but, though his pale cheeks were adorned with
the borrowed crimson of youth, half a century of the maddest pursuit
of pleasure and the torturing excitement of the last few weeks had left
traces only too visible; for the skin hung in loose bags beneath the
large eyes; wrinkles furrowed his brow and radiated in slanting lines
from the corners of his eyes across his temples.

Yet not one of those whom this bedizened man of fifty was approaching
thought of seeing in him an aged, bedecked dandy; it was an instinct of
his nature to surround himself with pomp and splendour and, moreover,
his whole appearance was so instinct with power that scorn and mockery
shrank abashed before it.

How frank, gracious, and kindly was this man's face, how sincere the
heart-felt emotion which sparkled in his eyes, still glowing with the
fire of youth, at the sight of the woman from whom he had been so long
parted! Every feature beamed with the most ardent tenderness for the
royal wife whom he was approaching, and the expression on the lips of
the giant varied so swiftly from humble, sorrowful anguish of mind to
gratitude and delight, that even the hearts of his foes were touched.
But when, pressing his hand on his broad breast, he advanced towards the
Queen, bending so low that it seemed as if he would fain kiss her feet,
when in fact the colossal figure did sink kneeling before her, and
the powerful arms were outstretched with fervent devotion like a child
beseeching help, the woman who had loved him throughout her whole
life with all the ardour of her passionate soul was overpowered by
the feeling that everything which stood between them, all their mutual
offences, had vanished. He saw the sunny smile that brightened her
beloved, ever-beautiful face, and then--then his own name reached his
ears from the lips to which he owed the greatest bliss love had ever
offered. At last, as if intoxicated by the tones of her voice, which
seemed to him more musical than the songs of the Muses; half smiling at
the jest which, even in the most serious earnest, he could not abandon;
half moved to the depths of his soul by the power of his newly awakening
happiness after such sore sorrow, he pointed to the gigantic bouquet,
which three slaves had lifted down from the elephant and were bearing to
the Queen. Cleopatra, too, was overwhelmed with emotion.

This floral gift imitated, on an immense scale, the little bouquet which
the famous young general had take