I have a confused sense of pacing back towards the doorway and the brilliant outer sunlight, and of Poyning's dumbfounded look as he walked beside me in the middle of the crowd. I knew that he, like myself, had recognised the newly throned prince as the man we had known as Saunders Philipson, but the other and more startling recognition he couldn't have made. It was that, I imagine, that caused me to need Poyning's supporting arm on the way out: things were swimming round me. In the brief interval of light, before I bowed my head with the rest, I had looked upon and remembered the countenance of that glorious woman. And unless I had gone blind or mad, _she was Philipson's mysterious visitor of Nanking_. CHAPTER X THE SECRET OF THE HIDDEN RACE Kalliboas led us back to our quarters profoundly impressed, but a good deal more mystified by the double rite we had witnessed. It seemed to have left him, too, in a frame of mind more solemn than usual, and when at last we ventured to ask him questions he almost gave me the impression that he judged the event too sacred to be talked about. He then told us, briefly, that we had seen the coronation and betrothal of the new Prince of the state, and at once drew behind that impregnable barrier of reserve which I couldn't for the life of me bring myself to assault. And not another word did we get from him. This was unfortunate for our peace of mind, for when we reached the guest-house Kalliboas abruptly left us and we saw no more of him for several days. I sat on the edge of the couch racking my brains for a solution of the mystery, but the more I pondered, the more bewildered I got. Not till now had I felt to the full the loss of that great clarifier of the brain, tobacco: I would have given worlds for a good leaf to compose my jumbled ideas over. But tobacco there was none. During the last stages of our ghastly journey across the mountains we were completely out of it, and the weed seemed to be unknown here in the valley. I remember reflecting how queer it was that a people plainly so skilled in the arts of life shouldn't have discovered it, and promising myself that if opportunity offered I would one day go out into the valley, where it might be the tobacco plant grew wild and unheeded, and come back to them like a new Raleigh bringing that one vice of this world which is a virtue. On the second day, Kalliboas still being absent, I fell to wondering what was the reason of it, and why he had been so chary of telling us anything about the abdication ceremony after we had apparently been counted fit persons to witness it. To this also I could find no answer at the time, though after-knowledge made the matter clearer. Kalliboas, as I now see, was closely occupied elsewhere, and I don't even know that his desertion of us was intentional.