“Read them,” he invited.  “You will understand then the net that has been closing around your country.  You will understand the better if I tell you this.  China and Japan are one.  It was my first triumph when patriotism urged me into the field of politics.  We have a single motto, and upon that is based all that you may read there,—­’Europe for the Europeans, Asia for us.’”

Maggie was conscious of a sudden sense of escape from her almost mesmeric state.  The change in his tone, his calm references to things belonging to another and altogether different world, had dissolved a situation against the charm of which she had found herself powerless, even unwilling to struggle.  Once more she was back in the world where for the last two years had lain her chief interests.  She took the papers in her hand and began reading them quickly through.  Every now and then a little exclamation broke from her lips.

“You will observe,” her companion pointed out, looking over her shoulder, “that on paper, at any rate, Japan is the great gainer.  She takes Australia, New Zealand and India.  China absorbs Thibet and reestablishes her empire of forty years ago.  The arrangement is based very largely on racial conditions.  China is a self-centered country.  We have not the power of fusion of the Japanese.  You will observe further, as an interesting circumstance, that the American foothold in Asia disappears as completely as the British.”

“But tell me,” she demanded, “how are these things to be brought about, and where does Immelan come in?”

Prince Shan smiled.

“Immelan’s position,” he explained, “is largely a sentimental one, yet on the other hand he saves his country from what might be a grave calamity.  The commercial advantages he gains under this treaty might seem to be inadequate, although in effect they are very considerable.  The point is this.  He soothes his country of the pain which groans day by day in her limbs.  He gratifies her lust for vengeance against Great Britain without plunging her into any desperate enterprise.”

“And France escapes,” she murmured.

“France escapes,” he assented.  “Rightly or wrongly, the whole of Germany’s post-war animosity was directed against England.  She considered herself deceived by certain British statesmen.  She may have been right or wrong.  I myself find the evidence conflicting.  At this moment the matter does not concern us.”

“And is Great Britain, then,” Maggie asked, “believed to be so helpless that she can be stripped of the greater part of her possessions at the will of China and Japan?”

Prince Shan smiled.

“Great Britain,” he reminded her, “has taken the League of Nations to her heart.  It was a very dangerous thing to do.”

“Still,” Maggie persisted, “there remains the great thing which you have not told me.  These proposals, I admit, would strike a blow at the heart of the British Empire, but how are they to be carried into effect?”