vanity
requires me to believe it. Philometor was with me quite early, and
fulfilled that duty with touching affection. When will he go into the
banqueting-hall?"

"In half an hour; and till then tell me, I entreat you, what yesterday
you--"

"The best events are those that are long in preparing," interrupted
her brother. "May I ask you to let the children, with their attendants,
retire for a few minutes into the inner rooms?"

"At once!" cried Cleopatra eagerly, and she pushed her eldest boy, who
clamorously insisted on remaining with his uncle, violently out of the
door without giving his attendant time to quiet him or take him in her
arms.

While she was endeavoring, with angry scolding and cross words, to
hasten the children's departure, Eulaeus came into the room. Euergetes,
as soon as he saw him, set every limb with rigid resolve, and drew
breath so deeply that his broad chest heaved high, and a strong
respiration parted his lips as he went forward to meet the eunuch,
slowly but with an enquiring look.

Eulaeus cast a significant glance at Hierax and Cleopatra, went quite
close up to the king, whispered a few words into his ear, and answered
his brief questions in a low voice.

"It is well," said Euergetes at last, and with a decisive gesture of his
hand he dismissed Eulaeus and his friend from the room.

Then he stood, as pale as death, his teeth set in his under-lip, and
gazing blankly at the ground.

He had his will, Publius Cornelius Scipio lived no more; his ambition
might reach without hindrance the utmost limits of his desires, and yet
he could not rejoice; he could not escape from a deep horror of himself,
and he struck his broad forehead with his clenched fists. He was face to
face with his first dastardly murder.

"And what news does Eulaeus bring?" asked Cleopatra in anxious
excitement, for she had never before seen her brother like this; but he
did not hear these words, and it was not till she had repeated them with
more insistence that he collected himself, stared at her from head to
foot with a fixed, gloomy expression, and then, letting his hand fall
on her shoulder so heavily that her knees bent under her and she gave a
little cry, asked her in a low but meaning tone:

"Are you strong enough to bear to hear great news?"

"Speak," she said in a low voice, and her eyes were fixed on his lips
while she pressed her hand on her heart. Her anxiety to hear fettered
her to him, as with a tang