her and with Eumenes the new building to be
done at her country house; then he and the bishop left at the same time
and Pontius proceeded to the scene of the fire by the harbor and in the
old palace.

CHAPTER XVI.

Pontius did not find the Emperor at Lochias, for Hadrian had moved at
mid-day to the Caesareum. The strong smell of burning in every room in
the palace had sickened him and he had begun to regard the restored
building as a doomed scene of disaster. The architect was waited for with
much anxiety, for the rooms originally furnished for the Emperor in the
Caesareum had been despoiled and disarranged to decorate the rooms at
Lochias, and Pontius was wanted to superintend their immediate
rehabilitation. A chariot was waiting for him and there was no lack of
slaves, so he began this fresh task at once and devoted himself to it
till late at night. It was in vain this time that his anteroom was filled
with people waiting for his return.

Hadrian had retired to some rooms which formed part of his wife's
apartments. He was in a grave mood, and when the prefect Titianus was
announced he kept him waiting till, with his own hand, he had laid a
fresh dressing on his favorite's burns.

"Go now, my lord," begged the Bithynian, when the Emperor had finished
his task with all the skill of a surgeon: "Titianus has been walking up
and down in there for the last quarter of an hour."

"And so he may," said the monarch. "And if the whole world is shrieking
for me it must wait till these faithful hands have had their due. Yes, my
boy! we will wander on through life together, inseparable comrades.
Others indeed do the same, and each one who goes through life side by
side with a companion sharing all he enjoys or suffers, comes to think at
last that he knows him as he knows himself; still the inmost core of his
friend's nature remains concealed from him. Then, some day Fate lets a
storm come raging down upon their; the last veil is torn, under the
wanderer's eyes, from the very heart of his companion, and at last he
really sees him as he is, like a kernel stripped of its shell, a bare and
naked body. Last night such a blast swept over us and let me see the
heart of my Antinous, as plainly as this hand I hold before my eyes. Yes,
yes, yes! for the man who will risk his young and happy existence for a
thing his friend holds precious would sacrifice ten lives if he had them,
for his friend's person. Never, my friend, shall tha