compound interest the treasure you have so long withheld."

"How can you, a reasonable man, so over-estimate the value of your
possession? But you shall find some good in it. Life can no longer be
conceived of as worth having without the possessor."

"And to me it has so long seemed empty and cold without you, you
strange, unique, incomparable creature."

"But why did you not come sooner, and so give me no time to behave like
a fool?"

"Because, because," said Pontius, gravely, "such a flight towards the
sun seemed to me too bold; because I remember that my father's father--"

"He was the noblest man that the ancestor of my house attracted to its
greatness."

"He was--consider it duly at this moment--he was your grandfather's
slave."

"I know it, but I also know, that there is not a man on earth who is
worthier of freedom than you are, or whom I could ask as humbly as I ask
you: Take me, poor, foolish Balbilla, to be your wife, guide me and make
of me whatever you can, for your own honor and mine."

The brief Nile voyage brought days and hours of the highest happiness to
Balbilla and her lover. Before the fleet sailed into the Mareotic harbor
of Alexandria, Pontius revealed his happy secret to the Emperor. Hadrian
smiled for the first time since the death of his favorite, and desired
the architect to bring Balbilla to him.

"I was wrong in my interpretation of the Pythian oracle," said he, as he
laid the poetess's hand in that of Pontius. "Would you like to know how
it runs Pontius--do not prompt me, my child. Anything that I have read
through once or twice I never forget. Pythia said:

'That which thou boldest most precious and dear shall be torn from
thy keeping,
And from the heights of Olympus, down shalt thou fall in the dust;
Still the contemplative eye discerns under mutable sand-drifts
Stable foundations of stone, marble and natural rock.'

"You have chosen well girl. The oracle guaranteed you a safe road to
tread through life. As to the dust of which it speaks, it exists no
doubt in a certain sense, but this hand wields the broom that will sweep
it away. Solemnize your marriage in Alexandria as soon as you will, but
then come to Rome, that is the only condition I impose. A thing I always
have at heart is the introduction of new and worthy members into the
class of Knights, for it is in that way alone that its fallen dignity
can be restored. This ring, my Pontius, gives you the rank