“It will merely be anticipating a step which you must have taken eventually, and which will come from you now with a much better grace. No one not belonging to the Orthodox Church could be considered as a serious candidate for the heritage of John Theophanis.”
“And yet you have invited me to consider myself a serious candidate without saying a word about this?”
“The thing was so obvious that no mention was needed. It was certain that the necessity would force itself upon you as soon as you considered the question at your leisure.” The Professor’s tone was bold, but his eyes were shifty.
“Well, it hasn’t. What’s more, the exact opposite has. If I had felt any drawing towards the Greek Church before I came to Emathia, what I have seen would have altered my views. My object is to unite the Emathian Christians, not to accentuate their divisions. To throw myself on the side of the Patriarchists would make every Slav in Emathia my bitter enemy. Why, I would almost rather turn Exarchist, as my wife is already enlisted on the Greek side.”
“A heterodox Emperor is no Emperor,” said the Professor, with deadly meaning.
“A good many of my ancestors were not particularly Orthodox,” said Maurice drily.
“All the Christians in Emathia—Greeks and Slavs alike—would unite against the heretic who dared to aspire to——”
“I’m very glad to hear it,” Maurice broke in. “First time in their history they ever united for or against anything. I should have achieved a triumph. But I don’t believe they would. If they have never united against the Moslem they would scarcely do it against me.”
“Are you so false to your race that you could bring yourself to adopt a neutral, even a hostile, attitude towards it?” cried the Professor. “Are our sufferings, our sacrifices, our efforts towards emancipation, clogged by the dead weight of the sullen indifference of the Slavs, nothing to you?”
“I think the Greeks are getting hard measure at present, undoubtedly, but it’s only what they have given in the past. Your ignorant, avaricious priests and self-seeking Bishops and Patriarchs have much to answer for in alienating the people upon whom they were forced. Your men of letters have stifled all culture but their own, and they have their reward in a population bitterly hostile to Greek and ignorant of everything else.”