“Certainly not, if the Lady Zoe prefers it,” said Wylie heartily. “Shall I go and tell her so? But I suppose I am not the proper person. Would you like to represent it to her?” he asked the spokesman, who hesitated, but recovered himself quickly.
“Nay, lord; how could I put the thing as it should be put? Let the Lord Romanos himself ask her, for who should plead his cause better than he himself?”
Again the rest applauded, and Prince Romanos seemed to shake off a certain hesitation, and looked round laughing.
“I take you all to witness that I am sent on this errand without my consent. One does not go by choice to propose to another man’s bride. But if I have your moral support——? The ladies are at home, Prince?”
He disappeared indoors, and the assembly awaited his return breathlessly. When he came back, he was still laughing.
“The Lady Zoe says she would not marry me if I were the only man in the world,” he said. “Well, you will at least bear witness that it was not I who refused, but she.”
The delegates assented sadly, and the spokesman propounded, without enthusiasm, an alternative plan.
“Let the Prince and his wife adopt the Lord Romanos as their son.” Maurice winced painfully. “Then he may take part in the government while they live, and reign after them.”
“The idea is not a bad one,” murmured Professor Panagiotis, who had come in almost unnoticed, and taken his place beside Maurice. But Prince Romanos laughed boisterously.
“My dear good friends, I hope Prince Theophanis will live a hundred years, but I do not propose to be kept out of my inheritance as long as that. No, what I want is to be Prince of Emathia at once. He wants the same. Therefore we must fight it out.”