Euphronion, you would be the right person--But we will discuss the matter
at a more quiet hour."

The tutor withdrew and the children, who followed, looked back, waving
their hands and calling to their mother for a long time.

When they had disappeared behind the shrubbery in the garden Charmian
exclaimed, "However dark the sky may be, so long as you possess these
little ones you can never lack sunshine."

"If," replied Cleopatra, gazing pensively at the ground, "with a thought
of them another did not blend which makes the gloom become deeper still.
You know the tidings this terrible day has brought?"

"All," replied Charmian, sighing heavily.

"Then you know the abyss on whose verge we are walking; and to see them--
them also dragged into the yawning gulf by their unhappy mother--
Oh, Charmian, Charmian!"

She sobbed aloud, threw her arms around the neck of her friend and
playfellow, and laid her head upon her bosom like a child seeking
consolation. Cleopatra wept for several minutes, and when she again
raised her tear-stained face she said softly:

"That did me good! O, Charmian! no one needs love as I do. On your
warm heart my own has already grown calmer."

"Use it, nestle there whenever you need it, to the end," cried Charmian,
deeply moved.