“But it also means a larger area to guard,” objected Maurice.
“Do the men good. They are getting fed up with the notion that they know all that there is to be known of drill, and are practically invincible. They are growing stale from too much contemplation of their own military virtues. A few small affairs, in which they would get just a little knocked about, would do them all the good in the world, and possibly avert the general stampede which would be a moral certainty if the Roumis attacked us in force to-day with artillery.”
“But the Powers,” persisted Maurice. “They have really displayed remarkable forbearance, and to prejudice our cause in their eyes by acts of aggression——”
“Prince,” said Wylie solemnly, “make no mistake. You can’t prejudice your cause in the eyes of the Powers, because it is already damned beyond redemption as far as three of them are concerned. You want a free and independent Emathia and they don’t. They don’t venture to deal with you themselves, because they are horribly jealous of one another, and they have a haunting fear that England might suddenly go mad and do something rash and high-sounding if they attempted anything like the partition of Poland over again too soon. But they mean to see you cleared out, and by fair means or foul they’ll do it. To sit still and wait will only prolong the agony. Let ’em see you’ve got teeth and will die game.”
“But if we die, we want our dying to do some good for Emathia,” said Maurice.
“Well, and it will do more good to die fighting than preserving a correct moral attitude on a pedestal. We have the shadow of a chance one way, none the other. Not to mention that you can’t play Christodoridi’s game better than by holding the men back when they want to fight.”
“What is his game—your view of it, I mean?”
“To make himself prince and marry your sister.”
The unhesitating reply surprised Maurice. “But Zoe won’t have anything to say to him,” he objected.
“I hope she will.” Wylie said it with the grim determination of the man who prides himself on rising superior to his own feelings. “If he brings off the other part of the programme, of course, that is. Sort of compensation to you for cutting you out, don’t you see? Awfully good for him, too. She would keep him in hand—might even make something of him.”