Rivardi was surprised at the passionate energy she threw into these words.
"You feel that deeply?" he said--"And yet--pardon me!--you do not assume to be religious?"
"Marchese, I 'assume' nothing!" she answered--"I cannot 'pretend'! To 'assume' or to 'pretend' would hardly serve the Creator adequately. Creative or Natural Force is so far away from sham that one must do more than 'assume'--one must BE!"
Her voice thrilled on the air, and Lady Kingswood, who was crossing the loggia, leaning on her stick, paused to look at the eloquent speaker. She was worth looking at just then, for she seemed inspired. Her eyes were extraordinarily brilliant, and her whole personality expressed a singular vitality coupled with an ethereal grace that suggested some thing almost superhuman.
"Yes--one must be!" she repeated--"I have not BEEN A STUDENT OF SCIENCE SO LONG WITHOUT LEARNING that there is no 'assuming' anything in the universe. One must SEE straight, and THINK straight too! I could not 'assume' religion, because I FEEL it--in the very depths of my soul! As Don Aloysius said the other day, it is marvellous how close we are to the Source of all life, and yet we imagine we are far away! If we could only realise the truth of the Divine Nearness, and work WITH it and IN it, we should make discoveries worth knowing! We work too much WITH ourselves and OF ourselves." She paused,--then added slowly and seriously--"I have never done any work that way. I have always considered myself Nothing,--the Force I have obeyed was and is Everything."
"And so--being Nothing--you still made your air-ship possible!" said Rivardi, smiling indulgently at her fantastic speech.
She answered him with unmoved and patient gravity.
"It is as you say,--being Nothing myself, and owning myself to be Nothing; the Force that is Everything made my air-ship possible!"