been there long?"

"I do not exactly know."

"How long, I ask you?"

"He went after you had shut yourself in with Titianus."

"Three hours--three whole hours has he been with that braggart, whom I
ordered off the premises!" Hadrian's eye sparkled wrathfully as he spoke.
His annoyance at the absence of his favorite, whose society he permitted
no one to enjoy but himself, and least of all Pollux, smothered every
kind feeling in his mind, and in a tone of anger bordering on fury he
commanded Mastor to go and fetch Antinous, and then to have the
gate-house utterly cleared out.

"Take a dozen slaves to help you," he cried. "For aught I care the people
may carry all their rubbish into a new house, but I will never set eyes
again on that howling old woman, nor her imbecile husband. As for the
sculptor I will make him feel that Caesar has a heavy foot and can
unexpectedly crush a snake that creeps across his path."

Mastor went sadly away and Hadrian returned to his work-room, and there
called out to his secretary Phlegon:

"Write that a new gate-keeper is to be found for this palace. Euphorion,
the old one, is to have his pay continued to him, and half a talent is to
be paid to him at the prefect's office. Good--Let the man have at once
whatever is necessary; in an hour neither he nor his are to be found in
Lochias. Henceforth no one is to mention them to me again, nor to bring
me any petition from them. Their whole race may join the rest of the
dead."

Phlegon bowed and said:

"Gabinius, the curiosity-dealer, waits outside."

"He comes at an appropriate moment," cried the Emperor. "After all these
vexations it will do me good to hear about beautiful things."

CHAPTER IX.

Aye, truly! Sabina's advent had chased all good spirits from the palace
at Lochias.

The Emperor's commands had come upon the peaceful little house as a
whirlwind comes on a heap of leaves. The inhabitants were not even
allowed time fully to realize their misfortune, for instead of bewailing
themselves all they could do was to act with circumspection. The tables,
seats, cushions, beds and lutes, the baskets, plants, and bird-cages, the
kitchen utensils and the trunks with their clothes were all piled in
confusion in the courtyard, and Doris was employing the slaves appointed
by Mastor in the task of emptying the house, as briskly and carefully as
though it was nothing more than a move from one house to another. A ray
of the sunny brig