he
Highland women and had children by them,--then when they went away back
to Egypt they left many traces of Eastern customs and habits which
remain to this day. My father used always to say that he could count
his ancestry back to Egypt!--it pleased him to think so and it did
nobody any harm!"

"Have you ever been to the East?" asked Lady Kingswood.

"No--but I'm going! My 'White Eagle' will take me there in a very short
time! But, as I've already told you, I must learn to fly alone."

"What does the Marchese Rivardi say to that?"

"I don't ask him!" replied Morgana, indifferently--"What I may decide
to do is not his business." She broke off abruptly--then continued--"He
is coming to luncheon,--and afterwards you shall see my air-ship. I
won't persuade you to go up in it!"

"I COULDN'T!" said Lady Kingswood, emphatically--"I've no nerve for
such an adventure."

Morgana rose from her chair, smiling kindly.

"Dear 'Duchess' be quite easy in your mind!" she said--"I want you very
much on land, but I shall not want you in the air! You will be quite
safe and happy here in the Palazzo d'Oro"--she turned as she saw the
shadow of a man's tall figure fall on the smooth marble pavement of the
loggia--"Ah! Here is the Marchese! We were just speaking of you!"

"Tropp' onore!" he murmured, as he kissed the little hand she held out
to him in the Sicilian fashion of gallantry--"I fear I am perhaps too
early?"

"Oh no! We were about to go in to luncheon--I know the hour by the bell
of the monastery down there--you hear it?"

A soft "ting-ting tong"--rang from the olive and ilex woods below the
Palazzo,--and Morgana, listening, smiled.

"Poor Don Aloysius!" she said--"He will now go to his soup maigre--and
we to our poulet, sauce bechamel,--and he will be quite as contented as
we are!"

"More so, probably!" said Rivardi, as he courteously assisted Lady
Kingswood, who was slightly lame, to rise from her chair--"He is one of
the few men who in life have found peace."

Morgana gave him a keen glance.

"You think he has really found it?"

"I think so,--yes! He has faith in God--a great support that has given
way for most of the peoples of this world."

Lady Kingswood looked pained.

"I am sorry to hear you say that!"

"I am sorry myself to say it, miladi, but I fear it is true!" he
rejoined--"It is one sign of a general break-up."

"Oh, you are right! You are very right!" exclaimed Morgana suddenly,
and with empha