e's_ quiet, graceful wings, instead
of being in a straight line with each other, were set at an obtuse angle
one from another; and on the end of each were odd little extra
triangular tips, hinged to the main wings. I longed to pour out
questions, for the "why" of things, especially mechanical things, has
interested me ever since I was old enough to pick a doll to pieces, to
see what made its eyes open and shut. But Di was asking idiotic
questions in the sweetest way, and Captain March was laughing and
delighted. It pleased him a great deal more that she should want to know
precisely why he had named his monoplane the _Golden Eagle_ than if
Father or I had catechized him with the trained intelligence of a
scientist.

"I've been unoriginal enough, I'm afraid, to name my big baby after
myself," he said, "my nickname being Eagle. The golden eagle, you know,
is our national bird."

"So her hangar is 'The Eagle's Nest,'" said Di. "That's awfully nice.
But why not name her instead the _Winged Victory_?"

"Wouldn't it be rather conceited?"

"Not after what she's already done, and shown that she can do. It's
conceited of me to suggest it, though, for--for the _Winged Victory_ is
a sort of a nickname of _mine_ since a fancy dress ball at the beginning
of the season."

"It suits you exactly," said Captain March. "If Lord Ballyconal will let
you be my first lady passenger, and if, after she's given you a run, you
think her worthy, she shall be renamed the _Winged Victory_, provided
you'll baptize her."

"Oh, Bally, dear, you will let me go, won't you?" Di pleaded, using her
pet name for Father, which he likes because it sounds young and
unparental. Then catching a bleak gleam in my eyes, she hastily added:
"And afterward Peggy, if Captain March will take her up."

Father hesitated, but the newspapers and people at the Embassy ball who
knew all about Eagle March had spoken so highly of the machine, that it
seemed an insult to a famous airman's skill to refuse. The two mechanics
wheeled the monoplane out of the shed, and Captain March explained how
easy and safe he could make things for a passenger. Lots of men had been
up with him, but he had never asked a woman. "Only a short flight, I'll
take her," he almost pleaded. "I can give her a helmet. Perhaps you'd
rather go first yourself, though, and see what it's like."

Father may not have had a particularly good time on earth, but anyhow,
he preferred it to atmospheric effec