"Have you read my books yet?" he asked. "I saw one for the first time this week," I said. "Well?" "I recognise it as a masterpiece." He bowed and smiled. "From the President of the Kiang-su Literary Society that is high praise indeed." "I am undecided whether to remain here longer," I said, "or to return home, perhaps calling for a rest and a change to see my friends in Lunopolis. I should like your advice." "Of course that depends upon circumstances. I do not yet understand your difficulty or the circumstances." "Well," I said, "I came here prepared to stay perhaps a year, if I liked the country, with the intention of obtaining general impressions, and some definite information on matters in which I am interested; but every Meccanian I have met is either a Government agent or a bore." "What, even Madame Blobber?" he interposed, smiling. "Even Madame Blobber," I said. "I am getting tired of it. I try all sorts of means to gratify my perfectly innocent curiosity, and am baffled every time. Now I am promised a sight of high Society, but I expect they will show me what they want me to see and nothing they don't want me to see." "Why should they show you what they don't want you to see?" he laughed. "I don't know how you stand it," I said. "I have had the virtue of patience," he said, "and patience has been rewarded. I, too, am going home before long. I have got what I want." He made the signal that bound me to absolute secrecy, and told me what his plans were. When I said that he ran a risk of being victimised he shook his head. "I am not afraid," he said. "By the time I reach home, every Meccanian agent in China will have been quietly deported. And they will not come back again. We are not a Super-State, but our country is not Idiotica." "And in the meantime," I said, "suppose I stay here another month or so, what do you advise me to do?" "Oh, just amuse yourself as well as you can," he said. "Amuse myself! In Meccania?" "Yes; it is not worth while trying now to do anything else. You will find out nothing new--nothing that I have not already found out. It takes ten years to penetrate beneath the surface here, even with my methods," he said. "But I have got what I want." "And how am I to amuse myself?" "Accept all the invitations you get, keep your ears open and use your own considerable powers of reflection. By way of relief, come and talk to me whenever you want."