“Yes, but the punishment need not last for ever,” she said eagerly. “You can never be quite so happy as you might have been, of course, but there is something in making another person happy. Apolis himself does not pretend that he never loved before——” Zoe’s lip curled involuntarily. “His first love married some one else. He can never forget her, of course, but he does not steel his heart against happiness. He quoted to me so pathetically—
‘I saw him stand
Before an Altar—with a gentle bride;
Her face was fair, but was not that which made
The Starlight of his Boyhood;’
and he quite agreed with me what a beautiful idea it was for the two wounded hearts to console one another. He was only afraid that the opposition of your family would prevent your ever listening to him, and I was so glad to be able to tell him how favourably Prince and Princess Theophanis regarded the idea.”
“Favourably?” cried Zoe. “Why, Maurice will have no more to do with him than he can possibly help. He just tolerates him as an opponent, but he could not stand him as a friend. But Eirene—— Ah, I see!” a light breaking in upon her, “this is Eirene’s doing. She thinks it would further her plans in some way if I married Prince Romanos. Very well, I will talk to her.”
“But you will be kind to the poor man?” pleaded Princess Emilia.
Zoe could not trust herself to reply. She was eager to get back to Eirene and reproach her with her duplicity, for it was evident that she had, to say the least, allowed the Princess to believe that Maurice favoured the pretensions of Prince Romanos. When she succeeded in finding her sister-in-law alone, and poured forth her accusation, Eirene quailed at first before the storm.
“If you knew my difficulties, Zoe!” she said deprecatingly. “Our plans are threatened on every side, and I am perfectly distracted—ready to catch at a straw.”