"

"Madama, I think of your safety,"--he said, curtly.

"It is kind of you! But if I do not care for my safety?"

"I do!" he said, decisively.

"And I also!"--said Aloysius, earnestly--"Dear lady, be advised! Think
no more of flying in the vast spaces of air alone--alone with an
enormous piece of mechanism which might fail at any moment--"

"It cannot fail unless the laws of nature fail!"--said Morgana,
emphatically--"How strange it is that neither of you seems to realise
that the force which moves the 'White Eagle' is natural force alone!
However--you are but men!" Here she stopped in her walk, and her
brilliant eyes flashed from one to the other--"Men!--with pre-conceived
ideas wedged in obstinacy!--yes!--you cannot help yourselves! Even
Father Aloysius--" she paused, as she met his grave eyes fixed full
upon her.

"Well!" he said gently--"What of Father Aloysius? He is 'but man' as
you say!--a poor priest having nothing in common with your wealth or
your self-will, my child!--one whose soul admits no other instruction
than that of the Great Intelligence ruling the universe, and from whose
ordinance comes forth joy or sorrow, wisdom or ignorance. We are but
dust on the wind before this mighty power!--even you, with all your
study and attainment are but a little phantom on the air!"

She smiled as he spoke.

"True!" she said--"And you would save this phantom from vanishing into
air utterly?"

"I would!" he answered--"I would fain place you in God's keeping,"--and
with a gesture infinitely tender and solemn, he made the sign of the
cross above her head--"with a prayer that you may be guided out of the
tangled ways of life as lived in these days, to the true realisation of
happiness!"

She caught his hand and impulsively kissed it.

"You are good!--far too good!" she said--"And I am wild and
wilful--forgive me! I will say good night here--we are just at the
gate. Good night, Marchese! I promise you shall fly with me to the
East--I will not go alone. There!--be satisfied!" And she gave him a
bewitching smile--then with another markedly gentle "Good night" to
Aloysius, she turned away and left them, choosing a path back to the
house which was thickly overgrown with trees, so that her figure was
almost immediately lost to view.

The two men looked at each other in silence.

"You will not succeed by thwarting her!"--said Aloysius, warningly.

Rivardi gave an impatient gesture.

"And you?"

"I? My son, I