"
Immelan's face darkened. Nothing but his awe of the man with whom he sat
prevented an expression of anger.
"But, Prince," he expostulated, "apart from political considerations,
you cannot really imagine that anything would be possible between you
and Lady Maggie?"
"Why not?" was the cool reply.
"Lady Maggie is of the English nobility," Immelan pointed out. "Neither
she nor her friends would be in the least likely to consider anything in
the nature of a morganatic alliance."
"It would not be necessary," Prince Shan declared. "It is in my mind to
offer her marriage."
Immelan dropped the cigarette case which he had just drawn from his
pocket. He gazed at his companion in blank and unaffected astonishment.
"Marriage?" he muttered. "You are not serious!"
"I am entirely serious," the Prince insisted. "I can understand your
amazement, Immelan. When the idea first came into my mind, I tore at it
as I would at a weed. But we who have studied in the West have learnt
certain great truths which our own philosophers have sometimes missed.
All that is best of life and of death our own prophets have taught us.
From them we have learnt fortitude and chastity: devotion to our country
and singleness of purpose. Over here, though, one has also learnt
something. Nobility is of the soul. A Prince of the Shans must seek not
for the body but for the spirit of the woman who shall be his mate. If
their spirits meet on equal terms, then she may even share the throne of
his life.
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