shall be blessed
with children. Whether I shall appoint Verus my successor and proclaim
to the world who shall be its future ruler I cannot now decide; for
that I need a calmer hour. Till to-morrow, Sabina. This day began with
a misfortune; may the deed with which we have combined to end it prosper
and bring us happiness."

CHAPTER XVII.

There are often fine warm days in February, but those who fancy the
spring has come find themselves deceived. The bitter, hard Sabina could
at times let soft and tender emotions get the mastery over her, but as
soon as the longing of her languishing soul for maternal happiness was
gratified, she closed her heart again and extinguished the fire that had
warmed it. Every one who approached her, even her husband, felt himself
chilled and repelled again by her manner.

Verus was ill. The first symptoms of a liver complaint which his
physicians had warned him might ensue, if he, an European, persisted
in his dissipated life at Alexandria as if it were Rome, now began to
occasion him many uneasy hours, and this, the first physical pain that
fate had ever inflicted on him, he bore with the utmost impatience.
Even the great news which Sabina brought him, realizing his boldest
aspirations, had no power to reconcile him to the new sensation of
being ill. He learnt, at the same time, that Hadrian's alarm at the
transcendent brightness of his star had nearly cost him his adoption,
and as he firmly believed that he had brought on his sufferings by his
efforts to extinguish the fire that Antinous had kindled, he bitterly
rued his treacherous interference with the Emperor's calculations. Men
are always ready to cast any burden, and especially that of a fault they
have committed, on to the shoulders of another; and so the suffering
praetor cursed Antinous and the learning of Simeon Ben Jochai, because,
if it had not been for them the mischievous folly which had spoilt his
pleasure in life would never have been committed.

Hadrian had requested the Alexandrians to postpone the theatrical
displays and processions that they had prepared for him, as his
observations as to the course of destiny during the coming year were
not yet complete. Every evening he ascended the lofty observatory of
the Serapeum and gazed from thence at the stars. His labors ended on
the tenth of January; on the eleventh the festivities began. They lasted
through many days, and by the desire of the praetor the pretty daug