The queen sighed:
“I never understand allegories. Explain it to me, Well-beloved. What does it mean?”
He rose.
“I do not tell you this in order that you may understand. I have told you a tale to calm you a little. It is late. Good-bye, Berenice.”
She began to weep.
“I was sure of it! I was sure of it!”
He laid her like a child upon her soft bed of luxurious stuffs, imprinted a smiling kiss upon her unhappy eyes, and tranquilly descended from the great litter without stopping it.
BOOK III
I
THE ARRIVAL
Bacchis had been a courtesan for more than twenty-five years. That is equivalent to saying that she was nearly forty, and that her beauty had changed its character several times.