Sydney C. Grier

“ The Lady laughed, and fastened the clasp. “I will risk the ill-luck if it makes me Empress,” she said.
Prince Romanos gazed at her in unfeigned admiration. “Olimpia, you are magnificent! You look the Empress to the life. May I yet see you wear the girdle at our coronation in Hagion Pneuma!” He knelt and lifted the edge of the wine-coloured robe to his lips. “Hail to the Orthodox Empress!” he said fervently in Greek, and Danaë thrilled with horror at the sacrilege. Were there no bounds to her brother’s infatuation?
The Lady blushed slightly at the fervour of her husband’s tone. ”

“ With huge delight Despina and Mariora dragged their prisoner away and shut her up in the wood-shed until Petros should arrive with the Prince. Janni’s piteous wailings for “Nono,” which could only be calmed by undivided attention from his mother, troubled them not a whit, but they added fuel to the fire which burned in the rebellious heart of the girl who crouched exhausted on the ground after a wild and futile attack on the door. If Danaë had felt before that she did well to be angry with the Lady and her household, she would now gladly have seen them all lying dead before her. ”

“ Always tell the truth,” he said bluffly. To his utter stupefaction, Danaë unclasped the Girdle of Isidora from her waist, and laid it on the table.
“I would fain have spared you this shame, lord,” she said sadly. “Lady,” she turned to Zoe, “my lord gave this holy thing to the schismatic woman, and hailed her as Orthodox Empress. When she was dead, I took it from where I had seen her put it, and hid it, that it might be safe for my little lord’s wife when he grows up.”
“My girdle!” Danaë’s voice was drowned by Eirene’s shriek of joy as she sprang forward and seized the jewel. ”

“ The only one who seems to have been badly treated is my goddaughter. What says the Lady Danaë? Does she wish the betrothal broken, if it can be done?”
“Nothing less so, lord,” cried Danaë eagerly. “I had no desire to marry the Lord Narkissos.”
“Then it looks as if everyone was satisfied,” said Kyrios Parthenios gravely. “Let us have the coffee, Danaë,” in the most audible of whispers. “Come, friend Agesilaos,” to Prince Christodoridi, “let the young folks kiss your hand. I’m sure I never saw a handsomer couple since the day I was best man to yourself and my friend Kyria Xantippe there. ”

“ THE LADY. It was a very woe-begone and dishevelled Danaë, not at all like an inspired deliverer, who stumbled ashore on the quay at Therma at the rough bidding of Petros. The passage had been a stormy one, and the island girl, who could have faced a gale without serious discomfort in a fishing-boat, had succumbed hopelessly to the vile odours and eccentric motion of the wretched little steamer that carried her from the neighbouring island of Tortolana, Strio’s nearest link with civilisation, to the capital of her brother’s principality. ”

“ The spoon which was approaching Harold’s open mouth landed a dose of bread and milk on his pinafore instead, as Danaë rushed in and threw herself on the floor, burying her face in the folds of Linton’s gown.
“Oh, Sofia, I am the most wicked and miserable girl that ever lived. I am worse than a beast!”
“There, there!” said Linton with creditable sympathy, “don’t take it to heart so much as all that, Kalliopé. It’s well that you should see it for yourself, but there’s no use making a fuss about it. Show your repentance by doing, not by talking, is my motto. ”

“ Next to Petros, Prince Romanos was the last person she desired to see at the moment, and she dropped down behind the parapet, but not before he had caught a glimpse of her. The moment before, he had been walking wearily, like one tired and depressed, his shoulders bowed, his very moustache drooping. But the merest sight of a handsome girl acted as a challenge, and he drew himself up, squared his shoulders and twisted his moustache. ”

“ Danaë stamped her foot. “Fool! to carry off the Lady to Strio to her prison, of course. And how are the little lord and I to return thither, pray? Did you think the Lord Romanos would willingly part with his son?”
“My lady”—Petros looked at her with cunning eyes—“you are wiser than I. I have indeed been remiss, but the boat shall be ready. How could my lord your father be other than delighted to receive the beloved wife and child of his illustrious son?”
“She is not his wife!” cried Danaë. “His wife must be Orthodox and of royal blood. She is neither.” ”

“ But suppose the English lord doesn’t think you come up to the report he has heard?”
“Oh, do you think he will be disappointed, lord?” breathed Angeliké, with such anxious misery that her father’s heart was melted.
“Suppose we let him see you, girl? Shall I ask him to the betrothal? It is well to be courteous to strangers.”
“Ah, lord, if you would! And then nothing need be said unless—unless you should feel that you would like an English son-in-law. All the English are very rich, I have heard Danaë or some one say.” ”

“ Danaë hid her face upon her mistress’s breast, and clung to her trembling and shivering. “Is it true? Am I a witch?”
“No, nonsense! There are no such things. Lie down, or you will faint again.” To Zoe’s intense astonishment, the girl had pushed her away, and was trying to raise herself by a chair.
“Lady, it is true. I have bewitched you, and you don’t know it. Let me go away, before I do you more harm. If I give myself freely to death, that will remove the spell.” ”

“ Mariora caught her one day stealing into the kitchen to rub her finger on the sooty side of a saucepan, for did not everyone—save foreigners and atheists—know that a dab of soot behind a child’s ear was the surest means of averting the evil eye? But Despina and Mariora laid aside their differences to drag the culprit into their mistress’s presence, and accuse her with one voice of laying spells on the illustrious little lord—a charge which Danaë found particularly galling from those who ought to have shared her Orthodox beliefs had they not been corrupted by European incredulity. ”

“ Prince Romanos had thrown himself on his knees, in an attitude that would have been impossibly theatrical in any other man. “You wrong me deeply; I call all the saints to witness to it. Believe me, you should not remain in concealment another hour, if the necessity were not urgent. It is your throne and mine—Janni’s throne, our son’s throne—that is in danger. Trust your husband,” he leaned forward and enfolded her hands in his—“or if not your husband, trust the poet to whom you plighted your troth on the marble terrace among the orange-trees.” ”

“ She just said, ‘Call it Isidora,’ and turned her face to the wall.”
“But she is not dead?” asked Danaë, awestruck.
“No, poor Eirene can’t even die dramatically. Her schemes never come off,” said Zoe, with a touch of her old flippancy. “Don’t look at me so reproachfully, Graham. You know that poor baby would have died if I hadn’t gone and fetched it and given it into Linton’s charge. And poor Maurice so fond of it, and creeping in by stealth to see it for fear of hurting Eirene’s feelings! I have no patience with her. She might be fond of it for his sake, if not for its own.” ”

“ Emancipation had not been by any means wholly a boon to the inhabitants of Strio—rather it had brought about a distinct diminution both of their liberties and their prosperity, owing to the restraints imposed by their union with the mainland kingdom. Therefore the friendliness for England and individual Englishmen, so noticeable in most Greek communities, was conspicuous by its absence, and the truculent looks of the swarthy loafers on the quay made Armitage feel as if he was venturing into a pirates’ lair. ”

“ Could they have guessed that she and Janni were hidden in the grounds, and be lying in wait in the house, ready to pounce upon them when hunger should drive them forth? Danaë shook from head to foot as the thought occurred to her, but a howl from Janni brought her back to him in a panic, and made action inevitable. Quieting him with promises and entreaties, she let herself down from the tree, and starting at every sound, crept through the bushes and reconnoitred the kitchen door. There was no one to be seen, and she ventured inside. ”

“ What is a woman more or less when the hope of the house is concerned?”
“All-Holy Mother of God! I could wish you had been my son, Danaë,” cried the Prince, with unwonted enthusiasm, “instead of that popinjay Romanos! But make no mistake,” he added repressively, “I send you merely because I would not reveal to any other the disgrace that threatens us. You will swear to obey the worthy Petros as if he were myself, since he will answer to me for your failure or success.”
“I am putting my neck in a noose,” grumbled Petros. ”

“ In the nursery Linton, with spectacles on nose, was busily engaged upon a cloth gown of Zoe’s, which she had evidently been renovating and altering.
“I couldn’t bear to let that poor girl go without some little thing to show there was no ill-feeling, ma’am,” she whispered hoarsely. “She has been crying in bed fit to break your heart, and I thought it might comfort her a bit if we let her go off in European clothes. There’s this dress of yours that the Master can’t bear the colour of, as good as new, and she’ll look a real lady in it, now that I’ve altered it to fit her.” ”

“ You say she shall not. I take you at your word. Let us proceed at once to the election of another Prince, who shall carry on the work our lost hero had begun. Is there any doubt whom we should choose? Is not the friend, the comrade of Romanos with us, who submitted to waive his own claims and labour for the good of Emathia, to whom he whom we have lost desired to entrust the safety of the nation? Theophanis for Prince!”
From the deputies and the crowd in the square burst an overwhelming shout, “Theophanis for Prince!” ”

“ Angeliké sneered unpleasantly.
Danaë flushed. “You never wanted to fight for him,” she said.
“I should think not! What good is it to us that he was chosen Prince? And even if he had sent for us to Therma,” with a sudden change of ground, “would there have been any pleasure in it? We don’t know European ways, we can’t even speak French. People would have laughed at us. If I can once get a husband and escape from Strio, that is all I want, and you may be quite sure our father would never let us marry Europeans.”
“I suppose a husband like Narkissos Smaragdopoulos would satisfy you?” ”

“ Meanwhile Danaë wore European clothes all day long, had Janni with her whenever she was not out of doors, and found herself and her husband the cynosure of every eye and the attraction at every social gathering they could manage to attend. Armitage’s boyish face and grey hair made such a piquant contrast with the splendid beauty of his wife that it only needed the discovery that Lady Armitage was a child of nature from the islands to send Therma wild about them. ”

“ Tell the Lady whom you mean when you speak of the Despot, child.”
“He of Strio, lord,” with evident surprise.
“Just so. But here there are two other Despots, he of Therma, which is myself, and he of Klaustra, who is——”
“My dear Romanos! She will think you are in earnest.”
“And am I not, my most beautiful? But come, child, tell me whether the girls run about over the roofs in the spring evenings in Strio as they used to do?”
Danaë was horrified. “But no one knows about it, lord—especially no man.”
“Not even the lad who hides in a doorway to get speech with one particular girl? ”

“ But that’s just it, Kalliopé. You must learn to tell the truth without fear of consequences. You would like to see Janni grow up brave and truthful, like an English boy—like what I hope Harold will be?”
“I should not like to see him grow up a fool,” said Danaë smartly. Then she was frightened by what she had said. “O, my lady, you are right, and I am very ungrateful. Make my little lord what you please; it can only be good. ”

“ But when it comes it must be a beautiful one, to look out through those glorious eyes.”
“That’s just what I feel about her,” said Zoe—“that she has no soul, I mean. But she is such a fine creature, I long to see the soul appear. Perhaps she is really a sea-nymph, not a girl at all.”
“But the nymphs could gain souls,” said Armitage.
“By taking them from other people?” said Wylie meaningly. “Don’t build up too much of a romance about the girl, old man, for whatever may be the truth about her soul, it’s absolutely certain that she has no conscience. ”

“ Petros grinned. “The Lord Harold has a value of his own, my lady. I own that I meant at first to make him serve both purposes, but now you might sooner carry a pet dog through the streets of Czarigrad than a blue-eyed child through the ranks of Glafko’s police. He must stay where he is for the present, but you and I and the other can get through all right with the help of the gipsies. They know something about disguises.”
“So I see,” said Danaë absently, glancing at the skilful alterations made in his appearance by the dark dye on his face and the ferocious horns of his moustache. ”

“ Struggling and screaming, Danaë was held fast by the women-servants while her hair was cut off by her father’s dagger, and thereafter, a miserable little shorn object, she had been held up to every visitor as a model of juvenile depravity until her mother grew tired of the subject—the injured Angeliké meanwhile basking on the softest cushions, and enjoying the first taste of every dainty dish. ”

“ Her sister-in-law, the Lady Zoe, ranked far higher in the estimation of the Emathians, since in the veins of her son ran the blood not only of the Theophanis Emperors but of their adored Glafko, whom they handsomely credited with having led them to victory in Hagiamavra. To Danaë’s ears this feeling supplied only the crowning proof of the impiety and heresy of the Slavs among the Emathians. They could welcome a mere ordinary Englishman, schismatic to the backbone, without one drop of royal blood, as the ancestor of their future Emperors! ”

“ Petros looked grieved. “Lady, you have asked, and I have answered. You know best whether the Lady Danaë desired to return to Strio. To me in my humility it appeared that she did not. If Milordo thought so too, may he not be visiting the island to show her what she has lost?”
“But that is insulting to us!” cried Angeliké.
“The English are like that, lady. They will take infinite pains to insult those they dislike. Nay, I have seen them show atrocious rudeness for mere wantonness.” ”

“ Prince Christodoridi was puzzled by the warmth of personal feeling in the answer.
“Is it not the affair of all when one of us disgraces himself, lord?” Danaë was regaining her courage now that discovery had not been followed by instant death.
“No, insolent one! Has your mother not taught you yet that it is no affair of a woman what any of her men choose to do? Then you will have time to learn it in solitude here while Petros returns to his master.” ”

“ Evidently Prince Romanos had called the sentry to his help, for the stout planks gave way with a crash, and he burst in. “Where is your mistress?” he cried fiercely, seizing Danaë by the shoulder.
“She lies there, lord. She has not moved,” she faltered.
“A doctor! fetch a doctor!” cried Prince Romanos to the sentry, “and, Christos,” to the guard who was holding his horse, “the police—no, the chief of police. He is to come alone. Show me where your mistress is, Eurynomé. You say she has fainted?” ”

“ Danaë could bear no more. Her brother was unconscious of her presence, and she burst through the bushes and ran across the lawn to the spot where she had left Janni. Catching him up, she hastened back and tried to put him into his father’s arms.
“See, lord, you are not left wholly desolate. There is yet one to love and that loves you.”
“Take the child away!” said Prince Romanos angrily.
“But, lord, your little son!”
“Take him away. What do I care for him? It is his mother I want—not a baby that cannot speak.” He turned again to the Lady’s body. “Sweet, hast thou no word for thy lover? ”