“AH, I see,” said Olga. “You have come to tell us this wonderful story about the comet, and the message you say you have received from Mars, over again. You are not the first who have prophesied the end of the world by such means, nor will you be the last to be discredited by the event.
“Once for all, then, let me save misunderstanding by telling you that I don’t believe a word of it, and therefore nothing that you can say will have any effect on the course of action that I have determined upon. You are of course at liberty to preach your truce elsewhere and at your own risk, though I fear it will be but the voice of one crying in the wilderness.”
“Yes, truly in the wilderness,” said Alma before Alan could reply, “but a wilderness that you have made with your own hand, Tsarina. You who have been the evil genius of the world, have you not done harm enough, now that the world has only a few more weeks to live?”
“According to the idle tale you bring us,” interrupted Olga, repressing with a barely successful effort the anger aroused afresh within her by the serene tone in which Alma spoke. It sounded rather like the voice of an angel speaking to a mortal than of one woman addressing another, and even to herself Olga was forced to admit that there could be no question of equality between this daughter of the air and herself.
“It is no idle tale,” replied Alma, almost in the same tone which she might have used in reproving a wayward child, “it is not even a prophecy, it is a mathematical certainty, and if you understood you would believe.”
“You are wasting time and your own breath,” said Olga scornfully. “You are not my guests but the Sultan’s, yet he may allow me to say that we have other demands upon our attention more important than listening to such sentimentalism as this.”
Before Alma could answer, Alan turned to the Sultan as though not deigning to reply to Olga’s insulting speech.
“Your Majesty, I see that this is no time to perform the mission upon which I came. We did not expect the presence of the Tsarina here. Had we done so we should not have come, for I know how vain it would be to reason with her. I came prepared to satisfy the most skilful astronomers in your kingdom that what I say is absolutely true, and I ventured to hope that you, if satisfied by their assurances, would give peace to the world for the remnant of its days.
“But even so it is not for us to interrupt or even to introduce an unpleasant element into the doings of to-day, so, with your Majesty’s permission, I will leave the calculations with your minister and relieve you and the Tsarina of our unwelcome presence.”