The Secret Power

didn't you know it? Dear me!-I thought

aised her eyes and shrugged her shoulders expressively as she uttered these words to a man standing near her with a newspaper in his hand.

deliberate dictatorial manner common to a certain type of

s to do!" declared his companion. "She's a law to herself and

was a smile that merely stretched the corne

e had a try! I should certainly have pointed

know wha

d before

ly! But I h

I'll admit you're

Lydia Herbert, brilliant woman of the w

worth knowing I know. There's a lot one need never learn. The chief business of lif

paper, flattened it into a neat

NOT know how to spend it,-not in the right womanly way. She has gone off i

rown, rather insolent eye

conditionally'-without any orders as to society duties. And I don't believe YOU'V

with a kind of a

-"Uncle of the boy that shot him

a sharp cry. She was

himself?... Oh, how dr

nowadays. There's no time. And no inclination. Jack was always a fool-perhaps he'

r rocking chair in a

xclaimed, with a half s

as a fool, I say-he staked the whole of his game on Morgana Royal, and he lost. That was the last straw. If he could have married

Lydia Herbert put the qu

he observed-"What's 'love'? Did you ever know a woman with millions of money who got 'love

o tell me Jack was on

y pitch themselves at men headlong-no hesitation or modesty about them nowadays! Jack's asking would nev

light tear-drops away from her eyes with a handkerchief as fine as a cobweb de

en himself out of the way with a pistol shot, and left me to face the music for him. Morgana Royal was his only chance. She led him o

y!" interjecte

shall see. Anyway Ja

ana has gone off 'in the midst of many socia

er with an unrev

wing anything of his intention to clear out. Though I don't

still surveye

tell me it was only the money he was after"-s

e is to LIVE, isn't it? And to 'live' means to get all you can for your own pleasure and profit,-take care of

very polit

I know just how you feel,-you haven't got as much money as you want and you're looking about for a fellow who HAS. Then you'll marry him-if you can. You, as a woman, are doing just

l?" she echoed

loud.' Don't show ALL your back-leave some for him to think about. Don't paint your face,

she said. "Thanks, preacher Gw

wly. "I wish I was as certain of any

ough she sought to conceal a smile. She watched her companion fu

his remains must be disposed of. That's my affair. Just now his mother'

ly HAVE a heart?

isn't the heart,-that's only a pumpi

ree rings of smoke

she's gone?" he

rga

es

rbert he

he replied at last-

pecial quarry that has given her the slip,-Rog

's in Cal

rta

k another puf

ht that he and she were going to make a matrimonial ti

no

man who has set his soul on

o has set her soul in the

ged her s

cientist,-she's hardly a student. She just

ative-"She's got a smart way of settling proble

the world! Imagine it! A world controlled by Morgana!" She gave an impatient little shake of her skirts. "I do hate these sorts of mysterious, philosophising wom

smiled

ghteen. The stupidest thing ever written is what he called his 'New Life' or 'Vita Nuova.' I read it once, and it made me pretty nigh sick. Think of all that t

red Miss Herbert-"You've no ta

when I see them side by side." He flicked a long burnt ash from his cigar. "I've had a bit of comedy with you this

for money!" she said, with a s

nod

ntal balance of a man more t

walke

al at her regal home, when all the fashion and frivolity of the noted "Four Hundred" were assembled, and when the one whispered topic of conversation among gossips was the possibility of the marriage of one of the richest women in the world to a shabbily clothed scientist without a penny, save what he earned with considerable difficulty. Morgana herself played the part of an enigma. She laughed, shook her head, and moved her daintily attired person through the crowd of her guests with all the gliding grace of a fairy vision in white draperies showe

?" she replied-"I

interested in him

mes to be a sort of deity, you know!-Jove and his thunderbolts in the shape of a man in a badly cut suit of modern clothe

re you

the keeping of a scientific wizard who, if he chose, could reduce me to a little heap of dust in two minutes, and no one any the wiser! Thank you! The sensational press has been p

, and also by a vague wonder at the strange brilliancy of complexion and eyes which

held up

we should rise on wings and fly to such wonderful worlds!-as it is, we can only hop round and round like motes in a sunbeam and imagine we are enjoying ourselves for an hour or two! But the music means so much more!" She paused, enrapt;-then in a lighter tone w

and she looked up at the dark purple sky sprinkled

ed him to that something else-if I

s though unconsciously,-then let it drop at her

very strangel

na sm

e Hebrides,-my father was a poor herder of sheep at one time before he came over to the States. I was

" interrupted

s-voices that whisper secrets and tell of wonders as yet undiscovered-" She broke off suddenly. "We must not stay talking here"-she resumed-"All the folks will say we a

hough! I can se

rds him as if he were a bit of rubbed sealing-wax and you a snippet

bell-flower in a breeze she danced off al

r hotel towards the sea, and again saw, as in a vision, the face and eyes of her "fey" friend,-a fac

ety generally-"Except her money! And her hai

only once, and the sight of such a gliste

own?" she

, and comic hesitation of

I don't believe it will come

rippling mass falling from head to far below the kn

n I twist it up it's so fine it goes into nothing and never looks the quantity it is. However, we must all have our troub

ingers. When his wife died very soon after his wealth began to accumulate, he was beset by women of beauty and position eager to take her place, but he was adamant against all their blandishments and remained a widower, devoting his entire care to the one child he had brought with him as an infant from the Highland hills, and to whom he gave a brilli

her object if she doesn't care for him? It's far more likely she's started for Sicily-she's having

r which service, should she be suitable, he would concede to her the name of "wife" in order to give stability to her position. And Lydia Herbert herself was privately quite aware of his views. Moreover she was entirely willing to accommodate herself to them for the sake of riches and a luxurious life, and the "settlement" she meant to insist upon if her plans ripened to fulfilment. She had no great ambitions; few

s designate "an impossible woman,"-independent of o