“Do you mean to marry her against her will?” asked Cyril.
“No, I shall see her and make her understand the state of the case—not telling her anything of what you have said, of course. But I am sure I could have made her listen to me before, only she begged me not to urge her against her conscience, and I obeyed her, like a fool! At any rate, I won’t do that again. It would be absurd to talk about refusing me now for the sake of the kingdom,—after what has happened she must know that, for if I don’t marry her I shan’t marry at all,—and besides, when once the people hear why she came here to-day, they will be ready to worship her.”
“Then I suppose there is no use in my giving you her message?” said Cyril.
“You may as well let me have it,” said Caerleon, reluctantly.
“She impressed upon me that she would not consent to see you under any circumstances. She said she came here to try to do you a service, and found herself your prisoner. If you chose to force yourself upon her in defiance of her wishes, she must submit, since you were her gaoler, but she believed you were a gentleman, and would respect her desire for privacy.”
“What is one to do with a girl like that?” groaned Caerleon. He would have liked to accuse Cyril of inventing the message, but it bore the impress of Nadia’s somewhat impracticable style of heroism too plainly not to be genuine. “Still, she doesn’t understand the case. I will put it to her that if she will marry me, she will be clearing me from imputations that have been made against me.”
“If she doesn’t understand the case then, she is not so clever as I think her,” retorted Cyril; “and if you don’t put it strong enough she won’t listen to you for a moment. Now look here: she has a home promised her at Pavelsburg with Princess Soudaroff, her godmother, with whom she lived before, and she only needs an escort to the Scythian frontier. The governor’s wife would be quite willing to take the little trip at your expense, and I will accompany them as far as Boloszjen, where they will get the proper train. Then she will be all right, and we can hush the matter up without any scandal at all.”
“And leave this wretched slander unrefuted?”
“Nonsense! the mere fact of the Princess’s receiving her again into her house will refute it. Besides, I contradicted it at the time.”
“I am extremely obliged to you for your solicitude about my affairs. Perhaps on another occasion you will remember that I also have some slight interest in them. Well, I will see her, and then decide.”