asement, closely shuttered. For the rest, it
was simply furnished, having white walls, some chests for garments, an
ancient chair, what I took to be a tiring table, on which were combs,
perfumes, and all the frippery that pertains to woman, and a white bed
with a broidered coverlid, over which was hung a gnat-gauze.

"Be seated, Harmachis," she said, pointing to the chair. I took the
chair, and Charmion, throwing back the gnat-gauze, sat herself upon the
bed before me.

"Knowest thou what I heard Cleopatra say as thou didst leave the
banqueting-hall?" she asked presently.

"Nay, I know not."

"She gazed after thee, and, as I went over to her to do some service,
she murmured to herself: 'By Serapis, I will make an end! I will wait no
longer: to-morrow he shall be strangled!'"

"So!" I said, "it may be; though, after all that has been, I can scarce
believe that she will murder me."

"Why canst thou not believe it, thou most foolish of men? Dost forget
how nigh thou wast to death there in the Alabaster Hall? Who saved thee
then from the knives of the eunuchs? Was it Cleopatra? Or was it I and
Brennus? Stay, I will tell thee. Thou canst not yet believe it, because,
in thy folly, thou dost not think it possible that the woman who has but
lately been as a wife to thee can now, in so short a time, doom thee to
be basely done to death. Nay, answer not--I know all; and I tell thee
this: thou hast not measured the depth of Cleopatra's perfidy, nor canst
thou dream the blackness of her wicked heart. She had surely slain thee
in Alexandria had she not feared that thy slaughter being noised abroad
might bring trouble on her. Therefore has she brought thee here to kill
thee secretly. For what more canst thou give her? She has thy heart's
love, and is wearied of thy strength and beauty. She has robbed thee
of thy royal birthright and brought thee, a King, to stand amidst the
waiting-women behind her at her feasts; she has won from thee the great
secret of the holy treasure!"

"Ah, thou knowest that?"

"Yes, I know all; and to-night thou seest how the wealth stored against
the need of Khem is being squandered to fill up the wanton luxury of
Khem's Macedonian Queen! Thou seest how she has kept her oath to wed
thee honourably. Harmachis--at length thine eyes are open to the truth!"

"Ay, I see too well; and yet she swore she loved me, and I, poor fool, I
believed her!"

"She swore she loved thee!" answered Charmion, lifting h