was a boy."

"She hates me."

"Patience, Lucilla; patience! The day is coming when the daughter of
Nigrinus, the wife of Caesar, and the former Empress--but I will not
finish. I am, as you know, warmly attached to Sabina, and sincerely wish
the Emperor a long life."

"And he will adopt."

"Hush!--he is thinking of it, and his wife wishes It."

"Is it likely to happen soon?"

"Who can tell at this moment what Caesar may decide on in the very next
hour. But probably his decision may be made on the thirtieth of
December."

"Your birthday."

"He asked what day it was, and he is certainly casting my horoscope, for
the night when my mother bore me--"

"The stars then are to seal our fate?"

"Not they alone. Hadrian must also be inclined to read them in my favor."

"How can I be of use to you?"

"Show yourself what you really are in your intercourse with the Emperor"

"I thank you for those words--and I beg you do not provoke me any more.
If it might yet be something more than a mere post of honor to be the
wife of Verus, I would not ask for the new dignity of becoming wife to
Caesar."

"I will not go into the town to-day; I will stay with you. Now are you
happy?"

"Yes, yes," cried she, and she raised her arm to throw it round her
husband's neck, but he held her aside and whispered:

"That will do. The idyllic is out of place in the race for the purple."

CHAPTER VIII.

Titianus had ordered his charioteer to drive at once to Lochias. The road
led past the prefect's palace, his residence on the Bruchiom, and he
paused there; for the letter which lay hidden in the folds of his toga,
contained news, which, within a few hours, might put him under the
necessity of not returning home till the following morning. Without
allowing himself to be detained by the officials, subalterns, or lictors,
who were awaiting his return to make communications, or to receive his
orders, he went straight through the ante-room and the large public rooms
for men, to find his wife in the women's apartments which looked upon the
garden. He met her at the door of her room, for she had heard his step
approaching and came out to receive him.

"I was not mistaken," said the matron with sincere pleasure. "How
pleasant that you have been released so early to-day. I did not expect
you till supper was over."

"I have come only to go again," replied Titianus, entering his wife's
room. "Have some bread brought to me and a cup of m