Sardou's Cleopatra — page 93: what you’re looking at

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

78 SARDOU’S CLEOPATRA, — Not on Cleopatra. The bargain was a bargain, and I have failed to keep my word, but I will keep it yet.” Diomedes’ face fell. He had thought through this man to serve his own ends, to obtain his own revenge. ‘Two years before, for some trivial offense, the queen had ordered him to be publicly beaten. The-sentence was carried out. Since then he had been returned to favor, and Cleopatra had probably forgotten the whole occurrence. But not so with Diomedes. Crafty, sly, and cowardly, he bided his time. ‘To further his own ends, he had made friends, at Tarsus, with Ventidius. His one object and aim was to lower the haughty spirit of the woman, queen though she was, who had humiliated him, and to make her suffer, in mind, at least, the tortures she had inflicted upon him. Of late it had seemed to him that his day of tri- umph might not be far distant. Through her love for this Roman could he not strike? When, through spying upon Iras, he had discovered that this slave, Pharon, was still alive, he fancied that he had the instrument at his hand, but he was disappointed; the Greek was more honest and single-minded than he had thought. “You have kept your word,” he said, at last; comicbooks iGO