ntative of one of the world's greatest families. I am
only the servant of a great Power. He is a great Power in himself."

"And believe me," Nigel concluded fervently, as he made his adieux, "the
greatest autocrat that ever breathed. If, when you exchange farewells
with him, he says--'There will be no war'--we are saved, at any rate for
the moment."

CHAPTER XXVIII

Maggie, very cool and neat, a vision of soft blue, a wealth of colouring
in the deep brown of her closely braided hair, her lips slightly parted
in a smile of welcome, felt, notwithstanding her apparent composure, a
strange disturbance of outlook and senses as Prince Shan was ushered
into her flower-bedecked little sitting room that afternoon. The unusual
formality of his entrance seemed somehow to suit the man and his manner.
He bowed low as soon as he had crossed the threshold and bowed again
over her fingers as she rose from her easy-chair.

"It makes me very happy that you receive me like this," he told her
simply. "It makes it so much easier for me to say the things that are in
my heart."

"Won't you sit down, please?" Maggie invited. "You are so tall, and I
hate to be completely dominated."

He obeyed at once, but he continued to talk with grave and purposeful
seriousness.

"I wish," he said, "to bring myself entirely into accord, for these few
minutes, with your western methods and customs. I address you,
therefore, Lady Maggie, with formal words, while I keep back in my
heart much that is struggling to express itself. I have come to ask you
to do me the great honour of becoming my wife."

Maggie sat for a few moments speechless. The thing which she had half
dreaded and half longed for--the low timbre of his caressing voice--was
entirely absent. Yet, somehow or other, his simple, formal words were at
least as disturbing. He leaned towards her, a quiet, dignified figure,
anxious yet in a sense confident. He had the air of a man who has
offered to share a kingdom.

"Your wife," Maggie repeated tremulously.

"The thought is new to you, perhaps," he went on, with gentle tolerance.
"You have believed the stories people tell that in my youth I was vowed
to celibacy and the priesthood. That is not true. I have always been
free to marry, but although to-day we figure as a great progressive
nation, many of the thousand-year-old ideas of ancient China have dwelt
in my brain and still sit enshrined in my heart. The aristocracy of
China has p