CHAPTER V.
TWO DIPLOMATISTS.
The colloquy between Prince Christodoridi and his son had taken place at the farther end of the terrace, from which led the orange walk mentioned by Princess Emilia in speaking to Zoe. On a marble seat under the orange-trees, shaded by the terrace but invisible from it, sat a lady in black, who was a deeply interested auditor of all that passed. When Prince Romanos and his father prepared to descend the steps, she rose from her seat and hastened noiselessly down the avenue, turning sharply when she had gone about twenty yards, so that as they came round the curve in the marble staircase she was visible coming towards them under the orange-trees with a book in her hand.
“It is the Dowager Princess,” murmured Prince Romanos. “Permit me, madame, to present my father.”
A thought seemed to strike Prince Christodoridi as he glanced at the still handsome face, and noted the repressed fire of the dark eyes. “It is perhaps to you, madame, that I am indebted for the message that brought me here?” he asked in his bad French.
The Princess looked surprised. “To me, monsieur? Certainly not. It is not for me to send invitations to my son’s capital nowadays.”
“I am at Bashi Konak uninvited, madame. The message to which I refer was a warning that my son here was on the point of marriage with a schismatic, the sister of the impostor Teffany.”
“A message which I am hardly likely to have sent, since I have the best means of knowing that your son has not the slightest thought of the kind.” The Princess bestowed a sympathetic smile on Prince Romanos, who looked distinctly uncomfortable.
“So he tells me. As to the truth of the matter, you are happy if you can feel sure you have come upon it, madame. I trust you are on my side?”
“Undoubtedly, Prince. In my opinion it would be a grave mistake for your son to countenance the Teffany claims by allying himself with one of the family, as with an equal.”
“Madame, I see you are a woman of sense. But permit me to say I had doubted it. What is your connection with a wretched renegade Greek in Roumi employ, whom we picked up last night from the wreck of a fishing-boat we ran down?”