Alexas loved Barine, while Philostratus no longer cared for her.  On the other hand, he hated Dion with so ardent a thirst for revenge that, to obtain it, he would have resigned even the hope of fresh gains.  The humiliation inflicted upon him by the arrogant Macedonian noble, and the derision which through his efforts had been heaped upon him, haunted him like importunate pursuers; and he felt that he could only rid himself of them with the source of his disgrace.  Without his brother’s aid, he would have been content to assail Dion with his slandering tongue; with his powerful assistance he could inflict a heavier injury upon him, perhaps even rob him of liberty and life.  They had just made an agreement by which Philostratus pledged himself to reconcile the populace to any punishment that might be inflicted upon Barine, and Alexas promised to help his brother take a bloody vengeance upon Dion the Macedonian.

Barine’s death could be of no service to Alexas.  The sight of her beauty had fired his heart a second time, and he was resolved to make her his own.  In the dungeon, perhaps by torture, she should be forced to grasp his helping hand.  All this would permit no delay.  Everything must be done before the return of Antony, who was daily expected.  Alexas’s lavish patron had made him so rich that he could bear to lose his favour for the sake of this object.  Even without it, he could maintain a household with royal magnificence in some city of his Syrian home.

On receiving the favourite’s assurance that he would remove Barine from Charmian’s protection on the morrow, Iras became more gracious.  She could make no serious objection to his statement that the new trial might not, it is true, end in a sentence of death, but the verdict would probably be transportation to the mines, or something of the sort.

Then Alexas cautiously tested Iras’s feelings towards his brother’s mortal foe.  They were hostile; yet when the favourite intimated that he, too, ought to be given up to justice, she showed so much hesitation, that Alexas stopped abruptly and turned the conversation upon Barine.  Here she promised assistance with her former eager zeal, and it was settled that the arrest should be made the following morning during the hours of Charmian’s attendance upon the Queen.

Iras had valuable counsel to offer.  She was familiar with one of the prisons, whose doors she had opened to many a hapless mortal whose disappearance, in her opinion, might be of service to the Queen.  She had deemed it a duty, aided by the Keeper of the Seal, to anticipate her mistress in cases where her kind heart would have found it difficult to pronounce a severe sentence, and Cleopatra had permitted it, though without commendation or praise.  What happened within its walls—­thanks to the silence of the warder—­never passed beyond the portals.  If Barine cursed her life there, she would still fare better than she, Iras, who during the past few nights had been on the brink of despair whenever she thought of the man who had disdained her love and abandoned her for another.