roused an ardent desire to press her lips even on the hem of her robe,
but afterwards she felt as if a venomous serpent had crawled out of the
most beautiful flower.

Here Archibius interrupted her with the remark that he remembered
perfectly how, after the song, Antony had addressed her at the same time
as the Queen, and Cleopatra lacked no feminine weakness.

"Jealousy?" asked Barine, in astonishment. "I was not presumptuous
enough to admit it. I secretly feared that Alexas, the brother of
Philostratus, had prejudiced her. He is as ill-disposed towards me as
the man who was my husband. But everything connected with those two is
so base and shameful that I will not allow it to cloud this pleasant
hour. Yet the fear that Alexas might have slandered me to the Queen is
not groundless.

"He is as shrewd as his brother, and through Antony, into whose favour he
ingratiated himself, is always in communication with Cleopatra. He went
to the war with him."

"I learned that too late, and am utterly powerless against Antony,"
replied Archibius.

"But was it not natural that I should fear he had prejudiced the Queen?"
asked Barine. "At any rate, I imagined that I detected a hostile
expression in her eyes, and it repelled me, though at first I had
been so strongly attracted towards her."

"And had not that other stepped between you, you could not have turned
from her again!" said Archibius. "The first time I saw her I was but a