“If you don’t accept my explanation, I can only invite you to come down and look for yourselves,” replied the prisoner, with a shrug of his shoulders. Too late he remembered the Greek clothes he had thrown on the floor of the cell, but the lamp did not shed a very clear light, and he might be able to stand in front of them while Danaë escaped. His visitors followed him down through the doorway, and Prince Christodoridi swept the lamp round the place.
“We know some one must have——” he said angrily. “What are you making such faces for, girl?” for Angeliké was raising her eyebrows and pursing her lips with intense meaning.
“Oh, nothing, lord, nothing!” she stammered. “Do go; now; quick!” the words were a quite audible whisper. Armitage knew what was coming. From where her sister stood, Danaë was quite visible, penned into her hiding-place in all unconsciousness by Kyrios Smaragdopoulos.
“No escape for her or me!” he said to himself. “Well, let us do the only possible thing with the best grace at our command.” He stepped across to the door, just as Prince Christodoridi swept the light savagely in that direction, and led Danaë forward. “Lord and friends, I have the honour to ask the hand of the Lady Danaë in marriage. It was contrary to our customs to make the request of her father this morning, since I was not assured of her consent, but since I have had the happiness of seeing her again, I need hesitate no longer.”
“Such doings!” came in highly scandalised tones from Kyrios Loukas, while Narkissos giggled nervously in the background.
“I won’t——” burst from Danaë, but Armitage pressed her hand sharply, and her father turned on her in a fury.
“Go back to your mother, girl, this instant! And you too, Angeliké; what are you doing here?” The two girls vanished up the steps. “Friends, you are witnesses that the English lord has asked my elder daughter in marriage?”
“And I could ask nothing better for her!” said Kyrios Chalkiadi heartily. “And when am I to have the pleasure of bringing your bride to you, friend Milordo?”
“The sooner the better,” said Armitage gaily. “I must return to Therma next week. Why not take my bride with me?”
Narkissos was nudging his father, and Kyrios Loukas spoke. “Let us make a double wedding of it,” he said, with a vain attempt to emulate the joviality of the other two. “The Lady Danaë and her bridegroom can be betrothed and married first, and the contract between my son and her sister completed afterwards.”