"Felix, it is impossible!"
"Ah! Then you don't love our Alec."
"I—I have not heard a word from his lips—well, hardly a syllable——"
"Not in the letter?"
"That is different. Felix, I can trust you. Perhaps, under other conditions, I might marry Alec; but now I cannot."
"Why?"
"Because he is a King."
"The best of reasons, if he was bred in a palace. But he has lived long enough to become a man first. Frankly, Joan, I like Alec, and I think he ought to be given a chance. At any rate, I don't see why you are afraid of him."
"I am not. Indeed, I am not!" Joan's voice was tremulous. She was on the verge of tears; for the little Pole's persistence was breaking down the barrier that she had striven to erect against her lover's pleading. Alec had not said much in his letter; but what he did say was wholly to the point.