"Then, as I have said, she will have my favour--a generous abundance of
favour."

"But her future destiny? What fate will you bestow on her and her
children?"

"Whatever the degree of her confidence deserves."

Here he hesitated, for he met Dolabella's earnest, troubled gaze, which
was blended with a shade of reproach.

Octavianus desired to retain the enthusiastic admiration of the youth,
who perhaps was destined to lofty achievements, so he continued in a
confidential tone: "To you, my young friend, I can venture to speak more
frankly. I will gladly grant the most aspiring wishes of this
fascinating and, I repeat, very remarkable woman, but first I need her
for my triumph. The Romans would have cause to reproach me if I deprived
them of the sight of this Queen, this peerless woman, in many respects
the first of her time. We shall soon set out for Syria. The Queen and
her children I shall send in three days to Rome. If, in the triumphal
procession there, she creates the sensation I anticipate from a spectacle
so worthy of admiration, she shall learn how I reward those who oblige
me."

Dolabella had listened in silence. When the Caesar entered the carriage,
he requested permission to remain behind.

Octavianus drove alone eastward to the camp where, in the vicinity of the
Hippodrome, men were surveying the ground on which the suburb of