She pouted like a sulky child, and slapping the hand on which she was leaning three times on the table, she repeated, "No--no--no." Selene called to the old slave-woman, and desired her to remain in the sitting-room till her father should return, greeted the dealer politely, and Antinous with a careless nod, and then left the room.

The lad had followed her, and they both met the children.

Selene pulled their dresses straight, and strictly enjoined them not to go near the corridor on account of the strange dog.

Antinous stroked the blind boy's pretty curly head, and then, as Selene was about to descend the stairs, he asked her: "May I help you ?" "Yes," said the girl, for at the very first step an acute pain in the ancle checked her, and she put out her arm to the young man that he might support her elbow on his hand.

But her answer would assuredly have been "no," if she had had the smallest feeling of liking for the Emperor's favorite; but she bore the image of another in her heart, and did not even perceive that Antinous was beautiful.