“Simply to bring them together. If Teffany wants her, he won’t let her go again, after his sister and I have piled up the agony about endless separation and the dangers that will surround the Princess in Scythia.”
“Ah, and what interest have you and Miss Teffany in the affair?” demanded the Professor, severely.
“Miss Teffany hopes to gratify her brother, who would have come into Therma to-day to try and see the Princess, if I had not insisted on coming instead. My only interest is to gratify a wish expressed by Miss Teffany.”
Baffled by the unmoved tone, Professor Panagiotis went on towards the carriage, where Eirene, tired out, had fallen asleep in her corner. Wylie presented the Professor to her, and gave what money he had with him to the friendly sergeant, to distribute among his men, before taking his seat. The soldiers who had formed the cordon surrounded the carriage, and they drove slowly towards the gate nearest Kallimeri. Many streets were blocked with the ruins of houses which had been destroyed, in others fires were raging and troops forbade passage, in others the search for revolutionists was still being carried on, to the accompaniment of shots and shrieks, others again were empty, save for rigid forms prone in the shadow of the houses. At the gate, the Vali’s seal, exhibited by the officer of the escort, obtained them a speedy passage, and the soldiers convoyed them through the environs of the town until they were safely on the upland road leading to Kallimeri. Then the escort was dismissed, the driver was at length allowed to whip up his horses, and in the wild, headlong style dear to him and his tribe they rattled up to the villa.
“Oh, what has been happening?” cried Zoe, rushing down from a point of vantage beside the gate. “We have seen explosions, and the most dreadful fires—not the ordinary kind that happen every night, but whole streets must have been burnt. We were all so frightened. I have been watching here for hours.”
“That was very dangerous,” said Wylie, his heart leaping, nevertheless. He had jumped out of the carriage to meet her, and the Professor and Eirene, the latter still slumbering, had driven on. “If a revolutionist had been hanging about ready to blow up the villa, he would have killed you, lest you should give the alarm.”
“But in that case I shouldn’t have been much better off in the house,” said Zoe flippantly. “It was revolutionists, then—who have been blowing up the town, I mean? So you were not able to deliver my note, I suppose?”
“Wasn’t I?” said Wylie triumphantly. “Why, I’ve brought the Princess back. She’s in the carriage.”
“In the carriage? Eirene? and you have kept me walking slowly here! What will she think of me?”
“Wait one minute,” said Wylie, as Zoe quickened her pace to a run; “I’m very proud of myself for the way in which I did your errand, for I have had to employ all the resources of diplomacy to overcome the Princess’s objections to coming here, and the Professor’s objections to having her. But we must manage to rush things a bit to-morrow morning, for she means to go back.”