“I knew you were disobedient to the servants and disrespectful to me, Eurynomé, but I thought I could trust you to take care of the little lord,” she said. “This is too much. Your uncle must deal with you. I can stand no more.”
With huge delight Despina and Mariora dragged their prisoner away and shut her up in the wood-shed until Petros should arrive with the Prince. Janni’s piteous wailings for “Nono,” which could only be calmed by undivided attention from his mother, troubled them not a whit, but they added fuel to the fire which burned in the rebellious heart of the girl who crouched exhausted on the ground after a wild and futile attack on the door. If Danaë had felt before that she did well to be angry with the Lady and her household, she would now gladly have seen them all lying dead before her. Her wrath was still hot when the two old women reappeared, and with various kicks and pinches, which were returned with interest, pulled and pushed her into the presence of her judges. Her cap, with its rows of silver coins, was half torn off, the many little plaits of her hair ragged and dishevelled, as she stood with sullen face and heaving breast before the Prince; but Janni, seated on his father’s knee, held out his arms to her with a delighted “Ah, Nono!” The girl’s face changed as if by magic as she started forward to take him, but Despina and Mariora held her forcibly back, and the Lady took instant possession of her son—a precaution which he resented by a violent howl.
“Give him your watch to play with,” she said hastily to her husband, “or we shall not be able to hear ourselves speak. Eurynomé is the only person who can manage him when he gets into these passions.”
Obediently Prince Romanos dangled his watch by the chain before his son’s face, held it close to his ear that he might hear it tick, and finally relinquished it to him to suck—as is the wont of inexperienced fathers confronted with a crisis of the kind, until the howls subsided sufficiently to allow his wife to make herself heard.
“You understand,” she said to Petros, who stood deprecatingly by, “that this is not the first time your niece has behaved badly. I have borne with her as long as I could, but we have had no peace since she entered the household. She is a most extraordinary girl. Why can’t she do what she is told? Is it your island independence?”
“If it please the Lady, I think some demon must have taken up his dwelling in her,” said Petros helplessly, and Despina and Mariora exchanged triumphant glances.
“She had better go home at once. The little lord’s life is not safe while she is here,” said the Lady decisively.
“Will it be safe when she is gone?” asked the Prince, with a desperate effort to rescue the watch, which Janni, now growing black in the face, was attempting to swallow.
“All-Holy Mother! you will kill the child, lord!” shrieked Danaë, tearing herself from her warders and rushing forward. A moment’s struggle and the watch was once more in its owner’s possession, and Janni in his nurse’s arms, crowing with delight as he grabbed at the coins in her cap.
“See how fond the child is of her!” said the Prince to his wife. “Is it true, Eurynomé, that thou wouldst have killed the little lord?”