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.