CHAPTER XIV
Convention is still occasionally studied even in these unconventionaldays, and Morgana Royal, independent and wealthy young woman as shewas, had subscribed to its rule and ordinance by engaging achaperone,--a "dear old English lady of title," as she had describedher to the Marchese Rivardi. Lady Kingswood merited the descriptionthus given of her, for she was distinctly a dear old English lady, andher title was the least thing about her, especially in her own opinion.There was no taint of snobbery in her simple, kindly disposition, andwhen her late husband, a distinguished military officer, had beenknighted for special and splendid service in the war, she had onlydeplored that the ruin of his health and disablement by wounds,prevented him from taking any personal pleasure in the "honour." Hisdeath followed soon after the King's recognition of his merit, and shewas left with his pension to live upon, and a daughter who havingmarried in haste repented at leisure, being deserted by a drunkenhusband and left with two small children to nourish and educate.Naturally, Lady Kingswood took much of their care upon herself--but thepension of a war widow will not stretch further than a given point, andshe found it both necessary and urgent to think of some means by whichshe could augment her slender income. She was not a clever woman,--shehad no special talents,--her eyes would not stand her in good stead forplain sewing, and she could not even manage a typing machine. But shehad exquisitely gentle manners,--she was well-bred and tactful, and,rightly judging that good-breeding and tact are valuable assets in somequarters of the "new" society, she sought, through various privatechannels, for a post as companion or "chaperone" to "one lady." Justwhen she was rather losing hope as to the success of her effort, the"one lady" came along in the elfin personality of Morgana Royal, who,after a brief interview in London, selected her with a decision asrapid as it was inexplicable, offering her a salary of five hundred ayear, which to Lady Kingswood was a small fortune.
"You will have nothing to do but just be pleasant!" Morgana had toldher, smilingly, "And enjoy your self as you like. Of course I do notexpect to be controlled or questioned,--I am an independent woman, andgo my own way, but I'm not at all 'modern.' I don't drink or smoke or'dope,' or crave for male society. I think you'll find yourself allright!"
And Lady Kingswood had indeed "found herself all right." Her owndaughter had never been so thoughtful for her comfort as Morgana was,and she became day by day more interested and fascinated by theoriginal turn of mind and the bewitching personality of the strangelittle creature for whom the ordinary amusements of society seemed tohave no attraction. And now, installed in her own sumptuously fittedrooms in the Palazzo d'Oro, Morgana's Sicilian paradise, she almostforgot there was such a thing as poverty, or the sordid business of"making both ends meet." Walking up and down the rose-marble loggia andlooking out to the exquisite blue of the sea, she inwardly thanked Godfor all His mercies, and wondered at the exceptional good luck that hadbrought her so much peace, combined with comfort and luxury in theevening of her days. She was a handsome old lady; her refined features,soft blue eyes and white hair were a "composition" for aneighteenth-century French miniature, and her dress combined quietelegance with careful taste. She was inflexibly loyal to her statedposition; she neither "questioned" nor "controlled" Morgana, orattempted to intrude an opinion as to her actions or movements,--andif, as was only natural, she felt a certain curiosity concerning theaims and doings of so brilliant and witch-like a personality she showedno sign of it. She was interested in the Marchese Rivardi, but stillmore so in the priest, Don Aloysius, to whom she felt singularlyattracted, partly by his own dignified appearance and manner, andpartly by the leaning she herself had towards the Catholic Faith where"Woman" is made sacred in the person of the Holy Virgin, and deemedworthy of making intercession with the Divine. She knew, as we all inour innermost souls know, that it is a symbol of the greatest truththat can ever be taught to humanity.
The special morning on which she walked, leaning slightly on asilver-knobbed stick, up and down the loggia and looked at the sea, wasone of rare beauty even in Sicily, the sky being of that pure etherealblue for which one can hardly find a comparison in colour, and theocean below reflecting it, tone for tone, as in a mirror. In theterraced garden, half lost among the intertwining blossoms, Morganamoved to and fro, gathering roses,--her little figure like a white roseitself set in among the green leaves. Lady Kingswood watched her, withkindly, half compassionate eyes.
"It must be a terrible responsibility for her to have so much money!"she thought. "She can hardly know what to do with it! And somehow--I donot think she will marry."
At that moment Morgana came slowly up the steps cut in the grassbordered on either side by flowers, and approached her.
"Here are some roses for you, dear 'Duchess!'" she said, "Duchess"being the familiar or "pet" name she elected to call her by. "Speciallyselected, I assure you! Are you tired?--or may I have a talk?"
Lady Kingswood took the roses with a smile, touching Morgana's cheekplayfully with one of the paler pink buds.
"A talk by all means!" she replied--"How can I be tired, dear child?I'm a lazy old woman, doing nothing all day but enjoy myself!"
Morgana nodded her golden head approvingly.
"That's right!--I'm glad!" she said. "That's what I want you to do!It's a pretty place, this Palazzo d'Oro, don't you think?"
"More than pretty--it's a perfect paradise!" declared Lady Kingswood,emphatically.
"Well, I'm glad you like it"--went on Morgana--"Because then you won'tmind staying here and looking after it when I'm away. I'll have to goaway quite soon."
Lady Kingswood controlled her first instinctive movement of surprise.
"Really?" she said--"That seems a pity as you only arrived sorecently--"
Morgana gave a wistful glance round her at the beautiful gardens andblue sea beyond.
"Yes--perhaps it is a pity!" she said, with a light shrug of hershoulders--"But I have a great deal to do, and ever so much to learn. Itold you, didn't I?--that I have had an air-ship built for me quite onmy own lines?--an air-ship that moves like a bird and is quitedifferent from any other air-ship ever made or known?"
"Yes, you told me something about it"--answered Lady Kingswood--"Butyou know, my dear, I am very stupid about all these wonderful newinventions. 'Progress of science' they call it. Well, I'm rather afraidof the 'progress of science.' I'm an old-fashioned woman and I cannotbear to hear of aeroplanes and air-ships and poor wretched peoplefalling from the sky and being dashed to pieces. The solid earth isquite good enough for my old feet as long as they will support me!"
Morgana laughed.
"You dear Duchess!" she said, affectionately--"Don't worry! I'm notgoing to ask you to travel in my air-ship--I wouldn't so try yournerves for the world! Though it is an absolutely safeship,--nothing"--and she emphasised the word--"NOTHING can upset it ordrive it out of its course unless natural law is itself upset! Now letus sit here"--and she drew two wicker chairs into the cool shadow ofthe loggia and set them facing the sea--"and have our talk! I've begunit--I'll go on! Tell me"--and she nestled down among the cushions,watching Lady Kingswood seat herself in slower, less supplefashion--"tell me--what does it feel like to be married?"
Lady Kingswood opened her eyes, surprised and amused.
"What does it feel like? My dear--?"
"Oh, surely you know what I mean!" pursued Morgana--"YOU have beenmarried. Well, when you were first married were you very, very happy?Did your husband love you entirely without a thought for anybody oranything else?--and were you all in all to each other?"
Lady Kingswood was quite taken aback by the personal directness ofthese questions, but deciding within herself that Morgana must becontemplating marriage on her own behalf, answered simply andtruthfully--
"My husband and I were very fond of each other. We were the best offriends and good companions. Of course he had his military duties toattend to and was often absent--"
"And you stayed at home and kept house,"--interpolated Morgana,musing
ly--"I see! That is what all wives have to do! But I suppose hejust adored you?"
Lady Kingswood smiled.
"'Adore' is a very strong word to use, my dear!" she said--"I doubt ifany married people 'adore' each other! If they can be good friends andrub along pleasantly through all the sorrows and joys of life together,they should be satisfied."
"And you call that LOVE!" said Morgana, with a passionate thrill in hervoice--"Love! 'Love that is blood within the veins of time!' Just'rubbing along pleasantly together!' Dear 'Duchess,' that wouldn't suitME!"
Lady Kingswood looked at her with interested, kind eyes.
"But then, what WOULD suit you?" she queried--"You know you mustn'texpect the impossible!"
"What the world calls the impossible is always the possible"--saidMorgana--"And only the impossible appeals to me!"
This was going beyond the boundary-line of Lady Kingswood's braincapacity, so she merely remained agreeably quiescent.
"And when your child was born"--pursued Morgana--"did you feel awonderful ecstasy?--a beautiful peace and joy?--a love so great that itwas as if God had given you something of His Own to hold and keep?"
Lady Kingswood laughed outright.
"My dear girl, you are too idealistic! Having a baby is not at all aromantic business!--quite the reverse! And babies are not interestingtill they 'begin to take notice' as the nurses say. Then when they getolder and have to go to school you soon find out that you have lovedTHEM far more than they have loved or ever WILL love YOU!"
As she said this her voice trembled a little and she sighed.
"I see! I think I quite understand!" said Morgana--"And it is just whatI have always imagined--there is no great happiness in marriage. If itis only a matter of 'rubbing along pleasantly together' two friends canalways do that without any 'sex' attraction, or tying themselves uptogether for life. And it's not much joy to bring children into theworld and waste treasures of love on them, if after you have done allyou can, they leave you without a regret,--like the birds that fly froma nest when once they know how to use their wings."
Lady Kingswood's eyes were sorrowful.
"My daughter was a very pretty girl,"--she said--"Her father and I wereproud of her looks and her charm of manner. We spared every shilling wecould to give her the best and most careful education--and wesurrounded her with as much pleasure and comfort at home aspossible,--but at the first experience of 'society,' and the flatteryof strangers, she left us. Her choice of a husband was mostunfortunate--but she would not listen to our advice, though we hadloved her so much--she thought 'he' loved her more."
Morgana lifted her eyes. The "fey" light was glittering in them.
"Yes! She thought he loved her! That's what many a woman thinks--that'he'--the particular 'he' loves her! But how seldom he does! How muchmore often he loves himself!"
"You must not be cynical, my dear!" said Lady Kingswood, gently--"Lifeis certainly full of disappointments, especially in love andmarriage--but we must endure our sorrows patiently and believe that Goddoes everything for the best."
This was the usual panacea which the excellent lady offered for alltroubles, and Morgana smiled.
"Yes!--it must be hard work for God!" she said--"Cruel work! To doeverything for the best and to find it being turned into the worst bythe very creatures one seeks to benefit, must be positive torture!Well, dear 'Duchess,' I asked you all these questions about love andmarriage just to know if you could say anything that might alter myviews--but you have confirmed them. I feel that there is no such thingin the world as the love _I_ want--and marriage without it would beworse than any imagined hell. So I shall not marry."
Lady Kingswood's face expressed a mild tolerance.
"You say that just now"--she said--"But I think you will alter yourmind some day! You would not like to be quite alone always--not even inthe Palazzo d'Oro."
"YOU are quite alone?"
"Ah, but I am an old woman, my dear! I have lived my day!"
"That's not true," said Morgana, decisively--"You have not 'lived yourday' since you are living NOW! And if you are old, that is just areason why you should NOT be alone. But you ARE. Your husband is dead,and your daughter has other ties. So even marriage left you high anddry on the rocks as it were till my little boat came along and took youoff them!"
"A very welcome little boat!" said Lady Kingswood, with feeling--"Arescue in the nick of time!"
"Never mind that!" and Morgan waved her pretty hand expressively--"Mypoint is that marriage--just marriage--has not done much for you. It iswhat women clamour for, and scheme for,--and nine out of ten regret thewhole business when they have had their way. There are so many morethings in life worth winning!"
Lady Kingswood looked at her interestedly. She made a pretty picturejust then in her white morning gown, seated in a low basket chair withpale blue silk cushions behind her on which her golden head rested withthe brightness of a daffodil.
"So many more things!" she repeated--"My air-ship for instance!--it'sworth all the men and all the marriages I've ever heard of! My beloved'White Eagle!'--my own creation--my baby--SUCH a baby!" She laughed."But I must learn to fly with it alone!"
"I hope you will do nothing rash!"--said Lady Kingswood, mildly; shewas very ignorant of modern discovery and invention, and all attempt toexplain anything of the kind to her would have been a hope lessbusiness--"I understand that it is always necessary to take a pilot andan observer in these terrible sky-machines--"
She was interrupted by a gay little peal of laughter from Morgana.
"Terrible?--Oh, dear 'Duchess,' you are too funny! There's nothing'terrible' about MY 'sky-machine!' Do you ever read poetry? No?--Wellthen you don't know that lovely and prophetic line of Keats--"
'Beautiful things made new For the surprise of the sky-children.'
"Poets are always prophetic,--that is, REAL poets, not modern versemongers; and I fancy Keats must have imagined something in the fardistant future like my 'White Eagle!' For it really IS 'a beautifulthing made new'--a beautiful natural force put to new uses--and whoknows?--I may yet surprise those 'sky-children!'"
Lady Kingswood's mind floundered helplessly in this flood of what, toher, was incomprehensibility. Morgana went on in the sweet flutingvoice which was one of her special charms.
"If you haven't read Keats, you must have read at some time or otherthe 'Arabian Nights' and the story of 'Sindbad the Sailor'? Yes? Youthink you have? Well, you know how poor Sindbad got into the Valley ofDiamonds and waited for an eagle to fly down and carry him off! That'sjust like me! I've been dropped into a Valley of Diamonds and oftenwondered how I should escape--but the Eagle has arrived!"
"I'm afraid I don't quite follow you"--said Lady Kingswood--"I'm ratherdense, you know! Surely your Valley of Diamonds--if you meanwealth--has made your 'Eagle' possible?"
Morgana nodded.
"Exactly! If there had been no Valley of Diamonds there would have beenno Eagle! But, all the same, this little female Sindbad is glad to getout of the valley!"
Lady Kingswood laughed.
"My dear child, if you are making a sort of allegory on your wealth,you are not 'out of the valley' nor are you likely to be!"
Morgana sighed.
"My vulgar wealth!" she murmured.
"What? Vulgar?"
"Yes. A man told me it was."
"A vulgar man himself, I should imagine!" said Lady Kingswood, warmly.
Morgana shrugged her shoulders carelessly.
"Oh, no, he isn't. He's eccentric, but not vulgar. He's aristocratic tothe tips of his toes--and English. That accounts for his rudeness.Sometimes, you know--only sometimes--Englishmen can be VERY rude! ButI'd rather have them so--it's a sort of well-bred clumsiness, like themanners of a Newfoundland dog. It's not the 'make-a-dollar' air ofAmerican men."
"You are quite English yourself, aren't you?" queried her companion.
"No--not English in any sense. I'm pure Celtic of Celt, from thefarthest Highlands of Scotland. But I
hate to say I'm 'Scotch,' asslangy people use that word for whisky! I'm just Highland-born. Myfather and mother were the same, and I came to life a wild moor, amongmists and mountains and stormy seas--I'm always glad of that! I'm gladmy eyes did not look their first on a city! There's a tradition in thepart of Scotland where I was born which tells of a history far far backin time when sailors from Phoenicia came to our shores,--men greatlycivilised when we all were but savages, and they made love to theHighland women and had children by them,--then when they went away backto Egypt they left many traces of Eastern customs and habits whichremain to this day. My father used always to say that he could counthis ancestry back to Egypt!--it pleased him to think so and it didnobody any harm!"
"Have you ever been to the East?" asked Lady Kingswood.
"No--but I'm going! My 'White Eagle' will take me there in a very shorttime! But, as I've already told you, I must learn to fly alone."
"What does the Marchese Rivardi say to that?"
"I don't ask him!" replied Morgana, indifferently--"What I may decideto do is not his business." She broke off abruptly--then continued--"Heis coming to luncheon,--and afterwards you shall see my air-ship. Iwon't persuade you to go up in it!"
"I COULDN'T!" said Lady Kingswood, emphatically--"I've no nerve forsuch an adventure."
Morgana rose from her chair, smiling kindly.
"Dear 'Duchess' be quite easy in your mind!" she said--"I want you verymuch on land, but I shall not want you in the air! You will be quitesafe and happy here in the Palazzo d'Oro"--she turned as she saw theshadow of a man's tall figure fall on the smooth marble pavement of theloggia--"Ah! Here is the Marchese! We were just speaking of you!"
"Tropp' onore!" he murmured, as he kissed the little hand she held outto him in the Sicilian fashion of gallantry--"I fear I am perhaps tooearly?"
"Oh no! We were about to go in to luncheon--I know the hour by the bellof the monastery down there--you hear it?"
A soft "ting-ting tong"--rang from the olive and ilex woods below thePalazzo,--and Morgana, listening, smiled.
"Poor Don Aloysius!" she said--"He will now go to his soup maigre--andwe to our poulet, sauce bechamel,--and he will be quite as contented aswe are!"
"More so, probably!" said Rivardi, as he courteously assisted LadyKingswood, who was slightly lame, to rise from her chair--"He is one ofthe 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 God--a great support that has givenway 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!" herejoined--"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 torecognise his best friend we say--'Poor man! His brain is gone!' It'sthe same thing with a nation. Or a world! When it is so ailing that itcannot 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--'Itsbrain is gone!'"
Rivardi was surprised at the passionate energy she threw into thesewords.
"You feel that deeply?" he said--"And yet--pardon me!--you do notassume to be religious?"
"Marchese, I 'assume' nothing!" she answered--"I cannot 'pretend'! To'assume' or to 'pretend' would hardly serve the Creator adequately.Creative or Natural Force is so far away from sham that one must domore than 'assume'--one must BE!"
Her voice thrilled on the air, and Lady Kingswood, who was crossing theloggia, leaning on her stick, paused to look at the eloquent speaker.She was worth looking at just then, for she seemed inspired. Her eyeswere extraordinarily brilliant, and her whole personality expressed asingular vitality coupled with an ethereal grace that suggested something almost superhuman.
"Yes--one must be!" she repeated--"I have not BEEN A STUDENT OF SCIENCESO LONG WITHOUT LEARNING that there is no 'assuming' anything in theuniverse. One must SEE straight, and THINK straight too! I could not'assume' religion, because I FEEL it--in the very depths of my soul! AsDon Aloysius said the other day, it is marvellous how close we are tothe Source of all life, and yet we imagine we are far away! If we couldonly realise the truth of the Divine Nearness, and work WITH it and INit, we should make discoveries worth knowing! We work too much WITHourselves and OF ourselves." She paused,--then added slowly andseriously--"I have never done any work that way. I have alwaysconsidered myself Nothing,--the Force I have obeyed was and isEverything."
"And so--being Nothing--you still made your air-ship possible!" saidRivardi, 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 beNothing; the Force that is Everything made my air-ship possible!"
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