heart, if thou dost believe, Harmachis, that it can change with the
changes of the outer form, for then assuredly could no love follow its
beloved to that last place of change--the Grave. Know thou, learned
Physician, I am of that sort who, loving once, love always, and being
not beloved again, go virgin to the death."

She ceased, and having naught to say, I bowed my head in answer. Yet
though I said nothing and though this woman's passionate folly had been
the cause of all our ruin, to speak truth, in secret I was thankful
to her who, wooed of all and living in this shameless Court, had still
through the long years poured out her unreturned love upon an outcast,
and who, when that poor broken slave of Fortune came back in such
unlovely guise, held him yet dear at heart. For what man is there who
does not prize that gift most rare and beautiful, that one perfect thing
which no gold can buy--a woman's unfeigned love?

"I thank thee that thou dost not answer," she said; "for the bitter
words which thou didst pour upon me in those days that long are dead,
and far away in Tarsus, have not lost their poisonous sting, and in my
heart is no more place for the arrows of thy scorn, new venomed through
thy solitary years. So let it be. Behold! I put it from me, that wild
passion of my soul," and she looked up and stretched out her hands as
though to press some unseen presence back, "I put it from me--though
forget it I may not! There, 'tis done, Harmachis; no more shall my love
trouble thee. Enough for me that once more my eyes behold thee, before
sleep seals thee from their sight. Dost remember how, when I would have
died by thy dear hand, thou wouldst not slay, but didst bid me live to
pluck the bitter fruit of crime, and be accursed by visions of the evil
I had wrought and memories of thee whom I have ruined?"

"Ay, Charmion, I remember well."

"Surely the cup of punishment has been filled. Oh! couldst thou see
into the record of my heart, and read in it the suffering that I
have borne--borne with a smiling face--thy justice would be satisfied
indeed!"

"And yet, if report be true, Charmion, thou art the first of all the
Court, and therein the most powerful and beloved. Does not Octavianus
give it out that he makes war, not on Antony, nor even on his mistress,
Cleopatra, but on Charmion and Iras?"

"Yes, Harmachis, and think that it has been to me thus, because of my
oath to thee, to be forced to eat the bread and do t