Zoe fled to the sick-room, tearing off her hat as she went, and Eirene took the note from the messenger. It was very short.
“Things have come to a crisis sooner than I expected. If anything is to be done, it must be to-day.—O.”
“I will come,” she said, and with trembling fingers tied on the black bonnet with its long fall of crape reaching to the ground, reminiscent of the court mourning of her early days in Scythia, which had made Maurice so anxious and uneasy when he caught sight of it once that the doctor had fairly driven her out of the room. Together they had concocted a myth concerning Eirene’s desire to show sympathy with the families of the slain insurgents, which the patient’s dulled brain and limited powers of asking questions had not yet been able to penetrate; but Eirene had not ventured to appear in the bonnet again in his room, though she scouted angrily the surgeon’s blunt advice that she should consider the living husband before the dead child, and defer the outward tokens of woe for the present. She did not herself realise the actual satisfaction that her depth of crape gave her; it was in accordance with her feelings and the situation, and she derived a certain mournful pleasure from it.
“I am glad you have lost no time,” said the Princess, when she was ushered into her presence. “This affair at Therma renders your husband’s position most precarious.”
“Are the rioters demanding his death?” asked Eirene, almost in a whisper.
“Rioters? This is not a riot. It is an attack by Roumi troops on the troops and Consulates of the three ‘Liberal’ Powers—the three Powers which are protecting your husband. Jalal-ud-din remains passive. The Scythian and Pannonian Consulates have so far escaped, and the Hercynian Consulate has actually been saluted by the revolted troops. There lies your danger.”
“Hercynia has always been hostile,” murmured Eirene.
“Hercynia is ranged on the side of Roum. If this outbreak is quelled, Hercynia will act as mediator between her protégée and the insulted Powers, and her first duty will be to show that Roum is more sinned against than sinning. She will demand the instant surrender of the Hagiamavra leaders.”
“But they would not grant it, when Roum has allowed the Consuls to be attacked.”
“They would not, if there was a sufficiently strong party in the Concert against it. At present the Powers are three and three, and because Scythia and Pannonia and Hercynia know what they want, and England is willing to obey any one who tells her what to do, they will prevail. But if one of them is detached, England will gladly help to form a majority on the side she herself prefers.”