Sardou's Cleopatra — page 129: what you’re looking at

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

114. SARDOU’S CLEUPATRA. CHAPTER X. THE MESSENGER OF WOE. furens QOutd Foemina !/ Day has followed day, week has followed week, month has followed month, and still no news from Antony. His letters, which at first were daily, have now ceased. No longer does the ibis appear, bearing beneath its wing the scroll of papyrus; no longer does the cloud of dust upon the desert announce a horseman; there is no messenger of any sort. It is night. On the flat roof of the palace of Rameses, stretched upon a couch covered with the skins of wild beasts, lies Cleopatra, as, in spite of all entreaties, she has lain night after night, so that she might catch, from this point of vantage, the first sign of any approaching messen- ger. Beneath the skull cap, composed of a lat- ticed crown of pearls, edged with large turquogises, escapes the heavy masses of her dark, silken Eomicbooks.co o3