his undivided devotion, engrossing his mind
and intellect completely, but leaving his heart free.

And now, as it were in an instant, a new mistress had come forward
out of the unknown. She had put her hand upon his heart, and, though
no words of human speech had passed between them, save the merest
commonplaces, her soul had said to his, "This is mine. I have called
it into life, and for me it shall live until the end."

He had heard this as plainly as though it had been said to him with
the lips of flesh, and he had acquiesced in the imperious claim with
a glad submission which had yet to be tinged with the hope that it
might some day become a mastery.

Thus, as the silent, sleepless hours went by, did he review over and
over again the position in which he found himself on the threshold of
his strange new life, until at last physical exhaustion brought sleep
to his eyes if not to his brain, and he found himself flying over the
hills and vales of dreamland in his air-ship, with the roar of battle
and the smoke of ruined towns far beneath him, and Natasha at his
side, sharing with him the dominion of the air that his genius had
won.

At length Colston came in to tell him that the breakfast was
spoiling, and that it was high time to get up if they intended to be
in time for their appointment at Chelsea. This brought him out of bed
with effective suddenness, and he made a hasty toilet for breakfast,
leaving more important preparations until afterwards.

During the meal their conversation naturally turned chiefly on the
visit that they were to pay, and Colston took the opportunity of
explaining one or two things that it was necessary for him to know
with regard to the new acquaintance that he was about to make at
Chelsea.

"So far as the outside world is concerned," said he, "Natasha is the
niece of the Princess Ornovski. She is the daughter of a sister of
hers, who married an English gentleman, named Darrel, who was drowned
with his wife about twelve years ago, when the _Albania_ was wrecked
off the coast of Portugal. The Princess had a sister, who was drowned
with her husband in the _Albania_, and she left a daughter about
Natasha's then age, but who died of consumption shortly after in
Nice.

"Under these circumstances, it was, of course, perfectly easy for the
Princess to adopt Natasha, and introduce her into Society as her
niece as soon as she reached the age of coming out.

"This has been of immense servic