But this morning, after breaking fast, he was taken into council, and the proposal of marriage being submitted to him, he asked first:
"What are thy inclinations, daughter?"
And she made unreserved confession.
The aged priest spread his hands paternally over her head, and, looking upward, said solemnly: "I think I see the Great Designer's purpose. He gave thee, O daughter, thy beauties of person and spirit, and raised thee up out of unspeakable sorrows, that the religion of Christ should not perish utterly in the East. Go forward in the way He has opened unto thee. Only insist that Mahommed present himself at thy altar, and there swear honorable dealing with thee as his wife, and to keep the treaty proposed by him in spirit and letter. Doth he those things without reservation, then fear not. The old Greek Church is not all we would have it, but how much better it is than irreligion; and who can now say what will happen once our people are returned to the city?"
* * * * *
In the afternoon, a boat with one rower touched at the same marble quay, and disembarked an Arab. His face was a dusty brown, and he wore an abba such as children of the Desert affect. His dark eyes were wonderfully bright, and his bearing was high, as might be expected in the Sheik of a tribe whose camels were thousands to the man, and who dwelt in dowars with streets after the style of cities. On his right forearm he carried a crescent-shaped harp of five strings, inlaid with colored woods and mother of pearl.
"Does not the Princess Irene dwell here?" he asked.
Lysander, viewing him suspiciously, answered: "The Princess Irene dwells here."
"Wilt thou tell her one Aboo-Obeidah is at the door with a blessing and a story for her?"
The doorkeeper again disappeared, and, returning, answered, with evident misgivings, "The Princess Irene prays you to come in."