immortality on this earth. They have seen the centuries come and
go,--the flight of time touches them not,--they only await the day
when the whole world will be free to them--that 'world to come'
which is not made for the 'many,' but the 'few.' All the discoveries
of our modern science are known to them--our inventions are their
common everyday appliances--and on the wings of air and rays of
light they hear and know all that goes on in every country. Our wars
and politics are no more to them than the wars and politics of ants
in ant-hills,--they have passed beyond all trivialities such as
these. They have discovered the secret of life's true enjoyment--
and--they enjoy!"

"That's a fine story if true!" said Colonel Boyd--

"But all the same, it must be dull work living shut up in a city
with nothing to do,--doomed to be young and to last for ever!"

Morgana had listened intently,--her eyes were brilliant.

"Yes--I think it would be dull after a couple of hundred years or
so"--she said--"One would have tested all life's possibilities and
pleasures by then."

"I am not so sure of that!" put in the Marchese Rivardi--"With youth
nothing could become tiresome--youth knows no ennui."

Some of the other listeners to the conversation laughed.

"I cannot quite agree to that"--said a lady who had not yet spoken--
"Nowadays the very children are 'bored' and ever looking for