a dark, ill-smelling hole it was too, but I was lucky to breathe at all-for those Chinamen do not hesitate to kill a white man found inland. I had for my companion in prison a little Chinaman who had been there six months for having neglected to turn the proper somersault before some minor idol. He had been thrown in prison for twenty days, but the chiefs had forgotten to give the order for his release, and there he stayed. I promised that as soon as I was released I would intercede for him, and, fortunately for me, it was hardly a fortnight before a special messenger from the Grand Mogul came to my assistance. Before him I laid the case of my companion in misery, and poor little Fee was set free, and so extravagant was his gratitude that he followed me ten miles to bestow upon me his mask Mean, who would protect me from pestilence and famine.

"And now we come to Bel, of the rosy countenance and eyes of lapis lazuli.

"It was one morning early. It could not have been more than four o'clock, when I strolled through the streets of Pekin and found the door of the Great Temple open. Walking in, I saw all about me the gilded and bronze idols which they worship, the brazen lanterns and the fretted screens; but

most magnificent was the great Dragon of solid gold, with tongue and eyes of living fire. Before this awful and splendid creature lay the prostrate form of a white-robed acolyte, a young boy whose office it is to serve at the rites of the temple. But there were no worshipers, and the boy seemed all alone to writhe in mortal agony. Approaching him quietly, I asked him what troubled him.

666

"I have eaten some of the Dragon's food,' he said to me in Chinese. But I have had no rice for three days, and I was very hungry.' I did not laugh at him, for it would only have hurt his feelings, for he believed that the Dragon ate all the food which was given to him daily. So I told him to come with me to the nearest chop-house and I would buy him a propitiatory meal for the Dragon. This he did joyfully, and we returned to the temple and placed the 'big food' before the Dragon-covering our eyes and withdrawing while he devoured it. When we had left the temple, the boy begged me to accept Bel, the mask of the god of the affections, which would insure my being loved by all whom I loved and see, here you have gazed at the beautiful face, and are all ready to give me six kisses for my six stories."

And, without waiting to have the suggestion

urged, each child was ready with her expression of gratitude. Barbara herself came in to find her lover buried in the caresses of her little flock, who were only too ready to divide theirs for her sake.

CHAPTER XV.

FATHER AND DAUGHTER.

It was not in Dorothy Harcourt's nature to quail before the ordeal which she knew that she must meet on her arrival in Boston, for she felt that the summons from her father was the result of her rejection of Irving Chipman, but she was entirely unprepared to have her father meet her without reproach-almost apologetically, with:

ter."

"Sorry to have spoiled your visit, my daugh

"It was long enough, papa. You have seen Mr. Chipman?" she asked, with her straightforward eagerness to have the worst over.

"Yes, Dorothy, I have, and I am sorry to say the judge insists upon pressing the matter in his own way. You will be prepared to find him very disagreeable, my dear. It is a disappointment. He had set his heart on it."

"His heart, papa! Call it anything but his

heart, papa. Judge Chipman doesn't recognize hearts in his scheme of living at all.

Oh, yes, I

Indeed, I

am prepared to find him disagreeable. have never found him anything else." "He will be especially so to-day; we may expect him at half-past five."

"I think I will fortify myself by dressing, papa."

"A woman's morale, eh, Dorothy!"

"I suppose so. It sometimes has its objective as well as subjective force! I think I will look as well as I can."

"That is very well indeed, my dear," said her father, kissing her fondly.

"Oh, you are partial, papa," Dorothy answered, stroking his brown beard, which the iron gray of fifty years had tinged handsomely.

Punctually at half-past five Judge Chipman arrived, bristling with antagonism and burning with thirst for revenge upon this girl who had baffled him since she was a wee lisping baby. She was as imperious at twenty-five as at five, when she had said:

"Go 'way, bad man; I don't like you, bad

man!"

"So my son is not good enough for your High