imney. Logs of fragrant Arabian wood were blazing
brightly on the hearth, and the dragon's ruby glass eyes diffused a red
light through the apartment which, blended with the rays of the white
and pink lamps in the shape of lotus flowers fastened among gold and
silver tendrils and groups of sedges on the walls and ceiling, filling
the spacious apartment with the soft light whose roseate hue was
specially becoming to Cleopatra's waxen complexion.

Several stewards and cup-bearers, the master of the hunt, chamberlains,
female attendants, eunuchs, and other court officials were awaiting the
Queen, and pages who belonged to the Macedonian cadet corps of royal
boys stood sleepily, with drooping heads, around the small throne of
gold, coral, and amber which, placed opposite to the chimney, awaited
the sovereign.

Barine had already seen this magnificent hall, and others still more
beautiful in the Sebasteum, and the splendour therefore neither excited
nor abashed her; only she would fain have avoided the numerous train of
courtiers. Could it be Cleopatra's intention to question her before the
eyes of all these men, women, and boys?

She no longer felt afraid, but her heart still throbbed quickly. It had
beat in the same way in her girlhood, when she was asked to sing in the
presence of strangers.

At last she heard doors open, and an invisible hand parted the heavy
curtains at her right. She expected to see the Regent, the Keeper of the
Seal, and the whole brilliantly adorned train of attendants who always
surrounded the Queen on formal occasions, enter the magnificent hall.
Else why had it been selected as the scene of this nocturnal trial?

But what was this?

While she was still recalling the display at the Adonis festival,
the curtains began to close again. The courtiers around the throne
straightened their bowed figures, the pages forgot their fatigue, and
all joined in the Greek salutation of welcome, and the "Life! happiness!
health!" with which the Egyptians greeted their sovereign.

The woman of middle height who now appeared before the curtain, and who,
as she crossed the wide hall alone and unattended, seemed to Barine even
smaller than when surrounded by the gay throng at the Adonis festival,
must be the Queen. Ay, it was she!

Iras was already standing by her side, and Charmian was approaching with
the "introducer." The women rendered her various little services thus
Iras took from her shoulders the purpl