"Oh, you aren’t going without so much as saying ’How is Moon Ying?’ are you?" said a piquant voice; and at the words, I turned to see Miss Kendrick coming down the stairs. Her light dress and graceful motions suggested the vision of a fairy floating down from some celestial region with the benevolent purpose of cheering the life of mortals--a purpose that met my instant and hearty approval. At the sound of her voice, the reasons that had drawn me toward the Nob Hill meeting were whisked away like so many scraps of paper before the summer breeze, and I stammered out some clumsy expression of my pleasure in remaining. "Well," said Miss Kendrick, "I’ve heard that appearances are deceptive, and now I’m sure of it. You were a very good imitation of a man planning an escape." And she led the way into the library. "There was something in the appearance," I said. "I was wishing to escape from the duty of going down town." "Oh, if it’s a matter of duty, I shouldn’t think of interfering." "I can’t see now why I thought it so," I returned, "but I was suspecting there might be the chance of a fight." "Well, if there’s to be any fighting," said Miss Kendrick in some alarm, "I’ll give you a bit of advice, and that is to keep out of it." "There’s to be a meeting of the anti-Chinese clubs to-night up by the Stanford-Hopkins houses, and it may start a riot," I explained. "I didn’t know but I ought to go to it." "The curiosity of these men!" she sighed. "And they talk of the inquisitiveness of women. Why, you might have fifty riots, and you’d never see me going near one of them--not if I heard of it beforehand." "I hope not. But it isn’t altogether curiosity that would lead me to attend." "You don’t mean that you have any crazy idea of trying to stop the fighting if it begins?" "Well, no." "Then you just leave the business of the police to the police," she said. "I’m beginning to believe that you need a guardian." "I believe so, too," I replied, with the thought that I saw a very desirable person for the place. I was tempted to say as much, but Miss Kendrick responded hastily: "I wouldn’t envy him his position." Then she added: "I’m not sorry I interrupted you in your foolishness, but I shouldn’t have done so if I hadn’t wanted to take counsel with you." I wished she had chosen a more complimentary way of putting it, but professed myself all readiness to listen. "There was a Chinaman here a little while ago," she began, and then she described in detail her interview with the little old man in the hall. As she told her tale my thoughts were busy with the insistent question--where had I seen the Chinaman before? "Now, what does that mean?" she demanded, when her tale was done. As she asked the question the problem was solved. A sudden picture flashed into my mind of the old Chinaman who had posed as the girl’s father after she had been stolen.