loved and esteemed. On this
very day he was obliged by Caesar's command to start on a journey and
for a long absence; his destination was Pelusium, where he was to erect
a monument to the great Pompey on the spot where he had been murdered.
Hadrian, as he passed the old ruined monument on his way from Mount
Kasius to Egypt, had determined to replace it by a new one, and had
entrusted the work to Pontius whose labors at Lochias were now nearly
ended. All that might yet be lacking to the fitting of the restored
palace Hadrian himself wished to select and procure and in this
occupation so agreeable to his tastes, Gabinius, the curiosity-dealer,
was to lend him a helping hand.

While Doris was still speaking with Pontius, Hadrian and his wife came
towards the anteroom. Hardly had the architect recognized the tones of
Sabina's voice, than he hastily said in a low voice:

"Till by-and-bye this must do, dame. Stand aside; Caesar and the Empress
are coming."

And he hastened away. Doris slipped into the doorway of a side room,
which was closed only by a heavy curtain, for at that moment she would
as soon have met a raging wild beast as the haughty lady from whom she
had nothing to expect but insult and unkindness. Hadrian's interview
with his wife had lasted barely a quarter of an hour, and it must have
been anything rather than amiable, for his face was scarlet, while
Sabina's lips were perfectly white, and her painted cheeks twitched with
a restless movement. Doris was too much excited and terrified to listen
to the royal couple, still she overheard these words uttered by the
Emperor in a tone of the utmost decision.

"In small matters and where it is fitting I let you have your way;
more important things I shall this time, as always, decide by my own
judgment--my own exclusively."

These words were fraught with the fate of the gatehouse and its
inhabitants, for the removal of the "hideous hut" at the entrance of the
palace was one of the "small matters" of which Hadrian spoke. Sabina
had required this concession, since it could not be pleasant to any one
visiting Lochias to be received on the threshold by an old Megaera of
evil omen, and to be fallen upon by infuriated dogs. But Doris so little
divined the import of Hadrian's words that she rejoiced at them,
for they told her how little he was disposed to yield to his wife in
important things, and how could she suspect that her fate and that of
her house should not be