The great cares associated with the state and the throne are hers; for the minor ones of the toilet and the heart I will provide." Here she was interrupted by one of Cleopatra's waiting-maids.

The Queen had awakened, and Iras hastened to her post.
As she passed Charmian's apartments and saw two handsome soldiers, belonging to the Macedonian body-guard, pacing to and fro on duty before them, her face darkened.

It was against her alone that Charmian was protecting Barine.

She had been harshly reproved by the older woman on account of the artist's daughter, who had been the source of so many incidents which had caused her pain, and Iras regretted that she had ever confided to her aunt her love for Dion.

But, no matter what might happen, the upas-tree whence emanated all these tortures, anxieties, and vexations, must be rooted out--stricken from the ranks of the living.
Ere she entered the Queen's anteroom she had mentally pronounced sentence of death on her enemy.