UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
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 BY 
 
 GEORG EBERS 
 
 Author of " Uarda," etc. 
 
 FROM THE GERMAN BY CLARA BELL 
 
 AUTHORIZED EDITION 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES - VOL. I. 
 
 REVISED AND CORRECTED IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 NEW YORK 
 WILLIAM S. QOTTSBERGER, PUBLISHER 
 
 11 MURRAY STREET 
 1883
 
 Copyright, 1881, by WILLIAM S. GOTTSBKRGKR 
 
 THIS TRANSLATION WAS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THE PUBLISHER 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 WILLIAM S. GOTTSBERGER 
 HEW YORK 
 
 '
 
 TO MY DEAR FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE 
 
 OTTO STOBBE 
 
 FAITHFUL ALIKE IN HAPPINESS AND IN SADNESS, 
 
 IN HOURS GRAVE OR GAY, 
 
 I DEDICATE THIS BOOK IN UNALTERABLE 
 AFFECTION AND REGARD 
 
 GEORG EBERS
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IT is now fourteen years since I planned the story 
 related in these volumes, the outcome of a series of lec- 
 tures which I had occasion to deliver on the period of 
 the Roman dominion in Egypt. But the pleasures of in- 
 ventive composition were forced to give way to scien- 
 tific 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 
 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 finish- 
 ing 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 an- 
 chorite 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 intro- 
 duced the reader to a knowledge of the history of man-
 
 II PREFACE. 
 
 ners 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 differ- 
 ently 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 in- 
 vestigation has refused to afford me the means of resus- 
 citating 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 repre- 
 senting. 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-pro- 
 fessors 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 con- 
 viction of having won the confidence of my readers by 
 my historical and other labors. Nothing has encour-
 
 PREFACE. Ill 
 
 aged 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 inter- 
 rupt 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 leav- 
 ing 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.
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 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 
 the 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 Had- 
 rian a human figure in which I could myself at all be- 
 lieve ; still, how gladly I set to work to do so ! There 
 was much to be considered in working out this narra- 
 tive, 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. 
 
 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 be- 
 tween 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 
 
 The Emperor. /. I
 
 2 THF, EMPEROR. 
 
 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 fol- 
 lowed 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 wjiich 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 3 
 
 words into his beard, turned round and hastily retraced 
 his steps to the narrow way, down which he went to- 
 wards 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 ob- 
 serve this mute courtship, for her eyes followed the 
 travellers, and especially the young man, as if spell- 
 bound. 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 grand- 
 mother, 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 Em- 
 peror !" 
 
 It was in fact Hadrian, the Roman Emperor, who
 
 4 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 con- 
 sult 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 ?"
 
 THE EMPEROR. 5 
 
 " 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
 
 6 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 fisher- 
 men 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 7 
 
 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 affec- 
 tion. 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 
 chi< ,lled. Antinous observing that his master's atten- 
 tion 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
 
 8 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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. T.O 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 tlvui 
 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 9 
 
 head in negation, looked up at the top of the tent, and 
 after a long pause said, in abrupt sentences, with fre- 
 quent 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 gen- 
 eration is born of the mother's womb ; the limbs recover 
 their vigor in sleep. And what is begotten of the dark- 
 ness 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 medi- 
 tatively, 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 under- 
 stand 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 moun- 
 tain the highest vantage ground that a man can find for 
 the sole of his foot ? Kasius there is but a hill, but 1 
 have stood on greater giants than hj, 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."
 
 10 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 hun- 
 dred 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 van- 
 ishes 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 en- 
 gulfed 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 thougli it were my own breath that gives it life. 
 Like the storks and the swallows, I yearn for the dis- 
 tant 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 EMPEROR. II 
 
 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 re- 
 veal 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 lift- 
 ing his right hand, he said emphatically : 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And which," asked Hadrian,
 
 12 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " I know what longing is." 
 
 " For what ?" 
 
 " For many things." 
 
 " Tell me one." 
 
 " Some enjoyment that is not followed by depres- 
 sion. 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 ?"
 
 THE EMPEROR. 13 
 
 " 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 hands; 
 then he drew the open chiton together over his broad 
 breast, which seemed to gleam from the remarkable
 
 14 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 vio- 
 lently 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 uill relieve your heart " 
 
 "Eet me alone, I ' have told you a dozen times 
 already about my mother and little Panthea," replied 
 Antinous, trying to look composed. 
 
 "Then do so confidently for the thirteenth," said the
 
 THE EMPEROR. 15 
 
 slave. " In the camp and in the kitchen I can talk 
 about my people as much as f 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 fa- 
 vorite, 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 de- 
 pression 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 point- 
 ing 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
 
 1 6 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 shelter of the high mole were the splendid triremes, gal- 
 leys, 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 atten- 
 tion. 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 elm- 
 rods 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. If 
 
 only a sesterce for every venomous word, I tell you 
 Pontius, the city would be impoverished and our treas- 
 ury 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 any- 
 thing so bad as this. From a distance it always looked 
 handsome enough !" 
 
 Titianus and the architect descended from the char- 
 iot, 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 particu- 
 larly 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. Pon- 
 tius 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- 
 
 The Emperor. 7. 2
 
 1 8 THE EMPEROR.. 
 
 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 Titi- 
 anus, 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 de- 
 licious !" 
 
 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 19 
 
 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 star- 
 lings, 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 ad- 
 mirable workmanship ; above, and near this, the wall 
 was hung with lutes and lyres of various size and form. 
 
 In the middle of the roorh, and near the open door, 
 was a table, on which stood a large wicker cage con- 
 taining 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 pov- 
 erty, 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 :
 
 20 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 bark- 
 ing. 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.
 
 THE EMPEROR. 2F 
 
 " 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 Em- 
 peror's representative and his companion, he bowed to 
 the former as low as the rotund dimensions of his per- 
 son 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 Pon- 
 tius, 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 dilapi- 
 dated residence habitable for Hadrian, and to repair, at
 
 22 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 any rate, the more conspicuous damage. He then de- 
 sired 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 dis- 
 turbed 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 im- 
 mense 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 EMPEROR. 
 
 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-halls, 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 pre- 
 fects, 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
 
 24 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 the best of the statues were gone, with which a few 
 centuries previously the art-loving Lagides had deco- 
 rated 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 breath- 
 less 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 re- 
 membered 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 dur- 
 ing 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 25 
 
 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 ac- 
 complish 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, con- 
 sider that you have only eight days to dispose of." 
 
 "Good." 
 
 " Where do you hope to be able to lodge Had- 
 rian ?" 
 
 " 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.
 
 26 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 refer- 
 ence to the appointment of a new prefect. However, 
 we have now no time for talking. During the Empe- 
 ror'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 every- 
 thing in camp, but where fresh air and a distant pros- 
 pect are to be had, he must have them." 
 
 "Then let us choose the western suite; hold the 
 plan my worthy friend." 
 
 The steward did 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 ante-cham- 
 ber; 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 27 
 
 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, Pon- 
 tius." 
 
 " 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 orna- 
 mental 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 ?"
 
 28 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 any- 
 thing 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 29 
 
 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 mar- 
 ble 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 Pon- 
 tius, "and where that will not do, we must lay carpets 
 on the floor in the Eastern fashion. Merciful night. 1 
 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
 
 30 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 pil- 
 lows 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 Caesa- 
 reum. He got on but slowly, for the nearer he ap- 
 proached his destination the denser was the crowd of 
 inquisitive citizens, who stood closely packed round the 
 vast circumference of the building. Quite from a dis- 
 tance 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 rnore complete sinecure than the supervision 
 of his arrangements." 
 
 Fully persuaded of this he did not think it neces- 
 sary to go up to the illuminated door-way which led into
 
 THE EMPEROR. 3! 
 
 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 ex- 
 tended 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 atten- 
 dance 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 illu- 
 minated arcades of the Caesareum, passing by the mas- 
 terpieces 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 Pon- 
 tius, 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 hus- 
 band, 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
 
 32 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 be- 
 neath 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 Vul- 
 can'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 phcenix, 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 dif- 
 ferent 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 EMPEROR. 33 
 
 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 whisper- 
 ing 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 commis- 
 sioned 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 
 
 The Emperor. I. 3
 
 34 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 car- 
 ried 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 bow- 
 strings 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 35 
 
 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 asser- 
 tion." 
 
 " 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 Favo- 
 rinus, the sophist; I dare say he is proving to Ptolema- 
 eus 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 bet- 
 ter than I. What is the man's name ?" 
 
 " Apollonius."
 
 36 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 con- 
 tempt. 
 
 " 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 37 
 
 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 in- 
 habit 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 /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 com- 
 mand, 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 attract-
 
 38 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 ing 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 amaze- 
 ment. When I go out driving v 
 
 " 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.
 
 THK EMPEROR. 39 
 
 " 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 Em- 
 peror." 
 
 Favorinus who had been engaged in talk with 
 Ptolemaeus, the astronomer, Apollonius, and the philos- 
 opher 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 pronun- 
 ciation 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."
 
 40 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 "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 ves- 
 sels." 
 
 "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 Ro- 
 mans, 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 con- 
 cerned." 
 
 "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 de- 
 cided on inhabiting, drew up her shoulders and pinched 
 her lips as if in pain, while Verus turned a face of indig- 
 nation 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 has- 
 tily passed his hand through his blue-black hair, which
 
 THE EMPEROR. 41 
 
 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 know-
 
 42 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 ing it. Now can you contrive that Ptolemaeus and 
 Favorinus shall go with Apollonius to meet the Em- 
 peror at Pelusium ?" 
 
 " Nothing easier" was the answer. 
 
 And the same evening the prefect's steward con- 
 veyed 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 accu- 
 mulated 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 43 
 
 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 slumber- 
 ing 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 ? Tha- 
 lia, 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 affec- 
 tionate 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 back- 
 ground, on a long and narrow couch which stood in 
 front of the statue of Apollo, lay a tall, lean man, wear- 
 ing a red chiton. A little lamp hanging from the ceiling 
 threw a dull light on him and on the lute he was play- 
 ing. 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
 
 44 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 rat- 
 tan 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, re- 
 turning 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 threaten- 
 ing 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 visi- 
 tor 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, say- 
 ing, " Good-evening, little Mother," and shook hands
 
 THE EMPEROR. 45, 
 
 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 coun- 
 tenance 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 inde- 
 scribable 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."
 
 46 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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,
 
 THE EMPEROR. 47 
 
 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 Eu- 
 phorion. 
 
 " Then I should have enjoyed the prospect," re- 
 torted 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 kind- 
 ness, 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, with- 
 out 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
 
 48 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 wanning 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 Dio- 
 nysiac 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 fore- 
 head. 
 
 " 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 super- 
 intendents 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.
 
 THE EMPEROR. 49 
 
 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, Pon- 
 tius, 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 dis- 
 
 Tht Emperor. I. 4
 
 50 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 honest 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 appren- 
 tice 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 com- 
 fort 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 foot- 
 ing 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 cer- 
 tainly 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 5 1 
 
 rooms destined for the Emperor, the last of the statues 
 to be restored, and which needed a new arm, 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-embroid- 
 ered shoes as he said : 
 
 " It is more difficult to us sculptors to imagine our- 
 selves 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 deci- 
 dedly. " 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 judi- 
 cious and well-considered suggestions. 
 
 " Now I must go home," concluded Papias. " My 
 assistants will proceed at once with the necessary prepa- 
 rations. 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. 
 
 4*
 
 52 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 pre- 
 fect 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 in- 
 viting, 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 ot 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 ana 
 more light and when it is lighter here the voice of the 
 people down there, which does not sound very delight- 
 ful up in this hollo\v space, will diminish somewhat
 
 THE EMPEROR. \,08 ^6 53 
 
 also. Give light, then, O, men ! Light for my god- 
 dess, 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 dimin- 
 ish noise ?" 
 
 " At any rate," replied Pollux, " where it is ab- 
 sent, 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 be- 
 holden 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 vised for the external 
 illuminations, at the service of his workmen. 
 
 " Three times," was the answer " have I been my- 
 self 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
 
 54 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 un- 
 closed 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 to- 
 morrow 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 EMPEROR. 55 
 
 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 conde-
 
 56 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 scending 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 Alex- 
 ander 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 illus- 
 trious blood being recognized. Pontius sends to com- 
 mand 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 him." 
 
 "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 inter- 
 rupted 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,
 
 THK EMPEROR. 57 
 
 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 re- 
 script 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
 
 58 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 capa- 
 ble of anything. Well here I am; fetch me my saf- 
 fron-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 misera- 
 ble 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 unfor- 
 tunate. 
 
 He rapped loudly with his knuckles on the inside
 
 THE EMPEROR. 59 
 
 of the door-post of the ante-room, coughed loudly, and 
 then said, bowing deeply to the steward on the thres- 
 hold 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 suc- 
 culent 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."
 
 60 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 break- 
 fast." 
 
 " 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 6 1 
 
 "Then come and save him from an overloaded 
 stomach." 
 
 " Impossible, for I am just now dealing most unmer- 
 cifully 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 his 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 vigor- 
 ously stirred. The best things have been all taken out, 
 and cannot be replaced." 
 
 " Like the sausages, I have fished out of my cab- 
 bages," laughed the sculptor. "After all I cannot in- 
 vite you to be my guest, for it would be a compliment 
 to this dish if I were now to call it cabbage with sau- 
 sages. 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 frag- 
 ments 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
 
 62 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 to-morrow " 
 
 " Hear me out." 
 
 " Well." 
 
 " You would be doing your other guest an ill-ser- 
 vice by inviting me." 
 
 " Do you know the steward then ?" 
 
 " From my earliest youth, I am the son of the gate- 
 keeper 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 inspec- 
 tion 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 Pol- 
 lux, 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 63 
 
 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 had 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 tor- 
 mented 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 every- 
 thing 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
 
 64 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 re- 
 prieve 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,
 
 THE EMPEROR. 65 
 
 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 
 
 The Emperor. I. 5
 
 66 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 67 
 
 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 shoul- 
 ders 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 mar- 
 ble. 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 anx- 
 ious 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 Euer- 
 getes ' the' fat ' was said, some years ago, to have mur- 
 dered 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
 
 68 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 per- 
 ceived that a bluish tinge had overspread his bloated 
 features, and she broke into the deep, agonized, weep- 
 ing 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. Pol- 
 lux 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 69 
 
 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 ex- 
 cited 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 curi- 
 osity than alarm. Then, when Selene looked round her, 
 and the lamp illuminated her face, he 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 some- 
 thing irresistibly ludicrous, and Pollux felt sorely tempted 
 to laugh. But as soon as Selene began to weep so bit- 
 terly 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 for 
 he was no ghost, only a very humble and ordinary mor- 
 tal, 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.
 
 70 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 com- 
 fortably 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 
 diallings with the doctor?" 
 
 Selene related the accident that had befallen her
 
 THE EMPEROR. 71 
 
 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 lie 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, ana 
 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
 
 72 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 73 
 
 " 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
 
 74 1HE KMPEROR. 
 
 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 por- 
 trait " 
 
 " 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 re- 
 arranged 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 im- 
 prove. 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 75 
 
 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, sink- 
 ing 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 speech- 
 less inspiration. Selene had said not a word that per-
 
 76 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 mitted his using her as a model; but, as if his en- 
 thusiasm 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, aitd 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 care- 
 fully 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,
 
 THE EMPEROR. 77 
 
 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 re- 
 minds me more and more of our early years ; I should 
 be glad to see Arsinoe once more. I feel at this mo- 
 ment 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 hap- 
 hazard. 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."
 
 78 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 hand- 
 some, 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 super- 
 intends 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 the worst mis- 
 fortunes. Otherwise I take what each day brings, be- 
 cause 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 fac- 
 tory ?" 
 
 " 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 79 
 
 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. Hap- 
 pily 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 gen- 
 tle 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
 
 8o THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 Avere 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,.
 
 THE EMPEROR. 8 1 
 
 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 sub- 
 mitted 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, swarm- 
 ing, 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 
 
 Tlie Emjieror. I. 6
 
 82 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 per- 
 formed 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 arrange- 
 ments 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 Alexan- 
 drians 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 be-
 
 THE EMPEROR. 83 
 
 tween the heathen and the Jewish sections of the in- 
 habitants, 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 inter- 
 vention 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 resist- 
 ance 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 em- 
 bittered squabbles and unpleasing exhibitions of char- 
 acter at which he had just been present when he
 
 84 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 in- 
 quiries 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 re- 
 main 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 under- 
 stand 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 cur- 
 tains." 
 
 " Oh ! never mind a few miseries, more or less in 
 my 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 85 
 
 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 annoy- 
 ance the impression left by some slight misunderstand- 
 ing ? 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 mes- 
 senger 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 
 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 con-
 
 86 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 trolled by the absolute will of a single individual, pro- 
 cessions 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 organ- 
 ized in honor of Hadrian ?" 
 
 " You are in jest; it is precisely because I care par- 
 ticularly that they should be carried out with all possi- 
 ble 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 Titi- 
 anus 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 ab- 
 sorbed 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 87 
 
 " 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 pro- 
 hibit half the population of Alexandria doingr honor to 
 their Emperor!" 
 
 "Oh! Hadrian will, with pleasure, dispense with the 
 honor. Our conquering heroes have thought it re- 
 dounded to their glory to be called Africanus, Ger- 
 manicus 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
 
 OS THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 Egyp- 
 tians." 
 
 " But it really is above all measure. At Aelia Capi- 
 tolina which Hadrian had decorated with several build- 
 ings, 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* 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 1 them meet with the fate they deserve, let 
 them be exterminated !" cried Sabina. 
 
 "Exterminated?" asked the prefect. "In Alexan- 
 dria they constitute nearly half of the citizens, that is to 
 say several hundred thousand of obedient subjects, ex- 
 terminated!" 
 
 "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." 
 
 * Caligula.
 
 THE EMPEROR. 89 
 
 "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 accom- 
 modated 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."
 
 90 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 prelimi- 
 nary 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 com-
 
 THE EMPEROR. gi 
 
 mand, 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 ex- 
 hausted 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 than to be obliged to enter 
 the lists for manly decisiveness against a man who is 
 defending a perfectly antagonistic view ? Give me the 
 water, Leukippe." 
 
 While the Empress drank the syrup with tiny sips r 
 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
 
 92 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 stat- 
 ing 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 93 
 
 " 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 scaffold- 
 ing reaching to the ceiling on which men \yere 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. " Per- 
 haps the Muse may even inspire you with verse." 
 
 " All the Pierides," said the praetor, " are repre- 
 sented at Lochias. We saw eight of them, but the 
 ninth, that patroness of the arts, who protects the star- 
 gazer, 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, 
 Floras ? 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
 
 94 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 Floras. 
 
 "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 Floras. "You are the Sappho of our day, and 
 therefore you should write in the ancient Aeolian dia- 
 lect 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 my- 
 self 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 per- 
 tinaciously. " In a few weeks I will know how to use 
 the Aeolian dialect, for I can do anything I am deter- 
 mined 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 Floras.
 
 THE EMPEROR. 95 
 
 "Her master in language and metre told me his best 
 pupil was a woman of noble family and a poetess be- 
 sides 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 an- 
 other 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
 
 96 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 hear- 
 ing 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 sugar- 
 plum 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 burst- 
 ing 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," re- 
 plied the praetor ; " but Balbilla coaxed the permission
 
 THE EMPEROR. 97 
 
 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 ref- 
 erence 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 Bal- 
 billa 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 
 
 The Emperor. I. j
 
 98 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 mean- 
 ing, and suppressing another yawn she said angrily: 
 
 " In these days we must be indulgent toward a hus- 
 band 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 Avithdrawn 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 some- 
 thing 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 99 
 
 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 per- 
 sisted 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-col- 
 ored, 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." 
 
 7 *
 
 100 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 Domitia Lucilla was used to such phrases, and yet 
 on this occasion they gave her a pang. But she con- 
 cealed 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 inno- 
 cence 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 out- 
 weigh years of longing." 
 
 Verus spoke the last words in a low tone, but with 
 a dignity which characterized liim only in decisive 
 moments, but his wife, even before he had done speak-
 
 THE EMPEROR. IOI 
 
 ing, 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 kind- 
 ness, 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 nexti 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 inter- 
 course with the Emperor,"
 
 102 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " Thank you for those words and I beg you do 
 not provoke me any more. If it might yet be some- 
 thing 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 com- 
 munications, 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 103 
 
 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,
 
 104 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 ap- 
 proaching. 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 enter- 
 tainment, nor the famous gentlemen themselves be un- 
 necessarily 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 105 
 
 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. 
 1 am glad about the letter, for it takes a great responsi- 
 bility 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."
 
 106 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 keep- 
 ing 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 ex- 
 amining eye, as our talk led me to do, and I remem- 
 bered 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 un- 
 wrinkled 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, fare- 
 well."
 
 THE EMPEROR. lOf 
 
 Titianus kissed his wife's forehead and hurried tow- 
 ards the door; Julia called him back and said: 
 
 " One thing at any rate we can do for Caesar. 1 
 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
 
 108 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 Bal- 
 billa, 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 com- 
 pleted 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 109 
 
 " 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 
 fondj was that his playfellow might gaze at the face 
 whenever she chose. He found, however, to his satis- 
 faction, that the busts were held in their places on their 
 tall pedestals only by their own weight, and he then re- 
 solved to alter the historical order of the portrait-heads 
 by changing their places, and to let the famous Cleo- 
 patra 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
 
 110 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 head to foot with plaster. This time, however, she re- 
 mained 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 spell- 
 bound. There are poetic natures in which the imagina- 
 tion 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 call- 
 ing, 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. I 1 1 
 
 as if they were still^loating on the water; and now as 
 she stoops, how full and supple is every movement. It 
 is like a daughter of Nereus following the line of 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 cob- 
 bling up a robe for the Emperor out of mere rags ; we 
 are upholsterers and not artists. If it were only for
 
 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 piace 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." 4* 
 
 " Do you know wh:it. ?" 
 
 " 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 1 13 
 
 " 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 meet- 
 ing 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, 
 
 Tht Emperor. I. 8
 
 114 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 when his daughter entered the room where he was. 
 He absently responded to Arsinoe's affectionate greet- 
 ing 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 115 
 
 " Nobody need trouble themselves about your ap- 
 pearance 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 our- 
 selves 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 
 
 8 *
 
 Il6 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 girls, in clean, white woollen dresses, prettily smartened 
 with fresh ribbons," declared Arsinoe, interposing be- 
 tween 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 num- 
 bered 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 An- 
 tony 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 117 
 
 probably stood ; for, though the whole hall had a care- 
 fully-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 ; * 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 ex- 
 travagance," 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 dis- 
 
 * Rather less than 24, or 115 dollars.
 
 Il8 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 play 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 admonish- 
 ing 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 cer- 
 tainly, 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 :
 
 THE EMPEROR. 119 
 
 " 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 drach- 
 mae !" 
 
 "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 con-
 
 120 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 vinced that it had been painted by Apelles himself here 
 in 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 de- 
 clared 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 al- 
 ways 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 ex- 
 perience, he knew better than any man how to dis- 
 tinguish what was good from what was indifferent or 
 bad, what was genuine from what was spurious. No
 
 THE EMPEROR. 121 
 
 one had a keener eye ; but he was abrupt in his dealings 
 with those from whom he had nothing to gain. In cir- 
 cumstances where there was profit in view, he could, to 
 be sure, be polite even to subservience and show inex- 
 haustible 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 be- 
 fore 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 con- 
 fidently, 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 :
 
 122 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 agita- 
 tion 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 for- 
 bade 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 EMPEROR. 123 
 
 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 de- 
 tected 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 drach- 
 mae, 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 re- 
 gards 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
 
 124 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 antiq- 
 uities has offered me ten times the price I have paid 
 him to get them back again, generally in vain, unfor- 
 tunately. 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 Ga- 
 binius, taking from the slave's hand the three-branched
 
 THE EMPEROR. 12$ 
 
 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."* 
 
 " 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 he 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, y 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 
 
 * The Attic talent was worth about 200, or 1,000 dollars.
 
 126 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 con- 
 tinue 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 pos- 
 session 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. To-mor- 
 row 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
 
 THK KMPEROR. 127 
 
 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 stew- 
 ard, this time in a louder voice, " Do you hear ? it be- 
 longs 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 colos- 
 sus, 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 scoun- 
 drel !" 
 
 Though hardly pressed, it had not cost him a strug- 
 gle or a pang to refuse what would have placed him 
 and his children in a position of ease ; and yet he would
 
 128 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 Ansinoe'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 re- 
 ceived it on its arrival and had unpacked it dish after 
 dish, and set them out on the humblest possible table
 
 THE EMPEROR. 129 
 
 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 ot 
 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 exhaus- 
 tion. Each had done his best, in the first place, no 
 doubt, to give satisfaction to Pontius, whom all es- 
 teemed, 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, 
 
 Tht Emferor, I. . 9
 
 130 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 unwel- 
 come. Hold your noise you little blackguards or I 
 will be the death of you." 
 
 These words, which so far as the tone was con- 
 cerned, 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 remain's of the con- 
 sumed food. 
 
 Pontius was fond of animals and had made friends 
 with the old woman's pets, so, as he opened the pre- 
 fect's letter, he said : % 
 
 " I invite the three little guests to the remains of 
 our feast. Give them anything that is fit for them,
 
 THE EMPEROR. 131 
 
 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 vyith 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 sym- 
 posium 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, hut 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 
 
 9 *
 
 132 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 hapd on the young sculptor's shoulder. 
 " We all do ; to-morrow by sunrise ea.ch 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 even- 
 ing's entertainment," cried one of the painters, and Pa- 
 pias, as he parted from Pontius, said : 
 
 " When we next meet I will show you what I under- 
 stand 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 clone 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
 
 THE KMPEROR. 133 
 
 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 prac- 
 tises 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
 
 134 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 took to sculpture and painting it has become the uni- 
 versal 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-
 
 TUT. EMPEROR. 135 
 
 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 work- 
 shops." 
 
 " 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 wine- 
 jar ; he had heard the painter's last remark and inter- 
 rupted him by .saying : 
 
 " But my friend you forget that he is a monarch 
 among monarchs and not merely among those of to- 
 day in the fullest meaning of the word. Each of us 
 separately can produce something better and more per- 
 fect in his own line ; but how great is the man who by
 
 136 THE KMPEROR. 
 
 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 liber- 
 ality. 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 feel- 
 ing, 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 expres- 
 sion 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 re-
 
 THE EMPEROR. 137 
 
 pay 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 com- 
 pleted 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 ' 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-keep- 
 ing, sings and recites a troublesome tendency when- 
 ever 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 to- 
 wards heaven. 
 
 " Has anything specially pleasant happened to 
 you ?" 
 
 " There is no need for that ! Here I live in ex-
 
 138 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 cellent 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 him- 
 self, 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 to- 
 morrow morning I will be your guest."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 139 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PONTIUS threw his pallium over the chiton he com- 
 monly wore at his work and went forward to meet the 
 sovereign of the world, whose arrival had been an- 
 nounced to him in the prefect's letter. He was per- 
 fectly 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 talk- 
 ing 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 mid- 
 night. 
 
 Titianus, who was watching for him, he greeted as 
 an old friend with heartfelt warmth, and with him and
 
 140 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 Antinous he stepped into the prefect's chariot, while 
 Phlegon the secretary, Hermogenes his physician, and 
 Master with the luggage, among which were their camp- 
 beds, 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 
 Avith 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 ap- 
 proaching 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 Eu- 
 phorion's door and looked into the comfortable little 
 room, with its decoration of flowers and birds and the 
 statue of Apollo ; while d^ame Doris in her newest gar- 
 ments, 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 141 
 
 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," an- 
 swered the Emperor. " What an omen, what a favor- 
 able, 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 for- 
 gotten 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 Marcotic 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," an- 
 swered Hadrian. " I can see by your face that you 
 have a pleasure in entertaining us, and any one might 
 envy you your little house."
 
 142 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 ex- 
 plained. 
 
 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 143 
 
 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 any- 
 thing 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 pos- 
 sible 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."
 
 144 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " What leads you to suppose so ?" 
 
 " I see it in your gaze in your brow." 
 
 " You have the gift of divinatfon, then ?" 
 
 " No, I am not one of that sort ; but I am the 
 mother of two sons on whom also the Immortals have be- 
 stowed 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, Telem- 
 achus, 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 145 
 
 store for us, and as we grow old we are perfectly satis- 
 fied to be able to show him kindness. Listen young 
 master. You will always find me here if you want any- 
 thing 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 dis- 
 jointed 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 Meso- 
 medes 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 precon- 
 certed; he suddenly paused and desired the prefect to 
 wait for him, and Antinous to remain behind with the 
 dog. He turned round, retraced his steps to the gate- 
 house 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. 
 
 Tftf Emperor. I. 10
 
 146 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 thousandfold Sabina!' That is 
 nonsense. 'Hail, hail! divine hail to thee O all-con- 
 quering 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 !' "
 
 THE EMPEROR. 147 
 
 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 com- 
 panions picked their way not without difficulty through 
 the workmen who squatted here and there and every- 
 where 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 every- 
 where, 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 satisfac- 
 tion, 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 in- 
 spect 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 har-
 
 148 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 bor, the town, and the island of Antirrhodus he sug- 
 gested should be provisionally furnished for the Em- 
 peror's reception. Thanks to the architect's foresight, 
 to Master'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 Pon- 
 tius 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 guid- 
 ance, had reached the last room in which restorations 
 were being carried out, Pontius was ready with his ar- 
 rangements, 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 ele- 
 gantly-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, Master, and then to supper ! 
 I am as hungry as a beggar's dog." 
 
 " I think we shall find all you need," replied 
 Titianus, while Hadrian washed his hands and his 
 bearded face. 
 
 " Have you eaten all that 1 sent down to Lochias 
 to-day, my dear Pontius ? "
 
 THE EMPEROR. 149 
 
 "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 por- 
 ridge. 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."
 
 150 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 Mace- 
 donian 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 mer- 
 chants 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 de- 
 sire 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 ele- 
 vated 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
 
 THE E.MPEROK. 151 
 
 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 Em- 
 peror a salver with bread, salt, and a cup of wine, which 
 his own slave had carried to him. When Pollux ob- 
 served 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 worthyof Aristotle
 
 152 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 sau- 
 sages !" 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 Bithy- 
 nia 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. Miti- 
 gate 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 appreci- 
 ation." 
 
 " Greet dame Doris from me," Hadrian called after
 
 THE EMPEROR. 153 
 
 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 re- 
 markable freedom ; this mantle drawn over the bosom 
 would not disgrace a Phidias. All is broad, character- 
 istic 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 Em- 
 peror, 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. W r hat 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
 
 154 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 lie 
 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 jour- 
 ney, Pollux reappeared in the hall of the Muses accom- 
 panied 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 lew 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 secre- 
 tary, 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 them- 
 selves. He also spoke highly of the Mareotic wine. 
 
 When they came to opening the pasty the expression
 
 THE EMPEROR. 155 
 
 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 archi- 
 tect. 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 prepara- 
 tion for his arrival was to be suspected in this matter. 
 '' What follies that spoilt child of fortune can com- 
 mit! 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 con- 
 sists 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
 
 156 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 him- 
 self 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 157 
 
 Emperor; but Pontius had prepared him for the like- 
 ness, 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 frank- 
 ness, 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 con- 
 ception 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 supe- 
 riority 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."
 
 158 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 per- 
 mitted 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 Babilla, 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. 159 
 
 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 conversa- 
 tion 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 Caesar- 
 eum 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 estab- 
 lished friendship that might warrant his right to do so. 
 The defiant, half gallant Avay in which Verus, the dis- 
 sipated lady-killer, had spoken to her had enraged him 
 and filled him with anxiety, and long after the illustri- 
 ous 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.
 
 160 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 excep- 
 tional character. As an artist Hadrian ought not to 
 have vilified beauty, as a man he ought not to have in- 
 sulted unprotected innocence. 
 
 In the soul of the architect, who had hitherto been 
 one of the Emperor's warmest admirers, a slight aver- 
 sion 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 even- 
 ing." 
 
 " 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 be-
 
 THE KMPEROR. l6l 
 
 tray me. A few days here undisturbed would be de- 
 lightful ! " 
 
 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 sleep- 
 ing-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 dream- 
 less 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 re- 
 strained 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 mar- 
 ried the pretty little daughter of a superintendent of the 
 gardens, a slave like himself. She was a lively little 
 
 Tfte Emjt>eror. I. n
 
 1 62 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 conse- 
 quence 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 miser- 
 able 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 EMPEROR. 163 
 
 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 hap- 
 piness 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 ex- 
 istence, 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 cer- 
 tain 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 fer- 
 vency and eloquence of which she was mistress, to per- 
 suade, entreat, and implore the heedless girl to refuse as 
 postively as she herself had refused to take any part in 
 the processions ; but Arsinoe had at first repulsed her
 
 164 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 re- 
 pelled by her sister whenever she attempted to ad- 
 monish her z 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 Avell 
 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 in- 
 tercourse bore an aspect of coolness, whicli was easily 
 worked up to an outbreak of hostile speeches. Hun- 
 dreds 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 child- 
 ren, their food and clothes; it was the second who
 
 THF, EMPEROR. 165 
 
 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 sleep- 
 ing Arsinoe, and the words on the girl's lips as she had 
 dropped asleep, had sounded very unkind; but, never- 
 theless, 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, fol-
 
 1 66 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 lowed 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 her- 
 self 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 to- 
 night 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.
 
 THE EMPEROR. 167 
 
 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 fish- 
 tails 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 Lo- 
 chias, 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 anx- 
 ious shiver. She felt as if everything were not quite the 
 same as usual, and just as she had set her foot on the 
 top 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 resem- 
 bled 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
 
 1 68 THK EMPEROR. 
 
 quick leaps as he flew after her along the stone pave- 
 ment. 
 
 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 tl?e 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 Master. 
 
 " 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 pos- 
 sible, loudly calling the dog by his name. But another 
 had been beforehand and had dragged him off his vic- 
 tim, and this was Antinous, Avhose 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 Master 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 a wide window. The boy looked with 
 alarm on her pale face, lifted her helpless arm, and
 
 THE EMPEROR. 169 
 
 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 Master : 
 
 "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 Em- 
 peror, 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 revi- 
 ving fluid, made her inhale the strong essence which the 
 phial contained, and cried again loud and earnestly, 
 " Wake, wake/' And presently her lips parted, show- 
 ing her small, white teeth, and then she slowly raised
 
 170 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 her- 
 self; but, scarcely had he turned his face towards her, 
 when she sprang up suddenly and violently, and fling- 
 ing both her arms round his neck, cried out : 
 
 " Save me, Pollux, save me ! The monster is de- 
 vouring 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, anx- 
 iously. 
 
 " 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 ?"
 
 THE EMPEROR. 17 r 
 
 " 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
 
 172 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 an- 
 other, vexed her far more than the beauty of the 
 favorite had charmed her. 
 
 She slowly aiid 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 be- 
 gan 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 com- 
 plaining 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.
 
 THE EMPEROR. 173 
 
 " 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 dog on my child ! " shouted Ke- 
 raunus, 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 pre- 
 pared for them at this hour. 
 
 Keraunus responded to their morning greetings with 
 nods as friendly as Arsinoe's tongs, which held his head
 
 174 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 tender- 
 ness. 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."
 
 THK EMPEROR. 175 
 
 " 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 mat- 
 ters." 
 
 Arsinoe flung the tongs on the hearth with so much 
 annoyance that they fell on the stone with a loud clat- 
 ler; 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."
 
 176 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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," de- 
 clared 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 an- 
 nounce 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 abhor- 
 rence. As he approached his destination he found him- 
 self 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.
 
 THE EMPEROR. 177 
 
 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 ex- 
 tent of the long west wall of the room, and opened on 
 the sea. The wide opening, which extended down- 
 wards to within a few spans of the floor, was finished at 
 either side by a tall pillar of fine reddish-brown por- 
 phyry, flecked with white, and crowned with gilt Corin- 
 thian 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 1 
 The whole place looks habitable, and the eye finds an 
 
 Tke Emperor, I. 13
 
 178 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 de- 
 lightful 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 Alexan- 
 drians 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 179 
 
 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
 
 180 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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," ex- 
 claimed 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 dan- 
 gerous 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 Mace- 
 donian ; 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 astonish- 
 ment, exclaiming at last :
 
 THE EMPEROR. l8l 
 
 " Ho\v 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 re- 
 quires 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 beauti- 
 ful than I ever find the reality." 
 
 " The balance of difference, which is to the disad- 
 vantage 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
 
 1 82 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 des- 
 tined 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 ac- 
 quaintances 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
 
 THK EMPEROR. 183 
 
 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 fol- 
 low 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 im- 
 agination ; what others do by hard work you do by 
 mere existence. Be quiet, Argus ! " For, while he
 
 184 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 was speaking, the hound had risen, and had gone snarl- 
 ing 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 Master ? " 
 
 Antinous shouted the slave's name into the Em- 
 peror'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 han- 
 dle, 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 Em- 
 peror'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 ter-
 
 THE EMPEROR. 185 
 
 ror 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 any- 
 thing 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 unaccus- 
 tomed tongue came to some insuperable difficulty. 
 When, at length, the negro had finished the pompous 
 announcement, Hadrian said, kindly :
 
 l86 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 ex- 
 pectation too, that the Roman would come to conduct 
 him in person into his apartment was by no means ful- 
 filled, 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 un- 
 pleasant growling of the big dog, prompted him to 
 strike a milder string. His slave had followed him and
 
 THE EMPEROR. 187 
 
 had sought a safe corner near the door, between the 
 wall of the room and a couch, but he himself, conquer- 
 ing 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 remark- 
 able 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 pro- 
 tect your host from injury." 
 
 " How is that ?" asked Hadrian, rising from his seat
 
 1 88 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 ves- 
 sel 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,
 
 THE EMPEROR. 189 
 
 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 far- 
 ther." 
 
 " You will chain him up," replied Keraunus, with 
 an angry glare, " or some one will be found who will 
 make him harmless forever." 
 
 " That will be an evil attempt for the cowardly mur- 
 derer!" 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 mas- 
 ter 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
 
 190 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 whej-e 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 Ke- 
 raunus, 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 be- 
 lieve 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 Ptole- 
 maeus Helios that borne by the last of the Lagides, 
 who perished as you pretend."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 19! 
 
 " 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 dan- 
 gerous 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 mouth- 
 ing crow " 
 
 Keraunus signed to his slave and without greet- 
 ing 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, Had- 
 rian 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 re-- 
 member, we are in Egypt, the land of poison, as
 
 192 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 every- 
 thing 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 any- 
 thing 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 Em-
 
 THE EMPEROR. 193 
 
 peror 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 posi- 
 tion 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 will- 
 ingly. 
 
 . 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. Master 
 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 em- 
 bittered. 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 
 
 The Emperor. I. 13
 
 194 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 Master to suppose that he must be 
 a Jew or a Phoenician, but there was nothing remark- 
 able 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,
 
 THK KMPKROR. 195 
 
 *' 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 ap- 
 provingly, " 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 Re- 
 deemer, 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 
 
 13*
 
 196 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 Master, 
 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.
 
 THE EMPEROR. 197 
 
 " I am," replied the old man, and as soon as he 
 learnt what Master 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 espe- 
 cially 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
 
 198 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 unfre- 
 quently very reasonable men, and sometimes even Had- 
 rian 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 con- 
 firmed 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 r 
 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 199 
 
 " And Rome may thank the gods that you are," 
 replied Antinous. 
 
 " What happy phrases the boy hits upon some- 
 times," 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 Bal- 
 billa is to sit to him for her bust. We must also in- 
 spect 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 sec- 
 retary had ready for him the despatches and papers for 
 Rome and the provinces, which the Emperor was re- 
 quired 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 Em- 
 peror 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.
 
 200 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 ex- 
 citement 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 Em- 
 peror, 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 2OI 
 
 fair ones had sent branches of flowers and tender let- 
 ters, 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 crystal- 
 lized 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 far- 
 ther ceremony, seemed to liim 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.
 
 202 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 Master, 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 there 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 Bithynian 
 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 203 
 
 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 unfortu- 
 nately offered a no higher price than Gabinius, whom the 
 steward had sent off so indignantly the previous even- 
 ing. 
 
 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 ac- 
 company 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 occa- 
 sioned the girls some embarrassment. Selene recognized 
 him at once, Arsinoe thought him handsome but awk- 
 ward, 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
 
 204 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 Bithynian. 
 
 " 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 :
 
 THE EMPEROR. 205 
 
 " 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," ob- 
 served 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
 
 206 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 there- 
 fore persist in her intention. 
 
 When she saw that Arsinoe showed no sign of ac- 
 companying her, she once more asked with stern deter- 
 mination : 
 
 " 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 slap- 
 ping 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 fol- 
 lowed 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 2O/ 
 
 have been " no," if she had had the smallest feeling of 
 liking for the Emperor's favorite ; but she bore the im- 
 age 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 yours|Jf! " 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 scorn- 
 fully : 
 
 " Certainly not. Only conduct me through the cor- 
 ridor 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 ter- 
 races 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
 
 208 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 gate- 
 house. 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 in- 
 creased with time* At every hour of the day, and 
 whatever she was occupied in, she could not help re- 
 peating 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 even- 
 ing 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 en- 
 joying 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 ?
 
 THE EMPEROR. 209 
 
 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 in- 
 creased at every step, or her numbed and sore heart, be- 
 trayed of her newly -blossoming, last, and fairest hope ? 
 
 The Emperor. /. 14
 
 210 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 sun- 
 light, tested its ring, tried to scratch it with the stone in 
 his ring, and then muttered, " Vasa Murrhina." 
 
 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 earn- 
 est, the Phoenician said : 
 
 "Two thousand drachmae; not a. sesterce more." 
 
 ' That is not enough by a long way, but then 
 it is yours."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 211 
 
 " I would hardly have given half to a less fair cus- 
 tomer." 
 
 " 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 at- 
 tractive, 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 disap- 
 prove 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 study- 
 ing her bewilderment, which he thought charming 
 only wishing that his son, a young painter, were stand- 
 ing in his place. At last he broke the silence however, 
 saying :
 
 212 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 bot- 
 tom 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, Octavi- 
 anus, 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 2 13 
 
 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 our- 
 selves 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 bed- 
 room 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 be- 
 fallen 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."
 
 214 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 excite- 
 ment ; 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 citi- 
 zens' 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 215 
 
 " 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 Ke- 
 raunus, " 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 wor- 
 ried 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
 
 2l6 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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\wo hours." 
 
 11 Then, do you know what, dear old father ? " 
 
 "\\fell?" 
 
 " 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 217 
 
 " Doris shall never cross this threshold," repeated 
 Keraunus, for all his answer. 
 
 <* Then tell the tailor Hippias to send me an assis- 
 tant ; 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 ar- 
 range 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 An- 
 tony, 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
 
 2l8 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 im- 
 possible to enjoy anything without the companionship 
 and supervision of her absent sister. But her father's as- 
 sertion, 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: "To- 
 morrow 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 wating 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,
 
 THE EMPEROR. 219 
 
 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 Avorking 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 gate- 
 house 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. Bal- 
 billa 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
 
 220 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 rich fatherless and motherless girl. At Rome, she con- 
 ducted 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 bath- 
 ing, 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 ven- 
 ture 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 Em- 
 press 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 con- 
 cealed 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 superincum- 
 bence of such a mass must disfigure the effect of the 
 delicate features of her face. He implored her to re- 
 member in how simple a style the great Athenian mas-
 
 THE EMPEROR. 221 
 
 ters, 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 ap- 
 pearance," answered Balbilla. " It is precisely by follow- 
 ing 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."
 
 222 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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, eager- 
 ly. 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 sacri- 
 fice 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," inter- 
 rupted Balbilla. 
 
 " Aha ! because Caesar set the fashion, and in Rome 
 it would have been conspicuous not to dabble in sculp- 
 ture." 
 
 " 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," Bal- 
 billa threw in, interrupting her companion. " Indeed, 
 my people became quite expert in the work of destruc- 
 tion." 
 
 " Then my work may, at any rate, hope for a short
 
 THE EMPEROR. 223 
 
 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 ut- 
 most 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 re- 
 plied : 
 
 " I have not always the right words at my com- 
 mand, for all that I feel as an artist. A plastic present- 
 ment, to satisfy its creator, must fulfil two conditions ; 
 first it must record for posterity in forms of eternal re- 
 semblance 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"
 
 224 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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, un- 
 less 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 feel- 
 ings, with the whole of my inmost mind." 
 
 " I see you and talk to you," replied Pollux. 
 
 Qaudia 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 225 
 
 " 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 Bal- 
 billa 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 every- 
 where, 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 
 us unveil this shrouded portrait." 
 
 " Who knows what it may be ?" said Claudia, as she 
 
 The Emperor. I. 15
 
 226 ( THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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, un- 
 tying a knot. " These artists are such unfettered, unac- 
 countable 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 pre- 
 vious evening, in all its grimacing ugliness. She recog- 
 nized herself in it at once, and at the first moment, 
 laughed loudly, but the longer she looked at the dis- 
 figured 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 spite- 
 fulness. 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 227 
 
 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 Pol- 
 lux, 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, in- 
 dignant, and offended. Accustomed as she was to give 
 prompt utterance even to her displeasure, she ex- 
 claimed 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 
 
 15 *
 
 228 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 un- 
 flinching as if he were cast in bronze, and with an earn- 
 est frown, was speaking the truth, and that he must have 
 some right to speak to her with such unwonted de- 
 cision. " 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 ac- 
 count 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 229 
 
 - and am, for my grandfather was your grandfather's 
 slave." 
 
 " I did not know" said Balbilla, with increasing con- 
 fusion. 
 
 " Is it possible that your noble grandfather's instruc- 
 tor, the venerable Sophinus, is altogether forgotten. 
 Sophinus, whom your grandfather freed, and who con- 
 tinued 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 Bal- 
 billa, 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 Pon- 
 tius. " 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
 
 230 THE EMPEROP. 
 
 returned to the work-place, and safely wrapped the cari- 
 cature 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. Pon- 
 tius 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 ven- 
 ture to play with edged tools, which children may not 
 even touch."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 23! 
 
 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 man- 
 aged 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 merci- 
 lessly went on their way, without paying any heed to 
 her. She got many a push from those who were hurry- 
 ing 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 tor- 
 ment, at least for a few minutes. 
 
 The street boys who had run after her, and laughed 
 at her, ceased pursuing her when they found tiiat 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
 
 232 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 in- 
 quisitive men and women for Verus, the superb Verus, 
 came by in his chariot, and what a chariot ! The Alex- 
 andrian 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 aston- 
 ishment, 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 re- 
 morselessly 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 anx- 
 iety, a feeling of bitter aversion, and the envious thought 
 that the mere trappings of the horses of this extravagant 
 prodigal Avould 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 EMPEROR. 233 
 
 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 remined her of the pur- 
 pose 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 pain- 
 ful ; 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 nor 
 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,
 
 234 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 un- 
 asked as a support to Selene, and measured her steps 
 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 locali- 
 ties whence they were brougKt. Aftera 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 com- 
 panion's shoulder, she turned giddy, and said in a low 
 tone: 
 
 " I can go no farther "
 
 THE EMPEROR. 235 
 
 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 to- 
 gether, some of them offered to carry her thither, and be- 
 fore 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 hand ; 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, every one 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
 
 236 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 humilia- 
 ting 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 papy- 
 rus 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 237 
 
 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
 
 238 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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. 
 41 1 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 Kerau- 
 nus' 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 239 
 
 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 workwoman 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 grate- 
 ful; 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 dis- 
 turb the woman's gentle equanimity "widow Han- 
 nah," as she was called by the workwomen 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
 
 240 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 a pleasure. Js it not true Mary, we shall be 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 down by 
 her, took the injured foot with tender care in her deli- 
 cate 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 :
 
 THE EMPEROR. 241 
 
 " Dame Hannah, dear widow Hannah." 
 
 As the warm sunshine of an October day 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 peo- 
 ple 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." 
 
 The Emperor. I. 16
 
 242 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 chatter- 
 box, and will certainly not betray your confidence. 
 Tell me quietly who you belong to. Tell me you be- 
 lieve 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 good- 
 ness. " 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 243 
 
 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," Se- 
 lene 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 handker- 
 chief, 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 Se- 
 lene was enduring. When at length, her delicate and 
 graceful foot distorted just now by the extensive swell- 
 ing was freed from the bands and straps, and the 
 ankle had been felt and pressed in every direction by
 
 244 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. - 245 
 
 forbid your moving at all. Lie 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 even- 
 ing. 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
 
 246 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 be- 
 sides 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 247 
 
 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 Alex- 
 andria, 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" en- 
 tertainment 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 ex- 
 ceeded, 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 an- 
 other, 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
 
 248 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 peformance 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 play- 
 fellow 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 249 
 
 eyes turned upon her, but that only added to her pleas- 
 ure, 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 be- 
 tray 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 audi- 
 torium. 
 
 Here she was surrounded only by young girls and 
 women who were to have a part or place in the per- 
 formances. The places for these interested persons 
 were divided from the stage by a space for the orches- 
 tra, 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.
 
 250 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 com- 
 pare 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 audi- 
 ence, male and female ; while others again concentrated 
 their whole attention on the stage. Arsinoe soon fol- 
 lowed 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 dis- 
 play was entrusted, in spite of the objections of his mas- 
 ter Papias. More than once before had she seen the af- 
 ternoon 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 back- 
 ground, 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 gar- 
 lands 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,'com-
 
 THE EMPEROR. 251 
 
 posed, 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 him- 
 self for the first time in many years in his papyrus fac- 
 tory, 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 dark'ly 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
 
 252 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 emer- 
 ald that shone like some bright insect. The young 
 men who supported him seemed like a portion of him- 
 self; 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 
 -sa\v 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 six- 
 handed ;" 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 Plu-
 
 THE EMPEROR. 255 
 
 tarch 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 Mace- 
 donian, 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 some- 
 times 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 e^es fixed on the bunch of flowers in her hand,
 
 254 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 Ar- 
 sinoe 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 fin- 
 gers. She did not know which way she should look and 
 oegan to feel bashful ; still she was pleased at being re- 
 marked by so many people, and as she stood looking at 
 the ground out of sheer embarrassment to hide the de- 
 light 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 re- 
 ferred to her she became more confused*than ever,
 
 THE EMPEROR. 255 
 
 while her awkward smile gradually changed to an ex- 
 pression 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 Gabi- 
 nius, 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 workwoman in your 
 factory, and here among our daughters ? " 
 
 " So it is two busy hands among so many idle 
 ones," saidl the old man, gaily.
 
 256 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 "Then she must have forced her way in, and must 
 be turned out." 
 
 " Certainly she shall not. Why, she is charm- 
 ing." 
 
 " 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 main- 
 tained 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 pur- 
 chaser. Their zeal even assumed a tone of vehemence, 
 when the dealer, following in the wake %>f Plutarch,
 
 THE EMPEROR. 257 
 
 joined the group of disputants, and they were certain of 
 being heard by him. 
 
 " And who is this girl yonder ?" asked Papias, point- 
 ing 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 speak- 
 ing 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 her- 
 self 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, indig- 
 nantly, 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 like one of my 
 workwomen, but even if she had come straight here 
 
 The Etnperor. I. 17
 
 258 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 state- 
 ment. " 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 child- 
 hood," 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 com- 
 posure, 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 dis- 
 position 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 curios- 
 ities, 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 259 
 
 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 pro- 
 vide 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 hi.i 
 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 oc- 
 casion. The little girl is very like one of my work- 
 women; very like but I see now that there is a cer- 
 tain 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 gentle- 
 men ?" 
 
 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 illus- 
 
 17
 
 200 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 trious and wealthy citizens had been overlooked in as- 
 signing 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 smug- 
 gled 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 animos- 
 ity had grown up in the souls of the dealer and his
 
 THE EMPEROR. 261 
 
 daughter. PraxiUa 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 re- 
 monstrances, and the words in which brave Pollux had 
 taken her part, had, at first, felt dying of shame and ter- 
 ror, 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 manu- 
 facturer. 
 
 " 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 mil- 
 lions, and I am very willing to confess to my friends
 
 262 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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," re- 
 plied 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 263 
 
 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 con- 
 gratulate me, question me, and notice me, and the gild- 
 ing 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 eager- 
 ly 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 inter- 
 rupted 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
 
 264 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 gate- 
 keeper'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 ! "
 
 THE EMPEROR. 265 
 
 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 ! be- 
 sides all our other troubles this disgrace too !" 
 
 " Nay,, it is not so bad as that," said Doris sooth- 
 ingly. " There are very estimable folks even among 
 the Christians. At any rate they are certainly honor- 
 able, 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 mere 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 Ke- 
 raunus, 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."
 
 266 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 slave- 
 woman 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 267 
 
 " But you did say the drops were good," stammered 
 the old woman. 
 
 " For me," shouted the steward, and without fasten- 
 ing his shoe-straps round his ankles, so that they flap- 
 ped and pattered on the ground, he hurried off into the 
 children's room. There sat his darling blind child, his 
 'heir' 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 cur- 
 rant 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 morn- 
 ing," replied Arsinoe. " Our poor Selene needs us far 
 more than he does. Come father. The old woman can 
 stay with him."
 
 268 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 269 
 
 Arsinoe shrugged her shoulders, and two minutes 
 later 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 
 little 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, 
 stood 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 be- 
 cause 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.
 
 370 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 
 Euphorion 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 sis- 
 ter as tormented with pain and threatened with danger 
 was changed in a wonderfully short time to that of a suf- 
 ferer 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 EMPEROR. 271 
 
 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 con- 
 trary, they sounded very much in earnest, and the sculp- 
 tor'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 un- 
 hesitatingly 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
 
 272 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 ^hould 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 ex- 
 tremest 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 1 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 be- 
 ginning for them, but for us the best day in all our lives."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 275 
 
 " Yes, yes," cried Arsinoe, and she clasped his strong 
 arm with both her hands. 
 
 Then they both laughed merrily, for Pollux had no- 
 ticed 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 con- 
 tained 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 possi- 
 ble ? 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 a part 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. 
 
 Th Emperor. I. 18
 
 274 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 white- 
 ness, the sea sparkled brightly, and as soon as the por- 
 ter had left the happy young pair together, a'nd 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 her- 
 self 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 care- 
 fully laid on her head. 
 
 Pollux touched Arsinoe and whispered to her : 
 
 " Your sister lies there in her sleep like an Ariadne
 
 THE EMPEROR. 275 
 
 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 spy- 
 ing 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 Pene- 
 lope, but there is something singular in her eyes. No\r 
 if I had to make another star-gazing Urania, or a Sap- 
 pho full of the deity, and with eyes fixed on the heavens 
 in poetic rapture, that is what I would put into her I 
 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 per- 
 fectly 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 fir- 
 mament 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 " 
 
 18*
 
 276 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 an- 
 chor round it ?" asked Arsinoe. 
 
 " They are emblems of the mysteries of the Chris- 
 tians," 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 an-, 
 other 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 277 
 
 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 ras- 
 cal 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 be- 
 loved; these two female heads he could not fail in. 
 Caesar must see them, they must be exhibited, and al- 
 ready 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 Han- 
 nah. She might perhaps have a little fever, but any
 
 278 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 wait- 
 ed 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 279 
 
 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, holloo-ing, and dancing. 
 
 Garlands of vine, ivy and asphodel fluttered from a 
 hundred heads ; poplar, lotus, and laurel wreaths over- 
 hung their heated brows ; panther-skins, deer and goat- 
 skins hung from their bare shoulders and waved in the
 
 280 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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. Respecta- 
 ble 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 Diony- 
 sus none had been able to resist the temptation to join 
 the procession. It turned down the Moon-street, keep- 
 ing 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 auda- 
 cious 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 
 inetal 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 elabor- 
 ately 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 281 
 
 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 sing- 
 ing and jubilant music. 
 
 Old and young, great and small, all in short that 
 came near this rabble train, were carried off with irre- 
 sistible 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 " lo; lo, 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 cor- 
 ner 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 in- 
 toxication, 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
 
 282 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 left free, throwing back their heads, shouting and sing- 
 ing 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 Diony- 
 sus, 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 de- 
 cidedly. 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 283 
 
 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 in- 
 stantly 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 re- 
 lieved his mind of a burden. "Ah ! so much the better. 
 Can you tell me where to find the fair Arsinoe's sister ?"
 
 284 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 "TO be sure," replied the artist, and he felt pleased 
 that the young Bythinian 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 mintes 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 her- 
 self 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 dis- 
 order 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 orna- 
 ments 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 285 
 
 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 mis- 
 taken, 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 inaudi- 
 ble 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 nofr ex- 
 pect 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."
 
 286 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 every one looks 
 round as if I had a stain on my pallium. And then 
 the mangy dog wants to keep holiday, and stick him- 
 self 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 be- 
 low 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 
 might 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,
 
 THE EMPEROR. 287 
 
 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 to- 
 day." 
 
 " 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
 
 288 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 no- 
 ticed this and asked impatiently what there was pecu- 
 liar 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 Alex- 
 ander, 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 her- 
 self 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 :
 
 THE EMPEROR. 289 
 
 " 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. 
 
 "Fora 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 man- 
 slave." 
 
 " 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 atten- 
 tion than hitherto, and really if we appear with that 
 black scarecrow at our heels in the streets or else- 
 where " 
 
 " Certainly we cannot make much show with 
 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 
 
 The F.mteivr. I. IQ
 
 290 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 sejl 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 ac- 
 quired in his eyes a semblance of necessity and a num- 
 ber of reasons suggested themselves which made it ap- 
 pear 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.
 
 THE EMPEROR. 291 
 
 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 yes- 
 terday, had seemed to her so inestimably precious. 
 This she said ; but Keraunus would not take the asser- 
 tion in earnest, laughed in her face, went off into mys- 
 terious allusions to the wealth which could not fail to 
 come into the house and since an obscure conscious- 
 ness 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 ar- 
 range her own hair nicely and then to accompany him. 
 
 19*
 
 292 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 They would buy a new dress and peplum, go to see Se- 
 lene, 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 im- 
 punity. 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 circum- 
 stances 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 293 
 
 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 lamenta- 
 tion, 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, Master 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 Sannatian. 
 41 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, whimper- 
 ing: " 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 ?"
 
 294 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " Very little wine, very little meat, very much hun- 
 ger," said the old man. 
 
 "Then you must be glad to leave him." 
 
 " No, no," groaned Sebek. 
 
 " You foolish old owl," said Master. " 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 
 Master'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 carry- 
 ing 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 295 
 
 a matter of which he had heard great things and ex- 
 pected much, and Master went on in a low voice : 
 
 " Come early to-morrow before sunrise to the pave- 
 ment-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 Lo- 
 chias 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 pnce flung the pen- 
 cil, 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 suffer- 
 ing girl, have laughed at the ridiculous man, and have
 
 296 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 An- 
 tinous, 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 threat- 
 ening 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 par- 
 alyzed with anxiety." 
 
 " Then you have seen evil signs in the heavens ?" 
 
 " Direful signs !" 
 
 " You wise men believe in the stars," replied Antin- 
 ous. " No doubt you are right, but my weak head can- 
 not understand what their regular courses have to do 
 with my inconstant wanderings." 
 
 " Grow gray," replied the Emperor, " learn to com- 
 prehend 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
 
 THK EMPEROR. 297 
 
 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 aje 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!" "v 
 
 " What ?" 
 
 " From that accursed Antioch whence nothing 
 good has ever come to me I have received the say- 
 ing 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 to- 
 night 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 cer- 
 tainty as if they had tongues to shout the evil forecast 
 in my ear. It is hard to walk on with such a goal in pros- 
 pect. 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 :
 
 298 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 agaist 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," in- 
 terrupted 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 secre- 
 tary, 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 lie," 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.
 
 THE EMPEROR. 299 
 
 " 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 objec- 
 tions !" 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 win- 
 dow. 
 
 " What does this mean ?" he asked Master, 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 aa 
 altered tone : 
 
 " Ha! ha! Antinous, you are wiser than I. Let us
 
 300 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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, 
 Master, 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 Em- 
 peror'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 mat- 
 ter. 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 301 
 
 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 Se- 
 lene, of whom he could not help thinking incessantly 
 and wherever he might be. He did not find the sculp- 
 tor in his screened-off nook; prompted by a wish to 
 speak to his mother, Pollux had gone down to the gate- 
 house 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 de- 
 scribed 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 remem- 
 ber flying along with your father in just the same way 
 thirty years ago."
 
 302 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " And since thirty years," Pollux interposed. " I can 
 still remember very well how at one of the great Diony- 
 siac 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 differ- 
 ent, 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 pro- 
 cession. 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 handsom- 
 est 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 EMPEROR. 303 
 
 the rest and shout and halloo as they did. My maid, who 
 I held on to tightly, was seized with the frenzy and drag- 
 ged 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 de- 
 fended 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 1 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
 
 304 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 mys- 
 teries. 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 un- 
 derstand 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 /rood as his. I think of giving
 
 THE EMPEROR. 305 
 
 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 happi- 
 ness." 
 
 " I will stick to that." 
 
 " One thing more my lad : take good care of Ar- 
 sinoe. 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 
 
 The Emperor. I. 20
 
 306 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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 grate- 
 ful, 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 rev^l 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 be- 
 sides one thing " 
 
 At these words Antinous had grown embarrassed and 
 had gone quite close up to the artist. He laid his
 
 THE EMPEROR. 307 
 
 hand on his shoulder and said in a low voice but im- 
 pressively : 
 
 " 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, look- 
 ing 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 in- 
 describably 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 al- 
 most think one of the immortals had come down to 
 earth." 
 
 " Look at my old woman!" exclaimed Pollux laugh- 
 ing, " but in truth friend, she has good reasons for her 
 ecstasies, I could follow her example." 
 
 " Hold him fast, hold him fast !" cried Doris. " It 
 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
 
 308 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 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, 1 must go back to my master.''' 
 
 As soon as the youth had left the house Doris ex- 
 claimed : 
 
 " 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 pardona- 
 ble 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 be- 
 hind 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 rep- 
 resent him whether as hero or god. 
 
 In the flower-market, near the Gymnasium, he was
 
 THE EMPEROR. 309 
 
 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 Master's anxious looks were 
 not without a cause, for the gentleman who was talk- 
 ing to him was no less a person than Verus, the prae- 
 tor, 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.
 
 310 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 He lost himself m 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 destina- 
 tion ? 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 lodg- 
 ing, and from whom and to whom you are carrying 
 those flowers ; as soon as you have agreed to that pro- 
 posal I will let you go on alone, and will show you
 
 THE EMPEROR. 31! 
 
 that I care no more for my gold pieces here, in Alex- 
 andria, than I do in Italy." 
 
 " Not gold certainly I will not take gold !" cried 
 Master. 
 
 " You are an honest fellow," replied Verus in an al- 
 tered tone, " and you know of me that I treat my ser- 
 vants 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 Lo- 
 chias." 
 
 " 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 
 bad signs in the sky." 
 
 " Bad signs," said Verus gravely. " And yet he 
 sends flowers ?" 
 
 " Not he, can you not guess ?" 
 
 " Antinous ?" 
 
 Mastor nodded assent.
 
 312 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " Only think," laughed Verus. " Then he too is be- 
 ginning 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 re- 
 serve 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 un- 
 disguised 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."
 
 THE EMPEROR. 313 
 
 " 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 Master 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."
 
 314 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " There there are the flowers, but I cannot take 
 the gold." 
 
 " Then I shall fling it among the crowd. Buy your- 
 self 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 who- 
 ever 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 recog- 
 nizes you. Your secret is mine, and the friend at Lo- 
 chias 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 dif- 
 ficulty through the crowd by their bearers. In the first 
 sat Keraunus, whose saffron-colored cloak was con- 
 spicuous 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 
 rapidlyi 
 
 Without reflecting, he took the flowers from the 
 hand of the garden-god the flowers intended for Se- 
 lene 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 EMPEROR. 315 
 
 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 ar- 
 ranged 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 nose- 
 gay; 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 Bithy- 
 nian loved, as she received the beautiful gift. 
 
 His slaves, natives of Britain, who were dressed as 
 garden-gods, were charged with the commission to pro- 
 ceed to dame Hannah's under the guidance of the don- 
 key-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 as- 
 certained 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 pre-
 
 316 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 feet's residence he laid aside his mask, and in an ante- 
 room where the steward was sitting on a couch wait- 
 ing 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 disappoint- 
 ment, 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, hit- 
 ting the praetor a blow with the stick of the ostrich- 
 feather fan she held in her hand. " Only listen, Lucilla,
 
 THE EMPEROR. 317 
 
 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, rais- 
 ing 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," inter- 
 rupted 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 hus- 
 band as Verus." 
 
 " And what man," retorted the praetor, " would ever 
 be so bold as to court Balbilla, could he hear how cruel- 
 ly 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 mean- 
 while 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 al- 
 lowance 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 ?"
 
 318 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 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 wait- 
 ing 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 allow- 
 ances !" laughed Balbilla, while the praetor went up to 
 his wife and told her in a whisper what he had learnt 
 from Master. Lucilla clasped her hands in astonish- 
 ment, 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
 
 THE EMPEROR. 319 
 
 which Arsinoe had given away as soon as she had re- 
 ceived it from him, and he sighed : " As we grow old 
 we have to learn wisdom." 
 
 END OF VOL. I.
 
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