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Updated: June 8, 2025
Charmian, sorely wearied, had flung herself into an arm-chair, and Archibius took his place opposite to her. They were happy in each other's society, even when silent; but to-day the hearts of both were so full that they fared like those who are so worn out by fatigue that they cannot sleep.
"Because, like you," cried Archibius, "I have learned how great a blessing is love, and that love is pain." As he spoke he bent over her hand to kiss it, but she took his temples between her hands and, bending hastily, pressed her lips on his broad brow. Then his self-control vanished, and, sobbing aloud, he hurried back to the children.
Barine, whose arm she still held, had struggled to escape to rush to her mother and lover; but Archibius had approached, and in a whisper warned her to be patient and to refrain from any greeting or question, "supposing," he added, "that you are willing to be married at this altar to Dion, the son of Eumenes."
The Epicurus would soon reach the mouth of the harbour, and after landing he must again leave Archibius. The decisive hour which often unites earnest men more firmly than many previous years had come to both. They had opened their hearts to each other. Dion had withheld only the one thing which, at the first sight of the houses in the city, filled his soul with fresh uneasiness.
Doubtless many came from banquets, cookshops, taverns, or the nocturnal meeting-places of the sects that practised the magic arts, yet the weight of anxious expectation seemed to check the joyous activity, and wherever Archibius glanced he beheld eager, troubled faces.
"True, the skill with which, to please Antony, she daily offered him for years fresh charms for every sense, was not a matter of accident." "And this," cried Barine, "this was undertaken by the woman who had recognized the chief good in peace of mind!" "Ay," replied Archibius thoughtfully, "yet this was the inevitable result. Pleasure had been the young girl's object in life.
The galley was approaching the flickering circle of light at the foot of the Pharos, and Archibius was just producing the token which was to secure the lifting of the chain, when his name echoed through the stillness of the night. It was Dion hailing him from a boat tossing near the mouth of the harbour on the waves surging in from the turbulent sea.
Archibius and Dion had spent a sleepless night and day. The heavy air, pervaded by a fine mist, had grown cool. After refreshing themselves by a repast, they paced up and down the deck of the Epicurus. Few words were exchanged, and they wrapped their cloaks closer around them. Both had quaffed large draughts of the fiery wine with which the Epicurus was well supplied, but it would not warm them.
Barine's big blue eyes flashed angrily, and there was no lack of decision in her voice as she exclaimed, "Let him try it!" "But what power have we to restrain the son of Antony?" asked Berenike. "I do not know." "I do," replied her daughter. "I will be brief, for a visitor is coming." "So late?" asked the mother anxiously. "Archibius wishes to discuss an important matter with us."
It would have been expected that the keen-witted woman would have eagerly inquired what Charmian had accomplished with the Queen and Archibius, and what new events had happened to affect Cleopatra, the state, and the city; but she questioned her with far deeper interest concerning the welfare of her lover, desiring information in regard to many things of which her friend could give no tidings.
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