storm, and
busied myself in making such preparations for dinner as I could with the
few requisites which my small knapsack contained. I heard Ashton across
the hall, whistling merrily as he got into evening kit, and rather
grumbled at myself for having been drawn into my present position as an
unbidden and unprepared guest in the house of persons who were total
strangers to me.

After a considerable time, I heard the musical notes of a Chinese gong
which I took to be the signal for dinner, so making my way to the
staircase with, I fear, a somewhat sheepish expression, I saw Ashton
ahead of me, just joining at the end of the hallway a strikingly
beautiful and distinguished-looking girl, of perhaps twenty-two or
three, dressed in an evening gown of white, the very simplicity of which
only served to accentuate the splendid lines of her figure. Her face was
pale with that healthy pallor which is in some women so beautiful--a
sort of warm ivory tint--and with her splendid eyes and wide brow,
crowded with a mass of bronze-colored hair, I felt that even my critical
artistic taste could with difficulty find a flaw. It was evident that
she and Mr. Ashton knew each other well, yet it seemed to me that Miss
Temple, for so I supposed the young lady to be, did not respond with
much cordiality to the effusive greeting which Mr. Ashton bestowed upon
her. I descended the steps some distance behind them, and observed Major
Temple standing in the center of the main hall, smiling with much
apparent satisfaction at the couple ahead of me as they advanced toward
him. As I joined them, Major Temple presented me to his daughter as a
friend of Mr. Ashton's, which, it appeared to me, did not predispose
that young lady particularly in my favor, judging by the coldness with
which she received me, and then we all proceeded to the dining-room.

The dinner was excellently cooked, and was served by the same
almond-eyed Chinaman who had admitted us upon our arrival. I learned
afterwards that the Major was an enthusiastic student of Oriental art,
and that his collection of porcelains and carved ivory and jewels was
one of the finest in England. He had, it appeared, spent a great portion
of his life in the East and had only just returned from a stay of over a
year in China, during which he had penetrated far into the interior,
into that portion of the country lying toward Thibet, where Europeans do
not usually go.

During dinner, Major Temple and Mr