"What is rather funny?" "Oh, well, you, you know. Fancy you as a missionary! I must tell Mrs. Berry. It will amuse her, and--" She stopped again, as though she had inadvertently trodden on the tail of a scorpion. She had seen Beatrice angry, but not as now. There was something not unlike desperation in the eyes that were suddenly turned on her. "You won't tell Mrs. Berry, mother. You will never breathe a word to a single soul of what I have told you. It was very absurd of me to say anything--I don't know what made me. I might have known that you would not understand--but sometimes I forget that 'mother' is not a synonym for everything." Mrs. Cary smarted under what she felt to be an unjust and uncalled-for attack. "I don't see what I have done now," she protested indignantly. "What is there to understand that I haven't understood, pray?" Her daughter got up as though she could no longer bear to remain still, and began to walk restlessly about the room. "Never mind," she said. "That doesn't matter. What _does_ matter is that I will not have the Rajah made a butt for the Station's witticisms. You can say what you like about me--I don't care in the least--but you will leave him alone." "Dear me, what are you so annoyed about?" Mrs. Cary inquired, with irritating solicitude. "How was I to know you were seriously contemplating the Rajah's conversion? I'm sure it's very nice of you. Child, don't pull all those roses to pieces!" Beatrice dropped the flowers impatiently. "It's more likely that he will convert me," she muttered, but the remark fell on unheeding ears. "I wish you would let me tell Mrs. Berry about it," Mrs. Cary went on. "It might make quite a nice impression, and stop her saying disagreeable things. Of course, if your intimacy with His Highness was due to your desire to bring him to a nice Christian state, it would be quite excusable. I might even ask Mr. Berry for some of those tracts he is always distributing among the natives." It was Beatrice's turn to laugh. Her laugh had a disagreeable ring. "For the Rajah? I wonder how he would reconcile them with all I have been telling him about love, and pity, and tolerance? Besides, my dear mother, diplomatist as you are, don't you see that it wouldn't have the least effect? Do you think the most kindly thinking person in this Station would believe for an instant that _I_ would ever convert anyone? Of course I should be seen through at once. They would say--and perfectly correctly, too--that I was just fooling the Rajah for my own purposes." "What are your purposes?" Mrs. Cary demanded. Beatrice raised her eyebrows. "You knew them a month ago." "Oh, yes; then it was for Mr. Travers' sake. But now--" "Now things are the same as they were then. I--I can't leave off what I have begun."