"But I do know you," he said. "You must have seen that. In fact, never before did I know so much from a first meeting—" "But man always believes that a woman is at war with his work. I have always said that I should not care to be the rival of a man’s work." "And yet, you said—’Why don’t you tell me?’ ... Anna Erivan, I shall always hear that question. I am going to tell you." She did not help him to begin. There was a kind of core of silence from the forward room, which was as distracting as the sound of breathing had been. He had to organise himself repeatedly. "... I was sent out here because I had _fancy_." He laughed a little harshly. "Because you have that you will understand. I have been forwarded from Peking somewhat like a valuable package. My next point is Wampli, as you know. I had looked forward to the real desert from this point. It would have been desert right enough had I gone on this morning." Her eyes gleamed at him. "I can’t tell you all—not even all I know—I pick up my orders on the way; but this much I can tell you, and it mainly became known to me from papers read only last night, for they were not to be opened until I reached Nadiram—" He told her hastily, something of the world-crisis, of the parties of China, of the Japanese danger, and of the big dream of the truly great men of the Empire, and something of his own relation with Nifton Bend, Minglapo and Ti Kung. "This new party in China is not great enough to have a large following," he said, "and yet, though there are some things about it that trouble, possibly because I am a bit of an Occidental still, it seems to me that the power and the vision of the men I have met in it must become a terrific constructive force in the future of Asia and the world. You see Japan threatens to become a Japanese Asia, if it is not met with vision and force. The two older Chinese parties have neither. At the heart of any Empire is its religion, and it happens that the centre of the religion of the Chinese Empire is yonder in this desert—the Inner Temple, even the great Lohan himself—" "You are sent to that Inner Temple?" she asked breathlessly. "Yes." "To bring forth a sign for the people of Young China?" "Come to think of it—it is something like that." "And you let me delay you this morning?" "I had not thought of it as a bringing forth a sign," he mused, watching her, "but that is really what it amounts to. If the new social order in China is recognised by the Inner Temple; if its dream of progress and power is found to be a true dream by the Holy Men of the Inner Temple—don’t you see, the support of all the people touched by this religion will be turned from the old to the new?" "They chose a white man, an American, for this mission—and I am delaying him?" Still Romney evaded the issue.