idding. I
thought she might bid it kill you some day. Well, had I not been
Caesar's pupil, what pious things might I not have done to that tigress?
I might have punished it. I might have revenged Pothinus on it.

CAESAR (interjects). Pothinus!

RUFIO (continuing). I might have judged it. But I put all these follies
behind me; and, without malice, only cut its throat. And that is why
Cleopatra comes to you in mourning.

CLEOPATRA (vehemently). He has shed the blood of my servant Ftatateeta.
On your head be it as upon his, Caesar, if you hold him free of it.

CAESAR (energetically). On my head be it, then; for it was well done.
Rufio: had you set yourself in the seat of the judge, and with hateful
ceremonies and appeals to the gods handed that woman over to some hired
executioner to be slain before the people in the name of justice, never
again would I have touched your hand without a shudder. But this was
natural slaying: I feel no horror at it.

Rufio, satisfied, nods at Cleopatra, mutely inviting her to mark that.

CLEOPATRA (pettish and childish in her impotence). No: not when a Roman
slays an Egyptian. All the world will now see how unjust and corrupt
Caesar is.

CAESAR (taking her handy coaxingly). Come: do not be angry with me. I
am sorry for that poor Totateeta. (She laughs in spite of herself.) Aha!
You are laughing. Does that mean reconciliation?

CLEOPATRA (angry with herself for laughing). No, no, NO!! But it is so
ridiculous to hear you call her Totateeta.

CAESAR. What! As much a child as ever, Cleopatra! Have I not made a
woman of you after all?

CLEOPATRA. Oh, it is you, who are a great baby: you make me seem silly
because you will not behave seriously. But you have treated me badly;
and I do not forgive you.

CAESAR. Bid me farewell.

CLEOPATRA. I will not.

CAESAR (coaxing). I will send you a beautiful present from Rome.

CLEOPATRA (proudly). Beauty from Rome to Egypt indeed! What can Rome
give ME that Egypt cannot give me?

APOLLODORUS. That is true, Caesar. If the present is to be really
beautiful, I shall have to buy it for you in Alexandria.

CAESAR. You are forgetting the treasures for which Rome is most famous,
my friend. You cannot buy THEM in Alexandria.

APOLLODORUS. What are they, Caesar?

CAESAR. Her sons. Come, Cleopatra: forgive me and bid me farewell; and
I will send you a man, Roman from head to heel and Roman of the noblest;
not old and ripe for the knife; not lean