tly his hair had grown white altogether.

Nero, too, when he looked at him, thought that he would not have to wait
long for the man's death, and answered,--

"I will not expose thee to a journey if thou art ill, but through
affection I wish to keep thee near me. Instead of going to the country,
then, thou wilt stay in thy own house, and not leave it."

Then he laughed, and said, "If I send Acratus and Carinas by themselves,
it will be like sending wolves for sheep. Whom shall I set above them?"

"Me, lord," said Domitius Afer.

"No! I have no wish to draw on Rome the wrath of Mercury, whom ye would
put to shame with your villainy. I need some stoic like Seneca, or like
my new friend, the philosopher Chilo."

Then he looked around, and asked,--

"But what has happened to Chilo?"

Chilo, who had recovered in the open air and returned to the
amphitheatre for Caesar's song, pushed up, and said,--

"I am here, O Radiant Offspring of the sun and moon. I was ill, but thy
song has restored me."

"I will send thee to Achaea," said Nero. "Thou must know to a copper how
much there is in each temple there."

"Do so, O Zeus, and the gods will give thee such tribute as they have
never given any one."

"I would, but I do not like to prevent thee from seeing the games."

"Baal!" said Chilo.

The Augustians, delighted that Caesar had regained humor, fell to
laughing, and exclaimed,--

"No, lord, deprive not this valiant Greek of a sight of the games."

"But preserve me, O lord, from the sight of these noisy geese of the
Capitol, whose brains put together would not fill a nutshell," retorted
Chilo. "O first-born of Apollo, I am writing a Greek hymn in thy honor,
and I wish to spend a few days in the temple of the Muses to implore
inspiration."

"Oh, no!" exclaimed Nero. "It is thy wish to escape future games.
Nothing will come of that!"

"I swear to thee, lord, that I am writing a hymn."

"Then thou wilt write it at night. Beg inspiration of Diana, who, by the
way, is a sister of Apollo."

Chilo dropped his head and looked with malice on those present, who
began to laugh again. Caesar, turning to Senecio and Suilius Nerulinus,
said,--

"Imagine, of the Christians appointed for to-day we have been able to
finish hardly half!"

At this old Aquilus Regulus, who had great knowledge of everything
touching the amphitheatre, thought a while, and said,--

"Spectacles in which people appear sine armis et sine arte la