walked beside her bare-headed.

"Ah!" And he drew a deep breath--"That is a miracle! What we called
your 'impossible' plan has been made possible! But who would have
thought that a woman--"

"Stop there!" she interrupted--"Do not repeat the old gander-cackle of
barbaric man, who, while owing his every comfort as well as the
continuance of his race, to woman, denied her every intellectual
initiative! 'Who would have thought that a woman'--could do anything
but bend low before a man with grovelling humility saying 'My lord,
here am I, the waiting vessel of your lordship's pleasure!--possess me
or I die!' We have changed that beggarly attitude!"

Her eyes flashed,--her voice rang out--the little fingers he held,
stiffened resolutely in his clasp. He looked at her with a touch of
anxiety.

"Pardon me!--I did not mean--" he stammered.

In a second her mood changed, and she laughed.

"No!--Of course you 'did not mean' anything, Marchese! You are
naturally surprised that my 'idea' which was little more than an idea,
has resolved itself into a scientific fact--but you would have been
just as surprised if the conception had been that of a man instead of a
woman. Only you would not have said so!"

She laughed again,--a laugh of real enjoyment,--then went on--

"Now tell me--what of my White Eagle?--what movement?--what speed?"

"Amazing!" and the Marchese lowered his voice to almost a whisper--"I
hardly dare speak of it!--it is like something supernatural! We have
carried out your instructions to the letter--the thing is LIVING, in
all respects save life. I made the test with the fluid you gave me--I
charged the cells secretly--none of the mechanics saw what I did--and
when she rose in air they were terrified--"

"Brave souls!" said Morgana, and now she withdrew her hand from his
grasp--"So you went up alone?"

"I did. The steering was easy--she obeyed the helm,--it was as though
she were a light yacht in a sea,--wind and tide in her favour. But her
speed outran every air-ship I have ever known--as also the height to
which she ascends."

"We will take a trip in her to-morrow pour passer le temps"--said
Morgana, "You shall choose a place for us to go. Nothing can stop
us--nothing on earth or in the air!--and nothing can destroy us. I can
guarantee that!"

Giulio Rivardi gazed at her wonderingly,--his dark deep Southern eyes
expressed admiration with a questioning doubt commingled.

"You are very sure of yourself