"I hope, Graham, you now see the folly of your foolish intrigue with this woman. Had it not been for her we should never have incurred the anger and the hatred of this Prince Perodii; the King would have overlooked our killing Osa, and we should now be free," said the Doctor, with more irritation in his voice than we had ever heard before.
"Come, come, Doctor," answered Temple, "it's no use reproaching Graham; and this scoundrel of a Prince Perodii may yet go a little too far."
"But how can that help us? How can his downfall shake off our fetters? How can his evil fortune bring our release from captivity, or save us from death?" continued the Doctor, with a dogged determination to stick to his opinions on women in general.
"I'll back a woman's wit to find a way," Temple went on. "Volinè's dislike for this Perodii, and her partiality for Graham, will act as irresistible incentives to triumph over the man she despises, and save the other whom she loves."
"We have not had much evidence to confirm what you say, Temple," said the Doctor, as obstinately as ever.
"True," answered Temple; "but you cannot suppose that this girl has remained idle. Depend upon it, her royal father has had to put up with a good deal of coaxing and entreaty on behalf of her lover. She will be sure to take advantage of our escape from Remagaloth, and make the most of her time, unless she is very different from the girls of Earth. Perodii's absence from Edos, too, favours her efforts, and she will have had a clear field. Then there is this Echri----"
"Pray draw the line at the supernatural. This ring affair is not worth serious words--a lot of humbugging duplicity, shielded by religion. No! you will never convince me, Temple. As I said before, so I say again, women are the root of all mischief; and it is a thousand pities this Volinè ever became mixed up in our affairs."
"Well, well, Doctor, we won't argue further, it only makes unpleasantness."
All through this controversy Graham never uttered a word. He sat still in the darkest corner of the room, and only the occasional jingle of his brass fetters told us that he was awake. Secretly he enjoyed this conversation about his dear one. It was untold joy to him to be back again under the very roof that sheltered her, to be so close to her; and the hope of seeing her again gave him strength, and brightened the dark hours of his captivity. He never lost confidence in the beautiful girl who had made him happy by giving him her love; and he knew that he and his companions would neither be forgotten nor forsaken in their need. He would not provoke discord in their little band by argument with his good and worthy friend, Doctor Hermann, on the only topic on which they were bound to disagree. He preferred to sit in silence through the night, with glad thoughts of Volinè for his company. He had escaped what looked like certain death, he was back near the woman who was all-in-all to him; the very garden in which they had met and tasted the secrets of love was but outside the prison window; the dark hopeless future, which had appeared but a stormy plain of wild despair, stretching away, away unto death, seemed already tinged with the dawn of happiness! He knew Volinè's ring had already delivered him twice from great peril; and he felt, whatever danger might betide, the secret of salvation therefrom circled round his finger a sacred charm against death. That he could impart a little of this confidence in the virtues of his treasure to his comrades was his constant wish--not for his own sake, but for theirs. Yet all that he could say had been already said. The Doctor continued to pooh-pooh its efficacy; Temple was wont to smile and listen, half incredulous, yet impressed considerably by his earnestness. Each, however, required more palpable proof than that already given. "They forget," Graham continued to muse, as he lay listening to the Doctor and Temple talking, "that they are in a new world, beyond all earthly influence; and that the power of this holy Echri is mysterious and unnatural, only because it is new and strange to us. Were it rendered familiar to us by earthly custom and every-day experience, we should look upon it as a most natural thing. We must be prepared for all kinds of surprises here. If a great and holy man of this world possesses a power which is invested solely in God in our own, why should we marvel?"