n into them, and he could not help
springing out of bed; he paced his little room with long steps, and he
held his forehead pressed against the wall.

The dawn of a new day appeared as a welcome comfort, and by the time he
had eaten the morning porridge which his mother set before him--and her
eyes were red with weeping--the idea struck him that he would go to
Pontius, the architect. That was the lifeboat he espied.

Doris shared her son's breakfast but, contrary to her usual custom, she
spoke very little, only she frequently passed her hand over her son's
curly hair. Euphorion strode up and down the room, rummaging his brain
for ideas for an ode in which he might address the Emperor and implore
forgiveness for his son. Soon after breakfast Pollux went up to the
rotunda where the Queens' busts stood, hoping to see Arsinoe again, and a
loud snatch of song soon brought her out on to the balcony. They
exchanged greetings, and Pollux signed to her to come down to him. She
would have obeyed him more than gladly, but her father had also heard the
sculptor's voice and drove her back into the room. Still the mere sight
of his beloved fair one had done the artist good. Hardly had he got back
to his father's little house when Antinous came sauntering in--he
represented in the artist's mind the hospitable shores on which he might
gaze. Hope revived his soul, and Hope is the sun before which despair
flies as the shades of night flee at the rising of the day-star.

His artistic faculties were once more roused into play, and found a field
for their freest exercise when Antinous told him that he was at his
disposal till mid-day, since his master--or rather Caesar as he was now
permitted to name him--was engaged in business. The prefect Titianus had
come to him with a whole heap of papers, to work with him and his private
secretary. Pollux at once led the favorite into a side room of the little
house, with a northern aspect; here on a table lay the wax and the
smaller implements which belonged to himself and which he had brought
home last evening. His heart ached, and his nerves were in a painful
state of tension as he began his work. All sorts of anxious thoughts
disturbed his spirit, and yet he knew that if he put his whole soul into
it he could do something good. Now, if ever, he must put forth his best
powers, and he dreaded failure as an utter catastrophe, for on the face
of the whole earth there was no second model to compare wi