will follow your road, Euergetes, and laugh at virtue and truth, and
set the busts of Aristippus and Strato on the pedestals where those of
Zeno and Antisthenes now stand."

"You mean to have the busts of the philosophers moved again?" asked
King Philometor, who, as he entered the tent, had heard the queen's
last words. "And Aristippus is to have the place of honor? I have no
objection--though he teaches that man must subjugate matter and not
become subject to it.--['Mihi res, non me rebus subjungere.']--This
indeed is easier to say than to do, and there is no man to whom it is
more impossible than to a king who has to keep on good terms with Greeks
and Egyptians, as we have, and with Rome as well. And besides all this
to avoid quarrelling with a jealous brother, who shares our kingdom!
If men could only know how much they would have to do as kings only in
reading and writing, they would take care never to struggle for a
crown! Up to this last half hour I have been examining and deciding
applications and petitions. Have you got through yours, Euergetes? Even
more had accumulated for you than for us."

"All were settled in an hour," replied the other promptly. "My eye is
quicker than the mouth of your reader, and my decisions commonly consist
of three words while you dictate long treatises to your scribes. So I
had done when you had scarcely begun, and yet I could tell you at once,
if it were not too tedious a matter, every single case that has come
before me for months, and explain it in all its details."

"That I could not indeed," said Philometor modestly, "but I know and
admire your swift intelligence and accurate memory."

"You see I am more fit for a king than you are;" laughed Euergetes. "You
are too gentle and debonair for a throne! Hand over your government to
me. I will fill your treasury every year with gold. I beg you now, come
to Alexandria with Cleopatra for good, and share with me the palace and
the gardens in the Bruchion. I will nominate your little Philopator heir
to the throne, for I have no wish to contract a permanent tie with
any woman, as Cleopatra belongs to you. This is a bold proposal, but
reflect, Philometor, if you were to accept it, how much time it would
give you for your music, your disputations with the Jews, and all your
other favorite occupations."

"You never know how far you may go with your jest!" interrupted
Cleopatra. "Besides, you devote quite as much time to your studies
in p