"Ah!" And he drew a deep breath--"That is a miracle! What we called
your 'impossible' plan has been made possible! But who would have
thought that a woman--"

"Stop there!" she interrupted--"Do not repeat the old gander-cackle
of barbaric man, who, while owing his every comfort as well as the
continuance of his race, to woman, denied her every intellectual
initiative! 'Who would have thought that a woman'--could do anything
but bend low before a man with grovelling humility saying 'My lord,
here am I, the waiting vessel of your lordship's pleasure!--possess
me or I die!' We have changed that beggarly attitude!"

Her eyes flashed,--her voice rang out--the little fingers he held,
stiffened resolutely in his clasp. He looked at her with a touch of
anxiety.

"Pardon me!--I did not mean--" he stammered.

In a second her mood changed, and she laughed.

"No!--Of course you 'did not mean' anything, Marchese! You are
naturally surprised that my 'idea' which was little more than an
idea, has resolved itself into a scientific fact--but you would have
been just as surprised if the conception had been that of a man
instead of a woman. Only you would not have said so!"

She laughed again,--a laugh of real enjoyment,--then went on--

"Now tell me--what of my White Eagle?--what movement?--what speed?"