The Emperor nodded, and then said:
"At your age while we are awake we live three times as fast as at mine, and so we need to sleep twice as long. You have every right to be tired. To be sure it was not till three hours after midnight that we climbed the mountain, and how often a supper party is not over before that."
"It was very cold and uncomfortable up there."
"Not till after the sun had risen."
"Ah! before that you did not notice it, for till then you were busy thinking of the stars."
"And you only of yourself—very true."
"I was thinking of your health too when that cold wind rose before Helios appeared."
"I was obliged to await his rising."
"And can you discern future events by the way and manner of the rising of the sun?"
Hadrian looked in surprise at the speaker, shook his head in negation, looked up at the top of the tent, and after a long pause said, in abrupt sentences, with frequent interruptions: