"Yes, lady, I can guess, and though it is shameful that such an one
should dare to think of you, still, since he is a man, I cannot blame
him overmuch. But why should he press his suit in this rough and secret
fashion instead of openly as a king might do?"
"He may have pressed it openly and been repulsed," she replied in a low
voice. "But if he could have carried me to some far fortress, how should
I flout him there, that is, if I still lived? There, with no price
to pay in gold or lands or power, he would have been my master, and I
should have been his slave till such time as he wearied of me. That is
the fate from which you have saved me, Prince, or rather from death, for
I am not one who could bear such shame at the hands of a man I hate."
"Lady," he said bowing, "I think that perhaps for the first time in my
life I am glad to-night that I was born."
"And I," she answered, "who am but a Phoenician maiden, am glad that I
should have lived to hear one who is as royal in thought and soul as he
is in rank speak thus to me. Oh! Prince," she added, clasping her hands,
"if your words are not those of empty courtesy alone, hear me, for you
are great, a Lord of the Earth whom none refuse, and it may be in your
power to give me aid. Prince, I am in a sore strait, for that danger
from which I prayed to be delivered this night presses me hard. Prince,
it is true that Ithobal has been refused my hand, both by myself and by
my father, and therefore it was that he strove to steal me away.
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