use of it?" said
Don Aloysius.

The priest was pacing slowly up and down the old half-ruined cloister
of an old half-ruined monastery, and beside his stately, black-robed
figure moved the small aerial form of Morgana, clad in summer garments
of pure white, her golden head uncovered to the strong Sicilian
sunshine which came piercing in sword-like rays through the arches of
the cloister, and filtered among the clustering leaves which hung in
cool twining bunches from every crumbling grey pillar of stone.

"What is the use of it?" he repeated, his calm eyes resting gravely on
the little creature gliding sylph-like beside him. "Suppose your
invention out-reaped every limit of known possibility--suppose your
air-ship to be invulnerable, and surpassing in speed and safety
everything ever experienced,--suppose it could travel to heights
unimaginable, what then? Suppose even that you could alight on another
star--another world than this--what purpose is served?--what peace is
gained?--what happens?"

Morgana stopped abruptly in her walk beside him.

"I have not worked for peace or happiness,"--she said and there was a
thrill of sadness in her voice--"because to my mind neither peace nor
happiness exist. From all we can see, and from the little we can learn,
I think the Maker of the universe never meant us to be happy or
peaceful. All Nature is at strife with itself, incessantly labouring
for such attainment as can hardly be won,--all things seem to be
haunted by fear and sorrow. And yet it seems to me that there are
remedies for most of our evils in the very composition of the
elements--if we were not ignorant and stupid enough to discourage our
discoverers on the verge of discovery. My application of a certain
substance, known to scientists, but scarcely understood, is an attempt
to solve the problem of swift aerial motion by light and heat--light
and heat being the chiefest supports of life. To use a force giving out
light and heat continuously seemed to me the way to create and command
equally continuous movement. I have--I think and hope--fairly
succeeded, and in order to accomplish my design I have used wealth that
would not have been at the service of most inventors,--wealth which my
father left to me quite unconditionally,--but were I able to fly with
my 'White Eagle' to the remotest parts of the Milky Way itself, I
should not look to find peace or happiness!"

"Why?"

The priest's simple query had a note of ten