th which he was working his
calculations, down on the table, leaned back in his seat and covered his
eyes with both hands. Then again he began to write fresh numbers, but his
new results seemed to be no more satisfactory than the former one.

The steward's letter had been for a long time lying before him when at
last it again caught his attention as he put out his hand for another
document. Needing some change of ideas he tore it open, read it and flung
it from him with annoyance. At any other time he would have expressed
some sympathy with the suffering girl, have laughed at the ridiculous
man, and have thought out some trick to tease or to terrify; but just now
the steward's threats made him angry and increased his dislike for him.

Tired of the silence around him he called to Antinous, who sat gazing
dreamily down on the harbor; the youth immediately approached his master.
Hadrian looked at him and said, shaking his head:

"Why you too look as if some danger were threatening you. Is the sky
altogether overcast?"

"No my lord, it is blue over the sea, but towards the south the black
clouds are gathering."

"Towards the south?" said Hadrian thoughtfully. "Any thing serious can
hardly threaten us from that quarter.--But it comes, it is near, it is
upon us before we suspect it."

"You sat up too long, and that has put you out of tune."

"Out of tune?" muttered Hadrian to himself. "And what is tune? That
subtle harmony or discord is a condition which masters all the emotions
of the soul at once; and not without reason--to-day my heart is paralyzed
with anxiety."

"Then you have seen evil signs in the heavens?"

"Direful signs!"

"You wise men believe in the stars," replied Antinous. "No doubt you are
right, but my weak head cannot understand what their regular courses have
to do with my inconstant wanderings."

"Grow gray," replied the Emperor, "learn to comprehend the universe with
your intellect, and not till then speak of these things for not till then
will you discern that every atom of things created, and the greatest as
well as the least, is in the closest bonds with every other; that all
work together, and each depends on all. All that is or ever will be in
nature, all that we men feel, think or do, all is dependent on eternal
and immutable causes; and these causes have each their Daimon who
interposes between us and the divinity and is symbolized in golden
characters on the vault of heaven. The letter