"You read the modern Press"--he said--"A pity you do!"

"Yes--it's a pity anyone reads it!"--she answered--"But what are we to read? If low-minded and illiterate scavengers are employed to write for the newspapers instead of well-educated men, we must put up with the mud the scavengers collect. We know well enough that every journal is more or less a calendar of lies,--all the same we cannot blind ourselves to the great change that has come over manners and morals--particularly in relation to marriage. Of course the Press always chronicles the worst items bearing on the subject--"

"The Press is chiefly to blame for it"--declared Rivardi.

"Oh, I think not!" and Morgana smiled as she poured out a second cup of coffee--"The Press cannot create a new universe. No--I think human nature alone is to blame--if blame there be. Human nature is tired."

"Tired?" echoed Rivardi--"In what way?"

"In every way!"--and a lovely light of tenderest pity filled her eyes as she spoke--"Tired of the same old round of working, mating, breeding and dying--for no results really worth having! Civilisation after civilisation has arisen--always with strife and difficulty, only to pa.s.s away, leaving, in many cases, scarce a memory. Human nature begins to weary of the continuous 'grind'--it demands the 'why' of its ceaseless labour. Latterly, poor striving men and women have been deprived of faith--they used to believe they had a loving Father in Heaven who cared for them,--but the monkeys of the race, the atheists, swinging from point to point of argument and chattering all the time, have persuaded them that they are as Tennyson once mournfully wrote--"

"Poor orphans of nothing--alone on that lonely sh.o.r.e, Born of the brainless Nature who knew not that which she bore!"

"Can we wonder then that they are tired?--tired of pursuing a useless quest? Human nature is craving for a change--for a newer world--a newer race,--and those who see that Nature is NOT 'brainless' but full of intelligent conception, are sure that the change will come!"

"And you are one of 'those who see'?--" said Rivardi, incredulously.

"I do not say I am,--that would be too much self-a.s.sertion"--she answered--"But I hope I am! I long to see the world endowed more richly with health and happiness. See how gloriously the sun has risen! In what splendour of light and air we are sailing! If we can do as much as this we ought to be able to do more!"

"We shall do more in time"--he said--"The advance of one step leads to another."

"In time!" echoed Morgana--"What time the human race has already taken to find out the simplest forces of nature! It is the horrible bulk of blank stupidity that hinders knowledge--the heavy obstinate bulk that declines to budge an inch out of its own fixity. Nowadays we triumph in our so-called 'discoveries' of wireless telegraphy and telephony, light-rays and other marvels--but these powers have always been with us from the beginning of things,--it is we, we only, who have refused to accept them as facts of the universe. Let us talk no more about it!--Stupidity is the only thing that moves me to despair!"

She rose from the little table, and called Gaspard to breakfast, while Rivardi went back to the business of steering. The day was now fully declared, and the great air-ship soared easily in a realm of ethereal blue--blue above, blue below--its vast wings moving up and down with perfect rhythm as if it were a living, sentient creature, revelling in the joys of flight. For the rest of the day Morgana was very silent, contenting herself to sit in her charming little rose-lined nest of a room, and read,--now and then looking out on the radiating s.p.a.ce around her, and watching for the first slight downward movement of the "White Eagle" towards land. She had plenty to occupy her thoughts--and strange to say she did not consider as anything unexpected or remarkable, her brief communication with the "Brazen City." On the contrary it seemed quite a natural happening. Of course it had always been there, she said to herself,--only people were too dull and unenterprising to discover it,--besides, if they had ever found it (certain travellers having declared they had seen it in the distance) they would not have been allowed to approach it. This fact was the one point that chiefly dwelt in her mind--a secret of science which she puzzled her brain to fathom.

What could be the unseen force that guarded the city?--girding it round with an unbreakable band from all exterior attack? A million bombs could not penetrate it,--so had said the Voice travelling to her ears on the mysterious Sound Ray. She thought of Shakespeare's lines on England--

"This precious stone set in the silver sea Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as a moat defensive to a house Against the envy of less happy lands."

Modern science had made the sea useless as a "wall" or "moat defensive"

against attacks from the air,--but if there existed an atmospheric or "etheric" force which could be utilised and brought to such pressure as to encircle a city or a country with a protective ring that should resist all effort to break it, how great a security would be a.s.sured "against the envy of less happy lands"! Here was a problem for study,--study of the intricate character which she loved--and she became absorbed in what she called "thinking for results," a form of introspection which she knew, from experience, sometimes let in unexpected light on the creative cells of the brain and impelled them to the evolving of hitherto untried suggestions. She sat quietly with a book before her, not reading, but bent on seeking ways and means for the safety and protection of nations,--as bent as Roger Seaton was on a force for their destruction. So the hours pa.s.sed swiftly, and no interruption or untoward obstacle hindered the progress of the "White Eagle" as it careered through the halcyon blue of the calmest, loveliest sky that ever made perfect weather, till late afternoon when it began to glide almost insensibly downward towards earth. Then she roused herself from her long abstraction and looked through the window of her cabin, watching what seemed to be the gradual rising of the land towards the air-ship, showing in little green and brown patches like the squares of a chess-board,--then the houses and towns, tiny as children's toys--then the azure gleam of the sea and the boats dancing like bits of cork upon it,--then finally the plainer, broader view, wherein the earth with its woods and hills and rocky promontories appeared to heave up like a billow crowned with varying colours,--and so steadily, easily down to the pattern of gra.s.s and flowers from the centre of which the Palazzo d'Oro rose like a little white house for the abode of fairies.

"Well steered!" said Morgana, as the ship ran into its shed with the accuracy of a sword slipping into its sheath, and the soundless vibration of its mysterious motive-power ceased--"Home again safely!--and only away forty-eight hours! To the Sahara and back!--how far we have been, and what we have seen!"

"WE have seen nothing"--said Rivardi meaningly, as he a.s.sisted her to alight--"The seeing is all with YOU!"

"And the believing!" she answered, smiling--"All my thanks to you both for your skilful pilotage. You must be very tired--" here she gave her hand to them each in turn--"Again a thousand thanks! No air-ship could be better manned!"

"Or woman'd?" suggested Rivardi.

She laughed.

"IF you like! But I only steered while you slept. That is nothing! Good night!"

She left them, running up the garden path lightly like a child returning from a holiday, and disappeared.

"But that which she calls nothing"--said Gaspard as he watched her go--"is everything!"

CHAPTER XX

For some days after her adventurous voyage to the Great Desert and back Morgana chose to remain in absolute seclusion. Save for Lady Kingswood and her own household staff, she saw no one, and was not accessible even to Don Aloysius, who called several times, moved not only by interest, but genuine curiosity, to enquire how she fared. Many of the residents in the vicinity of the Palazzo d'Oro had gleaned sc.r.a.ps of information here and there concerning the wonderful air-ship which they had seen careering over their heads during its testing trials, and as a matter of course they had heard more than sc.r.a.ps in regard to its wealthy owner. But nowadays keen desire to know and to investigate has given place to a sort of civil apathy which pa.s.ses for good form--that absolute indifferentism which is too much bored to care about other people's affairs, and which would not disturb itself if it heard of a neighbour deciding to cross the Atlantic in a washtub. "Nothing matters," is the general verdict on all events and circ.u.mstances.

Nevertheless, the size, the swiftness and soundlessness of the "White Eagle" and the secrecy observed in its making, had somewhat moved the heavy lump of human dough called "society," and the whispered novelty of Morgana's invention had reached Rome and Paris, nay, almost London, without her consent or knowledge. So that she was more or less deluged with letters; and noted scientists, both in France and Italy, though all incredulous as to her attainment, made it a point of "business" to learn all they could about her, which was not much more than can be usually learned about any wealthy woman or man with a few whims to gratify. A murderer gains access to the whole press,--his look, his manner, his remarks, are all carefully noted and commented upon,--but a scientist, an explorer, a man or woman whose work is that of beneficence and use to humanity, is barely mentioned except in the way of a sneer. So it often chances that the public know nothing of its greatest till they have pa.s.sed beyond the reach of worldly honour.

Morgana, however, had no desire that her knowledge or attainment should be admitted or praised. She was entirely dest.i.tute of ambition. She had read too much and studied too deeply to care for so-called "fame,"

which, as she knew, is the mere noise of one moment, to be lost in silence the next. She was self-centered and yet not selfish. She felt that to understand her own ent.i.ty, its mental and physical composition, and the possibilities of its future development, was sufficient to fill her life--that life which she quite instinctively recognised as bearing within itself the seed of immortality. Her strange interview with the "Voice" from the City in the Desert, and the glimpse she had been permitted to see of the owner of that voice, had not so much surprised her as convinced her of a theory she had long held,--namely that there were other types of the human race existing, unknown to the generality of ordinary men and women--types that were higher in their organisation and mental capacity,--types which by reason of their very advancement kept themselves hidden and aloof from modern civilisation. And she forthwith plunged anew into the ocean of scientific problems, where she floated like a strong swimmer at ease with her mind upturned to the stars.

Yet she did not neglect the graceful comforts and elegancies of the Palazzo d'Oro, and life went on in that charming abode peacefully.

Morgana always being the kindest of patrons to Lady Kingswood, and discoursing feminine commonplaces with her as though there were no other subjects of conversation in the world than embroidery and specific cures for rheumatism. She said little--indeed almost nothing,--of her aerial voyage to the East, except that she had enjoyed it, and that the Pyramids and the Sphinx were dwarfed into mere insignificant dots on the land as seen from the air,--she had apparently nothing more to describe, and Lady Kingswood was not sufficiently interested in air-travel to press enquiry. One bright sunny morning, after a week of her self-imposed seclusion, she announced her intention of calling at the monastery to see Don Aloysius.

"I have been rather rude"--she said--"Of course he has wanted to know how my flight to the East went off!--and I have given no sign and sent no message."

"He has called several times"--replied Lady Kingswood--"and I think he has been very much disappointed not to be received."

"Poor reverend Father!" and Morgana smiled--"He should not bother his mind about a woman! Well! I'm going to see him now."

Lady Kingswood looked at her critically. She was gowned in a simple white morning frock with touches of blue,--and she wore a broad-brimmed Tuscan straw hat with a fold of blue carelessly twined about it. She made a pretty picture--one of extraordinary youthfulness for any woman out of her 'teens--so much so that Lady Kingswood wondered if voyages in the air would be found to have a rejuvenating effect.

"They do not admit women into the actual monastery"--she went on--"Feminine frivolities are forbidden! But the ruined cloister is open to visitors and I shall ask to see Don Aloysius there."

She lightly waved adieu and went, leaving her amiable and contented chaperone to the soothing companionship of a strip of embroidery at which she worked with the leisurely tranquillity which such an occupation engenders.

The ruined cloister looked very beautiful that morning, with its crumbling arches crowned and festooned with roses climbing every way at their own sweet will, and Morgana's light figure gave just the touch of human interest to the solemn peacefulness of the scene. She waited but two or three minutes before Don Aloysius appeared--he had seen her arrive from the window of his own private library. He approached her slowly--there was a gravity in the expression of his face that almost amounted to coldness, and no smile lightened it as she met his keen, fixed glance.

"So you have come to me at last!" he said--"I have not merited your confidence till now! Why?"

His rich voice had a ring of deep reproach in its tone--and she was for a moment taken aback. Then her native self-possession and perfect a.s.surance returned.

"Dear Father Aloysius, you do not want my confidence! You know all I can tell you!" she said--and drawing close to him she laid her hand on his arm--"Am I not right?"

A tremor shook him--gently he put her hand aside.

"You think I know!" he replied--"You imagine--"

"Oh, no, I imagine nothing!" and she smiled--"I am sure--yes, SURE!--that you have the secret of things that seem fabulous and yet are true! It was you who first told me of the Brazen City in the Great Desert,--you said it was a mere tradition--but you filled my mind with a desire to find it--"

"And you found it?" he interrupted, quickly--"You found it?"

"You know I did!" she replied--"Why ask the question? Messages on a Sound-Ray can reach YOU, as well as me!"

He moved to the stone bench which occupied a corner of the cloister and sat down. He was very pale and his eyes were feverishly bright.

Presently he seemed to recover himself, and spoke more in his usual manner.

"Rivardi has been here every day"--he said--"He has talked of nothing but you. He told me that he and Gaspard fell suddenly asleep--for which they were grievously ashamed of themselves--and that you took control of the air-ship and turned it homeward before you had given them any chance to explore the desert--"

"Quite true!" she answered, tranquilly--"And--YOU knew all that before he told you! You knew that I was compelled to turn the ship homeward because it was not allowed to proceed! Dear Father Aloysius, you cannot hide yourself from me! You are one of the few who have studied the secrets of the approaching future,--the 'change' which is imminent--the 'world to come' which is coming! Yes!--and you are brave to live as you do in the fetters of a conventional faith when you have such a far wider outlook--"