I wonder if his palace was handsomer than the Khedive's? That huge
white building with the pillars and domes. I seem to remember----"

"What, you remember, too? You _ought_ to consult Sayda!"

"I didn't mean exactly what you mean," I explained, humbly. "Still, why
shouldn't I have lived in Egypt long ago? The learned ones say you're
always drawn back where you've been in other states of existence----"

"That's true, I'm sure!"

"Well, then, why shouldn't I have the same sort of right to Egypt you
have, if you were Cleopatra?--I believe you must have been, because you
look as she ought to have looked, you know. Why shouldn't I have been a
friend of Marc Antony, coming from Rome to give him good advice and
trying to persuade----"

"Oh, _not_ that he ought to give me up!"

"No, indeed: to urge him to leave the island where he hid even from you
(didn't they call it Timoneum?). Why couldn't Antony play his cards so
as to keep Cleopatra and the world, too? She'd have liked him better,
wouldn't she? My friend Antoun Effendi--I mean Anthony Fenton,"--I
stopped short: for the less said about Fenton the better, at present.
But Cleopatra caught me up.

"What--have you really a friend Antony? Where does he live? and what's
he like?"

I hesitated; and glancing round for inspiration (in other words for