CLEOPATRA. Well, now tell me what you came to say? POTHINUS (_embarrassed_). I! Nothing. CLEOPATRA. Nothing! POTHINUS. At least--to beg for my liberty: that is all. CLEOPATRA. For that you would have knelt to Caesar. No, Pothinus: you came with some plan that depended on Cleopatra being a little nursery kitten. Now that Cleopatra is a Queen, the plan is upset. POTHINUS (_bowing his head submissively_). It is so. CLEOPATRA (_exultant_). Aha! POTHINUS (_raising his eyes keenly to hers_). Is Cleopatra then indeed a Queen, and no longer Caesar's prisoner and slave? CLEOPATRA. Pothinus: we are all Caesar's slaves--all we in this land of Egypt--whether we will or no. And she who is wise enough to know this will reign when Caesar departs. POTHINUS. You harp on Caesar's departure. CLEOPATRA. What if I do? POTHINUS. Does he not love you? CLEOPATRA. Love me! Pothinus: Caesar loves no one. Who are those we love? Only those whom we do not hate: all people are strangers and enemies to us except those we love. But it is not so with Caesar. He has no hatred in him: he makes friends with everyone as he does with dogs and children. His kindness to me is a wonder: neither mother, father, nor nurse have ever taken so much care for me, or thrown open their thoughts to me so freely. POTHINUS. Well: is not this love? CLEOPATRA. What! When he will do as much for the first girl he meets on his way back to Rome? Ask his slave, Britannus: he has been just as good to him. Nay, ask his very horse! His kindness is not for anything in _me_: it is in his own nature. POTHINUS. But how can you be sure that he does not love you as men love women? CLEOPATRA. Because I cannot make him jealous. I have tried. POTHINUS. Hm! Perhaps I should have asked, then, do _you_ love _him_? CLEOPATRA. Can one love a god? Besides, I love another Roman: one whom I saw long before Caesar--no god, but a man--one who can love and hate--one whom I can hurt and who would hurt me. POTHINUS. Does Caesar know this? CLEOPATRA. Yes POTHINUS. And he is not angry. CLEOPATRA. He promises to send him to Egypt to please me! POTHINUS. I do not understand this man. CLEOPATRA (_with superb contempt_). _You_ understand Caesar! How could you? (_Proudly_) I do--by instinct. POTHINUS (_deferentially, after a moment's thought_). Your Majesty caused me to be admitted to-day. What message has the Queen for me? CLEOPATRA. This. You think that by making my brother king, you will rule in Egypt, because you are his guardian and he is a little silly. POTHINUS. The Queen is pleased to say so. CLEOPATRA. The Queen is pleased to say this also. That Caesar will eat up you, and Achillas, and my brother, as a cat eats up mice; and that he will put on this land of Egypt as a shepherd puts on his garment. And when he has done that, he will return to Rome, and leave Cleopatra here as his viceroy.