always with the army," said Archibius. "How
trivial everything else seems compared with the result which will be
determined in the next few days! But life is made up of trifles. They
are food, drink, maintenance. Should the Queen return triumphant, and
find Caesarion in wrong paths--"

"We must close them against him," exclaimed Dion.

"That the boy may not follow Barine?" asked Archibius, shaking his
head. "I think we need feel no anxiety on that score. He will doubtless
eagerly desire to do so, but with him there is a wide gulf between the
wish and its fulfilment. Antyllus is differently constituted. He would
be quite capable of ordering a horse to be saddled, or the sails of
a boat to be spread in order to pursue her--beyond the Cataract if
necessary. So we must maintain the utmost secrecy concerning the place
to which Barine voluntarily exiles herself."

"But she is not yet on her way," replied Dion with a faint sigh. "She is
bound to this city by many ties."

"I know it," answered Archibius, confirming his companion's fear.
The latter, pointing to the equipage, said in a rapid, earnest tone:
"Gorgias is beckoning. But, before we part, let me beseech you to do
everything to persuade Barine to leave here. She is in serious danger.
Conceal nothing from her, and say that her friends will not leave her
too long in solitude."

Archibius, with a significant glance, shook his finger at the young man
in playful menace, and then went up to the carriage.

Caesarion's clear-cut but pallid face, whose every feature resembled
that of his father, the great Caesar, bent towards them from the opening
above the door, as he greeted both with a formal bend of the head and a
patronizing glance. His eyes had sparkled with boyish glee when he
first caught sight of the friend from whom he had been separated
several weeks, but to the stranger he wished to assume the bearing which
beseemed a king. He desired to make him feel his superior position, for
he was ill-disposed towards him. He had seen him favoured by the woman
whom he imagined he loved, and whose possession he had been promised by
the secret science of the Egyptians, whose power to unveil the mysteries
of the future he firmly believed. Antyllus, Antony's son, had taken him
to Barine, and she had received him with the consideration due his rank.
Spite of her bright graciousness, boyish timidity had hitherto prevented
any word of love to the young beauty whom he saw surround