Study the Jewish faith and
discover what this hope is founded upon." Then he turned quickly and
went away.
This "little matter" counted much with the shrewd emperor. Kings were
his puppets, and if there were to be a new one he must, indeed,
consider what to do with him. Yet he had shame of his interest in
"that foolish gossip" of an alien race. Therefore he put it only as a
trifling after-thought. But he had a way of talking with his eyes, and
the alert youth read them well.
That elation of the young lover now had its boundary of thoughtfulness.
Going down the Palatine, he was also descending his hill of happiness.
Below him, in the Forum, he could see the golden mile-stone of
Augustus, now like a pillar of fire in the sunlight; he could see the
beginning of those many roads radiating from it to far peripheries of
the empire. Tens of thousands had turned their backs upon it, leaving
with slow feet, some to live in distant, inhospitable lands, some to
die of fever and the sword, some to return forgotten of their kindred,
and some few with laurels of renown; but all of these many who went
away were leaving, for long or forever, love and home and peace.
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