“Would ut be quite impossuble?” asked the O’Malachy, as she closed the door sharply behind her.
“Quite,” returned his wife. “Drakovics and Milord Cyril watch over him night and day. No one is allowed to hold communication with him except through them.”
“Yes,” rejoined Prince Soudaroff, meditatively. “I fear King Carlino has had his last chance.”
“I observe,” said Madame O’Malachy, “that in your conversation with my daughter you made no allusion to the religious difficulty, M. le Prince.”
“If so, madame, it is for the excellent reason that no religious difficulty exists. On the contrary, the fact that mademoiselle is a member of the Orthodox Church has contributed largely to induce the Emperor to suggest the terms I was authorised to offer.”
“But sure the girl’s a schismatic—an Evangelical, or whatever the fools call themselves?” cried the O’Malachy, while his wife nodded quickly.
“Pardon me, my dear colonel, but Scythian law makes no provision for schismatics. Mademoiselle was baptised in the Orthodox Church, and it is impossible for her to quit it. Her marriage, to be valid, must be celebrated according to the orthodox rite, and the Emperor and the clergy may be trusted not to lose the hold they would thus gain upon Thracia.”
“That such a scheme should be wrecked by a girl’s obstinacy!” cried Madame O’Malachy. “It is maddening!”
CHAPTER XVI.
WORDS FROM DYING LIPS.
Prince Soudaroff left Witska that afternoon, and the week allowed to Nadia for deliberation slipped away, but no message was sent to request him to return or to accept the offer with which he was charged. If he was mortified by this lack of success, he must have felt himself avenged a little later, when both his auguries of evil in turn proved true. The first hint of the fulfilment of his prophecy reached Nadia one morning when her mother threw a newspaper to her as she came into the sitting-room.