"God knows," I said, "I'm not worth a single glance of her sweet eyes,
but somehow or other she loves me, though she wouldn't fly with me when
I suggested it."
"She has some decent feeling left," he answered, with a dry chuckle.
"Well, I overheard everything that passed in that little room and I
must say I rather appreciate the way in which you behaved. You are a
rapid thinker, Sir Thomas. What suggests itself to you as the next move
in our relations?"
"Quite obvious, sir. You give your consent to my engagement with your
daughter. You please her, you bind me to your interests by hoops of
steel--though as a matter of fact I'm bound already--and you add a not
invaluable auxiliary to your staff."
"Very well," he said, perfectly calmly, and held out his hand. "Now come
and have some supper and tell me all you know."
Then that astonishing man thrust his arm through mine and led me down
the great library.
"What a marvelous intellect that fellow Pu-Yi has," he said
confidentially. "He saw the situation in all its bearings, from all
sides at once, and made an instant decision. I'll tell you now, Kirby,
that he actually predicted every detail of what has just come to pass.
He told me that he owed you his life and was perfectly ready to die for
you, as of course for me and my daughter, but that it had occurred to
him that his living for all three of us might be by far the wisest
attitude to adopt under the circumstances. I quite agree with him."
Then again came the little dry, strange chuckle.
"But no more peddling poppy-juice to my Chinese, my boy. It plays the
devil with their nerves in the end!"