"Well?" he says in a quiet way, a half-smile parting his thin lips. The woman's breast heaves with tumultuous emotion--just an instant. She speaks, and there is no tremor in her tones. Her voice is low, smooth and scarcely audible: "I am Cleopatra." The man at the desk lays down his pen, leans back and gently nods his head, as much as to say, indulgently, "Yes, my child, I hear--go on!" "I am Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, and I would speak with thee alone." She paused; then raising one jeweled arm motions to Appolidorus that he shall withdraw. With a similar motion, the man at the desk signifies the same to his astonished secretary. * * * * * Appolidorus went down the long hallway, down the stone steps and waited at the outer gate amid the throng of soldiers. They questioned him, gibed him, railed at him, but they got no word in reply. He waited--he waited an hour, two--and then came a messenger with a note written on a slip of parchment. The words ran thus: "Well-beloved 'Dorus: Veni, vidi, vici! Go fetch my maids, also all of our personal belongings." * * * * * Standing alone by the slashed and stiffened corpse of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony says: "Thou art the ruins of the noblest man That ever lived in the tide of times." Caesar had two qualities that mark the man of supreme power: he was gentle and he was firm. To be gentle, generous, lenient, forgiving, and yet never relinquish the vital thing--this is to be great. To know when to be generous and when firm--this is wisdom. The first requisite in ruling others is to rule one's own spirit. The suavity, moderation, dignity and wise diplomacy of Caesar led him by sure and safe steps from a lowly clerkship to positions of gradually increasing responsibility. At thirty-seven he was elected Pontifex Maximus--the head of the State Religion. Between Pagan Rome and Christian Paganism there is small choice--all State religions are very much alike. Caesar was Pope: and no State religion since his time has been an improvement on that of Caesar. In his habits Caesar was ascetic--a scholar by nature. He was tall, slender, and in countenance sad. For the intellect Nature had given him, she had taken toll by cheating him in form and feature. He was deliberate and of few words--he listened in a way that always first complimented the speaker and then disconcerted him. By birth he was a noble, and by adoption one of the people. He was both plebeian and patrician. His military experience had been but slight, though creditable, and his public addresses were so few that no one claimed he was an orator. He had done nothing of special importance, and yet the feeling was everywhere that he was the greatest man in Rome. The nobles feared him, trembling at thought of his displeasure. The people loved him--he called them, "My children."