"Don Aloysius!" quickly exclaimed the Marchese, and every one rose to greet the newcomer, Morgana receiving him with a profound reverence. He laid his hand on her head with a kindly touch of benediction.
"So the dreamer has come to her dream!" he said, in soft accents--"And it has not broken like an air-bubble!--it still floats and shines!" As he spoke he courteously saluted all present by a bend of his head,--and stood for a moment gazing at the view of the sea and the dying sunset.
He was a very striking figure of a man--tall, and commanding in air and att.i.tude, with a fine face which might be called almost beautiful. The features were such as one sees in cla.s.sic marbles--the full clear eyes were set somewhat widely apart under shelving brows that denoted a brain with intelligence to use it, and the smile that lightened his expression as he looked from, the sea to his fair hostess was of a benignant sweetness.
"Yes"--he continued--"you have realised your vision of loveliness, have you not? Our friend Giulio Rivardi has carried out all your plans?"
"Everything is perfect!" said Morgana--"Or will be when it is finished.
The workmen still have things to do."
"All workmen always have things to do!" said Don Aloysius, tranquilly--"And nothing is ever finished! And you, dear child!--you are happy?"
She flushed and paled under his deep, steady gaze.
"I--I think so!" she murmured--"I ought to be!"
The priest smiled and after a pause took the chair which the Marchese Rivardi offered him. The other guests in the loggia looked at him with interest, fascinated by his grave charm of manner. Morgana resumed her seat.
"I ought to be happy"--she said--"And of course I am--or I shall be!"
""Man never is but always to be blest"!" quoted Colonel Boyd--"And woman the same! I have been telling this lady, reverend father, that maybe she will find her "palazzo" a bit lonesome without some one to share its pleasures."
Don Aloysius looked round with a questioning glance.
"What does she herself think about it?" he asked, mildly.
"I have not thought at all"--said Morgana, quickly, "I can always fill it with friends. No end of people are glad to winter in Sicily."
"But will such "friends" care for YOU or YOUR happiness?" suggested the Marchese, pointedly.
Morgana laughed.
"Oh, no, I do not expect that! Nowadays no one really cares for anybody else"s happiness but their own. Besides, I shall be much too busy to want company. I"m bent on all sorts of discoveries, you know!--I want to dive "deeper than ever plummet sounded"!"
"You will only find deeper depths!" said Don Aloysius, slowly--"And in the very deepest depth of all is G.o.d!"
There was a sudden hush as he spoke. He went on in gentle accents.
"How wonderful it is that He should be THERE,--and yet HERE! No one need "dive deep" to find Him. He is close to us as our very breathing!
Ah!" and he sighed--"I am sorry for all the busy "discoverers"--they will never arrive at the end,--and meanwhile they miss the clue--the little secret by the way!"
Another pause ensued. Then Morgana spoke, in a very quiet and submissive tone.
"Dear Don Aloysius, you are a "religious" as they say--and naturally you mistrust all seekers of science--science which is upsetting to your doctrine."
Aloysius raised a deprecating hand.
"My child, there is no science that can upset the Source of all science! The greatest mathematician that lives did not inst.i.tute mathematics--he only copies the existing Divine law."
"That is perfectly true"--said the Marchese Rivardi--"But la Signora Royal means that the dogma of the Church is in opposition to scientific discovery--"
"I have not found it so"--said Don Aloysius, tranquilly--"We have believed in what you call your "wireless telephony"--for centuries;--when the Sanctus bell rings at Ma.s.s, we think and hope a message from Our Lord comes to every worshipper whose soul is "in tune"
with the heavenly current; that is one of your "scientific discoveries"--and there are hundreds of others which the Church has incorporated through a mystic fore-knowledge and prophetic instinct.
No--I find nothing upsetting in science,--the only students who are truly upset both physically and morally, are they who seek to discover G.o.d while denying His existence."
There followed a silence. The group in the loggia seemed for the moment mesmerised by the priest"s suave calm voice, steady eyes and n.o.ble expression, A bell rang slowly and sweetly--a call to prayer in some not far distant monastery, and the first glimmer of the stars began to sparkle faintly in the darkening heavens. A little sigh from Morgana stirred the stillness.
"If one could always live in this sort of mood!" she suddenly exclaimed--"This lovely peace in the glow of the sunset and the perfume of the flowers!--and you, Don Aloysius, talking beautiful things!--why then, one would be perpetually happy and good! But such living would not be life!--one must go with the time--"
Don Aloysius smiled indulgently.
"Must one? Is it so vitally necessary? If I might take the liberty to go on speaking I would tell you a story--a mere tradition--but it might weary you--"
A general chorus of protest from all present a.s.sured him of their eagerness to hear.
"As if YOU could weary anybody!" Morgana said. "You never do--only you have an effect upon ME which is not very flattering to my self-love!--you make me feel so small!"
You ARE small, physically"--said Don Aloysius--Do you mind that? Small things are always sweetest!"
She flushed, and turned her head away as she caught the Marchese Rivardi"s eyes fixed upon her.
"You should not make pretty compliments to a woman, reverend father!"
she said, lightly--"It is not your vocation!"
His grave face brightened and he laughed with real heartiness.
"Dear lady, what do you know of my vocation?" he asked--"Will you teach it to me? No!--I am sure you will not try! Listen now!--as you all give me permission--let me tell you of certain people who once "went with the time"--and decided to stop en route, and are still at the stopping-place. Perhaps some of you who travel far and often, have heard of the Brazen City?"
Each one looked at the other enquiringly, but with no responsive result.
"Those who visit the East know of it"--went on Aloysius--"And some say they have seen a glimpse of its shining towers and cupolas in the far distance. However this may be, tradition declares that it exists, and that it was founded by St. John, the "beloved disciple." You will recall that when Our Lord was asked when and how John should die He answered--"If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?"
So--as we read--the rumour went forth that John was the one disciple for whom there should be no death. And now--to go on with the legend--it is believed by many, that deep in the as yet unexplored depths of the deserts of Egypt--miles and miles over rolling sand-waves which once formed the bed of a vast ocean, there stands a great city whose roofs and towers are seemingly of bra.s.s,--a city barricaded and built in by walls of bra.s.s and guarded by gates of bra.s.s. Here dwells a race apart--a race of beautiful human creatures who have discovered the secret of perpetual youth and immortality on this earth. They have seen the centuries come and go,--the flight of time touches them not,--they only await the day when the whole world will be free to them--that "world to come" which is not made for the "many," but the "few." All the discoveries of our modern science are known to them--our inventions are their common everyday appliances--and on the wings of air and rays of light they hear and know all that goes on in every country. Our wars and politics are no more to them than the wars and politics of ants in ant-hills,--they have pa.s.sed beyond all trivialities such as these.
They have discovered the secret of life"s true enjoyment--and--they enjoy!"
"That"s a fine story if true!" said Colonel Boyd--
"But all the same, it must be dull work living shut up in a city with nothing to do,--doomed to be young and to last for ever!"
Morgana had listened intently,--her eyes were brilliant.
"Yes--I think it would be dull after a couple of hundred years or so"--she said--"One would have tested all life"s possibilities and pleasures by then."
"I am not so sure of that!" put in the Marchese Rivardi--"With youth nothing could become tiresome--youth knows no ennui."
Some of the other listeners to the conversation laughed.
"I cannot quite agree to that"--said a lady who had not yet spoken--"Nowadays the very children are "bored" and ever looking for something new--it is just as if the world were "played out"--and another form of planet expected."
"That is where we retain the vitality of our faith--" said Don Aloysius--"We expect--we hope! We believe in an immortal progress towards an ever Higher Good."