Megan thought for a moment before answering him. He had not said a single unreasonable word. Except for the anxiety for her parents, for which he was hardly responsible, she was glad to be here. She had no thought that she was in any personal danger; on the contrary it was she herself who was the disruptive element in the midst of a long-established plan. The prospect of troubling all this false security filled her with excitement and genuine pleasure, yet she was at the same time on the verge of anger. Surely she was not really disturbed by so trivial a thing as the nearness of a stridently alien flesh; perhaps it was the pressure and the will to dominate of an alien mind. The General in his turn, she could feel it, was taking advantage of her abstraction to scrutinize her more closely. She threw her cigarette out the window and turned to him. "I see I owe you a great deal," she said; "please forgive me for not being more gracious about it. The truth is I am still a bit bewildered." "That is quite natural. It must be bewildering to you to wake up unexpectedly in China." "By the way, there is something I would like to ask you to do for me that will put my mind very much at rest." The General nodded. "It is to send a telegram to Shanghai to my friends there so that they can let my parents and the man I came here to marry know I am safe." "The parents and the bridegroom! But certainly I will send one at once. In all probability they believe you dead. Now there will be rejoicing, even though they will not be able to think so ill of us as they might have liked." "I feel sure," said Megan stiffly, "that in this case they will be glad to be mistaken." "No doubt at all. And I shall see about reassuring them at once." He leaned toward her, his cigarette case held open, but Megan shook her head. "No more, thanks." "As it turns out," said the General, tapping a cigarette on his thumb-nail and slowly lighting it, "as it turns out I shall not be able to arrange for your return immediately. An incident occurred at Nanking, at the same time I brought you here, which has aroused so much feeling, both among my people and among yours, that I do not yet know what will come of it." "What sort of incident?" "In capturing the city of Nanking the troops of General Chen Chien got a little out of hand. War, you know, does not bring out the best qualities of tolerance and self-control; that is one reason why we Chinese are so unfitted for it." "But what was the incident?" "A number of people were shot and some were killed, missionaries largely, Doctor Williams of the Nanking College, some ladies, the British Consul too, I believe." "Shot by Chinese?" "By troops, yes." "But that is an outrage!" cried Megan, overwhelmed with anger. "We are not at war with you!"