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Cleopatra — Volume 02 by Georg Ebers
page 41 of 43 (95%)
that every one felt compelled to gaze at her, to discover the source of
the charm which emanated from her whole person.

"Antony, too, was enthralled by the spell as soon as he heard the first
words from her lips. He had dashed up to the King's chariot, and seeing
the two daughters by their father's side, he greeted them with a hasty
salute. When, in reply to the question whether he might hope for her
gratitude for bringing her father back to her so quickly, she said that
as a daughter she sincerely rejoiced, but as an Egyptian the task would
be harder, he gazed more keenly at her.

"I did not know her answer until later; but ere the last sound of her
voice had died away, I saw the Roman spring from his charger and fling
the bridle to Ammonius--the chamberlain who had assisted the King from
the chariot--as if he were his groom. The woman-hunter had met with
rare game in his pursuit of the fairest, and while he continued his
conversation with Cleopatra her father sometimes joined in, and his deep
laughter was often heard.

"No one would have recognized the earnest disciple of Epicurus. We had
often heard apt replies and original thoughts from Cleopatra's lips, but
she had rarely answered Timagenes's jests with another. Now she found--
one could see it by watching the speakers--a witty answer to many of
Antony's remarks. It seemed as if, for the first time, she had met some
one for whom she deemed it worth while to bring into the field every gift
of her deep and quick intelligence. Yet she did not lose for a moment
her womanly dignity; her eyes did not sparkle one whit more brightly than
during an animated conversation with me or our father.

"It was very different with Arsinoe. When Antony flung himself from his
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