“I do, and I will win Arsinoe to Jesus Christ,” said Paulina firmly.

Pontius interrupted the conversation; he remained with his sister some time longer discussing with 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 that night be forgotten.  It gives you the right to do much that might pain me, and has graven your name on my heart, the foremost among those to whom I am indebted for any benefit.—­They are but few.”

Hadrian held out his hand to Antinous as he spoke.  The boy, who had kept his eyes fixed on the ground in much confusion, raised it to his lips and pressed it against them in violent agitation.  Then he raised his large eyes to the Emperor’s and said: