Her
valise was quickly strapped in place, and in another minute to the
sound of a high silvery bugle note (which was the only sort of "hooter"
she would tolerate) the car glided noiselessly away down the broad,
dusty white road, its polished enamel and silver points glittering like
streaks of light vanishing into deeper light as it disappeared.

"There goes the richest woman in America!" said the hotel clerk for the
benefit of anyone who might care to listen to the
announcement,--"Morgana Royal!"

"Is that so?" drawled a sallow-faced man, reclining in an invalid
chair--"She's not much to look at!"

And he yawned expansively.

He was right. She was not much to look at. But she was more than looks
ever made. So, with sorrow and with envy, thought Manella, who
instinctively felt that though she herself might be something to look
at and "quite beautiful," she was nothing else. She had never heard the
word "fey." The mystic glamour of the Western Highlands was shut away
from her by the wide barrier of many seas and curtains of cloud. And
therefore she did not know that "fey" women are a race apart from all
other women in the world.

CHAPTER V

That evening at sunset Manella made her way towards the hill and the
"House of the Dying," moved by she knew not what strange impulse. She
had no excuse whatever for going; she knew that the man living up there
in whom she was so much interested had as much food for three days as
he asked for or desired, and that he was likely to be vexed at the very
sight of her. Yet she had an eager wish to tell him something about the
wonderful little creature with lightning eyes who had left the Plaza
that morning and had told her, Manella, that she was "quite beautiful."
Pride, and an innocent feminine vanity thrilled her; "if another woman
thinks so, it must be so,"--she argued, being aware that women seldom
admire each other. She walked swiftly, with head bent,--and was brought
to a startled halt by meeting and almost running against the very
individual she sought, who in his noiseless canvas shoes and with his
panther-like tread had come upon her unawares. Checked in her progress
she stood still, her eyes quickly lifted, her lips apart. In her
adoration of the strength and magnificent physique of the stranger whom
she knew only as a stranger, she thought he looked splendid as a god
descending from the hill. Far from feeling god-like, he frowned as he
saw her.

"Where are you g