eshed by new scenes, they did
not feel the difficulty of their self-imposed task. But directly their
stay in Tokyo seemed likely to become permanent, their ways separated
as naturally as two branches, which have been tightly bound together,
spread apart with the loosening of the string.

This separation was so inevitable that they were neither of them
conscious of it. Geoffrey had all his life been devoted to exercise
and games of all kinds. They were as necessary as food for his
big body. At Tokyo he had found, most unexpectedly, excellent
tennis-courts and first-class players.

They still spent the mornings together, driving round the city, and
inspecting curios. So what could be more reasonable than that Asako
should prefer to spend her afternoons with her cousin, who was so
anxious to please her and to initiate her into that intimate Japanese
life, which of course must appeal to her more strongly than to her
husband?

Personally, Geoffrey found the company of his Japanese relatives
exceedingly slow.

In return for the hospitalities of the Maple Club the Barringtons
invited a representative gathering of the Fujinami clan to dinner at
the Imperial Hotel, to be followed by a general adjournment to the
theatre.

It was a most depressing meal. Nobody spoke. All of the guests were
nervous; some of them about their clothes, some about their knives and
forks, all of them about their English. They were too nervous even to
drink wine, which would have been the only remedy for such a "frost."

Only Ito, the lawyer, talked, talked noisily, talked with his mouth
full. But Geoffrey disliked Ito. He mistrusted the man; but, because
of his wife's growing intimacy with her cousins, he felt loath to
start subterranean inquiries as to the whereabouts of her fortune. It
was Ito who, foreseeing embarrassment, had suggested the theatre party
after dinner. For this at least Geoffrey was grateful to him. It saved
him the pain of trying to make conversation with his cousins.

"Talking to these Japs," he said to Reggie Forsyth, "is like trying to
play tennis all by yourself."

Later on, at his wife's insistence, he attended an informal
garden-party at the Fujinami house. Again he suffered acutely from
those cruel silences and portentous waitings, to which he noticed that
even the Japanese among themselves were liable, but which apparently
they did not mind.

Tea and ice-creams were served by _geisha_ girls who danced afterwards