"Caesar!" stammered Gabinius, "I really do not know--"

"But I do know," interrupted the Emperor. "You have attempted to mislead
me, and throw your own guilt on the shoulders of another."

"I--great Caesar? I have attempted--" began the Ligurian, while his
pinched features turned an ashy grey. "You accused the steward of a
dishonorable trick," replied Hadrian. "But I know men well, and I know
that no thief ever yet died of being called a scoundrel. It is only
undeserved disgrace that can cost a man's life."

"Keraunus was full-blooded, and the shock when he learnt that you were
Caesar--"

"That shock accelerated the end no doubt," interrupted the monarch, "but
the mosaic in the steward's room is worth a million of sesterces, and now
I have seen enough to be quite sure that you are not the man to save your
money when a work like that mosaic is offered you for sale--be the
circumstances what they may. If I see the case rightly, it was Keraunus
who refused your demand that he should resign to you the treasure in his
charge. Certainly, that was the case exactly! Now, leave me. I wish to
be alone."

Gabinius retired with many bows, walking backwards to the door, and then
turned his back on the palace of Lochias muttering many impotent curses
as he went.

The steward's new 'body-servant,' the old black woman, Mastor, the tailor
and his slave, helped Arsinoe to carry her father's lifeless body and lay
it on a couch, and the slave closed his eyes. He was dead--so each told