to me, I'll reverse my decision in the famous case of Shylock _versus_
Antonio."

"Then I sincerely hope he doesn't give in," retorted Cleopatra, "for I
swear by all my auburn locks that that was the very worst bit of injustice
ever perpetrated. Mr. Shakespeare confided to me one night, at one of Mrs.
Cæsar's card-parties, that he regarded that as the biggest joke he ever
wrote, and Judge Blackstone observed to Antony that the decision wouldn't
have held in any court of equity outside of Venice. If you owe a man a
thousand ducats, and it costs you three thousand to get them, that's your
affair, not his. If it cost Antonio every drop of his bluest blood to pay
the pound of flesh, it was Antonio's affair, not Shylock's. However, the
world applauds you as a great jurist, when you have nothing more than a
woman's keen instinct for sentimental technicalities."

"It would have made a horrid play, though, if it had gone on," shuddered
Elizabeth.

"That may be, but, carried out realistically, it would have done away with
a raft of bad actors," said Cleopatra. "I'm half sorry it didn't go on,
and I'm sure it wouldn't have been any worse than compelling Brutus to
fall on his sword until he resembles a chicken liver _en brochette_, as is
done in that Julius Cæsar play."

"Well, I'm very glad I did it," snapped Portia.

"I should think you would be," said Cleopatra. "If you hadn't done it,
you'd never have been known. What was that?"

The boat had given a slight lurch.