In any case, the ‘Diurnal’s’ sensation wilted, as Mr Hicks put it, and no more was heard of it after the paper’s unfulfilled promise to publish the name of the “distinguished lady” who had given the information. The next difficulty came from Mr Steinherz’s elder brother, Don Ramon, who demanded that before he considered her claim, Félicia should prove her good faith by surrendering her fortune into his hands as head of the house of Arragon. Her father’s will provided effectually against this, and led to a deadlock; but as Félicia intimated that her relations’ interests would receive careful consideration from her if the relationship were established, the difficulty was shelved. Then a hitch was caused by the discovery that Konstantia von Lilienkranz was not sufficiently high in rank for even the Emperor to raise her retrospectively to a level befitting the bride of a Prince of Arragon. Cyril replied with the terse advice, “Consult the heralds”; and after a little expenditure of time and trouble Félicia’s mother was provided with a descent which rivalled that of the Schwarzwald-Molzaus themselves. The difficulty which came next threatened to be more serious; for the Church objected to the recognition of the irregular marriage, on the ground that the Pope’s consent to a mixed marriage had not been obtained, and that no provision had been made for the children to be brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. The solution obviously intended was that Félicia should change her creed; but Cyril, on behalf of King Michael, pointed out that this would make her impossible as a Queen for Thracia. The Emperor, to whom the marriage offered a way out of many difficulties, brought a despairing pressure to bear upon the Vatican, and the matter was compromised on the understanding that Félicia should build and endow a magnificent church to her father’s memory. She consented at once, as she would have consented to build a mosque had it been required of her; for the nearer she came to her goal, the more intolerable did the thought of failing to reach it appear. It was a joy to feel that Cyril and Mr Hicks were already discussing how her fortune could best be applied to solve the financial problems of Thracia without infringing the provisions of her father’s will; a greater joy to learn that King Michael’s conditional proposal of marriage had become a definite one; and greatest of all, to receive through Mr Hicks a telegram, half-invitation, half-command, directing her to proceed in her yacht to the Pannonian coast, that she might be presented to her father’s family. CHAPTER XIV. FOR PITY’S SAKE.