very one from her
youth up--and the painful feeling of having been treated with scorn and
contempt in the presence of others by the powerful lady whose favor she
had hoped to win.

At Sabina's advent all good spirits had fled from Lochias, so at least
Doris felt, but she was not one of those who succumb helplessly to a
hostile force. For a few minutes she abandoned herself to her sorrows
and sobbed like a child. Now she dried her eyes, and her eased heart
felt the beneficial relief of tears; by degrees she could compose
herself and think calmly.

"After all," said she to herself, "none but Caesar can command here, and
it is said that he gets on but badly with his spiteful wife, and cares
very little what she wishes. Hadrian let Pollux feel his power, but he
has always been friendly to me. My dogs and birds amused him, and did he
not even do me the honor to relish a dish out of my kitchen? No, no, if
only I can succeed in speaking with him alone all may yet be well," and
thus thinking she rose from her seat.

As she was about to quit the anteroom the art dealer, Gabinius, of
Nicaea, came in, to whom Keraunus had refused to sell the mosaic in the
palace, and whose daughter had been deprived by Arsinoe of the part of
Roxana. Pontius had desired him to come to the palace and he had made
his appearance at once, for, since the evening before, a rumor had been
afloat that the Emperor was staying in Alexandria, and was inhabiting
the palace at Loehias. Whence it was derived, or on what facts it was
supported no one could say; but there it was, passing from mouth to
mouth in every circle and acquiring certainty every hour. Of all that
grows on earth nothing grows so quickly as Rumor, and yet it is a
miserable foundling that never knows its own parents.

The dealer pushed on into the palace with a glance of astonishment at
the old woman, while Doris debated whether see should seek Hadrian then
and there, or return to her little gate-House, and wait till he should
at some time be going out of the palace and passing by her dwelling.
Before she could come to any decision Pontius appeared on the scene; he
had always been very kind to her, and she therefore ventured to address
him and tell him what had occurred between her son and the Emperor. This
was no novelty to the architect; he advised her to have patience till
Hadrian should have cooled, and he promised her that later he would do
every thing in his power for Pollux, whom he