Mastor?"

Antinous shouted the slave's name into the Emperor's bedroom, which was
next to the living-room, but in vain. "He generally is always at hand,
and as brisk as a lark, but to-day he looked as if in a dream, and while
he was dressing me he first let my shoe fall out of his hand and then my
brooch."

"I read him yesterday a letter from Rome. His young wife has gone away
with a ship's captain."

"We may wish him joy of being free again."

"It does not seem to afford him any satisfaction."

"Oh! a handsome lad like my body-slave can find as many substitutes as he
likes."

"But he has not done so. For the present he is still smarting under his
loss."

"How wise! There, some one is knocking again. Just see who ventures--
but to be sure any one has a right to knock, for at Lochias I am not the
Emperor, but a simple private gentleman. Lie down Argus, are you crazy,
old fellow? Why the dog maintains my dignity better than I do, and he
does not seem altogether to like the architect's part I am playing."

Antinous had already raised his hand to lift the handle, when the door
was gently opened from outside, and the steward's slave stood on the
threshold. The old negro presented a lamentable spectacle. The