“That you shall learn later,” replied Charmian advancing.  “But when you do know, you will have still better reason to doubt my love; yet it was only to save one dear to me from misery, certainly not to grieve you, that I stepped between you and Barine.  And now let me say—­had you wounded me to the quick, and everything dear to the Greek heart called to me for vengeance—­I should impose upon myself whatever constraint might be necessary to deny the impulse, because this breast contains a love stronger, more powerful, than the fiercest hate.  And this love we both share.  Hate me, strive to wound and injure one at whose side you have hitherto stood like a daughter, but beware of robbing me of the strength and freedom which I need, to be and to offer to my royal mistress all the assistance in my power.  I have just been consulting my brother about leaving Cleopatra’s service.”

“Now?” Iras broke in vehemently.  “No, no!  Not that!  It must not be!  She cannot spare you now.”

“More easily, perhaps, than you,” replied Charmian; “yet in many things my services might be hard to replace.”

“Nothing under the sun could do it,” cried Iras eagerly.  “If, in these days of trouble, she should lose you too—­”

“Still darker ones are approaching,” interrupted Archibius positively.  “Perhaps you will learn all to-morrow.  Whether Charmian yields to her desire for rest, or continues in the service of the Queen, depends on you.  If you wish her to remain you must not render it too hard for her to do so.  We three, my child, are perhaps the only persons at this court to whom the Queen’s happiness is more than their own, and therefore we should permit no incident, whatever name it may bear, to cloud our harmony.”

Iras threw back her head with angry pride, exclaiming passionately:  “Was it I who injured you?  I do not know in what respect.  But you and Charmian—­though you have so long been aware that this heart was closed against every love save one—­stepped between me and the man for whom I have yearned since childhood, and built the bridge which united Dion and Barine.  I held the woman I hated in my grasp, and thanked the immortals for the boon; but you two—­it is not difficult to guess the secret you are still trying to keep from me—­you aided her to escape.  You have robbed me of my revenge; you have again placed the singer in the path where she must find the man to whom I have a better and older claim, and who perhaps may still be considering which of us two will be the better mistress of his house, if Alexas and his worthy brother do not arrange matters so that we must both content ourselves with thinking tenderly of a dead man.  That is why I believe that I am no longer indebted to you, that Charmian has more than repaid herself for all the kindness she has ever showed me.”

With these words she hurried to the door, but paused on the threshold, exclaiming:  “This is the state of affairs; yet I am ready to serve the Queen hand in hand with you as before; for you two—­as I have said—­are necessary to her.  In other respects—­I shall follow my own path.”