oal
than from the summit of a mountain?

"The limitless distance which the spirit craves for seems there to assume
a form tangible to the senses, and the eye detects its border line. My
whole being feels not merely elevated, but expanded, and that vague
longing which comes over me as soon as I mix once more in the turmoil of
life, and when the cares of state demand my strength, vanishes. But you
cannot understand it, boy. These are things which no other mortal can
share with me."

"And it is only to me that you do not scorn to reveal them!" cried
Antinous, who had turned round to face the Emperor, and who with wide
eyes had not lost one word.

"You?" said Hadrian, and a smile, not absolutely free from mockery,
parted his lips. "From you I should no more have a secret than from the
Cupid by Praxiteles, in my study at Rome."

The blood mounted to the lad's cheeks and dyed them flaming crimson. The
Emperor observed this and said kindly:

"You are more to me than the statue, for the marble cannot blush. In the
time of the Athenians Beauty governed life, but in you I can see that the
gods are pleased to give it a bodily existence, even in our own days, and
to look at you reconciles me to the discords of existence. It does me
good. But how should I expect to find that you understand me; your brow
was never made to be furrowed by thought; or did you really understand
one word of all I said?"

Antinous propped himself on his left arm, and lifting his right hand, he
said emphatically:

"Yes."

"And which," asked Hadrian.

"I know what longing is."

"For what?"

"For many things."

"Tell me one."

"Some enjoyment that is not followed by depression. I do not know of
one."

"That is a desire you share with all the youth of Rome, only they are apt
to postpone the reaction. Well, and what next?"

"I cannot tell you."

"What prevents your speaking openly to me?"

"You, yourself did."
"I?"

"Yes, you; for you forbid me to speak of my home, my mother, and my
people."

The Emperor's brow darkened, and he answered sternly:

"I am your father and your whole soul should be given to me."

"It is all yours," answered the youth, falling back on to the bear-skin,
and drawing the pallima closely over his shoulders, for a gust blew
coldly in at the side of the tent, through which Phlegon, the Emperor's
private secretary, now entered and approached his master. He was followed
by a slave with several sealed rolls und