The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1894-06-27

$50 MY MESSENGER HAS FOUND YoU"
"Greeting, Harmachis," she said, smiling
sweetly. $50 my messenger has found
theel" and she pointed to the corpse of
Paulus. "Pah! he has an ugly look. Hol
guards"
The door was opened and two armed
Gauls stepped across the threshold.
",Take away this carbon said Cleopatra,
'and fling it to the kites. Stay, draw that
dagger from his traitor breast" The men
bowed low, and the knife, rusted red with
blood, was dragged from the heart of Paulus
and laid upon the table. Then they seized
him by the head and body and staggered
thence, and heard their heavy footballs as
they bore him down the stars.
"Methinks, Harmachls. thou art in an
evil causel" she said, when,the sound of the
footballs had died away. allow strangely
doth the wheel of Fortune turnl But for
that traitor" and she nodded toward the
door by which the corpse of Paulus had
been carried, 81 should now be as ill a thing
TO look on as he is, and the red rust on yon-
der knife would have been gathered from
my heart"
SO it was Paulus who had betrayed me.
"Ay," she went on, 'and when thou
earnest to me last night, well knew that
thou earnest to Stay. When, time upon
time, thou didst place thy hand within thy
robe, knew that 1t grasped dagger-hilt,
and thou vast gathering thy courage to the
deed which little thou didst love to do, Obi
it was a strange, wild hour we'll worth the
living, and greatly, from moment to mo-
ment, did wonder which of us twain would
pnutnbnI utti1a with rr,,iln
and force to force.
"Yea, Harmachis, the guards tramp be-
fore thy door, but be not deceived, Knew l
not that l do hold thee to me by bonds more
strong than prison chains; knew l not
that am hedged from i'll at thy hands by
fence of honor more hard for thee to pass
than all the spears Of all my legions, thou
hadst been dead ere now, Harmachis. See,
here is thy knife.n And she handed me the
dagger. snow STAY me if thou canst." And
she drew near and tore open the bosom of
her robe, and stood waiting with calm eyes.
"Thou canst not STAY me-" she went Oh,
"for there are things, as know well, that
no man-no such man as thou art-may do
and live; and this Is the chief of. them-to
slay the woman who is all his own. Nay,
stay thy handi Turn not that dagger
against thy breast; for If me thou mayst
not slay, by bow much the more mayst thou
not STAY myself, o thou forsworn Priest
Of Isisl Art thou. then, so eager to face
that outraged Majesty in Amentii With
what eyes, thinkest thou, will the Heavenly
Mother look upon her son who, shamed in
all things and false to his most sacred VOW,
comes to greet Her, his ife-blood on his
hsndsi Where, then, will be the space for
thy atouement-if, indeed, thou nsyst
atoner
Then / could bear no more, for my heart
was broken within me. Alasl it was too
true-I dared not die. To such pass was
come that did not even dare TO diei I
fung myself upon the couch and wept-
wept tears of blood and anguish.
But Cleopatra came to me, and, seating
herself beside me, she strove TO comfort
me, throwing her arms about my neck.
"Nay, Love, look up" she said. "Ail 70
not lost for thee, nor am sngered against
thee. We did play . mighty game; but -
I warned thee. ] matched my womsp's