When the tutor at last began to lead them away, the royal mother stopped them, asking "Suppose, instead of this garden, I should give you a bit of bare land, such as the peasants till, where, after your lessons, you might dig and build as much as you please?"
Loud shouts of joy from the children answered the question; but the little Median girl, Jotape, said hesitatingly:
"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— Oh, Charmian, Charmian!"