Ardini will talk
to you now and tell you everything--come away--"

But Manella was gazing intently at the figure on the bed--she saw its
grey lips move. With startling suddenness a harsh voice smote the air--

"There shall be no more wars! There can be none! My Great Secret! I am
Master of the World!"

She shrank and shivered, and a faint sobbing cry escaped her.

"Come!" said Morgana again,--and gently led her away. The spray of
orange-blossom fell from her hair as she moved, and Don Aloyslus,
stooping, picked it up. Marco Ardini saw his action.

"You will keep that as a souvenir of this strange marriage?" he said.

"No,--" and Don Aloysius touched the white fragrant flower with his
crucifix--"I will lay it as a votive offering on the altar of the
Eternal Virgin!"

* * * * *

About a fortnight later life at the Palazzo d'Oro had settled into
organised lines of method and routine. Professor Ardini had selected
two competent men attendants, skilled in surgery and medicine to watch
Seaton's case with all the care trained nursing could give, and himself
had undertaken to visit the patient regularly and report his condition.
Seaton's marriage to Manella Soriso had been briefly announced in the
European papers and cabled to the American Press, Senator Gwent being
one of the first who saw it thus chronicled, much to his amazement.

"He has actually become sane at last!" he soliloquised, "And beauty has
conquered science! I gave the girl good advice--I told her to marry him
if she could,--and she's done it! I wonder how they escaped that
earthquake? Perhaps that brought him to his senses! Well, well! I
daresay I shall be seeing them soon over here--I suppose they are
spending their honeymoon with Morgana. Curious affair! I'd like to know
the ins and outs of it!"

"Have you seen that Roger Seaton is married?" was the question asked of
him by every one he knew, especially by the flashing society butterfly
once Lydia Herbert, who in these early days of her marriage was getting
everything she could out of her millionaire--"And NOT to Morgana! Just
think! What a disappointment for her!--I'm sure she was in love with
him!"

"I thought so"--Gwent answered, cautiously--"And he with her! But--one
never knows--"

"No, one never does!" laughed the fair Lydia--"Poor Morgana! Left on
the stalk! But she's so rich it won't matter. She can marry anybody she
likes."

"Marriage isn't everythin