And no doubt she expects you to stop at that and go no further in an attempt to possess herself as well as her millions!" The Marchese flushed hotly under the quiet gaze of the priest's steady dark eyes.
"It is a great temptation," went on Aloysius, gently--"But you must resist it, my son! I know what it would mean to you--the restoration of your grand old home--that home which received a Roman Emperor in the long ago days of history and which presents now to your eyes so desolate a picture with its crumbling walls and decaying gardens beautiful in their wild desolation!--yes, I know all this!--I know how you would like to rehabilitate the ancient family and make the venerable genealogical tree sprout forth into fresh leaves and branches by marriage with this strange little creature whose vast wealth sets her apart in such loneliness,--but I doubt the wisdom or the honour of such a course--I also doubt whether she would make a fitting wife for you or for any man!" The Marchese raised his eyebrows expressively with the slightest shrug of his shoulders.
"You may doubt that of every modern woman!" he said--"Few are really 'fitting' for marriage nowadays.

They want something different--something new!--God alone knows what they want!" Don Aloysius sighed.
"Aye! God alone knows! And God alone will decide what to give them!" "It must be something more 'sensational' than husband and children!" said Rivardi a trifle bitterly--"Only a primitive woman will care for these!" The priest laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Come, come! Do not be cynical, my son! I think with you that if anything can find an entrance to a woman's soul it is love--but the woman must be capable of loving.

That is the difficulty with the little millionairess Royal.

She is not capable!" He uttered the last words slowly and with emphasis.
Rivardi gave him a quick searching glance.
"You seem to know that as a certainty"-- he said, "How and why do you know it ?" Aloysius raised his eyes and looked straight ahead of him with a curious, far-off, yet searching intensity.
"I cannot tell you how or why"-- he answered--"You would not believe me if I told you that sometimes in this wonderful world of ours, beings are born who are neither man nor woman, and who partake of a nature that is not so much human as elemental and ethereal--or might one not almost say, atmospheric?
That is, though generated of flesh and blood, they are not altogether flesh and blood, but possess other untested and unproved essences mingled in their composition, of which as yet we can form no idea.

We grope in utter ignorance of the greatest of mysteries--Life!--and with all our modern advancement, we are utterly unable to measure or to account for life's many and various manifestations.