Betsy one day came to him full of excitement over a traveller whom she had just seen.
"Oh, he is extraordinary; queerer than any one I have ever met here. His long black beard reaches to his waist, and he wears a regular mandarin's dress."
"An Englishman dressed like a Chinaman?"
"Yes! You know he has been there so long, and he has done the most wonderful things! Why, he has even travelled to Thibet and talked to the Grand Lama."
The Emperor's interest was aroused.
"I have always wished to hear something about the Grand Lama," he said, "especially about the way he is worshipped, for I believe that much I have read is fabulous. I should like to see this traveller."
"I knew you would," cried Betsy, "and he is anxious to see you, too. He was a prisoner of war once in France, and he says you treated him very kindly; so he has brought you some presents, and if—"
"Yes, and if he can get a pass—"
The sentence was left unfinished. But Mr. Manning obtained a pass to see the Emperor and presented him with a number of curious things that he had collected in his travels.
"The Lama," he said in answer to a question, "when I saw him, was a very intelligent boy of seven, and I went through the same form of worship as the others who were introduced into his presence."