acle, and I should be glad to
show him how much pleasure his visit has given us."

The king's fine features wore a most winning expression as he spoke
these words with heart-felt warmth, but his consort said thoughtfully:
"Aye! if only we were in Alexandria--but here, among all the Egyptian
people--"

CHAPTER IX.

A loud laugh re-echoing from the marble walls of the state-room
interrupted the queen's speech; at first she started, but then smiled
with pleasure as she recognized her brother Euergetes, who, pushing
aside the chamberlains, approached the company with an elderly Greek,
who walked by his side.

"By all the dwellers on Olympus! By the whole rabble of gods and beasts
that live in the temples by the Nile!" cried the new-comer, again
laughing so heartily that not only his fat cheeks but his whole
immensely stout young frame swayed and shook. "By your pretty little
feet, Cleopatra, which could so easily be hidden, and yet are always
to be seen--by all your gentle virtues, Philometor, I believe you are
trying to outdo the great Philadelphus or our Syrian uncle Antiochus,
and to get up a most unique procession; and in my honor! Just so! I
myself will take a part in the wonderful affair, and my sturdy person
shall represent Eros with his quiver and bow. Some Ethiopian dame
must play the part of my mother Aphrodite; she will look the part to
perfection, rising from the white sea-foam with her black skin. And what
do you think of a Pallas with short woolly hair; of the Charities
with broad, flat Ethiopian feet; and an Egyptian, with his shaven head
mirroring the sun, as Phoebus Apollo?"

With these words the young giant of twenty years threw himself on the
vacant couch between his brother and sister, and, after bowing, not
without dignity, to the Roman, whom his brother named to him, he called
one of the young Macedonians of noble birth who served at the feast as
cup-bearers, had his cup filled once and again and yet a third time,
drinking it off quickly and without setting it down; then he said in
a loud tone, while he pushed his hands through his tossed, light brown
hair, till it stood straight up in the air from his broad temples and
high brow:

"I must make up for what you have had before I came.--Another cup-full
Diocleides."

"Wild boy!" said Cleopatra, holding up her finger at him half in jest
and half in grave warning. "How strange you look!"

"Like Silenus without the goat's hoofs," answered E