Sardou's Cleopatra — page 169: what you’re looking at

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

154 SARDOU’S CLEOPATRA. love him, and no one has the right to accuse him, when I do not complain.” “But,” persisted Octavius, “he has insulted you—and me.” “I do not feel the insult. No! Antony’s great virtue is his courage. And the love of so greata hero can well be purchased at the price of a few salt tears. What matters Cleopatra or any other woman? Hecan only love them in his hours of intoxication. It is I whom he cherishes when his reason asserts itself, I whom he seeks by his own fireside, I to whom he promises the future of his life. It is Iwhom he respects, and it is I who am the one to be envied. I alone can follow him and care for him, without blushing and without fear of witnesses. I alone, the sharer of his great renown, have the right to announce his successes to the army, to send to the senate his glorious flags and to offer in his name a sacrifice to the gods. You see, my brother, mine is the better part.” And a smile of pride illumined for a moment the face of the injured wife, who thus sought to console herself for her slighted charms. Octavius also smiled, but it was a smile of ex- ceeding bitterness. Eomicbooks.co