yearned for lofty things. Her heart contracted. The saying "You reap
what you sowed" gave her no peace, and wherever she turned in her past
life she perceived the fruit of the seeds which she had buried in the
ground. The field was sinking under the burden of the ears of
misfortune. The harvest was ripe for the reaper; but, ere he raised the
sickle, the owner's claim must be preserved. Gorgias must hasten the
building of the tomb; the end could not be long deferred. How to shape
this worthily, if the victor left her no other choice, had just been
pointed out by the son of whom she was ashamed. His father's noble blood
forbade him to bear the deepest ignominy with the patience his mother had
inculcated.

It had grown late ere she admitted Antony's body-slave, but for her the
business of the night was just commencing. After he had gone she would
be engaged for hours with the commanders of the army, the fleet, the
fortifications. The soliciting of allies, too, must be carried on by
means of letters containing the most stirring appeals to the heart.

Eros, Antony's body-slave, appeared. His kind eyes filled with tears at
the sight of the Queen. Grief had not lessened the roundness of his
handsome face, but the expression of mischievous, often insolent, gaiety
had given place to a sorrowful droop of the lips, and his fair hair had
begun to turn grey.

Lucilius's information that Cleopatra had consented to make advances to
Antony had seemed like the rising of the sun after a long period of
darkness. In his eyes, not only his master, but everything else, must
yield to the power of the Queen. He had heard Antony at Tarsus inveigh
against "the Egyptian serpent," protesting that he would make her pay so
dearly for her questionable conduct towards himself and the cause of