Megan watched them. Beside the delicate small-boned Chinese faces, with their shallow shadows, the face of Mr. Shultz was as unformed as a lump of baking-dough. There was a glass of whisky and soda beside him and he handled this and his cards with the clumsiness, the surety of a derrick hoisting a load of gravel. His stubby nails were highly manicured and he wore a large diamond ring. The game progressed, punctuated by a few ejaculations. Every now and then Mr. Shultz looked up at Megan with a cold curiosity, unquickened by any sympathy. It was obvious that he did not approve of her being here, and whatever the circumstances that brought her, she should certainly have managed to avoid them. Megan read this opinion definitely in one of his slow glances and she met his judgment with an equally visible scorn. She did not in her turn approve of his being here. The financial adviser to a Chinese general indeed! Perhaps he was one reason why the finances of the province were shrouded in such disrepute. It seemed to her a bitter irony that the General should have rejected a man like Doctor Strike only to fall into the hands of Mr. Shultz. She saw the General looking from one to the other of them with a faint smile. It had perhaps amused him to bring them together, capable of discerning, as he certainly was, some of the differences that must lie between them, in spite of their common tongue. His amusement became so apparent on his face that Mr. Shultz, looking up, saw it. His blue eyes hardened and for a moment this lump of flesh, without having made a movement, became formidable. The General's smile grew abstracted. "Well, Miss Davis," said Mr. Shultz in a more friendly tone, "you're a newcomer here I take it." "Yes, indeed." "How long you been in China?" "Several days only." "Several days! Well, this is a strange situation, finding yourself in a place like this." "Is it? Yet I'm sure plenty of missionaries have found themselves from time to time in Chinese families." "Missionaries! Maybe. But then they do lots of things a lady like you wouldn't think of." "They are much more courageous than I, if that is what you mean." "Well, that isn't exactly what I mean. Sweeten up here everybody, sweeten up." He began to deal the cards out heavily and surely. The General sat back in his chair watching him as if he had been a juggler hired for the evening.