round little arms, and her pretty tiny fingers that had often tried to
+      pull his close-cropped hair, and had fondly stroked and patted it, had
+      been carried off to the miserable refuge, under whose squalid roof the
+      children of deceased slaves were reared. Only two hours since, and in
+      fancy he had possessed a home, and a group of human beings, whom he could
+      love. Now, this was all over and with however hard a hand the deepest woes
+      might fall on him, he might not sob or groan aloud, or even roll from side
+      to side as again and again he was violently prompted to do, for his lord
+      slept lightly and the least noise might wake him. At sunrise he must
+      appear before the Emperor as cheerful as usual, and yet he felt as if he
+      must himself perish miserably as his happiness had done. His heart was
+      bursting with anguish, still he neither groaned nor stirred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The night had been almost as sleepless to Keraunus&rsquo; daughter Selene as it
+      had been to the hapless slave. Her father&rsquo;s vain wish to let Arsinoe take
+      a part with the daughters of the wealthier citizens had filled the girl&rsquo;s
+      heart with fresh terrors. It was the final blow which would demolish the
+      structure of their social existence, standing as it did on quaking ground,
+      and which must fling her family and herself into disgrace and want. When
+      their last treasure of any value was sold, and the creditors could no
+      longer be put off, particularly during the Emperor&rsquo;s presence in the city,
+      when they should try to sell up all her father&rsquo;s little property, or to
+      carry him off to a debtor&rsquo;s prison, was it not then as good as certain
+      that some one else would be appointed to fill his place, and that she and
+      the other children would fall into misery? And there lay Arsinoe by her
+      side, and slept with as calm and deep a breath as blind Helios and the
+      other little ones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before going to bed she had tried with all the fervency and eloquence of
+      which she was mistress, to persuade, entreat, and implore the heedless
+      girl to refuse as positively as she herself had refused to take any part
+      in the processions; but Arsinoe had at first repulsed her crossly, and
+      finally had defiantly declared that means might yet very likely be found,
+      and that what her father permitted, Selene had no right to interfere in,
+      still less to forbid. And when afterwards she saw Arsinoe sleeping so
+      calmly by her side, she felt as if she would like to shake her; but she
+      was so accustomed to bear all the troubles of the family alone, and to be
+      unkindly repelled by her sister whenever she attempted to admonish her,
+      that she forbore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe had a good and tender heart, but she was young, pretty, and vain.
+      With affectionate persuasion she might be won over to anything, but
+      Selene, when ever she remonstrated with her, made her feel her superiority
+      over herself, acquired from her care of the family and her maternal
+      character. Thus, not a day passed without some quarrelling and tears
+      between these two sisters who were so dissimilar, and yet, both so well
+      disposed. Arsinoe was always the first to offer her hand for a
+      reconciliation, but Selene would rarely have a kinder answer ready to her
+      affectionate advances than, &ldquo;Let be,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Oh yes, I know!&rdquo; and their
+      outward intercourse bore an aspect of coolness, which was easily worked up
+      to an outbreak of hostile speeches. Hundreds of times they would go to bed
+      without wishing each other &lsquo;good-night,&rsquo; and still more often would they
+      avoid any morning greeting when they first met in the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe liked talking, but in Selene&rsquo;s presence she was taciturn; there
+      were few things in which Selene took pleasure, while her sister delighted
+      in every thing which can charm youth. It was the steward&rsquo;s eldest daughter
+      who attended to the daily needs of the children, their food and clothes;
+      it was the second who superintended their games, and their dolls. The
+      eldest watched and taught them with anxious care, detecting in every
+      little fault the germ of some evil tendency in the future, while the other
+      enticed them into follies, it is true, but opened their minds to joyous
+      impressions, and attained more by kisses and kind words than Selene could
+      by fault-finding. The children would call Selene when they wanted her, but
+      would fly to Arsinoe as soon as they saw her. Their hearts were hers, and
+      Selene felt this bitterly; it seemed to her to be unjust, for she saw
+      clearly that her sister could reap, from mere frivolous play in her idle
+      hours, a sweeter reward than she could earn by the anxiety, trouble and
+      exhausting toil, in which she often spent her nights.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But children are not unjust in this way. It is true that they keep an
+      account in their heart and not in their head. Those who give them the
+      warmth of affection they pay back most honestly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this particular night it was not, it is certain, with very sisterly
+      feelings that Selene looked at the sleeping Arsinoe, and the words on the
+      girl&rsquo;s lips as she had dropped asleep, had sounded very unkind; but,
+      nevertheless, they felt warmly towards each other, and any one who should
+      have attempted to say a word against the one in the presence of the other
+      would soon have found out how close a bond held together these two hearts,
+      dissimilar as they were. But no girl of nineteen can pass a night
+      altogether without sleeping, however sadly she may turn and turn over and
+      over again in her bed. So slumber overmastered Selene every now and then
+      for a quarter of an hour, and each time she dreamed of her sister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once she saw Arsinoe dressed out like a queen, followed by beggar children
+      and pelted with bad words&mdash;then she saw her on the rotunda below the
+      balcony romping with Pollux, and in their bold sport they broke her
+      mother&rsquo;s bust. At last she dreamed that she herself was playing&mdash;as
+      in the days of her childhood&mdash;in the gate-keeper&rsquo;s garden with the
+      sculptor. They were making cakes of sand together, and Arsinoe jumped on
+      the cakes as soon as they were made, and trod them all into dust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pretty pale girl had for a long time ceased to know the refreshing,
+      dreamless, sound sleep of youth, for the sweetest slumbers are more apt to
+      seek out those who by day have some rest, than those who are worn out by
+      fatigue, and evening after evening Selene was one of these. Every night
+      she had dreams, but tonight they were almost exclusively sad in character,
+      and so terrifying that she woke herself repeatedly with her own groaning,
+      or disturbed Arsinoe&rsquo;s peaceful sleep by loud cries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These cries did not disturb her father, he&mdash;to-night, as every night&mdash;had
+      begun to snore soon after he had gone to rest, never to cease till it was
+      time to rise again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene was always busy in the house before any one, even before the
+      slaves; and the approach of day this time seemed to the sleepless girl a
+      real release. When she rose it was still perfectly dark, but she knew that
+      the rising of the December sun could not be long to wait for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without paying any heed to the sleepers, or making any special effort to
+      tread noiselessly, or to do what she had to do without disturbing them,
+      she lighted her little lamp, at the night-lamp, washed herself, arranged
+      her hair, and then knocked at the doors of the old slaves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as they had yawned out &ldquo;directly,&rdquo; or a sleepy &ldquo;very well,&rdquo; she
+      went into her father&rsquo;s room and took his jug to fetch him fresh water in
+      it. The best well in the palace was on a small terrace on the west side;
+      it was supplied by the city aqueducts, and was constructed of five marble
+      monsters, bearing up on twisted fishtails a huge shell, in which sat a
+      bearded river-god. Their horse-shaped heads poured water into a vast
+      basin, which, in the lapse of centuries, had grown full of a green and
+      filmy vegetation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In order to reach this fountain, Selene had to go along the corridor where
+      lay the rooms occupied by the Emperor and his followers. She only knew
+      that an architect from Rome had taken up his quarters at Lochias, for,
+      some time after midnight, she had been to get out meat and salt for him,
+      but in what rooms the strangers had been lodged no one had told her. But
+      this morning as she followed the path she was accustomed to tread day by
+      day at the same hour, she felt an anxious shiver. She felt as if
+      everything were not quite the same as usual, and just as she had set her
+      foot on the cop step of the flight leading to the corridor, she raised her
+      lamp to discover whence came the sound she thought she could hear, she
+      perceived in the gloom a fearful something which as she approached it
+      resembled a dog, and which was larger&mdash;much larger&mdash;than a dog
+      should be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her blood ran cold with terror; for a few moments she stood as if
+      spellbound, and was only conscious that the growling and snarling that she
+      heard meant mischief and threatening to herself. At last she found
+      strength to turn to fly, but at the same instant a loud and furious bark
+      echoed behind her and she heard the monster&rsquo;s quick leaps as he flew after
+      her along the stone pavement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She felt a violent shock, the pitcher flew out of her hand and was
+      shattered into a thousand fragments, and she sank to the ground under the
+      weight of a warm, rough, heavy mass. Her loud cries of alarm resounded
+      from the hard bare walls, and roused the sleepers and brought them to her
+      side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See what it is,&rdquo; cried Hadrian to his slave, who had immediately sprung
+      up and seized his shield and sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The dog has attacked a woman who wanted to come this way,&rdquo; replied
+      Mastor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold him off, but do not beat him,&rdquo; the Emperor shouted after him. &ldquo;Argus
+      has only done his duty.&rdquo; The slave hastened down the passage as fast as
+      possible, loudly calling the dog by his name. But another had been
+      beforehand and had dragged him off his victim, and this was Antinous,
+      whose room was close to the scene of action, and who, as soon as he had
+      heard the dog&rsquo;s bark and Selene&rsquo;s scream, had hurried to hold back the
+      brute which was really dangerous when on guard and in the dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Mastor appeared the lad had just succeeded in dragging the dog away
+      from Selene, who was lying on the stairs leading to the corridor. Before
+      Antinous could reach her Argus was standing over her gnashing his teeth
+      and growling. Argus, who was quickly quieted by his friends&rsquo; tone of
+      kindly admonition, stood aside silent and with his head down while
+      Antinous knelt by the senseless girl on whom the pale light of early dawn
+      fell through&mdash;wide window. The boy looked with alarm on her pale
+      face, lifted her helpless arm, and sought on her light-colored dress for
+      any trace of blood that might have been drawn, but in vain. After he had
+      assured himself that she still breathed, and that her lips moved, he
+      called to Mastor:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Argus seems only to have pulled her down, not to have wounded her; she
+      has lost consciousness however. Go quickly into my room and bring me the
+      blue phial out of my medicine-case and a cup of water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The slave whistled to the hound and obeyed the order as quickly as
+      possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Antinous remained on his knees by the senseless girl, and
+      ventured to raise her head with its long soft weight of hair. How
+      beautiful were those marble-white, and nobly-cut features! How touching
+      did the silent accent of pain that lay on her lips seem to him, and how
+      happy was the spoilt darling of the Emperor, who was loved by all who saw
+      him, to be able to be tender and helpful, unasked!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wake up, oh! wake up!&rdquo; he cried to Selene&mdash;and when still she did
+      not move, he repeated more urgently and tenderly, &ldquo;Pray, pray wake up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But she did not hear him, and remained motionless even when, with a slight
+      blush, he drew over her shoulder her peplum, which the dog had torn away.
+      Now Mastor returned with the water and the blue phial, and gave them to
+      the Bithynian. While Antinous laid the girl&rsquo;s head in his lap, the slave
+      was hurrying away, saying: &ldquo;Caesar called me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lad moistened Selene&rsquo;s forehead with the reviving fluid, made her
+      inhale the strong essence which the phial contained, and cried again loud
+      and earnestly, &ldquo;Wake, wake.&rdquo;&mdash;And presently her lips parted, showing
+      her small, white teeth, and then she slowly raised the lids which had
+      veiled her eyes. With a deep sigh of relief he set the cup and the phial
+      on the ground so as to support her when she slowly began to raise herself;
+      but, scarcely had he turned his face towards her, when she sprang up
+      suddenly and violently, and flinging both her arms round his neck, cried
+      out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Save me, Pollux, save me! The monster is devouring me.&rdquo; Antinous much
+      startled, seized the girl&rsquo;s arms to release himself from their embrace,
+      but, she had already freed him and sunk back on to the ground. The next
+      moment she was shivering violently as if from an attack of fever; again
+      she threw up her hands, pressed them to her temples, and gazed with terror
+      and bewilderment into the face that bent above her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it? Who are you?&rdquo; she asked, in a low voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rose quickly, and while he supported her as she attempted to rise and
+      stand upon her feet, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The gods be praised that you are still alive. Our big hound threw you
+      down-and he has terrible teeth.&rdquo; Selene was now standing up, and face to
+      face with the boy at whose last words she shuddered again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do, you feel any pain?&rdquo; asked Antinous, anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she said, dully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did he bite you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think not&mdash;pick up that pin, it has fallen out of my dress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Bithynian obeyed her behest, and while the girl re-fastened her peplum
+      over her shoulders she asked him again:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who are you? How came the dog in our palace?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He belongs&mdash;he belongs to us. We arrived late last night, and
+      Pontius put us&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you are with the architect from Rome?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but who are you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Selene is my name, I am the daughter of the palace-steward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who is Pollux, whom you were calling to help you when you recovered
+      your senses?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does that matter to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous colored, and answered in confusion:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was startled when you suddenly roused up, with his name so loudly on
+      your lips, when I brought you back to life with water and this essence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I was roused&mdash;and now I can walk again. People who bring
+      furious dogs into a strange place, should know how to take better care of
+      them. Tie the dog up safely, for the children&mdash;my little brothers and
+      sisters&mdash;come this way when they want to go out. Thank you for your
+      help&mdash;and my pitcher?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As she spoke she looked down on the remains of the pretty jar, which was
+      one her mother had particularly valued. When she saw the fragments lying
+      on the ground, she gave a deep sob, but she shed no tears. Then she
+      exclaimed angrily: &ldquo;It is infamous!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words she turned her back on Antinous and returned to her
+      father&rsquo;s room, using her left foot, however, with caution, for it was very
+      painful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young Bithynian gazed in silence at Selene&rsquo;s tall, slight form, he
+      felt prompted to follow her, to say to her how very sorry he was for the
+      mischance that had befallen her, and that the hound belonged not to him
+      but to another man; but he dared not. Long after she had disappeared from
+      sight he stood on the same spot. At last he collected his senses, and
+      slowly went back to his room, where he sat on his couch with his eyes
+      fixed dreamily on the ground, till the Emperor&rsquo;s call roused him from his
+      reverie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene had hardly vouchsafed Antinous a glance. She was in pain not merely
+      in her left foot, but also in the back of her head where she found there
+      was a deep cut; but her thick hair had staunched the blood that flowed
+      from the wound. She felt very tired, and the loss of her pretty jug, which
+      must also be replaced by another, vexed her far more than the beauty of
+      the favorite had charmed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She slowly and wearily entered the sitting-room, where her father was by
+      this time waiting for her and his water. He was accustomed to have it
+      regularly at the same hour, and as Selene was absent longer than usual, he
+      could think of no better way of filling up the time than by grumbling and
+      scolding to himself; when, at last, his daughter appeared on the
+      threshold, he at once perceived that she had no jug, and said crossly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And am I to have no water to-day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene shook her head, sank into a seat, and began to cry softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the matter?&rdquo; asked her father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The pitcher is broken,&rdquo; she said sadly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You should take better care of such expensive things,&rdquo; scolded her
+      father. &ldquo;You are always complaining of want of money, and at the same time
+      you break half our belongings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was thrown down,&rdquo; answered Selene, drying her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thrown down! by whom?&rdquo; asked the steward, slowly rising.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the architect&rsquo;s big dog&mdash;the architect who came last night from
+      Rome, and to whom we gave that meat and salt in the middle of the night.
+      He slept here, at Lochias.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he set his clog on my child!&rdquo; shouted Keraunus, with an angry glare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The hound was alone in the passage when I went there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did it bite you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, but it pulled me down, and stood over me, and gnashed its teeth&mdash;oh!
+      it was horrible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The cursed, vagabond scoundrel!&rdquo; growled the steward, &ldquo;I will teach him
+      how to behave in a strange house!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him be,&rdquo; said Selene, as she saw her father about to don the saffron
+      cloak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is done cannot be undone, and if quarrels and dissentions come of
+      it, it will make you ill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vagabonds! impudent rascals! who fill my palace with quarrelsome curs,&rdquo;
+       muttered Keraunus without listening to his daughter, and as he settled the
+      folds of his pallium he growled &ldquo;Arsinoe! why is it that girl never hears
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When she appeared he desired her to heat the irons to curl his hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are ready by the fire,&rdquo; answered Arsinoe. &ldquo;Come into the kitchen
+      with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus followed her, and had his locks curled and scented, while his
+      younger children stood round him waiting for the porridge which Selene
+      usually prepared for them at this hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus responded to their morning greetings with nods as friendly as
+      Arsinoe&rsquo;s tongs, which held his head tightly by the hair, would allow. It
+      was only the blind Helios, a pretty boy of six, that he drew to his side
+      and gave a kiss on his cheek. He loved this child, who, though deprived of
+      the noblest of the senses, was always merry and contented, with peculiar
+      tenderness. Once he even laughed aloud when the child clung to his sister,
+      as she brandished the tongs, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Father, do you know why I am sorry I cannot see?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo; said his father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I should so like to see you for once with the beautiful curls
+      which Arsinoe makes with the irons.&rdquo; But the steward&rsquo;s mirth was checked
+      when his daughter, pausing in her labors, said half in jest, but half in
+      earnest:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you thought any more about the Emperor&rsquo;s arrival, father? I smarten
+      and dress you so fine every day&mdash;but to-day you ought to think of
+      dressing me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will see about it,&rdquo; said Keraunus evasively. &ldquo;Do you know,&rdquo; said
+      Arsinoe, after a short pause, as she twisted the last lock in the
+      freshly-heated tongs, &ldquo;I thought it all over last night again. If we
+      cannot succeed any way in scraping together the money for my dress, we can
+      still&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even Selene can say nothing against it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Against what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, you will be angry!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You pay taxes like the rest of the citizens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has that to do with it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well then, we are justified in expecting something from the city.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To pay for my dress for the festival which is got up for the Emperor, not
+      by an individual, but by the citizens as a body. We could not accept
+      alone, but it is folly to refuse what a rich municipality offers. That is
+      neither more nor less than making them a present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You be silent,&rdquo; cried Keraunus, really furious, and trying in vain to
+      remember the argument with which, only yesterday, he had refused the same
+      suggestion. &ldquo;Be silent, and wait till I begin to talk about such matters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe flung the tongs on the hearth with so much annoyance that they
+      fell on the stone with a loud clatter; but her father quitted the kitchen
+      and returned to the sitting-room. There he found Selene lying on a couch,
+      and the old slave-woman, who had tied a wet handkerchief round the girl&rsquo;s
+      head, pressing another to her bare left foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wounded!&rdquo; cried Keraunus, and his eyes rolled slowly from right to left
+      and from left to right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look at the swelling!&rdquo; cried the old woman in broken Greek, raising
+      Selene&rsquo;s snow-white foot in her black hands for her father to see.
+      &ldquo;Thousands of fine ladies have hands that are not so small. Poor, poor
+      little foot,&rdquo; and as she spoke the old woman pressed it to her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene pushed her aside, and said, turning to her father:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The cut on my head is nothing to speak of, but the muscles and veins here
+      at the ancle are swelled and my leg hurts me rather when I tread. When the
+      dog threw me down I must have hit it against the stone step.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is outrageous!&rdquo; cried Keraunus, the blood again mounting to his head,
+      &ldquo;only wait and I will show them what I think of their goings on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; entreated Selene, &ldquo;only beg them politely to shut up the dog, or
+      to chain it, so that it may not hurt the children.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her voice trembled with anxiety as she spoke the words, for the dread,
+      which, she knew not why, had so long been tormenting her lest her father
+      should lose his place, seemed to affect her more than ever to-day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! civil words after what has now happened?&rdquo; cried Keraunus
+      indignantly, and as if something quite unheard of had been suggested to
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, nay, say what you mean,&rdquo; shrieked the old woman. &ldquo;If such a thing
+      had occurred to your father he would have fallen on the strange builder
+      with a good thrashing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And his son Keraunus will not let him off,&rdquo; declared the steward,
+      quitting the room without heeding Selene&rsquo;s entreaty not to let himself be
+      provoked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the ante-chamber he found his old slave whom he ordered to take a stick
+      and go before him to announce him to Pontius&rsquo; guest, the architect, who
+      was lodging in the rooms in the wing near the fountain. This was the
+      elegant thing to do, and by this means the black slave would meet the big
+      dog before his master who held him and all dogs in the utmost abhorrence.
+      As he approached his destination he found himself quite in the humor to
+      speak his mind to the stranger who had come here with a ferocious hound to
+      tear the members of his family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian had slept most comfortably; only a few hours it is true, but they
+      had sufficed to refresh his spirit. He was now in his sitting-room and had
+      gone to the window, which took up more than half the extent of the long
+      west wall of the room, and opened on the sea. The wide opening, which
+      extended downwards to within a few spans of the floor, was finished at
+      either side by a tall pillar of fine reddish-brown porphyry, flecked with
+      white, and crowned with gilt Corinthian capitals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Against one of these the Emperor was leaning stroking the blood-hound,
+      whose prompt and vigorous watchfulness had pleased him greatly. What did
+      he care for the terrors the dog might have caused a mere girl?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the other pillar stood Antinous; he had placed his right foot on the
+      low window-sill, and with his chin resting on his hand and his elbow on
+      his knee, his figure was well within the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This, Pontius, is really a first-rate man,&rdquo; said Hadrian, pointing to a
+      tapestry hanging across the narrow end of the room. &ldquo;This hanging was
+      copied from a fruit-piece that I painted some time since, and had executed
+      here in mosaic. Yesterday this room was not even intended for my use, thus
+      the hanging must have been put up between our arrival and this morning.
+      And how many other beautiful things I see around me! The whole place looks
+      habitable, and the eye finds an abundance of objects on which it can rest
+      with pleasure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you examined that magnificent cushion?&rdquo; asked Antinous; &ldquo;and the
+      bronze figures, there in the corner, look to me far from bad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are admirable works,&rdquo; said Hadrian. &ldquo;Still, I would do without them
+      with pleasure rather than miss this window. Which is the bluer, the sky or
+      the sea? And what a delicious spring breeze fans us here, in the middle of
+      December. Which are the more delightful to contemplate, the innumerable
+      ships in the harbor, which communicate between this flowery land and other
+      countries, and bless it with wealth, or the buildings which attract the
+      eye in whichever direction it turns. It is difficult to know whether most
+      to admire their stately dimensions or the beauty of their forms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is that long, huge dyke, which connects the island with the
+      mainland? Only look! There is a huge trireme passing under one of the wide
+      arches, on which it is supported&mdash;and there comes another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the great viaduct, called by the Alexandrians the Heptastadion,
+      because it is said to be seven stadia in length; and in the upper portion
+      it carries a stone water-course&mdash;as an elder tree has in it a vein of
+      pith-which supplies water to the island of Pharos.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a pity it is,&rdquo; said Antinous, &ldquo;that we cannot overlook from here the
+      whole of the structure with the men and the vehicles that swarm upon it
+      like busy ants. That little island and the narrow tongue of land that runs
+      out into the harbor with the tall slender building at the end of it, half
+      hide it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But they serve to vary the picture,&rdquo; replied the Emperor. &ldquo;Cleopatra
+      often dwelt in the little castle on the island with its harbor, and in
+      that tall tower on the northern side of the peninsula, round which, just
+      now, the blue waves are playing, while the gulls and pigeons fly happily
+      over it&mdash;there Antony retreated after the fight of Actium.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To forget his disgrace!&rdquo; exclaimed Antinous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He named it his Timonareum, because he hoped there to remain unmolested
+      by other human beings, like the wise misanthrope of Athens. How would it
+      be if I called Lochias my Timonareum?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No man need try to hide fame and greatness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who told you that it was shame that led Antony to hide himself in that
+      place?&rdquo; asked the imperial sophist; &ldquo;he proved often enough, at the head
+      of his cavalry, that he was a brave soldier; and though at Actium, when
+      all was still going well, he let his ship be turned, it was out of no fear
+      of swords and spears, but because Fate compelled him to subjugate his
+      strong will to the wishes of a woman with whose destiny his was linked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then do you excuse his conduct?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only seek to account for it, and never, for a moment, could allow
+      myself to believe that shame ever prompted a single act in Antony. I&mdash;do
+      you suppose I could ever blush? Nay, we cease to feel shame when we have
+      lived to feel such profound contempt for the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why then should Marc Antony have shut himself up, in yonder
+      sea-washed prison?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, to every true man, who has dissipated whole years of his life
+      with women, jesters and flatterers, a moment comes of satiety and
+      loathing. In such an hour he feels that of all the men under the lights of
+      heaven, he, himself, is the only one with whom it is worth his while to
+      commune. After Actium, this was what Antony felt, and he quitted the
+      society of men in order to find himself for once in good company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is that, no doubt, which drives you now and again into solitude.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt-but you are always allowed to follow me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you regard me as better than others,&rdquo; exclaimed Antinous joyfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As more beautiful at any rate,&rdquo; replied Hadrian kindly. &ldquo;Ask me some more
+      questions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Antinous needed a few minutes pause before he could comply with this
+      desire. At last he recollected himself and proceeded to inquire why most
+      of the vessels were moored in the harbor beyond the Heptastadion, known as
+      Eunostus. The entrance there was less dangerous than that between the
+      Pharos and the point of Lochias which led into the eastern landing-places.
+      And then Hadrian could give him information as to every building in the
+      city about which his companion evinced any curiosity. But when the Emperor
+      had pointed out the Soma, under which rested the remains of Alexander the
+      Great, he became thoughtful, and said, as if to himself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Great&mdash;We may well envy the young Macedonian; not the mere name
+      of Great, for many of small worth have had it bestowed on them, but
+      because he really earned it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was not a question put by the handsome Bithynian that Hadrian could
+      not answer; Antinous followed all his explanations with growing
+      astonishment, exclaiming at last:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How perfectly well you know this place&mdash;and yet you never were here
+      before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is one of the greatest pleasures of travelling,&rdquo; replied Hadrian,
+      &ldquo;that on our journeys we come to know many things in their actuality of
+      which we have formed an idea from books and narratives. This requires us
+      to compare the reality with the pictures in our own minds, seen with the
+      inward eye, before we saw the reality. It is to me a far smaller pleasure
+      to be surprised by something new and unexpected than to make myself more
+      closely acquainted with something I know already sufficiently to deem it
+      worthy to be known better. Do you understand what I mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure I do. We hear of a thing, and when we afterwards see it we ask
+      ourselves whether we have conceived of it rightly. But I always picture
+      people or places which I hear much praised, as much more beautiful than I
+      ever find the reality.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The balance of difference, which is to the disadvantage of reality,&rdquo;
+       answered Hadrian, &ldquo;stands not so much to its discredit, as to the credit
+      of the eager and beautifying power of your youthful imagination. I&mdash;I&mdash;&rdquo;
+       and the Emperor stroked his beard and gazed out into the distance. &ldquo;I
+      learn by experience that the older I grow, the more often I find it
+      possible so to imagine men, places, and things that I have not seen as
+      that when I meet them in real life for the first time, I feel justified in
+      fancying that I have known them long since, visited them, and beheld them
+      with my bodily eyes. Here, for instance, I feel as if I saw nothing new,
+      but only gazed once more at what has long been familiar. But that is no
+      wonder, for I know my Strabo, and have heard and read a hundred accounts
+      of this city. Still there are many things which are quite strange to me,
+      and yet as they come before me make me feel as if I had seen or known them
+      long ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have felt something like that,&rdquo; said Antinous. &ldquo;Can our souls have ever
+      lived in other bodies, and sometimes recall the impressions made in that
+      former existence?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Favorinus once told me that some great philosopher, Plato, I think,
+      asserts that before we are born our souls are wafted about in the
+      firmament that they may contemplate the earth on which they are destined
+      subsequently to dwell. Favorinus says too&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Favorinus!&rdquo; cried Hadrian, evasively. &ldquo;That graceful elocutionist has
+      plenty of skill in giving new and captivating forms to the thoughts of the
+      great philosophers; but he has not been able to surprise the secret of his
+      own soul&mdash;besides, he talks too much, and he cannot dispense with the
+      excitement of life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still you have recognized the phenomenon, but you disapprove of
+      Favorinus&rsquo; explanation of it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, for I have met men and things as old acquaintances which never saw
+      the light till long after I was born. Possibly my own interpretation may
+      not adapt itself to the consciousness of all&mdash;but in myself, I know
+      for certain, there dwells a mysterious something which stirs and works in
+      me independently of myself, which enters into me, and takes its departure
+      at its will. Call it as you will, my Daimon, or even my Genius&mdash;the
+      name matters not. Nor will this &lsquo;something&rsquo; always come at my bidding,
+      while it often possesses me when I least expect it. In those moments when
+      it stirs within me, I am master of much which is peculiar to the
+      experience and potentiality of that hour. What is known to that Daimon
+      always appears to me the very same when I actually meet it. Thus
+      Alexandria is not unknown to me, because my Genius has seen it in his
+      flights. It has learnt and done much, both in me and for me; a hundred
+      times, face to face with my own finished works I have asked myself: &lsquo;Is it
+      possible that you&mdash;Hadrian&mdash;your mother&rsquo;s son-can have achieved
+      this? What then is the mysterious power that aided you to do it?&rsquo; Now I
+      also recognize it, and can see it work in others. The man in whom it
+      dwells soon excels his fellows, and it is most manifest in artists. Or is
+      it that mere common men become great artists simply because the Genius
+      selects them as his temple to dwell in? Do you follow me, boy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not altogether,&rdquo; replied Antinous, and his large eyes which had sparkled
+      brightly so long as he gazed with the Emperor on the city, were now cast
+      down and fixed wearily on the ground. &ldquo;Do not be angry with me, my Lord,
+      but I shall never understand such things as these, for there is no man
+      with whom your Genius, as you term it, has less concern than with me.
+      Thoughts of my own have I none, and it is difficult to me to follow the
+      thoughts of others; indeed I should like to know how I am ever to do
+      anything right. When I want to work, to work something out, no Daimon
+      helps my soul; no&mdash;it feels quite helpless, and drifts into
+      dreaminess. And if I ever do complete anything, I am obliged to own to
+      myself that I certainly might have been able to do it better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Self-knowledge,&rdquo; laughed Hadrian, &ldquo;is the climax of wisdom. A man has
+      done something if he has only added a &lsquo;thing of beauty&rsquo; to the joys of a
+      friend&rsquo;s imagination; what others do by hard work you do by mere
+      existence. Be quiet, Argus!&rdquo; For, while he was speaking, the hound had
+      risen, and had gone snarling to the door. In spite of his master&rsquo;s orders
+      he broke into a loud bark when he heard a steady knock at the door.
+      Hadrian looked round in bewilderment, and asked: &ldquo;Where is Mastor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous shouted the slave&rsquo;s name into the Emperor&rsquo;s bedroom, which was
+      next to the living-room, but in vain. &ldquo;He generally is always at hand, and
+      as brisk as a lark, but to-day he looked as if in a dream, and while he
+      was dressing me he first let my shoe fall out of his hand and then my
+      brooch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I read him yesterday a letter from Rome. His young wife has gone away
+      with a ship&rsquo;s captain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We may wish him joy of being free again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It does not seem to afford him any satisfaction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! a handsome lad like my body-slave can find as many substitutes as he
+      likes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he has not done so. For the present he is still smarting under his
+      loss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How wise! There, some one is knocking again. Just see who ventures&mdash;but
+      to be sure any one has a right to knock, for at Lochias I am not the
+      Emperor, but a simple private gentleman. Lie down Argus, are you crazy,
+      old fellow? Why the dog maintains my dignity better than I do, and he does
+      not seem altogether to like the architect&rsquo;s part I am playing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous had already raised his hand to lift the handle, when the door was
+      gently opened from outside, and the steward&rsquo;s slave stood on the
+      threshold. The old negro presented a lamentable spectacle. The Emperor&rsquo;s
+      dignified and awe-compelling figure, and his favorite&rsquo;s rich garments made
+      him feel embarrassed, and the hound&rsquo;s threatening growl filled him with
+      such terror that he huddled his lean negro-legs together, and, as far as
+      its length would allow, tried to cover them for protection with his
+      threadbare tunic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian gazed in astonishment at this image of fear, and then asked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well! what do you want, fellow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The slave attempted to advance a step or two, but at a loud command from
+      Hadrian he stood still, and as he looked down at his flat feet, he
+      ruefully scratched his short-cropped grey hair, some of which had fallen
+      off and left a bald patch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; repeated Hadrian, in a tone which was anything rather than
+      encouraging, as he relaxed his hold on the hound&rsquo;s collar in a somewhat
+      suspicious manner. The slave&rsquo;s bent knees began to quake, and holding out
+      his broad palm to the grey-bearded gentleman, who seemed to him hardly
+      less alarming than the dog, he began to stammer out in fearfully-mutilated
+      Greek the speech which his master had repeated to him several times, and
+      which set forth that he had come &ldquo;into the presence of the architect,
+      Claudius Venator, of Rome, to announce the visit of his master, a member
+      of the town-council, a Macedonian, and a Roman citizen, Keraunus, the son
+      of Ptolemy, steward of the once royal but now imperial palace at Lochias.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian unrelentingly allowed the poor wretch to finish his speech,
+      rubbing his hands with amusement, while the sweat of anguish stood on the
+      old slave&rsquo;s face, and to prolong the delightful joke, he took good care
+      not to help the miserable old man when his unaccustomed tongue came to
+      some insuperable difficulty. When, at length, the negro had finished the
+      pompous announcement, Hadrian said, kindly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell your master he may come in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Scarcely had the slave left the room, when the sovereign, turning to his
+      favorite, exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a delicious joke! What will the Jupiter be like, when the eagle
+      is such a bird as this!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus was not long to wait for. While pacing up and down the passage
+      outside the Emperor&rsquo;s room, his bad humor had risen considerably, for he
+      took it as a slight on the part of the architect, that he should allow him&mdash;whose
+      birth and dignities he would have learnt from his slave&mdash;to wait
+      several minutes, each of which seemed to him a quarter of an hour. His
+      expectation too, that the Roman would come to conduct him in person into
+      his apartment was by no means fulfilled, for the slave&rsquo;s message was
+      briefly&mdash;&ldquo;He may come in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did he say may? Did he not say &lsquo;please to come in, or have the goodness
+      to come in?&rsquo;&rdquo; asked the steward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He may come in&mdash;was what he said,&rdquo; replied the slave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus grunted out, &ldquo;Well!&rdquo; set his gold circlet straight on his head
+      which he held very upright, crossed his arms over his broad chest with a
+      sigh, and ordered the black man:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Open the door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The steward crossed the threshold with much dignity: then, not to commit
+      any breach of courtesy, he bowed low, and was about to begin to utter his
+      reprimand in cutting terms, when a glance at the Emperor and at the
+      splendid decoration which the room had undergone since the day previous,
+      not to mention the very unpleasant growling of the big dog, prompted him
+      to strike a milder string. His slave had followed him and had sought a
+      safe corner near the door, between the wall of the room and a couch, but
+      he himself, conquering his alarm at the dog, went forward some distance
+      into the room. The Emperor had seated himself on the window-sill; he
+      pressed his foot lightly on the head of the dog, and gazed at Keraunus as
+      at some remarkable curiosity. His eye thus met that of the steward and
+      made him clearly understand that he had to do with a greater personage
+      than he had expected. There was something imposing in the person of the
+      man who sat before him; for this very reason, however, his pride stood on
+      tiptoe, and he asked in a tone of swaggering dignity, though not so
+      sharply and abruptly as he had intended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Am I standing before the new visitor to Lochias, the architect Claudius
+      Venator of Rome?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are&mdash;standing&mdash;&rdquo; replied the Emperor, with a roguish side
+      glance at Antinous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have met with a friendly reception to this palace. Like my fathers,
+      who have enjoyed the stewardship of it for centuries, I know how to
+      exercise the sacred duties of hospitality.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am surprised to hear of the high antiquity of your family and bow to
+      your pious sentiments,&rdquo; answered Hadrian, in the same tone as the steward.
+      &ldquo;What farther may I learn from you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not come here to relate history,&rdquo; said Keraunus, whose gall rose as
+      he thought he detected a mocking smile on the stranger&rsquo;s lips. &ldquo;I did not
+      come here to tell stories, but to complain that you, as a warmly-welcomed
+      guest, show so little anxiety to protect your host from injury.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is that?&rdquo; asked Hadrian, rising from his seat and signing to Antinous
+      to hold back the hound, which manifested a peculiar aversion to the
+      steward. It no doubt detected that he had come to show no special
+      friendliness to his owner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that dangerous dog, gnashing its teeth there, your property?&rdquo; asked
+      Keraunus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This morning it threw down my daughter and smashed a costly pitcher,
+      which she is fond of carrying to fetch water in the dawn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard of that misadventure,&rdquo; said Hadrian, &ldquo;and I would give much if I
+      could undo it. The vessel shall be amply made good to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg you not to add insult to the injury, we have suffered by your
+      fault. A father whose daughter has been knocked down and hurt&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, Argus actually bit her?&rdquo; cried Antinous, horrified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; Keraunus replied. &ldquo;But as she fell her head and foot have been
+      injured, and she is suffering much pain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is very sad,&rdquo; said Hadrian, &ldquo;and as I am not ignorant of the healing
+      art, I will gladly try to help the poor girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I pay a professional leech, who attends me and mine,&rdquo; replied the
+      steward, in a repellant tone, &ldquo;and I came hither to request&mdash;or, to
+      be frank with you&mdash;to require&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First, that my pardon shall be asked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That, the artist, Claudius Venator, is always ready to do when any one
+      has suffered damage by his fault. What has happened&mdash;I repeat it&mdash;grieves
+      me sincerely, and I beg you tell the maiden to whom the accident happened,
+      that her pain is mine. What more do you desire?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The steward&rsquo;s features had calmed down at these last words, and he
+      answered with less excitement than before:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must request you to chain up your dog, or to shut it up, or in some way
+      to keep it from mischief.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is pretty strong!&rdquo; cried the Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is only a reasonable demand, and I must stand by it,&rdquo; replied Keraunus
+      decidedly. &ldquo;Neither I&mdash;nor my children&rsquo;s lives are safe, so long as
+      this wild beast is prowling about at pleasure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian had, ere now, erected monuments to deceased favorites, both dogs
+      and horses, and his faithful Argus was no less dear to him, than other
+      four-footed companions have been to other childless men; hence the queer
+      fat man&rsquo;s demand seemed to him so audacious and monstrous, that he
+      indignantly exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Folly!&mdash;the dog shall be watched, but nothing farther.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will chain him up,&rdquo; replied Keraunus, with an angry, glare, &ldquo;or
+      someone will be found who will make him harmless forever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will be an evil attempt for the cowardly murderer!&rdquo; cried Hadrian.
+      &ldquo;Eh! Argus, what do you think?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At these words the dog drew himself up, and would have sprung at the
+      steward&rsquo;s throat if his master and Antinous had not held him back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus felt that the dog had threatened him, but at this instant he
+      would have let himself be torn by him without wincing, so completely was
+      he overmastered by the fury born of his injured pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And am I&mdash;I too, to be hunted down by a dog, in this house?&rdquo; he
+      cried defiantly, setting his left fist on his hip. &ldquo;Every thing has its
+      limits, and so has my patience with a guest who, in spite of his ripe age
+      forgets due consideration. I will inform the prefect Titianus of your
+      proceedings here, and when the Emperor arrives he shall know&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What?&rdquo; laughed Hadrian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The way you behave to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Till then the dog shall stay where it is, and really under due restraint.
+      But I can tell you man, that Hadrian is as much a friend of dogs as I am&mdash;and
+      fonder of me than even of dogs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will see,&rdquo; growled Keraunus, &ldquo;I or the dog!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid it will be the dog then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Rome will see a fresh revolt,&rdquo; cried Keraunus, rolling his eyes. &ldquo;You
+      took Egypt from the Ptolemies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And with very good reason&mdash;besides that is a stale old story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Justice is never stale, like a bad debt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At any rate it perishes with persons it concerns; there have been no
+      Lagides left here&mdash;how many years?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you believe, because it suits your ends to believe it,&rdquo; replied the
+      steward. &ldquo;In the man who stands before you flows the blood of the
+      Macedonian rulers of this country. My eldest son bears the name of
+      Ptolemaeus Helios&mdash;that borne by the last of the Lagides, who
+      perished as you pretend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear, good, blind Helios!&rdquo; interrupted the black slave; for he was
+      accustomed to avail himself of the hapless child&rsquo;s name as a protection,
+      when Keraunus was in a doubtful humor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then the last descendant of the Ptolemies is blind!&rdquo; laughed the Emperor.
+      &ldquo;Rome may ignore his claims. But I will inform the Emperor how dangerous a
+      pretender this roof yet harbors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Denounce me, accuse me, calumniate me!&rdquo; cried the steward,
+      contemptuously. &ldquo;But I will not let myself be trodden on. Patience&mdash;patience!
+      you will live to know me yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you, the blood-hound,&rdquo; replied Hadrian, &ldquo;if you do not this instant
+      quit the room with your mouthing crow&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus signed to his slave and without greeting his foe in any way,
+      turned his back upon him. He paused for a moment at the door of the room
+      and cried out to Hadrian:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rely upon this, I shall complain to the Council and write to Caesar how
+      you presume to behave to a Macedonian citizen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the steward had quitted the room, Hadrian freed the dog, which
+      flew raging at the door which was closed between him and the object of his
+      aversion. Hadrian ordered him to be quiet, and then turning to his
+      companion, he exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A perfect monster of a man! to the last degree ridiculous, and at the
+      same time repulsive. How his rage seethed in him, and yet could not break
+      out fairly and thoroughly. I am always on my guard with such obstinate
+      fools. Pay attention to my Argus, and remember, we are in Egypt, the land
+      of poison, as Homer long since said. Mastor must keep his eyes open&mdash;Here
+      he is at last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      After the Emperor&rsquo;s body-slave had started up to go to the aid of Selene,
+      who was attacked by his sovereign&rsquo;s dog, something had happened to him
+      which he could not forget; he had received an impression which he could
+      not wipe out, and words and tones had stirred his mind and soul which
+      incessantly echoed in them, so that it was in a preoccupied and
+      half-dreamy way that he had done his master those little services which he
+      was accustomed to perform every morning, briskly and with complete
+      attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Summer and winter Mastor was accustomed to leave his master&rsquo;s bedroom
+      before sunrise to prepare everything that Hadrian could need when he rose
+      from his slumbers. There was the gold plating to clean on the narrow
+      greaves and the leather straps which belonged to his master&rsquo;s military
+      boots, his clothes to air and to perfume with the slight, hardly
+      perceptible scent that he liked, but the preparations for Hadrian&rsquo;s bath
+      were what took up most of his time. At Lochias there were not as yet&mdash;as
+      there were in the imperial palace at Rome&mdash;properly-filled baths;
+      still his servant knew that here, as there, his master would use a due
+      abundance of water. He had been told that if he required anything for his
+      master he was to apply to Pontius. Him he found, without seeking him,
+      outside the room meant for Hadrian&rsquo;s sitting-room, to which, while the
+      Emperor still slept, he was endeavoring, with the help of his assistants,
+      to give a comfortable and pleasing aspect. The architect referred the
+      slave to the workmen who were busy laying the pavement in the forecourt of
+      the palace; these men would carry in for him as much water as ever he
+      could need. The body-servant&rsquo;s position relieved him of such humble
+      duties, still, when on the chase, when travelling, or as need arose, he
+      was accustomed to perform them unasked, and very willingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun had not yet risen when he went out into the court, a number of
+      slaves were lying on their mats asleep, others had camped round a fire and
+      were waiting for their early broth, which was being stirred with wooden
+      sticks by an old man and a boy. Mastor would not disturb either group; he
+      went up to a party of workmen, who seemed to be talking together, and yet
+      remained attentive to the speech of an old man who was evidently telling
+      them a story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor fellow&rsquo;s heart was heavy and his mind was little bent on tales
+      and amusements. All life was embittered. The services required of him
+      usually seemed to him of paramount importance, beyond everything else; but
+      to-day it was different. He had an obscure feeling as though fate herself
+      had released him from all his duties, as if misfortune had cut the bonds
+      which bound him to his service to the Emperor, and had made him an
+      isolated and lonely being. It even came into his head whether he should
+      not take in his hand all the gold pieces given him sometimes by Hadrian,
+      or which the wealthy folks who wished to be the foremost of those
+      introduced into the Emperor&rsquo;s presence, after waiting in the antechamber,
+      had flung to him or slipped into his hand&mdash;make his escape and
+      carouse away all that he possessed in the taverns of the great city, in
+      wine and the gay company of women. It was all the same to him what might
+      happen to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If he were caught he would probably be flogged to death; but he had had
+      kicks and blows in plenty before he had got into the Emperor&rsquo;s service,
+      nay; when he was brought to Rome he had once even been hunted with dogs.
+      If he lost his life, after all what would it matter? He would have done
+      with it then, once for all, and the future offered him no prospect but
+      perpetual fatigue in the service of a restless master, anxiety and
+      contempt. He was a thoroughly good-hearted being who could not bear to
+      hurt any one, and who found it equally hard to disturb a fellow-man in his
+      pleasures or amusement. He felt particularly disinclined to do so just
+      now, for a wounded soul is keenly alive to the moods and feelings of
+      others; so, as he approached the group of workmen, from among whom he
+      proposed to choose his water-carrier, he determined that he would not
+      interrupt the story-teller, on whose lips the gaze of his audience was
+      riveted with interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The glare of the blaze under the soup-kettle fell full on the speaker&rsquo;s
+      face. He was an old laborer, but his long hair proclaimed him a freeman.
+      His abundant white beard induced Mastor to suppose that he must be a Jew
+      or a Phoenician, but there was nothing remarkable in the old man, who was
+      dressed in a poor and scanty tunic, excepting his peculiarly brilliant
+      eyes, which were immovably fixed on the heavens, and the oblique position
+      in which he held his head, supporting it on the left side with his raised
+      hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now,&rdquo; said the speaker, dropping his arms, &ldquo;let us go back to our
+      labors, my brethren. &lsquo;In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,&rsquo; it
+      is written. It is often hard to us old men to heave stones and bend our
+      stiff backs for so long together, but we are nearer than you younger ones
+      to the happy future. Life is not easy to all of us, but it is we who labor
+      and are heavy laden&mdash;we above all others&mdash;that the Lord has
+      bidden to be his guests, and not last among us the slaves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh
+      you,&rdquo; interrupted one of the younger men repeating the words of Christ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yea, thus saith the Saviour,&rdquo; said the old man approvingly, &ldquo;and he
+      surely then was thinking of us. I said just now our load is not light, but
+      how much heavier was the burden he took upon him of his own free will to
+      release us from woe. Every one must work, nay even Caesar himself, but he
+      who could dwell in the glory of his Father let himself be mocked and
+      scorned and spit in the face, let the crown of thorns be pressed on his
+      suffering head, bore his heavy cross, sinking under its weight, and
+      endured a death of torment, and all for our sakes, without a murmur. But
+      he suffered not in vain, for God accepted the sacrifice of his Son, and
+      did his will and said, &lsquo;All that believe on Him should not perish, but
+      have everlasting life.&rsquo; And though a new and weary day is now beginning,
+      and though it should be followed by a thousand wearier still, though death
+      is the end of life&mdash;still we believe in our Redeemer, we have God&rsquo;s
+      word bidding us out of sorrows and sufferings into his Heaven, promising
+      us for a brief time of misery in this world, endless ages of joy.&mdash;Now
+      go to work. Our sturdy friend Krates will work for you dear Knakias until
+      your finger is healed. When the bread is distributed remember, each of
+      you, the children of our poor deceased brother Philammon. You, poor
+      Gibbus, will find your labors bitter to-day. This man&rsquo;s master, my dear
+      brethren, sold both his daughters yesterday to a dealer from Smyrna; but
+      if you never see them again in Egypt, or in any other country, my friend,
+      you will meet them in the home of your Heavenly Father&mdash;of that you
+      may rest assured. Our life on earth is but a pilgrimage, and Heaven is the
+      goal, and the Guide who teaches us never to miss the way, is our Saviour.
+      Weariness and toil, sorrow and suffering are easy to bear, to him who
+      knows that when the solemn hour is near, the King of Kings shall throw
+      open his dwelling-place, and invite him to enter as a favored guest to
+      inhabit there, where all we have loved have found joy and rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh
+      you,&rdquo; said a man&rsquo;s loud voice again from the circle that sat round the old
+      man. The old man stood up, signed to a boy who distributed the bread in
+      equal shares to the workmen, and took up a jar with handles, out of which
+      he filled a large wooden cup with wine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not a word of this discourse had escaped Mastor, and the often repeated
+      verse, &ldquo;Come unto me all ye that labor,&rdquo; dwelt in his mind like the
+      invitation of a hospitable friend bidding him to happy days of freedom and
+      enjoyment. A distant gleam shone through the weight of his troubles,
+      seeming to promise the dawn of a new day, and he reverently went up to the
+      old man, in the first place to ask him if he was the overseer of the
+      workmen who stood round him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am,&rdquo; replied the old man, and as soon as he learnt what Mastor required
+      as a commission from the controlling architect, he pointed out some young
+      slaves who quickly brought the water that he needed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pontius met the Emperor&rsquo;s servant and his water-carriers and remarked,
+      loudly enough for Mastor to understand him, to Pollux who was with him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The architect&rsquo;s servant is getting Christians to wait upon his master
+      to-day. They are regular and sober workmen who do their duty silently and
+      well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While Mastor was giving his master towels, and helping to dry and dress
+      him, he was far less attentive than usual, for he could not get the words
+      he had heard from the overseer&rsquo;s lips out of his mind. He had not
+      understood them all, but he had fully comprehended that there was a kind
+      and loving God who had suffered in his own person the utmost torments, who
+      was especially gracious to the poor, the miserable, and the bondsman, and
+      who promised to refresh them and comfort them, and to re-unite them to
+      those who had once been dear to them. &ldquo;Come unto me,&rdquo; sounded again and
+      again in his ears, and struck so warmly to his heart that he could not
+      help thinking first of his mother, who, so many a time, when he was a
+      child, had called to him only to clasp him in her arms as he ran towards
+      her, and to press him to her heart. Just so had he often called his poor
+      little dead son, and the feeling that there could be any one who might
+      still call to him&mdash;the forsaken lonely man&mdash;with loving words to
+      release him from his griefs, to reunite him to his mother, his father, and
+      all the dear ones left behind in his lost and distant home, took half the
+      bitterness from his pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was accustomed to listen to all that was said in the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      presence, and year by year he had learnt to understand more of what he
+      heard. He had often heard the Christians discussed, and usually as deluded
+      but dangerous fools. Many of his fellow-slaves, too, he had heard called
+      Christian idiots, but still not unfrequently very reasonable men, and
+      sometimes even Hadrian himself, had taken the part of the Christians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the first time that Mastor had heard from their own lips what
+      they believed and hoped, and now, while fulfilling his duties he could
+      hardly bear the delay before he could once more seek out the old
+      pavement-worker, to enquire of him, and to have the hopes confirmed which
+      his words had aroused in his soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner had Hadrian and Antinous gone into the living-room than Mastor
+      had hastened off across the court to find the Christians. There he tried
+      to open a conversation with the overseer concerning his faith, but the old
+      man answered that there was a season for everything; just now he could not
+      interrupt the work, but that he might come again after sundown, and that
+      he then would tell him of Him who had promised to refresh the
+      sorrow-laden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mastor thought no more of making his escape. When he appeared again in his
+      master&rsquo;s presence there was such a sunny light in his blue eyes that
+      Hadrian left the angry words he had prepared for him unspoken, and cried
+      to Antinous, laughing and pointing to the slave:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I really believe the rascal has consoled himself already, and found a new
+      mate. Let us, too, follow the precept of Horace, so far as we may, and
+      enjoy the present day. The poet may let the future go as it will, but I
+      cannot, for, unfortunately, I am the Emperor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Rome may thank the gods that you are,&rdquo; replied Antinous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What happy phrases the boy hits upon sometimes,&rdquo; said Hadrian with a
+      laugh, and he stroked the lad&rsquo;s brown curls. &ldquo;Now till noon I must work
+      with Phlegon and Titianus, whom I am expecting, and then perhaps we may
+      find something to laugh at. Ask the tall sculptor there behind the
+      screens, at what hour Balbilla is to sit to him for her bust. We must also
+      inspect the architect&rsquo;s work, and that of the Alexandrian artists by
+      daylight; that, their zeal has well deserved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian retired to the room where his private secretary had ready for him
+      the despatches and papers for Rome and the provinces, which the Emperor
+      was required to read and to sign. Antinous remained alone in the
+      sitting-room, and for an hour he continued to gaze at the ships which came
+      to anchor in the harbor, or sailed out of the roads, and amused himself
+      with watching the swift boats which swarmed round the larger vessels, like
+      wasps round ripe fruit. He listened to the songs of the sailors, and the
+      music of the flute-players, to the measured beat of the oars, which came
+      up from the triremes in the private harbor of the Emperor as they went out
+      to sea. Even the pure blue of the sky and the warmth of the delicious
+      morning were a pleasure to him, and he asked himself whether the smell of
+      tar, which pervaded the seaport, were agreeable or not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently as the sun mounted in the sky, its bright sphere dazzled him; he
+      left the window with a yawn, stretched himself on a couch, and stared
+      absently up at the ceiling of the room without thinking of the subject
+      which the faded picture on it was intended to represent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Idleness had long since grown to be the occupation of his life; but
+      accustomed to it as he was, he was sometimes conscious of its dark
+      attendant shadow ennui&mdash;as of a disagreeable and intrusive
+      interruption to the enjoyment of life. Generally in such lonely hours of
+      idle reverie his thoughts reverted to his belongings in Bithynia, of whom
+      he never dared to speak before the Emperor, or perhaps of the hunting
+      excursions he had made with Hadrian, of the slaughtered game, of the fish
+      he&mdash;an experienced angler&mdash;had caught, or such like. What the
+      future might bring him troubled him not, for to the love of creativeness,
+      to ambition&mdash;to all, in short, that bore any resemblance to a
+      passionate excitement his soul had, so far, remained a stranger. The
+      admiration which was universally excited by his beauty gave him no
+      pleasure, and many a time he felt as though it was not worth while to stir
+      a limb or draw a breath. Almost everything he saw was indifferent to him
+      excepting a kind word from the lips of the Emperor, whom he regarded as
+      great above all other men, whom he feared as Destiny incarnate, and to
+      whom he felt himself bound as intimately as the flower to the tree, the
+      blossom that must die when the stem is broken, on which it flaunts as an
+      ornament and a grace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, to-day, as he flung himself on the divan his visions took a new
+      direction. He could not help thinking of the pale girl whom he had saved
+      from the jaws of the blood-hound&mdash;of the white cold hand which for an
+      instant had clung to his neck&mdash;of the cold words with which she had
+      afterwards repelled him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous began to long violently to see Selene. That same Antinous, to
+      whom in all the cities he had visited with the Emperor, and in Rome
+      particularly, the noble fair ones had sent branches of flowers and tender
+      letters, and who nevertheless, since the day when he left his home, had
+      never felt for any woman or girl half so tender a sentiment, as for the
+      hunter the Emperor had given him, or for the big dog. This girl stood
+      before his memory like breathing marble. Perchance the man might be doomed
+      to death who should rest on her cold breast, but such a death must be full
+      of ecstasy, and it seemed to him that it would be far more blissful to die
+      with the blood frozen in his veins, than of the too rapid throbbing of his
+      heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Selene,&rdquo; he murmured, now and again, with soft hesitation; a strange
+      unrest foreign to his calm nature seemed to propagate itself through all
+      his limbs, and he who commonly would be stretched on a couch for hours
+      without stirring, lost in dreams, now sprang up and paced the room,
+      sighing deeply, and with long strides.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a passionate longing for Selene that drove him up and down, and his
+      wish to see her again crystallized into resolve, and prompted him to
+      contrive the ways and means of meeting her once more before the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Simply to invade her father&rsquo;s lodging without farther ceremony, seemed to
+      him out of the question, and yet he was certain of finding her there,
+      since her injured foot would of course keep her at home. Should he once
+      more go to the steward with a request for bread and salt? But he dared not
+      ask anything of Keraunus in Hadrian&rsquo;s name after the scene which had so
+      recently taken place. Should he go there to carry her a new pitcher in the
+      place of the broken one? But that would only freshly enrage the arrogant
+      official.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Should he&mdash;should he&mdash;should he not? But no, it was quite
+      impossible&mdash;still, that no doubt&mdash;that was the right idea. In
+      his medicine-chest there were a few extracts which had been given to him
+      by the Emperor; he would offer her one of these to dilute with water and
+      apply to her bruised foot. And this act of sympathy could not displease
+      even his master, who liked to prove his healing art on the sick or
+      suffering. He at once called Mastor, and desired him to take charge of the
+      hound which had followed his steps as he paced the room, then he went into
+      his sleeping-room, took out a phial of a most costly essence, which
+      Hadrian had given him on his last birthday, and which had formerly
+      belonged to Trajan&rsquo;s wife, Kotina, and then proceeded to the steward&rsquo;s
+      rooms. On the steps where he had found Selene, he found the black slave
+      with some children. The old man had sat down them and got no farther for
+      fear of the Roman&rsquo;s dog. Antinous went up to him and begged him to guide
+      him to his master&rsquo;s quarters, and the negro immediately showed him the
+      way, opened the door of the antechamber, and pointing to the living-room
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&mdash;but Keraunus is absent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without troubling himself any further about Antinous the slave went back
+      to the children, but the Bithyman stood irresolute, with his flask in his
+      hand, for besides Selene&rsquo;s voice he heard that of another girl and the
+      deeper tones of a man. He was still hesitating when Arsinoe&rsquo;s loud
+      exclamation of &ldquo;Who&rsquo;s there?&rdquo; obliged him to advance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the sitting-room Selene was standing dressed in a long light-colored
+      robe with a veil over her head, as if prepared to go out, but Arsinoe was
+      perched on the edge of a table, in such a way as that the tips of her toes
+      only touched the ground, and on the table lay a quantity of old-fashioned
+      things. Before her stood a Phoenician, of middle age, holding in his hand
+      a finely-carved cup; apparently he was in treaty for it with the young
+      girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus had been again to-day to a dealer in curiosities, but he had not
+      found him at home, so he had left word at his shop that Hiram might call
+      upon him in his rooms at Lochias, where he could show him several valuable
+      rarities. The Phoenician had arrived before the return of the steward
+      himself, who had been detained at a meeting of the town council, and
+      Arsinoe was displaying her father&rsquo;s treasures, whose beauties she was
+      extolling with much eloquence. Hiram unfortunately offered a no higher
+      price than Gabinius, whom the steward had sent off so indignantly the
+      previous evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene had been convinced from the first of the bootlessness of the
+      attempt, and was now anxious to bring the transaction to a speedy
+      conclusion, as the hour was approaching when she and Arsinoe had to go to
+      the papyrus factory. To her sister&rsquo;s refusal to accompany her, and to the
+      old slave-woman&rsquo;s entreaty that she would rest her foot, at any rate for
+      to-day, she had responded only with a resolute, &ldquo;I am going.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The appearance of the youth on the scene occasioned the girls some
+      embarrassment. Selene recognized him at once, Arsinoe thought him handsome
+      but awkward, while the curiosity-dealer gazed at him in perfect
+      admiration, and was the first to offer him a greeting. Antinous returned
+      it, bowed to the sisters, and then said turning to Selene:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We heard that your head was cut, and your foot hurt, and as we were
+      guilty of your mishap, we venture to offer you this phial which contains a
+      good remedy for such injuries.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; replied the girl. &ldquo;But I feel already so well that I shall
+      try to go out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That you certainly ought not to do,&rdquo; said Antinous, beseechingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must,&rdquo; replied Selene, gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, at any rate, take the phial to use for a lotion when you return.
+      Ten drops in such a cup as that, full of water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can try it when I come in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do so, and you will see how healing it is. You are not vexed with us any
+      longer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad of that!&rdquo; cried the boy, fixing his large dreamy eyes on Selene
+      with silent passion. This gaze displeased her, and she said more coldly
+      than before to the Bithyman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To whom shall I give the phial when I have used the stuff in it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep it, pray keep it,&rdquo; begged Antinous. &ldquo;It is pretty, and will be twice
+      as precious in my eyes when it belongs to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is pretty-but I do not wish for presents.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then destroy it when you have done with it. You have not forgiven us our
+      dog&rsquo;s bad behavior, and we are sincerely sorry that our dog&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not vexed with you. Arsinoe pour the medicine into a saucer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The steward&rsquo;s younger daughter immediately obeyed, and noticing as she did
+      so, how pretty the phial was, sparkling with various colors, she said
+      frankly enough:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If my sister will not have it, give it to me. How can you make such a
+      pother about nothing, Selene?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take it,&rdquo; said Antinous, looking anxiously at the ground, for it had now
+      just occurred to him how highly the Emperor had valued this little bottle,
+      and that he might possibly ask him some time what had become of it. Selene
+      shrugged her shoulders, and drawing her veil round her head, she
+      exclaimed, with a glance of annoyance at her sister:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is high time!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not going to-day,&rdquo; replied Arsinoe, defiantly, &ldquo;and it is folly for
+      you to walk a quarter of a mile with your swollen foot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be wiser to take some care of it,&rdquo; observed the dealer,
+      politely, and Antinous anxiously added:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you increase your own suffering you will add to our self-reproach.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must go,&rdquo; Selene repeated resolutely, &ldquo;and you with me, sister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not out of mere wilfulness that she spoke, it was bitter necessity,
+      that forced her to utter the words. To-day, at any rate, she must not miss
+      going to the papyrus factory, for the week&rsquo;s wages for her work and
+      Arsinoe&rsquo;s were to be paid. Besides, the next day, and for four days after,
+      the workshops and counting-house would be closed, for the Emperor had
+      announced to the wealthy proprietor his intention of visiting them, and in
+      his honor various dilapidations in the old rooms were to be repaired, and
+      various decorations added to the bare-looking building. Hence, to remain
+      away from the works to-day meant, not merely the loss of a week&rsquo;s pay, but
+      the sacrifice of twelve days, since it had been announced to the
+      work-people, that as a token of rejoicing, and in honor of the imperial
+      visit, full pay would be given for the unemployed days; and Selene needed
+      money to maintain the family, and must therefore persist in her intention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she saw that Arsinoe showed no sign of accompanying her, she once
+      more asked with stern determination:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you coming?&mdash;Yes, or no.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; cried Arsinoe, defiantly, and sitting farther on the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I am to go alone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are to stay here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene went close up to her sister and looked at her enquiringly and
+      reproachfully; but Arsinoe adhered to her refusal. She pouted like a sulky
+      child, and slapping the hand on which she was leaning three times on the
+      table, she repeated, &ldquo;No&mdash;no&mdash;no.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene called to the old slave-woman, and desired her to remain in the
+      sitting-room till her father should return, greeted the dealer politely,
+      and Antinous with a careless nod, and then left the room. The lad had
+      followed her, and they both met the children. Selene pulled their dresses
+      straight, and strictly enjoined them not to go near the corridor on
+      account of the strange dog. Antinous stroked the blind boy&rsquo;s pretty curly
+      head, and then, as Selene was about to descend the stairs, he asked her:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I help you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the girl, for at the very first step an acute pain in the
+      ancle checked her, and she put out her arm to the young man that he might
+      support her elbow on his hand. But her answer would assuredly have been
+      &ldquo;no,&rdquo; if she had had the smallest feeling of liking for the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      favorite; but she bore the image of another in her heart, and did not even
+      perceive that Antinous was beautiful. The Bithynian&rsquo;s heart, on the other
+      hand, had never beaten so violently as during the brief moments when he
+      was permitted to hold Selene&rsquo;s arm. He felt intoxicated, while he was
+      alive to the fact that during the descent of the few steps she was
+      suffering great pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay at home, and spare yourself!&rdquo; he begged her once more in a trembling
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You worry me!&rdquo; she said, in a tone of vexation. &ldquo;I must go, and it is not
+      far.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I accompany you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She laughed aloud and answered somewhat scornfully:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not. Only conduct me through the corridor that the dog may not
+      attack me again, then go where you will&mdash;but not with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He obeyed when at the end of the passage where it opened into a large
+      hall, he bid her farewell, and she thanked him with a few friendly words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were two ways out from her father&rsquo;s rooms into the road, one led
+      through the rotunda where the Ptolemaic Queens were placed, and across
+      several terraces up and down steps through the forecourt; the other, on a
+      level all the way, through the rooms and halls of the palace. She was
+      forced to choose the latter, for it would have been impossible for her
+      with her aching foot to clamber up a number of steps without help and down
+      them again, but she came to this conclusion much against her will, for she
+      knew what numbers of men were engaged in the works of restoration; and to
+      get through them safely it struck her that she might ask her old
+      playfellow to escort her through the crowd of workmen and rough slaves as
+      far as his parent&rsquo;s gatehouse. But she did not easily decide on this
+      course, for, since the afternoon when Pollux had shown her mother&rsquo;s bust
+      to Arsinoe before showing it to her, she had felt a grudge towards the
+      sculptor, who so lately before had touched and opened her weary and
+      loveless soul; and this sore feeling had not diminished, but had rather
+      increased with time. At every hour of the day, and whatever she was
+      occupied in, she could not help repeating to herself, that she had every
+      reason to be vexed with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had stood to him a second time as a model for his work, had spoken to
+      him many times, and when last they parted had promised to allow him this
+      very evening to study once more the folds of her mantle. With what
+      pleasure she had looked forward to each meeting with Pollux, how truly
+      lovable she had thought him on every fresh occasion; how frankly he too,
+      expressed his pleasure as often as they met! They had talked of all sorts
+      of things, even of love, and how eager he had been when he told her that
+      the only thing she needed to make her happy was a good husband who would
+      succor and comfort her as she deserved, and as he spoke he had looked at
+      his own strong hands while she had turned red, and had thought to herself
+      that if he liked it she would willingly make the experiment of enjoying
+      life heartily by his side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seemed to her as though they belonged to each other, as if she had been
+      born for him alone, and he for her. Why then yesterday had he shown
+      Arsinoe her mother&rsquo;s bust before her?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, now she would ask him plainly whether he had placed it on the
+      rotunda for her or for her sister, and let him see she was not pleased.
+      She must tell him, too, that she could not stand as his model that
+      evening; if only on account of her foot that would be impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With increasing pain and effort she crossed the threshold of the hall of
+      the Muses, and went up to the screen behind which her friend was
+      concealed. He was not alone, for she heard voices within&mdash;and it was
+      not a man but a woman who was with him; she could hear her clear laugh at
+      some distance. When she came close up to the screen to call Pollux, the
+      woman, who was certainly sitting to him as a model, spoke louder than
+      before, and called out merrily:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is delicious! I am to let you fulfil the office of my maid, what
+      audacity these artists have!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say yes,&rdquo; begged the artist, in the gay and cordial tone which more than
+      once had helped to ensnare Selene&rsquo;s heart. &ldquo;You are beautiful, Balbilla,
+      but if you would allow me, you might be far handsomer than you are even.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And again there was a merry laugh behind the screen. The pleasant voice
+      must have hurt poor Selene acutely for she drew up her shoulders, and her
+      fair features were stamped with an expression of keen suffering, and she
+      pressed both hands over her heart as she went on past the screen and her
+      handsome flirting playfellow, limping across the courtyard and into the
+      road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What tortured the poor child so cruelly? The poverty of her house, and her
+      bodily pain, which increased at every step, or her numbed and sore heart,
+      betrayed of her newly-blossoming, last, and fairest hope?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Usually when Selene went out walking, many people looked at her with
+      admiration, but to-day a couple of street-boys composed her escort. They
+      ran after her calling out impudently, &lsquo;dot, and go one,&rsquo; and tried
+      ruthlessly to snatch at the loosely-tied sandal on her injured foot, which
+      tapped the pavement at every step. While Selene was thus making her way
+      with cruel pain, satisfaction and happiness had visited Arsinoe; for
+      hardly had Selene and Antinous quitted her father&rsquo;s apartments, when Hiram
+      begged her to show him the little bottle which the handsome youth had just
+      given her. The dealer turned it over and over in the sunlight, tested its
+      ring, tried to scratch it with the stone in his ring, and then muttered,
+      &ldquo;Vasa Murrhma.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The words did not escape the girl&rsquo;s sharp ears, and she had heard her
+      father say that the costliest of all the ornamental vessels with which the
+      wealthy Romans were wont to decorate their reception-rooms, were those
+      called Vasa Murrhina; so she explained to him at once, that she knew what
+      high prices were paid for such vases, and that she had no mind to sell it
+      cheaply. He began to bid, she laughingly demanded ten times the price, and
+      after a long battle between the dealer and the owner, fought now half in
+      jest, and now in grave earnest, the Phoenician said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two thousand drachmae; not a sesterce more. That is not enough by a long
+      way, but then it is yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would hardly have given half to a less fair customer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I only let you have it because you are such a polite man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will send you the money before sundown.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At these words the girl, who had been radiant with surprise and delight,
+      and who would have liked to throw her arms round the bald-headed
+      merchant&rsquo;s neck, or round that of her old slave, who was even less
+      attractive, or for that matter, would have embraced the world&mdash;the
+      triumphant girl became thoughtful; her father would certainly come home
+      ere long, and she could not conceal from herself that he would disapprove
+      of the whole proceeding, and would probably send the phial back to the
+      young man, and the money to the dealer. She herself would never have asked
+      the stranger for the bottle if she had had the slightest suspicion of its
+      value; but now it certainly belonged to her, and if she had given it back
+      again she would have given no one any pleasure; on the contrary, she would
+      have offended the stranger, and probably have lost the greatest pleasure
+      that she had ever enjoyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was to be done now? She was still perched on the table; she had taken
+      her left foot in her right hand, and sitting in this quaint position, she
+      looked down on the ground as gravely as if she were trying to find an
+      idea, or a way out of the difficulty, in the pattern on the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dealer for a moment amused himself in studying her bewilderment, which
+      he thought charming&mdash;only wishing that his son, a young painter, were
+      standing in his place. At last he broke the silence however, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your father, perhaps, will not agree to our bargain; and yet it is for
+      him you want the money?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who says so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would he have offered me his own treasures if he had not wanted money?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is only&mdash;I can&mdash;only&mdash;&rdquo; stammered Arsinoe, who was
+      unaccustomed to falsehood. &ldquo;&mdash;I would merely not confess to him&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I myself saw how innocently you came by the phial,&rdquo; said the dealer, &ldquo;and
+      Keraunus never need know anything about such a trifle. Fancy yourself,
+      that you have broken it, and that the pieces are lying at the bottom of
+      the sea. Which of all these things does your father value least?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This old sword of Antony,&rdquo; answered the child, her face brightening once
+      more. &ldquo;He says it is much too long, and too slender to be what it pretends
+      to be. For my part I do not believe that it is a sword at all, but a
+      roasting-spit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall apply it to that very purpose to-morrow morning in my kitchen,&rdquo;
+       said the dealer, &ldquo;but I offer you two thousand drachmae for it, and will
+      take it with me and send you the amount in a few hours. Will that do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe dropped her foot, glided from the table, and instead of answering,
+      clapped her hands with glee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only tell him,&rdquo; continued Hiram, &ldquo;that I am able just now to pay so much
+      for this kind of thing, because Caesar is certain to look about him for
+      the things that belonged to Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Octavianus,
+      Augustus, and other great Romans who have lived in Egypt. The old woman
+      there may bring the spit after me. My slave is waiting outside, and can
+      hide it under his chiton as far as my kitchen door, for if he carried it
+      openly the connoisseurs passing by might covet the priceless treasure, and
+      we must protect ourselves from the evil eye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dealer laughed, took the little bottle into his own keeping, gave the
+      sword to the old woman, and then took a friendly leave of the young girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as Arsinoe was alone, she flew into the bedroom to put on her
+      sandals, threw her veil over her head, and hastened to the papyrus
+      manufactory. Selene must know of the unexpected good fortune that had
+      befallen her, and all of them, and then she would have the poor girl
+      carried home in a litter, for there were always plenty for hire on the
+      quay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Things did not always go smoothly&mdash;very often very unsmoothly and
+      stormily between the sisters, but still anything of importance that
+      happened to Arsinoe, whether it were good or evil, she must at once tell
+      Selene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ye gods! what happiness! She could take her place among the daughters of
+      the great citizens in the processions, no less richly apparelled than
+      they, and still there would remain a nice little sum for her father and
+      sister; and the work in the factory, the nasty dirty work, which she hated
+      and loathed, would be at an end, it was to be hoped, for ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old slave was still sitting on the steps with the children; Arsinoe
+      tossed them up one after the other, and whispered in each child&rsquo;s ear:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cakes this evening!&rdquo; and she kissed the blind child&rsquo;s eyes, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may come with me, dear little man. I will find a litter for Selene
+      and put you in, and you will be carried home like a little prince.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The little blind boy threw his arms up with delight, exclaiming: &ldquo;Through
+      the air, and without falling.&rdquo; While she was still holding him in her
+      arms, her father came up the steps that led from the rotunda to the
+      passage, his face streaming with heat and excitement; and after wiping his
+      brow and panting to regain his breath, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hiram, the curiosity-dealer, met me just outside, with the sword that
+      belonged to Antony; and you sold it to him for two thousand drachmae! you
+      little fool!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, father, you would have given the old spit for a pasty and a draught
+      of wine,&rdquo; laughed Arsinoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I?&rdquo; cried Keraunus. &ldquo;I would have had three times the sum for that
+      venerable relic, for which Caesar will give its weight in silver; however,
+      sold is sold. And yet-and yet, the thought that I no longer possess the
+      sword of Antony, will give me many sleepless nights.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If this evening we set you down to a good dish of meat, sleep will soon
+      follow,&rdquo; answered Arsinoe, and she took the handkerchief out of her
+      father&rsquo;s hand, and coaxingly wiped his temples, going on vivaciously: &ldquo;We
+      are quite rich folks, father, and will show the other citizens&rsquo; daughters
+      what we can do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now you shall both take part in the festival,&rdquo; said Keraunus, decidedly.
+      &ldquo;Caesar shall see that I shun no sacrifice in his honor, and if he notices
+      you, and I bring my complaint against that insolent architect before him&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must let that pass,&rdquo; begged Arsinoe, &ldquo;if only poor Selene&rsquo;s foot is
+      well by that time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is she?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gone out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then her foot cannot be so very bad. She will soon come in, it is to be
+      hoped.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Probably&mdash;I mean to fetch her with a litter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A litter?&rdquo; said Keraunus, in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The two thousand drachmae have turned the girl&rsquo;s head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only on account of her foot. It was hurting her so much when she went
+      out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then why did she not stay at home? As usual she has wasted an hour to
+      save a sesterce, and you, neither of you have any time to spare.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go after her at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;no, you at any rate, must remain here, for in two hours the
+      matrons and maidens are to meet at the theatre.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In two hours! but mighty Serapis, what are we to put on?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is your business to see to that,&rdquo; replied Keraunus, &ldquo;I myself will
+      have the litter you spoke of, and be carried down to Tryphon, the
+      ship-builder. Is there any money left in Selene&rsquo;s box?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe went into her sleeping-room, and said, as she returned:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is all&mdash;six pieces of two drachmae.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Four will be enough for me,&rdquo; replied the steward, but after a moment&rsquo;s
+      reflection he took the whole half-dozen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want with the ship-builder?&rdquo; asked Arsinoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the Council,&rdquo; replied Keraunus, &ldquo;I was worried again about you girls.
+      I said one of my daughters was ill, and the other must attend upon her;
+      but this would not do, and I was asked to send the one who was well. Then
+      I explained that you had no mother, that we lived a retired life for each
+      other, and that I could not bear the idea of sending my daughter alone,
+      and without any protectress to the meeting. So then Tryphon said that it
+      would give his wife pleasure to take you to the theatre with her own
+      daughter. This I half accepted, but I declared at once that you would not
+      go, if your elder sister were not better. I could not give any positive
+      consent&mdash;you know why.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, blessings on Antony and his noble spit!&rdquo; cried Arsinoe. &ldquo;Now
+      everything is settled, and you can tell the ship-builder we shall go. Our
+      white dresses are still quite good, but a few ells of new light blue
+      ribbon for my hair, and of red for Selene&rsquo;s, you must buy on the way, at
+      Abibaal, the Phoenician&rsquo;s.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will see at once to both the dresses&mdash;but, to be sure, when are we
+      to be ready?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In two hours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, do you know what, dear old father?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our old woman is half blind, and does everything wrong. Do let me go down
+      to dame Doris at the gate-house, and ask her to help me. She is so clever
+      and kind, and no one irons so well as she does.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence!&rdquo; cried the steward, angrily, interrupting his daughter. &ldquo;Those
+      people shall never again cross my threshold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But look at my hair; only look at the state it is in,&rdquo; cried Arsinoe,
+      excitedly, and thrusting her fingers into her thick tresses which she
+      pulled into disorder. &ldquo;To do that up again, plait it with new ribbons,
+      iron our dresses, and sew on the brooches&mdash;why the Empress&rsquo; 
+      ladies-maid could not do all that in two hours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doris shall never cross this threshold,&rdquo; repeated Keraunus, for all his
+      answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then tell the tailor Hippias to send me an assistant; but that will cost
+      money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have it, and can pay,&rdquo; replied Keraunus, proudly, and in order not to
+      forget his commissions he muttered to himself while he went to get a
+      litter:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hippias the tailor, blue ribbon, red ribbon, and Tryphon the
+      ship-builder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The tailor&rsquo;s nimble apprentice helped Arsinoe to arrange her dress and
+      Selene&rsquo;s, and was never weary of praising the sheen and silkiness of
+      Arsinoe&rsquo;s hair, while she twisted it with ribbons, built it up and twisted
+      it at the back so gracefully with a comb, that it fell in a thick mass of
+      artfully-curled locks down her neck and back. When Keraunus came back, he
+      gazed with justifiable pride at his beautiful child; he was immensely
+      pleased, and even chuckled softly to himself as he laid out the gold
+      pieces which were brought to him by the curiosity-dealer&rsquo;s servant, and
+      set them in a row and counted them. While he was thus occupied, Arsinoe
+      went up to him and asked laughing: &ldquo;Hiram has not cheated me then?&rdquo;
+       Keraunus desired her not to disturb him, and added:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think of that sword, the weapon of the great Antony, perhaps the very one
+      with which he pierced his own breast.&mdash;Where can Selene be?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour, an hour and a half had slipped by, and when the fourth half-hour
+      was well begun, and still his eldest daughter did not return, the steward
+      announced that they must set out, for that it would not do to keep the
+      ship-builder&rsquo;s wife waiting. It was a sincere grief to Arsinoe to be
+      obliged to go without Selene. She had made her sister&rsquo;s dress look as nice
+      as her own, and had laid it carefully on the divan near the mosaic
+      pavement. She had taken a great deal of trouble. Never before had she been
+      out in the streets alone, and it seemed impossible to enjoy anything
+      without the companionship and supervision of her absent sister. But her
+      father&rsquo;s assertion, that Selene would have a place gladly found for her,
+      even later, among the maidens, reassured the girl who was overflowing with
+      joyful expectation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finally she perfumed herself a little with the fragrant extract which
+      Keraunus was accustomed to use before going to the council, and begged her
+      father to order the old slave-woman to go and buy the promised cakes for
+      the little ones during her absence. The children had all gathered round
+      her, admiring her with loud ohs! and ahs! as if she were some wondrous
+      incarnation, not to be too nearly approached, and on no account to be
+      touched. The elaborate dressing of her hair would not allow of her
+      stooping over them as usual. She could only stroke little Helios&rsquo; curls,
+      saying: &ldquo;Tomorrow you shall have a ride in the air, and perhaps Selene
+      will tell you a pretty story by-and-bye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her heart beat faster than usual as she stepped into the litter, which was
+      waiting for her just in front of the gate-house. Old Doris looked at her
+      from a distance with pleasure, and while Keraunus stepped out into the
+      street to call a litter for himself, the old woman hastily cut the two
+      finest roses from her bush, and pressing her fingers to her lips with a
+      sly smile, put them into the girl&rsquo;s hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe felt as if it were in a dream that she went to the ship-builder&rsquo;s
+      house, and from thence to the theatre, and on her way she fully
+      understood, for the first time, that alarm and delight may find room side
+      by side in a girl&rsquo;s mind, and that one by no means hinders the existence
+      of the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fear and expectation so completely overmastered her, that she neither saw
+      nor heard what was going on around her; only once she noticed a young man
+      with a garland on his head, who, as he passed her, arm in arm with
+      another, called out to her gaily: &ldquo;Long live beauty!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      From that moment she kept her eyes fixed on her lap and on the roses dame
+      Doris had given her. The flowers reminded her of the kind old woman&rsquo;s son,
+      and she wondered whether tall Pollux had perhaps seen her in her finery.
+      That, she would have liked very much; and after all, it was not at all
+      impossible, for, of course, since Pollux had been working at Lochias he
+      must often have gone to his parents. Perhaps even he had himself picked
+      the roses for her, but had not dared to give them to her as her father was
+      so near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      But the young sculptor had not been at the gatehouse when Arsinoe went by.
+      He had thought of her often enough since meeting her again by the bust of
+      her mother; but on this particular afternoon his time and thoughts were
+      fully claimed by another fair damsel. Balbilla had arrived at Lochias
+      about noon, accompanied, as was fitting, by the worthy Claudia, the not
+      wealthy widow of a senator, who for many years had filled the place of
+      lady-in-attendance and protecting companion to the rich fatherless and
+      motherless girl. At Rome, she conducted Balbilla&rsquo;s household affairs with
+      as much sense and skill as satisfaction in the task. Still she was not
+      perfectly content with her lot, for her ward&rsquo;s love of travelling, often
+      compelled her to leave the metropolis, and in her estimation, there was no
+      place but Rome where life was worth living. A visit to Baiae for bathing,
+      or in the winter months a flight to the Ligurian coast, to escape the cold
+      of January and February&mdash;these she could endure; for she was certain
+      there to find, if not Rome, at any rate Romans; but Balbilla&rsquo;s wish to
+      venture in a tossing ship, to visit the torrid shores of Africa, which she
+      pictured to herself as a burning oven, she had opposed to the utmost. At
+      last, however, she was obliged to put a good face on the matter, for the
+      Empress herself expressed so decidedly her wish to take Balbilla with her
+      to the Nile, that any resistance would have been unduteous. Still; in her
+      secret heart, she could not but confess to herself that her high-spirited
+      and wilful foster-child&mdash;for so she loved to call Balbilla&mdash;would
+      undoubtedly have carried out her purpose without the Empress&rsquo; 
+      intervention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Balbilla had come to the palace, as the reader knows, to sit for her bust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Selene was passing by the screen which concealed her playfellow and
+      his work from her gaze, the worthy matron had fallen gently asleep on a
+      couch, and the sculptor was exerting all his zeal to convince the noble
+      damsel that the size to which her hair was dressed was an exaggeration,
+      and that the super-encumbrance of such a mass must disfigure the effect of
+      the delicate features of her face. He implored her to remember in how
+      simple a style the great Athenian masters, at the best period of the
+      plastic arts, had taught their beautiful models to dress their hair, and
+      requested her to do her own hair in that manner next day, and to come to
+      him before she allowed her maid to put a single lock through the
+      curling-tongs; for to-day, as he said, the pretty little ringlets would
+      fly back into shape, like the spring of a fibula when the pin was bent
+      back. Balbilla contradicted him with gay vivacity, protested against his
+      desire to play the part of lady&rsquo;s maid, and defended her style of
+      hair-dressing on the score of fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the fashion is ugly, monstrous, a pain to one&rsquo;s eyes!&rdquo; cried Pollux.
+      &ldquo;Some vain Roman lady must have invented it, not to make herself
+      beautiful, but to be conspicuous.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hate the idea of being conspicuous by my appearance,&rdquo; answered
+      Balbilla. &ldquo;It is precisely by following the fashion, however conspicuous
+      it may be, that we are less remarkable than when we carefully dress far
+      more simply and plainly&mdash;in short, differently to what it prescribes.
+      Which do you regard as the vainer, the fashionably-dressed young gentleman
+      on the Canopic way, or the cynical philosopher with his unkempt hair, his
+      carefully-ragged cloak over his shoulders, and a heavy cudgel in his dirty
+      hands?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The latter, certainly,&rdquo; replied Pollux. &ldquo;Still he is sinning against the
+      laws of beauty which I desire to win you over to, and which will survive
+      every whim of fashion, as certainly as Homer&rsquo;s Iliad will survive the
+      ballad of a street-singer, who celebrates the last murder that excited the
+      mob of this town.&mdash;Am I the first artist who has attempted to
+      represent your face?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Balbilla, with a laugh. &ldquo;Five Roman artists have already
+      experimented on my head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And did any one of their busts satisfy you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not one seemed to me better than utterly bad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And your pretty face is to be handed down to posterity in five-fold
+      deformity?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! no&mdash;I had them all destroyed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was very good of them!&rdquo; cried Pollux, eagerly. Then turning with a
+      very simple gesture to the bust before him he said: &ldquo;Hapless clay, if the
+      lovely lady whom thou art destined to resemble will not sacrifice the
+      chaos of her curls, thy fate will undoubtedly be that of thy
+      predecessors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The sleeping matron was roused by this speech. &ldquo;You were speaking,&rdquo; she
+      said, &ldquo;of the broken busts of Balbilla?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied the poetess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And perhaps this one may follow them,&rdquo; sighed Claudia. &ldquo;Do you know what
+      lies before you in that case?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This young lady knows something of your art.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I learnt to knead clay a little of Aristaeus,&rdquo; interrupted Balbilla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aha! because Caesar set the fashion, and in Rome it would have been
+      conspicuous not to dabble in sculpture.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And she tried to improve in every bust all that particularly displeased
+      her,&rdquo; continued Claudia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only began the work for the slaves to finish,&rdquo; Balbilla threw in,
+      interrupting her companion. &ldquo;Indeed, my people became quite expert in the
+      work of destruction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then my work may, at any rate, hope for a short agony and speedy death,&rdquo;
+       sighed Pollux. &ldquo;And it is true&mdash;all that lives comes into the world
+      with its end already preordained.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would an early demise of your work pain you much?&rdquo; asked Balbilla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, if I thought it successful; not if I felt it to be a failure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Any one who keeps a bad bust,&rdquo; said Balbilla, &ldquo;must feel fearful lest an
+      undeservedly bad reputation is handed down to future generations.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly! but how then can you find courage to expose yourself for the
+      sixth time to a form of calumny that it is difficult to counteract?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I can have anything destroyed that I choose,&rdquo; laughed the spoilt
+      girl. &ldquo;Otherwise sitting still is not much to my taste.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is very true,&rdquo; sighed Claudia. &ldquo;But from you I expect something
+      strikingly good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; said Pollux, &ldquo;and I will take the utmost pains to complete
+      something that may correspond to my own expectations of what a marble
+      portrait ought to be, that deserves to be preserved to posterity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And those expectations require&mdash;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux considered for a moment, and then he replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not always the right words at my command, for all that I feel as
+      an artist. A plastic presentiment, to satisfy its creator, must fulfil two
+      conditions; first it must record for posterity in forms of eternal
+      resemblance all that lay in the nature of the person it represents;
+      secondly, it must also show to posterity what the art of the time when it
+      was executed, was capable of.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a matter of course&mdash;but you are forgetting your own share.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My own fame you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I work for Papias and serve my art, and that is enough; meanwhile Fame
+      does not trouble herself about me, nor do I trouble myself about her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, you will put your name on my bust?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are as prudent as Cicero.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cicero?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you would hardly know old Tullius&rsquo; wise remark that the
+      philosophers who wrote of the vanity of writers put their names to their
+      books all the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I have no contempt for laurels, but I will not run after a thing
+      which could have no value for me, unless it came unsought, and because it
+      was my due.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well and good; but your first condition could only be fulfilled in its
+      widest sense if you could succeed in making yourself acquainted with my
+      thoughts and feelings, with the whole of my inmost mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see you and talk to you,&rdquo; replied Pollux. Claudia laughed aloud, and
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If instead of two sittings of two hours you were to talk to her for twice
+      as many years you would always find something new in her. Not a week
+      passes in which Rome does not find in her something to talk about. That
+      restless brain is never quiet, but her heart is as good as gold, and
+      always and everywhere the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And did you suppose that that was new to me?&rdquo; asked Pollux. &ldquo;I can see
+      the restless spirit of my model in her brow and in her mouth, and her
+      nature is revealed in her eyes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And in my snub-nose?&rdquo; asked Balbilla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It bears witness to your wonderful and whimsical notions, which astonish
+      Rome so much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you are one more that works for the hammer of the slaves,&rdquo;
+       laughed Balbilla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And even if it were so,&rdquo; said Pollux, &ldquo;I should always retain the memory
+      of this delightful hour.&rdquo; Pontius the architect here interrupted the
+      sculptor, begging Balbilla to excuse him for disturbing the sitting;
+      Pollux must immediately attend to some business of importance, but in ten
+      minutes he would return to his work. No sooner were the two ladies alone,
+      than Balbilla rose and looked inquisitively round and about the sculptor&rsquo;s
+      enclosed work-room; but her companion said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A very polite young man, this Pollux, but rather too much at his ease,
+      and too enthusiastic.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An artist,&rdquo; replied Balbilla, and she proceeded to turn over every
+      picture and tablet with the sculptor&rsquo;s studies in drawing, raised the
+      cloth from the wax model of the Urania, tried the clang of the lute which
+      hung against one of the canvas walls, was here, there, and everywhere, and
+      at last stood still in front of a large clay model, placed in a corner of
+      the studio, and closely wrapped in cloths.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What may that be?&rdquo; asked Claudia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt a half-finished new model.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Balbilla felt the object in front of her with the tips of her fingers, and
+      said: &ldquo;It seems to me to be a head. Something remarkable at any rate. In
+      these close covered dishes we sometimes find the best meat. Let its unveil
+      this shrouded portrait.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows what it may be?&rdquo; said Claudia, as she loosened a twist in the
+      cloths which enveloped the bust. There are often very remarkable things to
+      be seen in such workshops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hey, what, it is only a woman&rsquo;s head! I can feel it,&rdquo; cried Balbilla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you can never tell,&rdquo; the older lady went on, untying a knot. &ldquo;These
+      artists are such unfettered, unaccountable beings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you lift the top, I will pull here,&rdquo; and a moment later the young
+      Roman stood face to face with the caricature which Hadrian had moulded on
+      the previous evening, in all its grimacing ugliness. She recognized
+      herself in it at once, and at the first moment, laughed loudly, but the
+      longer she looked at the disfigured likeness, the more vexed, annoyed and
+      angry she became. She knew her own face, feature for feature, all that was
+      pretty in it, and all that was plain, but this likeness ignored everything
+      in her face that was not unpleasing, and this it emphasized ruthlessly,
+      and exaggerated with a refinement of spitefulness. The head was hideous,
+      horrible, and yet it was hers. As she studied it in profile, she
+      remembered what Pollux had declared he could read in her features, and
+      deep indignation rose up in her soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her great inexhaustible riches, which allowed her the reckless
+      gratification of every whim, and secured consideration, even for her
+      follies, had not availed to preserve her from many disappointments which
+      other girls, in more modest circumstances, would have been spared. Her
+      kind heart and open hand had often been abused, even by artists, and it
+      was self-evident to her, that the man who could make this caricature, who
+      had so enjoyed exaggerating all that was unlovely in her face, had wished
+      to exercise his art on her features, not for her own sake, but for that of
+      the high price she might be inclined to pay for a flattering likeness. She
+      had found much to please her in the young sculptor&rsquo;s fresh and happy
+      artist nature, in his frank demeanor and his honest way of speech. She
+      felt convinced that Pollux, more readily than anybody else, would
+      understand what it was that lent a charm to her face, which was in no way
+      strictly beautiful, a charm which could not be disputed in spite of the
+      coarse caricature which stood before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She felt herself the richer by a painful experience, indignant, and
+      offended. Accustomed as she was to give prompt utterance even to her
+      displeasure, she exclaimed hotly, and with tears in her eyes:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is shameful, it is base. Give me my wraps Claudia. I will not stay an
+      instant longer to be the butt of this man&rsquo;s coarse and spiteful jesting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is unworthy,&rdquo; cried the matron, &ldquo;so to insult a person of your
+      position. It is to be hoped our litters are waiting outside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pontius had overheard Balbilla&rsquo;s last words. He had come into the
+      work-place without Pollux, who was still speaking to the prefect, and he
+      said gravely as he approached Balbilla:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have every reason to be angry, noble lady. This thing is an insult in
+      clay, malicious, and at the same time coarse in every detail; but it was
+      not Pollux who did it, and it is not right to condemn without a trial.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You take your friend&rsquo;s part!&rdquo; exclaimed Balbilla. &ldquo;I would not tell a lie
+      for my own brother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know how to give your words the aspect of an honorable meaning in
+      serious matters, as he does in jest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are angry and unaccustomed to bridle your tongue,&rdquo; replied the
+      architect. &ldquo;Pollux, I repeat it, did not perpetrate the caricature, but a
+      sculptor from Rome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which of them? I know them all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I may not name him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&mdash;you see.&mdash;Come away Claudia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay,&rdquo; said Pontius, decisively. &ldquo;If you were any one but yourself, I
+      would let you go at once in your anger, and with the double charge on your
+      conscience of doing an injustice to two well-meaning men. But as you are
+      the granddaughter of Claudius Balbillus, I feel it to be due to myself to
+      say, that if Pollux had really made this monstrous bust he would not be in
+      this palace now, for I should have turned him out and thrown the horrid
+      object after him. You look surprised&mdash;you do not know who I am that
+      can address you so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; cried Balbilla, much mollified, for she felt assured that the
+      man who stood before her, as unflinching as if he were cast in bronze, and
+      with an earnest frown, was speaking the truth, and that he must have some
+      right to speak to her with such unwonted decision. &ldquo;Yes indeed, you are
+      the principal architect of the city; Titianus, from whom we have heard of
+      you, has told us great things of you; but how am I to account for your
+      special interest in me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is my duty to serve you&mdash;if necessary, even with my life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You,&rdquo; said Balbilla, puzzled. &ldquo;But I never saw you till yesterday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet you may freely dispose of all that I have and am, for my
+      grandfather was your grandfather&rsquo;s slave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not know&rdquo;&mdash;said Balbilla, with increasing confusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it possible that your noble grandfather&rsquo;s instructor, the venerable
+      Sophinus, is altogether forgotten. Sophinus, whom your grandfather freed,
+      and who continued to teach your father also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not&mdash;of course not,&rdquo; cried Balbilla. &ldquo;He must have been a
+      splendid man, and very learned besides.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was my father&rsquo;s father,&rdquo; said Pontius.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you belong to our family,&rdquo; exclaimed Balbilla, offering him a
+      friendly hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you for those words,&rdquo; answered Pontius. &ldquo;Now, once more, Pollux
+      had nothing to do with that image.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take my cloak, Claudia,&rdquo; said the girl. &ldquo;I will sit again to the young
+      man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not to-day&mdash;it would spoil his work,&rdquo; replied Pontius. &ldquo;I beg of you
+      to go, and let the annoyance you so vehemently expressed die out some
+      where else. The young sculptor must not know that you have seen this
+      caricature, it would occasion him much embarrassment. But if you can
+      return to-morrow in a calmer and more happy humor, with your lively spirit
+      tuned to a softer key, then Pollux will be able to make a likeness which
+      may satisfy the granddaughter of Claudius Balbillus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, let us hope, the grandson of his learned teacher also,&rdquo; answered
+      Balbilla, with a kindly farewell greeting, as she went with her companion
+      towards the door of the hall of the Muses, where her slaves were waiting.
+      Pontius escorted her so far in silence, then he returned to the
+      work-place, and safely wrapped the caricature up again in its cloths.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he went out into the hall again, Pollux hurried up to meet him,
+      exclaiming:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Roman architect wants to speak to you, he is a grand man!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Balbilla was called away, and bid me greet you,&rdquo; replied Pontius. &ldquo;Take
+      that thing away for fear she should see it. It is coarse and hideous.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A few moments later he stood in the presence of the Emperor, who expressed
+      the wish to play the part of listener while Balbilla was sitting. When the
+      architect, after begging him not to let Pollux know of the incident, told
+      him of what had occurred in the screened-off studio, and how angry the
+      young Roman lady had been at the caricature, which was certainly very
+      offensive, Hadrian rubbed his hands and laughed aloud with delight.
+      Pontius ground his teeth, and then said very earnestly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Balbilla seems to me a merry-hearted girl, but of a noble nature. I see
+      no reason to laugh at her.&rdquo; Hadrian looked keenly into the daring
+      architect&rsquo;s eyes, laid his hand on his shoulder, and replied with a
+      certain threatening accent in his deep voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be an evil moment for you, or for any one, who should do so in
+      my presence. But age may venture to play with edged tools, which children
+      may not even touch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Selene entered the gate-way in the endlessly-long walk of sun-dried bricks
+      which enclosed the wide space where stood the court-yards, water-tanks and
+      huts, belonging to the great papyrus manufactory of Plutarch, where she
+      and her sister were accustomed to work. She could generally reach it in a
+      quarter of an hour, but to-day it had taken more than four times as long
+      and she herself did not know how she had managed to hold herself up, and
+      to walk-limp-stumble along, in spite of the acute pain she was suffering.
+      She would willingly have clung to every passer-by, have held on to every
+      slow passing vehicle, to every beast of burden that overtook her&mdash;but
+      man and beast mercilessly went on their way, without paying any heed to
+      her. She got many a push from those who were hurrying by and who scarcely
+      turned round to look at her, when from time to time she stopped to sink
+      for a moment on to the nearest door-step, or some low cornice or bale of
+      goods; to dry her eyes, or press her hand to her foot, which was now
+      swollen to a great size, hoping, as she did so, to be able to forget,
+      under the sense of a new form of pain, the other unceasing and unendurable
+      torment, at least for a few minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The street boys who had run after her, and laughed at her, ceased pursuing
+      her when they found that she constantly stopped to rest. A woman with a
+      child in her arms once asked her, as she stopped to rest a minute on a
+      threshold, whether she wanted anything, but walked on when Selene shook
+      her head and made no other answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once she thought she must give up altogether, when suddenly the street was
+      filled with jeering boys and inquisitive men and women&mdash;for Verus,
+      the superb Verus, came by in his chariot, and what a chariot! The
+      Alexandrian populace were accustomed to see much that was strange in the
+      busy streets of their crowded city; but this vehicle attracted every eye,
+      and excited astonishment, admiration and mirth, wherever it appeared, and
+      not unfrequently the bitterest ridicule. The handsome Roman stood in the
+      middle of his gilt chariot, and himself drove the four white horses,
+      harnessed abreast; on his head he wore a wreath, and across his breast,
+      from one shoulder, a garland of roses. On the foot-board of the quadriga
+      sat two children, dressed as Cupids; their little legs dangled in the air,
+      and they each held, attached by a long gilt wire, a white dove which
+      fluttered in front of Verus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dense and hurrying crowd, crushed Selene remorselessly against the
+      wall; instead of looking at the wonderful sight she covered her face with
+      her hands to hide the distortion of pain in her features; still she just
+      saw the splendid chariot, the gold harness on the horses, and the figure
+      of the insolent owner glide past her, as if in a dream that was blurred by
+      pain, and the sight infused into her soul, that was already harassed by
+      pain and anxiety, a feeling of bitter aversion, and the envious thought
+      that the mere trappings of the horses of this extravagant prodigal would
+      suffice to keep her and her family above misery for a whole year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the time the chariot had turned the next corner, and the crowd had
+      followed it, she had almost fallen to the ground. She could not take
+      another step, and looked round for a litter, but, while generally there
+      was no lack of them, in this spot, to-day there was not one to be seen.
+      The factory was only a few hundred steps farther, but in her fancy they
+      seemed like so many stadia. Presently some of the workmen and women from
+      the factory came by, laughing and showing each other their wages, so the
+      payment must be now going on. A glance at the sun showed her how long she
+      had already been on her way, and remind her of the purpose of her walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the exertion of all her strength, she dragged herself a few steps
+      farther; then, just as her courage was again beginning to fail, a little
+      girl came running towards her who was accustomed to wait upon the workers
+      at the table where Selene and Arsinoe were employed, and who held in her
+      hand a pitcher. She called the dusky little Egyptian, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hathor, pray come back to the factory with me. I cannot walk any farther,
+      my foot is so dreadfully painful; but if I lean a little on your shoulder,
+      I shall get on better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot,&rdquo; said the child. &ldquo;If I make haste home I shall have some
+      dates,&rdquo; and she ran on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene looked after her, and an inward voice, against which she had had to
+      rebel before to-day, asked her why she of all people must be a sufferer
+      for others, when they thought only of themselves, and with a heavy sigh,
+      she made a fresh attempt to proceed on her way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she had gone a few steps, neither seeing not hearing anything that
+      passed her, a girl came up to her, and asked her timidly, but kindly, what
+      was the matter. It was a leaf-joiner who sat opposite to her at the works,
+      a poor, deformed creature, who, nevertheless, plied her nimble fingers
+      contentedly and silently, and who at first had taught Selene and Arsinoe
+      many useful tricks of working. The girl offered her crooked shoulder
+      unasked as a support to Selene, and measured her step; to those of the
+      sufferer with as much nicety as if she felt everything that Selene herself
+      did; thus, without speaking, they reached the door of the factory; there,
+      in the first court-yard the little hunchback made Selene sit down on one
+      of the bundles of papyrus-stems which lay all about the place, by the side
+      of the tanks in which the plants were dipped to freshen them, and arranged
+      in order, built up into high heaps, according to the localities whence
+      they were brought. After a short rest, they went on through the hall in
+      which the triangular green stems were sorted, according to the quality of
+      the white pith they contained. The next rooms, in which men stripped the
+      green sheath from the pith, and the long galleries where the more skilled
+      hands split the pith with sharp knives into long moist strips about a
+      finger wide, and of different degrees of fineness, seemed to Selene to
+      grow longer the farther she went, and to be absolutely interminable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Generally the pith-splitters sat here in long rows, each at his own little
+      table, on each side of a gangway left for the slaves, who carried the
+      prepared material to the drying-house; but, to-day, most of them had left
+      their places and stood chatting together and packing up their wooden
+      clips, knives, and sharpening-stones. Half way down this room Selene&rsquo;s
+      hand fell from her companion&rsquo;s shoulder, she turned giddy, and said in a
+      low tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can go no farther&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The little hunchback held her up as well as she could, and though she
+      herself was far from strong, she succeeded in dragging, rather than
+      carrying, Selene to an empty couch and in laying her upon it. A few
+      workmen gathered around the senseless girl, and brought some water, then
+      when she opened her eyes again, and they found that she belonged to the
+      rooms where the prepared papyrus-leaves were gummed together, some of them
+      offered to carry her thither, and before Selene could consent they had
+      taken up the bench and lifted it with its light burden. Her damaged foot
+      hung down, and gave the poor girl such pain that she cried out, and tried
+      to raise the injured limb and hold her ankle in her band; her comrade
+      helped by taking the poor little foot in her own hand, and supporting it
+      with tender and cautious care.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she thus went by, carried, as it were, in triumph by the men, and borne
+      high in the air, everyone turned to look at her, and the suffering girl
+      felt this rather as if she were some criminal being carried through the
+      streets to exhibit her disgrace to the citizens. But when she found
+      herself in the large rooms where, in one place men, and in another the
+      most skilled of the women and girls were employed in laying the narrow
+      strips of papyrus crosswise over each other, and gumming them together,
+      she had recovered strength enough to pull her veil over her face which she
+      held down. Arsinoe, and she herself, in order to remain unrecognized had
+      always been accustomed to walk through these rooms closely veiled, and not
+      to lay their wraps aside till they reached the little room where they sat
+      with about twenty other women to glue the sheets together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every one looked at her with curious enquiry. Her foot certainly hurt her,
+      the cut in her head was burning, and she felt altogether intensely
+      miserable; still there was room and to spare in her soul for the false
+      pride that she inherited from her father, and for the humiliating
+      consciousness that she was regarded by these people as one of themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the room in which she worked, none but free women were employed, but
+      more than a thousand slaves worked in the factory and she would as soon
+      have eaten with beasts without plate or spoon, as have shared a meal with
+      them. At one time, when every thing in their house seemed going to ruin,
+      it was her own father who had suggested the papyrus factory to her
+      attention, by telling her, with indignation, that the daughter of an
+      impoverished citizen had degraded herself and her whole class by devoting
+      herself to working in the papyrus factory to earn money. She was pretty
+      well paid, to be sure, and in answer to Selene&rsquo;s enquiry, he had stated
+      the amount she earned and mentioned the name of the rich manufacturer to
+      whom she had sold her social standing for gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after this Selene had gone alone to the factory, had discussed all
+      that was necessary with the manager, and had then begun, with Arsinoe, to
+      work regularly in the factory where they now for two years had spent some
+      hours of every day in gumming the papyrus-leaves together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How many a time at the beginning of a new week, or when under the
+      influence of a special fit of aversion to her work, had Arsinoe refused to
+      go with her ever again to the factory; how much persuasive eloquence had
+      she expended, how many new ribbons had she bought, how often had she
+      consented to allow her to go to some spectacle, which consumed half a
+      week&rsquo;s wages, to induce Arsinoe to persist in her work, or to avert the
+      fulfilment of her threat to tell her father, whither her daily walk&mdash;as
+      she called it&mdash;tended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Selene, who had been carried as far as the door of her own work-room,
+      was sitting once more in her usual place in front of the long table on
+      which she worked, and where hundreds of prepared papyrus strips were to be
+      joined together, she felt scarcely able to raise the veil from her face.
+      She drew the uppermost sheets towards her, dipped the brush in the
+      gum-jar, and began to touch the margin of the leaf with it&mdash;but in
+      the very act, her strength forsook her, the brush fell from her fingers,
+      she dropped her hands on the table and her face in her hands, and began to
+      cry softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While she sat thus, her tears slowly flowing, her shoulders heaving, and
+      her whole body shaken with shuddering sobs, a woman who sat opposite to
+      her, beckoned to the deformed girl, and after whispering to her a few
+      words grasped her hand firmly and warmly and looked straight into her eyes
+      with her own, which though lustreless were clear and steady; then the
+      little hunchback silently took Arsinoe&rsquo;s vacant place by Selene, and
+      pushed the smaller half of the papyrus leaves over to the woman, and both
+      set diligently to work on the gumming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had been thus occupied for some time when Selene at last raised her
+      head and was about to take up her brush again. She looked round for it and
+      perceived her companion, whom she had not even thanked for her
+      helpfulness, busily at work in Arsinoe&rsquo;s seat. She looked at her neighbor
+      with eyes still full of tears, and as the girl, who was wholly absorbed in
+      her task, did not notice her gaze, Selene said in a tone of surprise
+      rather than kindliness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is my sister&rsquo;s place; you may sit here to-day, but when the factory
+      opens again she must sit by me again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know, I know,&rdquo; said the workwoman shyly. &ldquo;I am only finishing your
+      sheets because I have no more of my own to do, and I can see how badly
+      your foot is hurting you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole transaction was so strange and novel to Selene that she did not
+      even understand her neighbor&rsquo;s meaning, and she only said, with a shrug:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may earn all you can, for aught I can do; I cannot do anything
+      to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her deformed companion colored and looked up doubtfully at her opposite
+      neighbor, who at once laid aside her brush and said, turning to Selene:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is not what Mary means, my child. She is doing one-half of your
+      day&rsquo;s task and I am doing the other, so that your suffering foot may not
+      deprive you of your day&rsquo;s pay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do I look so very poor then?&rdquo; exclaimed Keraunus&rsquo; daughter, and a faint
+      crimson tinged her pale cheeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By no means, my child,&rdquo; replied the woman. &ldquo;You and your sister are
+      evidently of good family&mdash;but pray let us have the pleasure of being
+      of some help to you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know&mdash;&rdquo; Selene stammered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you saw that it hurt me to stoop when the wind blows the strips of
+      papyrus on to the floor, would you not willingly pick them up for me?&rdquo;
+       continued the woman. &ldquo;What we are doing for you is neither less nor yet
+      much more than that. In a few minutes we shall have finished and then we
+      can follow the others, for every one else has left. I am the overseer of
+      the room, as you know, and must in any case remain here till the last
+      work-woman has gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene felt full well that she ought to be grateful for the kindness shown
+      her by these two women, and yet she had a sense of having a deed of
+      almsgiving forced upon her acceptance, and she answered quickly, still
+      with the blood mounting to her cheeks. &ldquo;I am very grateful for your good
+      intentions, of course, very grateful; but here each one must work for
+      herself, and it would ill-become me to allow you to give me the money you
+      have earned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl spoke these words with a decisiveness which was not free from
+      arrogance, but this did not disturb the woman&rsquo;s gentle equanimity&mdash;&ldquo;widow
+      Hannah,&rdquo; as she was called by the workwoman&mdash;and fixing the calm gaze
+      of her large eyes on Selene, she answered kindly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have been very happy to work for you, dear daughter, and a divine Sage
+      has said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Do you
+      understand all that that means? In our case it is as much as to say that
+      it makes kind-hearted folks much happier to do others a pleasure than to
+      receive good gifts. You said just now that you were grateful; do you want
+      now to spoil our pleasure?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not quite understand&mdash;&rdquo; answered Selene. &ldquo;No?&rdquo; interrupted
+      widow Hannah. &ldquo;Then only try for once to do some one a pleasure with
+      sincere and heartfelt love, and you will see how much good it does one,
+      how it opens the heart and turns every trouble to a pleasure. Is it not
+      true Mary, we shall he sincerely obliged to Selene if only she will not
+      spoil the pleasure we have had in working for her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been so glad to do it,&rdquo; said the deformed girl, &ldquo;and there&mdash;now
+      I have finished.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I too,&rdquo; said the widow, pressing the last leaf on to its fellow with
+      a cloth, and then adding her pile of finished sheets to Mary&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you very much,&rdquo; murmured Selene, with downcast eyes, and rising
+      from her seat, but she tried to support herself on her lame foot and this
+      caused her such pain, that with a low cry, she sank back on the stool. The
+      widow hastened to her side, knelt clown by her, took the injured foot with
+      tender care in her delicate and slender hands, examined it attentively,
+      felt it gently, and then exclaimed with horror:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good Lord! and did you walk through the streets with a foot in this
+      state?&rdquo; and looking up at Selene she said affectionately. &ldquo;Poor child,
+      poor child! it must have hurt you! Why the swelling has risen above your
+      sandal-straps. It is frightful! and yet&mdash;do you live far from this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can get home in half an hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible! First let me see on my tablets how much the paymaster owes
+      you that I may go and fetch it, and then we will soon see what can be done
+      with you. Meanwhile you sit still daughter dear, and you Mary rest her
+      foot on a stool and undo the straps very gently from her ankle. Do not be
+      afraid my child, she has soft, careful hands.&rdquo; As she spoke she rose and
+      kissed Selene on her forehead and eyes, and Selene clung to her and could
+      only say with swimming eyes, and a voice trembling with feeling:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dame Hannah, dear widow Hannah.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the warm sunshine of an October clay reminds the traveller of the
+      summer that is over, so the widow&rsquo;s words and ways brought back to Selene
+      the long lost love and care of her good mother; and something soothing
+      mingled in the bitterness of the pain she was suffering. She looked
+      gratefully at the kind woman and obediently sat still; it was such a
+      comfort once more to obey an order, and to obey willingly&mdash;to feel
+      herself a child again and to be grateful for loving care.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hannah went away, and Mary knelt down in front of Selene to loosen and
+      remove the straps which were half buried in the swelled muscles. She did
+      it with the greatest caution, but her fingers had hardly touched her, when
+      Selene shrank back with a groan, and before she could undo the sandal, the
+      patient had fainted away. Mary fetched some water and bathed her brow, and
+      the burning wound in her head, and by the time Selene had once more opened
+      her eyes, dame Hannah had returned. When the widow stroked her thick soft
+      hair, Selene looked up with a smile and asked: &ldquo;Have I been to sleep?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shut your eyes my child,&rdquo; replied the widow. &ldquo;Here are your wages and
+      your sister&rsquo;s, for twelve days; do not move, I will put it in your little
+      bag. Mary has not succeeded in loosening your sandal, but the physician
+      who is paid to attend on the factory people will be here directly, and
+      will order what is proper for your poor foot. The manager is having a
+      litter fetched for you.&mdash;Where do you live?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We?&rdquo; cried Selene, alarmed. &ldquo;No, no, I must go home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But my child you cannot walk farther than the court-yard even if we both
+      help you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let me get a litter out in the street. My father&mdash;no one must
+      know&mdash;I cannot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hannah signed to Mary to leave them, and when she had shut the door on the
+      deformed girl, she brought a stool, sat down opposite to Selene, laid a
+      hand on the knee that was not hurt, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, dear girl, we are alone. I am no chatterbox, and will certainly not
+      betray your confidence. Tell me quietly who you belong to. Tell me&mdash;you
+      believe that I mean well by you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied Selene, looking the widow full in the face&mdash;a
+      regularly-cut face, set in abundant smooth brown hair, and with the stamp
+      of genuine and heart-felt goodness. &ldquo;Yes&mdash;you remind me of my
+      mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I might be your mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am nineteen years old already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Already,&rdquo; replied Hannah, with a smile. &ldquo;Why my life has been twice as
+      long as yours. I had a child, too, a boy; and he was taken from me when he
+      was quite little. He would be a year older than you now, my child&mdash;is
+      your mother still alive?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Selene, with her old dry manner, that had become a habit. &ldquo;The
+      gods have taken her from us. She would have been, like you, not quite
+      forty now, and she was as pretty and as kind as you are. When she died she
+      left seven children besides me, all little, and one of them blind. I am
+      the eldest, and do what I can for them, that they may not be starved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God will help you in the loving task.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The gods!&rdquo; exclaimed Selene, bitterly. &ldquo;They let them grow up, the rest I
+      have to see to&mdash;oh! my foot, my foot!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, we will think of that before anything else. Your father is alive?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he is not to know that you work here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene shook her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is in moderate circumstances, but of good family?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, I think, is the doctor. Well? May I know your father&rsquo;s name? I must
+      if I am to get you safe home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am the daughter of Keraunus, the steward of the palace, and we have
+      rooms there, at Lochias,&rdquo; Selene answered, with rapid decision, but in a
+      low whisper, so that the physician, who just then opened the room door,
+      might not hear her. &ldquo;No one, and least of all, my father, must know that I
+      work here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The widow made a sign to her to be easy, greeted the grey-haired leech who
+      came in with his assistant; and then, while the old man examined the
+      injured limb, and cut the straps with a sharp pair of scissors, she bathed
+      the girl&rsquo;s face and cut head with a wet handkerchief, supported the poor
+      child in her arms, and, when the pain seemed too much for her, kissed her
+      pale cheeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many sighs from the bottom of her heart, and many shrill little cries
+      betrayed how intense was the pain Selene was enduring. When at length, her
+      delicate and graceful foot-distorted just now by the extensive swelling,&mdash;was
+      freed from the bands and straps, and the ankle had been felt and pressed
+      in every direction by the leech, he exclaimed, turning to the assistant
+      who stood ready to lend a helping hand:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look here, Hippolytus, the girl came along the streets with her ankle in
+      this state. If any one else had told me of such a thing, I should have
+      desired him to keep his lies to himself. The fibula is broken at the
+      joint, and with this injured limb the child has walked farther than I
+      could trust myself at all&mdash;without my litter. By Sirius! child, if
+      you are not crippled for life it will be a miracle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene had listened with closed eyes, and exhausted almost to
+      unconsciousness; but at his last words she slightly shrugged her shoulders
+      with a faint smile of scorn on her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think nothing of being lame!&rdquo; said the old man, who let no gesture of
+      his patient escape him. &ldquo;That, of course, is your affair, but it is mine
+      to see that you do not become a cripple in my hands. The opportunity for
+      working a miracle is not given to one of us every day, and happily for me,
+      you yourself bring a powerful coadjutor to help me. I do not mean a lover
+      or anything of that kind, though you are much too pretty, but your lovely,
+      vigorous, healthy youth. The hole in your head is hotter than it need be&mdash;keep
+      it properly cool with fresh water. Where do you live, child?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Almost half an hour from here,&rdquo; said Hannah, answering for Selene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She cannot be taken so far as that, even in a litter, at present,&rdquo; said
+      the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must go home!&rdquo; cried Selene, resolutely, and trying to sit up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense,&rdquo; exclaimed the physician. &ldquo;I must forbid your moving at all. Be
+      still, and be patient and obedient, or your foolish joke will come to a
+      bad end; fever has already set in, and it will increase by the evening. It
+      has nothing much to do with the leg, but all the more with the inflamed
+      scalp-wound. Do you think,&rdquo; he added, turning to the widow, &ldquo;that perhaps
+      a bed could be made here on which she might lie, and remain here till the
+      factory reopens?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would rather die,&rdquo; shrieked Selene, trying to draw away her foot from
+      the leech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be still&mdash;be still, my dear child,&rdquo; said the good woman, soothingly.
+      &ldquo;I know where I can take you. My house is in a garden belonging to
+      Paulina, the widow of Pudeus, near this and close to the sea; it is not
+      above a thousand paces off, and there you will have a soft couch and
+      tender care. A good litter is waiting, and I should think&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even that is a good distance,&rdquo; said the old man. &ldquo;However, she cannot
+      possibly be better cared for than by you, dame Hannah. Let us try it then,
+      and I will accompany you to lash those accursed bearers&rsquo; skins if they do
+      not keep in step.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene made no attempt to resist these orders, and willingly drank a
+      potion which the old man gave her; but she cried to herself as she was
+      lifted into the litter and her foot was carefully propped on pillows. In
+      the street, which they soon reached through a side door, she again almost
+      lost consciousness, and half awake but half as in a dream, she heard the
+      leech&rsquo;s voice as he cautioned the bearers to walk carefully, and saw the
+      people, and vehicles, and horsemen pass her on their way. Then she saw
+      that she was being carried through a large garden, and at last she dimly
+      perceived that she was being laid on a bed. From that moment every thing
+      was merged in a dream, though the frequent convulsions of pain that passed
+      over her features and now and then a rapid movement of her hand to the cut
+      in her head, showed that she was not altogether oblivious to the reality
+      of her sufferings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dame Hannah sat by the bed, and carried out the physician&rsquo;s instructions
+      with exactness; he himself did not leave his patient till he was perfectly
+      satisfied with her bed and her position. Mary stayed with the widow
+      helping her to wet handkerchiefs and to make bandages out of old linen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Selene began to breathe more calmly Hannah beckoned her assistant to
+      come close to her and asked in a low voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you stay here till early to-morrow, we must take it in turns to watch
+      her, most likely for several nights&mdash;how hot this wound on her head
+      is!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I can stay, only I must tell my mother that she may not be
+      frightened.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite right, and then you may undertake another commission for I cannot
+      leave the poor child just now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her people will be anxious about her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is just where you must go; but no one besides us two must know who
+      she is. Ask for Selene&rsquo;s sister and tell her what has happened; if you see
+      her father tell him that I am taking care of his daughter, and that the
+      physician strictly forbids her moving or being moved. But he must not know
+      that Selene is one of us workers, so do not say a word about the factory
+      before him. If you find neither Arsinoe nor her father at home, tell any
+      one that opens the door to you that I have taken the sick child in, and
+      did it gladly. But about the workshop, do your hear, not a word. One thing
+      more, the poor girl would never have come down to the factory in spite of
+      such pain, unless her family had been very much in need of her wages; so
+      just give these drachmae to some one and say, as is perfectly true, that
+      we found them about her person.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Plutarch was one of the richest citizens of Alexandria, and the owner of
+      the papyrus manufactory where Selene and Arsinoe worked; and he had of his
+      own free will offered to provide for the &ldquo;suitable&rdquo; entertainment of the
+      wives and daughters of his fellow-citizens, who were, this very day, to
+      assemble in one of the smaller theatres of the city. Every one that knew
+      him, knew too that &ldquo;suitable&rdquo; with him meant as much as to say imperial
+      splendor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ship-builder&rsquo;s daughter had prepared Arsinoe for grand doings, but by
+      the time she had reached the entrance only of the theatre her expectations
+      were exceeded, for as soon as she gave her father&rsquo;s name and her own, a
+      boy, who looked out from an arbor of flowers gave her a magnificent bunch
+      of flowers, and another, who sat perched on a dolphin, handed her, as a
+      ticket of admission, a finely-cut ornament of ivory mounted in gold, with
+      a pin, by which the invited owner was intended to fix it like a brooch in
+      her peplum; and at each entrance to the theatre, the ladies, as they came
+      in, had a similar present made them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The passage leading to the auditorium was full of perfume, and Arsinoe,
+      who had already visited this theatre two or three times, hardly recognized
+      it, it was so gaily decorated with colored scarfs. And who had ever seen
+      ladies and young girls filling the best places instead of men, as was the
+      case to-day? Indeed the citizens&rsquo; daughters were in general not permitted
+      to see a theatrical performance at all, unless on very special and
+      exceptional occasions. She looked up with a smile at the empty topmost
+      rows of the cheapest seats of the semicircular auditorium, as one looks at
+      an old playfellow one had outgrown by a head, for it was there&mdash;when
+      she had occasionally been permitted to dip into their scanty common purse&mdash;that
+      she had almost fainted many a time, with pleasure, fear, or sympathy,
+      though the draught so high up and under the open heaven which was the only
+      roof, was incessantly blowing; and in summer the discomforts were even
+      greater from the awning which shaded the amphitheatre on the sunny side.
+      The wide breadths of canvas were managed by means of stout ropes, and when
+      these were pulled through the rings they rode in, they made a screech
+      which compelled the bearer to stop his ears; and often it was necessary to
+      duck his head not to be hit by the heavy ropes or by the awning itself.
+      But Arsinoe only remembered these things to-day as a butterfly sporting in
+      the sun may remember the hideous pupa-case that it has burst and left
+      behind it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Radiant with happy excitement, she was led to her seat with her young
+      companion, the black-haired daughter of the shipwright. She perceived
+      indeed that numerous eyes turned upon her, but that only added to her
+      pleasure, for she knew that she could well bear looking at, and there
+      could be no greater pleasure, as she thought, than to give pleasure to a
+      multitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To-day at any rate! For those who were looking at her were the chief
+      citizens of Alexandria; they stood on the stage, and among them stood kind
+      tall Pollux, waving his hand to her. She could not keep her feet quiet,
+      but she did contrive to keep her arms still by crossing them in front of
+      her, so that they might not betray how excited she was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This distribution of parts had already begun, for, by waiting for Selene,
+      she had come in almost half an hour too late. As soon as she saw that the
+      eyes that had been attracted to herself as she entered the theatre had
+      turned to other objects she herself looked round her. She was sitting on a
+      bench at the lowest and narrowest end of one of the wedge-shaped sections
+      of seats, which grew wider at the upper end, and which were divided from
+      each other by gangways for those who came and went, thus forming the
+      semicircular area of the auditorium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here she was surrounded only by young girls and women who were to have a
+      part or place in the performances. The places for these interested persons
+      were divided from the stage by a space for the orchestra, whence the stage
+      was easily reached by steps up which the chorus were wont to mount to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Behind Arsinoe, in the larger circular rows, sat the parents and husbands
+      of the performers, among whom Keraunus, in his saffron robe, had taken a
+      place, besides a considerable number of sight-loving matrons and older
+      citizens who had accepted Plutarch&rsquo;s invitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the young women and girls Arsinoe saw several whose beauty struck
+      her, but she admired them ungrudgingly, and it never came into her head to
+      compare herself with them, for she knew very accurately that she was
+      pretty, and that even here she had nothing to conceal, and this was enough
+      for her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The many-voiced hum which incessantly buzzed in her ears, and the perfume
+      which rose from the attar in the orchestra had something intoxicating in
+      them. Her gaze round the assembled multitude could not disturb any one,
+      and her companion had found some friends with whom she was chattering and
+      laughing. Other ladies and young girls sat staring silently in front of
+      them, or studying the appearance of the rest of the audience, male and
+      female; while others again concentrated their whole attention on the
+      stage. Arsinoe soon followed this example, nor was this solely on account
+      of Pollux who, by the prefect&rsquo;s orders, had been enlisted among the
+      artists to whom the arrangement of the display was entrusted, in spite of
+      the objections of his master Papias. More than once before had she seen
+      the afternoon sun shine as brightly into the theatre as it did to-day, and
+      the blue sky overarching it without a cloud, but with what different
+      feelings did she now direct her gaze to the raised level behind the
+      orchestra. The background, it is true, was the same as usual, the pillared
+      front of a palace built entirely of colored marbles, and ornamented with
+      gold; but on this occasion fresh garlands of fragrant flowers hung
+      gracefully between the pilasters and across from column to column. Several
+      artists, the first of the city, with tablets and styla in their hands were
+      moving about among fifty girls and ladies, and Plutarch himself, and the
+      gentlemen with him, composed, as it were a grand chorus which sometimes
+      divided, and sometimes stood all together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the right side of the stage were three purple-covered couches. On one
+      of them sat Titianus, the prefect, who, like the artists, used his pencil;
+      with him was his wife Julia. On another reclined Verus, at full length,
+      and as usual, crowned with roses; the third was for Plutarch, but was
+      unoccupied. The praetor did not hesitate to interrupt any speaker, as
+      though he were the host of the entertainment, and many of his remarks were
+      followed by loud applause, or approving laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The face and figure of the wealthy Plutarch, which could never be
+      forgotten, were not altogether strange to Arsinoe, for, a few days
+      previously he had shown himself for the first time in many years in his
+      papyrus factory, with an architect to settle with him how the courts and
+      rooms could best be cleaned and decorated for the reception of the
+      Emperor; and on this occasion he had gone into the room where she worked
+      and had pinched her cheek with a few roguish and flattering words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There he was, walking across the stage. He was an old man, said to be
+      about seventy years of age, his legs were half-paralyzed, and they
+      nevertheless moved with a series of incessant and rapid but unvoluntary
+      jerks under his heavy bowed body, and he was supported on either hand by a
+      tall young fellow. His nobly-formed head, must have been in his youth, of
+      extraordinary beauty. Now his head was covered by a wig of long brown
+      hair, his eyebrows and lashes were darkly dyed, his cheeks daubed with red
+      and white paint, which gave his countenance a fixed expression, as if he
+      had been stricken in the very act of smiling. On his curls he wore a
+      wreath of rare flowers in long racemes. An abundance of red and white
+      roses stuck out from the front folds of his ample toga, and were held in
+      their place by gold brooches, sparkling with precious stones of large
+      size. The hems of his mantle were all edged with rose-buds, and each was
+      fastened in with an emerald that shone like some bright insect. The young
+      men who supported him seemed like a portion of himself; he took no more
+      heed of them than if they had been crutches, and they needed not command
+      to tell them where he wished to go, where to stand still, and where to
+      rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a distance his face was like that of a youth, but seen close it looked
+      like a painted plaster mask, with regular features and large movable eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Favorinus, the sophist, had said of him that one might cry over his
+      handsome locomotive corpse, if one were not obliged to laugh at it, and it
+      was said that he had himself declared that he would force his faithless
+      youth to remain with him. The Alexandrians called him the Adonis with six
+      legs, on account of the lads who supported him, and without whom no one
+      ever saw him and who always accompanied him when he went out. The first
+      time he heard this nickname he remarked: &ldquo;They had better have called me
+      sixhanded;&rdquo; and in fact he had a thoroughly good heart, he was liberal and
+      benevolent, took fatherly care of his work-people, treated his slaves
+      well, enriched those whom he set free, and from time to time distributed
+      large sums among the people in money and in grain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe looked compassionately on the poor old man who could not buy back
+      his youth with all his money and all his art.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the supercilious man who at once came up to Plutarch she recognized the
+      art-dealer Gabinius to whom her father had shown the door, on account of
+      the mosaic picture in their sitting-room, but their conversation was
+      interrupted, for the distribution of the women&rsquo;s part for the group of
+      Alexander&rsquo;s entry into Babylon, was now about to take place; about fifty
+      girls and young women were sent away from the stage and went down into the
+      orchestra. The Exegetes, the highest official in the town, now came
+      forward and took a new list out of the hand of Papias the sculptor. After
+      rapidly casting an eye on this, he handed it to a herald who followed him,
+      who proclaimed to all the assembly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the name of the most noble Exegetes I request your attention, all you
+      ladies here assembled, the wives and daughters of Macedonians and of Roman
+      citizens. We now come to a distribution of the characters in our
+      representation of the life and history of the great Macedonian, of the
+      &lsquo;Marriage of Alexander and Roxana,&rsquo; and I hereby request those among you
+      to come upon the stage whom our artists have selected to take part in this
+      scene in the procession.&rdquo; After this exordium he shouted in a deep and
+      resonant voice a long list of names, and while this was going on every
+      other sound was hushed in the wide amphitheatre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even on the stage all was still; only Verus whispered a few remarks to
+      Titianus, and the curiosity-dealer spoke into Plutarch&rsquo;s ear, long
+      sentences with the stringent emphasis which was peculiar to him; and the
+      old man answered sometimes with an assenting nod, and sometimes with a
+      deprecatory motion of his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe listened with suspended breath to the herald&rsquo;s proclamation; she
+      started and colored all over, with her eyes fixed on the bunch of flowers
+      in her hand, when she heard from the stage loudly uttered and plain to be
+      heard by all present:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arsinoe, the second daughter of Keraunus, the Macedonian and a Roman
+      citizen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ship-builder&rsquo;s daughter had already been called before her, and had
+      immediately left her seat, but Arsinoe waited modestly till some older
+      ladies rose. She then joined them and went among the last members of the
+      little procession which went down to the orchestra and from thence up the
+      steps for the chorus, on to the stage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There the ladies and young girls were placed in two ranks, and looked at
+      with amiable consideration by the artists. Arsinoe was not long in
+      perceiving that these gentlemen looked at her longer and more often than
+      at the others; and then, after the masters of the festival had gone aside
+      in groups to discuss the matter they looked at her constantly and were
+      talking, she felt sure, about her. Nor did it escape her that she had
+      become the centre of many glances from the lookers-on who were sitting in
+      the theatre, and it occurred to her that on several sides people were
+      pointing at her with their fingers. She did not know which way she should
+      look and began to feel bashful; still she was pleased at being remarked by
+      so many people, and as she stood looking at the ground out of sheer
+      embarrassment to hide the delight she felt, Verus, who had gone up to the
+      group of artists, called out, putting his hand on the prefect&rsquo;s arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Charming-charming! a Roxana that might have sprung straight out of the
+      picture.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe heard these words, and guessing that they referred to her she
+      became more confused than ever, while her awkward smile gradually changed
+      to an expression of joyful but anxious expectation of a delight which was
+      almost painful in its magnitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now one of the artists pronounced her name, and as she ventured to raise
+      her eyes to see if it were not Pollux who had spoken, she observed the
+      wealthy Plutarch who, with his two living crutches and Gabinius, the lean
+      curiosity-dealer, was inspecting the ranks of her companions. Presently he
+      had come quite close to her, and as he was helped towards her with
+      tottering steps, he dug the dealer in the ribs and said, kissing the back
+      of his hand, and winking his great eyes: &ldquo;I know&mdash;I know! It is not
+      easily forgotten. Ivory and red coral!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe started, the blood left her cheeks, and all satisfaction fled from
+      her heart when the old man came to a stand-still in front of her, and said
+      kindly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! ah! a bud out of the papyrus factory among all these proud roses and
+      lilies. Ah! ah! out of my work-rooms to join my assembly! Never mind-never
+      mind, beauty is everywhere welcome. I do not ask how you got here. I am
+      only glad that you are here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe covered part of her face with her hand, but he tapped her white
+      arm three times with his middle finger, and then tottered on laughing to
+      himself. The dealer had caught Plutarch&rsquo;s words, and asked him, when they
+      had gone a few steps from Arsinoe, with eager indignation:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I hear you rightly? a work-woman in your factory, and here among our
+      daughters?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it is&mdash;two busy hands among so many idle ones,&rdquo; said the old man,
+      gaily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then she must have forced her way in, and must be turned out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly she shall not&mdash;Why, she is charming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is revolting! here, in this assembly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Revolting?&rdquo; interrupted Plutarch. &ldquo;Oh dear, no! we must not be too
+      particular. And how are we to obtain mere children from you
+      antiquity-mongers?&rdquo; Then he added pleasantly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This lovely creature must I should think, delight your fine sense of
+      beauty; or are you afraid that she may seem better suited to the part of
+      Roxana than your own charming daughter? Only listen to the men up there!
+      Let us see what is going on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These words referred to a loud discussion which had arisen close by the
+      couches of the prefect and Verus, the praetor. They, and with them most of
+      the painters and sculptors present, were of opinion that Arsinoe would be
+      a wonderfully effective Roxana; they maintained that her face and figure
+      answered perfectly to those of the Bactrian princes as they were
+      represented by Action, whose picture was, to a certain extent, to serve as
+      the basis of the living group. Only Papias and two of his fellow-artists,
+      declared against this choice, and eagerly asserted that among all the
+      damsels present one, and one alone, was worthy to appear before the
+      Emperor as Alexander&rsquo;s bride, and that one was Praxilla, the daughter of
+      Gabinius. All three were in close business relations with the father of
+      the young girl, who was tall, and slim, and certainly very lovely, and
+      they wanted to do a pleasure to the rich and knowing purchaser. Their zeal
+      even assumed a tone of vehemence, when the dealer, following in the wake
+      of Plutarch, joined the group of disputants, and they were certain of
+      being heard by him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who is this girl yonder?&rdquo; asked Papias, pointing to Arsinoe, as the
+      two came up. &ldquo;Nothing can be said against her beauty, but she is dressed
+      less than simply, and wears no kind of ornament worth speaking of&mdash;it
+      is a thousand to one against her parents being in a position to provide
+      her with such a rich dress, and such costly jewels as Roxana certainly
+      ought to display when about to be married to Alexander. The Asiatic
+      princess must appear in silk, gold and precious stones. Now my friend here
+      will be able so to dress his Praxilla that the splendor of her attire
+      might have astonished the great Macedonian himself, but who is the father
+      of that pretty child who is satisfied with the blue ribbon in her hair,
+      her two roses, and her little white frock?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your reflections are just, Papias,&rdquo; interrupted the dealer, with dry
+      incisiveness. &ldquo;The girl you are speaking of is quite out of the question.
+      I do not say so for my daughter&rsquo;s sake, but because everything in bad
+      taste is odious to me; it is hardly conceivable how such a young thing
+      could have had the audacity to force herself in here. A pretty face, to be
+      sure, opens locks and bars. She is&mdash;do not be too much startled&mdash;she
+      is nothing more than a work-girl in the papyrus factory of our excellent
+      host, Plutarch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is not the truth,&rdquo; Pollux interrupted, indignantly, as he heard this
+      assertion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Moderate your tongue, young man,&rdquo; replied the dealer. &ldquo;I can call you to
+      witness, noble Plutarch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let her be whom she may,&rdquo; answered the old man, with annoyance. &ldquo;She is
+      very one of my workwomen, but even if she had come straight here from the
+      gumming-table with such a face and such a figure, she is perfectly in
+      place here and everywhere. That is my opinion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bravo! my fine friend!&rdquo; cried Verus, nodding to the old man. &ldquo;Caesar will
+      be far better pleased with such a paragon of charmers as that sweet
+      creature, than with all your old writs of citizenship and heavy purses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is true,&rdquo; the prefect said, confirming this statement. &ldquo;And I dare
+      swear she is a free maiden, and not a slave. But you stood up for her
+      friend Pollux&mdash;what do you know about her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That she is the daughter of Keraunus, the palace-steward, and that I have
+      known her from her childhood,&rdquo; answered the youthful artist emphatically.
+      &ldquo;He is a Roman citizen, and of an old Macedonian house as well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps even of royal descent,&rdquo; added Titianus, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know the man,&rdquo; answered the dealer hastily. &ldquo;He is an impecunious
+      insolent old fool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should think,&rdquo; interrupted Verus with lofty composure, but rather as
+      being bored, than as reproving the irritated speaker, &ldquo;it seems to me that
+      this is hardly the place to conduct a discussion as to the nature and
+      disposition of the fathers of all those ladies and young girls.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he is poor,&rdquo; cried the dealer angrily. &ldquo;A few days since he offered
+      to sell me his few miserable curiosities, but really I could not&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are sorry for your sake if the transaction was unsuccessful,&rdquo; Verus
+      again interposed, this time with excessive politeness. &ldquo;Now, first let us
+      decide on the persons and afterwards on the costumes. The father of the
+      girl is a Roman citizen then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A member of the council, and in his way a man of position,&rdquo; replied
+      Titianus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I,&rdquo; added his wife Julia, &ldquo;have taken a great fancy to the sweet
+      little maid, and if the principal part is given to her, and her noble
+      father is without adequate means, as you assert my friend, I will
+      undertake to provide for her costume. Caesar will be charmed with such a
+      Roxana.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dealer&rsquo;s clients were silent, he himself was trembling with
+      disappointment and vexation, and his fury rose to the utmost when
+      Plutarch, whom till then he thought he had won over to his daughter&rsquo;s
+      side, tried to bow his bent old body before dame Julia, and said with a
+      graceful gesture of regret:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My old eyes have deceived me again on this occasion. The little girl is
+      very like one of my workwomen; very like&mdash;but I see now that there is
+      a certain something which the other lacks. I have done her an injustice
+      and remain her debtor. Permit, me, noble lady to add the ornaments to the
+      dress you provide for our Roxana. I may be lucky enough to find something
+      pretty for her. A sweet child! I shall go at once and beg her forgiveness
+      and tell her what we propose. May I do so noble Julia? Have I your
+      permission gentlemen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In a very few minutes it was known all over the stage, and soon after all
+      through the amphitheatre, that Arsinoe, the daughter of Keraunus, had been
+      selected to represent the character of Roxana.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But who was Keraunus?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How was it that the children of the most illustrious and wealthy citizens
+      had been overlooked in assigning this most prominent part?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This was just what might be expected when every thing was left to those
+      reckless artists!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where was a poor little girl like that to find the talents which it
+      would cost to procure the costume of an Asiatic princess, Alexander&rsquo;s
+      bride?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Plutarch, and the prefect&rsquo;s wife had undertaken that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A mere beggar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How well the family jewels would have suited our daughters!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do we want to show Caesar nothing but a few silly pretty faces?&mdash;and
+      not something of our wealth and taste?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Supposing Hadrian asks who this Roxana is, and had to be told that a
+      collection had to be made to get her a proper costume.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such things never could happen anywhere but in Alexandria.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every one wants to know whether she worked in Plutarch&rsquo;s factory. They
+      say it is not true&mdash;but the painted old villain still loves a pretty
+      face. He smuggled her in, you may be sure; where there is smoke there is
+      fire, and it is beyond a doubt that she gets money from the old man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! you had better enquire of a priest of Aphrodite. It is nothing to
+      laugh at, it is scandalous, audacious!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus and on this wise ran the comments with which the announcement of
+      Arsinoe&rsquo;s preferment to the part of Roxana was received, and hatred and
+      bitter animosity had grown up in the souls of the dealer and his daughter.
+      Praxilla was selected as a companion to Alexander&rsquo;s bride, and she yielded
+      without objecting, but on her way homewards she nodded assent when her
+      father said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let things go on now as they may, but a few hours before the performance
+      begins, I will send them word that you are ill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The selection of Arsinoe had however, on the other hand, given pleasure as
+      well as pain. Up in the middle places in the amphitheatre sat Keraunus,
+      his legs far apart, his face glowing, panting and choking with sheer
+      delight, and too haughty to draw in his feet even when the brother of the
+      archidikastes tried to squeeze by his bulky person which filled two seats
+      at once. Arsinoe, whose sharp ears had not failed to catch the dealer&rsquo;s
+      remonstrances, and the words in which brave Pollux had taken her part,
+      had, at first, felt dying of shame and terror, but now she felt as though
+      she could fly on the wings of her delight. She had never been so happy in
+      her life, and when she got out with her father, in the first dark street
+      she threw her arms round his neck, kissed both his cheeks, and then told
+      him how kind the lady Julia, the prefect&rsquo;s wife had been to her, and that
+      she had undertaken, with the warmest friendliness, to have her costly
+      dress made for her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus had no objection to offer, and, strange to say, he did not
+      consider it beneath his dignity to allow Arsinoe to be supplied with
+      jewels by the wealthy manufacturer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;People have seen,&rdquo; he said, pathetically, &ldquo;that we need not shrink from
+      doing as much as other citizens do, but to dress a Roxana as befits a
+      bride would cost millions, and I am very willing to confess to my friends
+      that I have not millions. Where the costume comes from is all the same, be
+      that as it may you will still stand the first of all the maidens in the
+      city, and I am pleased with you for that, my child. To-morrow will be the
+      last meeting, and then perhaps Selene too, may have a prominent part given
+      to her. Happily we are able to dress her as befits. When will the
+      prefect&rsquo;s wife fetch you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow about noon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then early to-morrow buy a nice new dress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will there not be enough for a new bracelet too?&rdquo; asked Arsinoe,
+      coaxingly. &ldquo;This one of mine is too narrow and trumpery.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall have one, for you have deserved it,&rdquo; replied Keraunus, with
+      dignity. &ldquo;But you must have patience till the day after to-morrow;
+      to-morrow the goldsmiths will be closed on account of the festival.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe had never seen her father so cheerful and talkative as he was
+      to-day, and yet the walk from the theatre to Lochias was not a very short
+      one, and it was long past the early hour at which he was accustomed to
+      retire to bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the time the father and daughter reached the palace it was already
+      tolerably late, for, after Arsinoe had quitted the stage, suitable
+      representatives of parts had been selected for three other scenes from the
+      life of Alexander, by the light of torches, lamps and tapers; and before
+      the assemblage broke up, Plutarch&rsquo;s guests were entertained with wine,
+      fruit, syrups, sweet cakes, oyster pasties, and other delicacies. The
+      steward had fallen with good will on the noble drink and excellent food,
+      and when he was replete, he was wont to be in a better humor, and after a
+      modicum of wine, in a more cheerful mood than usual. Just now he was
+      content and kind, for although he had done all that lay in his power, the
+      entertainment had not lasted long enough, for him to arrive at a state of
+      intoxication which could make him surly, or to overload his digestion.
+      Towards the end of their walk, he turned thoughtful and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow the council does not sit on account of the festival, and that
+      is well; all the world will congratulate me, question me, and notice me,
+      and the gilding on my circlet is quite shabby; and in some places the
+      silver shines through. Your outfit will now cost nothing, and it is quite
+      necessary that before the next meeting I should go to a goldsmith and
+      exchange that wretched thing for one of real gold. A man should show what
+      he is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke the words pompously, and Arsinoe eagerly acquiesced, and only
+      begged him, as they went in at the open door, to leave enough for Selene&rsquo;s
+      costume; he laughed quietly to himself, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We need no longer be so very cautious. I should like to know who the
+      Alexander will be who will be the first to ask for my Roxana as his wife.
+      Rich old Plutarch&rsquo;s only son already has a seat in the council, and has
+      not yet taken a wife. He is no longer very young, but he is a fine man
+      still.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The radiant father&rsquo;s dream of the future was interrupted by Doris, who
+      came out of the gate-house and called him by his name. Keraunus stood
+      still. When the old woman went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must speak with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He answered, repellently: &ldquo;But I shall not listen to you&mdash;neither now
+      nor at any time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was certainly not for my pleasure,&rdquo; retorted Doris, &ldquo;that I called to
+      you; I have only to tell you that you will not find your daughter Selene
+      at home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you say?&rdquo; cried Keraunus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say that the poor girl with her damaged foot could at last walk no
+      farther, and that she had to be carried into a strange house where she is
+      being taken care of.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Selene!&rdquo; cried Arsinoe, falling from all her clouds of happiness,
+      startled and grieved&mdash;&ldquo;do you know where she is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Before Doris could reply, Keraunus stormed out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is all the fault of the Roman architect and his raging beast of a dog.
+      Very good! very good! now Caesar will certainly help me to my rights. He
+      will give a lesson to those who throw Roxana&rsquo;s sister into a sick-bed, and
+      hinder her from taking any part in the processions. Very good! very good
+      indeed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is sad enough to cry over!&rdquo; said the gatekeeper&rsquo;s wife, indignantly.
+      &ldquo;Is this the thanks she gets for all her care of her little brothers and
+      sisters! Only to think that a father can speak so, when his best child is
+      lying with a broken leg, helpless among strangers!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With a broken leg,&rdquo; whimpered Arsinoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Broken!&rdquo; repeated Keraunus slowly, and now sincerely anxious. &ldquo;Where can
+      I find her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At dame Hannah&rsquo;s little house at the bottom of the garden belonging to
+      the widow of Pudeus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why did they not bring her here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because the physician forbade it. She is in a fever, but she is well
+      cared for. Hannah is one of the Christians. I cannot bear the people, but
+      they know how to nurse the sick better than any one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With Christians! my child is with Christians!&rdquo; shrieked Keraunus, beside
+      himself. &ldquo;At once Arsinoe, at once come with me; Selene shall not stay a
+      moment longer among that accursed rabble. Eternal gods! besides all our
+      other troubles this disgrace too!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, it is not so bad as that,&rdquo; said Doris soothingly. &ldquo;There are very
+      estimable folks even among the Christians. At any rate they are certainly
+      honorable, for the poor hunch-backed creature who first brought the bad
+      news gave me this little bag of money which dame Hannah had found in
+      Selene&rsquo;s pocket.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus took his daughter&rsquo;s hard-won wages as contemptuously as though he
+      was quite accustomed to gold, and thought nothing of more wretched silver;
+      but Arsinoe began to cry at the sight of the drachmae, for she knew it was
+      for the sake of that money that Selene had left her home, and could divine
+      what frightful pain she must have suffered on the way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Honorable this, and honorable that!&rdquo; cried Keraunus, as he tied up his
+      money-bag. &ldquo;I know well enough how shameless are the goings on in
+      assemblies of that stamp; kissing and hugging slaves! quite the right sort
+      of thing for my daughter! Come Arsinoe, let us find a litter at once!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no!&rdquo; exclaimed Doris eagerly. &ldquo;For the present you must leave her in
+      peace. I should be glad to conceal it from you as a father&mdash;but the
+      physician declared it might cost her her life if she were not left just
+      now in perfect quiet. No one goes to any kind of assembly with a burning
+      wound in the head, a high fever and a broken leg.&mdash;Poor dear child!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus stood silent in grave consternation, while Arsinoe exclaimed
+      through her tears:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I must go to her, I must see her Doris.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I cannot blame you for, my pretty one,&rdquo; said the old woman. &ldquo;I have
+      already been to the house of the Christians, but they would not let me in
+      to see the patient. With you it is rather different as you are her
+      sister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come father,&rdquo; begged Arsinoe, &ldquo;first let us see to the children, and then
+      you shall come with me to see Selene. Oh! why did I not go with her. Oh!
+      if she should die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus and his daughter reached their rooms less quickly than usual, for
+      the steward dreaded a fresh attack from the blood-hound, which, to-night
+      however, was sharing Antinous&rsquo; room. They found the old slavewoman up, and
+      in great excitement, for she loved Selene, she was frightened at her
+      absence, and in the children&rsquo;s sleeping-room all was not as it should be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe went without delay to see the little ones, but the black woman
+      remained with her master, and told him with many tears, while he exchanged
+      his saffron-colored pallium for an old cloak, that the joy of her heart,
+      little blind Helios had been ill, and could not sleep, even after she had
+      given him some of the drops which Keraunus himself was accustomed to take.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Idiotic animal!&rdquo; exclaimed Keraunus, &ldquo;to give my medicine to the child,&rdquo;
+       and he kicked off his new shoes to replace them with shabbier ones. &ldquo;If
+      you were younger I would have you flogged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you did say the drops were good,&rdquo; stammered the old woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For me,&rdquo; shouted the steward, and without fastening his shoe-straps round
+      his ankles, so that they flapped and pattered on the ground, he hurried
+      off into the children&rsquo;s room. There sat his darling blind child, his
+      &lsquo;neir&rsquo; as he liked to call him, with his pretty, fair, curly head resting
+      on Arsinoe&rsquo;s breast. The child recognized his step, and began his little
+      lament:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Selene was away, and I was frightened, and I feel so sick, so sick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The steward laid his hand on the child&rsquo;s forehead, and feeling how hot it
+      was he began to walk restlessly up and down by the little bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is just how it always happens,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When one misfortune comes
+      another always follows. Look at him Arsinoe. Do you remember how the fever
+      took poor Berenice? Sickness, uneasiness, and a burning head.&mdash;Have
+      you any pain in your head my boy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; answered Helios, &ldquo;but I feel so sick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The steward opened the child&rsquo;s little shirt to see if he had any spots on
+      his breast, but Arsinoe said, as she bent over him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is nothing much, he has only overloaded his stomach. The stupid old
+      woman gives him every thing he asks for, and she let him have half of the
+      currant cake, which we sent her to fetch before we went out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But his head is burning,&rdquo; repeated Keraunus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will be quite well again by to-morrow morning,&rdquo; replied Arsinoe. &ldquo;Our
+      poor Selene needs us far snore than he does. Come father. The old woman
+      can stay with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want Selene to come,&rdquo; whimpered the child. &ldquo;Pray, pray, do not leave me
+      alone again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your old father will stay with you my pet,&rdquo; said Keraunus tenderly, for
+      it cut him to the soul to see this child suffer. &ldquo;You none of you know
+      what this boy is to us all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will soon go to sleep,&rdquo; Arsinoe asserted. &ldquo;Do let us go, or it will be
+      too late.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And leave the old woman to commit some other stupid blunder?&rdquo; cried
+      Keraunus. &ldquo;It is my duty to stay with the poor little boy. You can go to
+      your sister and take the old woman with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very good, and to-morrow early I will come back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow morning?&rdquo; said Keraunus surprised. &ldquo;No, no, that will not do.
+      Doris said just now that Selene will be well nursed by the Christians.
+      Only see how she is, give her my love, and then come back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But father&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Besides you must remember that the prefect&rsquo;s wife expects you to-morrow
+      at noon to choose the stuff for your dress, and you must not look as if
+      you had been sitting up all night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will rest a little while in the morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the morning? And how about curling my hair? And your new frock? And
+      poor little Helios?&mdash;No child, you are only just to see Selene and
+      then come back again. Early in the morning too the holiday will have
+      begun, and you know what goes on then; the old woman would be of no use to
+      you in the throng. Go and see how Selene is, you are not to stay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will see&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a word about seeing&mdash;you come home again. I desire it; in two
+      hours you are to be in bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe shrugged her shoulders, and two minutes after she was standing
+      with the old slave-woman in front of the gate-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A broad beam of light still fell through the half-open door of the bowery
+      little room, so Euphorion and Doris had not retired to rest and could at
+      once open the palace-gate for her. The Graces set up a bark as Arsinoe
+      crossed the threshold of her old friends&rsquo; house, but they did not leave
+      their cushion for they soon recognized her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was several years since Arsinoe, in obedience to her father&rsquo;s strict
+      prohibition had set foot in the snug the house, and her heart was deeply
+      touched as she saw again all the surroundings she had loved as a child,
+      and had not forgotten as she grew into girlhood. There were the birds, the
+      little dogs, and the lutes on the wall near the Apollo. On worthy dame
+      Doris&rsquo; table there had always been something to eat, and there, now, good
+      a lovely, golden-brown cake, by the side of the wine-jar. How often as a
+      child had she sneaked in to beg a sweet morsel, how often to see whether
+      tall Pollux were not there, Pollux, whose bold devices and original
+      suggestions, gave his work and his play alike, the stamp of genius, and
+      lent them a peculiar charm. And there sat her saucy playfellow in person,
+      his legs stretched at full length in front of him, and talking, eagerly.
+      Arsinoe heard him relating the end of the history of her being chosen for
+      Roxana, and caught her own name, graced with such epithets as brought the
+      blushes to her cheeks, and gave her double pleasure because he could not
+      guess that she could overhear them. From a boy he had grown to a man, and
+      a fine man, and a great artist&mdash;but he was still the old kind and
+      audacious Pollux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sudden leap with which he sprang from his seat to welcome her, the
+      frank laughter with which he several times interrupted her speech, the
+      childlike loving way in which he held his arm round his little mother
+      while he greeted her, and asked why she was going out so late, the
+      winning, touching tone of his voice as he expressed his regret at Selene&rsquo;s
+      mishaps&mdash;all went home to Arsinoe as a thing known and loved, of
+      which she had long been deprived, and she clung to the two strong hands he
+      held out to her. If at that moment he had taken her up, and clasped her to
+      his heart before the very eyes of Eupliorion and his mother she really
+      would have been incapable of resisting him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was with a heavy heart that Arsinoe had gone into dame Doris, but in
+      the gate-keeper&rsquo;s house there reigned an atmosphere in which care and
+      anxiety could not breathe, and the light-hearted girl&rsquo;s vision of her
+      sister as tormented with pain and threatened with danger was changed in a
+      wonderfully short time to that of a sufferer comfortably in bed, with only
+      a severely-injured foot. In the place of consuming anxiety she felt only
+      hearty sympathy, and this sounded in her voice as she begged the singer
+      Euphorion to open the gate for her, because she wanted to go out with her
+      slave-woman to ascertain how Selene was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doris soothed her, repeating her assurance that the patient would be
+      nursed with the utmost care in dame Hannah&rsquo;s hands; still, she thought her
+      wish to see her sister very justifiable, and eagerly seconded Pollux when
+      he entreated Arsinoe to accept his escort; for the festival would be
+      beginning soon after midnight, the streets would be full of rough and
+      impudent people, and a bunch of feathers would be about as much use
+      against the drunken slaves as her black scarecrow, who had been falling
+      into decrepitude even before she had done the stupidest deed of her life
+      and roused the steward&rsquo;s anger against herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they went along the dark streets which grew full of people the farther
+      they went, side by side in silence. Presently Pollux said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put your arm through mine; you ought to feel that I am protecting you,
+      and I&mdash;I should like to feel at every step that I have found you once
+      more, and am allowed to be near you&mdash;so sweet a creature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The words did not sound impertinent, on the contrary, they sounded very
+      much in earnest, and the sculptor&rsquo;s deep voice trembled with emotion as he
+      spoke them with deep tenderness. They knocked at the door of the girl&rsquo;s
+      heart with the urgent hand of love; she unhesitatingly put her hand
+      through his arm and answered softly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will take care of me now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said he, and he took her little hand, which rested on his right
+      arm, in his left hand. She did not draw it away, and after they had gone
+      on thus for a few paces he sighed and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know how I feel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, I myself cannot put it into words. Rather as if I had triumphed in
+      the Olympian games, or as if Caesar had invested me with the purple!&mdash;But
+      who cares for the wealth or the purple! You are hanging on my arm, and I
+      have hold of your hand; compared with this, all is as nought. If it were
+      not for the people about I&mdash;I do not know what I could do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked up at him with happy content, but he lifted her hand to his
+      lips and pressed it to them long and fervently. Then he let it go again
+      and said, with a sigh that came up from the bottom of his heart:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh Arsinoe, my sweet Arsinoe, how I love you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the words came softly yet hotly from his lips the girl clasped his arm
+      closely to her bosom, leaned her head on his shoulder, looked up at him
+      with a wide-eyed, tender gaze, and said softly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh Pollux, I am so happy, the world is so good!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, I could hate it!&rdquo; cried the sculptor. &ldquo;To hear this&mdash;and to
+      have an old mother wide awake at home, and to be obliged to walk steadily
+      on in a street crowded with men&mdash;it is unendurable! I shall not hold
+      out much longer&mdash;sweetest of girls&mdash;here it is quiet and dark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, in a little nook made by two contiguous houses, and into which Pollux
+      drew Arsinoe, it was pitch dark, as he hastily pressed his first kiss on
+      her innocent lips; but in their hearts it was light-radiant sunshine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had thrown her arms round his neck and would willingly have clung to
+      him till day should end; but they heard the approach of a noisy procession
+      of slaves. These unfortunate creatures began soon after midnight singing
+      and shouting so as to avail themselves to the extremist limit of the
+      holiday, which released them for a short time from their tasks and duties;
+      Pollux knew well how unbounded the license of their pleasures could be,
+      and as he walked on with Arsinoe he enjoined her to keep with him as close
+      as possible to the houses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How jolly they are!&rdquo; he said pointing to the merry-makers. &ldquo;Their masters
+      will wait on themselves a little to-day, and the best day in the year is
+      just beginning for them, but for us the best day in all our lives.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; cried Arsinoe, and she clasped his strong arm with both her
+      hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they both laughed merrily, for Pollux had noticed that the old
+      slave-woman had gone on past them with her head sunk on her breast, and
+      was following another pair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will call her,&rdquo; Arsinoe said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, let her be,&rdquo; said the artist. &ldquo;The couple in front certainly
+      require her protection more than we do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how could she possibly mistake that little man for you?&rdquo; laughed
+      Arsinoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I were a little smaller,&rdquo; replied Pollux with a sigh. &ldquo;Only
+      picture to yourself the vast amount of burning love and tormenting longing
+      that can be contained in so large a body as mine!&rdquo; She slapped him on the
+      arm, and to punish her he hastily pressed his lips on her forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t&mdash;think of the people,&rdquo; she said reprovingly, but he gaily
+      answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not a misfortune to be envied.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the streets came to an end, and they found themselves in front of the
+      garden belonging to Pudeus&rsquo; widow; Pollux knew it, for Paulina who owned
+      it was the sister of Pontius, the architect, who himself owned a
+      magnificent house in the city. But could it be possible? Had invisible
+      hands brought them here already? The gate of the enclosure was locked.
+      Pollux roused a porter, told him what he wanted, and was conducted by him
+      with Arsinoe to apart of the grounds where a bright light shone out from
+      dame Hannah&rsquo;s little abode, for he had had instructions to admit the sick
+      girl&rsquo;s friends even during the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A crescent moon lighted the paths, which were strewed with shells; the
+      shrubs and trees in the garden threw sharply-defined shadows on their
+      gleaming whiteness, the sea sparkled brightly, and as soon as the porter
+      had left the happy young pair together, and they found themselves in a
+      shadowy alley, Pollux said, opening his arms to the girl:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now&mdash;one more kiss, just for a remembrance, while I wait.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not now,&rdquo; begged Arsinoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am no longer happy since we came in here. I cannot help thinking of
+      poor Selene.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not a word to say against that,&rdquo; replied Pollux submissively.
+      &ldquo;Then when waiting is over may I have my reward?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, now, at once,&rdquo; cried Arsinoe throwing herself on his breast, and
+      then she hurried towards the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He followed her, and when she paused in front of a brightly-lighted window
+      on the ground floor, he stopped also. They both looked in on a lofty and
+      spacious room, kept in the most perfect order and cleanliness; it had one
+      door only opening on the roofless forecourt of the house; the walls of the
+      room were plainly painted of a light green color, and the only ornament it
+      contained was one piece of carved work over the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the farther side stood the bed on which Selene was lying; a few paces
+      from it sat the deformed girl asleep, while dame Hannah softly went up to
+      the patient with a wet compress in her hand which she carefully laid on
+      her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux touched Arsinoe and whispered to her:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your sister lies there in her sleep like an Ariadne deserted by Dionysus.
+      How wretched she will feel when she comes to herself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She looks to me less pale than usual.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look now, how she bends her arm, and what a lovely attitude as she puts
+      her hand to her head!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go&mdash;&rdquo; said Arsinoe. &ldquo;You ought not to be spying here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Directly, directly&mdash;but if you were lying there no power should stir
+      me from the spot. How carefully Hannah lifts the wet wrapper from her poor
+      broken ankle. You could not touch your eye more gently than the good woman
+      handles Selene&rsquo;s foot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go back, she is looking straight this way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a wonderful face! It would do for a Penelope, but there is something
+      singular in her eyes. Now if I had to make another star-gazing Urania, or
+      a Sappho full of the deity, and with eyes fixed on the heavens in poetic
+      rapture, that is what I would put into her! She is no longer young, but
+      how pure her face is! It is like a sky when the wind has swept it clear of
+      clouds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seriously you must go now,&rdquo; said Arsinoe drawing away her hand, which he
+      had again taken. Pollux saw that his praise of another woman&rsquo;s beauty
+      annoyed her, and he said soothingly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be easy child. You have not your match here in Alexandria, no, nor so far
+      as Greek is spoken. A perfectly clear sky is certainly not the most
+      beautiful to my taste. Pure light, and pure blue, give no satisfaction to
+      the artist, it is only behind a few moving clouds, lighted up by changing
+      gleams of gold and silver, that the firmament has any true charm, and
+      though your face too is like heaven to me it does not lack sweet movement,
+      never twice alike. Now this matron&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only look,&rdquo; interrupted Arsinoe, &ldquo;how tenderly dame Hannah bends over
+      Selene, and now she is gently kissing her brow. No mother could tend her
+      own daughter more lovingly. I have known her for a long time; she is good,
+      very good; it is hardly credible for she is a Christian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The cross up there over the door,&rdquo; said Pollux &ldquo;is the token by which
+      these extraordinary people recognize each other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is signified by the dove and fish and anchor round it?&rdquo; asked
+      Arsinoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are emblems of the mysteries of the Christians,&rdquo; replied Pollux. &ldquo;I
+      do not understand them; the things are wretchedly painted; the adherents
+      of the crucified God contemn all art, and particularly my branch of it,
+      for they hate all images of the gods.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet among such blasphemers we find such good men; I will go in at
+      once; Hannah is wetting another handkerchief.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how unwearied and kind she looks as she does it; still there is
+      something strange, deserted, and graceless in this large bare room. I
+      should not like to live there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you noticed the faint scent of lavender that comes through the
+      window?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Long since&mdash;there your sister is moving and has opened her eyes&mdash;now
+      she has shut them again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go back into the garden and wait till I come,&rdquo; Arsinoe commanded him
+      decidedly. &ldquo;I will only see how Selene is going on; I will not stop long
+      for my father wishes me to return soon, and no one can nurse her better
+      than Hannah!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl drew her hand out of her lover&rsquo;s and knocked at the door of the
+      little house; it was opened and the widow herself led Arsinoe to the
+      bedside of her sister. Pollux at first sat a while on a bench in the
+      garden, but soon sprang up and paced with long steps the path he had
+      previously trodden with Arsinoe. A stone table across the path, brought
+      him to a stand-still, and he took a fancy for leaping it. The third time
+      he came up to it he sprang over it with a long jump. But no sooner had he
+      done the frolicsome deed than he paused, shook his head at himself and
+      muttered to himself: &ldquo;Like a boy!&rdquo;&mdash;He felt indeed like a happy
+      child. But as he waited he became calmer and graver. He acknowledged to
+      himself, with sincere thankfulness, that he had now found the ideal woman,
+      of whom he had dreamed in his hours of best inspiration, and that she was
+      his, wholly and alone. And after all, what was he? A poor rascal who had
+      many mouths to fill, and was no more than two fingers of his master&rsquo;s
+      hand. This must be altered. He would not reduce his sister&rsquo;s comforts in
+      any way but he must break with Papias, and stand henceforth on his own
+      feet. His courage mounted fast, and when at last, Arsinoe returned from
+      her sister, he had resolved that he must first finish Balbilla&rsquo;s bust with
+      all diligence in his own workshop, and that then he would model his
+      beloved; these two female heads he could not fail in. Caesar must see
+      them, they must be exhibited, and already in his mind&rsquo;s eye, he saw
+      himself refusing order after order, and accepting only the most splendid
+      where all were good.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe went home comforted. Selene&rsquo;s sufferings were certainly less than
+      she had pictured them; she did not wish to be nursed by any one besides
+      dame Hannah. She might perhaps have a little fever, but any one who was
+      capable of discussing every little question of house-keeping, and all that
+      related to the children could not be&mdash;as Arsinoe thought while she
+      walked back through the garden, leaning on the artist&rsquo;s arm&mdash;really
+      and properly ill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must revive and delight her to have Roxana for a sister!&rdquo; cried
+      Pollux; but his pretty companion shook her head and said: &ldquo;She is always
+      so odd; what most delights me is averse to her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well Selene is of course the moon, and you are the sun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what are you?&rdquo; asked Arsinoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am tall Pollux, and to-night I feel as if I might some day be great
+      Pollux.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you succeed I shall grow with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will be your right, since it is only through you that I can ever
+      succeed in that which I propose to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how should a simple little thing, such as I am, be able to help an
+      artist?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By living, and by loving him,&rdquo; cried the sculptor, lifting her up in his
+      arms before she could prevent him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Outside the garden-gate the old slave-woman was sitting asleep. She had
+      learnt from the porter that her young mistress had been admitted with her
+      companion, but she herself had been forbidden to enter the grounds. A
+      curbstone had served her for a seat, and as she waited her eyes had
+      closed, in spite of the increasing noise in the street. Arsinoe did not
+      waken her, but asked Pollux, with a roguish laugh:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall find our way alone, shall we not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Eros does not lead us astray,&rdquo; answered the artist. And so, as they
+      went on their way, they jested and exchanged little tender speeches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nearer they got to Lochias and to the main lines of traffic which
+      intersected at right angles the Canopic way&mdash;the widest and longest
+      road in the city&mdash;the fuller was the stream of people that flowed
+      onwards in the direction in which they were going; but this circumstance
+      favored them, for those who wish to be unobserved, when they cannot be
+      absolutely alone, have only to mix with the crowd. As they were borne
+      towards the focus and centre of the festive doings, they clung closely
+      together, she to him, and he to her, so that they might not be torn apart
+      by any of the rushing and tumultuous processions of excited Thracian women
+      who, faithful to their native usages, came storming by with a young bull,
+      on this particular night of the year, that following the shortest day.
+      They had hardly gone a hundred paces beyond the Moon-street when they
+      heard proceeding from it a wild roving song of tipsy jollity, and loud
+      above it the sound of drums and pipes, cymbals and noisy shouting, and at
+      the same time in the King&rsquo;s street, a road which crossed the Bruchiom and
+      opened on Lochias, a merry troup came towards them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At their head, among other acquaintances, came Teuker, the gem-cutter, the
+      younger brother of Pollux. Crowned with ivy, and flourishing a thyrsus he
+      came dancing on, and behind him, leaping and shouting, a train of men and
+      women, all excited to the verge of folly, singing, hollooing, and dancing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Garlands of vine, ivy and asphodel fluttered from a hundred heads; poplar,
+      lotus, and laurel wreaths overhung their heated brows; panther-skins, deer
+      and goatskins hung from their bare shoulders and waved in the wind as
+      their bearers hurried onwards. This procession had been first formed by
+      some artists and rich youths returning with some women from a banquet,
+      with a band of music; every one who met this festal party had joined it or
+      had been forced to enlist with it. Respectable citizens and their wives,
+      laborers, maid-servants, slaves, soldiers and sailors, officers, women
+      flute-players, artisans, ship-captains, the whole chorus of a theatre
+      invited by a friend of art, excited women who dragged with them a goat
+      that was to be slaughtered to Dionysus&mdash;none had been able to resist
+      the temptation to join the procession. It turned down the Moon-street,
+      keeping to the middle of the road which was planted with elms, and had on
+      each side of it a raised foot-way, which at this time of night no one
+      used. How clear was the sound of the double-pipes, how bravely the girls
+      hit the calf-skin of the tambourines with their soft fists, how saucily
+      the wind tossed and tangled the dishevelled hair of the riotous women and
+      played with the smoke of the torches which were wielded in the air by
+      audacious youths, disguised as Pan or as Satyrs, and shouting as they
+      went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here a girl, holding her tambourine high in the air, rattled the little
+      bells on its hoop, as she flew along, as violently as though she wanted to
+      shake the hollow metal balls out of their frame, and send them whistling
+      through the air on their own account-there, side by side with his
+      comrades, who were excited almost to madness, a handsome lad came skipping
+      along in elaborately graceful leaps, but carrying over his arm, with comic
+      care, a long bull&rsquo;s-tail that he had tied on, and blowing alternately up
+      and down the short scale from the shortest to the longest of the reeds
+      composing his panpipes. Through the noisy crowd as they rushed by,
+      sounded, now and again, a loud roar, that might as easily have been caused
+      by pain as joy; but it was each time hastily drowned in mad laughter,
+      extravagant singing and jubilant music.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old and young, great and small, all in short that came near this rabble
+      train, were carried off with irresistible force to follow it with shouts
+      of triumph. Even Pollux and Arsinoe had for some time ceased to walk
+      soberly side by side, but moved their feet, laughingly in time to the
+      merry measure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How nice it sounds,&rdquo; cried the artist. &ldquo;I could dance and be merry too
+      Arsinoe, dance and make merry with you like a madman!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Before she could find time to say &lsquo;yes&rsquo; or &lsquo;no,&rsquo; he shouted a loud &ldquo;To,
+      To, Dionysus,&rdquo; and flung her up in the air. She too was caught by the
+      spirit of the thing, and waving her hand above her head she joined in his
+      shout of triumph, and let him drag her along to a corner of the
+      Moon-street where a seller of garlands offered her wares for sale. There
+      she let him wreathe her with ivy, she stuck a laurel wreath on his head,
+      twisted a streamer of ivy round his neck and breast, and laughed loudly as
+      she flung a large silver coin into the flower-woman&rsquo;s lap and clung
+      tightly to his arm. It was all done in swift haste without reflection, as
+      if in a fit of intoxication, and with trembling hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The procession was drawing to an end. Six women and girls in wreaths
+      closed it, walking arm in arm with loud singing. Pollux drew his
+      sweetheart behind this jovial crew, threw his arm around Arsinoe once
+      more, while she put hers round him, and then both of them stepped out in a
+      brisk dance-step flinging their arms left free, throwing back their heads,
+      shouting and singing loudly, and forgetting all that surrounded them; they
+      felt as though they were bound to each other by a glory of sunbeams, while
+      some god lifted them above the earth and bore them up through a realm of
+      delight and joy beyond the myriad stars and through the translucent ether;
+      thus they let themselves be led away through the Moon-street into the
+      Canopic way and so back to the sea, and as far as the temple of Dionysus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There they paused breathless and it suddenly struck them that he was
+      Pollux and she Arsinoe, and that she must get back again to her father and
+      the children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come home,&rdquo; she said softly, and as she spoke she dropped her arm and
+      began to gather up her loosened hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; he said as if in a dream. He released her, struck his hand
+      against his brow, and turning to the open cella of the temple he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Long have I known that thou art mighty O Dionysus, and that thou O
+      Aphrodite art lovely, and that thou art sweet O Eros! but how inestimable
+      your gifts, that I have learnt to-day for the first time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were indeed full of the deity,&rdquo; said Arsinoe. &ldquo;But here comes another
+      procession and I must go home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let us go by the Little Harbor,&rdquo; answered Pollux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;I must pick the leaves out of my hair and no one will see us
+      there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will help you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, you are not to touch me,&rdquo; said Arsinoe decidedly. She grasped her
+      abundant soft and shiny hair, and cleared it of the leaves that had got
+      entangled in it, as tiny beetles do in a double flower. Finally she hid
+      her hair under her veil, which had slipped off her head long since, but,
+      almost by a miracle, had caught and remained hanging on the brooch of her
+      peplum. Pollux stood looking at her, and overmastered by the passion that
+      possessed him, he exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eternal gods! how I love you! Till now my soul has been like a careless
+      child, to-day it is grown to heroic stature.&mdash;Wait&mdash;only wait,
+      it will soon learn to use its weapons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I will help it in the fight,&rdquo; she said happily, as she put her hand
+      through his arm again, and they hurried back to the old palace, dancing
+      rather than walking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The late December sun was already giving warning of his approaching rising
+      by cold yellowish-grey streaks in the sky as Pollux and his companion
+      entered the gate, which had long since been opened for the workmen. In the
+      hall of the Muses they took a first farewell, in the passage leading to
+      the steward&rsquo;s room, a second&mdash;sad and yet most happy; but this was
+      but a short one for the gleam of a lamp made them start apart, and Arsinoe
+      instantly fled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The disturber was Antinous who was waiting here for the Emperor who was
+      still gazing at the stars from the watch-tower Pontius had erected for
+      him. As she vanished he turned to Pollux and said gaily:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I need your forgiveness for I have disturbed you in an interview with
+      your sweetheart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She will be my wife,&rdquo; said the sculptor proudly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much the better!&rdquo; replied the favorite, and he drew a deep breath, as
+      though the artist&rsquo;s words had relieved his mind of a burden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! so much the better. Can you tell me where to find the fair Arsinoe&rsquo;s
+      sister?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure,&rdquo; replied the artist, and he felt pleased that the young
+      Bithynian should cling to his arm. Within the next hour, Pollux, from
+      whose lips there flowed a stream of eager and enthusiastic words, like
+      water from a spring, had completely won the heart of the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      favorite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl found both her father and Helios, who no longer looked like a
+      sick patient&mdash;fast asleep. The old slave-woman came in a few minutes
+      after her, and when at last, after unbinding her hair, Arsinoe threw
+      herself on her bed she fell asleep instantly, and in her dreams found
+      herself once more by the side of her Pollux, while they both were flying
+      to the sound of drums, flutes, and cymbals high above the dusty ways of
+      earth, like leaves swept on by the wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The steward awoke soon after sunrise. He had slept no less soundly, it is
+      true, in his arm-chair than in his bed, but he did not feel refreshed, and
+      his limbs ached.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the living-room everything was in the same disorder as on the previous
+      evening, and this annoyed him, for he was accustomed to find his room in
+      order when he entered it in the morning. On the table, surrounded by
+      flies, stood the remains of the children&rsquo;s supper, and among the bread
+      crusts and plates lay his own ornaments and his daughter&rsquo;s! Wherever he
+      turned he saw articles of dress and other things out of their place. The
+      old slave-woman came in yawning, her woolly grey hair hung in disorder
+      about her face, and her eyes seemed fixed, her feet carried her unsteadily
+      here and there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are drunk,&rdquo; cried Keraunus; nor was he mistaken, for when the old
+      woman had waked up, sitting by the house of Pudeus, and had learned from
+      the gate keeper that Arsinoe had quitted the garden, she had gone into a
+      tavern with other slave-women. When her master seized her arm and shook
+      her, she exclaimed with a stupid grin on her wet lips:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the feast-day. Every one is free, to-day is the feast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Roman nonsense!&rdquo; interrupted the steward. &ldquo;Is my breakfast ready?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While the old woman stood muttering some inaudible words, the slave came
+      into the room and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-day is a general holiday, may I go out too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh that would suit me admirably!&rdquo; cried the steward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This monster drunk, Selene sick, and you running about the streets.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But no one stops at home to-day,&rdquo; replied the slave timidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be off then!&rdquo; cried Keraunus. &ldquo;Walk about from now till midnight! Do as
+      you please, only do not expect me to keep you any longer. You are still
+      fit to turn the hand-mill, and I dare say I can find a fool to give me a
+      few drachmae for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, do not sell me,&rdquo; groaned the old man, raising his hands in
+      entreaty; Keraunus however would not hear him, but went on angrily:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A dog at least remains faithful to his master, but you slaves eat him out
+      of house and home, and when he most needs you, you want to run about the
+      streets.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I will stay,&rdquo; howled the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, do as you please. You have long been like a lame horse which makes
+      its rider a butt for the laughter of children. When, you go out with me
+      everyone looks round as if I had a stain on my pallium. And then the mangy
+      dog wants to keep holiday, and stick himself up among the citizens!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will stay here, only do not sell me!&rdquo; whimpered the miserable old man,
+      and he tried to take his master&rsquo;s hand; but the steward shoved him off,
+      and desired him to go into the kitchen and light a fire, and throw some
+      water on the old woman&rsquo;s head to sober her. The slave pushed his companion
+      out of the room, while Keraunus went into his daughter&rsquo;s bedroom to rouse
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no light in Arsinoe&rsquo;s room but that which could creep in through
+      a narrow opening just below the ceiling; the slanting rays fell directly
+      on the bed up to which Keraunus went. There lay his daughter in sound
+      sleep; her pretty head rested on her uplifted right arm, her unbound brown
+      hair flowed like a stream over her soft round shoulders and over the edge
+      of the little bed. He had never seen the child look so pretty, and the
+      sight of her really touched his heart, for Arsinoe reminded him of his
+      lost wife, and it was not vain pride merely, but a movement of true
+      paternal love, which involuntarily transformed his earnest wish that the
+      gods night leave him this child and let her be happy, into an unspoken but
+      fervent prayer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was not accustomed to waking his daughter who was always up and busy
+      before he was, and he could hardly bear to disturb his darling&rsquo;s sweet
+      sleep; but it had to be done, so he called Arsinoe by her name, shook her
+      arm and said, as at last she sat up and looked at him enquiringly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is I, get up, remember what has to be done today.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;yes,&rdquo; she said yawning, &ldquo;but it is so early yet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Early,&rdquo; said Keraunus, smiling. &ldquo;My stomach says the contrary. The sun is
+      already high, and I have not yet had my porridge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Make the old woman cook it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, my child&mdash;you must get up. Have you forgotten whom you are
+      to represent? And my hair is to be curled, and the prefect&rsquo;s wife, and
+      then your dress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well&mdash;go; I do not care the least bit about Roxana and all the
+      dressing-up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because you are not yet quite awake,&rdquo; laughed the steward. &ldquo;How did this
+      ivy-leaf get into your hair?&rdquo; Arsinoe colored, put her hand to the spot
+      indicated by her father, and said reluctantly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out of some bough or another, but now go that I may get up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a minute&mdash;tell me how did you find Selene?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so very bad&mdash;but I will tell you all about that afterwards. Now
+      I want to be alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When, half an hour later, Arsinoe brought her father his porridge he gazed
+      at the child in astonishment. Some extraordinary change seemed to have
+      come over his daughter. Something shone in her eyes that he had never
+      observed before, and that gave her childlike features an importance and
+      significance that almost startled him. While she was making the porridge,
+      Keraunus, with the slave&rsquo;s help, had taken the children up and dressed
+      them; now they were all sitting at breakfast; Helios among them fresh and
+      blooming. Now, while Arsinoe told her father all about Selene, and the
+      nursing she was having at dame Hannah&rsquo;s hands, Keraunus kept his eyes
+      fixed on her, and when she noticed this and asked impatiently what there
+      was peculiar in her appearance to-day, he shook his head and answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What strange things are girls! A great honor has been done you. You are
+      to represent the bride of Alexander, and pride and delight have changed
+      you wonder fully in a single night&mdash;but I think to your
+      disadvantage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Folly,&rdquo; said Arsinoe reddening, and stretching herself with fatigue she
+      threw herself back on a couch. She did not feel weary exactly, for the
+      lassitude she felt in every limb had a peculiar pleasure in it. She felt
+      as if she had come out of a hot bath, and since her father had roused her
+      she seemed to hear, again and again, the sound of the inspiriting music
+      which she had followed arm in arm with Pollux. Now and again she smiled,
+      now and again she gazed straight before her, and at the same time she said
+      to herself that if at this very moment her lover were to ask her, she
+      would not lack strength to fling herself at once, with him, once more into
+      the mad whirl. Yes&mdash;she felt perfectly fresh! only her eyes burned a
+      little; and if Keraunus fancied he saw anything new in his daughter it
+      must be the glowing light which now lurked in them along with the playful
+      sparkle he had always seen there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When breakfast was over the slave took the children out, and Arsinoe had
+      begun to curl her father&rsquo;s hair, when Keraunus put on his most dignified
+      attitude and said ponderously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl dropped the heated tongs and calmly asked. &ldquo;Well&rdquo;&mdash;fully
+      prepared to hear one of the wonderful propositions which Selene was wont
+      to oppose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen to me attentively.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, what Keraunus was about to say had only occurred to him an hour since
+      when he had spoiled his slave&rsquo;s desire to go out; but as he said it he
+      pressed his hand to his forehead assuming the expression of a meditative
+      philosopher.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For a long time I have been considering a very important matter. Now I
+      have come to a decision and I will confide it to you. We must buy a new
+      manslave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But father!&rdquo; cried Arsinoe, &ldquo;think what it will cost you. If we have
+      another man to feed&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no question of that,&rdquo; replied Keraunus. &ldquo;I will exchange the old
+      one for a younger one that I need not be ashamed to be seen with.
+      Yesterday I told you that henceforth we shall attract greater attention
+      than hitherto, and really if we appear with that black scarecrow at our
+      heels in the streets or elsewhere&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly we cannot make much show Sebek,&rdquo; interrupted Arsinoe, &ldquo;but we
+      can leave him at home for the future.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Child, child!&rdquo; exclaimed Keraunus reproachfully, &ldquo;will you never remember
+      who and what we are. How would it beseem us to appear in the streets
+      without a slave?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl shrugged her shoulders, and put it to her father that Sebek was
+      an old piece of family property, that the little ones were fond of him
+      because he cared for them like a nurse, that a new slave would cost a
+      great deal and would only be driven by force to many services which the
+      old one was always ready and willing to fulfil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Arsinoe preached to deaf ears. Selene was not there; secure from her
+      reproaches and as anxious as a spoiled boy for the thing that was denied
+      him, Keraunus adhered to his determination to exchange the faithful old
+      fellow for a new and more showy slave. Not for a moment did he think of
+      the miserable fate that threatened the decrepit creature, who had grown
+      old in his house, if he were to sell him; but he still had a feeling that
+      it was not quite right to spend the last money that had chanced to come
+      into the house, on a thing that really and truly was not in any way
+      necessary. The more justifiable Arsinoe&rsquo;s doubts seemed to be and the more
+      loudly did an inward voice warn him not to offer this fresh sacrifice to
+      his vain-gloriousness, the more firmly and desperately did he defend his
+      wish to do so; and as he fought for the thing he desired, it acquired in
+      his eyes a semblance of necessity and a number of reasons suggested
+      themselves which made it appear both justifiable and easy of attainment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was money in hand; after Arsinoe&rsquo;s being chosen for the part of
+      Roxana he might expect to be able to borrow more; it was his duty to
+      appear with due dignity that he might not scare off the illustrious
+      son-in-law of whom he dreamed, and in the extremity of need he could still
+      fall back on his collection of rarities. The only thing was to find the
+      right purchaser; for, if the sword of Antony had brought him so much, what
+      would not some amateur give him for the other, far more valuable, objects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe turned red and white as her father referred again and again to the
+      bargain she had made; but she dared not confess the truth, and she rued
+      her falsehood all the more bitterly the more clearly she saw with her own
+      sound sense, that the Honor which had fallen upon her yesterday,
+      threatened to develop all her father&rsquo;s weaknesses in an absolutely fatal
+      manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To-day she would have been amply satisfied with pleasing Pollux, and she
+      would, without a regret have transferred to another her part with all the
+      applause and admiration it would procure her, and which, only yesterday,
+      had seemed to her so inestimably precious. This she said; but Keraunus
+      would not take the assertion in earnest, laughed in her face, went off
+      into mysterious allusions to the wealth which could not fail to come into
+      the house and&mdash;since an obscure consciousness told him that it would
+      be becoming him to prove that it was not solely personal vanity and
+      self-esteem that influenced all his proceedings&mdash;he explained that he
+      had made up his mind to a great sacrifice and would be content on the
+      coming occasion to wear his gilt fillet and not buy a pure gold one. By
+      this act of self-denial he fancied he had acquired a full right to devote
+      a very pretty little sum to the acquisition of a fine-looking slave.
+      Arsinoe&rsquo;s entreaties were unheeded, and when she began to cry with grief
+      at the prospect of losing her old house-mate he forbid her crossly to shed
+      a tear for such a cause, for it was very childish, and he would not be
+      pleased to conduct her with red eyes to meet the prefect&rsquo;s wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the course of this argument his hair had got itself duly curled,
+      and he now desired Arsinoe to arrange her own hair nicely and then to
+      accompany him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They would buy a new dress and peplum, go to see Selene, and then be
+      carried to the prefect&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only yesterday he had thought it too bold a step to use a litter, and
+      to-day he was already considering the propriety of hiring a chariot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner was he alone than a new idea occurred to him. The insolent
+      architect should be taught that he was not the man to be insulted and
+      injured with impunity. So he cut a clean strip of papyrus off a letter
+      that lay in his chest, and wrote upon it the following words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keraunus, the Macedonian, to Claudius Venator, the architect, of Rome:&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My eldest daughter, Selene, is by your fault, so severely hurt that she
+      is in great danger, is kept to her bed and suffers frightful pain. My
+      other children are no longer safe in their father&rsquo;s house, and I therefore
+      require you, once more, to chain up your dog. If you refuse to accede to
+      this reasonable demand I will lay the matter before Caesar. I can tell you
+      that circumstances have occurred which will determine Hadrian to punish
+      any insolent person who may choose to neglect the respect due to me and to
+      my daughters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Keraunus had closed this letter with his seal he called the slave and
+      said coldly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take this to the Roman architect, and then fetch two litters; make haste,
+      and while we are out take good care of the children. To-morrow or next day
+      you will be sold. To whom? That must depend on how you behave during the
+      last hours that you belong to us.&rdquo; The negro gave a loud cry of grief that
+      came from the depth of his heart, and flung himself on the ground at the
+      steward&rsquo;s feet. His cry did indeed pierce his master&rsquo;s soul&mdash;but
+      Keraunus had made up his mind not to let himself be moved nor to yield.
+      But the negro clung more closely to his knees, and when the children,
+      attracted to the spot by their poor old friend&rsquo;s lamentation, cried loudly
+      in unison, and little Helios began to pat and stroke the little remains of
+      the negro&rsquo;s woolly hair, the vain man felt uneasy about the heart, and to
+      protect himself against his own weakness he cried out loudly and
+      violently:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, away with you, and do as you are ordered or I will find the whip.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words he tore himself loose from the miserable&mdash;old man
+      who left the room with his head hanging down, and who soon was standing at
+      the door of the Emperor&rsquo;s rooms with the letter in his hand. Hadrian&rsquo;s
+      appearance and manner had filled him with terror and respect, and he dared
+      not knock at the door. After he had waited for some time, still with tears
+      in his eyes, Mastor came into the passage with the remains of his master&rsquo;s
+      breakfast. The negro called to him and held out the steward&rsquo;s letter,
+      stammering out lamentably:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From Keraunus, for you master.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lay it here on the tray,&rdquo; said the Sarmatian. &ldquo;But what has happened to
+      you, my old friend? you are wailing most pitifully and look miserable.
+      Have you been beaten?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The negro shook his head and answered, whimpering: &ldquo;Keraunus is going to
+      sell me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are better masters than he.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Sebek is old, Sebek is weak&mdash;he can no longer lift and pull, and
+      with hard work he will certainly die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has life been so easy and comfortable then at the steward&rsquo;s?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very little wine, very little meat, very much hunger,&rdquo; said the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you must be glad to leave him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; groaned Sebek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You foolish old owl,&rdquo; said Mastor. &ldquo;Why do you care then for that grumpy
+      niggard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The negro did not answer for some time, then his lean breast heaved and
+      fell, and, as if the dam were broken through that had choked his
+      utterance, he burst out with a mixture of loud sobs:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The children, the little ones, our little ones. They are so sweet; and
+      our little blind Helios stroked my hair because I was to go away, here&mdash;just
+      here he stroked it&rdquo;&mdash;and he put his hand on a perfectly bald place&mdash;&ldquo;and
+      now Sebek must go and never see them all again, just as if they were all
+      dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the words rolled out and with difficulty, as if carried on in the
+      flood of his tears. They went to Mastor&rsquo;s heart, rousing the memory of his
+      own lost children and a strong desire to comfort his unhappy comrade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor fellow!&rdquo; he said, compassionately. &ldquo;Aye, the children! they are so
+      small, and the door into one&rsquo;s heart is so narrow&mdash;and they dance in
+      at it a thousand times better and more easily than grown-up folks. I, too,
+      have lost dear children, and they were my own, too. I can teach any one
+      what is meant by sorrow&mdash;but I know too now where comfort is to be
+      found.&rdquo; With these words Mastor held the tray he was carrying on his hip
+      with his right hand, while he put the left on the negro&rsquo;s shoulder and
+      whispered to him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you ever heard of the Christians?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sebek nodded eagerly as if Mastor were speaking of a matter of which he
+      had heard great things and expected much, and Mastor went on in a low
+      voice &ldquo;Come early to-morrow before sunrise to the pavement-workers in the
+      &lsquo;court, and there you will hear of One who comforts the weary and
+      heavy-laden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor&rsquo;s servant once more took his tray in both hands and hurried
+      away, but a faint gleam of hope had lighted up in the old slave&rsquo;s eyes. He
+      expected no happiness, but perhaps there might be some way of bearing the
+      sorrows of life more easily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mastor as soon he had given his tray to the kitchen slaves&mdash;who were
+      now busy again in the palace at Lochias&mdash;returned to his lord and
+      gave him the steward&rsquo;s letter. It was an ill-chosen hour for Keraunus, for
+      the Emperor was in a gloomy mood. He had sat up till morning, had rested
+      scarcely three hours, and now, with knitted brows, was comparing the
+      results of his night&rsquo;s observation of the starry sky with certain
+      astronomical tables which lay spread out before him. Over this work he
+      frequently shook his head which was covered with crisp waves of hair; nay&mdash;he
+      once flung the pencil, with which he was working his calculations, down on
+      the table, leaned back in his seat and covered his eyes with both hands.
+      Then again he began to write fresh numbers, but his new results seemed to
+      be no more satisfactory than the former one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The steward&rsquo;s letter had been for a long time lying before him when at
+      last it again caught his attention as he put out his hand for another
+      document. Needing some change of ideas he tore it open, read it and flung
+      it from him with annoyance. At any other time he would have expressed some
+      sympathy with the suffering girl, have laughed at the ridiculous man, and
+      have thought out some trick to tease or to terrify; but just now the
+      steward&rsquo;s threats made him angry and increased his dislike for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tired of the silence around him he called to Antinous, who sat gazing
+      dreamily down on the harbor; the youth immediately approached his master.
+      Hadrian looked at him and said, shaking his head:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why you too look as if some danger were threatening you. Is the sky
+      altogether overcast?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No my lord, it is blue over the sea, but towards the south the black
+      clouds are gathering.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Towards the south?&rdquo; said Hadrian thoughtfully. &ldquo;Any thing serious can
+      hardly threaten us from that quarter.&mdash;But it comes, it is near, it
+      is upon us before we suspect it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You sat up too long, and that has put you out of tune.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out of tune?&rdquo; muttered Hadrian to himself. &ldquo;And what is tune? That subtle
+      harmony or discord is a condition which masters all the emotions of the
+      soul at once; and not without reason&mdash;to-day my heart is paralyzed
+      with anxiety.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you have seen evil signs in the heavens?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Direful signs!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wise men believe in the stars,&rdquo; replied Antinous. &ldquo;No doubt you are
+      right, but my weak head cannot understand what their regular courses have
+      to do with my inconstant wanderings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grow gray,&rdquo; replied the Emperor, &ldquo;learn to comprehend the universe with
+      your intellect, and not till then speak of these things for not till then
+      will you discern that every atom of things created, and the greatest as
+      well as the least, is in the closest bonds with every other; that all work
+      together, and each depends on all. All that is or ever will be in nature,
+      all that we men feel, think or do, all is dependent on eternal and
+      immutable causes; and these causes have each their Daimon who interposes
+      between us and the divinity and is symbolized in golden characters on the
+      vault of heaven. The letters are the stars, whose orbits are as unchanging
+      and everlasting as are the first causes of all that exists or happens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And are you quite sure that you never read wrongly in this great record?&rdquo;
+       asked Antinous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even I may err,&rdquo; replied Hadrian. &ldquo;But this time I have not deceived
+      myself. A heavy misfortune threatens me. It is a strange, terrible and
+      extraordinary coincidence!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From that accursed Antioch&mdash;whence nothing good has ever come to me&mdash;I
+      have received the saying of an oracle which foretells that, that&mdash;why
+      should I hide it from you&mdash;in the middle of the year now about to
+      begin some dreadful misfortune shall fall upon me, as lightning strikes
+      the traveller to the earth; and tonight&mdash;look here. Here is the house
+      of Death, here are the planets&mdash;but what do you know of such things?
+      Last night&mdash;the night in which once before such terrors were wrought,
+      the stars confirmed the fatal oracle with as much naked plainness, as much
+      unmistakable certainty as if they had tongues to shout the evil forecast
+      in my ear. It is hard to walk on with such a goal in prospect. What may
+      not the new year bring in its course?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian sighed deeply, but Antinous went close up to him, fell on his
+      knees before him and asked in a tone of childlike humility:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I, a poor foolish lad, teach a great and wise man how to enrich his
+      life with six happy months?&rdquo; The Emperor smiled, as though he knew what
+      was coming, but his favorite felt encouraged to proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave the future to the future,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;What must come will come, for
+      the gods themselves have no power against Fate. When evil is approaching
+      it casts its black shadow before it; you fix your gaze on it and let it
+      darken the light of day. I saunter dreamily on my way and never see
+      misfortune till it runs up against me and falls upon me unawares&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so you are spared many a gloomy day,&rdquo; interrupted Hadrian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is just what I would have said.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And your advice is excellent, for you and for every other loiterer
+      through the gay fair-time of an idle life,&rdquo; replied the Emperor, &ldquo;but the
+      man whose task it is to bear millions in safety and over abysses, must
+      watch the signs around him, look out far and near, and never dare close
+      his eyes, even when such terrors loom as it was my fate to see during the
+      past night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, Phlegon, the Emperor&rsquo;s private secretary, came in with
+      letters just received from Rome, and approached his master. He bowed low,
+      and taking up Hadrian&rsquo;s last words he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The stars disquiet you, Caesar?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, they warn me to be on my guard,&rdquo; replied Hadrian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us hope that they be,&rdquo; cried the Greek, with cheerful vivacity.
+      &ldquo;Cicero was not altogether wrong when he doubted the arts of Astrology.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was a mere talker!&rdquo; said the Emperor, with a frown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; asked Phlegon, &ldquo;would it not be fair that if the horoscopes cast
+      for Cneius or Caius, let us say, were alike, to expect that Cneius or
+      Caius must have the same temperament and the same destiny through life if
+      they had happened to be born in the same hour?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Always the old commonplaces, the old silly objections!&rdquo; interrupted
+      Hadrian, vexed to the verge of rage. &ldquo;Speak when you are spoken to, and do
+      not trouble yourself about things you do not understand and which do not
+      concern you. Is there anything of importance among these papers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous gazed at his sovereign in astonishment; why should Phlegon&rsquo;s
+      objections make him so furious when he had answered his so kindly?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian paid no farther heed to him, but read the despatches one after
+      another, hastily but attentively, wrote brief notes on the margins, signed
+      a decree with a firm hand, and, when his work was finished desired the
+      Greek to leave him. Hardly was he alone with Antinous when the loud cries
+      and jovial shouting of a large multitude came to their ears through the
+      open window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does this mean?&rdquo; he asked Mastor, and as soon as he had been
+      informed that the workmen and slaves had just been let out to give
+      themselves up to the pleasures of their holiday, he muttered to himself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These creatures can riot, shout, dress themselves with garlands, forget
+      themselves in a debauch&mdash;and I, I whom all envy&mdash;I spoil my
+      brief span of life with vain labors, let myself be tormented with
+      consuming cares&mdash;I&mdash;&rdquo; here he broke off and cried in quite an
+      altered tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha! ha! Antinous, you are wiser than I. Let us leave the future to the
+      future. The feast-day is ours too; let us take advantage of this day of
+      freedom. We too will throw ourselves into the holiday whirlpool disguised,
+      I as a satyr, and you as a young faun or something of the kind; we will
+      drain cups, wander round the city and enjoy all that is enjoyable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; exclaimed Antinous, joyfully clapping his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Evoe Bacche!&rdquo; cried Hadrian, tossing up his cup that stood on his table.
+      &ldquo;You are free till this evening, Mastor, and you my boy, go and talk to
+      Pollux, the sculptor. He shall be our guide and he will provide us with
+      wreaths and some mad disguise. I must see drunken men, I must laugh with
+      the jolliest before I am Caesar again. Make haste, my friend, or new cares
+      will come to spoil my holiday mood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Antinous and Mastor at once quitted the Emperor&rsquo;s room; in the corridor
+      the lad beckoned the slave to him and said in a low voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can hold your tongue I know, will you do me a favor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three sooner than one,&rdquo; replied the Sarmatian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are free to-day&mdash;are you going into the city?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not known here, but that does not matter. Take these gold pieces
+      and in the flower-market buy with one of them the most beautiful bunch of
+      flowers you can find, with another you may make merry, and out of the
+      remainder spend a drachma in hiring an ass. The driver will conduct you to
+      the garden of Pudeus&rsquo; widow where stands the house of dame Hannah; you
+      remember the name?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dame Hannah and the widow of Pudeus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And at the little house, not the big one, leave the flowers for the sick
+      Selene.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The daughter of the fat steward, who was attacked by our big dog?&rdquo; asked
+      Mastor, curiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She or another,&rdquo; said Antinous, impatiently, &ldquo;and when they ask you who
+      sent the flowers, say &lsquo;the friend at Lochias,&rsquo; nothing more. You
+      understand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The slave nodded and said to himself: &ldquo;What! you too-oh! these women.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous signed to him to be silent, impressed on him in a few hasty words
+      that he was to be discreet and to pick out the very choicest flowers, and
+      then betook himself into the hall of the Muses to seek Pollux. From him he
+      had learnt where to find the suffering Selene, of whom he could not help
+      thinking incessantly and wherever he might be. He did not find the
+      sculptor in his screened-off nook; prompted by a wish to speak to his
+      mother, Pollux had gone down to the gatehouse where he was now standing
+      before her and frankly narrating, with many eager gestures of his long
+      arms, all that had occurred on the previous night. His story flowed on
+      like a song of triumph, and when he described how the holiday procession
+      had carried away Arsinoe and himself, the old woman jumped up from her
+      chair and clapping her fat little hands, she exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! that is pleasure, that is happiness! I remember flying along with
+      your father in just the same way thirty years ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And since thirty years,&rdquo; Pollux interposed. &ldquo;I can still remember very
+      well how at one of the great Dionysiac festivals, fired by the power of
+      the god, you rushed through the streets with a deer-skin over your
+      shoulders.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was delightful&mdash;lovely!&rdquo; cried Doris with sparkling eyes. &ldquo;But
+      thirty years since it was all different, very different. I have told you
+      before now how I went with our maid-servant into the Canopic way to the
+      house of my aunt Archidike to look on at the great procession. I had not
+      far to go for we lived near the Theatre, my father was stage-manager and
+      yours was one of the chief singers in the chorus. We hurried along, but
+      all sorts of people stopped us, and drunken men wanted to joke with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, you were as sweet as a rose-bud then,&rdquo; her son interrupted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As a rose-bud, yes, but not like your lovely rose,&rdquo; said the old woman.
+      &ldquo;At any rate I looked nice enough for the men in disguise&mdash;fauns and
+      satyrs and were the cynic hypocrites in their ragged cloaks, to think it
+      worth while to look at me and to take a rap on the knuckles when they
+      tried to put an arm round me or to steal a kiss, I did not care for the
+      handsomest of them, for Euphorion had done for me with his fiery glances&mdash;not
+      with words for I was very strictly kept and he had never been able to get
+      a chance to speak to me. At the corner of the Canopic way and the Market
+      street we could get no farther, for the crowd had blocked the way and were
+      howling and storming as they stared at a party of Klodones and other
+      Maenads, who in their sacred fury were tearing a goat to pieces with their
+      teeth. I shuddered at the spectacle, but I must need stare with the rest
+      and shout and halloo as they did. My maid, who I held on to tightly, was
+      seized with the frenzy and dragged me into the middle of the circle close
+      up to the bleeding sacrifice. Two of the possessed women sprang upon us,
+      and I felt one clasping me tightly and trying to throw me down. It was a
+      horrible moment but I defended myself bravely and had succeeded in keeping
+      on my feet when your father sprang forward, set me free and led me away.
+      What happened after I could not tell you now; it was one of those wild
+      happy dreams in which you must hold your heart with both hands for fear it
+      should crack with joy, or fly out and away up to the sky and in the very
+      eye of the sun. Late in the evening I got home and a week after I was
+      Euphorion&rsquo;s wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have exactly followed your example,&rdquo; said Pollux, &ldquo;and if Arsinoe
+      grows to be like my dear old woman I shall be quite satisfied.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Happy and contented,&rdquo; replied Doris. &ldquo;Keep you health, snap your fingers
+      at care and sorrow, do your duty on work-days and drink till you are jolly
+      in honor of the god on holidays, and then all will be well. Those who do
+      all they are able and enjoy as much as they can get, make good use of
+      their lives and need feel no remorse in their last hours. What is past is
+      done for, and when Atropos cuts our thread some one else will stand in our
+      place and joys will begin all over again. May the gods bless you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are right,&rdquo; said Pollux embracing his mother, &ldquo;and two together can
+      turn the work out of hand more lightly and enjoy the pleasures of
+      existence better than each alone&mdash;can they not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure of it; and you have chosen the right mate,&rdquo; cried the old
+      woman. &ldquo;You are a sculptor and used to simple things; you need no riches,
+      only a sweet face which may every day rejoice your heart, and that you
+      have found.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nowhere a sweeter or a lovelier,&rdquo; said Pollux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that there is not,&rdquo; continued Doris. &ldquo;First I cast my eyes on Selene.
+      She need not be ashamed to show herself either, and she is a pattern for
+      girls; but then as Arsinoe grew older, whenever she passed this way I
+      thought to myself: &lsquo;that girl is growing up for my boy,&rsquo; and now that you
+      have won her I feel as if I were once more as young as your sweetheart
+      herself. My old heart beats as happily as if the little Loves were
+      touching it with their wings and rosy fingers. If my feet had not grown so
+      heavy with constantly standing over the hearth and at washing&mdash;really
+      and truly I could take Euphorion by the arm and dance through the streets
+      with him to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is father?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out singing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the morning! where?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is some sect that are celebrating their mysteries. They pay well
+      and he had to sing dismal hymns for them behind a curtain; the wildest
+      stuff, in which he does not follow a word, and that I do not understand a
+      half of.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a pity for I wanted to speak to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will not be back till late.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is plenty of time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much the better, otherwise I might have told him what you had to say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your advice is as good as his. I think of giving up working under Papias
+      and standing on my own feet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are quite right; the Roman architect told me yesterday that a great
+      future was open to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are only my poor sister and the children to be considered. If,
+      during the first few months I should find myself falling short&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will manage to pull through. It is high time that you yourself should
+      reap from what you sow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it seems to me, for my own sake and Arsinoe&rsquo;s; if only Keraunus&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye&mdash;there will be a battle to fight with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A hard one, a hard one,&rdquo; sighed Pollux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The thought of the old man troubles my happiness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Folly!&rdquo; cried Doris. &ldquo;Avoid all useless anxiety. It is almost as
+      injurious as remorse gnawing at your heart. Take a workshop of your own,
+      do some great work in a joyful spirit, something to astonish the world,
+      and I will wager anything that the old fool of a steward will only be
+      vexed to think that he destroyed the first work of the celebrated Pollux,
+      instead of treasuring it in his cabinet of curiosities. Just imagine that
+      no such person exists in the world and enjoy your happiness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will stick to that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One thing more my lad: take good care of Arsinoe. She is young and
+      inexperienced and you must not persuade her to do anything you would
+      advise her not to do if she were betrothed to your brother instead of to
+      yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Doris had not done speaking when Antinous came into the gate-house and
+      delivered the commands of the architect Claudius Venator, to escort him
+      through the city. Pollux hesitated with his answer, for he had still much
+      to do in the palace, and he hoped to see Arsinoe again in the course of
+      the day. After such a morning what could noon and evening be to him
+      without her? Dame Doris noticed his indecision and cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, go; the festival is for pleasure, besides, the architect can perhaps
+      advise you on many points, and recommend you to his friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your mother is right,&rdquo; said Antinous. &ldquo;Claudius Venator can be very
+      touchy, but he can also be grateful, and I wish you sincerely well&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good then, I will come,&rdquo; Pollux interposed while the Bithynian was still
+      speaking, for he felt himself strongly attracted by Hadrian&rsquo;s imposing
+      personality and considered that under the circumstances, it might be very
+      desirable to revel with him for a while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will come, but first I must let Pontius know that I am going to fly
+      from the heat of the fray for a few hours to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave that to Venator,&rdquo; replied the favorite, &ldquo;and you must find some
+      amusing disguise and procure masks for him and for me and, if you like,
+      for yourself too. He wants to join the revel as a satyr and I in some
+      other disguise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good,&rdquo; replied the sculptor. &ldquo;I will go at once and order what is
+      requisite. A quantity of dresses for the Dionysiac processions are lying
+      in our workshop and in half an hour I will be back with the things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But pray make haste,&rdquo; Antinous begged him. &ldquo;My master cannot bear to be
+      kept waiting, and besides&mdash;one thing&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At these words Antinous had grown embarrassed and had gone quite close up
+      to the artist. He laid his hand on his shoulder and said in a low voice
+      but impressively:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Venator stands very near to Caesar. Beware of saying anything before him
+      that is not in Hadrian&rsquo;s favor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is your master Caesar&rsquo;s spy?&rdquo; asked Pollux, looking suspiciously at
+      Antinous. &ldquo;Pontius has already, given me a similar warning, and if that is
+      the case&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; interrupted the lad hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anything but that; but the two have no secrets from each other and
+      Venator talks a good deal&mdash;cannot hold his tongue&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you and will be on my guard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye do so&mdash;I mean it honestly.&rdquo; The Bithynian held out his hand to
+      the artist with an expression of warm regard on his handsome features and
+      with an indescribably graceful gesture. Pollux took it heartily, but dame
+      Doris, whose old eyes had been fixed as if spellbound on Antinous, seized
+      her son&rsquo;s arm and quite excited by the sight of his beauty cried out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! what a splendid creature! moulded by the gods! sacred to the gods!
+      Pollux, boy! you might almost think one of the immortals had come down to
+      earth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look at my old woman!&rdquo; exclaimed Pollux laughing, &ldquo;but in truth friend,
+      she has good reasons for her ecstasies, I could follow her example.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold him fast, hold him fast!&rdquo; cried Doris. &ldquo;If he only will let you take
+      his likeness you can show the world a thing worth seeing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you?&rdquo; interrupted Pollux turning to Hadrian&rsquo;s favorite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have never yet been able to keep still for any artist,&rdquo; said Antinous.
+      &ldquo;But I will do any thing you wish to please you. It only vexes me that you
+      too should join in the chorus with the rest of the world. Farewell for the
+      present, I must go back to my master.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the youth had left the house Doris exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whether a work of art is good for any thing or not I can only guess at,
+      but as to what is beautiful that I know as well as any other woman in
+      Alexandria. If that boy will stand as your model you will produce
+      something that will delight men and turn the heads of the women, and you
+      will be sought after even in a workshop of your own. Eternal gods! such
+      beauty as that is sublime. Why are there no means of preserving such a
+      face and such a form from old age and wrinkles?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know the means, mother,&rdquo; said Pollux, as he went to the door. &ldquo;It is
+      called Art: to her it is given to bestow eternal youth on this mortal
+      Adonis.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old woman glanced at her son with pardonable pride, and confirmed his
+      words by an assenting nod. While she fed her birds, with many coaxing
+      words, and made one which was a special favorite pick crumbs from her
+      lips, the young sculptor was hurrying through the streets with long steps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was greeted as he went with many a cross word, and many exclamations
+      rose from the crowd he left behind him, for he pushed his way by the
+      weight of his tall person and his powerful arms, and saw and heard, as he
+      went, little enough of what was going around him. He thought of Arsinoe,
+      and between whiles of Antinous and of the attitude in which he best might
+      represent him&mdash;whether as hero or god.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the flower-market, near the Gymnasium, he was for a moment roused from
+      his reverie by a picture which struck him as being unusual and which
+      riveted his gaze, as did every thing exceptional that came under his eyes.
+      On a very small dark-colored donkey sat a tall, well-dressed slave, who
+      held in his right hand a nosegay of extraordinary size and beauty. By his
+      side walked a smartly dressed-up man with a splendid wreath, and a comic
+      mask over his face followed by two garden-gods of gigantic stature, and
+      four graceful boys. In the slave, Pollux at once recognized the servant of
+      Claudius Venator, and he fancied he must have seen the masked gentlemen
+      too before now, but he could not remember where, and did not trouble
+      himself to retrace him in his mind. At any rate, the rider of the donkey
+      had just heard something he did not like, for he was looking anxiously at
+      his bunch of flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After Pollux had hurried past this strange party his thoughts reverted to
+      other, and to him far nearer and dearer subjects. But Mastor&rsquo;s anxious
+      looks were not without a cause, for the gentleman who was talking to him
+      was no less a person than Verus, the praetor, who was called by the
+      Alexandrians the sham Eros. He had seen the Emperor&rsquo;s body-slave a hundred
+      times about his person; he therefore recognized him at once, and his
+      presence here in Alexandria led him directly to the simple and correct
+      inference that his master too must be in the city. The praetor&rsquo;s curiosity
+      was roused, and he at once proceeded to ply the poor fellow with
+      bewildering cross-questions. When the donkey-rider shortly and sharply
+      refused to answer, Verus thought it well to reveal himself to him, and the
+      slave lost his confident demeanor when he recognized the grand gentleman,
+      the Emperor&rsquo;s particular friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He lost himself in contradictory statements, and although he did not
+      directly admit it, he left his interrogator in the certainty that Hadrian
+      was in Alexandria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was perfectly evident that the beautiful nosegay, which had attracted
+      the praetor&rsquo;s attention to Mastor could not belong to himself. What could
+      be its destination? Verus recommenced his questioning, but the Sarmatian
+      would betray nothing, till Verus tapped him lightly first on one cheek and
+      then on the other, and said gaily:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mastor, my worthy friend Mastor, listen to me. I will make you certain
+      proposals, and you shall nod your head, towards that of the estimable
+      beast with two pairs of legs on which you are mounted, as soon as one of
+      them takes your fancy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me go on my way,&rdquo; the slave implored, with growing anxiety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go, by all means, but I go with you,&rdquo; retorted Verus, &ldquo;until I have hit
+      on the thing that suits you. A great many plans dwell in my head, as you
+      will see. First I must ask you, shall I go to your master and tell him
+      that you have betrayed his presence in Alexandria?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir, you will never do that!&rdquo; cried Mastor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To proceed then. Shall I and my following hang on to your skirts and stay
+      with you till nightfall, when you and your steed must return home? You
+      decline&mdash;with thanks! and very wisely, for the execution of this
+      project would be equally unpleasant to you and to me, and would probably
+      get you punished. Whisper to me then, softly, in my ear, where your master
+      is lodging, and from whom and to whom you are carrying those flowers; as
+      soon as you have agreed to that proposal I will let you go on alone, and
+      will show you that I care no more for my gold pieces here, in Alexandria,
+      than I do in Italy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not gold&mdash;certainly I will not take gold!&rdquo; cried Mastor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are an honest fellow,&rdquo; replied Verus in an altered tone, &ldquo;and you
+      know of me that I treat my servants well and would rather be kind to folks
+      than hard upon them. So satisfy my curiosity without any fear, and I will
+      promise you in return, that not a soul, your master least of all, shall
+      ever know from me what you tell me.&rdquo; Mastor hesitated a little, but as he
+      could not but own to himself that he would be obliged at last to yield to
+      the stronger will of this imperious man, and as moreover he knew that the
+      haughty and extravagant praetor was in fact one of the kindest of masters,
+      he sighed deeply and whispered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will not be the ruin of a poor wretch like me, that I know, so I will
+      tell you, we are living at Lochias.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There,&rdquo; exclaimed Verus clapping his hands. &ldquo;And now as to the flowers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mere trifling.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Hadrian then in a merry mood?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Till to-day he was very gay&mdash;but since last night&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know yourself what he is when he has seen lead signs in the sky.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bad signs,&rdquo; said Verus gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet he sends flowers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not he, can you not guess?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Antinous?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mastor nodded assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only think,&rdquo; laughed Verus. &ldquo;Then he too is beginning to think it better
+      worth while to admire than to be admired. And who is the fair one who has
+      succeeded in waking up his slumbering heart?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay&mdash;I promised him not to chatter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I promise you the same. My powers of reserve are far greater than my
+      curiosity even.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be content, I beseech you with what you already know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But to know half is less endurable than to know nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay&mdash;I cannot tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then am I to begin with fresh suggestions, and all over again?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! my lord. I beg you, entreat you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out with the word, and I go on my way, but if you persist in refusing&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really and truly it only concerns a white-faced girl whom you would not
+      even look at.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A girl-indeed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our big dog threw the poor thing down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the street?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, at Lochias. Her father is Keraunus the palace-steward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And her name is Arsinoe?&rdquo; asked Verus with undisguised concern, for he
+      had a pleasant recollection of the beautiful child who had been selected
+      to fill the part of Roxana.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, her name is Selene, Arsinoe indeed is her younger sister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you bring these flowers from Lochias?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She went out, and she could not get back home again, she is now lying in
+      the house of a stranger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must be quite indifferent to you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By no means, quite the contrary. I beg you to tell me the whole truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eternal gods! what can you care about the poor sick creature?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing whatever; but I must know whither you are riding.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Down by the sea. I do not know the house, but the donkey driver&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it far from here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About half an hour yet,&rdquo; said the lad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A good way then,&rdquo; replied Verus. &ldquo;And Hadrian is particularly anxious to
+      remain unknown.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you his body-servant, who are known to numbers of others here from
+      Rome, like myself, you propose to ride half a mile through the streets
+      where every creature that can stand or walk is swarming, with a large
+      nosegay in your hand which attracts every body&rsquo;s attention. Oh Mastor that
+      is not wise!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The slave started, and seeing at once that Verus was right, he asked in
+      alarm:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What then can I do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get off your donkey,&rdquo; said the praetor. &ldquo;Disguise yourself and make merry
+      to your heart&rsquo;s content with these gold pieces.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the flowers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will see to that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will? I may trust you; and never betray to Antinous what you
+      compelled me to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Positively not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&mdash;there are the flowers, but I cannot take the gold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I shall fling it among the crowd. Buy yourself a garland, a mask and
+      some wine, as much as you can carry. Where is the girl to be found?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At dame Hannah&rsquo;s. She lives in a little house in a garden belonging to
+      the widow of Pudeus. And whoever gives it to her is to say that it is sent
+      by the friend at Lochias.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good. Now go, and take care that no one recognizes you. Your secret is
+      mine, and the friend at Lochias shall be duly mentioned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mastor disappeared in the crowd. Verus put the nosegay into the hands of
+      one of the garden-gods that followed in his train, sprang laughing on to
+      the ass, and desired the driver to show him the way. At the corner of the
+      next street, he met two litters, carried with difficulty through the crowd
+      by their bearers. In the first sat Keraunus, whose saffron-colored cloak
+      was conspicuous from afar, as fat as Silenus the companion of Dionysus,
+      but looking very sullen. In the second sat Arsinoe, looking gaily about
+      her, and so fresh and pretty that the Roman&rsquo;s easily-stirred pulses beat
+      more rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without reflecting, he took the flowers from the hand of the garden-god&mdash;the
+      flowers intended for Selene&mdash;laid them on the girl&rsquo;s litter, and
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alexander greets Roxana, the fairest of the fair.&rdquo; Arsinoe colored, and
+      Verus, after watching her for some time as she was carried onwards,
+      desired one of his boys to follow her litter, and to join him again in the
+      flower-market, where he would wait, to inform him whither she had gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The messenger hurried off, and Verus, turning his ass&rsquo;s head soon reached
+      a semicircular pillared hall on the shady side of a large open space,
+      under which the better sort of gardeners and flower dealers of the city
+      exposed their gay and fragrant wares to be sold by pretty girls. To-day
+      every stall had been particularly well supplied, but the demand for
+      wreaths and flowers had steadily increased from an early hour, and
+      although Verus had all that he could find of fresh flowers arranged and
+      tied together, still the nosegay, though much larger, was not half so
+      beautiful as that intended for Selene, and for which he substituted it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now this annoyed the Roman. His sense of justice prompted him to make good
+      the loss he had inflicted on the sick girl. Gay ribbons were wound round
+      the stalks of the flowers, and the long ends floated in the air, so Verus
+      took a brooch from his dress and stuck it into the bow which ornamented
+      the stem of the nosegay; then he was satisfied, and as he looked at the
+      stone set in a gold border&mdash;an onyx on which was engraved Eros
+      sharpening his arrows&mdash;he pictured to himself the pleasure, the
+      delight of the girl that the handsome Bithynian loved, as she received the
+      beautiful gift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His slaves, natives of Britain, who were dressed as garden-gods, were
+      charged with the commission to proceed to dame Hannah&rsquo;s under the guidance
+      of the donkey-driver to deliver the nosegay to Selene from &lsquo;the friend at
+      Lochias,&rsquo; and then to wait for him outside the house of Titianus, the
+      prefect; for thither, as he had ascertained from his swift-footed
+      messenger, had Keraunus and his daughter been carried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus needed a longer time than the boy, to make his way through the
+      crowd. At the door of the prefect&rsquo;s residence he laid aside his mask, and
+      in an anteroom where the steward was sitting on a couch waiting for his
+      daughter, he arranged his hair and the folds of his toga, and was then
+      conducted to the lady Julia with whom he hoped, once more, to see the
+      charming Arsinoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in the reception-room, instead of Arsinoe he found his own wife and
+      the poetess Balbilla and her companion. He greeted the ladies gaily,
+      amiably and gracefully, as usual, and then, as he looked enquiringly round
+      the large room without concealing his disappointment, Balbilla came up to
+      him and asked him in a low voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you be honest, Verus?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When circumstances allow it, yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And will they allow it here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should suppose so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then answer me truly. Did you come here for Julia&rsquo;s sake, or did you come&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or did you expect to find the fair Roxana with the prefect&rsquo;s wife?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Roxana?&rdquo; asked Verus, with a cunning smile. &ldquo;Roxana! Why she was the wife
+      of Alexander the Great, and is long since dead, but I care only for the
+      living, and when I left the merry tumult in the streets it was simply and
+      solely&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You excite my curiosity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because my prophetic heart promised me, fairest Balbilla, that I should
+      find you here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that you call honest!&rdquo; cried the poetess, hitting the praetor a blow
+      with the stick of the ostrich-feather fan she held in her hand. &ldquo;Only
+      listen, Lucilla, your husband declares he came here for my sake.&rdquo; The
+      praetor looked reproachfully at the speaker, but she whispered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Due punishment for a dishonest man.&rdquo; Then, raising her voice, she said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know, Lucilla, that if I remain unmarried, your husband is not
+      wholly innocent in the matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! yes, I was born too late for you,&rdquo; interrupted Verus, who knew very
+      well what the poetess was about to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay&mdash;no misunderstanding!&rdquo; cried Balbilla. &ldquo;For how can a woman
+      venture upon wedlock when she cannot but fear the possibility of getting
+      such a husband as Verus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what man,&rdquo; retorted the praetor, &ldquo;would ever be so bold as to court
+      Balbilla, could he hear how cruelly she judges an innocent admirer of
+      beauty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A husband ought not to admire beauty&mdash;only the one beauty who is his
+      wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah Vestal maiden,&rdquo; laughed Verus. &ldquo;I am meanwhile punishing you by
+      withholding from you a great secret which interests us all. No, no, I am
+      not going to tell&mdash;but I beg you my lady wife to take her to task,
+      and teach her to exercise some indulgence so that her future husband may
+      not have too hard a time of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No woman can learn to be indulgent,&rdquo; replied Lucilla. &ldquo;Still we practise
+      indulgence when we have no alternative, and the criminal requires us to
+      make allowance for him in this thing or the other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus made his wife a bow and pressed his lips on her arm, then he asked.
+      &ldquo;And where is dame Julia?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is saving the sheep from the wolf,&rdquo; replied Balbilla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which means&mdash;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That as soon as you were announced she carried off little Roxana to a
+      place of safety.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; interrupted Lucilla. &ldquo;The tailor was waiting in an inner room to
+      arrange the charming child&rsquo;s costume. Only look at the lovely nosegay she
+      brought to Julia. And do you deny my right to share your secret?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How could I?&rdquo; replied Verus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is very much in need of your making allowances!&rdquo; laughed Balbilla,
+      while the praetor went up to, his wife and told her in a whisper what he
+      had learnt from Mastor. Lucilla clasped her hands in astonishment, and
+      Verus cried to the poetess:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now you see what a satisfaction your cruel tongue has deprived you of?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can you be so revengeful most estimable Verus,&rdquo; said the lady
+      coaxingly. &ldquo;I am dying of curiosity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Live but a few days longer fair Balbilla, for my sake,&rdquo; replied the
+      Roman, &ldquo;and the cause of your early death will be removed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only wait, I will be revenged!&rdquo; cried the girl threatening him with her
+      finger, but Lucilla led her away saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come now, it is time we should give Julia the benefit of our advice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do so,&rdquo; said Verus. &ldquo;Otherwise I am afraid my visit to-day would seem
+      opportune to no one.&mdash;Greet Julia from me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he went away he cast a glance at the nosegay which Arsinoe had given
+      away as soon as she had received it from him, and he sighed: &ldquo;As we grow
+      old we have to learn wisdom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      BOOK 2.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Dame Hannah had watched by Selene till sunrise and indefatigably cooled
+      both her injured foot and the wound in her head. The old physician was not
+      dissatisfied with the condition of his patient, but ordered the widow to
+      lie down for a time and to leave the care of her for a few hours to her
+      young friend. When Mary was alone with the sick girl and had laid the
+      fresh cold handkerchief in its place, Selene turned her face towards her
+      and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you were at Lochias yesterday. Tell me how you found them all there.
+      Who guided you to our lodgings and did you see my little brother and
+      sisters?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not yet quite free of fever, and I do not know how much I ought
+      to talk to you&mdash;but I would with all my heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The words were spoken kindly and there was a deep loving light in the eyes
+      of the deformed girl as she said them. Selene excited not merely her
+      sympathy and pity, but her admiration too, for she was so beautiful, so
+      totally different from herself, and in every little service she rendered
+      her, she felt like some despised beggar whom a prince might have permitted
+      to wait upon him. Her hump had never seemed to her so bent, nor her brown
+      skin so ugly at any other time as it did to-day, when side by side with
+      this symmetrical and delicate girlish form, rounded to such tender
+      contours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Mary felt not the smallest movement of envy. She only felt happy to
+      help Selene, to serve her, to be allowed to gaze at her although she was a
+      heathen. During the night too, she had prayed fervently that the Lord
+      might graciously draw to himself this lovely, gentle creature, that He
+      might permit her to recover, and fill her soul with the same love for the
+      Saviour that gave joy to her own. More than once she had longed to kiss
+      her, but she dared not, for it seemed to her as though the sick girl were
+      made of finer stuff than she herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene felt tired, very tired, and as the pain diminished, a comfortable
+      sense stole over her of peace and respite in the silent and loving
+      homeliness of her surroundings; a feeling that was new and very soothing,
+      though it was interrupted, now and again, by her anxiety for those at
+      home. Dame Hannah&rsquo;s presence did her good, for she fancied she recognized
+      in her voice something that had been peculiar to her mother&rsquo;s, when she
+      had played with her and pressed her with special affection to her heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the papyrus factory, at the gumming-table, the sight of the little
+      hunchback had disgusted Selene, but here she observed what good eyes she
+      had, and how kind a voice, and the care with which Mary lifted the
+      compress from her foot&mdash;as softly, as if in her own hands she felt
+      the pain that Selene was suffering&mdash;and then laid another on the
+      broken ankle, aroused her gratitude. Her sister Arsinoe was a vain and
+      thorough Alexandrian girl, and she had nicknamed the poor thing after the
+      ugliest of the Hellenes who had besieged Troy. &ldquo;Dame Thersites,&rdquo; and
+      Selene herself had often repeated it. Now she forgot the insulting name
+      altogether, and met the objections of her nurse by saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fever cannot be much now; if you tell me something I shall not think
+      so constantly of this atrocious pain. I am longing to be at home. Did you
+      see the children?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Selene. I went no farther than the entrance of your dwelling, and the
+      kind gate-keeper&rsquo;s wife told me at once that I should find neither your
+      father nor your sister, and that your slave-woman was gone out to buy
+      cakes for the children.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To buy them!&rdquo; exclaimed Selene in astonishment. &ldquo;The old woman told me
+      too that the way to your apartments led through several rooms in which
+      slaves were at work, and that her son, who happened to be with her, should
+      accompany me, and so he did, but the door was locked, and he told me I
+      might entrust his mother with my commission. I did so, for she looked as
+      if she were both judicious and kind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That she is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And she is very fond of you, for when I told her of your sufferings the
+      bright tears rolled down her cheeks, and she praised you as warmly, and
+      was as much troubled as if you had been her own daughter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You said nothing about our working in the factory?&rdquo; asked Selene
+      anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not, you had desired me not to mention it. I was to say
+      everything that was kind to you from the old lady.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For several minutes the two girls were silent, then Selene asked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did the gate-keeper&rsquo;s son who accompanied you also hear of the disaster
+      that had befallen me?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, on the way to your rooms he was full of fun and jokes, but when I
+      told him that you had gone out with your damaged foot and now could not
+      get home again, and were being treated by the leech, he was very angry and
+      used blasphemous language.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you remember what he said?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not perfectly, but one thing I still recollect. He accused his gods of
+      having created a beautiful work only to spoil it, nay he abused them&rdquo; Mary
+      looked down as she spoke, as if she were repeating something ill to tell,
+      but Selene colored slightly with pleasure, and exclaimed eagerly, as if to
+      outdo the sculptor in abuse:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is quite right, the powers above act in such a way&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is not right,&rdquo; said the deformed girl reprovingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What?&rdquo; asked the patient. &ldquo;Here you live quietly to yourselves in perfect
+      peace and love. Many a word that I heard dame Hannah say has stuck in my
+      mind, and I can see for myself that you act as kindly as you speak. The
+      gods no doubt are good to you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God is for each and all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What!&rdquo; exclaimed Selene with flashing eyes. &ldquo;For those whose every
+      pleasure they destroy? For the home of eight children whom they rob of
+      their mother? For the poor whom they daily threaten to deprive of their
+      bread-winner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For them too, there is a merciful God,&rdquo; interrupted dame Hannah who had
+      just come into the room. &ldquo;I will lead you to the loving Father in Heaven
+      who cares for us all as if we were His children; but not now&mdash;you
+      must rest and neither talk nor hear of anything that can excite your
+      fevered blood. Now I will rearrange the pillow under your head. Mary will
+      wet a fresh compress and then you must try to sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot,&rdquo; replied Selene, while Hannah shook her pillows and arranged
+      them carefully. &ldquo;Tell me about your God who loves us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By-and-bye, dear child. Seek Him and you will find Him, for of all His
+      children He loves them best who suffer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those who suffer?&rdquo; asked Selene, in surprise. &ldquo;What has a God in his
+      Olympian joys to do with those who suffer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be quiet, child,&rdquo; interrupted Hannah, patting the sick girl with a
+      soothing hand, &ldquo;you soon will learn how God takes care of you and that
+      Another loves you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another,&rdquo; muttered Selene, and her cheeks turned crimson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She thought at once of Pollux, and asked herself why the story of her
+      sufferings should have moved him so deeply if he were not in love with
+      her. Then she began to seek some colorable ground for what she had heard
+      as she went past the screen behind which he had been working. He had never
+      told her plainly that he loved her. Why should he, an artist and a bright,
+      high spirited young fellow, not be allowed to jest with a pretty girl,
+      even if his heart belonged to another. No, she was not indifferent to him:
+      that she had felt that night when she had stood as his model, and now&mdash;as
+      she thought&mdash;I could guess, nay, feel sure of, from Mary&rsquo;s story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The longer she thought of him, the more she began to long to see him whom
+      she had loved so dearly even as a child. Her heart had never yet beat for
+      any other man, but since she had met Pollux again in the hall of the
+      Muses, his image had filled her whole soul, and what she now felt must be
+      love&mdash;could be nothing else. Half awake, but half asleep, she
+      pictured him to herself, entering this quiet room, sitting down by the
+      head of her couch, and looking with his kind eyes into hers. Ah! and how
+      could she help it&mdash;she sat up and opened her arms to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be still, my child, he still,&rdquo; said Hannah. &ldquo;It is not good for you to
+      move about so much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene opened her eyes, but only to close them again and to dream for some
+      time longer till she was startled from her rest by loud voices in the
+      garden. Hannah left the room, and her voice presently mingled with those
+      of the other persons outside, and when she returned her cheeks were
+      flushed and she could not find fitting words in which to tell her patient
+      what she had to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A very big man, in the most outrageous dress,&rdquo; she said at last, &ldquo;wanted
+      to be let in; when the gatekeeper refused, he forced his way in. He asked
+      for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For me,&rdquo; said Selene, blushing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my child, he brought a large and beautiful nosegay of flowers, and
+      said &lsquo;your friend at Lochias sends you his greeting.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My friend at Lochias?&rdquo; murmured thoughtfully Selene to herself. Then her
+      eyes sparkled with gladness, and she asked quickly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You said the man who brought the flowers was very tall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh please, dame Hannah, let me see the flowers?&rdquo; cried Selene, trying to
+      raise herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you a lover, child?&rdquo; asked the widow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A lover?&mdash;no, but there is a young man with whom we always used to
+      play when we were quite little&mdash;an artist, a kind, good man&mdash;and
+      the nosegay must be from him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hannah looked with sympathy at the girl, and signing to Mary she said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The nosegay is a very large one. You may see it, but it must not remain
+      in the room; the smell of so many flowers might do you harm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mary rose from her seat at the head of the bed, and whispered to the sick
+      girl:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that the tall gate-keeper&rsquo;s son?&rdquo; Selene nodded, smiling, and as the
+      women went away she changed her position from lying on one side, stretched
+      herself out on her back, pressed her hand to her heart, and looked upwards
+      with a deep sigh. There was a singing in her ears, and flashes of colored
+      light seemed to dance before her closed eyes. She drew her breath with
+      difficulty, but still it seemed as though the air she drew in was full of
+      the perfume of flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hannah and Mary carried in the enormous bunch of flowers. Selene&rsquo;s eyes
+      shone more brightly, and she clasped her hands in admiration. Then she
+      made them show her the lovely, richly-tinted and fragrant gift, first on
+      one side and then on the other, buried her face in the flowers, and
+      secretly kissed the delicate petals of a lovely, half-opened rose-bud. She
+      felt as if intoxicated, and the bright tears flowed in slow succession
+      down her cheeks. Mary was the first to detect the brooch stuck into the
+      ribbons that tied the stems of the flowers. She unfastened it and showed
+      it to Selene, who hastily took it out of her hand. Blushing deeper and
+      deeper, she fixed her eyes on the intaglio carved on the stone of the love
+      god sharpening his arrows. She felt her pain no more pain, she felt quite
+      well, and at the same time glad, proud, too happy. Dame Hannah noted her
+      excitement with much anxiety; she nodded to Mary and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now my daughter, this must do; we will place the flowers outside the
+      window so that you may see them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Already,&rdquo; said Selene, in a regretful tone, and she broke off a few
+      violets and roses from the crowded mass. When she was alone again, she
+      laid the flowers down and once more tenderly contemplated the figures on
+      the handsome gem. It had no doubt been engraved by Teuker, the brother of
+      Pollux. How fine the carving was, how significant the choice of the
+      subject represented! Only the heavy gold setting disturbed the poor child,
+      who for so many years had had to stint and contrive with her money. She
+      said to herself that it was wrong of the young fellow, who, besides being
+      poor, had to support his sister, to rush into such an outlay for her. But
+      his gift gave her none the less pleasure, out of her own possessions
+      nothing would have seemed too precious to give him. She would teach him to
+      be saving by-and-bye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The women presently returned after they had with much trouble set up the
+      nosegay outside the window, and they renewed the wet handkerchief without
+      speaking. She did not in the least want to talk, she was listening with so
+      much pleasure to the fair promises which her fancy was making, and
+      wherever she turned her eyes they fell on something she could love, The
+      flowers on her bed, the brooch in her hand, the nosegay outside the
+      window, and never dreaming that another&mdash;not the man she loved&mdash;could
+      have sent it to her, another for whom she cared even less than for the
+      Christians who walked up and down in Paulina&rsquo;s garden, under her window.
+      There she lay, full of sweet contentment and secure of a love that had
+      never been hers&mdash;of possessing the heart of a man who never once
+      thought of her, but who, only a few hours since, had rushed off with her
+      sister, intoxicated with joy and delight. Poor Selene!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And her next dreams were of untroubled happiness, but the minutes flew
+      after each other, each bringing her nearer to waking&mdash;and what a
+      waking!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her father had not come, as he had intended, to see her before going to
+      the prefect&rsquo;s house with Arsinoe. His desire to conduct his daughter to
+      Julia in a dress worthy of her prospects had detained him a long time, and
+      even then he had not succeeded in his object. All the weavers, and the
+      shops were closed, for every workman, whether slave or free, was taking
+      part in the festivities, and when the hour fixed by the prefect drew near,
+      his daughter was still sitting in her litter, in her simple white dress
+      and her modest peplum, bound with blue ribbon, which looked even more
+      insignificant by day than in the evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nosegay which had been given to Arsinoe by Verus gave her much
+      pleasure, for a girl is always pleased with beautiful flowers&mdash;nay,
+      they have something in common. As she and her father approached the
+      prefect&rsquo;s house Arsinoe grew frightened, and her father could not conceal
+      his vexation at being obliged to take her to the lady Julia in so modest a
+      garb. Nor was his gloomy humor at all enlivened when he was left to wait
+      in the anteroom while Julia and the wife of Verus, aided by Balbilla chose
+      for his daughter the finest colored and costliest stuffs of the softest
+      wool, silk, and delicate bombyx tissue. This sort of occupation has this
+      peculiarity, that the longer time it takes the more assistance is needed,
+      and the steward had to submit to wait fully two hours in the prefect&rsquo;s
+      anteroom, which gradually grew fuller and fuller of clients and visitors.
+      At last Arsinoe came back all glowing and full of the beautiful things
+      that were to be prepared for her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her father rose slowly from his easy seat, and as she hastened towards him
+      the door opened, and through it came Plutarch, freshly wreathed, freshly
+      decked with flowers which were fastened to the breast-folds of his
+      gallium, and lifted into the room by his two human crutches. Every one
+      rose as he came in, and when Keraunus saw that the chief lawyer of the
+      city, a man of ancient family, bowed before him, he did likewise.
+      Plutarch&rsquo;s eyesight was stronger than his legs were, and where a pretty
+      woman was to be seen, it was always very keen. He perceived Arsinoe as
+      soon as he had crossed the threshold and waved both hands towards her, as
+      if she were an old and favorite acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sweet child had quite bewitched him; in his younger days he would have
+      given anything and everything to win her favor; now he was satisfied to
+      make his favor pleasing to her; he touched her playfully two or three
+      times on the arm and said gaily:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well pretty Roxana, has dame Julia done well with the dresses?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! they have chosen such pretty, such really lovely things!&rdquo; exclaimed
+      the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have they?&rdquo; said Plutarch, to conceal by speech the fact that he was
+      meditating on some subject; &ldquo;Have they? and why should they not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe&rsquo;s washed dress had caught the old man&rsquo;s eye, and remembering that
+      Gabinius the curiosity-dealer had that very morning been to him to enquire
+      whether Arsinoe were not in fact one of his work-girls, and to repeat his
+      statement that her father was a beggarly toady, full of haughty airs,
+      whose curiosities, of which he contemptuously mentioned a few, were worth
+      nothing, Plutarch was hastily asking himself how he could best defend his
+      pretty protege against the envious tongues of her rivals; for many
+      spiteful speeches of theirs had already come to his ears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whatever the noble Julia undertakes is always admirably done,&rdquo; he said
+      aloud, and he added in a whisper: &ldquo;The day after to-morrow when the
+      goldsmiths have opened their workshops again, I will see what I can find
+      for you. I am falling in a heap, hold me up higher Antaeus and Atlas. So.&mdash;Yes,
+      my child you look even better from up here than from a lower level. Is the
+      stout man standing behind you your father?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you no mother?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said Plutarch in a tone of regret. Then turning to the steward he
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accept my congratulations on having such a daughter Keraunus. I hear too
+      that you have to supply a mother&rsquo;s place to her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas sir! she is very like my poor wife, since her death I live a joyless
+      life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I hear that you take pleasure in collecting rare and beautiful
+      objects. This is a taste we have in common. Are you inclined to part with
+      the cup that belonged to my namesake Plutarch? It must be a fine piece of
+      work from what Gabinius tells me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That it is,&rdquo; replied the steward proudly. &ldquo;It was a gift to the
+      philosopher from Trajan; beautifully carved in ivory. I cannot bear to
+      part with such a gem but,&rdquo; and as he spoke he lowered his voice. &ldquo;I am
+      under obligations to you, you have taken charge of my daughter&rsquo;s outfit
+      and to offer you some return I will&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is quite out of the question,&rdquo; interrupted Plutarch, who knew men,
+      and who saw from the steward&rsquo;s pompous pretentiousness that the dealer had
+      done him no injustice in describing him as overbearing. &ldquo;You are doing me
+      an honor by allowing me to contribute what I can towards decorating our
+      Roxana. I beg you to send me the cup, and whatever price you put upon it,
+      I, of course, shall pay, that is quite understood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus had a brief internal conflict with himself. If he had not so
+      sorely needed money, if he had not so keenly desired to see a young and
+      comely slave walking behind him, he would have adhered to his purpose of
+      presenting the cup to Plutarch; as it was he cleared his throat, looked at
+      the ground, and said with an embarrassed manner and without a trace of his
+      former confidence:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remain your debtor, and it seems you do not wish this business to be
+      mixed up with other matters. Well then, I had two thousand drachmae for a
+      sword that belonged to Antony.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then certainly,&rdquo; interrupted Plutarch, &ldquo;the cup, the gift of Trajan, must
+      be worth double, particularly to me who am related to the illustrious
+      owner. May I offer you four thousand drachmae for your precious
+      possession?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am anxious to oblige you, and so I say yes,&rdquo; replied the steward with
+      much dignity, and he squeezed Arsinoe&rsquo;s little finger, for she was
+      standing close to him. Her hand had for some time been touching his in
+      token of warning that he should adhere to his first intention of making
+      the cup a present to Plutarch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the pair, so unlike each other, quitted the anteroom, Plutarch looked
+      after them with a meaning smile and thought to himself: &ldquo;That is well
+      done. How little pleasure I generally have from my riches! How often when
+      I see a sturdy porter I would willingly change places with him! But to-day
+      I am glad to have as much money as I could wish. Sweet child! She must
+      have a new dress of course for the sake of appearance, but really her
+      beauty did not suffer from the washed-out rag of a dress. And she belongs
+      to me, for I have seen her at the factory among the workwomen, of that I
+      am certain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus had gone out with his daughter and once outside the prefect&rsquo;s
+      house, he could not help chuckling aloud, while he patted his daughter on
+      the shoulder, and whispered to her:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told you so child! we shall be rich yet, we shall rise in life again
+      and need not be behind the other citizens in any thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, father, but it is just because you believe that, that you ought to
+      have given the cup to the old man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; replied Keraunus, &ldquo;business is business, but by and bye I will repay
+      him tenfold for all he does for you now, by giving him my painting by
+      Apelles. And Julia shall have the pair of sandal-straps set with cut-gems
+      that came off a sandal of Cleopatra&rsquo;s.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe looked down, for she knew what these treasures were worth, and
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We can consider all that later.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she and her father got into the litters that had been waiting for
+      them, and without which Keraunus thought he could no longer exist, and
+      they were carried to the garden of Pudeus&rsquo; widow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their visit came to interrupt Selene&rsquo;s blissful dreams. Keraunus behaved
+      with icy coldness to dame Hannah, for it afforded him a certain
+      satisfaction to make a display of contempt for every thing Christian. When
+      he expressed his regret that Selene should have been obliged to remain in
+      her house, the widow replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is better here than in the street, at any rate.&rdquo; And when Keraunus
+      went on to say that he would take nothing as a gift and would pay her for
+      her care of his daughter, Hannah answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are happy to do all we can for your child, and Another will reward
+      us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I certainly forbid,&rdquo; exclaimed the steward wrathfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We do not understand each other,&rdquo; said the Christian pleasantly. &ldquo;I do
+      not allude to any mortal being, and the reward we work for is not gold and
+      possessions, but the happy consciousness of having mitigated the
+      sufferings of a fellow-creature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keraunus shrugged his shoulders, and after desiring Selene to ask the
+      physician when she might be taken home, he went away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not leave you here an instant longer than is necessary,&rdquo; he said
+      as urgently as though she were in some infected house; he kissed her
+      forehead, bowed to Hannah as loftily as though he had just bestowed an
+      alms upon her, and departed, without listening to Selene&rsquo;s assurances that
+      she was extremely happy and comfortable with the widow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ground had long burnt under his feet, and the money in his pocket, he
+      was now possessed of ample means to acquire a good new slave, perhaps, if
+      he threw old Sebek into the bargain, they might even suffice to procure
+      him a handsome Greek, who might teach the children to read and write. He
+      could direct his first attention to the external appearance of the new
+      member of his household, if he were a scholar as well, he would feel
+      justified in the high price he expected to be obliged to pay for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Keraunus approached the slave-market he said, not without some
+      conscious emotion at his own paternal devotion:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All for the credit of the house, all, and only, for the children.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe carried out her intention of staying with Selene; her father was
+      to fetch her on his way home. After he was gone, Hannah and Mary left the
+      two sisters together, for they supposed that they must wish to discuss a
+      variety of things without the presence of strangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the girls were alone Arsinoe began: &ldquo;Your cheeks are rosy,
+      Selene, and you look cheerful&mdash;ah! and I, I am so happy&mdash;so
+      happy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because you are to fill the part of Roxana?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is very nice too, and who would have thought only yesterday morning
+      that we should be so rich today. We hardly know what to do with all the
+      money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, for father has sold two objects out of his collection for six
+      thousand drachmae.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; cried Selene clasping her hands, &ldquo;then we can pay our most pressing
+      debts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure, but that is not nearly all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where shall I begin? Ah! Selene, my heart is so full. I am tired, and yet
+      I could dance and sing and shout all day and all the night through till
+      to-morrow. When I think how happy I am, my head turns, and I feel as if I
+      must use all my self-control to keep myself from turning giddy. You do not
+      know yet how you feel when the arrow of Eros has pierced you. Ah! I love
+      Pollux so much, and he loves me too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At these words all the color fled from Selene&rsquo;s cheeks, and her pale lips
+      brought out the words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pollux? The son of Euphorion, Pollux the sculptor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, our dear, kind, tall Pollux!&rdquo; cried Arsinoe. &ldquo;Now prick up your
+      ears, and you shall hear how it all came to pass. Last night on our way to
+      see you he confessed how much he loved me, and now you must advise me how
+      to win over my father to our side, and very soon too. By-and-bye he will
+      of course say yes, for Pollux can do anything he wants, and some day he
+      will be a great man, as great as Papias, and Aristaeus, and Kealkes all
+      put together. His youthful trick with that silly caricature&mdash;but how
+      pale you are, Selene!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is nothing&mdash;nothing at all&mdash;a pain&mdash;go on,&rdquo; said
+      Selene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dame Hannah begged me not to let you talk much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only tell me everything; I will be quiet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you have seen the lovely head of mother that he made,&rdquo; Arsinoe went
+      on. &ldquo;Standing by that we saw each other and talked for the first time
+      after long years, and I felt directly that there was not a dearer man than
+      he in the whole world, wide as it is. And he fell in love too with a
+      stupid little thing like me. Yesterday evening he came here with me; and
+      then as I went home, taking his arm in the dark through the streets, then&mdash;Oh,
+      Selene, it was splendid, delightful! You cannot imagine!&mdash;Does your
+      foot hurt you very much, poor dear? Your eyes are full of tears.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on, tell me all, go on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Arsinoe did as she was desired, sparing the poor girl nothing that
+      could widen and deepen the wound in her soul. Full of rapturous memories
+      she described the place in the streets where Pollux had first kissed her.
+      The shrubs in the garden where she had flung herself into his arms, her
+      blissful walk in the moonlight, and all the crowd assembled for the
+      festival, and finally how, possessed by the god, they had together joined
+      the procession, and danced through the streets. She described, with tears
+      in her eyes, how painful their parting had been, and laughed again, as she
+      told how an ivy leaf in her hair had nearly betrayed everything to her
+      father. So she talked and talked, and there was something that intoxicated
+      her in her own words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How they were affecting Selene she did not observe. How could she know
+      that it was her narrative and no other suffering which made her sister&rsquo;s
+      lips quiver so sorrowfully? Then, when she went on to speak of the
+      splendid garments which Julia was having made for her, the suffering girl
+      listened with only half an ear, but her attention revived when she heard
+      how much old Plutarch had offered for the ivory cup, and that her father
+      proposed to exchange their old slave for a more active one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our good black mouse-catching old stork looks shabby enough it is true,&rdquo;
+       said Arsinoe, &ldquo;still I am very sorry he should go away. If you had been at
+      home, perhaps father would have waited to consider.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene laughed drily, and her lips curled scornfully as she said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the way! go on! two days before you are turned out of house and
+      home you ride in a chariot and pair!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You always see the worst side,&rdquo; said Arsinoe with annoyance. &ldquo;I tell you
+      it will all turn out far better and nicer and more happily than we expect.
+      As soon as we are a little richer we will buy back the old man, and keep
+      him and feed him till he dies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene shrugged her shoulders, and her sister jumped up from her seat with
+      her eyes full of tears. She had been so happy in telling how happy she was
+      that she firmly believed that her story must bring brightness into the
+      gloom of the sick girl&rsquo;s soul, like sunshine after a dark night; and
+      Selene had nothing to give her but scornful words and looks. If a friend
+      refuses to share in joys it is hardly less wounding than if he were to
+      abandon us in trouble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How you always contrive to embitter my happiness!&rdquo; cried Arsinoe. &ldquo;I know
+      very well that nothing that I can do can ever be right in your eyes;
+      still, we are sisters, and you need not set your teeth and grudge your
+      words, and shrug your shoulders when I tell you of things which, even a
+      stranger, if I were to confide them to her, would rejoice over with me.
+      You are so cold and heartless! I dare say you will betray me to my father&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Arsinoe did not finish her sentence, for Selene looked up at her with
+      a mixture of suffering and alarm, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot be glad&mdash;I am in too much pain.&rdquo; As she spoke the tears ran
+      down her cheeks and as soon as Arsinoe saw them she felt a return of pity
+      for the sick girl, bent over and kissed her cheeks once, twice, thrice;
+      but Selene pushed her aside and murmured piteously:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave me&mdash;pray leave me; go away, I can bear it no longer.&rdquo; She
+      turned her face to the wall, sobbing aloud. Arsinoe attempted once more to
+      show her some marks of affection, but her sister pushed her away still
+      more decidedly, crying out loudly, as if in desperation: &ldquo;I shall die if
+      you do not leave me alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the happier girl, whose best offerings were thus disdained by her only
+      female friend, went weeping away to await her father&rsquo;s return outside the
+      door of the widow&rsquo;s house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Hannah went to lay fresh handkerchiefs on Selene&rsquo;s wounds she saw
+      that she had been crying, but she did not enquire into the reason of her
+      tears. Towards evening the widow explained to her patient that she must
+      leave her alone for half an hour, for that she and Mary were going out to
+      pray to their God with their brethren and sisters, and they would pray for
+      her also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave me, only leave me,&rdquo; said Selene, &ldquo;as it is, so it is&mdash;there
+      are no gods.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gods?&rdquo; replied Hannah. &ldquo;No. But there is one good and loving Father in
+      Heaven, and you soon shall learn to know him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know him, well!&rdquo; muttered the sick girl with keen irony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner was she alone than she sat up in bed, and flung the flowers,
+      which had been lying on it, far from her across the room, twisted the pin
+      of the brooch till it was broken, and did not stir a finger to save the
+      gold setting and engraved stone when they fell between the bed and wall of
+      the room. Then she lay staring at the ceiling, and did not stir again. It
+      was now quite dark. The lilies and honeysuckle in the great nosegay
+      outside the window began to smell more strongly, and their perfume forced
+      itself inexorably on her senses, rendered painfully acute by fever. She
+      perceived it at every breath she drew, and not for a minute would it let
+      her forget her wrecked happiness, and the wretchedness of her heart, till
+      the heavy sweetness of the flowers became more unendurable than the most
+      pungent odor, and she drew the coverlet over her head to escape this new
+      torment; but she soon cast it off again, for she thought she should be
+      suffocated under it. An intolerable restlessness took possession of her,
+      while the pain in her injured foot throbbed madly, the cut in her head
+      seemed to burn, and her temples beat with an agonizing headache that
+      contracted the muscles of her eyes. Every nerve in her body, every thought
+      of her brain was a separate torture, and at the same time she felt herself
+      without a stay, without protection, and wholly abandoned to some cruel
+      influence, which tossed and tore her soul as the storm tosses the crowns
+      of the palm-trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without tears, incapable of lying still and yet punished for the slightest
+      movement by some fresh pain, racked in every joint, not strong enough in
+      her bewilderment to carry through a single connected thought, and yet
+      firmly convinced that the perfume she was forced to inhale at every breath
+      was poisoning her&mdash;destroying her&mdash;driving her mad&mdash;she
+      lifted her damaged foot out of bed, dragged the other after it, and sat up
+      on her couch regardless of the pain she felt, and the warnings of the
+      physician. Her long hair fell dishevelled over her face, her arms, and her
+      hands, in which she held her aching head; and in this new attitude the
+      excitement of her brain and heart took fresh development.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sat gazing at the floor with a freezing gaze, and bitter enmity
+      towards her sister, hatred towards Pollux, contempt for her father&rsquo;s
+      miserable weakness, and her own utter blindness, rang wild changes in her
+      soul. Outside all lay in peaceful calm, and from the house in which
+      Paulina lived the evening breeze now and again bore the pure tones of a
+      pious hymn upon her ear. Selene never heeded it, but as the same air
+      wafted the scent of the flowers in her face even stronger than before, she
+      clutched her hair in her fingers and pulled it so violently that she
+      actually groaned with the pain she gave herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question as to whether her hair was less abundant and beautiful than
+      her sister&rsquo;s suddenly occurred to her, and like a flash in the darkness
+      the wish shot through her soul that she could fling Arsinoe to the ground
+      by the hair, with the hand which was now hurting herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That perfume! that horrible perfume!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She could bear it no longer. She stood up on her uninjured foot, and with
+      very short steps she dragged herself half crying to the window, and flung
+      the nosegay with the great jar of burnt clay down on to the ground. The
+      vessel was broken.&mdash;It had cost poor Hannah many hardly-saved pieces
+      not long since. Selene stood on one foot, leaning, to recover herself,
+      against the right-hand post of the window-opening, and there she could
+      hear more distinctly than from her couch, the voice of the waves as they
+      broke on the stone quay just behind dame Hannah&rsquo;s little house. The child
+      of the Lochias was familiar with their tones, but the clashing and
+      gurgling of the cool, moist element against the stones had never affected
+      her before as they did now. Her fevered blood was on fire, her foot was
+      burning, her head was hot, and hatred seemed to consume her soul as in a
+      slow fire; she felt as if every wave that broke upon the seawall was
+      calling out to her: &ldquo;I am cool, I am moist, I can extinguish the flame
+      that is consuming you. I can refresh and revive you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      What had the world to offer her but new torment and new misery? But the
+      sea&mdash;the blue dark sea was wide, and cold, and deep, and its waves
+      promised her in insidious tones to relieve her at once of the rage of her
+      fever, and of the burden of her life. Selene did not pause, did not
+      reflect; she remembered neither the children whom she had so long cared
+      for as a mother, nor her father, whose comfort and support she was&mdash;vague
+      voices in her brain seemed to be whispering to her that the world was evil
+      and cruel, and the abode of all the torment and care that gnawed at her
+      heart. She felt as if she had been plunged to the temples in a pool of
+      fire, and, like some poor wretch whose garments have been caught by the
+      flames, she had an instinct to fly to the water, at the bottom of which
+      she might hope to find the fulfilment of her utmost longing, sweet cold
+      death, in which all is forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Groaning and tottering she pushed her way through the door into the garden
+      and hobbled down to the sea, grasping her temples in her hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Alexandrians were a stiff-necked generation. Only some phenomenal
+      sight far transcending their every-day experience could avail to make them
+      turn their heads to stare at it, but just now there was something to look
+      at, at every moment and in every street of the city. To-day too each one
+      thought only of himself and of his own pleasure. Some particularly pretty,
+      tall, or well-dressed figure would give rise to a smile or an exclamation
+      of approval, but before one sight had been thoroughly enjoyed the
+      inquisitive eye was seeking a fresh one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it happened that no one paid any special attention to Hadrian and his
+      companions who allowed themselves to be unresistingly carried along the
+      streets by the current of the crowd; and yet each one of them was, in his
+      way, a remarkable object. Hadrian was dressed as Silenus, Pollux as a
+      faun. Both wore masks and the disguise of the younger man was as well
+      suited to his pliant and vigorous figure as that of the elder to his
+      powerful stately person. Antinous followed his master, dressed as Eros. He
+      wore a crimson mantle and was crowned with roses, while the silver quiver
+      on his shoulder and the bow in his hand clearly symbolized the god he was
+      intended to represent. He too wore a mask, but his figure attracted many
+      gazers, and many a greeting of &ldquo;Long live the god of love&rdquo; or &ldquo;Be gracious
+      to me oh! son of Aphrodite&rdquo; was spoken as he passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux had obtained all the things requisite for these disguises from the
+      store of drapery belonging to his master. Papias had been out, but the
+      young man did not deem it necessary to ask his consent, for he and the
+      other assistants had often used the things for similar purposes with his
+      full permission. Only as he took the quiver intended for Antinous, Pollux
+      hesitated a little for it was of solid silver and had been given to his
+      master by the wife of a wealthy cone-dealer, whom he had represented in
+      marble as Artemis equipped for the chase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Roman&rsquo;s handsome companion,&rdquo; thought the young artist as he placed
+      the costly object in with the others in a basket, which a squinting
+      apprentice was to carry behind him&mdash;&ldquo;The Roman&rsquo;s handsome companion
+      must be made a splendid Eros&mdash;and before sunrise the useless thing
+      will be hanging on its hook again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Indeed Pollux had not much time to admire the splendid appearance of the
+      god of love he had so richly adorned, for the Roman architect was
+      possessed by such thirst for knowledge and such inexhaustible curiosity as
+      to the minutest details that even Pollux who was born in Alexandria, and
+      had grown up there with his eyes very wide open, was often unable to
+      answer his indefatigable questioning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grey-bearded master wanted to see every thing and to be informed on
+      every subject. Not content with making acquaintance with the main streets
+      and squares the public sites and buildings, he peeped into the handsomest
+      of the private houses and asked the names, rank and fortunes of the
+      owners. The decided way in which he told Pollux the way he wished to be
+      conducted proved to the artist that he was thoroughly familiar with the
+      plan of the city. And when the sagacious and enlightened man expressed his
+      approval, nay his admiration of the broad clean streets of the town, the
+      handsome open places, and particularly handsome buildings which abounded
+      on all sides, the young Alexandrian who was proud of his city was
+      delighted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First Hadrian made him lead him along the seashore by the Bruchiom to the
+      temple of Poseidon, where he performed some devotions, then he looked into
+      the garden of the palace and the courts of the adjoining museum. The
+      Caesareum with its Egyptian gateway excited his admiration no less than
+      the theatre, surrounded with pillared arcades in stories, and decorated
+      with numerous statues. From thence deviating to the left they once more
+      approached the sea to visit the great Emporium, to see the forest of masts
+      of Eunostus, and the finely-constructed quays. They left the viaduct known
+      as the Heptastadion to their right and the harbor of Kibotus, swarming
+      with small merchant craft, did not detain them long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here they turned backs on the sea following a street which led inland
+      through the quarter called Khakotis inhabited only by native Egyptians,
+      and here the Roman found much to see that was noteworthy. First he and his
+      companions met a procession of the priests who serve the gods of the Nile
+      valley, carrying reliquaries and sacred vessels, with images of the gods
+      and sacred animals, and tending towards the Serapeum which towered high
+      above the streets in the vicinity. Hadrian did not visit the temple, but
+      he inspected the chariots which carried people along an inclined road
+      which led up the hill on which was the sanctuary, and watched devotees on
+      foot who mounted by an endless flight of steps constructed on purpose;
+      these grew wider towards the top, terminating in a platform where four
+      mighty pillars bore up a boldly-curved cupola. Nothing looked down upon
+      the temple-building which with its halls, galleries and rooms rose behind
+      this huge canopy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The priests with their white robes, the meagre, half-naked Egyptians with
+      their pleated aprons and headcloths, the images of beasts and the
+      wonderfully-painted houses in this quarter of the city, particularly
+      attracted Hadrian&rsquo;s attention and made him ask many questions, not all of
+      which could Pollux answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their walk which now took them farther and farther from the sea extended
+      to the extreme south of the town and the shores of lake Mareotis. Nile
+      boats and vessels of every form and size lay at anchor in this deep and
+      sheltered inland sea; here the sculptor pointed out to Hadrian the canal
+      through which goods were conveyed to the marine fleet which had been
+      brought down the river to Alexandria. And he pointed out to the Roman the
+      handsome country-houses and well-tended vineyards on the shores of the
+      lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The bodies in this city ought to thrive,&rdquo; said Hadrian meditatively. &ldquo;For
+      here are two stomachs and two mouths by which they absorb nourishment; the
+      sea, I mean, and this lake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the harbors in each,&rdquo; added Pollux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so; but now it is time we should turn about,&rdquo; replied Hadrian, and
+      the party soon took a road leading eastward; they walked without pause
+      through the quiet streets inhabited by the Christians, and finally through
+      the Jews&rsquo; quarter. In the heart of this quarter many houses were shut up,
+      and there were no signs to be seen of the gay doings which crowded on the
+      sense and fancy in the heathen part of the town, for the stricter among
+      the Hebrews held sternly aloof, from the holiday festivities in which most
+      of their nation and creed who dwelt among the Greeks, took part.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a third time Hadrian and his companions crossed the Canopic way which
+      formed the main artery of the city and divided it into the northern and
+      southern halves, for he wished to look down from the hill of the Paneum on
+      the combined effect as a whole of all that he had seen in detail. The
+      carefully-kept gardens which surrounded this elevation swarmed with men,
+      and the spiral path which led to the top was crowded with women and
+      children, who came here to see the most splendid spectacle of the whole
+      day, which closed with performances in all the theatres in the town.
+      Before the Emperor and his escort could reach the Paneum itself the crowd
+      suddenly packed more closely and began exclaiming among themselves, &ldquo;Here
+      they come!&rdquo; &ldquo;They are early to-day!&rdquo; &ldquo;Here they are!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lictors with their fasces over their shoulders were clearing the broad
+      roadway, which led from the prefect&rsquo;s on the Bruchiom to the Paneum, with
+      their staves and paying no heed to the mocking and witty speeches
+      addressed to them by the mob wherever they appeared. One woman, as she was
+      driven back by a Roman guardian of the peace, cried scornfully, &ldquo;Give me
+      your rods for my children and do not use them on unoffending citizens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is an axe hidden among the faggots,&rdquo; added an Egyptian
+      letter-writer in a warning voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bring it here,&rdquo; cried a butcher. &ldquo;I can use it to slaughter my beasts.&rdquo;
+       The Romans as they heard these bandied words felt the blood mounting to
+      their faces, but the prefect, who knew his Alexandrians well, had
+      counselled them to be deaf; to see everything but to hear nothing. Now
+      there appeared a cohort of the Twelfth Legion, who were quartered in
+      garrison in Egypt, in their richest arms and holiday uniforms. Behind them
+      came two files of particularly tall lictors wearing wreaths, and they were
+      followed by several hundred wild beasts, leopards and panthers, giraffes,
+      gazelles, antelopes, and deer, all led by dark-colored Egyptians. Then
+      came a richly-dressed and much be-wreathed Dionysian chorus with the sound
+      of tambourines and lyres, double flutes and triangles, and finally, drawn
+      by ten elephants and twenty white horses, a large ship, resting on wheels
+      and gilt from stem to stern, representing the vessel in which the
+      Tyrrhenian pirates were said to have carried off the young Dionysus when
+      they had seen the black-haired hero on the shore in his purple garments.
+      But the miscreants&mdash;so the myth went on to say&mdash;were not allowed
+      long to rejoice in their violence, for hardly had the ship reached the
+      open sea when the fetters dropped from the god, vines entwined the sails
+      in sudden luxuriance, tendrils encumbered the oars and rudder, heavy
+      grapes clustered round the ropes, and ivy clung to the mast and shrouded
+      the seats and sides of the vessel. Dionysus is equally powerful on sea and
+      on land; in the pirates&rsquo; ship he assumed the form of a lion, and the
+      pirates, filled with terror, flung themselves into the sea, and in the
+      form of dolphins followed their lost bark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this Titianus had caused to be represented just as the Homeric hymns
+      described it, out of slight materials, but richly and elegantly decorated,
+      in order to provide a feast for the eyes of the Alexandrians, with the
+      intention of riding in it himself, with his wife and the most illustrious
+      of the Romans who formed the Empress&rsquo; suite, to enjoy all the Holiday
+      doings in the chief streets of the city. Young and old, great and small,
+      men and women, Greeks, Romans, Jews, Egyptians, foreigners dark and fair,
+      with smooth hair or crisp wool, crowded with equal eagerness to the edge
+      of the roadway to see the gorgeous boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian, far more anxious to see the show than his younger but less
+      excitable favorite, pushed into the front rank, and as Antinous was trying
+      to follow him, a Greek boy, whom he had shoved aside, snatched his mask
+      from his face, threw himself on the ground, and slipped nimbly off with
+      his booty. When Hadrian looked round for the Bithyman, the ship-in which
+      the prefect was standing between the images of the Emperor and Empress,
+      while Julia, Balbilla, and her companion, and other Roman lords and ladies
+      were sitting in it&mdash;had come quite near to them. His sharp eye had
+      recognized them all, and fearing that the lad&rsquo;s uncovered face would
+      betray them he cried out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Turn round and get into the crowd again.&rdquo; The favorite immediately
+      obeyed, and only too glad to escape from the crowd, which was a thing he
+      detested, he sat down on a bench close to the Paneum, and looked dreamily
+      at the ground while he thought of Selene and the nosegay he had sent her,
+      neither seeing nor hearing anything of what was going on around him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the gaudy ship left the gardens of the Paneum and turned into the
+      Canopic way, the crowd pursued it in a dense mass, hallooing and shouting.
+      Like a torrent suddenly swelled by a storm it rushed on, surging and
+      growing at each moment, and carrying with it even those who tried to
+      resist its force. Thus even Hadrian and Pollux were forced to follow in
+      its wake, and it was not till they found themselves in the broad Canopic
+      way that they were able to come to a stand-still. The broad roadway of
+      this famous street was bordered on each side by a long vista of colonnade,
+      and it extended from one end of the city to the other. There were hundreds
+      of the Corinthian columns which supported the roof that covered the
+      footway, and near to one of these the Emperor and Pollux succeeded at last
+      in effecting a halt and taking breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian&rsquo;s first thought was for his favorite, and being averse to
+      venturing himself once more to mix with the crowd, he begged the sculptor
+      to go and seek him and conduct him safely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you wait for me here?&rdquo; asked Pollux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have known a pleasanter halting place,&rdquo; sighed the Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So have I,&rdquo; answered the artist. &ldquo;But that tall door there, wreathed
+      round with boughs of poplar and ivy, leads into a cook-shop where the gods
+      themselves might be content to find themselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I will wait there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I warn you to eat as much as you can, for the Olympian table&rsquo; as kept
+      by Lykortas, the Corinthian, is the dearest eating-house in the whole
+      city. None but the richest are his guests.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very good,&rdquo; laughed Hadrian. &ldquo;Only find my assistant a new mask and bring
+      him back to me. It will not ruin me quite, even if I pay for a supper for
+      all three of us, and on a holiday one expects to spend something.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you may not live to repent,&rdquo; retorted Pollux. &ldquo;But a long fellow
+      like me is a good trencherman, and can do his part with the wine-jar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only show me what you can do,&rdquo; cried Hadrian after him as Pollux hurried
+      off. &ldquo;I owe you a supper at any rate, for that cabbage stew of your
+      mother&rsquo;s.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While Pollux went to seek the Bithyman in the vicinity of the Paneum, the
+      Emperor entered the eating house, which the skill of the cook had made the
+      most frequented and fashionable in Alexandria. The place in which most of
+      the customers of the house dined, consisted of a large open hall,
+      surrounded by arcades which were roofed in on three of its sides and
+      closed by a wall on its fourth; in these arcades stood couches, on which
+      the guests reclined singly, or in couples, or in larger groups, and
+      ordered the dishes and liquors which the serving slaves, pretty boys with
+      curling hair and hand some dresses, placed before them on low tables. Here
+      all was noise and bustle; at one table an epicure devoted himself silently
+      to the enjoyment of some carefully-prepared delicacy, at another a large
+      circle of men seemed to be talking more eagerly than they either eat or
+      drank, and from several of the smaller rooms behind the wall at the back
+      of the hall came sounds of music and song, and the bold laughter of men
+      and women.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor asked for a private room, but they were all occupied, and he
+      was requested to wait a little while, for that one of the adjoining. rooms
+      would very soon be vacant. He had taken off his mask, and though he was
+      not particularly afraid of being recognized in his disguise he chose a
+      couch that was screened by a broad pillar in one of the arcades at the
+      inner side of the court, and which, now that evening was beginning to fall
+      was already in obscurity. There he ordered, first some wine and then some
+      oysters to begin, with; while he was eating these he called one of the
+      superintendents and discussed with him the details of the supper he wished
+      presently to be served to himself and his two guests. During this
+      conversation the bustling host came to make his bow to his new customer,
+      and seeing that he had to do with a man fully conversant with all the
+      pleasures of the table, he remained to attend on him, and entered with
+      special zeal into Hadrian&rsquo;s various requirements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was, too, plenty to be seen in the court, which roused the curiosity
+      of the most inquisitive and enquiring man of his time. In the large space
+      enclosed by the arcades, and under the eyes of the guests, on gridirons
+      and hearths, over spits and in ovens the various dishes were prepared
+      which were served up by the slaves. The cooks prepared their savory messes
+      on large, clean tables, and the scene of their labors, which, though
+      enclosed by cords was open to public gaze was surrounded by a small
+      market, where however only the choicest of wares were displayed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here in tempting array was every variety of vegetable reared on Greek or
+      Egyptian soil; here speckless fruits of every size and hue were set out,
+      and there ready baked, shining, golden-brown pasties were displayed. Those
+      containing meat, fish or the mussels of Canopus were prepared in
+      Alexandria itself, but others containing fruit or the leaves of flowers
+      were brought from Arsinoe on the shores of Lake Moeris, for in that
+      neighborhood the cultivation of fruit and horticulture generally were
+      pursued with the greatest success. Meat of all sorts lay or hung in
+      suitable places; there were juicy hams from Cyrene, Italian sausages and
+      uncooked joints of various slaughtered beasts. By them lay or hung game
+      and poultry in select abundance, and a large part of the court was taken
+      up by a tank in which the choicest of the scaly tribes of the Nile, and of
+      the lakes of Northern Egypt, were swimming about as well as the Muraena
+      and other fish of Italian breed. Alexandrian crabs and the mussels,
+      oysters, and cray-fish of Canopus and Klysma were kept alive in buckets or
+      jars. The smoked meats of Mendes and the neighborhood of Lake Moeris hung
+      on metal pegs, and in a covered but well-aired room, sheltered from the
+      sun lay freshly-imported fish from the Mediterranean and Red Sea. Every
+      guest at the &lsquo;Olympian table&rsquo; was allowed here to select the meat, fruit,
+      asparagus, fish, or pasty which he desired to have cooked for him. The
+      host, Lykortas, pointed out to Hadrian an old gentleman who was busy in
+      the court that was so prettily decorated with still-life, engaged in
+      choosing the raw materials of a banquet he wished to give some friends in
+      the evening of this very day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is all very nice and extremely good,&rdquo; said Hadrian, &ldquo;but the gnats and
+      flies which are attracted by all those good things are unendurable, and
+      the strong smell of food spoils my appetite.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is better in the side-rooms,&rdquo; said the host. &ldquo;In the one kept for you
+      the company is now preparing to depart. In behind here the sophists
+      Demetrius and Pancrates are entertaining a few great men from Rome,
+      rhetoricians or philosophers or something of the kind. Now they are
+      bringing in the fine lamps and they have been sitting and talking at that
+      table ever since breakfast. There come the guests out of the side room.
+      Will you take it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Hadrian. &ldquo;And when a tall young man comes to ask for the
+      architect Claudius Venato, from Rome, bring him in to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An architect then, and not a sophist or a rhetorician,&rdquo; said mine host,
+      looking keenly at the Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silenus,&mdash;a philosopher!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh the two vociferous friends there go about even on other days naked and
+      with ragged cloaks thrown over their lean shoulders. To-day they are
+      feeding at the expense of rich Josephus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Josephus! he must be a Jew and yet he is making a large hole in the ham.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There would be more swine in Cyrene if there were no Jews; they are
+      Greeks like ourselves, and eat everything that is good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian went into the vacant room, lay down on a couch that stood by the
+      wall, and urged the slaves who were busied in removing the dishes and
+      vessels used by his predecessors, and which were swarming with flies. As
+      soon as he was alone he listened to the conversation which was being
+      carried on between Favorinus, Florus, and their Greek guests. He knew the
+      two first very well, and not a word of what they were saying escaped his
+      keen ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Favorinus was praising the Alexandrians in a loud voice, but in flowing
+      and elegantly-accented Greek. He was a native of Arelas&mdash;[Arles]&mdash;in
+      Gaul, but no Hellene of them all could pour forth a purer flow of the
+      language of Demosthenes than he. The self-reliant, keen, and vivacious
+      natives of the African metropolis were far more to his taste than the
+      Athenians; these dwelt only in, and for, the past; the Alexandrians
+      rejoiced in the present. Here an independent spirit still survived, while
+      on the shores of the Ilissus there were none but servile souls who made a
+      merchandise of learning, as the Alexandrians did of the products of Africa
+      and the treasures of India. Once when he had fallen into disgrace with
+      Hadrian, the Athenians had thrown down his statue, and the favor or
+      disfavor of the powerful weighed with him more than intellectual
+      greatness, valuable labors, and true merit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florus agreed with Favorinus on the whole, and declared that Rome must be
+      freed from the intellectual influence of Athens; but Favorinus did not
+      admit this; he opined that it was very difficult for any one who had left
+      youth behind him, to learn anything new, thus referring, with light irony,
+      to the famous work in which Florus had attempted to divide the history of
+      Rome into four periods, corresponding to the ages of man, but had left out
+      old age, and had treated only of childhood, youth, and manhood. Favorinus
+      reproached him with overestimating the versatility of the Roman genius,
+      like his friend Fronto, and underrating the Hellenic intellect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florus answered the Gaulish orator in a deep voice, and with such a grand
+      flow of words, that the listening Emperor would have enjoyed expressing
+      his approbation, and could not help considering the question as to how
+      many cups of wine his usually placid fellow-countryman might have taken
+      since breakfast to be so excited. When Floras tried to prove that under
+      Hadrian&rsquo;s rule Rome had risen to the highest stage of its manhood, his
+      friend, Demetrius, of Alexandria, interrupted him, and begged him to tell
+      him something about the Emperor&rsquo;s person. Florus willingly acceded to this
+      request, and sketched a brilliant picture of the administrative talent,
+      the learning, and the capability of the Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is only one thing,&rdquo; he cried eagerly, &ldquo;that I cannot approve of; he
+      is too little at Rome, which is now the core and centre of the world. He
+      must need see every thing for himself, and he is always wandering
+      restlessly through the provinces. I should not care to change with him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have expressed the same ideas in verse,&rdquo; said Favorinus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! a jest at supper-time. So long as I am in Alexandria and waiting on
+      Caesar I can make myself very comfortable every day at the &lsquo;Olympian
+      table&rsquo; of this admirable cook.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how runs your poem?&rdquo; asked Pancrates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have forgotten it, and it deserved no better fate,&rdquo; replied Florus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I,&rdquo; laughed the Gaul, &ldquo;I remember the beginning. The first lines, I
+      think, ran thus:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+         &ldquo;&lsquo;Let others envy Caesar&rsquo;s lot;
+          To wander through Britannia&rsquo;s dales
+          And be snowed up in Scythian vales
+          Is Caesar&rsquo;s taste&mdash;I&rsquo;d rather not?&rsquo;&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      As he heard these words Hadrian struck his fist into the palm of his left
+      hand, and while the feasters were hazarding guesses as to why he was so
+      long in coming to Alexandria, he took out the folding tablet he was in the
+      habit of carrying in his money-bag, and hastily wrote the following lines
+      on the wax face of it:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+          &lsquo;Let others envy Florus&rsquo; lot;
+          To wander through the shops for drink,
+          Or, into foolish dreaming sink
+          In a cook-shop, where sticky flies
+          Buzz round him till he shuts his eyes
+          Is Florus&rsquo; taste&mdash;I&rsquo;d rather not?&rsquo; 
+
+   [From verses by Hadrian and Florus, preserved in Spartianus.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Hardly had he ended the lines, muttering them to himself with much relish
+      as he wrote, when the waiter showed in Pollux. The sculptor had failed to
+      find Antinous, and suggested that the young man had probably gone home; he
+      also begged that he might not be detained long at supper, for he had met
+      his master Papias, who had been extremely annoyed by his long absence.
+      Hadrian was no longer satisfied with the artist&rsquo;s society, for the
+      conversation in the next room was to him far more attractive than that of
+      the worthy young fellow. He himself was anxious to quit the meal soon, for
+      he felt restless and uneasy. Antinous could no doubt easily find his way
+      to Lochias, but recollections of the evil omens he had observed in the
+      heavens last night flitted across his soul like bats through a festal
+      hall, marring the pleasure on which he again tried to concentrate it, in
+      order to enjoy his hours of liberty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Pollux was not so light-hearted as before. His long walk had made him
+      hungry, and he addressed himself so vigorously to the excellent dishes
+      which rapidly followed each other by his entertainer&rsquo;s orders, and emptied
+      the cup with such unfailing diligence, that the Emperor was astonished:
+      but the more he had to think about, the less did he talk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux, to be sure, had had his answer ready for his master, and without
+      considering how easy it would have been to part from him in kindness, he
+      had shortly and roundly quitted his service. Now indeed he stood on his
+      own feet, and he was longing to tell Arsinoe and his parents of what he
+      had done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the course of the meal his mother&rsquo;s advice recurred to his mind: to
+      do his best to win the favor and good will of the architect whose guest he
+      was; but he set it aside, for he was accustomed to owe all he gained to
+      his own exertions, and though he still keenly felt in Hadrian the
+      superiority of a powerful mind, their expedition through the city had not
+      brought him any nearer to the Roman. Some insurmountable barrier stood
+      fixed between himself and this restless, inquisitive man, who required so
+      many answers that no one else had time to ask a question, and who when he
+      was silent looked so absorbed and unapproachable that no one would have
+      ventured to disturb him. The bold young artist had, however, tried now and
+      again to break through the fence, but each time, he had at once been
+      seized with a feeling, of which he could not rid himself, that he had done
+      something awkward and unbecoming. He felt in his intercourse with the
+      architect as a noble dog might feel that sported with a lion, and such
+      sport could come to no good. Thus, for various reasons, host and guest
+      were well content when the last dish was removed. Before Pollux left the
+      room the Emperor gave him the tablets with the verses and begged him, with
+      a meaning smile, to desire the gate-keeper at the Caesareum to give them
+      to Annaeus Florus the Roman. He once more urgently charged the sculptor to
+      look about for his young friend and, if he should find him at Lochias, to
+      tell him that he, Claudius Venator, would return home ere long. Then the
+      artist went his way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian still sat a long time listening to the talk close by; but after
+      waiting for above an hour to hear some fresh mention made of himself, he
+      paid his reckoning and went out into the Canopic way, now brilliantly
+      lighted. There he mingled with the revellers, and walked slowly onward,
+      seeking suspiciously and anxiously for his vanished favorite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Antinous, searching for his master, had wandered about in the crowd.
+      Whenever he saw any figures of exceptional stature he followed them, but
+      each time only to discover that he had entered on a false track. Long and
+      persistent effort was not in his nature, so as soon as he began to get
+      tired, he gave up the search and sat down again on a stone bench in the
+      garden of the Paneum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two cynic philosophers, with unkempt hair, tangled beards, and ragged
+      cloaks flung over their shivering bodies, sat down by him and fell into
+      loud and contemptuous abuse of the deference shown, &lsquo;in these days,&rsquo; to
+      external things and vulgar joys, and of the wretched sensualists who
+      regarded pleasure and splendor, rather than virtue, as the aim and end of
+      existence. In order to be heard by the by-standers they spoke in loud
+      tones, and the elder of the two, flourished his knotted stick as
+      viciously, as though he had to defend himself against an attack. Antinous
+      felt much disgusted by the hideous appearance, the coarse manners, and
+      shrill voices of these persons, and when he rose&mdash;as the cynics&rsquo; 
+      diatribe seemed especially directed against him&mdash;they scoffed at him
+      as he went, mocking at his costume and his oiled and perfumed hair. The
+      Bithynian made no reply to this abuse. It was odious to him, but he
+      thought it might perhaps have amused Caesar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He wandered on without thinking; the street in which he presently found
+      himself must no doubt lead to the sea, and if he could once find himself
+      on the shore he could not fail to make his way to Lochias. By the time it
+      was growing dark he was once more standing outside the little gate-house,
+      and there he learnt from Doris that the Roman and her son had not yet
+      returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was he to do alone in the vast empty palace? Were not the very slaves
+      free to-day? Why should not he too for once enjoy life independently and
+      in his own way? Full of the pleasant sense of being his own master and at
+      liberty to walk in a road of his own choosing, he went onwards, and when
+      he presently passed by the stall of a flower-seller, he began once more to
+      think eagerly of Selene and the nosegay, which must long since have
+      reached her hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had heard from Pollux in the morning that the steward&rsquo;s daughter was
+      being tended by Christians in a little house not far from the sea-shore;
+      indeed the sculptor himself had been quite excited as he told Antinous
+      that he himself had peeped into the lighted room and had seen her. &lsquo;A
+      glorious creature&rsquo; he had called her, and had said that she had never
+      looked more beautiful than in a recumbent attitude on her bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous recalled all this and determined to venture on an attempt to see
+      again the maiden whose image filled his heart and brain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now dark and the same light which had allowed of the sculptor&rsquo;s
+      seeing Selene&rsquo;s features might this evening reveal them to him also. Full
+      of passion and excitement, he got into the first litter he met with. The
+      swarthy bearers were far too slow for his longing, and more than once he
+      flung to them as much money as they were wont to earn in a week, to urge
+      them to a brisker pace. At last he reached his destination; but seeing
+      that several men and women robed in white, were going into the garden, he
+      desired the bearers to carry him farther. Close to a dark narrow lane
+      which bounded the widow&rsquo;s garden-plot on the east and led directly to the
+      sea, he desired them to stop, got out of the litter and bid the slaves
+      wait for him. At the garden door he still found two men dressed in white,
+      and one of the cynic philosophers who had sat by him on the bench near the
+      Paneum. He paced impatiently up and clown, waiting till these people
+      should have disappeared, and thus passing again and again under the light
+      of the torches that were stuck up by the gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dry cynic&rsquo;s prominent eyes were everywhere at once, and as soon as he
+      perceived the peripatetic Bithynian he flung up his arm, exclaiming, as he
+      pointed to him with a long, lean, stiff forefinger&mdash;half to the
+      Christians with whom he had been talking and half to the lad himself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does he want. That fop! that over-dressed minion! I know the fellow;
+      with his smooth face and the silver quiver on his shoulder he believes he
+      is Eros in person. Be off with you, you house-rat. The women and girls in
+      here know how to protect themselves against the sort who parade the
+      streets in rose-colored draperies. Take yourself off, or you will make
+      acquaintance with the noble Paulina&rsquo;s slaves and clogs. Hi! gate-keeper,
+      here! keep an eye on this fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous made no answer, but slowly went back to his litter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow perhaps, if I cannot manage it tonight,&rdquo; he thought to himself
+      as he went; and he never thought of any other means of attaining his end,
+      much as he longed for it. A hindrance that came in his way ceased to be a
+      hindrance as soon as he had left it behind him, and after this reflection
+      he acted on this occasion as on many former ones. The litter was no longer
+      standing where he had left it; the bearers had carried it into the lane
+      leading to the sea, for the only little abode which stood on the eastern
+      side of it belonged to a fisherman whose wife sold thin potations of
+      Pelusium beer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous went down the green alley overarched with boughs of fig, to call
+      the negroes who were sitting in the dull light of a smoky oil-lamp. Here
+      it was dark, but at the end of the alley the sea shone and sparkled in the
+      moonlight; the splashing of the waves tempted him onwards and he loitered
+      clown to the stone-bound shore. There he spied a boat dancing on the water
+      between two piles and it came into his head that it might be possible to
+      see the house where Selene was sleeping, from the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He undid the rope which secured the boat without any difficulty; he seated
+      himself in it, laid aside the quiver and bow, pushed off with one of the
+      oars that lay at the bottom of the boat and pulled with steady strokes
+      towards the long path of light where the moon touched the crest of each
+      dancing wavelet with unresting tremulous flecks of silver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There lay the widow&rsquo;s garden. In that small white house must the fair pale
+      Selene be sleeping, but though he rowed hither and thither, backwards and
+      forwards, he could not succeed in discovering the window of which Pollux
+      had spoken. Might it not be possible to find a spot where he could
+      disembark and then make his way into the garden? He could see two little
+      boats, but they lay in a narrow walled canal and this was closed by an
+      iron railing. Beyond, was a terrace projecting into the sea, and
+      surrounded by an elegant balustrade of little columns, but it rose
+      straight out of the sea on smooth high walls. But there&mdash;what was
+      that gleaming under the two palm-trees which, springing from the same
+      root, had grown together tall and slender&mdash;was not that a flight of
+      marble steps leading down to the sea?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous dipped his right oar in the waves with a practised hand to alter
+      the head of the boat and was in the act of pulling his hand up to make his
+      stroke against the pressure of the waves&mdash;but he did not complete the
+      movement, nay he counteracted the stroke by a dexterous reverse action; a
+      strange vision arrested his attention. On the terrace, which lay full in
+      the bright moonlight, there appeared a white-robed figure with long
+      floating hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How strangely it moved! It went now to one side and now to the other, then
+      again it stood still and clasped its head in its hands. Antinous
+      shuddered, he could not help thinking of the Daimons of which Hadrian so
+      often spoke. They were said to be of half-divine and half-human nature,
+      and sometimes appeared in the guise of mortals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Or was Selene dead and was the white figure her wandering shade? Antinous
+      clutched the handles of the oars, now merely floating on the water, and
+      bending forward gazed fixedly and with bated breath at the mysterious
+      being which had now reached the balustrade of the terrace, now&mdash;he
+      saw quite plainly&mdash;covered its face with both hands, leaned far over
+      the parapet, and now as a star falls through the sky on a clear night, as
+      a fruit drops from the tree in autumn, the white form of the girl dropped
+      from the terrace. A loud cry of anguish broke the silence of the night
+      which veiled the world, and almost at the same instant the water splashed
+      and gurgled up, and the moonbeams, cold and bright as ever, were mirrored
+      in the thousand drops that flew up from its surface.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Was this Antinous, the indolent dreamer, who so promptly plunged his oars
+      in the water, pulled a powerful stroke, and then, when in a few seconds
+      after her fall, the form of the drowning girl came to the surface again
+      quite close to the boat, flung aside the oar that was in his way? Leaning
+      far over the edge of the boat he seized the floating garment of the
+      drowning creature&mdash;it was a woman, no Daimon nor shade&mdash;and drew
+      her towards him. He succeeded in raising her high out of the waves, but
+      when he tried to pull her fairly out of her watery bed, the weight, all on
+      one side of the boat, was too great; it turned over and Antinous was in
+      the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Bithyman was a good swimmer. Before the white form could sink a second
+      time he had caught at it once more with his right hand and taking care
+      that her head should not again touch the surface of the water, he swam
+      with his left arm and legs towards the spot where he remembered he had
+      seen the flight of steps. As soon as his feet felt the ground he lifted
+      the girl in both arms and a groan of relief broke from his lips as he saw
+      the marble steps close below him. He went up them without hesitation, and
+      then, with a swift elastic step, carried his dripping and senseless burden
+      to the terrace where he had observed that there were benches. The wide
+      floor of the sea-terrace, paved with smooth flags of marble, was brightly
+      lighted by the broad moonshine, and the whiteness of the stone reflected
+      and seemed to increase the light. There stood the benches which Antinous
+      had seen from afar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laid his burden on the first he came to, and a thrill of thankful joy
+      warmed his shivering body when the rescued woman uttered a low cry of pain
+      which told him that he had not toiled in vain. He gently slipped his arm
+      between the hard elbow of the marble seat and her head, to give it a
+      somewhat softer resting-place. Her abundant hair fell in clammy tresses,
+      covering her face like a thick but fine veil; he parted it to the right
+      and left and then&mdash;then he sank on his knees by her side as if a
+      sudden bolt had fallen from the blue sky above them; for the features were
+      hers, Selene&rsquo;s, and the pale girl before whom he was kneeling was she
+      herself, the woman he loved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost beside himself and trembling in every limb, he drew her closer to
+      him and put his ear against her mouth to listen whether he had not
+      deceived himself, whether she had not indeed fallen a victim to the waves
+      or whether some warm breath were passing the portals of her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes she breathed! she was alive! Full of thankful ecstasy he pressed his
+      cheek to hers. Oh! how cold she was, icy, cold as death!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The torch of life was flickering, but he would not&mdash;could not&mdash;must
+      not let it die out: and with all the care, rapidity and decision of the
+      most capable man, he once more raised her, lifted her in both arms as if
+      she were a child, and carried her straight to the house whose white walls
+      he could see gleaming among the shrubs behind the terrace. The little lamp
+      was still burning in dame Hannah&rsquo;s room, which Selene had so lately
+      quitted; in front of the window through which the dim light came to mingle
+      with the moonbeams, lay the flowers whose perfume had so troubled the
+      suffering girl, and with them Hannah&rsquo;s clay jar, all still strewn on the
+      ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Was this nosegay his gift? Very likely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the lamp-lighted room into which he now looked could be none other
+      than the sick-room, which he recognized from the sculptor&rsquo;s account. The
+      housedoor was open and even that of the room in which he had seen the bed
+      was unfastened; he pushed it open with his foot, entered the room, and
+      laid Selene on the vacant couch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There she lay as if dead; and as he looked at her immovable features,
+      hallowed to solemnity by sorrow and suffering, his heart was touched with
+      an ineffable solicitude, sympathy and pity; and, as a brother might bend
+      over a sleeping sister, he bent over Selene and kissed her forehead. She
+      moved, opened her eyes, gazed into his face&mdash;but her glance was so
+      full of horror, so vague, glassy and bewildered, that he drew back with a
+      shudder, and with hands uplifted could only stammer out: &ldquo;Oh! Selene,
+      Selene! do you not know me?&rdquo; and as he spoke he looked anxiously in the
+      face of the rescued girl; but she seemed not to hear him and nothing moved
+      but her eyes which slowly followed his every movement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Selene!&rdquo; he cried again, and seizing her inanimate hand which hung down,
+      he pressed it passionately to his lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she gave a loud cry, a violent shiver shook her in every limb, she
+      turned aside with sighs and groans, and at the same instant the door was
+      opened, the little deformed girl entered the room and gave a shrill scream
+      of terror as she saw Antinous standing by the side of her friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lad himself started and, like a thief who has been caught in the act,
+      he fled out into the night, through the garden, and as far as the gate
+      which led into the street without being stopped by any one. Here the
+      gate-keeper met him, but he threw him aside with a powerful fling, and
+      while the old man&mdash;who had grown gray in his office&mdash;caught hold
+      of his wet chiton he tore the door open and ran on, dragging his pursuer
+      with him for some paces. Then he flew down the street with long steps as
+      if he were racing in the Gymnasium, and soon he felt that his pursuer, in
+      whose hand he had left a piece of his garment, had given up the chase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gate-keeper&rsquo;s outcry had mingled with the pious hymns of the assembled
+      Christians in Paulina&rsquo;s villa, and some of them had hurried out to help
+      capture the disturber of the peace. But the young Bithynian was swifter
+      than they and might consider himself perfectly safe when once he had
+      succeeded in mixing with a festal procession. Half-willingly and
+      half-perforce, he followed the drunken throng which was making its way
+      from the heart of the city towards the lake, where, on a lonely spot on
+      the shore to the east of Nikropolis, they were to celebrate certain
+      nocturnal mysteries. The goal of the singing, shouting, howling mob with
+      whom Antinous was carried along, was between Alexandria and Canopus and
+      far enough from Lochias; thus it fell out that it was long past midnight
+      when Hadrian&rsquo;s favorite, dirty, out of breath, and his clothes torn, at
+      last appeared in the presence of his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian had expected Antinous many hours since, and the impatience and
+      vexation which had been long seething in him were reflected plainly enough
+      in his sternly-bent brow and the threatening fire of his eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you been?&rdquo; he imperiously asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I could not find you, so I took a boat and went out on the lake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is false.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous did not answer, but merely shrugged his shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alone?&rdquo; asked the Emperor more gently. &ldquo;Alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And for what purpose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was gazing at the stars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And may I not, for once, tread in your footsteps?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not indeed? The lights of heaven shine for the foolish as well as for
+      the wise. Even asses must be born under a good or an evil star. One donkey
+      serves a hungry grammarian and feeds on used-up papyrus, while another
+      enters the service of Caesar and is fattened up, and finds time to go
+      star-gazing at night. What a state you are in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The boat upset and I fell into the water.&rdquo; Hadrian was startled, and
+      observing his favorite&rsquo;s tangled hair in which the night wind had dried
+      the salt water, and his torn chiton, he anxiously exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go this instant and let Mastor dry you and anoint you. He too came back
+      with a bruised hand and red eyes. Everything is upside clown this accursed
+      evening. You look like a slave that has been hunted by clogs. Drink a few
+      cups of wine and then lie down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I obey your orders, great Caesar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So formal? The donkey simile vexed you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You used always to have a kind word for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, and I shall have them again, I shall have them again. Only not
+      to-night&mdash;go to bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous left him, but the Emperor paced his room, up and down with long
+      steps, his arms crossed over his breast and his eyes fixed on the ground.
+      His superstitious soul had been deeply disturbed by a series of evil signs
+      which he had not only seen the previous night in the sky, but had also met
+      on his way to Lochias, and which seemed to be beginning to be fulfilled
+      already.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had left the eating house in an evil humor, the bad omens made him
+      anxious, and though on his arrival at home he had done one or two things
+      which he already regretted, this had certainly not been due to any adverse
+      Daimons but to the brooding gloom of his clouded mind. Eternal
+      circumstances, it is true, had led to his being witness to an attack made
+      by the mob on the house of a wealthy Israelite, and it was attributable to
+      a vexatious accident that at this juncture, he should have met Verus, who
+      had observed and recognized him. Yes, the Spirits of evil were abroad this
+      day, but his subsequent experiences and deeds upon reaching Lochias, would
+      certainly not have taken place on any more fortunate day, or, to be more
+      exact, if he had been in a calmer frame of mind; he himself alone was in
+      fault, he alone, and no spiteful accident, nor malicious and tricky
+      Daimon. Hadrian, to be sure, attributed to these sprites all that he had
+      done, and so considered it irremediable; an excellent way, no doubt, of
+      exonerating oneself from a burdensome duty, or from repairing some
+      injustice, but conscience is a register in which a mysterious hand
+      inexorably enters every one of our deeds, and in which all that we do is
+      ruthlessly called by its true name. We often succeed, it is true, in
+      effacing the record for a longer or a shorter period, but often, again,
+      the letters on the page shine with an uncanny light, and force the inward
+      eye to see them and to heed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this particular night Hadrian felt himself compelled to read the
+      catalogue of his actions and among them he found many a sanguinary crime,
+      many a petty action unworthy of a far meaner soul than he; still the
+      record commemorated many duties strictly fulfilled, much honest work, an
+      unceasing struggle towards high aims, and an unwearied effort to feel his
+      way intellectually, to the most remote and exalted limits possible to the
+      human mind and comprehension.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this hour Hadrian thought of none but his evil deeds, and vowed to the
+      gods&mdash;whom he mocked at with his philosophical friends, and to whom
+      he nevertheless addressed himself whenever he felt the insufficiency of
+      his own strength and means&mdash;to build a temple here, to offer a
+      sacrifice there, in order to expiate old crimes and divert their malice.
+      He felt like a great man must who is threatened with the disfavor of his
+      superiors, and who hopes to propitiate them with gifts. The haughty Roman
+      quailed at the thought of unknown dangers, but he was far from feeling the
+      wholesome pangs of repentance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hardly an hour since he had forgotten himself and had disgracefully abused
+      his power over a weaker creature, and now he was vexed at having behaved
+      so and not otherwise; but it never entered his head to humiliate his pride
+      or, by offering some compensation to the offended party, tacitly to
+      confess the injustice he had committed. Often he deeply felt his human
+      weakness, but he was quite capable of believing in the sacredness of his
+      imperial person, and this he always found most easy when he had trodden
+      under foot some one who had been rash enough to insult him, or not to
+      acknowledge his superiority. And was it not on the contemners of the gods
+      that their heaviest punishments fell?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To-day the terrestrial Jupiter had again crushed into the earth with his
+      thunderbolts, an overbold mortal, and this time the son of the worthy
+      gate-keeper was his victim. The sculptor certainly had been so unlucky as
+      to touch Hadrian in his most sensitive spot, but a cordially benevolent
+      feeling is not easily converted into a relentless opposition if we are not
+      ourselves&mdash;as was the case with the Emperor&mdash;accustomed to jump
+      from one mood to the other, are not conscious&mdash;as he was&mdash;of
+      having it in our power directly to express our good-will or our aversion
+      in action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sculptor&rsquo;s capacities had commanded the Emperor&rsquo;s esteem, his fresh
+      and independent nature had at first suited and attracted him, but even
+      during the walk together through the streets, the young man&rsquo;s
+      uncompromising manner of treating him as an equal had become unpleasing to
+      him. In his workshop he saw in Pollux only the artist, and delighted in
+      his original and dashing powers; but out of it, and among men of a
+      commoner stamp, from whom he was accustomed to meet with deference, the
+      young man&rsquo;s speech and demeanor seemed unbecoming, bold, and hard to be
+      endured. In the eating-house the huge eater and drinker, who laughingly
+      pressed him to do his part, so as not to make a present to the landlord,
+      had filled Hadrian with repulsion. And after this, when Hadrian had
+      returned to Lochias, out of humor and rendered apprehensive by evil omens,
+      and even then had not found his favorite, he impatiently paced up and down
+      the hall of the Muses and would not deign to offer a greeting to the
+      sculptor, who was noisily occupied behind his screens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux had passed quite as bad an evening as the Emperor. When, in his
+      desire to see Arsinoe once more, he penetrated to the door of the
+      steward&rsquo;s apartment, Keraunus had stopped his way, and sent him about his
+      business with insulting words. In the hall of the Muses he had met his
+      master, and had had a quarrel with him, for Papias, to whom he repeated
+      his notice to quit, had grown angry, and had desired him then and there to
+      sort out his own tools, and to return those that belonged to him, his
+      master, and for the future to keep himself as far as possible from Papias&rsquo; 
+      house, and from the works in progress at Locluas. On this, hard words had
+      passed on both sides, and when Papias had left the palace and Pollux went
+      to seek Pontius the architect, in order to discuss his future plans with
+      him, he learnt that he too had quitted Lochias a short time before, and
+      would not return till the following morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After brief reflection he determined to obey the orders of Papias and to
+      pack his own tools together. Without paying any heed to Hadrian&rsquo;s presence
+      he began to toss some of the hammers, chisels, and wooden modelling tools
+      into one box, and others into another, doing it as recklessly as though he
+      were minded to punish the unconscious tools as adverse creatures who had
+      turned against him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last his eye fell on Hadrian&rsquo;s bust of Balbilla. The hideous caricature
+      at which he had laughed only yesterday, made him angry now, and after
+      gazing at it thoughtfully for a few minutes his blood boiled up furiously,
+      he hastily pulled a lath out of the partition and struck at the
+      monstrosity with such fury that the dry clay flew in pieces, and the
+      fragments were strewed far and wide about the workshop. The wild noise
+      behind the sculptor&rsquo;s screen made the Emperor pause in his walk to see
+      what the artist was doing; he looked on at the work of destruction,
+      unobserved by Pollux, and as he looked the blood mounted to his head; he
+      knit his brows in anger, a blue vein in his forehead swelled and stood
+      out, and ominous lines appeared above his brow. The great master of
+      state-craft could more easily have borne to hear himself condemned as a
+      ruler than to see his work of art despised. A man who is sure of having
+      done some thing great can smile at blame, but he, who is not confident in
+      himself has reason to dread it, and is easily drawn into hating the critic
+      who utters it. Hadrian was trembling with fury, he doubled his first as he
+      lifted it in Pollux&rsquo;s face, and going close up to him asked in a
+      threatening tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean by that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The sculptor glanced round at the Emperor and answered, raising his stick
+      for another blow:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am demolishing this caricature for it enrages me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come here,&rdquo; shouted Hadrian, and clutching the girdle which confined the
+      artist&rsquo;s chiton, in his strong sinewy hand, he dragged the startled
+      sculptor in front of his Urania wrenched the lath out of his hand, struck
+      the bust of the scarcely-finished statue off the body, exclaiming as he
+      did so, in a voice that mimicked Pollux:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am demolishing this bungler&rsquo;s work for it enrages me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The artist&rsquo;s arms fell by his side; astonished and infuriated he stared at
+      the destroyer of his handiwork, and cried out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madman! this is enough. One blow more and you will feel the weight of my
+      fists.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian laughed aloud, a cold hard laugh, flung the lath at Pollux&rsquo;s feet
+      and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Judgment against judgment&mdash;it is only fair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fair?&rdquo; shrieked Pollux, beside himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your wretched rubbish, which my squinting apprentice could have done as
+      well as you, and this figure born in a moment of inspiration! Shame upon
+      you! Once more, if you touch the Urania again I warn you, you shall learn&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That in Alexandria grey hairs are only respected so long as they deserve
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian folded his arms, stepped quite close up to Pollux, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gently, fellow, if you value your life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux stepped back before the imposing personage that stood before him,
+      and, as it were scales, fell from his eyes. The marble statue of the
+      Emperor in the Caesareum represented the sovereign in this same attitude.
+      The architect, Claudius Venator, was none other than Hadrian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young artist turned pale and said with bowed head, and in low voice as
+      he turned to go:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right is always on the side of the strongest. Let me go. I am nothing but
+      a poor artist&mdash;you are some thing very different. I know you now; you
+      are Caesar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Caesar,&rdquo; snarled Hadrian, &ldquo;and if you think more of yourself as an
+      artist than of me, I will show you which of us two is the sparrow, and
+      which the eagle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have the power to destroy, and I only desire&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The only person here who has a right to desire is myself,&rdquo; cried the
+      Emperor, &ldquo;and I desire that you shall never enter this palace again, nor
+      ever come within sight of me so long as I remain here. What to do with
+      your kith and kin I will consider. Not another word! Away with you, I say,
+      and thank the gods that I judge the misdeed of a miserable boy more
+      mercifully than you dared to do in judging the work of a greater man than
+      yourself, though you knew that he had done it in an idle hour with a few
+      hasty touches. Be off, fellow; my slaves will finish destroying your image
+      there, for it deserves no better fate, and because&mdash;what was it you
+      said just now? I remember&mdash;and because it enrages me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A bitter laugh rang after the lad as he quitted the hall. At the entrance,
+      which was perfectly dark, he found his master, Papias, who had not missed
+      a word of what had passed between him and the Emperor. As Pollux went into
+      his mother&rsquo;s house he cried out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh mother, mother, what a morning, and what an evening. Happiness is only
+      the threshold to misery.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      While Pollux and his mother, who was much grieved, waited for Euphorion&rsquo;s
+      return, and while Papias was ingratiating himself with the Emperor by
+      pretending still to believe that Hadrian was nothing more than Claudius
+      Venator, the architect, Aurelius Verus, nicknamed by the Alexandrians,
+      &ldquo;the sham Eros&rdquo; had lived through strange experiences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the afternoon he had visited the Empress, in the hope of persuading her
+      to look on at the gay doings of the people, even if incognito; but Sabina
+      was out of spirits, declared herself unwell, and was quite sure that the
+      noise of the rabble would be the death of her. Having, as she said, so
+      vivacious a reporter as Verus, she might spare herself from exposing her
+      own person to the dust and smell of the town, and the uproar of men. As
+      soon as Lucilla begged her husband to remember his rank and not to mingle
+      with the excited multitude, at any rate after dark, the Empress strictly
+      enjoined him to see with his own eyes everything that could be worth
+      notice in the festival, and more particularly to give attention to
+      everything that was peculiar to Alexandria and not to be seen in Rome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After sunset Verus had first gone to visit the veterans of the Twelfth
+      Legion who had been in the field with him against the Numidians, and to
+      whom he gave a dinner at an eating-house, as being his old
+      fellow-soldiers. For above an hour he sat drinking with the brave old
+      fellows; then, quitting them, he went to look at the Canopic way by night,
+      as it was but a few paces thither from the scene of his hospitality. It
+      was brilliantly lighted with tapers, torches, and lamps, and the large
+      houses behind the colonnades were gaudy with rich hangings; only the
+      handsomest and stateliest of them all had no kind of decoration. This was
+      the abode of the Jew Apollodorus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In former years the finest hangings had decorated his windows, which had
+      been as gay with flowers and lamps as those of the other Israelites who
+      dwelt in the Canopic way, and who were wont to keep the festival in common
+      with their heathen fellow-citizens as jovially as though they were no less
+      zealous to do homage to Dionysus. Apollodorus had his own reasons for
+      keeping aloof on this occasion from all that was connected with the
+      holiday doings of the heathen. Without dreaming that his withdrawal could
+      involve him in any danger, he was quietly sitting in his house, which was
+      so splendidly furnished as to seem fitted for some princely Greek rather
+      than for a Hebrew. This was especially the case with the men&rsquo;s
+      living-room, in which Apollodorus sat, for the pictures on the walls and
+      pavement of this beautiful hall&mdash;of which the roof, which was half
+      open, was supported on columns of the finest porphyry&mdash;represented
+      the loves of Eros and Psyche; while between the pillars stood busts of the
+      greatest heathen philosophers, and in the background a fine statue of
+      Plato was conspicuous. Among all the Greeks and Romans there was the
+      portrait of only one Jew, and this was that of Philo, whose intellectual
+      and delicate features greatly resembled those of the most illustrious of
+      his Greek companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this splendid room, lighted by silver lamps, there was no lack of easy
+      couches, and on one of these Apollodorus was reclining; a fine-looking man
+      of fifty, with his mild but shrewd eyes fixed on a tall and aged
+      fellow-Israelite who was pacing up and down in front of him and talking
+      eagerly; the old man&rsquo;s hands too were never still, now he used them in
+      eager gesture, and again stroked his long white beard. On an easy seat
+      opposite to the master of the house sat a lean young man with pale and
+      very regular finely-cut features, black hair and a black beard; he sat
+      with his dark glowing eyes fixed on the ground, tracing lines and circles
+      on the pavement with the stick he held in his hand, while the excited old
+      man, his uncle, urgently addressed Apollodorus in a vehement but fluent
+      torrent of words. Apollodorus, however, shook his head from time to time
+      at his speech and frequently met him with a brief contradiction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was easy to see that what he was listening to touched him painfully,
+      and that the two diametrically different men were fighting a battle which
+      could never lead to any satisfactory issue. For, though they both used the
+      Greek tongue and confessed the same religion, all they felt and thought
+      was grounded on views, as widely dissimilar as though the two men had been
+      born in different spheres. When two opponents of such different calibre
+      meet, there is a great clatter of arms but no bloody wounds are dealt and
+      neither rout nor victory can result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was on account of this old man and his nephew that Apollodorus had
+      forborne to-day to decorate his house, for the Rabbi Gamaliel, who had
+      arrived only the day before from Palestine, and had been welcomed by his
+      Alexandrian relatives, condemned every form of communion with the
+      gentiles, and would undoubtedly have quitted the residence of his host if
+      he had ventured to adorn it in honor of the feast-day of the false gods.
+      Gamaliel&rsquo;s nephew, Rabbi Ben Jochai, enjoyed a reputation little inferior
+      to that of his father, Ben Akiba. The elder was the greatest sage and
+      expounder of the law&mdash;the son the most illustrious astronomer and the
+      most skilled interpreter of the mystical significance of the position of
+      the heavenly bodies, among the Hebrews.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It redounded greatly to the honor of Apollodorus that he should be
+      privileged to shelter under his roof the sage Gamaliel and the famous son
+      of so great a father, and in his hours of leisure he loved to occupy
+      himself with learned subjects, so he had done his utmost to make their
+      stay in his house in every way agreeable to them. He had bought, on
+      purpose for them, a kitchen slave, himself a strict Jew and familiar with
+      the requirements of the Levitical law as to food, who during their stay
+      was to preside over the mysteries of the hearth, instead of the Greek cook
+      who usually served him, so that none but clean meat should be prepared
+      according to the Jewish ritual. He had forbidden his grown-up sons to
+      invite any of their Greek friends into the house during the visit of the
+      illustrious couple or to discuss the festival; they were also enjoined to
+      avoid using the names of the gods of the heathen in their conversation&mdash;but
+      he himself was the first to sin against this prohibition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He, like all the Hebrews of good position in Alexandria, had acquired
+      Greek culture, felt and thought in Greek modes, and had remained a Jew
+      only in name; for though they still believed in the one God of their
+      fathers instead of in a crowd of Olympian deities, the One whom they
+      worshipped was no longer the almighty and jealous God of their nation, but
+      the all-pervading plasmic and life-giving Spirit with whom the Greeks had
+      become familiar through Plato.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every hour that they had spent in each other&rsquo;s company had widened the
+      gulf between Apollodorus and Gamaliel, and the relations of the
+      Alexandrian to the sage had become almost intolerable, when he learnt that
+      the old man&mdash;who was related to himself&mdash;had come to Egypt with
+      his nephew, in order to demand the daughter of Apollodorus in marriage.
+      But the fair Ismene was not in the least disposed to listen to this grave
+      and bigoted suitor. The home of her people was to her a barbarous land,
+      the young astronomer filled her with alarm, and besides all this her heart
+      was already engaged; she had given it to the son of Alabarchos, who was
+      the Superior of all the Israelites in Egypt, and this young man possessed
+      the finest horse in the whole city, with which he had won several races in
+      the Hippodrome, and he also had distinguished her above all the maidens.
+      To him, if to any one, would she give her hand, and she had explained
+      herself to this effect to her father when he informed her of Ben Jochai&rsquo;s
+      suit, and Apollodorus, who had lost his wife several years before, had
+      neither the wish nor the power to put any pressure on his pretty darling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To be sure the temporizing nature of the man rendered it very difficult to
+      him to give a decided no to his venerable old friend; but it had to be
+      done sooner or later, and the present evening seemed to him an appropriate
+      moment for this unpleasant task.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was alone with his guests. His daughter had gone to the house of a
+      friend to look on at the gay doings in the street, his three sons were
+      out, all the slaves had leave to enjoy their holiday till midnight;
+      nothing was likely to disturb them, and so, after many warm expressions of
+      his deep respect, he found courage to confess to them that he could not
+      support Ben Jochai&rsquo;s pretensions. His child, he said, clung too fondly to
+      Alexandria to wish to quit it, and his learned young friend would be but
+      ill suited with a wife who was accustomed to freer manners and habits, and
+      could hardly feel herself at ease in a home where the laws of her fathers
+      were strictly observed, and in which therefore no kind of freedom of life
+      would be tolerated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gamaliel let the Alexandrian speak to the end, but then, as his nephew was
+      beginning to argue against their host&rsquo;s hesitancy, the old man abruptly
+      interrupted him. Drawing up his figure, which was a little bent, to its
+      full height, and passing his hand among the blue veins and fine wrinkles
+      that marked his high forehead, he began:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our house was decimated in our wars against the Romans, and among the
+      daughters of our race Ben Akiba found not one in Palestine who seemed to
+      him worthy to marry his son. But the report of the good fortune of the
+      Alexandrian branch of our family had reached Judea, and Ben Akiba thought
+      that he would do like our father Abraham, and he sent me, his Eliezer,
+      into a strange land to win the daughter of a kinsman to wife for his
+      Isaac. Now, who and what the young man is, and the esteem in which he and
+      his father are held by men&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know well,&rdquo; interrupted Apollodorus, &ldquo;and my house has never been so
+      highly honored as in your visit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And notwithstanding,&rdquo; continued the Rabbi, &ldquo;we must return home as we
+      came; and indeed this will not only suit you best, but us too, and my
+      brother, whose ambassador I am, for after what I have learnt from you
+      within this last hour we must in any case withdraw our suit. Do not
+      interrupt me! Your Ismene scorns to veil her face, and no doubt it is a
+      very pretty one to look upon&mdash;you have trained her mind like that of
+      a man, and so she seeks to go her own way. That may be all very well for a
+      Greek woman, but in the house of Ben Akiba the woman must obey her
+      husband&rsquo;s will, as the ship obeys the helm, and have no will of her own;
+      her husband&rsquo;s will always coincides with what the law commands, which you
+      yourself learnt to obey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We recognize its excellence,&rdquo; replied Apolloderus, &ldquo;but even if all the
+      laws which Moses received on Sinai were binding on all mortals alike, the
+      various ordinances which were wisely laid down for the regulation of the
+      social life of our fathers, are not universally applicable for the
+      children of our day. And least of all can we observe them here, where,
+      though true to our ancient faith, we live as Greeks among Greeks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I perceive,&rdquo; retorted Gamaliel, &ldquo;for even the language&mdash;that
+      clothing of our thoughts&mdash;the language of our fathers and of the
+      scriptures, you have abandoned for another, sacrificed to another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You and your nephew also speak Greek.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We do it here, because the heathen, because you and yours, no longer
+      understand the tongue of Moses and the prophets.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But wherever the Great Alexander bore his arms Greek is spoken; and does
+      not the Greek version of the scriptures, translated by the seventy
+      interpreters under the direct guidance of our God, exactly reproduce the
+      Hebrew text?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And would you exchange the stone engraved by Bryasis that you wear on
+      your finger, and showed me yesterday with so much pride, for a wax
+      impression of the gem?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The language of Plato is not an inferior thing; it is as noble as the
+      costliest sapphire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But ours came to us from the lips of the Most High. What would you think
+      of a child that, disdaining the tongue Of its father listened only to that
+      of its neighbors and made use of an interpreter to be able to understand
+      its parents&rsquo; commands?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are speaking of parents who have long since left their native land.
+      The ancestor need not be indignant with his descendants when they use the
+      language of their new home, so long as they continue to act in accordance
+      with his spirit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must live not merely in accordance with the spirit, but by the words
+      of the Most High, for not a syllable proceeds from His lips in vain. The
+      more exalted the spirit of a discourse is, the more important is every
+      word and syllable. One single letter often changes the meaning of whole
+      sentences.&mdash;What a noise the people outside are making! The wild
+      tumult penetrates even into this room which is so far from the street, and
+      your sons take delight in the disorders of the heathen! You do not even
+      withhold them by force from adding to the number of those mad devotees of
+      pleasure!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was young once myself, and I think it no sin to share in the universal
+      rejoicing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say rather the disgraceful idolatry of the worshippers of Dionysus. It is
+      in name alone that you and your children belong to the elect people of
+      God, in your hearts you are heathens!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Father,&rdquo; exclaimed Apollodorus eagerly. &ldquo;The reverse is the case. In
+      our hearts we are Jews but we wear the garments of Greeks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why your name is Apollodorus&mdash;the gift of Apollo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A name chosen only to distinguish me from others. Who would ever enquire
+      into the meaning of a name if it sounds well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You, everybody who is not devoid of sense,&rdquo; cried the Rabbi. &ldquo;You think
+      to yourself &lsquo;need Zenodotus or Hermogenes, some Greek you meet at the bath
+      or else where, know at once that the wealthy personage, with whom he
+      discussed the latest interpretation of the Hellenic myths, is a Jew?&rsquo; And
+      how charming is the man who asks you whether you are not an Athenian, for
+      your Greek has such a pure Attic accent! And what we ourselves like, we
+      favor in our children, so we choose names for them too which flatter our
+      own vanity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Heracles!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A faint mocking smile crossed Gamaliel&rsquo;s lips and interrupting the
+      Alexandrian he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there any particularly worthy man among our Alexandrian
+      fellow-believers whose name is Heracles?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one&rdquo; cried the Alexandrian &ldquo;ever thinks of the son of Alcmene when he
+      asseverates&mdash;it only means &lsquo;really,&mdash;truly&mdash;&lsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure you are not fastidiously accurate in the choice of your words
+      and names, and where there is so much to be seen and enjoyed as there is
+      here one&rsquo;s thoughts are not always connected. That is intelligible&mdash;quite,
+      peculiarly intelligible! And in this city folks are so polite that they
+      are fain to wrap truth in some graceful disguise. May I, a barbarian from
+      Judea, be allowed to set it before you, bare of clothing, naked and
+      unadorned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak, I beg you, speak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are Jews; but you had rather not be Jews, and you endure your origin
+      as an inevitable evil. It is only when you feel the mighty hand of the
+      Most High that you recognize it and claim your right to be one of His
+      chosen people. In the smooth current of daily life you proudly number
+      yourselves with his enemies. Do not interrupt me, and answer honestly what
+      I shall ask you. In what hour of your life did you feel yourself that you
+      owed the deepest gratitude to the God of your fathers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should I deny it?&mdash;In the hour when my lost wife presented me
+      with my first-born son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you called him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know his name is Benjamin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like the favorite son of our forefather Jacob, for in the hour when you
+      thus named him you were honestly yourself, you felt thankful that it had
+      been vouchsafed to you to add another link to the chain of your race&mdash;you
+      were a Jew&mdash;you were confident in our God&mdash;in your own God. The
+      birth of your second son touched your soul less deeply and you gave him
+      the name of Theophilus, and when your third male child was born you had
+      altogether ceased to remember the God of your fathers, for he is named
+      after one of the heathen gods, Hephaestion. To put it shortly: You are
+      Jews when the Lord is most gracious to you, or threatens to try you most
+      severely but you are heathen whenever your way does not lead you over the
+      high hills or through the dark abysses of life. I cannot change your
+      hearts&mdash;but the wife of my brother&rsquo;s son, the daughter of Ben Akiba,
+      must be a daughter of our people, morning, noon, and night. I seek a
+      Rebecca for my daughter and not an Ismene.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not ask you here,&rdquo; retorted Apollodorus. &ldquo;But if you quit us
+      to-morrow, you as will be followed by our reverent regard. Think no worse
+      of us because we adapt ourselves, more, perhaps, than is fitting, to the
+      ways and ideas of the people among whom we have grown up, and in whose
+      midst we have been prosperous, and whose interests are ours. We know how
+      high our faith is beyond theirs. In our hearts we still are Jews; but are
+      we not bound to try to open and to cultivate and to elevate our spirits,
+      which God certainly made of stuff no coarser than that of other nations,
+      whenever and wherever we may? And in what school may our minds be trained
+      better or on sounder principles than in ours&mdash;I mean that of the
+      Greek sages? The knowledge of the Most High&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That knowledge,&rdquo; cried the old man, gesticulating vehemently with his
+      arms. &ldquo;The knowledge of God Most High and all that the most refined
+      philosophy can prove, all the sublimest and purest of the thinkers of whom
+      you speak can only apprehend by the gravest meditation and heart-searching&mdash;all
+      this I say has been bestowed as a free gift of God on every child of our
+      people. The treasures which your sages painfully seek out we already
+      possess in our scriptures, our law and our moral ordinances. We are the
+      chosen people, the first-born of the Lord, and when Messiah shall rise up
+      in our midst&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; interrupted Apollodorus, &ldquo;that shall be fulfilled which, like
+      Philo, I hope for, we shall be the priests and prophets for all nations.
+      Then we shall in truth be a race of priests whose vocation it shall be to
+      call down the blessing of the Most High on all mankind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For us&mdash;for us alone shall the messenger of God appear, to make us
+      the kings, and not the slaves of the nations.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Apollodorus looked with surprise into the face of the excited old man, and
+      asked with an incredulous smile: &ldquo;The crucified Nazarene was a false
+      Messiah; but when will the true Messiah appear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When will He appear?&rdquo; cried the Rabbi. &ldquo;When? Can I tell when? Only one
+      thing I do know; the serpent is already sharpening its fangs to sting the
+      heel of Him who shall tread upon it. Have you heard the name of Bar
+      Kochba?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Uncle,&rdquo; said Ben Jochai, interrupting the old Rabbi&rsquo;s speech, and rising
+      from his seat: &ldquo;Say nothing you might regret.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, nay,&rdquo; answered Gamaliel earnestly. &ldquo;Our friends here prefer the
+      human above the divine, but they are not traitors.&rdquo; Then turning again to
+      Apollodorus he continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The oppressors in Israel have set up idols in our holy places, and strive
+      again to force the people to bow down to them; but rather shall our back
+      be broken than we will bend the knee or submit!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are meditating another revolt?&rdquo; asked the Alexandrian anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Answer me&mdash;have you heard the name of Bar Kochba?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, as that of the foolhardy leader of an armed troup.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a hero&mdash;perhaps the Redeemer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And it was for him that you charged me to load my next corn vessel to
+      Joppa with swords, shields and lance-heads?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And are none but the Romans to be permitted to use iron?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay&mdash;but I should hesitate to supply a friend with arms if he
+      proposed to use them against an irresistible antagonist, who will
+      inevitably annihilate him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lord of Hosts is stronger than a thousand legions!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be cautious uncle,&rdquo; said Ben Jochai again in a warning voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gamaliel turned wrathfully upon his nephew, but before he could retort on
+      the young man&rsquo;s protest, he started in alarm, for a wild howling and the
+      resounding clatter of violent blows on the brazen door of the house rang
+      through the hall and shook its walls of marble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are attacking my house,&rdquo; shouted Apollodorus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the gratitude of those for whom you have broken faith with the
+      God of your fathers,&rdquo; said the old man gloomily. Then throwing up his
+      hands and eyes he cried aloud: &ldquo;Hear me Adonai! My years are many and I am
+      ripe for the grave; but spare these, have mercy upon them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ben Jochai followed his uncle&rsquo;s example and raised his arms in
+      supplication, while his black eyes sparkled with a lowering glow in his
+      pale face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But their prayers were brief, for the tumult came nearer and nearer;
+      Apollodorus wrung his hands, and struck his fist against his forehead; his
+      movements were violent&mdash;spasmodic. Terror had entirely robbed him of
+      the elegant, measured demeanor which he had acquired among his Greek
+      fellow-citizens, and mingling heathen oaths and adjurations with appeals
+      to the God of his fathers, he flew first one way and then another. He
+      searched for the key of the subterranean rooms of the house, but he could
+      not find it, for it was in the charge of his steward, who, with all the
+      other servants, was taking his pleasure in the streets, or over a brimming
+      cup in some tavern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the newly-purchased kitchen-slave&mdash;the Jew to whom the keeping of
+      the Dionysian feast was an abomination&mdash;rushed into the room
+      shrieking out, as he plucked at his hair and beard:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Philistines are upon us! save us Rabbi, great Rabbi! Cry for us to
+      the Lord, oh! man of God! They are coming with staves and spears and they
+      will tread us down as grass and burn us in this house like the locusts
+      cast into the oven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In deadly terror he threw himself at Gamaliel&rsquo;s feet and clasped them in
+      his hands, but Apollodorus exclaimed: &ldquo;Follow me, follow me up on to the
+      roof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; howled the slave, &ldquo;Amalek is making ready the firebrand to fling
+      among our tents. The heathen leap and rage, the flames they are flinging
+      will consume us. Rabbi, Rabbi, call upon the Hosts of the Lord! God of the
+      just! The gate has given way. Lord! Lord! Lord!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The terrified wretch&rsquo;s teeth chattered and he covered his eyes with his
+      hands, groaning and howling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ben Jochai had remained perfectly calm, but he was quivering with rage.
+      His prayer was ended, and turning to Gamaliel he said in deep tones:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knew that this would happen, I warned you. Our evil star rose when we
+      set forth on our wanderings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now we must abide patiently what the Lord hath determined. He will be our
+      Avenger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vengeance is His!&rdquo; echoed the old man, and he covered his head with his
+      white mantle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the sleeping-room&mdash;follow me! we can hide under the beds!&rdquo;
+       shrieked Apollodorus; he kicked away the slave who was embracing the
+      Rabbi&rsquo;s feet, and seized the old man by the shoulder to drag him away with
+      him. But it was too late, for the door of the antechamber had burst open
+      and they could hear the clatter of weapons. &ldquo;Lost, lost, all is lost!&rdquo;
+       cried Apollodorus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Adonai! help us Adonai!&rdquo; murmured the old man and he clung more closely
+      to his nephew, who overtopped him by a head and who held him clasped in
+      his right arm as if to protect him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The danger which threatened Apollodorus and his guests was indeed
+      imminent, and it had been provoked solely by the indignation of the
+      excited mob at seeing the wealthy Israelite&rsquo;s house unadorned for the
+      feast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A thousand times had it occurred that a single word had proved sufficient
+      to inflame the hot blood of the Alexandrians to prompt them to break the
+      laws and seize the sword. Bloody frays between the heathen inhabitants and
+      the Jews, who were equally numerous in the city, were quite the order of
+      the day, and one party was as often to blame as the other for disturbing
+      the peace and having recourse to the sword. Since the Israelites had risen
+      in several provinces&mdash;particularly in Cyrenaica and Cyprus&mdash;and
+      had fallen with cruel fury on their fellow-inhabitants who were their
+      oppressors, the suspicion and aversion of the Alexandrians of other
+      beliefs had grown more intense than in former times. Besides this, the
+      prosperous circumstances of many Jews, and the enormous riches of a few,
+      had filled the less wealthy heathen with envy and roused the wish to
+      snatch the possessions of those who, it cannot be denied, had not
+      unfrequently treated their gods with open contumely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It happened that just within a few days the disputes regarding the
+      festival that was to be held in honor of the Imperial visit had added
+      bitterness to the old grudge, and thus it came to pass that Apollodorus&rsquo; 
+      unlighted house in the Canopic way had excited the populace to attack this
+      palatial residence. And here again one single speech had sufficed to
+      excite their fury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the first instance Melampus, the tanner, a drunken swaggerer, who had
+      failed in business, had marched up the street at the head of a tipsy crew,
+      and pointing with his thyrsus to the dark, undecorated house, had shouted:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look at that dismal barrack! All that the Jew used to spend on decorating
+      the street, he is saving up now in his money chest!&rdquo; The words were like a
+      spark among tinder and others followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The niggard is robbing our father Dionysus,&rdquo; cried a second citizen, and
+      a third, flourishing his torch on high, croaked out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us get at the drachmae he grudges the god; we can find a use for
+      them.&rdquo; Graukus, the sausage maker, snatched from his neighbor&rsquo;s hand the
+      bunch of tow soaked in pitch, and bellowed out, &ldquo;I advise that we should
+      burn the house over their heads!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay, stay,&rdquo; cried a cobbler who worked for Apollodorus&rsquo; slaves, as he
+      placed himself in the butcher&rsquo;s way. &ldquo;Perhaps they are mourning for some
+      one in there. The Jew has always decorated his house on former occasions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not they,&rdquo; replied a flute-player in a loud hoarse voice. &ldquo;We met the old
+      miser&rsquo;s son on the Bruchiom with some riotous comrades and misconducted
+      hussies, with his purple mantle fluttering far behind him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us see which is reddest, the Tyrian stuff or the blaze we shall make
+      if we set the old wretch&rsquo;s house on fire,&rdquo; shouted a hungry-looking
+      tailor, looking round to see the effects of his wit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay! let us try!&rdquo; rose from one man, and then, from a number of others:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us get into the house!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The mean churl shall remember this day!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fetch him out!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Drag him into the street!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such shouts as these rose here and there from the crowd, which grew denser
+      every instant as it was increased by fresh tributaries attracted by the
+      riot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Drag him out!&rdquo; again shrieked an Egyptian slavedriver, and a woman
+      shrieked an echo of his words. She snatched the deer-skin from her
+      shoulders, flourished it round and round in the air above her tangled
+      black hair, and bellowed furiously:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tear him in pieces!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In pieces, with your teeth!&rdquo; roared a drunken Maenad who, like most of
+      the mob that had collected, knew nothing whatever of the popular grudge
+      against Apollodorus and his house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But words had already begun to be followed by deeds. Feet, fists, and
+      cudgels stamped, drubbed, and thumped against the firmly-bolted brazen
+      door of the darkened house, and a ship&rsquo;s boy of fourteen sprang on the
+      shoulders of a tall black slave and tried to climb the roof of the
+      colonnade, and to fling the torch which the sausage-maker handed up to him
+      into the open forecourt of the imperilled house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The clatter of arms which Apollodorus and his guests had heard proceeded
+      not from the Jew&rsquo;s besiegers, but from some Roman soldiers who brought
+      safety to the besieged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Verus, who as he was returning from the supper he had given his
+      veterans, with an officer of the Twelfth Legion and his British slaves,
+      had crossed the Canopic way and had been impeded in his progress by the
+      increasing crowd which stood before Apollodorus&rsquo; house. The praetor had
+      met the Jew at the prefect&rsquo;s house, and knew him for one of the richest
+      and shrewdest men in Alexandria. This attack on his property roused his
+      ire; still he would certainly not have remained an idle spectator even if
+      the house in danger, instead of belonging to a man of mark, had been that
+      of one of the poorest and meanest, even among the Christians. Any lawless
+      act, any breach of constituted order was odious and intolerable to the
+      Roman; he would not have been the man he was if he had looked on passively
+      at an attack by the mob, in times of peace, on the life and property of a
+      quiet and estimable citizen. This licentious man of pleasure, devoted to
+      every enervating enjoyment, in battle, or whenever the need arose, was as
+      prudent as he was brave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He now first ascertained what purpose the excited crowd had in view, and
+      at once considered the ways and means of frustrating their project. They
+      had already begun to batter the Jew&rsquo;s door, and already several lads were
+      standing on the roof of the arcades with burning torches in their hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever he did must be done on the instant, and happily Verus had the
+      gift of thinking and acting promptly. In a few decisive words he begged
+      his companion, Lucius Albinus, to hurry back to his old soldiers and bring
+      them to the rescue; then he desired his slaves to force a way for him with
+      their powerful arms up to the door of the house. This feat was
+      accomplished in no time, but how great was his astonishment when he found
+      the Emperor standing there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian stood in the midst of the crowd, and at the instant when Verus
+      appeared on the scene had wrenched the torch out of the hand of the
+      infuriated tailor. At the same time, in a thundering voice, he commanded
+      the Alexandrians&mdash;who were not accustomed to the imperial tone&mdash;to
+      desist from their mad project. Whistling, grunting, and words of scorn
+      overpowered the mandate of the sovereign, and when Verus and his slaves
+      had reached the spot where he stood, a few drunken Egyptians had gone up
+      to him and were about to lay hands on the unwelcome counsellor. The
+      praetor stood in their way. He first whispered to Hadrian that Jupiter
+      ought to be ruling the world, and might well leave it to smaller folks to
+      rescue a houseful of Jews; and that in a few seconds the soldiers would
+      arrive. Then he shouted to him in a loud voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Away from this Sophist! Your place is in the Museum, or in the temple of
+      Serapis with your books, and not among the misguided and ignorant. Am I
+      right Macedonian citizens, or am I wrong?&rdquo; A murmur of assent was heard
+      which became a roar of laughter when Verus, after Hadrian had got away,
+      went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has a beard like Caesar, and so he behaves as if he wore the purple!
+      You did well to let him escape, his wife and children are waiting for him
+      over their porridge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus had often been implicated in wild adventure among the populace and
+      knew how to deal with them; if he now could only detain them till the
+      advent of the soldiers he might consider the game as won. Hadrian could be
+      a hero when it suited him; but here where no laurels were to be won, he
+      left to Verus the task of quieting the crowd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he was fairly gone Verus desired his slaves to lift him on
+      their shoulders; his handsome good-natured face looked down upon the crowd
+      from high above them. He was immediately recognized, and many voices
+      called out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The crazy Roman! the praetor! the sham Eros!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am he, Macedonian citizens, yes, I am he,&rdquo; answered Verus in a clear
+      voice. &ldquo;And I will tell you a story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, Listen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No let us get into the Jew&rsquo;s house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Presently&mdash;listen a minute to what the sham Eros says.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will knock your teeth down your throat boy, if you don&rsquo;t hold your
+      tongue.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All the crowd were shouting in wild confusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Curiosity, on the one hand, to hear the noble gentleman&rsquo;s speech, and the
+      somewhat superficial fury of the mob contended together for a few minutes;
+      at last curiosity seemed to be gaining the day, the tumult subsided, and
+      the praetor began:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once upon a time there was a child who had given to him ten little sheep
+      made of cotton, little foolish toys such as the old women sell in the
+      market place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get into the Jew&rsquo;s house, we don&rsquo;t want to hear children&rsquo;s stories&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be quiet there!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush now listen; from the sheep he will go on to the wolves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not wolves&mdash;it will be a she-wolf!&rdquo; some one shouted in the throng.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not mention the horrid things!&rdquo; laughed Verus, &ldquo;but listen to me.&mdash;Well,
+      the child set his little sheep up in a row each one close to the next. He
+      was a weaver&rsquo;s son. Are there any weavers here? You? and you&mdash;ah, and
+      you out there. If I were not my father&rsquo;s son I should like to be the son
+      of an Alexandrian weaver. You need not laugh!&mdash;Well, about the sheep.
+      All the little things were beautifully white but one which had nasty black
+      spots, and the little boy could not bear that one. He went to the hearth,
+      pulled out a burning stick and wanted to burn the little ugly sheep so as
+      only to have pretty white ones. The lambkin caught fire and just as the
+      flame had begun to burn the wooden skeleton of the toy a draught from the
+      window blew the flame towards the other little sheep and in a minute they
+      were all burned to ashes. Then thought the little boy, &lsquo;If only I had let
+      the ugly sheep alone! What can I play with now?&rsquo; and he began to cry. But
+      this was not all, for while the little rascal was drying his eyes, the
+      flame spread and burnt up the loom, the wool, the flax, the woven pieces,
+      the whole house&mdash;the town in which he was born, and even, I believe,
+      the boy himself!&mdash;Now worthy friends and Macedonian citizens, reflect
+      a moment. Any man among you who is possessed of any property may read the
+      moral of my fable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put out the torches!&rdquo; cried the wife of a charcoal dealer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is right; for by reason of the Jew, we are putting the whole town in
+      danger!&rdquo; cried the cobbler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The mad fools have already thrown in some brands!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you fellows up there fling any more I will break your ankles for you,&rdquo;
+       shouted a flax-dealer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t try any burning,&rdquo; the tailor commanded, &ldquo;force open the door and
+      have out the Jew.&rdquo; These words raised a storm of applause and the mob
+      pressed forward to the Jew&rsquo;s abode. No one listened to Verus any more, and
+      he slipped down from his slave&rsquo;s shoulders, placed himself in front of the
+      door and called out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the name of Caesar and the law I command you to leave this house
+      unharmed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Roman&rsquo;s warning was evidently quite in earnest, and the false Eros
+      looked as if at this moment it would be ill-advised to try jesting with
+      him. But in the universal uproar only a few had heard his words, and the
+      hot-blooded tailor was so rash as to lay his hand on the praetor&rsquo;s girdle
+      in order to drag him away from the door with the help of his comrades. But
+      he paid dearly for his temerity for the praetor&rsquo;s fist fell so heavily on
+      his forehead that he dropped as if struck by lightning. One of the Britons
+      knocked down the sausage-maker and a hideous hand to hand fight would have
+      been the upshot if help had not come to the hardly-beset Romans from two
+      quarters at once. The veterans supported by a number of lictors were the
+      first to appear, and soon after them came Benjamin, the Jew&rsquo;s eldest son,
+      who was passing down the great thoroughfare with his boon-companions and
+      saw the danger that was threatening his father&rsquo;s house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The soldiers parted the throng as the wind chases the clouds, and the
+      young Israelite pressed forward with his heavy thyrsus fought and pushed
+      his way so valiantly and resolutely through the panic-stricken mob, that
+      he reached the door of his father&rsquo;s house but a few moments later than the
+      soldiers. The lictors battered at the door and as no one opened it, they
+      forced it with the help of the soldiers in order to set a guard in the
+      beleaguered house, and protect it against the raging mob.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus and the officer entered the Jew&rsquo;s dwelling with the armed men, and
+      behind them came Benjamin and his friends&mdash;young Greeks with whom he
+      was in the habit of consorting daily, in the bath or the gymnasium.
+      Apollodorus and his guests expressed their gratitude to Verus, and when
+      the old Jewish house-keeper, who had seen and heard from a hiding-place
+      under the roof all that had taken place outside her master&rsquo;s house, came
+      into the men&rsquo;s hall and gave a full report of the uproar from beginning to
+      end, the praetor was overwhelmed with thanks; and the old woman
+      embroidered her narrative with the most glowing colors. While this was
+      going on Apollodorus&rsquo; pretty daughter, Ismene, came in, and after falling
+      on her father&rsquo;s neck and weeping with agitation the house keeper took her
+      hand and led her to Verus, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This noble lord&mdash;may the blessing of the Most High be on him&mdash;staked
+      his life to save us. This beautiful robe he let be rent for our sakes, and
+      every daughter of Israel should fervently kiss this torn chiton, which in
+      the eyes of God is more precious than the richest robe&mdash;as I do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the old woman pressed the praetor&rsquo;s dress to her lips, and tried to
+      make Ismene do the same; but the praetor would not permit this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can I allow my garment,&rdquo; he exclaimed, laughing, &ldquo;to enjoy a favor of
+      which I should deem myself worthy&mdash;to be touched by such lips.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kiss him, kiss him!&rdquo; cried the old woman, and the praetor took the head
+      of the blushing girl in his hands, and pressing his lips to her forehead
+      with a by no means paternal air, he said gaily:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I am richly rewarded for all I have been so happy as to do for you,
+      Apollodorus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And we,&rdquo; exclaimed Gamaliel. &ldquo;We&mdash;myself and my brother&rsquo;s first-born
+      son-leave it in the hands of God Most High to reward you for what you have
+      done for us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who are you?&rdquo; asked Verus, who was filled with admiration for the
+      prophet-like aspect of the venerable old man and the pale intellectual
+      head of his nephew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Apollodorus took upon himself to explain to him how far the Rabbi
+      transcended all his fellow Hebrews in knowledge of the law and the
+      interpretation of the Kabbala, the oral and mystical traditions of their
+      people, and how that Simeon Ben Jochai was superior to all the astrologers
+      of his time. He spoke of the young man&rsquo;s much admired work on the subject
+      called Sohar, nor did he omit to mention that Gamaliel&rsquo;s nephew was able
+      to foretell the positions of the stars even on future nights.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus listened to Apollodorus with increasing attention, and fixed a keen
+      gaze on the young man, who interrupted his host&rsquo;s eager encomium with many
+      modest deprecations. The praetor had recollected the near approach of his
+      birthday, and also that the position of stars in the night preceding it,
+      would certainly be observed by Hadrian. What the Emperor might learn from
+      them would seal his fate for life. Was that momentous night destined to
+      bring him nearer to the highest goal of his ambition or to debar him from
+      it?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Apollodorus ceased speaking, Verus offered Simeon Ben Jochai his
+      hand, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am rejoiced to have met a man of your learning and distinction. What
+      would I not give to possess your knowledge for a few hours!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My knowledge is yours,&rdquo; replied the astrologer. &ldquo;Command my services, my
+      labors, my time&mdash;ask me as many questions as you will. We are so
+      deeply indebted to you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have no reason to regard me as your creditor,&rdquo; interrupted the
+      praetor, &ldquo;you do not even owe me thanks. I only made your acquaintance
+      after I had rescued you, and I opposed the mob, not for the sake of any
+      particular man, but for that of law and order.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were benevolent enough to protect us,&rdquo; cried Ben Jochai, &ldquo;so do not
+      be so stern as to disdain our gratitude.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It does me honor, my learned friend; by all the gods it does me honor,&rdquo;
+       replied Verus. &ldquo;And in fact it is possible, it might very will be&mdash;Will
+      you do me the favor to come with me to that bust of Hipparchus? By the aid
+      of that science which owes so much to him you may be able to render me an
+      important service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the two men were standing apart from the others, in front of the
+      white marble portrait of the great astronomer, Verus asked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know by what method Caesar is wont to presage the fates of men
+      from the stars?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perfectly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From whom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From Aquila, my father&rsquo;s disciple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you calculate what he will learn from the stars in the night
+      preceding the thirtieth of December, as to the destinies of a man who was
+      born in that night, and whose horoscope I possess?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can only answer a conditional yes to that question.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What should prevent your answering positively?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unforeseen appearances in the heavens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are such signs common?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, they are rare, on the contrary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But perhaps my fortune is not a common one-and I beg of you to calculate
+      on Hadrian&rsquo;s method what the heavens will predict on that night for the
+      man whose horoscope my slave shall deliver to you early to-morrow
+      morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will do so with pleasure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When can you have finished this work?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In four days at latest, perhaps even sooner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Capital! But one thing more. Do you regard me as a man, I mean, as a true
+      man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you were not, would you have given me such reason to be grateful to
+      you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well then, conceal nothing from me, not even the worst horrors, things
+      that might poison another man&rsquo;s life, and crush his spirit. Whatever you
+      read in the celestial record, small or great, good or evil. I require you
+      to tell me all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will conceal nothing, absolutely nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The praetor offered Ben Jochai his right hand, and warmly pressed the
+      Jew&rsquo;s slender, well-shaped fingers. Before he went away he settled with
+      him how he should inform him when he had finished his labors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Alexandrian with his guests and children accompanied the praetor to
+      the door. Only Ben Jamin was absent; he was sitting with his companions in
+      his father&rsquo;s dining-room, and rewarding them for the assistance they had
+      given him with right good wine. Gamaliel heard them shouting and singing,
+      and pointing to the room he shrugged his shoulders, saying, as he turned
+      to his host:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are returning thanks to the God of our fathers in the Alexandrian
+      fashion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And peace was broken no more in the Jew&rsquo;s house but by the firm tramp of
+      lictors and soldiers who kept watch over it, under arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a side street the praetor met the tailor he had knocked down, the
+      sausage-maker, and other ringleaders of the attack on the Israelite&rsquo;s
+      house. They were being led away prisoners before the night magistrates.
+      Verus would have set them at liberty with all his heart, but he knew that
+      the Emperor would enquire next morning what had been done to the rioters,
+      and so he forbore. At any other time he would certainly have sent them
+      home unpunished, but just now he was dominated by a wish that was more
+      dominant than his good nature or his facile impulses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When he reached the Caesareum the high-chamberlain was waiting to conduct
+      him to Sabina who desired to speak with him notwithstanding the lateness
+      of the hour, and when Verus entered the presence of his patroness, he
+      found her in the greatest excitement. She was not reclining as usual on
+      her pillows but was pacing her room with strides of very unfeminine
+      length.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is well that you have come!&rdquo; she exclaimed to the praetor. &ldquo;Lentulus
+      insists that he has seen Mastor the slave, and Balbilla declares&mdash;but
+      it is impossible!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think that Caesar is here?&rdquo; asked Verus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did they tell you so too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I do not linger to talk when you require my presence and there is
+      something important to be told just now then&mdash;but you must not be
+      alarmed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No useless speeches!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just now I met, in his own person&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hadrian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not mistaken, you are sure you saw him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With these eyes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Abominable, unworthy, disgraceful!&rdquo; cried Sabina, so loudly and violently
+      that she was startled at the shrill tones of her own voice. Her tall thin
+      figure quivered with excitement, and to any one else she would have
+      appeared in the highest degree graceless, unwomanly, and repulsive: but
+      Verus had been accustomed from his childhood to see her with kinder eyes
+      than other men, and it grieved him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are women who remind us of fading flowers, extinguished lights or
+      vanishing shades, and they are not the least attractive of their sex: but
+      the large-boned, stiff and meagre Sabina had none of the yielding and
+      tender grace of these gentle creatures. Her feeble health, which was very
+      evident, became her particularly ill when, as at this moment, the harsh
+      acrimony of her embittered soul came to light with hideous plainness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was deeply indignant at the affront her husband had put upon her. Not
+      content with having a separate house established for her he kept aloof in
+      Alexandria without informing her of his arrival. Her hands trembled with
+      rage, and stammering rather than speaking she desired the praetor to order
+      a composing draught for her. When Verus returned she was lying on her
+      cushions, with her face turned to the wall, and said lamentably:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am freezing; spread that coverlet over me. I am a miserable, ill-used
+      creature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are sensitive and take things too hardly,&rdquo; the praetor ventured to
+      remonstrate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She started up angrily, cut off his speech, and put him through as keen a
+      cross-examination as if he were an accused person and she his judge. Ere
+      long she had learnt that Verus also had encountered Mastor, that her
+      husband was residing at Lochias, that he had taken part in the festival in
+      disguise, and had exposed himself to grave danger outside the house of
+      Apollodorus. She also made him tell her how the Israelite had been
+      rescued, and whom her friend had met in his house, and she blamed Verus
+      with bitter words for the heedless and foolhardy recklessness with which
+      he had risked his life for a miserable Jew, forgetting the high destinies
+      that lay before him. The praetor had not interrupted her, but now bowing
+      over her, he kissed her hand and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your kind heart foresees for me things that I dare not hope for.
+      Something is glimmering on the horizon of my fortune. Is it the dying glow
+      of my failing fortunes, is it the pale dawn of a coming and more glorious
+      day? Who can tell? I await with patience whatever may be impending&mdash;an
+      early day must decide.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will bring certainty, and put an end to this suspense,&rdquo; murmured
+      Sabina.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now rest and try to sleep,&rdquo; said Verus with a tender fervency, that was
+      peculiar to his tones. &ldquo;It is past midnight and the physician has often
+      forbidden you to sit up late. Farewell, dream sweetly, and always be the
+      same to me as a man, that you were to me in my childhood and youth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sabina withdrew the hand he had taken, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you must not leave me. I want you. I cannot exist without your
+      presence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Till to-morrow&mdash;always&mdash;forever I will stay with you whenever
+      you need me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Empress gave him her hand again, and sighed softly as he again bowed
+      over it, and pressed it long to his lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are my friend, Verus, truly my friend; yes, I am sure of it,&rdquo; she
+      said at last, breaking the silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh Sabina, my Mother!&rdquo; he answered tenderly. &ldquo;You spoiled me with
+      kindness even when I was a boy, and what can I do to thank you for all
+      this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be always the same to me that you are to-day. Will you always&mdash;for
+      all time be the same, whatever your fortunes may be?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In joy and in adversity always the same; always your friend, always ready
+      to give my life for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In spite of my husband, always, even when you think you no longer need my
+      favor!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Always, for without you I should be nothing&mdash;utterly miserable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Empress heaved a deep sigh and sat bolt upright on her couch. She had
+      formed a great resolve, and she said slowly, emphasizing every word:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If nothing utterly unforeseen occurs in the heavens on your birth-night,
+      you shall be our son, and so Hadrian&rsquo;s successor and heir. I swear it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something solemn in her voice, and her small eyes were wide
+      open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sabina, Mother, guardian spirit of my life!&rdquo; cried Verus, and he fell on
+      his knees by her couch. She looked in his handsome face with deep emotion,
+      laid her hands on his temples, and pressed her lips on his dark curls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A moist brilliancy sparkled in those eyes, unapt to tears, and in a soft
+      and appealing tone that no one had ever before heard in her voice she
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even at the summit of fortune, after your adoption, even in the purple
+      all will be the same between us two. Will it? Tell me, will it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Always, always!&rdquo; cried Verus. &ldquo;And if our hopes are fulfilled&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, then,&rdquo; interrupted Sabina and she shivered as she spoke. &ldquo;Then,
+      still you will be to me the same that you are now; but to be sure, to be
+      sure&mdash;the temples of the gods would be empty if mortals had nothing
+      left to wish for.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! no. Then they would bring thank-offerings to the divinity,&rdquo; cried
+      Verus, and he looked up at the Empress; but she turned away from his
+      smiling glance and exclaimed in a tone of reproof and alarm:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No playing with words, no empty speeches or rash jesting! in the name of
+      all the gods, not at this time! For this hour, this night is among its
+      fellows what a hallowed temple is among other buildings&mdash;what the
+      fervent sun is among the other lights of heaven. You know not how I feel,
+      nay, I hardly know myself. Not now, not now, one lightly-spoken word!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus gazed at Sabina with growing astonishment. She had always been
+      kinder to him than to any one else in the world and he felt bound to her
+      by all the ties of gratitude and the sweet memories of childhood. Even as
+      a boy, out of all his playfellows he was the only one who, far from
+      fearing her had clung to her. But to-night! who had ever seen Sabina in
+      such a mood? Was this the harsh bitter woman whose heart seemed filled
+      with gall, whose tongue cut like a dagger every one against whom she used
+      it? Was this Sabina who no doubt was kindly disposed towards him but who
+      loved no one else, not even herself? Did he see rightly, or was he under
+      some delusion? Tears, genuine, honest, unaffected tears filled her eyes as
+      she went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here I he, a poor sickly woman, sensitive in body and in soul as if I
+      were covered with wounds. Every movement, and even the gaze and the voice
+      of most of my fellow-creatures is a pain to me. I am old, much older than
+      you think and so wretched, so wretched, none of you can imagine how
+      wretched. I was never happy as a child, never as a girl, and as a wife&mdash;merciful
+      gods!&mdash;every kind word that Hadrian has ever vouchsafed me I have
+      paid for with a thousand humiliations.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He always treats you with the utmost esteem,&rdquo; interrupted Verus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Before you, before the world! But what do I care for esteem! I may demand
+      the respect, the adoration of millions and it will be mine. Love, love, a
+      little unselfish love is what I ask&mdash;and if only I were sure, if only
+      I dared to hope that you give me such love, I would thank you with all
+      that I have, then this hour would be hallowed to me above all others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can you doubt me Mother? My dearly beloved Mother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is comfort, that is happiness!&rdquo; answered Sabina. &ldquo;Your voice is
+      never too loud for me, and I believe you, I dare trust you. This hour
+      makes you my son, makes me your mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Tender emotion, the emotion that softens the heart, thrilled through
+      Sabina&rsquo;s dried-up nature and sparkled in her eyes. She felt like a young
+      wife of whom a child is born, and the voice of her heart sings to her in
+      soothing tones: &ldquo;It lives, it is mine, I am the providence of a living
+      soul, I am a mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She gazed blissfully into Verus&rsquo; eyes and exclaimed, &ldquo;Give me your hand my
+      son, help me up, for I will be here no longer. What good spirits I feel
+      in! Yes, this is the joy that is allotted to other women before their hair
+      is grey! But child&mdash;dear and only child&mdash;you must love me really
+      as a mother. I am too old for tender trifling, and yet I could not bear it
+      if you gave me nothing but a child&rsquo;s reverence. No, no, you must be my
+      friend whose heart warns him of my wishes, who can laugh with me to-day,
+      and weep with me to-morrow&mdash;and who shows that he is happier when his
+      eye meets mine. You are now my son; and soon you shall have the name of
+      son; that is happiness enough for one evening. Not another word&mdash;this
+      hour is like the finished masterpiece of some great painter; every touch
+      that could be added might spoil it. You may kiss my forehead, I will kiss
+      yours; now I will go to rest, and to-morrow when I wake I shall say to
+      myself that I possess something worth living for&mdash;a child, a son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Empress was alone she raised her hand in prayer but she could
+      find no words of thanksgiving. One hour of pure happiness she had indeed
+      enjoyed, but how many days, months, years of joylessness and suffering lay
+      behind her! Gratitude knocked at the door of her heart but it was
+      instantly met by bitter defiance; what was one hour of happiness in the
+      balance against a ruined lifetime?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foolish woman! she had never sown the seeds of love, and now she blamed
+      the gods for niggardliness and cruelty in denying her a harvest of love.
+      And now, on what soil had the seed of maternal tenderness fallen?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus it is true had left her content and full of hope&mdash;Sabina&rsquo;s
+      altered demeanor, it is true, had touched his heart&mdash;he purposed to
+      cling to her faithfully even after his formal adoption; but the light in
+      his eye was not that of a proud and happy son, on the contrary it sparkled
+      like that of a warrior who hopes to gain the victory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the late hour, his wife had not yet gone to bed. She had
+      heard that he had been summoned to the Empress on his return home, and
+      awaited him not without anxiety, for she was not accustomed to anything
+      pleasant from Sabina. Her husband&rsquo;s hasty step echoed loudly from the
+      stone walls of the sleeping palace. She heard it at some distance, and
+      went to the door of her room to meet him. Radiant, excited, and with
+      flushed cheeks, he held out both his hands to her. She looked so fair in
+      her white night-wrapper of fine white material, and his heart was so full
+      that he clasped her in his arms as fondly as when she was his bride; and
+      she loved him even now no less than she had done then, and felt for the
+      hundredth time with grateful joy that the faithless scapegrace had once
+      more returned to her unchangeable and faithful heart, like a sailor who,
+      after wandering through many lands seeks his native port.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lucilla,&rdquo; he cried, disengaging her arms from round his neck. &ldquo;Oh,
+      Lucilla! what an evening this has been! I always judged Sabina differently
+      from you, and have felt with gratitude that she really cared for me. Now
+      all is clear between her and me! She called me her son. I called her
+      mother. I owe it to her, and the purple&mdash;the purple is ours! You are
+      the wife of Verus Caesar; you are certain of it if no signs and omens come
+      to frighten Hadrian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few eager words, which betrayed not merely the triumph of a lucky
+      gambler, but also true emotion and gratitude, he related all that had
+      passed in Sabina&rsquo;s room. His frank and confident contentment silenced her
+      doubts, her dread of the stupendous fate which, beckoning her, yet
+      threatening her, drew visibly nearer and nearer. In her mind&rsquo;s eye she saw
+      the husband she loved, she saw her son, seated on the throne of the
+      Caesars, and she herself crowned with the radiant diadem of the woman whom
+      she hated with all the force of her soul. Her husband&rsquo;s kindly feeling
+      towards the Empress and the faithful allegiance which had tied him to her
+      from his boyhood did not disquiet her; but a wife allows the husband of
+      her choice every happiness, every gift excepting only the love of another
+      woman, and will forgive her hatred and abuse rather than such love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucilla was greatly excited, and a thought, that for years had been locked
+      in the inmost shrine of her heart, to-day proved too strong for her powers
+      of reticence. Hadrian was supposed to have murdered her father, but no one
+      could positively assert it, though either he or another man had certainly
+      slain the noble Nigrinus. At this moment the old suspicion stirred her
+      soul with revived force, and lifting her right hand, as if in attestation,
+      she exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Fate, Fate! that my husband should be heir of the man who murdered my
+      father!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lucilla,&rdquo; interrupted Verus, &ldquo;it is unjust even to think of such horrors,
+      and to speak of them is madness. Do not utter it a second time, least of
+      all to-day. What may have occurred formerly must not spoil the present and
+      the future which belong to us and to our children.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nigrinus was the grandfather of those children,&rdquo; cried the Roman mother
+      with flashing eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is to say that you harbor in your soul the wish to avenge your
+      father&rsquo;s death on Caesar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am the daughter of the butchered man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you do not know the murderer, and the purple must outweigh the life
+      of one man, for it is often bought with many thousand lives. And then,
+      Lucilla, as you know, I love happy faces, and Revenge has a sinister brow.
+      Let us be happy, oh wife of Caesar! Tomorrow I shall have much to tell
+      you, now I must go to a splendid banquet which the son of Plutarch is
+      giving in my honor. I cannot stay with you&mdash;truly I cannot, I have
+      been expected long since. And when we are in Rome never let me find you
+      telling the children those old dismal stories&mdash;I will not have it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Verus, preceded by his slaves bearing torches, made his way through the
+      garden of the Caesareum he saw a light in the rooms of Balbilla, the
+      poetess, and he called up merrily:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-night, fair Muse!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-night, sham Eros!&rdquo; she retorted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are decking yourself in borrowed feathers, Poetess,&rdquo; replied he,
+      laughing. &ldquo;It is not you but the ill-mannered Alexandrians who invented
+      that name!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! and other and better ones,&rdquo; cried she. &ldquo;What I have heard and seen
+      to-day passes all belief!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you will celebrate it in your poems?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only some of it, and that in a satire which I propose to aim at you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tremble!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With delight, it is to be hoped; my poem will embalm your memory for
+      posterity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is true, and the more spiteful your verses, the more certainly will
+      future generations believe that Verus was the Phaon of Balbilla&rsquo;s Sappho,
+      and that love scorned filled the fair singer with bitterness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you for the caution. To-day at any rate you are safe from my
+      verse, for I am tired to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you venture into the streets?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was quite safe, for I had a trustworthy escort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I be allowed to ask who?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not? It was Pontius the architect who was with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He knows the town well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And in his care I would trust myself to descend, like Orpheus, into
+      Hades.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Happy Pontius!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most happy Verus!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What am I to understand by those words, charming Balbilla?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The poor architect is able to please by being a good guide, while to you
+      belongs the whole heart of Lucilla, your sweet wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And she has the whole of mine so far as it is not full of Balbilla.
+      Good-night, saucy Muse; sleep well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sleep ill, you incorrigible tormentor!&rdquo; cried the girl, drawing the
+      curtain across her window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The sleepless wretch on whom some trouble has fallen, so long as night
+      surrounds him, sees his future life as a boundless sea in which he is
+      sailing round and round like a shipwrecked man, but when the darkness
+      yields, the new and helpful day shows him a boat for escape close at hand,
+      and friendly shores in the distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The unfortunate Pollux also awoke towards morning with sighs many and
+      deep; for it seemed to him that last evening he had ruined his whole
+      future prospects. The workshop of his former master was henceforth closed
+      to him, and he no longer possessed even all the tools requisite for the
+      exercise of his art.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only yesterday he had hoped with happy confidence to establish himself on
+      a footing of his own, to-day this seemed impossible, for the most
+      indispensable means were lacking to him. As he felt his little money-bag,
+      which he was wont to place under his pillow, he could not forbear smiling
+      in spite of all his troubles, for his fingers sank into the flaccid
+      leather, and found only two coins, one of which he knew alas! was of
+      copper, and the dried merry-thought bone of a fowl, which he had saved to
+      give to his little nieces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where was he to find the money he was accustomed to give his sister on the
+      first day of every month? Papias was on friendly terms with all the
+      sculptors of the city, and it was only to be expected that he would warn
+      them against him, and do his best to make it difficult to him to find a
+      new place as assistant. His old master had also been witness of Hadrian&rsquo;s
+      anger against him, and was quite the man to take every advantage of what
+      he had overheard. It is never a recommendation for any one that he is an
+      object of dislike to the powerful, and least of all does it help him with
+      those who look for the favor and gifts of the great men of the world. When
+      Hadrian should think proper to throw off his disguise, it might easily
+      occur to him to let Pollux feel the effects of his power. Would it not be
+      wise in him to quit Alexandria and seek work or daily bread in some other
+      Greek city?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But for Arsinoe&rsquo;s sake he could not turn his back on his native place. He
+      loved her with all the passion of his artist&rsquo;s soul, and his youthful
+      courage would certainly not have been so quickly and utterly crushed if he
+      could have deluded himself as to the fact that his hopes of possessing her
+      had been driven into the remote background by the events of the preceding
+      evening. How could he dare to drag her into his uncertain and compromised
+      position? And what reception could he hope for from her father if he
+      should now attempt to demand her for his wife. As these thoughts
+      overpowered his mind he suddenly felt as if his eyes were smarting with
+      sand that had blown into them, and he could not help springing out of bed;
+      he paced his little room with long steps, and he held his forehead pressed
+      against the wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dawn of a new day appeared as a welcome comfort, and by the time he
+      had eaten the morning porridge which his mother set before him&mdash;and
+      her eyes were red with weeping&mdash;the idea struck him that he would go
+      to Pontius, the architect. That was the lifeboat he espied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doris shared her son&rsquo;s breakfast but, contrary to her usual custom, she
+      spoke very little, only she frequently passed her hand over her son&rsquo;s
+      curly hair. Euphorion strode up and down the room, rummaging his brain for
+      ideas for an ode in which he might address the Emperor and implore
+      forgiveness for his son. Soon after breakfast Pollux went up to the
+      rotunda where the Queens&rsquo; busts stood, hoping to see Arsinoe again, and a
+      loud snatch of song soon brought her out on to the balcony. They exchanged
+      greetings, and Pollux signed to her to come down to him. She would have
+      obeyed him more than gladly, but her father had also heard the sculptor&rsquo;s
+      voice and drove her back into the room. Still the mere sight of his
+      beloved fair one had done the artist good. Hardly had he got back to his
+      father&rsquo;s little house when Antinous came sauntering in&mdash;he
+      represented in the artist&rsquo;s mind the hospitable shores on which he might
+      gaze. Hope revived his soul, and Hope is the sun before which despair
+      flies as the shades of night flee at the rising of the day-star.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His artistic faculties were once more roused into play, and found a field
+      for their freest exercise when Antinous told him that he was at his
+      disposal till mid-day, since his master&mdash;or rather Caesar as he was
+      now permitted to name him&mdash;was engaged in business. The prefect
+      Titianus had come to him with a whole heap of papers, to work with him and
+      his private secretary. Pollux at once led the favorite into a side room of
+      the little house, with a northern aspect; here on a table lay the wax and
+      the smaller implements which belonged to himself and which he had brought
+      home last evening. His heart ached, and his nerves were in a painful state
+      of tension as he began his work. All sorts of anxious thoughts disturbed
+      his spirit, and yet he knew that if he put his whole soul into it he could
+      do something good. Now, if ever, he must put forth his best powers, and he
+      dreaded failure as an utter catastrophe, for on the face of the whole
+      earth there was no second model to compare with this that stood before
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he did not take long to collect himself for the Bithynian&rsquo;s beauty
+      filled him with profound feeling and it was with a sort of pious
+      exaltation that he grasped the plastic material and moulded it into a form
+      resembling his sitter. For a whole hour not a word passed between them,
+      but Pollux often sighed deeply and now then a groan of painful anxiety
+      escaped him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous broke the silence to ask Pollux about Selene. His heart was full
+      of her, and there was no other man who knew her, and whom he could venture
+      to entrust with his secret. Indeed it was only to speak to her that he had
+      come to the artist so early. While Pollux modelled and scraped Antinous
+      told him of all that had happened the previous night. He lamented having
+      lost the silver quiver when he was upset into the water and regretted that
+      the rose-colored chiton should afterwards have suffered a reduction in
+      length at the hands of his pursuer. An exclamation of surprise, a word of
+      sympathy, a short pause in the movement of his hand and tool, were all the
+      demonstration on the artist&rsquo;s part, to which the story of Selene&rsquo;s
+      adventure and the loss of his master&rsquo;s costly property gave rise; his
+      whole attention was absorbed in his occupation. The farther his work
+      progressed the higher rose his admiration for his model. He felt as if
+      intoxicated with noble wine as he worked to reproduce this incarnation of
+      the ideal of umblemished youthful and manly beauty. The passion of
+      artistic procreation fired his blood, and threw every thing else&mdash;even
+      the history of Selene&rsquo;s fall into the sea, and her subsequent rescue&mdash;into
+      the region of commonplace. Still he had not been inattentive, and what he
+      heard must have had some effect in his mind; for long after Antinous had
+      ended his narrative, he said in a low voice and as if speaking to the
+      bust, which was already assuming definite form:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a wonderful thing!&rdquo; and again a little later; &ldquo;There was always
+      something grand in that unhappy creature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had worked without interruption for nearly four hours, when standing
+      back from the table, he looked anxiously, first at his work and then at
+      Antinous, and then asked him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How will that do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Bithynian gave eager expression to his approbation, and Pollux had, in
+      fact, done wonders in the short time. The wax began to display in a much
+      reduced scale the whole figure of the beautiful youth and in the very same
+      attitude which the young Dionysus carried off by the pirates, had assumed
+      the day before. The incomparable modelling of the favorite&rsquo;s limbs and
+      form was soft but not effeminate; and, as Pollux had said to himself the
+      day before, no artist in his happiest mood, could conceive the Nysaean god
+      as different from this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the sculptor in order to assure himself of the accuracy of his work
+      was measuring his model&rsquo;s limbs with wooden compasses and lengths of tape,
+      the sound of chariot-wheels was heard at the gate of the palace, and soon
+      after the yelping of the Graces. Doris called to the dogs to be quiet and
+      another high-pitched woman&rsquo;s voice mingled with hers. Antinous listened
+      and what he heard seemed to be somewhat out of the common for he suddenly
+      quitted the position in which the sculptor had placed him only a few
+      minutes before, ran to the window and called to Pollux in a subdued voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is true! I am not mistaken! There is Hadrian&rsquo;s wife Sabina talking out
+      there to your mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had heard rightly; the Empress had come to Lochias to seek out her
+      husband. She had got out of the chariot at the gate of the old palace for
+      the paving of the court-yard would not be completed before that evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dogs, of which her husband was so fond, she detested; the shrewd beasts
+      returned her aversion, so dame Doris found it more difficult than usual to
+      succeed in reducing her disobedient pets to silence when they flew
+      viciously at the stranger. Sabina terrified, vehemently desired the old
+      woman to release her from their persecution, while the chamberlain who had
+      come with her and on whom she was leaning kicked out at the irrepressible
+      little wretches and so increased their spite. At last the Graces withdrew
+      into the house. Dame Doris drew a deep breath and turned to the Empress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not suspect who the stranger was for she had never seen Sabina and
+      had formed quite a different idea of her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me good lady,&rdquo; she said in her frank confiding manner. &ldquo;The little
+      rascals mean no harm and never bite even a beggar, but they never could
+      endure old women. Whom do you seek here mother?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That you shall soon know,&rdquo; replied Sabina sharply, &ldquo;what a state of
+      things, Lentulus, your architect Pontius&rsquo; work has brought about. And what
+      must the inside be like if this but is left standing to disgrace the
+      entrance of the palace! It must go with its inhabitants. Desire that woman
+      to conduct us to the Roman lord who dwells here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The chamberlain obeyed and Doris began to suspect who was standing before
+      her, and she said as she smoothed down her dress and bowed low:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What great honor befalls us illustrious lady; perhaps you are even the
+      Emperor&rsquo;s wife? If that be the case&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sabina made an impatient sign to the chamberlain who interrupted the old
+      woman exclaiming:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be silent and show us the way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Doris was not feeling particularly strong that day, and her eyes already
+      red with weeping about her son again filled with tears. No one had ever
+      spoken so to her before, and yet, for her son&rsquo;s sake she would not repay
+      sharp words in the same coin, though she had plenty at her command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She tottered on in front of Sabina, and conducted her to the hall of the
+      Muses. There Pontius relieved her of the duty, and the respect he paid to
+      the stranger made her sure that in fact she was none other than the
+      Empress in person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An odious woman!&rdquo; said Sabina, as she went on pointing to Doris, whom her
+      words could not escape. This was too much for the old woman; past all
+      self-control she flung herself on to a seat that was standing by, covered
+      her face with her hands and began crying bitterly. She felt as if the very
+      ground were snatched from under her feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her son was in disgrace with Caesar, and she and her house were threatened
+      by the most powerful woman in the world. She pictured herself as already
+      turned into the streets with Euphorion and her dogs, and asked herself
+      what was to become of them all when they had lost their place and the roof
+      that covered them. Her husband&rsquo;s memory grew daily weaker, soon his voice
+      even might fail; and how greatly had her own strength failed during the
+      last few years, how small were the savings that were hidden in their
+      chest. The bright, genial old woman felt quite broken down. What hurt her
+      was, not merely the pressing need that threatened her, but the disgrace
+      too which would fall upon her, the dislike she had incurred&mdash;she who
+      had been liked by every one from her youth up&mdash;and the painful
+      feeling of having been treated with scorn and contempt in the presence of
+      others by the powerful lady whose favor she had hoped to win.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Sabina&rsquo;s advent all good spirits had fled from Lochias, so at least
+      Doris felt, but she was not one of those who succumb helplessly to a
+      hostile force. For a few minutes she abandoned herself to her sorrows and
+      sobbed like a child. Now she dried her eyes, and her eased heart felt the
+      beneficial relief of tears; by degrees she could compose herself and think
+      calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After all,&rdquo; said she to herself, &ldquo;none but Caesar can command here, and
+      it is said that he gets on but badly with his spiteful wife, and cares
+      very little what she wishes. Hadrian let Pollux feel his power, but he has
+      always been friendly to me. My dogs and birds amused him, and did he not
+      even do me the honor to relish a dish out of my kitchen? No, no, if only I
+      can succeed in speaking with him alone all may yet be well,&rdquo; and thus
+      thinking she rose from her seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she was about to quit the anteroom the art dealer, Gabinius, of Nicaea,
+      came in, to whom Keraunus had refused to sell the mosaic in the palace,
+      and whose daughter had been deprived by Arsinoe of the part of Roxana.
+      Pontius had desired him to come to the palace and he had made his
+      appearance at once, for, since the evening before, a rumor had been afloat
+      that the Emperor was staying in Alexandria, and was inhabiting the palace
+      at Loehias. Whence it was derived, or on what facts it was supported no
+      one could say; but there it was, passing from mouth to mouth in every
+      circle and acquiring certainty every hour. Of all that grows on earth
+      nothing grows so quickly as Rumor, and yet it is a miserable foundling
+      that never knows its own parents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dealer pushed on into the palace with a glance of astonishment at the
+      old woman, while Doris debated whether see should seek Hadrian then and
+      there, or return to her little gate-House, and wait till he should at some
+      time be going out of the palace and passing by her dwelling. Before she
+      could come to any decision Pontius appeared on the scene; he had always
+      been very kind to her, and she therefore ventured to address him and tell
+      him what had occurred between her son and the Emperor. This was no novelty
+      to the architect; he advised her to have patience till Hadrian should have
+      cooled, and he promised her that later he would do every thing in his
+      power for Pollux, whom he loved and esteemed. On this very day he was
+      obliged by Caesar&rsquo;s command to start on a journey and for a long absence;
+      his destination was Pelusium, where he was to erect a monument to the
+      great Pompey on the spot where he had been murdered. Hadrian, as he passed
+      the old ruined monument on his way from Mount Kasius to Egypt, had
+      determined to replace it by a new one, and had entrusted the work to
+      Pontius whose labors at Lochias were now nearly ended. All that might yet
+      be lacking to the fitting of the restored palace Hadrian himself wished to
+      select and procure and in this occupation so agreeable to his tastes,
+      Gabinius, the curiosity-dealer, was to lend him a helping hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Doris was still speaking with Pontius, Hadrian and his wife came
+      towards the anteroom. Hardly had the architect recognized the tones of
+      Sabina&rsquo;s voice, than he hastily said in a low voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Till by-and-bye this must do, dame. Stand aside; Caesar and the Empress
+      are coming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he hastened away. Doris slipped into the doorway of a side room, which
+      was closed only by a heavy curtain, for at that moment she would as soon
+      have met a raging wild beast as the haughty lady from whom she had nothing
+      to expect but insult and unkindness. Hadrian&rsquo;s interview with his wife had
+      lasted barely a quarter of an hour, and it must have been anything rather
+      than amiable, for his face was scarlet, while Sabina&rsquo;s lips were perfectly
+      white, and her painted cheeks twitched with a restless movement. Doris was
+      too much excited and terrified to listen to the royal couple, still she
+      overheard these words uttered by the Emperor in a tone of the utmost
+      decision.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In small matters and where it is fitting I let you have your way; more
+      important things I shall this time, as always, decide by my own judgment&mdash;my
+      own exclusively.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These words were fraught with the fate of the gatehouse and its
+      inhabitants, for the removal of the &ldquo;hideous hut&rdquo; at the entrance of the
+      palace was one of the &ldquo;small matters&rdquo; of which Hadrian spoke. Sabina had
+      required this concession, since it could not be pleasant to any one
+      visiting Lochias to be received on the threshold by an old Megaera of evil
+      omen, and to be fallen upon by infuriated dogs. But Doris so little
+      divined the import of Hadrian&rsquo;s words that she rejoiced at them, for they
+      told her how little he was disposed to yield to his wife in important
+      things, and how could she suspect that her fate and that of her house
+      should not be included among important matters, nay the most important?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sabina had quitted the anteroom leaning on her chamberlain and Hadrian was
+      standing there alone with his slave Mastor. The old woman would not be
+      likely to have another such favorable opportunity of supplicating the
+      all-powerful man who stood before her, without the hindrance of witnesses,
+      to exercise his magnaminity and clemency towards her son. His back turned
+      to her; if she could have seen the threatening scowl with which he stood
+      gazing on the ground she would surely have remembered the architect&rsquo;s
+      warning and have postponed her address till a future day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How often do we spoil our best chances by following an urgent instinct to
+      arrive at certainty as early as possible, and by not being strong enough
+      to postpone opening our business till a favorable moment offers.
+      Uncertainty in the present often seems less endurable than adverse fate in
+      the future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doris stepped out of the side door. Mastor, who knew his master well, and
+      whose friendly impulse was to spare the old woman any humiliation, made
+      eager signs to warn her to withdraw and not to disturb Hadrian at that
+      moment; but she was so wholly possessed by her anxiety and wishes that she
+      did not observe them. As the Emperor turned to leave the room she gathered
+      courage, stood in the doorway through which he must pass, and tried to
+      fall on her knees before him. This was a difficult effort to her old
+      joints and Doris was forced to clutch at the door-post in order not to
+      lose her balance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian at once recognized the suppliant, but to-day he found no kind word
+      for her, and the glance he cast down at her was anything rather than
+      gracious. How had he ever been able to find amusement even in this woeful
+      old body? Alas! poor Doris was quite a different creature in her little
+      house, among her flowers, dogs and birds to what she seemed here in the
+      spacious hall of a magnificent palace. This wide and gorgeous frame but
+      ill-suited so modest a figure. Thousands of good people who in the midst
+      of their everyday surroundings command our esteem and attract our regard
+      give rise to very different feelings when they are taken out of the circle
+      to which they belong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doris had never worn so unpleasing an aspect to Hadrian as at this
+      instant, in this decisive moment of her life. She had followed the Empress
+      straight from the kitchen-hearth just as she was after passing a sleepless
+      night and full of her many anxieties, she had scarcely set her grey hair
+      in order, and her kind bright eyes, usually the best feature of her face,
+      were red with many tears. The neat brisk little mother looked to-day
+      anything rather than smart and bright; in the Emperor&rsquo;s eyes she was in no
+      way distinguished from any other old woman, and he regarded all old women
+      as of evil omen, if he met them as he went out of any place he was in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Caesar, Great Caesar!&rdquo; cried Doris throwing up her hands which still
+      bore many traces of her labors over the hearth. &ldquo;My son, my unfortunate
+      Pollux!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out of my way!&rdquo; said Hadrian sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is an artist, a good artist, who already excels many a master, and if
+      the gods&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out of the way, I told you. I do not want to hear anything about the
+      insolent fellow,&rdquo; said Hadrian angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Great Caesar, he is my son, and a mother, as you know&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mastor,&rdquo; interrupted the monarch, &ldquo;carry away this old woman and make way
+      for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! my lord, my lord!&rdquo; wailed the agonized woman while the slave pulled
+      her up, not without difficulty. &ldquo;Oh! my lord, how can you find it in your
+      heart to be so cruel? And am I no longer old Doris whom you have even
+      joked with, and whose food you have eaten?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These words recalled to the Emperor&rsquo;s fancy the moment of his arrival at
+      Lochias; he felt that he was somewhat in the old woman&rsquo;s debt, and being
+      wont to pay with royal liberality he broke in with:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall be paid for your excellent dish a sum with which you can
+      purchase a new house, for the future your maintenance too shall be
+      provided for, but in three hours you must have quitted Lochias.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor spoke rapidly as though desirous of bringing a disagreeable
+      business to a prompt termination, and he stalked past Doris who was now
+      standing on her feet and leaning as if stunned against the doorpost.
+      Indeed if Hadrian had not left her there and had he been in the mood to
+      hear her farther, she was not now in a fit state to answer him another
+      word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor received the honors due to Zeus and his fiat had ruined the
+      happiness of a contented home as completely as the thunderbolt wielded by
+      the Father of the gods could have done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this time Doris had no tears. The frightful shock that had fallen in
+      her soul was perceptible also to her body; her knees shook, and being
+      quite incapable just then of going home at once, she sunk upon a seat and
+      stared hopelessly before her while she reflected what next, and what more
+      would come upon her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the Emperor was standing in a room just behind the antechamber
+      that had only been finished a few hours since. He began to regret his
+      hardness upon the old woman&mdash;for had she not, without knowing who he
+      was, been most friendly to him and to his favorite. &ldquo;Where is Antinous?&rdquo;
+       he asked Mastor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He went out to the gate-house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is he doing there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe he meant&mdash;there, perhaps he&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The truth, fellow!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is with Pollux the sculptor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has he been there long?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not exactly know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long, I ask you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He went after you had shut yourself in with Titianus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three hours&mdash;three whole hours has he been with that braggart, whom
+      I ordered off the premises!&rdquo; Hadrian&rsquo;s eye sparkled wrathfully as he
+      spoke. His annoyance at the absence of his favorite, whose society he
+      permitted no one to enjoy but himself, and least of all Pollux, smothered
+      every kind feeling in his mind, and in a tone of anger bordering on fury
+      he commanded Mastor to go and fetch Antinous, and then to have the
+      gate-house utterly cleared out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take a dozen slaves to help you,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;For aught I care the people
+      may carry all their rubbish into a new house, but I will never set eyes
+      again on that howling old woman, nor her imbecile husband. As for the
+      sculptor I will make him feel that Caesar has a heavy foot and can
+      unexpectedly crush a snake that creeps across his path.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mastor went sadly away and Hadrian returned to his work-room, and there
+      called out to his secretary Phlegon:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Write that a new gate-keeper is to be found for this palace. Euphorion,
+      the old one, is to have his pay continued to him, and half a talent is to
+      be paid to him at the prefect&rsquo;s office. Good&mdash;Let the man have at
+      once whatever is necessary; in an hour neither he nor his are to be found
+      in Lochias. Henceforth no one is to mention them to me again, nor to bring
+      me any petition from them. Their whole race may join the rest of the
+      dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Phlegon bowed and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gabinius, the curiosity-dealer, waits outside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He comes at an appropriate moment,&rdquo; cried the Emperor. &ldquo;After all these
+      vexations it will do me good to hear about beautiful things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0031" id="link2HCH0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Aye, truly! Sabina&rsquo;s advent had chased all good spirits from the palace at
+      Lochias.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor&rsquo;s commands had come upon the peaceful little house as a
+      whirlwind comes on a heap of leaves. The inhabitants were not even allowed
+      time fully to realize their misfortune, for instead of bewailing
+      themselves all they could do was to act with circumspection. The tables,
+      seats, cushions, beds and lutes, the baskets, plants, and bird-cages, the
+      kitchen utensils and the trunks with their clothes were all piled in
+      confusion in the courtyard, and Doris was employing the slaves appointed
+      by Mastor in the task of emptying the house, as briskly and carefully as
+      though it was nothing more than a move from one house to another. A ray of
+      the sunny brightness of her nature once more sparkled in her eyes since
+      she had been able to say to herself that all that happened to her and hers
+      was one of the things inevitable, and that it was more to the purpose to
+      think of the future than of the past. The old woman was quite herself
+      again over the work, and as she looked at Euphorion, who sat quite crushed
+      on his couch with his eyes fixed on the ground, she cried out to him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After bad times, come good ones! only let us keep from making ourselves
+      miserable. We have done nothing wrong, and so long as we do not think
+      ourselves wretched, we are not so. Only, hold up your head!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Up, old man, up! Go at once to Diotima and tell her that we beg her to
+      give us hospitality for a few days, and house-room for our chattels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if Caesar does not keep his word?&rdquo; asked Euphorion gloomily. &ldquo;What
+      sort of a life shall we live then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A bad one-a dog&rsquo;s life; and for that very reason it is wiser to enjoy now
+      what we still possess. A cup of wine, Pollux, for me and your father. But
+      there must be no water in it to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot drink,&rdquo; sighed Euphorion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I will drink your share and my own too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay-nay, mother,&rdquo; remonstrated Pollux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well put some water in, lad, just a little water, only do not make such a
+      pitiful face. Is that the way a young fellow should look who has his art,
+      and plenty of strength in his hands, and the sweetest of sweethearts in
+      his heart?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is certainly not for myself, mother,&rdquo; retorted the sculptor, &ldquo;that I
+      am anxious. But how am I ever to get into the palace again to see Arsinoe,
+      and how am I to deal with that ferocious old Keraunus?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave that question for time to answer,&rdquo; replied Doris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Time may give a good answer, but it may also give a bad one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the best she only gives to those who wait for her in the antechamber
+      of Patience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A bad place for me, and for those like me,&rdquo; sighed Pollux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have only to sit still and go on knocking at the doors,&rdquo; replied
+      Doris, &ldquo;and before you can look round you Time will call out, &lsquo;come in.&rsquo; 
+      Now show the men how they are to treat the statue of Apollo, and be my own
+      happy, bright boy once more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux did as she desired, thinking as he went: &ldquo;She speaks wisely&mdash;she
+      is not leaving Arsinoe behind. If only I had been able to arrange with
+      Antinous at least, where I should find him again; but at Caesar&rsquo;s orders
+      the young fellow was like one stunned, and he tottered as he went, as if
+      he were going to execution.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dame Doris had not been betrayed by her happy confidence, for Phlegon the
+      secretary came to inform her of the Emperor&rsquo;s purpose to give her husband
+      half a talent, and to continue to pay him in the future his little salary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see,&rdquo; cried the old woman, &ldquo;the sun of better days is already rising.
+      Half a talent! Why poverty has nothing to do with such rich folks as we
+      are! What do you think&mdash;would it not be right to pour out half a cup
+      of wine to the gods, and allow ourselves the other half?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Doris was as gay as if she were going to a wedding, and her cheerfulness
+      communicated itself to her son, who saw himself relieved of part of the
+      anxiety that weighed upon him with regard to his parents and sister. His
+      drooping courage, and spirit for life, only needed a few drops of kindly
+      dew to revive it, and he once more began to think of his art. Before
+      anything else he would try to complete his successfully-sketched bust of
+      Antinous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was gone back into the house to preserve his work from injury and
+      was giving the slaves, whom he had desired to follow him, instructions as
+      to how it should be carried so as not to damage it, his master Papias came
+      into the palace-court. He had come to put the last touches to the works he
+      had begun, and proposed to make a fresh attempt to win the favor of the
+      man whom he now knew to be the Emperor. Papias was somewhat uneasy for he
+      was alarmed at the thought that Pollux might now betray how small a share
+      his master had in his last works&mdash;which had brought him higher praise
+      than all he had done previously. It might even have been wise on his part
+      to pocket his pride and to induce his former scholar, by lavish promises,
+      to return to his workshop; but the evening before he had been betrayed
+      into speaking before the Emperor with so much indignation at the young
+      artist&rsquo;s evil disposition, of his delight at being rid of him, that, on
+      Hadrian&rsquo;s account, he must give up that idea. Nothing was now to be done,
+      but to procure the removal of Pollux from Alexandria, or to render him in
+      some way incapable of damaging him, and this he might perhaps be able to
+      do by the instrumentality of the wrathful Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It even came into his mind to hire some Egyptian rascal to have him
+      assassinated; but he was a citizen of peaceful habits, to whom a breach of
+      the law was an abomination and he cast the thought from him as too
+      horrible and base. He was not over-nice in his choice of means, he knew
+      men, was very capable of finding his way up the backstairs, and did not
+      hesitate when need arose to calumniate others boldly, and thus he had
+      before now won the day in many a battle against his fellow-artists of
+      distinction. His hope of succeeding in the tripping of a scholar of no
+      great repute, and of rendering him harmless so long as the Emperor should
+      remain in Alexandria, was certainly not an over-bold one. He hated the
+      gate-keeper&rsquo;s son far less than he feared him, and he did not conceal from
+      himself that if his attack on Pollux should fail and the young fellow
+      should succeed in proving independently of what he was capable he could do
+      nothing to prevent his loudly proclaiming all that he had done in these
+      last years for his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His attention was caught by the slaves in Euphorion&rsquo;s little house, who
+      were carrying the household chattels of the evicted family into the
+      street. He had soon learnt what was going forward, and highly pleased at
+      the ill-will manifested by Hadrian towards the parents of his foe, he
+      stood looking on, and after brief reflection desired a negro to call
+      Pollux to speak to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The master and scholar exchanged greetings with a show of haughty coolness
+      and Papias said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forgot to bring back the things which yesterday, without asking my
+      leave, you took out of my wardrobe. I must have them back to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not take them for myself, but for the grand lord in there, and his
+      companion. If any thing is missing apply to him. It grieves me that I
+      should have taken your silver quiver among them, for the Roman&rsquo;s companion
+      has lost it. As soon as I have done here, I will take home all of your
+      things that I can recover, and bring away my own. A good many things
+      belonging to me are still lying in your workshop.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good,&rdquo; replied Papias. &ldquo;I will expect you an hour before sunset, and then
+      we will settle every thing,&rdquo; and without any farewell he turned his back
+      on his pupil and went into the palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux had told him that some of the properties, which he had taken
+      without asking permission, had been lost-among them an object of
+      considerable value&mdash;and this perhaps would give him a hold over him
+      by which to prevent his injuring him. He remained in the palace scarcely
+      half an hour and then, while Pollux was still engaged in escorting his
+      mother and their household goods to his sister&rsquo;s house, he went to visit
+      the night magistrate, who presided over the safety of Alexandria. Papias
+      was on intimate terms with this important official, for he had constructed
+      for him a sarcophagus for his deceased wife, an altar with panels in
+      relief for his men&rsquo;s apartment, and other works, at moderate prices, and
+      he could count on his readiness to serve him. When he quitted him he
+      carried in his hand an order of arrest against his assistant Pollux, who
+      had attacked his property and abstracted a quiver of massive silver. The
+      magistrate had also promised him to send two of his guards who would carry
+      the offender off to prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Papias went home with a much lighter heart. His pupil, after he had
+      accomplished the easy transfer of his parents, had returned to the palace,
+      and there, to his delight, came across Mastor, who soon fetched him the
+      garments and masks that he had lent the day before to Hadrian and
+      Antinous. The Sarmatian at the same time told him, with tears in his eyes,
+      a sad, very sad story, which stirred the young sculptor&rsquo;s soul deeply, and
+      which would have prompted him to penetrate into the palace at once, and at
+      any risk, if he had not seen the necessity of being with Papias at the
+      appointed hour, which was drawing near, to answer for the valuable
+      property that was missing. Thinking of nothing, wishing nothing so much as
+      to be back as promptly as possible at Lochias, where he was much needed,
+      and where his heart longed to be, he took the bundle out of the slave&rsquo;s
+      hand and hurried away. Papias had sent all his assistants and even his
+      slaves off the premises; he received the breathless Pollux quite alone,
+      and took from him, with icy calmness, the things which had been borrowed
+      from his property-room, asking for them one by one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have already told you,&rdquo; cried Pollux, &ldquo;that it is not I, but the
+      illustrious Roman&mdash;you know as well as I do, who he is&mdash;who is
+      answerable for the silver quiver and the torn chiton.&rdquo; And he began to
+      tell him how Antinous had commanded him, in the name of his master, to
+      find masks and disguises for them both. But Papias cut off his speech at
+      the very beginning, and vehemently demanded the restoration of his quiver
+      and bow, of which Pollux could not work out the value in two years. The
+      young man whose heart and thoughts were at Lochias and who, at any cost,
+      did not want to be detained longer than was necessary, begged his master,
+      with all possible politeness, to let him go now, and to settle the matter
+      with him to-morrow after he had discussed it with the Roman, from whom he
+      might certainly demand any compensation he chose. But when Papias
+      interrupted him again and again, and obstinately insisted on the immediate
+      restoration of his property, the artist whose blood was easily heated,
+      grew angry and replied to the attacks and questions of the older man with
+      vehement response.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One angry word led to another, and at last Papias hinted of persons who
+      took possession of other person&rsquo;s silver goods, and when Pollux retorted
+      that he knew of some who could put forward the works of others as their
+      own, the master struck his fist upon the table, and going towards the door
+      he cried out, as soon as he was at a safe distance from the furious lad&rsquo;s
+      powerful fists:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thief! I will show you how fellows like you are dealt with in
+      Alexandria.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux turned white with rage, and rushed upon Papias, who fled, and
+      before Pollux could reach him he had taken refuge behind the two guards
+      sent by the magistrate, and who were waiting in the antechamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seize the thief!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Hold the villain who stole my silver quiver
+      and now raises his hand against his master. Bind him, fetter him, carry
+      him off to prison.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux did not know what had come upon him; he stood like a bear that has
+      been surrounded by hunters; doubtful but at bay. Should he fling himself
+      upon his pursuers and fell them to the earth? should he passively await
+      impending fate?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He knew every stone in his master&rsquo;s house; the anteroom in which he stood,
+      and indeed the whole building was on the ground floor. In the minute while
+      the guards were approaching and his master was giving the order to the
+      lictor, his eye fell on a window which looked out upon the street, and
+      possessed only by the single thought of defending his liberty and
+      returning quickly to Arsinoe he leaped out of the opening which promised
+      safety and into the street below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thief&mdash;stop thief!&rdquo; he heard as he flew on with long strides; and
+      like the pelting of rain driven by all the four winds came from all sides
+      the senseless, odious, horrible cry: &ldquo;Stop thief!&mdash;stop thief!&rdquo; it
+      seemed to deprive him of his senses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the passionate cry of his heart: &ldquo;To Lochias, to Arsinoe! keep free,
+      save your liberty if only to be of use at Lochias!&rdquo; drowned the shouts of
+      his pursuers and urged him through the streets that led to the old palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On he went faster and farther, each step a leap; the briny breeze from the
+      sea already fanned his glowing cheeks and the narrow empty street yonder
+      he well knew led to the quay by the King&rsquo;s harbor, where he could hide
+      from his pursuers among the tall piles of wood. He was just turning the
+      corner into the alley when an Egyptian ox-driver threw his goad between
+      his legs; he stumbled, fell to the ground, and instantly felt that a dog
+      which had rushed upon him was tearing the chiton he wore, while he was
+      seized by a number of men. An hour later and he found himself in prison,
+      bitten, beaten, and bound among a crew of malefactors and real thieves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Night had fallen. His parents were waiting for him and he came not; and in
+      Lochias which he had not been able to reach there were misery and trouble
+      enough, and the only person in the world who could carry comfort to
+      Arsinoe in her despair was absent and nowhere to be found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0032" id="link2HCH0032">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The story told by Mastor which had so greatly agitated Pollux and had
+      prompted him to his mad flight was the history of events which had taken
+      place in the steward&rsquo;s rooms during the hours when the young artist was
+      helping his parents to transfer their household belongings into his
+      sister&rsquo;s tiny dwelling. Keraunus was certainly not one of the most
+      cheerful of men, but on the morning when Sabina came to the palace and the
+      gate-keeper was driven from his home, he had worn the aspect of a
+      thoroughly-contented man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since visiting Selene the day before he had given himself no farther
+      concern about her. She was not dangerously ill and was exceptionally well
+      taken care of, and the children did not seem to miss her. Indeed, he
+      himself did not want her back to-day. He avoided confessing this to
+      himself it is true, still he felt lighter and freer in the absence of his
+      grave monitor than he had been for a long time. It would be delightful, he
+      thought, to go on living in this careless manner, alone with Arsinoe and
+      the children, and now and again he rubbed his hands and grinned
+      complacently. When the old slave-woman brought a large dish full of cakes
+      which he had desired her to buy, and set it down by the side of the
+      children&rsquo;s porridge, he chuckled so heartily that his fat person shook and
+      swayed; and he had very good reason to be happy in his way, for Plutarch
+      quite early in the morning, had sent a heavy purse of gold pieces for his
+      ivory cup, and a magnificent bunch of roses to Arsinoe; he might give his
+      children a treat, buy himself a solid gold fillet, and dress Arsinoe as
+      finely as though she were the prefect&rsquo;s favorite daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His vanity was gratified in every particular.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And what a splendid fellow was the slave who now&mdash;with a superbly
+      reverential bow-presented him with a roast chicken and who was to walk
+      behind him in the afternoon to the council-chamber. The tall Thessalian
+      who marched after the Archidikastes to the Hall of justice, carrying his
+      papers, was hardly grander than his &ldquo;body-servant.&rdquo; He had bought him
+      yesterday at quite a low price. The well-grown Samian was scarcely thirty
+      years old; he could read and write and was in a position therefore to
+      instruct the children in these arts; nay, he could even play the lute. His
+      past, to be sure, was not a spotless record, and it was for that reason
+      that he had been sold so cheaply. He had stolen things on several
+      occasions; but the brands and scars which he bore upon his person were
+      hidden by his new chiton and Keraunus felt in himself the power to cure
+      him of his evil propensities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After desiring Arsinoe to let nothing he about of any value, for their new
+      house-mate seemed not to be perfectly honest, he answered his daughter&rsquo;s
+      scruples by saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be better, no doubt, that he should be as honest as the old
+      skeleton I gave in exchange for him, but I reflect that even if my
+      body-servant should make away with some of the few drachmae we carry about
+      with us, I need not repent of having bought him, since I got him for many
+      thousand drachmae less than he is worth, on account of his thefts, while a
+      teacher for the children would have cost more than he can steal from us at
+      the worst. I will lock up the gold in the chest with my documents. It is
+      strong and could only be opened with a crow-bar. Besides the fellow will
+      have left off stealing at any rate at first, for his late master was none
+      of the mildest and had cured him of his pilfering I should think, once for
+      all. It is lucky that in selling such rascals we should be compelled to
+      state what their faults are; if the seller fails to do so compensation
+      maybe claimed from him by the next owner for what he may lose. Lykophron
+      certainly concealed nothing, and setting aside his thieving propensities
+      the Samian is said to be in every respect a capital fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But father,&rdquo; replied Arsinoe, her anxiety once more urging her to speak,
+      &ldquo;it is a bad thing to have a dishonest man in the house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know nothing about it child!&rdquo; answered Keraunus. &ldquo;To us to live and
+      to be honest are the same thing, but a slave!&mdash;King Antiochus is said
+      to have declared that the man who wishes to be well served must employ
+      none but rascals.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Arsinoe had been tempted out on to the balcony by her lover&rsquo;s snatch
+      of song and had been driven in again by her father, the steward had not
+      reproved her in any way unkindly, but had stroked her cheeks and said with
+      a smile: &ldquo;I rather fancy that lad of the gatekeeper&rsquo;s&mdash;whom I once
+      turned out of doors has had his eye on you since you were chosen for
+      Roxana. Poor wretch! But we have very different suitors in view for you my
+      little girl. How would it be, think you, if rich Plutarch had sent you
+      those roses, not on his own behalf but as a greeting on the part of his
+      son? I know that he is very desirous of marrying him but the fastidious
+      man has never yet thought any Alexandrian girl good enough for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know him, and he does not think of a poor thing like me,&rdquo; said
+      Arsinoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think not?&rdquo; asked Keraunus smiling. &ldquo;We are of as good family, nay
+      of a better than Plutarch, and the fairest is a match for the wealthiest.
+      What would you say child to a long flowing purple robe and a chariot with
+      white horses, and runners in front?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At breakfast Keraunus drank two cups of strong wine, in which he allowed
+      Arsinoe to mix only a few drops of water. While his daughter was curling
+      his hair a swallow flew into the room; this was a good omen and raised the
+      steward&rsquo;s spirits. Dressed in his best and with a well-filled purse, he
+      was on the point of starting for the council-chamber with his new slave
+      when Sophilus the tailor and his girl-assistant were shown into the
+      living-room. The man begged to be allowed to try the dress, ordered for
+      Roxana by the prefect&rsquo;s wife, on the steward&rsquo;s daughter. Keraunus received
+      him with much condescension and allowed him to bring in the slave who
+      followed him with a large parcel of dresses,&mdash;and Arsinoe, who was
+      with the children, was called.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe was embarrassed and anxious and would far rather have yielded her
+      part to another; still, she was curious about the new dresses. The tailor
+      begged her to allow her maid to dress her; his assistant would help her
+      because the dresses which were only slightly stitched together for trying
+      on, were cut, not in the Greek but in the Oriental fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your waiting woman,&rdquo; he added turning to Arsinoe, &ldquo;will be able to learn
+      to-day the way to dress you on the great occasion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My daughter&rsquo;s maid,&rdquo; said Keraunus, winking slily at Arsinoe, &ldquo;is not in
+      the house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I require no help,&rdquo; cried the tailor&rsquo;s girl. &ldquo;I am handy too at
+      dressing hair, and I am most glad to help such a fair Roxana.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And it is a real pleasure to work for her,&rdquo; added Sophilus. &ldquo;Other young
+      ladies are beautified by what they wear, but your daughter adds beauty to
+      all she wears.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are most polite,&rdquo; said Keraunus, as Arsinoe and her handmaid left the
+      room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We learn a great deal by our intercourse with people of rank,&rdquo; replied
+      the tailor. &ldquo;The illustrious ladies who honor me with their custom like
+      not only to see but to hear what is pleasing. Unfortunately there are
+      among them some whom the gods have graced with but few charms, and they,
+      strangely enough, crave the most flattering speeches. But the poor always
+      value it more than the rich when benevolence is shown them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well said,&rdquo; cried Keraunus. &ldquo;I myself am but indifferently well off for a
+      man of family, and am glad to live within my moderate means&mdash;so that
+      my daughter&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The lady Julia has chosen the costliest stuffs for her; as is fitting&mdash;as
+      the occasion demands,&rdquo; said the tailor. &ldquo;Quite right, at the same time&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my lord?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The grand occasion will be over and my daughter, now that she is grown
+      up, ought to be seen at home and in the street in suitable and handsome,
+      though not costly, clothes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said just now, true beauty needs no gaudy raiment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you be disposed now, to work for me at a moderate price?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With pleasure; nay, I shall be indebted to her, for all the world will
+      admire Roxana and inquire who may be her tailor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a very reasonable and right-minded man. What now would you charge
+      for a dress for her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That we can discuss later.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, I beg you sincerely&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First let me consider what you want. Simple dresses are more difficult,
+      far more difficult to make, and yet become a handsome woman better than
+      rich and gaudy robes. But can any man make a woman understand it? I could
+      tell you a tale of their folly! Why many a woman who rides by in her
+      chariot wears dresses and gems to conceal not merely her own limbs, but
+      the poverty-stricken condition of her house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus, and in this wise did Keraunus and the tailor converse, while the
+      assistant plaited up Arsinoe&rsquo;s hair with strings of false pearls that she
+      had brought with tier, and fitted and pinned on her the costly white and
+      blue silk robes of an Asiatic princess. At first Arsinoe was very still
+      and timid. She no longer cared to dress for any one but Pollux; but the
+      garments prepared for her were wonderfully pretty&mdash;and how well the
+      fitter knew how to give effect to her natural advantages. While the
+      neat-handed woman worked busily and carefully many merry jests passed
+      between them&mdash;many sincere and hearty words of admiration&mdash;and
+      before long Arsinoe had become quite excited and took pleased interest in
+      the needle-woman&rsquo;s labors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every bough that is freshly decked by spring seems to feel gladness, and
+      the simple child who was to-day so splendidly dressed was captivated by
+      pleasure in her own beauty, and its costly adornment which delighted her
+      beyond measure. Arsinoe now clapped her hands with delight, now had the
+      mirror handed to her, and now, with all the frankness of a child,
+      expressed her satisfaction not only with the costly clothes she wore, but
+      with her own surprisingly grand appearance in them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dress-maker was enchanted with her, proud and delighted, and could not
+      resist the impulse to give a kiss to the charming girl&rsquo;s white,
+      beautifully round throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If only Pollux could see me so!&rdquo; thought Arsinoe. &ldquo;After the performance
+      perhaps I might show myself in my dress to Selene, and then she would
+      forgive my taking part in the show. It is really a pleasure to look so
+      nice!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The children all stood round her while she was being dressed, and shouted
+      with admiration each time some new detail of the princess&rsquo;s attire was
+      added. Helios begged to be allowed to feel her dress, and after satisfying
+      herself that his little hands were clean she stroked them over the
+      glistening white silk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had now advanced so far that her father and the tailor could be called
+      in. She felt remarkably content and happy. Drawn up to her tallest, like a
+      real king&rsquo;s daughter, and yet with a heart beating as anxiously as that of
+      any girl would who is on the point of displaying her beauty&mdash;hitherto
+      protected and hidden in her parents&rsquo; home&mdash;to the thousand eyes of
+      the gaping multitude, she went towards the sitting-room; but she drew back
+      her hand she had put forth to raise the latch, for she heard the voices of
+      several men who must just now have joined her father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a little while, there are visitors,&rdquo; she cried to the seamstress who
+      had followed her, and she put her ear to the door to listen. At first she
+      could not make out anything that was going on, but the end of the strange
+      conversation that was being carried on within was so hideously
+      intelligible that she could never forget it so long as she lived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her father had ordered two new dresses for her, beating down the price
+      with the promise of prompt payment, when Mastor came into the steward&rsquo;s
+      room and informed Keraunus that his master and Gabinius, the
+      curiosity-dealer from Nicaea, wished to speak with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your master,&rdquo; said Keraunus haughtily, &ldquo;may come in; I think that he
+      regrets the injury he has done me; but Gabinius shall never cross this
+      threshold again, for he is a scoundrel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be as well that you should desire that man to leave you for the
+      present,&rdquo; said the slave, pointing to the tailor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whoever comes to visit me,&rdquo; said the steward loftily, &ldquo;must be satisfied
+      to meet any one whom I permit to enter my house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, nay,&rdquo; said the slave urgently, &ldquo;my master is a greater man than you
+      think. Beg this man to leave the room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know, I know very well,&rdquo; said Keraunus with a smile. &ldquo;Your master is an
+      acquaintance of Caesar&rsquo;s. But we shall see, after the performance that is
+      about to take place, which of us two Caesar will decide for. This tailor
+      has business here and will stay at my pleasure. Sit in the corner there,
+      my friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A tailor!&rdquo; cried Mastor, horrified. &ldquo;I tell you he must go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must!&rdquo; asked Keraunus wrathfully. &ldquo;A slave dares to give orders in my
+      house? We will see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going,&rdquo; interrupted the artisan who understood the case. &ldquo;No
+      unpleasantness shall arise here on my account, I will return in a quarter
+      of an hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will stay,&rdquo; commanded Keraunus. &ldquo;This insolent Roman seems to think
+      that Lochias belongs to him; but I will show him who is master here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Mastor paid no heed to these words spoken in a high pitch; he took the
+      tailor&rsquo;s hand and led him out, whispering to him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come with me if you wish to escape an evil hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men went off and Keraunus did not detain the artisan, for it
+      occurred to his mind that his presence did him small credit. He purposed
+      to show himself in all his dignity to the overbearing architect, but he
+      also remembered that it was not advisable to provoke unnecessarily the
+      mysterious bearded stranger, with the big clog. Much excited, and not
+      altogether free from anxiety, he paced up and down his room. To give
+      himself courage he hastily filled a cup from the wine-jar that stood on
+      the breakfast table, emptied it, refilled it and drank it off a second
+      time without adding any water, and then stood with his arms folded and a
+      strong color in his face awaiting his enemy&rsquo;s visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor walked in with Gabinius. Keraunus expected some greeting, but
+      Hadrian spoke not a word, cast a glance at him of the utmost contempt and
+      passed by him without taking any more notice of him than if he had been a
+      pillar or a piece of furniture. The blood mounted to the steward&rsquo;s head
+      and heated his eyes and for fully a minute he strove in vain to find words
+      to give utterance to his rage. Gabinius paid no more heed to Keraunus than
+      the Roman had done. He walked on ahead and paused in front of the mosaic
+      for which he had offered so high a price, and over which a few days since
+      he had been so sharply dealt with by the steward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would beg you,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;to look at this masterpiece.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor looked at the ground, but hardly had he begun to study the
+      picture, of which he quite understood and appreciated the beauty, when
+      just behind him he heard in a hoarse voice these words uttered with
+      difficulty:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In Alexandria&mdash;it is the custom, to greet&mdash;to say something&mdash;to
+      the people you visit.&rdquo; Hadrian half turned his head towards the speaker
+      and said indifferently but with strong and insulting contempt:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In Rome too it is the custom to greet honest people.&rdquo; Then looking down
+      again at the mosaic he said, &ldquo;Exquisite, exquisite an inestimable and
+      precious work.&rdquo; At Hadrian&rsquo;s words Keraunus&rsquo; eyes almost started out of
+      his head. His face was crimson and his lips pale; he went close up to him
+      and as soon as he had found breath to speak he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have you&mdash;what are your words intended to convey?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian turned suddenly and full upon the steward; in his eyes sparkled
+      that annihilating fire which few could endure to gaze on and his deep
+      voice rolled sullenly through the room as he said to the miserable man:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My words are intended to convey that you have been an unfaithful steward,
+      that I know what you would rather I should not know, that I have learned
+      how you deal with the property entrusted to you, that you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I?&rdquo;&mdash;cried the steward trembling with rage and stepping close
+      up to the Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That you,&rdquo; shouted Hadrian in his face, &ldquo;tried to sell this picture to
+      this man; in short that you are a simpleton and a scoundrel into the
+      bargain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&mdash;I,&rdquo; gasped Keraunus slapping his hand on his fat chest. &ldquo;I&mdash;a&mdash;a&mdash;but
+      you shall repent of these words.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian laughed coldly and scornfully, but Keraunus sprang on Gabinius
+      with a wonderful agility for his size, clutched him by the collar of his
+      chiton and shook the feeble little man as if he were a sapling, shrieking
+      meanwhile:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will choke you with your own lies&mdash;serpent, mean viper!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madman!&rdquo; cried Hadrian &ldquo;leave hold of the Ligurian or by Sirius you shall
+      repent it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Repent it?&rdquo; gasped the steward. &ldquo;It will be your turn to repent when
+      Caesar comes. Then will come a day of reckoning with false witnesses,
+      shameless calumniators who disturb peaceful households, while credulous
+      idiots&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Man, man,&rdquo; interrupted Hadrian, not loudly but sternly and ominously,
+      &ldquo;you know not to whom you speak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh I know you&mdash;I know you only too well. But I&mdash;I&mdash;shall I
+      tell you who I am?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&mdash;you are a blockhead,&rdquo; replied the monarch shrugging his
+      shoulders contemptuously. Then he added calmly, with dignity&mdash;almost
+      with indifference:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Caesar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At these words the steward&rsquo;s hand dropped from the chiton of the
+      half-throttled dealer. Speechless and with a glassy stare he gazed in
+      Hadrian&rsquo;s face for a few seconds. Then he suddenly started, staggered
+      backwards, uttered a loud choking, gurgling, nameless cry, and fell back
+      on the floor like a mass of rock shaken from its foundations by an
+      earthquake. The room shook again with his fall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian was startled and when he saw him lying motionless at his feet he
+      bent over him&mdash;less from pity than from a wish to see what was the
+      matter with him; for he had also dabbled in medicine. Just as he was
+      lifting the fallen man&rsquo;s hand to feel his pulse Arsinoe rushed into the
+      room. She had heard the last words of the antagonists with breathless
+      anxiety and her father&rsquo;s fall and now threw herself on her knees by the
+      side of the unhappy man, just opposite to Hadrian, and as his distorted
+      and grey-white face told her what had occurred she broke out in a
+      passionate cry of anguish. Her brothers and sisters followed at her heels,
+      and when they saw their favorite sister bewailing herself they followed
+      her example without knowing at first what Arsinoe was crying for, but soon
+      with terror and horror at their father lying there stiff and disfigured.
+      The Emperor, who had never had either son or daughter of his own, found
+      nothing so intolerable as the presence of crying children. However he
+      endured the wailing and whimpering that surrounded him till he had
+      ascertained the condition of the man lying on the ground before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is dead,&rdquo; he said in a few minutes. &ldquo;Cover his face, Master.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe and the children broke out afresh, and Hadrian glanced down at
+      them with annoyance. When his eye fell on Arsinoe, whose costly robe,
+      merely pinned and slightly stitched together had come undone with the
+      vehemence of her movements and were hanging as flapping rags in tumbled
+      disorder, he was disgusted with the gaudy fluttering trumpery which
+      contrasted so painfully with the grief of the wearer, and turning his back
+      on the fair girl he quitted the chamber of misery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabinius followed him with a hideous smirk. He had directed the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      attention to the mosaic pavement in the steward&rsquo;s room, and had
+      shamelessly accused Keraunus of having offered to sell him a work that
+      belonged to the palace, contrasting his conduct with his own rectitude.
+      Now the calumniated man was dead, and the truth could never come to light;
+      this was necessarily a satisfaction to the miserable man, but he derived
+      even greater pleasure from the reflection that Arsinoe could not now fill
+      the part of Roxana, and that consequently there was once more a
+      possibility that it might devolve on his daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian walked on in front of him, silent and thoughtful. Gabinius
+      followed him into his writing-room, and there said with fulsome
+      smoothness:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, great Caesar, thus do the gods punish with a heavy hand the crimes of
+      the guilty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian did not interrupt him, but he looked him keenly and enquiringly in
+      the face, and then said, gravely, but coolly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems to me, man, that I should do well to break off my connection
+      with you, and to give some other dealer the commissions which I proposed
+      to entrust to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Caesar!&rdquo; stammered Gabinius, &ldquo;I really do not know&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I do know,&rdquo; interrupted the Emperor. &ldquo;You have attempted to mislead
+      me, and throw your own guilt on the shoulders of another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&mdash;great Caesar? I have attempted&mdash;&rdquo; began the Ligurian, while
+      his pinched features turned an ashy grey. &ldquo;You accused the steward of a
+      dishonorable trick,&rdquo; replied Hadrian. &ldquo;But I know men well, and I know
+      that no thief ever yet died of being called a scoundrel. It is only
+      undeserved disgrace that can cost a man&rsquo;s life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keraunus was full-blooded, and the shock when he learnt that you were
+      Caesar&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That shock accelerated the end no doubt,&rdquo; interrupted the monarch, &ldquo;but
+      the mosaic in the steward&rsquo;s room is worth a million of sesterces, and now
+      I have seen enough to be quite sure that you are not the man to save your
+      money when a work like that mosaic is offered you for sale&mdash;be the
+      circumstances what they may. If I see the case rightly, it was Keraunus
+      who refused your demand that he should resign to you the treasure in his
+      charge. Certainly, that was the case exactly! Now, leave me. I wish to be
+      alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabinius retired with many bows, walking backwards to the door, and then
+      turned his back on the palace of Lochias muttering many impotent curses as
+      he went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The steward&rsquo;s new &lsquo;body-servant,&rsquo; the old black woman, Mastor, the tailor
+      and his slave, helped Arsinoe to carry her father&rsquo;s lifeless body and lay
+      it on a couch, and the slave closed his eyes. He was dead&mdash;so each
+      told the despairing girl, but she would not, could not believe it. As soon
+      as she was alone with the old negress and the dead, she lifted up his
+      heavy, clumsy arm, and as soon as she let go her hold it fell by his side
+      like lead. She lifted the cloth from the dead man&rsquo;s face, but she flung it
+      over him again at once, for death had drawn his features. Then she kissed
+      his cold hand and brought the children in and made them do the same, and
+      said sobbing:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have no father now; we shall never, never see him again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The little blind boy felt the dead body with his hands, and asked his
+      sister:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will he not wake again to-morrow morning and make you curl his hair, and
+      take me up on his knee?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never, never; he is gone, gone for ever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As she spoke Mastor entered the room, sent by his master. Yesterday had he
+      not heard from the overseer of the pavement-workers the comforting tidings
+      that after our grief and suffering here on earth there would be another,
+      beautiful, blissful and eternal life? He went kindly up to Arsinoe and
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, my children; when we are dead we become beautiful angels with
+      colored wings, and all who have loved each other here on earth will meet
+      again in the presence of the good God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe looked at the slave with disapproval.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the use,&rdquo; she asked, &ldquo;of cheating the children with silly tales?
+      Their father is gone, quite gone, but we will never, never forget him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there any angels with red wings?&rdquo; asked the youngest little girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I want to be an angel!&rdquo; cried Helios, clapping his hands. &ldquo;And can
+      the angels see?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, dear little man,&rdquo; replied Mastor, &ldquo;and their eyes are wonderfully
+      bright, and all they look upon is beautiful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell them no more Christian nonsense,&rdquo; begged Arsinoe. &ldquo;Ah! children,
+      when we shall have burned our father&rsquo;s body there will be nothing left of
+      him but a few grey ashes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the slave took the little blind boy on his knees and whispered to him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only believe what I tell you&mdash;you will see him again in Heaven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he set him down again, gave Arsinoe a little bag of gold pieces in
+      Caesar&rsquo;s name, and begged her&mdash;for so his master desired&mdash;to
+      find a new abode and, after the deceased was burned on the morrow, to quit
+      Lochias with the children. When Mastor was gone Arsinoe opened the chest,
+      in which lay her father&rsquo;s papyri and the money that Plutarch had paid for
+      the ivory cup, put in the heavy purse sent by the Emperor, comforting
+      herself while her tears flowed, with the reflection that she and the
+      children were provided at any rate against immediate want.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But where was she to go with the little ones? Where could she hope to find
+      a refuge at once? What was to become of them when all they now possessed
+      was spent. The gods be thanked! she was not forlorn; she still had
+      friends. She could find protection and love with Pollux and look to dame
+      Doris for motherly counsel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She quickly dried her eyes and changed the remains of her splendor for the
+      dark dress in which she was accustomed to work at the papyrus factory;
+      then, as soon as she had taken the pearls out of her hair, she went down
+      to the little gate-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was only a few steps from the door&mdash;but why did not the Graces
+      come springing out to meet her? Why did she see no birds, no flowers in
+      the window? Was she deceived, was she dreaming or was she tricked by some
+      evil spirit? The door of the dear home-like little dwelling was wide open
+      and the sitting-room was absolutely empty, not a chattel was left behind,
+      forgotten&mdash;not a leaf from a plant was lying on the ground; for dame
+      Doris, in her tidy fashion, had swept out the few rooms where she had
+      grown grey in peace and contentment as carefully as though she were to
+      come into them again to-morrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What had happened here? Where were her friends gone? A great terror came
+      over her, all the misery of desolation fell upon her, and as she sank upon
+      the stone bench outside the gate-house to wait for the inhabitants who
+      must presently return, the tears again flowed from her eyes and fell in
+      heavy drops on her hands as they lay in her lap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was still sitting there, thinking with a throbbing heart of Pollux and
+      of the happy morning of this now dying day, when a troup of Moorish slaves
+      came towards the deserted house. The head mason who led them desired her
+      to rise from the bench, and in answer to her questions, told her that the
+      little building was to be pulled down, and that the couple who had
+      inhabited it were evicted from their post, turned out of doors and had
+      gone elsewhere with all their belongings. But where Doris and her son had
+      taken themselves no one knew. Arsinoe as she heard these tidings felt like
+      a sailor whose vessel has grounded on a rocky shore, and who realizes with
+      horror that every plank and beam be neath him quivers and gapes. As usual,
+      when she felt too weak to help herself unaided, her first thought was of
+      Selene, and she decided to hasten off to her and to ask her what she could
+      do, what was to become of her and the children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was already growing dark. With a swift step, and drying her eyes from
+      time to time on her peplum as she went, she returned to her own room to
+      fetch a veil, without which she dared not venture so late into the
+      streets. On the steps&mdash;where the dog had thrown down Selene&mdash;she
+      met a man hurrying past her; in the dim light she fancied he bore some
+      resemblance to the slave that her father had bought the day before; but
+      she paid no particular heed, for her mind was full of so many other
+      things. In the kitchen sat the old negress in front of a lamp and the
+      children squatted round her; by the hearth sat the baker and the butcher,
+      to whom her father owed considerable sums and who had come to claim their
+      dues, for ill news has swifter wings than good tidings, and they had
+      already heard of the steward&rsquo;s death. Arsinoe took the lamp, begged the
+      men to wait, went into the sitting-room, passing, not without a shudder,
+      the body of the man who a few hours since had stroked her cheeks and
+      looked lovingly into her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How glad she felt to be able to pay her dead father&rsquo;s debts and save the
+      honor of his name! She confidently drew the key out of her pocket and went
+      up to the chest. What was this? She knew, quite positively, that she had
+      locked it before going out and yet it was now standing wide open; the lid,
+      thrown back, hung askew by one hinge; the other was broken. A dread, a
+      hideous suspicion, froze her blood; the lamp trembled in her hand as she
+      leaned over the chest which ought to have contained every thing she
+      possessed. There lay the old documents, carefully rolled together, side by
+      side, but the two bags with Plutarch&rsquo;s money and the Emperor&rsquo;s, had
+      vanished. She took out one roll after another; then she tossed them all
+      out on to the floor till the bottom of the chest was bare&mdash;but the
+      gold was really gone, nowhere to be found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The new slave had forced open the lid of the chest and stolen the whole
+      possessions of the orphans of the man who, to gratify his own vanity, had
+      brought him into the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe screamed aloud, called in her creditors, explained to them all
+      that had occurred and implored them to pursue the thief; and when they
+      only listened to her with an incredulous shrug, she swore that she was
+      speaking the truth, and promised that whether the slave were caught or not
+      she would pay them with the price of her own and her father&rsquo;s personal
+      ornaments. She knew the name of the dealer of whom her father had bought
+      the slave and told it to the unsatisfied dealers, who at last left her to
+      follow up the thief as promptly as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once more Arsinoe was alone. Tearless, but shivering and scarcely mistress
+      of herself from misery and agitation, she took out her veil, flung it over
+      her head, and hurried through the court and along the streets to her
+      sister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Verily, since Sabina&rsquo;s visit to the palace all good spirits had deserted
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0033" id="link2HCH0033">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In a perfectly dark spot by the wall of the widow&rsquo;s garden, stood the
+      cynic philosopher who had met Antinous with so little courtesy, defending
+      himself eagerly, but in low tones against the rebukes of another man, who,
+      dressed, like himself in a ragged cloak and bearing a beggar&rsquo;s wallet,
+      appeared to be one of the same kidney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not deny,&rdquo; said the latter, &ldquo;that you cling much to the Christians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But hear me out,&rdquo; urged the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I need hear nothing, for I have seen you for the tenth time sneaking in
+      to one of their meetings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do I deny it? Do I not honestly confess that I seek truth wherever I
+      may, where I see even a gleam of hope of finding it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like the Egyptian who wanted to catch the miraculous fish, and at last
+      flung his hook into the sand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The man acted very wisely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What now!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A marvel is not to be found just where everything else is. In hunting for
+      truth you must not be afraid of a bog.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the Christian doctrine seems to be very much such a muddy thicket.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call it so for aught I care.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then beware lest you find yourself sticking in the morass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will take care of myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You said just now that there were decent folks among them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A few no doubt. But the others! eternal gods! mere slaves, beggars,
+      ruined handicraftstmen, common people, untaught and unphilosophical
+      brains, and women, for the most part.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Avoid them then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You ought to be the last to give me that advice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The other went close up to him and asked him in a whisper:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, where do you suppose I get the money with which I pay for our food
+      and lodging?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So long as you do not steal it, it is all the same to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I had no more, you would ask the question fast enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not, we strive after virtue and ought to do everything to
+      render ourselves independent of nature and her cravings. But to be sure
+      she often asserts her rights&mdash;to return then: where do you get the
+      money?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, it burns in the purses of the people in there. It is their duty to
+      give to the poor, and to tell the truth, their pleasure also; and so week
+      by week they give me a few drachmae for my suffering brother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bah! you are the only son of your father, and he is dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;All men are brethren&rsquo; say the Christians, consequently I may call you
+      mine without lying.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Join them then for aught I care,&rdquo; laughed the other. &ldquo;How would it be if
+      I followed you among the Christians? Perhaps they would give me weekly
+      money too, for my suffering brother, and then we could have double meals.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cynics laughed loudly and parted; one went back into the city, the
+      other into the garden belonging to the Christian widow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe had entered here before the dishonest philosopher and had gone
+      straight to Hannah&rsquo;s house without being detained by the gate-keeper. As
+      she got nearer to her destination, she tried more and more earnestly to
+      devise some way in which she might inform her sister of all the dreadful
+      things that had happened, and which she must learn sooner or later,
+      without giving her too great a shock. Her dread was not much less than her
+      grief. As she reflected on the last few days and on all that had occurred,
+      it almost seemed as though she herself had been the cause of the
+      misfortunes of her family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the way to see Selene she could shed no tears, but she could not help
+      softly moaning to herself now and then. A woman, who for some distance had
+      kept pace with her, thought she must be suffering some severe bodily pain,
+      and when the girl passed her, she looked after her with sincere
+      compassion, the wailing of the desolate young creature had sounded so
+      piteous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      True, midway, Arsinoe had suddenly stopped and had thought that instead of
+      going to Selene for advice, she would turn round and seek Pollux and ask
+      him to help her. The thought of her lover forced its way through all her
+      sorrow and anxiety, through the reproaches she heaped upon herself and the
+      vague plans floating in the air which her brain&mdash;unaccustomed to any
+      serious thought, vainly tried to sketch for the future. He was kind, and
+      would certainly be ready to help her; but maidenly modesty held her back
+      from seeking him at so late an hour; besides, how could she discover him
+      or his parents?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The place where her sister was she was now familiar with, and no one could
+      judge of their position better or give sounder counsel than prudent
+      Selene. So she had not turned round, but had hurried on to reach her
+      destination as soon as possible; and now she was standing before the
+      little house in the garden. Before opening the door she once more
+      considered in what way she could prepare Selene and tell her terrible
+      news, and, as all that happened stood vividly before her mind&rsquo;s eye, she
+      began to weep once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In front of her, and following her, men and veiled women, singly or in
+      couples or in larger groups, passed into Paulina&rsquo;s garden. They came from
+      workshops and writing-rooms, from humble houses in narrow lanes, and from
+      the handsomest and largest in the main street. Each and all, from the
+      wealthy merchant down to the slave who could not call the coarse tunic or
+      scanty apron that he wore, his own, walked gravely and with a certain
+      dignified reserve. All who met within that gate greeted each other as
+      friends; the master gave a brotherly kiss to the servant, the slave to his
+      owner; for the congregation to which they all belonged was as one body,
+      animated and dwelt in by Christ, so that each member was esteemed as equal
+      to the others however different their gifts of body or mind might be, or
+      the worldly possessions with which they were endowed. Before God and his
+      Saviour the rich ship-owner or the grey-haired sage stood no higher than
+      the defenceless widow and the ignorant slave crippled with blows. Still,
+      the members of the community submitted to those more implicitly than to
+      these, for the special talents which graced certain superior Christians
+      were gifts of grace from the Lord, readily acknowledged as such and, so
+      far as they concerned the inner man, deemed worthy of honor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On Sunday, the day of the Resurrection of the Lord, all Christians,
+      without exception, visited their place of assembly for divine worship.
+      To-day, being the middle of the week, all who could or chose came to the
+      love-feast at Paulina&rsquo;s suburban house. She herself dwelt in the city and
+      she had placed the banqueting hall of her villa, which would hold more
+      than a hundred souls, at the disposal of her fellow Christians in that
+      quarter of the town. The regular service was held in the morning, but
+      after the day&rsquo;s labor was ended the Christians met at one table to have an
+      evening meal in common, or&mdash;on other occasions to partake of the
+      sacramental supper. After sunset the elders, deacons, and deaconesses&mdash;most
+      of whom, so long as it was light, had secular work to attend to&mdash;met
+      to take counsel together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Paulina, the widow of Pudeus and sister of Pontius the architect, was a
+      woman of considerable property and at the same time a prudent steward, who
+      did not consider herself justified in seriously impairing her son&rsquo;s
+      inheritance. This son was residing at Smyrna as a partner in an uncle&rsquo;s
+      business, and always avoided Alexandria, as he did not like his mother&rsquo;s
+      intercourse with the Christians. Paulina took the most anxious care not to
+      make any inroads on the capital intended for him, and never allowed her
+      hospitality to her fellow-believers to cost her any more than it did the
+      other wealthy members of the circle that met at her house. There the rich
+      brought more than they needed for themselves and the poor were always
+      welcome; not feeling themselves oppressed by the benevolence they profited
+      by, for they were often told that their entertainer was not a mortal, but
+      the Saviour, who invited each one who followed him faithfully to be his
+      guest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hour was approaching which would summon dame Hannah to join the
+      assembly of her fellow Christians. She could not fail to appear, for she
+      was one of the deaconesses entrusted with the distribution of alms and the
+      care of the sick. She noiselessly made her preparations for going,
+      carefully setting the lamp behind the water-pitcher so that it should not
+      dazzle Selene, and she desired Mary to be exact in administering the
+      medicine to her patient. She knew that the girl had yesterday attempted to
+      make away with herself, and guessed the cause; but she asked no questions
+      and disturbed the poor child, who slept a good deal or lay dreaming with
+      open eyes, as little as possible. The old physician wondered at her sound
+      constitution, for since her plunge into the water the fever had left her
+      and even the injured foot was not much the worse. Hannah might now hope
+      the best for Selene if no unforeseen contingency checked her recovery. To
+      prevent this the unfortunate girl was never to be left alone, and Mary had
+      gladly agreed with her friend to fill her place whenever she was obliged
+      to leave the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The meeting of the elders and guardians had already begun when Hannah took
+      her tablets in her hand, on which was noted the distribution she had made
+      of the money entrusted to her during the last week. She greeted the sick
+      girl and Mary with a kindly look and whispered to the deformed girl:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will think of thee in my prayers thou faithful soul. There is some food
+      in the little cupboard&mdash;not much, for we must be sparing, the last
+      medicine was so dear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the little anteroom a lamp was burning which Mary had lighted as it
+      began to grow dark, and the widow paused for a moment, considering whether
+      she should not extinguish it to save the oil. She had taken up the tongs
+      that hung by it, and was about to put it out, when she heard a gentle tap
+      at the house-door. Before she could enquire who it was that asked
+      admission at so late an hour, the door was opened and Arsinoe entered the
+      little hall. Her eyes were still full of tears and she had great
+      difficulty in finding words to return Hannah&rsquo;s greeting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why what ails you my child?&rdquo; asked the Christian anxiously when by the
+      dim light, she saw how tearful and sad the girl looked. Arsinoe was long
+      before she could answer. At last she collected herself sufficiently to sob
+      out amid her tears:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh dame Hannah! It is all over with us&mdash;my father, our poor father&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The widow guessed at the blow that bad fallen on the sisters and full of
+      anxiety on Selene&rsquo;s account she interrupted the weeping child saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, hush my child-Selene must not hear you. Come out with me and then
+      you can tell me all.&rdquo; Once outside the door Hannah put her arm round
+      Arsinoe drew her towards her, kissed her forehead, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now speak and tell me every thing; think that I am your mother or your
+      sister. Poor Selene is still too weak to advise or help you. Take courage.
+      What happened to your poor father?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Struck by apoplexy, dead&mdash;dead!&rdquo; wept the girl. &ldquo;Poor, dear little
+      orphan,&rdquo; said the widow in a husky voice and she clasped Arsinoe closely
+      in her arms. For some time she allowed the girl to weep silently on her
+      bosom; then she spoke:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give me your hand my daughter and tell me how it has all happened so
+      suddenly. Your father was quite well yesterday and now? Yes my girl life
+      is a grave matter, you have to learn it while you are still young. I know
+      you have six little brothers and sisters and perhaps you may soon lack
+      even the necessaries of life. But that is no disgrace; I am certainly even
+      poorer than you and yet, by God&rsquo;s help, I hope to be able to advise you
+      and perhaps even to assist you. Every thing that I can possibly do shall
+      be done, but first I must know how matters stand with you and what you
+      need.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was so much kindness and consolation in the Christian&rsquo;s tones, so
+      much to revive hope that Arsinoe willingly complied with her demand and
+      began her story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first, to be sure, her pride shunned confessing how poor, how
+      absolutely destitute they were; but Hannah&rsquo;s questions soon brought the
+      truth to light; and when Arsinoe perceived that the widow understood the
+      misfortunes of their house in their fullest extent, and that it would be
+      unavailing to conceal how matters stood with her and the children, she
+      yielded to the growing impulse to relieve her soul by pouring out her
+      griefs and described frankly and without reserve the whole position of the
+      family, to the good woman who listened with attention and sympathy. The
+      widow asked about each child separately, and ended by enquiring who, in
+      Arsinoe&rsquo;s absence, was left in charge of the little ones; and when she
+      heard that the old slave-woman to whose care the children were entrusted,
+      was infirm and half-blind, she shook her head thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here help is needed and at once,&rdquo; she said decidedly. &ldquo;You must go back
+      to the little ones presently. Your sister must not at present hear of your
+      father&rsquo;s death; when your future lot is to some extent secure we will tell
+      her by degrees all that has occurred. Now come with me, it is by the
+      Lord&rsquo;s guidance that you came here at the right moment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hannah conducted Arsinoe to Paulina&rsquo;s villa, first into a small room at
+      the side of the entrance hall, where the deaconesses took off their veils
+      and their warm wraps in winter evenings. There the girl could be alone,
+      and safe from inquisitive questionings which could not fail to be painful
+      to her. Hannah desired her to await her return, and then joined her
+      colleagues.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In order to do so she had to pass through the room where the elders and
+      deacons were sitting in council. The bishop, who presided over the
+      assembly, sat on a raised seat at the head of an oblong table, and on his
+      right hand and his left sat a number of elderly men, some of whom seemed
+      to be of Jewish or Egyptian extraction but most of them were Greeks. In
+      these the lofty intellectual brow was conspicuous, in those a bright,
+      ecstatic expression particularly in the eyes. Hannah went past the
+      assembly with a reverential greeting into the adjoining room in which the
+      deaconesses sat waiting, for women were not admitted to join or hear the
+      deliberations of the elders. The bishop, a fine old man with a full white
+      beard; raised his kindly eyes as the door closed upon Hannah, fixed them
+      for a few moments on the tips of his fingers that he had raised and then
+      addressed the presbyter who had presented for baptism several candidates
+      who had been grounded during the past year in the Christian faith and
+      doctrine, as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most of the catechumens you have presented to me cling faithfully no
+      doubt to the Redeemer. They believe in Him and love Him. But have they
+      attained to that sanctification, that new birth in Christ, which alone can
+      justify us in admitting them through baptism among the lambs of our Good
+      Shepherd? Let us beware of the tainted sheep which may infect the whole
+      flock. Verily, in these latter years there has been no lack of them, and
+      they have been received among us and have brought the name of Christian
+      into evil repute. Shall I give you an example? There was an Egyptian in
+      Rhakotis; few seemed to strive so fervently as he for the remission of his
+      sins. He could fast for many days, and yet no sooner was he baptized than
+      he broke into a goldsmith&rsquo;s shop. He was condemned to death, and before
+      his end he sent for me and confessed to me that in former years he had
+      soiled his soul with many robberies and murders. He had hoped to win
+      forgiveness of his sins by the act of baptism, the mere washing in water,
+      not by repentance and a new birth to a pure and holy life; and he had gone
+      on boldly in new sin because he confidently hoped that he might again
+      count on the unwearying mercy of the Saviour. Others again, who had been
+      brought up in the practice of the ablutions which have to be performed by
+      those who are initiated into the deeper secrets of the heathen mysteries,
+      regarded baptism as an act of purification, a mystical process of happy
+      augury, or at the best a figurative purification of the soul, and crowded
+      to receive it. Here, in Alexandria, the number of these deluded ones is
+      especially great; for where could any superstition find a more favorable
+      soil than in this seat of philosophical half-culture, or over-culture; of
+      the worship of Serapis, of astrology, of societies of Mystics, of
+      visionaries and exorcisers, and of incredulity&mdash;the twin-sister of
+      credulity. Be cautious then to hold back from baptism all those who regard
+      it as a preserving charm or an act of good omen&mdash;remembering that the
+      same water which, sprinkled on sanctified hearts, leads them to holy
+      living, brings death to the unclean soul. It is your turn to speak,
+      Irenaeus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only have to say,&rdquo; began the young Christian thus designated, &ldquo;that I
+      have recently met among the catechumens with some who have attached
+      themselves to us from the basest motives. I mean the idlers who are glad
+      to receive our alms. Have you noticed here a cynic philosopher whose
+      starving brother we maintain? Our deacon Clemens has just ascertained that
+      he is the only son of his father&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will investigate this matter more closely when we discuss the
+      distribution of alms,&rdquo; replied the bishop. &ldquo;Here we have petitions from
+      several women who desire to have their children baptized; this question we
+      cannot decide here; it must be referred to the next Synod. So far as I am
+      concerned, I should be inclined not to reject the prayer of the mothers.
+      Wherein does the utmost aim of the Christian life consist? It seems to me
+      in being perfectly conformable to the example of the Saviour. And was not
+      he a Man among men, a Youth among the young, a Child among children? Did
+      not His existence lend sanctity to every age, and especially childhood? He
+      commanded that little children should be brought to Him, and He promised
+      them the Kingdom of Heaven. Wherefore then should we exclude them and deny
+      them baptism?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot share your views,&rdquo; replied a presbyter with a high forehead and
+      sunken eyes. &ldquo;We ought no doubt to follow the Saviour, but those who tread
+      in His steps should do so of their own free choice, out of love for Him,
+      and after He has sanctified their souls. What is the sense of a new birth
+      in a life that has scarcely begun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your discourse,&rdquo; replied the bishop, &ldquo;only confirms my opinion that this
+      question is one for a higher assembly. We will now close our discussion of
+      that point, and go on to the care of the poor. Call in the women, my good
+      Justinius.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The deaconesses came into the room and took seats at the lower end of the
+      table, Paulina, the widow of Pudeus, taking her place opposite the bishop
+      in the middle of the other women. She had learnt from Selene&rsquo;s kind nurse
+      in what pressing difficulties the children of the deceased steward now
+      found themselves, and that Hannah had promised to assist them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The deacons first gave their reports of what their works had been among
+      the poor; after them the women were allowed to speak. Paulina, a tall,
+      slight woman with black hair faintly streaked with gray, drew from her
+      dress, which was perfectly plain, but made of particularly soft, fine
+      white woollen stuff&mdash;a tablet that she placed before her, and slowly
+      raising her eyes and looking at the assembly she said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dame Hannah has a melancholy story to tell you, for which I crave your
+      sympathy. Will you be so good as to allow her to speak?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Paulina seemed to feel that she was the hostess to her brethren. She
+      looked ill and suffering; a line of pain had settled about her lips, and
+      there were always dark shades under her eyes; still, there was something
+      firm and decisive in her voice, and her glance was anything rather than
+      soft and winning. After her commanding tones Hannah&rsquo;s tale sounded as soft
+      as a song. She described the different natures of the two sisters as
+      lovingly as though they were her own daughters, each in her own way seemed
+      to her so worthy of compassion, and she spoke with pathetic lament of the
+      unprotected, helpless orphans abandoned to misery, and among them a pretty
+      little blind boy. And she ended her speech by saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The steward&rsquo;s second daughter&mdash;she is sixteen and so beautiful that
+      she must be exposed to every temptation&mdash;has now the whole charge of
+      the nourishment and care of her six young brothers and sisters. Ought we
+      to withhold from them a protecting hand? No, so surely as we love the
+      Saviour we ought not. You agree with me? Well then, do not let us delay
+      our help. The second daughter of the deceased Keraunus is here, in this
+      house; to-morrow early the children must all quit the palace, and now,
+      while I am speaking, are at home alone and but ill tended.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Christian woman&rsquo;s good words fell on kindly soil, and the presbyters
+      and deacons determined to recommend the congregation who should assemble
+      at the love-feast to give their assistance to the steward&rsquo;s children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The elders had still much to discuss, so Hannah and Paulina were charged
+      with the task of appealing to the hearts of the well-to-do members of the
+      congregation to provide for the orphans. The poor widow first conducted
+      her wealthy friend and hostess to the little room where Arsinoe was
+      waiting with growing impatience. She looked paler than usual but, in spite
+      of her tear-reddened eyes which she kept fixed on the ground, she was so
+      lovely, so touchingly lovely, that the mere sight of her moved Paulina&rsquo;s
+      heart. She had once had two children, an only daughter besides her son.
+      The girl bad died in the spring-time of her maidenhood, and Paulina
+      thought of her at every hour of her life. It was for her sake that she had
+      been baptized and devoted her existence to a series of painful sacrifices.
+      She strove with all her might to be a good Christian&mdash;for surely she,
+      the self-denying woman who had taken up the cross of her own free will,
+      the suffering creature who loved stillness and who had made her
+      country-house, which she visited daily, a scene of unrest, could not fail
+      to win Heaven, and there she hoped to meet her innocent child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe reminded her of her Helena, who certainly had been far less fair
+      than the steward&rsquo;s lovely daughter, but whose image had assumed new and
+      glorified forms in the mother&rsquo;s faithful heart. Since her son had left
+      home for a foreign country she had often asked herself whether she might
+      not find some young creature to take into her home, to attach to herself,
+      to bring up as a Christian, and to bring as an offering to her Saviour&rsquo;s
+      feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her daughter had died a heathen, and nothing troubled Paulina so deeply as
+      that her soul was lost, and that her own struggling and striving for grace
+      could not lead her to the goal beyond the grave. No sacrifice seemed too
+      great to purchase her child&rsquo;s beatitude, and now, standing before Arsinoe
+      and looking at her with deep emotion and admiration, she was seized with
+      an idea which swiftly ripened to resolve. She would win this sweet soul
+      for the Redeemer, and implore Him with ceaseless prayers to save her
+      hapless child as a reward for the work of grace in Arsinoe&rsquo;s soul; and she
+      felt as if she had signed the compact with the Redeemer, when, fully
+      determined on this course, she went up to the girl and asked her:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are quite forlorn, quite without relations?&rdquo; Arsinoe bowed her head
+      in assent, and Paulina went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do you bear your loss with resignation?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is resignation?&rdquo; asked the girl modestly. Hannah laid her hand on
+      the widow&rsquo;s arm and whispered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is a heathen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it,&rdquo; said Paulina shortly, and then went on kindly but positively:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You and yours have lost both parents and a home by your father&rsquo;s death.
+      You shall find a new home in my house, with me; I ask nothing of you in
+      return but your love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe looked at the haughty lady in astonishment. She could not yet feel
+      any impulse of affection towards her, and she did not as yet understand
+      that what was required of her was the one gift which the best will, the
+      most loving heart in the world, could not offer at a command. Paulina did
+      not wait for her reply, but signed to Hannah to follow her to join the
+      congregation now assembled at the evening meal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A quarter of an hour later the two women returned. The steward&rsquo;s orphans
+      were provided for. Two or three Christian families were ready and willing
+      to take in some of them, and many a kindly house-mother had begged to have
+      the blind child; but in vain, for Hannah had claimed the right to bring up
+      the hapless little boy in her own house, at any rate for the present. She
+      knew how Selene clung to him, and hoped by his presence to be able to work
+      powerfully on the crushed and chilled heart of the poor girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe did not contravene the arrangements of the two women. She thanked
+      them, indeed, for she felt that she once more stood on firm ground, but
+      she also was immediately aware that it would be strewn with sharp stones.
+      The thought of parting from her little brothers and sisters was terrible
+      and cruel, and never left her mind for an instant, while, accompanied by
+      Hannah in person, she made her way back to Lochias.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning her kind friend appeared again and led her and the little
+      troup to Paulina&rsquo;s town-house. The steward&rsquo;s creditors divided his little
+      possessions; nothing but the chest of papyri followed the girl to her new
+      home. The hour in which the fondly-linked circle of children was riven
+      asunder, when one child was taken here and another there, was the
+      bitterest which Arsinoe had ever experienced or ever could experience
+      through all the after years of her life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0034" id="link2HCH0034">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A lovely garden adjoined the Caesareum, the palace in which Sabina was
+      residing. Balbilla was fond of lingering there, and as the morning of the
+      twenty-ninth of December was particularly brilliant&mdash;the sky and its
+      infinite mirror the sea, gleaming in indescribably deep blue, while the
+      fragrance of a flowering shrub was wafted in at her window like an
+      invitation to quit the house she had sought a certain bench which, though
+      placed in a sunny spot, was slightly shaded by an acacia. This seat was
+      screened from the more public paths by bushes; the promenaders who did not
+      seek Balbilla could not observe her here, but she could command a view,
+      through a gap in the foliage, of the path, which was strewn with small
+      shells.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To-day, however, the young poetess was far from feeling any curiosity;
+      instead of gazing at the shrubbery enlivened by birds, at the clear
+      atmosphere or the sparkling sea, her eyes were fixed on a yellow roll of
+      papyrus and she was impressing very dry details on her retentive memory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had determined to keep her word to learn to speak, write, and compose
+      verses in the Aeolian dialect of the Greek tongue. She had chosen for her
+      teacher Apollonius, the great grammarian, who was apt to call his scholars
+      &ldquo;the dullards;&rdquo; and the work which was the present object of her studies
+      was derived from the famous library of the Serapeum, which far exceeded in
+      completeness that of the Museum since the siege of Julius Caesar in the
+      Bruchiom, when the great Museum library was burnt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Any one observing Balbilla at her occupation could hardly have believed
+      that she was studying. There was no fixed effort in her eyes or on her
+      brow; still, she read line for line, not skipping a single word; only she
+      did it not like a man who climbs a mountain with sweat on his brow, but
+      like a lounger who walks in the main street of some great city, and is
+      charmed at every new and strange thing that meets his eye. Each time she
+      came upon some form of structure in the book she was reading that had been
+      hitherto unknown to her, she was so delighted that she clapped her hands
+      and laughed out softly. Her learned master had never before met with so
+      cheerful a student, and it annoyed him, for to him science was a serious
+      matter while she seemed to make a joke of it, as she did of every thing,
+      and so desecrated it in his eyes. After she had been sitting an hour on
+      the bench, studying in her own way, she rolled up the book and stood up to
+      refresh herself a little. Feeling sure that no one could see her, she
+      stretched herself in all her limbs and then stepped up to the gap in the
+      shrubbery in order to see who a man in boots might be who was pacing up
+      and down in the broad path beyond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the praetor&mdash;and yet it was not! Verus, under this aspect at
+      any rate, she had never seen till now. Where was the smile that was wont
+      to twinkle in his merry eye like the sparkle of a diamond and to play
+      saucily about his lips&mdash;where the unwrinkled serenity of his brow and
+      the defiantly audacious demeanor of his whole handsome person? He was
+      slowly striding up and down with a gloomy fire in his eye, a deeply-lined
+      brow, and his head sunk on his breast: and yet it was not bowed with
+      sorrow. If so, could he have snapped his fingers in the air as he did just
+      as he passed in front of Balbilla, as much as to say: &ldquo;Come what may!
+      to-day I live and laugh the future in the face!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But this vestige of his old reckless audacity did not last longer than the
+      time it took to part his fingers again, and the next time Verus passed
+      Balbilla he looked, if possible, more gloomy than before. Something very
+      unpleasant must have arisen to spoil the good humor of her friend&rsquo;s
+      husband; and the poetess was sincerely sorry; for, though she herself had
+      daily to suffer under the praetor&rsquo;s impertinence, she always forgave it
+      for the sake of the graceful form in which he knew how to clothe his
+      incivilities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Balbilla longed to see Verus content once more, and she therefore came
+      forth from her hiding place. As soon as he saw her he altered the
+      expression of his features and cried out as brightly as ever:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Welcome, fairest of the fair!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She made believe not to recognize him, but, as she passed him and bowed
+      her curly head, she said gravely and in deep tones:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good day to you, Timon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Timon?&rdquo; he asked, taking her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! is it you, Verus?&rdquo; she answered, as though surprised. &ldquo;I thought the
+      Athenian misanthrope had quitted Hades and come to take the air in this
+      garden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You thought rightly,&rdquo; replied the praetor. &ldquo;But when Orpheus sings the
+      trees dance, the Muse can turn dull, motionless stones into a Bacchante,
+      and when Balbilla appears Timon is at once transformed into the happy
+      Verus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The miracle does not astonish me,&rdquo; laughed the girl. &ldquo;But is it permitted
+      to ask what dark spirit so effectually produced the contrary result, and
+      made a Timon of the fair Lucilla&rsquo;s happy husband?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ought rather to beware of letting you see the monster, or our joyous
+      muse Balbilla might easily become the sinister Hecate. But the malicious
+      sprite is close at hand, for he is hidden in this little roll.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A document from Caesar?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! no, only a letter from a Jew.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly the father of some fair daughter!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wrongly guessed&mdash;as wrong as possible!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You excite my curiosity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mine has already been satisfied by this roll. Horace is wise when he says
+      that man should never trouble himself about the future.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An oracle!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something of the kind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And can that darken this lovely morning to you? Did you ever see me
+      melancholy? Yet my future is threatened by a prophecy&mdash;such a hideous
+      prophecy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fate of men is different to the destiny of women.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you like to hear what was prophesied of me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a question!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen then; the saying I will repeat to you came to me from no less an
+      oracle than the Delphic Pythia:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+    &ldquo;&lsquo;That which thou boldest most precious and dear
+     Shall be torn from thy keeping,
+     And from the heights of Olympus,
+     Down shalt thou fall in the dust.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that all?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay&mdash;two consolatory lines follow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And they are&mdash;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Still the contemplative eye
+     Discerns under mutable sand drifts
+     Stable foundations of stone,
+     Marble and natural rock.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you are inclined to complain of this oracle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it so pleasant to have to wade through dust? We have enough of that
+      intolerable nuisance here in Egypt&mdash;or am I to be delighted at the
+      prospect of hurting my feet on hard stones?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what do the interpreters say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only silly nonsense.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have never found the right one; but I&mdash;I see the meaning of the
+      oracle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, I! The stern Balbilla will at last descend from the lofty Olympus of
+      her high-anti-mightiness and no longer disdain that immutable
+      foundation-rock, the adoration of her faithful Verus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That foundation&mdash;that rock!&rdquo; laughed the girl. &ldquo;I should think it as
+      well advised to try to walk on the surface of the sea out there as on that
+      rock!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only try.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not necessary; Lucilla has made the experiment for me. Your
+      interpretation is wrong; Caesar gave me a far better one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I should give up writing poetry and devote myself to strict
+      scientific studies. He advised me to try astronomy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Astronomy,&rdquo; repeated Verus, growing graver. &ldquo;Farewell, fair one; I must
+      go to Caesar!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were with him yesterday at Lochias. How everything is changed there!
+      The pretty little gate house is gone, there is nothing more to be seen of
+      all the cheerful bustle of builders and artists, and what were gay
+      workshops are turned into dull, commonplace halls. The screens in the hall
+      of the Muses had to go a week ago, and with them the young scatter-brain
+      who set himself against my curls with so much energy that I was on the
+      point of sacrificing them&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Without them you would no longer be Balbilla,&rdquo; cried Verus eagerly. &ldquo;The
+      artist condemns all that is not permanently beautiful, but we are glad to
+      see any thing that is graceful, and can find pleasure in it with the other
+      children of the time. The sculptor may dress his goddesses after the
+      fashion of graver days and the laws of his art, but mortal women&mdash;if
+      he is wise&mdash;after the fashion of the day. However, I am heartily
+      sorry for that clever, genial young fellow. He has offended Caesar and was
+      turned out of the palace, and now he is nowhere to be found.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; cried Balbilla, full of regret, &ldquo;poor man&mdash;and such a fine
+      fellow! And my bust? we must seek him out. If the opportunity offers I
+      will entreat Caesar&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hadrian will hear nothing about him. Pollux has offended him deeply.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From whom do you know that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From Antinous.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We saw him, too, only yesterday,&rdquo; cried Balbilla, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If ever a man was permitted to wear the form of a god among mortals, it
+      is he.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Romantic creature!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know no one who could look upon him with indifference. He is a
+      beautiful dreamer, and the trace of suffering which we observed yesterday
+      in his countenance is probably nothing more than the outward expression of
+      that obscure regret, felt by all that is perfect, for the joy of
+      development and conscious ripening into an incarnation of the ideal in its
+      own kind, of which he is an instance in himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The poetess spoke the last words in a rapt tone, as if the form of a god
+      was then and there before her eyes. Verus had listened to her with a
+      smile, but now he interrupted her, and, holding up a warning finger, he
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poetess, philosopher, and sweetest maiden, beware of descending from your
+      Olympus for the sake of this boy! When imagination and dreaminess meet
+      half-way they make a pair which float in the clouds and never even suspect
+      the existence of that firmer ground of which your oracle speaks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense,&rdquo; said Balbilla crossly. &ldquo;Before we can fall in love with a
+      statue, Prometheus must animate it with a soul and fire from heaven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But often,&rdquo; retorted the praetor, &ldquo;Eros proves to be a substitute for
+      that unhappy friend of the gods.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The true or the sham Eros,&rdquo; asked Balbilla testily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not the sham Eros,&rdquo; replied Verus. &ldquo;On this occasion he merely
+      plays the part of a kindly monitor, taking the place of Pontius, the
+      architect, of whom your worthy matron-companion is so much afraid. During
+      the tumult of the Dionysiac festival you are reported to have carried on
+      as grave a discussion as any two gray-bearded philosophers walking in the
+      Stoa among attentive students.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With intelligent men, no doubt, we talk with intelligence!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, and with stupid ones gayly. How much reason have I to be thankful
+      that I am one of the stupid ones. Farewell, till we meet again, fair
+      Balbilla,&rdquo; and the praetor hurried off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Outside the Caesareum he got into his chariot and set out for Lochias. The
+      charioteer held the reins, while he himself gazed at the roll in his hand
+      which contained the result of the calculations of the astrologer, Rabbi
+      Simeon Ben Jochai; and this was certainly likely enough to disturb the
+      cheerfulness of the most reckless of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When, during the night which preceded the praetor&rsquo;s birthday, the Emperor
+      should study the heavens with special reference to the position of the
+      stars at his birth, he would find that, as far as till the end of the
+      second hour after midnight all the favorable planets promised Verus a
+      happy lot, success and distinction. But, with the commencement of the
+      third hour&mdash;so said Ben Jochai&mdash;misfortune and death would take
+      possession of his house of destiny; in the fourth hour his star would
+      vanish, and anything further that might declare itself in the sky during
+      that night would have nothing more to do with him, or his destiny. The
+      Emperor&rsquo;s star would triumph over his. Verus could make out but little of
+      the signs and calculations in the tables annexed by the Jew, but that
+      little confirmed what was told in the written statement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The praetor&rsquo;s horses carried him swiftly along while he reflected on what
+      remained for him to do under these unfavorable circumstances, in order not
+      to be forced to give up entirely the highest goal of his ambition. If the
+      Rabbi&rsquo;s observations were accurate&mdash;and of this Verus did not for a
+      moment doubt&mdash;all his hopes of adoption were at an end in spite of
+      Sabina&rsquo;s support. How should Hadrian choose for his son and successor a
+      man who was destined to die before him? How could he, Verus, expect that
+      Caesar should ally his fortunate star with the fatal star of another
+      doomed to die?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These reflections did nothing to help him, and yet he could not escape
+      from them, till suddenly his charioteer pulled up the horses abruptly by
+      the side of the footway to make room for a delegation of Egyptian priests
+      who were going in procession to Lochias. The powerful hand with which his
+      servant had promptly controlled the fiery spirit of the animals excited
+      his approbation, and seemed to inspire him to put a clog boldly on the
+      wheels of speeding fate. When they were no longer detained by the Egyptian
+      delegates he desired the charioteer to drive slowly, for he wished to gain
+      time for consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Until the third hour after midnight,&rdquo; said he to himself, &ldquo;all is to go
+      well; it is not till the fourth hour that signs are to appear in the sky
+      which are of evil augury for me. Of course the sheep will play round the
+      dead lion, and the ass will even spurn him with his hoof so long as he is
+      merely sick. In the short space of time between the third and fourth hours
+      all the signs of evil are crowded together. They must be visible; but&rdquo;&mdash;and
+      this &ldquo;but&rdquo; brought sudden illumination to the praetor&rsquo;s mind, &ldquo;why should
+      Caesar see them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The anxious aspirant&rsquo;s heart beat faster, his brain worked more actively,
+      and he desired the driver to make a short circuit, for he wanted to gain
+      yet more time for the ideas that were germinating in his mind to grow and
+      ripen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus was no schemer; he walked in at the front door with a free and
+      careless step, and scorned to climb the backstairs. Only for the greatest
+      object and aim of his life was he prepared to sacrifice his inclinations,
+      his comfort and his pride, and to make unhesitating use of every means at
+      hand. For the sake of that he had already done many things which he
+      regretted, and the man who steals one sheep out of the flock is followed
+      by others without intending it. The first degrading action that a man
+      commits is sure to be followed by a second and a third. What Verus was now
+      projecting he regarded as being a simple act of self-defence; and after
+      all, it consisted merely in detaining Hadrian for an hour, interrupting
+      him in an idle occupation&mdash;the observation of the stars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were two men who might be helpful to him in this matter&mdash;Antinous
+      and the slave Mastor. He first thought of Mastor; but the Sarmatian was
+      faithfully devoted to his master and could not be bribed. And besides!&mdash;No!
+      it really was too far beneath him to make common cause with a slave. But
+      he could count even less on support from Antinous. Sabina hated her
+      husband&rsquo;s favorite, and for her sake Verus had never met the young
+      Bithynian on particularly friendly terms. He fancied, too, that he had
+      observed that the quiet, dreamy lad kept out of his way. It was only by
+      intimidation, probably, that the favorite could be induced to do him a
+      service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At any rate, the first thing to be done was to visit Lochias and there to
+      keep a lookout with his eyes wide open. If the Emperor were in a happy
+      frame of mind he might, perhaps, be induced to appear during the latter
+      part of the night at the banquet which Verus was giving on the eve of his
+      birthday, and at which all that was beautiful to the eye and ear was to be
+      seen and heard; or a thousand favoring and helpful accidents might occur&mdash;and
+      at any rate the Rabbi&rsquo;s forecast furnished him good fortune for the next
+      few years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he dismounted from his chariot in the newly-paved forecourt and was
+      conducted to the Emperor&rsquo;s anteroom he looked as bright and free from care
+      as if the future lay before him sunny and cloudless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian now occupied the restored palace, not as an architect from Rome
+      but as sovereign of the world; he had shown himself to the Alexandrians
+      and had been received with rejoicings and an unheard-of display in his
+      honor. The satisfaction caused by the imperial visit was everywhere
+      conspicuous and often found expression in exaggerated terms; indeed the
+      council had passed a resolution to the effect that the month of December,
+      being that in which the city had had the honor of welcoming the
+      &lsquo;Imperator,&rsquo; should henceforth be called:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hadrianus.&rdquo; The Emperor had to receive one deputation after another and
+      to hold audience after audience, and on the following morning the dramatic
+      representations were to begin, the processions and games which promised to
+      last through many days, or&mdash;as Hadrian himself expressed it&mdash;to
+      rob him of at least a hundred good hours. Notwithstanding, the monarch
+      found time to settle all the affairs of the state, and at night to
+      question the stars as to the fate which awaited him and his dominions
+      during all the seasons of the new year now so close at hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The aspect of the palace at Lochias was entirely changed. In the place of
+      the gay little gate-house stood a large tent of gorgeous purple stuff, in
+      which the Emperor&rsquo;s body-guard was quartered, and opposite to it another
+      was pitched for lictors and messengers. The stables were full of horses.
+      Hadrian&rsquo;s own horse, Borysthenes, which had had too long a rest, pawed and
+      stamped impatiently in a separate stall, and close at hand the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      retrievers, boar-hounds and harriers were housed in hastily-contrived
+      yards and kennels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the wide space of the first court soldiers were encamped, and close
+      under the walls squatted men and women&mdash;Egyptians, Greeks and Hebrews&mdash;who
+      desired to offer petitions to the sovereign. Chariots drove in and out,
+      litters came and went, chamberlains and other officials hurried hither and
+      thither. The anterooms were crowded with men of the upper classes of the
+      citizens who hoped to be granted audience by the Emperor at the proper
+      hour. Slaves, who offered refreshments to those who waited or stood idly
+      looking on, were to be seen in every room, and official persons, with
+      rolls of manuscript under their arms, bustled into the inner rooms or out
+      of the palace to carry into effect the orders of their superior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hall of the Muses had been turned into a grand banqueting-hall.
+      Papias, who was now on his way to Italy by the Emperor&rsquo;s command, had
+      restored the damaged shoulder of the Urania. Couches and divans stood
+      between the statues, and under a canopy at the upper end of the vast room
+      stood a throne on which Hadrian sat when he held audience. On these
+      occasions he always appeared in the purple, but in his writing-room, which
+      he had not changed for another, he laid aside the imperial mantle and was
+      no more splendid in his garb than the architect Claudius Venator had been.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the rooms that had belonged to the deceased Keraunus now dwelt an
+      Egyptian without wife or children&mdash;a stern and prudent man who had
+      done good service as house-steward to the prefect Titianus, and the
+      living-room of the evicted family now looked dreary and uninhabited. The
+      mosaic pavement which had indirectly caused the death of Keraunus, was now
+      on its way to Rome, and the new steward had not thought it worth while to
+      fill up the empty, dusty, broken-up place which had been left in the floor
+      of his room by the removal of the work of art, nor even to cover it over
+      with mats. Not a single cheerful note was audible in the abandoned
+      dwelling but the twitter of the birds which still came morning and evening
+      to perch on the balcony, for Arsinoe and the children had never neglected
+      to strew the parapet with crumbs for them at the end of each meal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All that was gracious, all that was attractive in the old palace had
+      vanished at Sabina&rsquo;s visit, and even Hadrian himself was a different man
+      to what he had been a few days previously. The dignity with which he
+      appeared in public was truly imperial and unapproachable, and even when he
+      sat with his intimates in his favorite room he was grave, gloomy and
+      taciturn. The oracle, the stars, and other signs announced some terrible
+      catastrophe for the coming year with a certainty that he could not evade;
+      and the few careless days that he had been permitted to enjoy at Lochias
+      had ended with unsatisfactory occurrences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His wife, whose bitter nature struck him in all its repellent harshness
+      here in Alexandria&mdash;where everything assumed sharper outlines and
+      more accentuated movement than in Rome&mdash;had demanded of him boldly
+      that he should no longer defer the adoption of the praetor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was anxious and unsatisfied; the infinite void in his heart yawned
+      before him whenever he looked into his soul, and at every glance at the
+      future of his external life a long course of petty trifles started up
+      before him which could not fail to stand in the way of his unwearying
+      impulse to work. Even the vegetative existence of his handsome favorite
+      Antinous, untroubled as it was by the sorrows or the joys of life, had
+      undergone a change. The youth was often moody, restless and sad. Some
+      foreign influences seemed to have affected him, for he was no longer
+      content to hang about his person like a shadow; no, he yearned for
+      liberty, had stolen into the city several times, seeking there the
+      pleasures of his age which formerly he had avoided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nay, a change had even come over his cheerful and willing slave Mastor.
+      Only his hound remained always the same in unaltered fidelity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he himself? He was the same to-day as ten years since: different every
+      day and at every hour of the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0035" id="link2HCH0035">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When Verus entered the palace Hadrian had returned thither but a few
+      minutes previously from the city. The praetor was conducted through the
+      reception-rooms to the private apartments, and here he had not long to
+      wait, for Hadrian wished to speak with him immediately. He found the
+      sovereign so thoroughly out of tune that he could not think of inviting
+      him to his banquet. The Emperor restlessly paced the room while Verus
+      answered his questions as to the latest proceedings of the Senate in Rome,
+      but he several times interrupted his walk and gazed into the adjoining
+      room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as the praetor had concluded his report Argus set up a howl of
+      delight and Antinous came into the room. Verus at once withdrew into the
+      window and pretended to be absorbed in looking out on the harbor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you been?&rdquo; asked the Emperor, disregarding the praetor&rsquo;s
+      presence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Into the city a little way,&rdquo; was the Bithynian&rsquo;s answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you know I cannot bear to miss you when I come home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought you would have been longer absent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the future arrange so that I may be able to find you at whatever time
+      I may seek you. Tell me, you do not like to see me vexed and worried?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, my lord,&rdquo; said the lad and he raised a supplicating hand and looked
+      beseechingly at his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let it pass. But now for something else; how did this little phial
+      come into the hands of the dealer Hiram?&rdquo; As he spoke the Emperor took
+      from his table the little bottle of Vasa Murrhina which the lad had given
+      to Arsinoe and which she had sold to the Phoenician, and held it up before
+      the favorite&rsquo;s eyes. Antinous turned pale, and stammered in great
+      confusion. &ldquo;It is incomprehensible&mdash;I cannot in the least recollect&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I will assist your memory,&rdquo; said the Emperor decidedly. &ldquo;The
+      Phoenician appears to me to be an honester man than that rogue Gabinius.
+      In his collection, which I have just been to see, I found this gem, that
+      Plotina&mdash;do you hear me, boy&mdash;that Trajan&rsquo;s wife Plotina, my
+      heart&rsquo;s friend, never to be forgotten, gave me years ago. It was one of my
+      dearest possessions and yet I thought it not too precious to give to you
+      on your last birthday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, my lord, my dear lord!&rdquo; cried Antinous in a low tone and again
+      lifting his eyes and hands in entreaty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, I ask you,&rdquo; continued Hadrian, gravely, and without allowing himself
+      to yield to the lad&rsquo;s beseeching looks, &ldquo;how could this object have passed
+      into the possession of one of the daughters of the wretched palace-steward
+      Keraunus from whom Hiram confessed that he had bought it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous vainly strove for utterance; Hadrian however came to his aid by
+      asking him more angrily than before:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did the girl steal it from you? Out with the truth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; replied the Bithynian quickly and decidedly. &ldquo;Certainly not. I
+      remember&mdash;wait a minute&mdash;yes, that was it.&mdash;You know it
+      contained excellent balsam, and when the big dog threw down Selene&mdash;the
+      steward&rsquo;s daughter is called Selene&mdash;threw her down the steps so that
+      she lay hurt on the stones I fetched the phial and gave her the balsam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the bottle that held it?&rdquo; asked the Emperor looking at Antinous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my lord&mdash;I had no other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And she kept it and sold it at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know, of course, her father&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A gang of thieves!&rdquo; snarled Hadrian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know what has become of the girl?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes my lord,&rdquo; said Antinous trembling with alarm. &ldquo;I will have her taken
+      by the lictors,&rdquo; asserted the infuriated sovereign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the lad positively. &ldquo;No, you positively must not do that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;? we shall see!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, positively not, for at the same time you must know that Keraunus&rsquo; 
+      daughter Selene&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She flung herself into the water in despair; yes, into the water, at
+      night&mdash;into the sea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said Hadrian more gently, &ldquo;that certainly alters the case. The
+      lictors would find it difficult to apprehend a shade and the girl has
+      suffered the worst punishment of all.&mdash;But you? what shall I say to
+      your perfidy? You knew the value of the gem. You knew how highly I valued
+      it, and could part with it to such hands?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It contained the salve,&rdquo; stammered the boy. &ldquo;How could I think&mdash;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor interrupted the boy, striking his forehead with his hand as he
+      spoke:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, think&mdash;we have known unfortunately too long that thinking is
+      not your strong point. This little bottle has cost me a pretty sum; still,
+      as it once belonged to you I give it back to you again; I only require you
+      to take better care of it this time. I shall ask for it again before long!
+      But in the name of all the gods, boy, what is the matter? Am I so alarming
+      that a simple question from me is enough to drive all the blood out of
+      your cheeks? Really and truly, if I had not had the thing from Plotina I
+      should have left it in the Phoenician&rsquo;s hands and not have made all this
+      coil about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous went quickly up to the Emperor to kiss his hand, but Hadrian
+      pressed his lips to his brow with fatherly affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Simpleton,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;if you want me to be pleased with you, you must be
+      again just what you were before we came to Alexandria. Leave it to others
+      to do things to vex me. You are created by the gods to delight me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      During Hadrian&rsquo;s last words a chamberlain had entered the room to inform
+      the Emperor that the deputation of the Egyptian priesthood had arrived to
+      do homage to him. He immediately assumed the purple mantle and proceeded
+      to the hall of the Muses where, surrounded by his court, he received the
+      high-priests and spiritual fathers of the different temples of the Nile
+      Valley, to be hailed by them as the Son of Sun-god, and to assure them and
+      the religion they cherished his gracious countenance. He vouchsafed his
+      consent to their prayer that he would add sanctity and happiness to the
+      temples of the immortals which they served by gracing them with his
+      presence, but set aside for the moment the question as to which town might
+      be permitted to have the care of the recently-discovered Apis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This audience took up several hours. Verus shirked the duty of attending
+      it with Titianus and the other dignitaries of the court, and remained
+      sitting motionless by the window; it was not till Hadrian was gone from
+      the room that he came forward into it again. He was quite alone, for
+      Antinous had left the room with the Emperor. The praetor&rsquo;s remaining
+      behind had not escaped the lad&rsquo;s notice, but he sought to avoid him, for
+      the domineering, mocking spirit of Verus repelled him. Besides this the
+      terror which he had gone through, as well as the consciousness that he had
+      been guilty of a lie and had daringly deceived his kind master, had upset
+      a soul hitherto untainted by any subterfuge and had thrown him off his
+      balance. He longed to be alone, for it would have been keenly painful to
+      him at this moment to discuss indifferent subjects, or to be forced to
+      affect an easy demeanor. He sat in his little room, before a table, with
+      his face buried in his hands that rested on it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus did not immediately follow him, for he understood what was passing
+      in his mind and knew that here he could not escape him. In a few minutes
+      all was still alike in the large room and in the small one. Then the
+      praetor heard the door between the smaller room and the corridor hastily
+      opened and immediately the Bithynian&rsquo;s exclamation:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At last, Mastor&mdash;have you seen Selene?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With two long, noiseless steps Verus went close to the door leading into
+      the adjoining room, and listened for the slave&rsquo;s answer, though a less
+      sharp ear than that of the praetor might have heard every syllable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How should I have seen her?&rdquo; asked the Sarmatian sharply. &ldquo;She is still
+      suffering and in bed. I gave your flowers to the deformed girl who takes
+      care of her; but I will not do it again, you may rely upon it, not if you
+      coax even more fondly than you did yesterday and promise me all Caesar&rsquo;s
+      treasure into the bargain! And what can you want with that wretched,
+      pale-faced, innocent creature? I am but a poor slave, but I can tell you
+      this&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the Sarmatian broke off abruptly, and Verus rightly guessed that
+      Antinous had remembered his presence in the Emperor&rsquo;s room and had signed
+      to the slave to be silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the listener had learnt enough. The favorite had told his master a
+      lie, and the suicide of the steward&rsquo;s daughter was a pure romance. Who
+      would have believed that the silent, dreamy lad had so much presence of
+      mind, and such cunning powers of invention? The praetor&rsquo;s handsome face
+      was radiant with satisfaction as he made these reflections, for now he had
+      the Bithynian under his thumb, and now he knew how to accomplish all he
+      wished. Antinous himself had indicated the right course when he had
+      hastened to the Emperor with a gush of tenderness, in which the warmth was
+      certainly not affected, to kiss his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The favorite loved his master, and Verus could ground his demands on this
+      love without exposing himself, or having to dread the Emperor&rsquo;s avenging
+      hand in case of betrayal. He knocked at the door of the adjoining room
+      with a firm hand, and then went confidently and composedly up to the
+      Bithyman, told him that he had an important matter to discuss with him,
+      begged him to return with him into the Emperor&rsquo;s room and then said, as
+      soon as they were alone together:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am so unfortunate as not to be able to number you among my particular
+      friends; but one strong sentiment we have in common. We both love Caesar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I love him, certainly,&rdquo; replied the lad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well then, you must have it at heart to spare him all great sorrow, and
+      to prevent grave apprehensions from paralyzing the pinions of his free and
+      noble soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knew I should find a colleague in you. See this roll. It contains the
+      calculations and diagrams of the greatest astrologer of our time, and from
+      these it is to be discovered that this night, from the end of the second
+      hour of the morning till the beginning of the fourth, the stars will
+      announce fearful disasters to our Sovereign. Do you understand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! perfectly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After that the indications of evil disappear. Now if we could only
+      succeed in preventing Hadrian observing the heavens merely during the
+      third hour after midnight we should preserve him from trouble and anxiety,
+      which will torment and spoil his life. Who knows whether the stars may not
+      be? But even if they tell the truth, misfortune, when it does come, always
+      comes much too soon. Do you agree with me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your suggestion sounds a very sensible one&mdash;still I think&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is both sensible and wise,&rdquo; said the praetor, shortly and decidedly,
+      interrupting the boy. &ldquo;And it must be your part to hinder Hadrian from
+      marking the course of the stars from the end of the second to the
+      beginning of the fourth hour after midnight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My part?&rdquo; cried Antinous, startled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yours&mdash;for you are the only person who can accomplish it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I?&rdquo; repeated the Bithynian, greatly perturbed. &ldquo;I&mdash;disturb Caesar in
+      his observations!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is your duty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he never allows any one to disturb him at his studies, and if I were
+      to attempt it he would be very angry and send me off in no time. No, no,
+      what you ask is impossible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not only possible but imperatively necessary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That it certainly cannot be,&rdquo; replied Antinous, clasping his forehead in
+      his hand. &ldquo;Only listen! Hadrian has known for several days past that some
+      great misfortune threatens him. I heard it from his own lips. If you know
+      him at all you must know that he gazes at the stars not merely to rejoice
+      in future happiness, but also to fortify himself against the disasters
+      which threaten him or the state. What would crush a weaker man only serves
+      to arm his bold spirit. He can bear all that may befall, and it would be a
+      crime to deceive him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To cloud his heart and mind would be a greater,&rdquo; retorted Verus. &ldquo;Devise
+      some means of taking him away from his star-gazing for only an hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare not, and even if I wished it, it could not be done. Do you suppose
+      he follows me whenever I call?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you know him; invent something which will be sure to make him come
+      down from his watchtower.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot invent or think of any thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing?&rdquo; asked Verus, going close tip to the Bithynian. &ldquo;You just now
+      gave striking proof to the contrary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous turned pale and the praetor went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When you wanted to rescue the fair Selene from the lictors your swift
+      invention threw her into the sea!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She did throw herself in, as truly as that the gods&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay, stay,&rdquo; cried the praetor. &ldquo;No perjury, at least! Selene is living,
+      you send her flowers, and if I should think proper to conduct Hadrian to
+      the house of Paulina&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; cried Antinous lamentably enough, and grasping the Roman&rsquo;s hand.
+      &ldquo;You will not&mdash;you can not. Oh Verus! you will not do that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Simpleton,&rdquo; laughed the praetor, slapping the alarmed youth lightly on
+      the shoulder. &ldquo;What good could it do me to ruin you? I have only one thing
+      at heart just now, and that is to save Caesar from care and anxiety. Keep
+      him occupied only during the third hour after midnight and you may count
+      on my friendship; but if out of fear or ill-will you refuse me your
+      assistance you do not deserve your sovereign&rsquo;s favor and then you will
+      compel me&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No more, no more!&rdquo; cried Antinous interrupting his tormentor in despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you promise me to carry out my wish?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, by Hercules! Yes, what you require shall be done. But eternal gods!
+      how am I to get Caesar&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That, my young friend, I leave with perfect confidence to you and your
+      shrewdness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not shrewd&mdash;I can devise nothing,&rdquo; groaned the lad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What you could do out of terror of your master you can do still better
+      for love of him,&rdquo; retorted the praetor. &ldquo;The problem is an easy one; and
+      if after all you should not succeed I shall feel it no less than my duty
+      to explain to Hadrian how well Antinous can take care of his own interests
+      and how badly of his master&rsquo;s peace of mind. Till to-morrow, my handsome
+      friend&mdash;and if for the future you have flowers to send, my slaves are
+      quite at your service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words the praetor left the room, but Antinous stood like one
+      crushed, pressing his brow against the cold porphyry pillar by the window.
+      What Verus required of him did not seem to have any harm in it, and yet it
+      was not right. It was treason to his noble master, whom he loved with
+      tender devotion as a father, a wise, kind friend, and preceptor, and whom
+      he reverenced and feared as though he were a god. To plot to hide
+      impending trouble from him, as if he were not a man but a feeble weakling,
+      was absurd and contemptible, and must introduce an error of unknown
+      importance and extent into his sovereign&rsquo;s far-seeing predeterminations.
+      Many other reasons against the praetor&rsquo;s demands crowded on him, and as
+      each occurred to his mind he cursed his tardy spirit which never let him
+      see or think the right thing till it was too late. His first deceit had
+      already involved him in a second.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He hated himself; he hit his forehead with his fists and sobbed aloud
+      bitterly again and again, though he shed no tears. Still, in the midst of
+      his self-accusation, the flattering voice made itself heard in his soul:
+      &ldquo;It is only to preserve your master from sorrow, and it is nothing wrong
+      that you are asked to do.&rdquo; And each time that his inward ear heard these
+      words he began to puzzle his brain to discover in what way it might be
+      possible for him to tempt the Emperor, at the hour named, down from his
+      watch-tower in the palace. But he could hit on no practicable plan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It cannot be done, no&mdash;it cannot be done!&rdquo; he muttered to himself
+      and then he asked himself if it were not even his duty to defy the praetor
+      and to confess to Hadrian that he had deceived him in the morning. If only
+      it had not been for the little bottle! Could he ever confess that he had
+      heedlessly parted with this gift of all others from his master? No, it was
+      too hard, it might cost him his sovereign&rsquo;s affection for ever. And if he
+      contented himself with a half-truth and confessed, merely to anticipate
+      the praetor&rsquo;s accusation, that Selene was still living, then he would
+      involve the daughters of the hapless Keraunus in persecution and disgrace
+      Selene whom he loved with all the devotion of a first passion, which was
+      enhanced and increased by the hindrances that had come in its way. It was
+      impossible to confess his guilt-quite impossible. The longer he thought,
+      tormenting himself to find some way out of it all, the more confused he
+      became, and the more impotent his efforts at resistance. The praetor had
+      entangled him with thongs and meshes, and at every struggle to escape they
+      only seemed knotted more closely round him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His head began to ache sadly; and what an endless time Caesar was absent!
+      He dreaded his return, and yet he longed for it. When at last Hadrian came
+      in and signed to Master to relieve him of his imperial robes, Antinous
+      slipped behind him, and silently and carefully fulfilled the slave&rsquo;s
+      office. He felt uneasy and worried, and yet he forced himself to appear in
+      good spirits during supper when he had to sit opposite the Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When, shortly before midnight, Hadrian rose from the table to go up to the
+      watch-tower on the northern side of the palace, Antinous begged to be
+      allowed to carry his instruments for him, and the Emperor, stroking his
+      hair, said kindly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are my dear and faithful companion. Youth has a right to go astray
+      now and then so long as it does not entirely forget the path in which it
+      ought to tread.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous was deeply touched by these words, and he secretly pressed to his
+      lips a fold of the Emperor&rsquo;s toga as he walked in front. It was as though
+      he wanted to make amends in advance for the crime he had not yet
+      committed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wrapped in his cloak he kept the Emperor silent company during his
+      studies, till the close of the first hour after midnight. The sharp, north
+      wind which blew through the darkness did his aching head good, and still
+      he racked his wits for some pretext to attract Hadrian from his labors,
+      but in vain. His tormented brain was like a dried-up well; bucket after
+      bucket did he send down, but not one brought up the refreshing draught he
+      needed. Nothing&mdash;nothing could he think of that could conduce to his
+      end. Once he plucked up courage and said imploringly as he went close up
+      to the Emperor: &ldquo;Go down earlier to-night my lord; you really do not allow
+      yourself enough rest and will injure your health.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian let him speak, and answered kindly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I sleep in the morning. If you are tired, go to bed now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Antinous remained, gazing, like his master, at the stars. He knew very
+      few of the brilliant bodies by their names, but some of them were very
+      dear to him, particularly the Pleiades which his father had pointed out to
+      him and which reminded him of his home. There he had been so quiet and
+      happy, and how wildly his anxious heart was throbbing now!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to bed, the second hour is beginning,&rdquo; said Hadrian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Already!&rdquo; said the boy; and as he reflected how soon that must be done
+      which Verus had required of him, and then looked up again at the heavens,
+      it seemed to him as though all the stars in the blue vault over his head
+      had glided from their places and were dancing in wild and whirling
+      confusion between the sky and the sea. He closed his eyes in his
+      bewilderment; then, bidding his master good-night he lighted a torch and
+      by its flaring and doubtful light descended from the tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pontius had erected this slight structure expressly for Hadrian&rsquo;s nightly
+      observations. It was built of timber and Nile-mud and stood up as a tall
+      turret on the secure foundation of an ancient watch-tower built of hewn
+      stone, which, standing among the low buildings that served as storehouses
+      for the palace, commanded a free outlook over all the quarters of the sky.
+      Hadrian, who liked to be alone and undisturbed when observing the heavens,
+      had preferred this erection&mdash;even after he had made himself known to
+      the Alexandrians&mdash;to the great observatory of the Serapeum, from
+      which a still broader horizon was visible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After Antinous had got out of the smaller and newer tower into the larger
+      and older one he sat down on one of the lowest steps to collect his
+      thoughts and to quiet his loudly-beating heart. His vain cogitations began
+      all over again. Time slipped on-between the present moment and the deed to
+      be done there were but a certain number of minutes. He told himself so,
+      and his weary brain stirred more actively, suggesting to him to feign
+      illness and bring the Emperor to his bedside. But Hadrian was physician
+      enough to see that he was well, and even if he should allow himself to be
+      deceived, he, Antinous, was a deceiver. This thought filled him with
+      horror of himself and with dread for the future, and yet it was the only
+      plan that gave any hope of success. And even when he sprang to his feet
+      and walked hastily up and down among the out-houses he could hit upon no
+      other scheme. And how fast the minutes flew! The third hour after midnight
+      must be quite close at hand, and he had scarcely left himself time to rush
+      back into the palace, throw himself on his couch, and call Mastor. Quite
+      bewildered with agitation and tottering like a drunken man he hastened
+      back into the old tower where he had left his torch leaning against the
+      wall and looked up the stone stairs; it suddenly flashed through his mind
+      that he might go up again to fling himself down them. What did he care for
+      his miserable life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His fall, his cry, would bring the Emperor down from his observatory and
+      he knew that he would not leave his bleeding favorite uncared for and
+      untended he could count upon that. And if then Hadrian watched by his bed
+      it would be that, perhaps, of a dying man, but not of a deceiver. Fully
+      determined on extreme measures, he tightened the girdle which held his
+      chiton above his hips and once more went out into the night to judge by
+      the stars what hour it was. He saw the slender sickle of the waning
+      moon-the same moon which at the full had been mirrored in the sea when he
+      had gone into the water to save Selene. The image of the pale girl rose
+      before him, tangibly distinct. He felt as if he held her once more in his
+      arms&mdash;saw her once more lying on her bed-could once more press his
+      lips to her cold brow. Then the vision vanished; instead he was possessed
+      by a wild desire to see her, and he said to himself that he could not die
+      without having seen her once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked about him in indecision. Before him lay one of the largest of
+      the storehouses that surrounded the tower. With his torch in one hand he
+      went in at the open door. In the large shed lay the chests and cases, the
+      hemp, linseed, straw and matting that had been used in packing the vessels
+      and works of art with which the palace had been newly furnished. This he
+      knew; and now, looking up at the stars once more and seeing that the
+      second hour after midnight had almost run to an end, a fearful thought
+      flashed through his mind, and without daring to consider, he flung the
+      torch into the open shed, crammed to the roof with inflammable materials,
+      and stood motionless, with his arms crossed, to watch through the door of
+      the shed the rapidly spreading flame, the soaring smoke, the struggle and
+      mingling of the noiseless wreaths of black vapor from the various
+      combustibles with the ruddy light, the victory of the fire and the leaping
+      flames as they flew upward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The roof, thatched with palm-leaves and reeds, had begun to crackle when
+      Antinous rushed into the tower only a few paces off crying: &ldquo;Fire&mdash;fire!&rdquo;
+       and up the stairs which led to the observatory of the imperial stargazer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0036" id="link2HCH0036">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The entertainment which Verus was giving on the eve of his birthday seemed
+      to be far from drawing to an end, even at the beginning of the third hour
+      of the morning. Besides the illustrious and learned Romans who had
+      accompanied the Emperor to Alexandria, the most famous and distinguished
+      Alexandrians had also been invited by the praetor. The splendid banquet
+      had long been ended, but jar after jar of mixed wine was still being
+      filled and emptied. Verus himself had been unanimously chosen as the king
+      and leader of the feast. Crowned with a rich garland, he reclined on a
+      couch strewn with rose-leaves, an invention of his own, and formed of four
+      cushions piled one on another. A curtain of transparent gauze screened him
+      from flies and gnats, and a tightly-woven mat of lilies and other flowers
+      covered his feet and exhaled sweet odors for him and for the pretty singer
+      who sat by his side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pretty boys dressed as little cupids watched every sign of the &lsquo;sham
+      Eros.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How indolently he lay on the deep, soft cushions! And yet his eyes were
+      every where, and though he had not failed to give due consideration to the
+      preparations for his feast, he devoted all the powers of his mind to the
+      present management of it. As at the entertainments which Hadrian was
+      accustomed to give in Rome, first of all short selections from new essays
+      or poems were recited by their authors, then a gay comedy was performed;
+      then Glycera, the most famous singer in the city, had sung a dithyramb to
+      her harp, in a voice as sweet as a bell, and Alexander, a skilled
+      performer on the trigonon, had executed a piece. Finally a troop of female
+      dancers had rushed into the room and swayed and balanced themselves to the
+      music of the double-flute and tambourine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each fresh amusement had been more loudly applauded than the last. With
+      every jar of wine a new torrent of merriment went up through the opening
+      in the roof, by which the scent of the flowers and of the perfume burnt on
+      beautiful little altars found an exit into the open air. The wine offered
+      in libations to the gods already lay in broad pools upon the hard pavement
+      of the hall, the music and singing were drowned in shouts the feast had
+      become an orgy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus was inciting the more quiet or slothful of his guests to a freer
+      enjoyment and encouraging the noisiest in their extravagant recklessness
+      to still more unbridled license. At the same time he bowed to each one who
+      drank to his health, entertained the singer who sat by his side, flung a
+      sparkling jest into one and another silent group, and proved to the
+      learned men who reclined on their couches near to his that whenever it was
+      possible he took an interest in their discussions. Alexandria, the focus
+      of all the learning of the East and the West, had seen other festivals
+      than this riotous banquet. Indeed, even here a vein of grave and wise
+      discourse flavored the meal of the circle that belonged to the Museum; but
+      the senseless revelry of Rome had found its way into the houses of the
+      rich, and even the noblest achievements of the human mind had been made,
+      unawares, subservient to mere enjoyment. A man was a philosopher only that
+      he might be prompt to discuss and always ready to take his share in the
+      talk; and at a banquet a well-told anecdote was more heartily welcome than
+      some profound idea that gave rise to a reflection or provoked a subtle
+      discussion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What a noise, what a clatter was storming in the hall by the second hour
+      after midnight! How the lungs of the feasters were choked with
+      overpowering perfumes! What repulsive exhibitions met the eye! How
+      shamelessly was all decency trodden under foot! The poisonous breath of
+      unchecked license had blasted the noble moderation of the vapor of wine
+      which floated round this chaos of riotous topers slowly rose the pale
+      image of Satiety watching for victims on the morrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The circle of couches on which lay Florus, Favorinus and their Alexandrian
+      friends stood like an island in the midst of the surging sea of the orgy.
+      Even here the cup had been bravely passed round, and Florus was beginning
+      to speak somewhat indistinctly, but conversation had hitherto had the
+      upper hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two days before, the Emperor had visited the Museum and had carried on
+      learned discussions with the most prominent of the sages and professors
+      there, in the presence of their assembled disciples. At last a formal
+      disputation had arisen, and the dialectic keenness and precision with
+      which Hadrian, in the purest Attic Greek, had succeeded in driving his
+      opponents into a corner had excited the greatest admiration. The Sovereign
+      had quitted the famous institution with a promise to reopen the contest at
+      an early date. The philosophers, Pancrates and Dionysius and Apollonius,
+      who took no wine at all, were giving a detailed account of the different
+      phases of this remarkable disputation and praising the admirable memory
+      and the ready tongue of the great monarch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you did not even see him at his best,&rdquo; exclaimed Favorinus, the Gaul,
+      the sophist and rhetorician. &ldquo;He has received an unfavorable oracle and
+      the stars seem to confirm the prophecy. This puts him out of tune. Between
+      ourselves let me tell you I know a few who are his superiors in dialectic,
+      but in his happiest moments he is irresistible-irresistible. Since we made
+      up our quarrel he is like a brother to me. I will defend him against all
+      comers, for, as I say, Hadrian is my brother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Gaul had poured out this speech in a defiant tone and with flashing
+      eyes. He grew pale in his cups, touchy, boastful and very talkative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt you are right,&rdquo; replied Apollonius, &ldquo;but it seemed to us that he
+      was bitter in discussion. His eyes are gloomy rather than gay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is my brother,&rdquo; repeated Favorinus, &ldquo;and as for his eyes, I have seen
+      them flash&mdash;by Hercules! like the radiant sun, or merry twinkling
+      stars! And his mouth! I know him well! He is my brother, and I will wager
+      that while he condescended&mdash;it is too comical&mdash;condescended to
+      dispute with you&mdash;with you, there was a sly smile at each corner of
+      his mouth&mdash;so&mdash;look now&mdash;like this he smiled.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I repeat, he seemed to us gloomy rather than gay,&rdquo; retorted Apollonius,
+      with annoyance; and Pancrates added:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he does really know how to jest he certainly did not prove it to us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not out of ill-will,&rdquo; laughed the Gaul, &ldquo;you do not know him, but I&mdash;I
+      am his friend and may follow wherever&mdash;he goes. Now only wait and I
+      will tell you a few stories about him. If I chose I could describe his
+      whole soul to you as if it lay there on the surface of the wine in my cup.
+      Once in Rome he went to inspect the newly-decorated baths of Agrippa, and
+      in the undressing-room he saw an old man, a veteran who had fought with
+      him somewhere or other. My memory is greatly admired, but his is in no
+      respect inferior. Scaurus was the old man&rsquo;s name&mdash;yes&mdash;yes,
+      Scaurus. He did not observe Caesar at first, for after his bath his wounds
+      were burning and he was rubbing his back against the rough stone of a
+      pillar. Hadrian however called to him: &lsquo;Why are you scratching yourself,
+      my friend?&rsquo; and Scaurus, not at once recognizing Caesar&rsquo;s voice, answered
+      without turning round: &lsquo;Because I have no slave to do it for me.&rsquo; You
+      should have heard Caesar laugh! Liberal as he is sometimes&mdash;I say
+      sometimes&mdash;he gave Scaurus a handsome sum of money and two sturdy
+      slaves. The story soon got abroad, and when Caesar, who&mdash;as you
+      believe&mdash;cannot jest, a short time after again visited the bath, two
+      old soldiers at once placed themselves in his way, scrubbed their backs
+      against the wall like Scaurus, and called out to him &lsquo;Great Caesar, we
+      have no slaves.&rsquo;&mdash;&lsquo;Then scratch each other,&rsquo; cried he, and left the
+      soldiers to rub themselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Capital!&rdquo; laughed Dionysius. &ldquo;Now one more true story,&rdquo; interrupted the
+      loquacious Gaul. &ldquo;Once upon a time a man with white hair begged of him.
+      The wretch was a low fellow, a parasite who wandered round from one man&rsquo;s
+      table to another, feeding himself out of other folks&rsquo; wallets and dishes.
+      Caesar knew his man and warned him off. Then the creature had his hair
+      dyed that he might not be recognized, and tried his luck a second time
+      with the Emperor. But Hadrian has good eyes; he pointed to the door,
+      saying, with the gravest face: &lsquo;I have just lately refused to give your
+      father anything.&rsquo; And a hundred such jokes pass from mouth to mouth in
+      Rome, and if you like I can give you a dozen of the best.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell us, go on, out with your stories. They are all old friends!&rdquo;
+       stammered Florus. &ldquo;But while Favorinus chatters we can drink.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Gaul cast a contemptuous glance at the Roman, and answered promptly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My stories are too good for a drunken man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florus paused to think of an answer, but before he could find one, the
+      praetor&rsquo;s body-slave rushed into the hall crying out: &ldquo;The palace at
+      Lochias is on fire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus kicked the mat of lilies off his feet on to the floor, tore down the
+      net that screened him in, and shouted to the breathless runner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My chariot-quick, my chariot! To our next merry meeting another evening
+      my friends, with many thanks for the honor you have done me. I must be off
+      to Lochias.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus flew out of the hall, without throwing on his cloak and hot as he
+      was, into the cold night, and at the same time most of his guests had
+      started up to hurry into the open air, to see the fire and to hear the
+      latest news; but only very few went to the scene of the conflagration to
+      help the citizens to extinguish it, and many heavily intoxicated drinkers
+      remained lying on the couches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Favorinus and the Alexandrians raised themselves on their pillows
+      Florus cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No god shall make me stir from this place, not if the whole house is
+      burnt down and Alexandria and Rome, and for aught I care every nest and
+      nook on the face of the earth. It may all burn together. The Roman Empire
+      can never be greater or more splendid than under Caesar! It may burn down
+      like a heap of straw, it is all the same to me&mdash;I shall lie here and
+      drink.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The turmoil and confusion on the scene of the interrupted feast seemed
+      inextricable, while Verus hurried off to Sabina to inform her of what had
+      occurred. But Balbilla had been the first to discover the fire and quite
+      at the beginning, for after sitting industriously at her studies, and
+      before going to bed, she had looked out toward the sea. She had instantly
+      run out, cried &ldquo;Fire!&rdquo; and was now seeking for a chamberlain to awake
+      Sabina.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole of Lochias flared and shone in a purple and golden glow. It
+      formed the nucleus of a wide spreading radiance of tender red of which the
+      extent and intensity alternately grew and diminished. Verus met the
+      poetess at the door that led from the garden into the Empress&rsquo; apartments.
+      He omitted on this occasion to offer his customary greeting, but hastily
+      asked her:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has Sabina been told?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think not yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then have her called. Greet her from me&mdash;I must go to Lochias&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will follow you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, stay here; you will be in the way there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not take much room and I shall go. What a magnificent spectacle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eternal gods! the flames are breaking out too below the palace, by the
+      King&rsquo;s harbor. Where can the chariots be?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take me with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No you must wake the Empress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Lucilla?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You women must stay where you are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For my part I certainly will not. Caesar will be in no danger?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hardly&mdash;the old stones cannot burn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only look! how splendid! the sky is one crimson tent. I entreat you,
+      Verus, let me go with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, pretty one. Men are wanted down there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How unkind you are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At last! here are the chariots! You women stay here; do you understand
+      me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not take any orders; I shall go to Lochias.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To see Antinous in the flames! such a sight is not to be seen every day,
+      to be sure!&rdquo; cried Verus, ironically, as he sprang into his chariot, and
+      took the reins into his own hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Balbilla stamped with rage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She went to Sabina&rsquo;s rooms fully resolved to go to the scene of the fire.
+      The Empress would not let herself be seen by any one, not even by
+      Balbilla, till she was completely dressed. A waiting-woman told Balbilla
+      that Sabina would get up certainly, but that for the sake of her health
+      she could not venture out in the night-air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The poetess then sought Lucilla and begged her to accompany her to
+      Lochias; she was perfectly willing and ready, but when she heard that her
+      husband had wished that the women should remain at the Caesareum she
+      declared that she owed him obedience and tried to keep back her friend.
+      But the perverse curly-haired girl was fully determined, precisely because
+      Verus had forbidden her&mdash;and forbidden her with mocking words, to
+      carry out her purpose. After a short altercation with Lucilla she left
+      her, sought her companion Claudia, told her what she intended doing,
+      dismissed that lady&rsquo;s remonstrance with a very positive command, gave
+      orders herself to the house-steward to have horses put to a chariot and
+      reached the imperilled palace an hour and a half after Verus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An endless, many-headed crowd of people besieged the narrow end of Lochias
+      on the landward side and the harbor wharves below, where some stores and
+      shipyards were in flames. Boats innumerable were crowded round the little
+      peninsula. An attempt was being made, with much shouting, and by the
+      combined exertions of an immense number of men, to get the larger ships
+      afloat which lay at anchor close to the quay of the King&rsquo;s harbor and to
+      place them in security. Every thing far and wide was lighted up as
+      brightly as by day, but with a ruddier and more restless light. The
+      north-east breeze fanned the fire, aggravating the labors of the men who
+      were endeavoring to extinguish it and snatching flakes of flame off every
+      burning mass. Each blazing storehouse was a gigantic torch throwing a
+      broad glare into the darkness of the night. The white marble of the
+      tallest beacon tower in the world, on the island of Pharos, reflected a
+      rosy hue, but its far gleaming light shone pale and colorless. The dark
+      hulls of the larger ships and the flotilla of boats in the background were
+      afloat in a fiery sea, and the still water under the shore mirrored the
+      illumination in which the whole of Lochias was wrapped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Balbilla could not tire of admiring this varying scene, in which the most
+      gorgeous hues vied with each other and the intensest light contrasted with
+      the deepest shadows. And she had ample time to dwell on the marvellous
+      picture before her eyes, for her chariot could only proceed slowly, and at
+      a point where the street led up from the King&rsquo;s harbor to the palace,
+      lictors stood in her way and declared positively that any farther advance
+      was out of the question. The horses, much scared by the glare of the fire
+      and the crowd that pressed round them, could hardly be controlled, first
+      rearing and then kicking at the front board of the chariot. The charioteer
+      declared he could no longer be answerable. The people who had hurried to
+      the rescue now began to abuse the women, who ought to have staid at home
+      at the loom rather than come stopping the way for useful citizens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is time enough to go out driving by daylight!&rdquo; cried one man; and
+      another: &ldquo;If a spark falls in those curls another conflagration will break
+      out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The position of the ladies was becoming every instant more unendurable and
+      Balbilla desired the charioteer to turn round; but in the swarming mass of
+      men that filled the street this was easier said than done. One of the
+      horses broke the strap which fastened the yoke that rested on his withers
+      to the pole, started aside and forced back the crowd which now began to
+      scold and scream loudly. Balbilla wanted to spring out of the chariot, but
+      Claudia clung tightly to her and conjured her not to leave her in the
+      lurch in the midst of the danger. The spoilt patrician&rsquo;s daughter was not
+      timid, but on this occasion she would have given much not to have followed
+      Verus. At first she thought, &ldquo;A delightful adventure! still, it will not
+      be perfect till it is over.&rdquo; But presently her bold experiment lost every
+      trace of charm, and repentance that she had ever undertaken it filled her
+      mind. She was far nearer weeping than laughing already, when a man&rsquo;s deep
+      voice said behind her, in tones of commanding decision:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Make way there for the pumps; push aside whatever stops the way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These terrible words reduced Claudia to sinking on to her knees, but
+      Balbilla&rsquo;s quelled courage found fresh wings as she heard them, for she
+      had recognized the voice of Pontius. Now he was close behind the chariot,
+      high on a horse. He then was the man on horseback whom she had seen
+      dashing from the sea-shore up to the higher storehouses that were burning,
+      down to the lake, and hither and thither.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned full upon him and called him by his name. He recognized her,
+      tried to pull up his horse as it was dashing forward, and smilingly shook
+      his head at her, as much as to say: &ldquo;She is a giddy creature and deserves
+      a good scolding; but who could be angry with her?&rdquo; And then he gave his
+      orders to his subordinates just as if she had been a mere chattel, a bale
+      of goods or something of the kind, and not an heiress of distinction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take out the horses,&rdquo; he cried to the municipal guards; &ldquo;we can use them
+      for carrying water.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Help the ladies out of the chariot.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Take
+      them between you Nonnus and Lucanus.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Now, stow the chariot in
+      there among the bushes.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Make way there in front, make way for our
+      pumps.&rdquo; And each of these orders was obeyed as promptly as if it was the
+      word of command given by a general to his well-drilled soldiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the pumps had been fairly started Pontius rode close up to Balbilla
+      and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Caesar is safe and sound. You no doubt wished to see the progress of the
+      fire from a spot near it, and in fact the colors down there are
+      magnificent. I have not time to escort you back to the Caesareum; but
+      follow me. You will be safe in the harbor-guard&rsquo;s stone house, and from
+      the roof you can command a view of Lochias and the whole peninsula. You
+      will have a rare feast for the eye, noble Balbilla; but I beg you not to
+      forget at the same time how many days of honest labor, what rich
+      possessions, how many treasures earned by bitter hardship are being
+      destroyed at this moment. What may delight you will cost bitter tears to
+      many others, and so let us both hope that this splendid spectacle may now
+      have reached its climax, and soon may come to an end.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope so&mdash;I hope it with all my heart!&rdquo; cried the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was sure you would. As soon as possible I will come to look after you.
+      You Nonnus and Lucanus, conduct these noble ladies to the harbor-guard&rsquo;s
+      house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell him they are intimate friends of the Empress. Only keep the pumps
+      going! Till we meet again Balbilla!&rdquo; and with these words the architect
+      gave his horse the bridle and made his way through the crowd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A quarter of an hour later Balbilla was standing on the roof of the little
+      stone guard-house. Claudia was utterly exhausted and incapable of speech.
+      She sat in the dark little parlor below on a rough-hewn wooden bench. But
+      the young Roman now gazed at the fire with different eyes than before.
+      Pontius had made her feel a foe to the flames which only a short time
+      before had filled her with delight as they soared up to the sky, wild and
+      fierce. They still flared up violently, as though they had to climb above
+      the roof; but soon they seemed to be quelled and exhausted, to find it
+      more and more difficult to rise above the black smoke which welled up from
+      the burning mass. Balbilla had looked out for the architect and had soon
+      discovered him, for the man on horseback towered above the crowd. He
+      halted now by one and now by another burning storehouse. Once she lost
+      sight of him for a whole hour, for he had gone to Lochias. Then again he
+      reappeared, and wherever he stayed for a while, the raging element abated
+      its fury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without her having perceived it, the wind had changed and the air had
+      become still and much warmer. This circumstance favored the efforts of the
+      citizens trying to extinguish the fire, but Balbilla ascribed it to the
+      foresight of her clever friend when the flames subsided in souse places
+      and in others were altogether extinguished. Once she saw that he had a
+      building completely torn down which divided a burning granary from some
+      other storehouses that had been spared, and she understood the object of
+      this order; it cut off the progress of the flames. Another time she saw
+      him high on the top of a rise in the ground. Close before him in a sheet
+      of flame was a magazine in which were kept tow and casks of resin and
+      pitch. He turned his face full towards it and gave his orders, now on this
+      side, now on that. His figure and that of his horse, which reared uneasily
+      beneath him, were flooded in a crimson glow&mdash;a splendid picture! She
+      trembled for him, she gazed in admiration at this calm, resolute,
+      energetic man, and when a blazing beam fell close in front of him and
+      after his frightened horse had danced round and round with him, he forced
+      it to submit to his guidance, the praetor&rsquo;s insinuation recurred to her
+      mind, that she clung to her determination to go to Lochias because she
+      hoped to enjoy the spectacle of Antinous in the flames. Here, before her,
+      was a nobler display, and yet her lively imagination which often,
+      sometimes indeed against her will, gave shape to her formless thoughts&mdash;called
+      up the image of the beautiful youth surrounded by the glowing glory which
+      still painted the horizon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hour after hour slipped by; the efforts of the thousands who endeavored to
+      extinguish the blaze were crowned by increasing success; one burning mass
+      after another was quenched, if not extinguished, and instead of flames
+      smoke, mingled with sparks, rose from Lochias blacker and blacker-and
+      still Pontius came not to look after her. She could not see any stars for
+      the sky was overcast with clouds, but the beginning of a new day could not
+      be far distant. She was shivering with cold, and her friend&rsquo;s long absence
+      began to annoy her. When, presently, it began to rain in large drops, she
+      went down the ladder that led from the roof and sat down by the fire in
+      the little room where her companion had gone fast asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had been sitting quite half an hour and gazing dreamily into the
+      warming glow, when she heard the sound of hoofs and Pontius appeared. His
+      face was begrimed, and his voice hoarse with shouting commands for hours.
+      As soon as she saw him Balbilla forgot her vexation, greeted him warmly,
+      and told him how she had watched his every movement; but the eager girl,
+      so readily fired to enthusiasm, could only with the greatest difficulty
+      bring out a few words to express the admiration that his mode of
+      proceeding had so deeply excited in her mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She heard him say that his mouth was quite parched and his throat was
+      longing for a draught of some drink, and she&mdash;who usually had every
+      pin she needed handed to her by a slave, and on whom fate had bestowed no
+      living creature whom she could find a pleasure in serving&mdash;she, with
+      her own hand dipped a cup of water out of the large clay jar that stood in
+      a corner of the room and offered it to him with a request that he would
+      drink it. He eagerly swallowed the refreshing fluid, and when the little
+      cup was empty Balbilla took it from his hand, refilled it, and gave it him
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claudia, who woke up when the architect came in, looked on at her
+      foster-child&rsquo;s unheard-of proceedings with astonishment, shaking her head.
+      When Pontius had drained the third cupful that Balbilla fetched for him he
+      exclaimed, drawing a deep breath:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was a drink&mdash;I never tasted a better in the whole course of my
+      life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muddy water out of a nasty earthen pitcher!&rdquo; answered the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And it tasted better than wine from Byblos out of a golden goblet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You had honestly earned the refreshment, and thirst gives flavor to the
+      humblest liquor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget the hand that gave it me,&rdquo; replied the architect warmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Balbilla colored and looked at the floor in confusion, but presently
+      raised her face and said, as gayly and carelessly as ever:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So that you have been deliciously refreshed; and now that is done you
+      will go home and the poor thirsty soul will once more become the great
+      architect. But before that happens, pray inform us what god it was that
+      brought you hither from Pelusium in the very nick of time when the fire
+      broke out, and how matters look now in the palace at Lochias?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My time is short,&rdquo; replied Pontius, and he then rapidly told her that,
+      after he had finished his work at Pelusium, he had returned to Alexandria
+      with the imperial post. As he got out of the chariot at the post-house he
+      observed the reflection of fire over the sea and was immediately after
+      told by a slave that it was the palace that was burning. There were horses
+      in plenty at the post-house; he had chosen a strong one and had got to the
+      spot before the crowd had collected. How the fire had originated, so far
+      remained undiscovered. &ldquo;Caesar,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;was in the act of observing the
+      heavens when a flame broke out in a store-shed close to the tower.
+      Antinous was the first to detect it, cried &lsquo;Fire,&rsquo; and warned his master.
+      I found Hadrian in the greatest agitation; he charged me to superintend
+      the work of rescuing all that could be saved. At Lochias. Verus helped me
+      greatly and indeed with so much boldness and judgment that I owe very much
+      to him. Caesar himself kept his favorite within the palace, for the poor
+      fellow burned both his hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; cried Balbilla with eager regret. &ldquo;How did that happen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When Hadrian and Antinous first came down from the tower they brought
+      with them as many of the instruments and manuscripts as they could carry.
+      When they were at the bottom Caesar observed that a tablet with important
+      calculations had been left lying up above and expressed his regret.
+      Meanwhile the fire had already caught the slightly-built turret and it
+      seemed impossible to get into it again. But the dreamy Bithynian can wake
+      out of his slumbers it would seem, and while Caesar was anxiously watching
+      the burning bundles of flax which the wind kept blowing across to the
+      harbor the rash boy rushed into the burning building, flung the tablet
+      down from the top of the tower and then hurried down the stairs. His bold
+      action would indeed have cost the poor fellow his life if the slave
+      Mastor; who meanwhile had hurried to the spot, had not dragged him down
+      the stone stair of the old tower on which the new one stood and carried
+      him into the open air. He was half suffocated at the top of them and had
+      dropped down senseless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he is alive, the splendid boy, the image of the gods! and he is out
+      of danger?&rdquo; cried Balbilla, with much anxiety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is quite well; only his hands, as I said, are somewhat burnt, and his
+      hair is singed, but that will grow again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His soft, lovely curls!&rdquo; cried Balbilla. &ldquo;Let us go home, Claudia. The
+      gardener shall cut a magnificent bunch of roses, and we will send it to
+      Antinous to please him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Flowers to a man who does not care about them?&rdquo; asked Pontius, gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With what else can women reward men&rsquo;s virtues or do honor to their
+      beauty?&rdquo; asked Balbilla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our own conscience is the reward of our honest actions, or the laurel
+      wreath from the hand of some famous man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And beauty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That of women claims and wins admiration, love too perhaps and
+      flowers-that of men may rejoice the eye, but to do it Honor is a task
+      granted to no mortal woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To whom, then, if I may ask the question?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Art, which makes it immortal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the roses may bring some comfort and pleasure to the suffering
+      youth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then send them-but to the sick boy, and not to the handsome man,&rdquo;
+       retorted Pontius.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Balbilla was silent, and she and her companion followed the architect to
+      the harbor. There he parted from them, putting them into a boat which took
+      them back to the Caesareum through one of the arch-gates under the
+      Heptastadium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they were rowed along the younger Roman lady said to the elder:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pontius has quite spoilt my fun about the roses. The sick boy is the
+      handsome Antinous all the same, and if anybody could think&mdash;well, I
+      shall do just as I please; still it will be best not to cut the nosegay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0037" id="link2HCH0037">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The town was out of danger; the fire was extinct. Pontius had taken no
+      rest till noonday. Three horses had he tired out and replaced by fresh
+      ones, but his sinewy frame and healthy courage had till now defied every
+      strain. As soon as he could consider his task at an end he went off to his
+      own house, and he needed rest; but in the hall of his residence he already
+      found a number of persons waiting, and who were likely to stand between
+      him and the enjoyment of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man who lives in the midst of important undertakings cannot, with
+      impunity, leave his work to take care of itself for several days. All the
+      claims upon him become pent up, and when he returns home they deluge him
+      like water when the sluice-gates are suddenly opened behind which it has
+      been dammed up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At least twenty persons, who had heard of the architect&rsquo;s return, were
+      waiting for him in his outer hall, and crowded upon him as soon as he
+      appeared. Among them he saw several who had come on important business,
+      but he felt that he had reached the farthest limit of his strength, and he
+      was determined to secure a little rest at any cost. The grave man&rsquo;s
+      natural consideration, usually so conspicuous, could not hold out against
+      the demands made on his endurance, and he angrily and peevishly pointed to
+      his begrimed face as he made his way through the people waiting for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow, to-morrow,&rdquo; he cried; &ldquo;nay, if necessary, to-day, after
+      sunset. But now I need rest. Rest! Rest! Why, you yourselves can see the
+      state I am in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All&mdash;even the master-masons and purveyors who had come on urgent
+      affairs, drew back; only one elderly man, his sister Paulina&rsquo;s
+      house-steward, caught hold of his chiton, stained as it was with smoke and
+      scorched in many places, and said quickly and in a low tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My mistress greets you; she has things to speak of to you which will bear
+      no delay; I am not to leave you till you have promised to go to see her
+      to-day. Our chariot waits for you at the garden-door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Send it home,&rdquo; said Pontius, not even civilly; &ldquo;Paulina must wait a few
+      hours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But my orders are to take you with me at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But in this state&mdash;so&mdash;I cannot go with you,&rdquo; cried the
+      architect with vehemence. &ldquo;Have you no sort of consideration? And yet&mdash;who
+      can tell&mdash;well, tell her I will be with her in two hours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Pontius had fairly escaped the throng he took a bath; then he had
+      some food brought to him, but even while he ate and drank, he was not
+      unoccupied, for he read the letters which awaited him, and examined some
+      drawings which his assistants had prepared during his absence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give yourself an hour&rsquo;s respite,&rdquo; said the old housekeeper, who had been
+      his nurse and who loved him as her own son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must go to my sister,&rdquo; he answered with a shrug. &ldquo;We know her of old,&rdquo;
+       said the old woman. &ldquo;For nothing, and less than nothing, she has sent for
+      you be fore now; and you absolutely need rest. There&mdash;are your
+      cushions right&mdash;so? And let me ask you, has the humblest
+      stone-carrier so hard a life as you have? Even at meals you never have an
+      hour of peace and comfort. Your poor head is never quiet; the nights are
+      turned into day; something to do, always something to do. If one only knew
+      who it is all for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye&mdash;who for, indeed?&rdquo; sighed Pontius, pushing his arm under his
+      head, between it and the pillow. &ldquo;But, you see, little mother, work must
+      follow rest as surely as day follows night or summer follows winter. The
+      man who has something he loves in the House&mdash;a wife and merry
+      children, it may be, for aught I care&mdash;who sweeten his hours of rest
+      and make them the best of all the day, he, I say is wise when he tries to
+      prolong them; but his case is not mine&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why is it not yours, my son Pontius?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me finish my speech. I, as you know full well, do not care for gossip
+      in the bath nor for reclining long over a banquet. In the pauses of my
+      work I am alone, with myself and with you, my very worthy Leukippe. So the
+      hours of rest are not for me the fairest scenes, but empty waits between
+      the acts of the drama of life; and no reasonable man can find fault with
+      me for trying to abridge them by useful occupation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is the upshot of this sensible talk? Simply this: you must get
+      married.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pontius sighed, but Leukippe added eagerly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have not far to look! The most respectable fathers and mothers are
+      running after you and would bring their prettiest daughters into your
+      door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A daughter whom I do not know, and who might perhaps spoil the pauses
+      between the acts, which at present I can at any rate turn to some
+      account.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say,&rdquo; the old woman went on, &ldquo;that marriage is a cast of the dice.
+      One throws a high number, another a low one; one wins a wife who is a
+      match for the busy bee, another gets a tiresome gnat. No doubt there is
+      some truth in it; but I have grown grey with my eyes open and I have often
+      seen it happen, that how the marriage turned out depended on the husband.
+      A man like you makes a bee out of a gnat&mdash;a bee that brings honey to
+      the hive. Of course a man must choose carefully.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How, pray?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First see the parents and then the child. A girl who has grown up
+      surrounded by good habits, in the house of a sensible father and a
+      virtuous mother&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where in this city am I to find such a miracle? Nay, nay, Leukippe,
+      for the present all shall be left to my old woman. We both do our duty, we
+      are satisfied with each other and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And time is flying,&rdquo; said the housekeeper, interrupting her master in his
+      speech. &ldquo;You are nearly thirty-five years of age, and the girls&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let them be! let them be! They will find other men! Now send Cyrus with
+      my shoes and cloak, and have my litter got ready, for Paulina has been
+      kept waiting long enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The way from the architect&rsquo;s house to his sister&rsquo;s was long, and on his
+      way he found ample time for reflection on various matters besides
+      Leukippe&rsquo;s advice to marry. Still, it was a woman&rsquo;s face and form that
+      possessed him heart and soul; at first, however, he did not feel inclined
+      to feast his fancy on Balbilla&rsquo;s image, lovely as it appeared to him; on
+      the contrary, with self-inflicted severity he sought everything in her
+      which could be thought to be opposed to the highest standard of feminine
+      perfections. Nor did he find it difficult to detect many defects and
+      deficiencies in the Roman damsel; still he was forced to admit that they
+      were quite inseparable from her character, and that she would no longer be
+      what she was, if she were wholly free from them. Each of her little
+      weaknesses presently began to appear as an additional charm to the stern
+      man who had himself been brought up in the doctrine of the Stoics.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had learnt by experience that sorrow must cast its shadow over the
+      existence of every human being; but still, the man to whom it should be
+      vouchsafed to walk through life hand-in-hand with this radiant child of
+      fortune could, as it seemed to him, have nothing to look forward to but
+      pure sunshine. During his journey to Pelusium and his stay there he had
+      often thought of her, and each time that her image had appeared to his
+      inward eye he had felt as though daylight had shone in his soul. To have
+      met her he regarded as the greatest joy of his life, but he dared not
+      aspire to claim her as his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not undervalue himself and knew that he might well be proud of the
+      position he had won by his own industry and talents; and still she was the
+      grandchild of the man who had had the right to sell his grandfather for
+      mere coin, and was so high-born, rich and distinguished that he would have
+      thought it hardly more audacious to ask the Emperor what he would take for
+      the purple than to woo her. But to shelter her, to warn her, to allow his
+      soul to be refreshed by the sight of her and by her talk&mdash;this he
+      felt was permissible, this happiness no one could deprive him of. And this
+      she would grant him&mdash;she esteemed him and would give him the right to
+      protect her, this he felt, with thankfulness and joy. He would, then and
+      there, have gone through the exertions of the last few hours all over
+      again if he could have been certain that he should once more be refreshed
+      with the draught of water from her hand. Only to think of her and of her
+      sweetness seemed greater happiness than the possession of any other woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he got out of his litter at the door of his sister&rsquo;s town-house he
+      shook his head, smiling at himself; for he confessed to himself that the
+      whole of the long distance he had hardly thought of anything but Balbilla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Paulina&rsquo;s house had but few windows opening upon the street and these
+      belonged to the strangers&rsquo; rooms, and yet his arrival had been observed. A
+      window at the side of the house, all grown round with creepers, framed in
+      a sweet girlish head which looked down from it inquisitively on the bustle
+      in the street. Pontius did not notice it, but Arsinoe&mdash;for it was her
+      pretty face that looked out&mdash;at once recognized the architect whom
+      she had seen at Lochias and of whom Pollux had spoken as his friend and
+      patron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had now, for a week, been living with the rich widow; she wanted for
+      nothing, and yet her soul longed with all its might to be out in the city,
+      and to inquire for Pollux and his parents, of whom she had heard nothing
+      since the day of her father&rsquo;s death. Her lover was no doubt seeking her
+      with anxiety and sorrow; but how was he to find her?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three days after her arrival she had discovered the little window from
+      which she had a view of the street. There was plenty to be seen, for it
+      led to the Hippodrome and was never empty of foot-passengers and chariots
+      that were proceeding thither or to Necropolis. No doubt it was a pleasure
+      to her to watch the fine horses and garlanded youths and men who passed by
+      Paulina&rsquo;s house; but it was not merely to amuse herself that she went to
+      the bowery little opening; no, she hoped, on the contrary, that she might
+      once see her Pollux, his father, his mother, his bother Teuker or some one
+      else they knew pass by her new home. Then she might perhaps succeed in
+      calling them, in asking what had become of her friends, and in begging
+      them to let her lover know where to seek her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her adoptive mother had twice found her at the window and had forbidden
+      her, not unkindly but very positively, to look out into the street.
+      Arsinoe had followed her unresistingly into the interior of the house, but
+      as soon as she knew that Paulina was out or engaged, she slipped back to
+      the window again and looked out for him, who must at every hour of the day
+      be thinking of her. And she was not happy amid her new and wealthy
+      surroundings. At first she had found it very pleasant to stretch her limbs
+      on Paulina&rsquo;s soft cushions, not to stir a finger to help herself, to eat
+      the best of food and to have neither to attend to the children nor to
+      labor in the horrible papyrus-factory; but by the third day she pined for
+      liberty&mdash;and still more for the children, for Selene and Pollux. Once
+      she went out driving with Paulina in a covered carriage for the first time
+      in her life. As the horses started she had enjoyed the rapid movement and
+      had leaned out at one side to see the houses and men flying past her; but
+      Paulina had regarded this as not correct&mdash;as she did so many other
+      things that she herself thought right and permissible&mdash;had desired
+      her to draw in her head, and had told her that a well-conducted girl must
+      sit with her eyes in her lap when out driving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Paulina was kind, never was irritable, had her dressed and waited upon
+      like her own daughter, kissed her in the morning and when she bid her
+      good-night; and yet Arsinoe had never once thought of Paulina&rsquo;s demand
+      that she should love her. The proud woman, who was so cool in all the
+      friendly relations of life, and who, as she felt was always watching her,
+      was to her only a stranger who had her in her power. The fairest
+      sentiments of her soul she must always keep locked up from her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once, when Paulina, with tears in her eyes had spoken to her of her lost
+      daughter, Arsinoe had been softened and following the impulse of her
+      heart, had confided to her that she loved Pollux the sculptor and hoped to
+      be his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You love a maker of images!&rdquo; Paulina had exclaimed, with as much horror
+      as if she had seen a toad; then she had paced uneasily up and down and had
+      added with her usual calm decision:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, my child! you will forget all this as soon as possible; I know of
+      a nobler Bridegroom for you; when once you have learned to know Him you
+      will never long for any other. Have you seen one single image in this
+      house?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; replied Arsinoe, &ldquo;but so far as regards Pollux&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen to me&rdquo; said the widow, &ldquo;have I not told you of our loving Father
+      in Heaven? Have I not told you that the gods of the heathen are unreal
+      beings which the vain imaginings of fools have endowed with all the
+      weaknesses and crimes of humanity? Can you not understand how silly it is
+      to pray to stones? What power can reside in these frail figures of brass
+      or marble?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Idols we call them. He who carves them, serves them and offers sacrifice
+      to them; aye and a great sacrifice, for he devotes his best powers, to
+      their service. Do you understand me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;Art is certainly a lofty thing, and Pollux is a good man, full
+      of the divinity as he works.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a while, only wait&mdash;you will soon learn to understand,&rdquo; Paulina
+      had answered, drawing Arsinoe towards her, and had added, at first
+      speaking gently but then more sternly: &ldquo;Now go to bed and pray to your
+      gracious Father in Heaven that he may enlighten your heart. You must
+      forget the carved image-maker, and I forbid you ever to speak in my
+      presence again of such a man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe had grown up a heathen, she clung with affection to the gods of
+      her fathers and hoped for happier days after the first bitterness of the
+      loss of her father and the separation from her brothers and sisters was
+      past. She was little disposed to sacrifice her young love and all her
+      earthly happiness for spiritual advantages of which she scarcely
+      comprehended the value. Her father had always spoken of the Christians
+      with hatred and contempt. She now saw that they could be kind and helpful,
+      and the doctrine that there was a loving God in Heaven who cared for all
+      men as his children appealed to her soul; but that we ought to forgive our
+      enemies, to remember our sins, and to repent of them, and to regard all
+      the pleasure and amusement which the gay city of Alexandria could offer as
+      base and worthless&mdash;this was absurd and foolish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And what great sins had she committed? Could a loving God require of her
+      that she should mar all her best days because as a child she had pilfered
+      a cake or broken a pitcher; or, as she grew older had sometimes been
+      obstinate or disobedient? Surely not. And then was an artist, a kind
+      faithful soul like her tall Pollux, to be odious in the eyes of God the
+      Father of all, because he was able to make such wonderful things as that
+      head of her mother, for instance? If this really was so she would rather,
+      a thousand times rather, lift her hands in prayer to the smiling
+      Aphrodite, roguish Eros, beautiful Apollo, and all the nine Muses who
+      protected her Pollux, than to Him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An obscure aversion rose up in her soul against the stern woman who could
+      not understand her, and of whose teaching and admonitions she scarcely
+      took in half; and she rejected many a word of the widow&rsquo;s which might
+      otherwise easily have found room in her heart, only because it was spoken
+      by the cold-mannered woman who at every hour seemed to try to lay some
+      fresh restraint upon her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Paulina had never yet taken her with her to of the Christian assemblies in
+      her suburban villa; wished first to prepare her and to open her soul to
+      salvation. In this task no teacher of the congregation should assist her.
+      She, and she alone, should win to the Redeemer the soul of this fair
+      creature that had walked so resolutely in the ways of the heathen; this
+      was required of her as the condition of the covenant that she felt she had
+      made with Him, it was with the price of this labor that she hoped to
+      purchase her own child&rsquo;s eternal happiness. Day after day she had Arsinoe
+      into her own room, that was decked with flowers and with Christian
+      symbols, and devoted several hours to her instruction. But her disciple
+      proved less impressionable and less attentive every day; while Paulina was
+      speaking Arsinoe was thinking of Pollux, of the children, of the festival
+      prepared for the Emperor or of the beautiful dress she was to have worn as
+      Roxana. She wondered what young girl would fill her place, and how she
+      could ever hope to see her lover again. And it was the same during
+      Paulina&rsquo;s prayers as during her instruction, prayers that often lasted
+      more than hour, and which she had to attend, on her knees on Wednesday and
+      Friday, and with hands uplifted on all the other days of the week.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When her adoptive mother had discovered how often she looked out into the
+      street she thought she had found out the reason of her pupil&rsquo;s distracted
+      attention and only waited the return of her brother, the architect, in
+      order to have the window blocked up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Pontius entered the lofty hall of his sister&rsquo;s house, Arsinoe came to
+      meet him. Her cheeks were flushed, she had hurried to fly down as fast as
+      possible from her window to the ground floor, in order to speak to the
+      architect before he went into the inner rooms or had talked with his
+      sister, and she looked lovelier than ever. Pontius gazed at her with
+      delight. He knew that he had seen this sweet face before, but he could not
+      at once remember where; for a face we have met with only incidentally is
+      not easily recognized when we find it again where we do not expect it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe did not give him time to speak to her, for she went straight up to
+      him, greeted him, and asked timidly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not remember who I am?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; said the architect, &ldquo;and yet&mdash;for the moment&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am the daughter of Keraunus, the palace-steward at Lochias, but you
+      know of course!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure, to be sure! Arsinoe is your name; I was asking to-day after
+      your father and heard to my great regret&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor child! How everything has changed in the old palace since I went
+      away. The gate-house is swept away, there is a new steward and there-but,
+      tell me how came you here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father left us nothing and Christians took its in. There were eight of
+      us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And my sister shelters you all?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no; one has been taken into one house and others into others. We
+      shall never be together again.&rdquo; And as she spoke the tears ran down
+      Arsinoe&rsquo;s cheeks; but she promptly recovered herself, and before Pontius
+      could express his sympathy she went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to ask of you a favor; let me speak before any one disturbs us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak, my child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know Pollux&mdash;the sculptor Pollux?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you were always kindly disposed toward him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a good man and an excellent artist.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye that he is, and besides all that&mdash;may I tell you something and
+      will you stand by me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gladly, so far as lies in my power.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe looked down at the ground in charming and blushing confusion and
+      said in a low tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We love each other&mdash;I am to be his wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accept my best wishes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, if only we had got as far as that! But since my father&rsquo;s death we
+      have not seen each other. I do not know where he and his parents are, and
+      how are they ever to find me here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Write to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot write well, and even if I could my messenger&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has my sister had any search made for him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;oh, no. I may not even let his name pass my lips. She wants to
+      give me to some one else; she says that making statues is hateful to the
+      God of the Christians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does she? And you want me to seek your lover?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, my dear lord! and if you find him tell him I shall be alone
+      to-morrow early, and again towards evening, every day indeed, for then
+      your sister goes to serve her God in her country house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you want to make me a lover&rsquo;s go-between. You could not find a more
+      inexperienced one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! noble Pontius, if you have a heart&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me speak to the end, child! I will seek your lover, and if I find him
+      he shall know where you are, but I cannot and will not invite him to an
+      assignation here behind my sister&rsquo;s back. He shall come openly to Paulina
+      and prefer his suit. If she refuses her consent I will try to take the
+      matter in hand with Paulina. Are you satisfied with this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must need be. And tell me, you will let me know when you have found out
+      where he and his parents have gone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I promise you. And now tell the one thing. Are you happy in this
+      house?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe looked down in some embarrassment, then she hastily shook her head
+      in vehement negation and hurried away. Pontius looked after her with
+      compassion and sympathy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor, pretty little creature!&rdquo; he murmured to himself, and went on to his
+      sister&rsquo;s room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The house-steward had announced his visit, and Paulina met him on the
+      threshold. In his sister&rsquo;s sitting-room the architect found Eumenes, the
+      bishop, a dignified old man with clear, kind eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your name is in everybody&rsquo;s mouth to-day,&rdquo; said Paulina, &ldquo;after the usual
+      greetings. They say you did wonders last night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I got home very tired,&rdquo; said Pontius, &ldquo;but as you so pressingly desired
+      to speak to me, I shortened my hours of rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How sorry I am!&rdquo; exclaimed the widow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bishop perceived that the brother and sister had business to discuss
+      together, and asked whether he were not interrupting it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the contrary,&rdquo; cried Paulina. &ldquo;The subject under discussion is my
+      newly-adopted daughter who, unhappily, has her head full of silly and
+      useless things. She tells me she has seen you at Lochias, Pontius.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I know the pretty child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, she is lovely to look upon,&rdquo; said the widow. &ldquo;But her heart and mind
+      have been left wholly untrained, and in her the doctrine falls upon stony
+      ground, for she avails herself of every unoccupied moment to stare at the
+      horsemen and chariots that pass on the way to the Hippodrome. By this
+      inquisitive gaping she fills her head with a thousand useless and
+      distracting fancies; I am not always at home, and so it will be best to
+      have the pernicious window walled up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And did you send for me only to have that done?&rdquo; cried Pontius, much
+      annoyed. &ldquo;Your house-slaves, I should think, might have been equal to that
+      without my assistance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps, but then the wall would have to be freshly whitewashed&mdash;I
+      know how obliging you always are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you very much. To-morrow I will send you two regular workmen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, to-day, at once if possible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you in such pressing haste to spoil the poor child&rsquo;s amusement? And
+      besides I cannot but think that it is not to stare at the horsemen and
+      chariots that she looks out, but to see her worthy lover.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much the worse. I was telling you, Eumenes, that a sculptor wants to
+      marry her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is a heathen,&rdquo; replied the bishop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But on the road to salvation,&rdquo; answered Paulina. &ldquo;But we will speak of
+      that presently. There is still something else to discuss, Pontius. The
+      hall of my country villa must be enlarged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then send me the plans.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are in the book-room of my late husband.&rdquo; The architect left his
+      sister to go into the library, which he knew well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the bishop was left alone with Paulina, he shook his head and
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I judge rightly, my dear sister, you are going the wrong way to work
+      in leading this child intrusted to your care. Not all are called, and
+      rebellious hearts must be led along the path of salvation with a gentle
+      hand, not dragged and driven. Why do you cut off this girl, who still
+      stands with both feet in the world, from all that can give her pleasure?
+      Allow the young creature to enjoy every permitted pleasure which can add
+      to the joys of life in youth. Do not hurt Arsinoe needlessly, do not let
+      her feel the hand that guides her. First teach her to love you from her
+      heart, and when she knows nothing dearer than you, a request from you will
+      be worth more than bolts or walled-up windows.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At first I wished nothing more than that she should love me,&rdquo; interrupted
+      Paulina.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But have you proved her? Do you see in her the spark which may be fanned
+      to a flame? Have you detected in her the germ which may possibly grow to a
+      strong desire for salvation and to devotion to the Redeemer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That germ exists in every heart-these are your own words.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But in many of the heathen it is deeply buried in sand and stories; and
+      do you feel yourself equal to clearing them away without injury to the
+      seed or to the soil in which it lies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do, and I will win Arsinoe to Jesus Christ,&rdquo; said Paulina firmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pontius interrupted the conversation; he remained with his sister some
+      time longer discussing with her and with Eumenes the new building to be
+      done at her country house; then he and the bishop left at the same time
+      and Pontius proceeded to the scene of the fire by the harbor and in the
+      old palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0038" id="link2HCH0038">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Pontius did not find the Emperor at Lochias, for Hadrian had moved at
+      mid-day to the Caesareum. The strong smell of burning in every room in the
+      palace had sickened him and he had begun to regard the restored building
+      as a doomed scene of disaster. The architect was waited for with much
+      anxiety, for the rooms originally furnished for the Emperor in the
+      Caesareum had been despoiled and disarranged to decorate the rooms at
+      Lochias, and Pontius was wanted to superintend their immediate
+      rehabilitation. A chariot was waiting for him and there was no lack of
+      slaves, so he began this fresh task at once and devoted himself to it till
+      late at night. It was in vain this time that his anteroom was filled with
+      people waiting for his return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian had retired to some rooms which formed part of his wife&rsquo;s
+      apartments. He was in a grave mood, and when the prefect Titianus was
+      announced he kept him waiting till, with his own hand, he had laid a fresh
+      dressing on his favorite&rsquo;s burns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go now, my lord,&rdquo; begged the Bithynian, when the Emperor had finished his
+      task with all the skill of a surgeon: &ldquo;Titianus has been walking up and
+      down in there for the last quarter of an hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so he may,&rdquo; said the monarch. &ldquo;And if the whole world is shrieking
+      for me it must wait till these faithful hands have had their due. Yes, my
+      boy! we will wander on through life together, inseparable comrades. Others
+      indeed do the same, and each one who goes through life side by side with a
+      companion sharing all he enjoys or suffers, comes to think at last that he
+      knows him as he knows himself; still the inmost core of his friend&rsquo;s
+      nature remains concealed from him. Then, some day Fate lets a storm come
+      raging down upon them; the last veil is torn, under the wanderer&rsquo;s eyes,
+      from the very heart of his companion, and at last he really sees him as he
+      is, like a kernel stripped of its shell, a bare and naked body. Last night
+      such a blast swept over us and let me see the heart of my Antinous, as
+      plainly as this hand I hold before my eyes. Yes, yes, yes! for the man who
+      will risk his young and happy existence for a thing his friend holds
+      precious would sacrifice ten lives if he had them, for his friend&rsquo;s
+      person. Never, my friend, shall that night be forgotten. It gives you the
+      right to do much that might pain me, and has graven your name on my heart,
+      the foremost among those to whom I am indebted for any benefit.&mdash;They
+      are but few.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian held out his hand to Antinous as he spoke. The boy, who had kept
+      his eyes fixed on the ground in much confusion, raised it to his lips and
+      pressed it against them in violent agitation. Then he raised his large
+      eyes to the Emperor&rsquo;s and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must not speak to me so kindly, for I do not deserve such goodness.
+      What is my life after all? I would let it go, as a child leaves go of a
+      beetle it has caught, to spare you one single anxious day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it,&rdquo; answered Hadrian firmly, and he went to the prefect in the
+      adjoining room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Titianus had come in obedience to Hadrian&rsquo;s orders; the matter to be
+      settled was what indemnification was to be paid to the city and to the
+      individual owners of the storehouses that had been destroyed, for Hadrian
+      had caused a decree to be proclaimed that no one should suffer any loss
+      through a misfortune sent by the gods and which had originated in his
+      residence. The prefect had already instituted the necessary inquiries and
+      the private secretaries, Phlegon, Heliodorus and Celer, were now charged
+      with the duty of addressing documents to the injured parties in which they
+      were invited, in the name of Caesar, to declare the truth as to the amount
+      of the loss they had suffered. Titianus also brought the information that
+      the Greeks and Jews had determined to express their thankfulness for
+      Caesar&rsquo;s preservation by great thank-offerings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the Christians,&rdquo; asked Hadrian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They abominate the sacrifice of animals, but they will unite in a common
+      act of thanksgiving.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Their gratitude will not cost them much,&rdquo; said Hadrian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Their bishop, Eumenes, brought me a sum of money for which a hundred oxen
+      might be bought, to distribute among the poor. He said the God of the
+      Christians is a spirit and requires none but spiritual sacrifices; that
+      the best offering a man can bring him is a prayer prompted by the spirit
+      and proceeding from a loving heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That sounds very well for us,&rdquo; said Hadrian. &ldquo;But it will not do for the
+      people. Philosophical doctrines do not tend to piety; the populace need
+      visible gods and tangible sacrifices. Are the Christians here good
+      citizens and devoted to the welfare of the state?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We need no courts of justice for them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then take their money and distribute it among the needy; but I must
+      forbid their meeting for a general thanksgiving; they may raise their
+      hands to their great spirit in my behalf, in private. Their doctrine must
+      not be brought into publicity; it is not devoid of a delusive charm and it
+      is indispensable to the safety of the state that the mob should remain
+      faithful to the old gods and sacrifices.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you command, Caesar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know the account given of the Christians by Pliny and Trajan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Trajan&rsquo;s answer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well then let us leave them to follow their own devices in private after
+      their own fashion; only they must not commit any breach of the laws of the
+      state nor force themselves into publicity. As soon as they show any
+      disposition to refuse to the old gods the respect that is due to them, or
+      to raise a finger against them, severity must be exercised and every
+      excess must be punished by death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      During this conversation Verus had entered the room; he was following the
+      Emperor everywhere to-day for he hoped to hear him say a word as to his
+      observation of the heavens, and yet he did not dare to ask him what he had
+      discovered from them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he saw that Hadrian was occupied he made a chamberlain conduct him to
+      Antinous. The favorite turned pale as he saw the praetor, still he
+      retained enough presence of mind to wish him all happiness on his
+      birthday. It did not escape Verus that his presence had startled the lad;
+      he therefore plied him at first with indifferent questions, introduced
+      pleasing anecdotes into his conversation and then, when he had gained his
+      purpose, he added carelessly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must thank you in the name of the state and of every friend of
+      Caesar&rsquo;s. You carried out your undertaking well to the end, though by
+      somewhat overpowering means.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I entreat you say no more,&rdquo; interrupted Antinous eagerly, and looking
+      anxiously at the door of the next room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I would have sacrificed all Alexandria to preserve Caesar&rsquo;s mind from
+      gloom and care. Besides we have both paid dearly for our good intentions
+      and for those wretched sheds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray talk of something else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You sit there with your hands bound up and your hair singed, and I feel
+      very unwell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hadrian said you had helped valiantly in the rescue.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was sorry for the poor rats whose gathered store of provisions the
+      flames were so rapidly devouring, and all hot as I was from my supper, I
+      flung myself in among the men who were extinguishing the fire. My first
+      reward was a bath of cold, icy-cold sea-water, which was poured over my
+      head out of a full skin. All doctrines of ethics are in disgrace with me,
+      and I have long considered all the dramatic poets, in whose pieces virtue
+      is rewarded and crime punished, as a pack of fools; for my pleasantest
+      hours are all due to my worst deeds; and sheer annoyance and misery, to my
+      best. No hyena can laugh more hoarsely that I now speak; some portion of
+      me inside here, seems to have been turned into a hedgehog whose spines
+      prick and hurt me, and all this because I allowed myself to be led away
+      into doing things which the moralists laud as virtuous.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You cough, and you do not look well. He down awhile.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On my birthday? No, my young friend. And now let me just ask you before I
+      go: Can you tell me what Hadrian read in the stars?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not even if I put my Perseus at your orders for every thing you may
+      require of him? The man knows Alexandria and is as dumb as a fish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not even then, for what I do not know I cannot tell. We are both of us
+      ill, and I tell you once more you will be wise to take care of yourself.&rdquo;
+       Verus left the room, and Antinous watched him go with much relief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The praetor&rsquo;s visit had filled him with disquietude, and had added to the
+      dislike he felt for him. He knew that he had been used to base ends by
+      Verus, for Hadrian had told him so much as that he had gone up to the
+      observatory not to question the stars for himself but to cast the
+      praetor&rsquo;s horoscope, and that he had informed Verus of his intention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no excuse, no forgiveness possible for the deed he had done; to
+      please that dissolute coxcomb, that mocking hypocrite, he had become a
+      traitor to his master and an incendiary, and must endure to be overwhelmed
+      with praises and thanks by the greatest and most keen-sighted of men. He
+      hated, he abhorred himself, and asked himself why the fire which had
+      blazed around him had been satisfied only to inflict slight injuries on
+      his hands and hair. When Hadrian returned to him he asked his permission
+      to go to bed. The Emperor gladly granted it, ordered Mastor to watch by
+      his side, and then agreed to his wife&rsquo;s request that he would visit her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sabina had not been to the scene of the fire, but she had sent a messenger
+      every hour to inquire as to the progress of the conflagration and the
+      well-being of her husband. When he had first arrived at the Caesareum she
+      had met and welcomed him and then had retired to her own apartments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It wanted only two hours of midnight when Hadrian entered her room; he
+      found her reclining on a couch without the jewels she usually wore in the
+      daytime but dressed as for a banquet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wished to speak with me?&rdquo; said the Emperor. &ldquo;Yes, and this day&mdash;so
+      full of remarkable events as it has been&mdash;has also a remarkable close
+      since I have not wished in vain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You so rarely give me the opportunity of gratifying a wish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do you complain of that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I might&mdash;for instead of wishing you are wont to demand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us cease this strife of idle words.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Willingly. With what object did you send for me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Verus is to-day keeping his birthday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you would like to know what the stars promise him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rather how the signs in the heavens have disposed you towards him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had but little time to consider what I saw. But at any rate the stars
+      promise him a brilliant future.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A gleam of joy shone in Sabina&rsquo;s eyes, but she forced herself to keep calm
+      and asked, indifferently:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You admit that, and yet you can come to no decision?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you want to hear the decisive word spoken at once, to-day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know that without my answering you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, his star outshines mine and compels me to be on my guard
+      against him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How mean! You are afraid of the praetor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, but of his fortune which is bound up with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When he is our son his greatness will be ours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By no means, since if I make him what you wish him to be, he will
+      certainly try to make our greatness his. Destiny&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You said it favored him; but unfortunately I must dispute the statement.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You? Do you try too, to read the stars?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I leave that to men. Have you heard of Ammonius, the astrologer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. A very learned man who observes from the tower of the Serapeum, and
+      who, like many of his fellows in this city has made use of his art to
+      accumulate a large fortune.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No less a man than the astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus referred me to
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The best of recommendation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, I commissioned Ammonius to cast the horoscope for Verus
+      during the past night and he brought it to me with an explanatory key.
+      Here it is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor hastily seized the tablet which Sabina held out to him, and as
+      he attentively examined the forecasts, arranged in order according to the
+      hours, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite right. That of course did not escape me! Well done, exactly the
+      same as my own observations&mdash;but here&mdash;stay&mdash;here comes the
+      third hour, at the beginning of which I was interrupted. Eternal gods!
+      what have we here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor held the wax tablet prepared by Aminonius at arm&rsquo;s length from
+      his eyes and never parted his lips again till he had come to the end of
+      the last hour of the night. Then he dropped the hand that held the
+      horoscope, saying with a shudder:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A hideous destiny. Horace was right in saying the highest towers fall
+      with the greatest crash.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The tower of which you speak,&rdquo; said Sabina, &ldquo;is that darling of fortune
+      of whom you are afraid. Vouchsafe then to Verus a brief space of happiness
+      before the horrible end you foresee for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While she spoke Hadrian sat with his eyes thoughtfully fixed on the
+      ground, and then, standing in front of his wife, he replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If no sinister catastrophe falls upon this man, the stars and the fate of
+      men have no more to do with one another than the sea with the heart of the
+      desert, than the throb of men&rsquo;s pulses with the pebbles in the brook. If
+      Ammonius has erred ten times over still more than ten signs remain on this
+      tablet, hostile and fatal to the praetor. I grieve for Verus&mdash;but the
+      state suffers with the sovereign&rsquo;s misfortunes.&mdash;This man can never
+      be my successor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No?&rdquo; asked Sabina rising from her couch. &ldquo;No? Not when you have seen that
+      your own star outlives his? Not though a glance at this tablet shows you
+      that when he is nothing but ashes the world will still continue long to
+      obey your nod?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Compose yourself and give me time.&mdash;Yes, I still say not even so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not even so,&rdquo; repeated Sabina sullenly. Then, collecting herself, she
+      asked in a tone of vehement entreaty:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not even so&mdash;not even if I lift my hands to you in supplication and
+      cry in your face that you and Fate have grudged me the blessing, the
+      happiness, the crown and aim of a woman&rsquo;s life, and I must and I will
+      attain it; I must and I will once, if only for a short time, hear myself
+      called by some dear lips by the name which gives the veriest beggar-woman
+      with her infant in her arms preeminence above the Empress who has never
+      stood by a child&rsquo;s cradle. I must and I will, before I die, be a mother,
+      be called mother and be able to say, &lsquo;my child, my son&mdash;our son.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+       And as she spoke she sobbed aloud and covered her face with her hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor drew back a step from his wife. A miracle had been wrought
+      before his eyes. Sabina&mdash;in whose eyes no tear had ever been seen&mdash;Sabina
+      was weeping, Sabina had a heart like other women. Greatly astonished and
+      deeply moved he saw her turn from him, utterly shaken by the agitation of
+      her feelings, and sink on her knees by the side of the couch she had
+      quitted to hide her face in the cushions. He stood motionless by her side,
+      but presently going nearer to her:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand up, Sabina,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Your desire is a just one. You shall have
+      the son for whom your soul longs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Empress rose and a grateful look in her eyes, swimming in tears, met
+      his glance. Sabina could smile too, she could look sweet! It had taken a
+      lifetime, it had needed such a moment as this to reveal it to Hadrian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He silently drew a seat towards her and sat down by her side; for some
+      time he sat with her hand clasped in his, in silence. Then he let it go
+      and said kindly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And will Verus fulfil all you expect of a son?&rdquo; She nodded assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What makes you so confident of that?&rdquo; asked the Emperor. &ldquo;He is a Roman
+      and not lacking in brilliant and estimable gifts. A man who shows such
+      mettle alike in the field and in the council-chamber and yet can play the
+      part of Eros with such success will also know how to wear the purple
+      without disgracing it. But he has his mother&rsquo;s light blood, and his heart
+      flutters hither and thither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him be as he is. We understand each other and he is the only man on
+      whose disposition I can build, on whose fidelity I can count as securely
+      as if he were my favorite son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And on what facts is this confidence based?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will understand me, for you are not blind to the signs which Fate
+      vouchsafes to us. Have you time to listen to a short story?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The night is yet young.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I will tell you. Forgive me if I begin with things that seem dead
+      and gone; but they are not, for they live and work in me to this hour. I
+      know that you yourself did not choose me for your wife. Plotina chose me
+      for you&mdash;she loved you, whether your regard for her was for the
+      beautiful woman or for the wife of Caesar to whom everything belonged that
+      you had to look for&mdash;how should I know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was Plotina, the woman, that I honored and loved&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In choosing me she chose you a wife who was tall and so fitted to wear
+      the purple, but who was never beautiful. She knew me well and she knew
+      that I was less apt than any other woman to win hearts; in my parents&rsquo; 
+      house no child ever enjoyed so slender a share of the gifts of love, and
+      none can know better than you that my husband did not spoil me with
+      tenderness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I could repent of it at this moment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be too late now. But I will not be bitter&mdash;no, indeed I
+      will not. And yet if you are to understand me I must own that so long as I
+      was young I longed bitterly for the love which no one offered me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you yourself have never loved?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;but it pained me that I could not. In Plotina&rsquo;s apartments I
+      often saw the children of her relations, and many a time I tried to
+      attract them to me, but while they would play confidently with other women
+      they seemed to shun me. Soon I even grew cross to them&mdash;only our
+      Verus, the little son of Celonius Commodus, would give me frank answers
+      when I spoke to him, and would bring me his broken toys that I might mend
+      their injuries. And so I got to love the child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was a wonderfully sweet, attractive boy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was indeed. One day we women were all sitting together in Caesar&rsquo;s
+      garden. Verus came running out with a particularly fine apple that Trajan
+      himself had given him. The rosy-cheeked fruit was admired by every one.
+      Then Plotina, in fun took the apple out of the boy&rsquo;s hand and asked him if
+      he would not give his apple to her. He looked at her with wide-open
+      puzzled eyes, shook his curly head, ran up to me and gave me&mdash;yes,
+      me, and no one else&mdash;the fruit, throwing his arms round my neck and
+      saying, &lsquo;Sabina you shall have it.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The judgment of Paris.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, do not jest now. This action of an unselfish child gave me courage
+      to endure the troubles of life. I knew now that there was one creature
+      that loved me, and that one repaid all that I felt for him, all that I was
+      never weary of doing for him with affectionate liking. He is the only
+      being, of whom I know, that will weep when I die. Give him the right to
+      call me his mother and make him our son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is our son,&rdquo; said Hadrian, with dignified gravity, and held out his
+      hand to Sabina. She tried to lift it to her lips but he drew it away and
+      went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Inform him that we accept him as our son. His wife is the daughter of
+      Nigrinus&mdash;who had to go, as I desired to stay and stand firm. You do
+      not love Lucilla, but we must both admire her for I do not know another
+      woman in Rome whose virtue a man might vouch for. Besides, I owe her a
+      father, and am glad to have such a daughter; thus we shall be blessed with
+      children. Whether I shall appoint Verus my successor and proclaim to the
+      world who shall be its future ruler I cannot now decide; for that I need a
+      calmer hour. Till to-morrow, Sabina. This day began with a misfortune; may
+      the deed with which we have combined to end it prosper and bring us
+      happiness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0039" id="link2HCH0039">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There are often fine warm days in February, but those who fancy the spring
+      has come find themselves deceived. The bitter, hard Sabina could at times
+      let soft and tender emotions get the mastery over her, but as soon as the
+      longing of her languishing soul for maternal happiness was gratified, she
+      closed her heart again and extinguished the fire that had warmed it. Every
+      one who approached her, even her husband, felt himself chilled and
+      repelled again by her manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus was ill. The first symptoms of a liver complaint which his
+      physicians had warned him might ensue, if he, an European, persisted in
+      his dissipated life at Alexandria as if it were Rome, now began to
+      occasion him many uneasy hours, and this, the first physical pain that
+      fate had ever inflicted on him, he bore with the utmost impatience. Even
+      the great news which Sabina brought him, realizing his boldest
+      aspirations, had no power to reconcile him to the new sensation of being
+      ill. He learnt, at the same time, that Hadrian&rsquo;s alarm at the transcendent
+      brightness of his star had nearly cost him his adoption, and as he firmly
+      believed that he had brought on his sufferings by his efforts to
+      extinguish the fire that Antinous had kindled, he bitterly rued his
+      treacherous interference with the Emperor&rsquo;s calculations. Men are always
+      ready to cast any burden, and especially that of a fault they have
+      committed, on to the shoulders of another; and so the suffering praetor
+      cursed Antinous and the learning of Simeon Ben Jochai, because, if it had
+      not been for them the mischievous folly which had spoilt his pleasure in
+      life would never have been committed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian had requested the Alexandrians to postpone the theatrical displays
+      and processions that they had prepared for him, as his observations as to
+      the course of destiny during the coming year were not yet complete. Every
+      evening he ascended the lofty observatory of the Serapeum and gazed from
+      thence at the stars. His labors ended on the tenth of January; on the
+      eleventh the festivities began. They lasted through many days, and by the
+      desire of the praetor the pretty daughter of Apollodorus the Jew was
+      chosen to represent Roxana. Everything that the Alexandrians had prepared
+      to do honor to their sovereign was magnificent and costly. So many ships
+      had never before been engaged in any Naumachia as were destroyed here in
+      the sham sea-fight, no greater number of wild beasts had ever been seen
+      together on any occasion even in the Roman Circus; and how bloody were the
+      fights of the gladiators, in which black and white combatants afforded a
+      varied excitement for both heart and senses. In the processions, the
+      different elements which were supplied by the great central metropolis of
+      Egyptian, Greek and Oriental culture afforded such a variety of food for
+      the eye that, in spite of their interminable length, the effect was less
+      fatiguing than the Romans had feared. The performances of the tragedies
+      and comedies were equally rich in startling effects; conflagrations and
+      floods were introduced and gave the Alexandrian actors the opportunity of
+      displaying their talents with such brilliant success that Hadrian and his
+      companions were forced to acknowledge that even in Rome and Athens they
+      had never witnessed any representations equally perfect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A piece by the Jewish author Ezekiel who, under the Ptolemies, wrote
+      dramas in the Greek language of which the subject was taken from the
+      history of his own people, particularly claimed the Emperor&rsquo;s attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Titianus during all this festive season was unluckily suffering from an
+      attack of old-standing breathlessness, and he also had his hands full; at
+      the same time he did his best in helping Pontius in seeking out the
+      sculptor Pollux. Both men did their utmost, but though they soon were able
+      to find Euphorion and dame Doris, every trace of their son had vanished.
+      Papias, the former employer of the man who had disappeared, was no longer
+      in the city, having been sent by Hadrian to Italy to execute centaurs and
+      other figures to decorate his villa at Tibur. His wife who remained at
+      home, declared that she knew nothing of Pollux but that he had abruptly
+      quitted her husband&rsquo;s service. The unfortunate man&rsquo;s fellow-workmen could
+      give no news of him whatever, for not one of them had been present when he
+      was seized; Papias had had foresight enough to have the man he dreaded
+      placed in security without the presence of any witnesses. Neither the
+      prefect nor the architect thought of seeking the worthy fellow in prison,
+      and even if they had done so they would hardly have found him, for Pollux
+      was not kept in durance in Alexandria itself. The prisons of the city had
+      overflowed after the night of the holiday and he had been transferred to
+      Canopus and there detained and brought up for trial.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux had unhesitatingly owned to having taken the silver quiver and to
+      having been very angry at his master&rsquo;s accusation. Thus he produced from
+      the first an unfavorable impression on the judge, who esteemed Papias as a
+      wealthy man, universally respected. The accused had hardly been allowed to
+      speak at all and judgment was immediately pronounced against him, on the
+      strength of his master&rsquo;s accusation and his own admissions. It would have
+      been sheer waste of time to listen to the romances with which this
+      audacious rascal&mdash;who forgot all the respect he owed to his teacher
+      and benefactor&mdash;wanted to cram the judges. Two years of reflection,
+      the protectors of the law deemed, might suffice to teach this dangerous
+      fellow to respect the property of others and to keep him from outbreaks
+      against those to whom he owed gratitude and reverence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux, safe in the prison at Canopus, cursed his destiny and indulged in
+      vain hopes of the assistance of his friends. These were at last weary of
+      the vain search and only asked about him occasionally. He at first was so
+      insubordinate under restraint that he was put under close ward from which
+      he was not released until, instead of raging with fury he dreamed away his
+      days in sullen brooding. The gaoler knew men well, and he thought he could
+      safely predict that at the end of his two years&rsquo; imprisonment this young
+      thief would quit his cell a harmless imbecile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Titianus, Pontius, Balbilla and even Antinous had all attempted to speak
+      of him to the Emperor, but each was sharply repulsed and taught that
+      Hadrian was little inclined to pardon a wound to his artist&rsquo;s vanity. But
+      the sovereign also proved that he had a good memory for benefits he had
+      received, for once, when a dish was set before him consisting of cabbage
+      and small sausages he smiled, and taking out his purse filled with gold
+      pieces, he ordered a chamberlain to take it in his name to Doris, the wife
+      of the evicted gate-keeper. The old couple now resided in a little house
+      of their own in the neighborhood of their widowed daughter Diotima. Hunger
+      and external misery came not nigh them, still they had experienced a great
+      change. Poor Doris&rsquo; eyes were now red and bloodshot, for they were
+      accustomed to many tears, which were seldom far off and overflowed
+      whenever a word, an object, a thought reminded her of Pollux, her darling,
+      her pride and her hope; and there were few half-hours in the day when she
+      did not think of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after the steward&rsquo;s death she had sought out Selene, but dame Hannah
+      could not and would not conduct her to see the sick girl, for she learnt
+      from Mary that she was the mother of her patient&rsquo;s faithless lover; and on
+      a second visit Selene was so shy, so timid and so strange in her demeanor,
+      that the old woman was forced to conclude that her visit was an unpleasant
+      intrusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And from Arsinoe, whose residence she discovered from the deaconess, she
+      met with even a worse reception. She had herself announced as the mother
+      of Pollux the sculptor and was abruptly refused admission, with the
+      information that Arsinoe was not to be spoken with by her and that her
+      visits were, once for all, prohibited. After the architect Pontius had
+      been to seek her out and had encouraged her to make another attempt to see
+      and speak to Arsinoe, who clung faithfully to Pollux, Paulina herself had
+      received her and sent her away with such repellent words that she went
+      home to her husband deeply insulted and distressed to tears. Nor had she
+      resisted Euphorion&rsquo;s decision when he prohibited her ever again crossing
+      the Christian&rsquo;s threshold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor&rsquo;s donation had been most welcome and timely to the poor old
+      couple, for Euphorion had completely lost the softness of his voice as
+      well as his memory through the agitations and troubles of the last few
+      months; he had been dismissed from the chorus of the theatre and could
+      only find employment and very small pay of a few drachmae, in the
+      mysteries of certain petty sectarians or in singing at weddings or in
+      hymns of lamentation. At the same time the old folks had to maintain their
+      daughter whom Pollux could no longer provide for, and the birds, the
+      Graces and the cat all must eat. That it would be possible to get rid of
+      them was an idea which never occurred to either Euphorion or Doris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By day the old folks had ceased to laugh; but at night they still had many
+      cheerful hours, for then Hope would beguile them with bright pictures of
+      the future, and tell them all sorts of possible and impossible romances
+      which filled their souls with fresh courage. How often they would see
+      Pollux returning from the distant city whither he had probably fled-from
+      Rome, or even from Athens&mdash;crowned with laurels and rich in treasure.
+      The Emperor, who still so kindly remembered them, could not always be
+      angry with him; perhaps he might some day send a messenger to seek Pollux
+      and to make up to him by large commissions for all he had made him suffer.
+      That her darling was alive she was sure; in that she could not be
+      mistaken, often as Euphorion tried to persuade her that he must be dead.
+      The singer could tell many tales of luckless men who had been murdered and
+      never seen or heard of again; but she was not to be convinced, she
+      persisted in hope, and lived wholly in the purpose of sending her younger
+      son, Teuker, on his travels to seek his lost brother as soon as his
+      apprenticeship was over, which would be in a few months.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous, whose burnt hands had soon got well under the Emperor&rsquo;s care,
+      and who had never felt a liking and friendship for any other young man but
+      Pollux, lamented the artist&rsquo;s disappearance and wished much to seek out
+      dame Doris; but he found it harder than ever to leave his master, and was
+      so eager always to be at hand that Hadrian often laughingly reproached him
+      with making his slaves&rsquo; duties too light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When at last he really was master of an hour to himself he postponed his
+      intention of seeing his friend&rsquo;s parents; for with him there was always a
+      wide world between the purpose and the deed which he never could overleap,
+      if not urged by some strong impulse; and his most pressing instincts
+      prompted him, when the Emperor was disputing in the Museum or receiving
+      instructions from the chiefs of the different religious communities as to
+      the doctrines they severally professed, to visit the suburban villa where,
+      when February had already begun, Selene was still living. He had often
+      succeeded in stealing into Paulina&rsquo;s garden, but he could not at first
+      realize his hope of being observed by Selene of obtaining speech with her.
+      Whenever he went near Hannah&rsquo;s little house, Mary, the deformed girl,
+      would come in his way, tell him how her friend was, and beg or desire him
+      to go away. She was always with the sick girl, for now her mother was
+      nursed by her sister, and dame Hannah had obtained permission for her to
+      work at home in gumming the papyrus-strips together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The widow herself was obliged to be at her post in the factory, for her
+      duties as overseer made her presence indispensable in the work-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it came to pass that it was always by Mary and never by Hannah that
+      Antinous was received and dismissed. A certain understanding had arisen
+      between the beautiful youth and the deformed girl. When Antinous appeared
+      and she called out to him: &ldquo;What, again already!&rdquo; he would grasp her hand
+      and implore her only once to grant his wish; but she was always firm, only
+      she never sent him away sternly but with smiles and friendly admonitions.
+      When he brought rare and lovely flowers in his pallium and entreated her
+      to give them to Selene in the name of her friend at Lochias, she would
+      take them and promise to place them in her room; but she always said it
+      would do neither him nor her any good at all that Selene should know from
+      whom they came. After such repulses he well knew how to flatter and coax
+      her with appealing words, but he had never dared to defy her or to gain
+      his end by force. When the flowers were placed in the room Mary looked at
+      them much oftener than Selene did, and when Antinous had been long absent
+      the deformed girl longed to see him again, and would pace restlessly up
+      and down between the garden gate and her friend&rsquo;s little house. She, like
+      him, dreamed of an angel, and the angel of whom she dreamed was exactly
+      like himself. In all her prayers she included the name of the handsome
+      heathen and a soft tenderness in which a gentle pity was often infused, a
+      grief for his unredeemed soul, was inseparable from all her thoughts of
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hannah was informed by her of each of the young man&rsquo;s visits, and as often
+      as Mary mentioned Antinous the deaconess seemed anxious and desired her to
+      threaten to call the gate-keeper to him. The widow knew full well who her
+      patient&rsquo;s indefatigable admirer was, for she had once heard him speaking
+      to Mastor, and she had asked the slave, who availed himself of every spare
+      moment to attend the services of the Christians, who the lad was. All
+      Alexandria, nay all the Empire, knew the name of the most beautiful youth
+      of his time, the spoilt favorite of Caesar. Even Hannah had heard of him
+      and knew that poets sang his praises and heathen women were eager to
+      obtain a glance from his eyes. She knew how devoid of all morality were
+      the lives of the nobles at Rome, and Antinous appeared to her as a
+      splendid falcon that wheels above a dove to swoop down upon it at a
+      favorable moment and to tear it in its beak and talons. Hannah also knew
+      that Selene was acquainted with Antinous, that it was he who had formerly
+      rescued her from the big dog and afterward saved her from the water; but
+      that Selene, who was now recovering, did not know who her preserver had
+      been on this second occasion was clear from all that she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Towards the end of February Antinous had come on three days in succession,
+      and Hannah now took the step of begging the bishop, Eumenes, to give the
+      gate keeper strict injunctions to look out for the young man and to forbid
+      his entering the garden, even with force if it should prove necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But &ldquo;love laughs at locksmiths&rdquo; and finds its way through locked doors,
+      and Antinous succeeded all the same in finding his way into Paulina&rsquo;s
+      garden. On one of these occasions he was so happy to surprise Selene, as,
+      supported on a stick and accompanied by a fair-haired boy and dame Hannah
+      herself, she hobbled up and down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous had learnt to regard everything crippled or defective with
+      aversion, as a monstrous failure of nature&rsquo;s plastic harmony, but to pity
+      it tenderly; but now he felt quite differently. Mary with her humpback had
+      at first horrified him; now he was always glad to see her though she
+      always crossed his wishes; and poor lame Selene, who had been mocked at by
+      the street boys as she limped along, seemed to him more adorable than
+      ever. How lovely were her face and form, how peculiar her way of walking&mdash;she
+      did not limp&mdash;no, she swayed along the garden. Thus, as he said to
+      himself afterwards, the Nereids are borne along on the undulating waves.
+      Love is easily satisfied, nor is this strange, for it raises all that
+      comes within its embrace to a loftier level of existence. In the light of
+      love weakness is a virtue and want an additional charm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Bithynian&rsquo;s visits were not the widow&rsquo;s only cares; though she
+      bore the others, it is true, not anxiously but with pleasure. Her
+      household had increased by two living souls, and her income was very
+      small. That her patient might not want, she had to work with her own hands
+      while she superintended the girls in the factory, and to carry home with
+      her in the evening papyrus-leaves, not only for Mary, but for herself too,
+      and to glue them together during the long hours of the night. As soon as
+      Selene&rsquo;s condition improved, she too helped willingly and diligently, but
+      for many weeks the convalescent had to give up every kind of employment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mary often looked at Hannah in silent trouble, for she looked very pale.
+      After she had, on one occasion fallen in a fainting fit, the deformed girl
+      had gathered courage and had represented to her that though she ought
+      indeed to put out at interest the talent intrusted to her by the Lord, she
+      ought not to spend it recklessly. She was giving herself no rest, working
+      day and night; visiting the poor and sick in her hours of recreation just
+      as she used, and if she did not give herself more rest would soon need
+      nursing instead of nursing others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At any rate,&rdquo; urged Mary, &ldquo;give yourself a little indispensable sleep at
+      night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must live,&rdquo; replied Hannah, &ldquo;and I dare not borrow, for I may never be
+      able to repay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then beg Paulina to remit your house-rent; she will do so gladly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Hannah, decidedly. &ldquo;The rent of this little house goes to
+      benefit my poor people, and you know how badly they want it. What we give
+      we lend to the Lord, and he taxes no man above his ability.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene was now well, but the physician had said that no human skill could
+      ever cure her of her lameness. She had become Hannah&rsquo;s daughter, and blind
+      Helios the son of the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe was only allowed to see her sister rarely and always accompanied
+      by her protectress, and she and Selene never were able to have any
+      unchecked and open conversation. The steward&rsquo;s eldest daughter was now
+      contented and cheerful, while the younger was not only saddened by the
+      disappearance of her lover, but also, from being unhappy in her new home,
+      she had become fractious and easily moved to shed tears. All was well with
+      the younger orphans; they were often taken to see Selene, and spoke with
+      affection of their new parents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she got well her help diminished the strain on her two friends, and in
+      the beginning of March a call came to the widow which, if she followed it,
+      must give their simple existence a new aspect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Upper Egypt certain Christian fraternities had been established, and
+      one of these had addressed a prayer to the great mother-community at
+      Alexandria, that it would send to them a presbyter, a deacon and a
+      deaconess capable of organizing and guiding the believers and catechumens
+      in the province of Hermopolis where they were already numbered by
+      thousands. The life of the community and the care of the poor, and sick in
+      the outlying districts required organization by experienced hands, and
+      Hannah had been asked whether she could make up her mind to leave the
+      metropolis and carry on the work of benevolence at Besa in an extended
+      sphere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She would there have a pleasant house, a palm-garden, and gifts from the
+      congregation which would secure not merely her own maintenance, but that
+      of her adopted children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hannah was bound to Alexandria by many ties; in the first place she clung
+      to the poor and sick, many of whom had grown very dear to her, and how
+      many girls who had gone astray had she rescued from evil in the factory
+      alone! She begged for a short time for reflection, and this was granted to
+      her. By the fifteenth of March she was to decide, but by the fifth she had
+      already made up her mind, for while Hannah was in the papyrus-factory
+      Antinous had succeeded in getting into Paulina&rsquo;s garden shortly before
+      sunset and in stealing close up to Hannah&rsquo;s house. Mary again observed him
+      as he approached and signed to him to go, in her usual pleasant way; but
+      the Bithynian was more excited than usual; he seized her hand and clasped
+      her with urgent warmth as he implored her to be merciful. She endeavored
+      at once to free herself, but he would not let her go, but cried in coaxing
+      tones:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must see her and speak to her to-day, dear, good Mary, only this once!&rdquo;
+       And before she could prevent it he had kissed her forehead and had flown
+      into the house to Selene. The little hunchback did not know what had
+      happened to her; confused and almost paralyzed by conflicting feelings she
+      stood shame-faced, gazing at the ground. She felt that something quite
+      extraordinary had happened to her, but this wonderful something radiated a
+      dazzling splendor, and since this had risen for her, for poor Mary, a
+      feeling of pride quite new to her mingled with the shame and indignation
+      that filled her soul. She needed a few minutes to collect herself and to
+      recover a sense of her duty, and those few minutes were made good use of
+      by Antinous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He flew with long steps into the room in which, on that
+      never-to-be-forgotten night, he had laid Selene on the couch, and even at
+      the threshold he called her by her name. She started and laid aside the
+      book out of which she was reading to her blind brother. He called a second
+      time, beseechingly. Selene recognized him and asked calmly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you want me, or dame Hannah?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You, you!&rdquo; he cried passionately. &ldquo;Oh Selene, I pulled you out of the
+      water, and since that night I have never ceased to think of you and I must
+      die for love of you. Have your thoughts never, never met mine on the way
+      to you? Are you still and always as cold, as passive as you were then when
+      you belonged half to life and half to death? For months have I prowled
+      round this house as the shade of a dead man haunts the spot where he had
+      left all that was dear to him on earth, and I have never been able to tell
+      you what I feel for you?&rdquo; As he spoke the lad fell on the ground before
+      her and tried to clasp her knees; but she said reproachfully:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does all this mean? Stand up and compose yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! let me, let me&mdash;&rdquo; he besought her. &ldquo;Do not be so cold and so
+      hard; have pity on me and do not reject me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand up,&rdquo; repeated the girl. &ldquo;I will certainly not reproach you&mdash;I
+      owe you thanks on the contrary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not thanks, but love&mdash;a little love is all I ask.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I try to love all men,&rdquo; replied the girl, &ldquo;and so I love you because you
+      have shown me very much kindness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Selene, Selene!&rdquo; he exclaimed in joyful triumph. He threw himself again
+      at her feet and passionately seized her right hand; but hardly had he
+      taken it in his own when Mary, scarlet with agitation, rushed into the
+      room. In a husky voice, full of hatred and fury, she commanded him to
+      leave the house at once, and when he attempted again to besiege her ear
+      with entreaties she cried out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you do not obey I will call the men in to help us, who are out there
+      attending to the flowers. I ask you, will you obey or will you not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why are you so cruel, Mary?&rdquo; asked the blind boy. &ldquo;This man is good and
+      kind and tells Selene he loves her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous pointed to the child with an imploring gesture but Mary was
+      already by the window and was raising her hand to her mouth to make her
+      call heard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t, don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; cried Antinous. &ldquo;I am going at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he went slowly and silently towards the door, still gazing at Selene
+      with passionate ardor; then he quitted the room groaning with shame and
+      disappointment, though still with a look of radiant pride as though he had
+      achieved some great deed. In the garden he was met by Hannah, who
+      immediately hastened with accelerated steps to her own house where she
+      found Mary sobbing violently and dissolved in tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The widow was soon informed of all that had occurred in her absence, and
+      an hour later she had announced to the bishop that she would accept the
+      call to Besa and was ready to start for Upper Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With your foster-children?&rdquo; asked Eumenes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. It was indeed Selene&rsquo;s most earnest wish to be baptized by you, but
+      as a year of probation is required&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will perform the rite to-morrow morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow, Father?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Sister, in all confidence. She buried the old man in the waves of
+      the sea, and before we were her teachers she had gone through the school
+      and discipline of life. While she was yet a heathen she had taken up her
+      cross and proved herself as faithful as though she were a child of the
+      Lord. All that was lacking to her&mdash;Faith, Love and Hope&mdash;she has
+      found under your roof. I thank thee for this soul thou hast found Sister,
+      in the name of the Lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not I, not I,&rdquo; said the widow. &ldquo;Her heart was frozen, but it is not I but
+      the innocent faith of the blind child that has melted it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She owes her salvation to him and to you,&rdquo; replied the bishop, &ldquo;and they
+      both shall be baptized together. We will give the lovely boy the name of
+      the fairest of the disciples, and call him John. Selene for the future, if
+      she herself likes it, shall be known as Martha.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0040" id="link2HCH0040">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Selene and Helios were baptized, and two days after dame Hannah with her
+      adopted children and Mary, escorted by the presbyter Hilarion and a
+      deacon, embarked in the harbor of Mareotis on board a Nile-boat which was
+      to convey them to their new home, the town of Besa in Upper Egypt. The
+      deformed girl had hesitated as to her answer to the widow&rsquo;s question
+      whether she would accompany her. Her old mother dwelt in Alexandria, and
+      then&mdash;but it was this &ldquo;then&rdquo; which helped her abruptly to cut short
+      all reflection and to pronounce a decided &ldquo;yes,&rdquo; for it referred to
+      Antinous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a few minutes it had seemed unendurable to think that she should never
+      see him again, for she could not help often thinking of the beautiful
+      youth, and her whole heart ought to belong solely to the One who had with
+      His blood purchased peace for her on earth and bliss in the world to come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day after being baptized, Selene had gone to Paulina&rsquo;s town-house, and
+      there, with many tears had taken leave of Arsinoe. All the affection which
+      bound the sisters together found expression at this moment of parting.
+      Selene had heard from Paulina that Pollux was dead, and she no longer
+      grudged her rival sister that she grieved for him more passionately than
+      herself, though at first her peace of mind had more than once been
+      disturbed by memories of her old playfellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She felt it hard to leave Alexandria, where most of her brothers and
+      sisters were left behind, and yet she rejoiced to think of a distant home,
+      for she was no longer the same creature that she had been a few months
+      since, and she longed for a remote scene of a new and sanctified life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eumenes and Hannah were in the right. It was not the widow but the little
+      blind boy who had won her to Christianity. The child&rsquo;s influence had
+      proceeded in a strange course. In the first instance the promises of the
+      slave Master that Helios should some day meet his father again in a
+      shining realm among beautiful angels had a powerful effect on the blind
+      child&rsquo;s tender heart and vivid imagination. In Hannah&rsquo;s house his hopes
+      had received fresh nurture, and Mary and the widow told him much about
+      their kind and loving God and His Son who loved children and had invited
+      them to come to Him. When Selene began to recover and he was permitted to
+      talk to her he poured out to her all his delight at what he had heard from
+      the women. At first, to be sure, his sister took no pleasure in these
+      fanciful fables and tried to shake his belief and lead back his heart to
+      the old gods. But while she tried to guide the child, by degrees she felt
+      compelled to follow in his path; at first with wavering steps, but dame
+      Hannah helped her by her example and with many words of good counsel. She
+      only taught her doctrine when the girl asked her questions and begged for
+      information. All that here surrounded Selene breathed of love and peace,
+      and the child felt this, spoke of it, forced her to acknowledge it, and,
+      in his own person, was the first object on which to exercise a wish
+      hitherto unknown to her, to be herself loving and lovable. The boy&rsquo;s firm
+      faith, which was not to be shaken by any reasoning or by any of the myths
+      which she knew, touched her deeply and led to her asking Hannah what was
+      the real bearing of one and another of his statements. It had always
+      seemed a comfort to her that the miseries of our earthly life would come
+      to an end with death; but Helios left her without a reply when he said in
+      a sad voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you feel no longing, then, to see our father and mother again?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To see her mother again! This thought gave her an interest in the next
+      world, and dame Hannah fanned the spark of hope in her soul into flame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene had seen and suffered much misery, and was accustomed to call the
+      gods cruel. Helios told her that God and the Saviour were good and kind,
+      and loved human beings as their children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it not good and kind,&rdquo; asked he, &ldquo;of our Heavenly Father to lead us to
+      dame Hannah?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but we have all been torn apart,&rdquo; said Selene. &ldquo;Never mind,&rdquo; said
+      the child confidently, &ldquo;we shall all meet in Heaven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As she got well Selene asked after each of the children and Hannah
+      described all the families into which they had been received. The widow
+      did not look as if she spoke falsely, and the little ones, when they came
+      to see her, confirmed her report, and yet Selene could hardly believe in
+      the accuracy of the pictures drawn of their lives in the houses of the
+      Christians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mother of a Christian family&mdash;says a great Christian teacher&mdash;should
+      be the pride of her children, the wife the pride of her husband, husband
+      and children the pride of the wife, and God the pride and glory of every
+      member of the household. Love and faith in fact the bond, contentment and
+      virtuous living the law of the family; and it was in just such a pure and
+      beneficent atmosphere, as Selene herself and Helios felt the blessing of
+      in Hannah&rsquo;s house, that each and all of her brothers and sisters were
+      growing up. Her upright sense gave an honest answer when she asked herself
+      what would have become of them all if her father had remained alive and
+      had been dispossessed of his office? They must all have perished in misery
+      and degradation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now?&mdash;Perhaps in truth the Divine Being had dealt in kindness
+      with the children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Love, love, and again love, was breathed from all she saw and heard, and
+      yet&mdash;was it not love that had caused her greatest sorrows. Wherefore
+      had it been her lot to endure so much through the same sentiment which
+      beautified life to others? Had any one ever had more to suffer than she?
+      Aye indeed! A vivacious, eager youth had duped her and had promised
+      happiness to her sister instead of to her; it had been hard to bear&mdash;and
+      yet, the Saviour of whom Hellos had told her, had been far more severely
+      tried. Mankind, for whom He&mdash;the Son of God&mdash;had come down upon
+      earth, to save from misery and guilt, had rewarded His loving kindness by
+      hanging Him on the cross. In Him she could see a companion in suffering
+      and she asked the widow to tell her all about Him. Selene had made many
+      sacrifices to her family&mdash;she could never forget her walk to the
+      papyrus-factory&mdash;but He had let them mock Him and had shed His blood
+      for His own. And who was she?&mdash;and who was He? The Son of God. His
+      image became dear to her; she was never weary of hearing about His life
+      and fate, His words and deeds; and without her observing it the day came
+      when her soul was free to receive the teaching of Christ with fervent
+      longing. With faith she acquired that consciousness of guilt which had
+      previously been unknown to her. She had been busy and industrious out of
+      pride and fear, but never from love; she had selfishly tried to fling from
+      her the sacred gift of life without ever thinking what would become of
+      those whom it was her duty to care for. She had cursed her lovely sister
+      who needed her protection and care, and even Pollux, her childhood&rsquo;s
+      playfellow; and a thousand times had she imprecated the ruler of human
+      destinies. All this she now keenly felt with all the earnestness natural
+      to her, but she was soothed by the tidings that there was One who had
+      redeemed the world, and taken on Himself the sins of every repentant
+      sinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After Selene had once expressed to the widow her desire to be a Christian,
+      Hannah brought the bishop to see her. He himself undertook to instruct the
+      girl and he found in her a disciple anxious and craving for knowledge.
+      Just like those dried-up and dull-colored plants which, when they are
+      plunged in water, open out and revive, so did her heart, untimely withered
+      and dry; and she longed to be perfectly recovered that she, like Hannah,
+      might tend the sick and exercise that love which Christ demands of His
+      followers. That which most particularly appealed to her in her new faith
+      was that it did not promise joys to the rich who could make great
+      sacrifices, but to the miserable sinner who with a contrite heart yearned
+      for forgiveness, to the poor and abject, towards whom she felt as though
+      they belonged to the same family as herself. And her valiant spirit could
+      not be satisfied with intentions but longed to act upon them. In Besa she
+      could set to work with Hannah, and this prospect lightened her grief in
+      quitting Alexandria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A favoring wind bore the voyagers southward safe to their destination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two days after their departure Antinous once more stole into Paulina&rsquo;s
+      garden. He went up to the widow&rsquo;s little house looking in vain for the
+      deformed girl; the road was open; her absence could but be pleasing to
+      him, and yet it disquieted him. His heart beat wildly, for to-day&mdash;perhaps
+      he might find Selene alone. He opened the door without knocking, but he
+      dared not cross the threshold, for in the anteroom stood a strange man,
+      placing boards against the wall. The carpenter, a Christian to whom
+      Paulina had given this little house for his family to live in, asked
+      Antinous what he wanted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is dame Hannah at home?&rdquo; stammered the Bithynian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She no longer lives here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And her adopted daughter, Selene?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is gone with her into Upper Egypt. Have you any message for her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the lad, quite confounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When did they go?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The day before yesterday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And they are not coming back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the next few years, certainly not. Later may be, if it is the Lord&rsquo;s
+      pleasure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous left the garden by the public gate, unmolested. He was very pale,
+      and he felt like a wanderer in the desert who finds the spring choked
+      where he had hoped to find a refreshing draught.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next day, at the first moment he could dispose of, Antinous again knocked
+      at the carpenter&rsquo;s door to inquire in what town of Upper Egypt the
+      travellers proposed to settle and the artisan told him frankly, &ldquo;In Besa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous had always been a dreamer, but Hadrian had never seen him so
+      listless, so vaguely brooding as in these days. When he tried to rouse him
+      and spur him to greater energy his favorite would look at him
+      beseechingly, and though he made every effort to be of use to him and to
+      show him a cheerful countenance it was always with but brief success. Even
+      on the hunting excursions into the Libyan desert which the Emperor
+      frequently made, Antinous remained apathetic and indifferent to the
+      pleasures of the sport to which he had formerly devoted himself with
+      enjoyment and skill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor had remained in Alexandria longer than in any other place, and
+      was weary of festivities and banquets, of the wordy war with the
+      philosophers of the Museum, of conversing with the ecstatic mystics, the
+      soothsayers; astrologers and empirics with whom the place swarmed. And the
+      short audiences which he accorded to the heads of the different religious
+      communities, and the inspection of the factories and workshops of this
+      centre of industry, began to annoy him. One day he announced his intention
+      of visiting the southern provinces of the Nile valley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The high-priests of the native Egyptian faith had craved this favor of
+      him, and he was prompted, not only by his love of information and passion
+      for travelling, but also by considerations of state-craft, to gratify this
+      desire of a hierarchy which was extremely influential in those rich and
+      important provinces. The prospect of seeing with his own eyes those
+      marvels of Pharaonic times which attracted so many travellers, was also an
+      incitement, and his good spirits rose as soon as he observed what a
+      reviving effect his determination to visit southern Egypt had upon
+      Antinous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His favorite had for the last few weeks expressed not the smallest
+      pleasure at any single thing. The homage paid him no less by the
+      Alexandrian than by the Roman ladies of rank sickened him. At banquets he
+      sat a silent guest whose neighborhood could not add to anybody&rsquo;s pleasure,
+      and even the most brilliant and exciting exhibitions in the Circus and the
+      best contests and races in the Hippodrome had hardly sufficed to attract
+      his gaze. Formerly he had been an eager and attentive spectator of the
+      plays of Menander and of his imitators, Alexis, Apollodorus and
+      Posidippus; but now when they were performed he stared into vacancy and
+      thought of Selene. The prospect of going to the place where she was living
+      excited him powerfully and revived his drooping courage for life. He could
+      hope once more, and to the man who sees light shining in the future the
+      present is no longer dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian rejoiced in this change in the lad and hastened the preparations
+      for their departure; still, some months passed before he could begin his
+      journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the first place he had to provide for newly colonizing Libya, which had
+      been depopulated by a revolt of the Jews. Then he had to come to a
+      determination as to certain new post-roads which were to connect the
+      different parts of the empire more nearly, and finally he had to await the
+      formal assent of the Roman Senate to some new resolutions concerning the
+      hereditary reversion of conferred free-citizenship. This assent was, no
+      doubt a matter of course, but the Emperor never issued an edict without
+      it, and he was very desirous that his decree should come into operation as
+      soon as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course of his visits to the Museum the sovereign had informed
+      himself as to the position of the several members of that institution, and
+      he was occupied in making certain regulations which should relieve them of
+      the more sordid cares of life; the condition of the aged teachers and
+      educators of the young had also attracted his observation, and he had
+      endeavored to improve it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Sabina represented to him what a large outlay these new measures
+      would entail, he replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We do not allow the veterans to perish who placed their lives, and limbs
+      at the service of the state. Why then should those who serve it with their
+      intellect be burdened with petty cares? Which should we rank the higher,
+      power and poverty or mental wealth? The harder I&mdash;as the sovereign&mdash;find
+      it to answer the question the more positively do I feel it to be my duty
+      to mete out the same measure to all veterans alike, whether officials,
+      warriors or instructors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Alexandrians themselves detained him too by a succession of new acts
+      of homage. They raised him to the rank of a divinity, dedicated a temple
+      to him, and instituted a series of new festivals in his honor; partly no
+      doubt to win his partiality for their city and to express their pride and
+      satisfaction in his long stay there, but also because the pleasure-loving
+      community was glad to seize this opportunity as a favorable one for
+      gratifying their own inclinations and revelling in mere unusual enjoyment.
+      Thus the Imperial visit swallowed up millions, and Hadrian, who enquired
+      into every detail and contrived to obtain information as to the sums
+      expended by the city, blamed the recklessness of his lavish entertainers.
+      He wrote afterwards to his brother-in-law, Servianus, his fullest
+      recognition of both the wealth and the industry of Alexandrians, saying,
+      with terms of praise, that among them not one was idle. One made glass,
+      another papyrus, another linen; and each of these restless mortals, said
+      he, is busied in some handiwork. Even the lame, the blind and the maimed
+      here sought and found employment. Nevertheless he calls the Alexandrians a
+      contumacious and good-for-nothing community, with sharp and evil tongues
+      that had spared neither Verus nor Antinous. Jews, Christians, and the
+      votaries of Serapis, he adds in the same letter, serve but one God instead
+      of the divinities of Olympus, and when he asserts of the Christians that
+      they even worshipped Serapis he means to say that they were persuaded of
+      the doctrine of the survival of the soul after death. The dispute as to
+      which temple should be assigned as the residence of the newly-found Apis
+      gave Hadrian much to do. From time immemorial this sacred bull had been
+      kept in the temple of Ptah at Memphis, but this venerable city of the
+      Pyramids had been outstripped by Alexandria, and the temple of Serapis
+      outvied that at Memphis in the province of Sokari, tenfold in size and in
+      magnificence. The Egyptians of Alexandria, who dwelt in the quarter called
+      Rhakotis, close to the Serapeum, desired to have the incarnation of the
+      god in the form of a bull, in their midst; but the Memphites would not
+      abandon their old prescriptive rights, and the Emperor had found it far
+      from easy to guide the contest, which proved a very exciting one to all
+      parties, to a satisfactory issue. Memphis had its Apis, and the Serapeum
+      was indemnified by certain endowments which had formerly been granted to
+      the temple at Memphis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last, in June, the Emperor could set out. He wished to traverse the
+      province on foot and on horseback, and Sabina was to follow by boat as
+      soon as the inundation should begin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Empress would gladly have returned to Rome or to Tibur, for Verus had
+      been obliged to quit Egypt by the orders of the physician as soon as the
+      summer heat had set in. He departed with his wife, as the son of the
+      Imperial couple, but no word on Hadrian&rsquo;s part had justified him in hoping
+      confidently to be nominated as his successor to the sovereignty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The handsome rake&rsquo;s unlimited dissipations were severely checked by his
+      sufferings, but not altogether prevented, and on his return to Rome he
+      continued to indulge in all the pleasures of life. Hadrian&rsquo;s hesitation
+      and reluctance often disquieted him, for that imperial Sphinx had, only
+      too frequently, given the most unexpected solutions to his mystifications.
+      But the fatal end with which he had been threatened caused him small
+      anxiety; nay, Ben Jochai&rsquo;s prediction rather prompted him to enjoy to the
+      utmost every hour of health and ease that Fate might still allow him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0041" id="link2HCH0041">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Balbilla and her companion, Publius Balbinus and other illustrious Romans,
+      Favorinus the sophist, and a numerous suite of chamberlains and servants,
+      were to accompany the Empress by water, while Hadrian set forth on his
+      land journey with a small escort to which he added a splendid array of
+      huntsmen. Before he reached Memphis, in crossing the Libyan desert,
+      through which his road lay, he had killed a few lions and many other
+      beasts of prey, and here he had once more found Antinous the best of
+      sporting companions. Cool headed in danger, indefatigable on foot, content
+      and serviceable in all circumstances, the young fellow seemed to Hadrian
+      to be a comrade created by the gods themselves for his special
+      delectation. When Hadrian was in the humor to brood and be silent the
+      whole day long, he never disturbed him by a word; but in these moods the
+      Emperor found his favorite&rsquo;s society indispensable, for the mere
+      consciousness of his presence soothed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous too, was happy on these occasions, for he felt that he was of
+      some use to his venerated master and could thus alleviate the burden which
+      had never ceased to weigh on his own soul ever since the crime he had
+      committed. Besides, he preferred dreaming to talking, and the exercise in
+      the open air preserved him from listless lassitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Memphis Hadrian was detained a whole month, for there he was expected
+      to visit the Egyptian temples with Sabina, who had arrived before him, and
+      to submit to many ceremonials invested with the regalia of the Pharaohs.
+      Sabina often felt as if she must faint when, crowned with the ponderous
+      vulture-headed fillet of the Queens of Egypt, weighed down with long robes
+      and golden ornaments, she was conducted with her husband, in procession,
+      through all the rooms, over the roof and finally into the holiest place of
+      some vast sanctuary. What senseless ceremonials they had to go through in
+      the course of these long circuits, and how many sacrifices had they to
+      attend! When she returned from these visitations she was utterly
+      exhausted, and indeed, it was no small exertion to undergo so many
+      fumigations with incense and so many aspersions, to listen to so many
+      litanies and hymns, to parade through such endless halls and while being
+      elevated to the rank of celestial beings, to be crowned with so many
+      crowns in turn and decorated with all kinds of fillets and symbolic
+      adornments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her husband set her a good example, however; through all the ceremonials
+      he displayed the whole grave majesty of his nature, and among the
+      Egyptians behaved as one of themselves. He even took pleasure in the
+      mystical lore of the priests, with whom he often held long conversations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As at Memphis, so in all the principal temples of the great cities to the
+      southward, the Imperial pair accepted the homage of the hierarchy and the
+      honors due to divinity. Wherever Hadrian granted money for the extension
+      of a temple, he was required to perform the ceremony of laying a stone
+      with his own hand. But he always found time to hunt in the desert, to
+      manage the affairs of state, and to visit the most interesting monuments
+      of past times, and at Memphis especially, the city of the dead, with the
+      Pyramids, the great Sphinx, the Serapeum and the tombs of the Apis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before quitting the city he and his companions consulted the oracle of the
+      sacred bull. The fairest future was promised to Balbilla; the bull to whom
+      she had to offer a cake, with her face averted, had approved of her gift
+      and had touched her hand with his moist muzzle. Hadrian was left in
+      ignorance as to the sentence of the priests of Apis, for it was given to
+      him in a sealed roll with an explanation of the signs it contained; but he
+      was solemnly adjured not to open them before at least half a year had
+      elapsed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was only in the cities that Hadrian met his wife, for he pursued his
+      journey by land and she hers by water. The boats almost invariably reached
+      their destination sooner than the land-travellers, and when they at last
+      arrived, there was always a grand festival to welcome them, in which
+      however Sabina but rarely took part. Balbilla proved herself all the more
+      eager to make their arrival pleasant by some kindly surprise. She
+      sincerely reverenced Hadrian, and his favorite&rsquo;s beauty had an
+      irresistible charm for her artist&rsquo;s soul. It was a delight to her only to
+      look at him; his absence troubled her, and when he returned she was always
+      the first to greet him. And yet the bright girl troubled herself about him
+      neither more nor less than the other ladies in Sabina&rsquo;s train; only
+      Balbilla asked nothing of him but the pleasure of looking at him and
+      rejoicing in his beauty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If he had dared to mistake her admiration for love and to have offered her
+      his, the poetess would have indignantly brought him to his bearings; and
+      yet she gave unqualified expression to her admiration of the Bithynian&rsquo;s
+      splendid person, and indeed with rather remarkable demonstrativeness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the travellers made their appearance again after a prolonged absence
+      Antinous would find in the room in the ship where he was to live flowers,
+      and choice fruits sent by her, and verses in which she had sung his
+      praises. He put it all aside with the rest and only esteemed the donor the
+      less; but the poetess knew nothing of these sentiments in her beautiful
+      idol, and indeed troubled herself very little about his feelings. She had
+      hitherto found no difficulty in keeping within the limits of what was
+      becoming. But lately there had been moments in which she had owned to
+      herself that she might be carried away into overstepping these limits. But
+      what did she care for the opinion of those around her, or about the inner
+      life of the Bithyman, whose external perfection of form was all that
+      pleased her. She did not shrink from the possibility of arousing hopes in
+      him which she never could nor intended to fulfil, for the idea did not
+      once enter her mind; still she felt dissatisfied with herself, for there
+      was one person who might disapprove of her proceedings, one who had indeed
+      in plain words reprehended her fancy for doing honor to the handsome boy
+      with offerings of flowers, and the opinion of that one person weighed with
+      her more than that of all the rest of the men and women she knew, put
+      together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This one was Pontius the architect; and yet, strangely enough, it was
+      precisely her remembrance of him that urged her on from one folly to
+      another. She had often seen the architect in Alexandria, and when they
+      parted she had allowed him to promise to follow her and the Empress, and
+      to escort them at any rate for a part of their voyage up the Nile. But he
+      came not, nor had he sent any report of himself, though he was alive and
+      well, and every express that overtook them brought documents for Caesar in
+      his handwriting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he, on whose faithful devotion she had built as on a rock, was no less
+      self-seeking and fickle than other men. She thought of him every day and
+      every hour; and as soon as a vessel from the north cast anchor within
+      sight, she watched the voyagers as they disembarked to detect him among
+      them. She longed for Pontius as a traveller who has lost his way sighs for
+      a sight of the guide who has deserted him; and yet she was angry with him,
+      for he had betrayed by a thousand tokens that he esteemed and cared for
+      her, that she had a certain power over his strong will&mdash;and now he
+      had broken his word and did not come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And she? She had not been unmoved by his devotion, and had been gentler to
+      this grandson of her father&rsquo;s freed slave than to the best-born man of her
+      own rank. And in spite of it all Pontius could spoil all the pleasure of
+      her journey and stay in Alexandria instead of following in her wake. He
+      could easily have intrusted his building to other architects&mdash;the
+      great metropolis was swarming with them! Well, if he did not trouble
+      himself about her she certainly need care even less about him. Perhaps at
+      last, at the end of their travels he might yet come, and then he should
+      see how much she cared for his admonitions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But she sighed impatiently for the hour when she might read him all the
+      verses she had addressed to Antinous, and ask him how he liked them. It
+      gave her a childish pleasure to add to the number of these little poems,
+      to finish them elaborately, and display in them all her knowledge and
+      ability. She gave the preference to artificial and massive metres; some of
+      the verses were in Latin, others in the Attic, and others again in the
+      Aeolian dialects of Greek, for she had now learnt to use this, and all to
+      punish Pontius&mdash;to vex Pontius&mdash;and at the same time to appear
+      in his eyes as brilliant as she could. She belauded Antinous, but she
+      wrote for Pontius, and for every flower she gave the lad she had sent a
+      thought to the architect, though with a curl on her lips of scornful
+      defiance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But a young girl cannot be always praising the beauty of a youth in new
+      and varied forms with complete impunity, and thus there were hours when
+      Balbilla was inclined to believe that she really loved Antinous. Then she
+      would call herself his Sappho, and he seemed destined to be her Phaon.
+      During his long absences with the Emperor she would long to see him&mdash;nay,
+      even with tears; but, as soon as he was by her side again, and she could
+      look at his inanimate beauty and into his weary eyes, when she heard the
+      torpid &ldquo;Yes&rdquo; or &ldquo;No&rdquo; with which he replied to her questions, the spell was
+      entirely broken and she honestly confessed to herself that she would as
+      soon see him before her hewn in marble as clothed in flesh and blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In such moments as these her memory of the architect was particularly
+      fresh, and once, when their ship was sailing through a mass of lotos
+      leaves, above which one splendid full-blown flower raised its head, her
+      apt imagination, which rapidly seized on everything noteworthy and gave it
+      poetic form, entwined the incident in a set of verses, in which she
+      designated Antinous as the lotos-flower which fulfils its destiny simply
+      by being beautiful, and comparing Pontius to the ship which, well
+      constructed and well guided, invited the traveller to new voyages in
+      distant lands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nile voyage came to an end at Thebes of the hundred gates, and here
+      nothing that could attract the Roman travellers remained unvisited. The
+      tombs of the Pharaohs extending into the very heart of the rocky hills,
+      and the grand temples that stood to the west of the city of the dead,
+      shorn though they were of their ancient glory, filled the Emperor with
+      admiration. The Imperial travellers and their companions listened to the
+      famous colossus of Memnon, of which the upper portion had been overthrown
+      by an earthquake, and three times in the dawn they heard it sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Balbilla described the incident in several long poems which Sabina caused
+      to be engraved on the stone of the colossus. The poetess imagined herself
+      as hearing the voice of Memnon singing to his mother Eos while her tears,
+      the fresh morning dew, fell upon the image of her son, fallen before the
+      walls of Troy. These verses she composed in the Aeolian dialect, named
+      herself as their writer and informed the readers&mdash;among whom she
+      included Pontius&mdash;that she was descended from a house no less noble
+      than that of King Antiochus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gigantic structures on each bank of the Nile fully equalled Hadrian&rsquo;s
+      expectations, though they had suffered so much injury from earthquakes and
+      sieges, and the impoverished priesthood of Thebes were no longer in a
+      position to provide for their preservation even, much less for their
+      restoration. Balbilla accompanied Caesar on a visit to the sanctuary of
+      Ammon, on the eastern shore of the Nile. In the great hall, the most vast
+      and lofty pillared hall in the world, her impressionable soul felt a
+      peculiar exaltation, and as the Emperor observed how, with a heightened
+      color she now gazed upward, and then again, leaning against a towering
+      column, looked at the scene around her, he asked her what she felt,
+      standing in this really worthy abode of the gods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One thing&mdash;above all things one thing!&rdquo; cried the girl. &ldquo;That
+      architecture is the sublimest of the arts! This temple is to me like some
+      grand epode, and the poet who composed it conceived it not in feeble words
+      but formed it out of almost immovable masses. Thousands of parts are here
+      combined to form a whole, and each is welded with the rest into beautiful
+      harmony and helps to give expression to the stupendous idea which existed
+      in the brain of the builder of this hall. What other art is gifted with
+      the power of creating a work so imperishable and so far transcending all
+      ordinary standards?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A poetess crowning the architect with laurels!&rdquo; exclaimed the Emperor.
+      &ldquo;But is not the poet&rsquo;s realm the infinite, and can the architect ever get
+      beyond the finite and the limited?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then is the nature of the divinity a measurable unit?&rdquo; asked Balbilla.
+      &ldquo;No, it is not; and yet this hall gives one the impression that the very
+      divinity might find space in it to dwell in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because it owes it existence to a master-mind, which while it conceived
+      it stood on the boundary line of eternity. But do you think this temple
+      will outlast the poems of Homer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; but the memory of it will no more fade away that of the wrath of
+      Achilles or the wanderings of the experienced Odysseus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a pity that our friend Pontius cannot hear you,&rdquo; said Hadrian. &ldquo;He
+      has completed the plans for a work which is destined to outlive me and him
+      and all of us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean my own tomb. Besides that I intend him to erect gates, courts and
+      halls in the Egyptian style at Tibur, which may remind us of our travels
+      in this wonderful country. I expect him to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow!&rdquo; exclaimed Balbilla, and her face fired with a scarlet flush
+      to her very brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0042" id="link2HCH0042">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Shortly after starting from Thebes&mdash;on the second day of November&mdash;Hadrian
+      came to a great decision. Verus should be acknowledged not merely as his
+      son but also as his successor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sabina&rsquo;s urgency would not alone have sufficed to put a term to his
+      hesitancy, especially as it had lately been farther increased by a wish
+      that was all his own. His wife&rsquo;s heart had pined for a child, but he too
+      had longed for a son, and he had found one in Antinous. His favorite was a
+      boy he had picked up by chance, the son of humble though free parents, but
+      it lay in the Emperor&rsquo;s power to make him great, to confer on him the
+      highest posts of honor in the Empire, and at last to recognize him
+      publicly as his heir. Antinous, if any one, had deserved this at his
+      hands, and on no other man could he so ungrudgingly bestow everything that
+      he possessed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These ideas and hopes had now filled his mind for many months, but the
+      nature and the mood of the young Bithyman had been more and more adverse
+      to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian had striven more earnestly than his predecessors to raise the
+      fallen dignity of the Senate, and still he could count securely on its
+      consent to any measure. The leading official authorities of the Republic
+      had been recognized and allowed the full exercise of their powers. To be
+      sure, be they whom they might, they all had to obey the Emperor, still
+      they were always there; and even with a weak ruler at its head the Empire
+      might continue to subsist within the limits established by Hadrian, and
+      restricted with wise moderation. Nevertheless, only a few months
+      previously he would not have ventured to think of the adoption of his
+      favorite. Now he hoped to find himself somewhat nearer to the fulfilment
+      of his wishes. It is true Antinous was still a dreamer; but in their
+      wanderings and hunting excursions through Egypt he had proved himself
+      gallant and prompt, intelligent, and, after their departure from Thebes,
+      even bold and lively at times. Antinous, under this aspect, he himself
+      might take in hand, and even name him as his successor in due time, when
+      he had risen from one post of honor to another. For the present this plan
+      must remain unrevealed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he publicly adopted Verus any idea of a possible new selection of a
+      son was excluded, and he might unhesitatingly venture to appoint Sabina&rsquo;s
+      darling his successor, for the most famous of the Roman physicians had
+      written to Hadrian, by his desire, saying that the praetor&rsquo;s undermined
+      strength could not be restored, and that, at the best, he could only have
+      a limited number of years to live. Well, then, Verus might die slowly and
+      contentedly in the midst of the most splendid anticipations, and when he
+      should have closed his eyes it would be time enough to set the dreamer&mdash;by
+      that time matured to vigorous manhood&mdash;in the vacant place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the return journey from Thebes to Alexandria Hadrian met his wife at
+      Abydos, and revealed to her his intention of proclaiming the son of her
+      choice as his successor. Sabina thanked him with an exclamation of &ldquo;At
+      last!&rdquo; which expressed partly her satisfaction, but partly too her
+      annoyance at her husband&rsquo;s long delay. Hadrian gave her his permission to
+      return to Rome from Alexandria, and on the very same day messages were
+      despatched with letters both to the Senate and to the prefects of Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The despatch intended for Titianus charged him to proclaim publicly the
+      adoption of the praetor, to arrange at the same time for a grand festival,
+      and on that occasion to grant to the people, in Caesar&rsquo;s name, all the
+      boons and favors which by the traditional law of Egypt the Sovereign was
+      expected to bestow at the birth of an heir to the throne. The whole suite
+      of the Imperial pair celebrated Hadrian&rsquo;s decision by splendid banquets,
+      but the Emperor did not himself take part in them, but crossed to the
+      other bank of the Nile and went to Antaeopolis in the desert, meaning to
+      penetrate from thence into the gorges of the Arabian desert and to chase
+      wild beasts. No one was to accompany him but Antinous, Mastor, and a few
+      huntsmen and some dogs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He meant to rejoin the ships at Besa. He had postponed his visit to this
+      place till the return journey, because he had travelled up by the western
+      shore of the Nile, and the passage across the river would have taken up
+      too much time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The travellers&rsquo; tents were pitched one sultry evening in November, between
+      the Nile and the limestone range, in which was arrayed a long row of tombs
+      of the period of the Pharaohs. Hadrian had gone to visit these, for the
+      remarkable pictures on the walls delighted him, but Antinous remained
+      behind, for he had already looked at similar works oftener than he cared
+      for, in Upper Egypt. He found these pictures monotonous and unlovely, and
+      he had not the patience to investigate their meaning as his master did. He
+      had been a hundred times into the ancient rock-tombs, only not to leave
+      Hadrian and not for his own amusement; but to-day&mdash;he could hardly
+      bear himself for impatience and excitement, for he knew that a ride, a
+      walk, of a few hours, would carry him to Besa and to Selene. The Emperor
+      would remain absent three or four hours at any rate, and if he made up his
+      mind to it he could have sought out the girl for whom his heart was
+      longing before his return, and still be back again before his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But before acting he must reflect. There was the Emperor climbing the
+      hill-side where he could see him, and messengers were expected and he had
+      been charged to receive them. It they should bring bad news, his master
+      must on no account be alone. Ten times did he go up to his good hunter to
+      leap upon his back; once he even took down the horse&rsquo;s head-gear to put on
+      his bridle, but in the very act of slipping the complicated bit between
+      the teeth of his steed his resolution gave way. During all this delay and
+      hesitation the minutes slipped away, and at last it was so late that
+      Hadrian might return and it was folly to think of carrying his plan into
+      execution. The expected express arrived with several letters, but the
+      Emperor did not come back. It grew dark, and heavy rain-drops fell from
+      the overcast sky, and still Antinous was alone. His anxious longing was
+      mingled with regret for the lost opportunity of seeing Selene and alarm at
+      the Emperor&rsquo;s prolonged absence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of the rain, which began to fill more violently, he went out into
+      the open air, of which the sweltering oppressiveness had helped to fetter
+      his feeble volition, and called to the dogs, with whose help he proposed
+      seeking the Emperor; but just then he heard the bark of Argus, and soon
+      after Hadrian and Mastor stepped out of the darkness into the brightness
+      which shone out from the tent, where lights were burning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor gave his favorite but a brief greeting and silently submitted
+      while Antinous dried his hair and brought him some refreshments, and
+      Mastor bathed his feet and dressed him in fresh garments. As he reclined
+      with the Bithyman, before the supper which was standing ready, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A strange evening! how hot and oppressive the atmosphere is. We must be
+      on the lookout, something serious is brewing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What happened to you, my Lord?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Many things. At the door of the very first tomb that I was about to enter
+      I found an old black woman who stretched out her hands against us to keep
+      us out and shrieked out words that sounded horrible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you understand her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;who can learn Egyptian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you do not know what she said?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was to find out&mdash;she cried out &lsquo;Dead!&rsquo; and again &lsquo;Dead!&rsquo; and in
+      the tomb which she was watching there were I know not how many persons
+      attacked by the plague.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You saw them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I had only heard of this disease till then. It is frightful, and
+      quite answers to the descriptions I had read of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Caesar!&rdquo; cried Antinous reproachfully and in alarm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When we turned our backs on the tombs,&rdquo; continued Hadrian, paying no heed
+      to the lad&rsquo;s exclamation, &ldquo;we were met by an elderly man dressed in white
+      and a strange-looking maiden. She was lame but of remarkable beauty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And she was going to the sick?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, she had brought medicine and food to them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But she did not go in among them?&rdquo; asked Antinous eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She did, in spite of my warnings. In her companion I recognized an old
+      acquaintance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An old one?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At any rate older than myself. We had met in Athens when we still were
+      young. At that time he was one of the school of Plato and the most
+      zealous, nay, perhaps the most gifted of us all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How came such a man among the plague-stricken people of Besa? Is he
+      become a physician?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. But at Athens he sought fervently and eagerly for the truth, and now
+      he asserts that he has found it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, among the Egyptians?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In Alexandria among the Christians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the lame girl who accompanied the philosopher&mdash;does she too
+      believe in the crucified God?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. She is a sick-nurse or something of the kind. Indeed there is
+      something grand in the ecstatic craze of these people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it true that they worship an ass and a dove?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not want to believe it; and at any rate they are kind, and succor
+      all who suffer, even strangers who do not belong to their sect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One hears a great deal about them in Alexandria.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! alas!&mdash;I never persecute an imaginary foe, as such I reckon
+      the creeds and ideas of other men; still, I cannot but ask myself whether
+      it can add to the prosperity of the state when citizens cease to struggle
+      against the pressure and necessity of life and console themselves for them
+      instead, by the hope of visionary happiness in another world which perhaps
+      only exists in the fancy of those who believe in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should wish that life might end with death,&rdquo; said Antinous
+      thoughtfully; &ldquo;and yet&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I were sure that in that other world I should find those I long to see
+      again, then I might long for a future life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And would you really like, throughout all eternity, to push and struggle
+      in the crowd of old acquaintances which death does not diminish but rather
+      multiplies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, not that&mdash;but I should like to be permitted to live for ever
+      with a few chosen friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And should I be one of them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;indeed,&rdquo; cried Antinous warmly and pressing his lips to
+      Hadrian&rsquo;s hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was sure of it&mdash;but even with the promise of never being obliged
+      to part with you my darling, I would never sacrifice the only privilege
+      which man enjoys above the immortals.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What privilege can you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The right of withdrawing from the ranks of the living as soon as
+      annihilation seems more endurable than existence and I choose to call
+      death to release me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The gods, it is true, cannot die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the Christians only to link a new life on to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But a fairer and a happier than this on earth. They say it is a life of
+      bliss. But the mother of this everlasting life is the ineradicable love of
+      existence in even the most wretched of our race, and hope is its father.
+      They believe in a complete freedom from suffering in that other world
+      because He whom they call their Redeemer, the crucified Christ, has saved
+      them from all sufferings by His death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And can a man take upon him the sufferings of others, think you, like a
+      garment or a burden?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say so, and my friend from Athens is quite convinced. In books of
+      magic there are many formulas by which misfortunes may be transferred not
+      merely from men to beasts, but from one human being to another. Very
+      remarkable experiments have even been carried out with slaves, and to this
+      day I have to struggle in several, provinces to suppress human sacrifices
+      by which the gods are to be reconciled or propitiated. Only think of the
+      innocent Iphigenia who was dragged to the altar; did not the gulf in the
+      Forum close when Curtius had leaped into it? When Fate shoots a fatal
+      arrow at you and I receive it in my breast, perhaps she is content with
+      the chance victim and does not enquire as to whom she has hit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The gods would be exorbitant indeed if they were not content with your
+      blood for mine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life is life, and that of the young is of better worth than that of the
+      old. Many joys will yet bloom for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you are indispensable to the whole world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After me another will come. Are you ambitious, boy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, my Lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What then can be the meaning of this: that every one wishes me joy of my
+      son Verus excepting you. Do you not like my choice?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous colored and looked at the ground, and Hadrian went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say honestly what you feel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The praetor is ill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He can have but a few years to live, and when he is dead&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He may recover&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When he is dead, I must look out for another son. What do you think now?
+      Who is the being that every man, from a slave to a consul, would soonest
+      hear call him &lsquo;Father?&rdquo;&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some one he tenderly loved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True&mdash;and particularly when that one clung to him with unchangeable
+      fidelity. I am a man like any other, and you, my good fellow, are always
+      nearest to my heart, and I shall bless the day when I may authorize you,
+      before all the world, to call me &lsquo;Father.&rsquo; Do not interrupt me. If you
+      resolutely concentrate your will and show as keen a sense for ruling men
+      as you do for the chase, if you try to sharpen your wits and take in what
+      I teach you, it may some day happen that Antinous instead of Verus&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, not that, only not that!&rdquo; cried the lad, turning very pale and
+      raising his hands beseechingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The greatness with which Destiny surprises us seems terrible so long as
+      it is new to us,&rdquo; said Hadrian. &ldquo;But the seaman is soon accustomed to the
+      storms, and we come to wear the purple as you do your chiton.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Caesar, I entreat you,&rdquo; said Antinous, anxiously, &ldquo;put aside these
+      ideas; I am not fit for great things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The smallest saplings grow to be palms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I am only a wretched little herb that thrives awhile in your shadow.
+      Proud Rome&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rome is my handmaid. She has been forced before now to be ruled by men of
+      inferior stamp, and I should show her how the handsomest of her sons can
+      wear the purple. The world may look for such a choice from a sovereign
+      whom it has long known to be an artist, that is a high-priest of the
+      Beautiful. And if not, I will teach it to form its taste on mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are pleased to mock me, Caesar,&rdquo; cried the Bithynian. &ldquo;You certainly
+      cannot be in earnest, and if it is true that you love me&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What now, boy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will let me live unknown for you, care for you; you will ask nothing
+      of me but reverence and love and fidelity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have long had them, and I now would fain repay my Antinous for all
+      these treasures.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only let me stay with you, and if necessary let me die for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe, boy, you would be ready to make the sacrifice we were speaking
+      of for me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At any moment without winking an eyelash.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you for those words. It has turned out a pleasant evening, and
+      what a bad one I looked forward to&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because the woman by the tomb startled you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Dead,&rsquo; is a grim word. It is true that &lsquo;death&rsquo;&mdash;being dead&mdash;can
+      frighten no wise man; but the step out of light into darkness is fearful.
+      I cannot get the figure of the old hag and her shrill cry out of my mind.
+      Then the Christian came up, and his discourse was strange and disturbing
+      to my soul. Before it grew dark he and the limping girl went homewards; I
+      stood looking after them and my eyes were dazzled by the sun which was
+      sinking over the Libyan range. The horizon was clear, but behind the
+      day-star there were clouds. In the west, the Egyptians say, lies the realm
+      of death. I could not help thinking of this; and the oracle, the
+      misfortunes that the stars threatened me with in the course of this year,
+      the cry of the old woman&mdash;all these crowded into my mind together.
+      But then, as I observed how the sun struggled with the clouds and
+      approached nearer and nearer to the hill-tops on the farther side of the
+      river, I said to myself: If it sets in full radiance you may look
+      confidently to the future; if it is swallowed up by clouds before it sinks
+      to rest, then destiny will fulfil itself; then you must shorten sail and
+      wait for the storm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what happened?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fiery globe burnt in glowing crimson, surrounded by a million rays.
+      Each seemed separate from the rest and shone with glory of its own; it was
+      as though the sinking disc had been the centre of bow-shots innumerable
+      and golden arrow-shafts radiated to the sky in every direction. The scene
+      was magnificent and my heart beat high with happy excitement, when
+      suddenly and swiftly a dark cloud fell, as though exasperated by the
+      wounds it had received from those fiery darts; a second followed, and a
+      third, and sinister Daimons flung a dark and fleecy curtain over the
+      glorious head of Helios, as the executioner throws a coarse black cloth
+      over the head of the condemned, when he sets his knee against him to
+      strangle him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this narrative Antinous covered his face with both hands, and murmured
+      in terror:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Frightful, frightful! What can be hanging over us? Only listen, how it
+      thunders, and the rain thrashes the tent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The clouds are pouring out torrents; see the water is coming in already.
+      The slaves must dig gutters for it to run off. Drive the pegs tighter you
+      fellows out there or the whirlwind will tear down the slight structure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how sultry the air is!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The hot wind seems to warm even the flood of rain. Here it is still dry;
+      mix me a cup of wine, Antinous. Have any letters come?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my Lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give them to me, Mastor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The slave, who was busily engaged in damming up with earth and stones, the
+      trickling stream of rain-water that was soaking into the tent, sprang up,
+      hastily dried his hands, took a sack out of the chest in which the
+      Emperor&rsquo;s despatches were kept and gave it to his master. Hadrian opened
+      the leather bag, took out a roll, hastily broke it open, and then, after
+      rapidly glancing at the contents, exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is this? I have opened the record of the oracle of Apis. How did it
+      come among to-day&rsquo;s letters?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous went up to Hadrian, looked at the sack, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mastor has made a mistake. These are the documents from Memphis. I will
+      bring you the right despatch-bag.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay!&rdquo; said Hadrian, eagerly seizing his favorite&rsquo;s hand. &ldquo;Is this a mere
+      trick of chance or a decree of Fate? Why should this particular sack have
+      come into my hands to-day of all others? Why, out of twenty documents it
+      contains, should I have taken out this very one? Look here.&mdash;I will
+      explain these signs to you. Here stand three pairs of arms bearing shields
+      and spears, close by the name of the Egyptian month that corresponds to
+      our November. These are the three signs of misfortune. The lutes up there
+      are of happier omen. The masts here indicate the usual state of affairs.
+      Three of these hieroglyphics always occur together. Three lutes indicate
+      much good fortune, two lutes and one mast good fortune and moderate
+      prosperity, one pair of arms and two lutes misfortune, followed by
+      happiness, and so forth. Here, in November, begin the arms with weapons,
+      and here they stand in threes and threes, and portend nothing but
+      unqualified misfortune, never mitigated by a single lute. Do you see, boy?
+      Have you understood the meaning of these signs?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perfectly well; but do you interpret them rightly? The fighting arms may
+      perhaps lead to victory.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. The Egyptians use them to indicate conflict, and to them conflict and
+      unrest are identical with what we call evil and disaster.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is strange!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, it is well conceived; for they say that everything was originally
+      created good by the gods, but that the different portions of the great All
+      changed their nature by restless and inharmonious mingling. This
+      explanation was given me by the priest of Apis, and here&mdash;here by the
+      month of November are the three fighting arias&mdash;a hideous token. If
+      one of the flashes which light up this tent so incessantly, like a living
+      stream of light were to strike you, or me, and all of us&mdash;I should
+      not wonder. Terrible&mdash;terrible things hang over us! It requires some
+      courage under such omens as these, to keep an untroubled gaze and not to
+      quail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only use your own arms against the fighting arms of the Egyptian gods;
+      they are powerful,&rdquo; said Antinous; but Hadrian let his head sink on his
+      breast, and said, in a tone of discouragement:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The gods themselves must succumb to Destiny.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The thunder continued to roar. More than once the storm snapped the
+      tent-ropes, and the slaves were obliged to hold on to the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      fragile shelter with their hands; the chambers of the clouds poured mighty
+      torrents out upon the desert range which for years had not known a drop of
+      rain, and every rift and runlet was filled with a stream or a torrent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither Hadrian nor Antinous closed their eyes that fearful night. The
+      Emperor had as yet opened only one of the rolls that were in the day&rsquo;s
+      letter-bag; it contained the information that Titianus the prefect was
+      cruelly troubled by his old difficulty of breathing, with a petition from
+      that worthy official to be allowed to retire from the service of the state
+      and to withdraw to his own estate. It was no small matter for Hadrian to
+      dispense for the future with this faithful coadjutor, to lose the man on
+      whom he had had his eye to tranquillize Judaea&mdash;where a fresh revolt
+      had raised its head, and to reduce it again to subjection without
+      bloodshed. To crush and depopulate the rebellious province was within the
+      power of other men, but to conquer and govern it with kindness belonged
+      only to the wise and gentle Titianus. The Emperor had no heart to open a
+      second letter that night. He lay in silence on his couch till morning
+      began to grow gray, thinking over every evil hour of his life&mdash;the
+      murders of Nigrinus, of Tatianus and of the senators, by which he had
+      secured the sovereignty&mdash;and again he vowed to the gods immense
+      sacrifices if only they would protect him from impending disaster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he rose next morning Antinous was startled at his aspect, for
+      Hadrian&rsquo;s face and lips were perfectly bloodless. After he had read the
+      remainder of his letters he started, not on foot but on horseback, with
+      Antinous and Mastor for Besa, there to await the rest of the escort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0043" id="link2HCH0043">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The unchained elements had raged that night with equal fury over the Nile
+      city of Besa. The citizens of this ancient town had done all they could to
+      give the Imperial traveller a worthy reception. The chief streets had been
+      decked with ropes of flowers strung from mast to mast and from house to
+      house, and by the harbor, close to the river shore, statues of Hadrian and
+      his wife had been erected. But the storm tore down the masts and the
+      garlands, and the lashed waters of the Nile had beaten with irresistible
+      fury on the bank; had carried away piece after piece of the fertile shore,
+      flung its waves, like liquid wedges into the rifts of the parched land;
+      and excavated the high bank by the landing-quay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After midnight the storm was still raging with unheard-of fury; it swept
+      the palm thatch from many of the houses, and beat the stream with such
+      violence that it was like a surging sea. The full unbroken force of the
+      flood beat again and again on the promontory on which stood the statues of
+      the Imperial couple. Shortly before the first dawn of light the little
+      tongue of land, which was protected by no river wall, could no longer
+      resist the furious attack of the waters; huge clods of soil slipped and
+      fell with a loud noise into the river and were followed by a large mass of
+      the cliff, with a roar as of thunder the plateau behind sank, and the
+      statue of the Emperor which stood upon it began to totter and lean slowly
+      to its fall. When day broke it was lying with the pedestal still above
+      ground, but the head was buried in the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At break of day the citizens left their houses to inquire of the fishermen
+      and boatmen what had occurred in the harbor during the night. As soon as
+      the storm had abated, hundreds, nay thousands, of men, women and children
+      thronged the landing-place round the fallen statue&mdash;they saw the
+      land-slip and knew that the current had torn the land from the bank and
+      caused the mischief. Was it that Hapi, the Nile-god, was angry with the
+      Emperor? At any rate the disaster that had befallen the image of the
+      sovereign boded evil, that was clear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Toparch, the chief municipal authority, at once set to work to
+      reinstate the statue which was itself uninjured, for Hadrian might arrive
+      in a few hours. Numerous men, both free and slaves, crowded to undertake
+      the work, and before long the statue of Hadrian, executed in the Egyptian
+      style, once more stood upright and gazing with a fixed countenance towards
+      the harbor. Sabina&rsquo;s was also put back by the side of her husband&rsquo;s and
+      the Toparch went home satisfied. With him most of the starers and laborers
+      left the quay, but their place was taken by other curious folks who had
+      missed the statue from its place, where the land had fallen, and now
+      expressed their opinions as to the mode and manner of its fall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The wind can never have overturned this heavy mass of limestone,&rdquo; said a
+      ropemaker: &ldquo;And see how far it stands from the broken ground.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say it fell on the top of land-slip,&rdquo; answered a baker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is how it was,&rdquo; said a sailor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense!&rdquo; cried the ropemaker. &ldquo;If the statue had stood on the ground
+      now carried away, it must have fallen at once into the water and have sunk
+      to the bottom&mdash;any child can see that other powers have been at work
+      here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very likely,&rdquo; said a temple-servant who devoted himself to the
+      interpretation of signs: &ldquo;The gods may have overset the proud image to
+      give a warning token to Hadrian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The immortals do not mix in the affairs of men in our day,&rdquo; said the
+      sailor; &ldquo;but in such a fearful night as this peaceful citizens remain
+      within doors and so leave a fair field for Caesar&rsquo;s foes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are all faithful subjects,&rdquo; said the baker indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a pack of rebellious rabble,&rdquo; retorted a Roman soldier, who like
+      the whole cohort quartered in the province of Hermopolis, had formerly
+      served in Judaea under the cruel Tinnius Rufus. &ldquo;Among you worshippers of
+      beasts squabbles never cease, and as to the Christians, who have made
+      their nests out there on the other side of the valley, say the worst you
+      can of them and still you would be flattering them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brave Fuscus is quite right!&rdquo; cried a beggar. &ldquo;The wretches have brought
+      the plague into our houses; wherever the disease shows itself there are
+      Christian men and women to be seen. They came to my brother&rsquo;s house; they
+      sat all night by his sick children and of course both died.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If only my old governor Tinnius Rufus were here,&rdquo; growled the soldier,
+      &ldquo;they would none of them be any better off than their own crucified god.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I certainly have nothing in common with them,&rdquo; replied the baker.
+      &ldquo;But what is true must continue true. They are quiet, kind folks and
+      punctual in payment, who do no harm and show kindness to many poor
+      creatures.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kindness?&rdquo; cried the beggar, who had received alms himself from the
+      deacon of the church at Besa, but had also been exhorted to work. &ldquo;All the
+      five priests of Sekket of the grotto of Artemis have been led away by them
+      and have basely abandoned the sanctuary of the goddess. And is it good and
+      kind that they should have poisoned my brother&rsquo;s children with their
+      potions?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should they not have killed the children?&rdquo; asked the soldier. &ldquo;I
+      heard of the same things in Syria; and as to this statue, I will never
+      wear my sword again&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark! listen to the bold Fuscus,&rdquo; cried the crowd. &ldquo;He has seen much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will never wear my sword again if they did not knock over the statue in
+      the dark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; cried the sailor positively. &ldquo;It fell with the land that was
+      washed away; I saw it lying there myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And are you a Christian, too?&rdquo; asked the soldier, &ldquo;or do you suppose that
+      I was in jest when I swore by my sword? I have served in Bithynia, in
+      Syria, and in Judaea. I know these villains, good people. There were
+      hundreds of Christians to be seen there who would throw away life like a
+      worn-out shoe because they did not choose to sacrifice to the statues of
+      Caesar and the gods.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, you hear!&rdquo; cried the beggar. &ldquo;And did you see a single man of them
+      among the citizens who set to work to restore the statue to its place?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There were none of them there,&rdquo; said the sailor, who was beginning to
+      share the soldier&rsquo;s views.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Christians threw down the Emperor&rsquo;s statue,&rdquo; the beggar shouted to
+      the crowd. &ldquo;It is proved, and they shall suffer for it. Every man who is a
+      friend of the divine Hadrian come with me now and have them out of their
+      houses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No uproar!&rdquo; interrupted the soldier to the furious man. &ldquo;There is the
+      tribune, he will hear you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Roman officer, who now came past with a troop of soldiers to receive
+      the Emperor outside the city, was greeted by the crowd with loud shouting.
+      He commanded silence and made the soldier tell him what had so violently
+      excited the people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very possibly,&rdquo; said the tribune, a sinewy and stern-looking man, who,
+      like Fuscus, had served under Tinnius Rufus, and had risen from a sutler
+      to be an officer, &ldquo;Very possibly&mdash;but where are your proofs?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most of the citizens helped in reerecting the statue, but the Christians
+      held aloof from the work,&rdquo; cried the beggar. &ldquo;There was not one to be
+      seen. Ask the sailor, my lord; he was by and he can bear witness to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That certainly is more than suspicious. This matter must be strictly
+      inquired into. Pay heed, you people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here comes a Christian girl!&rdquo; cried the sailor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lame Martha; I know her well,&rdquo; interrupted the beggar. &ldquo;She goes into all
+      the plague-stricken houses and poisons the people. She stayed three days
+      and three nights at my brother&rsquo;s turning the children&rsquo;s pillows till they
+      were carried out. Wherever she goes death follows.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene, now known as Martha, paid no heed to the crowd, but with her blind
+      brother Helios, now called John, went calmly on her way which led from the
+      raised bank down to the landing-quay. There she wished to hire a boat to
+      take her across the stream, for in a village on the island over against
+      the town dwelt some sick Christians to whom she was carrying medicines and
+      whom she was intending to watch. For months past her whole life had been
+      devoted to the suffering. She had carried help even into heathen homes,
+      and shrunk from neither fever nor plague. Her cheeks had gained no color,
+      but her eyes shone with a gentler and purer light which glorified the
+      severe beauty of her features. As the girl approached the captain he fixed
+      his eyes on her, and called out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hey! pale-face&mdash;are you a Christian?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my lord,&rdquo; replied Selene, and she went on quietly and indifferently
+      with her brother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Roman looked after her, and as she passed by Hadrian&rsquo;s statue, and, as
+      she did so, dropped her head rather lower than before, he roughly ordered
+      her to stop and to tell him why she had averted her face from the statue
+      of Caesar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hadrian is our ruler as well as yours,&rdquo; answered the young girl. &ldquo;I am in
+      haste for there are sick people on the island.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will bring them no good!&rdquo; cried the beggar. &ldquo;Who knows what is hidden
+      there in the basket?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence!&rdquo; interrupted the tribune. &ldquo;They say, girl that your
+      fellow-believers overthrew the statue of Caesar in the night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How should that be? We honor Caesar no less than you do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will believe you, and you shall prove it. There stands the statue of
+      the divine Caesar. Come with me and worship it.&rdquo; Selene looked with horror
+      in the face of the stern man, and could not find a word of reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well!&rdquo; asked the captain, &ldquo;will you come? Yes or no?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selene struggled for self-possession, and when the soldier held out his
+      hand to her she said with a trembling voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We honor the Emperor but we pray to no statue&mdash;only to our Father in
+      Heaven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There you have it!&rdquo; laughed the beggar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once more I ask you,&rdquo; cried the tribune. &ldquo;Will you worship this statue,
+      or do you refuse to do so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A fearful struggle possessed Selene&rsquo;s soul. If she resisted the Roman her
+      life was in danger, and the fury of the populace would be aroused against
+      her fellow-believers&mdash;if, on the other hand, she obeyed him, she
+      would be blaspheming God, breaking her faith to the Saviour who loved her,
+      sinning against the truth and her own conscience. A fearful dread fell
+      upon her, and deprived her of the power to lift her soul in prayer. She
+      could not, she dared not, do what was required of her, and yet the
+      overweening love of life which exists in every mortal led her feet to the
+      base of the idol and there stayed her steps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lift up your hands and worship the divine Caesar,&rdquo; cried the tribune, who
+      with the rest of the lookers-on had watched her movements with keen
+      excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Trembling, she set her basket on the ground and tried to withdraw her hand
+      from her brother&rsquo;s; but the blind boy held it fast. He fully understood
+      what was required of his sister, he knew full well, from the history of
+      many martyrs that had been told him, what fate awaited her and him if they
+      resisted the Roman&rsquo;s demand; but he felt no fear and whispered to her:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will not obey his desires Martha; we will not pray to idols, we will
+      cling faithfully to the Redeemer. Turn me away from the image, and I will
+      say &lsquo;Our Father.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With a loud voice and his lustreless eyes upraised to Heaven, the boy said
+      the Lord&rsquo;s prayer. Selene had first set his face towards the river, and
+      then she herself turned her back on the statue; then, lifting her hands,
+      she followed the child&rsquo;s example.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Helios clung to her closely, her loudly uttered prayer was one with his,
+      and neither of them saw or heard anything more of what befell them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blind boy had a vision of a distant but glorious light, the maiden of
+      a blissful life made beautiful by love, as she was flung to the ground in
+      front of the statue of Hadrian, and the excited mob rushed upon her and
+      her faithful little brother. The military tribune tried in vain to hold
+      back the populace, and by the time the soldiers had succeeded in driving
+      the excited mob away from their victims, both the young hearts, in the
+      midst of the triumph of their faith, in the midst of their hopes of an
+      eternal and blissful life, had ceased to beat for ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The occurrence disturbed the captain and made him very uneasy. This girl,
+      this beautiful boy, who lay before him pale corpses, had been worthy of a
+      better fate, and he might be made to answer for them; for the law forbade
+      that any Christian should be punished for his faith without a judge&rsquo;s
+      sentence. He therefore commanded that the dead should be carried at once
+      to the house to which they belonged, and threatened every one, who should
+      that day set foot in the Christian quarter, with the severest punishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The beggar went off, shrieking and shouting, to his brother&rsquo;s house to
+      tell the mistress that lame Martha, who had nursed her daughter to death,
+      was slain; but he gained an evil reward, for the poor woman bewailed
+      Selene as if she had been her own child, and cursed him and her murderers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before sundown Hadrian arrived at Besa, where he found magnificent tents
+      pitched to receive him and his escort. The disaster that had befallen his
+      statue was kept a secret from him, but he felt anxious and ill. He wished
+      to be perfectly alone, and desired Antinous to go to see the city before
+      it should be dark. The Bithynian joyfully embraced this permission as a
+      gift of the gods; he hurried through the decorated high streets, and made
+      a boy guide him from thence into the Christian quarter. Here the streets
+      were like a city of the dead; not a door was open, not a man to be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous paid the lad, sent him away, and with a beating heart went from
+      one house to another. Each looked neat and clean, and was surrounded by
+      trees and shrubs, but though the smoke curled up from several of the roofs
+      every house seemed to have been deserted. At last he heard the sound of
+      voices. Guided by these he went through a lane to an open place where
+      hundreds of people, men, women and children, were assembled in front of a
+      small building which stood in the midst of a palm grove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He asked where dame Hannah lived, and an old man silently pointed to the
+      little house on which the attention of the Christians seemed to be
+      concentrated. The lad&rsquo;s heart throbbed wildly and yet he felt anxious and
+      embarrassed, and he asked himself whether he had not better turn back and
+      return next morning when he might hope to find Selene alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But no! Perhaps he might even now be allowed to see her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He modestly made his way through the throng, which had set up a song in
+      which he could not determine whether it was intended to express feelings
+      of sadness or of triumph. Now he was standing at the gate of the garden
+      and saw Mary the deformed girl. She was kneeling by a covered bier and
+      weeping bitterly. Was dame Hannah dead? No, she was alive, for at this
+      moment she came out of her house, leaning on an old man, pale, calm and
+      tearless. Both came forward, the old man uttered a short prayer and then
+      stooping down, lifted the sheet which covered the dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous pushed a step forward but instantly drew two steps back&mdash;then
+      covering his eyes with his hand he stood as if rooted to the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no vehement lamentation. The old man began a discourse. All
+      around were sounds of suppressed weeping, singing and praying but Antinous
+      saw and heard nothing. He had dropped his hand and never took his eyes off
+      the white face of the dead till Hannah once more covered it with the
+      sheet. Even then he did not stir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not till six young girls lifted Selene&rsquo;s modest bier and four
+      matrons took up that of little Helios on their shoulders and the whole
+      assembly moved away after them, that he too turned and followed the
+      mourning procession. He looked on from a distance while the larger and the
+      smaller coffins were carried into a rocktomb, while the entrance was
+      carefully closed, and the procession dispersed some here and some there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last he found himself alone and in front of the door of the vault. The
+      sun went down, and darkness spread rapidly over hill and vale. When no one
+      was to be seen who could observe him, he threw up his arms, clasped the
+      pillar at the entrance of the tomb, pressed his lips against the rough
+      wooden door and struck his forehead against it while his whole body
+      trembled with the tearless anguish of his spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some minutes he stood so and did not hear a light step which came up
+      behind him. It was Mary, who had come once more to pray by the grave of
+      her beloved friend. She at once recognized the youth and softly called him
+      by his name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mary,&rdquo; he answered, clasping her hand eagerly. &ldquo;How did she die?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Slain,&rdquo; she said, sadly. &ldquo;She would not worship Caesar&rsquo;s image.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous shuddered at the words, and asked, &ldquo;And why would she not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because she was faithful to our belief, and so hoped for the mercy of the
+      Saviour. Now she is a blessed angel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you sure of that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As sure as I live in hope of meeting the martyr who rests here, again in
+      Heaven!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave go of my hand!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you do me a service, Mary?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Willingly, Antinous&mdash;but pray do not touch me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take this money and buy the loveliest wreath that is to be had here. Hang
+      it on this tomb, and say as you do so&mdash;call out&mdash;, From Antinous
+      to Selene.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The deformed girl took the money he gave her and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She often prayed for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To her God?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To our Redeemer, that he might give you also joy. She died for Christ
+      Jesus; now she is with him, and he will grant her prayers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Antinous was silent for a while, then he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once more give me your hand, Mary, and now farewell. Will you sometimes
+      think of me, and pray for me too, to your Redeemer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, and you will not quite forget me, the poor cripple?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not, you good, kind girl! Perhaps we may some day meet again.&rdquo;
+       With these words Antinous hurried down the hill and through the town to
+      the Nile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon had risen and was mirrored in the rough water. Just so had its
+      image played upon the waves when Antinous had rescued Selene from the sea.
+      The lad knew that Hadrian would be expecting him, still he did not seek
+      his tent. A violent emotion had overpowered him; he restlessly paced up
+      and down the river-bank rapidly reviewing in his memory the more prominent
+      incidents of his past life. He seemed to hear again every word of the
+      dialogue that had taken place yesterday between Hadrian and himself.
+      Before his inward eye he saw once more his humble home in Bithynia, his
+      mother, his brothers and sisters whom he should never see again. Once more
+      he lived through the dreadful hour when he had deceived his beloved master
+      and had been an incendiary. An overmastering dread fell upon him as he
+      thought of Hadrian&rsquo;s wish to put him in the place of the man whom the
+      prudent sovereign had chosen as his successor&mdash;a choice that was
+      perhaps the direct outcome of his own crime. He, Antinous, who to-day
+      could not think of the morrow, who always kept out of the way of the
+      discourse of grave men because he found it so hard to follow their
+      meaning, he who knew nothing but how to obey, he who was never happy but
+      alone with his master and his dreaming, far from the bustle of the world&mdash;he,
+      to be burdened with the purple, with anxiety, with a mountain-load of
+      responsibility!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No, no; the idea was unheard-of&mdash;impossible! And yet Hadrian never
+      gave up a wish he had once expressed in words. The future loomed before
+      his soul like some overpowering foe. Suffering, unrest, and misfortune
+      stared him in the face, turn which way he would.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was the hideous fatality that threatened his sovereign? It was
+      approaching, it must come if no one&mdash;aye, if no one should be found
+      to stand between him and the impending blow, and to receive in his own
+      breast&mdash;in his own heart, bared to receive the wound&mdash;the spear
+      hurled by the vengeful god. And he&mdash;he, and he alone was the one who
+      might do this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The thought flashed into his mind like a sudden blaze of light; and if he
+      should find the courage to devote himself to death for his dear master all
+      his sins against him would be expiated; then&mdash;then&mdash;oh, how
+      lovely a thought!&mdash;then might he not find entrance into the gates of
+      that realm of bliss which Selene&rsquo;s prayers had opened to him? There he
+      would see his mother again and his father, and by and bye his brothers and
+      sisters&mdash;but now, at once in a few minutes Her whom he loved and who
+      had trodden the ways of death before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An exquisite sense of hope such as he had never felt before flooded his
+      soul. There lay the Nile&mdash;here was a boat. He gave it a strong push
+      into the stream and with a powerful leap, as when hunting he had often
+      sprung from rock to rock, he jumped into the boat. He had just seized an
+      oar when Mastor, who had been desired by the Emperor to seek him,
+      recognized him in the moonlight and desired him to return with him to the
+      tents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Antinous did not obey. As he pushed out into the stream he called out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Greet my Lord from me&mdash;greet him lovingly, a thousand times, and
+      tell him Antinous loved him more than his life. Fate demands a victim. The
+      world cannot dispense with Hadrian, but Antinous is a mere nonentity, whom
+      none will miss but Caesar, and for him Antinous flings himself into the
+      jaws of death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay-stop! hapless boy, come back!&rdquo; shouted the slave, and leaping into a
+      boat he followed that of the Bithynian, which, impelled by strong and
+      steady strokes, flew away into the current.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mastor rowed with all his might, but he could not gain upon the boat he
+      was pursuing. Thus in a wild race both reached the middle of the stream.
+      There, the slave saw Antinous fling away his oar, and an instant later he
+      heard Antinous call loudly on the name of Selene, and then, in helpless
+      inactivity, he saw the lad glide into the waters, and the Nile swallowed
+      in its flood the noblest and fairest of victims.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0044" id="link2HCH0044">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A night and a day had slipped away since the death of the Bithynian. Ships
+      and boats from every part of the province had collected before Besa to
+      seek for the body of the drowned youth, the shores swarmed with men, and
+      cressets and torches had dimmed the moonlight on river and shore all
+      through the night; but they had not yet succeeded in finding the body of
+      the beautiful youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian had heard in what way Antinous had perished. He had required
+      Mastor to repeat to him more than once the last words of his faithful
+      companion and neither to add nor to omit a single syllable. Hadrian&rsquo;s
+      accurate memory cherished them all and now he had sat till dawn and from
+      dawn till the sun had reached the meridian, repeating them again and again
+      to him self. He sat gloomily brooding and would neither eat nor drink. The
+      misfortune which had threatened him had fallen&mdash;and what a grief was
+      this! If indeed Fate would accept the anguish he now felt in the place of
+      all other suffering it might have had in store for him he might look
+      forward to years free from care, but he felt as though he would rather
+      have spent the remainder of his existence in sorrow and misery with his
+      Antinous by his side than enjoy, without him, all that men call happiness,
+      peace and prosperity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sabina and her escort had arrived-a host of men; but he had strictly
+      ordered that no one, not even his wife, was to be admitted to his
+      presence. The comfort of tears was denied him, but his grief gripped him
+      at the heart, clouded his brain and made hint so irritably sensitive that
+      an unfamiliar voice, though even at a distance, disturbed him and made him
+      angry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The party who had arrived by water were not allowed to occupy the tents
+      which had been pitched for them not far from his, because he desired to be
+      alone, quite alone, with his anguish of spirit. Mastor, whom he had
+      hitherto regarded rather a useful chattel than as a human creature, now
+      grew nearer to him&mdash;had he not been the one witness of his darling&rsquo;s
+      strange disappearance. Towards the close of this, the most miserable night
+      he had ever known, the slave asked him whether he should not fetch the
+      physician from the ships, he looked so pale; but Hadrian forbade it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I could only cry like a woman,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;or like other fathers whose
+      sons are snatched away by death, that would be the best remedy. You poor
+      souls will have a bad time now, for the sun of my life has lost its light
+      and the trees by the way-side have lost their verdure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When he was alone once more he sat staring into vacancy and muttered to
+      himself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All mankind should mourn with me for if I had been asked yesterday how
+      perfect a beauty might be bestowed on one of their race I could have
+      pointed proudly to you, my faithful boy and have said, &lsquo;Beauty like that
+      of the gods.&rsquo; Now the crown is cut off from the trunk of the palm and the
+      maimed thing can only be ashamed of its deformity; and if all humanity
+      were but one man it would look like one who has had his right eye torn
+      out. I will not look on the monsters, lean and fat, that they may not
+      spoil my taste for the true type! Oh faithful, lovable, beautiful boy!
+      What a blind, mad fool have you been! And yet I cannot blame your madness.
+      You have pierced my soul with the deepest thrust of all and yet I cannot
+      even be angry with you. Superhuman! godlike was your faithful devotion.
+      Aye, indeed, it was!&rdquo; As he thus spoke he rose from his seat and went on
+      resolutely and decidedly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here I stretch out this my right hand-hear me, ye Immortals! Every city
+      in the Empire shall raise an altar to Antinous, and the friend of whom you
+      have robbed me I will make your equal and companion. Receive him tenderly,
+      oh, ye undying rulers of the world! Which among you can boast of beauty
+      greater than his? and which of you ever displayed so much goodness and
+      faithfulness as your new associate?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This vow seemed to have given Hadrian some comfort. For above half an hour
+      he paced his tent with a firmer tread, then he desired that Heliodorus his
+      secretary might be called.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Greek wrote what his sovereign dictated. This was nothing less than
+      that henceforth the world should worship a new divinity in the person of
+      Antinous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At noonday a messenger in breathless haste came to say that the body of
+      the Bithynian had been found. Thousands flocked to see the corpse, and
+      among them Balbilla, who had behaved like a distracted creature when she
+      heard to what an end her idol had come. She had rushed up and down the
+      river-bank, among the citizens and fishermen, dressed in black mourning
+      robes and with her hair flying about her. The Egyptians had compared her
+      to the mourning Isis seeking the body of her beloved husband, Osiris. She
+      was beside herself with grief, and her companion implored her in vain to
+      calm herself and remember her rank and her dignity as a woman. But
+      Balbilla pushed her vehemently aside, and when the news was brought that
+      Nile had yielded up his prey she rushed on foot to see the body, with the
+      rest of the crowd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her name was in every mouth, everyone knew that she was the Empress&rsquo; 
+      friend, and so she was willingly and promptly obeyed when she commanded
+      the bearers who carried the bier on which the recovered body lay to set it
+      down and to lift up the sheet which shrouded it. Pale and trembling, she
+      went up to it and gazed down at the drowned man; but only for a moment
+      could she endure the sight. She turned away with a shudder, and desired
+      the bearers to go on. When the funeral procession had disappeared and she
+      could no longer hear the shrill wailing of the Egyptian women, and no
+      longer see them streaking their breast, head, and hair with damp earth and
+      flinging up their arms wildly in the air, she turned to her companion and
+      said calmly: &ldquo;Now, Claudia, let us go home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening at supper she appeared dressed in black, like Sabina and
+      all the rest of the suite, but she was calm and ready with an answer to
+      every observation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pontius had travelled with them from Thebes to Besa, and she had spared
+      him nothing that could punish him for his long absence, and had
+      mercilessly compelled him to listen to all her verses on Antinous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He meanwhile had been perfectly cool about it, and had criticised her
+      poems exactly as if they had referred not to a man of flesh and blood but
+      to some statue or god. This epigram he would praise, the next he would
+      disparage, a third condemn. Her confession that she had been in the habit
+      of complimenting Antinous with flowers and fruit he heard with a shrug of
+      the shoulders, saying pleasantly: &ldquo;Give him as many presents as you will;
+      I know that you expect no gifts from your divinity in return for your
+      sacrifices.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His words had surprised and delighted her. Pontius always understood her,
+      and did not deserve that she should wound him. So she let him gaze into
+      her soul, and told him how much she loved Antinous so long as he was
+      absent. Then she laughed and confessed that she was perfectly indifferent
+      to him as soon as they were together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When, after the Bithynian&rsquo;s death, she lost all self-control he simply let
+      her alone, and begged Claudia to do the same.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same day that the body was found it was burnt on a pile of precious
+      wood. Hadrian had refused to see it when he learnt that the death by
+      drowning had terribly distorted the lad&rsquo;s features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few hours after the ashes of the Bithynian had been collected and
+      brought in a golden vase to Hadrian, the Nile fleet was once more under
+      sail, this time with the Emperor on board one of the boats, to proceed
+      without farther halt to Alexandria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hadrian remained alone with only his slave and his secretary on the boat
+      that conveyed him; but he several times sent to Pontius to desire him to
+      come from the ship on which he was and visit him on his. He liked to hear
+      the architect&rsquo;s deep voice, and discussed with him the plans which Pontius
+      had sketched for his mausoleum in Rome and the monument to his lost
+      favorite which he proposed to have erected from designs of his own in the
+      large city which he intended should stand on the site of the little town
+      of Besa, and which he had already named Antinoe. But these discussions
+      only took up a limited number of hours, and then the architect was at
+      liberty to return to Sabina&rsquo;s boat, on which Balbilla also lived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days after they had quitted Besa he was sitting alone with the
+      poetess on the deck of the Nile boat which, borne by the current and
+      propelled by a hundred oars, was rapidly and steadily nearing its
+      destination. Ever since the death of the hapless favorite Pontius had
+      avoided mentioning him to her. She had now become as observant and as
+      talkative as before, and in her eyes there even shone at times a ray of
+      the old sunny gayety of her nature. The architect thought he comprehended
+      the characteristic change in her sentiments, and would not allude to the
+      cause of the violent but transient fever under which she had suffered.
+      &ldquo;What did you discuss with Caesar to-day?&rdquo; asked Balbilla of her friend.
+      Pontius looked down at the ground and considered whether he could venture
+      to utter the name of Antinous before the poetess. Balbilla observed his
+      hesitation and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak on; I can hear anything. That folly is past and over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Caesar is at work at the plans for a new town to be built and called
+      Antinoe, and a sketch for a monument to his ill-fated favorite,&rdquo; said
+      Pontius. &ldquo;He will not accept any help, but I have to teach him to
+      discriminate what is possible from what is impossible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! he is always gazing at the stars and you look steadily at the road on
+      which you are walking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An architect can make no use of anything that is unsteady or that has no
+      firm foundation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a hard saying, Pontius. It is true that during the last few weeks
+      I have behaved like a fool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only wish that every tottering structure could recover its balance as
+      quickly and as certainly as you! Antinous was a demigod for beauty, and a
+      good faithful fellow besides.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not speak of him any more,&rdquo; exclaimed Balbilla shuddering. &ldquo;He looked
+      dreadful. Can you forgive me for my conduct?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never was angry with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I lost your esteem.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Balbilla. Beauty, which is dear to us all, and which the Muse has
+      kissed, attracted your easily moved poet&rsquo;s soul and it fluttered off at
+      random. Let it fly! My friend&rsquo;s true womanly nature was never carried away
+      by it. She stands on a rock, that I am sure of.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How good and kind in you to say so&mdash;too good, too kind! for I am a
+      feeble creature, turned by every breeze that blows, a vain little fool who
+      does not know one hour what she may do the next, a spoilt child that likes
+      best to do the thing it ought to leave undone, a weak girl who finds a
+      pleasure in doing battle with men. For all in all&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For all in all a darling of the gods who to-day can climb the rocks with
+      a firm step and to-morrow lies dreaming in the sunshine among flowers&mdash;for
+      all in all a nature that has no equal and which lacks nothing, nothing
+      whatever that constitutes a true woman excepting&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know what I lack,&rdquo; cried Balbilla. &ldquo;A strong man on whom I can depend,
+      whose warnings I can respect. You, you are that man; you and none other,
+      for as soon as I feel you by my side I find it difficult to do what I know
+      to be wrong. Here I am, Pontius! Will you have me with all my moods, with
+      all my faults and weaknesses?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Balbilla!&rdquo; cried the architect, beside himself with heartfelt agitation
+      and surprise, and he pressed her hand long and fervently to-his lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will? You will take me? You will never leave me, you will warn,
+      support me and protect me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Till my last day, till death, as my child, as the apple of my eye, as&mdash;dare
+      I say it and believe it?&mdash;as my love, my second self, my wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! Pontius, Pontius,&rdquo; she exclaimed, grasping his broad, right hand in
+      both her own. &ldquo;This hour restores to the orphaned Balbilla, father and
+      mother and gives her besides the husband that she loves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mine, mine!&rdquo; cried the architect. &ldquo;Immortal gods! During half a lifetime
+      I have never found time, in the midst of labor and fatigue, to indulge in
+      the joys of love and now you give me with interest and compound interest
+      the treasure you have so long withheld.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can you, a reasonable man, so over-estimate the value of your
+      possession? But you shall find some good in it. Life can no longer be
+      conceived of as worth having without the possessor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And to me it has so long seemed empty and cold without you, you strange,
+      unique, incomparable creature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why did you not come sooner, and so give me no time to behave like a
+      fool?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, because,&rdquo; said Pontius, gravely, &ldquo;such a flight towards the sun
+      seemed to me too bold; because I remember that my father&rsquo;s father&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was the noblest man that the ancestor of my house attracted to its
+      greatness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was&mdash;consider it duly at this moment&mdash;he was your
+      grandfather&rsquo;s slave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it, but I also know, that there is not a man on earth who is
+      worthier of freedom than you are, or whom I could ask as humbly as I ask
+      you: Take me, poor, foolish Balbilla, to be your wife, guide me and make
+      of me whatever you can, for your own honor and mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The brief Nile voyage brought days and hours of the highest happiness to
+      Balbilla and her lover. Before the fleet sailed into the Mareotic harbor
+      of Alexandria, Pontius revealed his happy secret to the Emperor. Hadrian
+      smiled for the first time since the death of his favorite, and desired the
+      architect to bring Balbilla to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was wrong in my interpretation of the Pythian oracle,&rdquo; said he, as he
+      laid the poetess&rsquo;s hand in that of Pontius. &ldquo;Would you like to know how it
+      runs Pontius&mdash;do not prompt me, my child. Anything that I have read
+      through once or twice I never forget. Pythia said:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  &lsquo;That which thou boldest most precious and dear shall be torn from
+     thy keeping,
+   And from the heights of Olympus, down shalt thou fall in the dust;
+   Still the contemplative eye discerns under mutable sand-drifts
+   Stable foundations of stone, marble and natural rock.&rsquo; 
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have chosen well girl. The oracle guaranteed you a safe road to tread
+      through life. As to the dust of which it speaks, it exists no doubt in a
+      certain sense, but this hand wields the broom that will sweep it away.
+      Solemnize your marriage in Alexandria as soon as you will, but then come
+      to Rome, that is the only condition I impose. A thing I always have at
+      heart is the introduction of new and worthy members into the class of
+      Knights, for it is in that way alone that its fallen dignity can be
+      restored. This ring, my Pontius, gives you the rank of eques, and such a
+      man as you are, the husband of Balbilla and the friend of Caesar may no
+      doubt by-and-bye find a seat in the Senate. What this generation can
+      produce in stone and marble, my mausoleum shall bear witness to. Have you
+      altered the plan of the bridge?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0045" id="link2HCH0045">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In Alexandria the news of the nomination of the &ldquo;sham Eros&rdquo; to be the
+      Emperor&rsquo;s successor was hailed with joy, and the citizens availed
+      themselves gladly of his fresh and favorable opportunity to hold one
+      festival after another. Titianus took care to provide for the due
+      performance of the usual acts of grace, and among others he threw open the
+      prison-gates of Canopus, and the sculptor Pollux was set at liberty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hapless artist had grown pale, it is true, in durance vile, but
+      neither leaner nor enfeebled in body; on the other hand all the vigor of
+      his intellect, all his bright courage for life and his happy creative
+      instinct, seemed altogether crushed out of him. His face, as in his dirty
+      and ragged chiton, he journeyed from Canopus to Alexandria, revealed
+      neither eager thankfulness for the unexpected boon of liberty, nor
+      happiness at the prospect of seeing again his own people and Arsinoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the town he went, unintelligently dreaming as he walked, from one
+      street to another, but he was familiar with every stone of the way, and
+      his feet found their way to his sister&rsquo;s house. How happy was Diotima, how
+      her children rejoiced, how impatient was each one to conduct him to the
+      old folks! How high in the air the Graces frisked and leaped in front of
+      the new little home to welcome the returned absentee! And Doris, poor
+      Doris, almost fainted with joyful surprise and her husband had to support
+      her in his arms when her long vanished son, whom she had never given up
+      for lost, however, suddenly stood before her and said: &ldquo;Here am I.&rdquo; How
+      fondly she kissed and caressed her dear, cruel, restored fugitive. The
+      singer too loudly expressed his joy alike in verse and in prose, and
+      fetched his best theatrical dress out of the chest to put it on his son in
+      the place of his ragged chiton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A mighty torrent of curses and execrations flowed from the old man&rsquo;s lips
+      as Pollux told his story. The sculptor found it difficult to bring it to
+      an end, for his father interrupted him at every word, and all the while he
+      was talking his mother forced him to eat and drink incessantly, even when
+      he could no more. After he had assured her that he was long since replete,
+      she pushed two more pots on to the fire, for he must have been
+      half-starved in prison, and what he did not want now he would find room
+      for two hours hence. Euphorion himself conducted Pollux to the bath in the
+      evening, and as they went home together he never for an instant left his
+      side; the sense of being near him did him good and was like some
+      comfortable physical sensation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The singer was not usually inquisitive, but on this occasion he never
+      ceased asking questions till Doris led her son to the bed she had freshly
+      made for him. After the artist had gone to rest, the old woman once more
+      slipped into his room, kissed his forehead, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-day you have still been thinking too much of that hideous prison&mdash;but
+      to-morrow my boy, to-morrow you will be the same as before, will you not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only leave me alone mother; I shall soon be better,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;This
+      bed is as good as a sleeping-draught; the plank in the prison was quite a
+      different thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have never asked once for your Arsinoe,&rdquo; said Doris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can she matter to me? Only let me sleep.&rdquo; But the next morning
+      Pollux was just the same as he had been the previous evening, and as the
+      days went on his condition remained unchanged. His head drooped on his
+      breast, he never spoke but when he was spoken to, and when Doris or
+      Euphorion tried to talk to him of the future, he would ask: &ldquo;Am I a burden
+      to you?&rdquo; or begged them not to worry him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still, he was gentle and kind, took his sister&rsquo;s children in his arms,
+      played with the Graces, whistled to the birds, went in and out, and played
+      a valiant part at every meal. Now and again he would ask after Arsinoe.
+      Once he allowed himself to be guided to the house where she lived, but he
+      would not knock at Paulina&rsquo;s door and seemed overawed by the grandeur of
+      the house. After he had been brooding and dreaming for a week, so idle,
+      listless, and absent that his mother&rsquo;s heart was filled with anxious fears
+      every time she looked at him, his brother Teuker hit upon a happy idea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young gem-cutter was not usually a frequent visitor to his parents&rsquo; 
+      house, but since the return of the hapless Pollux he called there almost
+      daily. His apprenticeship was over and he seemed on the high-road to
+      become a great master in his art; nevertheless he esteemed his brother&rsquo;s
+      gifts as far beyond his own and had tried to devise some means of
+      reawakening the dormant energies of the luckless man&rsquo;s brain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was at this table,&rdquo; said Teuker to his mother, &ldquo;that Pollux used to
+      sit. This evening I will bring in a lump of clay and a good piece of
+      modelling wax. Just put it all on the table and lay his tools by the side
+      of it; perhaps when he sees them he will take a fancy again to work. If he
+      can only make up his mind to model even a doll for the children he will
+      soon get into the vein again, and he will go on from small things to
+      great.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Teuker brought the materials, Doris set them out with the modelling tools,
+      and next morning watched her son&rsquo;s proceedings with an anxious heart. He
+      got up late, as he had always done since his return home, and sat a long
+      time over the bowl of porridge which his mother had prepared for his
+      breakfast. Then he sauntered across to his table, stood in front of it
+      awhile, broke off a piece of clay and kneaded and moulded it in his
+      fingers into balls and cylinders, looked at one of them more closely and
+      then, flinging it on the ground, he said, as he leaned across the table
+      supporting himself on both hands to put his face near his mother&rsquo;s:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You want me to work again; but it is of no use&mdash;I could do no good
+      with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old woman&rsquo;s eyes filled with tears, but she did not answer him. In the
+      evening Pollux begged her to put away the tools.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he was gone to bed she did so, and while she was moving about with a
+      light in the dark, lumber-room in which she had kept them with other
+      disused things, her eye fell on the unfinished wax model which had been
+      the last work of her ill-starred son. A new idea struck her. She called
+      Euphorion, made him throw the clay into the court-yard and place the model
+      on the table by the side of the wax. Then she put out the very same tools
+      as he had been using on the fateful day of their expulsion from Lochias,
+      close to the cleverly-sketched portrait, and begged her husband to go out
+      with her quite early next morning and to remain absent till mid-day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will see,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;when he is standing face to face with his last
+      work and there is no one by to disturb him or look at him, he will find
+      the ends of the threads that have been cut and perhaps be able to gather
+      them up again and go on with the work where it was interrupted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mother&rsquo;s heart had hit upon the right idea. When Pollux had eaten his
+      breakfast he went to his table exactly as he had done the clay before; but
+      the sight of the work in hand had quite a different effect to the mere raw
+      clay and wax. His eyes sparkled; he walked round the table with an
+      attentive gaze examining his work as keenly and as eagerly as if it were
+      some fine thing he saw for the first time. Memory revived in his mind. He
+      laughed aloud, clasped his hands and said to himself, &ldquo;Capital! Something
+      may be made of that!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His dull weariness slipped off him, as it were; a confident smile parted
+      his lips and he seized the wax with a firm hand. But he did not begin to
+      work at once; he only tried whether his fingers had not lost their
+      cunning, and whether the yielding material was obedient to his will. The
+      wax was no less docile to his touch than in former days, as he pinched or
+      pulled it. Perhaps then the tormenting thought that blighted his life, the
+      dread that in the prison he had ceased to be an artist, and had lost all
+      his faculty was nothing more than a mad delusion! He must at any rate try
+      how he could get on at the work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one was by to observe him&mdash;he might dare the attempt at once. The
+      sweat of anguish stood in large beads on his brow as he finally
+      concentrated his volition, shook back the hair from his face and took up a
+      lump of the wax in both hands. There stood the portrait of Antinous with
+      the head only half-finished. Now&mdash;could he succeed in modelling that
+      lovely head free-hand and from memory?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His breath came fast, and his hands trembled as he set to work; but soon
+      his hand was as steady as ever, his eye was calm and keen again, and the
+      work progressed. The fine features of the young Bithynian were distinct to
+      his mind&rsquo;s eye, and when, about four hours after, his mother looked in at
+      the window to see what Pollux was doing, whether her little stratagem had
+      succeeded, she cried out with surprise, for the favorite&rsquo;s bust, a
+      likeness in every feature, stood on a plinth side by side with the
+      original sketch. Before she could cross the threshold her son had run to
+      meet her, lifted her in his arms, and kissing her forehead and lips he
+      exclaimed, radiant with delight:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mother, I still can work. Mother, mother, I am not lost!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the afternoon his brother came in and saw what he had been doing, and
+      now&mdash;and not till now&mdash;could Teuker honestly be glad to have
+      found his brother again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the two artists were sitting together, and the gem-cutter was
+      suggesting to the sculptor, who had complained of the bad light in his
+      parent&rsquo;s house, that he should carry the statue to his master&rsquo;s workshop&mdash;which
+      was much lighter&mdash;to complete it, Euphorion had quietly gone to some
+      remote corner of his provision-shed and brought to light an amphora full
+      of noble Chian wine which had been given to him by a rich merchant, for
+      whose wedding he had performed the part of Hymenaeus with a chorus of
+      youths. For twenty years had he still preserved this jar of wine for some
+      specially happy occasion. This jar and his best lute were the only objects
+      which Euphorion had carried with his own hand from Lochias to his
+      daughter&rsquo;s house and then again to his own new abode. With an air of
+      dignified pride the singer set the old amphora before his sons, but Doris
+      laid hands upon it at once and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad to bestow the good gift upon you, and would willingly drink a
+      cup of it with you; but a prudent general does not celebrate his triumph
+      before he has won the battle. As soon as the statue of the beautiful lad
+      is completed, I myself, will wreathe this venerable jar with ivy, and beg
+      you spare it to us, my dear old man&mdash;but not before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mother is right,&rdquo; said Pollux. &ldquo;And if the amphora is really destined for
+      me, if you will allow it, my father shall not remove the pitch wig from
+      its venerable head, till Arsinoe is mine once more!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is well my boy,&rdquo; cried Doris, &ldquo;and then I will crown, not merely the
+      jar but all of us too, with nothing but sweet roses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day Pollux, with his unfinished statue, removed to the workshop
+      of his brother&rsquo;s master. The worthy man cleared the best place for the
+      young sculptor, for he thought highly of him and wished to make good, as
+      far as lay in his power, the injustice the poor fellow had suffered from
+      the treachery of Papias. Now, from sunrise till evening fell, Pollux was
+      constant to his work. He gave himself up to the resuscitated pleasure and
+      power of creation with real passion. Instead of using wax he had recourse
+      to clay, and formed a tall figure which represented Antinous as the
+      youthful Bacchus, as the god might have appeared to the pirates. A mantle
+      fell in light folds from his left shoulder to his ankles, leaving the
+      broad breast and right aria entirely free; vine-leaves and grapes wreathed
+      his flowing locks, and a pine-cone, flame-shaped, crowned his brow. The
+      left arm was raised in a graceful curve, and his fingers lightly grasped a
+      thyrsus which rested on the ground and stood taller than the god&rsquo;s head;
+      by the side of this magnificent figure stood a mighty wine-jar, half
+      hidden by the drapery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a whole week Pollux had devoted himself to this task during all the
+      hours of daylight with unflagging zeal and diligence. Before night fell he
+      was accustomed to leave his work and walk up and down in front of
+      Paulina&rsquo;s house, but for the present he refrained from knocking at the
+      door and asking after the girl he loved. He had heard from his mother how
+      anxiously she was guarded from him and his; still Paulina&rsquo;s severity would
+      certainly not have hindered the artist from making the attempt to possess
+      himself of his dearest treasure. What held him back from even approaching
+      Arsinoe, was the vow he had made to himself never to tempt her to quit her
+      new and sheltered home till he had acquired a firm certainty of being once
+      for all an artist, a true artist, who might hope to do something great,
+      and who might dare to link the fate of the woman he loved, with his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When, on the eighth morning of his labors, he was taking a few minutes
+      rest, his brother&rsquo;s master came past the rapidly advancing work, and after
+      contemplating it for some time exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Splendid, splendid! Our time has produced nothing to compare with it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour later Pollux was standing at the door of Paulina&rsquo;s town-house, and
+      let the knocker fall heavily on the door. The steward opened to him and
+      asked him what he wanted. He asked to speak with dame Paulina, but she was
+      not at home. Then he asked after Arsinoe, the daughter of Keraunus, who
+      had found a home with the rich widow. The servant shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My mistress is having her searched for,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;She disappeared
+      yesterday evening. The ungrateful creature! She has tried to run away
+      several times before now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The artist laughed, slapped the steward on the back, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will soon find her!&rdquo; and he sprang away down the street, and back to
+      his parents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe had received much kindness in Paulina&rsquo;s house, but she had also
+      gone through many bad hours. For months she had been obliged to believe
+      that her lover was dead. Pontius had told her that Pollux had entirely
+      vanished and her benefactress persisted in al ways speaking of him as of
+      one dead. The poor child had shed many tears for him, and when the longing
+      to talk of him with some one who had known him had taken possession of her
+      she had entreated Paulina to allow her to go to see his mother or to let
+      Doris visit her. But the widow had desired her to give up all thought of
+      the idol-maker and his belongings, speaking with contempt of the
+      gate-keeper&rsquo;s worthy wife. Just at that time Selene also left the city,
+      and now Arsinoe&rsquo;s longing for her old friends grew to a passionate craving
+      to see them again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day she yielded to the promptings of her heart and slipped out into
+      the street to seek Doris; but the door-keeper, who had been charged by
+      Paulina never to allow her to go outside the door without his mistress&rsquo;s
+      express permission, noticed her and brought her back to her protectress&mdash;not
+      this time only, but, on several subsequent occasions when she attempted to
+      escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not merely her longing to talk about Pollux which made her new home
+      unendurable to Arsinoe, but many other reasons besides. She felt like a
+      prisoner; and in fact she was one, for after each attempt at flight her
+      freedom of movement was still farther impeded. It is true that she had
+      soon ceased to submit patiently to all that was required of her and even
+      had often opposed her adoptive mother with vehement words, tears and
+      execrations, but these unpleasant scenes, which always ended by a
+      declaration on Paulina&rsquo;s part that she forgave the girl, had always
+      resulted in a long break in her drives and in a variety of small
+      annoyances. Arsinoe was beginning to hate her benefactress and everything
+      that surrounded her, and the hours of catechising and of prayer, which she
+      could not escape, were a positive martyrdom. Ere long the doctrine to
+      which Paulina sought to win her was confounded in her mind with that which
+      it was intended to drive out, and she defiantly shut her heart against it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bishop Eumenes, who had been elected in the spring Patriarch of the
+      Christians of Alexandria, visited her oftener than usual during the summer
+      when Paulina lived in her suburban villa. Paulina, it is true, had fancied
+      she could do without his help, and that she could and must carry her task
+      through to the end by herself; but the worthy old man had felt
+      sympathetically drawn to the poor ill-guided child, and sought to soothe
+      and calm her mind and show her the goal, towards which Paulina desired to
+      lead her, in all its beauty. After such discourses Arsinoe would be
+      softened and felt inclined to believe in God and to love Christ, but no
+      sooner had her protectress called her again into the school-room and put
+      the very same things before her in her own way than the girl&rsquo;s
+      heartstrings drew close again; and when she was desired to pray she raised
+      her hands, indeed, but out of sheer defiance, she prayed in spirit to the
+      Greek gods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frequently Paulina received visits from heathen acquaintances in rich
+      dresses and the sight of them always reminded Arsinoe of former days. How
+      poor she had been then! and yet she had always had a blue or a red ribbon
+      to plait in her hair and trim the edge of her peplum. Now she might wear
+      none but white dresses and the least scrap of colored ornament to dress
+      her hair or smarten her robe was strictly forbidden. Such vain trifles,
+      Paulina would say, were very well for the heathen, but the Lord looked not
+      at the body but at the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ah! and the poor little heart of the hapless child could not offer a very
+      pleasing sight to the Father in Heaven, for hatred and disgust, sadness,
+      impatience, and blasphemy seethed in it from morning till night. This
+      young nature was surely formed for love and contentment, and both had left
+      her weeping. Still Arsinoe never ceased to yearn for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When November had begun and another attempt to run away during their move
+      back to the town-house had failed, Paulina tried to punish her by never
+      speaking a word to her for a fortnight, and forbidding even the
+      slave-women to speak to her. In these two weeks the talkative girl was
+      reduced almost to desperation, and she even thought of throwing herself
+      off the roof down into the court-yard. But she clung too dearly to life to
+      carry this horrible project into execution. On the first of December
+      Paulina once more spoke to her, forgave her ingratitude, as usual in a
+      long, kind speech, and told her how many hours she had spent in praying
+      for her enlightenment and improvement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Paulina spoke the truth, and yet but half the truth, for she had never
+      felt a real love for Arsinoe, and had now for a long time watched her come
+      and go with actual dislike; but she required her conversion in order that
+      the warmest wish of her heart might find fulfilment. It was for the
+      happiness of her daughter, and not for the sake of her recalcitrant
+      companion, that she prayed for her enlightenment and never ceased in her
+      efforts to open the callous heart of her adopted child to the true faith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the afternoon preceding that morning when Pollux had at last knocked at
+      the Christian widow&rsquo;s door, the sun shone with particular brilliancy, and
+      Paulina had allowed the girl to go out with her. They spent some little
+      time with a Christian family who dwelt on the shore of Lake Mareotis, and
+      so it fell out that they did not return home till late in the evening.
+      Arsinoe had long learnt, while she sat apparently gazing at the ground, to
+      keep her eyes out of the carriage and to see everything that was going on
+      around her; and as the chariot turned into their own street she spied in
+      the distance a tall man who looked like her long-wept Pollux. She fixed
+      her eyes upon him, and had some difficulty in keeping herself from calling
+      out aloud, for he it was who walked slowly down the street. She could not
+      be mistaken, for the torches of two slaves who were walking in front of a
+      litter had broadly lighted up his face and figure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was not lost&mdash;he was living, and seeking her. She could have
+      shouted aloud for joy, but she did not stir till Paulina&rsquo;s chariot was
+      standing still in front of her house. The door-keeper bustled out as usual
+      to help his mistress to step out of the high-slung vehicle. Thus Paulina
+      for an instant turned her back, and in that moment Arsinoe sprang out of
+      the opposite side of the chariot, and was flying down towards the street
+      where she had seen her lover. Before Paulina could discover that she was
+      gone the runaway found herself in the midst of the throng which, when the
+      day&rsquo;s work was over, poured out from the workshops and factories on their
+      way home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Paulina&rsquo;s slaves, who were sent out at once to seek the fugitive, had to
+      return home this time empty-handed; but Arsinoe, on her part, had not
+      succeeded in finding him she sought. For an hour she looked round and
+      about her in vain; then she perceived that her search must be
+      unsuccessful, and wondered how she might find her way to his parents&rsquo; 
+      house. Rather than return to her benefactress she would have joined the
+      roofless crew who passed the night on the hard marble pavement of the
+      forecourts of the temple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first she rejoiced in the sense of recovered liberty, but when none of
+      the passers-by could tell her where Euphorion, the singer, lived, and some
+      young men followed her and addressed her with impudent speeches, terror
+      made her turn aside into a street which led to the Bruchiom; her
+      persecutors had not even then ceased to follow her, when a litter,
+      escorted by lictors and several torch-bearers, was carried past. It was
+      Julia, the kind wife of the prefect, who sat in it; Arsinoe recognized her
+      at once, followed her, and reached the door of her residence at the same
+      moment as she herself. As the matron got out of her litter she observed
+      the girl who placed herself modestly, but with hands uplifted in entreaty,
+      at the side of her path. Julia greeted the pretty creature in whom she had
+      once taken a motherly interest with affectionate sympathy, beckoned
+      Arsinoe to her, smiled as she listened to her request for a night&rsquo;s
+      shelter, and led her with much satisfaction to her husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Titianus was ill; still he was glad once more to see the ill-fated
+      palace-steward&rsquo;s pretty daughter; he listened to her story of her flight
+      with many signs of disapprobation, but kindly withal, and expressed the
+      warmest satisfaction at hearing that the sculptor Pollux was still in the
+      land of the living.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grand and lordly bed in one of the strangers&rsquo; rooms in the prefect&rsquo;s
+      house had held many a more illustrious guest, but never one whose sleep
+      was brightened by happier dreams than the poor orphaned &ldquo;little fugitive,&rdquo;
+       who, no longer ago than yesterday, had cried herself to sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0046" id="link2HCH0046">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe was up betimes on the following morning; much embarrassed by all
+      the splendor that surrounded her, she walked up and down her room thinking
+      of Pollux. Then she stopped to take pleasure in her own image displayed in
+      a large mirror which stood on a dressing-table, and between whiles she
+      compared the couch, on which she lay clown again at full length, with
+      those in Paulina&rsquo;s house. Once more she felt herself a prisoner, but this
+      time she liked her prison, and presently, when she heard slaves passing by
+      her room, she flew to the door to listen, for it was just possible that
+      Titianus might have sent to fetch Pollux, and would allow him to come to
+      see her. At last a slave-woman came in, brought her some breakfast, and
+      desired her from Julia to go into the garden and look at the flowers and
+      aviaries till she should be sent for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early that morning the news had reached the prefect that Antinous had
+      sought his death in the Nile, and it had shocked him greatly, less on
+      account of the hapless youth than for Hadrian&rsquo;s sake. When he had given
+      the proper officials orders to announce the melancholy news and to desire
+      the citizens to give some public expression of their sympathy with the
+      Emperor&rsquo;s sorrow, he gave audience to the Patriarch Eumenes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This venerable man, ever since the transactions which he had conducted&mdash;with
+      reference to the thanksgiving of the Christians for the safety of the
+      Emperor after the fire, had been one of the most esteemed friends of
+      Titianus and Julia. The prefect discussed with the Patriarch the
+      inauspicious effects that the death of the young fellow might be expected
+      to have on the Emperor, and as a result, on the government, although the
+      favorite had had no qualities of mind to distinguish him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whenever Hadrian,&rdquo; continued Titianus, &ldquo;would give his unresting brain an
+      hour&rsquo;s relaxation, and release himself from disappointment and vexation
+      and the severe toil and anxiety of which his life is overfull, he would go
+      out hunting with the bold youth or would have the handsome, good-hearted
+      boy into his own room. The sight of the Bithynian&rsquo;s beauty delighted his
+      eye, and how well Antinous knew how to listen to him&mdash;silent, modest
+      and attentive! Hadrian loved him as a son, and the poor fellow clung to
+      his master in return with more than a son&rsquo;s fidelity; his death itself
+      proved it. Caesar himself said to me once; &lsquo;In the midst of the turmoil of
+      waking life, when I see Antinous a feeling comes over me as if a beautiful
+      dream stood incorporate before my eyes.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Caesar&rsquo;s grief at losing him must indeed be great,&rdquo; said the Patriarch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the loss will add to the gloom of his grave and brooding nature,
+      render his restless scheming and wandering still more capricious, and
+      increase his suspiciousness and irritability.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the circumstances under which Antinous perished,&rdquo; added Eumenes,
+      &ldquo;will afford new ground for his attachment to superstitions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is to be feared. We have not happy days before us; the revolt in
+      Judaea, too, will again cost thousands of lives.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If only it had been granted to you to assume the government of that
+      province.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you know, my worthy friend, the condition I am in. On my bad days I
+      am incapable of commanding a thought or opening my lips. When my
+      breathlessness increases I feel as if I were being suffocated. I have
+      placed many decades of my life at the disposal of the state, and I now
+      feel justified in devoting the diminished strength which is left me to
+      other things. I and my wife think of retiring to my property by lake
+      Larius, and there to try whether we may succeed, she and I, in becoming
+      worthy of the salvation and capable of apprehending the truth that you
+      have offered us. You are there Julia? As the determination to retire from
+      the world has matured in us, we have, both of us, remembered more than
+      once the words of the Jewish sage, which you lately told us of. When the
+      angel of God drove the first man out of Paradise, he said: &lsquo;Henceforth
+      your heart must be your Paradise.&rsquo; We are turning our backs on the
+      pleasure of a city life&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And we do so without regret,&rdquo; said Julia, interrupting her husband, &ldquo;for
+      we bear in our minds the germ of a more indestructible, purer, and more
+      lasting happiness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; said the Patriarch. &ldquo;Where two such as you dwell together there
+      the Lord is third in the bond.&rdquo; &ldquo;Give us your disciple Marcianus to be our
+      travelling-companion,&rdquo; said Titianus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Willingly,&rdquo; said Eumenes. &ldquo;Shall he come to visit you when I leave you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not immediately,&rdquo; replied Julia. &ldquo;I have this morning an important and at
+      the same time pleasant business to attend to. You know Paulina, the widow
+      of Pudeus. She took into her keeping a pretty young creature&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Arsinoe has run away from her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We took her in here,&rdquo; said Titianus. &ldquo;Her protectress seems to have
+      failed in attracting her to her, or in working favorably on her nature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Patriarch. &ldquo;There was but one key to her full, bright
+      heart&mdash;Love&mdash;but Paulina tried to force it open with coercion
+      and persistent driving. It remained closed&mdash;nay, the lock is spoiled.&mdash;But,
+      if I may ask, how came the girl into your house?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I can tell you later, we did not make her acquaintance for the first
+      time yesterday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I am going to fetch her lover to her,&rdquo; cried the prefect&rsquo;s wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Paulina will claim her of you,&rdquo; said the Patriarch. &ldquo;She is having her
+      sought for everywhere; but the child will never thrive under her
+      guidance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did the widow formally adopt Arsinoe?&rdquo; asked Titianus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; she proposed doing so as soon as her young pupil&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Intentions count for nothing in law, and I can protect our pretty little
+      guest against her claim.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will fetch her,&rdquo; said Julia. &ldquo;The time must certainly have seemed very
+      long to her already. Will you come with me, Eumenes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With pleasure,&rdquo; replied the old man, &ldquo;Arsinoe and I are excellent
+      friends; a conciliatory word from me will do her good, and my blessing
+      cannot harm even a heathen. Farewell, Titianus, my deacons are expecting
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Julia returned to the sitting-room with her protegee, the child&rsquo;s
+      eyes were wet with tears, for the kind words of the venerable old man had
+      gone to her heart and she knew and acknowledged that she had experienced
+      good as well as evil from Paulina.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The matron found her husband no longer alone. Wealthy old Plutarch with
+      his two supporters was with him, and in black garments, which were
+      decorated with none but white flowers, instead of many colored garments;
+      he presented a singular appearance. The old man was discoursing eagerly to
+      the prefect; but as soon as he saw Arsinoe he broke off his harangue,
+      clapped his hands and was quite excited with the pleasure of seeing once
+      more the fair Roxana for whom he had once visited in vain all the
+      gold-workers&rsquo; shops in the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I am tired,&rdquo; cried Plutarch, with quite youthful vivacity, &ldquo;I am
+      quite tired of keeping the ornaments for you. There are quite enough other
+      useless things in my house. They belong to you, not to me, and this very
+      day I will send them to the noble Julia, that she may give them to you.
+      Give me your hand, dear child; you have grown paler but more womanly. What
+      do you think, Titianus, she would still do for Roxana; only your wife must
+      find a dress for her again. All in white, and no ribband in your hair!&mdash;like
+      a Christian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know some one who will find out the way to fitly crown these soft
+      tresses,&rdquo; replied Julia. &ldquo;Arsinoe is the bride of Pollux, the sculptor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pollux!&rdquo; exclaimed Plutarch, in extreme excitement. &ldquo;Move me forward,
+      Antaeus and Atlas, the sculptor Pollux is her lover? A great, a splendid
+      artist! The very same, noble Titianus, of whom I just now speaking to
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know him?&rdquo; asked the prefect&rsquo;s wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, but I have just left the work-shop of Periander, the gem-cutter, and
+      there I saw the model of a statue of Antinous that is unique, marvellous,
+      incomparable! The Bithynian as Dionysus! The work would do no discredit to
+      a Phidias, to a Lysippus. Pollux was out of the way, but I laid my hand at
+      once on his work; the young master must execute it immediately in marble.
+      Hadrian will be enchanted with this portrait of his beautiful and devoted
+      favorite. You must admire it, every connoisseur must! I will pay for it,
+      the only question is whether I or the city should present it to Caesar.
+      This matter your husband must decide.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe was radiant with joy at these words, but she stepped modestly into
+      the background as an official came in and handed Titianus a dispatch that
+      had just arrived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prefect read it; then turning to his friend and his wife, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hadrian ascribes to Antinous the honors of a god.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fortunate Pollux!&rdquo; exclaimed Plutarch. &ldquo;He has executed the first statue
+      of the new divinity. I will present it to the city, and they shall place
+      it in the temple to Antinous of which we must lay the first stone before
+      Caesar is back here again. Farewell, my noble friends! Greet your
+      bridegroom from me, my child. His work belongs to me. Pollux will be the
+      first among his fellow-artists, and it has been my privilege to discover
+      this new star&mdash;the eighth artist whose merit I have detected while he
+      was still unknown. Your future brother-in-law too, Teuker, will turn out
+      well. I am having a stone cut by him with a portrait of Antinous. Once
+      more farewell; I must go to the Council. We shall have to discuss the
+      subject of a temple to the new divinity. Move on you two!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour after Plutarch had quitted the prefect&rsquo;s house Julia&rsquo;s chariot was
+      standing at the entrance of a lane, much too narrow to admit a vehicle
+      with horses, and which ended in a little plot on which stood Euphorion&rsquo;s
+      humble house. Julia&rsquo;s outrunners easily found out the residence of the
+      sculptor&rsquo;s parents, led the matron and Arsinoe to the spot, and showed
+      them the door they should knock at.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a color you have, my little girl!&rdquo; said Julia. &ldquo;Well, I will not
+      intrude on your meeting, but I should like to deliver you with my own hand
+      into those of your future mother. Go to that little house, Arctus, and beg
+      dame Doris to step out here. Only say that some one wishes to speak with
+      her, but do not mention my name.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arsinoe&rsquo;s heart beat so violently that she was incapable of saying a word
+      of thanks to her kind protectress. &ldquo;Step behind this palm-tree,&rdquo; said the
+      lady. Arsinoe obeyed; but she felt as though it was some outside volition,
+      and not her own, that guided her to her hiding-place. She heard nothing of
+      the first words spoken by the Roman lady and Doris. She only saw the dear
+      old face of her Pollux&rsquo;s mother, and in spite of her reddened eyes and the
+      wrinkles which trouble had furrowed in her face, she could not tire of
+      looking at it. It reminded her of the happiest days of her childhood, and
+      she longed to rush forward and throw her arms round the neck of the
+      kindly, good-hearted woman. Then she heard Julia say: &ldquo;I have brought her
+      to you. She is just as sweet and as maidenly and lovely as she was the
+      first time we saw her in the theatre.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is she? Where is she?&rdquo; asked Doris in a trembling voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Julia pointed to the palm, and was about to call Arsinoe, but the girl
+      could no longer restrain her longing to fall on the neck of some one dear
+      to her, for Pollux had come out of the door to see who had asked for his
+      mother, and to see him and to fly to his breast with a cry of joy had been
+      one and the same act to Arsinoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Julia gazed at the couple with moistened eyes, and when, after many kind
+      words for old and young alike, she took leave of the happy group, she
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will provide for your outfit my child, and this time I think you will
+      wear it, not merely for one transient hour but through a long and happy
+      life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Joyful singing sounded out that evening from Euphorion&rsquo;s little home.
+      Doris and her husband, and Pollux and Arsinoe, Diotima and Teuker, decked
+      with garlands, reclined round the amphora which was wreathed with roses,
+      drinking to pleasure and joy, to art and love, and to all the gifts of the
+      present. The sweet bride&rsquo;s long hair was once more plaited with handsome
+      blue ribbons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three weeks after these events Hadrian was again in Alexandria. He kept
+      aloof from all the festivals instituted in honor of the new god Antinous,
+      and smiled incredulously when he was told that a new star had appeared in
+      the sky, and that an oracle had declared it to be the soul of his lost
+      favorite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Plutarch conducted the Emperor and his friends to see the Bacchus
+      Antinous, which Pollux had completed in the clay, Hadrian was deeply
+      struck and wished to know the name of the master who had executed this
+      noble work of art. Not one of his companion&rsquo;s had the courage to speak the
+      name of Pollux in his presence; only Pontius ventured to come forward for
+      his young friend. He related to Hadrian the hapless artist&rsquo;s history and
+      begged him to forgive him. The Emperor nodded his approval, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the sake of this lost one he shall be forgiven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pollux was brought into his presence, and Hadrian, holding out his hand
+      said as he pressed the sculptor&rsquo;s:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Immortals have bereft me of his love and faithfulness, but your art
+      has preserved his beauty for me and for the world&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Every city in the Empire vied in building temples and erecting statues to
+      the new god, and Pollux, Arsinoe&rsquo;s happy husband, was commissioned to
+      execute statues and busts of Antinous for a hundred towns; but he refused
+      most of the orders, and would send out no work as his own that he had not
+      executed himself on a new conception. His master, Papias, returned to
+      Alexandria, but he was received there by his fellow-artists with such
+      insulting contempt, that in an evil hour he destroyed himself. Teuker
+      lived to be the most famous gem-engraver of his time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after Selene&rsquo;s martyrdom dame Hannah quitted Besa; the office of
+      Superior of the Deaconesses at Alexandria was intrusted to her, and she
+      exercised it with much blessing till an advanced age. Mary, the deformed
+      girl, remained behind in the Nile-port, which under Hadrian was extended
+      into the magnificent city of Antmoe. There were there two graves from
+      which she could not bear to part.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Four years after Arsinoe&rsquo;s marriage with Pollux, Hadrian called the young
+      sculptor to Rome; he was there to execute the statue of the Emperor in a
+      quadriga. This work was intended to crown and finish his mausoleum
+      constructed by Pontius, and Pollux carried it out in so admirable a
+      manner, that when it was ended, Hadrian said to him with a smile:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now you have earned the right to pronounce sentence of death on the works
+      of other masters.&rdquo; Euphorion&rsquo;s son lived in honor and prosperity to see
+      his children, the children of his faithful wife Arsinoe&mdash;who was
+      greatly admired by the Tiber-grow up to be worthy citizens. They remained
+      heathen; but the Christian love which Eumenes had taught Paulina&rsquo;s
+      foster-daughter was never forgotten, and she kept a kindly place for it in
+      her heart and in her household. A few months before the young couple left
+      Alexandria, Doris had peacefully gone to her last rest, and her husband
+      died soon after her; the want of his faithful companion was the complaint
+      he succumbed to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the shores of the Tiber, Pontius was still the sculptor&rsquo;s friend.
+      Balbilla and her husband gave their corrupt fellow-citizens the example of
+      a worthy, faithful marriage on the old Roman pattern. The poetess&rsquo;s bust
+      had been completed by Pollux in Alexandria, and with all its tresses and
+      little curls, it found favor in Balbilla&rsquo;s eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Verus was to have enjoyed the title of Caesar even during Hadrian&rsquo;s
+      lifetime, but after a long illness he died the first. Lucilla nursed him
+      with unfailing devotion and enjoyed the longed-for monopoly of his
+      attentions through a period of much suffering. It was on their son that in
+      later years the purple devolved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The predictions of the prefect Titianus were fulfilled, for the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      faults increased with years and the meaner side of his mind and nature
+      came into sharper relief. Titianus and his wife led a retired life by lake
+      Larius, far from the world, and both were baptized before they died. They
+      never pined for the turmoil of a pleasure-seeking world or its dazzling
+      show, for they had learnt to cherish in their own hearts all that is
+      fairest in life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the slave Mastor who brought to Titianus the news of the
+      sovereign&rsquo;s death. Hadrian had given him his freedom before he died and
+      had left him a handsome legacy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prefect gave him a piece of land to farm and continued in friendly
+      relations with his Christian neighbor and his pretty daughter, who grew up
+      among her father&rsquo;s co-religionists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Titianus had told his wife the melancholy news he added solemnly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A great sovereign is dead. The pettinesses which disfigured the man
+      Hadrian will be forgotten by posterity, for the ruler Hadrian was one of
+      those men whom Fate sets in the places they belong to, and who, true to
+      their duty, struggle indefatigably to the end. With wise moderation he was
+      so far master of himself as to bridle his ambition and to defy the blame
+      and prejudice of all the Romans. The hardest, and perhaps the wisest,
+      resolution of his life was to abandon the provinces which it would have
+      exhausted the power of the Empire to retain. He travelled over every
+      portion of his dominion within the limits he himself had set to it,
+      shrinking from neither frost nor heat, and he tried to be as thoroughly
+      acquainted with every portion of it as if the Empire were a small estate
+      he had inherited. His duties as a sovereign forced him to travel, and his
+      love of travel lightened the duty. He was possessed by a real passion to
+      understand and learn everything. Even the Incomprehensible set no limits
+      to his thirst for knowledge, but ever striving to see farther and to dig
+      deeper than is possible to the mind of man, he wasted a great part of his
+      mighty powers in trying to snatch aside the curtain which hides the
+      destinies of the future. No one ever worked at so many secondary
+      occupations as he, and yet no former Emperor ever kept his eye so
+      unerringly fixed on the main task of his life, the consolidation and
+      maintenance of the strength of the state and the improvement and
+      prosperity of its citizens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     ETEXT EDITOR&rsquo;S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     A well-to-do man always gets a higher price than a poor one
+     Avoid all useless anxiety
+     Dried merry-thought bone of a fowl
+     Enjoy the present day
+     Facts are differently reflected in different minds
+     Happiness is only the threshold to misery
+     Have not yet learned not to be astonished
+     Have lived to feel such profound contempt for the world
+     I must either rest or begin upon something new
+     Idleness had long since grown to be the occupation of his life
+     If one only knew who it is all for
+     Ill-judgment to pronounce a thing impossible
+     In order to find himself for once in good company&mdash;(Solitude)
+     It was such a comfort once more to obey an order
+     Love laughs at locksmiths
+     More to the purpose to think of the future than of the past
+     Never speaks a word too much or too little
+     Philosophers who wrote of the vanity of writers
+     So long as we do not think ourselves wretched, we are not so
+     Temples would be empty if mortals had nothing left to wish for
+     They keep an account in their heart and not in their head
+     To know half is less endurable than to know nothing
+     When a friend refuses to share in joys
+     Who do all they are able and enjoy as much as they can get
+     Wide world between the purpose and the deed
+     Years are the foe of beauty
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Emperor, Complete, by Georg Ebers
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+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/5493.txt b/5493.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5432862
--- /dev/null
+++ b/5493.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,20921 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Emperor, Complete, by Georg Ebers
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Emperor, Complete
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Last Updated: March 9, 2009
+Release Date: October 16, 2006 [EBook #5493]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EMPEROR, COMPLETE ***
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR, Complete
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+
+Translated by Clara Bell
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+It is now fourteen years since I planned the story related in these
+volumes, the outcome of a series of lectures which I had occasion to
+deliver on the period of the Roman dominion in Egypt. But the pleasures
+of inventive composition were forced to give way to scientific labors,
+and when I was once more at leisure to try my wings with increase of
+power I felt more strongly urged to other flights. Thus it came to pass
+that I did I not take the time of Hadrian for the background of a tale
+till after I had dealt with the still later period of the early monastic
+move in "Homo Sum." Since finishing that romance my old wish to depict,
+in the form of a story, the most important epoch of the history of that
+venerable nation to which I have devoted nearly a quarter century of my
+life, has found its fulfilment. I have endeavored to give a picture of
+the splendor of the Pharaonic times in "Uarda," of the subjection of
+Egypt to the new Empire of the Persians in "An Egyptian Princess," of
+the Hellenic period under the Lagides in "The Sisters," of the Roman
+dominion and the early growth of Christianity in "The Emperor," and
+of the anchorite spirit--in the deserts and rocks of the Sinaitic
+Peninsula--in "Homo Sum." Thus the present work is the last of which the
+scene will be laid in Egypt. This series of romances will not only
+have introduced the reader to a knowledge of the history of manners and
+culture in Egypt, but will have facilitated his comprehension of certain
+dominant ideas which stirred the mind of the Ancients. How far I may
+have succeeded in rendering the color of the times I have described and
+in producing pictures that realize the truth, I myself cannot venture
+to judge; for since even present facts are differently reflected in
+different minds, this must be still more emphatically the case with
+things long since past and half-forgotten. Again and again, when
+historical investigation has refused to afford me the means of
+resuscitating some remotely ancient scene, I have been obliged to take
+counsel of imagination and remember the saying that 'the Poet must be a
+retrospective Seer,' and could allow my fancy to spread her wings, while
+I remained her lord and knew the limits up to which I might permit her
+to soar. I considered it my lawful privilege to paint much that was
+pure invention, but nothing that was not possible at the period I was
+representing. A due regard for such possibility has always set the
+bounds to fancy's flight; wherever existing authorities have allowed
+me to be exact and faithful I have always been so, and the most
+distinguished of my fellow-professors in Germany, England, France and
+Holland, have more than once borne witness to this. But, as I need
+hardly point out, poetical and historical truth are not the same thing;
+for historical truth must remain, as far as possible, unbiassed by the
+subjective feeling of the writer, while poetical truth can only find
+expression through the medium of the artist's fancy.
+
+As in my last two romances, so in "The Emperor," I have added no notes:
+I do this in the pleasant conviction of having won the confidence of my
+readers by my historical and other labors. Nothing has encouraged me to
+fresh imaginative works so much as the fact that through these romances
+the branch of learning that I profess has enlisted many disciples whose
+names are now mentioned with respect among Egyptologists. Every one who
+is familiar with the history of Hadrian's time will easily discern by
+trifling traits from what author or from which inscription or monument
+the minor details have been derived, and I do not care to interrupt the
+course of the narrative and so spoil the pleasure of the larger class
+of readers. It would be a happiness to me to believe that this tale
+deserves to be called a real work of art, and, as such, its first
+function should be to charm and elevate the mind. Those who at the same
+time enrich their knowledge by its study ought not to detect the fact
+that they are learning.
+
+Those who are learned in the history of Alexandria under the Romans may
+wonder that I should have made no mention of the Therapeutai on Lake
+Mareotis. I had originally meant to devote a chapter to them, but Luca's
+recent investigations led me to decide on leaving it unwritten. I have
+given years of study to the early youth of Christianity, particularly
+in Egypt, and it affords me particular satisfaction to help others to
+realize how, in Hadrian's time, the pure teaching of the Saviour, as yet
+little sullied by the contributions of human minds, conquered--and could
+not fail to conquer--the hearts of men. Side by side with the triumphant
+Faith I have set that noble blossom of Greek life and culture--Art which
+in later ages, Christianity absorbed in order to dress herself in her
+beautiful forms. The statues and bust of Antinous which remain to us of
+that epoch, show that the drooping tree was still destined to put forth
+new leaves under Hadrian's rule.
+
+The romantic traits which I have attributed to the character of my hero,
+who travelled throughout the world, climbing mountains to rejoice in
+the splendor of he rising sun, are authentic. One of the most difficult
+tasks I have ever set myself was to construct from the abundant but
+essentially contradictory accounts of Hadian a human figure in which I
+could myself at all believe; still, how gladly I set to work to do so!
+There was much to be considered in working out this narrative, but the
+story itself has flowed straight from the heart of the writer; I can
+only hope it may find its way to that of the reader.
+
+   LEIPZIG, November, 1880.
+
+                    GEORG EBERS.
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 1.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+The morning twilight had dawned into day, and the sun had risen on the
+first of December of the year of our Lord 129, but was still veiled by
+milk-white mists which rose from the sea, and it was cold.
+
+Kasius, a mountain of moderate elevation, stands on a tongue of land
+that projects from the coast between the south of Palestine and
+Egypt. It is washed on the north by the sea which, on this day, is not
+gleaming, as is its wont, in translucent ultramarine; its more distant
+depths slowly surge in blue-black waves, while those nearer to shore are
+of quite a different hue, and meet their sisters that lie nearer to the
+horizon in a dull greenish-grey, as dusty plains join darker lava beds.
+The northeasterly wind, which had risen as the sun rose, now blew more
+keenly, wreaths of white foam rode on the crests of the waves, though
+these did not beat wildly and stormily on the mountain-foot, but rolled
+heavily to the shore in humped ridges, endlessly long, as if they were
+of molten lead. Still the clear bright spray splashed up when the gulls
+dipped their pinions in the water as they floated above it, hither and
+thither, restless and uttering shrill little cries, as though driven by
+terror.
+
+Three men were walking slowly along the causeway which led from the top
+of the hill down into the valley, but it was only the eldest, who walked
+in front of the other two, who gave any heed to the sky, the sea, the
+gulls, and the barren plain that lay silent at his feet. He stopped,
+and as soon as he did so, the others followed his example. The landscape
+below him seemed to rivet his gaze, and it justified the disapproval
+with which he gently shook his head, which was somewhat sunk into his
+beard. A narrow strip of desert stretched westward before him as far as
+the eye could reach, dividing two levels of water. Along this natural
+dyke a caravan was passing, and the elastic feet of the camels fell
+noiselessly on the road they trod. The leader, wrapped in his white
+mantle, seemed asleep, and the camel-drivers to be dreaming; the
+dull-colored eagles by the road-side did not stir at their approach.
+To the right of the stretch of flat coast along which the road ran from
+Syria to Egypt, lay the gloomy sea, overhung by grey clouds; to the left
+lay the desert, a strange and mysterious feature in the landscape, of
+which the eye could not see the end, either to the east or to the west,
+and which looked here like a stretch of snow, there like standing water,
+and again like a thicket of rushes.
+
+The eldest of our travellers gazed constantly towards heaven or into the
+distance; the second, a slave who carried rugs and cloaks on his broad
+shoulders, never took his eyes off his master; and the third, a young,
+free-man, looked wearily and dreamily down the road.
+
+A broad path, leading to a stately temple, crossed that which led from
+the summit of the mountain to the coast, and the bearded pedestrian
+turned up it; but he followed it only for a few steps, then he turned
+his head with a dissatisfied air, muttered a few unintelligible words
+into his beard, turned round and hastily retraced his steps to the
+narrow way, down which he went towards the valley. His young companion
+followed him without raising his head or interrupting his reverie, as
+if he were his shadow, but the slave lifted his cropped fair head and
+a stolen smile crossed his lips as on the left hand side of the Kasius
+road he caught sight of a black kid, and close beside it an old woman
+who, at the approach of the three men covered her wrinkled face in alarm
+with her dark blue veil.
+
+"That is the reason then!" said the slave to himself with a nod, and
+blowing a kiss into the air to a black-haired girl who crouched at the
+old woman's feet. But she, for whom the greeting was intended, did not
+observe this mute courtship, for her eyes followed the travellers, and
+especially the young man, as if spellbound. As soon as the three were
+far enough off not to hear her, the girl asked with a shiver, as if some
+desert-spectre had passed by-and in a low voice "Grandmother, who was
+that?"
+
+The old woman raised her veil, laid her hand on her grandchild's mouth,
+and whispered:
+
+"It was he."
+
+"The Emperor?"
+
+The old woman answered with a significant nod, but the girl squeezed
+herself up, against her grandmother, with vehement curiosity stretching
+out her dusky head to see better, and asked softly: "The young one?"
+
+"Silly child! the one in front with a grey beard."
+
+"He? Oh, I wish the young one was the Emperor!"
+
+It was in fact Hadrian, the Roman Emperor, who walked on in silence
+before his escort, and it seemed as though his advent had given life to
+the desert, for as he approached the reed-swamp, the kites flew up in
+the air, and from behind a sand-hill on the edge of the broader road
+which Hadrian had avoided, came two men in priestly robes. They both
+belonged to the temple of Baal of Kariotis, a small structure of solid
+stone, which faced the sea, and which the Emperor had yesterday visited.
+
+"Do you think he has lost his way?" said one to the other, in the
+Phoenician tongue.
+
+"Hardly," was the answer. "Master said that he could always find a road
+again by which he had once gone, even in the dark."
+
+"And yet he is gazing more at the clouds than at the road."
+
+"Still, he promised us yesterday."
+
+"He promised nothing for certain," interrupted the other.
+
+"Indeed he did; at parting he called out--and I heard him distinctly:
+'Perhaps I shall return and consult your oracle.'"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"I think he said 'probably.'"
+
+"Who knows whether some sign he has seen up in the sky may not have
+turned him back; he is going to the camp by the sea."
+
+"But the banquet is standing ready for him in our great hall."
+
+"He will find what he needs down there. Come, it is a wretched morning,
+and I am being frozen."
+
+"Wait a little longer-look there."
+
+"What?"
+
+"He does not even wear a hat to cover his grey hair."
+
+"He has never yet been seen to travel with anything on his head."
+
+"And his grey cloak is not very imperial looking."
+
+"He always wears the purple at a banquet."
+
+"Do you know who his walk and appearance remind me of?"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Of our late high-priest, Abibaal; he used to walk in that ponderous,
+meditative way, and wear a beard like the Emperor's."
+
+"Yes, yes--and had the same piercing grey eye."
+
+"He too used often to gaze up at the sky. They have both the same broad
+forehead, too; but Abibaal's nose was more aquiline, and his hair curled
+less closely."
+
+"And our governor's mouth was grave and dignified, while Hadrian's lips
+twitch and curl at all he says and hears, as if he were laughing at it
+all."
+
+"Look, he is speaking now to his favorite--Antonius I think they call
+the pretty boy."
+
+"Antinous, not Antonius. He picked him up in Bithynia, they say."
+
+"He is a beautiful youth."
+
+"Incomparably beautiful! What a figure and what a face! Still, I cannot
+wish that he were my son."
+
+"The Emperor's favorite!"
+
+"For that very reason. Why, he looks already as if he had tried every
+pleasure, and could never know any farther enjoyment."
+
+         ............................
+
+On a little level close to the sea-shore, and sheltered by crumbling
+cliffs from the east wind, stood a number of tents. Between them fires
+were burning, round which were gathered groups of Roman soldiers and
+imperial servants. Half-naked boys, the children of the fishermen and
+camel-drivers who dwelt in this wilderness, were running busily hither
+and thither, feeding the flames with dry stems of sea-grass and dead
+desert-shrubs; but though the blaze flew high, the smoke did not rise;
+but driven here and there by the squalls of wind, swirled about close to
+the ground in little clouds, like a flock of scattered sheep. It seemed
+as though it feared to rise in the grey, damp, uninviting atmosphere.
+The largest of the tents, in front of which Roman sentinels paced up and
+down, two and two, on guard, was wide open on the side towards the
+sea. The slaves who came out of the broad door-way with trays on their
+cropped heads-loaded with gold and silver vessels, plates, wine-jars,
+goblets, and the remains of a meal had to hold them tightly with both
+hands that they might not be blown over.
+
+The inside of the tent was absolutely unadorned. The Emperor lay on a
+couch near the right wall, which was blown in and bulged by the wind;
+his bloodless lips were tightly set, his arms crossed over his breast,
+and his eyes half closed. But he was not asleep, for he often opened his
+mouth and smacked his lips, as if tasting the flavor of some viand.
+From time to time he raised his eyelids--long, finely wrinkled, and
+blue-veined--turning his eyes up to heaven or rolling them to one side
+and then downwards towards the middle of the tent. There, on the skin
+of a huge bear trimmed with blue cloth, lay Hadrian's favorite Antinous.
+His beautiful head rested on that of the beast, which had been slain
+by his sovereign, and its skull and skin skilfully preserved, his right
+leg, supported on his left knee, he flourished freely in the air, and
+his hands were caressing the Emperor's bloodhound, which had laid its
+sage-looking head on the boy's broad, bare breast, and now and then
+tried to lick his soft lips to show its affection. But this the youth
+would not allow; he playfully held the beast's muzzle close with his
+hands or wrapped its head in the end of his mantle, which had slipped
+back from his shoulders.
+
+The dog seemed to enjoy the game, but once when Antinous had drawn the
+cloak more tightly round its head and it strove in vain to be free from
+the cloth that impeded its breathing, it set up a loud howl, and this
+doleful cry made the Emperor change his attitude and cast a glance of
+displeasure at the boy lying on the bear-skin, but only a glance, not a
+word of blame. And soon the expression, even of his eyes, changed, and
+he fixed them on the lads's figure with a gaze of loving contemplation,
+as though it were some noble work of art that he could never tire of
+admiring. And truly the Immortals had moulded this child of man to such
+a type; every muscle of that throat, that chest, those arms and legs was
+a marvel of softness and of power; no human countenance could be more
+regularly chiselled. Antinous observing that his master's attention had
+been attracted to his play with the dog, let the animal go and turned
+his large, but not very brilliant, eyes on the Emperor.
+
+"What are you doing here?" asked Hadrian kindly.
+
+"Nothing," said the boy.
+
+"No one can do nothing. Even if we fancy we have succeeded in doing
+nothing we still continue to think that we are unoccupied, and to think
+is a good deal."
+
+"But I cannot even think."
+
+"Every one can think; besides you were not doing nothing, for you were
+playing."
+
+"Yes, with the dog." With these words Antinous stretched out his legs
+on the ground, pushed away the dog, and raised his curly head on both
+hands.
+
+"Are you tired?" asked the Emperor.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"We both kept watch for an equal portion of the night, and I, who am so
+much older, feel quite wide awake."
+
+"It was only yesterday that you were saying that old soldiers were the
+best for night-watches."
+
+The Emperor nodded, and then said:
+
+"At your age while we are awake we live three times as fast as at mine,
+and so we need to sleep twice as long. You have every right to be tired.
+To be sure it was not till three hours after midnight that we climbed
+the mountain, and how often a supper party is not over before that."
+
+"It was very cold and uncomfortable up there."
+
+"Not till after the sun had risen."
+
+"Ah! before that you did not notice it, for till then you were busy
+thinking of the stars."
+
+"And you only of yourself--very true."
+
+"I was thinking of your health too when that cold wind rose before
+Helios appeared."
+
+"I was obliged to await his rising."
+
+"And can you discern future events by the way and manner of the rising
+of the sun?"
+
+Hadrian looked in surprise at the speaker, shook his head in negation,
+looked up at the top of the tent, and after a long pause said, in abrupt
+sentences, with frequent interruptions:
+
+"Day is the present merely, and the future is evolved out of darkness;
+the corn grows from the clods of the field; the rain falls from the
+darkest clouds; a new generation is born of the mother's womb; the limbs
+recover their vigor in sleep. And what is begotten of the darkness of
+death--who can tell?"
+
+When, after saying this, the Emperor had remained for some time silent,
+the youth asked him:
+
+"But if the sunrise teaches you nothing concerning the future why should
+you so often break your night's rest and climb the mountain to see it?"
+
+"Why? Why?" repeated Hadrian, slowly and meditatively, stroking his
+grizzled beard; then he went on as if speaking to himself:
+
+"That is a question which reason fails to answer, before which my lips
+find no words; and, if I had them at my command, who among the rabble
+would understand me? Such questions can best be answered by means of
+parables. Those who take part in life are actors, and the world is their
+stage. He who wants to look tall on it wears the cothurnus, and is not a
+mountain the highest vantage ground that a man can find for the sole of
+his foot? Kasius there is but a hill, but I have stood on greater giants
+than he, and seen the clouds rise below me, like Jupiter on Olympus."
+
+"But you need climb no mountains to feel yourself a god," cried
+Antinous; "the godlike is your title--you command and the world must
+obey. With a mountain beneath his feet a man is nearer to heaven no
+doubt than he is on the plain."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I dare not say what came into my mind."
+
+"Speak out."
+
+"I knew a little girl who when I took her on my shoulder would stretch
+out her arms and exclaim, 'I am so tall!' She fancied that she was
+taller than I then, and yet was only little Panthea."
+
+"But in her own conception of herself, it was she who was tall, and that
+decides the issue, for to each of us a thing is only that which it seems
+to us. It is true they call me godlike, but I feel every day, and a
+hundred times a day, the limitations of the power and nature of man, and
+I cannot get beyond them. On the top of a mountain I cease to feel them;
+there I feel as if I were great, for nothing is higher than my head, far
+or near. And when, as I stand there, the night vanishes before my eyes,
+when the splendor of the young sun brings the world into new life for
+me, by restoring to my consciousness all that just before had been
+engulfed in gloom, then a deeper breath swells my breast, and my lungs
+fill with the purer and lighter air of the heights. Up there, alone and
+in silence, no hint can reach me of the turmoil below, and I feel myself
+one with the great aspect of nature spread before me. The surges of the
+sea come and go, the tree-tops in the forest bow and rise, fog and
+mist roll away and part asunder hither and thither, and up there I feel
+myself so merged with the creation that surrounds me that often it
+even seems as though it were my own breath that gives it life. Like the
+storks and the swallows, I yearn for the distant land, and where should
+the human eye be more likely to be permitted, at least in fancy, to
+discern the remote goal than from the summit of a mountain?
+
+"The limitless distance which the spirit craves for seems there to
+assume a form tangible to the senses, and the eye detects its border
+line. My whole being feels not merely elevated, but expanded, and that
+vague longing which comes over me as soon as I mix once more in the
+turmoil of life, and when the cares of state demand my strength,
+vanishes. But you cannot understand it, boy. These are things which no
+other mortal can share with me."
+
+"And it is only to me that you do not scorn to reveal them!" cried
+Antinous, who had turned round to face the Emperor, and who with wide
+eyes had not lost one word.
+
+"You?" said Hadrian, and a smile, not absolutely free from mockery,
+parted his lips. "From you I should no more have a secret than from the
+Cupid by Praxiteles, in my study at Rome."
+
+The blood mounted to the lad's cheeks and dyed them flaming crimson. The
+Emperor observed this and said kindly:
+
+"You are more to me than the statue, for the marble cannot blush. In the
+time of the Athenians Beauty governed life, but in you I can see that
+the gods are pleased to give it a bodily existence, even in our own
+days, and to look at you reconciles me to the discords of existence. It
+does me good. But how should I expect to find that you understand me;
+your brow was never made to be furrowed by thought; or did you really
+understand one word of all I said?"
+
+Antinous propped himself on his left arm, and lifting his right hand, he
+said emphatically:
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And which," asked Hadrian.
+
+"I know what longing is."
+
+"For what?"
+
+"For many things."
+
+"Tell me one."
+
+"Some enjoyment that is not followed by depression. I do not know of
+one."
+
+"That is a desire you share with all the youth of Rome, only they are
+apt to postpone the reaction. Well, and what next?"
+
+"I cannot tell you."
+
+"What prevents your speaking openly to me?"
+
+"You, yourself did." "I?"
+
+"Yes, you; for you forbid me to speak of my home, my mother, and my
+people."
+
+The Emperor's brow darkened, and he answered sternly:
+
+"I am your father and your whole soul should be given to me."
+
+"It is all yours," answered the youth, falling back on to the bear-skin,
+and drawing the pallima closely over his shoulders, for a gust blew
+coldly in at the side of the tent, through which Phlegon, the Emperor's
+private secretary, now entered and approached his master. He was
+followed by a slave with several sealed rolls under his arms.
+
+"Will it be agreeable to you, Caesar, to consider the despatches
+and letters that have just arrived?" asked the official, whose
+carefully-arranged hair had been tossed by the sea-breeze.
+
+"Yes, and then we can make a note of what I was able to observe in the
+heavens last night. Have you the tablets ready?"
+
+"I left them in the tent set up especially for the work, Caesar."
+
+"The storm has become very violent."
+
+"It seems to blow from the north and east both at once, and the sea is
+very rough. The Empress will have a bad voyage."
+
+"When did she set out?"
+
+"The anchor was weighed towards midnight. The vessel which is to fetch
+her to Alexandria is a fine ship, but rolls from side to side in a very
+unpleasant manner."
+
+Hadrian laughed loudly and sharply at this, and said:
+
+"That will turn her heart and her stomach upside down. I wish I were
+there to see--but no, by all the gods, no! for she will certainly forget
+to paint this morning; and who will construct that edifice of hair if
+all her ladies share her fate. We will stay here to-day, for if I meet
+her soon after she has reached Alexandria she will be undiluted gall and
+vinegar."
+
+With these words Hadrian rose from his couch, and waving his hand to
+Antinous, went out of the tent with his secretary.
+
+A third person standing at the back of the tent had heard the Emperor's
+conversation with his favorite; this was Mastor, a Sarmatian of the race
+of the Taryges. He was a slave, and no more worthy of heed than the dog
+which had followed Hadrian, or than the pillows on which the Emperor had
+been reclining. The man, who was handsome and well grown, stood for
+some time twisting the ends of his long red moustache, and stroking his
+round, closely-cropped head with his bands; then he drew the open
+chiton together over his broad breast, which seemed to gleam from the
+remarkable whiteness of the skin. He never took his eyes off Antinous,
+who had turned over, and covering his face with his hands had buried
+them in the bear's hairy mane.
+
+Mastor had something he wanted to say to him, but he dared not address
+him for the young favorite's demeanor could not be reckoned on. Often
+he was ready to listen to him and talk with him as a friend, but often,
+too, he repulsed him more sharply than the haughtiest upstart would
+repel the meanest of his servants. At last the slave took courage and
+called the lad by his name, for it seemed less hard to submit to a
+scolding than to smother the utterance of a strong, warm feeling,
+unimportant as it might be, which was formed in words in his mind.
+Antinous raised his head a little on his hands and asked:
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I only wanted to tell you," replied the Sarmatian, "that I know who the
+little girl was that you so often took upon your shoulders. It was your
+little sister, was it not, of whom you were speaking to me lately?"
+
+The lad nodded assent, and then once more buried his head in his hands,
+and his shoulders heaved so violently that it would seem that he was
+weeping.--Mastor remained silent for a few minutes, then he went up to
+Antinous and said:
+
+"You know I have a son and a little daughter at home, and I am always
+glad to hear about little girls. We are alone and if it will relieve
+your heart."
+
+"Let me alone, I have told you a dozen times already about my mother and
+little Parthea," replied Antinous, trying to look composed.
+
+"Then do so confidently for the thirteenth," said the slave. "In the
+camp and in the kitchen I can talk about my people as much as I like.
+But you--tell me, what do you call the little dog that Panthea made a
+scarlet cloak for?"
+
+"We called it Kallista," cried Antinous wiping his eyes with the back
+of his hand. "My father would not allow it but we persuaded my mother.
+I was her favorite, and when I put my arms round her and looked at her
+imploringly she always said 'yes' to anything I asked her."
+
+A bright light shone in the boy's weary eyes; he had remembered a whole
+wealth of joys which left no depression behind them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+One of the palaces built in Alexandria by the Ptolemaic kings stood on
+the peninsula called Lochias which stretched out into the blue sea like
+a finger pointing northwards; it formed the eastern boundary of the
+great harbor. Here there was never any lack of vessels but to-day they
+were particularly numerous, and the quay-road paved with smooth blocks
+of stone, which led from the palatial quarter of the town--the Bruchiom
+as it was called--which was bathed by the sea, to the spit of land
+was so crowded with curious citizens on foot and in vehicles, that
+all conveyances were obliged to stop in their progress before they had
+reached the private harbor reserved for the Emperor's vessels.
+
+But there was something out of the common to be seen at the
+landing-place, for there lying under the shelter of the high mole were
+the splendid triremes, galleys, long boats and barges which had brought
+Hadrian's wife and the suite of the imperial couple to Alexandria. A
+very large vessel with a particularly high cabin on the after deck
+and having the head of a she-wolf on the lofty and boldly-carved prow
+excited the utmost attention. It was carved entirely in cedar wood,
+richly decorated with bronze and ivory, and named the Sabina. A young
+Alexandrian pointed to the name written in gold letters on the stern,
+nudging his companion and saying with a laugh:
+
+"Sabina has a wolf's head then!"
+
+"A peacock's would suit her better. Did you see her on her way to the
+Caesareum?" replied the other.
+
+"Alas! I did," said the first speaker, but he said no more perceiving,
+close behind him, a Roman lictor who bore over his left shoulder his
+fasces, a bundle of elmrods skilfully tied together, and who, with
+a wand in his right-hand and the assistance of his comrades, was
+endeavoring to part the crowd and make room for the chariot of his
+master, Titianus, the imperial prefect, which came slowly in the rear.
+This high official had overheard the citizens' heedless words, and
+turning to the man who stood beside him, while with a light fling he
+threw the end of his toga into fresh folds, he said:
+
+"An extraordinary people! I cannot feel annoyed with them, and yet I
+would rather walk from here to Canopus on the edge of a knife than on
+that of an Alexandrian's tongue."
+
+"Did you hear what the stout man was saying about Verus?"
+
+"The lictor wanted to take him up, but nothing is to be done with them
+by violence. If they had to pay only a sesterce for every venomous word,
+I tell you Pontius, the city would be impoverished and our treasury
+would soon be fuller than that of Gyges at Sardis."
+
+"Let them keep their money," cried the other, the chief architect of the
+city, a man of about thirty years of age with highly-arched brows and
+eager piercing eyes; and grasping the roll he held in his hand with a
+strong grip, he continued:
+
+"They know how to work, and sweat is bitter. While they are busy they
+help each other, in idleness they bite each other, like unbroken horses
+harnessed to the same pole. The wolf is a fine brute, but if you break
+out his teeth he becomes a mangy hound."
+
+"You speak after my own heart," cried the prefect. "But here we are,
+eternal gods! I never imagined anything so bad as this. From a distance
+it always looked handsome enough!"
+
+Titianus and the architect descended from the chariot, the former
+desired a lictor to call the steward of the palace, and then he and his
+companion inspected first the door which led into it. It looked fine
+enough with its double columns which supported a lofty pediment, but,
+all the same, it did not present a particularly pleasing aspect, for the
+stucco had, in several places, fallen from the walls, the capitals of
+the marble columns were lamentably injured and the tall doors, overlaid
+with metal, hung askew on their hinges. Pontius inspected every portion
+of the door-way with a keen eye and then, with the prefect, went into
+the first court of the palace, in which, in the time of the Ptolemies,
+the tents had stood for ambassadors, secretaries, and the officers in
+waiting on the king. There they met with an unexpected hindrance, for
+across the paved court-yard, where the grass grew in tufts, and tall
+thistles were in bloom, a number of ropes were stretched aslant from
+the little house in which dwelt the gate-keeper; and on these ropes were
+hung newly-washed garments of every size and shape.
+
+"A pretty residence for an Emperor," sighed Titianus, shrugging his
+shoulders, but stopping the lictor, who had raised his fasces to cut the
+ropes.
+
+"It is not so bad as it looks," said the architect positively.
+"Gate-keeper! hi, gate-keeper! Where is the lazy fellow hiding himself?"
+
+While he called out and the lictor hurried forward into the interior
+of the palace, Pontius went towards the gate-keeper's lodge, and having
+made his way in a stooping attitude through the damp clothes, there
+he stood still. Ever since he had come in at the gate annoyance and
+vexation had been stamped on his countenance, but now his large mouth
+spread into a smile, and he called to the prefect in an undertone:
+
+"Titianus, just take the trouble to come here."
+
+The elderly dignitary, whose tall figure exceeded that of the architect
+in height by a full head, did not find it quite so easy to pass under
+the ropes with his head bent down; but he did it with good humor, and
+while carefully avoiding pulling down the wet linen, he called out:
+
+"I am beginning to feel some respect for children's shirts; one can
+at any rate get through them without breaking one's spine. Oh! this is
+delicious--quite delicious!"
+
+This exclamation was caused by the sight which the architect had invited
+the prefect to come and enjoy, and which was certainly droll enough.
+The front of the gate-keeper's house was quite grown over with ivy which
+framed the door and window in its long runners. Amidst the greenery hung
+numbers of cages with starlings, blackbirds, and smaller singing-birds.
+The wide door of the little house stood open, giving a view into a
+tolerably spacious and gaily-painted room. In the background stood a
+clay model of an Apollo of admirable workmanship; above, and near this,
+the wall was hung with lutes and lyres of various size and form.
+
+In the middle of the room, and near the open door, was a table, on which
+stood a large wicker cage containing several nests of young goldfinches,
+and with green food twined among the osiers. There were, too, a large
+wine-jar and an ivory goblet decorated with fine carving. Close to the
+drinking-vessels, on the stone top of the table, rested the arm of an
+elderly woman who had fallen asleep in the arm-chair in which she sat.
+Notwithstanding the faint grey moustache that marked her upper-lip
+and the pronounced ruddiness of her fore head and cheeks, she looked
+pleasant and kind. She must have been dreaming of something that pleased
+her, for the expression of her lips and of her eyes-one being half open
+and the other closely shut-gave her a look of contentment. In her lap
+slept a large grey cat, and by its side--as though discord never could
+enter this bright little abode which exhaled no savor of poverty, but,
+on the contrary, a peculiar and fragrant scent--lay a small shaggy dog,
+whose snowy whiteness of coat could only be due to the most constant
+care. Two other dogs, like this one, lay stretched on the floor at the
+old lady's feet, and seemed no less soundly asleep.
+
+As the prefect came up, the architect pointed to this study of
+still-life, and said in a whisper:
+
+"If we had a painter here it would make a lovely little picture."
+
+"Incomparable," answered Titianus, "only the vivid scarlet on the dame's
+cheeks seems to me suspicious, considering the ample proportions of the
+wine-jar at her elbow."
+
+"But did you ever see a calmer, kindlier, or more contented
+countenance?"
+
+"Baucis must have slept like that when Philemon allowed himself leave of
+absence for once! or did that devoted spouse always remain at home?"
+
+"Apparently he did. Now, peace is at an end." The approach of the
+two friends had waked one of the little dogs. He gave tongue, and his
+companion immediately jumped up and barked as if for a wager. The old
+woman's pet sprang out of her lap, but neither his mistress nor the cat
+let themselves be disturbed by the noise, and slept on.
+
+"A watcher among a thousand!" said the architect, laughing.
+
+"And this phalanx of dogs which guard the palace of a Caesar," added
+Titianus, "might be vanquished with a blow. Take heed, the worthy matron
+is about to wake."
+
+The dame had in fact been disturbed by the barking. She sat up a little,
+lifted her hands, and then, half singing, half muttering a few words,
+she sank back again in her chair.
+
+"This is delicious!" cried the prefect.
+
+"Begone dull care" she sang in her sleep.
+
+"How may this rare specimen of humanity look when she is awake?"
+
+"I should be sorry to drive the old lady out of her nest!" said the
+architect unrolling his scroll.
+
+"You shall touch nothing in the little house," cried the prefect
+eagerly. "I know Hadrian; he delights in such queer things and queer
+people, and I will wager he will make friends with the old woman in his
+own way. Here at last comes the steward of this palace."
+
+The prefect was not mistaken; the hasty step he had heard was that of
+the official they awaited. At some little distance they could already
+hear the man, panting as he hurried up, and as he came, before Titianus
+could prevent him, he had snatched down the cords that were stretched
+across the court and flung all the washing on the ground. As soon as
+the curtain had thus dropped which had divided him from the Emperor's
+representative and his companion, he bowed to the former as low as the
+rotund dimensions of his person would allow; but his hasty arrival, the
+effort of strength he had made, and his astonishment at the appearance
+of the most powerful personage in the Nile Province in the building
+entrusted to his care, so utterly took away his breath--of which he
+at all times was but "scant"--that he was unable even to stammer out
+a suitable greeting. Titianus gave him a little time, and then, after
+expressing his regret at the sad plight of the washing, now strewn upon
+the ground, and mentioning to the steward the name and position of his
+friend Pontius, he briefly explained to him that the Emperor wished
+to take up his abode in the palace now in his charge; that
+he--Titianus--was cognizant of the bad condition in which it then was,
+and had come to take council with him and the architect as to what could
+be done in the course of a few days to make the dilapidated residence
+habitable for Hadrian, and to repair, at any rate, the more conspicuous
+damage. He then desired the steward to lead him through the rooms.
+
+"Directly--at once," answered the Greek, who had attained his present
+ponderous dimensions through many years of rest: "I will hasten to fetch
+the keys." And as he went, puffing and panting, he re-arranged with
+his short, fat fingers the still abundant hair on the right side of his
+head. Pontius looked after him.
+
+"Call him back, Titianus," said he. "We disturbed him in the midst of
+curling his hair; only one side was done when the lictor called him
+away, and I will wager my own head that he will have the other side
+frizzled before he comes back. I know your true Greek!"
+
+"Well, let him," answered Titianus. "If you have taken his measure
+rightly he will not be able to give his attention without reserve to our
+questions till the other half of his hair is curled. I know, too, how to
+deal with a Hellene."
+
+"Better than I, I perceive," said the architect in a tone of conviction.
+"A statesman is used to deal with men as we do with lifeless materials.
+Did you see the fat fellow turn pale when you said that it would be but
+a few days before the Emperor would make his entry here? Things must
+look well in the old house there. Every hour is precious, and we have
+lingered here too long."
+
+The prefect nodded agreement and followed the architect into the inner
+court of the palace. How grand and well-proportioned was the plan of
+this immense building through which the steward Keraunus, who returned
+with his fine curls complete all round, now led the Romans. It stood on
+an artificial hill in the midst of the peninsula of Lochias, and from
+many a window and many a balcony there were lovely prospects of the
+streets and open squares, the houses, palaces and public buildings of
+the metropolis, and of the harbor, swarming with ships. The outlook from
+Lochias was rich, gay and varied to the south and west, but east and
+north from the platform of the palace of the Ptolemies, the gaze fell
+on the never-wearying prospect of the eternal sea, limited only by the
+vault of heaven. When Hadrian had sent a special messenger from Mount
+Kasius to desire his prefect Titianus to have this particular building
+prepared for his reception, he knew full well what advantages its
+position offered; it was the part of his officials to restore order in
+the interior of the palace, which had remained uninhabited from the time
+of Cleopatra's downfall. He gave them for the purpose eight, or perhaps
+nine, days--little more than a week. And in what a condition did
+Titianus and Pontius find this now dilapidated and plundered scene of
+former magnificence--the sweat pouring from their foreheads with their
+exertions as they inspected and sketched, questioned and made notes of
+it all.
+
+The pillars and steps in the interior were tolerably well preserved,
+but the rain had poured in through the open roofs of the banqueting and
+reception-lulls, the fine mosaic pavements had started here and there,
+and in other places a perfect little meadow had grown in the midst of a
+hall, or an arcade; for Octavianus Augustus, Tiberius, Vespasian, Titus
+and a whole series of prefects, had already carefully removed the finest
+of the mosaics from the famous palace of the Ptolemies, and carried them
+to Rome or to the provinces, to decorate their town houses or country
+villas. In the same way the best of the statues were gone, with which
+a few centuries previously the art-loving Lagides had decorated
+this residence--besides which they had another, still larger, on the
+Bruchiom.
+
+In the midst of a vast marbled hall stood an elegantly-wrought fountain,
+connected with the fine aqueduct of the city. A draught of air rushed
+through this hall, and in stormy weather switched the water all over the
+floor, now robbed of its mosaics, and covered, wherever the foot could
+tread, with a thin, dark green, damp and slippery coating of mossy
+plants and slime. It was here that Keraunus leaned breathless against
+the wall, and, wiping his brow, panted rather than said: "At last, this
+is the end!"
+
+The words sounded as if he meant his own end and not that of their
+excursion through the palace, and it seemed like a mockery of the man
+himself when Pontius unhesitatingly replied with decision:
+
+"Good, then we can begin our re-examination here, at once."
+
+Keraunus did not contradict him, but, as he remembered the number of
+stairs to be climbed over again, he looked as if sentence of death had
+been passed upon him.
+
+"Is it necessary that I should remain with you during the rest of
+your labors, which must be principally directed to details?" asked the
+prefect of the architect.
+
+"No," answered Pontius, "provided you will take the trouble to look
+at once at my plan, so as to inform yourself on the whole of what I
+propose, and to give me full powers to dispose of men and means in each
+case as it arises."
+
+"That is granted," said Titianus. "I know that Pontius will not demand a
+man or a sesterce more or less than is needed for the purpose."
+
+The architect bowed in silence and Titianus went on.
+
+"But above all things, do you think you can accomplish your task in
+eight days and nine nights?"
+
+"Possibly, at a pinch; and if I could only have four days more at my
+disposal, most probably."
+
+"Then all that is needed is to delay Hadrian's arrival by four days and
+nights."
+
+"Send some interesting people--say the astronomer Ptolemaeus, and
+Favorinus, the sophist, who await him here--to meet him at Pelusium.
+They will find some way of detaining him there."
+
+"Not a bad idea! We will see. But who can reckon on the Empress's moods?
+At any rate, consider that you have only eight days to dispose of."
+
+"Good."
+
+"Where do you hope to be able to lodge Hadrian?"
+
+"Well, a very small portion of the old building is, strictly speaking,
+fit to use."
+
+"Of that, I regret to say, I have fully convinced myself," said the
+prefect emphatically, and turning to the steward, he went on in a tone
+less of stern reproof than of regret.
+
+"It seems to me, Keraunus, that it would have been your duty to inform
+me earlier of the ruinous condition of the building."
+
+"I have already lodged a complaint," replied the man, "but I was told in
+answer to my report that there were no means to apply to the purpose."
+
+"I know nothing of these things," cried Titianus.
+
+"When did you forward your petition to the prefect's office?"
+
+"Under your predecessor, Haterius Nepos."
+
+"Indeed," said the prefect with a drawl.
+
+"So long ago. Then, in your place, I should have repeated my application
+every year, without any reference to the appointment of a new prefect.
+However, we have now no time for talking. During the Emperor's residence
+here, I shall very likely send one of my subordinates to assist you!"
+
+Titianus turned his back on the steward, and asked the architect:
+
+"Well, my good Pontius, what part of the palace have you your eye upon?"
+
+"The inner halls and rooms are in the best repair."
+
+"But they are the last that can be thought of," cried Titianus. "The
+Emperor is satisfied with everything in camp, but where fresh air and a
+distant prospect are to be had, he must have them."
+
+"Then let us choose the western suite; hold the plan my worthy friend."
+
+The steward slid as he was desired, the architect took his pencil and
+made a vigorous line in the air above the left side of the sketch,
+saying:
+
+"This is the west front of the palace which you see from the harbor.
+From the south you first come into the lofty peristyle, which may be
+used as an antechamber; it is surrounded with rooms for the slaves
+and body-guard. The next smaller sitting-rooms by the side of the main
+corridor we may assign to the officers and scribes, in this spacious
+hypaethral hall--the one with the Muses--Hadrian may give audience and
+the guests may assemble there whom he may admit to eat at his table in
+this broad peristyle. The smaller and well-preserved rooms, along this
+long passage leading to the steward's house, will do for the pages,
+secretaries and other attendants on Caesar's person, and this long
+saloon, lined with fine porphyry and green marble, and adorned with the
+beautiful frieze in bronze will, I fancy, please Hadrian as a study and
+private sitting-room."
+
+"Admirable!" cried Titianus, "I should like to show your plan to the
+Empress."
+
+"In that case, instead of eight days I must have as many weeks," said
+Pontius coolly.
+
+"That is true," answered the prefect laughing. "But tell me, Keraunus,
+how comes it that the doors are wanting to all the best rooms?"
+
+"They were of fine thyra wood, and they were wanted in Rome."
+
+"I must have seen one or another of them there," muttered the prefect.
+
+"Your cabinet-workers will have a busy time, Pontius."
+
+"Nay, the hanging-makers may be glad; wherever we can we will close the
+door-ways with heavy curtains."
+
+"And what will you do with this damp abode of fogs, which, if I mistake
+not, must adjoin the dining-hall?"
+
+"We will turn it into a garden filled with ornamental foliage."
+
+"That is quite admissable--and the broken statues?"
+
+"We will get rid of the worst."
+
+"The Apollo and the nine Muses stand in the room you intend for an
+audience-hall--do they not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"They are in fairly good condition, I think."
+
+"Urania is wanting entirely," said the steward, who was still holding
+the plan out in front of him.
+
+"And what became of her?" asked Titianus, not without excitement.
+
+"Your predecessor, the prefect Haterius Nepos, took a particular fancy
+to it and carried it with him to Rome."
+
+"Why Urania of all others?" cried Titianus angrily. "She, above all,
+ought not to be missing from the hall of audience of Caesar the pontiff
+of heaven! What is to be done?"
+
+"It will be difficult to find an Urania ready-made as tall as her
+sisters, and we have no time to search one out, a new one must be made."
+
+"In eight days?"
+
+"And eight nights."
+
+"But my good friend, only to get the marble--"
+
+"Who thinks of marble? Papias will make us one of straw, rags and
+gypsum--I know his magic hand--and in order that the others may not be
+too unlike their new-born sister they shall be whitewashed."
+
+"Capital--but why choose Papias when we have Harmodius?"
+
+"Harmodius takes art in earnest, and we should have the Emperor
+here before he had completed his sketches. Papias works with thirty
+assistants at anything that is ordered of him, so long as it brings him
+money. His last things certainly amaze me, particularly the Hygyeia for
+Dositheus the Jew, and the bust of Plutarch put up in the Caesareum;
+they are full of grace and power. But who can distinguish what is his
+work and what that of his scholars? Enough, he knows how things should
+be done; and if a good sum is to be got by it he will hew you out a
+whole sea-fight in marble in five days."
+
+"Then give Papias the commission but the hapless mutilated
+pavements-what will you do with them?"
+
+"Gypsum and paint must mend them," said Pontius, "and where that
+will not do, we must lay carpets on the floor in the Eastern fashion.
+Merciful night! how dark it is growing; give me the plan Keraunus and
+provide us with torches and lamps for to-day, and the next following
+ones must have twenty-four hours apiece, full measure. I must ask you
+for half a dozen trustworthy slaves Titianus; I shall want them for
+messengers. What are you standing there for man? Lights, I said. You
+have had half a lifetime to rest in, and when Caesar is gone you will
+have as many more years for the same laudable purpose--"
+
+As he spoke the steward had silently gone off, but the architect did not
+spare him the end of the sentence; he shouted after him:
+
+"Unless by that time you are smothered in your own fat. Is it Nile-mud
+or blood that runs in that huge mortal's veins?"
+
+"I am sure I do not care," said the prefect, "so long as the glorious
+fire that flows in yours only holds out till the work is done. Do not
+allow yourself to be overworked at first, nor require the impossible of
+your strength, for Rome and the world still expect great things of you.
+I can now write in perfect security to the Emperor that all will be
+ready for him in Lochias, and as a farewell speech, I can only say, it
+is folly to be discouraged if only Pontius is at hand to support and
+assist me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The prefect ordered the lictors, who were awaiting him with his chariot,
+to hasten to his house, and to conduct to Pontius several most worthy
+slaves, familiar with Alexandria--some of whom he named--and at the same
+time to send the architect a good couch with pillows and coverlets, and
+to despatch a good meal and fine wine to the old palace at Lochias. Then
+he mounted his chariot and drove through the Bruchiom along the shore to
+the great edifice known as the Caesareum. He got on but slowly, for
+the nearer he approached his destination the denser was the crowd
+of inquisitive citizens, who stood closely packed round the vast
+circumference of the building. Quite from a distance the prefect could
+see a bright light; it rose to heaven from the large pans of pitch which
+were placed on the towers on each side of the tall gate of the Caesareum
+which faced the sea. To the right and left of this gate stood a tall
+obelisk, and on each of these, men were lighting lamps which had been
+attached to the sides and placed on the top, on the previous day.
+
+"In honor of Sabina," said the prefect to himself. "All that this
+Pontius does is thoroughly done, and there is no more complete sinecure
+than the supervision of his arrangements."
+
+Fully persuaded of this he did not think it necessary to go up to the
+illuminated door-way which led into the temple erected by Octavian in
+honor of Julius Caesar; on the contrary, he directed the charioteer to
+stop at a door built in the Egyptian style, which faced the garden of
+the palace of the Ptolemies, and which led to the imperial residence
+that had been built by the Alexandrians for Tiberius, and had been
+greatly extended and beautified under the later Caesars. A sacred grove
+divided it from the temple of Caesar, with which it communicated by
+a covered colonnade. Before this door there were several chariots and
+horses, and a whole host of slaves, black and white, were in attendance
+with their masters' litters. Here lictors kept back the sight-seeking
+crowd, officers were lounging against the pillars, and the Roman guard
+were just assembling with a clatter of arms, to the sound of a trumpet
+within the door, to await their dismissal.
+
+Everything gave way respectfully before the chariot of the prefect, and
+as Titianus walked through the illuminated arcades of the Caesareum,
+passing by the masterpieces of statuary placed there, and the rows of
+pictures--and reached the halls in which the library of the palace was
+kept, he could not help thinking of all the care and trouble which with
+the assistance of Pontius, he had for months devoted to rendering this
+palace which had not been used since Titus had set out for Judaea, fit
+quarters for Hadrian's reception. The Empress now lived in the rooms
+intended for her husband, and decorated with the choicest works of art,
+and Titianus reflected with regret that, after Sabina had once become
+aware of their presence there, it would be quite impossible to transfer
+them to Lochias. At the door of the splendid room which he had intended
+for Hadrian he was met by Sabina's chamberlain who undertook to conduct
+him at once into the presence of his mistress.
+
+The roof of the hall in which the prefect found the Empress, in summer
+was open to the sky; but at this season was suitably covered in by a
+movable copper roof, partly to keep off the rain of the Alexandrian
+winter, and partly too because, even in the warmer season Sabina was
+wont to complain of cold; but beneath it a wide opening allowed the
+air free entrance and exit. As Titianus entered the room a comfortable
+warmth and subtle perfume met his senses; the warmth was produced by
+stoves of a peculiar form standing in the middle of the room; one of
+these represented Vulcan's forge. Brightly glowing charcoal lay in
+front of the bellows which were worked by an automaton, at short regular
+intervals, while the god and his assistants modelled in brass, stood
+round the genial fire with tongs and hammers. The other stove was a
+large silver bird's-nest, in which likewise charcoal was burning. Above
+the glowing fuel a phoenix, also in brass, and in the likeness of an
+eagle, seemed striving to soar heavenwards. Besides these a number of
+lamps lighted the saloon, which in truth looked too large for the
+number of people assembled in it, and which was lavishly furnished
+with gracefully-formed seats, couches, and tables, vases of flowers and
+statues.
+
+The prefect and Pontius had intended a quite different room to serve for
+smaller assemblies, and had fitted it up suitably for the purpose,
+but the Empress had preferred the great hall to the smaller room. The
+venerable and nobly-born statesman was filled with vexation, nay, with
+an embarrassment that made him feel estranged, when he had to glance
+round the room to find the persons in it, collected, as they were,
+into small knots. He could hear nothing but hushed voices; here an
+unintelligible murmur and there a suppressed laugh, but from no one a
+frank speech or full utterance. For a moment he felt as if he had found
+admittance to the abode of whispering calumny, and yet he knew why
+here no one dared to speak out or above a murmur. Loud voices hurt
+the Empress, and a clear voice was a misery to her, and yet few men
+possessed so loud and penetrating a chest voice as her husband, who was
+not wont to lay restraint upon himself for any human being, not even for
+his wife.
+
+Sabina sat on a large divan, more like a couch than a chair; her feet
+were buried in the shaggy fell of a buffalo, and her knees and ankles
+wrapped round with down-cushions covered with silk. Her head she held
+very upright, and it was difficult to imagine how her slender throat
+could support it, loaded as it was with strings of pearls and precious
+stones which were braided in the tall structure of her reddish-gold
+hair, that was arranged in long cylindrical curls pinned closely side by
+side. The Empress's thin face looked particularly small under the
+mass of natural and artificial adornment which towered above her brow.
+Beautiful she could never have been, even in her youth, but her features
+were regular, and the prefect confessed to himself as he looked at
+Sabina's face, marked as it was with minute wrinkles and touched up with
+red and white, that the sculptor who a few years previously had been
+commissioned to represent her as 'Venus Victrix' might very well have
+given the goddess a certain amount of resemblance to the imperial model.
+If only her eyes, which were absolutely bereft of lashes, had not
+been quite so small and keen--in spite of the dark lines painted round
+them--and if only the sinews in her throat had not stood out quite so
+conspicuously from the flesh which formerly had covered them!
+
+With a deep bow Titianus took the Empress's right hand, covered with
+rings; but she withdrew it quickly from that of her husband's friend and
+relative, as if she feared that the carefully-cherished limb--useless as
+it was for any practical purpose, a mere toy among hands--might suffer
+some injury, and wrapped it and her arm in her upper-robe. But she
+returned the prefect's friendly greeting with all the warmth at her
+command. Though formerly at Rome she had been accustomed to see Titianus
+every day at her house, this was their first meeting in Alexandria; for
+the previous day, exhausted by the sufferings of her sea-voyage, she had
+been carried in a closed litter to the Caesareum, and this morning she
+had declined to receive his visit, as her whole time was given up to her
+physicians, bathing-women, and coiffeurs.
+
+"How can you survive in this country?" she said in a low but harsh
+voice, which always made the hearer feel that it was that of a dull,
+fractious, childless woman. "At noon the sun burns you up, and in the
+evening it is so cold--so intolerably cold!' As she spoke she drew
+her robe closer round her, but Titianus, pointing to the stoves in the
+middle of the hall, said:
+
+"I hoped we had succeeded in cutting the bowstrings of the Egyptian
+winter, and it is but a feeble weapon."
+
+"Still young, still imaginative, still a poet!" said the Empress
+wearily. "I saw your wife a couple of hours since. Africa seems to
+suit her less well; I was shocked to see Julia, the handsome matron, so
+altered. She does not look well."
+
+"Years are the foe of beauty."
+
+"Frequently they are, but true beauty often resists their attacks."
+
+"You are yourself the living proof of your assertion."
+
+"That is as much as to say that I am growing old."
+
+"Nay--only that you know the secret of remaining beautiful."
+
+"You are a poet!" murmured the Empress with a twitch of her thin
+under-lip.
+
+"Affairs of state do not favor the Muses."
+
+"But I call any man a poet who sees things more beautiful than they are,
+or who gives them finer names than they deserve--a poet, a dreamer, a
+flatterer--for it comes to that."
+
+"Ah! modesty can always find words to repel even well-merited
+admiration."
+
+"Why this foolish bandying of words?" sighed Sabina, flinging herself
+back in her chair. "You have been to school under the hair-splitting
+logicians in the Museum here, and I have not. Over there sits Favorinus,
+the sophist; I dare say he is proving to Ptolemaeus that the stars are
+mere specks of blood in our eyes, which we choose to believe are in the
+sky. Florus, the historian, is taking note of this weighty discussion;
+Pancrates, the poet, is celebrating the great thoughts of the
+philosopher. As to what part the philologist there can find to take in
+this important event you know better than I. What is the man's name?"
+
+"Apollonius."
+
+"Hadrian has nick-named him 'the obscure.' The more difficult it is to
+understand the discourses of these gentlemen the more highly are they
+esteemed."
+
+"One must dive to obtain what lies at the bottom of the water--all that
+floats on the surface is borne by the waves, a plaything for children.
+Apollonius is a very learned man."
+
+"Then my husband ought to leave him among his disciples and his books.
+It was his wish that I should invite these people to my table. Florus
+and Pancrates I like--not the others."
+
+"I can easily relieve you of the company of Favorinus and Ptolemaeus;
+send them to meet the Emperor."
+
+"To what end?"
+
+"To entertain him."
+
+"He has his plaything with him," said Sabina, and her thin lips curled
+with an expression of bitter contempt.
+
+"His artistic eye delights in the beauty of Antinous, which is
+celebrated, but which it has not yet been my privilege to see."
+
+"And you are very anxious to see this marvel?"
+
+"I cannot deny it."
+
+"And yet you want to postpone your meeting with Caesar?" said Sabina,
+and a keen glance of inquiry and distrust twinkled in her little eyes.
+
+"Why do you want to delay my husband's arrival?"
+
+"Need I tell you," said Titianus eagerly, "how greatly I shall rejoice
+to see once more my sovereign, the companion of my youth, the greatest
+and wisest of men, after a separation of four years? What would I not
+give if he were here already! And yet I would rather that he should
+arrive in fourteen days than in eight."
+
+"What reason can you have?"
+
+"A mounted messenger brought me a letter to-day in which the Emperor
+tells me that he proposes to inhabit the old palace at Lochias, and not
+the Caesareum."
+
+At these words Sabina's forehead clouded, her gaze, dark and blank, was
+fixed on her lap, and biting her under-lip, she muttered:
+
+"Because I am here."
+
+Titianus made as though he had not heard these words, and continued in
+an easy tone:
+
+"There he has a wide outlook into the distance, which is what he has
+loved from his youth up. But the old building is much dilapidated, and
+though I have already begun to exert all the forces at my command, with
+the assistance of our admirable architect, Pontius, to restore a portion
+of it at any rate, and make it a habitable and not too uncomfortable
+residence, the time is too short to do anything thoroughly worthy--"
+
+"I wish to see my husband here, and the sooner the better," interrupted
+the Empress with decision. Then she turned towards the row of pillars
+which stood by the right-hand wall of the hall, and which were at some
+distance from her couch, calling out "Verus." But her voice was so weak
+that it did not reach the person addressed, so turning to the prefect,
+she said: "I beg of you to call Verus to me, the praetor Lucius Aurelius
+Verus." Titianus immediately obeyed.
+
+As he entered the hall he had already exchanged friendly greetings with
+the man to whom the Empress wished to speak. He now did not succeed in
+attracting his attention till he stood close at his elbow, for he formed
+the centre of a small group of men and women who were hanging on
+his words. What he was saying in a subdued voice must have been
+extraordinarily diverting, for it could be seen that his hearers were
+making the greatest efforts to keep their suppressed laughter from
+breaking out into a shout that would shake the very hall, a noise the
+Empress detested. When the prefect came up to Verus, a young girl, whose
+pretty head was crowned by a perfect thicket of little ringlets, was
+just laying her hand on his arm and saying:
+
+"Nay-that is too much; if you go on like this, for the future whenever
+you speak I shall stop my ears with my hands, as sure as my name is
+Balbilla."
+
+"And as sure as you are descended from King Antiochus," added Verus
+bowing.
+
+"Always the same," laughed the prefect, nodding to the audacious jester.
+
+"Sabina wants to speak to you."
+
+"Directly, directly," said Verus. "My story is a true one, and you all
+ought to be grateful to me for having released you from that tedious
+philologer who has now button-holed my witty friend Favorinus. I like
+your Alexandria, Titianus; still it is not a great capital like
+Rome. The people have not yet learned not to be astonished; they are
+perpetually in amazement. When I go out driving--"
+
+"Your runners ought to fly before you with roses in their hair and wings
+on their shoulders like Cupids."
+
+"In honor of the Alexandrian ladies?"
+
+"As if the Roman ladies in Rome, and the fair Greeks at Athens,"
+interrupted Balbilla.
+
+"The praetor's runners go faster than Parthian horses," cried the
+Empress's chamberlain. "He has named them after the winds."
+
+"As they deserve," added Verus "Come, Titianus." He laid his hand in a
+confidential manner on the arm of the prefect, to whom he was related;
+and as they went towards Sabina he whispered in his ear:
+
+"I can keep her waiting as if I were the Emperor."
+
+Favorinus who had been engaged in talk with Ptolemaeus, the astronomer,
+Apollonius, and the philosopher and poet Pancrates in another part of
+the hall, looked after the two men and said:
+
+"A handsome couple. One the personification of imperial and dignified
+Rome; the other with his Hermes-like figure."
+
+"The other"--interrupted the philologist with stern displeasure, "the
+other is the very incarnation of the haughtiness, the luxury pushed to
+insanity, and the infamous depravity of the metropolis. That dissipated
+ladies-man."
+
+"I will not defend his character," said Favorinus in his pleasant voice,
+and with an elegance in his pronunciation of Greek which delighted even
+the grammarian. "His ways and doings are disgraceful; still you must
+allow that his manners are tinged with the charm of Hellenic beauty,
+that the Charites kissed him at his birth, and though, by the stern laws
+of virtue we must condemn him, he deserves to be crowned with praise and
+garlands from the point of view of the feeling for beauty."
+
+"Oh! for the artist who wants a model he is a choice morsel."
+
+"The Athenian judges acquitted Phryne because she was beautiful."
+
+"They did wrong."
+
+"Hardly in the eyes of the gods, whose fairest works must deserve our
+respect."
+
+"Still poison may be kept in the most beautiful vessels."
+
+"And yet body and soul always to a certain extent correspond."
+
+"And can you dare to call the handsome Verus the admirable Verus?"
+
+"No, but the reckless Lucius Aurelius Verus is at the same time the
+gayest and pleasantest of all the Romans, free alike from spite or
+carefulness, he troubles himself with no doctrines of virtue, and as
+when a thing pleases him, he desires to possess it, he endeavors to give
+pleasure to every one else."
+
+"He has wasted his pains so far as I am concerned."
+
+"I do as he wishes."
+
+The last words both of the philologer and the sophist were spoken
+somewhat louder than was usual in the presence of the Empress. Sabina,
+who had just told the praetor which residence her husband had decided
+on inhabiting, drew up her shoulders and pinched her lips as if in pain,
+while Verus turned a face of indignation--a face which was manly in
+spite of all the delicacy and regularity of the features--on the
+two speakers, and his fine bright eyes caught the hostile glance of
+Apollonius.
+
+An intimation of aversion to his person was one of the things which
+to him were past endurance; he hastily passed his hand through his
+blue-black hair, which was only slightly grizzled at the temples and
+flowed uncurled, but in soft waving locks round his head, and said,
+not heeding Sabina's question as to his opinion of her husband's latest
+instructions:
+
+"He is a repulsive fellow, that wrangling logician; he has an evil eye
+that threatens mischief to us all, and his trumpet voice cannot hurt you
+more than it does me. Must we endure him at table with us every day?"
+
+"So Hadrian desires."
+
+"Then I shall start for Rome," said Verus decidedly. "My wife wants to
+be back with her children, and as praetor, it is more fitting that I
+should stay by the Tiber than by the Nile."
+
+The words were spoken as lightly as though they were nothing more than
+a proposition to go to supper, but they seemed to agitate the Empress
+deeply, for her head, which had seemed almost a fixture during her
+conversation with Titianus, now shook so violently that the pearls and
+jewels rattled in the erection of curls. There she sat for some seconds
+staring into her lap.
+
+Verus stooped to pick up a gem that had fallen from her hair, and as he
+did so she said hastily:
+
+"You are right. Apollonius is intolerable. Let us send him to meet my
+husband."
+
+"Then I will remain," answered Verus, as pleased as a wilful boy who has
+got his own way.
+
+"Fickle as the wind," murmured Sabina, threatening him with her finger.
+"Show me the stone--it is one of the largest and finest; you may keep
+it."
+
+When an hour later, Verus quitted the hall with the prefect, Titianus
+said:
+
+"You have done me a service cousin, without knowing it. Now can you
+contrive that Ptolemaeus and Favorinus shall go with Apollonius to meet
+the Emperor at Pelusium?"
+
+"Nothing easier" was the answer.
+
+And the same evening the prefect's steward conveyed to Pontius the
+information that he might count on having probably fourteen days for his
+work, instead of eight or nine only.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+In the Caesareum, where the Empress dwelt, the lights were extinguished
+one after another; but in the palace of Lochias they grew more numerous
+and brighter. In festal illuminations of the harbor pitch cressets on
+the roof, and long rows of lamps that accumulated architectonic features
+of the noble structure, were always kindled; but inside it, no blaze
+so brilliant had ever lighted it within the memory of man. The harbor
+watchmen at first gazed anxiously up at Lochias, for they feared that
+a fire must have broken out in the old palace; they were soon reassured
+however, by one of the prefect's lictors, who brought them a command to
+keep open the harbor gates that night, and every night till the Emperor
+should have arrived, to all who might wish to proceed from Lochias to
+the city, or from the city to the peninsula, under the orders of Pontius
+the architect. And till long past midnight not a quarter of an hour
+passed in which the people whom the architect had summoned to his aid
+were not knocking at the harbor gates, which, though not locked were all
+guarded. The little house belonging to the gate-keeper was also brightly
+lighted up; the birds and cats belonging to the old woman whom the
+prefect and his companions had found slumbering by her wine-jar, were
+now fast asleep, but the little dogs still flew loudly yelping into the
+yard each time a new-comer entered by the open gate.
+
+"Come, Aglaia, what will folks think of you? Thalia, my beauty, behave
+like a good dog; come here, Euphrosyne, and don't be so silly!" cried
+the old lady in a voice which was both pleasant and peremptory, as
+she stood-wide awake now-behind her table, folding together the dried
+clothes. The little barking beasts who were thus endowed with the
+names of the three Graces did not trouble themselves much about her
+affectionate admonitions; to their sorrow, for it happened more
+than once to each of them, when they had got under the feet of some
+new-comer, to creep, whining and howling, into the house again to seek
+consolation from their mistress, who would pick up the sufferer and
+soothe it with kisses and coaxing.
+
+The old lady was no longer alone, for in the background, on a long and
+narrow couch which stood in front of the statue of Apollo, lay a tall,
+lean man, wearing a red chiton. A little lamp hanging from the ceiling
+threw a dull light on him and on the lute he was playing. To the faint
+sound of the instrument, which was rather a large one, and which he had
+propped on the pillow by his side, he was singing, or rather murmuring
+a long ditty. Twice, thrice, four times he repeated it in the same way.
+Now and again he suddenly let his voice sound more loudly--and though
+his hair was quite grey his voice was not unpleasing--and sang a few
+phrases full of expression and with artistic delivery; and then, when
+the dogs barked too vehemently, he would spring up, and with his lute in
+his left-hand and a long pliable rattan in his right, he would rush into
+the court-yard, shout the names of the dogs, and raise his cane as if he
+would kill them; but he always took care not to hit them, only to beat
+on the pavement near them. When, returning from such an excursion, he
+stretched himself again on his couch, the old woman, pointing to the
+hanging-lamp which the impatient creature often knocked with his head,
+would call out, "Euphorion, mind the oil."
+
+And he each time answered with the same threatening gesture and the same
+glare in his black eyes:
+
+"The little brutes!"
+
+The singer had been diligently practising his musical exercises for
+about an hour, when the dogs rushed into the court-yard, not barking
+this time, but yelping loudly with joy. The old woman laid aside the
+washing and listened, but the tall man said:
+
+"As many birds come flying before the Emperor as gulls before a storm.
+If only they would leave us in peace--"
+
+"Hark, that is Pollux; I know by the dogs," said the woman, hastening
+as fast as she could over the threshold and out to meet him. But
+the expected visitor was already at the door. He picked up the three
+four-footed Graces who leaped round him, one after the other by the
+skin of the neck, and gave each a tap on its nose. Then, seeing the
+old woman, he took her head between his hands, and kissed her forehead,
+saying, "Good-evening, little Mother," and shook hands with the singer,
+adding, "How are you, great, big Father?"
+
+"You are as big as I am," replied the man thus addressed, and he drew
+the younger man towards him, and laid one of his broad hands on his own
+grey head and the other on that of his first-born, with its wealth of
+brown hair.
+
+"As if we were cast in the same mould," cried the youth; and in fact he
+was very like his father--like, no doubt, as a noble hunter is like
+a worn-out hack--as marble is like limestone--as a cedar is like a
+fir-tree. Both were remarkably tall, had thick hair, dark eyes, and
+strongly aquiline noses, exactly of the same shape; but the cheerful
+brightness which irradiated the countenance of the youth had certainly
+not been inherited from the lute-player, but from the little woman who
+looked up into his face and patted his arm.
+
+But whence did he derive the powerful, but indescribable something which
+gave nobility to his head, and of which it was impossible to say whether
+it lay in his eye, or in the lofty brow, arched so differently to that
+of either parent?
+
+"I knew you would come," cried his mother. "This afternoon I dreamed it,
+and I can prove that I expected you, for there, on the brazier, stands
+the stewed cabbage and sausage waiting for you."
+
+"I cannot stay now," replied Pollux. "Really, I cannot, though your
+kind looks would persuade me, and the sausage winks at me out of the
+cabbage-pan. My master, Papias, is gone on ahead, and in the palace
+there we are to work wonders in less time than it generally takes to
+consider which end the work should be begun at."
+
+"Then I will carry the cabbage into the palace for you," said Doris,
+standing on tip-toe to hold a sausage to the lips of her tall son.
+Pollux bit off a large mouthful and said, as he munched it:
+
+"Excellent! I only wish that the thing I am to construct up there
+may turn out as good a statue as this savory cylinder--now fast
+disappearing--was a superior and admirable sausage."
+
+"Have another?" said Doris.
+
+"No mother; and you must not bring the cabbage either. Up to midnight
+not a minute must be lost, and if I then leave off for a little while
+you must by that time be dreaming of all sorts of pleasant things."
+
+"I will carry you the cabbage then," said his father, "for I shall
+not be in bed so early at any rate. The hymn to Sabina, composed by
+Mesomedes, is to be performed with the chorus, as soon as the Empress
+visits the theatre, and I am to lead the upper part of the old men,
+who grow young again at the sight of her. The rehearsal is fixed for
+to-morrow, and I know nothing about it yet. Old music, note for note, is
+ready and safe in my throat, but new things--new things!"
+
+"It is according to circumstances," said Pollux, laughing.
+
+"If only they would perform your father's Satyr-play, or his Theseus!"
+cried Doris.
+
+"Only wait a little, I will recommend him to Caesar as soon as he is
+proud to call me his friend, as the Phidias of the age. Then, when
+he asks me 'Who is the happy man who begot you?' I will answer: It is
+Euphorion, the divine poet and singer; and my mother, too, is a worthy
+matron, the gate-keeper of your palace, Doris, the enchantress, who
+turns dingy clothes into snow-white linen."
+
+These last words the young artist sang in a fine and powerful voice to a
+mode invented by his father.
+
+"If only you had been a singer!" exclaimed Euphorion.
+
+"Then I should have enjoyed the prospect," retorted Pollux, "of spending
+the evening of my life as your successor in this little abode."
+
+"And now for wretched pay, you plant the laurels with which Papias
+crowns himself!" answered the old man shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"His hour is coming, too," cried Doris, "his merit will be recognized; I
+saw him in my dreams, with a great garland on his curly head!"
+
+"Patience, father-patience," said the young man, grasping his father's
+hand. "I am young and strong, and do all I can. Here, behind this
+forehead, good ideas are seething; what I have succeeded in carrying out
+by myself, has at any rate brought credit and fame to others, although
+it is all far from resembling the ideal of beauty that here--here--I
+seem to see far away and behind a cloud; still I feel that if, in a
+moment of kindness, Fortune will but shed a few fresh drops of dew on
+it all I shall, at any rate, turn out something better than the mere
+ill-paid right-hand of Papias, who, without me does not know what he
+ought to do, or how to do it."
+
+"Only keep your eyes open and work hard," cried Doris.
+
+"It is of no use without luck," muttered the singer, shrugging his
+shoulders.
+
+The young artist bid his parents good-night, and was about to leave, but
+his mother detained him to show him the young goldfinches, hatched only
+the day before. Pollux obeyed her wish, not merely to please her, but
+because he liked to watch the gay little bird that sat warming and
+sheltering her nestlings. Close to the cage stood the huge wine-jar and
+his mother's cup, decorated by his own hand. His eye fell on these,
+and he pushed them aside in silence. Then, taking courage, he said,
+laughing: "The Emperor will often pass by here, mother; give up
+celebrating your Dionysiac festival. How would it do if you filled the
+jar with one-fourth wine and three-fourths water? It does not taste
+badly."
+
+"Spoiling good gifts," replied his mother.
+
+"One-fourth wine-to please me," Pollux entreated, taking his mother by
+the shoulders and kissing her forehead.
+
+"To please you, you great boy!" said Doris, as her eyes filled with
+tears. "Why for you, if I must, I would drink nothing but wretched
+water. Euphorion you may finish what is left in the jar presently."
+
+         .........................
+
+Pontius had already begun his labors, at first with aid only of his
+assistants who had followed him on foot. Measuring, estimating, sending
+short notes and writing figures, names and suggestions on the plan,
+and on his folding wax-tablets, he was not idle for an instant, though
+frequently interrupted by the appointed superintendents of the workshops
+and manufactures in Lochias, whose co-operation he required. They only
+came at this late hour because they were called upon by the prefect's
+orders.
+
+Papias, the sculptor, introduced himself among the latest, though
+Pontius had written to him with his own hand that he had to communicate
+to him a very remunerative and particularly pressing commission for the
+Emperor, which might, perhaps, be taken in hand that very night. The
+matter in question was a statue of Urania, which must be completed in
+eight days by the same method which Papias had introduced at the last
+festival of Adonis, and to the scale which he, Pontius, indicated,
+in the palace of Lochias itself. With regard to several works of
+restoration which had to be carried out with equal rapidity, and as to
+the price to be paid, they could agree at the same time and place.
+
+The sculptor was a man of foresight and did not appear on the scene
+alone but with his best assistant, Pollux, the son of the worthy couple
+at the gate, and several slaves who dragged after him sundry trunks and
+carts loaded with tools, boards, clay, gypsum and other raw materials
+of his art. On the road to Lochias he had informed the young sculptor of
+the business in hand, and had told him in a condescending tone that he
+would be permitted to try his skill in reconstructing the Urania. At the
+gate he had permitted Pollux to greet his parents, and had gone alone
+into the palace to open his bargain with the architect without the
+presence of witnesses.
+
+The young artist perfectly understood his master. He knew that he would
+be expected to carry out the statue of Urania, while his task-master,
+after making some trifling alterations in the completed work, would
+declare that it was his own. Pollux had for two years been obliged,
+more than once, to put up with similar treatment; and now, as usual, he
+submitted to this dishonest manoeuvre because, under his master there
+was plenty to do, and the delight of work was to him the greatest he
+could have.
+
+Papias, to whom he had gone early as an apprentice and to whom he owed
+the knowledge he possessed, was no miser, still Pollux needed money, not
+for himself alone but because he had taken on himself the charge of a
+widowed sister and her children as if they were his own family. He was
+always glad to take some comfort into the narrow home of his parents,
+who were poor, and to maintain his younger brother Teuker--who had
+devoted himself to the same art--during the years of his apprenticeship.
+Again and again he had thought of telling his master that he should
+start on his own footing and earn laurels for himself, but what then
+would become of those who relied on his help, if he gave up his regular
+earnings and if he got no commissions when there were so many unknown
+beginners eager for them? Of what avail were all his ability and the
+most honest good-will if no opportunity offered for his executing his
+work in noble materials? With his own means he certainly was in no
+position to do so.
+
+While he was talking to his parents Papias had opened his transactions
+with the architect. Pontius explained to the sculptor what was required
+and Papias listened attentively; he never interrupted the speaker, but
+only stroked his face from time to time, as if to make it smoother than
+it was already, though it was shaved with peculiar care and formed and
+colored like a warm mask; meanwhile draping the front of his rich blue
+toga, which he wore in the fashion of a Roman senator, into fresh folds.
+
+But when Pontius showed him, at the end of the rooms destined for the
+Emperor, the last of the statues to be restored, and which needed a new
+grin, Papias said decisively:
+
+"It cannot be done."
+
+"That is a rash verdict," replied the architect. "Do you not know
+the proverb, which, being such a good one, is said to have been first
+uttered by more than one sage: 'That it shows more ill-judgment to
+pronounce a thing impossible than to boast that we can achieve a task
+however much it may seem to transcend our powers.'"
+
+Papias smiled and looked down at his gold-embroidered shoes as he said:
+
+"It is more difficult to us sculptors to imagine ourselves waging
+Titanic warfare against the impossible, than it is to you who work with
+enormous masses. I do not yet see the means which would give me courage
+to begin the attack."
+
+"I will tell you," replied Pontius quickly and decidedly. "On your
+side good-will, plenty of assistants and night-watchers; on ours, the
+Caesar's approval and plenty of gold."
+
+After this the transaction came to a prompt and favorable issue, and the
+architect could but express his entire approbation, in most cases, of
+the sculptor's judicious and well-considered suggestions.
+
+"Now I must go home," concluded Papias. "My assistants will proceed at
+once with the necessary preparations. The work must be carried on behind
+screens, so that no one may disturb us or hinder us with remarks."
+
+Half an hour later a scaffolding was already erected in the middle of
+the hall where the Urania was to stand.
+
+It was concealed from; public gaze by thick linen stretched on tall
+wooden frames, and behind these screens Pollux was busied in framing
+a small model in wax, while his master had returned home to make
+arrangements for the labors of the following day.
+
+It wanted only an hour of midnight, and still the supper sent to the
+palace for the architect by the prefect remained untouched. Pontius was
+hungry enough, but before attacking the meal that a slave had set out on
+a marble table--the roast meat which looked so inviting, the orange-red
+crayfish, the golden-brown pasty and the many-hued fruits--he conceived
+it his duty to inspect the rooms to be restored. It was needful to see
+whether the slaves who had been set, in the first place to clean out all
+the rooms, were being intelligently directed by the men set over them,
+whether they were doing their duty and had all that they required; they
+had got some hours to work, then they were to rest and to begin again at
+sunrise, reinforced by other laborers both slave and free.
+
+More and better lighting was universally demanded, and when, in the hall
+of the Muses, the men who were cleaning the pavement and scraping the
+columns loudly clamored for torches and lamps, a young man's head peered
+over the screen which shut in the place reserved for the restoration of
+the Urania, and a lamentable voice cried out:
+
+"My Muse, with her celestial sphere, is the guardian of star-gazers and
+is happiest in the dark--but not till she is finished. To form her we
+must have light and more light--and when it is lighter here the voice of
+the people down there, which does not sound very delightful up in this
+hollow space, will diminish somewhat also. Give light, then, O, men!
+Light for my goddess, and for your scrubbers and scourers."
+
+Pontius looked up smiling at Pollux, who had uttered this appeal, and
+answered:
+
+"Your cry of distress is fully justified, my friend. But do you really
+believe in the power of light to diminish noise?"
+
+"At any rate," replied Pollux, "where it is absent, that is to say in
+the dark, every noise seems redoubled."
+
+"That is true, but there are other reasons for that," answered the
+architect. "To-morrow in an interval of work we will discuss these
+matters. Now I will go to provide you with lamps and lights."
+
+"Urania, the protectress of the fine arts, will be beholden to you,"
+cried Pollux as the architect went away.
+
+Pontius meanwhile sought his chief foreman to ask him whether he had
+delivered his orders to Keraunus, the palace-steward, to come to
+him, and to put the cressets and lamps commonly used for the external
+illuminations, at the service of his workmen.
+
+"Three times," was the answer "have I been myself to the man, but each
+time he puffed himself out like a frog and answered me not a word, but
+only sent me into a little room with his daughter--whom you must see,
+for she is charming--and a miserable black slave, and there I found
+these few wretched lamps that are now burning."
+
+"Did you order him to come to me?"
+
+"Three hours ago, and again a second time, when you were talking with
+Papias."
+
+The architect turned his back upon the foreman in angry haste,
+unrolled the plan of the palace, quickly found upon it the abode of the
+recalcitrant steward, seized a small red-clay lamp that was standing
+near him, and being quite accustomed to guide himself by a plan, went
+straight through the rooms, which were not a few, and by a long corridor
+from the hall of the Muses, to the lodging of the negligent official. An
+unclosed door led him into a dark ante-chamber followed by another room,
+and finally into a large, well-furnished apartment. All these door-ways,
+into what seemed to be at once the dining and sitting-room of the
+steward, were bereft of doors, and could only be closed by stuff
+curtains, just now drawn wide open. Pontius could therefore look in,
+unhindered and unperceived, at the table on which a three-branched
+bronze lamp was standing between a dish and some plates. The stout man
+was sitting with his rubicund moon-face towards the architect, who,
+indignant as he was, would have gone straight up to him with swift
+decision, if, before entering the second room, a low but pitiful sob had
+not fallen on his ear.
+
+The sob proceeded from a slight young girl who came forward from a door
+beyond the sitting-room, and who now placed a platter with a loaf on the
+table by the steward.
+
+"Come, do not cry, Selene," said the steward, breaking the bread slowly
+and with an evident desire to soothe his child.
+
+"How can I help crying," said the girl. "But tomorrow morning let me buy
+a piece of meat for you; the physician forbade you to eat bread."
+
+"Man must be filled," replied the fat man, "and meat is dear. I have
+nine mouths to fill, not counting the slaves. And where am I to get the
+money to fill us all with meat?"
+
+"We need none, but for you it is necessary."
+
+"It is of no use, child. The butcher will not trust us any more, the
+other creditors press us, and at the end of the month we shall have just
+ten drachmae left us."
+
+The girl turned pale, and asked in anxiety:
+
+"But, father, it was only to-day that you showed me the three gold
+pieces which you said had been given you as a present out of the money
+distributed on the arrival of the Empress."
+
+The steward absently rolled a piece of bread-crumb between his fingers
+and said:
+
+"I spent that on this fibula with an incised onyx--and as cheap as dirt,
+I can tell you. If Caesar comes he must see who and what I am; and if I
+die any one will give you twice as much for it as I paid. I tell you the
+Empress's money was well laid out on the thing." Selene made no answer,
+but she sighed deeply, and her eye glanced at a quantity of useless
+things which her father had acquired and brought home because they were
+cheap, while she and her seven sisters wanted the most necessary things.
+
+"Father," the girl began again after a short silence, "I ought not to
+go on about it, but even if it vexes you, I must--the architect, who is
+settling all the work out there, has sent for you twice already."
+
+"Be silent!" shouted the fat man, striking his hand on the table. "Who
+is this Pontius, and who am I!"
+
+"You are of a noble Macedonian family, related perhaps even to the
+Ptolemies; you have your seat in the Council of the Citizens--but do,
+this time, be condescending and kind. The man has his hands full, he is
+tired out."
+
+"Nor have I been able to sit still the whole day, and what is fitting,
+is fitting. I am Keraunus the son of Ptolemy, whose father came into
+Egypt with Alexander the Great, and helped to found this city, and every
+one knows it. Our possessions were diminished; but it is for that very
+reason that I insist on our illustrious blood being recognized. Pontius
+sends to command the presence of Keraunus! If it were not infuriating it
+would be laughable--for who is this man, who? I have told you his father
+was a freedman of the former prefect Claudius Balbillus, and by the
+favor of the Roman his father rose and grew rich. He is the descendant
+of slaves, and you expect that I shall be his obedient humble servant,
+whenever he chooses to call me?"
+
+"But father, my dear father, it is not the son of Ptolemy, but the
+palace-steward that he desires shall go to hire."
+
+"Mere chop-logic!--you have nothing to say, not a step do I take to go
+to him."
+
+The girl clasped her hands over her face, and sobbed loudly and
+pitifully. Keraunus started up and cried out, beside himself.
+
+"By great Serapis. I can bear this no longer. What are you whimpering
+about?"
+
+The girl plucked up courage and going up to the indignant man she said,
+though more than once interrupted by tears.
+
+"You must go father--indeed you must. I spoke to the foreman, and he
+told me coolly and decidedly that the architect was placed here in
+Caesar's name, and that if you do not obey him you will at once be
+superseded in your office. And if that were to happen, if that--O
+father, father, only think of blind Helios and poor Berenice! Arsinoe
+and I could earn our bread, but the little ones--the little ones."
+
+With these words the girl fell on her knees lifting her hands in
+entreaty to her obstinate parent. The blood had mounted to the man's
+face and eyes, and pressing his hand to his purple forehead he sank back
+in his chair as if stricken with apoplexy. His daughter sprang up and
+offered him the cup full of wine and water which was standing on the
+table; but Keraunus pushed it aside with his hands, and panted out,
+while he struggled for breath:
+
+"Supersede me--in my place--turn me out of this palace! Why there,
+in that ebony trunk, lies the rescript of Euergetes which confers the
+stewardship of this residence on my ancestor Philip, and as a hereditary
+dignity in his family. Now Philip's wife had the honor of being the
+king's mistress--or, as some say, his daughter. There lies the document,
+drawn up in red and black ink on yellow papyrus and ratified with the
+seal and signature of Euergetes the Second. All the princes of the
+Lagides have confirmed it, all the Roman prefects have respected it, and
+now--now."
+
+"But father" said the girl interrupting her father, and wringing her
+hands in despair, "you still hold the place and if you will only give
+in."
+
+"Give in, give in," shrieked the corpulent steward shaking his fat hands
+above his blood-shot face. "I will give in--I will not bring you all to
+misery--for my children's sake I will allow myself to be ill-treated
+and down-trodden, I will go--I will go directly. Like the pelican I will
+feed my children with my heart's blood. But you ought to know what it
+costs me, to humiliate myself thus; it is intolerable to me, and my
+heart is breaking--for the architect, the architect has trampled upon
+me as if I were his servant; he wished--I heard him with these ears--he
+shrieked after me a villainous hope that I might be smothered in my
+own fat--and the physician has told me I may die of apoplexy! Leave me,
+leave me. I know those Romans are capable of anything. Well--here I am;
+fetch me my saffron-colored pallium, that I wear in the council, fetch
+me my gold fillet for my head. I will deck myself like a beast for
+sacrifice, and I will show him--"
+
+Not a word of this harangue had escaped the ears of the architect who
+had been at first indignant and then moved to laughter, and withal it
+had touched his heart. A sluggish and torpid character was repugnant to
+his vigorous nature, and the deliberate and indifferent demeanor of the
+stout steward, on an occasion which had prompted him and all concerned
+to act as quickly and energetically as possible, had brought words to
+his lips which he now wished that he had never spoken. It is true that
+the steward's false pride had roused his indignation, and who can listen
+calmly to any comment on a stain on his birth? But the appeal of this
+miserable father's daughter had gone to his heart. He pitied the fatuous
+simpleton whom, with a turn of his hand, he could reduce to beggary, and
+who had evidently been far more deeply hurt by his words than Pontius
+had been by what he had overheard, and so he followed the kindly impulse
+of a noble nature to spare the unfortunate.
+
+He rapped loudly with his knuckles on the inside of the door-post of the
+ante-room, coughed loudly, and then said, bowing deeply to the steward
+on the threshold of the sitting-room:
+
+"Noble Keraunus--I have come, as beseems me, to pay you my respects.
+Excuse the lateness of the hour, but you can scarcely imagine how busy I
+have been since we parted."
+
+Keraunus had at first started at the late visitor, then he stared at him
+in consternation. He now went towards him, stretched out both hands as
+if suddenly relieved of a nightmare, and a bright expression of such
+warm and sincere satisfaction overspread his countenance that Pontius
+wondered how he could have failed to observe what a well-cut face this
+fat original had.
+
+"Take a seat at our humble table," said Keraunus. "Go Selene and call
+the slaves. Perhaps there is yet a pheasant in the house, a roast fowl
+or something of the kind--but the hour, it is true, is late."
+
+"I am deeply obliged to you," replied the architect, smiling. "My supper
+is waiting for me in the hall of the Muses, and I must return to my
+work-people. I should be grateful to you if you would accompany me. We
+must consult together as to the lighting of the rooms, and such matters
+are best discussed over a succulent roast and a flask of wine."
+
+"I am quite at your service," said Keraunus with a bow.
+
+"I will go on ahead," said the architect, "but first will you have the
+goodness to give all that you have in the way of cressets, lights and
+lamps to the slaves, who, in a few minutes, shall await your orders at
+your door."
+
+When Pontius had departed, Selene exclaimed with a deep sigh
+
+"Oh! what a fright I have had! I will go now and find the lamps. How
+terribly it might have ended."
+
+"It is well that he should have come," murmured Keraunus. "Considering
+his birth and origin, the architect is certainly a well-bred man."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Pontius had gone to the steward's room, with a frowning brow, but it
+was with a smile on his strongly-marked lips, and a brisk step that he
+returned to his work-people. The foreman came to meet him with looks of
+enquiry as he said. "The steward was a little offended and with reason;
+but now we are capital friends and he will do what he can in the matter
+of lighting."
+
+In the hall of the Muses he paused outside the screen, behind which
+Pollux was working, and called out:
+
+"Friend sculptor, listen to me, it is high time to have supper."
+
+"It is, indeed," replied Pollux, "else it will be breakfast."
+
+"Then lay aside your tools for a quarter of an hour and help me and the
+palace-steward to demolish the food that has been sent me."
+
+"You will need no second assistant if Keraunus is there. Food melts
+before him like ice before the sun."
+
+"Then come and save him from an overloaded stomach."
+
+"Impossible, for I am just now dealing most unmercifully with a bowl
+full of cabbage and sausages. My mother had cooked that food of the gods
+and my father has brought it in to his first-born son."
+
+"Cabbage and sausages!" repeated the architect, and its tone betrayed
+that his hungry stomach would fain have made closer acquaintance with
+the savory mess.
+
+"Come in here," continued Pollux, "and be my guest. The cabbage has
+experienced the process which is impending over this palace--it has been
+warmed up."
+
+"Warmed-up cabbage is better than freshly-cooked, but the fire over
+which we must try to make this palace enjoyable again, burns too hotly
+and must be too vigorously stirred. The best things have been all taken
+out, and cannot be replaced."
+
+"Like the sausages, I have fished out of my cabbages," laughed the
+sculptor. "After all I cannot invite you to be my guest, for it would
+be a compliment to this dish if I were now to call it cabbage with
+sausages. I have worked it like a mine, and now that the vein of
+sausages is nearly exhausted, little remains but the native soil in
+which two or three miserable fragments remain as memorials of past
+wealth. But my mother shall cook you a mess of it before long, and she
+prepares it with incomparable skill."
+
+"A good idea, but you are my guest."
+
+"I am replete."
+
+"Then come and spice our meal with your good company."
+
+"Excuse me, sir; leave me rather here behind my screen. In the first
+place, I am in a happy vein, and on the right track; I feel that
+something good will come of this night's work."
+
+"And tomorrow--"
+
+"Hear me out."
+
+"Well."
+
+"You would be doing your other guest an ill-service by inviting me."
+
+"Do you know the steward then?"
+
+"From my earliest youth, I am the son of the gatekeeper of the palace."
+
+"Oh, ho! then you came from that pretty little lodge with the ivy and
+the birds, and the jolly old lady."
+
+"She is my mother--and the first time the butcher kills she will concoct
+for you and me a dish of sausages and cabbage without an equal."
+
+"A very pleasing prospect."
+
+"Here comes a hippopotamus--on closer inspection Keraunus, the steward."
+
+"Are you his enemy?"
+
+"I, no; but he is mine--yes," replied Pollux. "It is a foolish story.
+When we sup together don't ask me about it if you care to have a jolly
+companion And do not tell Keraunus that I am here, it will lead to no
+good."
+
+"As you wish, and here are our lamps too."
+
+"Enough to light the nether world," exclaimed Pollux, and waving his
+hand to the architect in farewell he vanished behind the screens to
+devote himself entirely to his model.
+
+It was long past midnight, and the slaves who had set to work with much
+zeal had finished their labors in the hall of the Muses. They were now
+allowed to rest for some hours on straw that had been spread for them
+in another wing of the building. The architect himself wished to take
+advantage of this time to refresh himself by a short sleep, for the
+exertions of the morrow, but between this intention and its fulfilment
+an obstacle was interposed, the preposterous dimensions namely of his
+guest. He had invited the steward on purpose to give him his fill of
+meat, and Keraunus had shown himself amenable to encouragement in this
+respect. But after the last dish bad been removed the steward thought
+that good manners demanded that he should honor his entertainer by
+his illustrious presence, and at the same time the prefect's good wine
+loosened the tongue of the man, who was not usually communicative.
+
+First he spoke of the manifold infirmities which tormented him and
+endangered his life, and when Pontius, to divert his talk into other
+channels, was so imprudent as to allude to the Council of Citizens,
+Keraunus gave full play to his eloquence, and, while he emptied cup
+after cup of wine, tried to lay down the reasons which had made him and
+his friends decide on staking everything in order to deprive the members
+of the extensive community of Jews in the city of their rights as
+citizens, and to expel them, if possible, from Alexandria. So warm was
+his zeal that he totally forgot the presence of the architect, and
+his humble origin, and declared to be indispensable, that even the
+descendants of freed-slaves should be disenfranchised.
+
+Pontius saw in the steward's inflamed eyes and cheeks that it was the
+wine which spoke within him, and he made no answer; and determined that
+the rest he needed should not be thus abridged, he rose from table and
+briefly excusing himself he retired to the room in which the couch had
+been prepared for him. After he had undressed he desired his slave
+to see what Keraunus was about, and soon received the reassuring
+information that the steward was fast asleep and snoring.
+
+"Only listen," said the slave, to confirm his report. "You can hear him
+grunting and snuffing as far as this. I pushed a cushion under his head,
+for otherwise, so full as he is, the stout gentleman might come to some
+harm."
+
+Love is a plant which springs up for many who have never sown it, and
+grows into a spreading tree for many who have neither fostered nor
+tended it. How little had Keraunus ever done to win the heart of his
+daughter, how much on the contrary which could not fail to overshadow
+and trouble her young life. And yet Selene, whose youth--for she was
+but nineteen--needed repose and to whom the evening with the reprieve of
+sleep brought more pleasure than the morning with its load of cares and
+labor, sat by the three-branched lamp and watched, and tormented herself
+more and more as it grew later and later, at her father's long absence.
+About a week before the strong man had suddenly lost consciousness;
+only, it is true, for a few minutes, and the physician had told her that
+though he appeared to be in superabundant health, the attack indicated
+that he must follow his prescriptions strictly and avoid all kinds
+of excess. A single indiscretion, he had declared, might swiftly and
+suddenly cut the thread of his existence. After her father had gone out
+in obedience to the architect's invitation, Selene had brought out her
+youngest brothers' and sisters' garments, in order to mend them. Her
+sister Arsinoe, who was her junior by two years, and whose fingers were
+as nimble as her own, might indeed have helped her, but she had gone
+to bed early and was sleeping by the children who could not be left
+untended at night. Her female slave, who had been in her grandmother's
+service, ought to have assisted her; but the old half-blind negress
+saw even worse by lamp-light than by daylight, and after a few stitches
+could do no more. Selene sent her to bed and sat down alone to her work.
+
+For the first hour she sewed away without looking up, considering,
+meanwhile, how she could best contrive to support the family till the
+end of the month on the few drachmae she could dispose of. As it got
+later she grew wearier and wearier, but still she sat at the work,
+though her pretty head often sank upon her breast. She must await her
+father's return, for a potion prepared by the physician stood waiting
+for him, and she feared he would forget it if she did not remind him.
+
+By the end of the second hour sleep overcame her, and she felt as if
+the chair she was sitting on was giving way under her, and as if it was
+sinking at first slowly and then quicker and quicker, into a deep abyss
+that opened beneath her. Looking up for help in her dream, she could see
+nothing but her father's face, which looked aside with indifference. As
+her dream went on she called him and called him again, but for a long
+time he did not seem to hear her. At last he looked down at her and
+when he perceived her he smiled, but instead of helping her he picked up
+stones and clods from the edge of the gulf and threw them on her hands
+with which she had clutched the brambles and roots that grew out of the
+rift of the rocks. She entreated him to cease, implored him, shrieked
+to him to spare her, but not a muscle moved in the face above her; it
+seemed set in a vacant smile, and even his heart was dead too, for he
+ruthlessly flung down now a pebble, now a clod, one after the other,
+till her hands were losing their last feeble hold and she was on the
+point of falling into the fatal gulf below. Her own cry of terror
+aroused her, but during the brief process of returning from her dream to
+actuality, she saw through swiftly parting mists--only for an instant,
+and yet quite plainly--the tall grass of a meadow, spangled with
+ox-eye daisies, white and gold, with violet-hued blue bells and scarlet
+poppies, among which she was lying--as in a soft green bed, while
+near the sward lay a sparkling blue lake and behind it rose beautiful
+swelling hills, with red cliffs, and green groves, and meadows bright in
+the clear sunshine. A clear sky, across which a soft breeze gently
+blew light silvery flakes of cloud, bent over the lovely but fleeting
+picture, which she could not compare with anything she had ever seen
+near her own home.
+
+She had only slept for a short time, but when, once more thoroughly
+awake, she rubbed her eyes, she thought her dream must have lasted for
+hours.
+
+One flame of the three-branched lamp had flickered into extinction and
+the wick of another was beginning to waste. She hastily put it out with
+a pair of tongs that hung by a chain, and then after pouring fresh oil
+into the lamp that was still burning she carried the light into her
+father's sleeping room.
+
+He had not yet returned. She was seized with a mortal terror. Had the
+architect's wine bereft him of his senses? Had he on his way back to his
+rooms been seized with a fresh attack of giddiness? In spirit she saw
+the heavy man incapable of raising himself, dying perhaps where he had
+fallen.
+
+No choice remained to her; she must go at once to the hall of the Muses
+and see what had happened to her father, pick him up, give him help
+or--if he still were feasting--endeavor to tempt him back by any excuse
+she could find. Everything was at stake; her father's life and with it
+maintenance and shelter for eight helpless creatures.
+
+The December night was stormy, a keen and bitter wind blew through the
+ill-closed opening in the roof of the room as Selene, before she began
+her expedition, tied a handkerchief over her head and threw over her
+shoulders a white mantle which had been worn by her dead mother. In the
+long corridor which lay between her father's rooms and the front portion
+of the palace, she had to screen the flickering light of the little lamp
+with her left hand, carrying it in her right; the flame blown about
+by the draught and her own figure were mirrored here and there in the
+polished surface of the dark marble. The thick sandals she had tied on
+to her feet roused loud echoes in the empty rooms as they fell on the
+stone pavements, and terror possessed Selene's anxious soul. Her fingers
+trembled as they held the lamp and her heart beat audibly as, with bated
+breath, she went through the cupolaed hall in which Ptolemy Euergetes
+'the fat' was said, some years ago, to have murdered his own son, and in
+which even a deep breath roused an echo.
+
+But even in this room she did not forget to look to the right and left
+for her father. She breathed a sigh of relief when she perceived
+a streak of light which shone through the gaping rift of a cracked
+side-door of the hall of the Muses and fell in a broken reflection on
+the floor and the wall of the last room through which she had to pass.
+She now entered the large hall which was dimly lighted by the lamps
+behind the sculptor's screen, and by several tapers, now burnt down low.
+These were standing on a table knocked together out of blocks of wood
+and planks at the extreme end of the hall, and behind this her father
+was sound asleep.
+
+The deep notes brought out of the sleeper's broad chest, were echoed in
+a very uncanny way from the bare walls of the vast empty room, and she
+was frightened by them and still more by the long black shadows of the
+pillars, that lay, like barriers, across her path. She stood listening
+in the middle of the hall and soon recognized in the alarming tones
+a sound that was only too familiar. Without a moment's hesitation she
+started to run, and hastened to the sleeper, shook him, pushed him,
+called him, sprinkled his forehead with water, and appealed to him by
+the tenderest names with which her sister Arsinoe was wont to coax him.
+When, in spite of all this, he neither spoke nor stirred, she flung the
+full light of the lamp on his face. Then she thought she perceived that
+a bluish tinge had overspread his bloated features, and she broke into
+the deep, agonized, weeping which, a few hours previously had touched
+the architect's heart.
+
+There was a sudden stir behind the screens which enclosed the sculptor
+and the work in progress. Pollux had been working for a long time
+with zeal and pleasure, but at last the steward's snoring had begun to
+disturb him. The body of the Muse had already taken a definite form and
+he could begin to work out the head with the earliest dawn of day. He
+now dropped his arms wearily, for as soon as he ceased to create with
+his whole heart and mind he felt tired, and saw plainly that without a
+model he could do nothing satisfactory with the drapery of his Urania.
+So he pulled his stool up to a great chest full of gypsum to get a
+little repose by leaning against it.
+
+But sleep avoided the artist who was too much excited by his rapid
+night's work, and as soon as Selene opened the door he sat upright and
+peeped through an opening between the frames of his place of retirement.
+When he saw the tall draped figure in whose hand a lamp was trembling,
+when he watched her cross the spacious hall, and then suddenly stand
+still, he was not a little startled, but this did not hinder him from
+noting every step of the nocturnal spectre with far more curiosity than
+alarm. Then, when Selene looked round her, and the lamp illuminated her
+face, be recognized the steward's daughter, and immediately knew what
+she must be seeking.
+
+Her vain attempts to rouse the sleeper, though somewhat pathetic, had in
+them at the same time something irresistibly ludicrous, and Pollux felt
+sorely tempted to laugh. But as soon as Selene began to weep so bitterly
+he hastily pushed apart two of the laths of the screen, went up and
+called her name, at first softly not to frighten her, and then more
+loudly. When she turned her head he begged her warmly not to be alarmed
+far he was no ghost, only a very humble and ordinary mortal, in fact-as
+she might see--nothing more, alas! than the son of Euphorian, the
+gate-keeper, good for nothing as yet, but treading the path to something
+better.
+
+"You, Pollux?" asked the girl with surprise.
+
+"The very man. But you--can I help you?"
+
+"My poor father," sobbed Selene. "He does not stir, he is immovable--and
+his face--oh! merciful gods."
+
+"A man who snores is not dead," said the sculptor. "But the doctor told
+him--"
+
+"He is not even ill! Pontius only gave him stronger wine to drink than
+he is used to. Let him be; he is sleeping with the pillow under his
+neck, as comfortably as a child. When he began just now to trumpet a
+little too loud I whistled as loud as a plover, for that often silences
+a snorer; but I could more easily have made those stone Muses dance than
+have roused him."
+
+"If only we could get him to bed."
+
+"Well, if you have four horses at hand."
+
+"You are as bad as you ever were!"
+
+"A little less so, Selene, only you must become accustomed again to
+my way of speaking. This time I only mean that we two together are not
+strong enough to carry him away."
+
+"But what can I do, then? The doctor said--"
+
+"Never mind the doctor. The complaint your father is suffering from is
+one I know well. It will be gone to-morrow, perhaps by sundown, and the
+only pain it will leave behind, he will feel under his wig. Only leave
+him to sleep."
+
+"But it is so cold here."
+
+"Take my cloak and cover him with that."
+
+"Then you will be frozen."
+
+"I am used to it. How long has Keraunus had dealings with the doctor?"
+
+Selene related the accident that had befallen her father and how
+justified were her fears. The sculptor listened to her in silence and
+then said in a quite altered tone:
+
+"I am truly sorry to hear it. Let us put some cold water on his
+forehead, and until the slaves come back again I will change the wet
+cloth every quarter of an hour. Here is a jar and a handkerchief--good,
+they might have been left on purpose. Perhaps, too, it will wake him,
+and if not the people shall carry him to his own rooms."
+
+"Disgraceful, disgraceful!" sighed the girl.
+
+"Not at all; the high-priest of Serapis even is sometimes unwell. Only
+let me see to it."
+
+"It will excite him afresh if he sees you. He is so angry with you--so
+very angry."
+
+"Omnipotent Zeus, what harm have I done you, fat father! The gods
+forgive the sins of the wise, and a man will not forgive the fault
+committed by a stupid lad in a moment of imprudence."
+
+"You mocked at him."
+
+"I set a clay head that was like him on the shoulders of the fat Silenus
+near the gate, that had lost its own head. It was my first piece of
+independent work."
+
+"But you did it to vex my father."
+
+"Certainly not, Selene; I was delighted with the joke and nothing more."
+
+"But you knew how touchy he is."
+
+"And does a wild boy of fifteen ever reflect on the consequences of his
+audacity? If he had but given me a thrashing his annoyance would have
+discharged itself like thunder and lightning, and the air would have
+been clear again. But, as it was, he cut the face off the work with a
+knife, and deliberately trod the pieces under foot as they lay on the
+ground. He gave me one single blow--with his thumb--which I still feel,
+it is true, and then he treated me and my parents with such scorn, so
+coldly and hardly, with such bitter contempt--"
+
+"He never is really violent, but wrath seems to eat him inwardly, and I
+have rarely seen him so angry as he was that time."
+
+"But if he had only settled the account with me on the spot! but my
+father was by, and hot words fell like rain, and my mother added her
+share, and from that time there has been utter hostility between our
+little house and you up here. What hurt me most was that you and your
+sister were forbidden to come to see us and to play with me."
+
+"That has spoilt many pleasant hours for me, too."
+
+"It was nice when we used to dress up in my father's theatrical finery
+and cloaks."
+
+"And when you made us dolls out of clay.".
+
+"Or when we performed the Olympian games."
+
+"I was always the teacher when we played at school with our little
+brothers and sisters."
+
+"Arsinoe gave you most trouble."
+
+"Oh! and what fun when we went fishing!"
+
+"And when we brought home the fishes and mother gave us meal and raisins
+to cook them."
+
+"Do you remember the festival of Adonis, and how I stopped the runaway
+horse of that Numidian officer?"
+
+"The horse had knocked over Arsinoe, and when we got home mother gave
+you an almond-cake."
+
+"And your ungrateful sister bit a great piece out of it and left me only
+a tiny morsel. Is Arsinoe as pretty as she promised to become? It is
+two years since I last saw her; at our place we never have time to leave
+work till it is dark. For eight months I had to work for the master at
+Ptolemais, and often saw the old folks but once in the month."
+
+"We go out very little, too, and we are not allowed to go into your
+parents' house. My sister--"
+
+"Is she pretty?"
+
+"Yes, I think she is. Whenever she can get hold of a piece of ribbon she
+plaits it in her hair, and the men in the street turn round to look at
+her. She is sixteen now."
+
+"Sixteen! What, little Arsinoe! Why, how long then is it since your
+mother died?"
+
+"Four years and eight months."
+
+"You remember the date very exactly; such a mother is not easily
+forgotten, indeed. She was a good woman and a kinder I never met. I
+know, too, that she tried to mollify your father's feeling, but she
+could not succeed, and then she need must die!"
+
+"Yes," said Selene gloomily. "How could the gods decree it! They are
+often more cruel than the hardest hearted man."
+
+"Your poor little brothers and sisters!"
+
+The girl bowed her head sadly and Pollux stood for some time with his
+eyes fixed on the ground. Then he raised his head and exclaimed:
+
+"I have something for you that will please you."
+
+"Nothing ever pleases me now she is dead."
+
+"Yes, yes indeed," replied the young sculptor eagerly. "I could not
+forget the good soul, and once in my idle moments I modelled her bust
+from memory. To-morrow I will bring it to you."
+
+"Oh!" cried Selene, and her large heavy eyes brightened with a sunny
+gleam.
+
+"Now, is not it true, you are pleased?"
+
+"Yes indeed, very much. But when my father learns that it is you who
+have given me the portrait--"
+
+"Is he capable of destroying it?"
+
+"If he does not destroy it, he will not suffer it in the house as soon
+as he knows that you made it." Pollux took the handkerchief from the
+steward's head, moistened it afresh, and exclaimed as he rearranged it
+on the forehead of the sleeping man:
+
+"I have an idea. All that matters is that my bust should serve to remind
+you often of your mother; the bust need not stand in your rooms. The
+busts of the women of the house of Ptolemy stand on the rotunda, which
+you can see from your balcony, and which you can pass whenever you
+please; some of them are badly mutilated and must be got rid of. I will
+undertake to restore the Berenice and put your mother's head on her
+shoulders. Then you have only to go out and look at her. Will that do?"
+
+"Yes, Pollux; you are a good man."
+
+"So I told you just now. I am beginning to improve. But time--time! if I
+am to undertake to repair Berenice I must begin by saving the minutes."
+
+"Go back to your work now; I know how to apply a wet compress only too
+well."
+
+With these words Selene threw back her mantle over her shoulders so as
+to leave her hands free for use, and stood with her slender figure,
+her pale face, and the fine broadly-flowing folds of rich stuff, like a
+statue in the eyes of the young sculptor.
+
+"Stop--stay so--just so," cried Pollux to the astonished girl, so loudly
+and eagerly that she was startled.
+
+"Your cloak hangs with a wonderfully-free flow from your shoulders--in
+the name of all the gods do not touch it. If only I might model from it
+I should in a few minutes gain a whole day for our Berenice. I will
+wet the handkerchief at intervals in the pauses." Without waiting for
+Selene's answer the sculptor hastened into his nook and returned first
+with one of the lamps he worked by in each hand, and some small tools in
+his mouth, and then fetched his wax model which he placed on the outer
+side of the table, behind which the steward was sleeping. The tapers
+were put out, the lamps pushed aside, and raised or lowered, and when at
+last a tolerably suitable light was procured Pollux threw himself on a
+stool, straddled his legs, craned his head forward as far as his neck
+would allow, looking, with his hooked nose, like a vulture that strives
+to descry his distant prey-cast his eyes down, raised them again to take
+in something fresh, and after a long gaze looked down again while his
+fingers and nails moved over the surface of the wax-figure, sinking
+into the plastic material, applying new pieces to apparently complete
+portions, removing others with a decided nip and rounding them off with
+bewildering rapidity to use them for a fresh purpose.
+
+He seemed to be seized with cramp in his hands, but still under his
+knotted brow his eye shone earnest, resolute and calm, and yet full of
+profound and speechless inspiration. Selene had said not a word that
+permitted his using her as a model; but, as if his enthusiasm was
+infectious, she remained motionless, and when, as he worked, his gaze
+met hers she could detect the stern earnestness which at this moment
+possessed her eager companion.
+
+Neither of them opened their lips for some time. At last he stood back
+from his work, stooping low to look first at Selene and then at his
+statuette with keen examination from head to foot; and then, drawing a
+deep breath, and rubbing the wax over with his finger, he said:
+
+"There, that is how it must go! Now I will wet your father's
+handkerchief and then we can go on again. If you are tired you can
+rest."
+
+She availed herself but little of this permission and presently he
+began work again. As he proceeded carefully to replace some folds of her
+drapery which had fallen out of place, she moved her foot as if to draw
+back, but he begged her earnestly to stand still and she obeyed his
+request.
+
+Pollux now used his fingers and modelling tools more calmly; his gaze
+was less wistful and he began to talk again.
+
+"You are very pale," he said. "To be sure the lamp-light and a sleepless
+night have something to do with it."
+
+"I look just the same by daylight, but I am not ill."
+
+"I thought Arsinoe would have been like your mother, but now I see many
+features of her face in yours again. The oval of their form is the same
+and, in both, the line of the nose runs almost straight to the forehead;
+you have her eyes and the same bend of the brow, but your mouth is
+smaller and more sharply cut, and she could hardly have made such a
+heavy knot of her hair. I fancy, too, that yours is lighter than hers."
+
+"As a girl she must have had still more hair, and perhaps she may have
+been as fair as I was--I am brown now."
+
+"Another thing you inherit from her is that your hair, without being
+curly, lies upon your head in such soft waves."
+
+"It is easy to keep in order."
+
+"Are not you taller than she was?"
+
+"I fancy so, but as she was stouter she looked shorter. Will you soon
+have done?"
+
+"You are getting tired of standing?"
+
+"Not very."
+
+"Then have a little more patience. Your face reminds me more and more
+of our early years; I should be glad to see Arsinoe once more. I feel
+at this moment as if time had moved backwards a good piece. Have you the
+same feeling?"
+
+Selene shook her head.
+
+"You are not happy?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I know full well that you have very heavy duties to perform for your
+age."
+
+"Things go as they may."
+
+"Nay, nay. I know you do not let things go haphazard. You take care of
+your brothers and sisters like a mother."
+
+"Like a mother!" repeated Selene, and she smiled a bitter negative.
+
+"Of course a mother's love is a thing by itself, but your father and the
+little ones have every reason to be satisfied with yours."
+
+"The little ones are perhaps, and Helios who is blind, but Arsinoe does
+what she can."
+
+"You certainly are not content, I can hear it in your voice, and you
+used formerly to be as merry and happy as your sister, though perhaps
+not so saucy."
+
+"Formerly--"
+
+"How sadly that sounds! And yet you are handsome, you are young, and
+life lies before you."
+
+"But what a life!"
+
+"Well, what?" asked the sculptor, and taking his hands from his work
+he looked ardently at the fair pale girl before him and cried out
+fervently:
+
+"A life which might be full of happiness and satisfied affection."
+
+The girl shook her head in negation and answered coldly:
+
+"'Love is joy,' says the Christian woman who superintends us at work
+in the papyrus factory, and since my mother died I have had no love. I
+enjoyed all my share of happiness once for all in my childhood, now I
+am content if only we are spared the worst misfortunes. Otherwise I take
+what each day brings, because I can not do otherwise. My heart is empty,
+and if I ever feel anything keenly, it is dread. I have long since
+ceased to expect any thing good of the future."
+
+"Girl!" exclaimed Pollux. "Why, what has been happening to you? I do
+not understand half of what you are saying. How came you in the papyrus
+factory?"
+
+"Do not betray me," begged Selene. "If my father were to hear of it."
+
+"He is asleep, and what you confide to me no one will ever hear of
+again."
+
+"Why should I conceal it? I go every day with Arsinoe for two hours to
+the manufactory, and we work there to earn a little money."
+
+"Behind your father's back?"
+
+"Yes, he would rather that we should starve than allow it. Every day I
+feel the same loathing for the deceit; but we could not get on without
+it, for Arsinoe thinks of nothing but herself, plays draughts with my
+father, curls his hair, plays with the children as if they were dolls,
+but it is my part to take care of them."
+
+"And you, you say, have no share of love. Happily no one believes you,
+and I least of all. Only lately my mother was telling me about you, and
+I thought you were a girl who might turn out just such a wife as a woman
+ought to be."
+
+"And now?"
+
+"Now, I know it for certain."
+
+"You may be mistaken."
+
+"No, no! your name is Selene, and you are as gentle as the kindly
+moonlight; names, even, have their significance."
+
+"And my blind brother who has never even seen the light is called
+Helios!" answered the girl.
+
+Pollux had spoken with much warmth, but Selene's last words startled him
+and checked the effervescence of his feelings. Finding he did not answer
+her bitter exclamation, she said, at first coolly, but with increasing
+warmth:
+
+"You are beginning to believe me, and you are right, for what I do for
+the children is not done out of love, or out of kindness, or because I
+set their welfare above my own. I have inherited my father's pride, and
+it would be odious to me if my brothers and sisters went about in rags,
+and people thought we were as poor and helpless as we really are. What
+is most horrible to me is sickness in the house, for that increases the
+anxiety I always feel and swallows up my last coin; the children must
+not perish for want of it. I do not want to make myself out worse than I
+am; it grieves me too to see them drooping. But nothing that I do brings
+me happiness--at most it moderates my fears. You ask what I am afraid
+of?--of everything, everything that can happen to me, for I have no
+reason to look forward to anything good. When there is a knock, it may
+be a creditor; when people look at Arsinoe in the street, I seem to see
+dishonor lurking round her; when my father acts against the advice of
+the physician I feel as if we were standing already roofless in the open
+street. What is there that I can do with a happy mind? I certainly am
+not idle, still I envy the woman who can sit with her hands in her
+lap and be waited on by slaves, and if a golden treasure fell into my
+possession, I would never stir a finger again, and would sleep every
+day till the sun was high and make slaves look after my father and the
+children. My life is sheer misery. If ever we see better days I shall
+be astonished, and before I have got over my astonishment it will all be
+over."
+
+The sculptor felt a cold chill, and his heart which had opened wide to
+his old playfellow shrank again within him. Before he could find the
+right words of encouragement which he sought, they heard in the hall,
+where the workmen and slaves were sleeping, the blast of a trumpet
+intended to awake them. Selene started, drew her mantle more closely
+round her, begged Pollux to take care of her father, and to hide the
+wine-jar which was standing near him from the work-people and then,
+forgetting her lamp, she went hastily toward the door by which she
+had entered. Pollux hurried after her to light the way and while he
+accompanied her as far as the door of her rooms, by his warm and urgent
+words which appealed wonderfully to her heart, he extracted from her a
+promise to stand once more in her mantle as his model.
+
+A quarter of an hour later the steward was safe in bed and still
+sleeping soundly, while Pollux, who had stretched himself on a mattress
+behind his screen, could not for a long time cease to think of the pale
+girl with her benumbed soul. At last sleep overcame him too, and a sweet
+dream showed him pretty little Arsinoe, who but for him must infallibly
+have been killed by the Numidian's restive horse, taking away her sister
+Selene's almond-cake and giving it to him. The pale girl submitted
+quietly to the robbery and only smiled coldly and silently to herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Alexandria was in the greatest excitement.
+
+The Emperor's visit now immediately impending had tempted the busy
+hive of citizens away from the common round of life in which, day after
+day,--swarming, hurrying, pushing each other on, or running each other
+down--they raced for bread and for the means of filling their hours of
+leisure with pleasures and amusements. The unceasing wheel of industry
+to-day had pause in the factories, workshops, storehouses and courts of
+justice, for all sorts and conditions of men were inspired by the same
+desire to celebrate Hadrian's visit with unheard-of splendor. All that
+the citizens could command of inventive skill, of wealth, and of beauty
+was called forth to be displayed in the games and processions which were
+to fill up a number of days. The richest of the heathen citizens had
+undertaken the management of the pieces to be performed in the Theatre,
+of the mock fight on the lake, and of the sanguinary games in the
+Amphitheatre; and so great was the number of opulent persons that many
+more were prepared to pay for smaller projects, for which there was
+no opening. Nevertheless the arrangements for certain portions of the
+procession, in which even the less wealthy were to take a share, the
+erection of the building in the Hippodrome, the decorations in the
+streets, and the preparations for entertaining the Roman visitors
+absorbed sums so large that they seemed extravagant even to the prefect
+Titianus, who was accustomed to see his fellow-officials in Rome
+squander millions.
+
+As the Emperor's viceroy it behoved him to give his assent to all that
+was planned to feast his sovereign's eye and ear. On the whole, he left
+the citizens of the great town free to act as they would; but he had,
+more than once, to exert a decided opposition to their overdoing the
+thing; for though the Emperor might be able to endure a vast amount of
+pleasure, what the Alexandrians originally proposed to provide for
+him to see and hear would have exhausted the most indefatigable human
+energy.
+
+That which gave the greatest trouble, not merely to him, but also to the
+masters of the revels chosen by the municipality, were the never-dormant
+hostility between the heathen and the Jewish sections of the
+inhabitants, and the processions, since no division chose to come last,
+nor would any number be satisfied to be only the third or the fourth.
+
+It was from a meeting, where his determined intervention had at last
+brought all these preliminaries to a decision beyond appeal, that
+Titianus proceeded to the Caesareum to pay the Empress the visit which
+she expected of him daily. He was glad to have come to some conclusion,
+at any rate provisionally, with regard to these matters, for six
+days had slipped away since the works had been begun in the palace of
+Lochias, and Hadrian's arrival was nearing rapidly.
+
+He found Sabina, as usual, on her divan, but on this occasion the
+Empress was sitting upright on her cushions. She seemed quite to have
+got over the fatigues of the sea-voyage, and in token that she felt
+better she had applied more red to her cheeks and lips than three days
+ago, and because she was to receive a visit from the sculptors, Papias
+and Aristeas, she had had her hair arranged as it was worn in the
+statue of Venus Victrix, with whose attributes she had, five years
+previously--though not, it is true, without some resistance--been
+represented in marble. When a copy of this statue had been erected in
+Alexandria, an evil tongue had made a speech which was often repeated
+among the citizens.
+
+"This Aphrodite is triumphant to be sure, for all who see her make haste
+to fly; she should be called Cypris the scatterer."
+
+Titianus was still under the excitement of the embittered squabbles and
+unpleasing exhibitions of character at which he had just been present
+when he entered the presence of the Empress, whom he found in a small
+room with no one but the chamberlain and a few ladies-in-waiting. To
+the prefect's respectful inquiries after her health, she shrugged her
+shoulders and replied:
+
+"How should I be? If I said well it would not be true; if I said ill, I
+should be surrounded with pitiful faces, which are not pleasant to look
+at. After all we must endure life. Still, the innumerable doors in these
+rooms will be the death of me if I am compelled to remain here long."
+
+Titianus glanced at the two doors of the room in which the Empress was
+sitting, and began to express his regrets at their bad condition, which
+had escaped his notice; but Sabina interrupted him, saying:
+
+"You men never do observe what hurts us women. Our Verus is the only man
+who can feel and understand--who can divine it, as I might say. There
+are five and thirty doors in my rooms! I had them counted-five and
+thirty! If they were not old and made of valuable wood I should really
+believe they had been made as a practical joke on me."
+
+"Some of them might be supplemented with curtains."
+
+"Oh! never mind--a few miseries, more or less in any life do not matter.
+Are the Alexandrians ready at last with their preparations?"
+
+"I am sure I hope so," said the prefect with a sigh. "They are bent on
+giving all that is their best; but in the endeavor to outvie each other
+every one is at war with his neighbor, and I still feel the effects of
+the odious wrangling which I have had to listen to for hours, and that
+I have been obliged to check again and again with threats of 'I shall be
+down upon you.'"
+
+"Indeed," said the Empress with a pinched smile, as if she had heard
+some thing that pleased her.
+
+"Tell me something about your meeting. I am bored to death, for Verus,
+Balbilla and the others have asked for leave of absence that they may
+go to inspect the work doing at Lochias; I am accustomed to find that
+people would rather be any where than with me. Can I wonder then that
+my presence is not enough to enable a friend of my husband's to forget
+a little annoyance--the impression left by some slight misunderstanding?
+But my fugitives are a long time away; there must be a great deal that
+is beautiful to be seen at Lochias."
+
+The prefect suppressed his annoyance and did not express his anxiety
+lest the architect and his assistants should be disturbed, but began in
+the tone of the messenger in a tragedy:
+
+"The first quarrel was fought over the order of the procession."
+
+"Sit a little farther off," said Sabina pressing her jewelled right-hand
+on her ear, as if she were suffering a pain in it. The prefect colored
+slightly, but he obeyed the desire of Caesar's wife and went on with his
+story, pitching his voice in a somewhat lower key than before:
+
+"Well, it was about the procession, that the first breach of the peace
+arose."
+
+"I have heard that once already," replied the lady, yawning. "I like
+processions."
+
+"But," said the prefect, a man in the beginning of the sixties--and he
+spoke with some irritation, "here as in Rome and every where else, where
+they are not controlled by the absolute will of a single individual,
+processions are the children of strife, and they bring forth strife,
+even when they are planned in honor of a festival of Peace."
+
+"It seems to annoy you that they should be organized in honor of
+Hadrian?"
+
+"You are in jest; it is precisely because I care particularly that they
+should be carried out with all possible splendor, that I am troubling
+myself about them in person, even as to details; and to my great
+satisfaction I have been able even to subdue the most obstinate; still
+it was scarcely my duty--"
+
+"I fancied that you not only served the state but were my husband's
+friend."
+
+"I am proud to call myself so."
+
+"Aye--Hadrian has many, very many friends since he has worn the purple.
+Have you got over your ill temper Titianus? You must have become very
+touchy. Poor Julia has an irritable husband!"
+
+"She is less to be pitied than you think," said Titianus with dignity,
+"for my official duties so entirely claim my time that she is not often
+likely to know what disturbs me. If I have forgotten to dissimulate my
+vexation before you, I beg you to pardon me, and to attribute it to my
+zeal in securing a worthy reception for Hadrian."
+
+"As if I had scolded you! But to return to your wife--as I understand
+she shares the fate I endure. We poor women have nothing to expect from
+our husbands, but the stale leavings that remain after business has
+absorbed the rest! But your story--go on with your story."
+
+"The worst moments I had at all were given me by the bad feeling of the
+Jews towards the other citizens."
+
+"I hate all these infamous sects--Jews, Christians or whatever they are
+called! Do they dare to grudge their money for the reception of Caesar?"
+
+"On the contrary Alabarchos, their wealthy chief, has offered to defray
+all the cost of the Naumachia and his co-religionist Artemion."
+
+"Well, take their money, take their money."
+
+"The Greek citizens feel that they are rich enough to pay all the
+expenses, which will amount to many millions of sesterces, and they wish
+to exclude the Jews, if possible, from all the processions and games."
+
+"They are perfectly right."
+
+"But allow me to ask you whether it is just to prohibit half the
+population of Alexandria doing honor to their Emperor!"
+
+"Oh! Hadrian will, with pleasure, dispense with the honor. Our
+conquering heroes have thought it redounded to their glory to be called
+Africanus, Germanicus and Dacianus, but Titus refused to be called
+Judaicus when he had destroyed Jerusalem."
+
+"That was because he dreaded the remembrance of the rivers of blood
+which had to be shed in order to break the fearfully obstinate
+resistance of that nation. The besieged had to be conquered limb by
+limb, and finger by finger, before they would make up their minds to
+yield."
+
+"Again you are speaking half poetically, or have these people elected
+you as their advocate?"
+
+"I know them and make every effort to secure them justice, just as much
+as any other citizen of this country which I govern in the name of
+the Empire and of Caesar. They pay taxes as well as the rest of the
+Alexandrians; nay more, for there are many wealthy men among them who
+are honorably prominent in trade, in professions, learning and art, and
+I therefore mete to them the same measure as to the other inhabitants
+of this city. Their superstition offends me no more than that of the
+Egyptians."
+
+"But it really is above all measure. At Aelia Capitolina which Hadrian
+had decorated with several buildings, they refused to sacrifice to the
+statues of Zeus and Hera. That is to say they scorn to do homage to me
+and my husband!"
+
+"They are forbidden to worship any other divinity than their own God.
+Aelia rose up on the very soil where their ruined Jerusalem had stood,
+and the statues of which you speak stand in their holy places."
+
+"What has that to do with us?"
+
+"You know that even Caius--[Caligula]--could not reduce them by placing
+his statue in the Holy of Holies of their temple; and Petronius, the
+governor, had to confess that to subdue them meant to exterminate them."
+
+"Then let them meet with the fate they deserve, let them be
+exterminated!" cried Sabina.
+
+"Exterminated?" asked the prefect. "In Alexandria they constitute
+nearly half of the citizens, that is to say several hundred thousand of
+obedient subjects, exterminated!"
+
+"So many?" asked the Empress in alarm. "But that is frightful.
+Omnipotent Jove! supposing that mass were to revolt against us! No one
+ever told me of this danger. In Cyrenaica, and at Salamis in Cyprus,
+they killed their fellow-citizens by thousands."
+
+"They had been provoked to extremities and they were superior to their
+oppressors in force."
+
+"And in their own land one revolt after another is organized."
+
+"By reason of the sacrifices of which we were speaking."
+
+"Tinnius Rufus is at present the legate in Palestine. He has a horribly
+shrill voice--but he looks like a man who will stand no trifling, and
+will know how to quell the venomous brood."
+
+"Possibly" replied Titianus. "But I fear that he will never attain his
+end by mere severity; and if he should he will have depopulated his
+province."
+
+"There are already too many men in the empire."
+
+"But never enough good and useful citizens."
+
+"Outrageous contemners of the gods and useless citizens!"
+
+"Here in Alexandria, where many have accommodated themselves to Greek
+habits of life and thought, and where all have adopted the Greek tongue,
+they are undoubtedly good citizens, and wholly devoted to Caesar."
+
+"Do they take part in the rejoicings?"
+
+"Yes, as far as the Greek citizens will allow them."
+
+"And the arrangement of the water-fight?"
+
+"That will not be given over to them, but Artemion will be permitted to
+supply the wild beasts for the games in the Amphitheatre."
+
+"And he was not avaricious about it?"
+
+"So far from it that you will be astonished. The man must know the
+secret of Midas, of turning stones into gold."
+
+"And are there many like him among your Jews?"
+
+"A good number."
+
+"Then I wish that they would attempt a revolt, for if this led to the
+destruction of the rich ones, their gold, at any rate, would remain."
+
+"Meanwhile I will try and keep them alive, as being good rate-payers."
+
+"And does Hadrian share your wish?"
+
+"Without doubt."
+
+"Your successor may perhaps bring him to another mind."
+
+"He always acts according to his own judgment, and for the present I am
+in office," answered Titianus haughtily.
+
+"And may the God of the Jews long preserve you in it!" retorted Sabina
+scornfully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Before Titianus could open his lips to reply, the principal door of the
+room was opened cautiously but widely, and the praetor Lucius Aurelius
+Verus, his wife Domitia Lucilla, the young Balbilla and, last of all,
+Annaeus Florus, the historian, entered. All four were in the best
+spirits, and immediately after the preliminary greetings, were eager to
+report what they had seen at Lochias; but Sabina waved silence with her
+hand, and breathed out:
+
+"No, no; not at present. I feel quite exhausted. This long waiting, and
+then--my smelling-bottle, Verus. Leukippe, bring me a cup of water with
+some fruit-syrup--but not so sweet as usual."
+
+The Greek slave-girl hastened to execute this command, and the Empress,
+as she waved an elegant bottle carved in onyx, under her nostrils, went
+on:
+
+"It is a little eternity--is it not, Titianus, that we have been
+discussing state affairs? You all know how frank I am and that I cannot
+be silent when I meet with perverse opinions. While you have been away
+I have had much to hear and to say; it would have exhausted the strength
+of the strongest. I only wonder you don't find me more worn out, for
+what can be more excruciating for a woman, that to be obliged to enter
+the lists for manly decisiveness against a man who is defending a
+perfectly antagonistic view? Give me water, Leukippe."
+
+While the Empress drank the syrup with tiny sips twitching her thin lips
+over it, Verus went up to the prefect and asked him in an under tone:
+
+"You were a long while alone with Sabina, cousin?"
+
+"Yes," replied Titianus, and he set his teeth as he spoke and clenched
+his fist so hard that the praetor could not misunderstand, and replied
+in a low voice:
+
+"She is much to be pitied, and particularly just now she has hours--"
+
+"What sort of hours?" asked Sabina taking the cup from her lips.
+
+"These," replied Verus quickly, "in which I am not obliged to occupy
+myself in the senate or with the affairs of state. To whom do I owe them
+but to you?"
+
+With these words he approached the mature beauty, and taking the goblet
+out of her hand with affectionate subservience, as a son might wait on
+his honored and suffering mother, he gave it to the Greek slave. The
+Empress bowed her thanks again and again to the praetor with much
+affability, and then said, with a slight infusion of cheerfulness in her
+tones:
+
+"Well--and what is there to be seen at Lochias?"
+
+"Wonderful things," answered Balbilla readily and clasping her little
+hands.
+
+"A swarm of bees, a colony of ants, have taken possession of the palace.
+Hands black, white and brown--more than we could count, are busy there
+and of all the hundreds of workmen which are astir there, not one got in
+the way of another, for one little man orders and manages them all,
+just as the prescient wisdom of the gods guides the stars through the
+'gracious and merciful night' so that they may never push or run against
+each other."
+
+"I must put in a word on behalf of Pontius the architect," interposed
+Verus. "He is a man of at least average height."
+
+"Let us admit it to satisfy your sense of justice," returned Balbilla.
+"Let us admit it--a man of average height, with a papyrus-roll in his
+right-hand and a stylus in the left, controls them. Now, does my way of
+stating it please you better?"
+
+"It can never displease me," answered the praetor. "Let Balbilla go on
+with her story," commanded the Empress.
+
+"What we saw was chaos," continued the girl, "still in the confusion we
+could divine the elements of an orderly creation in the future; nay, it
+was even visible to the eye."
+
+"And not unfrequently stumbled over with the foot," laughed the praetor.
+"If it had been dark, and if the laborers had been worms, we must have
+trodden half of them to death--they swarmed so all over the pavement."
+
+"What were they doing?"
+
+"Every thing," answered Balbilla quickly. "Some were polishing damaged
+pieces, others were laying new bits of mosaic in the empty places from
+which it had formerly been removed, and skilled artists were painting
+colored figures on smooth surfaces of plaster. Every pillar and every
+statue was built round with a scaffolding reaching to the ceiling on
+which men were climbing and crowding each other just as the sailors
+climb into the enemy's ships in the Naumachia."
+
+The girl's pretty cheeks had flushed with her eager reminiscence of
+what she had seen, and, as she spoke, moving her hands with expressive
+gestures, the tall structure of curls which crowned her small head shook
+from side to side.
+
+"Your description begins to be quite poetical," said the Empress,
+interrupting her young companion. "Perhaps the Muse may even inspire you
+with verse."
+
+"All the Pierides," said the praetor, "are represented at Lochias.
+We saw eight of them, but the ninth, that patroness of the arts, who
+protects the stargazer, the lofty Urania, has at present, in place of a
+head--allow me to leave it to you to guess divine Sabina?"
+
+"Well--what?"
+
+"A wisp of straw."
+
+"Alas," sighed the Empress. "What do you say, Florus? Are there not
+among your learned and verse spinning associates certain men who
+resemble this Urania?"
+
+"At any rate," replied Florus, "we are more prudent than the goddess,
+for we conceal the contents of our heads in the hard nut of the skull,
+and under a more or less abundant thatch of hair. Urania displays her
+straw openly."
+
+"That almost sounds," said Balbilla laughing and pointing to her
+abundant locks, "as if I especially needed to conceal what is covered by
+my hair."
+
+"Even the Lesbian swan was called the fair-haired," replied Florus.
+
+"And you are our Sappho," said the praetor's wife, drawing the girl's
+arm to her bosom.
+
+"Really! and will you not write in verse all that you have seen to-day?"
+asked the Empress.
+
+Balbilla looked down on the ground a minute and then said brightly:
+"It might inspire me, everything strange that I meet with prompts me to
+write verse."
+
+"But follow the counsel of Apollonius the philologer," advised Florus.
+"You are the Sappho of our day, and therefore you should write in the
+ancient Aeolian dialect and not Attic Greek." Verus laughed, and the
+Empress, who never was strongly moved to laughter, gave a short sharp
+giggle, but Balbilla said eagerly:
+
+"Do you think that I could not acquire it and do so? To-morrow morning I
+will begin to practise myself in the old Aeolian forms."
+
+"Let it alone," said Domitia Lucilla; "your simplest songs are always
+the prettiest."
+
+"No one shall laugh at me!" declared Balbilla pertinaciously. "In a few
+weeks I will know how to use the Aeolian dialect, for I can do anything
+I am determined to do--anything, anything."
+
+"What a stubborn little head we have under our curls!" exclaimed the
+Empress, raising a graciously threatening finger.
+
+"And what powers of apprehension," added Florus.
+
+"Her master in language and metre told me his best pupil was a woman of
+noble family and a poetess besides--Balbilla in short."
+
+The girl colored at the words, and said with pleased excitement:
+
+"Are you flattering me or did Hephaestion really say that?"
+
+"Woe is me!" cried the praetor, "for Hephaestion was my master too, and
+I am one of the masculine scholars beaten by Balbilla. But it is no news
+to me, for the Alexandrian himself told me the same thing as Florus."
+
+"You follow Ovid and she Sappho," said Florus; "you write in Latin and
+she in Greek. Do you still always carry Ovid's love-poems about with
+you?"
+
+"Always," replied Verus, "as Alexander did his Homer."
+
+"And out of respect for his master your husband endeavors, by the grace
+of Venus, to live like him," added Sabina, addressing herself to Domitia
+Lucilla.
+
+The tall and handsome Roman lady only shrugged her shoulders slightly
+in answer to this not very kindly-meant speech; but Verus said, while
+he picked up Sabina's silken coverlet, and carefully spread it over her
+knees:
+
+"My happiest fortune consists in this: that Venus Victrix favors me. But
+we are not yet at the end of our story; our Lesbian swan met at Lochias
+with another rare bird, an artist in statuary."
+
+"How long have the sculptors been reckoned among birds?" asked Sabina.
+"At the utmost can they be compared to woodpeckers."
+
+"When they work in wood," laughed Verus. "Our artist, however, is an
+assistant of Papias, and handles noble materials in the grand style.
+On this occasion, however, he is building a statue out of a very queer
+mixture of materials."
+
+"Verus may very well call our new acquaintance a bird," interrupted
+Balbilla, "for as we approached the screen behind which he is working he
+was whistling a tune with his lips, so pure and cheery, and loud, that
+it rang through the empty hall above all the noise of the workmen. A
+nightingale does not pipe more sweetly. We stood still to listen till
+the merry fellow, who had no idea that we were by, was silent again; and
+then hearing the architect's voice, he called to him over the screen.
+'Now we must clap Urania's head on; I saw it clearly in my mind and
+would have had it finished with a score of touches, but Papias said he
+had one in the workshop. I am curious to see what sort of a sugarplum
+face, turned out by the dozen, he will stick on my torso--which will
+please me, at any rate, for a couple of days. Find me a good model for
+the bust of the Sappho I am to restore. A thousand gadflies are buzzing
+in my brain--I am so tremendously excited! What I am planning now will
+come to something!'"
+
+Balbilla, as she spoke the last words, tried to mimic a man's deep
+voice, and seeing the Empress smile she went on eagerly.
+
+"It all came out so fresh, from a heart full to bursting of happy
+vigorous creative joy, that it quite fired me, and we all went up to the
+screen and begged the sculptor to let us see his work."
+
+"And you found?" asked Sabina.
+
+"He positively refused to let us into his retreat," replied the praetor;
+"but Balbilla coaxed the permission out of him, and the tall young
+fellow seems to have really learnt something. The fall of the drapery
+that covers the Muse's figure is perfectly thought out with reference to
+possibility--rich, broadly handled, and at the same time of surprising
+delicacy. Urania has drawn her mantle closely round her, as if to
+protect herself from the keen night-air while gazing at the stars. When
+he has finished his Muse, he is to repair some mutilated busts of women;
+he was fixing the head of a finished Berenice to-day, and I proposed to
+him to take Balbilla as the model for his Sappho."
+
+"A good idea" said the Empress. "If the bust is successful I will take
+him with me to Rome."
+
+"I will sit to him with pleasure," said the girl. "The bright young
+fellow took my fancy."
+
+"And Balbilla his," added the praetor's wife; "he gazed at her as a
+marvel, and she promised him that, with your permission, she would place
+her face at his disposal for three hours to-morrow."
+
+"He begins with the head," interposed Verus. "What a happy man is an
+artist such as he! He may turn about her head, or lay her peplum in
+folds without reproof or repulse, and to-day when we had to get past
+bogs of plaster, and lakes of wet paint, she scarcely picked up the hem
+of her dress, and never once allowed me--who would so willingly have
+supported her--to lift her over the worst places."
+
+Balbilla reddened and said angrily:
+
+"Really Verus, in good earnest, I will not allow you to speak to me in
+that way, so now you know it once for all; I have so little liking
+for what is not clean that I find it quite easy to avoid it without
+assistance."
+
+"You are too severe," interrupted the Empress with a hideous smile. "Do
+not you think Domitia Lucilla, that she ought to allow your husband to
+be of service to her?"
+
+"If the Empress thinks it right and fitting," replied the lady raising
+her shoulders, and with an expressive movement of her hands. Sabina
+quite took her meaning, and suppressing another yawn she said angrily:
+
+"In these days we must be indulgent toward a husband who has chosen
+Ovid's amatory poems as his faithful companion. What is the matter
+Titianus?"
+
+While Balbilla had been relating her meeting with the sculptor Pollux, a
+chamberlain had brought in to the prefect an important letter, admitting
+of no delay. The state official had withdrawn to the farther side of the
+room with it, had broken the strong seal and had just finished reading
+it, when the Empress asked her question.
+
+Nothing of what went on around her escaped Sabina's little eyes, and
+she had observed that while the governor was considering the document
+addressed to him he had moved uneasily. It must contain something of
+importance.
+
+"An urgent letter," replied Titianus, "calls me home. I must take my
+leave, and I hope ere long to be able to communicate to you something
+agreeable."
+
+"What does that letter contain?"
+
+"Important news from the provinces," said Titianus.
+
+"May I inquire what?"
+
+"I grieve to say that I must answer in the negative. The Emperor
+expressly desired that this matter should be kept secret. Its settlement
+demands the promptest haste, and I am therefore unfortunately obliged to
+quit you immediately."
+
+Sabina returned the prefect's parting salutations with icy coldness
+and immediately desired to be conducted to her private rooms to dress
+herself for supper.
+
+Balbilla escorted her, and Florus betook himself to the "Olympian
+table," the famous eating-house kept by Lycortas, of whom he had been
+told wonders by the epicures at Rome.
+
+When Verus was alone with his wife he went up in a friendly manner and
+said:
+
+"May I drive you home again?"
+
+Domitia Lucilla had thrown herself on a couch, and covered her face with
+her hands, and she made no reply. "May I?" repeated the praetor. As his
+wife persisted in her silence, he went nearer to her, laid his hand on
+her slender fingers that concealed her face, and said:
+
+"I believe you are angry with me!" She pushed away his hand, with a
+slight movement, and said: "Leave me."
+
+"Yes, unfortunately I must leave you. Business takes me into the city
+and I will--"
+
+"You will let the young Alexandrians, with whom you revelled through the
+night, introduce you to new fair ones--I know it."
+
+"There are in fact women here of incredible charm," replied Verus quite
+coolly. "White, brown, copper-colored, black--and all delightful in
+their way. I could never be tired of admiring them."
+
+"And your wife?" asked Lucilla, facing him, sternly. "My wife? yes, my
+fairest. Wife is a solemn title of honor and has nothing to do with the
+joys of life. How could I mention your name in the same hour with those
+of the poor children who help me to beguile an idle hour."
+
+Domitia Lucilla was used to such phrases, and yet on this occasion they
+gave her a pang. But she concealed it, and crossing her arms she said
+resolutely and with dignity:
+
+"Go your way--through life with your Ovid, and your gods of love, but do
+not attempt to crush innocence under the wheels of your chariot."
+
+"Balbilla do you mean," asked the praetor with a loud laugh. "She knows
+how to take care of herself and has too much spirit to let herself get
+entangled in erotics. The little son of Venus has nothing to say to two
+people who are such good friends as she and I are."
+
+"May I believe you?"
+
+"My word for it, I ask nothing of her but a kind word," cried he,
+frankly offering his hand to his wife. Lucilla only touched it lightly
+with her fingers and said:
+
+"Send me back to Rome. I have an unutterable longing to see my children,
+particularly the boys."
+
+"It cannot be," said Verus. "Not at present; but in a few weeks, I
+hope."
+
+"Why not sooner?"
+
+"Do not ask me."
+
+"A mother may surely wish to know why she is separated from her baby in
+the cradle."
+
+"That cradle is at present in your mother's house, and she is taking
+care of our little ones. Have patience, a little longer for that which I
+am striving after, for you, and for me, and not last, for our son, is so
+great, so stupendously great and difficult that it might well outweigh
+years of longing."
+
+Verus spoke the last words in a low tone, but with a dignity which
+characterized him only in decisive moments, but his wife, even before he
+had done speaking, clasped his right-hand in both of hers and said in a
+low frightened voice:
+
+"You aim at the purple?" He nodded assent.
+
+"That is what it means then!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Sabina and you--"
+
+"Not on that account only; she is hard and sharp to others, but to me
+she has shown nothing but kindness, ever since I was a boy."
+
+"She hates me."
+
+"Patience, Lucilla; patience! The day is coming when the daughter of
+Nigrinus, the wife of Caesar, and the former Empress--but I will not
+finish. I am, as you know, warmly attached to Sabina, and sincerely wish
+the Emperor a long life."
+
+"And he will adopt."
+
+"Hush!--he is thinking of it, and his wife wishes It."
+
+"Is it likely to happen soon?"
+
+"Who can tell at this moment what Caesar may decide on in the very
+next hour. But probably his decision may be made on the thirtieth of
+December."
+
+"Your birthday."
+
+"He asked what day it was, and he is certainly casting my horoscope, for
+the night when my mother bore me--"
+
+"The stars then are to seal our fate?"
+
+"Not they alone. Hadrian must also be inclined to read them in my
+favor."
+
+"How can I be of use to you?"
+
+"Show yourself what you really are in your intercourse with the Emperor"
+
+"I thank you for those words--and I beg you do not provoke me any more.
+If it might yet be something more than a mere post of honor to be the
+wife of Verus, I would not ask for the new dignity of becoming wife to
+Caesar."
+
+"I will not go into the town to-day; I will stay with you. Now are you
+happy?"
+
+"Yes, yes," cried she, and she raised her arm to throw it round her
+husband's neck, but he held her aside and whispered:
+
+"That will do. The idyllic is out of place in the race for the purple."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Titianus had ordered his charioteer to drive at once to Lochias. The
+road led past the prefect's palace, his residence on the Bruchiom, and
+he paused there; for the letter which lay hidden in the folds of his
+toga, contained news, which, within a few hours, might put him under
+the necessity of not returning home till the following morning. Without
+allowing himself to be detained by the officials, subalterns, or
+lictors, who were awaiting his return to make communications, or to
+receive his orders, he went straight through the ante-room and the large
+public rooms for men, to find his wife in the women's apartments which
+looked upon the garden. He met her at the door of her room, for she had
+heard his step approaching and came out to receive him.
+
+"I was not mistaken," said the matron with sincere pleasure. "How
+pleasant that you have been released so early to-day. I did not expect
+you till supper was over."
+
+"I have come only to go again," replied Titianus, entering his
+wife's room. "Have some bread brought to me and a cup of mixed wine;
+why--really! here stands all I want ready as if I had ordered it. You
+are right, I was with Sabina a shorter time than usual; but she exerted
+herself in that short time to utter as many sour words as if we had been
+talking for half a day. And in five minutes I must quit you again, till
+when?--the gods alone know when I shall return. It is hard even to speak
+the words, but all our trouble and care, and all poor Pontius' zeal and
+pains-taking labor are in vain."
+
+As he spoke the prefect threw himself on a couch; his wife handed him
+the refreshment he had asked for, and said, as she passed her hand over
+his grey hair:
+
+"Poor man! Has Hadrian then determined after all to inhabit the
+Caesareum?"
+
+"No. Leave us, Syra--you shall see directly. Please read me Caesar's
+letter once more. Here it is." Julia unfolded the papyrus, which was of
+elegant quality, and began:
+
+"Hadrian to his friend Titianus, the Governor of Egypt. The deepest
+secrecy--Hadrian greets Titianus, as he has so often done for years at
+the beginning of disagreeable business letters, and only with half his
+heart. But to-morrow he hopes to greet the dear friend of his youth, his
+prudent vicegerent, not merely with his whole soul, but with hand
+and tongue. And now to be more explicit, as follows: I come to-morrow
+morning, the fifteenth of December, towards evening, to Alexandria, with
+none but Antinous, the slave Mastor, and my private secretary, Phlegon.
+We land at Lochias, in the little harbor, and you will know my ship by
+a large silver star at the prow. If night should fall before I arrive
+there, three red lanterns at the end of the mast shall inform you of the
+friend that is approaching. I have sent home the learned and witty men
+whom you sent to meet me, in order to detain me, and gain time for
+the restoration of the old nest in which I had a fancy to roost with
+Minerva's birds--which have not, I hope, all been driven out of it--in
+order that Sabina and her following may not lack entertainment, nor the
+famous gentlemen themselves be unnecessarily disturbed in their labors.
+I need them not. If perchance it was not you who sent them, I ask
+your pardon. An error in this matter would certainly involve some
+humiliation, for it is easier to explain what has happened than to
+foresee what is to come. Or is the reverse the truth? I will indemnify
+the learned men for their useless journey by disputing this question
+with them and their associates in the Museum. The rapid movement
+to which the philologer was prompted on my account will prolong his
+existence; he bristles with learning at the tip of every hair, and he
+sits still more than is good for him.
+
+"We shall arrive in modest disguise and will sleep at Lochias; you know
+that I have rested more than once on the bare earth, and, if need
+be, can sleep as well on a mat as on a couch. My pillow follows at my
+heels--my big dog, which you know; and some little room, where I can
+meditate undisturbed on my designs for next year, can no doubt be found.
+
+"I entreat you to keep my secret strictly. To none--man nor woman--and
+I beseech you as urgently as friend or Caesar ever besought a favor--let
+the least suspicion of my arrival be known. Nor must the smallest
+preparation betray whom it is you receive. I cannot command so dear a
+friend as Titianus, but I appeal to his heart to carry out my wishes.
+
+"I rejoice to see you again; what delight I shall find in the whirl of
+confusion that I hope to find at Lochias. You shall take me to see the
+artists, who are, no doubt, swarming in the old castle, as the architect
+Claudius Venator from Rome, who is to assist Pontius with his advice.
+But this Pontius, who carried out such fine works for Herodes Atticus,
+the rich Sophist, met me at his house, and will certainly recognize
+me. Tell him, therefore, what I propose doing. He is a serious and
+trustworthy man, not a chatterbox or scatter-brained simpleton who loses
+his head. Thus you may take him into the secret, but not till my vessel
+is in sight. May all be well with you."
+
+"Well, what do you say to that?" asked Titianus, taking the letter from
+his wife's hand. "Is it not more than vexatious--our work was going on
+so splendidly."
+
+"But," said Julia thoughtfully and with a meaning smile. "Perhaps it
+might not have been finished in time. As matters now stand it need not
+be complete, and Hadrian will see the good intention all the same. I
+am glad about the letter, for it takes a great responsibility off your
+otherwise overloaded shoulders."
+
+"You always see the right side," cried the prefect. "It is well that I
+came home, for I can await Caesar with a much lighter heart. Let me lock
+up the letter, and then farewell. This parting is for some hours from
+you, and from all peace for many days."
+
+Titianus gave her his hand. She held it firmly and said:
+
+"Before you go I must confess to you that I am very proud."
+
+"You have every right to be."
+
+"But you have not said a word to me about keeping silence."
+
+"Because you have kept other tests--still, to be sure, you are a woman,
+and a very handsome one besides."
+
+"An old grandmother, with grey hair!"
+
+"And still more upright and more charming than a thousand of the most
+admired younger beauties."
+
+"You are trying to convert my pride into vanity, in my old age."
+
+"No, no! I was only looking at you with an examining eye, as our talk
+led me to do, and I remembered that Sabina had lamented that handsome
+Julia was not looking well. But where is there another woman of your age
+with such a carriage, such unwrinkled features, so clear a brow, such
+deep kind eyes, such beautifully-polished arms--"
+
+"Be quiet," exclaimed his wife. "You make me blush."
+
+"And may I not be proud that a grandmother, who is a Roman, as my wife
+is, can find it so easy to blush? You are quite different from other
+women."
+
+"Because you are different from other men."
+
+"You are a flatterer; since all our children have left us, it is as if
+we were newly married again."
+
+"Ah! the apple of discord is removed."
+
+"It is always over what he loves best that man is most prompt to be
+jealous. But now, once more, farewell."
+
+Titianus kissed his wife's forehead and hurried towards the door; Julia
+called him back and said:
+
+"One thing at any rate we can do for Caesar. I send food every day down
+to the architect at Lochias, and to-day there shall be three times the
+quantity."
+
+"Good; do so."
+
+"Farewell, then."
+
+"And we shall meet again, when it shall please the gods and the
+Emperor."
+
+         ........................
+
+When the prefect reached the appointed spot, no vessel with a silver
+star was to be seen.
+
+The sun went down and no ship with three red lanterns was visible.
+
+The harbor-master, into whose house Titianus went, was told that he
+expected a great architect from Rome, who was to assist Pontius with his
+counsel in the works at Lochias, and he thought it quite intelligible
+that the governor should do a strange artist the honor of coming to meet
+him; for the whole city was well aware of the incredible haste and the
+lavish outlay of means that were being given to the restoration of the
+ancient palace of the Ptolemies as a residence for the Emperor.
+
+While he was waiting, Titianus remembered the young sculptor Pollux,
+whose acquaintance he had made, and his mother in the pretty little
+gate-house. Well disposed towards them as he felt, he sent at once to
+old Doris, desiring her not to retire to rest early that evening, since
+he, the prefect, would be going late to Lochias.
+
+"Tell her, too, as from yourself and not from me," Titianus instructed
+the messenger, "that I may very likely look in upon her. She may light
+up her little room and keep it in order."
+
+No one at Lochias had the slightest suspicion of the honor which awaited
+the old palace.
+
+After Verus had quitted it with his wife and Balbilla, and when he had
+again been at work for about an hour the sculptor Pollux came out of his
+nook, stretching himself, and called out to Pontius, who was standing on
+a scaffold:
+
+"I must either rest or begin upon something new. One cures me of fatigue
+as much as the other. Do you find it so?"
+
+"Yes, just as you do," replied the architect, as he continued to direct
+the work of the slave-masons, who were fixing a new Corinthian capital
+in the place of an old one which had been broken.
+
+"Do not disturb yourself," Pollux cried up to him. "I only request you
+to tell my master Papias when he comes here with Gabinius, the dealer in
+antiquities, that he will find me at the rotunda that you inspected
+with me yesterday. I am going to put the head on to the Berenice; my
+apprentice must long since have completed his preparations; but the
+rascal came into the world with two left-hands, and as he squints with
+one eye everything that is straight looks crooked to him, and--according
+to the law of optics--the oblique looks straight. At any rate, he drove
+the peg which is to support the new head askew into the neck, and as no
+historian has recorded that Berenice ever had her neck on one side, like
+the old color-grinder there, I must see to its being straight myself. In
+about half an hour, as I calculate, the worthy Queen will no longer be
+one of the headless women."
+
+"Where did you get the new head?" asked Pontius. "From the secret
+archives of my memory," replied Pollux. "Have you seen it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And do you like it?"
+
+"Very much."
+
+"Then it is worthy to live," sang the sculptor, and, as he quitted the
+hall, he waved his left-hand to the architect, and with his right-hand
+stuck a pink, which he had picked in the morning, behind his ear.
+
+At the rotunda his pupil had done his business better than his master
+could have expected, but Pollux was by no means satisfied with his own
+arrangements. His work, like several others standing on the same side
+of the platform, turned its back on the steward's balcony, and the only
+reason why he had parted with the portrait of Selene's mother, of which
+he was so fond, was that his playfellow might gaze at the face whenever
+she chose. He found, however, to his satisfaction, that the busts were
+held in their places on their tall pedestals only by their own weight,
+and he then resolved to alter the historical order of the portrait-heads
+by changing their places, and to let the famous Cleopatra turn her back
+upon the palace, so that his favorite bust might look towards it.
+
+In order to carry out this purpose then and there, he called some slaves
+up to help him in the alteration. This gave rise, more than once, to a
+warning cry, and the loud talking and ordering on this spot, for so many
+years left solitary and silent, attracted an inquirer, who, soon after
+the apprentice had begun his work, had shown herself on the balcony, but
+who had soon retreated after casting a glance at the dirty lad, splashed
+from head to foot with plaster. This time, however, she remained to
+watch, following every movement of Pollux as he directed the slaves;
+though, all the time and whatever he was doing, he turned his back upon
+her.
+
+At last the portrait-head had found its right position, shrouded still
+in a cloth to preserve it from the marks of workmen's hands. With a deep
+breath the artist turned full on the steward's house, and immediately a
+clear merry voice called out:
+
+"What, tall Pollux! It really is tall Pollux; how glad I am!"
+
+With these words the girl on the balcony loudly clapped her hands; and
+as the sculptor hailed her in return, and shouted:
+
+"And you are little Arsinoe, eternal gods! What the little thing has
+come to!" She stood on tip-toe to seem taller, nodded at him pleasantly,
+and laughed out: "I have not done growing yet; but as for you, you look
+quite dignified with the beard on your chin, and your eagle's nose.
+Selene did not tell me till to-day that you were living down there with
+the others."
+
+The artist's eyes were fixed on the girl, as if spellbound. There are
+poetic natures in which the imagination immediately transmutes every
+new thing that strikes the eyes or the intelligence, into a romance,
+or rapidly embodies it in verse; and Pollux, like many of his calling,
+could never set his eyes on a fine human form and face, without
+instantly associating them with his art.
+
+"A Galatea--a Galatea without an equal!" thought he, as he stood with
+his eyes fixed on Arsinoe's face and figure. "Just as if she had this
+instant risen from the sea--that form is just as fresh, and joyous, and
+healthy; and her little curls wave back from her brow as if they were
+still floating on the water; and now as she stoops, how full and supple
+in every movement. It is like a daughter of Nereus following the line
+of the as the waves as they rise into crests and dip again into watery
+valleys. She is like Selene and her mother in the shape of her head and
+the Greek cut of her face, but the elder sister is like the statue of
+Prometheus before it had a soul, and Arsinoe is like the Master's work
+after the celestial fire coursed through her veins."
+
+The artist had felt and thought all this out in a few seconds, but the
+girl found her speechless admirer's silence too long, and exclaimed
+impatiently:
+
+"You have not yet offered me any proper greeting. What are you doing
+down there?"
+
+"Look here," he replied, lifting the cloth from the portrait, which was
+a striking likeness.
+
+Arsinoe leaned far over the parapet of the balcony, shaded her eyes with
+her hand and was silent for more than a minute. Then she suddenly cried
+out loudly and exclaiming:
+
+"Mother--it is my mother!" She flew into the room behind her.
+
+"Now she will call her father and destroy all poor Selene's comfort,"
+thought Pollux, as he pushed the heavy marble bust on which his gypsum
+head was fixed, into its right place.
+
+"Well, let him come. We are the masters here now, and Keraunus dare not
+touch the Emperor's property." He crossed his arms and stood gazing at
+the bust, muttering to himself:
+
+"Patchwork--miserable patchwork. We are cobbling up a robe for the
+Emperor out of mere rags; we are upholsterers and not artists. If it
+were only for Hadrian, and not for Diotima and her children, not another
+finger would I stir in the place."
+
+The path from the steward's residence led through some passages and up
+a few steps to the rotunda, on which the sculptor was standing, but in
+little more than a minute from Arsinoe's disappearance from the balcony
+she was by his side. With a heightened color she pushed the sculptor
+away from his work and put herself in the place where he had been
+standing, to be able to gaze at her leisure at the beloved features.
+Then she exclaimed again:
+
+"It is mother--mother!" and the bright tears ran over her cheeks,
+without restraint from the presence of the artist, or the laborers and
+slaves whom she had flown past on her way, and who stared at her with as
+much alarm as if she were possessed.
+
+Pollux did not disturb her. His heart was softened as he watched the
+tears running down the cheeks of this light-hearted child, and he could
+not help reflecting that goodness was indeed well rewarded when it could
+win such tender and enduring love as was cherished for the poor dead
+mother on the pedestal before him.
+
+After looking for some time at the sculptor's work Arsinoe grew calmer,
+and turning to Pollux she asked:
+
+"Did you make it?"
+
+"Yes," he replied, looking down.
+
+"And entirely from memory?"
+
+"To be sure."
+
+"Do you know what?"
+
+"Well."
+
+"This shows that the Sibyl at the festival of Adonis was right when she
+sang in the Jalemus that the gods did half the work of the artist."
+
+"Arsinoe!" cried Pollux, for her words made him feel as if a hot spring
+were seething in his heart, and he gratefully seized her hand; but she
+drew it away, for her sister Selene had come out on the balcony and was
+calling her.
+
+It was for his elder playfellow and not for Arsinoe that Pollux had set
+his work in this place, but, just now, her gaze fell like a disturbing
+chill on his excited mood.
+
+"There stands your mother's portrait," he called up to the balcony in an
+explanatory tone, pointing to the bust.
+
+"I see it," she replied coldly. "I will look at it presently more
+closely. Come up Arsinoe, father wants to speak to you."
+
+Again Pollux stood alone.
+
+As Selene withdrew into the room, she gently shook her pale head, and
+said to herself:
+
+"'It was to be for me,' Pollux said; something for me, for once--and
+even this pleasure is spoilt."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The palace-steward, to whom Selene had called up his younger daughter,
+had just returned from the meeting of the citizens; and his old
+black slave, who always accompanied him when he went out, took the
+saffron-colored pallium from his shoulders, and from his head the golden
+circlet, with which he loved to crown his curled hair when he quitted
+the house. Keraunus still looked heated, his eyes seemed more prominent
+than usual and large drops of sweat stood upon his brow, when his
+daughter entered the room where he was. He absently responded to
+Arsinoe's affectionate greeting with a few unmeaning words, and before
+making the important communication he had to disclose to his daughters,
+he walked up and down before them for some time, puffing out his fat
+cheeks and crossing his arms. Selene was alarmed, and Arsinoe had long
+been out of patience, when at last he began:
+
+"Have you heard of the festivals which are to be held in Caesar's
+honor?"
+
+Selene nodded and her sister exclaimed:
+
+"Of course we have! Have you secured places for us on the seats kept for
+the town council?"
+
+"Do not interrupt me," the steward crossly ordered his daughter. "There
+is no question of staring at them. All the citizens are required to
+allow their daughters to take part in the grand things that are to be
+carried out, and we all were asked how many girls we had."
+
+"And how are we to take part in the show?" cried Arsinoe, joyfully
+clapping her hands.
+
+"I wanted to withdraw before the summons was proclaimed, but Tryphon,
+the shipwright, who has a workshop down by the King's Harbor, held me
+back and called out to the assembly that his sons said that I had two
+pretty young daughters. Pray how did he know that?"
+
+With these words the steward lifted his grey brows and his face grew
+red to the roots of his hair. Selene shrugged her shoulders, but Arsinoe
+said:
+
+"Tryphon's shipyard lies just below and we often pass it; but we do not
+know him or his sons. Have you ever seen them Selene? At any rate it is
+polite of him to speak of us as pretty."
+
+"Nobody need trouble themselves about your appearance unless they want
+to ask my permission to marry you," replied the steward with a growl.
+
+"And what did you say to Tryphon?" asked Selene.
+
+"I did as I was obliged. Your father is steward of a palace which at
+present belongs to Rome and the Emperor; hence I must receive Hadrian as
+a guest in this, the dwelling of my fathers, and therefore I, less than
+any other citizen--cannot withhold my share in the honors which the city
+council has decreed shall be paid to him."
+
+"Then we really may," said Arsinoe, and she went up to her father to
+give him a coaxing pat. But Keraunus was not in the humor to accept
+caresses; he pushed her aside with an angry: "Leave me alone," and then
+went on:
+
+"If Hadrian were to ask me 'Where are your daughters on the occasion of
+the festival?' and if I had to reply, 'They were not among the daughters
+of the noble citizens,' it would be an insult to Caesar, to whom in fact
+I feel very well disposed. All this I had to consider, and I gave your
+names and promised to send you to the great Theatre to the assembly of
+young girls. There you will be met by the noblest matrons and maidens of
+the city, and the first painters and sculptors will decide to what part
+of the performance your air and appearance are best fitted."
+
+"But, father," cried Selene, "we cannot show ourselves in such an
+assembly in our common garments, and where are we to find the money to
+buy new ones?"
+
+"We can quite well show ourselves by any other girls, in clean, white
+woollen dresses, prettily smartened with fresh ribbons," declared
+Arsinoe, interposing between her father and her sister.
+
+"It is not that which troubles me," replied the steward; "it is the
+costumes, the costumes! It is only the daughters of the poorer citizens
+who will be paid by the council, and it would be a disgrace to be
+numbered among the poor--you understand me, children."
+
+"I will not take part in the procession," said Selene resolutely, but
+Arsinoe interrupted her.
+
+"It is inconvenient and horrible to be poor, but it certainly is no
+disgrace! The most powerful Romans of ancient times, regarded it as
+honorable to die poor. Our Macedonian descent remains to us even if the
+state should pay for our costumes."
+
+"Silence," cried the steward. "This is not the first time that I have
+detected this low vein of feeling in you. Even the noble may submit to
+the misfortunes entailed by poverty, but the advantages it brings with
+it he can never enjoy unless he resigns himself to being so no longer."
+
+It had cost the steward much trouble to give due expression to this
+idea, which he did not recollect to have heard from another, which
+seemed new to him, and which nevertheless fully represented what he
+felt; and he slowly sank, with all the signs of exhaustion, into a couch
+which formed a divan round a side recess in the spacious sitting-room.
+
+In this room Cleopatra might have held with Antony those banquets of
+which the unequalled elegance and refinement had been enhanced by every
+grace of art and wit. On the very spot where Keraunus now reclined the
+dining-couch of the famous lovers had probably stood; for, though the
+whole hall had a carefully-laid pavement, in this recess there was a
+mosaic of stones of various colors of such beauty and delicacy of finish
+that Keraunus had always forbidden his children to step upon it. This,
+it is true, was less out of regard for the fine work of art than because
+his father had always prohibited his doing so, and his father again
+before him. The picture represented the marriage of Peleus and Thetis,
+and the divan only covered the outer border of the picture, which was
+decorated with graceful little Cupids.
+
+Keraunus desired his daughter to fetch him a cup of wine, but she mixed
+the juice of the grape with a judicious measure of water. After he
+had half drunk the diluted contents of the goblet, with many faces of
+disgust, he said:
+
+"Would you like to know what each of your dresses will cost if it is to
+be in no respect inferior to those of the others?"
+
+"Well," said Arsinoe anxiously.
+
+"About seven hundred drachmae;--[$115 in 1880]--Philinus, the tailor,
+who is working for the theatre, tells me it will be impossible to do
+anything well for less."
+
+"And you are really thinking of such insane extravagance," cried Selene.
+"We have no money, and I should like to know the man who would lend us
+any more."
+
+The steward's younger daughter looked doubtfully at the tips of her
+fingers and was silent, but her eyes swimming in tears betrayed what she
+felt. Keraunus was rejoiced at the silent consent which Arsinoe seemed
+to accord to his desire to let her take part in the display at whatever
+cost. He forgot that he had just reproached her for her low sentiments,
+and said:
+
+"The little one always feels what is right. As for you, Selene, I beg
+you to reflect seriously that I am your father, and that I forbid you to
+use this admonishing tone to me; you have accustomed yourself to it with
+the children and to them you may continue to use it. Fourteen hundred
+drachmae certainly, at the first thought of it, seems a very large sum,
+but if the material and the trimming required are bought with judgment,
+after the festival we may very likely sell it back to the man with
+profit."
+
+"With profit!" cried Selene bitterly, "not half is to be got for old
+things-not a quarter! And even if you turn me out of the house--I will
+not help to drag us into deeper wretchedness; I will take no part in the
+performances."
+
+The steward did not redden this time, he was not even violent; on the
+contrary, he simply raised his head and compared his daughters as they
+stood--not without an infusion of satisfaction. He was accustomed to
+love his daughters in his own way, Selene as the useful one, and Arsinoe
+as the beauty; and as on this occasion all he cared for was to satisfy
+his vanity, and as this end could be attained through his younger
+daughter alone, he said:
+
+"Stay with the children then, for all I care. We will excuse you on the
+score of weak health, and certainly, child, you do look extremely pale.
+I would far rather find the means for the little one only."
+
+Two sweet dimples again began to show in Arsinoe's cheeks, but Selene's
+lips were as white as her bloodless cheeks as she exclaimed:
+
+"But, father--father! neither the baker nor the butcher has had a coin
+paid him for the last two months, and you will squander seven hundred
+drachmae!"
+
+"Squander!" cried Keraunus indignantly, but still in a tone of disgust
+rather than anger. "I have already forbidden you to speak to me in
+that way. The richest of our noble youths will take part in the games;
+Arsinoe is handsome and perhaps one of them may choose her for his wife.
+And do you call it squandering, when a father does his utmost to find a
+suitable husband for his daughter. After all, what do you know of what I
+may possess?"
+
+"We have nothing, so I cannot know of it," cried the girl beside
+herself.
+
+"Indeed!" drawled Keraunus with an embarrassed smile. "And is that
+nothing which lies in the cup board there, and stands on the cornice
+shelf? For your sakes I will part with these--the onyx fibula, the
+rings, the golden chaplet, and the girdle of course."
+
+"They are of mere silver-gilt!" Selene interrupted, ruthlessly. "All my
+grandfather's real gold you parted with when my mother died."
+
+"She had to be cremated and buried as was due to our rank," answered
+Keraunus; "but I will not think now of those melancholy days."
+
+"Nay, do think of them, father."
+
+"Silence! All that belongs to my own adornment of course I cannot do
+without, for I must be prepared to meet Caesar in a dress befitting
+my rank; but the little bronze Eros there must be worth something,
+Plutarch's ivory cup, which is beautifully carved, and above all, that
+picture; its former possessor was convinced that it had been painted
+by Apelles himself herein Alexandria. You shall know at once what these
+little things are worth, for, as the gods vouchsafed, on my way home I
+met, here in the palace, Gabinius of Nicaea, the dealer in such objects.
+He promised me that when he had done his business with the architect
+he would come to me to inspect my treasures, and to pay money down for
+anything that might suit him. If my Apelles pleases him, he will give
+ten talents for that alone, and if he buys it for only the half or even
+the tenth of that sum, I will make you enjoy yourself for once, Selene."
+
+"We will see," said the pale girl, shrugging her shoulders, and her
+sister exclaimed:
+
+"Show him the sword too, that you always declared belonged to Caesar,
+and if he gives you a good sum for it you will buy me a gold bracelet."
+
+"And Selene shall have one, too. But I have the very slenderest hopes
+of the sword, for a connoisseur would hardly pronounce it genuine. But I
+have other things, many others. Hark! that is Gabinius, no doubt.
+Quick, Selene, throw the chiton round me again. My chaplet, Arsinoe.
+A well-to-do man always gets a higher price than a poor one. I have
+ordered the slave to await him in the ante-room; it is always done in
+the best houses."
+
+The curiosity dealer was a small, lean man, who, by prudence and good
+luck, had raised himself to be one of the most esteemed of his class and
+a rich man. Having matured his knowledge by industry, and experience, he
+knew better than any man how to distinguish what was good from what was
+indifferent or bad, what was genuine from what was spurious. No one had
+a keener eye; but he was abrupt in his dealings with those from whom he
+had nothing to gain. In circumstances where there was profit in view, he
+could, to be sure, be polite even to subservience and show inexhaustible
+patience. He commanded himself so far as to listen with an air of
+conviction to the steward as he told him in a condescending tone that
+he was tired of his little possessions, that he could just as well
+keep them as part with them; he merely wanted to show them to him as
+a connoisseur and would only part with them if a good round sum were
+offered for what was in fact idle capital. One piece after another
+passed through the dealer's slender fingers, or was placed before him
+that he might contemplate it; but the man spoke not, and only shook
+his head as he examined every fresh object. And when Keraunus told him
+whence this or that specimen of his treasures had been obtained, he only
+murmured--"Indeed" or "Really."
+
+"Do you think so?" After the last piece of property had passed through
+his hands, the steward asked:
+
+"Well, what do you think of them?"
+
+The beginning of the sentence was spoken confidently, the end almost
+in fear, for the dealer only smiled and shook his head again before he
+said:
+
+"There are some genuine little things among them, but nothing worth
+speaking of. I advise you to keep them, because you have an affection
+for them, while I could get very little by them."
+
+Keraunus avoided looking towards Selene, whose large eyes, full of
+dread, had been fixed on the dealer's lips; but Arsinoe, who had
+followed his movements with no less attention, was less easily
+discouraged, and pointing to her father's Apelles, she said: "And that
+picture, is that worth nothing?"
+
+"It grieves me that I cannot tell so fair a damsel that it is
+inestimably valuable," said the dealer, stroking his gray whiskers.
+"But we have here only a very feeble copy. The original is in the
+Villa belonging to Phinius on the Lake of Larius, and which he calls
+Cothurnus. I have no use whatever for this piece."
+
+"And this carved cup?" asked Keraunus. "It came from among the
+possessions of Plutarch, as I can prove, and it is said to have been the
+gift of the Emperor Trajan."
+
+"It is the prettiest thing in your collection," replied Gabinius; "but
+it is amply paid for with four hundred drachmae."
+
+"And this cylinder from Cyprus, with the elegant incised work?" The
+steward was about to take up the polished crystal, but his hand was
+trembling with agitation and pushed instead of lifting it from the
+table. It rolled away on the floor and across the smooth mosaic picture
+as far as the couches. Keraunus was about to stoop to pick it up, but
+his daughters both held him back, and Selene cried out:
+
+"Father, you must not; the physician strictly forbade it."
+
+While the steward pushed the girls away grumbling, the dealer had gone
+down on his knees to pick up the cylinder, but it seemed to cost the
+slightly-built man much less effort to stoop than to get up again, for
+some minutes had elapsed before he once more stood on his feet, in
+front of Keraunus. His countenance had put on an expression of eager
+attention, and he once more took up the painting attributed to Apelles,
+sat down with it on the couch, and appeared wholly absorbed in the
+contemplation of the picture, which hid his face from the bystanders.
+
+But his eye was not resting on the work before him, but on the
+marriage-scene at his feet, in which he detected each moment some fresh
+and unique beauty. As the dealer sat there for some minutes with the
+little picture on his knee, the steward's face brightened, Selene drew
+a deep breath, and Arsinoe went up to her father to cling to his arm and
+whisper in his ear:
+
+"Do not let him have the Apelles cheap--remember my bracelet."
+
+Gabinius now rose, glanced at the various objects lying on the table and
+said in a much shorter and more business-like tone than before:
+
+"For all these things I can give you--wait a minute--twenty-seventy-four
+hundred--four hundred and fifty--I can give you six hundred and fifty
+drachmae, not a sesterce more!"
+
+"You are joking," cried Keraunus.
+
+"Not a sesterce more," answered the other coldly. "I do not want to make
+anything, but you as a business man will understand that I do not wish
+to buy with a certain prospect of loss. As regards the Apelles--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"It may be of some value to me, but only under certain conditions.
+The case is quite different as regards buying pictures. Your two young
+damsels know of course that my line of business leads me to admire and
+value all that is beautiful, but still I must request you to leave me
+alone with your father for a little while. I want to speak with him
+about this curious painting." Keraunus signed to his daughters, who
+immediately left the room. Before the door was closed upon them the
+dealer called after them:
+
+"It is already growing dark, might I ask you to send me as bright a
+light as possible by one of your slaves."
+
+"What about the picture?" asked Keraunus.
+
+"Till the light is brought let us talk of something else," said
+Gabinius.
+
+"Then take a seat on the couch," said Keraunus. "You will be doing me a
+pleasure and perhaps yourself as well."
+
+As soon as the two men were seated on the divan, Gabinius began:
+
+"Those little things which we have collected with particular liking, we
+do not readily part with--that I know by long experience. Many a man who
+has come into some property after he has sold all his little antiquities
+has offered me ten times the price I have paid him to get them back
+again, generally in vain, unfortunately. Now, what is true of others
+is true of you, and if you had not been in immediate need of money you
+would hardly have offered me these things."
+
+"I must entreat you," began the steward, but the dealer interrupted him,
+saying:
+
+"Even the richest are sometimes in want of ready money; no one knows
+that better than I, for I--I must confess--have large means at my
+command. Just at present it would be particularly easy for me to free
+you from all embarrassment."
+
+"There stands my Apelles," exclaimed the steward. "It is yours if you
+make a bid that suits me."
+
+"The light--here comes the light!" exclaimed Gabinius, taking from the
+slave's hand the three-branched lamp which Selene had hastily supplied
+with a fresh wick, and he placed it, while he murmured to Keraunus, "By
+your leave," down on the centre of the mosaic. The steward looked at the
+man on his left hand, with puzzled inquiry, but Gabinius heeded him not
+but went down on his knees again, felt the mosaic over with his hand,
+and devoured the picture of the marriage of Peleus with his eyes.
+
+"Have you lost anything?" asked Keraunus.
+
+"No-nothing whatever. There in the corner--now I am satisfied. Shall I
+place the lamp there, on the table? So--and now to return to business."
+
+"I beg to do so, but I may as well begin by telling you that in my case
+it is a question not of drachmae but of Attic talents."--[ The Attic
+talent was worth about L200, or $1000 dollars in the 1880 exchange
+rate.]
+
+"That is a matter of course, and I will offer you five; that is to say a
+sum for which you could buy a handsome roomy house."
+
+Once more the blood mounted to the steward's head; for a few minutes he
+could not utter a word, for his heart thumped violently; but presently
+be so far controlled himself as to be able to answer. This time at any
+rate, he was determined to seize Fortune by the forelock and not to be
+taken advantage of, so he said:
+
+"Five talents will not do; bid higher."
+
+"Then let us say six."
+
+"If you say double that we are agreed."
+
+"I cannot put it beyond ten talents; why, for that sum you might build a
+small palace."
+
+"I stand out for twelve."
+
+"Well, be it so, but not a sesterce more."
+
+"I cannot bear to part with my splendid work of art," sighed Keraunus.
+"But I will take your offer, and give you my Apelles."
+
+"It is not that picture I am dealing for," replied Gabinius. "It is of
+trifling value, and you may continue to enjoy the possession of it. It
+is another work of art in this room that I wish to have, and which has
+hitherto seemed to you scarcely worth notice. I have discovered it, and
+one of my rich customers has asked me to find him just such a thing."
+
+"I do not know what it is."
+
+"Does everything in this room belong to you?"
+
+"Whom else should it belong to?"
+
+"Then you may dispose of it as you please?"
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+"Very well, then--the twelve Attic talents which I offer you are to be
+paid for the picture that is under our feet."
+
+"The mosaic! that? It belongs to the palace."
+
+"It belongs to your residence, and that, I heard you say yourself, has
+been inhabited for more than a century by your forefathers. I know the
+law; it pronounces that everything which has remained in undisputed
+possession in one family, for a hundred years, becomes their property."
+
+"This mosaic belongs to the palace."
+
+"I assert the contrary. It is an integral portion of your family
+dwelling, and you may freely dispose of it."
+
+"It belongs to the palace."
+
+"No, and again no; you are the owner. Tomorrow morning early you shall
+receive twelve Attic talents in gold, and, with the help of my son,
+later in the day I will take up the picture, pack it, and when it grows
+dark, carry it away. Procure a carpet to cover the empty place for the
+present. As to the secrecy of the transaction--I must of course insist
+on it as strongly--and more so--than yourself."
+
+"The mosaic belongs to the palace," cried the steward, this time in a
+louder voice, "Do you hear? it belongs to the palace, and whoever dares
+touch it, I will break his bones."
+
+As he spoke Keraunus stood up, his huge chest panting, his cheeks and
+forehead dyed purple, and his fist, which he held in the dealer's face,
+was trembling. Gabinius drew back startled, and said:
+
+"Then you will not have the twelve talents!"
+
+"I will--I will!" gasped Keraunus, "I will show you how I beat those
+who take me for a rogue. Out of my sight, villain, and let me hear not
+another word about the picture, and the robbery in the dark, or I will
+send the prefect's lictors after you and have you thrown into irons, you
+rascally thief!"
+
+Gabinius hurried to the door, but he there turned round once more to
+the groaning and gasping colossus, and cried out, as he stood on the
+threshold:
+
+"Keep your rubbish! we shall have more to say to each other yet."
+
+When Selene and Arsinoe returned to the sitting-room they found their
+father breathing hard and sitting on the couch, with his head drooping
+forward. Much alarmed, they went close up to him, but he exclaimed quite
+coherently:
+
+"Water--a drink of water!--the thief!--the scoundrel!"
+
+Though hardly pressed, it had not cost him a struggle or a pang to
+refuse what would have placed him and his children in a position of
+ease; and yet he would not have hesitated to borrow it, aye, or twice
+the sum, from rich or poor, though he knew full certainly that he would
+never be in a position to restore it. Nor was he even proud of what he
+had done; it seemed to him quite natural in a Macedonian noble. It
+was to him altogether out of the pale of possibility that he should
+entertain the dealer's proposition for an instant.
+
+But where was he to get the money for Arsinoe's outfit? how could he
+keep the promise given at the meeting?
+
+He lay meditating on the divan for an hour; then he took a wax tablet
+out of a chest and began to write a letter on it to the prefect. He
+intended to offer the precious mosaic picture which had been discovered
+in his abode, to Titianus for the Emperor, but he did not bring his
+composition to an end, for he became involved in high-flown phrases. At
+last he doubted whether it would do at all, flung the unfinished letter
+back into the chest, and disposed himself to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+While anxiety and trouble were brooding over the steward's dwelling,
+while dismay and disappointment were clouding the souls of its
+inhabitants, the hall of the Muses was merry with feasting and laughter.
+
+Julia, the prefect's wife, had supplied the architect at Lochias with
+a carefully-prepared meal,--sufficient to fill six hungry maws, and
+Pontius' slave--who had received it on its arrival and had unpacked it
+dish after dish, and set them out on the humblest possible table had
+then hastened to fetch his master to inspect all these marvels of
+the cook's art. The architect shook his head as he contemplated the
+superabundant blessing, and muttered to himself:
+
+"Titianus must take me for a crocodile, or rather for two crocodiles,"
+and he went to the sculptor's little tabernacle, where Papias the master
+was also, to invite the two men to share his supper.
+
+Besides them he asked two painters, and the chief mosaic worker of the
+city, who all day long had been busied in restoring the old and faded
+pictures on the ceilings and pavements, and under the influence of
+good wine and cheerful chat they soon emptied the dishes and bowls and
+trenchers. A man who for several hours has been using his hands or his
+mind, or both together, waxes hungry, and all the artists whom Pontius
+had brought together at Lochias had now been working for several days
+almost to the verge of exhaustion. Each had done his best, in the first
+place, no doubt, to give satisfaction to Pontius, whom all esteemed, and
+to himself; but also in the hope of giving proof of his powers to the
+Emperor and of showing him how things could be done in Alexandria. When
+the dishes had been removed and the replete feasters had washed and
+dried their hands, they filled their cups out of a jar of mixed wine, of
+which the dimensions answered worthily to the meal they had eaten.
+One of the painters then proposed that they should hold a regular
+drinking-bout, and elect Papias, who was as well known as a good table
+orator as he was as an artist, to be the leader of the feast. However,
+the master declared that he could not accept the honor, for that it was
+due to the worthiest of their company; to the man namely, who, only
+a few days since, had entered this empty palace and like a second
+Deucalion had raised up illustrious artists, such as he then saw around
+him in great numbers, and skilled workmen by hundreds, not out of
+plastic stone but out of nothing. And then--while declaring that he
+understood the use of the hammer and chisel better than that of the
+tongue, and that he had never studied the art of making speeches--he
+expressed his wish that Pontius would lead the revel, in the most
+approved form.
+
+But he was not allowed to get to the end of this evidence of his skill,
+for Euphorion the door-keeper of the palace, Euphorion the father of
+Pollux, ran hastily into the hall of the Muses with a letter in his hand
+which he gave to the architect.
+
+"To be read without an instant's delay," he added, bowing with
+theatrical dignity to the assembled artists. "One of the prefect's
+lictors brought this letter, which, if my wishes be granted, brings
+nothing that is unwelcome. Hold your noise you little blackguards or I
+will be the death of you."
+
+These words, which so far as the tone was concerned, formed a somewhat
+inharmonious termination to a speech intended for the ears of great
+artists, were addressed to his wife's four-footed Graces who had
+followed him against his wish, and were leaping round the table barking
+for the slender remains of the consumed food.
+
+Pontius was fond of animals and had made friends with the old woman's
+pets, so, as he opened the prefect's letter, he said:
+
+"I invite the three little guests to the remains of our feast. Give them
+anything that is fit for them, Euphorion, and whatever seems to you most
+suitable to your own stomach you may put into it."
+
+While the architect first rapidly glanced through the letter and then
+read it carefully, the singer had collected a variety of good morsels
+for his wife's favorites on a plate, and finally carried the last
+remaining pasty, with the dish on which it reposed, to the vicinity of
+his own hooked nose.
+
+"For men or for dogs?" he asked his son, as he pointed to it with a
+rigid finger.
+
+"For the gods!" replied Pollux. "Take it to mother; she will like to eat
+ambrosia for once."
+
+"A jolly evening to you!" cried the singer, bowing to the artists who
+were emptying their cups, and he quitted the hall with his pasty and his
+dogs. Before he had fairly left the hall with his long strides, Papias,
+whose speech had been interrupted, once more raised his wine-cup and
+began again:
+
+"Our Deucalion, our more than Deucalion--"
+
+"Pardon me," interrupted Pontius. "If I once more stop your discourse
+which began so promisingly; this letter contains important news and our
+revels must be over for the night. We must postpone our symposium and
+your drinking-speech."
+
+"It was not a drinking-speech, for if ever there was a moderate man--"
+Papias began. But Pontius stopped him again, saying:
+
+"Titianus writes me word that he proposes coming to Lochias this
+evening. He may arrive at any moment; and not alone, but with my
+fellow-artist, Claudius Venator from Rome, who is to assist me with his
+advice."
+
+"I never even heard his name," said Papias, who was wont to trouble
+himself as little about the persons as about the works of other artists.
+
+"I wonder at that," said Pontius, closing the double tablets which
+announced the Emperor's advent.
+
+"Can he do anything?" asked Pollux.
+
+"More than any one of us," replied Pontius. "He is a mighty man."
+
+"That is splendid!" exclaimed Pollux. "I like to see great men. When
+one looks me in the eye I always feel as if some of his superabundance
+overflowed into me, and irresistibly I draw myself up and think how fine
+it would be if one day I might reach as high as that man's chin."
+
+"Beware of morbid ambition," said Papias to his pupil in a warning
+voice. "It is not the man who stands on tiptoe, but he who does his duty
+diligently, that can attain anything great."
+
+"He honestly does his," said the architect rising, and he laid his hand
+on the young sculptor's shoulder. "We all do; to-morrow by sunrise each
+must be at his post again. For my colleague's sake it will be well that
+you should all be there in good time."
+
+The artists rose, expressing their thanks and regrets. "You will not
+escape the continuation of this evening's entertainment," cried one of
+the painters, and Papias, as he parted from Pontius, said:
+
+"When we next meet I will show you what I understand by a
+drinking-speech. It will do perhaps for your Roman guest. I am curious
+to hear what he will say about our Urania. Pollux has done his share
+of the work very well, and I have already devoted an hour's work to it,
+which has improved it. The more humble our material, the better I shall
+be pleased if the work satisfies Caesar; he himself has tried his hand
+at sculpture."
+
+"If only Hadrian could hear that!" cried one of the painters. "He likes
+to think himself a great artist--one of the foremost of our time. It is
+said that he caused the life of the great architect, Apollodorus--who
+carried out such noble works for Trajan--to be extinguished--and why?
+because formerly that illustrious man had treated the imperial bungler
+as a mere dabbler, and would not accept his plan for the temple of Venus
+at Rome."
+
+"Mere talk!" answered Pontius to this accusation. "Apollodorus died in
+prison, but his incarceration had little enough to do with the Emperor's
+productions--excuse me, gentlemen, I must once more look through the
+sketches and plans."
+
+The architect went away, but Pollux continued the conversation that had
+been begun by saying:
+
+"Only I cannot understand how a man who practises so many arts at once
+as Hadrian does, and at the same time looks after the state and its
+government, who is a passionate huntsman and who dabbles in every kind
+of miscellaneous learning, contrives, when he wants to practise one
+particular form of art, to recall all his five senses into the nest from
+which he has let them fly, here, there, and everywhere. The inside
+of his head must be like that salad-bowl--which we have reduced to
+emptiness--in which Papias discovered three sorts of fish, brown and
+white meat, oysters and five other substances."
+
+"And who can deny," added Papias, "that if talent is the father, and
+meat the mother of all productiveness, practice must be the artist's
+teacher! Since Hadrian took to sculpture and painting it has become the
+universal fashion here to practise these arts, and among the wealthier
+youth who come to my workroom, many have very good abilities; but not
+one of them brings anything to any good issue, because so much of their
+time is taken up by the gymnasium, the bath, the quail-fights, the
+suppers, and I know not what besides, so that they do nothing by way of
+practice."
+
+"True," said a painter. "Without the restraint and worry of
+apprenticeship no one can ever rise to happy and independent
+creativeness; and in the schools of rhetoric or in hunting or fighting
+no one can study drawing. It is not till a pupil has learned to sit
+steady and worry himself over his work for six hours on end that I begin
+to believe he will ever do any good work. Have you any of you seen the
+Emperor's work?"
+
+"I have," answered a mosaic worker. "Many years ago Hadrian sent a
+picture to me that he had painted; I was to make a mosaic from it. It
+was a fruit piece. Melons, gourds, apples, and green leaves. The drawing
+was but so-so, and the color impossibly vivid, still the composition was
+pleasing from its solidity and richness. And after all, when one sees
+it, one cannot but feel that such superfluity is better than meagreness
+and feebleness. The larger fruits, especially under the exuberant sappy
+foliage, were so huge that they might have been grown in the garden of
+luxury itself, still the whole had a look of reality. I mitigated
+the colors somewhat in my transcript; you may still see a copy of the
+picture at my house, it hangs in the studio where my men draw. Nealkes,
+the rich hanging-maker, has had a tapestry woven from it which Pontius
+proposes to use as a hanging for a wall of the work-room, but I have
+made a fine frame on purpose for it."
+
+"Say rather for its designer."
+
+"Or yet rather," added the most loquacious of the painters, "for the
+visit he may possibly pay your workshops."
+
+"I only wish the Emperor may come to ours too! I should like to sell him
+my picture of Alexander saluted by the priests in the temple of Jupiter
+Ammon."
+
+"I hope that when you agree about the price you will remember we are
+partners," said his fellow-artist smugly.
+
+"I will follow your example strictly," replied the other.
+
+"Then you will certainly not be a loser," cried Papias, "for Eustorgius
+is fully aware of the worth of his works. And if Hadrian is to order
+works from every master whose art he dabbles in, he will require a fleet
+on purpose to carry his purchases to Rome."
+
+"It is said," continued Eustorgius, laughing, "that he is a painter
+among poets, a sculptor among painters, an astronomer among musicians,
+and a sophist among artists--that is to say, that he pursues every art
+and science with some success as his secondary occupation."
+
+As he spoke the last words Pontius returned to the table where the
+artists were standing round the winejar; he had heard the painter's last
+remark and interrupted him by saying:
+
+"But my friend you forget that he is a monarch among monarchs--and not
+merely among those of today--in the fullest meaning of the word. Each of
+us separately can produce something better and more perfect in his own
+line; but how great is the man who by earnestness and skill can even
+apprehend everything that the mind has ever been able to conceive of, or
+the creative spirit of the artist to embody! I know him, and I know
+that he loves a really thorough master, and tries to encourage him
+with princely liberality. But his ears are everywhere, and he promptly
+becomes the implacable enemy of those who provoke his resentment. So
+bridle your restive Alexandrian tongues, and let me tell you that my
+colleague from Rome is in the closest intimacy with Hadrian. He is of
+the same age, resembles him greatly, and repeats to him everything
+that he hears said about him. So cease talking about Caesar and pass
+no severer judgments on dilettanti in the purple than on your wealthy
+pupils, who paint and chisel for the mere love of it, and for whom you
+find it so easy to lisp out 'charming,' or 'wonderfully pretty,' or
+'remarkably nice.' Take my warning in good part, you know I mean it
+well."
+
+He spoke the last words with a cordial, manly feeling, of which his
+voice was peculiarly capable, and which was always certain to secure him
+the confidence even of the recalcitrant.
+
+The artists exchanged greetings and hand-shakings and left the hall; a
+slave carried away the wine-jar and wiped the table, on which Pontius
+proceeded to lay out his sketches and plans. But he was not alone, for
+Pollux was soon at his side, and with a comical expression of pathos and
+laying his finger on his nose, he said:
+
+"I have come out of my cage to say something more to you."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"The hour is approaching when I may hope to repay the beneficent deeds,
+which, at various times, you have done to my interior. My mother will
+to-morrow morning, set before you that dish of cabbage. It could not be
+done sooner, because the only perfect sausage-maker, the very king of
+his trade, prepares these savory cylinders only once a week. A few hours
+ago he completed the making of the sausages, and to-morrow morning my
+mother will warm up for our breakfasts the noble mess, which she is
+preparing for us this evening--for, as I have told you, it is in its
+warmed-up state that it is the ideal of its kind. What will follow by
+way of sweets we shall owe again to my mother's art; but the cheering
+and invigorating element--I mean the wine that I drives dull care away,
+we owe to my sister."
+
+"I will come," said Pontius, "if my guest leaves me an hour free, and I
+shall enjoy the excellent dish. But what does a gay bird like you know
+of dull care?"
+
+"The words fit into the metre," replied Pollux. "I inherit from
+my father--who, when he is not gate-keeping, sings and recites--a
+troublesome tendency whenever anything incites me to drift into rhythm."
+
+"But to-day you have been more silent than usual, and yet you seemed
+to me to be extraordinarily content. Not your face only, but your whole
+length--a good measure--from the sole of your foot to the crown of your
+head was like a brimming cask of satisfaction."
+
+"Well, there is much that is lovely in this world!" cried Pollux,
+stretching himself comfortably and lifting his arms with his hands
+clasped far above his head towards heaven.
+
+"Has anything specially pleasant happened to you?"
+
+"There is no need for that! Here I live in excellent company, the
+work progresses, and--well, why should I deny it? There was something
+specially to mark to-day; I met an old acquaintance again."
+
+"An old one?"
+
+"I have already known her sixteen years; but when I first saw her she
+was in swaddling clothes."
+
+"Then this venerable damsel friend is more than sixteen, perhaps
+seventeen! Is Eros the friend of the happy, or does happiness only
+follow in his train?" As the architect thoughtfully said these words to
+himself, Pollux listened attentively to a noise outside, and said:
+
+"Who can be passing out there at this hour? Do you not hear the bark of
+a big dog mingle with the snapping of the three Graces?"
+
+"It is Titianus conducting the architect from Rome," replied Pontius
+excitedly.
+
+"I will go to meet him. But one thing more my friend, you too have an
+Alexandrian tongue. Beware of laughing at the Emperor's artistic efforts
+in the presence of this Roman. I repeat it: the man who is now coming is
+superior to us all, and there is nothing more repellant to me than when
+a small man assumes a strutting air of importance because he fancies he
+has discovered in some great man a weak spot where his own little body
+happens to be sound. The artist I am expecting is a grand man, but
+the Emperor Hadrian is a grander. Now retire behind your screens, and
+tomorrow morning I will be your guest."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Pontius threw his pallium over the chiton he commonly wore at his work
+and went forward to meet the sovereign of the world, whose arrival had
+been announced to him in the prefect's letter. He was perfectly calm,
+and if his heart beat a little faster than usual, it was only because
+he was pleased once more to meet the wonderful man whose personality had
+made a deep impression on him before.
+
+In the happy consciousness of having done all that lay in his power
+and of deserving no blame, he went through the ante-chambers and chief
+entrance of the palace into the fore-court, where a crowd of slaves were
+busied by torch-light in laying new marble slabs. Neither these workmen
+nor their overseers had paid any heed to the barking of the dogs and the
+loud talking which had for some little time been audible in the vicinity
+of the gate-keeper's lodge; for a special rate of payment had been
+promised to the laborers and their foremen if they should have finished
+a set piece of the new pavement by a certain hour, to the satisfaction
+of the architect. No one who heard the deep man's-voice ring through the
+court from the doorway guessed to whom it belonged.
+
+The Emperor had been delayed by adverse winds and had not run into the
+harbor till a little before midnight.
+
+Titianus, who was watching for him, he greeted as an old friend
+with heartfelt warmth, and with him and Antinous he stepped into
+the prefect's chariot, while Phlegon the secretary, Hermogenes his
+physician, and Mastor with the luggage, among which were their campbeds,
+were to follow in another vehicle. The harbor watchmen hastened to array
+themselves indignantly to oppose the chariot, as it rolled noisily along
+the street, and the huge dog that destroyed the peace of the night with
+its baying; but as soon as they recognized Titianus they respectfully
+made way. The gate-keeper and his wife, obedient to the prefect's
+warning, had remained up, and as soon as the singer heard the
+chariot approaching which bore the Emperor, he hastened to open the
+palace-gates. The broken-up pavement and the swarms of men engaged in
+repairing it, obliged Titianus and his companions to quit the chariot
+here and to pass close to the little gate-house. Hadrian, whose
+observation nothing ever escaped which came in his way and seemed
+worth noticing, stood still before Euphorion's door and looked into the
+comfortable little room, with its decoration of flowers and birds and
+the statue of Apollo; while dame Doris in her newest garments, stood on
+the threshold to watch for the prefect. And Titianus greeted her warmly,
+for he was wont whenever he came to Lochias to exchange a few merry
+or wise words with her. The little dogs had already crept into their
+basket, but as soon as they caught sight of a strange dog they rushed
+past their mistress into the open air, and dame Doris found herself
+obliged, while she returned the kindly greeting of her patron, to shout
+at Euphrosyne, Thalia and Aglaia more than once by their pretty names.
+
+"Splendid, splendid!" cried Hadrian, pointing into the little house.
+"An idyl, a perfect idyl. Who would have expected to find such a smiling
+nook of peace in the most restless and busy town in the empire."
+
+"I and Pontius were equally surprised at this little nest, and we
+therefore left it untouched," said the prefect.
+
+"Intelligent people understand each other, and I owe you thanks for
+preserving this little home," answered the Emperor. "What an omen, what
+a favorable, in every way favorable augury, it offers me. The Graces
+receive me here into these old walls, Aglaia, Thalia and Euphrosyne!"
+
+"Good luck to you, Master," old Doris called out to the prefect.
+
+"We come late," said Hadrian.
+
+"That does not matter," said the old woman. "Here at Lochias for the
+last week we have quite forgotten to distinguish day from night, and a
+blessing can never come too late."
+
+"I have brought with me to-day an illustrious guest," said Titianus.
+"The great Roman architect Claudius Venator. He only disembarked a few
+minutes since."
+
+"Then a draught of wine will do him good. We have in the house some good
+white Mareotic from my daughter's garden by the lake. If your friend
+will do us humble folks so much honor, I beg he will step into our room;
+it is clean, is it not sir? and the cup I will give him to drink it out
+of would not disgrace the Emperor himself. Who knows what you will find
+up in the midst of all the muddle yonder?"
+
+"I will accept your invitation with pleasure," answered Hadrian. "I can
+see by your face that you have a pleasure in entertaining us, and any
+one might envy you your little house."
+
+"When the climbing-rose and the honey-suckle are out it is much
+prettier," said Doris, as she filled the cup. "Here is some water for
+mixing."
+
+The Emperor took the cup carved by Pollux, looked at it with admiration,
+and before putting it to his lips said:
+
+"A masterpiece, dame; what would Caesar find to drink out of here where
+the gate-keeper uses such a treasure? Who executed this admirable work,
+pray?"
+
+"My son carved it for me in his spare time."
+
+"He is a highly-skilled sculptor," Titianus explained.
+
+When the Emperor had half emptied the cup with much satisfaction he set
+it on the table, and said:
+
+"A very noble drink! I thank you, mother."
+
+"And I you, for styling me mother: there is no better title a woman can
+have who has brought up good children; and I have three who need never
+be ashamed to be seen."
+
+"I wish you all luck with them, good little mother," replied the
+Emperor.
+
+"We shall meet again, for I am going to spend some days at Lochias."
+
+"Now, in all this bustle?" asked Doris.
+
+"This great architect," said Titianus, in explanation, "is to advise and
+help our Pontius."
+
+"He needs no help!" cried the old woman. "He is a man of the best stamp.
+His foresight and energy, my son says, are incomparable. I have seen him
+giving his orders myself, and I know a man when I see him!"
+
+"And what particularly pleased you in him?" asked Hadrian, who was much
+amused with the shrewd old woman's freedom.
+
+"He never for a moment loses his temper in all the hurry, never speaks
+a word too much or too little; he can be stern when it is necessary, but
+he is kind to his inferiors. What his merits are as an artist I am not
+capable of judging, but I am quite certain that he is a just and able
+man."
+
+"I know him myself," replied Caesar, "and you describe him rightly; but
+he seemed to me sterner than he has shown himself to you."
+
+"Being a man he must be able to be severe; but he is so only when it
+is necessary, and how kind he can be he shows himself every day. A man
+grows to the mould of his own mind when he is a great deal alone; and
+this I have noticed, that a man who is repellant and sharp to those
+beneath him is not in himself anything really great; for it shows that
+he considers it necessary to guard against the danger of being looked
+upon as of no more consequence than the poorer folks he deals with. Now,
+a man of real worth knows that it can be seen in his bearing, even when
+he treats one of us as an equal. Pontius does so, and Titianus, and you
+who are his friend, no less. It is a good thing that you should have
+come--but, as I said before, the architect up there can do very well
+without you."
+
+"You do not seem to rate my capacity very highly, and I regret it,
+for you have lived with your eyes open and have learned to judge men
+keenly."
+
+Doris looked shrewdly at the Emperor with her kindly glance, as if
+taking his mental measure, and then answered confidently:
+
+"You--you are a great man too--it is quite possible that you might see
+things that would escape Pontius. There are a few choice souls whom the
+Muses particularly love and you are one of them."
+
+"What leads you to suppose so?"
+
+"I see it in your gaze--in your brow."
+
+"You have the gift of divination, then?"
+
+"No, I am not one of that sort; but I am the mother of two sons on
+whom also the Immortals have bestowed the special gift, which I cannot
+exactly describe. It was in them I first saw it, and wherever I have
+met with it since in other men and artists--they have been the elect of
+their circle. And you too--I could swear to it, that you are foremost of
+the men among whom you live."
+
+"Do not swear lightly," laughed the Emperor. "We will meet and talk
+together again little mother, and when I depart I will ask you again
+whether you have not been deceived in me. Come now, Telemachus, the
+dame's birds seem to delight you very much."
+
+These words were addressed to Antinous, who had been going from cage to
+cage contemplating the feathered pets, all sleeping snugly, with much
+curiosity and pleasure.
+
+"Is that your son?" asked Doris.
+
+"No, dame, he is only my pupil; but I feel as if he were my son."
+
+"He is a beautiful lad!"
+
+"Why, the old lady still looks after the young men!"
+
+"We do not give that up till we are a hundred or till the Parcae cut the
+thread of life."
+
+"What a confession!"
+
+"Let me finish my speech.--We never cease to take pleasure in seeing a
+handsome young fellow, but so long as we are young we ask ourselves
+what he may have in store for us, and as we grow old we are perfectly
+satisfied to be able to show him kindness. Listen young master. You will
+always find me here if you want anything in which I can serve you. I am
+like a snail and very rarely leave my shell."
+
+"Till our next meeting," cried Hadrian, and he and his companions went
+out into the court.
+
+There the difficulty was to find a footing on the disjointed pavement.
+Titianus went on in front of the Emperor and Antinous, and so but few
+words of friendly pleasure could be exchanged by the monarch and his
+vicegerent on the occasion of their meeting again. Hadrian stepped
+cautiously forward, his face wearing meanwhile a satisfied smile. The
+verdict passed by the simple shrewd woman of the people had given him
+far greater pleasure than the turgid verse in which Mesomedes and his
+compeers were wont to sing his praises, or the flattering speeches with
+which he was loaded by the sophists and rhetoricians.
+
+The old woman had taken him for no more than an artist; she could
+not know who he was, and yet she had recognized--or had Titianus been
+indiscreet? Did she know or suspect whom she was talking to? Hadrian's
+deeply suspicious nature was more and more roused; he began to fancy
+that the gate-keeper's wife had learnt her speech by heart, and that
+her welcome had been preconcerted; he suddenly paused and desired the
+prefect to wait for him, and Antinous to remain behind with the clog. He
+turned round, retraced his steps to the gatehouse and slipped close up
+to it in a very unprincely way. He stood still by the door of the little
+house which was still open, and listened to the conversation between
+Doris and her husband.
+
+"A fine tall man," said Euphorion, "he is a little like the Emperor."
+
+"Not a bit," replied Doris. "Only think of the full-length statue of
+Hadrian in the garden of the Paneum; it has a dissatisfied satirical
+expression, and the architect has a grave brow, it is true, but pure
+friendly kindness lights up his features. It is only the beard that
+reminds you of the one when you look at the other. Hadrian might be very
+glad if he were like the prefect's guest."
+
+"Yes, he is handsomer--how shall I say it--more like the gods than that
+cold marble figure," Euphorion declared. "A grand noble, he is no doubt,
+but still an artist too; I wonder whether he could be induced by Pontius
+or Papias or Aristeas or one of the great painters to take the part of
+Calchas the soothsayer in our group at the festival? He would perform it
+in quite another way than that dry stick Philemon the ivory carver. Hand
+me my lute; I have already forgotten again the beginning of the last
+verse. Oh! my wretched memory! Thank you."
+
+Euphorion loudly struck the strings and sang in a voice that was still
+tolerably sweet and very well trained:
+
+"'Sabina hail! Oh Sabina!--Hail; victorious hail to the conquering
+goddess Sabina!' If only Pollux were here he would remind me of the
+right words. 'Hail; victorious hail, to the thousand-fold Sabina!'--That
+is nonsense. 'Hail, hail! divine hail to thee O all-conquering Sabina.'
+No it was not that either. If a crocodile would only swallow this Sabina
+I would give him that hot cake in yonder dish with pleasure, for
+his pudding. But stay--I have it. 'Hail, a thousand-fold hail to the
+conquering goddess Sabina!'"
+
+Hadrian had heard all he wanted; while Euphorion went on repeating his
+line a score or more of times to impress it on his recalcitrant
+memory. Caesar turned his back on the gate-house, and while he and his
+companions picked their way not without difficulty through the workmen
+who squatted here and there and everywhere on the ground, he clapped
+Titianus more than once on his shoulder, and after he had been received
+and welcomed by Pontius, he exclaimed:
+
+"I bless my decision to come here now! I have had a good evening, a
+quite delightful evening."
+
+The Emperor had not felt so cheerful and free from care for years as on
+this occasion, and when in spite of the late hour he found the workmen
+still busy everywhere, and saw all that had already been restored in the
+old palace and what was being done for its renovation, the restless man
+could not resist expressing his satisfaction, and exclaimed to Antinous:
+
+"Here we may see that even in our sordid times miracles may be wrought
+by good-will, industry, and skill. Explain to me my good Pontius how you
+were able to construct that enormous scaffold."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+More pleasant hours were to follow on the amusing arrival of the Emperor
+at his half-finished residence at Lochias that night. Pontius proposed
+to him to inspect several well-preserved rooms, which had in the first
+instance been reserved for the gentlemen of his suite; and one of
+these with an open outlook on the harbor, the town, and the island
+of Antirrhodus he suggested should be provisionally furnished for the
+Emperor's reception. Thanks to the architect's foresight, to Mastor's
+practised hand, and to the numbers of men employed in the palace who
+were accustomed to all kinds of service--provision was soon made for the
+night, for Hadrian and his companions. The comfortable couch which the
+prefect had sent to Lochias for Pontius was carried into the Emperor's
+sleeping-room, and the camp-beds for Antinous and the suite were soon
+set up in the other rooms. Tables, pillows, and various household
+vessels which had already been sent in from the manufactories of
+Alexandria, and which stood packed in bales and cases in the large
+central court of the palace were soon taken out, and so far as they were
+applicable for use were carried into the hastily-arranged rooms. Even
+before Hadrian, under the prefect's guidance, had reached the last room
+in which restorations were being carried out, Pontius was ready with his
+arrangements, and could assure the Emperor that to-night he would find
+a good bed and very tolerable quarters, and that by to-morrow he should
+have a really elegantly-furnished room.
+
+"Charming, quite delightful," cried the Emperor, as he entered his room.
+"One might fancy you had some industrious demons at your command. Pour
+some water over my hands, Mastor, and then to supper! I am as hungry as
+a beggar's clog."
+
+"I think we shall find all you need," replied Titianus, while Hadrian
+washed his hands and his bearded face.
+
+"Have you eaten all that I sent down to Lochias to-day, my dear
+Pontius?"
+
+"Alas! we have," sighed Pontius.
+
+"But I gave orders that a supper for five should be sent."
+
+"It sufficed for six hungry artists," answered the architect, "if only I
+could have guessed for whom the food was intended! And now what is to
+be done? There are wine and bread still in the hall of the Muses,
+meanwhile."
+
+"That must satisfy us," said the Emperor, as he wiped his face. "In the
+Dacian war, in Numidia, and often when out hunting, I have been glad if
+only one or the other was to be obtained."
+
+Antinous, who was very hungry and tired, made a melancholy face at these
+words of his master, and Hadrian perceiving it, added with a smile:
+
+"But youth needs something more to live upon than bread and wine. You
+pointed out to me just now the residence of the palace-steward. Might we
+not find there a morsel of meat or cheese, or something of the kind?"
+
+"Hardly," replied Pontius. "For the man stuffs his fat stomach and his
+eight children with bread and porridge. But an attempt will at any rate
+be worth making."
+
+"Then send to him; but conduct us at once to the hall where the Muses
+have preserved some bread and wine for me and these good fellows, though
+they do not always provide them for their disciples."
+
+Pontius at once conducted the Emperor into the hall. On the way thither,
+Hadrian asked:
+
+"Is the steward so miserably paid that he is forced to content himself
+with such meagre fare?"
+
+"He has a residence rent free, and two hundred drachmae a month."
+
+"That is not so very little. What is the man's name, and of what kith
+and kin is he?"
+
+"He is called Keraunus, and is of ancient Macedonian descent. His
+ancestors from time immemorial have held the office he now fills, and he
+even supposes himself to be related to the extinct royal dynasty through
+the mistress of some one of the Lagides. Keraunus sits in the town
+council and never stirs out in the streets without his slave, who is
+one of the sort which the merchants in the slave market throw into the
+bargain with the buyer. He is as fat as a stuffed pig, dresses like
+a senator, loves antiquities and curiosities, for which he will let
+himself be cheated of his last coin, and bears his poverty with more of
+pride than of dignity; and still he is an honorable man, and can be made
+useful, if he is taken on the right side."
+
+"Altogether a queer fellow. And you say he is fat, is he jolly?"
+
+"As far from it as possible."
+
+"Ah, people who are fat and cross are my aversion. What is this by way
+of an erection?"
+
+"Behind that screen works Papias' best scholar. His name is Pollux, and
+he is the son of the couple who keep the gate-house. You will be pleased
+with him."
+
+"Call him here," said the Emperor.
+
+But before the architect could comply with his desire the sculptor's
+head had appeared above the screen. The young man had heard the
+approaching voices and steps; he greeted the prefect respectfully from
+his elevated position, and after satisfying his curiosity was about to
+spring down from the stool on which he had climbed when Pontius called
+to him that Claudius Venator, the architect from Rome, wished to make
+his acquaintance.
+
+"That is very kind in him, and still more kind in you," Pollux answered
+from above, "since it is only from you that he can know that I exist
+beneath the moon, and use the hammer and chisel. Allow me to descend
+from my four-legged cothurnus, for at present you are forced to look up
+to me, and from all I have heard of your talents from Pontius, nothing
+can be more absolutely the reverse of what it ought to be."
+
+"Nay, stop where you are," answered Hadrian. "We, as fellow-artists, may
+waive ceremony.--What are you doing in there?"
+
+"I will push the screen back in a moment and show you our Urania. It
+is very good for an artist to hear the opinion of a man who thoroughly
+understands the thing."
+
+"Presently, friend-presently; first let me enjoy a scrap of bread, for
+the severity of my hunger might very possibly influence my judgment."
+
+As he was speaking the architect offered the Emperor a salver with
+bread, salt, and a cup of wine, which his own slave had carried to him.
+When Pollux observed this modest meal, he called out:
+
+"That is prisoners' fare, Pontius; have we nothing better in the house
+than that?"
+
+"Possibly you yourself assisted in demolishing the dainty dishes I had
+sent down for the architect," cried Titianus, pretending to threaten
+him.
+
+"You are defacing a fair memory," sighed the sculptor, with mock
+melancholy. "But, by Hercules, I did my fair share of the work of
+destruction. If only now--but stay! I have an idea worthy of Aristotle
+himself! that breakfast, to which I invited you to-morrow morning, most
+noble Pontius, is all ready at my mother's, and can be warmed up in a
+few minutes. Do not be alarmed, worthy sir, but the dish in question
+is cabbage with sausages--a mess which, like the soul of an Egyptian,
+possesses at the instant of resurrection, nobler qualities than when it
+first sees the light."
+
+"Excellent," cried Hadrian. "Cabbage and sausages!" He wiped his full
+lips with his hand, smiling with gratification, and he broke into a
+hearty laugh of amusement as he heard a loud "Ah!" of satisfaction from
+Antinous, who drew nearer to the canvas screen. "There is another whose
+mouth waters and whose imagination revels in a happy future," said the
+Emperor to the prefect, pointing to his favorite.
+
+But he had misinterpreted the lad's exclamation, for it was the mere
+name of the dish--which his mother had often set on the table of his
+humble home in Bithynia--which reminded him of his native country and
+his childhood, and transplanted him in thought back into their midst. It
+was a swift leap at his heart, and not merely the pleasant watering of
+his gums, that had forced the "Ah" to his lips. Still, he was glad to
+see his native dish again, and would not have exchanged it against the
+richest banquet. Pollux had meanwhile come out of his nook, and said:
+
+"In a quarter of an hour I shall set before you the breakfast which has
+been turned into a supper. Mitigate your worst hunger with some bread
+and salt, and then my mother's cabbage-stew will not only satisfy you,
+but will be enjoyed with calm appreciation."
+
+"Greet dame Doris from me," Hadrian called after the sculptor; and when
+Pollux had quitted the hall he turned to Titianus and Pontius and said:
+
+"What a splendid young fellow. I am curious to see what he can do as an
+artist."
+
+"Then follow me," replied Pontius, leading the way.
+
+"What do you say to this Urania? Papias made the head of the Muse, but
+the figure and the drapery Pollux formed with his own hand in a few
+days."
+
+The imperial artist stood in front of the statue, with his arms crossed,
+and remained there for some time in silence. Then he nodded his bearded
+head approvingly, and said gravely:
+
+"A well-considered work, and carried out with remarkable freedom; this
+mantle drawn over the bosom would not disgrace a Phidias. All is broad,
+characteristic and true. Did the young artist work from the model here
+at Lochias?"
+
+"I have seen no model, and I believe that he evolved the whole figure
+out of his head," replied Pontius.
+
+"Impossible, perfectly impossible," cried the Emperor, in the tone of a
+man who knows well what he is talking about. "Such lines, such forms
+not Praxiteles himself could have invented. He must have seen them, have
+formed them as he stood face to face with the living copy. We will ask
+him. What is to be made out of that newly-set-up mass of clay?"
+
+"Possibly the bust of some princess of the house of the Lagides.
+To-morrow you shall see a head of Berenice by our young friend, which
+seems to me to be one of the best things ever done in Alexandria."
+
+"And is the lad a proficient in magic?" asked Hadrian. "It seems to
+me simply impossible that he should have completed this statue and a
+woman's bust in these few days."
+
+Pontius explained to the Emperor that Pollux had mounted the head on a
+bust already to hand, and as he answered his questions without reserve,
+he revealed to him what stupendous exertions of the arts had been called
+into requisition to give the dilapidated palace a suitable and, in its
+kind, even brilliant appearance. He frankly confessed that here he was
+working only for effect, and talked to Hadrian exactly as he would have
+discussed the same subject with any other fellow-artist.
+
+While the Emperor and the architect were thus eagerly conversing, and
+the prefect was hearing from Phlegon, the secretary, all the experience
+of their journey, Pollux reappeared in the hall of the Muses accompanied
+by his father. The singer carried before him a steaming mess, fresh
+cakes of bread, and the pasty which a few hours previously he had
+carried home to his wife from the architect's table. Pollux held to his
+breast a tolerably large two-handled jar full of Mareotic wine, which he
+had hastily wreathed with branches of ivy.
+
+A few minutes later the Emperor was reclining on a mattress that had
+been laid for him, and was making his way valiantly through the
+savory mess. He was in the happiest humor; he called Antinous and his
+secretary, heaped abundant portions with his own hand on their plates,
+which he bade them hold out to him, declaring as he did so that it was
+to prevent their fishing the best of the sausages out of the cabbage for
+themselves. He also spoke highly of the Mareotic wine. When they came
+to opening the pasty the expression of his face changed; he frowned and
+asked the prefect in a suspicious tone, severely and sternly:
+
+"How came these people by such a pasty as this?"
+
+"Where did you get it from?" asked the prefect of the singer.
+
+"From the banquet which the architect gave to the artists here,"
+answered Euphorion. "The bones were given to the Graces and this dish,
+which had not been touched, to me and my wife. She devoted it with
+pleasure to Pontius' guest."
+
+Titianus laughed and exclaimed:
+
+"This then accounts for the total disappearance of the handsome supper
+which we sent down to the architect. This pasty-allow me to look at
+it--this pasty was prepared by a recipe obtained from Verus. He invited
+us to breakfast yesterday and instructed my cook how to prepare it."
+
+"No Platonist ever propagated his master's doctrines with greater zeal
+than Verus does the merits of this dish," said the Emperor, who
+had recovered his good humor as soon as he perceived that no artful
+preparation for his arrival was to be suspected in this matter. "What
+follies that spoilt child of fortune can commit! Does he still insist on
+cooking with his own hands?"
+
+"No, not quite that," replied the prefect. "But he had a couch placed
+for him in the kitchen on which he stretched himself at full length
+and told my cook exactly how to prepare the pasty, of which you are--I
+should say, of which the Emperor is particularly fond. It consists of
+pheasant, ham, cow's udder and a baked crust."
+
+"I am quite of Hadrian's opinion," laughed the Emperor; doing all
+justice to the excellent pie. "You entertain me splendidly my friend,
+and I am very much your debtor. What did you say your name is young
+man?"
+
+"Pollux."
+
+"Your Urania, Pollux, is a fine piece of work, and Pontius says you
+executed the drapery without a model. I said, and I repeat, that it is
+simply impossible."
+
+"You judge rightly, a young girl stood for it."
+
+The Emperor glanced at the architect, as much as to say, I knew it!
+
+Pontius asked in astonishment:
+
+"When? I have never seen a female form within these walls."
+
+"Recently."
+
+"But I have never quitted Lochias for a minute. I have never gone
+to rest before midnight, and have been on my legs again long before
+sunrise."
+
+"But still there were several hours between your going to sleep, and
+waking up again," replied Pollux. "Ah, youth--youth!" exclaimed the
+Emperor, and a satirical smile played upon his lips.
+
+"Part Damon and Phyllis by iron doors, and they will find their way to
+each other through the key-hole."
+
+Euphorion looked seriously at his son, the architect shook his head
+and refrained from further questions, but Hadrian rose from his couch,
+dismissed Antinous and his secretary to bed, requested Titianus to go
+home and to give his wife his kindly greetings, and then desired Pollux
+to conduct him within this screen, since he himself was not tired and
+was accustomed to do with only a few hours sleep.
+
+The young sculptor was strongly attracted by this commanding personage.
+It had not escaped him that the gray-bearded stranger greatly resembled
+the Emperor; but Pontius had prepared him for the likeness, and in fact
+there was much in the eyes and mouth of the Roman architect that he had
+never traced in any portrait of Hadrian 'Imperator.' And as they stood
+before his scarcely-finished statue his respect increased for the new
+visitor to Lochias; for, with earnest frankness, he pointed out to him
+certain faults, and while praising the merits of the rapidly-executed
+figure he explained in a few brief and pithy phrases his own conception
+of the ideal Urania. Then shortly but clearly, he stated his views as to
+how the plastic artist must deal with the problems of his art.
+
+The young man's heart beat faster, and more than once he turned hot and
+cold by turns as he heard things uttered by the bearded lips of this
+imposing man, in a rich voice and in lucid phrases, which he had often
+divined or vaguely felt, but for which, while learning, observing, and
+working, he had never sought expression in words. And how kindly
+the great master took up his timid observations, how convincingly he
+answered them. Such a man as this he had never met, never had he bowed
+with such full consent before the superiority and sovereign power of
+another mind.
+
+The second hour after midnight had begun, when Hadrian, standing before
+the rough-cast clay bust, asked Pollux:
+
+"What is this to be?"
+
+"A portrait of a girl."
+
+"Probably of the complaisant model who ventures into Lochias at night?"
+
+"No; a lady of rank will sit to me."
+
+"An Alexandrian?"
+
+"Oh, no. A beauty in the train of the Empress."
+
+"What is her name? I know all the Roman ladies."
+
+"Balbilla."
+
+"Balbilla? There are many of that name. What is she like, the lady you
+mean?" asked Hadrian, with a cunning glance of amusement.
+
+"That is easier to ask than to answer," replied the artist, who, seeing
+his gray-bearded companion smile, recovered his gay vivacity, "But
+stay--you have seen a peacock spread its tail--now only imagine that
+every eye in the train of Hera's bird was a graceful round curl, and
+that in the middle of the circle there was a charming, intelligent
+girl's face, with a merry little nose, and a rather too high forehead,
+and you will have the portrait of the young damsel who has graciously
+permitted me to model from her person."
+
+Hadrian laughed heartily, threw off his cloak, and exclaimed:
+
+"Stand aside--I know your maiden--and if I mean a different one you
+shall tell me."
+
+While he was still speaking he had plunged his powerful hands into the
+yielding clay, and kneading and pinching like a practised modeller,
+wiping off and pressing on, he formed a woman's face with a towering
+structure of curls, which resembled Balbilla, but which reproduced every
+conspicuous peculiarity with such whimsical exaggeration that Pollux
+could not contain his delight. When at last Hadrian stepped back from
+the happy caricature and called upon him to say whether that were not
+indeed the Roman lady, Pollux exclaimed:
+
+"It is as surely she, as you are not merely a great architect, but
+an admirable sculptor. The thing is coarse, but unmistakably
+characteristic."
+
+The Emperor himself seemed to enjoy his artistic joke hugely, for he
+looked at it, and laughed again and again. Pontius, however, seemed
+to view it differently; he had listened with eager sympathy to the
+conversation between Hadrian and the sculptor, and had watched the
+former as he began his work; but as it went on he turned away, for
+he hated that distortion of fine forms, which he often found that the
+Egyptians took a special delight in. It was positively painful to him to
+see a graceful, highly-gifted and defenceless creature, to whom, too, he
+felt himself bound by ties of gratitude, mocked at in this way by such a
+man as Hadrian. He had only to-day met Balbilla for the first time, but
+he had heard from Titianus that she was staying at the Caesareum
+with the Empress, and the prefect had also told him that she was the
+granddaughter of that same governor, Claudius Balbillus, who had granted
+freedom to his own grandfather, a learned Greek slave.
+
+He had met her with grateful sympathy and devotion; her bright and
+lively nature had delighted him, and at each thoughtless word she
+uttered he would have liked to give her some warning sign, as though
+she were near to him through some tie of blood, or some old established
+friendship that might warrant his right to do so. The defiant, half
+gallant way in which Verus, the dissipated lady-killer, had spoken to
+her had enraged him and filled him with anxiety, and long after the
+illustrious visitors had left Lochias he had thought of her again and
+again, and had resolved, if it were possible, to keep a watchful eye on
+the descendant of the benefactor of his family. He felt it as a sacred
+duty to shelter and protect her, seeming to him as she did, an airy,
+pretty, defenceless song-bird.
+
+The Emperor's caricature had the same effect on his feelings as though
+some one had insulted and scorned, before his eyes, something that ought
+to be regarded as sacred. And there stood the monarch, a man no longer
+young, gazing at his performance and never weary of the amusement it
+afforded him. It pained Pontius keenly, for like all noble natures, he
+could not bear to discover anything mean or vulgar in a man to whom he
+had always looked up as to a strong exceptional character. As an artist
+Hadrian ought not to have vilified beauty, as a man he ought not to have
+insulted unprotected innocence.
+
+In the soul of the architect, who had hitherto been one of the Emperor's
+warmest admirers, a slight aversion began to dawn, and he was glad,
+when, at last, Hadrian decided to withdraw to rest.
+
+The Emperor found in his room every requisite he was accustomed to use,
+and while his slave undressed him, lighted his night-lamp and adjusted
+his pillows, he said:
+
+"This is the best evening I have enjoyed for years. Is Antinous
+comfortably in bed?"
+
+"As much so as in Rome."
+
+"And the big dog?"
+
+"I will lay his rug in the passage at your door."
+
+"Has he had any food?"
+
+"Bones, bread and water."
+
+"I hope you have had something to eat this evening."
+
+"I was not hungry, and there was plenty of bread and wine."
+
+"To-morrow we shall be better supplied. Now, good-night. Weigh your
+words for fear you should betray me. A few days here undisturbed would
+be delightful!"
+
+With these words the Emperor turned over on his couch and was soon
+asleep.
+
+Mastor, too, lay down to rest after he had spread a rug for the dog in
+the corridor outside the Emperor's sleeping-room. His head rested on a
+curved shield of stout cowhide under which lay his short sword; the
+bed was but a hard one, but Mastor had for years been used to rest on
+nothing better, and still had enjoyed the dreamless slumbers of a child;
+but to-night sleep avoided him, and from time to time he pressed his
+hand on his wearily open eyes to wipe away the salt dew which rose to
+them again and again. For a long time he had restrained these tears
+bravely enough, for the Emperor liked to see none but cheerful faces
+among his servants; nay, he had once said that it was in consequence
+of his bright eyes that he had entrusted to him the care of his person.
+Poor, cheerful Mastor! He was nothing but a slave, still he had a heart
+which lay open to joy and suffering, to pleasure and trouble, to hatred
+and to love.
+
+In his childhood his native village had fallen into the hands of the
+foes of his race. He and his brother had been carried away as slaves,
+first into Asia Minor, and then as they were both particularly pretty
+fair-haired boys, to Rome. There they had been bought for the Emperor;
+Mastor had been chosen to wait on Hadrian's person, his brother had been
+put to work in the gardens. Nothing was lacking to either except his
+liberty; nothing tormented them but their longing for their native home,
+and even this altogether faded away after he had married the pretty
+little daughter of a superintendent of the gardens, a slave like
+himself. She was a lively little woman with sparkling eyes, whom no one
+could pass by without noticing.
+
+The slave's duties left him but little time to enjoy the society of
+his pretty partner and of the two children she bore him, but the
+consciousness of possessing them made him happy when he followed his
+master to the chase, or in the journeys through the empire. Now, for
+seven months he had heard nothing of his family; but a short letter had
+reached him at Pelusium, which had been sent with the despatches for the
+Emperor from Ostia to Egypt. He could not read, and in consequence of
+the Emperor's rapid travelling, it was not till he reached Lochias, that
+he was put in possession of its contents.
+
+Before going to rest Antinous had read him the letter, which had been
+written for his brother by a public scribe, and its contents were enough
+to wreck the heart even of a slave. His pretty little wife had fled from
+her home and from the Emperor's service to follow a Greek ship's captain
+across the world; his eldest child, a boy, the darling of his heart, was
+dead; and his fair-haired tender little Tullia, with her pearly teeth,
+her round little arms, and her pretty tiny fingers that had often tried
+to pull his close-cropped hair, and had fondly stroked and patted it,
+had been carried off to the miserable refuge, under whose squalid roof
+the children of deceased slaves were reared. Only two hours since, and
+in fancy he had possessed a home, and a group of human beings, whom
+he could love. Now, this was all over and with however hard a hand the
+deepest woes might fall on him, he might not sob or groan aloud, or even
+roll from side to side as again and again he was violently prompted to
+do, for his lord slept lightly and the least noise might wake him. At
+sunrise he must appear before the Emperor as cheerful as usual, and
+yet he felt as if he must himself perish miserably as his happiness had
+done. His heart was bursting with anguish, still he neither groaned nor
+stirred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+The night had been almost as sleepless to Keraunus' daughter Selene as
+it had been to the hapless slave. Her father's vain wish to let Arsinoe
+take a part with the daughters of the wealthier citizens had filled
+the girl's heart with fresh terrors. It was the final blow which would
+demolish the structure of their social existence, standing as it did
+on quaking ground, and which must fling her family and herself into
+disgrace and want. When their last treasure of any value was sold,
+and the creditors could no longer be put off, particularly during the
+Emperor's presence in the city, when they should try to sell up all her
+father's little property, or to carry him off to a debtor's prison, was
+it not then as good as certain that some one else would be appointed
+to fill his place, and that she and the other children would fall into
+misery? And there lay Arsinoe by her side, and slept with as calm and
+deep a breath as blind Helios and the other little ones.
+
+Before going to bed she had tried with all the fervency and eloquence of
+which she was mistress, to persuade, entreat, and implore the heedless
+girl to refuse as positively as she herself had refused to take any part
+in the processions; but Arsinoe had at first repulsed her crossly,
+and finally had defiantly declared that means might yet very likely
+be found, and that what her father permitted, Selene had no right to
+interfere in, still less to forbid. And when afterwards she saw Arsinoe
+sleeping so calmly by her side, she felt as if she would like to shake
+her; but she was so accustomed to bear all the troubles of the family
+alone, and to be unkindly repelled by her sister whenever she attempted
+to admonish her, that she forbore.
+
+Arsinoe had a good and tender heart, but she was young, pretty, and
+vain. With affectionate persuasion she might be won over to anything,
+but Selene, when ever she remonstrated with her, made her feel her
+superiority over herself, acquired from her care of the family and her
+maternal character. Thus, not a day passed without some quarrelling and
+tears between these two sisters who were so dissimilar, and yet, both
+so well disposed. Arsinoe was always the first to offer her hand for a
+reconciliation, but Selene would rarely have a kinder answer ready to
+her affectionate advances than, "Let be," or "Oh yes, I know!" and their
+outward intercourse bore an aspect of coolness, which was easily worked
+up to an outbreak of hostile speeches. Hundreds of times they would go
+to bed without wishing each other 'good-night,' and still more often
+would they avoid any morning greeting when they first met in the day.
+
+Arsinoe liked talking, but in Selene's presence she was taciturn;
+there were few things in which Selene took pleasure, while her sister
+delighted in every thing which can charm youth. It was the steward's
+eldest daughter who attended to the daily needs of the children, their
+food and clothes; it was the second who superintended their games,
+and their dolls. The eldest watched and taught them with anxious care,
+detecting in every little fault the germ of some evil tendency in the
+future, while the other enticed them into follies, it is true, but
+opened their minds to joyous impressions, and attained more by kisses
+and kind words than Selene could by fault-finding. The children would
+call Selene when they wanted her, but would fly to Arsinoe as soon as
+they saw her. Their hearts were hers, and Selene felt this bitterly; it
+seemed to her to be unjust, for she saw clearly that her sister could
+reap, from mere frivolous play in her idle hours, a sweeter reward than
+she could earn by the anxiety, trouble and exhausting toil, in which she
+often spent her nights.
+
+But children are not unjust in this way. It is true that they keep an
+account in their heart and not in their head. Those who give them the
+warmth of affection they pay back most honestly.
+
+On this particular night it was not, it is certain, with very sisterly
+feelings that Selene looked at the sleeping Arsinoe, and the words on
+the girl's lips as she had dropped asleep, had sounded very unkind;
+but, nevertheless, they felt warmly towards each other, and any one who
+should have attempted to say a word against the one in the presence of
+the other would soon have found out how close a bond held together these
+two hearts, dissimilar as they were. But no girl of nineteen can pass a
+night altogether without sleeping, however sadly she may turn and turn
+over and over again in her bed. So slumber overmastered Selene every
+now and then for a quarter of an hour, and each time she dreamed of her
+sister.
+
+Once she saw Arsinoe dressed out like a queen, followed by beggar
+children and pelted with bad words--then she saw her on the rotunda
+below the balcony romping with Pollux, and in their bold sport they
+broke her mother's bust. At last she dreamed that she herself was
+playing--as in the days of her childhood--in the gate-keeper's garden
+with the sculptor. They were making cakes of sand together, and Arsinoe
+jumped on the cakes as soon as they were made, and trod them all into
+dust.
+
+The pretty pale girl had for a long time ceased to know the refreshing,
+dreamless, sound sleep of youth, for the sweetest slumbers are more apt
+to seek out those who by day have some rest, than those who are worn
+out by fatigue, and evening after evening Selene was one of these. Every
+night she had dreams, but tonight they were almost exclusively sad in
+character, and so terrifying that she woke herself repeatedly with her
+own groaning, or disturbed Arsinoe's peaceful sleep by loud cries.
+
+These cries did not disturb her father, he--to-night, as every
+night--had begun to snore soon after he had gone to rest, never to cease
+till it was time to rise again.
+
+Selene was always busy in the house before any one, even before the
+slaves; and the approach of day this time seemed to the sleepless girl
+a real release. When she rose it was still perfectly dark, but she knew
+that the rising of the December sun could not be long to wait for.
+
+Without paying any heed to the sleepers, or making any special effort to
+tread noiselessly, or to do what she had to do without disturbing them,
+she lighted her little lamp, at the night-lamp, washed herself, arranged
+her hair, and then knocked at the doors of the old slaves.
+
+As soon as they had yawned out "directly," or a sleepy "very well," she
+went into her father's room and took his jug to fetch him fresh water in
+it. The best well in the palace was on a small terrace on the west
+side; it was supplied by the city aqueducts, and was constructed of five
+marble monsters, bearing up on twisted fishtails a huge shell, in which
+sat a bearded river-god. Their horse-shaped heads poured water into a
+vast basin, which, in the lapse of centuries, had grown full of a green
+and filmy vegetation.
+
+In order to reach this fountain, Selene had to go along the corridor
+where lay the rooms occupied by the Emperor and his followers. She only
+knew that an architect from Rome had taken up his quarters at Lochias,
+for, some time after midnight, she had been to get out meat and salt
+for him, but in what rooms the strangers had been lodged no one had told
+her. But this morning as she followed the path she was accustomed to
+tread day by day at the same hour, she felt an anxious shiver. She felt
+as if everything were not quite the same as usual, and just as she had
+set her foot on the cop step of the flight leading to the corridor, she
+raised her lamp to discover whence came the sound she thought she
+could hear, she perceived in the gloom a fearful something which as she
+approached it resembled a dog, and which was larger--much larger--than a
+dog should be.
+
+Her blood ran cold with terror; for a few moments she stood as if
+spellbound, and was only conscious that the growling and snarling that
+she heard meant mischief and threatening to herself. At last she found
+strength to turn to fly, but at the same instant a loud and furious bark
+echoed behind her and she heard the monster's quick leaps as he flew
+after her along the stone pavement.
+
+She felt a violent shock, the pitcher flew out of her hand and was
+shattered into a thousand fragments, and she sank to the ground under
+the weight of a warm, rough, heavy mass. Her loud cries of alarm
+resounded from the hard bare walls, and roused the sleepers and brought
+them to her side.
+
+"See what it is," cried Hadrian to his slave, who had immediately sprung
+up and seized his shield and sword.
+
+"The dog has attacked a woman who wanted to come this way," replied
+Mastor.
+
+"Hold him off, but do not beat him," the Emperor shouted after him.
+"Argus has only done his duty." The slave hastened down the passage as
+fast as possible, loudly calling the dog by his name. But another
+had been beforehand and had dragged him off his victim, and this was
+Antinous, whose room was close to the scene of action, and who, as soon
+as he had heard the dog's bark and Selene's scream, had hurried to hold
+back the brute which was really dangerous when on guard and in the dark.
+
+When Mastor appeared the lad had just succeeded in dragging the dog away
+from Selene, who was lying on the stairs leading to the corridor. Before
+Antinous could reach her Argus was standing over her gnashing his teeth
+and growling. Argus, who was quickly quieted by his friends' tone of
+kindly admonition, stood aside silent and with his head down while
+Antinous knelt by the senseless girl on whom the pale light of early
+dawn fell through--wide window. The boy looked with alarm on her pale
+face, lifted her helpless arm, and sought on her light-colored dress for
+any trace of blood that might have been drawn, but in vain. After he
+had assured himself that she still breathed, and that her lips moved, he
+called to Mastor:
+
+"Argus seems only to have pulled her down, not to have wounded her; she
+has lost consciousness however. Go quickly into my room and bring me the
+blue phial out of my medicine-case and a cup of water."
+
+The slave whistled to the hound and obeyed the order as quickly as
+possible.
+
+Meanwhile Antinous remained on his knees by the senseless girl, and
+ventured to raise her head with its long soft weight of hair. How
+beautiful were those marble-white, and nobly-cut features! How touching
+did the silent accent of pain that lay on her lips seem to him, and how
+happy was the spoilt darling of the Emperor, who was loved by all who
+saw him, to be able to be tender and helpful, unasked!
+
+"Wake up, oh! wake up!" he cried to Selene--and when still she did not
+move, he repeated more urgently and tenderly, "Pray, pray wake up."
+
+But she did not hear him, and remained motionless even when, with a
+slight blush, he drew over her shoulder her peplum, which the dog had
+torn away. Now Mastor returned with the water and the blue phial, and
+gave them to the Bithynian. While Antinous laid the girl's head in his
+lap, the slave was hurrying away, saying: "Caesar called me."
+
+The lad moistened Selene's forehead with the reviving fluid, made her
+inhale the strong essence which the phial contained, and cried again
+loud and earnestly, "Wake, wake."--And presently her lips parted,
+showing her small, white teeth, and then she slowly raised the lids
+which had veiled her eyes. With a deep sigh of relief he set the cup and
+the phial on the ground so as to support her when she slowly began to
+raise herself; but, scarcely had he turned his face towards her, when
+she sprang up suddenly and violently, and flinging both her arms round
+his neck, cried out:
+
+"Save me, Pollux, save me! The monster is devouring me." Antinous much
+startled, seized the girl's arms to release himself from their embrace,
+but, she had already freed him and sunk back on to the ground. The next
+moment she was shivering violently as if from an attack of fever; again
+she threw up her hands, pressed them to her temples, and gazed with
+terror and bewilderment into the face that bent above her.
+
+"What is it? Who are you?" she asked, in a low voice.
+
+He rose quickly, and while he supported her as she attempted to rise and
+stand upon her feet, he said:
+
+"The gods be praised that you are still alive. Our big hound threw you
+down-and he has terrible teeth." Selene was now standing up, and face to
+face with the boy at whose last words she shuddered again.
+
+"Do, you feel any pain?" asked Antinous, anxiously.
+
+"Yes," she said, dully.
+
+"Did he bite you?"
+
+"I think not--pick up that pin, it has fallen out of my dress."
+
+The Bithynian obeyed her behest, and while the girl re-fastened her
+peplum over her shoulders she asked him again:
+
+"Who are you? How came the dog in our palace?"
+
+"He belongs--he belongs to us. We arrived late last night, and Pontius
+put us--"
+
+"Then you are with the architect from Rome?"
+
+"Yes, but who are you?"
+
+"Selene is my name, I am the daughter of the palace-steward."
+
+"And who is Pollux, whom you were calling to help you when you recovered
+your senses?"
+
+"What does that matter to you?"
+
+Antinous colored, and answered in confusion:
+
+"I was startled when you suddenly roused up, with his name so loudly on
+your lips, when I brought you back to life with water and this essence."
+
+"Well, I was roused--and now I can walk again. People who bring furious
+dogs into a strange place, should know how to take better care of
+them. Tie the dog up safely, for the children--my little brothers and
+sisters--come this way when they want to go out. Thank you for your
+help--and my pitcher?"
+
+As she spoke she looked down on the remains of the pretty jar, which was
+one her mother had particularly valued. When she saw the fragments lying
+on the ground, she gave a deep sob, but she shed no tears. Then she
+exclaimed angrily: "It is infamous!"
+
+With these words she turned her back on Antinous and returned to her
+father's room, using her left foot, however, with caution, for it was
+very painful.
+
+The young Bithynian gazed in silence at Selene's tall, slight form, he
+felt prompted to follow her, to say to her how very sorry he was for the
+mischance that had befallen her, and that the hound belonged not to him
+but to another man; but he dared not. Long after she had disappeared
+from sight he stood on the same spot. At last he collected his senses,
+and slowly went back to his room, where he sat on his couch with his
+eyes fixed dreamily on the ground, till the Emperor's call roused him
+from his reverie.
+
+Selene had hardly vouchsafed Antinous a glance. She was in pain not
+merely in her left foot, but also in the back of her head where she
+found there was a deep cut; but her thick hair had staunched the blood
+that flowed from the wound. She felt very tired, and the loss of her
+pretty jug, which must also be replaced by another, vexed her far more
+than the beauty of the favorite had charmed her.
+
+She slowly and wearily entered the sitting-room, where her father was
+by this time waiting for her and his water. He was accustomed to have it
+regularly at the same hour, and as Selene was absent longer than usual,
+he could think of no better way of filling up the time than by grumbling
+and scolding to himself; when, at last, his daughter appeared on the
+threshold, he at once perceived that she had no jug, and said crossly:
+
+"And am I to have no water to-day?"
+
+Selene shook her head, sank into a seat, and began to cry softly.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked her father.
+
+"The pitcher is broken," she said sadly.
+
+"You should take better care of such expensive things," scolded her
+father. "You are always complaining of want of money, and at the same
+time you break half our belongings."
+
+"I was thrown down," answered Selene, drying her eyes.
+
+"Thrown down! by whom?" asked the steward, slowly rising.
+
+"By the architect's big dog--the architect who came last night from
+Rome, and to whom we gave that meat and salt in the middle of the night.
+He slept here, at Lochias."
+
+"And he set his clog on my child!" shouted Keraunus, with an angry
+glare.
+
+"The hound was alone in the passage when I went there."
+
+"Did it bite you?"
+
+"No, but it pulled me down, and stood over me, and gnashed its
+teeth--oh! it was horrible."
+
+"The cursed, vagabond scoundrel!" growled the steward, "I will teach him
+how to behave in a strange house!"
+
+"Let him be," said Selene, as she saw her father about to don the
+saffron cloak.
+
+"What is done cannot be undone, and if quarrels and dissentions come of
+it, it will make you ill."
+
+"Vagabonds! impudent rascals! who fill my palace with quarrelsome curs,"
+muttered Keraunus without listening to his daughter, and as he settled
+the folds of his pallium he growled "Arsinoe! why is it that girl never
+hears me."
+
+When she appeared he desired her to heat the irons to curl his hair.
+
+"They are ready by the fire," answered Arsinoe. "Come into the kitchen
+with me."
+
+Keraunus followed her, and had his locks curled and scented, while his
+younger children stood round him waiting for the porridge which Selene
+usually prepared for them at this hour.
+
+Keraunus responded to their morning greetings with nods as friendly as
+Arsinoe's tongs, which held his head tightly by the hair, would allow.
+It was only the blind Helios, a pretty boy of six, that he drew to his
+side and gave a kiss on his cheek. He loved this child, who, though
+deprived of the noblest of the senses, was always merry and contented,
+with peculiar tenderness. Once he even laughed aloud when the child
+clung to his sister, as she brandished the tongs, and said:
+
+"Father, do you know why I am sorry I cannot see?"
+
+"Well?" said his father.
+
+"Because I should so like to see you for once with the beautiful curls
+which Arsinoe makes with the irons." But the steward's mirth was checked
+when his daughter, pausing in her labors, said half in jest, but half in
+earnest:
+
+"Have you thought any more about the Emperor's arrival, father? I
+smarten and dress you so fine every day--but to-day you ought to think
+of dressing me."
+
+"We will see about it," said Keraunus evasively. "Do you know," said
+Arsinoe, after a short pause, as she twisted the last lock in the
+freshly-heated tongs, "I thought it all over last night again. If we
+cannot succeed any way in scraping together the money for my dress, we
+can still--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Even Selene can say nothing against it."
+
+"Against what?"
+
+"But, you will be angry!"
+
+"Speak out."
+
+"You pay taxes like the rest of the citizens."
+
+"What has that to do with it?"
+
+"Well then, we are justified in expecting something from the city."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To pay for my dress for the festival which is got up for the Emperor,
+not by an individual, but by the citizens as a body. We could not accept
+alone, but it is folly to refuse what a rich municipality offers. That
+is neither more nor less than making them a present."
+
+"You be silent," cried Keraunus, really furious, and trying in vain to
+remember the argument with which, only yesterday, he had refused the
+same suggestion. "Be silent, and wait till I begin to talk about such
+matters."
+
+Arsinoe flung the tongs on the hearth with so much annoyance that
+they fell on the stone with a loud clatter; but her father quitted the
+kitchen and returned to the sitting-room. There he found Selene lying on
+a couch, and the old slave-woman, who had tied a wet handkerchief round
+the girl's head, pressing another to her bare left foot.
+
+"Wounded!" cried Keraunus, and his eyes rolled slowly from right to left
+and from left to right.
+
+"Look at the swelling!" cried the old woman in broken Greek, raising
+Selene's snow-white foot in her black hands for her father to see.
+"Thousands of fine ladies have hands that are not so small. Poor, poor
+little foot," and as she spoke the old woman pressed it to her lips.
+
+Selene pushed her aside, and said, turning to her father:
+
+"The cut on my head is nothing to speak of, but the muscles and veins
+here at the ancle are swelled and my leg hurts me rather when I tread.
+When the dog threw me down I must have hit it against the stone step."
+
+"It is outrageous!" cried Keraunus, the blood again mounting to his
+head, "only wait and I will show them what I think of their goings on."
+
+"No, no," entreated Selene, "only beg them politely to shut up the dog,
+or to chain it, so that it may not hurt the children."
+
+Her voice trembled with anxiety as she spoke the words, for the dread,
+which, she knew not why, had so long been tormenting her lest her father
+should lose his place, seemed to affect her more than ever to-day.
+
+"What! civil words after what has now happened?" cried Keraunus
+indignantly, and as if something quite unheard of had been suggested to
+him.
+
+"Nay, nay, say what you mean," shrieked the old woman. "If such a thing
+had occurred to your father he would have fallen on the strange builder
+with a good thrashing."
+
+"And his son Keraunus will not let him off," declared the steward,
+quitting the room without heeding Selene's entreaty not to let himself
+be provoked.
+
+In the ante-chamber he found his old slave whom he ordered to take
+a stick and go before him to announce him to Pontius' guest, the
+architect, who was lodging in the rooms in the wing near the fountain.
+This was the elegant thing to do, and by this means the black slave
+would meet the big dog before his master who held him and all dogs in
+the utmost abhorrence. As he approached his destination he found himself
+quite in the humor to speak his mind to the stranger who had come here
+with a ferocious hound to tear the members of his family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Hadrian had slept most comfortably; only a few hours it is true, but
+they had sufficed to refresh his spirit. He was now in his sitting-room
+and had gone to the window, which took up more than half the extent of
+the long west wall of the room, and opened on the sea. The wide opening,
+which extended downwards to within a few spans of the floor, was
+finished at either side by a tall pillar of fine reddish-brown porphyry,
+flecked with white, and crowned with gilt Corinthian capitals.
+
+Against one of these the Emperor was leaning stroking the blood-hound,
+whose prompt and vigorous watchfulness had pleased him greatly. What did
+he care for the terrors the dog might have caused a mere girl?
+
+By the other pillar stood Antinous; he had placed his right foot on the
+low window-sill, and with his chin resting on his hand and his elbow on
+his knee, his figure was well within the room.
+
+"This, Pontius, is really a first-rate man," said Hadrian, pointing to
+a tapestry hanging across the narrow end of the room. "This hanging
+was copied from a fruit-piece that I painted some time since, and had
+executed here in mosaic. Yesterday this room was not even intended for
+my use, thus the hanging must have been put up between our arrival and
+this morning. And how many other beautiful things I see around me! The
+whole place looks habitable, and the eye finds an abundance of objects
+on which it can rest with pleasure."
+
+"Have you examined that magnificent cushion?" asked Antinous; "and the
+bronze figures, there in the corner, look to me far from bad."
+
+"They are admirable works," said Hadrian. "Still, I would do without
+them with pleasure rather than miss this window. Which is the bluer, the
+sky or the sea? And what a delicious spring breeze fans us here, in the
+middle of December. Which are the more delightful to contemplate, the
+innumerable ships in the harbor, which communicate between this flowery
+land and other countries, and bless it with wealth, or the buildings
+which attract the eye in whichever direction it turns. It is difficult
+to know whether most to admire their stately dimensions or the beauty of
+their forms."
+
+"And what is that long, huge dyke, which connects the island with the
+mainland? Only look! There is a huge trireme passing under one of the
+wide arches, on which it is supported--and there comes another."
+
+"That is the great viaduct, called by the Alexandrians the Heptastadion,
+because it is said to be seven stadia in length; and in the upper
+portion it carries a stone water-course--as an elder tree has in it a
+vein of pith-which supplies water to the island of Pharos."
+
+"What a pity it is," said Antinous, "that we cannot overlook from here
+the whole of the structure with the men and the vehicles that swarm upon
+it like busy ants. That little island and the narrow tongue of land that
+runs out into the harbor with the tall slender building at the end of
+it, half hide it."
+
+"But they serve to vary the picture," replied the Emperor. "Cleopatra
+often dwelt in the little castle on the island with its harbor, and in
+that tall tower on the northern side of the peninsula, round which, just
+now, the blue waves are playing, while the gulls and pigeons fly happily
+over it--there Antony retreated after the fight of Actium."
+
+"To forget his disgrace!" exclaimed Antinous.
+
+"He named it his Timonareum, because he hoped there to remain unmolested
+by other human beings, like the wise misanthrope of Athens. How would it
+be if I called Lochias my Timonareum?"
+
+"No man need try to hide fame and greatness."
+
+"Who told you that it was shame that led Antony to hide himself in that
+place?" asked the imperial sophist; "he proved often enough, at the head
+of his cavalry, that he was a brave soldier; and though at Actium, when
+all was still going well, he let his ship be turned, it was out of no
+fear of swords and spears, but because Fate compelled him to subjugate
+his strong will to the wishes of a woman with whose destiny his was
+linked."
+
+"Then do you excuse his conduct?"
+
+"I only seek to account for it, and never, for a moment, could allow
+myself to believe that shame ever prompted a single act in Antony. I--do
+you suppose I could ever blush? Nay, we cease to feel shame when we have
+lived to feel such profound contempt for the world."
+
+"But why then should Marc Antony have shut himself up, in yonder
+sea-washed prison?"
+
+"Because, to every true man, who has dissipated whole years of his
+life with women, jesters and flatterers, a moment comes of satiety and
+loathing. In such an hour he feels that of all the men under the lights
+of heaven, he, himself, is the only one with whom it is worth his while
+to commune. After Actium, this was what Antony felt, and he quitted the
+society of men in order to find himself for once in good company."
+
+"It is that, no doubt, which drives you now and again into solitude."
+
+"No doubt-but you are always allowed to follow me."
+
+"Then you regard me as better than others," exclaimed Antinous joyfully.
+
+"As more beautiful at any rate," replied Hadrian kindly. "Ask me some
+more questions."
+
+But Antinous needed a few minutes pause before he could comply with this
+desire. At last he recollected himself and proceeded to inquire why most
+of the vessels were moored in the harbor beyond the Heptastadion, known
+as Eunostus. The entrance there was less dangerous than that between
+the Pharos and the point of Lochias which led into the eastern
+landing-places. And then Hadrian could give him information as to every
+building in the city about which his companion evinced any curiosity.
+But when the Emperor had pointed out the Soma, under which rested the
+remains of Alexander the Great, he became thoughtful, and said, as if to
+himself:
+
+"The Great--We may well envy the young Macedonian; not the mere name of
+Great, for many of small worth have had it bestowed on them, but because
+he really earned it!"
+
+There was not a question put by the handsome Bithynian that Hadrian
+could not answer; Antinous followed all his explanations with growing
+astonishment, exclaiming at last:
+
+"How perfectly well you know this place--and yet you never were here
+before."
+
+"It is one of the greatest pleasures of travelling," replied Hadrian,
+"that on our journeys we come to know many things in their actuality of
+which we have formed an idea from books and narratives. This requires us
+to compare the reality with the pictures in our own minds, seen with
+the inward eye, before we saw the reality. It is to me a far smaller
+pleasure to be surprised by something new and unexpected than to
+make myself more closely acquainted with something I know already
+sufficiently to deem it worthy to be known better. Do you understand
+what I mean?"
+
+"To be sure I do. We hear of a thing, and when we afterwards see it
+we ask ourselves whether we have conceived of it rightly. But I always
+picture people or places which I hear much praised, as much more
+beautiful than I ever find the reality."
+
+"The balance of difference, which is to the disadvantage of reality,"
+answered Hadrian, "stands not so much to its discredit, as to the credit
+of the eager and beautifying power of your youthful imagination. I--I--"
+and the Emperor stroked his beard and gazed out into the distance. "I
+learn by experience that the older I grow, the more often I find it
+possible so to imagine men, places, and things that I have not seen as
+that when I meet them in real life for the first time, I feel justified
+in fancying that I have known them long since, visited them, and beheld
+them with my bodily eyes. Here, for instance, I feel as if I saw nothing
+new, but only gazed once more at what has long been familiar. But that
+is no wonder, for I know my Strabo, and have heard and read a hundred
+accounts of this city. Still there are many things which are quite
+strange to me, and yet as they come before me make me feel as if I had
+seen or known them long ago."
+
+"I have felt something like that," said Antinous. "Can our souls have
+ever lived in other bodies, and sometimes recall the impressions made in
+that former existence?
+
+"Favorinus once told me that some great philosopher, Plato, I think,
+asserts that before we are born our souls are wafted about in the
+firmament that they may contemplate the earth on which they are destined
+subsequently to dwell. Favorinus says too--"
+
+"Favorinus!" cried Hadrian, evasively. "That graceful elocutionist has
+plenty of skill in giving new and captivating forms to the thoughts of
+the great philosophers; but he has not been able to surprise the secret
+of his own soul--besides, he talks too much, and he cannot dispense with
+the excitement of life."
+
+"Still you have recognized the phenomenon, but you disapprove of
+Favorinus' explanation of it?"
+
+"Yes, for I have met men and things as old acquaintances which never saw
+the light till long after I was born. Possibly my own interpretation may
+not adapt itself to the consciousness of all--but in myself, I know for
+certain, there dwells a mysterious something which stirs and works in me
+independently of myself, which enters into me, and takes its departure
+at its will. Call it as you will, my Daimon, or even my Genius--the name
+matters not. Nor will this 'something' always come at my bidding, while
+it often possesses me when I least expect it. In those moments when it
+stirs within me, I am master of much which is peculiar to the experience
+and potentiality of that hour. What is known to that Daimon always
+appears to me the very same when I actually meet it. Thus Alexandria is
+not unknown to me, because my Genius has seen it in his flights. It has
+learnt and done much, both in me and for me; a hundred times, face to
+face with my own finished works I have asked myself: 'Is it possible
+that you--Hadrian--your mother's son-can have achieved this? What then
+is the mysterious power that aided you to do it?' Now I also recognize
+it, and can see it work in others. The man in whom it dwells soon excels
+his fellows, and it is most manifest in artists. Or is it that mere
+common men become great artists simply because the Genius selects them
+as his temple to dwell in? Do you follow me, boy?"
+
+"Not altogether," replied Antinous, and his large eyes which had
+sparkled brightly so long as he gazed with the Emperor on the city, were
+now cast down and fixed wearily on the ground. "Do not be angry with me,
+my Lord, but I shall never understand such things as these, for there is
+no man with whom your Genius, as you term it, has less concern than with
+me. Thoughts of my own have I none, and it is difficult to me to follow
+the thoughts of others; indeed I should like to know how I am ever to
+do anything right. When I want to work, to work something out, no Daimon
+helps my soul; no--it feels quite helpless, and drifts into dreaminess.
+And if I ever do complete anything, I am obliged to own to myself that I
+certainly might have been able to do it better."
+
+"Self-knowledge," laughed Hadrian, "is the climax of wisdom. A man has
+done something if he has only added a 'thing of beauty' to the joys of
+a friend's imagination; what others do by hard work you do by mere
+existence. Be quiet, Argus!" For, while he was speaking, the hound
+had risen, and had gone snarling to the door. In spite of his master's
+orders he broke into a loud bark when he heard a steady knock at
+the door. Hadrian looked round in bewilderment, and asked: "Where is
+Mastor?"
+
+Antinous shouted the slave's name into the Emperor's bedroom, which was
+next to the living-room, but in vain. "He generally is always at hand,
+and as brisk as a lark, but to-day he looked as if in a dream, and while
+he was dressing me he first let my shoe fall out of his hand and then my
+brooch."
+
+"I read him yesterday a letter from Rome. His young wife has gone away
+with a ship's captain."
+
+"We may wish him joy of being free again."
+
+"It does not seem to afford him any satisfaction."
+
+"Oh! a handsome lad like my body-slave can find as many substitutes as
+he likes."
+
+"But he has not done so. For the present he is still smarting under his
+loss."
+
+"How wise! There, some one is knocking again. Just see who ventures--but
+to be sure any one has a right to knock, for at Lochias I am not the
+Emperor, but a simple private gentleman. Lie down Argus, are you crazy,
+old fellow? Why the dog maintains my dignity better than I do, and he
+does not seem altogether to like the architect's part I am playing."
+
+Antinous had already raised his hand to lift the handle, when the door
+was gently opened from outside, and the steward's slave stood on the
+threshold. The old negro presented a lamentable spectacle. The Emperor's
+dignified and awe-compelling figure, and his favorite's rich garments
+made him feel embarrassed, and the hound's threatening growl filled him
+with such terror that he huddled his lean negro-legs together, and, as
+far as its length would allow, tried to cover them for protection with
+his threadbare tunic.
+
+Hadrian gazed in astonishment at this image of fear, and then asked:
+
+"Well! what do you want, fellow?"
+
+The slave attempted to advance a step or two, but at a loud command
+from Hadrian he stood still, and as he looked down at his flat feet, he
+ruefully scratched his short-cropped grey hair, some of which had fallen
+off and left a bald patch.
+
+"Well," repeated Hadrian, in a tone which was anything rather than
+encouraging, as he relaxed his hold on the hound's collar in a somewhat
+suspicious manner. The slave's bent knees began to quake, and holding
+out his broad palm to the grey-bearded gentleman, who seemed to
+him hardly less alarming than the dog, he began to stammer out in
+fearfully-mutilated Greek the speech which his master had repeated
+to him several times, and which set forth that he had come "into the
+presence of the architect, Claudius Venator, of Rome, to announce the
+visit of his master, a member of the town-council, a Macedonian, and a
+Roman citizen, Keraunus, the son of Ptolemy, steward of the once royal
+but now imperial palace at Lochias."
+
+Hadrian unrelentingly allowed the poor wretch to finish his speech,
+rubbing his hands with amusement, while the sweat of anguish stood on
+the old slave's face, and to prolong the delightful joke, he took good
+care not to help the miserable old man when his unaccustomed tongue came
+to some insuperable difficulty. When, at length, the negro had finished
+the pompous announcement, Hadrian said, kindly:
+
+"Tell your master he may come in."
+
+Scarcely had the slave left the room, when the sovereign, turning to his
+favorite, exclaimed:
+
+"This is a delicious joke! What will the Jupiter be like, when the eagle
+is such a bird as this!"
+
+Keraunus was not long to wait for. While pacing up and down the passage
+outside the Emperor's room, his bad humor had risen considerably, for he
+took it as a slight on the part of the architect, that he should allow
+him--whose birth and dignities he would have learnt from his slave--to
+wait several minutes, each of which seemed to him a quarter of an hour.
+His expectation too, that the Roman would come to conduct him in person
+into his apartment was by no means fulfilled, for the slave's message
+was briefly--"He may come in."
+
+"Did he say may? Did he not say 'please to come in, or have the goodness
+to come in?'" asked the steward.
+
+"He may come in--was what he said," replied the slave.
+
+Keraunus grunted out, "Well!" set his gold circlet straight on his head
+which he held very upright, crossed his arms over his broad chest with a
+sigh, and ordered the black man:
+
+"Open the door."
+
+The steward crossed the threshold with much dignity: then, not to commit
+any breach of courtesy, he bowed low, and was about to begin to utter
+his reprimand in cutting terms, when a glance at the Emperor and at the
+splendid decoration which the room had undergone since the day previous,
+not to mention the very unpleasant growling of the big dog, prompted him
+to strike a milder string. His slave had followed him and had sought a
+safe corner near the door, between the wall of the room and a couch, but
+he himself, conquering his alarm at the dog, went forward some distance
+into the room. The Emperor had seated himself on the window-sill; he
+pressed his foot lightly on the head of the dog, and gazed at Keraunus
+as at some remarkable curiosity. His eye thus met that of the steward
+and made him clearly understand that he had to do with a greater
+personage than he had expected. There was something imposing in the
+person of the man who sat before him; for this very reason, however,
+his pride stood on tiptoe, and he asked in a tone of swaggering dignity,
+though not so sharply and abruptly as he had intended.
+
+"Am I standing before the new visitor to Lochias, the architect Claudius
+Venator of Rome?"
+
+"You are--standing--" replied the Emperor, with a roguish side glance at
+Antinous.
+
+"You have met with a friendly reception to this palace. Like my fathers,
+who have enjoyed the stewardship of it for centuries, I know how to
+exercise the sacred duties of hospitality."
+
+"I am surprised to hear of the high antiquity of your family and bow
+to your pious sentiments," answered Hadrian, in the same tone as the
+steward. "What farther may I learn from you?"
+
+"I did not come here to relate history," said Keraunus, whose gall rose
+as he thought he detected a mocking smile on the stranger's lips. "I
+did not come here to tell stories, but to complain that you, as a
+warmly-welcomed guest, show so little anxiety to protect your host from
+injury."
+
+"How is that?" asked Hadrian, rising from his seat and signing to
+Antinous to hold back the hound, which manifested a peculiar aversion
+to the steward. It no doubt detected that he had come to show no special
+friendliness to his owner.
+
+"Is that dangerous dog, gnashing its teeth there, your property?" asked
+Keraunus.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"This morning it threw down my daughter and smashed a costly pitcher,
+which she is fond of carrying to fetch water in the dawn."
+
+"I heard of that misadventure," said Hadrian, "and I would give much if
+I could undo it. The vessel shall be amply made good to you."
+
+"I beg you not to add insult to the injury, we have suffered by your
+fault. A father whose daughter has been knocked down and hurt--"
+
+"Then, Argus actually bit her?" cried Antinous, horrified.
+
+"No," Keraunus replied. "But as she fell her head and foot have been
+injured, and she is suffering much pain."
+
+"That is very sad," said Hadrian, "and as I am not ignorant of the
+healing art, I will gladly try to help the poor girl."
+
+"I pay a professional leech, who attends me and mine," replied the
+steward, in a repellant tone, "and I came hither to request--or, to be
+frank with you--to require--"
+
+"What?"
+
+"First, that my pardon shall be asked."
+
+"That, the artist, Claudius Venator, is always ready to do when any
+one has suffered damage by his fault. What has happened--I repeat
+it--grieves me sincerely, and I beg you tell the maiden to whom the
+accident happened, that her pain is mine. What more do you desire?"
+
+The steward's features had calmed down at these last words, and he
+answered with less excitement than before:
+
+"I must request you to chain up your dog, or to shut it up, or in some
+way to keep it from mischief."
+
+"That is pretty strong!" cried the Emperor.
+
+"It is only a reasonable demand, and I must stand by it," replied
+Keraunus decidedly. "Neither I--nor my children's lives are safe, so
+long as this wild beast is prowling about at pleasure."
+
+Hadrian had, ere now, erected monuments to deceased favorites, both dogs
+and horses, and his faithful Argus was no less dear to him, than other
+four-footed companions have been to other childless men; hence the
+queer fat man's demand seemed to him so audacious and monstrous, that he
+indignantly exclaimed:
+
+"Folly!--the dog shall be watched, but nothing farther."
+
+"You will chain him up," replied Keraunus, with an angry, glare, "or
+someone will be found who will make him harmless forever."
+
+"That will be an evil attempt for the cowardly murderer!" cried Hadrian.
+"Eh! Argus, what do you think?"
+
+At these words the dog drew himself up, and would have sprung at the
+steward's throat if his master and Antinous had not held him back.
+
+Keraunus felt that the dog had threatened him, but at this instant he
+would have let himself be torn by him without wincing, so completely was
+he overmastered by the fury born of his injured pride.
+
+"And am I--I too, to be hunted down by a dog, in this house?" he cried
+defiantly, setting his left fist on his hip. "Every thing has its
+limits, and so has my patience with a guest who, in spite of his ripe
+age forgets due consideration. I will inform the prefect Titianus of
+your proceedings here, and when the Emperor arrives he shall know--"
+
+"What?" laughed Hadrian.
+
+"The way you behave to me."
+
+"Till then the dog shall stay where it is, and really under due
+restraint. But I can tell you man, that Hadrian is as much a friend of
+dogs as I am--and fonder of me than even of dogs."
+
+"We will see," growled Keraunus, "I or the dog!"
+
+"I am afraid it will be the dog then."
+
+"And Rome will see a fresh revolt," cried Keraunus, rolling his eyes.
+"You took Egypt from the Ptolemies."
+
+"And with very good reason--besides that is a stale old story."
+
+"Justice is never stale, like a bad debt."
+
+"At any rate it perishes with persons it concerns; there have been no
+Lagides left here--how many years?"
+
+"So you believe, because it suits your ends to believe it," replied
+the steward. "In the man who stands before you flows the blood of the
+Macedonian rulers of this country. My eldest son bears the name of
+Ptolemaeus Helios--that borne by the last of the Lagides, who perished
+as you pretend."
+
+"Dear, good, blind Helios!" interrupted the black slave; for he was
+accustomed to avail himself of the hapless child's name as a protection,
+when Keraunus was in a doubtful humor.
+
+"Then the last descendant of the Ptolemies is blind!" laughed the
+Emperor. "Rome may ignore his claims. But I will inform the Emperor how
+dangerous a pretender this roof yet harbors."
+
+"Denounce me, accuse me, calumniate me!" cried the steward,
+contemptuously. "But I will not let myself be trodden on.
+Patience--patience! you will live to know me yet."
+
+"And you, the blood-hound," replied Hadrian, "if you do not this instant
+quit the room with your mouthing crow--"
+
+Keraunus signed to his slave and without greeting his foe in any way,
+turned his back upon him. He paused for a moment at the door of the room
+and cried out to Hadrian:
+
+"Rely upon this, I shall complain to the Council and write to Caesar how
+you presume to behave to a Macedonian citizen."
+
+As soon as the steward had quitted the room, Hadrian freed the dog,
+which flew raging at the door which was closed between him and the
+object of his aversion. Hadrian ordered him to be quiet, and then
+turning to his companion, he exclaimed:
+
+"A perfect monster of a man! to the last degree ridiculous, and at the
+same time repulsive. How his rage seethed in him, and yet could not
+break out fairly and thoroughly. I am always on my guard with such
+obstinate fools. Pay attention to my Argus, and remember, we are in
+Egypt, the land of poison, as Homer long since said. Mastor must keep
+his eyes open--Here he is at last."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+After the Emperor's body-slave had started up to go to the aid of
+Selene, who was attacked by his sovereign's dog, something had happened
+to him which he could not forget; he had received an impression which
+he could not wipe out, and words and tones had stirred his mind and soul
+which incessantly echoed in them, so that it was in a preoccupied and
+half-dreamy way that he had done his master those little services which
+he was accustomed to perform every morning, briskly and with complete
+attention.
+
+Summer and winter Mastor was accustomed to leave his master's bedroom
+before sunrise to prepare everything that Hadrian could need when he
+rose from his slumbers. There was the gold plating to clean on the
+narrow greaves and the leather straps which belonged to his master's
+military boots, his clothes to air and to perfume with the slight,
+hardly perceptible scent that he liked, but the preparations for
+Hadrian's bath were what took up most of his time. At Lochias there
+were not as yet--as there were in the imperial palace at
+Rome--properly-filled baths; still his servant knew that here, as there,
+his master would use a due abundance of water. He had been told that if
+he required anything for his master he was to apply to Pontius. Him
+he found, without seeking him, outside the room meant for Hadrian's
+sitting-room, to which, while the Emperor still slept, he was
+endeavoring, with the help of his assistants, to give a comfortable and
+pleasing aspect. The architect referred the slave to the workmen who
+were busy laying the pavement in the forecourt of the palace; these
+men would carry in for him as much water as ever he could need. The
+body-servant's position relieved him of such humble duties, still, when
+on the chase, when travelling, or as need arose, he was accustomed to
+perform them unasked, and very willingly.
+
+The sun had not yet risen when he went out into the court, a number of
+slaves were lying on their mats asleep, others had camped round a fire
+and were waiting for their early broth, which was being stirred with
+wooden sticks by an old man and a boy. Mastor would not disturb either
+group; he went up to a party of workmen, who seemed to be talking
+together, and yet remained attentive to the speech of an old man who was
+evidently telling them a story.
+
+The poor fellow's heart was heavy and his mind was little bent on tales
+and amusements. All life was embittered. The services required of him
+usually seemed to him of paramount importance, beyond everything else;
+but to-day it was different. He had an obscure feeling as though fate
+herself had released him from all his duties, as if misfortune had cut
+the bonds which bound him to his service to the Emperor, and had made
+him an isolated and lonely being. It even came into his head whether he
+should not take in his hand all the gold pieces given him sometimes by
+Hadrian, or which the wealthy folks who wished to be the foremost of
+those introduced into the Emperor's presence, after waiting in the
+antechamber, had flung to him or slipped into his hand--make his escape
+and carouse away all that he possessed in the taverns of the great city,
+in wine and the gay company of women. It was all the same to him what
+might happen to him.
+
+If he were caught he would probably be flogged to death; but he had had
+kicks and blows in plenty before he had got into the Emperor's service,
+nay; when he was brought to Rome he had once even been hunted with dogs.
+If he lost his life, after all what would it matter? He would have done
+with it then, once for all, and the future offered him no prospect
+but perpetual fatigue in the service of a restless master, anxiety and
+contempt. He was a thoroughly good-hearted being who could not bear to
+hurt any one, and who found it equally hard to disturb a fellow-man in
+his pleasures or amusement. He felt particularly disinclined to do so
+just now, for a wounded soul is keenly alive to the moods and feelings
+of others; so, as he approached the group of workmen, from among whom
+he proposed to choose his water-carrier, he determined that he would not
+interrupt the story-teller, on whose lips the gaze of his audience was
+riveted with interest.
+
+The glare of the blaze under the soup-kettle fell full on the speaker's
+face. He was an old laborer, but his long hair proclaimed him a freeman.
+His abundant white beard induced Mastor to suppose that he must be a Jew
+or a Phoenician, but there was nothing remarkable in the old man,
+who was dressed in a poor and scanty tunic, excepting his peculiarly
+brilliant eyes, which were immovably fixed on the heavens, and the
+oblique position in which he held his head, supporting it on the left
+side with his raised hands.
+
+"And now," said the speaker, dropping his arms, "let us go back to our
+labors, my brethren. 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,' it
+is written. It is often hard to us old men to heave stones and bend our
+stiff backs for so long together, but we are nearer than you younger
+ones to the happy future. Life is not easy to all of us, but it is we
+who labor and are heavy laden--we above all others--that the Lord has
+bidden to be his guests, and not last among us the slaves."
+
+"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh
+you," interrupted one of the younger men repeating the words of Christ.
+
+"Yea, thus saith the Saviour," said the old man approvingly, "and he
+surely then was thinking of us. I said just now our load is not light,
+but how much heavier was the burden he took upon him of his own free
+will to release us from woe. Every one must work, nay even Caesar
+himself, but he who could dwell in the glory of his Father let himself
+be mocked and scorned and spit in the face, let the crown of thorns be
+pressed on his suffering head, bore his heavy cross, sinking under its
+weight, and endured a death of torment, and all for our sakes, without
+a murmur. But he suffered not in vain, for God accepted the sacrifice of
+his Son, and did his will and said, 'All that believe on Him should not
+perish, but have everlasting life.' And though a new and weary day is
+now beginning, and though it should be followed by a thousand wearier
+still, though death is the end of life--still we believe in our
+Redeemer, we have God's word bidding us out of sorrows and sufferings
+into his Heaven, promising us for a brief time of misery in this world,
+endless ages of joy.--Now go to work. Our sturdy friend Krates will
+work for you dear Knakias until your finger is healed. When the bread
+is distributed remember, each of you, the children of our poor deceased
+brother Philammon. You, poor Gibbus, will find your labors bitter
+to-day. This man's master, my dear brethren, sold both his daughters
+yesterday to a dealer from Smyrna; but if you never see them again in
+Egypt, or in any other country, my friend, you will meet them in the
+home of your Heavenly Father--of that you may rest assured. Our life
+on earth is but a pilgrimage, and Heaven is the goal, and the Guide who
+teaches us never to miss the way, is our Saviour. Weariness and toil,
+sorrow and suffering are easy to bear, to him who knows that when
+the solemn hour is near, the King of Kings shall throw open his
+dwelling-place, and invite him to enter as a favored guest to inhabit
+there, where all we have loved have found joy and rest."
+
+"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh
+you," said a man's loud voice again from the circle that sat round the
+old man. The old man stood up, signed to a boy who distributed the bread
+in equal shares to the workmen, and took up a jar with handles, out of
+which he filled a large wooden cup with wine.
+
+Not a word of this discourse had escaped Mastor, and the often repeated
+verse, "Come unto me all ye that labor," dwelt in his mind like the
+invitation of a hospitable friend bidding him to happy days of freedom
+and enjoyment. A distant gleam shone through the weight of his troubles,
+seeming to promise the dawn of a new day, and he reverently went up to
+the old man, in the first place to ask him if he was the overseer of the
+workmen who stood round him.
+
+"I am," replied the old man, and as soon as he learnt what Mastor
+required as a commission from the controlling architect, he pointed out
+some young slaves who quickly brought the water that he needed.
+
+Pontius met the Emperor's servant and his water-carriers and remarked,
+loudly enough for Mastor to understand him, to Pollux who was with him:
+
+"The architect's servant is getting Christians to wait upon his master
+to-day. They are regular and sober workmen who do their duty silently
+and well."
+
+While Mastor was giving his master towels, and helping to dry and dress
+him, he was far less attentive than usual, for he could not get the
+words he had heard from the overseer's lips out of his mind. He had not
+understood them all, but he had fully comprehended that there was a kind
+and loving God who had suffered in his own person the utmost torments,
+who was especially gracious to the poor, the miserable, and the
+bondsman, and who promised to refresh them and comfort them, and to
+re-unite them to those who had once been dear to them. "Come unto me,"
+sounded again and again in his ears, and struck so warmly to his heart
+that he could not help thinking first of his mother, who, so many a
+time, when he was a child, had called to him only to clasp him in her
+arms as he ran towards her, and to press him to her heart. Just so had
+he often called his poor little dead son, and the feeling that there
+could be any one who might still call to him--the forsaken lonely
+man--with loving words to release him from his griefs, to reunite him
+to his mother, his father, and all the dear ones left behind in his lost
+and distant home, took half the bitterness from his pain.
+
+He was accustomed to listen to all that was said in the Emperor's
+presence, and year by year he had learnt to understand more of what
+he heard. He had often heard the Christians discussed, and usually as
+deluded but dangerous fools. Many of his fellow-slaves, too, he
+had heard called Christian idiots, but still not unfrequently very
+reasonable men, and sometimes even Hadrian himself, had taken the part
+of the Christians.
+
+This was the first time that Mastor had heard from their own lips what
+they believed and hoped, and now, while fulfilling his duties he
+could hardly bear the delay before he could once more seek out the old
+pavement-worker, to enquire of him, and to have the hopes confirmed
+which his words had aroused in his soul.
+
+No sooner had Hadrian and Antinous gone into the living-room than Mastor
+had hastened off across the court to find the Christians. There he tried
+to open a conversation with the overseer concerning his faith, but the
+old man answered that there was a season for everything; just now
+he could not interrupt the work, but that he might come again after
+sundown, and that he then would tell him of Him who had promised to
+refresh the sorrow-laden.
+
+Mastor thought no more of making his escape. When he appeared again in
+his master's presence there was such a sunny light in his blue eyes that
+Hadrian left the angry words he had prepared for him unspoken, and cried
+to Antinous, laughing and pointing to the slave:
+
+"I really believe the rascal has consoled himself already, and found a
+new mate. Let us, too, follow the precept of Horace, so far as we may,
+and enjoy the present day. The poet may let the future go as it will,
+but I cannot, for, unfortunately, I am the Emperor."
+
+"And Rome may thank the gods that you are," replied Antinous.
+
+"What happy phrases the boy hits upon sometimes," said Hadrian with a
+laugh, and he stroked the lad's brown curls. "Now till noon I must work
+with Phlegon and Titianus, whom I am expecting, and then perhaps we
+may find something to laugh at. Ask the tall sculptor there behind the
+screens, at what hour Balbilla is to sit to him for her bust. We must
+also inspect the architect's work, and that of the Alexandrian artists
+by daylight; that, their zeal has well deserved."
+
+Hadrian retired to the room where his private secretary had ready for
+him the despatches and papers for Rome and the provinces, which the
+Emperor was required to read and to sign. Antinous remained alone in the
+sitting-room, and for an hour he continued to gaze at the ships which
+came to anchor in the harbor, or sailed out of the roads, and amused
+himself with watching the swift boats which swarmed round the larger
+vessels, like wasps round ripe fruit. He listened to the songs of the
+sailors, and the music of the flute-players, to the measured beat of
+the oars, which came up from the triremes in the private harbor of the
+Emperor as they went out to sea. Even the pure blue of the sky and the
+warmth of the delicious morning were a pleasure to him, and he asked
+himself whether the smell of tar, which pervaded the seaport, were
+agreeable or not.
+
+Presently as the sun mounted in the sky, its bright sphere dazzled him;
+he left the window with a yawn, stretched himself on a couch, and stared
+absently up at the ceiling of the room without thinking of the subject
+which the faded picture on it was intended to represent.
+
+Idleness had long since grown to be the occupation of his life; but
+accustomed to it as he was, he was sometimes conscious of its dark
+attendant shadow ennui--as of a disagreeable and intrusive interruption
+to the enjoyment of life. Generally in such lonely hours of idle reverie
+his thoughts reverted to his belongings in Bithynia, of whom he never
+dared to speak before the Emperor, or perhaps of the hunting excursions
+he had made with Hadrian, of the slaughtered game, of the fish he--an
+experienced angler--had caught, or such like. What the future might
+bring him troubled him not, for to the love of creativeness, to
+ambition--to all, in short, that bore any resemblance to a passionate
+excitement his soul had, so far, remained a stranger. The admiration
+which was universally excited by his beauty gave him no pleasure, and
+many a time he felt as though it was not worth while to stir a limb or
+draw a breath. Almost everything he saw was indifferent to him excepting
+a kind word from the lips of the Emperor, whom he regarded as great
+above all other men, whom he feared as Destiny incarnate, and to whom he
+felt himself bound as intimately as the flower to the tree, the blossom
+that must die when the stem is broken, on which it flaunts as an
+ornament and a grace.
+
+But, to-day, as he flung himself on the divan his visions took a new
+direction. He could not help thinking of the pale girl whom he had saved
+from the jaws of the blood-hound--of the white cold hand which for an
+instant had clung to his neck--of the cold words with which she had
+afterwards repelled him.
+
+Antinous began to long violently to see Selene. That same Antinous,
+to whom in all the cities he had visited with the Emperor, and in Rome
+particularly, the noble fair ones had sent branches of flowers and
+tender letters, and who nevertheless, since the day when he left his
+home, had never felt for any woman or girl half so tender a sentiment,
+as for the hunter the Emperor had given him, or for the big dog. This
+girl stood before his memory like breathing marble. Perchance the man
+might be doomed to death who should rest on her cold breast, but such a
+death must be full of ecstasy, and it seemed to him that it would be far
+more blissful to die with the blood frozen in his veins, than of the too
+rapid throbbing of his heart.
+
+"Selene," he murmured, now and again, with soft hesitation; a strange
+unrest foreign to his calm nature seemed to propagate itself through all
+his limbs, and he who commonly would be stretched on a couch for hours
+without stirring, lost in dreams, now sprang up and paced the room,
+sighing deeply, and with long strides.
+
+It was a passionate longing for Selene that drove him up and down, and
+his wish to see her again crystallized into resolve, and prompted him
+to contrive the ways and means of meeting her once more before the
+Emperor's return.
+
+Simply to invade her father's lodging without farther ceremony, seemed
+to him out of the question, and yet he was certain of finding her there,
+since her injured foot would of course keep her at home. Should he once
+more go to the steward with a request for bread and salt? But he dared
+not ask anything of Keraunus in Hadrian's name after the scene which had
+so recently taken place. Should he go there to carry her a new pitcher
+in the place of the broken one? But that would only freshly enrage the
+arrogant official.
+
+Should he--should he--should he not? But no, it was quite
+impossible--still, that no doubt--that was the right idea. In his
+medicine-chest there were a few extracts which had been given to him by
+the Emperor; he would offer her one of these to dilute with water and
+apply to her bruised foot. And this act of sympathy could not displease
+even his master, who liked to prove his healing art on the sick or
+suffering. He at once called Mastor, and desired him to take charge of
+the hound which had followed his steps as he paced the room, then he
+went into his sleeping-room, took out a phial of a most costly essence,
+which Hadrian had given him on his last birthday, and which had formerly
+belonged to Trajan's wife, Kotina, and then proceeded to the steward's
+rooms. On the steps where he had found Selene, he found the black slave
+with some children. The old man had sat down them and got no farther for
+fear of the Roman's dog. Antinous went up to him and begged him to guide
+him to his master's quarters, and the negro immediately showed him the
+way, opened the door of the antechamber, and pointing to the living-room
+said:
+
+"There--but Keraunus is absent."
+
+Without troubling himself any further about Antinous the slave went back
+to the children, but the Bithyman stood irresolute, with his flask in
+his hand, for besides Selene's voice he heard that of another girl and
+the deeper tones of a man. He was still hesitating when Arsinoe's loud
+exclamation of "Who's there?" obliged him to advance.
+
+In the sitting-room Selene was standing dressed in a long light-colored
+robe with a veil over her head, as if prepared to go out, but Arsinoe
+was perched on the edge of a table, in such a way as that the tips of
+her toes only touched the ground, and on the table lay a quantity of
+old-fashioned things. Before her stood a Phoenician, of middle age,
+holding in his hand a finely-carved cup; apparently he was in treaty for
+it with the young girl.
+
+Keraunus had been again to-day to a dealer in curiosities, but he had
+not found him at home, so he had left word at his shop that Hiram might
+call upon him in his rooms at Lochias, where he could show him several
+valuable rarities. The Phoenician had arrived before the return of the
+steward himself, who had been detained at a meeting of the town council,
+and Arsinoe was displaying her father's treasures, whose beauties she
+was extolling with much eloquence. Hiram unfortunately offered a no
+higher price than Gabinius, whom the steward had sent off so indignantly
+the previous evening.
+
+Selene had been convinced from the first of the bootlessness of the
+attempt, and was now anxious to bring the transaction to a speedy
+conclusion, as the hour was approaching when she and Arsinoe had to go
+to the papyrus factory. To her sister's refusal to accompany her, and to
+the old slave-woman's entreaty that she would rest her foot, at any rate
+for to-day, she had responded only with a resolute, "I am going."
+
+The appearance of the youth on the scene occasioned the girls some
+embarrassment. Selene recognized him at once, Arsinoe thought him
+handsome but awkward, while the curiosity-dealer gazed at him in perfect
+admiration, and was the first to offer him a greeting. Antinous returned
+it, bowed to the sisters, and then said turning to Selene:
+
+"We heard that your head was cut, and your foot hurt, and as we were
+guilty of your mishap, we venture to offer you this phial which contains
+a good remedy for such injuries."
+
+"Thank you," replied the girl. "But I feel already so well that I shall
+try to go out."
+
+"That you certainly ought not to do," said Antinous, beseechingly.
+
+"I must," replied Selene, gravely.
+
+"Then, at any rate, take the phial to use for a lotion when you return.
+Ten drops in such a cup as that, full of water."
+
+"I can try it when I come in."
+
+"Do so, and you will see how healing it is. You are not vexed with us
+any longer?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I am glad of that!" cried the boy, fixing his large dreamy eyes on
+Selene with silent passion. This gaze displeased her, and she said more
+coldly than before to the Bithyman.
+
+"To whom shall I give the phial when I have used the stuff in it?"
+
+"Keep it, pray keep it," begged Antinous. "It is pretty, and will be
+twice as precious in my eyes when it belongs to you."
+
+"It is pretty-but I do not wish for presents."
+
+"Then destroy it when you have done with it. You have not forgiven us
+our dog's bad behavior, and we are sincerely sorry that our dog--"
+
+"I am not vexed with you. Arsinoe pour the medicine into a saucer."
+
+The steward's younger daughter immediately obeyed, and noticing as she
+did so, how pretty the phial was, sparkling with various colors, she
+said frankly enough:
+
+"If my sister will not have it, give it to me. How can you make such a
+pother about nothing, Selene?"
+
+"Take it," said Antinous, looking anxiously at the ground, for it had
+now just occurred to him how highly the Emperor had valued this little
+bottle, and that he might possibly ask him some time what had become of
+it. Selene shrugged her shoulders, and drawing her veil round her head,
+she exclaimed, with a glance of annoyance at her sister:
+
+"It is high time!"
+
+"I am not going to-day," replied Arsinoe, defiantly, "and it is folly
+for you to walk a quarter of a mile with your swollen foot."
+
+"It would be wiser to take some care of it," observed the dealer,
+politely, and Antinous anxiously added:
+
+"If you increase your own suffering you will add to our self-reproach."
+
+"I must go," Selene repeated resolutely, "and you with me, sister."
+
+It was not out of mere wilfulness that she spoke, it was bitter
+necessity, that forced her to utter the words. To-day, at any rate, she
+must not miss going to the papyrus factory, for the week's wages for her
+work and Arsinoe's were to be paid. Besides, the next day, and for four
+days after, the workshops and counting-house would be closed, for
+the Emperor had announced to the wealthy proprietor his intention of
+visiting them, and in his honor various dilapidations in the old rooms
+were to be repaired, and various decorations added to the bare-looking
+building. Hence, to remain away from the works to-day meant, not merely
+the loss of a week's pay, but the sacrifice of twelve days, since it had
+been announced to the work-people, that as a token of rejoicing, and in
+honor of the imperial visit, full pay would be given for the unemployed
+days; and Selene needed money to maintain the family, and must therefore
+persist in her intention.
+
+When she saw that Arsinoe showed no sign of accompanying her, she once
+more asked with stern determination:
+
+"Are you coming?--Yes, or no."
+
+"No," cried Arsinoe, defiantly, and sitting farther on the table.
+
+"Then I am to go alone?"
+
+"You are to stay here."
+
+Selene went close up to her sister and looked at her enquiringly and
+reproachfully; but Arsinoe adhered to her refusal. She pouted like a
+sulky child, and slapping the hand on which she was leaning three times
+on the table, she repeated, "No--no--no."
+
+Selene called to the old slave-woman, and desired her to remain in the
+sitting-room till her father should return, greeted the dealer politely,
+and Antinous with a careless nod, and then left the room. The lad
+had followed her, and they both met the children. Selene pulled their
+dresses straight, and strictly enjoined them not to go near the corridor
+on account of the strange dog. Antinous stroked the blind boy's pretty
+curly head, and then, as Selene was about to descend the stairs, he
+asked her:
+
+"May I help you?"
+
+"Yes," said the girl, for at the very first step an acute pain in the
+ancle checked her, and she put out her arm to the young man that he
+might support her elbow on his hand. But her answer would assuredly
+have been "no," if she had had the smallest feeling of liking for the
+Emperor's favorite; but she bore the image of another in her heart,
+and did not even perceive that Antinous was beautiful. The Bithynian's
+heart, on the other hand, had never beaten so violently as during
+the brief moments when he was permitted to hold Selene's arm. He felt
+intoxicated, while he was alive to the fact that during the descent of
+the few steps she was suffering great pain.
+
+"Stay at home, and spare yourself!" he begged her once more in a
+trembling voice.
+
+"You worry me!" she said, in a tone of vexation. "I must go, and it is
+not far."
+
+"May I accompany you?"
+
+She laughed aloud and answered somewhat scornfully:
+
+"Certainly not. Only conduct me through the corridor that the dog may
+not attack me again, then go where you will--but not with me."
+
+He obeyed when at the end of the passage where it opened into a large
+hall, he bid her farewell, and she thanked him with a few friendly
+words.
+
+There were two ways out from her father's rooms into the road, one led
+through the rotunda where the Ptolemaic Queens were placed, and across
+several terraces up and down steps through the forecourt; the other, on
+a level all the way, through the rooms and halls of the palace. She was
+forced to choose the latter, for it would have been impossible for her
+with her aching foot to clamber up a number of steps without help and
+down them again, but she came to this conclusion much against her
+will, for she knew what numbers of men were engaged in the works of
+restoration; and to get through them safely it struck her that she might
+ask her old playfellow to escort her through the crowd of workmen and
+rough slaves as far as his parent's gatehouse. But she did not easily
+decide on this course, for, since the afternoon when Pollux had shown
+her mother's bust to Arsinoe before showing it to her, she had felt a
+grudge towards the sculptor, who so lately before had touched and opened
+her weary and loveless soul; and this sore feeling had not diminished,
+but had rather increased with time. At every hour of the day, and
+whatever she was occupied in, she could not help repeating to herself,
+that she had every reason to be vexed with him.
+
+She had stood to him a second time as a model for his work, had spoken
+to him many times, and when last they parted had promised to allow him
+this very evening to study once more the folds of her mantle. With what
+pleasure she had looked forward to each meeting with Pollux, how truly
+lovable she had thought him on every fresh occasion; how frankly he
+too, expressed his pleasure as often as they met! They had talked of all
+sorts of things, even of love, and how eager he had been when he told
+her that the only thing she needed to make her happy was a good husband
+who would succor and comfort her as she deserved, and as he spoke he had
+looked at his own strong hands while she had turned red, and had thought
+to herself that if he liked it she would willingly make the experiment
+of enjoying life heartily by his side.
+
+It seemed to her as though they belonged to each other, as if she had
+been born for him alone, and he for her. Why then yesterday had he shown
+Arsinoe her mother's bust before her?
+
+Well, now she would ask him plainly whether he had placed it on the
+rotunda for her or for her sister, and let him see she was not pleased.
+She must tell him, too, that she could not stand as his model that
+evening; if only on account of her foot that would be impossible.
+
+With increasing pain and effort she crossed the threshold of the hall
+of the Muses, and went up to the screen behind which her friend was
+concealed. He was not alone, for she heard voices within--and it was not
+a man but a woman who was with him; she could hear her clear laugh at
+some distance. When she came close up to the screen to call Pollux, the
+woman, who was certainly sitting to him as a model, spoke louder than
+before, and called out merrily:
+
+"But this is delicious! I am to let you fulfil the office of my maid,
+what audacity these artists have!"
+
+"Say yes," begged the artist, in the gay and cordial tone which more
+than once had helped to ensnare Selene's heart. "You are beautiful,
+Balbilla, but if you would allow me, you might be far handsomer than you
+are even."
+
+And again there was a merry laugh behind the screen. The pleasant voice
+must have hurt poor Selene acutely for she drew up her shoulders, and
+her fair features were stamped with an expression of keen suffering, and
+she pressed both hands over her heart as she went on past the screen and
+her handsome flirting playfellow, limping across the courtyard and into
+the road.
+
+What tortured the poor child so cruelly? The poverty of her house, and
+her bodily pain, which increased at every step, or her numbed and sore
+heart, betrayed of her newly-blossoming, last, and fairest hope?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Usually when Selene went out walking, many people looked at her with
+admiration, but to-day a couple of street-boys composed her escort.
+They ran after her calling out impudently, 'dot, and go one,' and tried
+ruthlessly to snatch at the loosely-tied sandal on her injured foot,
+which tapped the pavement at every step. While Selene was thus making
+her way with cruel pain, satisfaction and happiness had visited Arsinoe;
+for hardly had Selene and Antinous quitted her father's apartments, when
+Hiram begged her to show him the little bottle which the handsome youth
+had just given her. The dealer turned it over and over in the sunlight,
+tested its ring, tried to scratch it with the stone in his ring, and
+then muttered, "Vasa Murrhma."
+
+The words did not escape the girl's sharp ears, and she had heard her
+father say that the costliest of all the ornamental vessels with which
+the wealthy Romans were wont to decorate their reception-rooms, were
+those called Vasa Murrhina; so she explained to him at once, that she
+knew what high prices were paid for such vases, and that she had no mind
+to sell it cheaply. He began to bid, she laughingly demanded ten times
+the price, and after a long battle between the dealer and the owner,
+fought now half in jest, and now in grave earnest, the Phoenician said:
+
+"Two thousand drachmae; not a sesterce more. That is not enough by a
+long way, but then it is yours."
+
+"I would hardly have given half to a less fair customer."
+
+"And I only let you have it because you are such a polite man."
+
+"I will send you the money before sundown."
+
+At these words the girl, who had been radiant with surprise and delight,
+and who would have liked to throw her arms round the bald-headed
+merchant's neck, or round that of her old slave, who was even less
+attractive, or for that matter, would have embraced the world--the
+triumphant girl became thoughtful; her father would certainly come
+home ere long, and she could not conceal from herself that he would
+disapprove of the whole proceeding, and would probably send the phial
+back to the young man, and the money to the dealer. She herself
+would never have asked the stranger for the bottle if she had had the
+slightest suspicion of its value; but now it certainly belonged to
+her, and if she had given it back again she would have given no one any
+pleasure; on the contrary, she would have offended the stranger, and
+probably have lost the greatest pleasure that she had ever enjoyed.
+
+What was to be done now? She was still perched on the table; she had
+taken her left foot in her right hand, and sitting in this quaint
+position, she looked down on the ground as gravely as if she were trying
+to find an idea, or a way out of the difficulty, in the pattern on the
+floor.
+
+The dealer for a moment amused himself in studying her bewilderment,
+which he thought charming--only wishing that his son, a young painter,
+were standing in his place. At last he broke the silence however,
+saying:
+
+"Your father, perhaps, will not agree to our bargain; and yet it is for
+him you want the money?"
+
+"Who says so?"
+
+"Would he have offered me his own treasures if he had not wanted money?"
+
+"It is only--I can--only--" stammered Arsinoe, who was unaccustomed to
+falsehood. "--I would merely not confess to him--"
+
+"I myself saw how innocently you came by the phial," said the dealer,
+"and Keraunus never need know anything about such a trifle. Fancy
+yourself, that you have broken it, and that the pieces are lying at
+the bottom of the sea. Which of all these things does your father value
+least?"
+
+"This old sword of Antony," answered the child, her face brightening
+once more. "He says it is much too long, and too slender to be what it
+pretends to be. For my part I do not believe that it is a sword at all,
+but a roasting-spit."
+
+"I shall apply it to that very purpose to-morrow morning in my kitchen,"
+said the dealer, "but I offer you two thousand drachmae for it, and will
+take it with me and send you the amount in a few hours. Will that do?"
+
+Arsinoe dropped her foot, glided from the table, and instead of
+answering, clapped her hands with glee.
+
+"Only tell him," continued Hiram, "that I am able just now to pay so
+much for this kind of thing, because Caesar is certain to look about him
+for the things that belonged to Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Octavianus,
+Augustus, and other great Romans who have lived in Egypt. The old woman
+there may bring the spit after me. My slave is waiting outside, and can
+hide it under his chiton as far as my kitchen door, for if he carried it
+openly the connoisseurs passing by might covet the priceless treasure,
+and we must protect ourselves from the evil eye."
+
+The dealer laughed, took the little bottle into his own keeping, gave
+the sword to the old woman, and then took a friendly leave of the young
+girl.
+
+As soon as Arsinoe was alone, she flew into the bedroom to put on her
+sandals, threw her veil over her head, and hastened to the papyrus
+manufactory. Selene must know of the unexpected good fortune that had
+befallen her, and all of them, and then she would have the poor girl
+carried home in a litter, for there were always plenty for hire on the
+quay.
+
+Things did not always go smoothly--very often very unsmoothly and
+stormily between the sisters, but still anything of importance that
+happened to Arsinoe, whether it were good or evil, she must at once tell
+Selene.
+
+Ye gods! what happiness! She could take her place among the daughters
+of the great citizens in the processions, no less richly apparelled than
+they, and still there would remain a nice little sum for her father and
+sister; and the work in the factory, the nasty dirty work, which she
+hated and loathed, would be at an end, it was to be hoped, for ever.
+
+The old slave was still sitting on the steps with the children; Arsinoe
+tossed them up one after the other, and whispered in each child's ear:
+
+"Cakes this evening!" and she kissed the blind child's eyes, and said:
+
+"You may come with me, dear little man. I will find a litter for Selene
+and put you in, and you will be carried home like a little prince."
+
+The little blind boy threw his arms up with delight, exclaiming:
+"Through the air, and without falling." While she was still holding him
+in her arms, her father came up the steps that led from the rotunda
+to the passage, his face streaming with heat and excitement; and after
+wiping his brow and panting to regain his breath, he said:
+
+"Hiram, the curiosity-dealer, met me just outside, with the sword that
+belonged to Antony; and you sold it to him for two thousand drachmae!
+you little fool!"
+
+"But, father, you would have given the old spit for a pasty and a
+draught of wine," laughed Arsinoe.
+
+"I?" cried Keraunus. "I would have had three times the sum for that
+venerable relic, for which Caesar will give its weight in silver;
+however, sold is sold. And yet-and yet, the thought that I no longer
+possess the sword of Antony, will give me many sleepless nights."
+
+"If this evening we set you down to a good dish of meat, sleep will
+soon follow," answered Arsinoe, and she took the handkerchief out of her
+father's hand, and coaxingly wiped his temples, going on vivaciously:
+"We are quite rich folks, father, and will show the other citizens'
+daughters what we can do."
+
+"Now you shall both take part in the festival," said Keraunus,
+decidedly. "Caesar shall see that I shun no sacrifice in his honor,
+and if he notices you, and I bring my complaint against that insolent
+architect before him--"
+
+"You must let that pass," begged Arsinoe, "if only poor Selene's foot is
+well by that time."
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"Gone out."
+
+"Then her foot cannot be so very bad. She will soon come in, it is to be
+hoped."
+
+"Probably--I mean to fetch her with a litter."
+
+"A litter?" said Keraunus, in surprise.
+
+"The two thousand drachmae have turned the girl's head."
+
+"Only on account of her foot. It was hurting her so much when she went
+out."
+
+"Then why did she not stay at home? As usual she has wasted an hour to
+save a sesterce, and you, neither of you have any time to spare."
+
+"I will go after her at once."
+
+"No--no, you at any rate, must remain here, for in two hours the matrons
+and maidens are to meet at the theatre."
+
+"In two hours! but mighty Serapis, what are we to put on?"
+
+"It is your business to see to that," replied Keraunus, "I myself
+will have the litter you spoke of, and be carried down to Tryphon, the
+ship-builder. Is there any money left in Selene's box?"
+
+Arsinoe went into her sleeping-room, and said, as she returned:
+
+"This is all--six pieces of two drachmae."
+
+"Four will be enough for me," replied the steward, but after a moment's
+reflection he took the whole half-dozen.
+
+"What do you want with the ship-builder?" asked Arsinoe.
+
+"In the Council," replied Keraunus, "I was worried again about you
+girls. I said one of my daughters was ill, and the other must attend
+upon her; but this would not do, and I was asked to send the one who was
+well. Then I explained that you had no mother, that we lived a retired
+life for each other, and that I could not bear the idea of sending my
+daughter alone, and without any protectress to the meeting. So then
+Tryphon said that it would give his wife pleasure to take you to the
+theatre with her own daughter. This I half accepted, but I declared
+at once that you would not go, if your elder sister were not better. I
+could not give any positive consent--you know why."
+
+"Oh, blessings on Antony and his noble spit!" cried Arsinoe. "Now
+everything is settled, and you can tell the ship-builder we shall go.
+Our white dresses are still quite good, but a few ells of new light blue
+ribbon for my hair, and of red for Selene's, you must buy on the way, at
+Abibaal, the Phoenician's."
+
+"Very good."
+
+"I will see at once to both the dresses--but, to be sure, when are we to
+be ready?"
+
+"In two hours."
+
+"Then, do you know what, dear old father?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Our old woman is half blind, and does everything wrong. Do let me go
+down to dame Doris at the gate-house, and ask her to help me. She is so
+clever and kind, and no one irons so well as she does."
+
+"Silence!" cried the steward, angrily, interrupting his daughter. "Those
+people shall never again cross my threshold."
+
+"But look at my hair; only look at the state it is in," cried Arsinoe,
+excitedly, and thrusting her fingers into her thick tresses which she
+pulled into disorder. "To do that up again, plait it with new ribbons,
+iron our dresses, and sew on the brooches--why the Empress' ladies-maid
+could not do all that in two hours."
+
+"Doris shall never cross this threshold," repeated Keraunus, for all his
+answer.
+
+"Then tell the tailor Hippias to send me an assistant; but that will
+cost money."
+
+"We have it, and can pay," replied Keraunus, proudly, and in order not
+to forget his commissions he muttered to himself while he went to get a
+litter:
+
+"Hippias the tailor, blue ribbon, red ribbon, and Tryphon the
+ship-builder."
+
+The tailor's nimble apprentice helped Arsinoe to arrange her dress and
+Selene's, and was never weary of praising the sheen and silkiness of
+Arsinoe's hair, while she twisted it with ribbons, built it up and
+twisted it at the back so gracefully with a comb, that it fell in
+a thick mass of artfully-curled locks down her neck and back. When
+Keraunus came back, he gazed with justifiable pride at his beautiful
+child; he was immensely pleased, and even chuckled softly to himself
+as he laid out the gold pieces which were brought to him by the
+curiosity-dealer's servant, and set them in a row and counted them.
+While he was thus occupied, Arsinoe went up to him and asked laughing:
+"Hiram has not cheated me then?" Keraunus desired her not to disturb
+him, and added:
+
+"Think of that sword, the weapon of the great Antony, perhaps the very
+one with which he pierced his own breast.--Where can Selene be?"
+
+An hour, an hour and a half had slipped by, and when the fourth
+half-hour was well begun, and still his eldest daughter did not return,
+the steward announced that they must set out, for that it would not
+do to keep the ship-builder's wife waiting. It was a sincere grief to
+Arsinoe to be obliged to go without Selene. She had made her sister's
+dress look as nice as her own, and had laid it carefully on the divan
+near the mosaic pavement. She had taken a great deal of trouble. Never
+before had she been out in the streets alone, and it seemed impossible
+to enjoy anything without the companionship and supervision of her
+absent sister. But her father's assertion, that Selene would have a
+place gladly found for her, even later, among the maidens, reassured the
+girl who was overflowing with joyful expectation.
+
+Finally she perfumed herself a little with the fragrant extract which
+Keraunus was accustomed to use before going to the council, and begged
+her father to order the old slave-woman to go and buy the promised cakes
+for the little ones during her absence. The children had all gathered
+round her, admiring her with loud ohs! and ahs! as if she were some
+wondrous incarnation, not to be too nearly approached, and on no account
+to be touched. The elaborate dressing of her hair would not allow of her
+stooping over them as usual. She could only stroke little Helios' curls,
+saying: "Tomorrow you shall have a ride in the air, and perhaps Selene
+will tell you a pretty story by-and-bye."
+
+Her heart beat faster than usual as she stepped into the litter, which
+was waiting for her just in front of the gate-house. Old Doris looked at
+her from a distance with pleasure, and while Keraunus stepped out into
+the street to call a litter for himself, the old woman hastily cut the
+two finest roses from her bush, and pressing her fingers to her lips
+with a sly smile, put them into the girl's hand.
+
+Arsinoe felt as if it were in a dream that she went to the
+ship-builder's house, and from thence to the theatre, and on her way she
+fully understood, for the first time, that alarm and delight may find
+room side by side in a girl's mind, and that one by no means hinders the
+existence of the other.
+
+Fear and expectation so completely overmastered her, that she neither
+saw nor heard what was going on around her; only once she noticed a
+young man with a garland on his head, who, as he passed her, arm in arm
+with another, called out to her gaily: "Long live beauty!"
+
+From that moment she kept her eyes fixed on her lap and on the roses
+dame Doris had given her. The flowers reminded her of the kind old
+woman's son, and she wondered whether tall Pollux had perhaps seen her
+in her finery. That, she would have liked very much; and after all, it
+was not at all impossible, for, of course, since Pollux had been working
+at Lochias he must often have gone to his parents. Perhaps even he had
+himself picked the roses for her, but had not dared to give them to her
+as her father was so near.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+But the young sculptor had not been at the gatehouse when Arsinoe went
+by. He had thought of her often enough since meeting her again by
+the bust of her mother; but on this particular afternoon his time and
+thoughts were fully claimed by another fair damsel. Balbilla had arrived
+at Lochias about noon, accompanied, as was fitting, by the worthy
+Claudia, the not wealthy widow of a senator, who for many years had
+filled the place of lady-in-attendance and protecting companion to the
+rich fatherless and motherless girl. At Rome, she conducted Balbilla's
+household affairs with as much sense and skill as satisfaction in the
+task. Still she was not perfectly content with her lot, for her ward's
+love of travelling, often compelled her to leave the metropolis, and in
+her estimation, there was no place but Rome where life was worth living.
+A visit to Baiae for bathing, or in the winter months a flight to the
+Ligurian coast, to escape the cold of January and February--these she
+could endure; for she was certain there to find, if not Rome, at any
+rate Romans; but Balbilla's wish to venture in a tossing ship, to visit
+the torrid shores of Africa, which she pictured to herself as a burning
+oven, she had opposed to the utmost. At last, however, she was obliged
+to put a good face on the matter, for the Empress herself expressed
+so decidedly her wish to take Balbilla with her to the Nile, that any
+resistance would have been unduteous. Still; in her secret heart, she
+could not but confess to herself that her high-spirited and wilful
+foster-child--for so she loved to call Balbilla--would undoubtedly have
+carried out her purpose without the Empress' intervention.
+
+Balbilla had come to the palace, as the reader knows, to sit for her
+bust.
+
+When Selene was passing by the screen which concealed her playfellow and
+his work from her gaze, the worthy matron had fallen gently asleep on a
+couch, and the sculptor was exerting all his zeal to convince the noble
+damsel that the size to which her hair was dressed was an exaggeration,
+and that the super-encumbrance of such a mass must disfigure the effect
+of the delicate features of her face. He implored her to remember in
+how simple a style the great Athenian masters, at the best period of the
+plastic arts, had taught their beautiful models to dress their hair, and
+requested her to do her own hair in that manner next day, and to come
+to him before she allowed her maid to put a single lock through the
+curling-tongs; for to-day, as he said, the pretty little ringlets would
+fly back into shape, like the spring of a fibula when the pin was bent
+back. Balbilla contradicted him with gay vivacity, protested against
+his desire to play the part of lady's maid, and defended her style of
+hair-dressing on the score of fashion.
+
+"But the fashion is ugly, monstrous, a pain to one's eyes!" cried
+Pollux. "Some vain Roman lady must have invented it, not to make herself
+beautiful, but to be conspicuous."
+
+"I hate the idea of being conspicuous by my appearance," answered
+Balbilla. "It is precisely by following the fashion, however conspicuous
+it may be, that we are less remarkable than when we carefully dress far
+more simply and plainly--in short, differently to what it prescribes.
+Which do you regard as the vainer, the fashionably-dressed young
+gentleman on the Canopic way, or the cynical philosopher with his
+unkempt hair, his carefully-ragged cloak over his shoulders, and a heavy
+cudgel in his dirty hands?"
+
+"The latter, certainly," replied Pollux. "Still he is sinning against
+the laws of beauty which I desire to win you over to, and which will
+survive every whim of fashion, as certainly as Homer's Iliad will
+survive the ballad of a street-singer, who celebrates the last murder
+that excited the mob of this town.--Am I the first artist who has
+attempted to represent your face?"
+
+"No," said Balbilla, with a laugh. "Five Roman artists have already
+experimented on my head."
+
+"And did any one of their busts satisfy you?"
+
+"Not one seemed to me better than utterly bad."
+
+"And your pretty face is to be handed down to posterity in five-fold
+deformity?"
+
+"Ah! no--I had them all destroyed."
+
+"That was very good of them!" cried Pollux, eagerly. Then turning with
+a very simple gesture to the bust before him he said: "Hapless clay, if
+the lovely lady whom thou art destined to resemble will not sacrifice
+the chaos of her curls, thy fate will undoubtedly be that of thy
+predecessors."
+
+The sleeping matron was roused by this speech. "You were speaking," she
+said, "of the broken busts of Balbilla?"
+
+"Yes," replied the poetess.
+
+"And perhaps this one may follow them," sighed Claudia. "Do you know
+what lies before you in that case?"
+
+"No, what?"
+
+"This young lady knows something of your art."
+
+"I learnt to knead clay a little of Aristaeus," interrupted Balbilla.
+
+"Aha! because Caesar set the fashion, and in Rome it would have been
+conspicuous not to dabble in sculpture."
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"And she tried to improve in every bust all that particularly displeased
+her," continued Claudia.
+
+"I only began the work for the slaves to finish," Balbilla threw in,
+interrupting her companion. "Indeed, my people became quite expert in
+the work of destruction."
+
+"Then my work may, at any rate, hope for a short agony and speedy
+death," sighed Pollux. "And it is true--all that lives comes into the
+world with its end already preordained."
+
+"Would an early demise of your work pain you much?" asked Balbilla.
+
+"Yes, if I thought it successful; not if I felt it to be a failure."
+
+"Any one who keeps a bad bust," said Balbilla, "must feel fearful lest
+an undeservedly bad reputation is handed down to future generations."
+
+"Certainly! but how then can you find courage to expose yourself for the
+sixth time to a form of calumny that it is difficult to counteract?"
+
+"Because I can have anything destroyed that I choose," laughed the
+spoilt girl. "Otherwise sitting still is not much to my taste."
+
+"That is very true," sighed Claudia. "But from you I expect something
+strikingly good."
+
+"Thank you," said Pollux, "and I will take the utmost pains to complete
+something that may correspond to my own expectations of what a marble
+portrait ought to be, that deserves to be preserved to posterity."
+
+"And those expectations require--?"
+
+Pollux considered for a moment, and then he replied:
+
+"I have not always the right words at my command, for all that I feel as
+an artist. A plastic presentiment, to satisfy its creator, must fulfil
+two conditions; first it must record for posterity in forms of eternal
+resemblance all that lay in the nature of the person it represents;
+secondly, it must also show to posterity what the art of the time when
+it was executed, was capable of."
+
+"That is a matter of course--but you are forgetting your own share."
+
+"My own fame you mean?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"I work for Papias and serve my art, and that is enough; meanwhile Fame
+does not trouble herself about me, nor do I trouble myself about her."
+
+"Still, you will put your name on my bust?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"You are as prudent as Cicero."
+
+"Cicero?"
+
+"Perhaps you would hardly know old Tullius' wise remark that the
+philosophers who wrote of the vanity of writers put their names to their
+books all the same."
+
+"Oh! I have no contempt for laurels, but I will not run after a thing
+which could have no value for me, unless it came unsought, and because
+it was my due."
+
+"Well and good; but your first condition could only be fulfilled in its
+widest sense if you could succeed in making yourself acquainted with my
+thoughts and feelings, with the whole of my inmost mind."
+
+"I see you and talk to you," replied Pollux. Claudia laughed aloud, and
+said:
+
+"If instead of two sittings of two hours you were to talk to her for
+twice as many years you would always find something new in her. Not a
+week passes in which Rome does not find in her something to talk about.
+That restless brain is never quiet, but her heart is as good as gold,
+and always and everywhere the same."
+
+"And did you suppose that that was new to me?" asked Pollux. "I can see
+the restless spirit of my model in her brow and in her mouth, and her
+nature is revealed in her eyes."
+
+"And in my snub-nose?" asked Balbilla.
+
+"It bears witness to your wonderful and whimsical notions, which
+astonish Rome so much."
+
+"Perhaps you are one more that works for the hammer of the slaves,"
+laughed Balbilla.
+
+"And even if it were so," said Pollux, "I should always retain the
+memory of this delightful hour." Pontius the architect here interrupted
+the sculptor, begging Balbilla to excuse him for disturbing the sitting;
+Pollux must immediately attend to some business of importance, but in
+ten minutes he would return to his work. No sooner were the two ladies
+alone, than Balbilla rose and looked inquisitively round and about the
+sculptor's enclosed work-room; but her companion said:
+
+"A very polite young man, this Pollux, but rather too much at his ease,
+and too enthusiastic."
+
+"An artist," replied Balbilla, and she proceeded to turn over every
+picture and tablet with the sculptor's studies in drawing, raised the
+cloth from the wax model of the Urania, tried the clang of the lute
+which hung against one of the canvas walls, was here, there, and
+everywhere, and at last stood still in front of a large clay model,
+placed in a corner of the studio, and closely wrapped in cloths.
+
+"What may that be?" asked Claudia.
+
+"No doubt a half-finished new model."
+
+Balbilla felt the object in front of her with the tips of her fingers,
+and said: "It seems to me to be a head. Something remarkable at any
+rate. In these close covered dishes we sometimes find the best meat. Let
+its unveil this shrouded portrait."
+
+"Who knows what it may be?" said Claudia, as she loosened a twist in the
+cloths which enveloped the bust. There are often very remarkable things
+to be seen in such workshops.
+
+"Hey, what, it is only a woman's head! I can feel it," cried Balbilla.
+
+"But you can never tell," the older lady went on, untying a knot. "These
+artists are such unfettered, unaccountable beings."
+
+"Do you lift the top, I will pull here," and a moment later the young
+Roman stood face to face with the caricature which Hadrian had moulded
+on the previous evening, in all its grimacing ugliness. She recognized
+herself in it at once, and at the first moment, laughed loudly, but the
+longer she looked at the disfigured likeness, the more vexed, annoyed
+and angry she became. She knew her own face, feature for feature, all
+that was pretty in it, and all that was plain, but this likeness ignored
+everything in her face that was not unpleasing, and this it emphasized
+ruthlessly, and exaggerated with a refinement of spitefulness. The
+head was hideous, horrible, and yet it was hers. As she studied it in
+profile, she remembered what Pollux had declared he could read in her
+features, and deep indignation rose up in her soul.
+
+Her great inexhaustible riches, which allowed her the reckless
+gratification of every whim, and secured consideration, even for her
+follies, had not availed to preserve her from many disappointments which
+other girls, in more modest circumstances, would have been spared. Her
+kind heart and open hand had often been abused, even by artists, and it
+was self-evident to her, that the man who could make this caricature,
+who had so enjoyed exaggerating all that was unlovely in her face, had
+wished to exercise his art on her features, not for her own sake, but
+for that of the high price she might be inclined to pay for a flattering
+likeness. She had found much to please her in the young sculptor's fresh
+and happy artist nature, in his frank demeanor and his honest way of
+speech. She felt convinced that Pollux, more readily than anybody else,
+would understand what it was that lent a charm to her face, which was in
+no way strictly beautiful, a charm which could not be disputed in spite
+of the coarse caricature which stood before her.
+
+She felt herself the richer by a painful experience, indignant, and
+offended. Accustomed as she was to give prompt utterance even to her
+displeasure, she exclaimed hotly, and with tears in her eyes:
+
+"It is shameful, it is base. Give me my wraps Claudia. I will not stay
+an instant longer to be the butt of this man's coarse and spiteful
+jesting."
+
+"It is unworthy," cried the matron, "so to insult a person of your
+position. It is to be hoped our litters are waiting outside."
+
+Pontius had overheard Balbilla's last words. He had come into the
+work-place without Pollux, who was still speaking to the prefect, and he
+said gravely as he approached Balbilla:
+
+"You have every reason to be angry, noble lady. This thing is an insult
+in clay, malicious, and at the same time coarse in every detail; but
+it was not Pollux who did it, and it is not right to condemn without a
+trial."
+
+"You take your friend's part!" exclaimed Balbilla. "I would not tell a
+lie for my own brother."
+
+"You know how to give your words the aspect of an honorable meaning in
+serious matters, as he does in jest."
+
+"You are angry and unaccustomed to bridle your tongue," replied the
+architect. "Pollux, I repeat it, did not perpetrate the caricature, but
+a sculptor from Rome."
+
+"Which of them? I know them all."
+
+"I may not name him."
+
+"There--you see.--Come away Claudia."
+
+"Stay," said Pontius, decisively. "If you were any one but yourself, I
+would let you go at once in your anger, and with the double charge on
+your conscience of doing an injustice to two well-meaning men. But as
+you are the granddaughter of Claudius Balbillus, I feel it to be due
+to myself to say, that if Pollux had really made this monstrous bust he
+would not be in this palace now, for I should have turned him out and
+thrown the horrid object after him. You look surprised--you do not know
+who I am that can address you so."
+
+"Yes, yes," cried Balbilla, much mollified, for she felt assured that
+the man who stood before her, as unflinching as if he were cast in
+bronze, and with an earnest frown, was speaking the truth, and that he
+must have some right to speak to her with such unwonted decision. "Yes
+indeed, you are the principal architect of the city; Titianus, from whom
+we have heard of you, has told us great things of you; but how am I to
+account for your special interest in me?"
+
+"It is my duty to serve you--if necessary, even with my life."
+
+"You," said Balbilla, puzzled. "But I never saw you till yesterday."
+
+"And yet you may freely dispose of all that I have and am, for my
+grandfather was your grandfather's slave."
+
+"I did not know"--said Balbilla, with increasing confusion.
+
+"Is it possible that your noble grandfather's instructor, the venerable
+Sophinus, is altogether forgotten. Sophinus, whom your grandfather
+freed, and who continued to teach your father also."
+
+"Certainly not--of course not," cried Balbilla. "He must have been a
+splendid man, and very learned besides."
+
+"He was my father's father," said Pontius.
+
+"Then you belong to our family," exclaimed Balbilla, offering him a
+friendly hand.
+
+"I thank you for those words," answered Pontius. "Now, once more, Pollux
+had nothing to do with that image."
+
+"Take my cloak, Claudia," said the girl. "I will sit again to the young
+man."
+
+"Not to-day--it would spoil his work," replied Pontius. "I beg of you to
+go, and let the annoyance you so vehemently expressed die out some
+where else. The young sculptor must not know that you have seen this
+caricature, it would occasion him much embarrassment. But if you can
+return to-morrow in a calmer and more happy humor, with your lively
+spirit tuned to a softer key, then Pollux will be able to make a
+likeness which may satisfy the granddaughter of Claudius Balbillus."
+
+"And, let us hope, the grandson of his learned teacher also," answered
+Balbilla, with a kindly farewell greeting, as she went with her
+companion towards the door of the hall of the Muses, where her slaves
+were waiting. Pontius escorted her so far in silence, then he returned
+to the work-place, and safely wrapped the caricature up again in its
+cloths.
+
+As he went out into the hall again, Pollux hurried up to meet him,
+exclaiming:
+
+"The Roman architect wants to speak to you, he is a grand man!"
+
+"Balbilla was called away, and bid me greet you," replied Pontius. "Take
+that thing away for fear she should see it. It is coarse and hideous."
+
+A few moments later he stood in the presence of the Emperor, who
+expressed the wish to play the part of listener while Balbilla was
+sitting. When the architect, after begging him not to let Pollux know of
+the incident, told him of what had occurred in the screened-off studio,
+and how angry the young Roman lady had been at the caricature, which
+was certainly very offensive, Hadrian rubbed his hands and laughed aloud
+with delight. Pontius ground his teeth, and then said very earnestly:
+
+"Balbilla seems to me a merry-hearted girl, but of a noble nature. I
+see no reason to laugh at her." Hadrian looked keenly into the daring
+architect's eyes, laid his hand on his shoulder, and replied with a
+certain threatening accent in his deep voice:
+
+"It would be an evil moment for you, or for any one, who should do so
+in my presence. But age may venture to play with edged tools, which
+children may not even touch."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Selene entered the gate-way in the endlessly-long walk of sun-dried
+bricks which enclosed the wide space where stood the court-yards,
+water-tanks and huts, belonging to the great papyrus manufactory of
+Plutarch, where she and her sister were accustomed to work. She could
+generally reach it in a quarter of an hour, but to-day it had taken more
+than four times as long and she herself did not know how she had managed
+to hold herself up, and to walk-limp-stumble along, in spite of the
+acute pain she was suffering. She would willingly have clung to every
+passer-by, have held on to every slow passing vehicle, to every beast
+of burden that overtook her--but man and beast mercilessly went on their
+way, without paying any heed to her. She got many a push from those who
+were hurrying by and who scarcely turned round to look at her, when
+from time to time she stopped to sink for a moment on to the nearest
+door-step, or some low cornice or bale of goods; to dry her eyes, or
+press her hand to her foot, which was now swollen to a great size,
+hoping, as she did so, to be able to forget, under the sense of a new
+form of pain, the other unceasing and unendurable torment, at least for
+a few minutes.
+
+The street boys who had run after her, and laughed at her, ceased
+pursuing her when they found that she constantly stopped to rest. A
+woman with a child in her arms once asked her, as she stopped to rest a
+minute on a threshold, whether she wanted anything, but walked on when
+Selene shook her head and made no other answer.
+
+Once she thought she must give up altogether, when suddenly the street
+was filled with jeering boys and inquisitive men and women--for Verus,
+the superb Verus, came by in his chariot, and what a chariot! The
+Alexandrian populace were accustomed to see much that was strange in
+the busy streets of their crowded city; but this vehicle attracted
+every eye, and excited astonishment, admiration and mirth, wherever
+it appeared, and not unfrequently the bitterest ridicule. The handsome
+Roman stood in the middle of his gilt chariot, and himself drove the
+four white horses, harnessed abreast; on his head he wore a wreath,
+and across his breast, from one shoulder, a garland of roses. On the
+foot-board of the quadriga sat two children, dressed as Cupids; their
+little legs dangled in the air, and they each held, attached by a long
+gilt wire, a white dove which fluttered in front of Verus.
+
+The dense and hurrying crowd, crushed Selene remorselessly against the
+wall; instead of looking at the wonderful sight she covered her face
+with her hands to hide the distortion of pain in her features; still she
+just saw the splendid chariot, the gold harness on the horses, and the
+figure of the insolent owner glide past her, as if in a dream that was
+blurred by pain, and the sight infused into her soul, that was already
+harassed by pain and anxiety, a feeling of bitter aversion, and
+the envious thought that the mere trappings of the horses of this
+extravagant prodigal would suffice to keep her and her family above
+misery for a whole year.
+
+By the time the chariot had turned the next corner, and the crowd had
+followed it, she had almost fallen to the ground. She could not take
+another step, and looked round for a litter, but, while generally there
+was no lack of them, in this spot, to-day there was not one to be seen.
+The factory was only a few hundred steps farther, but in her fancy they
+seemed like so many stadia. Presently some of the workmen and women from
+the factory came by, laughing and showing each other their wages, so the
+payment must be now going on. A glance at the sun showed her how long
+she had already been on her way, and remind her of the purpose of her
+walk.
+
+With the exertion of all her strength, she dragged herself a few steps
+farther; then, just as her courage was again beginning to fail, a
+little girl came running towards her who was accustomed to wait upon
+the workers at the table where Selene and Arsinoe were employed, and who
+held in her hand a pitcher. She called the dusky little Egyptian, and
+said:
+
+"Hathor, pray come back to the factory with me. I cannot walk any
+farther, my foot is so dreadfully painful; but if I lean a little on
+your shoulder, I shall get on better."
+
+"I cannot," said the child. "If I make haste home I shall have some
+dates," and she ran on.
+
+Selene looked after her, and an inward voice, against which she had
+had to rebel before to-day, asked her why she of all people must be a
+sufferer for others, when they thought only of themselves, and with a
+heavy sigh, she made a fresh attempt to proceed on her way.
+
+When she had gone a few steps, neither seeing not hearing anything that
+passed her, a girl came up to her, and asked her timidly, but kindly,
+what was the matter. It was a leaf-joiner who sat opposite to her at the
+works, a poor, deformed creature, who, nevertheless, plied her nimble
+fingers contentedly and silently, and who at first had taught Selene
+and Arsinoe many useful tricks of working. The girl offered her crooked
+shoulder unasked as a support to Selene, and measured her step; to
+those of the sufferer with as much nicety as if she felt everything that
+Selene herself did; thus, without speaking, they reached the door of the
+factory; there, in the first court-yard the little hunchback made Selene
+sit down on one of the bundles of papyrus-stems which lay all about
+the place, by the side of the tanks in which the plants were dipped to
+freshen them, and arranged in order, built up into high heaps, according
+to the localities whence they were brought. After a short rest, they
+went on through the hall in which the triangular green stems were
+sorted, according to the quality of the white pith they contained. The
+next rooms, in which men stripped the green sheath from the pith, and
+the long galleries where the more skilled hands split the pith with
+sharp knives into long moist strips about a finger wide, and of
+different degrees of fineness, seemed to Selene to grow longer the
+farther she went, and to be absolutely interminable.
+
+Generally the pith-splitters sat here in long rows, each at his own
+little table, on each side of a gangway left for the slaves, who carried
+the prepared material to the drying-house; but, to-day, most of them
+had left their places and stood chatting together and packing up their
+wooden clips, knives, and sharpening-stones. Half way down this room
+Selene's hand fell from her companion's shoulder, she turned giddy, and
+said in a low tone:
+
+"I can go no farther--"
+
+The little hunchback held her up as well as she could, and though she
+herself was far from strong, she succeeded in dragging, rather than
+carrying, Selene to an empty couch and in laying her upon it. A few
+workmen gathered around the senseless girl, and brought some water, then
+when she opened her eyes again, and they found that she belonged to the
+rooms where the prepared papyrus-leaves were gummed together, some of
+them offered to carry her thither, and before Selene could consent they
+had taken up the bench and lifted it with its light burden. Her damaged
+foot hung down, and gave the poor girl such pain that she cried out,
+and tried to raise the injured limb and hold her ankle in her band;
+her comrade helped by taking the poor little foot in her own hand, and
+supporting it with tender and cautious care.
+
+As she thus went by, carried, as it were, in triumph by the men, and
+borne high in the air, everyone turned to look at her, and the suffering
+girl felt this rather as if she were some criminal being carried through
+the streets to exhibit her disgrace to the citizens. But when she found
+herself in the large rooms where, in one place men, and in another the
+most skilled of the women and girls were employed in laying the narrow
+strips of papyrus crosswise over each other, and gumming them together,
+she had recovered strength enough to pull her veil over her face which
+she held down. Arsinoe, and she herself, in order to remain unrecognized
+had always been accustomed to walk through these rooms closely veiled,
+and not to lay their wraps aside till they reached the little room where
+they sat with about twenty other women to glue the sheets together.
+
+Every one looked at her with curious enquiry. Her foot certainly hurt
+her, the cut in her head was burning, and she felt altogether intensely
+miserable; still there was room and to spare in her soul for the false
+pride that she inherited from her father, and for the humiliating
+consciousness that she was regarded by these people as one of
+themselves.
+
+In the room in which she worked, none but free women were employed, but
+more than a thousand slaves worked in the factory and she would as soon
+have eaten with beasts without plate or spoon, as have shared a meal
+with them. At one time, when every thing in their house seemed going to
+ruin, it was her own father who had suggested the papyrus factory to
+her attention, by telling her, with indignation, that the daughter of
+an impoverished citizen had degraded herself and her whole class by
+devoting herself to working in the papyrus factory to earn money. She
+was pretty well paid, to be sure, and in answer to Selene's enquiry,
+he had stated the amount she earned and mentioned the name of the rich
+manufacturer to whom she had sold her social standing for gold.
+
+Soon after this Selene had gone alone to the factory, had discussed all
+that was necessary with the manager, and had then begun, with Arsinoe,
+to work regularly in the factory where they now for two years had spent
+some hours of every day in gumming the papyrus-leaves together.
+
+How many a time at the beginning of a new week, or when under the
+influence of a special fit of aversion to her work, had Arsinoe refused
+to go with her ever again to the factory; how much persuasive eloquence
+had she expended, how many new ribbons had she bought, how often had she
+consented to allow her to go to some spectacle, which consumed half a
+week's wages, to induce Arsinoe to persist in her work, or to avert the
+fulfilment of her threat to tell her father, whither her daily walk--as
+she called it--tended.
+
+When Selene, who had been carried as far as the door of her own
+work-room, was sitting once more in her usual place in front of the long
+table on which she worked, and where hundreds of prepared papyrus strips
+were to be joined together, she felt scarcely able to raise the veil
+from her face. She drew the uppermost sheets towards her, dipped the
+brush in the gum-jar, and began to touch the margin of the leaf with
+it--but in the very act, her strength forsook her, the brush fell from
+her fingers, she dropped her hands on the table and her face in her
+hands, and began to cry softly.
+
+While she sat thus, her tears slowly flowing, her shoulders heaving, and
+her whole body shaken with shuddering sobs, a woman who sat opposite to
+her, beckoned to the deformed girl, and after whispering to her a few
+words grasped her hand firmly and warmly and looked straight into her
+eyes with her own, which though lustreless were clear and steady; then
+the little hunchback silently took Arsinoe's vacant place by Selene,
+and pushed the smaller half of the papyrus leaves over to the woman, and
+both set diligently to work on the gumming.
+
+They had been thus occupied for some time when Selene at last raised her
+head and was about to take up her brush again. She looked round for
+it and perceived her companion, whom she had not even thanked for
+her helpfulness, busily at work in Arsinoe's seat. She looked at her
+neighbor with eyes still full of tears, and as the girl, who was wholly
+absorbed in her task, did not notice her gaze, Selene said in a tone of
+surprise rather than kindliness.
+
+"This is my sister's place; you may sit here to-day, but when the
+factory opens again she must sit by me again."
+
+"I know, I know," said the workwoman shyly. "I am only finishing your
+sheets because I have no more of my own to do, and I can see how badly
+your foot is hurting you."
+
+The whole transaction was so strange and novel to Selene that she did
+not even understand her neighbor's meaning, and she only said, with a
+shrug:
+
+"You may earn all you can, for aught I can do; I cannot do anything
+to-day."
+
+Her deformed companion colored and looked up doubtfully at her opposite
+neighbor, who at once laid aside her brush and said, turning to Selene:
+
+"That is not what Mary means, my child. She is doing one-half of your
+day's task and I am doing the other, so that your suffering foot may not
+deprive you of your day's pay."
+
+"Do I look so very poor then?" exclaimed Keraunus' daughter, and a faint
+crimson tinged her pale cheeks.
+
+"By no means, my child," replied the woman. "You and your sister are
+evidently of good family--but pray let us have the pleasure of being of
+some help to you.
+
+"I do not know--" Selene stammered.
+
+"If you saw that it hurt me to stoop when the wind blows the strips of
+papyrus on to the floor, would you not willingly pick them up for me?"
+continued the woman. "What we are doing for you is neither less nor yet
+much more than that. In a few minutes we shall have finished and then we
+can follow the others, for every one else has left. I am the overseer
+of the room, as you know, and must in any case remain here till the last
+work-woman has gone."
+
+Selene felt full well that she ought to be grateful for the kindness
+shown her by these two women, and yet she had a sense of having a deed
+of almsgiving forced upon her acceptance, and she answered quickly,
+still with the blood mounting to her cheeks. "I am very grateful for
+your good intentions, of course, very grateful; but here each one must
+work for herself, and it would ill-become me to allow you to give me the
+money you have earned."
+
+The girl spoke these words with a decisiveness which was not free
+from arrogance, but this did not disturb the woman's gentle
+equanimity--"widow Hannah," as she was called by the workwoman--and
+fixing the calm gaze of her large eyes on Selene, she answered kindly:
+
+"We have been very happy to work for you, dear daughter, and a divine
+Sage has said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Do you
+understand all that that means? In our case it is as much as to say that
+it makes kind-hearted folks much happier to do others a pleasure than
+to receive good gifts. You said just now that you were grateful; do you
+want now to spoil our pleasure?"
+
+"I do not quite understand--" answered Selene. "No?" interrupted widow
+Hannah. "Then only try for once to do some one a pleasure with sincere
+and heartfelt love, and you will see how much good it does one, how it
+opens the heart and turns every trouble to a pleasure. Is it not true
+Mary, we shall he sincerely obliged to Selene if only she will not spoil
+the pleasure we have had in working for her?"
+
+"I have been so glad to do it," said the deformed girl, "and there--now
+I have finished."
+
+"And I too," said the widow, pressing the last leaf on to its fellow
+with a cloth, and then adding her pile of finished sheets to Mary's.
+
+"Thank you very much," murmured Selene, with downcast eyes, and rising
+from her seat, but she tried to support herself on her lame foot and
+this caused her such pain, that with a low cry, she sank back on the
+stool. The widow hastened to her side, knelt clown by her, took the
+injured foot with tender care in her delicate and slender hands,
+examined it attentively, felt it gently, and then exclaimed with horror:
+
+"Good Lord! and did you walk through the streets with a foot in this
+state?" and looking up at Selene she said affectionately. "Poor child,
+poor child! it must have hurt you! Why the swelling has risen above your
+sandal-straps. It is frightful! and yet--do you live far from this?"
+
+"I can get home in half an hour."
+
+"Impossible! First let me see on my tablets how much the paymaster owes
+you that I may go and fetch it, and then we will soon see what can be
+done with you. Meanwhile you sit still daughter dear, and you Mary rest
+her foot on a stool and undo the straps very gently from her ankle. Do
+not be afraid my child, she has soft, careful hands." As she spoke she
+rose and kissed Selene on her forehead and eyes, and Selene clung to
+her and could only say with swimming eyes, and a voice trembling with
+feeling:
+
+"Dame Hannah, dear widow Hannah."
+
+As the warm sunshine of an October clay reminds the traveller of the
+summer that is over, so the widow's words and ways brought back to
+Selene the long lost love and care of her good mother; and something
+soothing mingled in the bitterness of the pain she was suffering. She
+looked gratefully at the kind woman and obediently sat still; it was
+such a comfort once more to obey an order, and to obey willingly--to
+feel herself a child again and to be grateful for loving care.
+
+Hannah went away, and Mary knelt down in front of Selene to loosen and
+remove the straps which were half buried in the swelled muscles. She did
+it with the greatest caution, but her fingers had hardly touched her,
+when Selene shrank back with a groan, and before she could undo the
+sandal, the patient had fainted away. Mary fetched some water and bathed
+her brow, and the burning wound in her head, and by the time Selene
+had once more opened her eyes, dame Hannah had returned. When the widow
+stroked her thick soft hair, Selene looked up with a smile and asked:
+"Have I been to sleep?"
+
+"You shut your eyes my child," replied the widow. "Here are your wages
+and your sister's, for twelve days; do not move, I will put it in your
+little bag. Mary has not succeeded in loosening your sandal, but the
+physician who is paid to attend on the factory people will be here
+directly, and will order what is proper for your poor foot. The manager
+is having a litter fetched for you.--Where do you live?"
+
+"We?" cried Selene, alarmed. "No, no, I must go home."
+
+"But my child you cannot walk farther than the court-yard even if we
+both help you."
+
+"Then let me get a litter out in the street. My father--no one must
+know--I cannot."
+
+Hannah signed to Mary to leave them, and when she had shut the door on
+the deformed girl, she brought a stool, sat down opposite to Selene,
+laid a hand on the knee that was not hurt, and said:
+
+"Now, dear girl, we are alone. I am no chatterbox, and will certainly
+not betray your confidence. Tell me quietly who you belong to. Tell
+me--you believe that I mean well by you?"
+
+"Yes," replied Selene, looking the widow full in the face--a
+regularly-cut face, set in abundant smooth brown hair, and with the
+stamp of genuine and heart-felt goodness. "Yes--you remind me of my
+mother."
+
+"Well, I might be your mother."
+
+"I am nineteen years old already."
+
+"Already," replied Hannah, with a smile. "Why my life has been twice as
+long as yours. I had a child, too, a boy; and he was taken from me when
+he was quite little. He would be a year older than you now, my child--is
+your mother still alive?"
+
+"No," said Selene, with her old dry manner, that had become a habit.
+"The gods have taken her from us. She would have been, like you, not
+quite forty now, and she was as pretty and as kind as you are. When she
+died she left seven children besides me, all little, and one of them
+blind. I am the eldest, and do what I can for them, that they may not be
+starved."
+
+"God will help you in the loving task."
+
+"The gods!" exclaimed Selene, bitterly. "They let them grow up, the rest
+I have to see to--oh! my foot, my foot!"
+
+"Yes, we will think of that before anything else. Your father is alive?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And he is not to know that you work here?"
+
+Selene shook her head.
+
+"He is in moderate circumstances, but of good family?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Here, I think, is the doctor. Well? May I know your father's name? I
+must if I am to get you safe home."
+
+"I am the daughter of Keraunus, the steward of the palace, and we have
+rooms there, at Lochias," Selene answered, with rapid decision, but in a
+low whisper, so that the physician, who just then opened the room door,
+might not hear her. "No one, and least of all, my father, must know that
+I work here."
+
+The widow made a sign to her to be easy, greeted the grey-haired leech
+who came in with his assistant; and then, while the old man examined
+the injured limb, and cut the straps with a sharp pair of scissors, she
+bathed the girl's face and cut head with a wet handkerchief, supported
+the poor child in her arms, and, when the pain seemed too much for her,
+kissed her pale cheeks.
+
+Many sighs from the bottom of her heart, and many shrill little cries
+betrayed how intense was the pain Selene was enduring. When at length,
+her delicate and graceful foot-distorted just now by the extensive
+swelling,--was freed from the bands and straps, and the ankle had been
+felt and pressed in every direction by the leech, he exclaimed, turning
+to the assistant who stood ready to lend a helping hand:
+
+"Look here, Hippolytus, the girl came along the streets with her ankle
+in this state. If any one else had told me of such a thing, I should
+have desired him to keep his lies to himself. The fibula is broken at
+the joint, and with this injured limb the child has walked farther than
+I could trust myself at all--without my litter. By Sirius! child, if you
+are not crippled for life it will be a miracle."
+
+Selene had listened with closed eyes, and exhausted almost to
+unconsciousness; but at his last words she slightly shrugged her
+shoulders with a faint smile of scorn on her lips.
+
+"You think nothing of being lame!" said the old man, who let no gesture
+of his patient escape him. "That, of course, is your affair, but it
+is mine to see that you do not become a cripple in my hands. The
+opportunity for working a miracle is not given to one of us every day,
+and happily for me, you yourself bring a powerful coadjutor to help me.
+I do not mean a lover or anything of that kind, though you are much too
+pretty, but your lovely, vigorous, healthy youth. The hole in your head
+is hotter than it need be--keep it properly cool with fresh water. Where
+do you live, child?"
+
+"Almost half an hour from here," said Hannah, answering for Selene.
+
+"She cannot be taken so far as that, even in a litter, at present," said
+the old man.
+
+"I must go home!" cried Selene, resolutely, and trying to sit up.
+
+"Nonsense," exclaimed the physician. "I must forbid your moving at all.
+Be still, and be patient and obedient, or your foolish joke will come
+to a bad end; fever has already set in, and it will increase by the
+evening. It has nothing much to do with the leg, but all the more with
+the inflamed scalp-wound. Do you think," he added, turning to the widow,
+"that perhaps a bed could be made here on which she might lie, and
+remain here till the factory reopens?"
+
+"I would rather die," shrieked Selene, trying to draw away her foot from
+the leech.
+
+"Be still--be still, my dear child," said the good woman, soothingly. "I
+know where I can take you. My house is in a garden belonging to Paulina,
+the widow of Pudeus, near this and close to the sea; it is not above
+a thousand paces off, and there you will have a soft couch and tender
+care. A good litter is waiting, and I should think--"
+
+"Even that is a good distance," said the old man. "However, she cannot
+possibly be better cared for than by you, dame Hannah. Let us try it
+then, and I will accompany you to lash those accursed bearers' skins if
+they do not keep in step."
+
+Selene made no attempt to resist these orders, and willingly drank a
+potion which the old man gave her; but she cried to herself as she was
+lifted into the litter and her foot was carefully propped on pillows.
+In the street, which they soon reached through a side door, she again
+almost lost consciousness, and half awake but half as in a dream, she
+heard the leech's voice as he cautioned the bearers to walk carefully,
+and saw the people, and vehicles, and horsemen pass her on their way.
+Then she saw that she was being carried through a large garden, and at
+last she dimly perceived that she was being laid on a bed. From
+that moment every thing was merged in a dream, though the frequent
+convulsions of pain that passed over her features and now and then a
+rapid movement of her hand to the cut in her head, showed that she was
+not altogether oblivious to the reality of her sufferings.
+
+Dame Hannah sat by the bed, and carried out the physician's instructions
+with exactness; he himself did not leave his patient till he was
+perfectly satisfied with her bed and her position. Mary stayed with the
+widow helping her to wet handkerchiefs and to make bandages out of old
+linen.
+
+When Selene began to breathe more calmly Hannah beckoned her assistant
+to come close to her and asked in a low voice.
+
+"Can you stay here till early to-morrow, we must take it in turns to
+watch her, most likely for several nights--how hot this wound on her
+head is!"
+
+"Yes, I can stay, only I must tell my mother that she may not be
+frightened."
+
+"Quite right, and then you may undertake another commission for I cannot
+leave the poor child just now."
+
+"Her people will be anxious about her."
+
+"That is just where you must go; but no one besides us two must know who
+she is. Ask for Selene's sister and tell her what has happened; if you
+see her father tell him that I am taking care of his daughter, and that
+the physician strictly forbids her moving or being moved. But he must
+not know that Selene is one of us workers, so do not say a word about
+the factory before him. If you find neither Arsinoe nor her father at
+home, tell any one that opens the door to you that I have taken the sick
+child in, and did it gladly. But about the workshop, do your hear, not
+a word. One thing more, the poor girl would never have come down to the
+factory in spite of such pain, unless her family had been very much in
+need of her wages; so just give these drachmae to some one and say, as
+is perfectly true, that we found them about her person."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Plutarch was one of the richest citizens of Alexandria, and the owner of
+the papyrus manufactory where Selene and Arsinoe worked; and he had of
+his own free will offered to provide for the "suitable" entertainment of
+the wives and daughters of his fellow-citizens, who were, this very day,
+to assemble in one of the smaller theatres of the city. Every one that
+knew him, knew too that "suitable" with him meant as much as to say
+imperial splendor.
+
+The ship-builder's daughter had prepared Arsinoe for grand doings,
+but by the time she had reached the entrance only of the theatre her
+expectations were exceeded, for as soon as she gave her father's name
+and her own, a boy, who looked out from an arbor of flowers gave her a
+magnificent bunch of flowers, and another, who sat perched on a dolphin,
+handed her, as a ticket of admission, a finely-cut ornament of ivory
+mounted in gold, with a pin, by which the invited owner was intended to
+fix it like a brooch in her peplum; and at each entrance to the theatre,
+the ladies, as they came in, had a similar present made them.
+
+The passage leading to the auditorium was full of perfume, and Arsinoe,
+who had already visited this theatre two or three times, hardly
+recognized it, it was so gaily decorated with colored scarfs. And who
+had ever seen ladies and young girls filling the best places instead
+of men, as was the case to-day? Indeed the citizens' daughters were in
+general not permitted to see a theatrical performance at all, unless on
+very special and exceptional occasions. She looked up with a smile
+at the empty topmost rows of the cheapest seats of the semicircular
+auditorium, as one looks at an old playfellow one had outgrown by a
+head, for it was there--when she had occasionally been permitted to dip
+into their scanty common purse--that she had almost fainted many a time,
+with pleasure, fear, or sympathy, though the draught so high up and
+under the open heaven which was the only roof, was incessantly blowing;
+and in summer the discomforts were even greater from the awning which
+shaded the amphitheatre on the sunny side. The wide breadths of canvas
+were managed by means of stout ropes, and when these were pulled through
+the rings they rode in, they made a screech which compelled the bearer
+to stop his ears; and often it was necessary to duck his head not to
+be hit by the heavy ropes or by the awning itself. But Arsinoe only
+remembered these things to-day as a butterfly sporting in the sun may
+remember the hideous pupa-case that it has burst and left behind it.
+
+Radiant with happy excitement, she was led to her seat with her young
+companion, the black-haired daughter of the shipwright. She perceived
+indeed that numerous eyes turned upon her, but that only added to her
+pleasure, for she knew that she could well bear looking at, and there
+could be no greater pleasure, as she thought, than to give pleasure to a
+multitude.
+
+To-day at any rate! For those who were looking at her were the chief
+citizens of Alexandria; they stood on the stage, and among them stood
+kind tall Pollux, waving his hand to her. She could not keep her feet
+quiet, but she did contrive to keep her arms still by crossing them in
+front of her, so that they might not betray how excited she was.
+
+This distribution of parts had already begun, for, by waiting for
+Selene, she had come in almost half an hour too late. As soon as she
+saw that the eyes that had been attracted to herself as she entered the
+theatre had turned to other objects she herself looked round her. She
+was sitting on a bench at the lowest and narrowest end of one of the
+wedge-shaped sections of seats, which grew wider at the upper end, and
+which were divided from each other by gangways for those who came and
+went, thus forming the semicircular area of the auditorium.
+
+Here she was surrounded only by young girls and women who were to have
+a part or place in the performances. The places for these interested
+persons were divided from the stage by a space for the orchestra, whence
+the stage was easily reached by steps up which the chorus were wont to
+mount to it.
+
+Behind Arsinoe, in the larger circular rows, sat the parents and
+husbands of the performers, among whom Keraunus, in his saffron robe,
+had taken a place, besides a considerable number of sight-loving matrons
+and older citizens who had accepted Plutarch's invitation.
+
+Among the young women and girls Arsinoe saw several whose beauty struck
+her, but she admired them ungrudgingly, and it never came into her head
+to compare herself with them, for she knew very accurately that she
+was pretty, and that even here she had nothing to conceal, and this was
+enough for her.
+
+The many-voiced hum which incessantly buzzed in her ears, and the
+perfume which rose from the attar in the orchestra had something
+intoxicating in them. Her gaze round the assembled multitude could not
+disturb any one, and her companion had found some friends with whom she
+was chattering and laughing. Other ladies and young girls sat staring
+silently in front of them, or studying the appearance of the rest of the
+audience, male and female; while others again concentrated their whole
+attention on the stage. Arsinoe soon followed this example, nor was
+this solely on account of Pollux who, by the prefect's orders, had been
+enlisted among the artists to whom the arrangement of the display was
+entrusted, in spite of the objections of his master Papias. More than
+once before had she seen the afternoon sun shine as brightly into the
+theatre as it did to-day, and the blue sky overarching it without a
+cloud, but with what different feelings did she now direct her gaze to
+the raised level behind the orchestra. The background, it is true, was
+the same as usual, the pillared front of a palace built entirely of
+colored marbles, and ornamented with gold; but on this occasion fresh
+garlands of fragrant flowers hung gracefully between the pilasters and
+across from column to column. Several artists, the first of the city,
+with tablets and styla in their hands were moving about among fifty
+girls and ladies, and Plutarch himself, and the gentlemen with him,
+composed, as it were a grand chorus which sometimes divided, and
+sometimes stood all together.
+
+On the right side of the stage were three purple-covered couches. On
+one of them sat Titianus, the prefect, who, like the artists, used his
+pencil; with him was his wife Julia. On another reclined Verus, at full
+length, and as usual, crowned with roses; the third was for Plutarch,
+but was unoccupied. The praetor did not hesitate to interrupt any
+speaker, as though he were the host of the entertainment, and many of
+his remarks were followed by loud applause, or approving laughter.
+
+The face and figure of the wealthy Plutarch, which could never be
+forgotten, were not altogether strange to Arsinoe, for, a few days
+previously he had shown himself for the first time in many years in his
+papyrus factory, with an architect to settle with him how the courts
+and rooms could best be cleaned and decorated for the reception of the
+Emperor; and on this occasion he had gone into the room where she worked
+and had pinched her cheek with a few roguish and flattering words.
+
+There he was, walking across the stage. He was an old man, said to
+be about seventy years of age, his legs were half-paralyzed, and they
+nevertheless moved with a series of incessant and rapid but unvoluntary
+jerks under his heavy bowed body, and he was supported on either hand by
+a tall young fellow. His nobly-formed head, must have been in his youth,
+of extraordinary beauty. Now his head was covered by a wig of long brown
+hair, his eyebrows and lashes were darkly dyed, his cheeks daubed with
+red and white paint, which gave his countenance a fixed expression, as
+if he had been stricken in the very act of smiling. On his curls he wore
+a wreath of rare flowers in long racemes. An abundance of red and white
+roses stuck out from the front folds of his ample toga, and were held
+in their place by gold brooches, sparkling with precious stones of large
+size. The hems of his mantle were all edged with rose-buds, and each
+was fastened in with an emerald that shone like some bright insect. The
+young men who supported him seemed like a portion of himself; he took
+no more heed of them than if they had been crutches, and they needed not
+command to tell them where he wished to go, where to stand still, and
+where to rest.
+
+At a distance his face was like that of a youth, but seen close it
+looked like a painted plaster mask, with regular features and large
+movable eyes.
+
+Favorinus, the sophist, had said of him that one might cry over his
+handsome locomotive corpse, if one were not obliged to laugh at it,
+and it was said that he had himself declared that he would force his
+faithless youth to remain with him. The Alexandrians called him the
+Adonis with six legs, on account of the lads who supported him, and
+without whom no one ever saw him and who always accompanied him when he
+went out. The first time he heard this nickname he remarked: "They had
+better have called me sixhanded;" and in fact he had a thoroughly
+good heart, he was liberal and benevolent, took fatherly care of his
+work-people, treated his slaves well, enriched those whom he set free,
+and from time to time distributed large sums among the people in money
+and in grain.
+
+Arsinoe looked compassionately on the poor old man who could not buy
+back his youth with all his money and all his art.
+
+In the supercilious man who at once came up to Plutarch she recognized
+the art-dealer Gabinius to whom her father had shown the door,
+on account of the mosaic picture in their sitting-room, but their
+conversation was interrupted, for the distribution of the women's part
+for the group of Alexander's entry into Babylon, was now about to take
+place; about fifty girls and young women were sent away from the stage
+and went down into the orchestra. The Exegetes, the highest official in
+the town, now came forward and took a new list out of the hand of Papias
+the sculptor. After rapidly casting an eye on this, he handed it to a
+herald who followed him, who proclaimed to all the assembly:
+
+"In the name of the most noble Exegetes I request your attention, all
+you ladies here assembled, the wives and daughters of Macedonians and of
+Roman citizens. We now come to a distribution of the characters in our
+representation of the life and history of the great Macedonian, of the
+'Marriage of Alexander and Roxana,' and I hereby request those among you
+to come upon the stage whom our artists have selected to take part in
+this scene in the procession." After this exordium he shouted in a deep
+and resonant voice a long list of names, and while this was going on
+every other sound was hushed in the wide amphitheatre.
+
+Even on the stage all was still; only Verus whispered a few remarks
+to Titianus, and the curiosity-dealer spoke into Plutarch's ear, long
+sentences with the stringent emphasis which was peculiar to him; and the
+old man answered sometimes with an assenting nod, and sometimes with a
+deprecatory motion of his hands.
+
+Arsinoe listened with suspended breath to the herald's proclamation;
+she started and colored all over, with her eyes fixed on the bunch of
+flowers in her hand, when she heard from the stage loudly uttered and
+plain to be heard by all present:
+
+"Arsinoe, the second daughter of Keraunus, the Macedonian and a Roman
+citizen."
+
+The ship-builder's daughter had already been called before her, and had
+immediately left her seat, but Arsinoe waited modestly till some older
+ladies rose. She then joined them and went among the last members of the
+little procession which went down to the orchestra and from thence up
+the steps for the chorus, on to the stage.
+
+There the ladies and young girls were placed in two ranks, and looked
+at with amiable consideration by the artists. Arsinoe was not long in
+perceiving that these gentlemen looked at her longer and more often
+than at the others; and then, after the masters of the festival had gone
+aside in groups to discuss the matter they looked at her constantly and
+were talking, she felt sure, about her. Nor did it escape her that
+she had become the centre of many glances from the lookers-on who were
+sitting in the theatre, and it occurred to her that on several sides
+people were pointing at her with their fingers. She did not know which
+way she should look and began to feel bashful; still she was pleased at
+being remarked by so many people, and as she stood looking at the ground
+out of sheer embarrassment to hide the delight she felt, Verus, who had
+gone up to the group of artists, called out, putting his hand on the
+prefect's arm.
+
+"Charming-charming! a Roxana that might have sprung straight out of the
+picture."
+
+Arsinoe heard these words, and guessing that they referred to her
+she became more confused than ever, while her awkward smile gradually
+changed to an expression of joyful but anxious expectation of a delight
+which was almost painful in its magnitude.
+
+Now one of the artists pronounced her name, and as she ventured to raise
+her eyes to see if it were not Pollux who had spoken, she observed the
+wealthy Plutarch who, with his two living crutches and Gabinius, the
+lean curiosity-dealer, was inspecting the ranks of her companions.
+Presently he had come quite close to her, and as he was helped towards
+her with tottering steps, he dug the dealer in the ribs and said,
+kissing the back of his hand, and winking his great eyes: "I know--I
+know! It is not easily forgotten. Ivory and red coral!"
+
+Arsinoe started, the blood left her cheeks, and all satisfaction fled
+from her heart when the old man came to a stand-still in front of her,
+and said kindly:
+
+"Ah! ah! a bud out of the papyrus factory among all these proud roses
+and lilies. Ah! ah! out of my work-rooms to join my assembly! Never
+mind-never mind, beauty is everywhere welcome. I do not ask how you got
+here. I am only glad that you are here."
+
+Arsinoe covered part of her face with her hand, but he tapped her white
+arm three times with his middle finger, and then tottered on laughing
+to himself. The dealer had caught Plutarch's words, and asked him, when
+they had gone a few steps from Arsinoe, with eager indignation:
+
+"Did I hear you rightly? a work-woman in your factory, and here among
+our daughters?"
+
+"So it is--two busy hands among so many idle ones," said the old man,
+gaily.
+
+"Then she must have forced her way in, and must be turned out."
+
+"Certainly she shall not--Why, she is charming."
+
+"It is revolting! here, in this assembly!"
+
+"Revolting?" interrupted Plutarch. "Oh dear, no! we must not be
+too particular. And how are we to obtain mere children from you
+antiquity-mongers?" Then he added pleasantly:
+
+"This lovely creature must I should think, delight your fine sense of
+beauty; or are you afraid that she may seem better suited to the part of
+Roxana than your own charming daughter? Only listen to the men up there!
+Let us see what is going on."
+
+These words referred to a loud discussion which had arisen close by the
+couches of the prefect and Verus, the praetor. They, and with them most
+of the painters and sculptors present, were of opinion that Arsinoe
+would be a wonderfully effective Roxana; they maintained that her face
+and figure answered perfectly to those of the Bactrian princes as they
+were represented by Action, whose picture was, to a certain extent,
+to serve as the basis of the living group. Only Papias and two of his
+fellow-artists, declared against this choice, and eagerly asserted that
+among all the damsels present one, and one alone, was worthy to appear
+before the Emperor as Alexander's bride, and that one was Praxilla, the
+daughter of Gabinius. All three were in close business relations with
+the father of the young girl, who was tall, and slim, and certainly
+very lovely, and they wanted to do a pleasure to the rich and knowing
+purchaser. Their zeal even assumed a tone of vehemence, when the dealer,
+following in the wake of Plutarch, joined the group of disputants, and
+they were certain of being heard by him.
+
+"And who is this girl yonder?" asked Papias, pointing to Arsinoe, as the
+two came up. "Nothing can be said against her beauty, but she is dressed
+less than simply, and wears no kind of ornament worth speaking of--it is
+a thousand to one against her parents being in a position to provide her
+with such a rich dress, and such costly jewels as Roxana certainly ought
+to display when about to be married to Alexander. The Asiatic princess
+must appear in silk, gold and precious stones. Now my friend here will
+be able so to dress his Praxilla that the splendor of her attire might
+have astonished the great Macedonian himself, but who is the father of
+that pretty child who is satisfied with the blue ribbon in her hair, her
+two roses, and her little white frock?"
+
+"Your reflections are just, Papias," interrupted the dealer, with
+dry incisiveness. "The girl you are speaking of is quite out of the
+question. I do not say so for my daughter's sake, but because everything
+in bad taste is odious to me; it is hardly conceivable how such a young
+thing could have had the audacity to force herself in here. A pretty
+face, to be sure, opens locks and bars. She is--do not be too much
+startled--she is nothing more than a work-girl in the papyrus factory of
+our excellent host, Plutarch."
+
+"That is not the truth," Pollux interrupted, indignantly, as he heard
+this assertion.
+
+"Moderate your tongue, young man," replied the dealer. "I can call you
+to witness, noble Plutarch."
+
+"Let her be whom she may," answered the old man, with annoyance. "She
+is very one of my workwomen, but even if she had come straight here from
+the gumming-table with such a face and such a figure, she is perfectly
+in place here and everywhere. That is my opinion."
+
+"Bravo! my fine friend!" cried Verus, nodding to the old man. "Caesar
+will be far better pleased with such a paragon of charmers as that sweet
+creature, than with all your old writs of citizenship and heavy purses."
+
+"That is true," the prefect said, confirming this statement. "And I dare
+swear she is a free maiden, and not a slave. But you stood up for her
+friend Pollux--what do you know about her?"
+
+"That she is the daughter of Keraunus, the palace-steward, and that
+I have known her from her childhood," answered the youthful artist
+emphatically. "He is a Roman citizen, and of an old Macedonian house as
+well."
+
+"Perhaps even of royal descent," added Titianus, laughing.
+
+"I know the man," answered the dealer hastily. "He is an impecunious
+insolent old fool."
+
+"I should think," interrupted Verus with lofty composure, but rather as
+being bored, than as reproving the irritated speaker, "it seems to me
+that this is hardly the place to conduct a discussion as to the nature
+and disposition of the fathers of all those ladies and young girls."
+
+"But he is poor," cried the dealer angrily. "A few days since he offered
+to sell me his few miserable curiosities, but really I could not--"
+
+"We are sorry for your sake if the transaction was unsuccessful," Verus
+again interposed, this time with excessive politeness. "Now, first let
+us decide on the persons and afterwards on the costumes. The father of
+the girl is a Roman citizen then?"
+
+"A member of the council, and in his way a man of position," replied
+Titianus.
+
+"And I," added his wife Julia, "have taken a great fancy to the sweet
+little maid, and if the principal part is given to her, and her noble
+father is without adequate means, as you assert my friend, I will
+undertake to provide for her costume. Caesar will be charmed with such a
+Roxana."
+
+The dealer's clients were silent, he himself was trembling with
+disappointment and vexation, and his fury rose to the utmost when
+Plutarch, whom till then he thought he had won over to his daughter's
+side, tried to bow his bent old body before dame Julia, and said with a
+graceful gesture of regret:
+
+"My old eyes have deceived me again on this occasion. The little girl is
+very like one of my workwomen; very like--but I see now that there is
+a certain something which the other lacks. I have done her an injustice
+and remain her debtor. Permit, me, noble lady to add the ornaments to
+the dress you provide for our Roxana. I may be lucky enough to find
+something pretty for her. A sweet child! I shall go at once and beg her
+forgiveness and tell her what we propose. May I do so noble Julia? Have
+I your permission gentlemen?"
+
+In a very few minutes it was known all over the stage, and soon after
+all through the amphitheatre, that Arsinoe, the daughter of Keraunus,
+had been selected to represent the character of Roxana.
+
+"But who was Keraunus?"
+
+"How was it that the children of the most illustrious and wealthy
+citizens had been overlooked in assigning this most prominent part?"
+
+"This was just what might be expected when every thing was left to those
+reckless artists!"
+
+"And where was a poor little girl like that to find the talents which
+it would cost to procure the costume of an Asiatic princess, Alexander's
+bride?"
+
+"Plutarch, and the prefect's wife had undertaken that."
+
+"A mere beggar."
+
+"How well the family jewels would have suited our daughters!"
+
+"Do we want to show Caesar nothing but a few silly pretty faces?--and
+not something of our wealth and taste?"
+
+"Supposing Hadrian asks who this Roxana is, and had to be told that a
+collection had to be made to get her a proper costume."
+
+"Such things never could happen anywhere but in Alexandria."
+
+"Every one wants to know whether she worked in Plutarch's factory. They
+say it is not true--but the painted old villain still loves a pretty
+face. He smuggled her in, you may be sure; where there is smoke there is
+fire, and it is beyond a doubt that she gets money from the old man."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Ah! you had better enquire of a priest of Aphrodite. It is nothing to
+laugh at, it is scandalous, audacious!"
+
+Thus and on this wise ran the comments with which the announcement of
+Arsinoe's preferment to the part of Roxana was received, and hatred
+and bitter animosity had grown up in the souls of the dealer and his
+daughter. Praxilla was selected as a companion to Alexander's bride,
+and she yielded without objecting, but on her way homewards she nodded
+assent when her father said:
+
+"Let things go on now as they may, but a few hours before the
+performance begins, I will send them word that you are ill."
+
+The selection of Arsinoe had however, on the other hand, given pleasure
+as well as pain. Up in the middle places in the amphitheatre sat
+Keraunus, his legs far apart, his face glowing, panting and choking with
+sheer delight, and too haughty to draw in his feet even when the brother
+of the archidikastes tried to squeeze by his bulky person which filled
+two seats at once. Arsinoe, whose sharp ears had not failed to catch the
+dealer's remonstrances, and the words in which brave Pollux had taken
+her part, had, at first, felt dying of shame and terror, but now she
+felt as though she could fly on the wings of her delight. She had never
+been so happy in her life, and when she got out with her father, in the
+first dark street she threw her arms round his neck, kissed both his
+cheeks, and then told him how kind the lady Julia, the prefect's
+wife had been to her, and that she had undertaken, with the warmest
+friendliness, to have her costly dress made for her.
+
+Keraunus had no objection to offer, and, strange to say, he did not
+consider it beneath his dignity to allow Arsinoe to be supplied with
+jewels by the wealthy manufacturer.
+
+"People have seen," he said, pathetically, "that we need not shrink from
+doing as much as other citizens do, but to dress a Roxana as befits
+a bride would cost millions, and I am very willing to confess to my
+friends that I have not millions. Where the costume comes from is all
+the same, be that as it may you will still stand the first of all the
+maidens in the city, and I am pleased with you for that, my child.
+To-morrow will be the last meeting, and then perhaps Selene too, may
+have a prominent part given to her. Happily we are able to dress her as
+befits. When will the prefect's wife fetch you?"
+
+"To-morrow about noon."
+
+"Then early to-morrow buy a nice new dress."
+
+"Will there not be enough for a new bracelet too?" asked Arsinoe,
+coaxingly. "This one of mine is too narrow and trumpery."
+
+"You shall have one, for you have deserved it," replied Keraunus, with
+dignity. "But you must have patience till the day after to-morrow;
+to-morrow the goldsmiths will be closed on account of the festival."
+
+Arsinoe had never seen her father so cheerful and talkative as he was
+to-day, and yet the walk from the theatre to Lochias was not a
+very short one, and it was long past the early hour at which he was
+accustomed to retire to bed.
+
+By the time the father and daughter reached the palace it was already
+tolerably late, for, after Arsinoe had quitted the stage, suitable
+representatives of parts had been selected for three other scenes from
+the life of Alexander, by the light of torches, lamps and tapers; and
+before the assemblage broke up, Plutarch's guests were entertained with
+wine, fruit, syrups, sweet cakes, oyster pasties, and other delicacies.
+The steward had fallen with good will on the noble drink and excellent
+food, and when he was replete, he was wont to be in a better humor, and
+after a modicum of wine, in a more cheerful mood than usual. Just now
+he was content and kind, for although he had done all that lay in his
+power, the entertainment had not lasted long enough, for him to arrive
+at a state of intoxication which could make him surly, or to overload
+his digestion. Towards the end of their walk, he turned thoughtful and
+said:
+
+"To-morrow the council does not sit on account of the festival, and that
+is well; all the world will congratulate me, question me, and notice me,
+and the gilding on my circlet is quite shabby; and in some places the
+silver shines through. Your outfit will now cost nothing, and it is
+quite necessary that before the next meeting I should go to a goldsmith
+and exchange that wretched thing for one of real gold. A man should show
+what he is."
+
+He spoke the words pompously, and Arsinoe eagerly acquiesced, and
+only begged him, as they went in at the open door, to leave enough for
+Selene's costume; he laughed quietly to himself, and said:
+
+"We need no longer be so very cautious. I should like to know who the
+Alexander will be who will be the first to ask for my Roxana as his
+wife. Rich old Plutarch's only son already has a seat in the council,
+and has not yet taken a wife. He is no longer very young, but he is a
+fine man still."
+
+The radiant father's dream of the future was interrupted by Doris, who
+came out of the gate-house and called him by his name. Keraunus stood
+still. When the old woman went on:
+
+"I must speak with you."
+
+He answered, repellently: "But I shall not listen to you--neither now
+nor at any time."
+
+"It was certainly not for my pleasure," retorted Doris, "that I called
+to you; I have only to tell you that you will not find your daughter
+Selene at home."
+
+"What do you say?" cried Keraunus.
+
+"I say that the poor girl with her damaged foot could at last walk no
+farther, and that she had to be carried into a strange house where she
+is being taken care of."
+
+"Selene!" cried Arsinoe, falling from all her clouds of happiness,
+startled and grieved--"do you know where she is?"
+
+Before Doris could reply, Keraunus stormed out:
+
+"It is all the fault of the Roman architect and his raging beast of
+a dog. Very good! very good! now Caesar will certainly help me to my
+rights. He will give a lesson to those who throw Roxana's sister into a
+sick-bed, and hinder her from taking any part in the processions. Very
+good! very good indeed!"
+
+"It is sad enough to cry over!" said the gatekeeper's wife, indignantly.
+"Is this the thanks she gets for all her care of her little brothers and
+sisters! Only to think that a father can speak so, when his best child
+is lying with a broken leg, helpless among strangers!"
+
+"With a broken leg," whimpered Arsinoe.
+
+"Broken!" repeated Keraunus slowly, and now sincerely anxious. "Where
+can I find her?"
+
+"At dame Hannah's little house at the bottom of the garden belonging to
+the widow of Pudeus."
+
+"Why did they not bring her here?"
+
+"Because the physician forbade it. She is in a fever, but she is well
+cared for. Hannah is one of the Christians. I cannot bear the people,
+but they know how to nurse the sick better than any one."
+
+"With Christians! my child is with Christians!" shrieked Keraunus,
+beside himself. "At once Arsinoe, at once come with me; Selene shall not
+stay a moment longer among that accursed rabble. Eternal gods! besides
+all our other troubles this disgrace too!"
+
+"Nay, it is not so bad as that," said Doris soothingly. "There are
+very estimable folks even among the Christians. At any rate they are
+certainly honorable, for the poor hunch-backed creature who first
+brought the bad news gave me this little bag of money which dame Hannah
+had found in Selene's pocket."
+
+Keraunus took his daughter's hard-won wages as contemptuously as though
+he was quite accustomed to gold, and thought nothing of more wretched
+silver; but Arsinoe began to cry at the sight of the drachmae, for she
+knew it was for the sake of that money that Selene had left her home,
+and could divine what frightful pain she must have suffered on the way.
+
+"Honorable this, and honorable that!" cried Keraunus, as he tied up
+his money-bag. "I know well enough how shameless are the goings on in
+assemblies of that stamp; kissing and hugging slaves! quite the right
+sort of thing for my daughter! Come Arsinoe, let us find a litter at
+once!"
+
+"No, no!" exclaimed Doris eagerly. "For the present you must leave her
+in peace. I should be glad to conceal it from you as a father--but the
+physician declared it might cost her her life if she were not left just
+now in perfect quiet. No one goes to any kind of assembly with a burning
+wound in the head, a high fever and a broken leg.--Poor dear child!"
+
+Keraunus stood silent in grave consternation, while Arsinoe exclaimed
+through her tears:
+
+"But I must go to her, I must see her Doris."
+
+"That I cannot blame you for, my pretty one," said the old woman. "I
+have already been to the house of the Christians, but they would not let
+me in to see the patient. With you it is rather different as you are her
+sister."
+
+"Come father," begged Arsinoe, "first let us see to the children, and
+then you shall come with me to see Selene. Oh! why did I not go with
+her. Oh! if she should die."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Keraunus and his daughter reached their rooms less quickly than usual,
+for the steward dreaded a fresh attack from the blood-hound, which,
+to-night however, was sharing Antinous' room. They found the old
+slavewoman up, and in great excitement, for she loved Selene, she was
+frightened at her absence, and in the children's sleeping-room all was
+not as it should be.
+
+Arsinoe went without delay to see the little ones, but the black
+woman remained with her master, and told him with many tears, while he
+exchanged his saffron-colored pallium for an old cloak, that the joy of
+her heart, little blind Helios had been ill, and could not sleep, even
+after she had given him some of the drops which Keraunus himself was
+accustomed to take.
+
+"Idiotic animal!" exclaimed Keraunus, "to give my medicine to the
+child," and he kicked off his new shoes to replace them with shabbier
+ones. "If you were younger I would have you flogged."
+
+"But you did say the drops were good," stammered the old woman.
+
+"For me," shouted the steward, and without fastening his shoe-straps
+round his ankles, so that they flapped and pattered on the ground, he
+hurried off into the children's room. There sat his darling blind child,
+his 'neir' as he liked to call him, with his pretty, fair, curly head
+resting on Arsinoe's breast. The child recognized his step, and began
+his little lament:
+
+"Selene was away, and I was frightened, and I feel so sick, so sick."
+
+The steward laid his hand on the child's forehead, and feeling how hot
+it was he began to walk restlessly up and down by the little bed.
+
+"That is just how it always happens," he said. "When one misfortune
+comes another always follows. Look at him Arsinoe. Do you remember
+how the fever took poor Berenice? Sickness, uneasiness, and a burning
+head.--Have you any pain in your head my boy?"
+
+"No," answered Helios, "but I feel so sick."
+
+The steward opened the child's little shirt to see if he had any spots
+on his breast, but Arsinoe said, as she bent over him:
+
+"It is nothing much, he has only overloaded his stomach. The stupid old
+woman gives him every thing he asks for, and she let him have half of
+the currant cake, which we sent her to fetch before we went out."
+
+"But his head is burning," repeated Keraunus.
+
+"He will be quite well again by to-morrow morning," replied Arsinoe.
+"Our poor Selene needs us far snore than he does. Come father. The old
+woman can stay with him."
+
+"I want Selene to come," whimpered the child. "Pray, pray, do not leave
+me alone again."
+
+"Your old father will stay with you my pet," said Keraunus tenderly, for
+it cut him to the soul to see this child suffer. "You none of you know
+what this boy is to us all."
+
+"He will soon go to sleep," Arsinoe asserted. "Do let us go, or it will
+be too late."
+
+"And leave the old woman to commit some other stupid blunder?" cried
+Keraunus. "It is my duty to stay with the poor little boy. You can go to
+your sister and take the old woman with you."
+
+"Very good, and to-morrow early I will come back."
+
+"To-morrow morning?" said Keraunus surprised. "No, no, that will not do.
+Doris said just now that Selene will be well nursed by the Christians.
+Only see how she is, give her my love, and then come back."
+
+"But father--"
+
+"Besides you must remember that the prefect's wife expects you to-morrow
+at noon to choose the stuff for your dress, and you must not look as if
+you had been sitting up all night."
+
+"I will rest a little while in the morning."
+
+"In the morning? And how about curling my hair? And your new frock? And
+poor little Helios?--No child, you are only just to see Selene and then
+come back again. Early in the morning too the holiday will have begun,
+and you know what goes on then; the old woman would be of no use to you
+in the throng. Go and see how Selene is, you are not to stay."
+
+"I will see--"
+
+"Not a word about seeing--you come home again. I desire it; in two hours
+you are to be in bed."
+
+Arsinoe shrugged her shoulders, and two minutes after she was standing
+with the old slave-woman in front of the gate-house.
+
+A broad beam of light still fell through the half-open door of the
+bowery little room, so Euphorion and Doris had not retired to rest and
+could at once open the palace-gate for her. The Graces set up a bark as
+Arsinoe crossed the threshold of her old friends' house, but they did
+not leave their cushion for they soon recognized her.
+
+It was several years since Arsinoe, in obedience to her father's strict
+prohibition had set foot in the snug the house, and her heart was deeply
+touched as she saw again all the surroundings she had loved as a child,
+and had not forgotten as she grew into girlhood. There were the birds,
+the little dogs, and the lutes on the wall near the Apollo. On worthy
+dame Doris' table there had always been something to eat, and there,
+now, good a lovely, golden-brown cake, by the side of the wine-jar. How
+often as a child had she sneaked in to beg a sweet morsel, how often to
+see whether tall Pollux were not there, Pollux, whose bold devices and
+original suggestions, gave his work and his play alike, the stamp
+of genius, and lent them a peculiar charm. And there sat her saucy
+playfellow in person, his legs stretched at full length in front of him,
+and talking, eagerly. Arsinoe heard him relating the end of the history
+of her being chosen for Roxana, and caught her own name, graced with
+such epithets as brought the blushes to her cheeks, and gave her double
+pleasure because he could not guess that she could overhear them. From
+a boy he had grown to a man, and a fine man, and a great artist--but he
+was still the old kind and audacious Pollux.
+
+The sudden leap with which he sprang from his seat to welcome her, the
+frank laughter with which he several times interrupted her speech, the
+childlike loving way in which he held his arm round his little mother
+while he greeted her, and asked why she was going out so late, the
+winning, touching tone of his voice as he expressed his regret at
+Selene's mishaps--all went home to Arsinoe as a thing known and loved,
+of which she had long been deprived, and she clung to the two strong
+hands he held out to her. If at that moment he had taken her up, and
+clasped her to his heart before the very eyes of Eupliorion and his
+mother she really would have been incapable of resisting him.
+
+It was with a heavy heart that Arsinoe had gone into dame Doris, but in
+the gate-keeper's house there reigned an atmosphere in which care and
+anxiety could not breathe, and the light-hearted girl's vision of her
+sister as tormented with pain and threatened with danger was changed in
+a wonderfully short time to that of a sufferer comfortably in bed, with
+only a severely-injured foot. In the place of consuming anxiety she felt
+only hearty sympathy, and this sounded in her voice as she begged the
+singer Euphorion to open the gate for her, because she wanted to go out
+with her slave-woman to ascertain how Selene was.
+
+Doris soothed her, repeating her assurance that the patient would be
+nursed with the utmost care in dame Hannah's hands; still, she thought
+her wish to see her sister very justifiable, and eagerly seconded Pollux
+when he entreated Arsinoe to accept his escort; for the festival would
+be beginning soon after midnight, the streets would be full of rough
+and impudent people, and a bunch of feathers would be about as much use
+against the drunken slaves as her black scarecrow, who had been falling
+into decrepitude even before she had done the stupidest deed of her life
+and roused the steward's anger against herself.
+
+So they went along the dark streets which grew full of people the
+farther they went, side by side in silence. Presently Pollux said:
+
+"Put your arm through mine; you ought to feel that I am protecting you,
+and I--I should like to feel at every step that I have found you once
+more, and am allowed to be near you--so sweet a creature."
+
+The words did not sound impertinent, on the contrary, they sounded very
+much in earnest, and the sculptor's deep voice trembled with emotion
+as he spoke them with deep tenderness. They knocked at the door of the
+girl's heart with the urgent hand of love; she unhesitatingly put her
+hand through his arm and answered softly:
+
+"You will take care of me now."
+
+"Yes," said he, and he took her little hand, which rested on his right
+arm, in his left hand. She did not draw it away, and after they had gone
+on thus for a few paces he sighed and said:
+
+"Do you know how I feel?"
+
+"Well!"
+
+"Nay, I myself cannot put it into words. Rather as if I had triumphed
+in the Olympian games, or as if Caesar had invested me with the
+purple!--But who cares for the wealth or the purple! You are hanging
+on my arm, and I have hold of your hand; compared with this, all is
+as nought. If it were not for the people about I--I do not know what I
+could do."
+
+She looked up at him with happy content, but he lifted her hand to his
+lips and pressed it to them long and fervently. Then he let it go again
+and said, with a sigh that came up from the bottom of his heart:
+
+"Oh Arsinoe, my sweet Arsinoe, how I love you!"
+
+As the words came softly yet hotly from his lips the girl clasped his
+arm closely to her bosom, leaned her head on his shoulder, looked up at
+him with a wide-eyed, tender gaze, and said softly:
+
+"Oh Pollux, I am so happy, the world is so good!"
+
+"Nay, I could hate it!" cried the sculptor. "To hear this--and to have
+an old mother wide awake at home, and to be obliged to walk steadily on
+in a street crowded with men--it is unendurable! I shall not hold out
+much longer--sweetest of girls--here it is quiet and dark."
+
+Yes, in a little nook made by two contiguous houses, and into which
+Pollux drew Arsinoe, it was pitch dark, as he hastily pressed his first
+kiss on her innocent lips; but in their hearts it was light-radiant
+sunshine.
+
+She had thrown her arms round his neck and would willingly have clung
+to him till day should end; but they heard the approach of a noisy
+procession of slaves. These unfortunate creatures began soon after
+midnight singing and shouting so as to avail themselves to the extremist
+limit of the holiday, which released them for a short time from their
+tasks and duties; Pollux knew well how unbounded the license of their
+pleasures could be, and as he walked on with Arsinoe he enjoined her to
+keep with him as close as possible to the houses.
+
+"How jolly they are!" he said pointing to the merry-makers. "Their
+masters will wait on themselves a little to-day, and the best day in
+the year is just beginning for them, but for us the best day in all our
+lives."
+
+"Yes, yes," cried Arsinoe, and she clasped his strong arm with both her
+hands.
+
+Then they both laughed merrily, for Pollux had noticed that the old
+slave-woman had gone on past them with her head sunk on her breast, and
+was following another pair.
+
+"I will call her," Arsinoe said.
+
+"No, no, let her be," said the artist. "The couple in front certainly
+require her protection more than we do."
+
+"But how could she possibly mistake that little man for you?" laughed
+Arsinoe.
+
+"I wish I were a little smaller," replied Pollux with a sigh. "Only
+picture to yourself the vast amount of burning love and tormenting
+longing that can be contained in so large a body as mine!" She slapped
+him on the arm, and to punish her he hastily pressed his lips on her
+forehead.
+
+"Don't--think of the people," she said reprovingly, but he gaily
+answered:
+
+"It is not a misfortune to be envied."
+
+Here the streets came to an end, and they found themselves in front of
+the garden belonging to Pudeus' widow; Pollux knew it, for Paulina who
+owned it was the sister of Pontius, the architect, who himself owned a
+magnificent house in the city. But could it be possible? Had invisible
+hands brought them here already? The gate of the enclosure was locked.
+Pollux roused a porter, told him what he wanted, and was conducted by
+him with Arsinoe to apart of the grounds where a bright light shone out
+from dame Hannah's little abode, for he had had instructions to admit
+the sick girl's friends even during the night.
+
+A crescent moon lighted the paths, which were strewed with shells; the
+shrubs and trees in the garden threw sharply-defined shadows on their
+gleaming whiteness, the sea sparkled brightly, and as soon as the porter
+had left the happy young pair together, and they found themselves in a
+shadowy alley, Pollux said, opening his arms to the girl:
+
+"Now--one more kiss, just for a remembrance, while I wait."
+
+"Not now," begged Arsinoe.
+
+"I am no longer happy since we came in here. I cannot help thinking of
+poor Selene."
+
+"I have not a word to say against that," replied Pollux submissively.
+"Then when waiting is over may I have my reward?"
+
+"No, no, now, at once," cried Arsinoe throwing herself on his breast,
+and then she hurried towards the house.
+
+He followed her, and when she paused in front of a brightly-lighted
+window on the ground floor, he stopped also. They both looked in on a
+lofty and spacious room, kept in the most perfect order and cleanliness;
+it had one door only opening on the roofless forecourt of the house; the
+walls of the room were plainly painted of a light green color, and the
+only ornament it contained was one piece of carved work over the door.
+
+On the farther side stood the bed on which Selene was lying; a few paces
+from it sat the deformed girl asleep, while dame Hannah softly went up
+to the patient with a wet compress in her hand which she carefully laid
+on her head.
+
+Pollux touched Arsinoe and whispered to her:
+
+"Your sister lies there in her sleep like an Ariadne deserted by
+Dionysus. How wretched she will feel when she comes to herself."
+
+"She looks to me less pale than usual."
+
+"Look now, how she bends her arm, and what a lovely attitude as she puts
+her hand to her head!"
+
+"Go--" said Arsinoe. "You ought not to be spying here."
+
+"Directly, directly--but if you were lying there no power should stir me
+from the spot. How carefully Hannah lifts the wet wrapper from her poor
+broken ankle. You could not touch your eye more gently than the good
+woman handles Selene's foot."
+
+"Go back, she is looking straight this way."
+
+"What a wonderful face! It would do for a Penelope, but there is
+something singular in her eyes. Now if I had to make another star-gazing
+Urania, or a Sappho full of the deity, and with eyes fixed on the
+heavens in poetic rapture, that is what I would put into her! She is no
+longer young, but how pure her face is! It is like a sky when the wind
+has swept it clear of clouds."
+
+"Seriously you must go now," said Arsinoe drawing away her hand, which
+he had again taken. Pollux saw that his praise of another woman's beauty
+annoyed her, and he said soothingly:
+
+"Be easy child. You have not your match here in Alexandria, no, nor so
+far as Greek is spoken. A perfectly clear sky is certainly not the most
+beautiful to my taste. Pure light, and pure blue, give no satisfaction
+to the artist, it is only behind a few moving clouds, lighted up by
+changing gleams of gold and silver, that the firmament has any true
+charm, and though your face too is like heaven to me it does not lack
+sweet movement, never twice alike. Now this matron--"
+
+"Only look," interrupted Arsinoe, "how tenderly dame Hannah bends over
+Selene, and now she is gently kissing her brow. No mother could tend
+her own daughter more lovingly. I have known her for a long time; she is
+good, very good; it is hardly credible for she is a Christian."
+
+"The cross up there over the door," said Pollux "is the token by which
+these extraordinary people recognize each other."
+
+"And what is signified by the dove and fish and anchor round it?" asked
+Arsinoe.
+
+"They are emblems of the mysteries of the Christians," replied Pollux.
+"I do not understand them; the things are wretchedly painted; the
+adherents of the crucified God contemn all art, and particularly my
+branch of it, for they hate all images of the gods."
+
+"And yet among such blasphemers we find such good men; I will go in at
+once; Hannah is wetting another handkerchief."
+
+"And how unwearied and kind she looks as she does it; still there is
+something strange, deserted, and graceless in this large bare room. I
+should not like to live there."
+
+"Have you noticed the faint scent of lavender that comes through the
+window?"
+
+"Long since--there your sister is moving and has opened her eyes--now
+she has shut them again."
+
+"Go back into the garden and wait till I come," Arsinoe commanded him
+decidedly. "I will only see how Selene is going on; I will not stop long
+for my father wishes me to return soon, and no one can nurse her better
+than Hannah!"
+
+The girl drew her hand out of her lover's and knocked at the door of
+the little house; it was opened and the widow herself led Arsinoe to
+the bedside of her sister. Pollux at first sat a while on a bench in
+the garden, but soon sprang up and paced with long steps the path he had
+previously trodden with Arsinoe. A stone table across the path, brought
+him to a stand-still, and he took a fancy for leaping it. The third time
+he came up to it he sprang over it with a long jump. But no sooner had
+he done the frolicsome deed than he paused, shook his head at himself
+and muttered to himself: "Like a boy!"--He felt indeed like a happy
+child. But as he waited he became calmer and graver. He acknowledged
+to himself, with sincere thankfulness, that he had now found the ideal
+woman, of whom he had dreamed in his hours of best inspiration, and that
+she was his, wholly and alone. And after all, what was he? A poor rascal
+who had many mouths to fill, and was no more than two fingers of his
+master's hand. This must be altered. He would not reduce his sister's
+comforts in any way but he must break with Papias, and stand henceforth
+on his own feet. His courage mounted fast, and when at last, Arsinoe
+returned from her sister, he had resolved that he must first finish
+Balbilla's bust with all diligence in his own workshop, and that then
+he would model his beloved; these two female heads he could not fail in.
+Caesar must see them, they must be exhibited, and already in his mind's
+eye, he saw himself refusing order after order, and accepting only the
+most splendid where all were good.
+
+Arsinoe went home comforted. Selene's sufferings were certainly less
+than she had pictured them; she did not wish to be nursed by any one
+besides dame Hannah. She might perhaps have a little fever, but any one
+who was capable of discussing every little question of house-keeping,
+and all that related to the children could not be--as Arsinoe thought
+while she walked back through the garden, leaning on the artist's
+arm--really and properly ill.
+
+"It must revive and delight her to have Roxana for a sister!" cried
+Pollux; but his pretty companion shook her head and said: "She is always
+so odd; what most delights me is averse to her."
+
+"Well Selene is of course the moon, and you are the sun."
+
+"And what are you?" asked Arsinoe.
+
+"I am tall Pollux, and to-night I feel as if I might some day be great
+Pollux."
+
+"If you succeed I shall grow with you."
+
+"That will be your right, since it is only through you that I can ever
+succeed in that which I propose to do.
+
+"And how should a simple little thing, such as I am, be able to help an
+artist?"
+
+"By living, and by loving him," cried the sculptor, lifting her up in
+his arms before she could prevent him.
+
+Outside the garden-gate the old slave-woman was sitting asleep. She had
+learnt from the porter that her young mistress had been admitted with
+her companion, but she herself had been forbidden to enter the grounds.
+A curbstone had served her for a seat, and as she waited her eyes had
+closed, in spite of the increasing noise in the street. Arsinoe did not
+waken her, but asked Pollux, with a roguish laugh:
+
+"We shall find our way alone, shall we not?"
+
+"If Eros does not lead us astray," answered the artist. And so, as they
+went on their way, they jested and exchanged little tender speeches.
+
+The nearer they got to Lochias and to the main lines of traffic which
+intersected at right angles the Canopic way--the widest and longest road
+in the city--the fuller was the stream of people that flowed onwards in
+the direction in which they were going; but this circumstance favored
+them, for those who wish to be unobserved, when they cannot be
+absolutely alone, have only to mix with the crowd. As they were borne
+towards the focus and centre of the festive doings, they clung closely
+together, she to him, and he to her, so that they might not be torn
+apart by any of the rushing and tumultuous processions of excited
+Thracian women who, faithful to their native usages, came storming by
+with a young bull, on this particular night of the year, that following
+the shortest day. They had hardly gone a hundred paces beyond the
+Moon-street when they heard proceeding from it a wild roving song of
+tipsy jollity, and loud above it the sound of drums and pipes, cymbals
+and noisy shouting, and at the same time in the King's street, a road
+which crossed the Bruchiom and opened on Lochias, a merry troup came
+towards them.
+
+At their head, among other acquaintances, came Teuker, the gem-cutter,
+the younger brother of Pollux. Crowned with ivy, and flourishing a
+thyrsus he came dancing on, and behind him, leaping and shouting, a
+train of men and women, all excited to the verge of folly, singing,
+hollooing, and dancing.
+
+Garlands of vine, ivy and asphodel fluttered from a hundred heads;
+poplar, lotus, and laurel wreaths overhung their heated brows;
+panther-skins, deer and goatskins hung from their bare shoulders and
+waved in the wind as their bearers hurried onwards. This procession had
+been first formed by some artists and rich youths returning with some
+women from a banquet, with a band of music; every one who met this
+festal party had joined it or had been forced to enlist with it.
+Respectable citizens and their wives, laborers, maid-servants,
+slaves, soldiers and sailors, officers, women flute-players, artisans,
+ship-captains, the whole chorus of a theatre invited by a friend of art,
+excited women who dragged with them a goat that was to be slaughtered
+to Dionysus--none had been able to resist the temptation to join the
+procession. It turned down the Moon-street, keeping to the middle of the
+road which was planted with elms, and had on each side of it a raised
+foot-way, which at this time of night no one used. How clear was the
+sound of the double-pipes, how bravely the girls hit the calf-skin of
+the tambourines with their soft fists, how saucily the wind tossed and
+tangled the dishevelled hair of the riotous women and played with the
+smoke of the torches which were wielded in the air by audacious youths,
+disguised as Pan or as Satyrs, and shouting as they went.
+
+Here a girl, holding her tambourine high in the air, rattled the little
+bells on its hoop, as she flew along, as violently as though she wanted
+to shake the hollow metal balls out of their frame, and send them
+whistling through the air on their own account-there, side by side with
+his comrades, who were excited almost to madness, a handsome lad came
+skipping along in elaborately graceful leaps, but carrying over his arm,
+with comic care, a long bull's-tail that he had tied on, and blowing
+alternately up and down the short scale from the shortest to the longest
+of the reeds composing his panpipes. Through the noisy crowd as they
+rushed by, sounded, now and again, a loud roar, that might as easily
+have been caused by pain as joy; but it was each time hastily drowned in
+mad laughter, extravagant singing and jubilant music.
+
+Old and young, great and small, all in short that came near this rabble
+train, were carried off with irresistible force to follow it with shouts
+of triumph. Even Pollux and Arsinoe had for some time ceased to walk
+soberly side by side, but moved their feet, laughingly in time to the
+merry measure.
+
+"How nice it sounds," cried the artist. "I could dance and be merry too
+Arsinoe, dance and make merry with you like a madman!"
+
+Before she could find time to say 'yes' or 'no,' he shouted a loud "To,
+To, Dionysus," and flung her up in the air. She too was caught by the
+spirit of the thing, and waving her hand above her head she joined in
+his shout of triumph, and let him drag her along to a corner of the
+Moon-street where a seller of garlands offered her wares for sale. There
+she let him wreathe her with ivy, she stuck a laurel wreath on his head,
+twisted a streamer of ivy round his neck and breast, and laughed loudly
+as she flung a large silver coin into the flower-woman's lap and clung
+tightly to his arm. It was all done in swift haste without reflection,
+as if in a fit of intoxication, and with trembling hands.
+
+The procession was drawing to an end. Six women and girls in wreaths
+closed it, walking arm in arm with loud singing. Pollux drew his
+sweetheart behind this jovial crew, threw his arm around Arsinoe once
+more, while she put hers round him, and then both of them stepped out
+in a brisk dance-step flinging their arms left free, throwing back their
+heads, shouting and singing loudly, and forgetting all that surrounded
+them; they felt as though they were bound to each other by a glory of
+sunbeams, while some god lifted them above the earth and bore them up
+through a realm of delight and joy beyond the myriad stars and through
+the translucent ether; thus they let themselves be led away through the
+Moon-street into the Canopic way and so back to the sea, and as far as
+the temple of Dionysus.
+
+There they paused breathless and it suddenly struck them that he was
+Pollux and she Arsinoe, and that she must get back again to her father
+and the children.
+
+"Come home," she said softly, and as she spoke she dropped her arm and
+began to gather up her loosened hair.
+
+"Yes, yes," he said as if in a dream. He released her, struck his hand
+against his brow, and turning to the open cella of the temple he said:
+
+"Long have I known that thou art mighty O Dionysus, and that thou
+O Aphrodite art lovely, and that thou art sweet O Eros! but how
+inestimable your gifts, that I have learnt to-day for the first time."
+
+"We were indeed full of the deity," said Arsinoe. "But here comes
+another procession and I must go home."
+
+"Then let us go by the Little Harbor," answered Pollux.
+
+"Yes--I must pick the leaves out of my hair and no one will see us
+there."
+
+"I will help you--"
+
+"No, you are not to touch me," said Arsinoe decidedly. She grasped her
+abundant soft and shiny hair, and cleared it of the leaves that had got
+entangled in it, as tiny beetles do in a double flower. Finally she hid
+her hair under her veil, which had slipped off her head long since, but,
+almost by a miracle, had caught and remained hanging on the brooch of
+her peplum. Pollux stood looking at her, and overmastered by the passion
+that possessed him, he exclaimed:
+
+"Eternal gods! how I love you! Till now my soul has been like a careless
+child, to-day it is grown to heroic stature.--Wait--only wait, it will
+soon learn to use its weapons."
+
+"And I will help it in the fight," she said happily, as she put her hand
+through his arm again, and they hurried back to the old palace, dancing
+rather than walking.
+
+The late December sun was already giving warning of his approaching
+rising by cold yellowish-grey streaks in the sky as Pollux and his
+companion entered the gate, which had long since been opened for the
+workmen. In the hall of the Muses they took a first farewell, in the
+passage leading to the steward's room, a second--sad and yet most happy;
+but this was but a short one for the gleam of a lamp made them start
+apart, and Arsinoe instantly fled.
+
+The disturber was Antinous who was waiting here for the Emperor who was
+still gazing at the stars from the watch-tower Pontius had erected for
+him. As she vanished he turned to Pollux and said gaily:
+
+"I need your forgiveness for I have disturbed you in an interview with
+your sweetheart."
+
+"She will be my wife," said the sculptor proudly.
+
+"So much the better!" replied the favorite, and he drew a deep breath,
+as though the artist's words had relieved his mind of a burden.
+
+"Ah! so much the better. Can you tell me where to find the fair
+Arsinoe's sister?"
+
+"To be sure," replied the artist, and he felt pleased that the young
+Bithynian should cling to his arm. Within the next hour, Pollux, from
+whose lips there flowed a stream of eager and enthusiastic words, like
+water from a spring, had completely won the heart of the Emperor's
+favorite.
+
+The girl found both her father and Helios, who no longer looked like
+a sick patient--fast asleep. The old slave-woman came in a few minutes
+after her, and when at last, after unbinding her hair, Arsinoe threw
+herself on her bed she fell asleep instantly, and in her dreams found
+herself once more by the side of her Pollux, while they both were flying
+to the sound of drums, flutes, and cymbals high above the dusty ways of
+earth, like leaves swept on by the wind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The steward awoke soon after sunrise. He had slept no less soundly,
+it is true, in his arm-chair than in his bed, but he did not feel
+refreshed, and his limbs ached.
+
+In the living-room everything was in the same disorder as on the
+previous evening, and this annoyed him, for he was accustomed to find
+his room in order when he entered it in the morning. On the table,
+surrounded by flies, stood the remains of the children's supper,
+and among the bread crusts and plates lay his own ornaments and his
+daughter's! Wherever he turned he saw articles of dress and other things
+out of their place. The old slave-woman came in yawning, her woolly grey
+hair hung in disorder about her face, and her eyes seemed fixed, her
+feet carried her unsteadily here and there.
+
+"You are drunk," cried Keraunus; nor was he mistaken, for when the old
+woman had waked up, sitting by the house of Pudeus, and had learned from
+the gate keeper that Arsinoe had quitted the garden, she had gone into a
+tavern with other slave-women. When her master seized her arm and shook
+her, she exclaimed with a stupid grin on her wet lips:
+
+"It is the feast-day. Every one is free, to-day is the feast."
+
+"Roman nonsense!" interrupted the steward. "Is my breakfast ready?"
+
+While the old woman stood muttering some inaudible words, the slave came
+into the room and said:
+
+"To-day is a general holiday, may I go out too?"
+
+"Oh that would suit me admirably!" cried the steward.
+
+"This monster drunk, Selene sick, and you running about the streets."
+
+"But no one stops at home to-day," replied the slave timidly.
+
+"Be off then!" cried Keraunus. "Walk about from now till midnight! Do as
+you please, only do not expect me to keep you any longer. You are still
+fit to turn the hand-mill, and I dare say I can find a fool to give me a
+few drachmae for you."
+
+"No, no, do not sell me," groaned the old man, raising his hands in
+entreaty; Keraunus however would not hear him, but went on angrily:
+
+"A dog at least remains faithful to his master, but you slaves eat him
+out of house and home, and when he most needs you, you want to run about
+the streets."
+
+"But I will stay," howled the old man.
+
+"Nay, do as you please. You have long been like a lame horse which makes
+its rider a butt for the laughter of children. When, you go out with
+me everyone looks round as if I had a stain on my pallium. And then
+the mangy dog wants to keep holiday, and stick himself up among the
+citizens!"
+
+"I will stay here, only do not sell me!" whimpered the miserable old
+man, and he tried to take his master's hand; but the steward shoved him
+off, and desired him to go into the kitchen and light a fire, and throw
+some water on the old woman's head to sober her. The slave pushed his
+companion out of the room, while Keraunus went into his daughter's
+bedroom to rouse her.
+
+There was no light in Arsinoe's room but that which could creep in
+through a narrow opening just below the ceiling; the slanting rays fell
+directly on the bed up to which Keraunus went. There lay his daughter
+in sound sleep; her pretty head rested on her uplifted right arm, her
+unbound brown hair flowed like a stream over her soft round shoulders
+and over the edge of the little bed. He had never seen the child look
+so pretty, and the sight of her really touched his heart, for Arsinoe
+reminded him of his lost wife, and it was not vain pride merely, but
+a movement of true paternal love, which involuntarily transformed his
+earnest wish that the gods night leave him this child and let her be
+happy, into an unspoken but fervent prayer.
+
+He was not accustomed to waking his daughter who was always up and busy
+before he was, and he could hardly bear to disturb his darling's sweet
+sleep; but it had to be done, so he called Arsinoe by her name, shook
+her arm and said, as at last she sat up and looked at him enquiringly:
+
+"It is I, get up, remember what has to be done today."
+
+"Yes--yes," she said yawning, "but it is so early yet!"
+
+"Early," said Keraunus, smiling. "My stomach says the contrary. The sun
+is already high, and I have not yet had my porridge."
+
+"Make the old woman cook it."
+
+"No, no, my child--you must get up. Have you forgotten whom you are to
+represent? And my hair is to be curled, and the prefect's wife, and then
+your dress."
+
+"Very well--go; I do not care the least bit about Roxana and all the
+dressing-up."
+
+"Because you are not yet quite awake," laughed the steward. "How did
+this ivy-leaf get into your hair?" Arsinoe colored, put her hand to the
+spot indicated by her father, and said reluctantly:
+
+"Out of some bough or another, but now go that I may get up."
+
+"In a minute--tell me how did you find Selene?"
+
+"Not so very bad--but I will tell you all about that afterwards. Now I
+want to be alone."
+
+When, half an hour later, Arsinoe brought her father his porridge he
+gazed at the child in astonishment. Some extraordinary change seemed
+to have come over his daughter. Something shone in her eyes that he
+had never observed before, and that gave her childlike features an
+importance and significance that almost startled him. While she was
+making the porridge, Keraunus, with the slave's help, had taken the
+children up and dressed them; now they were all sitting at breakfast;
+Helios among them fresh and blooming. Now, while Arsinoe told her father
+all about Selene, and the nursing she was having at dame Hannah's hands,
+Keraunus kept his eyes fixed on her, and when she noticed this and asked
+impatiently what there was peculiar in her appearance to-day, he shook
+his head and answered:
+
+"What strange things are girls! A great honor has been done you. You are
+to represent the bride of Alexander, and pride and delight have changed
+you wonder fully in a single night--but I think to your disadvantage."
+
+"Folly," said Arsinoe reddening, and stretching herself with fatigue she
+threw herself back on a couch. She did not feel weary exactly, for the
+lassitude she felt in every limb had a peculiar pleasure in it. She felt
+as if she had come out of a hot bath, and since her father had roused
+her she seemed to hear, again and again, the sound of the inspiriting
+music which she had followed arm in arm with Pollux. Now and again she
+smiled, now and again she gazed straight before her, and at the same
+time she said to herself that if at this very moment her lover were to
+ask her, she would not lack strength to fling herself at once, with him,
+once more into the mad whirl. Yes--she felt perfectly fresh! only her
+eyes burned a little; and if Keraunus fancied he saw anything new in
+his daughter it must be the glowing light which now lurked in them along
+with the playful sparkle he had always seen there.
+
+When breakfast was over the slave took the children out, and Arsinoe had
+begun to curl her father's hair, when Keraunus put on his most dignified
+attitude and said ponderously.
+
+"My child."
+
+The girl dropped the heated tongs and calmly asked. "Well"--fully
+prepared to hear one of the wonderful propositions which Selene was wont
+to oppose.
+
+"Listen to me attentively."
+
+Now, what Keraunus was about to say had only occurred to him an hour
+since when he had spoiled his slave's desire to go out; but as he said
+it he pressed his hand to his forehead assuming the expression of a
+meditative philosopher.
+
+"For a long time I have been considering a very important matter. Now I
+have come to a decision and I will confide it to you. We must buy a new
+manslave."
+
+"But father!" cried Arsinoe, "think what it will cost you. If we have
+another man to feed--"
+
+"There is no question of that," replied Keraunus. "I will exchange the
+old one for a younger one that I need not be ashamed to be seen with.
+Yesterday I told you that henceforth we shall attract greater attention
+than hitherto, and really if we appear with that black scarecrow at our
+heels in the streets or elsewhere--"
+
+"Certainly we cannot make much show Sebek," interrupted Arsinoe, "but we
+can leave him at home for the future."
+
+"Child, child!" exclaimed Keraunus reproachfully, "will you never
+remember who and what we are. How would it beseem us to appear in the
+streets without a slave?"
+
+The girl shrugged her shoulders, and put it to her father that Sebek was
+an old piece of family property, that the little ones were fond of him
+because he cared for them like a nurse, that a new slave would cost a
+great deal and would only be driven by force to many services which the
+old one was always ready and willing to fulfil.
+
+But Arsinoe preached to deaf ears. Selene was not there; secure from her
+reproaches and as anxious as a spoiled boy for the thing that was denied
+him, Keraunus adhered to his determination to exchange the faithful old
+fellow for a new and more showy slave. Not for a moment did he think of
+the miserable fate that threatened the decrepit creature, who had grown
+old in his house, if he were to sell him; but he still had a feeling
+that it was not quite right to spend the last money that had chanced to
+come into the house, on a thing that really and truly was not in any way
+necessary. The more justifiable Arsinoe's doubts seemed to be and
+the more loudly did an inward voice warn him not to offer this fresh
+sacrifice to his vain-gloriousness, the more firmly and desperately did
+he defend his wish to do so; and as he fought for the thing he desired,
+it acquired in his eyes a semblance of necessity and a number of reasons
+suggested themselves which made it appear both justifiable and easy of
+attainment.
+
+There was money in hand; after Arsinoe's being chosen for the part of
+Roxana he might expect to be able to borrow more; it was his duty to
+appear with due dignity that he might not scare off the illustrious
+son-in-law of whom he dreamed, and in the extremity of need he could
+still fall back on his collection of rarities. The only thing was to
+find the right purchaser; for, if the sword of Antony had brought him
+so much, what would not some amateur give him for the other, far more
+valuable, objects.
+
+Arsinoe turned red and white as her father referred again and again to
+the bargain she had made; but she dared not confess the truth, and she
+rued her falsehood all the more bitterly the more clearly she saw with
+her own sound sense, that the Honor which had fallen upon her yesterday,
+threatened to develop all her father's weaknesses in an absolutely fatal
+manner.
+
+To-day she would have been amply satisfied with pleasing Pollux, and she
+would, without a regret have transferred to another her part with
+all the applause and admiration it would procure her, and which, only
+yesterday, had seemed to her so inestimably precious. This she said; but
+Keraunus would not take the assertion in earnest, laughed in her face,
+went off into mysterious allusions to the wealth which could not fail to
+come into the house and--since an obscure consciousness told him that
+it would be becoming him to prove that it was not solely personal vanity
+and self-esteem that influenced all his proceedings--he explained that
+he had made up his mind to a great sacrifice and would be content on the
+coming occasion to wear his gilt fillet and not buy a pure gold one.
+By this act of self-denial he fancied he had acquired a full right to
+devote a very pretty little sum to the acquisition of a fine-looking
+slave. Arsinoe's entreaties were unheeded, and when she began to cry
+with grief at the prospect of losing her old house-mate he forbid her
+crossly to shed a tear for such a cause, for it was very childish,
+and he would not be pleased to conduct her with red eyes to meet the
+prefect's wife.
+
+During the course of this argument his hair had got itself duly curled,
+and he now desired Arsinoe to arrange her own hair nicely and then to
+accompany him.
+
+They would buy a new dress and peplum, go to see Selene, and then be
+carried to the prefect's.
+
+Only yesterday he had thought it too bold a step to use a litter, and
+to-day he was already considering the propriety of hiring a chariot.
+
+No sooner was he alone than a new idea occurred to him. The insolent
+architect should be taught that he was not the man to be insulted and
+injured with impunity. So he cut a clean strip of papyrus off a letter
+that lay in his chest, and wrote upon it the following words:
+
+"Keraunus, the Macedonian, to Claudius Venator, the architect, of Rome:"
+
+"My eldest daughter, Selene, is by your fault, so severely hurt that she
+is in great danger, is kept to her bed and suffers frightful pain.
+My other children are no longer safe in their father's house, and I
+therefore require you, once more, to chain up your dog. If you refuse to
+accede to this reasonable demand I will lay the matter before Caesar.
+I can tell you that circumstances have occurred which will determine
+Hadrian to punish any insolent person who may choose to neglect the
+respect due to me and to my daughters."
+
+When Keraunus had closed this letter with his seal he called the slave
+and said coldly:
+
+"Take this to the Roman architect, and then fetch two litters; make
+haste, and while we are out take good care of the children. To-morrow or
+next day you will be sold. To whom? That must depend on how you behave
+during the last hours that you belong to us." The negro gave a loud cry
+of grief that came from the depth of his heart, and flung himself on
+the ground at the steward's feet. His cry did indeed pierce his master's
+soul--but Keraunus had made up his mind not to let himself be moved nor
+to yield. But the negro clung more closely to his knees, and when the
+children, attracted to the spot by their poor old friend's lamentation,
+cried loudly in unison, and little Helios began to pat and stroke the
+little remains of the negro's woolly hair, the vain man felt uneasy
+about the heart, and to protect himself against his own weakness he
+cried out loudly and violently:
+
+"Now, away with you, and do as you are ordered or I will find the whip."
+
+With these words he tore himself loose from the miserable--old man who
+left the room with his head hanging down, and who soon was standing at
+the door of the Emperor's rooms with the letter in his hand. Hadrian's
+appearance and manner had filled him with terror and respect, and he
+dared not knock at the door. After he had waited for some time, still
+with tears in his eyes, Mastor came into the passage with the remains
+of his master's breakfast. The negro called to him and held out the
+steward's letter, stammering out lamentably:
+
+"From Keraunus, for you master."
+
+"Lay it here on the tray," said the Sarmatian. "But what has happened to
+you, my old friend? you are wailing most pitifully and look miserable.
+Have you been beaten?"
+
+The negro shook his head and answered, whimpering: "Keraunus is going to
+sell me."
+
+"There are better masters than he."
+
+"But Sebek is old, Sebek is weak--he can no longer lift and pull, and
+with hard work he will certainly die."
+
+"Has life been so easy and comfortable then at the steward's?"
+
+"Very little wine, very little meat, very much hunger," said the old
+man.
+
+"Then you must be glad to leave him."
+
+"No, no," groaned Sebek.
+
+"You foolish old owl," said Mastor. "Why do you care then for that
+grumpy niggard?"
+
+The negro did not answer for some time, then his lean breast heaved
+and fell, and, as if the dam were broken through that had choked his
+utterance, he burst out with a mixture of loud sobs:
+
+"The children, the little ones, our little ones. They are so sweet;
+and our little blind Helios stroked my hair because I was to go away,
+here--just here he stroked it"--and he put his hand on a perfectly bald
+place--"and now Sebek must go and never see them all again, just as if
+they were all dead."
+
+And the words rolled out and with difficulty, as if carried on in the
+flood of his tears. They went to Mastor's heart, rousing the memory
+of his own lost children and a strong desire to comfort his unhappy
+comrade.
+
+"Poor fellow!" he said, compassionately. "Aye, the children! they are so
+small, and the door into one's heart is so narrow--and they dance in at
+it a thousand times better and more easily than grown-up folks. I, too,
+have lost dear children, and they were my own, too. I can teach any
+one what is meant by sorrow--but I know too now where comfort is to be
+found." With these words Mastor held the tray he was carrying on his hip
+with his right hand, while he put the left on the negro's shoulder and
+whispered to him:
+
+"Have you ever heard of the Christians?"
+
+Sebek nodded eagerly as if Mastor were speaking of a matter of which he
+had heard great things and expected much, and Mastor went on in a low
+voice "Come early to-morrow before sunrise to the pavement-workers in
+the 'court, and there you will hear of One who comforts the weary and
+heavy-laden."
+
+The Emperor's servant once more took his tray in both hands and hurried
+away, but a faint gleam of hope had lighted up in the old slave's eyes.
+He expected no happiness, but perhaps there might be some way of bearing
+the sorrows of life more easily.
+
+Mastor as soon he had given his tray to the kitchen slaves--who were now
+busy again in the palace at Lochias--returned to his lord and gave him
+the steward's letter. It was an ill-chosen hour for Keraunus, for the
+Emperor was in a gloomy mood. He had sat up till morning, had rested
+scarcely three hours, and now, with knitted brows, was comparing the
+results of his night's observation of the starry sky with certain
+astronomical tables which lay spread out before him. Over this work he
+frequently shook his head which was covered with crisp waves of
+hair; nay--he once flung the pencil, with which he was working his
+calculations, down on the table, leaned back in his seat and covered his
+eyes with both hands. Then again he began to write fresh numbers, but
+his new results seemed to be no more satisfactory than the former one.
+
+The steward's letter had been for a long time lying before him when at
+last it again caught his attention as he put out his hand for another
+document. Needing some change of ideas he tore it open, read it and
+flung it from him with annoyance. At any other time he would have
+expressed some sympathy with the suffering girl, have laughed at the
+ridiculous man, and have thought out some trick to tease or to terrify;
+but just now the steward's threats made him angry and increased his
+dislike for him.
+
+Tired of the silence around him he called to Antinous, who sat gazing
+dreamily down on the harbor; the youth immediately approached his
+master. Hadrian looked at him and said, shaking his head:
+
+"Why you too look as if some danger were threatening you. Is the sky
+altogether overcast?"
+
+"No my lord, it is blue over the sea, but towards the south the black
+clouds are gathering."
+
+"Towards the south?" said Hadrian thoughtfully. "Any thing serious can
+hardly threaten us from that quarter.--But it comes, it is near, it is
+upon us before we suspect it."
+
+"You sat up too long, and that has put you out of tune."
+
+"Out of tune?" muttered Hadrian to himself. "And what is tune? That
+subtle harmony or discord is a condition which masters all the emotions
+of the soul at once; and not without reason--to-day my heart is
+paralyzed with anxiety."
+
+"Then you have seen evil signs in the heavens?"
+
+"Direful signs!"
+
+"You wise men believe in the stars," replied Antinous. "No doubt you
+are right, but my weak head cannot understand what their regular courses
+have to do with my inconstant wanderings."
+
+"Grow gray," replied the Emperor, "learn to comprehend the universe with
+your intellect, and not till then speak of these things for not till
+then will you discern that every atom of things created, and the
+greatest as well as the least, is in the closest bonds with every other;
+that all work together, and each depends on all. All that is or ever
+will be in nature, all that we men feel, think or do, all is dependent
+on eternal and immutable causes; and these causes have each their Daimon
+who interposes between us and the divinity and is symbolized in golden
+characters on the vault of heaven. The letters are the stars, whose
+orbits are as unchanging and everlasting as are the first causes of all
+that exists or happens."
+
+"And are you quite sure that you never read wrongly in this great
+record?" asked Antinous.
+
+"Even I may err," replied Hadrian. "But this time I have not deceived
+myself. A heavy misfortune threatens me. It is a strange, terrible and
+extraordinary coincidence!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"From that accursed Antioch--whence nothing good has ever come to me--I
+have received the saying of an oracle which foretells that, that--why
+should I hide it from you--in the middle of the year now about to begin
+some dreadful misfortune shall fall upon me, as lightning strikes the
+traveller to the earth; and tonight--look here. Here is the house of
+Death, here are the planets--but what do you know of such things? Last
+night--the night in which once before such terrors were wrought, the
+stars confirmed the fatal oracle with as much naked plainness, as much
+unmistakable certainty as if they had tongues to shout the evil forecast
+in my ear. It is hard to walk on with such a goal in prospect. What may
+not the new year bring in its course?"
+
+Hadrian sighed deeply, but Antinous went close up to him, fell on his
+knees before him and asked in a tone of childlike humility:
+
+"May I, a poor foolish lad, teach a great and wise man how to enrich his
+life with six happy months?" The Emperor smiled, as though he knew what
+was coming, but his favorite felt encouraged to proceed.
+
+"Leave the future to the future," he said. "What must come will come,
+for the gods themselves have no power against Fate. When evil is
+approaching it casts its black shadow before it; you fix your gaze on
+it and let it darken the light of day. I saunter dreamily on my way
+and never see misfortune till it runs up against me and falls upon me
+unawares--"
+
+"And so you are spared many a gloomy day," interrupted Hadrian.
+
+"That is just what I would have said."
+
+"And your advice is excellent, for you and for every other loiterer
+through the gay fair-time of an idle life," replied the Emperor, "but
+the man whose task it is to bear millions in safety and over abysses,
+must watch the signs around him, look out far and near, and never dare
+close his eyes, even when such terrors loom as it was my fate to see
+during the past night."
+
+As he spoke, Phlegon, the Emperor's private secretary, came in with
+letters just received from Rome, and approached his master. He bowed
+low, and taking up Hadrian's last words he said:
+
+"The stars disquiet you, Caesar?"
+
+"Well, they warn me to be on my guard," replied Hadrian.
+
+"Let us hope that they be," cried the Greek, with cheerful vivacity.
+"Cicero was not altogether wrong when he doubted the arts of Astrology."
+
+"He was a mere talker!" said the Emperor, with a frown.
+
+"But," asked Phlegon, "would it not be fair that if the horoscopes cast
+for Cneius or Caius, let us say, were alike, to expect that Cneius or
+Caius must have the same temperament and the same destiny through life
+if they had happened to be born in the same hour?"
+
+"Always the old commonplaces, the old silly objections!" interrupted
+Hadrian, vexed to the verge of rage. "Speak when you are spoken to, and
+do not trouble yourself about things you do not understand and which do
+not concern you. Is there anything of importance among these papers?"
+
+Antinous gazed at his sovereign in astonishment; why should Phlegon's
+objections make him so furious when he had answered his so kindly?
+
+Hadrian paid no farther heed to him, but read the despatches one after
+another, hastily but attentively, wrote brief notes on the margins,
+signed a decree with a firm hand, and, when his work was finished
+desired the Greek to leave him. Hardly was he alone with Antinous when
+the loud cries and jovial shouting of a large multitude came to their
+ears through the open window.
+
+"What does this mean?" he asked Mastor, and as soon as he had been
+informed that the workmen and slaves had just been let out to give
+themselves up to the pleasures of their holiday, he muttered to himself:
+
+"These creatures can riot, shout, dress themselves with garlands, forget
+themselves in a debauch--and I, I whom all envy--I spoil my brief
+span of life with vain labors, let myself be tormented with consuming
+cares--I--" here he broke off and cried in quite an altered tone:
+
+"Ha! ha! Antinous, you are wiser than I. Let us leave the future to the
+future. The feast-day is ours too; let us take advantage of this day
+of freedom. We too will throw ourselves into the holiday whirlpool
+disguised, I as a satyr, and you as a young faun or something of the
+kind; we will drain cups, wander round the city and enjoy all that is
+enjoyable."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Antinous, joyfully clapping his hands.
+
+"Evoe Bacche!" cried Hadrian, tossing up his cup that stood on his
+table. "You are free till this evening, Mastor, and you my boy, go and
+talk to Pollux, the sculptor. He shall be our guide and he will provide
+us with wreaths and some mad disguise. I must see drunken men, I must
+laugh with the jolliest before I am Caesar again. Make haste, my friend,
+or new cares will come to spoil my holiday mood."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Antinous and Mastor at once quitted the Emperor's room; in the corridor
+the lad beckoned the slave to him and said in a low voice:
+
+"You can hold your tongue I know, will you do me a favor?"
+
+"Three sooner than one," replied the Sarmatian.
+
+"You are free to-day--are you going into the city?"
+
+"I think so."
+
+"You are not known here, but that does not matter. Take these gold
+pieces and in the flower-market buy with one of them the most beautiful
+bunch of flowers you can find, with another you may make merry, and
+out of the remainder spend a drachma in hiring an ass. The driver will
+conduct you to the garden of Pudeus' widow where stands the house of
+dame Hannah; you remember the name?"
+
+"Dame Hannah and the widow of Pudeus."
+
+"And at the little house, not the big one, leave the flowers for the
+sick Selene."
+
+"The daughter of the fat steward, who was attacked by our big dog?"
+asked Mastor, curiously.
+
+"She or another," said Antinous, impatiently, "and when they ask you
+who sent the flowers, say 'the friend at Lochias,' nothing more. You
+understand."
+
+The slave nodded and said to himself: "What! you too-oh! these women."
+
+Antinous signed to him to be silent, impressed on him in a few hasty
+words that he was to be discreet and to pick out the very choicest
+flowers, and then betook himself into the hall of the Muses to seek
+Pollux. From him he had learnt where to find the suffering Selene, of
+whom he could not help thinking incessantly and wherever he might be. He
+did not find the sculptor in his screened-off nook; prompted by a wish
+to speak to his mother, Pollux had gone down to the gatehouse where
+he was now standing before her and frankly narrating, with many eager
+gestures of his long arms, all that had occurred on the previous night.
+His story flowed on like a song of triumph, and when he described how
+the holiday procession had carried away Arsinoe and himself, the old
+woman jumped up from her chair and clapping her fat little hands, she
+exclaimed:
+
+"Ah! that is pleasure, that is happiness! I remember flying along with
+your father in just the same way thirty years ago."
+
+"And since thirty years," Pollux interposed. "I can still remember very
+well how at one of the great Dionysiac festivals, fired by the power
+of the god, you rushed through the streets with a deer-skin over your
+shoulders."
+
+"That was delightful--lovely!" cried Doris with sparkling eyes. "But
+thirty years since it was all different, very different. I have told you
+before now how I went with our maid-servant into the Canopic way to the
+house of my aunt Archidike to look on at the great procession. I had not
+far to go for we lived near the Theatre, my father was stage-manager and
+yours was one of the chief singers in the chorus. We hurried along, but
+all sorts of people stopped us, and drunken men wanted to joke with me."
+
+"Ah, you were as sweet as a rose-bud then," her son interrupted.
+
+"As a rose-bud, yes, but not like your lovely rose," said the old woman.
+"At any rate I looked nice enough for the men in disguise--fauns and
+satyrs and were the cynic hypocrites in their ragged cloaks, to think
+it worth while to look at me and to take a rap on the knuckles when they
+tried to put an arm round me or to steal a kiss, I did not care for
+the handsomest of them, for Euphorion had done for me with his fiery
+glances--not with words for I was very strictly kept and he had never
+been able to get a chance to speak to me. At the corner of the Canopic
+way and the Market street we could get no farther, for the crowd had
+blocked the way and were howling and storming as they stared at a party
+of Klodones and other Maenads, who in their sacred fury were tearing
+a goat to pieces with their teeth. I shuddered at the spectacle, but I
+must need stare with the rest and shout and halloo as they did. My maid,
+who I held on to tightly, was seized with the frenzy and dragged me into
+the middle of the circle close up to the bleeding sacrifice. Two of the
+possessed women sprang upon us, and I felt one clasping me tightly and
+trying to throw me down. It was a horrible moment but I defended myself
+bravely and had succeeded in keeping on my feet when your father sprang
+forward, set me free and led me away. What happened after I could not
+tell you now; it was one of those wild happy dreams in which you must
+hold your heart with both hands for fear it should crack with joy, or
+fly out and away up to the sky and in the very eye of the sun. Late in
+the evening I got home and a week after I was Euphorion's wife."
+
+"We have exactly followed your example," said Pollux, "and if Arsinoe
+grows to be like my dear old woman I shall be quite satisfied."
+
+"Happy and contented," replied Doris. "Keep you health, snap your
+fingers at care and sorrow, do your duty on work-days and drink till you
+are jolly in honor of the god on holidays, and then all will be well.
+Those who do all they are able and enjoy as much as they can get, make
+good use of their lives and need feel no remorse in their last hours.
+What is past is done for, and when Atropos cuts our thread some one else
+will stand in our place and joys will begin all over again. May the gods
+bless you!"
+
+"You are right," said Pollux embracing his mother, "and two together
+can turn the work out of hand more lightly and enjoy the pleasures of
+existence better than each alone--can they not?"
+
+"I am sure of it; and you have chosen the right mate," cried the old
+woman. "You are a sculptor and used to simple things; you need no
+riches, only a sweet face which may every day rejoice your heart, and
+that you have found."
+
+"There is nowhere a sweeter or a lovelier," said Pollux.
+
+"No, that there is not," continued Doris. "First I cast my eyes on
+Selene. She need not be ashamed to show herself either, and she is a
+pattern for girls; but then as Arsinoe grew older, whenever she passed
+this way I thought to myself: 'that girl is growing up for my boy,' and
+now that you have won her I feel as if I were once more as young as your
+sweetheart herself. My old heart beats as happily as if the little Loves
+were touching it with their wings and rosy fingers. If my feet had
+not grown so heavy with constantly standing over the hearth and at
+washing--really and truly I could take Euphorion by the arm and dance
+through the streets with him to-day."
+
+"Where is father?"
+
+"Out singing."
+
+"In the morning! where?"
+
+"There is some sect that are celebrating their mysteries. They pay well
+and he had to sing dismal hymns for them behind a curtain; the wildest
+stuff, in which he does not follow a word, and that I do not understand
+a half of."
+
+"It is a pity for I wanted to speak to him."
+
+"He will not be back till late."
+
+"There is plenty of time."
+
+"So much the better, otherwise I might have told him what you had to
+say."
+
+"Your advice is as good as his. I think of giving up working under
+Papias and standing on my own feet."
+
+"You are quite right; the Roman architect told me yesterday that a great
+future was open to you."
+
+"There are only my poor sister and the children to be considered. If,
+during the first few months I should find myself falling short--"
+
+"We will manage to pull through. It is high time that you yourself
+should reap from what you sow."
+
+"So it seems to me, for my own sake and Arsinoe's; if only Keraunus--"
+
+"Aye--there will be a battle to fight with him."
+
+"A hard one, a hard one," sighed Pollux.
+
+"The thought of the old man troubles my happiness."
+
+"Folly!" cried Doris. "Avoid all useless anxiety. It is almost as
+injurious as remorse gnawing at your heart. Take a workshop of your own,
+do some great work in a joyful spirit, something to astonish the world,
+and I will wager anything that the old fool of a steward will only
+be vexed to think that he destroyed the first work of the celebrated
+Pollux, instead of treasuring it in his cabinet of curiosities.
+Just imagine that no such person exists in the world and enjoy your
+happiness."
+
+"I will stick to that."
+
+"One thing more my lad: take good care of Arsinoe. She is young and
+inexperienced and you must not persuade her to do anything you would
+advise her not to do if she were betrothed to your brother instead of to
+yourself."
+
+Doris had not done speaking when Antinous came into the gate-house and
+delivered the commands of the architect Claudius Venator, to escort him
+through the city. Pollux hesitated with his answer, for he had still
+much to do in the palace, and he hoped to see Arsinoe again in the
+course of the day. After such a morning what could noon and evening be
+to him without her? Dame Doris noticed his indecision and cried:
+
+"Yes, go; the festival is for pleasure, besides, the architect can
+perhaps advise you on many points, and recommend you to his friends."
+
+"Your mother is right," said Antinous. "Claudius Venator can be very
+touchy, but he can also be grateful, and I wish you sincerely well--"
+
+"Good then, I will come," Pollux interposed while the Bithynian was
+still speaking, for he felt himself strongly attracted by Hadrian's
+imposing personality and considered that under the circumstances, it
+might be very desirable to revel with him for a while.
+
+"I will come, but first I must let Pontius know that I am going to fly
+from the heat of the fray for a few hours to-day."
+
+"Leave that to Venator," replied the favorite, "and you must find some
+amusing disguise and procure masks for him and for me and, if you like,
+for yourself too. He wants to join the revel as a satyr and I in some
+other disguise."
+
+"Good," replied the sculptor. "I will go at once and order what is
+requisite. A quantity of dresses for the Dionysiac processions are lying
+in our workshop and in half an hour I will be back with the things."
+
+"But pray make haste," Antinous begged him. "My master cannot bear to be
+kept waiting, and besides--one thing--"
+
+At these words Antinous had grown embarrassed and had gone quite close
+up to the artist. He laid his hand on his shoulder and said in a low
+voice but impressively:
+
+"Venator stands very near to Caesar. Beware of saying anything before
+him that is not in Hadrian's favor."
+
+"Is your master Caesar's spy?" asked Pollux, looking suspiciously at
+Antinous. "Pontius has already, given me a similar warning, and if that
+is the case--"
+
+"No, no," interrupted the lad hastily.
+
+"Anything but that; but the two have no secrets from each other and
+Venator talks a good deal--cannot hold his tongue--"
+
+"I thank you and will be on my guard."
+
+"Aye do so--I mean it honestly." The Bithynian held out his hand to the
+artist with an expression of warm regard on his handsome features and
+with an indescribably graceful gesture. Pollux took it heartily, but
+dame Doris, whose old eyes had been fixed as if spellbound on Antinous,
+seized her son's arm and quite excited by the sight of his beauty cried
+out:
+
+"Oh! what a splendid creature! moulded by the gods! sacred to the gods!
+Pollux, boy! you might almost think one of the immortals had come down
+to earth."
+
+"Look at my old woman!" exclaimed Pollux laughing, "but in truth friend,
+she has good reasons for her ecstasies, I could follow her example."
+
+"Hold him fast, hold him fast!" cried Doris. "If he only will let you
+take his likeness you can show the world a thing worth seeing."
+
+"Will you?" interrupted Pollux turning to Hadrian's favorite.
+
+"I have never yet been able to keep still for any artist," said
+Antinous. "But I will do any thing you wish to please you. It only vexes
+me that you too should join in the chorus with the rest of the world.
+Farewell for the present, I must go back to my master."
+
+As soon as the youth had left the house Doris exclaimed:
+
+"Whether a work of art is good for any thing or not I can only guess at,
+but as to what is beautiful that I know as well as any other woman
+in Alexandria. If that boy will stand as your model you will produce
+something that will delight men and turn the heads of the women, and you
+will be sought after even in a workshop of your own. Eternal gods! such
+beauty as that is sublime. Why are there no means of preserving such a
+face and such a form from old age and wrinkles?"
+
+"I know the means, mother," said Pollux, as he went to the door. "It is
+called Art: to her it is given to bestow eternal youth on this mortal
+Adonis."
+
+The old woman glanced at her son with pardonable pride, and confirmed
+his words by an assenting nod. While she fed her birds, with many
+coaxing words, and made one which was a special favorite pick crumbs
+from her lips, the young sculptor was hurrying through the streets with
+long steps.
+
+He was greeted as he went with many a cross word, and many exclamations
+rose from the crowd he left behind him, for he pushed his way by the
+weight of his tall person and his powerful arms, and saw and heard,
+as he went, little enough of what was going around him. He thought of
+Arsinoe, and between whiles of Antinous and of the attitude in which he
+best might represent him--whether as hero or god.
+
+In the flower-market, near the Gymnasium, he was for a moment roused
+from his reverie by a picture which struck him as being unusual and
+which riveted his gaze, as did every thing exceptional that came under
+his eyes. On a very small dark-colored donkey sat a tall, well-dressed
+slave, who held in his right hand a nosegay of extraordinary size and
+beauty. By his side walked a smartly dressed-up man with a splendid
+wreath, and a comic mask over his face followed by two garden-gods of
+gigantic stature, and four graceful boys. In the slave, Pollux at once
+recognized the servant of Claudius Venator, and he fancied he must have
+seen the masked gentlemen too before now, but he could not remember
+where, and did not trouble himself to retrace him in his mind. At any
+rate, the rider of the donkey had just heard something he did not like,
+for he was looking anxiously at his bunch of flowers.
+
+After Pollux had hurried past this strange party his thoughts reverted
+to other, and to him far nearer and dearer subjects. But Mastor's
+anxious looks were not without a cause, for the gentleman who was
+talking to him was no less a person than Verus, the praetor, who was
+called by the Alexandrians the sham Eros. He had seen the Emperor's
+body-slave a hundred times about his person; he therefore recognized
+him at once, and his presence here in Alexandria led him directly to the
+simple and correct inference that his master too must be in the city.
+The praetor's curiosity was roused, and he at once proceeded to ply
+the poor fellow with bewildering cross-questions. When the donkey-rider
+shortly and sharply refused to answer, Verus thought it well to reveal
+himself to him, and the slave lost his confident demeanor when he
+recognized the grand gentleman, the Emperor's particular friend.
+
+He lost himself in contradictory statements, and although he did not
+directly admit it, he left his interrogator in the certainty that
+Hadrian was in Alexandria.
+
+It was perfectly evident that the beautiful nosegay, which had attracted
+the praetor's attention to Mastor could not belong to himself. What
+could be its destination? Verus recommenced his questioning, but the
+Sarmatian would betray nothing, till Verus tapped him lightly first on
+one cheek and then on the other, and said gaily:
+
+"Mastor, my worthy friend Mastor, listen to me. I will make you certain
+proposals, and you shall nod your head, towards that of the estimable
+beast with two pairs of legs on which you are mounted, as soon as one of
+them takes your fancy."
+
+"Let me go on my way," the slave implored, with growing anxiety.
+
+"Go, by all means, but I go with you," retorted Verus, "until I have hit
+on the thing that suits you. A great many plans dwell in my head, as you
+will see. First I must ask you, shall I go to your master and tell him
+that you have betrayed his presence in Alexandria?"
+
+"Sir, you will never do that!" cried Mastor.
+
+"To proceed then. Shall I and my following hang on to your skirts and
+stay with you till nightfall, when you and your steed must return home?
+You decline--with thanks! and very wisely, for the execution of this
+project would be equally unpleasant to you and to me, and would probably
+get you punished. Whisper to me then, softly, in my ear, where your
+master is lodging, and from whom and to whom you are carrying those
+flowers; as soon as you have agreed to that proposal I will let you go
+on alone, and will show you that I care no more for my gold pieces here,
+in Alexandria, than I do in Italy."
+
+"Not gold--certainly I will not take gold!" cried Mastor.
+
+"You are an honest fellow," replied Verus in an altered tone, "and you
+know of me that I treat my servants well and would rather be kind to
+folks than hard upon them. So satisfy my curiosity without any fear, and
+I will promise you in return, that not a soul, your master least of all,
+shall ever know from me what you tell me." Mastor hesitated a little,
+but as he could not but own to himself that he would be obliged at last
+to yield to the stronger will of this imperious man, and as moreover
+he knew that the haughty and extravagant praetor was in fact one of the
+kindest of masters, he sighed deeply and whispered:
+
+"You will not be the ruin of a poor wretch like me, that I know, so I
+will tell you, we are living at Lochias."
+
+"There," exclaimed Verus clapping his hands. "And now as to the
+flowers?"
+
+"Mere trifling."
+
+"Is Hadrian then in a merry mood?"
+
+"Till to-day he was very gay--but since last night--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"You know yourself what he is when he has seen lead signs in the sky."
+
+"Bad signs," said Verus gravely.
+
+"And yet he sends flowers?"
+
+"Not he, can you not guess?"
+
+"Antinous?"
+
+Mastor nodded assent.
+
+"Only think," laughed Verus. "Then he too is beginning to think it
+better worth while to admire than to be admired. And who is the fair one
+who has succeeded in waking up his slumbering heart?"
+
+"Nay--I promised him not to chatter."
+
+"And I promise you the same. My powers of reserve are far greater than
+my curiosity even."
+
+"Be content, I beseech you with what you already know."
+
+"But to know half is less endurable than to know nothing."
+
+"Nay--I cannot tell you."
+
+"Then am I to begin with fresh suggestions, and all over again?"
+
+"Oh! my lord. I beg you, entreat you--"
+
+"Out with the word, and I go on my way, but if you persist in
+refusing--"
+
+"Really and truly it only concerns a white-faced girl whom you would not
+even look at."
+
+"A girl-indeed!"
+
+"Our big dog threw the poor thing down."
+
+"In the street?"
+
+"No, at Lochias. Her father is Keraunus the palace-steward."
+
+"And her name is Arsinoe?" asked Verus with undisguised concern, for he
+had a pleasant recollection of the beautiful child who had been selected
+to fill the part of Roxana.
+
+"No, her name is Selene, Arsinoe indeed is her younger sister."
+
+"Then you bring these flowers from Lochias?"
+
+"She went out, and she could not get back home again, she is now lying
+in the house of a stranger."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"That must be quite indifferent to you--"
+
+"By no means, quite the contrary. I beg you to tell me the whole truth."
+
+"Eternal gods! what can you care about the poor sick creature?"
+
+"Nothing whatever; but I must know whither you are riding."
+
+"Down by the sea. I do not know the house, but the donkey driver--"
+
+"Is it far from here?"
+
+"About half an hour yet," said the lad.
+
+"A good way then," replied Verus. "And Hadrian is particularly anxious
+to remain unknown."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"And you his body-servant, who are known to numbers of others here from
+Rome, like myself, you propose to ride half a mile through the streets
+where every creature that can stand or walk is swarming, with a large
+nosegay in your hand which attracts every body's attention. Oh Mastor
+that is not wise!"
+
+The slave started, and seeing at once that Verus was right, he asked in
+alarm:
+
+"What then can I do?"
+
+"Get off your donkey," said the praetor. "Disguise yourself and make
+merry to your heart's content with these gold pieces."
+
+"And the flowers?"
+
+"I will see to that."
+
+"You will? I may trust you; and never betray to Antinous what you
+compelled me to do?"
+
+"Positively not."
+
+"There--there are the flowers, but I cannot take the gold."
+
+"Then I shall fling it among the crowd. Buy yourself a garland, a mask
+and some wine, as much as you can carry. Where is the girl to be found?"
+
+"At dame Hannah's. She lives in a little house in a garden belonging to
+the widow of Pudeus. And whoever gives it to her is to say that it is
+sent by the friend at Lochias."
+
+"Good. Now go, and take care that no one recognizes you. Your secret is
+mine, and the friend at Lochias shall be duly mentioned."
+
+Mastor disappeared in the crowd. Verus put the nosegay into the hands of
+one of the garden-gods that followed in his train, sprang laughing on
+to the ass, and desired the driver to show him the way. At the corner of
+the next street, he met two litters, carried with difficulty through the
+crowd by their bearers. In the first sat Keraunus, whose saffron-colored
+cloak was conspicuous from afar, as fat as Silenus the companion of
+Dionysus, but looking very sullen. In the second sat Arsinoe, looking
+gaily about her, and so fresh and pretty that the Roman's easily-stirred
+pulses beat more rapidly.
+
+Without reflecting, he took the flowers from the hand of the
+garden-god--the flowers intended for Selene--laid them on the girl's
+litter, and said:
+
+"Alexander greets Roxana, the fairest of the fair." Arsinoe colored,
+and Verus, after watching her for some time as she was carried onwards,
+desired one of his boys to follow her litter, and to join him again in
+the flower-market, where he would wait, to inform him whither she had
+gone.
+
+The messenger hurried off, and Verus, turning his ass's head soon
+reached a semicircular pillared hall on the shady side of a large open
+space, under which the better sort of gardeners and flower dealers
+of the city exposed their gay and fragrant wares to be sold by pretty
+girls. To-day every stall had been particularly well supplied, but the
+demand for wreaths and flowers had steadily increased from an early
+hour, and although Verus had all that he could find of fresh flowers
+arranged and tied together, still the nosegay, though much larger, was
+not half so beautiful as that intended for Selene, and for which he
+substituted it.
+
+Now this annoyed the Roman. His sense of justice prompted him to make
+good the loss he had inflicted on the sick girl. Gay ribbons were wound
+round the stalks of the flowers, and the long ends floated in the air,
+so Verus took a brooch from his dress and stuck it into the bow which
+ornamented the stem of the nosegay; then he was satisfied, and as he
+looked at the stone set in a gold border--an onyx on which was engraved
+Eros sharpening his arrows--he pictured to himself the pleasure, the
+delight of the girl that the handsome Bithynian loved, as she received
+the beautiful gift.
+
+His slaves, natives of Britain, who were dressed as garden-gods, were
+charged with the commission to proceed to dame Hannah's under the
+guidance of the donkey-driver to deliver the nosegay to Selene from
+'the friend at Lochias,' and then to wait for him outside the house
+of Titianus, the prefect; for thither, as he had ascertained from his
+swift-footed messenger, had Keraunus and his daughter been carried.
+
+Verus needed a longer time than the boy, to make his way through the
+crowd. At the door of the prefect's residence he laid aside his mask,
+and in an anteroom where the steward was sitting on a couch waiting for
+his daughter, he arranged his hair and the folds of his toga, and was
+then conducted to the lady Julia with whom he hoped, once more, to see
+the charming Arsinoe.
+
+But in the reception-room, instead of Arsinoe he found his own wife and
+the poetess Balbilla and her companion. He greeted the ladies gaily,
+amiably and gracefully, as usual, and then, as he looked enquiringly
+round the large room without concealing his disappointment, Balbilla
+came up to him and asked him in a low voice:
+
+"Can you be honest, Verus?"
+
+"When circumstances allow it, yes."
+
+"And will they allow it here?"
+
+"I should suppose so."
+
+"Then answer me truly. Did you come here for Julia's sake, or did you
+come--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Or did you expect to find the fair Roxana with the prefect's wife?"
+
+"Roxana?" asked Verus, with a cunning smile. "Roxana! Why she was the
+wife of Alexander the Great, and is long since dead, but I care only
+for the living, and when I left the merry tumult in the streets it was
+simply and solely--"
+
+"You excite my curiosity."
+
+"Because my prophetic heart promised me, fairest Balbilla, that I should
+find you here."
+
+"And that you call honest!" cried the poetess, hitting the praetor a
+blow with the stick of the ostrich-feather fan she held in her hand.
+"Only listen, Lucilla, your husband declares he came here for my sake."
+The praetor looked reproachfully at the speaker, but she whispered:
+
+"Due punishment for a dishonest man." Then, raising her voice, she said:
+
+"Do you know, Lucilla, that if I remain unmarried, your husband is not
+wholly innocent in the matter."
+
+"Alas! yes, I was born too late for you," interrupted Verus, who knew
+very well what the poetess was about to say.
+
+"Nay--no misunderstanding!" cried Balbilla. "For how can a woman venture
+upon wedlock when she cannot but fear the possibility of getting such a
+husband as Verus."
+
+"And what man," retorted the praetor, "would ever be so bold as to court
+Balbilla, could he hear how cruelly she judges an innocent admirer of
+beauty?"
+
+"A husband ought not to admire beauty--only the one beauty who is his
+wife."
+
+"Ah Vestal maiden," laughed Verus. "I am meanwhile punishing you by
+withholding from you a great secret which interests us all. No, no, I am
+not going to tell--but I beg you my lady wife to take her to task, and
+teach her to exercise some indulgence so that her future husband may not
+have too hard a time of it."
+
+"No woman can learn to be indulgent," replied Lucilla. "Still we
+practise indulgence when we have no alternative, and the criminal
+requires us to make allowance for him in this thing or the other."
+
+Verus made his wife a bow and pressed his lips on her arm, then he
+asked. "And where is dame Julia?"
+
+"She is saving the sheep from the wolf," replied Balbilla.
+
+"Which means--?"
+
+"That as soon as you were announced she carried off little Roxana to a
+place of safety."
+
+"No, no," interrupted Lucilla. "The tailor was waiting in an inner room
+to arrange the charming child's costume. Only look at the lovely nosegay
+she brought to Julia. And do you deny my right to share your secret?"
+
+"How could I?" replied Verus.
+
+"He is very much in need of your making allowances!" laughed Balbilla,
+while the praetor went up to, his wife and told her in a whisper what he
+had learnt from Mastor. Lucilla clasped her hands in astonishment, and
+Verus cried to the poetess:
+
+"Now you see what a satisfaction your cruel tongue has deprived you of?"
+
+"How can you be so revengeful most estimable Verus," said the lady
+coaxingly. "I am dying of curiosity."
+
+"Live but a few days longer fair Balbilla, for my sake," replied the
+Roman, "and the cause of your early death will be removed."
+
+"Only wait, I will be revenged!" cried the girl threatening him with her
+finger, but Lucilla led her away saying:
+
+"Come now, it is time we should give Julia the benefit of our advice."
+
+"Do so," said Verus. "Otherwise I am afraid my visit to-day would seem
+opportune to no one.--Greet Julia from me."
+
+As he went away he cast a glance at the nosegay which Arsinoe had given
+away as soon as she had received it from him, and he sighed: "As we grow
+old we have to learn wisdom."
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 2.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Dame Hannah had watched by Selene till sunrise and indefatigably cooled
+both her injured foot and the wound in her head. The old physician was
+not dissatisfied with the condition of his patient, but ordered the
+widow to lie down for a time and to leave the care of her for a few
+hours to her young friend. When Mary was alone with the sick girl and
+had laid the fresh cold handkerchief in its place, Selene turned her
+face towards her and said:
+
+"Then you were at Lochias yesterday. Tell me how you found them all
+there. Who guided you to our lodgings and did you see my little brother
+and sisters?"
+
+"You are not yet quite free of fever, and I do not know how much I ought
+to talk to you--but I would with all my heart."
+
+The words were spoken kindly and there was a deep loving light in the
+eyes of the deformed girl as she said them. Selene excited not merely
+her sympathy and pity, but her admiration too, for she was so beautiful,
+so totally different from herself, and in every little service she
+rendered her, she felt like some despised beggar whom a prince might
+have permitted to wait upon him. Her hump had never seemed to her so
+bent, nor her brown skin so ugly at any other time as it did to-day,
+when side by side with this symmetrical and delicate girlish form,
+rounded to such tender contours.
+
+But Mary felt not the smallest movement of envy. She only felt happy to
+help Selene, to serve her, to be allowed to gaze at her although she was
+a heathen. During the night too, she had prayed fervently that the Lord
+might graciously draw to himself this lovely, gentle creature, that He
+might permit her to recover, and fill her soul with the same love for
+the Saviour that gave joy to her own. More than once she had longed to
+kiss her, but she dared not, for it seemed to her as though the sick
+girl were made of finer stuff than she herself.
+
+Selene felt tired, very tired, and as the pain diminished, a comfortable
+sense stole over her of peace and respite in the silent and loving
+homeliness of her surroundings; a feeling that was new and very
+soothing, though it was interrupted, now and again, by her anxiety for
+those at home. Dame Hannah's presence did her good, for she fancied
+she recognized in her voice something that had been peculiar to her
+mother's, when she had played with her and pressed her with special
+affection to her heart.
+
+In the papyrus factory, at the gumming-table, the sight of the little
+hunchback had disgusted Selene, but here she observed what good eyes
+she had, and how kind a voice, and the care with which Mary lifted the
+compress from her foot--as softly, as if in her own hands she felt the
+pain that Selene was suffering--and then laid another on the broken
+ankle, aroused her gratitude. Her sister Arsinoe was a vain and thorough
+Alexandrian girl, and she had nicknamed the poor thing after the ugliest
+of the Hellenes who had besieged Troy. "Dame Thersites," and Selene
+herself had often repeated it. Now she forgot the insulting name
+altogether, and met the objections of her nurse by saying:
+
+"The fever cannot be much now; if you tell me something I shall not
+think so constantly of this atrocious pain. I am longing to be at home.
+Did you see the children?"
+
+"No, Selene. I went no farther than the entrance of your dwelling, and
+the kind gate-keeper's wife told me at once that I should find neither
+your father nor your sister, and that your slave-woman was gone out to
+buy cakes for the children."
+
+"To buy them!" exclaimed Selene in astonishment. "The old woman told me
+too that the way to your apartments led through several rooms in which
+slaves were at work, and that her son, who happened to be with her,
+should accompany me, and so he did, but the door was locked, and he
+told me I might entrust his mother with my commission. I did so, for she
+looked as if she were both judicious and kind."
+
+"That she is."
+
+"And she is very fond of you, for when I told her of your sufferings the
+bright tears rolled down her cheeks, and she praised you as warmly, and
+was as much troubled as if you had been her own daughter."
+
+"You said nothing about our working in the factory?" asked Selene
+anxiously.
+
+"Certainly not, you had desired me not to mention it. I was to say
+everything that was kind to you from the old lady."
+
+For several minutes the two girls were silent, then Selene asked:
+
+"Did the gate-keeper's son who accompanied you also hear of the disaster
+that had befallen me?
+
+"Yes, on the way to your rooms he was full of fun and jokes, but when I
+told him that you had gone out with your damaged foot and now could not
+get home again, and were being treated by the leech, he was very angry
+and used blasphemous language."
+
+"Can you remember what he said?"
+
+"Not perfectly, but one thing I still recollect. He accused his gods of
+having created a beautiful work only to spoil it, nay he abused them"
+Mary looked down as she spoke, as if she were repeating something ill to
+tell, but Selene colored slightly with pleasure, and exclaimed eagerly,
+as if to outdo the sculptor in abuse:
+
+"He is quite right, the powers above act in such a way--"
+
+"That is not right," said the deformed girl reprovingly.
+
+"What?" asked the patient. "Here you live quietly to yourselves in
+perfect peace and love. Many a word that I heard dame Hannah say has
+stuck in my mind, and I can see for myself that you act as kindly as you
+speak. The gods no doubt are good to you!"
+
+"God is for each and all."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Selene with flashing eyes. "For those whose every
+pleasure they destroy? For the home of eight children whom they rob of
+their mother? For the poor whom they daily threaten to deprive of their
+bread-winner?"
+
+"For them too, there is a merciful God," interrupted dame Hannah who had
+just come into the room. "I will lead you to the loving Father in Heaven
+who cares for us all as if we were His children; but not now--you must
+rest and neither talk nor hear of anything that can excite your fevered
+blood. Now I will rearrange the pillow under your head. Mary will wet a
+fresh compress and then you must try to sleep."
+
+"I cannot," replied Selene, while Hannah shook her pillows and arranged
+them carefully. "Tell me about your God who loves us."
+
+"By-and-bye, dear child. Seek Him and you will find Him, for of all His
+children He loves them best who suffer."
+
+"Those who suffer?" asked Selene, in surprise. "What has a God in his
+Olympian joys to do with those who suffer?"
+
+"Be quiet, child," interrupted Hannah, patting the sick girl with a
+soothing hand, "you soon will learn how God takes care of you and that
+Another loves you."
+
+"Another," muttered Selene, and her cheeks turned crimson.
+
+She thought at once of Pollux, and asked herself why the story of her
+sufferings should have moved him so deeply if he were not in love with
+her. Then she began to seek some colorable ground for what she had heard
+as she went past the screen behind which he had been working. He had
+never told her plainly that he loved her. Why should he, an artist and a
+bright, high spirited young fellow, not be allowed to jest with a pretty
+girl, even if his heart belonged to another. No, she was not indifferent
+to him: that she had felt that night when she had stood as his model,
+and now--as she thought--I could guess, nay, feel sure of, from Mary's
+story.
+
+The longer she thought of him, the more she began to long to see him
+whom she had loved so dearly even as a child. Her heart had never yet
+beat for any other man, but since she had met Pollux again in the hall
+of the Muses, his image had filled her whole soul, and what she now felt
+must be love--could be nothing else. Half awake, but half asleep, she
+pictured him to herself, entering this quiet room, sitting down by the
+head of her couch, and looking with his kind eyes into hers. Ah! and how
+could she help it--she sat up and opened her arms to him.
+
+"Be still, my child, he still," said Hannah. "It is not good for you to
+move about so much."
+
+Selene opened her eyes, but only to close them again and to dream for
+some time longer till she was startled from her rest by loud voices in
+the garden. Hannah left the room, and her voice presently mingled with
+those of the other persons outside, and when she returned her cheeks
+were flushed and she could not find fitting words in which to tell her
+patient what she had to say.
+
+"A very big man, in the most outrageous dress," she said at last,
+"wanted to be let in; when the gatekeeper refused, he forced his way in.
+He asked for you."
+
+"For me," said Selene, blushing.
+
+"Yes, my child, he brought a large and beautiful nosegay of flowers, and
+said 'your friend at Lochias sends you his greeting.'"
+
+"My friend at Lochias?" murmured thoughtfully Selene to herself. Then
+her eyes sparkled with gladness, and she asked quickly:
+
+"You said the man who brought the flowers was very tall."
+
+"He was."
+
+"Oh please, dame Hannah, let me see the flowers?" cried Selene, trying
+to raise herself.
+
+"Have you a lover, child?" asked the widow.
+
+"A lover?--no, but there is a young man with whom we always used to play
+when we were quite little--an artist, a kind, good man--and the nosegay
+must be from him."
+
+Hannah looked with sympathy at the girl, and signing to Mary she said:
+
+"The nosegay is a very large one. You may see it, but it must not remain
+in the room; the smell of so many flowers might do you harm."
+
+Mary rose from her seat at the head of the bed, and whispered to the
+sick girl:
+
+"Is that the tall gate-keeper's son?" Selene nodded, smiling, and as
+the women went away she changed her position from lying on one side,
+stretched herself out on her back, pressed her hand to her heart, and
+looked upwards with a deep sigh. There was a singing in her ears, and
+flashes of colored light seemed to dance before her closed eyes. She
+drew her breath with difficulty, but still it seemed as though the air
+she drew in was full of the perfume of flowers.
+
+Hannah and Mary carried in the enormous bunch of flowers. Selene's eyes
+shone more brightly, and she clasped her hands in admiration. Then she
+made them show her the lovely, richly-tinted and fragrant gift, first
+on one side and then on the other, buried her face in the flowers, and
+secretly kissed the delicate petals of a lovely, half-opened rose-bud.
+She felt as if intoxicated, and the bright tears flowed in slow
+succession down her cheeks. Mary was the first to detect the brooch
+stuck into the ribbons that tied the stems of the flowers. She
+unfastened it and showed it to Selene, who hastily took it out of her
+hand. Blushing deeper and deeper, she fixed her eyes on the intaglio
+carved on the stone of the love god sharpening his arrows. She felt
+her pain no more pain, she felt quite well, and at the same time glad,
+proud, too happy. Dame Hannah noted her excitement with much anxiety;
+she nodded to Mary and said:
+
+"Now my daughter, this must do; we will place the flowers outside the
+window so that you may see them."
+
+"Already," said Selene, in a regretful tone, and she broke off a few
+violets and roses from the crowded mass. When she was alone again, she
+laid the flowers down and once more tenderly contemplated the figures on
+the handsome gem. It had no doubt been engraved by Teuker, the brother
+of Pollux. How fine the carving was, how significant the choice of the
+subject represented! Only the heavy gold setting disturbed the poor
+child, who for so many years had had to stint and contrive with her
+money. She said to herself that it was wrong of the young fellow, who,
+besides being poor, had to support his sister, to rush into such an
+outlay for her. But his gift gave her none the less pleasure, out of her
+own possessions nothing would have seemed too precious to give him. She
+would teach him to be saving by-and-bye.
+
+The women presently returned after they had with much trouble set up
+the nosegay outside the window, and they renewed the wet handkerchief
+without speaking. She did not in the least want to talk, she was
+listening with so much pleasure to the fair promises which her fancy
+was making, and wherever she turned her eyes they fell on something she
+could love, The flowers on her bed, the brooch in her hand, the nosegay
+outside the window, and never dreaming that another--not the man she
+loved--could have sent it to her, another for whom she cared even less
+than for the Christians who walked up and down in Paulina's garden,
+under her window. There she lay, full of sweet contentment and secure
+of a love that had never been hers--of possessing the heart of a man who
+never once thought of her, but who, only a few hours since, had rushed
+off with her sister, intoxicated with joy and delight. Poor Selene!
+
+And her next dreams were of untroubled happiness, but the minutes flew
+after each other, each bringing her nearer to waking--and what a waking!
+
+Her father had not come, as he had intended, to see her before going to
+the prefect's house with Arsinoe. His desire to conduct his daughter to
+Julia in a dress worthy of her prospects had detained him a long time,
+and even then he had not succeeded in his object. All the weavers, and
+the shops were closed, for every workman, whether slave or free, was
+taking part in the festivities, and when the hour fixed by the prefect
+drew near, his daughter was still sitting in her litter, in her simple
+white dress and her modest peplum, bound with blue ribbon, which looked
+even more insignificant by day than in the evening.
+
+The nosegay which had been given to Arsinoe by Verus gave her much
+pleasure, for a girl is always pleased with beautiful flowers--nay, they
+have something in common. As she and her father approached the prefect's
+house Arsinoe grew frightened, and her father could not conceal his
+vexation at being obliged to take her to the lady Julia in so modest a
+garb. Nor was his gloomy humor at all enlivened when he was left to wait
+in the anteroom while Julia and the wife of Verus, aided by Balbilla
+chose for his daughter the finest colored and costliest stuffs of the
+softest wool, silk, and delicate bombyx tissue. This sort of occupation
+has this peculiarity, that the longer time it takes the more assistance
+is needed, and the steward had to submit to wait fully two hours in the
+prefect's anteroom, which gradually grew fuller and fuller of clients
+and visitors. At last Arsinoe came back all glowing and full of the
+beautiful things that were to be prepared for her.
+
+Her father rose slowly from his easy seat, and as she hastened towards
+him the door opened, and through it came Plutarch, freshly wreathed,
+freshly decked with flowers which were fastened to the breast-folds of
+his gallium, and lifted into the room by his two human crutches. Every
+one rose as he came in, and when Keraunus saw that the chief lawyer of
+the city, a man of ancient family, bowed before him, he did likewise.
+Plutarch's eyesight was stronger than his legs were, and where a pretty
+woman was to be seen, it was always very keen. He perceived Arsinoe as
+soon as he had crossed the threshold and waved both hands towards her,
+as if she were an old and favorite acquaintance.
+
+The sweet child had quite bewitched him; in his younger days he
+would have given anything and everything to win her favor; now he was
+satisfied to make his favor pleasing to her; he touched her playfully
+two or three times on the arm and said gaily:
+
+"Well pretty Roxana, has dame Julia done well with the dresses?"
+
+"Oh! they have chosen such pretty, such really lovely things!" exclaimed
+the girl.
+
+"Have they?" said Plutarch, to conceal by speech the fact that he was
+meditating on some subject; "Have they? and why should they not?"
+
+Arsinoe's washed dress had caught the old man's eye, and remembering
+that Gabinius the curiosity-dealer had that very morning been to him to
+enquire whether Arsinoe were not in fact one of his work-girls, and
+to repeat his statement that her father was a beggarly toady, full of
+haughty airs, whose curiosities, of which he contemptuously mentioned
+a few, were worth nothing, Plutarch was hastily asking himself how he
+could best defend his pretty protege against the envious tongues of her
+rivals; for many spiteful speeches of theirs had already come to his
+ears.
+
+"Whatever the noble Julia undertakes is always admirably done," he said
+aloud, and he added in a whisper: "The day after to-morrow when the
+goldsmiths have opened their workshops again, I will see what I can find
+for you. I am falling in a heap, hold me up higher Antaeus and Atlas.
+So.--Yes, my child you look even better from up here than from a lower
+level. Is the stout man standing behind you your father?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Have you no mother?"
+
+"She is dead."
+
+"Oh!" said Plutarch in a tone of regret. Then turning to the steward he
+said:
+
+"Accept my congratulations on having such a daughter Keraunus. I hear
+too that you have to supply a mother's place to her."
+
+"Alas sir! she is very like my poor wife, since her death I live a
+joyless life."
+
+"But I hear that you take pleasure in collecting rare and beautiful
+objects. This is a taste we have in common. Are you inclined to part
+with the cup that belonged to my namesake Plutarch? It must be a fine
+piece of work from what Gabinius tells me."
+
+"That it is," replied the steward proudly. "It was a gift to the
+philosopher from Trajan; beautifully carved in ivory. I cannot bear to
+part with such a gem but," and as he spoke he lowered his voice. "I am
+under obligations to you, you have taken charge of my daughter's outfit
+and to offer you some return I will--"
+
+"That is quite out of the question," interrupted Plutarch, who knew men,
+and who saw from the steward's pompous pretentiousness that the dealer
+had done him no injustice in describing him as overbearing. "You are
+doing me an honor by allowing me to contribute what I can towards
+decorating our Roxana. I beg you to send me the cup, and whatever price
+you put upon it, I, of course, shall pay, that is quite understood."
+
+Keraunus had a brief internal conflict with himself. If he had not so
+sorely needed money, if he had not so keenly desired to see a young and
+comely slave walking behind him, he would have adhered to his purpose of
+presenting the cup to Plutarch; as it was he cleared his throat, looked
+at the ground, and said with an embarrassed manner and without a trace
+of his former confidence:
+
+"I remain your debtor, and it seems you do not wish this business to be
+mixed up with other matters. Well then, I had two thousand drachmae for
+a sword that belonged to Antony."
+
+"Then certainly," interrupted Plutarch, "the cup, the gift of Trajan,
+must be worth double, particularly to me who am related to the
+illustrious owner. May I offer you four thousand drachmae for your
+precious possession?"
+
+"I am anxious to oblige you, and so I say yes," replied the steward
+with much dignity, and he squeezed Arsinoe's little finger, for she was
+standing close to him. Her hand had for some time been touching his in
+token of warning that he should adhere to his first intention of making
+the cup a present to Plutarch.
+
+As the pair, so unlike each other, quitted the anteroom, Plutarch looked
+after them with a meaning smile and thought to himself: "That is well
+done. How little pleasure I generally have from my riches! How often
+when I see a sturdy porter I would willingly change places with him! But
+to-day I am glad to have as much money as I could wish. Sweet child! She
+must have a new dress of course for the sake of appearance, but really
+her beauty did not suffer from the washed-out rag of a dress. And she
+belongs to me, for I have seen her at the factory among the workwomen,
+of that I am certain."
+
+Keraunus had gone out with his daughter and once outside the prefect's
+house, he could not help chuckling aloud, while he patted his daughter
+on the shoulder, and whispered to her:
+
+"I told you so child! we shall be rich yet, we shall rise in life again
+and need not be behind the other citizens in any thing."
+
+"Yes, father, but it is just because you believe that, that you ought to
+have given the cup to the old man."
+
+"No," replied Keraunus, "business is business, but by and bye I will
+repay him tenfold for all he does for you now, by giving him my painting
+by Apelles. And Julia shall have the pair of sandal-straps set with
+cut-gems that came off a sandal of Cleopatra's."
+
+Arsinoe looked down, for she knew what these treasures were worth, and
+said:
+
+"We can consider all that later."
+
+Then she and her father got into the litters that had been waiting for
+them, and without which Keraunus thought he could no longer exist, and
+they were carried to the garden of Pudeus' widow.
+
+Their visit came to interrupt Selene's blissful dreams. Keraunus
+behaved with icy coldness to dame Hannah, for it afforded him a certain
+satisfaction to make a display of contempt for every thing Christian.
+When he expressed his regret that Selene should have been obliged to
+remain in her house, the widow replied:
+
+"She is better here than in the street, at any rate." And when Keraunus
+went on to say that he would take nothing as a gift and would pay her
+for her care of his daughter, Hannah answered:
+
+"We are happy to do all we can for your child, and Another will reward
+us."
+
+"That I certainly forbid," exclaimed the steward wrathfully.
+
+"We do not understand each other," said the Christian pleasantly. "I do
+not allude to any mortal being, and the reward we work for is not gold
+and possessions, but the happy consciousness of having mitigated the
+sufferings of a fellow-creature."
+
+Keraunus shrugged his shoulders, and after desiring Selene to ask the
+physician when she might be taken home, he went away.
+
+"I will not leave you here an instant longer than is necessary," he said
+as urgently as though she were in some infected house; he kissed her
+forehead, bowed to Hannah as loftily as though he had just bestowed an
+alms upon her, and departed, without listening to Selene's assurances
+that she was extremely happy and comfortable with the widow.
+
+The ground had long burnt under his feet, and the money in his pocket,
+he was now possessed of ample means to acquire a good new slave,
+perhaps, if he threw old Sebek into the bargain, they might even suffice
+to procure him a handsome Greek, who might teach the children to
+read and write. He could direct his first attention to the external
+appearance of the new member of his household, if he were a scholar
+as well, he would feel justified in the high price he expected to be
+obliged to pay for him.
+
+As Keraunus approached the slave-market he said, not without some
+conscious emotion at his own paternal devotion:
+
+"All for the credit of the house, all, and only, for the children."
+
+Arsinoe carried out her intention of staying with Selene; her father was
+to fetch her on his way home. After he was gone, Hannah and Mary left
+the two sisters together, for they supposed that they must wish to
+discuss a variety of things without the presence of strangers.
+
+As soon as the girls were alone Arsinoe began: "Your cheeks are rosy,
+Selene, and you look cheerful--ah! and I, I am so happy--so happy!"
+
+"Because you are to fill the part of Roxana?"
+
+"That is very nice too, and who would have thought only yesterday
+morning that we should be so rich today. We hardly know what to do with
+all the money."
+
+"We?"
+
+"Yes, for father has sold two objects out of his collection for six
+thousand drachmae."
+
+"Oh!" cried Selene clasping her hands, "then we can pay our most
+pressing debts."
+
+"To be sure, but that is not nearly all."
+
+"No?"
+
+"Where shall I begin? Ah! Selene, my heart is so full. I am tired, and
+yet I could dance and sing and shout all day and all the night through
+till to-morrow. When I think how happy I am, my head turns, and I feel
+as if I must use all my self-control to keep myself from turning giddy.
+You do not know yet how you feel when the arrow of Eros has pierced you.
+Ah! I love Pollux so much, and he loves me too."
+
+At these words all the color fled from Selene's cheeks, and her pale
+lips brought out the words:
+
+"Pollux? The son of Euphorion, Pollux the sculptor?"
+
+"Yes, our dear, kind, tall Pollux!" cried Arsinoe. "Now prick up your
+ears, and you shall hear how it all came to pass. Last night on our way
+to see you he confessed how much he loved me, and now you must advise me
+how to win over my father to our side, and very soon too. By-and-bye he
+will of course say yes, for Pollux can do anything he wants, and some
+day he will be a great man, as great as Papias, and Aristaeus,
+and Kealkes all put together. His youthful trick with that silly
+caricature--but how pale you are, Selene!"
+
+"It is nothing--nothing at all--a pain--go on," said Selene.
+
+"Dame Hannah begged me not to let you talk much."
+
+"Only tell me everything; I will be quiet."
+
+"Well, you have seen the lovely head of mother that he made," Arsinoe
+went on. "Standing by that we saw each other and talked for the first
+time after long years, and I felt directly that there was not a dearer
+man than he in the whole world, wide as it is. And he fell in love too
+with a stupid little thing like me. Yesterday evening he came here with
+me; and then as I went home, taking his arm in the dark through the
+streets, then--Oh, Selene, it was splendid, delightful! You cannot
+imagine!--Does your foot hurt you very much, poor dear? Your eyes are
+full of tears."
+
+"Go on, tell me all, go on."
+
+And Arsinoe did as she was desired, sparing the poor girl nothing that
+could widen and deepen the wound in her soul. Full of rapturous memories
+she described the place in the streets where Pollux had first kissed
+her. The shrubs in the garden where she had flung herself into his arms,
+her blissful walk in the moonlight, and all the crowd assembled for
+the festival, and finally how, possessed by the god, they had together
+joined the procession, and danced through the streets. She described,
+with tears in her eyes, how painful their parting had been, and laughed
+again, as she told how an ivy leaf in her hair had nearly betrayed
+everything to her father. So she talked and talked, and there was
+something that intoxicated her in her own words.
+
+How they were affecting Selene she did not observe. How could she know
+that it was her narrative and no other suffering which made her sister's
+lips quiver so sorrowfully? Then, when she went on to speak of the
+splendid garments which Julia was having made for her, the suffering
+girl listened with only half an ear, but her attention revived when she
+heard how much old Plutarch had offered for the ivory cup, and that her
+father proposed to exchange their old slave for a more active one.
+
+"Our good black mouse-catching old stork looks shabby enough it is
+true," said Arsinoe, "still I am very sorry he should go away. If you
+had been at home, perhaps father would have waited to consider."
+
+Selene laughed drily, and her lips curled scornfully as she said:
+
+"That is the way! go on! two days before you are turned out of house and
+home you ride in a chariot and pair!"
+
+"You always see the worst side," said Arsinoe with annoyance. "I tell
+you it will all turn out far better and nicer and more happily than we
+expect. As soon as we are a little richer we will buy back the old man,
+and keep him and feed him till he dies."
+
+Selene shrugged her shoulders, and her sister jumped up from her seat
+with her eyes full of tears. She had been so happy in telling how happy
+she was that she firmly believed that her story must bring brightness
+into the gloom of the sick girl's soul, like sunshine after a dark
+night; and Selene had nothing to give her but scornful words and looks.
+If a friend refuses to share in joys it is hardly less wounding than if
+he were to abandon us in trouble.
+
+"How you always contrive to embitter my happiness!" cried Arsinoe. "I
+know very well that nothing that I can do can ever be right in your
+eyes; still, we are sisters, and you need not set your teeth and grudge
+your words, and shrug your shoulders when I tell you of things which,
+even a stranger, if I were to confide them to her, would rejoice over
+with me. You are so cold and heartless! I dare say you will betray me to
+my father--"
+
+But Arsinoe did not finish her sentence, for Selene looked up at her
+with a mixture of suffering and alarm, and said:
+
+"I cannot be glad--I am in too much pain." As she spoke the tears ran
+down her cheeks and as soon as Arsinoe saw them she felt a return of
+pity for the sick girl, bent over and kissed her cheeks once, twice,
+thrice; but Selene pushed her aside and murmured piteously:
+
+"Leave me--pray leave me; go away, I can bear it no longer." She turned
+her face to the wall, sobbing aloud. Arsinoe attempted once more to show
+her some marks of affection, but her sister pushed her away still more
+decidedly, crying out loudly, as if in desperation: "I shall die if you
+do not leave me alone."
+
+And the happier girl, whose best offerings were thus disdained by her
+only female friend, went weeping away to await her father's return
+outside the door of the widow's house.
+
+When Hannah went to lay fresh handkerchiefs on Selene's wounds she saw
+that she had been crying, but she did not enquire into the reason of her
+tears. Towards evening the widow explained to her patient that she must
+leave her alone for half an hour, for that she and Mary were going out
+to pray to their God with their brethren and sisters, and they would
+pray for her also.
+
+"Leave me, only leave me," said Selene, "as it is, so it is--there are
+no gods."
+
+"Gods?" replied Hannah. "No. But there is one good and loving Father in
+Heaven, and you soon shall learn to know him."
+
+"I know him, well!" muttered the sick girl with keen irony.
+
+No sooner was she alone than she sat up in bed, and flung the flowers,
+which had been lying on it, far from her across the room, twisted the
+pin of the brooch till it was broken, and did not stir a finger to save
+the gold setting and engraved stone when they fell between the bed and
+wall of the room. Then she lay staring at the ceiling, and did not stir
+again. It was now quite dark. The lilies and honeysuckle in the great
+nosegay outside the window began to smell more strongly, and their
+perfume forced itself inexorably on her senses, rendered painfully
+acute by fever. She perceived it at every breath she drew, and not for
+a minute would it let her forget her wrecked happiness, and the
+wretchedness of her heart, till the heavy sweetness of the flowers
+became more unendurable than the most pungent odor, and she drew the
+coverlet over her head to escape this new torment; but she soon cast
+it off again, for she thought she should be suffocated under it. An
+intolerable restlessness took possession of her, while the pain in her
+injured foot throbbed madly, the cut in her head seemed to burn, and her
+temples beat with an agonizing headache that contracted the muscles
+of her eyes. Every nerve in her body, every thought of her brain was a
+separate torture, and at the same time she felt herself without a stay,
+without protection, and wholly abandoned to some cruel influence,
+which tossed and tore her soul as the storm tosses the crowns of the
+palm-trees.
+
+Without tears, incapable of lying still and yet punished for the
+slightest movement by some fresh pain, racked in every joint, not strong
+enough in her bewilderment to carry through a single connected thought,
+and yet firmly convinced that the perfume she was forced to inhale at
+every breath was poisoning her--destroying her--driving her mad--she
+lifted her damaged foot out of bed, dragged the other after it, and sat
+up on her couch regardless of the pain she felt, and the warnings of the
+physician. Her long hair fell dishevelled over her face, her arms, and
+her hands, in which she held her aching head; and in this new attitude
+the excitement of her brain and heart took fresh development.
+
+She sat gazing at the floor with a freezing gaze, and bitter enmity
+towards her sister, hatred towards Pollux, contempt for her father's
+miserable weakness, and her own utter blindness, rang wild changes in
+her soul. Outside all lay in peaceful calm, and from the house in which
+Paulina lived the evening breeze now and again bore the pure tones of
+a pious hymn upon her ear. Selene never heeded it, but as the same air
+wafted the scent of the flowers in her face even stronger than before,
+she clutched her hair in her fingers and pulled it so violently that she
+actually groaned with the pain she gave herself.
+
+The question as to whether her hair was less abundant and beautiful than
+her sister's suddenly occurred to her, and like a flash in the darkness
+the wish shot through her soul that she could fling Arsinoe to the
+ground by the hair, with the hand which was now hurting herself.
+
+That perfume! that horrible perfume!
+
+She could bear it no longer. She stood up on her uninjured foot, and
+with very short steps she dragged herself half crying to the window,
+and flung the nosegay with the great jar of burnt clay down on to
+the ground. The vessel was broken.--It had cost poor Hannah many
+hardly-saved pieces not long since. Selene stood on one foot, leaning,
+to recover herself, against the right-hand post of the window-opening,
+and there she could hear more distinctly than from her couch, the voice
+of the waves as they broke on the stone quay just behind dame Hannah's
+little house. The child of the Lochias was familiar with their tones,
+but the clashing and gurgling of the cool, moist element against the
+stones had never affected her before as they did now. Her fevered blood
+was on fire, her foot was burning, her head was hot, and hatred seemed
+to consume her soul as in a slow fire; she felt as if every wave that
+broke upon the seawall was calling out to her: "I am cool, I am moist, I
+can extinguish the flame that is consuming you. I can refresh and revive
+you."
+
+What had the world to offer her but new torment and new misery? But
+the sea--the blue dark sea was wide, and cold, and deep, and its waves
+promised her in insidious tones to relieve her at once of the rage of
+her fever, and of the burden of her life. Selene did not pause, did not
+reflect; she remembered neither the children whom she had so long
+cared for as a mother, nor her father, whose comfort and support she
+was--vague voices in her brain seemed to be whispering to her that the
+world was evil and cruel, and the abode of all the torment and care that
+gnawed at her heart. She felt as if she had been plunged to the temples
+in a pool of fire, and, like some poor wretch whose garments have been
+caught by the flames, she had an instinct to fly to the water, at the
+bottom of which she might hope to find the fulfilment of her utmost
+longing, sweet cold death, in which all is forgotten.
+
+Groaning and tottering she pushed her way through the door into the
+garden and hobbled down to the sea, grasping her temples in her hands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The Alexandrians were a stiff-necked generation. Only some phenomenal
+sight far transcending their every-day experience could avail to make
+them turn their heads to stare at it, but just now there was something
+to look at, at every moment and in every street of the city. To-day
+too each one thought only of himself and of his own pleasure. Some
+particularly pretty, tall, or well-dressed figure would give rise to
+a smile or an exclamation of approval, but before one sight had been
+thoroughly enjoyed the inquisitive eye was seeking a fresh one.
+
+Thus it happened that no one paid any special attention to Hadrian and
+his companions who allowed themselves to be unresistingly carried along
+the streets by the current of the crowd; and yet each one of them was,
+in his way, a remarkable object. Hadrian was dressed as Silenus, Pollux
+as a faun. Both wore masks and the disguise of the younger man was as
+well suited to his pliant and vigorous figure as that of the elder to
+his powerful stately person. Antinous followed his master, dressed as
+Eros. He wore a crimson mantle and was crowned with roses, while the
+silver quiver on his shoulder and the bow in his hand clearly symbolized
+the god he was intended to represent. He too wore a mask, but his figure
+attracted many gazers, and many a greeting of "Long live the god of
+love" or "Be gracious to me oh! son of Aphrodite" was spoken as he
+passed.
+
+Pollux had obtained all the things requisite for these disguises from
+the store of drapery belonging to his master. Papias had been out, but
+the young man did not deem it necessary to ask his consent, for he and
+the other assistants had often used the things for similar purposes with
+his full permission. Only as he took the quiver intended for Antinous,
+Pollux hesitated a little for it was of solid silver and had been
+given to his master by the wife of a wealthy cone-dealer, whom he had
+represented in marble as Artemis equipped for the chase.
+
+"The Roman's handsome companion," thought the young artist as he placed
+the costly object in with the others in a basket, which a squinting
+apprentice was to carry behind him--"The Roman's handsome companion must
+be made a splendid Eros--and before sunrise the useless thing will be
+hanging on its hook again."
+
+Indeed Pollux had not much time to admire the splendid appearance of
+the god of love he had so richly adorned, for the Roman architect was
+possessed by such thirst for knowledge and such inexhaustible curiosity
+as to the minutest details that even Pollux who was born in Alexandria,
+and had grown up there with his eyes very wide open, was often unable to
+answer his indefatigable questioning.
+
+The grey-bearded master wanted to see every thing and to be informed
+on every subject. Not content with making acquaintance with the main
+streets and squares the public sites and buildings, he peeped into the
+handsomest of the private houses and asked the names, rank and fortunes
+of the owners. The decided way in which he told Pollux the way he wished
+to be conducted proved to the artist that he was thoroughly familiar
+with the plan of the city. And when the sagacious and enlightened man
+expressed his approval, nay his admiration of the broad clean streets of
+the town, the handsome open places, and particularly handsome buildings
+which abounded on all sides, the young Alexandrian who was proud of his
+city was delighted.
+
+First Hadrian made him lead him along the seashore by the Bruchiom
+to the temple of Poseidon, where he performed some devotions, then he
+looked into the garden of the palace and the courts of the adjoining
+museum. The Caesareum with its Egyptian gateway excited his admiration
+no less than the theatre, surrounded with pillared arcades in stories,
+and decorated with numerous statues. From thence deviating to the left
+they once more approached the sea to visit the great Emporium, to see
+the forest of masts of Eunostus, and the finely-constructed quays. They
+left the viaduct known as the Heptastadion to their right and the harbor
+of Kibotus, swarming with small merchant craft, did not detain them
+long.
+
+Here they turned backs on the sea following a street which led inland
+through the quarter called Khakotis inhabited only by native Egyptians,
+and here the Roman found much to see that was noteworthy. First he and
+his companions met a procession of the priests who serve the gods of the
+Nile valley, carrying reliquaries and sacred vessels, with images of the
+gods and sacred animals, and tending towards the Serapeum which towered
+high above the streets in the vicinity. Hadrian did not visit the
+temple, but he inspected the chariots which carried people along an
+inclined road which led up the hill on which was the sanctuary, and
+watched devotees on foot who mounted by an endless flight of steps
+constructed on purpose; these grew wider towards the top, terminating
+in a platform where four mighty pillars bore up a boldly-curved cupola.
+Nothing looked down upon the temple-building which with its halls,
+galleries and rooms rose behind this huge canopy.
+
+The priests with their white robes, the meagre, half-naked Egyptians
+with their pleated aprons and headcloths, the images of beasts and the
+wonderfully-painted houses in this quarter of the city, particularly
+attracted Hadrian's attention and made him ask many questions, not all
+of which could Pollux answer.
+
+Their walk which now took them farther and farther from the sea extended
+to the extreme south of the town and the shores of lake Mareotis. Nile
+boats and vessels of every form and size lay at anchor in this deep and
+sheltered inland sea; here the sculptor pointed out to Hadrian the canal
+through which goods were conveyed to the marine fleet which had been
+brought down the river to Alexandria. And he pointed out to the Roman
+the handsome country-houses and well-tended vineyards on the shores of
+the lake.
+
+"The bodies in this city ought to thrive," said Hadrian meditatively.
+"For here are two stomachs and two mouths by which they absorb
+nourishment; the sea, I mean, and this lake."
+
+"And the harbors in each," added Pollux.
+
+"Just so; but now it is time we should turn about," replied Hadrian, and
+the party soon took a road leading eastward; they walked without pause
+through the quiet streets inhabited by the Christians, and finally
+through the Jews' quarter. In the heart of this quarter many houses
+were shut up, and there were no signs to be seen of the gay doings which
+crowded on the sense and fancy in the heathen part of the town, for
+the stricter among the Hebrews held sternly aloof, from the holiday
+festivities in which most of their nation and creed who dwelt among the
+Greeks, took part.
+
+For a third time Hadrian and his companions crossed the Canopic way
+which formed the main artery of the city and divided it into the
+northern and southern halves, for he wished to look down from the hill
+of the Paneum on the combined effect as a whole of all that he had seen
+in detail. The carefully-kept gardens which surrounded this elevation
+swarmed with men, and the spiral path which led to the top was crowded
+with women and children, who came here to see the most splendid
+spectacle of the whole day, which closed with performances in all the
+theatres in the town. Before the Emperor and his escort could reach
+the Paneum itself the crowd suddenly packed more closely and began
+exclaiming among themselves, "Here they come!" "They are early to-day!"
+"Here they are!"
+
+Lictors with their fasces over their shoulders were clearing the broad
+roadway, which led from the prefect's on the Bruchiom to the Paneum,
+with their staves and paying no heed to the mocking and witty speeches
+addressed to them by the mob wherever they appeared. One woman, as she
+was driven back by a Roman guardian of the peace, cried scornfully,
+"Give me your rods for my children and do not use them on unoffending
+citizens."
+
+"There is an axe hidden among the faggots," added an Egyptian
+letter-writer in a warning voice.
+
+"Bring it here," cried a butcher. "I can use it to slaughter my beasts."
+The Romans as they heard these bandied words felt the blood mounting
+to their faces, but the prefect, who knew his Alexandrians well, had
+counselled them to be deaf; to see everything but to hear nothing. Now
+there appeared a cohort of the Twelfth Legion, who were quartered in
+garrison in Egypt, in their richest arms and holiday uniforms. Behind
+them came two files of particularly tall lictors wearing wreaths,
+and they were followed by several hundred wild beasts, leopards
+and panthers, giraffes, gazelles, antelopes, and deer, all led by
+dark-colored Egyptians. Then came a richly-dressed and much be-wreathed
+Dionysian chorus with the sound of tambourines and lyres, double flutes
+and triangles, and finally, drawn by ten elephants and twenty white
+horses, a large ship, resting on wheels and gilt from stem to stern,
+representing the vessel in which the Tyrrhenian pirates were said to
+have carried off the young Dionysus when they had seen the black-haired
+hero on the shore in his purple garments. But the miscreants--so the
+myth went on to say--were not allowed long to rejoice in their violence,
+for hardly had the ship reached the open sea when the fetters dropped
+from the god, vines entwined the sails in sudden luxuriance, tendrils
+encumbered the oars and rudder, heavy grapes clustered round the ropes,
+and ivy clung to the mast and shrouded the seats and sides of the
+vessel. Dionysus is equally powerful on sea and on land; in the pirates'
+ship he assumed the form of a lion, and the pirates, filled with terror,
+flung themselves into the sea, and in the form of dolphins followed
+their lost bark.
+
+All this Titianus had caused to be represented just as the Homeric
+hymns described it, out of slight materials, but richly and elegantly
+decorated, in order to provide a feast for the eyes of the Alexandrians,
+with the intention of riding in it himself, with his wife and the most
+illustrious of the Romans who formed the Empress' suite, to enjoy all
+the Holiday doings in the chief streets of the city. Young and old,
+great and small, men and women, Greeks, Romans, Jews, Egyptians,
+foreigners dark and fair, with smooth hair or crisp wool, crowded with
+equal eagerness to the edge of the roadway to see the gorgeous boat.
+
+Hadrian, far more anxious to see the show than his younger but less
+excitable favorite, pushed into the front rank, and as Antinous was
+trying to follow him, a Greek boy, whom he had shoved aside, snatched
+his mask from his face, threw himself on the ground, and slipped nimbly
+off with his booty. When Hadrian looked round for the Bithyman, the
+ship-in which the prefect was standing between the images of the Emperor
+and Empress, while Julia, Balbilla, and her companion, and other Roman
+lords and ladies were sitting in it--had come quite near to them. His
+sharp eye had recognized them all, and fearing that the lad's uncovered
+face would betray them he cried out:
+
+"Turn round and get into the crowd again." The favorite immediately
+obeyed, and only too glad to escape from the crowd, which was a thing
+he detested, he sat down on a bench close to the Paneum, and looked
+dreamily at the ground while he thought of Selene and the nosegay he
+had sent her, neither seeing nor hearing anything of what was going on
+around him.
+
+When the gaudy ship left the gardens of the Paneum and turned into
+the Canopic way, the crowd pursued it in a dense mass, hallooing and
+shouting. Like a torrent suddenly swelled by a storm it rushed on,
+surging and growing at each moment, and carrying with it even those who
+tried to resist its force. Thus even Hadrian and Pollux were forced to
+follow in its wake, and it was not till they found themselves in the
+broad Canopic way that they were able to come to a stand-still. The
+broad roadway of this famous street was bordered on each side by a long
+vista of colonnade, and it extended from one end of the city to the
+other. There were hundreds of the Corinthian columns which supported the
+roof that covered the footway, and near to one of these the Emperor and
+Pollux succeeded at last in effecting a halt and taking breath.
+
+Hadrian's first thought was for his favorite, and being averse to
+venturing himself once more to mix with the crowd, he begged the
+sculptor to go and seek him and conduct him safely.
+
+"Will you wait for me here?" asked Pollux.
+
+"I have known a pleasanter halting place," sighed the Emperor.
+
+"So have I," answered the artist. "But that tall door there, wreathed
+round with boughs of poplar and ivy, leads into a cook-shop where the
+gods themselves might be content to find themselves."
+
+"Then I will wait there."
+
+"But I warn you to eat as much as you can, for the Olympian table' as
+kept by Lykortas, the Corinthian, is the dearest eating-house in the
+whole city. None but the richest are his guests."
+
+"Very good," laughed Hadrian. "Only find my assistant a new mask and
+bring him back to me. It will not ruin me quite, even if I pay for
+a supper for all three of us, and on a holiday one expects to spend
+something."
+
+"I hope you may not live to repent," retorted Pollux. "But a long fellow
+like me is a good trencherman, and can do his part with the wine-jar."
+
+"Only show me what you can do," cried Hadrian after him as Pollux
+hurried off. "I owe you a supper at any rate, for that cabbage stew of
+your mother's."
+
+While Pollux went to seek the Bithyman in the vicinity of the Paneum,
+the Emperor entered the eating house, which the skill of the cook had
+made the most frequented and fashionable in Alexandria. The place in
+which most of the customers of the house dined, consisted of a large
+open hall, surrounded by arcades which were roofed in on three of
+its sides and closed by a wall on its fourth; in these arcades stood
+couches, on which the guests reclined singly, or in couples, or in
+larger groups, and ordered the dishes and liquors which the serving
+slaves, pretty boys with curling hair and hand some dresses, placed
+before them on low tables. Here all was noise and bustle; at one
+table an epicure devoted himself silently to the enjoyment of some
+carefully-prepared delicacy, at another a large circle of men seemed to
+be talking more eagerly than they either eat or drank, and from several
+of the smaller rooms behind the wall at the back of the hall came sounds
+of music and song, and the bold laughter of men and women.
+
+The Emperor asked for a private room, but they were all occupied, and
+he was requested to wait a little while, for that one of the adjoining.
+rooms would very soon be vacant. He had taken off his mask, and though
+he was not particularly afraid of being recognized in his disguise he
+chose a couch that was screened by a broad pillar in one of the
+arcades at the inner side of the court, and which, now that evening was
+beginning to fall was already in obscurity. There he ordered, first some
+wine and then some oysters to begin, with; while he was eating these he
+called one of the superintendents and discussed with him the details
+of the supper he wished presently to be served to himself and his two
+guests. During this conversation the bustling host came to make his
+bow to his new customer, and seeing that he had to do with a man fully
+conversant with all the pleasures of the table, he remained to attend on
+him, and entered with special zeal into Hadrian's various requirements.
+
+There was, too, plenty to be seen in the court, which roused the
+curiosity of the most inquisitive and enquiring man of his time. In the
+large space enclosed by the arcades, and under the eyes of the guests,
+on gridirons and hearths, over spits and in ovens the various dishes
+were prepared which were served up by the slaves. The cooks prepared
+their savory messes on large, clean tables, and the scene of their
+labors, which, though enclosed by cords was open to public gaze was
+surrounded by a small market, where however only the choicest of wares
+were displayed.
+
+Here in tempting array was every variety of vegetable reared on Greek or
+Egyptian soil; here speckless fruits of every size and hue were set out,
+and there ready baked, shining, golden-brown pasties were displayed.
+Those containing meat, fish or the mussels of Canopus were prepared in
+Alexandria itself, but others containing fruit or the leaves of flowers
+were brought from Arsinoe on the shores of Lake Moeris, for in that
+neighborhood the cultivation of fruit and horticulture generally were
+pursued with the greatest success. Meat of all sorts lay or hung in
+suitable places; there were juicy hams from Cyrene, Italian sausages and
+uncooked joints of various slaughtered beasts. By them lay or hung game
+and poultry in select abundance, and a large part of the court was taken
+up by a tank in which the choicest of the scaly tribes of the Nile,
+and of the lakes of Northern Egypt, were swimming about as well as
+the Muraena and other fish of Italian breed. Alexandrian crabs and the
+mussels, oysters, and cray-fish of Canopus and Klysma were kept alive in
+buckets or jars. The smoked meats of Mendes and the neighborhood of
+Lake Moeris hung on metal pegs, and in a covered but well-aired room,
+sheltered from the sun lay freshly-imported fish from the Mediterranean
+and Red Sea. Every guest at the 'Olympian table' was allowed here to
+select the meat, fruit, asparagus, fish, or pasty which he desired to
+have cooked for him. The host, Lykortas, pointed out to Hadrian an old
+gentleman who was busy in the court that was so prettily decorated with
+still-life, engaged in choosing the raw materials of a banquet he wished
+to give some friends in the evening of this very day.
+
+"It is all very nice and extremely good," said Hadrian, "but the gnats
+and flies which are attracted by all those good things are unendurable,
+and the strong smell of food spoils my appetite."
+
+"It is better in the side-rooms," said the host. "In the one kept for
+you the company is now preparing to depart. In behind here the sophists
+Demetrius and Pancrates are entertaining a few great men from Rome,
+rhetoricians or philosophers or something of the kind. Now they are
+bringing in the fine lamps and they have been sitting and talking at
+that table ever since breakfast. There come the guests out of the side
+room. Will you take it?"
+
+"Yes," said Hadrian. "And when a tall young man comes to ask for the
+architect Claudius Venato, from Rome, bring him in to me."
+
+"An architect then, and not a sophist or a rhetorician," said mine host,
+looking keenly at the Emperor.
+
+"Silenus,--a philosopher!"
+
+"Oh the two vociferous friends there go about even on other days naked
+and with ragged cloaks thrown over their lean shoulders. To-day they are
+feeding at the expense of rich Josephus."
+
+"Josephus! he must be a Jew and yet he is making a large hole in the
+ham."
+
+"There would be more swine in Cyrene if there were no Jews; they are
+Greeks like ourselves, and eat everything that is good."
+
+Hadrian went into the vacant room, lay down on a couch that stood by the
+wall, and urged the slaves who were busied in removing the dishes and
+vessels used by his predecessors, and which were swarming with flies.
+As soon as he was alone he listened to the conversation which was being
+carried on between Favorinus, Florus, and their Greek guests. He knew
+the two first very well, and not a word of what they were saying escaped
+his keen ear.
+
+Favorinus was praising the Alexandrians in a loud voice, but in flowing
+and elegantly-accented Greek. He was a native of Arelas--[Arles]--in
+Gaul, but no Hellene of them all could pour forth a purer flow of the
+language of Demosthenes than he. The self-reliant, keen, and vivacious
+natives of the African metropolis were far more to his taste than the
+Athenians; these dwelt only in, and for, the past; the Alexandrians
+rejoiced in the present. Here an independent spirit still survived,
+while on the shores of the Ilissus there were none but servile souls who
+made a merchandise of learning, as the Alexandrians did of the products
+of Africa and the treasures of India. Once when he had fallen into
+disgrace with Hadrian, the Athenians had thrown down his statue, and
+the favor or disfavor of the powerful weighed with him more than
+intellectual greatness, valuable labors, and true merit.
+
+Florus agreed with Favorinus on the whole, and declared that Rome must
+be freed from the intellectual influence of Athens; but Favorinus did
+not admit this; he opined that it was very difficult for any one who had
+left youth behind him, to learn anything new, thus referring, with light
+irony, to the famous work in which Florus had attempted to divide the
+history of Rome into four periods, corresponding to the ages of man,
+but had left out old age, and had treated only of childhood, youth, and
+manhood. Favorinus reproached him with overestimating the versatility of
+the Roman genius, like his friend Fronto, and underrating the Hellenic
+intellect.
+
+Florus answered the Gaulish orator in a deep voice, and with such a
+grand flow of words, that the listening Emperor would have enjoyed
+expressing his approbation, and could not help considering the question
+as to how many cups of wine his usually placid fellow-countryman might
+have taken since breakfast to be so excited. When Floras tried to prove
+that under Hadrian's rule Rome had risen to the highest stage of its
+manhood, his friend, Demetrius, of Alexandria, interrupted him, and
+begged him to tell him something about the Emperor's person. Florus
+willingly acceded to this request, and sketched a brilliant picture
+of the administrative talent, the learning, and the capability of the
+Emperor.
+
+"There is only one thing," he cried eagerly, "that I cannot approve of;
+he is too little at Rome, which is now the core and centre of the world.
+He must need see every thing for himself, and he is always wandering
+restlessly through the provinces. I should not care to change with him!"
+
+"You have expressed the same ideas in verse," said Favorinus.
+
+"Oh! a jest at supper-time. So long as I am in Alexandria and waiting
+on Caesar I can make myself very comfortable every day at the 'Olympian
+table' of this admirable cook."
+
+"But how runs your poem?" asked Pancrates.
+
+"I have forgotten it, and it deserved no better fate," replied Florus.
+
+"But I," laughed the Gaul, "I remember the beginning. The first lines, I
+think, ran thus:
+
+         "'Let others envy Caesar's lot;
+          To wander through Britannia's dales
+          And be snowed up in Scythian vales
+          Is Caesar's taste--I'd rather not?'"
+
+As he heard these words Hadrian struck his fist into the palm of his
+left hand, and while the feasters were hazarding guesses as to why he
+was so long in coming to Alexandria, he took out the folding tablet he
+was in the habit of carrying in his money-bag, and hastily wrote the
+following lines on the wax face of it:
+
+          'Let others envy Florus' lot;
+          To wander through the shops for drink,
+          Or, into foolish dreaming sink
+          In a cook-shop, where sticky flies
+          Buzz round him till he shuts his eyes
+          Is Florus' taste--I'd rather not?'
+
+   [From verses by Hadrian and Florus, preserved in Spartianus.]
+
+Hardly had he ended the lines, muttering them to himself with much
+relish as he wrote, when the waiter showed in Pollux. The sculptor had
+failed to find Antinous, and suggested that the young man had probably
+gone home; he also begged that he might not be detained long at supper,
+for he had met his master Papias, who had been extremely annoyed by his
+long absence. Hadrian was no longer satisfied with the artist's society,
+for the conversation in the next room was to him far more attractive
+than that of the worthy young fellow. He himself was anxious to quit
+the meal soon, for he felt restless and uneasy. Antinous could no doubt
+easily find his way to Lochias, but recollections of the evil omens he
+had observed in the heavens last night flitted across his soul like bats
+through a festal hall, marring the pleasure on which he again tried to
+concentrate it, in order to enjoy his hours of liberty.
+
+Even Pollux was not so light-hearted as before. His long walk had made
+him hungry, and he addressed himself so vigorously to the excellent
+dishes which rapidly followed each other by his entertainer's orders,
+and emptied the cup with such unfailing diligence, that the Emperor was
+astonished: but the more he had to think about, the less did he talk.
+
+Pollux, to be sure, had had his answer ready for his master, and without
+considering how easy it would have been to part from him in kindness, he
+had shortly and roundly quitted his service. Now indeed he stood on his
+own feet, and he was longing to tell Arsinoe and his parents of what he
+had done.
+
+During the course of the meal his mother's advice recurred to his mind:
+to do his best to win the favor and good will of the architect whose
+guest he was; but he set it aside, for he was accustomed to owe all he
+gained to his own exertions, and though he still keenly felt in Hadrian
+the superiority of a powerful mind, their expedition through the city
+had not brought him any nearer to the Roman. Some insurmountable barrier
+stood fixed between himself and this restless, inquisitive man, who
+required so many answers that no one else had time to ask a question,
+and who when he was silent looked so absorbed and unapproachable that
+no one would have ventured to disturb him. The bold young artist had,
+however, tried now and again to break through the fence, but each time,
+he had at once been seized with a feeling, of which he could not rid
+himself, that he had done something awkward and unbecoming. He felt
+in his intercourse with the architect as a noble dog might feel that
+sported with a lion, and such sport could come to no good. Thus, for
+various reasons, host and guest were well content when the last dish was
+removed. Before Pollux left the room the Emperor gave him the tablets
+with the verses and begged him, with a meaning smile, to desire the
+gate-keeper at the Caesareum to give them to Annaeus Florus the Roman.
+He once more urgently charged the sculptor to look about for his young
+friend and, if he should find him at Lochias, to tell him that he,
+Claudius Venator, would return home ere long. Then the artist went his
+way.
+
+Hadrian still sat a long time listening to the talk close by; but after
+waiting for above an hour to hear some fresh mention made of himself,
+he paid his reckoning and went out into the Canopic way, now brilliantly
+lighted. There he mingled with the revellers, and walked slowly onward,
+seeking suspiciously and anxiously for his vanished favorite.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Antinous, searching for his master, had wandered about in the crowd.
+Whenever he saw any figures of exceptional stature he followed them, but
+each time only to discover that he had entered on a false track. Long
+and persistent effort was not in his nature, so as soon as he began to
+get tired, he gave up the search and sat down again on a stone bench in
+the garden of the Paneum.
+
+Two cynic philosophers, with unkempt hair, tangled beards, and ragged
+cloaks flung over their shivering bodies, sat down by him and fell into
+loud and contemptuous abuse of the deference shown, 'in these days,'
+to external things and vulgar joys, and of the wretched sensualists who
+regarded pleasure and splendor, rather than virtue, as the aim and end
+of existence. In order to be heard by the by-standers they spoke in
+loud tones, and the elder of the two, flourished his knotted stick
+as viciously, as though he had to defend himself against an attack.
+Antinous felt much disgusted by the hideous appearance, the coarse
+manners, and shrill voices of these persons, and when he rose--as the
+cynics' diatribe seemed especially directed against him--they scoffed at
+him as he went, mocking at his costume and his oiled and perfumed hair.
+The Bithynian made no reply to this abuse. It was odious to him, but he
+thought it might perhaps have amused Caesar.
+
+He wandered on without thinking; the street in which he presently found
+himself must no doubt lead to the sea, and if he could once find himself
+on the shore he could not fail to make his way to Lochias. By the
+time it was growing dark he was once more standing outside the little
+gate-house, and there he learnt from Doris that the Roman and her son
+had not yet returned.
+
+What was he to do alone in the vast empty palace? Were not the
+very slaves free to-day? Why should not he too for once enjoy life
+independently and in his own way? Full of the pleasant sense of being
+his own master and at liberty to walk in a road of his own choosing,
+he went onwards, and when he presently passed by the stall of a
+flower-seller, he began once more to think eagerly of Selene and the
+nosegay, which must long since have reached her hands.
+
+He had heard from Pollux in the morning that the steward's daughter was
+being tended by Christians in a little house not far from the sea-shore;
+indeed the sculptor himself had been quite excited as he told Antinous
+that he himself had peeped into the lighted room and had seen her. 'A
+glorious creature' he had called her, and had said that she had never
+looked more beautiful than in a recumbent attitude on her bed.
+
+Antinous recalled all this and determined to venture on an attempt to
+see again the maiden whose image filled his heart and brain.
+
+It was now dark and the same light which had allowed of the sculptor's
+seeing Selene's features might this evening reveal them to him also.
+Full of passion and excitement, he got into the first litter he met
+with. The swarthy bearers were far too slow for his longing, and more
+than once he flung to them as much money as they were wont to earn in
+a week, to urge them to a brisker pace. At last he reached his
+destination; but seeing that several men and women robed in white, were
+going into the garden, he desired the bearers to carry him farther.
+Close to a dark narrow lane which bounded the widow's garden-plot on the
+east and led directly to the sea, he desired them to stop, got out of
+the litter and bid the slaves wait for him. At the garden door he still
+found two men dressed in white, and one of the cynic philosophers who
+had sat by him on the bench near the Paneum. He paced impatiently up
+and clown, waiting till these people should have disappeared, and thus
+passing again and again under the light of the torches that were stuck
+up by the gate.
+
+The dry cynic's prominent eyes were everywhere at once, and as soon as
+he perceived the peripatetic Bithynian he flung up his arm, exclaiming,
+as he pointed to him with a long, lean, stiff forefinger--half to the
+Christians with whom he had been talking and half to the lad himself:
+
+"What does he want. That fop! that over-dressed minion! I know the
+fellow; with his smooth face and the silver quiver on his shoulder he
+believes he is Eros in person. Be off with you, you house-rat. The women
+and girls in here know how to protect themselves against the sort who
+parade the streets in rose-colored draperies. Take yourself off, or you
+will make acquaintance with the noble Paulina's slaves and clogs. Hi!
+gate-keeper, here! keep an eye on this fellow."
+
+Antinous made no answer, but slowly went back to his litter.
+
+"To-morrow perhaps, if I cannot manage it tonight," he thought to
+himself as he went; and he never thought of any other means of attaining
+his end, much as he longed for it. A hindrance that came in his way
+ceased to be a hindrance as soon as he had left it behind him, and after
+this reflection he acted on this occasion as on many former ones. The
+litter was no longer standing where he had left it; the bearers had
+carried it into the lane leading to the sea, for the only little abode
+which stood on the eastern side of it belonged to a fisherman whose wife
+sold thin potations of Pelusium beer.
+
+Antinous went down the green alley overarched with boughs of fig, to
+call the negroes who were sitting in the dull light of a smoky oil-lamp.
+Here it was dark, but at the end of the alley the sea shone and sparkled
+in the moonlight; the splashing of the waves tempted him onwards and he
+loitered clown to the stone-bound shore. There he spied a boat dancing
+on the water between two piles and it came into his head that it might
+be possible to see the house where Selene was sleeping, from the sea.
+
+He undid the rope which secured the boat without any difficulty; he
+seated himself in it, laid aside the quiver and bow, pushed off with one
+of the oars that lay at the bottom of the boat and pulled with steady
+strokes towards the long path of light where the moon touched the crest
+of each dancing wavelet with unresting tremulous flecks of silver.
+
+There lay the widow's garden. In that small white house must the
+fair pale Selene be sleeping, but though he rowed hither and thither,
+backwards and forwards, he could not succeed in discovering the window
+of which Pollux had spoken. Might it not be possible to find a spot
+where he could disembark and then make his way into the garden? He could
+see two little boats, but they lay in a narrow walled canal and this
+was closed by an iron railing. Beyond, was a terrace projecting into the
+sea, and surrounded by an elegant balustrade of little columns, but it
+rose straight out of the sea on smooth high walls. But there--what was
+that gleaming under the two palm-trees which, springing from the same
+root, had grown together tall and slender--was not that a flight of
+marble steps leading down to the sea?
+
+Antinous dipped his right oar in the waves with a practised hand to
+alter the head of the boat and was in the act of pulling his hand up
+to make his stroke against the pressure of the waves--but he did not
+complete the movement, nay he counteracted the stroke by a dexterous
+reverse action; a strange vision arrested his attention. On the terrace,
+which lay full in the bright moonlight, there appeared a white-robed
+figure with long floating hair.
+
+How strangely it moved! It went now to one side and now to the other,
+then again it stood still and clasped its head in its hands. Antinous
+shuddered, he could not help thinking of the Daimons of which Hadrian so
+often spoke. They were said to be of half-divine and half-human nature,
+and sometimes appeared in the guise of mortals.
+
+Or was Selene dead and was the white figure her wandering shade?
+Antinous clutched the handles of the oars, now merely floating on the
+water, and bending forward gazed fixedly and with bated breath at the
+mysterious being which had now reached the balustrade of the terrace,
+now--he saw quite plainly--covered its face with both hands, leaned far
+over the parapet, and now as a star falls through the sky on a clear
+night, as a fruit drops from the tree in autumn, the white form of the
+girl dropped from the terrace. A loud cry of anguish broke the silence
+of the night which veiled the world, and almost at the same instant the
+water splashed and gurgled up, and the moonbeams, cold and bright as
+ever, were mirrored in the thousand drops that flew up from its surface.
+
+Was this Antinous, the indolent dreamer, who so promptly plunged his
+oars in the water, pulled a powerful stroke, and then, when in a few
+seconds after her fall, the form of the drowning girl came to the
+surface again quite close to the boat, flung aside the oar that was in
+his way? Leaning far over the edge of the boat he seized the floating
+garment of the drowning creature--it was a woman, no Daimon nor
+shade--and drew her towards him. He succeeded in raising her high out of
+the waves, but when he tried to pull her fairly out of her watery bed,
+the weight, all on one side of the boat, was too great; it turned over
+and Antinous was in the sea.
+
+The Bithyman was a good swimmer. Before the white form could sink a
+second time he had caught at it once more with his right hand and taking
+care that her head should not again touch the surface of the water, he
+swam with his left arm and legs towards the spot where he remembered
+he had seen the flight of steps. As soon as his feet felt the ground he
+lifted the girl in both arms and a groan of relief broke from his lips
+as he saw the marble steps close below him. He went up them without
+hesitation, and then, with a swift elastic step, carried his dripping
+and senseless burden to the terrace where he had observed that there
+were benches. The wide floor of the sea-terrace, paved with smooth
+flags of marble, was brightly lighted by the broad moonshine, and the
+whiteness of the stone reflected and seemed to increase the light. There
+stood the benches which Antinous had seen from afar.
+
+He laid his burden on the first he came to, and a thrill of thankful joy
+warmed his shivering body when the rescued woman uttered a low cry of
+pain which told him that he had not toiled in vain. He gently slipped
+his arm between the hard elbow of the marble seat and her head, to give
+it a somewhat softer resting-place. Her abundant hair fell in clammy
+tresses, covering her face like a thick but fine veil; he parted it to
+the right and left and then--then he sank on his knees by her side as if
+a sudden bolt had fallen from the blue sky above them; for the features
+were hers, Selene's, and the pale girl before whom he was kneeling was
+she herself, the woman he loved.
+
+Almost beside himself and trembling in every limb, he drew her closer
+to him and put his ear against her mouth to listen whether he had not
+deceived himself, whether she had not indeed fallen a victim to the
+waves or whether some warm breath were passing the portals of her lips.
+
+Yes she breathed! she was alive! Full of thankful ecstasy he pressed his
+cheek to hers. Oh! how cold she was, icy, cold as death!
+
+The torch of life was flickering, but he would not--could not--must not
+let it die out: and with all the care, rapidity and decision of the most
+capable man, he once more raised her, lifted her in both arms as if she
+were a child, and carried her straight to the house whose white walls he
+could see gleaming among the shrubs behind the terrace. The little lamp
+was still burning in dame Hannah's room, which Selene had so lately
+quitted; in front of the window through which the dim light came to
+mingle with the moonbeams, lay the flowers whose perfume had so troubled
+the suffering girl, and with them Hannah's clay jar, all still strewn on
+the ground.
+
+Was this nosegay his gift? Very likely.
+
+But the lamp-lighted room into which he now looked could be none other
+than the sick-room, which he recognized from the sculptor's account. The
+housedoor was open and even that of the room in which he had seen the
+bed was unfastened; he pushed it open with his foot, entered the room,
+and laid Selene on the vacant couch.
+
+There she lay as if dead; and as he looked at her immovable features,
+hallowed to solemnity by sorrow and suffering, his heart was touched
+with an ineffable solicitude, sympathy and pity; and, as a brother
+might bend over a sleeping sister, he bent over Selene and kissed her
+forehead. She moved, opened her eyes, gazed into his face--but her
+glance was so full of horror, so vague, glassy and bewildered, that he
+drew back with a shudder, and with hands uplifted could only stammer
+out: "Oh! Selene, Selene! do you not know me?" and as he spoke he looked
+anxiously in the face of the rescued girl; but she seemed not to hear
+him and nothing moved but her eyes which slowly followed his every
+movement.
+
+"Selene!" he cried again, and seizing her inanimate hand which hung
+down, he pressed it passionately to his lips.
+
+Then she gave a loud cry, a violent shiver shook her in every limb, she
+turned aside with sighs and groans, and at the same instant the door
+was opened, the little deformed girl entered the room and gave a shrill
+scream of terror as she saw Antinous standing by the side of her friend.
+
+The lad himself started and, like a thief who has been caught in the
+act, he fled out into the night, through the garden, and as far as the
+gate which led into the street without being stopped by any one. Here
+the gate-keeper met him, but he threw him aside with a powerful fling,
+and while the old man--who had grown gray in his office--caught hold of
+his wet chiton he tore the door open and ran on, dragging his pursuer
+with him for some paces. Then he flew down the street with long steps as
+if he were racing in the Gymnasium, and soon he felt that his pursuer,
+in whose hand he had left a piece of his garment, had given up the
+chase.
+
+The gate-keeper's outcry had mingled with the pious hymns of the
+assembled Christians in Paulina's villa, and some of them had hurried
+out to help capture the disturber of the peace. But the young Bithynian
+was swifter than they and might consider himself perfectly safe when
+once he had succeeded in mixing with a festal procession. Half-willingly
+and half-perforce, he followed the drunken throng which was making its
+way from the heart of the city towards the lake, where, on a lonely spot
+on the shore to the east of Nikropolis, they were to celebrate certain
+nocturnal mysteries. The goal of the singing, shouting, howling mob with
+whom Antinous was carried along, was between Alexandria and Canopus and
+far enough from Lochias; thus it fell out that it was long past midnight
+when Hadrian's favorite, dirty, out of breath, and his clothes torn, at
+last appeared in the presence of his master.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Hadrian had expected Antinous many hours since, and the impatience and
+vexation which had been long seething in him were reflected plainly
+enough in his sternly-bent brow and the threatening fire of his eye.
+
+"Where have you been?" he imperiously asked.
+
+"I could not find you, so I took a boat and went out on the lake."
+
+"That is false."
+
+Antinous did not answer, but merely shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Alone?" asked the Emperor more gently. "Alone."
+
+"And for what purpose?"
+
+"I was gazing at the stars."
+
+"You!"
+
+"And may I not, for once, tread in your footsteps?"
+
+"Why not indeed? The lights of heaven shine for the foolish as well as
+for the wise. Even asses must be born under a good or an evil star. One
+donkey serves a hungry grammarian and feeds on used-up papyrus, while
+another enters the service of Caesar and is fattened up, and finds time
+to go star-gazing at night. What a state you are in."
+
+"The boat upset and I fell into the water." Hadrian was startled, and
+observing his favorite's tangled hair in which the night wind had dried
+the salt water, and his torn chiton, he anxiously exclaimed:
+
+"Go this instant and let Mastor dry you and anoint you. He too came
+back with a bruised hand and red eyes. Everything is upside clown this
+accursed evening. You look like a slave that has been hunted by clogs.
+Drink a few cups of wine and then lie down."
+
+"I obey your orders, great Caesar."
+
+"So formal? The donkey simile vexed you."
+
+"You used always to have a kind word for me."
+
+"Yes, yes, and I shall have them again, I shall have them again. Only
+not to-night--go to bed."
+
+Antinous left him, but the Emperor paced his room, up and down with
+long steps, his arms crossed over his breast and his eyes fixed on the
+ground. His superstitious soul had been deeply disturbed by a series of
+evil signs which he had not only seen the previous night in the sky, but
+had also met on his way to Lochias, and which seemed to be beginning to
+be fulfilled already.
+
+He had left the eating house in an evil humor, the bad omens made him
+anxious, and though on his arrival at home he had done one or two things
+which he already regretted, this had certainly not been due to any
+adverse Daimons but to the brooding gloom of his clouded mind. Eternal
+circumstances, it is true, had led to his being witness to an attack
+made by the mob on the house of a wealthy Israelite, and it was
+attributable to a vexatious accident that at this juncture, he should
+have met Verus, who had observed and recognized him. Yes, the Spirits of
+evil were abroad this day, but his subsequent experiences and deeds
+upon reaching Lochias, would certainly not have taken place on any more
+fortunate day, or, to be more exact, if he had been in a calmer frame of
+mind; he himself alone was in fault, he alone, and no spiteful accident,
+nor malicious and tricky Daimon. Hadrian, to be sure, attributed to
+these sprites all that he had done, and so considered it irremediable;
+an excellent way, no doubt, of exonerating oneself from a burdensome
+duty, or from repairing some injustice, but conscience is a register in
+which a mysterious hand inexorably enters every one of our deeds, and
+in which all that we do is ruthlessly called by its true name. We often
+succeed, it is true, in effacing the record for a longer or a shorter
+period, but often, again, the letters on the page shine with an uncanny
+light, and force the inward eye to see them and to heed them.
+
+On this particular night Hadrian felt himself compelled to read the
+catalogue of his actions and among them he found many a sanguinary
+crime, many a petty action unworthy of a far meaner soul than he; still
+the record commemorated many duties strictly fulfilled, much honest
+work, an unceasing struggle towards high aims, and an unwearied effort
+to feel his way intellectually, to the most remote and exalted limits
+possible to the human mind and comprehension.
+
+In this hour Hadrian thought of none but his evil deeds, and vowed to
+the gods--whom he mocked at with his philosophical friends, and to whom
+he nevertheless addressed himself whenever he felt the insufficiency of
+his own strength and means--to build a temple here, to offer a sacrifice
+there, in order to expiate old crimes and divert their malice. He
+felt like a great man must who is threatened with the disfavor of his
+superiors, and who hopes to propitiate them with gifts. The haughty
+Roman quailed at the thought of unknown dangers, but he was far from
+feeling the wholesome pangs of repentance.
+
+Hardly an hour since he had forgotten himself and had disgracefully
+abused his power over a weaker creature, and now he was vexed at having
+behaved so and not otherwise; but it never entered his head to humiliate
+his pride or, by offering some compensation to the offended party,
+tacitly to confess the injustice he had committed. Often he deeply
+felt his human weakness, but he was quite capable of believing in the
+sacredness of his imperial person, and this he always found most easy
+when he had trodden under foot some one who had been rash enough to
+insult him, or not to acknowledge his superiority. And was it not on the
+contemners of the gods that their heaviest punishments fell?
+
+To-day the terrestrial Jupiter had again crushed into the earth with his
+thunderbolts, an overbold mortal, and this time the son of the worthy
+gate-keeper was his victim. The sculptor certainly had been so unlucky
+as to touch Hadrian in his most sensitive spot, but a cordially
+benevolent feeling is not easily converted into a relentless opposition
+if we are not ourselves--as was the case with the Emperor--accustomed to
+jump from one mood to the other, are not conscious--as he was--of having
+it in our power directly to express our good-will or our aversion in
+action.
+
+The sculptor's capacities had commanded the Emperor's esteem, his fresh
+and independent nature had at first suited and attracted him, but
+even during the walk together through the streets, the young man's
+uncompromising manner of treating him as an equal had become unpleasing
+to him. In his workshop he saw in Pollux only the artist, and delighted
+in his original and dashing powers; but out of it, and among men of a
+commoner stamp, from whom he was accustomed to meet with deference, the
+young man's speech and demeanor seemed unbecoming, bold, and hard to be
+endured. In the eating-house the huge eater and drinker, who laughingly
+pressed him to do his part, so as not to make a present to the landlord,
+had filled Hadrian with repulsion. And after this, when Hadrian had
+returned to Lochias, out of humor and rendered apprehensive by evil
+omens, and even then had not found his favorite, he impatiently paced up
+and down the hall of the Muses and would not deign to offer a greeting
+to the sculptor, who was noisily occupied behind his screens.
+
+Pollux had passed quite as bad an evening as the Emperor. When, in
+his desire to see Arsinoe once more, he penetrated to the door of the
+steward's apartment, Keraunus had stopped his way, and sent him about
+his business with insulting words. In the hall of the Muses he had
+met his master, and had had a quarrel with him, for Papias, to whom he
+repeated his notice to quit, had grown angry, and had desired him then
+and there to sort out his own tools, and to return those that belonged
+to him, his master, and for the future to keep himself as far as
+possible from Papias' house, and from the works in progress at Locluas.
+On this, hard words had passed on both sides, and when Papias had left
+the palace and Pollux went to seek Pontius the architect, in order to
+discuss his future plans with him, he learnt that he too had quitted
+Lochias a short time before, and would not return till the following
+morning.
+
+After brief reflection he determined to obey the orders of Papias and
+to pack his own tools together. Without paying any heed to Hadrian's
+presence he began to toss some of the hammers, chisels, and wooden
+modelling tools into one box, and others into another, doing it as
+recklessly as though he were minded to punish the unconscious tools as
+adverse creatures who had turned against him.
+
+At last his eye fell on Hadrian's bust of Balbilla. The hideous
+caricature at which he had laughed only yesterday, made him angry now,
+and after gazing at it thoughtfully for a few minutes his blood boiled
+up furiously, he hastily pulled a lath out of the partition and struck
+at the monstrosity with such fury that the dry clay flew in pieces, and
+the fragments were strewed far and wide about the workshop. The wild
+noise behind the sculptor's screen made the Emperor pause in his walk to
+see what the artist was doing; he looked on at the work of destruction,
+unobserved by Pollux, and as he looked the blood mounted to his head; he
+knit his brows in anger, a blue vein in his forehead swelled and stood
+out, and ominous lines appeared above his brow. The great master of
+state-craft could more easily have borne to hear himself condemned as a
+ruler than to see his work of art despised. A man who is sure of having
+done some thing great can smile at blame, but he, who is not confident
+in himself has reason to dread it, and is easily drawn into hating the
+critic who utters it. Hadrian was trembling with fury, he doubled his
+first as he lifted it in Pollux's face, and going close up to him asked
+in a threatening tone:
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+The sculptor glanced round at the Emperor and answered, raising his
+stick for another blow:
+
+"I am demolishing this caricature for it enrages me."
+
+"Come here," shouted Hadrian, and clutching the girdle which confined
+the artist's chiton, in his strong sinewy hand, he dragged the startled
+sculptor in front of his Urania wrenched the lath out of his hand,
+struck the bust of the scarcely-finished statue off the body, exclaiming
+as he did so, in a voice that mimicked Pollux:
+
+"I am demolishing this bungler's work for it enrages me!"
+
+The artist's arms fell by his side; astonished and infuriated he stared
+at the destroyer of his handiwork, and cried out:
+
+"Madman! this is enough. One blow more and you will feel the weight of
+my fists."
+
+Hadrian laughed aloud, a cold hard laugh, flung the lath at Pollux's
+feet and said:
+
+"Judgment against judgment--it is only fair."
+
+"Fair?" shrieked Pollux, beside himself.
+
+"Your wretched rubbish, which my squinting apprentice could have done as
+well as you, and this figure born in a moment of inspiration! Shame
+upon you! Once more, if you touch the Urania again I warn you, you shall
+learn--"
+
+"Well, what?"
+
+"That in Alexandria grey hairs are only respected so long as they
+deserve it."
+
+Hadrian folded his arms, stepped quite close up to Pollux, and said:
+
+"Gently, fellow, if you value your life."
+
+Pollux stepped back before the imposing personage that stood before him,
+and, as it were scales, fell from his eyes. The marble statue of
+the Emperor in the Caesareum represented the sovereign in this same
+attitude. The architect, Claudius Venator, was none other than Hadrian.
+
+The young artist turned pale and said with bowed head, and in low voice
+as he turned to go:
+
+"Right is always on the side of the strongest. Let me go. I am nothing
+but a poor artist--you are some thing very different. I know you now;
+you are Caesar."
+
+"I am Caesar," snarled Hadrian, "and if you think more of yourself as an
+artist than of me, I will show you which of us two is the sparrow, and
+which the eagle."
+
+"You have the power to destroy, and I only desire--"
+
+"The only person here who has a right to desire is myself," cried the
+Emperor, "and I desire that you shall never enter this palace again, nor
+ever come within sight of me so long as I remain here. What to do with
+your kith and kin I will consider. Not another word! Away with you, I
+say, and thank the gods that I judge the misdeed of a miserable boy more
+mercifully than you dared to do in judging the work of a greater man
+than yourself, though you knew that he had done it in an idle hour with
+a few hasty touches. Be off, fellow; my slaves will finish destroying
+your image there, for it deserves no better fate, and because--what was
+it you said just now? I remember--and because it enrages me."
+
+A bitter laugh rang after the lad as he quitted the hall. At the
+entrance, which was perfectly dark, he found his master, Papias, who
+had not missed a word of what had passed between him and the Emperor. As
+Pollux went into his mother's house he cried out:
+
+"Oh mother, mother, what a morning, and what an evening. Happiness is
+only the threshold to misery."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+While Pollux and his mother, who was much grieved, waited for
+Euphorion's return, and while Papias was ingratiating himself with the
+Emperor by pretending still to believe that Hadrian was nothing more
+than Claudius Venator, the architect, Aurelius Verus, nicknamed by the
+Alexandrians, "the sham Eros" had lived through strange experiences.
+
+In the afternoon he had visited the Empress, in the hope of persuading
+her to look on at the gay doings of the people, even if incognito; but
+Sabina was out of spirits, declared herself unwell, and was quite sure
+that the noise of the rabble would be the death of her. Having, as she
+said, so vivacious a reporter as Verus, she might spare herself from
+exposing her own person to the dust and smell of the town, and the
+uproar of men. As soon as Lucilla begged her husband to remember his
+rank and not to mingle with the excited multitude, at any rate after
+dark, the Empress strictly enjoined him to see with his own eyes
+everything that could be worth notice in the festival, and more
+particularly to give attention to everything that was peculiar to
+Alexandria and not to be seen in Rome.
+
+After sunset Verus had first gone to visit the veterans of the Twelfth
+Legion who had been in the field with him against the Numidians, and
+to whom he gave a dinner at an eating-house, as being his old
+fellow-soldiers. For above an hour he sat drinking with the brave old
+fellows; then, quitting them, he went to look at the Canopic way
+by night, as it was but a few paces thither from the scene of his
+hospitality. It was brilliantly lighted with tapers, torches, and
+lamps, and the large houses behind the colonnades were gaudy with rich
+hangings; only the handsomest and stateliest of them all had no kind of
+decoration. This was the abode of the Jew Apollodorus.
+
+In former years the finest hangings had decorated his windows, which had
+been as gay with flowers and lamps as those of the other Israelites
+who dwelt in the Canopic way, and who were wont to keep the festival
+in common with their heathen fellow-citizens as jovially as though they
+were no less zealous to do homage to Dionysus. Apollodorus had his own
+reasons for keeping aloof on this occasion from all that was connected
+with the holiday doings of the heathen. Without dreaming that his
+withdrawal could involve him in any danger, he was quietly sitting in
+his house, which was so splendidly furnished as to seem fitted for some
+princely Greek rather than for a Hebrew. This was especially the case
+with the men's living-room, in which Apollodorus sat, for the pictures
+on the walls and pavement of this beautiful hall--of which the
+roof, which was half open, was supported on columns of the finest
+porphyry--represented the loves of Eros and Psyche; while between the
+pillars stood busts of the greatest heathen philosophers, and in the
+background a fine statue of Plato was conspicuous. Among all the Greeks
+and Romans there was the portrait of only one Jew, and this was that of
+Philo, whose intellectual and delicate features greatly resembled those
+of the most illustrious of his Greek companions.
+
+In this splendid room, lighted by silver lamps, there was no lack
+of easy couches, and on one of these Apollodorus was reclining; a
+fine-looking man of fifty, with his mild but shrewd eyes fixed on a tall
+and aged fellow-Israelite who was pacing up and down in front of him and
+talking eagerly; the old man's hands too were never still, now he used
+them in eager gesture, and again stroked his long white beard. On an
+easy seat opposite to the master of the house sat a lean young man with
+pale and very regular finely-cut features, black hair and a black beard;
+he sat with his dark glowing eyes fixed on the ground, tracing lines and
+circles on the pavement with the stick he held in his hand, while the
+excited old man, his uncle, urgently addressed Apollodorus in a vehement
+but fluent torrent of words. Apollodorus, however, shook his head
+from time to time at his speech and frequently met him with a brief
+contradiction.
+
+It was easy to see that what he was listening to touched him painfully,
+and that the two diametrically different men were fighting a battle
+which could never lead to any satisfactory issue. For, though they both
+used the Greek tongue and confessed the same religion, all they felt and
+thought was grounded on views, as widely dissimilar as though the two
+men had been born in different spheres. When two opponents of such
+different calibre meet, there is a great clatter of arms but no bloody
+wounds are dealt and neither rout nor victory can result.
+
+It was on account of this old man and his nephew that Apollodorus had
+forborne to-day to decorate his house, for the Rabbi Gamaliel, who had
+arrived only the day before from Palestine, and had been welcomed by
+his Alexandrian relatives, condemned every form of communion with the
+gentiles, and would undoubtedly have quitted the residence of his host
+if he had ventured to adorn it in honor of the feast-day of the false
+gods. Gamaliel's nephew, Rabbi Ben Jochai, enjoyed a reputation little
+inferior to that of his father, Ben Akiba. The elder was the greatest
+sage and expounder of the law--the son the most illustrious astronomer
+and the most skilled interpreter of the mystical significance of the
+position of the heavenly bodies, among the Hebrews.
+
+It redounded greatly to the honor of Apollodorus that he should be
+privileged to shelter under his roof the sage Gamaliel and the famous
+son of so great a father, and in his hours of leisure he loved to occupy
+himself with learned subjects, so he had done his utmost to make their
+stay in his house in every way agreeable to them. He had bought, on
+purpose for them, a kitchen slave, himself a strict Jew and familiar
+with the requirements of the Levitical law as to food, who during their
+stay was to preside over the mysteries of the hearth, instead of the
+Greek cook who usually served him, so that none but clean meat should be
+prepared according to the Jewish ritual. He had forbidden his grown-up
+sons to invite any of their Greek friends into the house during the
+visit of the illustrious couple or to discuss the festival; they were
+also enjoined to avoid using the names of the gods of the heathen in
+their conversation--but he himself was the first to sin against this
+prohibition.
+
+He, like all the Hebrews of good position in Alexandria, had acquired
+Greek culture, felt and thought in Greek modes, and had remained a Jew
+only in name; for though they still believed in the one God of their
+fathers instead of in a crowd of Olympian deities, the One whom they
+worshipped was no longer the almighty and jealous God of their nation,
+but the all-pervading plasmic and life-giving Spirit with whom the
+Greeks had become familiar through Plato.
+
+Every hour that they had spent in each other's company had widened
+the gulf between Apollodorus and Gamaliel, and the relations of the
+Alexandrian to the sage had become almost intolerable, when he learnt
+that the old man--who was related to himself--had come to Egypt with his
+nephew, in order to demand the daughter of Apollodorus in marriage. But
+the fair Ismene was not in the least disposed to listen to this grave
+and bigoted suitor. The home of her people was to her a barbarous land,
+the young astronomer filled her with alarm, and besides all this her
+heart was already engaged; she had given it to the son of Alabarchos,
+who was the Superior of all the Israelites in Egypt, and this young
+man possessed the finest horse in the whole city, with which he had won
+several races in the Hippodrome, and he also had distinguished her above
+all the maidens. To him, if to any one, would she give her hand, and she
+had explained herself to this effect to her father when he informed her
+of Ben Jochai's suit, and Apollodorus, who had lost his wife several
+years before, had neither the wish nor the power to put any pressure on
+his pretty darling.
+
+To be sure the temporizing nature of the man rendered it very difficult
+to him to give a decided no to his venerable old friend; but it had
+to be done sooner or later, and the present evening seemed to him an
+appropriate moment for this unpleasant task.
+
+He was alone with his guests. His daughter had gone to the house of a
+friend to look on at the gay doings in the street, his three sons were
+out, all the slaves had leave to enjoy their holiday till midnight;
+nothing was likely to disturb them, and so, after many warm expressions
+of his deep respect, he found courage to confess to them that he could
+not support Ben Jochai's pretensions. His child, he said, clung too
+fondly to Alexandria to wish to quit it, and his learned young friend
+would be but ill suited with a wife who was accustomed to freer manners
+and habits, and could hardly feel herself at ease in a home where the
+laws of her fathers were strictly observed, and in which therefore no
+kind of freedom of life would be tolerated.
+
+Gamaliel let the Alexandrian speak to the end, but then, as his nephew
+was beginning to argue against their host's hesitancy, the old man
+abruptly interrupted him. Drawing up his figure, which was a little
+bent, to its full height, and passing his hand among the blue veins and
+fine wrinkles that marked his high forehead, he began:
+
+"Our house was decimated in our wars against the Romans, and among the
+daughters of our race Ben Akiba found not one in Palestine who seemed to
+him worthy to marry his son. But the report of the good fortune of
+the Alexandrian branch of our family had reached Judea, and Ben Akiba
+thought that he would do like our father Abraham, and he sent me, his
+Eliezer, into a strange land to win the daughter of a kinsman to wife
+for his Isaac. Now, who and what the young man is, and the esteem in
+which he and his father are held by men--"
+
+"I know well," interrupted Apollodorus, "and my house has never been so
+highly honored as in your visit."
+
+"And notwithstanding," continued the Rabbi, "we must return home as we
+came; and indeed this will not only suit you best, but us too, and my
+brother, whose ambassador I am, for after what I have learnt from you
+within this last hour we must in any case withdraw our suit. Do not
+interrupt me! Your Ismene scorns to veil her face, and no doubt it is a
+very pretty one to look upon--you have trained her mind like that of a
+man, and so she seeks to go her own way. That may be all very well for
+a Greek woman, but in the house of Ben Akiba the woman must obey her
+husband's will, as the ship obeys the helm, and have no will of her own;
+her husband's will always coincides with what the law commands, which
+you yourself learnt to obey."
+
+"We recognize its excellence," replied Apolloderus, "but even if all the
+laws which Moses received on Sinai were binding on all mortals alike,
+the various ordinances which were wisely laid down for the regulation of
+the social life of our fathers, are not universally applicable for the
+children of our day. And least of all can we observe them here, where,
+though true to our ancient faith, we live as Greeks among Greeks."
+
+"That I perceive," retorted Gamaliel, "for even the language--that
+clothing of our thoughts--the language of our fathers and of the
+scriptures, you have abandoned for another, sacrificed to another."
+
+"You and your nephew also speak Greek."
+
+"We do it here, because the heathen, because you and yours, no longer
+understand the tongue of Moses and the prophets."
+
+"But wherever the Great Alexander bore his arms Greek is spoken; and
+does not the Greek version of the scriptures, translated by the seventy
+interpreters under the direct guidance of our God, exactly reproduce the
+Hebrew text?"
+
+"And would you exchange the stone engraved by Bryasis that you wear
+on your finger, and showed me yesterday with so much pride, for a wax
+impression of the gem?"
+
+"The language of Plato is not an inferior thing; it is as noble as the
+costliest sapphire."
+
+"But ours came to us from the lips of the Most High. What would you
+think of a child that, disdaining the tongue Of its father listened only
+to that of its neighbors and made use of an interpreter to be able to
+understand its parents' commands?"
+
+"You are speaking of parents who have long since left their native land.
+The ancestor need not be indignant with his descendants when they use
+the language of their new home, so long as they continue to act in
+accordance with his spirit."
+
+"We must live not merely in accordance with the spirit, but by the words
+of the Most High, for not a syllable proceeds from His lips in vain. The
+more exalted the spirit of a discourse is, the more important is every
+word and syllable. One single letter often changes the meaning of whole
+sentences.--What a noise the people outside are making! The wild tumult
+penetrates even into this room which is so far from the street, and
+your sons take delight in the disorders of the heathen! You do not even
+withhold them by force from adding to the number of those mad devotees
+of pleasure!"
+
+"I was young once myself, and I think it no sin to share in the
+universal rejoicing."
+
+"Say rather the disgraceful idolatry of the worshippers of Dionysus. It
+is in name alone that you and your children belong to the elect people
+of God, in your hearts you are heathens!"
+
+"No, Father," exclaimed Apollodorus eagerly. "The reverse is the case.
+In our hearts we are Jews but we wear the garments of Greeks."
+
+"Why your name is Apollodorus--the gift of Apollo."
+
+"A name chosen only to distinguish me from others. Who would ever
+enquire into the meaning of a name if it sounds well."
+
+"You, everybody who is not devoid of sense," cried the Rabbi. "You think
+to yourself 'need Zenodotus or Hermogenes, some Greek you meet at the
+bath or else where, know at once that the wealthy personage, with whom
+he discussed the latest interpretation of the Hellenic myths, is a
+Jew?' And how charming is the man who asks you whether you are not
+an Athenian, for your Greek has such a pure Attic accent! And what we
+ourselves like, we favor in our children, so we choose names for them
+too which flatter our own vanity."
+
+"By Heracles!"
+
+A faint mocking smile crossed Gamaliel's lips and interrupting the
+Alexandrian he said:
+
+"Is there any particularly worthy man among our Alexandrian
+fellow-believers whose name is Heracles?"
+
+"No one" cried the Alexandrian "ever thinks of the son of Alcmene when
+he asseverates--it only means 'really,--truly--'"
+
+"To be sure you are not fastidiously accurate in the choice of your
+words and names, and where there is so much to be seen and enjoyed
+as there is here one's thoughts are not always connected. That is
+intelligible--quite, peculiarly intelligible! And in this city folks are
+so polite that they are fain to wrap truth in some graceful disguise.
+May I, a barbarian from Judea, be allowed to set it before you, bare of
+clothing, naked and unadorned."
+
+"Speak, I beg you, speak."
+
+"You are Jews; but you had rather not be Jews, and you endure your
+origin as an inevitable evil. It is only when you feel the mighty hand
+of the Most High that you recognize it and claim your right to be one
+of His chosen people. In the smooth current of daily life you proudly
+number yourselves with his enemies. Do not interrupt me, and answer
+honestly what I shall ask you. In what hour of your life did you
+feel yourself that you owed the deepest gratitude to the God of your
+fathers?"
+
+"Why should I deny it?--In the hour when my lost wife presented me with
+my first-born son."
+
+"And you called him?"
+
+"You know his name is Benjamin."
+
+"Like the favorite son of our forefather Jacob, for in the hour when you
+thus named him you were honestly yourself, you felt thankful that it
+had been vouchsafed to you to add another link to the chain of your
+race--you were a Jew--you were confident in our God--in your own God.
+The birth of your second son touched your soul less deeply and you gave
+him the name of Theophilus, and when your third male child was born you
+had altogether ceased to remember the God of your fathers, for he is
+named after one of the heathen gods, Hephaestion. To put it shortly: You
+are Jews when the Lord is most gracious to you, or threatens to try you
+most severely but you are heathen whenever your way does not lead you
+over the high hills or through the dark abysses of life. I cannot change
+your hearts--but the wife of my brother's son, the daughter of Ben
+Akiba, must be a daughter of our people, morning, noon, and night. I
+seek a Rebecca for my daughter and not an Ismene."
+
+"I did not ask you here," retorted Apollodorus. "But if you quit us
+to-morrow, you as will be followed by our reverent regard. Think no
+worse of us because we adapt ourselves, more, perhaps, than is fitting,
+to the ways and ideas of the people among whom we have grown up, and in
+whose midst we have been prosperous, and whose interests are ours. We
+know how high our faith is beyond theirs. In our hearts we still are
+Jews; but are we not bound to try to open and to cultivate and to
+elevate our spirits, which God certainly made of stuff no coarser than
+that of other nations, whenever and wherever we may? And in what school
+may our minds be trained better or on sounder principles than in ours--I
+mean that of the Greek sages? The knowledge of the Most High--"
+
+"That knowledge," cried the old man, gesticulating vehemently with his
+arms. "The knowledge of God Most High and all that the most refined
+philosophy can prove, all the sublimest and purest of the thinkers
+of whom you speak can only apprehend by the gravest meditation and
+heart-searching--all this I say has been bestowed as a free gift of God
+on every child of our people. The treasures which your sages painfully
+seek out we already possess in our scriptures, our law and our moral
+ordinances. We are the chosen people, the first-born of the Lord, and
+when Messiah shall rise up in our midst--"
+
+"Then," interrupted Apollodorus, "that shall be fulfilled which, like
+Philo, I hope for, we shall be the priests and prophets for all nations.
+Then we shall in truth be a race of priests whose vocation it shall be
+to call down the blessing of the Most High on all mankind."
+
+"For us--for us alone shall the messenger of God appear, to make us the
+kings, and not the slaves of the nations."
+
+Apollodorus looked with surprise into the face of the excited old man,
+and asked with an incredulous smile: "The crucified Nazarene was a false
+Messiah; but when will the true Messiah appear?"
+
+"When will He appear?" cried the Rabbi. "When? Can I tell when? Only one
+thing I do know; the serpent is already sharpening its fangs to sting
+the heel of Him who shall tread upon it. Have you heard the name of Bar
+Kochba?"
+
+"Uncle," said Ben Jochai, interrupting the old Rabbi's speech, and
+rising from his seat: "Say nothing you might regret."
+
+"Nay, nay," answered Gamaliel earnestly. "Our friends here prefer the
+human above the divine, but they are not traitors." Then turning again
+to Apollodorus he continued:
+
+"The oppressors in Israel have set up idols in our holy places, and
+strive again to force the people to bow down to them; but rather shall
+our back be broken than we will bend the knee or submit!"
+
+"You are meditating another revolt?" asked the Alexandrian anxiously.
+
+"Answer me--have you heard the name of Bar Kochba?"
+
+"Yes, as that of the foolhardy leader of an armed troup."
+
+"He is a hero--perhaps the Redeemer."
+
+"And it was for him that you charged me to load my next corn vessel to
+Joppa with swords, shields and lance-heads?"
+
+"And are none but the Romans to be permitted to use iron?"
+
+"Nay--but I should hesitate to supply a friend with arms if he proposed
+to use them against an irresistible antagonist, who will inevitably
+annihilate him!"
+
+"The Lord of Hosts is stronger than a thousand legions!"
+
+"Be cautious uncle," said Ben Jochai again in a warning voice.
+
+Gamaliel turned wrathfully upon his nephew, but before he could retort
+on the young man's protest, he started in alarm, for a wild howling and
+the resounding clatter of violent blows on the brazen door of the house
+rang through the hall and shook its walls of marble.
+
+"They are attacking my house," shouted Apollodorus.
+
+"This is the gratitude of those for whom you have broken faith with the
+God of your fathers," said the old man gloomily. Then throwing up his
+hands and eyes he cried aloud: "Hear me Adonai! My years are many and I
+am ripe for the grave; but spare these, have mercy upon them."
+
+Ben Jochai followed his uncle's example and raised his arms in
+supplication, while his black eyes sparkled with a lowering glow in his
+pale face.
+
+But their prayers were brief, for the tumult came nearer and nearer;
+Apollodorus wrung his hands, and struck his fist against his forehead;
+his movements were violent--spasmodic. Terror had entirely robbed him
+of the elegant, measured demeanor which he had acquired among his Greek
+fellow-citizens, and mingling heathen oaths and adjurations with appeals
+to the God of his fathers, he flew first one way and then another. He
+searched for the key of the subterranean rooms of the house, but he
+could not find it, for it was in the charge of his steward, who, with
+all the other servants, was taking his pleasure in the streets, or over
+a brimming cup in some tavern.
+
+Now the newly-purchased kitchen-slave--the Jew to whom the keeping of
+the Dionysian feast was an abomination--rushed into the room shrieking
+out, as he plucked at his hair and beard:
+
+"The Philistines are upon us! save us Rabbi, great Rabbi! Cry for us
+to the Lord, oh! man of God! They are coming with staves and spears
+and they will tread us down as grass and burn us in this house like the
+locusts cast into the oven."
+
+In deadly terror he threw himself at Gamaliel's feet and clasped them in
+his hands, but Apollodorus exclaimed: "Follow me, follow me up on to the
+roof."
+
+"No, no," howled the slave, "Amalek is making ready the firebrand to
+fling among our tents. The heathen leap and rage, the flames they are
+flinging will consume us. Rabbi, Rabbi, call upon the Hosts of the Lord!
+God of the just! The gate has given way. Lord! Lord! Lord!"
+
+The terrified wretch's teeth chattered and he covered his eyes with his
+hands, groaning and howling.
+
+Ben Jochai had remained perfectly calm, but he was quivering with rage.
+His prayer was ended, and turning to Gamaliel he said in deep tones:
+
+"I knew that this would happen, I warned you. Our evil star rose when we
+set forth on our wanderings.
+
+"Now we must abide patiently what the Lord hath determined. He will be
+our Avenger."
+
+"Vengeance is His!" echoed the old man, and he covered his head with his
+white mantle.
+
+"In the sleeping-room--follow me! we can hide under the beds!" shrieked
+Apollodorus; he kicked away the slave who was embracing the Rabbi's
+feet, and seized the old man by the shoulder to drag him away with him.
+But it was too late, for the door of the antechamber had burst open and
+they could hear the clatter of weapons. "Lost, lost, all is lost!" cried
+Apollodorus.
+
+"Adonai! help us Adonai!" murmured the old man and he clung more closely
+to his nephew, who overtopped him by a head and who held him clasped in
+his right arm as if to protect him.
+
+The danger which threatened Apollodorus and his guests was indeed
+imminent, and it had been provoked solely by the indignation of the
+excited mob at seeing the wealthy Israelite's house unadorned for the
+feast.
+
+A thousand times had it occurred that a single word had proved
+sufficient to inflame the hot blood of the Alexandrians to prompt them
+to break the laws and seize the sword. Bloody frays between the heathen
+inhabitants and the Jews, who were equally numerous in the city, were
+quite the order of the day, and one party was as often to blame as the
+other for disturbing the peace and having recourse to the sword. Since
+the Israelites had risen in several provinces--particularly in Cyrenaica
+and Cyprus--and had fallen with cruel fury on their fellow-inhabitants
+who were their oppressors, the suspicion and aversion of the
+Alexandrians of other beliefs had grown more intense than in former
+times. Besides this, the prosperous circumstances of many Jews, and the
+enormous riches of a few, had filled the less wealthy heathen with envy
+and roused the wish to snatch the possessions of those who, it cannot be
+denied, had not unfrequently treated their gods with open contumely.
+
+It happened that just within a few days the disputes regarding the
+festival that was to be held in honor of the Imperial visit had added
+bitterness to the old grudge, and thus it came to pass that Apollodorus'
+unlighted house in the Canopic way had excited the populace to attack
+this palatial residence. And here again one single speech had sufficed
+to excite their fury.
+
+In the first instance Melampus, the tanner, a drunken swaggerer, who
+had failed in business, had marched up the street at the head of a tipsy
+crew, and pointing with his thyrsus to the dark, undecorated house, had
+shouted:
+
+"Look at that dismal barrack! All that the Jew used to spend on
+decorating the street, he is saving up now in his money chest!" The
+words were like a spark among tinder and others followed.
+
+"The niggard is robbing our father Dionysus," cried a second citizen,
+and a third, flourishing his torch on high, croaked out:
+
+"Let us get at the drachmae he grudges the god; we can find a use for
+them." Graukus, the sausage maker, snatched from his neighbor's hand the
+bunch of tow soaked in pitch, and bellowed out, "I advise that we should
+burn the house over their heads!"
+
+"Stay, stay," cried a cobbler who worked for Apollodorus' slaves, as he
+placed himself in the butcher's way. "Perhaps they are mourning for
+some one in there. The Jew has always decorated his house on former
+occasions."
+
+"Not they," replied a flute-player in a loud hoarse voice. "We met
+the old miser's son on the Bruchiom with some riotous comrades and
+misconducted hussies, with his purple mantle fluttering far behind him."
+
+"Let us see which is reddest, the Tyrian stuff or the blaze we shall
+make if we set the old wretch's house on fire," shouted a hungry-looking
+tailor, looking round to see the effects of his wit.
+
+"Ay! let us try!" rose from one man, and then, from a number of others:
+
+"Let us get into the house!"
+
+"The mean churl shall remember this day!"
+
+"Fetch him out!"
+
+"Drag him into the street!"
+
+Such shouts as these rose here and there from the crowd, which grew
+denser every instant as it was increased by fresh tributaries attracted
+by the riot.
+
+"Drag him out!" again shrieked an Egyptian slavedriver, and a woman
+shrieked an echo of his words. She snatched the deer-skin from her
+shoulders, flourished it round and round in the air above her tangled
+black hair, and bellowed furiously:
+
+"Tear him in pieces!"
+
+"In pieces, with your teeth!" roared a drunken Maenad who, like most of
+the mob that had collected, knew nothing whatever of the popular grudge
+against Apollodorus and his house.
+
+But words had already begun to be followed by deeds. Feet, fists, and
+cudgels stamped, drubbed, and thumped against the firmly-bolted brazen
+door of the darkened house, and a ship's boy of fourteen sprang on
+the shoulders of a tall black slave and tried to climb the roof of the
+colonnade, and to fling the torch which the sausage-maker handed up to
+him into the open forecourt of the imperilled house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The clatter of arms which Apollodorus and his guests had heard proceeded
+not from the Jew's besiegers, but from some Roman soldiers who brought
+safety to the besieged.
+
+It was Verus, who as he was returning from the supper he had given his
+veterans, with an officer of the Twelfth Legion and his British slaves,
+had crossed the Canopic way and had been impeded in his progress by the
+increasing crowd which stood before Apollodorus' house. The praetor had
+met the Jew at the prefect's house, and knew him for one of the richest
+and shrewdest men in Alexandria. This attack on his property roused his
+ire; still he would certainly not have remained an idle spectator even
+if the house in danger, instead of belonging to a man of mark, had been
+that of one of the poorest and meanest, even among the Christians. Any
+lawless act, any breach of constituted order was odious and intolerable
+to the Roman; he would not have been the man he was if he had looked on
+passively at an attack by the mob, in times of peace, on the life
+and property of a quiet and estimable citizen. This licentious man of
+pleasure, devoted to every enervating enjoyment, in battle, or whenever
+the need arose, was as prudent as he was brave.
+
+He now first ascertained what purpose the excited crowd had in view, and
+at once considered the ways and means of frustrating their project. They
+had already begun to batter the Jew's door, and already several lads
+were standing on the roof of the arcades with burning torches in their
+hands.
+
+Whatever he did must be done on the instant, and happily Verus had the
+gift of thinking and acting promptly. In a few decisive words he begged
+his companion, Lucius Albinus, to hurry back to his old soldiers and
+bring them to the rescue; then he desired his slaves to force a way for
+him with their powerful arms up to the door of the house. This feat
+was accomplished in no time, but how great was his astonishment when he
+found the Emperor standing there.
+
+Hadrian stood in the midst of the crowd, and at the instant when Verus
+appeared on the scene had wrenched the torch out of the hand of the
+infuriated tailor. At the same time, in a thundering voice, he commanded
+the Alexandrians--who were not accustomed to the imperial tone--to
+desist from their mad project. Whistling, grunting, and words of scorn
+overpowered the mandate of the sovereign, and when Verus and his slaves
+had reached the spot where he stood, a few drunken Egyptians had gone
+up to him and were about to lay hands on the unwelcome counsellor. The
+praetor stood in their way. He first whispered to Hadrian that Jupiter
+ought to be ruling the world, and might well leave it to smaller folks
+to rescue a houseful of Jews; and that in a few seconds the soldiers
+would arrive. Then he shouted to him in a loud voice:
+
+"Away from this Sophist! Your place is in the Museum, or in the temple
+of Serapis with your books, and not among the misguided and ignorant.
+Am I right Macedonian citizens, or am I wrong?" A murmur of assent was
+heard which became a roar of laughter when Verus, after Hadrian had got
+away, went on:
+
+"He has a beard like Caesar, and so he behaves as if he wore the purple!
+You did well to let him escape, his wife and children are waiting for
+him over their porridge."
+
+Verus had often been implicated in wild adventure among the populace and
+knew how to deal with them; if he now could only detain them till the
+advent of the soldiers he might consider the game as won. Hadrian could
+be a hero when it suited him; but here where no laurels were to be won,
+he left to Verus the task of quieting the crowd.
+
+As soon as he was fairly gone Verus desired his slaves to lift him on
+their shoulders; his handsome good-natured face looked down upon the
+crowd from high above them. He was immediately recognized, and many
+voices called out:
+
+"The crazy Roman! the praetor! the sham Eros!"
+
+"I am he, Macedonian citizens, yes, I am he," answered Verus in a clear
+voice. "And I will tell you a story."
+
+"Listen, Listen."
+
+"No let us get into the Jew's house."
+
+"Presently--listen a minute to what the sham Eros says."
+
+"I will knock your teeth down your throat boy, if you don't hold your
+tongue."
+
+All the crowd were shouting in wild confusion.
+
+Curiosity, on the one hand, to hear the noble gentleman's speech, and
+the somewhat superficial fury of the mob contended together for a few
+minutes; at last curiosity seemed to be gaining the day, the tumult
+subsided, and the praetor began:
+
+"Once upon a time there was a child who had given to him ten little
+sheep made of cotton, little foolish toys such as the old women sell in
+the market place."
+
+"Get into the Jew's house, we don't want to hear children's stories--"
+
+"Be quiet there!"
+
+"Hush now listen; from the sheep he will go on to the wolves."
+
+"Not wolves--it will be a she-wolf!" some one shouted in the throng.
+
+"Do not mention the horrid things!" laughed Verus, "but listen to
+me.--Well, the child set his little sheep up in a row each one close to
+the next. He was a weaver's son. Are there any weavers here? You? and
+you--ah, and you out there. If I were not my father's son I should like
+to be the son of an Alexandrian weaver. You need not laugh!--Well, about
+the sheep. All the little things were beautifully white but one which
+had nasty black spots, and the little boy could not bear that one. He
+went to the hearth, pulled out a burning stick and wanted to burn the
+little ugly sheep so as only to have pretty white ones. The lambkin
+caught fire and just as the flame had begun to burn the wooden skeleton
+of the toy a draught from the window blew the flame towards the other
+little sheep and in a minute they were all burned to ashes. Then thought
+the little boy, 'If only I had let the ugly sheep alone! What can I
+play with now?' and he began to cry. But this was not all, for while
+the little rascal was drying his eyes, the flame spread and burnt up the
+loom, the wool, the flax, the woven pieces, the whole house--the town
+in which he was born, and even, I believe, the boy himself!--Now worthy
+friends and Macedonian citizens, reflect a moment. Any man among you who
+is possessed of any property may read the moral of my fable."
+
+"Put out the torches!" cried the wife of a charcoal dealer.
+
+"He is right; for by reason of the Jew, we are putting the whole town in
+danger!" cried the cobbler.
+
+"The mad fools have already thrown in some brands!"
+
+"If you fellows up there fling any more I will break your ankles for
+you," shouted a flax-dealer.
+
+"Don't try any burning," the tailor commanded, "force open the door and
+have out the Jew." These words raised a storm of applause and the mob
+pressed forward to the Jew's abode. No one listened to Verus any more,
+and he slipped down from his slave's shoulders, placed himself in front
+of the door and called out:
+
+"In the name of Caesar and the law I command you to leave this house
+unharmed."
+
+The Roman's warning was evidently quite in earnest, and the false Eros
+looked as if at this moment it would be ill-advised to try jesting with
+him. But in the universal uproar only a few had heard his words, and
+the hot-blooded tailor was so rash as to lay his hand on the praetor's
+girdle in order to drag him away from the door with the help of his
+comrades. But he paid dearly for his temerity for the praetor's
+fist fell so heavily on his forehead that he dropped as if struck by
+lightning. One of the Britons knocked down the sausage-maker and a
+hideous hand to hand fight would have been the upshot if help had not
+come to the hardly-beset Romans from two quarters at once. The veterans
+supported by a number of lictors were the first to appear, and soon
+after them came Benjamin, the Jew's eldest son, who was passing down the
+great thoroughfare with his boon-companions and saw the danger that was
+threatening his father's house.
+
+The soldiers parted the throng as the wind chases the clouds, and the
+young Israelite pressed forward with his heavy thyrsus fought and pushed
+his way so valiantly and resolutely through the panic-stricken mob, that
+he reached the door of his father's house but a few moments later than
+the soldiers. The lictors battered at the door and as no one opened it,
+they forced it with the help of the soldiers in order to set a guard in
+the beleaguered house, and protect it against the raging mob.
+
+Verus and the officer entered the Jew's dwelling with the armed men, and
+behind them came Benjamin and his friends--young Greeks with whom he
+was in the habit of consorting daily, in the bath or the gymnasium.
+Apollodorus and his guests expressed their gratitude to Verus, and when
+the old Jewish house-keeper, who had seen and heard from a hiding-place
+under the roof all that had taken place outside her master's house, came
+into the men's hall and gave a full report of the uproar from beginning
+to end, the praetor was overwhelmed with thanks; and the old woman
+embroidered her narrative with the most glowing colors. While this
+was going on Apollodorus' pretty daughter, Ismene, came in, and after
+falling on her father's neck and weeping with agitation the house keeper
+took her hand and led her to Verus, saying:
+
+"This noble lord--may the blessing of the Most High be on him--staked
+his life to save us. This beautiful robe he let be rent for our sakes,
+and every daughter of Israel should fervently kiss this torn chiton,
+which in the eyes of God is more precious than the richest robe--as I
+do."
+
+And the old woman pressed the praetor's dress to her lips, and tried to
+make Ismene do the same; but the praetor would not permit this.
+
+"How can I allow my garment," he exclaimed, laughing, "to enjoy a favor
+of which I should deem myself worthy--to be touched by such lips."
+
+"Kiss him, kiss him!" cried the old woman, and the praetor took the head
+of the blushing girl in his hands, and pressing his lips to her forehead
+with a by no means paternal air, he said gaily:
+
+"Now I am richly rewarded for all I have been so happy as to do for you,
+Apollodorus."
+
+"And we," exclaimed Gamaliel. "We--myself and my brother's first-born
+son-leave it in the hands of God Most High to reward you for what you
+have done for us."
+
+"Who are you?" asked Verus, who was filled with admiration for the
+prophet-like aspect of the venerable old man and the pale intellectual
+head of his nephew.
+
+Apollodorus took upon himself to explain to him how far the Rabbi
+transcended all his fellow Hebrews in knowledge of the law and the
+interpretation of the Kabbala, the oral and mystical traditions of
+their people, and how that Simeon Ben Jochai was superior to all the
+astrologers of his time. He spoke of the young man's much admired work
+on the subject called Sohar, nor did he omit to mention that Gamaliel's
+nephew was able to foretell the positions of the stars even on future
+nights.
+
+Verus listened to Apollodorus with increasing attention, and fixed a
+keen gaze on the young man, who interrupted his host's eager encomium
+with many modest deprecations. The praetor had recollected the near
+approach of his birthday, and also that the position of stars in the
+night preceding it, would certainly be observed by Hadrian. What the
+Emperor might learn from them would seal his fate for life. Was that
+momentous night destined to bring him nearer to the highest goal of his
+ambition or to debar him from it?
+
+When Apollodorus ceased speaking, Verus offered Simeon Ben Jochai his
+hand, saying:
+
+"I am rejoiced to have met a man of your learning and distinction. What
+would I not give to possess your knowledge for a few hours!"
+
+"My knowledge is yours," replied the astrologer. "Command my services,
+my labors, my time--ask me as many questions as you will. We are so
+deeply indebted to you--"
+
+"You have no reason to regard me as your creditor," interrupted the
+praetor, "you do not even owe me thanks. I only made your acquaintance
+after I had rescued you, and I opposed the mob, not for the sake of any
+particular man, but for that of law and order."
+
+"You were benevolent enough to protect us," cried Ben Jochai, "so do not
+be so stern as to disdain our gratitude."
+
+"It does me honor, my learned friend; by all the gods it does me honor,"
+replied Verus. "And in fact it is possible, it might very will be--Will
+you do me the favor to come with me to that bust of Hipparchus? By the
+aid of that science which owes so much to him you may be able to render
+me an important service."
+
+When the two men were standing apart from the others, in front of the
+white marble portrait of the great astronomer, Verus asked:
+
+"Do you know by what method Caesar is wont to presage the fates of men
+from the stars?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"From whom?"
+
+"From Aquila, my father's disciple."
+
+"Can you calculate what he will learn from the stars in the night
+preceding the thirtieth of December, as to the destinies of a man who
+was born in that night, and whose horoscope I possess?"
+
+"I can only answer a conditional yes to that question."
+
+"What should prevent your answering positively?"
+
+"Unforeseen appearances in the heavens."
+
+"Are such signs common?"
+
+"No, they are rare, on the contrary."
+
+"But perhaps my fortune is not a common one-and I beg of you to
+calculate on Hadrian's method what the heavens will predict on that
+night for the man whose horoscope my slave shall deliver to you early
+to-morrow morning."
+
+"I will do so with pleasure."
+
+"When can you have finished this work?"
+
+"In four days at latest, perhaps even sooner."
+
+"Capital! But one thing more. Do you regard me as a man, I mean, as a
+true man?"
+
+"If you were not, would you have given me such reason to be grateful to
+you?"
+
+"Well then, conceal nothing from me, not even the worst horrors, things
+that might poison another man's life, and crush his spirit. Whatever you
+read in the celestial record, small or great, good or evil. I require
+you to tell me all."
+
+"I will conceal nothing, absolutely nothing."
+
+The praetor offered Ben Jochai his right hand, and warmly pressed the
+Jew's slender, well-shaped fingers. Before he went away he settled with
+him how he should inform him when he had finished his labors.
+
+The Alexandrian with his guests and children accompanied the praetor to
+the door. Only Ben Jamin was absent; he was sitting with his companions
+in his father's dining-room, and rewarding them for the assistance they
+had given him with right good wine. Gamaliel heard them shouting and
+singing, and pointing to the room he shrugged his shoulders, saying, as
+he turned to his host:
+
+"They are returning thanks to the God of our fathers in the Alexandrian
+fashion."
+
+And peace was broken no more in the Jew's house but by the firm tramp of
+lictors and soldiers who kept watch over it, under arms.
+
+In a side street the praetor met the tailor he had knocked down, the
+sausage-maker, and other ringleaders of the attack on the Israelite's
+house. They were being led away prisoners before the night magistrates.
+Verus would have set them at liberty with all his heart, but he knew
+that the Emperor would enquire next morning what had been done to the
+rioters, and so he forbore. At any other time he would certainly have
+sent them home unpunished, but just now he was dominated by a wish that
+was more dominant than his good nature or his facile impulses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+When he reached the Caesareum the high-chamberlain was waiting to
+conduct him to Sabina who desired to speak with him notwithstanding
+the lateness of the hour, and when Verus entered the presence of
+his patroness, he found her in the greatest excitement. She was not
+reclining as usual on her pillows but was pacing her room with strides
+of very unfeminine length.
+
+"It is well that you have come!" she exclaimed to the praetor. "Lentulus
+insists that he has seen Mastor the slave, and Balbilla declares--but it
+is impossible!"
+
+"You think that Caesar is here?" asked Verus.
+
+"Did they tell you so too?"
+
+"No. I do not linger to talk when you require my presence and there
+is something important to be told just now then--but you must not be
+alarmed."
+
+"No useless speeches!"
+
+"Just now I met, in his own person--"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Hadrian."
+
+"You are not mistaken, you are sure you saw him?"
+
+"With these eyes."
+
+"Abominable, unworthy, disgraceful!" cried Sabina, so loudly and
+violently that she was startled at the shrill tones of her own voice.
+Her tall thin figure quivered with excitement, and to any one else she
+would have appeared in the highest degree graceless, unwomanly, and
+repulsive: but Verus had been accustomed from his childhood to see her
+with kinder eyes than other men, and it grieved him.
+
+There are women who remind us of fading flowers, extinguished lights or
+vanishing shades, and they are not the least attractive of their sex:
+but the large-boned, stiff and meagre Sabina had none of the yielding
+and tender grace of these gentle creatures. Her feeble health, which was
+very evident, became her particularly ill when, as at this moment,
+the harsh acrimony of her embittered soul came to light with hideous
+plainness.
+
+She was deeply indignant at the affront her husband had put upon her.
+Not content with having a separate house established for her he kept
+aloof in Alexandria without informing her of his arrival. Her hands
+trembled with rage, and stammering rather than speaking she desired the
+praetor to order a composing draught for her. When Verus returned she
+was lying on her cushions, with her face turned to the wall, and said
+lamentably:
+
+"I am freezing; spread that coverlet over me. I am a miserable, ill-used
+creature."
+
+"You are sensitive and take things too hardly," the praetor ventured to
+remonstrate.
+
+She started up angrily, cut off his speech, and put him through as keen
+a cross-examination as if he were an accused person and she his judge.
+Ere long she had learnt that Verus also had encountered Mastor, that her
+husband was residing at Lochias, that he had taken part in the festival
+in disguise, and had exposed himself to grave danger outside the house
+of Apollodorus. She also made him tell her how the Israelite had been
+rescued, and whom her friend had met in his house, and she blamed Verus
+with bitter words for the heedless and foolhardy recklessness with
+which he had risked his life for a miserable Jew, forgetting the high
+destinies that lay before him. The praetor had not interrupted her, but
+now bowing over her, he kissed her hand and said:
+
+"Your kind heart foresees for me things that I dare not hope for.
+Something is glimmering on the horizon of my fortune. Is it the dying
+glow of my failing fortunes, is it the pale dawn of a coming and more
+glorious day? Who can tell? I await with patience whatever may be
+impending--an early day must decide."
+
+"That will bring certainty, and put an end to this suspense," murmured
+Sabina.
+
+"Now rest and try to sleep," said Verus with a tender fervency, that was
+peculiar to his tones. "It is past midnight and the physician has often
+forbidden you to sit up late. Farewell, dream sweetly, and always be the
+same to me as a man, that you were to me in my childhood and youth."
+
+Sabina withdrew the hand he had taken, saying:
+
+"But you must not leave me. I want you. I cannot exist without your
+presence."
+
+"Till to-morrow--always--forever I will stay with you whenever you need
+me."
+
+The Empress gave him her hand again, and sighed softly as he again bowed
+over it, and pressed it long to his lips.
+
+"You are my friend, Verus, truly my friend; yes, I am sure of it," she
+said at last, breaking the silence.
+
+"Oh Sabina, my Mother!" he answered tenderly. "You spoiled me with
+kindness even when I was a boy, and what can I do to thank you for all
+this?"
+
+"Be always the same to me that you are to-day. Will you always--for all
+time be the same, whatever your fortunes may be?"
+
+"In joy and in adversity always the same; always your friend, always
+ready to give my life for you."
+
+"In spite of my husband, always, even when you think you no longer need
+my favor!"
+
+"Always, for without you I should be nothing--utterly miserable."
+
+The Empress heaved a deep sigh and sat bolt upright on her couch. She
+had formed a great resolve, and she said slowly, emphasizing every word:
+
+"If nothing utterly unforeseen occurs in the heavens on your
+birth-night, you shall be our son, and so Hadrian's successor and heir.
+I swear it."
+
+There was something solemn in her voice, and her small eyes were wide
+open.
+
+"Sabina, Mother, guardian spirit of my life!" cried Verus, and he fell
+on his knees by her couch. She looked in his handsome face with deep
+emotion, laid her hands on his temples, and pressed her lips on his dark
+curls.
+
+A moist brilliancy sparkled in those eyes, unapt to tears, and in a soft
+and appealing tone that no one had ever before heard in her voice she
+said:
+
+"Even at the summit of fortune, after your adoption, even in the purple
+all will be the same between us two. Will it? Tell me, will it?"
+
+"Always, always!" cried Verus. "And if our hopes are fulfilled--"
+
+"Then, then," interrupted Sabina and she shivered as she spoke. "Then,
+still you will be to me the same that you are now; but to be sure, to be
+sure--the temples of the gods would be empty if mortals had nothing left
+to wish for."
+
+"Ah! no. Then they would bring thank-offerings to the divinity," cried
+Verus, and he looked up at the Empress; but she turned away from his
+smiling glance and exclaimed in a tone of reproof and alarm:
+
+"No playing with words, no empty speeches or rash jesting! in the name
+of all the gods, not at this time! For this hour, this night is among
+its fellows what a hallowed temple is among other buildings--what the
+fervent sun is among the other lights of heaven. You know not how I
+feel, nay, I hardly know myself. Not now, not now, one lightly-spoken
+word!"
+
+Verus gazed at Sabina with growing astonishment. She had always been
+kinder to him than to any one else in the world and he felt bound to her
+by all the ties of gratitude and the sweet memories of childhood. Even
+as a boy, out of all his playfellows he was the only one who, far from
+fearing her had clung to her. But to-night! who had ever seen Sabina in
+such a mood? Was this the harsh bitter woman whose heart seemed filled
+with gall, whose tongue cut like a dagger every one against whom she
+used it? Was this Sabina who no doubt was kindly disposed towards him
+but who loved no one else, not even herself? Did he see rightly, or was
+he under some delusion? Tears, genuine, honest, unaffected tears filled
+her eyes as she went on:
+
+"Here I he, a poor sickly woman, sensitive in body and in soul as if
+I were covered with wounds. Every movement, and even the gaze and the
+voice of most of my fellow-creatures is a pain to me. I am old, much
+older than you think and so wretched, so wretched, none of you can
+imagine how wretched. I was never happy as a child, never as a girl,
+and as a wife--merciful gods!--every kind word that Hadrian has ever
+vouchsafed me I have paid for with a thousand humiliations."
+
+"He always treats you with the utmost esteem," interrupted Verus.
+
+"Before you, before the world! But what do I care for esteem! I may
+demand the respect, the adoration of millions and it will be mine. Love,
+love, a little unselfish love is what I ask--and if only I were sure, if
+only I dared to hope that you give me such love, I would thank you
+with all that I have, then this hour would be hallowed to me above all
+others."
+
+"How can you doubt me Mother? My dearly beloved Mother!"
+
+"That is comfort, that is happiness!" answered Sabina. "Your voice is
+never too loud for me, and I believe you, I dare trust you. This hour
+makes you my son, makes me your mother."
+
+Tender emotion, the emotion that softens the heart, thrilled through
+Sabina's dried-up nature and sparkled in her eyes. She felt like a young
+wife of whom a child is born, and the voice of her heart sings to her in
+soothing tones: "It lives, it is mine, I am the providence of a living
+soul, I am a mother."
+
+She gazed blissfully into Verus' eyes and exclaimed, "Give me your hand
+my son, help me up, for I will be here no longer. What good spirits I
+feel in! Yes, this is the joy that is allotted to other women before
+their hair is grey! But child--dear and only child--you must love me
+really as a mother. I am too old for tender trifling, and yet I could
+not bear it if you gave me nothing but a child's reverence. No, no, you
+must be my friend whose heart warns him of my wishes, who can laugh with
+me to-day, and weep with me to-morrow--and who shows that he is happier
+when his eye meets mine. You are now my son; and soon you shall have
+the name of son; that is happiness enough for one evening. Not another
+word--this hour is like the finished masterpiece of some great painter;
+every touch that could be added might spoil it. You may kiss my
+forehead, I will kiss yours; now I will go to rest, and to-morrow when I
+wake I shall say to myself that I possess something worth living for--a
+child, a son."
+
+When the Empress was alone she raised her hand in prayer but she could
+find no words of thanksgiving. One hour of pure happiness she had indeed
+enjoyed, but how many days, months, years of joylessness and suffering
+lay behind her! Gratitude knocked at the door of her heart but it was
+instantly met by bitter defiance; what was one hour of happiness in the
+balance against a ruined lifetime?
+
+Foolish woman! she had never sown the seeds of love, and now she blamed
+the gods for niggardliness and cruelty in denying her a harvest of love.
+And now, on what soil had the seed of maternal tenderness fallen?
+
+Verus it is true had left her content and full of hope--Sabina's altered
+demeanor, it is true, had touched his heart--he purposed to cling to her
+faithfully even after his formal adoption; but the light in his eye was
+not that of a proud and happy son, on the contrary it sparkled like that
+of a warrior who hopes to gain the victory.
+
+Notwithstanding the late hour, his wife had not yet gone to bed. She had
+heard that he had been summoned to the Empress on his return home, and
+awaited him not without anxiety, for she was not accustomed to anything
+pleasant from Sabina. Her husband's hasty step echoed loudly from the
+stone walls of the sleeping palace. She heard it at some distance, and
+went to the door of her room to meet him. Radiant, excited, and with
+flushed cheeks, he held out both his hands to her. She looked so fair
+in her white night-wrapper of fine white material, and his heart was
+so full that he clasped her in his arms as fondly as when she was his
+bride; and she loved him even now no less than she had done then,
+and felt for the hundredth time with grateful joy that the faithless
+scapegrace had once more returned to her unchangeable and faithful
+heart, like a sailor who, after wandering through many lands seeks his
+native port.
+
+"Lucilla," he cried, disengaging her arms from round his neck.
+"Oh, Lucilla! what an evening this has been! I always judged Sabina
+differently from you, and have felt with gratitude that she really cared
+for me. Now all is clear between her and me! She called me her son. I
+called her mother. I owe it to her, and the purple--the purple is ours!
+You are the wife of Verus Caesar; you are certain of it if no signs and
+omens come to frighten Hadrian."
+
+In a few eager words, which betrayed not merely the triumph of a lucky
+gambler, but also true emotion and gratitude, he related all that had
+passed in Sabina's room. His frank and confident contentment silenced
+her doubts, her dread of the stupendous fate which, beckoning her, yet
+threatening her, drew visibly nearer and nearer. In her mind's eye she
+saw the husband she loved, she saw her son, seated on the throne of the
+Caesars, and she herself crowned with the radiant diadem of the woman
+whom she hated with all the force of her soul. Her husband's kindly
+feeling towards the Empress and the faithful allegiance which had tied
+him to her from his boyhood did not disquiet her; but a wife allows the
+husband of her choice every happiness, every gift excepting only the
+love of another woman, and will forgive her hatred and abuse rather than
+such love.
+
+Lucilla was greatly excited, and a thought, that for years had been
+locked in the inmost shrine of her heart, to-day proved too strong
+for her powers of reticence. Hadrian was supposed to have murdered
+her father, but no one could positively assert it, though either he or
+another man had certainly slain the noble Nigrinus. At this moment the
+old suspicion stirred her soul with revived force, and lifting her right
+hand, as if in attestation, she exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, Fate, Fate! that my husband should be heir of the man who murdered
+my father!"
+
+"Lucilla," interrupted Verus, "it is unjust even to think of such
+horrors, and to speak of them is madness. Do not utter it a second time,
+least of all to-day. What may have occurred formerly must not spoil the
+present and the future which belong to us and to our children."
+
+"Nigrinus was the grandfather of those children," cried the Roman mother
+with flashing eyes.
+
+"That is to say that you harbor in your soul the wish to avenge your
+father's death on Caesar."
+
+"I am the daughter of the butchered man."
+
+"But you do not know the murderer, and the purple must outweigh the life
+of one man, for it is often bought with many thousand lives. And then,
+Lucilla, as you know, I love happy faces, and Revenge has a sinister
+brow. Let us be happy, oh wife of Caesar! Tomorrow I shall have much to
+tell you, now I must go to a splendid banquet which the son of Plutarch
+is giving in my honor. I cannot stay with you--truly I cannot, I have
+been expected long since. And when we are in Rome never let me find you
+telling the children those old dismal stories--I will not have it."
+
+As Verus, preceded by his slaves bearing torches, made his way through
+the garden of the Caesareum he saw a light in the rooms of Balbilla, the
+poetess, and he called up merrily:
+
+"Good-night, fair Muse!"
+
+"Good-night, sham Eros!" she retorted.
+
+"You are decking yourself in borrowed feathers, Poetess," replied he,
+laughing. "It is not you but the ill-mannered Alexandrians who invented
+that name!"
+
+"Oh! and other and better ones," cried she. "What I have heard and seen
+to-day passes all belief!"
+
+"And you will celebrate it in your poems?"
+
+"Only some of it, and that in a satire which I propose to aim at you."
+
+"I tremble!"
+
+"With delight, it is to be hoped; my poem will embalm your memory for
+posterity."
+
+"That is true, and the more spiteful your verses, the more certainly
+will future generations believe that Verus was the Phaon of Balbilla's
+Sappho, and that love scorned filled the fair singer with bitterness."
+
+"I thank you for the caution. To-day at any rate you are safe from my
+verse, for I am tired to death."
+
+"Did you venture into the streets?"
+
+"It was quite safe, for I had a trustworthy escort."
+
+"May I be allowed to ask who?"
+
+"Why not? It was Pontius the architect who was with me."
+
+"He knows the town well."
+
+"And in his care I would trust myself to descend, like Orpheus, into
+Hades."
+
+"Happy Pontius!"
+
+"Most happy Verus!"
+
+"What am I to understand by those words, charming Balbilla?"
+
+"The poor architect is able to please by being a good guide, while to
+you belongs the whole heart of Lucilla, your sweet wife."
+
+"And she has the whole of mine so far as it is not full of Balbilla.
+Good-night, saucy Muse; sleep well."
+
+"Sleep ill, you incorrigible tormentor!" cried the girl, drawing the
+curtain across her window.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The sleepless wretch on whom some trouble has fallen, so long as night
+surrounds him, sees his future life as a boundless sea in which he is
+sailing round and round like a shipwrecked man, but when the darkness
+yields, the new and helpful day shows him a boat for escape close at
+hand, and friendly shores in the distance.
+
+The unfortunate Pollux also awoke towards morning with sighs many and
+deep; for it seemed to him that last evening he had ruined his whole
+future prospects. The workshop of his former master was henceforth
+closed to him, and he no longer possessed even all the tools requisite
+for the exercise of his art.
+
+Only yesterday he had hoped with happy confidence to establish himself
+on a footing of his own, to-day this seemed impossible, for the
+most indispensable means were lacking to him. As he felt his little
+money-bag, which he was wont to place under his pillow, he could not
+forbear smiling in spite of all his troubles, for his fingers sank into
+the flaccid leather, and found only two coins, one of which he knew
+alas! was of copper, and the dried merry-thought bone of a fowl, which
+he had saved to give to his little nieces.
+
+Where was he to find the money he was accustomed to give his sister on
+the first day of every month? Papias was on friendly terms with all the
+sculptors of the city, and it was only to be expected that he would warn
+them against him, and do his best to make it difficult to him to find
+a new place as assistant. His old master had also been witness of
+Hadrian's anger against him, and was quite the man to take every
+advantage of what he had overheard. It is never a recommendation for any
+one that he is an object of dislike to the powerful, and least of all
+does it help him with those who look for the favor and gifts of the
+great men of the world. When Hadrian should think proper to throw
+off his disguise, it might easily occur to him to let Pollux feel the
+effects of his power. Would it not be wise in him to quit Alexandria and
+seek work or daily bread in some other Greek city?
+
+But for Arsinoe's sake he could not turn his back on his native place.
+He loved her with all the passion of his artist's soul, and his youthful
+courage would certainly not have been so quickly and utterly crushed
+if he could have deluded himself as to the fact that his hopes of
+possessing her had been driven into the remote background by the
+events of the preceding evening. How could he dare to drag her into his
+uncertain and compromised position? And what reception could he hope for
+from her father if he should now attempt to demand her for his wife. As
+these thoughts overpowered his mind he suddenly felt as if his eyes
+were smarting with sand that had blown into them, and he could not help
+springing out of bed; he paced his little room with long steps, and he
+held his forehead pressed against the wall.
+
+The dawn of a new day appeared as a welcome comfort, and by the time he
+had eaten the morning porridge which his mother set before him--and
+her eyes were red with weeping--the idea struck him that he would go to
+Pontius, the architect. That was the lifeboat he espied.
+
+Doris shared her son's breakfast but, contrary to her usual custom, she
+spoke very little, only she frequently passed her hand over her son's
+curly hair. Euphorion strode up and down the room, rummaging his brain
+for ideas for an ode in which he might address the Emperor and implore
+forgiveness for his son. Soon after breakfast Pollux went up to the
+rotunda where the Queens' busts stood, hoping to see Arsinoe again,
+and a loud snatch of song soon brought her out on to the balcony. They
+exchanged greetings, and Pollux signed to her to come down to him. She
+would have obeyed him more than gladly, but her father had also heard
+the sculptor's voice and drove her back into the room. Still the mere
+sight of his beloved fair one had done the artist good. Hardly had he
+got back to his father's little house when Antinous came sauntering
+in--he represented in the artist's mind the hospitable shores on which
+he might gaze. Hope revived his soul, and Hope is the sun before which
+despair flies as the shades of night flee at the rising of the day-star.
+
+His artistic faculties were once more roused into play, and found a
+field for their freest exercise when Antinous told him that he was at
+his disposal till mid-day, since his master--or rather Caesar as he was
+now permitted to name him--was engaged in business. The prefect Titianus
+had come to him with a whole heap of papers, to work with him and his
+private secretary. Pollux at once led the favorite into a side room of
+the little house, with a northern aspect; here on a table lay the wax
+and the smaller implements which belonged to himself and which he had
+brought home last evening. His heart ached, and his nerves were in a
+painful state of tension as he began his work. All sorts of anxious
+thoughts disturbed his spirit, and yet he knew that if he put his whole
+soul into it he could do something good. Now, if ever, he must put forth
+his best powers, and he dreaded failure as an utter catastrophe, for on
+the face of the whole earth there was no second model to compare with
+this that stood before him.
+
+But he did not take long to collect himself for the Bithynian's beauty
+filled him with profound feeling and it was with a sort of pious
+exaltation that he grasped the plastic material and moulded it into a
+form resembling his sitter. For a whole hour not a word passed between
+them, but Pollux often sighed deeply and now then a groan of painful
+anxiety escaped him.
+
+Antinous broke the silence to ask Pollux about Selene. His heart was
+full of her, and there was no other man who knew her, and whom he could
+venture to entrust with his secret. Indeed it was only to speak to
+her that he had come to the artist so early. While Pollux modelled and
+scraped Antinous told him of all that had happened the previous night.
+He lamented having lost the silver quiver when he was upset into the
+water and regretted that the rose-colored chiton should afterwards
+have suffered a reduction in length at the hands of his pursuer. An
+exclamation of surprise, a word of sympathy, a short pause in the
+movement of his hand and tool, were all the demonstration on the
+artist's part, to which the story of Selene's adventure and the loss of
+his master's costly property gave rise; his whole attention was absorbed
+in his occupation. The farther his work progressed the higher rose his
+admiration for his model. He felt as if intoxicated with noble wine
+as he worked to reproduce this incarnation of the ideal of umblemished
+youthful and manly beauty. The passion of artistic procreation fired
+his blood, and threw every thing else--even the history of Selene's fall
+into the sea, and her subsequent rescue--into the region of commonplace.
+Still he had not been inattentive, and what he heard must have had some
+effect in his mind; for long after Antinous had ended his narrative, he
+said in a low voice and as if speaking to the bust, which was already
+assuming definite form:
+
+"It is a wonderful thing!" and again a little later; "There was always
+something grand in that unhappy creature."
+
+He had worked without interruption for nearly four hours, when standing
+back from the table, he looked anxiously, first at his work and then at
+Antinous, and then asked him:
+
+"How will that do?"
+
+The Bithynian gave eager expression to his approbation, and Pollux had,
+in fact, done wonders in the short time. The wax began to display in a
+much reduced scale the whole figure of the beautiful youth and in the
+very same attitude which the young Dionysus carried off by the pirates,
+had assumed the day before. The incomparable modelling of the favorite's
+limbs and form was soft but not effeminate; and, as Pollux had said to
+himself the day before, no artist in his happiest mood, could conceive
+the Nysaean god as different from this.
+
+While the sculptor in order to assure himself of the accuracy of his
+work was measuring his model's limbs with wooden compasses and lengths
+of tape, the sound of chariot-wheels was heard at the gate of the
+palace, and soon after the yelping of the Graces. Doris called to the
+dogs to be quiet and another high-pitched woman's voice mingled with
+hers. Antinous listened and what he heard seemed to be somewhat out of
+the common for he suddenly quitted the position in which the sculptor
+had placed him only a few minutes before, ran to the window and called
+to Pollux in a subdued voice:
+
+"It is true! I am not mistaken! There is Hadrian's wife Sabina talking
+out there to your mother."
+
+He had heard rightly; the Empress had come to Lochias to seek out her
+husband. She had got out of the chariot at the gate of the old palace
+for the paving of the court-yard would not be completed before that
+evening.
+
+Dogs, of which her husband was so fond, she detested; the shrewd beasts
+returned her aversion, so dame Doris found it more difficult than usual
+to succeed in reducing her disobedient pets to silence when they flew
+viciously at the stranger. Sabina terrified, vehemently desired the old
+woman to release her from their persecution, while the chamberlain
+who had come with her and on whom she was leaning kicked out at the
+irrepressible little wretches and so increased their spite. At last the
+Graces withdrew into the house. Dame Doris drew a deep breath and turned
+to the Empress.
+
+She did not suspect who the stranger was for she had never seen Sabina
+and had formed quite a different idea of her.
+
+"Pardon me good lady," she said in her frank confiding manner. "The
+little rascals mean no harm and never bite even a beggar, but they never
+could endure old women. Whom do you seek here mother?"
+
+"That you shall soon know," replied Sabina sharply, "what a state of
+things, Lentulus, your architect Pontius' work has brought about. And
+what must the inside be like if this but is left standing to disgrace
+the entrance of the palace! It must go with its inhabitants. Desire that
+woman to conduct us to the Roman lord who dwells here."
+
+The chamberlain obeyed and Doris began to suspect who was standing
+before her, and she said as she smoothed down her dress and bowed low:
+
+"What great honor befalls us illustrious lady; perhaps you are even the
+Emperor's wife? If that be the case--"
+
+Sabina made an impatient sign to the chamberlain who interrupted the old
+woman exclaiming:
+
+"Be silent and show us the way."
+
+Doris was not feeling particularly strong that day, and her eyes already
+red with weeping about her son again filled with tears. No one had ever
+spoken so to her before, and yet, for her son's sake she would not repay
+sharp words in the same coin, though she had plenty at her command.
+
+She tottered on in front of Sabina, and conducted her to the hall of the
+Muses. There Pontius relieved her of the duty, and the respect he paid
+to the stranger made her sure that in fact she was none other than the
+Empress in person.
+
+"An odious woman!" said Sabina, as she went on pointing to Doris, whom
+her words could not escape. This was too much for the old woman; past
+all self-control she flung herself on to a seat that was standing by,
+covered her face with her hands and began crying bitterly. She felt as
+if the very ground were snatched from under her feet.
+
+Her son was in disgrace with Caesar, and she and her house were
+threatened by the most powerful woman in the world. She pictured herself
+as already turned into the streets with Euphorion and her dogs, and
+asked herself what was to become of them all when they had lost their
+place and the roof that covered them. Her husband's memory grew daily
+weaker, soon his voice even might fail; and how greatly had her own
+strength failed during the last few years, how small were the savings
+that were hidden in their chest. The bright, genial old woman felt
+quite broken down. What hurt her was, not merely the pressing need that
+threatened her, but the disgrace too which would fall upon her, the
+dislike she had incurred--she who had been liked by every one from her
+youth up--and the painful feeling of having been treated with scorn and
+contempt in the presence of others by the powerful lady whose favor she
+had hoped to win.
+
+At Sabina's advent all good spirits had fled from Lochias, so at least
+Doris felt, but she was not one of those who succumb helplessly to a
+hostile force. For a few minutes she abandoned herself to her sorrows
+and sobbed like a child. Now she dried her eyes, and her eased heart
+felt the beneficial relief of tears; by degrees she could compose
+herself and think calmly.
+
+"After all," said she to herself, "none but Caesar can command here, and
+it is said that he gets on but badly with his spiteful wife, and cares
+very little what she wishes. Hadrian let Pollux feel his power, but he
+has always been friendly to me. My dogs and birds amused him, and did he
+not even do me the honor to relish a dish out of my kitchen? No, no, if
+only I can succeed in speaking with him alone all may yet be well," and
+thus thinking she rose from her seat.
+
+As she was about to quit the anteroom the art dealer, Gabinius, of
+Nicaea, came in, to whom Keraunus had refused to sell the mosaic in the
+palace, and whose daughter had been deprived by Arsinoe of the part of
+Roxana. Pontius had desired him to come to the palace and he had made
+his appearance at once, for, since the evening before, a rumor had been
+afloat that the Emperor was staying in Alexandria, and was inhabiting
+the palace at Loehias. Whence it was derived, or on what facts it was
+supported no one could say; but there it was, passing from mouth to
+mouth in every circle and acquiring certainty every hour. Of all that
+grows on earth nothing grows so quickly as Rumor, and yet it is a
+miserable foundling that never knows its own parents.
+
+The dealer pushed on into the palace with a glance of astonishment at
+the old woman, while Doris debated whether see should seek Hadrian then
+and there, or return to her little gate-House, and wait till he should
+at some time be going out of the palace and passing by her dwelling.
+Before she could come to any decision Pontius appeared on the scene; he
+had always been very kind to her, and she therefore ventured to address
+him and tell him what had occurred between her son and the Emperor. This
+was no novelty to the architect; he advised her to have patience till
+Hadrian should have cooled, and he promised her that later he would do
+every thing in his power for Pollux, whom he loved and esteemed. On this
+very day he was obliged by Caesar's command to start on a journey and
+for a long absence; his destination was Pelusium, where he was to erect
+a monument to the great Pompey on the spot where he had been murdered.
+Hadrian, as he passed the old ruined monument on his way from Mount
+Kasius to Egypt, had determined to replace it by a new one, and had
+entrusted the work to Pontius whose labors at Lochias were now nearly
+ended. All that might yet be lacking to the fitting of the restored
+palace Hadrian himself wished to select and procure and in this
+occupation so agreeable to his tastes, Gabinius, the curiosity-dealer,
+was to lend him a helping hand.
+
+While Doris was still speaking with Pontius, Hadrian and his wife came
+towards the anteroom. Hardly had the architect recognized the tones of
+Sabina's voice, than he hastily said in a low voice:
+
+"Till by-and-bye this must do, dame. Stand aside; Caesar and the Empress
+are coming."
+
+And he hastened away. Doris slipped into the doorway of a side room,
+which was closed only by a heavy curtain, for at that moment she would
+as soon have met a raging wild beast as the haughty lady from whom she
+had nothing to expect but insult and unkindness. Hadrian's interview
+with his wife had lasted barely a quarter of an hour, and it must have
+been anything rather than amiable, for his face was scarlet, while
+Sabina's lips were perfectly white, and her painted cheeks twitched with
+a restless movement. Doris was too much excited and terrified to listen
+to the royal couple, still she overheard these words uttered by the
+Emperor in a tone of the utmost decision.
+
+"In small matters and where it is fitting I let you have your way;
+more important things I shall this time, as always, decide by my own
+judgment--my own exclusively."
+
+These words were fraught with the fate of the gatehouse and its
+inhabitants, for the removal of the "hideous hut" at the entrance of the
+palace was one of the "small matters" of which Hadrian spoke. Sabina
+had required this concession, since it could not be pleasant to any one
+visiting Lochias to be received on the threshold by an old Megaera of
+evil omen, and to be fallen upon by infuriated dogs. But Doris so little
+divined the import of Hadrian's words that she rejoiced at them,
+for they told her how little he was disposed to yield to his wife in
+important things, and how could she suspect that her fate and that of
+her house should not be included among important matters, nay the most
+important?
+
+Sabina had quitted the anteroom leaning on her chamberlain and Hadrian
+was standing there alone with his slave Mastor. The old woman would not
+be likely to have another such favorable opportunity of supplicating
+the all-powerful man who stood before her, without the hindrance of
+witnesses, to exercise his magnaminity and clemency towards her son. His
+back turned to her; if she could have seen the threatening scowl with
+which he stood gazing on the ground she would surely have remembered the
+architect's warning and have postponed her address till a future day.
+
+How often do we spoil our best chances by following an urgent instinct
+to arrive at certainty as early as possible, and by not being strong
+enough to postpone opening our business till a favorable moment offers.
+Uncertainty in the present often seems less endurable than adverse fate
+in the future.
+
+Doris stepped out of the side door. Mastor, who knew his master well,
+and whose friendly impulse was to spare the old woman any humiliation,
+made eager signs to warn her to withdraw and not to disturb Hadrian at
+that moment; but she was so wholly possessed by her anxiety and wishes
+that she did not observe them. As the Emperor turned to leave the room
+she gathered courage, stood in the doorway through which he must pass,
+and tried to fall on her knees before him. This was a difficult effort
+to her old joints and Doris was forced to clutch at the door-post in
+order not to lose her balance.
+
+Hadrian at once recognized the suppliant, but to-day he found no kind
+word for her, and the glance he cast down at her was anything rather
+than gracious. How had he ever been able to find amusement even in this
+woeful old body? Alas! poor Doris was quite a different creature in her
+little house, among her flowers, dogs and birds to what she seemed here
+in the spacious hall of a magnificent palace. This wide and gorgeous
+frame but ill-suited so modest a figure. Thousands of good people who in
+the midst of their everyday surroundings command our esteem and attract
+our regard give rise to very different feelings when they are taken out
+of the circle to which they belong.
+
+Doris had never worn so unpleasing an aspect to Hadrian as at this
+instant, in this decisive moment of her life. She had followed the
+Empress straight from the kitchen-hearth just as she was after passing a
+sleepless night and full of her many anxieties, she had scarcely set her
+grey hair in order, and her kind bright eyes, usually the best feature
+of her face, were red with many tears. The neat brisk little mother
+looked to-day anything rather than smart and bright; in the Emperor's
+eyes she was in no way distinguished from any other old woman, and he
+regarded all old women as of evil omen, if he met them as he went out of
+any place he was in.
+
+"Oh, Caesar, Great Caesar!" cried Doris throwing up her hands which
+still bore many traces of her labors over the hearth. "My son, my
+unfortunate Pollux!"
+
+"Out of my way!" said Hadrian sternly.
+
+"He is an artist, a good artist, who already excels many a master, and
+if the gods--"
+
+"Out of the way, I told you. I do not want to hear anything about the
+insolent fellow," said Hadrian angrily.
+
+"But Great Caesar, he is my son, and a mother, as you know--"
+
+"Mastor," interrupted the monarch, "carry away this old woman and make
+way for me."
+
+"Oh! my lord, my lord!" wailed the agonized woman while the slave pulled
+her up, not without difficulty. "Oh! my lord, how can you find it in
+your heart to be so cruel? And am I no longer old Doris whom you have
+even joked with, and whose food you have eaten?"
+
+These words recalled to the Emperor's fancy the moment of his arrival at
+Lochias; he felt that he was somewhat in the old woman's debt, and being
+wont to pay with royal liberality he broke in with:
+
+"You shall be paid for your excellent dish a sum with which you can
+purchase a new house, for the future your maintenance too shall be
+provided for, but in three hours you must have quitted Lochias."
+
+The Emperor spoke rapidly as though desirous of bringing a disagreeable
+business to a prompt termination, and he stalked past Doris who was now
+standing on her feet and leaning as if stunned against the doorpost.
+Indeed if Hadrian had not left her there and had he been in the mood to
+hear her farther, she was not now in a fit state to answer him another
+word.
+
+The Emperor received the honors due to Zeus and his fiat had ruined the
+happiness of a contented home as completely as the thunderbolt wielded
+by the Father of the gods could have done.
+
+But this time Doris had no tears. The frightful shock that had fallen
+in her soul was perceptible also to her body; her knees shook, and being
+quite incapable just then of going home at once, she sunk upon a seat
+and stared hopelessly before her while she reflected what next, and what
+more would come upon her.
+
+Meanwhile the Emperor was standing in a room just behind the antechamber
+that had only been finished a few hours since. He began to regret his
+hardness upon the old woman--for had she not, without knowing who he
+was, been most friendly to him and to his favorite. "Where is Antinous?"
+he asked Mastor.
+
+"He went out to the gate-house."
+
+"What is he doing there?"
+
+"I believe he meant--there, perhaps he--"
+
+"The truth, fellow!"
+
+"He is with Pollux the sculptor."
+
+"Has he been there long?"
+
+"I do not exactly know."
+
+"How long, I ask you?"
+
+"He went after you had shut yourself in with Titianus."
+
+"Three hours--three whole hours has he been with that braggart, whom
+I ordered off the premises!" Hadrian's eye sparkled wrathfully as he
+spoke. His annoyance at the absence of his favorite, whose society
+he permitted no one to enjoy but himself, and least of all Pollux,
+smothered every kind feeling in his mind, and in a tone of anger
+bordering on fury he commanded Mastor to go and fetch Antinous, and then
+to have the gate-house utterly cleared out.
+
+"Take a dozen slaves to help you," he cried. "For aught I care the
+people may carry all their rubbish into a new house, but I will never
+set eyes again on that howling old woman, nor her imbecile husband. As
+for the sculptor I will make him feel that Caesar has a heavy foot and
+can unexpectedly crush a snake that creeps across his path."
+
+Mastor went sadly away and Hadrian returned to his work-room, and there
+called out to his secretary Phlegon:
+
+"Write that a new gate-keeper is to be found for this palace. Euphorion,
+the old one, is to have his pay continued to him, and half a talent is
+to be paid to him at the prefect's office. Good--Let the man have at
+once whatever is necessary; in an hour neither he nor his are to be
+found in Lochias. Henceforth no one is to mention them to me again, nor
+to bring me any petition from them. Their whole race may join the rest
+of the dead."
+
+Phlegon bowed and said:
+
+"Gabinius, the curiosity-dealer, waits outside."
+
+"He comes at an appropriate moment," cried the Emperor. "After all these
+vexations it will do me good to hear about beautiful things."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Aye, truly! Sabina's advent had chased all good spirits from the palace
+at Lochias.
+
+The Emperor's commands had come upon the peaceful little house as a
+whirlwind comes on a heap of leaves. The inhabitants were not even
+allowed time fully to realize their misfortune, for instead of bewailing
+themselves all they could do was to act with circumspection. The tables,
+seats, cushions, beds and lutes, the baskets, plants, and bird-cages,
+the kitchen utensils and the trunks with their clothes were all piled in
+confusion in the courtyard, and Doris was employing the slaves appointed
+by Mastor in the task of emptying the house, as briskly and carefully as
+though it was nothing more than a move from one house to another. A ray
+of the sunny brightness of her nature once more sparkled in her eyes
+since she had been able to say to herself that all that happened to her
+and hers was one of the things inevitable, and that it was more to the
+purpose to think of the future than of the past. The old woman was quite
+herself again over the work, and as she looked at Euphorion, who sat
+quite crushed on his couch with his eyes fixed on the ground, she cried
+out to him:
+
+"After bad times, come good ones! only let us keep from making ourselves
+miserable. We have done nothing wrong, and so long as we do not think
+ourselves wretched, we are not so. Only, hold up your head!
+
+"Up, old man, up! Go at once to Diotima and tell her that we beg her to
+give us hospitality for a few days, and house-room for our chattels."
+
+"And if Caesar does not keep his word?" asked Euphorion gloomily. "What
+sort of a life shall we live then?"
+
+"A bad one-a dog's life; and for that very reason it is wiser to enjoy
+now what we still possess. A cup of wine, Pollux, for me and your
+father. But there must be no water in it to-day."
+
+"I cannot drink," sighed Euphorion.
+
+"Then I will drink your share and my own too."
+
+"Nay-nay, mother," remonstrated Pollux.
+
+"Well put some water in, lad, just a little water, only do not make such
+a pitiful face. Is that the way a young fellow should look who has
+his art, and plenty of strength in his hands, and the sweetest of
+sweethearts in his heart?"
+
+"It is certainly not for myself, mother," retorted the sculptor, "that
+I am anxious. But how am I ever to get into the palace again to see
+Arsinoe, and how am I to deal with that ferocious old Keraunus?"
+
+"Leave that question for time to answer," replied Doris.
+
+"Time may give a good answer, but it may also give a bad one."
+
+"And the best she only gives to those who wait for her in the
+antechamber of Patience."
+
+"A bad place for me, and for those like me," sighed Pollux.
+
+"You have only to sit still and go on knocking at the doors," replied
+Doris, "and before you can look round you Time will call out, 'come in.'
+Now show the men how they are to treat the statue of Apollo, and be my
+own happy, bright boy once more."
+
+Pollux did as she desired, thinking as he went: "She speaks wisely--she
+is not leaving Arsinoe behind. If only I had been able to arrange with
+Antinous at least, where I should find him again; but at Caesar's orders
+the young fellow was like one stunned, and he tottered as he went, as if
+he were going to execution."
+
+Dame Doris had not been betrayed by her happy confidence, for Phlegon
+the secretary came to inform her of the Emperor's purpose to give her
+husband half a talent, and to continue to pay him in the future his
+little salary.
+
+"You see," cried the old woman, "the sun of better days is already
+rising. Half a talent! Why poverty has nothing to do with such rich
+folks as we are! What do you think--would it not be right to pour out
+half a cup of wine to the gods, and allow ourselves the other half?"
+
+Doris was as gay as if she were going to a wedding, and her cheerfulness
+communicated itself to her son, who saw himself relieved of part of the
+anxiety that weighed upon him with regard to his parents and sister. His
+drooping courage, and spirit for life, only needed a few drops of kindly
+dew to revive it, and he once more began to think of his art. Before
+anything else he would try to complete his successfully-sketched bust of
+Antinous.
+
+While he was gone back into the house to preserve his work from
+injury and was giving the slaves, whom he had desired to follow him,
+instructions as to how it should be carried so as not to damage it, his
+master Papias came into the palace-court. He had come to put the last
+touches to the works he had begun, and proposed to make a fresh attempt
+to win the favor of the man whom he now knew to be the Emperor. Papias
+was somewhat uneasy for he was alarmed at the thought that Pollux might
+now betray how small a share his master had in his last works--which had
+brought him higher praise than all he had done previously. It might even
+have been wise on his part to pocket his pride and to induce his former
+scholar, by lavish promises, to return to his workshop; but the evening
+before he had been betrayed into speaking before the Emperor with so
+much indignation at the young artist's evil disposition, of his delight
+at being rid of him, that, on Hadrian's account, he must give up that
+idea. Nothing was now to be done, but to procure the removal of Pollux
+from Alexandria, or to render him in some way incapable of damaging him,
+and this he might perhaps be able to do by the instrumentality of the
+wrathful Emperor.
+
+It even came into his mind to hire some Egyptian rascal to have him
+assassinated; but he was a citizen of peaceful habits, to whom a breach
+of the law was an abomination and he cast the thought from him as too
+horrible and base. He was not over-nice in his choice of means, he knew
+men, was very capable of finding his way up the backstairs, and did not
+hesitate when need arose to calumniate others boldly, and thus he had
+before now won the day in many a battle against his fellow-artists of
+distinction. His hope of succeeding in the tripping of a scholar of
+no great repute, and of rendering him harmless so long as the Emperor
+should remain in Alexandria, was certainly not an over-bold one. He
+hated the gate-keeper's son far less than he feared him, and he did not
+conceal from himself that if his attack on Pollux should fail and the
+young fellow should succeed in proving independently of what he was
+capable he could do nothing to prevent his loudly proclaiming all that
+he had done in these last years for his master.
+
+His attention was caught by the slaves in Euphorion's little house,
+who were carrying the household chattels of the evicted family into the
+street. He had soon learnt what was going forward, and highly pleased
+at the ill-will manifested by Hadrian towards the parents of his foe,
+he stood looking on, and after brief reflection desired a negro to call
+Pollux to speak to him.
+
+The master and scholar exchanged greetings with a show of haughty
+coolness and Papias said:
+
+"You forgot to bring back the things which yesterday, without asking my
+leave, you took out of my wardrobe. I must have them back to-day."
+
+"I did not take them for myself, but for the grand lord in there, and
+his companion. If any thing is missing apply to him. It grieves me
+that I should have taken your silver quiver among them, for the Roman's
+companion has lost it. As soon as I have done here, I will take home all
+of your things that I can recover, and bring away my own. A good many
+things belonging to me are still lying in your workshop."
+
+"Good," replied Papias. "I will expect you an hour before sunset, and
+then we will settle every thing," and without any farewell he turned his
+back on his pupil and went into the palace.
+
+Pollux had told him that some of the properties, which he had taken
+without asking permission, had been lost-among them an object of
+considerable value--and this perhaps would give him a hold over him by
+which to prevent his injuring him. He remained in the palace scarcely
+half an hour and then, while Pollux was still engaged in escorting his
+mother and their household goods to his sister's house, he went to visit
+the night magistrate, who presided over the safety of Alexandria.
+Papias was on intimate terms with this important official, for he had
+constructed for him a sarcophagus for his deceased wife, an altar with
+panels in relief for his men's apartment, and other works, at moderate
+prices, and he could count on his readiness to serve him. When he
+quitted him he carried in his hand an order of arrest against his
+assistant Pollux, who had attacked his property and abstracted a quiver
+of massive silver. The magistrate had also promised him to send two of
+his guards who would carry the offender off to prison.
+
+Papias went home with a much lighter heart. His pupil, after he had
+accomplished the easy transfer of his parents, had returned to the
+palace, and there, to his delight, came across Mastor, who soon fetched
+him the garments and masks that he had lent the day before to Hadrian
+and Antinous. The Sarmatian at the same time told him, with tears in
+his eyes, a sad, very sad story, which stirred the young sculptor's soul
+deeply, and which would have prompted him to penetrate into the palace
+at once, and at any risk, if he had not seen the necessity of being with
+Papias at the appointed hour, which was drawing near, to answer for the
+valuable property that was missing. Thinking of nothing, wishing nothing
+so much as to be back as promptly as possible at Lochias, where he was
+much needed, and where his heart longed to be, he took the bundle out
+of the slave's hand and hurried away. Papias had sent all his assistants
+and even his slaves off the premises; he received the breathless Pollux
+quite alone, and took from him, with icy calmness, the things which had
+been borrowed from his property-room, asking for them one by one.
+
+"I have already told you," cried Pollux, "that it is not I, but
+the illustrious Roman--you know as well as I do, who he is--who is
+answerable for the silver quiver and the torn chiton." And he began to
+tell him how Antinous had commanded him, in the name of his master, to
+find masks and disguises for them both. But Papias cut off his speech
+at the very beginning, and vehemently demanded the restoration of his
+quiver and bow, of which Pollux could not work out the value in two
+years. The young man whose heart and thoughts were at Lochias and who,
+at any cost, did not want to be detained longer than was necessary,
+begged his master, with all possible politeness, to let him go now, and
+to settle the matter with him to-morrow after he had discussed it with
+the Roman, from whom he might certainly demand any compensation he
+chose. But when Papias interrupted him again and again, and obstinately
+insisted on the immediate restoration of his property, the artist whose
+blood was easily heated, grew angry and replied to the attacks and
+questions of the older man with vehement response.
+
+One angry word led to another, and at last Papias hinted of persons who
+took possession of other person's silver goods, and when Pollux retorted
+that he knew of some who could put forward the works of others as their
+own, the master struck his fist upon the table, and going towards the
+door he cried out, as soon as he was at a safe distance from the furious
+lad's powerful fists:
+
+"Thief! I will show you how fellows like you are dealt with in
+Alexandria."
+
+Pollux turned white with rage, and rushed upon Papias, who fled, and
+before Pollux could reach him he had taken refuge behind the two guards
+sent by the magistrate, and who were waiting in the antechamber.
+
+"Seize the thief!" he cried. "Hold the villain who stole my silver
+quiver and now raises his hand against his master. Bind him, fetter him,
+carry him off to prison."
+
+Pollux did not know what had come upon him; he stood like a bear that
+has been surrounded by hunters; doubtful but at bay. Should he fling
+himself upon his pursuers and fell them to the earth? should he
+passively await impending fate?
+
+He knew every stone in his master's house; the anteroom in which he
+stood, and indeed the whole building was on the ground floor. In the
+minute while the guards were approaching and his master was giving the
+order to the lictor, his eye fell on a window which looked out upon
+the street, and possessed only by the single thought of defending his
+liberty and returning quickly to Arsinoe he leaped out of the opening
+which promised safety and into the street below.
+
+"Thief--stop thief!" he heard as he flew on with long strides; and like
+the pelting of rain driven by all the four winds came from all sides the
+senseless, odious, horrible cry: "Stop thief!--stop thief!" it seemed to
+deprive him of his senses.
+
+But the passionate cry of his heart: "To Lochias, to Arsinoe! keep free,
+save your liberty if only to be of use at Lochias!" drowned the shouts
+of his pursuers and urged him through the streets that led to the old
+palace.
+
+On he went faster and farther, each step a leap; the briny breeze from
+the sea already fanned his glowing cheeks and the narrow empty street
+yonder he well knew led to the quay by the King's harbor, where he could
+hide from his pursuers among the tall piles of wood. He was just turning
+the corner into the alley when an Egyptian ox-driver threw his goad
+between his legs; he stumbled, fell to the ground, and instantly felt
+that a dog which had rushed upon him was tearing the chiton he wore,
+while he was seized by a number of men. An hour later and he found
+himself in prison, bitten, beaten, and bound among a crew of malefactors
+and real thieves.
+
+Night had fallen. His parents were waiting for him and he came not; and
+in Lochias which he had not been able to reach there were misery and
+trouble enough, and the only person in the world who could carry comfort
+to Arsinoe in her despair was absent and nowhere to be found.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+The story told by Mastor which had so greatly agitated Pollux and had
+prompted him to his mad flight was the history of events which had taken
+place in the steward's rooms during the hours when the young artist
+was helping his parents to transfer their household belongings into
+his sister's tiny dwelling. Keraunus was certainly not one of the most
+cheerful of men, but on the morning when Sabina came to the palace and
+the gate-keeper was driven from his home, he had worn the aspect of a
+thoroughly-contented man.
+
+Since visiting Selene the day before he had given himself no farther
+concern about her. She was not dangerously ill and was exceptionally
+well taken care of, and the children did not seem to miss her. Indeed,
+he himself did not want her back to-day. He avoided confessing this to
+himself it is true, still he felt lighter and freer in the absence
+of his grave monitor than he had been for a long time. It would be
+delightful, he thought, to go on living in this careless manner, alone
+with Arsinoe and the children, and now and again he rubbed his hands and
+grinned complacently. When the old slave-woman brought a large dish full
+of cakes which he had desired her to buy, and set it down by the side
+of the children's porridge, he chuckled so heartily that his fat person
+shook and swayed; and he had very good reason to be happy in his way,
+for Plutarch quite early in the morning, had sent a heavy purse of gold
+pieces for his ivory cup, and a magnificent bunch of roses to Arsinoe;
+he might give his children a treat, buy himself a solid gold fillet,
+and dress Arsinoe as finely as though she were the prefect's favorite
+daughter.
+
+His vanity was gratified in every particular.
+
+And what a splendid fellow was the slave who now--with a superbly
+reverential bow-presented him with a roast chicken and who was to walk
+behind him in the afternoon to the council-chamber. The tall Thessalian
+who marched after the Archidikastes to the Hall of justice, carrying his
+papers, was hardly grander than his "body-servant." He had bought him
+yesterday at quite a low price. The well-grown Samian was scarcely
+thirty years old; he could read and write and was in a position
+therefore to instruct the children in these arts; nay, he could even
+play the lute. His past, to be sure, was not a spotless record, and
+it was for that reason that he had been sold so cheaply. He had stolen
+things on several occasions; but the brands and scars which he bore upon
+his person were hidden by his new chiton and Keraunus felt in himself
+the power to cure him of his evil propensities.
+
+After desiring Arsinoe to let nothing he about of any value, for their
+new house-mate seemed not to be perfectly honest, he answered his
+daughter's scruples by saying:
+
+"It would be better, no doubt, that he should be as honest as the old
+skeleton I gave in exchange for him, but I reflect that even if my
+body-servant should make away with some of the few drachmae we carry
+about with us, I need not repent of having bought him, since I got him
+for many thousand drachmae less than he is worth, on account of his
+thefts, while a teacher for the children would have cost more than he
+can steal from us at the worst. I will lock up the gold in the chest
+with my documents. It is strong and could only be opened with a
+crow-bar. Besides the fellow will have left off stealing at any rate at
+first, for his late master was none of the mildest and had cured him of
+his pilfering I should think, once for all. It is lucky that in selling
+such rascals we should be compelled to state what their faults are; if
+the seller fails to do so compensation maybe claimed from him by the
+next owner for what he may lose. Lykophron certainly concealed nothing,
+and setting aside his thieving propensities the Samian is said to be in
+every respect a capital fellow."
+
+"But father," replied Arsinoe, her anxiety once more urging her to
+speak, "it is a bad thing to have a dishonest man in the house."
+
+"You know nothing about it child!" answered Keraunus. "To us to live and
+to be honest are the same thing, but a slave!--King Antiochus is said to
+have declared that the man who wishes to be well served must employ none
+but rascals."
+
+When Arsinoe had been tempted out on to the balcony by her lover's
+snatch of song and had been driven in again by her father, the steward
+had not reproved her in any way unkindly, but had stroked her cheeks and
+said with a smile: "I rather fancy that lad of the gatekeeper's--whom
+I once turned out of doors has had his eye on you since you were chosen
+for Roxana. Poor wretch! But we have very different suitors in view for
+you my little girl. How would it be, think you, if rich Plutarch had
+sent you those roses, not on his own behalf but as a greeting on the
+part of his son? I know that he is very desirous of marrying him but the
+fastidious man has never yet thought any Alexandrian girl good enough
+for him."
+
+"I do not know him, and he does not think of a poor thing like me," said
+Arsinoe.
+
+"Do you think not?" asked Keraunus smiling. "We are of as good family,
+nay of a better than Plutarch, and the fairest is a match for the
+wealthiest. What would you say child to a long flowing purple robe and a
+chariot with white horses, and runners in front?"
+
+At breakfast Keraunus drank two cups of strong wine, in which he allowed
+Arsinoe to mix only a few drops of water. While his daughter was curling
+his hair a swallow flew into the room; this was a good omen and raised
+the steward's spirits. Dressed in his best and with a well-filled purse,
+he was on the point of starting for the council-chamber with his new
+slave when Sophilus the tailor and his girl-assistant were shown into
+the living-room. The man begged to be allowed to try the dress, ordered
+for Roxana by the prefect's wife, on the steward's daughter. Keraunus
+received him with much condescension and allowed him to bring in the
+slave who followed him with a large parcel of dresses,--and Arsinoe, who
+was with the children, was called.
+
+Arsinoe was embarrassed and anxious and would far rather have yielded
+her part to another; still, she was curious about the new dresses. The
+tailor begged her to allow her maid to dress her; his assistant would
+help her because the dresses which were only slightly stitched together
+for trying on, were cut, not in the Greek but in the Oriental fashion.
+
+"Your waiting woman," he added turning to Arsinoe, "will be able to
+learn to-day the way to dress you on the great occasion."
+
+"My daughter's maid," said Keraunus, winking slily at Arsinoe, "is not
+in the house."
+
+"Oh, I require no help," cried the tailor's girl. "I am handy too at
+dressing hair, and I am most glad to help such a fair Roxana."
+
+"And it is a real pleasure to work for her," added Sophilus. "Other
+young ladies are beautified by what they wear, but your daughter adds
+beauty to all she wears."
+
+"You are most polite," said Keraunus, as Arsinoe and her handmaid left
+the room.
+
+"We learn a great deal by our intercourse with people of rank," replied
+the tailor. "The illustrious ladies who honor me with their custom like
+not only to see but to hear what is pleasing. Unfortunately there are
+among them some whom the gods have graced with but few charms, and
+they, strangely enough, crave the most flattering speeches. But the poor
+always value it more than the rich when benevolence is shown them."
+
+"Well said," cried Keraunus. "I myself am but indifferently well off for
+a man of family, and am glad to live within my moderate means--so that
+my daughter--"
+
+"The lady Julia has chosen the costliest stuffs for her; as is
+fitting--as the occasion demands," said the tailor. "Quite right, at the
+same time--"
+
+"Well, my lord?"
+
+"The grand occasion will be over and my daughter, now that she is grown
+up, ought to be seen at home and in the street in suitable and handsome,
+though not costly, clothes.
+
+"I said just now, true beauty needs no gaudy raiment."
+
+"Would you be disposed now, to work for me at a moderate price?"
+
+"With pleasure; nay, I shall be indebted to her, for all the world will
+admire Roxana and inquire who may be her tailor."
+
+"You are a very reasonable and right-minded man. What now would you
+charge for a dress for her?"
+
+"That we can discuss later."
+
+"No, no, I beg you sincerely--"
+
+"First let me consider what you want. Simple dresses are more difficult,
+far more difficult to make, and yet become a handsome woman better than
+rich and gaudy robes. But can any man make a woman understand it? I
+could tell you a tale of their folly! Why many a woman who rides by in
+her chariot wears dresses and gems to conceal not merely her own limbs,
+but the poverty-stricken condition of her house."
+
+Thus, and in this wise did Keraunus and the tailor converse, while the
+assistant plaited up Arsinoe's hair with strings of false pearls that
+she had brought with tier, and fitted and pinned on her the costly white
+and blue silk robes of an Asiatic princess. At first Arsinoe was very
+still and timid. She no longer cared to dress for any one but Pollux;
+but the garments prepared for her were wonderfully pretty--and how well
+the fitter knew how to give effect to her natural advantages. While the
+neat-handed woman worked busily and carefully many merry jests passed
+between them--many sincere and hearty words of admiration--and before
+long Arsinoe had become quite excited and took pleased interest in the
+needle-woman's labors.
+
+Every bough that is freshly decked by spring seems to feel gladness, and
+the simple child who was to-day so splendidly dressed was captivated by
+pleasure in her own beauty, and its costly adornment which delighted her
+beyond measure. Arsinoe now clapped her hands with delight, now had
+the mirror handed to her, and now, with all the frankness of a child,
+expressed her satisfaction not only with the costly clothes she wore,
+but with her own surprisingly grand appearance in them.
+
+The dress-maker was enchanted with her, proud and delighted, and could
+not resist the impulse to give a kiss to the charming girl's white,
+beautifully round throat.
+
+"If only Pollux could see me so!" thought Arsinoe. "After the
+performance perhaps I might show myself in my dress to Selene, and then
+she would forgive my taking part in the show. It is really a pleasure to
+look so nice!"
+
+The children all stood round her while she was being dressed, and
+shouted with admiration each time some new detail of the princess's
+attire was added. Helios begged to be allowed to feel her dress, and
+after satisfying herself that his little hands were clean she stroked
+them over the glistening white silk.
+
+She had now advanced so far that her father and the tailor could be
+called in. She felt remarkably content and happy. Drawn up to her
+tallest, like a real king's daughter, and yet with a heart beating as
+anxiously as that of any girl would who is on the point of displaying
+her beauty--hitherto protected and hidden in her parents' home--to
+the thousand eyes of the gaping multitude, she went towards the
+sitting-room; but she drew back her hand she had put forth to raise the
+latch, for she heard the voices of several men who must just now have
+joined her father.
+
+"Wait a little while, there are visitors," she cried to the seamstress
+who had followed her, and she put her ear to the door to listen. At
+first she could not make out anything that was going on, but the end
+of the strange conversation that was being carried on within was so
+hideously intelligible that she could never forget it so long as she
+lived.
+
+Her father had ordered two new dresses for her, beating down the price
+with the promise of prompt payment, when Mastor came into the
+steward's room and informed Keraunus that his master and Gabinius, the
+curiosity-dealer from Nicaea, wished to speak with him.
+
+"Your master," said Keraunus haughtily, "may come in; I think that he
+regrets the injury he has done me; but Gabinius shall never cross this
+threshold again, for he is a scoundrel."
+
+"It would be as well that you should desire that man to leave you for
+the present," said the slave, pointing to the tailor.
+
+"Whoever comes to visit me," said the steward loftily, "must be
+satisfied to meet any one whom I permit to enter my house."
+
+"Nay, nay," said the slave urgently, "my master is a greater man than
+you think. Beg this man to leave the room."
+
+"I know, I know very well," said Keraunus with a smile. "Your master
+is an acquaintance of Caesar's. But we shall see, after the performance
+that is about to take place, which of us two Caesar will decide for.
+This tailor has business here and will stay at my pleasure. Sit in the
+corner there, my friend."
+
+"A tailor!" cried Mastor, horrified. "I tell you he must go."
+
+"He must!" asked Keraunus wrathfully. "A slave dares to give orders in
+my house? We will see."
+
+"I am going," interrupted the artisan who understood the case. "No
+unpleasantness shall arise here on my account, I will return in a
+quarter of an hour."
+
+"You will stay," commanded Keraunus. "This insolent Roman seems to think
+that Lochias belongs to him; but I will show him who is master here."
+
+But Mastor paid no heed to these words spoken in a high pitch; he took
+the tailor's hand and led him out, whispering to him:
+
+"Come with me if you wish to escape an evil hour."
+
+The two men went off and Keraunus did not detain the artisan, for it
+occurred to his mind that his presence did him small credit. He purposed
+to show himself in all his dignity to the overbearing architect, but he
+also remembered that it was not advisable to provoke unnecessarily the
+mysterious bearded stranger, with the big clog. Much excited, and not
+altogether free from anxiety, he paced up and down his room. To give
+himself courage he hastily filled a cup from the wine-jar that stood on
+the breakfast table, emptied it, refilled it and drank it off a second
+time without adding any water, and then stood with his arms folded and a
+strong color in his face awaiting his enemy's visit.
+
+The Emperor walked in with Gabinius. Keraunus expected some greeting,
+but Hadrian spoke not a word, cast a glance at him of the utmost
+contempt and passed by him without taking any more notice of him than if
+he had been a pillar or a piece of furniture. The blood mounted to the
+steward's head and heated his eyes and for fully a minute he strove in
+vain to find words to give utterance to his rage. Gabinius paid no more
+heed to Keraunus than the Roman had done. He walked on ahead and paused
+in front of the mosaic for which he had offered so high a price, and
+over which a few days since he had been so sharply dealt with by the
+steward.
+
+"I would beg you," he said, "to look at this masterpiece."
+
+The Emperor looked at the ground, but hardly had he begun to study the
+picture, of which he quite understood and appreciated the beauty, when
+just behind him he heard in a hoarse voice these words uttered with
+difficulty:
+
+"In Alexandria--it is the custom, to greet--to say something--to the
+people you visit." Hadrian half turned his head towards the speaker and
+said indifferently but with strong and insulting contempt:
+
+"In Rome too it is the custom to greet honest people." Then looking down
+again at the mosaic he said, "Exquisite, exquisite an inestimable and
+precious work." At Hadrian's words Keraunus' eyes almost started out of
+his head. His face was crimson and his lips pale; he went close up to
+him and as soon as he had found breath to speak he said:
+
+"What have you--what are your words intended to convey?"
+
+Hadrian turned suddenly and full upon the steward; in his eyes sparkled
+that annihilating fire which few could endure to gaze on and his deep
+voice rolled sullenly through the room as he said to the miserable man:
+
+"My words are intended to convey that you have been an unfaithful
+steward, that I know what you would rather I should not know, that
+I have learned how you deal with the property entrusted to you, that
+you--"
+
+"That I?"--cried the steward trembling with rage and stepping close up
+to the Emperor.
+
+"That you," shouted Hadrian in his face, "tried to sell this picture
+to this man; in short that you are a simpleton and a scoundrel into the
+bargain."
+
+"I--I," gasped Keraunus slapping his hand on his fat chest.
+"I--a--a--but you shall repent of these words."
+
+Hadrian laughed coldly and scornfully, but Keraunus sprang on Gabinius
+with a wonderful agility for his size, clutched him by the collar of
+his chiton and shook the feeble little man as if he were a sapling,
+shrieking meanwhile:
+
+"I will choke you with your own lies--serpent, mean viper!"
+
+"Madman!" cried Hadrian "leave hold of the Ligurian or by Sirius you
+shall repent it."
+
+"Repent it?" gasped the steward. "It will be your turn to repent when
+Caesar comes. Then will come a day of reckoning with false witnesses,
+shameless calumniators who disturb peaceful households, while credulous
+idiots--"
+
+"Man, man," interrupted Hadrian, not loudly but sternly and ominously,
+"you know not to whom you speak."
+
+"Oh I know you--I know you only too well. But I--I--shall I tell you who
+I am?"
+
+"You--you are a blockhead," replied the monarch shrugging his shoulders
+contemptuously. Then he added calmly, with dignity--almost with
+indifference:
+
+"I am Caesar."
+
+At these words the steward's hand dropped from the chiton of the
+half-throttled dealer. Speechless and with a glassy stare he gazed in
+Hadrian's face for a few seconds. Then he suddenly started, staggered
+backwards, uttered a loud choking, gurgling, nameless cry, and fell
+back on the floor like a mass of rock shaken from its foundations by an
+earthquake. The room shook again with his fall.
+
+Hadrian was startled and when he saw him lying motionless at his feet
+he bent over him--less from pity than from a wish to see what was the
+matter with him; for he had also dabbled in medicine. Just as he was
+lifting the fallen man's hand to feel his pulse Arsinoe rushed into the
+room. She had heard the last words of the antagonists with breathless
+anxiety and her father's fall and now threw herself on her knees by the
+side of the unhappy man, just opposite to Hadrian, and as his distorted
+and grey-white face told her what had occurred she broke out in a
+passionate cry of anguish. Her brothers and sisters followed at her
+heels, and when they saw their favorite sister bewailing herself they
+followed her example without knowing at first what Arsinoe was crying
+for, but soon with terror and horror at their father lying there stiff
+and disfigured. The Emperor, who had never had either son or daughter
+of his own, found nothing so intolerable as the presence of crying
+children. However he endured the wailing and whimpering that surrounded
+him till he had ascertained the condition of the man lying on the ground
+before him.
+
+"He is dead," he said in a few minutes. "Cover his face, Master."
+
+Arsinoe and the children broke out afresh, and Hadrian glanced down at
+them with annoyance. When his eye fell on Arsinoe, whose costly robe,
+merely pinned and slightly stitched together had come undone with the
+vehemence of her movements and were hanging as flapping rags in tumbled
+disorder, he was disgusted with the gaudy fluttering trumpery which
+contrasted so painfully with the grief of the wearer, and turning his
+back on the fair girl he quitted the chamber of misery.
+
+Gabinius followed him with a hideous smirk. He had directed the
+Emperor's attention to the mosaic pavement in the steward's room, and
+had shamelessly accused Keraunus of having offered to sell him a work
+that belonged to the palace, contrasting his conduct with his own
+rectitude. Now the calumniated man was dead, and the truth could never
+come to light; this was necessarily a satisfaction to the miserable man,
+but he derived even greater pleasure from the reflection that Arsinoe
+could not now fill the part of Roxana, and that consequently there was
+once more a possibility that it might devolve on his daughter.
+
+Hadrian walked on in front of him, silent and thoughtful. Gabinius
+followed him into his writing-room, and there said with fulsome
+smoothness:
+
+"Ah, great Caesar, thus do the gods punish with a heavy hand the crimes
+of the guilty."
+
+Hadrian did not interrupt him, but he looked him keenly and enquiringly
+in the face, and then said, gravely, but coolly:
+
+"It seems to me, man, that I should do well to break off my connection
+with you, and to give some other dealer the commissions which I proposed
+to entrust to you."
+
+"Caesar!" stammered Gabinius, "I really do not know--"
+
+"But I do know," interrupted the Emperor. "You have attempted to mislead
+me, and throw your own guilt on the shoulders of another."
+
+"I--great Caesar? I have attempted--" began the Ligurian, while his
+pinched features turned an ashy grey. "You accused the steward of a
+dishonorable trick," replied Hadrian. "But I know men well, and I know
+that no thief ever yet died of being called a scoundrel. It is only
+undeserved disgrace that can cost a man's life."
+
+"Keraunus was full-blooded, and the shock when he learnt that you were
+Caesar--"
+
+"That shock accelerated the end no doubt," interrupted the monarch, "but
+the mosaic in the steward's room is worth a million of sesterces, and
+now I have seen enough to be quite sure that you are not the man to save
+your money when a work like that mosaic is offered you for sale--be the
+circumstances what they may. If I see the case rightly, it was Keraunus
+who refused your demand that he should resign to you the treasure in his
+charge. Certainly, that was the case exactly! Now, leave me. I wish to
+be alone."
+
+Gabinius retired with many bows, walking backwards to the door, and then
+turned his back on the palace of Lochias muttering many impotent curses
+as he went.
+
+The steward's new 'body-servant,' the old black woman, Mastor, the
+tailor and his slave, helped Arsinoe to carry her father's lifeless body
+and lay it on a couch, and the slave closed his eyes. He was dead--so
+each told the despairing girl, but she would not, could not believe it.
+As soon as she was alone with the old negress and the dead, she lifted
+up his heavy, clumsy arm, and as soon as she let go her hold it fell by
+his side like lead. She lifted the cloth from the dead man's face, but
+she flung it over him again at once, for death had drawn his features.
+Then she kissed his cold hand and brought the children in and made them
+do the same, and said sobbing:
+
+"We have no father now; we shall never, never see him again."
+
+The little blind boy felt the dead body with his hands, and asked his
+sister:
+
+"Will he not wake again to-morrow morning and make you curl his hair,
+and take me up on his knee?"
+
+"Never, never; he is gone, gone for ever."
+
+As she spoke Mastor entered the room, sent by his master. Yesterday had
+he not heard from the overseer of the pavement-workers the comforting
+tidings that after our grief and suffering here on earth there would
+be another, beautiful, blissful and eternal life? He went kindly up to
+Arsinoe and said:
+
+"No, no, my children; when we are dead we become beautiful angels with
+colored wings, and all who have loved each other here on earth will meet
+again in the presence of the good God."
+
+Arsinoe looked at the slave with disapproval.
+
+"What is the use," she asked, "of cheating the children with silly
+tales? Their father is gone, quite gone, but we will never, never forget
+him."
+
+"Are there any angels with red wings?" asked the youngest little girl.
+
+"Oh! I want to be an angel!" cried Helios, clapping his hands. "And can
+the angels see?"
+
+"Yes, dear little man," replied Mastor, "and their eyes are wonderfully
+bright, and all they look upon is beautiful."
+
+"Tell them no more Christian nonsense," begged Arsinoe. "Ah! children,
+when we shall have burned our father's body there will be nothing left
+of him but a few grey ashes."
+
+But the slave took the little blind boy on his knees and whispered to
+him:
+
+"Only believe what I tell you--you will see him again in Heaven."
+
+Then he set him down again, gave Arsinoe a little bag of gold pieces in
+Caesar's name, and begged her--for so his master desired--to find a new
+abode and, after the deceased was burned on the morrow, to quit Lochias
+with the children. When Mastor was gone Arsinoe opened the chest, in
+which lay her father's papyri and the money that Plutarch had paid for
+the ivory cup, put in the heavy purse sent by the Emperor, comforting
+herself while her tears flowed, with the reflection that she and the
+children were provided at any rate against immediate want.
+
+But where was she to go with the little ones? Where could she hope to
+find a refuge at once? What was to become of them when all they now
+possessed was spent. The gods be thanked! she was not forlorn; she still
+had friends. She could find protection and love with Pollux and look to
+dame Doris for motherly counsel.
+
+She quickly dried her eyes and changed the remains of her splendor
+for the dark dress in which she was accustomed to work at the papyrus
+factory; then, as soon as she had taken the pearls out of her hair, she
+went down to the little gate-house.
+
+She was only a few steps from the door--but why did not the Graces come
+springing out to meet her? Why did she see no birds, no flowers in the
+window? Was she deceived, was she dreaming or was she tricked by some
+evil spirit? The door of the dear home-like little dwelling was wide
+open and the sitting-room was absolutely empty, not a chattel was left
+behind, forgotten--not a leaf from a plant was lying on the ground; for
+dame Doris, in her tidy fashion, had swept out the few rooms where she
+had grown grey in peace and contentment as carefully as though she were
+to come into them again to-morrow.
+
+What had happened here? Where were her friends gone? A great terror came
+over her, all the misery of desolation fell upon her, and as she sank
+upon the stone bench outside the gate-house to wait for the inhabitants
+who must presently return, the tears again flowed from her eyes and fell
+in heavy drops on her hands as they lay in her lap.
+
+She was still sitting there, thinking with a throbbing heart of Pollux
+and of the happy morning of this now dying day, when a troup of Moorish
+slaves came towards the deserted house. The head mason who led them
+desired her to rise from the bench, and in answer to her questions, told
+her that the little building was to be pulled down, and that the couple
+who had inhabited it were evicted from their post, turned out of doors
+and had gone elsewhere with all their belongings. But where Doris and
+her son had taken themselves no one knew. Arsinoe as she heard these
+tidings felt like a sailor whose vessel has grounded on a rocky shore,
+and who realizes with horror that every plank and beam be neath him
+quivers and gapes. As usual, when she felt too weak to help herself
+unaided, her first thought was of Selene, and she decided to hasten off
+to her and to ask her what she could do, what was to become of her and
+the children.
+
+It was already growing dark. With a swift step, and drying her eyes from
+time to time on her peplum as she went, she returned to her own room
+to fetch a veil, without which she dared not venture so late into the
+streets. On the steps--where the dog had thrown down Selene--she met
+a man hurrying past her; in the dim light she fancied he bore some
+resemblance to the slave that her father had bought the day before;
+but she paid no particular heed, for her mind was full of so many other
+things. In the kitchen sat the old negress in front of a lamp and
+the children squatted round her; by the hearth sat the baker and the
+butcher, to whom her father owed considerable sums and who had come to
+claim their dues, for ill news has swifter wings than good tidings, and
+they had already heard of the steward's death. Arsinoe took the lamp,
+begged the men to wait, went into the sitting-room, passing, not without
+a shudder, the body of the man who a few hours since had stroked her
+cheeks and looked lovingly into her eyes.
+
+How glad she felt to be able to pay her dead father's debts and save the
+honor of his name! She confidently drew the key out of her pocket and
+went up to the chest. What was this? She knew, quite positively, that
+she had locked it before going out and yet it was now standing wide
+open; the lid, thrown back, hung askew by one hinge; the other was
+broken. A dread, a hideous suspicion, froze her blood; the lamp trembled
+in her hand as she leaned over the chest which ought to have contained
+every thing she possessed. There lay the old documents, carefully rolled
+together, side by side, but the two bags with Plutarch's money and the
+Emperor's, had vanished. She took out one roll after another; then she
+tossed them all out on to the floor till the bottom of the chest was
+bare--but the gold was really gone, nowhere to be found.
+
+The new slave had forced open the lid of the chest and stolen the whole
+possessions of the orphans of the man who, to gratify his own vanity,
+had brought him into the house.
+
+Arsinoe screamed aloud, called in her creditors, explained to them all
+that had occurred and implored them to pursue the thief; and when they
+only listened to her with an incredulous shrug, she swore that she was
+speaking the truth, and promised that whether the slave were caught
+or not she would pay them with the price of her own and her father's
+personal ornaments. She knew the name of the dealer of whom her father
+had bought the slave and told it to the unsatisfied dealers, who at last
+left her to follow up the thief as promptly as possible.
+
+Once more Arsinoe was alone. Tearless, but shivering and scarcely
+mistress of herself from misery and agitation, she took out her veil,
+flung it over her head, and hurried through the court and along the
+streets to her sister.
+
+Verily, since Sabina's visit to the palace all good spirits had deserted
+it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+In a perfectly dark spot by the wall of the widow's garden, stood
+the cynic philosopher who had met Antinous with so little courtesy,
+defending himself eagerly, but in low tones against the rebukes of
+another man, who, dressed, like himself in a ragged cloak and bearing a
+beggar's wallet, appeared to be one of the same kidney.
+
+"Do not deny," said the latter, "that you cling much to the Christians."
+
+"But hear me out," urged the other.
+
+"I need hear nothing, for I have seen you for the tenth time sneaking in
+to one of their meetings."
+
+"And do I deny it? Do I not honestly confess that I seek truth wherever
+I may, where I see even a gleam of hope of finding it?"
+
+"Like the Egyptian who wanted to catch the miraculous fish, and at last
+flung his hook into the sand."
+
+"The man acted very wisely."
+
+"What now!"
+
+"A marvel is not to be found just where everything else is. In hunting
+for truth you must not be afraid of a bog."
+
+"And the Christian doctrine seems to be very much such a muddy thicket."
+
+"Call it so for aught I care."
+
+"Then beware lest you find yourself sticking in the morass."
+
+"I will take care of myself."
+
+"You said just now that there were decent folks among them."
+
+"A few no doubt. But the others! eternal gods! mere slaves, beggars,
+ruined handicraftstmen, common people, untaught and unphilosophical
+brains, and women, for the most part."
+
+"Avoid them then."
+
+"You ought to be the last to give me that advice."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+The other went close up to him and asked him in a whisper:
+
+"Why, where do you suppose I get the money with which I pay for our food
+and lodging?"
+
+"So long as you do not steal it, it is all the same to me."
+
+"If I had no more, you would ask the question fast enough."
+
+"Certainly not, we strive after virtue and ought to do everything to
+render ourselves independent of nature and her cravings. But to be
+sure she often asserts her rights--to return then: where do you get the
+money?"
+
+"Why, it burns in the purses of the people in there. It is their duty
+to give to the poor, and to tell the truth, their pleasure also; and so
+week by week they give me a few drachmae for my suffering brother."
+
+"Bah! you are the only son of your father, and he is dead."
+
+"'All men are brethren' say the Christians, consequently I may call you
+mine without lying."
+
+"Join them then for aught I care," laughed the other. "How would it
+be if I followed you among the Christians? Perhaps they would give
+me weekly money too, for my suffering brother, and then we could have
+double meals."
+
+The cynics laughed loudly and parted; one went back into the city, the
+other into the garden belonging to the Christian widow.
+
+Arsinoe had entered here before the dishonest philosopher and had gone
+straight to Hannah's house without being detained by the gate-keeper. As
+she got nearer to her destination, she tried more and more earnestly to
+devise some way in which she might inform her sister of all the dreadful
+things that had happened, and which she must learn sooner or later,
+without giving her too great a shock. Her dread was not much less than
+her grief. As she reflected on the last few days and on all that had
+occurred, it almost seemed as though she herself had been the cause of
+the misfortunes of her family.
+
+On the way to see Selene she could shed no tears, but she could not help
+softly moaning to herself now and then. A woman, who for some distance
+had kept pace with her, thought she must be suffering some severe bodily
+pain, and when the girl passed her, she looked after her with sincere
+compassion, the wailing of the desolate young creature had sounded so
+piteous.
+
+True, midway, Arsinoe had suddenly stopped and had thought that instead
+of going to Selene for advice, she would turn round and seek Pollux and
+ask him to help her. The thought of her lover forced its way through all
+her sorrow and anxiety, through the reproaches she heaped upon herself
+and the vague plans floating in the air which her brain--unaccustomed to
+any serious thought, vainly tried to sketch for the future. He was kind,
+and would certainly be ready to help her; but maidenly modesty held
+her back from seeking him at so late an hour; besides, how could she
+discover him or his parents?
+
+The place where her sister was she was now familiar with, and no one
+could judge of their position better or give sounder counsel than
+prudent Selene. So she had not turned round, but had hurried on to reach
+her destination as soon as possible; and now she was standing before
+the little house in the garden. Before opening the door she once more
+considered in what way she could prepare Selene and tell her terrible
+news, and, as all that happened stood vividly before her mind's eye, she
+began to weep once more.
+
+In front of her, and following her, men and veiled women, singly or in
+couples or in larger groups, passed into Paulina's garden. They came
+from workshops and writing-rooms, from humble houses in narrow lanes,
+and from the handsomest and largest in the main street. Each and all,
+from the wealthy merchant down to the slave who could not call the
+coarse tunic or scanty apron that he wore, his own, walked gravely and
+with a certain dignified reserve. All who met within that gate greeted
+each other as friends; the master gave a brotherly kiss to the servant,
+the slave to his owner; for the congregation to which they all belonged
+was as one body, animated and dwelt in by Christ, so that each member
+was esteemed as equal to the others however different their gifts of
+body or mind might be, or the worldly possessions with which they
+were endowed. Before God and his Saviour the rich ship-owner or the
+grey-haired sage stood no higher than the defenceless widow and the
+ignorant slave crippled with blows. Still, the members of the community
+submitted to those more implicitly than to these, for the special
+talents which graced certain superior Christians were gifts of grace
+from the Lord, readily acknowledged as such and, so far as they
+concerned the inner man, deemed worthy of honor.
+
+On Sunday, the day of the Resurrection of the Lord, all Christians,
+without exception, visited their place of assembly for divine worship.
+To-day, being the middle of the week, all who could or chose came to the
+love-feast at Paulina's suburban house. She herself dwelt in the city
+and she had placed the banqueting hall of her villa, which would hold
+more than a hundred souls, at the disposal of her fellow Christians in
+that quarter of the town. The regular service was held in the morning,
+but after the day's labor was ended the Christians met at one table to
+have an evening meal in common, or--on other occasions to partake of
+the sacramental supper. After sunset the elders, deacons, and
+deaconesses--most of whom, so long as it was light, had secular work to
+attend to--met to take counsel together.
+
+Paulina, the widow of Pudeus and sister of Pontius the architect, was a
+woman of considerable property and at the same time a prudent steward,
+who did not consider herself justified in seriously impairing her son's
+inheritance. This son was residing at Smyrna as a partner in an uncle's
+business, and always avoided Alexandria, as he did not like his mother's
+intercourse with the Christians. Paulina took the most anxious care not
+to make any inroads on the capital intended for him, and never allowed
+her hospitality to her fellow-believers to cost her any more than it did
+the other wealthy members of the circle that met at her house. There
+the rich brought more than they needed for themselves and the poor were
+always welcome; not feeling themselves oppressed by the benevolence they
+profited by, for they were often told that their entertainer was not
+a mortal, but the Saviour, who invited each one who followed him
+faithfully to be his guest.
+
+The hour was approaching which would summon dame Hannah to join the
+assembly of her fellow Christians. She could not fail to appear, for she
+was one of the deaconesses entrusted with the distribution of alms and
+the care of the sick. She noiselessly made her preparations for going,
+carefully setting the lamp behind the water-pitcher so that it should
+not dazzle Selene, and she desired Mary to be exact in administering the
+medicine to her patient. She knew that the girl had yesterday attempted
+to make away with herself, and guessed the cause; but she asked no
+questions and disturbed the poor child, who slept a good deal or lay
+dreaming with open eyes, as little as possible. The old physician
+wondered at her sound constitution, for since her plunge into the water
+the fever had left her and even the injured foot was not much the worse.
+Hannah might now hope the best for Selene if no unforeseen contingency
+checked her recovery. To prevent this the unfortunate girl was never to
+be left alone, and Mary had gladly agreed with her friend to fill her
+place whenever she was obliged to leave the house.
+
+The meeting of the elders and guardians had already begun when Hannah
+took her tablets in her hand, on which was noted the distribution she
+had made of the money entrusted to her during the last week. She greeted
+the sick girl and Mary with a kindly look and whispered to the deformed
+girl:
+
+"I will think of thee in my prayers thou faithful soul. There is some
+food in the little cupboard--not much, for we must be sparing, the last
+medicine was so dear."
+
+In the little anteroom a lamp was burning which Mary had lighted as
+it began to grow dark, and the widow paused for a moment, considering
+whether she should not extinguish it to save the oil. She had taken up
+the tongs that hung by it, and was about to put it out, when she heard
+a gentle tap at the house-door. Before she could enquire who it was
+that asked admission at so late an hour, the door was opened and Arsinoe
+entered the little hall. Her eyes were still full of tears and she had
+great difficulty in finding words to return Hannah's greeting.
+
+"Why what ails you my child?" asked the Christian anxiously when by the
+dim light, she saw how tearful and sad the girl looked. Arsinoe was long
+before she could answer. At last she collected herself sufficiently to
+sob out amid her tears:
+
+"Oh dame Hannah! It is all over with us--my father, our poor father--"
+
+The widow guessed at the blow that bad fallen on the sisters and full of
+anxiety on Selene's account she interrupted the weeping child saying:
+
+"Hush, hush my child-Selene must not hear you. Come out with me and then
+you can tell me all." Once outside the door Hannah put her arm round
+Arsinoe drew her towards her, kissed her forehead, and said:
+
+"Now speak and tell me every thing; think that I am your mother or
+your sister. Poor Selene is still too weak to advise or help you. Take
+courage. What happened to your poor father?"
+
+"Struck by apoplexy, dead--dead!" wept the girl. "Poor, dear little
+orphan," said the widow in a husky voice and she clasped Arsinoe closely
+in her arms. For some time she allowed the girl to weep silently on her
+bosom; then she spoke:
+
+"Give me your hand my daughter and tell me how it has all happened so
+suddenly. Your father was quite well yesterday and now? Yes my girl life
+is a grave matter, you have to learn it while you are still young. I
+know you have six little brothers and sisters and perhaps you may
+soon lack even the necessaries of life. But that is no disgrace; I am
+certainly even poorer than you and yet, by God's help, I hope to be able
+to advise you and perhaps even to assist you. Every thing that I can
+possibly do shall be done, but first I must know how matters stand with
+you and what you need."
+
+There was so much kindness and consolation in the Christian's tones, so
+much to revive hope that Arsinoe willingly complied with her demand and
+began her story.
+
+At first, to be sure, her pride shunned confessing how poor, how
+absolutely destitute they were; but Hannah's questions soon brought the
+truth to light; and when Arsinoe perceived that the widow understood the
+misfortunes of their house in their fullest extent, and that it would be
+unavailing to conceal how matters stood with her and the children, she
+yielded to the growing impulse to relieve her soul by pouring out her
+griefs and described frankly and without reserve the whole position of
+the family, to the good woman who listened with attention and sympathy.
+The widow asked about each child separately, and ended by enquiring who,
+in Arsinoe's absence, was left in charge of the little ones; and when
+she heard that the old slave-woman to whose care the children were
+entrusted, was infirm and half-blind, she shook her head thoughtfully.
+
+"Here help is needed and at once," she said decidedly. "You must go back
+to the little ones presently. Your sister must not at present hear of
+your father's death; when your future lot is to some extent secure we
+will tell her by degrees all that has occurred. Now come with me, it is
+by the Lord's guidance that you came here at the right moment."
+
+Hannah conducted Arsinoe to Paulina's villa, first into a small room
+at the side of the entrance hall, where the deaconesses took off their
+veils and their warm wraps in winter evenings. There the girl could be
+alone, and safe from inquisitive questionings which could not fail to be
+painful to her. Hannah desired her to await her return, and then joined
+her colleagues.
+
+In order to do so she had to pass through the room where the elders
+and deacons were sitting in council. The bishop, who presided over the
+assembly, sat on a raised seat at the head of an oblong table, and on
+his right hand and his left sat a number of elderly men, some of whom
+seemed to be of Jewish or Egyptian extraction but most of them were
+Greeks. In these the lofty intellectual brow was conspicuous, in those
+a bright, ecstatic expression particularly in the eyes. Hannah went
+past the assembly with a reverential greeting into the adjoining room in
+which the deaconesses sat waiting, for women were not admitted to join
+or hear the deliberations of the elders. The bishop, a fine old man
+with a full white beard; raised his kindly eyes as the door closed upon
+Hannah, fixed them for a few moments on the tips of his fingers that
+he had raised and then addressed the presbyter who had presented for
+baptism several candidates who had been grounded during the past year in
+the Christian faith and doctrine, as follows:
+
+"Most of the catechumens you have presented to me cling faithfully no
+doubt to the Redeemer. They believe in Him and love Him. But have they
+attained to that sanctification, that new birth in Christ, which alone
+can justify us in admitting them through baptism among the lambs of our
+Good Shepherd? Let us beware of the tainted sheep which may infect the
+whole flock. Verily, in these latter years there has been no lack of
+them, and they have been received among us and have brought the name of
+Christian into evil repute. Shall I give you an example? There was an
+Egyptian in Rhakotis; few seemed to strive so fervently as he for the
+remission of his sins. He could fast for many days, and yet no sooner
+was he baptized than he broke into a goldsmith's shop. He was condemned
+to death, and before his end he sent for me and confessed to me that in
+former years he had soiled his soul with many robberies and murders. He
+had hoped to win forgiveness of his sins by the act of baptism, the mere
+washing in water, not by repentance and a new birth to a pure and holy
+life; and he had gone on boldly in new sin because he confidently hoped
+that he might again count on the unwearying mercy of the Saviour. Others
+again, who had been brought up in the practice of the ablutions which
+have to be performed by those who are initiated into the deeper secrets
+of the heathen mysteries, regarded baptism as an act of purification,
+a mystical process of happy augury, or at the best a figurative
+purification of the soul, and crowded to receive it. Here, in
+Alexandria, the number of these deluded ones is especially great; for
+where could any superstition find a more favorable soil than in this
+seat of philosophical half-culture, or over-culture; of the worship
+of Serapis, of astrology, of societies of Mystics, of visionaries
+and exorcisers, and of incredulity--the twin-sister of credulity. Be
+cautious then to hold back from baptism all those who regard it as a
+preserving charm or an act of good omen--remembering that the same water
+which, sprinkled on sanctified hearts, leads them to holy living, brings
+death to the unclean soul. It is your turn to speak, Irenaeus."
+
+"I only have to say," began the young Christian thus designated, "that
+I have recently met among the catechumens with some who have attached
+themselves to us from the basest motives. I mean the idlers who are glad
+to receive our alms. Have you noticed here a cynic philosopher whose
+starving brother we maintain? Our deacon Clemens has just ascertained
+that he is the only son of his father--"
+
+"We will investigate this matter more closely when we discuss the
+distribution of alms," replied the bishop. "Here we have petitions from
+several women who desire to have their children baptized; this question
+we cannot decide here; it must be referred to the next Synod. So far
+as I am concerned, I should be inclined not to reject the prayer of the
+mothers. Wherein does the utmost aim of the Christian life consist?
+It seems to me in being perfectly conformable to the example of the
+Saviour. And was not he a Man among men, a Youth among the young, a
+Child among children? Did not His existence lend sanctity to every age,
+and especially childhood? He commanded that little children should be
+brought to Him, and He promised them the Kingdom of Heaven. Wherefore
+then should we exclude them and deny them baptism?"
+
+"I cannot share your views," replied a presbyter with a high forehead
+and sunken eyes. "We ought no doubt to follow the Saviour, but those who
+tread in His steps should do so of their own free choice, out of love
+for Him, and after He has sanctified their souls. What is the sense of a
+new birth in a life that has scarcely begun.
+
+"Your discourse," replied the bishop, "only confirms my opinion that
+this question is one for a higher assembly. We will now close our
+discussion of that point, and go on to the care of the poor. Call in the
+women, my good Justinius."
+
+The deaconesses came into the room and took seats at the lower end of
+the table, Paulina, the widow of Pudeus, taking her place opposite the
+bishop in the middle of the other women. She had learnt from Selene's
+kind nurse in what pressing difficulties the children of the deceased
+steward now found themselves, and that Hannah had promised to assist
+them.
+
+The deacons first gave their reports of what their works had been among
+the poor; after them the women were allowed to speak. Paulina, a tall,
+slight woman with black hair faintly streaked with gray, drew from her
+dress, which was perfectly plain, but made of particularly soft, fine
+white woollen stuff--a tablet that she placed before her, and slowly
+raising her eyes and looking at the assembly she said:
+
+"Dame Hannah has a melancholy story to tell you, for which I crave your
+sympathy. Will you be so good as to allow her to speak?"
+
+Paulina seemed to feel that she was the hostess to her brethren. She
+looked ill and suffering; a line of pain had settled about her lips, and
+there were always dark shades under her eyes; still, there was something
+firm and decisive in her voice, and her glance was anything rather than
+soft and winning. After her commanding tones Hannah's tale sounded as
+soft as a song. She described the different natures of the two sisters
+as lovingly as though they were her own daughters, each in her own
+way seemed to her so worthy of compassion, and she spoke with pathetic
+lament of the unprotected, helpless orphans abandoned to misery, and
+among them a pretty little blind boy. And she ended her speech by
+saying:
+
+"The steward's second daughter--she is sixteen and so beautiful that
+she must be exposed to every temptation--has now the whole charge of the
+nourishment and care of her six young brothers and sisters. Ought we
+to withhold from them a protecting hand? No, so surely as we love the
+Saviour we ought not. You agree with me? Well then, do not let us delay
+our help. The second daughter of the deceased Keraunus is here, in this
+house; to-morrow early the children must all quit the palace, and now,
+while I am speaking, are at home alone and but ill tended."
+
+The Christian woman's good words fell on kindly soil, and the presbyters
+and deacons determined to recommend the congregation who should assemble
+at the love-feast to give their assistance to the steward's children.
+
+The elders had still much to discuss, so Hannah and Paulina were charged
+with the task of appealing to the hearts of the well-to-do members
+of the congregation to provide for the orphans. The poor widow first
+conducted her wealthy friend and hostess to the little room where
+Arsinoe was waiting with growing impatience. She looked paler than usual
+but, in spite of her tear-reddened eyes which she kept fixed on the
+ground, she was so lovely, so touchingly lovely, that the mere sight
+of her moved Paulina's heart. She had once had two children, an only
+daughter besides her son. The girl bad died in the spring-time of her
+maidenhood, and Paulina thought of her at every hour of her life. It was
+for her sake that she had been baptized and devoted her existence to a
+series of painful sacrifices. She strove with all her might to be a good
+Christian--for surely she, the self-denying woman who had taken up the
+cross of her own free will, the suffering creature who loved stillness
+and who had made her country-house, which she visited daily, a scene of
+unrest, could not fail to win Heaven, and there she hoped to meet her
+innocent child.
+
+Arsinoe reminded her of her Helena, who certainly had been far less fair
+than the steward's lovely daughter, but whose image had assumed new and
+glorified forms in the mother's faithful heart. Since her son had left
+home for a foreign country she had often asked herself whether she
+might not find some young creature to take into her home, to attach to
+herself, to bring up as a Christian, and to bring as an offering to her
+Saviour's feet.
+
+Her daughter had died a heathen, and nothing troubled Paulina so deeply
+as that her soul was lost, and that her own struggling and striving
+for grace could not lead her to the goal beyond the grave. No sacrifice
+seemed too great to purchase her child's beatitude, and now, standing
+before Arsinoe and looking at her with deep emotion and admiration, she
+was seized with an idea which swiftly ripened to resolve. She would win
+this sweet soul for the Redeemer, and implore Him with ceaseless prayers
+to save her hapless child as a reward for the work of grace in Arsinoe's
+soul; and she felt as if she had signed the compact with the Redeemer,
+when, fully determined on this course, she went up to the girl and asked
+her:
+
+"You are quite forlorn, quite without relations?" Arsinoe bowed her head
+in assent, and Paulina went on:
+
+"And do you bear your loss with resignation?"
+
+"What is resignation?" asked the girl modestly. Hannah laid her hand on
+the widow's arm and whispered:
+
+"She is a heathen."
+
+"I know it," said Paulina shortly, and then went on kindly but
+positively:
+
+"You and yours have lost both parents and a home by your father's death.
+You shall find a new home in my house, with me; I ask nothing of you in
+return but your love."
+
+Arsinoe looked at the haughty lady in astonishment. She could not
+yet feel any impulse of affection towards her, and she did not as yet
+understand that what was required of her was the one gift which the best
+will, the most loving heart in the world, could not offer at a command.
+Paulina did not wait for her reply, but signed to Hannah to follow her
+to join the congregation now assembled at the evening meal.
+
+A quarter of an hour later the two women returned. The steward's orphans
+were provided for. Two or three Christian families were ready and
+willing to take in some of them, and many a kindly house-mother had
+begged to have the blind child; but in vain, for Hannah had claimed the
+right to bring up the hapless little boy in her own house, at any rate
+for the present. She knew how Selene clung to him, and hoped by his
+presence to be able to work powerfully on the crushed and chilled heart
+of the poor girl.
+
+Arsinoe did not contravene the arrangements of the two women. She
+thanked them, indeed, for she felt that she once more stood on firm
+ground, but she also was immediately aware that it would be strewn
+with sharp stones. The thought of parting from her little brothers and
+sisters was terrible and cruel, and never left her mind for an instant,
+while, accompanied by Hannah in person, she made her way back to
+Lochias.
+
+The next morning her kind friend appeared again and led her and the
+little troup to Paulina's town-house. The steward's creditors divided
+his little possessions; nothing but the chest of papyri followed the
+girl to her new home. The hour in which the fondly-linked circle of
+children was riven asunder, when one child was taken here and another
+there, was the bitterest which Arsinoe had ever experienced or ever
+could experience through all the after years of her life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A lovely garden adjoined the Caesareum, the palace in which Sabina was
+residing. Balbilla was fond of lingering there, and as the morning of
+the twenty-ninth of December was particularly brilliant--the sky and its
+infinite mirror the sea, gleaming in indescribably deep blue, while
+the fragrance of a flowering shrub was wafted in at her window like
+an invitation to quit the house she had sought a certain bench which,
+though placed in a sunny spot, was slightly shaded by an acacia. This
+seat was screened from the more public paths by bushes; the promenaders
+who did not seek Balbilla could not observe her here, but she could
+command a view, through a gap in the foliage, of the path, which was
+strewn with small shells.
+
+To-day, however, the young poetess was far from feeling any curiosity;
+instead of gazing at the shrubbery enlivened by birds, at the clear
+atmosphere or the sparkling sea, her eyes were fixed on a yellow roll of
+papyrus and she was impressing very dry details on her retentive memory.
+
+She had determined to keep her word to learn to speak, write, and
+compose verses in the Aeolian dialect of the Greek tongue. She had
+chosen for her teacher Apollonius, the great grammarian, who was apt
+to call his scholars "the dullards;" and the work which was the present
+object of her studies was derived from the famous library of the
+Serapeum, which far exceeded in completeness that of the Museum since
+the siege of Julius Caesar in the Bruchiom, when the great Museum
+library was burnt.
+
+Any one observing Balbilla at her occupation could hardly have believed
+that she was studying. There was no fixed effort in her eyes or on her
+brow; still, she read line for line, not skipping a single word; only
+she did it not like a man who climbs a mountain with sweat on his brow,
+but like a lounger who walks in the main street of some great city, and
+is charmed at every new and strange thing that meets his eye. Each time
+she came upon some form of structure in the book she was reading that
+had been hitherto unknown to her, she was so delighted that she clapped
+her hands and laughed out softly. Her learned master had never before
+met with so cheerful a student, and it annoyed him, for to him science
+was a serious matter while she seemed to make a joke of it, as she did
+of every thing, and so desecrated it in his eyes. After she had been
+sitting an hour on the bench, studying in her own way, she rolled up the
+book and stood up to refresh herself a little. Feeling sure that no one
+could see her, she stretched herself in all her limbs and then stepped
+up to the gap in the shrubbery in order to see who a man in boots might
+be who was pacing up and down in the broad path beyond.
+
+It was the praetor--and yet it was not! Verus, under this aspect at any
+rate, she had never seen till now. Where was the smile that was wont
+to twinkle in his merry eye like the sparkle of a diamond and to play
+saucily about his lips--where the unwrinkled serenity of his brow and
+the defiantly audacious demeanor of his whole handsome person? He
+was slowly striding up and down with a gloomy fire in his eye, a
+deeply-lined brow, and his head sunk on his breast: and yet it was not
+bowed with sorrow. If so, could he have snapped his fingers in the air
+as he did just as he passed in front of Balbilla, as much as to say:
+"Come what may! to-day I live and laugh the future in the face!"
+
+But this vestige of his old reckless audacity did not last longer than
+the time it took to part his fingers again, and the next time Verus
+passed Balbilla he looked, if possible, more gloomy than before.
+Something very unpleasant must have arisen to spoil the good humor of
+her friend's husband; and the poetess was sincerely sorry; for, though
+she herself had daily to suffer under the praetor's impertinence, she
+always forgave it for the sake of the graceful form in which he knew how
+to clothe his incivilities.
+
+Balbilla longed to see Verus content once more, and she therefore
+came forth from her hiding place. As soon as he saw her he altered the
+expression of his features and cried out as brightly as ever:
+
+"Welcome, fairest of the fair!"
+
+She made believe not to recognize him, but, as she passed him and bowed
+her curly head, she said gravely and in deep tones:
+
+"Good day to you, Timon."
+
+"Timon?" he asked, taking her hand.
+
+"Ah! is it you, Verus?" she answered, as though surprised. "I thought
+the Athenian misanthrope had quitted Hades and come to take the air in
+this garden."
+
+"You thought rightly," replied the praetor. "But when Orpheus sings the
+trees dance, the Muse can turn dull, motionless stones into a Bacchante,
+and when Balbilla appears Timon is at once transformed into the happy
+Verus."
+
+"The miracle does not astonish me," laughed the girl. "But is it
+permitted to ask what dark spirit so effectually produced the contrary
+result, and made a Timon of the fair Lucilla's happy husband?"
+
+"I ought rather to beware of letting you see the monster, or our joyous
+muse Balbilla might easily become the sinister Hecate. But the malicious
+sprite is close at hand, for he is hidden in this little roll."
+
+"A document from Caesar?"
+
+"Oh! no, only a letter from a Jew."
+
+"Possibly the father of some fair daughter!"
+
+"Wrongly guessed--as wrong as possible!"
+
+"You excite my curiosity."
+
+"Mine has already been satisfied by this roll. Horace is wise when he
+says that man should never trouble himself about the future."
+
+"An oracle!"
+
+"Something of the kind."
+
+"And can that darken this lovely morning to you? Did you ever see me
+melancholy? Yet my future is threatened by a prophecy--such a hideous
+prophecy."
+
+"The fate of men is different to the destiny of women."
+
+"Would you like to hear what was prophesied of me?"
+
+"What a question!"
+
+"Listen then; the saying I will repeat to you came to me from no less an
+oracle than the Delphic Pythia:
+
+    "'That which thou boldest most precious and dear
+     Shall be torn from thy keeping,
+     And from the heights of Olympus,
+     Down shalt thou fall in the dust.'"
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"Nay--two consolatory lines follow."
+
+"And they are--?"
+
+     "Still the contemplative eye
+     Discerns under mutable sand drifts
+     Stable foundations of stone,
+     Marble and natural rock."
+
+"And you are inclined to complain of this oracle?"
+
+"Is it so pleasant to have to wade through dust? We have enough of
+that intolerable nuisance here in Egypt--or am I to be delighted at the
+prospect of hurting my feet on hard stones?"
+
+"And what do the interpreters say?"
+
+"Only silly nonsense."
+
+"You have never found the right one; but I--I see the meaning of the
+oracle."
+
+"You?"
+
+"Ay, I! The stern Balbilla will at last descend from the lofty Olympus
+of her high-anti-mightiness and no longer disdain that immutable
+foundation-rock, the adoration of her faithful Verus."
+
+"That foundation--that rock!" laughed the girl. "I should think it as
+well advised to try to walk on the surface of the sea out there as on
+that rock!"
+
+"Only try."
+
+"It is not necessary; Lucilla has made the experiment for me. Your
+interpretation is wrong; Caesar gave me a far better one."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"That I should give up writing poetry and devote myself to strict
+scientific studies. He advised me to try astronomy."
+
+"Astronomy," repeated Verus, growing graver. "Farewell, fair one; I must
+go to Caesar!"
+
+"We were with him yesterday at Lochias. How everything is changed there!
+The pretty little gate house is gone, there is nothing more to be seen
+of all the cheerful bustle of builders and artists, and what were gay
+workshops are turned into dull, commonplace halls. The screens in
+the hall of the Muses had to go a week ago, and with them the young
+scatter-brain who set himself against my curls with so much energy that
+I was on the point of sacrificing them--"
+
+"Without them you would no longer be Balbilla," cried Verus eagerly.
+"The artist condemns all that is not permanently beautiful, but we are
+glad to see any thing that is graceful, and can find pleasure in it with
+the other children of the time. The sculptor may dress his goddesses
+after the fashion of graver days and the laws of his art, but mortal
+women--if he is wise--after the fashion of the day. However, I am
+heartily sorry for that clever, genial young fellow. He has offended
+Caesar and was turned out of the palace, and now he is nowhere to be
+found."
+
+"Oh!" cried Balbilla, full of regret, "poor man--and such a fine fellow!
+And my bust? we must seek him out. If the opportunity offers I will
+entreat Caesar--"
+
+"Hadrian will hear nothing about him. Pollux has offended him deeply."
+
+"From whom do you know that?"
+
+"From Antinous."
+
+"We saw him, too, only yesterday," cried Balbilla, eagerly.
+
+"If ever a man was permitted to wear the form of a god among mortals, it
+is he."
+
+"Romantic creature!"
+
+"I know no one who could look upon him with indifference. He is
+a beautiful dreamer, and the trace of suffering which we observed
+yesterday in his countenance is probably nothing more than the outward
+expression of that obscure regret, felt by all that is perfect, for the
+joy of development and conscious ripening into an incarnation of the
+ideal in its own kind, of which he is an instance in himself."
+
+The poetess spoke the last words in a rapt tone, as if the form of a
+god was then and there before her eyes. Verus had listened to her with a
+smile, but now he interrupted her, and, holding up a warning finger, he
+said:
+
+"Poetess, philosopher, and sweetest maiden, beware of descending from
+your Olympus for the sake of this boy! When imagination and dreaminess
+meet half-way they make a pair which float in the clouds and never
+even suspect the existence of that firmer ground of which your oracle
+speaks."
+
+"Nonsense," said Balbilla crossly. "Before we can fall in love with a
+statue, Prometheus must animate it with a soul and fire from heaven."
+
+"But often," retorted the praetor, "Eros proves to be a substitute for
+that unhappy friend of the gods."
+
+"The true or the sham Eros," asked Balbilla testily.
+
+"Certainly not the sham Eros," replied Verus. "On this occasion he
+merely plays the part of a kindly monitor, taking the place of Pontius,
+the architect, of whom your worthy matron-companion is so much afraid.
+During the tumult of the Dionysiac festival you are reported to have
+carried on as grave a discussion as any two gray-bearded philosophers
+walking in the Stoa among attentive students."
+
+"With intelligent men, no doubt, we talk with intelligence!"
+
+"Aye, and with stupid ones gayly. How much reason have I to be thankful
+that I am one of the stupid ones. Farewell, till we meet again, fair
+Balbilla," and the praetor hurried off.
+
+Outside the Caesareum he got into his chariot and set out for Lochias.
+The charioteer held the reins, while he himself gazed at the roll in his
+hand which contained the result of the calculations of the astrologer,
+Rabbi Simeon Ben Jochai; and this was certainly likely enough to disturb
+the cheerfulness of the most reckless of men.
+
+When, during the night which preceded the praetor's birthday, the
+Emperor should study the heavens with special reference to the position
+of the stars at his birth, he would find that, as far as till the end of
+the second hour after midnight all the favorable planets promised Verus
+a happy lot, success and distinction. But, with the commencement of
+the third hour--so said Ben Jochai--misfortune and death would take
+possession of his house of destiny; in the fourth hour his star would
+vanish, and anything further that might declare itself in the sky during
+that night would have nothing more to do with him, or his destiny. The
+Emperor's star would triumph over his. Verus could make out but little
+of the signs and calculations in the tables annexed by the Jew, but that
+little confirmed what was told in the written statement.
+
+The praetor's horses carried him swiftly along while he reflected on
+what remained for him to do under these unfavorable circumstances,
+in order not to be forced to give up entirely the highest goal of his
+ambition. If the Rabbi's observations were accurate--and of this Verus
+did not for a moment doubt--all his hopes of adoption were at an end
+in spite of Sabina's support. How should Hadrian choose for his son and
+successor a man who was destined to die before him? How could he, Verus,
+expect that Caesar should ally his fortunate star with the fatal star of
+another doomed to die?
+
+These reflections did nothing to help him, and yet he could not escape
+from them, till suddenly his charioteer pulled up the horses abruptly
+by the side of the footway to make room for a delegation of Egyptian
+priests who were going in procession to Lochias. The powerful hand
+with which his servant had promptly controlled the fiery spirit of the
+animals excited his approbation, and seemed to inspire him to put a clog
+boldly on the wheels of speeding fate. When they were no longer detained
+by the Egyptian delegates he desired the charioteer to drive slowly, for
+he wished to gain time for consideration.
+
+"Until the third hour after midnight," said he to himself, "all is to go
+well; it is not till the fourth hour that signs are to appear in the sky
+which are of evil augury for me. Of course the sheep will play round the
+dead lion, and the ass will even spurn him with his hoof so long as he
+is merely sick. In the short space of time between the third and fourth
+hours all the signs of evil are crowded together. They must be visible;
+but"--and this "but" brought sudden illumination to the praetor's mind,
+"why should Caesar see them?"
+
+The anxious aspirant's heart beat faster, his brain worked more
+actively, and he desired the driver to make a short circuit, for he
+wanted to gain yet more time for the ideas that were germinating in his
+mind to grow and ripen.
+
+Verus was no schemer; he walked in at the front door with a free
+and careless step, and scorned to climb the backstairs. Only for the
+greatest object and aim of his life was he prepared to sacrifice his
+inclinations, his comfort and his pride, and to make unhesitating use
+of every means at hand. For the sake of that he had already done many
+things which he regretted, and the man who steals one sheep out of the
+flock is followed by others without intending it. The first degrading
+action that a man commits is sure to be followed by a second and a
+third. What Verus was now projecting he regarded as being a simple act
+of self-defence; and after all, it consisted merely in detaining Hadrian
+for an hour, interrupting him in an idle occupation--the observation of
+the stars.
+
+There were two men who might be helpful to him in this matter--Antinous
+and the slave Mastor. He first thought of Mastor; but the Sarmatian
+was faithfully devoted to his master and could not be bribed. And
+besides!--No! it really was too far beneath him to make common cause
+with a slave. But he could count even less on support from Antinous.
+Sabina hated her husband's favorite, and for her sake Verus had never
+met the young Bithynian on particularly friendly terms. He fancied, too,
+that he had observed that the quiet, dreamy lad kept out of his way. It
+was only by intimidation, probably, that the favorite could be induced
+to do him a service.
+
+At any rate, the first thing to be done was to visit Lochias and there
+to keep a lookout with his eyes wide open. If the Emperor were in a
+happy frame of mind he might, perhaps, be induced to appear during the
+latter part of the night at the banquet which Verus was giving on the
+eve of his birthday, and at which all that was beautiful to the eye
+and ear was to be seen and heard; or a thousand favoring and helpful
+accidents might occur--and at any rate the Rabbi's forecast furnished
+him good fortune for the next few years.
+
+As he dismounted from his chariot in the newly-paved forecourt and was
+conducted to the Emperor's anteroom he looked as bright and free from
+care as if the future lay before him sunny and cloudless.
+
+Hadrian now occupied the restored palace, not as an architect from Rome
+but as sovereign of the world; he had shown himself to the Alexandrians
+and had been received with rejoicings and an unheard-of display in his
+honor. The satisfaction caused by the imperial visit was everywhere
+conspicuous and often found expression in exaggerated terms; indeed
+the council had passed a resolution to the effect that the month of
+December, being that in which the city had had the honor of welcoming
+the 'Imperator,' should henceforth be called:
+
+"Hadrianus." The Emperor had to receive one deputation after another
+and to hold audience after audience, and on the following morning the
+dramatic representations were to begin, the processions and games which
+promised to last through many days, or--as Hadrian himself expressed
+it--to rob him of at least a hundred good hours. Notwithstanding, the
+monarch found time to settle all the affairs of the state, and at night
+to question the stars as to the fate which awaited him and his dominions
+during all the seasons of the new year now so close at hand.
+
+The aspect of the palace at Lochias was entirely changed. In the place
+of the gay little gate-house stood a large tent of gorgeous purple
+stuff, in which the Emperor's body-guard was quartered, and opposite to
+it another was pitched for lictors and messengers. The stables were full
+of horses. Hadrian's own horse, Borysthenes, which had had too long a
+rest, pawed and stamped impatiently in a separate stall, and close at
+hand the Emperor's retrievers, boar-hounds and harriers were housed in
+hastily-contrived yards and kennels.
+
+In the wide space of the first court soldiers were encamped, and
+close under the walls squatted men and women--Egyptians, Greeks and
+Hebrews--who desired to offer petitions to the sovereign. Chariots drove
+in and out, litters came and went, chamberlains and other officials
+hurried hither and thither. The anterooms were crowded with men of the
+upper classes of the citizens who hoped to be granted audience by the
+Emperor at the proper hour. Slaves, who offered refreshments to those
+who waited or stood idly looking on, were to be seen in every room, and
+official persons, with rolls of manuscript under their arms, bustled
+into the inner rooms or out of the palace to carry into effect the
+orders of their superior.
+
+The hall of the Muses had been turned into a grand banqueting-hall.
+Papias, who was now on his way to Italy by the Emperor's command, had
+restored the damaged shoulder of the Urania. Couches and divans stood
+between the statues, and under a canopy at the upper end of the vast
+room stood a throne on which Hadrian sat when he held audience. On these
+occasions he always appeared in the purple, but in his writing-room,
+which he had not changed for another, he laid aside the imperial mantle
+and was no more splendid in his garb than the architect Claudius Venator
+had been.
+
+In the rooms that had belonged to the deceased Keraunus now dwelt an
+Egyptian without wife or children--a stern and prudent man who had
+done good service as house-steward to the prefect Titianus, and the
+living-room of the evicted family now looked dreary and uninhabited. The
+mosaic pavement which had indirectly caused the death of Keraunus, was
+now on its way to Rome, and the new steward had not thought it worth
+while to fill up the empty, dusty, broken-up place which had been left
+in the floor of his room by the removal of the work of art, nor even to
+cover it over with mats. Not a single cheerful note was audible in the
+abandoned dwelling but the twitter of the birds which still came morning
+and evening to perch on the balcony, for Arsinoe and the children had
+never neglected to strew the parapet with crumbs for them at the end of
+each meal.
+
+All that was gracious, all that was attractive in the old palace had
+vanished at Sabina's visit, and even Hadrian himself was a different
+man to what he had been a few days previously. The dignity with which he
+appeared in public was truly imperial and unapproachable, and even when
+he sat with his intimates in his favorite room he was grave, gloomy and
+taciturn. The oracle, the stars, and other signs announced some terrible
+catastrophe for the coming year with a certainty that he could not
+evade; and the few careless days that he had been permitted to enjoy at
+Lochias had ended with unsatisfactory occurrences.
+
+His wife, whose bitter nature struck him in all its repellent harshness
+here in Alexandria--where everything assumed sharper outlines and more
+accentuated movement than in Rome--had demanded of him boldly that he
+should no longer defer the adoption of the praetor.
+
+He was anxious and unsatisfied; the infinite void in his heart yawned
+before him whenever he looked into his soul, and at every glance at the
+future of his external life a long course of petty trifles started up
+before him which could not fail to stand in the way of his unwearying
+impulse to work. Even the vegetative existence of his handsome favorite
+Antinous, untroubled as it was by the sorrows or the joys of life, had
+undergone a change. The youth was often moody, restless and sad. Some
+foreign influences seemed to have affected him, for he was no longer
+content to hang about his person like a shadow; no, he yearned for
+liberty, had stolen into the city several times, seeking there the
+pleasures of his age which formerly he had avoided.
+
+Nay, a change had even come over his cheerful and willing slave Mastor.
+Only his hound remained always the same in unaltered fidelity.
+
+And he himself? He was the same to-day as ten years since: different
+every day and at every hour of the day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+When Verus entered the palace Hadrian had returned thither but a few
+minutes previously from the city. The praetor was conducted through the
+reception-rooms to the private apartments, and here he had not long to
+wait, for Hadrian wished to speak with him immediately. He found the
+sovereign so thoroughly out of tune that he could not think of inviting
+him to his banquet. The Emperor restlessly paced the room while Verus
+answered his questions as to the latest proceedings of the Senate in
+Rome, but he several times interrupted his walk and gazed into the
+adjoining room.
+
+Just as the praetor had concluded his report Argus set up a howl of
+delight and Antinous came into the room. Verus at once withdrew into the
+window and pretended to be absorbed in looking out on the harbor.
+
+"Where have you been?" asked the Emperor, disregarding the praetor's
+presence.
+
+"Into the city a little way," was the Bithynian's answer.
+
+"But you know I cannot bear to miss you when I come home."
+
+"I thought you would have been longer absent."
+
+"For the future arrange so that I may be able to find you at whatever
+time I may seek you. Tell me, you do not like to see me vexed and
+worried?"
+
+"No, my lord," said the lad and he raised a supplicating hand and looked
+beseechingly at his master.
+
+"Then let it pass. But now for something else; how did this little phial
+come into the hands of the dealer Hiram?" As he spoke the Emperor took
+from his table the little bottle of Vasa Murrhina which the lad had
+given to Arsinoe and which she had sold to the Phoenician, and held it
+up before the favorite's eyes. Antinous turned pale, and stammered
+in great confusion. "It is incomprehensible--I cannot in the least
+recollect--"
+
+"Then I will assist your memory," said the Emperor decidedly. "The
+Phoenician appears to me to be an honester man than that rogue Gabinius.
+In his collection, which I have just been to see, I found this gem, that
+Plotina--do you hear me, boy--that Trajan's wife Plotina, my heart's
+friend, never to be forgotten, gave me years ago. It was one of my
+dearest possessions and yet I thought it not too precious to give to you
+on your last birthday."
+
+"Oh, my lord, my dear lord!" cried Antinous in a low tone and again
+lifting his eyes and hands in entreaty.
+
+"Now, I ask you," continued Hadrian, gravely, and without allowing
+himself to yield to the lad's beseeching looks, "how could this object
+have passed into the possession of one of the daughters of the wretched
+palace-steward Keraunus from whom Hiram confessed that he had bought
+it?"
+
+Antinous vainly strove for utterance; Hadrian however came to his aid by
+asking him more angrily than before:
+
+"Did the girl steal it from you? Out with the truth!"
+
+"No, no," replied the Bithynian quickly and decidedly. "Certainly not.
+I remember--wait a minute--yes, that was it.--You know it contained
+excellent balsam, and when the big dog threw down Selene--the steward's
+daughter is called Selene--threw her down the steps so that she lay hurt
+on the stones I fetched the phial and gave her the balsam."
+
+"With the bottle that held it?" asked the Emperor looking at Antinous.
+
+"Yes, my lord--I had no other."
+
+"And she kept it and sold it at once."
+
+"You know, of course, her father--"
+
+"A gang of thieves!" snarled Hadrian.
+
+"Do you know what has become of the girl?"
+
+"Yes my lord," said Antinous trembling with alarm. "I will have her
+taken by the lictors," asserted the infuriated sovereign.
+
+"No," said the lad positively. "No, you positively must not do that."
+
+"No--? we shall see!"
+
+"No, positively not, for at the same time you must know that Keraunus'
+daughter Selene--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"She flung herself into the water in despair; yes, into the water, at
+night--into the sea."
+
+"Oh!" said Hadrian more gently, "that certainly alters the case. The
+lictors would find it difficult to apprehend a shade and the girl has
+suffered the worst punishment of all.--But you? what shall I say to your
+perfidy? You knew the value of the gem. You knew how highly I valued it,
+and could part with it to such hands?"
+
+"It contained the salve," stammered the boy. "How could I think--?"
+
+The Emperor interrupted the boy, striking his forehead with his hand as
+he spoke:
+
+"Aye, think--we have known unfortunately too long that thinking is not
+your strong point. This little bottle has cost me a pretty sum; still,
+as it once belonged to you I give it back to you again; I only require
+you to take better care of it this time. I shall ask for it again before
+long! But in the name of all the gods, boy, what is the matter? Am I so
+alarming that a simple question from me is enough to drive all the blood
+out of your cheeks? Really and truly, if I had not had the thing from
+Plotina I should have left it in the Phoenician's hands and not have
+made all this coil about it."
+
+Antinous went quickly up to the Emperor to kiss his hand, but Hadrian
+pressed his lips to his brow with fatherly affection.
+
+"Simpleton," he said, "if you want me to be pleased with you, you must
+be again just what you were before we came to Alexandria. Leave it to
+others to do things to vex me. You are created by the gods to delight
+me."
+
+During Hadrian's last words a chamberlain had entered the room to inform
+the Emperor that the deputation of the Egyptian priesthood had arrived
+to do homage to him. He immediately assumed the purple mantle and
+proceeded to the hall of the Muses where, surrounded by his court, he
+received the high-priests and spiritual fathers of the different temples
+of the Nile Valley, to be hailed by them as the Son of Sun-god, and to
+assure them and the religion they cherished his gracious countenance.
+He vouchsafed his consent to their prayer that he would add sanctity and
+happiness to the temples of the immortals which they served by gracing
+them with his presence, but set aside for the moment the question as
+to which town might be permitted to have the care of the
+recently-discovered Apis.
+
+This audience took up several hours. Verus shirked the duty of attending
+it with Titianus and the other dignitaries of the court, and remained
+sitting motionless by the window; it was not till Hadrian was gone from
+the room that he came forward into it again. He was quite alone, for
+Antinous had left the room with the Emperor. The praetor's remaining
+behind had not escaped the lad's notice, but he sought to avoid him, for
+the domineering, mocking spirit of Verus repelled him. Besides this the
+terror which he had gone through, as well as the consciousness that he
+had been guilty of a lie and had daringly deceived his kind master, had
+upset a soul hitherto untainted by any subterfuge and had thrown him
+off his balance. He longed to be alone, for it would have been keenly
+painful to him at this moment to discuss indifferent subjects, or to be
+forced to affect an easy demeanor. He sat in his little room, before a
+table, with his face buried in his hands that rested on it.
+
+Verus did not immediately follow him, for he understood what was passing
+in his mind and knew that here he could not escape him. In a few minutes
+all was still alike in the large room and in the small one. Then the
+praetor heard the door between the smaller room and the corridor hastily
+opened and immediately the Bithynian's exclamation:
+
+"At last, Mastor--have you seen Selene?"
+
+With two long, noiseless steps Verus went close to the door leading into
+the adjoining room, and listened for the slave's answer, though a less
+sharp ear than that of the praetor might have heard every syllable.
+
+"How should I have seen her?" asked the Sarmatian sharply. "She is still
+suffering and in bed. I gave your flowers to the deformed girl who takes
+care of her; but I will not do it again, you may rely upon it, not if
+you coax even more fondly than you did yesterday and promise me all
+Caesar's treasure into the bargain! And what can you want with that
+wretched, pale-faced, innocent creature? I am but a poor slave, but I
+can tell you this--"
+
+Here the Sarmatian broke off abruptly, and Verus rightly guessed that
+Antinous had remembered his presence in the Emperor's room and had
+signed to the slave to be silent.
+
+But the listener had learnt enough. The favorite had told his master a
+lie, and the suicide of the steward's daughter was a pure romance. Who
+would have believed that the silent, dreamy lad had so much presence of
+mind, and such cunning powers of invention? The praetor's handsome face
+was radiant with satisfaction as he made these reflections, for now he
+had the Bithynian under his thumb, and now he knew how to accomplish all
+he wished. Antinous himself had indicated the right course when he had
+hastened to the Emperor with a gush of tenderness, in which the warmth
+was certainly not affected, to kiss his hand.
+
+The favorite loved his master, and Verus could ground his demands on
+this love without exposing himself, or having to dread the Emperor's
+avenging hand in case of betrayal. He knocked at the door of the
+adjoining room with a firm hand, and then went confidently and
+composedly up to the Bithyman, told him that he had an important matter
+to discuss with him, begged him to return with him into the Emperor's
+room and then said, as soon as they were alone together:
+
+"I am so unfortunate as not to be able to number you among my particular
+friends; but one strong sentiment we have in common. We both love
+Caesar."
+
+"I love him, certainly," replied the lad.
+
+"Well then, you must have it at heart to spare him all great sorrow, and
+to prevent grave apprehensions from paralyzing the pinions of his free
+and noble soul."
+
+"No doubt."
+
+"I knew I should find a colleague in you. See this roll. It contains the
+calculations and diagrams of the greatest astrologer of our time, and
+from these it is to be discovered that this night, from the end of the
+second hour of the morning till the beginning of the fourth, the stars
+will announce fearful disasters to our Sovereign. Do you understand?"
+
+"Alas! perfectly."
+
+"After that the indications of evil disappear. Now if we could only
+succeed in preventing Hadrian observing the heavens merely during
+the third hour after midnight we should preserve him from trouble and
+anxiety, which will torment and spoil his life. Who knows whether the
+stars may not be? But even if they tell the truth, misfortune, when it
+does come, always comes much too soon. Do you agree with me?"
+
+"Your suggestion sounds a very sensible one--still I think--"
+
+"It is both sensible and wise," said the praetor, shortly and decidedly,
+interrupting the boy. "And it must be your part to hinder Hadrian
+from marking the course of the stars from the end of the second to the
+beginning of the fourth hour after midnight."
+
+"My part?" cried Antinous, startled.
+
+"Yours--for you are the only person who can accomplish it."
+
+"I?" repeated the Bithynian, greatly perturbed. "I--disturb Caesar in
+his observations!"
+
+"It is your duty."
+
+"But he never allows any one to disturb him at his studies, and if I
+were to attempt it he would be very angry and send me off in no time.
+No, no, what you ask is impossible."
+
+"It is not only possible but imperatively necessary."
+
+"That it certainly cannot be," replied Antinous, clasping his forehead
+in his hand. "Only listen! Hadrian has known for several days past that
+some great misfortune threatens him. I heard it from his own lips. If
+you know him at all you must know that he gazes at the stars not merely
+to rejoice in future happiness, but also to fortify himself against the
+disasters which threaten him or the state. What would crush a weaker man
+only serves to arm his bold spirit. He can bear all that may befall, and
+it would be a crime to deceive him."
+
+"To cloud his heart and mind would be a greater," retorted Verus.
+"Devise some means of taking him away from his star-gazing for only an
+hour."
+
+"I dare not, and even if I wished it, it could not be done. Do you
+suppose he follows me whenever I call?"
+
+"But you know him; invent something which will be sure to make him come
+down from his watchtower."
+
+"I cannot invent or think of any thing."
+
+"Nothing?" asked Verus, going close tip to the Bithynian. "You just now
+gave striking proof to the contrary."
+
+Antinous turned pale and the praetor went on:
+
+"When you wanted to rescue the fair Selene from the lictors your swift
+invention threw her into the sea!"
+
+"She did throw herself in, as truly as that the gods--"
+
+"Stay, stay," cried the praetor. "No perjury, at least! Selene is
+living, you send her flowers, and if I should think proper to conduct
+Hadrian to the house of Paulina--"
+
+"Oh!" cried Antinous lamentably enough, and grasping the Roman's hand.
+"You will not--you can not. Oh Verus! you will not do that."
+
+"Simpleton," laughed the praetor, slapping the alarmed youth lightly
+on the shoulder. "What good could it do me to ruin you? I have only
+one thing at heart just now, and that is to save Caesar from care and
+anxiety. Keep him occupied only during the third hour after midnight
+and you may count on my friendship; but if out of fear or ill-will you
+refuse me your assistance you do not deserve your sovereign's favor and
+then you will compel me--"
+
+"No more, no more!" cried Antinous interrupting his tormentor in
+despair.
+
+"Then you promise me to carry out my wish?"
+
+"Yes, by Hercules! Yes, what you require shall be done. But eternal
+gods! how am I to get Caesar--"
+
+"That, my young friend, I leave with perfect confidence to you and your
+shrewdness."
+
+"I am not shrewd--I can devise nothing," groaned the lad.
+
+"What you could do out of terror of your master you can do still better
+for love of him," retorted the praetor. "The problem is an easy one; and
+if after all you should not succeed I shall feel it no less than my
+duty to explain to Hadrian how well Antinous can take care of his own
+interests and how badly of his master's peace of mind. Till to-morrow,
+my handsome friend--and if for the future you have flowers to send, my
+slaves are quite at your service."
+
+With these words the praetor left the room, but Antinous stood like
+one crushed, pressing his brow against the cold porphyry pillar by the
+window. What Verus required of him did not seem to have any harm in it,
+and yet it was not right. It was treason to his noble master, whom
+he loved with tender devotion as a father, a wise, kind friend, and
+preceptor, and whom he reverenced and feared as though he were a god. To
+plot to hide impending trouble from him, as if he were not a man but
+a feeble weakling, was absurd and contemptible, and must introduce an
+error of unknown importance and extent into his sovereign's far-seeing
+predeterminations. Many other reasons against the praetor's demands
+crowded on him, and as each occurred to his mind he cursed his tardy
+spirit which never let him see or think the right thing till it was too
+late. His first deceit had already involved him in a second.
+
+He hated himself; he hit his forehead with his fists and sobbed aloud
+bitterly again and again, though he shed no tears. Still, in the midst
+of his self-accusation, the flattering voice made itself heard in his
+soul: "It is only to preserve your master from sorrow, and it is nothing
+wrong that you are asked to do." And each time that his inward ear heard
+these words he began to puzzle his brain to discover in what way it
+might be possible for him to tempt the Emperor, at the hour named, down
+from his watch-tower in the palace. But he could hit on no practicable
+plan.
+
+"It cannot be done, no--it cannot be done!" he muttered to himself and
+then he asked himself if it were not even his duty to defy the praetor
+and to confess to Hadrian that he had deceived him in the morning. If
+only it had not been for the little bottle! Could he ever confess that
+he had heedlessly parted with this gift of all others from his master?
+No, it was too hard, it might cost him his sovereign's affection for
+ever. And if he contented himself with a half-truth and confessed,
+merely to anticipate the praetor's accusation, that Selene was still
+living, then he would involve the daughters of the hapless Keraunus in
+persecution and disgrace Selene whom he loved with all the devotion of
+a first passion, which was enhanced and increased by the hindrances
+that had come in its way. It was impossible to confess his guilt-quite
+impossible. The longer he thought, tormenting himself to find some way
+out of it all, the more confused he became, and the more impotent his
+efforts at resistance. The praetor had entangled him with thongs and
+meshes, and at every struggle to escape they only seemed knotted more
+closely round him.
+
+His head began to ache sadly; and what an endless time Caesar was
+absent! He dreaded his return, and yet he longed for it. When at last
+Hadrian came in and signed to Master to relieve him of his imperial
+robes, Antinous slipped behind him, and silently and carefully fulfilled
+the slave's office. He felt uneasy and worried, and yet he forced
+himself to appear in good spirits during supper when he had to sit
+opposite the Emperor.
+
+When, shortly before midnight, Hadrian rose from the table to go up to
+the watch-tower on the northern side of the palace, Antinous begged to
+be allowed to carry his instruments for him, and the Emperor, stroking
+his hair, said kindly:
+
+"You are my dear and faithful companion. Youth has a right to go astray
+now and then so long as it does not entirely forget the path in which it
+ought to tread."
+
+Antinous was deeply touched by these words, and he secretly pressed to
+his lips a fold of the Emperor's toga as he walked in front. It was as
+though he wanted to make amends in advance for the crime he had not yet
+committed.
+
+Wrapped in his cloak he kept the Emperor silent company during his
+studies, till the close of the first hour after midnight. The sharp,
+north wind which blew through the darkness did his aching head good, and
+still he racked his wits for some pretext to attract Hadrian from his
+labors, but in vain. His tormented brain was like a dried-up well;
+bucket after bucket did he send down, but not one brought up the
+refreshing draught he needed. Nothing--nothing could he think of
+that could conduce to his end. Once he plucked up courage and said
+imploringly as he went close up to the Emperor: "Go down earlier
+to-night my lord; you really do not allow yourself enough rest and will
+injure your health."
+
+Hadrian let him speak, and answered kindly:
+
+"I sleep in the morning. If you are tired, go to bed now."
+
+But Antinous remained, gazing, like his master, at the stars. He knew
+very few of the brilliant bodies by their names, but some of them were
+very dear to him, particularly the Pleiades which his father had pointed
+out to him and which reminded him of his home. There he had been so
+quiet and happy, and how wildly his anxious heart was throbbing now!
+
+"Go to bed, the second hour is beginning," said Hadrian.
+
+"Already!" said the boy; and as he reflected how soon that must be
+done which Verus had required of him, and then looked up again at the
+heavens, it seemed to him as though all the stars in the blue vault
+over his head had glided from their places and were dancing in wild and
+whirling confusion between the sky and the sea. He closed his eyes in
+his bewilderment; then, bidding his master good-night he lighted a torch
+and by its flaring and doubtful light descended from the tower.
+
+Pontius had erected this slight structure expressly for Hadrian's
+nightly observations. It was built of timber and Nile-mud and stood
+up as a tall turret on the secure foundation of an ancient watch-tower
+built of hewn stone, which, standing among the low buildings that served
+as storehouses for the palace, commanded a free outlook over all the
+quarters of the sky. Hadrian, who liked to be alone and undisturbed when
+observing the heavens, had preferred this erection--even after he had
+made himself known to the Alexandrians--to the great observatory of the
+Serapeum, from which a still broader horizon was visible.
+
+After Antinous had got out of the smaller and newer tower into the
+larger and older one he sat down on one of the lowest steps to collect
+his thoughts and to quiet his loudly-beating heart. His vain cogitations
+began all over again. Time slipped on-between the present moment and
+the deed to be done there were but a certain number of minutes. He told
+himself so, and his weary brain stirred more actively, suggesting to him
+to feign illness and bring the Emperor to his bedside. But Hadrian was
+physician enough to see that he was well, and even if he should allow
+himself to be deceived, he, Antinous, was a deceiver. This thought
+filled him with horror of himself and with dread for the future, and
+yet it was the only plan that gave any hope of success. And even when he
+sprang to his feet and walked hastily up and down among the out-houses
+he could hit upon no other scheme. And how fast the minutes flew!
+The third hour after midnight must be quite close at hand, and he had
+scarcely left himself time to rush back into the palace, throw himself
+on his couch, and call Mastor. Quite bewildered with agitation and
+tottering like a drunken man he hastened back into the old tower where
+he had left his torch leaning against the wall and looked up the stone
+stairs; it suddenly flashed through his mind that he might go up again
+to fling himself down them. What did he care for his miserable life.
+
+His fall, his cry, would bring the Emperor down from his observatory and
+he knew that he would not leave his bleeding favorite uncared for and
+untended he could count upon that. And if then Hadrian watched by his
+bed it would be that, perhaps, of a dying man, but not of a deceiver.
+Fully determined on extreme measures, he tightened the girdle which held
+his chiton above his hips and once more went out into the night to judge
+by the stars what hour it was. He saw the slender sickle of the waning
+moon-the same moon which at the full had been mirrored in the sea when
+he had gone into the water to save Selene. The image of the pale girl
+rose before him, tangibly distinct. He felt as if he held her once more
+in his arms--saw her once more lying on her bed-could once more press
+his lips to her cold brow. Then the vision vanished; instead he was
+possessed by a wild desire to see her, and he said to himself that he
+could not die without having seen her once more.
+
+He looked about him in indecision. Before him lay one of the largest of
+the storehouses that surrounded the tower. With his torch in one hand
+he went in at the open door. In the large shed lay the chests and cases,
+the hemp, linseed, straw and matting that had been used in packing the
+vessels and works of art with which the palace had been newly furnished.
+This he knew; and now, looking up at the stars once more and seeing
+that the second hour after midnight had almost run to an end, a fearful
+thought flashed through his mind, and without daring to consider, he
+flung the torch into the open shed, crammed to the roof with inflammable
+materials, and stood motionless, with his arms crossed, to watch through
+the door of the shed the rapidly spreading flame, the soaring smoke, the
+struggle and mingling of the noiseless wreaths of black vapor from the
+various combustibles with the ruddy light, the victory of the fire and
+the leaping flames as they flew upward.
+
+The roof, thatched with palm-leaves and reeds, had begun to crackle
+when Antinous rushed into the tower only a few paces off crying:
+"Fire--fire!" and up the stairs which led to the observatory of the
+imperial stargazer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+The entertainment which Verus was giving on the eve of his birthday
+seemed to be far from drawing to an end, even at the beginning of the
+third hour of the morning. Besides the illustrious and learned Romans
+who had accompanied the Emperor to Alexandria, the most famous and
+distinguished Alexandrians had also been invited by the praetor. The
+splendid banquet had long been ended, but jar after jar of mixed wine
+was still being filled and emptied. Verus himself had been unanimously
+chosen as the king and leader of the feast. Crowned with a rich garland,
+he reclined on a couch strewn with rose-leaves, an invention of his
+own, and formed of four cushions piled one on another. A curtain of
+transparent gauze screened him from flies and gnats, and a tightly-woven
+mat of lilies and other flowers covered his feet and exhaled sweet odors
+for him and for the pretty singer who sat by his side.
+
+Pretty boys dressed as little cupids watched every sign of the 'sham
+Eros.'
+
+How indolently he lay on the deep, soft cushions! And yet his eyes were
+every where, and though he had not failed to give due consideration to
+the preparations for his feast, he devoted all the powers of his mind to
+the present management of it. As at the entertainments which Hadrian
+was accustomed to give in Rome, first of all short selections from new
+essays or poems were recited by their authors, then a gay comedy was
+performed; then Glycera, the most famous singer in the city, had sung a
+dithyramb to her harp, in a voice as sweet as a bell, and Alexander, a
+skilled performer on the trigonon, had executed a piece. Finally a
+troop of female dancers had rushed into the room and swayed and balanced
+themselves to the music of the double-flute and tambourine.
+
+Each fresh amusement had been more loudly applauded than the last. With
+every jar of wine a new torrent of merriment went up through the opening
+in the roof, by which the scent of the flowers and of the perfume burnt
+on beautiful little altars found an exit into the open air. The wine
+offered in libations to the gods already lay in broad pools upon the
+hard pavement of the hall, the music and singing were drowned in shouts
+the feast had become an orgy.
+
+Verus was inciting the more quiet or slothful of his guests to a freer
+enjoyment and encouraging the noisiest in their extravagant recklessness
+to still more unbridled license. At the same time he bowed to each one
+who drank to his health, entertained the singer who sat by his side,
+flung a sparkling jest into one and another silent group, and proved to
+the learned men who reclined on their couches near to his that whenever
+it was possible he took an interest in their discussions. Alexandria,
+the focus of all the learning of the East and the West, had seen other
+festivals than this riotous banquet. Indeed, even here a vein of grave
+and wise discourse flavored the meal of the circle that belonged to the
+Museum; but the senseless revelry of Rome had found its way into the
+houses of the rich, and even the noblest achievements of the human mind
+had been made, unawares, subservient to mere enjoyment. A man was a
+philosopher only that he might be prompt to discuss and always ready to
+take his share in the talk; and at a banquet a well-told anecdote
+was more heartily welcome than some profound idea that gave rise to a
+reflection or provoked a subtle discussion.
+
+What a noise, what a clatter was storming in the hall by the second
+hour after midnight! How the lungs of the feasters were choked with
+overpowering perfumes! What repulsive exhibitions met the eye! How
+shamelessly was all decency trodden under foot! The poisonous breath of
+unchecked license had blasted the noble moderation of the vapor of wine
+which floated round this chaos of riotous topers slowly rose the pale
+image of Satiety watching for victims on the morrow.
+
+The circle of couches on which lay Florus, Favorinus and their
+Alexandrian friends stood like an island in the midst of the surging sea
+of the orgy. Even here the cup had been bravely passed round, and Florus
+was beginning to speak somewhat indistinctly, but conversation had
+hitherto had the upper hand.
+
+Two days before, the Emperor had visited the Museum and had carried on
+learned discussions with the most prominent of the sages and professors
+there, in the presence of their assembled disciples. At last a formal
+disputation had arisen, and the dialectic keenness and precision with
+which Hadrian, in the purest Attic Greek, had succeeded in driving
+his opponents into a corner had excited the greatest admiration. The
+Sovereign had quitted the famous institution with a promise to reopen
+the contest at an early date. The philosophers, Pancrates and Dionysius
+and Apollonius, who took no wine at all, were giving a detailed account
+of the different phases of this remarkable disputation and praising the
+admirable memory and the ready tongue of the great monarch.
+
+"And you did not even see him at his best," exclaimed Favorinus, the
+Gaul, the sophist and rhetorician. "He has received an unfavorable
+oracle and the stars seem to confirm the prophecy. This puts him out
+of tune. Between ourselves let me tell you I know a few who are
+his superiors in dialectic, but in his happiest moments he is
+irresistible-irresistible. Since we made up our quarrel he is like a
+brother to me. I will defend him against all comers, for, as I say,
+Hadrian is my brother."
+
+The Gaul had poured out this speech in a defiant tone and with flashing
+eyes. He grew pale in his cups, touchy, boastful and very talkative.
+
+"No doubt you are right," replied Apollonius, "but it seemed to us that
+he was bitter in discussion. His eyes are gloomy rather than gay."
+
+"He is my brother," repeated Favorinus, "and as for his eyes, I have
+seen them flash--by Hercules! like the radiant sun, or merry twinkling
+stars! And his mouth! I know him well! He is my brother, and I will
+wager that while he condescended--it is too comical--condescended to
+dispute with you--with you, there was a sly smile at each corner of his
+mouth--so--look now--like this he smiled."
+
+"I repeat, he seemed to us gloomy rather than gay," retorted Apollonius,
+with annoyance; and Pancrates added:
+
+"If he does really know how to jest he certainly did not prove it to
+us."
+
+"Not out of ill-will," laughed the Gaul, "you do not know him, but I--I
+am his friend and may follow wherever--he goes. Now only wait and I will
+tell you a few stories about him. If I chose I could describe his whole
+soul to you as if it lay there on the surface of the wine in my cup.
+Once in Rome he went to inspect the newly-decorated baths of Agrippa,
+and in the undressing-room he saw an old man, a veteran who had fought
+with him somewhere or other. My memory is greatly admired, but his is in
+no respect inferior. Scaurus was the old man's name--yes--yes, Scaurus.
+He did not observe Caesar at first, for after his bath his wounds were
+burning and he was rubbing his back against the rough stone of a pillar.
+Hadrian however called to him: 'Why are you scratching yourself, my
+friend?' and Scaurus, not at once recognizing Caesar's voice, answered
+without turning round: 'Because I have no slave to do it for me.'
+You should have heard Caesar laugh! Liberal as he is sometimes--I
+say sometimes--he gave Scaurus a handsome sum of money and two sturdy
+slaves. The story soon got abroad, and when Caesar, who--as you
+believe--cannot jest, a short time after again visited the bath, two
+old soldiers at once placed themselves in his way, scrubbed their backs
+against the wall like Scaurus, and called out to him 'Great Caesar,
+we have no slaves.'--'Then scratch each other,' cried he, and left the
+soldiers to rub themselves."
+
+"Capital!" laughed Dionysius. "Now one more true story," interrupted the
+loquacious Gaul. "Once upon a time a man with white hair begged of him.
+The wretch was a low fellow, a parasite who wandered round from one
+man's table to another, feeding himself out of other folks' wallets and
+dishes. Caesar knew his man and warned him off. Then the creature had
+his hair dyed that he might not be recognized, and tried his luck a
+second time with the Emperor. But Hadrian has good eyes; he pointed to
+the door, saying, with the gravest face: 'I have just lately refused to
+give your father anything.' And a hundred such jokes pass from mouth to
+mouth in Rome, and if you like I can give you a dozen of the best."
+
+"Tell us, go on, out with your stories. They are all old friends!"
+stammered Florus. "But while Favorinus chatters we can drink."
+
+The Gaul cast a contemptuous glance at the Roman, and answered promptly:
+
+"My stories are too good for a drunken man."
+
+Florus paused to think of an answer, but before he could find one, the
+praetor's body-slave rushed into the hall crying out: "The palace at
+Lochias is on fire."
+
+Verus kicked the mat of lilies off his feet on to the floor, tore down
+the net that screened him in, and shouted to the breathless runner.
+
+"My chariot-quick, my chariot! To our next merry meeting another evening
+my friends, with many thanks for the honor you have done me. I must be
+off to Lochias."
+
+Verus flew out of the hall, without throwing on his cloak and hot as he
+was, into the cold night, and at the same time most of his guests had
+started up to hurry into the open air, to see the fire and to hear the
+latest news; but only very few went to the scene of the conflagration
+to help the citizens to extinguish it, and many heavily intoxicated
+drinkers remained lying on the couches.
+
+As Favorinus and the Alexandrians raised themselves on their pillows
+Florus cried:
+
+"No god shall make me stir from this place, not if the whole house is
+burnt down and Alexandria and Rome, and for aught I care every nest
+and nook on the face of the earth. It may all burn together. The Roman
+Empire can never be greater or more splendid than under Caesar! It may
+burn down like a heap of straw, it is all the same to me--I shall lie
+here and drink."
+
+The turmoil and confusion on the scene of the interrupted feast seemed
+inextricable, while Verus hurried off to Sabina to inform her of what
+had occurred. But Balbilla had been the first to discover the fire and
+quite at the beginning, for after sitting industriously at her studies,
+and before going to bed, she had looked out toward the sea. She had
+instantly run out, cried "Fire!" and was now seeking for a chamberlain
+to awake Sabina.
+
+The whole of Lochias flared and shone in a purple and golden glow. It
+formed the nucleus of a wide spreading radiance of tender red of which
+the extent and intensity alternately grew and diminished. Verus met
+the poetess at the door that led from the garden into the Empress'
+apartments. He omitted on this occasion to offer his customary greeting,
+but hastily asked her:
+
+"Has Sabina been told?"
+
+"I think not yet."
+
+"Then have her called. Greet her from me--I must go to Lochias"
+
+"We will follow you."
+
+"No, stay here; you will be in the way there."
+
+"I do not take much room and I shall go. What a magnificent spectacle."
+
+"Eternal gods! the flames are breaking out too below the palace, by the
+King's harbor. Where can the chariots be?"
+
+"Take me with you."
+
+"No you must wake the Empress."
+
+"And Lucilla?"
+
+"You women must stay where you are."
+
+"For my part I certainly will not. Caesar will be in no danger?"
+
+"Hardly--the old stones cannot burn."
+
+"Only look! how splendid! the sky is one crimson tent. I entreat you,
+Verus, let me go with you."
+
+"No, no, pretty one. Men are wanted down there."
+
+"How unkind you are."
+
+"At last! here are the chariots! You women stay here; do you understand
+me?"
+
+"I will not take any orders; I shall go to Lochias."
+
+"To see Antinous in the flames! such a sight is not to be seen every
+day, to be sure!" cried Verus, ironically, as he sprang into his
+chariot, and took the reins into his own hand.
+
+Balbilla stamped with rage.
+
+She went to Sabina's rooms fully resolved to go to the scene of the
+fire. The Empress would not let herself be seen by any one, not even by
+Balbilla, till she was completely dressed. A waiting-woman told Balbilla
+that Sabina would get up certainly, but that for the sake of her health
+she could not venture out in the night-air.
+
+The poetess then sought Lucilla and begged her to accompany her to
+Lochias; she was perfectly willing and ready, but when she heard that
+her husband had wished that the women should remain at the Caesareum she
+declared that she owed him obedience and tried to keep back her friend.
+But the perverse curly-haired girl was fully determined, precisely
+because Verus had forbidden her--and forbidden her with mocking words,
+to carry out her purpose. After a short altercation with Lucilla she
+left her, sought her companion Claudia, told her what she intended
+doing, dismissed that lady's remonstrance with a very positive command,
+gave orders herself to the house-steward to have horses put to a chariot
+and reached the imperilled palace an hour and a half after Verus.
+
+An endless, many-headed crowd of people besieged the narrow end of
+Lochias on the landward side and the harbor wharves below, where some
+stores and shipyards were in flames. Boats innumerable were crowded
+round the little peninsula. An attempt was being made, with much
+shouting, and by the combined exertions of an immense number of men, to
+get the larger ships afloat which lay at anchor close to the quay of the
+King's harbor and to place them in security. Every thing far and wide
+was lighted up as brightly as by day, but with a ruddier and more
+restless light. The north-east breeze fanned the fire, aggravating the
+labors of the men who were endeavoring to extinguish it and snatching
+flakes of flame off every burning mass. Each blazing storehouse was a
+gigantic torch throwing a broad glare into the darkness of the night.
+The white marble of the tallest beacon tower in the world, on the island
+of Pharos, reflected a rosy hue, but its far gleaming light shone pale
+and colorless. The dark hulls of the larger ships and the flotilla of
+boats in the background were afloat in a fiery sea, and the still water
+under the shore mirrored the illumination in which the whole of Lochias
+was wrapped.
+
+Balbilla could not tire of admiring this varying scene, in which
+the most gorgeous hues vied with each other and the intensest light
+contrasted with the deepest shadows. And she had ample time to dwell
+on the marvellous picture before her eyes, for her chariot could only
+proceed slowly, and at a point where the street led up from the King's
+harbor to the palace, lictors stood in her way and declared positively
+that any farther advance was out of the question. The horses, much
+scared by the glare of the fire and the crowd that pressed round them,
+could hardly be controlled, first rearing and then kicking at the front
+board of the chariot. The charioteer declared he could no longer be
+answerable. The people who had hurried to the rescue now began to abuse
+the women, who ought to have staid at home at the loom rather than come
+stopping the way for useful citizens.
+
+"There is time enough to go out driving by daylight!" cried one man;
+and another: "If a spark falls in those curls another conflagration will
+break out."
+
+The position of the ladies was becoming every instant more unendurable
+and Balbilla desired the charioteer to turn round; but in the swarming
+mass of men that filled the street this was easier said than done. One
+of the horses broke the strap which fastened the yoke that rested on his
+withers to the pole, started aside and forced back the crowd which now
+began to scold and scream loudly. Balbilla wanted to spring out of the
+chariot, but Claudia clung tightly to her and conjured her not to leave
+her in the lurch in the midst of the danger. The spoilt patrician's
+daughter was not timid, but on this occasion she would have given
+much not to have followed Verus. At first she thought, "A delightful
+adventure! still, it will not be perfect till it is over." But presently
+her bold experiment lost every trace of charm, and repentance that she
+had ever undertaken it filled her mind. She was far nearer weeping than
+laughing already, when a man's deep voice said behind her, in tones of
+commanding decision:
+
+"Make way there for the pumps; push aside whatever stops the way."
+
+These terrible words reduced Claudia to sinking on to her knees, but
+Balbilla's quelled courage found fresh wings as she heard them, for
+she had recognized the voice of Pontius. Now he was close behind the
+chariot, high on a horse. He then was the man on horseback whom she had
+seen dashing from the sea-shore up to the higher storehouses that were
+burning, down to the lake, and hither and thither.
+
+She turned full upon him and called him by his name. He recognized her,
+tried to pull up his horse as it was dashing forward, and smilingly
+shook his head at her, as much as to say: "She is a giddy creature and
+deserves a good scolding; but who could be angry with her?" And then
+he gave his orders to his subordinates just as if she had been a mere
+chattel, a bale of goods or something of the kind, and not an heiress of
+distinction.
+
+"Take out the horses," he cried to the municipal guards; "we can use
+them for carrying water."--"Help the ladies out of the chariot."--"Take
+them between you Nonnus and Lucanus."--"Now, stow the chariot in there
+among the bushes."--"Make way there in front, make way for our pumps."
+And each of these orders was obeyed as promptly as if it was the word of
+command given by a general to his well-drilled soldiers.
+
+After the pumps had been fairly started Pontius rode close up to
+Balbilla and said:
+
+"Caesar is safe and sound. You no doubt wished to see the progress of
+the fire from a spot near it, and in fact the colors down there are
+magnificent. I have not time to escort you back to the Caesareum; but
+follow me. You will be safe in the harbor-guard's stone house, and from
+the roof you can command a view of Lochias and the whole peninsula. You
+will have a rare feast for the eye, noble Balbilla; but I beg you not
+to forget at the same time how many days of honest labor, what rich
+possessions, how many treasures earned by bitter hardship are being
+destroyed at this moment. What may delight you will cost bitter tears
+to many others, and so let us both hope that this splendid spectacle may
+now have reached its climax, and soon may come to an end."
+
+"I hope so--I hope it with all my heart!" cried the girl.
+
+"I was sure you would. As soon as possible I will come to look
+after you. You Nonnus and Lucanus, conduct these noble ladies to the
+harbor-guard's house.
+
+"Tell him they are intimate friends of the Empress. Only keep the pumps
+going! Till we meet again Balbilla!" and with these words the architect
+gave his horse the bridle and made his way through the crowd.
+
+A quarter of an hour later Balbilla was standing on the roof of the
+little stone guard-house. Claudia was utterly exhausted and incapable of
+speech. She sat in the dark little parlor below on a rough-hewn wooden
+bench. But the young Roman now gazed at the fire with different eyes
+than before. Pontius had made her feel a foe to the flames which only a
+short time before had filled her with delight as they soared up to the
+sky, wild and fierce. They still flared up violently, as though they
+had to climb above the roof; but soon they seemed to be quelled and
+exhausted, to find it more and more difficult to rise above the black
+smoke which welled up from the burning mass. Balbilla had looked out
+for the architect and had soon discovered him, for the man on horseback
+towered above the crowd. He halted now by one and now by another burning
+storehouse. Once she lost sight of him for a whole hour, for he had
+gone to Lochias. Then again he reappeared, and wherever he stayed for a
+while, the raging element abated its fury.
+
+Without her having perceived it, the wind had changed and the air had
+become still and much warmer. This circumstance favored the efforts of
+the citizens trying to extinguish the fire, but Balbilla ascribed it
+to the foresight of her clever friend when the flames subsided in souse
+places and in others were altogether extinguished. Once she saw that he
+had a building completely torn down which divided a burning granary
+from some other storehouses that had been spared, and she understood
+the object of this order; it cut off the progress of the flames. Another
+time she saw him high on the top of a rise in the ground. Close before
+him in a sheet of flame was a magazine in which were kept tow and casks
+of resin and pitch. He turned his face full towards it and gave his
+orders, now on this side, now on that. His figure and that of his horse,
+which reared uneasily beneath him, were flooded in a crimson glow--a
+splendid picture! She trembled for him, she gazed in admiration at this
+calm, resolute, energetic man, and when a blazing beam fell close in
+front of him and after his frightened horse had danced round and
+round with him, he forced it to submit to his guidance, the praetor's
+insinuation recurred to her mind, that she clung to her determination
+to go to Lochias because she hoped to enjoy the spectacle of Antinous in
+the flames. Here, before her, was a nobler display, and yet her lively
+imagination which often, sometimes indeed against her will, gave shape
+to her formless thoughts--called up the image of the beautiful youth
+surrounded by the glowing glory which still painted the horizon.
+
+Hour after hour slipped by; the efforts of the thousands who endeavored
+to extinguish the blaze were crowned by increasing success; one burning
+mass after another was quenched, if not extinguished, and instead
+of flames smoke, mingled with sparks, rose from Lochias blacker and
+blacker-and still Pontius came not to look after her. She could not see
+any stars for the sky was overcast with clouds, but the beginning of a
+new day could not be far distant. She was shivering with cold, and her
+friend's long absence began to annoy her. When, presently, it began to
+rain in large drops, she went down the ladder that led from the roof
+and sat down by the fire in the little room where her companion had gone
+fast asleep.
+
+She had been sitting quite half an hour and gazing dreamily into the
+warming glow, when she heard the sound of hoofs and Pontius appeared.
+His face was begrimed, and his voice hoarse with shouting commands for
+hours. As soon as she saw him Balbilla forgot her vexation, greeted him
+warmly, and told him how she had watched his every movement; but the
+eager girl, so readily fired to enthusiasm, could only with the greatest
+difficulty bring out a few words to express the admiration that his mode
+of proceeding had so deeply excited in her mind.
+
+She heard him say that his mouth was quite parched and his throat was
+longing for a draught of some drink, and she--who usually had every pin
+she needed handed to her by a slave, and on whom fate had bestowed no
+living creature whom she could find a pleasure in serving--she, with her
+own hand dipped a cup of water out of the large clay jar that stood in
+a corner of the room and offered it to him with a request that he would
+drink it. He eagerly swallowed the refreshing fluid, and when the little
+cup was empty Balbilla took it from his hand, refilled it, and gave it
+him again.
+
+Claudia, who woke up when the architect came in, looked on at her
+foster-child's unheard-of proceedings with astonishment, shaking her
+head. When Pontius had drained the third cupful that Balbilla fetched
+for him he exclaimed, drawing a deep breath:
+
+"That was a drink--I never tasted a better in the whole course of my
+life."
+
+"Muddy water out of a nasty earthen pitcher!" answered the girl.
+
+"And it tasted better than wine from Byblos out of a golden goblet."
+
+"You had honestly earned the refreshment, and thirst gives flavor to the
+humblest liquor."
+
+"You forget the hand that gave it me," replied the architect warmly.
+
+Balbilla colored and looked at the floor in confusion, but presently
+raised her face and said, as gayly and carelessly as ever:
+
+"So that you have been deliciously refreshed; and now that is done you
+will go home and the poor thirsty soul will once more become the great
+architect. But before that happens, pray inform us what god it was that
+brought you hither from Pelusium in the very nick of time when the fire
+broke out, and how matters look now in the palace at Lochias?"
+
+"My time is short," replied Pontius, and he then rapidly told her
+that, after he had finished his work at Pelusium, he had returned to
+Alexandria with the imperial post. As he got out of the chariot at
+the post-house he observed the reflection of fire over the sea and
+was immediately after told by a slave that it was the palace that was
+burning. There were horses in plenty at the post-house; he had chosen a
+strong one and had got to the spot before the crowd had collected. How
+the fire had originated, so far remained undiscovered. "Caesar," he
+said, "was in the act of observing the heavens when a flame broke out
+in a store-shed close to the tower. Antinous was the first to detect
+it, cried 'Fire,' and warned his master. I found Hadrian in the greatest
+agitation; he charged me to superintend the work of rescuing all that
+could be saved. At Lochias. Verus helped me greatly and indeed with so
+much boldness and judgment that I owe very much to him. Caesar himself
+kept his favorite within the palace, for the poor fellow burned both his
+hands."
+
+"Oh!" cried Balbilla with eager regret. "How did that happen?"
+
+"When Hadrian and Antinous first came down from the tower they brought
+with them as many of the instruments and manuscripts as they could
+carry. When they were at the bottom Caesar observed that a tablet with
+important calculations had been left lying up above and expressed his
+regret. Meanwhile the fire had already caught the slightly-built turret
+and it seemed impossible to get into it again. But the dreamy Bithynian
+can wake out of his slumbers it would seem, and while Caesar was
+anxiously watching the burning bundles of flax which the wind kept
+blowing across to the harbor the rash boy rushed into the burning
+building, flung the tablet down from the top of the tower and then
+hurried down the stairs. His bold action would indeed have cost the poor
+fellow his life if the slave Mastor; who meanwhile had hurried to the
+spot, had not dragged him down the stone stair of the old tower on
+which the new one stood and carried him into the open air. He was half
+suffocated at the top of them and had dropped down senseless."
+
+"But he is alive, the splendid boy, the image of the gods! and he is out
+of danger?" cried Balbilla, with much anxiety.
+
+"He is quite well; only his hands, as I said, are somewhat burnt, and
+his hair is singed, but that will grow again."
+
+"His soft, lovely curls!" cried Balbilla. "Let us go home, Claudia. The
+gardener shall cut a magnificent bunch of roses, and we will send it to
+Antinous to please him."
+
+"Flowers to a man who does not care about them?" asked Pontius, gravely.
+
+"With what else can women reward men's virtues or do honor to their
+beauty?" asked Balbilla.
+
+"Our own conscience is the reward of our honest actions, or the laurel
+wreath from the hand of some famous man."
+
+"And beauty?"
+
+"That of women claims and wins admiration, love too perhaps and
+flowers-that of men may rejoice the eye, but to do it Honor is a task
+granted to no mortal woman."
+
+"To whom, then, if I may ask the question?"
+
+"To Art, which makes it immortal."
+
+"But the roses may bring some comfort and pleasure to the suffering
+youth."
+
+"Then send them-but to the sick boy, and not to the handsome man,"
+retorted Pontius.
+
+Balbilla was silent, and she and her companion followed the architect
+to the harbor. There he parted from them, putting them into a boat which
+took them back to the Caesareum through one of the arch-gates under the
+Heptastadium.
+
+As they were rowed along the younger Roman lady said to the elder:
+
+"Pontius has quite spoilt my fun about the roses. The sick boy is the
+handsome Antinous all the same, and if anybody could think--well,
+I shall do just as I please; still it will be best not to cut the
+nosegay."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+The town was out of danger; the fire was extinct. Pontius had taken no
+rest till noonday. Three horses had he tired out and replaced by fresh
+ones, but his sinewy frame and healthy courage had till now defied every
+strain. As soon as he could consider his task at an end he went off to
+his own house, and he needed rest; but in the hall of his residence he
+already found a number of persons waiting, and who were likely to stand
+between him and the enjoyment of it.
+
+A man who lives in the midst of important undertakings cannot, with
+impunity, leave his work to take care of itself for several days. All
+the claims upon him become pent up, and when he returns home they deluge
+him like water when the sluice-gates are suddenly opened behind which it
+has been dammed up.
+
+At least twenty persons, who had heard of the architect's return, were
+waiting for him in his outer hall, and crowded upon him as soon as he
+appeared. Among them he saw several who had come on important business,
+but he felt that he had reached the farthest limit of his strength, and
+he was determined to secure a little rest at any cost. The grave man's
+natural consideration, usually so conspicuous, could not hold out
+against the demands made on his endurance, and he angrily and peevishly
+pointed to his begrimed face as he made his way through the people
+waiting for him.
+
+"To-morrow, to-morrow," he cried; "nay, if necessary, to-day, after
+sunset. But now I need rest. Rest! Rest! Why, you yourselves can see the
+state I am in."
+
+All--even the master-masons and purveyors who had come on urgent
+affairs, drew back; only one elderly man, his sister Paulina's
+house-steward, caught hold of his chiton, stained as it was with smoke
+and scorched in many places, and said quickly and in a low tone:
+
+"My mistress greets you; she has things to speak of to you which will
+bear no delay; I am not to leave you till you have promised to go to see
+her to-day. Our chariot waits for you at the garden-door."
+
+"Send it home," said Pontius, not even civilly; "Paulina must wait a few
+hours."
+
+"But my orders are to take you with me at once."
+
+"But in this state--so--I cannot go with you," cried the architect
+with vehemence. "Have you no sort of consideration? And yet--who can
+tell--well, tell her I will be with her in two hours."
+
+When Pontius had fairly escaped the throng he took a bath; then he had
+some food brought to him, but even while he ate and drank, he was not
+unoccupied, for he read the letters which awaited him, and examined some
+drawings which his assistants had prepared during his absence.
+
+"Give yourself an hour's respite," said the old housekeeper, who had
+been his nurse and who loved him as her own son.
+
+"I must go to my sister," he answered with a shrug. "We know her of
+old," said the old woman. "For nothing, and less than nothing, she has
+sent for you be fore now; and you absolutely need rest. There--are your
+cushions right--so? And let me ask you, has the humblest stone-carrier
+so hard a life as you have? Even at meals you never have an hour of
+peace and comfort. Your poor head is never quiet; the nights are turned
+into day; something to do, always something to do. If one only knew who
+it is all for?"
+
+"Aye--who for, indeed?" sighed Pontius, pushing his arm under his head,
+between it and the pillow. "But, you see, little mother, work must
+follow rest as surely as day follows night or summer follows winter. The
+man who has something he loves in the House--a wife and merry children,
+it may be, for aught I care--who sweeten his hours of rest and make
+them the best of all the day, he, I say is wise when he tries to prolong
+them; but his case is not mine--"
+
+"But why is it not yours, my son Pontius?"
+
+"Let me finish my speech. I, as you know full well, do not care for
+gossip in the bath nor for reclining long over a banquet. In the
+pauses of my work I am alone, with myself and with you, my very worthy
+Leukippe. So the hours of rest are not for me the fairest scenes, but
+empty waits between the acts of the drama of life; and no reasonable man
+can find fault with me for trying to abridge them by useful occupation."
+
+"And what is the upshot of this sensible talk? Simply this: you must get
+married."
+
+Pontius sighed, but Leukippe added eagerly:
+
+"You have not far to look! The most respectable fathers and mothers are
+running after you and would bring their prettiest daughters into your
+door."
+
+"A daughter whom I do not know, and who might perhaps spoil the pauses
+between the acts, which at present I can at any rate turn to some
+account."
+
+"They say," the old woman went on, "that marriage is a cast of the dice.
+One throws a high number, another a low one; one wins a wife who is a
+match for the busy bee, another gets a tiresome gnat. No doubt there
+is some truth in it; but I have grown grey with my eyes open and I have
+often seen it happen, that how the marriage turned out depended on the
+husband. A man like you makes a bee out of a gnat--a bee that brings
+honey to the hive. Of course a man must choose carefully."
+
+"How, pray?"
+
+"First see the parents and then the child. A girl who has grown up
+surrounded by good habits, in the house of a sensible father and a
+virtuous mother--"
+
+"And where in this city am I to find such a miracle? Nay, nay, Leukippe,
+for the present all shall be left to my old woman. We both do our duty,
+we are satisfied with each other and--"
+
+"And time is flying," said the housekeeper, interrupting her master in
+his speech. "You are nearly thirty-five years of age, and the girls--"
+
+"Let them be! let them be! They will find other men! Now send Cyrus with
+my shoes and cloak, and have my litter got ready, for Paulina has been
+kept waiting long enough."
+
+The way from the architect's house to his sister's was long, and on
+his way he found ample time for reflection on various matters besides
+Leukippe's advice to marry. Still, it was a woman's face and form
+that possessed him heart and soul; at first, however, he did not feel
+inclined to feast his fancy on Balbilla's image, lovely as it appeared
+to him; on the contrary, with self-inflicted severity he sought
+everything in her which could be thought to be opposed to the highest
+standard of feminine perfections. Nor did he find it difficult to detect
+many defects and deficiencies in the Roman damsel; still he was forced
+to admit that they were quite inseparable from her character, and that
+she would no longer be what she was, if she were wholly free from them.
+Each of her little weaknesses presently began to appear as an additional
+charm to the stern man who had himself been brought up in the doctrine
+of the Stoics.
+
+He had learnt by experience that sorrow must cast its shadow over the
+existence of every human being; but still, the man to whom it should be
+vouchsafed to walk through life hand-in-hand with this radiant child of
+fortune could, as it seemed to him, have nothing to look forward to but
+pure sunshine. During his journey to Pelusium and his stay there he had
+often thought of her, and each time that her image had appeared to his
+inward eye he had felt as though daylight had shone in his soul. To have
+met her he regarded as the greatest joy of his life, but he dared not
+aspire to claim her as his own.
+
+He did not undervalue himself and knew that he might well be proud of
+the position he had won by his own industry and talents; and still
+she was the grandchild of the man who had had the right to sell his
+grandfather for mere coin, and was so high-born, rich and distinguished
+that he would have thought it hardly more audacious to ask the Emperor
+what he would take for the purple than to woo her. But to shelter her,
+to warn her, to allow his soul to be refreshed by the sight of her and
+by her talk--this he felt was permissible, this happiness no one could
+deprive him of. And this she would grant him--she esteemed him and would
+give him the right to protect her, this he felt, with thankfulness and
+joy. He would, then and there, have gone through the exertions of the
+last few hours all over again if he could have been certain that he
+should once more be refreshed with the draught of water from her hand.
+Only to think of her and of her sweetness seemed greater happiness than
+the possession of any other woman.
+
+As he got out of his litter at the door of his sister's town-house he
+shook his head, smiling at himself; for he confessed to himself that
+the whole of the long distance he had hardly thought of anything but
+Balbilla.
+
+Paulina's house had but few windows opening upon the street and these
+belonged to the strangers' rooms, and yet his arrival had been observed.
+A window at the side of the house, all grown round with creepers, framed
+in a sweet girlish head which looked down from it inquisitively on the
+bustle in the street. Pontius did not notice it, but Arsinoe--for it was
+her pretty face that looked out--at once recognized the architect whom
+she had seen at Lochias and of whom Pollux had spoken as his friend and
+patron.
+
+She had now, for a week, been living with the rich widow; she wanted
+for nothing, and yet her soul longed with all its might to be out in the
+city, and to inquire for Pollux and his parents, of whom she had heard
+nothing since the day of her father's death. Her lover was no doubt
+seeking her with anxiety and sorrow; but how was he to find her?
+
+Three days after her arrival she had discovered the little window from
+which she had a view of the street. There was plenty to be seen, for
+it led to the Hippodrome and was never empty of foot-passengers and
+chariots that were proceeding thither or to Necropolis. No doubt it was
+a pleasure to her to watch the fine horses and garlanded youths and men
+who passed by Paulina's house; but it was not merely to amuse herself
+that she went to the bowery little opening; no, she hoped, on the
+contrary, that she might once see her Pollux, his father, his mother,
+his bother Teuker or some one else they knew pass by her new home. Then
+she might perhaps succeed in calling them, in asking what had become
+of her friends, and in begging them to let her lover know where to seek
+her.
+
+Her adoptive mother had twice found her at the window and had forbidden
+her, not unkindly but very positively, to look out into the street.
+Arsinoe had followed her unresistingly into the interior of the house,
+but as soon as she knew that Paulina was out or engaged, she slipped
+back to the window again and looked out for him, who must at every hour
+of the day be thinking of her. And she was not happy amid her new and
+wealthy surroundings. At first she had found it very pleasant to stretch
+her limbs on Paulina's soft cushions, not to stir a finger to help
+herself, to eat the best of food and to have neither to attend to the
+children nor to labor in the horrible papyrus-factory; but by the third
+day she pined for liberty--and still more for the children, for Selene
+and Pollux. Once she went out driving with Paulina in a covered carriage
+for the first time in her life. As the horses started she had enjoyed
+the rapid movement and had leaned out at one side to see the houses and
+men flying past her; but Paulina had regarded this as not correct--as
+she did so many other things that she herself thought right and
+permissible--had desired her to draw in her head, and had told her
+that a well-conducted girl must sit with her eyes in her lap when out
+driving.
+
+Paulina was kind, never was irritable, had her dressed and waited upon
+like her own daughter, kissed her in the morning and when she bid her
+good-night; and yet Arsinoe had never once thought of Paulina's demand
+that she should love her. The proud woman, who was so cool in all the
+friendly relations of life, and who, as she felt was always watching
+her, was to her only a stranger who had her in her power. The fairest
+sentiments of her soul she must always keep locked up from her.
+
+Once, when Paulina, with tears in her eyes had spoken to her of her lost
+daughter, Arsinoe had been softened and following the impulse of her
+heart, had confided to her that she loved Pollux the sculptor and hoped
+to be his wife.
+
+"You love a maker of images!" Paulina had exclaimed, with as much horror
+as if she had seen a toad; then she had paced uneasily up and down and
+had added with her usual calm decision:
+
+"No, no, my child! you will forget all this as soon as possible; I know
+of a nobler Bridegroom for you; when once you have learned to know Him
+you will never long for any other. Have you seen one single image in
+this house?"
+
+"No," replied Arsinoe, "but so far as regards Pollux--"
+
+"Listen to me" said the widow, "have I not told you of our loving Father
+in Heaven? Have I not told you that the gods of the heathen are unreal
+beings which the vain imaginings of fools have endowed with all the
+weaknesses and crimes of humanity? Can you not understand how silly it
+is to pray to stones? What power can reside in these frail figures of
+brass or marble?
+
+"Idols we call them. He who carves them, serves them and offers
+sacrifice to them; aye and a great sacrifice, for he devotes his best
+powers, to their service. Do you understand me?"
+
+"No--Art is certainly a lofty thing, and Pollux is a good man, full of
+the divinity as he works."
+
+"Wait a while, only wait--you will soon learn to understand," Paulina
+had answered, drawing Arsinoe towards her, and had added, at first
+speaking gently but then more sternly: "Now go to bed and pray to your
+gracious Father in Heaven that he may enlighten your heart. You must
+forget the carved image-maker, and I forbid you ever to speak in my
+presence again of such a man."
+
+Arsinoe had grown up a heathen, she clung with affection to the gods of
+her fathers and hoped for happier days after the first bitterness of the
+loss of her father and the separation from her brothers and sisters was
+past. She was little disposed to sacrifice her young love and all
+her earthly happiness for spiritual advantages of which she scarcely
+comprehended the value. Her father had always spoken of the Christians
+with hatred and contempt. She now saw that they could be kind and
+helpful, and the doctrine that there was a loving God in Heaven who
+cared for all men as his children appealed to her soul; but that we
+ought to forgive our enemies, to remember our sins, and to repent of
+them, and to regard all the pleasure and amusement which the gay city
+of Alexandria could offer as base and worthless--this was absurd and
+foolish.
+
+And what great sins had she committed? Could a loving God require of
+her that she should mar all her best days because as a child she had
+pilfered a cake or broken a pitcher; or, as she grew older had sometimes
+been obstinate or disobedient? Surely not. And then was an artist, a
+kind faithful soul like her tall Pollux, to be odious in the eyes of God
+the Father of all, because he was able to make such wonderful things as
+that head of her mother, for instance? If this really was so she would
+rather, a thousand times rather, lift her hands in prayer to the smiling
+Aphrodite, roguish Eros, beautiful Apollo, and all the nine Muses who
+protected her Pollux, than to Him.
+
+An obscure aversion rose up in her soul against the stern woman who
+could not understand her, and of whose teaching and admonitions she
+scarcely took in half; and she rejected many a word of the widow's which
+might otherwise easily have found room in her heart, only because it was
+spoken by the cold-mannered woman who at every hour seemed to try to lay
+some fresh restraint upon her.
+
+Paulina had never yet taken her with her to of the Christian assemblies
+in her suburban villa; wished first to prepare her and to open her soul
+to salvation. In this task no teacher of the congregation should assist
+her. She, and she alone, should win to the Redeemer the soul of this
+fair creature that had walked so resolutely in the ways of the heathen;
+this was required of her as the condition of the covenant that she felt
+she had made with Him, it was with the price of this labor that she
+hoped to purchase her own child's eternal happiness. Day after day she
+had Arsinoe into her own room, that was decked with flowers and with
+Christian symbols, and devoted several hours to her instruction. But her
+disciple proved less impressionable and less attentive every day; while
+Paulina was speaking Arsinoe was thinking of Pollux, of the children, of
+the festival prepared for the Emperor or of the beautiful dress she
+was to have worn as Roxana. She wondered what young girl would fill her
+place, and how she could ever hope to see her lover again. And it was
+the same during Paulina's prayers as during her instruction, prayers
+that often lasted more than hour, and which she had to attend, on her
+knees on Wednesday and Friday, and with hands uplifted on all the other
+days of the week.
+
+When her adoptive mother had discovered how often she looked out into
+the street she thought she had found out the reason of her pupil's
+distracted attention and only waited the return of her brother, the
+architect, in order to have the window blocked up.
+
+As Pontius entered the lofty hall of his sister's house, Arsinoe came to
+meet him. Her cheeks were flushed, she had hurried to fly down as fast
+as possible from her window to the ground floor, in order to speak to
+the architect before he went into the inner rooms or had talked with
+his sister, and she looked lovelier than ever. Pontius gazed at her with
+delight. He knew that he had seen this sweet face before, but he
+could not at once remember where; for a face we have met with only
+incidentally is not easily recognized when we find it again where we do
+not expect it.
+
+Arsinoe did not give him time to speak to her, for she went straight up
+to him, greeted him, and asked timidly:
+
+"You do not remember who I am?"
+
+"Yes, yes," said the architect, "and yet--for the moment--"
+
+"I am the daughter of Keraunus, the palace-steward at Lochias, but you
+know of course!"
+
+"To be sure, to be sure! Arsinoe is your name; I was asking to-day after
+your father and heard to my great regret--"
+
+"He is dead."
+
+"Poor child! How everything has changed in the old palace since I
+went away. The gate-house is swept away, there is a new steward and
+there-but, tell me how came you here?"
+
+"My father left us nothing and Christians took its in. There were eight
+of us."
+
+"And my sister shelters you all?"
+
+"No, no; one has been taken into one house and others into others. We
+shall never be together again." And as she spoke the tears ran down
+Arsinoe's cheeks; but she promptly recovered herself, and before Pontius
+could express his sympathy she went on:
+
+"I want to ask of you a favor; let me speak before any one disturbs us."
+
+"Speak, my child."
+
+"You know Pollux--the sculptor Pollux?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"And you were always kindly disposed toward him?"
+
+"He is a good man and an excellent artist."
+
+"Aye that he is, and besides all that--may I tell you something and will
+you stand by me?"
+
+"Gladly, so far as lies in my power."
+
+Arsinoe looked down at the ground in charming and blushing confusion and
+said in a low tone:
+
+"We love each other--I am to be his wife."
+
+"Accept my best wishes."
+
+"Ah, if only we had got as far as that! But since my father's death we
+have not seen each other. I do not know where he and his parents are,
+and how are they ever to find me here?"
+
+"Write to him."
+
+"I cannot write well, and even if I could my messenger--"
+
+"Has my sister had any search made for him?"
+
+"No--oh, no. I may not even let his name pass my lips. She wants to give
+me to some one else; she says that making statues is hateful to the God
+of the Christians."
+
+"Does she? And you want me to seek your lover?"
+
+"Yes, yes, my dear lord! and if you find him tell him I shall be alone
+to-morrow early, and again towards evening, every day indeed, for then
+your sister goes to serve her God in her country house."
+
+"So you want to make me a lover's go-between. You could not find a more
+inexperienced one."
+
+"Ah! noble Pontius, if you have a heart--"
+
+"Let me speak to the end, child! I will seek your lover, and if I find
+him he shall know where you are, but I cannot and will not invite him
+to an assignation here behind my sister's back. He shall come openly to
+Paulina and prefer his suit. If she refuses her consent I will try to
+take the matter in hand with Paulina. Are you satisfied with this?"
+
+"I must need be. And tell me, you will let me know when you have found
+out where he and his parents have gone?"
+
+"That I promise you. And now tell the one thing. Are you happy in this
+house?"
+
+Arsinoe looked down in some embarrassment, then she hastily shook her
+head in vehement negation and hurried away. Pontius looked after her
+with compassion and sympathy.
+
+"Poor, pretty little creature!" he murmured to himself, and went on to
+his sister's room.
+
+The house-steward had announced his visit, and Paulina met him on the
+threshold. In his sister's sitting-room the architect found Eumenes, the
+bishop, a dignified old man with clear, kind eyes.
+
+"Your name is in everybody's mouth to-day," said Paulina, "after the
+usual greetings. They say you did wonders last night."
+
+"I got home very tired," said Pontius, "but as you so pressingly desired
+to speak to me, I shortened my hours of rest."
+
+"How sorry I am!" exclaimed the widow.
+
+The bishop perceived that the brother and sister had business to discuss
+together, and asked whether he were not interrupting it.
+
+"On the contrary," cried Paulina. "The subject under discussion is my
+newly-adopted daughter who, unhappily, has her head full of silly and
+useless things. She tells me she has seen you at Lochias, Pontius."
+
+"Yes, I know the pretty child."
+
+"Yes, she is lovely to look upon," said the widow. "But her heart and
+mind have been left wholly untrained, and in her the doctrine falls upon
+stony ground, for she avails herself of every unoccupied moment to stare
+at the horsemen and chariots that pass on the way to the Hippodrome. By
+this inquisitive gaping she fills her head with a thousand useless and
+distracting fancies; I am not always at home, and so it will be best to
+have the pernicious window walled up."
+
+"And did you send for me only to have that done?" cried Pontius, much
+annoyed. "Your house-slaves, I should think, might have been equal to
+that without my assistance."
+
+"Perhaps, but then the wall would have to be freshly whitewashed--I know
+how obliging you always are."
+
+"Thank you very much. To-morrow I will send you two regular workmen."
+
+"Nay, to-day, at once if possible."
+
+"Are you in such pressing haste to spoil the poor child's amusement? And
+besides I cannot but think that it is not to stare at the horsemen and
+chariots that she looks out, but to see her worthy lover."
+
+"So much the worse. I was telling you, Eumenes, that a sculptor wants to
+marry her."
+
+"She is a heathen," replied the bishop.
+
+"But on the road to salvation," answered Paulina. "But we will speak of
+that presently. There is still something else to discuss, Pontius. The
+hall of my country villa must be enlarged."
+
+"Then send me the plans."
+
+"They are in the book-room of my late husband." The architect left his
+sister to go into the library, which he knew well.
+
+As soon as the bishop was left alone with Paulina, he shook his head and
+said:
+
+"If I judge rightly, my dear sister, you are going the wrong way to work
+in leading this child intrusted to your care. Not all are called, and
+rebellious hearts must be led along the path of salvation with a gentle
+hand, not dragged and driven. Why do you cut off this girl, who still
+stands with both feet in the world, from all that can give her pleasure?
+Allow the young creature to enjoy every permitted pleasure which can add
+to the joys of life in youth. Do not hurt Arsinoe needlessly, do not let
+her feel the hand that guides her. First teach her to love you from her
+heart, and when she knows nothing dearer than you, a request from you
+will be worth more than bolts or walled-up windows."
+
+"At first I wished nothing more than that she should love me,"
+interrupted Paulina.
+
+"But have you proved her? Do you see in her the spark which may be
+fanned to a flame? Have you detected in her the germ which may possibly
+grow to a strong desire for salvation and to devotion to the Redeemer?"
+
+"That germ exists in every heart-these are your own words."
+
+"But in many of the heathen it is deeply buried in sand and stories; and
+do you feel yourself equal to clearing them away without injury to the
+seed or to the soil in which it lies?"
+
+"I do, and I will win Arsinoe to Jesus Christ," said Paulina firmly.
+
+Pontius interrupted the conversation; he remained with his sister some
+time longer discussing with her and with Eumenes the new building to be
+done at her country house; then he and the bishop left at the same time
+and Pontius proceeded to the scene of the fire by the harbor and in the
+old palace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Pontius did not find the Emperor at Lochias, for Hadrian had moved at
+mid-day to the Caesareum. The strong smell of burning in every room
+in the palace had sickened him and he had begun to regard the restored
+building as a doomed scene of disaster. The architect was waited for
+with much anxiety, for the rooms originally furnished for the Emperor in
+the Caesareum had been despoiled and disarranged to decorate the rooms
+at Lochias, and Pontius was wanted to superintend their immediate
+rehabilitation. A chariot was waiting for him and there was no lack of
+slaves, so he began this fresh task at once and devoted himself to
+it till late at night. It was in vain this time that his anteroom was
+filled with people waiting for his return.
+
+Hadrian had retired to some rooms which formed part of his wife's
+apartments. He was in a grave mood, and when the prefect Titianus was
+announced he kept him waiting till, with his own hand, he had laid a
+fresh dressing on his favorite's burns.
+
+"Go now, my lord," begged the Bithynian, when the Emperor had finished
+his task with all the skill of a surgeon: "Titianus has been walking up
+and down in there for the last quarter of an hour."
+
+"And so he may," said the monarch. "And if the whole world is shrieking
+for me it must wait till these faithful hands have had their due. Yes,
+my boy! we will wander on through life together, inseparable comrades.
+Others indeed do the same, and each one who goes through life side by
+side with a companion sharing all he enjoys or suffers, comes to think
+at last that he knows him as he knows himself; still the inmost core of
+his friend's nature remains concealed from him. Then, some day Fate lets
+a storm come raging down upon them; the last veil is torn, under the
+wanderer's eyes, from the very heart of his companion, and at last he
+really sees him as he is, like a kernel stripped of its shell, a bare
+and naked body. Last night such a blast swept over us and let me see
+the heart of my Antinous, as plainly as this hand I hold before my eyes.
+Yes, yes, yes! for the man who will risk his young and happy existence
+for a thing his friend holds precious would sacrifice ten lives if he
+had them, for his friend's person. Never, my friend, shall that night be
+forgotten. It gives you the right to do much that might pain me, and
+has graven your name on my heart, the foremost among those to whom I am
+indebted for any benefit.--They are but few."
+
+Hadrian held out his hand to Antinous as he spoke. The boy, who had kept
+his eyes fixed on the ground in much confusion, raised it to his lips
+and pressed it against them in violent agitation. Then he raised his
+large eyes to the Emperor's and said:
+
+"You must not speak to me so kindly, for I do not deserve such goodness.
+What is my life after all? I would let it go, as a child leaves go of a
+beetle it has caught, to spare you one single anxious day."
+
+"I know it," answered Hadrian firmly, and he went to the prefect in the
+adjoining room.
+
+Titianus had come in obedience to Hadrian's orders; the matter to be
+settled was what indemnification was to be paid to the city and to
+the individual owners of the storehouses that had been destroyed, for
+Hadrian had caused a decree to be proclaimed that no one should suffer
+any loss through a misfortune sent by the gods and which had originated
+in his residence. The prefect had already instituted the necessary
+inquiries and the private secretaries, Phlegon, Heliodorus and Celer,
+were now charged with the duty of addressing documents to the injured
+parties in which they were invited, in the name of Caesar, to declare
+the truth as to the amount of the loss they had suffered. Titianus
+also brought the information that the Greeks and Jews had determined
+to express their thankfulness for Caesar's preservation by great
+thank-offerings.
+
+"And the Christians," asked Hadrian.
+
+"They abominate the sacrifice of animals, but they will unite in a
+common act of thanksgiving."
+
+"Their gratitude will not cost them much," said Hadrian.
+
+"Their bishop, Eumenes, brought me a sum of money for which a hundred
+oxen might be bought, to distribute among the poor. He said the God of
+the Christians is a spirit and requires none but spiritual sacrifices;
+that the best offering a man can bring him is a prayer prompted by the
+spirit and proceeding from a loving heart."
+
+"That sounds very well for us," said Hadrian. "But it will not do for
+the people. Philosophical doctrines do not tend to piety; the populace
+need visible gods and tangible sacrifices. Are the Christians here good
+citizens and devoted to the welfare of the state?"
+
+"We need no courts of justice for them."
+
+"Then take their money and distribute it among the needy; but I must
+forbid their meeting for a general thanksgiving; they may raise their
+hands to their great spirit in my behalf, in private. Their doctrine
+must not be brought into publicity; it is not devoid of a delusive charm
+and it is indispensable to the safety of the state that the mob should
+remain faithful to the old gods and sacrifices."
+
+"As you command, Caesar."
+
+"You know the account given of the Christians by Pliny and Trajan?"
+
+"And Trajan's answer."
+
+"Well then let us leave them to follow their own devices in private
+after their own fashion; only they must not commit any breach of the
+laws of the state nor force themselves into publicity. As soon as they
+show any disposition to refuse to the old gods the respect that is due
+to them, or to raise a finger against them, severity must be exercised
+and every excess must be punished by death."
+
+During this conversation Verus had entered the room; he was following
+the Emperor everywhere to-day for he hoped to hear him say a word as to
+his observation of the heavens, and yet he did not dare to ask him what
+he had discovered from them.
+
+When he saw that Hadrian was occupied he made a chamberlain conduct him
+to Antinous. The favorite turned pale as he saw the praetor, still
+he retained enough presence of mind to wish him all happiness on his
+birthday. It did not escape Verus that his presence had startled
+the lad; he therefore plied him at first with indifferent questions,
+introduced pleasing anecdotes into his conversation and then, when he
+had gained his purpose, he added carelessly:
+
+"I must thank you in the name of the state and of every friend of
+Caesar's. You carried out your undertaking well to the end, though by
+somewhat overpowering means."
+
+"I entreat you say no more," interrupted Antinous eagerly, and looking
+anxiously at the door of the next room.
+
+"Oh! I would have sacrificed all Alexandria to preserve Caesar's mind
+from gloom and care. Besides we have both paid dearly for our good
+intentions and for those wretched sheds."
+
+"Pray talk of something else."
+
+"You sit there with your hands bound up and your hair singed, and I feel
+very unwell."
+
+"Hadrian said you had helped valiantly in the rescue."
+
+"I was sorry for the poor rats whose gathered store of provisions the
+flames were so rapidly devouring, and all hot as I was from my supper, I
+flung myself in among the men who were extinguishing the fire. My first
+reward was a bath of cold, icy-cold sea-water, which was poured over my
+head out of a full skin. All doctrines of ethics are in disgrace with
+me, and I have long considered all the dramatic poets, in whose pieces
+virtue is rewarded and crime punished, as a pack of fools; for my
+pleasantest hours are all due to my worst deeds; and sheer annoyance and
+misery, to my best. No hyena can laugh more hoarsely that I now speak;
+some portion of me inside here, seems to have been turned into a
+hedgehog whose spines prick and hurt me, and all this because I allowed
+myself to be led away into doing things which the moralists laud as
+virtuous."
+
+"You cough, and you do not look well. He down awhile."
+
+"On my birthday? No, my young friend. And now let me just ask you before
+I go: Can you tell me what Hadrian read in the stars?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Not even if I put my Perseus at your orders for every thing you may
+require of him? The man knows Alexandria and is as dumb as a fish."
+
+"Not even then, for what I do not know I cannot tell. We are both of
+us ill, and I tell you once more you will be wise to take care of
+yourself." Verus left the room, and Antinous watched him go with much
+relief.
+
+The praetor's visit had filled him with disquietude, and had added to
+the dislike he felt for him. He knew that he had been used to base ends
+by Verus, for Hadrian had told him so much as that he had gone up to
+the observatory not to question the stars for himself but to cast the
+praetor's horoscope, and that he had informed Verus of his intention.
+
+There was no excuse, no forgiveness possible for the deed he had done;
+to please that dissolute coxcomb, that mocking hypocrite, he had
+become a traitor to his master and an incendiary, and must endure to
+be overwhelmed with praises and thanks by the greatest and most
+keen-sighted of men. He hated, he abhorred himself, and asked himself
+why the fire which had blazed around him had been satisfied only to
+inflict slight injuries on his hands and hair. When Hadrian returned to
+him he asked his permission to go to bed. The Emperor gladly granted
+it, ordered Mastor to watch by his side, and then agreed to his wife's
+request that he would visit her.
+
+Sabina had not been to the scene of the fire, but she had sent a
+messenger every hour to inquire as to the progress of the conflagration
+and the well-being of her husband. When he had first arrived at the
+Caesareum she had met and welcomed him and then had retired to her own
+apartments.
+
+It wanted only two hours of midnight when Hadrian entered her room; he
+found her reclining on a couch without the jewels she usually wore in
+the daytime but dressed as for a banquet.
+
+"You wished to speak with me?" said the Emperor. "Yes, and this day--so
+full of remarkable events as it has been--has also a remarkable close
+since I have not wished in vain."
+
+"You so rarely give me the opportunity of gratifying a wish."
+
+"And do you complain of that?"
+
+"I might--for instead of wishing you are wont to demand."
+
+"Let us cease this strife of idle words."
+
+"Willingly. With what object did you send for me?"
+
+"Verus is to-day keeping his birthday."
+
+"And you would like to know what the stars promise him?"
+
+"Rather how the signs in the heavens have disposed you towards him."
+
+"I had but little time to consider what I saw. But at any rate the stars
+promise him a brilliant future."
+
+A gleam of joy shone in Sabina's eyes, but she forced herself to keep
+calm and asked, indifferently:
+
+"You admit that, and yet you can come to no decision?"
+
+"Then you want to hear the decisive word spoken at once, to-day?"
+
+"You know that without my answering you."
+
+"Well, then, his star outshines mine and compels me to be on my guard
+against him."
+
+"How mean! You are afraid of the praetor?"
+
+"No, but of his fortune which is bound up with you?"
+
+"When he is our son his greatness will be ours."
+
+"By no means, since if I make him what you wish him to be, he will
+certainly try to make our greatness his. Destiny--"
+
+"You said it favored him; but unfortunately I must dispute the
+statement."
+
+"You? Do you try too, to read the stars?"
+
+"No, I leave that to men. Have you heard of Ammonius, the astrologer?"
+
+"Yes. A very learned man who observes from the tower of the Serapeum,
+and who, like many of his fellows in this city has made use of his art
+to accumulate a large fortune."
+
+"No less a man than the astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus referred me to
+him."
+
+"The best of recommendation."
+
+"Well, then, I commissioned Ammonius to cast the horoscope for Verus
+during the past night and he brought it to me with an explanatory key.
+Here it is."
+
+The Emperor hastily seized the tablet which Sabina held out to him, and
+as he attentively examined the forecasts, arranged in order according to
+the hours, he said:
+
+"Quite right. That of course did not escape me! Well done, exactly the
+same as my own observations--but here--stay--here comes the third hour,
+at the beginning of which I was interrupted. Eternal gods! what have we
+here?"
+
+The Emperor held the wax tablet prepared by Aminonius at arm's length
+from his eyes and never parted his lips again till he had come to the
+end of the last hour of the night. Then he dropped the hand that held
+the horoscope, saying with a shudder:
+
+"A hideous destiny. Horace was right in saying the highest towers fall
+with the greatest crash."
+
+"The tower of which you speak," said Sabina, "is that darling of
+fortune of whom you are afraid. Vouchsafe then to Verus a brief space of
+happiness before the horrible end you foresee for him."
+
+While she spoke Hadrian sat with his eyes thoughtfully fixed on the
+ground, and then, standing in front of his wife, he replied:
+
+"If no sinister catastrophe falls upon this man, the stars and the fate
+of men have no more to do with one another than the sea with the heart
+of the desert, than the throb of men's pulses with the pebbles in the
+brook. If Ammonius has erred ten times over still more than ten signs
+remain on this tablet, hostile and fatal to the praetor. I grieve for
+Verus--but the state suffers with the sovereign's misfortunes.--This man
+can never be my successor."
+
+"No?" asked Sabina rising from her couch. "No? Not when you have seen
+that your own star outlives his? Not though a glance at this tablet
+shows you that when he is nothing but ashes the world will still
+continue long to obey your nod?"
+
+"Compose yourself and give me time.--Yes, I still say not even so."
+
+"Not even so," repeated Sabina sullenly. Then, collecting herself, she
+asked in a tone of vehement entreaty:
+
+"Not even so--not even if I lift my hands to you in supplication and
+cry in your face that you and Fate have grudged me the blessing, the
+happiness, the crown and aim of a woman's life, and I must and I will
+attain it; I must and I will once, if only for a short time, hear
+myself called by some dear lips by the name which gives the veriest
+beggar-woman with her infant in her arms preeminence above the Empress
+who has never stood by a child's cradle. I must and I will, before I
+die, be a mother, be called mother and be able to say, 'my child, my
+son--our son.'" And as she spoke she sobbed aloud and covered her face
+with her hands.
+
+The Emperor drew back a step from his wife. A miracle had been
+wrought before his eyes. Sabina--in whose eyes no tear had ever been
+seen--Sabina was weeping, Sabina had a heart like other women. Greatly
+astonished and deeply moved he saw her turn from him, utterly shaken by
+the agitation of her feelings, and sink on her knees by the side of
+the couch she had quitted to hide her face in the cushions. He stood
+motionless by her side, but presently going nearer to her:
+
+"Stand up, Sabina," he said. "Your desire is a just one. You shall have
+the son for whom your soul longs."
+
+The Empress rose and a grateful look in her eyes, swimming in tears, met
+his glance. Sabina could smile too, she could look sweet! It had taken a
+lifetime, it had needed such a moment as this to reveal it to Hadrian.
+
+He silently drew a seat towards her and sat down by her side; for some
+time he sat with her hand clasped in his, in silence. Then he let it go
+and said kindly:
+
+"And will Verus fulfil all you expect of a son?" She nodded assent.
+
+"What makes you so confident of that?" asked the Emperor. "He is a Roman
+and not lacking in brilliant and estimable gifts. A man who shows such
+mettle alike in the field and in the council-chamber and yet can play
+the part of Eros with such success will also know how to wear the purple
+without disgracing it. But he has his mother's light blood, and his
+heart flutters hither and thither."
+
+"Let him be as he is. We understand each other and he is the only man on
+whose disposition I can build, on whose fidelity I can count as securely
+as if he were my favorite son."
+
+"And on what facts is this confidence based?"
+
+"You will understand me, for you are not blind to the signs which Fate
+vouchsafes to us. Have you time to listen to a short story?"
+
+"The night is yet young."
+
+"Then I will tell you. Forgive me if I begin with things that seem dead
+and gone; but they are not, for they live and work in me to this hour. I
+know that you yourself did not choose me for your wife. Plotina chose
+me for you--she loved you, whether your regard for her was for the
+beautiful woman or for the wife of Caesar to whom everything belonged
+that you had to look for--how should I know?"
+
+"It was Plotina, the woman, that I honored and loved--"
+
+"In choosing me she chose you a wife who was tall and so fitted to wear
+the purple, but who was never beautiful. She knew me well and she knew
+that I was less apt than any other woman to win hearts; in my parents'
+house no child ever enjoyed so slender a share of the gifts of love,
+and none can know better than you that my husband did not spoil me with
+tenderness."
+
+"I could repent of it at this moment."
+
+"It would be too late now. But I will not be bitter--no, indeed I will
+not. And yet if you are to understand me I must own that so long as I
+was young I longed bitterly for the love which no one offered me."
+
+"And you yourself have never loved?"
+
+"No--but it pained me that I could not. In Plotina's apartments I often
+saw the children of her relations, and many a time I tried to attract
+them to me, but while they would play confidently with other women they
+seemed to shun me. Soon I even grew cross to them--only our Verus, the
+little son of Celonius Commodus, would give me frank answers when I
+spoke to him, and would bring me his broken toys that I might mend their
+injuries. And so I got to love the child."
+
+"He was a wonderfully sweet, attractive boy."
+
+"He was indeed. One day we women were all sitting together in Caesar's
+garden. Verus came running out with a particularly fine apple that
+Trajan himself had given him. The rosy-cheeked fruit was admired by
+every one. Then Plotina, in fun took the apple out of the boy's hand and
+asked him if he would not give his apple to her. He looked at her with
+wide-open puzzled eyes, shook his curly head, ran up to me and gave
+me--yes, me, and no one else--the fruit, throwing his arms round my neck
+and saying, 'Sabina you shall have it.'"
+
+"The judgment of Paris."
+
+"Nay, do not jest now. This action of an unselfish child gave me courage
+to endure the troubles of life. I knew now that there was one creature
+that loved me, and that one repaid all that I felt for him, all that
+I was never weary of doing for him with affectionate liking. He is the
+only being, of whom I know, that will weep when I die. Give him the
+right to call me his mother and make him our son."
+
+"He is our son," said Hadrian, with dignified gravity, and held out his
+hand to Sabina. She tried to lift it to her lips but he drew it away and
+went on:
+
+"Inform him that we accept him as our son. His wife is the daughter of
+Nigrinus--who had to go, as I desired to stay and stand firm. You do
+not love Lucilla, but we must both admire her for I do not know another
+woman in Rome whose virtue a man might vouch for. Besides, I owe her a
+father, and am glad to have such a daughter; thus we shall be blessed
+with children. Whether I shall appoint Verus my successor and proclaim
+to the world who shall be its future ruler I cannot now decide; for
+that I need a calmer hour. Till to-morrow, Sabina. This day began with
+a misfortune; may the deed with which we have combined to end it prosper
+and bring us happiness."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+There are often fine warm days in February, but those who fancy the
+spring has come find themselves deceived. The bitter, hard Sabina could
+at times let soft and tender emotions get the mastery over her, but as
+soon as the longing of her languishing soul for maternal happiness was
+gratified, she closed her heart again and extinguished the fire that had
+warmed it. Every one who approached her, even her husband, felt himself
+chilled and repelled again by her manner.
+
+Verus was ill. The first symptoms of a liver complaint which his
+physicians had warned him might ensue, if he, an European, persisted
+in his dissipated life at Alexandria as if it were Rome, now began to
+occasion him many uneasy hours, and this, the first physical pain that
+fate had ever inflicted on him, he bore with the utmost impatience.
+Even the great news which Sabina brought him, realizing his boldest
+aspirations, had no power to reconcile him to the new sensation of
+being ill. He learnt, at the same time, that Hadrian's alarm at the
+transcendent brightness of his star had nearly cost him his adoption,
+and as he firmly believed that he had brought on his sufferings by his
+efforts to extinguish the fire that Antinous had kindled, he bitterly
+rued his treacherous interference with the Emperor's calculations. Men
+are always ready to cast any burden, and especially that of a fault they
+have committed, on to the shoulders of another; and so the suffering
+praetor cursed Antinous and the learning of Simeon Ben Jochai, because,
+if it had not been for them the mischievous folly which had spoilt his
+pleasure in life would never have been committed.
+
+Hadrian had requested the Alexandrians to postpone the theatrical
+displays and processions that they had prepared for him, as his
+observations as to the course of destiny during the coming year were
+not yet complete. Every evening he ascended the lofty observatory of
+the Serapeum and gazed from thence at the stars. His labors ended on
+the tenth of January; on the eleventh the festivities began. They lasted
+through many days, and by the desire of the praetor the pretty daughter
+of Apollodorus the Jew was chosen to represent Roxana. Everything
+that the Alexandrians had prepared to do honor to their sovereign was
+magnificent and costly. So many ships had never before been engaged in
+any Naumachia as were destroyed here in the sham sea-fight, no greater
+number of wild beasts had ever been seen together on any occasion even
+in the Roman Circus; and how bloody were the fights of the gladiators,
+in which black and white combatants afforded a varied excitement for
+both heart and senses. In the processions, the different elements which
+were supplied by the great central metropolis of Egyptian, Greek and
+Oriental culture afforded such a variety of food for the eye that, in
+spite of their interminable length, the effect was less fatiguing than
+the Romans had feared. The performances of the tragedies and comedies
+were equally rich in startling effects; conflagrations and floods were
+introduced and gave the Alexandrian actors the opportunity of displaying
+their talents with such brilliant success that Hadrian and his
+companions were forced to acknowledge that even in Rome and Athens they
+had never witnessed any representations equally perfect.
+
+A piece by the Jewish author Ezekiel who, under the Ptolemies, wrote
+dramas in the Greek language of which the subject was taken from the
+history of his own people, particularly claimed the Emperor's attention.
+
+Titianus during all this festive season was unluckily suffering from an
+attack of old-standing breathlessness, and he also had his hands full;
+at the same time he did his best in helping Pontius in seeking out the
+sculptor Pollux. Both men did their utmost, but though they soon were
+able to find Euphorion and dame Doris, every trace of their son had
+vanished. Papias, the former employer of the man who had disappeared,
+was no longer in the city, having been sent by Hadrian to Italy to
+execute centaurs and other figures to decorate his villa at Tibur. His
+wife who remained at home, declared that she knew nothing of Pollux
+but that he had abruptly quitted her husband's service. The unfortunate
+man's fellow-workmen could give no news of him whatever, for not one
+of them had been present when he was seized; Papias had had foresight
+enough to have the man he dreaded placed in security without the
+presence of any witnesses. Neither the prefect nor the architect thought
+of seeking the worthy fellow in prison, and even if they had done so
+they would hardly have found him, for Pollux was not kept in durance
+in Alexandria itself. The prisons of the city had overflowed after the
+night of the holiday and he had been transferred to Canopus and there
+detained and brought up for trial.
+
+Pollux had unhesitatingly owned to having taken the silver quiver and to
+having been very angry at his master's accusation. Thus he produced from
+the first an unfavorable impression on the judge, who esteemed Papias
+as a wealthy man, universally respected. The accused had hardly been
+allowed to speak at all and judgment was immediately pronounced against
+him, on the strength of his master's accusation and his own admissions.
+It would have been sheer waste of time to listen to the romances with
+which this audacious rascal--who forgot all the respect he owed to
+his teacher and benefactor--wanted to cram the judges. Two years of
+reflection, the protectors of the law deemed, might suffice to teach
+this dangerous fellow to respect the property of others and to keep him
+from outbreaks against those to whom he owed gratitude and reverence.
+
+Pollux, safe in the prison at Canopus, cursed his destiny and indulged
+in vain hopes of the assistance of his friends. These were at last weary
+of the vain search and only asked about him occasionally. He at first
+was so insubordinate under restraint that he was put under close ward
+from which he was not released until, instead of raging with fury he
+dreamed away his days in sullen brooding. The gaoler knew men well, and
+he thought he could safely predict that at the end of his two years'
+imprisonment this young thief would quit his cell a harmless imbecile.
+
+Titianus, Pontius, Balbilla and even Antinous had all attempted to speak
+of him to the Emperor, but each was sharply repulsed and taught that
+Hadrian was little inclined to pardon a wound to his artist's vanity.
+But the sovereign also proved that he had a good memory for benefits
+he had received, for once, when a dish was set before him consisting of
+cabbage and small sausages he smiled, and taking out his purse filled
+with gold pieces, he ordered a chamberlain to take it in his name to
+Doris, the wife of the evicted gate-keeper. The old couple now resided
+in a little house of their own in the neighborhood of their widowed
+daughter Diotima. Hunger and external misery came not nigh them, still
+they had experienced a great change. Poor Doris' eyes were now red and
+bloodshot, for they were accustomed to many tears, which were seldom far
+off and overflowed whenever a word, an object, a thought reminded her
+of Pollux, her darling, her pride and her hope; and there were few
+half-hours in the day when she did not think of him.
+
+Soon after the steward's death she had sought out Selene, but dame
+Hannah could not and would not conduct her to see the sick girl, for
+she learnt from Mary that she was the mother of her patient's faithless
+lover; and on a second visit Selene was so shy, so timid and so strange
+in her demeanor, that the old woman was forced to conclude that her
+visit was an unpleasant intrusion.
+
+And from Arsinoe, whose residence she discovered from the deaconess, she
+met with even a worse reception. She had herself announced as the mother
+of Pollux the sculptor and was abruptly refused admission, with the
+information that Arsinoe was not to be spoken with by her and that her
+visits were, once for all, prohibited. After the architect Pontius had
+been to seek her out and had encouraged her to make another attempt
+to see and speak to Arsinoe, who clung faithfully to Pollux, Paulina
+herself had received her and sent her away with such repellent words
+that she went home to her husband deeply insulted and distressed to
+tears. Nor had she resisted Euphorion's decision when he prohibited her
+ever again crossing the Christian's threshold.
+
+The Emperor's donation had been most welcome and timely to the poor old
+couple, for Euphorion had completely lost the softness of his voice as
+well as his memory through the agitations and troubles of the last few
+months; he had been dismissed from the chorus of the theatre and could
+only find employment and very small pay of a few drachmae, in the
+mysteries of certain petty sectarians or in singing at weddings or in
+hymns of lamentation. At the same time the old folks had to maintain
+their daughter whom Pollux could no longer provide for, and the birds,
+the Graces and the cat all must eat. That it would be possible to get
+rid of them was an idea which never occurred to either Euphorion or
+Doris.
+
+By day the old folks had ceased to laugh; but at night they still
+had many cheerful hours, for then Hope would beguile them with bright
+pictures of the future, and tell them all sorts of possible and
+impossible romances which filled their souls with fresh courage. How
+often they would see Pollux returning from the distant city whither he
+had probably fled-from Rome, or even from Athens--crowned with laurels
+and rich in treasure. The Emperor, who still so kindly remembered them,
+could not always be angry with him; perhaps he might some day send a
+messenger to seek Pollux and to make up to him by large commissions for
+all he had made him suffer. That her darling was alive she was sure; in
+that she could not be mistaken, often as Euphorion tried to persuade her
+that he must be dead. The singer could tell many tales of luckless men
+who had been murdered and never seen or heard of again; but she was not
+to be convinced, she persisted in hope, and lived wholly in the purpose
+of sending her younger son, Teuker, on his travels to seek his lost
+brother as soon as his apprenticeship was over, which would be in a few
+months.
+
+Antinous, whose burnt hands had soon got well under the Emperor's care,
+and who had never felt a liking and friendship for any other young man
+but Pollux, lamented the artist's disappearance and wished much to seek
+out dame Doris; but he found it harder than ever to leave his master,
+and was so eager always to be at hand that Hadrian often laughingly
+reproached him with making his slaves' duties too light.
+
+When at last he really was master of an hour to himself he postponed his
+intention of seeing his friend's parents; for with him there was always
+a wide world between the purpose and the deed which he never could
+overleap, if not urged by some strong impulse; and his most pressing
+instincts prompted him, when the Emperor was disputing in the Museum
+or receiving instructions from the chiefs of the different religious
+communities as to the doctrines they severally professed, to visit the
+suburban villa where, when February had already begun, Selene was still
+living. He had often succeeded in stealing into Paulina's garden, but
+he could not at first realize his hope of being observed by Selene of
+obtaining speech with her. Whenever he went near Hannah's little house,
+Mary, the deformed girl, would come in his way, tell him how her friend
+was, and beg or desire him to go away. She was always with the sick
+girl, for now her mother was nursed by her sister, and dame Hannah
+had obtained permission for her to work at home in gumming the
+papyrus-strips together.
+
+The widow herself was obliged to be at her post in the factory, for her
+duties as overseer made her presence indispensable in the work-room.
+
+Thus it came to pass that it was always by Mary and never by Hannah that
+Antinous was received and dismissed. A certain understanding had
+arisen between the beautiful youth and the deformed girl. When Antinous
+appeared and she called out to him: "What, again already!" he would
+grasp her hand and implore her only once to grant his wish; but she was
+always firm, only she never sent him away sternly but with smiles and
+friendly admonitions. When he brought rare and lovely flowers in his
+pallium and entreated her to give them to Selene in the name of her
+friend at Lochias, she would take them and promise to place them in her
+room; but she always said it would do neither him nor her any good at
+all that Selene should know from whom they came. After such repulses he
+well knew how to flatter and coax her with appealing words, but he had
+never dared to defy her or to gain his end by force. When the flowers
+were placed in the room Mary looked at them much oftener than Selene
+did, and when Antinous had been long absent the deformed girl longed to
+see him again, and would pace restlessly up and down between the garden
+gate and her friend's little house. She, like him, dreamed of an angel,
+and the angel of whom she dreamed was exactly like himself. In all
+her prayers she included the name of the handsome heathen and a soft
+tenderness in which a gentle pity was often infused, a grief for his
+unredeemed soul, was inseparable from all her thoughts of him.
+
+Hannah was informed by her of each of the young man's visits, and
+as often as Mary mentioned Antinous the deaconess seemed anxious and
+desired her to threaten to call the gate-keeper to him. The widow knew
+full well who her patient's indefatigable admirer was, for she had once
+heard him speaking to Mastor, and she had asked the slave, who availed
+himself of every spare moment to attend the services of the Christians,
+who the lad was. All Alexandria, nay all the Empire, knew the name of
+the most beautiful youth of his time, the spoilt favorite of Caesar.
+Even Hannah had heard of him and knew that poets sang his praises and
+heathen women were eager to obtain a glance from his eyes. She knew
+how devoid of all morality were the lives of the nobles at Rome, and
+Antinous appeared to her as a splendid falcon that wheels above a dove
+to swoop down upon it at a favorable moment and to tear it in its beak
+and talons. Hannah also knew that Selene was acquainted with Antinous,
+that it was he who had formerly rescued her from the big dog and
+afterward saved her from the water; but that Selene, who was now
+recovering, did not know who her preserver had been on this second
+occasion was clear from all that she said.
+
+Towards the end of February Antinous had come on three days in
+succession, and Hannah now took the step of begging the bishop, Eumenes,
+to give the gate keeper strict injunctions to look out for the young
+man and to forbid his entering the garden, even with force if it should
+prove necessary.
+
+But "love laughs at locksmiths" and finds its way through locked doors,
+and Antinous succeeded all the same in finding his way into Paulina's
+garden. On one of these occasions he was so happy to surprise Selene,
+as, supported on a stick and accompanied by a fair-haired boy and dame
+Hannah herself, she hobbled up and down.
+
+Antinous had learnt to regard everything crippled or defective with
+aversion, as a monstrous failure of nature's plastic harmony, but to
+pity it tenderly; but now he felt quite differently. Mary with her
+humpback had at first horrified him; now he was always glad to see her
+though she always crossed his wishes; and poor lame Selene, who had been
+mocked at by the street boys as she limped along, seemed to him more
+adorable than ever. How lovely were her face and form, how peculiar her
+way of walking--she did not limp--no, she swayed along the garden. Thus,
+as he said to himself afterwards, the Nereids are borne along on the
+undulating waves. Love is easily satisfied, nor is this strange, for
+it raises all that comes within its embrace to a loftier level of
+existence. In the light of love weakness is a virtue and want an
+additional charm.
+
+But the Bithynian's visits were not the widow's only cares; though
+she bore the others, it is true, not anxiously but with pleasure. Her
+household had increased by two living souls, and her income was very
+small. That her patient might not want, she had to work with her own
+hands while she superintended the girls in the factory, and to carry
+home with her in the evening papyrus-leaves, not only for Mary, but
+for herself too, and to glue them together during the long hours of the
+night. As soon as Selene's condition improved, she too helped willingly
+and diligently, but for many weeks the convalescent had to give up every
+kind of employment.
+
+Mary often looked at Hannah in silent trouble, for she looked very pale.
+After she had, on one occasion fallen in a fainting fit, the deformed
+girl had gathered courage and had represented to her that though she
+ought indeed to put out at interest the talent intrusted to her by the
+Lord, she ought not to spend it recklessly. She was giving herself no
+rest, working day and night; visiting the poor and sick in her hours of
+recreation just as she used, and if she did not give herself more rest
+would soon need nursing instead of nursing others.
+
+"At any rate," urged Mary, "give yourself a little indispensable sleep
+at night."
+
+"We must live," replied Hannah, "and I dare not borrow, for I may never
+be able to repay."
+
+"Then beg Paulina to remit your house-rent; she will do so gladly."
+
+"No," said Hannah, decidedly. "The rent of this little house goes to
+benefit my poor people, and you know how badly they want it. What we
+give we lend to the Lord, and he taxes no man above his ability."
+
+Selene was now well, but the physician had said that no human skill
+could ever cure her of her lameness. She had become Hannah's daughter,
+and blind Helios the son of the house.
+
+Arsinoe was only allowed to see her sister rarely and always accompanied
+by her protectress, and she and Selene never were able to have any
+unchecked and open conversation. The steward's eldest daughter was now
+contented and cheerful, while the younger was not only saddened by the
+disappearance of her lover, but also, from being unhappy in her new
+home, she had become fractious and easily moved to shed tears. All was
+well with the younger orphans; they were often taken to see Selene, and
+spoke with affection of their new parents.
+
+As she got well her help diminished the strain on her two friends,
+and in the beginning of March a call came to the widow which, if she
+followed it, must give their simple existence a new aspect.
+
+In Upper Egypt certain Christian fraternities had been established, and
+one of these had addressed a prayer to the great mother-community at
+Alexandria, that it would send to them a presbyter, a deacon and
+a deaconess capable of organizing and guiding the believers and
+catechumens in the province of Hermopolis where they were already
+numbered by thousands. The life of the community and the care of the
+poor, and sick in the outlying districts required organization by
+experienced hands, and Hannah had been asked whether she could make up
+her mind to leave the metropolis and carry on the work of benevolence at
+Besa in an extended sphere.
+
+She would there have a pleasant house, a palm-garden, and gifts from the
+congregation which would secure not merely her own maintenance, but that
+of her adopted children.
+
+Hannah was bound to Alexandria by many ties; in the first place she
+clung to the poor and sick, many of whom had grown very dear to her,
+and how many girls who had gone astray had she rescued from evil in the
+factory alone! She begged for a short time for reflection, and this was
+granted to her. By the fifteenth of March she was to decide, but by
+the fifth she had already made up her mind, for while Hannah was in the
+papyrus-factory Antinous had succeeded in getting into Paulina's garden
+shortly before sunset and in stealing close up to Hannah's house. Mary
+again observed him as he approached and signed to him to go, in her
+usual pleasant way; but the Bithynian was more excited than usual; he
+seized her hand and clasped her with urgent warmth as he implored her
+to be merciful. She endeavored at once to free herself, but he would not
+let her go, but cried in coaxing tones:
+
+"I must see her and speak to her to-day, dear, good Mary, only this
+once!" And before she could prevent it he had kissed her forehead and
+had flown into the house to Selene. The little hunchback did not know
+what had happened to her; confused and almost paralyzed by conflicting
+feelings she stood shame-faced, gazing at the ground. She felt that
+something quite extraordinary had happened to her, but this wonderful
+something radiated a dazzling splendor, and since this had risen for
+her, for poor Mary, a feeling of pride quite new to her mingled with the
+shame and indignation that filled her soul. She needed a few minutes
+to collect herself and to recover a sense of her duty, and those few
+minutes were made good use of by Antinous.
+
+He flew with long steps into the room in which, on that
+never-to-be-forgotten night, he had laid Selene on the couch, and even
+at the threshold he called her by her name. She started and laid aside
+the book out of which she was reading to her blind brother. He called a
+second time, beseechingly. Selene recognized him and asked calmly:
+
+"Do you want me, or dame Hannah?"
+
+"You, you!" he cried passionately. "Oh Selene, I pulled you out of the
+water, and since that night I have never ceased to think of you and I
+must die for love of you. Have your thoughts never, never met mine on
+the way to you? Are you still and always as cold, as passive as you were
+then when you belonged half to life and half to death? For months have
+I prowled round this house as the shade of a dead man haunts the spot
+where he had left all that was dear to him on earth, and I have never
+been able to tell you what I feel for you?" As he spoke the lad fell
+on the ground before her and tried to clasp her knees; but she said
+reproachfully:
+
+"What does all this mean? Stand up and compose yourself."
+
+"Oh! let me, let me--" he besought her. "Do not be so cold and so hard;
+have pity on me and do not reject me!"
+
+"Stand up," repeated the girl. "I will certainly not reproach you--I owe
+you thanks on the contrary."
+
+"Not thanks, but love--a little love is all I ask."
+
+"I try to love all men," replied the girl, "and so I love you because
+you have shown me very much kindness."
+
+"Selene, Selene!" he exclaimed in joyful triumph. He threw himself again
+at her feet and passionately seized her right hand; but hardly had he
+taken it in his own when Mary, scarlet with agitation, rushed into the
+room. In a husky voice, full of hatred and fury, she commanded him to
+leave the house at once, and when he attempted again to besiege her ear
+with entreaties she cried out:
+
+"If you do not obey I will call the men in to help us, who are out there
+attending to the flowers. I ask you, will you obey or will you not?"
+
+"Why are you so cruel, Mary?" asked the blind boy. "This man is good and
+kind and tells Selene he loves her."
+
+Antinous pointed to the child with an imploring gesture but Mary was
+already by the window and was raising her hand to her mouth to make her
+call heard.
+
+"Don't, don't," cried Antinous. "I am going at once."
+
+And he went slowly and silently towards the door, still gazing at Selene
+with passionate ardor; then he quitted the room groaning with shame and
+disappointment, though still with a look of radiant pride as though he
+had achieved some great deed. In the garden he was met by Hannah, who
+immediately hastened with accelerated steps to her own house where she
+found Mary sobbing violently and dissolved in tears.
+
+The widow was soon informed of all that had occurred in her absence, and
+an hour later she had announced to the bishop that she would accept the
+call to Besa and was ready to start for Upper Egypt.
+
+"With your foster-children?" asked Eumenes.
+
+"Yes. It was indeed Selene's most earnest wish to be baptized by you,
+but as a year of probation is required--"
+
+"I will perform the rite to-morrow morning."
+
+"To-morrow, Father?"
+
+"Yes, Sister, in all confidence. She buried the old man in the waves of
+the sea, and before we were her teachers she had gone through the school
+and discipline of life. While she was yet a heathen she had taken up her
+cross and proved herself as faithful as though she were a child of the
+Lord. All that was lacking to her--Faith, Love and Hope--she has found
+under your roof. I thank thee for this soul thou hast found Sister, in
+the name of the Lord."
+
+"Not I, not I," said the widow. "Her heart was frozen, but it is not I
+but the innocent faith of the blind child that has melted it."
+
+"She owes her salvation to him and to you," replied the bishop, "and
+they both shall be baptized together. We will give the lovely boy the
+name of the fairest of the disciples, and call him John. Selene for the
+future, if she herself likes it, shall be known as Martha."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Selene and Helios were baptized, and two days after dame Hannah with
+her adopted children and Mary, escorted by the presbyter Hilarion and
+a deacon, embarked in the harbor of Mareotis on board a Nile-boat which
+was to convey them to their new home, the town of Besa in Upper Egypt.
+The deformed girl had hesitated as to her answer to the widow's question
+whether she would accompany her. Her old mother dwelt in Alexandria, and
+then--but it was this "then" which helped her abruptly to cut short
+all reflection and to pronounce a decided "yes," for it referred to
+Antinous.
+
+For a few minutes it had seemed unendurable to think that she should
+never see him again, for she could not help often thinking of the
+beautiful youth, and her whole heart ought to belong solely to the One
+who had with His blood purchased peace for her on earth and bliss in the
+world to come.
+
+The day after being baptized, Selene had gone to Paulina's town-house,
+and there, with many tears had taken leave of Arsinoe. All the affection
+which bound the sisters together found expression at this moment of
+parting. Selene had heard from Paulina that Pollux was dead, and she
+no longer grudged her rival sister that she grieved for him more
+passionately than herself, though at first her peace of mind had more
+than once been disturbed by memories of her old playfellow.
+
+She felt it hard to leave Alexandria, where most of her brothers and
+sisters were left behind, and yet she rejoiced to think of a distant
+home, for she was no longer the same creature that she had been a few
+months since, and she longed for a remote scene of a new and sanctified
+life.
+
+Eumenes and Hannah were in the right. It was not the widow but the
+little blind boy who had won her to Christianity. The child's influence
+had proceeded in a strange course. In the first instance the promises of
+the slave Master that Helios should some day meet his father again in a
+shining realm among beautiful angels had a powerful effect on the blind
+child's tender heart and vivid imagination. In Hannah's house his hopes
+had received fresh nurture, and Mary and the widow told him much about
+their kind and loving God and His Son who loved children and had invited
+them to come to Him. When Selene began to recover and he was permitted
+to talk to her he poured out to her all his delight at what he had heard
+from the women. At first, to be sure, his sister took no pleasure in
+these fanciful fables and tried to shake his belief and lead back
+his heart to the old gods. But while she tried to guide the child, by
+degrees she felt compelled to follow in his path; at first with wavering
+steps, but dame Hannah helped her by her example and with many words
+of good counsel. She only taught her doctrine when the girl asked her
+questions and begged for information. All that here surrounded Selene
+breathed of love and peace, and the child felt this, spoke of it, forced
+her to acknowledge it, and, in his own person, was the first object on
+which to exercise a wish hitherto unknown to her, to be herself loving
+and lovable. The boy's firm faith, which was not to be shaken by any
+reasoning or by any of the myths which she knew, touched her deeply and
+led to her asking Hannah what was the real bearing of one and another of
+his statements. It had always seemed a comfort to her that the miseries
+of our earthly life would come to an end with death; but Helios left her
+without a reply when he said in a sad voice:
+
+"Do you feel no longing, then, to see our father and mother again?"
+
+To see her mother again! This thought gave her an interest in the next
+world, and dame Hannah fanned the spark of hope in her soul into flame.
+
+Selene had seen and suffered much misery, and was accustomed to call the
+gods cruel. Helios told her that God and the Saviour were good and kind,
+and loved human beings as their children.
+
+"Is it not good and kind," asked he, "of our Heavenly Father to lead us
+to dame Hannah?"
+
+"Yes, but we have all been torn apart," said Selene. "Never mind," said
+the child confidently, "we shall all meet in Heaven."
+
+As she got well Selene asked after each of the children and Hannah
+described all the families into which they had been received. The widow
+did not look as if she spoke falsely, and the little ones, when they
+came to see her, confirmed her report, and yet Selene could hardly
+believe in the accuracy of the pictures drawn of their lives in the
+houses of the Christians.
+
+The mother of a Christian family--says a great Christian teacher--should
+be the pride of her children, the wife the pride of her husband, husband
+and children the pride of the wife, and God the pride and glory of every
+member of the household. Love and faith in fact the bond, contentment
+and virtuous living the law of the family; and it was in just such a
+pure and beneficent atmosphere, as Selene herself and Helios felt the
+blessing of in Hannah's house, that each and all of her brothers and
+sisters were growing up. Her upright sense gave an honest answer when
+she asked herself what would have become of them all if her father had
+remained alive and had been dispossessed of his office? They must all
+have perished in misery and degradation.
+
+And now?--Perhaps in truth the Divine Being had dealt in kindness with
+the children.
+
+Love, love, and again love, was breathed from all she saw and heard, and
+yet--was it not love that had caused her greatest sorrows. Wherefore
+had it been her lot to endure so much through the same sentiment which
+beautified life to others? Had any one ever had more to suffer than
+she? Aye indeed! A vivacious, eager youth had duped her and had promised
+happiness to her sister instead of to her; it had been hard to bear--and
+yet, the Saviour of whom Hellos had told her, had been far more severely
+tried. Mankind, for whom He--the Son of God--had come down upon earth,
+to save from misery and guilt, had rewarded His loving kindness by
+hanging Him on the cross. In Him she could see a companion in suffering
+and she asked the widow to tell her all about Him. Selene had made
+many sacrifices to her family--she could never forget her walk to the
+papyrus-factory--but He had let them mock Him and had shed His blood
+for His own. And who was she?--and who was He? The Son of God. His image
+became dear to her; she was never weary of hearing about His life and
+fate, His words and deeds; and without her observing it the day came
+when her soul was free to receive the teaching of Christ with fervent
+longing. With faith she acquired that consciousness of guilt which had
+previously been unknown to her. She had been busy and industrious out
+of pride and fear, but never from love; she had selfishly tried to fling
+from her the sacred gift of life without ever thinking what would become
+of those whom it was her duty to care for. She had cursed her lovely
+sister who needed her protection and care, and even Pollux, her
+childhood's playfellow; and a thousand times had she imprecated the
+ruler of human destinies. All this she now keenly felt with all the
+earnestness natural to her, but she was soothed by the tidings that
+there was One who had redeemed the world, and taken on Himself the sins
+of every repentant sinner.
+
+After Selene had once expressed to the widow her desire to be a
+Christian, Hannah brought the bishop to see her. He himself undertook to
+instruct the girl and he found in her a disciple anxious and craving for
+knowledge. Just like those dried-up and dull-colored plants which,
+when they are plunged in water, open out and revive, so did her heart,
+untimely withered and dry; and she longed to be perfectly recovered
+that she, like Hannah, might tend the sick and exercise that love which
+Christ demands of His followers. That which most particularly appealed
+to her in her new faith was that it did not promise joys to the rich
+who could make great sacrifices, but to the miserable sinner who with a
+contrite heart yearned for forgiveness, to the poor and abject, towards
+whom she felt as though they belonged to the same family as herself. And
+her valiant spirit could not be satisfied with intentions but longed
+to act upon them. In Besa she could set to work with Hannah, and this
+prospect lightened her grief in quitting Alexandria.
+
+A favoring wind bore the voyagers southward safe to their destination.
+
+Two days after their departure Antinous once more stole into Paulina's
+garden. He went up to the widow's little house looking in vain for the
+deformed girl; the road was open; her absence could but be pleasing
+to him, and yet it disquieted him. His heart beat wildly, for
+to-day--perhaps he might find Selene alone. He opened the door without
+knocking, but he dared not cross the threshold, for in the anteroom
+stood a strange man, placing boards against the wall. The carpenter, a
+Christian to whom Paulina had given this little house for his family to
+live in, asked Antinous what he wanted.
+
+"Is dame Hannah at home?" stammered the Bithynian.
+
+"She no longer lives here."
+
+"And her adopted daughter, Selene?"
+
+"She is gone with her into Upper Egypt. Have you any message for her?"
+
+"No," said the lad, quite confounded.
+
+"When did they go?"
+
+"The day before yesterday."
+
+"And they are not coming back."
+
+"For the next few years, certainly not. Later may be, if it is the
+Lord's pleasure."
+
+Antinous left the garden by the public gate, unmolested. He was very
+pale, and he felt like a wanderer in the desert who finds the spring
+choked where he had hoped to find a refreshing draught.
+
+Next day, at the first moment he could dispose of, Antinous again
+knocked at the carpenter's door to inquire in what town of Upper Egypt
+the travellers proposed to settle and the artisan told him frankly, "In
+Besa."
+
+Antinous had always been a dreamer, but Hadrian had never seen him so
+listless, so vaguely brooding as in these days. When he tried to rouse
+him and spur him to greater energy his favorite would look at him
+beseechingly, and though he made every effort to be of use to him and
+to show him a cheerful countenance it was always with but brief success.
+Even on the hunting excursions into the Libyan desert which the Emperor
+frequently made, Antinous remained apathetic and indifferent to the
+pleasures of the sport to which he had formerly devoted himself with
+enjoyment and skill.
+
+The Emperor had remained in Alexandria longer than in any other place,
+and was weary of festivities and banquets, of the wordy war with the
+philosophers of the Museum, of conversing with the ecstatic mystics, the
+soothsayers; astrologers and empirics with whom the place swarmed. And
+the short audiences which he accorded to the heads of the different
+religious communities, and the inspection of the factories and workshops
+of this centre of industry, began to annoy him. One day he announced his
+intention of visiting the southern provinces of the Nile valley.
+
+The high-priests of the native Egyptian faith had craved this favor
+of him, and he was prompted, not only by his love of information and
+passion for travelling, but also by considerations of state-craft, to
+gratify this desire of a hierarchy which was extremely influential in
+those rich and important provinces. The prospect of seeing with his
+own eyes those marvels of Pharaonic times which attracted so many
+travellers, was also an incitement, and his good spirits rose as soon as
+he observed what a reviving effect his determination to visit southern
+Egypt had upon Antinous.
+
+His favorite had for the last few weeks expressed not the smallest
+pleasure at any single thing. The homage paid him no less by the
+Alexandrian than by the Roman ladies of rank sickened him. At banquets
+he sat a silent guest whose neighborhood could not add to anybody's
+pleasure, and even the most brilliant and exciting exhibitions in the
+Circus and the best contests and races in the Hippodrome had hardly
+sufficed to attract his gaze. Formerly he had been an eager and
+attentive spectator of the plays of Menander and of his imitators,
+Alexis, Apollodorus and Posidippus; but now when they were performed he
+stared into vacancy and thought of Selene. The prospect of going to
+the place where she was living excited him powerfully and revived his
+drooping courage for life. He could hope once more, and to the man who
+sees light shining in the future the present is no longer dark.
+
+Hadrian rejoiced in this change in the lad and hastened the preparations
+for their departure; still, some months passed before he could begin his
+journey.
+
+In the first place he had to provide for newly colonizing Libya, which
+had been depopulated by a revolt of the Jews. Then he had to come to
+a determination as to certain new post-roads which were to connect the
+different parts of the empire more nearly, and finally he had to await
+the formal assent of the Roman Senate to some new resolutions concerning
+the hereditary reversion of conferred free-citizenship. This assent
+was, no doubt a matter of course, but the Emperor never issued an edict
+without it, and he was very desirous that his decree should come into
+operation as soon as possible.
+
+In the course of his visits to the Museum the sovereign had informed
+himself as to the position of the several members of that institution,
+and he was occupied in making certain regulations which should relieve
+them of the more sordid cares of life; the condition of the aged
+teachers and educators of the young had also attracted his observation,
+and he had endeavored to improve it.
+
+When Sabina represented to him what a large outlay these new measures
+would entail, he replied:
+
+"We do not allow the veterans to perish who placed their lives, and
+limbs at the service of the state. Why then should those who serve it
+with their intellect be burdened with petty cares? Which should we rank
+the higher, power and poverty or mental wealth? The harder I--as the
+sovereign--find it to answer the question the more positively do I feel
+it to be my duty to mete out the same measure to all veterans alike,
+whether officials, warriors or instructors."
+
+The Alexandrians themselves detained him too by a succession of new acts
+of homage. They raised him to the rank of a divinity, dedicated a temple
+to him, and instituted a series of new festivals in his honor; partly
+no doubt to win his partiality for their city and to express their
+pride and satisfaction in his long stay there, but also because the
+pleasure-loving community was glad to seize this opportunity as a
+favorable one for gratifying their own inclinations and revelling in
+mere unusual enjoyment. Thus the Imperial visit swallowed up millions,
+and Hadrian, who enquired into every detail and contrived to obtain
+information as to the sums expended by the city, blamed the recklessness
+of his lavish entertainers. He wrote afterwards to his brother-in-law,
+Servianus, his fullest recognition of both the wealth and the industry
+of Alexandrians, saying, with terms of praise, that among them not one
+was idle. One made glass, another papyrus, another linen; and each of
+these restless mortals, said he, is busied in some handiwork. Even
+the lame, the blind and the maimed here sought and found employment.
+Nevertheless he calls the Alexandrians a contumacious and
+good-for-nothing community, with sharp and evil tongues that had spared
+neither Verus nor Antinous. Jews, Christians, and the votaries of
+Serapis, he adds in the same letter, serve but one God instead of the
+divinities of Olympus, and when he asserts of the Christians that they
+even worshipped Serapis he means to say that they were persuaded of
+the doctrine of the survival of the soul after death. The dispute as to
+which temple should be assigned as the residence of the newly-found Apis
+gave Hadrian much to do. From time immemorial this sacred bull had been
+kept in the temple of Ptah at Memphis, but this venerable city of the
+Pyramids had been outstripped by Alexandria, and the temple of Serapis
+outvied that at Memphis in the province of Sokari, tenfold in size and
+in magnificence. The Egyptians of Alexandria, who dwelt in the quarter
+called Rhakotis, close to the Serapeum, desired to have the incarnation
+of the god in the form of a bull, in their midst; but the Memphites
+would not abandon their old prescriptive rights, and the Emperor
+had found it far from easy to guide the contest, which proved a very
+exciting one to all parties, to a satisfactory issue. Memphis had its
+Apis, and the Serapeum was indemnified by certain endowments which had
+formerly been granted to the temple at Memphis.
+
+At last, in June, the Emperor could set out. He wished to traverse the
+province on foot and on horseback, and Sabina was to follow by boat as
+soon as the inundation should begin.
+
+The Empress would gladly have returned to Rome or to Tibur, for Verus
+had been obliged to quit Egypt by the orders of the physician as soon as
+the summer heat had set in. He departed with his wife, as the son of
+the Imperial couple, but no word on Hadrian's part had justified him in
+hoping confidently to be nominated as his successor to the sovereignty.
+
+The handsome rake's unlimited dissipations were severely checked by his
+sufferings, but not altogether prevented, and on his return to Rome he
+continued to indulge in all the pleasures of life. Hadrian's hesitation
+and reluctance often disquieted him, for that imperial Sphinx had,
+only too frequently, given the most unexpected solutions to his
+mystifications. But the fatal end with which he had been threatened
+caused him small anxiety; nay, Ben Jochai's prediction rather prompted
+him to enjoy to the utmost every hour of health and ease that Fate might
+still allow him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Balbilla and her companion, Publius Balbinus and other illustrious
+Romans, Favorinus the sophist, and a numerous suite of chamberlains
+and servants, were to accompany the Empress by water, while Hadrian
+set forth on his land journey with a small escort to which he added a
+splendid array of huntsmen. Before he reached Memphis, in crossing the
+Libyan desert, through which his road lay, he had killed a few lions and
+many other beasts of prey, and here he had once more found Antinous the
+best of sporting companions. Cool headed in danger, indefatigable on
+foot, content and serviceable in all circumstances, the young fellow
+seemed to Hadrian to be a comrade created by the gods themselves for
+his special delectation. When Hadrian was in the humor to brood and
+be silent the whole day long, he never disturbed him by a word; but in
+these moods the Emperor found his favorite's society indispensable, for
+the mere consciousness of his presence soothed him.
+
+Antinous too, was happy on these occasions, for he felt that he was of
+some use to his venerated master and could thus alleviate the burden
+which had never ceased to weigh on his own soul ever since the crime
+he had committed. Besides, he preferred dreaming to talking, and the
+exercise in the open air preserved him from listless lassitude.
+
+In Memphis Hadrian was detained a whole month, for there he was expected
+to visit the Egyptian temples with Sabina, who had arrived before him,
+and to submit to many ceremonials invested with the regalia of the
+Pharaohs. Sabina often felt as if she must faint when, crowned with the
+ponderous vulture-headed fillet of the Queens of Egypt, weighed down
+with long robes and golden ornaments, she was conducted with her
+husband, in procession, through all the rooms, over the roof and
+finally into the holiest place of some vast sanctuary. What senseless
+ceremonials they had to go through in the course of these long circuits,
+and how many sacrifices had they to attend! When she returned from
+these visitations she was utterly exhausted, and indeed, it was no
+small exertion to undergo so many fumigations with incense and so many
+aspersions, to listen to so many litanies and hymns, to parade through
+such endless halls and while being elevated to the rank of celestial
+beings, to be crowned with so many crowns in turn and decorated with all
+kinds of fillets and symbolic adornments.
+
+Her husband set her a good example, however; through all the ceremonials
+he displayed the whole grave majesty of his nature, and among the
+Egyptians behaved as one of themselves. He even took pleasure in
+the mystical lore of the priests, with whom he often held long
+conversations.
+
+As at Memphis, so in all the principal temples of the great cities to
+the southward, the Imperial pair accepted the homage of the hierarchy
+and the honors due to divinity. Wherever Hadrian granted money for the
+extension of a temple, he was required to perform the ceremony of laying
+a stone with his own hand. But he always found time to hunt in
+the desert, to manage the affairs of state, and to visit the most
+interesting monuments of past times, and at Memphis especially, the city
+of the dead, with the Pyramids, the great Sphinx, the Serapeum and the
+tombs of the Apis.
+
+Before quitting the city he and his companions consulted the oracle of
+the sacred bull. The fairest future was promised to Balbilla; the bull
+to whom she had to offer a cake, with her face averted, had approved
+of her gift and had touched her hand with his moist muzzle. Hadrian was
+left in ignorance as to the sentence of the priests of Apis, for it
+was given to him in a sealed roll with an explanation of the signs it
+contained; but he was solemnly adjured not to open them before at least
+half a year had elapsed.
+
+It was only in the cities that Hadrian met his wife, for he pursued
+his journey by land and she hers by water. The boats almost invariably
+reached their destination sooner than the land-travellers, and when they
+at last arrived, there was always a grand festival to welcome them, in
+which however Sabina but rarely took part. Balbilla proved herself all
+the more eager to make their arrival pleasant by some kindly surprise.
+She sincerely reverenced Hadrian, and his favorite's beauty had an
+irresistible charm for her artist's soul. It was a delight to her only
+to look at him; his absence troubled her, and when he returned she was
+always the first to greet him. And yet the bright girl troubled herself
+about him neither more nor less than the other ladies in Sabina's train;
+only Balbilla asked nothing of him but the pleasure of looking at him
+and rejoicing in his beauty.
+
+If he had dared to mistake her admiration for love and to have offered
+her his, the poetess would have indignantly brought him to his bearings;
+and yet she gave unqualified expression to her admiration of the
+Bithynian's splendid person, and indeed with rather remarkable
+demonstrativeness.
+
+When the travellers made their appearance again after a prolonged
+absence Antinous would find in the room in the ship where he was to live
+flowers, and choice fruits sent by her, and verses in which she had sung
+his praises. He put it all aside with the rest and only esteemed the
+donor the less; but the poetess knew nothing of these sentiments in
+her beautiful idol, and indeed troubled herself very little about his
+feelings. She had hitherto found no difficulty in keeping within the
+limits of what was becoming. But lately there had been moments in
+which she had owned to herself that she might be carried away into
+overstepping these limits. But what did she care for the opinion
+of those around her, or about the inner life of the Bithyman, whose
+external perfection of form was all that pleased her. She did not shrink
+from the possibility of arousing hopes in him which she never could nor
+intended to fulfil, for the idea did not once enter her mind; still
+she felt dissatisfied with herself, for there was one person who
+might disapprove of her proceedings, one who had indeed in plain words
+reprehended her fancy for doing honor to the handsome boy with offerings
+of flowers, and the opinion of that one person weighed with her more
+than that of all the rest of the men and women she knew, put together.
+
+This one was Pontius the architect; and yet, strangely enough, it was
+precisely her remembrance of him that urged her on from one folly to
+another. She had often seen the architect in Alexandria, and when they
+parted she had allowed him to promise to follow her and the Empress, and
+to escort them at any rate for a part of their voyage up the Nile. But
+he came not, nor had he sent any report of himself, though he was alive
+and well, and every express that overtook them brought documents for
+Caesar in his handwriting.
+
+So he, on whose faithful devotion she had built as on a rock, was no
+less self-seeking and fickle than other men. She thought of him every
+day and every hour; and as soon as a vessel from the north cast anchor
+within sight, she watched the voyagers as they disembarked to detect him
+among them. She longed for Pontius as a traveller who has lost his way
+sighs for a sight of the guide who has deserted him; and yet she
+was angry with him, for he had betrayed by a thousand tokens that he
+esteemed and cared for her, that she had a certain power over his strong
+will--and now he had broken his word and did not come.
+
+And she? She had not been unmoved by his devotion, and had been gentler
+to this grandson of her father's freed slave than to the best-born man
+of her own rank. And in spite of it all Pontius could spoil all the
+pleasure of her journey and stay in Alexandria instead of following
+in her wake. He could easily have intrusted his building to other
+architects--the great metropolis was swarming with them! Well, if he did
+not trouble himself about her she certainly need care even less about
+him. Perhaps at last, at the end of their travels he might yet come, and
+then he should see how much she cared for his admonitions.
+
+But she sighed impatiently for the hour when she might read him all the
+verses she had addressed to Antinous, and ask him how he liked them. It
+gave her a childish pleasure to add to the number of these little poems,
+to finish them elaborately, and display in them all her knowledge and
+ability. She gave the preference to artificial and massive metres; some
+of the verses were in Latin, others in the Attic, and others again in
+the Aeolian dialects of Greek, for she had now learnt to use this, and
+all to punish Pontius--to vex Pontius--and at the same time to appear in
+his eyes as brilliant as she could. She belauded Antinous, but she
+wrote for Pontius, and for every flower she gave the lad she had sent
+a thought to the architect, though with a curl on her lips of scornful
+defiance.
+
+But a young girl cannot be always praising the beauty of a youth in new
+and varied forms with complete impunity, and thus there were hours when
+Balbilla was inclined to believe that she really loved Antinous. Then
+she would call herself his Sappho, and he seemed destined to be her
+Phaon. During his long absences with the Emperor she would long to see
+him--nay, even with tears; but, as soon as he was by her side again, and
+she could look at his inanimate beauty and into his weary eyes, when she
+heard the torpid "Yes" or "No" with which he replied to her questions,
+the spell was entirely broken and she honestly confessed to herself that
+she would as soon see him before her hewn in marble as clothed in flesh
+and blood.
+
+In such moments as these her memory of the architect was particularly
+fresh, and once, when their ship was sailing through a mass of lotos
+leaves, above which one splendid full-blown flower raised its head, her
+apt imagination, which rapidly seized on everything noteworthy and gave
+it poetic form, entwined the incident in a set of verses, in which she
+designated Antinous as the lotos-flower which fulfils its destiny
+simply by being beautiful, and comparing Pontius to the ship which, well
+constructed and well guided, invited the traveller to new voyages in
+distant lands.
+
+The Nile voyage came to an end at Thebes of the hundred gates, and here
+nothing that could attract the Roman travellers remained unvisited. The
+tombs of the Pharaohs extending into the very heart of the rocky hills,
+and the grand temples that stood to the west of the city of the dead,
+shorn though they were of their ancient glory, filled the Emperor with
+admiration. The Imperial travellers and their companions listened to
+the famous colossus of Memnon, of which the upper portion had been
+overthrown by an earthquake, and three times in the dawn they heard it
+sound.
+
+Balbilla described the incident in several long poems which Sabina
+caused to be engraved on the stone of the colossus. The poetess imagined
+herself as hearing the voice of Memnon singing to his mother Eos while
+her tears, the fresh morning dew, fell upon the image of her son, fallen
+before the walls of Troy. These verses she composed in the Aeolian
+dialect, named herself as their writer and informed the readers--among
+whom she included Pontius--that she was descended from a house no less
+noble than that of King Antiochus.
+
+The gigantic structures on each bank of the Nile fully equalled
+Hadrian's expectations, though they had suffered so much injury from
+earthquakes and sieges, and the impoverished priesthood of Thebes were
+no longer in a position to provide for their preservation even, much
+less for their restoration. Balbilla accompanied Caesar on a visit to
+the sanctuary of Ammon, on the eastern shore of the Nile. In the
+great hall, the most vast and lofty pillared hall in the world, her
+impressionable soul felt a peculiar exaltation, and as the Emperor
+observed how, with a heightened color she now gazed upward, and then
+again, leaning against a towering column, looked at the scene around
+her, he asked her what she felt, standing in this really worthy abode of
+the gods.
+
+"One thing--above all things one thing!" cried the girl. "That
+architecture is the sublimest of the arts! This temple is to me like
+some grand epode, and the poet who composed it conceived it not in
+feeble words but formed it out of almost immovable masses. Thousands
+of parts are here combined to form a whole, and each is welded with
+the rest into beautiful harmony and helps to give expression to the
+stupendous idea which existed in the brain of the builder of this
+hall. What other art is gifted with the power of creating a work so
+imperishable and so far transcending all ordinary standards?"
+
+"A poetess crowning the architect with laurels!" exclaimed the Emperor.
+"But is not the poet's realm the infinite, and can the architect ever
+get beyond the finite and the limited?"
+
+"Then is the nature of the divinity a measurable unit?" asked Balbilla.
+"No, it is not; and yet this hall gives one the impression that the very
+divinity might find space in it to dwell in."
+
+"Because it owes it existence to a master-mind, which while it conceived
+it stood on the boundary line of eternity. But do you think this temple
+will outlast the poems of Homer?"
+
+"No; but the memory of it will no more fade away that of the wrath of
+Achilles or the wanderings of the experienced Odysseus."
+
+"It is a pity that our friend Pontius cannot hear you," said Hadrian.
+"He has completed the plans for a work which is destined to outlive me
+and him and all of us.
+
+"I mean my own tomb. Besides that I intend him to erect gates, courts
+and halls in the Egyptian style at Tibur, which may remind us of our
+travels in this wonderful country. I expect him to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow!" exclaimed Balbilla, and her face fired with a scarlet flush
+to her very brow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Shortly after starting from Thebes--on the second day of
+November--Hadrian came to a great decision. Verus should be acknowledged
+not merely as his son but also as his successor.
+
+Sabina's urgency would not alone have sufficed to put a term to his
+hesitancy, especially as it had lately been farther increased by a wish
+that was all his own. His wife's heart had pined for a child, but he too
+had longed for a son, and he had found one in Antinous. His favorite was
+a boy he had picked up by chance, the son of humble though free parents,
+but it lay in the Emperor's power to make him great, to confer on him
+the highest posts of honor in the Empire, and at last to recognize him
+publicly as his heir. Antinous, if any one, had deserved this at his
+hands, and on no other man could he so ungrudgingly bestow everything
+that he possessed.
+
+These ideas and hopes had now filled his mind for many months, but the
+nature and the mood of the young Bithyman had been more and more adverse
+to them.
+
+Hadrian had striven more earnestly than his predecessors to raise the
+fallen dignity of the Senate, and still he could count securely on its
+consent to any measure. The leading official authorities of the Republic
+had been recognized and allowed the full exercise of their powers. To be
+sure, be they whom they might, they all had to obey the Emperor, still
+they were always there; and even with a weak ruler at its head the
+Empire might continue to subsist within the limits established by
+Hadrian, and restricted with wise moderation. Nevertheless, only a few
+months previously he would not have ventured to think of the adoption
+of his favorite. Now he hoped to find himself somewhat nearer to the
+fulfilment of his wishes. It is true Antinous was still a dreamer; but
+in their wanderings and hunting excursions through Egypt he had proved
+himself gallant and prompt, intelligent, and, after their departure from
+Thebes, even bold and lively at times. Antinous, under this aspect, he
+himself might take in hand, and even name him as his successor in due
+time, when he had risen from one post of honor to another. For the
+present this plan must remain unrevealed.
+
+When he publicly adopted Verus any idea of a possible new selection of
+a son was excluded, and he might unhesitatingly venture to appoint
+Sabina's darling his successor, for the most famous of the Roman
+physicians had written to Hadrian, by his desire, saying that the
+praetor's undermined strength could not be restored, and that, at the
+best, he could only have a limited number of years to live. Well, then,
+Verus might die slowly and contentedly in the midst of the most splendid
+anticipations, and when he should have closed his eyes it would be time
+enough to set the dreamer--by that time matured to vigorous manhood--in
+the vacant place.
+
+On the return journey from Thebes to Alexandria Hadrian met his wife at
+Abydos, and revealed to her his intention of proclaiming the son of her
+choice as his successor. Sabina thanked him with an exclamation of
+"At last!" which expressed partly her satisfaction, but partly too her
+annoyance at her husband's long delay. Hadrian gave her his permission
+to return to Rome from Alexandria, and on the very same day messages
+were despatched with letters both to the Senate and to the prefects of
+Egypt.
+
+The despatch intended for Titianus charged him to proclaim publicly
+the adoption of the praetor, to arrange at the same time for a grand
+festival, and on that occasion to grant to the people, in Caesar's
+name, all the boons and favors which by the traditional law of Egypt the
+Sovereign was expected to bestow at the birth of an heir to the throne.
+The whole suite of the Imperial pair celebrated Hadrian's decision by
+splendid banquets, but the Emperor did not himself take part in them,
+but crossed to the other bank of the Nile and went to Antaeopolis in the
+desert, meaning to penetrate from thence into the gorges of the Arabian
+desert and to chase wild beasts. No one was to accompany him but
+Antinous, Mastor, and a few huntsmen and some dogs.
+
+He meant to rejoin the ships at Besa. He had postponed his visit to
+this place till the return journey, because he had travelled up by the
+western shore of the Nile, and the passage across the river would have
+taken up too much time.
+
+The travellers' tents were pitched one sultry evening in November,
+between the Nile and the limestone range, in which was arrayed a long
+row of tombs of the period of the Pharaohs. Hadrian had gone to visit
+these, for the remarkable pictures on the walls delighted him, but
+Antinous remained behind, for he had already looked at similar works
+oftener than he cared for, in Upper Egypt. He found these pictures
+monotonous and unlovely, and he had not the patience to investigate
+their meaning as his master did. He had been a hundred times into
+the ancient rock-tombs, only not to leave Hadrian and not for his own
+amusement; but to-day--he could hardly bear himself for impatience and
+excitement, for he knew that a ride, a walk, of a few hours, would carry
+him to Besa and to Selene. The Emperor would remain absent three or four
+hours at any rate, and if he made up his mind to it he could have sought
+out the girl for whom his heart was longing before his return, and still
+be back again before his master.
+
+But before acting he must reflect. There was the Emperor climbing the
+hill-side where he could see him, and messengers were expected and he
+had been charged to receive them. It they should bring bad news, his
+master must on no account be alone. Ten times did he go up to his
+good hunter to leap upon his back; once he even took down the horse's
+head-gear to put on his bridle, but in the very act of slipping the
+complicated bit between the teeth of his steed his resolution gave way.
+During all this delay and hesitation the minutes slipped away, and at
+last it was so late that Hadrian might return and it was folly to think
+of carrying his plan into execution. The expected express arrived with
+several letters, but the Emperor did not come back. It grew dark, and
+heavy rain-drops fell from the overcast sky, and still Antinous
+was alone. His anxious longing was mingled with regret for the lost
+opportunity of seeing Selene and alarm at the Emperor's prolonged
+absence.
+
+In spite of the rain, which began to fill more violently, he went out
+into the open air, of which the sweltering oppressiveness had helped to
+fetter his feeble volition, and called to the dogs, with whose help he
+proposed seeking the Emperor; but just then he heard the bark of Argus,
+and soon after Hadrian and Mastor stepped out of the darkness into the
+brightness which shone out from the tent, where lights were burning.
+
+The Emperor gave his favorite but a brief greeting and silently
+submitted while Antinous dried his hair and brought him some
+refreshments, and Mastor bathed his feet and dressed him in fresh
+garments. As he reclined with the Bithyman, before the supper which was
+standing ready, he said:
+
+"A strange evening! how hot and oppressive the atmosphere is. We must be
+on the lookout, something serious is brewing."
+
+"What happened to you, my Lord?"
+
+"Many things. At the door of the very first tomb that I was about to
+enter I found an old black woman who stretched out her hands against us
+to keep us out and shrieked out words that sounded horrible."
+
+"Did you understand her?"
+
+"No--who can learn Egyptian."
+
+"Then you do not know what she said?"
+
+"I was to find out--she cried out 'Dead!' and again 'Dead!' and in
+the tomb which she was watching there were I know not how many persons
+attacked by the plague."
+
+"You saw them?"
+
+"Yes, I had only heard of this disease till then. It is frightful, and
+quite answers to the descriptions I had read of it."
+
+"But Caesar!" cried Antinous reproachfully and in alarm.
+
+"When we turned our backs on the tombs," continued Hadrian, paying no
+heed to the lad's exclamation, "we were met by an elderly man dressed
+in white and a strange-looking maiden. She was lame but of remarkable
+beauty."
+
+"And she was going to the sick?"
+
+"Yes, she had brought medicine and food to them."
+
+"But she did not go in among them?" asked Antinous eagerly.
+
+"She did, in spite of my warnings. In her companion I recognized an old
+acquaintance."
+
+"An old one?"
+
+"At any rate older than myself. We had met in Athens when we still
+were young. At that time he was one of the school of Plato and the most
+zealous, nay, perhaps the most gifted of us all."
+
+"How came such a man among the plague-stricken people of Besa? Is he
+become a physician?"
+
+"No. But at Athens he sought fervently and eagerly for the truth, and
+now he asserts that he has found it."
+
+"Here, among the Egyptians?"
+
+"In Alexandria among the Christians."
+
+"And the lame girl who accompanied the philosopher--does she too believe
+in the crucified God?"
+
+"Yes. She is a sick-nurse or something of the kind. Indeed there is
+something grand in the ecstatic craze of these people."
+
+"Is it true that they worship an ass and a dove?"
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"I did not want to believe it; and at any rate they are kind, and succor
+all who suffer, even strangers who do not belong to their sect."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"One hears a great deal about them in Alexandria."
+
+"Alas! alas!--I never persecute an imaginary foe, as such I reckon the
+creeds and ideas of other men; still, I cannot but ask myself whether it
+can add to the prosperity of the state when citizens cease to struggle
+against the pressure and necessity of life and console themselves for
+them instead, by the hope of visionary happiness in another world which
+perhaps only exists in the fancy of those who believe in it."
+
+"I should wish that life might end with death," said Antinous
+thoughtfully; "and yet--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"If I were sure that in that other world I should find those I long to
+see again, then I might long for a future life."
+
+"And would you really like, throughout all eternity, to push and
+struggle in the crowd of old acquaintances which death does not diminish
+but rather multiplies?"
+
+"Nay, not that--but I should like to be permitted to live for ever with
+a few chosen friends."
+
+"And should I be one of them?"
+
+"Yes--indeed," cried Antinous warmly and pressing his lips to Hadrian's
+hand.
+
+"I was sure of it--but even with the promise of never being obliged to
+part with you my darling, I would never sacrifice the only privilege
+which man enjoys above the immortals."
+
+"What privilege can you mean?"
+
+"The right of withdrawing from the ranks of the living as soon as
+annihilation seems more endurable than existence and I choose to call
+death to release me."
+
+"The gods, it is true, cannot die."
+
+"And the Christians only to link a new life on to death."
+
+"But a fairer and a happier than this on earth. They say it is a life of
+bliss. But the mother of this everlasting life is the ineradicable love
+of existence in even the most wretched of our race, and hope is its
+father. They believe in a complete freedom from suffering in that other
+world because He whom they call their Redeemer, the crucified Christ,
+has saved them from all sufferings by His death."
+
+"And can a man take upon him the sufferings of others, think you, like a
+garment or a burden?"
+
+"They say so, and my friend from Athens is quite convinced. In books of
+magic there are many formulas by which misfortunes may be transferred
+not merely from men to beasts, but from one human being to another. Very
+remarkable experiments have even been carried out with slaves, and to
+this day I have to struggle in several, provinces to suppress human
+sacrifices by which the gods are to be reconciled or propitiated. Only
+think of the innocent Iphigenia who was dragged to the altar; did not
+the gulf in the Forum close when Curtius had leaped into it? When Fate
+shoots a fatal arrow at you and I receive it in my breast, perhaps she
+is content with the chance victim and does not enquire as to whom she
+has hit."
+
+"The gods would be exorbitant indeed if they were not content with your
+blood for mine!"
+
+"Life is life, and that of the young is of better worth than that of the
+old. Many joys will yet bloom for you."
+
+"And you are indispensable to the whole world."
+
+"After me another will come. Are you ambitious, boy?"
+
+"No, my Lord."
+
+"What then can be the meaning of this: that every one wishes me joy of
+my son Verus excepting you. Do you not like my choice?"
+
+Antinous colored and looked at the ground, and Hadrian went on:
+
+"Say honestly what you feel."
+
+"The praetor is ill."
+
+"He can have but a few years to live, and when he is dead--"
+
+"He may recover--"
+
+"When he is dead, I must look out for another son. What do you think
+now? Who is the being that every man, from a slave to a consul, would
+soonest hear call him 'Father?"'
+
+"Some one he tenderly loved."
+
+"True--and particularly when that one clung to him with unchangeable
+fidelity. I am a man like any other, and you, my good fellow, are always
+nearest to my heart, and I shall bless the day when I may authorize you,
+before all the world, to call me 'Father.' Do not interrupt me. If you
+resolutely concentrate your will and show as keen a sense for ruling
+men as you do for the chase, if you try to sharpen your wits and take
+in what I teach you, it may some day happen that Antinous instead of
+Verus--"
+
+"Nay, not that, only not that!" cried the lad, turning very pale and
+raising his hands beseechingly.
+
+"The greatness with which Destiny surprises us seems terrible so long
+as it is new to us," said Hadrian. "But the seaman is soon accustomed to
+the storms, and we come to wear the purple as you do your chiton."
+
+"Oh, Caesar, I entreat you," said Antinous, anxiously, "put aside these
+ideas; I am not fit for great things."
+
+"The smallest saplings grow to be palms."
+
+"But I am only a wretched little herb that thrives awhile in your
+shadow. Proud Rome--"
+
+"Rome is my handmaid. She has been forced before now to be ruled by men
+of inferior stamp, and I should show her how the handsomest of her
+sons can wear the purple. The world may look for such a choice from a
+sovereign whom it has long known to be an artist, that is a high-priest
+of the Beautiful. And if not, I will teach it to form its taste on
+mine."
+
+"You are pleased to mock me, Caesar," cried the Bithynian. "You
+certainly cannot be in earnest, and if it is true that you love me--"
+
+"What now, boy?"
+
+"You will let me live unknown for you, care for you; you will ask
+nothing of me but reverence and love and fidelity."
+
+"I have long had them, and I now would fain repay my Antinous for all
+these treasures."
+
+"Only let me stay with you, and if necessary let me die for you."
+
+"I believe, boy, you would be ready to make the sacrifice we were
+speaking of for me!"
+
+"At any moment without winking an eyelash."
+
+"I thank you for those words. It has turned out a pleasant evening, and
+what a bad one I looked forward to--"
+
+"Because the woman by the tomb startled you?"
+
+"'Dead,' is a grim word. It is true that 'death'--being dead--can
+frighten no wise man; but the step out of light into darkness is
+fearful. I cannot get the figure of the old hag and her shrill cry out
+of my mind. Then the Christian came up, and his discourse was strange
+and disturbing to my soul. Before it grew dark he and the limping girl
+went homewards; I stood looking after them and my eyes were dazzled by
+the sun which was sinking over the Libyan range. The horizon was clear,
+but behind the day-star there were clouds. In the west, the Egyptians
+say, lies the realm of death. I could not help thinking of this; and the
+oracle, the misfortunes that the stars threatened me with in the course
+of this year, the cry of the old woman--all these crowded into my mind
+together. But then, as I observed how the sun struggled with the clouds
+and approached nearer and nearer to the hill-tops on the farther side
+of the river, I said to myself: If it sets in full radiance you may look
+confidently to the future; if it is swallowed up by clouds before it
+sinks to rest, then destiny will fulfil itself; then you must shorten
+sail and wait for the storm."
+
+"And what happened?"
+
+"The fiery globe burnt in glowing crimson, surrounded by a million rays.
+Each seemed separate from the rest and shone with glory of its own;
+it was as though the sinking disc had been the centre of bow-shots
+innumerable and golden arrow-shafts radiated to the sky in every
+direction. The scene was magnificent and my heart beat high with happy
+excitement, when suddenly and swiftly a dark cloud fell, as though
+exasperated by the wounds it had received from those fiery darts; a
+second followed, and a third, and sinister Daimons flung a dark and
+fleecy curtain over the glorious head of Helios, as the executioner
+throws a coarse black cloth over the head of the condemned, when he sets
+his knee against him to strangle him."
+
+At this narrative Antinous covered his face with both hands, and
+murmured in terror:
+
+"Frightful, frightful! What can be hanging over us? Only listen, how it
+thunders, and the rain thrashes the tent."
+
+"The clouds are pouring out torrents; see the water is coming in
+already. The slaves must dig gutters for it to run off. Drive the pegs
+tighter you fellows out there or the whirlwind will tear down the slight
+structure."
+
+"And how sultry the air is!"
+
+"The hot wind seems to warm even the flood of rain. Here it is still
+dry; mix me a cup of wine, Antinous. Have any letters come?"
+
+"Yes, my Lord."
+
+"Give them to me, Mastor."
+
+The slave, who was busily engaged in damming up with earth and stones,
+the trickling stream of rain-water that was soaking into the tent,
+sprang up, hastily dried his hands, took a sack out of the chest in
+which the Emperor's despatches were kept and gave it to his master.
+Hadrian opened the leather bag, took out a roll, hastily broke it open,
+and then, after rapidly glancing at the contents, exclaimed:
+
+"What is this? I have opened the record of the oracle of Apis. How did
+it come among to-day's letters?"
+
+Antinous went up to Hadrian, looked at the sack, and said:
+
+"Mastor has made a mistake. These are the documents from Memphis. I will
+bring you the right despatch-bag."
+
+"Stay!" said Hadrian, eagerly seizing his favorite's hand. "Is this a
+mere trick of chance or a decree of Fate? Why should this particular
+sack have come into my hands to-day of all others? Why, out of twenty
+documents it contains, should I have taken out this very one? Look
+here.--I will explain these signs to you. Here stand three pairs of arms
+bearing shields and spears, close by the name of the Egyptian month that
+corresponds to our November. These are the three signs of misfortune.
+The lutes up there are of happier omen. The masts here indicate the
+usual state of affairs. Three of these hieroglyphics always occur
+together. Three lutes indicate much good fortune, two lutes and one mast
+good fortune and moderate prosperity, one pair of arms and two lutes
+misfortune, followed by happiness, and so forth. Here, in November,
+begin the arms with weapons, and here they stand in threes and threes,
+and portend nothing but unqualified misfortune, never mitigated by a
+single lute. Do you see, boy? Have you understood the meaning of these
+signs?"
+
+"Perfectly well; but do you interpret them rightly? The fighting arms
+may perhaps lead to victory."
+
+"No. The Egyptians use them to indicate conflict, and to them conflict
+and unrest are identical with what we call evil and disaster."
+
+"That is strange!"
+
+"Nay, it is well conceived; for they say that everything was originally
+created good by the gods, but that the different portions of the great
+All changed their nature by restless and inharmonious mingling. This
+explanation was given me by the priest of Apis, and here--here by the
+month of November are the three fighting arias--a hideous token. If one
+of the flashes which light up this tent so incessantly, like a living
+stream of light were to strike you, or me, and all of us--I should not
+wonder. Terrible--terrible things hang over us! It requires some courage
+under such omens as these, to keep an untroubled gaze and not to quail."
+
+"Only use your own arms against the fighting arms of the Egyptian gods;
+they are powerful," said Antinous; but Hadrian let his head sink on his
+breast, and said, in a tone of discouragement:
+
+"The gods themselves must succumb to Destiny."
+
+The thunder continued to roar. More than once the storm snapped the
+tent-ropes, and the slaves were obliged to hold on to the Emperor's
+fragile shelter with their hands; the chambers of the clouds poured
+mighty torrents out upon the desert range which for years had not known
+a drop of rain, and every rift and runlet was filled with a stream or a
+torrent.
+
+Neither Hadrian nor Antinous closed their eyes that fearful night. The
+Emperor had as yet opened only one of the rolls that were in the day's
+letter-bag; it contained the information that Titianus the prefect was
+cruelly troubled by his old difficulty of breathing, with a petition
+from that worthy official to be allowed to retire from the service of
+the state and to withdraw to his own estate. It was no small matter for
+Hadrian to dispense for the future with this faithful coadjutor, to lose
+the man on whom he had had his eye to tranquillize Judaea--where a fresh
+revolt had raised its head, and to reduce it again to subjection without
+bloodshed. To crush and depopulate the rebellious province was within
+the power of other men, but to conquer and govern it with kindness
+belonged only to the wise and gentle Titianus. The Emperor had no heart
+to open a second letter that night. He lay in silence on his couch
+till morning began to grow gray, thinking over every evil hour of his
+life--the murders of Nigrinus, of Tatianus and of the senators, by which
+he had secured the sovereignty--and again he vowed to the gods immense
+sacrifices if only they would protect him from impending disaster.
+
+When he rose next morning Antinous was startled at his aspect, for
+Hadrian's face and lips were perfectly bloodless. After he had read the
+remainder of his letters he started, not on foot but on horseback, with
+Antinous and Mastor for Besa, there to await the rest of the escort.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The unchained elements had raged that night with equal fury over the
+Nile city of Besa. The citizens of this ancient town had done all they
+could to give the Imperial traveller a worthy reception. The chief
+streets had been decked with ropes of flowers strung from mast to mast
+and from house to house, and by the harbor, close to the river shore,
+statues of Hadrian and his wife had been erected. But the storm tore
+down the masts and the garlands, and the lashed waters of the Nile had
+beaten with irresistible fury on the bank; had carried away piece after
+piece of the fertile shore, flung its waves, like liquid wedges into
+the rifts of the parched land; and excavated the high bank by the
+landing-quay.
+
+After midnight the storm was still raging with unheard-of fury; it swept
+the palm thatch from many of the houses, and beat the stream with such
+violence that it was like a surging sea. The full unbroken force of the
+flood beat again and again on the promontory on which stood the statues
+of the Imperial couple. Shortly before the first dawn of light the
+little tongue of land, which was protected by no river wall, could
+no longer resist the furious attack of the waters; huge clods of soil
+slipped and fell with a loud noise into the river and were followed by
+a large mass of the cliff, with a roar as of thunder the plateau behind
+sank, and the statue of the Emperor which stood upon it began to totter
+and lean slowly to its fall. When day broke it was lying with the
+pedestal still above ground, but the head was buried in the earth.
+
+At break of day the citizens left their houses to inquire of the
+fishermen and boatmen what had occurred in the harbor during the night.
+As soon as the storm had abated, hundreds, nay thousands, of men, women
+and children thronged the landing-place round the fallen statue--they
+saw the land-slip and knew that the current had torn the land from the
+bank and caused the mischief. Was it that Hapi, the Nile-god, was angry
+with the Emperor? At any rate the disaster that had befallen the image
+of the sovereign boded evil, that was clear.
+
+The Toparch, the chief municipal authority, at once set to work to
+reinstate the statue which was itself uninjured, for Hadrian might
+arrive in a few hours. Numerous men, both free and slaves, crowded to
+undertake the work, and before long the statue of Hadrian, executed
+in the Egyptian style, once more stood upright and gazing with a fixed
+countenance towards the harbor. Sabina's was also put back by the side
+of her husband's and the Toparch went home satisfied. With him most of
+the starers and laborers left the quay, but their place was taken by
+other curious folks who had missed the statue from its place, where the
+land had fallen, and now expressed their opinions as to the mode and
+manner of its fall.
+
+"The wind can never have overturned this heavy mass of limestone," said
+a ropemaker: "And see how far it stands from the broken ground."
+
+"They say it fell on the top of land-slip," answered a baker.
+
+"That is how it was," said a sailor.
+
+"Nonsense!" cried the ropemaker. "If the statue had stood on the ground
+now carried away, it must have fallen at once into the water and have
+sunk to the bottom--any child can see that other powers have been at
+work here."
+
+"Very likely," said a temple-servant who devoted himself to the
+interpretation of signs: "The gods may have overset the proud image to
+give a warning token to Hadrian."
+
+"The immortals do not mix in the affairs of men in our day," said the
+sailor; "but in such a fearful night as this peaceful citizens remain
+within doors and so leave a fair field for Caesar's foes."
+
+"We are all faithful subjects," said the baker indignantly.
+
+"You are a pack of rebellious rabble," retorted a Roman soldier, who
+like the whole cohort quartered in the province of Hermopolis, had
+formerly served in Judaea under the cruel Tinnius Rufus. "Among you
+worshippers of beasts squabbles never cease, and as to the Christians,
+who have made their nests out there on the other side of the valley, say
+the worst you can of them and still you would be flattering them."
+
+"Brave Fuscus is quite right!" cried a beggar. "The wretches have
+brought the plague into our houses; wherever the disease shows itself
+there are Christian men and women to be seen. They came to my brother's
+house; they sat all night by his sick children and of course both died."
+
+"If only my old governor Tinnius Rufus were here," growled the soldier,
+"they would none of them be any better off than their own crucified
+god."
+
+"Well, I certainly have nothing in common with them," replied the baker.
+"But what is true must continue true. They are quiet, kind folks and
+punctual in payment, who do no harm and show kindness to many poor
+creatures."
+
+"Kindness?" cried the beggar, who had received alms himself from the
+deacon of the church at Besa, but had also been exhorted to work. "All
+the five priests of Sekket of the grotto of Artemis have been led away
+by them and have basely abandoned the sanctuary of the goddess. And is
+it good and kind that they should have poisoned my brother's children
+with their potions?"
+
+"Why should they not have killed the children?" asked the soldier. "I
+heard of the same things in Syria; and as to this statue, I will never
+wear my sword again--"
+
+"Hark! listen to the bold Fuscus," cried the crowd. "He has seen much."
+
+"I will never wear my sword again if they did not knock over the statue
+in the dark."
+
+"No, no," cried the sailor positively. "It fell with the land that was
+washed away; I saw it lying there myself."
+
+"And are you a Christian, too?" asked the soldier, "or do you suppose
+that I was in jest when I swore by my sword? I have served in Bithynia,
+in Syria, and in Judaea. I know these villains, good people. There were
+hundreds of Christians to be seen there who would throw away life like a
+worn-out shoe because they did not choose to sacrifice to the statues of
+Caesar and the gods."
+
+"There, you hear!" cried the beggar. "And did you see a single man of
+them among the citizens who set to work to restore the statue to its
+place?"
+
+"There were none of them there," said the sailor, who was beginning to
+share the soldier's views.
+
+"The Christians threw down the Emperor's statue," the beggar shouted to
+the crowd. "It is proved, and they shall suffer for it. Every man who
+is a friend of the divine Hadrian come with me now and have them out of
+their houses."
+
+"No uproar!" interrupted the soldier to the furious man. "There is the
+tribune, he will hear you."
+
+The Roman officer, who now came past with a troop of soldiers to
+receive the Emperor outside the city, was greeted by the crowd with loud
+shouting. He commanded silence and made the soldier tell him what had so
+violently excited the people.
+
+"Very possibly," said the tribune, a sinewy and stern-looking man, who,
+like Fuscus, had served under Tinnius Rufus, and had risen from a sutler
+to be an officer, "Very possibly--but where are your proofs?"
+
+"Most of the citizens helped in reerecting the statue, but the
+Christians held aloof from the work," cried the beggar. "There was
+not one to be seen. Ask the sailor, my lord; he was by and he can bear
+witness to it."
+
+"That certainly is more than suspicious. This matter must be strictly
+inquired into. Pay heed, you people."
+
+"Here comes a Christian girl!" cried the sailor.
+
+"Lame Martha; I know her well," interrupted the beggar. "She goes into
+all the plague-stricken houses and poisons the people. She stayed three
+days and three nights at my brother's turning the children's pillows
+till they were carried out. Wherever she goes death follows."
+
+Selene, now known as Martha, paid no heed to the crowd, but with her
+blind brother Helios, now called John, went calmly on her way which led
+from the raised bank down to the landing-quay. There she wished to hire
+a boat to take her across the stream, for in a village on the island
+over against the town dwelt some sick Christians to whom she was
+carrying medicines and whom she was intending to watch. For months past
+her whole life had been devoted to the suffering. She had carried help
+even into heathen homes, and shrunk from neither fever nor plague. Her
+cheeks had gained no color, but her eyes shone with a gentler and purer
+light which glorified the severe beauty of her features. As the girl
+approached the captain he fixed his eyes on her, and called out:
+
+"Hey! pale-face--are you a Christian?"
+
+"Yes, my lord," replied Selene, and she went on quietly and
+indifferently with her brother.
+
+The Roman looked after her, and as she passed by Hadrian's statue, and,
+as she did so, dropped her head rather lower than before, he roughly
+ordered her to stop and to tell him why she had averted her face from
+the statue of Caesar.
+
+"Hadrian is our ruler as well as yours," answered the young girl. "I am
+in haste for there are sick people on the island."
+
+"You will bring them no good!" cried the beggar. "Who knows what is
+hidden there in the basket?"
+
+"Silence!" interrupted the tribune. "They say, girl that your
+fellow-believers overthrew the statue of Caesar in the night."
+
+"How should that be? We honor Caesar no less than you do."
+
+"I will believe you, and you shall prove it. There stands the statue
+of the divine Caesar. Come with me and worship it." Selene looked with
+horror in the face of the stern man, and could not find a word of reply.
+
+"Well!" asked the captain, "will you come? Yes or no?"
+
+Selene struggled for self-possession, and when the soldier held out his
+hand to her she said with a trembling voice:
+
+"We honor the Emperor but we pray to no statue--only to our Father in
+Heaven."
+
+"There you have it!" laughed the beggar.
+
+"Once more I ask you," cried the tribune. "Will you worship this statue,
+or do you refuse to do so?"
+
+A fearful struggle possessed Selene's soul. If she resisted the Roman
+her life was in danger, and the fury of the populace would be aroused
+against her fellow-believers--if, on the other hand, she obeyed him, she
+would be blaspheming God, breaking her faith to the Saviour who loved
+her, sinning against the truth and her own conscience. A fearful dread
+fell upon her, and deprived her of the power to lift her soul in prayer.
+She could not, she dared not, do what was required of her, and yet the
+overweening love of life which exists in every mortal led her feet to
+the base of the idol and there stayed her steps.
+
+"Lift up your hands and worship the divine Caesar," cried the tribune,
+who with the rest of the lookers-on had watched her movements with keen
+excitement.
+
+Trembling, she set her basket on the ground and tried to withdraw
+her hand from her brother's; but the blind boy held it fast. He fully
+understood what was required of his sister, he knew full well, from the
+history of many martyrs that had been told him, what fate awaited her
+and him if they resisted the Roman's demand; but he felt no fear and
+whispered to her:
+
+"We will not obey his desires Martha; we will not pray to idols, we will
+cling faithfully to the Redeemer. Turn me away from the image, and I
+will say 'Our Father.'"
+
+With a loud voice and his lustreless eyes upraised to Heaven, the boy
+said the Lord's prayer. Selene had first set his face towards the river,
+and then she herself turned her back on the statue; then, lifting her
+hands, she followed the child's example.
+
+Helios clung to her closely, her loudly uttered prayer was one with his,
+and neither of them saw or heard anything more of what befell them.
+
+The blind boy had a vision of a distant but glorious light, the maiden
+of a blissful life made beautiful by love, as she was flung to the
+ground in front of the statue of Hadrian, and the excited mob rushed
+upon her and her faithful little brother. The military tribune tried
+in vain to hold back the populace, and by the time the soldiers had
+succeeded in driving the excited mob away from their victims, both the
+young hearts, in the midst of the triumph of their faith, in the midst
+of their hopes of an eternal and blissful life, had ceased to beat for
+ever.
+
+The occurrence disturbed the captain and made him very uneasy. This
+girl, this beautiful boy, who lay before him pale corpses, had been
+worthy of a better fate, and he might be made to answer for them; for
+the law forbade that any Christian should be punished for his faith
+without a judge's sentence. He therefore commanded that the dead should
+be carried at once to the house to which they belonged, and threatened
+every one, who should that day set foot in the Christian quarter, with
+the severest punishment.
+
+The beggar went off, shrieking and shouting, to his brother's house
+to tell the mistress that lame Martha, who had nursed her daughter
+to death, was slain; but he gained an evil reward, for the poor woman
+bewailed Selene as if she had been her own child, and cursed him and her
+murderers.
+
+Before sundown Hadrian arrived at Besa, where he found magnificent tents
+pitched to receive him and his escort. The disaster that had befallen
+his statue was kept a secret from him, but he felt anxious and ill. He
+wished to be perfectly alone, and desired Antinous to go to see the
+city before it should be dark. The Bithynian joyfully embraced this
+permission as a gift of the gods; he hurried through the decorated
+high streets, and made a boy guide him from thence into the Christian
+quarter. Here the streets were like a city of the dead; not a door was
+open, not a man to be seen.
+
+Antinous paid the lad, sent him away, and with a beating heart went from
+one house to another. Each looked neat and clean, and was surrounded
+by trees and shrubs, but though the smoke curled up from several of the
+roofs every house seemed to have been deserted. At last he heard the
+sound of voices. Guided by these he went through a lane to an open place
+where hundreds of people, men, women and children, were assembled in
+front of a small building which stood in the midst of a palm grove.
+
+He asked where dame Hannah lived, and an old man silently pointed to
+the little house on which the attention of the Christians seemed to be
+concentrated. The lad's heart throbbed wildly and yet he felt anxious
+and embarrassed, and he asked himself whether he had not better turn
+back and return next morning when he might hope to find Selene alone.
+
+But no! Perhaps he might even now be allowed to see her.
+
+He modestly made his way through the throng, which had set up a song in
+which he could not determine whether it was intended to express feelings
+of sadness or of triumph. Now he was standing at the gate of the garden
+and saw Mary the deformed girl. She was kneeling by a covered bier and
+weeping bitterly. Was dame Hannah dead? No, she was alive, for at this
+moment she came out of her house, leaning on an old man, pale, calm and
+tearless. Both came forward, the old man uttered a short prayer and then
+stooping down, lifted the sheet which covered the dead.
+
+Antinous pushed a step forward but instantly drew two steps back--then
+covering his eyes with his hand he stood as if rooted to the spot.
+
+There was no vehement lamentation. The old man began a discourse.
+All around were sounds of suppressed weeping, singing and praying but
+Antinous saw and heard nothing. He had dropped his hand and never took
+his eyes off the white face of the dead till Hannah once more covered it
+with the sheet. Even then he did not stir.
+
+It was not till six young girls lifted Selene's modest bier and four
+matrons took up that of little Helios on their shoulders and the whole
+assembly moved away after them, that he too turned and followed the
+mourning procession. He looked on from a distance while the larger and
+the smaller coffins were carried into a rocktomb, while the entrance was
+carefully closed, and the procession dispersed some here and some there.
+
+At last he found himself alone and in front of the door of the vault.
+The sun went down, and darkness spread rapidly over hill and vale.
+When no one was to be seen who could observe him, he threw up his arms,
+clasped the pillar at the entrance of the tomb, pressed his lips against
+the rough wooden door and struck his forehead against it while his whole
+body trembled with the tearless anguish of his spirit.
+
+For some minutes he stood so and did not hear a light step which came up
+behind him. It was Mary, who had come once more to pray by the grave of
+her beloved friend. She at once recognized the youth and softly called
+him by his name.
+
+"Mary," he answered, clasping her hand eagerly. "How did she die?"
+
+"Slain," she said, sadly. "She would not worship Caesar's image."
+
+Antinous shuddered at the words, and asked, "And why would she not?"
+
+"Because she was faithful to our belief, and so hoped for the mercy of
+the Saviour. Now she is a blessed angel."
+
+"Are you sure of that?"
+
+"As sure as I live in hope of meeting the martyr who rests here, again
+in Heaven!"
+
+"Mary."
+
+"Leave go of my hand!"
+
+"Will you do me a service, Mary?"
+
+"Willingly, Antinous--but pray do not touch me."
+
+"Take this money and buy the loveliest wreath that is to be had here.
+Hang it on this tomb, and say as you do so--call out--, From Antinous to
+Selene.'"
+
+The deformed girl took the money he gave her and said:
+
+"She often prayed for you."
+
+"To her God?"
+
+"To our Redeemer, that he might give you also joy. She died for Christ
+Jesus; now she is with him, and he will grant her prayers."
+
+Antinous was silent for a while, then he said:
+
+"Once more give me your hand, Mary, and now farewell. Will you sometimes
+think of me, and pray for me too, to your Redeemer?"
+
+"Yes, yes, and you will not quite forget me, the poor cripple?"
+
+"Certainly not, you good, kind girl! Perhaps we may some day meet
+again." With these words Antinous hurried down the hill and through the
+town to the Nile.
+
+The moon had risen and was mirrored in the rough water. Just so had its
+image played upon the waves when Antinous had rescued Selene from the
+sea. The lad knew that Hadrian would be expecting him, still he did
+not seek his tent. A violent emotion had overpowered him; he restlessly
+paced up and down the river-bank rapidly reviewing in his memory the
+more prominent incidents of his past life. He seemed to hear again every
+word of the dialogue that had taken place yesterday between Hadrian
+and himself. Before his inward eye he saw once more his humble home in
+Bithynia, his mother, his brothers and sisters whom he should never see
+again. Once more he lived through the dreadful hour when he had deceived
+his beloved master and had been an incendiary. An overmastering dread
+fell upon him as he thought of Hadrian's wish to put him in the place of
+the man whom the prudent sovereign had chosen as his successor--a choice
+that was perhaps the direct outcome of his own crime. He, Antinous, who
+to-day could not think of the morrow, who always kept out of the way of
+the discourse of grave men because he found it so hard to follow their
+meaning, he who knew nothing but how to obey, he who was never happy
+but alone with his master and his dreaming, far from the bustle of
+the world--he, to be burdened with the purple, with anxiety, with a
+mountain-load of responsibility!
+
+No, no; the idea was unheard-of--impossible! And yet Hadrian never gave
+up a wish he had once expressed in words. The future loomed before
+his soul like some overpowering foe. Suffering, unrest, and misfortune
+stared him in the face, turn which way he would.
+
+What was the hideous fatality that threatened his sovereign? It was
+approaching, it must come if no one--aye, if no one should be found
+to stand between him and the impending blow, and to receive in his own
+breast--in his own heart, bared to receive the wound--the spear hurled
+by the vengeful god. And he--he, and he alone was the one who might do
+this.
+
+The thought flashed into his mind like a sudden blaze of light; and
+if he should find the courage to devote himself to death for his dear
+master all his sins against him would be expiated; then--then--oh, how
+lovely a thought!--then might he not find entrance into the gates of
+that realm of bliss which Selene's prayers had opened to him? There he
+would see his mother again and his father, and by and bye his brothers
+and sisters--but now, at once in a few minutes Her whom he loved and who
+had trodden the ways of death before him.
+
+An exquisite sense of hope such as he had never felt before flooded his
+soul. There lay the Nile--here was a boat. He gave it a strong push into
+the stream and with a powerful leap, as when hunting he had often sprung
+from rock to rock, he jumped into the boat. He had just seized an oar
+when Mastor, who had been desired by the Emperor to seek him, recognized
+him in the moonlight and desired him to return with him to the tents.
+
+But Antinous did not obey. As he pushed out into the stream he called
+out:
+
+"Greet my Lord from me--greet him lovingly, a thousand times, and tell
+him Antinous loved him more than his life. Fate demands a victim. The
+world cannot dispense with Hadrian, but Antinous is a mere nonentity,
+whom none will miss but Caesar, and for him Antinous flings himself into
+the jaws of death."
+
+"Stay-stop! hapless boy, come back!" shouted the slave, and leaping into
+a boat he followed that of the Bithynian, which, impelled by strong and
+steady strokes, flew away into the current.
+
+Mastor rowed with all his might, but he could not gain upon the boat he
+was pursuing. Thus in a wild race both reached the middle of the stream.
+There, the slave saw Antinous fling away his oar, and an instant later
+he heard Antinous call loudly on the name of Selene, and then, in
+helpless inactivity, he saw the lad glide into the waters, and the Nile
+swallowed in its flood the noblest and fairest of victims.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+A night and a day had slipped away since the death of the Bithynian.
+Ships and boats from every part of the province had collected before
+Besa to seek for the body of the drowned youth, the shores swarmed with
+men, and cressets and torches had dimmed the moonlight on river and
+shore all through the night; but they had not yet succeeded in finding
+the body of the beautiful youth.
+
+Hadrian had heard in what way Antinous had perished. He had required
+Mastor to repeat to him more than once the last words of his faithful
+companion and neither to add nor to omit a single syllable. Hadrian's
+accurate memory cherished them all and now he had sat till dawn and from
+dawn till the sun had reached the meridian, repeating them again and
+again to him self. He sat gloomily brooding and would neither eat nor
+drink. The misfortune which had threatened him had fallen--and what a
+grief was this! If indeed Fate would accept the anguish he now felt in
+the place of all other suffering it might have had in store for him he
+might look forward to years free from care, but he felt as though he
+would rather have spent the remainder of his existence in sorrow and
+misery with his Antinous by his side than enjoy, without him, all that
+men call happiness, peace and prosperity.
+
+Sabina and her escort had arrived-a host of men; but he had strictly
+ordered that no one, not even his wife, was to be admitted to his
+presence. The comfort of tears was denied him, but his grief gripped
+him at the heart, clouded his brain and made hint so irritably sensitive
+that an unfamiliar voice, though even at a distance, disturbed him and
+made him angry.
+
+The party who had arrived by water were not allowed to occupy the tents
+which had been pitched for them not far from his, because he desired to
+be alone, quite alone, with his anguish of spirit. Mastor, whom he had
+hitherto regarded rather a useful chattel than as a human creature, now
+grew nearer to him--had he not been the one witness of his darling's
+strange disappearance. Towards the close of this, the most miserable
+night he had ever known, the slave asked him whether he should not fetch
+the physician from the ships, he looked so pale; but Hadrian forbade it.
+
+"If I could only cry like a woman," he said, "or like other fathers
+whose sons are snatched away by death, that would be the best remedy.
+You poor souls will have a bad time now, for the sun of my life has lost
+its light and the trees by the way-side have lost their verdure."
+
+When he was alone once more he sat staring into vacancy and muttered to
+himself:
+
+"All mankind should mourn with me for if I had been asked yesterday how
+perfect a beauty might be bestowed on one of their race I could have
+pointed proudly to you, my faithful boy and have said, 'Beauty like that
+of the gods.' Now the crown is cut off from the trunk of the palm
+and the maimed thing can only be ashamed of its deformity; and if all
+humanity were but one man it would look like one who has had his right
+eye torn out. I will not look on the monsters, lean and fat, that
+they may not spoil my taste for the true type! Oh faithful, lovable,
+beautiful boy! What a blind, mad fool have you been! And yet I cannot
+blame your madness. You have pierced my soul with the deepest thrust
+of all and yet I cannot even be angry with you. Superhuman! godlike was
+your faithful devotion. Aye, indeed, it was!" As he thus spoke he rose
+from his seat and went on resolutely and decidedly:
+
+"Here I stretch out this my right hand-hear me, ye Immortals! Every city
+in the Empire shall raise an altar to Antinous, and the friend of whom
+you have robbed me I will make your equal and companion. Receive him
+tenderly, oh, ye undying rulers of the world! Which among you can boast
+of beauty greater than his? and which of you ever displayed so much
+goodness and faithfulness as your new associate?"
+
+This vow seemed to have given Hadrian some comfort. For above half
+an hour he paced his tent with a firmer tread, then he desired that
+Heliodorus his secretary might be called.
+
+The Greek wrote what his sovereign dictated. This was nothing less than
+that henceforth the world should worship a new divinity in the person of
+Antinous.
+
+At noonday a messenger in breathless haste came to say that the body of
+the Bithynian had been found. Thousands flocked to see the corpse, and
+among them Balbilla, who had behaved like a distracted creature when she
+heard to what an end her idol had come. She had rushed up and down the
+river-bank, among the citizens and fishermen, dressed in black mourning
+robes and with her hair flying about her. The Egyptians had compared her
+to the mourning Isis seeking the body of her beloved husband, Osiris.
+She was beside herself with grief, and her companion implored her in
+vain to calm herself and remember her rank and her dignity as a woman.
+But Balbilla pushed her vehemently aside, and when the news was brought
+that Nile had yielded up his prey she rushed on foot to see the body,
+with the rest of the crowd.
+
+Her name was in every mouth, everyone knew that she was the Empress'
+friend, and so she was willingly and promptly obeyed when she commanded
+the bearers who carried the bier on which the recovered body lay to set
+it down and to lift up the sheet which shrouded it. Pale and trembling,
+she went up to it and gazed down at the drowned man; but only for a
+moment could she endure the sight. She turned away with a shudder,
+and desired the bearers to go on. When the funeral procession had
+disappeared and she could no longer hear the shrill wailing of the
+Egyptian women, and no longer see them streaking their breast, head, and
+hair with damp earth and flinging up their arms wildly in the air, she
+turned to her companion and said calmly: "Now, Claudia, let us go home."
+
+In the evening at supper she appeared dressed in black, like Sabina and
+all the rest of the suite, but she was calm and ready with an answer to
+every observation.
+
+Pontius had travelled with them from Thebes to Besa, and she had
+spared him nothing that could punish him for his long absence, and had
+mercilessly compelled him to listen to all her verses on Antinous.
+
+He meanwhile had been perfectly cool about it, and had criticised her
+poems exactly as if they had referred not to a man of flesh and blood
+but to some statue or god. This epigram he would praise, the next he
+would disparage, a third condemn. Her confession that she had been in
+the habit of complimenting Antinous with flowers and fruit he heard with
+a shrug of the shoulders, saying pleasantly: "Give him as many presents
+as you will; I know that you expect no gifts from your divinity in
+return for your sacrifices."
+
+His words had surprised and delighted her. Pontius always understood
+her, and did not deserve that she should wound him. So she let him gaze
+into her soul, and told him how much she loved Antinous so long as
+he was absent. Then she laughed and confessed that she was perfectly
+indifferent to him as soon as they were together.
+
+When, after the Bithynian's death, she lost all self-control he simply
+let her alone, and begged Claudia to do the same.
+
+The same day that the body was found it was burnt on a pile of precious
+wood. Hadrian had refused to see it when he learnt that the death by
+drowning had terribly distorted the lad's features.
+
+A few hours after the ashes of the Bithynian had been collected and
+brought in a golden vase to Hadrian, the Nile fleet was once more under
+sail, this time with the Emperor on board one of the boats, to proceed
+without farther halt to Alexandria.
+
+Hadrian remained alone with only his slave and his secretary on the boat
+that conveyed him; but he several times sent to Pontius to desire him
+to come from the ship on which he was and visit him on his. He liked to
+hear the architect's deep voice, and discussed with him the plans which
+Pontius had sketched for his mausoleum in Rome and the monument to his
+lost favorite which he proposed to have erected from designs of his
+own in the large city which he intended should stand on the site of the
+little town of Besa, and which he had already named Antinoe. But
+these discussions only took up a limited number of hours, and then the
+architect was at liberty to return to Sabina's boat, on which Balbilla
+also lived.
+
+A few days after they had quitted Besa he was sitting alone with the
+poetess on the deck of the Nile boat which, borne by the current and
+propelled by a hundred oars, was rapidly and steadily nearing its
+destination. Ever since the death of the hapless favorite Pontius had
+avoided mentioning him to her. She had now become as observant and as
+talkative as before, and in her eyes there even shone at times a ray
+of the old sunny gayety of her nature. The architect thought he
+comprehended the characteristic change in her sentiments, and would not
+allude to the cause of the violent but transient fever under which she
+had suffered. "What did you discuss with Caesar to-day?" asked Balbilla
+of her friend. Pontius looked down at the ground and considered whether
+he could venture to utter the name of Antinous before the poetess.
+Balbilla observed his hesitation and said:
+
+"Speak on; I can hear anything. That folly is past and over."
+
+"Caesar is at work at the plans for a new town to be built and called
+Antinoe, and a sketch for a monument to his ill-fated favorite," said
+Pontius. "He will not accept any help, but I have to teach him to
+discriminate what is possible from what is impossible."
+
+"Ah! he is always gazing at the stars and you look steadily at the road
+on which you are walking."
+
+"An architect can make no use of anything that is unsteady or that has
+no firm foundation."
+
+"That is a hard saying, Pontius. It is true that during the last few
+weeks I have behaved like a fool."
+
+"I only wish that every tottering structure could recover its balance as
+quickly and as certainly as you! Antinous was a demigod for beauty, and
+a good faithful fellow besides."
+
+"Do not speak of him any more," exclaimed Balbilla shuddering. "He
+looked dreadful. Can you forgive me for my conduct?"
+
+"I never was angry with you."
+
+"But I lost your esteem."
+
+"No, Balbilla. Beauty, which is dear to us all, and which the Muse has
+kissed, attracted your easily moved poet's soul and it fluttered off at
+random. Let it fly! My friend's true womanly nature was never carried
+away by it. She stands on a rock, that I am sure of."
+
+"How good and kind in you to say so--too good, too kind! for I am a
+feeble creature, turned by every breeze that blows, a vain little fool
+who does not know one hour what she may do the next, a spoilt child that
+likes best to do the thing it ought to leave undone, a weak girl who
+finds a pleasure in doing battle with men. For all in all--"
+
+"For all in all a darling of the gods who to-day can climb the rocks
+with a firm step and to-morrow lies dreaming in the sunshine among
+flowers--for all in all a nature that has no equal and which lacks
+nothing, nothing whatever that constitutes a true woman excepting--"
+
+"I know what I lack," cried Balbilla. "A strong man on whom I can
+depend, whose warnings I can respect. You, you are that man; you and
+none other, for as soon as I feel you by my side I find it difficult to
+do what I know to be wrong. Here I am, Pontius! Will you have me with
+all my moods, with all my faults and weaknesses?"
+
+"Balbilla!" cried the architect, beside himself with heartfelt agitation
+and surprise, and he pressed her hand long and fervently to-his lips.
+
+"You will? You will take me? You will never leave me, you will warn,
+support me and protect me?"
+
+"Till my last day, till death, as my child, as the apple of my eye,
+as--dare I say it and believe it?--as my love, my second self, my wife."
+
+"Oh! Pontius, Pontius," she exclaimed, grasping his broad, right hand in
+both her own. "This hour restores to the orphaned Balbilla, father and
+mother and gives her besides the husband that she loves."
+
+"Mine, mine!" cried the architect. "Immortal gods! During half a
+lifetime I have never found time, in the midst of labor and fatigue,
+to indulge in the joys of love and now you give me with interest and
+compound interest the treasure you have so long withheld."
+
+"How can you, a reasonable man, so over-estimate the value of your
+possession? But you shall find some good in it. Life can no longer be
+conceived of as worth having without the possessor."
+
+"And to me it has so long seemed empty and cold without you, you
+strange, unique, incomparable creature."
+
+"But why did you not come sooner, and so give me no time to behave like
+a fool?"
+
+"Because, because," said Pontius, gravely, "such a flight towards the
+sun seemed to me too bold; because I remember that my father's father--"
+
+"He was the noblest man that the ancestor of my house attracted to its
+greatness."
+
+"He was--consider it duly at this moment--he was your grandfather's
+slave."
+
+"I know it, but I also know, that there is not a man on earth who is
+worthier of freedom than you are, or whom I could ask as humbly as I ask
+you: Take me, poor, foolish Balbilla, to be your wife, guide me and make
+of me whatever you can, for your own honor and mine."
+
+The brief Nile voyage brought days and hours of the highest happiness to
+Balbilla and her lover. Before the fleet sailed into the Mareotic harbor
+of Alexandria, Pontius revealed his happy secret to the Emperor. Hadrian
+smiled for the first time since the death of his favorite, and desired
+the architect to bring Balbilla to him.
+
+"I was wrong in my interpretation of the Pythian oracle," said he, as he
+laid the poetess's hand in that of Pontius. "Would you like to know how
+it runs Pontius--do not prompt me, my child. Anything that I have read
+through once or twice I never forget. Pythia said:
+
+  'That which thou boldest most precious and dear shall be torn from
+     thy keeping,
+   And from the heights of Olympus, down shalt thou fall in the dust;
+   Still the contemplative eye discerns under mutable sand-drifts
+   Stable foundations of stone, marble and natural rock.'
+
+"You have chosen well girl. The oracle guaranteed you a safe road to
+tread through life. As to the dust of which it speaks, it exists no
+doubt in a certain sense, but this hand wields the broom that will sweep
+it away. Solemnize your marriage in Alexandria as soon as you will, but
+then come to Rome, that is the only condition I impose. A thing I always
+have at heart is the introduction of new and worthy members into the
+class of Knights, for it is in that way alone that its fallen dignity
+can be restored. This ring, my Pontius, gives you the rank of eques, and
+such a man as you are, the husband of Balbilla and the friend of Caesar
+may no doubt by-and-bye find a seat in the Senate. What this generation
+can produce in stone and marble, my mausoleum shall bear witness to.
+Have you altered the plan of the bridge?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+In Alexandria the news of the nomination of the "sham Eros" to be
+the Emperor's successor was hailed with joy, and the citizens availed
+themselves gladly of his fresh and favorable opportunity to hold one
+festival after another. Titianus took care to provide for the due
+performance of the usual acts of grace, and among others he threw open
+the prison-gates of Canopus, and the sculptor Pollux was set at liberty.
+
+The hapless artist had grown pale, it is true, in durance vile, but
+neither leaner nor enfeebled in body; on the other hand all the vigor
+of his intellect, all his bright courage for life and his happy creative
+instinct, seemed altogether crushed out of him. His face, as in his
+dirty and ragged chiton, he journeyed from Canopus to Alexandria,
+revealed neither eager thankfulness for the unexpected boon of liberty,
+nor happiness at the prospect of seeing again his own people and
+Arsinoe.
+
+In the town he went, unintelligently dreaming as he walked, from one
+street to another, but he was familiar with every stone of the way, and
+his feet found their way to his sister's house. How happy was Diotima,
+how her children rejoiced, how impatient was each one to conduct him
+to the old folks! How high in the air the Graces frisked and leaped
+in front of the new little home to welcome the returned absentee! And
+Doris, poor Doris, almost fainted with joyful surprise and her husband
+had to support her in his arms when her long vanished son, whom she had
+never given up for lost, however, suddenly stood before her and said:
+"Here am I." How fondly she kissed and caressed her dear, cruel,
+restored fugitive. The singer too loudly expressed his joy alike in
+verse and in prose, and fetched his best theatrical dress out of the
+chest to put it on his son in the place of his ragged chiton.
+
+A mighty torrent of curses and execrations flowed from the old man's
+lips as Pollux told his story. The sculptor found it difficult to bring
+it to an end, for his father interrupted him at every word, and all the
+while he was talking his mother forced him to eat and drink incessantly,
+even when he could no more. After he had assured her that he was long
+since replete, she pushed two more pots on to the fire, for he must have
+been half-starved in prison, and what he did not want now he would find
+room for two hours hence. Euphorion himself conducted Pollux to the bath
+in the evening, and as they went home together he never for an instant
+left his side; the sense of being near him did him good and was like
+some comfortable physical sensation.
+
+The singer was not usually inquisitive, but on this occasion he never
+ceased asking questions till Doris led her son to the bed she had
+freshly made for him. After the artist had gone to rest, the old woman
+once more slipped into his room, kissed his forehead, and said:
+
+"To-day you have still been thinking too much of that hideous
+prison--but to-morrow my boy, to-morrow you will be the same as before,
+will you not?"
+
+"Only leave me alone mother; I shall soon be better," he replied. "This
+bed is as good as a sleeping-draught; the plank in the prison was quite
+a different thing."
+
+"You have never asked once for your Arsinoe," said Doris.
+
+"What can she matter to me? Only let me sleep." But the next morning
+Pollux was just the same as he had been the previous evening, and as the
+days went on his condition remained unchanged. His head drooped on his
+breast, he never spoke but when he was spoken to, and when Doris or
+Euphorion tried to talk to him of the future, he would ask: "Am I a
+burden to you?" or begged them not to worry him.
+
+Still, he was gentle and kind, took his sister's children in his arms,
+played with the Graces, whistled to the birds, went in and out, and
+played a valiant part at every meal. Now and again he would ask after
+Arsinoe. Once he allowed himself to be guided to the house where she
+lived, but he would not knock at Paulina's door and seemed overawed by
+the grandeur of the house. After he had been brooding and dreaming for
+a week, so idle, listless, and absent that his mother's heart was filled
+with anxious fears every time she looked at him, his brother Teuker hit
+upon a happy idea.
+
+The young gem-cutter was not usually a frequent visitor to his parents'
+house, but since the return of the hapless Pollux he called there almost
+daily. His apprenticeship was over and he seemed on the high-road to
+become a great master in his art; nevertheless he esteemed his brother's
+gifts as far beyond his own and had tried to devise some means of
+reawakening the dormant energies of the luckless man's brain.
+
+"It was at this table," said Teuker to his mother, "that Pollux used
+to sit. This evening I will bring in a lump of clay and a good piece
+of modelling wax. Just put it all on the table and lay his tools by
+the side of it; perhaps when he sees them he will take a fancy again
+to work. If he can only make up his mind to model even a doll for the
+children he will soon get into the vein again, and he will go on from
+small things to great."
+
+Teuker brought the materials, Doris set them out with the modelling
+tools, and next morning watched her son's proceedings with an anxious
+heart. He got up late, as he had always done since his return home, and
+sat a long time over the bowl of porridge which his mother had prepared
+for his breakfast. Then he sauntered across to his table, stood in front
+of it awhile, broke off a piece of clay and kneaded and moulded it in
+his fingers into balls and cylinders, looked at one of them more closely
+and then, flinging it on the ground, he said, as he leaned across
+the table supporting himself on both hands to put his face near his
+mother's:
+
+"You want me to work again; but it is of no use--I could do no good with
+it."
+
+The old woman's eyes filled with tears, but she did not answer him. In
+the evening Pollux begged her to put away the tools.
+
+When he was gone to bed she did so, and while she was moving about with
+a light in the dark, lumber-room in which she had kept them with other
+disused things, her eye fell on the unfinished wax model which had been
+the last work of her ill-starred son. A new idea struck her. She called
+Euphorion, made him throw the clay into the court-yard and place the
+model on the table by the side of the wax. Then she put out the very
+same tools as he had been using on the fateful day of their expulsion
+from Lochias, close to the cleverly-sketched portrait, and begged her
+husband to go out with her quite early next morning and to remain absent
+till mid-day.
+
+"You will see," she said, "when he is standing face to face with his
+last work and there is no one by to disturb him or look at him, he will
+find the ends of the threads that have been cut and perhaps be able to
+gather them up again and go on with the work where it was interrupted."
+
+The mother's heart had hit upon the right idea. When Pollux had eaten
+his breakfast he went to his table exactly as he had done the clay
+before; but the sight of the work in hand had quite a different effect
+to the mere raw clay and wax. His eyes sparkled; he walked round the
+table with an attentive gaze examining his work as keenly and as eagerly
+as if it were some fine thing he saw for the first time. Memory revived
+in his mind. He laughed aloud, clasped his hands and said to himself,
+"Capital! Something may be made of that!"
+
+His dull weariness slipped off him, as it were; a confident smile parted
+his lips and he seized the wax with a firm hand. But he did not begin
+to work at once; he only tried whether his fingers had not lost their
+cunning, and whether the yielding material was obedient to his will. The
+wax was no less docile to his touch than in former days, as he pinched
+or pulled it. Perhaps then the tormenting thought that blighted his
+life, the dread that in the prison he had ceased to be an artist, and
+had lost all his faculty was nothing more than a mad delusion! He must
+at any rate try how he could get on at the work.
+
+No one was by to observe him--he might dare the attempt at once.
+The sweat of anguish stood in large beads on his brow as he finally
+concentrated his volition, shook back the hair from his face and took
+up a lump of the wax in both hands. There stood the portrait of Antinous
+with the head only half-finished. Now--could he succeed in modelling
+that lovely head free-hand and from memory?
+
+His breath came fast, and his hands trembled as he set to work; but soon
+his hand was as steady as ever, his eye was calm and keen again, and the
+work progressed. The fine features of the young Bithynian were distinct
+to his mind's eye, and when, about four hours after, his mother looked
+in at the window to see what Pollux was doing, whether her little
+stratagem had succeeded, she cried out with surprise, for the favorite's
+bust, a likeness in every feature, stood on a plinth side by side with
+the original sketch. Before she could cross the threshold her son had
+run to meet her, lifted her in his arms, and kissing her forehead and
+lips he exclaimed, radiant with delight:
+
+"Mother, I still can work. Mother, mother, I am not lost!"
+
+In the afternoon his brother came in and saw what he had been doing, and
+now--and not till now--could Teuker honestly be glad to have found his
+brother again.
+
+While the two artists were sitting together, and the gem-cutter was
+suggesting to the sculptor, who had complained of the bad light in
+his parent's house, that he should carry the statue to his master's
+workshop--which was much lighter--to complete it, Euphorion had quietly
+gone to some remote corner of his provision-shed and brought to light an
+amphora full of noble Chian wine which had been given to him by a rich
+merchant, for whose wedding he had performed the part of Hymenaeus with
+a chorus of youths. For twenty years had he still preserved this jar of
+wine for some specially happy occasion. This jar and his best lute were
+the only objects which Euphorion had carried with his own hand from
+Lochias to his daughter's house and then again to his own new abode.
+With an air of dignified pride the singer set the old amphora before his
+sons, but Doris laid hands upon it at once and said:
+
+"I am glad to bestow the good gift upon you, and would willingly drink a
+cup of it with you; but a prudent general does not celebrate his triumph
+before he has won the battle. As soon as the statue of the beautiful lad
+is completed, I myself, will wreathe this venerable jar with ivy, and
+beg you spare it to us, my dear old man--but not before."
+
+"Mother is right," said Pollux. "And if the amphora is really destined
+for me, if you will allow it, my father shall not remove the pitch wig
+from its venerable head, till Arsinoe is mine once more!"
+
+"That is well my boy," cried Doris, "and then I will crown, not merely
+the jar but all of us too, with nothing but sweet roses."
+
+The next day Pollux, with his unfinished statue, removed to the workshop
+of his brother's master. The worthy man cleared the best place for the
+young sculptor, for he thought highly of him and wished to make good, as
+far as lay in his power, the injustice the poor fellow had suffered from
+the treachery of Papias. Now, from sunrise till evening fell, Pollux was
+constant to his work. He gave himself up to the resuscitated pleasure
+and power of creation with real passion. Instead of using wax he had
+recourse to clay, and formed a tall figure which represented Antinous as
+the youthful Bacchus, as the god might have appeared to the pirates. A
+mantle fell in light folds from his left shoulder to his ankles, leaving
+the broad breast and right aria entirely free; vine-leaves and grapes
+wreathed his flowing locks, and a pine-cone, flame-shaped, crowned
+his brow. The left arm was raised in a graceful curve, and his fingers
+lightly grasped a thyrsus which rested on the ground and stood taller
+than the god's head; by the side of this magnificent figure stood a
+mighty wine-jar, half hidden by the drapery.
+
+For a whole week Pollux had devoted himself to this task during all the
+hours of daylight with unflagging zeal and diligence. Before night fell
+he was accustomed to leave his work and walk up and down in front of
+Paulina's house, but for the present he refrained from knocking at the
+door and asking after the girl he loved. He had heard from his mother
+how anxiously she was guarded from him and his; still Paulina's severity
+would certainly not have hindered the artist from making the attempt to
+possess himself of his dearest treasure. What held him back from even
+approaching Arsinoe, was the vow he had made to himself never to tempt
+her to quit her new and sheltered home till he had acquired a firm
+certainty of being once for all an artist, a true artist, who might hope
+to do something great, and who might dare to link the fate of the woman
+he loved, with his own.
+
+When, on the eighth morning of his labors, he was taking a few minutes
+rest, his brother's master came past the rapidly advancing work, and
+after contemplating it for some time exclaimed:
+
+"Splendid, splendid! Our time has produced nothing to compare with it!"
+
+An hour later Pollux was standing at the door of Paulina's town-house,
+and let the knocker fall heavily on the door. The steward opened to him
+and asked him what he wanted. He asked to speak with dame Paulina,
+but she was not at home. Then he asked after Arsinoe, the daughter of
+Keraunus, who had found a home with the rich widow. The servant shook
+his head.
+
+"My mistress is having her searched for," he said. "She disappeared
+yesterday evening. The ungrateful creature! She has tried to run away
+several times before now."
+
+The artist laughed, slapped the steward on the back, and said:
+
+"I will soon find her!" and he sprang away down the street, and back to
+his parents.
+
+Arsinoe had received much kindness in Paulina's house, but she had also
+gone through many bad hours. For months she had been obliged to believe
+that her lover was dead. Pontius had told her that Pollux had entirely
+vanished and her benefactress persisted in al ways speaking of him as
+of one dead. The poor child had shed many tears for him, and when
+the longing to talk of him with some one who had known him had taken
+possession of her she had entreated Paulina to allow her to go to see
+his mother or to let Doris visit her. But the widow had desired her to
+give up all thought of the idol-maker and his belongings, speaking with
+contempt of the gate-keeper's worthy wife. Just at that time Selene also
+left the city, and now Arsinoe's longing for her old friends grew to a
+passionate craving to see them again.
+
+One day she yielded to the promptings of her heart and slipped out into
+the street to seek Doris; but the door-keeper, who had been charged by
+Paulina never to allow her to go outside the door without his
+mistress's express permission, noticed her and brought her back to her
+protectress--not this time only, but, on several subsequent occasions
+when she attempted to escape.
+
+It was not merely her longing to talk about Pollux which made her new
+home unendurable to Arsinoe, but many other reasons besides. She felt
+like a prisoner; and in fact she was one, for after each attempt at
+flight her freedom of movement was still farther impeded. It is true
+that she had soon ceased to submit patiently to all that was required of
+her and even had often opposed her adoptive mother with vehement words,
+tears and execrations, but these unpleasant scenes, which always ended
+by a declaration on Paulina's part that she forgave the girl, had
+always resulted in a long break in her drives and in a variety of
+small annoyances. Arsinoe was beginning to hate her benefactress and
+everything that surrounded her, and the hours of catechising and of
+prayer, which she could not escape, were a positive martyrdom. Ere long
+the doctrine to which Paulina sought to win her was confounded in her
+mind with that which it was intended to drive out, and she defiantly
+shut her heart against it.
+
+Bishop Eumenes, who had been elected in the spring Patriarch of the
+Christians of Alexandria, visited her oftener than usual during the
+summer when Paulina lived in her suburban villa. Paulina, it is true,
+had fancied she could do without his help, and that she could and must
+carry her task through to the end by herself; but the worthy old man had
+felt sympathetically drawn to the poor ill-guided child, and sought to
+soothe and calm her mind and show her the goal, towards which Paulina
+desired to lead her, in all its beauty. After such discourses Arsinoe
+would be softened and felt inclined to believe in God and to love
+Christ, but no sooner had her protectress called her again into the
+school-room and put the very same things before her in her own way than
+the girl's heartstrings drew close again; and when she was desired to
+pray she raised her hands, indeed, but out of sheer defiance, she prayed
+in spirit to the Greek gods.
+
+Frequently Paulina received visits from heathen acquaintances in rich
+dresses and the sight of them always reminded Arsinoe of former days.
+How poor she had been then! and yet she had always had a blue or a red
+ribbon to plait in her hair and trim the edge of her peplum. Now
+she might wear none but white dresses and the least scrap of colored
+ornament to dress her hair or smarten her robe was strictly forbidden.
+Such vain trifles, Paulina would say, were very well for the heathen,
+but the Lord looked not at the body but at the heart.
+
+Ah! and the poor little heart of the hapless child could not offer a
+very pleasing sight to the Father in Heaven, for hatred and disgust,
+sadness, impatience, and blasphemy seethed in it from morning till
+night. This young nature was surely formed for love and contentment, and
+both had left her weeping. Still Arsinoe never ceased to yearn for them.
+
+When November had begun and another attempt to run away during their
+move back to the town-house had failed, Paulina tried to punish her by
+never speaking a word to her for a fortnight, and forbidding even the
+slave-women to speak to her. In these two weeks the talkative girl was
+reduced almost to desperation, and she even thought of throwing herself
+off the roof down into the court-yard. But she clung too dearly to life
+to carry this horrible project into execution. On the first of December
+Paulina once more spoke to her, forgave her ingratitude, as usual in a
+long, kind speech, and told her how many hours she had spent in praying
+for her enlightenment and improvement.
+
+Paulina spoke the truth, and yet but half the truth, for she had never
+felt a real love for Arsinoe, and had now for a long time watched her
+come and go with actual dislike; but she required her conversion in
+order that the warmest wish of her heart might find fulfilment. It
+was for the happiness of her daughter, and not for the sake of her
+recalcitrant companion, that she prayed for her enlightenment and never
+ceased in her efforts to open the callous heart of her adopted child to
+the true faith.
+
+In the afternoon preceding that morning when Pollux had at last knocked
+at the Christian widow's door, the sun shone with particular brilliancy,
+and Paulina had allowed the girl to go out with her. They spent some
+little time with a Christian family who dwelt on the shore of Lake
+Mareotis, and so it fell out that they did not return home till late in
+the evening. Arsinoe had long learnt, while she sat apparently gazing at
+the ground, to keep her eyes out of the carriage and to see everything
+that was going on around her; and as the chariot turned into their
+own street she spied in the distance a tall man who looked like her
+long-wept Pollux. She fixed her eyes upon him, and had some difficulty
+in keeping herself from calling out aloud, for he it was who walked
+slowly down the street. She could not be mistaken, for the torches of
+two slaves who were walking in front of a litter had broadly lighted up
+his face and figure.
+
+He was not lost--he was living, and seeking her. She could have shouted
+aloud for joy, but she did not stir till Paulina's chariot was standing
+still in front of her house. The door-keeper bustled out as usual to
+help his mistress to step out of the high-slung vehicle. Thus Paulina
+for an instant turned her back, and in that moment Arsinoe sprang out of
+the opposite side of the chariot, and was flying down towards the street
+where she had seen her lover. Before Paulina could discover that she was
+gone the runaway found herself in the midst of the throng which, when
+the day's work was over, poured out from the workshops and factories on
+their way home.
+
+Paulina's slaves, who were sent out at once to seek the fugitive, had
+to return home this time empty-handed; but Arsinoe, on her part, had not
+succeeded in finding him she sought. For an hour she looked round
+and about her in vain; then she perceived that her search must be
+unsuccessful, and wondered how she might find her way to his parents'
+house. Rather than return to her benefactress she would have joined the
+roofless crew who passed the night on the hard marble pavement of the
+forecourts of the temple.
+
+At first she rejoiced in the sense of recovered liberty, but when none
+of the passers-by could tell her where Euphorion, the singer, lived, and
+some young men followed her and addressed her with impudent speeches,
+terror made her turn aside into a street which led to the Bruchiom;
+her persecutors had not even then ceased to follow her, when a litter,
+escorted by lictors and several torch-bearers, was carried past. It was
+Julia, the kind wife of the prefect, who sat in it; Arsinoe recognized
+her at once, followed her, and reached the door of her residence at
+the same moment as she herself. As the matron got out of her litter she
+observed the girl who placed herself modestly, but with hands uplifted
+in entreaty, at the side of her path. Julia greeted the pretty creature
+in whom she had once taken a motherly interest with affectionate
+sympathy, beckoned Arsinoe to her, smiled as she listened to her
+request for a night's shelter, and led her with much satisfaction to her
+husband.
+
+Titianus was ill; still he was glad once more to see the ill-fated
+palace-steward's pretty daughter; he listened to her story of her flight
+with many signs of disapprobation, but kindly withal, and expressed the
+warmest satisfaction at hearing that the sculptor Pollux was still in
+the land of the living.
+
+The grand and lordly bed in one of the strangers' rooms in the prefect's
+house had held many a more illustrious guest, but never one whose
+sleep was brightened by happier dreams than the poor orphaned "little
+fugitive," who, no longer ago than yesterday, had cried herself to
+sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Arsinoe was up betimes on the following morning; much embarrassed by
+all the splendor that surrounded her, she walked up and down her room
+thinking of Pollux. Then she stopped to take pleasure in her own image
+displayed in a large mirror which stood on a dressing-table, and between
+whiles she compared the couch, on which she lay clown again at full
+length, with those in Paulina's house. Once more she felt herself a
+prisoner, but this time she liked her prison, and presently, when she
+heard slaves passing by her room, she flew to the door to listen, for
+it was just possible that Titianus might have sent to fetch Pollux,
+and would allow him to come to see her. At last a slave-woman came in,
+brought her some breakfast, and desired her from Julia to go into the
+garden and look at the flowers and aviaries till she should be sent for.
+
+Early that morning the news had reached the prefect that Antinous had
+sought his death in the Nile, and it had shocked him greatly, less on
+account of the hapless youth than for Hadrian's sake. When he had given
+the proper officials orders to announce the melancholy news and to
+desire the citizens to give some public expression of their sympathy
+with the Emperor's sorrow, he gave audience to the Patriarch Eumenes.
+
+This venerable man, ever since the transactions which he had
+conducted--with reference to the thanksgiving of the Christians for the
+safety of the Emperor after the fire, had been one of the most esteemed
+friends of Titianus and Julia. The prefect discussed with the Patriarch
+the inauspicious effects that the death of the young fellow might be
+expected to have on the Emperor, and as a result, on the government,
+although the favorite had had no qualities of mind to distinguish him.
+
+"Whenever Hadrian," continued Titianus, "would give his unresting
+brain an hour's relaxation, and release himself from disappointment and
+vexation and the severe toil and anxiety of which his life is overfull,
+he would go out hunting with the bold youth or would have the handsome,
+good-hearted boy into his own room. The sight of the Bithynian's
+beauty delighted his eye, and how well Antinous knew how to listen to
+him--silent, modest and attentive! Hadrian loved him as a son, and
+the poor fellow clung to his master in return with more than a son's
+fidelity; his death itself proved it. Caesar himself said to me once;
+'In the midst of the turmoil of waking life, when I see Antinous a
+feeling comes over me as if a beautiful dream stood incorporate before
+my eyes.'
+
+"Caesar's grief at losing him must indeed be great," said the Patriarch.
+
+"And the loss will add to the gloom of his grave and brooding nature,
+render his restless scheming and wandering still more capricious, and
+increase his suspiciousness and irritability."
+
+"And the circumstances under which Antinous perished," added Eumenes,
+"will afford new ground for his attachment to superstitions."
+
+"That is to be feared. We have not happy days before us; the revolt in
+Judaea, too, will again cost thousands of lives."
+
+"If only it had been granted to you to assume the government of that
+province."
+
+"But you know, my worthy friend, the condition I am in. On my bad days
+I am incapable of commanding a thought or opening my lips. When my
+breathlessness increases I feel as if I were being suffocated. I have
+placed many decades of my life at the disposal of the state, and I now
+feel justified in devoting the diminished strength which is left me to
+other things. I and my wife think of retiring to my property by lake
+Larius, and there to try whether we may succeed, she and I, in becoming
+worthy of the salvation and capable of apprehending the truth that you
+have offered us. You are there Julia? As the determination to retire
+from the world has matured in us, we have, both of us, remembered more
+than once the words of the Jewish sage, which you lately told us of.
+When the angel of God drove the first man out of Paradise, he said:
+'Henceforth your heart must be your Paradise.' We are turning our backs
+on the pleasure of a city life--"
+
+"And we do so without regret," said Julia, interrupting her husband,
+"for we bear in our minds the germ of a more indestructible, purer, and
+more lasting happiness."
+
+"Amen!" said the Patriarch. "Where two such as you dwell together there
+the Lord is third in the bond." "Give us your disciple Marcianus to be
+our travelling-companion," said Titianus.
+
+"Willingly," said Eumenes. "Shall he come to visit you when I leave
+you?"
+
+"Not immediately," replied Julia. "I have this morning an important and
+at the same time pleasant business to attend to. You know Paulina, the
+widow of Pudeus. She took into her keeping a pretty young creature--"
+
+"And Arsinoe has run away from her."
+
+"We took her in here," said Titianus. "Her protectress seems to have
+failed in attracting her to her, or in working favorably on her nature."
+
+"Yes," said the Patriarch. "There was but one key to her full, bright
+heart--Love--but Paulina tried to force it open with coercion and
+persistent driving. It remained closed--nay, the lock is spoiled.--But,
+if I may ask, how came the girl into your house?"
+
+"That I can tell you later, we did not make her acquaintance for the
+first time yesterday."
+
+"And I am going to fetch her lover to her," cried the prefect's wife.
+
+"Paulina will claim her of you," said the Patriarch. "She is having
+her sought for everywhere; but the child will never thrive under her
+guidance."
+
+"Did the widow formally adopt Arsinoe?" asked Titianus.
+
+"No; she proposed doing so as soon as her young pupil--"
+
+"Intentions count for nothing in law, and I can protect our pretty
+little guest against her claim."
+
+"I will fetch her," said Julia. "The time must certainly have seemed
+very long to her already. Will you come with me, Eumenes?"
+
+"With pleasure," replied the old man, "Arsinoe and I are excellent
+friends; a conciliatory word from me will do her good, and my blessing
+cannot harm even a heathen. Farewell, Titianus, my deacons are expecting
+me."
+
+When Julia returned to the sitting-room with her protegee, the child's
+eyes were wet with tears, for the kind words of the venerable old
+man had gone to her heart and she knew and acknowledged that she had
+experienced good as well as evil from Paulina.
+
+The matron found her husband no longer alone. Wealthy old Plutarch
+with his two supporters was with him, and in black garments, which were
+decorated with none but white flowers, instead of many colored garments;
+he presented a singular appearance. The old man was discoursing eagerly
+to the prefect; but as soon as he saw Arsinoe he broke off his harangue,
+clapped his hands and was quite excited with the pleasure of seeing
+once more the fair Roxana for whom he had once visited in vain all the
+gold-workers' shops in the city.
+
+"But I am tired," cried Plutarch, with quite youthful vivacity, "I am
+quite tired of keeping the ornaments for you. There are quite enough
+other useless things in my house. They belong to you, not to me, and
+this very day I will send them to the noble Julia, that she may give
+them to you. Give me your hand, dear child; you have grown paler but
+more womanly. What do you think, Titianus, she would still do for
+Roxana; only your wife must find a dress for her again. All in white,
+and no ribband in your hair!--like a Christian."
+
+"I know some one who will find out the way to fitly crown these soft
+tresses," replied Julia. "Arsinoe is the bride of Pollux, the sculptor."
+
+"Pollux!" exclaimed Plutarch, in extreme excitement. "Move me forward,
+Antaeus and Atlas, the sculptor Pollux is her lover? A great, a splendid
+artist! The very same, noble Titianus, of whom I just now speaking to
+you."
+
+"You know him?" asked the prefect's wife.
+
+"No, but I have just left the work-shop of Periander, the gem-cutter,
+and there I saw the model of a statue of Antinous that is unique,
+marvellous, incomparable! The Bithynian as Dionysus! The work would do
+no discredit to a Phidias, to a Lysippus. Pollux was out of the way,
+but I laid my hand at once on his work; the young master must execute it
+immediately in marble. Hadrian will be enchanted with this portrait
+of his beautiful and devoted favorite. You must admire it, every
+connoisseur must! I will pay for it, the only question is whether I
+or the city should present it to Caesar. This matter your husband must
+decide."
+
+Arsinoe was radiant with joy at these words, but she stepped modestly
+into the background as an official came in and handed Titianus a
+dispatch that had just arrived.
+
+The prefect read it; then turning to his friend and his wife, he said:
+
+"Hadrian ascribes to Antinous the honors of a god."
+
+"Fortunate Pollux!" exclaimed Plutarch. "He has executed the first
+statue of the new divinity. I will present it to the city, and they
+shall place it in the temple to Antinous of which we must lay the first
+stone before Caesar is back here again. Farewell, my noble friends!
+Greet your bridegroom from me, my child. His work belongs to me. Pollux
+will be the first among his fellow-artists, and it has been my privilege
+to discover this new star--the eighth artist whose merit I have detected
+while he was still unknown. Your future brother-in-law too, Teuker,
+will turn out well. I am having a stone cut by him with a portrait of
+Antinous. Once more farewell; I must go to the Council. We shall have to
+discuss the subject of a temple to the new divinity. Move on you two!"
+
+An hour after Plutarch had quitted the prefect's house Julia's chariot
+was standing at the entrance of a lane, much too narrow to admit a
+vehicle with horses, and which ended in a little plot on which stood
+Euphorion's humble house. Julia's outrunners easily found out the
+residence of the sculptor's parents, led the matron and Arsinoe to the
+spot, and showed them the door they should knock at.
+
+"What a color you have, my little girl!" said Julia. "Well, I will not
+intrude on your meeting, but I should like to deliver you with my own
+hand into those of your future mother. Go to that little house, Arctus,
+and beg dame Doris to step out here. Only say that some one wishes to
+speak with her, but do not mention my name."
+
+Arsinoe's heart beat so violently that she was incapable of saying a
+word of thanks to her kind protectress. "Step behind this palm-tree,"
+said the lady. Arsinoe obeyed; but she felt as though it was some
+outside volition, and not her own, that guided her to her hiding-place.
+She heard nothing of the first words spoken by the Roman lady and Doris.
+She only saw the dear old face of her Pollux's mother, and in spite of
+her reddened eyes and the wrinkles which trouble had furrowed in her
+face, she could not tire of looking at it. It reminded her of the
+happiest days of her childhood, and she longed to rush forward and throw
+her arms round the neck of the kindly, good-hearted woman. Then she
+heard Julia say: "I have brought her to you. She is just as sweet and
+as maidenly and lovely as she was the first time we saw her in the
+theatre."
+
+"Where is she? Where is she?" asked Doris in a trembling voice.
+
+Julia pointed to the palm, and was about to call Arsinoe, but the girl
+could no longer restrain her longing to fall on the neck of some one
+dear to her, for Pollux had come out of the door to see who had asked
+for his mother, and to see him and to fly to his breast with a cry of
+joy had been one and the same act to Arsinoe.
+
+Julia gazed at the couple with moistened eyes, and when, after many kind
+words for old and young alike, she took leave of the happy group, she
+said:
+
+"I will provide for your outfit my child, and this time I think you will
+wear it, not merely for one transient hour but through a long and happy
+life."
+
+Joyful singing sounded out that evening from Euphorion's little home.
+Doris and her husband, and Pollux and Arsinoe, Diotima and Teuker,
+decked with garlands, reclined round the amphora which was wreathed with
+roses, drinking to pleasure and joy, to art and love, and to all the
+gifts of the present. The sweet bride's long hair was once more plaited
+with handsome blue ribbons.
+
+Three weeks after these events Hadrian was again in Alexandria. He
+kept aloof from all the festivals instituted in honor of the new god
+Antinous, and smiled incredulously when he was told that a new star had
+appeared in the sky, and that an oracle had declared it to be the soul
+of his lost favorite.
+
+When Plutarch conducted the Emperor and his friends to see the Bacchus
+Antinous, which Pollux had completed in the clay, Hadrian was deeply
+struck and wished to know the name of the master who had executed this
+noble work of art. Not one of his companion's had the courage to speak
+the name of Pollux in his presence; only Pontius ventured to come
+forward for his young friend. He related to Hadrian the hapless artist's
+history and begged him to forgive him. The Emperor nodded his approval,
+and said:
+
+"For the sake of this lost one he shall be forgiven."
+
+Pollux was brought into his presence, and Hadrian, holding out his hand
+said as he pressed the sculptor's:
+
+"The Immortals have bereft me of his love and faithfulness, but your art
+has preserved his beauty for me and for the world--"
+
+Every city in the Empire vied in building temples and erecting statues
+to the new god, and Pollux, Arsinoe's happy husband, was commissioned
+to execute statues and busts of Antinous for a hundred towns; but he
+refused most of the orders, and would send out no work as his own that
+he had not executed himself on a new conception. His master, Papias,
+returned to Alexandria, but he was received there by his fellow-artists
+with such insulting contempt, that in an evil hour he destroyed himself.
+Teuker lived to be the most famous gem-engraver of his time.
+
+Soon after Selene's martyrdom dame Hannah quitted Besa; the office of
+Superior of the Deaconesses at Alexandria was intrusted to her, and she
+exercised it with much blessing till an advanced age. Mary, the deformed
+girl, remained behind in the Nile-port, which under Hadrian was extended
+into the magnificent city of Antmoe. There were there two graves from
+which she could not bear to part.
+
+Four years after Arsinoe's marriage with Pollux, Hadrian called the
+young sculptor to Rome; he was there to execute the statue of the
+Emperor in a quadriga. This work was intended to crown and finish
+his mausoleum constructed by Pontius, and Pollux carried it out in so
+admirable a manner, that when it was ended, Hadrian said to him with a
+smile:
+
+"Now you have earned the right to pronounce sentence of death on the
+works of other masters." Euphorion's son lived in honor and prosperity
+to see his children, the children of his faithful wife Arsinoe--who
+was greatly admired by the Tiber-grow up to be worthy citizens. They
+remained heathen; but the Christian love which Eumenes had taught
+Paulina's foster-daughter was never forgotten, and she kept a kindly
+place for it in her heart and in her household. A few months before
+the young couple left Alexandria, Doris had peacefully gone to her last
+rest, and her husband died soon after her; the want of his faithful
+companion was the complaint he succumbed to.
+
+On the shores of the Tiber, Pontius was still the sculptor's friend.
+Balbilla and her husband gave their corrupt fellow-citizens the example
+of a worthy, faithful marriage on the old Roman pattern. The poetess's
+bust had been completed by Pollux in Alexandria, and with all its
+tresses and little curls, it found favor in Balbilla's eyes.
+
+Verus was to have enjoyed the title of Caesar even during Hadrian's
+lifetime, but after a long illness he died the first. Lucilla nursed
+him with unfailing devotion and enjoyed the longed-for monopoly of his
+attentions through a period of much suffering. It was on their son that
+in later years the purple devolved.
+
+The predictions of the prefect Titianus were fulfilled, for the
+Emperor's faults increased with years and the meaner side of his mind
+and nature came into sharper relief. Titianus and his wife led a retired
+life by lake Larius, far from the world, and both were baptized before
+they died. They never pined for the turmoil of a pleasure-seeking world
+or its dazzling show, for they had learnt to cherish in their own hearts
+all that is fairest in life.
+
+It was the slave Mastor who brought to Titianus the news of the
+sovereign's death. Hadrian had given him his freedom before he died and
+had left him a handsome legacy.
+
+The prefect gave him a piece of land to farm and continued in friendly
+relations with his Christian neighbor and his pretty daughter, who grew
+up among her father's co-religionists.
+
+When Titianus had told his wife the melancholy news he added solemnly:
+
+"A great sovereign is dead. The pettinesses which disfigured the man
+Hadrian will be forgotten by posterity, for the ruler Hadrian was one of
+those men whom Fate sets in the places they belong to, and who, true to
+their duty, struggle indefatigably to the end. With wise moderation he
+was so far master of himself as to bridle his ambition and to defy the
+blame and prejudice of all the Romans. The hardest, and perhaps the
+wisest, resolution of his life was to abandon the provinces which it
+would have exhausted the power of the Empire to retain. He travelled
+over every portion of his dominion within the limits he himself had
+set to it, shrinking from neither frost nor heat, and he tried to be as
+thoroughly acquainted with every portion of it as if the Empire were a
+small estate he had inherited. His duties as a sovereign forced him to
+travel, and his love of travel lightened the duty. He was possessed by
+a real passion to understand and learn everything. Even the
+Incomprehensible set no limits to his thirst for knowledge, but ever
+striving to see farther and to dig deeper than is possible to the mind
+of man, he wasted a great part of his mighty powers in trying to snatch
+aside the curtain which hides the destinies of the future. No one ever
+worked at so many secondary occupations as he, and yet no former Emperor
+ever kept his eye so unerringly fixed on the main task of his life,
+the consolidation and maintenance of the strength of the state and the
+improvement and prosperity of its citizens."
+
+
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     A well-to-do man always gets a higher price than a poor one
+     Avoid all useless anxiety
+     Dried merry-thought bone of a fowl
+     Enjoy the present day
+     Facts are differently reflected in different minds
+     Happiness is only the threshold to misery
+     Have not yet learned not to be astonished
+     Have lived to feel such profound contempt for the world
+     I must either rest or begin upon something new
+     Idleness had long since grown to be the occupation of his life
+     If one only knew who it is all for
+     Ill-judgment to pronounce a thing impossible
+     In order to find himself for once in good company--(Solitude)
+     It was such a comfort once more to obey an order
+     Love laughs at locksmiths
+     More to the purpose to think of the future than of the past
+     Never speaks a word too much or too little
+     Philosophers who wrote of the vanity of writers
+     So long as we do not think ourselves wretched, we are not so
+     Temples would be empty if mortals had nothing left to wish for
+     They keep an account in their heart and not in their head
+     To know half is less endurable than to know nothing
+     When a friend refuses to share in joys
+     Who do all they are able and enjoy as much as they can get
+     Wide world between the purpose and the deed
+     Years are the foe of beauty
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Emperor, Complete, by Georg Ebers
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Emperor, by Georg Ebers, Complete
+#55 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
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+Title: The Emperor, Complete
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5493]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 28, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EMPEROR, BY EBERS, COMPLETE ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
+entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR, Complete
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+
+
+Translated by Clara Bell
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+It is now fourteen years since I planned the story related in these
+volumes, the outcome of a series of lectures which I had occasion to
+deliver on the period of the Roman dominion in Egypt.  But the pleasures
+of inventive composition were forced to give way to scientific labors,
+and when I was once more at leisure to try my wings with increase of
+power I felt more strongly urged to other flights.  Thus it came to pass
+that I did I not take the time of Hadrian for the background of a tale
+till after I had dealt with the still later period of the early monastic
+move in "Homo Sum."  Since finishing that romance my old wish to depict,
+in the form of a story, the most important epoch of the history of that
+venerable nation to which I have devoted nearly a quarter century of my
+life, has found its fulfilment.  I have endeavored to give a picture of
+the splendor of the Pharaonic times in "Uarda," of the subjection of
+Egypt to the new Empire of the Persians in "An Egyptian Princess," of the
+Hellenic period under the Lagides in "The Sisters," of the Roman dominion
+and the early growth of Christianity in "The Emperor," and of the
+anchorite spirit--in the deserts and rocks of the Sinaitic Peninsula--in
+"Homo Sum."  Thus the present work is the last of which the scene will be
+laid in Egypt.  This series of romances will not only have introduced the
+reader to a knowledge of the history of manners and culture in Egypt, but
+will have facilitated his comprehension of certain dominant ideas which
+stirred the mind of the Ancients.  How far I may have succeeded in
+rendering the color of the times I have described and in producing
+pictures that realize the truth, I myself cannot venture to judge; for
+since even present facts are differently reflected in different minds,
+this must be still more emphatically the case with things long since past
+and half-forgotten.  Again and again, when historical investigation has
+refused to afford me the means of resuscitating some remotely ancient
+scene, I have been obliged to take counsel of imagination and remember
+the saying that 'the Poet must be a retrospective Seer,' and could allow
+my fancy to spread her wings, while I remained her lord and knew the
+limits up to which I might permit her to soar.  I considered it my lawful
+privilege to paint much that was pure invention, but nothing that was not
+possible at the period I was representing.  A due regard for such
+possibility has always set the bounds to fancy's flight; wherever
+existing authorities have allowed me to be exact and faithful I have
+always been so, and the most distinguished of my fellow-professors in
+Germany, England, France and Holland, have more than once borne witness
+to this.  But, as I need hardly point out, poetical and historical truth
+are not the same thing; for historical truth must remain, as far as
+possible, unbiassed by the subjective feeling of the writer, while
+poetical truth can only find expression through the medium of the
+artist's fancy.
+
+As in my last two romances, so in "The Emperor," I have added no notes:
+I do this in the pleasant conviction of having won the confidence of my
+readers by my historical and other labors.  Nothing has encouraged me to
+fresh imaginative works so much as the fact that through these romances
+the branch of learning that I profess has enlisted many disciples whose
+names are now mentioned with respect among Egyptologists.  Every one who
+is familiar with the history of Hadrian's time will easily discern by
+trifling traits from what author or from which inscription or monument
+the minor details have been derived, and I do not care to interrupt the
+course of the narrative and so spoil the pleasure of the larger class of
+readers.  It would be a happiness to me to believe that this tale
+deserves to be called a real work of art, and, as such, its first
+function should be to charm and elevate the mind.  Those who at the same
+time enrich their knowledge by its study ought not to detect the fact
+that they are learning.
+
+Those who are learned in the history of Alexandria under the Romans may
+wonder that I should have made no mention of the Therapeutai on Lake
+Mareotis.  I had originally meant to devote a chapter to them, but Luca's
+recent investigations led me to decide on leaving it unwritten.  I have
+given years of study to the early youth of Christianity, particularly in
+Egypt, and it affords me particular satisfaction to help others to
+realize how, in Hadrian's time, the pure teaching of the Saviour, as yet
+little sullied by the contributions of human minds, conquered--and could
+not fail to conquer--the hearts of men.  Side by side with the triumphant
+Faith I have set that noble blossom of Greek life and culture--Art which
+in later ages, Christianity absorbed in order to dress herself in her
+beautiful forms.  The statues and bust of Antinous which remain to us of
+that epoch, show that the drooping tree was still destined to put forth
+new leaves under Hadrian's rule.
+
+The romantic traits which I have attributed to the character of my hero,
+who travelled throughout the world, climbing mountains to rejoice in the
+splendor of he rising sun, are authentic.  One of the most difficult
+tasks I have ever set myself was to construct from the abundant but
+essentially contradictory accounts of Hadian a human figure in which I
+could myself at all believe; still, how gladly I set to work to do so!
+There was much to be considered in working out this narraive, but the
+story itself has flowed straight from the ieart of the writer; I can only
+hope it may find its way to that of the reader.
+
+     LEIPZIG, November, 1880.
+
+                                        GEORG EBERS.
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR, Part 1.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+The morning twilight had dawned into day, and the sun had risen on the
+first of December of the year of our Lord 129, but was still veiled by
+milk-white mists which rose from the sea, and it was cold.
+
+Kasius, a mountain of moderate elevation, stands on a tongue of land that
+projects from the coast between the south of Palestine and Egypt.  It is
+washed on the north by the sea which, on this day, is not gleaming, as is
+its wont, in translucent ultramarine; its more distant depths slowly
+surge in blue-black waves, while those nearer to shore are of quite a
+different hue, and meet their sisters that lie nearer to the horizon in a
+dull greenish-grey, as dusty plains join darker lava beds.  The
+northeasterly wind, which had risen as the sun rose, now blew more
+keenly, wreaths of white foam rode on the crests of the waves, though
+these did not beat wildly and stormily on the mountain-foot, but rolled
+heavily to the shore in humped ridges, endlessly long, as if they were of
+molten lead.  Still the clear bright spray splashed up when the gulls
+dipped their pinions in the water as they floated above it, hither and
+thither, restless and uttering shrill little cries, as though driven by
+terror.
+
+Three men were walking slowly along the causeway which led from the top
+of the hill down into the valley, but it was only the eldest, who walked
+in front of the other two, who gave any heed to the sky, the sea, the
+gulls, and the barren plain that lay silent at his feet.  He stopped, and
+as soon as he did so, the others followed his example.  The landscape
+below him seemed to rivet his gaze, and it justified the disapproval with
+which he gently shook his head, which was somewhat sunk into his beard.
+A narrow strip of desert stretched westward before him as far as the eye
+could reach, dividing two levels of water.  Along this natural dyke a
+caravan was passing, and the elastic feet of the camels fell noiselessly
+on the road they trod.  The leader, wrapped in his white mantle, seemed
+asleep, and the camel-drivers to be dreaming; the dull-colored eagles
+by the road-side did not stir at their approach.  To the right of the
+stretch of flat coast along which the road ran from Syria to Egypt, lay
+the gloomy sea, overhung by grey clouds; to the left lay the desert, a
+strange and mysterious feature in the landscape, of which the eye could
+not see the end, either to the east or to the west, and which looked here
+like a stretch of snow, there like standing water, and again like a
+thicket of rushes.
+
+The eldest of our travellers gazed constantly towards heaven or into the
+distance; the second, a slave who carried rugs and cloaks on his broad
+shoulders, never took his eyes off his master; and the third, a young,
+free-man, looked wearily and dreamily down the road.
+
+A broad path, leading to a stately temple, crossed that which led from
+the summit of the mountain to the coast, and the bearded pedestrian
+turned up it; but he followed it only for a few steps, then he turned his
+head with a dissatisfied air, muttered a few unintelligible words into
+his beard, turned round and hastily retraced his steps to the narrow way,
+down which he went towards the valley.  His young companion followed him
+without raising his head or interrupting his reverie, as if he were his
+shadow, but the slave lifted his cropped fair head and a stolen smile
+crossed his lips as on the left hand side of the Kasius road he caught
+sight of a black kid, and close beside it an old woman who, at the
+approach of the three men covered her wrinkled face in alarm with her
+dark blue veil.
+
+"That is the reason then!"  said the slave to himself with a nod, and
+blowing a kiss into the air to a black-haired girl who crouched at the
+old woman's feet.  But she, for whom the greeting was intended, did not
+observe this mute courtship, for her eyes followed the travellers, and
+especially the young man, as if spellbound.  As soon as the three were
+far enough off not to hear her, the girl asked with a shiver, as if some
+desert-spectre had passed by-and in a low voice "Grandmother, who was
+that?"
+
+The old woman raised her veil, laid her hand on her grandchild's mouth,
+and whispered:
+
+"It was he."
+
+"The Emperor?"
+
+The old woman answered with a significant nod, but the girl squeezed
+herself up, against her grandmother, with vehement curiosity stretching
+out her dusky head to see better, and asked softly: "The young one?"
+
+"Silly child!  the one in front with a grey beard."
+
+"He?  Oh, I wish the young one was the Emperor!"
+
+It was in fact Hadrian, the Roman Emperor, who walked on in silence
+before his escort, and it seemed as though his advent had given life to
+the desert, for as he approached the reed-swamp, the kites flew up in the
+air, and from behind a sand-hill on the edge of the broader road which
+Hadrian had avoided, came two men in priestly robes.  They both belonged
+to the temple of Baal of Kariotis, a small structure of solid stone,
+which faced the sea, and which the Emperor had yesterday visited.
+
+"Do you think he has lost his way?"  said one to the other, in the
+Phoenician tongue.
+
+"Hardly," was the answer.  "Master said that he could always find a road
+again by which he had once gone, even in the dark."
+
+"And yet he is gazing more at the clouds than at the road."
+
+"Still, he promised us yesterday."
+
+"He promised nothing for certain," interrupted the other.
+
+"Indeed he did; at parting he called out--and I heard him distinctly:
+'Perhaps I shall return and consult your oracle.'"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"I think he said 'probably.'"
+
+"Who knows whether some sign he has seen up in the sky may not have
+turned him back; he is going to the camp by the sea."
+
+"But the banquet is standing ready for him in our great hall."
+
+"He will find what he needs down there.  Come, it is a wretched morning,
+and I am being frozen."
+
+"Wait a little longer-look there."
+
+"What?"
+
+"He does not even wear a hat to cover his grey hair."
+
+"He has never yet been seen to travel with anything on his head."
+
+"And his grey cloak is not very imperial looking."
+
+"He always wears the purple at a banquet."
+
+"Do you know who his walk and appearance remind  me of?"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Of our late high-priest, Abibaal; he used to walk in that ponderous,
+meditative way, and wear a beard like the Emperor's."
+
+"Yes, yes--and had the same piercing grey eye."
+
+"He too used often to gaze up at the sky.  They have both the same broad
+forehead, too; but Abibaal's nose was more aquiline, and his hair curled
+less closely."
+
+"And our governor's mouth was grave and dignified, while Hadrian's lips
+twitch and curl at all he says and hears, as if he were laughing at it
+all."
+
+"Look, he is speaking now to his favorite--Antonius I think they call the
+pretty boy."
+
+"Antinous, not Antonius.  He picked him up in Bithynia, they say."
+
+"He is a beautiful youth."
+
+"Incomparably beautiful!  What a figure and what a face!  Still, I cannot
+wish that he were my son."
+
+"The Emperor's favorite!"
+
+"For that very reason.  Why, he looks already as if he had tried every
+pleasure, and could never know any farther enjoyment."
+
+                    ............................
+
+On a little level close to the sea-shore, and sheltered by crumbling
+cliffs from the east wind, stood a number of tents.  Between them fires
+were burning, round which were gathered groups of Roman soldiers and
+imperial servants.  Half-naked boys, the children of the fishermen and
+camel-drivers who dwelt in this wilderness, were running busily hither
+and thither, feeding the flames with dry stems of sea-grass and dead
+desert-shrubs; but though the blaze flew high, the smoke did not rise;
+but driven here and there by the squalls of wind, swirled about close to
+the ground in little clouds, like a flock of scattered sheep.  It seemed
+as though it feared to rise in the grey, damp, uninviting atmosphere.
+The largest of the tents, in front of which Roman sentinels paced up and
+down, two and two, on guard, was wide open on the side towards the sea.
+The slaves who came out of the broad door-way with trays on their cropped
+heads-loaded with gold and silver vessels, plates, wine-jars, goblets,
+and the remains of a meal had to hold them tightly with both hands that
+they might not be blown over.
+
+The inside of the tent was absolutely unadorned.  The Emperor lay on a
+couch near the right wall, which was blown in and bulged by the wind; his
+bloodless lips were tightly set, his arms crossed over his breast, and
+his eyes half closed.  But he was not asleep, for he often opened his
+mouth and smacked his lips, as if tasting the flavor of some viand.  From
+time to time he raised his eyelids--long, finely wrinkled, and blue-
+veined--turning his eyes up to heaven or rolling them to one side and
+then downwards towards the middle of the tent.  There, on the skin of a
+huge bear trimmed with blue cloth, lay Hadrian's favorite Antinous.  His
+beautiful head rested on that of the beast, which had been slain by his
+sovereign, and its skull and skin skilfully preserved, his right leg,
+supported on his left knee, he flourished freely in the air, and his
+hands were caressing the Emperor's bloodhound, which had laid its sage-
+looking head on the boy's broad, bare breast, and now and then tried to
+lick his soft lips to show its affection.  But this the youth would not
+allow; he playfully held the beast's muzzle close with his hands or
+wrapped its head in the end of his mantle, which had slipped back from
+his shoulders.
+
+The dog seemed to enjoy the game, but once when Antinous had drawn the
+cloak more tightly round its head and it strove in vain to be free from
+the cloth that impeded its breathing, it set up a loud howl, and this
+doleful cry made the Emperor change his attitude and cast a glance of
+displeasure at the boy lying on the bear-skin, but only a glance, not a
+word of blame.  And soon the expression, even of his eyes, changed, and
+he fixed them on the lads's figure with a gaze of loving contemplation,
+as though it were some noble work of art that he could never tire of
+admiring.  And truly the Immortals had moulded this child of man to such
+a type; every muscle of that throat, that chest, those arms and legs was
+a marvel of softness and of power; no human countenance could be more
+regularly chiselled.  Antinous observing that his master's attention had
+been attracted to his play with the dog, let the animal go and turned his
+large, but not very brilliant, eyes on the Emperor.
+
+"What  are  you doing  here?"  asked Hadrian kindly.
+
+"Nothing," said the boy.
+
+"No one can do nothing.  Even if we fancy we have succeeded in doing
+nothing we still continue to think that we are unoccupied, and to think
+is a good deal."
+
+"But I cannot even think."
+
+Every one can think; besides you were not doing nothing, for you were
+playing."
+
+"Yes, with the dog."  With these words Antinous stretched out his legs on
+the ground, pushed away the dog, and raised his curly head on both hands.
+
+"Are you tired?"  asked the Emperor.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"We both kept watch for an equal portion of the night, and I, who am so
+much older, feel quite wide awake."
+
+"It was only yesterday that you were saying that old soldiers were the
+best for night-watches."
+
+The Emperor nodded, and then said:
+
+"At your age while we are awake we live three times as fast as at mine,
+and so we need to sleep twice as long.  You have every right to be tired.
+To be sure it was not till three hours after midnight that we climbed the
+mountain, and how often a supper party is not over before that."
+
+"It was very cold and uncomfortable up there."
+
+"Not till after the sun had risen."
+
+"Ah!  before that you did not notice it, for till then you were busy
+thinking of the stars."
+
+"And you only of yourself--very true."
+
+"I was thinking of your health too when that cold wind rose before Helios
+appeared."
+
+"I was obliged to await his rising."
+
+"And can you discern future events by the way and manner of the rising of
+the sun?"
+
+Hadrian looked in surprise at the speaker, shook his head in negation,
+looked up at the top of the tent, and after a long pause said, in abrupt
+sentences, with frequent interruptions:
+
+"Day is the present merely, and the future is evolved out of darkness;
+the corn grows from the clods of the field; the rain falls from the
+darkest clouds; a new generation is born of the mother's womb; the limbs
+recover their vigor in sleep.  And what is begotten of the darkness of
+death--who can tell?"
+
+When, after saying this, the Emperor had remained for some time silent,
+the youth asked him:
+
+"But if the sunrise teaches you nothing concerning the future why should
+you so often break your night's rest and climb the mountain to see it?"
+
+"Why?  Why?"  repeated Hadrian, slowly and meditatively, stroking his
+grizzled beard; then he went on as if speaking to himself:
+
+"That is a question which reason fails to answer, before which my lips
+find no words; and, if I had them at my command, who among the rabble
+would understand me?  Such questions can best be answered by means of
+parables.  Those who take part in life are actors, and the world is their
+stage.  He who wants to look tall on it wears the cothurnus, and is not a
+mountain the highest vantage ground that a man can find for the sole of
+his foot?  Kasius there is but a hill, but I have stood on greater giants
+than he, and seen the clouds rise below me, like Jupiter on Olympus."
+
+"But you need climb no mountains to feel yourself a god," cried Antinous;
+"the godlike is your title--you command and the world must obey.  With a
+mountain beneath his feet a man is nearer to heaven no doubt than he is
+on the plain."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I dare not say what came into my mind."
+
+"Speak out."
+
+"I knew a little girl who when I took her on my shoulder would stretch
+out her arms and exclaim, 'I am so tall!' She fancied that she was taller
+than I then, and yet was only little Panthea."
+
+"But in her own conception of herself, it was she who was tall, and that
+decides the issue, for to each of us a thing is only that which it seems
+to us.  It is true they call me godlike, but I feel every day, and a
+hundred times a day, the limitations of the power and nature of man, and
+I cannot get beyond them.  On the top of a mountain I cease to feel them;
+there I feel as if I were great, for nothing is higher than my head, far
+or near.  And when, as I stand there, the night vanishes before my eyes,
+when the splendor of the young sun brings the world into new life for me,
+by restoring to my consciousness all that just before had been engulfed
+in gloom, then a deeper breath swells my breast, and my lungs fill with
+the purer and lighter air of the heights.  Up there, alone and in
+silence, no hint can reach me of the turmoil below, and I feel myself one
+with the great aspect of nature spread before me.  The surges of the sea
+come and go, the tree-tops in the forest bow and rise, fog and mist roll
+away and part asunder hither and thither, and up there I feel myself so
+merged with the creation that surrounds me that often it even seems as
+though it were my own breath that gives it life.  Like the storks and the
+swallows, I yearn for the distant land, and where should the human eye be
+more likely to be permitted, at least in fancy, to discern the remote
+goal than from the summit of a mountain?
+
+"The limitless distance which the spirit craves for seems there to assume
+a form tangible to the senses, and the eye detects its border line.  My
+whole being feels not merely elevated, but expanded, and that vague
+longing which comes over me as soon as I mix once more in the turmoil of
+life, and when the cares of state demand my strength, vanishes.  But you
+cannot understand it, boy.  These are things which no other mortal can
+share with me."
+
+"And it is only to me that you do not scorn to reveal them!"  cried
+Antinous, who had turned round to face the Emperor, and who with wide
+eyes had not lost one word.
+
+"You?"  said Hadrian, and a smile, not absolutely free from mockery,
+parted his lips.  "From you I should no more have a secret than from the
+Cupid by Praxiteles, in my study at Rome."
+
+The blood mounted to the lad's cheeks and dyed them flaming crimson.  The
+Emperor observed this and said kindly:
+
+"You are more to me than the statue, for the marble cannot blush.  In the
+time of the Athenians Beauty governed life, but in you I can see that the
+gods are pleased to give it a bodily existence, even in our own days, and
+to look at you reconciles me to the discords of existence.  It does me
+good.  But how should I expect to find that you understand me; your brow
+was never made to be furrowed by thought; or did you really understand
+one word of all I said?"
+
+Antinous propped himself on his left arm, and lifting his right hand, he
+said emphatically:
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And which," asked Hadrian.
+
+"I know what longing is."
+
+"For what?"
+
+"For many things."
+
+"Tell me one."
+
+"Some enjoyment that is not followed by depression.  I do not know of
+one."
+
+"That is a desire you share with all the youth of Rome, only they are apt
+to postpone the reaction.  Well, and what next?"
+
+"I cannot tell you."
+
+"What prevents your speaking openly to me?"
+
+"You, yourself did."
+
+"I?"
+
+"Yes, you; for you forbid me to speak of my home, my mother, and my
+people."
+
+The Emperor's brow darkened, and he answered sternly:
+
+"I am your father and your whole soul should be given to me."
+
+"It is all yours," answered the youth, falling back on to the bear-skin,
+and drawing the pallima closely over his shoulders, for a gust blew
+coldly in at the side of the tent, through which Phlegon, the Emperor's
+private secretary, now entered and approached his master.  He was
+followed by a slave with several sealed rolls under his arms.
+
+"Will it be agreeable to you, Caesar, to consider the despatches and
+letters that have just arrived?"  asked the official, whose carefully-
+arranged hair had been tossed by the sea-breeze.
+
+"Yes, and then we can make a note of what I was able to observe in the
+heavens last night.  Have you the tablets ready?"
+
+"I left them in the tent set up especially for the work, Caesar."
+
+"The storm has become very violent."
+
+"It seems to blow from the north and east both at once, and the sea is
+very rough.  The Empress will have a bad voyage."
+
+"When did she set out?"
+
+"The anchor was weighed towards midnight.  The vessel which is to fetch
+her to Alexandria is a fine ship, but rolls from side to side in a very
+unpleasant manner."
+
+Hadrian laughed loudly and sharply at this, and said:
+
+"That will turn her heart and her stomach upside down.  I wish I were
+there to see--but no, by all the gods, no! for she will certainly forget
+to paint this morning; and who will construct that edifice of hair if all
+her ladies share her fate.  We will stay here to-day, for if I meet her
+soon after she has reached Alexandria she will be undiluted gall and
+vinegar."
+
+With these words Hadrian rose from his couch, and waving his hand to
+Antinous, went out of the tent with his secretary.
+
+A third person standing at the back of the tent had heard the Emperor's
+conversation with his favorite; this was Mastor, a Sarmatian of the race
+of the Taryges.  He was a slave, and no more worthy of heed than the dog
+which had followed Hadrian, or than the pillows on which the Emperor had
+been reclining.  The man, who was handsome and well grown, stood for some
+time twisting the ends of his long red moustache, and stroking his round,
+closely-cropped head with his bands; then he drew the open chiton
+together over his broad breast, which seemed to gleam from the remarkable
+whiteness of the skin.  He never took his eyes off Antinous, who had
+turned over, and covering his face with his hands had buried them in the
+bear's hairy mane.
+
+Mastor had something he wanted to say to him, but he dared not address
+him for the young favorite's demeanor could not be reckoned on.  Often he
+was ready to listen to him and talk with him as a friend, but often, too,
+he repulsed him more sharply than the haughtiest upstart would repel the
+meanest of his servants.  At last the slave took courage and called the
+lad by his name, for it seemed less hard to submit to a scolding than to
+smother the utterance of a strong, warm feeling, unimportant as it might
+be, which was formed in words in his mind.  Antinous raised his head a
+little on his hands and asked:
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I only wanted to tell you," replied the Sarmatian, "that I know who the
+little girl was that you so often took upon your shoulders.  It was your
+little sister, was it not, of whom you were speaking to me lately?"
+
+The lad nodded assent, and then once more buried his head in his hands,
+and his shoulders heaved so violently that it would seem that he was
+weeping.--Mastor remained silent for a few minutes, then he went up to
+Antinous and said:
+
+"You know I have a son and a little daughter at home, and I am always
+glad to hear about little girls.  We are alone and if it will relieve
+your heart."
+
+"Let me alone, I have told you a dozen times already about my mother and
+little Parthea," replied Antinous, trying to look composed.
+
+"Then do so confidently for the thirteenth," said the slave.  "In the
+camp and in the kitchen I can talk about my people as much as I like.
+But you--tell me, what do you call the little dog that Panthea made a
+scarlet cloak for?"
+
+"We called it Kallista," cried Antinous wiping his eyes with the back
+of his hand.  "My father would not allow it but we persuaded my mother.
+I was her favorite, and when I put my arms round her and looked at her
+imploringly she always said 'yes' to anything I asked her."
+
+A bright light shone in the boy's weary eyes; he had remembered a whole
+wealth of joys which left no depression behind them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+One of the palaces built in Alexandria by the Ptolemaic kings stood on
+the peninsula called Lochias which stretched out into the blue sea like a
+finger pointing northwards; it formed the eastern boundary of the great
+harbor.  Here there was never any lack of vessels but to-day they were
+particularly numerous, and the quay-road paved with smooth blocks of
+stone, which led from the palatial quarter of the town--the Bruchiom as
+it was called--which was bathed by the sea, to the spit of land was so
+crowded with curious citizens on foot and in vehicles, that all
+conveyances were obliged to stop in their progress before they had
+reached the private harbor reserved for the Emperor's vessels.
+
+But there was something out of the common to be seen at the landing-
+place, for there lying under the shelter of the high mole were the
+splendid triremes, galleys, long boats and barges which had brought
+Hadrian's wife and the suite of the imperial couple to Alexandria.  A
+very large vessel with a particularly high cabin on the after deck and
+having the head of a she-wolf on the lofty and boldly-carved prow excited
+the utmost attention.  It was carved entirely in cedar wood, richly
+decorated with bronze and ivory, and named the Sabina.  A young
+Alexandrian pointed to the name written in gold letters on the stern,
+nudging his companion and saying with a laugh:
+
+"Sabina has a wolf's head then!"
+
+"A peacock's would suit her better.  Did you see her on her way to the
+Caesareum?"  replied the other.
+
+"Alas!  I did," said the first speaker, but he said no more perceiving,
+close behind him, a Roman lictor who bore over his left shoulder his
+fasces, a bundle of elmrods skilfully tied together, and who, with a wand
+in his right-hand and the assistance of his comrades, was endeavoring to
+part the crowd and make room for the chariot of his master, Titianus, the
+imperial prefect, which came slowly in the rear.  This high official had
+overheard the citizens' heedless words, and turning to the man who stood
+beside him, while with a light fling he threw the end of his toga into
+fresh folds, he said:
+
+"An extraordinary people!  I cannot feel annoyed with them, and yet I
+would rather walk from here to Canopus on the edge of a knife than on
+that of an Alexandrian's tongue."
+
+"Did you hear what the stout man was saying about Verus?"
+
+"The lictor wanted to take him up, but nothing is to be done with them
+by violence.  If they had to pay only a sesterce for every venomous word,
+I tell you Pontius, the city would be impoverished and our treasury would
+soon be fuller than that of Gyges at Sardis."
+
+"Let them keep their money," cried the other, the chief architect of the
+city, a man of about thirty years of age with highly-arched brows and
+eager piercing eyes; and grasping the roll he held in his hand with a
+strong grip, he continued:
+
+"They know how to work, and sweat is bitter.  While they are busy they
+help each other, in idleness they bite each other, like unbroken horses
+harnessed to the same pole.  The wolf is a fine brute, but if you break
+out his teeth he becomes a mangy hound."
+
+"You speak after my own heart," cried the prefect.  "But here we are,
+eternal gods!  I never imagined anything so bad as this.  From a distance
+it always looked handsome enough!"
+
+Titianus and the architect descended from the chariot, the former desired
+a lictor to call the steward of the palace, and then he and his companion
+inspected first the door which led into it.  It looked fine enough with
+its double columns which supported a lofty pediment, but, all the same,
+it did not present a particularly pleasing aspect, for the stucco had, in
+several places, fallen from the walls, the capitals of the marble columns
+were lamentably injured and the tall doors, overlaid with metal, hung
+askew on their hinges.  Pontius inspected every portion of the door-way
+with a keen eye and then, with the prefect, went into the first court of
+the palace, in which, in the time of the Ptolemies, the tents had stood
+for ambassadors, secretaries, and the officers in waiting on the king.
+There they met with an unexpected hindrance, for across the paved court-
+yard, where the grass grew in tufts, and tall thistles were in bloom, a
+number of ropes were stretched aslant from the little house in which
+dwelt the gate-keeper; and on these ropes were hung newly-washed garments
+of every size and shape.
+
+"A pretty residence for an Emperor," sighed Titianus, shrugging his
+shoulders, but stopping the lictor, who had raised his fasces to cut the
+ropes.
+
+"It is not so bad as it looks," said the architect positively.  "Gate-
+keeper!  hi, gate-keeper!  Where is the lazy fellow hiding himself?"
+
+While he called out and the lictor hurried forward into the interior of
+the palace, Pontius went towards the gate-keeper's lodge, and having made
+his way in a stooping attitude through the damp clothes, there he stood
+still.  Ever since he had come in at the gate annoyance and vexation had
+been stamped on his countenance, but now his large mouth spread into a
+smile, and he called to the prefect in an undertone:
+
+"Titianus, just take the trouble to come here."
+
+The elderly dignitary, whose tall figure exceeded that of the architect
+in height by a full head, did not find it quite so easy to pass under the
+ropes with his head bent down; but he did it with good humor, and while
+carefully avoiding pulling down the wet linen, he called out:
+
+"I am beginning to feel some respect for children's shirts; one can at
+any rate get through them without breaking one's spine.  Oh!  this is
+delicious--quite delicious!"
+
+This exclamation was caused by the sight which the architect had invited
+the prefect to come and enjoy, and which was certainly droll enough.  The
+front of the gate-keeper's house was quite grown over with ivy which
+framed the door and window in its long runners.  Amidst the greenery hung
+numbers of cages with starlings, blackbirds, and smaller singing-birds.
+The wide door of the little house stood open, giving a view into a
+tolerably spacious and gaily-painted room.  In the background stood a
+clay model of an Apollo of admirable workmanship; above, and near this,
+the wall was hung with lutes and lyres of various size and form.
+
+In the middle of the room, and near the open door, was a table, on which
+stood a large wicker cage containing several nests of young goldfinches,
+and with green food twined among the osiers.  There were, too, a large
+wine-jar and an ivory goblet decorated with fine carving.  Close to the
+drinking-vessels, on the stone top of the table, rested the arm of an
+elderly woman who had fallen asleep in the arm-chair in which she sat.
+Notwithstanding the faint grey moustache that marked her upper-lip and
+the pronounced ruddiness of her fore head and cheeks, she looked pleasant
+and kind.  She must have been dreaming of something that pleased her, for
+the expression of her lips and of her eyes-one being half open and the
+other closely shut-gave her a look of contentment.  In her lap slept a
+large grey cat, and by its side--as though discord never could enter this
+bright little abode which exhaled no savor of poverty, but, on the
+contrary, a peculiar and fragrant scent--lay a small shaggy dog, whose
+snowy whiteness of coat could only be due to the most constant care.  Two
+other dogs, like this one, lay stretched on the floor at the old lady's
+feet, and seemed no less soundly asleep.
+
+As the prefect came up, the architect pointed to this study of still-
+life, and said in a whisper:
+
+"If we had a painter here it would make a lovely little picture."
+
+"Incomparable," answered Titianus, "only the vivid scarlet on the dame's
+cheeks seems to me suspicious, considering the ample proportions of the
+wine-jar at her elbow."
+
+"But did you ever see a calmer, kindlier, or more contented countenance?"
+
+"Baucis must have slept like that when Philemon allowed himself leave of
+absence for once! or did that devoted spouse always remain at home?"
+
+"Apparently he did.  Now, peace is at an end."  The approach of the two
+friends had waked one of the little dogs.  He gave tongue, and his
+companion immediately jumped up and barked as if for a wager.  The old
+woman's pet sprang out of her lap, but neither his mistress nor the cat
+let themselves be disturbed by the noise, and slept on.
+
+"A watcher among a thousand!"  said the architect, laughing.
+
+"And this phalanx of dogs which guard the palace of a Caesar," added
+Titianus, "might be vanquished with a blow.  Take heed, the worthy matron
+is about to wake."
+
+The dame had in fact been disturbed by the barking.  She sat up a little,
+lifted her hands, and then, half singing, half muttering a few words, she
+sank back again in her chair.
+
+"This is delicious!"  cried the prefect.
+
+"Begone dull care" she sang in her sleep.
+
+"How may this rare specimen of humanity look when she is awake?"
+
+"I should be sorry to drive the old lady out of her nest!"  said the
+architect unrolling his scroll.
+
+"You shall touch nothing in the little house," cried the prefect eagerly.
+"I know Hadrian; he delights in such queer things and queer people, and I
+will wager he will make friends with the old woman in his own way.  Here
+at last comes the steward of this palace."
+
+The prefect was not mistaken; the hasty step he had heard was that of the
+official they awaited.  At some little distance they could already hear
+the man, panting as he hurried up, and as he came, before Titianus could
+prevent him, he had snatched down the cords that were stretched across
+the court and flung all the washing on the ground.  As soon as the
+curtain had thus dropped which had divided him from the Emperor's
+representative and his companion, he bowed to the former as low as the
+rotund dimensions of his person would allow; but his hasty arrival, the
+effort of strength he had made, and his astonishment at the appearance of
+the most powerful personage in the Nile Province in the building
+entrusted to his care, so utterly took away his breath--of which he at
+all times was but "scant"--that he was unable even to stammer out a
+suitable greeting.  Titianus gave him a little time, and then, after
+expressing his regret at the sad plight of the washing, now strewn upon
+the ground, and mentioning to the steward the name and position of his
+friend Pontius, he briefly explained to him that the Emperor wished to
+take up his abode in the palace now in his charge; that he--Titianus--was
+cognizant of the bad condition in which it then was, and had come to take
+council with him and the architect as to what could be done in the course
+of a few days to make the dilapidated residence habitable for Hadrian,
+and to repair, at any rate, the more conspicuous damage.  He then desired
+the steward to lead him through the rooms.
+
+"Directly--at once," answered the Greek, who had attained his present
+ponderous dimensions through many years of rest: "I will hasten to fetch
+the keys."  And as he went, puffing and panting, he re-arranged with his
+short, fat fingers the still abundant hair on the right side of his head.
+Pontius looked after him.
+
+"Call him back, Titianus," said he.  "We disturbed him in the midst of
+curling his hair; only one side was done when the lictor called him away,
+and I will wager my own head that he will have the other side frizzled
+before he comes back.  I know your true Greek!"
+
+"Well, let him," answered Titianus.  "If you have taken his measure
+rightly he will not be able to give his attention without reserve to our
+questions till the other half of his hair is curled.  I know, too, how to
+deal with a Hellene."
+
+"Better than I, I perceive," said the architect in a tone of conviction.
+"A statesman is used to deal with men as we do with lifeless materials.
+Did you see the fat fellow turn pale when you said that it would be but a
+few days before the Emperor would make his entry here?  Things must look
+well in the old house there.  Every hour is precious, and we have
+lingered here too long."
+
+The prefect nodded agreement and followed the architect into the inner
+court of the palace.  How grand and well-proportioned was the plan of
+this immense building through which the steward Keraunus, who returned
+with his fine curls complete all round, now led the Romans.  It stood on
+an artificial hill in the midst of the peninsula of Lochias, and from
+many a window and many a balcony there were lovely prospects of the
+streets and open squares, the houses, palaces and public buildings of the
+metropolis, and of the harbor, swarming with ships.  The outlook from
+Lochias was rich, gay and varied to the south and west, but east and
+north from the platform of the palace of the Ptolemies, the gaze fell on
+the never-wearying prospect of the eternal sea, limited only by the vault
+of heaven.  When Hadrian had sent a special messenger from Mount Kasius
+to desire his prefect Titianus to have this particular building prepared
+for his reception, he knew full well what advantages its position
+offered; it was the part of his officials to restore order in the
+interior of the palace, which had remained uninhabited from the time of
+Cleopatra's downfall.  He gave them for the purpose eight, or perhaps
+nine, days--little more than a week.  And in what a condition did
+Titianus and Pontius find this now dilapidated and plundered scene of
+former magnificence--the sweat pouring from their foreheads with their
+exertions as they inspected and sketched, questioned and made notes of it
+all.
+
+The pillars and steps in the interior were tolerably well preserved, but
+the rain had poured in through the open roofs of the banqueting and
+reception-lulls, the fine mosaic pavements had started here and there,
+and in other places a perfect little meadow had grown in the midst of a
+hall, or an arcade; for Octavianus Augustus, Tiberius, Vespasian, Titus
+and a whole series of prefects, had already carefully removed the finest
+of the mosaics from the famous palace of the Ptolemies, and carried them
+to Rome or to the provinces, to decorate their town houses or country
+villas.  In the same way the best of the statues were gone, with which a
+few centuries previously the art-loving Lagides had decorated this
+residence--besides which they had another, still larger, on the Bruchiom.
+
+In the midst of a vast marbled hall stood an elegantly-wrought fountain,
+connected with the fine aqueduct of the city.  A draught of air rushed
+through this hall, and in stormy weather switched the water all over the
+floor, now robbed of its mosaics, and covered, wherever the foot could
+tread, with a thin, dark green, damp and slippery coating of mossy plants
+and slime.  It was here that Keraunus leaned breathless against the wall,
+and, wiping his brow, panted rather than said: "At last, this is the
+end!"
+
+The words sounded as if he meant his own end and not that of their
+excursion through the palace, and it seemed like a mockery of the man
+himself when Pontius unhesitatingly replied with decision:
+
+"Good, then we can begin our re-examination here, at once."
+
+Keraunus did not contradict him, but, as he remembered the number of
+stairs to be climbed over again, he looked as if sentence of death had
+been passed upon him.
+
+"Is it necessary that I should remain with you during the rest of your
+labors, which must be principally directed to details?"  asked the
+prefect of the architect.
+
+"No," answered Pontius, "provided you will take the trouble to look at
+once at my plan, so as to inform yourself on the whole of what I propose,
+and to give me full powers to dispose of men and means in each case as it
+arises."
+
+"That is granted," said Titianus.  "I know that Pontius will not demand a
+man or a sesterce more or less than is needed for the purpose."
+
+The architect bowed in silence and Titianus went on.
+
+"But above all things, do you think you can accomplish your task in eight
+days and nine nights?"
+
+"Possibly, at a pinch; and if I could only have four days more at my
+disposal, most probably."
+
+"Then all that is needed is to delay Hadrian's arrival by four days and
+nights."
+
+"Send some interesting people--say the astronomer Ptolemaeus, and
+Favorinus, the sophist, who await him here--to meet him at Pelusium.
+They will find some way of detaining him there."
+
+"Not a bad idea!  We will see.  But who can reckon on the Empress's
+moods?  At any rate, consider that you have only eight days to dispose
+of."
+
+"Good."
+
+"Where do you hope to be able to lodge Hadrian?"
+
+"Well, a very small portion of the old building is, strictly speaking,
+fit to use."
+
+"Of that, I regret to say, I have fully convinced myself," said the
+prefect emphatically, and turning to the steward, he went on in a tone
+less of stern reproof than of regret.
+
+"It seems to me, Keraunus, that it would have been your duty to inform me
+earlier of the ruinous condition of the building."
+
+"I have already lodged a complaint," replied the man, "but I was told in
+answer to my report that there were no means to apply to the purpose."
+
+"I know nothing of these things," cried Titianus.
+
+"When did you forward your petition to the prefect's office?"
+
+"Under your predecessor, Haterius Nepos."
+
+"Indeed," said the prefect with a drawl.
+
+"So long ago.  Then, in your place, I should have repeated my application
+every year, without any reference to the appointment of a new prefect.
+However, we have now no time for talking.  During the Emperor's residence
+here, I shall very likely send one of my subordinates to assist you!"
+
+Titianus turned his back on the steward, and asked the architect:
+
+"Well, my good Pontius, what part of the palace have you your eye upon?"
+
+"The inner halls and rooms are in the best repair."
+
+"But they are the last that can be thought of," cried Titianus.  "The
+Emperor is satisfied with everything in camp, but where fresh air and a
+distant prospect are to be had, he must have them."
+
+"Then let us choose the western suite; hold the plan my worthy friend."
+
+The steward slid as he was desired, the architect took his pencil and
+made a vigorous line in the air above the left side of the sketch,
+saying:
+
+"This is the west front of the palace which you see from the harbor.
+From the south you first come into the lofty peristyle, which may be used
+as an antechamber; it is surrounded with rooms for the slaves and body-
+guard.  The next smaller sitting-rooms by the side of the main corridor
+we may assign to the officers and scribes, in this spacious hypaethral
+hall--the one with the Muses--Hadrian may give audience and the guests
+may assemble there whom he may admit to eat at his table in this broad
+peristyle.  The smaller and well-preserved rooms, along this long passage
+leading to the steward's house, will do for the pages, secretaries and
+other attendants on Caesar's person, and this long saloon, lined with
+fine porphyry and green marble, and adorned with the beautiful frieze
+in bronze will, I fancy, please Hadrian as a study and private
+sitting-room."
+
+"Admirable!"  cried Titianus, "I should like to show your plan to the
+Empress."
+
+"In that case, instead of eight days I must have as many weeks," said
+Pontius coolly.
+
+"That is  true,"  answered  the  prefect laughing.  "But tell me,
+Keraunus, how comes it that the doors are wanting to all the best rooms?"
+
+"They were of fine thyra wood, and they were wanted in Rome."
+
+"I must have seen one or another of them there," muttered the prefect.
+
+"Your cabinet-workers will have a busy time, Pontius."
+
+"Nay, the hanging-makers may be glad; wherever we can we will close the
+door-ways with heavy curtains."
+
+"And what will you do with this damp abode of fogs, which, if I mistake
+not, must adjoin the dining-hall?"
+
+"We will turn it into a garden filled with ornamental foliage."
+
+"That is quite admissable--and the broken statues?"
+
+"We will get rid of the worst."
+
+The Apollo and the nine Muses stand in the room you intend for an
+audience-hall--do they not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"They are in fairly good condition, I think."
+
+"Urania is wanting entirely," said the steward, who was still holding the
+plan out in front of him.
+
+"And what became of her?"  asked Titianus, not without excitement.
+
+"Your predecessor, the prefect  Haterius Nepos, took a particular fancy
+to it and carried it with him to Rome."
+
+"Why Urania of all others?"  cried Titianus angrily.  She, above all,
+ought not to be missing from the hall of audience of Caesar the pontiff
+of heaven!  What is to be done?"
+
+"It will be difficult to find an Urania ready-made as tall as her
+sisters, and we have no time to search one out, a new one must be made."
+
+"In eight days?"
+
+"And eight nights."
+
+"But my good friend, only to get the marble--"
+
+"Who thinks of marble?  Papias will make us one of straw, rags and
+gypsum--I know his magic hand--and in order that the others may not be
+too unlike their new-born sister they shall be whitewashed."
+
+"Capital--but why choose Papias when we have Harmodius?"
+
+"Harmodius takes art in earnest, and we should have the Emperor here
+before he had completed his sketches.  Papias works with thirty
+assistants at anything that is ordered of him, so long as it brings him
+money.  His last things certainly amaze me, particularly the Hygyeia for
+Dositheus the Jew, and the bust of Plutarch put up in the Caesareum.
+they are full of grace and power.  But who can distinguish what is his
+work and what that of his scholars?  Enough, he knows how things should
+be done; and if a good sum is to be got by it he will hew you out a whole
+sea-fight in marble in five days."
+
+"Then  give Papias the commission  but the hapless mutilated pavements-
+what will you do with them?"
+
+"Gypsum and paint must mend them," said Pontius, "and where that will not
+do, we must lay carpets on the floor in the Eastern fashion.  Merciful
+night! how dark it is growing; give me the plan Keraunus and provide us
+with torches and lamps for to-day, and the next following ones must have
+twenty-four hours apiece, full measure.  I must ask you for half a dozen
+trustworthy slaves Titianus; I shall want them for messengers.  What are
+you standing there for man?  Lights, I said.  You have had half a
+lifetime to rest in, and when Caesar is gone you will have as many more
+years for the same laudable purpose--"
+
+As he spoke the steward had silently gone off, but the architect did not
+spare him the end of the sentence; he shouted after him:
+
+"Unless by that time you are smothered in your own fat.  Is it Nile-mud
+or blood that runs in that huge mortal's veins?"
+
+"I am sure I do not care," said the prefect, "so long as the glorious
+fire that flows in yours only holds out till the work is done.  Do not
+allow yourself to be overworked at first, nor require the impossible of
+your strength, for Rome and the world still expect great things of you.
+I can now write in perfect security to the Emperor that all will be ready
+for him in Lochias, and as a farewell speech, I can only say, it is folly
+to be discouraged if only Pontius is at hand to support and assist me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The prefect ordered the lictors, who were awaiting him with his chariot,
+to hasten to his house, and to conduct to Pontius several most worthy
+slaves, familiar with Alexandria--some of whom he named--and at the same
+time to send the architect a good couch with pillows and coverlets, and
+to despatch a good meal and fine wine to the old palace at Lochias.  Then
+he mounted his chariot and drove through the Bruchiom along the shore to
+the great edifice known as the Caesareum.  He got on but slowly, for the
+nearer he approached his destination the denser was the crowd of
+inquisitive citizens, who stood closely packed round the vast
+circumference of the building.  Quite from a distance the prefect could
+see a bright light; it rose to heaven from the large pans of pitch which
+were placed on the towers on each side of the tall gate of the Caesareum
+which faced the sea.  To the right and left of this gate stood a tall
+obelisk, and on each of these, men were lighting lamps which had been
+attached to the sides and placed on the top, on the previous day.
+
+"In honor of Sabina," said the prefect to himself.  "All that this
+Pontius does is thoroughly done, and there is no more complete sinecure
+than the supervision of his arrangements."
+
+Fully persuaded of this he did not think it necessary to go up to the
+illuminated door-way which led into the temple erected by Octavian in
+honor of Julius Caesar; on the contrary, he directed the charioteer to
+stop at a door built in the Egyptian style, which faced the garden of the
+palace of the Ptolemies, and which led to the imperial residence that had
+been built by the Alexandrians for Tiberius, and had been greatly
+extended and beautified under the later Caesars.  A sacred grove divided
+it from the temple of Caesar, with which it communicated by a covered
+colonnade.  Before this door there were several chariots and horses, and
+a whole host of slaves, black and white, were in attendance with their
+masters' litters.  Here lictors kept back the sight-seeking crowd,
+officers were lounging against the pillars, and the Roman guard were just
+assembling with a clatter of arms, to the sound of a trumpet within the
+door, to await their dismissal.
+
+Everything gave way respectfully before the chariot of the prefect, and
+as Titianus walked through the illuminated arcades of the Caesareum,
+passing by the masterpieces of statuary placed there, and the rows of
+pictures--and reached the halls in which the library of the palace was
+kept, he could not help thinking of all the care and trouble which with
+the assistance of Pontius, he had for months devoted to rendering this
+palace which had not been used since Titus had set out for Judaea, fit
+quarters for Hadrian's reception.  The Empress now lived in the rooms
+intended for her husband, and decorated with the choicest works of art,
+and Titianus reflected with regret that, after Sabina had once become
+aware of their presence there, it would be quite impossible to transfer
+them to Lochias.  At the door of the splendid room which he had intended
+for Hadrian he was met by Sabina's chamberlain who undertook to conduct
+him at once into the presence of his mistress.
+
+The roof of the hall in which the prefect found the Empress, in summer
+was open to the sky; but at this season was suitably covered in by a
+movable copper roof, partly to keep off the rain of the Alexandrian
+winter, and partly too because, even in the warmer season Sabina was wont
+to complain of cold; but beneath it a wide opening allowed the air free
+entrance and exit.  As Titianus entered the room a comfortable warmth and
+subtle perfume met his senses; the warmth was produced by stoves of a
+peculiar form standing in the middle of the room; one of these
+represented Vulcan's forge.  Brightly glowing charcoal lay in front of
+the bellows which were worked by an automaton, at short regular
+intervals, while the god and his assistants modelled in brass, stood
+round the genial fire with tongs and hammers.  The other stove was a
+large silver bird's-nest, in which likewise charcoal was burning.  Above
+the glowing fuel a phoenix, also in brass, and in the likeness of an
+eagle, seemed striving to soar heavenwards.  Besides these a number of
+lamps lighted the saloon, which in truth looked too large for the number
+of people assembled in it, and which was lavishly furnished with
+gracefully-formed seats, couches, and tables, vases of flowers and
+statues.
+
+The prefect and Pontius had intended a quite different room to serve for
+smaller assemblies, and had fitted it up suitably for the purpose, but
+the Empress had preferred the great hall to the smaller room.  The
+venerable and nobly-born statesman was filled with vexation, nay, with an
+embarrassment that made him feel estranged, when he had to glance round
+the room to find the persons in it, collected, as they were, into small
+knots.  He could hear nothing but hushed voices; here an unintelligible
+murmur and there a suppressed laugh, but from no one a frank speech or
+full utterance.  For a moment he felt as if he had found admittance to
+the abode of whispering calumny, and yet he knew why here no one dared to
+speak out or above a murmur.  Loud voices hurt the Empress, and a clear
+voice was a misery to her, and yet few men possessed so loud and
+penetrating a chest voice as her husband, who was not wont to lay
+restraint upon himself for any human being, not even for his wife.
+
+Sabina sat on a large divan, more like a couch than a chair; her feet
+were buried in the shaggy fell of a buffalo, and her knees and ankles
+wrapped round with down-cushions covered with silk.  Her head she held
+very upright, and it was difficult to imagine how her slender throat
+could support it, loaded as it was with strings of pearls and precious
+stones which were braided in the tall structure of her reddish-gold hair,
+that was arranged in long cylindrical curls pinned closely side by side.
+The Empress's thin face looked particularly small under the mass of
+natural and artificial adornment which towered above her brow.  Beautiful
+she could never have been, even in her youth, but her features were
+regular, and the prefect confessed to himself as he looked at Sabina's
+face, marked as it was with minute wrinkles and touched up with red and
+white, that the sculptor who a few years previously had been commissioned
+to represent her as 'Venus Victrix' might very well have given the
+goddess a certain amount of resemblance to the imperial model.  If only
+her eyes, which were absolutely bereft of lashes, had not been quite so
+small and keen--in spite of the dark lines painted round them--and if
+only the sinews in her throat had not stood out quite so conspicuously
+from the flesh which formerly had covered them!
+
+With a deep bow Titianus took the Empress's right hand, covered with
+rings; but she withdrew it quickly from that of her husband's friend and
+relative, as if she feared that the carefully-cherished limb--useless as
+it was for any practical purpose, a mere toy among hands--might suffer
+some injury, and wrapped it and her arm in her upper-robe.  But she
+returned the prefect's friendly greeting with all the warmth at her
+command.  Though formerly at Rome she had been accustomed to see Titianus
+every day at her house, this was their first meeting in Alexandria; for
+the previous day, exhausted by the sufferings of her sea-voyage, she had
+been carried in a closed litter to the Caesareum, and this morning she
+had declined to receive his visit, as her whole time was given up to her
+physicians, bathing-women, and coiffeurs.
+
+"How can you survive in this country?" she said in a low but harsh voice,
+which always made the hearer feel that it was that of a dull, fractious,
+childless woman.  "At noon the sun burns you up, and in the evening it is
+so cold--so intolerably cold!'  As she spoke she drew her robe closer
+round her, but Titianus, pointing to the stoves in the middle of the
+hall, said:
+
+"I hoped we had succeeded in cutting the bowstrings of the Egyptian
+winter, and it is but a feeble weapon."
+
+"Still young, still imaginative, still a poet!"  said the Empress
+wearily.  "I saw your wife a couple of hours since.  Africa seems to suit
+her less well; I was shocked to see Julia, the handsome matron, so
+altered.  She does not look well."
+
+"Years are the foe of beauty."
+
+"Frequently they are, but true beauty often resists their attacks."
+
+"You are yourself the living proof of your assertion."
+
+"That is as much as to say that I am growing old."
+
+"Nay--only that you know the secret of remaining beautiful."
+
+"You are a poet!"  murmured the Empress with a twitch of her thin
+under-lip.
+
+"Affairs of state do not favor the Muses."
+
+"But I call any man a poet who sees things more beautiful than they are,
+or who gives them finer names than they deserve--a poet, a dreamer, a
+flatterer--for it comes to that."
+
+"Ah!  modesty can always find words to repel even well-merited
+admiration."
+
+"Why this foolish bandying of words?"  sighed Sabina, flinging herself
+back in her chair.  "You have been to school under the hair-splitting
+logicians in the Museum here, and I have not.  Over there sits Favorinus,
+the sophist; I dare say he is proving to Ptolemaeus that the stars are
+mere specks of blood in our eyes, which we choose to believe are in the
+sky.  Florus, the historian, is taking note of this weighty discussion;
+Pancrates, the poet, is celebrating the great thoughts of the
+philosopher.  As to what part the philologist there can find to take in
+this important event you know better than I.  What is the man's name?"
+
+"Apollonius."
+
+"Hadrian has nick-named him 'the obscure.'  The more difficult it is to
+understand the discourses of these gentlemen the more highly are they
+esteemed."
+
+"One must dive to obtain what lies at the bottom of the water--all that
+floats on the surface is borne by the waves, a plaything for children.
+Apollonius is a very learned man."
+
+"Then my husband ought to leave him among his disciples and his books.
+It was his wish that I should invite these people to my table.  Florus
+and Pancrates I like--not the others."
+
+"I can easily relieve you of the company of Favorinus and Ptolemaeus;
+send them to meet the Emperor."
+
+"To what end?"
+
+"To entertain him."
+
+"He has his plaything with him," said Sabina, and her thin lips curled
+with an expression of bitter contempt.
+
+"His artistic eye delights in the beauty of Antinous, which is
+celebrated, but which it has not yet been my privilege to see."
+
+"And you are very anxious to see this marvel?"
+
+"I cannot deny it."
+
+"And yet you want to postpone your meeting with Caesar?"  said Sabina,
+and a keen glance of inquiry and distrust twinkled in her little eyes.
+
+"Why do you want to delay my husband's arrival?"
+
+"Need I tell you," said Titianus eagerly, "how greatly I shall rejoice to
+see once more my sovereign, the companion of my youth, the greatest and
+wisest of men, after a separation of four years?  What would I not give
+if he were here already!  And yet I would rather that he should arrive
+in fourteen days than in eight."
+
+"What reason can you have?"
+
+"A mounted messenger brought me a letter to-day in which the Emperor
+tells me that he proposes to inhabit the old palace at Lochias, and not
+the Caesareum."
+
+At these words Sabina's forehead clouded, her gaze, dark and blank, was
+fixed on her lap, and biting her under-lip, she muttered:
+
+"Because I am here."
+
+Titianus made as though he had not heard these words, and continued in an
+easy tone:
+
+"There he has a wide outlook into the distance, which is what he has
+loved from his youth up.  But the old building is much dilapidated, and
+though I have already begun to exert all the forces at my command, with
+the assistance of our admirable architect, Pontius, to restore a portion
+of it at any rate, and make it a habitable and not too uncomfortable
+residence, the time is too short to do anything thoroughly worthy--"
+
+"I wish to see my husband here, and the sooner the better," interrupted
+the Empress with decision.  Then she turned towards the row of pillars
+which stood by the right-hand wall of the hall, and which were at some
+distance from her couch, calling out "Verus."  But her voice was so weak
+that it did not reach the person addressed, so turning to the prefect,
+she said: "I beg of you to call Verus to me, the praetor Lucius Aurelius
+Verus."  Titianus immediately obeyed.
+
+As he entered the hall he had already exchanged friendly greetings with
+the man to whom the Empress wished to speak.  He now did not succeed in
+attracting his attention till he stood close at his elbow, for he formed
+the centre of a small group of men and women who were hanging on his
+words.  What he was saying in a subdued voice must have been
+extraordinarily diverting, for it could be seen that his hearers were
+making the greatest efforts to keep their suppressed laughter from
+breaking out into a shout that would shake the very hall, a noise the
+Empress detested.  When the prefect came up to Verus, a young girl, whose
+pretty head was crowned by a perfect thicket of little ringlets, was just
+laying her hand on his arm and saying:
+
+"Nay-that is too much; if you go on like this, for the future whenever
+you speak I shall stop my ears with my hands, as sure as my name is
+Balbilla."
+
+"And as sure as you are descended from King Antiochus," added Verus
+bowing.
+
+"Always the same," laughed the prefect, nodding to the audacious jester.
+
+"Sabina wants to speak to you."
+
+"Directly, directly," said Verus.  "My story is a true one, and you all
+ought to be grateful to me for having released you from that tedious
+philologer who has now button-holed my witty friend Favorinus.  I like
+your Alexandria, Titianus; still it is not a great capital like Rome.
+The people have not yet learned not to be astonished; they are
+perpetually in amazement.  When I go out driving--"
+
+"Your runners ought to fly before you with roses in their hair and wings
+on their shoulders like Cupids."
+
+"In honor of the Alexandrian ladies?"
+
+"As if the Roman ladies in Rome, and the fair Greeks at Athens,"
+interrupted Balbilla.
+
+"The praetor's runners go faster than Parthian horses," cried the
+Empress's chamberlain.  "He has named them after the winds."
+
+"As they deserve," added Verus  "Come, Titianus."  He laid his hand in a
+confidential manner on the arm of the prefect, to whom he was related;
+and as they went towards Sabina he whispered in his ear:
+
+"I can keep her waiting as if I were the Emperor."
+
+Favorinus who had been engaged in talk with Ptolemaeus, the astronomer,
+Apollonius, and the philosopher and poet Pancrates in another part of the
+hall, looked after the two men and said:
+
+"A handsome couple.  One the personification of imperial and dignified
+Rome; the other with his Hermes-like figure."
+
+"The other"--interrupted the philologist with stern displeasure, "the
+other is the very incarnation of the haughtiness, the luxury pushed to
+insanity, and the infamous depravity of the metropolis.  That dissipated
+ladies-man."
+
+"I will not defend his character," said Favorinus in his pleasant voice,
+and with an elegance in his pronunciation of Greek which delighted even
+the grammarian.  "His ways and doings are disgraceful; still you must
+allow that his manners are tinged with the charm of Hellenic beauty, that
+the Charites kissed him at his birth, and though, by the stern laws of
+virtue we must condemn him, he deserves to be crowned with praise and
+garlands from the point of view of the feeling for beauty."
+
+"Oh!  for the artist who wants a model he is a choice morsel."
+
+"The Athenian judges acquitted Phryne because she was beautiful."
+
+"They did wrong."
+
+"Hardly in  the eyes  of the  gods, whose fairest works must deserve our
+respect."
+
+"Still poison may be kept in the most beautiful vessels."
+
+"And yet body and soul always to a certain extent correspond."
+
+"And can you dare to call the handsome Verus the admirable Verus?"
+
+"No, but the reckless Lucius Aurelius Verus is at the same time the
+gayest and pleasantest of all the Romans, free alike from spite or
+carefulness, he troubles himself with no doctrines of virtue, and as when
+a thing pleases him, he desires to possess it, he endeavors to give
+pleasure to every one else."
+
+"He has wasted  his pains so far as I am concerned."
+
+"I do as he wishes."
+
+The last words both of the philologer and the sophist were spoken
+somewhat louder than was usual in the presence of the Empress.  Sabina,
+who had just told the praetor which residence her husband had decided on
+inhabiting, drew up her shoulders and pinched her lips as if in pain,
+while Verus turned a face of indignation--a face which was manly in spite
+of all the delicacy and regularity of the features--on the two speakers,
+and his fine bright eyes caught the hostile glance of Apollonius.
+
+An intimation of aversion to his person was one of the things which to
+him were past endurance; he hastily passed his hand through his blue-
+black hair, which was only slightly grizzled at the temples and flowed
+uncurled, but in soft waving locks round his head, and said, not heeding
+Sabina's question as to his opinion of her husband's latest instructions:
+
+"He is a repulsive fellow, that wrangling logician; he has an evil eye
+that threatens mischief to us all, and his trumpet voice cannot hurt you
+more than it does me.  Must we endure him at table with us every day?"
+
+"So Hadrian desires."
+
+"Then I shall start for Rome," said Verus decidedly.  "My wife wants to
+be back with her children, and as praetor, it is more fitting that I
+should stay by the Tiber than by the Nile."
+
+The words were spoken as lightly as though they were nothing more than a
+proposition to go to supper, but they seemed to agitate the Empress
+deeply, for her head, which had seemed almost a fixture during her
+conversation with Titianus, now shook so violently that the pearls and
+jewels rattled in the erection of curls.  There she sat for some seconds
+staring into her lap.
+
+Verus stooped to pick up a gem that had fallen from her hair, and as he
+did so she said hastily:
+
+"You are right.  Apollonius is intolerable.  Let us send him to meet my
+husband."
+
+"Then I will remain," answered Verus, as pleased as a wilful boy who has
+got his own way.
+
+"Fickle as the wind," murmured Sabina, threatening him with her finger.
+"Show me the stone--it is one of the largest and finest; you may keep
+it."
+
+When an hour later, Verus quitted the hall with the prefect, Titianus
+said:
+
+"You have done me a service cousin, without knowing it.  Now can you
+contrive that Ptolemaeus and Favorinus shall go with Apollonius to meet
+the Emperor at Pelusium?"
+
+"Nothing easier" was the answer.
+
+And the same evening the prefect's steward conveyed to Pontius the
+information that he might count on having probably fourteen days for his
+work, instead of eight or nine only.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+In the Caesareum, where the Empress dwelt, the lights were extinguished
+one after another; but in the palace of Lochias they grew more numerous
+and brighter.  In festal illuminations of the harbor pitch cressets on
+the roof, and long rows of lamps that accumulated architectonic features
+of the noble structure, were always kindled; but inside it, no blaze so
+brilliant had ever lighted it within the memory of man.  The harbor
+watchmen at first gazed anxiously up at Lochias, for they feared that a
+fire must have broken out in the old palace; they were soon reassured
+however, by one of the prefect's lictors, who brought them a command to
+keep open the harbor gates that night, and every night till the Emperor
+should have arrived, to all who might wish to proceed from Lochias to the
+city, or from the city to the peninsula, under the orders of Pontius the
+architect.  And till long past midnight not a quarter of an hour passed
+in which the people whom the architect had summoned to his aid were not
+knocking at the harbor gates, which, though not locked were all guarded.
+The little house belonging to the gate-keeper was also brightly lighted
+up; the birds and cats belonging to the old woman whom the  prefect and
+his companions had found slumbering by her wine-jar, were now fast
+asleep, but the little dogs still flew loudly yelping into the yard each
+time a new-comer entered by the open gate.
+
+"Come, Aglaia, what will folks think of you?  Thalia, my beauty, behave
+like a good dog; come here, Euphrosyne, and don't be so silly!"  cried
+the old lady in a voice which was both pleasant and peremptory, as she
+stood-wide awake now-behind her table, folding together the dried
+clothes.  The little barking beasts who were thus endowed with the names
+of the three Graces did not trouble themselves much about her
+affectionate admonitions; to their sorrow, for it happened more than once
+to each of them, when they had got under the feet of some new-comer, to
+creep, whining and howling, into the house again to seek consolation from
+their mistress, who would pick up the sufferer and soothe it with kisses
+and coaxing.
+
+The old lady was no longer alone, for in the background, on a long and
+narrow couch which stood in front of the statue of Apollo, lay a tall,
+lean man, wearing a red chiton.  A little lamp hanging from the ceiling
+threw a dull light on him and on the lute he was playing.  To the faint
+sound of the instrument, which was rather a large one, and which he had
+propped on the pillow by his side, he was singing, or rather murmuring
+a long ditty.  Twice, thrice, four times he repeated it in the same way.
+Now and again he suddenly let his voice sound more loudly--and though his
+hair was quite grey his voice was not unpleasing--and sang a few phrases
+full of expression and with artistic delivery; and then, when the dogs
+barked too vehemently, he would spring up, and with his lute in his left-
+hand and a long pliable rattan in his right, he would rush into the
+court-yard, shout the names of the dogs, and raise his cane as if he
+would kill them; but he always took care not to hit them, only to beat on
+the pavement near them.  When, returning from such an excursion, he
+stretched himself again on his couch, the old woman, pointing to the
+hanging-lamp which the impatient creature often knocked with his head,
+would call out, "Euphorion, mind the oil."
+
+And he each time answered with the same threatening gesture and the same
+glare in his black eyes:
+
+"The little brutes!"
+
+The singer had been diligently practising his musical exercises for about
+an hour, when the dogs rushed into the court-yard, not barking this time,
+but yelping loudly with joy.  The old woman laid aside the washing and
+listened, but the tall man said:
+
+"As many birds come flying before the Emperor as gulls before a storm.
+If only they would leave us in peace--"
+
+"Hark, that is Pollux; I know by the dogs," said the woman, hastening as
+fast as she could over the threshold and out to meet him.  But the
+expected visitor was already at the door.  He picked up the three four-
+footed Graces who leaped round him, one after the other by the skin of
+the neck, and gave each a tap on its nose.  Then, seeing the old woman,
+he took her head between his hands, and kissed her forehead, saying,
+"Good-evening, little Mother," and shook hands with the singer, adding,
+"How are you, great, big Father?"
+
+"You are as big as I am," replied the man thus addressed, and he drew the
+younger man towards him, and laid one of his broad hands on his own grey
+head and the other on that of his first-born, with its wealth of brown
+hair.
+
+"As if we were cast in the same mould," cried the youth; and in fact he
+was very like his father--like, no doubt, as a noble hunter is like a
+worn-out hack--as marble is like limestone--as a cedar is like a fir-
+tree.  Both were remarkably tall, had thick hair, dark eyes, and strongly
+aquiline noses, exactly of the same shape; but the cheerful brightness
+which irradiated the countenance of the youth had certainly not been
+inherited from the lute-player, but from the little woman who looked up
+into his face and patted his arm.
+
+But whence did he derive the powerful, but indescribable something which
+gave nobility to his head, and of which it was impossible to say whether
+it lay in his eye, or in the lofty brow, arched so differently to that of
+either parent?
+
+"I knew you would come," cried his mother.  "This afternoon I dreamed it,
+and I can prove that I expected you, for there, on the brazier, stands
+the stewed cabbage and sausage waiting for you."
+
+"I cannot stay now," replied Pollux.  "Really, I cannot, though your kind
+looks would persuade me, and the sausage winks at me out of the cabbage-
+pan.  My master, Papias, is gone on ahead, and in the palace there we are
+to work wonders in less time than it generally takes to consider which
+end the work should be begun at."
+
+"Then I will carry the cabbage into the palace for you," said Doris,
+standing on tip-toe to hold a sausage to the lips of her tall son.
+Pollux bit off a large mouthful and said, as he munched it:
+
+"Excellent!  I only wish that the thing I am to construct up there may
+turn out as good a statue as this savory cylinder--now fast disappearing
+--was a superior and admirable sausage."
+
+"Have another?"  said Doris.
+
+"No mother; and you must not bring the cabbage either.  Up to midnight
+not a minute must be lost, and if I then leave off for a little while you
+must by that time be dreaming of all sorts of pleasant things."
+
+"I will carry you the cabbage then," said his father, "for I shall not be
+in bed so early at any rate.  The hymn to Sabina, composed by Mesomedes,
+is to be performed with the chorus, as soon as the Empress visits the
+theatre, and I am to lead the upper part of the old men, who grow young
+again at the sight of her.  The rehearsal is fixed for to-morrow, and I
+know nothing about it yet.  Old music, note for note, is ready and safe
+in my throat, but new things--new things!"
+
+"It is according to circumstances," said Pollux, laughing.
+
+"If only they would perform your father's Satyr-play, or his Theseus!"
+cried Doris.
+
+"Only wait a little, I will recommend him to Caesar as soon as he is
+proud to call me his friend, as the Phidias of the age.  Then, when he
+asks me 'Who is the happy man who begot you?' I will answer: It is
+Euphorion, the divine poet and singer; and my mother, too, is a worthy
+matron, the gate-keeper of your palace,  Doris, the enchantress, who
+turns dingy clothes into snow-white linen."
+
+These last words the young artist sang in a fine and powerful voice to a
+mode invented by his father.
+
+"If only you had been a singer!"  exclaimed Euphorion.
+
+"Then I should have enjoyed the prospect," retorted Pollux, "of spending
+the evening of my life as your successor in this little abode."
+
+"And now for wretched pay, you plant the laurels with which Papias crowns
+himself!"  answered the old man shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"His hour is coming, too," cried Doris, "his merit will be recognized;
+I saw him in my dreams, with a great garland on his curly head!"
+
+"Patience, father-patience," said the young man, grasping his father's
+hand.  "I am young and strong, and do all I can.  Here, behind this
+forehead, good ideas are seething; what I have succeeded in carrying out
+by myself, has at any rate brought credit and fame to others, although it
+is all far from resembling the ideal of beauty that here--here--I seem to
+see far away and behind a cloud; still I feel that if, in a moment of
+kindness, Fortune will but shed a few fresh drops of dew on it all I
+shall, at any rate, turn out something better than the mere ill-paid
+right-hand of Papias, who, without me does not know what he ought to do,
+or how to do it."
+
+"Only keep your eyes open and work hard," cried Doris.
+
+"It is of no use without luck," muttered the singer, shrugging his
+shoulders.
+
+The young artist bid his parents good-night, and was about to leave, but
+his mother detained him to show him the young goldfinches, hatched only
+the day before.  Pollux obeyed her wish, not merely to please her, but
+because he liked to watch the gay little bird that sat warming and
+sheltering her nestlings.  Close to the cage stood the huge wine-jar and
+his mother's cup, decorated by his own hand.  His eye fell on these, and
+he pushed them aside in silence.  Then, taking courage, he said,
+laughing:  "The Emperor will often pass by here, mother; give up
+celebrating your Dionysiac festival.  How would it do if you filled the
+jar with one-fourth wine and three-fourths water?  It does not taste
+badly."
+
+"Spoiling good gifts," replied his mother.
+
+"One-fourth wine-to please me," Pollux entreated, taking his mother by
+the shoulders and kissing her forehead.
+
+"To please you, you great boy!"  said Doris, as her eyes  filled with
+tears.  "Why  for you, if I must, I would drink nothing but wretched
+water.  Euphorion you may finish what is left in the jar presently."
+
+                    .........................
+
+Pontius had already begun his labors, at first with aid only of his
+assistants who had followed him on foot.  Measuring, estimating, sending
+short notes and writing figures, names and suggestions on the plan, and
+on his folding wax-tablets, he was not idle for an instant, though
+frequently interrupted by the appointed superintendents of the workshops
+and manufactures in Lochias, whose co-operation he required.  They only
+came at this late hour because they were called upon by the prefect's
+orders.
+
+Papias, the sculptor, introduced himself among the latest, though Pontius
+had written to him with his own hand that he had to communicate to him a
+very remunerative and particularly pressing commission for the Emperor,
+which might, perhaps, be taken in hand that very night.  The matter in
+question was a statue of Urania, which must be completed in eight days by
+the same method which Papias had introduced at the last festival of
+Adonis, and to the scale which he, Pontius, indicated, in the palace of
+Lochias itself.  With regard to several works of restoration which had to
+be carried out with equal rapidity, and as to the price to be paid, they
+could agree at the same time and place.
+
+The sculptor was a man of foresight and did not appear on the scene alone
+but with his best assistant, Pollux, the son of the worthy couple at the
+gate, and several slaves who dragged after him sundry trunks and carts
+loaded with tools, boards, clay, gypsum and other raw materials of his
+art.  On the road to Lochias he had informed the young sculptor of the
+business in hand, and had told him in a condescending tone that he would
+be permitted to try his skill in reconstructing the Urania.  At the gate
+he had permitted Pollux to greet his parents, and had gone alone into the
+palace to open his bargain with the architect without the presence of
+witnesses.
+
+The young artist perfectly understood his master.  He knew that he would
+be expected to carry out the statue of Urania, while his task-master,
+after making some trifling alterations in the completed work, would
+declare that it was his own.  Pollux had for two years been obliged, more
+than once, to put up with similar treatment; and now, as usual, he
+submitted to this dishonest manoeuvre because, under his master there was
+plenty to do, and the delight of work was to him the greatest he could
+have.
+
+Papias, to whom he had gone early as an apprentice and to whom he owed
+the knowledge he possessed, was no miser, still Pollux needed money, not
+for himself alone but because he had taken on himself the charge of a
+widowed sister and her children as if they were his own family.  He was
+always glad to take some comfort into the narrow home of his parents, who
+were poor, and to maintain his younger brother Teuker--who had devoted
+himself to the same art--during the years of his apprenticeship.  Again
+and again he had thought of telling his master that he should start on
+his own footing and earn laurels for himself, but what then would become
+of those who relied on his help, if he gave up his regular earnings and
+if he got no commissions when there were so many unknown beginners eager
+for them?  Of what avail were all his ability and the most honest good-
+will if no opportunity offered for his executing his work in noble
+materials?  With his own means he certainly was in no position to do so.
+
+While he was talking to his parents Papias had opened his transactions
+with the architect.  Pontius explained to the sculptor what was required
+and Papias listened attentively; he never interrupted the speaker, but
+only stroked his face from time to time, as if to make it smoother than
+it was already, though it was shaved with peculiar care and formed and
+colored like a warm mask; meanwhile draping the front of his rich blue
+toga, which he wore in the fashion of a Roman senator, into fresh folds.
+
+But when Pontius showed him, at the end of the rooms destined for the
+Emperor, the last of the statues to be restored, and which needed a new
+grin, Papias said decisively:
+
+"It cannot be done."
+
+"That is a rash verdict," replied the architect.  "Do you not know the
+proverb, which, being such a good one, is said to have been first uttered
+by more than one sage: 'That it shows more ill-judgment to pronounce a
+thing impossible than to boast that we can achieve a task however much it
+may seem to transcend our powers.'"
+
+Papias smiled and looked down at his gold-embroidered shoes as he said:
+
+"It is more difficult to us sculptors to imagine ourselves waging Titanic
+warfare against the impossible, than it is to you who work with enormous
+masses.  I do not yet see the means which would give me courage to begin
+the attack."
+
+"I will tell you," replied Pontius quickly and decidedly.  "On your side
+good-will, plenty of assistants and night-watchers; on ours, the Caesar's
+approval and plenty of gold."
+
+After this the transaction came to a prompt and favorable issue, and the
+architect could but express his entire approbation, in most cases, of the
+sculptor's judicious and well-considered suggestions.
+
+"Now I must go home," concluded Papias.  "My assistants will proceed at
+once with the necessary preparations.  The work must be carried on behind
+screens, so that no one may disturb us or hinder us with remarks."
+
+Half an hour later a scaffolding was already erected in the middle of the
+hall where the Urania was to stand.
+
+It was concealed from; public gaze by thick linen stretched on tall
+wooden frames, and behind these screens Pollux was busied in framing a
+small model in wax, while his master had returned home to make
+arrangements for the labors of the following day.
+
+It wanted only an hour of midnight, and still the supper sent to the
+palace for the architect by the prefect remained untouched.  Pontius was
+hungry enough, but before attacking the meal that a slave had set out on
+a marble table--the roast meat which looked so inviting, the orange-red
+crayfish, the golden-brown pasty and the many-hued fruits--he conceived
+it his duty to inspect the rooms to be restored.  It was needful to see
+whether the slaves who had been set, in the first place to clean out all
+the rooms, were being intelligently directed by the men set over them,
+whether they were doing their duty and had all that they required; they
+had got some hours to work, then they were to rest and to begin again at
+sunrise, reinforced by other laborers both slave and free.
+
+More and better lighting was universally demanded, and when, in the hall
+of the Muses, the men who were cleaning the pavement and scraping the
+columns loudly clamored for torches and lamps, a young man's head peered
+over the screen which shut in the place reserved for the restoration of
+the Urania, and a lamentable voice cried out:
+
+"My Muse, with her celestial sphere, is the guardian of star-gazers and
+is happiest in the dark--but not till she is finished.  To form her we
+must have light and more light--and when it is lighter here the voice of
+the people down there, which does not sound very delightful up in this
+hollow space, will diminish somewhat also.  Give light, then, O, men!
+Light for my goddess, and for your scrubbers and scourers."
+
+Pontius looked up smiling at Pollux, who had uttered this appeal, and
+answered:
+
+Your cry of distress is fully justified, my friend.  But do you really
+believe in the power of light to diminish noise?"
+
+"At any rate," replied  Pollux, "where it is  absent, that is to say in
+the dark, every noise seems redoubled."
+
+"That is true, but there are other reasons for that," answered the
+architect.  "To-morrow in an interval of work we will discuss these
+matters.  Now I will go to provide you with lamps and lights."
+
+"Urania, the protectress of the fine arts, will be beholden to you,"
+cried Pollux as the architect went away.
+
+Pontius meanwhile sought his chief foreman to ask him whether he had
+delivered his orders to Keraunus, the palace-steward, to come to him,
+and to put the cressets and lamps commonly used for the external
+illuminations, at the service of his workmen.
+
+"Three times," was the answer "have I been myself to the man, but each
+time he puffed himself out like a frog and answered me not a word, but
+only sent me into a little room with his daughter--whom you must see, for
+she is charming--and a miserable black slave, and there I found these few
+wretched lamps that are now burning."
+
+"Did you order him to come to me?"
+
+"Three hours ago, and again a second time, when you were talking with
+Papias."
+
+The architect turned his back upon the foreman in angry haste,
+unrolled the plan of the palace, quickly found upon it the abode of the
+recalcitrant steward, seized a small red-clay lamp that was standing near
+him, and being quite accustomed to guide himself by a plan, went straight
+through the rooms, which were not a few, and by a long corridor from the
+hall of the Muses, to the lodging of the negligent official.  An unclosed
+door led him into a dark ante-chamber followed by another room, and
+finally into a large, well-furnished apartment.  All these door-ways,
+into what seemed to be at once the dining and sitting-room of the
+steward, were bereft of doors, and could only be closed by stuff
+curtains, just now drawn wide open.  Pontius could therefore look in,
+unhindered and unperceived, at the table on which a three-branched bronze
+lamp was standing between a dish and some plates.  The stout man was
+sitting with his rubicund moon-face towards the architect, who, indignant
+as he was, would have gone straight up to him with swift decision, if,
+before entering the second room, a low but pitiful sob had not fallen on
+his ear.
+
+The sob proceeded from a slight young girl who came forward from a door
+beyond the sitting-room, and who now placed a platter with a loaf on the
+table by the steward.
+
+"Come, do not cry, Selene," said the steward, breaking the bread slowly
+and with an evident desire to soothe his child.
+
+"How can I help crying," said the girl.  "But tomorrow morning let me buy
+a piece of meat for you; the physician forbade you to eat bread."
+
+"Man must be filled," replied the fat man, "and meat is dear.  I have
+nine mouths to fill, not counting the slaves.  And where am I to get the
+money to fill us all with meat?"
+
+"We need none, but for you it is necessary."
+
+"It is of no use, child.  The butcher will not trust us any more, the
+other creditors press us, and at the end of the month we shall have just
+ten drachmae left us."
+
+The girl turned pale, and asked in anxiety:
+
+"But, father, it was only to-day that you showed me the three gold pieces
+which you said had been given you as a present out of the money
+distributed on the arrival of the Empress."
+
+The steward absently rolled a piece of bread-crumb between his fingers
+and said:
+
+"I spent that on this fibula with an incised onyx--and as cheap as dirt,
+I can tell you.  If Caesar comes he must see who and what I am; and if I
+die any one will give you twice as much for it as I paid.  I tell you the
+Empress's money was well laid out on the thing."  Selene made no answer,
+but she sighed deeply, and her eye glanced at a quantity of useless
+things which her father had acquired and brought home because they were
+cheap, while she and her seven sisters wanted the most necessary things.
+
+"Father," the girl began again after a short silence, "I ought not to go
+on about it, but even if it vexes you, I must--the architect, who is
+settling all the work out there, has sent for you twice already."
+
+"Be silent!"  shouted the fat man, striking his hand on the table.  "Who
+is this Pontius, and who am I!"
+
+"You are of a noble Macedonian family, related perhaps even to the
+Ptolemies; you have your seat in the Council of the Citizens--but do,
+this time, be condescending and kind.  The man has his hands full, he is
+tired out."
+
+"Nor have I been able to sit still the whole day, and what is fitting, is
+fitting.  I am Keraunus the son of Ptolemy, whose father came into Egypt
+with Alexander the Great, and helped to found this city, and every one
+knows it.  Our possessions were diminished; but it is for that very
+reason that I insist on our illustrious blood being recognized.  Pontius
+sends to command the presence of Keraunus!  If it were not infuriating it
+would be laughable--for who is this man, who?  I have told you his father
+was a freedman of the former prefect Claudius Balbillus, and by the favor
+of the Roman his father rose and grew rich.  He is the descendant of
+slaves, and you expect that I shall be his obedient humble servant,
+whenever he chooses to call me?"
+
+But father, my dear father, it is not the son of Ptolemy, but the palace-
+steward that he desires shall go to hire."
+
+"Mere chop-logic!--you have nothing to say, not a step do I take to go to
+him."
+
+The girl clasped her hands over her face, and sobbed loudly and
+pitifully.  Keraunus started up and cried out, beside himself.
+
+"By great Serapis.  I can bear this no longer.  What are you whimpering
+about?"
+
+The girl plucked up courage and going up to the indignant man she said,
+though more than once interrupted by tears.
+
+"You must go father--indeed you must.  I spoke to the foreman, and he
+told me coolly and decidedly that the architect was placed here in
+Caesar's name, and that if you do not obey him you will at once be
+superseded in your office.  And if that were to happen, if that--
+O father, father, only think of blind Helios and poor Berenice!  Arsinoe
+and I could earn our bread, but the little ones--the little ones."
+
+With these words the girl fell on her knees lifting her hands in entreaty
+to her obstinate parent.  The blood had mounted to the man's face and
+eyes, and pressing his hand to his purple forehead he sank back in his
+chair as if stricken with apoplexy.  His daughter sprang up and offered
+him the cup full of wine and water which was standing on the table; but
+Keraunus pushed it aside with his hands, and panted out, while he
+struggled for breath:
+
+"Supersede me--in my place--turn me out of this palace!  Why there, in
+that ebony trunk, lies the rescript of Euergetes which confers the
+stewardship of this residence on my ancestor Philip, and as a hereditary
+dignity in his family.  Now Philip's wife had the honor of being the
+king's mistress--or, as some say, his daughter.  There lies the document,
+drawn up in red and black ink on yellow papyrus and ratified with the
+seal and signature of Euergetes the Second.  All the princes of the
+Lagides have confirmed it, all the Roman prefects have respected it, and
+now--now."
+
+"But father" said the girl interrupting her father, and wringing her
+hands in despair, "you still hold the place and if you will only give
+in."
+
+"Give in, give in," shrieked the corpulent steward shaking his fat hands
+above his blood-shot face.  "I will give in--I will not bring you all to
+misery--for my children's sake I will allow myself to be ill-treated and
+down-trodden, I will go--I will go directly.  Like the pelican I will
+feed my children with my heart's blood.  But you ought to know what it
+costs me, to humiliate myself thus; it is intolerable to me, and my heart
+is breaking--for the architect, the architect has trampled upon me as if
+I were his servant; he wished--I heard him with these ears--he shrieked
+after me a villanous hope that I might be smothered in my own fat--and
+the physician has told me I may die of apoplexy!  Leave me, leave me.
+I know those Romans are capable of anything.  Well--here I am; fetch me
+my saffron-colored pallium, that I wear in the council, fetch me my gold
+fillet for my head.  I will deck myself like a beast for sacrifice, and I
+will show him--"
+
+Not a word of this harangue had escaped the ears of the architect who had
+been at first indignant and then moved to laughter, and withal it had
+touched his heart.  A sluggish and torpid character was repugnant to his
+vigorous nature, and the deliberate and indifferent demeanor of the stout
+steward, on an occasion which had prompted him and all concerned to act
+as quickly and energetically as possible, had brought words to his lips
+which he now wished that he had never spoken.  It is true that the
+steward's false pride had roused his indignation, and who can listen
+calmly to any comment on a stain on his birth?  But the appeal of this
+miserable father's daughter had gone to his heart.  He pitied the fatuous
+simpleton whom, with a turn of his hand, he could reduce to beggary, and
+who had evidently been far more deeply hurt by his words than Pontius had
+been by what he had overheard, and so he followed the kindly impulse of a
+noble nature to spare the unfortunate.
+
+He rapped loudly with his knuckles on the inside of the door-post of the
+ante-room, coughed loudly, and then said, bowing deeply to the steward on
+the threshold of the sitting-room:
+
+"Noble Keraunus--I have come, as beseems me, to pay you my respests.
+Excuse the lateness of the hour, but you can scarcely imagine how busy
+I have been since we parted."
+
+Keraunus had at first started at the late visitor, then he stared at him
+in consternation.  He now went towards him, stretched out both hands as
+if suddenly relieved of a nightmare, and a bright expression of such warm
+and sincere satisfaction overspread his countenance that Pontius wondered
+how he could have failed to observe what a well-cut face this fat
+original had.
+
+"Take a seat at our humble table," said Keraunus.  "Go Selene and call
+the slaves.  Perhaps there is yet a pheasant in the house, a roast fowl
+or something of the kind--but the hour, it is true, is late."
+
+"I am deeply obliged to you," replied the architect, smiling.  "My supper
+is waiting for me in the hall of the Muses, and I must return to my work-
+people.  I should be grateful to you if you would accompany me.  We must
+consult together as to the lighting of the rooms, and such matters are
+best discussed over a succulent roast and a flask of wine."
+
+"I am quite at your service," said Keraunus with a bow.
+
+"I will go on ahead," said the architect, "but first will you have the
+goodness to give all that you have in the way of cressets, lights and
+lamps to the slaves, who, in a few minutes, shall await your orders at
+your door."
+
+When Pontius had departed, Selene exclaimed with a deep sigh
+
+"Oh!  what a fright I have had!  I will go now and find the lamps.  How
+terribly it might have ended."
+
+"It is well that he should have come," murmured Keraunus.  "Considering
+his birth and origin, the architect is certainly a well-bred man."
+
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Facts are differently reflected in different minds
+Have not yet learned not to be astonished
+Ill-judgment to pronounce a thing impossible
+Years are the foe of beauty
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR, Part 1.
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 2.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Pontius had gone to the steward's room, with a frowning brow, but it was
+with a smile on his strongly-marked lips, and a brisk step that he
+returned to his work-people.  The foreman came to meet him with looks of
+enquiry as he said.  "The steward was a little offended and with reason;
+but now we are capital friends and he will do what he can in the matter
+of lighting."
+
+In the hall of the Muses he paused outside the screen, behind which
+Pollux was working, and called out:
+
+"Friend sculptor, listen to me, it is high time to have supper."
+
+"It is, indeed," replied Pollux, "else it will be breakfast."
+
+"Then lay aside your tools for a quarter of an hour and help me and the
+palace-steward to demolish the food that has been sent me."
+
+"You will need no second assistant if Keraunus is there.  Food melts
+before him like ice before the sun."
+
+"Then come and save him from an overloaded stomach."
+
+"Impossible, for I am just now dealing most unmercifully with a bowl full
+of cabbage and sausages.  My mother had cooked that food of the gods and
+my father has brought it in to his first-born son."
+
+"Cabbage and sausages!"  repeated the architect, and its tone betrayed
+that his hungry stomach would fain have made closer acquaintance with the
+savory mess.
+
+"Come in here," continued Pollux, "and be my guest.  The cabbage has
+experienced the process which is impending over this palace--it has been
+warmed up."
+
+"Warmed-up cabbage is better than freshly-cooked, but the fire over which
+we must try to make this palace enjoyable again, burns too hotly and must
+be too vigorously stirred.  The best things have been all taken out, and
+cannot be replaced."
+
+"Like the sausages, I have fished out of my cabbages," laughed the
+sculptor.  "After all I cannot invite you to be my guest, for it would be
+a compliment to this dish if I were now to call it cabbage with sausages.
+I have worked it like a mine, and now that the vein of sausages is nearly
+exhausted, little remains but the native soil in which two or three
+miserable fragments remain as memorials of past wealth.  But my mother
+shall cook you a mess of it before long, and she prepares it with
+incomparable skill."
+
+"A good idea, but you are my guest."
+
+"I am replete."
+
+"Then come and spice our meal with your good company."
+
+"Excuse me, sir; leave me rather here behind my screen.  In the first
+place, I am in a happy vein, and on the right track;  I feel that
+something good will come of this night's work."
+
+"And tomorrow--"
+
+"Hear me out."
+
+"Well."
+
+"You would be doing your other guest an ill-service by inviting me."
+
+"Do you know the steward then?"
+
+"From my earliest youth, I am the son of the gatekeeper of the palace."
+
+"Oh, ho!  then you came from that pretty little lodge with the ivy and
+the birds, and the jolly old lady."
+
+"She is my mother--and the first time the butcher kills she will concoct
+for you and me a dish of sausages and cabbage without an equal."
+
+"A very pleasing prospect."
+
+"Here comes a hippopotamus--on closer inspection Keraunus, the steward."
+
+"Are you his enemy?"
+
+"I, no; but he is mine--yes," replied Pollux.  "It is a foolish story.
+When we sup together don't ask me about it if you care to have a jolly
+companion  And do not tell Keraunus that I am here, it will lead to no
+good."
+
+"As you wish, and here are our lamps too."
+
+"Enough to light the nether world," exclaimed Pollux, and waving his hand
+to the architect in farewell he vanished behind the screens to devote
+himself entirely to his model.
+
+It was long past midnight, and the slaves who had set to work with much
+zeal had finished their labors in the hall of the Muses.  They were now
+allowed to rest for some hours on straw that had been spread for them in
+another wing of the building.  The architect himself wished to take
+advantage of this time to refresh himself by a short sleep, for the
+exertions of the morrow, but between this intention and its fulfilment an
+obstacle was interposed, the preposterous dimensions namely of his
+guest.  He had invited the steward on purpose to give him his fill of
+meat, and Keraunus had shown himself amenable to encouragement in this
+respect.  But after the last dish bad been removed the steward thought
+that good manners demanded that he should honor his entertainer by his
+illustrious presence, and at the same time the prefect's good wine
+loosened the tongue of the man, who was not usually communicative.
+
+First he spoke of the manifold infirmities which tormented him and
+endangered his life, and when Pontius, to divert his talk into other
+channels, was so imprudent as to allude to the Council of Citizens,
+Keraunus gave full play to his eloquence, and, while he emptied cup after
+cup of wine, tried to lay down the reasons which had made him and his
+friends decide on staking everything in order to deprive the members of
+the extensive community of Jews in the city of their rights as citizens,
+and to expel them, if possible, from Alexandria.  So warm was his zeal
+that he totally forgot the presence of the architect, and his humble
+origin, and declared to be indispensable, that even the descendants of
+freed-slaves should be disenfranchised.
+
+Pontius saw in the steward's inflamed eyes and cheeks that it was the
+wine which spoke within him, and he made no answer; and determined that
+the rest he needed should not be thus abridged, he rose from table and
+briefly excusing himself he retired to the room in which the couch had
+been prepared for him.  After he had undressed he desired his slave to
+see what Keraunus was about, and soon received the reassuring information
+that the steward was fast asleep and snoring.
+
+"Only listen," said the slave, to confirm his report.  "You can hear him
+grunting and snuffing as far as this.  I pushed a cushion under his head,
+for otherwise, so full as he is, the stout gentleman might come to some
+harm."
+
+Love is a plant which springs up for many who have never sown it, and
+grows into a spreading tree for many who have neither fostered nor tended
+it.  How little had Keraunus ever done to win the heart of his daughter,
+how much on the contrary which could not fail to overshadow and trouble
+her young life.  And yet Selene, whose youth--for she was but nineteen--
+needed repose and to whom the evening with the reprieve of sleep brought
+more pleasure than the morning with its load of cares and labor, sat by
+the three-branched lamp and watched, and tormented herself more and more
+as it grew later and later, at her father's long absence.  About a week
+before the strong man had suddenly lost consciousness; only, it is true,
+for a few minutes, and the physician had told her that though he appeared
+to be in superabundant health, the attack indicated that he must follow
+his prescriptions strictly and avoid all kinds of excess.  A single
+indiscretion, he had declared, might swiftly and suddenly cut the thread
+of his existence.  After her father had gone out in obedience to the
+architect's invitation, Selene had brought out her youngest brothers' and
+sisters' garments, in order to mend them.  Her sister Arsinoe, who was
+her junior by two years, and whose fingers were as nimble as her own,
+might indeed have helped her, but she had gone to bed early and was
+sleeping by the children who could not be left untended at night.  Her
+female slave, who had been in her grandmother's service, ought to have
+assisted her; but the old half-blind negress saw even worse by lamp-light
+than by daylight, and after a few stitches could do no more.  Selene sent
+her to bed and sat down alone to her work.
+
+For the first hour she sewed away without looking up, considering,
+meanwhile, how she could best contrive to support the family till the end
+of the month on the few drachmae she could dispose of.  As it got later
+she grew wearier and wearier, but still she sat at the work, though her
+pretty head often sank upon her breast.  She must await her father's
+return, for a potion prepared by the physician stood waiting for him, and
+she feared he would forget it if she did not remind him.
+
+By the end of the second hour sleep overcame her, and she felt as if the
+chair she was sitting on was giving way under her, and as if it was
+sinking at first slowly and then quicker and quicker, into a deep abyss
+that opened beneath her.  Looking up for help in her dream, she could see
+nothing but her father's face, which looked aside with indifference.  As
+her dream went on she called him and called him again, but for a long
+time he did not seem to hear her.  At last he looked down at her and when
+he perceived her he smiled, but instead of helping her he picked up
+stones and clods from the edge of the gulf and threw them on her hands
+with which she had clutched the brambles and roots that grew out of the
+rift of the rocks.  She entreated him to cease, implored him, shrieked to
+him to spare her, but not a muscle moved in the face above her; it seemed
+set in a vacant smile, and even his heart was dead too, for he ruthlessly
+flung down now a pebble, now a clod, one after the other, till her hands
+were losing their last feeble hold and she was on the point of falling
+into the fatal gulf below.  Her own cry of terror aroused her, but during
+the brief process of returning from her dream to actuality, she saw
+through swiftly parting mists--only for an instant, and yet quite plainly
+--the tall grass of a meadow, spangled with ox-eye daisies, white and
+gold, with violet-hued blue bells and scarlet poppies, among which she
+was lying--as in a soft green bed, while near the sward lay a sparkling
+blue lake and behind it rose beautiful swelling hills, with red cliffs,
+and green groves, and meadows bright in the clear sunshine.  A clear sky,
+across which a soft breeze gently blew light silvery flakes of cloud,
+bent over the lovely but fleeting picture, which she could not compare
+with anything she had ever seen near her own home.
+
+She had only slept for a short time, but when, once more thoroughly
+awake, she rubbed her eyes, she thought her dream must have lasted for
+hours.
+
+One flame of the three-branched lamp had flickered into extinction and
+the wick of another was beginning to waste.  She hastily put it out with
+a pair of tongs that hung by a chain, and then after pouring fresh oil
+into the lamp that was still burning she carried the light into her
+father's sleeping room.
+
+He had not yet returned.  She was seized with a mortal terror.  Had the
+architect's wine bereft him of his senses?  Had he on his way back to his
+rooms been seized with a fresh attack of giddiness?  In spirit she saw
+the heavy man incapable of raising himself, dying perhaps where he had
+fallen.
+
+No choice remained to her; she must go at once to the hall of the Muses
+and see what had happened to her father, pick him up, give him help or--
+if he still were feasting--endeavor to tempt him back by any excuse she
+could find.  Everything was at stake; her father's life and with it
+maintenance and shelter for eight helpless creatures.
+
+The December night was stormy, a keen and bitter wind blew through the
+ill-closed opening in the roof of the room as Selene, before she began
+her expedition, tied a handkerchief over her head and threw over her
+shoulders a white mantle which had been worn by her dead mother.  In the
+long corridor which lay between her father's rooms and the front portion
+of the palace, she had to screen the flickering light of the little lamp
+with her left hand, carrying it in her right; the flame blown about by
+the draught and her own figure were mirrored here and there in the
+polished surface of the dark marble.  The thick sandals she had tied on
+to her feet roused loud echoes in the empty rooms as they fell on the
+stone pavements, and terror possessed Selene's anxious soul.  Her fingers
+trembled as they held the lamp and her heart beat audibly as, with bated
+breath, she went through the cupolaed hall in which Ptolemy Euergetes
+'the fat' was said, some years ago, to have murdered his own son, and in
+which even a deep breath roused an echo.
+
+But even in this room she did not forget to look to the right and left
+for her father.  She breathed a sigh of relief when she perceived a
+streak of light which shone through the gaping rift of a cracked side-
+door of the hall of the Muses and fell in a broken reflection on the
+floor and the wall of the last room through which she had to pass.  She
+now entered the large hall which was dimly lighted by the lamps behind
+the sculptor's screen, and by several tapers, now burnt down low.  These
+were standing on a table knocked together out of blocks of wood and
+planks at the extreme end of the hall, and behind this her father was
+sound asleep.
+
+The deep notes brought out of the sleeper's broad chest, were echoed in a
+very uncanny way from the bare walls of the vast empty room, and she was
+frightened by them and still more by the long black shadows of the
+pillars, that lay, like barriers, across her path.  She stood listening
+in the middle of the hall and soon recognized in the alarming tones a
+sound that was only too familiar.  Without a moment's hesitation she
+started to run, and hastened to the sleeper, shook him, pushed him,
+called him, sprinkled his forehead with water, and appealed to him by the
+tenderest names with which her sister Arsinoe was wont to coax him.
+When, in spite of all this, he neither spoke nor stirred, she flung the
+full light of the lamp on his face.  Then she thought she perceived that
+a bluish tinge had overspread his bloated features, and she broke into
+the deep, agonized, weeping which, a few hours previously had touched the
+architect's heart.
+
+There was a sudden stir behind the screens which enclosed the sculptor
+and the work in progress.  Pollux had been working for a long time with
+zeal and pleasure, but at last the steward's snoring had begun to disturb
+him.  The body of the Muse had already taken a definite form and he could
+begin to work out the head with the earliest dawn of day.  He now dropped
+his arms wearily, for as soon as he ceased to create with his whole heart
+and mind he felt tired, and saw plainly that without a model he could do
+nothing satisfactory with the drapery of his Urania.  So he pulled his
+stool up to a great chest full of gypsum to get a little repose by
+leaning against it.
+
+But sleep avoided the artist who was too much excited by his rapid
+night's work, and as soon as Selene opened the door he sat upright and
+peeped through an opening between the frames of his place of retirement.
+When he saw the tall draped figure in whose hand a lamp was trembling,
+when he watched her cross the spacious hall, and then suddenly stand
+still, he was not a little startled, but this did not hinder him from
+noting every step of the nocturnal spectre with far more curiosity than
+alarm.  Then, when Selene looked round her, and the lamp illuminated her
+face, be recognized the steward's daughter, and immediately knew what she
+must be seeking.
+
+Her vain attempts to rouse the sleeper, though somewhat pathetic, had in
+them at the same time something irresistibly ludicrous, and Pollux felt
+sorely tempted to laugh.  But as soon as Selene began to weep so bitterly
+he hastily pushed apart two of the laths of the screen, went up and
+called her name, at first softly not to frighten her, and then more
+loudly.  When she turned her head he begged her warmly not to be alarmed
+far he was no ghost, only a very humble and ordinary mortal, in fact-as
+she might see--nothing more, alas! than the son of Euphorian, the gate-
+keeper, good for nothing as yet, but treading the path to something
+better.
+
+"You, Pollux?"  asked the girl with surprise.
+
+"The very man.  But you--can I help you?"
+
+"My poor father," sobbed Selene.  "He does not stir, he is  immovable--
+and  his face--oh!  merciful gods."
+
+"A man who snores is not dead," said the sculptor.  "But the doctor told
+him--"
+
+"He is not even ill!  Pontius only gave him stronger wine to drink than
+he is used to.  Let him be; he is sleeping with the pillow under his
+neck, as comfortably as a child.  When he began just now to trumpet a
+little too loud I whistled as loud as a plover, for that often silences a
+snorer; but I could more easily have made those stone Muses dance than
+have roused him."
+
+"If only we could get him to bed."
+
+"Well, if you have four horses at hand."
+
+"You are as bad as you ever were!"
+
+"A little less so, Selene, only you must become accustomed again to my
+way of speaking.  This time I only mean that we two together are not
+strong enough to carry him away."
+
+"But what can I do, then?  The doctor said--"
+
+"Never mind the doctor.  The complaint your father is suffering from is
+one I know well.  It will be gone to-morrow, perhaps by sundown, and the
+only pain it will leave behind, he will feel under his wig.  Only leave
+him to sleep."
+
+"But it is so cold here."
+
+"Take my cloak and cover him with that."
+
+"Then you will be frozen."
+
+"I am used to it.  How long has Keraunus had dealings with the doctor?"
+
+Selene related the accident that had befallen her father and how
+justified were her fears.  The sculptor listened to her in silence and
+then said in a quite altered tone:
+
+"I am truly sorry to hear it.  Let us put some cold water on his
+forehead, and until the slaves come back again I will change the wet
+cloth every quarter of an hour.  Here is a jar and a handkerchief--good,
+they might have been left on purpose.  Perhaps, too, it will wake him,
+and if not the people shall carry him to his own rooms."
+
+"Disgraceful, disgraceful!"  sighed the girl.
+
+"Not at all; the high-priest of Serapis even is sometimes unwell.  Only
+let me see to it."
+
+"It will excite him afresh if he sees you.  He is so angry with you--so
+very angry."
+
+"Omnipotent Zeus, what harm have I done you, fat father!  The gods
+forgive the sins of the wise, and a man will not forgive the fault
+committed by a stupid lad in a moment of imprudence."
+
+"You mocked at him."
+
+"I set a clay head that was like him on the shoulders of the fat Silenus
+near the gate, that had lost its own head.  It was my first piece of
+independent work."
+
+"But you did it to vex my father."
+
+"Certainly not, Selene; I was delighted with the joke and nothing more."
+
+"But you knew how touchy he is."
+
+"And does a wild boy of fifteen ever reflect on the consequences of his
+audacity?  If he had but given me a thrashing his annoyance would have
+discharged itself like thunder and lightning, and the air would have been
+clear again.  But, as it was, he cut the face off the work with a knife,
+and deliberately trod the pieces under foot as they lay on the ground.
+He gave me one single blow--with his thumb--which I still feel, it is
+true, and then he treated me and my parents with such scorn, so coldly
+and hardly, with such bitter contempt--"
+
+"He never is really violent, but wrath seems to eat him inwardly, and I
+have rarely seen him so angry as he was that time."
+
+"But if he had only settled the account with me on the spot! but my
+father was by, and hot words fell like rain, and my mother added her
+share, and from that time there has been utter hostility between our
+little house and you up here.  What hurt me most was that you and your
+sister were forbidden to come to see us and to play with me."
+
+"That has spoilt many pleasant hours for me, too."
+
+"It was nice when we used to dress up in my father's theatrical finery
+and cloaks."
+
+"And when you made us dolls out of clay.".
+
+"Or when we performed the Olympian games."
+
+"I was always the teacher when we played at school with our little
+brothers and sisters."
+
+"Arsinoe gave you most trouble."
+
+"Oh! and what fun when we went fishing!"
+
+"And when we brought home the fishes and mother gave us meal and raisins
+to cook them."
+
+"Do you remember the festival of Adonis, and how I stopped the runaway
+horse of that Numidian officer?"
+
+"The horse had knocked over Arsinoe, and when we got home mother gave you
+an almond-cake."
+
+"And your ungrateful sister bit a great piece out of it and left me only
+a tiny morsel.  Is Arsinoe as pretty as she promised to become?  It is
+two years since I last saw her; at our place we never have time to leave
+work till it is dark.  For eight months I had to work for the master at
+Ptolemais, and often saw the old folks but once in the month."
+
+"We go out very little, too, and we are not allowed to go into your
+parents' house.  My sister--"
+
+"Is she pretty?"
+
+"Yes, I think she is.  Whenever she can get hold of a piece of ribbon she
+plaits it in her hair, and the men in the street turn round to look at
+her.  She is sixteen now."
+
+"Sixteen!  What, little Arsinoe!  Why, how long then is it since your
+mother died?"
+
+"Four years and eight months."
+
+"You remember the date very exactly; such a mother is not easily
+forgotten, indeed.  She was a good woman and a kinder I never met.
+I know, too, that she tried to mollify your father's feeling, but
+she could not succeed, and then she need must die!"
+
+"Yes," said Selene gloomily.  "How could the gods decree it!  They are
+often more cruel than the hardest hearted man."
+
+"Your poor little brothers and sisters!"
+
+The girl bowed her head sadly and Pollux stood for some time with his
+eyes fixed on the ground.  Then he raised his head and exclaimed:
+
+"I have something for you that will please you."
+
+"Nothing ever pleases me now she is dead."
+
+"Yes, yes  indeed," replied  the  young sculptor eagerly.  "I could not
+forget the good soul, and once in my idle moments I modelled her bust
+from memory.  To-morrow I will bring it to you."
+
+"Oh!"  cried Selene, and her large heavy eyes brightened with a sunny
+gleam.
+
+"Now, is not it true, you are pleased?"
+
+"Yes indeed, very much.  But when my father learns that it is you who
+have given me the portrait--"
+
+"Is he capable of destroying it?"
+
+"If he does not destroy it, he will not suffer it in the house as soon
+as he knows that you made it."  Pollux took the handkerchief from the
+steward's head, moistened it afresh, and exclaimed as he rearranged it
+on the forehead of the sleeping man:
+
+"I have an idea.  All that matters is that my bust should serve to remind
+you often of your mother; the bust need not stand in your rooms.  The
+busts of the women of the house of Ptolemy stand on the rotunda, which
+you can see from your balcony, and which you can pass whenever you
+please; some of them are badly mutilated and must be got rid of.  I will
+undertake to restore the Berenice and put your mother's head on her
+shoulders.  Then you have only to go out and look at her.  Will that do?"
+
+"Yes, Pollux; you are a good man."
+
+"So I told you just now.  I am beginning to improve.  But time--time!
+if I am to undertake to repair Berenice I must begin by saving the
+minutes."
+
+"Go back to your work now; I know how to apply a wet compress only too
+well."
+
+With these words Selene threw back her mantle over her shoulders so as to
+leave her hands free for use, and stood with her slender figure, her pale
+face, and the fine broadly-flowing folds of rich stuff, like a statue in
+the eyes of the young sculptor.
+
+"Stop--stay so--just so," cried Pollux to the astonished girl, so loudly
+and eagerly that she was startled.
+
+"Your cloak hangs with a wonderfully-free flow from your shoulders--in
+the name of all the gods do not touch it.  If only I might model from it
+I should in a few minutes gain a whole day for our Berenice.  I will wet
+the handkerchief at intervals in the pauses."  Without waiting for
+Selene's answer the sculptor hastened into his nook and returned first
+with one of the lamps he worked by in each hand, and some small tools in
+his mouth, and then fetched his wax model which he placed on the outer
+side of the table, behind which the steward was sleeping.  The tapers
+were put out, the lamps pushed aside, and raised or lowered, and when at
+last a tolerably suitable light was procured Pollux threw himself on a
+stool, straddled his legs, craned his head forward as far as his neck
+would allow, looking, with his hooked nose, like a vulture that strives
+to descry his distant prey-cast his eyes down, raised them again to take
+in something fresh, and after a long gaze looked down again while his
+fingers and nails moved over the surface of the wax-figure, sinking into
+the plastic material, applying new pieces to apparently complete
+portions, removing others with a decided nip and rounding them off with
+bewildering rapidity to use them for a fresh purpose.
+
+He seemed to be seized with cramp in his hands, but still under his
+knotted brow his eye shone earnest, resolute and calm, and yet full of
+profound and speechless inspiration.  Selene had said not a word that
+permitted his using her as a model; but, as if his enthusiasm was
+infectious, she remained motionless, and when, as he worked, his gaze
+met hers she could detect the stern earnestness which at this moment
+possessed her eager companion.
+
+Neither of them opened their lips for some time.  At last he stood back
+from his work, stooping low to look first at Selene and then at his
+statuette with keen examination from head to foot; and then, drawing a
+deep breath, and rubbing the wax over with his finger, he said:
+
+"There, that is how it must go!  Now I will wet your father's
+handkerchief and then we can go on again.  If you are tired you can
+rest."
+
+She availed herself but little of this permission and presently he began
+work again.  As he proceeded carefully to replace some folds of her
+drapery which had fallen out of place, she moved her foot as if to draw
+back, but he begged her earnestly to stand still and she obeyed his
+request.
+
+Pollux now used his fingers and modelling tools more calmly; his gaze was
+less wistful and he began to talk again.
+
+"You are very pale," he said.  "To be sure the lamp-light and a sleepless
+night have something to do with it."
+
+"I look just the same by daylight, but I am not ill."
+
+"I thought Arsinoe would have been like your mother, but now I see many
+features of her face in yours again.  The oval of their form is the same
+and, in both, the line of the nose runs almost straight to the forehead;
+you have her eyes and the same bend of the brow, but your mouth is
+smaller and more sharply cut, and she could hardly have made such a heavy
+knot of her hair.  I fancy, too, that yours is lighter than hers."
+
+"As a girl she must have had still more hair, and perhaps she may have
+been as fair as I was--I am brown now."
+
+"Another thing you inherit from her is that your hair, without being
+curly, lies upon your head in such soft waves."
+
+"It is easy to keep in order."
+
+"Are not you taller than she was?"
+
+"I  fancy so, but as she was stouter she looked shorter.  Will you soon
+have done?"
+
+"You are getting tired of standing?"
+
+"Not very."
+
+"Then have a little more patience.  Your face reminds me more and more of
+our early years; I should be glad to see Arsinoe once more.  I feel at
+this moment as if time had moved backwards a good piece.  Have you the
+same feeling?"
+
+Selene shook her head.
+
+"You are not happy?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I know full well that you have very heavy duties to perform for your
+age."
+
+"Things go as they may."
+
+"Nay, nay.  I know you do not let things go haphazard.  You take care of
+your brothers and sisters like a mother."
+
+"Like a mother!"  repeated Selene, and she smiled a bitter negative.
+
+"Of course a mother's love is a thing by itself, but your father and the
+little ones have every reason to be satisfied with yours."
+
+"The little ones are perhaps, and Helios who is blind, but Arsinoe does
+what she can."
+
+"You certainly are not content, I can hear it in your voice, and you used
+formerly to be as merry and happy as your sister, though perhaps not so
+saucy."
+
+"Formerly--"
+
+"How sadly that sounds!  And yet you are handsome, you are young, and
+life lies before you."
+
+"But what a life!"
+
+"Well, what?"  asked the sculptor, and taking his hands from his work he
+looked ardently at the fair pale girl before him and cried out fervently:
+
+"A life which might be full of happiness and satisfied affection."
+
+The girl shook her head in negation and answered coldly:
+
+"'Love is joy,' says the Christian woman who superintends us at work in
+the papyrus factory, and since my mother died I have had no love.  I
+enjoyed all my share of happiness once for all in my childhood, now I am
+content if only we are spared the worst misfortunes.  Otherwise I take
+what each day brings, because I can not do otherwise.  My heart is empty,
+and if I ever feel anything keenly, it is dread.  I have long since
+ceased to expect any thing good of the future."
+
+"Girl!"  exclaimed Pollux.  "Why, what has been happening to you?  I do
+not understand half of what you are saying.  How came you in the papyrus
+factory?"
+
+"Do not betray me," begged Selene.  "If my father were to hear of it."
+
+"He is asleep, and what you confide to me no one will ever hear of
+again."
+
+"Why should I conceal it?  I go every day with Arsinoe for two hours to
+the manufactory, and we work there to earn a little money."
+
+"Behind your father's back?"
+
+"Yes, he would rather that we should starve than allow it.  Every day I
+feel the same loathing for the deceit; but we could not get on without
+it, for Arsinoe thinks of nothing but herself, plays draughts with my
+father, curls his hair, plays with the children as if they were dolls,
+but it is my part to take care of them."
+
+"And you, you say, have no share of love.  Happily no one believes you,
+and I least of all.  Only lately my mother was telling me about you, and
+I thought you were a girl who might turn out just such a wife as a woman
+ought to be."
+
+"And now?"
+
+"Now, I know it for certain."
+
+"You may be mistaken."
+
+"No, no! your name is Selene, and you are as gentle as the kindly
+moonlight; names, even, have their significance."
+
+"And my blind brother who has never even seen the light is called
+Helios!"  answered the girl.
+
+Pollux had spoken with much warmth, but Selene's last words startled him
+and checked the effervescence of his feelings.  Finding he did not answer
+her bitter exclamation, she said, at first coolly, but with increasing
+warmth:
+
+"You are beginning to believe me, and you are right, for what I do for
+the children is not done out of love, or out of kindness, or because I
+set their welfare above my own.  I have inherited my father's pride, and
+it would be odious to me if my brothers and sisters went about in rags,
+and people thought we were as poor and helpless as we really are.  What
+is most horrible to me is sickness in the house, for that increases the
+anxiety I always feel and swallows up my last coin; the children must not
+perish for want of it.  I do not want to make myself out worse than I am;
+it grieves me too to see them drooping.  But nothing that I do brings me
+happiness--at most it moderates my fears.  You ask what I am afraid of?
+--of everything, everything that can happen to me, for I have no reason
+to look forward to anything good.  When there is a knock, it may be a
+creditor; when people look at Arsinoe in the street, I seem to see
+dishonor lurking round her; when my father acts against the advice of the
+physician I feel as if we were standing already roofless in the open
+street.  What is there that I can do with a happy mind?  I certainly am
+not idle, still I envy the woman who can sit with her hands in her lap
+and be waited on by slaves, and if a golden treasure fell into my
+possession, I would never stir a finger again, and would sleep every
+day till the sun was high and make slaves look after my father and the
+children.  My life is sheer misery.  If ever we see better days I shall
+be astonished, and before I have got over my astonishment it will all be
+over."
+
+The sculptor felt a cold chill, and his heart which had opened wide to
+his old playfellow shrank again within him.  Before he could find the
+right words of encouragement which he sought, they heard in the hall,
+where the workmen and slaves were sleeping, the blast of a trumpet
+intended to awake them.  Selene started, drew her mantle more closely
+round her, begged Pollux to take care of her father, and to hide the
+wine-jar which was standing near him from the work-people and then,
+forgetting her lamp, she went hastily toward the door by which she had
+entered.  Pollux hurried after her to light the way and while he
+accompanied her as far as the door of her rooms, by his warm and urgent
+words which appealed wonderfully to her heart, he extracted from her a
+promise to stand once more in her mantle as his model.
+
+A quarter of an hour later the steward was safe in bed and still sleeping
+soundly, while Pollux, who had stretched himself on a mattress behind his
+screen, could not for a long time cease to think of the pale girl with
+her benumbed soul.  At last sleep overcame him too, and a sweet dream
+showed him pretty little Arsinoe, who but for him must infallibly have
+been killed by the Numidian's restive horse, taking away her sister
+Selene's almond-cake and giving it to him.  The pale girl submitted
+quietly to the robbery and only smiled coldly and silently to herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Alexandria was in the greatest excitement.
+
+The Emperor's visit now immediately impending had tempted the busy hive
+of citizens away from the common round of life in which, day after day,
+--swarming, hurrying, pushing each other on, or running each other down--
+they raced for bread and for the means of filling their hours of leisure
+with pleasures and amusements.  The unceasing wheel of industry to-day
+had pause in the factories, workshops, storehouses and courts of justice,
+for all sorts and conditions of men were inspired by the same desire to
+celebrate Hadrian's visit with unheard-of splendor.  All that the
+citizens could command of inventive skill, of wealth, and of beauty was
+called forth to be displayed in the games and processions which were to
+fill up a number of days.  The richest of the heathen citizens had
+undertaken the management of the pieces to be performed in the Theatre,
+of the mock fight on the lake, and of the sanguinary games in the
+Amphitheatre; and so great was the number of opulent persons that many
+more were prepared to pay for smaller projects, for which there was no
+opening.  Nevertheless the arrangements for certain portions of the
+procession, in which even the less wealthy were to take a share, the
+erection of the building in the Hippodrome, the decorations in the
+streets, and the preparations for entertaining the Roman visitors
+absorbed sums so large that they seemed extravagant even to the prefect
+Titianus, who was accustomed to see his fellow-officials in Rome squander
+millions.
+
+As the Emperor's viceroy it behoved him to give his assent to all that
+was planned to feast his sovereign's eye and ear.  On the whole, he left
+the citizens of the great town free to act as they would; but he had,
+more than once, to exert a decided opposition to their overdoing the
+thing; for though the Emperor might be able to endure a vast amount of
+pleasure, what the Alexandrians originally proposed to provide for him to
+see and hear would have exhausted the most indefatigable human energy.
+
+That which gave the greatest trouble, not merely to him, but also to the
+masters of the revels chosen by the municipality, were the never-dormant
+hostility between the heathen and the Jewish sections of the inhabitants,
+and the processions, since no division chose to come last, nor would any
+number be satisfied to be only the third or the fourth.
+
+It was from a meeting, where his determined intervention had at last
+brought all these preliminaries to a decision beyond appeal, that
+Titianus proceeded to the Caesareum to pay the Empress the visit which
+she expected of him daily.  He was glad to have come to some conclusion,
+at any rate provisionally, with regard to these matters, for six days had
+slipped away since the works had been begun in the palace of Lochias, and
+Hadrian's arrival was nearing rapidly.
+
+He found Sabina, as usual, on her divan, but on this occasion the Empress
+was sitting upright on her cushions.  She seemed quite to have got over
+the fatigues of the sea-voyage, and in token that she felt better she had
+applied more red to her cheeks and lips than three days ago, and because
+she was to receive a visit from the sculptors, Papias and Aristeas, she
+had had her hair arranged as it was worn in the statue of Venus Victrix,
+with whose attributes she had, five years previously--though not, it is
+true, without some resistance--been represented in marble.  When a copy
+of this statue had been erected in Alexandria, an evil tongue had made a
+speech which was often repeated among the citizens.
+
+"This Aphrodite is triumphant to be sure, for all who see her make haste
+to fly; she should be called Cypris the scatterer."
+
+Titianus was still under the excitement of the embittered squabbles and
+unpleasing exhibitions of character at which he had just been present
+when he entered the presence of the Empress, whom he found in a small
+room with no one but the chamberlain and a few ladies-in-waiting.  To the
+prefect's respectful inquiries after her health, she shrugged her
+shoulders and replied:
+
+"How should I be?  If I said well it would not be true; if I said ill, I
+should be surrounded with pitiful faces, which are not pleasant to look
+at.  After all we must endure life.  Still, the innumerable doors in
+these rooms will be the death of me if I am compelled to remain here
+long."
+
+Titianus glanced at the two doors of the room in which the Empress was
+sitting, and began to express his regrets at their bad condition, which
+had escaped his notice; but Sabina interrupted him, saying:
+
+"You men never do observe what hurts us women.  Our Verus is the only man
+who can feel and understand--who can divine it, as I might say.  There
+are five and thirty doors in my rooms!  I had them counted-five and
+thirty!  If they were not old and made of valuable wood I should really
+believe they had been made as a practical joke on me."
+
+"Some of them might be supplemented with curtains."
+
+"Oh! never mind--a few miseries, more or less in any life do not matter.
+Are the Alexandrians ready at last with their preparations?"
+
+"I am sure I hope so," said the prefect with a sigh.  They are bent on
+giving all that is their best; but in the endeavor to outvie each other
+every one is at war with his neighbor, and I still feel the effects of
+the odious wrangling which I have had to listen to for hours, and that I
+have been obliged to check again and again with threats of 'I shall be
+down upon you.'"
+
+"Indeed," said the Empress with a pinched smile, as if she had heard some
+thing that pleased her.
+
+"Tell me something about your meeting.  I am bored to death, for Verus,
+Balbilla and the others have asked for leave of absence that they may go
+to inspect the work doing at Lochias; I am accustomed to find that people
+would rather be any where than with me.  Can I wonder then that my
+presence is not enough to enable a friend of my husband's to forget a
+little annoyance--the impression left by some slight misunderstanding?
+But my fugitives are a long time away; there must be a great deal that is
+beautiful to be seen at Lochias."
+
+The prefect suppressed his annoyance and did not express his anxiety lest
+the architect and his assistants should be disturbed, but began in the
+tone of the messenger in a tragedy:
+
+"The first quarrel was fought over the order of the procession."
+
+"Sit a little farther off," said Sabina pressing her jewelled right-hand
+on her ear, as if she were suffering a pain in it.  The prefect colored
+slightly, but he obeyed the desire of Caesar's wife and went on with his
+story, pitching his voice in a somewhat lower key than before:
+
+"Well, it was about the procession, that the first breach of the peace
+arose."
+
+"I have heard that once already," replied the lady, yawning.  "I like
+processions."
+
+"But," said the prefect, a man in the beginning of the sixties--and he
+spoke with some irritation, "here as in Rome and every where else, where
+they are not controlled by the absolute will of a single individual,
+processions are the children of strife, and they bring forth strife,
+even when they are planned in honor of a festival of Peace."
+
+"It seems to annoy you that they should be organized in honor of
+Hadrian?"
+
+"You are in jest; it is precisely because I care particularly that they
+should be carried out with all possible splendor, that I am troubling
+myself about them in person, even as to details; and to my great
+satisfaction I have been able even to subdue the most obstinate;
+still it was scarcely my duty--"
+
+"I fancied that you not only served the state but were my husband's
+friend."
+
+"I am proud to call myself so."
+
+"Aye--Hadrian has many, very many friends since he has worn the purple.
+Have you got over your ill temper Titianus?  You must have become very
+touchy.  Poor Julia has an irritable husband!"
+
+"She is less to be pitied than you think," said Titianus with dignity,
+"for my official duties so entirely claim my time that she is not often
+likely to know what disturbs me.  If I have forgotten to dissimulate my
+vexation before you, I beg you to pardon me, and to attribute it to my
+zeal in securing a worthy reception for Hadrian."
+
+"As if I had scolded you!  But to return to your wife--as I understand
+she shares the fate I endure.  We poor women have nothing to expect from
+our husbands, but the stale leavings that remain after business has
+absorbed the rest!  But your story--go on with your story."
+
+"The worst moments I had at all were given me by the bad feeling of the
+Jews towards the other citizens."
+
+"I hate all these infamous sects--Jews, Christians or whatever they are
+called!  Do they dare to grudge their money for the reception of Caesar?"
+
+"On the contrary Alabarchos, their wealthy chief, has offered to defray
+all the cost of the Naumachia and his co-religionist Artemion."
+
+"Well, take their money, take their money."
+
+"The Greek citizens feel that they are rich enough to pay all the
+expenses, which will amount to many millions of sesterces, and they wish
+to exclude the Jews, if possible, from all the processions and games."
+
+"They are perfectly right."
+
+"But allow me to ask you whether it is just to prohibit half the
+population of Alexandria doing honor to their Emperor!"
+
+"Oh!  Hadrian will, with pleasure, dispense with the honor.  Our
+conquering heroes have thought it redounded to their glory to be called
+Africanus, Germanicus and Dacianus, but Titus refused to be called
+Judaicus when he had destroyed Jerusalem."
+
+"That was because he dreaded the remembrance of the rivers of blood which
+had to be shed in order to break the fearfully obstinate resistance of
+that nation.  The besieged had to be conquered limb by limb, and finger
+by finger, before they would make up their minds to yield."
+
+"Again you are speaking half poetically, or have these people elected you
+as their advocate?"
+
+"I know them and make every effort to secure them justice, just as much
+as any other citizen of this country which I govern in the name of the
+Empire and of Caesar.  They pay taxes as well as the rest of the
+Alexandrians; nay more, for there are many wealthy men among them who
+are honorably prominent in trade, in professions, learning and art, and
+I therefore mete to them the same measure as to the other inhabitants of
+this city.  Their superstition offends me no more than that of the
+Egyptians."
+
+"But it really is above all measure.  At Aelia Capitolina which Hadrian
+had decorated with several buildings, they refused to sacrifice to the
+statues of Zeus and Hera.  That is to say they scorn to do homage to me
+and my husband!"
+
+"They are forbidden to worship any other divinity than their own God.
+Aelia rose up on the very soil where their ruined Jerusalem had stood,
+and the statues of which you speak stand in their holy places."
+
+"What has that to do with us?"
+
+"You know that even Caius--[Caligula]--could not reduce them by placing
+his statue in the Holy of Holies of their temple; and Petronius, the
+governor, had to confess that to subdue them meant to exterminate them."
+
+"Then let them meet with the fate they deserve, let them be
+exterminated!"  cried Sabina.
+
+"Exterminated?"  asked the prefect.  "In Alexandria they constitute
+nearly half of the citizens, that is to say several hundred thousand of
+obedient subjects, exterminated!"
+
+"So many?"  asked the Empress in alarm."  But that is frightful.
+Omnipotent Jove!  supposing that mass were to revolt against us!  No one
+ever told me of this danger.  In Cyrenaica, and at Salamis in Cyprus,
+they killed their fellow-citizens by thousands."
+
+"They had been provoked to extremities and they were superior to their
+oppressors in force."
+
+"And in their own land one revolt after another is organized."
+
+"By reason of the sacrifices of which we were speaking."
+
+"Tinnius Rufus is at present the legate in Palestine.  He has a horribly
+shrill voice--but he looks like a man who will stand no trifling, and
+will know how to quell the venomous brood."
+
+"Possibly" replied Titianus.  "But I fear that he will never attain his
+end by mere severity; and if he should he will have depopulated his
+province."
+
+"There are already too many men in the empire."
+
+"But never enough good and useful citizens."
+
+"Outrageous contemners of the gods and useless citizens!"
+
+"Here in Alexandria, where many have accommodated themselves to Greek
+habits of life and thought, and where all have adopted the Greek tongue,
+they are undoubtedly good citizens, and wholly devoted to Caesar."
+
+"Do they take part in the rejoicings?"
+
+"Yes, as far as the Greek citizens will allow them."
+
+"And the arrangement of the water-fight?"
+
+"That will not be given over to them, but Artemion will be permitted to
+supply the wild beasts for the games in the Amphitheatre."
+
+"And he was not avaricious about it?"
+
+"So far from it that you will be astonished.  The man must know the
+secret of Midas, of turning stones into gold."
+
+"And are there many like him among your Jews?"
+
+"A good number."
+
+"Then I wish that they would attempt a revolt, for if this led to the
+destruction of the rich ones, their gold, at any rate, would remain."
+
+"Meanwhile I will try and keep them alive, as being good rate-payers."
+
+"And does Hadrian share your wish?"
+
+"Without doubt."
+
+"Your successor may perhaps bring him to another mind."
+
+"He always acts according to his own judgment, and for the present I am
+in office," answered Titianus haughtily.
+
+"And may the God of the Jews long preserve you in it!"  retorted Sabina
+scornfully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Before Titianus could open his lips to reply, the principal door of the
+room was opened cautiously but widely, and the praetor Lucius Aurelius
+Verus, his wife Domitia Lucilla, the young Balbilla and, last of all,
+Annaeus Florus, the historian, entered.  All four were in the best
+spirits, and immediately after the preliminary greetings, were eager to
+report what they had seen at Lochias; but Sabina waved silence with her
+hand, and breathed out:
+
+"No, no; not at present.  I feel quite exhausted.  This long waiting, and
+then--my smelling-bottle, Verus.  Leukippe, bring me a cup of water with
+some fruit-syrup--but not so sweet as usual."
+
+The Greek slave-girl hastened to execute this command, and the Empress,
+as she waved an elegant bottle carved in onyx, under her nostrils, went
+on:
+
+"It is a little eternity--is it not, Titianus, that we have been
+discussing state affairs?  You all know how frank I am and that I cannot
+be silent when I meet with perverse opinions.  While you have been away I
+have had much to hear and to say; it would have exhausted the strength of
+the strongest.  I only wonder you don't find me more worn out, for what
+can be more excruciating for a woman, that to be obliged to enter the
+lists for manly decisiveness against a man who is defending a perfectly
+antagonistic view?  Give me water, Leukippe."
+
+While the Empress drank the syrup with tiny sips twitching her thin lips
+over it, Verus went up to the prefect and asked him in an under tone:
+
+"You were a long while alone with Sabina, cousin?"
+
+Yes," replied Titianus, and he set his teeth as he spoke and clenched his
+fist so hard that the praetor could not misunderstand, and replied in a
+low voice:
+
+"She is much to be pitied, and particularly just now she has hours--"
+
+"What sort of hours?"  asked Sabina taking the cup from her lips.
+
+"These," replied Verus quickly, "in which I am not obliged to occupy
+myself in the senate or with the affairs of state.  To whom do I owe them
+but to you?"
+
+With these words he approached the mature beauty, and taking the goblet
+out of her hand with affectionate subservience, as a son might wait on
+his honored and suffering mother, he gave it to the Greek slave.  The
+Empress bowed her thanks again and again to the praetor with much
+affability, and then said, with a slight infusion of cheerfulness
+in her tones:
+
+"Well--and what is there to be seen at Lochias?"
+
+"Wonderful things," answered Balbilla readily and clasping her little
+hands.
+
+"A swarm of bees, a colony of ants, have taken possession of the palace.
+Hands black, white and brown--more than we could count, are busy there
+and of all the hundreds of workmen which are astir there, not one got in
+the way of another, for one little man orders and manages them all, just
+as the prescient wisdom of the gods guides the stars through the
+'gracious and merciful night' so that they may never push or run against
+each other."
+
+"I must put in a word on behalf of Pontius the architect," interposed
+Verus.  "He is a man of at least average height."
+
+"Let us admit it to satisfy your sense of justice," returned Balbilla.
+"Let us admit it--a man of average height, with a papyrus-roll in his
+right-hand and a stylus in the left, controls them.  Now, does my way of
+stating it please you better?"
+
+"It can never displease me," answered the praetor.  "Let Balbilla go on
+with her story," commanded the Empress.
+
+"What we saw was chaos," continued the girl, "still in the confusion we
+could divine the elements of an orderly creation in the future; nay, it
+was even visible to the eye."
+
+"And not unfrequently stumbled over with the foot," laughed the praetor.
+"If it had been dark, and if the laborers had been worms, we must have
+trodden half of them to death--they swarmed so all over the pavement."
+
+"What were they doing?"
+
+"Every thing," answered Balbilla quickly.  "Some were polishing damaged
+pieces, others were laying new bits of mosaic in the empty places from
+which it had formerly been removed, and skilled artists were painting
+colored figures on smooth surfaces of plaster.  Every pillar and every
+statue was built round with a scaffolding reaching to the ceiling on
+which men were climbing and crowding each other just as the sailors climb
+into the enemy's ships in the Naumachia."
+
+The girl's pretty cheeks had flushed with her eager reminiscence of what
+she had seen, and, as she spoke, moving her hands with expressive
+gestures, the tall structure of curls which crowned her small head shook
+from side to side.
+
+"Your description begins to be quite poetical," said the Empress,
+interrupting her young companion.  "Perhaps the Muse may even inspire you
+with verse."
+
+"All the Pierides," said the praetor, "are represented at Lochias.  We
+saw eight of them, but the ninth, that patroness of the arts, who
+protects the stargazer, the lofty Urania, has at present, in place of a
+head--allow me to leave it to you to guess divine Sabina?"
+
+"Well--what?"
+
+"A wisp of straw."
+
+"Alas," sighed the Empress.  "What do you say, Florus?  Are there not
+among your learned and verse spinning associates certain men who resemble
+this Urania?"
+
+"At any rate," replied Florus, "we are more prudent than the goddess, for
+we conceal the contents of our heads in the hard nut of the skull, and
+under a more or less abundant thatch of hair.  Urania displays her straw
+openly."
+
+"That almost sounds," said Balbilla laughing and pointing to her abundant
+locks, "as if I especially needed to conceal what is covered by my hair."
+
+"Even the Lesbian swan was called the fair-haired," replied Florus.
+
+"And you are our Sappho," said the praetor's wife, drawing the girl's arm
+to her bosom.
+
+"Really! and will you not write in verse all that you have seen to-day?"
+asked the Empress.
+
+Balbilla looked down on the ground a minute and then said brightly: "It
+might inspire me, everything strange that I meet with prompts me to write
+verse."
+
+"But follow the counsel of Apollonius the philologer," advised Florus.
+"You are the Sappho of our day, and therefore you should write in the
+ancient Aeolian dialect and not Attic Greek."  Verus laughed, and the
+Empress, who never was strongly moved to laughter, gave a short sharp
+giggle, but Balbilla said eagerly:
+
+"Do you think that I could not acquire it and do so?  To-morrow morning
+I will begin to practise myself in the old Aeolian forms."
+
+"Let it alone," said Domitia Lucilla; "your simplest songs are always the
+prettiest."
+
+"No one shall laugh at me!"  declared Balbilla pertinaciously.  "In a few
+weeks I will know how to use the Aeolian dialect, for I can do anything
+I am determined to do--anything, anything."
+
+"What a stubborn little head we have under our curls!"  exclaimed the
+Empress, raising a graciously threatening finger.
+
+"And what powers of apprehension," added Florus.
+
+"Her master in language and metre told me his best pupil was a woman of
+noble family and a poetess besides--Balbilla in short."
+
+The girl colored at the words, and said with pleased excitement:
+
+"Are you flattering me or did Hephaestion really say that?"
+
+"Woe is me!"  cried the praetor, "for Hephaestion was my master too, and
+I am one of the masculine scholars beaten by Balbilla.  But it is no news
+to me, for the Alexandrian himself told me the same thing as Florus."
+
+"You follow Ovid and she Sappho," said Florus; "you write in Latin and
+she in Greek.  Do you still always carry Ovid's love-poems about with
+you?"
+
+"Always," replied Verus, "as Alexander did his Homer."
+
+"And out of respect for his master your husband endeavors, by the grace
+of Venus, to live like him," added Sabina, addressing herself to Domitia
+Lucilla.
+
+The tall and handsome Roman lady only shrugged her shoulders slightly in
+answer to this not very kindly-meant speech; but Verus said, while he
+picked up Sabina's silken coverlet, and carefully spread it over her
+knees:
+
+"My happiest fortune consists in this: that Venus Victrix favors me.  But
+we are not yet at the end of our story; our Lesbian swan met at Lochias
+with another rare bird, an artist in statuary."
+
+"How long have the sculptors been reckoned among birds?"  asked Sabina.
+"At the utmost can they be compared to woodpeckers."
+
+"When they work in wood," laughed Verus.  "Our artist, however, is an
+assistant of Papias, and handles noble materials in the grand style.
+On this occasion, however, he is building a statue out of a very queer
+mixture of materials."
+
+"Verus may very well call our new acquaintance a bird," interrupted
+Balbilla, "for as we approached the screen behind which he is working he
+was whistling a tune with his lips, so pure and cheery, and loud, that it
+rang through the empty hall above all the noise of the workmen.  A
+nightingale does not pipe more sweetly.  We stood still to listen till
+the merry fellow, who had no idea that we were by, was silent again; and
+then hearing the architect's voice, he called to him over the screen.
+'Now we must clap Urania's head on; I saw it clearly in my mind and would
+have had it finished with a score of touches, but Papias said he had one
+in the workshop.  I am curious to see what sort of a sugarplum face,
+turned out by the dozen, he will stick on my torso--which will please me,
+at any rate, for a couple of days.  Find me a good model for the bust of
+the Sappho I am to restore.  A thousand gadflies are buzzing in my brain
+--I am so tremendously excited!  What I am planning now will come to
+something!'"
+
+Balbilla, as she spoke the last words, tried to mimic a man's deep voice,
+and seeing the Empress smile she went on eagerly.
+
+"It all came out so fresh, from a heart full to bursting of happy
+vigorous creative joy, that it quite fired me, and we all went up to the
+screen and begged the sculptor to let us see his work."
+
+"And you found?"  asked Sabina.
+
+"He positively refused to let us into his retreat," replied the praetor;
+"but Balbilla coaxed the permission out of him, and the tall young fellow
+seems to have really learnt something.  The fall of the drapery that
+covers the Muse's figure is perfectly thought out with reference to
+possibility--rich, broadly handled, and at the same time of surprising
+delicacy.  Urania has drawn her mantle closely round her, as if to
+protect herself from the keen night-air while gazing at the stars.  When
+he has finished his Muse, he is to repair some mutilated busts of women;
+he was fixing the head of a finished Berenice to-day, and I proposed to
+him to take Balbilla as the model for his Sappho."
+
+"A good idea" said the Empress.  "If the bust is successful I will take
+him with me to Rome."
+
+"I will sit to him with pleasure," said the girl.  "The bright young
+fellow took my fancy."
+
+"And Balbilla his," added the praetor's wife; he gazed at her as a
+marvel, and she promised him that, with your permission, she would
+place her face at his disposal for three hours to-morrow."
+
+"He begins  with  the  head,"  interposed Verus.  "What a happy man is an
+artist such as he!  He may turn about her head, or lay her peplum in
+folds without reproof or repulse, and to-day when we had to get past bogs
+of plaster, and lakes of wet paint, she scarcely picked up the hem of her
+dress, and never once allowed me--who would so willingly have supported
+her--to lift her over the worst places."
+
+Balbilla reddened and said angrily:
+
+"Really Verus, in good earnest, I will not allow you to speak to me in
+that way, so now you know it once for all; I have so little liking for
+what is not clean that I find it quite easy to avoid it without
+assistance."
+
+"You are too severe," interrupted the Empress with a hideous smile.
+"Do not you think Domitia Lucilla, that she ought to allow your husband
+to be of service to her?"
+
+"If the Empress thinks it right and fitting," replied the lady raising
+her shoulders, and with an expressive movement of her hands.  Sabina
+quite took her meaning, and suppressing another yawn she said angrily:
+
+"In these days we must be indulgent toward a husband who has chosen
+Ovid's amatory poems as his faithful companion.  What is the matter
+Titianus?"
+
+While Balbilla had been relating her meeting with the sculptor Pollux, a
+chamberlain had brought in to the prefect an important letter, admitting
+of no delay.  The state official had withdrawn to the farther side of the
+room with it, had broken the strong seal and had just finished reading
+it, when the Empress asked her question.
+
+Nothing of what went on around her escaped Sabina's little eyes, and she
+had observed that while the governor was considering the document
+addressed to him he had moved uneasily.  It must contain something of
+importance.
+
+"An urgent letter," replied Titianus, "calls me home.  I must take my
+leave, and I hope ere long to be able to communicate to you something
+agreeable."
+
+"What does that letter contain?"
+
+"Important news from the provinces," said Titianus.
+
+"May I inquire what?"
+
+"I grieve to say that I must answer in the negative.  The Emperor
+expressly desired that this matter should be kept secret.  Its settlement
+demands the promptest haste, and I am therefore unfortunately obliged to
+quit you immediately."
+
+Sabina returned the prefect's parting salutations with icy coldness and
+immediately desired to be conducted to her private rooms to dress herself
+for supper.
+
+Balbilla escorted her, and Florus betook himself to the "Olympian table,"
+the famous eating-house kept by Lycortas, of whom he had been told
+wonders by the epicures at Rome.
+
+When Verus was alone with his wife he went up in a friendly manner and
+said:
+
+"May I drive you home again?"
+
+Domitia Lucilla had thrown herself on a couch, and covered her face with
+her hands, and she made no reply.  "May I?"  repeated the praetor.  As
+his wife persisted in her silence, he went nearer to her, laid his hand
+on her slender fingers that concealed her face, and said:
+
+"I believe you are angry with me!"  She pushed away his hand, with a
+slight movement, and said: "Leave me."
+
+"Yes, unfortunately I must leave you.  Business takes me into the city
+and I will--"
+
+"You will let the young Alexandrians, with whom you revelled through the
+night, introduce you to new fair ones--I know it."
+
+"There are in fact women here of incredible charm," replied Verus quite
+coolly.  White, brown, copper-colored, black--and all delightful in their
+way.  I could never be tired of admiring them."
+
+"And your wife?"  asked Lucilla, facing him, sternly.  "My wife?  yes, my
+fairest.  Wife is a solemn title of honor and has nothing to do with the
+joys of life.  How could I mention your name in the same hour with those
+of the poor children who help me to beguile an idle hour."
+
+Domitia Lucilla was used to such phrases, and yet on this occasion they
+gave her a pang.  But she concealed it, and crossing her arms she said
+resolutely and with dignity:
+
+"Go your way--through life with your Ovid, and your gods of love, but do
+not attempt to crush innocence under the wheels of your chariot."
+
+"Balbilla do you mean," asked the praetor with a loud laugh.  "She knows
+how to take care of herself and has too much spirit to let herself get
+entangled in erotics.  The little son of Venus has nothing to say to two
+people who are such good friends as she and I are."
+
+"May I believe you?"
+
+"My word for it, I ask nothing of her but a kind word," cried he, frankly
+offering his hand to his wife.  Lucilla only touched it lightly with her
+fingers and said:
+
+"Send me back to Rome.  I have an unutterable longing to see my children,
+particularly the boys."
+
+"It cannot be," said Verus.  "Not at present; but in a few weeks, I
+hope."
+
+"Why not sooner?"
+
+"Do not ask me."
+
+"A mother may surely wish to know why she is separated from her baby in
+the cradle."
+
+"That cradle is at present in your mother's house, and she is taking care
+of our little ones.  Have patience, a little longer for that which I am
+striving after, for you, and for me, and not last, for our son, is so
+great, so stupendously great and difficult that it might well outweigh
+years of longing."
+
+Verus spoke the last words in a low tone, but with a dignity which
+characterized him only in decisive moments, but his wife, even before he
+had done speaking, clasped his right-hand in both of hers and said in a
+low frightened voice:
+
+"You aim at the purple?"  He nodded assent.
+
+"That is what it means then!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Sabina and you--"
+
+"Not on that account only; she is hard and sharp to others, but to me she
+has shown nothing but kindness, ever since I was a boy."
+
+"She hates me."
+
+"Patience, Lucilla; patience!  The day is coming when the daughter of
+Nigrinus, the wife of Caesar, and the former Empress--but I will not
+finish.  I am, as you know, warmly attached to Sabina, and sincerely wish
+the Emperor a long life."
+
+"And he will adopt."
+
+"Hush!--he is thinking of it, and his wife wishes It."
+
+"Is it likely to happen soon?"
+
+"Who can tell at this moment what Caesar may decide on in the very next
+hour.  But probably his decision may be made on the thirtieth of
+December."
+
+"Your birthday."
+
+"He asked what day it was, and he is certainly casting my horoscope, for
+the night when my mother bore me--"
+
+"The stars then are to seal our fate?"
+
+"Not they alone.  Hadrian must also be inclined to read them in my
+favor."
+
+"How can I be of use to you?"
+
+"Show yourself what you really are in your intercourse with the Emperor"
+
+"I thank you for those words--and I beg you do not provoke me any more.
+If it might yet be something more than a mere post of honor to be the
+wife of Verus, I would not ask for the new dignity of becoming wife to
+Caesar."
+
+"I will not go into the town to-day; I will stay with you.  Now are you
+happy?"
+
+"Yes, yes," cried she, and she raised her arm to throw it round her
+husband's neck, but he held her aside and whispered:
+
+"That will do.  The idyllic is out of place in the race for the purple."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Titianus had ordered his charioteer to drive at once to Lochias.  The
+road led past the prefect's palace, his residence on the Bruchiom, and he
+paused there; for the letter which lay hidden in the folds of his toga,
+contained news, which, within a few hours, might put him under the
+necessity of not returning home till the following morning.  Without
+allowing himself to be detained by the officials, subalterns, or lictors,
+who were awaiting his return to make communications, or to receive his
+orders, he went straight through the ante-room and the large public rooms
+for men, to find his wife in the women's apartments which looked upon the
+garden.  He met her at the door of her room, for she had heard his step
+approaching and came out to receive him.
+
+"I was not mistaken," said the matron with sincere pleasure.  "How
+pleasant that you have been released so early to-day.  I did not expect
+you till supper was over."
+
+"I have come only to go again," replied Titianus, entering his wife's
+room.  "Have some bread brought to me and a cup of mixed wine; why--
+really!  here stands all I want ready as if I had ordered it.  You are
+right, I was with Sabina a shorter time than usual; but she exerted
+herself in that short time to utter as many sour words as if we had been
+talking for half a day.  And in five minutes I must quit you again, till
+when?--the gods alone know when I shall return.  It is hard even to speak
+the words, but all our trouble and care, and all poor Pontius' zeal and
+pains-taking labor are in vain."
+
+As he spoke the prefect threw himself on a couch; his wife handed him the
+refreshment he had asked for, and said, as she passed her hand over his
+grey hair:
+
+"Poor man!  Has Hadrian then determined after all to inhabit the
+Caesareum?"
+
+"No.  Leave us, Syra--you shall see directly.  Please read me Caesar's
+letter once more.  Here it is."  Julia unfolded the papyrus, which was of
+elegant quality, and began:
+
+"Hadrian to his friend Titianus, the Governor of Egypt.  The deepest
+secrecy--Hadrian greets Titianus, as he has so often done for years at
+the beginning of disagreeable business letters, and only with half his
+heart.  But to-morrow he hopes to greet the dear friend of his youth, his
+prudent vicegerent, not merely with his whole soul, but with hand and
+tongue.  And  "now to be more explicit, as follows: I come to-morrow
+morning, the fifteenth of December, towards evening, to Alexandria, with
+none but Antinous, the slave Mastor, and my private secretary, Phlegon.
+We land at Lochias, in the little harbor, and you will know my ship by a
+large silver star at the prow.  If night should fall before I arrive
+there, three red lanterns at the end of the mast shall inform you of the
+friend that is approaching.  I have sent home the learned and witty men
+whom you sent to meet me, in order to detain me, and gain time for the
+restoration of the old nest in which I had a fancy to roost with
+Minerva's birds--which have not, I hope, all been driven out of it--in
+order that Sabina and her following may not lack entertainment, nor the
+famous gentlemen themselves be unnecessarily disturbed in their labors.
+I need them not.  If perchance it was not you who sent them, I ask your
+pardon.  An error in this matter would certainly involve some
+humiliation, for it is easier to explain what has happened than to
+foresee what is to come.  Or is the reverse the truth?  I will indemnify
+the learned men for their useless journey by disputing this question with
+them and their associates in the Museum.  The rapid movement to which the
+philologer was prompted on my account will prolong his existence; he
+bristles with learning at the tip of every hair, and he sits still more
+than is good for him.
+
+"We shall arrive in modest disguise and will sleep at Lochias; you know
+that I have rested more than once on the bare earth, and, if need be, can
+sleep as well on a mat as on a couch.  My pillow follows at my heels--my
+big dog, which you know; and some little room, where I can meditate
+undisturbed on my designs for next year, can no doubt be found.
+
+"I entreat you to keep my secret strictly.  To none--man nor woman--and
+I beseech you as urgently as friend or Caesar ever besought a favor--let
+the least suspicion of my arrival be known.  Nor must the smallest
+preparation betray whom it is you receive.  I cannot command so dear a
+friend as Titianus, but I appeal to his heart to carry out my wishes.
+
+"I rejoice to see you again; what delight I shall find in the whirl of
+confusion that I hope to find at Lochias.  You shall take me to see the
+artists, who are, no doubt, swarming in the old castle, as the architect
+Claudius Venator from Rome, who is to assist Pontius with his advice.
+But this Pontius, who carried out such fine works for Herodes Atticus,
+the rich Sophist, met me at his house, and will certainly recognize me.
+Tell him, therefore, what I propose doing.  He is a serious and
+trustworthy man, not a chatterbox or scatter-brained simpleton who loses
+his head.  Thus you may take him into the secret, but not till my vessel
+is in sight.  May all be well with you."
+
+"Well, what do you say to that?"  asked Titianus, taking the letter from
+his wife's hand.  "Is it not more than vexatious--our work was going on
+so splendidly."
+
+"But," said Julia thoughtfully and with a meaning smile.  "Perhaps it
+might not have been finished in time.  As matters now stand it need not
+be complete, and Hadrian will see the good intention all the same.  I am
+glad about the letter, for it takes a great responsibility off your
+otherwise overloaded shoulders."
+
+"You always see the right side," cried the prefect.  "It is well that I
+came home, for I can await Caesar with a much lighter heart.  Let me lock
+up the letter, and then farewell.  This parting is for some hours from
+you, and from all peace for many days."
+
+Titianus gave her his hand.  She held it firmly and said:
+
+"Before you go I must confess to you that I am very proud."
+
+"You have every right to be."
+
+"But you have not said a word to me about keeping silence."
+
+"Because you have kept other tests--still, to be sure, you are a woman,
+and a very handsome one besides."
+
+"An old grandmother, with grey hair!"
+
+"And still more upright and more charming than a thousand of the most
+admired younger beauties."
+
+"You are trying to convert my pride into vanity, in my old age."
+
+"No, no!  I was only looking at you with an examining eye, as our talk
+led me to do, and I remembered that Sabina had lamented that handsome
+Julia was not looking well.  But where is there another woman of your age
+with such a carriage, such unwrinkled features, so clear a brow, such
+deep kind eyes, such beautifully-polished arms--"
+
+"Be quiet," exclaimed his wife.  "You make me blush."
+
+"And may I not be proud that a grandmother, who is a Roman, as my wife
+is, can find it so easy to blush?  You are quite different from other
+women."
+
+"Because you are different from other men."
+
+"You are a flatterer; since all our children have left us, it is as if we
+were newly married again."
+
+"Ah! the apple of discord is removed."
+
+"It is always over what he loves best that man is most prompt to be
+jealous.  But now, once more, farewell."
+
+Titianus kissed his wife's forehead and hurried towards the door; Julia
+called him back and said:
+
+"One thing at any rate we can do for Caesar.  I send food every day down
+to the architect at Lochias, and to-day there shall be three times the
+quantity."
+
+"Good; do so."
+
+"Farewell, then."
+
+"And we shall meet again, when it shall please the gods and the Emperor."
+
+                    ........................
+
+When the prefect reached the appointed spot, no vessel with a silver star
+was to be seen.
+
+The sun went down and no ship with three red lanterns was visible.
+
+The harbor-master, into whose house Titianus went, was told that he
+expected a great architect from Rome, who was to assist Pontius with his
+counsel in the works at Lochias, and he thought it quite intelligible
+that the governor should do a strange artist the honor of coming to meet
+him; for the whole city was well aware of the incredible haste and the
+lavish outlay of means that were being given to the restoration of the
+ancient palace of the Ptolemies as a residence for the Emperor.
+
+While he was waiting, Titianus remembered the young sculptor Pollux,
+whose acquaintance he had made, and his mother in the pretty little gate-
+house.  Well disposed towards them as he felt, he sent at once to old
+Doris, desiring her not to retire to rest early that evening, since he,
+the prefect, would be going late to Lochias.
+
+"Tell her, too, as from yourself and not from me," Titianus instructed
+the messenger, "that I may very likely look in upon her.  She may light
+up her little room and keep it in order."
+
+No one at Lochias had the slightest suspicion of the honor which awaited
+the old palace.
+
+After Verus had quitted it with his wife and Balbilla, and when he had
+again been at work for about an hour the sculptor Pollux came out of his
+nook, stretching himself, and called out to Pontius, who was standing on
+a scaffold:
+
+"I must either rest or begin upon something new.  One cures me of fatigue
+as much as the other.  Do you find it so?"
+
+"Yes, just as you do," replied the architect, as he continued to direct
+the work of the slave-masons, who were fixing a new Corinthian capital in
+the place of an old one which had been broken.
+
+"Do not disturb yourself," Pollux cried up to him.  "I only request you
+to tell my master Papias when he comes here with Gabinius, the dealer in
+antiquities, that he will find me at the rotunda that you inspected with
+me yesterday.  I am going to put the head on to the Berenice; my
+apprentice must long since have completed his preparations; but the
+rascal came into the world with two left-hands, and as he squints with
+one eye everything that is straight looks crooked to him, and--according
+to the law of optics--the oblique looks straight.  At any rate, he drove
+the peg which is to support the new head askew into the neck, and as no
+historian has recorded that Berenice ever had her neck on one side, like
+the old color-grinder there, I must see to its being straight myself.  In
+about half an hour, as I calculate, the worthy Queen will no longer be
+one of the headless women."
+
+"Where did you get the new head?"  asked Pontius.  "From the secret
+archives of my memory," replied Pollux.  "Have you seen it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And do you like it?"
+
+"Very much."
+
+"Then it is worthy to live," sang the sculptor, and, as he quitted the
+hall, he waved his left-hand to the architect, and with his right-hand
+stuck a pink, which he had picked in the morning, behind his ear.
+
+At the rotunda his pupil had done his business better than his master
+could have expected, but Pollux was by no means satisfied with his own
+arrangements.  His work, like several others standing on the same side of
+the platform, turned its back on the steward's balcony, and the only
+reason why he had parted with the portrait of Selene's mother, of which
+he was so fond, was that his playfellow might gaze at the face whenever
+she chose.  He found, however, to his satisfaction, that the busts were
+held in their places on their tall pedestals only by their own weight,
+and he then resolved to alter the historical order of the portrait-heads
+by changing their places, and to let the famous Cleopatra turn her back
+upon the palace, so that his favorite bust might look towards it.
+
+In order to carry out this purpose then and there, he called some slaves
+up to help him in the alteration.  This gave rise, more than once, to a
+warning cry, and the loud talking and ordering on this spot, for so many
+years left solitary and silent, attracted an inquirer, who, soon after
+the apprentice had begun his work, had shown herself on the balcony, but
+who had soon retreated after casting a glance at the dirty lad, splashed
+from head to foot with plaster.  This time, however, she remained to
+watch, following every movement of Pollux as he directed the slaves;
+though, all the time and whatever he was doing, he turned his back upon
+her.
+
+At last the portrait-head had found its right position, shrouded still in
+a cloth to preserve it from the marks of workmen's hands.  With a deep
+breath the artist turned full on the steward's house, and immediately a
+clear merry voice called out:
+
+"What, tall Pollux!  It really is tall Pollux; how glad I am!"
+
+With these words the girl on the balcony loudly clapped her hands; and as
+the sculptor hailed her in return, and shouted:
+
+"And you are little Arsinoe, eternal gods!  What the little thing has
+come to!"  She stood on tip-toe to seem taller, nodded at him pleasantly,
+and laughed out: "I have not done growing yet; but as for you, you look
+quite dignified with the beard on your chin, and your eagle's nose.
+Selene did not tell me till to-day that you were living down there with
+the others."
+
+The artist's eyes were fixed on the girl, as if spellbound.  There are
+poetic natures in which the imagination immediately transmutes every new
+thing that strikes the eyes or the intelligence, into a romance, or
+rapidly embodies it in verse; and Pollux, like many of his calling, could
+never set his eyes on a fine human form and face, without instantly
+associating them with his art.
+
+"A Galatea--a Galatea without an equal!" thought he, as he stood with his
+eyes fixed on Arsinoe's face and figure.  "Just as if she had this
+instant risen from the sea--that form is just as fresh, and joyous, and
+healthy; and her little curls wave back from her brow as if they were
+still floating on the water; and now as she stoops, how full and supple
+in every movement.  It is like a daughter of Nereus following the line of
+the as the waves as they rise into crests and dip again into watery
+valleys.  She is like Selene and her mother in the shape of her head and
+the Greek cut of her face, but the elder sister is like the statue of
+Prometheus before it had a soul, and Arsinoe is like the Master's work
+after the celestial fire coursed through her veins."
+
+The artist had felt and thought all this out in a few seconds, but the
+girl found her speechless admirer's silence too long, and exclaimed
+impatiently:
+
+"You have not yet offered me any proper greeting.  What are you doing
+down there?"
+
+"Look here," he replied, lifting the cloth from the portrait, which was a
+striking likeness.
+
+Arsinoe leaned far over the parapet of the balcony, shaded her eyes with
+her hand and was silent for more than a minute. Then she suddenly cried
+out loudly and exclaiming:
+
+"Mother--it is my mother!"  She flew into the room behind her.
+
+"Now she will call her father and destroy all poor Selene's comfort,"
+thought Pollux, as he pushed the heavy marble bust on which his gypsum
+head was fixed, into its right place.
+
+"Well, let him come.  We are the masters here now, and Keraunus dare not
+touch the Emperor's property."  He crossed his arms and stood gazing at
+the bust, muttering to himself:
+
+"Patchwork--miserable patchwork.  We are cobbling up a robe for the
+Emperor out of mere rags; we are upholsterers and not artists.   If it
+were only for Hadrian, and not for Diotima and her children, not another
+finger would I stir in the place."
+
+The path from the steward's residence led through some passages and up a
+few steps to the rotunda, on which the sculptor was standing, but in
+little more than a minute from Arsinoe's disappearance from the balcony
+she was by his side.  With a heightened color she pushed the sculptor
+away from his work and put herself in the place where he had been
+standing, to be able to gaze at her leisure at the beloved features.
+Then she exclaimed again:
+
+"It is mother--mother!" and the bright tears ran over her cheeks, without
+restraint from the presence of the artist, or the laborers and slaves
+whom she had flown past on her way, and who stared at her with as much
+alarm as if she were possessed.
+
+Pollux did not disturb her.  His heart was softened as he watched the
+tears running down the cheeks of this light-hearted child, and he could
+not help reflecting that goodness was indeed well rewarded when it could
+win such tender and enduring love as was cherished for the poor dead
+mother on the pedestal before him.
+
+After looking for some time at the sculptor's work Arsinoe grew calmer,
+and turning to Pollux she asked:
+
+"Did you make it?"
+
+"Yes," he replied, looking down.
+
+"And entirely from memory?"
+
+"To be sure."
+
+"Do you know what?"
+
+"Well."
+
+"This shows that the Sibyl at the festival of Adonis was right when she
+sang in the Jalemus that the gods did half the work of the artist."
+
+"Arsinoe!"  cried Pollux, for her words made him feel as if a hot spring
+were seething in his heart, and he gratefully seized her hand; but she
+drew it away, for her sister Selene had come out on the balcony and was
+calling her.
+
+It was for his elder playfellow and not for Arsinoe that Pollux had set
+his work in this place, but, just now, her gaze fell like a disturbing
+chill on his excited mood.
+
+"There stands your mother's portrait," he called up to the balcony in an
+explanatory tone, pointing to the bust.
+
+"I see it," she replied coldly.  "I will look at it presently more
+closely.  Come up Arsinoe, father wants to speak to you."
+
+Again Pollux stood alone.
+
+As Selene withdrew into the room, she gently shook her pale head, and
+said to herself:
+
+"'It was to be for me,' Pollux said; something for me, for once--and even
+this pleasure is spoilt."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The palace-steward, to whom Selene had called up his younger daughter,
+had just returned from the meeting of the citizens; and his old black
+slave, who always accompanied him when he went out, took the saffron-
+colored pallium from his shoulders, and from his head the golden circlet,
+with which he loved to crown his curled hair when he quitted the house.
+Keraunus still looked heated, his eyes seemed more prominent than usual
+and large drops of sweat stood upon his brow, when his daughter entered
+the room where he was.  He absently responded to Arsinoe's affectionate
+greeting with a few unmeaning words, and before making the important
+communication he had to disclose to his daughters, he walked up and down
+before them for some time, puffing out his fat cheeks and crossing his
+arms.  Selene was alarmed, and Arsinoe had long been out of patience,
+when at last he began:
+
+"Have you heard of the festivals which are to be held in Caesar's honor?"
+
+Selene nodded and her sister exclaimed:
+
+"Of course we have!  Have you secured places for us on the seats kept for
+the town council?"
+
+"Do not interrupt me," the steward crossly ordered his daughter.  "There
+is no question of staring at them.  All the citizens are required to
+allow their daughters to take part in the grand things that are to be
+carried out, and we all were asked how many girls we had."
+
+"And how are we to take part in the show?"  cried Arsinoe, joyfully
+clapping her hands.
+
+"I wanted to withdraw before the summons was proclaimed, but Tryphon, the
+shipwright, who has a workshop down by the King's Harbor, held me back
+and called out to the assembly that his sons said that I had two pretty
+young daughters.  Pray how did he know that?"
+
+With these words the steward lifted his grey brows and his face grew red
+to the roots of his hair.  Selene shrugged her shoulders, but Arsinoe
+said:
+
+"Tryphon's shipyard lies just below and we often pass it; but we do not
+know him or his sons.  Have you ever seen them Selene?  At any rate it is
+polite of him to speak of us as pretty."
+
+"Nobody need trouble themselves about your appearance unless they want to
+ask my permission to marry you," replied the steward with a growl.
+
+"And what did  you  say to  Tryphon?"  asked Selene.
+
+"I did as I was obliged.  Your father is steward of a palace which at
+present belongs to Rome and the Emperor; hence I must receive Hadrian as
+a guest in this, the dwelling of my fathers, and therefore I, less than
+any other citizen--cannot withhold my share in the honors which the city
+council has decreed shall be paid to him."
+
+"Then we really may," said Arsinoe, and she went up to her father to give
+him a coaxing pat.  But Keraunus was not in the humor to accept caresses;
+he pushed her aside with an angry: "Leave me alone," and then went on:
+
+"If Hadrian were to ask me 'Where are your daughters on the occasion of
+the festival?' and if I had to reply, 'They were not among the daughters
+of the noble citizens,' it would be an insult to Caesar, to whom in fact
+I feel very well disposed.  All this I had to consider, and I gave your
+names and promised to send you to the great Theatre to the assembly of
+young girls.  There you will be met by the noblest matrons and maidens of
+the city, and the first painters and sculptors will decide to what part
+of the performance your air and appearance are best fitted."
+
+"But, father," cried Selene, "we cannot show ourselves in such an
+assembly in our common garments, and where are we to find the money to
+buy new ones?"
+
+"We can quite well show ourselves by any other girls, in clean, white
+woollen dresses, prettily smartened with fresh ribbons," declared
+Arsinoe, interposing between her father and her sister.
+
+"It is not that which troubles me," replied the steward; "it is the
+costumes, the costumes!  It is only the daughters of the poorer citizens
+who will be paid by the council, and it would be a disgrace to be
+numbered among the poor--you understand me, children."
+
+"I will not take part in the procession," said Selene resolutely, but
+Arsinoe interrupted her.
+
+"It is inconvenient and horrible to be poor, but it certainly is no
+disgrace!  The most powerful Romans of ancient times, regarded it as
+honorable to die poor.  Our Macedonian descent remains to us even if the
+state should pay for our costumes."
+
+"Silence," cried the steward.  "This is not the first time that I have
+detected this low vein of feeling in you.  Even the noble may submit to
+the misfortunes entailed by poverty, but the advantages it brings with it
+he can never enjoy unless he resigns himself to being so no longer."
+
+It had cost the steward much trouble to give due expression to this idea,
+which he did not recollect to have heard from another, which seemed new
+to him, and which nevertheless fully represented what he felt; and he
+slowly sank, with all the signs of exhaustion, into a couch which formed
+a divan round a side recess in the spacious sitting-room.
+
+In this room Cleopatra might have held with Antony those banquets of
+which the unequalled elegance and refinement had been enhanced by every
+grace of art and wit.  On the very spot where Keraunus now reclined the
+dining-couch of the famous lovers had probably stood; for, though the
+whole hall had a carefully-laid pavement, in this recess there was a
+mosaic of stones of various colors of such beauty and delicacy of finish
+that Keraunus had always forbidden his children to step upon it.  This,
+it is true, was less out of regard for the fine work of art than because
+his father had always prohibited his doing so, and his father again
+before him.  The picture represented the marriage of Peleus and Thetis,
+and the divan only covered the outer border of the picture, which was
+decorated with graceful little Cupids.
+
+Keraunus desired his daughter to fetch him a cup of wine, but she mixed
+the juice of the grape with a judicious measure of water.  After he had
+half drunk the diluted contents of the goblet, with many faces of
+disgust, he said:
+
+"Would you like to know what each of your dresses will cost if it is to
+be in no respect inferior to those of the others?"
+
+"Well," said Arsinoe anxiously.
+
+"About seven hundred drachmae;--[$115 in 1880]--Philinus, the tailor, who
+is working for the theatre, tells me it will be impossible to do anything
+well for less."
+
+"And you are really thinking of such insane extravagance," cried Selene.
+"We have no money, and I should like to know the man who would lend us
+any more."
+
+The steward's younger daughter looked doubtfully at the tips of her
+fingers and was silent, but her eyes swimming in tears betrayed what she
+felt.  Keraunus was rejoiced at the silent consent which Arsinoe seemed
+to accord to his desire to let her take part in the display at whatever
+cost.  He forgot that he had just reproached her for her low sentiments,
+and said:
+
+"The little one always feels what is right.  As for you, Selene, I beg
+you to reflect seriously that I am your father, and that I forbid you to
+use this admonishing tone to me; you have accustomed yourself to it with
+the children and to them you may continue to use it.  Fourteen hundred
+drachmae certainly, at the first thought of it, seems a very large sum,
+but if the material and the trimming required are bought with judgment,
+after the festival we may very likely sell it back to the man with
+profit."
+
+"With profit!"  cried Selene bitterly, "not half is to be got for old
+things-not a quarter!  And even if you turn me out of the house--I will
+not help to drag us into deeper wretchedness; I will take no part in the
+performances."
+
+The steward did not redden this time, he was not even violent; on the
+contrary, he simply raised his head and compared his daughters as they
+stood--not without an infusion of satisfaction.  He was accustomed to
+love his daughters in his own way, Selene as the useful one, and Arsinoe
+as the beauty; and as on this occasion all he cared for was to satisfy
+his vanity, and as this end could be attained through his younger
+daughter alone, he said:
+
+"Stay with the children then, for all I care.  We will excuse you on the
+score of weak health, and certainly, child, you do look extremely pale.
+I would far rather find the means for the little one only."
+
+Two sweet dimples again began to show in Arsinoe's cheeks, but Selene's
+lips were as white as her bloodless cheeks as she exclaimed:
+
+"But, father--father!  neither the baker nor the butcher has had a coin
+paid him for the last two months, and you will squander seven hundred
+drachmae!"
+
+"Squander!"  cried Keraunus indignantly, but still in a tone of disgust
+rather than anger.  "I have already forbidden you to speak to me in that
+way.  The richest of our noble youths will take part in the games;
+Arsinoe is handsome and perhaps one of them may choose her for his wife.
+And do you call it squandering, when a father does his utmost to find a
+suitable husband for his daughter.  After all, what do you know of what
+I may possess?"
+
+"We have nothing, so I cannot know of it," cried the girl beside herself.
+
+"Indeed!"  drawled Keraunus with an embarrassed smile.  "And is that
+nothing which lies in the cup board there, and stands on the cornice
+shelf?  For your sakes I will part with these--the onyx fibula, the
+rings, the golden chaplet, and the girdle of course."
+
+"They are of mere silver-gilt!"  Selene interrupted, ruthlessly.
+"All my grandfather's real gold you parted with when my mother died."
+
+She had to be cremated and buried as was due to our rank," answered
+Keraunus; "but I will not think now of those melancholy days."
+
+"Nay, do think of them, father."
+
+"Silence!  All that belongs to my own adornment of course I cannot do
+without, for I must be prepared to meet Caesar in a dress befitting my
+rank; but the little bronze Eros there must be worth something,
+Plutarch's ivory cup, which is beautifully carved, and above all, that
+picture; its former possessor was convinced that it had been painted by
+Apelles himself herein Alexandria.  You shall know at once what these
+little things are worth, for, as the gods vouchsafed, on my way home I
+met, here in the palace, Gabinius of Nicaea, the dealer in such objects.
+He promised me that when he had done his business with the architect he
+would come to me to inspect my treasures, and to pay money down for
+anything that might suit him.  If my Apelles pleases him, he will give
+ten talents for that alone, and if he buys it for only the half or even
+the tenth of that sum, I will make you enjoy yourself for once, Selene."
+
+"We will see," said the pale girl, shrugging her shoulders, and her
+sister exclaimed:
+
+"Show him the sword too, that you always declared belonged to Caesar, and
+if he gives you a good sum for it you will buy me a gold bracelet."
+
+"And Selene shall have one, too.  But I have the very slenderest
+hopes of the sword, for a connoisseur would hardly pronounce it genuine.
+But I have other things, many others.  Hark! that is Gabinius, no doubt.
+Quick, Selene, throw the chiton round me again.  My chaplet, Arsinoe.
+A well-to-do man always gets a higher price than a poor one.  I have
+ordered the slave to await him in the ante-room; it is always done in
+the best houses."
+
+The curiosity dealer was a small, lean man, who, by prudence and good
+luck, had raised himself to be one of the most esteemed of his class and
+a rich man.  Having matured his knowledge by industry, and experience, he
+knew better than any man how to distinguish what was good from what was
+indifferent or bad, what was genuine from what was spurious.  No one had
+a keener eye; but he was abrupt in his dealings with those from whom he
+had nothing to gain.  In circumstances where there was profit in view, he
+could, to be sure, be polite even to subservience and show inexhaustible
+patience.  He commanded himself so far as to listen with an air of
+conviction to the steward as he told him in a condescending tone that he
+was tired of his little possessions, that he could just as well keep them
+as part with them; he merely wanted to show them to him as a connoisseur
+and would only part with them if a good round sum were offered for what
+was in fact idle capital.  One piece after another passed through the
+dealer's slender fingers, or was placed before him that be might
+contemplate it; but the man spoke not, and only shook his head as he
+examined every fresh object.  And when Keraunus told him whence this or
+that specimen of his treasures had been obtained, he only murmured--
+"Indeed" or "Really,"
+
+"Do you think so?"  After the last piece of property had passed through
+his hands, the steward asked:
+
+"Well, what do you think of them?"
+
+The beginning of the sentence was spoken confidently, the end almost in
+fear, for the dealer only smiled and shook his head again before he said:
+
+"There are some genuine little things among them, but nothing worth
+speaking of.  I advise you to keep them, because you have an affection
+for them, while I could get very little by them."
+
+Keraunus avoided looking towards Selene, whose large eyes, full of dread,
+had been fixed on the dealer's lips; but Arsinoe, who had followed his
+movements with no less attention, was less easily discouraged, and
+pointing to her father's Apelles, she said:  And that picture, is that
+worth nothing?"
+
+"It grieves me that I cannot tell so fair a damsel that it is inestimably
+valuable," said the dealer, stroking his gray whiskers.  "But we have
+here only a very feeble copy.  The original is in the Villa belonging to
+Phinius on the Lake of Larius, and which he calls Cothurnus.  I have no
+use whatever for this piece."
+
+"And this carved cup?"  asked  Keraunus.  "It came from among the
+possessions of Plutarch, as I can prove, and it is said to have been the
+gift of the Emperor Trajan."
+
+"It is the prettiest thing in your collection," replied Gabinius; "but it
+is amply paid for with four hundred drachmae."
+
+"And this cylinder from Cyprus, with the elegant incised work?"  The
+steward was about to take up the polished crystal, but his hand was
+trembling with agitation and pushed instead of lifting it from the table.
+It rolled away on the floor and across the smooth mosaic picture as far
+as the couches.  Keraunus was about to stoop to pick it up, but his
+daughters both held him back, and Selene cried out:
+
+"Father, you must not; the physician strictly forbade it."
+
+While the steward pushed the girls away grumbling, the dealer had gone
+down on his knees to pick up the cylinder, but it seemed to cost the
+slightly-built man much less effort to stoop than to get up again, for
+some minutes had elapsed before he once more stood on his feet, in front
+of Keraunus.  His countenance had put on an expression of eager
+attention, and he once more took up the painting attributed to Apelles,
+sat down with it on the couch, and appeared wholly absorbed in the
+contemplation of the picture, which hid his face from the bystanders.
+
+But his eye was not resting on the work before him, but on the marriage-
+scene at his feet, in which he detected each moment some fresh and unique
+beauty.  As the dealer sat there for some minutes with the little picture
+on his knee, the steward's face brightened, Selene drew a deep breath,
+and Arsinoe went up to her father to cling to his arm and whisper in his
+ear:
+
+"Do not let him have the Apelles cheap--remember my bracelet."
+
+Gabinius now rose, glanced at the various objects lying on the table and
+said in a much shorter and more business-like tone than before:
+
+"For all these things I can give you--wait a minute--twenty-seventy-four
+hundred--four hundred and fifty--I can give you six hundred and fifty
+drachmae, not a sesterce more!"
+
+"You are joking," cried Keraunus.
+
+"Not a sesterce more," answered the other coldly.  "I do not want to make
+anything, but you as a business man will understand that I do not wish to
+buy with a certain prospect of loss.  As regards the Apelles--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"It may be of some value to me, but only under certain conditions.  The
+case is quite different as regards buying pictures.  Your two young
+damsels know of course that my line of business leads me to admire and
+value all that is beautiful, but still I must request you to leave me
+alone with your father for a little while.  I want to speak with him
+about this curious painting."  Keraunus signed to his daughters, who
+immediately left the room.  Before the door was closed upon them the
+dealer called after them:
+
+"It is already growing dark, might I ask you to send me as bright a light
+as possible by one of your slaves."
+
+"What about the picture?"  asked Keraunus.
+
+"Till the light is brought let us talk of something else," said Gabinius.
+
+"Then take a seat on the couch," said Keraunus.  "You will be doing me a
+pleasure and perhaps yourself as well."
+
+As soon as the two men were seated on the divan, Gabinius began:
+
+"Those little things which we have collected with particular liking, we
+do not readily part with--that I know by long experience.  Many a man who
+has come into some property after he has sold all his little antiquities
+has offered me ten times the price I have paid him to get them back
+again, generally in vain, unfortunately.  Now, what is true of others is
+true of you, and if you had not been in immediate need of money you would
+hardly have offered me these things."
+
+"I must entreat you," began the steward, but the dealer interrupted him,
+saying:
+
+"Even the richest are sometimes in want of ready money; no one knows that
+better than I, for I--I must confess--have large means at my command.
+Just at present it would be particularly easy for me to free you from all
+embarrassment."
+
+"There stands my Apelles," exclaimed the steward.  "It is yours if you
+make a bid that suits me."
+
+"The light--here comes the light!"  exclaimed Gabinius, taking from the
+slave's hand the three-branched lamp which Selene had hastily supplied
+with a fresh wick, and he placed it, while he murmured to Keraunus, "By
+your leave," down on the centre of the mosaic.  The steward looked at the
+man on his left hand, with puzzled inquiry, but Gabinius heeded him not
+but went down on his knees again, felt the mosaic over with his hand, and
+devoured the picture of the marriage of Peleus with his eyes.
+
+"Have you lost anything?"  asked Keraunus.
+
+"No-nothing whatever.  There in the corner--now I am satisfied.  Shall I
+place the lamp there, on the table?  So--and now to return to business."
+
+"I beg to do so, but I may as well begin by telling you that in my case
+it is a question not of drachmae but of Attic talents."--[ The Attic
+talent was worth about L200, or $1000 dollars in the 1880 exchange rate.]
+
+"That is a matter of course, and I will offer you five; that is to say a
+sum for which you could buy a handsome roomy house."
+
+Once more the blood mounted to the steward's head; for a few minutes he
+could not utter a word, for his heart thumped violently; but presently be
+so far controlled himself as to be able to answer.  This time at any
+rate, he was determined to seize Fortune by the forelock and not to be
+taken advantage of, so he said:
+
+"Five talents will not do; bid higher."
+
+"Then let us say six."
+
+"If you say double that we are agreed."
+
+"I cannot put it beyond ten talents; why, for that sum you might build a
+small palace."
+
+"I stand out for twelve."
+
+"Well, be it so, but not a sesterce more."
+
+"I cannot bear to part with my splendid work of art," sighed Keraunus.
+"But I will take your offer, and give you my Apelles."
+
+"It is not that picture I am dealing for," replied Gabinius.  "It is of
+trifling value, and you may continue to enjoy the possession of it.  It
+is another work of art in this room that I wish to have, and which has
+hitherto seemed to you scarcely worth notice.  I have discovered it, and
+one of my rich customers has asked me to find him just such a thing."
+
+"I do not know what it is."
+
+"Does everything in this room belong to you?"
+
+"Whom else should it belong to?"
+
+"Then you may dispose of it as you please?"
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+"Very well, then--the twelve Attic talents which I offer you are to be
+paid for the picture that is under our feet."
+
+"The mosaic! that?  It belongs to the palace."
+
+"It belongs to your residence, and that, I heard you say yourself, has
+been inhabited for more than a century by your forefathers.  I know the
+law; it pronounces that everything which has remained in undisputed
+possession in one family, for a hundred years, becomes their property."
+
+"This mosaic belongs to the palace."
+
+"I assert the contrary.  It is an integral portion of your family
+dwelling, and you may freely dispose of it."
+
+"It belongs to the palace."
+
+"No, and again no; you are the owner.  Tomorrow morning early you shall
+receive twelve Attic talents in gold, and, with the help of my son, later
+in the day I will take up the picture, pack it, and when it grows dark,
+carry it away.  Procure a carpet to cover the empty place for the
+present.  As to the secrecy of the transaction--I must of course insist
+on it as strongly--and more so--than yourself."
+
+"The mosaic belongs to the palace," cried the steward, this time in a
+louder voice, "Do you hear? it belongs to the palace, and whoever dares
+touch it, I will break his bones."
+
+As he spoke Keraunus stood up, his huge chest panting, his cheeks and
+forehead dyed purple, and his fist, which he held in the dealer's face,
+was trembling.  Gabinius drew back startled, and said:
+
+"Then you will not have the twelve talents!"
+
+"I will--I will!"  gasped Keraunus, "I will show you how I beat those
+who take me for a rogue.  Out of my sight, villain, and let me hear not
+another word about the picture, and the robbery in the dark, or I will
+send the prefect's lictors after you and have you thrown into irons, you
+rascally thief!"
+
+Gabinius hurried to the door, but he there turned round once more to the
+groaning and gasping colossus, and cried out, as he stood on the
+threshold:
+
+"Keep your rubbish!  we shall have more to say to each other yet."
+
+When Selene and Arsinoe returned to the sitting-room they found their
+father breathing hard and sitting on the couch, with his head drooping
+forward.  Much alarmed, they went close up to him, but he exclaimed quite
+coherently:
+
+"Water--a drink of water!--the thief!--the scoundrel!"
+
+Though hardly pressed, it had not cost him a struggle or a pang to refuse
+what would have placed him and his children in a position of ease; and
+yet he would not have hesitated to borrow it, aye, or twice the sum, from
+rich or poor, though he knew full certainly that he would never be in a
+position to restore it.  Nor was he even proud of what he had done; it
+seemed to him quite natural in a Macedonian noble.  It was to him
+altogether out of the pale of possibility that he should entertain the
+dealer's proposition for an instant.
+
+But where was he to get the money for Arsinoe's outfit?  how could he
+keep the promise given at the meeting?
+
+He lay meditating on the divan for an hour; then he took a wax tablet out
+of a chest and began to write a letter on it to the prefect.  He intended
+to offer the precious mosaic picture which had been discovered in his
+abode, to Titianus for the Emperor, but he did not bring his composition
+to an end, for he became involved in high-flown phrases.  At last he
+doubted whether it would do at all, flung the unfinished letter back into
+the chest, and disposed himself to sleep.
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+A well-to-do man always gets a higher price than a poor one
+I must either rest or begin upon something new
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR, Part 1.
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 3.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+While anxiety and trouble were brooding over the steward's dwelling,
+while dismay and disappointment were clouding the souls of its
+inhabitants, the hall of the Muses was merry with feasting and laughter.
+
+Julia, the prefect's wife, had supplied the architect at Lochias with a
+carefully-prepared meal,--sufficient to fill six hungry maws, and
+Pontius' slave--who had received it on its arrival and had unpacked it
+dish after dish, and set them out on the humblest possible table had then
+hastened to fetch his master to inspect all these marvels of the cook's
+art.  The architect shook his head as he contemplated the superabundant
+blessing, and muttered to himself:
+
+"Titianus must take me for a crocodile, or rather for two crocodiles,"
+and he went to the sculptor's little tabernacle, where Papias the master
+was also, to invite the two men to share his supper.
+
+Besides them he asked two painters, and the chief mosaic worker of the
+city, who all day long had been busied in restoring the old and faded
+pictures on the ceilings and pavements, and under the influence of good
+wine and cheerful chat they soon emptied the dishes and bowls and
+trenchers.  A man who for several hours has been using his hands or his
+mind, or both together, waxes hungry, and all the artists whom Pontius
+had brought together at Lochias had now been working for several days
+almost to the verge of exhaustion.  Each had done his best, in the first
+place, no doubt, to give satisfaction to Pontius, whom all esteemed, and
+to himself; but also in the hope of giving proof of his powers to the
+Emperor and of showing him how things could be done in Alexandria.  When
+the dishes had been removed and the replete feasters had washed and dried
+their hands, they filled their cups out of a jar of mixed wine, of which
+the dimensions answered worthily to the meal they had eaten.  One of the
+painters then proposed that they should hold a regular drinking-bout, and
+elect Papias, who was as well known as a good table orator as he was as
+an artist, to be the leader of the feast.  However, the master declared
+that he could not accept the honor, for that it was due to the worthiest
+of their company; to the man namely, who, only a few days since, had
+entered this empty palace and like a second Deucalion had raised up
+illustrious artists, such as he then saw around him in great numbers, and
+skilled workmen by hundreds, not out of plastic stone but out of nothing.
+And then--while declaring that he understood the use of the hammer and
+chisel better than that of the tongue, and that he had never studied the
+art of making speeches--he expressed his wish that Pontius would lead the
+revel, in the most approved form.
+
+But he was not allowed to get to the end of this evidence of his skill,
+for Euphorion the door-keeper of the palace, Euphorion the father of
+Pollux, ran hastily into the hall of the Muses with a letter in his hand
+which he gave to the architect.
+
+"To be read without an instant's delay," he added, bowing with theatrical
+dignity to the assembled artists.  "One of the prefect's lictors brought
+this letter, which, if my wishes be granted, brings nothing that is
+unwelcome.  Hold your noise you little blackguards or I will be the death
+of you."
+
+These words, which so far as the tone was concerned, formed a somewhat
+inharmonious termination to a speech intended for the ears of great
+artists, were addressed to his wife's four-footed Graces who had followed
+him against his wish, and were leaping round the table barking for the
+slender remains of the consumed food.
+
+Pontius was fond of animals and had made friends with the old woman's
+pets, so, as he opened the prefect's letter, he said:
+
+"I invite the three little guests to the remains of our feast.  Give them
+anything that is fit for them, Euphorion, and whatever seems to you most
+suitable to your own stomach you may put into it."
+
+While the architect first rapidly glanced through the letter and then
+read it carefully, the singer had collected a variety of good morsels for
+his wife's favorites on a plate, and finally carried the last remaining
+pasty, with the dish on which it reposed, to the vicinity of his own
+hooked nose.
+
+"For men or for dogs?"  he asked his son, as he pointed to it with a
+rigid finger.
+
+"For the gods!"  replied  Pollux.  "Take it to mother; she will like to
+eat ambrosia for once."
+
+"A jolly evening to you!"  cried the singer, bowing to the artists who
+were emptying their cups, and he quitted the hall with his pasty and his
+dogs.  Before he had fairly left the hall with his long strides, Papias,
+whose speech had been interrupted, once more raised his wine-cup and
+began again:
+
+"Our Deucalion, our more than Deucalion--"
+
+"Pardon me," interrupted Pontius.  "If I once more stop your discourse
+which began so promisingly; this letter contains important news and our
+revels must be over for the night.  We must postpone our symposium and
+your drinking-speech."
+
+"It was not a drinking-speech, for if ever there was a moderate man--"
+Papias began.  But Pontius stopped him again, saying:
+
+"Titianus writes me word that he proposes coming to Lochias this evening.
+He may arrive at any moment; and not alone, but with my fellow-artist,
+Claudius Venator from Rome, who is to assist me with his advice."
+
+"I never even heard his name," said Papias, who was wont to trouble
+himself as little about the persons as about the works of other artists.
+
+"I wonder at that," said Pontius, closing the double tablets which
+announced the Emperor's advent.
+
+"Can he do anything?"  asked Pollux.
+
+"More than any one of us," replied Pontius.  "He is a mighty man."
+
+"That is splendid!"  exclaimed Pollux.  "I like to see great men.  When
+one looks me in the eye I always feel as if some of his superabundance
+overflowed into me, and irresistibly I draw myself up and think how fine
+it would be if one day I might reach as high as that man's chin."
+
+"Beware of morbid ambition," said Papias to his pupil in a warning voice.
+"It is not the man who stands on tiptoe, but he who does his duty
+diligently, that can attain anything great."
+
+"He honestly does his," said the architect rising, and he laid his hand
+on the young sculptor's shoulder.  "We all do; to-morrow by sunrise each
+must be at his post again.  For my colleague's sake it will be well that
+you should all be there in good time."
+
+The artists rose, expressing their thanks and regrets.  "You will not
+escape the continuation of this evening's entertainment," cried one of
+the painters, and Papias, as he parted from Pontius, said:
+
+"When we next meet I will show you what I understand by a drinking-
+speech.  It will do perhaps for your Roman guest.  I am curious to hear
+what he will say about our Urania.  Pollux has done his share of the work
+very well, and I have already devoted an hour's work to it, which has
+improved it.  The more humble our material, the better I shall be pleased
+if the work satisfies Caesar; he himself has tried his hand at
+sculpture."
+
+"If only Hadrian could hear that!"  cried one of the painters.  "He likes
+to think himself a great artist--one of the foremost of our time.  It is
+said that he caused the life of the great architect, Apollodorus--who
+carried out such noble works for Trajan--to be extinguished--and why?
+because formerly that illustrious man had treated the imperial bungler as
+a mere dabbler, and would not accept his plan for the temple of Venus at
+Rome."
+
+"Mere talk!" answered Pontius to this accusation.  "Apollodorus died in
+prison, but his incarceration had little enough to do with the Emperor's
+productions--excuse me, gentlemen, I must once more look through the
+sketches and plans."
+
+The architect went away, but Pollux continued the conversation that had
+been begun by saying:
+
+"Only I cannot understand how a man who practises so many arts at once
+as Hadrian does, and at the same time looks after the state and its
+government, who is a passionate huntsman and who dabbles in every kind
+of miscellaneous learning, contrives, when he wants to practise one
+particular form of art, to recall all his five senses into the nest from
+which he has let them fly, here, there, and everywhere.  The inside
+of his head must be like that salad-bowl--which we have reduced to
+emptiness--in which Papias discovered three sorts of fish, brown and
+white meat, oysters and five other substances."
+
+"And who can deny," added Papias, "that if talent is the father, and meat
+the mother of all productiveness, practice must be the artist's teacher!
+Since Hadrian took to sculpture and painting it has become the universal
+fashion here to practise these arts, and among the wealthier youth who
+come to my workroom, many have very good abilities; but not one of them
+brings anything to any good issue, because so much of their time is taken
+up by the gymnasium, the bath, the quail-fights, the suppers, and I know
+not what besides, so that they do nothing by way of practice."
+
+"True," said a painter.  "Without the  restraint and worry of
+apprenticeship no one can ever rise to happy and independent
+creativeness; and in the schools of rhetoric or in hunting or fighting no
+one can study drawing.  It is not till a pupil has learned to sit steady
+and worry himself over his work for six hours on end that I begin to
+believe he will ever do any good work.  Have you any of you seen the
+Emperor's work?"
+
+"I have," answered a mosaic worker.  "Many years ago Hadrian sent a
+picture to me that he had painted; I was to make a mosaic from it.
+It was a fruit piece.  Melons, gourds, apples, and green leaves.  The
+drawing was but so-so, and the color impossibly vivid, still the
+composition was pleasing from its solidity and richness.  And after all,
+when one sees it, one cannot but feel that such superfluity is better
+than meagreness and feebleness.  The larger fruits, especially under the
+exuberant sappy foliage, were so huge that they might have been grown in
+the garden of luxury itself, still the whole had a look of reality.  I
+mitigated the colors somewhat in my transcript; you may still see a copy
+of the picture at my house, it hangs in the studio where my men draw.
+Nealkes, the rich hanging-maker, has had a tapestry woven from it which
+Pontius proposes to use as a hanging for a wall of the work-room, but I
+have made a fine frame on purpose for it."
+
+"Say rather for its designer."
+
+"Or yet rather," added the most loquacious of the painters, "for the
+visit he may possibly pay your workshops."
+
+"I only wish the Emperor may come to ours too!  I should like to sell him
+my picture of Alexander saluted by the priests in the temple of Jupiter
+Ammon."
+
+"I hope that when you agree about the price you will remember we are
+partners," said his fellow-artist smugly.
+
+"I will follow your example strictly," replied the other.
+
+"Then you will  certainly not be a loser," cried Papias, "for Eustorgius
+is fully aware of the worth of his works.  And if Hadrian is to order
+works from every master whose art he dabbles in, he will require a fleet
+on purpose to carry his purchases to Rome."
+
+"It is said," continued Eustorgius, laughing, "that he is a painter among
+poets, a sculptor among painters, an astronomer among musicians, and a
+sophist among artists--that is to say, that he pursues every art and
+science with some success as his secondary occupation."
+
+As he spoke the last words Pontius returned to the table where the
+artists were standing round the winejar; he had heard the painter's last
+remark and interrupted him by saying:
+
+"But my friend you forget that he is a monarch among monarchs--and not
+merely among those of today--in the fullest meaning of the word.  Each of
+us separately can produce something better and more perfect in his own
+line; but how great is the man who by earnestness and skill can even
+apprehend everything that the mind has ever been able to conceive of, or
+the creative spirit of the artist to embody!  I know him, and I know that
+he loves a really thorough master, and tries to encourage him with
+princely liberality.  But his ears are everywhere, and he promptly
+becomes the implacable enemy of those who provoke his resentment.  So
+bridle your restive Alexandrian tongues, and let me tell you that my
+colleague from Rome is in the closest intimacy with Hadrian.  He is of
+the same age, resembles him greatly, and repeats to him everything that
+he hears said about him.  So cease talking about Caesar and pass no
+severer judgments on dilettanti in the purple than on your wealthy
+pupils, who paint and chisel for the mere love of it, and for whom you
+find it so easy to lisp out 'charming,' or 'wonderfully pretty,' or
+'remarkably nice.'  Take my warning in good part, you know I mean it
+well."
+
+He spoke the last words with a cordial, manly feeling, of which his voice
+was peculiarly capable, and which was always certain to secure him the
+confidence even of the recalcitrant.
+
+The artists exchanged greetings and hand-shakings and left the hall; a
+slave carried away the wine-jar and wiped the table, on which Pontius
+proceeded to lay out his sketches and plans.  But he was not alone, for
+Pollux was soon at his side, and with a comical expression of pathos and
+laying his finger on his nose, he said:
+
+"I have come out of my cage to say something more to you."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"The hour is approaching when I may hope to repay the beneficent deeds,
+which, at various times, you have done to my interior.  My mother will
+to-morrow morning, set before you that dish of cabbage.  It could not be
+done sooner, because the only perfect sausage-maker, the very king of his
+trade, prepares these savory cylinders only once a week.  A few hours ago
+he completed the making of the sausages, and to-morrow morning my mother
+will warm up for our breakfasts the noble mess, which she is preparing
+for us this evening--for, as I have told you, it is in its warmed-up
+state that it is the ideal of its kind.  What will follow by way of
+sweets we shall owe again to my mother's art; but the cheering and
+invigorating element--I mean the wine that I drives dull care away, we
+owe to my sister."
+
+"I will come," said Pontius, "if my guest leaves me an hour free, and I
+shall enjoy the excellent dish.  But what does a gay bird like you know
+of dull care?"
+
+"The words fit into the metre," replied Pollux.  "I inherit from my
+father--who, when he is not gate-keeping, sings and recites--
+a troublesome tendency whenever anything incites me to drift into
+rhythm."
+
+"But to-day you have been more silent than usual, and yet you seemed to
+me to be extraordinarily content.  Not your face only, but your whole
+length--a good measure--from the sole of your foot to the crown of your
+head was like a brimming cask of satisfaction."
+
+"Well, there is much that is lovely in this world!"  cried Pollux,
+stretching himself comfortably and lifting his arms with his hands
+clasped far above his head towards heaven.
+
+"Has anything specially pleasant happened to you?"
+
+"There is no need for that!  Here I live in excellent company, the work
+progresses, and--well, why should I deny it?  There was something
+specially to mark to-day; I met an old acquaintance again."
+
+"An old one?"
+
+"I have already known her sixteen years; but when I first saw her she was
+in swaddling clothes."
+
+"Then this venerable damsel friend is more than sixteen, perhaps
+seventeen!  Is Eros the friend of the happy, or does happiness only
+follow in his train?"  As the architect thoughtfully said these words to
+himself, Pollux listened attentively to a noise outside, and said:
+
+"Who can be passing out there at this hour?  Do you not hear the bark of
+a big dog mingle with the snapping of the three Graces?"
+
+"It is Titianus conducting the architect from Rome," replied Pontius
+excitedly.
+
+"I will go to meet him.  But one thing more my friend, you too have an
+Alexandrian tongue.  Beware of laughing at the Emperor's artistic efforts
+in the presence of this Roman.  I repeat it: the man who is now coming is
+superior to us all, and there is nothing more repellant to me than when a
+small man assumes a strutting air of importance because he fancies he has
+discovered in some great man a weak spot where his own little body
+happens to be sound.  The artist I am expecting is a grand man, but the
+Emperor Hadrian is a grander.  Now retire behind your screens, and
+tomorrow morning I will be your guest."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Pontius threw his pallium over the chiton he commonly wore at his work
+and went forward to meet the sovereign of the world, whose arrival had
+been announced to him in the prefect's letter.  He was perfectly calm,
+and if his heart beat a little faster than usual, it was only because he
+was pleased once more to meet the wonderful man whose personality had
+made a deep impression on him before.
+
+In the happy consciousness of having done all that lay in his power and
+of deserving no blame, he went through the ante-chambers and chief
+entrance of the palace into the fore-court, where a crowd of slaves were
+busied by torch-light in laying new marble slabs.  Neither these workmen
+nor their overseers had paid any heed to the barking of the dogs and the
+loud talking which had for some little time been audible in the vicinity
+of the gate-keeper's lodge; for a special rate of payment had been
+promised to the laborers and their foremen if they should have finished a
+set piece of the new pavement by a certain hour, to the satisfaction of
+the architect.  No one who heard the deep man's-voice ring through the
+court from the doorway guessed to whom it belonged.
+
+The Emperor had been delayed by adverse winds and had not run into the
+harbor till a little before midnight.
+
+Titianus, who was watching for him, he greeted as an old friend with
+heartfelt warmth, and with him and Antinous he stepped into the prefect's
+chariot, while Phlegon the secretary, Hermogenes his physician, and
+Mastor with the luggage, among which were their campbeds, were to follow
+in another vehicle.  The harbor watchmen hastened to array themselves
+indignantly to oppose the chariot, as it rolled noisily along the street,
+and the huge dog that destroyed the peace of the night with its baying;
+but as soon as they recognized Titianus they respectfully made way.  The
+gate-keeper and his wife, obedient to the prefect's warning, had remained
+up, and as soon as the singer heard the chariot approaching which bore
+the Emperor, he hastened to open the palace-gates.  The broken-up
+pavement and the swarms of men engaged in repairing it, obliged Titianus
+and his companions to quit the chariot here and to pass close to the
+little gate-house.  Hadrian, whose observation nothing ever escaped which
+came in his way and seemed worth noticing, stood still before Euphorion's
+door and looked into the comfortable little room, with its decoration of
+flowers and birds and the statue of Apollo; while dame Doris in her
+newest garments, stood on the threshold to watch for the prefect.  And
+Titianus greeted her warmly, for he was wont whenever he came to Lochias
+to exchange a few merry or wise words with her.  The little dogs had
+already crept into their basket, but as soon as they caught sight of a
+strange dog they rushed past their mistress into the open air, and dame
+Doris found herself obliged, while she returned the kindly greeting of
+her patron, to shout at Euphrosyne, Thalia and Aglaia more than once by
+their pretty names.
+
+"Splendid, splendid!" cried Hadrian, pointing into the little house.
+"An idyl, a perfect idyl.  Who would have expected to find such a smiling
+nook of peace in the most restless and busy town in the empire."
+
+"I and Pontius were equally surprised at this little nest, and we
+therefore left it untouched," said the prefect.
+
+"Intelligent people understand each other, and I owe you thanks for
+preserving this little home," answered the Emperor.  "What an omen, what
+a favorable, in every way favorable augury, it offers me.  The Graces
+receive me here into these old walls, Aglaia, Thalia and Euphrosyne!"
+
+"Good luck to you, Master," old Doris called out to the prefect.
+
+"We come late," said Hadrian.
+
+"That does not matter," said  the old woman.  "Here at Lochias for the
+last week we have quite forgotten to distinguish day from night, and a
+blessing can never come too late."
+
+"I have brought with me to-day an illustrious guest," said Titianus.
+"The great Roman architect Claudius Venator.  He only disembarked a few
+minutes since."
+
+"Then a draught of wine will do him good.  We have in the house some good
+white Mareotic from my daughter's garden by the lake.  If your friend
+will do us humble folks so much honor, I beg he will step into our room;
+it is clean, is it not sir?  and the cup I will give him to drink it out
+of would not disgrace the Emperor himself.  Who knows what you will find
+up in the midst of all the muddle yonder?"
+
+"I will accept your invitation with pleasure," answered Hadrian.  "I can
+see by your face that you have a pleasure in entertaining us, and any one
+might envy you your little house."
+
+"When the climbing-rose and the honey-suckle are out it is much
+prettier," said Doris, as she filled the cup.  "Here is some water for
+mixing."
+
+The Emperor took the cup carved by Pollux, looked at it with admiration,
+and before putting it to his lips said:
+
+"A masterpiece, dame; what would Caesar find to drink out of here where
+the gate-keeper uses such a treasure?  Who executed this admirable work,
+pray?"
+
+"My son carved it for me in his spare time."
+
+"He is a highly-skilled sculptor," Titianus explained.
+
+When the Emperor had half emptied the cup with much satisfaction he set
+it on the table, and said:
+
+"A very noble drink!  I thank you, mother."
+
+"And I you, for styling me mother: there is no better title a woman can
+have who has brought up good children; and I have three who need never be
+ashamed to be seen."
+
+"I wish you all luck with them, good little mother," replied the Emperor.
+
+"We shall meet again, for I am going to spend some days at Lochias."
+
+"Now, in all this bustle?"  asked Doris.
+
+"This great architect," said Titianus, in explanation, "is to advise and
+help our Pontius."
+
+"He needs no help!"  cried the old woman.  "He is a man of the best
+stamp.  His foresight and energy, my son says, are incomparable.  I have
+seen him giving his orders myself, and I know a man when I see him!"
+
+"And what particularly pleased you in him?"  asked Hadrian, who was much
+amused with the shrewd old woman's freedom.
+
+"He never for a moment loses his temper in all the hurry, never speaks a
+word too much or too little; he can be stern when it is necessary, but he
+is kind to his inferiors.  What his merits are as an artist I am not
+capable of judging, but I am quite certain that he is a just and able
+man."
+
+"I know him myself," replied Caesar, "and you describe him rightly; but
+he seemed to me sterner than he has shown himself to you."
+
+"Being a man he must be able to be severe; but he is so only when it is.
+necessary, and how kind he can be he shows himself every day.  A man
+grows to the mould of his own mind when he is a great deal alone; and
+this I have noticed, that a man who is repellant and sharp to those
+beneath him is not in himself anything really great; for it shows that he
+considers it necessary to guard against the danger of being looked upon
+as of no more consequence than the poorer folks he deals with.  Now, a
+man of real worth knows that it can be seen in his bearing, even when he
+treats one of us as an equal.  Pontius does so, and Titianus, and you who
+are his friend, no less.  It is a good thing that you should have come--
+but, as I said before, the architect up there can do very well without
+you."
+
+"You do not seem to rate my capacity very highly, and I regret it, for
+you have lived with your eyes open and have learned to judge men keenly."
+
+Doris looked shrewdly at the Emperor with her kindly glance, as if taking
+his mental measure, and then answered confidently:
+
+"You--you are a great man too--it is quite possible that you might see
+things that would escape Pontius.  There are a few choice souls whom the
+Muses particularly love and you are one of them."
+
+"What leads you to suppose so?"
+
+"I see it in your gaze--in your brow."
+
+"You have the gift of divination, then?"
+
+"No, I am not one of that sort; but I am the mother of two sons on whom
+also the Immortals have bestowed the special gift, which I cannot exactly
+describe.  It was in them I first saw it, and wherever I have met with it
+since in other men and artists--they have been the elect of their circle.
+And you too--I could swear to it, that you are foremost of the men among
+whom you live."
+
+"Do not swear lightly," laughed the Emperor.  "We will meet and talk
+together again little mother, and when I depart I will ask you again
+whether you have not been deceived in me.  Come now, Telemachus, the
+dame's birds seem to delight you very much."
+
+These words were addressed to Antinous, who had been going from cage to
+cage contemplating the feathered pets, all sleeping snugly, with much
+curiosity and pleasure.
+
+"Is that your son?"  asked Doris.
+
+"No, dame, he is only my pupil; but I feel as if he were my son."
+
+"He is a beautiful lad!"
+
+"Why,  the old lady still looks after the young men!"
+
+"We do not give that up till we are a hundred or till the Parcae cut the
+thread of life."
+
+"What a confession!"
+
+"Let me finish my speech.--We never cease to take pleasure in seeing a
+handsome young fellow, but so long as we are young we ask ourselves what
+he may have in store for us, and as we grow old we are perfectly
+satisfied to be able to show him kindness.  Listen young master.  You
+will always find me here if you want anything in which I can serve you.
+I am like a snail and very rarely leave my shell."
+
+"Till our next meeting," cried Hadrian, and he and his companions went
+out into the court.
+
+There the difficulty was to find a footing on the disjointed pavement.
+Titianus went on in front of the Emperor and Antinous, and so but few
+words of friendly pleasure could be exchanged by the monarch and his
+vicegerent on the occasion of their meeting again.  Hadrian stepped
+cautiously forward, his face wearing meanwhile a satisfied smile.  The
+verdict passed by the simple shrewd woman of the people had given him far
+greater pleasure than the turgid verse in which Mesomedes and his
+compeers were wont to sing his praises, or the flattering speeches with
+which he was loaded by the sophists and rhetoricians.
+
+The old woman had taken him for no more than an artist; she could not
+know who he was, and yet she had recognized--or had Titianus been
+indiscreet?  Did she know or suspect whom she was talking to?  Hadrian's
+deeply suspicious nature was more and more roused; he began to fancy that
+the gate-keeper's wife had learnt her speech by heart, and that her
+welcome had been preconcerted; he suddenly paused and desired the prefect
+to wait for him, and Antinous to remain behind with the clog.  He turned
+round, retraced his steps to the gatehouse and slipped close up to it in
+a very unprincely way.  He stood still by the door of the little house
+which was still open, and listened to the conversation between Doris and
+her husband.
+
+"A fine tall man," said Euphorion, "he is a little like the Emperor."
+
+"Not a bit," replied Doris.  "Only think of the full-length statue of
+Hadrian in the garden of the Paneum; it has a dissatisfied satirical
+expression, and the architect has a grave brow, it is true, but pure
+friendly kindness lights up his features.  It is only the beard that
+reminds you of the one when you look at the other.  Hadrian might be very
+glad if he were like the prefect's guest."
+
+"Yes, he is handsomer--how shall I say it--more like the gods than that
+cold marble figure," Euphorion declared.  "A grand noble, he is no doubt,
+but still an artist too; I wonder whether he could be induced by Pontius
+or Papias or Aristeas or one of the great painters to take the part of
+Calchas the soothsayer in our group at the festival?  He would perform it
+in quite another way than that dry stick Philemon the ivory carver.  Hand
+me my lute; I have already forgotten again the beginning of the last
+verse.  Oh! my wretched memory!  Thank you."
+
+Euphorion loudly struck the strings and sang in a voice that was still
+tolerably sweet and very well trained:
+
+"'Sabina hail!  Oh Sabina!--Hail; victorious hail to the conquering
+goddess Sabina!'  If only Pollux were here he would remind me of the
+right words.  'Hail; victorious hail, to the thousand-fold Sabina!'--That
+is nonsense.  'Hail, hail!  divine hail to thee O all-conquering Sabina.'
+No it was not that either.  If a crocodile would only swallow this Sabina
+I would give him that hot cake in yonder dish with pleasure, for his
+pudding.  But stay--I have it.  'Hail, a thousand-fold hail to the
+conquering goddess Sabina!'"
+
+Hadrian had heard all he wanted; while Euphorion went on repeating his
+line a score or more of times to impress it on his recalcitrant memory.
+Caesar turned his back on the gate-house, and while he and his companions
+picked their way not without difficulty through the workmen who squatted
+here and there and everywhere on the ground, he clapped Titianus more
+than once on his shoulder, and after he had been received and welcomed by
+Pontius, he exclaimed:
+
+"I bless my decision to come here now!  I have had a good evening, a
+quite delightful evening."
+
+The Emperor had not felt so cheerful and free from care for years as on
+this occasion, and when in spite of the late hour he found the workmen
+still busy everywhere, and saw all that had already been restored in the
+old palace and what was being done for its renovation, the restless man
+could not resist expressing his satisfaction, and exclaimed to Antinous:
+
+"Here we may see that even in our sordid times miracles may be wrought by
+good-will, industry, and skill.  Explain to me my good Pontius how you
+were able to construct that enormous scaffold."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+More pleasant hours were to follow on the amusing arrival of the Emperor
+at his half-finished residence at Lochias that night.  Pontius proposed
+to him to inspect several well-preserved rooms, which had in the first
+instance been reserved for the gentlemen of his suite; and one of these
+with an open outlook on the harbor, the town, and the island of
+Antirrhodus he suggested should be provisionally furnished for the
+Emperor's reception.  Thanks to the architect's foresight, to Mastor's
+practised hand, and to the numbers of men employed in the palace who were
+accustomed to all kinds of service--provision was soon made for the
+night, for Hadrian and his companions.  The comfortable couch which the
+prefect had sent to Lochias for Pontius was carried into the Emperor's
+sleeping-room, and the camp-beds for Antinous and the suite were soon set
+up in the other rooms.  Tables, pillows, and various household vessels
+which had already been sent in from the manufactories of Alexandria, and
+which stood packed in bales and cases in the large central court of the
+palace were soon taken out, and so far as they were applicable for use
+were carried into the hastily-arranged rooms.  Even before Hadrian, under
+the prefect's guidance, had reached the last room in which restorations
+were being carried out, Pontius was ready with his arrangements, and
+could assure the Emperor that to-night he would find a good bed and very
+tolerable quarters, and that by to-morrow he should have a really
+elegantly-furnished room.
+
+"Charming, quite delightful," cried the Emperor, as he entered his room.
+"One might fancy you had some industrious demons at your command.  Pour
+some water over my hands, Mastor, and then to supper!  I am as hungry as
+a beggar's clog."
+
+"I think we  shall find all  you  need,"  replied Titianus, while Hadrian
+washed his hands and his bearded face.
+
+"Have you eaten all that I sent down to Lochias to-day, my dear Pontius?"
+
+"Alas! we have," sighed Pontius.
+
+"But I gave orders that a supper for five should be sent."
+
+"It sufficed for six hungry artists," answered the architect, "if only I
+could have guessed for whom the food was intended!  And now what is to be
+done?  There are wine and bread still in the hall of the Muses,
+meanwhile"
+
+"That must satisfy us," said the Emperor, as he wiped his face.  "In the
+Dacian war, in Numidia, and often when out hunting, I have been glad if
+only one or the other was to be obtained."
+
+Antinous, who was very hungry and tired, made a melancholy face at these
+words of his master, and Hadrian perceiving it, added with a smile:
+
+"But youth needs something more to live upon than bread and wine.  You
+pointed out to me just now the residence of the palace-steward.  Might we
+not find there a morsel of meat or cheese, or something of the kind?"
+
+"Hardly," replied Pontius.  "For the man stuffs his fat stomach and his
+eight children with bread and porridge.  But an attempt will at any rate
+be worth making."
+
+"Then send to him; but conduct us at once to the hall where the Muses
+have preserved some bread and wine for me and these good fellows, though
+they do not always provide them for their disciples."
+
+Pontius at once conducted the Emperor into the hall.  On the way thither,
+Hadrian asked:
+
+"Is the steward so miserably paid that he is forced to content himself
+with such meagre fare?"
+
+"He has a residence rent free, and two hundred drachmae a month."
+
+"That is not  so very little.  What  is the man's name, and of what kith
+and kin is he?"
+
+"He is called Keraunus, and is of ancient Macedonian descent.  His
+ancestors from time immemorial have held the office he now fills, and he
+even supposes himself to be related to the extinct royal dynasty through
+the mistress of some one of the Lagides.  Keraunus sits in the town
+council and never stirs out in the streets without his slave, who is one
+of the sort which the merchants in the slave market throw into the
+bargain with the buyer.  He is as fat as a stuffed pig, dresses like a
+senator, loves antiquities and curiosities, for which he will let himself
+be cheated of his last coin, and bears his poverty with more of pride
+than of dignity; and still he is an honorable man, and can be made
+useful, if he is taken on the right side."
+
+"Altogether a queer fellow.  And you say he is fat, is he jolly?"
+
+"As far from it as possible."
+
+"Ah, people who are fat and cross are my aversion.  What is this by way
+of an erection?"
+
+"Behind that  screen works Papias' best scholar.  His name is Pollux, and
+he is the son of the couple who keep the gate-house.  You will be pleased
+with him."
+
+"Call him here," said the Emperor.
+
+But before the architect could comply with his desire the sculptor's head
+had appeared above the screen.  The young man had heard the approaching
+voices and steps; he greeted the prefect respectfully from his elevated
+position, and after satisfying his curiosity was about to spring down
+from the stool on which he had climbed when Pontius called to him that
+Claudius Venator, the architect from Rome, wished to make his
+acquaintance.
+
+"That is very kind in him, and still more kind in you," Pollux answered
+from above, "since it is only from you that he can know that I exist
+beneath the moon, and use the hammer and chisel.  Allow me to descend
+from my four-legged cothurnus, for at present you are forced to look up
+to me, and from all I have heard of your talents from Pontius, nothing
+can be more absolutely the reverse of what it ought to be."
+
+"Nay, stop where you are," answered Hadrian.  "We, as fellow-artists, may
+waive ceremony.--What are you doing in there?"
+
+"I will push the screen back in a moment and show you our Urania.  It is
+very good for an artist to hear the opinion of a man who thoroughly
+understands the thing."
+
+"Presently, friend-presently; first let me enjoy a scrap of bread, for
+the severity of my hunger might very possibly influence my judgment."
+
+As he was speaking the architect offered the Emperor a salver with bread,
+salt, and a cup of wine, which his own slave had carried to him.  When
+Pollux observed this modest meal, he called out:
+
+"That is prisoners' fare, Pontius; have we nothing better in the house
+than that?"
+
+"Possibly you yourself assisted in demolishing the dainty dishes I had
+sent down for the architect," cried Titianus, pretending to threaten him.
+
+"You are defacing a fair memory," sighed the sculptor, with mock
+melancholy.  "But, by Hercules, I did my fair share of the work of
+destruction.  If only now--but stay!  I have an idea worthy of Aristotle
+himself! that breakfast, to which I invited you to-morrow morning, most
+noble Pontius, is all ready at my mother's, and can be warmed up in a few
+minutes.  Do not be alarmed, worthy sir, but the dish in question is
+cabbage with sausages--a mess which, like the soul of an Egyptian,
+possesses at the instant of resurrection, nobler qualities than when it
+first sees the light."
+
+"Excellent," cried Hadrian.  "Cabbage and sausages!"  He wiped his full
+lips with his hand, smiling with gratification, and he broke into a
+hearty laugh of amusement as he heard a loud "Ah!" of satisfaction from
+Antinous, who drew nearer to the canvas screen.  "There is another whose
+mouth waters and whose imagination revels in a happy future," said the
+Emperor to the prefect, pointing to his favorite.
+
+But he had misinterpreted the lad's exclamation, for it was the mere name
+of the dish--which his mother had often set on the table of his humble
+home in Bithynia--which reminded him of his native country and his
+childhood, and transplanted him in thought back into their midst.  It was
+a swift leap at his heart, and not merely the pleasant watering of his
+gums, that had forced the "Ah" to his lips.  Still, he was glad to see
+his native dish again, and would not have exchanged it against the
+richest banquet.  Pollux had meanwhile come out of his nook, and said:
+
+"In a quarter of an hour I shall set before you the breakfast which has
+been turned into a supper.  Mitigate your worst hunger with some bread
+and salt, and then my mother's cabbage-stew will not only satisfy you,
+but will be enjoyed with calm appreciation."
+
+"Greet dame Doris from me," Hadrian called after the sculptor; and when
+Pollux had quitted the hall he turned to Titianus and Pontius and said:
+
+"What a splendid young fellow.  I am curious to see what he can do as an
+artist."
+
+"Then follow me," replied Pontius, leading the way.
+
+"What do you say to this Urania?  Papias made the head of the Muse, but
+the figure and the drapery Pollux formed with his own hand in a few
+days."
+
+The imperial artist stood in front of the statue, with his arms crossed,
+and remained there for some time in silence.  Then he nodded his bearded
+head approvingly, and said gravely:
+
+"A well-considered work, and carried out with remarkable freedom; this
+mantle drawn over the bosom would not disgrace a Phidias.  All is broad,
+characteristic and true.  Did the young artist work from the model here
+at Lochias?"
+
+"I have seen no model, and I believe that he evolved the whole figure out
+of his head," replied Pontius.
+
+"Impossible, perfectly impossible," cried the Emperor, in the tone of a
+man who knows well what he is talking about.  "Such lines, such forms not
+Praxiteles himself could have invented.  He must have seen them, have
+formed them as he stood face to face with the living copy.  We will ask
+him.  What is to be made out of that newly-set-up mass of clay?"
+
+"Possibly the bust of some princess of the house of the Lagides.
+To-morrow you shall see a head of Berenice by our young friend, which
+seems to me to be one of the best things ever done in Alexandria."
+
+"And is the lad a proficient in magic?"  asked Hadrian.  "It seems to me
+simply impossible that he should have completed this statue and a woman's
+bust in these few days."
+
+Pontius explained to the Emperor that Pollux had mounted the head on a
+bust already to hand, and as he answered his questions without reserve,
+he revealed to him what stupendous exertions of the arts had been called
+into requisition to give the dilapidated palace a suitable and, in its
+kind, even brilliant appearance.  He frankly confessed that here he was
+working only for effect, and talked to Hadrian exactly as he would have
+discussed the same subject with any other fellow-artist.
+
+While the Emperor and the architect were thus eagerly conversing, and the
+prefect was hearing from Phlegon, the secretary, all the experience of
+their journey, Pollux reappeared in the hall of the Muses accompanied by
+his father.  The singer carried before him a steaming mess, fresh cakes
+of bread, and the pasty which a few hours previously he had carried home
+to his wife from the architect's table.  Pollux held to his breast a
+tolerably large two-handled jar full of Mareotic wine, which he had
+hastily wreathed with branches of ivy.
+
+A few minutes later the Emperor was reclining on a mattress that had been
+laid for him, and was making his way valiantly through the savory mess.
+He was in the happiest humor; he called Antinous and his secretary,
+heaped abundant portions with his own hand on their plates, which he bade
+them hold out to him, declaring as he did so that it was to prevent their
+fishing the best of the sausages out of the cabbage for themselves.  He
+also spoke highly of the Mareotic wine.  When they came to opening the
+pasty the expression of his face changed; he frowned and asked the
+prefect in a suspicious tone, severely and sternly:
+
+"How came these people by such a pasty as this?"
+
+"Where did you get it from?"  asked the prefect of the singer.
+
+"From the banquet which the architect gave to the artists here," answered
+Euphorion.  "The bones were given to the Graces and this dish, which had
+not been touched, to me and my wife.  She devoted it with pleasure to
+Pontius' guest."
+
+Titianus laughed and exclaimed:
+
+"This then accounts for the total disappearance of the handsome supper
+which we sent down to the architect.  This pasty-allow me to look at it--
+this pasty was prepared by a recipe obtained from Verus.  He invited us
+to breakfast yesterday and instructed my cook how to prepare it."
+
+"No Platonist ever propagated his master's doctrines with greater zeal
+than Verus does the merits of this dish," said the Emperor, who had
+recovered his good humor as soon as he perceived that no artful
+preparation for his arrival was to be suspected in this matter.  "What
+follies  that spoilt child of fortune can commit!  Does he still insist
+on cooking with his own hands?"
+
+"No, not quite that," replied the prefect.  "But he had a couch placed
+for him in the kitchen on which he stretched himself at full length and
+told my cook exactly how to prepare the pasty, of which you are--I should
+say, of which the Emperor is particularly fond.  It consists of pheasant,
+ham, cow's udder and a baked crust."
+
+"I am quite of Hadrian's opinion," laughed the Emperor; doing all justice
+to the excellent pie.  "You entertain me splendidly my friend, and I am
+very much your debtor.  What did you say your name is young man?"
+
+"Pollux."
+
+"Your Urania, Pollux, is a fine piece of work, and Pontius says you
+executed the drapery without a model.  I said, and I repeat, that it is
+simply impossible."
+
+"You judge rightly, a young girl stood for it."
+
+The Emperor glanced at the architect, as much as to say, I knew it!
+
+Pontius asked in astonishment:
+
+"When?  I have never seen a female form within these walls."
+
+"Recently."
+
+"But I have never quitted Lochias for a minute.  I have never gone to
+rest before midnight, and have been on my legs again long before
+sunrise."
+
+"But still there were several hours between your going to sleep, and
+waking up again," replied Pollux.  "Ah, youth--youth!"  exclaimed the
+Emperor, and a satirical smile played upon his lips.
+
+"Part Damon and Phyllis by iron doors, and they will find their way to
+each other through the key-hole."
+
+Euphorion looked seriously at his son, the architect shook his head and
+refrained from further questions, but Hadrian rose from his couch,
+dismissed Antinous and his secretary to bed, requested Titianus to go
+home and to give his wife his kindly greetings, and then desired Pollux
+to conduct him within this screen, since he himself was not tired and was
+accustomed to do with only a few hours sleep.
+
+The young sculptor was strongly attracted by this commanding personage.
+It had not escaped him that the gray-bearded stranger greatly resembled
+the Emperor; but Pontius had prepared him for the likeness, and in fact
+there was much in the eyes and mouth of the Roman architect that he had
+never traced in any portrait of Hadrian 'Imperator.'  And as they stood
+before his scarcely-finished statue his respect increased for the new
+visitor to Lochias; for, with earnest frankness, he pointed out to him
+certain faults, and while praising the merits of the rapidly-executed
+figure he explained in a few brief and pithy phrases his own conception
+of the ideal Urania.  Then shortly but clearly, he stated his views as to
+how the plastic artist must deal with the problems of his art.
+
+The young man's heart beat faster, and more than once he turned hot and
+cold by turns as he heard things uttered by the bearded lips of this
+imposing man, in a rich voice and in lucid phrases, which he had often
+divined or vaguely felt, but for which, while learning, observing, and
+working, he had never sought expression in words.  And how kindly the
+great master took up his timid observations, how convincingly he answered
+them.  Such a man as this he had never met, never had he bowed with such
+full consent before the superiority and sovereign power of another mind.
+
+The second hour after midnight had begun, when Hadrian, standing before
+the rough-cast clay bust, asked Pollux:
+
+"What is this to be?"
+
+"A portrait of a girl."
+
+"Probably of the complaisant model who ventures into Lochias at night?"
+
+"No; a lady of rank will sit to me."
+
+"An Alexandrian?"
+
+"Oh, no.  A beauty in the train of the Empress."
+
+"What is her name?  I know all the Roman ladies."
+
+"Balbilla."
+
+"Balbilla?  There are many of that name.  What is she like, the lady you
+mean?" asked Hadrian, with a cunning glance of amusement.
+
+"That is easier to ask than to answer," replied the artist, who, seeing
+his gray-bearded companion smile, recovered his gay vivacity, "But stay--
+you have seen a peacock spread its tail--now only imagine that every eye
+in the train of Hera's bird was a graceful round curl, and that in the
+middle of the circle there was a charming, intelligent girl's face, with
+a merry little nose, and a rather too high forehead, and you will have
+the portrait of the young damsel who has graciously permitted me to model
+from her person."
+
+Hadrian laughed heartily, threw off his cloak, and exclaimed:
+
+"Stand aside--I know your maiden--and if I mean a different one you shall
+tell me."
+
+While he was still speaking he had plunged his powerful hands into the
+yielding clay, and kneading and pinching like a practised modeller,
+wiping off and pressing on, he formed a woman's face with a towering
+structure of curls, which resembled Balbilla, but which reproduced every
+conspicuous peculiarity with such whimsical exaggeration that Pollux
+could not contain his delight.  When at last Hadrian stepped back from
+the happy caricature and called upon him to say whether that were not
+indeed the Roman lady, Pollux exclaimed:
+
+"It is as surely she, as you are not merely a great architect, but an
+admirable sculptor.  The thing is coarse, but unmistakably
+characteristic."
+
+The Emperor himself seemed to enjoy his artistic joke hugely, for he
+looked at it, and laughed again and again.  Pontius, however, seemed to
+view it differently; he had listened with eager sympathy to the
+conversation between Hadrian and the sculptor, and had watched the former
+as he began his work; but as it went on he turned away, for he hated that
+distortion of fine forms, which he often found that the Egyptians took a
+special delight in.  It was positively painful to him to see a graceful,
+highly-gifted and defenceless creature, to whom, too, he felt himself
+bound by ties of gratitude, mocked at in this way by such a man as
+Hadrian.  He had only to-day met Balbilla for the first time, but he had
+heard from Titianus that she was staying at the Caesareum with the
+Empress, and the prefect had also told him that she was the granddaughter
+of that same governor, Claudius Balbillus, who had granted freedom to his
+own grandfather, a learned Greek slave.
+
+He had met her with grateful sympathy and devotion; her bright and lively
+nature had delighted him, and at each thoughtless word she uttered he
+would have liked to give her some warning sign, as though she were near
+to him through some tie of blood, or some old established friendship that
+might warrant his right to do so.  The defiant, half gallant way in which
+Verus, the dissipated lady-killer, had spoken to her had enraged him and
+filled him with anxiety, and long after the illustrious visitors had left
+Lochias he had thought of her again and again, and had resolved, if it
+were possible, to keep a watchful eye on the descendant of the benefactor
+of his family.  He felt it as a sacred duty to shelter and protect her,
+seeming to him as she did, an airy, pretty, defenceless song-bird.
+
+The Emperor's caricature had the same effect on his feelings as though
+some one had insulted and scorned, before his eyes, something that ought
+to be regarded as sacred.  And there stood the monarch, a man no longer
+young, gazing at his performance and never weary of the amusement it
+afforded him.  It pained Pontius keenly, for like all noble natures, he
+could not bear to discover anything mean or vulgar in a man to whom he
+had always looked up as to a strong exceptional character.  As an artist
+Hadrian ought not to have vilified beauty, as a man he ought not to have
+insulted unprotected innocence.
+
+In the soul of the architect, who had hitherto been one of the Emperor's
+warmest admirers, a slight aversion began to dawn, and he was glad, when,
+at last, Hadrian decided to withdraw to rest.
+
+The Emperor found in his room every requisite he was accustomed to use,
+and while his slave undressed him, lighted his night-lamp and adjusted
+his pillows, he said:
+
+"This is the best evening I have enjoyed for years.  Is Antinous
+comfortably in bed?"
+
+"As much so as in Rome."
+
+"And the big dog?"
+
+"I will lay his rug in the passage at your door."
+
+"Has he had any food?"
+
+"Bones, bread and water."
+
+"I hope you have had something to eat this evening."
+
+"I was not hungry, and there was plenty of bread and wine."
+
+"To-morrow we shall be better supplied.  Now, good-night.  Weigh your
+words for fear you should betray me.  A few days here undisturbed would
+be delightful!"
+
+With these words the Emperor turned over on his couch and was soon
+asleep.
+
+Mastor, too, lay down to rest after he had spread a rug for the dog in
+the corridor outside the Emperor's sleeping-room.  His head rested on a
+curved shield of stout cowhide under which lay his short sword; the bed
+was but a hard one, but Mastor had for years been used to rest on nothing
+better, and still had enjoyed the dreamless slumbers of a child; but to-
+night sleep avoided him, and from time to time he pressed his hand on his
+wearily open eyes to wipe away the salt dew which rose to them again and
+again.  For a long time he had restrained these tears bravely enough, for
+the Emperor liked to see none but cheerful faces among his servants; nay,
+he had once said that it was in consequence of his bright eyes that he
+had entrusted to him the care of his person.  Poor, cheerful Mastor!
+He was nothing but a slave, still he had a heart which lay open to joy
+and suffering, to pleasure and trouble, to hatred and to love.
+
+In his childhood his native village had fallen into the hands of the foes
+of his race.  He and his brother had been carried away as slaves, first
+into Asia Minor, and then as they were both particularly pretty fair-
+haired boys, to Rome.  There they had been bought for the Emperor; Mastor
+had been chosen to wait on Hadrian's person, his brother had been put to
+work in the gardens.  Nothing was lacking to either except his liberty;
+nothing tormented them but their longing for their native home, and even
+this altogether faded away after he had married the pretty little
+daughter of a superintendent of the gardens, a slave like himself.
+She was a lively little woman with sparkling eyes, whom no one could
+pass by without noticing.
+
+The slave's duties left him but little time to enjoy the society of his
+pretty partner and of the two children she bore him, but the
+consciousness of possessing them made him happy when he followed his
+master to the chase, or in the journeys through the empire.  Now, for
+seven months he had heard nothing of his family; but a short letter had
+reached him at Pelusium, which had been sent with the despatches for the
+Emperor from Ostia to Egypt.  He could not read, and in consequence of
+the Emperor's rapid travelling, it was not till he reached Lochias, that
+he was put in possession of its contents.
+
+Before going to rest Antinous had read him the letter, which had been
+written for his brother by a public scribe, and its contents were enough
+to wreck the heart even of a slave.  His pretty little wife had fled from
+her home and from the Emperor's service to follow a Greek ship's captain
+across the world; his eldest child, a boy, the darling of his heart, was
+dead; and his fair-haired tender little Tullia, with her pearly teeth,
+her round little arms, and her pretty tiny fingers that had often tried
+to pull his close-cropped hair, and had fondly stroked and patted it, had
+been carried off to the miserable refuge, under whose squalid roof the
+children of deceased slaves were reared.  Only two hours since, and in
+fancy he had possessed a home, and a group of human beings, whom he could
+love.  Now, this was all over and with however hard a hand the deepest
+woes might fall on him, he might not sob or groan aloud, or even roll
+from side to side as again and again he was violently prompted to do,
+for his lord slept lightly and the least noise might wake him.  At
+sunrise he must appear before the Emperor as cheerful as usual, and yet
+he felt as if he must himself perish miserably as his happiness had done.
+His heart was bursting with anguish, still he neither groaned nor
+stirred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+The night had been almost as sleepless to Keraunus' daughter Selene as
+it had been to the hapless slave.  Her father's vain wish to let Arsinoe
+take a part with the daughters of the wealthier citizens had filled the
+girl's heart with fresh terrors.  It was the final blow which would
+demolish the structure of their social existence, standing as it did on
+quaking ground, and which must fling her family and herself into disgrace
+and want.  When their last treasure of any value was sold, and the
+creditors could no longer be put off, particularly during the Emperor's
+presence in the city, when they should try to sell up all her father's
+little property, or to carry him off to a debtor's prison, was it not
+then as good as certain that some one else would be appointed to fill his
+place, and that she and the other children would fall into misery?  And
+there lay Arsinoe by her side, and slept with as calm and deep a breath
+as blind Helios and the other little ones.
+
+Before going to bed she had tried with all the fervency and eloquence of
+which she was mistress, to persuade, entreat, and implore the heedless
+girl to refuse as positively as she herself had refused to take any part
+in the processions; but Arsinoe had at first repulsed her crossly, and
+finally had defiantly declared that means might yet very likely be found,
+and that what her father permitted, Selene had no right to interfere in,
+still less to forbid.  And when afterwards she saw Arsinoe sleeping so
+calmly by her side, she felt as if she would like to shake her; but she
+was so accustomed to bear all the troubles of the family alone, and to be
+unkindly repelled by her sister whenever she attempted to admonish her,
+that she forbore.
+
+Arsinoe had a good and tender heart, but she was young, pretty, and vain.
+With affectionate persuasion she might be won over to anything, but
+Selene, when ever she remonstrated with her, made her feel her
+superiority over herself, acquired from her care of the family and her
+maternal character.  Thus, not a day passed without some quarrelling and
+tears between these two sisters who were so dissimilar, and yet, both so
+well disposed.  Arsinoe was always the first to offer her hand for a
+reconciliation, but Selene would rarely have a kinder answer ready to her
+affectionate advances than, "Let be," or "Oh yes, I know!"  and their
+outward intercourse bore an aspect of coolness, which was easily worked
+up to an outbreak of hostile speeches.  Hundreds of times they would go
+to bed without wishing each other 'good-night,' and still more often
+would they avoid any morning greeting when they first met in the day.
+
+Arsinoe liked talking, but in Selene's presence she was taciturn; there
+were few things in which Selene took pleasure, while her sister delighted
+in every thing which can charm youth.  It was the steward's eldest
+daughter who attended to the daily needs of the children, their food and
+clothes; it was the second who superintended their games, and their
+dolls.  The eldest watched and taught them with anxious care, detecting
+in every little fault the germ of some evil tendency in the future, while
+the other enticed them into follies, it is true, but opened their minds
+to joyous impressions, and attained more by kisses and kind words than
+Selene could by fault-finding.  The children would call Selene when they
+wanted her, but would fly to Arsinoe as soon as they saw her.  Their
+hearts were hers, and Selene felt this bitterly; it seemed to her to be
+unjust, for she saw clearly that her sister could reap, from mere
+frivolous play in her idle hours, a sweeter reward than she could earn by
+the anxiety, trouble and exhausting toil, in which she often spent her
+nights.
+
+But children are not unjust in this way.  It is true that they keep an
+account in their heart and not in their head.  Those who give them the
+warmth of affection they pay back most honestly.
+
+On this particular night it was not, it is certain, with very sisterly
+feelings that Selene looked at the sleeping Arsinoe, and the words on the
+girl's lips as she had dropped asleep, had sounded very unkind; but,
+nevertheless, they felt warmly towards each other, and any one who should
+have attempted to say a word against the one in the presence of the other
+would soon have found out how close a bond held together these two
+hearts, dissimilar as they were.  But no girl of nineteen can pass a
+night altogether without sleeping, however sadly she may turn and turn
+over and over again in her bed.  So slumber overmastered Selene every now
+and then for a quarter of an hour, and each time she dreamed of her
+sister.
+
+Once she saw Arsinoe dressed out like a queen, followed by beggar
+children and pelted with bad words--then she saw her on the rotunda below
+the balcony romping with Pollux, and in their bold sport they broke her
+mother's bust.  At last she dreamed that she herself was playing--as in
+the days of her childhood--in the gate-keeper's garden with the sculptor.
+They were making cakes of sand together, and Arsinoe jumped on the cakes
+as soon as they were made, and trod them all into dust.
+
+The pretty pale girl had for a long time ceased to know the refreshing,
+dreamless, sound sleep of youth, for the sweetest slumbers are more apt
+to seek out those who by day have some rest, than those who are worn out
+by fatigue, and evening after evening Selene was one of these.  Every
+night she had dreams, but tonight they were almost exclusively sad in
+character, and so terrifying that she woke herself repeatedly with her
+own groaning, or disturbed Arsinoe's peaceful sleep by loud cries.
+
+These cries did not disturb her father, he--to-night, as every night--had
+begun to snore soon after he had gone to rest, never to cease till it was
+time to rise again.
+
+Selene was always busy in the house before any one, even before the
+slaves; and the approach of day this time seemed to the sleepless girl a
+real release.  When she rose it was still perfectly dark, but she knew
+that the rising of the December sun could not be long to wait for.
+
+Without paying any heed to the sleepers, or making any special effort to
+tread noiselessly, or to do what she had to do without disturbing them,
+she lighted her little lamp, at the night-lamp, washed herself, arranged
+her hair, and then knocked at the doors of the old slaves.
+
+As soon as they had yawned out "directly," or a sleepy "very well," she
+went into her father's room and took his jug to fetch him fresh water in
+it.  The best well in the palace was on a small terrace on the west side;
+it was supplied by the city aqueducts, and was constructed of five marble
+monsters, bearing up on twisted fishtails a huge shell, in which sat a
+bearded river-god.  Their horse-shaped heads poured water into a vast
+basin, which, in the lapse of centuries, had grown full of a green and
+filmy vegetation.
+
+In order to reach this fountain, Selene had to go along the corridor
+where lay the rooms occupied by the Emperor and his followers.  She only
+knew that an architect from Rome had taken up his quarters at Lochias,
+for, some time after midnight, she had been to get out meat and salt for
+him, but in what rooms the strangers had been lodged no one had told her.
+But this morning as she followed the path she was accustomed to tread day
+by day at the same hour, she felt an anxious shiver.  She felt as if
+everything were not quite the same as usual, and just as she had set her
+foot on the cop step of the flight leading to the corridor, she raised
+her lamp to discover whence came the sound she thought she could hear,
+she perceived in the gloom a fearful something.  which as she approached
+it resembled a dog, and which was larger--much larger--than a dog should
+be.
+
+Her blood ran cold with terror; for a few moments she stood as if
+spellbound, and was only conscious that the growling and snarling that
+she heard meant mischief and threatening to herself.  At last she found
+strength to turn to fly, but at the same instant a loud and furious bark
+echoed behind her and she heard the monster's quick leaps as he flew
+after her along the stone pavement.
+
+She felt a violent shock, the pitcher flew out of her hand and was
+shattered into a thousand fragments, and she sank to the ground under the
+weight of a warm, rough, heavy mass.  Her loud cries of alarm resounded
+from the hard bare walls, and roused the sleepers and brought them to her
+side.
+
+"See what it is," cried Hadrian to his slave, who had immediately sprung
+up and seized his shield and sword.
+
+"The dog has attacked a woman who wanted to come this way," replied
+Mastor.
+
+"Hold him off, but do not beat him," the Emperor shouted after him.
+"Argus has only done his duty."  The slave hastened down the passage as
+fast as possible, loudly calling the dog by his name.  But another had
+been beforehand and had dragged him off his victim, and this was
+Antinous, whose room was close to the scene of action, and who, as soon
+as he had heard the dog's bark and Selene's scream, had hurried to hold
+back the brute which was really dangerous when on guard and in the dark.
+
+When Mastor appeared the lad had just succeeded in dragging the dog away
+from Selene, who was lying on the stairs leading to the corridor.  Before
+Antinous could reach her Argus was standing over her gnashing his teeth
+and growling.  Argus, who was quickly quieted by his friends' tone of
+kindly admonition, stood aside silent and with his head down while
+Antinous knelt by the senseless girl on whom the pale light of early dawn
+fell through--wide window.  The boy looked with alarm on her pale face,
+lifted her helpless arm, and sought on her light-colored dress for any
+trace of blood that might have been drawn, but in vain.  After he had
+assured himself that she still breathed, and that her lips moved, he
+called to Mastor:
+
+"Argus seems only to have pulled her down, not to have wounded her; she
+has lost consciousness however.  Go quickly into my room and bring me the
+blue phial out of my medicine-case and a cup of water."
+
+The slave whistled to the hound and obeyed the order as quickly as
+possible.
+
+Meanwhile Antinous remained on his knees by the senseless girl, and
+ventured to raise her head with its long soft weight of hair.  How
+beautiful were those marble-white, and nobly-cut features!  How touching
+did the silent accent of pain that lay on her lips seem to him, and how
+happy was the spoilt darling of the Emperor, who was loved by all who saw
+him, to be able to be tender and helpful, unasked!
+
+"Wake up, oh!  wake up!"  he cried to Selene--and when still she did not
+move, he repeated more urgently and tenderly, "Pray, pray wake up."
+
+But she did not hear him, and remained motionless even when, with a
+slight blush, he drew over her shoulder her peplum, which the dog had
+torn away.  Now Mastor returned with the water and the blue phial, and
+gave them to the Bithynian.  While Antinous laid the girl's head in his
+lap, the slave was hurrying away, saying: "Caesar called me."
+
+The lad moistened Selene's forehead with the reviving fluid, made her
+inhale the strong essence which the phial contained, and cried again loud
+and earnestly, "Wake, wake."--And presently her lips parted, showing her
+small, white teeth, and then she slowly raised the lids which had veiled
+her eyes.  With a deep sigh of relief he set the cup and the phial on the
+ground so as to support her when she slowly began to raise herself; but,
+scarcely had he turned his face towards her, when she sprang up suddenly
+and violently, and flinging both her arms round his neck, cried out:
+
+"Save me, Pollux, save me!  The monster is devouring me."  Antinous much
+startled, seized the girl's arms to release himself from their embrace,
+but, she had already freed him and sunk back on to the ground.  The next
+moment she was shivering violently as if from an attack of fever; again
+she threw up her hands, pressed them to her temples, and gazed with
+terror and bewilderment into the face that bent above her.
+
+"What is it?  Who are you?"  she asked, in a low voice.
+
+He rose quickly, and while he supported her as she attempted to rise and
+stand upon her feet, he said:
+
+"The gods be praised that you are still alive.  Our big hound threw you
+down-and he has terrible teeth."  Selene was now standing up, and face to
+face with the boy at whose last words she shuddered again.
+
+"Do, you feel any pain?"  asked Antinous, anxiously.
+
+"Yes," she said, dully.
+
+"Did he bite you?"
+
+"I think not--pick up that pin, it has fallen out of my dress."
+
+The Bithynian obeyed her behest, and while the girl re-fastened her
+peplum over her shoulders she asked him again:
+
+"Who are you?  How came the dog in our palace?"
+
+"He belongs--he belongs to us.  We arrived late last night, and Pontius
+put us--"
+
+"Then you are with the architect from Rome?"
+
+"Yes, but who are you?"
+
+"Selene is my name, I am the daughter of the palace-steward."
+
+"And who is Pollux, whom you were calling to help you when you recovered
+your senses?"
+
+"What does that matter to you?"
+
+Antinous colored, and answered in confusion:
+
+"I was startled when you suddenly roused up, with his name so loudly on
+your lips, when I brought you back to life with water and this essence."
+
+"Well, I was roused--and now I can walk again.  People who bring furious
+dogs into a strange place, should know how to take better care of them.
+Tie the dog up safely, for the children--my little brothers and sisters--
+come this way when they want to go out.  Thank you for your help--and my
+pitcher?"
+
+As she spoke she looked down on the remains of the pretty jar, which was
+one her mother had particularly valued.  When she saw the fragments lying
+on the ground, she gave a deep sob, but she shed no tears.  Then she
+exclaimed angrily:  "It is infamous!"
+
+With these words she turned her back on Antinous and returned to her
+father's room, using her left foot, however, with caution, for it was
+very painful.
+
+The young Bithynian gazed in silence at Selene's tall, slight form, he
+felt prompted to follow her, to say to her how very sorry he was for the
+mischance that had befallen her, and that the hound belonged not to him
+but to another man; but he dared not.  Long after she had disappeared
+from sight he stood on the same spot.  At last he collected his senses,
+and slowly went back to his room, where he sat on his couch with his eyes
+fixed dreamily on the ground, till the Emperor's call roused him from his
+reverie.
+
+Selene had hardly vouchsafed Antinous a glance.  She was in pain not
+merely in her left foot, but also in the back of her head where she found
+there was a deep cut; but her thick hair had staunched the blood that
+flowed from the wound.  She felt very tired, and the loss of her pretty
+jug, which must also be replaced by another, vexed her far more than the
+beauty of the favorite had charmed her.
+
+She slowly and wearily entered the sitting-room, where her father was by
+this time waiting for her and his water.  He was accustomed to have it
+regularly at the same hour, and as Selene was absent longer than usual,
+he could think of no better way of filling up the time than by grumbling
+and scolding to himself; when, at last, his daughter appeared on the
+threshold, he at once perceived that she had no jug, and said crossly:
+
+"And am I to have no water to-day?"
+
+Selene shook her head, sank into a seat, and began to cry softly.
+
+"What is the matter?"  asked her father.
+
+"The pitcher is broken," she said sadly.
+
+You should take better care of such expensive things," scolded her
+father.  "You are always complaining of want of money, and at the same
+time you break half our belongings."
+
+"I was thrown down," answered Selene, drying her eyes.
+
+"Thrown down! by whom?"  asked the steward, slowly rising.
+
+"By the architect's big dog--the architect who came last night from Rome,
+and to whom we gave that meat and salt in the middle of the night.  He
+slept here, at Lochias."
+
+"And he set his clog on my child!" shouted Keraunus, with an angry glare.
+
+"The hound was alone in the passage when I went there."
+
+"Did it bite you?"
+
+"No, but it pulled me down, and stood over me, and gnashed its teeth--oh!
+it was horrible."
+
+"The cursed, vagabond scoundrel!"  growled the steward, "I will teach him
+how to behave in a strange house!"
+
+"Let him be," said Selene, as she saw her father about to don the saffron
+cloak.
+
+"What is done cannot be undone, and if quarrels and dissentions come of
+it, it will make you ill."
+
+"Vagabonds! impudent rascals! who fill my palace with quarrelsome curs,"
+muttered Keraunus without listening to his daughter, and as he settled
+the folds of his pallium he growled "Arsinoe!  why is it that girl never
+hears me."
+
+When she appeared he desired her to heat the irons to curl his hair.
+
+"They are ready by the fire," answered Arsinoe.  "Come into the kitchen
+with me."
+
+Keraunus followed her, and had his locks curled and scented, while his
+younger children stood round him waiting for the porridge which Selene
+usually prepared for them at this hour.
+
+Keraunus responded to their morning greetings with nods as friendly as
+Arsinoe's tongs, which held his head tightly by the hair, would allow.
+It was only the blind Helios, a pretty boy of six, that he drew to his
+side and gave a kiss on his cheek.  He loved this child, who, though
+deprived of the noblest of the senses, was always merry and contented,
+with peculiar tenderness.  Once he even laughed aloud when the child
+clung to his sister, as she brandished the tongs, and said:
+
+"Father, do you know why I am sorry I cannot see?"
+
+"Well?" said his father.
+
+"Because I should so like to see you for once with the beautiful curls
+which Arsinoe makes with the irons."  But the steward's mirth was checked
+when his daughter, pausing in her labors, said half in jest, but half in
+earnest:
+
+"Have you thought any more about the Emperor's arrival, father?
+I smarten and dress you so fine every day--but to-day you ought to think
+of dressing me."
+
+"We will see about it," said Keraunus evasively.  "Do you know," said
+Arsinoe, after a short pause, as she twisted the last lock in the
+freshly-heated tongs, "I thought it all over last night again.  If we
+cannot succeed any way in scraping together the money for my dress, we
+can still--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Even Selene can say nothing against it."
+
+"Against what?"
+
+"But, you will be angry!"
+
+"Speak out."
+
+"You pay taxes like the rest of the citizens."
+
+"What has that to do with it?"
+
+"Well then, we are justified in expecting something from the city,"
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To pay for my dress for the festival which is got up for the Emperor,
+not by an individual, but by the citizens as a body.  We could not accept
+alone, but it is folly to refuse what a rich municipality offers.  That
+is neither more nor less than making them a present."
+
+"You be silent," cried Keraunus, really furious, and trying in vain to
+remember the argument with which, only yesterday, he had refused the same
+suggestion.  "Be silent, and wait till I begin to talk about such
+matters."
+
+Arsinoe flung the tongs on the hearth with so much annoyance that they
+fell on the stone with a loud clatter; but her father quitted the kitchen
+and returned to the sitting-room.  There he found Selene lying on a
+couch, and the old slave-woman, who had tied a wet handkerchief round
+the girl's head, pressing another to her bare left foot.
+
+"Wounded!" cried Keraunus, and his eyes rolled slowly from right to left
+and from left to right.
+
+"Look at the swelling!" cried the old woman in broken Greek, raising
+Selene's snow-white foot in her black hands for her father to see.
+"Thousands of fine ladies have hands that are not so small.  Poor, poor
+little foot," and as she spoke the old woman pressed it to her lips.
+
+Selene pushed her aside, and said, turning to her father:
+
+"The cut on my head is nothing to speak of, but the muscles and veins
+here at the ancle are swelled and my leg hurts me rather when I tread.
+When the dog threw me down I must have hit it against the stone step."
+
+"It is outrageous!"  cried Keraunus, the blood again mounting to his
+head, "only wait and I will show them what I think of their goings on."
+
+"No, no,"  entreated  Selene,  "only  beg them politely to shut up the
+dog, or to chain it, so that it may not hurt the children."
+
+Her voice trembled with anxiety as she spoke the words, for the dread,
+which, she knew not why, had so long been tormenting her lest her father
+should lose his place, seemed to affect her more than ever to-day.
+
+"What! civil words after what has now happened?"  cried Keraunus
+indignantly, and as if something quite unheard of had been suggested to
+him.
+
+"Nay, nay, say what you mean," shrieked the old woman.  "If such a thing
+had occurred to your father he would have fallen on the strange builder
+with a good thrashing."
+
+"And his son Keraunus will not let him off," declared the steward,
+quitting the room without heeding Selene's entreaty not to let himself be
+provoked.
+
+In the ante-chamber he found his old slave whom he ordered to take a
+stick and go before him to announce him to Pontius' guest, the architect,
+who was lodging in the rooms in the wing near the fountain.  This was the
+elegant thing to do, and by this means the black slave would meet the big
+dog before his master who held him and all dogs in the utmost abhorrence.
+As he approached his destination he found himself quite in the humor to
+speak his mind to the stranger who had come here with a ferocious hound
+to tear the members of his family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Hadrian had slept most comfortably; only a few hours it is true, but they
+had sufficed to refresh his spirit.  He was now in his sitting-room and
+had gone to the window, which took up more than half the extent of the
+long west wall of the room, and opened on the sea.  The wide opening,
+which extended downwards to within a few spans of the floor, was finished
+at either side by a tall pillar of fine reddish-brown porphyry, flecked
+with white, and crowned with gilt Corinthian capitals.
+
+Against one of these the Emperor was leaning stroking the blood-hound,
+whose prompt and vigorous watchfulness had pleased him greatly.  What did
+he care for the terrors the dog might have caused a mere girl?
+
+By the other pillar stood Antinous; he had placed his right foot on the
+low window-sill, and with his chin resting on his hand and his elbow on
+his knee, his figure was well within the room.
+
+"This, Pontius, is really a first-rate man," said Hadrian, pointing to a
+tapestry hanging across the narrow end of the room.  "This hanging was
+copied from a fruit-piece that I painted some time since, and had
+executed here in mosaic.  Yesterday this room was not even intended for
+my use, thus the hanging must have been put up between our arrival and
+this morning.  And how many other beautiful things I see around me!  The
+whole place looks habitable, and the eye finds an abundance of objects on
+which it can rest with pleasure."
+
+"Have you examined that magnificent cushion?"  asked Antinous; "and the
+bronze figures, there in the corner, look to me far from bad."
+
+"They are admirable works," said Hadrian.  "Still, I would do without
+them with pleasure rather than miss this window.  Which is the bluer, the
+sky or the sea?  And what a delicious spring breeze fans us here, in the
+middle of December.  Which are the more delightful to contemplate, the
+innumerable ships in the harbor, which communicate between this flowery
+land and other countries, and bless it with wealth, or the buildings
+which attract the eye in whichever direction it turns.  It is difficult
+to know whether most to admire their stately dimensions or the beauty of
+their forms."
+
+"And what is that long, huge dyke, which connects the island with the
+mainland?  Only look!  There is a huge trireme passing under one of the
+wide arches, on which it is supported--and there comes another."
+
+"That is the great viaduct, called by the Alexandrians the Heptastadion,
+because it is said to be seven stadia in length; and in the upper portion
+it carries a stone water-course--as an elder tree has in it a vein of
+pith-which supplies water to the island of Pharos."
+
+"What a pity it is," said Antinous, "that we cannot overlook from here
+the whole of the structure with the men and the vehicles that swarm upon
+it like busy ants.  That little island and the narrow tongue of land that
+runs out into the harbor with the tall slender building at the end of it,
+half hide it."
+
+"But they serve to vary the picture," replied the Emperor.  "Cleopatra
+often dwelt in the little castle on the island with its harbor, and in
+that tall tower on the northern side of the peninsula, round which, just
+now, the blue waves are playing, while the gulls and pigeons fly happily
+over it--there Antony retreated after the fight of Actium."
+
+"To forget his disgrace!"  exclaimed Antinous.
+
+"He named it his Timonareum, because he hoped there to remain unmolested
+by other human beings, like the wise misanthrope of Athens.  How would it
+be if I called Lochias my Timonareum?"
+
+"No man need try to hide fame and greatness."
+
+"Who told you that it was shame that led Antony to hide himself in that
+place?"  asked the imperial sophist; "he proved often enough, at the head
+of his cavalry, that he was a brave soldier; and though at Actium, when
+all was still going well, he let his ship be turned, it was out of no
+fear of swords and spears, but because Fate compelled him to subjugate
+his strong will to the wishes of a woman with whose destiny his was
+linked."
+
+"Then do you excuse his conduct?"
+
+"I only seek to account for it, and never, for a moment, could allow
+myself to believe that shame ever prompted a single act in Antony.  I--
+do you suppose I could ever blush?  Nay, we cease to feel shame when we
+have lived to feel such profound contempt for the world."
+
+"But why then should Marc Antony have shut himself up, in yonder sea-
+washed prison?"
+
+"Because, to every true man, who has dissipated whole years of his life
+with women, jesters and flatterers, a moment comes of satiety and
+loathing.  In such an hour he feels that of all the men under the lights
+of heaven, he, himself, is the only one with whom it is worth his while
+to commune.  After Actium, this was what Antony felt, and he quitted the
+society of men in order to find himself for once in good company."
+
+"It is that, no doubt, which drives you now and again into solitude."
+
+"No doubt-but you are always allowed to follow me."
+
+"Then you regard me as better than others," exclaimed Antinous joyfully.
+
+"As more beautiful at any rate," replied Hadrian kindly.  "Ask me some
+more questions."
+
+But Antinous needed a few minutes pause before he could comply with this
+desire.  At last he recollected himself and proceeded to inquire why most
+of the vessels were moored in the harbor beyond the Heptastadion, known
+as Eunostus.  The entrance there was less dangerous than that between the
+Pharos and the point of Lochias which led into the eastern landing-
+places.  And then Hadrian could give him information as to every building
+in the city about which his companion evinced any curiosity.  But when
+the Emperor had pointed out the Soma, under which rested the remains of
+Alexander the Great, he became thoughtful, and said, as if to himself:
+
+"The Great--We may well envy the young Macedonian; not the mere name of
+Great, for many of small worth have had it bestowed on them, but because
+he really earned it!"
+
+There was not a question put by the handsome Bithynian that Hadrian could
+not answer; Antinous followed all his explanations with growing
+astonishment, exclaiming at last:
+
+"How perfectly well you know this place--and yet you never were here
+before."
+
+"It is one of the greatest pleasures of travelling," replied Hadrian,
+"that on our journeys we come to know many things in their actuality of
+which we have formed an idea from books and narratives.  This requires us
+to compare the reality with the pictures in our own minds, seen with the
+inward eye, before we saw the reality.  It is to me a far smaller
+pleasure to be surprised by something new and unexpected than to make
+myself more closely acquainted with something I know already sufficiently
+to deem it worthy to be known better.  Do you understand what I mean?"
+
+"To be sure I do.  We hear of a thing, and when we afterwards see it we
+ask ourselves whether we have conceived of it rightly.  But I always
+picture people or places which I hear much praised, as much more
+beautiful than I ever find the reality."
+
+"The balance of difference, which is to the disadvantage of reality,"
+answered Hadrian, "stands not so much to its discredit, as to the credit
+of the eager and beautifying power of your youthful imagination.  I--I--"
+and the Emperor stroked his beard and gazed out into the distance.  "I
+learn by experience that the older I grow, the more often I find it
+possible so to imagine men, places, and things that I have not seen as
+that when I meet them in real life for the first time, I feel justified
+in fancying that I have known them long since, visited them, and beheld
+them with my bodily eyes.  Here, for instance, I feel as if I saw nothing
+new, but only gazed once more at what has long been familiar.  But that
+is no wonder, for I know my Strabo, and have heard and read a hundred
+accounts of this city.  Still there are many things which are quite
+strange to me, and yet as they come before me make me feel as if I had
+seen or known them long ago."
+
+"I have felt something like that," said Antinous.  "Can our souls have
+ever lived in other bodies, and sometimes recall the impressions made in
+that former existence?
+
+"Favorinus once told me that some great philosopher, Plato, I think,
+asserts that before we are born our souls are wafted about in the
+firmament that they may contemplate the earth on which they are destined
+subsequently to dwell.  Favorinus says too--"
+
+"Favorinus!"  cried  Hadrian, evasively.  "That graceful elocutionist
+has plenty of skill in giving new and captivating forms to the thoughts
+of the great philosophers; but he has not been able to surprise the
+secret of his own soul--besides, he talks too much, and he cannot
+dispense with the excitement of life."
+
+"Still you have recognized the phenomenon, but you disapprove of
+Favorinus' explanation of it?"
+
+"Yes, for I have met men and things as old acquaintances which never saw
+the light till long after I was born.  Possibly my own interpretation may
+not adapt itself to the consciousness of all--but in myself, I know for
+certain, there dwells a mysterious something which stirs and works in me
+independently of myself, which enters into me, and takes its departure at
+its will.  Call it as you will, my Daimon, or even my Genius--the name
+matters not.  Nor will this 'something' always come at my bidding, while
+it often possesses me when I least expect it.  In those moments when it
+stirs within me, I am master of much which is peculiar to the experience
+and potentiality of that hour.  What is known to that Daimon always
+appears to me the very same when I actually meet it.  Thus Alexandria is
+not unknown to me, because my Genius has seen it in his flights.  It has
+learnt and done much, both in me and for me; a hundred times, face to
+face with my own finished works I have asked myself:  'Is it possible
+that you--Hadrian--your mother's son-can have achieved this?  What then
+is the mysterious power that aided you to do it?'  Now I also recognize
+it, and can see it work in others.  The man in whom it dwells soon excels
+his fellows, and it is most manifest in artists.  Or is it that mere
+common men become great artists simply because the Genius selects them as
+his temple to dwell in?  Do you follow me, boy?"
+
+"Not altogether," replied Antinous, and his large eyes which had sparkled
+brightly so long as he gazed with the Emperor on the city, were now cast
+down and fixed wearily on the ground.  "Do not be angry with me, my Lord,
+but I shall never understand such things as these, for there is no man
+with whom your Genius, as you term it, has less concern than with me.
+Thoughts of my own have I none, and it is difficult to me to follow the
+thoughts of others; indeed I should like to know how I am ever to do
+anything right.  When I want to work, to work something out, no Daimon
+helps my soul; no--it feels quite helpless, and drifts into dreaminess.
+And if I ever do complete anything, I am obliged to own to myself that I
+certainly might have been able to do it better."
+
+"Self-knowledge," laughed Hadrian, "is the climax of wisdom.  A man has
+done something if he has only added a 'thing of beauty' to the joys of a
+friend's imagination; what others do by hard work you do by mere
+existence.  Be quiet, Argus!"  For,  while he was speaking, the hound had
+risen, and had gone snarling to the door.  In spite of his master's
+orders he broke into a loud bark when he heard a steady knock at the
+door.  Hadrian looked round in bewilderment, and asked: "Where is
+Mastor?"
+
+Antinous shouted the slave's name into the Emperor's bedroom, which was
+next to the living-room, but in vain.  "He generally is always at hand,
+and as brisk as a lark, but to-day he looked as if in a dream, and while
+he was dressing me he first let my shoe fall out of his hand and then my
+brooch."
+
+"I read him yesterday a letter from Rome.  His young wife has gone away
+with a ship's captain."
+
+"We may wish him joy of being free again."
+
+"It does not seem to afford him any satisfaction."
+
+"Oh! a handsome lad like my body-slave can find as many substitutes as he
+likes."
+
+"But he has not done so.  For the present he is still smarting under his
+loss."
+
+"How wise!  There, some one is knocking again.  Just see who ventures--
+but to be sure any one has a right to knock, for at Lochias I am not the
+Emperor, but a simple private gentleman.  Lie down Argus, are you crazy,
+old fellow?  Why the dog maintains my dignity better than I do, and he
+does not seem altogether to like the architect's part I am playing."
+
+Antinous had already raised his hand to lift the handle, when the door
+was gently opened from outside, and the steward's slave stood on the
+threshold.  The old negro presented a lamentable spectacle.  The
+Emperor's dignified and awe-compelling figure, and his favorite's rich
+garments made him feel embarrassed, and the hound's threatening growl
+filled him with such terror that he huddled his lean negro-legs together,
+and, as far as its length would allow, tried to cover them for protection
+with his threadbare tunic.
+
+Hadrian gazed in astonishment at this image of fear, and then asked:
+
+"Well! what do you want, fellow?"
+
+The slave attempted to advance a step or two, but at a loud command from
+Hadrian he stood still, and as he looked down at his flat feet, he
+ruefully scratched his short-cropped grey hair, some of which had fallen
+off and left a bald patch.
+
+"Well," repeated Hadrian, in a tone which was anything rather than
+encouraging, as he relaxed his hold on the hound's collar in a somewhat
+suspicious manner.  The slave's bent knees began to quake, and holding
+out his broad palm to the grey-bearded gentleman, who seemed to him
+hardly less alarming than the dog, he began to stammer out in fearfully-
+mutilated Greek the speech which his master had repeated to him several
+times, and which set forth that he had come "into the presence of the
+architect, Claudius Venator, of Rome, to announce the visit of his
+master, a member of the town-council, a Macedonian, and a Roman citizen,
+Keraunus, the son of Ptolemy, steward of the once royal but now imperial
+palace at Lochias."
+
+Hadrian unrelentingly allowed the poor wretch to finish his speech,
+rubbing his hands with amusement, while the sweat of anguish stood on the
+old slave's face, and to prolong the delightful joke, he took good care
+not to help the miserable old man when his unaccustomed tongue came to
+some insuperable difficulty.  When, at length, the negro had finished the
+pompous announcement, Hadrian said, kindly:
+
+"Tell your master he may come in."
+
+Scarcely had the slave left the room, when the sovereign, turning to his
+favorite, exclaimed:
+
+"This is a delicious joke!  What will the Jupiter be like, when the eagle
+is such a bird as this!"
+
+Keraunus was not long to wait for.  While pacing up and down the passage
+outside the Emperor's room, his bad humor had risen considerably, for he
+took it as a slight on the part of the architect, that he should allow
+him--whose birth and dignities he would have learnt from his slave--to
+wait several minutes, each of which seemed to him a quarter of an hour.
+His expectation too, that the Roman would come to conduct him in person
+into his apartment was by no means fulfilled, for the slave's message was
+briefly--"He may come in."
+
+"Did he say may?  Did he not say "please to come in, or have the goodness
+to come in?" asked the steward.
+
+"He may come in--was what he said," replied the slave.
+
+Keraunus grunted out, "Well!" set his gold circlet straight on his head
+which he held very upright, crossed his arms over his broad chest with a
+sigh, and ordered the black man:
+
+"Open the door."
+
+The steward crossed the threshold with much dignity: then, not to commit
+any breach of courtesy, he bowed low, and was about to begin to utter his
+reprimand in cutting terms, when a glance at the Emperor and at the
+splendid decoration which the room had undergone since the day previous,
+not to mention the very unpleasant growling of the big dog, prompted him
+to strike a milder string.  His slave had followed him and had sought a
+safe corner near the door, between the wall of the room and a couch, but
+he himself, conquering his alarm at the dog, went forward some distance
+into the room.  The Emperor had seated himself on the window-sill; he
+pressed his foot lightly on the head of the dog, and gazed at Keraunus as
+at some remarkable curiosity.  His eye thus met that of the steward and
+made him clearly understand that he had to do with a greater personage
+than he had expected.  There was something imposing in the person of the
+man who sat before him; for this very reason, however, his pride stood on
+tiptoe, and he asked in a tone of swaggering dignity, though not so
+sharply and abruptly as he had intended.
+
+"Am I standing before the new visitor to Lochias, the architect Claudius
+Venator of Rome?"
+
+"You are--standing--" replied the Emperor, with a roguish side glance at
+Antinous.
+
+"You have met with a friendly reception to this palace.  Like my fathers,
+who have enjoyed the stewardship of it for centuries, I know how to
+exercise the sacred duties of hospitality."
+
+"I am surprised to hear of the high antiquity of your family and bow to
+your pious sentiments," answered Hadrian, in the same tone as the
+steward.  "What farther may I learn from you?"
+
+"I did not come here  to  relate history," said Keraunus, whose gall rose
+as he thought he detected a mocking smile on the stranger's lips.  "I did
+not come here to tell stories, but to complain that you, as a warmly-
+welcomed guest, show so little anxiety to protect your host from injury."
+
+"How is that?"  asked Hadrian, rising from his seat and signing to
+Antinous to hold back the hound, which manifested a peculiar aversion to
+the steward.  It no doubt detected that he had come to show no special
+friendliness to his owner.
+
+"Is that dangerous dog, gnashing its teeth there, your property?"  asked
+Keraunus.
+
+"Yes."
+
+This morning it threw down my daughter and smashed a costly pitcher,
+which she is fond of carrying to fetch water in the dawn."
+
+"I heard of that misadventure," said Hadrian, "and I would give much if I
+could undo it.  The vessel shall be amply made good to you."
+
+"I beg you not to add insult to the injury, we have suffered by your
+fault.  A father whose daughter has been knocked down and hurt--"
+
+"Then, Argus actually bit her?"  cried Antinous, horrified.
+
+"No,"  Keraunus replied.  "But as she fell her head and foot have been
+injured, and she is suffering much pain."
+
+"That is very sad," said Hadrian, "and as I am not ignorant of the
+healing art, I will gladly try to help the poor girl."
+
+"I pay a professional leech, who attends me and mine," replied the
+steward, in a repellant tone, "and I came hither to request--or, to be
+frank with you--to require--"
+
+"What?"
+
+"First, that my pardon shall be asked."
+
+"That, the artist, Claudius Venator, is always ready to do when any one
+has suffered damage by his fault.  What has happened--I repeat it--
+grieves me sincerely, and I beg you tell the maiden to whom the accident
+happened, that her pain is mine.  What more do you desire?"
+
+The steward's features had calmed down at these last words, and he
+answered with less excitement than before:
+
+"I must request you to chain up your dog, or to shut it up, or in some
+way to keep it from mischief."
+
+"That is pretty strong!"  cried the Emperor.
+
+"It is only a reasonable demand, and I must stand by it," replied
+Keraunus decidedly.  "Neither I--nor my children's lives are safe, so
+long as this wild beast is prowling about at pleasure."
+
+Hadrian had, ere now, erected monuments to deceased favorites, both dogs
+and horses, and his faithful Argus was no less dear to him, than other
+four-footed companions have been to other childless men; hence the queer
+fat man's demand seemed to him so audacious and monstrous, that he
+indignantly exclaimed:
+
+"Folly!--the dog shall be watched, but nothing farther."
+
+"You will chain him up," replied Keraunus, with an angry, glare, "or
+someone will be found who will make him harmless forever."
+
+"That will be an evil attempt for the cowardly murderer!" cried Hadrian.
+"Eh!  Argus, what do you think?"
+
+At these words the dog drew himself up, and would have sprung at the
+steward's throat if his master and Antinous had not held him back.
+
+Keraunus felt that the dog had threatened him, but at this instant he
+would have let himself be torn by him without wincing, so completely was
+he overmastered by the fury born of his injured pride.
+
+"And am I--I too, to be hunted down by a dog, in this house?" he cried
+defiantly, setting his left fist on his hip.  "Every thing has its
+limits, and so has my patience with a guest who, in spite of his ripe age
+forgets due consideration.  I will inform the prefect Titianus of your
+proceedings here, and when the Emperor arrives he shall know--"
+
+"What?" laughed Hadrian.
+
+"The way you behave to me."
+
+"Till then the dog shall stay where it is, and really under due
+restraint.  But I can tell you man, that Hadrian is as much a friend of
+dogs as I am--and fonder of me than even of dogs."
+
+"We will  see,"  growled  Keraunus,  "I  or the dog!"
+
+"I am afraid it will be the dog then."
+
+"And Rome will see a fresh revolt," cried Keraunus, rolling his eyes.
+"You took Egypt from the Ptolemies."
+
+"And with very good reason--besides that is a stale old story."
+
+"Justice is never stale, like a bad debt."
+
+"At any rate it perishes with persons it concerns; there have been no
+Lagides left here--how many years?"
+
+"So you believe, because it suits your ends to believe it," replied the
+steward.  "In the man who stands before you flows the blood of the
+Macedonian rulers of this country.  My eldest son bears the name of
+Ptolemaeus Helios--that borne by the last of the Lagides, who perished as
+you pretend."
+
+"Dear, good, blind Helios!" interrupted the black slave; for he was
+accustomed to avail himself of the hapless child's name as a protection,
+when Keraunus was in a doubtful humor.
+
+"Then the last descendant of the Ptolemies is blind!" laughed the
+Emperor.  "Rome may ignore his claims.  But I will inform the Emperor how
+dangerous a pretender this roof yet harbors."
+
+"Denounce me, accuse me, calumniate me!"  cried the steward,
+contemptuously.  "But I will not let myself be trodden on.  Patience--
+patience!  you will live to know me yet."
+
+"And you, the blood-hound," replied Hadrian, "if you do not this instant
+quit the room with your mouthing crow--"
+
+Keraunus signed to his slave and without greeting his foe in any way,
+turned his back upon him.  He paused for a moment at the door of the room
+and cried out to Hadrian:
+
+"Rely upon this, I shall complain to the Council and write to Caesar how
+you presume to behave to a Macedonian citizen."
+
+As soon as the steward had quitted the room, Hadrian freed the dog, which
+flew raging at the door which was closed between him and the object of
+his aversion.  Hadrian ordered him to be quiet, and then turning to his
+companion, he exclaimed:
+
+"A perfect monster of a man! to the last degree ridiculous, and at the
+same time repulsive.  How his rage seethed in him, and yet could not
+break out fairly and thoroughly.  I am always on my guard with such
+obstinate fools.  Pay attention to my Argus, and remember, we are in
+Egypt, the land of poison, as Homer long since said.  Mastor must keep
+his eyes open--Here he is at last."
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Have lived to feel such profound contempt for the world
+In order to find himself for once in good company--(Solitude)
+Never speaks a word too much or too little
+They keep an account in their heart and not in their head
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR, Part 1.
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 4.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+After the Emperor's body-slave had started up to go to the aid of Selene,
+who was attacked by his sovereign's dog, something had happened to him
+which he could not forget; he had received an impression which he could
+not wipe out, and words and tones had stirred his mind and soul which
+incessantly echoed in them, so that it was in a preoccupied and half-
+dreamy way that he had done his master those little services which he was
+accustomed to perform every morning, briskly and with complete attention.
+
+Summer and winter Mastor was accustomed to leave his master's bedroom
+before sunrise to prepare everything that Hadrian could need when he rose
+from his slumbers.  There was the gold plating to clean on the narrow
+greaves and the leather straps which belonged to his master's military
+boots, his clothes to air and to perfume with the slight, hardly
+perceptible scent that he liked, but the preparations for Hadrian's bath
+were what took up most of his time.  At Lochias there were not as yet--
+as there were in the imperial palace at Rome--properly-filled baths;
+still his servant knew that here, as there, his master would use a due
+abundance of water.  He had been told that if he required anything for
+his master he was to apply to Pontius.  Him he found, without seeking
+him, outside the room meant for Hadrian's sitting-room, to which, while
+the Emperor still slept, he was endeavoring, with the help of his
+assistants, to give a comfortable and pleasing aspect.  The architect
+referred the slave to the workmen who were busy laying the pavement in
+the forecourt of the palace; these men would carry in for him as much
+water as ever he could need.  The body-servant's position relieved him of
+such humble duties, still, when on the chase, when travelling, or as need
+arose, he was accustomed to perform them unasked, and very willingly.
+
+The sun had not yet risen when he went out into the court, a number of
+slaves were lying on their mats asleep, others had camped round a fire
+and were waiting for their early broth, which was being stirred with
+wooden sticks by an old man and a boy.  Mastor would not disturb either
+group; he went up to a party of workmen, who seemed to be talking
+together, and yet remained attentive to the speech of an old man who was
+evidently telling them a story.
+
+The poor fellow's heart was heavy and his mind was little bent on tales
+and amusements.  All life was embittered.  The services required of him
+usually seemed to him of paramount importance, beyond everything else;
+but to-day it was different.  He had an obscure feeling as though fate
+herself had released him from all his duties, as if misfortune had cut
+the bonds which bound him to his service to the Emperor, and had made him
+an isolated and lonely being.  It even came into his head whether he
+should not take in his hand all the gold pieces given him sometimes by
+Hadrian, or which the wealthy folks who wished to be the foremost of
+those introduced into the Emperor's presence, after waiting in the
+antechamber, had flung to him or slipped into his hand--make his escape
+and carouse away all that he possessed in the taverns of the great city,
+in wine and the gay company of women.  It was all the same to him what
+might happen to him.
+
+If he were caught he would probably be flogged to death; but he had had
+kicks and blows in plenty before he had got into the Emperor's service,
+nay; when he was brought to Rome he had once even been hunted with dogs.
+If he lost his life, after all what would it matter?  He would have done
+with it then, once for all, and the future offered him no prospect but
+perpetual fatigue in the service of a restless master, anxiety and
+contempt.  He was a thoroughly good-hearted being who could not bear to
+hurt any one, and who found it equally hard to disturb a fellow-man in
+his pleasures or amusement.  He felt particularly disinclined to do so
+just now, for a wounded soul is keenly alive to the moods and feelings of
+others; so, as he approached the group of workmen, from among whom he
+proposed to choose his water-carrier, he determined that he would not
+interrupt the story-teller, on whose lips the gaze of his audience was
+riveted with interest.
+
+The glare of the blaze under the soup-kettle fell full on the speaker's
+face.  He was an old laborer, but his long hair proclaimed him a freeman.
+His abundant white beard induced Mastor to suppose that he must be a Jew
+or a Phoenician, but there was nothing remarkable in the old man, who was
+dressed in a poor and scanty tunic, excepting his peculiarly brilliant
+eyes, which were immovably fixed on the heavens, and the oblique position
+in which he held his head, supporting it on the left side with his raised
+hands.
+
+"And now," said the speaker, dropping his arms, "let us go back to our
+labors, my brethren.  'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,' it
+is written.  It is often hard to us old men to heave stones and bend our
+stiff backs for so long together, but we are nearer than you younger ones
+to the happy future.  Life is not easy to all of us, but it is we who
+labor and are heavy laden--we above all others--that the Lord has bidden
+to be his guests, and not last among us the slaves."
+
+"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh
+you," interrupted one of the younger men repeating the words of Christ.
+
+"Yea, thus saith the Saviour," said the old man approvingly, "and he
+surely then was thinking of us.  I said just now our load is not light,
+but how much heavier was the burden he took upon him of his own free will
+to release us from woe.  Every one must work, nay even Caesar himself,
+but he who could dwell in the glory of his Father let himself be mocked
+and scorned and spit in the face, let the crown of thorns be pressed on
+his suffering head, bore his heavy cross, sinking under its weight, and
+endured a death of torment, and all for our sakes, without a murmur.  But
+he suffered not in vain, for God accepted the sacrifice of his Son, and
+did his will and said, 'All that believe on Him should not perish, but
+have everlasting life.'  And though a new and weary day is now beginning,
+and though it should be followed by a thousand wearier still, though
+death is the end of life--still we believe in our Redeemer, we have God's
+word bidding us out of sorrows and sufferings into his Heaven, promising
+us for a brief time of misery in this world, endless ages of joy.--Now go
+to work.  Our sturdy friend Krates will work for you dear Knakias until
+your finger is healed.  When the bread is distributed remember, each of
+you, the children of our poor deceased brother Philammon.  You, poor
+Gibbus, will find your labors bitter to-day.  This man's master, my dear
+brethren, sold both his daughters yesterday to a dealer from Smyrna; but
+if you never see them again in Egypt, or in any other country, my friend,
+you will meet them in the home of your Heavenly Father--of that you may
+rest assured.  Our life on earth is but a pilgrimage, and Heaven is the
+goal, and the Guide who teaches us never to miss the way, is our Saviour.
+Weariness and toil, sorrow and suffering are easy to bear, to him who
+knows that when the solemn hour is near, the King of Kings shall throw
+open his dwelling-place, and invite him to enter as a favored guest to
+inhabit there, where all we have loved have found joy and rest."
+
+"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh
+you," said a man's loud voice again from the circle that sat round the
+old man.  The old man stood up, signed to a boy who distributed the bread
+in equal shares to the workmen, and took up a jar with handles, out of
+which he filled a large wooden cup with wine.
+
+Not a word of this discourse had escaped Mastor, and the often repeated
+verse, "Come unto me all ye that labor," dwelt in his mind like the
+invitation of a hospitable friend bidding him to happy days of freedom
+and enjoyment.  A distant gleam shone through the weight of his troubles,
+seeming to promise the dawn of a new day, and he reverently went up to
+the old man, in the first place to ask him if he was the overseer of the
+workmen who stood round him.
+
+"I am," replied the old man, and as soon as he learnt what Mastor
+required as a commission from the controlling architect, he pointed out
+some young slaves who quickly brought the water that he needed.
+
+Pontius met the Emperor's servant and his water-carriers and remarked,
+loudly enough for Mastor to understand him, to Pollux who was with him:
+
+"The architect's servant is getting Christians to wait upon his master
+to-day.  They are regular and sober workmen who do their duty silently
+and well."
+
+While Mastor was giving his master towels, and helping to dry and dress
+him, he was far less attentive than usual, for he could not get the words
+he had heard from the overseer's lips out of his mind.  He had not
+understood them all, but he had fully comprehended that there was a kind
+and loving God who had suffered in his own person the utmost torments,
+who was especially gracious to the poor, the miserable, and the bondsman,
+and who promised to refresh them and comfort them, and to re-unite them
+to those who had once been dear to them.  "Come unto me," sounded again
+and again in his ears, and struck so warmly to his heart that he could
+not help thinking first of his mother, who, so many a time, when he was a
+child, had called to him only to clasp him in her arms as he ran towards
+her, and to press him to her heart.  Just so had he often called his poor
+little dead son, and the feeling that there could be any one who might
+still call to him--the forsaken lonely man--with loving words to release
+him from his griefs, to reunite him to his mother, his father, and all
+the dear ones left behind in his lost and distant home, took half the
+bitterness from his pain.
+
+He was accustomed to listen to all that was said in the Emperor's
+presence, and year by year he had learnt to understand more of what he
+heard.  He had often heard the Christians discussed, and usually as
+deluded but dangerous fools.  Many of his fellow-slaves, too, he had
+heard called Christian idiots, but still not unfrequently very reasonable
+men, and sometimes even Hadrian himself, had taken the part of the
+Christians.
+
+This was the first time that Mastor had heard from their own lips what
+they believed and hoped, and now, while fulfilling his duties he could
+hardly bear the delay before he could once more seek out the old
+pavement-worker, to enquire of him, and to have the hopes confirmed which
+his words had aroused in his soul.
+
+No sooner had Hadrian and Antinous gone into the living-room than Mastor
+had hastened off across the court to find the Christians.  There he tried
+to open a conversation with the overseer concerning his faith, but the
+old man answered that there was a season for everything; just now he
+could not interrupt the work, but that he might come again after sundown,
+and that he then would tell him of Him who had promised to refresh the
+sorrow-laden.
+
+Mastor thought no more of making his escape.  When he appeared again in
+his master's presence there was such a sunny light in his blue eyes that
+Hadrian left the angry words he had prepared for him unspoken, and cried
+to Antinous, laughing and pointing to the slave:
+
+"I really believe the rascal has consoled himself already, and found a
+new mate.  Let us, too, follow the precept of Horace, so far as we may,
+and enjoy the present day.  The poet may let the future go as it will,
+but I cannot, for, unfortunately, I am the Emperor."
+
+"And Rome may thank the gods that you are," replied Antinous.
+
+"What happy phrases the boy hits upon sometimes," said Hadrian with a
+laugh, and he stroked the lad's brown curls.  "Now till noon I must work
+with Phlegon and Titianus, whom I am expecting, and then perhaps we may
+find something to laugh at.  Ask the tall sculptor there behind the
+screens, at what hour Balbilla is to sit to him for her bust.  We must
+also inspect the architect's work, and that of the Alexandrian artists by
+daylight; that, their zeal has well deserved."
+
+Hadrian retired to the room where his private secretary had ready for him
+the despatches and papers for Rome and the provinces, which the Emperor
+was required to read and to sign.  Antinous remained alone in the
+sitting-room, and for an hour he continued to gaze at the ships which
+came to anchor in the harbor, or sailed out of the roads, and amused
+himself with watching the swift boats which swarmed round the larger
+vessels, like wasps round ripe fruit.  He listened to the songs of the
+sailors, and the music of the flute-players, to the measured beat of the
+oars, which came up from the triremes in the private harbor of the
+Emperor as they went out to sea.  Even the pure blue of the sky and the
+warmth of the delicious morning were a pleasure to him, and he asked
+himself whether the smell of tar, which pervaded the seaport, were
+agreeable or not.
+
+Presently as the sun mounted in the sky, its bright sphere dazzled him;
+he left the window with a yawn, stretched himself on a couch, and stared
+absently up at the ceiling of the room without thinking of the subject
+which the faded picture on it was intended to represent.
+
+Idleness had long since grown to be the occupation of his life; but
+accustomed to it as he was, he was sometimes conscious of its dark
+attendant shadow ennui--as of a disagreeable and intrusive interruption
+to the enjoyment of life.  Generally in such lonely hours of idle reverie
+his thoughts reverted to his belongings in Bithynia, of whom he never
+dared to speak before the Emperor, or perhaps of the hunting excursions
+he had made with Hadrian, of the slaughtered game, of the fish he--an
+experienced angler--had caught, or such like.  What the future might
+bring him troubled him not, for to the love of creativeness, to ambition
+--to all, in short, that bore any resemblance to a passionate excitement
+his soul had, so far, remained a stranger.  The admiration which was
+universally excited by his beauty gave him no pleasure, and many a time
+he felt as though it was not worth while to stir a limb or draw a breath.
+Almost everything he saw was indifferent to him excepting a kind word
+from the lips of the Emperor, whom he regarded as great above all other
+men, whom he feared as Destiny incarnate, and to whom he felt himself
+bound as intimately as the flower to the tree, the blossom that must die
+when the stem is broken, on which it flaunts as an ornament and a grace.
+
+But, to-day, as he flung himself on the divan his visions took a new
+direction.  He could not help thinking of the pale girl whom he had saved
+from the jaws of the blood-hound--of the white cold hand which for an
+instant had clung to his neck--of the cold words with which she had
+afterwards repelled him.
+
+Antinous began to long violently to see Selene.  That same Antinous, to
+whom in all the cities he had visited with the Emperor, and in Rome
+particularly, the noble fair ones had sent branches of flowers and tender
+letters, and who nevertheless, since the day when he left his home, had
+never felt for any woman or girl half so tender a sentiment, as for the
+hunter the Emperor had given him, or for the big dog.  This girl stood
+before his memory like breathing marble.  Perchance the man might be
+doomed to death who should rest on her cold breast, but such a death must
+be full of ecstasy, and it seemed to him that it would be far more
+blissful to die with the blood frozen in his veins, than of the too rapid
+throbbing of his heart.
+
+"Selene," he murmured, now and again, with soft hesitation; a strange
+unrest foreign to his calm nature seemed to propagate itself through all
+his limbs, and he who commonly would be stretched on a couch for hours
+without stirring, lost in dreams, now sprang up and paced the room,
+sighing deeply, and with long strides.
+
+It was a passionate longing for Selene that drove him up and down, and
+his wish to see her again crystallized into resolve, and prompted him to
+contrive the ways and means of meeting her once more before the Emperor's
+return.
+
+Simply to invade her father's lodging without farther ceremony, seemed to
+him out of the question, and yet he was certain of finding her there,
+since her injured foot would of course keep her at home.  Should he once
+more go to the steward with a request for bread and salt?  But he dared
+not ask anything of Keraunus in Hadrian's name after the scene which had
+so recently taken place.  Should he go there to carry her a new pitcher
+in the place of the broken one?  But that would only freshly enrage the
+arrogant official.
+
+Should he--should he--should he not?  But no, it was quite impossible--
+still, that no doubt--that was the right idea.  In his medicine-chest
+there were a few extracts which had been given to him by the Emperor; he
+would offer her one of these to dilute with water and apply to her
+bruised foot.  And this act of sympathy could not displease even his
+master, who liked to prove his healing art on the sick or suffering.  He
+at once called Mastor, and desired him to take charge of the hound which
+had followed his steps as he paced the room, then he went into his
+sleeping-room, took out a phial of a most costly essence, which Hadrian
+had given him on his last birthday, and which had formerly belonged to
+Trajan's wife, Kotina, and then proceeded to the steward's rooms.  On the
+steps where he had found Selene, he found the black slave with some
+children.  The old man had sat down them and got no farther for fear of
+the Roman's dog.  Antinous went up to him and begged him to guide him to
+his master's quarters, and the negro immediately showed him the way,
+opened the door of the antechamber, and pointing to the living-room said:
+
+"There--but Keraunus is absent."
+
+Without troubling himself any further about Antinous the slave went back
+to the children, but the Bithyman stood irresolute, with his flask in his
+hand, for besides Selene's voice he heard that of another girl and the
+deeper tones of a man.  He was still hesitating when Arsinoe's loud
+exclamation of "Who's there?"  obliged him to advance.
+
+In the sitting-room Selene was standing dressed in a long light-colored
+robe with a veil over her head, as if prepared to go out, but Arsinoe was
+perched on the edge of a table, in such a way as that the tips of her
+toes only touched the ground, and on the table lay a quantity of old-
+fashioned things.  Before her stood a Phoenician, of middle age, holding
+in his hand a finely-carved cup; apparently he was in treaty for it with
+the young girl.
+
+Keraunus had been again to-day to a dealer in curiosities, but he had not
+found him at home, so he had left word at his shop that Hiram might call
+upon him in his rooms at Lochias, where he could show him several
+valuable rarities.  The Phoenician had arrived before the return of the
+steward himself, who had been detained at a meeting of the town council,
+and Arsinoe was displaying her father's treasures, whose beauties she was
+extolling with much eloquence.  Hiram unfortunately offered a no higher
+price than Gabinius, whom the steward had sent off so indignantly the
+previous evening.
+
+Selene had been convinced from the first of the bootlessness of the
+attempt, and was now anxious to bring the transaction to a speedy
+conclusion, as the hour was approaching when she and Arsinoe had to go to
+the papyrus factory.  To her sister's refusal to accompany her, and to
+the old slave-woman's entreaty that she would rest her foot, at any rate
+for to-day, she had responded only with a resolute, "I am going."
+
+The appearance of the youth on the scene occasioned the girls some
+embarrassment.  Selene recognized him at once, Arsinoe thought him
+handsome but awkward, while the curiosity-dealer gazed at him in perfect
+admiration, and was the first to offer him a greeting.  Antinous returned
+it, bowed to the sisters, and then said turning to Selene:
+
+"We heard that your head was cut, and your foot hurt, and as we were
+guilty of your mishap, we venture to offer you this phial which contains
+a good remedy for such injuries."
+
+"Thank you," replied the girl.  "But I feel already so well that I shall
+try to go out."
+
+"That you certainly ought not to do," said Antinous, beseechingly.
+
+"I must," replied Selene, gravely.
+
+"Then, at any rate, take the phial to use for a lotion when you return.
+Ten drops in such a cup as that, full of water."
+
+"I can try it when I come in."
+
+"Do so, and you will see how healing it is.  You are not vexed with us
+any longer?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I am glad of that!"  cried the boy, fixing his large dreamy eyes on
+Selene with silent passion.  This gaze displeased her, and she said more
+coldly than before to the Bithyman.
+
+"To whom shall I give the phial when I have used the stuff in it?"
+
+"Keep it, pray keep it," begged Antinous.  "It is pretty, and will be
+twice as precious in my eyes when it belongs to you."
+
+"It is pretty-but I do not wish for presents."
+
+"Then destroy it when you have done with it.  You have not forgiven us
+our dog's bad behavior, and we are sincerely sorry that our dog--"
+
+"I  am not vexed with you.  Arsinoe pour the medicine into a saucer."
+
+The steward's younger daughter immediately obeyed, and noticing as she
+did so, how pretty the phial was, sparkling with various colors, she said
+frankly enough:
+
+"If my sister will not have it, give it to me.  How can you make such a
+pother about nothing, Selene?"
+
+"Take it," said Antinous, looking anxiously at the ground, for it had now
+just occurred to him how highly the Emperor had valued this little
+bottle, and that he might possibly ask him some time what had become of
+it.  Selene shrugged her shoulders, and drawing her veil round her head,
+she exclaimed, with a glance of annoyance at her sister:
+
+"It is high time!"
+
+"I am not going to-day," replied Arsinoe, defiantly, "and it is folly for
+you to walk a quarter of a mile with your swollen foot."
+
+"It would be wiser to take some care of it," observed the dealer,
+politely, and Antinous anxiously added:
+
+"If you increase your own suffering you will add to our self-reproach."
+
+"I must go," Selene repeated resolutely," and you with me, sister."
+
+It was not out of mere wilfulness that she spoke, it was bitter
+necessity, that forced her to utter the words.  To-day, at any rate, she
+must not miss going to the papyrus factory, for the week's wages for her
+work and Arsinoe's were to be paid.  Besides, the next day, and for four
+days after, the workshops and counting-house would be closed, for the
+Emperor had announced to the wealthy proprietor his intention of visiting
+them, and in his honor various dilapidations in the old rooms were to be
+repaired, and various decorations added to the bare-looking building.
+Hence, to remain away from the works to-day meant, not merely the loss of
+a week's pay, but the sacrifice of twelve days, since it had been
+announced to the work-people, that as a token of rejoicing, and in honor
+of the imperial visit, full pay would be given for the unemployed days;
+and Selene needed money to maintain the family, and must therefore
+persist in her intention.
+
+When she saw that Arsinoe showed no sign of accompanying her, she once
+more asked with stern determination:
+
+"Are you coming?--Yes, or no."
+
+"No," cried Arsinoe, defiantly, and sitting farther on the table.
+
+"Then I am to go alone?"
+
+"You are to stay here."
+
+Selene went close up to her sister and looked at her enquiringly and
+reproachfully; but Arsinoe adhered to her refusal.  She pouted like a
+sulky child, and slapping the hand on which she was leaning three times
+on the table, she repeated, "No--no--no."
+
+Selene called to the old slave-woman, and desired her to remain in the
+sitting-room till her father should return, greeted the dealer politely,
+and Antinous with a careless nod, and then left the room.  The lad had
+followed her, and they both met the children.  Selene pulled their
+dresses straight, and strictly enjoined them not to go near the corridor
+on account of the strange dog.  Antinous stroked the blind boy's pretty
+curly head, and then, as Selene was about to descend the stairs, he asked
+her:
+
+"May I help you?"
+
+"Yes," said the girl, for at the very first step an acute pain in the
+ancle checked her, and she put out her arm to the young man that he might
+support her elbow on his hand.  But her answer would assuredly have been
+"no," if she had had the smallest feeling of liking for the Emperor's
+favorite; but she bore the image of another in her heart, and did not
+even perceive that Antinous was beautiful.  The Bithynian's heart, on the
+other hand, had never beaten so violently as during the brief moments
+when he was permitted to hold Selene's arm.  He felt intoxicated, while
+he was alive to the fact that during the descent of the few steps she was
+suffering great pain.
+
+"Stay at home, and spare yourself!" he begged her once more in a
+trembling voice.
+
+"You worry me!" she said, in a tone of vexation.  "I must go, and it is
+not far."
+
+"May I accompany you?"
+
+She laughed aloud and answered somewhat scornfully:
+
+"Certainly not.  Only conduct me through the corridor that the dog may
+not attack me again, then go where you will--but not with me."
+
+He obeyed when at the end of the passage where it opened into a large
+hall, he bid her farewell, and she thanked him with a few friendly words.
+
+There were two ways out from her father's rooms into the road, one led
+through the rotunda where the Ptolemaic Queens were placed, and across
+several terraces up and down steps through the forecourt; the other, on a
+level all the way, through the rooms and halls of the palace.  She was
+forced to choose the latter, for it would have been impossible for her
+with her aching foot to clamber up a number of steps without help and
+down them again, but she came to this conclusion much against her will,
+for she knew what numbers of men were engaged in the works of
+restoration; and to get through them safely it struck her that she might
+ask her old playfellow to escort her through the crowd of workmen and
+rough slaves as far as his parent's gatehouse.  But she did not easily
+decide on this course, for, since the afternoon when Pollux had shown her
+mother's bust to Arsinoe before showing it to her, she had felt a grudge
+towards the sculptor, who so lately before had touched and opened her
+weary and loveless soul; and this sore feeling had not diminished, but
+had rather increased with time.  At every hour of the day, and whatever
+she was occupied in, she could not help repeating to herself, that she
+had every reason to be vexed with him.
+
+She had stood to him a second time as a model for his work, had spoken to
+him many times, and when last they parted had promised to allow him this
+very evening to study once more the folds of her mantle.  With what
+pleasure she had looked forward to each meeting with Pollux, how truly
+lovable she had thought him on every fresh occasion; how frankly he too,
+expressed his pleasure as often as they met!  They had talked of all
+sorts of things, even of love, and how eager he had been when he told her
+that the only thing she needed to make her happy was a good husband who
+would succor and comfort her as she deserved, and as he spoke he had
+looked at his own strong hands while she had turned red, and had thought
+to herself that if he liked it she would willingly make the experiment of
+enjoying life heartily by his side.
+
+It seemed to her as though they belonged to each other, as if she had
+been born for him alone, and he for her.  Why then yesterday had he shown
+Arsinoe her mother's bust before her?
+
+Well, now she would ask him plainly whether he had placed it on the
+rotunda for her or for her sister, and let him see she was not pleased.
+She must tell him, too, that she could not stand as his model that
+evening; if only on account of her foot that would be impossible.
+
+With increasing pain and effort she crossed the threshold of the hall of
+the Muses, and went up to the screen behind which her friend was
+concealed.  He was not alone, for she heard voices within--and it was not
+a man but a woman who was with him; she could hear her clear laugh at
+some distance.  When she came close up to the screen to call Pollux, the
+woman, who was certainly sitting to him as a model, spoke louder than
+before, and called out merrily:
+
+"But this is delicious!  I am to let you fulfil the office of my maid,
+what audacity these artists have!"
+
+"Say yes," begged the artist, in the gay and cordial tone which more than
+once had helped to ensnare Selene's heart.  "You are beautiful, Balbilla,
+but if you would allow me, you might be far handsomer than you are even."
+
+And again there was a merry laugh behind the screen.  The pleasant voice
+must have hurt poor Selene acutely for she drew up her shoulders, and her
+fair features were stamped with an expression of keen suffering, and she
+pressed both hands over her heart as she went on past the screen and her
+handsome flirting playfellow, limping across the courtyard and into the
+road.
+
+What tortured the poor child so cruelly?  The poverty of her house, and
+her bodily pain, which increased at every step, or her numbed and sore
+heart, betrayed of her newly-blossoming, last, and fairest hope?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Usually when Selene went out walking, many people looked at her with
+admiration, but to-day a couple of street-boys composed her escort.  They
+ran after her calling out impudently, 'dot, and go one,' and tried
+ruthlessly to snatch at the loosely-tied sandal on her injured foot,
+which tapped the pavement at every step.  While Selene was thus making
+her way with cruel pain, satisfaction and happiness had visited Arsinoe;
+for hardly had Selene and Antinous quitted her father's apartments, when
+Hiram begged her to show him the little bottle which the handsome youth
+had just given her.  The dealer turned it over and over in the sunlight,
+tested its ring, tried to scratch it with the stone in his ring, and then
+muttered, "Vasa Murrhma."
+
+The words did not escape the girl's sharp ears, and she had heard her
+father say that the costliest of all the ornamental vessels with which
+the wealthy Romans were wont to decorate their reception-rooms, were
+those called Vasa Murrhina; so she explained to him at once, that she
+knew what high prices were paid for such vases, and that she had no mind
+to sell it cheaply.  He began to bid, she laughingly demanded ten times
+the price, and after a long battle between the dealer and the owner,
+fought now half in jest, and now in grave earnest, the Phoenician said:
+
+"Two thousand drachmae; not a sesterce more."  That is not enough by a
+long way, but then it is yours."
+
+"I would hardly have given half to a less fair customer."
+
+"And I only let you have it because you are such a polite man."
+
+"I will send you the money before sundown."
+
+At these words the girl, who had been radiant with surprise and delight,
+and who would have liked to throw her arms round the bald-headed
+merchant's neck, or round that of her old slave, who was even less
+attractive, or for that matter, would have embraced the world--the
+triumphant girl became thoughtful; her father would certainly come home
+ere long, and she could not conceal from herself that he would disapprove
+of the whole proceeding, and would probably send the phial back to the
+young man, and the money to the dealer.  She herself would never have
+asked the stranger for the bottle if she had had the slightest suspicion
+of its value; but now it certainly belonged to her, and if she had given
+it back again she would have given no one any pleasure; on the contrary,
+she would have offended the stranger, and probably have lost the greatest
+pleasure that she had ever enjoyed.
+
+What was to be done now?  She was still perched on the table; she had
+taken her left foot in her right hand, and sitting in this quaint
+position, she looked down on the ground as gravely as if she were trying
+to find an idea, or a way out of the difficulty, in the pattern on the
+floor.
+
+The dealer for a moment amused himself in studying her bewilderment,
+which he thought charming--only wishing that his son, a young painter,
+were standing in his place.  At last he broke the silence however,
+saying:
+
+"Your father, perhaps, will not agree to our bargain; and yet it is for
+him you want the money?"
+
+"Who says so?"
+
+"Would he have offered me his own treasures if he had not wanted money?"
+
+"It is only--I can--only--" stammered Arsinoe, who was unaccustomed to
+falsehood--I would merely not confess to him--"
+
+"I myself saw how innocently you came by the phial," said the dealer,
+"and Keraunus never need know anything about such a trifle.  Fancy
+yourself, that you have broken it, and that the pieces are lying at the
+bottom of the sea.  Which of all these things does your father value
+least?"
+
+"This old sword of Antony," answered the child, her face brightening once
+more.  "He says it is much too long, and too slender to be what it
+pretends to be.  For my part I do not believe that it is a sword at all,
+but a roasting-spit."
+
+"I shall apply it to that very purpose to-morrow morning in my kitchen,"
+said the dealer, "but I offer you two thousand drachmae for it, and will
+take it with me and send you the amount in a few hours.  Will that do?"
+
+Arsinoe dropped her foot, glided from the table, and instead of
+answering, clapped her hands with glee.
+
+"Only tell him," continued Hiram, "that I am able just now to pay so much
+for this kind of thing, because Caesar is certain to look about him for
+the things that belonged to Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Octavianus,
+Augustus, and other great Romans who have lived in Egypt.  The old woman
+there may bring the spit after me.  My slave is waiting outside, and can
+hide it under his chiton as far as my kitchen door, for if he carried it
+openly the connoisseurs passing by might covet the priceless treasure,
+and we must protect ourselves from the evil eye."
+
+The dealer laughed, took the little bottle into his own keeping, gave the
+sword to the old woman, and then took a friendly leave of the young girl.
+
+As soon as Arsinoe was alone, she flew into the bedroom to put on her
+sandals, threw her veil over her head, and hastened to the papyrus
+manufactory.  Selene must know of the unexpected good fortune that had
+befallen her, and all of them, and then she would have the poor girl
+carried home in a litter, for there were always plenty for hire on the
+quay.
+
+Things did not always go smoothly--very often very unsmoothly and
+stormily between the sisters, but still anything of importance that
+happened to Arsinoe, whether it were good or evil, she must at once tell
+Selene.
+
+Ye gods! what happiness!  She could take her place among the daughters of
+the great citizens in the processions, no less richly apparelled than
+they, and still there would remain a nice little sum for her father and
+sister; and the work in the factory, the nasty dirty work, which she
+hated and loathed, would be at an end, it was to be hoped, for ever.
+
+The old slave was still sitting on the steps with the children; Arsinoe
+tossed them up one after the other, and whispered in each child's ear:
+
+"Cakes this evening!" and she kissed the blind child's eyes, and said:
+
+"You may come with me, dear little man.  I will find a litter for Selene
+and put you in, and you will be carried home like a little prince."
+
+The little blind boy threw his arms up with delight, exclaiming:
+"Through the air, and without falling."  While she was still holding him
+in her arms, her father came up the steps that led from the rotunda to
+the passage, his face streaming with heat and excitement; and after
+wiping his brow and panting to regain his breath, he said:
+
+"Hiram, the curiosity-dealer, met me just outside, with the sword that
+belonged to Antony; and you sold it to him for two thousand drachmae!
+you little fool!"
+
+"But, father, you would have given the old spit for a pasty and a draught
+of wine," laughed Arsinoe.
+
+"I?" cried Keraunus.  "I would have had three times the sum for that
+venerable relic, for which Caesar will give its weight in silver;
+however, sold is sold.  And yet-and yet, the thought that I no longer
+possess the sword of Antony, will give me many sleepless nights."
+
+"If this evening we set you down to a good dish of meat, sleep will soon
+follow," answered Arsinoe, and she took the handkerchief out of her
+father's hand, and coaxingly wiped his temples, going on vivaciously:
+"We are quite rich folks, father, and will show the other citizens'
+daughters what we can do."
+
+"Now you shall both take part in the festival," said Keraunus, decidedly.
+"Caesar shall see that I shun no sacrifice in his honor, and if he
+notices you, and I bring my complaint against that insolent architect
+before him--"
+
+"You must let that pass," begged Arsinoe, "if only poor Selene's foot is
+well by that time."
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"Gone out."
+
+"Then her foot cannot be so very bad.  She will soon come in, it is to be
+hoped."
+
+"Probably--I mean to fetch her with a litter."
+
+"A litter?" said Keraunus, in surprise.
+
+"The two thousand drachmae have turned the girl's head."
+
+"Only on account of her foot.  It was hurting her so much when she went
+out."
+
+"Then why did she not stay at home?  As usual she has wasted an hour to
+save a sesterce, and you, neither of you have any time to spare."
+
+"I will go after her at once."
+
+"No--no, you at any rate, must remain here, for in two hours the matrons
+and maidens are to meet at the theatre."
+
+"In two hours! but mighty Serapis, what are we to put on?"
+
+"It is your business to see to that," replied Keraunus, "I myself will
+have the litter you spoke of, and be carried down to Tryphon, the ship-
+builder.  Is there any money left in Selene's box?"
+
+Arsinoe went into her sleeping-room, and said, as she returned:
+
+"This is all--six pieces of two drachmae."
+
+"Four will be enough for me," replied the steward, but after a moment's
+reflection he took the whole half-dozen.
+
+"What do you want with the ship-builder?"  asked Arsinoe.
+
+"In the Council," replied Keraunus, "I was worried again about you girls.
+I said one of my daughters was ill, and the other must attend upon her;
+but this would not do, and I was asked to send the one who was well.
+Then I explained that you had no mother, that we lived a retired life for
+each other, and that I could not bear the idea of sending my daughter
+alone, and without any protectress to the meeting.   So then Tryphon said
+that it would give his wife pleasure to take you to the theatre with her
+own daughter.  This I half accepted, but I declared at once that you
+would not go, if your elder sister were not better.  I could not give
+any positive consent--you know why."
+
+"Oh, blessings on Antony and his noble spit!"  cried Arsinoe.  "Now
+everything is settled, and you can tell the ship-builder we shall go.
+Our white dresses are still quite good, but a few ells of new light blue
+ribbon for my hair, and of red for Selene's, you must buy on the way, at
+Abibaal, the Phoenician's."
+
+"Very good."
+
+"I will see at once to both the dresses--but, to be sure, when are we to
+be ready?"
+
+"In two hours."
+
+"Then, do you know what, dear old father?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Our old woman is half blind, and does everything wrong.  Do let me go
+down to dame Doris at the gate-house, and ask her to help me.  She is so
+clever and kind, and no one irons so well as she does."
+
+"Silence!" cried the steward, angrily, interrupting his daughter.
+"Those people shall never again cross my threshold."
+
+"But look at my hair; only look at the state it is in," cried Arsinoe,
+excitedly, and thrusting her fingers into her thick tresses which she
+pulled into disorder.  "To do that up again, plait it with new ribbons,
+iron our dresses, and sew on the brooches--why the Empress' ladies-maid
+could not do all that in two hours."
+
+"Doris shall never cross this threshold," repeated Keraunus, for all his
+answer.
+
+"Then tell the tailor Hippias to send me an assistant; but that will cost
+money."
+
+"We have it, and can pay,"  replied  Keraunus, proudly, and in order not
+to forget his commissions he muttered to himself while he went to get a
+litter:
+
+"Hippias the tailor, blue ribbon, red ribbon, and Tryphon the ship-
+builder."
+
+The tailor's nimble apprentice helped Arsinoe to arrange her dress and
+Selene's, and was never weary of praising the sheen and silkiness of
+Arsinoe's hair, while she twisted it with ribbons, built it up and
+twisted it at the back so gracefully with a comb, that it fell in a thick
+mass of artfully-curled locks down her neck and back.  When Keraunus came
+back, he gazed with justifiable pride at his beautiful child; he was
+immensely pleased, and even chuckled softly to himself as he laid out the
+gold pieces which were brought to him by the curiosity-dealer's servant,
+and set them in a row and counted them.  While he was thus occupied,
+Arsinoe went up to him and asked laughing:  "Hiram has not cheated me
+then?"  Keraunus desired her not to disturb him, and added:
+
+"Think of that sword, the weapon of the great Antony, perhaps the very
+one with which he pierced his own breast.--Where can Selene be?"
+
+An hour, an hour and a half had slipped by, and when the fourth half-
+hour was well begun, and still his eldest daughter did not return, the
+steward announced that they must set out, for that it would not do to
+keep the ship-builder's wife waiting.  It was a sincere grief to Arsinoe
+to be obliged to go without Selene.  She had made her sister's dress look
+as nice as her own, and had laid it carefully on the divan near the
+mosaic pavement.  She had taken a great deal of trouble.  Never before
+had she been out in the streets alone, and it seemed impossible to enjoy
+anything without the companionship and supervision of her absent sister.
+But her father's assertion, that Selene would have a place gladly found
+for her, even later, among the maidens, reassured the girl who was
+overflowing with joyful expectation.
+
+Finally she perfumed herself a little with the fragrant extract which
+Keraunus was accustomed to use before going to the council, and begged
+her father to order the old slave-woman to go and buy the promised cakes
+for the little ones during her absence.  The children had all gathered
+round her, admiring her with loud ohs! and ahs! as if she were some
+wondrous incarnation, not to be too nearly approached, and on no account
+to be touched.  The elaborate dressing of her hair would not allow of her
+stooping over them as usual.  She could only stroke little Helios' curls,
+saying: "Tomorrow you shall have a ride in the air, and perhaps Selene
+will tell you a pretty story by-and-bye."
+
+Her heart beat faster than usual as she stepped into the litter, which
+was waiting for her just in front of the gate-house.  Old Doris looked at
+her from a distance with pleasure, and while Keraunus stepped out into
+the street to call a litter for himself, the old woman hastily cut the
+two finest roses from her bush, and pressing her fingers to her lips with
+a sly smile, put them into the girl's hand.
+
+Arsinoe felt as if it were in a dream that she went to the ship-builder's
+house, and from thence to the theatre, and on her way she fully
+understood, for the first time, that alarm and delight may find room side
+by side in a girl's mind, and that one by no means hinders the existence
+of the other.
+
+Fear and expectation so completely overmastered her, that she neither saw
+nor heard what was going on around her; only once she noticed a young man
+with a garland on his head, who, as he passed her, arm in arm with
+another, called out to her gaily: "Long live beauty!"
+
+From that moment she kept her eyes fixed on her lap and on the roses dame
+Doris had given her.  The flowers reminded her of the kind old woman's
+son, and she wondered whether tall Pollux had perhaps seen her in her
+finery.  That, she would have liked very much; and after all, it was not
+at all impossible, for, of course, since Pollux had been working at
+Lochias he must often have gone to his parents.  Perhaps even he had
+himself picked the roses for her, but had not dared to give them to her
+as her father was so near.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+But the young sculptor had not been at the gatehouse when Arsinoe went
+by.  He had thought of her often enough since meeting her again by the
+bust of her mother; but on this particular afternoon his time and
+thoughts were fully claimed by another fair damsel.  Balbilla had arrived
+at Lochias about noon, accompanied, as was fitting, by the worthy
+Claudia, the not wealthy widow of a senator, who for many years had
+filled the place of lady-in-attendance and protecting companion to the
+rich fatherless and motherless girl.  At Rome, she conducted Balbilla's
+household affairs with as much sense and skill as satisfaction in the
+task.  Still she was not perfectly content with her lot, for her ward's
+love of travelling, often compelled her to leave the metropolis, and in
+her estimation, there was no place but Rome where life was worth living.
+A visit to Baiae for bathing, or in the winter months a flight to the
+Ligurian coast, to escape the cold of January and February--these she
+could endure; for she was certain there to find, if not Rome, at any rate
+Romans; but Balbilla's wish to venture in a tossing ship, to visit the
+torrid shores of Africa, which she pictured to herself as a burning oven,
+she had opposed to the utmost.  At last, however, she was obliged to put
+a good face on the matter, for the Empress herself expressed so decidedly
+her wish to take Balbilla with her to the Nile, that any resistance would
+have been unduteous.  Still; in her secret heart, she could not but
+confess to herself that her high-spirited and wilful foster-child--for
+so she loved to call Balbilla--would undoubtedly have carried out her
+purpose without the Empress' intervention.
+
+Balbilla had come to the palace, as the reader knows, to sit for her
+bust.
+
+When Selene was passing by the screen which concealed her playfellow and
+his work from her gaze, the worthy matron had fallen gently asleep on a
+couch, and the sculptor was exerting all his zeal to convince the noble
+damsel that the size to which her hair was dressed was an exaggeration,
+and that the super-incumbence of such a mass must disfigure the effect of
+the delicate features of her face.  He implored her to remember in how
+simple a style the great Athenian masters, at the best period of the
+plastic arts, had taught their beautiful models to dress their hair, and
+requested her to do her own hair in that manner next day, and to come to
+him before she allowed her maid to put a single lock through the curling-
+tongs; for to-day, as he said, the pretty little ringlets would fly back
+into shape, like the spring of a fibula when the pin was bent back.
+Balbilla contradicted him with gay vivacity, protested against his desire
+to play the part of lady's maid, and defended her style of hair-dressing
+on the score of fashion.
+
+"But the fashion is ugly, monstrous, a pain to one's eyes!"  cried
+Pollux.  "Some vain Roman lady must have invented it, not to make herself
+beautiful, but to be conspicuous."
+
+"I hate the idea of being conspicuous by my appearance," answered
+Balbilla.  "It is precisely by following the fashion, however conspicuous
+it may be, that we are less remarkable than when we carefully dress far
+more simply and plainly--in short, differently to what it prescribes.
+Which do you regard as the vainer, the fashionably-dressed young
+gentleman on the Canopic way, or the cynical philosopher with his unkempt
+hair, his carefully-ragged cloak over his shoulders, and a heavy cudgel
+in his dirty hands?"
+
+"The latter, certainly," replied Pollux.  "Still he is sinning against
+the laws of beauty which I desire to win you over to, and which will
+survive every whim of fashion, as certainly as Homer's Iliad will survive
+the ballad of a street-singer, who celebrates the last murder that
+excited the mob of this town.--Am I the first artist who has attempted to
+represent your face?"
+
+"No," said Balbilla, with a laugh.  "Five Roman artists have already
+experimented on my head."
+
+"And did any one of their busts satisfy you?"
+
+"Not one seemed to me better than utterly bad."
+
+"And your pretty face is to be handed down to posterity in five-fold
+deformity?"
+
+"Ah! no--I had them all destroyed."
+
+"That was very good of them!" cried Pollux, eagerly.  Then turning with a
+very simple gesture to the bust before him he said:  "Hapless clay, if
+the lovely lady whom thou art destined to resemble will not sacrifice
+the chaos of her curls, thy fate will undoubtedly be that of thy
+predecessors."
+
+The sleeping matron was roused by this speech.  "You were speaking," she
+said, "of the broken busts of Balbilla?"
+
+"Yes," replied the poetess.
+
+"And perhaps this one may follow them," sighed Claudia.  "Do you know
+what lies before you in that case?"
+
+"No, what?"
+
+"This young lady knows something of your art."
+
+"I learnt to knead clay a little of Aristaeus," interrupted Balbilla.
+
+"Aha!  because Caesar set the fashion, and in Rome it would have been
+conspicuous not to dabble in sculpture."
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"And she tried to improve in every bust all that particularly displeased
+her," continued Claudia.
+
+"I only began the work for the slaves to finish," Balbilla threw in,
+interrupting her companion.  "Indeed, my people became quite expert in
+the work of destruction."
+
+"Then my work may, at any rate, hope for a short agony and speedy death,"
+sighed Pollux.  "And it is true--all that lives comes into the world with
+its end already preordained."
+
+"Would an early demise of your work pain you much?  "asked Balbilla.
+
+"Yes, if I thought it successful; not if I felt it to be a failure."
+
+"Any one who keeps a bad bust," said Balbilla, "must feel fearful lest an
+undeservedly bad reputation is handed down to future generations."
+
+"Certainly! but how then can you find courage to expose yourself for the
+sixth time to a form of calumny that it is difficult to counteract?"
+
+"Because I can have anything destroyed that I choose," laughed the spoilt
+girl.  "Otherwise sitting still is not much to my taste."
+
+"That is very true," sighed Claudia.  "But from you I expect something
+strikingly good."
+
+"Thank you," said Pollux, "and I will take the utmost pains to complete
+something that may correspond to my own expectations of what a marble
+portrait ought to be, that deserves to be preserved to posterity."
+
+"And those expectations require--?"
+
+Pollux considered for a moment, and then he replied:
+
+"I have not always the right words at my command, for all that I feel as
+an artist.  A plastic presentiment, to satisfy its creator, must fulfil
+two conditions; first it must record for posterity in forms of eternal
+resemblance all that lay in the nature of the person it represents;
+secondly, it must also show to posterity what the art of the time when it
+was executed, was capable of."
+
+"That is a matter of course--but you are forgetting your own share."
+
+"My own fame you mean?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"I work for Papias and serve my art, and that is enough; meanwhile Fame
+does not trouble herself about me, nor do I trouble myself about her."
+
+"Still, you will put your name on my bust?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"You are as prudent as Cicero."
+
+"Cicero?"
+
+"Perhaps you would hardly know old Tullius' wise remark that the
+philosophers who wrote of the vanity of writers put their names to their
+books all the same."
+
+"Oh!  I have no contempt for laurels, but I will not run after a thing
+which could have no value for me, unless it came unsought, and because it
+was my due."
+
+"Well and good; but your first condition could only be fulfilled in its
+widest sense if you could succeed in making yourself acquainted with my
+thoughts and feelings, with the whole of my inmost mind."
+
+"I see you and talk to you," replied Pollux.  Claudia laughed aloud, and
+said:
+
+"If instead of two sittings of two hours you were to talk to her for
+twice as many years you would always find something new in her.  Not a
+week passes in which Rome does not find in her something to talk about.
+That restless brain is never quiet, but her heart is as good as gold, and
+always and everywhere the same."
+
+"And did you suppose that that was new to me?"  asked Pollux.  "I can see
+the restless spirit of my model in her brow and in her mouth, and her
+nature is revealed in her eyes."
+
+"And in my snub-nose?"  asked Balbilla.
+
+"It bears witness to your wonderful and whimsical notions, which astonish
+Rome so much."
+
+"Perhaps you are one more that works for the hammer of the slaves,"
+laughed Balbilla.
+
+"And even if it were so," said Pollux, "I should always retain the memory
+of this delightful hour."  Pontius the architect here interrupted the
+sculptor, begging Balbilla to excuse him for disturbing the sitting;
+Pollux must immediately attend to some business of importance, but in ten
+minutes he would return to his work.  No sooner were the two ladies
+alone, than Balbilla rose and looked inquisitively round and about the
+sculptor's enclosed work-room; but her companion said:
+
+"A very polite young man, this Pollux, but rather too much at his ease,
+and too enthusiastic."
+
+"An artist," replied Balbilla, and she proceeded to turn over every
+picture and tablet with the sculptor's studies in drawing, raised the
+cloth from the wax model of the Urania, tried the clang of the lute which
+hung against one of the canvas walls, was here, there, and everywhere,
+and at last stood still in front of a large clay model, placed in a
+corner of the studio, and closely wrapped in cloths.
+
+"What may that be?"  asked Claudia.
+
+"No doubt a half-finished new model."
+
+Balbilla felt the object in front of her with the tips of her fingers,
+and said: "It seems to me to be a head.  Something remarkable at any
+rate.  In these close covered dishes we sometimes find the best meat.
+Let its unveil this shrouded portrait."
+
+"Who knows what it may be?"  said Claudia, as she loosened a twist in the
+cloths which enveloped the bust.  There are often very remarkable things
+to be seen in such workshops.
+
+"Hey, what, it is only a woman's head!  I can feel it," cried Balbilla.
+
+"But you can never tell," the older lady went on, untying a knot.
+"These artists are such unfettered, unaccountable beings."
+
+"Do you lift the top, I will pull here," and a moment later the young
+Roman stood face to face with the caricature which Hadrian had moulded on
+the previous evening, in all its grimacing ugliness.  She recognized
+herself in it at once, and at the first moment, laughed loudly, but the
+longer she looked at the disfigured likeness, the more vexed, annoyed and
+angry she became.  She knew her own face, feature for feature, all that
+was pretty in it, and all that was plain, but this likeness ignored
+everything in her face that was not unpleasing, and this it emphasized
+ruthlessly, and exaggerated with a refinement of spitefulness.  The head
+was hideous, horrible, and yet it was hers.  As she studied it in
+profile, she remembered what Pollux had declared he could read in her
+features, and deep indignation rose up in her soul.
+
+Her great inexhaustible riches, which allowed her the reckless
+gratification of every whim, and secured consideration, even for her
+follies, had not availed to preserve her from many disappointments which
+other girls, in more modest circumstances, would have been spared.  Her
+kind heart and open hand had often been abused, even by artists, and it
+was self-evident to her, that the man who could make this caricature, who
+had so enjoyed exaggerating all that was unlovely in her face, had wished
+to exercise his art on her features, not for her own sake, but for that
+of the high price she might be inclined to pay for a flattering likeness.
+She had found much to please her in the young sculptor's fresh and happy
+artist nature, in his frank demeanor and his honest way of speech.  She
+felt convinced that Pollux, more readily than anybody else, would
+understand what it was that lent a charm to her face, which was in no way
+strictly beautiful, a charm which could not be disputed in spite of the
+coarse caricature which stood before her.
+
+She felt herself the richer by a painful experience, indignant, and
+offended.  Accustomed as she was to give prompt utterance even to her
+displeasure, she exclaimed hotly, and with tears in her eyes:
+
+"It is shameful, it is base.  Give me my wraps Claudia.  I will not stay
+an instant longer to be the butt of this man's coarse and spiteful
+jesting."
+
+"It is unworthy," cried the matron, "so to insult a person of your
+position.  It is to be hoped our litters are waiting outside."
+
+Pontius had overheard Balbilla's last words.  He had come into the work-
+place without Pollux, who was still speaking to the prefect, and he said
+gravely as he approached Balbilla:
+
+"You have every reason to be angry, noble lady.  This thing is an insult
+in clay, malicious, and at the same time coarse in every detail; but it
+was not Pollux who did it, and it is not right to condemn without a
+trial."
+
+"You take your friend's part!"  exclaimed Balbilla.  "I would not tell a
+lie for my own brother."
+
+"You know how to give your words the aspect of an honorable meaning in
+serious matters, as he does in jest."
+
+"You are angry and unaccustomed to bridle your tongue," replied the
+architect.  "Pollux, I repeat it, did not perpetrate the caricature, but
+a sculptor from Rome."
+
+"Which of them?  I know them all."
+
+"I may not name him."
+
+"There--you see.--Come away Claudia."
+
+"Stay," said Pontius, decisively.  "If you were any one but yourself, I
+would let you go at once in your anger, and with the double charge on
+your conscience of doing an injustice to two well-meaning men.  But as
+you are the granddaughter of Claudius Balbillus, I feel it to be due to
+myself to say, that if Pollux had really made this monstrous bust he
+would not be in this palace now, for I should have turned him out and
+thrown the horrid object after him.  You look surprised--you do not know
+who I am that can address you so."
+
+"Yes, yes," cried Balbilla, much mollified, for she felt assured that the
+man who stood before her, as unflinching as if he were cast in bronze,
+and with an earnest frown, was speaking the truth, and that he must have
+some right to speak to her with such unwonted decision.  "Yes indeed, you
+are the principal architect of the city; Titianus, from whom we have
+heard of you, has told us great things of you; but how am I to account
+for your special interest in me?"
+
+"It is my duty to serve you--if necessary, even with my life."
+
+"You," said Balbilla, puzzled.  "But I never saw you till yesterday."
+
+"And yet you may freely dispose of all that I have and am, for my
+grandfather was your grandfather's slave."
+
+"I did not know"--said Balbilla, with increasing confusion.
+
+"Is it possible that your noble grandfather's instructor, the venerable
+Sophinus, is altogether forgotten.  Sophinus, whom your grandfather
+freed, and who continued to teach your father also."
+
+"Certainly not--of course not," cried  Balbilla.  "He must have been a
+splendid man, and very learned besides."
+
+"He was my father's father," said Pontius.
+
+"Then you belong to our family," exclaimed Balbilla, offering him a
+friendly hand.
+
+"I thank you for those words," answered Pontius.  "Now, once more, Pollux
+had nothing to do with that image."
+
+"Take my cloak, Claudia," said the girl.  "I will sit again to the young
+man."
+
+"Not to-day--it would spoil his work," replied Pontius.  "I beg of you to
+go, and let the annoyance you so vehemently expressed die out some where
+else.  The young sculptor must not know that you have seen this
+caricature, it would occasion him much embarrassment.  But if you can
+return to-morrow in a calmer and more happy humor, with your lively
+spirit tuned to a softer key, then Pollux will be able to make a likeness
+which may satisfy the granddaughter of Claudius Balbillus."
+
+"And, let us hope, the grandson of his learned teacher also," answered
+Balbilla, with a kindly farewell greeting, as she went with her companion
+towards the door of the hall of the Muses, where her slaves were waiting.
+Pontius escorted her so far in silence, then he returned to the work-
+place, and safely wrapped the caricature up again in its cloths.
+
+As he went out into the hall again, Pollux hurried up to meet him,
+exclaiming:
+
+"The Roman architect wants to speak to you, he is a grand man!"
+
+"Balbilla was called away, and bid me greet you," replied Pontius.  "Take
+that thing away for fear she should see it.  It is coarse and hideous."
+
+A few moments later he stood in the presence of the Emperor, who
+expressed the wish to play the part of listener while Balbilla was
+sitting.  When the architect, after begging him not to let Pollux know of
+the incident, told him of what had occurred in the screened-off studio,
+and how angry the young Roman lady had been at the caricature, which was
+certainly very offensive, Hadrian rubbed his hands and laughed aloud with
+delight.  Pontius ground his teeth, and then said very earnestly:
+
+"Balbilla seems to me a merry-hearted girl, but of a noble nature.  I see
+no reason to laugh at her."  Hadrian looked keenly into the daring
+architect's eyes, laid his hand on his shoulder, and replied with a
+certain threatening accent in his deep voice:
+
+"It would be an evil moment for you, or for any one, who should do so in
+my presence.  But age may venture to play with edged tools, which
+children may not even touch."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Selene entered the gate-way in the endlessly-long walk of sun-dried
+bricks which enclosed the wide space where stood the court-yards, water-
+tanks and huts, belonging to the great papyrus manufactory of Plutarch,
+where she and her sister were accustomed to work.  She could generally
+reach it in a quarter of an hour, but to-day it had taken more than four
+times as long and she herself did not know how she had managed to hold
+herself up, and to walk-limp-stumble along, in spite of the acute pain
+she was suffering.  She would willingly have clung to every passer-by,
+have held on to every slow passing vehicle, to every beast of burden that
+overtook her--but man and beast mercilessly went on their way, without
+paying any heed to her.  She got many a push from those who were hurrying
+by and who scarcely turned round to look at her, when from time to time
+she stopped to sink for a moment on to the nearest door-step, or some low
+cornice or bale of goods; to dry her eyes, or press her hand to her foot,
+which was now swollen to a great size, hoping, as she did so, to be able
+to forget, under the sense of a new form of pain, the other unceasing and
+unendurable torment, at least for a few minutes.
+
+The street boys who had run after her, and laughed at her, ceased
+pursuing her when they found that she constantly stopped to rest.  A
+woman with a child in her arms once asked her, as she stopped to rest a
+minute on a threshold, whether she wanted anything, but walked on when
+Selene shook her head and made no other answer.
+
+Once she thought she must give up altogether, when suddenly the street
+was filled with jeering boys and inquisitive men and women--for Verus,
+the superb Verus, came by in his chariot, and what a chariot!  The
+Alexandrian populace were accustomed to see much that was strange in the
+busy streets of their crowded city; but this vehicle attracted every eye,
+and excited astonishment, admiration and mirth, wherever it appeared, and
+not unfrequently the bitterest ridicule.  The handsome Roman stood in the
+middle of his gilt chariot, and himself drove the four white horses,
+harnessed abreast; on his head he wore a wreath, and across his breast,
+from one shoulder, a garland of roses.  On the foot-board of the quadriga
+sat two children, dressed as Cupids; their little legs dangled in the
+air, and they each held, attached by a long gilt wire, a white dove which
+fluttered in front of Verus.
+
+The dense and hurrying crowd, crushed Selene remorselessly against the
+wall; instead of looking at the wonderful sight she covered her face with
+her hands to hide the distortion of pain in her features; still she just
+saw the splendid chariot, the gold harness on the horses, and the figure
+of the insolent owner glide past her, as if in a dream that was blurred
+by pain, and the sight infused into her soul, that was already harassed
+by pain and anxiety, a feeling of bitter aversion, and the envious
+thought that the mere trappings of the horses of this extravagant
+prodigal would suffice to keep her and her family above misery for a
+whole year.
+
+By the time the chariot had turned the next corner, and the crowd had
+followed it, she had almost fallen to the ground.  She could not take
+another step, and looked round for a litter, but, while generally there
+was no lack of them, in this spot, to-day there was not one to be seen.
+The factory was only a few hundred steps farther, but in her fancy they
+seemed like so many stadia.  Presently some of the workmen and women from
+the factory came by, laughing and showing each other their wages, so the
+payment must be now going on.  A glance at the sun showed her how long
+she had already been on her way, and remind her of the purpose of her
+walk.
+
+With the exertion of all her strength, she dragged herself a few steps
+farther; then, just as her courage was again beginning to fail, a little
+girl came running towards her who was accustomed to wait upon the workers
+at the table where Selene and Arsinoe were employed, and who held in her
+hand a pitcher.  She called the dusky little Egyptian, and said:
+
+"Hathor, pray come back to the factory with me.  I cannot walk any
+farther, my foot is so dreadfully painful; but if I lean a little on your
+shoulder, I shall get on better."
+
+"I cannot," said the child.  "If I make haste home I shall have some
+dates," and she ran on.
+
+Selene looked after her, and an inward voice, against which she had had
+to rebel before to-day, asked her why she of all people must be a
+sufferer for others, when they thought only of themselves, and with a
+heavy sigh, she made a fresh attempt to proceed on her way.
+
+When she had gone a few steps, neither seeing not hearing anything that
+passed her, a girl came up to her, and asked her timidly, but kindly,
+what was the matter.  It was a leaf-joiner who sat opposite to her at the
+works, a poor, deformed creature, who, nevertheless, plied her nimble
+fingers contentedly and silently, and who at first had taught Selene and
+Arsinoe many useful tricks of working.  The girl offered her crooked
+shoulder unasked as a support to Selene, and measured her step; to those
+of the sufferer with as much nicety as if she felt everything that Selene
+herself did; thus, without speaking, they reached the door of the
+factory; there, in the first court-yard the little hunchback made Selene
+sit down on one of the bundles of papyrus-stems which lay all about the
+place, by the side of the tanks in which the plants were dipped to
+freshen them, and arranged in order, built up into high heaps, according
+to the localities whence they were brought.  After a short rest, they
+went on through the hall in which the triangular green stems were sorted,
+according to the quality of the white pith they contained.  The next
+rooms, in which men stripped the green sheath from the pith, and the long
+galleries where the more skilled hands split the pith with sharp knives
+into long moist strips about a finger wide, and of different degrees of
+fineness, seemed to Selene to grow longer the farther she went, and to be
+absolutely interminable.
+
+Generally the pith-splitters sat here in long rows, each at his own
+little table, on each side of a gangway left for the slaves, who carried
+the prepared material to the drying-house; but, to-day, most of them had
+left their places and stood chatting together and packing up their wooden
+clips, knives, and sharpening-stones.  Half way down this room Selene's
+hand fell from her companion's shoulder, she turned giddy, and said in a
+low tone:
+
+"I can go no farther--"
+
+The little hunchback held her up as well as she could, and though she
+herself was far from strong, she succeeded in dragging, rather than
+carrying, Selene to an empty couch and in laying her upon it.  A few
+workmen gathered around the senseless girl, and brought some water, then
+when she opened her eyes again, and they found that she belonged to the
+rooms where the prepared papyrus-leaves were gummed together, some of
+them offered to carry her thither, and before Selene could consent they
+had taken up the bench and lifted it with its light burden.  Her damaged
+foot hung down, and gave the poor girl such pain that she cried out, and
+tried to raise the injured limb and hold her ankle in her band; her
+comrade helped by taking the poor little foot in her own hand, and
+supporting it with tender and cautious care.
+
+As she thus went by, carried, as it were, in triumph by the men, and
+borne high in the air, everyone turned to look at her, and the suffering
+girl felt this rather as if she were some criminal being carried through
+the streets to exhibit her disgrace to the citizens.  But when she found
+herself in the large rooms where, in one place men, and in another the
+most skilled of the women and girls were employed in laying the narrow
+strips of papyrus crosswise over each other, and gumming them together,
+she had recovered strength enough to pull her veil over her face which
+she held down.  Arsinoe, and she herself, in order to remain unrecognized
+had always been accustomed to walk through these rooms closely veiled,
+and not to lay their wraps aside till they reached the little room where
+they sat with about twenty other women to glue the sheets together.
+
+Every one looked at her with curious enquiry.  Her foot certainly hurt
+her, the cut in her head was burning, and she felt altogether intensely
+miserable; still there was room and to spare in her soul for the false
+pride that she inherited from her father, and for the humiliating
+consciousness that she was regarded by these people as one of themselves.
+
+In the room in which she worked, none but free women were employed, but
+more than a thousand slaves worked in the factory and she would as soon
+have eaten with beasts without plate or spoon, as have shared a meal with
+them.  At one time, when every thing in their house seemed going to ruin,
+it was her own father who had suggested the papyrus factory to her
+attention, by telling her, with indignation, that the daughter of an
+impoverished citizen had degraded herself and her whole class by devoting
+herself to working in the papyrus factory to earn money.  She was pretty
+well paid, to be sure, and in answer to Selene's enquiry, he had stated
+the amount she earned and mentioned the name of the rich manufacturer to
+whom she had sold her social standing for gold.
+
+Soon after this Selene had gone alone to the factory, had discussed all
+that was necessary with the manager, and had then begun, with Arsinoe, to
+work regularly in the factory where they now for two years had spent some
+hours of every day in gumming the papyrus-leaves together.
+
+How many a time at the beginning of a new week, or when under the
+influence of a special fit of aversion to her work, had Arsinoe refused
+to go with her ever again to the factory; how much persuasive eloquence
+had she expended, how many new ribbons had she bought, how often had she
+consented to allow her to go to some spectacle, which consumed half a
+week's wages, to induce Arsinoe to persist in her work, or to avert the
+fulfilment of her threat to tell her father, whither her daily walk--as
+she called it--tended.
+
+When Selene, who had been carried as far as the door of her own work-
+room, was sitting once more in her usual place in front of the long table
+on which she worked, and where hundreds of prepared papyrus strips were
+to be joined together, she felt scarcely able to raise the veil from her
+face.  She drew the uppermost sheets towards her, dipped the brush in the
+gum-jar, and began to touch the margin of the leaf with it--but in the
+very act, her strength forsook her, the brush fell from her fingers, she
+dropped her hands on the table and her face in her hands, and began to
+cry softly.
+
+While she sat thus, her tears slowly flowing, her shoulders heaving, and
+her whole body shaken with shuddering sobs, a woman who sat opposite to
+her, beckoned to the deformed girl, and after whispering to her a few
+words grasped her hand firmly and warmly and looked straight into her
+eyes with her own, which though lustreless were clear and steady; then
+the little hunchback silently took Arsinoe's vacant place by Selene, and
+pushed the smaller half of the papyrus leaves over to the woman, and both
+set diligently to work on the gumming.
+
+They had been thus occupied for some time when Selene at last raised her
+head and was about to take up her brush again.  She looked round for it
+and perceived her companion, whom she had not even thanked for her
+helpfulness, busily at work in Arsinoe's seat.  She looked at her
+neighbor with eyes still full of tears, and as the girl, who was wholly
+absorbed in her task, did not notice her gaze, Selene said in a tone of
+surprise rather than kindliness.
+
+"This is my sister's place; you may sit here to-day, but when the factory
+opens again she must sit by me again."
+
+"I know, I know," said the workwoman shyly.  "I am only finishing your
+sheets because I have no more of my own to do, and I can see how badly
+your foot is hurting you."
+
+The whole transaction was so strange and novel to Selene that she did not
+even understand her neighbor's meaning, and she only said, with a shrug:
+
+"You may earn all you can, for aught I can do; I cannot do anything to-
+day."
+
+Her deformed companion colored and looked up doubtfully at her opposite
+neighbor, who at once laid aside her brush and said, turning to Selene:
+
+"That is not what Mary means, my child.  She is doing one-half of your
+day's task and I am doing the other, so that your suffering foot may not
+deprive you of your day's pay."
+
+"Do I look so very poor then?"  exclaimed Keraunus' daughter, and a faint
+crimson tinged her pale cheeks.
+
+"By no means, my child," replied the woman.  "You and your sister are
+evidently of good family--but pray let us have the pleasure of being of
+some help to you.
+
+"I do not know--" Selene stammered.
+
+"If you saw that it hurt me to stoop when the wind blows the strips of
+papyrus on to the floor, would you not willingly pick them up for me?"
+continued the woman.  "What we are doing for you is neither less nor yet
+much more than that.  In a few minutes we shall have finished and then we
+can follow the others, for every one else has left.  I am the overseer of
+the room, as you know, and must in any case remain here till the last
+work-woman has gone."
+
+Selene felt full well that she ought to be grateful for the kindness
+shown her by these two women, and yet she had a sense of having a deed of
+almsgiving forced upon her acceptance, and she answered quickly, still
+with the blood mounting to her cheeks.  "I am very grateful for your good
+intentions, of course, very grateful; but here each one must work for
+herself, and it would ill-become me to allow you to give me the money you
+have earned."
+
+The girl spoke these words with a decisiveness which was not free from
+arrogance, but this did not disturb the woman's gentle equanimity--"widow
+Hannah," as she was called by the workwoman--and fixing the calm gaze of
+her large eyes on Selene, she answered kindly:
+
+"We have been very happy to work for you, dear daughter, and a divine
+Sage has said that it is more blessed to give than to receive.  Do you
+understand all that that means?  In our case it is as much as to say that
+it makes kind-hearted folks much happier to do others a pleasure than to
+receive good gifts.  You said just now that you were grateful; do you
+want now to spoil our pleasure?"
+
+"I do not quite understand--" answered Selene.  "No?"  interrupted widow
+Hannah.  "Then only try for once to do some one a pleasure with sincere
+and heartfelt love, and you will see how much good it does one, how it
+opens the heart and turns every trouble to a pleasure.  Is it not true
+Mary, we shall he sincerely obliged to Selene if only she will not spoil
+the pleasure we have had in working for her?"
+
+"I have been so glad to do it," said the deformed girl, "and there--now
+I have finished."
+
+"And I too," said the widow, pressing the last leaf on to its fellow with
+a cloth, and then adding her pile of finished sheets to Mary's.
+
+"Thank you very much," murmured Selene, with downcast eyes, and rising
+from her seat, but she tried to support herself on her lame foot and this
+caused her such pain, that with a low cry, she sank back on the stool.
+The widow hastened to her side, knelt clown by her, took the injured foot
+with tender care in her delicate and slender hands, examined it
+attentively, felt it gently, and then exclaimed with horror:
+
+"Good Lord! and did you walk through the streets with a foot in this
+state?"  and looking up at Selene she said affectionately.  "Poor child,
+poor child! it must have hurt you!  Why the swelling has risen above your
+sandal-straps.  It is frightful!  and yet--do you live far from this?"
+
+"I can get home in half an hour."
+
+"Impossible!  First let me see on my tablets how much the paymaster owes
+you that I may go and fetch it, and then we will soon see what can be
+done with you.  Meanwhile you sit still daughter dear, and you Mary rest
+her foot on a stool and undo the straps very gently from her ankle.  Do
+not be afraid my child, she has soft, careful hands."  As she spoke she
+rose and kissed Selene on her forehead and eyes, and Selene clung to her
+and could only say with swimming eyes, and a voice trembling with
+feeling:
+
+"Dame Hannah, dear widow Hannah."
+
+As the warm sunshine of an October clay reminds the traveller of the
+summer that is over, so the widow's words and ways brought back to Selene
+the long lost love and care of her good mother; and something soothing
+mingled in the bitterness of the pain she was suffering.  She looked
+gratefully at the kind woman and obediently sat still; it was such a
+comfort once more to obey an order, and to obey willingly--to feel
+herself a child again and to be grateful for loving care.
+
+Hannah went away, and Mary knelt down in front of Selene to loosen and
+remove the straps which were half buried in the swelled muscles.  She did
+it with the greatest caution, but her fingers had hardly touched her,
+when Selene shrank back with a groan, and before she could undo the
+sandal, the patient had fainted away.  Mary fetched some water and bathed
+her brow, and the burning wound in her head, and by the time Selene had
+once more opened her eyes, dame Hannah had returned.  When the widow
+stroked her thick soft hair, Selene looked up with a smile and asked:
+"Have I been to sleep?"
+
+"You shut your eyes my child," replied the widow.  "Here are your wages
+and your sister's, for twelve days; do not move, I will put it in your
+little bag.  Mary has not succeeded in loosening your sandal, but the
+physician who is paid to attend on the factory people will be here
+directly, and will order what is proper for your poor foot.  The manager
+is having a litter fetched for you.--Where do you live?"
+
+"We?"  cried Selene, alarmed.  "No, no, I must go home."
+
+"But my child you cannot walk farther than the court-yard even if we both
+help you."
+
+"Then let me get a litter out in the street.  My father--no one must
+know--I cannot."
+
+Hannah signed to Mary to leave them, and when she had shut the door on
+the deformed girl, she brought a stool, sat down opposite to Selene, laid
+a hand on the knee that was not hurt, and said:
+
+"Now, dear girl, we are alone.  I am no chatterbox, and will certainly
+not betray your confidence.  Tell me quietly who you belong to.  Tell me
+--you believe that I mean well by you?"
+
+"Yes," replied Selene, looking the widow full in the face--
+a regularly-cut face, set in abundant smooth brown hair, and with the
+stamp of genuine and heart-felt goodness.  "Yes--you remind me of my
+mother."
+
+"Well, I might be your mother."
+
+"I am nineteen years old already."
+
+"Already," replied Hannah, with a smile.  "Why my life has been twice as
+long as yours.  I had a child, too, a boy; and he was taken from me when
+he was quite little.  He would be a year older than you now, my child--
+is your mother still alive?"
+
+"No," said Selene, with her old dry manner, that had become a habit.
+"The gods have taken her from us.  She would have been, like you, not
+quite forty now, and she was as pretty and as kind as you are.  When she
+died she left seven children besides me, all little, and one of them
+blind.  I am the eldest, and do what I can for them, that they may not be
+starved."
+
+"God will help you in the loving task."
+
+"The gods!" exclaimed Selene, bitterly.  "They let them grow up, the rest
+I have to see to--oh! my foot, my foot!"
+
+"Yes, we will think of that before anything else.  Your father is alive?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And he is not to know that you work here?"
+
+Selene shook her head.
+
+"He is in moderate circumstances, but of good family?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Here,  I think, is the doctor.  Well?  May I know your father's name?
+I must if I am to get you safe home."
+
+"I am the daughter of Keraunus, the steward of the palace, and we have
+rooms there, at Lochias," Selene answered, with rapid decision, but in a
+low whisper, so that the physician, who just then opened the room door,
+might not hear her.  "No one, and least of all, my father, must know that
+I work here."
+
+The widow made a sign to her to be easy, greeted the grey-haired leech
+who came in with his assistant; and then, while the old man examined the
+injured limb, and cut the straps with a sharp pair of scissors, she
+bathed the girl's face and cut head with a wet handkerchief, supported
+the poor child in her arms, and, when the pain seemed too much for her,
+kissed her pale cheeks.
+
+Many sighs from the bottom of her heart, and many shrill little cries
+betrayed how intense was the pain Selene was enduring.  When at length,
+her delicate and graceful foot-distorted just now by the extensive
+swelling,--was freed from the bands and straps, and the ankle had been
+felt and pressed in every direction by the leech, he exclaimed, turning
+to the assistant who stood ready to lend a helping hand:
+
+"Look here, Hippolytus, the girl came  along the streets with her ankle
+in this state.  If any one else had told me of such a thing, I should
+have desired him to keep his lies to himself.  The fibula is broken at
+the joint, and with this injured limb the child has walked farther than
+I could trust myself at all--without my litter.  By Sirius!  child, if
+you are not crippled for life it will be a miracle."
+
+Selene had listened with closed eyes, and exhausted almost to
+unconsciousness; but at his last words she slightly shrugged her
+shoulders with a faint smile of scorn on her lips.
+
+"You think nothing of being lame!" said the old man, who let no gesture
+of his patient escape him.  "That, of course, is your affair, but it is
+mine to see that you do not become a cripple in my hands.  The
+opportunity for working a miracle is not given to one of us every day,
+and happily for me, you yourself bring a powerful coadjutor to help me.
+I do not mean a lover or anything of that kind, though you are much too
+pretty, but your lovely, vigorous, healthy youth.  The hole in your head
+is hotter than it need be--keep it properly cool with fresh water.  Where
+do you live, child?"
+
+"Almost half an hour from here," said Hannah, answering for Selene.
+
+"She cannot be taken so far as that, even in a litter, at present," said
+the old man.
+
+"I must go home!" cried Selene, resolutely, and trying to sit up.
+
+"Nonsense," exclaimed  the physician.  "I must forbid your moving at all.
+Be still, and be patient and obedient, or your foolish joke will come to
+a bad end; fever has already set in, and it will increase by the evening.
+It has nothing much to do with the leg, but all the more with the
+inflamed scalp-wound.  Do you think," he added, turning to the widow,
+"that perhaps a bed could be made here on which she might lie, and remain
+here till the factory reopens?"
+
+"I would rather die," shrieked Selene, trying to draw away her foot from
+the leech.
+
+"Be still--be still, my dear child," said the good woman, soothingly.
+"I know where I can take you.  My house is in a garden belonging to
+Paulina, the widow of Pudeus, near this and close to the sea; it is not
+above a thousand paces off, and there you will have a soft couch and
+tender care.  A good litter is waiting, and I should think--"
+
+"Even that is a good distance," said the old man.  "However, she cannot
+possibly be better cared for than by you, dame Hannah.  Let us try it
+then, and I will accompany you to lash those accursed bearers' skins if
+they do not keep in step."
+
+Selene made no attempt to resist these orders, and willingly drank a
+potion which the old man gave her; but she cried to herself as she was
+lifted into the litter and her foot was carefully propped on pillows.  In
+the street, which they soon reached through a side door, she again almost
+lost consciousness, and half awake but half as in a dream, she heard the
+leech's voice as he cautioned the bearers to walk carefully, and saw the
+people, and vehicles, and horsemen pass her on their way.  Then she saw
+that she was being carried through a large garden, and at last she dimly
+perceived that she was being laid on a bed.  From that moment every thing
+was merged in a dream, though the frequent convulsions of pain that
+passed over her features and now and then a rapid movement of her hand to
+the cut in her head, showed that she was not altogether oblivious to the
+reality of her sufferings.
+
+Dame Hannah sat by the bed, and carried out the physician's instructions
+with exactness; he himself did not leave his patient till he was
+perfectly satisfied with her bed and her position.  Mary stayed with the
+widow helping her to wet handkerchiefs and to make bandages out of old
+linen.
+
+When Selene began to breathe more calmly Hannah beckoned her assistant to
+come close to her and asked in a low voice.
+
+"Can you stay here till early to-morrow, we must take it in turns to
+watch her, most likely for several nights--how hot this wound on her head
+is!"
+
+"Yes, I can stay, only I must tell my mother that she may not be
+frightened."
+
+"Quite right, and then you may undertake another commission for I cannot
+leave the poor child just now."
+
+"Her people will be anxious about her."
+
+"That is just where you must go; but no one besides us two must know who
+she is.  Ask for Selene's sister and tell her what has happened; if you
+see her father tell him that I am taking care of his daughter, and that
+the physician strictly forbids her moving or being moved.  But he must
+not know that Selene is one of us workers, so do not say a word about the
+factory before him.  If you find neither Arsinoe nor her father at home,
+tell any one that opens the door to you that I have taken the sick child
+in, and did it gladly.  But about the workshop, do your hear, not a word.
+One thing more, the poor girl would never have come down to the factory
+in spite of such pain, unless her family had been very much in need of
+her wages; so just give these drachmae to some one and say, as is
+perfectly true, that we found them about her person."
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Enjoy the present day
+Idleness had long since grown to be the occupation of his life
+It was such a comfort once more to obey an order
+Philosophers who wrote of the vanity of writers
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR, Part 1.
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 5.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Plutarch was one of the richest citizens of Alexandria, and the owner of
+the papyrus manufactory where Selene and Arsinoe worked; and he had of
+his own free will offered to provide for the "suitable" entertainment of
+the wives and daughters of his fellow-citizens, who were, this very day,
+to assemble in one of the smaller theatres of the city.  Every one that
+knew him,  knew too that "suitable" with  him  meant as much as to say
+imperial splendor.
+
+The ship-builder's daughter had prepared Arsinoe for grand doings,
+but by the time she had reached the entrance only of the theatre her
+expectations were exceeded, for as soon as she gave her father's name and
+her own, a boy, who looked out from an arbor of flowers gave her a
+magnificent bunch of flowers, and another, who sat perched on a dolphin,
+handed her, as a ticket of admission, a finely-cut ornament of ivory
+mounted in gold, with a pin, by which the invited owner was intended to
+fix it like a brooch in her peplum; and at each entrance to the theatre,
+the ladies, as they came in, had a similar present made them.
+
+The passage leading to the auditorium was full of perfume, and Arsinoe,
+who had already visited this theatre two or three times, hardly
+recognized it, it was so gaily decorated with colored scarfs.  And who
+had ever seen ladies and young girls filling the best places instead of
+men, as was the case to-day?  Indeed the citizens' daughters were in
+general not permitted to see a theatrical performance at all, unless on
+very special and exceptional occasions.  She looked up with a smile at
+the empty topmost rows of the cheapest seats of the semicircular
+auditorium, as one looks at an old playfellow one had outgrown by a head,
+for it was there--when she had occasionally been permitted to dip into
+their scanty common purse--that she had almost fainted many a time, with
+pleasure, fear, or sympathy, though the draught so high up and under the
+open heaven which was the only roof, was incessantly blowing; and in
+summer the discomforts were even greater from the awning which shaded the
+amphitheatre on the sunny side.  The wide breadths of canvas were managed
+by means of stout ropes, and when these were pulled through the rings
+they rode in, they made a screech which compelled the bearer to stop his
+ears; and often it was necessary to duck his head not to be hit by the
+heavy ropes or by the awning itself.  But Arsinoe only remembered these
+things to-day as a butterfly sporting in the sun may remember the hideous
+pupa-case that it has burst and left behind it.
+
+Radiant with happy excitement, she was led to her seat with her young
+companion, the black-haired daughter of the shipwright.  She perceived
+indeed that numerous eyes turned upon her, but that only added to her
+pleasure, for she knew that she could well bear looking at, and there
+could be no greater pleasure, as she thought, than to give pleasure to a
+multitude.
+
+To-day at any rate!  For those who were looking at her were the chief
+citizens of Alexandria; they stood on the stage, and among them stood
+kind tall Pollux, waving his hand to her.  She could not keep her feet
+quiet, but she did contrive to keep her arms still by crossing them in
+front of her, so that they might not betray how excited she was.
+
+This distribution of parts had already begun, for, by waiting for Selene,
+she had come in almost half an hour too late.  As soon as she saw that
+the eyes that had been attracted to herself as she entered the theatre
+had turned to other objects she herself looked round her.  She was
+sitting on a bench at the lowest and narrowest end of one of the wedge-
+shaped sections of seats, which grew wider at the upper end, and which
+were divided from each other by gangways for those who came and went,
+thus forming the semicircular area of the auditorium.
+
+Here she was surrounded only by young girls and women who were to have a
+part or place in the performances.  The places for these interested
+persons were divided from the stage by a space for the orchestra, whence
+the stage was easily reached by steps up which the chorus were wont to
+mount to it.
+
+Behind Arsinoe, in the larger circular rows, sat the parents and husbands
+of the performers, among whom Keraunus, in his saffron robe, had taken a
+place, besides a considerable number of sight-loving matrons and older
+citizens who had accepted Plutarch's invitation.
+
+Among the young women and girls Arsinoe saw several whose beauty struck
+her, but she admired them ungrudgingly, and it never came into her head
+to compare herself with them, for she knew very accurately that she was
+pretty, and that even here she had nothing to conceal, and this was
+enough for her.
+
+The many-voiced hum which incessantly buzzed in her ears, and the perfume
+which rose from the attar in the orchestra had something intoxicating in
+them.  Her gaze round the assembled multitude could not disturb any one,
+and her companion had found some friends with whom she was chattering and
+laughing.  Other ladies and young girls sat staring silently in front of
+them, or studying the appearance of the rest of the audience, male and
+female; while others again concentrated their whole attention on the
+stage.  Arsinoe soon followed this example, nor was this solely on
+account of Pollux who, by the prefect's orders, had been enlisted among
+the artists to whom the arrangement of the display was entrusted, in
+spite of the objections of his master Papias.  More than once before had
+she seen the afternoon sun shine as brightly into the theatre as it did
+to-day, and the blue sky overarching it without a cloud, but with what
+different feelings did she now direct her gaze to the raised level behind
+the orchestra.  The background, it is true, was the same as usual, the
+pillared front of a palace built entirely of colored marbles, and
+ornamented with gold; but on this occasion fresh garlands of fragrant
+flowers hung gracefully between the pilasters and across from column to
+column.  Several artists, the first of the city, with tablets and styla
+in their hands were moving about among fifty girls and ladies, and
+Plutarch himself, and the gentlemen with him, composed, as it were a
+grand chorus which sometimes divided, and sometimes stood all together.
+
+On the right side of the stage were three purple-covered couches.  On one
+of them sat Titianus, the prefect, who, like the artists, used his
+pencil; with him was his wife Julia.  On another reclined Verus, at full
+length, and as usual, crowned with roses; the third was for Plutarch, but
+was unoccupied.  The praetor did not hesitate to interrupt any speaker,
+as though he were the host of the entertainment, and many of his remarks
+were followed by loud applause, or approving laughter.
+
+The face and figure of the wealthy Plutarch, which could never be
+forgotten, were not altogether strange to Arsinoe, for, a few days
+previously he had shown himself for the first time in many years in his
+papyrus factory, with an architect to settle with him how the courts and
+rooms could best be cleaned and decorated for the reception of the
+Emperor; and on this occasion he had gone into the room where she worked
+and had pinched her cheek with a few roguish and flattering words.
+
+There he was, walking across the stage.  He was an old man, said to be
+about seventy years of age, his legs were half-paralyzed, and they
+nevertheless moved with a series of incessant and rapid but unvoluntary
+jerks under his heavy bowed body, and he was supported on either hand by
+a tall young fellow.  His nobly-formed head, must have been in his youth,
+of extraordinary beauty.  Now his head was covered by a wig of long brown
+hair, his eyebrows and lashes were darkly dyed, his cheeks daubed with
+red and white paint, which gave his countenance a fixed expression, as if
+he had been stricken in the very act of smiling.  On his curls he wore a
+wreath of rare flowers in long racemes.  An abundance of red and white
+roses stuck out from the front folds of his ample toga, and were held in
+their place by gold brooches, sparkling with precious stones of large
+size.  The hems of his mantle were all edged with rose-buds, and each was
+fastened in with an emerald that shone like some bright insect.  The
+young men who supported him seemed like a portion of himself; he took no
+more heed of them than if they had been crutches, and they needed not
+command to tell them where he wished to go, where to stand still, and
+where to rest.
+
+At a distance his face was like that of a youth, but seen close it looked
+like a painted plaster mask, with regular features and large movable
+eyes.
+
+Favorinus, the sophist, had said of him that one might cry over his
+handsome locomotive corpse, if one were not obliged to laugh at it, and
+it was said that he had himself declared that he would force his
+faithless youth to remain with him.  The Alexandrians called him the
+Adonis with six legs, on account of the lads who supported him, and
+without whom no one ever saw him and who always accompanied him when he
+went out.  The first time he heard this nickname he remarked: "They had
+better have called me sixhanded;" and in fact he had a thoroughly good
+heart, he was liberal and benevolent, took fatherly care of his work-
+people, treated his slaves well, enriched those whom he set free, and
+from time to time distributed large sums among the people in money and
+in grain.
+
+Arsinoe looked compassionately on the poor old man who could not buy back
+his youth with all his money and all his art.
+
+In the supercilious man who at once came up to Plutarch she recognized
+the art-dealer Gabinius to whom her father had shown the door, on account
+of the mosaic picture in their sitting-room, but their conversation was
+interrupted, for the distribution of the women's part for the group of
+Alexander's entry into Babylon, was now about to take place; about fifty
+girls and young women were sent away from the stage and went down into
+the orchestra.  The Exegetes, the highest official in the town, now came
+forward and took a new list out of the hand of Papias the sculptor.
+After rapidly casting an eye on this, he handed it to a herald who
+followed him, who proclaimed to all the assembly:
+
+"In the name of the most noble Exegetes I request your attention, all you
+ladies here assembled, the wives and daughters of Macedonians and of
+Roman citizens.  We now come to a distribution of the characters in our
+representation of the life and history of the great Macedonian, of the
+'Marriage of Alexander and Roxana,' and I hereby request those among you
+to come upon the stage whom our artists have selected to take part in
+this scene in the procession."  After this exordium he shouted in a deep
+and resonant voice a long list of names, and while this was going on
+every other sound was hushed in the wide amphitheatre.
+
+Even on the stage all was still; only Verus whispered a few remarks to
+Titianus, and the curiosity-dealer spoke into Plutarch's ear, long
+sentences with the stringent emphasis which was peculiar to him; and the
+old man answered sometimes with an assenting nod, and sometimes with a
+deprecatory motion of his hands.
+
+Arsinoe listened with suspended breath to the herald's proclamation; she
+started and colored all over, with her eyes fixed on the bunch of flowers
+in her hand, when she heard from the stage loudly uttered and plain to be
+heard by all present:
+
+"Arsinoe, the second daughter of Keraunus, the Macedonian and a Roman
+citizen."
+
+The ship-builder's daughter had already been called before her, and had
+immediately left her seat, but Arsinoe waited modestly till some older
+ladies rose.  She then joined them and went among the last members of the
+little procession which went down to the orchestra and from thence up the
+steps for the chorus, on to the stage.
+
+There the ladies and young girls were placed in two ranks, and looked at
+with amiable consideration by the artists.  Arsinoe was not long in
+perceiving that these gentlemen looked at her longer and more often than
+at the others; and then, after the masters of the festival had gone aside
+in groups to discuss the matter they looked at her constantly and were
+talking, she felt sure, about her.  Nor did it escape her that she had
+become the centre of many glances from the lookers-on who were sitting in
+the theatre, and it occurred to her that on several sides people were
+pointing at her with their fingers.  She did not know which way she
+should look and began to feel bashful; still she was pleased at being
+remarked by so many people, and as she stood looking at the ground out of
+sheer embarrassment to hide the delight she felt, Verus, who had gone up
+to the group of artists, called out, putting his hand on the prefect's
+arm.
+
+"Charming-charming! a Roxana that might have sprung straight out of the
+picture."
+
+Arsinoe heard these words, and guessing that they referred to her she
+became more confused than ever, while her awkward smile gradually changed
+to an expression of joyful but anxious expectation of a delight which was
+almost painful in its magnitude.
+
+Now one of the artists pronounced her name, and as she ventured to raise
+her eyes to see if it were not Pollux who had spoken, she observed the
+wealthy Plutarch who, with his two living crutches and Gabinius, the lean
+curiosity-dealer, was inspecting the ranks of her companions.  Presently
+he had come quite close to her, and as he was helped towards her with
+tottering steps, he dug the dealer in the ribs and said, kissing the back
+of his hand, and winking his great eyes: "I know--I know!  It is not
+easily forgotten.  Ivory and red coral!"
+
+Arsinoe started, the blood left her cheeks, and all satisfaction fled
+from her heart when the old man came to a stand-still in front of her,
+and said kindly:
+
+"Ah! ah! a bud out of the papyrus factory among all these proud roses and
+lilies.  Ah!  ah!  out of my work-rooms to join my assembly!  Never mind-
+never mind, beauty is everywhere welcome.  I do not ask how you got here.
+I am only glad that you are here."
+
+Arsinoe covered part of her face with her hand, but he tapped her white
+arm three times with his middle finger, and then tottered on laughing to
+himself.  The dealer had caught Plutarch's words, and asked him, when
+they had gone a few steps from Arsinoe, with eager indignation:
+
+"Did I hear you rightly? a work-woman in your factory, and here among our
+daughters?"
+
+"So it is--two busy hands among so many idle ones," said the old man,
+gaily.
+
+"Then she must have forced her way in, and must be turned out."
+
+"Certainly she shall not--Why, she is charming."
+
+"It is revolting! here, in this assembly!"
+
+"Revolting?"  interrupted Plutarch.  "Oh dear, no! we must not be too
+particular.  And how are we to obtain mere children from you antiquity-
+mongers?" Then he added pleasantly:
+
+"This lovely creature must I should think, delight your fine sense of
+beauty; or are you afraid that she may seem better suited to the part of
+Roxana than your own charming daughter?  Only listen to the men up there!
+Let us see what is going on."
+
+These words referred to a loud discussion which had arisen close by the
+couches of the prefect and Verus, the praetor.  They, and with them most
+of the painters and sculptors present, were of opinion that Arsinoe would
+be a wonderfully effective Roxana; they maintained that her face and
+figure answered perfectly to those of the Bactrian princes as they were
+represented by Action, whose picture was, to a certain extent, to serve
+as the basis of the living group.  Only Papias and two of his fellow-
+artists, declared against this choice, and eagerly asserted that among
+all the damsels present one, and one alone, was worthy to appear before
+the Emperor as Alexander's bride, and that one was Praxilla, the daughter
+of Gabinius.  All three were in close business relations with the father
+of the young girl, who was tall, and slim, and certainly very lovely, and
+they wanted to do a pleasure to the rich and knowing purchaser.  Their
+zeal even assumed a tone of vehemence, when the dealer, following in the
+wake of Plutarch, joined the group of disputants, and they were certain
+of being heard by him.
+
+"And who is this girl yonder?"  asked Papias, pointing to Arsinoe,
+as the two came up.  "Nothing can be said against her beauty, but she is
+dressed less than simply, and wears no kind of ornament worth speaking
+of--it is a thousand to one against her parents being in a position to
+provide her with such a rich dress, and such costly jewels as Roxana
+certainly ought to display when about to be married to Alexander.  The
+Asiatic princess must appear in silk, gold and precious stones.  Now my
+friend here will be able so to dress his Praxilla that the splendor of
+her attire might have astonished the great Macedonian himself, but who is
+the father of that pretty child who is satisfied with the blue ribbon in
+her hair, her two roses, and her little white frock?"
+
+"Your reflections are just, Papias," interrupted the dealer, with dry
+incisiveness.  "The girl you are speaking of is quite out of the
+question.  I do not say so for my daughter's sake, but because everything
+in bad taste is odious to me; it is hardly conceivable how such a young
+thing could have had the audacity to force herself in here.  A pretty
+face, to be sure, opens locks and bars.  She is--do not be too much
+startled--she is nothing more than a work-girl in the papyrus factory of
+our excellent host, Plutarch."
+
+"That is not the truth," Pollux interrupted, indignantly, as he heard
+this assertion.
+
+"Moderate your tongue, young man," replied the dealer.  "I can call you
+to witness, noble Plutarch."
+
+"Let her be whom she may," answered the old man, with annoyance.  "She is
+very one of my workwomen, but even if she had come straight here from the
+gumming-table with such a face and such a figure, she is perfectly in
+place here and everywhere.  That is my opinion."
+
+"Bravo! my fine friend!" cried Verus, nodding to the old man.  "Caesar
+will be far better pleased with such a paragon of charmers as that sweet
+creature, than with all your old writs of citizenship and heavy purses."
+
+"That is true," the prefect said, confirming this statement.  "And I dare
+swear she is a free maiden, and not a slave.  But you stood up for her
+friend Pollux--what do you know about her?"
+
+"That she is the daughter of Keraunus, the palace-steward, and that I
+have known her from her childhood," answered the youthful artist
+emphatically.  "He is a Roman citizen, and of an old Macedonian house as
+well."
+
+"Perhaps even of royal descent," added Titianus, laughing.
+
+"I know the man," answered the dealer hastily.  "He is an impecunious
+insolent old fool."
+
+"I should think," interrupted Verus with lofty composure, but rather as
+being bored, than as reproving the irritated speaker, "it seems to me
+that this is hardly the place to conduct a discussion as to the nature
+and disposition of the fathers of all those ladies and young girls."
+
+"But he is poor," cried the dealer angrily.  "A few days since he offered
+to sell me his few miserable curiosities, but really I could not--"
+
+"We are sorry for your sake if the transaction was unsuccessful," Verus
+again interposed, this time with excessive politeness.  "Now, first let
+us decide on the persons and afterwards on the costumes.  The father of
+the girl is a Roman citizen then?"
+
+"A member of the council, and in his way a man of position," replied
+Titianus.
+
+"And I," added his wife Julia, "have taken a great fancy to the sweet
+little maid, and if the principal part is given to her, and her noble
+father is without adequate means, as you assert my friend, I will
+undertake to provide for her costume.  Caesar will be charmed with
+such a Roxana."
+
+The dealer's clients were silent, he himself was trembling with
+disappointment and vexation, and his fury rose to the utmost when
+Plutarch, whom till then he thought he had won over to his daughter's
+side, tried to bow his bent old body before dame Julia, and said with a
+graceful gesture of regret:
+
+"My old eyes have deceived me again on this occasion.  The little girl
+is very like one of my workwomen; very like--but I see now that there is
+a certain something which the other lacks.  I have done her an injustice
+and remain her debtor.  Permit, me, noble lady to add the ornaments to
+the dress you provide for our Roxana.  I may be lucky enough to find
+something pretty for her.  A sweet child!  I shall go at once and beg her
+forgiveness and tell her what we propose.  May I do so noble Julia?  Have
+I your permission gentlemen?"
+
+In a very few minutes it was known all over the stage, and soon after all
+through the amphitheatre, that Arsinoe, the daughter of Keraunus, had
+been selected to represent the character of Roxana.
+
+"But who was Keraunus?"
+
+"How was it that the children of the most illustrious and wealthy
+citizens had been overlooked in assigning this most prominent part?"
+
+"This was just what might be expected when every thing was left to those
+reckless artists!"
+
+"And where was a poor little girl like that to find the talents which it
+would cost to procure the costume of an Asiatic princess, Alexander's
+bride?"
+
+"Plutarch, and the prefect's wife had undertaken that."
+
+"A mere beggar."
+
+"How well the family jewels would have suited our daughters!"
+
+"Do we want to show Caesar nothing but a few silly pretty faces?--and not
+something of our wealth and taste?"
+
+"Supposing Hadrian asks who this Roxana is, and had to be told that a
+collection had to be made to get her a proper costume."
+
+"Such things never could happen anywhere but in Alexandria."
+
+"Every one wants to know whether she worked in Plutarch's factory.  They
+say it is not true--but the painted old villain still loves a pretty
+face.  He smuggled her in, you may be sure; where there is smoke there is
+fire, and it is beyond a doubt that she gets money from the old man."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Ah! you had better enquire of a priest of Aphrodite.  It is nothing to
+laugh at, it is scandalous, audacious!"
+
+Thus and on this wise ran the comments with which the announcement of
+Arsinoe's preferment to the part of Roxana was received, and hatred and
+bitter animosity had grown up in the souls of the dealer and his
+daughter.  Praxilla was selected as a companion to Alexander's bride, and
+she yielded without objecting, but on her way homewards she nodded assent
+when her father said:
+
+"Let things go on now as they may, but a few hours before the performance
+begins, I will send them word that you are ill."
+
+The selection of Arsinoe had however, on the other hand, given pleasure
+as well as pain.  Up in the middle places in the amphitheatre sat
+Keraunus, his legs far apart, his face glowing, panting and choking with
+sheer delight, and too haughty to draw in his feet even when the brother
+of the archidikastes tried to squeeze by his bulky person which filled
+two seats at once.  Arsinoe, whose sharp ears had not failed to catch the
+dealer's remonstrances, and the words in which brave Pollux had taken her
+part, had, at first, felt dying of shame and terror, but now she felt as
+though she could fly on the wings of her delight.  She had never been so
+happy in her life, and when she got out with her father, in the first
+dark street she threw her arms round his neck, kissed both his cheeks,
+and then told him how kind the lady Julia, the prefect's wife had been to
+her, and that she had undertaken, with the warmest friendliness, to have
+her costly dress made for her.
+
+Keraunus had no objection to offer, and, strange to say, he did not
+consider it beneath his dignity to allow Arsinoe to be supplied with
+jewels by the wealthy manufacturer.
+
+"People have seen," he said, pathetically, "that we need not shrink from
+doing as much as other citizens do, but to dress a Roxana as befits a
+bride would cost millions, and I am very willing to confess to my friends
+that I have not millions.  Where the costume comes from is all the same,
+be that as it may you will still stand the first of all the maidens in
+the city, and I am pleased with you for that, my child.  To-morrow will
+be the last meeting, and then perhaps Selene too, may have a prominent
+part given to her.  Happily we are able to dress her as befits.  When
+will the prefect's wife fetch you?"
+
+"To-morrow about noon."
+
+"Then early to-morrow buy a nice new dress."
+
+"Will there not be enough for a new bracelet too?"  asked Arsinoe,
+coaxingly.  "This one of mine is too narrow and trumpery."
+
+"You shall have one, for you have deserved it," replied Keraunus, with
+dignity.  "But you must have patience till the day after to-morrow;
+to-morrow the goldsmiths will be closed on account of the festival."
+
+Arsinoe had never seen her father so cheerful and talkative as he was
+to-day, and yet the walk from the theatre to Lochias was not a very short
+one, and it was long past the early hour at which he was accustomed to
+retire to bed.
+
+By the time the father and daughter reached the palace it was already
+tolerably late, for, after Arsinoe had quitted the stage, suitable
+representatives of parts had been selected for three other scenes from
+the life of Alexander, by the light of torches, lamps and tapers; and
+before the assemblage broke up, Plutarch's guests were entertained with
+wine, fruit, syrups, sweet cakes, oyster pasties, and other delicacies.
+The steward had fallen with good will on the noble drink and excellent
+food, and when he was replete, he was wont to be in a better humor, and
+after a modicum of wine, in a more cheerful mood than usual.  Just now he
+was content and kind, for although he had done all that lay in his power,
+the entertainment had not lasted long enough, for him to arrive at a
+state of intoxication which could make him surly, or to overload his
+digestion.  Towards the end of their walk, he turned thoughtful and said:
+
+"To-morrow the council does not sit on account of the festival, and that
+is well; all the world will congratulate me, question me, and notice me,
+and the gilding on my circlet is quite shabby; and in some places the
+silver shines through.  Your outfit will now cost nothing, and it is
+quite necessary that before the next meeting I should go to a goldsmith
+and exchange that wretched thing for one of real gold.  A man should show
+what he is."
+
+He spoke the words pompously, and Arsinoe eagerly acquiesced, and only
+begged him, as they went in at the open door, to leave enough for
+Selene's costume; he laughed quietly to himself, and said:
+
+"We need no longer be so very cautious.  I should like to know who the
+Alexander will be who will be the first to ask for my Roxana as his wife.
+Rich old Plutarch's only son already has a seat in the council, and has
+not yet taken a wife.  He is no longer very young, but he is a fine man
+still."
+
+The radiant father's dream of the future was interrupted by Doris, who
+came out of the gate-house and called him by his name.  Keraunus stood
+still.  When the old woman went on:
+
+"I must speak with you."
+
+He answered, repellently: "But I shall not listen to you--neither now nor
+at any time."
+
+"It was certainly not for my pleasure," retorted Doris, "that I called to
+you; I have only to tell you that you will not find your daughter Selene
+at home."
+
+"What do you say?" cried Keraunus.
+
+"I say that the poor girl with her damaged foot could at last walk no
+farther, and that she had to be carried into a strange house where she is
+being taken care of."
+
+"Selene!" cried Arsinoe, falling from all her clouds of happiness,
+startled and grieved--"do you know where she is?"
+
+Before Doris could reply, Keraunus stormed out:
+
+"It is all the fault of the Roman architect and his raging beast of a
+dog.  Very good!  very good!  now Caesar will certainly help me to my
+rights.  He will give a lesson to those who throw Roxana's sister into a
+sick-bed, and hinder her from taking any part in the processions.  Very
+good! very good indeed!"
+
+"It is sad enough to cry over!"  said the gatekeeper's wife, indignantly.
+"Is this the thanks she gets for all her care of her little brothers and
+sisters!  Only to think that a father can speak so, when his best child
+is lying with a broken leg, helpless among strangers!"
+
+"With a broken leg," whimpered Arsinoe.
+
+"Broken!" repeated  Keraunus slowly, and now sincerely anxious.  "Where
+can I find her?"
+
+"At dame Hannah's little house at the bottom of the garden belonging to
+the widow of Pudeus."
+
+"Why did they not bring her here?"
+
+"Because the physician forbade it.  She is in a fever, but she is well
+cared for.  Hannah is one of the Christians.  I cannot bear the people,
+but they know how to nurse the sick better than any one."
+
+"With Christians!  my child is with Christians!" shrieked Keraunus,
+beside himself.  "At once Arsinoe, at once come with me; Selene shall not
+stay a moment longer among that accursed rabble.  Eternal gods! besides
+all our other troubles this disgrace too!"
+
+"Nay, it is not so bad as that," said Doris soothingly.  "There are very
+estimable folks even among the Christians.  At any rate they are
+certainly honorable, for the poor hunch-backed creature who first brought
+the bad news gave me this little bag of money which dame Hannah had found
+in Selene's pocket."
+
+Keraunus took his daughter's hard-won wages as contemptuously as though
+he was quite accustomed to gold, and thought nothing of more wretched
+silver; but Arsinoe began to cry at the sight of the drachmae, for she
+knew it was for the sake of that money that Selene had left her home, and
+could divine what frightful pain she must have suffered on the way.
+
+"Honorable this, and honorable that!"  cried Keraunus, as he tied up his
+money-bag.  "I know well enough how shameless are the goings on in
+assemblies of that stamp; kissing and hugging slaves! quite the right
+sort of thing for my daughter!  Come Arsinoe, let us find a litter at
+once!"
+
+"No, no!"  exclaimed Doris eagerly.  "For the present you must leave her
+in peace.  I should be glad to conceal it from you as a father--but the
+physician declared it might cost her her life if she were not left just
+now in perfect quiet.  No one goes to any kind of assembly with a burning
+wound in the head, a high fever and a broken leg.--Poor dear child!"
+
+Keraunus stood silent in grave consternation, while Arsinoe exclaimed
+through her tears:
+
+"But I must go to her, I must see her Doris."
+
+"That I cannot blame you for, my pretty one," said the old woman.  I have
+already been to the house of the Christians, but they would not let me in
+to see the patient.  With you it is rather different as you are her
+sister."
+
+"Come father," begged Arsinoe, "first let us see to the children, and
+then you shall come with me to see Selene.  Oh! why did I not go with
+her.  Oh! if she should die."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Keraunus and his daughter reached their rooms less quickly than usual,
+for the steward dreaded a fresh attack from the blood-hound, which,
+to-night however, was sharing Antinous' room.  They found the old
+slavewoman up, and in great excitement, for she loved Selene, she was
+frightened at her absence, and in the children's sleeping-room all was
+not as it should be.
+
+Arsinoe went without delay to see the little ones, but the black woman
+remained with her master, and told him with many tears, while he
+exchanged his saffron-colored pallium for an old cloak, that the joy of
+her heart, little blind Helios had been ill, and could not sleep, even
+after she had given him some of the drops which Keraunus himself was
+accustomed to take.
+
+"Idiotic animal!"  exclaimed Keraunus, "to give my medicine to the
+child," and he kicked off his new shoes to replace them with shabbier
+ones.  "If you were younger I would have you flogged."
+
+"But you did say the drops were good," stammered the old woman.
+
+"For me," shouted the steward, and without fastening his shoe-straps
+round his ankles, so that they flapped and pattered on the ground, he
+hurried off into the children's room.  There sat his darling blind child,
+his 'neir' as he liked to call him, with his pretty, fair, curly head
+resting on Arsinoe's breast.  The child recognized his step, and began
+his little lament:
+
+"Selene was away, and I was frightened, and I feel so sick, so sick."
+
+The steward laid his hand on the child's forehead, and feeling how hot it
+was he began to walk restlessly up and down by the little bed.
+
+"That is just how it always happens," he said.  "When one misfortune
+comes another always follows.  Look at him Arsinoe.  Do you remember how
+the fever took poor Berenice?  Sickness, uneasiness, and a burning head.
+--"Have you any pain in your head my boy?"
+
+"No," answered Helios, "but I feel so sick."
+
+The steward opened the child's little shirt to see if he had any spots on
+his breast, but Arsinoe said, as she bent over him:
+
+"It is nothing much, he has only overloaded his stomach.  The stupid old
+woman gives him every thing he asks for, and she let him have half of the
+currant cake, which we sent her to fetch before we went out."
+
+"But his head is burning," repeated Keraunus.
+
+"He will be quite well again by to-morrow morning," replied Arsinoe.
+"Our poor Selene needs us far snore than he does.  Come father.  The old
+woman can stay with him."
+
+"I want Selene to come," whimpered the child.  "Pray, pray, do not leave
+me alone again."
+
+"Your old father will stay with you my pet," said Keraunus tenderly, for
+it cut him to the soul to see this child suffer.  "You none of you know
+what this boy is to us all."
+
+"He will soon go to sleep," Arsinoe asserted.  "Do let us go, or it will
+be too late."
+
+"And leave the old woman to commit some other stupid blunder?"  cried
+Keraunus.  "It is my duty to stay with the poor little boy.  You can
+go to your sister and take the old woman with you."
+
+"Very good, and to-morrow early I will come back."
+
+"To-morrow morning?"  said Keraunus surprised.  "No, no, that will not
+do.  Doris said just now that Selene will be well nursed by the
+Christians.  Only see how she is, give her my love, and then come back."
+
+"But father--"
+
+"Besides you must remember that the prefect's wife expects you to-morrow
+at noon to choose the stuff for your dress, and you must not look as if
+you had been sitting up all night."
+
+"I will rest a little while in the morning."
+
+"In the morning?  And how about curling my hair?  And your new frock?
+And poor little Helios?--No child, you are only just to see Selene and
+then come back again.  Early in the morning too the holiday will have
+begun, and you know what goes on then; the old woman would be of no use
+to you in the throng.  Go and see how Selene is, you are not to stay."
+
+"I will see--"
+
+"Not a word about seeing--you come home again.  I desire it; in two hours
+you are to be in bed."
+
+Arsinoe shrugged her shoulders, and two minutes after she was standing
+with the old slave-woman in front of the gate-house.
+
+A broad beam of light still fell through the half-open door of the bowery
+little room, so Euphorion and Doris had not retired to rest and could at
+once open the palace-gate for her.  The Graces set up a bark as Arsinoe
+crossed the threshold of her old friends' house, but they did not leave
+their cushion for they soon recognized her.
+
+It was several years since Arsinoe, in obedience to her father's strict
+prohibition had set foot in the snug the house, and her heart was deeply
+touched as she saw again all the surroundings she had loved as a child,
+and had not forgotten as she grew into girlhood.  There were the birds,
+the little dogs, and the lutes on the wall near the Apollo.  On worthy
+dame Doris' table there had always been something to eat, and there, now,
+good a lovely, golden-brown cake, by the side of the wine-jar.  How often
+as a child had she sneaked in to beg a sweet morsel, how often to see
+whether tall Pollux were not there, Pollux, whose bold devices and
+original suggestions, gave his work and his play alike, the stamp of
+genius, and lent them a peculiar charm.  And there sat her saucy
+playfellow in person, his legs stretched at full length in front of him,
+and talking, eagerly.  Arsinoe heard him relating the end of the history
+of her being chosen for Roxana, and caught her own name, graced with such
+epithets as brought the blushes to her cheeks, and gave her double
+pleasure because he could not guess that she could overhear them.  From a
+boy he had grown to a man, and a fine man, and a great artist--but he was
+still the old kind and audacious Pollux.
+
+The sudden leap with which he sprang from his seat to welcome her, the
+frank laughter with which he several times interrupted her speech, the
+childlike loving way in which he held his arm round his little mother
+while he greeted her, and asked why she was going out so late, the
+winning, touching tone of his voice as he expressed his regret at
+Selene's mishaps--all went home to Arsinoe as a thing known and loved,
+of which she had long been deprived, and she clung to the two strong
+hands he held out to her.  If at that moment he had taken her up, and
+clasped her to his heart before the very eyes of Eupliorion and his
+mother she really would have been incapable of resisting him.
+
+It was with a heavy heart that Arsinoe had gone into dame Doris, but in
+the gate-keeper's house there reigned an atmosphere in which care and
+anxiety could not breathe, and the light-hearted girl's vision of her
+sister as tormented with pain and threatened with danger was changed in
+a wonderfully short time to that of a sufferer comfortably in bed, with
+only a severely-injured foot.  In the place of consuming anxiety she felt
+only hearty sympathy, and this sounded in her voice as she begged the
+singer Euphorion to open the gate for her, because she wanted to go out
+with her slave-woman to ascertain how Selene was.
+
+Doris soothed her, repeating her assurance that the patient would be
+nursed with the utmost care in dame Hannah's hands; still, she thought
+her wish to see her sister very justifiable, and eagerly seconded Pollux
+when he entreated Arsinoe to accept his escort; for the festival would be
+beginning soon after midnight, the streets would be full of rough and
+impudent people, and a bunch of feathers would be about as much use
+against the drunken slaves as her black scarecrow, who had been falling
+into decrepitude even before she had done the stupidest deed of her life
+and roused the steward's anger against herself.
+
+So they went along the dark streets which grew full of people the farther
+they went, side by side in silence.  Presently Pollux said:
+
+"Put your arm through mine; you ought to feel that I am protecting you,
+and I--I should like to feel at every step that I have found you once
+more, and am allowed to be near you--so sweet a creature."
+
+The words did not sound impertinent, on the contrary, they sounded very
+much in earnest, and the sculptor's deep voice trembled with emotion as
+he spoke them with deep tenderness.  They knocked at the door of the
+girl's heart with the urgent hand of love; she unhesitatingly put her
+hand through his arm and answered softly:
+
+"You will take care of me now."
+
+"Yes," said he, and he took her little hand, which rested on his right
+arm, in his left hand.  She did not draw it away, and after they had gone
+on thus for a few paces he sighed and said:
+
+"Do you know how I feel?"
+
+"Well!"
+
+"Nay, I myself cannot put it into words.  Rather as if I had triumphed in
+the Olympian games, or as if Caesar had invested me with the purple!--But
+who cares for the wealth or the purple!  You are hanging on my arm, and I
+have hold of your hand; compared with this, all is as nought.  If it were
+not for the people about I--I do not know what I could do."
+
+She looked up at him with happy content, but he lifted her hand to his
+lips and pressed it to them long and fervently.  Then he let it go again
+and said, with a sigh that came up from the bottom of his heart:
+
+"Oh Arsinoe, my sweet Arsinoe, how I love you!"
+
+As the words came softly yet hotly from his lips the girl clasped his arm
+closely to her bosom, leaned her head on his shoulder, looked up at him
+with a wide-eyed, tender gaze, and said softly:
+
+"Oh Pollux, I am so happy, the world is so good!"
+
+"Nay, I could hate it!" cried the sculptor.  "To hear this--and to have
+an old mother wide awake at home, and to be obliged to walk steadily on
+in a street crowded with men--it is unendurable!  I shall not hold out
+much longer--sweetest of girls--here it is quiet and dark."
+
+Yes, in a little nook made by two contiguous houses, and into which
+Pollux drew Arsinoe, it was pitch dark, as he hastily pressed his first
+kiss on her innocent lips; but in their hearts it was light-radiant
+sunshine.
+
+She had thrown her arms round his neck and would willingly have clung to
+him till day should end; but they heard the approach of a noisy
+procession of slaves.  These unfortunate creatures began soon after
+midnight singing and shouting so as to avail themselves to the extremist
+limit of the holiday, which released them for a short time from their
+tasks and duties; Pollux knew well how unbounded the license of their
+pleasures could be, and as he walked on with Arsinoe he enjoined her to
+keep with him as close as possible to the houses.
+
+"How jolly they are!" he said pointing to the merry-makers.  "Their
+masters will wait on themselves a little to-day, and the best day in the
+year is just beginning for them, but for us the best day in all our
+lives."
+
+"Yes, yes," cried Arsinoe, and she clasped his strong arm with both her
+hands.
+
+Then they both laughed merrily, for Pollux had noticed that the old
+slave-woman had gone on past them with her head sunk on her breast, and
+was following another pair.
+
+"I will call her," Arsinoe said.
+
+"No, no, let her be," said the artist.  "The couple in front certainly
+require her protection more than we do."
+
+"But how could she possibly mistake that little man for you?" laughed
+Arsinoe.
+
+"I wish I were a little smaller," replied Pollux with a sigh.  "Only
+picture to yourself the vast amount of burning love and tormenting
+longing that can be contained in so large a body as mine!"  She slapped
+him on the arm, and to punish her he hastily pressed his lips on her
+forehead.
+
+"Don't--think of the people," she said reprovingly, but he gaily
+answered:
+
+"It is not a misfortune to be envied."
+
+Here the streets came to an end, and they found themselves in front of
+the garden belonging to Pudeus' widow; Pollux knew it, for Paulina who
+owned it was the sister of Pontius, the architect, who himself owned a
+magnificent house in the city.  But could it be possible?  Had invisible
+hands brought them here already?  The gate of the enclosure was locked.
+Pollux roused a porter, told him what he wanted, and was conducted by him
+with Arsinoe to apart of the grounds where a bright light shone out from
+dame Hannah's little abode, for he had had instructions to admit the sick
+girl's friends even during the night.
+
+A crescent moon lighted the paths, which were strewed with shells; the
+shrubs and trees in the garden threw sharply-defined shadows on their
+gleaming whiteness, the sea sparkled brightly, and as soon as the porter
+had left the happy young pair together, and they found themselves in a
+shadowy alley, Pollux said, opening his arms to the girl:
+
+"Now--one more kiss, just for a remembrance, while I wait."
+
+"Not now," begged Arsinoe.
+
+"I am no longer happy since we came in here.  I cannot help thinking of
+poor Selene."
+
+"I have not a word to say against that," replied Pollux submissively.
+"Then when waiting is over may I have my reward?"
+
+"No, no, now, at once," cried Arsinoe throwing herself on his breast, and
+then she hurried towards the house.
+
+He followed her, and when she paused in front of a brightly-lighted
+window on the ground floor, he stopped also.  They both looked in on a
+lofty and spacious room, kept in the most perfect order and cleanliness;
+it had one door only opening on the roofless forecourt of the house; the
+walls of the room were plainly painted of a light green color, and the
+only ornament it contained was one piece of carved work over the door.
+
+On the farther side stood the bed on which Selene was lying; a few paces
+from it sat the deformed girl asleep, while dame Hannah softly went up to
+the patient with a wet compress in her hand which she carefully laid on
+her head.
+
+Pollux touched Arsinoe and whispered to her:
+
+"Your sister lies there in her sleep like an Ariadne deserted by
+Dionysus.  How wretched she will feel when she comes to herself."
+
+"She looks to me less pale than usual."
+
+"Look now, how she bends her arm, and what a lovely attitude as she puts
+her hand to her head!"
+
+"Go--" said Arsinoe.  "You ought not to be spying here."
+
+"Directly, directly--but if you were lying there no power should stir me
+from the spot.  How carefully Hannah lifts the wet wrapper from her poor
+broken ankle.  You could not touch your eye more gently than the good
+woman handles Selene's foot."
+
+"Go back, she is looking straight this way."
+
+"What a wonderful face!  It would do for a Penelope, but there is
+something singular in her eyes.  Now if I had to make another star-gazing
+Urania, or a Sappho full of the deity, and with eyes fixed on the heavens
+in poetic rapture, that is what I would put into her!  She is no longer
+young, but how pure her face is!  It is like a sky when the wind has
+swept it clear of clouds."
+
+"Seriously you must go now," said Arsinoe drawing away her hand, which he
+had again taken.  Pollux saw that his praise of another woman's beauty
+annoyed her, and he said soothingly:
+
+"Be easy child.  You have not your match here in Alexandria, no, nor so
+far as Greek is spoken.  A perfectly clear sky is certainly not the most
+beautiful to my taste.  Pure light, and pure blue, give no satisfaction
+to the artist, it is only behind a few moving clouds, lighted up by
+changing gleams of gold and silver, that the firmament has any true
+charm, and though your face too is like heaven to me it does not lack
+sweet movement, never twice alike.  Now this matron--"
+
+"Only look," interrupted Arsinoe, "how tenderly dame Hannah bends over
+Selene, and now she is gently kissing her brow.  No mother could tend her
+own daughter more lovingly.  I have known her for a long time; she is
+good, very good; it is hardly credible for she is a Christian."
+
+"The cross up there over the door," said Pollux "is the token by which
+these extraordinary people recognize each other."
+
+"And what is signified by the dove and fish and anchor round it?"  asked
+Arsinoe.
+
+"They are emblems of the mysteries of the Christians," replied Pollux.
+"I do not understand them; the things are wretchedly painted; the
+adherents of the crucified God contemn all art, and particularly my
+branch of it, for they hate all images of the gods."
+
+"And yet among such blasphemers we find such good men; I will go in at
+once; Hannah is wetting another handkerchief."
+
+"And how unwearied and kind she looks as she does it; still there is
+something strange, deserted, and graceless in this large bare room.  I
+should not like to live there."
+
+"Have you noticed the faint scent of lavender that comes through the
+window?"
+
+"Long since--there your sister is moving and has opened her eyes--now she
+has shut them again."
+
+"Go back into the garden and wait till I come," Arsinoe commanded him
+decidedly.  "I will only see how Selene is going on; I will not stop long
+for my father wishes me to return soon, and no one can nurse her better
+than Hannah!"
+
+The girl drew her hand out of her lover's and knocked at the door of the
+little house; it was opened and the widow herself led Arsinoe to the
+bedside of her sister.  Pollux at first sat a while on a bench in the
+garden, but soon sprang up and paced with long steps the path he had
+previously trodden with Arsinoe.  A stone table across the path, brought
+him to a stand-still, and he took a fancy for leaping it.  The third time
+he came up to it he sprang over it with a long jump.  But no sooner had
+he done the frolicsome deed than he paused, shook his head at himself and
+muttered to himself: "Like a boy!"--He felt indeed like a happy child.
+But as he waited he became calmer and graver.  He acknowledged to
+himself, with sincere thankfulness, that he had now found the ideal
+woman, of whom he had dreamed in his hours of best inspiration, and that
+she was his, wholly and alone.  And after all, what was he?  A poor
+rascal who had many mouths to fill, and was no more than two fingers of
+his master's hand.  This must be altered.  He would not reduce his
+sister's comforts in any way but he must break with Papias, and stand
+henceforth on his own feet.  His courage mounted fast, and when at last,
+Arsinoe returned from her sister, he had resolved that he must first
+finish Balbilla's bust with all diligence in his own workshop, and that
+then he would model his beloved; these two female heads he could not fail
+in.  Caesar must see them, they must be exhibited, and already in his
+mind's eye, he saw himself refusing order after order, and accepting only
+the most splendid where all were good.
+
+Arsinoe went home comforted.  Selene's sufferings were certainly less
+than she had pictured them; she did not wish to be nursed by any one
+besides dame Hannah.  She might perhaps have a little fever, but any
+one who was capable of discussing every little question of house-keeping,
+and all that related to the children could not be--as Arsinoe thought
+while she walked back through the garden, leaning on the artist's arm--
+really and properly ill.
+
+"It must revive and delight her to have Roxana for a sister!" cried
+Pollux; but his pretty companion shook her head and said: "She is always
+so odd; what most delights me is averse to her."
+
+"Well Selene is of course the moon, and you are the sun."
+
+"And what are you?" asked Arsinoe.
+
+"I am tall Pollux, and to-night I feel as if I might some day be great
+Pollux."
+
+"If you succeed I shall grow with you."
+
+"That will be your right, since it is only through you that I can ever
+succeed in that which I propose to do.
+
+"And how should a simple little thing, such as I am, be able to help an
+artist?"
+
+"By living, and by loving him," cried the sculptor, lifting her up in his
+arms before she could prevent him.
+
+Outside the garden-gate the old slave-woman was sitting asleep.  She had
+learnt from the porter that her young mistress had been admitted with her
+companion, but she herself had been forbidden to enter the grounds.  A
+curbstone had served her for a seat, and as she waited her eyes had
+closed, in spite of the increasing noise in the street.  Arsinoe did not
+waken her, but asked Pollux, with a roguish laugh:
+
+"We shall find our way alone, shall we not?"
+
+"If Eros does not lead us astray," answered the artist.  And so, as they
+went on their way, they jested and exchanged little tender speeches.
+
+The nearer they got to Lochias and to the main lines of traffic which
+intersected at right angles the Canopic way--the widest and longest road
+in the city--the fuller was the stream of people that flowed onwards in
+the direction in which they were going; but this circumstance favored
+them, for those who wish to be unobserved, when they cannot be absolutely
+alone, have only to mix with the crowd.  As they were borne towards the
+focus and centre of the festive doings, they clung closely together, she
+to him, and he to her, so that they might not be torn apart by any of the
+rushing and tumultuous processions of excited Thracian women who,
+faithful to their native usages, came storming by with a young bull, on
+this particular night of the year, that following the shortest day.  They
+had hardly gone a hundred paces beyond the Moon-street when they heard
+proceeding from it a wild roving song of tipsy jollity, and loud above it
+the sound of drums and pipes, cymbals and noisy shouting, and at the same
+time in the King's street, a road which crossed the Bruchiom and opened
+on Lochias, a merry troup came towards them.
+
+At their head, among other acquaintances, came Teuker, the gem-cutter,
+the younger brother of Pollux.  Crowned with ivy, and flourishing a
+thyrsus he came dancing on, and behind him, leaping and shouting, a train
+of men and women, all excited to the verge of folly, singing, hollooing,
+and dancing.
+
+Garlands of vine, ivy and asphodel fluttered from a hundred heads;
+poplar, lotus, and laurel wreaths overhung their heated brows; panther-
+skins, deer and goatskins hung from their bare shoulders and waved in the
+wind as their bearers hurried onwards.  This procession had been first
+formed by some artists and rich youths returning with some women from a
+banquet, with a band of music; every one who met this festal party had
+joined it or had been forced to enlist with it.  Respectable citizens and
+their wives, laborers, maid-servants, slaves, soldiers and sailors,
+officers, women flute-players, artisans, ship-captains, the whole chorus
+of a theatre invited by a friend of art, excited women who dragged with
+them a goat that was to be slaughtered to Dionysus--none had been able to
+resist the temptation to join the procession.  It turned down the Moon-
+street, keeping to the middle of the road which was planted with elms,
+and had on each side of it a raised foot-way, which at this time of night
+no one used.  How clear was the sound of the double-pipes, how bravely
+the girls hit the calf-skin of the tambourines with their soft fists, how
+saucily the wind tossed and tangled the dishevelled hair of the riotous
+women and played with the smoke of the torches which were wielded in the
+air by audacious youths, disguised as Pan or as Satyrs, and shouting as
+they went.
+
+Here a girl, holding her tambourine high in the air, rattled the little
+bells on its hoop, as she flew along, as violently as though she wanted
+to shake the hollow metal balls out of their frame, and send them
+whistling through the air on their own account-there, side by side with
+his comrades, who were excited almost to madness, a handsome lad came
+skipping along in elaborately graceful leaps, but carrying over his arm,
+with comic care, a long bull's-tail that he had tied on, and blowing
+alternately up and down the short scale from the shortest to the longest
+of the reeds composing his panpipes.  Through the noisy crowd as they
+rushed by, sounded, now and again, a loud roar, that might as easily have
+been caused by pain as joy; but it was each time hastily drowned in mad
+laughter, extravagant singing and jubilant music.
+
+Old and young, great and small, all in short that came near this rabble
+train, were carried off with irresistible force to follow it with shouts
+of triumph.  Even Pollux and Arsinoe had for some time ceased to walk
+soberly side by side, but moved their feet, laughingly in time to the
+merry measure.
+
+"How nice it sounds," cried the artist.  "I could dance and be merry too
+Arsinoe, dance and make merry with you like a madman!"
+
+Before she could find time to say 'yes' or 'no,' he shouted a loud "To,
+To, Dionysus," and flung her up in the air.  She too was caught by the
+spirit of the thing, and waving her hand above her head she joined in his
+shout of triumph, and let him drag her along to a corner of the Moon-
+street where a seller of garlands offered her wares for sale.  There she
+let him wreathe her with ivy, she stuck a laurel wreath on his head,
+twisted a streamer of ivy round his neck and breast, and laughed loudly
+as she flung a large silver coin into the flower-woman's lap and clung
+tightly to his arm.  It was all done in swift haste without reflection,
+as if in a fit of intoxication, and with trembling hands.
+
+The procession was drawing to an end.  Six women and girls in wreaths
+closed it, walking arm in arm with loud singing.  Pollux drew his
+sweetheart behind this jovial crew, threw his arm around Arsinoe once
+more, while she put hers round him, and then both of them stepped out in
+a brisk dance-step flinging their arms left free, throwing back their
+heads, shouting and singing loudly, and forgetting all that surrounded
+them; they felt as though they were bound to each other by a glory of
+sunbeams, while some god lifted them above the earth and bore them up
+through a realm of delight and joy beyond the myriad stars and through
+the translucent ether; thus they let themselves be led away through the
+Moon-street into the Canopic way and so back to the sea, and as far as
+the temple of Dionysus.
+
+There they paused breathless and it suddenly struck them that he was
+Pollux and she Arsinoe, and that she must get back again to her father
+and the children.
+
+"Come home," she said softly, and as she spoke she dropped her arm and
+began to gather up her loosened hair.
+
+"Yes, yes," he said as if in a dream.  He released her, struck his hand
+against his brow, and turning to the open cella of the temple he said:
+
+"Long have I known that thou art mighty O Dionysus, and that thou O
+Aphrodite art lovely, and that thou art sweet O Eros!  but how
+inestimable your gifts, that I have learnt to-day for the first time."
+
+"We were indeed full of the deity," said Arsinoe.  "But here comes
+another procession and I must go home."
+
+"Then let us go by the Little Harbor," answered Pollux.
+
+"Yes--I must pick the leaves out of my hair and no one will see us
+there."
+
+"I will help you--"
+
+"No, you are not to touch me," said Arsinoe decidedly.  She grasped her
+abundant soft and shiny hair, and cleared it of the leaves that had got
+entangled in it, as tiny beetles do in a double flower.  Finally she hid
+her hair under her veil, which had slipped off her head long since, but,
+almost by a miracle, had caught and remained hanging on the brooch of her
+peplum.  Pollux stood looking at her, and overmastered by the passion
+that possessed him, he exclaimed:
+
+"Eternal gods! how I love you!  Till now my soul has been like a careless
+child, to-day it is grown to heroic stature.--Wait--only wait, it will
+soon learn to use its weapons."
+
+"And I will help it in the fight," she said happily, as she put her hand
+through his arm again, and they hurried back to the old palace, dancing
+rather than walking.
+
+The late December sun was already giving warning of his approaching
+rising by cold yellowish-grey streaks in the sky as Pollux and his
+companion entered the gate, which had long since been opened for the
+workmen.  In the hall of the Muses they took a first farewell, in the
+passage leading to the steward's room, a second--sad and yet most happy;
+but this was but a short one for the gleam of a lamp made them start
+apart, and Arsinoe instantly fled.
+
+The disturber was Antinous who was waiting here for the Emperor who was
+still gazing at the stars from the watch-tower Pontius had erected for
+him.  As she vanished he turned to Pollux and said gaily:
+
+"I need your forgiveness for I have disturbed you in an interview with
+your sweetheart."
+
+"She will be my wife," said the sculptor proudly.
+
+"So much the better!"  replied the favorite, and he drew a deep breath,
+as though the artist's words had relieved his mind of a burden.
+
+"Ah! so much the better.  Can you tell me where to find the fair
+Arsinoe's sister?"
+
+"To be sure," replied the artist, and he felt pleased that the young
+Bithynian should cling to his arm.  Within the next hour, Pollux, from
+whose lips there flowed a stream of eager and enthusiastic words, like
+water from a spring, had completely won the heart of the Emperor's
+favorite.
+
+The girl found both her father and Helios, who no longer looked like a
+sick patient--fast asleep.  The old slave-woman came in a few minutes
+after her, and when at last, after unbinding her hair, Arsinoe threw
+herself on her bed she fell asleep instantly, and in her dreams found
+herself once more by the side of her Pollux, while they both were flying
+to the sound of drums, flutes, and cymbals high above the dusty ways of
+earth, like leaves swept on by the wind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The steward awoke soon after sunrise.  He had slept no less soundly, it
+is true, in his arm-chair than in his bed, but he did not feel refreshed,
+and his limbs ached.
+
+In the living-room everything was in the same disorder as on the previous
+evening, and this annoyed him, for he was accustomed to find his room in
+order when he entered it in the morning.  On the table, surrounded by
+flies, stood the remains of the children's supper, and among the bread
+crusts and plates lay his own ornaments and his daughter's!  Wherever he
+turned he saw articles of dress and other things out of their place.  The
+old slave-woman came in yawning, her woolly grey hair hung in disorder
+about her face, and her eyes seemed fixed, her feet carried her
+unsteadily here and there.
+
+"You are drunk," cried Keraunus; nor was he mistaken, for when the old
+woman had waked up, sitting by the house of Pudeus, and had learned from
+the gate keeper that Arsinoe had quitted the garden, she had gone into a
+tavern with other slave-women.  When her master seized her arm and shook
+her, she exclaimed with a stupid grin on her wet lips:
+
+"It is the feast-day.  Every one is free, to-day is the feast."
+
+"Roman nonsense!"  interrupted the steward.  "is my breakfast ready?"
+
+While the old woman stood muttering some inaudible words, the slave came
+into the room and said:
+
+"To-day is a general holiday, may I go out too?"
+
+"Oh that would suit me admirably!"  cried the steward.
+
+"This monster drunk, Selene sick, and you running about the streets."
+
+"But no one stops at home to-day," replied the slave timidly.
+
+"Be off then!"  cried Keraunus.  "Walk about from now till midnight!  Do
+as you please, only do not expect me to keep you any longer.  You are
+still fit to turn the hand-mill, and I dare say I can find a fool to give
+me a few drachmae for you."
+
+"No, no, do not sell me," groaned the old man, raising his hands in
+entreaty; Keraunus however would not hear him, but went on angrily:
+
+"A dog at least remains faithful to his master, but you slaves eat him
+out of house and home, and when he most needs you, you want to run about
+the streets."
+
+"But I will stay," howled the old man.
+
+"Nay, do as you please.  You have long been like a lame horse which makes
+its rider a butt for the laughter of children.  When, you go out with me
+everyone looks round as if I had a stain on my pallium.  And then the
+mangy dog wants to keep holiday, and stick himself up among the
+citizens!"
+
+"I will stay here, only do not sell me!"  whimpered the miserable old
+man, and he tried to take his master's hand; but the steward shoved him
+off, and desired him to go into the kitchen and light a fire, and throw
+some water on the old woman's head to sober her.  The slave pushed his
+companion out of the room, while Keraunus went into his daughter's
+bedroom to rouse her.
+
+There was no light in Arsinoe's room but that which could creep in
+through a narrow opening just below the ceiling; the slanting rays fell
+directly on the bed up to which Keraunus went.  There lay his daughter n
+sound sleep; her pretty head rested on her uplifted right arm, her
+unbound brown hair flowed like a stream over her soft round shoulders and
+over the edge of the little bed.  He had never seen the child look so
+pretty, and the sight of her really touched his heart, for Arsinoe
+reminded him of his lost wife, and it was not vain pride merely, but a
+movement of true paternal love, which involuntarily transformed his
+earnest wish that the gods night leave him this child and let her be
+happy, into an unspoken but fervent prayer.
+
+He was not accustomed to waking his daughter who was always up and busy
+before he was, and he could hardly bear to disturb his darling's sweet
+sleep; but it had to be done, so he called Arsinoe by her name, shook her
+arm and said, as at last she sat up and looked at him enquiringly:
+
+"It is I, get up, remember what has to be done today."
+
+"Yes--yes," she said yawning, "but it is so early yet!"
+
+"Early," said Keraunus, smiling.  "My stomach says the contrary.  The sun
+is already high, and I have not yet had my porridge."
+
+"Make the old woman cook it."
+
+"No, no, my child--you must get up.  Have you forgotten whom you are to
+represent?  And my hair is to be curled, and the prefect's wife, and then
+your dress."
+
+"Very well--go; I do not care the least bit about Roxana and all the
+dressing-up."
+
+"Because you are not yet quite awake," laughed the steward.  "How did
+this ivy-leaf get into your hair?"  Arsinoe colored, put her hand to the
+spot indicated by her father, and said reluctantly:
+
+"Out of some bough or another, but now go that I may get up."
+
+"In a minute--tell me how did you find Selene?"
+
+"Not so very bad--but I will tell you all about that afterwards.  Now I
+want to be alone."
+
+When, half an hour later, Arsinoe brought her father his porridge he
+gazed at the child in astonishment.  Some extraordinary change seemed to
+have come over his daughter.  Something shone in her eyes that he had
+never observed before, and that gave her childlike features an importance
+and significance that almost startled him.   While she was making the
+porridge, Keraunus, with the slave's help, had taken the children
+up and dressed them; now they were all sitting at breakfast; Helios among
+them fresh and blooming.  Now, while Arsinoe told her father all about
+Selene, and the nursing she was having at dame Hannah's hands, Keraunus
+kept his eyes fixed on her, and when she noticed this and asked
+impatiently what there was peculiar in her appearance to-day, he shook
+his head and answered:
+
+"What strange things are girls!  A great honor has been done you.  You
+are to represent the bride of Alexander, and pride and delight have
+changed you wonder fully in a single night--but I think to your
+disadvantage."
+
+"Folly," said Arsinoe reddening, and stretching herself with fatigue she
+threw herself back on a couch.  She did not feel weary exactly, for the
+lassitude she felt in every limb had a peculiar pleasure in it.  She felt
+as if she had come out of a hot bath, and since her father had roused her
+she seemed to hear, again and again, the sound of the inspiriting music
+which she had followed arm in arm with Pollux.  Now and again she smiled,
+now and again she gazed straight before her, and at the same time she
+said to herself that if at this very moment her lover were to ask her,
+she would not lack strength to fling herself at once, with him, once more
+into the mad whirl.  Yes--she felt perfectly fresh!  only her eyes burned
+a little; and if Keraunus fancied he saw anything new in his daughter it
+must be the glowing light which now lurked in them along with the playful
+sparkle he had always seen there.
+
+When breakfast was over the slave took the children out, and Arsinoe had
+begun to curl her father's hair, when Keraunus put on his most dignified
+attitude and said ponderously.
+
+"My child."
+
+The girl dropped the heated tongs and calmly asked.  "Well"--fully
+prepared to hear one of the wonderful propositions which Selene was wont
+to oppose.
+
+"Listen to me attentively."
+
+Now, what Keraunus was about to say had only occurred to him an hour
+since when he had spoiled his slave's desire to go out; but as he said it
+he pressed his hand to his forehead assuming the expression of a
+meditative philosopher.
+
+"For a long time I have been considering a very important matter.  Now I
+have come to a decision and I will confide it to you.  We must buy a new
+manslave."
+
+"But father!"  cried Arsinoe, "think what it will cost you.  If we have
+another man to feed--"
+
+"There is no question of that," replied Keraunus.  "I will exchange the
+old one for a younger one that I need not be ashamed to be seen with.
+Yesterday I told you that henceforth we shall attract greater attention
+than hitherto, and really if we appear with that black scarecrow at our
+heels in the streets or elsewhere--"
+
+"Certainly we cannot make  much show Sebek," interrupted Arsinoe, "but we
+can leave him at home for the future."
+
+"Child, child!"  exclaimed Keraunus reproachfully, "will you never
+remember who and what we are.  How would it beseem us to appear in the
+streets without a slave?"
+
+The girl shrugged her shoulders, and put it to her father that Sebek was
+an old piece of family property, that the little ones were fond of him
+because he cared for them like a nurse, that a new slave would cost a
+great deal and would only be driven by force to many services which the
+old one was always ready and willing to fulfil.
+
+But Arsinoe preached to deaf ears.  Selene was not there; secure from her
+reproaches and as anxious as a spoiled boy for the thing that was denied
+him, Keraunus adhered to his determination to exchange the faithful old
+fellow for a new and more showy slave.  Not for a moment did he think of
+the miserable fate that threatened the decrepit creature, who had grown
+old in his house, if he were to sell him; but he still had a feeling that
+it was not quite right to spend the last money that had chanced to come
+into the house, on a thing that really and truly was not in any way
+necessary.  The more justifiable Arsinoe's doubts seemed to be and the
+more loudly did an inward voice warn him not to offer this fresh
+sacrifice to his vain-gloriousness, the more firmly and desperately did
+he defend his wish to do so; and as he fought for the thing he desired,
+it acquired in his eyes a semblance of necessity and a number of reasons
+suggested themselves which made it appear both justifiable and easy of
+attainment.
+
+There was money in hand; after Arsinoe's being chosen for the part of
+Roxana he might expect to be able to borrow more; it was his duty to
+appear with due dignity that he might not scare off the illustrious son-
+in-law of whom he dreamed, and in the extremity of need he could still
+fall back on his collection of rarities.  The only thing was to find the
+right purchaser; for, if the sword of Antony had brought him so much,
+what would not some amateur give him for the other, far more valuable,
+objects.
+
+Arsinoe turned red and white as her father referred again and again to
+the bargain she had made; but she dared not confess the truth, and she
+rued her falsehood all the more bitterly the more clearly she saw with
+her own sound sense, that the Honor which had fallen upon her yesterday,
+threatened to develop all her father's weaknesses in an absolutely fatal
+manner.
+
+To-day she would have been amply satisfied with pleasing Pollux, and she
+would, without a regret have transferred to another her part with all the
+applause and admiration it would procure her, and which, only yesterday,
+had seemed to her so inestimably precious.  This she said; but Keraunus
+would not take the assertion in earnest, laughed in her face, went off
+into mysterious allusions to the wealth which could not fail to come into
+the house and--since an obscure consciousness told him that it would be
+becoming him to prove that it was not solely personal vanity and self-
+esteem that influenced all his proceedings--he explained that he had made
+up his mind to a great sacrifice and would be content on the coming
+occasion to wear his gilt fillet and not buy a pure gold one.  By this
+act of self-denial he fancied he had acquired a full right to devote a
+very pretty little sum to the acquisition of a fine-looking slave.
+Arsinoe's entreaties were unheeded, and when she began to cry with grief
+at the prospect of losing her old house-mate he forbid her crossly to
+shed a tear for such a cause, for it was very childish, and he would not
+be pleased to conduct her with red eyes to meet the prefect's wife.
+
+During the course of this argument his hair had got itself duly curled,
+and he now desired Arsinoe to arrange her own hair nicely and then to
+accompany him.
+
+They would buy a new dress and peplum, go to see Selene, and then be
+carried to the prefect's.
+
+Only yesterday he had thought it too bold a step to use a litter, and
+to-day he was already considering the propriety of hiring a chariot.
+
+No sooner was he alone than a new idea occurred to him.  The insolent
+architect should be taught that he was not the man to be insulted and
+injured with impunity.  So he cut a clean strip of papyrus off a letter
+that lay in his chest, and wrote upon it the following words:
+
+"Keraunus, the Macedonian, to Claudius Venator, the architect, of Rome:"
+
+"My eldest daughter, Selene, is by your fault, so severely hurt that
+she is in great danger, is kept to her bed and suffers frightful pain.
+My other children are no longer safe in their father's house, and I
+therefore require you, once more, to chain up your dog.  If you refuse
+to accede to this reasonable demand I will lay the matter before Caesar.
+I can tell you that circumstances have occurred which will determine
+Hadrian to punish any insolent person who may choose to neglect the
+respect due to me and to my daughters."
+
+When Keraunus had closed this letter with his seal he called the slave
+and said coldly:
+
+"Take this to the Roman architect, and then fetch two litters; make
+haste, and while we are out take good care of the children.  To-morrow or
+next day you will be sold.  To whom?  That must depend on how you behave
+during the last hours that you belong to us."  The negro gave a loud cry
+of grief that came from the depth of his heart, and flung himself on the
+ground at the steward's feet.  His cry did indeed pierce his master's
+soul--but Keraunus had made up his mind not to let himself be moved nor
+to yield.  But the negro clung more closely to his knees, and when the
+children, attracted to the spot by their poor old friend's lamentation,
+cried loudly in unison, and little Helios began to pat and stroke the
+little remains of the negro's woolly hair, the vain man felt uneasy about
+the heart, and to protect himself against his own weakness he cried out
+loudly and violently:
+
+"Now, away with you, and do as you are ordered or I will find the whip."
+
+With these words he tore himself loose from the miserable--old man who
+left the room with his head hanging down, and who soon was standing at
+the door of the Emperor's rooms with the letter in his hand.  Hadrian's
+appearance and manner had filled him with terror and respect, and he
+dared not knock at the door.  After he had waited for some time, still
+with tears in his eyes, Mastor came into the passage with the remains of
+his master's breakfast.  The negro called to him and held out the
+steward's letter, stammering out lamentably:
+
+"From Keraunus, for you master."
+
+"Lay it here on the tray," said the Sarmatian.  "But what has happened to
+you, my old friend?  you are wailing most pitifully and look miserable.
+Have you been beaten?"
+
+The negro shook his head and answered, whimpering: "Keraunus is going to
+sell me."
+
+"There are better masters than he."
+
+"But Sebek is old, Sebek is weak--he can no longer lift and pull, and
+with hard work he will certainly die."
+
+"Has life been so easy and comfortable then at the steward's?"
+
+"Very little wine, very little meat, very much hunger," said the old man.
+
+"Then you must be glad to leave him."
+
+"No, no," groaned Sebek.
+
+"You foolish old owl," said Mastor.  "Why do you care then for that
+grumpy niggard?"
+
+The negro did not answer for some time, then his lean breast heaved and
+fell, and, as if the dam were broken through that had choked his
+utterance, he burst out with a mixture of loud sobs:
+
+"The children, the little ones, our little ones.  They are so sweet; and
+our little blind Helios stroked my hair because I was to go away, here--
+just here he stroked it"--and he put his hand on a perfectly bald place
+--"and now Sebek must go and never see them all again, just as if they
+were all dead."
+
+And the words rolled out and with difficulty, as if carried on in the
+flood of his tears.  They went to Mastor's heart, rousing the memory of
+his own lost children and a strong desire to comfort his unhappy comrade.
+
+"Poor fellow!"  he said, compassionately.  "Aye, the children! they are
+so small, and the door into one's heart is so narrow--and they dance in
+at it a thousand times better and more easily than grown-up folks.
+I, too, have lost dear children, and they were my own, too.  I can teach
+any one what is meant by sorrow--but I know too now where comfort is to
+be found."  With these words Mastor held the tray he was carrying on his
+hip with his right hand, while he put the left on the negro's shoulder
+and whispered to him:
+
+"Have you ever heard of the Christians?"
+
+Sebek nodded eagerly as if Mastor were speaking of a matter of which he
+had heard great things and expected much, and Mastor went on in a low
+voice "Come early to-morrow before sunrise to the pavement-workers in the
+'court, and there you will hear of One who comforts the weary and heavy-
+laden."
+
+The Emperor's servant once more took his tray in both hands and hurried
+away, but a faint gleam of hope had lighted up in the old slave's eyes.
+He expected no happiness, but perhaps there might be some way of bearing
+the sorrows of life more easily.
+
+Mastor as soon he had given his tray to the kitchen slaves--who were now
+busy again in the palace at Lochias--returned to his lord and gave him
+the steward's letter.  It was an ill-chosen hour for Keraunus, for the
+Emperor was in a gloomy mood.  He had sat up till morning, had rested
+scarcely three hours, and now, with knitted brows, was comparing the
+results of his night's observation of the starry sky with certain
+astronomical tables which lay spread out before him.  Over this work he
+frequently shook his head which was covered with crisp waves of hair;
+nay--he once flung the pencil, with which he was working his
+calculations, down on the table, leaned back in his seat and covered his
+eyes with both hands.  Then again he began to write fresh numbers, but
+his new results seemed to be no more satisfactory than the former one.
+
+The steward's letter had been for a long time lying before him when at
+last it again caught his attention as he put out his hand for another
+document.  Needing some change of ideas he tore it open, read it and
+flung it from him with annoyance.  At any other time he would have
+expressed some sympathy with the suffering girl, have laughed at the
+ridiculous man, and have thought out some trick to tease or to terrify;
+but just now the steward's threats made him angry and increased his
+dislike for him.
+
+Tired of the silence around him he called to Antinous, who sat gazing
+dreamily down on the harbor; the youth immediately approached his master.
+Hadrian looked at him and said, shaking his head:
+
+"Why you too look as if some danger were threatening you.  Is the sky
+altogether overcast?"
+
+"No my lord, it is blue over the sea, but towards the south the black
+clouds are gathering."
+
+"Towards the south?"  said Hadrian thoughtfully.  "Any thing serious can
+hardly threaten us from that quarter.--But it comes, it is near, it is
+upon us before we suspect it."
+
+"You sat up too long, and that has put you out of tune."
+
+"Out of tune?"  muttered Hadrian to himself.  "And what is tune?  That
+subtle harmony or discord is a condition which masters all the emotions
+of the soul at once; and not without reason--to-day my heart is paralyzed
+with anxiety."
+
+"Then you have seen evil signs in the heavens?"
+
+"Direful signs!"
+
+"You wise men believe in the stars," replied Antinous.  "No doubt you are
+right, but my weak head cannot understand what their regular courses have
+to do with my inconstant wanderings."
+
+"Grow gray," replied the Emperor, "learn to comprehend the universe with
+your intellect, and not till then speak of these things for not till then
+will you discern that every atom of things created, and the greatest as
+well as the least, is in the closest bonds with every other; that all
+work together, and each depends on all.  All that is or ever will be in
+nature, all that we men feel, think or do, all is dependent on eternal
+and immutable causes; and these causes have each their Daimon who
+interposes between us and the divinity and is symbolized in golden
+characters on the vault of heaven.  The letters are the stars, whose
+orbits are as unchanging and everlasting as are the first causes of all
+that exists or happens."
+
+"And are you quite sure that you never read wrongly in this great
+record?"  asked Antinous.
+
+"Even I may err," replied Hadrian.  "But this time I have not deceived
+myself.  A heavy misfortune threatens me.  It is a strange, terrible and
+extraordinary coincidence!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"From that accursed Antioch--whence nothing good has ever come to me--
+I have received the saying of an oracle which foretells that, that--why
+should I hide it from you--in the middle of the year now about to begin
+some dreadful misfortune shall fall upon me, as lightning strikes the
+traveller to the earth; and tonight--look here.  Here is the house of
+Death, here are the planets--but what do you know of such things?  Last
+night--the night in which once before such terrors were wrought, the
+stars confirmed the fatal oracle with as much naked plainness, as much
+unmistakable certainty as if they had tongues to shout the evil forecast
+in my ear.  It is hard to walk on with such a goal in prospect.  What may
+not the new year bring in its course?"
+
+Hadrian sighed deeply, but Antinous went close up to him, fell on his
+knees before him and asked in a tone of childlike humility:
+
+"May I, a poor foolish lad, teach a great and wise man how to enrich his
+life with six happy months?"  The Emperor smiled, as though he knew what
+was coming, but his favorite felt encouraged to proceed.
+
+"Leave the future to the future," he said.  "What must come will come,
+for the gods themselves have no power against Fate.  When evil is
+approaching it casts its black shadow before it; you fix your gaze on it
+and let it darken the light of day.  I saunter dreamily on my way and
+never see misfortune till it runs up against me and falls upon me
+unawares--"
+
+"And so you are spared many a gloomy day," interrupted Hadrian.
+
+"That is just what I would have said."
+
+"And your advice is excellent, for you and for every other loiterer
+through the gay fair-time of an idle life," replied the Emperor, "but
+the man whose task it is to bear millions in safety and over abysses,
+must watch the signs around him, look out far and near, and never dare
+close his eyes, even when such terrors loom as it was my fate to see
+during the past night."
+
+As he spoke, Phlegon, the Emperor's private secretary, came in with
+letters just received from Rome, and approached his master.  He bowed
+low, and taking up Hadrian's last words he said:
+
+"The stars disquiet you, Caesar?"
+
+"Well, they warn me to be on my guard," replied Hadrian.
+
+"Let us hope that they be," cried the Greek, with cheerful vivacity.
+"Cicero was not altogether wrong when he doubted the arts of Astrology."
+
+"He was a mere talker!"  said the Emperor, with a frown.
+
+"But," asked Phlegon, "would it not be fair that if the horoscopes cast
+for Cneius or Caius, let us say, were alike, to expect that Cneius or
+Caius must have the same temperament and the same destiny through life
+if they had happened to be born in the same hour?"
+
+"Always the old commonplaces, the old silly objections!"  interrupted
+Hadrian, vexed to the verge of rage.  "Speak when you are spoken to, and
+do not trouble yourself about things you do not understand and which do
+not concern you.  Is there anything of importance among these papers?"
+
+Antinous gazed at his sovereign in astonishment; why should Phlegon's
+objections make him so furious when he had answered his so kindly?
+
+Hadrian paid no farther heed to him, but read the despatches one after
+another, hastily but attentively, wrote brief notes on the margins,
+signed a decree with a firm hand, and, when his work was finished desired
+the Greek to leave him.  Hardly was he alone with Antinous when the loud
+cries and jovial shouting of a large multitude came to their ears through
+the open window.
+
+"What does this mean?"  he asked Mastor, and as soon as he had been
+informed that the workmen and slaves had just been let out to give
+themselves up to the pleasures of their holiday, he muttered to himself:
+
+"These creatures can riot, shout, dress themselves with garlands, forget
+themselves in a debauch--and I, I whom all envy--I spoil my brief span of
+life with vain labors, let myself be tormented with consuming cares--I--"
+here he broke off and cried in quite an altered tone:
+
+"Ha! ha!  Antinous, you are wiser than I.  Let us leave the future to the
+future.  The feast-day is ours too; let us take advantage of this day of
+freedom.  We too will throw ourselves into the holiday whirlpool
+disguised, I as a satyr, and you as a young faun or something of the
+kind; we will drain cups, wander round the city and enjoy all that is
+enjoyable."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Antinous, joyfully clapping his hands.
+
+"Evoe Bacche!" cried Hadrian, tossing up his cup that stood on his table.
+"You are free till this evening, Mastor, and you my boy, go and talk to
+Pollux, the sculptor.  He shall be our guide and he will provide us with
+wreaths and some mad disguise.  I must see drunken men, I must laugh with
+the jolliest before I am Caesar again.  Make haste, my friend, or new
+cares will come to spoil my holiday mood."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Antinous and Mastor at once quitted the Emperor's room; in the corridor
+the lad beckoned the slave to him and said in a low voice:
+
+"You can hold your tongue I know, will you do me a favor?"
+
+"Three sooner than one," replied the Sarmatian.
+
+"You are free to-day--are you going into the city?"
+
+"I think so."
+
+"You are not known here, but that does not matter.  Take these gold
+pieces and in the flower-market buy with one of them the most beautiful
+bunch of flowers you can find, with another you may make merry, and
+out of the remainder spend a drachma in hiring an ass.  The driver will
+conduct you to the garden of Pudeus' widow where stands the house of dame
+Hannah; you remember the name?"
+
+"Dame Hannah and the widow of Pudeus."
+
+"And at the little house, not the big one, leave the flowers for the sick
+Selene."
+
+"The daughter of the fat steward, who was attacked by our big dog?"
+asked Mastor, curiously.
+
+"She or another," said Antinous, impatiently, "and when they ask you who
+sent the flowers, say 'the friend at Lochias,' nothing more.  You
+understand."
+
+The slave nodded and said to himself: "What! you too-oh! these women."
+
+Antinous signed to him to be silent, impressed on him in a few hasty
+words that he was to be discreet and to pick out the very choicest
+flowers, and then betook himself into the hall of the Muses to seek
+Pollux.  From him he had learnt where to find the suffering Selene, of
+whom he could not help thinking incessantly and wherever he might be.  He
+did not find the sculptor in his screened-off nook; prompted by a wish to
+speak to his mother, Pollux had gone down to the gatehouse where he was
+now standing before her and frankly narrating, with many eager gestures
+of his long arms, all that had occurred on the previous night.  His story
+flowed on like a song of triumph, and when he described how the holiday
+procession had carried away Arsinoe and himself, the old woman jumped up
+from her chair and clapping her fat little hands, she exclaimed:
+
+"Ah!  that is pleasure, that is happiness!  I remember flying along with
+your father in just the same way thirty years ago."
+
+"And since thirty years," Pollux interposed.  "I can still remember very
+well how at one of the great Dionysiac festivals, fired by the power of
+the god, you rushed through the streets with a deer-skin over your
+shoulders."
+
+"That was delightful--lovely!"  cried Doris with sparkling eyes.  "But
+thirty years since it was all different, very different.  I have told you
+before now how I went with our maid-servant into the Canopic way to the
+house of my aunt Archidike to look on at the great procession.  I had not
+far to go for we lived near the Theatre, my father was stage-manager and
+yours was one of the chief singers in the chorus.  We hurried along, but
+all sorts of people stopped us, and drunken men wanted to joke with me."
+
+"Ah, you were as sweet as a rose-bud then," her son interrupted.
+
+"As a rose-bud, yes, but not like your lovely rose," said the old woman.
+"At any rate I looked nice enough for the men in disguise--fauns and
+satyrs and were the cynic hypocrites in their ragged cloaks, to think it
+worth while to look at me and to take a rap on the knuckles when they
+tried to put an arm round me or to steal a kiss, I did not care for the
+handsomest of them, for Euphorion had done for me with his fiery glances
+--not with words for I was very strictly kept and he had never been able
+to get a chance to speak to me.  At the corner of the Canopic way and the
+Market street we could get no farther, for the crowd had blocked the way
+and were howling and storming as they stared at a party of Klodones and
+other Maenads, who in their sacred fury were tearing a goat to pieces
+with their teeth.  I shuddered at the spectacle, but I must need stare
+with the rest and shout and halloo as they did.  My maid, who I held on
+to tightly, was seized with the frenzy and dragged me into the middle of
+the circle close up to the bleeding sacrifice.  Two of the possessed
+women sprang upon us, and I felt one clasping me tightly and trying to
+throw me down.  It was a horrible moment but I defended myself bravely
+and had succeeded in keeping on my feet when your father sprang forward,
+set me free and led me away.  What happened after I could not tell you
+now; it was one of those wild happy dreams in which you must hold your
+heart with both hands for fear it should crack with joy, or fly out and
+away up to the sky and in the very eye of the sun.  Late in the evening
+I got home and a week after I was Euphorion's wife."
+
+"We have exactly followed your example," said Pollux, "and if Arsinoe
+grows to be like my dear old woman I shall be quite satisfied."
+
+"Happy and contented," replied Doris.  "Keep you health, snap your
+fingers at care and sorrow, do your duty on work-days and drink till you
+are jolly in honor of the god on holidays, and then all will be well.
+Those who do all they are able and enjoy as much as they can get, make
+good use of their lives and need feel no remorse in their last hours.
+What is past is done for, and when Atropos cuts our thread some one else
+will stand in our place and joys will begin all over again.  May the gods
+bless you!"
+
+"You are right," said Pollux embracing his mother, and two together can
+turn the work out of hand more lightly and enjoy the pleasures of
+existence better than each alone--can they not?"
+
+"I am sure of it; and you have chosen the right mate," cried the old
+woman.  "You are a sculptor and used to simple things; you need no
+riches, only a sweet face which may every day rejoice your heart, and
+that you have found."
+
+"There is nowhere a sweeter or a lovelier," said Pollux.
+
+"No, that there is not," continued Doris.  "First I cast my eyes on
+Selene.  She need not be ashamed to show herself either, and she is a
+pattern for girls; but then as Arsinoe grew older, whenever she passed
+this way I thought to myself: 'that girl is growing up for my boy,' and
+now that you have won her I feel as if I were once more as young as your
+sweetheart herself.  My old heart beats as happily as if the little Loves
+were touching it with their wings and rosy fingers.  If my feet had not
+grown so heavy with constantly standing over the hearth and at washing--
+really and truly I could take Euphorion by the arm and dance through the
+streets with him to-day."
+
+"Where is father?"
+
+"Out singing."
+
+"In the morning! where?"
+
+"There is some sect that are celebrating their mysteries.  They pay well
+and he had to sing dismal hymns for them behind a curtain; the wildest
+stuff, in which he does not follow a word, and that I do not understand
+a half of."
+
+"It is a pity for I wanted to speak to him."
+
+"He will not be back till late."
+
+"There is plenty of time."
+
+"So much the better, otherwise I might have told him what you had to
+say."
+
+"Your advice is as good as his.  I think of giving up working under
+Papias and standing on my own feet."
+
+"You are quite right; the Roman architect told me yesterday that a great
+future was open to you."
+
+"There are only my poor sister and the children to be considered.  If,
+during the first few months I should find myself falling short--"
+
+"We will manage to pull through.  It is high time that you yourself
+should reap from what you sow."
+
+"So it seems to me, for my own sake and Arsinoe's; if only Keraunus--"
+
+"Aye--there will be a battle to fight with him."
+
+"A hard one, a hard one," sighed Pollux.
+
+"The thought of the old man troubles my happiness."
+
+"Folly!"  cried Doris.  "Avoid all useless anxiety.  It is almost as
+injurious as remorse gnawing at your heart.  Take a workshop of your own,
+do some great work in a joyful spirit, something to astonish the world,
+and I will wager anything that the old fool of a steward will only be
+vexed to think that he destroyed the first work of the celebrated Pollux,
+instead of treasuring it in his cabinet of curiosities.  Just imagine
+that no such person exists in the world and enjoy your happiness."
+
+"I will stick to that."
+
+"One thing more my lad: take good care of Arsinoe.  She is young and
+inexperienced and you must not persuade her to do anything you would
+advise her not to do if she were betrothed to your brother instead of to
+yourself."
+
+Doris had not done speaking when Antinous came into the gate-house and
+delivered the commands of the architect Claudius Venator, to escort him
+through the city.  Pollux hesitated with his answer, for he had still
+much to do in the palace, and he hoped to see Arsinoe again in the course
+of the day.  After such a morning what could noon and evening be to him
+without her?  Dame Doris noticed his indecision and cried:
+
+"Yes, go; the festival is for pleasure, besides, the architect can
+perhaps advise you on many points, and recommend you to his friends."
+
+"Your mother is right," said Antinous.  "Claudius Venator can be very
+touchy, but he can also be grateful, and I wish you sincerely well--"
+
+"Good then, I will come," Pollux interposed while the Bithynian was still
+speaking, for he felt himself strongly attracted by Hadrian's imposing
+personality and considered that under the circumstances, it might be very
+desirable to revel with him for a while.
+
+"I will come, but first I must let Pontius know that I am going to fly
+from the heat of the fray for a few hours to-day."
+
+"Leave that to Venator," replied the favorite, "and you must find some
+amusing disguise and procure masks for him and for me and, if you like,
+for yourself too.  He wants to join the revel as a satyr and I in some
+other disguise."
+
+"Good," replied the sculptor.  "I will go at once and order what is
+requisite.  A quantity of dresses for the Dionysiac processions are lying
+in our workshop and in half an hour I will be back with the things."
+
+"But pray make haste," Antinous begged him.  "My master cannot bear to be
+kept waiting, and besides--one thing--"
+
+At these words Antinous had grown embarrassed and had gone quite close up
+to the artist.  He laid his hand on his shoulder and said in a low voice
+but impressively:
+
+"Venator stands very near to Caesar.  Beware of saying anything before
+him that is not in Hadrian's favor."
+
+"Is your master Caesar's spy?"  asked Pollux, looking suspiciously at
+Antinous.  "Pontius has already, given me a similar warning, and if that
+is the case--"
+
+"No, no," interrupted the lad hastily.
+
+"Anything but that; but the two have no secrets from each other and
+Venator talks a good deal--cannot hold his tongue--"
+
+"I thank you and will be on my guard."
+
+"Aye do so--I mean it honestly."  The Bithynian held out his hand to the
+artist with an expression of warm regard on his handsome features and
+with an indescribably graceful gesture.  Pollux took it heartily, but
+dame Doris, whose old eyes had been fixed as if spellbound on Antinous,
+seized her son's arm and quite excited by the sight of his beauty cried
+out:
+
+"Oh! what a splendid creature!  moulded by the gods! sacred to the gods!
+Pollux, boy! you might almost think one of the immortals had come down to
+earth."
+
+"Look at my old woman!" exclaimed Pollux laughing, "but in truth friend,
+she has good reasons for her ecstasies, I could follow her example."
+
+"Hold him fast, hold him fast!"  cried Doris.  "If he only will let you
+take his likeness you can show the world a thing worth seeing."
+
+"Will you?"  interrupted Pollux turning to Hadrian's favorite.
+
+"I have never yet been able to keep still for any artist," said Antinous.
+"But I will do any thing you wish to please you.  It only vexes me that
+you too should join in the chorus with the rest of the world.  Farewell
+for the present, I must go back to my master."
+
+As soon as the youth had left the house Doris exclaimed:
+
+"Whether a work of art is good for any thing or not I can only guess at,
+but as to what is beautiful that I know as well as any other woman in
+Alexandria.  If that boy will stand as your model you will produce
+something that will delight men and turn the heads of the women, and you
+will be sought after even in a workshop of your own.  Eternal gods! such
+beauty as that is sublime.  Why are there no means of preserving such a
+face and such a form from old age and wrinkles?"
+
+"I know the means, mother," said Pollux, as he went to the door.  "It is
+called Art: to her it is given to bestow eternal youth on this mortal
+Adonis."
+
+The old woman glanced at her son with pardonable pride, and confirmed his
+words by an assenting nod.  While she fed her birds, with many coaxing
+words, and made one which was a special favorite pick crumbs from her
+lips, the young sculptor was hurrying through the streets with long
+steps.
+
+He was greeted as he went with many a cross word, and many exclamations
+rose from the crowd he left behind him, for he pushed his way by the
+weight of his tall person and his powerful arms, and saw and heard, as he
+went, little enough of what was going around him.  He thought of Arsinoe,
+and between whiles of Antinous and of the attitude in which he best might
+represent him--whether as hero or god.
+
+In the flower-market, near the Gymnasium, he was for a moment roused from
+his reverie by a picture which struck him as being unusual and which
+riveted his gaze, as did every thing exceptional that came under his
+eyes.  On a very small dark-colored donkey sat a tall, well-dressed
+slave, who held in his right hand a nosegay of extraordinary size and
+beauty.  By his side walked a smartly dressed-up man with a splendid
+wreath, and a comic mask over his face followed by two garden-gods of
+gigantic stature, and four graceful boys.  In the slave, Pollux at once
+recognized the servant of Claudius Venator, and he fancied he must have
+seen the masked gentlemen too before now, but he could not remember
+where, and did not trouble himself to retrace him in his mind.  At any
+rate, the rider of the donkey had just heard something he did not like,
+for he was looking anxiously at his bunch of flowers.
+
+After Pollux had hurried past this strange party his thoughts reverted to
+other, and to him far nearer and dearer subjects.  But Mastor's anxious
+looks were not without a cause, for the gentleman who was talking to him
+was no less a person than Verus, the praetor, who was called by the
+Alexandrians the sham Eros.  He had seen the Emperor's body-slave a
+hundred times about his person; he therefore recognized him at once, and
+his presence here in Alexandria led him directly to the simple and
+correct inference that his master too must be in the city.  The praetor's
+curiosity was roused, and he at once proceeded to ply the poor fellow
+with bewildering cross-questions.  When the donkey-rider shortly and
+sharply refused to answer, Verus thought it well to reveal himself to
+him, and the slave lost his confident demeanor when he recognized the
+grand gentleman, the Emperor's particular friend.
+
+He lost himself in contradictory statements, and although he did not
+directly admit it, he left his interrogator in the certainty that Hadrian
+was in Alexandria.
+
+It was perfectly evident that the beautiful nosegay, which had attracted
+the praetor's attention to Mastor could not belong to himself.  What
+could be its destination?  Verus recommenced his questioning, but the
+Sarmatian would betray nothing, till Verus tapped him lightly first on
+one cheek and then on the other, and said gaily:
+
+"Mastor, my worthy friend Mastor, listen to me.  I will make you certain
+proposals, and you shall nod your head, towards that of the estimable
+beast with two pairs of legs on which you are mounted, as soon as one of
+them takes your fancy."
+
+"Let me go on my way," the slave implored, with growing anxiety.
+
+"Go, by all means, but I go with you," retorted Verus, "until I have hit
+on the thing that suits you.  A great many plans dwell in my head, as you
+will see.  First I must ask you, shall I go to your master and tell him
+that you have betrayed his presence in Alexandria?"
+
+"Sir, you will never do that!"  cried Mastor.
+
+"To proceed then.  Shall I and my following hang on to your skirts and
+stay with you till nightfall, when you and your steed must return home?
+You decline--with thanks! and very wisely, for the execution of this
+project would be equally unpleasant to you and to me, and would probably
+get you punished.  Whisper to me then, softly, in my ear, where your
+master is lodging, and from whom and to whom you are carrying those
+flowers; as soon as you have agreed to that proposal I will let you go on
+alone, and will show you that I care no more for my gold pieces here, in
+Alexandria, than I do in Italy."
+
+"Not gold--certainly I will not take gold!"  cried Mastor.
+
+"You are an honest fellow," replied Verus in an altered tone, "and you
+know of me that I treat my servants well and would rather be kind to
+folks than hard upon them.  So satisfy my curiosity without any fear, and
+I will promise you in return, that not a soul, your master least of all,
+shall ever know from me what you tell me."  Mastor hesitated a little,
+but as he could not but own to himself that he would be obliged at last
+to yield to the stronger will of this imperious man, and as moreover he
+knew that the haughty and extravagant praetor was in fact one of the
+kindest of masters, he sighed deeply and whispered:
+
+"You will not be the ruin of a poor wretch like me, that I know, so I
+will tell you, we are living at Lochias."
+
+"There," exclaimed Verus clapping his hands.  "And now as to the
+flowers?"
+
+"Mere trifling."
+
+"Is Hadrian then in a merry mood?"
+
+"Till to-day he was very gay--but since last night--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"You know yourself what he is when he has seen lead signs in the sky."
+
+"Bad signs," said Verus gravely.
+
+"And yet he sends flowers?"
+
+"Not he, can you not guess?"
+
+"Antinous?"
+
+Mastor nodded assent.
+
+"Only think," laughed Verus.  "Then he too is beginning to think it
+better worth while to admire than to be admired.  And who is the fair one
+who has succeeded in waking up his slumbering heart?"
+
+"Nay--I promised him not to chatter."
+
+"And I promise you the same.  My powers of reserve are far greater than
+my curiosity even."
+
+"Be content, I beseech you with what you already know."
+
+"But to know half is less endurable than to know nothing."
+
+"Nay--I cannot tell you."
+
+"Then am I to begin with fresh suggestions, and all over again?"
+
+"Oh! my lord.  I beg you, entreat you--"
+
+"Out with the word, and I go on my way, but if you persist in refusing--"
+
+"Really and truly it only concerns a white-faced girl whom you would not
+even look at."
+
+"A girl-indeed!"
+
+"Our big dog threw the poor thing down."
+
+"In the street?"
+
+"No, at  Lochias.  Her father is Keraunus the palace-steward."
+
+"And her name is Arsinoe?"  asked Verus with undisguised concern, for he
+had a pleasant recollection of the beautiful child who had been selected
+to fill the part of Roxana.
+
+"No, her name is Selene, Arsinoe indeed is her younger sister."
+
+"Then you bring these flowers from Lochias?"
+
+"She went out, and she could not get back home again, she is now lying in
+the house of a stranger."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"That must be quite indifferent to you--"
+
+"By no means, quite the contrary.  I beg you to tell me the whole truth."
+
+"Eternal gods! what can you care about the poor sick creature?"
+
+"Nothing whatever; but I must know whither you are riding."
+
+"Down by the sea.  I do not know the house, but the donkey driver--"
+
+"Is it far from here?"
+
+"About half an hour yet," said the lad.
+
+"A good way then," replied Verus.  "And Hadrian is particularly anxious
+to remain unknown."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"And you his body-servant, who  are known to numbers of others here from
+Rome, like myself, you propose to ride half a mile through the streets
+where every creature that can stand or walk is swarming, with a large
+nosegay in your hand which attracts every body's attention.  Oh Mastor
+that is not wise!"
+
+The slave started, and seeing at once that Verus was right, he asked in
+alarm:
+
+"What then can I do?"
+
+Get off your donkey," said the praetor.  "Disguise yourself and make
+merry to your heart's content with these gold pieces."
+
+"And the flowers?"
+
+"I will see to that."
+
+"You will?  I may trust you; and never betray to Antinous what you
+compelled me to do?"
+
+"Positively not."
+
+"There--there are the flowers, but I cannot take the gold."
+
+"Then I shall fling it among the crowd.  Buy yourself a garland, a mask
+and some wine, as much as you can carry.  Where is the girl to be found?"
+
+"At dame Hannah's.  She lives in a little house in a garden belonging to
+the widow of Pudeus.  And whoever gives it to her is to say that it is
+sent by the friend at Lochias."
+
+"Good.  Now go, and take care that no one recognizes you.  Your secret is
+mine, and the friend at Lochias shall be duly mentioned."
+
+Mastor disappeared in the crowd.  Verus put the nosegay into the hands of
+one of the garden-gods that followed in his train, sprang laughing on to
+the ass, and desired the driver to show him the way.  At the corner of
+the next street, he met two litters, carried with difficulty through the
+crowd by their bearers.  In the first sat Keraunus, whose saffron-colored
+cloak was conspicuous from afar, as fat as Silenus the companion of
+Dionysus, but looking very sullen.  In the second sat Arsinoe, looking
+gaily about her, and so fresh and pretty that the Roman's easily-stirred
+pulses beat more rapidly.
+
+Without reflecting, he took the flowers from the hand of the garden-god--
+the flowers intended for Selene--laid them on the girl's litter, and
+said:
+
+"Alexander greets Roxana, the fairest of the fair."  Arsinoe colored,
+and Verus, after watching her for some time as she was carried onwards,
+desired one of his boys to follow her litter, and to join him again in
+the flower-market, where he would wait, to inform him whither she had
+gone.
+
+The messenger hurried off, and Verus, turning his ass's head soon reached
+a semicircular pillared hall on the shady side of a large open space,
+under which the better sort of gardeners and flower dealers of the city
+exposed their gay and fragrant wares to be sold by pretty girls.  To-day
+every stall had been particularly well supplied, but the demand for
+wreaths and flowers had steadily increased from an early hour, and
+although Verus had all that he could find of fresh flowers arranged and
+tied together, still the nosegay, though much larger, was not half so
+beautiful as that intended for Selene, and for which he substituted it.
+
+Now this annoyed the Roman.  His sense of justice prompted him to make
+good the loss he had inflicted on the sick girl.  Gay ribbons were wound
+round the stalks of the flowers, and the long ends floated in the air, so
+Verus took a brooch from his dress and stuck it into the bow which
+ornamented the stem of the nosegay; then he was satisfied, and as he
+looked at the stone set in a gold border--an onyx on which was engraved
+Eros sharpening his arrows--he pictured to himself the pleasure, the
+delight of the girl that the handsome Bithynian loved, as she received
+the beautiful gift.
+
+His slaves, natives of Britain, who were dressed as garden-gods, were
+charged with the commission to proceed to dame Hannah's under the
+guidance of the donkey-driver to deliver the nosegay to Selene from
+'the friend at Lochias,' and then to wait for him outside the house of
+Titianus, the prefect; for thither, as he had ascertained from his swift-
+footed messenger, had Keraunus and his daughter been carried.
+
+Verus needed a longer time than the boy, to make his way through the
+crowd.  At the door of the prefect's residence he laid aside his mask,
+and in an anteroom where the steward was sitting on a couch waiting for
+his daughter, he arranged his hair and the folds of his toga, and was
+then conducted to the lady Julia with whom he hoped, once more, to see
+the charming Arsinoe.
+
+But in the reception-room, instead of Arsinoe he found his own wife and
+the poetess Balbilla and her companion.  He greeted the ladies gaily,
+amiably and gracefully, as usual, and then, as he looked enquiringly
+round the large room without concealing his disappointment, Balbilla came
+up to him and asked him in a low voice:
+
+"Can you be honest, Verus?"
+
+"When circumstances allow it, yes."
+
+"And will they allow it here?"
+
+"I should suppose so."
+
+"Then answer me truly.  Did you come here for Julia's sake, or did you
+come--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Or did you expect to find the fair Roxana with the prefect's wife?"
+
+"Roxana?"  asked Verus, with a cunning smile.  "Roxana!  Why she was the
+wife of Alexander the Great, and is long since dead, but I care only for
+the living, and when I left the merry tumult in the streets it was simply
+and solely--"
+
+"You excite my curiosity."
+
+"Because my prophetic heart promised me, fairest Balbilla, that I should
+find you here."
+
+And that you call honest!"  cried the poetess, hitting the praetor a blow
+with the stick of the ostrich-feather fan she held in her hand.  "Only
+listen, Lucilla, your husband declares he came here for my sake."  The
+praetor looked reproachfully at the speaker, but she whispered:
+
+"Due punishment for a dishonest man."  Then, raising her voice, she said:
+
+"Do you know, Lucilla, that if I remain unmarried, your husband is not
+wholly innocent in the matter."
+
+"Alas! yes, I was born too late for you," interrupted Verus, who knew
+very well what the poetess was about to say.
+
+"Nay--no  misunderstanding!"  cried  Balbilla.  "For how can a woman
+venture upon wedlock when she cannot but fear the possibility of getting
+such a husband as Verus."
+
+"And what man," retorted the praetor, "would ever be so bold as to court
+Balbilla, could he hear how cruelly she judges an innocent admirer of
+beauty?"
+
+"A husband ought not to admire beauty--only the one beauty who is his
+wife."
+
+"Ah Vestal maiden," laughed Verus.  "I am meanwhile punishing you by
+withholding from you a great secret which interests us all.  No, no, I am
+not going to tell--but I beg you my lady wife to take her to task, and
+teach her to exercise some indulgence so that her future husband may not
+have too hard a time of it."
+
+"No woman can learn to be indulgent," replied Lucilla.  "Still we
+practise indulgence when we have no alternative, and the criminal
+requires us to make allowance for him in this thing or the other."
+
+Verus made his wife a bow and pressed his lips on her arm, then he asked.
+"And where is dame Julia?"
+
+"She is saving the sheep from the wolf," replied Balbilla.
+
+"Which means--?"
+
+"That as soon as you were announced she carried off little Roxana to a
+place of safety."
+
+"No, no," interrupted Lucilla.  "The tailor was waiting in an inner room
+to arrange the charming child's costume.  Only look at the lovely nosegay
+she brought to Julia.  And do you deny my right to share your secret?"
+
+"How could I?"  replied Verus.
+
+"He is very much in need of your making allowances!"  laughed Balbilla,
+while the praetor went up to, his wife and told her in a whisper what he
+had learnt from Mastor.  Lucilla clasped her hands in astonishment, and
+Verus cried to the poetess:
+
+"Now you see what a satisfaction your cruel tongue has deprived you of?"
+
+"How can you be so revengeful most estimable Verus," said the lady
+coaxingly.  "I am dying of curiosity."
+
+"Live but a few days longer fair Balbilla, for my sake," replied the
+Roman, "and the cause of your early death will be removed."
+
+"Only wait, I will be revenged!"  cried the girl threatening him with her
+finger, but Lucilla led her away saying:
+
+"Come now, it is time we should give Julia the benefit of our advice."
+
+"Do so," said Verus.  "Otherwise I am afraid my visit to-day would seem
+opportune to no one.--Greet Julia from me."
+
+As he went away he cast a glance at the nosegay which Arsinoe had given
+away as soon as she had received it from him, and he sighed: "As we grow
+old we have to learn wisdom."
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Avoid all useless anxiety
+To know half is less endurable than to know nothing
+Who do all they are able and enjoy as much as they can get
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR, Part 2.
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 6.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Dame Hannah had watched by Selene till sunrise and indefatigably cooled
+both her injured foot and the wound in her head.  The old physician was
+not dissatisfied with the condition of his patient, but ordered the widow
+to lie down for a time and to leave the care of her for a few hours to
+her young friend.  When Mary was alone with the sick girl and had laid
+the fresh cold handkerchief in its place, Selene turned her face towards
+her and said:
+
+"Then you were at Lochias yesterday.  Tell me how you found them all
+there.  Who guided you to our lodgings and did you see my little brother
+and sisters?"
+
+"You are not yet quite free of fever, and I do not know how much I ought
+to talk to you--but I would with all my heart."
+
+The words were spoken kindly and there was a deep loving light in the
+eyes of the deformed girl as she said them.  Selene excited not merely
+her sympathy and pity, but her admiration too, for she was so beautiful,
+so totally different from herself, and in every little service she
+rendered her, she felt like some despised beggar whom a prince might have
+permitted to wait upon him.  Her hump had never seemed to her so bent,
+nor her brown skin so ugly at any other time as it did to-day, when side
+by side with this symmetrical and delicate girlish form, rounded to such
+tender contours.
+
+But Mary felt not the smallest movement of envy.  She only felt happy to
+help Selene, to serve her, to be allowed to gaze at her although she was
+a heathen.  During the night too, she had prayed fervently that the Lord
+might graciously draw to himself this lovely, gentle creature, that He
+might permit her to recover, and fill her soul with the same love for the
+Saviour that gave joy to her own.  More than once she had longed to kiss
+her, but she dared not, for it seemed to her as though the sick girl were
+made of finer stuff than she herself.
+
+Selene felt tired, very tired, and as the pain diminished, a comfortable
+sense stole over her of peace and respite in the silent and loving
+homeliness of her surroundings; a feeling that was new and very soothing,
+though it was interrupted, now and again, by her anxiety for those at
+home.  Dame Hannah's presence did her good, for she fancied she
+recognized in her voice something that had been peculiar to her mother's,
+when she had played with her and pressed her with special affection to
+her heart.
+
+In the papyrus factory, at the gumming-table, the sight of the little
+hunchback had disgusted Selene, but here she observed what good eyes she
+had, and how kind a voice, and the care with which Mary lifted the
+compress from her foot--as softly, as if in her own hands she felt the
+pain that Selene was suffering--and then laid another on the broken
+ankle, aroused her gratitude.  Her sister Arsinoe was a vain and thorough
+Alexandrian girl, and she had nicknamed the poor thing after the ugliest
+of the Hellenes who had besieged Troy.  "Dame Thersites," and Selene
+herself had often repeated it.  Now she forgot the insulting name
+altogether, and met the objections of her nurse by saying:
+
+"The fever cannot be much now; if you tell me something I shall not think
+so constantly of this atrocious pain.  I am longing to be at home.  Did
+you see the children?"
+
+"No, Selene.  I went no farther than the entrance of your dwelling, and
+the kind gate-keeper's wife told me at once that I should find neither
+your father nor your sister, and that your slave-woman was gone out to
+buy cakes for the children."
+
+"To buy them!" exclaimed Selene in astonishment.  "The old woman told me
+too that the way to your apartments led through several rooms in which
+slaves were at work, and that her son, who happened to be with her,
+should accompany me, and so he did, but the door was locked, and he told
+me I might entrust his mother with my commission.  I did so, for she
+looked as if she were both judicious and kind."
+
+"That she is."
+
+"And she is very fond of you, for when I told her of your sufferings the
+bright tears rolled down her cheeks, and she praised you as warmly, and
+was as much troubled as if you had been her own daughter."
+
+"You said nothing about our working in the factory?" asked Selene
+anxiously.
+
+"Certainly not, you had desired me not to mention it.  I was to say
+everything that was kind to you from the old lady."
+
+For several minutes the two girls were silent, then Selene asked:
+
+"Did the gate-keeper's son who accompanied you also hear of the disaster
+that had befallen me?
+
+"Yes, on the way to your rooms he was full of fun and jokes, but when I
+told him that you had gone out with your damaged foot and now could not
+get home again, and were being treated by the leech, he was very angry
+and used blasphemous language."
+
+"Can you remember what he said?"
+
+"Not perfectly, but one thing I still recollect.  He accused his gods of
+having created a beautiful work only to spoil it, nay he abused them"
+Mary looked down as she spoke, as if she were repeating something ill to
+tell, but Selene colored slightly with pleasure, and exclaimed eagerly,
+as if to outdo the sculptor in abuse:
+
+"He is quite right, the powers above act in such a way--"
+
+"That is not right," said the deformed girl reprovingly.
+
+"What?"  asked the patient.  "Here you live quietly to yourselves in
+perfect peace and love.  Many a word that I heard dame Hannah say has
+stuck in my mind, and I can see for myself that you act as kindly as you
+speak.  The gods no doubt are good to you!"
+
+"God is for each and all."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Selene with flashing eyes.  "For those whose every
+pleasure they destroy?  For the home of eight children whom they rob of
+their mother?  For the poor whom they daily threaten to deprive of their
+bread-winner?"
+
+"For them too, there is a merciful God," interrupted dame Hannah who had
+just come into the room.  "I will lead you to the loving Father in Heaven
+who cares for us all as if we were His children; but not now--you must
+rest and neither talk nor hear of anything that can excite your fevered
+blood.  Now I will rearrange the pillow under your head.  Mary will wet a
+fresh compress and then you must try to sleep."
+
+"I cannot," replied Selene, while Hannah shook her pillows and arranged
+them carefully.  "Tell me about your God who loves us."
+
+"By-and-bye, dear child.  Seek Him and you will find Him, for of all His
+children He loves them best who suffer."
+
+"Those who suffer?"  asked Selene, in surprise.  "What has a God in his
+Olympian joys to do with those who suffer?"
+
+"Be quiet, child," interrupted Hannah, patting the sick girl with a
+soothing hand, "you soon will learn how God takes care of you and that
+Another loves you."
+
+"Another," muttered Selene, and her cheeks turned  crimson.
+
+She thought at once of Pollux, and asked herself why the story of her
+sufferings should have moved him so deeply if he were not in love with
+her.  Then she began to seek some colorable ground for what she had heard
+as she went past the screen behind which he had been working.  He had
+never told her plainly that he loved her.  Why should he, an artist and a
+bright, high spirited young fellow, not be allowed to jest with a pretty
+girl, even if his heart belonged to another.  No, she was not indifferent
+to him: that she had felt that night when she had stood as his model, and
+now--as she thought--I could guess, nay, feel sure of, from Mary's story.
+
+The longer she thought of him, the more she began to long to see him whom
+she had loved so dearly even as a child.  Her heart had never yet beat
+for any other man, but since she had met Pollux again in the hall of the
+Muses, his image had filled her whole soul, and what she now felt must be
+love--could be nothing else.  Half awake, but half asleep, she pictured
+him to herself, entering this quiet room, sitting down by the head of her
+couch, and looking with his kind eyes into hers.  Ah! and how could she
+help it--she sat up and opened her arms to him.
+
+"Be still, my child, he still," said Hannah.  "It is not good for you to
+move about so much."
+
+Selene opened her eyes, but only to close them again and to dream for
+some time longer till she was startled from her rest by loud voices in
+the garden.  Hannah left the room, and her voice presently mingled with
+those of the other persons outside, and when she returned her cheeks were
+flushed and she could not find fitting words in which to tell her patient
+what she had to say.
+
+"A very big man, in the most outrageous dress," she said at last, "wanted
+to be let in; when the gatekeeper refused, he forced his way in.  He
+asked for you."
+
+"For me," said Selene, blushing.
+
+"Yes, my child, he brought a large and beautiful nosegay of flowers, and
+said 'your friend at Lochias sends you his greeting.'"
+
+"My friend at Lochias?"  murmured thoughtfully Selene to herself.  Then
+her eyes sparkled with gladness, and she asked quickly:
+
+You said the man who brought the flowers was very tall."
+
+"He was."
+
+"Oh please, dame Hannah, let me see the flowers?"  cried Selene, trying
+to raise herself.
+
+"Have you a lover, child?"  asked the widow.
+
+"A lover?--no, but there is a young man with whom we always used to play
+when we were quite little--an artist, a kind, good man--and the nosegay
+must be from him."
+
+Hannah looked with sympathy at the girl, and signing to Mary she said:
+
+"The nosegay is a very large one.  You may see it, but it must not remain
+in the room; the smell of so many flowers might do you harm."
+
+Mary rose from her seat at the head of the bed, and whispered to the sick
+girl:
+
+"Is that the tall gate-keeper's son?"  Selene nodded, smiling, and as the
+women went away she changed her position from lying on one side,
+stretched herself out on her back, pressed her hand to her heart, and
+looked upwards with a deep sigh.  There was a singing in her ears, and
+flashes of colored light seemed to dance before her closed eyes.  She
+drew her breath with difficulty, but still it seemed as though the air
+she drew in was full of the perfume of flowers.
+
+Hannah and Mary carried in the enormous bunch of flowers.  Selene's eyes
+shone more brightly, and she clasped her hands in admiration.  Then she
+made them show her the lovely, richly-tinted and fragrant gift, first on
+one side and then on the other, buried her face in the flowers, and
+secretly kissed the delicate petals of a lovely, half-opened rose-bud.
+She felt as if intoxicated, and the bright tears flowed in slow
+succession down her cheeks.  Mary was the first to detect the brooch
+stuck into the ribbons that tied the stems of the flowers.  She
+unfastened it and showed it to Selene, who hastily took it out of her
+hand.  Blushing deeper and deeper, she fixed her eyes on the intaglio
+carved on the stone of the love god sharpening his arrows.  She felt her
+pain no more pain, she felt quite well, and at the same time glad, proud,
+too happy.  Dame Hannah noted her excitement with much anxiety; she
+nodded to Mary and said:
+
+"Now my daughter, this must do; we will place the flowers outside the
+window so that you may see them."
+
+"Already," said Selene, in a regretful tone, and she broke off a few
+violets and roses from the crowded mass.  When she was alone again, she
+laid the flowers down and once more tenderly contemplated the figures on
+the handsome gem.  It had no doubt been engraved by Teuker, the brother
+of Pollux.  How fine the carving was, how significant the choice of the
+subject represented!  Only the heavy gold setting disturbed the poor
+child, who for so many years had had to stint and contrive with her
+money.  She said to herself that it was wrong of the young fellow, who,
+besides being poor, had to support his sister, to rush into such an
+outlay for her.  But his gift gave her none the less pleasure, out of her
+own possessions nothing would have seemed too precious to give him.  She
+would teach him to be saving by-and-bye.
+
+The women presently returned after they had with much trouble set up the
+nosegay outside the window, and they renewed the wet handkerchief without
+speaking.  She did not in the least want to talk, she was listening with
+so much pleasure to the fair promises which her fancy was making, and
+wherever she turned her eyes they fell on something she could love,  The
+flowers on her bed, the brooch in her hand, the nosegay outside the
+window, and never dreaming that another--not the man she loved--could
+have sent it to her, another for whom she cared even less than for the
+Christians who walked up and down in Paulina's garden, under her window.
+There she lay, full of sweet contentment and secure of a love that had
+never been hers--of possessing the heart of a man who never once thought
+of her, but who, only a few hours since, had rushed off with her sister,
+intoxicated with joy and delight.  Poor Selene!
+
+And her next dreams were of untroubled happiness, but the minutes flew
+after each other, each bringing her nearer to waking--and what a waking!
+
+Her father had not come, as he had intended, to see her before going to
+the prefect's house with Arsinoe.  His desire to conduct his daughter to
+Julia in a dress worthy of her prospects had detained him a long time,
+and even then he had not succeeded in his object.  All the weavers, and
+the shops were closed, for every workman, whether slave or free, was
+taking part in the festivities, and when the hour fixed by the prefect
+drew near, his daughter was still sitting in her litter, in her simple
+white dress and her modest peplum, bound with blue ribbon, which looked
+even more insignificant by day than in the evening.
+
+The nosegay which had been given to Arsinoe by Verus gave her much
+pleasure, for a girl is always pleased with beautiful flowers--nay, they
+have something in common.  As she and her father approached the prefect's
+house Arsinoe grew frightened, and her father could not conceal his
+vexation at being obliged to take her to the lady Julia in so modest a
+garb.  Nor was his gloomy humor at all enlivened when he was left to wait
+in the anteroom while Julia and the wife of Verus, aided by Balbilla
+chose for his daughter the finest colored and costliest stuffs of the
+softest wool, silk, and delicate bombyx tissue.  This sort of occupation
+has this peculiarity, that the longer time it takes the more assistance
+is needed, and the steward had to submit to wait fully two hours in the
+prefect's anteroom, which gradually grew fuller and fuller of clients and
+visitors.  At last Arsinoe came back all glowing and full of the
+beautiful things that were to be prepared for her.
+
+Her father rose slowly from his easy seat, and as she hastened towards
+him the door opened, and through it came Plutarch, freshly wreathed,
+freshly decked with flowers which were fastened to the breast-folds of
+his gallium, and lifted into the room by his two human crutches.  Every
+one rose as he came in, and when Keraunus saw that the chief lawyer of
+the city, a man of ancient family, bowed before him, he did likewise.
+Plutarch's eyesight was stronger than his legs were, and where a pretty
+woman was to be seen, it was always very keen.  He perceived Arsinoe as
+soon as he had crossed the threshold and waved both hands towards her, as
+if she were an old and favorite acquaintance.
+
+The sweet child had quite bewitched him; in his younger days he would
+have given anything and everything to win her favor; now he was satisfied
+to make his favor pleasing to her; he touched her playfully two or three
+times on the arm and said gaily:
+
+"Well pretty Roxana, has dame Julia done well with the dresses?"
+
+"Oh! they have chosen such pretty, such really lovely things!"  exclaimed
+the girl."
+
+"Have they?"  said Plutarch, to conceal by speech the fact that he was
+meditating on some subject; "Have they? and why should they not?"
+
+Arsinoe's washed dress had caught the old man's eye, and remembering that
+Gabinius the curiosity-dealer had that very morning been to him to
+enquire whether Arsinoe were not in fact one of his work-girls, and to
+repeat his statement that her father was a beggarly toady, full of
+haughty airs, whose curiosities, of which he contemptuously mentioned a
+few, were worth nothing, Plutarch was hastily asking himself how he could
+best defend his pretty protege against the envious tongues of her rivals;
+for many spiteful speeches of theirs had already come to his ears.
+
+"Whatever the noble Julia undertakes is always admirably done," he said
+aloud, and he added in a whisper: "The day after to-morrow when the
+goldsmiths have opened their workshops again, I will see what I can find
+for you.  I am falling in a heap, hold me up higher Antaeus and Atlas.
+So.--Yes, my child you look even better from up here than from a lower
+level.  Is the stout man standing behind you your father?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Have you no mother?"
+
+"She is dead."
+
+"Oh!"  said Plutarch in a tone of regret.  Then turning to the steward he
+said:
+
+"Accept my congratulations on having such a daughter Keraunus.  I hear
+too that you have to supply a mother's place to her."
+
+"Alas sir! she is very like my poor wife, since her death I live a
+joyless life."
+
+"But I hear that you take pleasure in collecting rare and beautiful
+objects.  This is a taste we have in common.  Are you inclined to part
+with the cup that belonged to my namesake Plutarch?  It must be a fine
+piece of work from what Gabinius tells me."
+
+"That it is," replied the steward proudly.  "It was a gift to the
+philosopher from Trajan; beautifully carved in ivory.  I cannot bear to
+part with such a gem but," and as he spoke he lowered his voice.  "I am
+under obligations to you, you have taken charge of my daughter's outfit
+and to offer you some return I will--"
+
+"That is quite out of the question," interrupted Plutarch, who knew men,
+and who saw from the steward's pompous pretentiousness that the dealer
+had done him no injustice in describing him as overbearing.  "You are
+doing me an honor by allowing me to contribute what I can towards
+decorating our Roxana.  I beg you to send me the cup, and whatever price
+you put upon it, I, of course, shall pay, that is quite understood."
+
+Keraunus had a brief internal conflict with himself.  If he had not so
+sorely needed money, if he had not so keenly desired to see a young and
+comely slave walking behind him, he would have adhered to his purpose of
+presenting the cup to Plutarch; as it was he cleared his throat, looked
+at the ground, and said with an embarrassed manner and without a trace of
+his former confidence:
+
+"I remain your debtor, and it seems you do not wish this business to be
+mixed up with other matters.  Well then, I had two thousand drachmae for
+a sword that belonged to Antony."
+
+"Then certainly," interrupted Plutarch, "the cup, the gift of Trajan,
+must be worth double, particularly to me who am related to the
+illustrious owner.  May I offer you four thousand drachmae for your
+precious possession?"
+
+"I am anxious to oblige you, and so I say yes," replied the steward with
+much dignity, and he squeezed Arsinoe's little finger, for she was
+standing close to him.  Her hand had for some time been touching his in
+token of warning that he should adhere to his first intention of making
+the cup a present to Plutarch.
+
+As the pair, so unlike each other, quitted the anteroom, Plutarch looked
+after them with a meaning smile and thought to himself: "That is well
+done.  How little pleasure I generally have from my riches!  How often
+when I see a sturdy porter I would willingly change places with him!
+But to-day I am glad to have as much money as I could wish.  Sweet child!
+She must have a new dress of course for the sake of appearance, but
+really her beauty did not suffer from the washed-out rag of a dress.
+And she belongs to me, for I have seen her at the factory among the
+workwomen, of that I am certain."
+
+Keraunus had gone out with his daughter and once outside the prefect's
+house, he could not help chuckling aloud, while he patted his daughter on
+the shoulder, and whispered to her:
+
+"I told you so child!  we shall be rich yet, we shall rise in life again
+and need not be behind the other citizens in any thing."
+
+"Yes, father, but it is just because you believe that, that you ought to
+have given the cup to the old man."
+
+"No," replied Keraunus, "business is business, but by and bye I will
+repay him tenfold for all he does for you now, by giving him my painting
+by Apelles.  And Julia shall have the pair of sandal-straps set with cut-
+gems that came off a sandal of Cleopatra's."
+
+Arsinoe looked down, for she knew what these treasures were worth, and
+said:
+
+"We can consider all that later."
+
+Then she and her father got into the litters that had been waiting for
+them, and without which Keraunus thought he could no longer exist, and
+they were carried to the garden of Pudeus' widow.
+
+Their visit came to interrupt Selene's blissful dreams.  Keraunus
+behaved with icy coldness to dame Hannah, for it afforded him a certain
+satisfaction to make a display of contempt for every thing Christian.
+When he expressed his regret that Selene should have been obliged to
+remain in her house, the widow replied:
+
+"She is better here than in the street, at any rate."  And when Keraunus
+went on to say that he would take nothing as a gift and would pay her for
+her care of his daughter, Hannah answered:
+
+"We are happy to do all we can for your child, and Another will reward
+us."
+
+"That I certainly forbid," exclaimed the steward wrathfully.
+
+"We do not understand each other," said the Christian pleasantly.  "I do
+not allude to any mortal being, and the reward we work for is not gold
+and possessions, but the happy consciousness of having mitigated the
+sufferings of a fellow-creature."
+
+Keraunus shrugged his shoulders, and after desiring Selene to ask the
+physician when she might be taken home, he went away.
+
+"I will not leave you here an instant longer than is necessary," he said
+as urgently as though she were in some infected house; he kissed her
+forehead, bowed to Hannah as loftily as though he had just bestowed an
+alms upon her, and departed, without listening to Selene's assurances
+that she was extremely happy and comfortable with the widow.
+
+The ground had long burnt under his feet, and the money in his pocket,
+he was now possessed of ample means to acquire a good new slave, perhaps,
+if he threw old Sebek into the bargain, they might even suffice to
+procure him a handsome Greek, who might teach the children to read and
+write.  He could direct his first attention to the external appearance of
+the new member of his household, if he were a scholar as well, he would
+feel justified in the high price he expected to be obliged to pay for
+him.
+
+As Keraunus approached the slave-market he said, not without some
+conscious emotion at his own paternal devotion:
+
+"All for the credit of the house, all, and only, for the children."
+
+Arsinoe carried out her intention of staying with Selene; her father was
+to fetch her on his way home.  After he was gone, Hannah and Mary left
+the two sisters together, for they supposed that they must wish to
+discuss a variety of things without the presence of strangers.
+
+As soon as the girls were alone Arsinoe began: "Your cheeks are rosy,
+Selene, and you look cheerful--ah!  and I, I am so happy--so happy!"
+
+"Because you are to fill the part of Roxana?"
+
+"That is very nice too, and who would have thought only yesterday morning
+that we should be so rich today.  We hardly know what to do with all the
+money."
+
+"We?"
+
+"Yes, for father has sold two objects out of his collection for six
+thousand drachmae."
+
+"Oh!"  cried Selene clasping her hands, "then we can pay our most
+pressing debts."
+
+"To be sure, but that is not nearly all."
+
+"No?"
+
+"Where shall I begin?  Ah! Selene, my heart is so full.  I am tired, and
+yet I could dance and sing and shout all day and all the night through
+till to-morrow.  When I think how happy I am, my head turns, and I feel
+as if I must use all my self-control to keep myself from turning giddy.
+You do not know yet how you feel when the arrow of Eros has pierced you.
+Ah! I love Pollux so much, and he loves me too."
+
+At these words all the color fled from Selene's cheeks, and her pale lips
+brought out the words:
+
+"Pollux?  The son of Euphorion, Pollux the sculptor?"
+
+"Yes, our dear, kind, tall Pollux!"  cried Arsinoe.  "Now prick up your
+ears, and you shall hear how it all came to pass.  Last night on our way
+to see you he confessed how much he loved me, and now you must advise me
+how to win over my father to our side, and very soon too.  By-and-bye he
+will of course say yes, for Pollux can do anything he wants, and some day
+he will be a great man, as great as Papias, and Aristaeus, and Kealkes
+all put together.  His youthful trick with that silly caricature--but how
+pale you are, Selene!"
+
+"It is nothing--nothing at all--a pain--go on," said Selene.
+
+"Dame Hannah begged me not to let you talk much."
+
+"Only tell me everything; I will be quiet."
+
+"Well, you have seen the lovely head of mother that he made," Arsinoe
+went on.  "Standing by that we saw each other and talked for the first
+time after long years, and I felt directly that there was not a dearer
+man than he in the whole world, wide as it is.  And he fell in love too
+with a stupid little thing like me.  Yesterday evening he came here with
+me; and then as I went home, taking his arm in the dark through the
+streets, then--Oh, Selene, it was splendid, delightful!  You cannot
+imagine!--Does your foot hurt you very much, poor dear?  Your eyes are
+full of tears."
+
+"Go on, tell me all, go on."
+
+And Arsinoe did as she was desired, sparing the poor girl nothing that
+could widen and deepen the wound in her soul.  Full of rapturous memories
+she described the place in the streets where Pollux had first kissed her.
+The shrubs in the garden where she had flung herself into his arms, her
+blissful walk in the moonlight, and all the crowd assembled for the
+festival, and finally how, possessed by the god, they had together joined
+the procession, and danced through the streets.  She described, with
+tears in her eyes, how painful their parting had been, and laughed again,
+as she told how an ivy leaf in her hair had nearly betrayed everything to
+her father.  So she talked and talked, and there was something that
+intoxicated her in her own words.
+
+How they were affecting Selene she did not observe.  How could she know
+that it was her narrative and no other suffering which made her sister's
+lips quiver so sorrowfully?  Then, when she went on to speak of the
+splendid garments which Julia was having made for her, the suffering girl
+listened with only half an ear, but her attention revived when she heard
+how much old Plutarch had offered for the ivory cup, and that her father
+proposed to exchange their old slave for a more active one.
+
+"Our good black mouse-catching old stork looks shabby enough it is true,"
+said Arsinoe, "still I am very sorry he should go away.  If you had been
+at home, perhaps father would have waited to consider."
+
+Selene laughed drily, and her lips curled scornfully as she said:
+
+"That is the way! go on! two days before you are turned out of house and
+home you ride in a chariot and pair!"
+
+"You always see the worst side," said Arsinoe with annoyance.  "I tell
+you it will all turn out far better and nicer and more happily than we
+expect.  As soon as we are a little richer we will buy back the old man,
+and keep him and feed him till he dies."
+
+Selene shrugged her shoulders, and her sister jumped up from her seat
+with her eyes full of tears.  She had been so happy in telling how happy
+she was that she firmly believed that her story must bring brightness
+into the gloom of the sick girl's soul, like sunshine after a dark night;
+and Selene had nothing to give her but scornful words and looks.  If a
+friend refuses to share in joys it is hardly less wounding than if he
+were to abandon us in trouble.
+
+"How you always contrive to embitter my happiness!"  cried Arsinoe.  "I
+know very well that nothing that I can do can ever be right in your eyes;
+still, we are sisters, and you need not set your teeth and grudge your
+words, and shrug your shoulders when I tell you of things which, even a
+stranger, if I were to confide them to her, would rejoice over with me.
+You are so cold and heartless!  I dare say you will betray me to my
+father--"
+
+But Arsinoe did not finish her sentence, for Selene looked up at her with
+a mixture of suffering and alarm, and said:
+
+"I cannot be glad--I am in too much pain."  As she spoke the tears ran
+down her cheeks and as soon as Arsinoe saw them she felt a return of pity
+for the sick girl, bent over and kissed her cheeks once, twice, thrice;
+but Selene pushed her aside and murmured piteously:
+
+"Leave me--pray leave me; go away, I can bear it no longer."  She turned
+her face to the wall, sobbing aloud.  Arsinoe attempted once more to show
+her some marks of affection, but her sister pushed her away still more
+decidedly, crying out loudly, as if in desperation: "I shall die if you
+do not leave me alone."
+
+And the happier girl, whose best offerings were thus disdained by her
+only female friend, went weeping away to await her father's return
+outside the door of the widow's house.
+
+When Hannah went to lay fresh handkerchiefs on Selene's wounds she saw
+that she had been crying, but she did not enquire into the reason of her
+tears.  Towards evening the widow explained to her patient that she must
+leave her alone for half an hour, for that she and Mary were going out to
+pray to their God with their brethren and sisters, and they would pray
+for her also.
+
+"Leave me, only leave me," said Selene, "as it is, so it is--there are no
+gods."
+
+"Gods?"  replied Hannah.  "No.  But there is one good and loving Father
+in Heaven, and you soon shall learn to know him."
+
+"I know him, well!"  muttered the sick girl with keen irony.
+
+No sooner was she alone than she sat up in bed, and flung the flowers,
+which had been lying on it, far from her across the room, twisted the pin
+of the brooch till it was broken, and did not stir a finger to save the
+gold setting and engraved stone when they fell between the bed and wall
+of the room.  Then she lay staring at the ceiling, and did not stir
+again.  It was now quite dark.  The lilies and honeysuckle in the great
+nosegay outside the window began to smell more strongly, and their
+perfume forced itself inexorably on her senses, rendered painfully acute
+by fever.  She perceived it at every breath she drew, and not for a
+minute would it let her forget her wrecked happiness, and the
+wretchedness of her heart, till the heavy sweetness of the flowers became
+more unendurable than the most pungent odor, and she drew the coverlet
+over her head to escape this new torment; but she soon cast it off again,
+for she thought she should be suffocated under it.  An intolerable
+restlessness took possession of her, while the pain in her injured foot
+throbbed madly, the cut in her head seemed to burn, and her temples beat
+with an agonizing headache that contracted the muscles of her eyes.
+Every nerve in her body, every thought of her brain was a separate
+torture, and at the same time she felt herself without a stay, without
+protection, and wholly abandoned to some cruel influence, which tossed
+and tore her soul as the storm tosses the crowns of the palm-trees.
+
+Without tears, incapable of lying still and yet punished for the
+slightest movement by some fresh pain, racked in every joint, not strong
+enough in her bewilderment to carry through a single connected thought,
+and yet firmly convinced that the perfume she was forced to inhale at
+every breath was poisoning her--destroying her--driving her mad--she
+lifted her damaged foot out of bed, dragged the other after it, and sat
+up on her couch regardless of the pain she felt, and the warnings of the
+physician.  Her long hair fell dishevelled over her face, her arms, and
+her hands, in which she held her aching head; and in this new attitude
+the excitement of her brain and heart took fresh development.
+
+She sat gazing at the floor with a freezing gaze, and bitter enmity
+towards her sister, hatred towards Pollux, contempt for her father's
+miserable weakness, and her own utter blindness, rang wild changes in her
+soul.  Outside all lay in peaceful calm, and from the house in which
+Paulina lived the evening breeze now and again bore the pure tones of a
+pious hymn upon her ear.  Selene never heeded it, but as the same air
+wafted the scent of the flowers in her face even stronger than before,
+she clutched her hair in her fingers and pulled it so violently that she
+actually groaned with the pain she gave herself.
+
+The question as to whether her hair was less abundant and beautiful than
+her sister's suddenly occurred to her, and like a flash in the darkness
+the wish shot through her soul that she could fling Arsinoe to the ground
+by the hair, with the hand which was now hurting herself.
+
+That perfume! that horrible perfume!
+
+She could bear it no longer.  She stood up on her uninjured foot, and
+with very short steps she dragged herself half crying to the window, and
+flung the nosegay with the great jar of burnt clay down on to the ground.
+The vessel was broken.--It had cost poor Hannah many hardly-saved pieces
+not long since.  Selene stood on one foot, leaning, to recover herself,
+against the right-hand post of the window-opening, and there she could
+hear more distinctly than from her couch, the voice of the waves as they
+broke on the stone quay just behind dame Hannah's little house.  The
+child of the Lochias was familiar with their tones, but the clashing and
+gurgling of the cool, moist element against the stones had never affected
+her before as they did now.  Her fevered blood was on fire, her foot was
+burning, her head was hot, and hatred seemed to consume her soul as in a
+slow fire; she felt as if every wave that broke upon the seawall was
+calling out to her: "I am cool, I am moist, I can extinguish the flame
+that is consuming you.  I can refresh and revive you."
+
+What had the world to offer her but new torment and new misery?  But the
+sea--the blue dark sea was wide, and cold, and deep, and its waves
+promised her in insidious tones to relieve her at once of the rage of her
+fever, and of the burden of her life.  Selene did not pause, did not
+reflect; she remembered neither the children whom she had so long cared
+for as a mother, nor her father, whose comfort and support she was--vague
+voices in her brain seemed to be whispering to her that the world was
+evil and cruel, and the abode of all the torment and care that gnawed at
+her heart.  She felt as if she bad been plunged to the temples in a pool
+of fire, and, like some poor wretch whose garments have been caught by
+the flames, she had an instinct to fly to the water, at the bottom of
+which she might hope to find the fulfilment of her utmost longing, sweet
+cold death, in which all is forgotten.
+
+Groaning and tottering she pushed her way through the door into the
+garden and hobbled down to the sea, grasping her temples in her hands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The Alexandrians were a stiff-necked generation.  Only some phenomenal
+sight far transcending their every-day experience could avail to make
+them turn their heads to stare at it, but just now there was something to
+look at, at every moment and in every street of the city.  To-day too
+each one thought only of himself and of his own pleasure.  Some
+particularly pretty, tall, or well-dressed figure would give rise to a
+smile or an exclamation of approval, but before one sight had been
+thoroughly enjoyed the inquisitive eye was seeking a fresh one.
+
+Thus it happened that no one paid any special attention to Hadrian and
+his companions who allowed themselves to be unresistingly carried along
+the streets by the current of the crowd; and yet each one of them was, in
+his way, a remarkable object.  Hadrian was dressed as Silenus, Pollux as
+a faun.  Both wore masks and the disguise of the younger man was as well
+suited to his pliant and vigorous figure as that of the elder to his
+powerful stately person.  Antinous followed his master, dressed as Eros.
+He wore a crimson mantle and was crowned with roses, while the silver
+quiver on his shoulder and the bow in his hand clearly symbolized the god
+he was intended to represent.  He too wore a mask, but his figure
+attracted many gazers, and many a greeting of "Long live the god of love"
+or "Be gracious to me oh! son of Aphrodite" was spoken as he passed.
+
+Pollux had obtained all the things requisite for these disguises from the
+store of drapery belonging to his master.  Papias had been out, but the
+young man did not deem it necessary to ask his consent, for he and the
+other assistants had often used the things for similar purposes with his
+full permission.  Only as he took the quiver intended for Antinous,
+Pollux hesitated a little for it was of solid silver and had been given
+to his master by the wife of a wealthy cone-dealer, whom he had
+represented in marble as Artemis equipped for the chase.
+
+"The Roman's handsome companion," thought the young artist as he placed
+the costly object in with the others in a basket, which a squinting
+apprentice was to carry behind him--"The Roman's handsome companion must
+be made a splendid Eros--and before sunrise the useless thing will be
+hanging on its hook again."
+
+Indeed Pollux had not much time to admire the splendid appearance of the
+god of love he had so richly adorned, for the Roman architect was
+possessed by such thirst for knowledge and such inexhaustible curiosity
+as to the minutest details that even Pollux who was born in Alexandria,
+and had grown up there with his eyes very wide open, was often unable to
+answer his indefatigable questioning.
+
+The grey-bearded master wanted to see every thing and to be informed on
+every subject.  Not content with making acquaintance with the main
+streets and squares the public sites and buildings, he peeped into the
+handsomest of the private houses and asked the names, rank and fortunes
+of the owners.  The decided way in which he told Pollux the way he wished
+to be conducted proved to the artist that he was thoroughly familiar with
+the plan of the city.  And when the sagacious and enlightened man
+expressed his approval, nay his admiration of the broad clean streets of
+the town, the handsome open places, and particularly handsome buildings
+which abounded on all sides, the young Alexandrian who was proud of his
+city was delighted.
+
+First Hadrian made him lead him along the seashore by the Bruchiom to the
+temple of Poseidon, where he performed some devotions, then he looked
+into the garden of the palace and the courts of the adjoining museum.
+The Caesareum with its Egyptian gateway excited his admiration no less
+than the theatre, surrounded with pillared arcades in stories, and
+decorated with numerous statues.  From thence deviating to the left they
+once more approached the sea to visit the great Emporium, to see the
+forest of masts of Eunostus, and the finely-constructed quays.  They left
+the viaduct known as the Heptastadion to their right and the harbor of
+Kibotus, swarming with small merchant craft, did not detain them long.
+
+Here they turned backs on the sea following a street which led inland
+through the quarter called Khakotis inhabited only by native Egyptians,
+and here the Roman found much to see that was noteworthy.  First he and
+his companions met a procession of the priests who serve the gods of the
+Nile valley, carrying reliquaries and sacred vessels, with images of the
+gods and sacred animals, and tending towards the Serapeum which towered
+high above the streets in the vicinity.  Hadrian did not visit the
+temple, but he inspected the chariots which carried people along an
+inclined road which led up the hill on which was the sanctuary, and
+watched devotees on foot who mounted by an endless flight of steps
+constructed on purpose; these grew wider towards the top, terminating in
+a platform where four mighty pillars bore up a boldly-curved cupola.
+Nothing looked down upon the temple-building which with its halls,
+galleries and rooms rose behind this huge canopy.
+
+The priests with their white robes, the meagre, half-naked Egyptians
+with their pleated aprons and headcloths, the images of beasts and the
+wonderfully-painted houses in this quarter of the city, particularly
+attracted Hadrian's attention and made him ask many questions, not all of
+which could Pollux answer.
+
+Their walk which now took them farther and farther from the sea extended
+to the extreme south of the town and the shores of lake Mareotis.  Nile
+boats and vessels of every form and size lay at anchor in this deep and
+sheltered inland sea; here the sculptor pointed out to Hadrian the canal
+through which goods were conveyed to the marine fleet which had been
+brought down the river to Alexandria.  And he pointed out to the Roman
+the handsome country-houses and well-tended vineyards on the shores of
+the lake.
+
+"The bodies in this city ought to thrive," said Hadrian meditatively.
+"For here are two stomachs and two mouths by which they absorb
+nourishment; the sea, I mean, and this lake."
+
+"And the harbors in each," added Pollux.
+
+"Just so; but now it is time we should turn about," replied Hadrian, and
+the party soon took a road leading eastward; they walked without pause
+through the quiet streets inhabited by the Christians, and finally
+through the Jews' quarter.  In the heart of this quarter many houses were
+shut up, and there were no signs to be seen of the gay doings which
+crowded on the sense and fancy in the heathen part of the town, for the
+stricter among the Hebrews held sternly aloof, from the holiday
+festivities in which most of their nation and creed who dwelt among the
+Greeks, took part.
+
+For a third time Hadrian and his companions crossed the Canopic way which
+formed the main artery of the city and divided it into the northern and
+southern halves, for he wished to look down from the hill of the Paneum
+on the combined effect as a whole of all that he had seen in detail.  The
+carefully-kept gardens which surrounded this elevation swarmed with men,
+and the spiral path which led to the top was crowded with women and
+children, who came here to see the most splendid spectacle of the whole
+day, which closed with performances in all the theatres in the town.
+Before the Emperor and his escort could reach the Paneum itself the crowd
+suddenly packed more closely and began exclaiming among themselves, "Here
+they come!"  "They are early to-day!"  "Here they are!"
+
+Lictors with their fasces over their shoulders were clearing the broad
+roadway, which led from the prefect's on the Bruchiom to the Paneum, with
+their staves and paying no heed to the mocking and witty speeches
+addressed to them by the mob wherever they appeared.  One woman, as
+she was driven back by a Roman guardian of the peace, cried scornfully,
+"Give me your rods for my children and do not use them on unoffending
+citizens."
+
+"There is an axe hidden among the faggots," added an Egyptian letter-
+writer in a warning voice.
+
+"Bring it here," cried a butcher.  "I can use it to slaughter my beasts."
+The Romans as they heard these bandied words felt the blood mounting to
+their faces, but the prefect, who knew his Alexandrians well, had
+counselled them to be deaf; to see everything but to hear nothing.  Now
+there appeared a cohort of the Twelfth Legion, who were quartered in
+garrison in Egypt, in their richest arms and holiday uniforms.  Behind
+them came two files of particularly tall lictors wearing wreaths, and
+they were followed by several hundred wild beasts, leopards and panthers,
+giraffes, gazelles, antelopes, and deer, all led by dark-colored
+Egyptians.  Then came a richly-dressed and much be-wreathed Dionysian
+chorus with the sound of tambourines and lyres, double flutes and
+triangles, and finally, drawn by ten elephants and twenty white horses,
+a large ship, resting on wheels and gilt from stem to stern, representing
+the vessel in which the Tyrrhenian pirates were said to have carried off
+the young Dionysus when they had seen the black-haired hero on the shore
+in his purple garments.  But the miscreants--so the myth went on to say--
+were not allowed long to rejoice in their violence, for hardly had the
+ship reached the open sea when the fetters dropped from the god, vines
+entwined the sails in sudden luxuriance, tendrils encumbered the oars and
+rudder, heavy grapes clustered round the ropes, and ivy clung to the mast
+and shrouded the seats and sides of the vessel.  Dionysus is equally
+powerful on sea and on land; in the pirates' ship he assumed the form of
+a lion, and the pirates, filled with terror, flung themselves into the
+sea, and in the form of dolphins followed their lost bark.
+
+All this Titianus had caused to be represented just as the Homeric hymns
+described it, out of slight materials, but richly and elegantly
+decorated, in order to provide a feast for the eyes of the Alexandrians,
+with the intention of riding in it himself, with his wife and the most
+illustrious of the Romans who formed the Empress' suite, to enjoy all the
+Holiday doings in the chief streets of the city.  Young and old, great
+and small, men and women, Greeks, Romans, Jews, Egyptians, foreigners
+dark and fair, with smooth hair or crisp wool, crowded with equal
+eagerness to the edge of the roadway to see the gorgeous boat.
+
+Hadrian, far more anxious to see the show than his younger but less
+excitable favorite, pushed into the front rank, and as Antinous was
+trying to follow him, a Greek boy, whom he had shoved aside, snatched his
+mask from his face, threw himself on the ground, and slipped nimbly off
+with his booty.  When Hadrian looked round for the Bithyman, the ship-in
+which the prefect was standing between the images of the Emperor and
+Empress, while Julia, Balbilla, and her companion, and other Roman lords
+and ladies were sitting in it--had come quite near to them.  His sharp
+eye had recognized them all, and fearing that the lad's uncovered face
+would betray them he cried out:
+
+"Turn round and get into the crowd again."  The favorite immediately
+obeyed, and only too glad to escape from the crowd, which was a thing he
+detested, he sat down on a bench close to the Paneum, and looked dreamily
+at the ground while he thought of Selene and the nosegay he had sent her,
+neither seeing nor hearing anything of what was going on around him.
+
+When the gaudy ship left the gardens of the Paneum and turned into the
+Canopic way, the crowd pursued it in a dense mass, hallooing and
+shouting.  Like a torrent suddenly swelled by a storm it rushed on,
+surging and growing at each moment, and carrying with it even those who
+tried to resist its force.  Thus even Hadrian and Pollux were forced to
+follow in its wake, and it was not till they found themselves in the
+broad Canopic way that they were able to come to a stand-still.  The
+broad roadway of this famous street was bordered on each side by a long
+vista of colonnade, and it extended from one end of the city to the
+other.  There were hundreds of the Corinthian columns which supported the
+roof that covered the footway, and near to one of these the Emperor and
+Pollux succeeded at last in effecting a halt and taking breath.
+
+Hadrian's first thought was for his favorite, and being averse to
+venturing himself once more to mix with the crowd, he begged the sculptor
+to go and seek him and conduct him safely.
+
+"Will you wait for me here?"  asked Pollux.
+
+"I have known a pleasanter halting place," sighed the Emperor.
+
+"So have I," answered the artist.  "But that tall door there, wreathed
+round with boughs of poplar and ivy, leads into a cook-shop where the
+gods themselves might be content to find themselves."
+
+"Then I will wait there."
+
+"But I warn you to eat as much as you can, for the Olympian table' as
+kept by Lykortas, the Corinthian, is the dearest eating-house in the
+whole city.  None but the richest are his guests."
+
+"Very good," laughed Hadrian.  "Only find my assistant a new mask and
+bring him back to me.  It will not ruin me quite, even if I pay for a
+supper for all three of us, and on a holiday one expects to spend
+something."
+
+"I hope you may not live to repent," retorted Pollux.  "But a long fellow
+like me is a good trencherman, and can do his part with the wine-jar."
+
+"Only show me what you can do," cried Hadrian after him as Pollux hurried
+off.  "I owe you a supper at any rate, for that cabbage stew of your
+mother's."
+
+While Pollux went to seek the Bithyman in the vicinity of the Paneum, the
+Emperor entered the eating house, which the skill of the cook had made
+the most frequented and fashionable in Alexandria.  The place in which
+most of the customers of the house dined, consisted of a large open hall,
+surrounded by arcades which were roofed in on three of its sides and
+closed by a wall on its fourth; in these arcades stood couches, on which
+the guests reclined singly, or in couples, or in larger groups, and
+ordered the dishes and liquors which the serving slaves, pretty boys with
+curling hair and hand some dresses, placed before them on low tables.
+Here all was noise and bustle; at one table an epicure devoted himself
+silently to the enjoyment of some carefully-prepared delicacy, at another
+a large circle of men seemed to be talking more eagerly than they either
+eat or drank, and from several of the smaller rooms behind the wall at
+the back of the hall came sounds of music and song, and the bold laughter
+of men and women.
+
+The Emperor asked for a private room, but they were all occupied, and he
+was requested to wait a little while, for that one of the adjoining.
+rooms would very soon be vacant.  He had taken off his mask, and though
+he was not particularly afraid of being recognized in his disguise he
+chose a couch that was screened by a broad pillar in one of the arcades
+at the inner side of the court, and which, now that evening was beginning
+to fall was already in obscurity.  There he ordered, first some wine and
+then some oysters to begin, with; while he was eating these he called one
+of the superintendents and discussed with him the details of the supper
+he wished presently to be served to himself and his two guests.  During
+this conversation the bustling host came to make his bow to his new
+customer, and seeing that he had to do with a man fully conversant with
+all the pleasures of the table, he remained to attend on him, and entered
+with special zeal into Hadrian's various requirements.
+
+There was, too, plenty to be seen in the court, which roused the
+curiosity of the most inquisitive and enquiring man of his time.  In the
+large space enclosed by the arcades, and under the eyes of the guests, on
+gridirons and hearths, over spits and in ovens the various dishes were
+prepared which were served up by the slaves.  The cooks prepared their
+savory messes on large, clean tables, and the scene of their labors,
+which, though enclosed by cords was open to public gaze was surrounded by
+a small market, where however only the choicest of wares were displayed.
+
+Here in tempting array was every variety of vegetable reared on Greek or
+Egyptian soil; here speckless fruits of every size and hue were set out,
+and there ready baked, shining, golden-brown pasties were displayed.
+Those containing meat, fish or the mussels of Canopus were prepared in
+Alexandria itself, but others containing fruit or the leaves of flowers
+were brought from Arsinoe on the shores of Lake Moeris, for in that
+neighborhood the cultivation of fruit and horticulture generally were
+pursued with the greatest success.  Meat of all sorts lay or hung in
+suitable places; there were juicy hams from Cyrene, Italian sausages and
+uncooked joints of various slaughtered beasts.  By them lay or hung game
+and poultry in select abundance, and a large part of the court was taken
+up by a tank in which the choicest of the scaly tribes of the Nile, and
+of the lakes of Northern Egypt, were swimming about as well as the
+Muraena and other fish of Italian breed.  Alexandrian crabs and the
+mussels, oysters, and cray-fish of Canopus and Klysma were kept alive in
+buckets or jars.  The smoked meats of Mendes and the neighborhood of Lake
+Moeris hung on metal pegs, and in a covered but well-aired room,
+sheltered from the sun lay freshly-imported fish from the Mediterranean
+and Red Sea.  Every guest at the 'Olympian table' was allowed here to
+select the meat, fruit, asparagus, fish, or pasty which he desired to
+have cooked for him.  The host, Lykortas, pointed out to Hadrian an old
+gentleman who was busy in the court that was so prettily decorated with
+still-life, engaged in choosing the raw materials of a banquet he wished
+to give some friends in the evening of this very day.
+
+"It is all very nice and extremely good," said Hadrian, "but the gnats
+and flies which are attracted by all those good things are unendurable,
+and the strong smell of food spoils my appetite."
+
+"It is better in the side-rooms," said the host.  "In the one kept for
+you the company is now preparing to depart.  In behind here the sophists
+Demetrius and Pancrates are entertaining a few great men from Rome,
+rhetoricians or philosophers or something of the kind.  Now they are
+bringing in the fine lamps and they have been sitting and talking at that
+table ever since breakfast.  There come the guests out of the side room.
+Will you take it?"
+
+"Yes," said Hadrian.  "And when a tall young man comes to ask for the
+architect Claudius Venato, from Rome, bring him in to me."
+
+"An architect then, and not a sophist or a rhetorician," said mine host,
+looking keenly at the Emperor.
+
+"Silenus,--a philosopher!"
+
+"Oh the two vociferous friends there go about even on other days naked
+and with ragged cloaks thrown over their lean shoulders.  To-day they are
+feeding at the expense of rich Josephus."
+
+"Josephus! he must be a Jew and yet he is making a large hole in the
+ham."
+
+"There would be more swine in Cyrene if there were no Jews; they are
+Greeks like ourselves, and eat everything that is good."
+
+Hadrian went into the vacant room, lay down on a couch that stood by the
+wall, and urged the slaves who were busied in removing the dishes and
+vessels used by his predecessors, and which were swarming with flies.  As
+soon as he was alone he listened to the conversation which was being
+carried on between Favorinus, Florus, and their Greek guests.  He knew
+the two first very well, and not a word of what they were saying escaped
+his keen ear.
+
+Favorinus was praising the Alexandrians in a loud voice, but in flowing
+and elegantly-accented Greek.  He was a native of Arelas--[Arles]--in
+Gaul, but no Hellene of them all could pour forth a purer flow of the
+language of Demosthenes than he.  The self-reliant, keen, and vivacious
+natives of the African metropolis were far more to his taste than the
+Athenians; these dwelt only in, and for, the past; the Alexandrians
+rejoiced in the present.  Here an independent spirit still survived,
+while on the shores of the Ilissus there were none but servile souls who
+made a merchandise of learning, as the Alexandrians did of the products
+of Africa and the treasures of India.  Once when he had fallen into
+disgrace with Hadrian, the Athenians had thrown down his statue, and the
+favor or disfavor of the powerful weighed with him more than intellectual
+greatness, valuable labors, and true merit.
+
+Florus agreed with Favorinus on the whole, and declared that Rome must be
+freed from the intellectual influence of Athens; but Favorinus did not
+admit this; he opined that it was very difficult for any one who had left
+youth behind him, to learn anything new, thus referring, with light
+irony, to the famous work in which Florus had attempted to divide the
+history of Rome into four periods, corresponding to the ages of man, but
+had left out old age, and had treated only of childhood, youth, and
+manhood.  Favorinus reproached him with overestimating the versatility of
+the Roman genius, like his friend Fronto, and underrating the Hellenic
+intellect.
+
+Florus answered the Gaulish orator in a deep voice, and with such a grand
+flow of words, that the listening Emperor would have enjoyed expressing
+his approbation, and could not help considering the question as to how
+many cups of wine his usually placid fellow-countryman might have taken
+since breakfast to be so excited.  When Floras tried to prove that under
+Hadrian's rule Rome had risen to the highest stage of its manhood, his
+friend, Demetrius, of Alexandria, interrupted him, and begged him to tell
+him something about the Emperor's person.  Florus willingly acceded to
+this request, and sketched a brilliant picture of the administrative
+talent, the learning, and the capability of the Emperor.
+
+"There is only one thing," he cried eagerly, "that I cannot approve of;
+he is too little at Rome, which is now the core and centre of the world.
+He must need see every thing for himself, and he is always wandering
+restlessly through the provinces.  I should not care to change with him!"
+
+"You have expressed the same ideas in verse," said Favorinus.
+
+"Oh!  a jest at supper-time.  So long as I am in Alexandria and waiting
+on Caesar I can make myself very comfortable every day at the 'Olympian
+table' of this admirable cook."
+
+"But how runs your poem?"  asked Pancrates.
+
+"I have forgotten it, and it deserved no better fate," replied Florus.
+
+"But I," laughed the Gaul, "I remember the beginning.  The first lines,
+I think, ran thus:
+
+                  "'Let others envy Caesar's lot;
+                    To wander through Britannia's dales
+                    And be snowed up in Scythian vales
+                    Is Caesar's taste--I'd rather not?'"
+
+As he heard these words Hadrian struck his fist into the palm of his left
+hand, and while the feasters were hazarding guesses as to why he was so
+long in coming to Alexandria, he took out the folding tablet he was in
+the habit of carrying in his money-bag, and hastily wrote the following
+lines on the wax face of it:
+
+                   'Let others envy Florus' lot;
+                    To wander through the shops for drink,
+                    Or, into foolish dreaming sink
+                    In a cook-shop, where sticky flies
+                    Buzz round him till he shuts his eyes
+                    Is Florus' taste--I'd rather not?'
+
+     [From verses by Hadrian and Florus, preserved in Spartianus.]
+
+Hardly had he ended the lines, muttering them to himself with much relish
+as he wrote, when the waiter showed in Pollux.  The sculptor had failed
+to find Antinous, and suggested that the young man had probably gone
+home; he also begged that he might not be detained long at supper, for
+he had met his master Papias, who had been extremely annoyed by his long
+absence.  Hadrian was no longer satisfied with the artist's society, for
+the conversation in the next room was to him far more attractive than
+that of the worthy young fellow.  He himself was anxious to quit the meal
+soon, for he felt restless and uneasy.  Antinous could no doubt easily
+find his way to Lochias, but recollections of the evil omens he had
+observed in the heavens last night flitted across his soul like bats
+through a festal hall, marring the pleasure on which he again tried to
+concentrate it, in order to enjoy his hours of liberty.
+
+Even Pollux was not so light-hearted as before.  His long walk had made
+him hungry, and he addressed himself so vigorously to the excellent
+dishes which rapidly followed each other by his entertainer's orders,
+and emptied the cup with such unfailing diligence, that the Emperor was
+astonished: but the more he had to think about, the less did he talk.
+
+Pollux, to be sure, had had his answer ready for his master, and without
+considering how easy it would have been to part from him in kindness, he
+had shortly and roundly quitted his service.  Now indeed he stood on his
+own feet, and he was longing to tell Arsinoe and his parents of what he
+had done.
+
+During the course of the meal his mother's advice recurred to his mind:
+to do his best to win the favor and good will of the architect whose
+guest he was; but he set it aside, for he was accustomed to owe all he
+gained to his own exertions, and though he still keenly felt in Hadrian
+the superiority of a powerful mind, their expedition through the city had
+not brought him any nearer to the Roman.  Some insurmountable barrier
+stood fixed between himself and this restless, inquisitive man, who
+required so many answers that no one else had time to ask a question, and
+who when he was silent looked so absorbed and unapproachable that no one
+would have ventured to disturb him.  The bold young artist had, however,
+tried now and again to break through the fence, but each time, he had at
+once been seized with a feeling, of which he could not rid himself, that
+he had done something awkward and unbecoming.  He felt in his intercourse
+with the architect as a noble dog might feel that sported with a lion,
+and such sport could come to no good.  Thus, for various reasons, host
+and guest were well content when the last dish was removed.  Before
+Pollux left the room the Emperor gave him the tablets with the verses and
+begged him, with a meaning smile, to desire the gate-keeper at the
+Caesareum to give them to Annaeus Florus the Roman.  He once more
+urgently charged the sculptor to look about for his young friend and,
+if he should find him at Lochias, to tell him that he, Claudius Venator,
+would return home ere long.  Then the artist went his way.
+
+Hadrian still sat a long time listening to the talk close by; but after
+waiting for above an hour to hear some fresh mention made of himself, he
+paid his reckoning and went out into the Canopic way, now brilliantly
+lighted.  There he mingled with the revellers, and walked slowly onward,
+seeking suspiciously and anxiously for his vanished favorite.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Antinous, searching for his master, had wandered about in the crowd.
+Whenever he saw any figures of exceptional stature he followed them, but
+each time only to discover that he had entered on a false track.  Long
+and persistent effort was not in his nature, so as soon as he began to
+get tired, he gave up the search and sat down again on a stone bench in
+the garden of the Paneum.
+
+Two cynic philosophers, with unkempt hair, tangled beards, and ragged
+cloaks flung over their shivering bodies, sat down by him and fell into
+loud and contemptuous abuse of the deference shown, 'in these days,' to
+external things and vulgar joys, and of the wretched sensualists who
+regarded pleasure and splendor, rather than virtue, as the aim and end of
+existence.  In order to be heard by the by-standers they spoke in loud
+tones, and the elder of the two, flourished his knotted stick as
+viciously, as though he had to defend himself against an attack.
+Antinous felt much disgusted by the hideous appearance, the coarse
+manners, and shrill voices of these persons, and when he rose--as the
+cynics' diatribe seemed especially directed against him--they scoffed
+at him as he went, mocking at his costume and his oiled and perfumed
+hair.  The Bithynian made no reply to this abuse.  It was odious to him,
+but he thought it might perhaps have amused Caesar.
+
+He wandered on without thinking; the street in which he presently found
+himself must no doubt lead to the sea, and if he could once find himself
+on the shore he could not fail to make his way to Lochias.  By the time
+it was growing dark he was once more standing outside the little gate-
+house, and there he learnt from Doris that the Roman and her son had not
+yet returned.
+
+What was he to do alone in the vast empty palace?  Were not the very
+slaves free to-day?  Why should not he too for once enjoy life
+independently and in his own way?  Full of the pleasant sense of being
+his own master and at liberty to walk in a road of his own choosing, he
+went onwards, and when he presently passed by the stall of a flower-
+seller, he began once more to think eagerly of Selene and the nosegay,
+which must long since have reached her hands.
+
+He had heard from Pollux in the morning that the steward's daughter was
+being tended by Christians in a little house not far from the sea-shore;
+indeed the sculptor himself had been quite excited as he told Antinous
+that he himself had peeped into the lighted room and had seen her.  'A
+glorious creature' he had called her, and had said that she had never
+looked more beautiful than in a recumbent attitude on her bed.
+
+Antinous recalled all this and determined to venture on an attempt to see
+again the maiden whose image filled his heart and brain.
+
+It was now dark and the same light which had allowed of the sculptor's
+seeing Selene's features might this evening reveal them to him also.
+Full of passion and excitement, he got into the first litter he met with.
+The swarthy bearers were far too slow for his longing, and more than once
+he flung to them as much money as they were wont to earn in a week, to
+urge them to a brisker pace.  At last he reached his destination; but
+seeing that several men and women robed in white, were going into the
+garden, he desired the bearers to carry him farther.  Close to a dark
+narrow lane which bounded the widow's garden-plot on the east and led
+directly to the sea, he desired them to stop, got out of the litter and
+bid the slaves wait for him.  At the garden door he still found two men
+dressed in white, and one of the cynic philosophers who had sat by him on
+the bench near the Paneum.  He paced impatiently up and clown, waiting
+till these people should have disappeared, and thus passing again and
+again under the light of the torches that were stuck up by the gate.
+
+The dry cynic's prominent eyes were everywhere at once, and as soon as he
+perceived the peripatetic Bithynian he flung up his arm, exclaiming, as
+he pointed to him with a long, lean, stiff forefinger--half to the
+Christians with whom he had been talking and half to the lad himself:
+
+"What does he want.  That fop! that over-dressed minion!  I know the
+fellow; with his smooth face and the silver quiver on his shoulder he
+believes he is Eros in person.  Be off with you, you house-rat.  The
+women and girls in here know how to protect themselves against the sort
+who parade the streets in rose-colored draperies.  Take yourself off, or
+you will make acquaintance with the noble Paulina's slaves and clogs.
+Hi! gate-keeper, here! keep an eye on this fellow."
+
+Antinous made no answer, but slowly went back to his litter.
+
+"To-morrow perhaps, if I cannot manage it tonight," he thought to himself
+as be went; and he never thought of any other means of attaining his end,
+much as he longed for it.  A hindrance that came in his way ceased to be
+a hindrance as soon as he had left it behind him, and after this
+reflection he acted on this occasion as on many former ones.  The litter
+was no longer standing where he had left it; the bearers had carried it
+into the lane leading to the sea, for the only little abode which stood
+on the eastern side of it belonged to a fisherman whose wife sold thin
+potations of Pelusium beer.
+
+Antinous went down the green alley overarched with boughs of fig, to call
+the negroes who were sitting in the dull light of a smoky oil-lamp.  Here
+it was dark, but at the end of the alley the sea shone and sparkled in
+the moonlight; the splashing of the waves tempted him onwards and he
+loitered clown to the stone-bound shore.  There he spied a boat dancing
+on the water between two piles and it came into his head that it might be
+possible to see the house where Selene was sleeping, from the sea.
+
+He undid the rope which secured the boat without any difficulty; he
+seated himself in it, laid aside the quiver and bow, pushed off with one
+of the oars that lay at the bottom of the boat and pulled with steady
+strokes towards the long path of light where the moon touched the crest
+of each dancing wavelet with unresting tremulous flecks of silver.
+
+There lay the widow's garden.  In that small white house must the fair
+pale Selene be sleeping, but though he rowed hither and thither,
+backwards and forwards, he could not succeed in discovering the window of
+which Pollux had spoken.  Might it not be possible to find a spot where
+he could disembark and then make his way into the garden?  He could see
+two little boats, but they lay in a narrow walled canal and this was
+closed by an iron railing.  Beyond, was a, terrace projecting into the
+sea, and surrounded by an elegant balustrade of little columns, but it
+rose straight out of the sea on smooth high walls.  But there--what was
+that gleaming under the two palm-trees which, springing from the same
+root, had grown together tall and slender--was not that a flight of
+marble steps leading down to the sea?
+
+Antinous dipped his right oar in the waves with a practised hand to alter
+the head of the boat and was in the act of pulling his hand up to make
+his stroke against the pressure of the waves--but he did not complete the
+movement, nay he counteracted the stroke by a dexterous reverse action; a
+strange vision arrested his attention.  On the terrace, which lay full in
+the bright moonlight, there appeared a white-robed figure with long
+floating hair.
+
+How strangely it moved!  It went now to one side and now to the other,
+then again it stood still and clasped its head in its hands.  Antinous
+shuddered, he could not help thinking of the Daimons of which Hadrian so
+often spoke.  They were said to be of half-divine and half-human nature,
+and sometimes appeared in the guise of mortals.
+
+Or was Selene dead and was the white figure her wandering shade?
+Antinous clutched the handles of the oars, now merely floating on the
+water, and bending forward gazed fixedly and with bated breath at the
+mysterious being which had now reached the balustrade of the terrace,
+now--he saw quite plainly--covered its face with both hands, leaned far
+over the parapet, and now as a star falls through the sky on a clear
+night, as a fruit drops from the tree in autumn, the white form of the
+girl dropped from the terrace.  A loud cry of anguish broke the silence
+of the night which veiled the world, and almost at the same instant the
+water splashed and gurgled up, and the moonbeams, cold and bright as
+ever, were mirrored in the thousand drops that flew up from its surface.
+
+Was this Antinous, the indolent dreamer, who so promptly plunged his oars
+in the water, pulled a powerful stroke, and then, when in a few seconds
+after her fall, the form of the drowning girl came to the surface again
+quite close to the boat, flung aside the oar that was in his way?
+Leaning far over the edge of the boat he seized the floating garment of
+the drowning creature--it was a woman, no Daimon nor shade--and drew her
+towards him.  He succeeded in raising her high out of the waves, but when
+he tried to pull her fairly out of her watery bed, the weight, all on one
+side of the boat, was too great; it turned over and Antinous was in the
+sea.
+
+The Bithyman was a good swimmer.  Before the white form could sink a
+second time he had caught at it once more with his right hand and taking
+care that her head should not again touch the surface of the water, he
+swam with his left arm and legs towards the spot where he remembered he
+had seen the flight of steps.  As soon as his feet felt the ground he
+lifted the girl in both arms and a groan of relief broke from his lips as
+he saw the marble steps close below him.  He went up them without
+hesitation, and then, with a swift elastic step, carried his dripping and
+senseless burden to the terrace where he had observed that there were
+benches.  The wide floor of the sea-terrace, paved with smooth flags of
+marble, was brightly lighted by the broad moonshine, and the whiteness of
+the stone reflected and seemed to increase the light.  There stood the
+benches which Antinous had seen from afar.
+
+He laid his burden on the first he came to, and a thrill of thankful joy
+warmed his shivering body when the rescued woman uttered a low cry of
+pain which told him that he had not toiled in vain.  He gently slipped
+his arm between the hard elbow of the marble seat and her head, to give
+it a somewhat softer resting-place.  Her abundant hair fell in clammy
+tresses, covering her face like a thick but fine veil; he parted it to
+the right and left and then--then he sank on his knees by her side as if
+a sudden bolt had fallen from the blue sky above them; for the features
+were hers, Selene's, and the pale girl before whom he was kneeling was
+she herself, the woman he loved.
+
+Almost beside himself and trembling in every limb, he drew her closer to
+him and put his ear against her mouth to listen whether he had not
+deceived himself, whether she had not indeed fallen a victim to the waves
+or whether some warm breath were passing the portals of her lips.
+
+Yes she breathed!  she was alive!  Full of thankful ecstasy he pressed
+his cheek to hers.  Oh! how cold she was, icy, cold as death!
+
+The torch of life was flickering, but he would not--could not--must not
+let it die out: and with all the care, rapidity and decision of the most
+capable man, he once more raised her, lifted her in both arms as if she
+were a child, and carried her straight to the house whose white walls he
+could see gleaming among the shrubs behind the terrace.  The little lamp
+was still burning in dame Hannah's room, which Selene had so lately
+quitted; in front of the window through which the dim light came to
+mingle with the moonbeams, lay the flowers whose perfume had so troubled
+the suffering girl, and with them Hannah's clay jar, all still strewn on
+the ground.
+
+Was this nosegay his gift?  Very likely.
+
+But the lamp-lighted room into which he now looked could be none other
+than the sick-room, which he recognized from the sculptor's account.  The
+housedoor was open and even that of the room in which he had seen the bed
+was unfastened; he pushed it open with his foot, entered the room, and
+laid Selene on the vacant couch.
+
+There she lay as if dead; and as he looked at her immovable features,
+hallowed to solemnity by sorrow and suffering, his heart was touched with
+an ineffable solicitude, sympathy and pity; and, as a brother might bend
+over a sleeping sister, he bent over Selene and kissed her forehead.  She
+moved, opened her eyes, gazed into his face--but her glance was so full
+of horror, so vague, glassy and bewildered, that he drew back with a
+shudder, and with hands uplifted could only stammer out: "Oh! Selene,
+Selene! do you not know me?"  and as he spoke he looked anxiously in the
+face of the rescued girl; but she seemed not to hear him and nothing
+moved but her eyes which slowly followed his every movement.
+
+"Selene!" he cried again, and seizing her inanimate hand which hung down,
+he pressed it passionately to his lips.
+
+Then she gave a loud cry, a violent shiver shook her in every limb, she
+turned aside with sighs and groans, and at the same instant the door was
+opened, the little deformed girl entered the room and gave a shrill
+scream of terror as she saw Antinous standing by the side of her friend.
+
+The lad himself started and, like a thief who has been caught in the act,
+he fled out into the night, through the garden, and as far as the gate
+which led into the street without being stopped by any one.  Here the
+gate-keeper met him, but he threw him aside with a powerful fling, and
+while the old man--who had grown gray in his office--caught hold of his
+wet chiton he tore the door open and ran on, dragging his pursuer with
+him for some paces.  Then he flew down the street with long steps as if
+he were racing in the Gymnasium, and soon he felt that his pursuer, in
+whose hand he had left a piece of his garment, had given up the chase.
+
+The gate-keeper's outcry had mingled with the pious hymns of the
+assembled Christians in Paulina's villa, and some of them had hurried out
+to help capture the disturber of the peace.  But the young Bithynian was
+swifter than they and might consider himself perfectly safe when once he
+had succeeded in mixing with a festal procession.  Half-willingly and
+half-perforce, he followed the drunken throng which was making its way
+from the heart of the city towards the lake, where, on a lonely spot on
+the shore to the east of Nikropolis, they were to celebrate certain
+nocturnal mysteries.  The goal of the singing, shouting, howling mob with
+whom Antinous was carried along, was between Alexandria and Canopus and
+far enough from Lochias; thus it fell out that it was long past midnight
+when Hadrian's favorite, dirty, out of breath, and his clothes torn, at
+last appeared in the presence of his master.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Hadrian had expected Antinous many hours since, and the impatience and
+vexation which had been long seething in him were reflected plainly
+enough in his sternly-bent brow and the threatening fire of his eye.
+
+"Where have you been?"  he imperiously asked.
+
+"I could not find you, so I took a boat and went out on the lake."
+
+"That is false."
+
+Antinous did not answer, but merely shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Alone?"  asked the Emperor more gently.  "Alone."
+
+"And for what purpose?"
+
+"I was gazing at the stars."
+
+"You!"
+
+"And may I not, for once, tread in your footsteps?"
+
+"Why not indeed?  The lights of heaven shine for the foolish as well as
+for the wise.  Even asses must be born under a good or an evil star.  One
+donkey serves a hungry grammarian and feeds on used-up papyrus, while
+another enters the service of Caesar and is fattened up, and finds time
+to go star-gazing at night.  What a state you are in."
+
+"The boat upset and I fell into the water."  Hadrian was startled, and
+observing his favorite's tangled hair in which the night wind had dried
+the salt water, and his torn chiton, he anxiously exclaimed:
+
+"Go this instant and let Mastor dry you and anoint you.  He too came back
+with a bruised hand and red eyes.  Everything is upside clown this
+accursed evening.  You look like a slave that has been hunted by clogs.
+Drink a few cups of wine and then lie down."
+
+"I obey your orders, great Caesar."
+
+"So formal?  The donkey simile vexed you."
+
+"You used always to have a kind word for me."
+
+"Yes, yes, and I shall have them again, I shall have them again.  Only
+not to-night--go to bed."
+
+Antinous left him, but the Emperor paced his room, up and down with long
+steps, his arms crossed over his breast and his eyes fixed on the ground.
+His superstitious soul had been deeply disturbed by a series of evil
+signs which he had not only seen the previous night in the sky, but had
+also met on his way to Lochias, and which seemed to be beginning to be
+fulfilled already.
+
+He had left the eating house in an evil humor, the bad omens made him
+anxious, and though on his arrival at home he had done one or two things
+which he already regretted, this had certainly not been due to any
+adverse Daimons but to the brooding gloom of his clouded mind.  Eternal
+circumstances, it is true, had led to his being witness to an attack made
+by the mob on the house of a wealthy Israelite, and it was attributable
+to a vexatious accident that at this juncture, he should have met Verus,
+who had observed and recognized him.  Yes, the Spirits of evil were
+abroad this day, but his subsequent experiences and deeds upon reaching
+Lochias, would certainly not have taken place on any more fortunate day,
+or, to be more exact, if he had been in a calmer frame of mind; he
+himself alone was in fault, he alone, and no spiteful accident, nor
+malicious and tricky Daimon.  Hadrian, to be sure, attributed to these
+sprites all that he had done, and so considered it irremediable; an
+excellent way, no doubt, of exonerating oneself from a burdensome duty,
+or from repairing some injustice, but conscience is a register in which a
+mysterious hand inexorably enters every one of our deeds, and in which
+all that we do is ruthlessly called by its true name.  We often succeed,
+it is true, in effacing the record for a longer or a shorter period, but
+often, again, the letters on the page shine with an uncanny light, and
+force the inward eye to see them and to heed them.
+
+On this particular night Hadrian felt himself compelled to read the
+catalogue of his actions and among them he found many a sanguinary crime,
+many a petty action unworthy of a far meaner soul than he; still the
+record commemorated many duties strictly fulfilled, much honest work, an
+unceasing struggle towards high aims, and an unwearied effort to feel his
+way intellectually, to the most remote and exalted limits possible to the
+human mind and comprehension.
+
+In this hour Hadrian thought of none but his evil deeds, and vowed to the
+gods--whom he mocked at with his philosophical friends, and to whom he
+nevertheless addressed himself whenever he felt the insufficiency of his
+own strength and means--to build a temple here, to offer a sacrifice
+there, in order to expiate old crimes and divert their malice.  He felt
+like a great man must who is threatened with the disfavor of his
+superiors, and who hopes to propitiate them with gifts.  The haughty
+Roman quailed at the thought of unknown dangers, but he was far from
+feeling the wholesome pangs of repentance.
+
+Hardly an hour since he had forgotten himself and had disgracefully
+abused his power over a weaker creature, and now he was vexed at having
+behaved so and not otherwise; but it never entered his head to humiliate
+his pride or, by offering some compensation to the offended party,
+tacitly to confess the injustice he had committed.  Often he deeply felt
+his human weakness, but he was quite capable of believing in the
+sacredness of his imperial person, and this he always found most easy
+when he had trodden under foot some one who had been rash enough to
+insult him, or not to acknowledge his superiority.  And was it not on the
+contemners of the gods that their heaviest punishments fell?
+
+To-day the terrestrial Jupiter had again crushed into the earth with his
+thunderbolts, an overbold mortal, and this time the son of the worthy
+gate-keeper was his victim.  The sculptor certainly had been so unlucky
+as to touch Hadrian in his most sensitive spot, but a cordially
+benevolent feeling is not easily converted into a relentless opposition
+if we are not ourselves--as was the case with the Emperor--accustomed to
+jump from one mood to the other, are not conscious--as he was--of having
+it in our power directly to express our good-will or our aversion in
+action.
+
+The sculptor's capacities had commanded the Emperor's esteem, his
+fresh and independent nature had at first suited and attracted him,
+but even during the walk together through the streets, the young man's
+uncompromising manner of treating him as an equal had become unpleasing
+to him.  In his workshop he saw in Pollux only the artist, and delighted
+in his original and dashing powers; but out of it, and among men of a
+commoner stamp, from whom he was accustomed to meet with deference, the
+young man's speech and demeanor seemed unbecoming, bold, and hard to be
+endured.  In the eating-house the huge eater and drinker, who laughingly
+pressed him to do his part, so as not to make a present to the landlord,
+had filled Hadrian with repulsion.  And after this, when Hadrian had
+returned to Lochias, out of humor and rendered apprehensive by evil
+omens, and even then had not found his favorite, he impatiently paced up
+and down the hall of the Muses and would not deign to offer a greeting to
+the sculptor, who was noisily occupied behind his screens.
+
+Pollux had passed quite as bad an evening as the Emperor.  When, in his
+desire to see Arsinoe once more, he penetrated to the door of the
+steward's apartment, Keraunus had stopped his way, and sent him about his
+business with insulting words.  In the hall of the Muses he had met his
+master, and had had a quarrel with him, for Papias, to whom he repeated
+his notice to quit, had grown angry, and had desired him then and there
+to sort out his own tools, and to return those that belonged to him, his
+master, and for the future to keep himself as far as possible from
+Papias' house, and from the works in progress at Locluas.  On this, hard
+words had passed on both sides, and when Papias had left the palace and
+Pollux went to seek Pontius the architect, in order to discuss his future
+plans with him, he learnt that he too had quitted Lochias a short time
+before, and would not return till the following morning.
+
+After brief reflection he determined to obey the orders of Papias and
+to pack his own tools together.  Without paying any heed to Hadrian's
+presence he began to toss some of the hammers, chisels, and wooden
+modelling tools into one box, and others into another, doing it as
+recklessly as though he were minded to punish the unconscious tools as
+adverse creatures who had turned against him.
+
+At last his eye fell on Hadrian's bust of Balbilla.  The hideous
+caricature at which he had laughed only yesterday, made him angry now,
+and after gazing at it thoughtfully for a few minutes his blood boiled up
+furiously, he hastily pulled a lath out of the partition and struck at
+the monstrosity with such fury that the dry clay flew in pieces, and the
+fragments were strewed far and wide about the workshop.  The wild noise
+behind the sculptor's screen made the Emperor pause in his walk to see
+what the artist was doing; he looked on at the work of destruction,
+unobserved by Pollux, and as he looked the blood mounted to his head; he
+knit his brows in anger, a blue vein in his forehead swelled and stood
+out, and ominous lines appeared above his brow.  The great master of
+state-craft could more easily have borne to hear himself condemned as a
+ruler than to see his work of art despised.  A man who is sure of having
+done some thing great can smile at blame, but he, who is not confident in
+himself has reason to dread it, and is easily drawn into hating the
+critic who utters it.  Hadrian was trembling with fury, he doubled his
+first as he lifted it in Pollux's face, and going close up to him asked
+in a threatening tone:
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+The sculptor glanced round at the Emperor and answered, raising his stick
+for another blow:
+
+"I am demolishing this caricature for it enrages me."
+
+"Come here," shouted Hadrian, and clutching the girdle which confined the
+artist's chiton, in his strong sinewy hand, he dragged the startled
+sculptor in front of his Urania wrenched the lath out of his hand, struck
+the bust of the scarcely-finished statue off the body, exclaiming as he
+did so, in a voice that mimicked Pollux:
+
+"I am demolishing this bungler's work for it enrages me!"
+
+The artist's arms fell by his side; astonished and infuriated he stared
+at the destroyer of his handiwork, and cried out:
+
+"Madman! this is enough.  One blow more and you will feel the weight of
+my fists."
+
+Hadrian laughed aloud, a cold hard laugh, flung the lath at Pollux's feet
+and said:
+
+"Judgment against judgment--it is only fair."
+
+"Fair?"  shrieked Pollux, beside himself.
+
+"Your wretched rubbish, which my squinting apprentice could have done as
+well as you, and this figure born in a moment of inspiration!  Shame upon
+you!  Once more, if you touch the Urania again I warn you, you shall
+learn--"
+
+"Well, what?"
+
+"That in Alexandria grey hairs are only respected so long as they deserve
+it."
+
+Hadrian folded his arms, stepped quite close up to Pollux, and said:
+
+"Gently, fellow, if you value your life."
+
+Pollux stepped back before the imposing personage that stood before him,
+and, as it were scales, fell from his eyes.  The marble statue of the
+Emperor in the Caesareum represented the sovereign in this same attitude.
+The architect, Claudius Venator, was none other than Hadrian.
+
+The young artist turned pale and said with bowed head, and in low voice
+as he turned to go:
+
+"Right is always on the side of the strongest.  Let me go.  I am nothing
+but a poor artist--you are some thing very different.  I know you now;
+you are Caesar."
+
+"I am Caesar," snarled Hadrian, "and if you think more of yourself as an
+artist than of me, I will show you which of us two is the sparrow, and
+which the eagle."
+
+"You have the power to destroy, and I only desire--"
+
+"The only person here who has a right to desire is myself," cried the
+Emperor, "and I desire that you shall never enter this palace again, nor
+ever come within sight of me so long as I remain here.  What to do with
+your kith and kin I will consider.  Not another word!  Away with you, I
+say, and thank the gods that I judge the misdeed of a miserable boy more
+mercifully than you dared to do in judging the work of a greater man than
+yourself, though you knew that he had done it in an idle hour with a few
+hasty touches.  Be off, fellow; my slaves will finish destroying your
+image there, for it deserves no better fate, and because--what was it you
+said just now?  I remember--and because it enrages me."
+
+A bitter laugh rang after the lad as he quitted the hall.  At the
+entrance, which was perfectly dark, he found his master, Papias, who had
+not missed a word of what had passed between him and the Emperor.  As
+Pollux went into his mother's house he cried out:
+
+"Oh mother, mother, what a morning, and what an evening.  Happiness is
+only the threshold to misery."
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Happiness is only the threshold to misery
+When a friend refuses to share in joys
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR, Part 2.
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 7.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+While Pollux and his mother, who was much grieved, waited for Euphorion's
+return, and while Papias was ingratiating himself with the Emperor by
+pretending still to believe that Hadrian was nothing more than Claudius
+Venator, the architect, Aurelius Verus, nicknamed by the Alexandrians,
+"the sham Eros" had lived through strange experiences.
+
+In the afternoon he had visited the Empress, in the hope of persuading
+her to look on at the gay doings of the people, even if incognito; but
+Sabina was out of spirits, declared herself unwell, and was quite sure
+that the noise of the rabble would be the death of her.  Having, as she
+said, so vivacious a reporter as Verus, she might spare herself from
+exposing her own person to the dust and smell of the town, and the uproar
+of men.  As soon as Lucilla begged her husband to remember his rank and
+not to mingle with the excited multitude, at any rate after dark, the
+Empress strictly enjoined him to see with his own eyes everything that
+could be worth notice in the festival, and more particularly to give
+attention to everything that was peculiar to Alexandria and not to be
+seen in Rome.
+
+After sunset Verus had first gone to visit the veterans of the Twelfth
+Legion who had been in the field with him against the Numidians, and to
+whom he gave a dinner at an eating-house, as being his old fellow-
+soldiers.  For above an hour he sat drinking with the brave old fellows;
+then, quitting them, he went to look at the Canopic way by night, as it
+was but a few paces thither from the scene of his hospitality.  It was
+brilliantly lighted with tapers, torches, and lamps, and the large houses
+behind the colonnades were gaudy with rich hangings; only the handsomest
+and stateliest of them all had no kind of decoration.  This was the abode
+of the Jew Apollodorus.
+
+In former years the finest hangings had decorated his windows, which had
+been as gay with flowers and lamps as those of the other Israelites who
+dwelt in the Canopic way, and who were wont to keep the festival in
+common with their heathen fellow-citizens as jovially as though they were
+no less zealous to do homage to Dionysus.  Apollodorus had his own
+reasons for keeping aloof on this occasion from all that was connected
+with the holiday doings of the heathen.  Without dreaming that his
+withdrawal could involve him in any danger, he was quietly sitting in his
+house, which was so splendidly furnished as to seem fitted for some
+princely Greek rather than for a Hebrew.  This was especially the case
+with the men's living-room, in which Apollodorus sat, for the pictures on
+the walls and pavement of this beautiful hall--of which the roof, which
+was half open, was supported on columns of the finest porphyry--
+represented the loves of Eros and Psyche; while between the pillars stood
+busts of the greatest heathen philosophers, and in the background a fine
+statue of Plato was conspicuous.  Among all the Greeks and Romans there
+was the portrait of only one Jew, and this was that of Philo, whose
+intellectual and delicate features greatly resembled those of the most
+illustrious of his Greek companions.
+
+In this splendid room, lighted by silver lamps, there was no lack of easy
+couches, and on one of these Apollodorus was reclining; a fine-looking
+man of fifty, with his mild but shrewd eyes fixed on a tall and aged
+fellow-Israelite who was pacing up and down in front of him and talking
+eagerly; the old man's hands too were never still, now he used them in
+eager gesture, and again stroked his long white beard.  On an easy seat
+opposite to the master of the house sat a lean young man with pale and
+very regular finely-cut features, black hair and a black beard; he sat
+with his dark glowing eyes fixed on the ground, tracing lines and circles
+on the pavement with the stick he held in his hand, while the excited old
+man, his uncle, urgently addressed Apollodorus in a vehement but fluent
+torrent of words.  Apollodorus, however, shook his head from time to time
+at his speech and frequently met him with a brief contradiction.
+
+It was easy to see that what he was listening to touched him painfully,
+and that the two diametrically different men were fighting a battle which
+could never lead to any satisfactory issue.  For, though they both used
+the Greek tongue and confessed the same religion, all they felt and
+thought was grounded on views, as widely dissimilar as though the two men
+had been born in different spheres.  When two opponents of such different
+calibre meet, there is a great clatter of arms but no bloody wounds are
+dealt and neither rout nor victory can result.
+
+It was on account of this old man and his nephew that Apollodorus had
+forborne to-day to decorate his house, for the Rabbi Gamaliel, who had
+arrived only the day before from Palestine, and had been welcomed by his
+Alexandrian relatives, condemned every form of communion with the
+gentiles, and would undoubtedly have quitted the residence of his host if
+he had ventured to adorn it in honor of the feast-day of the false gods.
+Gamaliel's nephew, Rabbi Ben Jochai, enjoyed a reputation little inferior
+to that of his father, Ben Akiba.  The elder was the greatest sage and
+expounder of the law--the son the most illustrious astronomer and the
+most skilled interpreter of the mystical significance of the position of
+the heavenly bodies, among the Hebrews.
+
+It redounded greatly to the honor of Apollodorus that he should be
+privileged to shelter under his roof the sage Gamaliel and the famous son
+of so great a father, and in his hours of leisure he loved to occupy
+himself with learned subjects, so he had done his utmost to make their
+stay in his house in every way agreeable to them.  He had bought, on
+purpose for them, a kitchen slave, himself a strict Jew and familiar with
+the requirements of the Levitical law as to food, who during their stay
+was to preside over the mysteries of the hearth, instead of the Greek
+cook who usually served him, so that none but clean meat should be
+prepared according to the Jewish ritual.  He had forbidden his grown-up
+sons to invite any of their Greek friends into the house during the visit
+of the illustrious couple or to discuss the festival; they were also
+enjoined to avoid using the names of the gods of the heathen in their
+conversation--but he himself was the first to sin against this
+prohibition.
+
+He, like all the Hebrews of good position in Alexandria, had acquired
+Greek culture, felt and thought in Greek modes, and had remained a Jew
+only in name; for though they still believed in the one God of their
+fathers instead of in a crowd of Olympian deities, the One whom they
+worshipped was no longer the almighty and jealous God of their nation,
+but the all-pervading plasmic and life-giving Spirit with whom the Greeks
+had become familiar through Plato.
+
+Every hour that they had spent in each other's company had widened
+the gulf between Apollodorus and Gamaliel, and the relations of the
+Alexandrian to the sage had become almost intolerable, when he learnt
+that the old man--who was related to himself--had come to Egypt with his
+nephew, in order to demand the daughter of Apollodorus in marriage.  But
+the fair Ismene was not in the least disposed to listen to this grave and
+bigoted suitor.  The home of her people was to her a barbarous land, the
+young astronomer filled her with alarm, and besides all this her heart
+was already engaged; she had given it to the son of Alabarchos, who was
+the Superior of all the Israelites in Egypt, and this young man possessed
+the finest horse in the whole city, with which he had won several races
+in the Hippodrome, and he also had distinguished her above all the
+maidens.  To him, if to any one, would she give her hand, and she had
+explained herself to this effect to her father when he informed her of
+Ben Jochai's suit, and Apollodorus, who had lost his wife several years
+before, had neither the wish nor the power to put any pressure on his
+pretty darling.
+
+To be sure the temporizing nature of the man rendered it very difficult
+to him to give a decided no to his venerable old friend; but it had to be
+done sooner or later, and the present evening seemed to him an
+appropriate moment for this unpleasant task.
+
+He was alone with his guests.  His daughter had gone to the house of a
+friend to look on at the gay doings in the street, his three sons were
+out, all the slaves had leave to enjoy their holiday till midnight;
+nothing was likely to disturb them, and so, after many warm expressions
+of his deep respect, he found courage to confess to them that he could
+not support Ben Jochai's pretensions.  His child, he said, clung too
+fondly to Alexandria to wish to quit it, and his learned young friend
+would be but ill suited with a wife who was accustomed to freer manners
+and habits, and could hardly feel herself at ease in a home where the
+laws of her fathers were strictly observed, and in which therefore no
+kind of freedom of life would be tolerated.
+
+Gamaliel let the Alexandrian speak to the end, but then, as his nephew
+was beginning to argue against their host's hesitancy, the old man
+abruptly interrupted him.  Drawing up his figure, which was a little
+bent, to its full height, and passing his hand among the blue veins and
+fine wrinkles that marked his high forehead, he began:
+
+Our house was decimated in our wars against the Romans, and among the
+daughters of our race Ben Akiba found not one in Palestine who seemed to
+him worthy to marry his son.  But the report of the good fortune of the
+Alexandrian branch of our family had reached Judea, and Ben Akiba thought
+that he would do like our father Abraham, and he sent me, his Eliezer,
+into a strange land to win the daughter of a kinsman to wife for his
+Isaac.  Now, who and what the young man is, and the esteem in which he
+and his father are held by men--"
+
+"I know well," interrupted Apollodorus, "and my house has never been so
+highly honored as in your visit."
+
+"And notwithstanding," continued the Rabbi, "we must return home as we
+came; and indeed this will not only suit you best, but us too, and my
+brother, whose ambassador I am, for after what I have learnt from you
+within this last hour we must in any case withdraw our suit.  Do not
+interrupt me!  Your Ismene scorns to veil her face, and no doubt it is
+a very pretty one to look upon--you have trained her mind like that of
+a man, and so she seeks to go her own way.  That may be all very well for
+a Greek woman, but in the house of Ben Akiba the woman must obey her
+husband's will, as the ship obeys the helm, and have no will of her own;
+her husband's will always coincides with what the law commands, which you
+yourself learnt to obey."
+
+"We recognize its excellence," replied Apolloderus, but even if all the
+laws which Moses received on Sinai were binding on all mortals alike, the
+various ordinances which were wisely laid down for the regulation of the
+social life of our fathers, are not universally applicable for the
+children of our day.  And least of all can we observe them here, where,
+though true to our ancient faith, we live as Greeks among Greeks."
+
+"That I perceive," retorted Gamaliel, "for even the language--that
+clothing of our thoughts--the language of our fathers and of the
+scriptures, you have abandoned for another, sacrificed to another."
+
+"You and your nephew also speak Greek."
+
+"We do it here, because the heathen, because you and yours, no longer
+understand the tongue of Moses and the prophets."
+
+"But wherever the Great Alexander bore his arms Greek is spoken; and
+does not the Greek version of the scriptures, translated by the seventy
+interpreters under the direct guidance of our God, exactly reproduce the
+Hebrew text?"
+
+"And would you exchange the stone engraved by Bryasis that you wear on
+your finger, and showed me yesterday with so much pride, for a wax
+impression of the gem?"
+
+"The language of Plato is not an inferior thing; it is as noble as the
+costliest sapphire."
+
+"But ours came to us from the lips of the Most High.  What would you
+think of a child that, disdaining the tongue Of its father listened only
+to that of its neighbors and made use of an interpreter to be able to
+understand its parents' commands?"
+
+"You are speaking of parents who have long since left their native land.
+The ancestor need not be indignant with his descendants when they use the
+language of their new home, so long as they continue to act in accordance
+with his spirit."
+
+"We must live not merely in accordance with the spirit, but by the words
+of the Most High, for not a syllable proceeds from His lips in vain.  The
+more exalted the spirit of a discourse is, the more important is every
+word and syllable.  One single letter often changes the meaning of whole
+sentences.--What a noise the people outside are making!  The wild tumult
+penetrates even into this room which is so far from the street, and your
+sons take delight in the disorders of the heathen!  You do not even
+withhold them by force from adding to the number of those mad devotees of
+pleasure!"
+
+"I was young once myself, and I think it no sin to share in the universal
+rejoicing."
+
+"Say rather the disgraceful idolatry of the worshippers of Dionysus.  It
+is in name alone that you and your children belong to the elect people of
+God, in your hearts you are heathens!"
+
+"No, Father," exclaimed Apollodorus eagerly.  "The reverse is the case.
+In our hearts we are Jews but we wear the garments of Greeks."
+
+"Why your name is Apollodorus--the gift of Apollo."
+
+"A name chosen only to distinguish me from others.  Who would ever
+enquire into the meaning of a name if it sounds well."
+
+"You, everybody who is not devoid of sense," cried the Rabbi.  "You think
+to yourself 'need Zenodotus or Hermogenes, some Greek you meet at the
+bath or else where, know at once that the wealthy personage, with whom
+he discussed the latest interpretation of the Hellenic myths, is a Jew?'
+And how charming is the man who asks you whether you are not an Athenian,
+for your Greek has such a pure Attic accent!  And what we ourselves like,
+we favor in our children, so we choose names for them too which flatter
+our own vanity."
+
+"By Heracles!"
+
+A faint mocking smile crossed Gamaliel's lips and interrupting the
+Alexandrian he said:
+
+"Is there any particularly worthy man among our Alexandrian fellow-
+believers whose name is Heracles?"
+
+"No one" cried the Alexandrian "ever thinks of the son of Alcmene when he
+asseverates--it only means 'really,--truly--'"
+
+"To be sure you are not fastidiously accurate in the choice of your words
+and names, and where there is so much to be seen and enjoyed as there is
+here one's thoughts are not always connected.  That is intelligible--
+quite, peculiarly intelligible!  And in this city folks are so polite
+that they are fain to wrap truth in some graceful disguise.  May I, a
+barbarian from Judea, be allowed to set it before you, bare of clothing,
+naked and unadorned."
+
+"Speak, I beg you, speak."
+
+"You are Jews; but you had rather not be Jews, and you endure your origin
+as an inevitable evil.  It is only when you feel the mighty hand of the
+Most High that you recognize it and claim your right to be one of His
+chosen people.  In the smooth current of daily life you proudly number
+yourselves with his enemies.  Do not interrupt me, and answer honestly
+what I shall ask you.  In what hour of your life did you feel yourself
+that you owed the deepest gratitude to the God of your fathers?"
+
+"Why should I deny it?--In the hour when my lost wife presented me with
+my first-born son."
+
+"And you called him?"
+
+"You know his name is Benjamin."
+
+"Like the favorite son of our forefather Jacob, for in the hour when you
+thus named him you were honestly yourself, you felt thankful that it had
+been vouchsafed to you to add another link to the chain of your race--you
+were a Jew--you were confident in our God--in your own God.  The birth of
+your second son touched your soul less deeply and you gave him the name
+of Theophilus, and when your third male child was born you had altogether
+ceased to remember the God of your fathers, for he is named after one of
+the heathen gods, Hephaestion.  To put it shortly:  You are Jews when the
+Lord is most gracious to you, or threatens to try you most severely but
+you are heathen whenever your way does not lead you over the high hills
+or through the dark abysses of life.  I cannot change your hearts--but
+the wife of my brother's son, the daughter of Ben Akiba, must be a
+daughter of our people, morning, noon, and night.  I seek a Rebecca for
+my daughter and not an Ismene."
+
+"I did not ask you here," retorted Apollodorus.  "But if you quit us
+to-morrow, you as will be followed by our reverent regard.  Think no
+worse of us because we adapt ourselves, more, perhaps, than is fitting,
+to the ways and ideas of the people among whom we have grown up, and in
+whose midst we have been prosperous, and whose interests are ours.  We
+know how high our faith is beyond theirs.  In our hearts we still are
+Jews; but are we not bound to try to open and to cultivate and to elevate
+our spirits, which God certainly made of stuff no coarser than that of
+other nations, whenever and wherever we may?  And in what school may our
+minds be trained better or on sounder principles than in ours--I mean
+that of the Greek sages?  The knowledge of the Most High--"
+
+"That knowledge," cried the old man, gesticulating vehemently with his
+arms.  "The knowledge of God Most High and all that the most refined
+philosophy can prove, all the sublimest and purest of the thinkers of
+whom you speak can only apprehend by the gravest meditation and heart-
+searching--all this I say has been bestowed as a free gift of God on
+every child of our people.  The treasures which your sages painfully seek
+out we already possess in our scriptures, our law and our moral
+ordinances.  We are the chosen people, the first-born of the Lord, and
+when Messiah shall rise up in our midst--"
+
+"Then," interrupted Apollodorus, "that shall be fulfilled which, like
+Philo, I hope for, we shall be the priests and prophets for all nations.
+Then we shall in truth be a race of priests whose vocation it shall be to
+call down the blessing of the Most High on all mankind."
+
+"For us--for us alone shall the messenger of God appear, to make us the
+kings, and not the slaves of the nations."
+
+Apollodorus looked with surprise into the face of the excited old man,
+and asked with an incredulous smile: "The crucified Nazarene was a false
+Messiah; but when will the true Messiah appear?"
+
+"When will He appear?"  cried the Rabbi.  "When?  Can I tell when?  Only
+one thing I do know; the serpent is already sharpening its fangs to sting
+the heel of Him who shall tread upon it.  Have you heard the name of Bar
+Kochba?"
+
+"Uncle," said Ben Jochai, interrupting the old Rabbi's speech, and rising
+from his seat: "Say nothing you might regret."
+
+"Nay, nay," answered Gamaliel earnestly.  "Our friends here prefer the
+human above the divine, but they are not traitors."  Then turning again
+to Apollodorus he continued:
+
+"The oppressors in Israel have set up idols in our holy places, and
+strive again to force the people to bow down to them; but rather shall
+our back be broken than we will bend the knee or submit!"
+
+"You are meditating another revolt?"  asked the Alexandrian anxiously.
+
+"Answer me--have you heard the name of Bar Kochba?"
+
+"Yes, as that of the foolhardy leader of an armed troup."
+
+"He is a hero--perhaps the Redeemer."
+
+"And it was for him that you charged me to load my next corn vessel to
+Joppa with swords, shields and lance-heads?"
+
+"And are none but the Romans to be permitted to use iron?"
+
+"Nay--but I should hesitate to supply a friend with arms if he proposed
+to use them against an irresistible antagonist, who will inevitably
+annihilate him!"
+
+"The Lord of Hosts is stronger than a thousand legions!"
+
+"Be cautious uncle," said Ben Jochai again in a warning voice.
+
+Gamaliel turned wrathfully upon his nephew, but before he could retort on
+the young man's protest, he started in alarm, for a wild howling and the
+resounding clatter of violent blows on the brazen door of the house rang
+through the hall and shook its walls of marble.
+
+"They are attacking my house," shouted Apollodorus.
+
+"This is the gratitude of those for whom you have broken faith with the
+God of your fathers," said the old man gloomily.  Then throwing up his
+hands and eyes he cried aloud: "Hear me Adonai!  My years are many and I
+am ripe for the grave; but spare these, have mercy upon them."
+
+Ben Jochai followed his uncle's example and raised his arms in
+supplication, while his black eyes sparkled with a lowering glow in his
+pale face.
+
+But their prayers were brief, for the tumult came nearer and nearer;
+Apollodorus wrung his hands, and struck his fist against his forehead;
+his movements were violent--spasmodic.  Terror had entirely robbed him of
+the elegant, measured demeanor which be had acquired among his Greek
+fellow-citizens, and mingling heathen oaths and adjurations with appeals
+to the God of his fathers, he flew first one way and then another.  He
+searched for the key of the subterranean rooms of the house, but he could
+not find it, for it was in the charge of his steward, who, with all the
+other servants, was taking his pleasure in the streets, or over a
+brimming cup in some tavern.
+
+Now the newly-purchased kitchen-slave--the Jew to whom the keeping of the
+Dionysian feast was an abomination--rushed into the room shrieking out,
+as he plucked at his hair and beard:
+
+"The Philistines are upon us!  save us Rabbi, great Rabbi!  Cry for us
+to the Lord, oh! man of God!  They are coming with staves and spears and
+they will tread us down as grass and burn us in this house like the
+locusts cast into the oven."
+
+In deadly terror he threw himself at Gamaliel's feet and clasped them in
+his hands, but Apollodorus exclaimed: "Follow me, follow me up on to the
+roof."
+
+"No, no," howled the slave, "Amalek is making ready the firebrand to
+fling among our tents.  The heathen leap and rage, the flames they are
+flinging will consume us.  Rabbi, Rabbi, call upon the Hosts of the Lord!
+God of the just!  The gate has given way.  Lord!  Lord!  Lord!"
+
+The terrified wretch's teeth chattered and he covered his eyes with his
+hands, groaning and howling.
+
+Ben Jochai had remained perfectly calm, but he was quivering with rage.
+His prayer was ended, and turning to Gamaliel he said in deep tones:
+
+"I knew that this would happen, I warned you.  Our evil star rose when we
+set forth on our wanderings.
+
+"Now we must abide patiently what the Lord hath determined.  He will be
+our Avenger."
+
+"Vengeance is His!"  echoed the old man, and he covered his head with his
+white mantle.
+
+"In the sleeping-room--follow me! we can hide under the beds!"  shrieked
+Apollodorus; he kicked away the slave who was embracing the Rabbi's feet,
+and seized the old man by the shoulder to drag him away with him.  But it
+was too late, for the door of the antechamber had burst open and they
+could hear the clatter of weapons.  "Lost, lost, all is lost!"  cried
+Apollodorus.
+
+"Adonai! help us Adonai!"  murmured the old man and he clung more closely
+to his nephew, who overtopped him by a head and who held him clasped in
+his right arm as if to protect him.
+
+The danger which threatened Apollodorus and his guests was indeed
+imminent, and it had been provoked solely by the indignation of the
+excited mob at seeing the wealthy Israelite's house unadorned for the
+feast.
+
+A thousand times had it occurred that a single word had proved sufficient
+to inflame the hot blood of the Alexandrians to prompt them to break the
+laws and seize the sword.  Bloody frays between the heathen inhabitants
+and the Jews, who were equally numerous in the city, were quite the order
+of the day, and one party was as often to blame as the other for
+disturbing the peace and having recourse to the sword.  Since the
+Israelites had risen in several provinces--particularly in Cyrenaica and
+Cyprus--and had fallen with cruel fury on their fellow-inhabitants who
+were their oppressors, the suspicion and aversion of the Alexandrians of
+other beliefs had grown more intense than in former times.  Besides this,
+the prosperous circumstances of many Jews, and the enormous riches of a
+few, had filled the less wealthy heathen with envy and roused the wish to
+snatch the possessions of those who, it cannot be denied, had not
+unfrequently treated their gods with open contumely.
+
+It happened that just within a few days the disputes regarding the
+festival that was to be held in honor of the Imperial visit had added
+bitterness to the old grudge, and thus it came to pass that Apollodorus'
+unlighted house in the Canopic way had excited the populace to attack
+this palatial residence.  And here again one single speech had sufficed
+to excite their fury.
+
+In the first instance Melampus, the tanner, a drunken swaggerer, who had
+failed in business, had marched up the street at the head of a tipsy
+crew, and pointing with his thyrsus to the dark, undecorated house, had
+shouted:
+
+"Look at that dismal barrack!  All that the Jew used to spend on
+decorating the street, he is saving up now in his money chest!"
+The words were like a spark among tinder and others followed.
+
+"The niggard is robbing our father Dionysus," cried a second citizen,
+and a third, flourishing his torch on high, croaked out:
+
+"Let us get at the drachmae he grudges the god; we can find a use for
+them."  Graukus, the sausage maker, snatched from his neighbor's hand the
+bunch of tow soaked in pitch, and bellowed out, "I advise that we should
+burn the house over their heads!"
+
+"Stay, stay," cried a cobbler who worked for Apollodorus' slaves, as he
+placed himself in the butcher's way.  "Perhaps they are mourning for some
+one in there.  The Jew has always decorated his house on former
+occasions."
+
+"Not they," replied a flute-player in a loud hoarse voice.  "We met
+the old miser's son on the Bruchiom with some riotous comrades and
+misconducted hussies, with his purple mantle fluttering far behind him."
+
+"Let us see which is reddest, the Tyrian stuff or the blaze we shall
+make if we set the old wretch's house on fire," shouted a hungry-looking
+tailor, looking round to see the effects of his wit.
+
+"Ay! let us try!"  rose from one man, and then, from a number of others:
+
+"Let us get into the house!"
+
+"The mean churl shall remember this day!"
+
+"Fetch him out!"
+
+"Drag him into the street!"
+
+Such shouts as these rose here and there from the crowd, which grew
+denser every instant as it was increased by fresh tributaries attracted
+by the riot.
+
+"Drag him out!"  again shrieked an Egyptian slavedriver, and a woman
+shrieked an echo of his words.  She snatched the deer-skin from her
+shoulders, flourished it round and round in the air above her tangled
+black hair, and bellowed furiously:
+
+"Tear him in pieces!"
+
+"In pieces, with your teeth!"  roared a drunken Maenad who, like most of
+the mob that had collected, knew nothing whatever of the popular grudge
+against Apollodorus and his house.
+
+But words had already begun to be followed by deeds.  Feet, fists, and
+cudgels stamped, drubbed, and thumped against the firmly-bolted brazen
+door of the darkened house, and a ship's boy of fourteen sprang on the
+shoulders of a tall black slave and tried to climb the roof of the
+colonnade, and to fling the torch which the sausage-maker handed up to
+him into the open forecourt of the imperilled house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The clatter of arms which Apollodorus and his guests had heard proceeded
+not from the Jew's besiegers, but from some Roman soldiers who brought
+safety to the besieged.
+
+It was Verus, who as he was returning from the supper he had given his
+veterans, with an officer of the Twelfth Legion and his British slaves,
+had crossed the Canopic way and had been impeded in his progress by the
+increasing crowd which stood before Apollodorus' house.  The praetor had
+met the Jew at the prefect's house, and knew him for one of the richest
+and shrewdest men in Alexandria.  This attack on his property roused his
+ire; still he would certainly not have remained an idle spectator even if
+the house in danger, instead of belonging to a man of mark, had been that
+of one of the poorest and meanest, even among the Christians.  Any
+lawless act, any breach of constituted order was odious and intolerable
+to the Roman; he would not have been the man he was if he had looked on
+passively at an attack by the mob, in times of peace, on the life and
+property of a quiet and estimable citizen.  This licentious man of
+pleasure, devoted to every enervating enjoyment, in battle, or whenever
+the need arose, was as prudent as he was brave.
+
+He now first ascertained what purpose the excited crowd had in view, and
+at once considered the ways and means of frustrating their project.  They
+had already begun to batter the Jew's door, and already several lads were
+standing on the roof of the arcades with burning torches in their hands.
+
+Whatever he did must be done on the instant, and happily Verus had the
+gift of thinking and acting promptly.  In a few decisive words he begged
+his companion, Lucius Albinus, to hurry back to his old soldiers and
+bring them to the rescue; then he desired his slaves to force a way for
+him with their powerful arms up to the door of the house.  This feat was
+accomplished in no time, but how great was his astonishment when he found
+the Emperor standing there.
+
+Hadrian stood in the midst of the crowd, and at the instant when Verus
+appeared on the scene had wrenched the torch out of the hand of the
+infuriated tailor.  At the same time, in a thundering voice, he commanded
+the Alexandrians--who were not accustomed to the imperial tone--to desist
+from their mad project.  Whistling, grunting, and words of scorn
+overpowered the mandate of the sovereign, and when Verus and his slaves
+had reached the spot where he stood, a few drunken Egyptians had gone up
+to him and were about to lay hands on the unwelcome counsellor.  The
+praetor stood in their way.  He first whispered to Hadrian that Jupiter
+ought to be ruling the world, and might well leave it to smaller folks to
+rescue a houseful of Jews; and that in a few seconds the soldiers would
+arrive.  Then he shouted to him in a loud voice:
+
+"Away from this Sophist!  Your place is in the Museum, or in the temple
+of Serapis with your books, and not among the misguided and ignorant.
+Am I right Macedonian citizens, or am I wrong?"  A murmur of assent was
+heard which became a roar of laughter when Verus, after Hadrian had got
+away, went on:
+
+"He has a beard like Caesar, and so he behaves as if he wore the purple!
+You did well to let him escape, his wife and children are waiting for him
+over their porridge."
+
+Verus had often been implicated in wild adventure among the populace and
+knew how to deal with them; if he now could only detain them till the
+advent of the soldiers he might consider the game as won.  Hadrian could
+be a hero when it suited him; but here where no laurels were to be won,
+he left to Verus the task of quieting the crowd.
+
+As soon as he was fairly gone Verus desired his slaves to lift him on
+their shoulders; his handsome good-natured face looked down upon the
+crowd from high above them.  He was immediately recognized, and many
+voices called out:
+
+"The crazy Roman! the praetor! the sham Eros!"
+
+"I am he, Macedonian citizens, yes, I am he," answered Verus in a clear
+voice.  "And I will tell you a story."
+
+"Listen, Listen."
+
+"No let us get into the Jew's house."
+
+"Presently--listen a minute to what the sham Eros says."
+
+"I will knock your teeth down your throat boy, if you don't hold your
+tongue."
+
+All the crowd were shouting in wild confusion.
+
+Curiosity, on the one hand, to hear the noble gentleman's speech, and
+the somewhat superficial fury of the mob contended together for a few
+minutes; at last curiosity seemed to be gaining the day, the tumult
+subsided, and the praetor began:
+
+"Once upon a time there was a child who had given to him ten little sheep
+made of cotton, little foolish toys such as the old women sell in the
+market place."
+
+"Get into the Jew's house, we don't want to hear children's stories--"
+
+"Be quiet there!"
+
+"Hush now listen; from the sheep he will go on to the wolves."
+
+"Not wolves--it will be a she-wolf!"  some one shouted in the throng.
+
+"Do not mention the horrid things!" laughed Verus but listen to me.--
+Well, the child set his little sheep up in a row each one close to the
+next.  He was a weaver's son.  Are there any weavers here?  You?  and
+you--ah, and you out there.  If I were not my father's son I should like
+to be the son of an Alexandrian weaver.  You need not laugh!--Well, about
+the sheep.  All the little things were beautifully white but one which
+had nasty black spots, and the little boy could not bear that one.  He
+went to the hearth, pulled out a burning stick and wanted to burn the
+little ugly sheep so as only to have pretty white ones.  The lambkin
+caught fire and just as the flame had begun to burn the wooden skeleton
+of the toy a draught from the window blew the flame towards the other
+little sheep and in a minute they were all burned to ashes.  Then
+thought  the little boy,  'If only I had let the  ugly sheep alone!  What
+can I play with now?' and he began to cry.  But this was not all, for
+while the little rascal was drying his eyes, the flame spread and burnt
+up the loom, the wool, the flax, the woven pieces, the whole house--the
+town in which he was born, and even, I believe, the boy himself!--Now
+worthy friends and Macedonian citizens, reflect a moment.  Any man among
+you who is possessed of any property may read the moral of my fable."
+
+"Put out the torches!"  cried the wife of a charcoal dealer.
+
+"He is right; for by reason of the Jew, we are putting the whole town in
+danger!"  cried the cobbler.
+
+"The mad fools have already thrown in some brands!"
+
+"If you fellows up there fling any more  I  will break your ankles for
+you," shouted a flax-dealer.
+
+"Don't try any burning," the tailor commanded, "force open the door and
+have out the Jew."  These words raised a storm of applause and the mob
+pressed forward to the Jew's abode.  No one listened to Verus any more,
+and he slipped down from his slave's shoulders, placed himself in front
+of the door and called out:
+
+"In the name of Caesar and the law I command you to leave this house
+unharmed."
+
+The Roman's warning was evidently quite in earnest, and the false Eros
+looked as if at this moment it would be ill-advised to try jesting with
+him.  But in the universal uproar only a few had heard his words, and the
+hot-blooded tailor was so rash as to lay his hand on the praetor's girdle
+in order to drag him away from the door with the help of his comrades.
+But he paid dearly for his temerity for the praetor's fist fell so
+heavily on his forehead that he dropped as if struck by lightning.  One
+of the Britons knocked down the sausage-maker and a hideous hand to hand
+fight would have been the upshot if help had not come to the hardly-beset
+Romans from two quarters at once.  The veterans supported by a number of
+lictors were the first to appear, and soon after them came Benjamin, the
+Jew's eldest son, who was passing down the great thoroughfare with his
+boon-companions and saw the danger that was threatening his father's
+house.
+
+The soldiers parted the throng as the wind chases the clouds, and the
+young Israelite pressed forward with his heavy thyrsus fought and pushed
+his way so valiantly and resolutely through the panic-stricken mob, that
+he reached the door of his father's house but a few moments later than
+the soldiers.  The lictors battered at the door and as no one opened it,
+they forced it with the help of the soldiers in order to set a guard in
+the beleaguered house, and protect it against the raging mob.
+
+Verus and the officer entered the Jew's dwelling with the armed men, and
+behind them came Benjamin and his friends--young Greeks with whom he was
+in the habit of consorting daily, in the bath or the gymnasium.
+Apollodorus and his guests expressed their gratitude to Verus, and when
+the old Jewish house-keeper, who had seen and heard from a hiding-place
+under the roof all that had taken place outside her master's house, came
+into the men's hall and gave a full report of the uproar from beginning
+to end, the praetor was overwhelmed with thanks; and the old woman
+embroidered her narrative with the most glowing colors.  While this was
+going on Apollodorus' pretty daughter, Ismene, came in, and after falling
+on her father's neck and weeping with agitation the house keeper took her
+hand and led her to Verus, saying:
+
+"This noble lord--may the blessing of the Most High be on him--staked his
+life to save us.  This beautiful robe he let be rent for our sakes, and
+every daughter of Israel should fervently kiss this torn chiton, which in
+the eyes of God is more precious than the richest robe--as I do."
+
+And the old woman pressed the praetor's dress to her lips, and tried to
+make Ismene do the same; but the praetor would not permit this.
+
+"How can I allow my garment," he exclaimed, laughing, "to enjoy a favor
+of which I should deem myself worthy--to be touched by such lips."
+
+"Kiss him, kiss him!"  cried the old woman, and the praetor took the head
+of the blushing girl in his hands, and pressing his lips to her forehead
+with a by no means paternal air, he said gaily:
+
+"Now I am richly rewarded for all I have been so happy as to do for you,
+Apollodorus."
+
+"And we," exclaimed Gamaliel.  "We--myself and my brother's first-born
+son-leave it in the hands of God Most High to reward you for what you
+have done for us."
+
+"Who are you?"  asked Verus, who was filled with admiration for the
+prophet-like aspect of the venerable old man and the pale intellectual
+head of his nephew.
+
+Apollodorus took upon himself to explain to him how far the Rabbi
+transcended all his fellow Hebrews in knowledge of the law and the
+interpretation of the Kabbala, the oral and mystical traditions of
+their people, and how that Simeon Ben Jochai was superior to all the
+astrologers of his time.  He spoke of the young man's much admired work
+on the subject called Sohar, nor did he omit to mention that Gamaliel's
+nephew was able to foretell the positions of the stars even on future
+nights.
+
+Verus listened to Apollodorus with increasing attention, and fixed a keen
+gaze on the young man, who interrupted his host's eager encomium with
+many modest deprecations.  The praetor had recollected the near approach
+of his birthday, and also that the position of stars in the night
+preceding it, would certainly be observed by Hadrian.  What the Emperor
+might learn from them would seal his fate for life.  Was that momentous
+night destined to bring him nearer to the highest goal of his ambition or
+to debar him from it?
+
+When Apollodorus ceased speaking, Verus offered Simeon Ben Jochai his
+hand, saying:
+
+"I am rejoiced to have met a man of your learning and distinction.  What
+would I not give to possess your knowledge for a few hours!"
+
+"My knowledge is yours," replied the astrologer.  "Command my services,
+my labors, my time--ask me as many questions as you will.  We are so
+deeply indebted to you--"
+
+"You have no reason to regard me as your creditor," interrupted the
+praetor, "you do not even owe me thanks.  I only made your acquaintance
+after I had rescued you, and I opposed the mob, not for the sake of any
+particular man, but for that of law and order."
+
+"You were benevolent enough to protect us," cried Ben Jochai, "so do not
+be so stern as to disdain our gratitude."
+
+"It does me honor, my learned friend; by all the gods it does me honor,"
+replied Verus.  "And in fact it is possible, it might very will be--Will
+you do me the favor to come with me to that bust of Hipparchus?  By the
+aid of that science which owes so much to him you may be able to render
+me an important service."
+
+When the two men were standing apart from the others, in front of the
+white marble portrait of the great astronomer, Verus asked:
+
+"Do you know by what method Caesar is wont to presage the fates of men
+from the stars?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"From whom?"
+
+"From Aquila, my father's disciple."
+
+"Can you calculate what he will learn from the stars in the night
+preceding the thirtieth of December, as to the destinies of a man who
+was born in that night, and whose horoscope I possess?"
+
+"I can only answer a conditional yes to that question."
+
+"What should prevent your answering positively?"
+
+"Unforeseen appearances in the heavens."
+
+Are such signs common?"
+
+"No, they are rare, on the contrary."
+
+"But perhaps my fortune is not a common one-and I beg of you to calculate
+on Hadrian's method what the heavens will predict on that night for the
+man whose horoscope my slave shall deliver to you early to-morrow
+morning."
+
+"I will do so with pleasure."
+
+"When can you have finished this work?"
+
+"In four days at latest, perhaps even sooner."
+
+"Capital!  But one thing more.  Do you regard me as a man, I mean, as a
+true man?"
+
+"If you were not, would you have given me such reason to be grateful to
+you?"
+
+"Well then, conceal nothing from me, not even the worst horrors, things
+that might poison another man's life, and crush his spirit.  Whatever you
+read in the celestial record, small or great, good or evil.  I require
+you to tell me all."
+
+"I will conceal nothing, absolutely nothing."
+
+The praetor offered Ben Jochai his right hand, and warmly pressed the
+Jew's slender, well-shaped fingers.  Before he went away he settled with
+him how he should inform him when he had finished his labors.
+
+The Alexandrian with his guests and children accompanied the praetor to
+the door.  Only Ben Jamin was absent; he was sitting with his companions
+in his father's dining-room, and rewarding them for the assistance they
+had given him with right good wine.  Gamaliel heard them shouting and
+singing, and pointing to the room he shrugged his shoulders, saying, as
+he turned to his host:
+
+"They are returning thanks to the God of our fathers in the Alexandrian
+fashion."
+
+And peace was broken no more in the Jew's house but by the firm tramp of
+lictors and soldiers who kept watch over it, under arms.
+
+In a side street the praetor met the tailor he had knocked down, the
+sausage-maker, and other ringleaders of the attack on the Israelite's
+house.  They were being led away prisoners before the night magistrates.
+Verus would have set them at liberty with all his heart, but he knew that
+the Emperor would enquire next morning what had been done to the rioters,
+and so he forbore.  At any other time he would certainly have sent them
+home unpunished, but just now he was dominated by a wish that was more
+dominant than his good nature or his facile impulses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+When he reached the Caesareum the high-chamberlain was waiting to conduct
+him to Sabina who desired to speak with him notwithstanding the lateness
+of the hour, and when Verus entered the presence of his patroness, he
+found her in the greatest excitement.  She was not reclining as usual on
+her pillows but was pacing her room with strides of very unfeminine
+length.
+
+"It is well that you have come!"  she exclaimed to the praetor.
+"Lentulus insists that he has seen Mastor the slave, and Balbilla
+declares--but it is impossible!"
+
+"You think that Caesar is here?"  asked Verus.
+
+"Did they tell you so too?"
+
+"No.  I do not linger to talk when you require my presence and there is
+something important to be told just now then--but you must not be
+alarmed."
+
+"No useless speeches!"
+
+"Just now I met, in his own person--"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Hadrian."
+
+"You are not mistaken, you are sure you saw him?"
+
+"With these eyes."
+
+"Abominable, unworthy, disgraceful!"  cried Sabina, so loudly and
+violently that she was startled at the shrill tones of her own voice.
+Her tall thin figure quivered with excitement, and to any one else she
+would have appeared in the highest degree graceless, unwomanly, and
+repulsive: but Verus had been accustomed from his childhood to see her
+with kinder eyes than other men, and it grieved him.
+
+There are women who remind us of fading flowers, extinguished lights or
+vanishing shades, and they are not the least attractive of their sex: but
+the large-boned, stiff and meagre Sabina had none of the yielding and
+tender grace of these gentle creatures.  Her feeble health, which was
+very evident, became her particularly ill when, as at this moment, the
+harsh acrimony of her embittered soul came to light with hideous
+plainness.
+
+She was deeply indignant at the affront her husband had put upon her.
+Not content with having a separate house established for her he kept
+aloof in Alexandria without informing her of his arrival.  Her hands
+trembled with rage, and stammering rather than speaking she desired the
+praetor to order a composing draught for her.  When Verus returned she
+was lying on her cushions, with her face turned to the wall, and said
+lamentably:
+
+"I am freezing; spread that coverlet over me.  I am a miserable, ill-used
+creature."
+
+"You are sensitive and take things too hardly," the praetor ventured to
+remonstrate.
+
+She started up angrily, cut off his speech, and put him through as keen
+a cross-examination as if he were an accused person and she his judge.
+Ere long she had learnt that Verus also had encountered Mastor, that her
+husband was residing at Lochias, that he had taken part in the festival
+in disguise, and had exposed himself to grave danger outside the house of
+Apollodorus.  She also made him tell her how the Israelite had been
+rescued, and whom her friend had met in his house, and she blamed Verus
+with bitter words for the heedless and foolhardy recklessness with which
+he had risked his life for a miserable Jew, forgetting the high destinies
+that lay before him.  The praetor had not interrupted her, but now bowing
+over her, he kissed her hand and said:
+
+"Your kind heart foresees for me things that I dare not hope for.
+Something is glimmering on the horizon of my fortune.  Is it the dying
+glow of my failing fortunes, is it the pale dawn of a coming and more
+glorious day?  Who can tell?  I await with patience whatever may be
+impending--an early day must decide."
+
+"That will bring certainty, and put an end to this suspense," murmured
+Sabina.
+
+"Now rest and try to sleep," said Verus with a tender fervency, that was
+peculiar to his tones.  "It is past midnight and the physician has often
+forbidden you to sit up late.  Farewell, dream sweetly, and always be the
+same to me as a man, that you were to me in my childhood and youth."
+
+Sabina withdrew the hand he had taken, saying:
+
+"But you must not leave me.  I want you.  I cannot exist without your
+presence."
+
+"Till to-morrow--always--forever I will stay with you whenever you need
+me."
+
+The Empress gave him her hand again, and sighed softly as he again bowed
+over it, and pressed it long to his lips.
+
+"You are my friend, Verus, truly my friend; yes, I am sure of it," she
+said at last, breaking the silence.
+
+"Oh Sabina, my Mother!"  he answered tenderly.  "You spoiled me with
+kindness even when I was a boy, and what can I do to thank you for all
+this?"
+
+"Be always the same to me that you are to-day.  Will you always--for all
+time be the same, whatever your fortunes may be?"
+
+"In joy and in adversity always the same; always your friend, always
+ready to give my life for you."
+
+"In spite of my husband, always, even when you think you no longer need
+my favor!"
+
+"Always, for without you I should be nothing--utterly miserable."
+
+The Empress heaved a deep sigh and sat bolt upright on her couch.  She
+had formed a great resolve, and she said slowly, emphasizing every word:
+
+"If nothing utterly unforeseen occurs in the heavens on your birth-night,
+you shall be our son, and so Hadrian's successor and heir.  I swear it."
+
+There was something solemn in her voice, and her small eyes were wide
+open.
+
+"Sabina, Mother, guardian spirit of my life!"  cried Verus, and he fell on
+his knees by her couch.  She looked in his handsome face with deep
+emotion, laid her hands on his temples, and pressed her lips on his dark
+curls.
+
+A moist brilliancy sparkled in those eyes, unapt to tears, and in a soft
+and appealing tone that no one had ever before heard in her voice she
+said:
+
+"Even at the summit of fortune, after your adoption, even in the purple
+all will be the same between us two.  Will it?  Tell me, will it?"
+
+"Always, always!"  cried Verus.  "And if our hopes are fulfilled--"
+
+"Then, then," interrupted Sabina and she shivered as she spoke.  "Then,
+still you will be to me the same that you are now; but to be sure, to be
+sure--the temples of the gods would be empty if mortals had nothing left
+to wish for."
+
+"Ah! no.  Then they would bring thank-offerings to the divinity," cried
+Verus, and he looked up at the Empress; but she turned away from his
+smiling glance and exclaimed in a tone of reproof and alarm:
+
+"No playing with words, no empty speeches or rash jesting! in the name of
+all the gods, not at this time!  For this hour, this night is among its
+fellows what a hallowed temple is among other buildings--what the fervent
+sun is among the other lights of heaven.  You know not how I feel, nay,
+I hardly know myself.  Not now, not now, one lightly-spoken word!"
+
+Verus gazed at Sabina with growing astonishment.  She had always been
+kinder to him than to any one else in the world and he felt bound to her
+by all the ties of gratitude and the sweet memories of childhood.  Even
+as a boy, out of all his playfellows he was the only one who, far from
+fearing her had clung to her.  But to-night! who had ever seen Sabina in
+such a mood?  Was this the harsh bitter woman whose heart seemed filled
+with gall, whose tongue cut like a dagger every one against whom she used
+it?  Was this Sabina who no doubt was kindly disposed towards him but who
+loved no one else, not even herself?  Did he see rightly, or was he under
+some delusion?  Tears, genuine, honest, unaffected tears filled her eyes
+as she went on:
+
+"Here I he, a poor sickly woman, sensitive in body and in soul as if I
+were covered with wounds.  Every movement, and even the gaze and the
+voice of most of my fellow-creatures is a pain to me.  I am old, much
+older than you think and so wretched, so wretched, none of you can
+imagine how wretched.  I was never happy as a child, never as a girl, and
+as a wife--merciful gods!--every kind word that Hadrian has ever
+vouchsafed me I have paid for with a thousand humiliations."
+
+"He always treats you with the utmost esteem," interrupted Verus.
+
+"Before you, before the world!  But what do I care for esteem!  I may
+demand the respect, the adoration of millions and it will be mine.  Love,
+love, a little unselfish love is what I ask--and if only I were sure, if
+only I dared to hope that you give me such love, I would thank you with
+all that I have, then this hour would be hallowed to me above all
+others."
+
+"How can you doubt me Mother?  My dearly beloved Mother!"
+
+"That is  comfort, that is happiness!"  answered Sabina.  "Your voice is
+never too loud for me, and I believe you, I dare trust you.  This hour
+makes you my son, makes me your mother."
+
+Tender emotion, the emotion that softens the heart, thrilled through
+Sabina's dried-up nature and sparkled in her eyes.  She felt like a young
+wife of whom a child is born, and the voice of her heart sings to her in
+soothing tones: "It lives, it is mine, I am the providence of a living
+soul, I am a mother."
+
+She gazed blissfully into Verus' eyes and exclaimed, "Give me your hand
+my son, help me up, for I will be here no longer.  What good spirits I
+feel in!  Yes, this is the joy that is allotted to other women before
+their hair is grey!  But child--dear and only child--you must love me
+really as a mother.  I am too old for tender trifling, and yet I could
+not bear it if you gave me nothing but a child's reverence.  No, no, you
+must be my friend whose heart warns him of my wishes, who can laugh with
+me to-day, and weep with me to-morrow--and who shows that he is happier
+when his eye meets mine.  You are now my son; and soon you shall have the
+name of son; that is happiness enough for one evening.  Not another word
+--this hour is like the finished masterpiece of some great painter; every
+touch that could be added might spoil it.  You may kiss my forehead, I
+will kiss yours; now I will go to rest, and to-morrow when I wake I shall
+say to myself that I possess something worth living for--a child, a son."
+
+When the Empress was alone she raised her hand in prayer but she could
+find no words of thanksgiving.  One hour of pure happiness she had indeed
+enjoyed, but how many days, months, years of joylessness and suffering
+lay behind her!  Gratitude knocked at the door of her heart but it was
+instantly met by bitter defiance; what was one hour of happiness in the
+balance against a ruined lifetime?
+
+Foolish woman! she had never sown the seeds of love, and now she blamed
+the gods for niggardliness and cruelty in denying her a harvest of love.
+And now, on what soil had the seed of maternal tenderness fallen?
+
+Verus it is true had left her content and full of hope--Sabina's altered
+demeanor, it is true, had touched his heart--he purposed to cling to her
+faithfully even after his formal adoption; but the light in his eye was
+not that of a proud and happy son, on the contrary it sparkled like that
+of a warrior who hopes to gain the victory.
+
+Notwithstanding the late hour, his wife had not yet gone to bed.  She had
+heard that he had been summoned to the Empress on his return home, and
+awaited him not without anxiety, for she was not accustomed to anything
+pleasant from Sabina.  Her husband's hasty step echoed loudly from the
+stone walls of the sleeping palace.  She heard it at some distance, and
+went to the door of her room to meet him.  Radiant, excited, and with
+flushed cheeks, he held out both his hands to her.  She looked so fair in
+her white night-wrapper of fine white material, and his heart was so full
+that he clasped her in his arms as fondly as when she was his bride; and
+she loved him even now no less than she had done then, and felt for the
+hundredth time with grateful joy that the faithless scapegrace had once
+more returned to her unchangeable and faithful heart, like a sailor who,
+after wandering through many lands seeks his native port.
+
+"Lucilla," he cried, disengaging her arms from round his neck.
+"Oh, Lucilla! what an evening this has been!  I always judged Sabina
+differently from you, and have felt with gratitude that she really cared
+for me.  Now all is clear between her and me!  She called me her son.
+I called her mother.  I owe it to her, and the purple--the purple is
+ours!  You are the wife of Verus Caesar; you are certain of it if no
+signs and omens come to frighten Hadrian."
+
+In a few eager words, which betrayed not merely the triumph of a lucky
+gambler, but also true emotion and gratitude, he related all that had
+passed in Sabina's room.  His frank and confident contentment silenced
+her doubts, her dread of the stupendous fate which, beckoning her, yet
+threatening her, drew visibly nearer and nearer.  In her mind's eye she
+saw the husband she loved, she saw her son, seated on the throne of the
+Caesars, and she herself crowned with the radiant diadem of the woman
+whom she hated with all the force of her soul.  Her husband's kindly
+feeling towards the Empress and the faithful allegiance which had tied
+him to her from his boyhood did not disquiet her; but a wife allows the
+husband of her choice every happiness, every gift excepting only the love
+of another woman, and will forgive her hatred and abuse rather than such
+love.
+
+Lucilla was greatly excited, and a thought, that for years had been
+locked in the inmost shrine of her heart, to-day proved too strong for
+her powers of reticence.  Hadrian was supposed to have murdered her
+father, but no one could positively assert it, though either he or
+another man had certainly slain the noble Nigrinus.  At this moment the
+old suspicion stirred her soul with revived force, and lifting her right
+hand, as if in attestation, she exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, Fate, Fate! that my husband should be heir of the man who murdered
+my father!"
+
+"Lucilla," interrupted Verus, "it is unjust even to think of such
+horrors, and to speak of them is madness.  Do not utter it a second time,
+least of all to-day.  What may have occurred formerly must not spoil the
+present and the future which belong to us and to our children."
+
+"Nigrinus was the grandfather of those children," cried the Roman mother
+with flashing eyes.
+
+"That is to say that you harbor in your soul the wish to avenge your
+father's death on Caesar."
+
+"I am the daughter of the butchered man."
+
+"But you do not know the murderer, and the purple must outweigh the life
+of one man, for it is often bought with many thousand lives.  And then,
+Lucilla, as you know, I love happy faces, and Revenge has a sinister
+brow.  Let us be happy, oh wife of Caesar!  Tomorrow I shall have much to
+tell you, now I must go to a splendid banquet which the son of Plutarch
+is giving in my honor.  I cannot stay with you--truly I cannot, I have
+been expected long since.  And when we are in Rome never let me find you
+telling the children those old dismal stories--I will not have it."
+
+As Verus, preceded by his slaves bearing torches, made his way through
+the garden of the Caesareum he saw a light in the rooms of Balbilla, the
+poetess, and he called up merrily:
+
+"Good-night, fair Muse!"
+
+"Good-night, sham Eros!"  she retorted.
+
+You are decking yourself in borrowed feathers, Poetess," replied he,
+laughing.  "It is not you but the ill-mannered Alexandrians who invented
+that name!"
+
+"Oh! and other and better ones," cried she.  "What I have heard and seen
+to-day passes all belief!"
+
+"And you will celebrate it in your poems?"
+
+"Only some of it, and that in a satire which I propose to aim at you."
+
+"I tremble!"
+
+"With delight, it is to be hoped; my poem will embalm your memory for
+posterity."
+
+"That is true, and the more spiteful your verses, the more certainly will
+future generations believe that Verus was the Phaon of Balbilla's Sappho,
+and that love scorned filled the fair singer with bitterness."
+
+"I thank you for the caution.  To-day at any rate you are safe from my
+verse, for I am tired to death."
+
+"Did you venture into the streets?"
+
+"It was quite safe, for I had a trustworthy escort."
+
+"May I be allowed to ask who?"
+
+"Why not?  It was Pontius the architect who was with me."
+
+"He knows the town well."
+
+"And in his care I would trust myself to descend, like Orpheus, into
+Hades."
+
+"Happy Pontius!"
+
+"Most happy Verus!"
+
+"What am I to understand by those words, charming Balbilla?"
+
+"The poor architect is able to please by being a good guide, while to you
+belongs the whole heart of Lucilla, your sweet wife."
+
+"And she has the whole of mine so far as it is not full of Balbilla.
+Good-night, saucy Muse; sleep well."
+
+"Sleep ill, you incorrigible tormentor!"  cried the girl, drawing the
+curtain across her window.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The sleepless wretch on whom some trouble has fallen, so long as night
+surrounds him, sees his future life as a boundless sea in which he is
+sailing round and round like a shipwrecked man, but when the darkness
+yields, the new and helpful day shows him a boat for escape close at
+hand, and friendly shores in the distance.
+
+The unfortunate Pollux also awoke towards morning with sighs many and
+deep; for it seemed to him that last evening he had ruined his whole
+future prospects.  The workshop of his former master was henceforth
+closed to him, and he no longer possessed even all the tools requisite
+for the exercise of his art.
+
+Only yesterday he had hoped with happy confidence to establish himself
+on a footing of his own, to-day this seemed impossible, for the most
+indispensable means were lacking to him.  As he felt his little money-
+bag, which he was wont to place under his pillow, he could not forbear
+smiling in spite of all his troubles, for his fingers sank into the
+flaccid leather, and found only two coins, one of which he knew alas!
+was of copper, and the dried merry-thought bone of a fowl, which he had
+saved to give to his little nieces.
+
+Where was he to find the money he was accustomed to give his sister on
+the first day of every month?  Papias was on friendly terms with all the
+sculptors of the city, and it was only to be expected that he would warn
+them against him, and do his best to make it difficult to him to find a
+new place as assistant.  His old master had also been witness of
+Hadrian's anger against him, and was quite the man to take every
+advantage of what he had overheard.  It is never a recommendation for
+any one that he is an object of dislike to the powerful, and least of all
+does it help him with those who look for the favor and gifts of the great
+men of the world.  When Hadrian should think proper to throw off his
+disguise, it might easily occur to him to let Pollux feel the effects of
+his power.  Would it not be wise in him to quit Alexandria and seek work
+or daily bread in some other Greek city?
+
+But for Arsinoe's sake he could not turn his back on his native place.
+He loved her with all the passion of his artist's soul, and his youthful
+courage would certainly not have been so quickly and utterly crushed if
+he could have deluded himself as to the fact that his hopes of possessing
+her had been driven into the remote background by the events of the
+preceding evening.  How could he dare to drag her into his uncertain and
+compromised position?  And what reception could he hope for from her
+father if he should now attempt to demand her for his wife.  As these
+thoughts overpowered his mind he suddenly felt as if his eyes were
+smarting with sand that had blown into them, and he could not help
+springing out of bed; be paced his little room with long steps, and he
+held his forehead pressed against the wall.
+
+The dawn of a new day appeared as a welcome comfort, and by the time he
+had eaten the morning porridge which his mother set before him--and her
+eyes were red with weeping--the idea struck him that he would go to
+Pontius, the architect.  That was the lifeboat he espied.
+
+Doris shared her son's breakfast but, contrary to her usual custom, she
+spoke very little, only she frequently passed her hand over her son's
+curly hair.  Euphorion strode up and down the room, rummaging his brain
+for ideas for an ode in which he might address the Emperor and implore
+forgiveness for his son.  Soon after breakfast Pollux went up to the
+rotunda where the Queens' busts stood, hoping to see Arsinoe again, and
+a loud snatch of song soon brought her out on to the balcony.  They
+exchanged greetings, and Pollux signed to her to come down to him.  She
+would have obeyed him more than gladly, but her father had also heard the
+sculptor's voice and drove her back into the room.  Still the mere sight
+of his beloved fair one had done the artist good.  Hardly had he got back
+to his father's little house when Antinous came sauntering in--he
+represented in the artist's mind the hospitable shores on which he might
+gaze.  Hope revived his soul, and Hope is the sun before which despair
+flies as the shades of night flee at the rising of the day-star.
+
+His artistic faculties were once more roused into play, and found a field
+for their freest exercise when Antinous told him that he was at his
+disposal till mid-day, since his master--or rather Caesar as he was now
+permitted to name him--was engaged in business.  The prefect Titianus had
+come to him with a whole heap of papers, to work with him and his private
+secretary.  Pollux at once led the favorite into a side room of the
+little house, with a northern aspect; here on a table lay the wax and the
+smaller implements which belonged to himself and which he had brought
+home last evening.  His heart ached, and his nerves were in a painful
+state of tension as he began his work.  All sorts of anxious thoughts
+disturbed his spirit, and yet he knew that if he put his whole soul into
+it he could do something good.  Now, if ever, he must put forth his best
+powers, and he dreaded failure as an utter catastrophe, for on the face
+of the whole earth there was no second model to compare with this that
+stood before him.
+
+But he did not take long to collect himself for the Bithynian's beauty
+filled him with profound feeling and it was with a sort of pious
+exaltation that he grasped the plastic material and moulded it into a
+form resembling his sitter.  For a whole hour not a word passed between
+them, but Pollux often sighed deeply and now then a groan of painful
+anxiety escaped him.
+
+Antinous broke the silence to ask Pollux about Selene.  His heart was
+full of her, and there was no other man who knew her, and whom he could
+venture to entrust with his secret.  Indeed it was only to speak to her
+that he had come to the artist so early.  While Pollux modelled and
+scraped Antinous told him of all that had happened the previous night.
+He lamented having lost the silver quiver when he was upset into the
+water and regretted that the rose-colored chiton should afterwards have
+suffered a reduction in length at the hands of his pursuer.  An
+exclamation of surprise, a word of sympathy, a short pause in the
+movement of his hand and tool, were all the demonstration on the artist's
+part, to which the story of Selene's adventure and the loss of his
+master's costly property gave rise; his whole attention was absorbed in
+his occupation.  The farther his work progressed the higher rose his
+admiration for his model.  He felt as if intoxicated with noble wine as
+he worked to reproduce this incarnation of the ideal of umblemished
+youthful and manly beauty.  The passion of artistic procreation fired his
+blood, and threw every thing else--even the history of Selene's fall into
+the sea, and her subsequent rescue--into the region of commonplace.
+Still he had not been inattentive, and what he heard must have had some
+effect in his mind; for long after Antinous had ended his narrative, he
+said in a low voice and as if speaking to the bust, which was already
+assuming definite form:
+
+"It is a wonderful thing!"  and again a little later; "There was always
+something grand in that unhappy creature."
+
+He had worked without interruption for nearly four hours, when standing
+back from the table, he looked anxiously, first at his work and then at
+Antinous, and then asked him:
+
+"How will that do?"
+
+The Bithynian gave eager expression to his approbation, and Pollux had,
+in fact, done wonders in the short time.  The wax began to display in a
+much reduced scale the whole figure of the beautiful youth and in the
+very same attitude which the young Dionysus carried off by the pirates,
+had assumed the day before.  The incomparable modelling of the favorite's
+limbs and form was soft but not effeminate; and, as Pollux had said to
+himself the day before, no artist in his happiest mood, could conceive
+the Nysaean god as different from this.
+
+While the sculptor in order to assure himself of the accuracy of his work
+was measuring his model's limbs with wooden compasses and lengths of
+tape, the sound of chariot-wheels was heard at the gate of the palace,
+and soon after the yelping of the Graces.  Doris called to the dogs to be
+quiet and another high-pitched woman's voice mingled with hers.  Antinous
+listened and what he heard seemed to be somewhat out of the common for he
+suddenly quitted the position in which the sculptor had placed him only a
+few minutes before, ran to the window and called to Pollux in a subdued
+voice:
+
+"It is true!  I am not mistaken!  There is Hadrian's wife Sabina talking
+out there to your mother."
+
+He had heard rightly; the Empress had come to Lochias to seek out her
+husband.  She had got out of the chariot at the gate of the old palace
+for the paving of the court-yard would not be completed before that
+evening.
+
+Dogs, of which her husband was so fond, she detested; the shrewd beasts
+returned her aversion, so dame Doris found it more difficult than usual
+to succeed in reducing her disobedient pets to silence when they flew
+viciously at the stranger.  Sabina terrified, vehemently desired the old
+woman to release her from their persecution, while the chamberlain who
+had come with her and on whom she was leaning kicked out at the
+irrepressible little wretches and so increased their spite.  At last the
+Graces withdrew into the house.  Dame Doris drew a deep breath and turned
+to the Empress.
+
+She did not suspect who the stranger was for she had never seen Sabina
+and had formed quite a different idea of her.
+
+"Pardon me good lady," she said in her frank confiding manner.  "The
+little rascals mean no harm and never bite even a beggar, but they never
+could endure old women.  Whom do you seek here mother?"
+
+"That you shall soon know," replied Sabina sharply, "what a state of
+things, Lentulus, your architect Pontius' work has brought about.  And
+what must the inside be like if this but is left standing to disgrace the
+entrance of the palace!  It must go with its inhabitants.  Desire that
+woman to conduct us to the Roman lord who dwells here."
+
+The chamberlain obeyed and Doris began to suspect who was standing before
+her, and she said as she smoothed down her dress and bowed low:
+
+"What great honor befalls us illustrious lady; perhaps you are even the
+Emperor's wife?  If that be the case--"
+
+Sabina made an impatient sign to the chamberlain who interrupted the old
+woman exclaiming:
+
+"Be silent and show us the way."
+
+Doris was not feeling particularly strong that day, and her eyes already
+red with weeping about her son again filled with tears.  No one had ever
+spoken so to her before, and yet, for her son's sake she would not repay
+sharp words in the same coin, though she had plenty at her command.
+
+She tottered on in front of Sabina, and conducted her to the hall of the
+Muses.  There Pontius relieved her of the duty, and the respect he paid
+to the stranger made her sure that in fact she was none other than the
+Empress in person.
+
+"An odious woman!"  said Sabina, as she went on pointing to Doris, whom
+her words could not escape.  This was too much for the old woman; past
+all self-control she flung herself on to a seat that was standing by,
+covered her face with her hands and began crying bitterly.  She felt as
+if the very ground were snatched from under her feet.
+
+Her son was in disgrace with Caesar, and she and her house were
+threatened by the most powerful woman in the world.  She pictured herself
+as already turned into the streets with Euphorion and her dogs, and asked
+herself what was to become of them all when they had lost their place and
+the roof that covered them.  Her husband's memory grew daily weaker, soon
+his voice even might fail; and how greatly had her own strength failed
+during the last few years, how small were the savings that were hidden in
+their chest.  The bright, genial old woman felt quite broken down.  What
+hurt her was, not merely the pressing need that threatened her, but the
+disgrace too which would fall upon her, the dislike she had incurred--
+she who had been liked by every one from her youth up--and the painful
+feeling of having been treated with scorn and contempt in the presence of
+others by the powerful lady whose favor she had hoped to win.
+
+At Sabina's advent all good spirits had fled from Lochias, so at least
+Doris felt, but she was not one of those who succumb helplessly to a
+hostile force.  For a few minutes she abandoned herself to her sorrows
+and sobbed like a child.  Now she dried her eyes, and her eased heart
+felt the beneficial relief of tears; by degrees she could compose herself
+and think calmly.
+
+"After all," said she to herself, "none but Caesar can command here, and
+it is said that he gets on but badly with his spiteful wife, and cares
+very little what she wishes.  Hadrian let Pollux feel his power, but he
+has always been friendly to me.  My dogs and birds amused him, and did he
+not even do me the honor to relish a dish out of my kitchen?  No, no, if
+only I can succeed in speaking with him alone all may yet be well," and
+thus thinking she rose from her seat.
+
+As she was about to quit  the anteroom the art dealer, Gabinius, of
+Nicaea, came in, to whom Keraunus had refused to sell the mosaic in the
+palace, and whose daughter had been deprived by Arsinoe of the part of
+Roxana.  Pontius had desired him to come to the palace and he had made
+his appearance at once, for, since the evening before, a rumor had been
+afloat that the Emperor was staying in Alexandria, and was inhabiting the
+palace at Loehias.  Whence it was derived, or on what facts it was
+supported no one could say; but there it was, passing from mouth to mouth
+in every circle and acquiring certainty every hour.  Of all that grows on
+earth nothing grows so quickly as Rumor, and yet it is a miserable
+foundling that never knows its own parents.
+
+The dealer pushed on into the palace with a glance of astonishment at the
+old woman, while Doris debated whether see should seek Hadrian then and
+there, or return to her little gate-House, and wait till he should at
+some time be going out of the palace and passing by her dwelling.  Before
+she could come to any decision Pontius appeared on the scene; he had
+always been very kind to her, and she therefore ventured to address him
+and tell him what had occurred between her son and the Emperor.  This was
+no novelty to the architect; he advised her to have patience till Hadrian
+should have cooled, and he promised her that later he would do every
+thing in his power for Pollux, whom be loved and esteemed.  On this very
+day he was obliged by Caesar's command to start on a journey and for a
+long absence; his destination was Pelusium, where he was to erect a
+monument to the great Pompey on the spot where he had been murdered.
+Hadrian, as he passed the old ruined monument on his way from Mount
+Kasius to Egypt, had determined to replace it by a new one, and had
+entrusted the work to Pontius whose labors at Lochias were now nearly
+ended.  All that might yet be lacking to the fitting of the restored
+palace Hadrian himself wished to select and procure.  and in this
+occupation so agreeable to his tastes, Gabinius, the curiosity-dealer,
+was to lend him a helping hand.
+
+While Doris was still speaking with Pontius, Hadrian and his wife came
+towards the anteroom.  Hardly had the architect recognized the tones of
+Sabina's voice, than he hastily said in a low voice:
+
+"Till by-and-bye this must do, dame.  Stand aside; Caesar and the Empress
+are coming."
+
+And he hastened away.  Doris slipped into the doorway of a side room,
+which was closed only by a heavy curtain, for at that moment she would as
+soon have met a raging wild beast as the haughty lady from whom she had
+nothing to expect but insult and unkindness.  Hadrian's interview with
+his wife had lasted barely a quarter of an hour, and it must have been
+anything rather than amiable, for his face was scarlet, while Sabina's
+lips were perfectly white, and her painted cheeks twitched with a
+restless movement.  Doris was too much excited and terrified to listen to
+the royal couple, still she overheard these words uttered by the Emperor
+in a tone of the utmost decision.
+
+"In small matters and where it is fitting I let you have your way; more
+important things I shall this time, as always, decide by my own judgment
+--my own exclusively."
+
+These words were fraught with the fate of the gatehouse and its
+inhabitants, for the removal of the "hideous hut" at the entrance of the
+palace was one of the "small matters" of which Hadrian spoke.  Sabina had
+required this concession, since it could not be pleasant to any one
+visiting Lochias to be received on the threshold by an old Megaera of
+evil omen, and to be fallen upon by infuriated dogs.  But Doris so little
+divined the import of Hadrian's words that she rejoiced at them, for they
+told her how little he was disposed to yield to his wife in important
+things, and how could she suspect that her fate and that of her house
+should not be included among important matters, nay the most important?
+
+Sabina had quitted the anteroom leaning on her chamberlain and Hadrian
+was standing there alone with his slave Mastor.  The old woman would not
+be likely to have another such favorable opportunity of supplicating the
+all-powerful man who stood before her, without the hindrance of
+witnesses, to exercise his magnaminity and clemency towards her son.  His
+back turned to her; if she could have seen the threatening scowl with
+which he stood gazing on the ground she would surely have remembered the
+architect's warning and have postponed her address till a future day.
+
+How often do we spoil our best chances by following an urgent instinct to
+arrive at certainty as early as possible, and by not being strong enough
+to postpone opening our business till a favorable moment offers.
+Uncertainty in the present often seems less endurable than adverse fate
+in the future.
+
+Doris stepped out of the side door.  Mastor, who knew his master well,
+and whose friendly impulse was to spare the old woman any humiliation,
+made eager signs to warn her to withdraw and not to disturb Hadrian at
+that moment; but she was so wholly possessed by her anxiety and wishes
+that she did not observe them.  As the Emperor turned to leave the room
+she gathered courage, stood in the doorway through which he must pass,
+and tried to fall on her knees before him.  This was a difficult effort
+to her old joints and Doris was forced to clutch at the door-post in
+order not to lose her balance.
+
+Hadrian at once recognized the suppliant, but to-day he found no kind
+word for her, and the glance he cast down at her was anything rather than
+gracious.  How had he ever been able to find amusement even in this
+woeful old body?  Alas!  poor Doris was quite a different creature in her
+little house, among her flowers, dogs and birds to what she seemed here
+in the spacious hall of a magnificent palace.  This wide and gorgeous
+frame but ill-suited so modest a figure.  Thousands of good people who in
+the midst of their everyday surroundings command our esteem and attract
+our regard give rise to very different feelings when they are taken out
+of the circle to which they belong.
+
+Doris had never worn so unpleasing an aspect to Hadrian as at this
+instant, in this decisive moment of her life.  She had followed the
+Empress straight from the kitchen-hearth just as she was after passing a
+sleepless night and full of her many anxieties, she had scarcely set her
+grey hair in order, and her kind bright eyes, usually the best feature of
+her face, were red with many tears.  The neat brisk little mother looked
+to-day anything rather than smart and bright; in the Emperor's eyes she
+was in no way distinguished from any other old woman, and he regarded all
+old women as of evil omen, if he met them as he went out of any place he
+was in.
+
+"Oh, Caesar, Great Caesar!"  cried Doris throwing up her hands which
+still bore many traces of her labors over the hearth.  "My son, my
+unfortunate Pollux!"
+
+"Out of my way!"  said Hadrian sternly.
+
+"He is an artist, a good artist, who already excels many a master, and if
+the gods--"
+
+"Out of the way, I told you.  I do not want to hear anything about the
+insolent fellow," said Hadrian angrily.
+
+"But Great Caesar, he is my son, and a mother, as you know--"
+
+"Mastor," interrupted the monarch, "carry away this old woman and make
+way for me."
+
+"Oh!  my lord, my lord!"  wailed the agonized woman while the slave
+pulled her up, not without difficulty.  "Oh! my lord, how can you find it
+in your heart to be so cruel?  And am I no longer old Doris whom you have
+even joked with, and whose food you have eaten?"
+
+These words recalled to the Emperor's fancy the moment of his arrival at
+Lochias; he felt that he was somewhat in the old woman's debt, and being
+wont to pay with royal liberality he broke in with:
+
+"You shall be paid for your excellent dish a sum with which you can
+purchase a new house, for the future your maintenance too shall be
+provided for, but in three hours you must have quitted Lochias."
+
+The Emperor spoke rapidly as though desirous of bringing a disagreeable
+business to a prompt termination, and he stalked past Doris who was now
+standing on her feet and leaning as if stunned against the doorpost.
+Indeed if Hadrian had not left her there and had he been in the mood to
+hear her farther, she was not now in a fit state to answer him another
+word.
+
+The Emperor received the honors due to Zeus and his fiat had ruined the
+happiness of a contented home as completely as the thunderbolt wielded by
+the Father of the gods could have done.
+
+But this time Doris had no tears.  The frightful shock that had fallen in
+her soul was perceptible also to her body; her knees shook, and being
+quite incapable just then of going home at once, she sunk upon a seat and
+stared hopelessly before her while she reflected what next, and what more
+would come upon her.
+
+Meanwhile the Emperor was standing in a room just behind the antechamber
+that had only been finished a few hours since.  He began to regret his
+hardness upon the old woman--for had she not, without knowing who he was,
+been most friendly to him and to his favorite.  "Where is Antinous?" he
+asked Mastor.
+
+"He went out to the gate-house."
+
+"What is he doing there?"
+
+"I believe he meant--there, perhaps he--"
+
+"The truth, fellow!"
+
+"He is with Pollux the sculptor."
+
+"Has he been there long?"
+
+"I do not exactly know."
+
+"How long, I ask you?"
+
+"He went after you had shut yourself in with Titianus."
+
+"Three hours--three whole hours has he been with that braggart, whom I
+ordered off the premises!"  Hadrian's eye sparkled wrathfully as he
+spoke.  His annoyance at the absence of his favorite, whose society he
+permitted no one to enjoy but himself, and least of all Pollux, smothered
+every kind feeling in his mind, and in a tone of anger bordering on fury
+he commanded Mastor to go and fetch Antinous, and then to have the gate-
+house utterly cleared out.
+
+"Take a dozen slaves to help you," he cried.  "For aught I care the
+people may carry all their rubbish into a new house, but I will never
+set eyes again on that howling old woman, nor her imbecile husband.  As
+for the sculptor I will make him feel that Caesar has a heavy foot and
+can unexpectedly crush a snake that creeps across his path."
+
+Mastor went sadly away and Hadrian returned to his work-room, and there
+called out to his secretary Phlegon:
+
+"Write that a new gate-keeper is to be found for this palace.  Euphorion,
+the old one, is to have his pay continued to him, and half a talent is to
+be paid to him at the prefect's office.  Good--Let the man have at once
+whatever is necessary; in an hour neither he nor his are to be found in
+Lochias.  Henceforth no one is to mention them to me again, nor to bring
+me any petition from them.  Their whole race may join the rest of the
+dead."
+
+Phlegon bowed and said:
+
+"Gabinius, the curiosity-dealer, waits outside."
+
+"He comes at an appropriate moment," cried the Emperor.  "After all these
+vexations it will do me good to hear about beautiful things."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Aye, truly!  Sabina's advent had chased all good spirits from the palace
+at Lochias.
+
+The Emperor's commands had come upon the peaceful little house as a
+whirlwind comes on a heap of leaves.  The inhabitants were not even
+allowed time fully to realize their misfortune, for instead of bewailing
+themselves all they could do was to act with circumspection.  The tables,
+seats, cushions, beds and lutes, the baskets, plants, and bird-cages, the
+kitchen utensils and the trunks with their clothes were all piled in
+confusion in the courtyard, and Doris was employing the slaves appointed
+by Mastor in the task of emptying the house, as briskly and carefully as
+though it was nothing more than a move from one house to another.  A ray
+of the sunny brightness of her nature once more sparkled in her eyes
+since she had been able to say to herself that all that happened to her
+and hers was one of the things inevitable, and that it was more to the
+purpose to think of the future than of the past.  The old woman was quite
+herself again over the work, and as she looked at Euphorion, who sat
+quite crushed on his couch with his eyes fixed on the ground, she cried
+out to him:
+
+"After bad times, come good ones! only let us keep from making ourselves
+miserable.  We have done nothing wrong, and so long as we do not think
+ourselves wretched, we are not so.  Only, hold up your head!
+
+"Up, old man, up!  Go at once to Diotima and tell her that we beg her to
+give us hospitality for a few days, and house-room for our chattels."
+
+"And if Caesar does not keep his word?"  asked Euphorion gloomily.
+"What sort of a life shall we live then?"
+
+"A bad one-a dog's life; and for that very reason it is wiser to enjoy
+now what we still possess.  A cup of wine, Pollux, for me and your
+father.  But there must be no water in it to-day."
+
+"I cannot drink," sighed Euphorion.
+
+"Then I will drink your share and my own too."  Nay-nay, mother,"
+remonstrated Pollux.
+
+"Well put some water in, lad, just a little water, only do not make such
+a pitiful face.  Is that the way a young fellow should look who has his
+art, and plenty of strength in his hands, and the sweetest of sweethearts
+in his heart?"
+
+"It is certainly not for myself, mother," retorted the sculptor, "that I
+am anxious.  But how am I ever to get into the palace again to see
+Arsinoe, and how am I to deal with that ferocious old Keraunus?"
+
+"Leave that question for time to answer," replied Doris.
+
+"Time may give a good answer, but it may also give a bad one."
+
+"And the best she only gives to those who wait for her in the antechamber
+of Patience."
+
+"A bad place for me, and for those like me," sighed Pollux.
+
+"You have only to sit still and go on knocking at the doors," replied
+Doris, "and before you can look round you Time will call out, 'come in.'
+Now show the men how they are to treat the statue of Apollo, and be my
+own happy, bright boy once more."
+
+Pollux did as she desired, thinking as he went: "She speaks wisely--she
+is not leaving Arsinoe behind.  If only I had been able to arrange with
+Antinous at least, where I should find him again; but at Caesar's orders
+the young fellow was like one stunned, and he tottered as he went, as if
+he were going to execution."
+
+Dame Doris had not been betrayed by her happy confidence, for Phlegon the
+secretary came to inform her of the Emperor's purpose to give her husband
+half a talent, and to continue to pay him in the future his little
+salary.
+
+"You see," cried the old woman, "the sun of better days is already
+rising.  Half a talent!  Why poverty has nothing to do with such rich
+folks as we are!  What do you think--would it not be right to pour out
+half a cup of wine to the gods, and allow ourselves the other half?"
+
+Doris was as gay as if she were going to a wedding, and her cheerfulness
+communicated itself to her son, who saw himself relieved of part of the
+anxiety that weighed upon him with regard to his parents and sister.  His
+drooping courage, and spirit for life, only needed a few drops of kindly
+dew to revive it, and he once more began to think of his art.  Before
+anything else he would try to complete his successfully-sketched bust of
+Antinous.
+
+While he was gone back into the house to preserve his work from injury
+and was giving the slaves, whom he had desired to follow him,
+instructions as to how it should be carried so as not to damage it, his
+master Papias came into the palace-court.  He had come to put the last
+touches to the works he had begun, and proposed to make a fresh attempt
+to win the favor of the man whom he now knew to be the Emperor.  Papias
+was somewhat uneasy for he was alarmed at the thought that Pollux might
+now betray how small a share his master had in his last works--which had
+brought him higher praise than all he had done previously.  It might even
+have been wise on his part to pocket his pride and to induce his former
+scholar, by lavish promises, to return to his workshop; but the evening
+before he had been betrayed into speaking before the Emperor with so much
+indignation at the young artist's evil disposition, of his delight at
+being rid of him, that, on Hadrian's account, he must give up that idea.
+Nothing was now to be done, but to procure the removal of Pollux from
+Alexandria, or to render him in some way incapable of damaging him, and
+this he might perhaps be able to do by the instrumentality of the
+wrathful Emperor.
+
+It even came into his mind to hire some Egyptian rascal to have him
+assassinated; but he was a citizen of peaceful habits, to whom a breach
+of the law was an abomination and he cast the thought from him as too
+horrible and base.  He was not over-nice in his choice of means, he knew
+men, was very capable of finding his way up the backstairs, and did not
+hesitate when need arose to calumniate others boldly, and thus he had
+before now won the day in many a battle against his fellow-artists of
+distinction.  His hope of succeeding in the tripping of a scholar of no
+great repute, and of rendering him harmless so long as the Emperor should
+remain in Alexandria, was certainly not an over-bold one.  He hated the
+gate-keeper's son far less than he feared him, and he did not conceal
+from himself that if his attack on Pollux should fail and the young
+fellow should succeed in proving independently of what he was capable he
+could do nothing to prevent his loudly proclaiming all that he had done
+in these last years for his master.
+
+His attention was caught by the slaves in Euphorion's little house,
+who were carrying the household chattels of the evicted family into the
+street.  He had soon learnt what was going forward, and highly pleased at
+the ill-will manifested by Hadrian towards the parents of his foe, he
+stood looking on, and after brief reflection desired a negro to call
+Pollux to speak to him.
+
+The master and scholar exchanged greetings with a show of haughty
+coolness and Papias said:
+
+"You forgot to bring back the things which yesterday, without asking my
+leave, you took out of my wardrobe.  I must have them back to-day."
+
+"I did not take them for myself, but for the grand lord in there, and his
+companion.  If any thing is missing apply to him.  It grieves me that I
+should have taken your silver quiver among them, for the Roman's
+companion has lost it.  As soon as I have done here, I will take home all
+of your things that I can recover, and bring away my own.  A good many
+things belonging to me are still lying in your workshop."
+
+"Good," replied Papias.  "I will expect you an hour before sunset, and
+then we will settle every thing," and without any farewell he turned his
+back on his pupil and went into the palace.
+
+Pollux had told him that some of the properties, which he had taken
+without asking permission, had been lost-among them an object of
+considerable value--and this perhaps would give him a hold over him by
+which to prevent his injuring him.  He remained in the palace scarcely
+half an hour and then, while Pollux was still engaged in escorting his
+mother and their household goods to his sister's house, he went to visit
+the night magistrate, who presided over the safety of Alexandria.
+Papias was on intimate terms with this important official, for he had
+constructed for him a sarcophagus for his deceased wife, an altar with
+panels in relief for his men's apartment, and other works, at moderate
+prices, and he could count on his readiness to serve him.  When he
+quitted him he carried in his hand an order of arrest against his
+assistant Pollux, who had attacked his property and abstracted a quiver
+of massive silver.  The magistrate had also promised him to send two of
+his guards who would carry the offender off to prison.
+
+Papias went home with a much lighter heart.  His pupil, after he had
+accomplished the easy transfer of his parents, had returned to the
+palace, and there, to his delight, came across Mastor, who soon fetched
+him the garments and masks that he had lent the day before to Hadrian and
+Antinous.  The Sarmatian at the same time told him, with tears in his
+eyes, a sad, very sad story, which stirred the young sculptor's soul
+deeply, and which would have prompted him to penetrate into the palace at
+once, and at any risk, if he had not seen the necessity of being with
+Papias at the appointed hour, which was drawing near, to answer for the
+valuable property that was missing.  Thinking of nothing, wishing nothing
+so much as to be back as promptly as possible at Lochias, where he was
+much needed, and where his heart longed to be, he took the bundle out of
+the slave's hand and hurried away.  Papias had sent all his assistants
+and even his slaves off the premises; he received the breathless Pollux
+quite alone, and took from him, with icy calmness, the things which had
+been borrowed from his property-room, asking for them one by one.
+
+"I have already told you," cried Pollux, "that it is not I, but the
+illustrious Roman--you know as well as I do, who he is--who is answerable
+for the silver quiver and the torn chiton."  And he began to tell him how
+Antinous had commanded him, in the name of his master, to find masks and
+disguises for them both.  But Papias cut off his speech at the very
+beginning, and vehemently demanded the restoration of his quiver and bow,
+of which Pollux could not work out the value in two years.  The young man
+whose heart and thoughts were at Lochias and who, at any cost, did not
+want to be detained longer than was necessary, begged his master, with
+all possible politeness, to let him go now, and to settle the matter with
+him to-morrow after he had discussed it with the Roman, from whom he
+might certainly demand any compensation he chose.  But when Papias
+interrupted him again and again, and obstinately insisted on the
+immediate restoration of his property, the artist whose blood was easily
+heated, grew angry and replied to the attacks and questions of the older
+man with vehement response.
+
+One angry word led to another, and at last Papias hinted of persons who
+took possession of other person's silver goods, and when Pollux retorted
+that he knew of some who could put forward the works of others as their
+own, the master struck his fist upon the table, and going towards the
+door he cried out, as soon as he was at a safe distance from the furious
+lad's powerful fists:
+
+"Thief!  I will show you how fellows like you are dealt with in
+Alexandria."
+
+Pollux turned white with rage, and rushed upon Papias, who fled, and
+before Pollux could reach him he had taken refuge behind the two guards
+sent by the magistrate, and who were waiting in the antechamber.
+
+"Seize the thief!"  he cried.  "Hold the villain who stole my silver
+quiver and now raises his hand against his master.  Bind him, fetter him,
+carry him off to prison."
+
+Pollux did not know what had come upon him; he stood like a bear that has
+been surrounded by hunters; doubtful but at bay.  Should he fling himself
+upon his pursuers and fell them to the earth?  should he passively await
+impending fate?
+
+He knew every stone in his master's house; the anteroom in which he
+stood, and indeed the whole building was on the ground floor.  In the
+minute while the guards were approaching and his master was giving the
+order to the lictor, his eye fell on a window which looked out upon the
+street, and possessed only by the single thought of defending his liberty
+and returning quickly to Arsinoe he leaped out of the opening which
+promised safety and into the street below.
+
+"Thief--stop thief!"  he heard as he flew on with long strides; and like
+the pelting of rain driven by all the four winds came from all sides the
+senseless, odious, horrible cry: "Stop thief!--stop thief!"  it seemed to
+deprive him of his senses.
+
+But the passionate cry of his heart: "To Lochias, to Arsinoe!  keep free,
+save your liberty if only to be of use at Lochias!"  drowned the shouts
+of his pursuers and urged him through the streets that led to the old
+palace,
+
+On he went faster and farther, each step a leap; the briny breeze from
+the sea already fanned his glowing cheeks and the narrow empty street
+yonder he well knew led to the quay by the King's harbor, where he could
+hide from his pursuers among the tall piles of wood.  He was just turning
+the corner into the alley when an Egyptian ox-driver threw his goad
+between his legs; he stumbled, fell to the ground, and instantly felt
+that a dog which had rushed upon him was tearing the chiton he wore,
+while he was seized by a number of men.  An hour later and he found
+himself in prison, bitten, beaten, and bound among a crew of malefactors
+and real thieves.
+
+Night had fallen.  His parents were waiting for him and he came not; and
+in Lochias which he had not been able to reach there were misery and
+trouble enough, and the only person in the world who could carry comfort
+to Arsinoe in her despair was absent and nowhere to be found.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Dried merry-thought bone of a fowl
+More to the purpose to think of the future than of the past
+So long as we do not think ourselves wretched, we are not so
+Temples would be empty if mortals had nothing left to wish for
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR, Part 2.
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 8.
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+The story told by Mastor which had so greatly agitated Pollux and had
+prompted him to his mad flight was the history of events which had taken
+place in the steward's rooms during the hours when the young artist was
+helping his parents to transfer their household belongings into his
+sister's tiny dwelling.  Keraunus was certainly not one of the most
+cheerful of men, but on the morning when Sabina came to the palace and
+the gate-keeper was driven from his home, he had worn the aspect of a
+thoroughly-contented man.
+
+Since visiting Selene the day before he had given himself no farther
+concern about her.  She was not dangerously ill and was exceptionally
+well taken care of, and the children did not seem to miss her.  Indeed,
+he himself did not want her back to-day.  He avoided confessing this to
+himself it is true, still he felt lighter and freer in the absence of his
+grave monitor than he had been for a long time.  It would be delightful,
+he thought, to go on living in this careless manner, alone with Arsinoe
+and the children, and now and again he rubbed his hands and grinned
+complacently.  When the old slave-woman brought a large dish full of
+cakes which he had desired her to buy, and set it down by the side of the
+children's porridge, he chuckled so heartily that his fat person shook
+and swayed; and he had very good reason to be happy in his way, for
+Plutarch quite early in the morning, had sent a heavy purse of gold
+pieces for his ivory cup, and a magnificent bunch of roses to Arsinoe;
+he might give his children a treat, buy himself a solid gold fillet, and
+dress Arsinoe as finely as though she were the prefect's favorite
+daughter.
+
+His vanity was gratified in every particular.
+
+And what a splendid fellow was the slave who now--with a superbly
+reverential bow-presented him with a roast chicken and who was to walk
+behind him in the afternoon to the council-chamber.  The tall Thessalian
+who marched after the Archidikastes to the Hall of justice, carrying his
+papers, was hardly grander than his "body-servant."  He had bought him
+yesterday at quite a low price.  The well-grown Samian was scarcely
+thirty years old; he could read and write and was in a position therefore
+to instruct the children in these arts; nay, he could even play the lute.
+His past, to be sure, was not a spotless record, and it was for that
+reason that he had been sold so cheaply.  He had stolen things on several
+occasions; but the brands and scars which he bore upon his person were
+hidden by his new chiton and Keraunus felt in himself the power to cure
+him of his evil propensities.
+
+After desiring Arsinoe to let nothing he about of any value, for their
+new house-mate seemed not to be perfectly honest, he answered his
+daughter's scruples by saying:
+
+"It would be better, no doubt, that he should be as honest as the old
+skeleton I gave in exchange for him, but I reflect that even if my body-
+servant should make away with some of the few drachmae we carry about
+with us, I need not repent of having bought him, since I got him for many
+thousand drachmae less than he is worth, on account of his thefts, while
+a teacher for the children would have cost more than he can steal from us
+at the worst.  I will lock up the gold in the chest with my documents.
+It is strong and could only be opened with a crow-bar.  Besides the
+fellow will have left off stealing at any rate at first, for his late
+master was none of the mildest and had cured him of his pilfering I
+should think, once for all.  It is lucky that in selling such rascals we
+should be compelled to state what their faults are; if the seller fails
+to do so compensation maybe claimed from him by the next owner for what
+he may lose.  Lykophron certainly concealed nothing, and setting aside
+his thieving propensities the Samian is said to be in every respect a
+capital fellow."
+
+But father," replied Arsinoe, her anxiety once more urging her to speak,
+"it is a bad thing to have a dishonest man in the house."
+
+"You know nothing about it child!"  answered Keraunus.  "To us to live
+and to be honest are the same thing, but a slave!--King Antiochus is said
+to have declared that the man who wishes to be well served must employ
+none but rascals."
+
+When Arsinoe had been tempted out on to the balcony by her lover's snatch
+of song and had been driven in again by her father, the steward had not
+reproved her in any way unkindly, but had stroked her cheeks and said
+with a smile: "I rather fancy that lad of the gatekeeper's--whom I once
+turned out of doors has had his eye on you since you were chosen for
+Roxana.  Poor wretch!  But we have very different suitors in view for you
+my little girl.  How would it be, think you, if rich Plutarch had sent
+you those roses, not on his own behalf but as a greeting on the part of
+his son?  I know that he is very desirous of marrying him but the
+fastidious man has never yet thought any Alexandrian girl good enough for
+him."
+
+"I do not know him, and he does not think of a poor thing like me," said
+Arsinoe.
+
+"Do you think not?"  asked Keraunus smiling.  "We are of as good family,
+nay of a better than Plutarch, and the fairest is a match for the
+wealthiest.  What would you say child to a long flowing purple robe and a
+chariot with white horses, and runners in front?"
+
+At breakfast Keraunus drank two cups of strong wine, in which he allowed
+Arsinoe to mix only a few drops of water.  While his daughter was curling
+his hair a swallow flew into the room; this was a good omen and raised
+the steward's spirits.  Dressed in his best and with a well-filled purse,
+he was on the point of starting for the council-chamber with his new
+slave when Sophilus the tailor and his girl-assistant were shown into the
+living-room.  The man begged to be allowed to try the dress, ordered for
+Roxana by the prefect's wife, on the steward's daughter.  Keraunus
+received him with much condescension and allowed him to bring in the
+slave who followed him with a large parcel of dresses,--and Arsinoe, who
+was with the children, was called.
+
+Arsinoe was embarrassed and anxious and would far rather have yielded her
+part to another; still, she was curious about the new dresses.  The
+tailor begged her to allow her maid to dress her; his assistant would
+help her because the dresses which were only slightly stitched together
+for trying on, were cut, not in the Greek but in the Oriental fashion.
+
+"Your waiting woman," he added turning to Arsinoe, "will be able to learn
+to-day the way to dress you on the great occasion."
+
+"My daughter's maid," said Keraunus, winking slily at Arsinoe, "is not in
+the house."
+
+"Oh, I require no help," cried the tailor's girl.  "I am handy too at
+dressing hair, and I am most glad to help such a fair Roxana."
+
+"And it is a real pleasure to work for her," added Sophilus.  "Other
+young ladies are beautified by what they wear, but your daughter adds
+beauty to all she wears."
+
+"You are most polite," said Keraunus, as Arsinoe and her handmaid left
+the room.
+
+"We learn a  great deal by our intercourse with people of rank," replied
+the tailor.  "The illustrious ladies who honor me with their custom like
+not only to see but to hear what is pleasing.  Unfortunately there are
+among them some whom the gods have graced with but few charms, and they,
+strangely enough, crave the most flattering speeches.  But the poor
+always value it more than the rich when benevolence is shown them."
+
+"Well said," cried Keraunus. "I myself am but indifferently well off for
+a man of family, and am glad to live within my moderate means--so that my
+daughter--"
+
+"The lady Julia has chosen the costliest stuffs for her; as is fitting--
+as the occasion demands," said the tailor.  "Quite right, at the same
+time--"
+
+"Well, my lord?"
+
+"The grand occasion will be over and my daughter, now that she is grown
+up, ought to be seen at home and in the street in suitable and handsome,
+though not costly, clothes.
+
+"I said just now, true beauty needs no gaudy raiment."
+
+"Would you be disposed now, to work for me at a moderate price?"
+
+"With pleasure; nay, I shall be indebted to her, for all the world will
+admire Roxana and inquire who may be her tailor."
+
+"You are a very reasonable and right-minded man.  What now would you
+charge for a dress for her?"
+
+"That we can discuss later."
+
+"No, no, I beg you sincerely--"
+
+"First let me consider what you want.  Simple dresses are more difficult,
+far more difficult to make, and yet become a handsome woman better than
+rich and gaudy robes.  But can any man make a woman understand it?  I
+could tell you a tale of their folly!  Why many a woman who rides by in
+her chariot wears dresses and gems to conceal not merely her own limbs,
+but the poverty-stricken condition of her house."
+
+Thus, and in this wise did Keraunus and the tailor converse, while the
+assistant plaited up Arsinoe's hair with strings of false pearls that she
+had brought with tier, and fitted and pinned on her the costly white and
+blue silk robes of an Asiatic princess.  At first Arsinoe was very still
+and timid.  She no longer cared to dress for any one but Pollux; but the
+garments prepared for her were wonderfully pretty--and how well the
+fitter knew how to give effect to her natural advantages.  While the
+neat-handed woman worked busily and carefully many merry jests passed
+between them--many sincere and hearty words of admiration--and before
+long Arsinoe had become quite excited and took pleased interest in the
+needle-woman's labors.
+
+Every bough that is freshly decked by spring seems to feel gladness, and
+the simple child who was to-day so splendidly dressed was captivated by
+pleasure in her own beauty, and its costly adornment which delighted her
+beyond measure.  Arsinoe now clapped her hands with delight, now had the
+mirror handed to her, and now, with all the frankness of a child,
+expressed her satisfaction not only with the costly clothes she wore,
+but with her own surprisingly grand appearance in them.
+
+The dress-maker was enchanted with her, proud and delighted, and could
+not resist the impulse to give a kiss to the charming girl's white,
+beautifully round throat.
+
+"If only Pollux could see me so!"  thought Arsinoe.  "After the
+performance perhaps I might show myself in my dress to Selene, and then
+she would forgive my taking part in the show.  It is really a pleasure to
+look so nice!"
+
+The children all stood round her while she was being dressed, and shouted
+with admiration each time some new detail of the princess's attire was
+added.  Helios begged to be allowed to feel her dress, and after
+satisfying herself that his little hands were clean she stroked them over
+the glistening white silk.
+
+She had now advanced so far that her father and the tailor could be
+called in.  She felt remarkably content and happy.  Drawn up to her
+tallest, like a real king's daughter, and yet with a heart beating as
+anxiously as that of any girl would who is on the point of displaying her
+beauty--hitherto protected and hidden in her parents' home--to the
+thousand eyes of the gaping multitude, she went towards the sitting-room;
+but she drew back her hand she had put forth to raise the latch, for she
+heard the voices of several men who must just now have joined her father.
+
+"Wait a little while, there are visitors," she cried to the seamstress
+who had followed her, and she put her ear to the door to listen.  At
+first she could not make out anything that was going on, but the end of
+the strange conversation that was being carried on within was so
+hideously intelligible that she could never forget it so long as she
+lived.
+
+Her father had ordered two new dresses for her, beating down the price
+with the promise of prompt payment, when Mastor came into the steward's
+room and informed Keraunus that his master and Gabinius, the curiosity-
+dealer from Nicaea, wished to speak with him.
+
+"Your master," said Keraunus haughtily, "may come in; I think that he
+regrets the injury he has done me; but Gabinius shall never cross this
+threshold again, for he is a scoundrel."
+
+"It would be as well that you should desire that man to leave you for the
+present," said the slave, pointing to the tailor.
+
+"Whoever comes to visit me," said the steward loftily, "must be satisfied
+to meet any one whom I permit to enter my house."
+
+"Nay, nay," said the slave urgently, "my master is a greater man than you
+think.  Beg this man to leave the room."
+
+"I know, I know very well," said Keraunus with a smile.  "Your master is
+an acquaintance of Caesar's.  But we shall see, after the performance
+that is about to take place, which of us two Caesar will decide for.
+This tailor has business here and will stay at my pleasure.  Sit in the
+corner there, my friend."
+
+"A tailor!" cried Mastor, horrified.  "I tell you he must go."
+
+"He must!"  asked Keraunus wrathfully.  "A slave dares to give orders in
+my house?  We will see."
+
+"I am going," interrupted the artisan who understood the case.  "No
+unpleasantness shall arise here on my account, I will return in a quarter
+of an hour."
+
+"You will stay," commanded Keraunus.  "This insolent Roman seems to think
+that Lochias belongs to him; but I will show him who is master here."
+
+But Mastor paid no heed to these words spoken in a high pitch; he took
+the tailor's hand and led him out, whispering to him:
+
+"Come with me if you wish to escape an evil hour."
+
+The two men went off and Keraunus did not detain the artisan, for it
+occurred to his mind that his presence did him small credit.  He purposed
+to show himself in all his dignity to the overbearing architect, but he
+also remembered that it was not advisable to provoke unnecessarily the
+mysterious bearded stranger, with the big clog.  Much excited, and not
+altogether free from anxiety, he paced up and down his room.  To give
+himself courage he hastily filled a cup from the wine-jar that stood on
+the breakfast table, emptied it, refilled it and drank it off a second
+time without adding any water, and then stood with his arms folded and a
+strong color in his face awaiting his enemy's visit.
+
+The Emperor walked in with Gabinius.  Keraunus expected some greeting,
+but Hadrian spoke not a word, cast a glance at him of the utmost contempt
+and passed by him without taking any more notice of him than if he had
+been a pillar or a piece of furniture.  The blood mounted to the
+steward's head and heated his eyes and for fully a minute he strove in
+vain to find words to give utterance to his rage.  Gabinius paid no more
+heed to Keraunus than the Roman had done.  He walked on ahead and paused
+in front of the mosaic for which he had offered so high a price, and over
+which a few days since he had been so sharply dealt with by the steward.
+
+"I would beg you," he said, "to look at this masterpiece."
+
+The Emperor looked at the ground, but hardly had he begun to study the
+picture, of which he quite understood and appreciated the beauty, when
+just behind him he heard in a hoarse voice these words uttered with
+difficulty:
+
+"In Alexandria--it is the custom, to greet--to say something--to the
+people you visit."  Hadrian half turned his head towards the speaker and
+said indifferently but with strong and insulting contempt:
+
+"In Rome too it is the custom to greet honest people."  Then looking down
+again at the mosaic he said, "Exquisite, exquisite an inestimable and
+precious work."  At Hadrian's words Keraunus' eyes almost started out of
+his head.  His face was crimson and his lips pale; he went close up to
+him and as soon as he had found breath to speak he said:
+
+"What have you--what are your words intended to convey?"
+
+Hadrian turned suddenly and full upon the steward; in his eyes sparkled
+that annihilating fire which few could endure to gaze on and his deep
+voice rolled sullenly through the room as he said to the miserable man:
+
+"My words are intended to convey that you have been an unfaithful
+steward, that I know what you would rather I should not know, that I have
+learned how you deal with the property entrusted to you, that you--"
+
+"That I?"--cried the steward trembling with rage and stepping close up to
+the Emperor.
+
+"That you," shouted Hadrian in his face, "tried to sell this picture to
+this man; in short that you are a simpleton and a scoundrel into the
+bargain."
+
+"I--I," gasped Keraunus slapping his hand on his fat chest.  "I--a--a--
+but you shall repent of these words."
+
+Hadrian laughed coldly and scornfully, but Keraunus sprang on Gabinius
+with a wonderful agility for his size, clutched him by the collar of his
+chiton and shook the feeble little man as if he were a sapling, shrieking
+meanwhile:
+
+"I will choke you with your own lies--serpent, mean viper!"
+
+"Madman!"  cried Hadrian "leave hold of the Ligurian or by Sirius you
+shall repent it."
+
+"Repent it?"  gasped the steward.  "It will be your turn to repent when
+Caesar comes.  Then will come a day of reckoning with false witnesses,
+shameless calumniators who disturb peaceful households, while credulous
+idiots--"
+
+"Man, man," interrupted Hadrian, not loudly but sternly and ominously,
+"you know not to whom you speak."
+
+"Oh I know you--I know you only too well.  But I--I--shall I tell you who
+I am?"
+
+"You--you are a blockhead," replied the monarch shrugging his shoulders
+contemptuously.  Then he added calmly, with dignity--almost with
+indifference:
+
+"I am Caesar."
+
+At these words the steward's hand dropped from the chiton of the half-
+throttled dealer.  Speechless and with a glassy stare he gazed in
+Hadrian's face for a few seconds.  Then he suddenly started, staggered
+backwards, uttered a loud choking, gurgling, nameless cry, and fell back
+on the floor like a mass of rock shaken from its foundations by an
+earthquake.  The room shook again with his fall.
+
+Hadrian was startled and when he saw him lying motionless at his feet he
+bent over him--less from pity than from a wish to see what was the matter
+with him; for he had also dabbled in medicine.  Just as he was lifting
+the fallen man's hand to feel his pulse Arsinoe rushed into the room.
+She had heard the last words of the antagonists with breathless anxiety
+and her father's fall and now threw herself on her knees by the side of
+the unhappy man, just opposite to Hadrian, and as his distorted and grey-
+white face told her what had occurred she broke out in a passionate cry
+of anguish.  Her brothers and sisters followed at her heels, and when
+they saw their favorite sister bewailing herself they followed her
+example without knowing at first what Arsinoe was crying for, but soon
+with terror and horror at their father lying there stiff and disfigured.
+The Emperor, who had never had either son or daughter of his own, found
+nothing so intolerable as the presence of crying children.  However he
+endured the wailing and whimpering that surrounded him till he had
+ascertained the condition of the man lying on the ground before him.
+
+"He is dead," he said in a few minutes.  "Cover his face, Master."
+
+Arsinoe and the children broke out afresh, and Hadrian glanced down at
+them with annoyance.  When his eye fell on Arsinoe, whose costly robe,
+merely pinned and slightly stitched together had come undone with the
+vehemence of her movements and were hanging as flapping rags in tumbled
+disorder, he was disgusted with the gaudy fluttering trumpery which
+contrasted so painfully with the grief of the wearer, and turning his
+back on the fair girl he quitted the chamber of misery.
+
+Gabinius followed him with a hideous smirk.  He had directed the
+Emperor's attention to the mosaic pavement in the steward's room, and had
+shamelessly accused Keraunus of having offered to sell him a work that
+belonged to the palace, contrasting his conduct with his own rectitude.
+Now the calumniated man was dead, and the truth could never come to
+light; this was necessarily a satisfaction to the miserable man, but he
+derived even greater pleasure from the reflection that Arsinoe could not
+now fill the part of Roxana, and that consequently there was once more a
+possibility that it might devolve on his daughter.
+
+Hadrian walked on in front of him, silent and thoughtful.  Gabinius
+followed him into his writing-room, and there said with fulsome
+smoothness:
+
+"Ah, great Caesar, thus do the gods punish with a heavy hand the crimes
+of the guilty."
+
+Hadrian did not interrupt him, but he looked him keenly and enquiringly
+in the face, and then said, gravely, but coolly:
+
+"It seems to me, man, that I should do well to break off my connection
+with you, and to give some other dealer the commissions which I proposed
+to entrust to you."
+
+"Caesar!" stammered Gabinius, "I really do not know--"
+
+"But I do know," interrupted the Emperor.  "You have attempted to mislead
+me, and throw your own guilt on the shoulders of another."
+
+"I--great Caesar?  I have attempted--" began the Ligurian, while his
+pinched features turned an ashy grey.  "You accused the steward of a
+dishonorable trick," replied Hadrian.  "But I know men well, and I know
+that no thief ever yet died of being called a scoundrel.  It is only
+undeserved disgrace that can cost a man's life."
+
+"Keraunus was full-blooded, and the shock when he learnt that you were
+Caesar--"
+
+"That shock accelerated the end no doubt," interrupted the monarch, "but
+the mosaic in the steward's room is worth a million of sesterces, and now
+I have seen enough to be quite sure that you are not the man to save your
+money when a work like that mosaic is offered you for sale--be the
+circumstances what they may.  If I see the case rightly, it was Keraunus
+who refused your demand that he should resign to you the treasure in his
+charge.  Certainly, that was the case exactly!  Now, leave me.  I wish to
+be alone."
+
+Gabinius retired with many bows, walking backwards to the door, and then
+turned his back on the palace of Lochias muttering many impotent curses
+as he went.
+
+The steward's new 'body-servant,' the old black woman, Mastor, the tailor
+and his slave, helped Arsinoe to carry her father's lifeless body and lay
+it on a couch, and the slave closed his eyes.  He was dead--so each told
+the despairing girl, but she would not, could not believe it.  As soon as
+she was alone with the old negress and the dead, she lifted up his heavy,
+clumsy arm, and as soon as she let go her hold it fell by his side like
+lead.  She lifted the cloth from the dead man's face, but she flung it
+over him again at once, for death had drawn his features.  Then she
+kissed his cold hand and brought the children in and made them do the
+same, and said sobbing:
+
+"We have no father now; we shall never, never see him again."
+
+The little blind boy felt the dead body with his hands, and asked his
+sister:
+
+"Will he not wake again to-morrow morning and make you curl his hair, and
+take me up on his knee?"
+
+"Never, never; he is gone, gone for ever."
+
+As she spoke Mastor entered the room, sent by his master.  Yesterday had
+he not heard from the overseer of the pavement-workers the comforting
+tidings that after our grief and suffering here on earth there would be
+another, beautiful, blissful and eternal life?  He went kindly up to
+Arsinoe and said:
+
+"No, no, my children; when we are dead we become beautiful angels with
+colored wings, and all who have loved each other here on earth will meet
+again in the presence of the good God."
+
+Arsinoe looked at the slave with disapproval.
+
+"What is the use," she asked, "of cheating the children with silly tales?
+Their father is gone, quite gone, but we will never, never forget him."
+
+"Are there any angels with red wings?"  asked the youngest little girl.
+
+"Oh!  I want to be an angel!"  cried Helios, clapping his hands.  "And
+can the angels see?"
+
+"Yes, dear little man," replied Mastor, "and their eyes are wonderfully
+bright, and all they look upon is beautiful."
+
+"Tell them no more Christian nonsense," begged Arsinoe.  "Ah! children,
+when we shall have burned our father's body there will be nothing left of
+him but a few grey ashes."
+
+But the slave took the little blind boy on his knees and whispered to
+him:
+
+"Only believe what I tell you--you will see him again in Heaven."
+
+Then he set him down again, gave Arsinoe a little bag of gold pieces in
+Caesar's name, and begged her--for so his master desired--to find a new
+abode and, after the deceased was burned on the morrow, to quit Lochias
+with the children.  When Mastor was gone Arsinoe opened the chest, in
+which lay her father's papyri and the money that Plutarch had paid for
+the ivory cup, put in the heavy purse sent by the Emperor, comforting
+herself while her tears flowed, with the reflection that she and the
+children were provided at any rate against immediate want.
+
+But where was she to go with the little ones?  Where could she hope to
+find a refuge at once?  What was to become of them when all they now
+possessed was spent.  The gods be thanked!  she was not forlorn; she
+still had friends.  She could find protection and love with Pollux and
+look to dame Doris for motherly counsel.
+
+She quickly dried her eyes and changed the remains of her splendor for
+the dark dress in which she was accustomed to work at the papyrus
+factory; then, as soon as she had taken the pearls out of her hair, she
+went down to the little gate-house.
+
+She was only a few steps from the door--but why did not the Graces come
+springing out to meet her?  Why did she see no birds, no flowers in the
+window?  Was she deceived, was she dreaming or was she tricked by some
+evil spirit?  The door of the dear home-like little dwelling was wide
+open and the sitting-room was absolutely empty, not a chattel was left
+behind, forgotten--not a leaf from a plant was lying on the ground; for
+dame Doris, in her tidy fashion, had swept out the few rooms where she
+had grown grey in peace and contentment as carefully as though she were
+to come into them again to-morrow.
+
+What had happened here?  Where were her friends gone?  A great terror
+came over her, all the misery of desolation fell upon her, and as she
+sank upon the stone bench outside the gate-house to wait for the
+inhabitants who must presently return, the tears again flowed from her
+eyes and fell in heavy drops on her hands as they lay in her lap.
+
+She was still sitting there, thinking with a throbbing heart of Pollux
+and of the happy morning of this now dying day, when a troup of Moorish
+slaves came towards the deserted house.  The head mason who led them
+desired her to rise from the bench, and in answer to her questions, told
+her that the little building was to be pulled down, and that the couple
+who had inhabited it were evicted from their post, turned out of doors
+and had gone elsewhere with all their belongings.  But where Doris and
+her son had taken themselves no one knew.  Arsinoe as she heard these
+tidings felt like a sailor whose vessel has grounded on a rocky shore,
+and who realizes with horror that every plank and beam be neath him
+quivers and gapes.  As usual, when she felt too weak to help herself
+unaided, her first thought was of Selene, and she decided to hasten off
+to her and to ask her what she could do, what was to become of her and
+the children.
+
+It was already growing dark.  With a swift step, and drying her eyes from
+time to time on her peplum as she went, she returned to her own room to
+fetch a veil, without which she dared not venture so late into the
+streets.  On the steps--where the dog had thrown down Selene--she met a
+man hurrying past her; in the dim light she fancied he bore some
+resemblance to the slave that her father had bought the day before; but
+she paid no particular heed, for her mind was full of so many other
+things.  In the kitchen sat the old negress in front of a lamp and the
+children squatted round her; by the hearth sat the baker and the butcher,
+to whom her father owed considerable sums and who had come to claim their
+dues, for ill news has swifter wings than good tidings, and they had
+already heard of the steward's death.  Arsinoe took the lamp, begged the
+men to wait, went into the sitting-room, passing, not without a shudder,
+the body of the man who a few hours since had stroked her cheeks and
+looked lovingly into her eyes.
+
+How glad she felt to be able to pay her dead father's debts and save the
+honor of his name!  She confidently drew the key out of her pocket and
+went up to the chest.  What was this?  She knew, quite positively, that
+she had locked it before going out and yet it was now standing wide open;
+the lid, thrown back, hung askew by one hinge; the other was broken.  A
+dread, a hideous suspicion, froze her blood; the lamp trembled in her
+hand as she leaned over the chest which ought to have contained every
+thing she possessed.  There lay the old documents, carefully rolled
+together, side by side, but the two bags with Plutarch's money and the
+Emperor's, had vanished.  She took out one roll after another; then she
+tossed them all out on to the floor till the bottom of the chest was
+bare--but the gold was really gone, nowhere to be found.
+
+The new slave had forced open the lid of the chest and stolen the whole
+possessions of the orphans of the man who, to gratify his own vanity, had
+brought him into the house.
+
+Arsinoe screamed aloud, called in her creditors, explained to them all
+that had occurred and implored them to pursue the thief; and when they
+only listened to her with an incredulous shrug, she swore that she was
+speaking the truth, and promised that whether the slave were caught or
+not she would pay them with the price of her own and her father's
+personal ornaments.  She knew the name of the dealer of whom her father
+had bought the slave and told it to the unsatisfied dealers, who at last
+left her to follow up the thief as promptly as possible.
+
+Once more Arsinoe was alone.  Tearless, but shivering and scarcely
+mistress of herself from misery and agitation, she took out her veil,
+flung it over her head, and hurried through the court and along the
+streets to her sister.
+
+Verily, since Sabina's visit to the palace all good spirits had deserted
+it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+In a perfectly dark spot by the wall of the widow's garden, stood the
+cynic philosopher who had met Antinous with so little courtesy, defending
+himself eagerly, but in low tones against the rebukes of another man,
+who, dressed, like himself in a ragged cloak and bearing a beggar's
+wallet, appeared to be one of the same kidney.
+
+"Do not deny," said the latter, "that you cling much to the Christians."
+
+"But hear me out," urged the other.
+
+"I need hear nothing, for I have seen you for the tenth time sneaking in
+to one of their meetings."
+
+"And do I deny it?  Do I not honestly confess that I seek truth wherever
+I may, where I see even a gleam of hope of finding it?"
+
+"Like the Egyptian who wanted to catch the miraculous fish, and at last
+flung his hook into the sand."
+
+"The man acted very wisely."
+
+"What now!"
+
+"A marvel is not to be found just where everything else is.  In hunting
+for truth you must not be afraid of a bog."
+
+"And the Christian doctrine seems to be very much such a muddy thicket."
+
+"Call it so for aught I care."
+
+"Then beware lest you find yourself sticking in the morass."
+
+"I will take care of myself."
+
+"You said just now that there were decent folks among them."
+
+"A few no doubt.  But the others! eternal gods! mere slaves, beggars,
+ruined handicraftstmen, common people, untaught and unphilosophical
+brains, and women, for the most part."
+
+"Avoid them then."
+
+"You ought to be the last to give me that advice."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+The other went close up to him and asked him in a whisper:
+
+"Why, where do you suppose I get the money with which I pay for our food
+and lodging?"
+
+"So long as you do not steal it, it is all the same to me."
+
+"If I had no more, you would ask the question fast enough."
+
+"Certainly not, we strive after virtue and ought to do everything to
+render ourselves independent of nature and her cravings.  But to be sure
+she often asserts her rights--to return then: where do you get the
+money?"
+
+"Why, it burns in the purses of the people in there.  It is their duty to
+give to the poor, and to tell the truth, their pleasure also; and so week
+by week they give me a few drachmae for my suffering brother."
+
+"Bah! you are the only son of your father, and he is dead."
+
+"'All men are brethren' say the Christians, consequently I may call you
+mine without lying."
+
+"Join them then for aught I care," laughed the other.  "How would it be
+if I followed you among the Christians?  Perhaps they would give me
+weekly money too, for my suffering brother, and then we could have double
+meals."
+
+The cynics laughed loudly and parted; one went back into the city, the
+other into the garden belonging to the Christian widow.
+
+Arsinoe had entered here before the dishonest philosopher and had gone
+straight to Hannah's house without being detained by the gate-keeper.  As
+she got nearer to her destination, she tried more and more earnestly to
+devise some way in which she might inform her sister of all the dreadful
+things that had happened, and which she must learn sooner or later,
+without giving her too great a shock.  Her dread was not much less than
+her grief.  As she reflected on the last few days and on all that had
+occurred, it almost seemed as though she herself had been the cause of
+the misfortunes of her family.
+
+On the way to see Selene she could shed no tears, but she could not help
+softly moaning to herself now and then.  A woman, who for some distance
+had kept pace with her, thought she must be suffering some severe bodily
+pain, and when the girl passed her, she looked after her with sincere
+compassion, the wailing of the desolate young creature had sounded so
+piteous.
+
+True, midway, Arsinoe had suddenly stopped and had thought that instead
+of going to Selene for advice, she would turn round and seek Pollux and
+ask him to help her.  The thought of her lover forced its way through all
+her sorrow and anxiety, through the reproaches she heaped upon herself
+and the vague plans floating in the air which her brain--unaccustomed to
+any serious thought, vainly tried to sketch for the future.  He was kind,
+and would certainly be ready to help her; but maidenly modesty held her
+back from seeking him at so late an hour; besides, how could she discover
+him or his parents?
+
+The place where her sister was she was now familiar with, and no one
+could judge of their position better or give sounder counsel than prudent
+Selene.  So she had not turned round, but had hurried on to reach her
+destination as soon as possible; and now she was standing before the
+little house in the garden.  Before opening the door she once more
+considered in what way she could prepare Selene and tell her terrible
+news, and, as all that happened stood vividly before her mind's eye, she
+began to weep once more.
+
+In front of her, and following her, men and veiled women, singly or in
+couples or in larger groups, passed into Paulina's garden.  They came
+from workshops and writing-rooms, from humble houses in narrow lanes, and
+from the handsomest and largest in the main street.  Each and all, from
+the wealthy merchant down to the slave who could not call the coarse
+tunic or scanty apron that he wore, his own, walked gravely and with a
+certain dignified reserve.  All who met within that gate greeted each
+other as friends; the master gave a brotherly kiss to the servant, the
+slave to his owner; for the congregation to which they all belonged was
+as one body, animated and dwelt in by Christ, so that each member was
+esteemed as equal to the others however different their gifts of body or
+mind might be, or the worldly possessions with which they were endowed.
+Before God and his Saviour the rich ship-owner or the grey-haired sage
+stood no higher than the defenceless widow and the ignorant slave
+crippled with blows.  Still, the members of the community submitted to
+those more implicitly than to these, for the special talents which graced
+certain superior Christians were gifts of grace from the Lord, readily
+acknowledged as such and, so far as they concerned the inner man, deemed
+worthy of honor.
+
+On Sunday, the day of the Resurrection of the Lord, all Christians,
+without exception, visited their place of assembly for divine worship.
+To-day, being the middle of the week, all who could or chose came to the
+love-feast at Paulina's suburban house.  She herself dwelt in the city
+and she had placed the banqueting hall of her villa, which would hold
+more than a hundred souls, at the disposal of her fellow Christians in
+that quarter of the town.  The regular service was held in the morning,
+but after the day's labor was ended the Christians met at one table to
+have an evening meal in common, or--on other occasions to partake of the
+sacramental supper.  After sunset the elders, deacons, and deaconesses--
+most of whom, so long as it was light, had secular work to attend to--met
+to take counsel together.
+
+Paulina, the widow of Pudeus and sister of Pontius the architect, was a
+woman of considerable property and at the same time a prudent steward,
+who did not consider herself justified in seriously impairing her son's
+inheritance.  This son was residing at Smyrna as a partner in an uncle's
+business, and always avoided Alexandria, as he did not like his mother's
+intercourse with the Christians.  Paulina took the most anxious care not
+to make any inroads on the capital intended for him, and never allowed
+her hospitality to her fellow-believers to cost her any more than it did
+the other wealthy members of the circle that met at her house.  There
+the rich brought more than they needed for themselves and the poor were
+always welcome; not feeling themselves oppressed by the benevolence they
+profited by, for they were often told that their entertainer was not a
+mortal, but the Saviour, who invited each one who followed him faithfully
+to be his guest.
+
+The hour was approaching which would summon dame Hannah to join the
+assembly of her fellow Christians.  She could not fail to appear, for she
+was one of the deaconesses entrusted with the distribution of alms and
+the care of the sick.  She noiselessly made her preparations for going,
+carefully setting the lamp behind the water-pitcher so that it should not
+dazzle Selene, and she desired Mary to be exact in administering the
+medicine to her patient.  She knew that the girl had yesterday attempted
+to make away with herself, and guessed the cause; but she asked no
+questions and disturbed the poor child, who slept a good deal or lay
+dreaming with open eyes, as little as possible.  The old physician
+wondered at her sound constitution, for since her plunge into the water
+the fever had left her and even the injured foot was not much the worse.
+Hannah might now hope the best for Selene if no unforeseen contingency
+checked her recovery.  To prevent this the unfortunate girl was never to
+be left alone, and Mary had gladly agreed with her friend to fill her
+place whenever she was obliged to leave the house.
+
+The meeting of the elders and guardians had already begun when Hannah
+took her tablets in her hand, on which was noted the distribution she had
+made of the money entrusted to her during the last week.  She greeted the
+sick girl and Mary with a kindly look and whispered to the deformed girl:
+
+"I will think of thee in my prayers thou faithful soul.  There is some
+food in the little cupboard--not much, for we must be sparing, the last
+medicine was so dear."
+
+In the little anteroom a lamp was burning which Mary had lighted as it
+began to grow dark, and the widow paused for a moment, considering
+whether she should not extinguish it to save the oil.  She had taken up
+the tongs that hung by it, and was about to put it out, when she heard a
+gentle tap at the house-door.  Before she could enquire who it was that
+asked admission at so late an hour, the door was opened and Arsinoe
+entered the little hall.  Her eyes were still full of tears and she had
+great difficulty in finding words to return Hannah's greeting.
+
+"Why what ails you my child?"  asked the Christian anxiously when by the
+dim light, she saw how tearful and sad the girl looked.  Arsinoe was long
+before she could answer.  At last she collected herself sufficiently to
+sob out amid her tears:
+
+"Oh dame Hannah!  It is all over with us--my father, our poor father--"
+
+The widow guessed at the blow that bad fallen on the sisters and full of
+anxiety on Selene's account she interrupted the weeping child saying:
+
+"Hush, hush my child-Selene must not hear you.  Come out with me and then
+you can tell me all."  Once outside the door Hannah put her arm round
+Arsinoe drew her towards her, kissed her forehead, and said:
+
+"Now speak and tell me every thing; think that I am your mother or your
+sister.  Poor Selene is still too weak to advise or help you.  Take
+courage.  What happened to your poor father?"
+
+"Struck by apoplexy, dead--dead!"  wept the girl.  Poor, dear little
+orphan," said the widow in a husky voice and she clasped Arsinoe closely
+in her arms.  For some time she allowed the girl to weep silently on her
+bosom; then she spoke:
+
+"Give me your hand my daughter and tell me how it has all happened so
+suddenly.  Your father was quite well yesterday and now?  Yes my girl
+life is a grave matter, you have to learn it while you are still young.
+I know you have six little brothers and sisters and perhaps you may soon
+lack even the necessaries of life.  But that is no disgrace; I am
+certainly even poorer than you and yet, by God's help, I hope to be able
+to advise you and perhaps even to assist you.  Every thing that I can
+possibly do shall be done, but first I must know how matters stand with
+you and what you need."
+
+There was so much kindness and consolation in the Christian's tones, so
+much to revive hope that Arsinoe willingly complied with her demand and
+began her story.
+
+At first, to be sure, her pride shunned confessing how poor, how
+absolutely destitute they were; but Hannah's questions soon brought the
+truth to light; and when Arsinoe perceived that the widow understood the
+misfortunes of their house in their fullest extent, and that it would be
+unavailing to conceal how matters stood with her and the children, she
+yielded to the growing impulse to relieve her soul by pouring out her
+griefs and described frankly and without reserve the whole position of
+the family, to the good woman who listened with attention and sympathy.
+The widow asked about each child separately, and ended by enquiring who,
+in Arsinoe's absence, was left in charge of the little ones; and when she
+heard that the old slave-woman to whose care the children were entrusted,
+was infirm and half-blind, she shook her head thoughtfully.
+
+"Here help is needed and at once," she said decidedly.  "You must go back
+to the little ones presently.  Your sister must not at present hear of
+your father's death; when your future lot is to some extent secure we
+will tell her by degrees all that has occurred.  Now come with me, it is
+by the Lord's guidance that you came here at the right moment."
+
+Hannah conducted Arsinoe to Paulina's villa, first into a small room at
+the side of the entrance hall, where the deaconesses took off their veils
+and their warm wraps in winter evenings.  There the girl could be alone,
+and safe from inquisitive questionings which could not fail to be painful
+to her.  Hannah desired her to await her return, and then joined her
+colleagues.
+
+In order to do so she had to pass through the room where the elders and
+deacons were sitting in council.  The bishop, who presided over the
+assembly, sat on a raised seat at the head of an oblong table, and on his
+right hand and his left sat a number of elderly men, some of whom seemed
+to be of Jewish or Egyptian extraction but most of them were Greeks.  In
+these the lofty intellectual brow was conspicuous, in those a bright,
+ecstatic expression particularly in the eyes.  Hannah went past the
+assembly with a reverential greeting into the adjoining room in which the
+deaconesses sat waiting, for women were not admitted to join or hear
+the deliberations of the elders.  The bishop, a fine old man with a full
+white beard; raised his kindly eyes as the door closed upon Hannah, fixed
+them for a few moments on the tips of his fingers that he had raised and
+then addressed the presbyter who had presented for baptism several
+candidates who had been grounded during the past year in the Christian
+faith and doctrine, as follows:
+
+"Most of the catechumens you have presented to me cling faithfully no
+doubt to the Redeemer.  They believe in Him and love Him.  But have they
+attained to that sanctification, that new birth in Christ, which alone
+can justify us in admitting them through baptism among the lambs of our
+Good Shepherd?  Let us beware of the tainted sheep which may infect the
+whole flock.  Verily, in these latter years there has been no lack of
+them, and they have been received among us and have brought the name of
+Christian into evil repute.  Shall I give you an example?  There was an
+Egyptian in Rhakotis; few seemed to strive so fervently as he for the
+remission of his sins.  He could fast for many days, and yet no sooner
+was he baptized than he broke into a goldsmith's shop.  He was condemned
+to death, and before his end he sent for me and confessed to me that in
+former years he had soiled his soul with many robberies and murders.  He
+had hoped to win forgiveness of his sins by the act of baptism, the mere
+washing in water, not by repentance and a new birth to a pure and holy
+life; and he had gone on boldly in new sin because he confidently hoped
+that he might again count on the unwearying mercy of the Saviour.  Others
+again, who had been brought up in the practice of the ablutions which
+have to be performed by those who are initiated into the deeper secrets
+of the heathen mysteries, regarded baptism as an act of purification, a
+mystical process of happy augury, or at the best a figurative
+purification of the soul, and crowded to receive it.  Here, in
+Alexandria, the number of these deluded ones is especially great; for
+where could any superstition find a more favorable soil than in this seat
+of philosophical half-culture, or over-culture; of the worship of
+Serapis, of astrology, of societies of Mystics, of visionaries and
+exorcisers, and of incredulity--the twin-sister of credulity.  Be
+cautious then to hold back from baptism all those who regard it as a
+preserving charm or an act of good omen--remembering that the same water
+which, sprinkled on sanctified hearts, leads them to holy living, brings
+death to the unclean soul.  It is your turn to speak, Irenaeus."
+
+"I only have to say," began the young Christian thus designated, "that I
+have recently met among the catechumens with some who have attached
+themselves to us from the basest motives.  I mean the idlers who are glad
+to receive our alms.  Have you noticed here a cynic philosopher whose
+starving brother we maintain?  Our deacon Clemens has just ascertained
+that he is the only son of his father--"
+
+"We will investigate this matter more closely when we discuss the
+distribution of alms," replied the bishop.  "Here we have petitions from
+several women who desire to have their children baptized; this question
+we cannot decide here; it must be referred to the next Synod.  So far as
+I am concerned, I should be inclined not to reject the prayer of the
+mothers.  Wherein does the utmost aim of the Christian life consist?  It
+seems to me in being perfectly conformable to the example of the Saviour.
+And was not he a Man among men, a Youth among the young, a Child among
+children?  Did not His existence lend sanctity to every age, and
+especially childhood?  He commanded that little children should be
+brought to Him, and He promised them the Kingdom of Heaven.  Wherefore
+then should we exclude them and deny them baptism?"
+
+"I cannot share your views," replied a presbyter with a high forehead and
+sunken eyes.  "We ought no doubt to follow the Saviour, but those who
+tread in His steps should do so of their own free choice, out of love for
+Him, and after He has sanctified their souls.  What is the sense of a new
+birth in a life that has scarcely begun.
+
+"Your discourse," replied the bishop, "only confirms my opinion that
+this question is one for a higher assembly.  We will now close our
+discussion of that point, and go on to the care of the poor.  Call in the
+women, my good Justinius."
+
+The deaconesses came into the room and took seats at the lower end of the
+table, Paulina, the widow of Pudeus, taking her place opposite the bishop
+in the middle of the other women.  She had learnt from Selene's kind
+nurse in what pressing difficulties the children of the deceased steward
+now found themselves, and that Hannah had promised to assist them.
+
+The deacons first gave their reports of what their works had been among
+the poor; after them the women were allowed to speak.  Paulina, a tall,
+slight woman with black hair faintly streaked with gray, drew from her
+dress, which was perfectly plain, but made of particularly soft, fine
+white woollen stuff--a tablet that she placed before her, and slowly
+raising her eyes and looking at the assembly she said:
+
+"Dame Hannah has a melancholy story to tell you, for which I crave your
+sympathy.  Will you be so good as to allow her to speak?"
+
+Paulina seemed to feel that she was the hostess to her brethren.  She
+looked ill and suffering; a line of pain had settled about her lips, and
+there were always dark shades under her eyes; still, there was something
+firm and decisive in her voice, and her glance was anything rather than
+soft and winning.  After her commanding tones Hannah's tale sounded as
+soft as a song.  She described the different natures of the two sisters
+as lovingly as though they were her own daughters, each in her own way
+seemed to her so worthy of compassion, and she spoke with pathetic lament
+of the unprotected, helpless orphans abandoned to misery, and among them
+a pretty little blind boy.  And she ended her speech by saying:
+
+"The steward's second daughter--she is sixteen and so beautiful that she
+must be exposed to every temptation--has now the whole charge of the
+nourishment and care of her six young brothers and sisters.  Ought we to
+withhold from them a protecting hand?  No, so surely as we love the
+Saviour we ought not.  You agree with me?  Well then, do not let us delay
+our help.  The second daughter of the deceased Keraunus is here, in this
+house; to-morrow early the children must all quit the palace, and now,
+while I am speaking, are at home alone and but ill tended."
+
+The Christian woman's good words fell on kindly soil, and the presbyters
+and deacons determined to recommend the congregation who should assemble
+at the love-feast to give their assistance to the steward's children.
+
+The elders had still much to discuss, so Hannah and Paulina were charged
+with the task of appealing to the hearts of the well-to-do members of the
+congregation to provide for the orphans.  The poor widow first conducted
+her wealthy friend and hostess to the little room where Arsinoe was
+waiting with growing impatience.  She looked paler than usual but, in
+spite of her tear-reddened eyes which she kept fixed on the ground, she
+was so lovely, so touchingly lovely, that the mere sight of her moved
+Paulina's heart.  She had once had two children, an only daughter besides
+her son.  The girl bad died in the spring-time of her maidenhood, and
+Paulina thought of her at every hour of her life.  It was for her sake
+that she had been baptized and devoted her existence to a series of
+painful sacrifices.  She strove with all her might to be a good
+Christian--for surely she, the self-denying woman who had taken up the
+cross of her own free will, the suffering creature who loved stillness
+and who had made her country-house, which she visited daily, a scene of
+unrest, could not fail to win Heaven, and there she hoped to meet her
+innocent child.
+
+Arsinoe reminded her of her Helena, who certainly had been far less fair
+than the steward's lovely daughter, but whose image had assumed new and
+glorified forms in the mother's faithful heart.  Since her son had left
+home for a foreign country she had often asked herself whether she might
+not find some young creature to take into her home, to attach to herself,
+to bring up as a Christian, and to bring as an offering to her Saviour's
+feet.
+
+Her daughter had died a heathen, and nothing troubled Paulina so deeply
+as that her soul was lost, and that her own struggling and striving for
+grace could not lead her to the goal beyond the grave.  No sacrifice
+seemed too great to purchase her child's beatitude, and now, standing
+before Arsinoe and looking at her with deep emotion and admiration, she
+was seized with an idea which swiftly ripened to resolve.  She would win
+this sweet soul for the Redeemer, and implore Him with ceaseless prayers
+to save her hapless child as a reward for the work of grace in Arsinoe's
+soul; and she felt as if she had signed the compact with the Redeemer,
+when, fully determined on this course, she went up to the girl and asked
+her:
+
+"You are quite forlorn, quite without relations?"  Arsinoe bowed her head
+in assent, and Paulina went on:
+
+"And do you bear your loss with resignation?"
+
+"What is resignation?"  asked the girl modestly.  Hannah laid her hand on
+the widow's arm and whispered:
+
+"She is a heathen."
+
+"I know it," said Paulina shortly, and then went on kindly but
+positively:
+
+"You and yours have lost both parents and a home by your father's death.
+You shall find a new home in my house, with me; I ask nothing of you in
+return but your love."
+
+Arsinoe looked at the haughty lady in astonishment.  She could not yet
+feel any impulse of affection towards her, and she did not as yet
+understand that what was required of her was the one gift which the best
+will, the most loving heart in the world, could not offer at a command.
+Paulina did not wait for her reply, but signed to Hannah to follow her to
+join the congregation now assembled at the evening meal.
+
+A quarter of an hour later the two women returned.  The steward's orphans
+were provided for.  Two or three Christian families were ready and
+willing to take in some of them, and many a kindly house-mother had
+begged to have the blind child; but in vain, for Hannah had claimed the
+right to bring up the hapless little boy in her own house, at any rate
+for the present.  She knew how Selene clung to him, and hoped by his
+presence to be able to work powerfully on the crushed and chilled heart
+of the poor girl.
+
+Arsinoe did not contravene the arrangements of the two women.  She
+thanked them, indeed, for she felt that she once more stood on firm
+ground, but she also was immediately aware that it would be strewn with
+sharp stones.  The thought of parting from her little brothers and
+sisters was terrible and cruel, and never left her mind for an instant,
+while, accompanied by Hannah in person, she made her way back to Lochias.
+
+The next morning her kind friend appeared again and led her and the
+little troup to Paulina's town-house.  The steward's creditors divided
+his little possessions; nothing but the chest of papyri followed the girl
+to her new home.  The hour in which the fondly-linked circle of children
+was riven asunder, when one child was taken here and another there, was
+the bitterest which Arsinoe had ever experienced or ever could experience
+through all the after years of her life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A lovely garden adjoined the Caesareum, the palace in which Sabina was
+residing.  Balbilla was fond of lingering there, and as the morning of
+the twenty-ninth of December was particularly brilliant--the sky and its
+infinite mirror the sea, gleaming in indescribably deep blue, while the
+fragrance of a flowering shrub was wafted in at her window like an
+invitation to quit the house she had sought a certain bench which, though
+placed in a sunny spot, was slightly shaded by an acacia.  This seat was
+screened from the more public paths by bushes; the promenaders who did
+not seek Balbilla could not observe her here, but she could command a
+view, through a gap in the foliage, of the path, which was strewn with
+small shells.
+
+To-day, however, the young poetess was far from feeling any curiosity;
+instead of gazing at the shrubbery enlivened by birds, at the clear
+atmosphere or the sparkling sea, her eyes were fixed on a yellow roll of
+papyrus and she was impressing very dry details on her retentive memory.
+
+She had determined to keep her word to learn to speak, write, and compose
+verses in the Aeolian dialect of the Greek tongue.  She had chosen for
+her teacher Apollonius, the great grammarian, who was apt to call his
+scholars "the dullards;" and the work which was the present object of her
+studies was derived from the famous library of the Serapeum, which far
+exceeded in completeness that of the Museum since the siege of Julius
+Caesar in the Bruchiom, when the great Museum library was burnt.
+
+Any one observing Balbilla at her occupation could hardly have believed
+that she was studying.  There was no fixed effort in her eyes or on her
+brow; still, she read line for line, not skipping a single word; only she
+did it not like a man who climbs a mountain with sweat on his brow, but
+like a lounger who walks in the main street of some great city, and is
+charmed at every new and strange thing that meets his eye.  Each time she
+came upon some form of structure in the book she was reading that had
+been hitherto unknown to her, she was so delighted that she clapped her
+hands and laughed out softly.  Her learned master had never before met
+with so cheerful a student, and it annoyed him, for to him science was a
+serious matter while she seemed to make a joke of it, as she did of every
+thing, and so desecrated it in his eyes.  After she had been sitting an
+hour on the bench, studying in her own way, she rolled up the book and
+stood up to refresh herself a little.  Feeling sure that no one could see
+her, she stretched herself in all her limbs and then stepped up to the
+gap in the shrubbery in order to see who a man in boots might be who was
+pacing up and down in the broad path beyond.
+
+It was the praetor--and yet it was not!  Verus, under this aspect at any
+rate, she had never seen till now.  Where was the smile that was wont to
+twinkle in his merry eye like the sparkle of a diamond and to play
+saucily about his lips--where the unwrinkled serenity of his brow and the
+defiantly audacious demeanor of his whole handsome person?  He was slowly
+striding up and down with a gloomy fire in his eye, a deeply-lined brow,
+and his head sunk on his breast: and yet it was not bowed with sorrow.
+If so, could he have snapped his fingers in the air as he did just as he
+passed in front of Balbilla, as much as to say: "Come what may! to-day I
+live and laugh the future in the face!"
+
+But this vestige of his old reckless audacity did not last longer than
+the time it took to part his fingers again, and the next time Verus
+passed Balbilla he looked, if possible, more gloomy than before.
+Something very unpleasant must have arisen to spoil the good humor of her
+friend's husband; and the poetess was sincerely sorry; for, though she
+herself had daily to suffer under the praetor's impertinence, she always
+forgave it for the sake of the graceful form in which he knew how to
+clothe his incivilities.
+
+Balbilla longed to see Verus content once more, and she therefore came
+forth from her hiding place.  As soon as he saw her he altered the
+expression of his features and cried out as brightly as ever:
+
+"Welcome, fairest of the fair!"
+
+She made believe not to recognize him, but, as she passed him and bowed
+her curly head, she said gravely and in deep tones:
+
+"Good day to you, Timon."
+
+"Timon?"  he asked, taking her hand.
+
+"Ah! is it you, Verus?"  she answered, as though surprised.  "I thought
+the Athenian misanthrope had quitted Hades and come to take the air in
+this garden."
+
+"You thought rightly," replied the praetor.  "But when Orpheus sings the
+trees dance, the Muse can turn dull, motionless stones into a Bacchante,
+and when Balbilla appears Timon is at once transformed into the happy
+Verus."
+
+"The miracle does not astonish me," laughed the girl.  "But is it
+permitted to ask what dark spirit so effectually produced the contrary
+result, and made a Timon of the fair Lucilla's happy husband?"
+
+"I ought rather to beware of letting you see the monster, or our joyous
+muse Balbilla might easily become the sinister Hecate.  But the malicious
+sprite is close at hand, for he is hidden in this little roll."
+
+"A document from Caesar?"
+
+"Oh! no, only a letter from a Jew."
+
+"Possibly the father of some fair daughter!"
+
+"Wrongly guessed--as wrong as possible!"
+
+"You excite my curiosity."
+
+"Mine has already been  satisfied by this roll.  Horace is wise when he
+says that man should never trouble himself about the future."
+
+"An oracle!"
+
+"Something of the kind."
+
+"And can that darken this lovely morning to you?  Did you ever see me
+melancholy?  Yet my future is threatened by a prophecy--such a hideous
+prophecy."
+
+"The fate of men is different to the destiny of women."
+
+"Would you like to hear what was prophesied of me?"
+
+"What a question!"
+
+"Listen then; the saying I will repeat to you came to me from no less an
+oracle than the Delphic Pythia:
+
+        "'That which thou boldest most precious and dear
+          Shall be torn from thy keeping,
+          And from the heights of Olympus,
+          Down shalt thou fall in the dust.'"
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"Nay--two consolatory lines follow."
+
+"And they are--?"
+
+         "Still the contemplative eye
+          Discerns under mutable sand drifts
+          Stable foundations of stone,
+          Marble and natural rock."
+
+"And you are inclined to complain of this oracle?"
+
+"Is it so pleasant to have to wade through dust?  We have enough of that
+intolerable nuisance here in Egypt--or am I to be delighted at the
+prospect of hurting my feet on hard stones?"
+
+"And what do the interpreters say?"
+
+"Only silly nonsense."
+
+"You have never found the right one; but I--I see the meaning of the
+oracle."
+
+"You?"
+
+"Ay, I!  The stern Balbilla will at last descend from the lofty Olympus
+of her high-anti-mightiness and no longer disdain that immutable
+foundation-rock, the adoration of her faithful Verus."
+
+"That foundation--that rock!"  laughed the girl.  "I should think it as
+well advised to try to walk on the surface of the sea out there as on
+that rock!"
+
+"Only try."
+
+"It is not necessary; Lucilla has made the experiment for me.  Your
+interpretation is wrong; Caesar gave me a far better one."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"That I should give up writing poetry and devote myself to strict
+scientific studies.  He advised me to try astronomy."
+
+"Astronomy,"  repeated Verus,  growing graver.  Farewell, fair one; I
+must go to Caesar!"
+
+"We were with him yesterday at Lochias.  How everything is changed there!
+The pretty little gate house is gone, there is nothing more to be seen of
+all the cheerful bustle of builders and artists, and what were gay
+workshops are turned into dull, commonplace halls.  The screens in the
+hall of the Muses had to go a week ago, and with them the young scatter-
+brain who set himself against my curls with so much energy that I was on
+the point of sacrificing them--"
+
+"Without them you would no longer be Balbilla," cried Verus eagerly.
+"The artist condemns all that is not permanently beautiful, but we are
+glad to see any thing that is graceful, and can find pleasure in it with
+the other children of the time.  The sculptor may dress his goddesses
+after the fashion of graver days and the laws of his art, but mortal
+women--if he is wise--after the fashion of the day.  However, I am
+heartily sorry for that clever, genial young fellow.  He has offended
+Caesar and was turned out of the palace, and now he is nowhere to be
+found."
+
+"Oh!"  cried Balbilla, full of regret, "poor man--and such a fine fellow!
+And my bust? we must seek him out.  If the opportunity offers I will
+entreat Caesar--"
+
+"Hadrian will hear nothing about him.  Pollux has offended him deeply."
+
+"From whom do you know that?"
+
+"From Antinous."
+
+"We saw him, too, only yesterday," cried Balbilla, eagerly.
+
+"If ever a man was permitted to wear the form of a god among mortals, it
+is he."
+
+"Romantic creature!"
+
+"I know no one who could look upon him with indifference.  He is a
+beautiful dreamer, and the trace of suffering which we observed yesterday
+in his countenance is probably nothing more than the outward expression
+of that obscure regret, felt by all that is perfect, for the joy of
+development and conscious ripening into an incarnation of the ideal in
+its own kind, of which he is an instance in himself."
+
+The poetess spoke the last words in a rapt tone, as if the form of a god
+was then and there before her eyes.  Verus had listened to her with a
+smile, but now he interrupted her, and, holding up a warning finger, he
+said:
+
+"Poetess, philosopher, and sweetest maiden, beware of descending from
+your Olympus for the sake of this boy!  When imagination and dreaminess
+meet half-way they make a pair which float in the clouds and never even
+suspect the existence of that firmer ground of which your oracle speaks."
+
+"Nonsense," said Balbilla crossly.  "Before we can fall in love with a
+statue, Prometheus must animate it with a soul and fire from heaven."
+
+"But often," retorted the praetor, "Eros proves to be a substitute for
+that unhappy friend of the gods."
+
+"The true or the sham Eros,"  asked Balbilla testily.
+
+"Certainly not the sham Eros," replied Verus.  "On this occasion he
+merely plays the part of a kindly monitor, taking the place of Pontius,
+the architect, of whom your worthy matron-companion is so much afraid.
+During the tumult of the Dionysiac festival you are reported to have
+carried on as grave a discussion as any two gray-bearded philosophers
+walking in the Stoa among attentive students."
+
+"With intelligent men, no doubt, we talk with intelligence!"
+
+"Aye, and with stupid ones gayly.  How much reason have I to be thankful
+that I am one of the stupid ones.  Farewell, till we meet again, fair
+Balbilla," and the praetor hurried off.
+
+Outside the Caesareum he got into his chariot and set out for Lochias.
+The charioteer held the reins, while he himself gazed at the roll in his
+hand which contained the result of the calculations of the astrologer,
+Rabbi Simeon Ben Jochai; and this was certainly likely enough to disturb
+the cheerfulness of the most reckless of men.
+
+When, during the night which preceded the praetor's birthday, the Emperor
+should study the heavens with special reference to the position of the
+stars at his birth, he would find that, as far as till the end of the
+second hour after midnight all the favorable planets promised Verus a
+happy lot, success and distinction.  But, with the commencement of the
+third hour--so said Ben Jochai--misfortune and death would take
+possession of his house of destiny; in the fourth hour his star would
+vanish, and anything further that might declare itself in the sky during
+that night would have nothing more to do with him, or his destiny.  The
+Emperor's star would triumph over his.  Verus could make out but little
+of the signs and calculations in the tables annexed by the Jew, but that
+little confirmed what was told in the written statement.
+
+The praetor's horses carried him swiftly along while he reflected on what
+remained for him to do under these unfavorable circumstances, in order
+not to be forced to give up entirely the highest goal of his ambition.
+If the Rabbi's observations were accurate--and of this Verus did not for
+a moment doubt--all his hopes of adoption were at an end in spite of
+Sabina's support.  How should Hadrian choose for his son and successor a
+man who was destined to die before him?  How could he, Verus, expect that
+Caesar should ally his fortunate star with the fatal star of another
+doomed to die?
+
+These reflections did nothing to help him, and yet he could not escape
+from them, till suddenly his charioteer pulled up the horses abruptly by
+the side of the footway to make room for a delegation of Egyptian priests
+who were going in procession to Lochias.  The powerful hand with which
+his servant had promptly controlled the fiery spirit of the animals
+excited his approbation, and seemed to inspire him to put a clog boldly
+on the wheels of speeding fate.  When they were no longer detained by the
+Egyptian delegates he desired the charioteer to drive slowly, for he
+wished to gain time for consideration.
+
+"Until the third hour after midnight," said he to himself.  "all is to go
+well; it is not till the fourth hour that signs are to appear in the sky
+which are of evil augury for me.  Of course the sheep will play round the
+dead lion, and the ass will even spurn him with his hoof so long as he is
+merely sick.  In the short space of time between the third and fourth
+hours all the signs of evil are crowded together.  They must be visible;
+but"--and this "but" brought sudden illumination to the praetor's mind,
+"why should Caesar see them?"
+
+The anxious aspirant's heart beat faster, his brain worked more actively,
+and he desired the driver to make a short circuit, for he wanted to gain
+yet more time for the ideas that were germinating in his mind to grow and
+ripen.
+
+Verus was no schemer; he walked in at the front door with a free and
+careless step, and scorned to climb the backstairs.  Only for the
+greatest object and aim of his life was he prepared to sacrifice his
+inclinations, his comfort and his pride, and to make unhesitating use of
+every means at hand.  For the sake of that he had already done many
+things which he regretted, and the man who steals one sheep out of the
+flock is followed by others without intending it.  The first degrading
+action that a man commits is sure to be followed by a second and a third.
+What Verus was now projecting he regarded as being a simple act of self-
+defence; and after all, it consisted merely in detaining Hadrian for an
+hour, interrupting him in an idle occupation--the observation of the
+stars.
+
+There were two men who might be helpful to him in this matter--Antinous
+and the slave Mastor.  He first thought of Mastor; but the Sarmatian was
+faithfully devoted to his master and could not be bribed.  And besides!--
+No!  it really was too far beneath him to make common cause with a slave.
+But he could count even less on support from Antinous.  Sabina hated her
+husband's favorite, and for her sake Verus had never met the young
+Bithynian on particularly friendly terms.  He fancied, too, that he had
+observed that the quiet, dreamy lad kept out of his way.  It was only by
+intimidation, probably, that the favorite could be induced to do him a
+service.
+
+At any rate, the first thing to be done was to visit Lochias and there to
+keep a lookout with his eyes wide open.  If the Emperor were in a happy
+frame of mind he might, perhaps, be induced to appear during the latter
+part of the night at the banquet which Verus was giving on the eve of his
+birthday, and at which all that was beautiful to the eye and ear was to
+be seen and heard; or a thousand favoring and helpful accidents might
+occur--and at any rate the Rabbi's forecast furnished him good fortune
+for the next few years.
+
+As he dismounted from his chariot in the newly-paved forecourt and was
+conducted to the Emperor's anteroom he looked as bright and free from
+care as if the future lay before him sunny and cloudless.
+
+Hadrian now occupied the restored palace, not as an architect from Rome
+but as sovereign of the world; he had shown himself to the Alexandrians
+and had been received with rejoicings and an unheard-of display in his
+honor.  The satisfaction caused by the imperial visit was everywhere
+conspicuous and often found expression in exaggerated terms; indeed the
+council had passed a resolution to the effect that the month of December,
+being that in which the city had had the honor of welcoming the
+'Imperator,' should henceforth be called:
+
+"Hadrianus."  The Emperor had to receive one deputation after another and
+to hold audience after audience, and on the following morning the
+dramatic representations were to begin, the processions and games which
+promised to last through many days, or--as Hadrian himself expressed it--
+to rob him of at least a hundred good hours.  Notwithstanding, the
+monarch found time to settle all the affairs of the state, and at night
+to question the stars as to the fate which awaited him and his dominions
+during all the seasons of the new year now so close at hand.
+
+The aspect of the palace at Lochias was entirely changed.  In the place
+of the gay little gate-house stood a large tent of gorgeous purple stuff,
+in which the Emperor's body-guard was quartered, and opposite to it
+another was pitched for lictors and messengers.  The stables were full of
+horses.  Hadrian's own horse, Borysthenes, which had had too long a rest,
+pawed and stamped impatiently in a separate stall, and close at hand the
+Emperor's retrievers, boar-hounds and harriers were housed in hastily-
+contrived yards and kennels.
+
+In the wide space of the first court soldiers were encamped, and close
+under the walls squatted men and women--Egyptians, Greeks and Hebrews--
+who desired to offer petitions to the sovereign.  Chariots drove in and
+out, litters came and went, chamberlains and other officials hurried
+hither and thither.  The anterooms were crowded with men of the upper
+classes of the citizens who hoped to be granted audience by the Emperor
+at the proper hour.  Slaves, who offered refreshments to those who waited
+or stood idly looking on, were to be seen in every room, and official
+persons, with rolls of manuscript under their arms, bustled into the
+inner rooms or out of the palace to carry into effect the orders of their
+superior.
+
+The hall of the Muses had been turned into a grand banqueting-hall.
+Papias, who was now on his way to Italy by the Emperor's command, had
+restored the damaged shoulder of the Urania.  Couches and divans stood
+between the statues, and under a canopy at the upper end of the vast room
+stood a throne on which Hadrian sat when he held audience.  On these
+occasions he always appeared in the purple, but in his writing-room,
+which he had not changed for another, he laid aside the imperial mantle
+and was no more splendid in his garb than the architect Claudius Venator
+had been.
+
+In the rooms that had belonged to the deceased Keraunus now dwelt an
+Egyptian without wife or children--a stern and prudent man who had done
+good service as house-steward to the prefect Titianus, and the living-
+room of the evicted family now looked dreary and uninhabited.  The mosaic
+pavement which had indirectly caused the death of Keraunus, was now on
+its way to Rome, and the new steward had not thought it worth while to
+fill up the empty, dusty, broken-up place which had been left in the
+floor of his room by the removal of the work of art, nor even to cover it
+over with mats.  Not a single cheerful note was audible in the abandoned
+dwelling but the twitter of the birds which still came morning and
+evening to perch on the balcony, for Arsinoe and the children had never
+neglected to strew the parapet with crumbs for them at the end of each
+meal.
+
+All that was gracious, all that was attractive in the old palace had
+vanished at Sabina's visit, and even Hadrian himself was a different man
+to what he had been a few days previously.  The dignity with which he
+appeared in public was truly imperial and unapproachable, and even when
+he sat with his intimates in his favorite room he was grave, gloomy and
+taciturn.  The oracle, the stars, and other signs announced some terrible
+catastrophe for the coming year with a certainty that he could not evade;
+and the few careless days that he had been permitted to enjoy at Lochias
+had ended with unsatisfactory occurrences.
+
+His wife, whose bitter nature struck him in all its repellent harshness
+here in Alexandria--where everything assumed sharper outlines and more
+accentuated movement than in Rome--had demanded of him boldly that he
+should no longer defer the adoption of the praetor.
+
+He was anxious and unsatisfied; the infinite void in his heart yawned
+before him whenever he looked into his soul, and at every glance at the
+future of his external life a long course of petty trifles started up
+before him which could not fail to stand in the way of his unwearying
+impulse to work.  Even the vegetative existence of his handsome favorite
+Antinous, untroubled as it was by the sorrows or the joys of life, had
+undergone a change.  The youth was often moody, restless and sad.  Some
+foreign influences seemed to have affected him, for he was no longer
+content to hang about his person like a shadow; no, he yearned for
+liberty, had stolen into the city several times, seeking there the
+pleasures of his age which formerly he had avoided.
+
+Nay, a change had even come over his cheerful and willing slave Mastor.
+Only his hound remained always the same in unaltered fidelity.
+
+And he himself?  He was the same to-day as ten years since: different
+every day and at every hour of the day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+When Verus entered the palace Hadrian had returned thither but a few
+minutes previously from the city.  The praetor was conducted through the
+reception-rooms to the private apartments, and here he had not long to
+wait, for Hadrian wished to speak with him immediately.  He found the
+sovereign so thoroughly out of tune that he could not think of inviting
+him to his banquet.  The Emperor restlessly paced the room while Verus
+answered his questions as to the latest proceedings of the Senate in
+Rome, but he several times interrupted his walk and gazed into the
+adjoining room.
+
+Just as the praetor had concluded his report Argus set up a howl of
+delight and Antinous came into the room.  Verus at once withdrew into
+the window and pretended to be absorbed in looking out on the harbor.
+
+"Where have you been?"  asked the Emperor, disregarding the praetor's
+presence.
+
+"Into the city a little way," was the Bithynian's answer.
+
+"But you know I cannot bear to miss you when I come home."
+
+"I thought you would have been longer absent."
+
+"For the future arrange so that I may be able to find you at whatever
+time I may seek you.  Tell me, you do not like to see me vexed and
+worried?"
+
+"No, my lord," said the lad and he raised a supplicating hand and looked
+beseechingly at his master.
+
+"Then let it pass.  But now for something else; how did this little phial
+come into the hands of the dealer Hiram?"  As he spoke the Emperor took
+from his table the little bottle of Vasa Murrhina which the lad had given
+to Arsinoe and which she had sold to the Phoenician, and held it up
+before the favorite's eyes.  Antinous turned pale, and stammered in great
+confusion.  "It is incomprehensible--I cannot in the least recollect--"
+
+"Then I will assist your memory," said the Emperor decidedly.  "The
+Phoenician appears to me to be an honester man than that rogue Gabinius.
+In his collection, which I have just been to see, I found this gem, that
+Plotina--do you hear me, boy--that Trajan's wife Plotina, my heart's
+friend, never to be forgotten, gave me years ago.  It was one of my
+dearest possessions and yet I thought it not too precious to give to
+you on your last birthday."
+
+"Oh, my lord, my dear lord!"  cried Antinous in a low tone and again
+lifting his eyes and hands in entreaty.
+
+"Now, I ask you," continued Hadrian, gravely, and without allowing
+himself to yield to the lad's beseeching looks, "how could this object
+have passed into the possession of one of the daughters of the wretched
+palace-steward Keraunus from whom Hiram confessed that he had bought it?"
+
+Antinous vainly strove for utterance; Hadrian however came to his aid by
+asking him more angrily than before:
+
+"Did the girl steal it from you?  Out with the truth!"
+
+"No, no," replied the Bithynian quickly and decidedly.  "Certainly not.
+I remember--wait a minute--yes, that was it.--You know it contained
+excellent balsam, and when the big dog threw down Selene--the steward's
+daughter is called Selene--threw her down the steps so that she lay hurt
+on the stones I fetched the phial and gave her the balsam."
+
+"With the bottle that held it?"  asked the Emperor looking at Antinous.
+
+"Yes, my lord--I had no other."
+
+"And she kept it and sold it at once."
+
+"You know, of course, her father--"
+
+"A gang of thieves!"  snarled Hadrian.
+
+"Do you know what has become of the girl?"
+
+"Yes my lord," said Antinous trembling with alarm.  "I will have her
+taken by the lictors," asserted the infuriated sovereign.
+
+"No," said the lad positively. "No, you positively must not do that."
+
+"No--?  we shall see!"
+
+"No, positively not, for at the same time you must know that Keraunus'
+daughter Selene--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"She flung herself into the water in despair; yes, into the water, at
+night--into the sea."
+
+"Oh!"  said Hadrian more gently, "that certainly alters the case.  The
+lictors would find it difficult to apprehend a shade and the girl has
+suffered the worst punishment of all.--But you?  what shall I say to your
+perfidy?  You knew the value of the gem.  You knew how highly I valued
+it, and could part with it to such hands?"
+
+"It contained the salve," stammered the boy.  "How could I think--?"
+
+The Emperor interrupted the boy, striking his forehead with his hand as
+he spoke:
+
+"Aye, think--we have known unfortunately too long that thinking is not
+your strong point.  This little bottle has cost me a pretty sum; still,
+as it once belonged to you I give it back to you again; I only require
+you to take better care of it this time.  I shall ask for it again before
+long!  But in the name of all the gods, boy, what is the matter?  Am I so
+alarming that a simple question from me is enough to drive all the blood
+out of your cheeks?  Really and truly, if I had not had the thing from
+Plotina I should have left it in the Phoenician's hands and not have made
+all this coil about it."
+
+Antinous went quickly up to the Emperor to kiss his hand, but Hadrian
+pressed his lips to his brow with fatherly affection.
+
+"Simpleton," he said, "if you want me to be pleased with you, you must be
+again just what you were before we came to Alexandria.  Leave it to
+others to do things to vex me.  You are created by the gods to delight
+me."
+
+During Hadrian's last words a chamberlain had entered the room to inform
+the Emperor that the deputation of the Egyptian priesthood had arrived to
+do homage to him.  He immediately assumed the purple mantle and proceeded
+to the hall of the Muses where, surrounded by his court, he received the
+high-priests and spiritual fathers of the different temples of the Nile
+Valley, to be hailed by them as the Son of Sun-god, and to assure them
+and the religion they cherished his gracious countenance.  He vouchsafed
+his consent to their prayer that he would add sanctity and happiness to
+the temples of the immortals which they served by gracing them with his
+presence, but set aside for the moment the question as to which town
+might be permitted to have the care of the recently-discovered Apis.
+
+This audience took up several hours.  Verus shirked the duty of attending
+it with Titianus and the other dignitaries of the court, and remained
+sitting motionless by the window; it was not till Hadrian was gone from
+the room that he came forward into it again.  He was quite alone, for
+Antinous had left the room with the Emperor.  The praetor's remaining
+behind had not escaped the lad's notice, but he sought to avoid him, for
+the domineering, mocking spirit of Verus repelled him.  Besides this the
+terror which he had gone through, as well as the consciousness that he
+had been guilty of a lie and had daringly deceived his kind master,
+had upset a soul hitherto untainted by any subterfuge and had
+thrown him off his balance.  He longed to be alone, for it would have
+been keenly painful to him at this moment to discuss indifferent
+subjects, or to be forced to affect an easy demeanor.  He sat in his
+little room, before a table, with his face buried in his hands that
+rested on it.
+
+Verus did not immediately follow him, for he understood what was passing
+in his mind and knew that here he could not escape him.  In a few minutes
+all was still alike in the large room and in the small one.  Then the
+praetor heard the door between the smaller room and the corridor hastily
+opened and immediately the Bithynian's exclamation:
+
+"At last, Mastor--have you seen Selene?"
+
+With two long, noiseless steps Verus went close to the door leading into
+the adjoining room, and listened for the slave's answer, though a less
+sharp ear than that of the praetor might have heard every syllable.
+
+"How should I have seen her?"  asked the Sarmatian sharply.  "She is still
+suffering and in bed.  I gave your flowers to the deformed girl who takes
+care of her; but I will not do it again, you may rely upon it, not if you
+coax even more fondly than you did yesterday and promise me all Caesar's
+treasure into the bargain!  And what can you want with that wretched,
+pale-faced, innocent creature?  I am but a poor slave, but I can tell you
+this--"
+
+Here the Sarmatian broke off abruptly, and Verus rightly guessed that
+Antinous had remembered his presence in the Emperor's room and had signed
+to the slave to be silent.
+
+But the listener had learnt enough.  The favorite had told his master a
+lie, and the suicide of the steward's daughter was a pure romance.  Who
+would have believed that the silent, dreamy lad had so much presence of
+mind, and such cunning powers of invention?  The praetor's handsome face
+was radiant with satisfaction as he made these reflections, for now he
+had the Bithynian under his thumb, and now he knew how to accomplish all
+he wished.  Antinous himself had indicated the right course when he had
+hastened to the Emperor with a gush of tenderness, in which the warmth
+was certainly not affected, to kiss his hand.
+
+The favorite loved his master, and Verus could ground his demands on this
+love without exposing himself, or having to dread the Emperor's avenging
+hand in case of betrayal.  He knocked at the door of the adjoining room
+with a firm hand, and then went confidently and composedly up to the
+Bithyman, told him that he had an important matter to discuss with him,
+begged him to return with him into the Emperor's room and then said, as
+soon as they were alone together:
+
+"I am so unfortunate as not to be able to number you among my particular
+friends; but one strong sentiment we have in common.  We both love
+Caesar."
+
+"I love him, certainly," replied the lad.
+
+"Well then, you must have it at heart to spare him all great sorrow, and
+to prevent grave apprehensions from paralyzing the pinions of his free
+and noble soul."
+
+"No doubt."
+
+"I knew I should find a colleague in you.  See this roll.  It contains
+the calculations and diagrams of the greatest astrologer of our time, and
+from these it is to be discovered that this night, from the end of the
+second hour of the morning till the beginning of the fourth, the stars
+will announce fearful disasters to our Sovereign.  Do you understand?"
+
+"Alas!  perfectly."
+
+"After that the indications of evil disappear.  Now if we could only
+succeed in preventing Hadrian observing the heavens merely during the
+third hour after midnight we should preserve him from trouble and
+anxiety, which will torment and spoil his life.  Who knows whether the
+stars may not be?  But even if they tell the truth, misfortune, when it
+does come, always comes much too soon.  Do you agree with me?"
+
+"Your suggestion sounds a very sensible one--still I think--"
+
+"It is both sensible and wise," said the praetor, shortly and decidedly,
+interrupting the boy.  "And it must be your part to hinder Hadrian from
+marking the course of the stars from the end of the second to the
+beginning of the fourth hour after midnight."
+
+"My part?"  cried Antinous, startled.
+
+"Yours--for you are the only person who can accomplish it."
+
+"I?"  repeated the Bithynian, greatly perturbed.  "I--disturb Caesar in
+his observations!"
+
+"It is your duty."
+
+"But he never allows any one to disturb him at his studies, and if I were
+to attempt it he would be very angry and send me off in no time.  No, no,
+what you ask is impossible."
+
+"It is not only possible but imperatively necessary."
+
+"That it certainly  cannot be," replied Antinous, clasping his forehead
+in his hand.  "Only listen!  Hadrian has known for several days past that
+some great misfortune threatens him.  I heard it from his own lips.  If
+you know him at all you must know that he gazes at the stars not merely
+to rejoice in future happiness, but also to fortify himself against the
+disasters which threaten him or the state.  What would crush a weaker man
+only serves to arm his bold spirit.  He can bear all that may befall, and
+it would be a crime to deceive him."
+
+"To cloud his heart and mind would be a greater," retorted Verus.
+"Devise some means of taking him away from his star-gazing for only an
+hour."
+
+"I dare not, and even if I wished it, it could not be done.  Do you
+suppose he follows me whenever I call?"
+
+"But you know him; invent something which will be sure to make him come
+down from his watchtower."
+
+"I cannot invent or think of any thing."
+
+"Nothing?"  asked Verus, going close tip to the Bithynian.  "You just now
+gave striking proof to the contrary."
+
+Antinous turned pale and the praetor went on:
+
+"When you wanted to rescue the fair Selene from the lictors your swift
+invention threw her into the sea!"
+
+"She did throw herself in, as truly as that the gods--"
+
+"Stay, stay," cried the praetor.  "No perjury, at least!  Selene is
+living, you send her flowers, and if I should think proper to conduct
+Hadrian to the house of Paulina--"
+
+"Oh!" cried Antinous  lamentably enough, and grasping the Roman's hand.
+"You will not--you can not.  Oh Verus!  you will not do that."
+
+"Simpleton," laughed the praetor, slapping the alarmed youth lightly on
+the shoulder.  "What good could it do me to ruin you?  I have only one
+thing at heart just now, and that is to save Caesar from care and
+anxiety.  Keep him occupied only during the third hour after midnight and
+you may count on my friendship; but if out of fear or ill-will you refuse
+me your assistance you do not deserve your sovereign's favor and then you
+will compel me--"
+
+"No more, no more!" cried Antinous interrupting his tormentor in despair.
+
+"Then you promise me to carry out my wish?"
+
+"Yes, by Hercules!  Yes, what you require shall be done.  But eternal
+gods!  how am I to get Caesar--"
+
+"That, my young friend, I leave with perfect confidence to you and your
+shrewdness."
+
+"I am not shrewd--I can devise nothing," groaned the lad.
+
+"What you could do out of terror of your master you can do still better
+for love of him," retorted the praetor.  "The problem is an easy one; and
+if after all you should not succeed I shall feel it no less than my duty
+to explain to Hadrian how well Antinous can take care of his own
+interests and how badly of his master's peace of mind.  Till to-morrow,
+my handsome friend--and if for the future you have flowers to send, my
+slaves are quite at your service."
+
+With these words the praetor left the room, but Antinous stood like one
+crushed, pressing his brow against the cold porphyry pillar by the
+window.  What Verus required of him did not seem to have any harm in it,
+and yet it was not right.  It was treason to his noble master, whom he
+loved with tender devotion as a father, a wise, kind friend, and
+preceptor, and whom he reverenced and feared as though he were a god.
+To plot to hide impending trouble from him, as if he were not a man but a
+feeble weakling, was absurd and contemptible, and must introduce an error
+of unknown importance and extent into his sovereign's far-seeing
+predeterminations.  Many other reasons against the praetor's demands
+crowded on him, and as each occurred to his mind he cursed his tardy
+spirit which never let him see or think the right thing till it was too
+late.  His first deceit had already involved him in a second.
+
+He hated himself; he hit his forehead with his fists and sobbed aloud
+bitterly again and again, though he shed no tears.  Still, in the midst
+of his self-accusation, the flattering voice made itself heard in his
+soul: "It is only to preserve your master from sorrow, and it is nothing
+wrong that you are asked to do."  And each time that his inward ear heard
+these words he began to puzzle his brain to discover in what way it might
+be possible for him to tempt the Emperor, at the hour named, down from
+his watch-tower in the palace.  But he could hit on no practicable plan.
+
+"It cannot be done, no--it cannot be done!"  he muttered to himself and
+then he asked himself if it were not even his duty to defy the praetor
+and to confess to Hadrian that he had deceived him in the morning.  If
+only it had not been for the little bottle!  Could he ever confess that
+he had heedlessly parted with this gift of all others from his master?
+No, it was too hard, it might cost him his sovereign's affection for
+ever.  And if he contented himself with a half-truth and confessed,
+merely to anticipate the praetor's accusation, that Selene was still
+living, then he would involve the daughters of the hapless Keraunus in
+persecution and disgrace Selene whom he loved with all the devotion of a
+first passion, which was enhanced and increased by the hindrances that
+had come in its way.  It was impossible to confess his guilt-quite
+impossible.  The longer he thought, tormenting himself to find some way
+out of it all, the more confused he became, and the more impotent his
+efforts at resistance.  The praetor had entangled him with thongs and
+meshes, and at every struggle to escape they only seemed knotted more
+closely round him.
+
+His head began to ache sadly; and what an endless time Caesar was absent!
+He dreaded his return, and yet he longed for it.  When at last Hadrian
+came in and signed to Master to relieve him of his imperial robes,
+Antinous slipped behind him, and silently and carefully fulfilled the
+slave's office.  He felt uneasy and worried, and yet he forced himself to
+appear in good spirits during supper when he had to sit opposite the
+Emperor.
+
+When, shortly before midnight, Hadrian rose from the table to go up to
+the watch-tower on the northern side of the palace, Antinous begged to be
+allowed to carry his instruments for him, and the Emperor, stroking his
+hair, said kindly:
+
+"You are my dear and faithful companion.  Youth has a right to go astray
+now and then so long as it does not entirely forget the path in which it
+ought to tread."
+
+Antinous was deeply touched by these words, and he secretly pressed to
+his lips a fold of the Emperor's toga as he walked in front.  It was as
+though he wanted to make amends in advance for the crime he had not yet
+committed.
+
+Wrapped in his cloak he kept the Emperor silent company during his
+studies, till the close of the first hour after midnight.  The sharp,
+north wind which blew through the darkness did his aching head good, and
+still he racked his wits for some pretext to attract Hadrian from his
+labors, but in vain.  His tormented brain was like a dried-up well;
+bucket after bucket did he send down, but not one brought up the
+refreshing draught he needed.  Nothing--nothing could he think of that
+could conduce to his end.  Once he plucked up courage and said
+imploringly as he went close up to the Emperor: "Go down earlier to-night
+my lord; you really do not allow yourself enough rest and will injure
+your health."
+
+Hadrian let him speak, and answered kindly:
+
+"I sleep in  the morning.  If you are tired, go to bed now."
+
+But Antinous remained, gazing, like his master, at the stars.  He knew
+very few of the brilliant bodies by their names, but some of them were
+very dear to him, particularly the Pleiades which his father had pointed
+out to him and which reminded him of his home.  There he had been so
+quiet and happy, and how wildly his anxious heart was throbbing now!
+
+"Go to bed, the second hour is beginning," said Hadrian.
+
+"Already!"  said the boy; and as he reflected how soon that must be done
+which Verus had required of him, and then looked up again at the heavens,
+it seemed to him as though all the stars in the blue vault over his head
+had glided from their places and were dancing in wild and whirling
+confusion between the sky and the sea.  He closed his eyes in his
+bewilderment; then, bidding his master good-night he lighted a torch and
+by its flaring and doubtful light descended from the tower.
+
+Pontius had erected this slight structure expressly for Hadrian's nightly
+observations.  It was built of timber and Nile-mud and stood up as a tall
+turret on the secure foundation of an ancient watch-tower built of hewn
+stone, which, standing among the low buildings that served as storehouses
+for the palace, commanded a free outlook over all the quarters of the
+sky.  Hadrian, who liked to be alone and undisturbed when observing the
+heavens, had preferred this erection--even after he had made himself
+known to the Alexandrians--to the great observatory of the Serapeum, from
+which a still broader horizon was visible.
+
+After Antinous had got out of the smaller and newer tower into the larger
+and older one he sat down on one of the lowest steps to collect his
+thoughts and to quiet his loudly-beating heart.  His vain cogitations
+began all over again.  Time slipped on-between the present moment and the
+deed to be done there were but a certain number of minutes.  He told
+himself so, and his weary brain stirred more actively, suggesting to him
+to feign illness and bring the Emperor to his bedside.  But Hadrian was
+physician enough to see that he was well, and even if he should allow
+himself to be deceived, he, Antinous, was a deceiver.  This thought
+filled him with horror of himself and with dread for the future, and yet
+it was the only plan that gave any hope of success.  And even when he
+sprang to his feet and walked hastily up and down among the out-houses
+he could hit upon no other scheme.  And how fast the minutes flew!  The
+third hour after midnight must be quite close at hand, and he had
+scarcely left himself time to rush back into the palace, throw himself on
+his couch, and call Mastor.  Quite bewildered with agitation and
+tottering like a drunken man he hastened back into the old tower where he
+had left his torch leaning against the wall and looked up the stone
+stairs; it suddenly flashed through his mind that he might go up again
+to fling himself down them.  What did he care for his miserable life.
+
+His fall, his cry, would bring the Emperor down from his observatory and
+he knew that he would not leave his bleeding favorite uncared for and
+untended he could count upon that.  And if then Hadrian watched by his
+bed it would be that, perhaps, of a dying man, but not of a deceiver.
+Fully determined on extreme measures, he tightened the girdle which held
+his chiton above his hips and once more went out into the night to judge
+by the stars what hour it was.  He saw the slender sickle of the waning
+moon-the same moon which at the full had been mirrored in the sea when he
+had gone into the water to save Selene.  The image of the pale girl rose
+before him, tangibly distinct.  He felt as if he held her once more in
+his arms--saw her once more lying on her bed-could once more press his
+lips to her cold brow.  Then the vision vanished; instead he was
+possessed by a wild desire to see her, and he said to himself that he
+could not die without having seen her once more.
+
+He looked about him in indecision.  Before him lay one of the largest of
+the storehouses that surrounded the tower.  With his torch in one hand he
+went in at the open door.  In the large shed lay the chests and cases,
+the hemp, linseed, straw and matting that had been used in packing the
+vessels and works of art with which the palace had been newly furnished.
+This he knew; and now, looking up at the stars once more and seeing that
+the second hour after midnight had almost run to an end, a fearful
+thought flashed through his mind, and without daring to consider, he
+flung the torch into the open shed, crammed to the roof with inflammable
+materials, and stood motionless, with his arms crossed, to watch through
+the door of the shed the rapidly spreading flame, the soaring smoke, the
+struggle and mingling of the noiseless wreaths of black vapor from the
+various combustibles with the ruddy light, the victory of the fire and
+the leaping flames as they flew upward.
+
+The roof, thatched with palm-leaves and reeds, had begun to crackle when
+Antinous rushed into the tower only a few paces off crying: "Fire--fire!"
+and up the stairs which led to the observatory of the imperial stargazer.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR, Part 2.
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 9.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+The entertainment which Verus was giving on the eve of his birthday
+seemed to be far from drawing to an end, even at the beginning of the
+third hour of the morning.  Besides the illustrious and learned Romans
+who had accompanied the Emperor to Alexandria, the most famous and
+distinguished Alexandrians had also been invited by the praetor.  The
+splendid banquet had long been ended, but jar after jar of mixed wine was
+still being filled and emptied.  Verus himself had been unanimously
+chosen as the king and leader of the feast.  Crowned with a rich garland,
+he reclined on a couch strewn with rose-leaves, an invention of his own,
+and formed of four cushions piled one on another.  A curtain of
+transparent gauze screened him from flies and gnats, and a tightly-woven
+mat of lilies and other flowers covered his feet and exhaled sweet odors
+for him and for the pretty singer who sat by his side.
+
+Pretty boys dressed as little cupids watched every sign of the 'sham
+Eros.'
+
+How indolently he lay on the deep, soft cushions!  And yet his eyes were
+every where, and though he had not failed to give due consideration to
+the preparations for his feast, he devoted all the powers of his mind to
+the present management of it.  As at the entertainments which Hadrian was
+accustomed to give in Rome, first of all short selections from new essays
+or poems were recited by their authors, then a gay comedy was performed;
+then Glycera, the most famous singer in the city, had sung a dithyramb to
+her harp, in a voice as sweet as a bell, and Alexander, a skilled
+performer on the trigonon, had executed a piece.  Finally a troop of
+female dancers had rushed into the room and swayed and balanced
+themselves to the music of the double-flute and tambourine.
+
+Each fresh amusement had been more loudly applauded than the last.  With
+every jar of wine a new torrent of merriment went up through the opening
+in the roof, by which the scent of the flowers and of the perfume burnt
+on beautiful little altars found an exit into the open air.  The wine
+offered in libations to the gods already lay in broad pools upon the hard
+pavement of the hall, the music and singing were drowned in shouts  the
+feast had become an orgy.
+
+Verus was inciting the more quiet or slothful of his guests to a freer
+enjoyment and encouraging the noisiest in their extravagant recklessness
+to still more unbridled license.  At the same time he bowed to each one
+who drank to his health, entertained the singer who sat by his side,
+flung a sparkling jest into one and another silent group, and proved to
+the learned men who reclined on their couches near to his that whenever
+it was possible he took an interest in their discussions.  Alexandria,
+the focus of all the learning of the East and the West, had seen other
+festivals than this riotous banquet.  Indeed, even here a vein of grave
+and wise discourse flavored the meal of the circle that belonged to the
+Museum; but the senseless revelry of Rome had found its way into the
+houses of the rich, and even the noblest achievements of the human mind
+had been made, unawares, subservient to mere enjoyment.  A man was a
+philosopher only that he might be prompt to discuss and always ready to
+take his share in the talk; and at a banquet a well-told anecdote was
+more heartily welcome than some profound idea that gave rise to a
+reflection or provoked a subtle discussion.
+
+What a noise, what a clatter was storming in the hall by the second hour
+after midnight!  How the lungs of the feasters were choked with
+overpowering perfumes!  What repulsive exhibitions met the eye!  How
+shamelessly was all decency trodden under foot!  The poisonous breath of
+unchecked license had blasted the noble moderation of the vapor of wine
+which floated round this chaos of riotous topers slowly rose the pale
+image of Satiety watching for victims on the morrow.
+
+The circle of couches on which lay Florus, Favorinus and their
+Alexandrian friends stood like an island in the midst of the surging sea
+of the orgy.  Even here the cup had been bravely passed round, and Florus
+was beginning to speak somewhat indistinctly, but conversation had
+hitherto had the upper hand.
+
+Two days before, the Emperor had visited the Museum and had carried on
+learned discussions with the most prominent of the sages and professors
+there, in the presence of their assembled disciples.  At last a formal
+disputation had arisen, and the dialectic keenness and precision with
+which Hadrian, in the purest Attic Greek, had succeeded in driving his
+opponents into a corner had excited the greatest admiration.  The
+Sovereign had quitted the famous institution with a promise to reopen the
+contest at an early date.  The philosophers, Pancrates and Dionysius and
+Apollonius, who took no wine at all, were giving a detailed account of
+the different phases of this remarkable disputation and praising the
+admirable memory and the ready tongue of the great monarch.
+
+"And you did not even see him at his best," exclaimed Favorinus, the
+Gaul, the sophist and rhetorician.  "He has received an unfavorable
+oracle and the stars seem to confirm the prophecy.  This puts him out
+of tune.  Between ourselves let me tell you I know a few who are his
+superiors in dialectic, but in his happiest moments he is irresistible-
+irresistible.  Since we made up our quarrel he is like a brother to me.
+I will defend him against all comers, for, as I say, Hadrian is my
+brother."
+
+The Gaul had poured out this speech in a defiant tone and with flashing
+eyes.  He grew pale in his cups, touchy, boastful and very talkative.
+
+"No doubt you are right," replied Apollonius, "but it seemed to us that
+he was bitter in discussion.  His eyes are gloomy rather than gay."
+
+"He is my brother," repeated Favorinus, "and as for his eyes, I have seen
+them flash--by Hercules! like the radiant sun, or merry twinkling stars!
+And his mouth!  I know him well!  He is my brother, and I will wager that
+while he condescended--it is too comical--condescended to dispute with
+you--with you, there was a sly smile at each corner of his mouth--so--
+look now--like this he smiled."
+
+"I repeat, he seemed to us gloomy rather than gay," retorted Apollonius,
+with annoyance; and Pancrates added:
+
+"If he does really know how to jest he certainly did not prove it to us."
+
+"Not out of ill-will," laughed the Gaul, "you do not know him, but I--I
+am his friend and may follow wherever--he goes.  Now only wait and I will
+tell you a few stories about him.  If I chose I could describe his whole
+soul to you as if it lay there on the surface of the wine in my cup.
+Once in Rome he went to inspect the newly-decorated baths of Agrippa, and
+in the undressing-room he saw an old man, a veteran who had fought with
+him somewhere or other.  My memory is greatly admired, but his is in no
+respect inferior.  Scaurus was the old man's name--yes--yes, Scaurus.
+He did not observe Caesar at first, for after his bath his wounds were
+burning and he was rubbing his back against the rough stone of a pillar.
+Hadrian however called to him:  'Why are you scratching yourself, my
+friend?' and Scaurus, not at once recognizing Caesar's voice, answered
+without turning round:  'Because I have no slave to do it for me.'  You
+should have heard Caesar laugh!  Liberal as he is sometimes--I say
+sometimes--he gave Scaurus a handsome sum of money and two sturdy slaves.
+The story soon got abroad, and when Caesar, who--as you believe--cannot
+jest, a short time after again visited the bath, two old soldiers at once
+placed themselves in his way, scrubbed their backs against the wall like
+Scaurus, and called out to him 'Great Caesar, we have no slaves.'--'Then
+scratch each other,' cried he, and left the soldiers to rub themselves."
+
+"Capital!" laughed Dionysius.
+"Now one more true story," interrupted the loquacious Gaul.  "Once upon
+a time a man with white hair begged of him.  The wretch was a low fellow,
+a parasite who wandered round from one man's table to another, feeding
+himself out of other folks' wallets and dishes.  Caesar knew his man and
+warned him off.  Then the creature had his hair dyed that he might not be
+recognized, and tried his luck a second time with the Emperor.  But
+Hadrian has good eyes; he pointed to the door, saying, with the gravest
+face: 'I have just lately refused to give your father anything.'  And a
+hundred such jokes pass from mouth to mouth in Rome, and if you like I
+can give you a dozen of the best."
+
+"Tell us, go on, out with your stories.  They are all old friends!"
+stammered Florus.  "But while Favorinus chatters we can drink."
+
+The Gaul cast a contemptuous glance at the Roman, and answered promptly:
+
+"My stories are too good for a drunken man."
+
+Florus paused to think of an answer, but before he could find one, the
+praetor's body-slave rushed into the hall crying out: "The palace at
+Lochias is on fire."
+
+Verus kicked the mat of lilies off his feet on to the floor, tore down
+the net that screened him in, and shouted to the breathless runner.
+
+"My chariot-quick, my chariot!  To our next merry meeting another evening
+my friends, with many thanks for the honor you have done me.  I must be
+off to Lochias."
+
+Verus flew out of the hall, without throwing on his cloak and hot as he
+was, into the cold night, and at the same time most of his guests had
+started up to hurry into the open air, to see the fire and to hear the
+latest news; but only very few went to the scene of the conflagration to
+help the citizens to extinguish it, and many heavily intoxicated drinkers
+remained lying on the couches.
+
+As Favorinus and the Alexandrians raised themselves on their pillows
+Florus cried:
+
+"No god shall make me stir from this place, not if the whole house is
+burnt down and Alexandria and Rome, and for aught I care every nest and
+nook on the face of the earth.  It may all burn together.  The Roman
+Empire can never be greater or more splendid than under Caesar!  It may
+burn down like a heap of straw, it is all the same to me--I shall lie
+here and drink."
+
+The turmoil and confusion on the scene of the interrupted feast seemed
+inextricable, while Verus hurried off to Sabina to inform her of what had
+occurred.  But Balbilla had been the first to discover the fire and quite
+at the beginning, for after sitting industriously at her studies, and
+before going to bed, she had looked out toward the sea. She had instantly
+run out, cried "Fire!" and was now seeking for a chamberlain to awake
+Sabina.
+
+The whole of Lochias flared and shone in a purple and golden glow. It
+formed the nucleus of a wide spreading radiance of tender red of which
+the extent and intensity alternately grew and diminished.  Verus met
+the poetess at the door that led from the garden into the Empress'
+apartments.  He omitted on this occasion to offer his customary greeting,
+but hastily asked her:
+
+"Has Sabina been told?"
+
+"I think not yet."
+
+"Then have her called.  Greet her from me--I must go to Lochias"
+
+"We will follow you."
+
+"No, stay here; you will be in the way there."
+
+"I do not take much room and I shall go.  What a magnificent spectacle."
+
+"Eternal gods! the flames are breaking out too below the palace, by the
+King's harbor.  Where can the chariots be?"
+
+"Take me with you."
+
+"No you must wake the Empress."
+
+"And Lucilla?"
+
+"You women must stay where you are."
+
+"For my part I certainly will not.  Caesar will be in no danger?"
+
+"Hardly--the old stones cannot burn."
+
+"Only look! how splendid! the sky is one crimson tent.  I entreat you,
+Verus, let me go with you."
+
+"No, no, pretty one.  Men are wanted down there."
+
+"How unkind you are."
+
+"At last! here are the chariots!  You women stay here; do you understand
+me?"
+
+"I will not take any orders; I shall go to Lochias."
+
+"To see Antinous in the flames!  such a sight is not to be seen every
+day, to be sure!"  cried Verus, ironically, as he sprang into his
+chariot, and took the reins into his own hand.
+
+Balbilla stamped with rage.
+
+She went to Sabina's rooms fully resolved to go to the scene of the fire.
+The Empress would not let herself be seen by any one, not even by
+Balbilla, till she was completely dressed.  A waiting-woman told Balbilla
+that Sabina would get up certainly, but that for the sake of her health
+she could not venture out in the night-air.
+
+The poetess then sought Lucilla and begged her to accompany her to
+Lochias; she was perfectly willing and ready, but when she heard that her
+husband had wished that the women should remain at the Caesareum she
+declared that she owed him obedience and tried to keep back her friend.
+But the perverse curly-haired girl was fully determined, precisely
+because Verus had forbidden her--and forbidden her with mocking words, to
+carry out her purpose.  After a short altercation with Lucilla she left
+her, sought her companion Claudia, told her what she intended doing,
+dismissed that lady's remonstrance with a very positive command, gave
+orders herself to the house-steward to have horses put to a chariot and
+reached the imperilled palace an hour and a half after Verus.
+
+An endless, many-headed crowd of people besieged the narrow end of
+Lochias on the landward side and the harbor wharves below, where some
+stores and shipyards were in flames.  Boats innumerable were crowded
+round the little peninsula.  An attempt was being made, with much
+shouting, and by the combined exertions of an immense number of men, to
+get the larger ships afloat which lay at anchor close to the quay of the
+King's harbor and to place them in security.  Every thing far and wide
+was lighted up as brightly as by day, but with a ruddier and more
+restless light.  The north-east breeze fanned the fire, aggravating the
+labors of the men who were endeavoring to extinguish it and snatching
+flakes of flame off every burning mass.  Each blazing storehouse was a
+gigantic torch throwing a broad glare into the darkness of the night.
+The white marble of the tallest beacon tower in the world, on the island
+of Pharos, reflected a rosy hue, but its far gleaming light shone pale
+and colorless.  The dark hulls of the larger ships and the flotilla of
+boats in the background were afloat in a fiery sea, and the still water
+under the shore mirrored the illumination in which the whole of Lochias
+was wrapped.
+
+Balbilla could not tire of admiring this varying scene, in which the most
+gorgeous hues vied with each other and the intensest light contrasted
+with the deepest shadows.  And she had ample time to dwell on the
+marvellous picture before her eyes, for her chariot could only proceed
+slowly, and at a point where the street led up from the King's harbor to
+the palace, lictors stood in her way and declared positively that any
+farther advance was out of the question.  The horses, much scared by the
+glare of the fire and the crowd that pressed round them, could hardly be
+controlled, first rearing and then kicking at the front board of the
+chariot.  The charioteer declared he could no longer be answerable.  The
+people who had hurried to the rescue now began to abuse the women, who
+ought to have staid at home at the loom rather than come stopping the way
+for useful citizens.
+
+"There is time enough to go out driving by daylight!"  cried one man; and
+another: "If a spark falls in those curls another conflagration will
+break out."
+
+The position of the ladies was becoming every instant more unendurable
+and Balbilla desired the charioteer to turn round; but in the swarming
+mass of men that filled the street this was easier said than done.  One
+of the horses broke the strap which fastened the yoke that rested on his
+withers to the pole, started aside and forced back the crowd which now
+began to scold and scream loudly.  Balbilla wanted to spring out of the
+chariot, but Claudia clung tightly to her and conjured her not to leave
+her in the lurch in the midst of the danger.  The spoilt patrician's
+daughter was not timid, but on this occasion she would have given much
+not to have followed Verus.  At first she thought, "A delightful
+adventure! still, it will not be perfect till it is over."  But presently
+her bold experiment lost every trace of charm, and repentance that she
+had ever undertaken it filled her mind.  She was far nearer weeping than
+laughing already, when a man's deep voice said behind her, in tones of
+commanding decision:
+
+"Make way there for the pumps; push aside whatever stops the way."
+
+These terrible words reduced Claudia to sinking on to her knees, but
+Balbilla's quelled courage found fresh wings as she heard them, for she
+had recognized the voice of Pontius.  Now he was close behind the
+chariot, high on a horse.  He then was the man on horseback whom she had
+seen dashing from the sea-shore up to the higher storehouses that were
+burning, down to the lake, and hither and thither.
+
+She turned full upon him and called him by his name.  He recognized her,
+tried to pull up his horse as it was dashing forward, and smilingly shook
+his head at her, as much as to say: "She is a giddy creature and deserves
+a good scolding; but who could be angry with her?"  And then he gave his
+orders to his subordinates just as if she had been a mere chattel, a bale
+of goods or something of the kind, and not an heiress of distinction.
+
+"Take out the horses," he cried to the municipal guards; "we can use them
+for carrying water."--"Help the ladies out of the chariot."--"Take them
+between you Nonnus and Lucanus."--"Now, stow the chariot in there among
+the bushes."--"Make way there in front, make way for our pumps."  And
+each of these orders was obeyed as promptly as if it was the word of
+command given by a general to his well-drilled soldiers.
+
+After the pumps had been fairly started Pontius rode close up to Balbilla
+and said:
+
+"Caesar is safe and sound.  You no doubt wished to see the progress of
+the fire from a spot near it, and in fact the colors down there are
+magnificent.  I have not time to escort you back to the Caesareum; but
+follow me.  You will be safe in the harbor-guard's stone house, and from
+the roof you can command a view of Lochias and the whole peninsula.  You
+will have a rare feast for the eye, noble Balbilla; but I beg you not to
+forget at the same time how many days of honest labor, what rich
+possessions, how many treasures earned by bitter hardship are being
+destroyed at this moment.  What may delight you will cost bitter tears to
+many others, and so let us both hope that this splendid spectacle may now
+have reached its climax, and soon may come to an end."
+
+"I hope so--I hope it with all my heart!"  cried the girl.
+
+"I was sure you would.  As soon as possible I will come to look after
+you.  You Nonnus and Lucanus, conduct these noble ladies to the harbor-
+guard's house.
+
+"Tell him they are intimate friends of the Empress.  Only keep the pumps
+going!  Till we meet again Balbilla!" and with these words the architect
+gave his horse the bridle and made his way through the crowd.
+
+A quarter of an hour later Balbilla was standing on the roof of the
+little stone guard-house.  Claudia was utterly exhausted and incapable of
+speech.  She sat in the dark little parlor below on a rough-hewn wooden
+bench.  But the young Roman now gazed at the fire with different eyes
+than before.  Pontius had made her feel a foe to the flames which only a
+short time before had filled her with delight as they soared up to the
+sky, wild and fierce.  They still flared up violently, as though they had
+to climb above the roof; but soon they seemed to be quelled and
+exhausted, to find it more and more difficult to rise above the black
+smoke which welled up from the burning mass.  Balbilla had looked out for
+the architect and had soon discovered him, for the man on horseback
+towered above the crowd.  He halted now by one and now by another burning
+storehouse.  Once she lost sight of him for a whole hour, for he had gone
+to Lochias.  Then again he reappeared, and wherever he stayed for a
+while, the raging element abated its fury.
+
+Without her having perceived it, the wind had changed and the air had
+become still and much warmer.  This circumstance favored the efforts of
+the citizens trying to extinguish the fire, but Balbilla ascribed it to
+the foresight of her clever friend when the flames subsided in souse
+places and in others were altogether extinguished.  Once she saw that he
+had a building completely torn down which divided a burning granary from
+some other storehouses that had been spared, and she understood the
+object of this order; it cut off the progress of the flames.  Another
+time she saw him high on the top of a rise in the ground.  Close before
+him in a sheet of flame was a magazine in which were kept tow and casks
+of resin and pitch.  He turned his face full towards it and gave his
+orders, now on this side, now on that.  His figure and that of his horse,
+which reared uneasily beneath him, were flooded in a crimson glow--a
+splendid picture!  She trembled for him, she gazed in admiration at this
+calm, resolute, energetic man, and when a blazing beam fell close in
+front of him and after his frightened horse had danced round and round
+with him, he forced it to submit to his guidance, the praetor's
+insinuation recurred to her mind, that she clung to her determination
+to go to Lochias because she hoped to enjoy the spectacle of Antinous in
+the flames.  Here, before her, was a nobler display, and yet her lively
+imagination which often, sometimes indeed against her will, gave shape to
+her formless thoughts--called up the image of the beautiful youth
+surrounded by the glowing glory which still painted the horizon.
+
+Hour after hour slipped by; the efforts of the thousands who endeavored
+to extinguish the blaze were crowned by increasing success; one burning
+mass after another was quenched, if not extinguished, and instead of
+flames smoke, mingled with sparks, rose from Lochias blacker and blacker-
+and still Pontius came not to look after her.  She could not see any
+stars for the sky was overcast with clouds, but the beginning of a new
+day could not be far distant.  She was shivering with cold, and her
+friend's long absence began to annoy her.  When, presently, it began to
+rain in large drops, she went down the ladder that led from the roof and
+sat down by the fire in the little room where her companion had gone fast
+asleep.
+
+She had been sitting quite half an hour and gazing dreamily into the
+warming glow, when she heard the sound of hoofs and Pontius appeared.
+His face was begrimed, and his voice hoarse with shouting commands for
+hours.  As soon as she saw him Balbilla forgot her vexation, greeted him
+warmly, and told him how she had watched his every movement; but the
+eager girl, so readily fired to enthusiasm, could only with the greatest
+difficulty bring out a few words to express the admiration that his mode
+of proceeding had so deeply excited in her mind.
+
+She heard him say that his mouth was quite parched and his throat was
+longing for a draught of some drink, and she--who usually had every pin
+she needed handed to her by a slave, and on whom fate had bestowed no
+living creature whom she could find a pleasure in serving--she, with her
+own hand dipped a cup of water out of the large clay jar that stood in a
+corner of the room and offered it to him with a request that he would
+drink it.  He eagerly swallowed the refreshing fluid, and when the little
+cup was empty Balbilla took it from his hand, refilled it, and gave it
+him again.
+
+Claudia, who woke up when the architect came in, looked on at her foster-
+child's unheard-of proceedings with astonishment, shaking her head.  When
+Pontius had drained the third cupful that Balbilla fetched for him he
+exclaimed, drawing a deep breath:
+
+"That was a drink--I never tasted a better in the whole course of my
+life."
+
+"Muddy water out of a nasty earthen pitcher!"  answered the girl.
+
+"And it tasted better than wine from Byblos out of a golden goblet."
+
+"You had honestly earned the refreshment, and thirst gives flavor to the
+humblest liquor."
+
+"You forget the hand that gave it me," replied the architect warmly.
+
+Balbilla colored and looked at the floor in confusion, but presently
+raised her face and said, as gayly and carelessly as ever:
+
+"So that you have been deliciously refreshed; and now that is done you
+will go home and the poor thirsty soul will once more become the great
+architect.  But before that happens, pray inform us what god it was that
+brought you hither from Pelusium in the very nick of time when the fire
+broke out, and how matters look now in the palace at Lochias?"
+
+"My time is short," replied Pontius, and he then rapidly told her that,
+after he had finished his work at Pelusium, he had returned to Alexandria
+with the imperial post.  As he got out of the chariot at the post-house
+he observed the reflection of fire over the sea and was immediately after
+told by a slave that it was the palace that was burning.  There were
+horses in plenty at the post-house; he had chosen a strong one and had
+got to the spot before the crowd had collected.  How the fire had
+originated, so far remained undiscovered.  "Caesar," he said, "was in the
+act of observing the heavens when a flame broke out in a store-shed close
+to the tower.  Antinous was the first to detect it, cried 'Fire,' and
+warned his master.  I found Hadrian in the greatest agitation; he charged
+me to superintend the work of rescuing all that could be saved.  At
+Lochias.  Verus helped me greatly and indeed with so much boldness and
+judgment that I owe very much to him.  Caesar himself kept his favorite
+within the palace, for the poor fellow burned both his hands."
+
+"Oh!" cried Balbilla with eager regret.  "How did that happen?"
+
+"When Hadrian and Antinous first came down from the tower they brought
+with them as many of the instruments and manuscripts as they could carry.
+When they were at the bottom Caesar observed that a tablet with important
+calculations had been left lying up above and expressed his regret.
+Meanwhile the fire had already caught the slightly-built turret and it
+seemed impossible to get into it again.  But the dreamy Bithynian can
+wake out of his slumbers it would seem, and while Caesar was anxiously
+watching the burning bundles of flax which the wind kept blowing across
+to the harbor the rash boy rushed into the burning building, flung the
+tablet down from the top of the tower and then hurried down the stairs.
+His bold action would indeed have cost the poor fellow his life if the
+slave Mastor; who meanwhile had hurried to the spot, had not dragged him
+down the stone stair of the old tower on which the new one stood and
+carried him into the open air.  He was half suffocated at the top of them
+and had dropped down senseless."
+
+"But he is alive, the splendid boy, the image of the gods! and he is out
+of danger?"  cried Balbilla, with much anxiety.
+
+"He is quite well; only his hands, as I said, are somewhat burnt, and his
+hair is singed, but that will grow again."
+
+"His soft, lovely curls!"  cried Balbilla.  "Let us go home, Claudia.
+The gardener shall cut a magnificent bunch of roses, and we will send it
+to Antinous to please him."
+
+"Flowers to a man who does not care about them?"  asked Pontius, gravely.
+
+"With what else can women reward men's virtues or do honor to their
+beauty?"  asked Balbilla.
+
+"Our own conscience is the reward of our honest actions, or the laurel
+wreath from the hand of some famous man."
+
+"And beauty?"
+
+"That of women claims and wins admiration, love too perhaps and flowers-
+that of men may rejoice the eye, but to do it Honor is a task granted to
+no mortal woman."
+
+"To whom, then, if I may ask the question?"
+
+"To Art, which makes it immortal."
+
+"But the roses may bring some comfort and pleasure to the suffering
+youth."
+
+"Then send them-but to the sick boy, and not to the handsome man,"
+retorted Pontius.
+
+Balbilla was silent, and she and her companion followed the architect to
+the harbor.  There he parted from them, putting them into a boat which
+took them back to the Caesareum through one of the arch-gates under the
+Heptastadium.
+
+As they were rowed along the younger Roman lady said to the elder:
+
+"Pontius has quite spoilt my fun about the roses.  The sick boy is the
+handsome Antinous all the same, and if anybody could think--well, I shall
+do just as I please; still it will be best not to cut the nosegay."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+The town was out of danger; the fire was extinct.  Pontius had taken no
+rest till noonday.  Three horses had he tired out and replaced by fresh
+ones, but his sinewy frame and healthy courage had till now defied every
+strain.  As soon as he could consider his task at an end he went off to
+his own house, and he needed rest; but in the hall of his residence he
+already found a number of persons waiting, and who were likely to stand
+between him and the enjoyment of it.
+
+A man who lives in the midst of important undertakings cannot, with
+impunity, leave his work to take care of itself for several days.  All
+the claims upon him become pent up, and when he returns home they deluge
+him like water when the sluice-gates are suddenly opened behind which it
+has been dammed up.
+
+At least twenty persons, who had heard of the architect's return, were
+waiting for him in his outer hall, and crowded upon him as soon as he
+appeared.  Among them he saw several who had come on important business,
+but he felt that he had reached the farthest limit of his strength, and
+he was determined to secure a little rest at any cost.  The grave man's
+natural consideration, usually so conspicuous, could not hold out against
+the demands made on his endurance, and he angrily and peevishly pointed
+to his begrimed face as he made his way through the people waiting for
+him.
+
+"To-morrow, to-morrow," he cried; "nay, if necessary, to-day, after
+sunset.  But now I need rest.  Rest!  Rest!  Why, you yourselves can see
+the state I am in."
+
+All--even the master-masons and purveyors who had come on urgent affairs,
+drew back; only one elderly man, his sister Paulina's house-steward,
+caught hold of his chiton, stained as it was with smoke and scorched in
+many places, and said quickly and in a low tone:
+
+"My mistress greets you; she has things to speak of to you which will
+bear no delay; I am not to leave you till you have promised to go to see
+her to-day.  Our chariot waits for you at the garden-door."
+
+"Send it home," said Pontius, not even civilly; "Paulina must wait a few
+hours."
+
+"But my orders are to take you with me at once."
+
+"But in this state--so--I cannot go with you," cried the architect with
+vehemence.  "Have you no sort of consideration?  And yet--who can tell--
+well, tell her I will be with her in two hours."
+
+When Pontius had fairly escaped the throng he took a bath; then he had
+some food brought to him, but even while he ate and drank, he was not
+unoccupied, for he read the letters which awaited him, and examined some
+drawings which his assistants had prepared during his absence.
+
+"Give yourself an hour's respite," said the old housekeeper, who had been
+his nurse and who loved him as her own son.
+
+"I must go to my sister," he answered with a shrug.  "We know her of
+old," said the old woman.  "For nothing, and less than nothing, she has
+sent for you be fore now; and you absolutely need rest.  There--are your
+cushions right--so?  And let me ask you, has the humblest stone-carrier
+so hard a life as you have?  Even at meals you never have an hour of
+peace and comfort.  Your poor head is never quiet; the nights are turned
+into day; something to do, always something to do.  If one only knew who
+it is all for?"
+
+"Aye--who for, indeed?"  sighed Pontius, pushing his arm under his head,
+between it and the pillow.  "But, you see, little mother, work must
+follow rest as surely as day follows night or summer follows winter.  The
+man who has something he loves in the House--a wife and merry children,
+it may be, for aught I care--who sweeten his hours of rest and make them
+the best of all the day, he, I say is wise when he tries to prolong them;
+but his case is not mine--"
+
+"But why is it not yours, my son Pontius?"
+
+"Let me finish my speech.  I, as you know full well, do not care for
+gossip in the bath nor for reclining long over a banquet.  In the pauses
+of my work I am alone, with myself and with you, my very worthy Leukippe.
+So the hours of rest are not for me the fairest scenes, but empty waits
+between the acts of the drama of life; and no reasonable man can find
+fault with me for trying to abridge them by useful occupation."
+
+"And what is the upshot of this sensible talk?  Simply this: you must get
+married."
+
+Pontius sighed, but Leukippe added eagerly:
+
+"You have not far to look!  The most respectable fathers and mothers are
+running after you and would bring their prettiest daughters into your
+door."
+
+"A daughter whom I do not know, and who might perhaps spoil the pauses
+between the acts, which at present I can at any rate turn to some
+account."
+
+"They say," the old woman went on, "that marriage is a cast of the dice.
+One throws a high number, another a low one; one wins a wife who is a
+match for the busy bee, another gets a tiresome gnat.  No doubt there is
+some truth in it; but I have grown grey with my eyes open and I have
+often seen it happen, that how the marriage turned out depended on the
+husband.  A man like you makes a bee out of a gnat--a bee that brings
+honey to the hive.  Of course a man must choose carefully."
+
+"How, pray?"
+
+"First see the parents and then the child.  A girl who has grown up
+surrounded by good habits, in the house of a sensible father and a
+virtuous mother--"
+
+"And where in this city am I to find such a miracle?  Nay, nay, Leukippe,
+for the present all shall be left to my old woman.  We both do our duty,
+we are satisfied with each other and--"
+
+"And time is flying," said the housekeeper, interrupting her master in
+his speech.  "You are nearly thirty-five years of age, and the girls--"
+
+"Let them be!  let them be!  They will find other men!  Now send Cyrus
+with my shoes and cloak, and have my litter got ready, for Paulina has
+been kept waiting long enough."
+
+The way from the architect's house to his sister's was long, and on his
+way he found ample time for reflection on various matters besides
+Leukippe's advice to marry.  Still, it was a woman's face and form that
+possessed him heart and soul; at first, however, he did not feel inclined
+to feast his fancy on Balbilla's image, lovely as it appeared to him; on
+the contrary, with self-inflicted severity he sought everything in her
+which could be thought to be opposed to the highest standard of feminine
+perfections.  Nor did he find it difficult to detect many defects and
+deficiencies in the Roman damsel; still he was forced to admit that they
+were quite inseparable from her character, and that she would no longer
+be what she was, if she were wholly free from them.  Each of her little
+weaknesses presently began to appear as an additional charm to the stern
+man who had himself been brought up in the doctrine of the Stoics.
+
+He had learnt by experience that sorrow must cast its shadow over the
+existence of every human being; but still, the man to whom it should be
+vouchsafed to walk through life hand-in-hand with this radiant child of
+fortune could, as it seemed to him, have nothing to look forward to but
+pure sunshine.  During his journey to Pelusium and his stay there he had
+often thought of her, and each time that her image had appeared to his
+inward eye he had felt as though daylight had shone in his soul.  To have
+met her he regarded as the greatest joy of his life, but he dared not
+aspire to claim her as his own.
+
+He did not undervalue himself and knew that he might well be proud of the
+position he had won by his own industry and talents; and still she was
+the grandchild of the man who had had the right to sell his grandfather
+for mere coin, and was so high-born, rich and distinguished that he would
+have thought it hardly more audacious to ask the Emperor what he would
+take for the purple than to woo her.  But to shelter her, to warn her, to
+allow his soul to be refreshed by the sight of her and by her talk--this
+he felt was permissible, this happiness no one could deprive him of.  And
+this she would grant him--she esteemed him and would give him the right
+to protect her, this he felt, with thankfulness and joy.  He would, then
+and there, have gone through the exertions of the last few hours all over
+again if he could have been certain that he should once more be refreshed
+with the draught of water from her hand.  Only to think of her and of her
+sweetness seemed greater happiness than the possession of any other
+woman.
+
+As he got out of his litter at the door of his sister's town-house he
+shook his head, smiling at himself; for he confessed to himself that the
+whole of the long distance he had hardly thought of anything but
+Balbilla.
+
+Paulina's house had but few windows opening upon the street and these
+belonged to the strangers' rooms, and yet his arrival had been observed.
+A window at the side of the house, all grown round with creepers, framed
+in a sweet girlish head which looked down from it inquisitively on the
+bustle in the street.  Pontius did not notice it, but Arsinoe--for it was
+her pretty face that looked out--at once recognized the architect whom
+she had seen at Lochias and of whom Pollux had spoken as his friend and
+patron.
+
+She had now, for a week, been living with the rich widow; she wanted for
+nothing, and yet her soul longed with all its might to be out in the
+city, and to inquire for Pollux and his parents, of whom she had heard
+nothing since the day of her father's death.  Her lover was no doubt
+seeking her with anxiety and sorrow; but how was he to find her?
+
+Three days after her arrival she had discovered the little window from
+which she had a view of the street.  There was plenty to be seen, for it
+led to the Hippodrome and was never empty of foot-passengers and chariots
+that were proceeding thither or to Necropolis.  No doubt it was a
+pleasure to her to watch the fine horses and garlanded youths and men who
+passed by Paulina's house; but it was not merely to amuse herself that
+she went to the bowery little opening; no, she hoped, on the contrary,
+that she might once see her Pollux, his father, his mother, his bother
+Teuker or some one else they knew pass by her new home.  Then she might
+perhaps succeed in calling them, in asking what had become of her
+friends, and
+in begging them to let her lover know where to seek her.
+
+Her adoptive mother had twice found her at the window and had forbidden
+her, not unkindly but very positively, to look out into the street.
+Arsinoe had followed her unresistingly into the interior of the house,
+but as soon as she knew that Paulina was out or engaged, she slipped back
+to the window again and looked out for him, who must at every hour of the
+day be thinking of her.  And she was not happy amid her new and wealthy
+surroundings.  At first she had found it very pleasant to stretch her
+limbs on Paulina's soft cushions, not to stir a finger to help herself,
+to eat the best of food and to have neither to attend to the children nor
+to labor in the horrible papyrus-factory; but by the third day she pined
+for liberty--and still more for the children, for Selene and Pollux.
+Once she went out driving with Paulina in a covered carriage for the
+first time in her life.  As the horses started she had enjoyed the rapid
+movement and had leaned out at one side to see the houses and men flying
+past her; but Paulina had regarded this as not correct--as she did so
+many other things that she herself thought right and permissible--had
+desired her to draw in her head, and had told her that a well-conducted
+girl must sit with her eyes in her lap when out driving.
+
+Paulina was kind, never was irritable, had her dressed and waited upon
+like her own daughter, kissed her in the morning and when she bid her
+good-night; and yet Arsinoe had never once thought of Paulina's demand
+that she should love her.  The proud woman, who was so cool in all the
+friendly relations of life, and who, as she felt was always watching her,
+was to her only a stranger who had her in her power.  The fairest
+sentiments of her soul she must always keep locked up from her.
+
+Once, when Paulina, with tears in her eyes had spoken to her of her lost
+daughter, Arsinoe had been softened and following the impulse of her
+heart, had confided to her that she loved Pollux the sculptor and hoped
+to be his wife.
+
+"You love a maker of images!"  Paulina had exclaimed, with as much horror
+as if she had seen a toad; then she had paced uneasily up and down and
+had added with her usual calm decision:
+
+"No, no, my child!  you will forget all this as soon as possible; I know
+of a nobler Bridegroom for you; when once you have learned to know Him
+you will never long for any other.  Have you seen one single image in
+this house?"
+
+"No," replied Arsinoe, "but so far as regards Pollux--"
+
+"Listen to me" said the widow, "have I not told you of our loving Father
+in Heaven?  Have I not told you that the gods of the heathen are unreal
+beings which the vain imaginings of fools have endowed with all the
+weaknesses and crimes of humanity?  Can you not understand how silly it
+is to pray to stones?  What power can reside in these frail figures of
+brass or marble?
+
+"Idols we call them.  He who carves them, serves them and offers sacrifice
+to them; aye and a great sacrifice, for he devotes his best powers, to
+their service.  Do you understand me?"
+
+"No--Art is certainly a lofty thing, and Pollux is a good man, full of
+the divinity as he works."
+
+"Wait a while, only wait--you will soon learn to understand," Paulina had
+answered, drawing Arsinoe towards her, and had added, at first speaking
+gently but then more sternly: "Now go to bed and pray to your gracious
+Father in Heaven that he may enlighten your heart.  You must forget the
+carved image-maker, and I forbid you ever to speak in my presence again
+of such a man."
+
+Arsinoe had grown up a heathen, she clung with affection to the gods of
+her fathers and hoped for happier days after the first bitterness of the
+loss of her father and the separation from her brothers and sisters was
+past.  She was little disposed to sacrifice her young love and all her
+earthly happiness for spiritual advantages of which she scarcely
+comprehended the value.  Her father had always spoken of the Christians
+with hatred and contempt.  She now saw that they could be kind and
+helpful, and the doctrine that there was a loving God in Heaven who cared
+for all men as his children appealed to her soul; but that we ought to
+forgive our enemies, to remember our sins, and to repent of them, and to
+regard all the pleasure and amusement which the gay city of Alexandria
+could offer as base and worthless--this was absurd and foolish.
+
+And what great sins had she committed?  Could a loving God require of her
+that she should mar all her best days because as a child she had pilfered
+a cake or broken a pitcher; or, as she grew older had sometimes been
+obstinate or disobedient?  Surely not.  And then was an artist, a kind
+faithful soul like her tall Pollux, to be odious in the eyes of God the
+Father of all, because he was able to make such wonderful things as that
+head of her mother, for instance?  If this really was so she would
+rather, a thousand times rather, lift her hands in prayer to the smiling
+Aphrodite, roguish Eros, beautiful Apollo, and all the nine Muses who
+protected her Pollux, than to Him.
+
+An obscure aversion rose up in her soul against the stern woman who could
+not understand her, and of whose teaching and admonitions she scarcely
+took in half; and she rejected many a word of the widow's which might
+otherwise easily have found room in her heart, only because it was spoken
+by the cold-mannered woman who at every hour seemed to try to lay some
+fresh restraint upon her.
+
+Paulina had never yet taken her with her to of the Christian assemblies
+in her suburban villa; wished first to prepare her and to open her soul
+to salvation.  In this task no teacher of the congregation should assist
+her.  She, and she alone, should win to the Redeemer the soul of this
+fair creature that had walked so resolutely in the ways of the heathen;
+this was required of her as the condition of the covenant that she felt
+she had made with Him, it was with the price of this labor that she hoped
+to purchase her own child's eternal happiness.  Day after day she had
+Arsinoe into her own room, that was decked with flowers and with
+Christian symbols, and devoted several hours to her instruction.  But her
+disciple proved less impressionable and less attentive every day; while
+Paulina was speaking Arsinoe was thinking of Pollux, of the children, of
+the festival prepared for the Emperor or of the beautiful dress she was
+to have worn as Roxana.  She wondered what young girl would fill her
+place, and how she could ever hope to see her lover again.  And it was
+the same during Paulina's prayers as during her instruction, prayers that
+often lasted more than hour, and which she had to attend, on her knees on
+Wednesday and Friday, and with hands uplifted on all the other days of
+the week.
+
+When her adoptive mother had discovered how often she looked out into the
+street she thought she had found out the reason of her pupil's distracted
+attention and only waited the return of her brother, the architect, in
+order to have the window blocked up.
+
+As Pontius entered the lofty hall of his sister's house, Arsinoe came to
+meet him.  Her cheeks were flushed, she had hurried to fly down as fast
+as possible from her window to the ground floor, in order to speak to the
+architect before he went into the inner rooms or had talked with his
+sister, and she looked lovelier than ever.  Pontius gazed at her with
+delight.  He knew that he had seen this sweet face before, but he could
+not at once remember where; for a face we have met with only incidentally
+is not easily recognized when we find it again where we do not expect it.
+
+Arsinoe did not give him time to speak to her, for she went straight up
+to him, greeted him, and asked timidly:
+
+"You do not remember who I am?"
+
+"Yes, yes," said the architect, "and yet--for the moment--"
+
+"I am the daughter of Keraunus, the palace-steward at Lochias, but you
+know of course"
+
+"To be sure, to be sure!  Arsinoe is your name; I was asking to-day after
+your father and heard to my great regret--"
+
+"He is dead."
+
+"Poor child!  How everything has changed in the old palace since I went
+away.  The gate-house is swept away, there is a new steward and there-
+but, tell me how came you here?"
+
+"My father left us nothing and Christians took its in.  There were eight
+of us."
+
+"And my sister shelters you all?"
+
+"No, no; one has been taken into one house and others into others.  We
+shall never be together again."  And as she spoke the tears ran down
+Arsinoe's cheeks; but she promptly recovered herself, and before Pontius
+could express his sympathy she went on:
+
+"I want to ask of you a favor; let me speak before any one disturbs us."
+
+"Speak, my child."
+
+"You know Pollux--the sculptor Pollux?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+And you were always kindly disposed toward him?"
+
+"He is a good man and an excellent artist."
+
+"Aye that he is, and besides all that--may I tell you something and will
+you stand by me?"
+
+"Gladly, so far as lies in my power."
+
+Arsinoe looked down at the ground in charming and blushing confusion and
+said in a low tone:
+
+"We love each other--I am to be his wife."
+
+"Accept my best wishes."
+
+"Ah, if only we had got as far as that!  But since my father's death we
+have not seen each other.  I do not know where he and his parents are,
+and how are they ever to find me here?"
+
+"Write to him."
+
+"I cannot write well, and even if I could my messenger--"
+
+"Has my sister had any search made for him?"
+
+"No--oh, no.  I may not even let his name pass my lips.  She wants to
+give me to some one else; she says that making statues is hateful to the
+God of the Christians."
+
+"Does she?  And you want me to seek your lover?"
+
+"Yes, yes, my dear lord! and if you find him tell him I shall be alone
+to-morrow early, and again towards evening, every day indeed, for then
+your sister goes to serve her God in her country house."
+
+"So you want to make me a lover's go-between.  You could not find a more
+inexperienced one."
+
+"Ah! noble Pontius, if you have a heart--"
+
+"Let me speak to the end, child!  I will seek your lover, and if I find
+him he shall know where you are, but I cannot and will not invite him to
+an assignation here behind my sister's back.  He shall come openly to
+Paulina and prefer his suit.  If she refuses her consent I will try to
+take the matter in hand with Paulina.  Are you satisfied with this?"
+
+"I must need be.  And tell me, you will let me know when you have found
+out where he and his parents have gone?"
+
+"That I promise you.  And now tell the one thing.  Are you happy in this
+house?"
+
+Arsinoe looked down in some embarrassment, then she hastily shook her
+head in vehement negation and hurried away.  Pontius looked after her
+with compassion and sympathy.
+
+"Poor, pretty little creature!"  he murmured to himself, and went on to
+his sister's room.
+
+The house-steward had announced his visit, and Paulina met him on the
+threshold.  In his sister's sitting-room the architect found Eumenes,
+the bishop, a dignified old man with clear, kind eyes.
+
+"Your name is in everybody's mouth to-day," said Paulina, after the usual
+greetings.  They say you did wonders last night."
+
+"I got home very tired," said Pontius, "but as you so pressingly desired
+to speak to me, I shortened my hours of rest."
+
+"How sorry I am!"  exclaimed the widow.
+
+The bishop perceived that the brother and sister had business to discuss
+together, and asked whether he were not interrupting it.
+
+"On the contrary," cried Paulina.  "The subject under discussion is my
+newly-adopted daughter who, unhappily, has her head full of silly and
+useless things.  She tells me she has seen you at Lochias, Pontius."
+
+"Yes, I know the pretty child."
+
+"Yes, she is lovely to look upon," said the widow.  "But her heart and
+mind have been left wholly untrained, and in her the doctrine falls upon
+stony ground, for she avails herself of every unoccupied moment to stare
+at the horsemen and chariots that pass on the way to the Hippodrome.  By
+this inquisitive gaping she fills her head with a thousand useless and
+distracting fancies; I am not always at home, and so it will be best to
+have the pernicious window walled up."
+
+"And did you send for me only to have that done?" cried Pontius, much
+annoyed.  "Your house-slaves, I should think, might have been equal to
+that without my assistance."
+
+"Perhaps, but then the wall would have to be freshly whitewashed--I know
+how obliging you always are."  Thank you very much.  To-morrow I will
+send you two regular workmen."
+
+"Nay, to-day, at once if possible."
+
+"Are you in such pressing haste to spoil the poor child's amusement?  And
+besides I cannot but think that it is not to stare at the horsemen and
+chariots that she looks out, but to see her worthy lover."
+
+"So much the worse.  I was telling you, Eumenes, that a sculptor wants to
+marry her."
+
+"She is a heathen," replied the bishop.
+
+"But on the road to salvation," answered Paulina. "But we will speak of
+that presently.  There is still something else to discuss, Pontius.  The
+hall of my country villa must be enlarged."
+
+"Then send me the plans."
+
+"They are in the book-room of my late husband."  The architect left his
+sister to go into the library, which he knew well.
+
+As soon as the bishop was left alone with Paulina, he shook his head and
+said:
+
+"If I judge rightly, my dear sister, you are going the wrong way to work
+in leading this child intrusted to your care.  Not all are called, and
+rebellious hearts must be led along the path of salvation with a gentle
+hand, not dragged and driven.  Why do you cut off this girl, who still
+stands with both feet in the world, from all that can give her pleasure?
+Allow the young creature to enjoy every permitted pleasure which can add
+to the joys of life in youth.  Do not hurt Arsinoe needlessly, do not let
+her feel the hand that guides her.  First teach her to love you from her
+heart, and when she knows nothing dearer than you, a request from you
+will be worth more than bolts or walled-up windows."
+
+"At first I wished nothing more than that she should love me,"
+interrupted Paulina.
+
+"But have you proved her?  Do you see in her the spark which may be
+fanned to a flame?  Have you detected in her the germ which may possibly
+grow to a strong desire for salvation and to devotion to the Redeemer?"
+
+"That germ exists in every heart-these are your own words."
+
+"But in many of the heathen it is deeply buried in sand and stories; and
+do you feel yourself equal to clearing them away without injury to the
+seed or to the soil in which it lies?"
+
+"I do, and I will win Arsinoe to Jesus Christ," said Paulina firmly.
+
+Pontius interrupted the conversation; he remained with his sister some
+time longer discussing with her and with Eumenes the new building to be
+done at her country house; then he and the bishop left at the same time
+and Pontius proceeded to the scene of the fire by the harbor and in the
+old palace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Pontius did not find the Emperor at Lochias, for Hadrian had moved at
+mid-day to the Caesareum.  The strong smell of burning in every room in
+the palace had sickened him and he had begun to regard the restored
+building as a doomed scene of disaster.  The architect was waited for
+with much anxiety, for the rooms originally furnished for the Emperor in
+the Caesareum had been despoiled and disarranged to decorate the rooms at
+Lochias, and Pontius was wanted to superintend their immediate
+rehabilitation.  A chariot was waiting for him and there was no lack of
+slaves, so he began this fresh task at once and devoted himself to it
+till late at night.  It was in vain this time that his anteroom was
+filled with people waiting for his return.
+
+Hadrian had retired to some rooms which formed part of his wife's
+apartments.  He was in a grave mood, and when the prefect Titianus was
+announced he kept him waiting till, with his own hand, he had laid a
+fresh dressing on his favorite's burns.
+
+"Go now, my lord," begged the Bithynian, when the Emperor had finished
+his task with all the skill of a surgeon: "Titianus has been walking up
+and down in there for the last quarter of an hour."
+
+"And so he may," said the monarch.  "And if the whole world is shrieking
+for me it must wait till these faithful hands have had their due.  Yes,
+my boy!  we will wander on through life together, inseparable comrades.
+Others indeed do the same, and each one who goes through life side by
+side with a companion sharing all he enjoys or suffers, comes to think at
+last that he knows him as he knows himself; still the inmost core of his
+friend's nature remains concealed from him.  Then, some day Fate lets a
+storm come raging down upon their; the last veil is torn, under the
+wanderer's eyes, from the very heart of his companion, and at last he
+really sees him as he is, like a kernel stripped of its shell, a bare and
+naked body.  Last night such a blast swept over us and let me see the
+heart of my Antinous, as plainly as this hand I hold before my eyes.
+Yes, yes, yes!  for the man who will risk his young and happy existence
+for a thing his friend holds precious would sacrifice ten lives if he had
+them, for his friend's person.  Never, my friend, shall that night be
+forgotten.  It gives you the right to do much that might pain me, and has
+graven your name on my heart, the foremost among those to whom I am
+indebted for any benefit.--They are but few."
+
+Hadrian held out his hand to Antinous as he spoke.  The boy, who had kept
+his eyes fixed on the ground in much confusion, raised it to his lips and
+pressed it against them in violent agitation.  Then he raised his large
+eyes to the Emperor's and said:
+
+"You must not speak to me so kindly, for I do not deserve such goodness.
+What is my life after all?  I would let it go, as a child leaves go of a
+beetle it has caught, to spare you one single anxious day."
+
+"I know it," answered Hadrian firmly, and he went to the prefect in the
+adjoining room.
+
+Titianus had come in obedience to Hadrian's orders; the matter to be
+settled was what indemnification was to be paid to the city and to the
+individual owners of the storehouses that had been destroyed, for Hadrian
+had caused a decree to be proclaimed that no one should suffer any loss
+through a misfortune sent by the gods and which had originated in his
+residence.  The prefect had already instituted the necessary inquiries
+and the private secretaries, Phlegon, Heliodorus and Celer, were now
+charged with the duty of addressing documents to the injured parties in
+which they were invited, in the name of Caesar, to declare the truth as
+to the amount of the loss they had suffered.  Titianus also brought the
+information that the Greeks and Jews had determined to express their
+thankfulness for Caesar's preservation by great thank-offerings.
+
+And the Christians," asked Hadrian.
+
+"They abominate the sacrifice of animals, but they will unite in a common
+act of thanksgiving."
+
+"Their gratitude will not cost them much,"  said Hadrian.
+
+"Their bishop, Eumenes, brought me a sum of money for which a hundred
+oxen might be bought, to distribute among the poor.  He said the God of
+the Christians is a spirit and requires none but spiritual sacrifices;
+that the best offering a man can bring him is a prayer prompted by the
+spirit and proceeding from a loving heart."
+
+"That sounds very well for us," said Hadrian.  "But it will not do for
+the people.  Philosophical doctrines do not tend to piety; the populace
+need visible gods and tangible sacrifices.  Are the Christians here good
+citizens and devoted to the welfare of the state?"
+
+"We need no courts of justice for them."
+
+"Then take their money and distribute it among the needy; but I must
+forbid their meeting for a general thanksgiving; they may raise their
+hands to their great spirit in my behalf, in private.  Their doctrine
+must not be brought into publicity; it is not devoid of a delusive charm
+and it is indispensable to the safety of the state that the mob should
+remain faithful to the old gods and sacrifices."
+
+"As you command, Caesar."
+
+"You know the account given of the Christians by Pliny and Trajan?"
+
+"And Trajan's answer."
+
+"Well then let us leave them to follow their own devices in private after
+their own fashion; only they must not commit any breach of the laws of
+the state nor force themselves into publicity.  As soon as they show any
+disposition to refuse to the old gods the respect that is due to them, or
+to raise a finger against them, severity must be exercised and every
+excess must be punished by death."
+
+During this conversation Verus had entered the room; he was following the
+Emperor everywhere to-day for he hoped to hear him say a word as to his
+observation of the heavens, and yet he did not dare to ask him what he
+had discovered from them.
+
+When he saw that Hadrian was occupied he made a chamberlain conduct him
+to Antinous.  The favorite turned pale as he saw the praetor, still he
+retained enough presence of mind to wish him all happiness on his
+birthday.  It did not escape Verus that his presence had startled the
+lad; he therefore plied him at first with indifferent questions,
+introduced pleasing anecdotes into his conversation and then, when
+he had gained his purpose, he added carelessly:
+
+"I must thank you in the name of the state and of every friend of
+Caesar's.  You carried out your undertaking well to the end, though by
+somewhat overpowering means."
+
+"I entreat you say no more," interrupted Antinous eagerly, and looking
+anxiously at the door of the next room.
+
+"Oh!  I would have sacrificed all Alexandria to preserve Caesar's mind
+from gloom and care.  Besides we have both paid dearly for our good
+intentions and for those wretched sheds."
+
+"Pray talk of something else."
+
+"You sit there with your hands bound up and your hair singed, and I feel
+very unwell."
+
+"Hadrian said you had helped valiantly in the rescue."
+
+"I was sorry for the poor rats whose gathered store of provisions the
+flames were so rapidly devouring, and all hot as I was from my supper, I
+flung myself in among the men who were extinguishing the fire.  My first
+reward was a bath of cold, icy-cold sea-water, which was poured over my
+head out of a full skin.  All doctrines of ethics are in disgrace with
+me, and I have long considered all the dramatic poets, in whose pieces
+virtue is rewarded and crime punished, as a pack of fools; for my
+pleasantest hours are all due to my worst deeds; and sheer annoyance and
+misery, to my best.  No hyena can laugh more hoarsely that I now speak;
+some portion of me inside here, seems to have been turned into a hedgehog
+whose spines prick and hurt me, and all this because I allowed myself to
+be led away into doing things which the moralists laud as virtuous."
+
+"You cough, and you do not look well.  He down awhile."
+
+"On my birthday?  No, my young friend.  And now let me just ask you
+before I go:  Can you tell me what Hadrian read in the stars?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Not even if I put my Perseus at your orders for every thing you may
+require of him?  The man knows Alexandria and is as dumb as a fish."
+
+"Not even then, for what I do not know I cannot tell.  We are both of us
+ill, and I tell you once more you will be wise to take care of yourself."
+Verus left the room, and Antinous watched him go with much relief.
+
+The praetor's visit had filled him with disquietude, and had added to the
+dislike he felt for him.  He knew that he had been used to base ends by
+Verus, for Hadrian had told him so much as that he had gone up to the
+observatory not to question the stars for himself but to cast the
+praetor's horoscope, and that he had informed Verus of his intention.
+
+There was no excuse, no forgiveness possible for the deed he had done; to
+please that dissolute coxcomb, that mocking hypocrite, he had become a
+traitor to his master and an incendiary, and must endure to be
+overwhelmed with praises and thanks by the greatest and most keen-sighted
+of men.  He hated, he abhorred himself, and asked himself why the fire
+which had blazed around him had been satisfied only to inflict slight
+injuries on his hands and hair.  When Hadrian returned to him he asked
+his permission to go to bed.  The Emperor gladly granted it, ordered
+Mastor to watch by his side, and then agreed to his wife's request that
+he would visit her.
+
+Sabina had not been to the scene of the fire, but she had sent a
+messenger every hour to inquire as to the progress of the conflagration
+and the well-being of her husband.  When he had first arrived at the
+Caesareum she had met and welcomed him and then had retired to her own
+apartments.
+
+It wanted only two hours of midnight when Hadrian entered her room; he
+found her reclining on a couch without the jewels she usually wore in the
+daytime but dressed as for a banquet.
+
+"You wished to speak with me?"  said the Emperor.  "Yes, and this day--
+so full of remarkable events as it has been--has also a remarkable close
+since I have not wished in vain."
+
+"You so rarely give me the opportunity of gratifying a wish."
+
+"And do you complain of that?"
+
+"I might--for instead of wishing you are wont to demand."
+
+"Let us cease this strife of idle words."
+
+"Willingly.  With what object did you send for me?"
+
+"Verus is to-day keeping his birthday."
+
+"And you would like to know what the stars promise him?"
+
+"Rather how the signs in the heavens have disposed you towards him."
+
+"I had but little time to consider what I saw.  But at any rate the stars
+promise him a brilliant future."
+
+A gleam of joy shone in Sabina's eyes, but she forced herself to keep
+calm and asked, indifferently:
+
+"You admit that, and yet you can come to no decision?"
+
+"Then you want to hear the decisive word spoken at once, to-day?"
+
+"You know that without my answering you."
+
+"Well, then, his star outshines mine and compels me to be on my guard
+against him."
+
+"How mean!  You are afraid of the praetor?"
+
+"No, but of his fortune which is bound up with you?"
+
+"When he is our son his greatness will be ours."
+
+"By no means, since if I make him what you wish him to be, he will
+certainly try to make our greatness his.  Destiny--"
+
+"You said it favored him; but unfortunately I must dispute the
+statement."
+
+"You?  Do you try too, to read the stars?"
+
+"No, I leave that to men.  Have you heard of Ammonius, the astrologer?"
+
+"Yes.  A very learned man who observes from the tower of the Serapeum,
+and who, like many of his fellows in this city has made use of his art
+to accumulate a large fortune."
+
+"No less a man than the astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus referred me to
+him."
+
+"The best of recommendation."
+
+"Well, then, I commissioned Ammonius to cast the horoscope for Verus
+during the past night and he brought it to me with an explanatory key.
+Here it is."
+
+The Emperor hastily seized the tablet which Sabina held out to him, and
+as he attentively examined the forecasts, arranged in order according to
+the hours, he said:
+
+"Quite right.  That of course did not escape me!  Well done, exactly the
+same as my own observations--but here--stay--here comes the third hour,
+at the beginning of which I was interrupted.  Eternal gods! what have we
+here?"
+
+The Emperor held the wax tablet prepared by Aminonius at arm's length
+from his eyes and never parted his lips again till he had come to the end
+of the last hour of the night.  Then he dropped the hand that held the
+horoscope, saying with a shudder:
+
+"A hideous destiny.  Horace was right in saying the highest towers fall
+with the greatest crash."
+
+"The tower of which you speak," said Sabina, "is that darling of fortune
+of whom you are afraid.  Vouchsafe then to Verus a brief space of
+happiness before the horrible end you foresee for him."
+
+While she spoke Hadrian sat with his eyes thoughtfully fixed on the
+ground, and then, standing in front of his wife, he replied:
+
+"If no sinister catastrophe falls upon this man, the stars and the fate
+of men have no more to do with one another than the sea with the heart of
+the desert, than the throb of men's pulses with the pebbles in the brook.
+If Ammonius has erred ten times over still more than ten signs remain on
+this tablet, hostile and fatal to the praetor.  I grieve for Verus--but
+the state suffers with the sovereign's misfortunes.--This man can never
+be my successor."
+
+"No?" asked Sabina rising from her couch.  "No?  Not when you have seen
+that your own star outlives his?  Not though a glance at this tablet
+shows you that when he is nothing but ashes the world will still continue
+long to obey your nod?"
+
+"Compose yourself and give me time.--Yes, I still say not even so."
+
+"Not even so," repeated Sabina sullenly.  Then, collecting herself, she
+asked in a tone of vehement entreaty:
+
+"Not even so--not even if I lift my hands to you in supplication and cry
+in your face that you and Fate have grudged me the blessing, the
+happiness, the crown and aim of a woman's life, and I must and I will
+attain it; I must and I will once, if only for a short time, hear myself
+called by some dear lips by the name which gives the veriest beggar-woman
+with her infant in her arms preeminence above the Empress who has never
+stood by a child's cradle.  I must and I will, before I die, be a mother,
+be called mother and be able to say, 'my child, my son--our son.'"  And as
+she spoke she sobbed aloud and covered her face with her hands.
+
+The Emperor drew back a step from his wife.  A miracle had been wrought
+before his eyes.  Sabina--in whose eyes no tear had ever been seen--
+Sabina was weeping, Sabina had a heart like other women.  Greatly
+astonished and deeply moved he saw her turn from him, utterly shaken by
+the agitation of her feelings, and sink on her knees by the side of the
+couch she had quitted to hide her face in the cushions.  He stood
+motionless by her side, but presently going nearer to her:
+
+"Stand up, Sabina," he said.  "Your desire is a just one.  You shall have
+the son for whom your soul longs."
+
+The Empress rose and a grateful look in her eyes, swimming in tears, met
+his glance.  Sabina could smile too, she could look sweet!  It had taken
+a lifetime, it had needed such a moment as this to reveal it to Hadrian.
+
+He silently drew a seat towards her and sat down by her side; for some
+time he sat with her hand clasped in his, in silence.  Then he let it go
+and said kindly:
+
+"And will Verus fulfil all you expect of a son?"  She nodded assent.
+
+"What makes you so confident of that?"  asked the Emperor.  "He is a
+Roman and not lacking in brilliant and estimable gifts.  A man who shows
+such mettle alike in the field and in the council-chamber and yet can
+play the part of Eros with such success will also know how to wear the
+purple without disgracing it.  But he has his mother's light blood, and
+his heart flutters hither and thither."
+
+"Let him be as he is.  We understand each other and he is the only man on
+whose disposition I can build, on whose fidelity I can count as securely
+as if he were my favorite son."
+
+"And on what facts is this confidence based?"
+
+"You will understand me, for you are not blind to the signs which Fate
+vouchsafes to us.  Have you time to listen to a short story?"
+
+"The night is yet young."
+
+"Then I will tell you.  Forgive me if I begin with things that seem dead
+and gone; but they are not, for they live and work in me to this hour.  I
+know that you yourself did not choose me for your wife.  Plotina chose me
+for you--she loved you, whether your regard for her was for the beautiful
+woman or for the wife of Caesar to whom everything belonged that you had
+to look for--how should I know?"
+
+"It was Plotina, the woman, that I honored and loved--"
+
+"In choosing me she chose you a wife who was tall and so fitted to wear
+the purple, but who was never beautiful.  She knew me well and she knew
+that I was less apt than any other woman to win hearts; in my parents'
+house no child ever enjoyed so slender a share of the gifts of love, and
+none can know better than you that my husband did not spoil me with
+tenderness."
+
+"I could repent of it at this moment."
+
+"It would be too late now.  But I will not be bitter--no, indeed I will
+not.  And yet if you are to understand me I must own that so long as I
+was young I longed bitterly for the love which no one offered me."
+
+"And you yourself have never loved?"
+
+"No--but it pained me that I could not.  In Plotina's apartments I often
+saw the children of her relations, and many a time I tried to attract
+them to me, but while they would play confidently with other women they
+seemed to shun me.  Soon I even grew cross to them--only our Verus, the
+little son of Celonius Commodus, would give me frank answers when I spoke
+to him, and would bring me his broken toys that I might mend their
+injuries.  And so I got to love the child."
+
+"He was a wonderfully sweet, attractive boy."
+
+"He was indeed.  One day we women were all sitting together in Caesar's
+garden.  Verus came running out with a particularly fine apple that
+Trajan himself had given him.  The rosy-cheeked fruit was admired by
+every one.  Then Plotina, in fun took the apple out of the boy's hand and
+asked him if he would not give his apple to her.  He looked at her with
+wide-open puzzled eyes, shook his curly head, ran up to me and gave me--
+yes, me, and no one else--the fruit, throwing his arms round my neck and
+saying, 'Sabina you shall have it.'"
+
+"The judgment of Paris."
+
+"Nay, do not jest now.  This action of an unselfish child gave me courage
+to endure the troubles of life.  I knew now that there was one creature
+that loved me, and that one repaid all that I felt for him, all that I
+was never weary of doing for him with affectionate liking.  He is the
+only being, of whom I know, that will weep when I die.  Give him the
+right to call me his mother and make him our son."
+
+"He is our son," said Hadrian, with dignified gravity, and held out his
+hand to Sabina.  She tried to lift it to her lips but he drew it away and
+went on:
+
+"Inform him that we accept him as our son.  His wife is the daughter of
+Nigrinus--who had to go, as I desired to stay and stand firm.  You do not
+love Lucilla, but we must both admire her for I do not know another woman
+in Rome whose virtue a man might vouch for.  Besides, I owe her a father,
+and am glad to have such a daughter; thus we shall be blessed with
+children.  Whether I shall appoint Verus my successor and proclaim to the
+world who shall be its future ruler I cannot now decide; for that I need
+a calmer hour.  Till to-morrow, Sabina.  This day began with a
+misfortune; may the deed with which we have combined to end it prosper
+and bring us happiness."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+There are often fine warm days in February, but those who fancy the
+spring has come find themselves deceived.  The bitter, hard Sabina could
+at times let soft and tender emotions get the mastery over her, but as
+soon as the longing of her languishing soul for maternal happiness was
+gratified, she closed her heart again and extinguished the fire that had
+warmed it.  Every one who approached her, even her husband, felt himself
+chilled and repelled again by her manner.
+
+Verus was ill.  The first symptoms of a liver complaint which his
+physicians had warned him might ensue, if he, an European, persisted in
+his dissipated life at Alexandria as if it were Rome, now began to
+occasion him many uneasy hours, and this, the first physical pain that
+fate had ever inflicted on him, he bore with the utmost impatience.
+Even the great news which Sabina brought him, realizing his boldest
+aspirations, had no power to reconcile him to the new sensation of being
+ill.  He learnt, at the same time, that Hadrian's alarm at the
+transcendent brightness of his star had nearly cost him his adoption,
+and as he firmly believed that he had brought on his sufferings by his
+efforts to extinguish the fire that Antinous had kindled, he bitterly
+rued his treacherous interference with the Emperor's calculations.  Men
+are always ready to cast any burden, and especially that of a fault they
+have committed, on to the shoulders of another; and so the suffering
+praetor cursed Antinous and the learning of Simeon Ben Jochai, because,
+if it had not been for them the mischievous folly which had spoilt his
+pleasure in life would never have been committed.
+
+Hadrian had requested the Alexandrians to postpone the theatrical
+displays and processions that they had prepared for him, as his
+observations as to the course of destiny during the coming year were not
+yet complete.  Every evening he ascended the lofty observatory of the
+Serapeum and gazed from thence at the stars.  His labors ended on the
+tenth of January; on the eleventh the festivities began.  They lasted
+through many days, and by the desire of the praetor the pretty daughter
+of Apollodorus the Jew was chosen to represent Roxana.  Everything that
+the Alexandrians had prepared to do honor to their sovereign was
+magnificent and costly.  So many ships had never before been engaged in
+any Naumachia as were destroyed here in the sham sea-fight, no greater
+number of wild beasts had ever been seen together on any occasion even in
+the Roman Circus; and how bloody were the fights of the gladiators, in
+which black and white combatants afforded a varied excitement for both
+heart and senses.  In the processions, the different elements which were
+supplied by the great central metropolis of Egyptian, Greek and Oriental
+culture afforded such a variety of food for the eye that, in spite of
+their interminable length, the effect was less fatiguing than the Romans
+had feared.  The performances of the tragedies and comedies were equally
+rich in startling effects; conflagrations and floods were introduced and
+gave the Alexandrian actors the opportunity of displaying their talents
+with such brilliant success that Hadrian and his companions were forced
+to acknowledge that even in Rome and Athens they had never witnessed any
+representations equally perfect.
+
+A piece by the Jewish author Ezekiel who, under the Ptolemies, wrote
+dramas in the Greek language of which the subject was taken from the
+history of his own people, particularly claimed the Emperor's attention.
+
+Titianus during all this festive season was unluckily suffering from an
+attack of old-standing breathlessness, and he also had his hands full;
+at the same time he did his best in helping Pontius in seeking out the
+sculptor Pollux.  Both men did their utmost, but though they soon were
+able to find Euphorion and dame Doris, every trace of their son had
+vanished.  Papias, the former employer of the man who had disappeared,
+was no longer in the city, having been sent by Hadrian to Italy to
+execute centaurs and other figures to decorate his villa at Tibur.  His
+wife who remained at home, declared that she knew nothing of Pollux but
+that he had abruptly quitted her husband's service.  The unfortunate
+man's fellow-workmen could give no news of him whatever, for not one of
+them had been present when he was seized; Papias had had foresight enough
+to have the man he dreaded placed in security without the presence of any
+witnesses.  Neither the prefect nor the architect thought of seeking the
+worthy fellow in prison, and even if they had done so they would hardly
+have found him, for Pollux was not kept in durance in Alexandria itself.
+The prisons of the city had overflowed after the night of the holiday and
+he had been transferred to Canopus and there detained and brought up for
+trial.
+
+Pollux had unhesitatingly owned to having taken the silver quiver and to
+having been very angry at his master's accusation.  Thus he produced from
+the first an unfavorable impression on the judge, who esteemed Papias as
+a wealthy man, universally respected.  The accused had hardly been
+allowed to speak at all and judgment was immediately pronounced against
+him, on the strength of his master's accusation and his own admissions.
+It would have been sheer waste of time to listen to the romances with
+which this audacious rascal--who forgot all the respect he owed to his
+teacher and benefactor--wanted to cram the judges.  Two years of
+reflection, the protectors of the law deemed, might suffice to teach this
+dangerous fellow to respect the property of others and to keep him from
+outbreaks against those to whom he owed gratitude and reverence.
+
+Pollux, safe in the prison at Canopus, cursed his destiny and indulged in
+vain hopes of the assistance of his friends.  These were at last weary of
+the vain search and only asked about him occasionally.  He at first was
+so insubordinate under restraint that he was put under close ward from
+which he was not released until, instead of raging with fury he dreamed
+away his days in sullen brooding.  The gaoler knew men well, and he
+thought he could safely predict that at the end of his two years'
+imprisonment this young thief would quit his cell a harmless imbecile.
+
+Titianus, Pontius, Balbilla and even Antinous had all attempted to speak
+of him to the Emperor, but each was sharply repulsed and taught that
+Hadrian was little inclined to pardon a wound to his artist's vanity.
+But the sovereign also proved that he had a good memory for benefits he
+had received, for once, when a dish was set before him consisting of
+cabbage and small sausages he smiled, and taking out his purse filled
+with gold pieces, he ordered a chamberlain to take it in his name to
+Doris, the wife of the evicted gate-keeper.  The old couple now resided
+in a little house of their own in the neighborhood of their widowed
+daughter Diotima.  Hunger and external misery came not nigh them, still
+they had experienced a great change.  Poor Doris' eyes were now red and
+bloodshot, for they were accustomed to many tears, which were seldom far
+off and overflowed whenever a word, an object, a thought reminded her of
+Pollux, her darling, her pride and her hope; and there were few half-
+hours in the day when she did not think of him.
+
+Soon after the steward's death she had sought out Selene, but dame Hannah
+could not and would not conduct her to see the sick girl, for she learnt
+from Mary that she was the mother of her patient's faithless lover; and
+on a second visit Selene was so shy, so timid and so strange in her
+demeanor, that the old woman was forced to conclude that her visit was an
+unpleasant intrusion.
+
+And from Arsinoe, whose residence she discovered from the deaconess, she
+met with even a worse reception.  She had herself announced as the mother
+of Pollux the sculptor and was abruptly refused admission, with the
+information that Arsinoe was not to be spoken with by her and that her
+visits were, once for all, prohibited.  After the architect Pontius had
+been to seek her out and had encouraged her to make another attempt to
+see and speak to Arsinoe, who clung faithfully to Pollux, Paulina herself
+had received her and sent her away with such repellent words that she
+went home to her husband deeply insulted and distressed to tears.  Nor
+had she resisted Euphorion's decision when he prohibited her ever again
+crossing the Christian's threshold.
+
+The Emperor's donation had been most welcome and timely to the poor old
+couple, for Euphorion had completely lost the softness of his voice as
+well as his memory through the agitations and troubles of the last few
+months; he had been dismissed from the chorus of the theatre and could
+only find employment and very small pay of a few drachmae, in the
+mysteries of certain petty sectarians or in singing at weddings or in
+hymns of lamentation.  At the same time the old folks had to maintain
+their daughter whom Pollux could no longer provide for, and the birds,
+the Graces and the cat all must eat.  That it would be possible to get
+rid of them was an idea which never occurred to either Euphorion or
+Doris.
+
+By day the old folks had ceased to laugh; but at night they still had
+many cheerful hours, for then Hope would beguile them with bright
+pictures of the future, and tell them all sorts of possible and
+impossible romances which filled their souls with fresh courage.  How
+often they would see Pollux returning from the distant city whither he
+had probably fled-from Rome, or even from Athens--crowned with laurels
+and rich in treasure.  The Emperor, who still so kindly remembered them,
+could not always be angry with him; perhaps he might some day send a
+messenger to seek Pollux and to make up to him by large commissions for
+all he had made him suffer.  That her darling was alive she was sure; in
+that she could not be mistaken, often as Euphorion tried to persuade her
+that he must be dead.  The singer could tell many tales of luckless men
+who had been murdered and never seen or heard of again; but she was not
+to be convinced, she persisted in hope, and lived wholly in the purpose
+of sending her younger son, Teuker, on his travels to seek his lost
+brother as soon as his apprenticeship was over, which would be in a few
+months.
+
+Antinous, whose burnt hands had soon got well under the Emperor's care,
+and who had never felt a liking and friendship for any other young man
+but Pollux, lamented the artist's disappearance and wished much to seek
+out dame Doris; but he found it harder than ever to leave his master, and
+was so eager always to be at hand that Hadrian often laughingly
+reproached him with making his slaves' duties too light.
+
+When at last he really was master of an hour to himself he postponed his
+intention of seeing his friend's parents; for with him there was always a
+wide world between the purpose and the deed which he never could
+overleap, if not urged by some strong impulse; and his most pressing
+instincts prompted him, when the Emperor was disputing in the Museum or
+receiving instructions from the chiefs of the different religious
+communities as to the doctrines they severally professed, to visit the
+suburban villa where, when February had already begun, Selene was still
+living.  He had often succeeded in stealing into Paulina's garden, but he
+could not at first realize his hope of being observed by Selene of
+obtaining speech with her.  Whenever he went near Hannah's little house,
+Mary, the deformed girl, would come in his way, tell him how her friend
+was, and beg or desire him to go away.  She was always with the sick
+girl, for now her mother was nursed by her sister, and dame Hannah had
+obtained permission for her to work at home in gumming the papyrus-strips
+together.
+
+The widow herself was obliged to be at her post in the factory, for her
+duties as overseer made her presence indispensable in the work-room.
+
+Thus it came to pass that it was always by Mary and never by Hannah that
+Antinous was received and dismissed.  A certain understanding had arisen
+between the beautiful youth and the deformed girl.  When Antinous
+appeared and she called out to him: "What, again already!"  he would
+grasp her hand and implore her only once to grant his wish; but she was
+always firm, only she never sent him away sternly but with smiles and
+friendly admonitions.  When he brought rare and lovely flowers in his
+pallium and entreated her to give them to Selene in the name of her
+friend at Lochias, she would take them and promise to place them in her
+room; but she always said it would do neither him nor her any good at all
+that Selene should know from whom they came.  After such repulses he well
+knew how to flatter and coax her with appealing words, but he had never
+dared to defy her or to gain his end by force.  When the flowers were
+placed in the room Mary looked at them much oftener than Selene did, and
+when Antinous had been long absent the deformed girl longed to see him
+again, and would pace restlessly up and down between the garden gate and
+her friend's little house.  She, like him, dreamed of an angel, and the
+angel of whom she dreamed was exactly like himself.  In all her prayers
+she included the name of the handsome heathen and a soft tenderness in
+which a gentle pity was often infused, a grief for his unredeemed soul,
+was inseparable from all her thoughts of him.
+
+Hannah was informed by her of each of the young man's visits, and as
+often as Mary mentioned Antinous the deaconess seemed anxious and desired
+her to threaten to call the gate-keeper to him.  The widow knew full well
+who her patient's indefatigable admirer was, for she had once heard him
+speaking to Mastor, and she had asked the slave, who availed himself of
+every spare moment to attend the services of the Christians, who the lad
+was.  All Alexandria, nay all the Empire, knew the name of the most
+beautiful youth of his time, the spoilt favorite of Caesar.  Even Hannah
+had heard of him and knew that poets sang his praises and heathen women
+were eager to obtain a glance from his eyes.  She knew how devoid of all
+morality were the lives of the nobles at Rome, and Antinous appeared to
+her as a splendid falcon that wheels above a dove to swoop down upon it
+at a favorable moment and to tear it in its beak and talons.  Hannah also
+knew that Selene was acquainted with Antinous, that it was he who had
+formerly rescued her from the big dog and afterward saved her from the
+water; but that Selene, who was now recovering, did not know who her
+preserver had been on this second occasion was clear from all that she
+said.
+
+Towards the end of February Antinous had come on three days in
+succession, and Hannah now took the step of begging the bishop, Eumenes,
+to give the gate keeper strict injunctions to look out for the young man
+and to forbid his entering the garden, even with force if it should prove
+necessary.
+
+But "love laughs at locksmiths" and finds its way through locked doors,
+and Antinous succeeded all the same in finding his way into Paulina's
+garden.  On one of these occasions he was so happy to surprise Selene,
+as, supported on a stick and accompanied by a fair-haired boy and dame
+Hannah herself, she hobbled up and down.
+
+Antinous had learnt to regard everything crippled or defective with
+aversion, as a monstrous failure of nature's plastic harmony, but to pity
+it tenderly; but now he felt quite differently.  Mary with her humpback
+had at first horrified him; now he was always glad to see her though she
+always crossed his wishes; and poor lame Selene, who had been mocked at
+by the street boys as she limped along, seemed to him more adorable than
+ever.  How lovely were her face and form, how peculiar her way of
+walking--she did not limp--no, she swayed along the garden.  Thus, as he
+said to himself afterwards, the Nereids are borne along on the undulating
+waves.  Love is easily satisfied, nor is this strange, for it raises all
+that comes within its embrace to a loftier level of existence.  In the
+light of love weakness is a virtue and want an additional charm.
+
+But the Bithynian's visits were not the widow's only cares; though she
+bore the others, it is true, not anxiously but with pleasure.  Her
+household had increased by two living souls, and her income was very
+small.  That her patient might not want, she had to work with her own
+hands while she superintended the girls in the factory, and to carry home
+with her in the evening papyrus-leaves, not only for Mary, but for
+herself too, and to glue them together during the long hours of the
+night.  As soon as Selene's condition improved, she too helped willingly
+and diligently, but for many weeks the convalescent had to give up every
+kind of employment.
+
+Mary often looked at Hannah in silent trouble, for she looked very pale.
+After she had, on one occasion fallen in a fainting fit, the deformed
+girl had gathered courage and had represented to her that though she
+ought indeed to put out at interest the talent intrusted to her by the
+Lord, she ought not to spend it recklessly.  She was giving herself no
+rest, working day and night; visiting the poor and sick in her hours of
+recreation just as she used, and if she did not give herself more rest
+would soon need nursing instead of nursing others.
+
+"At any rate," urged Mary, "give yourself a little indispensable sleep at
+night."
+
+"We must live," replied Hannah, "and I dare not borrow, for I may never
+be able to repay."
+
+"Then beg Paulina to remit your house-rent; she will do so gladly."
+
+"No," said Hannah, decidedly.  "The rent of this little house goes to
+benefit my poor people, and you know how badly they want it.  What we
+give we lend to the Lord, and he taxes no man above his ability."
+
+Selene was now well, but the physician had said that no human skill could
+ever cure her of her lameness.  She had become Hannah's daughter, and
+blind Helios the son of the house.
+
+Arsinoe was only allowed to see her sister rarely and always accompanied
+by her protectress, and she and Selene never were able to have any
+unchecked and open conversation.  The steward's eldest daughter was now
+contented and cheerful, while the younger was not only saddened by the
+disappearance of her lover, but also, from being unhappy in her new home,
+she had become fractious and easily moved to shed tears.  All was well
+with the younger orphans; they were often taken to see Selene, and spoke
+with affection of their new parents.
+
+As she got well her help diminished the strain on her two friends, and in
+the beginning of March a call came to the widow which, if she followed
+it, must give their simple existence a new aspect.
+
+In Upper Egypt certain Christian fraternities had been established, and
+one of these had addressed a prayer to the great mother-community at
+Alexandria, that it would send to them a presbyter, a deacon and a
+deaconess capable of organizing and guiding the believers and catechumens
+in the province of Hermopolis where they were already numbered by
+thousands.  The life of the community and the care of the poor, and sick
+in the outlying districts required organization by experienced hands, and
+Hannah had been asked whether she could make up her mind to leave the
+metropolis and carry on the work of benevolence at Besa in an extended
+sphere.
+
+She would there have a pleasant house, a palm-garden, and gifts from the
+congregation which would secure not merely her own maintenance, but that
+of her adopted children.
+
+Hannah was bound to Alexandria by many ties; in the first place she clung
+to the poor and sick, many of whom had grown very dear to her, and how
+many girls who had gone astray had she rescued from evil in the factory
+alone!  She begged for a short time for reflection, and this was granted
+to her.  By the fifteenth of March she was to decide, but by the fifth
+she had already made up her mind, for while Hannah was in the papyrus-
+factory Antinous had succeeded in getting into Paulina's garden shortly
+before sunset and in stealing close up to Hannah's house.  Mary again
+observed him as he approached and signed to him to go, in her usual
+pleasant way; but the Bithynian was more excited than usual; he seized
+her hand and clasped her with urgent warmth as he implored her to be
+merciful.  She endeavored at once to free herself, but he would not let
+her go, but cried in coaxing tones:
+
+"I must see her and speak to her to-day, dear, good Mary, only this
+once!"  And before she could prevent it he had kissed her forehead and
+had flown into the house to Selene.  The little hunchback did not know
+what had happened to her; confused and almost paralyzed by conflicting
+feelings she stood shame-faced, gazing at the ground.  She felt that
+something quite extraordinary had happened to her, but this wonderful
+something radiated a dazzling splendor, and since this had risen for her,
+for poor Mary, a feeling of pride quite new to her mingled with the shame
+and indignation that filled her soul.  She needed a few minutes to
+collect herself and to recover a sense of her duty, and those few minutes
+were made good use of by Antinous.
+
+He flew with long steps into the room in which, on that never-to-be-
+forgotten night, he had laid Selene on the couch, and even at the
+threshold he called her by her name.  She started and laid aside the book
+out of which she was reading to her blind brother.  He called a second
+time, beseechingly.  Selene recognized him and asked calmly:
+
+"Do you want me, or dame Hannah?"
+
+"You, you!"  he cried passionately.  "Oh Selene, I pulled you out of the
+water, and since that night I have never ceased to think of you and I
+must die for love of you.  Have your thoughts never, never met mine on
+the way to you?  Are you still and always as cold, as passive as you were
+then when you belonged half to life and half to death?  For months have I
+prowled round this house as the shade of a dead man haunts the spot where
+he had left all that was dear to him on earth, and I have never been able
+to tell you what I feel for you?"  As he spoke the lad fell on the ground
+before her and tried to clasp her knees; but she said reproachfully:
+
+"What does all this mean?  Stand up and compose yourself."
+
+"Oh! let me, let me--" he besought her.  "Do not be so cold and so hard;
+have pity on me and do not reject me!"
+
+"Stand up," repeated the girl.  "I will certainly not reproach you--I owe
+you thanks on the contrary."
+
+"Not thanks, but love--a little love is all I ask."
+
+"I try to love all men," replied the girl, "and so I love you because you
+have shown me very much kindness."
+
+"Selene, Selene!"  he exclaimed in joyful triumph.  He threw himself
+again at her feet and passionately seized her right hand; but hardly had
+he taken it in his own when Mary, scarlet with agitation, rushed into the
+room.  In a husky voice, full of hatred and fury, she commanded him to
+leave the house at once, and when he attempted again to besiege her ear
+with entreaties she cried out:
+
+"If you do not obey I will call the men in to help us, who are out there
+attending to the flowers.  I ask you, will you obey or will you not?"
+
+"Why are you so cruel, Mary?"  asked the blind boy.  "This man is good
+and kind and tells Selene he loves her."
+
+Antinous pointed to the child with an imploring gesture but Mary was
+already by the window and was raising her hand to her mouth to make her
+call heard.
+
+"Don't, don't," cried Antinous.  "I am going at once."
+
+And he went slowly and silently towards the door, still gazing at Selene
+with passionate ardor; then he quitted the room groaning with shame and
+disappointment, though still with a look of radiant pride as though he
+had achieved some great deed.  In the garden he was met by Hannah, who
+immediately hastened with accelerated steps to her own house where she
+found Mary sobbing violently and dissolved in tears.
+
+The widow was soon informed of all that had occurred in her absence, and
+an hour later she had announced to the bishop that she would accept the
+call to Besa and was ready to start for Upper Egypt.
+
+"With your foster-children?"  asked Eumenes.
+
+"Yes.  It was indeed Selene's most earnest wish to be baptized by you,
+but as a year of probation is required--"
+
+"I will perform the rite to-morrow morning."
+
+"To-morrow, Father?"
+
+"Yes, Sister, in all confidence.  She buried the old man in the waves of
+the sea, and before we were her teachers she had gone through the school
+and discipline of life.  While she was yet a heathen she had taken up her
+cross and proved herself as faithful as though she were a child of the
+Lord.  All that was lacking to her--Faith, Love and Hope--she has found
+under your roof.  I thank thee for this soul thou hast found Sister, in
+the name of the Lord."
+
+"Not I, not I," said  the widow.  "Her heart was frozen, but it is not I
+but the innocent faith of the blind child that has melted it."
+
+"She owes her salvation to him and to you," replied the bishop, "and they
+both shall be baptized together.  We will give the lovely boy the name of
+the fairest of the disciples, and call him John.  Selene for the future,
+if she herself likes it, shall be known as Martha."
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+If one only knew who it is all for
+Love laughs at locksmiths
+Wide world between the purpose and the deed
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR, Part 2.
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 10.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Selene and Helios were baptized, and two days after dame Hannah with her
+adopted children and Mary, escorted by the presbyter Hilarion and a
+deacon, embarked in the harbor of Mareotis on board a Nile-boat which was
+to convey them to their new home, the town of Besa in Upper Egypt.  The
+deformed girl had hesitated as to her answer to the widow's question
+whether she would accompany her.  Her old mother dwelt in Alexandria, and
+then--but it was this "then" which helped her abruptly to cut short all
+reflection and to pronounce a decided "yes," for it referred to Antinous.
+
+For a few minutes it had seemed unendurable to think that she should
+never see him again, for she could not help often thinking of the
+beautiful youth, and her whole heart ought to belong solely to the One
+who had with His blood purchased peace for her on earth and bliss in the
+world to come.
+
+The day after being baptized, Selene had gone to Paulina's town-house,
+and there, with many tears had taken leave of Arsinoe.  All the affection
+which bound the sisters together found expression at this moment of
+parting.  Selene had heard from Paulina that Pollux was dead, and she
+no longer grudged her rival sister that she grieved for him more
+passionately than herself, though at first her peace of mind had more
+than once been disturbed by memories of her old playfellow.
+
+She felt it hard to leave Alexandria, where most of her brothers and
+sisters were left behind, and yet she rejoiced to think of a distant
+home, for she was no longer the same creature that she had been a few
+months since, and she longed for a remote scene of a new and sanctified
+life.
+
+Eumenes and Hannah were in the right.  It was not the widow but the
+little blind boy who had won her to Christianity.  The child's influence
+had proceeded in a strange course.  In the first instance the promises of
+the slave Master that Helios should some day meet his father again in a
+shining realm among beautiful angels had a powerful effect on the blind
+child's tender heart and vivid imagination.  In Hannah's house his hopes
+had received fresh nurture, and Mary and the widow told him much about
+their kind and loving God and His Son who loved children and had invited
+them to come to Him.  When Selene began to recover and he was permitted
+to talk to her he poured out to her all his delight at what he had heard
+from the women.  At first, to be sure, his sister took no pleasure in
+these fanciful fables and tried to shake his belief and lead back his
+heart to the old gods.  But while she tried to guide the child, by
+degrees she felt compelled to follow in his path; at first with wavering
+steps, but dame Hannah helped her by her example and with many words of
+good counsel.  She only taught her doctrine when the girl asked her
+questions and begged for information.  All that here surrounded Selene
+breathed of love and peace, and the child felt this, spoke of it, forced
+her to acknowledge it, and, in his own person, was the first object on
+which to exercise a wish hitherto unknown to her, to be herself loving
+and lovable.  The boy's firm faith, which was not to be shaken by any
+reasoning or by any of the myths which she knew, touched her deeply and
+led to her asking Hannah what was the real bearing of one and another of
+his statements.  It had always seemed a comfort to her that the miseries
+of our earthly life would come to an end with death; but Helios left her
+without a reply when he said in a sad voice:
+
+"Do you feel no longing, then, to see our father and mother again?"
+
+To see her mother again!  This thought gave her an interest in the next
+world, and dame Hannah fanned the spark of hope in her soul into flame.
+
+Selene had seen and suffered much misery, and was accustomed to call the
+gods cruel.  Helios told her that God and the Saviour were good and kind,
+and loved human beings as their children.
+
+"Is it not good and kind," asked he, "of our Heavenly Father to lead us
+to dame Hannah?"
+
+"Yes, but we have all been torn apart," said Selene.  "Never mind," said
+the child confidently, "we shall all meet in Heaven."
+
+As she got well Selene asked after each of the children and Hannah
+described all the families into which they had been received.  The widow
+did not look as if she spoke falsely, and the little ones, when they came
+to see her, confirmed her report, and yet Selene could hardly believe in
+the accuracy of the pictures drawn of their lives in the houses of the
+Christians.
+
+The mother of a Christian family--says a great Christian teacher--should
+be the pride of her children, the wife the pride of her husband, husband
+and children the pride of the wife, and God the pride and glory of every
+member of the household.  Love and faith in fact the bond, contentment
+and virtuous living the law of the family; and it was in just such a pure
+and beneficent atmosphere, as Selene herself and Helios felt the blessing
+of in Hannah's house, that each and all of her brothers and sisters were
+growing up.  Her upright sense gave an honest answer when she asked
+herself what would have become of them all if her father had remained
+alive and had been dispossessed of his office?  They must all have
+perished in misery and degradation.
+
+And now?--Perhaps in truth the Divine Being had dealt in kindness with
+the children.
+
+Love, love, and again love, was breathed from all she saw and heard, and
+yet--was it not love that had caused her greatest sorrows.  Wherefore had
+it been her lot to endure so much through the same sentiment which
+beautified life to others?  Had any one ever had more to suffer than she?
+Aye indeed!  A vivacious, eager youth had duped her and had promised
+happiness to her sister instead of to her; it had been hard to bear--and
+yet, the Saviour of whom Hellos had told her, had been far more severely
+tried.  Mankind, for whom He--the Son of God--had come down upon earth,
+to save from misery and guilt, had rewarded His loving kindness by
+hanging Him on the cross.  In Him she could see a companion in suffering
+and she asked the widow to tell her all about Him.  Selene had made many
+sacrifices to her family--she could never forget her walk to the papyrus-
+factory--but He had let them mock Him and had shed His blood for His own.
+And who was she?--and who was He?  The Son of God.  His image became dear
+to her; she was never weary of hearing about His life and fate, His words
+and deeds; and without her observing it the day came when her soul was
+free to receive the teaching of Christ with fervent longing.  With faith
+she acquired that consciousness of guilt which had previously been
+unknown to her.  She had been busy and industrious out of pride and fear,
+but never from love; she had selfishly tried to fling from her the sacred
+gift of life without ever thinking what would become of those whom it was
+her duty to care for.  She had cursed her lovely sister who needed her
+protection and care, and even Pollux, her childhood's playfellow; and a
+thousand times had she imprecated the ruler of human destinies.  All this
+she now keenly felt with all the earnestness natural to her, but she was
+soothed by the tidings that there was One who had redeemed the world, and
+taken on Himself the sins of every repentant sinner.
+
+After Selene had once expressed to the widow her desire to be a
+Christian, Hannah brought the bishop to see her.  He himself undertook
+to instruct the girl and he found in her a disciple anxious and craving
+for knowledge.  Just like those dried-up and dull-colored plants which,
+when they are plunged in water, open out and revive, so did her heart,
+untimely withered and dry; and she longed to be perfectly recovered that
+she, like Hannah, might tend the sick and exercise that love which Christ
+demands of His followers.  That which most particularly appealed to her
+in her new faith was that it did not promise joys to the rich who could
+make great sacrifices, but to the miserable sinner who with a contrite
+heart yearned for forgiveness, to the poor and abject, towards whom she
+felt as though they belonged to the same family as herself.  And her
+valiant spirit could not be satisfied with intentions but longed to act
+upon them.  In Besa she could set to work with Hannah, and this prospect
+lightened her grief in quitting Alexandria.
+
+A favoring wind bore the voyagers southward safe to their destination.
+
+Two days after their departure Antinous once more stole into Paulina's
+garden.  He went up to the widow's little house looking in vain for the
+deformed girl; the road was open; her absence could but be pleasing to
+him, and yet it disquieted him.  His heart beat wildly, for to-day--
+perhaps he might find Selene alone.  He opened the door without knocking,
+but he dared not cross the threshold, for in the anteroom stood a strange
+man, placing boards against the wall.  The carpenter, a Christian to whom
+Paulina had given this little house for his family to live in, asked
+Antinous what he wanted.
+
+"Is dame Hannah at home?"  stammered the Bithynian.
+
+"She no longer lives here."
+
+"And her adopted daughter, Selene?"
+
+"She is gone with her into Upper Egypt.  Have you any message for her?"
+
+"No," said the lad, quite confounded.
+
+"When did they go?"
+
+"The day before yesterday."
+
+"And they are not coming back."
+
+"For the next few years, certainly not.  Later may be, if it is the
+Lord's pleasure."
+
+Antinous left the garden by the public gate, unmolested.  He was very
+pale, and he felt like a wanderer in the desert who finds the spring
+choked where he had hoped to find a refreshing draught.
+
+Next day, at the first moment he could dispose of, Antinous again knocked
+at the carpenter's door to inquire in what town of Upper Egypt the
+travellers proposed to settle and the artisan told him frankly, "In
+Besa."
+
+Antinous had always been a dreamer, but Hadrian had never seen him so
+listless, so vaguely brooding as in these days.  When he tried to rouse
+him and spur him to greater energy his favorite would look at him
+beseechingly, and though he made every effort to be of use to him and to
+show him a cheerful countenance it was always with but brief success.
+Even on the hunting excursions into the Libyan desert which the Emperor
+frequently made, Antinous remained apathetic and indifferent to the
+pleasures of the sport to which he had formerly devoted himself with
+enjoyment and skill.
+
+The Emperor had remained in Alexandria longer than in any other place,
+and was weary of festivities and banquets, of the wordy war with the
+philosophers of the Museum, of conversing with the ecstatic mystics, the
+soothsayers; astrologers and empirics with whom the place swarmed.  And
+the short audiences which he accorded to the heads of the different
+religious communities, and the inspection of the factories and workshops
+of this centre of industry, began to annoy him.  One day he announced his
+intention of visiting the southern provinces of the Nile valley.
+
+The high-priests of the native Egyptian faith had craved this favor of
+him, and he was prompted, not only by his love of information and passion
+for travelling, but also by considerations of state-craft, to gratify
+this desire of a hierarchy which was extremely influential in those rich
+and important provinces.  The prospect of seeing with his own eyes those
+marvels of Pharaonic times which attracted so many travellers, was also
+an incitement, and his good spirits rose as soon as he observed what a
+reviving effect his determination to visit southern Egypt had upon
+Antinous.
+
+His favorite had for the last few weeks expressed not the smallest
+pleasure at any single thing.  The homage paid him no less by the
+Alexandrian than by the Roman ladies of rank sickened him.  At banquets
+he sat a silent guest whose neighborhood could not add to anybody's
+pleasure, and even the most brilliant and exciting exhibitions in the
+Circus and the best contests and races in the Hippodrome had hardly
+sufficed to attract his gaze.  Formerly he had been an eager and
+attentive spectator of the plays of Menander and of his imitators,
+Alexis, Apollodorus and Posidippus; but now when they were performed he
+stared into vacancy and thought of Selene.  The prospect of going to the
+place where she was living excited him powerfully and revived his
+drooping courage for life.  He could hope once more, and to the man who
+sees light shining in the future the present is no longer dark.
+
+Hadrian rejoiced in this change in the lad and hastened the preparations
+for their departure; still, some months passed before he could begin his
+journey.
+
+In the first place he had to provide for newly colonizing Libya, which
+had been depopulated by a revolt of the Jews.  Then he had to come to a
+determination as to certain new post-roads which were to connect the
+different parts of the empire more nearly, and finally he had to await
+the formal assent of the Roman Senate to some new resolutions concerning
+the hereditary reversion of conferred free-citizenship.  This assent was,
+no doubt a matter of course, but the Emperor never issued an edict
+without it, and he was very desirous that his decree should come into
+operation as soon as possible.
+
+In the course of his visits to the Museum the sovereign had informed
+himself as to the position of the several members of that institution,
+and he was occupied in making certain regulations which should relieve
+them of the more sordid cares of life; the condition of the aged teachers
+and educators of the young had also attracted his observation, and he had
+endeavored to improve it.
+
+When Sabina represented to him what a large outlay these new measures
+would entail, he replied:
+
+"We do not allow the veterans to perish who placed their lives, and limbs
+at the service of the state.  Why then should those who serve it with
+their intellect be burdened with petty cares?  Which should we rank the
+higher, power and poverty or mental wealth?  The harder I--as the
+sovereign--find it to answer the question the more positively do I feel
+it to be my duty to mete out the same measure to all veterans alike,
+whether officials, warriors or instructors."
+
+The Alexandrians themselves detained him too by a succession of new acts
+of homage.  They raised him to the rank of a divinity, dedicated a temple
+to him, and instituted a series of new festivals in his honor; partly no
+doubt to win his partiality for their city and to express their pride and
+satisfaction in his long stay there, but also because the pleasure-loving
+community was glad to seize this opportunity as a favorable one for
+gratifying their own inclinations and revelling in mere unusual
+enjoyment.  Thus the Imperial visit swallowed up millions, and Hadrian,
+who enquired into every detail and contrived to obtain information as to
+the sums expended by the city, blamed the recklessness of his lavish
+entertainers.  He wrote afterwards to his brother-in-law, Servianus, his
+fullest recognition of both the wealth and the industry of Alexandrians,
+saying, with terms of praise, that among them not one was idle.  One made
+glass, another papyrus, another linen; and each of these restless
+mortals, said he, is busied in some handiwork.  Even the lame, the blind
+and the maimed here sought and found employment.  Nevertheless he calls
+the Alexandrians a contumacious and good-for-nothing community, with
+sharp and evil tongues that had spared neither Verus nor Antinous.  Jews,
+Christians, and the votaries of Serapis, he adds in the same letter,
+serve but one God instead of the divinities of Olympus, and when he
+asserts of the Christians that they even worshipped Serapis he means to
+say that they were persuaded of the doctrine of the survival of the soul
+after death.  The dispute as to which temple should be assigned as the
+residence of the newly-found Apis gave Hadrian much to do.  From time
+immemorial this sacred bull had been kept in the temple of Ptah at
+Memphis, but this venerable city of the Pyramids had been outstripped by
+Alexandria, and the temple of Serapis outvied that at Memphis in the
+province of Sokari, tenfold in size and in magnificence.  The Egyptians
+of Alexandria, who dwelt in the quarter called Rhakotis, close to the
+Serapeum, desired to have the incarnation of the god in the form of a
+bull, in their midst; but the Memphites would not abandon their old
+prescriptive rights, and the Emperor had found it far from easy to guide
+the contest, which proved a very exciting one to all parties, to a
+satisfactory issue.  Memphis had its Apis, and the Serapeum was
+indemnified by certain endowments which had formerly been granted
+to the temple at Memphis.
+
+At last, in June, the Emperor could set out.  He wished to traverse the
+province on foot and on horseback, and Sabina was to follow by boat as
+soon as the inundation should begin.
+
+The Empress would gladly have returned to Rome or to Tibur, for Verus had
+been obliged to quit Egypt by the orders of the physician as soon as the
+summer heat had set in.  He departed with his wife, as the son of the
+Imperial couple, but no word on Hadrian's part had justified him in
+hoping confidently to be nominated as his successor to the sovereignty.
+
+The handsome rake's unlimited dissipations were severely checked by his
+sufferings, but not altogether prevented, and on his return to Rome he
+continued to indulge in all the pleasures of life.  Hadrian's hesitation
+and reluctance often disquieted him, for that imperial Sphinx had,
+only too frequently, given the most unexpected solutions to his
+mystifications.  But the fatal end with which he had been threatened
+caused him small anxiety; nay, Ben Jochai's prediction rather prompted
+him to enjoy to the utmost every hour of health and ease that Fate might
+still allow him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Balbilla and her companion, Publius Balbinus and other illustrious
+Romans, Favorinus the sophist, and a numerous suite of chamberlains and
+servants, were to accompany the Empress by water, while Hadrian set forth
+on his land journey with a small escort to which he added a splendid
+array of huntsmen.  Before he reached Memphis, in crossing the Libyan
+desert, through which his road lay, he had killed a few lions and many
+other beasts of prey, and here he had once more found Antinous the best
+of sporting companions.  Cool headed in danger, indefatigable on foot,
+content and serviceable in all circumstances, the young fellow seemed to
+Hadrian to be a comrade created by the gods themselves for his special
+delectation.  When Hadrian was in the humor to brood and be silent the
+whole day long, he never disturbed him by a word; but in these moods the
+Emperor found his favorite's society indispensable, for the mere
+consciousness of his presence soothed him.
+
+Antinous too, was happy on these occasions, for he felt that he was of
+some use to his venerated master and could thus alleviate the burden
+which had never ceased to weigh on his own soul ever since the crime he
+had committed.  Besides, he preferred dreaming to talking, and the
+exercise in the open air preserved him from listless lassitude.
+
+In Memphis Hadrian was detained a whole month, for there he was expected
+to visit the Egyptian temples with Sabina, who had arrived before him,
+and to submit to many ceremonials invested with the regalia of the
+Pharaohs.  Sabina often felt as if she must faint when, crowned with the
+ponderous vulture-headed fillet of the Queens of Egypt, weighed down with
+long robes and golden ornaments, she was conducted with her husband, in
+procession, through all the rooms, over the roof and finally into the
+holiest place of some vast sanctuary.  What senseless ceremonials they
+had to go through in the course of these long circuits, and how many
+sacrifices had they to attend!  When she returned from these visitations
+she was utterly exhausted, and indeed, it was no small exertion to
+undergo so many fumigations with incense and so many aspersions, to
+listen to so many litanies and hymns, to parade through such endless
+halls and while being elevated to the rank of celestial beings, to be
+crowned with so many crowns in turn and decorated with all kinds of
+fillets and symbolic adornments.
+
+Her husband set her a good example, however; through all the ceremonials
+he displayed the whole grave majesty of his nature, and among the
+Egyptians behaved as one of themselves.  He even took pleasure in the
+mystical lore of the priests, with whom he often held long conversations.
+
+As at Memphis, so in all the principal temples of the great cities to the
+southward, the Imperial pair accepted the homage of the hierarchy and the
+honors due to divinity.  Wherever Hadrian granted money for the extension
+of a temple, he was required to perform the ceremony of laying a stone
+with his own hand.  But he always found time to hunt in the desert, to
+manage the affairs of state, and to visit the most interesting monuments
+of past times, and at Memphis especially, the city of the dead, with the
+Pyramids, the great Sphinx, the Serapeum and the tombs of the Apis.
+
+Before quitting the city he and his companions consulted the oracle of
+the sacred bull.  The fairest future was promised to Balbilla; the bull
+to whom she had to offer a cake, with her face averted, had approved of
+her gift and had touched her hand with his moist muzzle.  Hadrian was
+left in ignorance as to the sentence of the priests of Apis, for it was
+given to him in a sealed roll with an explanation of the signs it
+contained; but he was solemnly adjured not to open them before at
+least half a year had elapsed.
+
+It was only in the cities that Hadrian met his wife, for he pursued his
+journey by land and she hers by water.  The boats almost invariably
+reached their destination sooner than the land-travellers, and when they
+at last arrived, there was always a grand festival to welcome them, in
+which however Sabina but rarely took part.  Balbilla proved herself all
+the more eager to make their arrival pleasant by some kindly surprise.
+She sincerely reverenced Hadrian, and his favorite's beauty had an
+irresistible charm for her artist's soul.  It was a delight to her only
+to look at him; his absence troubled her, and when he returned she was
+always the first to greet him.  And yet the bright girl troubled herself
+about him neither more nor less than the other ladies in Sabina's train;
+only Balbilla asked nothing of him but the pleasure of looking at him and
+rejoicing in his beauty.
+
+If he had dared to mistake her admiration for love and to have offered
+her his, the poetess would have indignantly brought him to his bearings;
+and yet she gave unqualified expression to her admiration of the
+Bithynian's splendid person, and indeed with rather remarkable
+demonstrativeness.
+
+When the travellers made their appearance again after a prolonged absence
+Antinous would find in the room in the ship where he was to live flowers,
+and choice fruits sent by her, and verses in which she had sung his
+praises.  He put it all aside with the rest and only esteemed the donor
+the less; but the poetess knew nothing of these sentiments in her
+beautiful idol, and indeed troubled herself very little about his
+feelings.  She had hitherto found no difficulty in keeping within the
+limits of what was becoming.  But lately there had been moments in which
+she had owned to herself that she might be carried away into overstepping
+these limits.  But what did she care for the opinion of those around her,
+or about the inner life of the Bithyman, whose external perfection of
+form was all that pleased her.  She did not shrink from the possibility
+of arousing hopes in him which she never could nor intended to fulfil,
+for the idea did not once enter her mind; still she felt dissatisfied
+with herself, for there was one person who might disapprove of her
+proceedings, one who had indeed in plain words reprehended her fancy for
+doing honor to the handsome boy with offerings of flowers, and the
+opinion of that one person weighed with her more than that of all the
+rest of the men and women she knew, put together.
+
+This one was Pontius the architect; and yet, strangely enough, it was
+precisely her remembrance of him that urged her on from one folly to
+another.  She had often seen the architect in Alexandria, and when they
+parted she had allowed him to promise to follow her and the Empress, and
+to escort them at any rate for a part of their voyage up the Nile.  But
+he came not, nor had he sent any report of himself, though he was alive
+and well, and every express that overtook them brought documents for
+Caesar in his handwriting.
+
+So he, on whose faithful devotion she had built as on a rock, was no less
+self-seeking and fickle than other men.  She thought of him every day and
+every hour; and as soon as a vessel from the north cast anchor within
+sight, she watched the voyagers as they disembarked to detect him among
+them.  She longed for Pontius as a traveller who has lost his way sighs
+for a sight of the guide who has deserted him; and yet she was angry with
+him, for he had betrayed by a thousand tokens that he esteemed and cared
+for her, that she had a certain power over his strong will--and now he
+had broken his word and did not come.
+
+And she?  She had not been unmoved by his devotion, and had been gentler
+to this grandson of her father's freed slave than to the best-born man
+of her own rank.  And in spite of it all Pontius could spoil all the
+pleasure of her journey and stay in Alexandria instead of following
+in her wake.  He could easily have intrusted his building to other
+architects--the great metropolis was swarming with them!  Well, if he did
+not trouble himself about her she certainly need care even less about
+him.  Perhaps at last, at the end of their travels he might yet come, and
+then he should see how much she cared for his admonitions.
+
+But she sighed impatiently for the hour when she might read him all the
+verses she had addressed to Antinous, and ask him how he liked them.  It
+gave her a childish pleasure to add to the number of these little poems,
+to finish them elaborately, and display in them all her knowledge and
+ability.  She gave the preference to artificial and massive metres; some
+of the verses were in Latin, others in the Attic, and others again in the
+Aeolian dialects of Greek, for she had now learnt to use this, and all to
+punish Pontius--to vex Pontius--and at the same time to appear in his
+eyes as brilliant as she could.  She belauded Antinous, but she wrote for
+Pontius, and for every flower she gave the lad she had sent a thought to
+the architect, though with a curl on her lips of scornful defiance.
+
+But a young girl cannot be always praising the beauty of a youth in new
+and varied forms with complete impunity, and thus there were hours when
+Balbilla was inclined to believe that she really loved Antinous.  Then
+she would call herself his Sappho, and he seemed destined to be her
+Phaon.  During his long absences with the Emperor she would long to see
+him--nay, even with tears; but, as soon as he was by her side again, and
+she could look at his inanimate beauty and into his weary eyes, when she
+heard the torpid "Yes" or "No" with which he replied to her questions,
+the spell was entirely broken and she honestly confessed to herself that
+she would as soon see him before her hewn in marble as clothed in flesh
+and blood.
+
+In such moments as these her memory of the architect was particularly
+fresh, and once, when their ship was sailing through a mass of lotos
+leaves, above which one splendid full-blown flower raised its head, her
+apt imagination, which rapidly seized on everything noteworthy and gave
+it poetic form, entwined the incident in a set of verses, in which she
+designated Antinous as the lotos-flower which fulfils its destiny simply
+by being beautiful, and comparing Pontius to the ship which, well
+constructed and well guided, invited the traveller to new voyages in
+distant lands.
+
+The Nile voyage came to an end at Thebes of the hundred gates, and here
+nothing that could attract the Roman travellers remained unvisited.  The
+tombs of the Pharaohs extending into the very heart of the rocky hills,
+and the grand temples that stood to the west of the city of the dead,
+shorn though they were of their ancient glory, filled the Emperor with
+admiration.  The Imperial travellers and their companions listened to the
+famous colossus of Memnon, of which the upper portion had been overthrown
+by an earthquake, and three times in the dawn they heard it sound.
+
+Balbilla described the incident in several long poems which Sabina caused
+to be engraved on the stone of the colossus.  The poetess imagined
+herself as hearing the voice of Memnon singing to his mother Eos while
+her tears, the fresh morning dew, fell upon the image of her son, fallen
+before the walls of Troy.  These verses she composed in the Aeolian
+dialect, named herself as their writer and informed the readers--among
+whom she included Pontius--that she was descended from a house no less
+noble than that of King Antiochus.
+
+The gigantic structures on each bank of the Nile fully equalled Hadrian's
+expectations, though they had suffered so much injury from earthquakes
+and sieges, and the impoverished priesthood of Thebes were no longer in a
+position to provide for their preservation even, much less for their
+restoration.  Balbilla accompanied Caesar on a visit to the sanctuary of
+Ammon, on the eastern shore of the Nile.  In the great hall, the most
+vast and lofty pillared hall in the world, her impressionable soul felt a
+peculiar exaltation, and as the Emperor observed how, with a heightened
+color she now gazed upward, and then again, leaning against a towering
+column, looked at the scene around her, he asked her what she felt,
+standing in this really worthy abode of the gods.
+
+"One thing--above all things one thing!"  cried the girl.  "That
+architecture is the sublimest of the arts!  This temple is to me like
+some grand epode, and the poet who composed it conceived it not in feeble
+words but formed it out of almost immovable masses.  Thousands of parts
+are here combined to form a whole, and each is welded with the rest into
+beautiful harmony and helps to give expression to the stupendous idea
+which existed in the brain of the builder of this hall.  What other art
+is gifted with the power of creating a work so imperishable and so far
+transcending all ordinary standards?"
+
+"A poetess crowning the architect with laurels!"  exclaimed the Emperor.
+"But is not the poet's realm the infinite, and can the architect ever get
+beyond the finite and the limited?"
+
+"Then is the nature of the divinity a measurable unit?"  asked Balbilla.
+"No, it is not; and yet this hall gives one the impression that the very
+divinity might find space in it to dwell in."
+
+"Because it owes it existence to a master-mind, which while it conceived
+it stood on the boundary line of eternity.  But do you think this temple
+will outlast the poems of Homer?"
+
+"No; but the memory of it will no more fade away that of the wrath of
+Achilles or the wanderings of the experienced Odysseus."
+
+"It is a pity that our friend Pontius cannot hear you," said Hadrian.
+"He has completed the plans for a work which is destined to outlive me
+and him and all of us.
+
+"I mean my own tomb.  Besides that I intend him to erect gates, courts and
+halls in the Egyptian style at Tibur, which may remind us of our travels
+in this wonderful country.  I expect him to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow!"  exclaimed Balbilla, and her face fired with a scarlet flush
+to her very brow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Shortly after starting from Thebes--on the second day of November--
+Hadrian came to a great decision.  Verus should be acknowledged not
+merely as his son but also as his successor.
+
+Sabina's urgency would not alone have sufficed to put a term to his
+hesitancy, especially as it had lately been farther increased by a wish
+that was all his own.  His wife's heart had pined for a child, but he too
+had longed for a son, and he had found one in Antinous.  His favorite was
+a boy he had picked up by chance, the son of humble though free parents,
+but it lay in the Emperor's power to make him great, to confer on him the
+highest posts of honor in the Empire, and at last to recognize him
+publicly as his heir.  Antinous, if any one, had deserved this at his
+hands, and on no other man could he so ungrudgingly bestow everything
+that he possessed.
+
+These ideas and hopes had now filled his mind for many months, but the
+nature and the mood of the young Bithyman had been more and more adverse
+to them.
+
+Hadrian had striven more earnestly than his predecessors to raise the
+fallen dignity of the Senate, and still he could count securely on its
+consent to any measure.  The leading official authorities of the Republic
+had been recognized and allowed the full exercise of their powers.  To be
+sure, be they whom they might, they all had to obey the Emperor, still
+they were always there; and even with a weak ruler at its head the Empire
+might continue to subsist within the limits established by Hadrian, and
+restricted with wise moderation.  Nevertheless, only a few months
+previously he would not have ventured to think of the adoption of his
+favorite.  Now he hoped to find himself somewhat nearer to the fulfilment
+of his wishes.  It is true Antinous was still a dreamer; but in their
+wanderings and hunting excursions through Egypt he had proved himself
+gallant and prompt, intelligent, and, after their departure from Thebes,
+even bold and lively at times.  Antinous, under this aspect, he himself
+might take in hand, and even name him as his successor in due time, when
+he had risen from one post of honor to another.  For the present this
+plan must remain unrevealed.
+
+When he publicly adopted Verus any idea of a possible new selection of a
+son was excluded, and he might unhesitatingly venture to appoint Sabina's
+darling his successor, for the most famous of the Roman physicians had
+written to Hadrian, by his desire, saying that the praetor's undermined
+strength could not be restored, and that, at the best, he could only have
+a limited number of years to live.  Well, then, Verus might die slowly
+and contentedly in the midst of the most splendid anticipations, and when
+he should have closed his eyes it would be time enough to set the
+dreamer--by that time matured to vigorous manhood--in the vacant place.
+
+On the return journey from Thebes to Alexandria Hadrian met his wife at
+Abydos, and revealed to her his intention of proclaiming the son of her
+choice as his successor.  Sabina thanked him with an exclamation of
+"At last!"  which expressed partly her satisfaction, but partly too her
+annoyance at her husband's long delay.  Hadrian gave her his permission
+to return to Rome from Alexandria, and on the very same day messages were
+despatched with letters both to the Senate and to the prefects of Egypt.
+
+The despatch intended for Titianus charged him to proclaim publicly the
+adoption of the praetor, to arrange at the same time for a grand
+festival, and on that occasion to grant to the people, in Caesar's name,
+all the boons and favors which by the traditional law of Egypt the
+Sovereign was expected to bestow at the birth of an heir to the throne.
+The whole suite of the Imperial pair celebrated Hadrian's decision by
+splendid banquets, but the Emperor did not himself take part in them, but
+crossed to the other bank of the Nile and went to Antaeopolis in the
+desert, meaning to penetrate from thence into the gorges of the Arabian
+desert and to chase wild beasts.  No one was to accompany him but
+Antinous, Mastor, and a few huntsmen and some dogs.
+
+He meant to rejoin the ships at Besa.  He had postponed his visit to this
+place till the return journey, because he had travelled up by the western
+shore of the Nile, and the passage across the river would have taken up
+too much time.
+
+The travellers' tents were pitched one sultry evening in November,
+between the Nile and the limestone range, in which was arrayed a long row
+of tombs of the period of the Pharaohs.  Hadrian had gone to visit these,
+for the remarkable pictures on the walls delighted him, but Antinous
+remained behind, for he had already looked at similar works oftener than
+he cared for, in Upper Egypt.  He found these pictures monotonous and
+unlovely, and he had not the patience to investigate their meaning as his
+master did.  He had been a hundred times into the ancient rock-tombs,
+only not to leave Hadrian and not for his own amusement; but to-day--he
+could hardly bear himself for impatience and excitement, for he knew that
+a ride, a walk, of a few hours, would carry him to Besa and to Selene.
+The Emperor would remain absent three or four hours at any rate, and if
+he made up his mind to it he could have sought out the girl for whom his
+heart was longing before his return, and still be back again before his
+master.
+
+But before acting he must reflect.  There was the Emperor climbing the
+hill-side where he could see him, and messengers were expected and he had
+been charged to receive them.  It they should bring bad news, his master
+must on no account be alone.  Ten times did he go up to his good hunter
+to leap upon his back; once he even took down the horse's head-gear to
+put on his bridle, but in the very act of slipping the complicated bit
+between the teeth of his steed his resolution gave way.  During all this
+delay and hesitation the minutes slipped away, and at last it was so late
+that Hadrian might return and it was folly to think of carrying his
+plan into execution.  The expected express arrived with several letters,
+but the Emperor did not come back.  It grew dark, and heavy rain-drops
+fell from the overcast sky, and still Antinous was alone.  His anxious
+longing was mingled with regret for the lost opportunity of seeing Selene
+and alarm at the Emperor's prolonged absence.
+
+In spite of the rain, which began to fill more violently, he went out
+into the open air, of which the sweltering oppressiveness had helped to
+fetter his feeble volition, and called to the dogs, with whose help he
+proposed seeking the Emperor; but just then he heard the bark of Argus,
+and soon after Hadrian and Mastor stepped out of the darkness into the
+brightness which shone out from the tent, where lights were burning.
+
+The Emperor gave his favorite but a brief greeting and silently submitted
+while Antinous dried his hair and brought him some refreshments, and
+Mastor bathed his feet and dressed him in fresh garments.  As he reclined
+with the Bithyman, before the supper which was standing ready, he said:
+
+"A strange evening! how hot and oppressive the atmosphere is.  We must be
+on the lookout, something serious is brewing."
+
+"What happened to you, my Lord?"
+
+"Many things.  At the door of the very first tomb that I was about to
+enter I found an old black woman who stretched out her hands against us
+to keep us out and shrieked out words that sounded horrible."
+
+"Did you understand her?"
+
+"No--who can learn Egyptian."
+
+"Then you do not know what she said?"
+
+"I was to find out--she cried out 'Dead!' and again 'Dead!' and in the
+tomb which she was watching there were I know not how many persons
+attacked by the plague."
+
+"You saw them?"
+
+"Yes, I had only heard of this disease till then.  It is frightful, and
+quite answers to the descriptions I had read of it."
+
+"But Caesar!"  cried Antinous reproachfully and in alarm.
+
+"When we turned our backs on the tombs," continued Hadrian, paying no
+heed to the lad's exclamation, "we were met by an elderly man dressed in
+white and a strange-looking maiden.  She was lame but of remarkable
+beauty."
+
+"And she was going to the sick?"
+
+"Yes, she had brought medicine and food to them."
+
+"But she did not go in among them?"  asked Antinous eagerly.
+
+"She did, in spite of my warnings.  In her companion I recognized an old
+acquaintance."
+
+'An old one?"
+
+"At any rate older than myself.  We had met in Athens when we still were
+young.  At that time he was one of the school of Plato and the most
+zealous, nay, perhaps the most gifted of us all."
+
+"How came such a man among the plague-stricken people of Besa?  Is he
+become a physician?"
+
+"No.  But at Athens he sought fervently and eagerly for the truth, and
+now he asserts that he has found it."
+
+"Here, among the Egyptians?"
+
+"In Alexandria among the Christians."
+
+"And the lame girl who accompanied the philosopher--does she too believe
+in the crucified God?"
+
+"Yes.  She is a sick-nurse or something of the kind.  Indeed there is
+something grand in the ecstatic craze of these people."
+
+"Is it true that they worship an ass and a dove?"
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"I did not want to believe it; and at any rate they are kind, and succor
+all who suffer, even strangers who do not belong to their sect."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"One hears a great deal about them in Alexandria."
+
+"Alas!  alas!--I never persecute an imaginary foe, as such I reckon the
+creeds and ideas of other men; still, I cannot but ask myself whether it
+can add to the prosperity of the state when citizens cease to struggle
+against the pressure and necessity of life and console themselves for
+them instead, by the hope of visionary happiness in another world which
+perhaps only exists in the fancy of those who believe in it."
+
+"I should wish that life might end with death," said Antinous
+thoughtfully; "and yet--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"If I were sure that in that other world I should find those I long to
+see again, then I might long for a future life."
+
+"And would you really like, throughout all eternity, to push and struggle
+in the crowd of old acquaintances which death does not diminish but
+rather multiplies?"
+
+"Nay, not that--but I should like to be permitted to live for ever with a
+few chosen friends."
+
+"And should I be one of them?"
+
+"Yes--indeed," cried Antinous warmly and pressing his lips to Hadrian's
+hand.
+
+"I was sure of it--but even with the promise of never being obliged to
+part with you my darling, I would never sacrifice the only privilege
+which man enjoys above the immortals."
+
+"What privilege can you mean?"
+
+"The right of withdrawing from the ranks of the living as soon as
+annihilation seems more endurable than existence and I choose to call
+death to release me."
+
+"The gods, it is true, cannot die."
+
+"And the Christians only to link a new life on to death."
+
+"But a fairer and a happier than this on earth."  They say it is a life
+of bliss.  But the mother of this everlasting life is the ineradicable
+love of existence in even the most wretched of our race, and hope is its
+father.  They believe in a complete freedom from suffering in that other
+world because He whom they call their Redeemer, the crucified Christ, has
+saved them from all sufferings by His death."
+
+"And can a man take upon him the sufferings of others, think you, like a
+garment or a burden?"
+
+"They say so, and my friend from Athens is quite convinced.  In books of
+magic there are many formulas by which misfortunes may be transferred not
+merely from men to beasts, but from one human being to another.  Very
+remarkable experiments have even been carried out with slaves, and to
+this day I have to struggle in several, provinces to suppress human
+sacrifices by which the gods are to be reconciled or propitiated.  Only
+think of the innocent Iphigenia who was dragged to the altar; did not the
+gulf in the Forum close when Curtius had leaped into it?  When Fate
+shoots a fatal arrow at you and I receive it in my breast, perhaps she is
+content with the chance victim and does not enquire as to whom she has
+hit."
+
+"The gods would be exorbitant indeed if they were not content with your
+blood for mine!"
+
+"Life is life, and that of the young is of better worth than that of the
+old.  Many joys will yet bloom for you."
+
+"And you are indispensable to the whole world."
+
+"After me another will come.  Are you ambitious, boy?"
+
+"No, my Lord."
+
+"What then can be the meaning of this: that every one wishes me joy of my
+son Verus excepting you.  Do you not like my choice?"
+
+Antinous colored and looked at the ground, and Hadrian went on:
+
+"Say honestly what you feel."
+
+"The praetor is ill."
+
+"He can have but a few years to live, and when he is dead--"
+
+"He may recover--"
+
+"When he is dead, I must look out for another son.  What do you think
+now?  Who is the being that every man, from a slave to a consul, would
+soonest hear call him 'Father?"'
+
+"Some one he tenderly loved."
+
+"True--and particularly when that one clung to him with unchangeable
+fidelity.  I am a man like any other, and you, my good fellow, are always
+nearest to my heart, and I shall bless the day when I may authorize
+you, before all the world, to call me 'Father.'  Do not interrupt me.
+If you resolutely concentrate your will and show as keen a sense for
+ruling men as you do for the chase, if you try to sharpen your wits and
+take in what I teach you, it may some day happen that Antinous instead of
+Verus--"
+
+"Nay, not that, only not that!"  cried the lad, turning very pale and
+raising his hands beseechingly.
+
+"The greatness with which Destiny surprises us seems terrible so long as
+it is new to us," said Hadrian.  "But the seaman is soon accustomed to
+the storms, and we come to wear the purple as you do your chiton."
+
+"Oh, Caesar, I entreat you," said Antinous, anxiously, "put aside these
+ideas; I am not fit for great things."
+
+"The smallest saplings grow to be palms."
+
+"But I am only a wretched little herb that thrives awhile in your shadow.
+Proud Rome--"
+
+"Rome is my handmaid.  She has been forced before now to be ruled by men
+of inferior stamp, and I should show her how the handsomest of her sons
+can wear the purple.  The world may look for such a choice from a
+sovereign whom it has long known to be an artist, that is a high-priest
+of the Beautiful.  And if not, I will teach it to form its taste on
+mine."
+
+"You are pleased to mock me, Caesar," cried the Bithynian.  "You
+certainly cannot be in earnest, and if it is true that you love me--"
+
+"What now, boy?"
+
+"You will let me live unknown for you, care for you; you will ask nothing
+of me but reverence and love and fidelity."
+
+"I have long had them, and I now would fain repay my Antinous for all
+these treasures."
+
+"Only let me stay with you, and if necessary let me die for you."
+
+"I believe, boy, you would be ready to make the sacrifice we were
+speaking of for me!"
+
+"At any moment without winking an eyelash."
+
+"I thank you for those words.  It has turned out a pleasant evening, and
+what a bad one I looked forward to--"
+
+"Because the woman by the tomb startled you?"
+
+"'Dead,' is a grim word.  It is true that 'death'--being dead--can
+frighten no wise man; but the step out of light into darkness is fearful.
+I cannot get the figure of the old hag and her shrill cry out of my mind.
+Then the Christian came up, and his discourse was strange and disturbing
+to my soul.  Before it grew dark he and the limping girl went homewards;
+I stood looking after them and my eyes were dazzled by the sun which was
+sinking over the Libyan range.  The horizon was clear, but behind the
+day-star there were clouds.  In the west, the Egyptians say, lies the
+realm of death.  I could not help thinking of this; and the oracle, the
+misfortunes that the stars threatened me with in the course of this year,
+the cry of the old woman--all these crowded into my mind together.  But
+then, as I observed how the sun struggled with the clouds and approached
+nearer and nearer to the hill-tops on the farther side of the river, I
+said to myself:  If it sets in full radiance you may look confidently to
+the future; if it is swallowed up by clouds before it sinks to rest, then
+destiny will fulfil itself; then you must shorten sail and wait for the
+storm."
+
+"And what happened?"
+
+"The fiery globe burnt in glowing crimson, surrounded by a million rays.
+Each seemed separate from the rest and shone with glory  of its  own; it
+was as though the sinking disc had been the centre of bow-shots
+innumerable and golden arrow-shafts radiated to the sky in every
+direction.  The scene was magnificent and my heart beat high with happy
+excitement, when suddenly and swiftly a dark cloud fell, as though
+exasperated by the wounds it had received from those fiery darts; a
+second followed, and a third, and sinister Daimons flung a dark and
+fleecy curtain over the glorious head of Helios, as the executioner
+throws a coarse black cloth over the head of the condemned, when he
+sets his knee against him to strangle him."
+
+At this narrative Antinous covered his face with both hands, and murmured
+in terror:
+
+"Frightful, frightful!  What can be hanging over us?  Only listen, how it
+thunders, and the rain thrashes the tent."
+
+"The clouds are pouring out torrents; see the water is coming in already.
+The slaves must dig gutters for it to run off.  Drive the pegs tighter
+you fellows out there or the whirlwind will tear down the slight
+structure."
+
+"And how sultry the air is!"
+
+"The hot wind seems to warm even the flood of rain.  Here it is still
+dry; mix me a cup of wine, Antinous.  Have any letters come?"
+
+"Yes, my Lord."
+
+"Give them to me, Mastor."
+
+The slave, who was busily engaged in damming up with earth and stones,
+the trickling stream of rain-water that was soaking into the tent, sprang
+up, hastily dried his hands, took a sack out of the chest in which the
+Emperor's despatches were kept and gave it to his master.  Hadrian opened
+the leather bag, took out a roll, hastily broke it open, and then, after
+rapidly glancing at the contents, exclaimed:
+
+"What is this?  I have opened the record of the oracle of Apis.  How did
+it come among to-day's letters?"
+
+Antinous went up to Hadrian, looked at the sack, and said:
+
+"Mastor has made a mistake.  These are the documents from Memphis.  I
+will bring you the right despatch-bag."
+
+"Stay!"  said Hadrian, eagerly seizing his favorite's hand.  "Is this a
+mere trick of chance or a decree of Fate?  Why should this particular
+sack have come into my hands to-day of all others?  Why, out of twenty
+documents it contains, should I have taken out this very one?  Look
+here.--I will explain these signs to you.  Here stand three pairs of arms
+bearing shields and spears, close by the name of the Egyptian month that
+corresponds to our November.  These are the three signs of misfortune.
+The lutes up there are of happier omen.  The masts here indicate the
+usual state of affairs.  Three of these hieroglyphics always occur
+together.  Three lutes indicate much good fortune, two lutes and one mast
+good fortune and moderate prosperity, one pair of arms and two lutes
+misfortune, followed by happiness, and so forth.  Here, in November,
+begin the arms with weapons, and here they stand in threes and threes,
+and portend nothing but unqualified misfortune, never mitigated by a
+single lute.  Do you see, boy?  Have you understood the meaning of these
+signs?"
+
+"Perfectly well; but do you interpret them rightly?  The fighting arms
+may perhaps lead to victory."
+
+"No.  The Egyptians use them to indicate conflict, and to them conflict
+and unrest are identical with what we call evil and disaster."
+
+"That is strange!"
+
+"Nay, it is well conceived; for they say that everything was originally
+created good by the gods, but that the different portions of the great
+All changed their nature by restless and inharmonious mingling.  This
+explanation was given me by the priest of Apis, and here--here by the
+month of November are the three fighting arias--a hideous token.  If one
+of the flashes which light up this tent so incessantly, like a living
+stream of light were to strike you, or me, and all of us--I should not
+wonder.  Terrible--terrible things hang over us!  It requires some
+courage under such omens as these, to keep an untroubled gaze and not to
+quail."
+
+"Only use your own arms against the fighting arms of the Egyptian gods;
+they are powerful," said Antinous; but Hadrian let his head sink on his
+breast, and said, in a tone of discouragement:
+
+"The gods themselves must succumb to Destiny."
+
+The thunder continued to roar.  More than once the storm snapped the
+tent-ropes, and the slaves were obliged to hold on to the Emperor's
+fragile shelter with their hands; the chambers of the clouds poured
+mighty torrents out upon the desert range which for years had not known a
+drop of rain, and every rift and runlet was filled with a stream or a
+torrent.
+
+Neither Hadrian nor Antinous closed their eyes that fearful night.  The
+Emperor had as yet opened only one of the rolls that were in the day's
+letter-bag; it contained the information that Titianus the prefect was
+cruelly troubled by his old difficulty of breathing, with a petition from
+that worthy official to be allowed to retire from the service of the
+state and to withdraw to his own estate.  It was no small matter for
+Hadrian to dispense for the future with this faithful coadjutor, to lose
+the man on whom he had had his eye to tranquillize Judaea--where a fresh
+revolt had raised its head, and to reduce it again to subjection without
+bloodshed.  To crush and depopulate the rebellious province was within
+the power of other men, but to conquer and govern it with kindness
+belonged only to the wise and gentle Titianus.  The Emperor had no heart
+to open a second letter that night.  He lay in silence on his couch till
+morning began to grow gray, thinking over every evil hour of his life--
+the murders of Nigrinus, of Tatianus and of the senators, by which he had
+secured the sovereignty--and again he vowed to the gods immense
+sacrifices if only they would protect him from impending disaster.
+
+When he rose next morning Antinous was startled at his aspect, for
+Hadrian's face and lips were perfectly bloodless.  After he had read the
+remainder of his letters he started, not on foot but on horseback, with
+Antinous and Mastor for Besa, there to await the rest of the escort.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The unchained elements had raged that night with equal fury over the Nile
+city of Besa.  The citizens of this ancient town had done all they could
+to give the Imperial traveller a worthy reception.  The chief streets had
+been decked with ropes of flowers strung from mast to mast and from house
+to house, and by the harbor, close to the river shore, statues of Hadrian
+and his wife had been erected.  But the storm tore down the masts and the
+garlands, and the lashed waters of the Nile had beaten with irresistible
+fury on the bank; had carried away piece after piece of the fertile
+shore, flung its waves, like liquid wedges into the rifts of the parched
+land; and excavated the high bank by the landing-quay.
+
+After midnight the storm was still raging with unheard-of fury; it swept
+the palm thatch from many of the houses, and beat the stream with such
+violence that it was like a surging sea.  The full unbroken force of the
+flood beat again and again on the promontory on which stood the statues
+of the Imperial couple.  Shortly before the first dawn of light the
+little tongue of land, which was protected by no river wall, could no
+longer resist the furious attack of the waters; huge clods of soil
+slipped and fell with a loud noise into the river and were followed by a
+large mass of the cliff, with a roar as of thunder the plateau behind
+sank, and the statue of the Emperor which stood upon it began to totter
+and lean slowly to its fall.  When day broke it was lying with the
+pedestal still above ground, but the head was buried in the earth.
+
+At break of day the citizens left their houses to inquire of the
+fishermen and boatmen what had occurred in the harbor during the night.
+As soon as the storm had abated, hundreds, nay thousands, of men, women
+and children thronged the landing-place round the fallen statue--they saw
+the land-slip and knew that the current had torn the land from the bank
+and caused the mischief.  Was it that Hapi, the Nile-god, was angry with
+the Emperor?  At any rate the disaster that had befallen the image of the
+sovereign boded evil, that was clear.
+
+The Toparch, the chief municipal authority, at once set to work to
+reinstate the statue which was itself uninjured, for Hadrian might arrive
+in a few hours.  Numerous men, both free and slaves, crowded to undertake
+the work, and before long the statue of Hadrian, executed in the Egyptian
+style, once more stood upright and gazing with a fixed countenance
+towards the harbor.  Sabina's was also put back by the side of her
+husband's and the Toparch went home satisfied.  With him most of the
+starers and laborers left the quay, but their place was taken by other
+curious folks who had missed the statue from its place, where the land
+had fallen, and now expressed their opinions as to the mode and manner of
+its fall.
+
+"The wind can never have overturned this heavy mass of limestone," said a
+ropemaker: "And see how far it stands from the broken ground."
+
+They say it fell on the top of land-slip," answered a baker.
+
+"That is how it was," said a sailor.
+
+"Nonsense!"  cried the ropemaker.  "If the statue had stood on the ground
+now carried away, it must have fallen at once into the water and have
+sunk to the bottom--any child can see that other powers have been at work
+here."
+
+"Very likely," said a temple-servant who devoted himself to the
+interpretation of signs: "The gods may have overset the proud image to
+give a warning token to Hadrian."
+
+"The immortals do not mix in the affairs of men in our day," said the
+sailor; "but in such a fearful night as this peaceful citizens remain
+within doors and so leave a fair field for Caesar's foes."
+
+"We are all faithful subjects," said the baker indignantly.
+
+"You are a pack of rebellious rabble," retorted a Roman soldier, who like
+the whole cohort quartered in the province of Hermopolis, had formerly
+served in Judaea under the cruel Tinnius Rufus.  "Among you worshippers
+of beasts squabbles never cease, and as to the Christians, who have made
+their nests out there on the other side of the valley, say the worst you
+can of them and still you would be flattering them."
+
+"Brave Fuscus is quite right!"  cried  a beggar.  The wretches have
+brought the plague into our houses; wherever the disease shows itself
+there are Christian men and women to be seen.  They came to my brother's
+house; they sat all night by his sick children and of course both died."
+
+"If only my old governor Tinnius Rufus were here," growled the soldier,
+"they would none of them be any better off than their own crucified god."
+
+"Well, I certainly have nothing in common with them," replied the baker.
+"But what is true must continue true.  They are quiet, kind folks and
+punctual in payment, who do no harm and show kindness to many poor
+creatures."
+
+"Kindness?"  cried the beggar, who had received alms himself from the
+deacon of the church at Besa, but had also been exhorted to work.  "All
+the five priests of Sekket of the grotto of Artemis have been led away by
+them and have basely abandoned the sanctuary of the goddess.  And is it
+good and kind that they should have poisoned my brother's children with
+their potions?"
+
+"Why should they not have killed the children?"  asked the soldier.
+"I heard of the same things in Syria; and as to this statue, I will never
+wear my sword again--"
+
+"Hark! listen to the bold Fuscus," cried the crowd.  "He has seen much."
+
+"I will never wear my sword again if they did not knock over the statue
+in the dark."
+
+"No, no," cried the sailor positively.  "It fell with the land that was
+washed away; I saw it lying there myself."
+
+"And are you a Christian, too?"  asked the soldier, "or do you suppose
+that I was in jest when I swore by my sword?  I have served in Bithynia,
+in Syria, and in Judaea.  I know these villains, good people.  There were
+hundreds of Christians to be seen there who would throw away life like a
+worn-out shoe because they did not choose to sacrifice to the statues of
+Caesar and the gods."
+
+"There, you hear!"  cried the beggar.  "And did you see a single man of
+them among the citizens who set to work to restore the statue to its
+place?"
+
+"There were none of them there," said the sailor, who was beginning to
+share the soldier's views.
+
+"The Christians threw down the Emperor's statue," the beggar shouted to
+the crowd.  "It is proved, and they shall suffer for it.  Every man who
+is a friend of the divine Hadrian come with me now and have them out of
+their houses."
+
+"No uproar!"  interrupted the soldier to the furious man.  "There is the
+tribune, he will hear you."
+
+The Roman officer, who now came past with a troop of soldiers to receive
+the Emperor outside the city, was greeted by the crowd with loud
+shouting.  He commanded silence and made the soldier tell him what had so
+violently excited the people.
+
+"Very possibly," said the tribune, a sinewy and stern-looking man, who,
+like Fuscus, had served under Tinnius Rufus, and had risen from a sutler
+to be an officer, "Very possibly--but where are your proofs?"
+
+"Most of the citizens helped in reerecting the statue, but the Christians
+held aloof from the work," cried the beggar.  "There was not one to be
+seen.  Ask the sailor, my lord; he was by and he can bear witness to it."
+
+"That certainly is more than suspicious.  This matter must be strictly
+inquired into.  Pay heed, you people."
+
+"Here comes a Christian girl!"  cried the sailor.
+
+"Lame Martha; I know her well," interrupted the beggar.  "She goes into
+all the plague-stricken houses and poisons the people.  She stayed three
+days and three nights at my brother's turning the children's pillows till
+they were carried out.  Wherever she goes death follows."
+
+Selene, now known as Martha, paid no heed to the crowd, but with her
+blind brother Helios, now called John, went calmly on her way which led
+from the raised bank down to the landing-quay.  There she wished to hire
+a boat to take her across the stream, for in a village on the island over
+against the town dwelt some sick Christians to whom she was carrying
+medicines and whom she was intending to watch.  For months past her whole
+life had been devoted to the suffering.  She had carried help even into
+heathen homes, and shrunk from neither fever nor plague.  Her cheeks had
+gained no color, but her eyes shone with a gentler and purer light which
+glorified the severe beauty of her features.  As the girl approached the
+captain he fixed his eyes on her, and called out:
+
+"Hey! pale-face--are you a Christian?"
+
+"Yes, my lord," replied Selene, and she went on quietly and indifferently
+with her brother.
+
+The Roman looked after her, and as she passed by Hadrian's statue, and,
+as she did so, dropped her head rather lower than before, he roughly
+ordered her to stop and to tell him why she had averted her face from the
+statue of Caesar.
+
+"Hadrian is our ruler as well as yours," answered the young girl.  "I am
+in haste for there are sick people on the island."
+
+"You will bring them no good!"  cried the beggar.  "Who knows what is
+hidden there in the basket?"
+
+"Silence!"  interrupted the tribune.  "They say, girl that your fellow-
+believers overthrew the statue of Caesar in the night."
+
+"How should that be?  We honor Caesar no less than you do."
+
+"I will believe you, and you shall prove it.  There stands the statue of
+the divine Caesar.  Come with me and worship it."  Selene looked with
+horror in the face of the stern man, and could not find a word of reply.
+
+"Well!"  asked the captain, "will you come?  Yes or no?"
+
+Selene struggled for self-possession, and when the soldier held out his
+hand to her she said with a trembling voice:
+
+"We honor the Emperor but we pray to no statue--only to our Father in
+Heaven."
+
+"There you have it!" laughed the beggar.
+
+"Once more I ask you," cried the tribune.  "Will you worship this statue,
+or do you refuse to do so?"
+
+A fearful struggle possessed Selene's soul.  If she resisted the Roman
+her life was in danger, and the fury of the populace would be aroused
+against her fellow-believers--if, on the other hand, she obeyed him, she
+would be blaspheming God, breaking her faith to the Saviour who loved
+her, sinning against the truth and her own conscience.  A fearful dread
+fell upon her, and deprived her of the power to lift her soul in prayer.
+She could not, she dared not, do what was required of her, and yet the
+overweening love of life which exists in every mortal led her feet to the
+base of the idol and there stayed her steps.
+
+"Lift up your hands and worship the divine Caesar," cried the tribune,
+who with the rest of the lookers-on had watched her movements with keen
+excitement.
+
+Trembling, she set her basket on the ground and tried to withdraw her
+hand from her brother's; but the blind boy held it fast.  He fully
+understood what was required of his sister, he knew full well, from the
+history of many martyrs that had been told him, what fate awaited her and
+him if they resisted the Roman's demand; but he felt no fear and
+whispered to her:
+
+"We will not obey his desires Martha; we will not pray to idols, we will
+cling faithfully to the Redeemer.  Turn me away from the image, and I
+will say 'Our Father.'"
+
+With a loud voice and his lustreless eyes upraised to Heaven, the boy
+said the Lord's prayer.  Selene had first set his face towards the river,
+and then she herself turned her back on the statue; then, lifting her
+hands, she followed the child's example.
+
+Helios clung to her closely, her loudly uttered prayer was one with his,
+and neither of them saw or heard anything more of what befell them.
+
+The blind boy had a vision of a distant but glorious light, the maiden of
+a blissful life made beautiful by love, as she was flung to the ground in
+front of the statue of Hadrian, and the excited mob rushed upon her and
+her faithful little brother.  The military tribune tried in vain to hold
+back the populace, and by the time the soldiers had succeeded in driving
+the excited mob away from their victims, both the young hearts, in the
+midst of the triumph of their faith, in the midst of their hopes of an
+eternal and blissful life, had ceased to beat for ever.
+
+The occurrence disturbed the captain and made him very uneasy.  This
+girl, this beautiful boy, who lay before him pale corpses, had been
+worthy of a better fate, and he might be made to answer for them; for the
+law forbade that any Christian should be punished for his faith without a
+judge's sentence.  He therefore commanded that the dead should be carried
+at once to the house to which they belonged, and threatened every one,
+who should that day set foot in the Christian quarter, with the severest
+punishment.
+
+The beggar went off, shrieking and shouting, to his brother's house to
+tell the mistress that lame Martha, who had nursed her daughter to death,
+was slain; but he gained an evil reward, for the poor woman bewailed
+Selene as if she had been her own child, and cursed him and her
+murderers.
+
+Before sundown Hadrian arrived at Besa, where he found magnificent tents
+pitched to receive him and his escort.  The disaster that had befallen
+his statue was kept a secret from him, but he felt anxious and ill.  He
+wished to be perfectly alone, and desired Antinous to go to see the city
+before it should be dark.  The Bithynian joyfully embraced this
+permission as a gift of the gods; he hurried through the decorated high
+streets, and made a boy guide him from thence into the Christian quarter.
+Here the streets were like a city of the dead; not a door was open, not a
+man to be seen.
+
+Antinous paid the lad, sent him away, and with a beating heart went from
+one house to another.  Each looked neat and clean, and was surrounded by
+trees and shrubs, but though the smoke curled up from several of the
+roofs every house seemed to have been deserted.  At last he heard the
+sound of voices.  Guided by these he went through a lane to an open place
+where hundreds of people, men, women and children, were assembled in
+front of a small building which stood in the midst of a palm grove.
+
+He asked where dame Hannah lived, and an old man silently pointed to the
+little house on which the attention of the Christians seemed to be
+concentrated.  The lad's heart throbbed wildly and yet he felt anxious
+and embarrassed, and he asked himself whether he had not better turn back
+and return next morning when he might hope to find Selene alone.
+
+But no!  Perhaps he might even now be allowed to see her.
+
+He modestly made his way through the throng, which had set up a song in
+which he could not determine whether it was intended to express feelings
+of sadness or of triumph.  Now he was standing at the gate of the garden
+and saw Mary the deformed girl.  She was kneeling by a covered bier and
+weeping bitterly.  Was dame Hannah dead?  No, she was alive, for at this
+moment she came out of her house, leaning on an old man, pale, calm and
+tearless.  Both came forward, the old man uttered a short prayer and then
+stooping down, lifted the sheet which covered the dead.
+
+Antinous pushed a step forward but instantly drew two steps back--then
+covering his eyes with his hand he stood as if rooted to the spot.
+
+There was no vehement lamentation.  The old man began a discourse.
+All around were sounds of suppressed weeping, singing and praying but
+Antinous saw and heard nothing.  He had dropped his hand and never took
+his eyes off the white face of the dead till Hannah once more covered it
+with the sheet.  Even then he did not stir.
+
+It was not till six young girls lifted Selene's modest bier and four
+matrons took up that of little Helios on their shoulders and the whole
+assembly moved away after them, that he too turned and followed the
+mourning procession.  He looked on from a distance while the larger and
+the smaller coffins were carried into a rocktomb, while the entrance was
+carefully closed, and the procession dispersed some here and some there.
+
+At last he found himself alone and in front of the door of the vault.
+The sun went down, and darkness spread rapidly over hill and vale.  When
+no one was to be seen who could observe him, he threw up his arms,
+clasped the pillar at the entrance of the tomb, pressed his lips against
+the rough wooden door and struck his forehead against it while his whole
+body trembled with the tearless anguish of his spirit.
+
+For some minutes he stood so and did not hear a light step which came up
+behind him.  It was Mary, who had come once more to pray by the grave of
+her beloved friend.  She at once recognized the youth and softly called
+him by his name.
+
+"Mary," he answered, clasping her hand eagerly.  "How did she die?"
+
+"Slain," she said, sadly.  "She would not worship Caesar's image."
+
+Antinous shuddered at the words, and asked, "And why would she not?"
+
+"Because she was faithful to our belief, and so hoped for the mercy of
+the Saviour.  Now she is a blessed angel."
+
+"Are you sure of that?"
+
+"As sure as I live in hope of meeting the martyr who rests here, again in
+Heaven!"
+
+"Mary."
+
+"Leave go of my hand!"
+
+"Will you do me a service, Mary?"
+
+"Willingly, Antinous--but pray do not touch me."
+
+"Take this money and buy the loveliest wreath that is to be had here.
+Hang it on this tomb, and say as you do so--call out--, From Antinous to
+Selene.'"
+
+The deformed girl took the money he gave her and said:
+
+"She often prayed for you."
+
+"To her God?"
+
+"To our Redeemer, that he might give you also joy.  She died for Christ
+Jesus; now she is with him, and he will grant her prayers."
+
+Antinous was silent for a while, then he said:
+
+"Once more give me your hand, Mary, and now farewell.  Will you sometimes
+think of me, and pray for me too, to your Redeemer?"
+
+"Yes, yes, and you will not quite forget me, the poor cripple?"
+
+"Certainly not, you good, kind girl!  Perhaps we may some day meet
+again."  With these words Antinous hurried down the hill and through the
+town to the Nile.
+
+The moon had risen and was mirrored in the rough water.  Just so had its
+image played upon the waves when Antinous had rescued Selene from the
+sea.  The lad knew that Hadrian would be expecting him, still he did not
+seek his tent.  A violent emotion had overpowered him; he restlessly
+paced up and down the river-bank rapidly reviewing in his memory the more
+prominent incidents of his past life.  He seemed to hear again every word
+of the dialogue that had taken place yesterday between Hadrian and
+himself.  Before his inward eye he saw once more his humble home in
+Bithynia, his mother, his brothers and sisters whom he should never see
+again.  Once more he lived through the dreadful hour when he had deceived
+his beloved master and had been an incendiary.  An overmastering dread
+fell upon him as he thought of Hadrian's wish to put him in the place of
+the man whom the prudent sovereign had chosen as his successor--a choice
+that was perhaps the direct outcome of his own crime.  He, Antinous, who
+to-day could not think of the morrow, who always kept out of the way of
+the discourse of grave men because he found it so hard to follow their
+meaning, he who knew nothing but how to obey, he who was never happy but
+alone with his master and his dreaming, far from the bustle of the world
+--he, to be burdened with the purple, with anxiety, with a mountain-load
+of responsibility!
+
+No, no; the idea was unheard-of--impossible!  And yet Hadrian never gave
+up a wish he had once expressed in words.  The future loomed before his
+soul like some overpowering foe.  Suffering, unrest, and misfortune
+stared him in the face, turn which way he would.
+
+What was the hideous fatality that threatened his sovereign?  It was
+approaching, it must come if no one--aye, if no one should be found to
+stand between him and the impending blow, and to receive in his own
+breast--in his own heart, bared to receive the wound--the spear hurled by
+the vengeful god.  And he--he, and he alone was the one who might do
+this.
+
+The thought flashed into his mind like a sudden blaze of light; and if
+he should find the courage to devote himself to death for his dear master
+all his sins against him would be expiated; then--then--oh, how lovely a
+thought!--then might he not find entrance into the gates of that realm of
+bliss which Selene's prayers had opened to him?  There he would see his
+mother again and his father, and by and bye his brothers and sisters--but
+now, at once in a few minutes Her whom he loved and who had trodden the
+ways of death before him.
+
+An exquisite sense of hope such as he had never felt before flooded his
+soul.  There lay the Nile--here was a boat.  He gave it a strong push
+into the stream and with a powerful leap, as when hunting he had often
+sprung from rock to rock, he jumped into the boat.  He had just seized an
+oar when Mastor, who had been desired by the Emperor to seek him,
+recognized him in the moonlight and desired him to return with him to the
+tents.
+
+But Antinous did not obey.  As he pushed out into the stream he called
+out:
+
+"Greet my Lord from me--greet him lovingly, a thousand times, and tell
+him Antinous loved him more than his life.  Fate demands a victim.  The
+world cannot dispense with Hadrian, but Antinous is a mere nonentity,
+whom none will miss but Caesar, and for him Antinous flings himself into
+the jaws of death."
+
+"Stay-stop!  hapless boy, come back!"  shouted the slave, and leaping
+into a boat he followed that of the Bithynian, which, impelled by strong
+and steady strokes, flew away into the current.
+
+Mastor rowed with all his might, but he could not gain upon the boat he
+was pursuing.  Thus in a wild race both reached the middle of the stream.
+There, the slave saw Antinous fling away his oar, and an instant later he
+heard Antinous call loudly on the name of Selene, and then, in helpless
+inactivity, he saw the lad glide into the waters, and the Nile swallowed
+in its flood the noblest and fairest of victims.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+A night and a day had slipped away since the death of the Bithynian.
+Ships and boats from every part of the province had collected before Besa
+to seek for the body of the drowned youth, the shores swarmed with men,
+and cressets and torches had dimmed the moonlight on river and shore all
+through the night; but they had not yet succeeded in finding the body of
+the beautiful youth.
+
+Hadrian had heard in what way Antinous had perished.  He had required
+Mastor to repeat to him more than once the last words of his faithful
+companion and neither to add nor to omit a single syllable.  Hadrian's
+accurate memory cherished them all and now he had sat till dawn and from
+dawn till the sun had reached the meridian, repeating them again and
+again to him self.  He sat gloomily brooding and would neither eat
+nor drink.  The misfortune which had threatened him had fallen--and what
+a grief was this!  If indeed Fate would accept the anguish he now felt in
+the place of all other suffering it might have had in store for him he
+might look forward to years free from care, but he felt as though he
+would rather have spent the remainder of his existence in sorrow and
+misery with his Antinous by his side than enjoy, without him, all that
+men call happiness, peace and prosperity.
+
+Sabina and her escort had arrived-a host of men; but he had strictly
+ordered that no one, not even his wife, was to be admitted to his
+presence.  The comfort of tears was denied him, but his grief gripped him
+at the heart, clouded his brain and made hint so irritably sensitive that
+an unfamiliar voice, though even at a distance, disturbed him and made
+him angry.
+
+The party who had arrived by water were not allowed to occupy the tents
+which had been pitched for them not far from his, because he desired to
+be alone, quite alone, with his anguish of spirit.  Mastor, whom he had
+hitherto regarded rather a useful chattel than as a human creature, now
+grew nearer to him--had he not been the one witness of his darling's
+strange disappearance.  Towards the close of this, the most miserable
+night he had ever known, the slave asked him whether he should not fetch
+the physician from the ships, he looked so pale; but Hadrian forbade it.
+
+"If I could only cry like a woman," he said, "or like other fathers whose
+sons are snatched away by death, that would he the best remedy.  You poor
+souls will have a bad time now, for the sun of my life has lost its light
+and the trees by the way-side have lost their verdure."
+
+When he was alone once more he sat staring into vacancy and muttered to
+himself:
+
+"All mankind should mourn with me for if I had been asked yesterday how
+perfect a beauty might be bestowed on one of their race I could have
+pointed proudly to you, my faithful boy and have said, 'Beauty like that
+of the gods.'  Now the crown is cut off from the trunk of the palm and
+the maimed thing can only be ashamed of its deformity; and if all
+humanity were but one man it would look like one who has had his right
+eye torn out.  I will not look on the monsters, lean and fat, that they
+may not spoil my taste for the true type!  Oh faithful, lovable,
+beautiful boy!  What a blind, mad fool have you been!  And yet I cannot
+blame your madness.  You have pierced my soul with the deepest thrust of
+all and yet I cannot even be angry with you.  Superhuman! godlike was
+your faithful devotion.  Aye, indeed, it was!"  As he thus spoke he rose
+from his seat and went on resolutely and decidedly:
+
+"Here I stretch out this my right hand-hear me, ye Immortals!  Every city
+in the Empire shall raise an altar to Antinous, and the friend of whom
+you have robbed me I will make your equal and companion.  Receive him
+tenderly, oh, ye undying rulers of the world!  Which among you can boast
+of beauty greater than his?  and which of you ever displayed so much
+goodness and faithfulness as your new associate?"
+
+This vow seemed to have given Hadrian some comfort.  For above half an
+hour he paced his tent with a firmer tread, then he desired that
+Heliodorus his secretary might be called.
+
+The Greek wrote what his sovereign dictated.  This was nothing less than
+that henceforth the world should worship a new divinity in the person of
+Antinous.
+
+At noonday a messenger in breathless haste came to say that the body of
+the Bithynian had been found.  Thousands flocked to see the corpse, and
+among them Balbilla, who had behaved like a distracted creature when she
+heard to what an end her idol had come.  She had rushed up and down the
+river-bank, among the citizens and fishermen, dressed in black mourning
+robes and with her hair flying about her.  The Egyptians had compared her
+to the mourning Isis seeking the body of her beloved husband, Osiris.
+She was beside herself with grief, and her companion implored her in vain
+to calm herself and remember her rank and her dignity as a woman.  But
+Balbilla pushed her vehemently aside, and when the news was brought that
+Nile had yielded up his prey she rushed on foot to see the body, with the
+rest of the crowd.
+
+Her name was in every mouth, everyone knew that she was the Empress'
+friend, and so she was willingly and promptly obeyed when she commanded
+the bearers who carried the bier on which the recovered body lay to set
+it down and to lift up the sheet which shrouded it.  Pale and trembling,
+she went up to it and gazed down at the drowned man; but only for a
+moment could she endure the sight.  She turned away with a shudder, and
+desired the bearers to go on.  When the funeral procession had
+disappeared and she could no longer hear the shrill wailing of the
+Egyptian women, and no longer see them streaking their breast, head, and
+hair with damp earth and flinging up their arms wildly in the air, she
+turned to her companion and said calmly: "Now, Claudia, let us go home."
+
+In the evening at supper she appeared dressed in black, like Sabina and
+all the rest of the suite, but she was calm and ready with an answer to
+every observation.
+
+Pontius had travelled with them from Thebes to Besa, and she had spared
+him nothing that could punish him for his long absence, and had
+mercilessly compelled him to listen to all her verses on Antinous.
+
+He meanwhile had been perfectly cool about it, and had criticised her
+poems exactly as if they had referred not to a man of flesh and blood but
+to some statue or god.  This epigram he would praise, the next he would
+disparage, a third condemn.  Her confession that she had been in the
+habit of complimenting Antinous with flowers and fruit he heard with a
+shrug of the shoulders, saying pleasantly: "Give him as many presents as
+you will; I know that you expect no gifts from your divinity in return
+for your sacrifices."
+
+His words had surprised and delighted her.  Pontius always understood
+her, and did not deserve that she should wound him.  So she let him gaze
+into her soul, and told him how much she loved Antinous so long as he was
+absent.  Then she laughed and confessed that she was perfectly
+indifferent to him as soon as they were together.
+
+When, after the Bithynian's death, she lost all self-control he simply
+let her alone, and begged Claudia to do the same.
+
+The same day that the body was found it was burnt on a pile of precious
+wood.  Hadrian had refused to see it when he learnt that the death by
+drowning had terribly distorted the lad's features.
+
+A few hours after the ashes of the Bithynian had been collected and
+brought in a golden vase to Hadrian, the Nile fleet was once more under
+sail, this time with the Emperor on board one of the boats, to proceed
+without farther halt to Alexandria.
+
+Hadrian remained alone with only his slave and his secretary on the boat
+that conveyed him; but he several times sent to Pontius to desire him to
+come from the ship on which he was and visit him on his.  He liked to
+hear the architect's deep voice, and discussed with him the plans which
+Pontius had sketched for his mausoleum in Rome and the monument to his
+lost favorite which he proposed to have erected from designs of his own
+in the large city which he intended should stand on the site of the
+little town of Besa, and which he had already named Antinoe.  But these
+discussions only took up a limited number of hours, and then the
+architect was at liberty to return to Sabina's boat, on which Balbilla
+also lived.
+
+A few days after they had quitted Besa he was sitting alone with the
+poetess on the deck of the Nile boat which, borne by the current and
+propelled by a hundred oars, was rapidly and steadily nearing its
+destination.  Ever since the death of the hapless favorite Pontius had
+avoided mentioning him to her.  She had now become as observant and as
+talkative as before, and in her eyes there even shone at times a ray of
+the old sunny gayety of her nature.  The architect thought he
+comprehended the characteristic change in her sentiments, and would not
+allude to the cause of the violent but transient fever under which she
+had suffered.  "What did you discuss with Caesar to-day?"  asked Balbilla
+of her friend.  Pontius looked down at the ground and considered whether
+he could venture to utter the name of Antinous before the poetess.
+Balbilla observed his hesitation and said:
+
+"Speak on; I can hear anything.  That folly is past and over."
+
+"Caesar is at work at the plans for a new town to be built and called
+Antinoe, and a sketch for a monument to his ill-fated favorite," said
+Pontius.  "He will not accept any help, but I have to teach him to
+discriminate what is possible from what is impossible."
+
+"Ah! he is always gazing at the stars and you look steadily at the road
+on which you are walking."
+
+"An architect can make no use of anything that is unsteady or that has no
+firm foundation."
+
+"That is a hard saying, Pontius.  It is true that during the last few
+weeks I have behaved like a fool."
+
+"I only wish that every tottering structure could recover its balance as
+quickly and as certainly as you!  Antinous was a demigod for beauty, and
+a good faithful fellow besides."
+
+"Do not speak of him any more," exclaimed Balbilla shuddering.  "He
+looked dreadful.  Can you forgive me for my conduct?"
+
+"I never was angry with you."
+
+"But I lost your esteem."
+
+"No, Balbilla.  Beauty, which is dear to us all, and which the Muse has
+kissed, attracted your easily moved poet's soul and it fluttered off at
+random.  Let it fly!  My friend's true womanly nature was never carried
+away by it.  She stands on a rock, that I am sure of."
+
+"How good and kind in you to say so--too good, too kind! for I am a
+feeble creature, turned by every breeze that blows, a vain little fool
+who does not know one hour what she may do the next, a spoilt child that
+likes best to do the thing it ought to leave undone, a weak girl who
+finds a pleasure in doing battle with men.  For all in all--"
+
+"For all in all a darling of the gods who to-day can climb the rocks with
+a firm step and to-morrow lies dreaming in the sunshine among flowers--
+for all in all a nature that has no equal and which lacks nothing,
+nothing whatever that constitutes a true woman excepting--"
+
+"I know what I lack," cried Balbilla.  "A strong man on whom I can
+depend, whose warnings I can respect.  You, you are that man; you and
+none other, for as soon as I feel you by my side I find it difficult to
+do what I know to be wrong.  Here I am, Pontius!  Will you have me with
+all my moods, with all my faults and weaknesses?"
+
+"Balbilla!"  cried the architect, beside himself with heartfelt agitation
+and surprise, and he pressed her hand long and fervently to-his lips.
+
+"You will?  You will take me?  You will never leave me, you will warn,
+support me and protect me?"
+
+"Till my last day, till death, as my child, as the apple of my eye, as--
+dare I say it and believe it?--as my love, my second self, my wife."
+
+"Oh! Pontius, Pontius," she exclaimed, grasping his broad, right hand in
+both her own.  "This hour restores to the orphaned Balbilla, father and
+mother and gives her besides the husband that she loves."
+
+"Mine, mine!"  cried the architect.  "Immortal gods!  During half a
+lifetime I have never found time, in the midst of labor and fatigue,
+to indulge in the joys of love and now you give me with interest and
+compound interest the treasure you have so long withheld."
+
+"How can you, a reasonable man, so over-estimate the value of your
+possession?  But you shall find some good in it.  Life can no longer be
+conceived of as worth having without the possessor."
+
+"And to me it has so long seemed empty and cold without you, you strange,
+unique, incomparable creature."
+
+"But why did you not come sooner, and so give me no time to behave like a
+fool?"
+
+"Because, because," said Pontius, gravely, "such a flight towards the sun
+seemed to me too bold; because I remember that my father's father--"
+
+"He was the noblest man that the ancestor of my house attracted to its
+greatness."
+
+"He was--consider it duly at this moment--he was your grandfather's
+slave."
+
+"I know it, but I also know, that there is not a man on earth who is
+worthier of freedom than you are, or whom I could ask as humbly as I ask
+you: Take me, poor, foolish Balbilla, to be your wife, guide me and make
+of me whatever you can, for your own honor and mine."
+
+The brief Nile voyage brought days and hours of the highest happiness to
+Balbilla and her lover.  Before the fleet sailed into the Mareotic harbor
+of Alexandria, Pontius revealed his happy secret to the Emperor.  Hadrian
+smiled for the first time since the death of his favorite, and desired
+the architect to bring Balbilla to him.
+
+"I was wrong in my interpretation of the Pythian oracle," said he, as he
+laid the poetess's hand in that of Pontius.  "Would you like to know how
+it runs Pontius--do not prompt me, my child.  Anything that I have read
+through once or twice I never forget.  Pythia said:
+
+    'That which thou boldest most precious and dear shall be torn from
+          thy keeping,
+     And from the heights of Olympus, down shalt thou fall in the dust;
+     Still the contemplative eye discerns under mutable sand-drifts
+     Stable foundations of stone, marble and natural rock.'
+
+"You have chosen well girl.  The oracle guaranteed you a safe road to
+tread through life.  As to the dust of which it speaks, it exists no
+doubt in a certain sense, but this hand wields the broom that will sweep
+it away.  Solemnize your marriage in Alexandria as soon as you will, but
+then come to Rome, that is the only condition I impose.  A thing I always
+have at heart is the introduction of new and worthy members into the
+class of Knights, for it is in that way alone that its fallen dignity can
+be restored.  This ring, my Pontius, gives you the rank of eques, and
+such a man as you are, the husband of Balbilla and the friend of Caesar
+may no doubt by-and-bye find a seat in the Senate.  What this generation
+can produce in stone and marble, my mausoleum shall bear witness to.
+Have you altered the plan of the bridge?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+In Alexandria the news of the nomination of the "sham Eros" to be the
+Emperor's successor was hailed with joy, and the citizens availed
+themselves gladly of his fresh and favorable opportunity to hold one
+festival after another.  Titianus took care to provide for the due
+performance of the usual acts of grace, and among others he threw open
+the prison-gates of Canopus, and the sculptor Pollux was set at liberty.
+
+The hapless artist had grown pale, it is true, in durance vile, but
+neither leaner nor enfeebled in body; on the other hand all the vigor of
+his intellect, all his bright courage for life and his happy creative
+instinct, seemed altogether crushed out of him.  His face, as in his
+dirty and ragged chiton, he journeyed from Canopus to Alexandria,
+revealed neither eager thankfulness for the unexpected boon of liberty,
+nor happiness at the prospect of seeing again his own people and Arsinoe.
+
+In the town he went, unintelligently dreaming as he walked, from one
+street to another, but he was familiar with every stone of the way, and
+his feet found their way to his sister's house.  How happy was Diotima,
+how her children rejoiced, how impatient was each one to conduct him to
+the old folks!  How high in the air the Graces frisked and leaped in
+front of the new little home to welcome the returned absentee!  And
+Doris, poor Doris, almost fainted with joyful surprise and her husband
+had to support her in his arms when her long vanished son, whom she had
+never given up for lost, however, suddenly stood before her and said:
+"Here am I."  How fondly she kissed and caressed her dear, cruel,
+restored fugitive.  The singer too loudly expressed his joy alike in
+verse and in prose, and fetched his best theatrical dress out of the
+chest to put it on his son in the place of his ragged chiton.
+
+A mighty torrent of curses and execrations flowed from the old man's lips
+as Pollux told his story.  The sculptor found it difficult to bring it to
+an end, for his father interrupted him at every word, and all the while
+he was talking his mother forced him to eat and drink incessantly, even
+when he could no more.  After he had assured her that he was long since
+replete, she pushed two more pots on to the fire, for he must have been
+half-starved in prison, and what he did not want now he would find room
+for two hours hence.  Euphorion himself conducted Pollux to the bath in
+the evening, and as they went home together he never for an instant left
+his side; the sense of being near him did him good and was like some
+comfortable physical sensation.
+
+The singer was not usually inquisitive, but on this occasion he never
+ceased asking questions till Doris led her son to the bed she had freshly
+made for him.  After the artist had gone to rest, the old woman once more
+slipped into his room, kissed his forehead, and said:
+
+"To-day you have still been thinking too much of that hideous prison--but
+to-morrow my boy, to-morrow you will be the same as before, will you
+not?"
+
+"Only leave me alone mother; I shall soon be better," he replied.  "This
+bed is as good as a sleeping-draught; the plank in the prison was quite a
+different thing."
+
+"You have never asked once for your Arsinoe," said Doris.
+
+"What can she matter to me?  Only let me sleep."  But the next morning
+Pollux was just the same as he had been the previous evening, and as the
+days went on his condition remained unchanged.  His head drooped on his
+breast, he never spoke but when he was spoken to, and when Doris or
+Euphorion tried to talk to him of the future, he would ask:  "Am I a
+burden to you?"  or begged them not to worry him.
+
+Still, he was gentle and kind, took his sister's children in his arms,
+played with the Graces, whistled to the birds, went in and out, and
+played a valiant part at every meal.  Now and again he would ask after
+Arsinoe.  Once he allowed himself to be guided to the house where she
+lived, but he would not knock at Paulina's door and seemed overawed by
+the grandeur of the house.  After he had been brooding and dreaming for a
+week, so idle, listless, and absent that his mother's heart was filled
+with anxious fears every time she looked at him, his brother Teuker hit
+upon a happy idea.
+
+The young gem-cutter was not usually a frequent visitor to his parents'
+house, but since the return of the hapless Pollux he called there almost
+daily.  His apprenticeship was over and he seemed on the high-road to
+become a great master in his art; nevertheless he esteemed his brother's
+gifts as far beyond his own and had tried to devise some means of
+reawakening the dormant energies of the luckless man's brain.
+
+"It was at this table," said Teuker to his mother, "that Pollux used to
+sit.  This evening I will bring in a lump of clay and a good piece of
+modelling wax.  Just put it all on the table and lay his tools by the
+side of it; perhaps when he sees them he will take a fancy again to work.
+If he can only make up his mind to model even a doll for the children he
+will soon get into the vein again, and he will go on from small things to
+great."
+
+Teuker brought the materials, Doris set them out with the modelling
+tools, and next morning watched her son's proceedings with an anxious
+heart.  He got up late, as be had always done since his return home, and
+sat a long time over the bowl of porridge which his mother had prepared
+for his breakfast.  Then he sauntered across to his table, stood in front
+of it awhile, broke off a piece of clay and kneaded and moulded it in his
+fingers into balls and cylinders, looked at one of them more closely and
+then, flinging it on the ground, he said, as he leaned across the table
+supporting himself on both hands to put his face near his mother's:
+
+"You want me to work again; but it is of no use--I could do no good with
+it."
+
+The old woman's eyes filled with tears, but she did not answer him.  In
+the evening Pollux begged her to put away the tools.
+
+When he was gone to bed she did so, and while she was moving about with a
+light in the dark, lumber-room in which she had kept them with other
+disused things, her eye fell on the unfinished wax model which had been
+the last work of her ill-starred son.  A new idea struck her.  She called
+Euphorion, made him throw the clay into the court-yard and place the
+model on the table by the side of the wax.  Then she put out the very
+same tools as he had been using on the fateful day of their expulsion
+from Lochias, close to the cleverly-sketched portrait, and begged her
+husband to go out with her quite early next morning and to remain absent
+till mid-day.
+
+"You will see," she said, "when he is standing face to face with his last
+work and there is no one by to disturb him or look at him, he will find
+the ends of the threads that have been cut and perhaps be able to gather
+them up again and go on with the work where it was interrupted."
+
+The mother's heart had hit upon the right idea.  When Pollux had eaten
+his breakfast he went to his table exactly as he had done the clay
+before; but the sight of the work in hand had quite a different effect to
+the mere raw clay and wax.  His eyes sparkled; he walked round the table
+with an attentive gaze examining his work as keenly and as eagerly as if
+it were some fine thing he saw for the first time.  Memory revived in
+his mind.  He laughed aloud, clasped his hands and said to himself,
+"Capital!  Something may be made of that!"
+
+His dull weariness slipped off him, as it were; a confident smile parted
+his lips and he seized the wax with a firm hand.  But he did not begin to
+work at once; he only tried whether his fingers had not lost their
+cunning, and whether the yielding material was obedient to his will.  The
+wax was no less docile to his touch than in former days, as he pinched or
+pulled it.  Perhaps then the tormenting thought that blighted his life,
+the dread that in the prison he had ceased to be an artist, and had lost
+all his faculty was nothing more than a mad delusion!  He must at any
+rate try how he could get on at the work.
+
+No one was by to observe him--he might dare the attempt at once.  The
+sweat of anguish stood in large beads on his brow as he finally
+concentrated his volition, shook back the hair from his face and took up
+a lump of the wax in both hands.  There stood the portrait of Antinous
+with the head only half-finished.  Now--could he succeed in modelling
+that lovely head free-hand and from memory?
+
+His breath came fast, and his hands trembled as he set to work; but soon
+his hand was as steady as ever, his eye was calm and keen again, and the
+work progressed.  The fine features of the young Bithynian were distinct
+to his mind's eye, and when, about four hours after, his mother looked in
+at the window to see what Pollux was doing, whether her little stratagem
+had succeeded, she cried out with surprise, for the favorite's bust, a
+likeness in every feature, stood on a plinth side by side with the
+original sketch.  Before she could cross the threshold her son had run to
+meet her, lifted her in his arms, and kissing her forehead and lips he
+exclaimed, radiant with delight:
+
+"Mother, I still can work.  Mother, mother, I am not lost!"
+
+In the afternoon his brother came in and saw what he had been doing, and
+now--and not till now--could Teuker honestly be glad to have found his
+brother again.
+
+While the two artists were sitting together, and the gem-cutter was
+suggesting to the sculptor, who had complained of the bad light in his
+parent's house, that he should carry the statue to his master's workshop
+--which was much lighter--to complete it, Euphorion had quietly gone to
+some remote corner of his provision-shed and brought to light an amphora
+full of noble Chian wine which had been given to him by a rich merchant,
+for whose wedding he had performed the part of Hymenaeus with a chorus of
+youths.  For twenty years had he still preserved this jar of wine for
+some specially happy occasion.  This jar and his best lute were the only
+objects which Euphorion had carried with his own hand from Lochias to his
+daughter's house and then again to his own new abode.  With an air of
+dignified pride the singer set the old amphora before his sons, but Doris
+laid hands upon it at once and said:
+
+"I am glad to bestow the good gift upon you, and would willingly drink a
+cup of it with you; but a prudent general does not celebrate his triumph
+before he has won the battle.  As soon as the statue of the beautiful lad
+is completed, I myself, will wreathe this venerable jar with ivy, and beg
+you spare it to us, my dear old man--but not before."
+
+"Mother is right," said Pollux.  "And if the amphora is really destined
+for me, if you will allow it, my father shall not remove the pitch wig
+from its venerable head, till Arsinoe is mine once more!"
+
+"That is well my boy," cried Doris, "and then I will crown, not merely
+the jar but all of us too, with nothing but sweet roses."
+
+The next day Pollux, with his unfinished statue, removed to the workshop
+of his brother's master.  The worthy man cleared the best place for the
+young sculptor, for he thought highly of him and wished to make good, as
+far as lay in his power, the injustice the poor fellow had suffered from
+the treachery of Papias.  Now, from sunrise till evening fell, Pollux was
+constant to his work.  He gave himself up to the resuscitated pleasure
+and power of creation with real passion.  Instead of using wax he had
+recourse to clay, and formed a tall figure which represented Antinous as
+the youthful Bacchus, as the god might have appeared to the pirates.  A
+mantle fell in light folds from his left shoulder to his ankles, leaving
+the broad breast and right aria entirely free; vine-leaves and grapes
+wreathed his flowing locks, and a pine-cone, flame-shaped, crowned his
+brow.  The left arm was raised in a graceful curve, and his fingers
+lightly grasped a thyrsus which rested on the ground and stood taller
+than the god's head; by the side of this magnificent figure stood a
+mighty wine-jar, half hidden by the drapery.
+
+For a whole week Pollux had devoted himself to this task during all the
+hours of daylight with unflagging zeal and diligence.  Before night fell
+he was accustomed to leave his work and walk up and down in front of
+Paulina's house, but for the present he refrained from knocking at the
+door and asking after the girl he loved.  He had heard from his mother
+how anxiously she was guarded from him and his; still Paulina's severity
+would certainly not have hindered the artist from making the attempt to
+possess himself of his dearest treasure.  What held him back from even
+approaching Arsinoe, was the vow he had made to himself never to tempt
+her to quit her new and sheltered home till he had acquired a firm
+certainty of being once for all an artist, a true artist, who might hope
+to do something great, and who might dare to link the fate of the woman
+he loved, with his own.
+
+When, on the eighth morning of his labors, he was taking a few minutes
+rest, his brother's master came past the rapidly advancing work, and
+after contemplating it for some time exclaimed:
+
+"Splendid, splendid!  Our time has produced nothing to compare with it!"
+
+An hour later Pollux was standing at the door of Paulina's town-house,
+and let the knocker fall heavily on the door.  The steward opened to him
+and asked him what he wanted.  He asked to speak with dame Paulina, but
+she was not at home.  Then he asked after Arsinoe, the daughter of
+Keraunus, who had found a home with the rich widow.  The servant shook
+his head.
+
+"My mistress is having her searched for," he said.  "She disappeared
+yesterday evening.  The ungrateful creature!  She has tried to run away
+several times before now."
+
+The artist laughed, slapped the steward on the back, and said:
+
+"I will soon find her!"  and he sprang away down the street, and back to
+his parents.
+
+Arsinoe had received much kindness in Paulina's house, but she had also
+gone through many bad hours.  For months she had been obliged to believe
+that her lover was dead.  Pontius had told her that Pollux had entirely
+vanished and her benefactress persisted in al ways speaking of him as of
+one dead.  The poor child had shed many tears for him, and when the
+longing to talk of him with some one who had known him had taken
+possession of her she had entreated Paulina to allow her to go to see his
+mother or to let Doris visit her.  But the widow had desired her to give
+up all thought of the idol-maker and his belongings, speaking with
+contempt of the gate-keeper's worthy wife.  Just at that time Selene also
+left the city, and now Arsinoe's longing for her old friends grew to a
+passionate craving to see them again.
+
+One day she yielded to the promptings of her heart and slipped out into
+the street to seek Doris; but the door-keeper, who had been charged by
+Paulina never to allow her to go outside the door without his mistress's
+express permission, noticed her and brought her back to her protectress--
+not this time only, but, on several subsequent occasions when she
+attempted to escape.
+
+It was not merely her longing to talk about Pollux which made her new
+home unendurable to Arsinoe, but many other reasons besides.  She felt
+like a prisoner; and in fact she was one, for after each attempt at
+flight her freedom of movement was still farther impeded.  It is true
+that she had soon ceased to submit patiently to all that was required of
+her and even had often opposed her adoptive mother with vehement words,
+tears and execrations, but these unpleasant scenes, which always ended by
+a declaration on Paulina's part that she forgave the girl, had always
+resulted in a long break in her drives and in a variety of small
+annoyances.  Arsinoe was beginning to hate her benefactress and
+everything that surrounded her, and the hours of catechising and of
+prayer, which she could not escape, were a positive martyrdom.  Ere long
+the doctrine to which Paulina sought to win her was confounded in her
+mind with that which it was intended to drive out, and she defiantly shut
+her heart against it.
+
+Bishop Eumenes, who had been elected in the spring Patriarch of the
+Christians of Alexandria, visited her oftener than usual during the
+summer when Paulina lived in her suburban villa.  Paulina, it is true,
+had fancied she could do without his help, and that she could and must
+carry her task through to the end by herself; but the worthy old man had
+felt sympathetically drawn to the poor ill-guided child, and sought to
+soothe and calm her mind and show her the goal, towards which Paulina
+desired to lead her, in all its beauty.  After such discourses Arsinoe
+would be softened and felt inclined to believe in God and to love Christ,
+but no sooner had her protectress called her again into the school-room
+and put the very same things before her in her own way than the girl's
+heartstrings drew close again; and when she was desired to pray she
+raised her hands, indeed, but out of sheer defiance, she prayed in spirit
+to the Greek gods.
+
+Frequently Paulina received visits from heathen acquaintances in rich
+dresses and the sight of them always reminded Arsinoe of former days.
+How poor she had been then! and yet she had always had a blue or a red
+ribbon to plait in her hair and trim the edge of her peplum.  Now she
+might wear none but white dresses and the least scrap of colored ornament
+to dress her hair or smarten her robe was strictly forbidden.  Such vain
+trifles, Paulina would say, were very well for the heathen, but the Lord
+looked not at the body but at the heart.
+
+Ah! and the poor little heart of the hapless child could not offer a very
+pleasing sight to the Father in Heaven, for hatred and disgust, sadness,
+impatience, and blasphemy seethed in it from morning till night.  This
+young nature was surely formed for love and contentment, and both had
+left her weeping.  Still Arsinoe never ceased to yearn for them.
+
+When November had begun and another attempt to run away during their move
+back to the town-house had failed, Paulina tried to punish her by never
+speaking a word to her for a fortnight, and forbidding even the slave-
+women to speak to her.  In these two weeks the talkative girl was reduced
+almost to desperation, and she even thought of throwing herself off the
+roof down into the court-yard.  But she clung too dearly to life to carry
+this horrible project into execution.  On the first of December Paulina
+once more spoke to her, forgave her ingratitude, as usual in a long, kind
+speech, and told her how many hours she had spent in praying for her
+enlightenment and improvement.
+
+Paulina spoke the truth, and yet but half the truth, for she had never
+felt a real love for Arsinoe, and had now for a long time watched her
+come and go with actual dislike; but she required her conversion in order
+that the warmest wish of her heart might find fulfilment.  It was for the
+happiness of her daughter, and not for the sake of her recalcitrant
+companion, that she prayed for her enlightenment and never ceased in her
+efforts to open the callous heart of her adopted child to the true faith.
+
+In the afternoon preceding that morning when Pollux had at last knocked
+at the Christian widow's door, the sun shone with particular brilliancy,
+and Paulina had allowed the girl to go out with her.  They spent some
+little time with a Christian family who dwelt on the shore of Lake
+Mareotis, and so it fell out that they did not return home till late in
+the evening.  Arsinoe had long learnt, while she sat apparently gazing at
+the ground, to keep her eyes out of the carriage and to see everything
+that was going on around her; and as the chariot turned into their own
+street she spied in the distance a tall man who looked like her long-wept
+Pollux.  She fixed her eyes upon him, and had some difficulty in keeping
+herself from calling out aloud, for he it was who walked slowly down the
+street.  She could not be mistaken, for the torches of two slaves who
+were walking in front of a litter had broadly lighted up his face and
+figure.
+
+He was not lost--he was living, and seeking her.  She could have shouted
+aloud for joy, but she did not stir till Paulina's chariot was standing
+still in front of her house.  The door-keeper bustled out as usual to
+help his mistress to step out of the high-slung vehicle.  Thus Paulina
+for an instant turned her back, and in that moment Arsinoe sprang out of
+the opposite side of the chariot, and was flying down towards the street
+where she had seen her lover.  Before Paulina could discover that she was
+gone the runaway found herself in the midst of the throng which, when the
+day's work was over, poured out from the workshops and factories on their
+way home.
+
+Paulina's slaves, who were sent out at once to seek the fugitive, had to
+return home this time empty-handed; but Arsinoe, on her part, had not
+succeeded in finding him she sought.  For an hour she looked round and
+about her in vain; then she perceived that her search must be
+unsuccessful, and wondered how she might find her way to his parents'
+house.  Rather than return to her benefactress she would have joined the
+roofless crew who passed the night on the hard marble pavement of the
+forecourts of the temple.
+
+At first she rejoiced in the sense of recovered liberty, but when none of
+the passers-by could tell her where Euphorion, the singer, lived, and
+some young men followed her and addressed her with impudent speeches,
+terror made her turn aside into a street which led to the Bruchiom; her
+persecutors had not even then ceased to follow her, when a litter,
+escorted by lictors and several torch-bearers, was carried past.  It was
+Julia, the kind wife of the prefect, who sat in it; Arsinoe recognized
+her at once, followed her, and reached the door of her residence at the
+same moment as she herself.  As the matron got out of her litter she
+observed the girl who placed herself modestly, but with hands uplifted in
+entreaty, at the side of her path.  Julia greeted the pretty creature in
+whom she had once taken a motherly interest with affectionate sympathy,
+beckoned Arsinoe to her, smiled as she listened to her request for a
+night's shelter, and led her with much satisfaction to her husband.
+
+Titianus was ill; still he was glad once more to see the ill-fated
+palace-steward's pretty daughter; he listened to her story of her flight
+with many signs of disapprobation, but kindly withal, and expressed the
+warmest satisfaction at hearing that the sculptor Pollux was still in the
+land of the living.
+
+The grand and lordly bed in one of the strangers' rooms in the prefect's
+house had held many a more illustrious guest, but never one whose sleep
+was brightened by happier dreams than the poor orphaned "little
+fugitive," who, no longer ago than yesterday, had cried herself to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Arsinoe was up betimes on the following morning; much embarrassed by all
+the splendor that surrounded her, she walked up and down her room
+thinking of Pollux.  Then she stopped to take pleasure in her own image
+displayed in a large mirror which stood on a dressing-table, and between
+whiles she compared the couch, on which she lay clown again at full
+length, with those in Paulina's house.  Once more she felt herself a
+prisoner, but this time she liked her prison, and presently, when she
+heard slaves passing by her room, she flew to the door to listen, for it
+was just possible that Titianus might have sent to fetch Pollux, and
+would allow him to come to see her.  At last a slave-woman came in,
+brought her some breakfast, and desired her from Julia to go into the
+garden and look at the flowers and aviaries till she should be sent for.
+
+Early that morning the news had reached the prefect that Antinous had
+sought his death in the Nile, and it had shocked him greatly, less on
+account of the hapless youth than for Hadrian's sake.  When he had given
+the proper officials orders to announce the melancholy news and to desire
+the citizens to give some public expression of their sympathy with the
+Emperor's sorrow, he gave audience to the Patriarch Eumenes.
+
+This venerable man, ever since the transactions which he had conducted--
+with reference to the thanksgiving of the Christians for the safety of
+the Emperor after the fire, had been one of the most esteemed friends of
+Titianus and Julia.  The prefect discussed with the Patriarch the
+inauspicious effects that the death of the young fellow might be expected
+to have on the Emperor, and as a result, on the government, although the
+favorite had had no qualities of mind to distinguish him.
+
+"Whenever Hadrian," continued Titianus, "would give his unresting brain
+an hour's relaxation, and release himself from disappointment and
+vexation and the severe toil and anxiety of which his life is overfull,
+be would go out hunting with the bold youth or would have the handsome,
+good-hearted boy into his own room.  The sight of the Bithynian's beauty
+delighted his eye, and how well Antinous knew how to listen to him--
+silent, modest and attentive!  Hadrian loved him as a son, and the poor
+fellow clung to his master in return with more than a son's fidelity; his
+death itself proved it.  Caesar himself said to me once; "In the midst of
+the turmoil of waking life, when I see Antinous a feeling comes over me
+as if a beautiful dream stood incorporate before my eyes."
+
+"Caesar's grief at losing him must indeed be great," said the Patriarch.
+
+"And the loss will add to the gloom of his grave and brooding nature,
+render his restless scheming and wandering still more capricious, and
+increase his suspiciousness and irritability."
+
+"And the circumstances under which Antinous perished," added Eumenes,
+"will afford new ground for his attachment to superstitions."
+
+"That is to be feared.  We have not happy days before us; the revolt in
+Judaea, too, will again cost thousands of lives."
+
+"If only it had been granted to you to assume the government of that
+province."
+
+"But you know, my worthy friend, the condition I am in.  On my bad days
+I am incapable of commanding a thought or opening my lips.  When my
+breathlessness increases I feel as if I were being suffocated.  I have
+placed many decades of my life at the disposal of the state, and I now
+feel justified in devoting the diminished strength which is left me to
+other things.  I and my wife think of retiring to my property by lake
+Larius, and there to try whether we may succeed, she and I, in becoming
+worthy of the salvation and capable of apprehending the truth that you
+have offered us.  You are there Julia?  As the determination to retire
+from the world has matured in us, we have, both of us, remembered more
+than once the words of the Jewish sage, which you lately told us of.
+When the angel of God drove the first man out of Paradise, he said:
+'Henceforth your heart must be your Paradise.'  We are turning our backs
+on the pleasure of a city life--"
+
+"And we do so without regret," said Julia, interrupting her husband, "for
+we bear in our minds the germ of a more indestructible, purer, and more
+lasting happiness."
+
+"Amen!"  said the Patriarch.  "Where two such as you dwell together there
+the Lord is third in the bond."  "Give us your disciple Marcianus to be
+our travelling-companion," said Titianus.
+
+"Willingly," said Eumenes.  "Shall he come to visit you when I leave
+you?"
+
+"Not immediately," replied Julia.  "I have this morning an important and
+at the same time pleasant business to attend to.  You know Paulina, the
+widow of Pudeus.  She took into her keeping a pretty young creature--"
+
+"And Arsinoe has run away from her."
+
+"We took her in here," said Titianus.  "Her protectress seems to have
+failed in attracting her to her, or in working favorably on her nature."
+
+"Yes," said the Patriarch.  "There was but one key to her full, bright
+heart--Love--but Paulina tried to force it open with coercion and
+persistent driving.  It remained closed--nay, the lock is spoiled.--But,
+if I may ask, how came the girl into your house?"
+
+"That I can tell you later, we did not make her acquaintance for the
+first time yesterday."
+
+"And I am going to fetch her lover to her," cried the prefect's wife.
+
+"Paulina will claim her of you," said the Patriarch.  "She is having her
+sought for everywhere; but the child will never thrive under her
+guidance."
+
+"Did the widow formally adopt Arsinoe?"  asked Titianus.
+
+"No; she proposed doing so as soon as her young pupil--"
+
+"Intentions count for nothing in law, and I can protect our pretty little
+guest against her claim."
+
+"I will fetch her," said Julia.  "The time must certainly have seemed
+very long to her already.  Will you come with me, Eumenes?"
+
+"With pleasure," replied the old man, "Arsinoe and I are excellent
+friends; a conciliatory word from me will do her good, and my blessing
+cannot harm even a heathen.  Farewell, Titianus, my deacons are expecting
+me."
+
+When Julia returned to the sitting-room with her protegee, the child's
+eyes were wet with tears, for the kind words of the venerable old man had
+gone to her heart and she knew and acknowledged that she had experienced
+good as well as evil from Paulina.
+
+The matron found her husband no longer alone.  Wealthy old Plutarch with
+his two supporters was with him, and in black garments, which were
+decorated with none but white flowers, instead of many colored garments;
+he presented a singular appearance.  The old man was discoursing eagerly
+to the prefect; but as soon as he saw Arsinoe he broke off his harangue,
+clapped his hands and was quite excited with the pleasure of seeing once
+more the fair Roxana for whom he had once visited in vain all the gold-
+workers' shops in the city.
+
+"But I am tired," cried Plutarch, with quite youthful vivacity, "I am
+quite tired of keeping the ornaments for you.  There are quite enough
+other useless things in my house.  They belong to you, not to me, and
+this very day I will send them to the noble Julia, that she may give them
+to you.  Give me your hand, dear child; you have grown paler but more
+womanly.  What do you think, Titianus, she would still do for Roxana;
+only your wife must find a dress for her again.  All in white, and no
+ribband in your hair!--like a Christian."
+
+"I know some one who will find out the way to fitly crown these soft
+tresses," replied Julia.  "Arsinoe is the bride of Pollux, the sculptor."
+
+"Pollux!" exclaimed Plutarch, in extreme excitement.  "Move me forward,
+Antaeus and Atlas, the sculptor Pollux is her lover?  A great, a splendid
+artist!  The very same, noble Titianus, of whom I just now speaking to
+you."
+
+"You know him?"  asked the prefect's wife.
+
+"No, but I have just left the work-shop of Periander, the gem-cutter, and
+there I saw the model of a statue of Antinous that is unique, marvellous,
+incomparable!  The Bithynian as Dionysus!  The work would do no discredit
+to a Phidias, to a Lysippus.  Pollux was out of the way, but I laid my
+hand at once on his work; the young master must execute it immediately in
+marble.  Hadrian will be enchanted with this portrait of his beautiful
+and devoted favorite.  You must admire it, every connoisseur must!  I
+will pay for it, the only question is whether I or the city should
+present it to Caesar.  This matter your husband must decide."
+
+Arsinoe was radiant with joy at these words, but she stepped modestly
+into the background as an official came in and handed Titianus a dispatch
+that had just arrived.
+
+The prefect read it; then turning to his friend and his wife, he said:
+
+"Hadrian ascribes to Antinous the honors of a god."
+
+"Fortunate Pollux!"  exclaimed Plutarch.  "He has executed the first
+statue of the new divinity.  I will present it to the city, and they
+shall place it in the temple to Antinous of which we must lay the first
+stone before Caesar is back here again.  Farewell, my noble friends!
+Greet your bridegroom from me, my child.  His work belongs to me.  Pollux
+will be the first among his fellow-artists, and it has been my privilege
+to discover this new star--the eighth artist whose merit I have detected
+while he was still unknown.  Your future brother-in-law too, Teuker, will
+turn out well.  I am having a stone cut by him with a portrait of
+Antinous.  Once more farewell; I must go to the Council.  We shall have
+to discuss the subject of a temple to the new divinity.  Move on you
+two!"
+
+An hour after Plutarch had quitted the prefect's house Julia's chariot
+was standing at the entrance of a lane, much too narrow to admit a
+vehicle with horses, and which ended in a little plot on which stood
+Euphorion's humble house.  Julia's outrunners easily found out the
+residence of the sculptor's parents, led the matron and Arsinoe to the
+spot, and showed them the door they should knock at.
+
+"What a color you have, my little girl!"  said Julia.  "Well, I will not
+intrude on your meeting, but I should like to deliver you with my own
+hand into those of your future mother.  Go to that little house, Arctus,
+and beg dame Doris to step out here.  Only say that some one wishes to
+speak with her, but do not mention my name."
+
+Arsinoe's heart beat so violently that she was incapable of saying a word
+of thanks to her kind protectress.  "Step behind this palm-tree," said
+the lady.  Arsinoe obeyed; but she felt as though it was some outside
+volition, and not her own, that guided her to her hiding-place.  She
+heard nothing of the first words spoken by the Roman lady and Doris.  She
+only saw the dear old face of her Pollux's mother, and in spite of her
+reddened eyes and the wrinkles which trouble had furrowed in her face,
+she could not tire of looking at it.  It reminded her of the happiest
+days of her childhood, and she longed to rush forward and throw her arms
+round the neck of the kindly, good-hearted woman.  Then she heard Julia
+say: "I have brought her to you.  She is just as sweet and as maidenly
+and lovely as she was the first time we saw her in the theatre."
+
+"Where is she?  Where is she?"  asked Doris in a trembling voice.
+
+Julia pointed to the palm, and was about to call Arsinoe, but the girl
+could no longer restrain her longing to fall on the neck of some one dear
+to her, for Pollux had come out of the door to see who had asked for his
+mother, and to see him and to fly to his breast with a cry of joy had
+been one and the same act to Arsinoe.
+
+Julia gazed at the couple with moistened eyes, and when, after many kind
+words for old and young alike, she took leave of the happy group, she
+said:
+
+"I will provide for your outfit my child, and this time I think you will
+wear it, not merely for one transient hour but through a long and happy
+life."
+
+Joyful singing sounded out that evening from Euphorion's little home.
+Doris and her husband, and Pollux and Arsinoe, Diotima and Teuker, decked
+with garlands, reclined round the amphora which was wreathed with roses,
+drinking to pleasure and joy, to art and love, and to all the gifts of
+the present.  The sweet bride's long hair was once more plaited with
+handsome blue ribbons.
+
+Three weeks after these events Hadrian was again in Alexandria.  He kept
+aloof from all the festivals instituted in honor of the new god Antinous,
+and smiled incredulously when he was told that a new star had appeared in
+the sky, and that an oracle had declared it to be the soul of his lost
+favorite.
+
+When Plutarch conducted the Emperor and his friends to see the Bacchus
+Antinous, which Pollux had completed in the clay, Hadrian was deeply
+struck and wished to know the name of the master who had executed this
+noble work of art.  Not one of his companion's had the courage to speak
+the name of Pollux in his presence; only Pontius ventured to come forward
+for his young friend.  He related to Hadrian the hapless artist's history
+and begged him to forgive him.  The Emperor nodded his approval, and
+said:
+
+"For the sake of this lost one he shall be forgiven."
+
+Pollux was brought into his presence, and Hadrian, holding out his hand
+said as he pressed the sculptor's:
+
+"The Immortals have bereft me of his love and faithfulness, but your art
+has preserved his beauty for me and for the world--"
+
+Every city in the Empire vied in building temples and erecting statues to
+the new god, and Pollux, Arsinoe's happy husband, was commissioned to
+execute statues and busts of Antinous for a hundred towns; but he refused
+most of the orders, and would send out no work as his own that he had not
+executed himself on a new conception.  His master, Papias, returned to
+Alexandria, but he was received there by his fellow-artists with such
+insulting contempt, that in an evil hour he destroyed himself.  Teuker
+lived to be the most famous gem-engraver of his time.
+
+Soon after Selene's martyrdom dame Hannah quitted Besa; the office of
+Superior of the Deaconesses at Alexandria was intrusted to her, and she
+exercised it with much blessing till an advanced age.  Mary, the deformed
+girl, remained behind in the Nile-port, which under Hadrian was extended
+into the magnificent city of Antmoe.  There were there two graves from
+which she could not bear to part.
+
+Four years after Arsinoe's marriage with Pollux, Hadrian called the young
+sculptor to Rome; he was there to execute the statue of the Emperor in a
+quadriga.  This work was intended to crown and finish his mausoleum
+constructed by Pontius, and Pollux carried it out in so admirable a
+manner, that when it was ended, Hadrian said to him with a smile:
+
+"Now you have earned the right to pronounce sentence of death on the
+works of other masters."  Euphorion's son lived in honor and prosperity
+to see his children, the children of his faithful wife Arsinoe--who was
+greatly admired by the Tiber-grow up to be worthy citizens.  They
+remained heathen; but the Christian love which Eumenes had taught
+Paulina's foster-daughter was never forgotten, and she kept a kindly
+place for it in her heart and in her household.  A few months before the
+young couple left Alexandria, Doris had peacefully gone to her last rest,
+and her husband died soon after her; the want of his faithful companion
+was the complaint he succumbed to.
+
+On the shores of the Tiber, Pontius was still the sculptor's friend.
+Balbilla and her husband gave their corrupt fellow-citizens the example
+of a worthy, faithful marriage on the old Roman pattern.  The poetess's
+bust had been completed by Pollux in Alexandria, and with all its tresses
+and little curls, it found favor in Balbilla's eyes.
+
+Verus was to have enjoyed the title of Caesar even during Hadrian's
+lifetime, but after a long illness he died the first.  Lucilla nursed him
+with unfailing devotion and enjoyed the longed-for monopoly of his
+attentions through a period of much suffering.  It was on their son that
+in later years the purple devolved.
+
+The predictions of the prefect Titianus were fulfilled, for the Emperor's
+faults increased with years and the meaner side of his mind and nature
+came into sharper relief.  Titianus and his wife led a retired life by
+lake Larius, far from the world, and both were baptized before they died.
+They never pined for the turmoil of a pleasure-seeking world or its
+dazzling show, for they had learnt to cherish in their own hearts all
+that is fairest in life.
+
+It was the slave Mastor who brought to Titianus the news of the
+sovereign's death.  Hadrian had given him his freedom before he died and
+had left him a handsome legacy.
+
+The prefect gave him a piece of land to farm and continued in friendly
+relations with his Christian neighbor and his pretty daughter, who grew
+up among her father's co-religionists.
+
+When Titianus had told his wife the melancholy news he added solemnly:
+
+"A great sovereign is dead.  The pettinesses which disfigured the man
+Hadrian will be forgotten by posterity, for the ruler Hadrian was one of
+those men whom Fate sets in the places they belong to, and who, true to
+their duty, struggle indefatigably to the end.  With wise moderation he
+was so far master of himself as to bridle his ambition and to defy the
+blame and prejudice of all the Romans.  The hardest, and perhaps the
+wisest, resolution of his life was to abandon the provinces which it
+would have exhausted the power of the Empire to retain.  He travelled
+over every portion of his dominion within the limits he himself had set
+to it, shrinking from neither frost nor heat, and he tried to be as
+thoroughly acquainted with every portion of it as if the Empire were a
+small estate he had inherited.  His duties as a sovereign forced him to
+travel, and his love of travel lightened the duty.  He was possessed
+by a real passion to understand and learn everything.  Even the
+Incomprehensible set no limits to his thirst for knowledge, but ever
+striving to see farther and to dig deeper than is possible to the mind of
+man, he wasted a great part of his mighty powers in trying to snatch
+aside the curtain which hides the destinies of the future.  No one ever
+worked at so many secondary occupations as he, and yet no former Emperor
+ever kept his eye so unerringly fixed on the main task of his life, the
+consolidation and maintenance of the strength of the state and the
+improvement and prosperity of its citizens."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS FOR THE EMPEROR, COMPLETE:
+
+A well-to-do man always gets a higher price than a poor one
+Avoid all useless anxiety
+Dried merry-thought bone of a fowl
+Enjoy the present day
+Facts are differently reflected in different minds
+Feeling themselves oppressed by the benevolence
+Happiness is only the threshold to misery
+Have not yet learned not to be astonished
+Have lived to feel such profound contempt for the world
+I must either rest or begin upon something new
+Idleness had long since grown to be the occupation of his life
+If one only knew who it is all for
+Ill-judgment to pronounce a thing impossible
+In order to find himself for once in good company--(Solitude)
+Incomprehensible set no limits to his thirst for knowledge
+It was such a comfort once more to obey an order
+Love laughs at locksmiths
+More to the purpose to think of the future than of the past
+Never speaks a word too much or too little
+Philosophers who wrote of the vanity of writers
+So long as we do not think ourselves wretched, we are not so
+Temples would be empty if mortals had nothing left to wish for
+They keep an account in their heart and not in their head
+To know half is less endurable than to know nothing
+When a friend refuses to share in joys
+Who do all they are able and enjoy as much as they can get
+Wide world between the purpose and the deed
+Years are the foe of beauty
+You must admire it, every connoisseur must
+Youth has a right to go astray now and then
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EMPEROR, BY EBERS, COMPLETE ***
+
+**********This file should be named ge55v10.txt or ge55v10.zip ***********
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