The Secret Power Read online

  CHAPTER IV

  "Why do you stare at me? You have such big eyes!"

  Morgana, dotted only in a white silk nightgown, sitting on the edge ofher bed with her small rosy toes peeping out beneath the tiny frill ofher thin garment, looked at the broad-shouldered handsome girl Manellawho had just brought in her breakfast tray and now stood regarding herwith an odd expression of mingled admiration and shyness.

  "Such big eyes!" she repeated--"Like great head-lamps flaring out ofthat motor-brain of yours! What do you see in me?"

  Manella's brown skin flushed crimson.

  "Something I have never seen before!" she answered--"You are so smalland white! Not like a woman at all!"

  Morgana laughed merrily.

  "Not like a woman! Oh dear! What am I like then?"

  Manella's eyes grew darker than ever in the effort to explain herthought.

  "I do not know"--she said, hesitatingly--"But--once--here in thisgarden--we found a wonderful butterfly with white wings--allwhite,--and it was resting on a scarlet flower. We all went out to lookat it, because it was unlike any other butterfly we had ever seen,--itswings were like velvet or swansdown. You remind me of that butterfly."

  Morgana smiled.

  "Did it fly away?"

  "Oh, yes. Very soon! And an hour or so after it had flown, the scarletflower where it had rested was dead."

  "Most thrilling!" And Morgana gave a little yawn. "Is that breakfast?Yes? Stay with me while I have it! Are you the head chambermaid at thePlaza?"

  Manella shrugged her shoulders.

  "I do not know what I am! I do everything I am asked to do as well as Ican."

  "Obliging creature! And are you well paid?"

  "As much as I want"--Manella answered, indifferently. "But there is nopleasure in the work."

  "Is there pleasure in ANY work?"

  "If one works for a person one loves,--surely yes!" the girl murmuredas if she were speaking to herself, "The days would be too short forall the work to be done!"

  Morgana glanced at her, and the flash of her eyes had the grey-blue oflightning. Then she poured out the coffee and tasted it.

  "Not bad!" she commented--"Did you make it?"

  Manella nodded, and went on talking at random.

  "I daresay it's not as good as it ought to be"--she said--"If you hadbrought your own maid I should have asked HER to make it. Women of yourclass like their food served differently to us poor folk, and I don'tknow their ways."

  Morgana laughed.

  "You quaint, handsome thing! What do you know about it? What, in youropinion, IS my class?"

  Manella pulled nervously at the ends of the bright coloured kerchiefshe wore knotted across her bosom, and hesitated a moment.

  "Well, for one thing you are rich"--she said, at last--"There is nomistaking that. Your lovely clothes--you must spend a fortune on them!Then--all the people here wonder at your automobile--and your chauffeursays it is the most perfect one ever made! And all these riches makeyou think you ought to have everything just as you fancy it. I supposeyou ought--I'm not sure! I don't believe you have much feeling,--youcouldn't, you know! It is not as if you wanted something very badly andthere was no chance of your getting it,--your money would buy all youcould desire. It would even buy you a man!"

  Morgana paused in the act of pouring out a second cup of coffee, andher face dimpled with amusement.

  "Buy me a man!" she echoed--"You think it would?"

  "Of course it would!" Manella averred--"If you wanted one, which Idaresay you don't. For all I know, you may be like the man who isliving in the consumption hut on the hill,--he ought to have a woman,but he doesn't want one."

  Morgana buttered her little breakfast roll very delicately.

  "The man who lives in the consumption hut on the hill!" she repeated,slowly, and with a smile--"What man is that?"

  "I don't know--" and Manella's large dark eyes filled with a strangelywistful perplexity. "He is a stranger--and he's not ill at all. He isbig and strong and healthy. But he has chosen to live in the 'house ofthe dying,' as it is sometimes called--where people from the Plaza gowhen there's no more hope for them. He likes to be quite alone--hethinks and writes all day. I take him milk and bread,--it is all heorders from the Plaza. I would be his woman. I would work for him frommorning till night. But he will not have me."

  Morgana raised her eyes, glittering with the "fey" light in them thatoften bewildered and rather scared her friends.

  "You would be his woman? You are in love with him?" she said.

  Something in her look checked Manella's natural impulse to confide inone of her own sex.

  "No, I am not!"--she answered coldly--"I have said too much."

  Morgana smiled, and stretching out her small white hand, adorned withits sparkling rings, laid it caressingly on the girl's brown wrist.

  "You are a dear!"--she murmured, lazily--"Just a dear! A big, beautifulcreature with a heart! That's the trouble--your heart! You've found aman living selfishly alone, scribbling what he perhaps thinks are themost wonderful things ever put on paper, when they are very likelynothing but rubbish, and it enters into your head that he wantsmothering and loving! He doesn't want anything of the sort! And YOUwant to love and mother him! Oh heavens!--have you ever thought whatloving and mothering mean?"

  Manella drew a quick soft breath.

  "All the world, surely!" she answered, with emotion--"To love!--topossess the one we love, body and soul!--and to mother a life born ofsuch love!--THAT must be heaven!"

  The smile flitted away from Morgana's lips, and her expression becamealmost sorrowful.

  "You are like a trusting animal!" she said--"An animal all innocent ofguns and steel-traps! You poor girl! I should like you to come with meout of these mountain solitudes into the world! What is your name?"

  "Manella."

  "Manella--what?"

  "Manella Soriso"--the girl answered--"I am Spanish by bothparents,--they are dead now. I was born at Monterey."

  Morgana began to hum softly--

  "Under the walls of Monterey At dawn the bugles began to play Come forth to thy death Victor Galbraith."

  She broke off,--then said--

  "You have not seen many men?"

  "Oh, yes, I have!" and Manella tossed her head airily--"Men all more orless alike--greedy for dollars, fond of smoke and cinema women,--I donot care for them. Some have asked me to marry, but I would rather hangmyself than be wife to one of them!"

  Morgana slid off the edge of her bed and stood upright, her white silknightgown falling symmetrically round her small figure. With adexterous movement she loosened the knot into which she had twisted herhair for the night, and it fell in a sinuous coil like a golden snakefrom head to knee. Manella stepped back in amazement.

  "Oh!" she cried--"How beautiful! I have quite as much in quantity, butit is black and heavy--ugly!--no good. And he,--that man who lives inthe hut on the hill--says there is nothing he hates so much as a womanwith golden hair! How can he hate such a lovely thing!"

  Morgana shrugged her shoulders.

  "Each one to his taste!" she said, airily--"Some like black hair--somered--some gold--some nut-brown. But does it matter at all what menthink or care for? To me it is perfectly indifferent! And you are quiteright to prefer hanging to marriage--I do, myself!"

  Fascinated by her wonderful elfin look as she stood like a white irisin its silken sheath, her small body's outline showing dimly throughthe folds of her garment, Manella drew nearer, somewhat timidly.

  "Ah, but I do not mean that I prefer hanging to real, true marriage!"she said--"When one loves, it is different! In love I would rather hangthan not give myself to the man I love--give myself in all I am, andall I have! And YOU--you who look so pretty and wonderful--almost likea fairy!--do YOU not feel like that too?"

  Morgana laughed--a little laugh sweet and cold as rain tinkling onglass.

  "No, indeed!" she answered--"I have never felt like THAT! I hope Ishall never f
eel like THAT! To feel like THAT is to feel like thefemale beasts of the field who only wait and live to be used by themales, giving 'all they are and all they have,' poor creatures! Thebull does not 'love' the cow--he gives her a calf. When the calf isborn and old enough to get along by itself, it forgets its mother justas its mother forgets IT, while the sire is blissfully indifferent toboth! It's really the same thing with human animals,--especiallynowadays--only we haven't the honesty to admit it! No, ManellaSoriso!--with your good looks you ought to be far above 'feeling likeTHAT!--you are a nobler creature than a cow! No wonder men despisewomen 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 chauffeurand tell him to get everything ready to start. I've had a lovelynight's rest and am quite fit for a long run."

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

  Morgana's eyes flashed mingled humour and disdain. "You quaintcreature! 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 subconscioussuggestion 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 andfancies, and I like to humour myself in my various ways. I think Iwanted 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 stayfor? To see your man on the mountain?"

  "No!" Manella replied with sudden sharpness--"No! I would not like youto 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 tragicactress and make your fortune on the stage, with that voice and thatlook! And yet you stay here as 'help' in a Sanatorium! Well! It's adull, dreary way of living, but I suppose you like it!"

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

  "Will you come away with me?" said Morgana--"I'll take you at once ifyou like!"

  Manella stared in a kind of child-like wonderment,--her big dusky eyesgrew brilliant,--then clouded with a sombre sadness.

  "Thank you, Senora!" she answered, pronouncing the Spanish form ofaddress with a lingering sweetness, "It is very good of you! But Ishould not please you. I do not know the world, and I am not quick tolearn. I am better where I am."

  A little smile, dreamy and mysterious, crept round Morgana's lips.

  "Yes!-perhaps you are!" she said--"I understand! You would not like toleave HIM! I am sure that is so! You want to feed your big bearregularly with bread and milk--yes, you poor deluded child! Courage!You may still have a chance to be, as you say, 'his woman!' And whenyou are I wonder how you will like it!"

  She laughed, and began to brush her shining hair out in two silkylengths on either side. Manella gazed and gazed at the glitteringsplendour till she could gaze no more for sheer envy, and then sheturned slowly and left the room.

  Alone, Morgana continued brushing her hair meditatively,--then,twisting it up in a great coil out of her way, she proceeded with hertoilette. Everything of the very finest and daintiest was hers to wear,from the silken hose to the delicate lace camisole, and when shereached the finishing point in her admirably cut summer serge gown andbecoming close-fitting hat, she studied herself from head to foot inthe mirror with fastidious care to be sure that every detail of hercostume was perfect. She was fully aware that she was not a newspapercamera "beauty" and that she had subtle points of attraction which nocamera could ever catch, and it was just these points which she knewhow to emphasise.

  "I hate untidy travellers!"--she would say--"Horrors of men and womenin oil-skins, smelling of petrol! No goblin ever seen in a nightmarecould be uglier than the ordinary motorist!"

  She had no luggage with her, save an adaptable suitcase which, shedeclared "held everything." This she quickly packed and locked, readyfor her journey. Then she stepped to the window and waved her handtowards the near hill and the "hut of the dying."

  "Fool of a bear man!" she said, apostrophising the individual she choseto call by that name--"Here you come along to a wild place inCalifornia running away from ME,--and here you find a sort of untutoredfemale savage eager and willing to be your 'woman!' Well, why not?She's just the kind of thing you want--to fetch wood, draw water, cookfood, and--bear children! And when the children come they'll run aboutthe hill like savages themselves, and yell and dance and be greedy anddirty--and you'll presently wonder whether you are a civilised man or aspecies of unthinking baboon! You will be living the baboon life,--andyour brain will grow thicker and harder as you grow older,--and yourgreat scientific discovery will be buried in the thickness and hardnessand never see the light of day! All this, IF she is 'your woman!' It'sa great 'if' of course!--but she's big and handsome, with a beautifulbody and splendid strength, and I never heard of a man who could resistbeauty and strength together. As for ME and my 'vulgar wealth' as youcall it, I'm a little wisp of straw not worth your thought!--or so youassume--no, good Bear!--not till we come to a tussle--if we ever do!"

  She took up her gloves and hand-bag and went downstairs, entering thebroad, airy flower-bordered lounge of the Plaza with a friendly nod andsmile to the book-keeper in the office where she paid her bill. Herchauffeur, a smart Frenchman in quiet livery, was awaiting her with anassistant groom or page beside him.

  "We go on to-day, Madame?" he enquired.

  "Yes,--we go on"--she replied--"as quickly and as far as possible. Justfetch my valise--it's ready packed in my room."

  The groom hurried away to obey this order, and Morgana glancing aroundher saw that she was an object of intense curiosity to some of thehotel inmates who were in the lounge--men and women both. Her grey-blueeyes flashed over them all carelessly and lighted on Manella who stoodshrinking aside in a corner. To her she beckoned smilingly.

  "Come and see me off!" she said--"Take a look at my car and see howyou'd like to travel in it!"

  Manella pursed her lips and shook her head.

  "I'd rather not!" she murmured--"It's no use looking at what one cannever have!"

  Morgana laughed.

  "As you please!" she said--"You are an odd girl, but you are quitebeautiful! Don't forget that! Tell the man on the mountain that I saidso!--quite beautiful! Good-bye!"

  She passed through the lounge with a swift grace of movement andentered her sumptuous limousine, lined richly in corded rose silk andfitted with every imaginable luxury like a queen's boudoir on wheels,while Manella craned her neck forward to see the last of her. Hervalise was quickly strapped in place, and in another minute to thesound of a high silvery bugle note (which was the only sort of "hooter"she would tolerate) the car glided noiselessly away down the broad,dusty white road, its polished enamel and silver points glittering likestreaks of light vanishing into deeper light as it disappeared.

  "There goes the richest woman in America!" said the hotel clerk for thebenefit of anyone who might care to listen to theannouncement,--"Morgana Royal!"

  "Is that so?" drawled a sallow-faced man, reclining in an invalidchair--"She's not much to look at!"

  And he yawned expansively.

  He was right. She was not much to look at. But she was more than looksever made. So, with sorrow and with envy, thought Manella, whoinstinctively felt that though she herself might be something to lookat and "quite beautiful," she was nothing else. She had never heard theword "fey." The mystic glamour of the Western Highlands was shut awayfrom her by the wide barrier of many seas and curtains of cloud. Andtherefore she did not know that "fey" women are a race apart from
allother women in the world.