eristically perhaps, he went about it indirectly. He told his
wife what Miss Thompson had said to him and asked her to speak to Mrs
Davidson. The missionary's attitude seemed rather arbitrary and it could
do no harm if the girl were allowed to stay in Pago-Pago another
fortnight. But he was not prepared for the result of his diplomacy. The
missionary came to him straightway.

"Mrs Davidson tells me that Thompson has been speaking to you."

Dr Macphail, thus directly tackled, had the shy man's resentment at
being forced out into the open. He felt his temper rising, and he
flushed.

"I don't see that it can make any difference if she goes to Sydney
rather than to San Francisco, and so long as she promises to behave
while she's here it's dashed hard to persecute her."

The missionary fixed him with his stern eyes.

"Why is she unwilling to go back to San Francisco?"

"I didn't enquire," answered the doctor with some asperity. "And I think
one does better to mind one's own business."

Perhaps it was not a very tactful answer.

"The governor has ordered her to be deported by the first boat that
leaves the island. He's only done his duty and I will not interfere. Her
presence is a peril here."

"I think you're very harsh and tyrannical."

The two ladies looked up at the doctor with some alarm, but they need
not have feared a quarrel, for the missionary smiled gently.

"I'm terribly sorry you should think that of me, Dr Macphail. Believe
me, my heart bleeds for that unfortunate woman, but I'm only trying to
do my duty."

The doctor made no answer. He looked out of the window sullenly. For
once it was not raining and across the bay you saw nestling among the
trees the huts of a native village.

"I think I'll take advantage of the rain stopping to go out," he said.

"Please don't bear me malice because I can't accede to your wish," said
Davidson, with a melancholy smile. "I respect you very much, doctor, and
I should be sorry if you thought ill of me."

"I have no doubt you have a sufficiently good opinion of yourself to
bear mine with equanimity," he retorted.

"That's one on me," chuckled Davidson.

When Dr Macphail, vexed with himself because he had been uncivil to no
purpose, went downstairs, Miss Thompson was waiting for him with her
door ajar.

"Well," she said, "have you spoken to him?"

"Yes, I'm sorry, he won't do anything," he answered, not looking at her
in his embarrassment.

But then he gav