Sardou's Cleopatra — page 85: what you’re looking at

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

70 SARDOU’S CLEOPATRA. love absolutely without hope? No matter how apparently impassable are the obstacles, how black the future may look, is there not always deep buried a faint belief that some day all will come right and our desires find fruition? At all events, it was so with Iras. When Pharon greeted her coming with pleasure, when he expressed his gratitude, she saw in it the possible dawning of love. Alas! if she had but known the pleasure her presence gave him was that of seeing some one who had been near the queen, the gratitude was to the one whom he supposed to be in some measure Cleopatra’s vice-regent. To Serapion, the knowledge that he was har- boring this man in concealment, was a constant source of anxiety and even terror. Should the facts come to the queen’s ears, not even his priestly calling would avail to save his life. Twenty times had he concocted some scheme to be rid of his unwelcome guest, and twenty times had he allowed himself to be won from his pro- ject by his niece’s entreaties. Iras, herself, knew that the time must come when Pharon must be told the truth and aided to escape to Greece. But, day after day, she put off the fatal hour that would separate him from her. Eomicbooks.co