"I see now your safe-conduct was worthless. But I did not know at the time. You see, I have lived all my life in a country where if a situation comparable to this were possible, such a pass would be effective. The whole training and temper of the people would make it so." The General looked at her, doubtful how to take this. "Do you speak seriously?" he asked. "Where is this country you are talking about that has no mob spirit, no race hatred, but only a perfect respect for law and authority? I had supposed you were an American." Megan realized too late that she had been carried away, and simultaneously that she must not be carried away again. It was she and not he who had given way to a sense of antagonism. "I am sorry," she said hastily. "I am afraid I was too rhetorical. Yes, I am an American." He acknowledged her withdrawal with a nod, slight enough not to attach undue importance to it. "I have never been to America," he said gently, "but I have lived in England for a time and in France and Germany. Are you also, like Doctor Strike, a missionary?" "No. But I came out to be married to one of the doctors at Changsha, at Yale-in-China." "Ah, yes. Well, I am glad you are not a missionary, even if you are to become one." "Why?" said Megan. "Do you dislike them?" "No," said the General. "Only I have found few agreeable friends among them." "Doctor Strike however admires you greatly." "I greatly admire Doctor Strike, though I must say I was rather relieved when he decided to leave my province. He was too much like an atom of radium locked in a desk drawer. Yes, I had been wondering all along if you were not with Doctor Strike or in some way connected with that orphanage. But what did you go with him for? I don't understand it. For the excitement perhaps?" Megan did not answer and he shook his head, smiling as if he found her an impossible subject for analysis. "When Doctor Strike asked me for the famous safe-conduct pass," he continued, "I didn't want to give it to him because I felt sure he would put too great a strain upon it. He found me, as perhaps he told you, in a Shanghai hotel dining with some friends, and he urged me at a time when I could not well refuse. You see, I was not supposed to be in the European sections of Shanghai. At the time you saw me I was going in under a false name as a prominent official of the Northern government, a man who, unknown to the authorities, was at that moment actually dead. When Doctor Strike found me I had completed the negotiation I came for, but it would still have been very unpleasant for me to have been obliged to explain my presence to the foreign authorities. Of course as soon as the Doctor began to urge me, I thought of the position I was in. But I am quite sure it never occurred to the Doctor to make use of it to get his pass. No, I am quite sure he never thought of it for a moment." The General stopped to smile at this further aspect of the comedy.