as a bath of cold, icy-cold sea-water, which was poured over my
head out of a full skin. All doctrines of ethics are in disgrace with me,
and I have long considered all the dramatic poets, in whose pieces virtue
is rewarded and crime punished, as a pack of fools; for my pleasantest
hours are all due to my worst deeds; and sheer annoyance and misery, to
my best. No hyena can laugh more hoarsely that I now speak; some portion
of me inside here, seems to have been turned into a hedgehog whose spines
prick and hurt me, and all this because I allowed myself to be led away
into doing things which the moralists laud as virtuous."

"You cough, and you do not look well. He down awhile."

"On my birthday? No, my young friend. And now let me just ask you before
I go: Can you tell me what Hadrian read in the stars?"

"No."

"Not even if I put my Perseus at your orders for every thing you may
require of him? The man knows Alexandria and is as dumb as a fish."

"Not even then, for what I do not know I cannot tell. We are both of us
ill, and I tell you once more you will be wise to take care of yourself."
Verus left the room, and Antinous watched him go with much relief.

The praetor's visit had filled him with disquietude, and had added to the
dislike he felt for him. He knew that he had been used to base ends by
Verus, for Hadrian had told him so much as that he had gone up to the
observatory not to question the stars for himself but to cast the
praetor's horoscope, and that he had informed Verus of his intention.

There was no excuse, no forgiveness possible for the deed he had done; to
please that dissolute coxcomb, that mocking hypocrite, he had become a
traitor to his master and an incendiary, and must endure to be
overwhelmed with praises and thanks by the greatest and most keen-sighted
of men. He hated, he abhorred himself, and asked himself why the fire
which had blazed around him had been satisfied only to inflict slight
injuries on his hands and hair. When Hadrian returned to him he asked his
permission to go to bed. The Emperor gladly granted it, ordered Mastor to
watch by his side, and then agreed to his wife's request that he would
visit her.

Sabina had not been to the scene of the fire, but she had sent a
messenger every hour to inquire as to the progress of the conflagration
and the well-being of her husband. When he had first arrived at the
Caesareum she had met and welcomed him and then had retired to her own