"Of course you are being absurd," said Megan. "There is no reason at all why you and I should not understand each other. You yourself once said men of the same race don't necessarily resemble each other as tigers do tigers. You just wondered if Mr. Shultz and I might not find each other strange. You see, it is up to the individual in each case. All of us, with some effort and sympathy, can be reduced to certain elements and consequently understood." Mr. Shultz got up and walked over to the phonograph. He began to turn over the records. The General leaned toward Megan, and his voice became less declamatory, more confidential. "But is it really understanding you want? I have an idea that understanding doesn't enter very largely into your program. I have an idea that what you really want, certainly where I am concerned, is to change me, to make me over into some new image; the image of God, but also, slightly, the image of Miss Davis, His creation and at the same time hers. Isn't that so?" This statement brought a chill to Megan. It was not his manner of making it, which she had already excused, but that stated from this angle her intention did not appear as crystalline as she felt it to be. "But of course I want to help you," she said. "The motives of those who try to help are always suspect. But I don't see why you said just that." And as she thought about it she became even resentful that he had been able so deftly to uncover an aspect of her desire to convert him, which she herself had been dimly aware of for some time, but until now unwilling to admit. The General, watching her closely, now assumed his buffoon's expression of mock alarm. "You are angry with me," he exclaimed, "because I have said what is true. And it is you who tempted me to be truthful in the first place by your own directness. But of course I was foolish to suppose you meant me to follow you in that." Megan glanced at Mr. Shultz, who was turning over records, and at Captain Li, who was apparently about to go to sleep. Captain Li did not count, but she did not want to be spoken to like this before Mr. Shultz. She lowered her voice a little. "Yes, I have been very frank with you and you have a right to be frank with me in return. That is quite all right, I don't mind that. I don't want you to think however--that is, I don't want you to feel--that I am trying to force you to any change just to gratify myself." The General was about to answer but changed his mind. He slowly took a cigarette from his gold case and lighted it. "Miss Davis," he said finally after several puffs, "I want you to believe that I consider it a privilege to be included in your regard, even along with several hundred million other human beings."