It was through Mrs.Lester that I first became aware of their existence as an active organization, and I hoped that when she had returned to England, and was living quietly in London, she would be lost sight of--ignored, in fact.

Nevertheless, both she and I thought it prudent that our acquaintance should cease until the turmoil in China had subsided.

For that reason I never visited her, nor did I permit the growth of friendship between her and my wife and daughter--a friendship which, in happier conditions, would have been natural and inevitable.

But we were woefully mistaken.

An Oriental vendetta neither slackens nor dies.