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When he rose next morning Antinous was startled at his aspect, for Hadrian's face and lips were perfectly bloodless. After he had read the remainder of his letters he started, not on foot but on horseback, with Antinous and Mastor for Besa, there to await the rest of the escort. The unchained elements had raged that night with equal fury over the Nile city of Besa.
The tables, seats, cushions, beds and lutes, the baskets, plants, and bird-cages, the kitchen utensils and the trunks with their clothes were all piled in confusion in the courtyard, and Doris was employing the slaves appointed by Mastor in the task of emptying the house, as briskly and carefully as though it was nothing more than a move from one house to another.
There he tried to open a conversation with the overseer concerning his faith, but the old man answered that there was a season for everything; just now he could not interrupt the work, but that he might come again after sundown, and that he then would tell him of Him who had promised to refresh the sorrow-laden. Mastor thought no more of making his escape.
"It is well that you have come!" she exclaimed to the praetor. "Lentulus insists that he has seen Mastor the slave, and Balbilla declares but it is impossible!" "You think that Caesar is here?" asked Verus. "Did they tell you so too?" "No. I do not linger to talk when you require my presence and there is something important to be told just now then but you must not be alarmed."
After he had assured himself that she still breathed, and that her lips moved, he called to Mastor: "Argus seems only to have pulled her down, not to have wounded her; she has lost consciousness however. Go quickly into my room and bring me the blue phial out of my medicine-case and a cup of water." The slave whistled to the hound and obeyed the order as quickly as possible.
"There," exclaimed Verus clapping his hands. "And now as to the flowers?" "Mere trifling." "Is Hadrian then in a merry mood?" "Till to-day he was very gay but since last night " "Well?" "You know yourself what he is when he has seen lead signs in the sky." "Bad signs," said Verus gravely. "And yet he sends flowers?" "Not he, can you not guess?" "Antinous?" Mastor nodded assent.
When Mastor appeared the lad had just succeeded in dragging the dog away from Selene, who was lying on the stairs leading to the corridor. Before Antinous could reach her Argus was standing over her gnashing his teeth and growling.
No one was to accompany him but Antinous, Mastor, and a few huntsmen and some dogs. He meant to rejoin the ships at Besa. He had postponed his visit to this place till the return journey, because he had travelled up by the western shore of the Nile, and the passage across the river would have taken up too much time.
There they had been bought for the Emperor; Mastor had been chosen to wait on Hadrian's person, his brother had been put to work in the gardens.
A great many plans dwell in my head, as you will see. First I must ask you, shall I go to your master and tell him that you have betrayed his presence in Alexandria?" "Sir, you will never do that!" cried Mastor. "To proceed then. Shall I and my following hang on to your skirts and stay with you till nightfall, when you and your steed must return home?
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