have never felt like THAT! I hope I
shall never feel like THAT! To feel like THAT is to feel like the
female beasts of the field who only wait and live to be used by the
males, giving 'all they are and all they have,' poor creatures! The
bull does not 'love' the cow--he gives her a calf. When the calf is
born and old enough to get along by itself, it forgets its mother just
as its mother forgets IT, while the sire is blissfully indifferent to
both! It's really the same thing with human animals,--especially
nowadays--only we haven't the honesty to admit it! No, Manella
Soriso!--with your good looks you ought to be far above 'feeling like
THAT!--you are a nobler creature than a cow! No wonder men despise
women who are always on the cow level!"

She laughed again, and tripped lightly to the looking-glass.

"I must dress;"--she said--"And you can take a message to my chauffeur
and tell him to get everything ready to start. I've had a lovely
night's rest and am quite fit for a long run."

"Oh, are you going?" and Manella gave a little cry of pain--"I am
sorry! I do want you to stay!"

Morgana's eyes flashed mingled humour and disdain. "You quaint
creature! Why should I stay? There's nothing to stay for!"

"If there's nothing to stay for, why did you come?"

This was an unexpected question, the result of a subconscious
suggestion in Manella's mind which she herself could not have explained.

Morgana seemed amused.

"What did I come for? Really, I hardly know! I am full of odd whims and
fancies, and I like to humour myself in my various ways. I think I
wanted to see a bit of California,--that's all!"

"Then why not see more of it?" persisted Manella.

"Enough is better than too much!" laughed Morgana--"I am easily bored!
This Plaza hotel would bore me to death! What do you want me to stay
for? To see your man on the mountain?"

"No!" Manella replied with sudden sharpness--"No! I would not like you
to see him! He would either hate you or love you!"

The grey-blue lightning flash glittered in Morgana's eyes.

"You ARE a curious girl!" she said, slowly--"You might be a tragic
actress and make your fortune on the stage, with that voice and that
look! And yet you stay here as 'help' in a Sanatorium! Well! It's a
dull, dreary way of living, but I suppose you like it!"

"I DON'T like it!" declared Manella, vehemently, "I hate it! But what
am I to do? I have no home and no money. I must earn my living somehow."

"Wi