cried. "Reggie, do you believe him? The hypocrite, the
goody-goody, the white slave man, the pimp!"

"What does she mean?" said Geoffrey. Thank God, the woman was clearly
mad.

"Fujinami! Fujinami!" she yelled. "The great girl king! The Yoshiwara
_daimyo_! Every scrap of money which his fool wife spends on sham
curios was made in the Yoshiwara, made by women, made out of filth,
made by prostitutes!"

The last word brought Geoffrey to his feet. In his real agony he had
quite forgotten his sham sin.

"Reggie, for God's sake, tell me, is this true?"

"Yes," said Reggie quietly, "it is quite true."

"Then why did no one tell me?"

"Husbands," said the young man, "and prospective husbands are always
the last to learn. Yae, go back to the hotel. You have done enough
harm for to-day."

"Not unless you forgive me, Reggie," the girl pleaded. "I will never
go unless you forgive."

"I can't forgive," he said, "but I can probably forget."

The wrath of these two men fascinated her. She would have waited if
she could, listening at the door. Reggie knew this.

"If you don't clear out, Yae, I will have to call T[=o] to take you," he
threatened.

To his great relief she went quietly.

* * * * *

Reggie returned to the bare bedroom, where Geoffrey with bowed head
was staring at the floor. In Reggie's short kimono the big man looked
decidedly ridiculous.

"Good," thought Reggie. "Thank God for the comic spirit. It will be
easier to get through with this now."

His first action was to wash his hands. He had an unconscious instinct
for symbolism. Then he sat down opposite his friend.

The action of sitting reduces tragedy to comedy at once,--this was one
of Napoleon's maxims.

Then he opened his cigarette case and offered it to Geoffrey. This,
too, was symbolic. Geoffrey took a cigarette mechanically, and sucked
it between his lips, unlighted.

"Geoffrey," said his friend very quietly, "let us try to put these
women and all their rottenness out of our heads. We will try to talk
this over decently."

Geoffrey was so stunned by the shock of what he had just learned that
he had thought of nothing else. Now, all of a sudden he remembered
that he owed serious explanations to his friend.

"Reggie," he said dully, "I'm most awfully sorry. I had never dreamed
of this. I was good pals with Yae because of you. I never dreamed of
making love to her. You know how I love my wife. She must hav