he stars.

There were two men who might be helpful to him in this matter--Antinous
and the slave Mastor. He first thought of Mastor; but the Sarmatian
was faithfully devoted to his master and could not be bribed. And
besides!--No! it really was too far beneath him to make common cause
with a slave. But he could count even less on support from Antinous.
Sabina hated her husband's favorite, and for her sake Verus had never
met the young Bithynian on particularly friendly terms. He fancied, too,
that he had observed that the quiet, dreamy lad kept out of his way. It
was only by intimidation, probably, that the favorite could be induced
to do him a service.

At any rate, the first thing to be done was to visit Lochias and there
to keep a lookout with his eyes wide open. If the Emperor were in a
happy frame of mind he might, perhaps, be induced to appear during the
latter part of the night at the banquet which Verus was giving on the
eve of his birthday, and at which all that was beautiful to the eye
and ear was to be seen and heard; or a thousand favoring and helpful
accidents might occur--and at any rate the Rabbi's forecast furnished
him good fortune for the next few years.

As he dismounted from his chariot in the newly-paved forecourt and was
conducted to the Emperor's anteroom he looked as bright and free from
care as if the future lay before him sunny and cloudless.

Hadrian now occupied the restored palace, not as an architect from Rome
but as sovereign of the world; he had shown himself to the Alexandrians
and had been received with rejoicings and an unheard-of display in his
honor. The satisfaction caused by the imperial visit was everywhere
conspicuous and often found expression in exaggerated terms; indeed
the council had passed a resolution to the effect that the month of
December, being that in which the city had had the honor of welcoming
the 'Imperator,' should henceforth be called:

"Hadrianus." The Emperor had to receive one deputation after another
and to hold audience after audience, and on the following morning the
dramatic representations were to begin, the processions and games which
promised to last through many days, or--as Hadrian himself expressed
it--to rob him of at least a hundred good hours. Notwithstanding, the
monarch found time to settle all the affairs of the state, and at night
to question the stars as to the fate which awaited him and his dominions
during all the seasons of the new y