omething beyond ordinary
nature--it helps you to get to the 'beyond' yourself if you have the
will to try!"

Just then the soft slow tolling of a bell struck through the air and
Don Aloysius prepared to take his leave.

"The 'beyond' calls to me from the monastery," he said, smiling--"I
have been too long absent. Will you walk with me, Giulio?"

"Willingly!" and the Marchese bowed over Lady Kingswood's hand as he
bade her "Good night."

"I will accompany you both to the gate,"--said Morgana, suddenly--"and
then--when you are both gone I shall wander a little by myself in the
light of the moon!"

Lady Kingswood looked dubiously at her, but was too tactful to offer
any objection such as the "danger of catching cold" which the ordinary
duenna would have suggested, and which would have seemed absurd in the
warmth and softness of such a summer night. Besides, if Morgana chose
to "wander by the light of the moon" who could prevent her? No one! She
stepped off the loggia on to the velvety turf below with an aerial
grace more characteristic of flying than walking, and glided along
between the tall figures of the Marchese and Don Aloysius like a
dream-spirit of the air, and Lady Kingswood, watching her as she
descended the garden terraces and gradually disappeared among the
trees, was impressed, as she had often been before, by a strange sense
of the supernatural,--as if some being wholly unconnected with ordinary
mortal happenings were visiting the world by a mere chance. She was a
little ashamed of this "uncanny" feeling,--and after a few minutes'
hesitation she decided to retire within the house and to her own
apartments, rightly judging that Morgana would be better pleased to
find her so gone than waiting for her return like a sentinel on guard.
She gave a lingering look at the exquisite beauty of the moonlit scene,
and thought with a sigh--

"What it would be if one were young once more!"

And then she turned, slowly pacing across the loggia and entering the
Palazzo, where the gleam of electric lamps within rivalled the
moonbeams and drew her out of sight.

Meanwhile, Morgana, between her two escorts stepped lightly along,
playfully arguing with them both on their silence.

"You are so very serious, you good Padre Aloysius!" she said--"And you,
Marchese--you who are generally so charming!--to-night you are a very
morose companion! You are still in the dumps about my steering the
'White Eagle!'--how cross of you!