"You are every bit as bad as my people! That's the very thing they have done and which I am deprecating; and you suggest that I should follow their example. I can see that I have a duty to perform. I must take you in hand and convert you." He stopped in front of her and let his eyes rest upon her abundant hair. "Try," she said, looking up at him with shining eyes in which amusement mingled with something else. "Do try; I should like to see what your method would be." "Would you?" he replied. "You might not like it." "Is it the same as you apply to the heathen?" "Not exactly." Her eyes lowered before his, and she was seized with a sudden anxiety to direct the conversation into a fresh channel. "Sit down, Mr. Alderbury, and tell me more about your converts," she said hastily. "Very well, I will defer the conversion till a more suitable time and talk--of marriage." Again she was startled. She glanced at him as he dropped into the seat he had vacated so abruptly. His self-possession was in no way disturbed. "Marriage!" she repeated as the colour mounted. He revelled in her sweet confusion; but had mercy. "Yes; the marriage of one of my converts. A young man in the agricultural settlement wants to marry the daughter of a distant relative. The girl is still a heathen. Of course I had to say no, and counsel patience. We don't allow mixed marriages. I left him rather sad, as he knows the girl and is attached to her. Being pariahs they have been allowed to see something of each other." "Oh, poor fellow! Is she fond of him?" "Yes; I think so; as far as a modest Hindu maid may permit herself to be." "Then they ought to be married; and I think it is very horrid of you to forbid the wedding." "The girl must become a Christian first; then the wedding bells shall be rung and the feast prepared; but not till then." "But supposing she won't become a Christian, what then?" "The marriage can't take place." "Poor lovers! What a shame! You are hard on them! Why shouldn't the girl marry first and be converted afterwards?" "That would never do. I always begin with conversion;" he looked at her and paused with half a smile; then he added: "Marriage must follow conversion." "Oh, must it!" she replied with a challenge in her voice. "You take a good deal for granted." "A common fault with men of my profession, I fear," he replied with a decision that had its attraction. "Are you never disappointed?" There was a slight pause. His reply was spoken in a different tone. "In the matter of bell towers, yes." Alderbury sat down again, and Eola with half averted face looked out into the sunlit compound where the brilliant colours of the geraniums and bignonia creeper contrasted strongly with the pure snow white of the eucharis lilies; where butterflies that rivalled the flowers in tint fluttered like wind-driven petals across her vision, and the sweet scent of the _La France_ roses came in on the warm morning air.