gazing on the ground she would surely have remembered the
architect's warning and have postponed her address till a future day.

How often do we spoil our best chances by following an urgent instinct to
arrive at certainty as early as possible, and by not being strong enough
to postpone opening our business till a favorable moment offers.
Uncertainty in the present often seems less endurable than adverse fate
in the future.

Doris stepped out of the side door. Mastor, who knew his master well, and
whose friendly impulse was to spare the old woman any humiliation, made
eager signs to warn her to withdraw and not to disturb Hadrian at that
moment; but she was so wholly possessed by her anxiety and wishes that
she did not observe them. As the Emperor turned to leave the room she
gathered courage, stood in the doorway through which he must pass, and
tried to fall on her knees before him. This was a difficult effort to her
old joints and Doris was forced to clutch at the door-post in order not
to lose her balance.

Hadrian at once recognized the suppliant, but to-day he found no kind
word for her, and the glance he cast down at her was anything rather than
gracious. How had he ever been able to find amusement even in this woeful
old body? Alas! poor Doris was quite a different creature in her little
house, among her flowers, dogs and birds to what she seemed here in the
spacious hall of a magnificent palace. This wide and gorgeous frame but
ill-suited so modest a figure. Thousands of good people who in the midst
of their everyday surroundings command our esteem and attract our regard
give rise to very different feelings when they are taken out of the
circle to which they belong.

Doris had never worn so unpleasing an aspect to Hadrian as at this
instant, in this decisive moment of her life. She had followed the
Empress straight from the kitchen-hearth just as she was after passing a
sleepless night and full of her many anxieties, she had scarcely set her
grey hair in order, and her kind bright eyes, usually the best feature of
her face, were red with many tears. The neat brisk little mother looked
to-day anything rather than smart and bright; in the Emperor's eyes she
was in no way distinguished from any other old woman, and he regarded all
old women as of evil omen, if he met them as he went out of any place he
was in.

"Oh, Caesar, Great Caesar!" cried Doris throwing up her hands which still
bore many traces of her la