ttracted by this charming, winning creature; but the
irritating thought that Antony had bestowed the same gift upon the
sovereign and the artist's daughter still so incensed her, that it taxed
to the utmost her graciousness and self-control as, without addressing
any special person, she exclaimed, glancing back into the hall: "This
examination will be followed by another. When the time comes, the accused
must appear before the judges; therefore she must remain at Lochias and
in custody. It is my will that no harm befalls her. You are her friend,
Charmian. I will place her in your charge. Only"--here she raised her
voice--"on pain of my anger, do not allow her by any possibility to leave
the palace, even for a moment, or to hold intercourse with any person
save yourself."

With these words she passed out of the hall and went into her own
apartments. She had turned the night into day, not only to despatch
speedily matters which seemed to her to permit of no delay, but even more
because, since the battle of Actium, she dreaded the restless hours upon
her lonely couch. They seemed endless; and though before she had
remembered with pleasure the unprecedented display and magnificence with
which she had surrounded her love-life with Antony, she now in these
hours reproached herself for having foolishly squandered the wealth of
her people. The present appeared unbearable, and from the future a host
of black cares pressed upon her.

The following days were overcrowded with business details.

Half of her nights were spent in the observatory. She had not asked again
for Barine. On the fifth night she permitted Alexas to conduct her once
more to the little observatory which had been erected for her father at
Lochias, and Antony's favourite knew how to prove that a star which had
long threatened her planet was that of the woman whom she seemed to have
forgotten as completely as she had ignored his former warning against
this very foe.

The Queen denied this, but Alexas eagerly continued: "The night after
your return home your kindness was again displayed in its inexhaustible
and--to us less noble souls--incomprehensible wealth. Deeply agitated, we
watched during the memorable examination the touching spectacle of the
greatest heart making itself the standard by which to measure what is
petty and ignoble. But ere the second trial takes place the wanderers
above, who know the future, bid me warn you once more; for that woman's
eve