your senses, she won't go with you to your miserable estate to
cook the fish you catch, for if we have her again, and my father holds
out his hand to her, all your labour will be in vain. He saw the fair
enchantress only twice, and had no time to become better acquainted, but
she captured his fancy and, if I remind him of her, who knows what will
happen?"

Here Cleopatra beckoned to her companion and returned to her apartments
with drooping head. On reaching them, she broke the silence, saying:
"Listening, Charmian, is unworthy of a Queen; but if all listeners heard
things so painful, one need no longer guard keyholes and chinks of doors.
I must recover my calmness ere I receive Eros. One thing more. Is
Barine's hiding-place secure?"

"I don't know--Archibius says so."

"Very well. They are searching for her zealously enough, as you heard,
and she must not be found. I am glad that she did not set a snare for the
boy. How a jealous heart leads us astray! Were she here, I would grant
her anything to make amends for my unjust suspicion of her and Antony.
And to think that Alexas--but for your interposition he would have
succeeded--meant to send her to the mines! It is a terrible warning to be
on my guard. Against whom? First of all, my own weakness. This is a day
of recognition. A noble aim, but on the way the feet bleed, and the
heart--ah! Charmian, the poor, weak, disappointed heart!"

She sighed heavily, and supported her head on the arm resting upon the
table at her side. The polished, exquisitely grained surface of thya-wood
was worth a large estate; the gems in the rings and bracelets which
glittered on her hand and arm would have purchased a principality. This
thought entered her mind and, overpowered by a feeling of angry disgust,
she would fain have cast all the costly rubbish into the sea or the
destroying flames.

She would gladly have been a beggar, content with the barley bread of
Epicurus, she said to herself, if in return she could but have inspired
her son even with the views of the reckless blusterer Antyllus. Her worst
fears had not pictured Caesarion so weak, so insignificant. She could no
longer rest upon her cushions; and while, with drooping head, she gazed
backward over the past, the accusing voice in her own breast cried out
that she was reaping what she had sowed. She had repressed, curbed the
boy's awakening will to secure his obedience; understood how to prevent
any exercise of his ability o