‘And then, all of you mad together, off you go, leaving me here, the only sane man in the place! For am not I sane? Aye, not mad enough to leave the fairest lady in the world when she says she loves me!’ I took Phroso’s hand and kissed it. It lay limp and cold in mine. ‘For my home,’ I went on, ‘is a long way off, and it is long since I have seen the lady of whom you have heard; and a man’s heart will not be denied.’ Again I kissed Phroso’s hand, but I dared not look her in the face. My meaning had dawned on them now. There was an instant’s silence, the last relic of doubt and puzzle; then a sudden loud shout went up from them. Orestes alone was sullen and mute, for my surrender deposed him from his brief eminence. Again and again they shouted in joy. I knew that their shouts must reach nearly to the harbour. Men and women crowded round me and seized my hand; nobody seemed to make any bones about the ‘lady who waited’ for me. They were single-hearted patriots, these Neopalians. I had observed that virtue in them several times before, and their behaviour now confirmed my opinion. But there was, of course, a remarkable difference in the manifestation. Before I had been the object, now I was the subject; for by announcing my intention of marrying Phroso I took rank as a Neopalian. Indeed for a minute or two I was afraid that the post of generalissimo, vacant by Orestes’s deposition, would be forcibly thrust upon me. Happily their enthusiasm took a course which was more harmless, although it was hardly less embarrassing. They made a ring round Phroso and me, and insisted on our embracing one another in the glare of publicity. Yet somehow I forgot them all for a moment--them all, and more than them all--while I held her in my arms. Now it chanced that the captain, Denny and Hogvardt chose this moment for appearing on the road, in the course of a leisurely approach to the house; and they beheld Phroso and myself in a very sentimental attitude on the doorstep, with the islanders standing round in high delight. Denny’s amazed ‘Hallo!’ warned me of what had happened. The islanders--their enmity towards the suzerain power allayed as quickly as it had been roused--ran to the captain to impart the joyful news. He came up to me, and bestowed his sanction by a shake of the hand. ‘But why did you behave so strangely, my lord, when I wished you joy an hour ago on the boat?’ he asked; and it was a very natural question. ‘Oh, the truth is,’ said I, ‘that there was a little difficulty in the way then.’ ‘Oh, a lover’s quarrel?’ he smiled. ‘Well, something like it,’ I admitted. ‘Everything is quite right now, I hope?’ he said politely. ‘Well, very nearly,’ said I. Then I met Denny’s eye. ‘Am I also to congratulate you?’ said Denny coldly. There was no opportunity of explaining matters to him, the captain was too near. ‘I shall be very glad if you will,’ I said, ‘and if Hogvardt will also.’