She explained that Joseph had had a great deal of trouble; was away from his people; that Chinamen didn’t care anything about their lives anyhow; and that she had been afraid for some time that he would grow despondent and do something desperate.

But there stood Joseph, broadly smiling and looking for all the world like an oriental cherub who would have liked very much to know what all the commotion was about. Poor chap, he didn’t understand a word of English and had been merely trying to learn the words of an English hymn by copying them, in carefully imitated letters, on bits of paper.

In the meantime my husband had arrived in Manila and had already sent me several letters through which I came gradually to know something of the situation he was facing.