"I cannot see him! I will not see him!" cried Helen, passionately; and she turned pale now at the idea of encountering the passionate young Malay. For the moment she bitterly regretted her folly, though the chances are that if circumstances tended in that direction she would have behaved again in precisely the same way. "Now look here, Nelly," said Mr Perowne, "you must see him!" For answer she paused for a moment, and then walked straight to the door. "That's right," he said. "Temporise with him a bit, my dear, and let him down gently." Helen stood with the door in her hand, and darted at him an imperious look; then she passed through, and the door swung to behind her. "Confound him! What insolence!" muttered Mr Perowne, as he stood listening. "Eh? No; she wouldn't dare! Why, confound the girl, she has gone up to her room and locked herself in! What a temper she has got to be sure!" He gave his head a vicious rub, and then, evidently under the impression that it was in vain to appeal again to his child, he snapped his teeth together sharply, and walked firmly into the drawing-room, where the Rajah stood impatiently waiting his return. The young eastern prince was most carefully dressed; his morning coat and trousers being from a West-end tailor, and his hands were covered with the tightest of lemon-coloured gloves. In one hand was a grey tall hat, in the other the thinnest of umbrellas. Altogether his appearance was unexceptionable, if he had dispensed with the gaudy silken sarong ablaze with a plaid of green, yellow, and scarlet. His thick lips were wreathed in a pleasant smile, and his dark, full eyes were half closed; but they opened widely for an instant, and seemed to emit anger in one flash, as he saw that Mr Perowne came back alone. "Where--is--miss?" he said, in a slow, thick tone. "Well, the fact is, Rajah," said Mr Perowne, giving a laugh to clear his throat, "I have seen my daughter, and she asked me to tell you that she is suffering from a bad headache. You understand me?" The young Rajah nodded, his eyes seeming to contract the while. "She is of course very much flattered by your proposal--one which she says she will think over most carefully; but she is so surprised, that she can only ask you to give her time. I see you understand me?" The Rajah nodded again in a quick, eager way. "English girls do not say _yea_ all at once to a proposal like yours; and if you will wait a few months--of course being good friends all the time--we shall be able to speak more about the subject." Mr Perowne, merchant, and man of the world, meant to say all this in a quick, matter-of-fact, frank way, but he stumbled, and spoke in a halting, lame fashion, growing more and more unsatisfactory as the young Malay prince came closer to him. "I--I think you understand me," he said, feeling called upon to say something, as the Malay glared at him as if about to spring.