"What place is this, tell me?" she implored.
"I'll tell you," said the woman, "but you mustn't tell," she added, with a look of cunning. "I've found it all out. It's a place where they send crazy people."
"Good Heaven!"
"They are all crazy here—all but me," continued Cleopatra, to call her by the name she assumed. "I am only here for my health," she continued. "That's what the doctor tells me, though why they should keep me so longI cannot understand. Sometimes I suspect——"
"In Heaven's name, what?"
The woman advanced toward Mrs. Kenyon, who shrank from her instinctively, and whispered:
"They want to separate me and Mark Antony," she said. "I am convinced of it, though whether it's Cæsar or my ministers who have done it I can't tell. What do you think?" she demanded, fixing her eyes searchingly upon Mrs. Kenyon.
"I don't know," answered Mrs. Kenyon, shrinking away from her.
"You needn't be afraid of me," said Cleopatra, observing the movement. "I am not crazy, you know. I am perfectly harmless. Are you crazy?"
"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed Mrs. Kenyon with a shudder.