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down at her face made Azalea know that he suspected her of having an ulterior motive for listening to what he had said to his friend.
    Then she told herself he had no right to question her.
    “I assure you, my Lord,” she said quietly, “I am not interested in anything you have said.”
    “How can I be sure of that?” Lord Sheldon enquired.
    “You could perhaps believe what I have – told you.”
    “I could do that,” he replied. “At the same time I may have been somewhat unguarded in what was an entirely private conversation. In which case I am of course interested in your reaction.”
    There was something in the way he spoke which annoyed Azalea.
    He was making a mountain out of a molehill. Granted it had been reprehensible of her to hide herself and listen to what he was saying. At the same time, she thought that if he had behaved in a gentlemanly manner, he could simply have laughed it off and told her it was of little consequence.
    She saw that he was better looking and more overpowering than she had thought he would be when she listened to him from behind the curtain.
    There was something, too, in the expression in his grey eyes which was disconcerting, and he aroused in her a strange antagonism that she had never felt before where a man was concerned.
    With a proud movement she put up her chin.
    “Are you really interested?”
    It was a challenge and, as if he recognised it as such, Lord Sheldon replied insistently,
    “But of course! Are you frank – or brave enough – to tell me the truth?”
    He could not have said anything which would have annoyed Azalea more.
    She prided herself on her bravery and without thinking she answered,
    “Very well then. I will tell you. I think that the remarks you made about women show you to be insufferably, bumptiously conceited! Those which concerned Hong Kong are just what I would expect from a hide-bound Englishman who believes that the only way to assert his supremacy is to trample underfoot those who have been conquered by force of arms!”
    She saw the surprise her words evoked reflected in his Lordship’s face. But regardless of the consequences, she continued,
    “Do you ever think it might be a change for the better if we as a Nation behaved with kindness, consideration and clemency to people in foreign lands?”
    She drew in her breath and said,
    “I have been reading about Hong Kong and I have learnt that three years ago, Lord Ronald Gower was deeply shocked by the supercilious attitude towards Orientals of the young officers of the 74th Regiment which was stationed in the Colony.”
    Lord Sheldon did not speak. Thinking that his expression was no less supercilious, she went on angrily,
    “‘No wonder,’ Lord Ronald wrote, ‘we English are so disliked wherever we go. There is no one more abhorrent to a foreigner than an English civilian, unless it be a military Englishman!’”
    Azalea made a gesture with both her hands.
    “Does that mean nothing to you?” she asked. “No – I am quite certain that if you had heard what Lord Ronald said, you would have swept it away as being much too humane to be tolerated by your stiff-necked superiority.”
    “Those are hard words!” Lord Sheldon said as Azalea paused for breath, “very hard words, and I could answer them with the same violence that you expended on me. Instead I will quote you a Chinese proverb.”
    He spoke very quietly and because of that, Azalea felt her anger subsiding a little.
    “The proverb says, ‘Sweet persuasion more effective than hard blows’.”
    There was a smile on his lips as he finished speaking. Then to Azalea’s astonishment he put out his arms and drew her close to him.
    “I like your courage,” he said. “Let me try and see if sweet persuasion will be effective.”
    Before she could answer him, before she could move, he put his fingers under her chin and turned her face up to his. Then astonishingly, bewilderingly, his lips were on hers.
    For a moment she was unable