The Secret Power

ia to Sicily

ower, seated in a perfect paradise-garden of flowers and looking out on the blue Mediterranean with dreamy eyes in which the lightning flash was nearly if not wholly subdued. About quarter of a mile distant, and seen through the waving tops of pines and branching oleander, stood the house to which the garden belonged,-a "restored" palace of ancient days, built of rose-marble on the classic lines of Greek architecture. Its "restoration" was n

cely noticeable foreign accent-"Last night I heard you had arrived, but

ind!" she answered-"The whole

o spin this rolling planet a little faster! But in my mind, time flies far too rapidly! I hav

terrup

instructions more thoroughly than I imagined could be possible.

he said, with a sudden

d at him,

waste of time! And in the end nothing is so fatiguing!" She broke off a spray of flowering laurel and hit him with it playfully on the hand. "Don't moon or spoon, caro amico! What is it all about? Do I leave you nothing on which to write poetry? I find you out in Sicily-a delightful poor nobleman with a family history going back to the Caesars!-

n and rising, ga

e you hold it, tell me of my ot

rs in his own sun-browned palm a

What we called your 'impossible' plan has been mad

race, to woman, denied her every intellectual initiative! 'Who would have thought that a woman'-could do anything but bend low before a man with grovel

fingers he held, stiffened resolutely in his c

did not mean-"

mood changed,

as little more than an idea, has resolved itself into a scientific fact-but you would have been just as

a laugh of real enj

my White Eagle?-what

We have carried out your instructions to the letter-the thing is LIVING, in all respects save life. I made the test with the fl

now she withdrew her hand from

e a light yacht in a sea,-wind and tide in her favour. But her speed outran

, "You shall choose a place for us to go. Nothing can stop us-nothing on

is dark deep Southern eyes expressed admir

annot but marvel that your brain should have grasped in so short

p in arms against him, and more years are wasted in trying to prove him right or wrong. I, as a mere woman, ask nobody for an opinion-I risk my own existence-spend

ll not keep it

rs or explorers. It would make the fool of a film a three-fold millionaire-but it would leave a great

flower here and there, an

xpect them not to talk among each other and in the outside clubs and meeting-places of the wonderf

t care how they talk or where,-they have built the White Eagle, but they cannot make her fly!-not without ME! You were as

r a moment, then laying her han

rave!-you must have felt that you risked your life on a chance!-ne

ve!-in SUCH a woman-if she would permit me!" he an

in store for us!-such wonders as none have yet explored,-the mysteries of the high and the low-the light and

se of it all?" he

r deep blue e

?... You ask t

k of the whole world mastered and possessed-but without anyone to love in it-without anyone to love YOU! Suppose you could command the elements-suppose e

rows in a little surprise,-a

not exist. The passion called by that name is too petty and personal for me. Men have made love to me often-not as prettily perhaps as you d

ou were quite poor!" he

laug

former beauty, and the White Eagle would be still a bird of the brain and not of the air! No, you very charming Marchese!-I should not have the same fascination f

knitted in

me man you like?"

, because he detests ME! And it's a sort of duel between us of sheer intellectuality, because he is trying to discover-in t

chese's eyes glittered with sudden anger-

he paused a moment in the full glare of the Sicilian sunshine, h

ds on the use he makes of it. He-like all men-wish

rose-marble pilasters of the loggia, here saluted her-

rance or argument-without even the hindrance and argument of-love!" She laughed, and gave a mirthful upward glance at the Marchese's somewhat sullen countenance. "Come and have luncheon with me! You are the major-domo for the present-you have engaged the servants and you know the run of the h

ng, into the hous