The baby date palm had been planted and stood looking rather foolish and futile in the late afternoon glow when Tras came to tell Cleopatra that a messenger had arrived from Rome. The queen showed no precipitate emotion. On the contrary she merely said, "He can await me in the inner ante-chambre, and I will come presently." Tras departed with these instructions.
Meanwhile the queen, by nature a philosopher in spite of her occasional lapses, continued to enjoy the moment. She was gifted with that rare faculty since aptly named by the French, then a barbarous and Nittle known, race, as couper lo fi,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.