"More so, probably!" said Rivardi, as he courteously a.s.sisted Lady Kingswood, who was slightly lame, to rise from her chair--"He is one of the few men who in life have found peace."

Morgana gave him a keen glance.

"You think he has really found it?"

"I think so,--yes! He has faith in G.o.d--a great support that has given way for most of the peoples of this world."

Lady Kingswood looked pained.

"I am sorry to hear you say that!"

"I am sorry myself to say it, miladi, but I fear it is true!" he rejoined--"It is one sign of a general break-up."

"Oh, you are right! You are very right!" exclaimed Morgana suddenly, and with emphasis--"We know that when even one human being is unable to recognise his best friend we say--'Poor man! His brain is gone!' It's the same thing with a nation. Or a world! When it is so ailing that it cannot recognise the Friend who brought it into being, who feeds it, keeps it, and gives it all it has, we must say the same thing--'Its brain is gone!'"

Rivardi was surprised at the pa.s.sionate energy she threw into these words.

"You feel that deeply?" he said--"And yet--pardon me!--you do not a.s.sume to be religious?"

"Marchese, I 'a.s.sume' nothing!" she answered--"I cannot 'pretend'! To 'a.s.sume' or to 'pretend' would hardly serve the Creator adequately.

Creative or Natural Force is so far away from sham that one must do more than 'a.s.sume'--one must BE!"

Her voice thrilled on the air, and Lady Kingswood, who was crossing the loggia, leaning on her stick, paused to look at the eloquent speaker.

She was worth looking at just then, for she seemed inspired. Her eyes were extraordinarily brilliant, and her whole personality expressed a singular vitality coupled with an ethereal grace that suggested some thing almost superhuman.

"Yes--one must be!" she repeated--"I have not BEEN A STUDENT OF SCIENCE SO LONG WITHOUT LEARNING that there is no 'a.s.suming' anything in the universe. One must SEE straight, and THINK straight too! I could not 'a.s.sume' religion, because I FEEL it--in the very depths of my soul! As Don Aloysius said the other day, it is marvellous how close we are to the Source of all life, and yet we imagine we are far away! If we could only realise the truth of the Divine Nearness, and work WITH it and IN it, we should make discoveries worth knowing! We work too much WITH ourselves and OF ourselves." She paused,--then added slowly and seriously--"I have never done any work that way. I have always considered myself Nothing,--the Force I have obeyed was and is Everything."

"And so--being Nothing--you still made your air-ship possible!" said Rivardi, smiling indulgently at her fantastic speech.

She answered him with unmoved and patient gravity.

"It is as you say,--being Nothing myself, and owning myself to be Nothing; the Force that is Everything made my air-ship possible!"

CHAPTER XV

Two or three hours later the "White Eagle" was high in air above the Palazzo d'Oro. Down below Lady Kingswood stood on the seash.o.r.e by the aerodrome, watching the wonderful ship of the sky with dazzled, scared eyes--amazed at the lightning speed of its ascent and the steadiness of its level flight. She had seen it spread its great wings as by self-volition and soar out of the aerodrome with Morgana seated inside like an elfin queen in a fairy car--she had seen the Marchese Giulio Rivardi "take the helm" with the a.s.sistant Gaspard, now no longer a prey to fear, beside him. Up, up and away they had flown, waving to her till she could see their forms no longer--till the "White Eagle" itself looked no bigger than a dove soaring in the blue. And while she waited, even this faint dove-image vanished! She looked in every direction, but the skies were empty. To her there was something very terrifying in this complete disappearance of human beings in the vast stretches of the air--they had gone so silently, too, for the "White Eagle's" flight made no sound, and though the afternoon was warm and balmy she felt chilled with the cold of nervous apprehension. Yet they had all a.s.sured her there was no cause for alarm,--they were only going on a short trial trip and would be back to dinner.

"Nothing more than a run in a motor-car!" Morgana said, gaily.

Nothing more,--but to Lady Kingswood it seemed much more. She belonged to simple Victorian days--days of quiet home-life and home affections, now voted "deadly dull!" and all the rushing to and fro and gadding about of modern men and women worried and distressed her, for she had the plain common sense to perceive that it did no good either to health or morals, and led nowhere. She looked wistfully out to sea,--the blue Sicilian sea so exquisite in tone and play of pure reflections,--and thought how happy a life lived after the old sweet ways might be for a brilliant little creature like Morgana, if she could win "a good man's love" as Shakespeare puts it. And yet--was not this rather harking back to mere sentiment, often proved delusive? Her own "good man's love" had been very precious to her,--but it had not fulfilled all her heart's longing, though she considered herself an entirely commonplace woman.

And what sort of a man would it be that could hold Morgana? As well try to control a sunbeam or a lightning flash as the restless vital and intellectual spirit that had, for the time being, entered into feminine form, showing itself nevertheless as something utterly different and superior to women as they are generally known. Some thoughts such as these, though vague and disconnected, pa.s.sed through Lady Kingswood's mind as she turned away from the sea-sh.o.r.e to re-ascend the flower-bordered terraces of the Palazzo d'Oro,--and it was with real pleasure that she perceived on the summit of the last flight of gra.s.sy steps, the figure of Don Aloysius. He was awaiting her approach, and came down a little way to meet her.

"I saw the air-ship flying over the monastery,"--he explained, greeting her--"And I was anxious to know whether la Signora had gone away into the skies or was still on earth! She has gone, I suppose?"

"Yes, she has gone!" sighed Lady Kingswood--"and the Marchese with her, and one a.s.sistant. Her 'nerve' is simply astonishing!"

"You did not think of venturing on a trip with her yourself?"--and the priest smiled kindly, as he a.s.sisted her to ascend the last flight of steps to the loggia.

"No indeed! I really could not! I feel I ought to be braver--but I cannot summon up sufficient courage to leave terra firma. It seems altogether unnatural."

"Then what will you do when you are an angel, dear lady?" queried Aloysius, playfully--"You will have to leave terra firma then! Have you ever thought of that?"

She smiled.

"I'm afraid I don't think!" she said--"I take my life on trust. I always believe that G.o.d who brought me HERE will take care of me THERE!--wherever 'there' is. You understand me, don't you? You speak English so well that I'm sure you do."

"Yes--I understand you perfectly"--he replied--"That I speak English is quite natural, for I was educated at Stonyhurst, in England. I was then for a time at Fort Augustus in Scotland, and studied a great many of the strange traditions of the Highland Celts, to which mystic people Miss Royal by birth belongs. Her ancestry has a good deal to do with her courage and character."

While he spoke Lady Kingswood gazed anxiously into the sky, searching it north, south, east, west, for the first glimpse of the returning "White Eagle," but there was no sign of it.

"You must not worry yourself,"--went on the priest, putting a chair for her in the loggia, and taking one himself--"If we sit here we shall see the air-ship returning, I fancy, by the western line,--certainly near the sunset. In any case let me a.s.sure you there is no danger!" "No danger?"

"Absolutely none!"

Lady Kingswood looked at him in bewildered amazement.

"Surely there MUST be danger?" she said--"The terrible accidents that happen every day to these flying machines--"

"Yes--but you speak of ordinary flying machines," said Aloysius,--"This 'White Eagle' is not an ordinary thing. It is the only one of its kind in the world--the only one scientifically devised to work with the laws of Nature. You saw it ascend?"

"I did."

"It made no sound?"

"None."

"Then how did its engines move, if it HAD engines?" pursued Aloysius--"Had you no curiosity about it?"

"I'm afraid I hadn't--I was really too nervous! Morgana begged me to go inside, but I could not!"

Don Aloysius was silent for a minute or two, out of gentle tolerance.

He recognised that Lady Kingswood belonged to the ordinary cla.s.s of good, kindly women not overburdened with brains, to whom thought, particularly of a scientific or reflective nature, would be a kind of physical suffering. And how fortunate it is that there are, and always will be such women! Many of them are gifted with the supreme talent of making happiness around themselves,--and in this way they benefit humanity more than the often too self-absorbed student of things which are frequently "past finding out."

"I understand your feeling";--he said, at last--"And I hardly wonder at your very natural fears. I must admit that I think human daring is going too fast and too far--the science of to-day is not tending to make men and women happier--and after all, happiness is the great goal."

A slight sigh escaped him, and Lady Kingswood looked at his fine, composed features with deep interest.

"Do you think G.o.d meant us to be happy?" she asked, gently.

"It is a dubious question!" he answered--"When we view the majesty and loveliness of nature--we cannot but believe we were intended to enjoy the splendid treasures of beauty freely spread out before us,--then again, if we look back thousands of years and consider the great civilisations of the past that have withered into dust and are now forgotten, we cannot help wondering why there should be such a waste of life for apparently no purpose. I speak in a secular sense,--of course my Church has but one reply to doubt, or what we call 'despair of G.o.d's mercy'--that it is sin. We are not permitted to criticise or to question the Divine."

"And surely that is best!" said Lady Kingswood, "and surely you have found happiness, or what is nearest to happiness, in your beautiful Faith?"

His eyes were shadowed by deep gravity.