She inclined her head. “What's the good of letting it upset you? Lie down for a while. A pipe or two wouldn't hurt you. You're nervous as a witch. It would soothe you.” He stared at her. “Better lie down anyway,” she said, taking his arm and moving him toward his cabin. “You don't want them to see you like this.” He yielded. His will was powerless. He dropped on the seat, while she lingered, almost sympathetically, in the doorway, an unbelievably girlish figure in the half light. Something of the influence she had been exerting on him--which had seemed to die when Miss Hui Fei entered the social hall--fluttered to life now. He found relief, abruptly, in recklessness. “Come on in,” he said huskily. “Have a pipe with me!” Quietly, wholly matter-of-fact, she closed and locked the door. “We'll shut the window, too, this time,” she said. “You needn't turn on the light.” He was reaching for his trunk. “Excuse me--a minute! I can see all right. I know just where everything is.” “Leave the trunk out,” said she. “And lay your suit-case on it. Then we can put the lamp on that.” Miss Hui Fei led Doane to a seat under the curving front windows. “We mus' talk as if ever'thing were ver' pleasan'.” The question rose again, but without bitterness now, how she could smile so brightly. “I have learn' some more. It is ver' difficul' to tell you, but.... it is difficul' to think, even.... so strange that at firs' I laugh'.”.... Yes, there were tears in her eyes. But how bravely she fought them back and smiled again. He felt his own eyes filling, and turned quickly to the window; but not so quickly that she failed to see. She was sensitively observant, despite her own trouble. For a moment, then, they were silent, lost in a deep common sympathy that was bread to his starving heart. It was in that moment that their little conspiracy nearly broke down. Had any of the others in the big room looked just then, gossip would have spread swiftly; certainly sharp-eyed mandarins would have found matter for consideration; for Hui Fei impulsively found his hand as it rested between them on the seat, and was met with a quick warm pressure. And then, in another moment, she was speaking, quite herself. “My maid has foun' out tha' they are sending the head eunuch from the Forbidden C'ty to our home. An' that is agains' the law.” “Of course,” said he. “Even the Old Buddha never tried but once to send out a eunuch on government business. That was the notorious An Te-hai. And he never returned; he was caught in Shantung--in a barge of state on the Grand Canal--and beheaded. Even the Old Buddha couldn't do that. This woman is amazing. But of course there is really no government at Peking now--only this strange anachronism.” “He has orders to seize all father's beautifu' things the paintings an' stones an' carvings.” “The rebels may catch him. They'd make short work of him.”