f his eye.

"Where have you been?" he imperiously asked.

"I could not find you, so I took a boat and went out on the lake."

"That is false."

Antinous did not answer, but merely shrugged his shoulders.

"Alone?" asked the Emperor more gently. "Alone."

"And for what purpose?"

"I was gazing at the stars."

"You!"

"And may I not, for once, tread in your footsteps?"

"Why not indeed? The lights of heaven shine for the foolish as well as
for the wise. Even asses must be born under a good or an evil star. One
donkey serves a hungry grammarian and feeds on used-up papyrus, while
another enters the service of Caesar and is fattened up, and finds time
to go star-gazing at night. What a state you are in."

"The boat upset and I fell into the water." Hadrian was startled, and
observing his favorite's tangled hair in which the night wind had dried
the salt water, and his torn chiton, he anxiously exclaimed:

"Go this instant and let Mastor dry you and anoint you. He too came
back with a bruised hand and red eyes. Everything is upside clown this
accursed evening. You look like a slave that has been hunted by clogs.
Drink a few cups of wine and then lie down."

"I obey your orders, great Caesar."

"So formal? The donkey simile vexed you."

"You used always to have a kind word for me."

"Yes, yes, and I shall have them again, I shall have them again. Only
not to-night--go to bed."

Antinous left him, but the Emperor paced his room, up and down with
long steps, his arms crossed over his breast and his eyes fixed on the
ground. His superstitious soul had been deeply disturbed by a series of
evil signs which he had not only seen the previous night in the sky, but
had also met on his way to Lochias, and which seemed to be beginning to
be fulfilled already.

He had left the eating house in an evil humor, the bad omens made him
anxious, and though on his arrival at home he had done one or two things
which he already regretted, this had certainly not been due to any
adverse Daimons but to the brooding gloom of his clouded mind. Eternal
circumstances, it is true, had led to his being witness to an attack
made by the mob on the house of a wealthy Israelite, and it was
attributable to a vexatious accident that at this juncture, he should
have met Verus, who had observed and recognized him. Yes, the Spirits of
evil were abroad this day, but his subsequent experiences and deeds
upon reaching Lochias, would certainly no