Cornelia could observe in the brief time the queen was in view. Some
of the people--Egyptians mostly--cried out to her in their own
tongue:--

"Hail to the ever glorious Daughter of Ra!"

But the queen paid them little heed. Once her restless eyes lit on the
carriage of Cleomenes, and she made a slight inclination of the head
in return to that gentleman's salute, for Cleomenes had standing at
court as one of the "friends of the king."[172]

[172] A high order of Egyptian nobility.

The cortege rolled away toward the palace.

"This Cleopatra is a rather remarkable woman," observed Cornelia, for
the sake of saying something.

"Indeed, that is true," replied Cleomenes, as he turned to drive
homeward. "She is worthy to have lived in the days of the first
Ptolemies, of Ptolemaeus Soter and Philadelphus and Euergetes. She is
still very young, only twenty, and yet five years ago she was so
fascinating that when Antonius, of whom I have heard you speak, came
here with Gabinius's expeditions he quite lost his heart to her. She
has a marvellous talent for statecraft and intrigue and diplomacy. You
know that, nominally at least, she has to share her crown with young
Ptolemaeus, her younger brother. He is a worthless rascal, but his
tutor, the eunuch Pothinus, really wields him. Pothinus, as the custom
is, was brought up with him as his playmate, and now Pothinus wants to
drive out the queen, and rule Egypt through his power over the king.
His ambition is notorious, but the queen has not been able to lay
hands on him for treason."

Cleopatra and her fortunes and perils played a slight part in
Cornelia's mind, however, that day. To know Alexandria in its sunlight
and shadows was indeed to know a miniature world. First of all to
notice, besides the heterogeneous nature of the crowds on the streets,
was the fact that every person, high as well as low, was engaged in
some trade. Very far was the typical Alexandrian from the quiet
"leisure" which the average Greek or Latin believed requisite for a
refined life--a life in which slaves did all the necessary work, and
amassed an income for the master to expend in polite recreations. In
Rome, for a free citizen to have been a handicraftsman would have been
a disgrace; he could be farmer, banker, soldier,--nothing more. In
Alexandria the glass-workers, paper-makers, and linen weavers were
those who were proudest and most jealous of their title of "Men of
Macedonia."[173] Money, C