ls. To him China was only a pleasing background for Miss Roberta
Boynton; he saw no further than her eager, smiling eyes, and heard
nothing more distant than the ripple of her laughter.

At the races they found an absorbing bond of interest. The love of
horse-flesh was ingrained in both, and the merits of the various ponies
provoked endless discussion. Lights were beginning to twinkle on the
bund when they drove back to the hotel.

"Where shall we go to-night!" asked Percival, as eager at the end of
this eight hours' tete-a-tete as he had been at the start.

"To the ball, of course," said Bobby. "The hotel is giving it in honor
of the _Saluria_."

"Heavens! what a bore! Can't we dodge it?"

"You can if you want to. Andy'll take me. He's just waiting to see if
you renig."

"Renig?" repeated Percival.

"Yes," said Bobby--"fluke, back out; you know what I mean."

That settled it with Percival. Five minutes before the hour appointed he
was waiting impatiently in one of the small reception-rooms to conduct
Miss Boynton to that most abhorred of all functions, a public ball. What
possible pleasure he was going to get out of standing against the wall
and watching her dance with other men he could not conceive. He assured
himself that he was acting like a fool, and that if he kept on at the
pace he was going, Heaven only knew what folly he might commit in the
four days that must pass before he reached Hong-Kong.

Hong-Kong! The word had but one association for him. It was the home of
his eldest and most conservative sister, a lady of uncompromising social
standards, who recognized only two circles of society, the one over
which her mother presided in London, and the smaller one over which she
reigned as the wife of the British diplomatic official in the land of
her adoption.

At the mere thought of presenting Bobby to this paragon of social
perfection, Percival shuddered. He could imagine Sister Cordelia's
pitiless survey of the girl through her lorgnette, the lifting of her
brows over some mortal sin against taste or some deadly transgression in
her manner of speech. Of course, he assured himself it would never do;
the idea of bringing them together was wholly preposterous. And yet--

A Chinese youth, with a handful of trinkets, slipped into the room, and
furtively proffered his wares.

"Very good, number-one jade-stone. Make missy velly plitty. Can buy?"

Percival motioned him away, only to have him return.

"