“Patience, father-patience,” said the young man, grasping his father’s hand.  “I am young and strong, and do all I can.  Here, behind this forehead, good ideas are seething; what I have succeeded in carrying out by myself, has at any rate brought credit and fame to others, although it is all far from resembling the ideal of beauty that here—­here—­I seem to see far away and behind a cloud; still I feel that if, in a moment of kindness, Fortune will but shed a few fresh drops of dew on it all I shall, at any rate, turn out something better than the mere ill-paid right-hand of Papias, who, without me does not know what he ought to do, or how to do it.”

“Only keep your eyes open and work hard,” cried Doris.

“It is of no use without luck,” muttered the singer, shrugging his shoulders.

The young artist bid his parents good-night, and was about to leave, but his mother detained him to show him the young goldfinches, hatched only the day before.  Pollux obeyed her wish, not merely to please her, but because he liked to watch the gay little bird that sat warming and sheltering her nestlings.  Close to the cage stood the huge wine-jar and his mother’s cup, decorated by his own hand.  His eye fell on these, and he pushed them aside in silence.  Then, taking courage, he said, laughing:  “The Emperor will often pass by here, mother; give up celebrating your Dionysiac festival.  How would it do if you filled the jar with one-fourth wine and three-fourths water?  It does not taste badly.”

“Spoiling good gifts,” replied his mother.

“One-fourth wine-to please me,” Pollux entreated, taking his mother by the shoulders and kissing her forehead.

“To please you, you great boy!” said Doris, as her eyes filled with tears.  “Why for you, if I must, I would drink nothing but wretched water.  Euphorion you may finish what is left in the jar presently.”

.........................

Pontius had already begun his labors, at first with aid only of his assistants who had followed him on foot.  Measuring, estimating, sending short notes and writing figures, names and suggestions on the plan, and on his folding wax-tablets, he was not idle for an instant, though frequently interrupted by the appointed superintendents of the workshops and manufactures in Lochias, whose co-operation he required.  They only came at this late hour because they were called upon by the prefect’s orders.

Papias, the sculptor, introduced himself among the latest, though Pontius had written to him with his own hand that he had to communicate to him a very remunerative and particularly pressing commission for the Emperor, which might, perhaps, be taken in hand that very night.  The matter in question was a statue of Urania, which must be completed in eight days by the same method which Papias had introduced at the last festival of Adonis, and to the scale which he, Pontius, indicated, in the palace of Lochias itself.  With regard to several works of restoration which had to be carried out with equal rapidity, and as to the price to be paid, they could agree at the same time and place.