ilt, she imagined that the season of love
was over. Any new additions to this chapter of the life of her heart were
but the close. Even the jealousy which had clouded the happiness of her
love like a fleeting, rapidly changing shadow, she believed she had now
renounced forever.

While Charmian protested that no one save Dion had ever been heard with
favour by Barine, and related many incidents of her former life,
Cleopatra's thoughts were with Antony. Like the image of the beloved
dead, the towering figure of the Roman hero rose before her mind, but she
recalled him only as he was prior to the battle of Actium. She desired
and expected nothing more from the broken-spirited man, whose condition
was perhaps her own fault. But she had resolved to atone for her guilt,
and would do so at the cost of throne and life. This settled the account.
Whatever her remaining span of existence might add or subtract, was part
of the bargain.

The entrance of Alexas interrupted her. With fiery passion he expressed
his regret that he had been defrauded by base intrigues of the right
bestowed upon him to pass sentence upon a guilty woman. This was the more
difficult to bear because he was deprived of the possibility of providing
for the pursuit of the fugitive. Antony had honoured him with the
commission to win Herod back to his cause. He was to leave Alexandria
that very night. As nothing could be expected in this matter from the
misanthropic Imperator, he hoped that the Queen would avenge such an
offence to her dignity, and adopt severe measures towards the singer and
her last lover, Dion, who with sacrilegious hands had wounded the son of
Caesar.

But Cleopatra, with royal dignity, kept him within the limits of his
position, commanded him not to mention the affair to her again, and then,
with a sorrowful smile, wished him success with Herod, in whose return to
the lost cause of Antony, however, much as she prized the skill of the
mediator, she did not believe.

When he had retired, she exclaimed to Charmian: "Was I blind? This man is
a traitor! We shall discover it. Wherever Dion has taken his young wife,
let her be carefully concealed, not from me, but from this Syrian. It is
easier to defend one's self against the lion than the scorpion. You, my
friend, will see that Archibius seeks me this very day. I must talk with
him, and--you no longer have any thought of a parting? Another will come
soon enough, which will forever forbid thes