veyed him coldly, with
curiosity, without sympathy, enjoying his embarrassment. So that was
it--some grievance, real or fancied. Fancied, most likely. He felt a
distinct sense of resentment that his hour of repose should have been
broken in upon so rudely by this native--bringing him wrongs to
redress in this uncalled for manner. There were plenty of people in
the Bishop's service expressly appointed for the purpose of looking
into complaints and attending to them. To bring them up to
headquarters, to the Bishop himself, was an act of downright
impertinence. Very much as if a native should bring his petty quarrels
up to the Governor-General. These thoughts passed through the Bishop's
mind as he regarded the intruder with a fixed and most unfriendly eye.
A few moments of hesitating silence followed, while the Bishop watched
the darting movements of a lizard on the wall, and waited for the
stranger to continue.

"I want your help," went on the youth in a low voice. "You are so
powerful--you can do so much. Not as a man, but because of your
office. Perhaps as a man, too, for they say you are a good and just
man. But the combination of a strong man in a high office----"

Still no help from the Bishop. That he did not clap his hands together
and call for his servants to have this intruder thrown out, marked
him, in his estimation, as the kind of man that the youth had
suggested. A just and liberal man. Very well, he was ready to listen.
Now that he was caught, so to speak, and obliged to listen against his
will.

"It's about the opium traffic," explained the young man, breathing
hard with excitement, and wringing his thin hands together in
distress.

"Oh, that's it, is it?" exclaimed the Bishop, breaking silence. "I
thought it must be some such thing. I mean, something that is no
concern of mine--nor yours either," he concluded sharply.

"It is both my concern and your concern," replied the young man
solemnly, "both yours and mine. Your race, your country, is sinning
against my race and my country----"

"Your country!" interrupted the Bishop disdainfully.

"Yes, my country!" exclaimed the young man proudly. "Mine still, for
all that you have conquered it, and civilized it and degraded it!"

The Bishop sprang up from his chair angrily, and then sank back again,
determined to listen. He would let this fellow say all he had to say,
and then have him arrested afterwards. He would let him condemn
himself out of his own