“Oh, Prince Christodoridi’s son Romanos, the other claimant, you know. When he wrote to my husband that he understood we were promoting a negotiation that gravely concerned his interests, we couldn’t wait to ask how he had heard of it, we could only invite him here. My husband wished to tell you at once, but I persuaded him to let the meeting be a surprise. I wanted Prince Romanos to meet my dear Zeto and fall in love with her without knowing who she was, so that there could be no quarrelling when it became known that he was here.”
“But what good could it do if he did fall in love with her?” asked Eirene blankly, her mind running upon the various disastrous consequences that were bound to ensue from this most inconvenient intrusion.
“Oh, but he could not fight against her brother then!” said Princess Emilia with conviction. “And Zeto might say she would not marry him unless he consented to acknowledge Prince Theophanis as the rightful heir. Of course I hoped she would fall in love with him too, because then she could make him do anything she wanted. That was why I did not tell her who he was, lest she should steel her heart against him as the enemy of her family.”
“It would have done no good if we had known of his coming earlier,” murmured Eirene, still intent upon her own thoughts. “We should not have been able to do anything,—it is not time yet.”
Princess Emilia listened with a puzzled face. “But you do think mine was a good plan, don’t you?” she asked. “I can’t quite decide whether it has succeeded or not yet, but you would be glad if it did?”
“Glad? Oh, yes!” laughed Eirene drearily. “But you don’t realise that Zoe is not the right girl to make a plan like that succeed. And he is not the right man.”
The worst forebodings of Eirene and the Professor were justified by the effect produced on the Emathian delegates by the appearance of Prince Romanos. All the animosities and differences of opinion which had begun to show signs of slumbering broke out afresh, and purely practical questions were shelved indefinitely in view of the primary importance of a disputed title. Among the bewildering complexities of race, religion, and political feeling that divided the delegates, it became gradually clear that while the Slavs, with whom went those of Scythian sympathies, were on Maurice’s side, the Greeks, and with them the friends of Pannonian ascendency, took that of Prince Romanos. A small group of Greeks—the personal adherents of Professor Panagiotis—remained faithful to Maurice, and an irreconcilable party, headed by Lazar Nilischeff, advocated the cutting of the Gordian knot by a request to Thracia to take over the whole of Emathia, while there were isolated supporters of similar action on the part of Mœsia and Morea. Still, the salient fact was that the harmony, and therefore the advantage, of the conference was destroyed. It was no use continuing to thresh out the questions from the discussion of which the rough draft of a constitution had gradually been emerging; and even Wylie’s scheme of raising a body of Sikhs, time-expired soldiers of the Indian army, as the nucleus of a central police, which had been warmly welcomed on the one hand and as violently opposed on the other, had lost its interest. As the less educated among the delegates demanded with one voice, whenever any attempt was made to continue the interrupted deliberations, what was the good of fiddling about details when the essential question, Who was to rule Emathia as the nominee of the Powers and the people? was still undecided. Passing popas were seized upon and catechised, and expeditions were made to interrogate mountain hermits of special sanctity, with the result of a wonderfully varied collection of answers. Was Maurice Theophanis, descendant in the direct line of the elder son of the Emperor John, debarred from succeeding by the fact that neither his immediate ancestors nor himself were members of the Orthodox Church? Did her marriage with a schismatic also invalidate the claim of his wife Eirene, descended from the younger son of John Theophanis? And in view of this flaw, was the otherwise inferior claim of the Christodoridi family, who sprang only from a female descendant of the Emperor, that which ought to prevail?
The arguments were interminable and warm, and the arbitrators to whom it was suggested to refer the matter ranged from the Hercynian Emperor to the President of the United States. Prince Romanos himself adhered firmly to the condition he had announced on his first appearance before the delegates. He was prepared to submit his claim to the arbitration of the Œcumenical Patriarch, and abide by his decision. Could anything be fairer, as the question was one of religion? Since it was practically a foregone conclusion that the Patriarch would decide in favour of the Orthodox candidate of Orthodox descent, Maurice and his supporters were unable to feel the same confidence in his impartiality, but a rift began to make itself felt between the Emathian Slavs and those with Scythian sympathies. The latter, though usually much opposed to the claims of the Patriarch, supported the reference of the matter to him, and in consequence of this defection it became clear that, in case of a division, Maurice would be outvoted. This point was not actually reached, but on the adjournment of the debate Professor Panagiotis hurried to Eirene.
“This is what I feared!” he cried. “It is an arrangement between Scythia and Pannonia. In order to gain time, one of them will support your husband, the other the Christodoridis, and they will both favour a reference to the Œcumenical Patriarch, who will take from a year to a year and a half to give his decision. We can do nothing until the snow melts, and yet, unless we can checkmate this plan, we are condemned to a delay that will be fatal to our hopes.”
“We must try to work on Prince Romanos,” suggested Eirene, but not cheerfully. “The Princess of Dardania is very anxious that he should marry Princess Zoe.”