et of which he spoke occupied long
years. The dessert will consume little time, but I am ready to serve it.
When I asked permission to visit him he refused. What plan of meeting
have you arranged?"

"That I will leave to your feminine delicacy of feeling," replied
Lucilius. "Yet I have come with a request whose fulfilment will perhaps
contain the answer. Eros, Mark Antony's faithful body-slave, humbly
petitions your Majesty to grant him a few minutes' audience. You know
the worthy fellow. He would die for you and his master, and he--I once
heard from your lips the remark of King Antiochus, that no man was great
to his body-slave--thus Eros sees his master's weaknesses and lofty
qualities from a nearer point of view than we, and he is shrewd. Antony
gave him his freedom long ago, and if your Majesty does not object to
receiving a man so low in station--"

"Let him come," replied Cleopatra. "Your demand upon me is just.
Unhappily, I am but too well aware of the atonement due your friend.
Before you came, I was engaged in making preparations for the fulfilment
of one of his warmest wishes."

With these words she dismissed the Roman. Her feelings as she watched
his departure were of very mingled character. The yearning for the
happiness of which she had been so long deprived had again awaked, while
the unkind words which he had applied to her still rankled in her
heart. But the door had scarcely closed behind Lucilius when the usher
announced a deputation of the members of the museum.

The learned gentlemen came to complain of the wrong which had been done
to their colleague, Didymus, and also to express their loyalty during
these trying times. Cleopatra assured them of her favour, and said that
she had already offered ample compensation to the old philosopher. In a
certain sense she was one of themselves. They all knew that, from early
youth, she had honoured and shared their labours. In proof of this,
she would present to the library of the museum the two hundred thousand
volumes from Pergamus, one of the most valuable gifts Mark Antony had
ever bestowed upon her, and which she had hitherto regarded merely as
a loan. This she hoped would repay Didymus for the injury which, to her
deep regret, had been inflicted upon him, and at least partially repair
the loss sustained by the former library of the museum during the
conflagration in the Bruchium.

The sages, eagerly assuring her of their gratitude and devotion,
retir