as she would Archibius or herself.

The kindly woman, as she spoke, stroked her brow and eyes with maternal
tenderness, and Barine felt as if goodness itself had quelled the
tempest in her soul. She gazed around her as though roused from a
troubled dream, and now for the first time perceived the richly adorned
room in which she stood, the admiring glances of the boys in the
Macedonian corps of pages, and the bright fire blazing cheerily on the
hearth. The howling of the storm increased the pleasant sense of being
under a firm roof, and Iras, who had whispered to the "introducer" at
the door, no longer seemed like a sharp thorn or a spiteful demon, but a
woman by no means destitute of charm, who repulsed her, but on whom
she had inflicted the keenest pang a woman's heart can suffer. Then
she again thought of her wounded lover at home, and remembered that,
whatever might happen, his heart did not belong to Iras, but to her
alone. Lastly, she recalled Archibius's description of Cleopatra's
childhood, and this remembrance was followed by the conviction that
the omnipotent sovereign would be neither cruel nor unjust, and that
it would depend upon herself to win her favour. Charmian, too, was the
Queen's confidante; and if the manner of Iras and Alexas had alarmed
her, Charmian's might well inspire confidence.

All these thoughts darted through her brain with the speed of lightning.
Only a brief time for consideration remained; for, even as she bowed
her head on the bosom of her friend, the "introducer" entered the room,
crying, "Her illustrious Majesty will expect those whom she summoned in
a few minutes!"

Soon after a chamberlain appeared, waving a fan of ostrich feathers and,
preceded by the court official, they passed through several brilliantly
lighted, richly furnished rooms.

Barine again breathed freely and moved with head erect; and when the
wide, lofty folding doors of ebony, against whose deep black surface the
inlaid figures of Tritons, mermaids, shells, fish, and sea monsters were
sharply relieved, she beheld a glittering, magnificent scene, for the
hall which Cleopatra had chosen for her reception was completely covered
with various marine forms, from the shells to coral and starfish.

A wide, lofty structure, composed of masses of stalactites and unhewn
blocks of stone, formed a deep grotto at the end of the hall, whence
peered the gigantic head of a monster whose open jaws formed the
fireplace of the ch