transfer
them to Lochias. At the door of the splendid room which he had intended
for Hadrian he was met by Sabina's chamberlain who undertook to conduct
him at once into the presence of his mistress.

The roof of the hall in which the prefect found the Empress, in summer
was open to the sky; but at this season was suitably covered in by a
movable copper roof, partly to keep off the rain of the Alexandrian
winter, and partly too because, even in the warmer season Sabina was
wont to complain of cold; but beneath it a wide opening allowed the
air free entrance and exit. As Titianus entered the room a comfortable
warmth and subtle perfume met his senses; the warmth was produced by
stoves of a peculiar form standing in the middle of the room; one of
these represented Vulcan's forge. Brightly glowing charcoal lay in
front of the bellows which were worked by an automaton, at short regular
intervals, while the god and his assistants modelled in brass, stood
round the genial fire with tongs and hammers. The other stove was a
large silver bird's-nest, in which likewise charcoal was burning. Above
the glowing fuel a phoenix, also in brass, and in the likeness of an
eagle, seemed striving to soar heavenwards. Besides these a number of
lamps lighted the saloon, which in truth looked too large for the
number of people assembled in it, and which was lavishly furnished
with gracefully-formed seats, couches, and tables, vases of flowers and
statues.

The prefect and Pontius had intended a quite different room to serve for
smaller assemblies, and had fitted it up suitably for the purpose,
but the Empress had preferred the great hall to the smaller room. The
venerable and nobly-born statesman was filled with vexation, nay, with
an embarrassment that made him feel estranged, when he had to glance
round the room to find the persons in it, collected, as they were,
into small knots. He could hear nothing but hushed voices; here an
unintelligible murmur and there a suppressed laugh, but from no one a
frank speech or full utterance. For a moment he felt as if he had found
admittance to the abode of whispering calumny, and yet he knew why
here no one dared to speak out or above a murmur. Loud voices hurt
the Empress, and a clear voice was a misery to her, and yet few men
possessed so loud and penetrating a chest voice as her husband, who was
not wont to lay restraint upon himself for any human being, not even for
his wife.

Sabina sat on a