becoming the white robe and blue-bordered peplum are to her; how softly
the azure bombyx ribbon is wound around the thick waves of her hair!  Who
would believe that no curling-irons had touched the little golden locks
that rest so gracefully on her brow, that no paint-brush had any share in
producing the rose and white hues on her cheek, or the alabaster glimmer
of her arms?  Such beauty easily becomes a Danae dower; but it is a
magnificent gift of the gods!  Yet why did she put on the bracelet which
Antony gave her after his last visit?  Scarcely on my account.  She can
hardly expect Dion at so late an hour.  Even while I am rejoicing in the
sight of her beauty, some new misfortune may be impending."

So ran the current of her thoughts while her daughter was gaily
describing what she had witnessed at her grandfather's.  Meanwhile she
had nestled comfortably among the cushions of a lounge; and when she
mentioned Antyllus's unseemly conduct, she spoke of it, with a
carelessness that startled Berenike, as a vexatious piece of rudeness
which must not occur again.

"But who is to prevent it?" asked the mother anxiously.

"Who, save ourselves?" replied Barine.  "He will not be admitted."

"And if he forced his way in?"

Barine's big blue eyes flashed angrily, and there was no lack of decision
in her voice as she exclaimed, "Let him try it!"

"But what power have we to restrain the son of Antony?" asked Berenike.
"I do not know."

"I do," replied her daughter.  "I will be brief, for a visitor is
coming."

"So late?" asked the mother anxiously.

"Archibius wishes to discuss an important matter with us."

The lines on the brow of the older woman smoothed, but it contracted
again as she exclaimed inquiringly: "Important business at so unusual an
hour!  Ah, I have expected nothing good since early morning!  On my way
to my brother's a raven flew up before me and fluttered towards the left
into the garden."

"But I," replied Barine, after receiving, in reply to her inquiry, a
favourable report concerning her uncle's health-"I met seven--there were
neither more nor less; for seven is the best of numbers--seven snow-white
doves, which all flew swiftly towards the right.  The fairest of all came
first, bearing in its beak a little basket which contained the power that
will keep Antony's son away from us.  Don't look at me in such amazement,
you dear receptacle of every terror."

"But, child, you said that Archibius was coming so late to discuss an
important matter," rejoined the mother.

"He must be here soon."

"Then cease this talking in riddles; I do not guess them quickly."

"You will solve this one," returned Barine; "but we really have no time
to lose.  So-my beautiful dove was a good, wise thought, and what it
carried in its basket you shall hear presently.  You see, mother, many
will blame us, though here and there some one may pity; but this state of
things must not continue.  I feel it more and more plainly with each
passing day; and several years must yet elapse ere this scruple becomes
wholly needless.  I am too young to welcome as a guest every one whom
this or that man presents to me.  True, our reception-hall was my
father's work-room and you, my own estimable, blameless mother, are the
hostess here; but though superior to me in every respect, you are so
modest that you shield yourself behind your daughter until the guests
think of you only when you are absent.  So those who  seek us both merely
say, 'I am going to visit Barine'--and there are too many who say this--
I can no longer choose, and this thought--"

"Child!  child!" interrupted her mother joyfully, "what god met you as
you went out this morning?"

"Surely you know," she answered gaily; "it was seven doves, and, when I
took the little basket from the bill of the first and prettiest one, it
told me a story.  Do you want to hear it?"

"Yes, yes; but be quick, or we shall be interrupted."

Then Barine leaned farther back among the cushions, lowered her long
lashes, and began: "Once upon a time there was a woman who had a garden
in the most aristocratic quarter of the city--here near the Paneum, if
you please.  In the autumn, when the fruit was ripening, she left the
gate open, though all her neighbours did the opposite.  To keep away
unbidden lovers of her nice figs and dates, she fastened on the gate a
tablet bearing the inscription: 'All may enter and enjoy the sight of the
garden; but the dogs will bite any one who breaks a flower, treads upon
the grass, or steals the fruit.'

"The woman had nothing but a lap-dog, and that did not always obey her.
But the tablet fulfilled its purpose; for at first none came except her
neighbours in the aristocratic quarter.  They read the threat, and
probably without it would have respected the property of the woman who so
kindly opened the door to them.  Thus matters went on for a time, until
first a beggar came, and then a Phoenician sailor, and a thievish
Egyptian from the Rhakotis--neither of whom could read.  So the tablet
told them nothing; and as, moreover, they distinguished less carefully
between mine and thine, one trampled the turf and another snatched from
the boughs a flower or fruit.  More and more of the rabble came, and you
can imagine what followed.  No one punished them for the crime, for they
did not fear the barking of the lap-dog, and this gave even those who
could read, courage not to heed the warning.  So the woman's pretty
garden soon lost its peculiar charm; and the fruit, too, was stolen.
When the rain at last washed the inscription from the tablet, and saucy
boys scrawled on it, there was no harm done; for the garden no longer
offered any attractions, and no one who looked into it cared to enter.
Then the owner closed her gate like the neighbours, and the next year she
again enjoyed the green grass and the bright hues of the flowers.  She
ate her fruit herself, and the lap-dog no longer disturbed her by its
barking."

"That is," said her mother, "if everybody was as courteous and as well
bred as Gorgias, Lysias, and the others, we would gladly continue to
receive them.  But since there are rude fellows like Antyllus--"

"You have understood the story correctly," Barine interrupted.  "We are
certainly at liberty to invite to our house those who have learned to
read our inscription.  To-morrow visitors will be informed that we can no
longer receive them as before."

"Antyllus's conduct affords an excellent pretext," her mother added.
"Every fair-minded person must understand--"

"Certainly," said Barine, "and if you, shrewdest of women, will do your
part--

"Then for the first time we can act as we please in our own home.
Believe me, child--if you only do not--"

"No ifs!--not this time!" cried the young beauty, raising her hand
beseechingly.  "It gives me such delight to think of the new life, and if
matters come to pass as I hope and wish--then--do not you also believe,
mother, that the gods owe me reparation?"

"For what?" asked the deep voice of Archibius, who had entered
unannounced, and was now first noticed by the widow and her daughter.

Barine hastily rose and held out both hands to her old friend,
exclaiming, "Since they bring you to us, they are already beginning the
payment."




CHAPTER V.

An artist, especially a great artist, finds it easy to give his house an
attractive appearance.  He desires comfort in it, and only the beautiful
is comfortable to him.  Whatever would disturb harmony offends his eye,
and to secure the noblest ornament of his house he need not invite any
stranger to cross its threshold.  The Muse, the best of assistants, joins
him unbidden.

Leonax, Barine's father, had been thus aided to transform the interior of
his house into a very charming residence.  He had painted on the walls of
his own work-room incidents in the life of Alexander the Great, the
founder of his native city, and on the frieze a procession of dancing
Cupids.

Here Barine now received her guests, and the renown of these paintings
was not one of the smallest inducements which had led Antony to visit the
young beauty and to take his son, in whom he wished to awaken at least a
fleeting pleasure in art.  He also knew how to prize her beauty and her
singing, but the ardent passion which had taken possession of him in his
mature years was for Cleopatra alone.  He whose easily won heart and
susceptible fancy had urged him from one commonplace love to another had
been bound by the Queen with chains of indestructible and supernatural
power.  By her side a Barine seemed to him merely a work of art endowed
with life and a voice that charmed the ear.  Yet he owed her some
pleasant hours, and he could not help bestowing gifts upon any one to
whom he was indebted for anything pleasant.  He liked to be considered
the most generous spendthrift on earth, and the polished bracelet set
with a gem, on which was carved Apollo playing on his lyre, surrounded by
the listening Muses, looked very simple, but was really an ornament of
priceless value, for the artist who made it was deemed the best stone-
cutter in Alexandria in the time of Philadelphus, and each one of the
tiny figures sculptured on the bit of onyx scarcely three fingers wide
was a carefully executed masterpiece of the most exquisite beauty.
Antony had chosen it because he deemed it a fitting gift for the woman
whose song had pleased him.  He had not thought of asking its value;
indeed, only a connoisseur would have perceived it; and as the circlet
was not showy and well became her beautiful arm, Barine liked to wear it.

Had not the war taken him away, Antony's second visit would certainly not
have been his last.  Besides the singing which enthralled him, the
conversation had been gay and brilliant, and in addition to Leonax's
paintings, he had seen other beautiful works of art which the former had
obtained by exchanging with many distinguished companions.

Nor was there any lack of plastic creations in the spacious apartment,
to which the flashing of the water poured by a powerful man from the
goatskin bottle on his shoulder into a shell lent a special charm.

The master who had carved this stooping Nubian had also created the much-
discussed statues of the royal lovers.  The clay Eros, who with bent knee
was aiming at a victim visible to himself alone, was also his work.
Antony, when paying his second visit, had laughingly laid the garland he
wore before "the greatest of human conquerors," while a short time ago
his son Antyllus had rudely thrust his bouquet of flowers into the
opening of the curved right arm which was drawing the string.  In doing
so the statue had been injured.  Now the flowers lay unheeded upon the
little altar at the end of the large room, lighted only by a single lamp;
for the ladies had left it with their guest.  They were in Barine's
favourite apartment, a small room, where there were several pictures by
her dead father.

Antyllus's bouquet, and the damage to the clay statue of Eros, had played
a prominent part in the conversation between the three, and rendered
Archibius's task easier.

Berenike had greeted the guest with a complaint of the young Roman's
recklessness and unseemly conduct, to which Barine added the declaration
that they had now sacrificed enough to Zeus Xenios, the god of
hospitality.  She meant to devote her future life to the modest household
gods and to Apollo, to whom she owed the gift of song.

Archibius had listened silently in great surprise until she had finished
her explanation and declared that henceforth she intended to live alone
with her mother, instead of having her father's workshop filled with
guests.

The young beauty's vivid imagination transported her to this new and
quieter life.  But, spite of the clear and glowing hues in which she
described her anticipations, her grey-haired listener could not have
believed in them fully.  A subtle smile sometimes flitted over his grave,
somewhat melancholy face--that of a man who has ceased to wrestle in the
arena of life, and after severe conflict now preferred to stand among the
spectators and watch others win or lose the prize of victory.  Doubtless
the wounds which he had received still ached, yet his sorrowful
experiences did not prevent his being an attentive observer.  The
expression of his clear eyes showed that he mentally shared whatever
aroused his sympathy.  Whoever understood how to listen thus, and,
moreover--the prominence of the brow above the nose showed it--was also a
trained thinker, could not fail to be a good counsellor, and as such he
was regarded by many, and first of all by the Queen.

The wise deliberation, which was one of his characteristic traits, showed
itself on this occasion; for though he had come to persuade Barine try a
country residence, he refrained from doing until she had exhausted the
story of her own affairs and inquired the important cause of his visit.

In the principal matter his request was granted ere he made it.  So he
could begin with the query whether the mother and daughter did not think
that the transition to the new mode of life could be effected more easily
if they were absent from the city a short time.  It would awaken comment
they should close their house against guests on the morrow, and as the
true reason could not be given, many would be offended.  If, on the
contrary, they could resolve to quit the capital for a few weeks, many,
it is true, would lament their decision, but what was alloted to all
alike could be resented by no one.

Berenike eagerly assented, but Barine grew thoughtful.  Then Archibius
begged her to speak frankly, and after she had asked where they could he
proposed his country estate.

His keen grey eyes had perceived that something, bound her so firmly to
the city that in the case of a true woman like Barine it must be an
affair of the heart.  He had evidently judged correctly, for, at his
prediction that there would be no lack of visits from her dearest
friends, she raised her head, her blue eyes sparkled brightly, and when
Archibius paused she to her mother, exclaiming gaily "We will go!"

Again the vivid imagination daughter conjured the future before her in
distinct outlines.  She alone knew whom she meant when she spoke of the
visitor she expected at Irenia, Archibius's estate.  The name meant "The
place of peace," and it pleased her.

Archibius listened smilingly; but when she began to assign him also a
part in driving the little Sardinian horses and pursuing the birds, he
interrupted her with the statement that whether he could speedily allow
himself a pleasure which he should so keenly enjoy--that of breathing the
country air with such charming guests--would depend upon the fate of
another.  Thank the gods, he had been able to come here with a lighter
heart, because, just before his departure, he had heard of a splendid
victory gained by the Queen.  The ladies would perhaps permit him to
remain a little longer, as he was expecting confirmation of the news.

It was evident that he awaited it in great suspense, and that his heart
was by no means free from anxiety.

Berenike shared it, and her pleasant face, which had hitherto reflected
her delight at her daughter's sensible resolution, was now clouded with
care as Archibius began: "The object of my presence here?  You are making
it very easy for me to attain it.  If I deemed it honest, I could now
conceal the fact that I had sought you to induce you to leave the city.
I see no peril from the boyish insolence of the son of Antony.  The point
in question, child, is merely to put yourself out of the reach of
Caesarion."

"If you could place me in the moon, it would please me best, as far as he
is concerned," replied Barine eagerly.  "That is just what induced me to
change our mode of life, since my door cannot be closed against the boy
who, though still under a tutor, uses his rank as a key to open it.  And
just think of being compelled to address that dreamer, with eyes pleading
for help, by the title of 'king'!"

"Yet what mighty impulse might not be slumbering in the breast of a son
of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra?" said Archibius.  "And passion--I know,
my child, that it is no fault of yours--has now awakened within him.
Whatever the result may be, it must fill his mother's heart with anxiety.
That is why it is needful to hasten your departure, and to keep your
destination a secret.  He will attempt no violence; but--he is the child
of his parents--and some unexpected act may be anticipated from him."

"You startle me!"  cried Barine.  "You transform the cooing dove which
entered my house into a dangerous griffin."

"As such you may regard him," said the other, warningly.  "You will be a
welcome guest, Barine, but I invited you, whom I have loved from your
earliest childhood, the daughter of my dearest friend, not merely to do
you a service at Irenia, but to save from grief or even annoyance the
person to whom--who is not aware of it--I owe everything."

The words conveyed to both ladies the knowledge that, though they were
dear to Archibius, he would sacrifice them, and with them, perhaps, all
the rest of the world, for the peace and happiness of the Queen.

Barine had expected nothing else.  She knew that Cleopatra had made the
philosopher's son a wealthy man and the owner of extensive estates; but
she also felt that the source of his loyal devotion to the Queen, over
whom he watched like a tender father, was due to other causes.  Cleopatra
prized him also.  Had he been ambitious, he could have stood at the helm
of the ship of state, as Epitrop long ago, but--the whole city knew it--
he had more than once refused to accept a permanent office, because he
believed that he could serve his mistress better as an unassuming,
unnoticed counsellor.  Berenike had told Barine that the relations
between Cleopatra and Archibius dated back to their childhood, but she
had learned no particulars.  Various rumours were afloat which, in the
course of time, had been richly adorned and interwoven with anecdotes,
and Barine naturally lent the most ready credence to those which asserted
that the princess, in her earliest youth, had cherished a childish love
for the philosopher's son.  Now her friend's conduct led her to believe
it.

When Archibius paused, the young beauty assured him that she understood
him; and as the alabaster hanging lamp and a three-branched light cast a
brilliant glow upon the portrait which her father had painted of the
nineteen-year-old Queen, and afterwards copied for his own household, she
pointed to it, and, pursuing the current of her own thoughts, asked the
question:

"Was she not marvellously beautiful at that time?"

"As your father's work represents her," was the reply.  "Leonax painted
the portrait of Octavia, on the opposite side, the same year, and perhaps
the artist deemed the Roman the fairer woman."  He pointed as he spoke to
a likeness of Octavianus's sister, whom Barine's father had painted as
the young wife of Marcellus, her first husband.

"Oh, no!"  said Berenike.  "I still remember perfectly how Leonax
returned in those days.  What woman might not have been jealous of his
enthusiasm for the Roman Hera?  At that time I had not seen the portrait,
and when I asked whether he thought Octavia more beautiful than the
Queen, for whom Eros had inflamed his heart, as in the case of most of
the beautiful women he painted, he exclaimed--you know his impetuous
manner--'Octavia stands foremost in the ranks of those who are called
"beautiful" or "less beautiful"; the other, Cleopatra, stands alone, and
can be compared with no one.'"

Archibius bent his head in assent, then said firmly, "But, as a child,
when I first saw her, she would have been the fairest even in the dance
of the young gods of love."

"How old was she then?"  asked Barine, eagerly.

"Eight years," he answered.  "How far in the past it is, yet I have not
forgotten a single hour!  "Barine now earnestly entreated him to tell
them the story of those days, but Archibius gazed thoughtfully at the
floor for some time ere he raised his head and answered: "Perhaps it will
be well if you learn more of the woman for whose sake I ask a sacrifice
at your hands.  Arius is your brother and uncle.  He stands near to
Octavianus, for he was his intellectual guide, and I know that he reveres
the Roman's sister, Octavia, as a goddess.  Antony is now struggling with
Octavianus for the sovereignty of the world.  Octavia succumbed in the
conflict against the woman of whom you desire to hear.  It is not my
place to judge her, but I may instruct and warn.  Roman nations burn
incense to Octavia, and, when Cleopatra's name is uttered, they veil
their faces indignantly.  Here in Alexandria many imitate them.  Whoever
upholds shining purity may hope to win a share of the radiance emanating
from it.  They call Octavia the lawful wife, and Cleopatra the criminal
who robbed her of her husband's heart."

"Not I!" exclaimed Barine eagerly.  "How often I have heard my uncle say
that Antony and Cleopatra were fired with the most ardent love for each
other!  Never did the arrows of Eros pierce two hearts more deeply.  Then
it became necessary to save the state from civil war and bloodshed.
Antony consented to form an alliance with his rival, and, as security for
the sincerity of the reconciliation, he gave his hand in marriage to
Octavia, whose first husband, Marcellus, had just died--his hand, I say,
only his hand, for his heart was captive to the Queen of Egypt.  And if
Antony was faithless to the wife to whom statecraft had bound him, he
kept his pledge to the other, who had an earlier, better title.  If
Cleopatra did not give up the man to whom she had sworn fidelity forever,
she was right--a thousand times right!  In my eyes--no matter how often
my mother rebukes me--Cleopatra, in the eyes of the immortals, is and
always will be Antony's real wife; the other, though on her marriage day
no custom, no word, no stroke of the stylus, no gesture was omitted, is
the intruder in a bond of love which rejoices the gods, however it may
anger mortals, and--forgive me, mother--virtuous matrons."

Berenike had listened with blushing cheeks to her vivacious daughter; now
with timid earnestness she interrupted: "I know that those are the views
of the new times; that Antony in the eyes of the Egyptians, and probably
also according to their customs, is the rightful husband of the Queen.
I know, too, that you are both against me.  Yet Cleopatra is in reality a
Greek, and therefore--eternal gods!--I can sincerely pity her; but the
marriage has been solemnized, and I cannot blame Octavia.  She rears and
cherishes, as if they were her own, the children of her faithless husband
and Fulvia, his first wife, who have no claim upon her.  It is more than
human to take the stones from the path of the man who became her foe, as
she does.  No woman In Alexandria can pray more fervently than I that
Cleopatra and her friend may conquer Octavianus.  His cold nature, highly
as my brother esteems him, is repellent to me.  But when I gaze at
Octavia's beautiful, chaste, queenly, noble countenance, the mirror of
true womanly purity--"

"You can rejoice," Archibius added, completing the sentence, and laying
his right hand soothingly on the arm of the excited woman, "only it would
be advisable at this time to put the portrait elsewhere, and rest
satisfied with confiding your opinion of Octavia to your brother and a
friend as reliable as myself.  If we conquer, such things may pass; if
not--The messenger tarries long--"

Here Barine again entreated him to use the time.  She had only once had
the happiness of being noticed by the Queen--just after her song at the
Adonis festival.  Then Cleopatra had advanced to thank her.  She said
only a few kind words, but in a voice which seemed to penetrate the
inmost depths of her heart and bind her with invisible threads.
Meanwhile Barine's eyes met those of her sovereign, and at first they
roused an ardent desire to press her lips even on the hem of her robe,
but afterwards she felt as if a venomous serpent had crawled out of the
most beautiful flower.

Here Archibius interrupted her with the remark that he remembered
perfectly how, after the song, Antony had addressed her at the same time
as the Queen, and Cleopatra lacked no feminine weakness.

"Jealousy?"  asked Barine, in astonishment.  "I was not presumptuous
enough to admit it.  I secretly feared that Alexas, the brother of
Philostratus, had prejudiced her.  He is as ill-disposed towards me as
the man who was my husband.  But everything connected with those two is
so base and shameful that I will not allow it to cloud this pleasant
hour.  Yet the fear that Alexas might have slandered me to the Queen is
not groundless.

"He is as shrewd as his brother, and through Antony, into whose favour he
ingratiated himself, is always in communication with Cleopatra.  He went
to the war with him."

"I learned that too late, and am utterly powerless against Antony,"
replied Archibius.

"But was it not natural that I should fear he had prejudiced the Queen?"
asked Barine.  "At any rate, I imagined that I detected a hostile
expression in her eyes, and it repelled me, though at first I had
been so strongly attracted towards her."

"And had not that other stepped between you, you could not have turned
from her again!" said Archibius.  "The first time I saw her I was but a
mere boy, and she--as I have already said--a child eight years old."

Barine nodded gratefully to Archibius, brought the distaff to her mother,
poured water into the wine in the mixing vessel, and after at first
leaning comfortably back among the cushions, she soon bent forward in a
listening attitude, with her elbow propped on her knee, and her chin
supported by her hand.  Berenike drew the flax from the distaff, at first
slowly, then faster and faster.

"You know my country-house in the Kanopus," the guest began.  "It was
originally a small summer palace belonging to the royal family, and
underwent little change after we moved into it.  Even the garden is
unaltered.  It was full of shady old trees.  Olympus, the leech, had
chosen this place, that my father might complete within its walls the
work of education entrusted to him.  You shall hear the story.  At that
time Alexandria was in a state of turmoil, for Rome had not recognized
the King, and ruled over us like Fate, though it had not acknowledged the
will by which the miserable Alexander bequeathed Egypt to him like a
field or a slave.

"The King of Egypt, who called himself 'the new Dionysus,' was a weak
man, whose birth did not give him the full right to the sovereignty.
You know that the people called him the 'fluteplayer.'  He really had no
greater pleasure than to hear music and listen to his own performances.
He played by no means badly on more than one instrument, and, moreover,
as a reveller did honour to the other name.  Whoever kept sober at the
festival of Dionysus, whose incarnate second self he regarded himself,
incurred his deepest displeasure.

"The flute-player's wife, Queen Tryphoena, and her oldest daughter--she
bore your name, Berenike--ruined his life.  Compared with them, the King
was worthy and virtuous.  What had become of the heroes and the high-
minded princes of the house of Ptolemy?  Every passion and crime had
found a home in their palaces!

"The flute-player, Cleopatra's father, was by no means the worst.
He was a slave to his own caprices; no one had taught him to bridle his
passions.  Where it served his purpose, even death was summoned to his
aid; but this was a custom of the last sovereigns of his race.  In one
respect he was certainly superior to most of them--he still possessed a
capacity to feel a loathing for the height of crime, to believe in virtue
and loftiness of soul, and the possibility of implanting them in youthful
hearts.  When a boy, he had been under the influence of an excellent
teacher, whose precepts had lingered in his memory and led him to
determine to withdraw his favourite children--two girls--from their
mother's sway, at least as far as possible.

"I learned afterwards that it had been his desire to confide the
princesses wholly to my parents' care.  But an invincible power opposed
this.  Though Greeks might be permitted to instruct the royal children
in knowledge, the Egyptians would not yield the right to their religious
education.  The leech Olympus--you know the good old man--had insisted
that the delicate Cleopatra must spend the coldest winter months in Upper
Egypt, where the sky was never clouded, and the summer near the sea in a
shady garden.  The little palace at Kanopus was devoted to this purpose.

"When we moved there it was entirely unoccupied, but the princesses were
soon to be brought to us.  During the winter Olympus preferred the island
of Philae, on the Nubian frontier, because the famous Temple of Isis was
there, and its priests willingly undertook to watch over the children.

"The Queen would not listen to any of these plans.  Leaving Alexandria
and spending the winter on a lonely island in the tropics was an utterly
incomprehensible idea.  So she let the King have his way, and no doubt
was glad to be relieved from the care of the children; for, even after
her royal husband's exile from the city, she never visited her daughters.
True, death allowed her only a short time to do so.

"Her oldest daughter, Berenike, who became her successor, followed her
example, and troubled herself very little about her sisters.  I heard
after wards that she was very glad to know that they were in charge of
persons who filled their minds with other thoughts than the desire to
rule.  Her brothers were reared at Lochias by our countryman Theodotus,
under the eyes of their guardian, Pothinus.

"Our family life was of course wholly transformed by the reception of the
royal children.  In the first place, we moved from our house in the
Museum Square into the little palace at Kanopus, and the big, shady
garden delighted us.  I remember, as though it were but yesterday, the
morning--I was then a boy of fifteen--when my father told us that two of
the King's daughters would soon become members of the household.  There
were three of us children--Charmian, who went to the war with the Queen,
because Iras, our niece, was ill; I myself; and Straton, who died long
ago.  We were urged to treat the princesses with the utmost courtesy and
consideration, and we perceived that their reception really demanded
respect; for the palace, which we had found empty and desolate, was
refurnished from roof to foundation.

"The day before they were expected horses, chariots, and litters came,
while boats and a splendid state galley, fully manned, arrived by sea.
Then a train of male and female slaves appeared, among them two fat
eunuchs.

"I can still see the angry look with which my father surveyed all these
people.  He drove at once to the city, and on his return his clear eyes
were as untroubled as ever.  A court official accompanied him, and only
that portion of the useless amount of luggage and number of persons that
my father desired remained.

"The princesses were to come the next morning--it was at the end of
February--flowers were blooming in the grass and on the bushes, while the
foliage of the trees glittered with the fresh green which the rising sap
gives to the young leaves.  I was sitting on a strong bough of a
sycamore-tree, which grew opposite to the house, watching for them.
Their arrival was delayed and, as I gazed meanwhile over the garden,
I thought it must surely please them, for not a palace in the city had
one so beautiful.

"At last the litters appeared; they had neither runners nor attendants,
as my father had requested, and when the princesses alighted--both at the
same moment--I knew not which way to turn my eyes first, for the creature
that fluttered like a dragon-fly rather than stepped from the first
litter, was not a girl like other mortals--she seemed like a wish, a
hope.  When the dainty, beautiful creature turned her head hither and
thither, and at last gazed questioningly, as if beseeching help, into the
faces of my father and mother, who stood at the gate to receive her, it
seemed to me that such must have been the aspect of Psyche when she stood
pleading for mercy at the throne of Zeus.

"But it was worth while to look at the other also.  Was that Cleopatra?
She might have been the elder, for she was as tall as her sister, but how
utterly unlike!  From the waving hair to every movement of the hands and
body the former--it was Cleopatra--had seemed to me as if she were
flying.  Everything about the second figure, on the contrary, was solid,
nay, even seemed to offer positive resistance.  She sprang from the
litter and alighted on the ground with both feet at once, clung firmly to
the door, and haughtily flung back her head, crowned with a wealth of
dark locks.  Her complexion was pink and white, and her blue eyes
sparkled brightly enough; but the expression with which she gazed at my
parents was defiant rather than questioning, and as she glanced around
her red lips curled scornfully as though she deemed her surroundings
despicable and unworthy of her royal birth.

"This irritated me against the seven-year-old child, yet I said to myself
that, though it was very beautiful here--thanks to my father's care--
perhaps it appeared plain and simple when compared with the marble, gold,
and purple of the royal palace whence she came.  Her features, too, were
regular and beautiful, and she would have attracted attention by her
loveliness among a multitude.  When I soon heard her issue imperious
commands and defiantly insist upon the fulfilment of every wish, I
thought, in my boyish ignorance, that Arsinoe must be the elder; for she
was better suited to wield a sceptre than her sister.  I said so to my
brother and Charmian; but we all soon saw which really possessed queenly
majesty; for Arsinoe, if her will were crossed, wept, screamed, and raged
like a lunatic, or, if that proved useless, begged and teased; while if
Cleopatra wanted anything she obtained it in a different way.  Even at
that time she knew what weapons would give her victory and, while using
them, she still remained the child of a king.

"No artisan's daughter could have been further removed from airs of
majestic pathos than this embodiment of the most charming childlike
grace; but if anything for which her passionate nature ardently longed
was positively refused, she understood how to attain it by the melody of
her voice, the spell of her eyes, and in extreme cases by a silent tear.
When to such tears were added uplifted hands and a few sweet words, such
as, 'It would make me happy,' or, 'Don't you see how it hurts me?'
resistance was impossible; and in after-years also her silent tears and
the marvellous music of her voice won her a victory in the decisive
questions of life.

"We children were soon playmates and friends, for my parents did not wish
the princesses to begin their studies until after they felt at home with
us.  This pleased Arsinoe, although she could already read and write; but
Cleopatra more than once asked to hear something from my father's store
of wisdom, of which she had been told.

"The King and her former teacher had cherished the highest expectations
from the brilliant intellect of this remarkable child, and Olympus once
laid his hand on my curls and bade me take care that the princess did not
outstrip the philosopher's son.  I had always occupied one of the
foremost places, and laughingly escaped, assuring him that there was no
danger.

"But I soon learned that this warning was not groundless.  You will think
that the old fool's heart has played him a trick, and in the magic garden
of childish memories the gifted young girl was transformed into a
goddess.  That she certainly was not; for the immortals are free
from the faults and weaknesses of humanity."

"And what robbed Cleopatra of the renown of resembling the gods?" asked
Barine eagerly.

A subtle smile, not wholly free from reproach, accompanied Archibius's
reply: "Had I spoken of her virtues, you would hardly have thought of
asking further details.  But why should I try to conceal what she has
displayed to the world openly enough throughout her whole life?
Falsehood and hypocrisy were as unfamiliar to her as fishing is to the
sons of the desert.  The fundamental principles which have dominated this
rare creature's life and character to the present day are two ceaseless
desires: first, to surpass every one, even in the most difficult
achievements; and, secondly, to love and to be loved in return.  From
them emanated what raised her above all other women.  Ambition and love
will also sustain her like two mighty wings on the proud height to which
they have borne her, so long as they dwell harmoniously in her fiery
soul.  Hitherto a rare favour of destiny has permitted this, and may the
Olympians grant that thus it may ever be!"

Here Archibius paused, wiped the perspiration from his brow, asked if the
messenger had arrived, and ordered him to be admitted as soon as he
appeared.  Then he went on as calmly as before:

"The princesses were members of our household, and in the course of time
they seemed like sisters.  During the first winter the King allowed them
to spend only the most inclement months at Philae, for he was unwilling
to live without them.  True, he saw them rarely enough; weeks often
elapsed without a visit; but, on the other hand, he often came day after
day to our garden, clad in plain garments, and borne in an unpretending
litter, for these visits were kept secret from every one save the leech
Olympus.

"I often saw the tall, strong man, with red, bloated face, playing with
his children like a mechanic who had just returned from work.  But he
usually remained only a short time, seeming to be satisfied with having
seen them again.  Perhaps he merely wished to assure himself that they
were comfortable with us.  At any rate, no one was permitted to go near
the group of plane-trees where he talked with them.

"But it is easy to hide amid the dense foliage of these trees, so my
knowledge that he questioned them is not solely hearsay.

"Cleopatra was happy with us from the beginning; Arsinoe needed a longer
time; but the King valued only the opinion of his older child, his
darling, on whom he feasted his eyes and ears like a lover.  He often
shook his heavy head at the sight of her, and when she gave him one of
her apt replies, he laughed so loudly that the sound of his deep,
resonant voice was heard as far as the house.

"Once I saw tear after tear course down his flushed cheeks, and yet his
visit was shorter than usual.  The closed 'harmamaxa' in which he came
bore him from our house directly to the vessel which was to convey him to
Cyprus and Rome.  The Alexandrians, headed by the Queen, had forced him
to leave the city and the country.

"He was indeed unworthy of the crown, but he loved his little daughter
like a true father.  Still, it was terrible, monstrous for him to invoke
curses upon the mother and sister of the children, in their presence, and