by me.
But, stay, where are all the girls?--Iras and Merira?--they, too, love
magic."

"Not so," I said; "the charms work ill before so many. Now behold!"
and, gazing at the twain, I cast my wand upon the marble and murmured
a spell. For a moment it was still, and then, as I muttered, the rod
slowly began to writhe. It bent itself, it stood on end, and moved of
its own motion. Next it put on scales, and behold it was a serpent that
crawled and fiercely hissed.

"Fie on thee!" cried Cleopatra, clapping her hands; "callest thou that
magic? Why, it is an old trick that any wayside conjurer can do. I have
seen it a score of times."

"Wait, O Queen," I answered, "thou hast not seen all." And, as I spoke,
the serpent seemed to break in fragments, and from each fragment grew a
new serpent. And these, too, broke in fragments and bred others, till in
a little while the place, to their glamoured sight, was a seething sea
of snakes, that crawled, hissed, and knotted themselves in knots. Then
I made a sign, and the serpents gathered themselves round me, and seemed
slowly to twine themselves about my body and my limbs, till, save my
face, I was wreathed thick with hissing snakes.

"Oh, horrible! horrible!" cried Charmion, hiding her countenance in the
skirt of the Queen's garment.

"Nay, enough, Magician, enough!" said the Queen: "thy magic overwhelms
us."

I waved my snake-wrapped arms, and all was gone. There at my feet lay
the black wand tipped with ivory, and naught beside.

The two women looked upon each other and gasped with wonder. But I took
up the wand and stood with folded arms before them.

"Is the Queen content with my poor art?" I asked most humbly.

"Ay, that I am, Egyptian; never did I see its like! Thou art Court
astronomer from this day forward, with right of access to the Queen's
presence. Hast thou more of such magic at thy call?"

"Yea, royal Egypt; suffer that the chamber be a little darkened, and I
will show thee one more thing."

"Half am I afraid," she answered; "nevertheless do thou as this
Harmachis says, Charmion."

So the curtains were drawn and the chamber made as though the twilight
were at hand. I came forward, and stood beside Cleopatra. "Gaze thou
there!" I said sternly, pointing with my wand to the empty space where I
had been, "and thou shalt behold that which is in thy mind."

Then for a little space was silence, while the two women gazed fixedly
and half fearful at the spot.