There stands my predestined wife, and I can marry no other woman." Now Irene turned to Heliodore, and said in a swift, low voice: "Do you understand this matter, lady?
Let us have done with jealousies and be plain, for the lives of all of us hang upon threads that, for some, must break within a day or two, and with them those of a thousand, thousand others.

Aye, the destiny of the world is at stake.

You say you love this man, whom I will tell you I love also.

Well, if _you_ win him, and he lives, which he scarce can hope to do, he gets your kisses in whatever corner of the earth will shelter him and you.

If _I_ win him, the empire of the earth is his.