“Could I take my doll too—only the oldest, Atossa? She has lost one arm, yet I love her the best.”
“Deprive us of anything you choose!” cried Helios, drawing little Alexander towards him, to show that they, the men, were of the same mind, “only give us some ground and let us build.”
“We will consider whether it can be done,” replied Cleopatra. “Perhaps, Euphronion, you would be the right person—— But we will discuss the matter at a more quiet hour.”
The tutor withdrew and the children, who followed, looked back, waving their hands and calling to their mother for a long time.
When they had disappeared behind the shrubbery in the garden Charmian exclaimed, “However dark the sky may be, so long as you possess these little ones you can never lack sunshine.”
“If,” replied Cleopatra, gazing pensively at the ground, “with a thought of them another did not blend which makes the gloom become deeper still. You know the tidings this terrible day has brought?”
“All,” replied Charmian, sighing heavily.
“Then you know the abyss on whose verge we are walking; and to see them—them also dragged into the yawning gulf by their unhappy mother—O, Charmian, Charmian!”
She sobbed aloud, threw her arms around the neck of her friend and playfellow, and laid her head upon her bosom like a child seeking consolation. Cleopatra wept for several minutes, and when she again raised her tear-stained face she said softly:
“That did me good! O, Charmian! no one needs love as I do. On your warm heart my own has already grown calmer.”