"She might consent to enter the True Church." The Countess was an incurable optimist.
"And a foreigner."
She laughed. "Why, Father, Minnie would love the sort of life we live in times of peace ... she would not always be wanting to gad about to Paris and Monte Carlo, like so many young women."
"Do you mean to say that you will encourage her?" he asked in horror. "How about the little Princess whose father would be only too----"
"I don't mean to say anything, or encourage anybody," she replied. "But I can't turn Minnie out of doors now that the Grand Duke says Ruvno is safe."
"The ruined tower looked such a good pretext," he said ruefully.
"And it failed."
"I would not consent to Ian's marrying a heretic," she went on. "Besides, he would not want to."
"He would not. I know him better than that..." The Poles have suffered so much for their faith that they put it side by side with their country. With them to say a man is Catholic means that he is neither Russian nor Jew, but a Pole.
"I don't see that Ian is very keen about her anyway," she said after a pause.