"Shall I not see thee to-day, oh, thou sun of my heart?" she asked herself despairingly. "Of what avail the dawn if it ushers not in another day in which thou shalt pour light into my darkened soul?" Two tears rolled down the white cheeks of the princess.

"Love is waiting outside the shut window of my heart. Open, open it, I pray, my lord!"

Tai-lo gathered her feet under her gorgeous silken robe, took her arm off the back of the bench and lay, face downward, upon it. She looked like a broken butterfly.

Suddenly she heard a sound which made her heart beat fast. She looked over the side of the tea-house. Morgan was climbing up. He moved wearily and there was a sombre look on his face. The reproaches which unhappiness had forced to her lips died at sight of his disturbed countenance. He vaulted over the side of the tea-house and bowed low to Tai-lo, who sank in a graceful prostration before him. He raised her up, took her two beautiful hands in his and kissed them, one after the other.

"Why art thou so late?—and what has happened to make thee sorrowful?" asked the princess. She seated herself on the bench and motioned Morgan to sit beside her.

Morgan shot her an uneasy glance. "I am much flattered that a beautiful princess should notice whether I am grieved or not."

Tai-lo regarded him gravely.

"My first question thou hast not answered why art thou so late? The sun has set. Almost it is time for me to go to the palace."

"I am late because I have been very busy. I leave to-morrow," said Morgan slowly.

The princess' heart missed a beat. "Leave?" she interrogated and gave him a fluttering glance from frightened eyes.

"Yes," said Morgan. "I've been out two years and more this time, and I am going to sail to-morrow for a vacation, home."

There was silence for a moment. "Art thou glad to go?" Tai-lo spoke very low. "Yes," said Morgan.. "There is,"

his voice was a little husky-"there is some one there I very much want to see."

The darkening sky reeled above Tai-lo's lovely head. A faint numbness crept along her veins which, only a moment before, had seemed on fire. With a supreme effort at self-control she looked at Morgan.

"Is it that you love that some one?" she asked steadily.

"Yes." His lips could hardly form the word.

"Ah," she said with a little soft intaking of the breath, and Love, who had waited outside the Princess Tai-lo's heart, turned away with folded wings.

"And she-she loves you, too, of course!" Tai-lo achieved a smile. Beneath the scarlet paint Morgan could see how pale her lips were.

He shook his head. "No," he said, "she does not."

The princess stared at him, incredulous. "That is not possible-you do not mean it."

"I do mean it--she does not love me," said Morgan. And then he shot his bolt. "I wish," he said slowly, "that I knew how to make her."

For a long minute the Princess Tai-lo looked at the young man before her. Then she raised her lovely hands to her throat and unclasped the golden chain upon which hung the amulet of jade.

"This will make her. Take it give it to that fortunate maiden. I know its power. Did it not make me love even Prince Huen Cheng? But by faithlessness and treachery he broke the charm." She laid a slim hand on the broad, rolling collar of Morgan's coat, turned it back and slipped the jewel into an inner pocket.

The young man's heart gave an exultant leap. All the magic and glamour of the East lay imprisoned upon it. The barrier of Occidental scepticism wavered and broke before such an appeal to the imagination, the senses. With such a talisman could he not, in reality, win Veronica's love? His stirred pulses answered "yes."

He looked at Tai-lo and suddenly his exultation dropped from him. Her head drooped upon the slender neck as though it had received some mortal hurt. A sudden sense of guilt shook him. What had

he done? He had attained his object, but at what a cost to the woman before him! He had sacrificed her relentlessly, heartlessly. Every instinct of manliness in him rose up and reproached him. What though she were not of his race?— his color? She loved him, she was beautiful, she was a princess. And what might not be the consequences to her of her superb generosity?

"But you-?" he stammered. "What may not happen to you if

"It will be death," interrupted the princess calmly.

"I will go at once. I should never have come. Forgive me if you can!"

He raised his hand to take the amulet from its resting-place, but Tai-lo, divining his purpose, caught it in both of hers. At the unaccustomed touch of his fingers all her restraint, her delicate hauteur, her philosophy were swept away, leaving her defenseless against the overwhelming power of love. With a quick movement of abandonment she turned and, putting an arm about Morgan's neck, laid her lovely head down close against his shoulder.

'Shall I not give thee thy desire, lord of my heart? Death were a small price to pay for that dear privilege! Of what use is life to me-now?" She breathed rather than spoke the words.

Morgan could not see Tai-lo's face. He could only listen and marvel at the sacrifice her woman's heart was ready to make for him-a sacrifice which, he told himself, nothing could ever make him accept. And in that moment, when she lay like some bright flower on his breast, there came a sound which made him raise startled eyes.

A huge form towered above him, a round yellow face, distorted with rage, was pressed close to his and a dagger glittered in an uplifted hand. An exclamation of dismay burst from Morgan's lips and he tried to push Tai-lo away. But, as if conscious of the danger her hidden eyes did not see, she but clung the closer to him and the next instant the dagger, which had sought Morgan's breast, had buried itself beneath Tai-lo's quivering shoulder.

For a second her filming eyes sought his, the next she would have fallen lifeless

had he not held her fast in his arms. He leaped to the rustic bench, and as he did so he felt a sharp thrust in his side and a stinging pain tear its way across his left cheek from eye to chin. Darkness closed over him and Tai-lo slipped from his arms. With a faint cry of pain he pitched forward, senseless, over the side of the teahouse and rolled headlong down the steep incline.

IV

It was six days before Morgan came out of the fever brought on by his wounds. When he recovered consciousness he found himself in a cabin of the Nereid, ploughing eastward through the China Sea, with the ship's surgeon, old Doctor Bramhall, bandaging his aching side.

"You've had a close call, my boy," said the doctor. "What the devil were you doing in Prince Cheng's gardens?" and he smiled sardonically at Morgan. "If it hadn't been for the faithfulness of Canqua's boatmen you wouldn't be here." "Tell me all," whispered Morgan faintly.

"After waiting for you a long time, the men became uneasy and three of them went in search of you. They found you, with these pretty evidences of Prince Huen Cheng's friendship on you, lying in a little hollow of land not far from the landing. They put you in the boat, rowed like the devil, and sent for Canqua as soon as they got you to the hong.

"It was judged wisest by us all to get you away as soon as possible, so you were carried aboard the Nereid-she had her clearing papers and we put to sea at once. The American hong didn't want any complications on your account, of course, and already Canton was agog over Tai-lo's death at the hands of Prince Huen Cheng. I've heard she was a beauty, but good God! what do you mean, boy, by fooling around her? Don't you know what that sort of thing means in this part of the world?"

Morgan closed his eyes in despair. Suddenly he opened them wide. "The the amulet?" he managed to say.

"You mean that fancy piece of jade? Canqua found it in one of your pockets. He went through them himself. I swear