the excitement of the embittered squabbles and
unpleasing exhibitions of character at which he had just been present
when he entered the presence of the Empress, whom he found in a small
room with no one but the chamberlain and a few ladies-in-waiting. To
the prefect's respectful inquiries after her health, she shrugged her
shoulders and replied:

"How should I be? If I said well it would not be true; if I said ill, I
should be surrounded with pitiful faces, which are not pleasant to look
at. After all we must endure life. Still, the innumerable doors in these
rooms will be the death of me if I am compelled to remain here long."

Titianus glanced at the two doors of the room in which the Empress was
sitting, and began to express his regrets at their bad condition, which
had escaped his notice; but Sabina interrupted him, saying:

"You men never do observe what hurts us women. Our Verus is the only man
who can feel and understand--who can divine it, as I might say. There
are five and thirty doors in my rooms! I had them counted-five and
thirty! If they were not old and made of valuable wood I should really
believe they had been made as a practical joke on me."

"Some of them might be supplemented with curtains."

"Oh! never mind--a few miseries, more or less in any life do not matter.
Are the Alexandrians ready at last with their preparations?"

"I am sure I hope so," said the prefect with a sigh. "They are bent on
giving all that is their best; but in the endeavor to outvie each other
every one is at war with his neighbor, and I still feel the effects of
the odious wrangling which I have had to listen to for hours, and that
I have been obliged to check again and again with threats of 'I shall be
down upon you.'"

"Indeed," said the Empress with a pinched smile, as if she had heard
some thing that pleased her.

"Tell me something about your meeting. I am bored to death, for Verus,
Balbilla and the others have asked for leave of absence that they may
go to inspect the work doing at Lochias; I am accustomed to find that
people would rather be any where than with me. Can I wonder then that
my presence is not enough to enable a friend of my husband's to forget
a little annoyance--the impression left by some slight misunderstanding?
But my fugitives are a long time away; there must be a great deal that
is beautiful to be seen at Lochias."

The prefect suppressed his annoyance and did not express his anxiety
lest th