same act to Arsinoe.

Julia gazed at the couple with moistened eyes, and when, after many kind
words for old and young alike, she took leave of the happy group, she
said:

"I will provide for your outfit my child, and this time I think you will
wear it, not merely for one transient hour but through a long and happy
life."

Joyful singing sounded out that evening from Euphorion's little home.
Doris and her husband, and Pollux and Arsinoe, Diotima and Teuker,
decked with garlands, reclined round the amphora which was wreathed with
roses, drinking to pleasure and joy, to art and love, and to all the
gifts of the present. The sweet bride's long hair was once more plaited
with handsome blue ribbons.

Three weeks after these events Hadrian was again in Alexandria. He
kept aloof from all the festivals instituted in honor of the new god
Antinous, and smiled incredulously when he was told that a new star had
appeared in the sky, and that an oracle had declared it to be the soul
of his lost favorite.

When Plutarch conducted the Emperor and his friends to see the Bacchus
Antinous, which Pollux had completed in the clay, Hadrian was deeply
struck and wished to know the name of the master who had executed this
noble work of art. Not one of his companion's had the courage to speak
the name of Pollux in his presence; only Pontius ventured to come
forward for his young friend. He related to Hadrian the hapless artist's
history and begged him to forgive him. The Emperor nodded his approval,
and said:

"For the sake of this lost one he shall be forgiven."

Pollux was brought into his presence, and Hadrian, holding out his hand
said as he pressed the sculptor's:

"The Immortals have bereft me of his love and faithfulness, but your art
has preserved his beauty for me and for the world--"

Every city in the Empire vied in building temples and erecting statues
to the new god, and Pollux, Arsinoe's happy husband, was commissioned
to execute statues and busts of Antinous for a hundred towns; but he
refused most of the orders, and would send out no work as his own that
he had not executed himself on a new conception. His master, Papias,
returned to Alexandria, but he was received there by his fellow-artists
with such insulting contempt, that in an evil hour he destroyed himself.
Teuker lived to be the most famous gem-engraver of his time.

Soon after Selene's martyrdom dame Hannah quitted Besa; the office of
Superior of the Deacon