own and fixed wearily on the ground. "Do not be angry with me,
my Lord, but I shall never understand such things as these, for there is
no man with whom your Genius, as you term it, has less concern than with
me. Thoughts of my own have I none, and it is difficult to me to follow
the thoughts of others; indeed I should like to know how I am ever to
do anything right. When I want to work, to work something out, no Daimon
helps my soul; no--it feels quite helpless, and drifts into dreaminess.
And if I ever do complete anything, I am obliged to own to myself that I
certainly might have been able to do it better."

"Self-knowledge," laughed Hadrian, "is the climax of wisdom. A man has
done something if he has only added a 'thing of beauty' to the joys of
a friend's imagination; what others do by hard work you do by mere
existence. Be quiet, Argus!" For, while he was speaking, the hound
had risen, and had gone snarling to the door. In spite of his master's
orders he broke into a loud bark when he heard a steady knock at
the door. Hadrian looked round in bewilderment, and asked: "Where is
Mastor?"

Antinous shouted the slave's name into the Emperor's bedroom, which was
next to the living-room, but in vain. "He generally is always at hand,
and as brisk as a lark, but to-day he looked as if in a dream, and while
he was dressing me he first let my shoe fall out of his hand and then my
brooch."

"I read him yesterday a letter from Rome. His young wife has gone away
with a ship's captain."

"We may wish him joy of being free again."

"It does not seem to afford him any satisfaction."

"Oh! a handsome lad like my body-slave can find as many substitutes as
he likes."

"But he has not done so. For the present he is still smarting under his
loss."

"How wise! There, some one is knocking again. Just see who ventures--but
to be sure any one has a right to knock, for at Lochias I am not the
Emperor, but a simple private gentleman. Lie down Argus, are you crazy,
old fellow? Why the dog maintains my dignity better than I do, and he
does not seem altogether to like the architect's part I am playing."

Antinous had already raised his hand to lift the handle, when the door
was gently opened from outside, and the steward's slave stood on the
threshold. The old negro presented a lamentable spectacle. The Emperor's
dignified and awe-compelling figure, and his favorite's rich garments
made him feel embarrassed, and the hound's threaten