"To give his services as a doctor to the Chinese and to try to organize a Red Cross corps for them."
"How interesting! But is it not very dangerous for a foreigner to venture among the Chinese just now? Especially one who is a stranger and does not know the language?"
"It is a little. But Dr. MacKay is over there at present. I also let Sergeant Gorman go with Sinclair. Each is an expert in his own line. They are all pretty shrewd. I do not think that they are likely to get into trouble. Gardenier is lending me a man to take Gorman's place."
A light was dawning on Mrs. Beauchamp's mind:
"There was no mention of this at dinner last evening. When did Dr. Sinclair decide to go?"
"Just after he bade you good-night. He got a letter from MacKay, asking him to go, and decided at once."
"And all the arrangements had to be made, passports and everything else drawn up between then and the first launch this morning."
The consul's eyes were dancing and his face was a study:
"You base deceiver! After all your talk about my sleeping so soundly, you were never in bed at all."
The consul laid back his head and laughed till even the grave, slant-eyed Celestial waiter hurried into the room to see if there was need of assistance.
"You missed me a whole lot, didn't you, Gwen?"
"Oh, yes, you do! We'll change the subject again."
"Yes, you will. How ever did Miss MacAllister get such a spite at Sinclair as she showed last evening?"
"Spite!" (with immense contempt). "Spite!" (still more contemptuously).
"Well, I do not know what else you would call it. She made game of him and bally-ragged him at every turn. If he hadn't been so well able to take care of himself, I should have had to interfere and protect him, since he was our guest."
"And you think that it was because she had a spite at him? It's a lot a man, even a married man, knows about the ways of a woman."
"I'll acknowledge it, Gwen. 'There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not,' and the most wonderful of the four are the ways of a maid with a man." He took the chance that she would not notice the inversion; and she did not. "Solomon was much more married than I am, and he did not understand the ways of a woman, Gwen. It's not fair to expect it of me."