ed tenderly. "You spoiled me with
kindness even when I was a boy, and what can I do to thank you for all
this?"

"Be always the same to me that you are to-day. Will you always--for all
time be the same, whatever your fortunes may be?"

"In joy and in adversity always the same; always your friend, always
ready to give my life for you."

"In spite of my husband, always, even when you think you no longer need
my favor!"

"Always, for without you I should be nothing--utterly miserable."

The Empress heaved a deep sigh and sat bolt upright on her couch. She had
formed a great resolve, and she said slowly, emphasizing every word:

"If nothing utterly unforeseen occurs in the heavens on your birth-night,
you shall be our son, and so Hadrian's successor and heir. I swear it."

There was something solemn in her voice, and her small eyes were wide
open.

"Sabina, Mother, guardian spirit of my life!" cried Verus, and he fell on
his knees by her couch. She looked in his handsome face with deep
emotion, laid her hands on his temples, and pressed her lips on his dark
curls.

A moist brilliancy sparkled in those eyes, unapt to tears, and in a soft
and appealing tone that no one had ever before heard in her voice she
said:

"Even at the summit of fortune, after your adoption, even in the purple
all will be the same between us two. Will it? Tell me, will it?"

"Always, always!" cried Verus. "And if our hopes are fulfilled--"

"Then, then," interrupted Sabina and she shivered as she spoke. "Then,
still you will be to me the same that you are now; but to be sure, to be
sure--the temples of the gods would be empty if mortals had nothing left
to wish for."

"Ah! no. Then they would bring thank-offerings to the divinity," cried
Verus, and he looked up at the Empress; but she turned away from his
smiling glance and exclaimed in a tone of reproof and alarm:

"No playing with words, no empty speeches or rash jesting! in the name of
all the gods, not at this time! For this hour, this night is among its
fellows what a hallowed temple is among other buildings--what the fervent
sun is among the other lights of heaven. You know not how I feel, nay, I
hardly know myself. Not now, not now, one lightly-spoken word!"

Verus gazed at Sabina with growing astonishment. She had always been
kinder to him than to any one else in the world and he felt bound to her
by all the ties of gratitude and the sweet memories of childhood. Even as
a bo