efully). Then we will cheat him. I will put on
Ftatateeta's head-dress; and he will think me quite an old woman.

CAESAR. If you do that he will eat you at one mouthful.

CLEOPATRA. But I will give him a cake with my magic opal and seven hairs
of the white cat baked in it; and--

CAESAR (abruptly). Pah! you are a little fool. He will eat your cake and
you too. (He turns contemptuously from her.)

CLEOPATRA (running after him and clinging to him). Oh, please, PLEASE!
I will do whatever you tell me. I will be good! I will be your slave.
(Again the terrible bellowing note sounds across the desert, now closer
at hand. It is the bucina, the Roman war trumpet.)

CAESAR. Hark!

CLEOPATRA (trembling). What was that?

CAESAR. Caesar's voice.

CLEOPATRA (pulling at his hand). Let us run away. Come. Oh, come.

CAESAR. You are safe with me until you stand on your throne to receive
Caesar. Now lead me thither.

CLEOPATRA (only too glad to get away). I will, I will. (Again the
bucina.) Oh, come, come, come: the gods are angry. Do you feel the earth
shaking?

CAESAR. It is the tread of Caesar's legions.

CLEOPATRA (drawing him away). This way, quickly. And let us look for the
white cat as we go. It is he that has turned you into a Roman.

CAESAR. Incorrigible, oh, incorrigible! Away! (He follows her, the
bucina sounding louder as they steal across the desert. The moonlight
wanes: the horizon again shows black against the sky, broken only by the
fantastic silhouette of the Sphinx. The sky itself vanishes in darkness,
from which there is no relief until the gleam of a distant torch falls
on great Egyptian pillars supporting the roof of a majestic corridor.
At the further end of this corridor a Nubian slave appears carrying the
torch. Caesar, still led by Cleopatra, follows him. They come down the
corridor, Caesar peering keenly about at the strange architecture, and
at the pillar shadows between which, as the passing torch makes them
hurry noiselessly backwards, figures of men with wings and hawks' heads,
and vast black marble cats, seem to flit in and out of ambush. Further
along, the wall turns a corner and makes a spacious transept in which
Caesar sees, on his right, a throne, and behind the throne a door. On
each side of the throne is a slender pillar with a lamp on it.)

CAESAR. What place is this?

CLEOPATRA. This is where I sit on the throne when I am allowed to wear
my crown and robes. (The slave holds his torc