But the simple duties of the domestic hearth!--they are too prosaic for
you Alexandrians, who imbibe philosophy with your mothers' milk. What
marvel, if I looked for them in vain? True, they would find little
satisfaction--our household gods I mean--here, where the rigid demands of
Hymen are mute before the ardent pleadings of Eros. Marriage is scarcely
reckoned among the sacred things of life. But this opinion seems to
displease you."

"Because it is false," cried Cleopatra, repressing with difficulty a
fresh outburst of indignation. "Yet, if I see aright, your reproach is
aimed only at the bond which united me to the man who was called your
sister's husband. But I will I would gladly remain silent, but you force
me to speak, and I will do so, though your own friend, Proculejus, is
signing to me to be cautious. I--I, Cleopatra, was the wife of Mark
Antony according to the customs of this country, when you wedded him to
the widow of Marcellus, who had scarcely closed his eyes. Not she, but
I, was the deserted wife--I to whom his heart belonged until the hour of
his death, not the unloved consort wedded--" Here her voice fell. She
had yielded to the passionate impulse which urged her to express her
feelings in the matter, and now continued in a tone of gentle
explanation: "I know that you proposed this alliance solely for the
peace and welfare of Rome--"

"To guard both, and to spare the blood of tens of thousands," Octavianus
added with proud decision. "Your clear brain perceived the true state
of affairs. If, spite of the grave importance of these motives, you--
But what voices would not that of the heart silence with you women! The
man, the Roman, succeeded in closing his ears to its siren song. Were it
otherwise, I would never have chosen for my sister a husband by whom I
knew her happiness would be so ill-guarded--I would, as I have already