“Promise me that you will call?” she asked laughingly, “with or without the bangle.” “With the bangle,” he said. “To-night I shall make it very clear to the ‘Noble Child,’ ‘Hope of the Spring,’ and ‘Star of the Yamen’ that the bracelet has passed to my possession and that henceforward if they wish to follow its wearer they must follow me.” He shook hands again, lifted his hat, and turning abruptly, left her. CHAPTER II. THE MAN IN THE DRAWER. His Excellency Prince Chu-Hsi-Han, Ambassador to the Court of St. James, picked up the card from the tray, and examined it calmly through his rimless glasses. “Is the distinguished stranger below?” he asked. “Excellent Highness,” said the Mongolian in the livery of the Embassy, “I placed the distinguished stranger in the red room.” The Ambassador nodded. “Conduct him to my unworthy presence,” he said, and the servant bowed twice and left the room silently. He returned in a few minutes and announced the visitor in faultless English. “Signor Tillizinni.” Tillizinni, spare of build, with his keen, eager face and his black and white colouring, formed a strong note in that room of soft pearl-blue draperies and shaded lights. He offered his hand with a little bow to the impassive Oriental who rose from his desk to meet him. “Your Excellency expected me?” he asked, and the Ambassador smiled, for Tillizinni spoke in the Chinese--that peculiar “Mandarin Chinese” which only the statesmen and diplomatists of China employ. “You are a veritable signor,” he said quietly. “You have the accent which suggests a course of training in the forbidden city.” Tillizinni flushed--he was susceptible on the intellectual side. “I am flattered,” he said. “Yet I studied no nearer to Pekin than Florence.” “I congratulate you,” said the Prince, and with his own hands drew a chair forward. “Be seated,” he said, “and tell me exactly what you require.” He was speaking in English now. Tillizinni took from his pocket a long envelope and extracted a number of newspaper cuttings. “Your Excellency wrote an article in the _North American Review_,” he said, “which dealt extensively with the early history of your country.” The Ambassador nodded. “You dealt extensively with the life of the First Emperor.” Again the Ambassador nodded. “One could not deal effectively with the history of China,” he smiled, “unless one wrote of the First Emperor. He built the great wall and stimulated all the best efforts of my countrymen--and though it was two thousand years ago, his influence is still felt.” It was Tillizinni who smiled now. “His influence is felt here in London,” he said grimly, “and in no place more completely than in Scotland Yard, which, as your Excellency may know, affords me employment.” “At Scotland Yard?” The Chinese Ambassador’s eyebrows rose. “At Scotland Yard,” repeated the other. “But if your Excellency will proceed----”