Sardou's Cleopatra — page 150: what you’re looking at

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

SARDOU’S CLEOPATRA. 135 time, she laid her hand indulgently on Charmian’s heads" “I have already incurred dangers graver yet than these you fear for me. Have you forgotten, Charmian? Do you not remember the day that Apollodorus took me, on a boat, alone with him, to the house of Ceesar, and carried me on his back wrapped in a carpet? Ah, it was stifling! I could scarcely breathe. ‘What do you bring me there ?? ‘General, itis the queen. A richer pres- ent has never been made you.’ Ceesar began to laugh, and so did I. I was fifteen then. No, Charmian, no,” she continued, her eyes flashing with angry determination. ‘The greatest danger for me is this outrage to which I have been sub- jected to-day, and which threatens to destroy all that I have striven for. At all costs, I must find Mark Antony once more, or great Egypt and I to- gether will perish from his desertion. Say no more. My plans are irrevocably formed. Giveme your tabletsand stylet. I wish to write down my orders.” Sadly and without a word, Charmian obeyed. She knew, from bitter experience, how useless it was to oppose the haughty will of the queen. But it was with direful forebodings that she watched her mistress rapidly writing. “Gomicbooks (E(0)