"Likely he's her man," thought Nancy, who was entirely unacquainted with that episode in Roman history in which Cleopatra figured. "Likely he's her man, though she do look old to have one."
The cabin consisted of one room on the ground floor, but overhead was a loft covered with straw, and used partly as a lumber-room by the old woman. A pallet filled with straw lay in one corner of the lower room, this being old Nancy's bed, from which she had hastily risen when she heard the knocking at the outer door.
"Lie down there, honeys," she said with generous hospitality, proposing to resign her own bed to her unexpected guests.
But the position was too exposed for Mrs. Kenyon.
Looking up she espied the loft and said:
"No, Nancy, we would rather go up there. Then if Dr. Fox comes for us he won't discover us."
To this arrangement both Nancy and Cleopatra assented, and a rude ladder was brought into requisition. When they had reached the loft Cleopatra looked around her with discontent.
"Am I to lie here?" she asked.
"Yes; we will lie down together."
"But this is no fit couch for a great queen," she complained. "What will Mark Antony—what will my courtiers say?"