ed the prefect.

"Begone dull care" she sang in her sleep.

"How may this rare specimen of humanity look when she is awake?"

"I should be sorry to drive the old lady out of her nest!" said the
architect unrolling his scroll.

"You shall touch nothing in the little house," cried the prefect
eagerly. "I know Hadrian; he delights in such queer things and queer
people, and I will wager he will make friends with the old woman in his
own way. Here at last comes the steward of this palace."

The prefect was not mistaken; the hasty step he had heard was that of
the official they awaited. At some little distance they could already
hear the man, panting as he hurried up, and as he came, before Titianus
could prevent him, he had snatched down the cords that were stretched
across the court and flung all the washing on the ground. As soon as
the curtain had thus dropped which had divided him from the Emperor's
representative and his companion, he bowed to the former as low as the
rotund dimensions of his person would allow; but his hasty arrival, the
effort of strength he had made, and his astonishment at the appearance
of the most powerful personage in the Nile Province in the building
entrusted to his care, so utterly took away his breath--of which he
at all times was but "scant"--that he was unable even to stammer out
a suitable greeting. Titianus gave him a little time, and then, after
expressing his regret at the sad plight of the washing, now strewn upon
the ground, and mentioning to the steward the name and position of his
friend Pontius, he briefly explained to him that the Emperor wished
to take up his abode in the palace now in his charge; that
he--Titianus--was cognizant of the bad condition in which it then was,
and had come to take council with him and the architect as to what could
be done in the course of a few days to make the dilapidated residence
habitable for Hadrian, and to repair, at any rate, the more conspicuous
damage. He then desired the steward to lead him through the rooms.

"Directly--at once," answered the Greek, who had attained his present
ponderous dimensions through many years of rest: "I will hasten to fetch
the keys." And as he went, puffing and panting, he re-arranged with
his short, fat fingers the still abundant hair on the right side of his
head. Pontius looked after him.

"Call him back, Titianus," said he. "We disturbed him in the midst of
curling his hair; only one side was done when