"Mind! I thought I brought a bomb-shell into your house to-night, and so I have too, but to find all this going on simply robs me of speech. Meanwhile, if you will introduce me to this Asiatic gentleman who speaks such excellent English, and whom, from repute I guess to be Mr. William Rolston, I daresay we can amuse ourselves during the remainder of this astonishing night. And," he continued, "if there is such a thing as a ham upon the premises, some thick slices grilled upon this excellent fire, and some cool ale in a pewter—"
I left them to it and went upstairs to my chamber. It was lit with two or three candles in silver holders—I had made the place quite habitable by now—and lying on my bed, covered with an eiderdown, his eyes feverish, his face flushed, lay the Mandarin.
His eyes opened and he smiled. It was the first time I had seen the delicate, melancholy lips light up in a real smile.
"What's that for?" I said, as I sat down by the bedside.
"You are so big, and strong, Prince," he replied, "and large and confident; and your disguise fell from you as you came in and I saw you as you were."
I knelt beside the bed and my breath came thick and fast.
"For God's sake don't play with me," I said, "not that you are doing that. You have met Her—Miss Morse I mean, my Juanita?"
"Prince, she has deigned to give me her confidence in some degree. I do my work in the wonderful library that Mr. Morse has built. It's a great hall, full of the rarest volumes; and there are long windows from which one can look down upon London and gaze beyond the City to where the wrinkled sea beats around the coast. And, day by day, in her loneliness, the Fairest of Maidens has come to this high place and taken a book of poems, sat in the embrasure, and stared down at the world below."
He raised a thin hand and held it upright. It was so transparent that the light of a candle behind turned it to blood red.
"Let my presumptuous desires be forever silent," he chanted. "'East is east and west is west,' and I erred gravely. But, worship is worship, and worship is sacrifice."