But money is not everything." Gaspard's mobile French face lit up with a mirthful smile.
"It is most things!" he replied--"Without it even science is crippled.
And this lady has so much of it!--it seems without end! Again,--it is seldom one meets with money and brains and beauty--all together!" "Beauty ?" Rivardi queried.
"Why, yes!--beauty that only flashes out at moments--of all beauty the most fascinating! A face that is always beautiful is fatiguing,--it is the changeful face with endless play of expression that enthralls,--or so it is to me!" And Gaspard gave an eloquent gesture--"This lady we both work for seems to have no lovers--but if she had, not one of them could ever forget her!" Rivardi was silent.
"I should not wonder," ventured Gaspard, presently--"if--while we slept--she had seen her 'Brazen City'!" Rivardi uttered something like an oath.
"Impossible!" he exclaimed--"She would have awakened us!" "If she could, no doubt!" agreed Gaspard--"But if she could not, how then ?" For a moment Rivardi looked puzzled,--then he dismissed his companion's suggestion with a contemptuous shrug.
"Basta! There is no 'Brazen City'! When she heard the old tradition she was like a child with a fairy tale--a child who, reading of strawberries growing in the winter snow, goes out forthwith to find them--she did not really believe in it--but it pleased her to imagine she did.

The mere sight of the arid empty desert has been enough for her." "We certainly heard bells"-- said Gaspard.
"In our brains! Such sounds often affect the nerves when flying for a long while at high speed.

For all our cleverness we are only human.

I have heard on the 'wireless,' sounds that do not seem of this world at all." "So have I"-- said Gaspard--"And though it may be my own brain talking, I'm not so obstinate in my own knowledge as to doubt a possible existing means of communication between one continent and another apart from OUR special 'wireless.' In fact I'm sure there is something of the kind,--though where it comes from and how it travels I cannot say.

But certain people get news of occurring events somehow, from somewhere, long before it reaches Paris or London.