ted in this disturbing cloud of sensations. His
companion's voice sounded emptily in his ears.

"They say that the young lady is engaged to Lord Dorminster. That is
only gossip, however."

For the second time Prince Shan looked directly at the little group. His
eyes rested upon Maggie, simply dressed but wonderfully _soignee_, very
alluring, laughing up into the face of her escort. Their eyes did not
actually meet, but each was conscious of the other's regard. Once more
he felt the disturbance of the West.

"If we should chance to come together naturally," he said, "it would
gratify me to make the acquaintance of Lady Maggie Trent."

CHAPTER XIV

The introduction which Prince Shan had requested came about very
naturally. The lounge of the hotel was more than usually crowded that
evening, and the table towards which an attentive _maitre d'hotel_
conducted Immelan and his companion was next to the one reserved by
Nigel. The transference of a chair opened up conversation. Immelan was
bland and ingenuous as usual, introducing every one, glad, apparently,
to make one common party. Prince Shan remained by Maggie's side after
the introduction had been effected. A chair which Immelan schemed to
offer him elsewhere he calmly refused.

"This is my first evening in London, Lady Maggie," he said. "I am
fortunate."

"Why?" she asked.

He looked at her meditatively. Then he accepted her unspoken invitation
and seated himself on the lounge by her side.

"We who come from the self-contained countries of the world," he
explained, "and China is one of them, come always with the desire and
longing for new experiences, new sensations. My own appetite for these
is insatiable."

"And am I a new sensation?" Maggie asked, glancing up at him innocently
enough, but with a faint gleam of mockery in her eyes.

"You are," he answered placidly. "You reveal--or rather you suggest--the
things of which in my country we know nothing."

"But I thought you were all so hyper-civilised over there," Maggie
observed. "Please tell me at once what it is that I possess which your
womenkind do not."

"If I answered all that your question implies," he said, "I should make
use of speech too direct for the conventions of the world in which you
live. I would simply remind you that whereas we men in China may claim,
I think, to have reached the same standard of culture and civilisation
as Europeans, we have left our womenkind far behind in tha