ornelia soon discovered, was even a greater
god here than in Rome. Cleomenes himself was not ashamed to spend a
large part of the day inspecting his factories, and did not hesitate
to declare that during a period when he and his family had been in
great distress, following the failure of the banking house of Agias's
father, he had toiled with his own hands to win bread for his
daughters.

[173] The official title of Alexandrian Greek citizens.

The conception that any honest labour, except a certain genteel
agriculture, might not make a man the less of a gentleman, or a woman
the less of a lady, was as new to Cornelia as the idea that some
non-Romans could claim equality with herself. Neither proposition did
she accept consciously. The prejudice wore quietly away. But other
things about the city she gathered quickly enough from the caustic
explanations of Cleomenes.

"Here in Alexandria," he asserted on one occasion, "we are always ripe
for a riot. Never a chariot race without stone-throwing and
throat-cutting after it. An unpopular official is torn in pieces by a
mob. If you chance to kill a cat, the Egyptians are after you for your
life. The Greeks hate the Jews, and are always ready to plunder their
quarter; the Egyptians are on bad terms with both. We talk about being
free citizens of the capital of the Ptolemies, and pretend to go to
the Gymnasium for discussion, and claim a right to consult with the
king; but our precious Senate, and all our tribes and wards, are only
fictions. We are as much slaves as the poor creatures down in the
royal quarries; only we demand the right to riot and give nicknames.
We called the last Ptolemaeus, Auletes "the Piper," because in that way
we have punished him in all history for the way he oppressed us.
_Euge!_ Have we not a wonderful city!"

It was on the very next day that Cleopatra was recalled to Cornelia's
mind in a quite marked fashion. It was rather early, and she was upon
the roof-garden, on the third story of the house, where there was a
commanding view of the city. Berenice was busy reading from a papyrus
the Egyptian legend of the "Adventures of Sinuhit," translating into
Greek as she read.

Cleomenes broke in upon the reading. His face wore a mysterious smile.

"I have a rather strange piece of news for you, my lady," he said. "A
chamberlain of the court has just been here, and brings a royal
command."

"I am not accustomed to being commanded," interrupted Cor