we have been besieged in this palace by my subjects. You
are allowed to walk on the beach among the soldiers. Can I go further
myself, or can Caesar?

POTHINUS. You are but a child, Cleopatra, and do not understand these
matters.

The ladies laugh. Cleopatra looks inscrutably at him.

CHARMIAN. I see you do not know the latest news, Pothinus.

POTHINUS. What is that?

CHARMIAN. That Cleopatra is no longer a child. Shall I tell you how to
grow much older, and much, MUCH wiser in one day?

POTHINUS. I should prefer to grow wiser without growing older.

CHARMIAN. Well, go up to the top of the lighthouse; and get somebody to
take you by the hair and throw you into the sea. (The ladies laugh.)

CLEOPATRA. She is right, Pothinus: you will come to the shore with
much conceit washed out of you. (The ladies laugh. Cleopatra rises
impatiently.) Begone, all of you. I will speak with Pothinus alone.
Drive them out, Ftatateeta. (They run out laughing. Ftatateeta shuts the
door on them.) What are YOU waiting for?

FTATATEETA. It is not meet that the Queen remain alone with--

CLEOPATRA (interrupting her). Ftatateeta: must I sacrifice you to your
father's gods to teach you that I am Queen of Egypt, and not you?

FTATATEETA (indignantly). You are like the rest of them. You want to be
what these Romans call a New Woman. (She goes out, banging the door.)

CLEOPATRA (sitting down again). Now, Pothinus: why did you bribe
Ftatateeta to bring you hither?

POTHINUS (studying her gravely). Cleopatra: what they tell me is true.
You are changed.

CLEOPATRA. Do you speak with Caesar every day for six months: and YOU
will be changed.

POTHINUS. It is the common talk that you are infatuated with this old
man.

CLEOPATRA. Infatuated? What does that mean? Made foolish, is it not? Oh
no: I wish I were.

POTHINUS. You wish you were made foolish! How so?

CLEOPATRA. When I was foolish, I did what I liked, except when
Ftatateeta beat me; and even then I cheated her and did it by stealth.
Now that Caesar has made me wise, it is no use my liking or disliking; I
do what must be done, and have no time to attend to myself. That is not
happiness; but it is greatness. If Caesar were gone, I think I could
govern the Egyptians; for what Caesar is to me, I am to the fools around
me.

POTHINUS (looking hard at her). Cleopatra: this may be the vanity of
youth.

CLEOPATRA. No, no: it is not that I am so clever, but that the others
are so s