to see it when he learnt that the death by
drowning had terribly distorted the lad's features.

A few hours after the ashes of the Bithynian had been collected and
brought in a golden vase to Hadrian, the Nile fleet was once more under
sail, this time with the Emperor on board one of the boats, to proceed
without farther halt to Alexandria.

Hadrian remained alone with only his slave and his secretary on the boat
that conveyed him; but he several times sent to Pontius to desire him to
come from the ship on which he was and visit him on his. He liked to hear
the architect's deep voice, and discussed with him the plans which
Pontius had sketched for his mausoleum in Rome and the monument to his
lost favorite which he proposed to have erected from designs of his own
in the large city which he intended should stand on the site of the
little town of Besa, and which he had already named Antinoe. But these
discussions only took up a limited number of hours, and then the
architect was at liberty to return to Sabina's boat, on which Balbilla
also lived.

A few days after they had quitted Besa he was sitting alone with the
poetess on the deck of the Nile boat which, borne by the current and
propelled by a hundred oars, was rapidly and steadily nearing its
destination. Ever since the death of the hapless favorite Pontius had
avoided mentioning him to her. She had now become as observant and as
talkative as before, and in her eyes there even shone at times a ray of
the old sunny gayety of her nature. The architect thought he comprehended
the characteristic change in her sentiments, and would not allude to the
cause of the violent but transient fever under which she had suffered.
"What did you discuss with Caesar to-day?" asked Balbilla of her friend.
Pontius looked down at the ground and considered whether he could venture
to utter the name of Antinous before the poetess. Balbilla observed his
hesitation and said:

"Speak on; I can hear anything. That folly is past and over."

"Caesar is at work at the plans for a new town to be built and called
Antinoe, and a sketch for a monument to his ill-fated favorite," said
Pontius. "He will not accept any help, but I have to teach him to
discriminate what is possible from what is impossible."

"Ah! he is always gazing at the stars and you look steadily at the road
on which you are walking."

"An architect can make no use of anything that is unsteady or that has no
firm foundation."