r efforts in wider circles.

True, it had been done on many a pretext. Why should not her son taste
the quiet happiness which she had enjoyed in the garden of Epicurus? And
was not the requirement that whoever is to command must first learn to
obey, based upon old experiences?

But this was a day of reckoning and insight, and for the first time she
found courage to confess that her own burning ambition had marked out the
course of Caesarion's education. She had not repressed his talents from
cool calculation, but it had been pleasant to her to see him grow up free
from aspirations. She had granted the dreamer repose without arousing
him. How often she had rejoiced over the certainty that this son, on whom
Antony, after his victory over the Parthians, had bestowed the title of
Co-Regent, would never rebel against his mother's guardianship! The
welfare of the state had doubtless been better secured in her trained
hands than in those of an inexperienced boy. And the proud consciousness
of power! Her heart swelled. So long as she lived she would remain Queen.
To transfer the sovereignty to another, whatever name he might bear, had
seemed to her impossible. Now she knew how little her son yearned for
lofty things. Her heart contracted. The saying "You reap what you sowed"
gave her no peace, and wherever she turned in her past life she perceived
the fruit of the seeds which she had buried in the ground. The field was
sinking under the burden of the ears of misfortune. The harvest was ripe
for the reaper; but, ere he raised the sickle, the owner's claim must be
preserved. Gorgias must hasten the building of the tomb; the end could
not be long deferred. How to shape this worthily, if the victor left her
no other choice, had just been pointed out by the son of whom she was
ashamed. His father's noble blood forbade him to bear the deepest
ignominy with the patience his mother had inculcated.

It had grown late ere she admitted Antony's body-slave, but for her the
business of the night was just commencing. After he had gone she would be
engaged for hours with the commanders of the army, the fleet, the
fortifications. The soliciting of allies, too, must be carried on by
means of letters containing the most stirring appeals to the heart.

Eros, Antony's body-slave, appeared. His kind eyes filled with tears at
the sight of the Queen. Grief had not lessened the roundness of his
handsome face, but the expression of mischievous, often