--Help me, Hathor. Nephoris, tell the usher to see that the fan-bearers
and the other attendants, women and men, are in their places.--Here are
the pearl and diamond necklaces for your throat and bosom. Take care
of the robe. The transparent bombyx is as delicate as a cobweb, and if
you tear it No, you must not refuse. We all know how it pleases him to
see his goddess in divine majesty and beauty." Cleopatra, with glowing
cheeks and throbbing heart, made no further objection to donning the
superb festal robe, strewn with glimmering pearls and glittering gems.
It would have been more in harmony with her feelings to meet the
returning Antony in the plain, dark garb which, since her arrival at
home, she had exchanged for a richer one only on festal occasions; but
Antony was coming as the new Dionysus, and Eros knew what would please
his master.

Eight nimble hands, which were often aided by Iras's skilful fingers,
toiled busily, and soon the latter could hold up the mirror before
Cleopatra, exclaiming from the very depths of her heart, "Like the foam-
born Aphrodite and the golden Hathor!"

Then Iras, who, in adorning her beloved mistress, had forgotten love,
hate, and envy, and amid her eager haste barely found time for a brief,
fervent prayer for a happy issue of this meeting, threw the broad
folding-doors as wide as if she were about to reveal to the worshippers
in the temple the image of the god in the innermost sanctuary.

A long, echoing shout of surprise and delight greeted the Queen, for the
courtiers, hastily summoned, were already awaiting her without, from the
grey-haired epistolograph to the youngest page. Regally attired women in
her service raised the floating train of her cloak; others, in sacerdotal
robes, were testing the ease of movement of the rings on the sistrum