ealth poor. You see I am all
right in Japanese if I do the talking. For I know what I want to
say and what they ought to say. But when they come at me with a
flank movement, as it were, I am lost. Uncle passed over my
blunder without a smile and went on to say many remarkable things,
if sound means anything. However, trust even a deaf woman to prick
up her ears when a compliment is headed her way, whether it is in
Sanskrit or Polynesian. In acknowledgment I stuck to my flag, and
the man's command of quaint but correct English convinced me that I
would have to specialize in something more than first thought if I
was to cope with this tea-house proprietor whose armor is the
subtle manners of the courtier.

Blessed Sada! Only the cocksureness of youth made her blind to the
check her enthusiasm was meant to receive in the first encounter of
the new life. She had always met people on equal terms, most men
falling easy victims. She was blissfully ignorant that Mura, by
directing his conversation to me, meant to convey to her that
well-bred girls in this enchanted land lowered their eyes and
folded their hands when they talked in the presence of a MAN, if
they dared to talk at all.

Not so this half-child of the West. She fairly palpitated with joy
and babbled away with the freedom of a sunny brook in the shadow of
a grim forest. From the man's standpoint, he was not unkind;
unrestraint was to him an incomprehensible factor in a young girl's
make-up; and whatever was to follow, the first characters he meant
her to learn must spell reverence and repression.

They hurried ashore to catch a train to Kioto. I must look
harmless, for I was invited to call. I shall accept, for I have a
feeling in spite of manners and silken robes that the day is not
distant when the distress signals will be flying.

I waved good-by to the girl as the little launch made its way to
land. She made a trumpet of her hands and called a merry
"sayonara." The master of her future folded his arms and looked
out to sea.

The next day I had a lonely lunch at the hotel. When I saw two
lovery young things at the table where Jack and I had our wedding
breakfast, so long ago, I made for the other end of the room and
persistently turned my back. But I saw out of the corner of my eye
they were far away above food, and, Mate, believe me, they did n't
even know it was hot, though a rain barrel couldn't have measured
the humidity.

Of course