The others were staring with open mouths and icy hearts.

“Yes, as much as it would grieve me, I would do all this,” she answered, firmly, not daring to look at her uncle.  She knew his eyes were upon her and that condemnation lurked in their depths.  Her heart ached to turn to him with a prayer for forgiveness, but there could be no faltering now.

“I ask you, my lords, to acknowledge the marriage of your ruler to Grenfall Lorry.  I am to be his wife; but I entreat you to grant me happiness without making me endure the misery that will come to me if I desert my father’s throne and the people who have worshipped me and to whom I am bound by a tie that cannot be broken.  I do not plead so much for the right to rule as I do for the one who may rule after I am gone.  I want my own to follow me on the throne of Graustark.”

Then followed a long, animated discussion, growing brighter and more hopeful as the speakers’ willing hearts warmed to the proposition.  Lorry was a favorite but he could not be their prince.  Hereditary law prohibited.  Still his children if God gave him children, might be declared rightful heirs to the throne of their mother, the Princess.  The more they talked, the more the problem seemed to solve itself.  Many times the Princess and her wise men met and overcame obstacles, huge at first, minimized in the end, all because they loved her and she loved them.  The departure from traditionary custom, as suggested by the Princess,—­coupled with the threat to abdicate,—­was the weightiest, yet the most delicate question that had ever come before the chief men of Graustark.  It meant the beginning of a new line of princes, new life, new blood, a complete transformation of order as it had come down through the reigns of many Ganlooks.  For the first time in the history of the country a woman was sovereign; for the first time there had been no direct male heir to the throne.  With the death of old Prince Ganlook the masculine side of the illustrious family ended.  No matter whom his daughter took for a husband, the line was broken.  Why not the bold, progressive, rich American? argued some.  Others fell in with the views of the few who first surrendered to the will of Yetive, until at last but one remained in opposition.  Count Caspar held out until all were against him, giving way finally in a burst of oratory which ended in tears and sobs and which made the sense of the gathering unanimous.

The Princess Yetive won the day, so far as her own position was concerned.  But, there was Lorry to be considered.

Mr. Lorry knows that I called you together in consultation, but he does not know that I would have given up my crown for him.  I dared not tell him that.  He knows only that I was to ask your advice on the question of marriage, and that alone.  Last night he told me he was confident you would agree to the union.  He is an American, and does not appreciate the difficulties attending such an espousal.