scarcely reckoned among the sacred things
of life. But this opinion seems to displease you."

"Because it is false," cried Cleopatra, repressing with difficulty a
fresh outburst of indignation. "Yet, if I see aright, your reproach is
aimed only at the bond which united me to the man who was called your
sister's husband. But I will I would gladly remain silent, but you force
me to speak, and I will do so, though your own friend, Proculejus, is
signing to me to be cautious. I--I, Cleopatra, was the wife of Mark
Antony according to the customs of this country, when you wedded him to
the widow of Marcellus, who had scarcely closed his eyes. Not she, but
I, was the deserted wife--I to whom his heart belonged until the hour
of his death, not the unloved consort wedded--" Here her voice fell.
She had yielded to the passionate impulse which urged her to express
her feelings in the matter, and now continued in a tone of gentle
explanation: "I know that you proposed this alliance solely for the
peace and welfare of Rome--"

"To guard both, and to spare the blood of tens of thousands," Octavianus
added with proud decision. "Your clear brain perceived the true state
of affairs. If, spite of the grave importance of these motives, you--But
what voices would not that of the heart silence with you women! The
man, the Roman, succeeded in closing his ears to its siren song. Were it
otherwise, I would never have chosen for my sister a husband by whom I
knew her happiness would be so ill-guarded--I would, as I have already
said, be unable to master my own admiration of the loveliest of women.
But I ought scarcely to boast of that. I fear that a heart like yours
opens less quickly to the modest Octavianus than to a Julius Caesar
or the brilliant Mark Antony. Yet I may be permitted to confess that
perhaps I might have avoided conducting this unhappy war against my
friend to the end under my own guidance, and appearing myself in Egypt,
had I not been urged by the longing to see once more the woman who
had dazzled my boyish eyes. Now, in my mature manhood, I desired to
comprehend those marvellous gifts of mind, that matchless sagacity--"

"Sagacity!" interrupted the Queen, shrugging her shoulders mournfully.
"You possess a far greater share of what is commonly called by that
name. My fate proves it. The pliant intellect which the gods bestowed on
me would ill sustain the test in this hour of anguish. But if you really
care to learn what ment