"We shall meet again, for I am going to spend some days at Lochias."

"Now, in all this bustle?" asked Doris.

"This great architect," said Titianus, in explanation, "is to advise and
help our Pontius."

"He needs no help!" cried the old woman. "He is a man of the best
stamp. His foresight and energy, my son says, are incomparable. I have
seen him giving his orders myself, and I know a man when I see him!"

"And what particularly pleased you in him?" asked Hadrian, who was much
amused with the shrewd old woman's freedom.

"He never for a moment loses his temper in all the hurry, never speaks a
word too much or too little; he can be stern when it is necessary, but he
is kind to his inferiors. What his merits are as an artist I am not
capable of judging, but I am quite certain that he is a just and able
man."

"I know him myself," replied Caesar, "and you describe him rightly; but
he seemed to me sterner than he has shown himself to you."

"Being a man he must be able to be severe; but he is so only when it is.
necessary, and how kind he can be he shows himself every day. A man
grows to the mould of his own mind when he is a great deal alone; and
this I have noticed, that a man who is repellant and sharp to those
beneath him is not in himself anything really great; for it shows that he
considers it necessary to guard against the danger of being looked upon
as of no more consequence than the poorer folks he deals with. Now, a