Sardou's Cleopatra — page 115: what you’re looking at

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

100 SARDOU’S CLEOPATRA. She shrank back against the wall. As he saw her white face, he repented of his harshness. “Nay, chiid, I would not pain you. Your mo- tive was good. But, let me pass, once more would I look upon her face, and then “You would go in there—to her ?” “Yes, let me pass. If it had not been for that hope, I should not have survived till now.” ‘But what would you do? Remember, she is the queen.” He smiled, sadly. “Have no fear. I would not, I could not harm a hair of her head.” She moved aside, with a look that, if he had noticed it, might or might not have touched him ; but he was thinking of the woman he loved, and what cared he for the woman who loved him ? As the curtain fell behind him, in an agony of doubt and fear, Iras sank to the ground, and crouching there, close to the door, listened, vainly endeavoring to still the beating of her heart. Slowly and noiselessly Pharon crossed the mosaic floor, until he was close to the couch upon which Cleopatra lay. For a moment he held his breath as he gazed down upon her. How — beautiful she was with one arm thrown up beneath comicbooks co