While at the hospital he talked to the Mother Superior--his eyes followed Monica. As she moved from cot to cot he noted how the younger sisters fluttered happily around her, like bridesmaids around a bride, and how as she passed, the eyes of those in the cots followed her jealously, and after she had spoken with them smiled in content. "She is good," the Mother Superior was saying, "and her brother, too, is very good." Everett had forgotten the brother. With a start he lifted his eyes and found the Mother Superior regarding him. "He is very good," she repeated. "For us, he built this wing of the hospital. It was his money. We should be very sorry if any harm came to Mr. Ward. Without his help we would starve." She smiled, and with a gesture signified the sick. "I mean they would starve; they would die of disease and fever." The woman fixed upon him grave, inscrutable eyes. "Will Your Excellency remember?" she said. It was less of a question than a command. "Where the church can forgive--" she paused. Like a real diplomat Everett sought refuge in mere words. "The church is all-powerful, Mother," he said. "Her power to forgive is her strongest weapon. I have no such power. It lies beyond my authority. I am just a messenger-boy carrying the wishes of the government of one country to the government of another." The face of the Mother Superior remained grave, but undisturbed. "Then, as regards our Mr. Ward," she said, "the wishes of your government are--" Again she paused; again it was less of a question than a command. With interest Everett gazed at the whitewashed ceiling. "I have not yet," he said, "communicated them to any one." That night, after dinner in the patio, he reported to Garland the words of the Mother Superior. "That was my dream, O Prophet," concluded Everett; "you who can read this land of lotus-eaters, interpret! What does it mean?" "It only means what I've been telling you," said the consul. "It means that if you're going after that treaty, you've only got to fight the Catholic Church. That's all it means!" Later in the evening Garland said: "I saw you this morning crossing the plaza with Monica. When I told you everybody in this town loved her, was I right?" "Absolutely!" assented Everett. "But why didn't you tell me she was a flapper?" "I don't know what a flapper is," promptly retorted Garland. "And if I did, I wouldn't call Monica one." "A flapper is a very charming person," protested Everett. "I used the term in its most complimentary sense. It means a girl between fourteen and eighteen. It's English slang, and in England at the present the flapper is very popular. She is driving her sophisticated elder sister, who has been out two or three seasons, and the predatory married woman to the wall. To men of my years the flapper is really at the dangerous age." In his bamboo chair Garland tossed violently and snorted.