It was of mosaic, and represented a heathen goddess talking to a young man, who stood before her with his arms folded.

The goddess was angry with the man, and held in her left hand a dagger as though she would stab him, although her right arm was stretched out to embrace him and her attitude was one of pleading.
Irene lifted her head, and I saw that her fine eyes were filled with tears.
"Olaf," she said, "I am in much trouble, and I know not where to find a friend." I smiled and answered: "Need an Empress seek far for friends ?" "Aye, Olaf; farther than anyone who breathes.

An Empress can find flatterers and partisans, but not a single friend.

Such love her only for what she can give them.

But, if fortune went against her, I say that they would fall away like leaves from a tree in a winter frost, so that she stood naked to every bitter blast of heaven.