Sardou's Cleopatra — page 103: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

- 88 SARDOU’S CLEOPATRA. - cae But, still, the words of the girl turned the thoughts of the love-sick queen in another direc- tion. At first each day had brought a messenger from Antony, but now for two days\no word had been received from him. Ye gods! suppose he had made his peace with Cesar, and together they had agreed to drive from the seas the pirate, Pompey, and recapture Sicily! Perhaps, the sending of Ventidius had been a stratagem. Octavius had need of Antony, and Rome, who knew the Egyptian Queen and her power, was afraid of her love, that had once captured the great Julius. No! no! she would not think of that. It was impossible, folly. But, oh, how she longed for Antony’s return! Howslow the hours passed! How overpowering was that breathless heat! Not a cloud in the sky, not a drop of water in the pitiless azure of those heavens that knew no winter, spring nor autumn; forever that red sun like a great, bloody eye always wakeful and watching! “Ah!” she exclaimed, aloud, with a petulant gesture. “Iras! Charmian! I would give these pearls, this bracelet for a drop of rain. Life in | Feypt is a heavy burden, This rich country, (G(@) Eomicbooks