And now the creator,--the woman--had arrived,--the woman whose rough designs on paper had been carefully followed and elaborated into actual shape;--and there was a tense state of expectation among all the workers awaiting her presence.

Meanwhile the lantern-gleam in the sky broadened and the web of mist which veiled the sea began to lift and Giulio Rivardi, pacing to and fro, halted every now and then to look in the direction of a path winding downward from the mainland to the shore, in watchful expectation of seeing an elfin figure, more spiritlike than mortal, floating towards him through the dividing vapours of the morning.

The words of Don Aloysius haunted him strangely, though his common sense sharply rejected the fantastic notions to which they had given rise.

She,--Morgana Royal,--was "not capable" of love, the priest had implied,--and yet, at times--only at times,--she seemed eminently lovable.

At times,--again, only at times--he was conscious of a sweeping passion of admiration for her that well-nigh robbed him of his self-control.