“You mean Lady Maggie Trent?”

“Certainly!  I have always felt that some day or other my thoughts would turn towards one of these strange, western women.  That time has come.  Lady Maggie possesses those charms which come from the brain, yet which appeal more deeply than any other to the subtle desires of the poet, the man of letters and the philosopher.  She is very wonderful, Immelan.  I thank you for your introduction.”

Immelan ceased to caress his moustache.  He leaned back in his chair and gazed at his companion.  For many years he and the Prince had been associates, yet at that moment he felt that he had not even begun to understand him.

“But you forget, Prince,” he said, “that Lady Maggie and her friends are in the opposite camp.  When our agreement is concluded and known to the world, she will look upon you as an enemy.”

“As yet,” Prince Shan answered calmly, “our agreement is not concluded.”

Immelan’s face darkened.  Nothing but his awe of the man with whom he sat prevented an expression of anger.

“But, Prince,” he expostulated, “apart from political considerations, you cannot really imagine that anything would be possible between you and Lady Maggie?”

“Why not?” was the cool reply.

“Lady Maggie is of the English nobility,” Immelan pointed out.  “Neither she nor her friends would be in the least likely to consider anything in the nature of a morganatic alliance.”

“It would not be necessary,” Prince Shan declared.  “It is in my mind to offer her marriage.”

Immelan dropped the cigarette case which he had just drawn from his pocket.  He gazed at his companion in blank and unaffected astonishment.

“Marriage?” he muttered.  “You are not serious!”

“I am entirely serious,” the Prince insisted.  “I can understand your amazement, Immelan.  When the idea first came into my mind, I tore at it as I would at a weed.  But we who have studied in the West have learnt certain great truths which our own philosophers have sometimes missed.  All that is best of life and of death our own prophets have taught us.  From them we have learnt fortitude and chastity:  devotion to our country and singleness of purpose.  Over here, though, one has also learnt something.  Nobility is of the soul.  A Prince of the Shans must seek not for the body but for the spirit of the woman who shall be his mate.  If their spirits meet on equal terms, then she may even share the throne of his life.”

Immelan was speechless.  There was something final and convincing in his companion’s measured words.  His own protest, when at last he spoke, sounded paltry.

“But supposing it is true that she is already engaged to Lord Dorminster?”

Prince Shan smiled very quietly.

“That,” he said, “can easily be disposed of.”

“But do you seriously believe that you would be able to induce her to return with you to Pekin?” Immelan persisted.