herself, the woman of seven-and-twenty, so many years her sovereign's
junior. She would gladly have given Cleopatra everything at her command,
yet she felt as if she must praise Nature for an act of justice, when
she perceived that even her royal favourite was not wholly relieved from
the law which applied to all.

"Cease your flattery," said Cleopatra, smiling mournfully. "They
say that the works of the Pharaohs here on the Nile flout Time. The
inexorable destroyer is less willing to permit this from the Queen
of Egypt. These are grey hairs, and they came from this head, however
eagerly you may deny it. Whose save my own are these lines around the
corners of the eyes and on the brow? What say you to the tooth which
my lips do not hide so kindly as you assert? It was injured the night
before the luckless battle. My dear, faithful, skilful Olympus, the
prince of leeches, is the only one who can conceal such things. But it
would not do to take the old man to the war, and Glaucus is far less
adroit. How I missed Olympus during those fatal hours! I seemed a
monster even to myself, and he--Antony's eye is only too keen for
such matters. What is the love of men? A blackened tooth may prove its
destruction. An aspect obnoxious to the gaze will pour water on the
fiercest fire. What hours I experienced, Iras! Many a glance from him
seemed an insult, and, besides, my heart was filled with torturing
anxiety.

"Something had evidently come between us! I felt it. The trouble began
soon after he left Alexandria. It gnawed my soul like a worm, and now
that I am here again I must see clearly. He will follow me in a few
days, I know. Pinarius Scarpus, with his untouched legions, is in
Paraetonium, whither he went. At Taenarum he resolved to retire from
the world which he, on whom it had bestowed so much that is great, hates
because he has given it cause for many a shake of the head. But the old
spirit woke again, and if Fortune, usually so faithful, still aids
him, a large force will soon join the new African army. The Asiatic
princes--But the ruler of the state must be silent. I entered this room
to give the woman her just rights, and the woman shall have them. He
will soon be here. He cannot live without me. It is not alone the beaker
of Nektanebus which draws him after me!"

"When the greatest of the great, Julius Caesar, sued for your love in
Alexandria, and Antony on the Cydnus, you did not possess the goblet,"
observed Iras. "