"As I have told you, we have been in China for several years, and during that time we have had the good fortune to enroll not a few well-known names among our converts.

To make a long story short, we were so successful as to be able to persuade even the Mandarin of the Province to listen to our message.

He was an enormously rich man, one of the richest perhaps in China, and was so impressed by the good news we brought to him that, on his death-bed, he left to us for the benefit of the mission all his wealth, in gold, silver, and precious stones.

It was a princely legacy, and one that would have enabled us to carry on our mission with such success as we had never before dreamed of." "But if you were so lucky and so much in love with your profession, how does it come about that you are in England now ?" I inquired.
"I will tell you why," he answered, leaning towards me and tapping with his fingers upon the edge of my writing-table.

"It is a sad story, and the mere telling of it causes me more pain than you would believe.