: can you see my face well?

CLEOPATRA. Yes. It is so white in the moonlight.

CAESAR. Are you sure it is the moonlight that makes me look whiter than
an Egyptian? (Grimly) Do you notice that I have a rather long nose?

CLEOPATRA (recoiling, paralyzed by a terrible suspicion). Oh!

CAESAR. It is a Roman nose, Cleopatra.

CLEOPATRA. Ah! (With a piercing scream she springs up; darts round the
left shoulder of the Sphinx; scrambles down to the sand; and falls on
her knees in frantic supplication, shrieking) Bite him in two, Sphinx:
bite him in two. I meant to sacrifice the white cat--I did indeed--I
(Caesar, who has slipped down from the pedestal, touches her on the
shoulder) Ah! (She buries her head in her arms.)

CAESAR. Cleopatra: shall I teach you a way to prevent Caesar from eating
you?

CLEOPATRA (clinging to him piteously). Oh do, do, do. I will steal
Ftatateeta's jewels and give them to you. I will make the river Nile
water your lands twice a year.

CAESAR. Peace, peace, my child. Your gods are afraid of the Romans:
you see the Sphinx dare not bite me, nor prevent me carrying you off to
Julius Caesar.

CLEOPATRA (in pleading murmurings). You won't, you won't. You said you
wouldn't.

CAESAR. Caesar never eats women.

CLEOPATRA (springing up full of hope). What!

CAESAR (impressively). But he eats girls (she relapses) and cats.
Now you are a silly little girl; and you are descended from the black
kitten. You are both a girl and a cat.

CLEOPATRA (trembling). And will he eat me?

CAESAR. Yes; unless you make him believe that you are a woman.

CLEOPATRA. Oh, you must get a sorcerer to make a woman of me. Are you a
sorcerer?

CAESAR. Perhaps. But it will take a long time; and this very night you
must stand face to face with Caesar in the palace of your fathers.

CLEOPATRA. No, no. I daren't.

CAESAR. Whatever dread may be in your soul--however terrible Caesar may
be to you--you must confront him as a brave woman and a great queen;
and you must feel no fear. If your hand shakes: if your voice quavers;
then--night and death! (She moans.) But if he thinks you worthy to rule,
he will set you on the throne by his side and make you the real ruler of
Egypt.

CLEOPATRA (despairingly). No: he will find me out: he will find me out.

CAESAR (rather mournfully). He is easily deceived by women. Their eyes
dazzle him; and he sees them not as they are, but as he wishes them to
appear to him.

CLEOPATRA (hop