was standing there alone with his slave Mastor. The old woman would not
be likely to have another such favorable opportunity of supplicating the
all-powerful man who stood before her, without the hindrance of
witnesses, to exercise his magnaminity and clemency towards her son. His
back turned to her; if she could have seen the threatening scowl with
which he stood gazing on the ground she would surely have remembered the
architect's warning and have postponed her address till a future day.

How often do we spoil our best chances by following an urgent instinct to
arrive at certainty as early as possible, and by not being strong enough
to postpone opening our business till a favorable moment offers.
Uncertainty in the present often seems less endurable than adverse fate
in the future.

Doris stepped out of the side door. Mastor, who knew his master well,
and whose friendly impulse was to spare the old woman any humiliation,
made eager signs to warn her to withdraw and not to disturb Hadrian at
that moment; but she was so wholly possessed by her anxiety and wishes
that she did not observe them. As the Emperor turned to leave the room
she gathered courage, stood in the doorway through which he must pass,
and tried to fall on her knees before him. This was a difficult effort
to her old joints and Doris was forced to clutch at the door-post in
order not to lose her balance.

Hadrian at once recognized the suppliant, but to-day he found no kind
word for her, and the glance he cast down at her was anything rather than
gracious. How had he ever been able to find amusement even in this
woeful old body? Alas! poor Doris was quite a different creature in her
little house, among her flowers, dogs and birds to what she seemed here
in the spacious hall of a magnificent palace. This wide and gorgeous