inuating promises.

She clothed herself in her most costly robes, wearing the pearls and
gems that Antony had given her, and upon her head was the diadem that
proclaimed her Queen. A courier from Caesar's camp knocked at the door
of the mausoleum, but he knocked in vain.

Finally a ladder was procured, and he climbed to the window through
which the body of Antony had been lifted.

In the lower room he saw the Queen seated in her golden chair of state,
robed and serene, dead. At her feet lay Iras, lifeless. The faithful
Charmion stood as if in waiting at the back of her mistress' chair,
giving a final touch to the diadem that sat upon the coils of her
lustrous hair.

The messenger from Caesar stood in the door aghast--orders had been given
that Cleopatra should not be harmed, neither should she be allowed to
harm herself.

Now she had escaped!

"Charmion!" called the man in stern rebuke. "How was this done?"

"Done, sir," said Charmion, "as became a daughter of the King of Egypt."

As the woman spoke the words she reeled, caught at the chair, fell, and
was dead.

Some said these women had taken a deadly poison invented by Cleopatra
and held against this day; others, still, told of how a countryman had
brought a basket of figs, by appointment, covered over with green
leaves, and in the basket was hidden an asp, that deadliest of serpents.
Cleopatra had placed the asp in her bosom, and the other women had
followed her example.

Caesar, still wearing mourning for Mark Antony, went into retirement and
for three days refused all visitors. But first he ordered that the body
of Cleopatra, clothed as she had died, in her royal robes, should be
placed in the grave beside the body of Mark Antony.

And it was so done.

SAVONAROLA

Some have narrowed their minds, and so fettered them with the
chains of antiquity that not only do they refuse to speak save as
the ancients spake, but they refuse to think save as the ancients
thought. God speaks to us, too, and the best thoughts are those now
being vouchsafed to us. We will excel the ancients!

--_Savonarola_

[Illustration: SAVONAROLA]

The wise ones say with a sigh, Genius does not reproduce itself. But let
us take heart and remember that mediocrity does not always do so,
either. Men of genius have often been the sons of commonplace
parents--no hovel is safe from it.

The father of Girol