Megan put down the paper, feeling that she had perpetrated a fraud on the world. Still, death had come very close to her, and if she were not actually dead and no longer in danger, she was at least alone as she had never been. Unlike the bewildering loneliness one feels in the midst of crowds, or the terrible loneliness one feels at times with those one loves, this loneliness was profoundly exhilarating. It meant that she had been, for the time, stripped of her tradition and her place in the world, cut off from the physical support of her parents' love and of Bob's. It was not the eerie loneliness of the spirit. It was a challenge. Megan lay back, her hands clasped behind her head, and the Shanghai papers slipped one by one to the floor. Half asleep she dreamed of a golden province, a province of peace, order and universal happiness, ruled over by the heroic image of General Yen Tso-Chong. [Illustration: Chapter XV headpiece] CHAPTER XV The next morning she felt very much better, and after her European breakfast she decided to go out into the garden. No one had told her to keep to her room. As she opened her door she saw Mah-li, in a little furred cape, crossing the outside room. Mah-li stopped. "Good morning." "Good morning, Mah-li." "You are going out?" "Yes, to the garden," said Megan. "I feel I would like a breath of air." "Do you want to come with me then? I am going into the city to buy some things." "I would love to." Mah-li hesitated. "Only I am not going to drive in the automobile, I am going in a chair, because the streets where I am going are so narrow. Perhaps you wouldn't like that." "I would like it all the better." "Come along then and I will order another chair." Megan went with Mah-li across the flagged court she had seen from her window and through a room furnished with heavy American metal office furniture, with calendars, Chinese and English, large wall-maps, and on one table a dark blue, glazed bowl with a twisted skein of yellow plum. A few officers sat about, and Megan saw the telephone she had heard ringing all during the day. A soldier sat before it with a pad on the table beside him, and when he was not engaged in telephoning, he drew pictures on the pad. They went on to an open space of bare dirt and a few trees, where platoons of soldiers were being drilled by a smart young gray-clad officer. They were of all ages, some, Megan was sure, no more than twelve or thirteen years old. She recognized the gate in the red stucco wall through which she had come. They passed around the spirit screen, through the gate, and stood in the roadway that followed the shore of the lake. Mah-li's chair was waiting, and while the coolies in dark blue livery went off to get a second chair Megan looked about her.