"Charlie."

At such times there comes a kind of clutch at his heart, but he says
nothing.

-------------------------------------

When power and beauty meet, the world would do well
to take to its cyclone-cellar.

CLEOPATRA AND CAESAR

The sole surviving daughter of the great King Ptolemy of Egypt,
Cleopatra was seventeen years old when her father died.

By his will the King made her joint heir to the throne with her
brother Ptolemy, several years her junior. And according to the custom
not unusual among royalty at that time, it was provided that Ptolemy
should become the husband of Cleopatra.

She was a woman--her brother a child.

She had intellect, ambition, talent. She knew the history of her own
country, and that of Assyria, Greece and Rome; and all the written
languages of the world were to her familiar. She had been educated by
the philosophers, who had brought from Greece the science of
Pythagoras and Plato. Her companions had been men--not women, or
nurses, or pious, pedantic priests.

Through the veins of her young body pulsed and leaped life, plus.

She abhorred the thought of an alliance with her weak-chinned brother;
and the ministers of State, who suggested another husband as a
compromise, were dismissed with a look.

They said she was intractable, contemptuous, unreasonable, and was
scheming for the sole possession of the throne.

She was not to be diverted even by ardent courtiers who were sent to
her, and who lay in wait ready with amorous sighs--she scorned them
all.

Yet she was a woman still, and in her dreams she saw the coming
prince.

She was banished from Alexandria.

A few friends followed her, and an army was formed to force from the
enemy her rights.

But other things were happening--a Roman army came leisurely drifting
in with the tide and disembarked at Alexandria. The Great Caesar
himself was in command--a mere holiday, he said. He had intended to
join the land forces of Mark Antony and help crush the rebellious
Pompey, but Antony had done the trick alone; and only a few days
before, word had come that Pompey was dead.

Caesar knew that civil war was on in Alexandria, and being near he
sailed slowly in, sending messengers on ahead warning both sides to
lay down their arms.

With him was the far-famed invincible Tenth Legion that had ravished
Gaul. Caesar wanted to rest his men and, incidentally, to reward