“Oh yes!” with infinite relief. “I can leave it all with you, and go back to my husband. But how is the Lady Zoe?”
“Very well, thank you, but she is not so very far off, you know. You will find her at the Palace. She refused to let me leave her behind.”
“Oh, I must go to her!” cried Danaë. “You won’t mind if I leave you? This gentleman, my aide-de-camp, will explain everything, and you will know what to do far better than I do.”
Hardly waiting for his answer, she rode away, and on arriving at the Palace demanded eagerly where the Princess Zoe was, and ran upstairs to find her. Zoe, instructing the rough Emathian handmaid who had accompanied her in Linton’s place in the art of unpacking, found her door suddenly burst open to admit a human whirlwind with flying plaits and draperies, which dropped at her feet.
“Oh, lady, lady mine!”
“Kalliopé, my dear child! Come, let me look at you. Why, you are taller than ever—and so much improved!”
“Really, lady? Not a savage any more?”
“I never called you a savage, I am sure.”
“Artemisia did, and Princess Theophanis, and all of them. Tell me quickly, lady—am I different?”
Zoe turned her face to the light, and looked at her searchingly, while the girl knelt blushing and trembling. “Very different. You have found your soul, my little mermaid.”