had to think about, the less did he talk.

Pollux, to be sure, had had his answer ready for his master, and without
considering how easy it would have been to part from him in kindness, he
had shortly and roundly quitted his service. Now indeed he stood on his
own feet, and he was longing to tell Arsinoe and his parents of what he
had done.

During the course of the meal his mother's advice recurred to his mind:
to do his best to win the favor and good will of the architect whose
guest he was; but he set it aside, for he was accustomed to owe all he
gained to his own exertions, and though he still keenly felt in Hadrian
the superiority of a powerful mind, their expedition through the city
had not brought him any nearer to the Roman. Some insurmountable barrier
stood fixed between himself and this restless, inquisitive man, who
required so many answers that no one else had time to ask a question,
and who when he was silent looked so absorbed and unapproachable that
no one would have ventured to disturb him. The bold young artist had,
however, tried now and again to break through the fence, but each time,
he had at once been seized with a feeling, of which he could not rid
himself, that he had done something awkward and unbecoming. He felt
in his intercourse with the architect as a noble dog might feel that
sported with a lion, and such sport could come to no good. Thus, for
various reasons, host and guest were well content when the last dish was
removed. Before Pollux left the room the Emperor gave him the tablets
with the verses and begged him, with a meaning smile, to desire the
gate-keeper at the Caesareum to give them to Annaeus Florus the Roman.
He once more urgently charged the sculptor to look about for his young
friend and, if he should find him at Lochias, to tell him that he,
Claudius Venator, would return home ere long. Then the artist went his
way.

Hadrian still sat a long time listening to the talk close by; but after
waiting for above an hour to hear some fresh mention made of himself,
he paid his reckoning and went out into the Canopic way, now brilliantly
lighted. There he mingled with the revellers, and walked slowly onward,
seeking suspiciously and anxiously for his vanished favorite.

CHAPTER III.

Antinous, searching for his master, had wandered about in the crowd.
Whenever he saw any figures of exceptional stature he followed them, but
each time only to discover that he had entered on a