Part 29 (1/2)
The la.s.s drew herself up to her full height, knitted her brows violently, and dealt a dull blow on the soldier's forehead with her clenched fist.
”As for thee,” she said in smothered accents, but with ferocious meaning, ”I'll raise a cry of rape, and have thee quartered!”
Then, in silence, she entered the Queens chamber.
Berenice was asleep, her head pillowed on her arm, her hand hanging down.
Over the great crimson couch, a hanging lamp mingled its feeble glare with that of the moon, reflected by the whiteness of the walls. The vague, luminous outlines of the slumbering woman's supple nudity were thus enwrapped in misty shadow, between these two contrasting lights.
Slender Cleopatra sat straight up on the edge of the bed. She took her sister's face in her two little hands, waking Berenice up by touch and speech.
”Why is your lover not with you?” asked Cleopatra.
Berenice, startled, opened her lovely eyes.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
”Cleopatra! What are you doing here? What do you want of me?”
”Why is your lover not with you?” repeated the girl, insisting.
”Is he not with me?”
”Certainly not! You know that well enough!”
”True! He's never here. Oh, Cleopatra, how cruel of you to wake me, to tell me so!”
”But why is he always away?”
”I see him when he chooses,” sighed Berenice, in grief. ”During the day-- for a minute or two.”
”Did you not see him yesterday?”
”Yes. I met him by the roadside. I was in my litter, he got in with me.”
”As far as the Palace?”
”No--not quite. He was still in sight nearly as far as the gates.”
”What did you tell him?”
”Oh, I was furious! I said most wicked things. Yes, darling, I did!”
”Indeed?” rejoined the young girl, ironically.
”Perhaps too wicked, for he never answered me. Just when I felt myself scarlet with rage, he recited a long fable for my benefit. As I did not quite understand it, I did not know how to reply. He slipped out of the litter, just as I thought of keeping him by my side.
”Why not have called him back?”
”I feared to displease him.”