“But you mus' also say to Monsieur Vitieree zat ze committee of my compagnie he come to Peking—quinze mille kilometres he come!—an' now Son Excellence he say zay mus' not come here, into ze province. It is so difficult, ça! An' ze committee he is ver' angry. He swear at Peking. He cool ze—vat you say—-heels. An' ze work he all stop. No good! Noz-zing at all!”
“That is all so, Henry.” Thus Doane, turning to his friend. “I don't mean to minimize the actual difficulties. But I do not believe we are in any such danger as in 1900. Even then the officials did it, of course. If they hadn't believed that the incantations of the Boxers made them immune to our bullets, and if they hadn't convinced the Empress Dowager of it, we should never have had the siege of the legations. But I am to have an audience with His Excellency tomorrow, at one, and will go over this ground carefully. I have no wish, myself, to underestimate the trouble. My daughter arrives next week.”
“Oh!” said Withery. “Oh... your daughter! From the States, Grigg?”
“Yes, I am to meet her at Hankow. The Hasmers brought her across.”
“That's too bad, in a way.”
“Of course. But there was no choice.”
“But zat is not all zat is!” M. Puurmont was pacing the floor now. “A boy of me, of ze cuisine, he go home las' week to So T'ung an' he say zat a—vat you call?—a circle..
“A society?”
“Mais oui! A society, she meet in ze night an' fait l'exercise—”
“They are drilling?”