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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13450 ***
+
+                     THE MOTOR MAIDS IN FAIR JAPAN
+
+                          BY KATHERINE STOKES
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE MOTOR MAIDS' SCHOOL DAYS," "THE MOTOR MAIDS BY PALM AND
+PINE," "THE MOTOR MAIDS ACROSS THE CONTINENT," "THE MOTOR MAIDS BY ROSE,
+SHAMROCK AND THISTLE" ETC.
+
+                                 1913
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+    I. OFF FOR JAPAN
+
+   II. TEA IN THE GARDEN
+
+  III. SHOPPING IN JINRIKSHAS
+
+   IV. THE GARDEN IN THE RAIN
+
+    V. IN THE LIBRARY
+
+   VI. CHERRY BLOSSOMS
+
+  VII. A BAD QUARTER OF AN HOUR
+
+ VIII. THE COMPASSIONATE GOD, JIZU
+
+   IX. A BIRTHDAY PARTY
+
+    X. IN THE DARK
+
+   XI. THE COMET DISGUISED
+
+  XII. A THEATER PARTY
+
+ XIII. A FALLING OUT
+
+  XIV. A LETTER THAT CAME, THOUGH IT WAS NEVER SENT
+
+   XV. THE ANCIENT CITY OF SLEEP
+
+  XVI. THE STORM KING
+
+ XVII. A VISIT OF CEREMONY
+
+XVIII. THE MAGNET AND THE SILVER CHURN
+
+  XIX. FATHER AND DAUGHTER
+
+   XX. THE TYPHOON
+
+  XXI. CONUNDRUMS AND ANSWERS
+
+ XXII. GOOD BYE, SUMMER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+OFF FOR JAPAN.
+
+
+"The Motor Maids are off again," announced the West Haven Courier one
+morning, as if every citizen in the gray old town on the coast was not
+already well aware of it.
+
+The four famous travelers and their chaperone, Miss Helen Campbell, were
+always off somewhere in the red motor car. If they were not making a
+voyage to England with the "Comet" stored in the hold of the ship for
+immediate use on arrival, or taking perilous journeys across the American
+continent in the faithful car, they were making excursions to Shell
+Island or Seven League Island, or down the coast to the Sailors' Inn.
+
+"Where is it to be this time, Nancy-Bell?" Captain Brown had asked his
+daughter when she had broken the news to him that she must give up the
+spring term at High School for something far more educational than mere
+books. Perhaps the sea captain had intended to be stern when he asked
+that question; but Nancy had her own peculiar methods of dispelling
+sternness. A beaming anticipatory smile irradiated her face and
+scattered parental disapproval even as the warm rays of the sun scatter
+the morning mists.
+
+"Japan!" she announced solemnly; and Captain Brown, who himself had made
+voyages to Japan in his youth, pricked up his ears like an old hunting
+dog when he hears the call of the pack. The name of High School faded
+from his memory. It was the high seas he was thinking of--the great
+desert of waters, the fresh salt breeze and the foam track left by the
+little ship as it cut through the waves.
+
+Without a word, he opened an old sea chest and drew out an atlas and
+chart. Nancy blinked her eyes and smiled happily. She wondered if the
+other girls were having as easy a time in breaking the amazing news to
+their parents. Would Elinor Butler's father and mother consent to her
+taking this long journey? Would Mrs. Price be willing to part with Mary
+for many, many months while that young person journeyed to the other side
+of the world? Captain Brown settled himself on a settee in front of the
+crackling driftwood fire and Nancy seated herself beside him.
+
+"You see, it's this way, father," she began, while Captain Brown turned
+the leaves of the atlas with reverent fingers. "Billie Campbell's
+father is a great engineer--"
+
+"I've known him since he was a boy, child," interrupted the Captain.
+
+"He's been invited by the Japanese government to go to Japan on some
+consulting work, and he says he can't live without Billie another summer,
+and Billie says she can't exist without us; so Mr. Campbell is to take a
+house in Tokyo and we are all to go. Mr. Ignatius Donahue is going to
+take us across to San Francisco in his private car. He says it's a very
+small return for something we did for him once, and the end of the story
+is that we are to sail for Japan in two weeks. Isn't that delightful,
+Captain Brown?" she added, giving her father a tight hug and kissing him
+on the end of his nose. "And aren't you overjoyed for your little
+daughter to have such an opportunity to see the other side of the world?"
+
+The Captain returned the kiss with good measure and resumed his study of
+the maps and charts.
+
+"You'll be a member of the Royal Geographical Society next," he observed.
+
+"It's all happened because Billie Campbell has a mole on the sole of her
+left foot and a Gypsy once told her that was the mark of the wanderer."
+
+"But you and Elinor and Mary haven't any moles on the soles of your feet,
+have you?"
+
+"No, and neither has Miss Campbell."
+
+"It's just as well," commented the Captain. "One is enough in the party
+if it's going to take my little daughter away from her home most of the
+time."
+
+"Not most of the time, father," protested Nancy. "Only to Palm Beach and
+across the Continent and to England--"
+
+At this dangerous turn in the conversation, the
+door was pushed open and Billie Campbell rushed
+in, followed by Elinor Butler and Mary Price.
+
+"It's all settled, Nancy-Bell," she cried. "Cousin Helen has consented
+and the girls can go. Everything depends on you, now--"
+
+"We are just studying the map," answered Nancy quickly, with a demure
+smile.
+
+Immediately the other girls seated themselves in a circle about the sea
+captain and his charts, and Mrs. Brown, whose consent had already been
+gained, presently appeared with a large platter of cookies.
+
+So it was that the Motor Maids and Miss Campbell sailed through the
+Golden Gate of San Francisco harbor one morning en route for the island
+empire of Japan. On the long and sometimes tedious voyage we will not
+dwell; nor shall we pause until we have left them on the piazza of their
+new home in Tokyo, while seven Japanese servants are making profound
+obeisances at the entrance and their attendant families, including three
+grandmothers and five funny little children, bob and bow in the rear of
+this formidable company.
+
+Billie, who had scarcely left her father's side since the joyful moment
+of their reunion, hung on his arm and smiled up into his face
+inquiringly; while Miss Helen Campbell, his cousin, exclaimed:
+
+"Dear me, Duncan; I thought we were to stay at a private house--not a
+hotel."
+
+Mr. Campbell, from his mysterious dwelling places in far distant lands,
+had made so many things possible for the Motor Maids that Billie's three
+friends had come to regard him as a kind of powerful spirit who had only
+to will things to happen and they happened. At first they were rather shy
+of the real Mr. Campbell, big and strong and splendid, the very image of
+his daughter, Billie, if she had grown half a foot and cropped her light
+brown hair closely all over her head.
+
+"But, Cousin Helen, this is a private house," answered this human
+presentment of the good spirit, a subdued humor lighting his gray eyes,
+exactly as they had seen Billie's eyes kindle hundreds of times. "This is
+your very own villa and this is your staff of domestics," he added,
+indicating the regiment of servants who again bowed low like the chorus
+in a comic opera. "You are to regard yourself as queen of this little
+realm," he went on, pointing to the charming grounds and garden
+surrounding the house, "and you are to be in absolute command. Nellie and
+Nannie and Mollie and Billie are to be your maids of honor and I'll be
+general factotum and protector. As for the staff," he continued in a
+whisper, "their combined wages for one month amount to about one good
+servant's hire at home."
+
+The maid in the front of the cohort now stepped forth. She was much older
+than the others; her hair was short and her blue cotton robe seemed
+severe and plain in comparison to the gay colored kimonos of the younger
+maids.
+
+"This is our housekeeper and cook, O'Haru San," announced Mr. Campbell.
+"I shall leave you in her charge now and keep an appointment."
+
+So saying, Mr. Duncan Campbell kissed his daughter, smiled delightfully
+on the company in general and hastened down the walk to the road, for the
+villa was in the suburbs of Tokyo.
+
+"Will honorable ladies enter humble, small house," said O'Haru making an
+obeisance.
+
+But before they could move an inch, the maids were at their feet deftly
+unfastening their shoes.
+
+"What in the world are they doing?" demanded Miss Campbell.
+
+"One never wears shoes in the house, Cousin, don't you remember? Papa
+told us so this morning," answered Billie slipping her feet into the
+straw sandals provided.
+
+"Perfect nonsense!" exclaimed Miss Campbell, shuffling into the hall in
+her loose footgear. "I suppose I shall be expected to sit on the floor
+and eat my meals on a door mat," she complained, "and that I positively
+will not do. My old joints are far too stiff to be doubled up like a pair
+of nut crackers."
+
+The girls giggled and the four little Japanese maids giggled, too; not
+that they understood a word of the language, but good humor is the
+keynote of the Japanese character and strangers are treated with a
+sympathetic courtesy and hospitality unequaled in any other country.
+
+However, Miss Campbell's fears were immediately set at rest, for the
+long, low-ceiled drawing-room of the villa was furnished in European
+fashion with plenty of comfortable arm-chairs and sofas made of bamboo.
+The floors were covered with thick soft mats and the front walls facing
+the piazza were really sliding panels covered with opaque paper through
+which the light cast a soft mellow luster. As a matter of fact, Dr. and
+Mrs. Spears, the owners of the villa, had kept it as Japanese as possible
+without interfering with their foreign ideas of comfort. The only
+ornaments were several beautiful scrolls and screens and a few vases.
+
+Instead of sitting down quietly and being served to tea, which was
+evidently the next duty expected of them by these formal domestics,
+Billie and her friends rushed from one room to another in a state of
+eager curiosity. They poked their inquisitive little noses into the
+charming bedrooms and even peeped into the mysterious kitchen quarters
+where O'Haru reigned supreme,
+
+"It's Japanese enough to be pretty and American enough to be
+comfortable," observed Nancy, arranging her curls at one of the bedroom
+mirrors.
+
+"I don't know why you call it 'American,'" objected Billie. "I think you
+should say 'international,' since beds may be imported from Turkey,
+Russia, Prussia, England, or France, to say nothing of Germany and
+Italy."
+
+"Well, no matter what nationality it is, I'm glad I'm going to sleep on a
+bed instead of on the floor as Japanese girls do, with a little bench for
+a pillow to keep from rumpling my hair."
+
+Just then a Japanese girl appeared in the doorway. She was quite young,
+perhaps seventeen, perhaps older, and enchantingly pretty.
+
+"Her eyes are like stewed prunes," wrote Nancy to her mother that night,
+"rich and black and luscious. Her hair is as black as father's ebony box
+and quite as shiny; her skin smooth and creamy. She has a little rosebud
+mouth and a small straight nose and she wore the most beautiful kimono,
+all blue with a cerise sash or _obi_, as it is called. Her name is
+'Onoye' and she's the daughter of the cook, O'Haru. She is just one of
+the maids in the house, I suppose, but she seems better class and she
+speaks a little English. Her mother adores her and I suppose Onoye is
+being spoiled Japanese fashion, which is very different from American
+fashion. Japanese girls are the most unselfish, uncomplaining,
+considerate, everything-that-I'm-not little souls I ever saw."
+
+Nancy's description of O'Haru's daughter was not exaggerated in the
+least. Little Onoye, pausing timidly at the entrance to their bedroom,
+was a vision to charm the eye. She blushed, smiled deprecatingly and hung
+her head.
+
+"Will honorable ladies be pleased to employ humble refreshment?" she
+announced in a funny high voice with a prim, precise accent.
+
+The girls would have laughed if it had not been impolite. All their
+impulsive actions must be checked in this land of perfect manners, or
+they would certainly appear rude and rough.
+
+"We should be most pleased and happy, I am sure," answered Billie,
+feeling that she must not be outdone in lofty expression, "But what
+excellent English you speak. Do you live here, too?"
+
+Onoye looked up and her face brightened.
+
+"I make studying of American language one time," she said.
+
+"And are we to have tea now?" asked Nancy as the Japanese girl backed out
+of the room.
+
+"If pleasingly to gracious ladies," she answered.
+
+With bobs and bows, she led the way to a summer house in the garden where
+the others were already installed in comfortable chairs.
+
+"These are certainly the most hospitable servants I ever saw," Miss
+Campbell was saying to Mary and Elinor. "They make one feel like a guest
+in one's own house. I am sure if I lived here long, I should learn to
+meet myself at the front door and invite myself to take refreshments in
+the garden."
+
+The girls smiled lazily. They seemed somehow to have entered into a land
+of unrealities and dream pictures. The bamboo and rice paper villa was a
+doll's house, the lovely garden, a stage setting and the picturesque band
+of Japanese servants gliding noiselessly about, the chorus.
+
+And while they talked and sipped their tea, a fat, decrepit pug dog came
+slowly toward them down the walk on spindle legs. As the aged creature
+approached, O'Haru paused and made it a profound bow. The girls choked
+and sputtered in their tea and Miss Campbell laughed outright. They
+learned afterwards that this venerable animal was "Nedda," the Spears'
+pet pug, eighteen years old, and that every servant attached to the
+household regarded her with great respect because they believed that she
+was really Mr. Spears' grandmother.
+
+Old Nedda was very pleased to meet with a little human company of her own
+social status. She wagged her twisted tail cordially and when she heard
+American voices speaking the language of her youth, she gave a little
+expressive whine of pleasure.
+
+"You poor old lonesome thing," exclaimed the compassionate Billie.
+
+Just then a maid hurried up with a cushion. She had evidently been
+detailed to look after Nedda in the absence of the mistress of the house;
+to feed and bathe her; to see that she was covered up at night; to guard
+against her sleeping in damp places. Nedda stepped gingerly on the mat,
+moved round and round in a circle several times, even as the most
+primitive dog might do, and settled herself in a round heap for her late
+afternoon siesta. Then O'Sudzu, the little maid, spread a wadded silk
+cover over the pampered old Nedda and departed, bowing again.
+
+They were still laughing over this absurd incident when Mr. Campbell
+appeared on the walk with two companions. One was a good looking young
+man about twenty-one and the other a Japanese in European clothes, and
+very handsome, the girls thought him, in spite of his Oriental features
+and dark complexion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+TEA IN THE GARDEN.
+
+
+Nancy Brown instinctively put her hand to her curls when she saw the
+three approach. Elinor patted her coronet braids. Mary blushed and
+shrank timidly into the depths of her chair, for she was very shy; and
+Billie, whose candid nature had no coquetry, looked calmly interested and
+remarked:
+
+"Dear old Papa, there he is with two visitors."
+
+"I'm not at all surprised," said Miss Campbell smiling, "your Papa is one
+of the most general inviters I ever knew. He always loved to entertain."
+
+"How do my five beautiful American ladies feel?" called her jovial
+relation as he entered the summer house. "Rested with humble refreshment
+in poor modest little house?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, honorable father," answered Billie laughing.
+
+"I want you to meet my two friends, Nicholas Grimm and Yoritomo Ito,"
+went on Mr. Campbell.
+
+Nicholas Grimm was apparently a young Dutchman. His figure was well set
+up and stocky, his features regular, his mouth firm with a good square
+chin, and his clear dark eyes under bushy brows gazed on the world with a
+frank, good-humored expression.
+
+Yoritomo Ito was the best type of Japanese, lithe and straight, rather
+tall, with shrewd brown eyes and a smile that always hovered about his
+shapely mouth. He was immaculately neat and his skin looked as if it
+might have been scrubbed and then polished. Not a speck of dust marred
+his spotless linen or his dark blue suit.
+
+"Mr. Ito, will you sit on a mat on the floor or in a chair?" asked Miss
+Campbell when the introductions were over.
+
+"Oh, he can be Japanese or American, whichever suits him," interrupted
+Mr. Campbell, "though I'll wager you didn't do much floor sitting when
+you went to Harvard, did you, Yoritomo?"
+
+The Japanese's smile broadened somewhat when he answered with a slight
+accent:
+
+"American floors are not intended to be used as chairs."
+
+"Meaning, Mr. Ito, that the American floors are not as entirely free from
+dust as the Japanese floors?" inquired Miss Campbell.
+
+"Oh, no, Madam," protested the Japanese, horrified at this implication of
+rudeness but unable to dispel the impression nevertheless.
+
+"I grant you that our houses are not as clean as yours," went on Miss
+Campbell, "but you see we haven't time to remove our shoes whenever we
+enter the house, and then we have so much furniture and so many hangings
+to catch the dust. I don't see how you Japanese can resist the collecting
+habit in a country where there are so many beautiful things to collect."
+
+"My dear Cousin, they are as great collectors as anybody, only they keep
+their valuables stored in a fire-proof house--what is it you call it,
+Yoritomo?" asked Mr. Campbell.
+
+"It is called in English language a 'go-down.'"
+
+"So it is, a 'go-down.' It always reminds me of a steep grade down the
+side of a mountain. Here they keep all their best clothes and vases and
+ornaments and only bring out one vase and one scroll at a time. When they
+grow tired of those things, they are stored and something else is brought
+out, so that there is perpetual variety in the Japanese home."
+
+"I should hate to have my best clothes locked in a fire-proof house,"
+announced Nancy. "Suppose one wanted to make a quick change and the
+key was mislaid."
+
+"Ah, Miss Nancy," laughed Mr. Campbell, "it is not difficult to see where
+your heart lies."
+
+Yoritomo looked at Nancy with polite though evident interest which
+gradually developed into a cautiously veiled admiration. He was about
+to speak, when he was interrupted by the troop of little maids headed by
+Onoye with tea and refreshments. It was Onoye who served the young
+Japanese. First she bowed before him until her forehead almost touched
+the ground. Then she placed a mat for him to sit upon and a low lacquer
+tray containing tea and rice cakes. But Yoritomo, ignoring these humble
+services, sat himself in a chair next to Nancy and little Onoye hastened
+to rectify her mistake.
+
+In the meantime, Nicholas Grimm was talking to Billie and Elinor.
+
+"Are you from Holland?" they asked him.
+
+"Several hundreds of years ago I was. Kinterhook, New York, has been my
+home for the last generation."
+
+"Good," exclaimed Billie, "I thought you were a Dutchman and it's lots
+nicer to be an American, don't you think so?"
+
+"I wouldn't care to change," answered Nicholas solemnly. "America's good
+enough for me."
+
+"Are you one of the engineers on the new railroad they are building?"
+asked Billie.
+
+"I'm going to lay a few ties," he answered.
+
+"Are you going to build those little funny openwork bridges over all the
+streams?" demanded Elinor.
+
+"Something like it. Everything is picturesque in this country from
+beggars to railroad bridges, and, speaking of bridges, have you explored
+the garden yet? There's a ripping little bridge down there. When Mrs.
+Spears gave garden parties that was one of the strolling places."
+
+"Why, we didn't know we had such a pretentious garden!" exclaimed Billie.
+"Papa wrote that he had sublet a suburban villa near Tokyo with an acre
+or so of ground around it."
+
+"An acre or so?" repeated Nicholas. "That's an estate to them. They can
+put as much into an acre without crowding it as other people put into
+ten. Perhaps you would like to explore the garden if you have had enough
+honorable refreshment?"
+
+"Oh, yes," they answered eagerly, and drawing shy little Mary from the
+depths of her chair, Billie followed Elinor and the new friend down the
+garden path.
+
+"Would you be interested in seeing the garden?" asked Yoritomo of Nancy.
+
+"I might be induced," she answered drooping her long eyelashes, to the
+great amusement of Mr. Campbell, and they also wandered off, leaving the
+two older people for a cousinly chat.
+
+The girls were amazed at the beauty of the garden back of the house.
+Against the high wall surrounding the small estate clustered masses of
+flowers. Everywhere were little winding paths and an occasional grove of
+stunted pines that gave the impression of great age. It was in exquisite
+order, the green turf clipped to the smoothness of a velvet carpet. In
+all the garden there was not a leaf nor twig out of place. Back of the
+house the land sloped slightly and at the foot of this gentle depression
+trickled a musical little stream. Here was a stone lantern five feet
+high, also the miniature curved bridge; and to make the picture complete
+in every Japanese detail, leaning pensively on the railing of the bridge,
+stood Onoye. She herself might have been a bright colored flower in her
+gay kimono and sash.
+
+Only Mary noticed that the little Japanese was weeping softly. When she
+saw the Americans coming, she hastily withdrew down one of the paths and
+in another moment had disappeared entirely.
+
+"Poor little thing," thought Mary, "perhaps her mother has been scolding
+her."
+
+Perhaps she had, indeed, for O'Haru, the housekeeper, presently appeared
+looking for her daughter. Shading her eyes with one hand, she scanned the
+vistas of the garden.
+
+Mary left the group of friends and hastened down the path.
+
+"Are you looking for Onoye?" she asked the old woman.
+
+"Yes, honorable lady," answered O'Haru, trying to replace her uneasy and
+troubled expression with a pleasant smile.
+
+"She was on the bridge a moment ago. Is she unhappy? I think she was
+crying."
+
+"Have greatly kindness to forgive humble Japanese girl," answered O'Haru
+in a low voice.
+
+Mary thought the housekeeper was going to say more and no doubt, if she
+had poured out her confidences at that time, many later misunderstandings
+might have been averted. As it was, they were interrupted by Nancy and
+her Japanese cavalier who turned the curve of the path and came full upon
+them quite suddenly.
+
+Instead of hastening away as quietly as possible, O'Haru immediately fell
+on her knees and began speaking in a low voice in her own language.
+
+There was nothing unusual in this. All the servants seemed to be in a
+continual state of "nervous prostration," as Billie expressed it, and
+Nancy, smiling and dimpling, followed Yoritomo down the path without
+thinking any more about O'Haru.
+
+"What was she saying, Mr. Ito?" she asked.
+
+"You might accuse me of being a flatterer if I told you," he answered.
+
+"But I don't understand."
+
+"I mean she was speaking of you. 'The honorable young American lady,'"
+she said, "'is very beautiful.'"
+
+Nancy was flattered, as who would not have been over this frank
+compliment. A rosy flush spread over her face and the dimple deepened
+in her cheek.
+
+"You see, you are an unusual type in this country, Miss Brown," continued
+the Japanese. "You must expect to arouse comment wherever you go. Hair
+with so much color to it, like polished copper and curling, too, causes
+much admiration. You are very different from the Japanese."
+
+Again Nancy felt flattered.
+
+"I really believe I am rather pretty," she
+thought. What she said was: "You are very
+kind, Mr. Ito, but I am sure I think the Japanese
+girls are just as pretty as American girls. Little
+Onoye, our maid, is charming. She is a perfect
+picture."
+
+For the rest of the day, however, vain Nancy was enveloped in a rosy
+cloud of self-satisfaction. It was pleasing to be admired and still more
+pleasing to feel that the admiration was justified.
+
+The truth is, that admiration was quite as stimulating to Nancy as it is
+to the rest of us, and when she realized that the young Japanese had
+fallen an instant victim to her charms, she felt some pardonable pride in
+the power of her blue eyes and bright curls.
+
+By this time the others had returned to the pagoda-like summer house.
+
+"Come, Nancy, dear," floated Miss Campbell's voice across the garden. She
+was too careful a chaperone to permit one of her girls to wander
+at dusk with a strange young Japanese.
+
+Nancy quickened her pace. Nevertheless, she felt a little impatient with
+all these restrictions.
+
+"I am almost eighteen. I suppose I might be trusted to look after myself
+occasionally," she thought with some irritation.
+
+"May I not see you again to-morrow, Miss Brown?" Yoritomo was asking.
+
+"I am afraid you'll have to ask Miss Campbell."
+
+"It is now almost the American dinner hour," he went on thoughtfully,
+looking at his watch. "If I should be strolling to-morrow at this time
+down by the bridge, it would be very pleasant. We could have a few words
+together."
+
+"But--" began Nancy, and the voices of her friends interrupted her.
+
+They had paused near a great bush of azaleas in full bloom. Almost over
+their heads the silver crescent of the new moon hung poised like a fairy
+scimitar. It was exquisite and unreal. Nancy felt somehow out of place in
+the lovely picture, while the young Japanese, standing intense and rigid
+beside her, was as much a part of the Oriental garden as the stone
+lantern and the fragrant spice bush near the path. Even his blue serge
+European suit seemed to have lost its values in the deepening shadows.
+
+"If I come every day to see you, there would be great comment," he said
+in a low voice. "But often I shall wait on the bridge about this time."
+
+It was only a little time ago that Nancy's mother had lengthened her
+little daughter's skirts from shoe tops to ankles. The line of the old
+hem was still noticeable in some of her summer frocks. Just six months
+since, Nancy had tucked up the bunch of curls into a Psyche knot and
+transformed the ribbon bow into a velvet bandeau. Since she had been old
+enough to go to parties she had had boy admirers who had said sweet
+things to her. But this was quite different, and Nancy, almost eighteen,
+and capable of looking after herself, felt suddenly frightened.
+
+"I--I must hurry," she said, and turning she ran as fast as she could up
+the garden path nearly colliding with Billie and Mary who had come to
+look for her.
+
+"Why, Nancy, you are chasing along like a scared rabbit," cried Billie.
+"Has anything happened to you?"
+
+"Oh, no. I thought we had better run because it was so late," she
+answered breathlessly, while Yoritomo, following close behind, calm and
+collected, bade them a formal good night and hurried over to the summer
+house to pay his respects to Miss Campbell and her cousin.
+
+Nancy decided that night not to tell Billie, her intimate confidante,
+what the Japanese had said to her. The walls were too thin, she thought.
+Besides, she was curious to know if Yoritomo would be on the bridge the
+next afternoon. Just how she intended to find this out, she had not
+then decided.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SHOPPING IN JINRIKSHAS.
+
+
+"I feel very much like a baby in a baby carriage," observed Miss Helen
+Campbell as Mr. Campbell almost lifted her into the graceful little
+two-wheeled vehicle. "And is that poor soul going to turn into a horse
+and pull me?" she demanded.
+
+"You aren't such a heavy load," replied her cousin. "I doubt if the S. P.
+C. A. would get excited over it. I am only sorry you have to be alone,
+but I suppose those four inseparables are paired off as usual. Billie
+with Nancy and Mary with Elinor."
+
+"Indeed, I much prefer to be alone," said Miss Campbell. "Then I can hold
+on with both hands in case I am upset backwards."
+
+"You never will be. They will treat you like spun glass. You will take
+good care of the ladies, Komatsu," he said to the 'riksha man who,
+leaning against the garden wall, resembled a bronze figure, brown and
+muscular.
+
+"Gracious lady of fearing not need," answered Komatsu with an
+ingratiating smile as he stepped between the shafts of the 'riksha.
+
+"It is impossible to tell how much English they know and how much they
+don't know," Mr. Campbell confided to his relative in a low voice. "They
+never ask twice and they always make some kind of an out at a reply. But
+I think, until I can go with you, it is safer for you to go in the
+'rikshas. The common people here aren't used to motor cars and there are
+still some fanatics in Japan, you know, who are opposed to every sort of
+progress and the invasion of foreign customs."
+
+"Good-by, Papa," called Billie, "I do wish you were not a working man so
+that you could go with us."
+
+"I am sorry I must be a laborer in the vineyards, Miss Wilhelmina," he
+answered, "but it's only that you may ride in a fine carriage and wear a
+silk robe."
+
+"Silk robe?" repeated Miss Campbell. "That's just what I want. Komatsu,
+we wish to go to a silk shop," she ordered the man-servant, speaking
+very loud and distinctly as if she were addressing a deaf person.
+
+Komatsu grinned amiably.
+
+"I bring honorable lady to fine shop with quickness."
+
+The next moment the three vehicles were flying along the road drawn by
+three tireless individuals, whose good nature, like the widow's cruse,
+knew no diminishing.
+
+It would be difficult to find in all the world a more beautiful city than
+Tokyo at this season of the year. It is really a city of gardens and
+everywhere are palms and pines and waving willow trees, magnificent
+arbors of wisteria not yet in bloom and splendid azalea bushes bursting
+into masses of white and pink blossoms. Even the humblest brown cottage
+has its bit of garden, for the love of flowers is innate in every
+Japanese nature: it is a national trait.
+
+"There is no prospect that isn't graceful and picturesque," thought Mary
+watching an old fruit and vegetable man in front of them. He wore a dull
+blue cotton tunic much faded but still a heavenly color, and on either
+end of a pole resting on his shoulders was a flat brown basket filled
+with small oranges and vegetables of an unknown variety. Behind him
+walked an old woman in a dull brown and purple dress with an orange sash
+around her waist. Her back was burdened with a great bundle of bark. The
+sun was hot and many of the wayfarers carried paper umbrellas. Most of
+the women had babies swung on their backs and sometimes shiny little
+black eyes peeped out from the front of a kimono, the mother's arms being
+engaged in supporting another burden on her back.
+
+"It seems to me the women work very hard in this country," remarked
+Elinor severely, pointing to a cart filled with charcoal propelled by two
+women and a man. One of the women had a baby on her back and another
+child holding to her skirts.
+
+"They do," said Mary. "Even the women in the upper classes have to work
+hard. Don't you remember what the missionary on the steamer told us? The
+wife is always the first one up in the household no matter how many
+servants she has. She has to bring her mean old mother-in-law a cup of
+tea and get out her husband's clothes. The mother-in-law has had to work
+so hard when she was a daughter-in-law that she takes it out on her son's
+wife later."
+
+"I'd like to see an American wife ridden by her mother-in-law that way,"
+broke in Elinor indignantly.
+
+"But then the Japanese daughter-in-law's turn comes later," said Mary
+laughing, "when she gets to be a mother-in-law. So it's all nicely
+balanced."
+
+But the streets were too interesting to pursue the subject of
+mother-in-law any further. They were passing a row of open-fronted shops
+on the edges of which customers were squatted looking at materials while
+the proprietor bobbed and smiled and dickered over his bargains. Red and
+yellow banners hung in a row from the roof of the shop, the gay colored
+hieroglyphics on them indicating what manner of goods were displayed
+within.
+
+"Here's a nice little silk shop, Komatsu. Let us stop here," called Miss
+Campbell.
+
+But Komatsu only grinned over his shoulder and called:
+
+"Too littleness for gracious big lady."
+
+"But I like the looks of this place, Komatsu," said the gracious big lady
+helplessly.
+
+However Komatsu had his own ideas of obedience and he trotted on, never
+pausing until he reached a large silk store thronged with clerks and
+customers.
+
+Here all the 'rikshas drew up and the girls alighted with Miss Campbell,
+who was a little red in the face but determined to overlook the
+annoyance of orders disregarded.
+
+The front of the store was screened from the street by dark blue cotton
+curtains behind which was a roofed platform carpeted with matting. Here
+sat a group of clerks, each with his _soroban_ or adding machine at his
+side. Little Japanese boys, their shoulders loaded with bales of rich
+materials, staggered about, and through the open doors of the fire-proof
+warehouse they caught glimpses of costly stuffs stored away. An
+obsequious clerk who spoke excellent English came forward and presently,
+when their eyes became accustomed to the busy, brilliantly colored scene,
+they began to examine silk materials on their own account. Miss Campbell
+made each of her charges a present of _crêpe de chine_ and still was not
+very much out of pocket. As they were about to leave, they were followed
+by a chorus of shouts.
+
+"What in the world is the matter?" demanded Miss Campbell uneasily. "Has
+the place caught fire, or didn't we give the right amount of change?"
+
+"No, madam," answered the polite English-speaking clerk, who had
+accompanied her to the sidewalk. "They are saying farewell. In English
+it would mean, 'Thanks for your continued favors.'"
+
+"Don't mention it," said Miss Campbell. "We'll come again."
+
+The clerk smiled and bowed formally and once more they whirled away in
+their 'rikshas. They visited many shops in Tokyo that morning. It was
+like a fascinating bazaar and it seemed impossible to tear themselves
+away, although Komatsu kept always close to their elbows and several
+times observed:
+
+"Muchly more time. Come again."
+
+At last, just as an ominous mass of black clouds had spread itself over
+the heavens, against which the brilliant colors of the signs and the
+people's clothes stood out in bold relief, they started for home. But on
+the outskirts of the city great drops of rain pelted them in the face,
+the advance scouts of a tremendous downpour.
+
+"Oh, Komatsu, we will ruin our clothes," cried Miss Campbell in alarm.
+"You must take us somewhere until the rain is over."
+
+They were passing the high walls of a garden, the gate of which stood
+open. Without an instant's hesitation Komatsu turned in and the three
+'rikshas raced up a broad walk toward a Japanese house at the end.
+Several smiling hospitable persons whom they took to be servants ran out
+with large umbrellas made of oiled paper and protected the five ladies,
+who hurried unceremoniously into the house just as the heavens opened and
+the rain came down in bucketfuls.
+
+Three Japanese ladies, seated on the floor drinking tea, rose quickly and
+made low formal bows. The five refugees from the storm returned the bows
+with some bewilderment.
+
+"I do hope you will pardon this intrusion," Miss Campbell found herself
+saying. "The storm was so sudden and terrible, we fled to the nearest
+house."
+
+One of the little Japanese ladies bowed. She was evidently the mistress
+of the house, but she spoke no English.
+
+Miss Campbell pointed outside to the rain and made expressive signs
+indicative of haste. It was really like being in a deaf and dumb asylum.
+Then the little lady smiled again and bowed again, and the others bowed.
+
+"Good heavens, Billie, what am I to do? Must I continue to smile and bob
+and bow forever? Do come to my rescue!"
+
+But the hospitable hostess now hurried from the room and presently
+reappeared followed by her maids, each of whom carried a little lacquered
+table. It was indicated that the American guests would confer a favor if
+they would seat themselves.
+
+"I've never sat on the floor in my life," complained Miss Campbell in a
+low voice. "It will kill me. I am certain it will displace a ligament."
+
+"You'll just have to, Cousin. Try sitting on your feet. That's the way
+they do."
+
+"I think tailor-fashion would be easier," answered the poor lady. "Don't
+help me. They might take it for rudeness. Everything is bad manners in
+this country."
+
+Crossing her feet, she slid slowly to the floor. The visitors were
+promptly served with delicious tea, rice cakes, candied fruits and other
+confections molded and colored like the flowers in season.
+
+Certainly that was one of the most silent and ceremonious tea parties
+ever given. It was all dumb show, but the manners of the three Japanese
+ladies were exquisite. While this excruciatingly polite scene transpired,
+there raged such a storm of wind and rain that at each moment they feared
+the fragile bamboo and rice paper abode would be blown from its slight
+foundations.
+
+"They won't lose much if it's blown away," thought Billie. "There's not a
+stick of furniture to be seen except a screen."
+
+In one corner of the room was a splendid vase almost as tall as she was,
+and on the wall hung a scroll showing two women gathering cherry
+blossoms. On the floor were soft mats fitted closely together.
+
+Suddenly Billie blushed scarlet.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Helen," she exclaimed. "We forgot to take off our shoes."
+
+"Don't speak to me," answered her relation. "My legs have gone to sleep
+and I have lost the power to move them. I am in an agony of pain."
+
+At this moment a figure darkened the doorway. The three Japanese women
+rose and bowed low and the servants made obeisances. The five Americans
+were amazed to recognize their friend of yesterday, Yoritomo Ito. He was
+quite as amazed as they were, although he did not show it except by the
+flick of an eyelash, because no well-bred Japanese ever shows surprise.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Ito?" cried Miss Campbell. "Is it possible that this
+is your house we have broken into so rudely?"
+
+It was indeed Mr. Ito's home, and, the three ladies were his mother, his
+aunt and his sister.
+
+"It is a great pleasure, I am sure, that you have found refuge in my
+home. I trust they have served you well."
+
+Then he spoke rapidly in Japanese to his mother, who smiled and clasped
+her hands with joy, as if heaven could not have bestowed a greater gift
+than the privilege to entertain these delightful foreigners.
+
+"And are you the head of the family, Mr. Ito?" asked Miss Campbell.
+
+"No, my father takes first place. He is a tea merchant in Tokyo. I have
+also a younger brother who works with him. He did not wish to go to
+America with me."
+
+At this moment a human doll baby toddled into the room. His round little
+head was bald except for a thick mat of hair on top. His beady black eyes
+gleamed like polished glass. He wore a dark red kimono and his feet and
+legs were bare.
+
+"Oh, the darling," cried Mary whose love of children overcame any shyness
+she might feel before strangers. The three Japanese were pleased at the
+attention the little person created. The girls gathered around him in a
+circle while he stood perfectly still regarding them curiously, as if
+they were some new strange birds which had dropped into his room from the
+skies.
+
+Yoritomo also was pleased. He took the little fellow's hand in his and
+led him from one to another while his relatives stood in a beaming row.
+
+Children are called "treasure-flowers" in Japan, and are petted and
+spoiled quite as much as American children.
+
+"What a cunning little baby brother, Mr. Ito," said Nancy. "What is his
+name?"
+
+"Kenkyo," answered Yoritomo. Suddenly he turned and spoke to one of the
+women and the "treasure-flower" was led from the room.
+
+"Oh, don't send him away," objected Miss Campbell. "I haven't had half a
+chance to see him yet."
+
+"He is not dressed to see distinguished visitors," answered Yoritomo,
+quickly. "My mother would like to show you some of her embroidery if
+you would care to see it."
+
+So the subject of little Kenkyo was dropped and Madame Ito, hurrying
+away, returned in a moment with an armful of linen and silk on which she
+had worked the most wonderful floral designs.
+
+In the meantime, the faithful 'riksha man, Komatsu, had trotted all the
+way through floods of rain to the Campbell villa half a mile distant, and
+now returned in company with O'Haru. Between them they carried a covered
+basket containing five mackintoshes, five pairs of overshoes and five
+umbrellas.
+
+Komatsu was very angry with O'Haru. He explained to Miss Campbell:
+
+"I not wish, but she coming without not wish."
+
+He pointed accusingly at the sad old face. O'Haru, dripping and
+imperturbable, stood on the piazza near the entrance to the villa.
+
+"That was very good of you, O'Haru; we appreciate your devotion," said
+Miss Campbell, but the housekeeper did not appear to grasp all this fine
+English. She seemed to be taking in every detail of the room and its
+occupants. Nobody took any notice of her. All the ladies and the servants
+were engaged in helping the guests on with their rain coats and
+overshoes. Mme. Ito insisted on doing up their hats in paper bundles.
+
+In the midst of a great deal of leave-taking and much smiling and bowing,
+Yoritomo found time to say to Nancy:
+
+"You see, chance has favored me to-day. The rain which kept me away from
+the bridge has brought you to my home."
+
+Nancy blushed in spite of her efforts not to. She felt half pleased and
+half frightened at the earnest manner of the young Japanese. He was
+undeniably handsome and graceful, with a self-possession she had never
+seen equaled. Just then a dark figure darted across the floor so swiftly
+that it was like a flash of brown wings in the air. There was a low
+exclamation from the ladies, a bird-like chatter from the servants, and
+for one brief moment the surprised Americans beheld old O'Haru on her
+knees before little Kenkyo in the act of touching her forehead to the
+floor. She drew a beautiful, bright-colored toy from her bosom and gave
+it to the solemn-eyed little boy. Then, bowing again with extreme
+reverence, she rose and left the house. When they next saw her she was
+swinging along in the rain on her wooden clogs. Miss Campbell made
+Komatsu stop the 'riksha and invited her to climb in, but she refused
+politely but firmly.
+
+"Extraordinary creature," exclaimed Miss Campbell, but Komatsu could
+offer no explanation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE GARDEN IN THE RAIN.
+
+
+For three interminable days the rain poured down uninterruptedly. The
+floodgates of heaven had opened and it seemed as though they would never
+close again. The all-pervading dampness and chill brought illness to the
+Campbell household of a kind not to be healed by medicine. Homesickness
+it was, and it spread rapidly like a contagious disease. Only one member
+of the party of Americans was not afflicted and that was Mr. Campbell,
+who had lived in many climates and countries and was accustomed to
+seasons of rain and wet. Moreover, as he himself had said, he had no home
+to be sick for. He felt a supreme content in the thought of having his
+daughter with him and no amount of rain could chill his enthusiasm.
+
+Miss Campbell took to her bed with an attack of rheumatism, brought on,
+she insisted, from having sat on the floor at the home of Mme. Ito. Mary
+began a diary of her experiences in Japan and had several private weeping
+spells entirely due to the unsurpassed dismalness of the weather. Billie
+endeavored to throw off her depression by giving Onoye lessons in English
+in exchange for lessons in Japanese, and in the course of these lessons
+she learned a little of Onoye's history. O'Haru had been obliged to go to
+work after the death of her husband who had lost all his property in a
+fire. Onoye's only brother had been killed in great "bat-tel." The family
+had had "muchly unfortune. All money gone--nothing."
+
+At the conclusion of this sad story told mostly by expressive gestures
+and queerly chosen words, Onoye smiled sweetly. That is the only polite
+thing for a well brought up Japanese girl to do even when her own
+misfortunes are the subject of the conversation.
+
+"What a shame," Billie exclaimed sympathetically. "I should think you
+would learn something, some trade, I mean, Onoye. You are much too clever
+to be a housemaid. But I suppose you will marry. I hear there are no old
+maids in Japan."
+
+Onoye shook her head and smiled sadly. Perhaps she did not understand
+Billie's remark because she did not reply.
+
+"Old maid, Onoye, is one who never marries," explained Nancy at the
+dressing table arranging her hair.
+
+"Ah, Komatsu old maid. He not marry."
+
+"No, no, Komatsu is a man," said Billie trying not to laugh. "Old maid is
+a woman who has no husband, like Miss Campbell."
+
+"Old maid," repeated Onoye, and because of what happened that very
+evening, it was evident that the retentive Japanese memory had not lost
+the words.
+
+In the afternoon there came a characteristic note from Mr. Campbell to
+his cousin.
+
+"Tell O'Haru to put on the big pot and the little," it ran, "and to kill
+the fatted calf. I am going to cheer up my gloomy household by bringing
+four men home to dinner. If it were not for these flimsy little card
+houses, I would suggest a dance afterwards, but I couldn't answer for
+the walls and roof if two young Americans danced a two-step in the
+parlor."
+
+"I am sure a two-step is no rougher than one of these storms of wind and
+rain," observed Miss Campbell, feeling a sudden loyalty toward everything
+American, including dances.
+
+O'Haru was informed of the party and the house became at once a beehive
+of activity. Several of the little maids, without being told, took down
+all the dresses in the wardrobes and began drying them out with square
+boxes of red embers.
+
+"I'd like to be done the same way," remarked Miss Campbell. "I think I am
+just as mildewed as my clothes."
+
+The kitchen quarters of the house fairly vibrated with the stir of
+preparation. In the living rooms the air was dried with small charcoal
+stoves. The gardener was seen bringing in armfuls of flowers; and with
+all the activity and preparation, there was no noise, not a sound. It
+was positively uncanny.
+
+Late in the afternoon Nancy slipped away from this noiseless busy scene
+and tripped demurely down a garden path toward the bridge. She was not
+exactly bent on mischief but she wanted to satisfy her curiosity about
+something. The rain had lessened considerably but it was still necessary
+for her to protect her recently arranged curls with her small blue silk
+umbrella. In her mackintosh of changeable silk in two shades of blue, she
+made a charming picture coming down the rain-soaked path. The garden
+itself was a thing of beauty. On the end of every pine needle hung a
+crystal drop, and through the thin veil of mist clinging to the shrubbery
+a clump of azaleas glowed like a crimson flame. Taking a path to the
+left, Nancy began the gentle and almost imperceptible descent to the
+little bridge. The air was filled with the perfume of wild roses and late
+plum blossoms. It was really a fairy land, this Japan; a place too
+exquisite and unreal for human beings to live in. She began to sing
+softly to herself Elinor's favorite song:
+
+"'Know'st thou the land of the citron bloom?'"
+
+As she approached the bridge she felt a little frightened for some
+reason. It was rather reckless of her to come down to this lonely place
+in the late afternoon even if it was their own premises. It was the first
+time she had done it and she decided it would be the last. But as long as
+she had come, she would see it through. Nancy could hardly explain to
+herself what she meant by "seeing it through."
+
+She would stroll carelessly down the path, walk across the bridge, pause
+a moment and walk back again, not looking behind her of course, as, if
+she were observed, and she was sure she was not, she would pretend she
+was out for a walk and had not expected to meet anyone. Thus Nancy
+reasoned with herself, but by the time she had reached the bridge she had
+changed her mind and was about to turn and hasten back, when she noticed
+a beautiful tea rose that had been laid conspicuously on the hand rail of
+the bridge.
+
+"He has been here," she thought. "He must have just gone. The rose is
+quite fresh."
+
+Sticking its long stem through the buttonhole of her raincoat, she
+glanced about her curiously. Somehow, behind every clump of shrubs and
+every branching pine tree she felt black eyes staring at her and yet she
+was sure she was alone. Again she started for the house, feeling
+profoundly relieved that Yoritomo had not waited, if, indeed, it was he
+who had left the rose. Suddenly Nancy's heart jumped into her throat and
+she felt a cold chill down her spinal column,--and for no reason, except
+that standing in front of her was not a man, but a woman. The stranger
+was too tall to be a Japanese and she was dressed, moreover, in European
+clothes,--a beautifully fitting tailor-made suit and English traveling
+hat of stitched cloth. But there was something faintly suggestive of the
+Japanese about her face. Perhaps it was the slightly slanting eyes and
+the smooth olive skin. Her hair was much lighter than her eyes and quite
+fluffy; her features were regular and there was a graceful dignity in the
+poise of her head on her shoulders. Nancy concluded after a swift
+examination that she was, if peculiar looking, still strangely
+fascinating.
+
+"May I ask your pardon for intruding on your beautiful gardens?" began
+the woman, speaking with a slightly English accent. "I did not expect
+to meet any one on this rainy afternoon."
+
+Nancy wondered how she had got into the garden and where she had come
+from. These things the stranger did not explain. However, Nancy answered
+politely:
+
+"It isn't my garden, but I am sure Mr. Campbell would be delighted to
+have other people enjoy it."
+
+"You are a sweet child," said the woman, deliberately taking Nancy's chin
+in her hand and looking down at her, "a sweet, exquisite child."
+
+After all, Nancy decided, this mysterious lady was both fascinating and
+beautiful.
+
+"And who is Mr. Campbell?"
+
+Nancy explained. In fact, after a few leading questions, she disclosed
+the entire history of the household; who they were, how long they
+expected to stay, and how they happened to be spending the summer in
+Japan.
+
+"Is it possible that you are the Motor Maids who have ridden so many
+thousands of miles in a red car?" asked the stranger.
+
+Nancy opened her eyes.
+
+"Yes," she answered. "But we never dreamed we were so famous as that."
+
+"Ah, you will find that Tokyo is not so far removed from the world,"
+answered the woman, smiling gravely. "And Mr. Campbell is building a
+railroad, you say?"
+
+"No, I didn't say so," replied Nancy, a little surprised. "He's not
+building anything that I know of. He is being consulted, or something."
+
+But the stranger did not seem to have heard her.
+
+"I must be going," she said absently. "You are an adorably pretty child.
+It's been a pleasure to see you. I only wandered in here because I was
+unhappy and wanted to be alone, but you have cheered me up. Run along,
+now, and don't walk in Japanese gardens at dusk unattended too often."
+Her glance fell on the tea rose. "And remember that the Japanese do not
+understand the meaning of the word 'flirtation.' Good-by, _ma cherie,
+belle et charmante_. You won't tell your Mr. Campbell that I trespassed
+on his garden, will you? Promise?"
+
+"I promise," answered Nancy, quite bewildered and fascinated.
+
+Then the mysterious lady disappeared down a dripping path and Nancy was
+left standing alone in the rain.
+
+"I am sorry I promised," was her first thought. "It would have been such
+fun to tell Billie." But her second thought was: "Billie would have
+asked me why I had gone walking at dusk in the rain, and what a teasing I
+should have got."
+
+It was late and she hurried back to dress for dinner. No one had missed
+her because Billie had been helping Miss Campbell into her best evening
+frock, and the others were all engaged in their own toilets.
+
+That evening at half past seven a very jolly party gathered around the
+dinner table, which was a miracle of beauty with its decorations of apple
+blossoms. Besides Nicholas Grimm and Yoritomo Ito, there were two
+Englishmen, Reginald Carlton, a young man who was taking a trip around
+the world by way of finishing his education, and Mr. Buxton, an older man
+who lived in Tokyo. All the men wore evening clothes, although Mr.
+Campbell had sighed when Billie made him appear in his. He was a man of
+camps and open air and seldom appeared in society. Nancy watched his
+rugged, handsome face admiringly.
+
+"What a splendid looking man he is," she was thinking, when Yoritomo at
+her right said in a low voice:
+
+"You did go to the bridge."
+
+"How do you know?" she asked.
+
+"Because I saw the rose. It was fastened on your rain coat, which you
+left on a hook in the passage with your wet umbrella."
+
+"I only went for the air," said Nancy hastily. "I shall not go again
+alone."
+
+Yoritomo's face darkened, and he turned his attention to his dinner.
+
+In the meantime the others were all amusing themselves in various ways,
+and there was a great deal of talk and laughter. Miss Campbell felt
+rejuvenated and her rheumatic twinges had entirely disappeared.
+
+"There is nothing like a little pleasure for driving acidity out of the
+system," she thought, as she finished the last spoonful of her dessert of
+beautifully preserved fruits.
+
+Onoye had entered, carrying a small lacquered tray on which lay a square,
+foreign-looking visiting card.
+
+"A lady calling to the honorable old maid," she announced calmly at Miss
+Campbell's elbow.
+
+"The what?" cried Mr. Campbell.
+
+"The honorable old maid," repeated poor Onoye, with her precise accent,
+smiling innocently.
+
+There was a perfect shout of laughter. Only Yoritomo's face remained
+impassive, but who could tell what angry thoughts were hidden behind that
+mask-like face? Billie tried to explain how the mistake had occurred, and
+Onoye rushed from the room in an agony of embarrassment and shame.
+
+"Don't scold her, Cousin. She thought she had learned a new English
+word," Billie besought Miss Campbell.
+
+"Scold her? I should think not. I don't mind being called an 'honorable
+old maid,' I am sure. But who is this caller, I wonder?" she added, in
+a lower voice.
+
+Mr. Campbell examined the card with some curiosity. "Mme. Marie
+Fontaine," it read. Miss Campbell hastened into the drawing-room, and
+Nancy, peeping through the doors a few minutes later, was surprised to
+find that Mme. Fontame was her recent companion in the garden.
+
+The visit was very brief, and Miss Campbell presently returned looking
+somewhat amused and a little annoyed.
+
+"Mme. Fontaine wished to know if she might have an interview with the
+Motor Maids on the subject of their motor trip across the American
+continent and through the British Isles."
+
+"And what did you tell her?" demanded the four girls in one voice, it
+must be confessed somewhat eagerly.
+
+"I told her that while we appreciated the compliment, it would be
+impossible."
+
+"Quite right," said Mr. Campbell. "Publicity is the thing of all others I
+wish to avoid, and if an article like that appeared in a Tokyo paper,
+either in Japanese or English, you would probably be the object of the
+most disagreeable curiosity. Am I not right, Yoritomo?"
+
+"Oh, yes. It would not be agreeable to the young ladies. Many people
+would come to look at them."
+
+"I am very glad my action is approved, then," said Miss Campbell. "I have
+an old-fashioned horror of notoriety like that, and I am sure none of my
+girls would care to see herself in a newspaper. Would she?"
+
+"No, indeed," they answered promptly in a chorus.
+
+In a secret place in Nancy's mind, however, she saw a picture of her own
+pretty face occupying at least one-third of a newspaper page and
+underneath, blazoned in large letters: "The Beautiful Miss Anne Starbuck
+Brown, One of the Famous Motor Maids."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+IN THE LIBRARY.
+
+
+The house Mr. Campbell had sub-let for the summer was somewhat
+labyrinthian in design, since it was only one story high and contained
+many rooms for living and sleeping, besides the servants' quarters in the
+rear. Mr. Spears had engaged a Japanese architect to build the house and
+Japanese and European ideas were curiously combined in its construction.
+Down the middle ran a broad hall, intersected at the back by another hall
+running across the house. This was known as "the passage," and it was in
+a manner a social boundary line, dividing the quarters of master and
+servants. Only one opening broke the monotony of the uninterrupted
+partition on the far side of the passage. This was the door into the
+library which had been placed in a quiet and out-of-the-way corner
+overlooking the garden.
+
+This library was decidedly the most attractive and home-like room in the
+villa. There was a large open fireplace at one end where a pile of
+blazing logs now crackled cheerfully. It would have taken an immense
+"go-down" to accommodate  all the books which lined the walls. But Mr.
+Spears was evidently not afraid of fire, for they stood in serried ranks,
+rows and rows of them, and between each group of shelves was a panel of
+carved and polished wood. Over the mantel hung a beautiful Japanese
+print. Curtains of some heavy material, old rose in color, hung at the
+windows, and instead of the usual three by six mats, the floor was
+covered with an Oriental rug in soft warm colors. There were many low,
+comfortable chairs about and several tables on which stood shaded lamps.
+
+Later in the evening after Mr. Campbell's dinner party, the three older
+members of the company sat down in the drawing-room for a quiet game,
+while the young people repaired to the library where they might talk and
+laugh freely without fear of disturbing the players.
+
+"Oh, I say, what a jolly room," exclaimed Reginald Carlton, looking about
+him with interest.
+
+"Isn't it?" agreed Billie. "Papa says that if people would only stick to
+Japanese notions of decoration and add a few comfortable chairs to sit
+in, they would never make any mistakes. You see, there's only one picture
+in this room, but that's considered very fine. It's by a famous Japanese
+artist."
+
+"I like that one-picture idea," put in Nicholas Grimm, "especially if it
+is at a comfortable elevation. Just pull up an easy chair and raise your
+eyes and you have seen all there is to see. There's a delightful
+simplicity about that to me. But I suppose Yoritomo would call this room
+crowded, nevertheless. How about it, old man? It wouldn't take you
+fifteen minutes to pull down the curtains and roll up the rug and store
+them in the 'go-down.' Would it, now, honor bright?"
+
+"No, no. I like the European furnishings," protested the Japanese. "You
+must remember that I lived in America for many years. There is only one
+thing I would store in the 'go-down,' and that is the little safe."
+
+He pointed to a small American fire-proof safe in a corner of the room.
+
+"But that is our 'go-down,'" laughed Billie. "We haven't any other. When
+Papa first came here he discovered that there was no place to lock up
+anything except some desk drawers, and he rented this little safe for his
+papers. A Japanese gentleman advised him to do it. He told Papa there was
+a great deal of curiosity here about the private business of foreigners."
+
+A dark flush overspread Yoritomo's face and gradually faded out. The
+others did not notice it, however. They had followed Nicholas across
+the room and were standing in a circle around the safe, while the young
+American touched it with a caressing hand.
+
+"Made in Newark, N.J., U.S.A.," he exclaimed. "Think of that. It's like
+meeting an old friend from home."
+
+"A very proper kind of friend," observed Reginald. "The kind that keeps a
+secret behind a combination lock."
+
+"I don't call it being a real friend to have any combination at all," put
+in Elinor, "because anybody who learns the combination can get the
+secret."
+
+Nicholas laughed.
+
+"You don't understand the Japanese, Miss Butler," he exclaimed. "They
+regard all persons with important secrets as combination safes. Sooner or
+later they believe they can learn any combination if they only persist."
+
+"Why don't you stand up for your country, Mr. Ito?" asked Nancy.
+
+"What Nicholas says is true," answered Yoritomo. "If the secret concerns
+his country, the Japanese will learn it if he must give up his life. What
+you call 'spy' in your language should be changed to patriot, or one who
+risks all for his country. Every Japanese is a spy, because every
+Japanese will suffer for Japan."
+
+"Perfectly good logic," said Nicholas.
+
+"Are you a spy?" asked Mary, so innocently that even the imperturbable
+Yoritomo laughed.
+
+"I am, in the sense of being a patriot," he answered. "There is nothing I
+would not do for Japan."
+
+"Are you a Samurai?" asked Billie, hardly understanding the meaning of
+the word.
+
+"My grandfather was. There are no real samurai now. Only descendants."
+
+"But what were they?"
+
+Yoritomo's face became strangely animated.
+
+"A samurai was a soldier," he said. "He was brave and feared neither
+death nor suffering in any form. He carried two swords, a long one for
+fighting and a short one for defense. The sword was the emblem of the
+samurai spirit. He took pride in keeping it sharp and bright."
+
+"Aren't some of the descendants of the old warrior samurai rather
+fanatical?" asked Reginald. "That is, I mean--" he hesitated, seeing a
+peculiar gleam in Yoritomo's eyes, "aren't some opposed to the entrance
+of foreigners into Japan, and the invasion of foreign ideas--perhaps that
+feeling has died out now?"
+
+"The old samurai defended his country against the foreigner and no
+descendant of a samurai, either now or ever, would endure for a foreigner
+to learn the secrets of his country. But that is not fanaticism. That is
+patriotism. He is very jealous of his country's honor, you understand.
+You will look at the history of other countries. First it is only a few
+foreigners; then more and more. They slip into the government. They
+spread their ideas and customs--they get a foot-hold--then--all of a
+sudden, what is it? Not Japan any longer--but--America--England."
+
+"Oh, come off, Yoritomo," cried Nicholas, laughing. "What in the name of
+all the powers are you driving at? There are about forty millions of
+people on this island and I guess a few foreigners won't make much
+headway in such a bunch as that."
+
+"At least, you are not afraid of being Americanized, Mr. Ito," broke in
+Nancy, "since you were educated in America."
+
+"I am not afraid of the invasion of beautiful American young ladies,"
+answered Yoritomo gallantly, and the others laughed and felt somewhat
+relieved that the conversation had drifted into a less serious vein. They
+drew their chairs into a circle about the fire and talked pleasantly for
+some time, when they were summoned back to the drawing-room by Mr.
+Campbell, who reminded Elinor of a promise she had made to him to sing
+for them with her guitar.
+
+This performance was a subject of wondering curiosity to the servants of
+the household. Through the door to the dining-room Elinor caught a
+glimpse of a multitude of natives crouched on the floor behind the
+screen, including Komatsu and O'Haru, all the little maids, the
+numerous grandmothers, and the 'riksha men who had brought the guests out
+from Tokyo. If the music seemed strange to the Japanese ear trained for
+centuries to a curious uneven scale, at least they admired Elinor's
+lovely voice, clear and sweet as a bell. She had a large repertoire and
+knew all the favorites of everybody. While she was singing "Oh, that we
+two were Maying," at the request of Miss Campbell, Nancy, seated on the
+couch beside Billie, near the door, whispered into her friend's ear:
+
+"I left my handkerchief in the library," and slipped into the hall.
+Hardly a moment later Billie, glancing through the door, saw Nancy in
+the distance, beckoning violently. She rose and followed, much against
+her will, thinking perhaps Nancy wished to bestow a confidence which
+might just as well be kept until later.
+
+"What on earth do you want?" she asked, with the irritability intimate
+friends use toward each other without meaning really to be cross.
+
+"The queerest thing has happened. The library is perfectly black dark."
+
+"I don't think there is anything specially remarkable about that. The
+fire had burned low before we left and I suppose one of the maids put out
+the lamps. The Japs are nothing if not economical."
+
+"They are nothing if not polite, too," argued Nancy. "And I am sure they
+wouldn't put out the lights before the company left. Besides, they are
+all listening to Elinor sing."
+
+"Well, the lights are out and I don't see that it matters much,
+Nancy-Bell. Let's go back and hear the rest of the song."
+
+"Won't you come with me first to get my handkerchief?" pleaded Nancy. "I
+know exactly where I left it, and I am afraid to go alone, if you want to
+know the real truth."
+
+"Oh, you little coward," laughed Billie good-naturedly, taking her arm.
+"Come along, then."
+
+The two young girls hastened down the long hall until they reached the
+passage.
+
+"Billie," whispered Nancy, pausing at the door. "You won't think me silly
+if I tell you this? Of course it may have been imagination, but I was
+awfully frightened when I came in here just now. I opened the door
+suddenly and ran into the room before I realized it was dark. Then, of
+course, I stopped short. The door had closed behind me and it seemed to
+me that some one else was in the room. I remembered that as I opened the
+door I heard some one move or collide with a chair. I stood perfectly
+still for an instant. I was really frightened. Then I just flew."
+
+"Perhaps it was one of the servants who had put out the lights and was
+afraid to acknowledge it," suggested Billie. "The little maids are as
+timid as wild things."
+
+"But every servant in the house is in the dining room, I tell you. I saw
+them as I went down the hall, and I counted them just for fun. There were
+the four little maids and Onoye and O'Haru and Komatsu and the three
+jinriksha men and the three old grandmothers and the gardener. There
+aren't any others."
+
+The door leading into the library was not a sliding panel of thick opaque
+paper, like the usual Japanese door, but a real European door of heavy
+wood with a brass handle.
+
+"Don't you think we had better get your father, Billie, or one of the
+boys?" whispered Nancy, placing a detaining hand on her friend's arm.
+
+"But that would be a needless alarm. Everybody would want to know what
+was the matter. There would have to be explanations and Cousin Helen
+would be frightened. Besides, I am sure it was just your vivid
+imagination, Nancy."
+
+She opened the door very softly and peeped in. The room was flooded with
+the radiance of two shaded lamps, both burning brightly; in fact, one had
+been turned up too high, as if lighted in haste.
+
+"Oh," gasped Nancy, in amazement.
+
+But Billie was determined not to be surprised.
+
+"Take my word for it, Nancy; one of the servants put out the lights by
+mistake, thinking we had finished in here for the night, and when you
+returned he or she was frightened and lit them again, thinking that
+honorable American young lady might be displeased."
+
+Nancy found her handkerchief.
+
+"Very well," she said. "If that is your expert opinion I am willing to
+abide by it, but I was fright--"
+
+Before she could finish one of the long French windows blew open and a
+gust of wet wind extinguished the lamp on a table near the window. Billie
+marched boldly over and closed and bolted the window.
+
+"Whoever it was," she said, "must have got out this way."
+
+The girls exchanged a long glance of uneasy speculation. In the dim light
+of the remaining lamp the room seemed filled with shadows. Billie drew
+the heavy curtains across the casement. Those at the other window were
+already drawn.
+
+"Come along, Nancy-Bell," she exclaimed. "Thieves don't blow out lights
+and then come back and relight them. It would be extremely unprofessional
+if they did and very reckless besides. It's certain to be one of those
+timid little persons in a kimono. We had better be getting back to the
+drawing-room or Papa will be wondering what has become of us."
+
+Hardly had they closed the door after them, when a figure, wrapped from
+head to foot in a long brown garment something like a cape, emerged from
+behind the other curtains. Whoever it was, whether man or woman, it was
+impossible to judge, opened the door, peeped cautiously into the passage
+and, finding it quite empty, marched boldly out. In another moment the
+intruder had disappeared into the garden.
+
+As the girls passed along the hall they paused to notice the picturesque
+group of servants gathered near the door. There was a smile on every
+face, not a smile of ridicule, but of courteous enjoyment.
+
+"Is there any rude person in the length and breadth of Japan?" thought
+Billie, while Nancy once more counted heads and then shook her own
+thoughtfully.
+
+"I don't understand," she pondered, "but Billie is usually right, so I'll
+just cease to worry."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+CHERRY BLOSSOMS.
+
+
+A few hours of brilliant sunshine and all the dampness had been sucked up
+from the earth; the air was warmed and dried and the mists rolled back
+from the garden, revealing a fairy-land too exquisite to be real.
+
+Something especially wonderful had happened that morning. The faces of
+the little maids had been filled with a joyous expectancy as they hurried
+from room to room on their household duties. A mysterious smile hovered
+on the lips of Komatsu when he appeared to receive his orders. Even old
+O'Haru was secretly immensely pleased about something, but they all had
+evidently agreed among themselves to keep the great news secret until the
+psychological moment had arrived when the ladies of the house and Mr.
+Campbell had assembled on the piazza just before breakfast.
+
+When this occurred word was swiftly and silently conveyed over the
+household and all persons belonging to the domestic staff instantly
+gathered in the hall and doorway.
+
+"Why, what on earth is the matter with them?" Miss Campbell asked
+uneasily. "Will you please look: the entire household collected in the
+front hall."
+
+Mr. Campbell was as much at a loss as his cousin.
+
+"They look as if they were going to play a joke on us," observed Billie,
+"Did you ever see anything so guileless and simple-hearted as they are?"
+
+"Oh, I know what it is," cried Mary, clasping her hands with delight.
+"There," she said, pointing to the old gardener, who was approaching by
+way of one of the paths. There was an inimitable smile on his face, and
+he carried tenderly and gingerly a double handful of brown branches on
+which clustered delicate pink blossoms.
+
+"It's the cherry blossoms! They are in bloom!" Mary shouted in her
+enthusiasm. "That's why they are all so delighted. The dears! They are
+just like a lot of children."
+
+The crown of the year for the Japanese had indeed arrived, the season
+when every cherry tree becomes a magnificent nosegay which has caught the
+sunset's glow, and all the world goes forth to view the splendid sight.
+
+The love of these people, young and old and of all classes, for flowers,
+and particularly for cherry blossoms, is touching in its simplicity and
+sincerity.
+
+The old gardener was himself a delightful picture in his blue cotton,
+tunic-like coat, queer, tight-fitting trousers and an enormous hat that
+resembled an inverted flower basket. Against the coarse blue of his tunic
+rested the delicate rosy cloud of blossoms. With an elaborate bow he
+presented Mr. Campbell and each of the ladies with a branch. "Him muchly
+more big soon all same," he said.
+
+"Thank you, Saiki. They are very beautiful," said Miss Campbell, speaking
+in the distinct, loud tone she used for persons not understanding her
+own language.
+
+The girls exclaimed and admired and Mr. Campbell was delighted. He felt a
+kind of reverence for the old man's simple unaffected love of beauty. In
+the meantime, the regiment of servants who had witnessed and enjoyed the
+ceremony of presenting the first cherry blossoms to the master and
+mistress of the house retired to their various occupations.
+
+The pleasure and surprise of the foreigners over the beauty of the cherry
+blossoms would be a memory for these humble people to cherish all their
+lives. Perhaps they had never seen the like before, these honorable
+barbarians; certainly nothing so perfect as the double blossom, of a
+delicacy and shade not to be surpassed.
+
+Later at the breakfast table Billie concocted a scheme.
+
+"Papa," she began, "can't we take the 'Comet' and go sight-seeing? It
+would be such fun, and while the 'rikshas are very nice, we are so
+separated, we can't all sympathize together as we usually do."
+
+"A kind of sympathy in detachments, is it?" asked Mr. Campbell. "But I
+wanted to go with you on your first ride in the 'Comet.' I don't know
+just how the people will take to a girl's driving a red 'devil-wagon,' as
+they call it."
+
+"Why not let Komatsu go along?"
+
+"What do you think, Cousin?" asked Mr. Campbell.
+
+Up to this time Miss Campbell had kept out of the discussion. The truth
+is, she yearned to relieve the tedium of life by taking a trip in the red
+motor car.
+
+"Couldn't you get away and go with us?"
+
+"Impossible this afternoon, because I have an appointment to meet some
+very distinguished persons to discuss various plans. One can hardly be
+polite enough as it is in this good-mannered country, and it would never
+do to break an engagement. In another week or so I shall be free to take
+the ladies on excursions."
+
+"What is it all about, Papa?" asked Billie.
+
+"Oh, government improvements, child. Things that are too important to be
+talked about." He pinched her cheek. "Well, beautiful American ladies, if
+you take Komatsu with you as interpreter and protector, guide and friend,
+I think you might be trusted to make a little cherry-blossom excursion in
+the 'Comet.' Only don't go too far or too fast and on your life don't run
+over anything, even a chicken, or there'll be trouble for all concerned."
+
+So it was settled, and after breakfast Billie rushed to the mysterious
+back premises of the place on the other side of the house, where various
+hitherto unsuspected industries seemed to be in progress. There was a
+kitchen garden hidden by a hedge of althea bushes, a chicken yard, and
+in a most picturesque building, used by the Spears for a carriage house,
+the "Comet." So far they had been unable to find a chauffeur, and Mr.
+Campbell himself had gone over all the machinery and put it in order.
+Billie cranked up, and, jumping into her old accustomed place, guided the
+motor car into the open. Komatsu came at a run from around the side of
+the house. He was so amazed at sight of Billie in the chauffeur's seat
+that he could not conceal his feelings.
+
+"Komatsu, we want you to go with us to-day. We want you to show us the
+cherry trees in Tokyo and Uyeno Park. I suppose we couldn't get to all
+the famous cherry blossom places in one afternoon?"
+
+"Him fast runner. No sakura all same see."
+
+"No, no. We shall go quite slowly. We want to see everything."
+
+In less than an hour the _hanami_, signifying in Japanese a picnic to a
+famous place to view certain flowers in season, conducted on the most
+modern lines in a red motor car, proceeded on its way. Komatsu, a
+strangely incongruous figure, sat on the front seat beside Billie.
+
+On the way to Tokyo the "Comet" created a sensation. All the varied
+wayfarers on that picturesque highway paused and stared, pointing and
+gesticulating.
+
+The city was a vision of beauty. Most of its broad avenues are lined with
+close set rows of cherry trees which were now bursting into blossom in
+all the most delicate and exquisite shades of pink known to nature.
+Komatsu guided them about the city with a kind of pleased and gratified
+delight as if he were showing his own property. Sometimes he stood up and
+pointed to the feathery tops of carefully nurtured cherry trees, glimpses
+of which could be seen over the high walls surrounding private gardens.
+
+The motorists were fairly bewildered by the beauty of it all. It was like
+a vast conservatory with the roof taken off. Nothing could have been more
+exotic or more lovely than the vista through the park with the white peak
+of Fujiyama, queen of mountains, glistening in the distance.
+
+Moreover, this little jaunt in the car had stirred their blood into
+action. They felt once more the call of the road, the fever to be going.
+The old accustomed sensation that they must make a certain place by such
+and such a time had returned. They were of one opinion, this party of
+Motor-Gypsies: to go back home until sunset would be a foolish waste of
+golden hours. Their five wishes accorded like the notes of an harmonious
+chord and presently Billie, influenced by the force of this silent
+opinion, exclaimed:
+
+"Suppose we take a country road and eat lunch later at some wayside tea
+house?"
+
+"Splendid!" cried the others almost before she had finished.
+
+Miss Campbell raised one feeble objection--something about the
+weather--but it was promptly overridden by her relative at the wheel,
+and presently she settled down in her seat and abandoned herself to the
+joy of motion.
+
+"In all the ten thousands of miles we have covered in this car," she
+remarked, "I never was happier than I am at this moment."
+
+"Why can't we go to the Arakawa Ridge?" suggested Mary, consulting a
+guide book. "It's only seven miles from here on the Sumida River and
+there are miles and miles of road bordered by double-flowering cherry
+trees."
+
+This was agreeable to all concerned, and, accordingly, Komatsu guided
+them to this famous spot, the pride of Tokyo. On the way they passed
+hundreds of people in jinrikshas or on foot. Many of the pedestrians
+carried paper parasols and fans, exactly like the chorus in the "Mikado."
+Those who rode in the graceful little two-wheeled buggies looked out upon
+the world with expressions of calm enjoyment.
+
+The "Comet" was a conspicuous object as it progressed slowly along the
+road, but so far all things worked together for good and there was no
+cause for uneasiness. At a little roadside tea house they paused for
+lunch. The building was nothing more than a shed with a low-hanging
+thatched roof and sides made of coarse strips of matting joined together
+with bamboo sticks. Humble as it was it possessed a peculiar charm, all
+its own. They were presently to find that the rear of the tea house
+facing a little garden was glorified into something rich and strange by a
+magnificent azalea bush in full bloom. It reached to the roof of the
+house and was a mass of deep red blossoms.
+
+The ear was left in a pine grove near the house, and following Komatsu
+along a rocky path they presently found themselves in this delectable
+little garden. Here they were met by an old man and his wife, a very aged
+couple whose gentle deprecating expressions almost moved Miss Campbell to
+tears.
+
+"The adorable old things," she exclaimed. "They remind me of two old
+turtle doves."
+
+Close at their heels came two little maids who conducted the ladies into
+the tea house and brought tea for temporary refreshment, while Komatsu
+consulted with the proprietor regarding lunch.
+
+Presently one of the little maids hurried in and placed a menu in front
+of Miss Campbell.
+
+"Me speak little honorable American language," she said. "You like all
+same American food? Will gracious lady make eyes to look?"
+
+Miss Campbell raised her lorgnette and examined the menu while the small
+maid backed away and disappeared, in the throes of extreme shyness over
+her endeavors.
+
+"Girls," said Miss Campbell, in a curious, strained voice, "don't any of
+you dare to laugh because of course they are all peeping at us from
+somewhere, but I want you all to make eyes to look at this amazing
+production."
+
+They crowded about her and over her shoulder read the following menu:
+
+_Soup by egge
+Eels to rice
+Seaweed
+Podadoe Sweete
+Sponge boiled
+Doormats a la U. S._
+
+There were tears of laughter in Miss Campbell's eyes and her voice was so
+shaky she could hardly trust herself to speak, even when she saw the
+little maid returning around the corner of the azalea bush. The faces of
+the four girls were crimson with suppressed laughter.
+
+"Very nice, my dear," said Miss Campbell, "you may bring in luncheon as
+soon as you can."
+
+After she had gone there was a brief but eloquent silence.
+
+"Do, some one, make a joke," whispered Elinor.
+
+At that moment a strange looking bob-tailed cat walked by.
+
+"There," cried Nancy, and they all instantly burst into hysterical
+laughter.
+
+"In the name of good health and excellent digestion, tell me what are
+doormats?" asked Billie.
+
+"Dear knows," answered her cousin, "but I think if they must be eaten it
+would be best to take boiled sponges afterward."
+
+The luncheon was purely Japanese, in spite of the English menu, and it
+was really excellent.
+
+"I never thought to come to eels," Miss Campbell observed, but she
+enjoyed her portion, nevertheless.
+
+"Doormats a la U. S." turned out to be a sweet cake with a sugary icing.
+
+"I believe they were intended for doughnuts," observed that astute little
+person, Mary Price, and no doubt she was quite right.
+
+When the feast was over Miss Campbell paid the bill, which was
+pathetically small, since there was no charge for tea and sweetmeats.
+
+"How do we give the tip?" she asked.
+
+"I know," answered Billie, "Papa taught me about that the other day." She
+consulted her note book. Tearing out a leaf, she wrapped up what would
+amount to about a dollar in American money, then with her little silver
+pencil she wrote on the package "On chadai." "That means 'honorable money
+for tea,'" she explained.
+
+Next she clapped her hands. All through the house voices could be heard
+calling "Hai! Hai!"
+
+Presently the maid appeared hanging her head humbly.  Billie motioned to
+her that she wished the proprietor, who, indeed, was close at hand. With
+an expression of much surprise he received the chadai and bowing to the
+ground murmured something which Komatsu explained meant honorable thanks
+for poor insignificant service.
+
+Each guest on departing received a fan as a souvenir; because, as they
+were to learn before they left Japan, no Japanese ever receives a present
+without giving another in return. Every person attached to the tea house
+went out to see the departure of the car, and the old woman clutched her
+husband's arm fearfully when she heard the vibrations of the machinery
+and saw Billie turn the "Comet" down the hillside to the main road.
+
+At last, fortified by strange if not unpalatable food and thoroughly
+enjoying themselves, they arrived at the entrance to the magnificent
+avenue called Arakawa Ridge, along each side of which, as far as the eye
+could see, ran two rows of cherry trees in full bloom.
+
+The avenue was lined with 'rikshas, and hundreds of pedestrians paced
+slowly along. They were in holiday attire and the bright colors of the
+kimonos and obis made a bewildering and brilliant picture. At intervals
+booths had been erected, decorated with lanterns, where refreshments were
+sold, and nearby a roving band of musicians and dancers were entertaining
+the crowd.
+
+The mistake Billie made was to attempt to take the car through the
+crowded road where apparently there were only pedestrians and jinrikshas.
+But Komatsu had not objected and since they had been accustomed to take
+the "Comet" wherever there was a navigable road, they pushed innocently
+on. As for the populace celebrating the cherry blossom festival, they
+evidently regarded the sight of a young woman driving a red devil-wagon
+as something just short of miraculous. Slowly and at a dignified pace the
+motor car moved along the avenue, and suddenly like a bolt from the blue
+two things happened.
+
+A little boy escaped from his sister's hand and ran across the road.
+Billie reversed the lever just as the child fell under the wheels. At the
+same instant a tire on a rear wheel exploded with a loud report.
+
+Miss Campbell groaned and hid her face in her hands.
+
+Instantly they were surrounded by a mob of angry people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A BAD QUARTER OF AN HOUR.
+
+
+In the uncertainty of that terrible moment everything turned black before
+Billie's eyes.
+
+"I am a murderer," was all she could think. "I've killed a little child."
+
+When the mists had cleared away she saw a weird scene about her: hundreds
+of Japanese men and women, speaking in low angry voices which somehow
+reminded her of the breaking of the surf on the beach--perhaps because
+the Japanese language has a sing-song rhythm. The little boy, apparently
+limp and lifeless, lay in his sister's arms. Komatsu had leapt clear over
+the front of the car and pushed his way through the people gathered about
+them. With a hand as skillful as a doctor's he felt the child's pulse and
+placed his ear over his heart.
+
+"Baby only make believe dead," he said. "Honorable heart beating all same
+like steam engine."
+
+At these hopeful words Miss Campbell came to herself with a start. For a
+moment she had been faint and sick with the notion of what had happened.
+Never before in all their thousands of miles of touring in the "Comet"
+had they injured so much as a fly; and now to run down a little child! It
+was too dreadful to contemplate.
+
+"Komatsu," she ordered, in an unsteady voice, "tell the girl to get in
+and we will take her brother to the nearest doctor."
+
+Komatsu conveyed this message to the stricken sister, who shook her head
+violently.
+
+"Honorable devil-wagon shoot pistol. Japanese no likee," he said.
+
+Closer and closer pressed the tense mob about the party. These courteous
+and gentle Japanese had suddenly been transformed into a fierce, savage
+people.
+
+From one end of Japan to the other a child is considered a sacred thing.
+If Billie had injured a grown person the public sentiment would not have
+been so strong, but to harm one of these little "treasure flowers" was to
+strike at the very heart of the nation.
+
+"Can't you understand that we are sorry and anxious to help you?" cried
+Miss Campbell, addressing the mob, but her voice was lost in the subdued
+threatening murmur which sounded like distant thunder heralding the
+approach of a storm.
+
+"Good heavens, Komatsu, what are we to do? The child might be saved if
+they would only listen to reason."
+
+"People no likee honorable devil-wagon. Going breaking little pieces all
+same like sticks."
+
+"No, no, they must not," ejaculated Billie. "We are sorry," she cried,
+stretching out her hands appealingly to the circle of Japanese pressed
+around the car. "We didn't mean to do it."
+
+In the meantime Miss Campbell had produced her bottle of smelling salts,
+the same that had accompanied her on all her trips, and climbed out of
+the car. With a motion imperious and compelling she pushed aside the men
+and women in the circle.
+
+The sister had laid the child on the ground and was kneeling beside him.
+Komatsu knelt on the other side, feeling the little legs and body.
+
+"No break bones," he said briefly.
+
+Miss Campbell sat on the ground by the unconscious child, wondering
+vaguely if she would ever rise again.
+
+"They may tear us to pieces before we get back. They are like an angry,
+silent pack of wolves," she thought to herself. "Komatsu," she said
+aloud, "I believe he has fainted from fright," She put the smelling
+bottle to the baby's funny snub nose.
+
+Presently the boy opened his eyes.
+
+At this moment from the midst of the crowd there came a strange shrill
+cry and a distracted looking woman began beating and fighting her way
+toward the group.
+
+"Honorable mother come in big hurry," said Komatsu, in a low voice.
+"Gracious lady, take jinriksha. Honorable quickness best now."
+
+"But the child isn't injured, Komatsu. Look, he's opened his eyes and
+he's going to sit up. It was simply fright."
+
+"No like honorable devil-wagon," went on Komatsu steadily.
+
+While this low, rapid dialogue was taking place Billie, standing on the
+front seat of the "Comet" on the lookout for help, saw something that
+made her blood turn cold. A band of fierce looking young men in Japanese
+costume was approaching on the run. The leader was brandishing a short
+knife with a two-edged glittering blade and the others flourished sword
+canes. Billie was thankful that Miss Campbell was too much occupied at
+that moment in assuring the poor mother that her child was not injured to
+notice this murderous looking company. Komatsu had quietly placed himself
+beside the car, faithful soul, ready to die in the service of his ladies.
+
+Were they all going to be cut to pieces or was only the "Comet" to be
+sacrificed in revenge for the accident?
+
+The Motor Maids exchanged frightened glances.
+
+"If I only knew six words in Japanese," thought Billie.
+
+"Make honorable quickness to descend, gracious lady. Come, come," Komatsu
+urged. "To jinriksha. Leave red devil-wagon. This place no good for
+staying in."
+
+"Oh, Komatsu, try and reason with them," pleaded Billie. "We don't want
+to lose the 'Comet,' It wasn't his fault. He was going quite slowly. He
+didn't mean to hurt the little boy. He's the kindest hearted old thing.
+It wasn't anybody's fault. Can't you tell them that?"
+
+Billie was too distracted and unhappy to realize how absurd her words
+might have sounded to any English-speaking person. It had always seemed
+to her that a real heart beat somewhere in the mechanical organism of the
+red motor. Gasoline was his life's blood and his pulse-beats were only
+the throb of the engine, but, to Billie, he was a faithful and devoted
+soul and she was not quite prepared to say what she would do in order to
+save him from destruction.
+
+However, at the moment that the band of young men, scarcely more than
+boys any of them, reached the car, some one sprang into the machine from
+the other side.
+
+Turning quickly, Billie was confronted by a tall, slender young woman in
+a white serge suit and a big black hat. She had a dark, creamy
+complexion, dark eyes that slanted slightly and hair of a queer mousy
+shade of brown.
+
+"Wait," said the stranger, "I will speak to them," and mounting the seat,
+she addressed the crowd in their own tongue with extraordinary fluency,
+the girls thought, remembering what they had heard concerning the
+difficulties of that language. There was an elegance and fascination
+indescribable about the stranger. Nancy recognized her instantly as the
+lady in the garden. Miss Campbell knew her as Mme. Fontaine, newspaper
+correspondent. The others in the party imagined her to be almost anything
+romantic and interesting; perhaps a foreign princess; a great actress;
+something remarkable, surely.
+
+In a beautiful, cultured voice, far reaching in spite of its soft tones,
+she harangued the multitude which little by little fell back. The group
+of fierce young men put away their weapons and disappeared in the mob.
+The little boy, the cause of all the trouble, was now standing on his
+feet blinking his eyes at Miss Campbell. How the picture was stamped on
+their minds like a vividly colored print!
+
+Miss Campbell took out her purse and gave the mother of the boy some
+money. Being still quite ignorant of Japanese coinage she did not pause
+to make any laborious calculations, but poured all the money in the purse
+into the woman's outstretched hand. It must have been an undreamed-of
+sum, for the mother's face was wreathed in delighted smiles. She bowed
+until her forehead almost touched the ground, as did the witnesses of
+this princely generosity.
+
+"It's all over now," said Mme. Fontaine, stepping down from the seat and
+smiling at Billie. "You had a bad quarter of an hour, though, I fear."
+
+"I don't know how we can ever thank you," exclaimed Billie. "You not only
+saved the car from destruction, but you may have saved us, too. There's
+no telling how far they would have gone once they got started."
+
+"No, no, they would not have harmed you, but they might have injured the
+car. They are a good deal like children, but they are not butchers. I
+think they admired your courage, too, for not deserting the sinking
+ship."
+
+Miss Campbell now approached and held out her hand gratefully.
+
+"You are heaping coals of fire on my head, Mme. Fontaine," she said.
+"Yesterday I refused to grant you a favor and to-day you are placing us
+everlastingly in your debt."
+
+"No, no, you must not put it that way," said the other woman, with a
+graceful movement of protest. "You were quite right not to be interviewed
+if you did not wish it. Some Americans do not object to publicity, you
+know. One can never tell. But what I did just now any other person who
+spoke both languages would have been glad to do."
+
+The end of the episode was that Mme. Fontaine waited with Miss Campbell
+and the three girls, while Billie, in the center of a curious circle of
+onlookers and with the help of Komatsu, put on a new tire.
+
+"Are you in a 'riksha?" asked Miss Campbell of their deliverer. "We would
+be glad if you would let us take you back to Tokyo in the car. My young
+cousin is a careful and experienced chauffeur. This is the only accident
+of the sort we have ever had and I think it was entirely the fault of the
+child."
+
+"Oh, I am not in the least timid in motor cars and I accept with
+pleasure," answered Mme. Fontaine quickly.
+
+Some twenty minutes later, with Komatsu running ahead to clear the road,
+the "Comet" threaded his way at a snail's pace along the Arakawa Ridge.
+No doubt his mechanical organism, which Billie had endowed with a soul,
+heaved a sigh of relief when they took the road home.
+
+"Who were the young men with the knives and sword canes, Mme. Fontaine?"
+asked Mary on the way back.
+
+"Oh, they are a group of fanatical young persons opposed to foreigners.
+Most of them are descendants of the samurai. They believe in old Japan.
+They talk the wildest kind of nonsense, and while their beliefs are
+opposed to progress, they represent in Japan what the Nihilists represent
+in Russia and the Anarchists and such people in other countries. They
+will outgrow it in time. Some of the finest men in Japan once belonged to
+these clubs of _soshi_, as they are called. In another generation there
+will be very few of them left. In the meantime they are quite dangerous
+occasionally. About fifty years ago a band of them attacked the English
+Legation at Takanawa and there was a fierce fight. But I feel perfectly
+sure that they wouldn't attack people now. Only motor cars and the like."
+
+"That would have been bad enough," remarked Billie, patting the wheel of
+the "Comet."
+
+Mme. Fontaine smiled pleasantly.
+
+"After the great excitement may I not have the pleasure of offering you a
+reviving cup of tea at my house? It would make me very happy."
+
+Miss Campbell would have much preferred to go straight home, but to
+decline the invitation would have seemed ungracious and she accepted
+promptly.
+
+Along the broad streets of Tokyo, under out-stretched boughs heavy with
+blossoms, they rolled, and at last Billie paused as directed at a gate in
+a wall behind which was a charming little house, set in the usual
+beautiful garden.
+
+If Mme. Fontaine was fascinating and elegant, so also was her home. The
+drawing-room, which seemed to occupy most of the second floor, was
+furnished in European fashion with deep chairs and couches, Oriental rugs
+and rich hangings. There was a grand piano near the windows, and on the
+walls were the rarest and most beautiful Japanese prints. It was a
+blending of the East and West and was one of the most artistic and
+delightful apartments the girls had ever seen. In the dim shadowy
+confines they caught glimpses of teakwood cabinets in which were carved
+ivories and pieces of fine porcelain. The girls would have liked well to
+linger another hour among all these interesting and strange objects, but
+Miss Campbell, for some reason, was in her most conventional mood. While
+her manner toward Mme. Fontaine left nothing to be desired and she was
+graciousness personified, she cut the call to twenty-five minutes by the
+French clock on the mantel, and then go she would. As they were leaving
+Mary noticed on a table near the door two splendid swords, one very large
+and heavy and one with a double-edged blade of much smaller size.
+
+"Oh, are these the swords of a samurai warrior?" she demanded, with
+excited interest.
+
+"Yes," answered Mme. Fontaine. "They belonged to my great grandfather."
+
+Not until they were back in the "Comet" and well on the way home did they
+realize the meaning of her words.
+
+"Then," exclaimed Nancy, "she is half Japanese."
+
+"And I've invited her to dine the day after tomorrow," Miss Campbell
+remarked irrelevantly.
+
+The adventure on Arakawa Ridge was far-reaching in its results as a
+matter of fact, but the most immediate one was a severe punishment
+administered by that usually kind and gentle person, Mr. Campbell, on no
+less a victim than the "Comet." Just what the punishment was you will
+find out when the Motor Maids themselves discover it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE COMPASSIONATE GOD, JIZU.
+
+
+Miss Campbell was very dubious about having invited Mme. Fontaine to
+dine.
+
+"Of course she was very kind," she remarked, "and we owe her a great
+deal, but I wish we could show our appreciation in some other way. We
+don't know anything about her: who she is; where she came from; whether
+she has any family."
+
+"But, my dear cousin," said Mr. Campbell, who had wandered about the
+world so much that he was accustomed to taking people without any
+questions, "what difference does it make? You say she is refined and
+well-bred. We know she is kind because of what she did for us. But I will
+make some inquiries about her if you like--"
+
+"I never liked mixed bloods," interrupted Miss Campbell, not listening to
+her relation.
+
+"Everybody has some mixture of bloods," laughed Billie. "Look at
+Mary--French and English; look at Elinor--Scotch and Irish."
+
+"No, no," protested Miss Campbell "Those aren't the kinds of mixtures I
+referred to. It's those queer Oriental bloods--yellow people and white
+people."
+
+The others all smiled indulgently. Miss Campbell was just a little
+old-fashioned lady with old-fashioned restricted views, they thought. She
+was the only one of the motor party who had not fallen under the spell of
+Mme. Fontaine, and apparently the only cause for her objection was
+because this charming stranger was part Japanese and wrote for the
+newspapers.
+
+That evening Mr. Campbell endeavored to set her fears at rest.
+
+"I have inquired about your mysterious Mme. Fontaine," he said. "She is a
+widow. Her husband was editor of a paper in Shanghai. She herself is a
+writer and a newspaper correspondent. She has written several novels
+published in Shanghai, and she is generally considered to be a very
+bright person. She has been living in Tokyo not quite a year and goes out
+very little."
+
+This fragment of her history only seemed to deepen the atmosphere of
+romance which enveloped the "Widow of Shanghai," as Mr. Campbell would
+call her, and the Motor Maids rather eagerly awaited the evening when she
+was to dine with them.
+
+In the meantime, they were to receive a ceremonious call from the family
+of Yoritomo Ito, and he himself was to act as interpreter for the three
+Japanese ladies, his mother, his aunt and his sister. They appeared one
+afternoon in two jinrikshas and such a bowing and smiling was never seen
+before. The day had been sultry and hot and tea was served in the
+summer-house in the garden by the little maids attached to the household.
+Miss Campbell was sorry that the pretty Onoye, flower of the staff, did
+not appear. However, these things were all left to O'Haru, and she said
+nothing.
+
+Yoritomo's sister, O'Kami San (that is to say: the honorable Miss Kami),
+spoke a very little English. This fact she had bashfully hidden from the
+girls on the occasion of their first meeting. But when Billie, through
+Yoritomo, asked his sister to walk in the garden, she answered herself:
+
+"Receive thanks. Honorable walk will confer pleasure."
+
+Assuredly the Japanese-English dictionaries and phrase books must all use
+the most stilted and ceremonious English words, so Billie thought.
+
+"'Receive thanks and confer pleasure!' How absurd!"
+
+But then Billie did not realize that the Japanese language abounds in
+such ceremonious words and high-sounding phrases and, in order to keep
+the spirit of the original, translations are generally literal.
+
+Off they trooped down a garden path, followed by the reproachful eyes of
+Miss Helen Campbell, who found it a decided strain on the nerves to keep
+a second-hand conversation going. Nancy lingered behind and helped her
+out by giving Yoritomo an account of their accident on Arakawa Ridge.
+This he immediately passed on to his mother and aunt.
+
+In the meantime, O'Kami San, trotting along beside Billie, with Mary and
+Elinor following behind, might have just stepped out of a Japanese fan.
+She was so entirely unreal and cunning that the girls had no eyes for the
+rosy rain of cherry blossoms dropping from the trees, nor the lovely
+vista of garden with its flaming bushes of azaleas and cool green clumps
+of ferns. Out of compliment to the season O'Kami San wore a robe of
+delicate pink embroidered all over with sprays of cherry blossoms in
+deeper shades. Her obi, or sash, was of pale green silk. Her hair was
+elaborately pompadoured and drawn up in the back into a large glossy roll
+held in place with tortoise shell pins. No doubt it had taken hours to
+arrange; two, at the very least.
+
+Billie patted her own smooth rolls serenely.
+
+"Suppose I had to sleep with my neck on a little wooden bench every night
+to preserve my _coiffure_," she thought. "I think I'd just lay my head
+on the executioner's block and say, 'Strike it off. It's not worth the
+trouble.'"
+
+"Think garden pretty, O'Kami San?" began Mary, whose method of talking
+with the Japanese was to preserve only the framework of a sentence and
+drop all articles and small words.
+
+"Much pretty. Me--like honorable garden and beautiful American ladee,"
+answered O'Kami, speaking slowly and distinctly.
+
+English pronunciation never seemed to trouble the Japanese. It was only
+choice of words and construction.
+
+"What do you do all day, O'Kami San?" asked Elinor.
+
+"Much honorable work," answered the Japanese girl. "Cook-ing; sew-ing";
+she pointed to her kimono; "mu-seek; book-stu-dee. Ah, much work to
+become wife."
+
+"You are not thinking of marrying, surely? Your brother says you are only
+sixteen," protested Mary.
+
+O'Kami nodded her head and smiled.
+
+"Arrange all the day before to this."
+
+"Do you love him?" asked Mary, in an awed tone of voice.
+
+O'Kami looked puzzled. The word "love" she had not learned.
+
+"O'Kami much happy. Honorable mother of husband not any more. Gone." She
+pointed up.
+
+"Goodness!" broke in Elinor. "She means that there will be no
+mother-in-law, so the marriage is sure to be a happy one. What a
+mother-in-law ridden place this country is!"
+
+She spoke too rapidly for the Japanese girl to grasp the meaning of any
+word except "mother-in-law."
+
+"Mother-in-law," she repeated slowly. "Little Japanese girl much afraid
+to great mother-in-law."
+
+The girls laughed and O'Kami's silvery note mingled with theirs.
+
+"I found something quite new and interesting in the garden the other
+day," observed Mary. "Or rather not quite new, but quite old. Who wants
+to see it?"
+
+"Lead on, Macduff," ordered Billie.
+
+"It's an old shrine," continued Mary. "Komatsu says it's to the
+Compassionate God, Jizu. He's sitting cross-legged in a little niche in
+the hillside below the bridge and he has a beautiful frame of clematis
+vines around him. I think he's delightful."
+
+O'Kami San was unable to grasp the meaning of this rapid fire of words,
+at least it seemed to her to be a rapid fire. Most people are under the
+impression that a foreign language is spoken faster than their own. But
+she trotted along beside the others, always with the same polite,
+intelligent smile, as if she understood every word.
+
+Having crossed the bridge, they followed a narrow path through a grove of
+pine trees. The path took an unexpected curve to the right and led them
+around the side of a grassy embankment under which sat the stone image of
+the Compassionate God, Jizu. The inscrutable smile of the nation hovered
+on the lips of the ancient idol, and his compassionate stone eyes looked
+out upon the green little world around him with a gentle tolerance. Time
+and tempests had worn away his arms and softened the outlines of his
+stone countenance. He was indeed a graven image of kindly mien and of a
+certain majesty of expression.
+
+But there was, another visitor at the shrine of the Compassionate God.
+She lay flat on her face in a tumbled, many-colored little heap before
+the gray old image at whose feet was her offering: a pitiful little bunch
+of wild roses. She had been sobbing. It was easy to tell. The storm of
+weeping had passed now and she lay quite still, but at intervals there
+was that catch in the breath which follows a period of bitter crying.
+
+The three American girls paused at the edge of the miniature lawn about
+the shrine and exchanged embarrassed glances. O'Kami Sail drew back a
+step or two. It was their intention to creep away as noiselessly as
+possible and leave the unhappy worshiper at the shrine none the wiser
+that she had been observed by profane, foreign eyes. But at this moment a
+temple bell not far off sent out a clear silver note in the stillness.
+The bright-colored heap stirred into life and the sorrowful worshiper
+rose and looked about her bewildered.
+
+It was Onoye, as they had suspected, and Mary recalled that it was the
+second time she had seen the Japanese girl crying miserably when she
+thought she was alone.
+
+Onoye tried to smile when she saw the three young ladies of the house
+looking at her with great concern. She ran to Billie and fell on her
+knees.
+
+"Forgive, gracious lady," she said, endeavoring to compose her expression
+to its usual tranquility.
+
+"Why, you poor dear, what have I to forgive?" exclaimed Billie, trying to
+raise Onoye to her feet.
+
+"Why are you so unhappy, Onoye? Is there anything we can do for you?"
+asked Elinor.
+
+"Do tell us and let us help you," put in Mary.
+
+But Onoye was silent.
+
+"O'Kami San, will you not ask her?" said Billie. "Perhaps she would tell
+you in Japanese when she can't in English."
+
+At the words "O'Kami San," Onoye jumped to her feet in subdued
+excitement.
+
+"O'Kami San," she repeated.
+
+The two Japanese girls confronted each other. They spoke in low, rapid
+voices and their faces were so calm and unemotional they might have been
+two Japanese dolls wound tip to move the lips and occasionally make a
+slight gesture with one hand. Presently Onoye slipped from her _obi_ a
+small package done up in crêpe paper and gave it to O'Kami, who concealed
+it in the voluminous folds of her own kimono. They exchanged low,
+ceremonious bows and Onoye hurried away, while O'Kami turned to the
+mystified young-Americans with an apologetic smile.
+
+"Receive excuses and pardon grant," she said.
+
+Billie made a superhuman effort not to laugh, while Mary stooped to break
+off a spray of azaleas and Elinor examined intently a stunted pine tree
+planted in a big green jar near the path.
+
+Japanese gardeners are very fond of cultivating these dwarf trees. Some
+of the tiniest are said to be of great age. The arrested development
+contorts the venerable branches into strange twisted forms but they put
+forth blossoms and foliage with systematic dignity.
+
+"What is the matter with our little maid? Were you able to find out?"
+Billie asked the visitor.
+
+But O'Kami San was not inclined to be communicative, and they were
+obliged to return to the summer-house with their curiosity entirely
+unsatisfied. In the meantime, Miss Campbell and Nancy were in a painful
+state of embarrassment about what to say next. The conversation had come
+to a dead stop, while Miss Campbell, with a flushed face, raised her eyes
+to heaven with a prayerful look and Nancy endeavored to say a few words
+about the weather. Yoritomo was inclined to be silent, too. He kept his
+eyes on the floor and only raised them to transmit Miss Campbell's
+remarks to his mother and aunt.
+
+"Will you ask your mother, Mr. Ito, if--she suffers from rheumatism from
+sitting on the floor so much?" asked Miss Campbell, groaning mentally and
+sending up a prayer that the visitors would see fit to bring the visit to
+an immediate end.
+
+There was a short colloquy between mother and son, during which Mme. Ito
+smiled blandly and waved her fan to and fro.
+
+"No, Madam, my mother does not have that complaint," answered her son in
+precise English.
+
+Miss Campbell flashed a glance of black reproach at Nancy, as much as to
+say:
+
+"It's your turn now, ungrateful girl. Speak, for heaven's sake."
+
+Nancy exchanged a hopeless glance with the distracted lady. Then she
+remarked:
+
+"Mr. Ito, is your aunt married?"
+
+Yoritomo smiled broadly.
+
+"She is a widow," he replied. "In Japan all widows cut their hair short."
+
+"But what a strange custom," objected Nancy. "That would keep them from
+ever marrying a second time. I'm sure I should never cut my hair if my
+husband died. I should use hair tonic to make it grow longer and
+thicker."
+
+Yoritomo laughed outright and communicated Nancy's views to his
+relatives. They laughed, too, and contemplated her knot of chestnut curls
+with much admiration.
+
+There came another uncomfortable pause. Two simultaneous winged prayers
+went up into the ether and relief was granted in an unexpected and
+startling guise. Billie and her friends had just returned and tea and
+refreshments of a light volatile nature were being passed for the fourth
+time, by order of Miss Campbell. The visitors were elaborately declining
+all further nourishment when Nancy saw an arm raised from behind a thick
+clump of shrubbery near the summer-house. It was clothed in nondescript
+brown and long fingers clutched a stone. The arm gave a swift circular
+movement, as if to gain impetus. Then it went backward with a movement of
+a pitcher about to throw a ball.
+
+"Yoritomo," shrieked Nancy, for the stone seemed to be aimed straight at
+his head.
+
+In the fraction of an instant the young Japanese had ducked and the stone
+had crashed into the summer-house and fallen at his feet, making a dent
+in the floor.
+
+Undoubtedly Nancy had saved his life.
+
+"Oh, oh, oh!" cried Miss Campbell, but Mme. Ito and her sister and
+daughter were perfectly calm and silent, as were also the Japanese maids,
+gathered in a frightened group behind them.
+
+"I never saw people take on so little," Miss Campbell observed later,
+describing the incident to her cousin.
+
+Nancy wept softly. It was never very difficult for her to weep and she
+emerged from one of these gentle paroxysms--even as the flowers after
+a summer rain--a little dewy but refreshed.
+
+Yoritomo vaulted over the rail of the summer-house and ran in the
+direction of the group of shrubbery. But, of course, no one was there.
+Who could expect an assassin to wait and be caught?
+
+"I think we had better get into the house at once," ordered Miss
+Campbell, and taking Mme. Ito's arm, she hurried the little lady up the
+path, calling to the others to follow. Once in the drawing-room, all the
+windows were ordered closed and the doors locked, while Komatsu was sent
+to search the premises.
+
+"What is your opinion, Mr. Ito?" asked Billie. "Was it an enemy of yours
+or some one who wanted to exterminate us because we are foreigners?"
+
+But Yoritomo could not enlighten her.
+
+"I cannot say," was all they could get out of him.
+
+He was only deeply chagrined, as was his mother, that the American ladies
+should have been subjected to such treatment in Japan.
+
+The Campbell party finally arrived at the conclusion that it was an
+insane person, and Mr. Campbell immediately engaged a day and night
+watchman and reported the matter to the police.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A BIRTHDAY PARTY.
+
+
+It so happened that the dinner to Mme. Fontaine became a triple
+celebration. Billie recalled that it was her father's birthday, for one
+thing.
+
+"He's forgotten it himself," she said. "He never did remember that he was
+entitled to a birthday."
+
+Furthermore, it was the occasion always of great rejoicing in Japan,
+being the fifth day of the fifth month on which the Boys' Festival--_O
+Sekku_, as it is called there--is celebrated.
+
+"Think of my sweet old boy being born on this lucky day!" cried Billie.
+"Why can't we give him a real Japanese surprise party, Cousin Helen, and
+invite those nice men to come? Mr. Ito will tell us what to do."
+
+When Mr. Campbell departed for Tokyo that lovely morning on the fifth of
+May he had no idea of the plans that were hatching in his home. Scarcely
+had his 'riksha disappeared down the road, when the entire household
+became actively busy. Komatsu made a hurried visit to town, bearing notes
+of invitation to the few acquaintances of the Campbells and returned
+later in the day accompanied by two men carrying large bales on their
+backs. That evening when the master of the house returned in time to
+dress for dinner he scarcely recognized his abode, which had been
+decorated in a most extraordinary manner.
+
+Across the front of the house on long poles were at least six enormous
+paper carp, which rose and fell and became realistically inflated with
+every passing breeze. Very fantastic they appeared with their gaping
+mouths, their enormous bulging eyes and fins and their scales shining in
+the sunlight.
+
+The carp, it must be known, is the sacred emblem of the male child in
+Japan. It also signifies courage, endurance and other admirable though
+not exclusively masculine qualities. This valiant fish can accomplish the
+difficult feat of swimming up the rapids, even as a brave youth must
+conquer difficulties and surmount obstacles. His name is synonymous with
+perseverance and fortitude. The fifth of May is every boy's birthday in
+Japan, no matter what his real birthday is, and on that day a feast is
+kept in every home, rich or poor, where there is a son.
+
+"I suppose, because we have only one son in our house, we are entitled to
+only one carp," observed Billie, "but I think our nice old boy is good
+enough for us to string up twenty carp."
+
+This statement was unanimously acceded to by all persons connected with
+the feast.
+
+All the afternoon the girls had worked over the decorations. The garden
+was strung with lanterns much more beautiful and artistic in design than
+any that ever reach America; and the house, under the supervision of
+Onoye and her mother, was made beautiful with the splendid iris in all
+its varying shades from deep purple to pale mauve. Among their long,
+slender, delicate leaves the flowers seemed to be growing in the shallow
+dishes in which devices of soft lead held them in place.
+
+"Are we entertaining a family of sons this evening or have we just
+decided to celebrate whether we have sons or not?" asked Mr. Campbell,
+greeting his daughter on the piazza.
+
+"We are entertaining for our only son, the most promising and delightful
+young man in the entire universe," answered Billie, kissing him.
+
+"I always thought you were a singularly fortunate young man, Duncan,"
+remarked Miss Campbell, "but I shall no longer attribute it entirely to
+industry, intelligence and good looks."
+
+"What's the reason, then, Cousin Helen?" asked Mr. Campbell, laughing.
+
+"Why, have you forgotten, boy, that this is your birthday? Forty-five
+years old, and you don't remember it!"
+
+"I did forget it," said Mr. Campbell, "but I don't see where the luck
+comes in."
+
+They explained the meaning of the Boys' Festival and the lucky
+coincidence that had brought him into the world on that auspicious day.
+
+"Go in now and get dressed, for the Widow of Shanghai will be arriving
+pretty soon and other company besides," ordered Billie.
+
+The girls had dressed early and their pretty summer frocks gleamed softly
+against the green of the shrubbery as they flitted about the garden and
+the lawn in the twilight. Nancy was wearing her first train that night;
+it was only a wee bit of a train, nothing regal and sweeping; but it gave
+her a secret thrill to throw it over one arm, displaying her lace trimmed
+petticoat underneath, while she tripped along the garden path. The dress
+was of pink batiste and delicate lace, and from the round neck her throat
+rose soft and white like a column. She was the first of the four friends
+to wear a train. Even Elinor, tall and slender in her white lingerie
+frock, had not aspired to that dignity. Billie was wearing her best blue
+mulle that became her mightily because it was near the shade of her
+blue-gray eyes, and little Mary was dressed in one of the dainty muslin
+frocks that her mother excelled in making.
+
+"They are no longer little girls," thought Miss Campbell, rather sadly,
+it must be confessed. She was sitting in a long-chair on the piazza
+watching her four charges flit about the lawn. "They are almost young
+ladies now, and how pretty they are, too; each is so different from the
+other and each charming in her own way. Billie, I think, is too much of a
+tomboy to worry about yet. Elinor is far too dignified; Mary is too shy.
+But I feel I shall have to keep a sharp eye on Nancy. Those blue eyes of
+hers are simply wells of coquetry. I believe the child would flirt with a
+stone. I doubt if half the time she realizes herself how eloquent she can
+make them. Little mischief!"
+
+The little lady smiled indulgently, recalling her own blue eyes and the
+mischief they had been known to stir up.
+
+"And now this Widow from Shanghai comes and breaks in on us," her
+thoughts proceeded irrelevantly. "I don't in the least wish to cultivate
+her friendship, but I know her kind. Once she gets her foot in the door
+there'll be no shaking her off."
+
+As a matter of fact, Miss Helen Campbell, spinster, was never very
+enthusiastic about widows.
+
+"I don't care for them," she used to say. "They are a knowing, designing
+lot."
+
+Once when she was asked by a missionary society in West Haven to
+contribute to a fund for the widows in India, to induce them not to mount
+their husbands' funeral pyres and permit themselves to be consumed by
+mortuary flames, Miss Campbell indignantly refused.
+
+"I am sure, if they are so foolish, that's much the best place for them,"
+she announced. "I prefer to give my money for more worthy causes."
+
+And now a widow, who, far from having mounted any funeral pyre, appeared
+to enjoy life immensely, had placed them under obligations.
+
+"She is a slant-eyed widow with a yellow skin," Miss Campbell thought
+uncharitably, "and her hair that ought to be dark is light. Of course
+that isn't her fault and neither is her peculiar complexion nor her slant
+eyes, but I do wish she were one thing or the other and not half and
+half."
+
+Of course all these inhospitable and unfriendly notions the little lady
+was careful to keep to herself. When presently the Widow of Shanghai
+rode up in a 'riksha and was helped to alight by three maids at once,
+Miss Campbell was all graciousness and affability.
+
+Mme. Fontaine wore a beautiful white embroidered crêpe dinner dress. Her
+figure was so slender Miss Campbell feared it might sway and bend with
+the least breath of wind. Her curious fluffy hair was arranged on top of
+her head and her only ornament was a string of small pearls wound twice
+around her throat. They were very beautiful pearls, each one perfect to
+the casual eye.
+
+"But then, who can tell the real from the unreal nowadays," thought Miss
+Campbell, regarding the jewels critically. "They might be imitation,
+every one of them."
+
+"Reggie" Carlton, as he came to be known to the girls, and Nicholas Grimm
+soon followed the widow, and after them came Mr. Buxton. Yoritomo could
+not appear that evening, because of the celebration in his own home where
+he must remain and share in the family feast.
+
+Mme. Fontaine was reserved almost to the point of shyness with the four
+men of the party, whom she now met for the first time. But she drew the
+girls around her by a kind of irresistible attraction. Billie found
+herself talking as freely as she talked with her three friends. The widow
+had a curiously sympathetic way of listening that provoked confidences.
+There was a good deal of friendly rivalry among the Motor Maids for her
+society. They took turns sitting by her side during the half hour before
+dinner was announced; but Nancy felt a certain superiority over the
+others. Was she not bound by a secret tie to this fascinating person
+because of their chance meeting in the garden in the rain?
+
+"These four girls of mine seem to have acquired a monopoly over you, Mme.
+Fontaine," observed Mr. Campbell, just returned from a short conference
+with Mr. Buxton in the library. "They don't give the rest of us half a
+chance. They have fenced you around as if you were a sacred image of
+Buddha."
+
+"I feel that they have paid me a great compliment," answered the widow,
+smiling, "To a lonely woman the friendship of four charming young girls
+is very sweet."
+
+Mr. Campbell somehow felt extremely sorry for this lonely lady. Mr.
+Buxton also was touched with commiseration, and the younger men, too,
+were moved to cast glances of sympathy in her direction.
+
+For the first time in her life Miss Campbell experienced the same
+sensation a young girl feels when she is left sitting against the wall at
+a dance while her friends are being whirled about. At first she thought
+the sensation was a touch of indigestion which frequently brings with it,
+its near relative, depression. But when the circle closed in around the
+Widow of Shanghai, and Helen Campbell, spinster, of America, was left
+sitting quite alone to contemplate the view, she decided that it was not
+indigestion nor any of its ramifications that ailed her. What the
+sensation was she could not name, but she felt a profound and entirely
+human irritation with the Widow of Shanghai and her ingratiating methods.
+
+Fortunately dinner was announced and on the arm of Mr. Buxton she led the
+way to the dining room with the air of an exiled queen.
+
+Billie was very anxious about the success of her father's birthday
+dinner. She had herself assisted in decorating the table, and had
+insisted on placing a crystal bowl of goldfish in the center, although
+O'Haru had told her that goldfish were not carp, and therefore had no
+significance whatever with the day.
+
+However, Onoye had caught the idea at once and had carried it out
+charmingly. Hiding behind the screen, where she could see without being
+seen, her heart warmed with joy when she heard the exclamations of the
+guests. The center of the table was arranged to resemble a little lake.
+The shallow bowl of goldfish was placed on a flat round mirror, on the
+edge of which nodded groups of iris and their sword-like leaves planted
+in shallow green dishes; pebbles and water grasses hid the perforations
+which held them in place. Two little boats sailed on the lake, and at one
+side was a miniature grotto formed of rocks and moss, and spanned by a
+little bridge.
+
+"Isn't it cunning?" asked Billie proudly, "and isn't Onoye clever to have
+carried out the scheme so perfectly?"
+
+"She is, indeed," assented Miss Campbell, feeling suddenly glad to praise
+some one to counteract the unusual sensations that had possessed her a
+moment before.
+
+"It is a part of every Japanese girl's education to learn the art of
+arranging flowers," said Mme. Fontaine. "She is taught that, just as
+girls in other countries are taught music and languages. It often takes
+several hours to arrange a group of flowers. The object is, you see, to
+make them look as natural as possible in the vase."
+
+"It is a pretty accomplishment," said Miss Campbell, "but I doubt if any
+American girl would have the patience to learn it. Can you imagine,
+Billie, spending two hours arranging three lilies in a bowl to make them
+look as if they had grown there?"
+
+"No, I can't," laughed Billie, "but I have spent two hours many times on
+my back under the 'Comet' trying to find a loose screw."
+
+"If I had a wife--" here Nicholas remarked and paused because everybody
+laughed.
+
+"Well, if you had one, what would you do with her? Beat her?" asked Mr.
+Buxton.
+
+"Do I look like a wife beater?" demanded Nicholas indignantly. "No. I was
+going to say I'd rather she would know about loose screws in machinery
+than how to arrange flowers."
+
+"You speak as if marriage was one long motor trip, my boy," observed Mr.
+Campbell.
+
+"And, surely," put in Miss Campbell, "if the machinery broke down, you
+wouldn't compel your wife to repair it?"
+
+"I am afraid very few girls would be eligible for your wife, Mr. Grimm,"
+remarked Mme. Fontaine.
+
+As for Billie, she said nothing at all, but glanced down at her plate,
+because Nicholas looked straight at her and then burst out with:
+
+"Don't jump on me, everybody, with both feet. I only meant that it's a
+jolly fine girl who can--er--who--knows--"
+
+He broke down in confusion.
+
+"You mean that a young lady chauffeur would make an excellent wife?"
+laughed Mr. Campbell.
+
+"Spare his blushes," put in Reggie, and then the talk shifted to other
+subjects.
+
+It is customary in Japan on the day of the Boys' Festival to tell stories
+of the heroes of the country, and after dinner when they had gathered in
+the lantern-hung summer-house for coffee, Mme. Fontaine, urged by the
+girls, recounted an incident in the life of Yamato, or O'Osu, as he was
+then known. He was the son of the Emperor Keiko, and when a mere slip of
+a boy was sent by his father to slay two fierce robbers who had been
+spreading terror through the country. O'Osu gladly undertook the affair
+and since the outlaws were giants and he just a boy, he devised a cunning
+scheme to outwit the terrible brigands. He was slender and small and his
+hair still long, so that in the gorgeous clothes of a dancing girl no one
+would ever have guessed he was a brave and reckless young prince.
+
+One night when the robbers were feasting in their cave after pillaging
+the country for miles around, the beautiful dancing girl appeared before
+them like a vision. She charmed them with her songs and dances and then
+suddenly she whipped out a sharp sword and slew the nearest robber. As
+the other fled terror-stricken to the entrance of the cave, she thrust
+him in the back and he fell to the ground.
+
+"'Pause, oh Prince, for prince thou surely art,' he gasped. 'But why hast
+thou done this deed?'
+
+"And the prince, standing over him with the dripping sword, said:
+
+"'I am O'Osu, messenger of the Emperor and avenger of evil.'
+
+"'Then,' said the dying robber, 'thou shalt have a new name. Until this
+hour my brother and I have been called the bravest men in the West. To
+thee, august boy, I bequeath the title. Let men call thee the bravest in
+Yamato.'
+
+"From that day O'Osu was called 'Yamato Take,' and never did he wrong the
+name."
+
+Mary sighed when Mme. Fontaine had finished the story. She yearned for
+the gift of language and the power to chain the attention of a circle of
+people. How had she done it, this mysterious foreigner who could handle
+the English language even better than English people? Her words were
+simple and gestures she used almost none. It was her voice, Mary thought.
+There was an undercurrent of dramatic power in it, like a subterranean
+river. It could only be guessed at, but it was there, powerful and deep.
+Even Miss Campbell, unreasonably prejudiced, felt the undercurrent.
+
+"That is a charming story," she observed. "I suppose Japan is filled with
+many romantic stories of that sort."
+
+"Hundreds of them," answered the widow. "Volumes and volumes could be
+written about them and still the half not be told."
+
+"And you know many of them, I suppose?" asked Billie.
+
+"Oh, yes. One could not live in Japan without studying her history, so
+filled with romances and legends of heroic deeds. It is fascinating, I
+assure you, and furnishes no end of subjects for decorations from a
+picture on a fan to the masterpiece of a great artist."
+
+There was a moment's silence in the company of which Mme. Fontaine
+certainly seemed the center. She looked suddenly very Japanese. Against
+the white of her dress her soft skin gleamed like polished old ivory. Her
+eyes were darker and more noticeably slanting than ever before. If she
+only had had dark hair! What country had given her those strangely
+incongruous locks?
+
+And now it was proposed that they should wander in the garden, and off
+they started by various paths and bypaths all leading eventually to the
+little curved bridge at the far end, where Nancy had hung two large
+yellow lanterns on the ends of supple willow wands.
+
+The Widow of Shanghai walked between Billie and Mr. Campbell, but she had
+little to say. The moon, swinging over them like another yellow lantern,
+had glorified the garden into a little earthly paradise. It seemed
+somehow inappropriate to speak above a whisper in the midst of so much
+exquisite beauty. The wisteria had opened up during the day and now hung
+in magnificent purple clusters from an arbor across the main walk.
+
+From the servants' quarters came the tinkle of the samisen, and a breeze
+laden with the scent of flowers brought with it also the distant sound of
+voices and laughter.
+
+Nicholas Grimm had joined Billie, and the two young people now lingered
+in the arbor. In the curve of a path they caught an occasional glimpse
+of a white dress. The music of Nancy's laugh came to them mingled with
+Mary's high, sweet note. Gradually the voices died away. The garden
+seemed to be under a spell. Billie, sitting beside Nicholas in the arbor,
+waited breathlessly. Then at last in the stillness there burst forth such
+a stream of full-throated singing as had never been heard.
+
+"It's a nightingale," whispered Nicholas.
+
+Billie felt that she would like very much to cry. Nothing had ever
+stirred her as this flood of melody which seemed to have been turned on
+for their especial benefit. While they listened, there came the sound of
+three pistol shots in quick succession and a cry. Was it an English cry
+for help?
+
+Instantly Nicholas was on his feet.
+
+"You had better stay here," he said. "I'll run and see what has
+happened."
+
+Before Billie could reply, Nancy dashed up.
+
+"We are all to go into the house," she said. "Someone has shot a pistol
+in the far end of the garden. The men have gone down there."
+
+Billie considered the situation for a moment. Certainly neither her
+father nor his three guests were armed. Would it not be a good precaution
+to go to the library and get her father's pistol? It was merely an
+impulse, and she could hardly explain it later, but she obeyed it.
+
+"It's nothing serious, Mr. Buxton says. Probably someone who has been
+celebrating has wandered into the garden, but we had better wait for
+them in the house," Billie heard Miss Campbell remark, as she ran along
+the path to the side entrance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+IN THE DARK.
+
+
+The impulse that had moved Billie to run ahead of her friends and dash
+into the library for her father's pistol carried her so fast, indeed,
+that she was in the room with the door closed behind her before she
+realized what she was doing. It was perfectly dark there. Not even the
+brilliant moonlight outside penetrated through the heavy curtains drawn
+for the night.
+
+"There are always matches on the desk," she thought, remembering that her
+father usually smoked while he worked over his papers.
+
+With her hand still on the doorknob she turned and faced the desk without
+moving a step. Why was she so frightened? It was absurd. Her father would
+be ashamed of her for being afraid of the dark. Giving herself a little
+impatient shake, she took two steps in front of her, groping with her
+hands like a blind person for obstacles in the way.
+
+She stopped short and listened. Every nerve in her body was tingling and
+she felt she was trembling. For half a minute she hardly breathed. Then
+she resolutely began her march in the dark. At last the desk was reached
+and her hand was on the green china match holder. She stood for a moment
+irresolute. The pistol was in the lower left-hand desk drawer. She knew
+exactly where it was. Her father had shown it to her only the other day.
+
+"I think you had better know where I keep it," he had said, "not that you
+will ever need to use it, I hope, because either Komatsu or I shall
+always be here to protect you, but just as a matter of precaution."
+
+Again she reached for the match holder, but it was empty. Softly opening
+the drawer, she felt in the back until her fingers grasped the pistol.
+Carefully she drew it out and transferred it from her right hand to her
+left. There was an unacknowledged relief in Billie's heart that there
+were no matches. She felt she would rather get out of the library in the
+dark than make any investigations with a match. Once in the hall she
+would decide what to do.
+
+She was morally certain now that someone else was in the room. She could
+see nothing, hear nothing, but in the dark she felt the presence of
+another human being. She recalled Nancy's experience.
+
+"Perhaps it wasn't her imagination, after all," she thought.
+
+The thing was to get back to the door and out of it. Billie wished with
+all her soul she had never come in at all. It had been a reckless, silly
+notion. Why should her father need a pistol? After all, it was just some
+roisterer on his way home from the festival. She had heard that _sake_,
+the Japanese brandy, made the men who drank it wild, no doubt wild enough
+to shoot off a pistol in the suburbs where there were no policemen about
+to interfere.
+
+And all because she had heard this pistol shot, she had obeyed a foolish
+impulse to find her father's pistol. How reckless! How foolhardy! How
+stupid! Because, to come right down to a fine point, here she was shut up
+in a perfectly huge room, as black as the pit, with--someone else!
+
+Never in all her experience had Billie been so frightened. Her knees
+knocked together and her head was quite giddy as she made her way
+unsteadily toward the door, still with the pistol in her left hand.
+
+But she seemed to have lost all sense of direction. Groping with her
+right hand, she encountered a chair. There had been no chairs in the
+way before,--was it an hour ago or only a minute?
+
+It would be better to get to the wall and feel her way along the shelves
+until she reached the door.
+
+Why was she so panic-stricken? After all was she so sure about that other
+person crouching somewhere--anywhere?
+
+Then the thing happened that she had known was going to happen all the
+time.
+
+Reaching out in the dark, she encountered an arm. Instantly her right
+hand was seized in a grip of steel. There was a struggle. She was
+thrown to the floor; a shot; a cry--was it her own or another person's
+voice? Then absolute silence.
+
+When Billie came back to consciousness, she was lying on a couch in the
+library. Miss Helen was kneeling beside her with the smelling salts.
+Mary was bathing her forehead with cold water and her father was chafing
+her wrists and saying in a low voice:
+
+"You are not hurt, are you, Billie-girl? There, speak to father. Are you
+all right?"
+
+There seemed to be a great many other people scattered about the room,
+the guests and the servants and her own particular friends leaning over
+her anxiously.
+
+"I hope I didn't kill him?" she said weakly.
+
+Mr. Campbell could not refrain from smiling.
+
+"You are just a little girl after all, Billie," he said. "No, you didn't
+kill him, but you hit him. Look at that." He pointed to some blood spots
+on the rug. "You certainly winged him, whoever he was. In some way, he
+escaped. I don't know how, because we were in the hall when the shot was
+fired and the windows are still locked. He may have got out through the
+servants' quarters but that would have been difficult, too, without
+being seen."
+
+Billie sat up.
+
+"I'm all right now," she said. "It was only fright because I lost my way
+in the dark and couldn't find the door, and it was so ghastly running
+into another person in the blackness like that. Father, I wish you would
+tell them not to put out the lights in this room so early. It's the
+second time it's happened now."
+
+"O'Haru, you hear what the lady says," said Mr. Campbell half humorously.
+
+Billie, knowing her father as she did, was suddenly aware that he was
+trying to make light of the affair for the benefit of the others in the
+room. That the episode was far more serious than he cared to admit, she
+knew perfectly well.
+
+O'Haru left the doorway where she had been standing and came over to the
+group by the couch.
+
+"What was the honorable wish of the young lady?"
+
+"Not to have the lights in the library put out so early in the evening.
+To wait until bedtime at least."
+
+O'Haru disliked to contradict, but the august young lady was honorably
+mistaken. The lights had never been put out by any servant attached to
+the household. She herself, or her daughter, attended to that after the
+honorable family had retired for the night.
+
+"Never mind," said Mr. Campbell in a soothing voice, indicating to Billie
+by a slight shake of the head that he would be glad if she would let the
+matter drop. Billie nodded. There was perfect understanding between the
+father and the daughter.
+
+"How do you feel now, Miss Billie?" asked Nicholas Grimm coming to the
+foot of the couch.
+
+"I'm all right again. I am ashamed of having been such a coward. If it
+had been daylight I shouldn't have been half so frightened."
+
+"I feel that it was all my fault for running off and leaving you alone. I
+should have seen you to the house at least."
+
+"Nonsense," said Billie. "That wouldn't have altered matters in the
+least. I would have come back here just the same for the pistol. You see
+I had a feeling that Papa might need it. Besides, we were all alone here.
+There were no men--"
+
+"I am only glad it was someone else that was shot and not you, my darling
+child," broke in Miss Campbell tremulously. "Duncan, I do wish you
+wouldn't keep pistols lying around the house. They are so dangerous."
+
+"But I don't, Cousin. It was carefully stored in the back compartment of
+a bottom desk drawer. If this reckless young relative of ours would go
+and dig it out, I'm sure it's not my fault."
+
+"I'm sure I can't imagine why you treat the matter as such a joke," Miss
+Campbell was saying, when Mme. Fontaine swept into the room.
+
+Her face was whiter than the long white wrap that enveloped her.
+
+"I am so glad you were not injured," she said standing beside Billie.
+
+"You must thank Mme. Fontaine, Billie. It was she who found you first.
+The rest of us were not certain in which room the shot was fired. I
+thought it was in the kitchen."
+
+"Oh," said Billie, turning to the widow. "Were you the first person on
+the scene? You couldn't have seen much, it was so dark. How did you know
+I was here? I don't suppose the robber made any noise."
+
+"It was very dark. I should not have known, if--if I had not smelt the
+smoke of the powder."
+
+"I thought perhaps you were going to say you heard the robber groan,"
+went on Billie. "You see I hit him. I think I must have a pretty good
+natural aim to shoot with the left hand in the dark and not fire wide of
+the mark. But I don't think he was very badly hurt. He got away so fast.
+I just winged him, I suppose."
+
+"How do you know you shot him?" asked Mme. Fontaine.
+
+Miss Helen pointed dramatically to the blood stains on the floor.
+
+Suddenly the widow's lips turned quite white and a blue line appeared
+around her mouth. She swayed slightly and Mr. Campbell caught her. Billie
+was on her feet in a moment and they laid her on the couch.
+
+"Unfasten her wrap," ordered Miss Campbell.
+
+"No, no," said Mme. Fontaine in a very weak, thin voice. "The sight of
+blood--" she closed her eyes. "I shall be all right in a moment." Beads
+of perspiration appeared on her forehead and she shivered with a chill.
+
+"I think Mme. Fontaine had better stay here to-night. She's too ill to
+get back to town," said Mr. Campbell.
+
+"Oh, do," echoed the girls, and Miss Campbell added hospitably:
+
+"We shall be so glad."
+
+"I am quite well now," said the widow rising unsteadily to her feet. "You
+will forgive me, I hope. It is a faintness that comes to me at the sight
+of blood. Will you call my 'riksha now, Mr. Campbell? I must be going. I
+won't try to shake hands," she added, reaching the door. "I am still so
+light in the head, I am afraid of the effort. But I want to thank you for
+a delightful evening. I am only sorry it ended so disastrously."
+
+Making a ceremonious Oriental bow to Miss Campbell and smiling and
+nodding to the others, she left the room followed by Mr. Campbell and
+the four girls.
+
+"No one has told me yet what the shots were in the garden," announced
+Billie after the widow had departed.
+
+"There was nothing to tell. We never found anything at all," answered
+Nicholas.
+
+The next morning Mr. Campbell engaged another night watchman. His duty
+was to patrol the inside of the house, making his rounds every hour
+through the halls and living rooms. Between times he sat in the library.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL
+
+THE COMET DISGUISED.
+
+
+"Where is Onoye, O'Haru?" Miss Campbell asked, a few days after the
+excitement in the library.
+
+"Honorable Madam, Onoye much business."
+
+To Miss Campbell, a seasoned housekeeper, this reply seemed a little
+irregular.
+
+"What kind of business, O'Haru?" she demanded rather severely.
+
+O'Haru looked amiably sad. It is true that Onoye was on the pay roll of
+the household servants, but then, did not her mother do work for two when
+Onoye was not actively engaged? The Japanese reasons thus: if the work is
+done properly, it is of no consequence who does it. Certainly the
+machinery of the household moved on without a hitch. There was no cause
+for complaint, but it seemed to Miss Campbell that if Onoye received
+wages she should appear about the house. Her position, which was
+practically that of ladies' maid, had been filled by one of the other
+small maids while O'Haru had covered up that vacancy by her own redoubled
+labors.
+
+"Will you send Onoye to me, please," ordered Miss Campbell. "I have some
+sewing for her to do."
+
+Poor O'Haru bowed. Her face looked wan and sad and it seemed to the Motor
+Maids that Miss Campbell might not have been so severe; but as a
+housekeeper, that small, gentle lady was a disciplinarian.
+
+They waited with some curiosity for Onoye to appear. In five minutes
+O'Sudzu, one of the other maids, stood framed in the doorway like a
+Japanese souvenir post card life size. She bowed low and entered the room
+timidly.
+
+"But I sent for Onoye," exclaimed Miss Campbell.
+
+O'Sudzu only smiled. She spoke no English.
+
+"Onoye. Wish Onoye," repeated Miss Campbell. She pointed to the door.
+
+O'Sudzu departed.
+
+O'Matsu appeared next, and after O'Matsu came O'Kiku, who was followed
+presently by Masako, until these successive apparitions of Japanese maids
+became positively bewildering. The girls were consumed with the giggles
+and Miss Campbell was scarcely able to maintain a serious expression.
+
+"No, no!" she would say each time, "Onoye! Wish Onoye!"
+
+At last O'Haru appeared once more.
+
+"August one, much kindness bestow. O'Haru make sewing."
+
+"Where is Onoye? Where is your daughter?" demanded Miss Campbell.
+
+O'Haru on her knees hung her head humbly.
+
+"I think I know what's the matter," put in Mary. "Onoye is ill. I am sure
+it must be that."
+
+"Is there anything the matter with Onoye?" asked Miss Campbell, but
+apparently O'Haru's English did not extend so far.
+
+"Much sickness?" asked Billie.
+
+O'Haru's head sank lower and lower.
+
+"Poor thing," exclaimed Mary. "Onoye is ill, Miss Campbell, and O'Haru is
+afraid to say so."
+
+"You must not be afraid, O'Haru. If little daughter ill, we take care of
+her. Bring doctor. See?"
+
+"No, no, Onoye better. Onoye soon well," said the woman in a low voice.
+"Ask much pardons, gracious lady."
+
+"Can't we see her?" asked Billie.
+
+"Onoye see no one. Onoye only humble servant"
+
+"Nonsense, she might be very ill," put in Miss Campbell. "I'll go with
+you now, O'Haru. Lead the way."
+
+The housekeeper gave a sigh of patient resignation and rose to her feet.
+Miss Campbell and the girls followed her down the long hall and across
+the passage to the servants' quarters.
+
+At last they came to a small room at the end of the house. The floor was
+covered with the usual wicker mats. The _shoji_, or sliding partitions,
+were drawn together, and in the dim mellow light which filtered through
+these opaque walls they saw Onoye. She was stretched on the mat which is
+the usual Japanese bed, her neck on the uncomfortable little pillow
+bench. With a murmur of surprise and apology, she pulled herself weakly
+to her knees and touched her forehead to the floor.
+
+"Pardon, gracious lady," she said, drawing her kimono closely about her.
+
+"But, child, we didn't know you were so ill," said Miss Campbell, gently
+forcing the girl to lie down on her bed. "Has the doctor seen you?"
+
+"Yes, gracious lady"
+
+"What is the matter with you?"
+
+Onoye shook her head.
+
+"Not say it in English." She touched her forehead. "Muchly fire."
+
+"It's fever, of course," said Miss Campbell, kneeling beside the sick
+girl and feeling her forehead. "I think you had better not stay here,
+children. It might be something contagious."
+
+"Nonsense," thought Billie; but Miss Campbell was in one of her
+compelling humors and they retreated obediently, leaving her to hold a
+conference with O'Haru and to see that everything was done that could be
+done to alleviate Onoye's sufferings. She finally departed, after
+satisfying herself that Onoye was in the toils of a bilious attack. But
+she did not administer calomel as she would have done in ordinary cases
+of torpid liver. "I suppose the doctor knows what he is about," she said,
+"and there must be a Japanese equivalent to calomel in a country where it
+rains eternally."
+
+It was decided that they should take the "Comet" out after lunch. Miss
+Campbell wished to visit an apothecary shop and there were other plans
+for sight-seeing,--perhaps the magnificent Shiba Temple and the wisteria
+in the park. But before they were to go, there were two surprises in
+store, one for Billie alone and one for all of them. Just after luncheon
+while the others were dressing for the trip, Billie, who needed about two
+minutes for pinning on her hat and slipping on her coat, went back to the
+stable to take the "Comet" from his garage. On the way, she passed the
+room occupied by O'Haru and her daughter. Not having the least fear of
+contagion, she entered a back passage of the intricate house, which
+reminded her of the houses she used to build with cards as a child.
+Pushing back the partition she marched into Onoye's room without
+announcing herself.
+
+"There's nothing to knock on, so why knock?" she thought.
+
+Billie surprised the little Japanese girl sitting up examining her arm,
+which was wrapped in bandages.
+
+"Why, Onoye, I didn't know you had been injured," she exclaimed, running
+over and kneeling beside the sick girl.
+
+Onoye was speechless. She tried to cover her arm with the sleeve of her
+kimono and to apologize and bow all at the same time.
+
+"Not muchly badly," she said at last in a low voice.
+
+"But how did it happen?"
+
+"Not nothing. Pardon grant," murmured Onoye.
+
+"Of course, you poor dear, but how did you injure yourself?"
+
+She laid the bandaged wrist gently on the palm of her hand and looked at
+it.
+
+"Poor small accident," said Onoye.
+
+"But why was it?"
+
+The two girls looked at each other silently.
+
+"Was it in the library that night?" asked Billie after a long pause.
+
+Onoye's head drooped more and more.
+
+"Poor little thing. Poor child," exclaimed Billie, consumed with pity and
+remorse, since it had been her own carelessness that had caused the poor
+small accident.
+
+Onoye had doubtless put out the lights and when she, Billie, had crept
+into the room like a thief, the Japanese girl was frightened and hid
+herself behind a chair. Then when they had collided, they had both lost
+their heads and the pistol had gone off. In spite of her remorse, Billie
+was immensely relieved.
+
+"Papa will be, too," she thought. "It had much better be Onoye than a
+robber."
+
+And Mr. Campbell was decidedly relieved when he heard the story from his
+daughter that night.
+
+"I'll keep it a secret, Onoye, dear," said Billie, moved by compassion.
+"I'll only tell Papa. I am so sorry I shot you. It must have hurt
+terribly."
+
+Onoye tried to smile.
+
+"Forgiveness grant," she murmured again.
+
+"I think I'd better say 'forgiveness grant,'" said Billie. "But I must be
+going now." She patted Onoye on the cheek and then tiptoed out of the
+room. "It is a relief," she thought, turning her footsteps toward the
+garage.
+
+Some minutes later, Billie ran into her cousin's room breathlessly.
+
+"Ready in one moment," called Miss Campbell, who had heard the whir of
+the motor at the door.
+
+"I want to prepare you for a surprise," said Billie solemnly. "I don't
+mind telling you that I have had the shock of my life."
+
+"But what is it?" they all demanded in one voice.
+
+"I'll only say this much. Papa has punished the 'Comet' for running over
+the child that day."
+
+"How?"
+
+"You'll see. I thought I had better prepare you. The shock might have
+killed you if I hadn't."
+
+"Goodness gracious me, what is it?" cried Miss Campbell, seizing her
+reticule and gloves and rushing into the hall, followed by the others.
+
+When she reached the piazza, she sat down flat in a chair and gasped.
+
+There was the "Comet," to be sure. His outlines were as familiar as the
+profile of a beloved brother, but his beautiful scarlet coat had been
+taken from him and he wore instead a quiet covering of dark blue. The
+luxurious red cushions were covered with buff linen. One small decoration
+had been conceded by Mr. Campbell. The dark, quietly colored coat was
+relieved on each side by the buff-colored initials, "M-M" lovingly
+intertwined.
+
+"I suppose Papa thought the red coat was too gaudy," said Billie, who was
+indeed just a little tearful over the loss of that cheerful and familiar
+scarlet dress which would never again flash along the highways like a
+scarlet bird. "But he's the same old 'Comet' inside," she added hastily.
+"You couldn't change his noble disposition if you painted him sea green."
+
+"I think he looks beautiful," put in Elinor. "He's so neat and elegant in
+buff and blue. It's like a livery."
+
+The other girls laughed because Elinor's speech was so characteristic.
+
+"Oh, you regal young person," exclaimed Nancy. "Your imagination doesn't
+stop at anything short of liveried retinues of servants. There is no
+doubt you were a royal princess in a previous existence. And suppose you
+are a fat old pug in another life, like Nedda!"
+
+"I am sure Nedda is waited on hand and foot," cried Elinor. "She has a
+maid who follows her around with a cushion and a silk cover."
+
+Komatsu, standing at the side of the motor, grinned with amusement.
+
+"They are foolish children, aren't they, Komatsu?" observed Miss
+Campbell, climbing into her accustomed seat.
+
+Nedda, hearing her name mentioned, wobbled on her uncertain old legs to
+the edge of the piazza and whined piteously.
+
+"Go back to your mat, you pathetic, pampered old great grandmother,"
+called Nancy.
+
+The aged animal turned obediently and curled herself on her cushion. Then
+she lifted her wrinkled, snub-nosed face to watch the departing
+motorists.
+
+"She does look like our Irish cook's grandmother," said Nancy.
+
+Everybody laughed gaily and the feelings regarding the "Comet's" new blue
+coat were dispelled. Nedda had been a welcome interruption.
+
+"Papa always does the right thing," Billie announced presently. "I'm glad
+he did it now. I was a little hurt at first, of course. But I understand
+perfectly what his reasons were. Everybody will be looking out for a red
+motor car that runs over people and they'll never recognize the 'Comet'
+It's just as if he wore a disguise."
+
+The dark blue car was, as a matter of fact, not nearly so conspicuous as
+he skimmed along over the road, and it was the very wisest thing Billie's
+father could have done to change the color. Probably every man, woman and
+child in the multitude that had clustered around the car that day on
+Arakawa Ridge would be constantly on the look-out for the red machine,
+and never glance twice at the blue one.
+
+"I do feel so inconspicuous and quiet and lady-like," remarked Billie
+when some time later they left the motor car in charge of Komatsu and
+went in to visit Shiba Temple in Shiba Park. These chapels are mostly the
+tombs of the Shoguns who for many years were powerful nobles and who
+really ruled Japan in place of the Emperor, a mere figurehead in those
+days. The magnificent tombs they built for themselves are now the very
+pride of Tokyo. Within the great red gates of the main temple, upheld
+with scarlet columns, wheeled flights of pigeons quite tame. The girls
+bought packages of grain from little booths and fed them and presently
+one of the pretty creatures perched on Mary's wrist and ate from her
+hand.
+
+"Don't frighten him," she whispered, her eyes brimming with tears of
+pleasure.
+
+All the afternoon the tourists wandered through the wide courts where
+were armies of stone lanterns placed in exactly the right spots. They
+passed softly flowing fountains wherein the worshippers washed themselves
+and climbed stately stairs by fern-set walls. Court within court they
+entered adorned with magnificent paintings and carvings of marvelous
+workmanship. They walked through the great hall of books where scrolls of
+immense value are kept, each swathed in silk and lying in its own lacquer
+box. At last dazzled and silenced by the succession of magic courts, they
+returned to the outer world of the living, and climbed into the motor
+car.
+
+"Before we go home, don't you think we had better inquire for Mme.
+Fontaine?" Billie suggested.
+
+Miss Campbell assented. So long as they did not go in, she was quite
+willing.
+
+They found the gate of the Widow of Shanghai's garden stretched wide
+open; a jinriksha was about to pass into the street. A Japanese lady
+in a rich costume was the occupant. She exchanged one swift glance with
+Billie and quickly looked the other way. Billie started slightly. She
+felt uncomfortable. It seemed to her that she had been looking straight
+into the eyes of Mme. Fontaine.
+
+"Did you notice," said Mary, "that the Japanese lady in the 'riksha wore
+her arm in a sling?"
+
+No, they had not noticed it, but there was nothing remarkable in that. No
+one even commented on the fact, while they waited for Komatsu to inquire
+and leave their cards.
+
+"Mme. Fontaine was still very much indisposed," the message came back,
+"but she would be glad if the ladies would enter and have some
+refreshment. She regretted she would not be able to see them herself."
+
+The ladies would not enter, however, as it was nearing the hour when Mr.
+Campbell would return and expect to find them in the garden waiting tea,
+and the "Comet" bore them swiftly home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A THEATER PARTY.
+
+
+"It's very easy for a bachelor to entertain in Japan," remarked Mr.
+Buxton one afternoon in the Campbells' summer house. "A busy man is
+saved all bother and inconvenience if he wants to give a theater party,
+say, with a dinner to follow, by putting the affair in the hands of an
+'elder sister,'"
+
+"Suppose he hasn't any elder sister," put in Miss Campbell feeling
+slightly offended. Perhaps she was older than Mr. Buxton, but she was
+sure she didn't look it and she had no intention of being designated as
+his "elder sister."
+
+"Oh, but he always has," replied Mr. Buxton. "A Japanese providence
+always provides a _Nesan_, or elder sister, for persons desiring to
+entertain. All she requires of you is to leave her alone and pay the
+bill."
+
+Miss Campbell felt somewhat mollified.
+
+"But what does she do?" asked Mary.
+
+"She does all the work, makes all the arrangements, engages the boxes and
+the 'rikshas, orders the dinner, tells you how to act; in fact, does
+everything any good elder sister would do to oblige a little brother."
+
+The others smiled at this droll notion but there was something rather
+touching, too, about the simple title of elder sister or _Nesan_ for this
+efficient and reliable individual who took all the burdens on her own
+shoulders. As a matter of fact a _Nesan_ is the proprietor of a tea house
+and her business is to get up entertainments.
+
+"And it is for this reason," continued Mr. Buxton, "that I am able to ask
+all of you for the honor of your company to the theater to-morrow at
+three and later to dinner. I could never have undertaken it alone, but
+having been provided with an efficient relative older and wiser than I
+am, although she looks to be under thirty, I feel no uneasiness
+whatever."
+
+"I am inclined to accept your reluctant invitation on the spot, Buxton,"
+laughed Mr. Campbell, "for self and family."
+
+"I didn't intend it to appear reluctant," answered the Englishman. "I
+only wanted to assure you that if you would do me the honor of coming to
+the entertainment, all things would be correctly carried out according to
+Japanese etiquette and there would not be a hitch in the whole affair.
+Will you come?"
+
+"We shall be delighted, Mr. Buxton," answered Miss Campbell.
+
+"I thought you would," he added. "Indeed, I was so certain of it that the
+little _Nesan_ has already got a list of the guests and the whole thing
+has been arranged."
+
+"And to make assurance doubly sure, you thought you would just mention
+the matter to us?" asked Mr. Campbell, who enjoyed teasing this rather
+odd and amusing old bachelor.
+
+"How do we dress?" asked Nancy.
+
+"I never thought to ask the _Nesan_ how the ladies should dress. But if
+you take my advice, I should say comfortably. That is, if you can. I
+believe a woman's clothes are never really comfortable."
+
+"Mine are," broke in Billie, poised on the railing of the summer house
+swinging her feet carelessly.
+
+"Would you have us dress like men?" demanded Miss Campbell indignantly.
+
+"No indeed, Madam," answered the bachelor, "but in your present costume,
+you must admit that it would be difficult to sit on the floor."
+
+"But I don't wish to sit on the floor," exclaimed the spinster. "It's a
+perfectly absurd custom. Besides, you are edging away from the main
+point--trying to draw out of the--"
+
+"There will be no chairs to-morrow," interrupted the other, blinking his
+eyes like a wise old bird. "And," he continued as he took his departure,
+"neither will there be any knives and forks."
+
+"I shall take mine along, then," called Miss Campbell, whose discussions
+with the bachelor kept them in a constant state of amusement.
+
+"It would be an unpardonable breach of etiquette," he called over his
+shoulder. Presently he turned back and added, "You are not to use that
+infernal machine for my party. The _Nesan_ provided 'rikshas for all
+guests."
+
+"But that's just an additional expense to you, Buxton," cried Mr.
+Campbell.
+
+"I know it perfectly well and I so suggested to my elder sister, but she
+didn't seem to understand, and I decided I would rather hire a gross
+of 'rikshas than try and make her. So you may expect three of 'em
+to-morrow at a quarter past two. The performance begins at three."
+
+"Dear old 'Comet,' he's always getting slighted nowadays," remarked
+Billie. "He never gets to go anywhere."
+
+"He's probably glad enough to sit in his cell and meditate on the
+mutability of human events," answered Mr. Buxton, and this time he really
+did go.
+
+It happened therefore that the "Comet" was once more left in humiliating
+retirement while his young mistresses rode off in jinrikshas which
+appeared at the door exactly at the hour mentioned by the host of the
+afternoon. Indeed the motor car had good reason to be a disgruntled
+machine. He never did seem to be a part of the Japanese landscape like
+the graceful 'riksha. As a matter of fact he was a blot on the scene and
+entirely out of place against a background of an ancient temple or a
+group of picturesque individuals in clothes more brilliant in hue than
+his own boyhood coat.
+
+Converging from various points in Tokyo but all timed to meet at the
+theater door exactly at five minutes to three, came the other guests of
+the party in 'rikshas provided by the _Nesan_. Mme. Fontaine was one of
+these.
+
+"What a picture she is," exclaimed Nancy, noticing at once the
+widow's beautiful costume of embroidered pongee over which she wore a
+kimono-shaped mantle of the same embroidered silk, the sleeves of which
+covered her arms and hands completely.
+
+Nodding and smiling at the girls brightly, she followed Miss Campbell
+into the theater where they were met by the plump, hospitable little
+_Nesan_, who prostrated herself before each guest and removed shoes at
+the same time.
+
+Miss Campbell groaned.
+
+"Oh, dear," she complained. "Even at the theater! I shall never get
+accustomed to walking flat-footed. I shall be wearing bifurcated
+stockings next, I suppose."
+
+"Etiquette, Madam, etiquette," said Mr. Buxton. "You must do as the
+Romans do, remember, or else be thought extremely rude."
+
+But there was no time for argument and the party hastily distributed
+themselves in the two boxes. Yoritomo Ito kept close beside Nancy while
+Nicholas Grimm and Reggie Carlton sat tailor fashion in the back of the
+box. The theater was a strange place to the Western eye. There was not a
+chair in the entire house and Mr. Buxton chuckled aloud over Miss
+Campbell's complaints when she was obliged to sit on a mat on the floor.
+Below the two tiers of boxes, the pit appeared like a gigantic
+checker-board divided into square compartments by partitions about a foot
+high. In each compartment squatted six people. Running from the rear of
+the house to the stage was a slightly raised walk three feet broad to be
+used by the actors as an exit. The stalls were crowded with men and women
+and children. Here and there were groups of geishas or dancing girls.
+Their rich apparel made bright spots of color in the scene. The children
+ran about with perfect freedom, up and down the aisles at the sides and
+in and out of the stalls, eating sweetmeats and visiting their friends.
+And there was scarcely a grown person in the entire audience of Japanese
+who was not smoking, for women as well as men smoke in Japan: one pinch
+of tobacco in a short pipe, one puff, a little whiff of smoke inhaled and
+the operation is over. Before the curtain rose, the _Nesan_ flew busily
+from one box to the other with cushions and sweetmeats, baskets of
+oranges and boxes of sweet pickled black beans. Presently came the sound
+of two blocks of wood striking together. Then the curtain rose and the
+audience settled itself for three hours of the most intense enjoyment.
+The play was a Japanese legend and the actors picturesque and dramatic,
+but if all the greatest actors in the world had combined to give the
+performance, Miss Campbell could not have maintained her cramped position
+a minute longer than two hours.
+
+"I am sure my limbs will refuse their office, Duncan," she whispered. "If
+this goes on much longer, I shall have to be carried from the theater
+like a helpless paralytic."
+
+"Buxton, don't you think we've had enough?" suggested Mr. Campbell, and
+the bachelor, glad to stretch his own cramped legs, took the hint and
+gave the signal for departure.
+
+Once more they were in the 'rikshas, only this time Nancy found herself
+seated by Yoritomo and Billie and Nicholas had paired off in the same
+way. Miss Campbell was not sure that she approved of this change.
+
+"In my day," she remarked to her cousin, "young ladies never rode alone
+in buggies with young men."
+
+"But they aren't buggies, Cousin," he answered good-naturedly.
+
+"They are, all but the horse," said Miss Campbell.
+
+But they had arrived at the gate of the tea house before the argument
+could proceed and were presently rolling through a garden enclosed by
+high walls. It was a fairyland of a place, even more beautiful than the
+Campbells' own garden, filled with brilliant beds of flowers and here and
+there a small grove of stunted pine trees.
+
+Through the door of a tea house, low roofed and brown (houses are not
+painted in Japan), rushed a score of _musumes_ (maids), pink-cheeked and
+bare-footed, who greeted the guests with low bows and removed their
+shoes. There also was their own particular _Nesan_, owner of that
+particular tea house, who bowed gracefully and said in Japanese:
+
+"Be honorably pleased to enter."
+
+Inside, the tea house was scrupulously clean. The bare boards in the hall
+seemed worn thin by scrubbing and nowhere were any furniture or ornaments
+except the hanging scroll. The floors were covered with soft wicker mats
+and presently they were all seated in a semicircle at one end of the
+room. The younger members of the party were in a perfect gale of subdued
+laughter by this time. Elinor, too dignified to look where she was going,
+had stubbed her august toe and for at least half a minute had hopped on
+one foot in an agony of pain. Nicholas had privately circulated a rumor
+that live carp would be one of the courses, and not to eat a small piece
+would give grievous offense to the _Nesan_ and her _musumes_.
+
+After a little table about a foot high had been placed before each guest,
+a procession of miniature waitresses entered with the dinner. In quick
+succession were served fish soup, crushed birds with sugared walnuts and
+oranges, broiled fish with tiny balls of sweetened potatoes, and numerous
+other strange but not unpalatable dishes, and all the while streams of
+_hors d'ouvres_: horseradish, spinach and seaweed. But they were not
+obliged to eat with chop sticks. Mr. Buxton had provided knives and
+forks.
+
+At last with the greatest ceremony, the little proprietor herself
+appeared bearing a large silver tray.
+
+"Here it comes," whispered Nicholas. "What did I tell you?"
+
+There, sure enough, was the carp, taken from the water a moment before
+and sliced into delicate pink steaks. He lay on a bed of fresh water
+grasses and leaves, and each portion was served in a dainty mat of
+twisted grass. Nobody refused a sacrificial morsel, but only Yoritomo and
+Mr. Buxton had the courage to eat it. Mr. Buxton swallowed his at a gulp
+and Miss Campbell shivered all over at the sight.
+
+"How could you?" she exclaimed in a whisper.
+
+"Etiquette," he answered. "I would swallow a mouse for the sake of
+etiquette in this polite country."
+
+During the dinner there had been a sound of suppressed laughter and the
+tinkle of music behind the partitions, and now, after the last round of
+the innumerable courses had been served, the partitions were shoved aside
+and four samisen players entered followed by eight dancing girls. Nothing
+could equal the grace of their bows as they glided softly in. Their
+smiles of welcome were inimitable. Then their faces became grave and
+serious and the dance began. The oldest was hardly more than fifteen and
+the youngest about ten. They were like sober-faced little dolls in
+gorgeous brocaded robes as they paraded, stamped their white-stockinged
+feet and postured with elaborate fans.
+
+Mme. Fontaine, who had eaten no dinner and talked very little, watched
+the dancers with intense interest.
+
+"Are they not charming little creatures?" she asked Mr. Campbell. "They
+are trained to be so,--to sing, dance and amuse and to look pretty. But I
+assure you some of them develop into splendid women. Many of them marry
+well. The geisha girl is not always a butterfly."
+
+There was a subdued fire in her eyes as she spoke.
+
+Mr. Campbell looked at her curiously.
+
+"You have a special tenderness for them, I see," he remarked.
+
+"I was one," she said.
+
+While this little colloquy was going on, Yoritomo was whispering into
+Nancy's ear:
+
+"You think they are pretty? But they are not so beautiful as you. There
+are no blue eyes in Japan."
+
+And Nicholas was saying to Billie:
+
+"By Jove, it's terrible sitting in this position for three hours at a
+stretch. Do you think we could slip into the garden? I have something I
+want to tell you."
+
+Being on the end of the semi-circle, they crept behind one of the sliding
+partitions and rose stiffly to their feet. Two steps more and they were
+in the garden, now flooded with moonlight.
+
+"It's romantic," observed Billie, "but what will Cousin Helen say? She's
+a very strict chaperone."
+
+"Tell her you couldn't endure it another moment; or tell her I couldn't,
+which would be perfectly true. I feel as if I had shrunk a few inches. I
+can't stand up straight."
+
+Turning down a walk leading to the little gold fish pond, they presently
+paused on the miniature bridge and looked down at the reflections of the
+stars mirrored in the pool beneath. They were quite silent for a moment.
+Then Nicholas cleared his throat and began in an embarrassed and
+hesitating way:
+
+"Miss Billie, can you keep a secret?"
+
+"Don't you think that is rather an uncomplimentary question?" answered
+Billie. "I must have made a poor impression on you."
+
+"Indeed you haven't. You have made just the other kind," he replied with
+boyish candor. "That's why I wanted to tell you something, but it was a
+stupid way to begin. Please forgive me. Of course you can keep a secret.
+Any girl who is cool-headed enough to run a motor car and--and keep
+machinery in order and--"
+
+"Well--and what?"
+
+"I think you are just great, Miss Billie. I never met a girl like you
+before," he mumbled half audibly. "That's why I wanted to tell you
+something--that is--confide something to you."
+
+Billie looked uncomfortable. She was only a month younger than Nancy, but
+she Was far less experienced in the ways of the world, her tastes being
+more boyish and simple than those of that gay little coquette.
+
+"In the first place, you knew I was a civil engineer. That's how I
+happened to meet your father. Every engineer in the country wanted to
+meet him, because he is a very famous one himself, as you probably know."
+
+Billie was pleased at this compliment. Her father was too modest to tell
+such things about himself, and she had no way of knowing his reputation
+unless other people told her.
+
+"It was through Yoritomo that I came to Japan. We were friends in New
+York; and it was through his uncle, who is high up in public affairs
+here, that I got an appointment almost immediately. It's been interesting
+work, most of the time around Tokyo, and I have enjoyed the experience.
+But, you see, I came here with just a little money and fell on my feet
+and feel that I am under obligations to Yoritomo and his family for a
+good many favors."
+
+"Of course," answered Billie. "But what of it?"
+
+"Well," began Nicholas slowly, "Yoritomo has been a good friend to me. I
+have always liked him and looked up to him because he's a deal cleverer
+than I am and a wonderful student,--but lately,--it's hard to explain to
+you, Miss Bille, but I--"
+
+"Don't you like him any more?"
+
+"No, no, it isn't that." Nicholas paused again and wiped beads of
+perspiration from his face. He shifted his position and dug his hands
+into his pockets. "I don't think I can say it," he said. "I thought I
+could, but it's too deuced hard."
+
+"Go on, you silly boy."
+
+"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't trust him," he blurted out.
+
+"But Papa likes him," said Billie, simply, feeling that her father's
+sanction was as good as a royal stamp of approval.
+
+"Oh, yes, of course. Everybody likes him. It isn't that."
+
+"Then what are you driving at?"
+
+"Good heavens, I don't know what I am driving at. Only, you see, I
+introduced Yoritomo to the family and something happened the other day
+that made me uneasy. It seemed to me that I ought to warn you not to get
+too thick with him--that is--not you but Miss Brown. You see, Japanese
+are different--they take things more seriously--" Nicholas plunged deeper
+and deeper in.
+
+"Can't you tell me what happened?"
+
+"That's the queer part. There's nothing really to tell. It was one of
+those little incidents that mean everything or nothing. I couldn't tell
+Mr. Campbell because it was too insignificant, but I thought I might make
+a clean breast of it to you and you could warn Miss Brown--well--not to
+talk too much to Yoritomo. She might tell him something--"
+
+"But Nancy hasn't any secrets to tell, Mr. Grimm."
+
+"I thought you promised to call me Nicholas? I didn't say she had, but
+these Japanese are the wiliest people. They will use you without your
+knowing you are being used. Couldn't you just tell Miss Nancy to be
+careful without explaining why? Don't girls ever do that? Just say that
+Yoritomo's a Jap, and Japs are deep people and she had better not tell
+him all she knows."
+
+Billie laughed.
+
+"Why, yes, I could, I suppose, but I'm sure it's not necessary. She
+doesn't know anything to tell."
+
+"Whew!" ejaculated Nicholas, fanning himself with his hat. "I'd rather
+dig a tunnel through a mountain than have to do that again. I decided
+I had to do it and I have been working it over in my mind for days. First
+I thought of Miss Campbell, but she would have gone off her head about
+it. Miss Brown wouldn't have understood, either. She would have been
+angry, I suppose. So I decided to come to you. I felt sure you would
+understand and know exactly what to do."
+
+Billie smiled. She was beginning to be very fond of this boyish, honest
+young man whose nature was not unlike her own. Just at that moment they
+saw Yoritomo and Nancy strolling along a moonlit path. He was talking to
+her in a low intense voice and she was smiling and dimpling as usual. It
+occurred to Billie that Nancy was getting very grown up all of a sudden
+and for her part, she couldn't see any fun in it at all. She had noticed
+lately that Nancy did not enjoy their old-time girlish fun half so much
+as she used to. She would rather stroll in the garden with a young man
+than with her four devoted friends, and "hen parties" as she called them,
+did not amuse her any longer.
+
+Billie began to feel quite serious about the benighted state of her best
+friend. Her nature was deeply tinged with sympathy and sweetness, but she
+was not yet old enough to feel tolerant with Nancy for growing up and
+craving beaux and flattery.
+
+"I will speak to Nancy Brown," she thought, and that night going home in
+the 'riksha by Nancy's side she turned the matter over in her mind. "But
+not to-night," she decided, for Nancy had never seemed more adorable than
+on that ride, chatting with her friend about the evening's pleasures.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+A FAILING OUT.
+
+
+Several days went swiftly by and still Billie had not delivered the
+warning to her beloved Nancy.
+
+After all, was it really necessary to warn Nancy not to talk too much and
+tell all she knew? That was a man's idea of a girl's conversation: to
+tell all she knew. How absurd! Besides, Nancy was not much of a
+conversationalist and it's only people who talk all the time who tell
+secrets. After they exhaust every other subject, they begin to draw on
+their confidential stock.
+
+The more Billie turned the question over in her mind, the more
+far-fetched it seemed, and at last she determined not to mention it at
+all.
+
+"Who am I to be scolding anybody?" she said to herself. "I am sure I am
+far from perfect and it would look rather presumptuous to criticize
+Nancy who hasn't done anything to be criticized for."
+
+But these noble and modest sentiments were not destined to remain
+unchanged in Billie's mind. By a curious chain of circumstances, the very
+thing she had concluded to avoid was brought about.
+
+The circumstances began in the morning before breakfast and led up, one
+after another, to the first real quarrel the two friends had ever had
+since their friendship began.
+
+It had been raining all night, a hot sticky downpour, and nobody in the
+house had slept well. The atmosphere was oppressive, and breathing became
+a conscious effort; so that the American members of the household were
+fretful and out of humor after a disagreeable and restless night. Even
+the most even-tempered and well-balanced natures are upset by a steaming,
+humid temperature which seems to creep into the soul and enshroud the
+brighter self with mist.
+
+Billie felt the general depression and after breakfast she followed her
+friends in a disconsolate procession to the library.
+
+"There are as many different kinds of rain as there are people," she
+observed. "The rain in Scotland was like a brisk scolding person. At
+least there was nothing monotonous and tiring about it. It had plenty of
+vigor and energy. But this Japanese summer rain is like a great, fat,
+stupid, lazy creature who never lifts a little finger to do anything but
+just rain and rain and turn into misty steam!"
+
+"One hasn't even the energy to read a book," sighed Mary.
+
+"As Reggie Carlton says, 'it's so infernally damp,'" put in Elinor, and
+the others smiled languidly. Elinor was indeed feeling the humidity to
+quote a semi-profane expression.
+
+Nancy was really the most cheerful member of the party. She had an air of
+expecting something which appeared to give her a reason for existing.
+
+After the outbursts of her three friends, there was a long and heavy
+silence broken only by the steady patter of the rain on the roof.
+
+At last Nancy rose and smiling mysteriously, said:
+
+"Excuse me, ladies. While your company is highly exciting, I must leave
+you to write letters."
+
+"I can't imagine to whom," exclaimed Billie.
+
+"I mailed four for you yesterday to your mother and father and 'Merry'
+and Percy St. Clair."
+
+Billie knew Nancy's affairs quite as well as she knew her own; two
+sisters could hardly have been more intimately associated.
+
+"Guess again, Miss Inquisitive," said Nancy. "And guess fifty times more
+if you like. You'll never guess the right person and I shan't tell you
+for punishment. So there!"
+
+For some reason--of course it was the weather--Billie felt teased and
+hurt. Not for anything would she have kept Nancy in ignorance of any of
+her correspondence.
+
+"I didn't mean to be inquisitive." she called, half apologetically. "I
+was merely surprised at your being so mysterious."
+
+"When you get to be as old as I am," said Nancy in a lofty tone, "you'll
+know better than to tell all you know."
+
+"I'll never get to be as old as you are, Miss Nancy-Bell," retorted
+Billie. "It's a physical impossibility, since you are two months older
+than I am."
+
+Nancy departed from the room, calling out laughingly:
+
+"Smarty! Smarty!"
+
+Billie kicked off her slipper after her, and so the quarrel started with
+good natured raillery. But the memory of the letter lingered in Billie's
+mind all the morning, although why it should have connected itself with
+Onoye, who, an hour later, stepped out into the garden on high wooden
+clogs with an oiled paper umbrella, she could not say. Standing idly by
+the window, Billie watched the little figure disappear down the path.
+
+"I suppose she's going to visit the Compassionate God again," Billie
+thought to herself absently. "I hope he'll be compassionate enough to
+clear the weather by to-morrow."
+
+The next link in the chain of circumstances was forged when Onoye
+returned from her pilgrimage. Billie, who had drawn a stool to the window
+and was sitting with her face pressed against the glass, saw her walking
+slowly along the dripping path to the house. The Japanese girl was
+looking at something she held in her free hand, an envelope undoubtedly.
+Just as she reached the piazza, Onoye slipped the letter into the folds
+of her sash and hurried in.
+
+Billie's mind gave a sudden leap of conjecture but she continued to sit
+quietly, her face against the window, peering into the mist-hung garden.
+
+"Funny," she said to herself. "It couldn't have been a Japanese letter
+because those are rolled up on little sticks."
+
+Not long afterwards, she encountered Onoye in the passage. The Japanese
+girl smiled lovingly into her face. Little by little her feeling for
+Billie was growing and expanding into a real devotion,
+
+"And I'm sure I don't know why she should caress the hand that smote
+her," Billie had thought. "She's a dear, faithful little soul."
+
+"Are you quite well again, Onoye?" she asked, pausing and slipping her
+arm around the Japanese girl's shoulders.
+
+"Yes, honorable lady. Not any sickly arm no more."
+
+"And have you been writing a letter to thank the Compassionate God Jizu
+for your recovery?" went on Billie.
+
+A frightened look came into Onoye's eyes. The English had been too much
+for her comprehension, but the word "letter" she had understood
+perfectly.
+
+"No understand," she said, bowing ceremoniously. And she hastened away,
+leaving Billie much puzzled and rather curious, too.
+
+The day dragged slowly on, and still the rain poured and the mist steamed
+and there was no relief from the circumstances of the weather. Miss
+Campbell had been feeling rheumatic twinges in her "old joints," as she
+called them, and remained in bed reading an agreeable novel. Once more
+the four friends retired to the library where Mary read aloud and the
+others engaged in various characteristic pursuits. Elinor was
+embroidering a royal coat-of-arms in colored silks on a cushion cover;
+Nancy was darning a rent in a lace flounce and Billie was darning her
+father's socks. This task she undertook each week with extraordinary
+cheerfulness, although Onoye had offered to do it for her, and O'Haru had
+almost taken the darning needle and egg from her by force.
+
+As the hands of the clock neared four, Nancy rose.
+
+"Go on with your reading, Mary," she said. "I need some more thread and I
+shall have to look for it. So don't wait."
+
+"What number do you want?" asked Elinor.
+
+Nancy looked annoyed.
+
+"Oh, something quite fine. I know you haven't it, Elinor."
+
+"Will a hundred do?" asked Elinor, extracting the spool from her neat
+sewing bag.
+
+"That's too fine."
+
+"I have all sizes here."
+
+"Never mind," exclaimed Nancy impatiently, and hastened from the room,
+taking her lace-flounced skirt with her.
+
+"Stubborn person," observed Elinor and once more plunged into her
+aristocratic labors.
+
+Billie grew more and more restless. The book Mary was reading aloud was a
+detective story, lately arrived from America. It had reached a thrilling
+point, but Billie could not fasten her attention.
+
+"I think I'll just be obliged to get out and walk," she burst out
+unexpectedly. "I can't stand this life of inaction a minute longer. Don't
+stop reading on my account, Mary, dear. I don't suppose I could tempt
+either of you two hot-house plants to come with me, could I?"
+
+"Since it's just as hot outside as inside, I don't think you could,"
+answered Elinor.
+
+"Perhaps Nancy will go," thought Billie, hastening down the long hall to
+their joint apartment.
+
+But Nancy was not in the room. Her lace petticoat had been thrown hastily
+on the bed with her sewing box. Billie searched over the entire house for
+her friend without success.
+
+"Funny," she thought, slipping on her over-shoes and raincoat and seizing
+an umbrella from the stand in the passage.
+
+Presently she found herself in the mist-hung garden, and instinctively
+her steps turned toward the little bridge and the shrine to the
+Compassionate God. All the way, she kept thinking:
+
+"What is Nancy-Bell up to? Not that,--surely. Why should she write
+letters that way? Nobody would object to their coming by mail. It's just
+her romantic notions," her thoughts continued as she reached the bridge.
+
+Taking the curved path to the foot of the small embankment, the next
+moment Billie came full upon Nancy and Yoritomo Ito talking earnestly
+together. There was something rather amusing in their appearance, because
+down the ribs of their two umbrellas rivulets of water dripped and
+poured in streams about them.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," exclaimed Billie, the prey to varying emotions:
+embarrassment, hurt feelings, surprise and, it must be confessed, a dash
+of anger.
+
+"Oh, Billie," said Nancy, starting violently, "how you frightened me."
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Ito," said Billie stiffly.
+
+"How do you do, Miss Campbell. We seem to be having several unexpected
+encounters this afternoon. Here was Miss Brown out for a wet stroll on a
+day when ladies usually remain indoors, and now you come, too. American
+young ladies are very athletic."
+
+"It isn't a case of exercise with me, Mr. Ito. I came out really to find
+Nancy," said Billie coldly.
+
+"I shall bid you good afternoon," answered Yoritomo in his most formal
+manner. "I was just taking a short cut. Pardon my trespassing on your
+grounds."
+
+Billie detested untruths and she knew quite well that Yoritomo was not
+speaking the real truth. She looked at Nancy reproachfully.
+
+"Good-bye," she said and turned her back.
+
+Yoritomo made an elaborate bow and departed and Nancy followed Billie
+slowly up the dripping path. Half way back, Billie stopped short and
+wheeled around.
+
+"I should think you'd be ashamed of yourself, Nancy Brown," she
+exclaimed.
+
+Nancy had never seen Billie really angry before and she was frightened at
+the new hard look that had come into the frank gray eyes. But Nancy was
+in no mood to be scolded. The truth is, she had reached a difficult age
+and it was not going to be easy to manage her by lecturing and argument.
+She had an enormous appetite for flattery and the power of her prettiness
+had intoxicated her.
+
+"Oh, I don't suppose you would understand, Billie, even if I tried to
+explain," she answered hotly. "I haven't done anything to be ashamed of."
+
+"Meeting people in the garden secretly isn't anything to be proud of,"
+pursued Billie. "And exchanging letters by a servant," she burst out
+suddenly recalling Onoye's unaccountable trip that morning an the rain.
+"I have been told to warn you not to talk too much to Mr. Ito. He's not
+to be trusted, and I think this a very good time to do it."
+
+Nancy flushed. She was angrier than Billie now. The two girls had turned
+and were facing each other furiously. Billie felt the pulse leap in her
+temples and something gripped her throat. The sensation was so new to her
+that she scarcely knew how to handle it. It was like trying to rein in a
+runaway horse.
+
+"He's just as nice as Nicholas Grimm," cried Nancy. "I should think you'd
+be ashamed to spy on anyone. I never thought it of you."
+
+This statement was so unjust that Billie's rage leaped out of all bounds
+and got beyond her control entirely.
+
+"That is untrue. I did not spy on you. I merely put two and two together
+and guessed the rest. Can you deny it? And do you call it lady-like and
+honorable? I don't. I call it common and horrid."
+
+Billie's voice in her extreme anger was very stern. She carefully avoided
+calling Nancy by name. She felt if she spoke the name of her friend, she
+must cry and not for anything did she want to humble herself just then.
+
+"I tell you I won't explain," ejaculated Nancy. "I've done nothing wrong
+and I think you are very hard and unjust. It's because you are still a
+child about some things, Billie. When you are older and have had more
+experience, you will learn not to be a prig."
+
+Older and more experienced! Now all the saints defend us! Billie laughed
+bitterly. Both girls were on the point of weeping and perhaps, if their
+anger had changed to tears at that moment, much bitterness might have
+been saved them. But they were interrupted by Mr. Campbell, who now
+appeared, walking at a leisurely gait up the path.
+
+"Well, well, children! Here is devotion indeed," he exclaimed when he
+espied his daughter and her friend standing stock still in the pouring
+rain. "So intimate and absorbed in each other's society that you are
+oblivious to the weather! That's the right kind of friendship. I would
+not have it any other way. How are you, little daughter?" he asked,
+kissing Billie and shaking hands with Nancy at the same time. "And how's
+little daughter's friend?"
+
+Not for worlds would they have disclosed the real truth to Mr. Campbell.
+Billie drew her arm through her father's and Nancy followed them to the
+house.
+
+"Do you think the rain will ever let up, Papa?" asked Billie, resting her
+cheek against her father's shoulder.
+
+Nancy felt suddenly frightfully homesick for her own bluff good-natured
+parent.
+
+"Well, it once rained forty days and forty nights, you know," said Mr.
+Campbell. "And what's happened before may happen again."
+
+Habitual wranglers regard quarrels as mere ripples on the surface and
+soon forget about them, but the two girls were unaccustomed to such
+scenes and their feelings were deeply lacerated.
+
+"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath," Billie thought, as she lay
+beside Nancy that night, but she remembered that Nancy had called her
+a spy and her soul was filled with bitterness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+A LETTER THAT CAME THOUGH IT WAS NEVER SENT.
+
+
+The two girls put the width of the bed between them that night. Each lay
+stiffly on the very edge of the mattress and silently pondered over the
+situation. Anger was not a self-indulgence with either of them and the
+attack was so unusual that it left them both unnerved and shaken. Nancy
+had only played with her food at dinner and Billie, who had eaten without
+an appetite, now felt the discomfort of a burning indigestion. At last,
+as the hours dragged on, they fell asleep, each profoundly unhappy.
+
+Long ago the two friends had dropped the formality which usually exists
+between guest and hostess, no matter how intimate. Their relations were
+as those of two sisters. For the Motor Maids had become as one family in
+their wanderings  together. But next morning, Nancy, still feeling the
+sting of fancied wrongs, suddenly recalled the fact that she was
+accepting hospitality from one who no longer liked her. It was all very
+absurd, but so does the young person at the awkward age between girlhood
+and womanhood often exaggerate trivial things and enlarge on fancied
+injustice.
+
+Foolish, pretty Nancy permitted herself to slip into the most extreme
+state of wretchedness. She imagined that her friend, whom in her heart
+she loved devotedly, had treated her with unnecessary cruelty and
+sternness. She got it into her silly little head that Billie had confided
+the meeting in the garden to the others. She was ashamed and mortified
+and she felt indeed that the whole world had turned against her. Mr.
+Campbell was cold to her. Miss Helen Campbell hardly civil Mary and
+Elinor looked at her askance. There was not a word of truth in it, of
+course; it was just a figment of Nancy's morbid imaginings. Miss Campbell
+was bored to extinction with the continued rain. Mr. Campbell was
+preoccupied because of business engagements of great importance, and Mary
+and Elinor, if the truth must be told, were intensely homesick; and who
+would not have been with home on the other side of the world and rain
+pouring ceaselessly on this side? As for Billie, she tried to be exactly
+the same as usual, but the cloud of an unsettled disagreement hovered
+between them.
+
+Therefore after a week of steady rain and black depression which did not
+seem more profound in Nancy than in anyone else, silly little Nancy took
+a bold step. Putting on her overshoes and mackintosh late one afternoon,
+she slipped out of the house and hastened down the avenue. On the road,
+she hailed an empty 'riksha returning from some suburban home and gave
+Mme. Fontaine's address in Tokyo.
+
+Nancy was in search of sympathy and of someone who would tell her she had
+done right when she knew she had done wrong.
+
+Mme. Fontaine was in and would be delighted to see Miss Brown, so she was
+informed at the widow's front door, and Nancy, a little frightened, now
+that the deed was done, was ushered into the beautiful drawing-room.
+
+"Why, you sweet child, this is a great pleasure," exclaimed that lady
+herself, entering at the same moment by another door. "Where are your
+friends? Are you alone?" she added looking around for the others.
+
+"Oh, yes," answered Nancy, embarrassed and agitated.
+
+"Not even the austere old lady who chaperones you?" asked the other
+drawing the young girl down beside her on the couch and looking into the
+blue eyes which suddenly welled up with tears and overflowed,
+
+"Why, my dear, are you unhappy? What is the matter? Tell me all about
+it," ejaculated Mme. Fontaine, unpinning Nancy's hat and drawing the
+curly head down on her shoulder.
+
+So it happened that Nancy Brown unburdened herself to the sympathetic
+Widow of Shanghai, and gave an entirely biased and favorable-to-herself
+account of the incident in the garden.
+
+Mme. Fontaine sat silent for a while after the story was finished, and
+Nancy wondered if the charming new friend had heard what she had been
+saying.
+
+"Do you think Miss Campbell would consent to let you make a visit,
+Nancy?" she asked presently, calling her Nainsi, as if it were a French
+name.
+
+Nancy drooped her long lashes.
+
+"I don't know," she answered.
+
+Mme. Fontaine gave one of her inscrutable Mona Lisa smiles and rose from
+the couch.
+
+"We will try her and see. Does she know you were out walking?"
+
+"No," answered Nancy struggling to keep back her tears.
+
+"Does anyone in the house know?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+The widow sat down at a carved desk inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and
+wrote the following note:
+
+"My dear Miss Campbell:
+
+"I trust you will not think I have been unpardonably presumptuous in
+keeping one of your girls over night with me. She had evidently set out
+for a long walk and chance brought us together. The child was wet and
+tired and I have kept her for tea. As the rain is still pouring, she has
+consented to remain over night with your permission which I cannot but
+feel sure will be granted under the circumstances. With the very kindest
+regards for you and your household, I am,
+
+"Faithfully yours,
+
+"ANIELA FONTAINE."
+
+Never was cordial and polite note couched in more non-committal language.
+It was sent out by a messenger and Miss Campbell sat painfully up in bed
+to read it. Both knees and one wrist were swathed in bandages of
+wintergreen liniment and a hot water bottle lay against one hip,
+
+"Why, I didn't know the child had left the house," she exclaimed, when
+she had finished reading the letter and passed it on to the three
+remaining Motor Maids. "How did she happen to go alone on a tramp like
+that? What am I to do? I can't order her to return without being
+exceedingly rude, but I do wish Nancy hadn't been so reckless. She ought
+never to have left the grounds alone. Surely the garden is quite large
+enough for exercising in, if anyone wanted to make the effort."
+
+The little spinster groaned and slipped down among her pillows again.
+
+The girls were silent. Mary secretly sympathized with Nancy. It would be
+rather fascinating to spend a night in the widow's interesting home.
+Elinor disapproved slightly at this unconventional visit, but it is
+doubtful if she would have declined the invitation if she had been in
+Nancy's place. As for Billie, she was puzzled and unhappy. She felt sure
+that there was something back of the departure of her friend. She wished
+with all her heart they had made up their differences. She yearned for
+Nancy and her soul was filled with forebodings. She felt somehow as if
+Nancy had died. That night, with the sheet over her head, she indulged in
+a fit of weeping and resolved to settle all differences the first moment
+they could get alone.
+
+Why should Nancy Brown have unexpectedly grown up like this and become so
+independent and secretive? Elinor, the eldest of the four girls, had
+never shown a disposition to have affairs and write notes. For her part,
+Billie would have liked to go on in the same jolly old way forever, with
+or without beaux. It was all one to her. But Nancy was different. The
+society of her friends was no longer an unmixed pleasure and she was
+beginning to crave more excitement and admiration than was good for her.
+
+The next day was like a dozen of its fellows, wet and muggy. The roads
+were too slippery for the "Comet," and as Miss Campbell still kept her
+bed with rheumatism, it was decided that Billie should go alone for Nancy
+in a 'riksha.
+
+She was so eager to make up with her friend, that she felt as if the
+reconciliation had already taken place and her faithful heart was filled
+with happiness. She had made up her mind to humble herself by offering
+Nancy an apology. After all, was it the act of true friendship to pick
+out all the defects and flaws in a friend's nature?
+
+"A real friend is blind to everything but the best in another friend,"
+reasoned Billie, as her 'riksha splashed along the road, drawn by
+Komatsu.
+
+So, prepared to embrace Nancy tenderly and let bygones be bygones, Billie
+could scarcely wait to leap down from the 'riksha and ring the widow's
+bell. The house had a shut-up appearance, but all Japanese houses look
+thus in rainy weather. Somehow, Billie's inflated enthusiasm received a
+prick when the bell echoed through the rooms with a hollow, empty sound.
+She waited impatiently but no one came to answer it. Usually Mme.
+Fontaine's well-trained maid was bowing and smiling almost before the
+vibrations of the bell had ceased. Billie rang again and again, and
+still there was no answer. She walked around the side of the house and
+peered through the slats of the Venetian blinds but all was dark within.
+
+What could it mean? Where was Nancy? Where was Mme. Fontaine?
+
+"Oh, dear; oh, dear," ejaculated Billie, wiping away the tears that would
+trickle down her cheeks.
+
+But of course they had gone shopping, and the maid was at market,
+perhaps. That was the only explanation.
+
+There was a bench on the piazza and Billie sat down to wait. Komatsu
+stood patiently under his oiled paper umbrella which he always placed in
+the bottom of the 'riksha in bad weather.
+
+Exactly one hour they waited and at last Billie, disconsolate and
+disappointed, returned to the 'riksha and ordered Komatsu to take her to
+some of the shops. Everywhere she watched for the familiar gleam of
+Nancy's blue mackintosh, but there was no sign of it anywhere. Finally
+they returned to Mme. Fontaine's house, to find it still closed.
+
+"Komatsu, where are they?" asked Billie desperately.
+
+"Not know, but honorable young lady not look inside?"
+
+"I can't get inside. The doors are locked. Besides, I don't like to break
+in on a private house like a burglar."
+
+But to the Japanese the end justifies the means, and being on a search
+for Nancy, Komatsu was willing to go to any strategic lengths to find
+her.
+
+"All same look and see," he said and together they followed the gallery
+around the entire house.
+
+"Komatsu make to go up," he said after a fruitless search for an
+entrance. He pointed to one of the slender pillars which upheld the roof
+of the lower gallery forming the floor of the upper one. The next moment
+he had shinned up the pole and Billie could hear him walking softly on
+the wooden floor above. Presently he returned and placed in Billie's lap
+the fragments of a letter which had been pieced together and pasted on
+a sheet of paper.
+
+"Top muchly more easy than bottom," he said smiling. "Empty house but all
+same muchly inside."
+
+Billie glanced hastily at the scraps of paper and saw her own name in one
+corner.
+
+"Why, it's to me," she exclaimed, and sitting on the bench, she began to
+decipher the pieced letter.
+
+"Dear Billie:
+
+"Since you all hate and disapprove of me, I do not wish to stay with you
+any longer. You have been anything but a friend to me, but I will not say
+anything more about that. I will only say that I can never forgive what
+you said to me the other day. I think I have outgrown you. You are just a
+child still and it will be a long time before you understand the ways of
+the world, or sympathize with me when I say that I want to broaden my
+life. Now, Mme. Fontaine, who knows everything, has promised--"
+
+Here the letter broke off.
+
+On the other side of the sheet were some more fragments of paper
+carefully pieced together.
+
+"--do not wish to stay because--father's work--he should not--Mme.
+Fontaine thinks--"
+
+Billie folded the paper and slipped it into her pocket. Tears were
+rolling down her cheeks and she felt suddenly stiff and tired. Komatsu
+regarded her from a distance with respectful sympathy.
+
+"Back home," she ordered, and all the way she indulged in the bitterest
+weeping she had ever known in her life.
+
+"Nancy, Nancy, how could you?" she kept repeating to herself.
+
+Before she reached the house she dried her eyes and leaning out of the
+'riksha let the rain beat against her face.
+
+"I must think of something to tell them," she said to herself. "What did
+she mean about Papa's work?"
+
+Again Billie read the last part of the note.
+
+"I believe it's that woman who made her do this," she cried out suddenly.
+"She worked her up to the point--'broaden her life'--'papa's work,' and
+all that. How could Nancy have thought of such things? And then after
+Nancy wrote the letter she repented--or perhaps the widow wouldn't let
+her send it--but how did it happen to be pieced together like this?"
+
+It was all very puzzling and strange. Billie wanted time to think about
+it and work it out in her own mind, and she was sorry when at last
+Komatsu came to a full stop at their own front door. Slowly she descended
+and walked into the house. Suddenly there was a cry of joy from the back.
+It was the other girls rushing to meet Nancy who had not come, Billie
+thought miserably.
+
+And, lo, it was Nancy herself, laughing and crying at once and embracing
+her beloved Billie, as if they had been separated for a year and a day.
+
+"Where did you come from?" Billie managed to gasp in a bewildered voice.
+
+"I got back a little while ago and oh, I've been so homesick. Are you
+glad to see me, Billie, dearest?"
+
+"I should think I was," said Billie, kissing Nancy's soft round cheek.
+"It seems an age instead of just one night."
+
+"Mme. Fontaine invited me to make her a visit," went on Nancy, "but--but
+I was too lonesome--I never slept a wink last night."
+
+"We are all of us quite jealous of you, Nancy," put in Mary, who, with
+Elinor, had come upon the scene a moment before.
+
+Billie put her hand in her pocket and felt the pieced-together letter. It
+almost seemed like a bad dream now.
+
+"So you decided to come back to us, Nancy?" she asked, trying to smile
+naturally.
+
+"If I almost passed away from homesickness in one night, how should I
+have borne it for--for longer?" answered Nancy, flushing.
+
+"We missed you terribly," was all Billie could trust herself to say as
+she hurried to her room to take off her wet things.
+
+Just then Onoye sounded the Japanese chimes to announce that luncheon was
+served and presently they were all assembled around the table.
+
+But never a word did Nancy say about the torn letter which some one had
+so carefully pieced together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE ANCIENT CITY OF SLEEP.
+
+
+"How would four young parties and another younger party, who claims to be
+old and rheumatic, but isn't, like to take a trip?" asked Mr. Campbell
+one evening at dinner.
+
+Through the inky curtain of blackness that had for days overcast the
+skies the sun had at last burst with a radiance that seemed twice as
+great to unaccustomed eyes. From somewhere a life-giving breeze had
+sprung up and driven away the vapors. Back rolled the walls of mist and
+fog, and in a few hours the world became a smiling paradise of flowers
+and of grass and foliage of intensest green.
+
+Immediately the aspect of life changed. Four young parties and a party
+who claimed to be old but wasn't were eager for anything that would
+furnish variety after the late monotony of existence.
+
+"I feel," said Mr. Campbell, "that we have all been suffering from
+certain states of mind that about match the 'Comet's' disguise, and it
+occurred to me that a change of air would be beneficial."
+
+"And will the 'Cornet' go, too?" asked Billie.
+
+"I'm afraid the 'Comet' is not built for mountain roads in Japan, little
+daughter," answered her father. "We'll go by train and then by
+jinrikshas, much as I regret to leave your gasoline pet behind."
+
+"But where are we going?" asked Miss Campbell, in a tone of noble
+resignation, so chastened were her high spirits by the pains of
+rheumatism.
+
+"I am going to take you to Nikko to spend a few days, and in order to
+liven up things a bit the boys are coming, too, even old Mr. Buxton."
+
+"Is--" began Nancy, and checked herself.
+
+"Well, Miss Nancy, 'is' what?" asked Mr. Campbell, smiling.
+
+Billie knew perfectly well that Nancy was going to say: "Is Yoritomo
+going?" but had changed her mind, when she asked instead:
+
+"Is Nikko a town?"
+
+"It's a number of things. It's considered by some people to be the most
+beautiful place in the world, for one thing. It's a small town; it's a
+magnificent forest of cryptomerias; and it's a sacred mountain, and a
+collection of marvelous old temples and tombs and statues of Buddha.
+But first and foremost it is a cool, green, lovely spot with good, dry,
+pine-scented air for certain persons feeling in need of such."
+
+If Mr. Campbell had a fault it was that when he decided to do a thing he
+wanted to do it at once. Having been a man of camps and considerable
+lonely wanderings about the world, he had been able to gratify this
+tendency to decide and act quickly. But it was not so simple with a
+party of women, and when he announced that they were to start next
+morning early there was some silent consternation among them.
+
+However, such was the force of Mr. Campbell's personality when he
+announced a decision that not even that fearless and redoubtable woman,
+Helen Campbell, had the courage to raise any objections. It was true she
+had engaged a masseuse at eleven o'clock; the laundry had not been
+finished; certain persons had planned to shampoo heads, and Mme. Fontaine
+had asked permission to call in the afternoon.
+
+"All of which things must be postponed and overlooked," thought Miss
+Campbell.
+
+Mr. Campbell had hired a villa for their short stay. Komatsu was to go
+along as cook and to carry excess luggage. And they were to take a train
+at the unearthly hour of eight o'clock a.m., which meant rising at an
+even more unearthly hour; all of which to a great engineer was a mere
+trifle.
+
+But who could be in a bad humor on such a glorious morning? Moreover,
+several funny things happened which set them all laughing as they started
+off. Komatsu appeared, strung with cooking utensils like a tin man.
+
+"Not muchly good in a renting-house. Komatsu take honorable saucepan," he
+explained.
+
+In his arms, beside the luncheon hamper, he bore also a beautiful bunch
+of lilies.
+
+As they climbed into their 'rikshas they were aware of the sound of
+clipping, and glancing toward the summer-house, beheld twelve old women
+cutting the grass with large shears. Most of them were widows, as could
+readily be seen by their short hair. Their worn old faces were wreathed
+in smiles, when they presently touched their foreheads to the grass in
+profound obeisances.
+
+"The dear old things," cried Miss Campbell. "O'Haru, do see that they
+have a good lunch."
+
+No need to give such a command to O'Haru. Refreshments are always given
+to persons who come in for a day's work in a private place in Japan.
+
+The next amusing incident was the appearance of the old gardener, Saiki,
+who came running around the house grasping a bunch of roses.
+
+Giving Mr. Campbell the largest and most beautiful, he divided the others
+among the ladies.
+
+"Honorable flower for looking on train," he said, with his inimitable
+smile.
+
+And so, at last they started. All the servants lined up to bid them a
+respectful farewell. Billie, turning around, saw them gathered in a group
+on the piazza, fading into spots of bright color in the distance, with
+the old grass-cutters' robes making a splash of sky blue on the lawn.
+
+"Oh, Nancy," she exclaimed, "there never were such people as the
+Japanese, so simple and adorable."
+
+Nancy, engaged in pinning a rose on the lapel of her coat and looking at
+the effect with her pocket mirror, made no reply.
+
+At the railroad station they were met by Reggie, Nicholas and Mr. Buxton.
+Everybody was in the wildest spirits because of the change in the
+weather, and as they crowded, laughing and jostling each other, into the
+train, the Japanese travelers smiled good-naturedly. They liked to see
+Americans enjoying the country.
+
+Scarcely had they settled themselves in the train when they became aware
+that two Japanese women were smiling and bowing repeatedly in the most
+cordial manner.
+
+"Why, it's Mme. Ito," exclaimed Miss Campbell.
+
+"And O'Kami San," finished Mary, who remembered names for everybody.
+
+"Are you going to Nikko, too, O'Kami San?" asked Billie, sitting beside
+the pretty little Japanese.
+
+O'Kami San looked much embarrassed and hung her head.
+
+"Make honorable journey to husband's home," she said in a low voice.
+
+"Have you been getting married?" demanded Billie, astonished.
+
+"Yesterdays passing four," answered O'Kami San.
+
+"You mean four days ago?"
+
+"Yes, honorable Mees Cam-el."
+
+Both Japanese women were beautifully dressed and it came out during the
+conversation that the young bride was wearing no less than five elaborate
+kimonos.
+
+"But why?" demanded Billie.
+
+O'Kami San explained that it was to avoid the inconveniences of luggage.
+They were going to a little town in the hills and it would be difficult
+to carry trunks.
+
+Around her head the bride wore a broad band of pink silk, almost covering
+her hair, to keep the horns of jealousy from growing.
+
+Billie looked at her pityingly.
+
+"Poor little thing," she thought. "Why doesn't that good-for-nothing
+brother teach her something? It doesn't seem to me that his schooling did
+him any good. He's so fanatical and bigoted."
+
+"I hope you will be very happy, O'Kami San," said Mary. "I believe you
+said there was no mother-in-law."
+
+"Not no mother-in-law," answered the bride, in the tone of one describing
+a great blessing. "Honorable husband of age like mother-in-law."
+
+"You mean your husband is not young?"
+
+O'Kami San nodded.
+
+"Verily old," she said, with just the faintest quiver at the corners of
+her mouth.
+
+Mary and Billie regarded her with compassion. How little romance there
+was in a Japanese girl's life! O'Kami San, so young and pretty and
+charming, too, was about to enter into years of drudgery perhaps; the
+wife of a cranky old man, and here she was accepting her fate as calmly
+as a novitiate about to take the vows for life and enter a convent.
+
+"New husband much rich," she said. "Much old. Need attentionly young
+wife."
+
+Only once did O'Kami San glance at the two handsome young men who
+belonged to the Campbell party. But Nicholas, always gallant and
+thoughtful, helped Mme. Ito and her daughter to alight at the way-station
+where they were to change cars, while Reggie carried their small
+belongings and placed them on the platform.
+
+"God bless you, O'Kami San," called Billie, leaning far out of the
+window. And if the little Japanese girl did not understand the meaning of
+the salutation she comprehended the spirit of it.
+
+"Receive thanks," she said formally, her eyes glistening suspiciously.
+Then she gave the Japanese farewell, "Sayonara" (since it must be), and
+waved her little hands until the train was out of sight.
+
+Billie watched her sadly. The lines of the five kimonos, which could be
+distinctly counted where they crossed at her neck, seemed to symbolize
+the heavy marriage yoke the little bride had slipped so uncomplainingly
+over her head, and as for that pink silk head band to keep down the horns
+of jealousy, it might just as well have been an iron band with spikes in
+it, for all the sentiment and romance it represented. But little O'Kami
+San had gone up into the hills to her aged husband, and if she guessed
+that there was anything brighter and happier than just being an
+"attentionly wife" to an old man, she never murmured. No one has ever
+plumbed the depths of unselfishness and self-sacrifice of the little
+Japanese wife.
+
+During the last few miles of the journey they left the train and took to
+jinrikshas. Along a magnificent avenue they rode, built through a forest
+of cryptomerias towering one hundred and eighty feet high, some of them
+with trunks thirty feet in diameter. They were like the columns of a
+gigantic cathedral of which the sky was the dome.
+
+After refreshing themselves with tea at their little villa and removing
+the grime of the journey, the travelers wandered off into the ancient
+forest, cool and gray and very still, except for the sound of the wind
+whispering through the pine trees.
+
+Terraced stairways of gray stone climb up the mountainside from temple to
+temple and court to court. Over a busy little river hung the scarlet
+bridge of beauty which no profane foot may ever touch, only the Emperor's
+consecrated feet. No human hand has mended the sacred bridge for nearly
+three centuries, but it is said to be in perfect repair.
+
+Passing along the temples and shrines that crowded one another on the
+hillside, they came at last to a row of images of Buddha, innumerable
+stone statues of the god, his kindly, gentle face almost obliterated by
+spray from the river and a soft mantle of moss. There is a tradition
+which says that no two people have ever counted these images with the
+same results, and while the others wandered up the next terraced flight
+of steps, Billie and Mary remained to count the Buddhas.
+
+The loud song of the little river rushing by them dazed their senses and
+when they reached the end Billie had counted eighty and Mary only
+seventy-five.
+
+"Let's try again," said Billie; once more they followed the interminable
+line and once more there was a wide discrepancy between the results.
+
+For the third time they started the count, and finally came as near as
+seventy-eight and seventy-nine; but the act of counting and recounting
+had a curious effect on their senses. It seemed to make them very sleepy,
+or perhaps it was the magic of that ancient place, the monotonous song
+of the torrent and the cool gray shadows in the depths of the forest
+where the sun never penetrated.
+
+"Do you know, Billie, I think I'll have to rest a moment before we join
+the others," said Mary, leading the way up the hillside and sitting down
+under a giant pine tree. "I'm almost paralyzed with sleep."
+
+"I feel the same way," answered Billie drowsily. "We can catch up with
+them later. Suppose we take a little repose, as a French lady I knew used
+to say."
+
+The two girls removed their hats, and making pillows of their jackets
+they stretched themselves on the soft carpet of pine needles. Presently,
+lulled by the monotonous water song and the murmur of the wind through
+the trees, they dropped off into a sleep so profound and deep that they
+did not hear the voices of their friends returning to search for them.
+
+The enchantment of centuries had woven its net about their feet and
+stilled their senses; for Nikko is called the "City of Rest," and an
+endless number of saints and holy men who once lived and prayed among its
+groves now sleep there.
+
+The two young girls sank deeper and deeper into the peaceful sleep which
+the atmosphere of Nikko breathes. Their souls seemed to have entered the
+region of the most profound rest that may come to a living person.
+
+And while they slept the sun sank and the twilight of the forest faded
+into night. But the searchers had taken the wrong path and their cries
+grew fainter and fainter as they ranged the mountainside for the lost
+girls. Among the trees their paper lanterns glowed like fireflies and
+occasionally there was a long cry: "A-hai!"
+
+But Buddha himself must have placed the seal of sleep on the young girls'
+eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE STORM KING.
+
+
+While two of the Motor Maids slept in the sacred wood on the mountain two
+others rested in one of the bedrooms of the villa straining their ears
+for sounds of the returning search party. It was only eight o'clock, but
+Miss Campbell, worn out with excitement and fatigue, had already dropped
+off to sleep in the next room.
+
+Nancy was quietly and softly weeping, her face buried in her pillow, and
+Elinor lay staring into the darkness. Mr. Campbell had assured them
+that the girls could not be lost for long, and that the only mishap that
+could possibly come to them in that holy place was sleeping under the
+pine trees; but he could not conceal the anxiety he really felt, the
+anxiety of a father for his only daughter, the being he loved best in all
+the world.
+
+Nancy had felt the anxiety, too, and remorse had entered into her soul;
+not because she had met Yoritomo in the garden and exchanged notes with
+him in a romantic manner, the notes having been hidden under a stone near
+the old shrine, for she was beginning dimly to realize that such things
+were only silly and common. Her remorse was caused by something else more
+remote in her consciousness but looming bigger all the time. The cruel
+letter she had written to Billie in anger and then torn into pieces and
+thrown into a brass vase in Mme. Fontaine's drawing-room! Why had she
+been so angry? She could not understand it now. She only knew that the
+longer she poured her troubles into Mme. Fontaine's ears the more
+sympathetic the widow became until Nancy was worked into a perfect rage.
+As for the widow, she had said very little indeed, only a few words now
+and then, vague, suggestive remarks, but they had set Nancy thinking; had
+stirred her up so violently, indeed, that she had written that foolish
+letter. There had been no waste basket by the desk and Nancy, after a
+wretched sleepless night, had torn up the letter and dropped it in the
+nearest vase. Why had she not torn it into smaller bits? Why had she not
+burned it in a charcoal brazier? Why had she ever written it at all?
+Why--why--? A dozen whys flashed through her troubled mind. She would
+never rest again until she knew the letter had been entirely destroyed,
+reduced to ashes. Out of this long train of unhappy thought a resolution
+came to Nancy to write to Mme. Fontame and ask her to find the letter and
+burn it up. This she accordingly did a few days after the visit to Nikko,
+and of what came of it more will be told later.
+
+In the meantime, while Nancy, goaded by a troubled conscience was weeping
+abundantly into her pillow, Billie and little Mary Price lay sleeping
+peacefully in the great cathedral forest.
+
+Precisely at the moment that Nancy's disturbed fancies had taken the form
+of a resolution Billie and Mary opened their eyes on a world of velvety
+blackness. Straight overhead through the lacework of intertwined boughs
+gleamed an occasional tiny star, like the light shining through a pin
+prick in a black curtain. Scarcely two hours had passed since they had
+slipped into the unknown, and now sitting up and rubbing their eyes, they
+wondered where in the world they were. Hearing Mary stirring beside her
+in the dark, Billie put out a hand and grasped Mary's groping to meet it.
+The two friends sat silently for a few minutes. At last Billie said
+softly:
+
+"What are we going to do, Mary, dear?"
+
+"I am thinking of what they are going to do," answered Mary. "How
+frightened they will be about us, Billie! As for me, I can't help feeling
+happy out in this dark peaceful place. I should like to lie here all
+night and watch the dawn come through the trees."
+
+All of which was extremely poetic, but Billie had become suddenly prosaic
+at the thought of her father, wild with anxiety she was certain,
+searching the terraced mountainside for them at the risk of falling off a
+precipice or tumbling into the river. Besides, at that moment, she felt a
+puff of hot wind in her face, and immediately was conscious that she was
+very thirsty and that the palms of her hands were dry and burning.
+
+"Don't you think it's very hot, Mary?" she whispered. "I feel as if I had
+been baked brown in an oven."
+
+"The wind has changed," answered Mary. "It was cool and sweet when we
+dropped off, and now it's like a wind that's blown over a desert."
+
+Through the forest came a murmur like thousands of voices gathering in
+strength and volume all the time. The gigantic pillars of the cathedral
+began swaying and tossing their arched boughs and the whole mountain
+seemed to resound with strange sounds, cries and calls, grindings and
+poundings. The pin prick stars disappeared and the place was as black as
+the pit.
+
+The two girls rose quickly and clasped hands again.
+
+"I think we'd better go straight down," said Billie. "We're obliged to
+strike a path somewhere and perhaps we may find a temple or a tomb or a
+pagoda or something. Anything to get away from that awful thing that's
+coming, whatever it is."
+
+Fortunately the act of descending gave them a sense of direction. Many
+times they fell, skinning their shins and their foreheads against trees,
+but they picked themselves up again, entirely unconscious of bruises, and
+ran on as fast as they could go with the hot devastating wind behind
+them. Suddenly the whole mountainside was illuminated by a flash of
+lightning, like a jagged stream of fire stretching from heaven to earth.
+A deafening roar of thunder followed. Then all the forest seemed to be
+perfectly quiet. Such a stillness settled over the place that the girls
+stopped and held their breath.
+
+"Look," whispered Billie, pointing to a strange looking light coming
+rapidly nearer, wobbling and undulating like the light on the bow of a
+ship in a rough ocean. Then came another terrifying flash of lightning,
+and thunder that seemed to rock the whole world. The two girls rushed
+toward the friendly light with one accord, and collided with the bearer
+with such force that three persons were precipitated with unintentionally
+devotional attitudes at the foot of a shrine of Buddha.
+
+"By Jove, but this is luck," called a familiar voice.
+
+It was Nicholas Grimm, who calmly picked up himself and then his
+oil-paper lantern attached to the end of a slender wand; next he helped
+the girls to their feet.
+
+"Take an arm, each one of you. There's no time to lose. The thing that's
+coming, whatever it is, will get here in a minute now."
+
+Running like mad, on the very wings of the wind, the three young people
+followed the windings of the path and presently came up short on a small
+temple, the tomb of some holy personage. Into this they rushed without
+ceremony just as the storm burst with all its fury, and crouching in a
+corner just out of reach of the rain, they listened to the howls and
+shrieks of the wind.
+
+"It's just like some live thing," remarked Mary after a while. "I feel as
+if some terrible demon lived up in a cave in the mountain, and when he is
+angry he comes down and lashes the earth and shakes the mountain."
+
+Mary's poetic notion of storms in that region was not so far removed from
+the Japanese legends.
+
+"You struck the nail on the head that time, Miss Price," said Nicholas.
+"There is an extinct volcano over here in the northeast and in its side
+is a huge cavern. People around here used to believe that all these
+frightful storms issued from the cavern. Every spring and every fall
+there was a perfectly corking one that tore up the whole place, and they
+called the mountain 'Ni-Ko San,' or Two-Storm Mountain. Then an old party
+who was a saint, I believe, and very wise, placed a curse on the storm
+demon and named the place 'Nikko San,' Mountain of the Sun's Brightness."
+
+"The demon seems to have returned," remarked Billie.
+
+"Oh, he did. That was the point. The magic curse had to be repeated every
+year, and the saint gave the receipt to a priest and it was handed down
+from one generation to another in the priest's family for nearly nine
+hundred years, but the demon still pursued, as you have probably
+observed."
+
+They were all silent for a while. Mary was making a picture in her mind
+of the aged priest in his white robes standing like a midget on the side
+of the vast mountain exorcising the storm king. That personage, she
+imagined, was a gigantic figure formed principally of black clouds with a
+terrifying human countenance. Every breath was a whirlwind or a hailstorm
+and when he struck the side of the mountain with his staff the lightning
+flashed--
+
+Here Mary's thoughts were interrupted by just such a flash uncomfortably
+near.
+
+Billie leaped to her feet.
+
+"Oh, Nicholas," she cried, "do you think Papa could still be looking for
+me? Suppose he should be out now in all this frightful wind! I hadn't
+thought of it until this moment."
+
+"He'll be all right, Miss Billie," answered Nicholas soothingly. "Don't
+you worry."
+
+"Don't you tell me not to worry," cried Billie, almost angrily. "Do you
+think Papa would look after himself if he thought I was lost on the
+mountain? Oh, heavens, why did we count those old broken statues?"
+
+Nicholas laughed.
+
+"Excuse me," he said, choking back his amusement at sight of Billie's
+reproachful eyes which even the dim lantern light could not hide. "What
+are you going to do?" he added, as Billie seized the lantern from his
+hand.
+
+"I'm going to wave this at the door and yell with all my strength until I
+haven't any voice left. If Papa is anywhere near he may see it and come
+straight here."
+
+Nicholas, who, having also had much training in camps and outdoor life,
+had not felt the least uneasiness about Mr. Campbell's safety, now
+quietly took the lantern from Billie and began waving it to and fro at
+the door, while they both shouted again and again. But their voices were
+lost in the roar of the tempest. Billie stifled a sob.
+
+"Papa!" she whispered to herself. "Dearest, dearest Papa!"
+
+While she spoke a flash of lightning lit up the side of the mountain, and
+in that momentary illumination Billie saw her father toiling up the path
+against the wind and rain.
+
+"Papa, Papa!" she shrieked, seizing the lantern and waving it wildly back
+and forth.
+
+"Halloo!" yelled Nicholas, and then there came an answering shout, a
+really human cry this time, and after several breathless moments of
+waiting Mr. Campbell staggered into the temple.
+
+Nicholas and Mary turned their faces away at sight of his emotion when he
+found his daughter in his arms. He actually buried his face on her
+shoulder and wept like a child.
+
+"I was beginning to think I was never going to see you again,
+sweetheart," he said brokenly.
+
+It gave Mary a lonesome, remote feeling. She drew away from the others
+into a corner of the temple and rested her chin on her hands.
+
+"I wonder how it would feel to have some one big and strong and--and
+handsome to love and protect one like that," she thought contemplatively.
+
+Just then a figure staggered into the circle of light cast by the
+lantern. It was Mr. Buxton.
+
+"Good evening," he said. "Delightful weather, isn't it? Suppose we shed a
+little light on Carlton's path," he added calmly, holding the light to
+the door. Reggie was close behind his friend, however, and with feelings
+of enormous relief, the little company proceeded to sit down on the floor
+and relate their experiences.
+
+"It all really happened," remarked Mary, after Billie had confessed the
+cause of all the trouble, "because we tried to count the four hundred
+statues of Buddha and never got the same answer twice, and he naturally
+didn't like it, and I suppose he put us to sleep and summoned the
+Storm King--"
+
+"No, child," interrupted Mr. Buxton, "I am sorry to disabuse your
+romantic young mind, but it really happened because the pressure of the
+coming storm had a stupefying effect. Buddha was a very high-minded
+gentleman. He would never have taken offence over such a trivial matter."
+
+"Don't contradict her, Buxton," said Mr. Campbell. "You have no
+imagination to comprehend the supernatural, anyhow."
+
+"It would be supernatural for two women to count alike," answered the
+incorrigible bachelor, who would have the last word.
+
+Gradually the storm spent its fury, and by midnight they were able to
+return to the little villa. Except for a few scratches and bruises, the
+only important result of the Storm King's visit was Nancy's determination
+to write a letter to Mme. Fontaine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A VISIT OF CEREMONY.
+
+
+The most unhappy person in the whole of fair Japan was Miss Nancy Brown
+one lovely morning in July. At least she thought she was; which is very
+near to being the same thing. She had dispatched a letter to Mme.
+Fontaine and received an answer that the brass vase by the writing desk
+was now empty--a curious way to put it, Nancy thought, and one which did
+not quiet her uneasiness in the least. In return for this bit of
+information the Widow of Shanghai asked a strange favor of Nancy, one
+which puzzled and troubled her considerably. But it was a simple request
+and Nancy could not see any reason for declining to grant it.
+
+So, Mistress Nancy was the prey to indefinable anxieties and vague
+forebodings. Everybody had noticed her sadness. Mr. Campbell had spoken
+of it with concern and had promised to take them all on another trip to
+the mountains.
+
+"The heat is too much for the child," he had remarked to his cousin. "I
+didn't realize she was such a fragile little thing. Even Mary Price seems
+more robust."
+
+"She never was a fragile little thing before, Duncan," answered Miss
+Campbell. "I always thought that Billie and Nancy had unlimited
+endurance. The other girls are much more delicate. Do you suppose Nancy
+has anything on her mind?"
+
+Mr. Campbell shook his head. It was impossible for him to think that any
+of those light-hearted creatures could have troubles. They had nothing to
+think about but their own pleasures; nothing to do but enjoy the house
+and the garden, the tea parties and excursions. Their happy laughter and
+gay chatter, floating to him through the open window of his library did
+not carry a single note of sadness; for Nancy had tried to cover her
+unhappiness under a cloak of forced gaiety; but she could not hide her
+tragic little face, nor the pathetic droop of her lips and the circles
+under her eyes.
+
+"I can never look Billie in the face again," she had said to herself a
+hundred times. "I almost feel as if I had murdered somebody and hidden
+the body away. Nobody knows about the letter but it's just as bad as if
+they did. I believe I couldn't be more miserable if I had sent it to
+Billie. Thinking is just as bad as saying things out loud, and writing
+them seems to make it even worse."
+
+Furthermore, Onoye had been acting very strangely toward Nancy lately.
+Twice she had come and stood before the American girl with downcast eyes
+and twice tried to say something, failed and slipped quietly away.
+
+On this wonderful Sunday morning, when the world seemed indescribably
+fresh and fair after the recent rains, only Nancy was sad. Mary, who had
+blossomed into a flower herself in the soft warm air of Japan, was fairly
+dancing along the walk.
+
+"There is so much to do," she cried. "I haven't a moment to spare. The
+red lilies are in bloom. They all live together in a place near the old
+shrine. Saiki says if the weather keeps on like this the lotus flowers in
+the pond will open. Over against the old south wall there is a climbing
+rose bush that is a perfect marvel. You see, Saiki tells me all the
+secrets of the garden. He and I are the most devoted friends."
+
+The girls smiled indulgently at Mary, who seemed to them to have
+developed in a few weeks from a timid, shrinking little soul with a tinge
+of sadness in her nature into the most joyous being.
+
+"Go on and tell us some more," put in Elinor. "I like to hear all this
+garden gossip. You'll be hearing the secret the white rose whispered to
+the red next; and how the sensitive plant shrank when she heard the news,
+and the lilies shut up--"
+
+"And the flags waved and the grasses drew their blades, and the trees
+barked and the cow slips and the bull rushes--" cried Billie. And they
+all burst into absurd laughter, that is, all except Nancy, who felt
+immensely remote from this foolish, pleasant talk.
+
+"It will never do for you to be a teacher, Mary, dearest," said Elinor.
+"You'd simply fade and droop in a schoolroom. We'll just have to look up
+some other occupation for you. If I had my way with Providence you should
+do nothing but play in a garden all your days in a land of perpetual
+summer."
+
+"I am afraid I should have to pass into another world to accomplish
+anything so wonderful," laughed Mary. "It sounds a good deal like
+Paradise to me, and I haven't learned to play my harp yet. I would never
+be admitted into such a beautiful garden until I had learned to play real
+music on the harp, and not discords."
+
+Mary often spoke in metaphors like this, which half puzzled, half amused
+her friends.
+
+"I never heard you strike a discord, Mary, dear," Nancy observed sadly,
+when Billie interrupted:
+
+"Canst tell me who that grand personage is riding up the avenue?"
+
+In a jinriksha drawn by one man, while two others ran in front to clear
+the way of imaginary obstacles, since there were no real ones, sat a
+magnificent person clad in full Japanese regalia. He wore a robe of dark
+rich colors, but the girls could not see his face, which was hidden by a
+parasol.
+
+"I think Nankipooh has come to call," whispered Billie, as the vehicle
+drew near.
+
+The girls hid themselves behind a clump of shrubbery and peeped through
+the branches.
+
+"He's bringing gifts," whispered Elinor.
+
+The 'riksha had drawn up at the piazza and the two runners, after the
+personage in fancy dress had descended, lifted out a very aged and no
+doubt extremely costly dwarfed apple tree growing in a green vase, and a
+lacquered box.
+
+One of the ever-watchful domestics opened the door and into the hall
+stalked the visitor, followed by his retainers.
+
+"I think he must be a messenger from the Emperor, nothing less," said
+Billie. "He's so awfully grand."
+
+"Perhaps he's the Mikado himself," said Mary.
+
+The others laughed again and even Nancy forgot her troubles and joined
+in.
+
+"I declare I feel as if I had settled down to live on a Japanese fan,"
+continued Billie. "Everything is like a decoration. I can't imagine
+anything really serious ever happening, it's all so gay and pretty and
+the people are like dolls."
+
+"Here comes one of your live dolls," observed Mary, pointing to Onoye,
+who was hastening toward them down the path, the skirts of her flowered
+kimono blowing about her ankles as she walked.
+
+She made straight for the group of girls and falling on her knees before
+Nancy, touched her forehead to the ground.
+
+"What is it, Onoye?" asked Nancy, blushing and paling and blushing again
+with some hidden emotion.
+
+"Gracious lady, warn-ings," she began slowly, as if she had just learned
+the words from a book.
+
+"What on earth?" Nancy asked.
+
+"Gracious lady, warn-ings," repeated Onoye, in a monotonous voice.
+
+"What do you mean, Onoye?" demanded Billie. "Don't kneel. Stand up and
+tell us all about it."
+
+"No explaining words to make understanding. Make prayer to honorable Mees
+Nancee."
+
+"But what about?" asked Nancy, puzzled and troubled at the same time.
+
+"Dee-vorce," answered Onoye, and then touching her forehead to the
+ground, she rose quickly and glided away.
+
+It was so absurd that they were obliged to laugh, and yet they felt that
+the Japanese girl was entirely serious in what she was trying to tell.
+
+"Can't we call her back and ask her some more questions?" suggested
+Elinor.
+
+"We might, but I doubt if she would say another word," answered Billie.
+"They never will tell more than they have to, you know, and I daresay she
+thinks she's told all that is necessary."
+
+"I think she's got hold of the wrong words," put in Mary. "Do you
+remember how she called Miss Campbell 'the honorable old maid'?"
+
+"She has had something on her mind a long time," said Billie
+thoughtfully. "She's a queer little soul. You don't think she could be a
+bit daffy, do you?"
+
+"I never saw any signs of it," said Nancy. "But I do wish she had
+explained why I was to be warned. Perhaps she's got that word wrong,
+too."
+
+"The truth is, the Japanese use synonyms instead of the words themselves.
+That's why their English is so queer," remarked Mary, better trained in
+English than any of the others and with a remarkably good vocabulary when
+she could be persuaded to talk. "Now a synonym of 'to warn' is 'to
+summon.' Maybe Onoye wanted to tell you that some one wished to see you."
+
+Nancy was silent. She vaguely connected Onoye's visit with Mme. Fontaine
+and the note, because her thoughts constantly dwelt on those disquieting
+subjects.
+
+The girls lingered for some time in the garden until they saw the
+Japanese gentleman in fancy dress riding away in his 'riksha, preceded by
+his two runners. Once more Onoye approached them down one of the shady
+garden walks. Once more she paused in front of Nancy and prostrating
+herself, announced:
+
+"The honorable master in libraree to Mees Brown."
+
+Nancy turned as white as a sheet.
+
+"Why, Nancy, don't be frightened. I am sure it's nothing serious," said
+Billie, putting her arm around her friend's waist.
+
+Except for that first greeting when Billie had returned after her search
+for Nancy, it was the first time the two girls had stood thus since the
+letter episode, and it was too much for poor, contrite Nancy, who burst
+into tears.
+
+"She thinks it's bad news from home," said Mary, leaning a cheek
+sympathetically against Nancy's shoulder, while Elinor pressed her hand
+and exclaimed:
+
+"Dearest, dearest Nancy, I'm sure it's nothing sad. Don't cry."
+
+If anything could have made Nancy more wretched, it was the sympathy of
+her three friends.
+
+"I don't deserve it, I don't deserve it!" she sobbed, and except for
+Billie, they had not the remotest idea what she meant.
+
+And now in the midst of this highly emotional scene appeared Miss Helen
+Campbell accompanied by Messrs. Campbell, Buxton, Carlton and Grimm.
+There was an arch and knowing smile on Miss Campbell's face as she
+tripped along the walk holding a lavender parasol over her head, and the
+four men were grinning broadly. Nancy dried her tears quickly. They never
+left any traces on her face nor red rims around her eyelids as with most
+people, and except that she was unusually pale, no one would have guessed
+that her lachrymal ducts had been overflowing only a moment before.
+
+"Well, well, Miss Nancy, I am afraid we shall have to put smoked glasses
+over those pretty blue eyes of yours before they cause any more mischief
+in Japan," exclaimed Mr. Campbell.
+
+"Oh, you little witch," cried Miss Campbell, pinching Nancy's cheek,
+"what shall I do with you, making eyes at these Orientals who don't
+understand?"
+
+"But what--" began Nancy.
+
+"I know," cried Mary, the gleam of romance in her eyes, "I know now.
+She's gone and got proposed to by a Japanese gentleman!"
+
+"But who?" cried all the girls together, brimming over with curiosity.
+
+"Why, Mr. Yoritomo Ito, of course," replied Miss Campbell. "He dressed up
+in his best Japanese fancy costume and brought presents and servants and
+came to ask formally for the hand of Mistress Anne Starbuck Brown."
+
+"Why, the impudent thing," exclaimed Nancy. "Did he think--could he
+imagine for a moment--"
+
+She broke off, too indignant to express herself. Then her eyes
+encountered Billie's and she dropped them in embarrassment. They were
+both thinking of the same thing; the two notes left under a stone at the
+shrine and the rainy meeting in the garden. After all, perhaps Yoritomo
+might have thought she liked him--but the idea was intolerable and Nancy
+thrust it aside.
+
+"How would you like to be mother-in-lawed by Mme. Ito, Nancy?" asked
+Elinor.
+
+"And sleep with your head on a bench and eat with chop sticks?" continued
+Mary.
+
+"You would probably have to do all those things if you married Mr.
+Yoritomo Ito," said Mr. Campbell. "It's very evident that he belongs to
+the most conservative Japanese class and clings to the old notions about
+wives and fancy dress costumes and such things."
+
+"What did you say to him, Papa?" asked Billie.
+
+"Oh, I was very polite, of course. I declined his offer, but that didn't
+surprise him, because in Japan they never stop to consult a young lady
+about her choice. They make it for her and then inform her afterward. Was
+I right in my method of dismissing your suitor, Miss Nancy?" he asked,
+turning to the young girl with a certain charming manner that was
+peculiarly his own, half humorous and half deferential.
+
+"Oh, yes, Mr. Campbell," exclaimed Nancy, a flush spreading over her
+face. "I am ashamed that it ever happened. I'm sure I never meant
+him to think--I'm sure I can't understand his presuming--"
+
+"Never mind, child. Men propose the world over without any more grounds
+than that. They are all alike, yellow skins and white ones, and red ones,
+too," said Miss Campbell.
+
+"Don't be so hard on us, Madam," put in Mr. Buxton, seizing the lady's
+parasol by force and holding it firmly over her head. "It's not our
+fault if we fall victims to a pair of blue eyes. You notice I say
+'victims.' One pair has many, I presume."
+
+Billie and Nicholas brought up the procession which was now moving slowly
+toward the pavilion.
+
+"It's queer that I just learned something about Yoritomo last night,"
+said Nicholas, "and I was going to tell you to-day."
+
+"What is it?" asked Billie.
+
+"He's divorced. You know they get them here on the slightest
+provocation--just change their minds after a few months or years and go
+to court, and one morning a wife finds herself without a husband, or
+children either, if he wants to take them."
+
+"How perfectly outrageous for him to propose to Nancy!" cried Billie.
+"You don't know who his first wife was, do you, Nicholas?"
+
+"No, I didn't hear."
+
+"I think I do," said Billie, after a moment's pause.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE MAGNET AND THE SILVER CHURN.
+
+
+"Is it your head, dear? Are you sure nothing else is involved? No
+indigestion or pains at the neck or burning at the pit of the stomach?"
+
+"Perfectly certain, Miss Campbell," answered Nancy, with a wan smile.
+"It's just one of those sick headaches like the one I had when I ate crab
+salad and peach ice cream that time. You mustn't stay at home on my
+account. O'Haru will look after me."
+
+"But you haven't eaten crab salad and peach ice cream this time, child.
+You haven't eaten anything, in fact. Your appetite is getting smaller all
+the time."
+
+"It's just the heat," said Nancy meekly. "I only want to stay in a
+darkened room and keep as cool as I can. I am sure I shall be all right
+by this evening and I wouldn't for anything interfere with the picnic
+to-day. It would make my head much worse. Really it would."
+
+Each of the Motor Maids offered to stay home with Nancy, but she objected
+and protested so strongly that it looked as if she would work herself
+into a fever if they persisted. O'Haru was therefore left in charge of
+Nancy for the day, while the others, attired for an all-day picnic,
+gathered on the front piazza.
+
+On the driveway stood the "Comet" and behind him at a respectful
+distance, like a servant behind his master, stood another car of an
+undistinguished character, hired in Tokyo. Into this last climbed Miss
+Campbell and Mr. Buxton, while Mr. Campbell took the front seat to run
+the car.
+
+"Won't some little maid keep a lonely man company?" he called, and Mary
+Price responded promptly to this appeal. "I am the most honored man in
+the whole party," he said, gallantly jumping out and helping her in as if
+she were a small queen.
+
+Mary smiled happily, but she felt in her heart that she was the most
+honored of all. No one had ever treated her with such deference and
+courtesy as this splendid big man who gazed down at her with a protecting
+air and listened to her rather timid conversation with absorbed interest.
+
+It was a wonderful thing, Mary thought, almost too wonderful to be
+believed that a distinguished engineer who had been sent for by
+governments to build railroads and give advice about public improvements,
+would condescend even to notice a quiet little person like her. But the
+famous engineer was really a very simple man, as modest as she herself
+was and quite as gentle.
+
+On the front seat beside Billie sat Nicholas, and Reginald was in the
+back with Elinor. Every laddie had a lassie that morning, and Billie, who
+was a bit skeptical over Nancy's headache, wondered vaguely if this could
+have been the reason for her staying at home. But she put the thought
+away from her at once as being unworthy. Billie sighed and gave herself
+an impatient little shake. Her heart yearned for the old Nancy of the
+early days who seemed so changed now. She was determined never to mention
+the letter, but somehow it seemed always to stand between them. Both
+girls thought of it constantly, Nancy with remorse and bitterness for her
+own disloyalty, and Billie with a kind of puzzled sadness. After all, the
+two friends had much to learn about each other's natures.
+
+Nancy on her bed in the darkened room was saying:
+
+"If I only could prove to Billie and to all of them that I am not
+disloyal!"
+
+Billie, guiding the "Comet" along the country road, was thinking:
+
+"If Nancy would only be frank and tell me what's on her mind! How can we
+go on like this when we are drifting farther and farther away?"
+
+The excursion to-day was of special interest to Mr. Campbell and his
+guests. They were riding forth to see Fujiyama (or "Fuji San," as the
+Japanese call it, "yama," meaning simply "mountain"), the sacred mountain
+of perfect beauty and shining whiteness.
+
+Once Saiki, their old gardener, had conducted them to a small elevation
+in the garden, and in a manner both reverential and proud, had pointed
+to a vista in the trees carefully made by lopping off certain branches.
+There, in the background of a long, narrow perspective loomed the great
+mountain, exactly as it does in thousands of Japanese scrolls. Here, many
+a time, Mary had sat and watched the white cone shining in the sunlight.
+She understood why it was called the "Peak of the White Lotus," The low
+green hills at its feet were the leaves of the flower and the eight sided
+crater, perfect in symmetry, formed the petals.
+
+The beautiful Fuji San, the most precious and revered object in all
+Japan, is dedicated to a goddess, "the Princess who makes the blossoms of
+the trees to bear"; but pilgrims of every religious sect crowd its paths
+in warm weather and on its sides dwell holy men or "mountain
+worshippers," who practice great austerities.
+
+It seemed a little unfeeling to be so gay and light-hearted with Nancy
+unhappy and ill at home, but there was gaiety in the warm dry air, and it
+bubbled into happy laughter and chatter as they flew along the road.
+
+"Have we brought everything?" called Billie over her shoulder. "The
+guitar and the tea basket and the luncheon hamper--"
+
+"And the mackintoshes?" finished Nicholas.
+
+Billie frowned and her face darkened.
+
+"Everything but your raincoat, Billie," said Elinor, counting packages in
+the bottom of the car with the toe of her boot. "Did you forget it?"
+
+"No, it had a torn place in it," answered Billie, still frowning.
+
+An incident too trivial to mention, but too unusual to put lightly aside
+had caused her some annoyance that morning. She had closed the bureau
+drawer on a corner of her raincoat, hanging over her arm, and had torn
+the hem off one side.
+
+"How stupid," she had exclaimed impatiently, tossing it into a chair.
+"You'll have to lend me your blue raincoat, Nancy-Bell. I've just done
+for mine completely."
+
+Nancy, lying on the bed with her face turned to the wall, did not reply.
+
+Billie tiptoed to the foot of the bed to see if she was asleep, but the
+blue eyes were wide open staring at the wall paper.
+
+"Will you lend me your raincoat, Miss Nancy?" repeated Billie, trying to
+be jocular to overcome the peculiar sensation of annoyance that had crept
+into her thoughts.
+
+"I'm sorry, but I can't," answered Nancy, in a low voice.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I just can't. That's all."
+
+Billie felt as if a rough hand had seized her by her collar and given her
+a good shaking.
+
+"Oh, very well, Nancy" she said, and went softly out of the room.
+
+"I am sure she must be really ill," she thought, trying to put a
+charitable interpretation on this act of selfishness, but even illness
+could hardly account for anything so entirely remote from their usual
+relations. And, apparently, Nancy had no fever and was only a little
+under the weather with a headache.
+
+Therefore, when the subject of her raincoat had come under discussion,
+Billie quickly changed it.
+
+"Do look at that queer-looking crowd," she ejaculated, pointing to a
+group of people walking in couples along the roadside. Their white
+kirtles were girded high about their waists and they carried staffs.
+
+As the company marched along, always facing Fuji, they began singing a
+weird chant. When the motors drew nearer the tourists saw that each
+man wore a huge mushroom hat made of lightest pith and from his neck hung
+a piece of matting suspended by a cord.
+
+"That must be one of the Pilgrim Clubs," announced Nicholas. "There are
+hundreds of them in Japan and they are fearfully expensive to join. The
+dues are from eight to fifteen cents a year. Every summer a club selects
+a delegate to take a nice little walking trip to a shrine and bring back
+blessings for the other members. His expenses are paid and lots of the
+other members go on their own hook. All the inns make special rates and
+it's come to be a jolly way to spend one's vacation, combining pleasure
+and religion. You see they've got the costume down to the finest point,"
+he continued. "They wear umbrellas on their heads, and the matting
+hanging around their necks serves as a raincoat, seat and bed. It's the
+coolest, lightest and most complete walking equipment I ever saw."
+
+"They make me feel terribly worldly-minded and luxurious," exclaimed
+Billie. "I never thought of bringing back a holy blessing to a friend."
+
+"We can take back a blessing for Miss Nancy, if you like," said Nicholas,
+smiling. "A flask of water from a spring on the sacred mountain would do,
+wouldn't it?"
+
+"But we haven't any flask."
+
+"We have the thermos bottle," put in Elinor. "That would keep it cool
+enough for her to drink."
+
+"She shouldn't drink it. She should sprinkle herself with it, or bathe in
+it," said Nicholas, amused at this ultra-modern way of carrying back a
+heavenly blessing.
+
+But Billie recalled the suggestion later and actually did fill the
+thermos bottle from a little spring that bubbled at the foot of Fuji and
+trickled down a green slope where the company had stopped for luncheon.
+
+"I do wish Nancy had come," she found herself saying while she spread the
+white cloth on the grass and opened the treasures of the luncheon hamper,
+which consisted of cold chicken and sandwiches and eggs prepared in a
+peculiar pickly way, as some one had described it. "It was a shame for
+her to miss this lovely trip. I am sure Fuji would have cured anybody's
+headache. It's so beautiful and so majestic."
+
+"It's cured mine," remarked Mr. Buxton, "either Fuji or something even
+more potent." Here he cast a languishing and eloquent glance toward Miss
+Campbell who flicked the grass with the end of her parasol and pretended
+not to have heard a word.
+
+Nicholas and Reggie grinned openly. Mr. Campbell stifled a smile behind a
+large sandwich and the girls carefully avoided each other's eyes.
+
+"He's got it bad, Miss Billie," whispered Nicholas. "Is this a common
+occurrence with Miss Campbell?"
+
+"It is, indeed," answered Billie. "There is always one and sometimes
+several wherever we go. Once, in Salt Lake City, it saved us no end of
+trouble and brought two lovers together, because a horrid old Mormon
+gentleman caught the fever. He had it so badly that we thought he would
+just carry Cousin Helen off by force, but he was deathly afraid of her."
+
+"Remember your promise, Miss Elinor," called Mr. Campbell presently.
+"Where's your guitar?"
+
+Some one fetched the guitar from the car and Elinor, leaning against a
+tree, struck several chords and smiled mischievously.
+
+"Shall it be a love song?" she asked.
+
+"Something religious would be more appropriate in this sacred spot,"
+observed Miss Campbell severely. But Elinor, ignoring the suggestion,
+began to sing:
+
+"'O, My Luve's like a red, red rose,
+  That's newly sprung in June.
+My Luve's like the melodie
+  That's sweetly played in tune.
+
+"'As fair thou art, my bonnie lass,
+  So deep in luve am I,
+And I will luve thee still, my dear,
+  Till a' the seas gang dry.
+
+"'Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
+  And rocks melt wi' the sun,
+I will luve thee still, my dear,
+  While the sands of life shall run.
+
+"'And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
+  And fare thee weel a while,
+And I will come again My Luve,
+  Tho' it were ten thousand mile.'"
+
+While Elinor sang this charming song Mr. Buxton regarded Miss Helen
+Campbell with an expression so abjectly adoring that Mr. Campbell gave a
+roar of boyish laughter and laid himself flat on the ground in the
+ecstasy of his amusement. They all laughed, indeed. Even Miss Campbell
+joined in, in spite of her annoyance.
+
+"I should think you might sing your own songs, Buxton, instead of letting
+a young lady do it for you," said Mr. Campbell at last.
+
+"Allow me," answered the bachelor calmly.
+
+He seized the guitar, re-tuned it with great care, and began strumming
+lightly on the strings. Suddenly he lifted up his voice in song and
+nobody attempted to keep a serious countenance because he seemed entirely
+oblivious to all jests at his expense. Here is the song he sang:
+
+"A Magnet hung in a hardware shop,
+And all around was a loving crop
+Of scissors and needles, nails and knives,
+Offering love for all their lives;
+But for iron the Magnet felt no whim;
+Though he charmed iron, it charmed not him;
+From needles and nails and knives he'd turn,
+For he'd set his heart on a Silver Churn!
+
+"A Silver Churn! A Silver Churn!
+His most esthetic
+Very magnetic
+Fancy took this turn:
+If I can wheedle
+A knife or a needle,
+Why not a Silver Churn?
+
+"And Iron and Steel expressed surprise;
+The needles opened their well-drilled eyes,
+The penknives felt shut up, no doubt;
+The scissors declared themselves cut out.
+The kettles, they boiled with rage, 'tis said;
+While every nail went off its head
+And hither and thither began to roam,
+Till a hammer came up and drove them home.
+
+"It drove them home! It drove them home!
+While this magnetic,
+Peripatetic
+Lover, he lived to learn,
+By no endeavor
+Can a Magnet ever
+Attract a Silver Churn!"
+
+"Well, really," cried Mr. Campbell, at the end of the song when the
+laughter had somewhat died down, "really, I think Buxton, you are the
+most shameless old soul I ever met in my life. Come along and start home.
+A shower is coming up, and we'd better get the cars into the valley
+before it catches us and wets the Silver Churn, and the scissors, and
+needles, and nails, and knives."
+
+A shower did come up, a big one that lasted most of the way home, and
+Billie's gray linen suit was wet through, but the weather was warm and
+except that she looked extremely bedraggled, she was none the worse and
+refused to accept the loan of Nicholas' coat. They left the three guests
+in Tokyo with the hired motor car, and Mr. Campbell with Miss Helen and
+Mary joined the others in the "Comet." So it was that the subject of the
+raincoat came up again. Miss Campbell, seeing her young cousin's wet
+suit, exclaimed:
+
+"Child! Where is your raincoat? How often have I told you never to leave
+it behind, especially in this country where it rains more than it
+shines."
+
+"It's torn, Cousin Helen," answered Billie meekly.
+
+"But why, pray, didn't you take Nancy's?"
+
+Billie considered a moment what she should say and ended by saying
+nothing at all.
+
+"Why didn't you borrow Nancy's, Billie?" asked Elinor.
+
+"Nancy didn't seem willing to lend it," answered Billie at last, slowly.
+
+There was a strained silence. Then Miss Campbell remarked:
+
+"I believe the child must be seriously ill. It sounds like typhoid fever.
+I think we'd better send for the doctor as soon as we reach home."
+
+However, this was not necessary. There was Nancy waiting for them on the
+piazza. Her headache had gone, she said, and she looked quite well and
+much more cheerful than usual. She did not notice the faintest tinge of
+coldness in their greetings. Even Mr. Campbell was not so cordial as
+usual.
+
+"You must have been caught in the worst of the rain," she said, looking
+at Billie's dripping clothes.
+
+"We were," put in Mary quickly, trying to cover the silence of the
+others.
+
+Somehow Billie felt just a bit savage at the moment.
+
+"I've brought you some sacred water from Fujiyama, Nancy," she said
+presently, in order to hide her hurt feelings.
+
+"Oh, thanks. What am I to do with it? Drink it down?"
+
+"Oh, no. Anoint yourself with it. Sprinkle it over the top of your head
+for luck."
+
+"Better put on your mackintosh first, Nancy," broke in Elinor coldly.
+"You'll be wetter than Billie if you don't."
+
+Nancy's face flushed scarlet and she turned and walked into the house
+without a word.
+
+"Oh, Elinor, I wish you hadn't said that," said Billie. "See how you hurt
+her."
+
+"She needed to be hurt," replied Elinor. "She needs to be brought to her
+senses."
+
+All the world was topsy turvy. The Motor Maids were quarreling among
+themselves and there was mystery in the air. Their happy little kingdom
+was being destroyed by internecine wars, and for what reason, Billie
+could not understand. It was inevitable that Mary and Elinor would come
+over to her side, now, that is, if Nancy persisted in this strange
+behavior.
+
+That night, lying beside Nancy in the dark, Billie's hand crept out to
+meet her unhappy friend's. But Nancy's hands were clasped in front of her
+and she lay quite still, staring at the wall, the most miserable young
+person in all the universe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+FATHER AND DAUGHTER.
+
+
+The first thing Billie saw next morning when she opened her eyes on a
+beautiful but heated world, was Nancy seated by the window reading a
+book, and at a second glance, she recognized it as her own prayer book.
+If it had been Mary or Elinor who had risen at dawn to read the prayer
+book, Billie would not have been in the least surprised, for one was
+deeply religious, and the other also, though she never talked much about
+it.
+
+Nancy, however, little frivolous butterfly, was not given to reading her
+testament or prayer book either, except at very infrequent intervals,
+certainly never early in the morning when other people were asleep.
+Billie wondered and wondered what more could have happened to turn
+Nancy's thought into this unusual channel.
+
+"She must be unhappy," she decided, "or she never would have got up at
+this time of day," and there was a kind of sad humor in the thought
+which Billie did not appreciate at the moment.
+
+When Nancy heard Billie stir, she closed the book hastily and crept back
+to bed and Billie pretended not to be awake. She was sure Nancy would
+rather not have been caught at this act of unusual devotion, and she
+disliked the idea of being an eavesdropper, as it were, to Nancy's
+innermost thoughts. Nevertheless, when some time later, Nancy had dressed
+and gone out of the room, Billie could not resist the temptation to open
+the prayer book at the purple ribbon; it had been placed at "Prayers for
+Fair Weather," which begins:
+
+"Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech thee of thy great
+goodness to restrain those immoderate rains wherewith for our sins thou
+hast afflicted us."
+
+Billie could scarcely keep from smiling when she followed Nancy into the
+dining-room.
+
+"It's about the queerest state of affairs that ever existed," she
+thought, casting a covert glance at her unhappy friend who was munching
+dry toast.
+
+Mr. Campbell came in late. He looked flustered and disturbed about
+something.
+
+"What is the matter with this household?" Billie's thoughts continued.
+"One would think an earthquake had shaken us out of our senses. Even Papa
+is out of sorts. I don't think I ever saw him quite this way before. As
+for me, I can't seem to pull out of the general depression. It's just
+closing in on us and drawing us down. Papa," she exclaimed out loud, "I
+believe we need a trip. When are you going to take us to the mountains?
+Nancy is terribly run down, and Cousin Helen is feeling the heat, and
+Elinor and Mary and I are going to be run down, too, if you don't hustle
+us off somewhere."
+
+"Very soon now, daughter. Just one more piece of business to transact
+and--er--a question to settle, and I'll pack you all off to a cool, dry
+place."
+
+"It will be the very opposite to this one, then," announced Billie. "Hot
+and damp are the words to use about Tokyo, and they do say the long rains
+are coming on--" she stopped short and looked at Nancy.
+
+Everybody was looking at Nancy, in fact.
+
+Mary and Elinor were wondering why Nancy looked so conscious. Miss
+Campbell was thinking how pale the girl looked, and Mr. Campbell was
+thinking of something quite different, but very important, concerning
+Nancy Brown.
+
+Billie tried to cover the uncomfortable silence by adding with a forced
+cordiality:
+
+"Nancy-Bell needs the change more than any of us."
+
+"Very well, if agreeable to your Royal Highness, I will let you know
+tonight when we shall break up camp and march for the hills."
+
+"Good," cried Billie. "The Court is prepared to move on a moment's
+notice."
+
+Mr. Campbell beckoned to his daughter to follow him to his library after
+breakfast. Billie had already had a foreboding that something was the
+matter, and she was sure of it as soon as she had entered the room and
+closed the door.
+
+Her father was standing at his desk frowning as he looked thoughtfully
+into space, and Mr. Campbell never frowned unless he had something to
+frown about.
+
+"What's the matter, Papa?"
+
+"Where are the others?"
+
+"Gone to their rooms, I suppose, or in the garden. I didn't notice."
+
+He drew an easy chair up by the open window and Billie took her seat on
+the arm and rested her cheek against his.
+
+"Papa, is there any trouble brewing in this house?" she asked presently.
+
+Mr. Campbell blew out a long column of smoke from his morning cigar.
+
+"What makes you think so, sweetheart?" he asked.
+
+"I can feel it. It's in the air--it's all about us. It's like a sort of
+plague. Nancy's got it, and now you are getting it, and I have a feeling
+I shall catch it, too."
+
+"Has Nancy got it?"
+
+"She got it first and she's giving it to all the rest of us. Oh, Papa,
+it's the very first time anything like this has ever happened on any of
+our trips. It's making me quite wretched."
+
+"But what is it, little girl?"
+
+"I don't know, at least, not exactly."
+
+"Not exactly? Then you do know something?"
+
+Billie did not wish to tell her father about the letter Nancy had
+written. She felt that her father might not take such a charitable view
+of it as she had, and she had a feeling she must protect poor Nancy,
+wounded as she had been by her strange behavior.
+
+"Then you do know something?" repeated Mr. Campbell.
+
+"Oh, just the littlest something, but I don't want to tell you, Papa."
+
+Mr. Campbell settled himself into the depths of his chair and drew his
+arm around his daughter's waist.
+
+"That's right, little daughter. I'd rather you'd be loyal than anything
+else in the world," he said, stroking her hand. "But I'm going to tell
+you a little bit of something. I want to ask your advice. I don't know
+what to do. You must help your old father decide."
+
+"Fire away, Papa."
+
+"Yesterday a very strange thing happened in this house while we were
+away--a very serious thing, I may say, and one which gives me
+considerable uneasiness. Last night I came into the library to work, just
+after dinner. I opened the safe and found that some one had been
+rummaging among the papers in there."
+
+"Oh, Papa," ejaculated Billie anxiously, knowing the value of those
+documents.
+
+"They were all there, but they had been disturbed. There had been an
+attempt made to trace off some of the drawings. The specifications and
+descriptions had been tampered with, too. I never dreamed such a thing
+could be managed in the daytime with the house full of servants. The two
+watchmen would prevent even a possibility of it at night. Whoever did it
+must have laid his plans well, or else--"
+
+Mr. Campbell paused and looked at his daughter very hard.
+
+"Nancy has been greatly troubled about something lately, hasn't she,
+little daughter?"
+
+"Yes, Papa, she has, but it's nothing serious," said Billie stoutly.
+"Just the heat and that absurd business about Yoritomo. You know she did
+really make eyes at him a good deal."
+
+"Where was she yesterday?"
+
+"In her room, I suppose?"
+
+"Billie, I called several of the servants in last night and questioned
+them about this business here," he pointed to the safe in the corner. "I
+called them in separately and each one made the same statement. Nancy
+spent most of the day in this room."
+
+Billie started.
+
+"I can't believe it. I won't believe it," she cried, rising to her feet
+in her excitement.
+
+"They told a pretty straight story and they had no reason, as far as I
+can see, for telling any other kind."
+
+"But what does Nancy know about opening a safe, Papa? It's absurd. And
+besides what would she want with plans for government improvements or
+whatever they are?"
+
+"I'm just as much in the dark as you are, Billie. I'm only telling you
+what O'Haru and Onoye and Komatsu told me. She went into the library
+twice during the day; once for a little while in the morning, and after
+lunch when the servants were in the back of the house, Onoye saw her come
+out of the garden in a pouring rain. She marched straight to this room
+and locked the door behind her and here she remained until not long
+before we returned."
+
+"Papa, I'll never go back on Nancy," cried Billie. "I'll never believe
+she did it--even--well, even if she were to tell me so herself! I know
+her as well as I know myself. I know all her ins and outs, you might say.
+She's simply incapable of doing a dishonest thing. Besides, what earthly
+use could she have with those papers?"
+
+"Do you think she could be doing it for some one else?" asked Mr.
+Campbell.
+
+"No," burst out Billie, almost angrily. "Why, Papa, I'm ashamed of you,"
+
+Mr. Campbell drew his daughter to him and kissed her.
+
+"You are a good friend, Billie, and I'm going to give your friend the
+benefit of every doubt in her favor. I'm going to assume that she is
+innocent and that there is some big mistake somewhere. But I want you to
+help me because it will be necessary to get at the bottom of the business
+immediately. Now, Yoritomo Ito is one great big fanatic. I discovered
+that the other day when he called here in his foolish garb and demanded
+the hand of Miss Nancy. He was very angry over being turned down and just
+a bit threatening in his manner. Of course he resents outside people
+being called in for the work I am doing. He resents my presence in his
+country, in fact."
+
+"I don't like him, Papa," broke in Billie, "and--you didn't know that he
+has been married and divorced?"
+
+Mr. Campbell looked surprised.
+
+"No, indeed, I did not know it. He has colossal nerve, I must say. But
+divorce is pretty common over here. Most anybody can get one who wants
+to."
+
+"And, Papa," went on Billie, "I believe that our little maid, Onoye, was
+his wife, and when her father lost his money, Yoritomo got a divorce, and
+she and her mother were so poor they had to go to work."
+
+Mr. Campbell was even more shocked at this disclosure.
+
+"And, Papa, I believe she would do most any favor for Yoritomo in order
+to get to see her little boy who lives with Mme. Ito. Onoye and her
+mother are mad about him, and--and--" went on Billie, slowly working out
+the complication in her mind--"they were the ones who laid the blame on
+Nancy, weren't they?"
+
+"I didn't know I had a detective for a daughter," said Mr. Campbell,
+smiling.
+
+"I'm just putting two and two together," said Billie. "You see it works
+out like a jigsaw puzzle."
+
+"So I see," said Mr. Campbell gravely. "There is only one bright spot in
+the whole business," he added, with something very like a chuckle. "For
+once in my life I've out-tricked a trickster and I've really enjoyed
+doing it. Buxton informed me the very night you shot somebody here--"
+
+"There you are," interrupted Billie. "That was Onoye, remember."
+
+"Yes, there is no doubt about that. Well, Buxton informed me that they
+were after my papers and the safe would be the place they would look for
+them. So that very night I substituted some old drawings and put the
+important ones in another place. Now a Japanese, when he's after
+something, is as crafty and shrewd as a fox. That's why I'm patting
+myself on my back for having outwitted one."
+
+"Where do you keep the real papers, Papa?"
+
+"Down where the pistol is under some stationery in the back of the desk
+drawer, and in the big vase in the corner."
+
+Billie went straight to the desk and opened the drawer. She drew out the
+pistol as she had done that dark night, removed several layers of
+envelopes and paper, and came at last to a layer of drawings.
+
+"Are these the ones?" she asked, placing them on the desk and then
+shoving the drawer back with her knee. Something stuck and she pulled it
+all the way out in her effort to discover what the trouble was. In the
+very back, caught between the drawer and the framework was a
+handkerchief. It was small and sheer and in one corner was an embroidered
+butterfly.
+
+Mr. Campbell jumped up in much excitement.
+
+"By Jove," he exclaimed, "did you find that among my papers?"
+
+Billie nodded her head sadly. "It's Nancy's, too," she said.
+
+Mr. Campbell began looking over the papers.
+
+"She may have dropped her handkerchief," he said, "but I don't think she
+got down to these. They are exactly as I left them. I suppose she
+rummaged around with her handkerchief in her lap and it fell in and was
+shoved back when I took out my papers later."
+
+The papers in a leather portfolio in the vase were safe, also.
+
+For some time the father and daughter sat together, turning over the
+events of the morning in their minds.
+
+"Papa," said Billie, after a while, "let's send Cousin Helen and Nancy
+and Elinor to the mountains, because they need the trip more than the
+rest of us, and suppose you and Mary Price and I stay here and ferret out
+the whole thing. Of course the person who did it, and I know Nancy had
+nothing to do with it," she added almost fiercely, "but the real person
+will be coming back for the rest of the drawings, and that will be our
+chance. A detective in the house would give the alarm, but Mary and I
+might turn watchmen without arousing any suspicion, especially if some of
+the servants are mixed in it."
+
+Mr. Campbell ended by taking his daughter's advice.
+
+The very next morning Miss Campbell and two of the Motor Maids were
+packed off to Myanoshita, a summer resort in the mountains, with
+Komatsu to look after them, while the other two Motor Maids remained with
+Mr. Campbell.
+
+"We'll follow you by the end of the week," he said. "I hope you don't
+begrudge a lonely man his daughter for that short time, Cousin."
+
+"I hope you won't keep her in this awful heat any longer than you can
+help," was his cousin's reply. For Miss Campbell had grown to regard
+Billie as her especial property.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE TYPHOON.
+
+
+The three conspirators had formed no particular plan for a campaign. Mr.
+Campbell was certain of only one thing: if poor Nancy Brown had foolishly
+got herself involved in this business, it would be better to keep the
+secret in the family, as it were.
+
+"We'll just give the child a good lecture and take her home," he said to
+himself, biting off the end of his cigar and frowning at the disquieting
+thought. "Whatever she did was through innocence, I am certain of that.
+She may have been flattered or cajoled into it. Who knows? The little
+thing is miserable enough without being made more unhappy. I suppose I
+should have sent for her and asked for a confession, but I hadn't the
+nerve and that's the truth."
+
+Several uneventful days passed after the departure of the others. It was
+very hot and the girls kept indoors until after sunset. But it was a
+dull, dispiriting time, and one morning they decided to take a spin in
+the "Comet," leaving Mr. Campbell at home to look after things. They had
+hardly gone when he was summoned to Tokyo by a messenger, and there was
+no one but the servants left in the house.
+
+The girls motored into town and spent the morning shopping. From one
+curio shop to another they wandered in the quest of nothing except
+diversion.
+
+"There is no end to the beautiful things here," sighed Mary, wishing in
+her heart that she could carry the most beautiful and priceless thing in
+Tokyo home to her mother.
+
+"Yes, everything is beautiful except the weather," remarked Billie,
+pointing to the black clouds which had gathered while they were in a
+shop. "We are going to have one of those red-letter storms, Mary. I think
+we'd better hurry home as fast as we can."
+
+But the "Comet," who never had any luck all the time he was in Japan,
+proceeded to burst one of his tires and the explosion mingled
+threateningly with a low roll of thunder in the distance.
+
+"We'd better take him to a garage and go back in a 'riksha," announced
+Billie, much annoyed. "Poor old 'Comet,' it wasn't his fault, but the
+prologues of these storms do put one in a bad temper."
+
+"They frighten me," said Mary. "They give me evil forebodings."
+
+The "Comet" was accordingly left at the garage to be repaired, and the
+girls were well on their way home in a jinriksha before anything worse
+had happened than rumblings and strange mutterings at what seemed a great
+distance away. It sometimes takes hours for a great storm in Japan to
+reach a head; which, in a way, is rather fortunate, because it gives
+people a chance to prepare for the struggle. A house is usually
+completely closed with storm shutters. Not even the smallest opening is
+left, through which the demon wind can find its way and so carry off
+the roof, or even the house itself. Every detachable object out of doors
+is taken inside. The gardener is seen hurrying about protecting his most
+valuable plants, and by the time the storm bursts upon the scene, filled
+with demoniacal shrieks and howls like an army of barbarians pursuing the
+enemy, it finds its victims prepared for the attack.
+
+When the 'riksha turned in at the Campbell gate, it had grown so dark
+that only the dim outlines of the house were visible at the end of the
+driveway. No one saw them arrive. The servants were probably at the back
+putting on the storm shutters, which were all in place at the front.
+
+Billie invited the 'riksha man to go around to the servants' quarters and
+wait until the storm had passed, but he nodded cheerfully and took his
+way down the road.
+
+"Let's go in by the passage door," suggested Mary. "Everything is closed
+up here."
+
+Billie followed her wearily. The heat and oppression were almost beyond
+endurance. She felt she might be suffocated at any moment. It was like
+trying to breathe under a feather mattress or in a total vacuum, for that
+matter.
+
+"Shall we put on our kimonos and lie on the floor in the library?" she
+suggested as they slipped into the passage. And this they accordingly
+did without another word or a moment's delay. It was too hot to think or
+sleep or eat or speak. All they desired was to stretch out on the rug in
+a cool dark room and keep perfectly still.
+
+There was a deadly quiet in the house when presently two little kimonoed
+forms stole through the halls and crept to the library door. Billie felt
+for the knob in the darkness and turned it. The door was locked. In the
+dense atmosphere it was difficult for them to realize what this meant at
+first.
+
+"Mary, it's--it's the-what-do-you-call-'em," said Billie incoherently.
+
+Mary nodded silently. She might have shrieked her answer aloud, for the
+storm had arrived with a great howling of wind and rain, and with flashes
+of lightning followed by repeated and deafening cannonades of thunder.
+
+The rain rattled on the roof like iron and all the demons in bedlam
+seemed to be besieging the house. Then a most sickening thing happened.
+The floor appeared to be heaving under their feet. Doors all over the
+house banged to with loud reports like revolvers shooting off. There was
+a crash in the library, a loud cry from within, the door flew open and a
+figure rushed past. Mary, kneeling on the floor at the threshold,
+involuntarily reached out her hands and seized the flying skirts of the
+apparition, or whatever it was, which disappeared like a shadow through
+the passage door, leaving Mary still holding the substance of the shadow
+which seemed to be the skirt she had grasped.
+
+A second shock followed almost immediately, less violent than the first
+but quite as sickening. For one instant the house tossed and pitched like
+a ship on a choppy sea. Then it settled down on its foundations. Most
+Japanese houses are built on wooden supports, stout square pillars
+rounded off at the base and resting in a round socket of stone. This
+gives a certain elasticity for resisting shocks which a firmly built
+house would not endure.
+
+The girls lay side by side on the floor of the passage, too frightened to
+speak. There is a horror about an earthquake that is indescribable to
+those who have never felt it; a feeling of sickening inefficiency and
+helplessness.
+
+After a while they plucked up courage to rise and totter weakly into the
+library, where Billie, her hand shaking with nervous excitement, struck
+a match and lit a candle. The room was in dire confusion. Chairs were
+upset, books had fallen off the shelves and lay scattered about the
+floor, and the iron safe had crashed over on its face. On the desk and
+the floor about it were numbers of loose sheets of paper and a narrow
+roll of tracing paper, which had uncoiled itself and lay half on the
+desk, half on the floor like a long white serpent.
+
+Mechanically they began to put things to rights. Mary gathered up the
+books and set them back on the shelves and Billie stood the chairs on
+their legs and collected the papers. They were not important ones, she
+knew, only decoys, as her father had called them. In the mean time the
+house rocked in the clutches of the storm.
+
+"I don't know why we bother to do this," said Billie laughing
+hysterically. "We may be flying through the air any minute ourselves
+along with the chairs and papers and everything else."
+
+"The storm at Nikko was mere child's play to this; just an infant babe in
+arms," answered Mary, weeping softly while she worked.
+
+It seemed better to be doing something than to sit still and listen to
+the terrifying fury of the tempest, as again and again it hurled itself
+against the house.
+
+"It wouldn't have done any good even if we had caught the thief or spy or
+whatever he is," observed Billie after a while. "There would have been no
+one to help us."
+
+Suddenly Mary's perturbed mind harked back to what had happened in the
+hall.
+
+"Billie," she cried, "it wasn't a man; it was a woman. That skirt I
+caught--that--that something--where is it?"
+
+"What are you talking about, Mary?"
+
+"I tell you I caught hold of something. It came off in my hands."
+
+She ran into the hall and, groping about on the floor, presently found
+what seemed to be a long coat. Rushing back she spread it on the desk.
+Billie held the candle high and the two girls stood gazing at it for some
+moments without speaking. Then Billie slowly placed the candle on the
+desk and sat down.
+
+"I don't understand, Billie," said Mary, clasping and unclasping her
+hands in her excitement and surprise, "it's Nancy's blue raincoat,
+but--but I don't understand."
+
+Billie covered her eyes with one hand as if she would like to hide from
+Mary what they might tell of her feelings and thoughts. There was
+nothing to say. It _was_ Nancy's blue raincoat, but she refused to think
+what the explanation might be.
+
+After a long time, it seemed, O'Haru came into the room. She was amazed
+to find the girls in the library until they explained how they had just
+escaped the storm.
+
+"Oh, much terrible," ejaculated the housekeeper. "Much terrible more
+worse than since," from which they gathered that it was one of the worst
+storms ever seen in Tokyo. O'Haru brought in lights and presently
+returned at the head of a procession of maids with trays of food; though
+whether it was luncheon or supper time it was impossible to tell. The
+clocks had all stopped in the earthquake and it was still as black as
+night. It might have been midnight or midday for all they knew.
+
+The girls preferred to remain in the library, which seemed to them more
+protection than the other rooms, and O'Haru drew up three tables and
+arranged the trays with great deftness and celerity.
+
+"Papa didn't come?" asked Billie, noticing the third table.
+
+"No, honorable lady."
+
+"For whom is the other tray, then?"
+
+"Mees Brown," answered O'Haru, rather surprised.
+
+"But she is in the mountains," said Billie, growing very red and uneasy.
+"Oh, Nancy, Nancy," she groaned inwardly, "could it have really been you
+and are you out there in the typhoon?"
+
+"Pardon grant," said O'Haru. "Mees Brown arriving at morning. Mees Brown
+within."
+
+"I think not, O'Haru," said Billie.
+
+"Her honorable rainy coat," said Onoye, pointing to the fated blue
+mackintosh.
+
+"Mary, what shall I say?" asked Billie in a low voice. "I don't know what
+to do."
+
+"Ask them questions," said Mary.
+
+From Onoye they gathered that Miss Brown had arrived soon after Mr.
+Campbell had left the house, and had gone straight to her room. She
+was very tired, she said, and would lie down until lunch time. Then she
+had gone to the library. Just before the storm they had tried to go in
+and close the shutters, but had found the door locked.
+
+Billie formed a resolution to protect Nancy no matter what was to pay.
+
+"It wasn't the real Miss Brown," she announced firmly. "It was some one
+dressed like her. The real Miss Brown is far away from here in the
+mountains."
+
+The two Japanese women withdrew presently, and if they felt any curiosity
+about Nancy's strange appearance at the villa, they were careful to hide
+it.
+
+The storm lasted all night and many times the two girls lying side by
+side on Billie's bed were prepared for the house to fall on top of them
+or to be carried away on the wind like chips of wood. But toward morning
+the wind died down and while the rain continued to flood the earth, they
+knew the worst was over. Billie drew back the bolts of their storm
+shutters and the fresh air came pouring in to revive their drooping
+spirits.
+
+"Mary," she said, creeping back to bed, "I'll never believe it was Nancy.
+No, never, never."
+
+At last they went to sleep, and when they waked the rain had ceased
+altogether. The lawn in front of the house was a muddy lake and many
+trees lay prone on the ground. It was a scene of devastation that greeted
+Mr. Campbell as he hurried home at daylight in a 'riksha. He had
+dispatched a messenger in the night, paying a large fee, to see if the
+girls were safe at home and had spent the night in Tokyo with Mr. Buxton.
+
+It was not until much later in the day that Billie plucked up courage to
+inform her father of what had happened.
+
+"Why on earth didn't you tell me about it immediately?" he exclaimed.
+"The best way to settle that, is to telegraph to Cousin Helen right off."
+
+But with the "Comet" in town and Komatsu in the mountains this was not so
+easy to manage, and it looked as if Mr. Campbell would have to walk back
+to Tokyo. He had got half way down the drive, in fact, when a messenger
+appeared running at full speed as fast as a horse; such is the endurance
+of a Japanese runner. He had been sent with a telegram from Mr.
+Campbell's office, but it had been written in Japanese and had to be
+translated.
+
+Mr. Campbell hurried back to the house and called Onoye:
+
+"Read this for me if you can," he ordered.
+
+Onoye looked at the strange script a long time. Then she read slowly:
+
+"'O'Nainci San gone Tokyo. No honorable telling before for why she make
+those journey--'"
+
+There were a few more words, but Onoye had reached the limit of her
+knowledge of the English language.
+
+Mr. Campbell sighed. Billie was the only girl in the world who wasn't any
+trouble, he thought.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+CONUNDRUMS AND ANSWERS.
+
+
+"I tell you Nancy is on her way, now, Papa," said Billie emphatically.
+"She would never have had time to get here as soon as yesterday. The
+storm would have delayed her. She couldn't have reached here."
+
+Mr. Campbell shook his head anxiously as he paced up and down the piazza
+waiting for the 'riksha the messenger was to send back from Tokyo.
+
+Billie's faith in her friend was wonderful. He admired it, but he was
+obliged to say he felt rather skeptical himself, all things considered.
+
+"There comes the 'riksha," announced Mary at last.
+
+Mr. Campbell went into the house for his hat and cane and Billie followed
+him. She looked so pale and miserable that he stooped to kiss her and
+then led her into the library.
+
+"Come in here a moment, little daughter," he said, "and we'll talk things
+over a bit."
+
+"How are you going to find her, Papa?" Billie asked, wiping away the
+tears that would well in her eyes every few minutes and trickle down her
+cheeks.
+
+"I'll do everything within human power. The police are excellent and so
+are the detectives."
+
+"Why do you think she ran away?" sobbed Billie, breaking down entirely.
+
+"I don't know, my child. I can't make out what the reason was and we'd
+never get anywhere by guessing."
+
+"Papa, do you think she could have gone to that widow? I never told you,
+but she did once before when we had a quarrel. She was awfully sorry
+after the first night and came back."
+
+Mr. Campbell gave a low whistle. He had forgotten the Widow of Shanghai's
+very existence until that moment.
+
+"I hope she's there. That will make it much simpler. But you mustn't take
+on so, little daughter. Nancy is like lots of headstrong girls. She
+resents criticism. Probably she had a falling out with Cousin Helen and
+ran away--"
+
+"I did run away," said a voice at the door, "but that wasn't the reason."
+
+"Nancy!" cried Billie and the two girls rushed into each other's arms and
+embraced like sisters long separated. In the doorway stood Mary and Mr.
+Buxton. Mary's face was beaming with joy and Mr. Buxton wore his old
+expression of humorous tolerance.
+
+"Where did you find her, Buxton?" asked Mr. Campbell gravely.
+
+"I didn't find her. She found me this morning at an unconscionably early
+hour, too, and a fine time we've had of it, I can tell you. We've chased
+a widow back to Shanghai and we've placed a fanatic under bond for good
+behavior."
+
+Nancy laughed her old natural laugh with a ripple of gaiety in it. Her
+eyes were sparkling and the color flooded her cheeks. She was prettier
+than ever, it seemed, and all because she was so happy! Her jaunty little
+traveling hat was over one eye and her dress was crushed and wrinkled,
+but her charming face was radiant.
+
+"The morning we left for the mountains," she began, "two letters came for
+me by mail but I didn't read them until I got on the train. One of them
+was from that awful woman and it frightened me terribly. It seemed
+cordial enough on the surface but my eyes have been opened to her. I
+don't know just what she is, but she is dangerous I am certain,--like a
+cat ready to spring. She said she had taken such a fancy to me that she
+must see me again and she thought it would be advisable for me to come to
+her home at once. The other letter was from that horrid Yoritomo and he
+simply threatened in so many words to blow up the house and everybody in
+it unless I listened to him. I didn't think much about the letters until
+we were settled in the hotel. Then I began to get more and more uneasy
+and I thought the best thing for me to do was to come back to Tokyo and
+see Mr. Campbell. I knew, of course, that Miss Helen would never let me
+go alone, so I just ran away."
+
+"And very glad we are to see you, Miss Nancy," broke in Mr. Campbell in
+the tone of one who felt enormously relieved.
+
+"We were all night on the train," continued Nancy. "The storm had washed
+the track away in places and we had to wait many times while it was
+repaired. As soon as I arrived, I took a 'riksha to Mr. Buxton's lodgings
+and then we went to see Mme. Fontaine and Yoritomo--"
+
+"Oh, that widow woman," interrupted Mr. Buxton. "She's a sly one, I can
+tell you. As we entered the front door, she departed at the back. We left
+several policemen waiting for her to return but I wouldn't be surprised
+if she were well on her way to Shanghai by now."
+
+"I don't understand," said Billie.
+
+"The time we quarreled, Billie, and I behaved like such a silly little
+goose," Nancy explained, "you remember I went to see her. I don't know
+what made me do it, except that I wanted to air my troubles. I've been so
+unhappy since, that I feel years older now. I was only a child then, but
+I'm quite an old person now. She talked to me a long time that night and
+got me all stirred up and believing that I had been badly treated. It was
+not what she really said but what she hinted. She seemed to know a good
+deal about Mr. Campbell's work. She implied that what he was doing for
+the Japanese government was disloyal to America. I was so fascinated with
+the way she put things and the way she looked at me, too, that I didn't
+seem to have any power over myself any more. It was like being
+hypnotized, I suppose. It came into my head to write you a terrible
+letter, Billie,--" Nancy's eyes filled with tears and her voice
+choked--"I can hardly think of it now without crying. She knew I was
+writing it but she didn't ask what was in it, only occasionally, while I
+wrote, she would look over at me and say 'Poor darling! Poor pretty
+darling!' After I got to bed, I came to my senses and began to realize
+what I had done. I was terribly frightened and unhappy and in the middle
+of the night I crept into the drawing-room, tore up the letter and threw
+the pieces into a vase. Next morning, you remember, I came home. But the
+letter was so heavy on my conscience, I couldn't be happy. I had a
+feeling it had never been destroyed and would somehow get to you, Billie.
+I wrote to the widow and asked her to send me back the pieces if she
+could find them, so that I could burn them myself. In her reply, she
+simply said the vase was empty and I gradually began to understand that
+she had got the letter and intended to keep it. There was a threatening
+sound to the note, and she ended by asking to borrow my blue raincoat. I
+had to let her have it, but I knew she didn't want it for any good reason
+and I was more and more miserable. I began to pray that it wouldn't rain.
+People don't wear raincoats in good weather. I tried to argue with myself
+about her reasons for wanting my raincoat and even now I don't know what
+they were unless it was to involve me in something. But we've frightened
+her away, anyhow, and she can have the raincoat if she'll only stay."
+
+"She certainly did want to get you into a peck of trouble, Miss Nancy,"
+said Mr. Campbell bringing the famous raincoat from the passage where it
+hung on the hat rack. "Here's your coat. She left it behind as a souvenir
+yesterday when she broke into the house to steal my drawings. I fooled
+her, though," he added, smiling sweetly. "If she thinks she can ever make
+anything out of those papers, she'll soon find she has been losing time."
+
+"It's the third time she's been here masquerading as you, Nancy." broke
+in Billie. "She must have managed the disguise perfectly because the
+servants were fooled each time."
+
+"She did," said Mary. "I asked Onoye exactly what she looked like. She
+evidently had on a brown curly wig and a hat like Nancy's with a blue
+veil around her head."
+
+At this juncture in the conversation, Onoye announced a visitor who
+proved to be a detective. He was a quiet, self-contained young Japanese
+who spoke excellent English. He had been sent out in a motor car by the
+Chief of Police to find out all he could from the Americans regarding
+Mme. Fontaine.
+
+The Widow of Shanghai, he informed them, was the child of a Russian
+father and a Japanese mother. She was considered to be one of the most
+accomplished and brilliant spies in the Orient and could assume almost
+any disguise and speak most languages. It was a pity a woman of such
+wonderful talents should stoop to work like that, and the strange part of
+it was that she was sometimes treacherous to Russia and in favor of
+Japan: so that it was difficult to tell for which side she worked. Just
+now her sympathies were with Russia, since she was trying to get plans
+for harbor defenses in Japan. The Chief of Police wished to thank Miss
+Brown in behalf of the City of Tokyo for driving the so-called Mme.
+Fontaine out of town. She had entered it so quietly that until that very
+morning it was not known that Mme. Fontaine and the famous Russian spy
+were one and the same person.
+
+"Of course it was she who was in here the night of your birthday party.
+Papa," said Billie. "I must have shot two people instead of one."
+
+This was actually the case, as Onoye explained to her later. Onoye had
+hidden herself behind the curtain that night to watch the couples
+strolling about in the moonlight. Mme. Fontaine came very swiftly into
+the room and blew out the lights. She carried a little electric dark
+lantern. Onoye was too frightened to make her presence known, and had
+crept along the edge of the room hoping to reach the door. Then Billie
+had come in and somehow they had all drifted together in the dark and the
+pistol had gone off. The bullet must have pierced Mme. Fontaine's arm and
+lodged in Onoye's wrist. How she managed to hide the wound with a scarf
+until she got her long wrap from one of the bedrooms was a marvel
+to them all.
+
+"Anyhow the mystery is all cleared away now," cried Nancy joyfully. "I
+suppose you must have thought strange things about me, Mr. Campbell?"
+
+"We had every reason to think them, Miss Nancy, but this loyal young
+person here wouldn't let us. It looked like some pretty convincing
+evidence for a while, but she wouldn't budge from the stand she had
+taken."
+
+Once again the two friends embraced. They were radiantly happy. It was
+just as if Nancy had died and come to life again.
+
+"I think I've learned a good lesson," she admitted at last. "It all
+happened because I wanted to be silly and romantic and meet people in the
+garden and write notes."
+
+"People?" asked Mary.
+
+Nancy laughed and dimpled in her old charming way and everybody laughed,
+even the reserved young detective. Old Nedda, who had followed them into
+the room, carne tottering over to where Nancy sat beside Billie. The aged
+animal whined and wagged her tail, as if she, too, wished to take part in
+the general thanksgiving.
+
+"Dearest old great-grandmama," cried Nancy, kneeling beside the aged pug
+and hiding her face in the tawny coat, "are you really glad to see me,
+too?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+GOOD-BYE, SUMMER.
+
+
+A string of glowing lanterns festooned the piazza of the Campbell villa,
+while within the warm reflection of wood fires and shaded lamps made each
+window a square of hospitable brightness. The house inside was a blaze of
+color. Splendid bunches of scarlet maple leaves and chrysanthemums of
+amazing size and beauty filled the vases and jars.
+
+The Motor Maids, dressed in their very best party frocks, had gathered in
+the drawing-room early before the arrival of the three guests. Each maid
+sat in a large chair and gazed about her from side to side. The riot of
+color, the scarlets and oranges, the tawny browns, pale pinks and
+delicate yellows seemed to bewilder them.
+
+"I suppose it wasn't truly Japanese to decorate a room with all these
+masses of flowers and leaves," said Billie. "But I don't care. It's the
+most gorgeous thing I've ever seen and since this is our last night here
+we want to make it a festive one."
+
+Their last night! Was it possible that time had slipped by so fast? Here
+it was already November, the season of greatest beauty in Japan, when
+Nature has dipped her brush into the most brilliant colors on the palette
+and touched the foliage with red and gold, the skies with deepest blue,
+and the chrysanthemums, favorite flower of the Emperor, with every
+gorgeous shade.
+
+After a good rest in the mountains broken by excursions to various
+interesting places about the country, the Campbell party had returned to
+Tokyo in time to marvel at the wonders of the chrysanthemum festival,
+which is a national affair.
+
+Away off at the other side of the world a certain High School was now in
+full swing. But even Mary Price had lost all scruples concerning her
+education.
+
+"I don't care," she remarked recklessly. "I think all this beauty is just
+as good for the mind as bare plastered walls and plain geometry."
+
+"It's better," exclaimed Nancy, "because it makes one so much happier to
+look at chrysanthemums and red maples than to try and understand why the
+sum of the three angles of a triangle of any old size must always equal
+two right angles. What makes one happy is far more educational than what
+makes one aggravated."
+
+Here was a Pagan theory that Elinor felt inclined to doubt.
+
+"We shall have to study double time all during the Christmas holidays,"
+she said.
+
+"It will be rather fun, I think," put in Billie, always the optimist of
+the quartette. "We'll all just have a small private school of four and
+jump in and work together. To me, working together is almost as nice as
+playing together. I suppose I appreciate it more than the rest of you
+because I had to work and play alone for so many years."
+
+"Billie, you are a perfect dear," ejaculated Nancy. "You furnish all the
+amusement and fun and thank us for sharing it with you."
+
+Billie looked as pleased and happy as if she had never had a compliment
+before in her life. The joy of having regained Nancy after that brief
+eclipse into shadow was still too recent to be forgotten. The two girls
+exchanged one of those telegraphic glances of intimate friends who need
+no words to express their meaning.
+
+"We've had a wonderful time," broke in Mary. "There is something about
+the land that makes one forget the realities. If poor little Kenkyo
+hadn't died--"
+
+"Be careful! Onoye is in the next room," interrupted Billie, lifting a
+warning finger.
+
+Onoye had indeed been the wife of Yoritomo as Billie had guessed. No
+doubt it was poor old O'Haru who had thrown the stone into the summer
+house that day. Billie had mercifully never inquired. And now the little
+son, for whom the two women had yearned with a passion that is
+extraordinarily deep in Japanese women, had been gathered to his
+forefathers. Onoye was dumb and silent with misery during his brief
+illness. When he died, she had disappeared for a few days and returned at
+last calm and still. No one had seen her shed a tear. Yoritomo, it was
+said, was stricken with the wildest grief. But sorrow had cleared his
+brain and brought him to his senses. He had made a really manly apology
+to Mr. Campbell and had even asked that Onoye might be restored to him.
+But this was not to be. Miss Campbell had taken Onoye under her wing.
+
+"I want you to go back to America with me and be educated, child," said
+the kind little lady, "and after a few years, you may return to Japan
+and teach the women here how to be independent."
+
+Onoye had joyfully and gratefully consented to this arrangement,
+providing she might act as Miss Campbell's maid in the meantime.
+
+O'Haru had made an heroic effort to be glad, also. She would continue to
+be the Spears' housekeeper, she said, and wait for her daughter to return
+to Japan with "muchly honorable learning."
+
+During the hot weeks when Miss Campbell and the Motor Maids were
+sojourning in the mountains, old "great grandmama Nedda" had also passed
+into another sphere. Her ending was peaceful, they said; she had slipped
+quietly away one day at sunset. The faithful servants buried the gentle
+creature in the garden not far from the shrine of the Compassionate God.
+When the girls returned they set up a little wooden monument in her
+memory on which Mary printed in India ink the following inscription:
+
+"NEDDA"
+
+Died August 27, 19--
+
+Aged 21.
+
+"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
+The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
+Hath had elsewhere its setting
+  And cometh from afar."
+
+"Here comes someone," announced Billie, peering from the window of the
+drawing-room. "It's Mr. Buxton, I think, and he's heavily laden with
+parcels, apparently."
+
+In another moment, the bachelor himself stood in the doorway regarding
+the charming picture with his half-humorous, half-grave expression.
+
+"There were only three Graces, were there not?" he asked. "I've
+forgotten. It's been so long since I met them. But there should have
+been four."
+
+"And why not five, since you are adding to the number," asked Mary.
+
+"Meaning for the fifth the beauteous lady who lingers in her room?" he
+demanded.
+
+"She out-graces us all," exclaimed Billie. "But what did you bring with
+you? Do tell us. We are dying of curiosity."
+
+The bachelor's lips twitched with a crafty smile and he shook one finger
+at them like the sly old comedian he was.
+
+"Walt!" he said, disappearing into the hall and reappearing in a moment
+with an aged, gnarled dwarf apple tree growing in a green vase, and a
+lacquered box beautifully inlaid with mother-of-pearl.
+
+"Do you think I have the ghost of a chance?" he asked them in a whisper.
+
+The girls were consumed with giggles.
+
+"Not the ghost," laughed Billie. "She wouldn't stay in Japan, not if you
+brought her all the Emperor's chrysanthemums in a single bunch."
+
+"But what's in the box, Mr. Buxton?" demanded Nancy.
+
+"You shall see," he answered. "Wait until the Fifth Grace appears."
+
+"Here she is," they cried in a chorus, as Miss Campbell swept into the
+room, resplendent in mauve satin covered with billows of fine lace.
+
+"Madame, you blind me with your magnificence," exclaimed the bachelor,
+making a low bow.
+
+"I'm glad you like my dress," said the elegant little lady.
+
+"It's not the dress but the eyes," he corrected her, just as Mr.
+Campbell, followed by Reggie Carlton and Nicholas Grimm, appeared.
+
+"We meet to meet again," cried Nicholas, joyfully.
+
+The two young men were sailing for America on the same ship with the
+Campbells, and many a long happy day they were all to have together.
+
+"And I am to be the only figure left on the Japanese screen," said Mr.
+Buxton sadly. "I shall have to walk across the curved bridges alone and
+consume tea for two under the flowering cherry tree."
+
+"I am afraid you will, sir," said Miss Campbell.
+
+"Madam, permit me," he said solemnly, placing the apple tree at her feet.
+"Is this any inducement?"
+
+"Not the slightest," answered Miss Helen with a laugh.
+
+Mr. Buxton gazed sadly from one smiling face to another.
+
+Then he opened the lacquered box and presented each of the Motor Maids
+with a beautiful embroidered silk robe.
+
+"Have an empty box, then, Madam," he announced, placing the casket in her
+lap, and because of the riotous and unseemly laughter, no one heard her
+reply.
+
+So ended the last day of the Motor Maids in their pretty Japanese villa.
+It was as happy and beautiful an evening as that land of flowers and
+hospitality could make it. We should not be sorry ourselves to linger
+with them on those lovely shores, but the winter is at land and the
+season of dreams has passed.
+
+Komatsu and O'Haru and old Saiki, the gardener, the four little maids,
+the grandmothers and the children remain picturesque figures in a
+picturesque land; and behind them, glistening In the sunlight, looms
+Fujiyama, sacred mountain of dazzling whiteness and perfect beauty.
+
+For the Motor Maids this memory will live as the type of all the
+experiences and scenes of fair Japan. Above the remembrance of stormy
+crises--within and without--of their sojourn there, rises the happy
+consciousness of a firmer, larger friendship which they may take with
+them as the choicest souvenir of the summer.
+
+And in their homeland, if we wish, we may join them again to find what
+another year of life has revealed to them. In the meantime, let us
+anticipate the pleasure in store for us with "The Motor Maids at Sunrise
+Camp."
+
+
+END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Motor Maids in Fair Japan, by Katherine Stokes
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13450 ***
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
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+Project Gutenberg's The Motor Maids in Fair Japan, by Katherine Stokes
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Motor Maids in Fair Japan
+
+Author: Katherine Stokes
+
+Release Date: September 13, 2004 [EBook #13450]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOTOR MAIDS IN FAIR JAPAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Beginners Projects, Mary Meehan and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                     THE MOTOR MAIDS IN FAIR JAPAN
+
+                          BY KATHERINE STOKES
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE MOTOR MAIDS' SCHOOL DAYS," "THE MOTOR MAIDS BY PALM AND
+PINE," "THE MOTOR MAIDS ACROSS THE CONTINENT," "THE MOTOR MAIDS BY ROSE,
+SHAMROCK AND THISTLE" ETC.
+
+                                 1913
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+    I. OFF FOR JAPAN
+
+   II. TEA IN THE GARDEN
+
+  III. SHOPPING IN JINRIKSHAS
+
+   IV. THE GARDEN IN THE RAIN
+
+    V. IN THE LIBRARY
+
+   VI. CHERRY BLOSSOMS
+
+  VII. A BAD QUARTER OF AN HOUR
+
+ VIII. THE COMPASSIONATE GOD, JIZU
+
+   IX. A BIRTHDAY PARTY
+
+    X. IN THE DARK
+
+   XI. THE COMET DISGUISED
+
+  XII. A THEATER PARTY
+
+ XIII. A FALLING OUT
+
+  XIV. A LETTER THAT CAME, THOUGH IT WAS NEVER SENT
+
+   XV. THE ANCIENT CITY OF SLEEP
+
+  XVI. THE STORM KING
+
+ XVII. A VISIT OF CEREMONY
+
+XVIII. THE MAGNET AND THE SILVER CHURN
+
+  XIX. FATHER AND DAUGHTER
+
+   XX. THE TYPHOON
+
+  XXI. CONUNDRUMS AND ANSWERS
+
+ XXII. GOOD BYE, SUMMER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+OFF FOR JAPAN.
+
+
+"The Motor Maids are off again," announced the West Haven Courier one
+morning, as if every citizen in the gray old town on the coast was not
+already well aware of it.
+
+The four famous travelers and their chaperone, Miss Helen Campbell, were
+always off somewhere in the red motor car. If they were not making a
+voyage to England with the "Comet" stored in the hold of the ship for
+immediate use on arrival, or taking perilous journeys across the American
+continent in the faithful car, they were making excursions to Shell
+Island or Seven League Island, or down the coast to the Sailors' Inn.
+
+"Where is it to be this time, Nancy-Bell?" Captain Brown had asked his
+daughter when she had broken the news to him that she must give up the
+spring term at High School for something far more educational than mere
+books. Perhaps the sea captain had intended to be stern when he asked
+that question; but Nancy had her own peculiar methods of dispelling
+sternness. A beaming anticipatory smile irradiated her face and
+scattered parental disapproval even as the warm rays of the sun scatter
+the morning mists.
+
+"Japan!" she announced solemnly; and Captain Brown, who himself had made
+voyages to Japan in his youth, pricked up his ears like an old hunting
+dog when he hears the call of the pack. The name of High School faded
+from his memory. It was the high seas he was thinking of--the great
+desert of waters, the fresh salt breeze and the foam track left by the
+little ship as it cut through the waves.
+
+Without a word, he opened an old sea chest and drew out an atlas and
+chart. Nancy blinked her eyes and smiled happily. She wondered if the
+other girls were having as easy a time in breaking the amazing news to
+their parents. Would Elinor Butler's father and mother consent to her
+taking this long journey? Would Mrs. Price be willing to part with Mary
+for many, many months while that young person journeyed to the other side
+of the world? Captain Brown settled himself on a settee in front of the
+crackling driftwood fire and Nancy seated herself beside him.
+
+"You see, it's this way, father," she began, while Captain Brown turned
+the leaves of the atlas with reverent fingers. "Billie Campbell's
+father is a great engineer--"
+
+"I've known him since he was a boy, child," interrupted the Captain.
+
+"He's been invited by the Japanese government to go to Japan on some
+consulting work, and he says he can't live without Billie another summer,
+and Billie says she can't exist without us; so Mr. Campbell is to take a
+house in Tokyo and we are all to go. Mr. Ignatius Donahue is going to
+take us across to San Francisco in his private car. He says it's a very
+small return for something we did for him once, and the end of the story
+is that we are to sail for Japan in two weeks. Isn't that delightful,
+Captain Brown?" she added, giving her father a tight hug and kissing him
+on the end of his nose. "And aren't you overjoyed for your little
+daughter to have such an opportunity to see the other side of the world?"
+
+The Captain returned the kiss with good measure and resumed his study of
+the maps and charts.
+
+"You'll be a member of the Royal Geographical Society next," he observed.
+
+"It's all happened because Billie Campbell has a mole on the sole of her
+left foot and a Gypsy once told her that was the mark of the wanderer."
+
+"But you and Elinor and Mary haven't any moles on the soles of your feet,
+have you?"
+
+"No, and neither has Miss Campbell."
+
+"It's just as well," commented the Captain. "One is enough in the party
+if it's going to take my little daughter away from her home most of the
+time."
+
+"Not most of the time, father," protested Nancy. "Only to Palm Beach and
+across the Continent and to England--"
+
+At this dangerous turn in the conversation, the
+door was pushed open and Billie Campbell rushed
+in, followed by Elinor Butler and Mary Price.
+
+"It's all settled, Nancy-Bell," she cried. "Cousin Helen has consented
+and the girls can go. Everything depends on you, now--"
+
+"We are just studying the map," answered Nancy quickly, with a demure
+smile.
+
+Immediately the other girls seated themselves in a circle about the sea
+captain and his charts, and Mrs. Brown, whose consent had already been
+gained, presently appeared with a large platter of cookies.
+
+So it was that the Motor Maids and Miss Campbell sailed through the
+Golden Gate of San Francisco harbor one morning en route for the island
+empire of Japan. On the long and sometimes tedious voyage we will not
+dwell; nor shall we pause until we have left them on the piazza of their
+new home in Tokyo, while seven Japanese servants are making profound
+obeisances at the entrance and their attendant families, including three
+grandmothers and five funny little children, bob and bow in the rear of
+this formidable company.
+
+Billie, who had scarcely left her father's side since the joyful moment
+of their reunion, hung on his arm and smiled up into his face
+inquiringly; while Miss Helen Campbell, his cousin, exclaimed:
+
+"Dear me, Duncan; I thought we were to stay at a private house--not a
+hotel."
+
+Mr. Campbell, from his mysterious dwelling places in far distant lands,
+had made so many things possible for the Motor Maids that Billie's three
+friends had come to regard him as a kind of powerful spirit who had only
+to will things to happen and they happened. At first they were rather shy
+of the real Mr. Campbell, big and strong and splendid, the very image of
+his daughter, Billie, if she had grown half a foot and cropped her light
+brown hair closely all over her head.
+
+"But, Cousin Helen, this is a private house," answered this human
+presentment of the good spirit, a subdued humor lighting his gray eyes,
+exactly as they had seen Billie's eyes kindle hundreds of times. "This is
+your very own villa and this is your staff of domestics," he added,
+indicating the regiment of servants who again bowed low like the chorus
+in a comic opera. "You are to regard yourself as queen of this little
+realm," he went on, pointing to the charming grounds and garden
+surrounding the house, "and you are to be in absolute command. Nellie and
+Nannie and Mollie and Billie are to be your maids of honor and I'll be
+general factotum and protector. As for the staff," he continued in a
+whisper, "their combined wages for one month amount to about one good
+servant's hire at home."
+
+The maid in the front of the cohort now stepped forth. She was much older
+than the others; her hair was short and her blue cotton robe seemed
+severe and plain in comparison to the gay colored kimonos of the younger
+maids.
+
+"This is our housekeeper and cook, O'Haru San," announced Mr. Campbell.
+"I shall leave you in her charge now and keep an appointment."
+
+So saying, Mr. Duncan Campbell kissed his daughter, smiled delightfully
+on the company in general and hastened down the walk to the road, for the
+villa was in the suburbs of Tokyo.
+
+"Will honorable ladies enter humble, small house," said O'Haru making an
+obeisance.
+
+But before they could move an inch, the maids were at their feet deftly
+unfastening their shoes.
+
+"What in the world are they doing?" demanded Miss Campbell.
+
+"One never wears shoes in the house, Cousin, don't you remember? Papa
+told us so this morning," answered Billie slipping her feet into the
+straw sandals provided.
+
+"Perfect nonsense!" exclaimed Miss Campbell, shuffling into the hall in
+her loose footgear. "I suppose I shall be expected to sit on the floor
+and eat my meals on a door mat," she complained, "and that I positively
+will not do. My old joints are far too stiff to be doubled up like a pair
+of nut crackers."
+
+The girls giggled and the four little Japanese maids giggled, too; not
+that they understood a word of the language, but good humor is the
+keynote of the Japanese character and strangers are treated with a
+sympathetic courtesy and hospitality unequaled in any other country.
+
+However, Miss Campbell's fears were immediately set at rest, for the
+long, low-ceiled drawing-room of the villa was furnished in European
+fashion with plenty of comfortable arm-chairs and sofas made of bamboo.
+The floors were covered with thick soft mats and the front walls facing
+the piazza were really sliding panels covered with opaque paper through
+which the light cast a soft mellow luster. As a matter of fact, Dr. and
+Mrs. Spears, the owners of the villa, had kept it as Japanese as possible
+without interfering with their foreign ideas of comfort. The only
+ornaments were several beautiful scrolls and screens and a few vases.
+
+Instead of sitting down quietly and being served to tea, which was
+evidently the next duty expected of them by these formal domestics,
+Billie and her friends rushed from one room to another in a state of
+eager curiosity. They poked their inquisitive little noses into the
+charming bedrooms and even peeped into the mysterious kitchen quarters
+where O'Haru reigned supreme,
+
+"It's Japanese enough to be pretty and American enough to be
+comfortable," observed Nancy, arranging her curls at one of the bedroom
+mirrors.
+
+"I don't know why you call it 'American,'" objected Billie. "I think you
+should say 'international,' since beds may be imported from Turkey,
+Russia, Prussia, England, or France, to say nothing of Germany and
+Italy."
+
+"Well, no matter what nationality it is, I'm glad I'm going to sleep on a
+bed instead of on the floor as Japanese girls do, with a little bench for
+a pillow to keep from rumpling my hair."
+
+Just then a Japanese girl appeared in the doorway. She was quite young,
+perhaps seventeen, perhaps older, and enchantingly pretty.
+
+"Her eyes are like stewed prunes," wrote Nancy to her mother that night,
+"rich and black and luscious. Her hair is as black as father's ebony box
+and quite as shiny; her skin smooth and creamy. She has a little rosebud
+mouth and a small straight nose and she wore the most beautiful kimono,
+all blue with a cerise sash or _obi_, as it is called. Her name is
+'Onoye' and she's the daughter of the cook, O'Haru. She is just one of
+the maids in the house, I suppose, but she seems better class and she
+speaks a little English. Her mother adores her and I suppose Onoye is
+being spoiled Japanese fashion, which is very different from American
+fashion. Japanese girls are the most unselfish, uncomplaining,
+considerate, everything-that-I'm-not little souls I ever saw."
+
+Nancy's description of O'Haru's daughter was not exaggerated in the
+least. Little Onoye, pausing timidly at the entrance to their bedroom,
+was a vision to charm the eye. She blushed, smiled deprecatingly and hung
+her head.
+
+"Will honorable ladies be pleased to employ humble refreshment?" she
+announced in a funny high voice with a prim, precise accent.
+
+The girls would have laughed if it had not been impolite. All their
+impulsive actions must be checked in this land of perfect manners, or
+they would certainly appear rude and rough.
+
+"We should be most pleased and happy, I am sure," answered Billie,
+feeling that she must not be outdone in lofty expression, "But what
+excellent English you speak. Do you live here, too?"
+
+Onoye looked up and her face brightened.
+
+"I make studying of American language one time," she said.
+
+"And are we to have tea now?" asked Nancy as the Japanese girl backed out
+of the room.
+
+"If pleasingly to gracious ladies," she answered.
+
+With bobs and bows, she led the way to a summer house in the garden where
+the others were already installed in comfortable chairs.
+
+"These are certainly the most hospitable servants I ever saw," Miss
+Campbell was saying to Mary and Elinor. "They make one feel like a guest
+in one's own house. I am sure if I lived here long, I should learn to
+meet myself at the front door and invite myself to take refreshments in
+the garden."
+
+The girls smiled lazily. They seemed somehow to have entered into a land
+of unrealities and dream pictures. The bamboo and rice paper villa was a
+doll's house, the lovely garden, a stage setting and the picturesque band
+of Japanese servants gliding noiselessly about, the chorus.
+
+And while they talked and sipped their tea, a fat, decrepit pug dog came
+slowly toward them down the walk on spindle legs. As the aged creature
+approached, O'Haru paused and made it a profound bow. The girls choked
+and sputtered in their tea and Miss Campbell laughed outright. They
+learned afterwards that this venerable animal was "Nedda," the Spears'
+pet pug, eighteen years old, and that every servant attached to the
+household regarded her with great respect because they believed that she
+was really Mr. Spears' grandmother.
+
+Old Nedda was very pleased to meet with a little human company of her own
+social status. She wagged her twisted tail cordially and when she heard
+American voices speaking the language of her youth, she gave a little
+expressive whine of pleasure.
+
+"You poor old lonesome thing," exclaimed the compassionate Billie.
+
+Just then a maid hurried up with a cushion. She had evidently been
+detailed to look after Nedda in the absence of the mistress of the house;
+to feed and bathe her; to see that she was covered up at night; to guard
+against her sleeping in damp places. Nedda stepped gingerly on the mat,
+moved round and round in a circle several times, even as the most
+primitive dog might do, and settled herself in a round heap for her late
+afternoon siesta. Then O'Sudzu, the little maid, spread a wadded silk
+cover over the pampered old Nedda and departed, bowing again.
+
+They were still laughing over this absurd incident when Mr. Campbell
+appeared on the walk with two companions. One was a good looking young
+man about twenty-one and the other a Japanese in European clothes, and
+very handsome, the girls thought him, in spite of his Oriental features
+and dark complexion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+TEA IN THE GARDEN.
+
+
+Nancy Brown instinctively put her hand to her curls when she saw the
+three approach. Elinor patted her coronet braids. Mary blushed and
+shrank timidly into the depths of her chair, for she was very shy; and
+Billie, whose candid nature had no coquetry, looked calmly interested and
+remarked:
+
+"Dear old Papa, there he is with two visitors."
+
+"I'm not at all surprised," said Miss Campbell smiling, "your Papa is one
+of the most general inviters I ever knew. He always loved to entertain."
+
+"How do my five beautiful American ladies feel?" called her jovial
+relation as he entered the summer house. "Rested with humble refreshment
+in poor modest little house?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, honorable father," answered Billie laughing.
+
+"I want you to meet my two friends, Nicholas Grimm and Yoritomo Ito,"
+went on Mr. Campbell.
+
+Nicholas Grimm was apparently a young Dutchman. His figure was well set
+up and stocky, his features regular, his mouth firm with a good square
+chin, and his clear dark eyes under bushy brows gazed on the world with a
+frank, good-humored expression.
+
+Yoritomo Ito was the best type of Japanese, lithe and straight, rather
+tall, with shrewd brown eyes and a smile that always hovered about his
+shapely mouth. He was immaculately neat and his skin looked as if it
+might have been scrubbed and then polished. Not a speck of dust marred
+his spotless linen or his dark blue suit.
+
+"Mr. Ito, will you sit on a mat on the floor or in a chair?" asked Miss
+Campbell when the introductions were over.
+
+"Oh, he can be Japanese or American, whichever suits him," interrupted
+Mr. Campbell, "though I'll wager you didn't do much floor sitting when
+you went to Harvard, did you, Yoritomo?"
+
+The Japanese's smile broadened somewhat when he answered with a slight
+accent:
+
+"American floors are not intended to be used as chairs."
+
+"Meaning, Mr. Ito, that the American floors are not as entirely free from
+dust as the Japanese floors?" inquired Miss Campbell.
+
+"Oh, no, Madam," protested the Japanese, horrified at this implication of
+rudeness but unable to dispel the impression nevertheless.
+
+"I grant you that our houses are not as clean as yours," went on Miss
+Campbell, "but you see we haven't time to remove our shoes whenever we
+enter the house, and then we have so much furniture and so many hangings
+to catch the dust. I don't see how you Japanese can resist the collecting
+habit in a country where there are so many beautiful things to collect."
+
+"My dear Cousin, they are as great collectors as anybody, only they keep
+their valuables stored in a fire-proof house--what is it you call it,
+Yoritomo?" asked Mr. Campbell.
+
+"It is called in English language a 'go-down.'"
+
+"So it is, a 'go-down.' It always reminds me of a steep grade down the
+side of a mountain. Here they keep all their best clothes and vases and
+ornaments and only bring out one vase and one scroll at a time. When they
+grow tired of those things, they are stored and something else is brought
+out, so that there is perpetual variety in the Japanese home."
+
+"I should hate to have my best clothes locked in a fire-proof house,"
+announced Nancy. "Suppose one wanted to make a quick change and the
+key was mislaid."
+
+"Ah, Miss Nancy," laughed Mr. Campbell, "it is not difficult to see where
+your heart lies."
+
+Yoritomo looked at Nancy with polite though evident interest which
+gradually developed into a cautiously veiled admiration. He was about
+to speak, when he was interrupted by the troop of little maids headed by
+Onoye with tea and refreshments. It was Onoye who served the young
+Japanese. First she bowed before him until her forehead almost touched
+the ground. Then she placed a mat for him to sit upon and a low lacquer
+tray containing tea and rice cakes. But Yoritomo, ignoring these humble
+services, sat himself in a chair next to Nancy and little Onoye hastened
+to rectify her mistake.
+
+In the meantime, Nicholas Grimm was talking to Billie and Elinor.
+
+"Are you from Holland?" they asked him.
+
+"Several hundreds of years ago I was. Kinterhook, New York, has been my
+home for the last generation."
+
+"Good," exclaimed Billie, "I thought you were a Dutchman and it's lots
+nicer to be an American, don't you think so?"
+
+"I wouldn't care to change," answered Nicholas solemnly. "America's good
+enough for me."
+
+"Are you one of the engineers on the new railroad they are building?"
+asked Billie.
+
+"I'm going to lay a few ties," he answered.
+
+"Are you going to build those little funny openwork bridges over all the
+streams?" demanded Elinor.
+
+"Something like it. Everything is picturesque in this country from
+beggars to railroad bridges, and, speaking of bridges, have you explored
+the garden yet? There's a ripping little bridge down there. When Mrs.
+Spears gave garden parties that was one of the strolling places."
+
+"Why, we didn't know we had such a pretentious garden!" exclaimed Billie.
+"Papa wrote that he had sublet a suburban villa near Tokyo with an acre
+or so of ground around it."
+
+"An acre or so?" repeated Nicholas. "That's an estate to them. They can
+put as much into an acre without crowding it as other people put into
+ten. Perhaps you would like to explore the garden if you have had enough
+honorable refreshment?"
+
+"Oh, yes," they answered eagerly, and drawing shy little Mary from the
+depths of her chair, Billie followed Elinor and the new friend down the
+garden path.
+
+"Would you be interested in seeing the garden?" asked Yoritomo of Nancy.
+
+"I might be induced," she answered drooping her long eyelashes, to the
+great amusement of Mr. Campbell, and they also wandered off, leaving the
+two older people for a cousinly chat.
+
+The girls were amazed at the beauty of the garden back of the house.
+Against the high wall surrounding the small estate clustered masses of
+flowers. Everywhere were little winding paths and an occasional grove of
+stunted pines that gave the impression of great age. It was in exquisite
+order, the green turf clipped to the smoothness of a velvet carpet. In
+all the garden there was not a leaf nor twig out of place. Back of the
+house the land sloped slightly and at the foot of this gentle depression
+trickled a musical little stream. Here was a stone lantern five feet
+high, also the miniature curved bridge; and to make the picture complete
+in every Japanese detail, leaning pensively on the railing of the bridge,
+stood Onoye. She herself might have been a bright colored flower in her
+gay kimono and sash.
+
+Only Mary noticed that the little Japanese was weeping softly. When she
+saw the Americans coming, she hastily withdrew down one of the paths and
+in another moment had disappeared entirely.
+
+"Poor little thing," thought Mary, "perhaps her mother has been scolding
+her."
+
+Perhaps she had, indeed, for O'Haru, the housekeeper, presently appeared
+looking for her daughter. Shading her eyes with one hand, she scanned the
+vistas of the garden.
+
+Mary left the group of friends and hastened down the path.
+
+"Are you looking for Onoye?" she asked the old woman.
+
+"Yes, honorable lady," answered O'Haru, trying to replace her uneasy and
+troubled expression with a pleasant smile.
+
+"She was on the bridge a moment ago. Is she unhappy? I think she was
+crying."
+
+"Have greatly kindness to forgive humble Japanese girl," answered O'Haru
+in a low voice.
+
+Mary thought the housekeeper was going to say more and no doubt, if she
+had poured out her confidences at that time, many later misunderstandings
+might have been averted. As it was, they were interrupted by Nancy and
+her Japanese cavalier who turned the curve of the path and came full upon
+them quite suddenly.
+
+Instead of hastening away as quietly as possible, O'Haru immediately fell
+on her knees and began speaking in a low voice in her own language.
+
+There was nothing unusual in this. All the servants seemed to be in a
+continual state of "nervous prostration," as Billie expressed it, and
+Nancy, smiling and dimpling, followed Yoritomo down the path without
+thinking any more about O'Haru.
+
+"What was she saying, Mr. Ito?" she asked.
+
+"You might accuse me of being a flatterer if I told you," he answered.
+
+"But I don't understand."
+
+"I mean she was speaking of you. 'The honorable young American lady,'"
+she said, "'is very beautiful.'"
+
+Nancy was flattered, as who would not have been over this frank
+compliment. A rosy flush spread over her face and the dimple deepened
+in her cheek.
+
+"You see, you are an unusual type in this country, Miss Brown," continued
+the Japanese. "You must expect to arouse comment wherever you go. Hair
+with so much color to it, like polished copper and curling, too, causes
+much admiration. You are very different from the Japanese."
+
+Again Nancy felt flattered.
+
+"I really believe I am rather pretty," she
+thought. What she said was: "You are very
+kind, Mr. Ito, but I am sure I think the Japanese
+girls are just as pretty as American girls. Little
+Onoye, our maid, is charming. She is a perfect
+picture."
+
+For the rest of the day, however, vain Nancy was enveloped in a rosy
+cloud of self-satisfaction. It was pleasing to be admired and still more
+pleasing to feel that the admiration was justified.
+
+The truth is, that admiration was quite as stimulating to Nancy as it is
+to the rest of us, and when she realized that the young Japanese had
+fallen an instant victim to her charms, she felt some pardonable pride in
+the power of her blue eyes and bright curls.
+
+By this time the others had returned to the pagoda-like summer house.
+
+"Come, Nancy, dear," floated Miss Campbell's voice across the garden. She
+was too careful a chaperone to permit one of her girls to wander
+at dusk with a strange young Japanese.
+
+Nancy quickened her pace. Nevertheless, she felt a little impatient with
+all these restrictions.
+
+"I am almost eighteen. I suppose I might be trusted to look after myself
+occasionally," she thought with some irritation.
+
+"May I not see you again to-morrow, Miss Brown?" Yoritomo was asking.
+
+"I am afraid you'll have to ask Miss Campbell."
+
+"It is now almost the American dinner hour," he went on thoughtfully,
+looking at his watch. "If I should be strolling to-morrow at this time
+down by the bridge, it would be very pleasant. We could have a few words
+together."
+
+"But--" began Nancy, and the voices of her friends interrupted her.
+
+They had paused near a great bush of azaleas in full bloom. Almost over
+their heads the silver crescent of the new moon hung poised like a fairy
+scimitar. It was exquisite and unreal. Nancy felt somehow out of place in
+the lovely picture, while the young Japanese, standing intense and rigid
+beside her, was as much a part of the Oriental garden as the stone
+lantern and the fragrant spice bush near the path. Even his blue serge
+European suit seemed to have lost its values in the deepening shadows.
+
+"If I come every day to see you, there would be great comment," he said
+in a low voice. "But often I shall wait on the bridge about this time."
+
+It was only a little time ago that Nancy's mother had lengthened her
+little daughter's skirts from shoe tops to ankles. The line of the old
+hem was still noticeable in some of her summer frocks. Just six months
+since, Nancy had tucked up the bunch of curls into a Psyche knot and
+transformed the ribbon bow into a velvet bandeau. Since she had been old
+enough to go to parties she had had boy admirers who had said sweet
+things to her. But this was quite different, and Nancy, almost eighteen,
+and capable of looking after herself, felt suddenly frightened.
+
+"I--I must hurry," she said, and turning she ran as fast as she could up
+the garden path nearly colliding with Billie and Mary who had come to
+look for her.
+
+"Why, Nancy, you are chasing along like a scared rabbit," cried Billie.
+"Has anything happened to you?"
+
+"Oh, no. I thought we had better run because it was so late," she
+answered breathlessly, while Yoritomo, following close behind, calm and
+collected, bade them a formal good night and hurried over to the summer
+house to pay his respects to Miss Campbell and her cousin.
+
+Nancy decided that night not to tell Billie, her intimate confidante,
+what the Japanese had said to her. The walls were too thin, she thought.
+Besides, she was curious to know if Yoritomo would be on the bridge the
+next afternoon. Just how she intended to find this out, she had not
+then decided.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SHOPPING IN JINRIKSHAS.
+
+
+"I feel very much like a baby in a baby carriage," observed Miss Helen
+Campbell as Mr. Campbell almost lifted her into the graceful little
+two-wheeled vehicle. "And is that poor soul going to turn into a horse
+and pull me?" she demanded.
+
+"You aren't such a heavy load," replied her cousin. "I doubt if the S. P.
+C. A. would get excited over it. I am only sorry you have to be alone,
+but I suppose those four inseparables are paired off as usual. Billie
+with Nancy and Mary with Elinor."
+
+"Indeed, I much prefer to be alone," said Miss Campbell. "Then I can hold
+on with both hands in case I am upset backwards."
+
+"You never will be. They will treat you like spun glass. You will take
+good care of the ladies, Komatsu," he said to the 'riksha man who,
+leaning against the garden wall, resembled a bronze figure, brown and
+muscular.
+
+"Gracious lady of fearing not need," answered Komatsu with an
+ingratiating smile as he stepped between the shafts of the 'riksha.
+
+"It is impossible to tell how much English they know and how much they
+don't know," Mr. Campbell confided to his relative in a low voice. "They
+never ask twice and they always make some kind of an out at a reply. But
+I think, until I can go with you, it is safer for you to go in the
+'rikshas. The common people here aren't used to motor cars and there are
+still some fanatics in Japan, you know, who are opposed to every sort of
+progress and the invasion of foreign customs."
+
+"Good-by, Papa," called Billie, "I do wish you were not a working man so
+that you could go with us."
+
+"I am sorry I must be a laborer in the vineyards, Miss Wilhelmina," he
+answered, "but it's only that you may ride in a fine carriage and wear a
+silk robe."
+
+"Silk robe?" repeated Miss Campbell. "That's just what I want. Komatsu,
+we wish to go to a silk shop," she ordered the man-servant, speaking
+very loud and distinctly as if she were addressing a deaf person.
+
+Komatsu grinned amiably.
+
+"I bring honorable lady to fine shop with quickness."
+
+The next moment the three vehicles were flying along the road drawn by
+three tireless individuals, whose good nature, like the widow's cruse,
+knew no diminishing.
+
+It would be difficult to find in all the world a more beautiful city than
+Tokyo at this season of the year. It is really a city of gardens and
+everywhere are palms and pines and waving willow trees, magnificent
+arbors of wisteria not yet in bloom and splendid azalea bushes bursting
+into masses of white and pink blossoms. Even the humblest brown cottage
+has its bit of garden, for the love of flowers is innate in every
+Japanese nature: it is a national trait.
+
+"There is no prospect that isn't graceful and picturesque," thought Mary
+watching an old fruit and vegetable man in front of them. He wore a dull
+blue cotton tunic much faded but still a heavenly color, and on either
+end of a pole resting on his shoulders was a flat brown basket filled
+with small oranges and vegetables of an unknown variety. Behind him
+walked an old woman in a dull brown and purple dress with an orange sash
+around her waist. Her back was burdened with a great bundle of bark. The
+sun was hot and many of the wayfarers carried paper umbrellas. Most of
+the women had babies swung on their backs and sometimes shiny little
+black eyes peeped out from the front of a kimono, the mother's arms being
+engaged in supporting another burden on her back.
+
+"It seems to me the women work very hard in this country," remarked
+Elinor severely, pointing to a cart filled with charcoal propelled by two
+women and a man. One of the women had a baby on her back and another
+child holding to her skirts.
+
+"They do," said Mary. "Even the women in the upper classes have to work
+hard. Don't you remember what the missionary on the steamer told us? The
+wife is always the first one up in the household no matter how many
+servants she has. She has to bring her mean old mother-in-law a cup of
+tea and get out her husband's clothes. The mother-in-law has had to work
+so hard when she was a daughter-in-law that she takes it out on her son's
+wife later."
+
+"I'd like to see an American wife ridden by her mother-in-law that way,"
+broke in Elinor indignantly.
+
+"But then the Japanese daughter-in-law's turn comes later," said Mary
+laughing, "when she gets to be a mother-in-law. So it's all nicely
+balanced."
+
+But the streets were too interesting to pursue the subject of
+mother-in-law any further. They were passing a row of open-fronted shops
+on the edges of which customers were squatted looking at materials while
+the proprietor bobbed and smiled and dickered over his bargains. Red and
+yellow banners hung in a row from the roof of the shop, the gay colored
+hieroglyphics on them indicating what manner of goods were displayed
+within.
+
+"Here's a nice little silk shop, Komatsu. Let us stop here," called Miss
+Campbell.
+
+But Komatsu only grinned over his shoulder and called:
+
+"Too littleness for gracious big lady."
+
+"But I like the looks of this place, Komatsu," said the gracious big lady
+helplessly.
+
+However Komatsu had his own ideas of obedience and he trotted on, never
+pausing until he reached a large silk store thronged with clerks and
+customers.
+
+Here all the 'rikshas drew up and the girls alighted with Miss Campbell,
+who was a little red in the face but determined to overlook the
+annoyance of orders disregarded.
+
+The front of the store was screened from the street by dark blue cotton
+curtains behind which was a roofed platform carpeted with matting. Here
+sat a group of clerks, each with his _soroban_ or adding machine at his
+side. Little Japanese boys, their shoulders loaded with bales of rich
+materials, staggered about, and through the open doors of the fire-proof
+warehouse they caught glimpses of costly stuffs stored away. An
+obsequious clerk who spoke excellent English came forward and presently,
+when their eyes became accustomed to the busy, brilliantly colored scene,
+they began to examine silk materials on their own account. Miss Campbell
+made each of her charges a present of _crêpe de chine_ and still was not
+very much out of pocket. As they were about to leave, they were followed
+by a chorus of shouts.
+
+"What in the world is the matter?" demanded Miss Campbell uneasily. "Has
+the place caught fire, or didn't we give the right amount of change?"
+
+"No, madam," answered the polite English-speaking clerk, who had
+accompanied her to the sidewalk. "They are saying farewell. In English
+it would mean, 'Thanks for your continued favors.'"
+
+"Don't mention it," said Miss Campbell. "We'll come again."
+
+The clerk smiled and bowed formally and once more they whirled away in
+their 'rikshas. They visited many shops in Tokyo that morning. It was
+like a fascinating bazaar and it seemed impossible to tear themselves
+away, although Komatsu kept always close to their elbows and several
+times observed:
+
+"Muchly more time. Come again."
+
+At last, just as an ominous mass of black clouds had spread itself over
+the heavens, against which the brilliant colors of the signs and the
+people's clothes stood out in bold relief, they started for home. But on
+the outskirts of the city great drops of rain pelted them in the face,
+the advance scouts of a tremendous downpour.
+
+"Oh, Komatsu, we will ruin our clothes," cried Miss Campbell in alarm.
+"You must take us somewhere until the rain is over."
+
+They were passing the high walls of a garden, the gate of which stood
+open. Without an instant's hesitation Komatsu turned in and the three
+'rikshas raced up a broad walk toward a Japanese house at the end.
+Several smiling hospitable persons whom they took to be servants ran out
+with large umbrellas made of oiled paper and protected the five ladies,
+who hurried unceremoniously into the house just as the heavens opened and
+the rain came down in bucketfuls.
+
+Three Japanese ladies, seated on the floor drinking tea, rose quickly and
+made low formal bows. The five refugees from the storm returned the bows
+with some bewilderment.
+
+"I do hope you will pardon this intrusion," Miss Campbell found herself
+saying. "The storm was so sudden and terrible, we fled to the nearest
+house."
+
+One of the little Japanese ladies bowed. She was evidently the mistress
+of the house, but she spoke no English.
+
+Miss Campbell pointed outside to the rain and made expressive signs
+indicative of haste. It was really like being in a deaf and dumb asylum.
+Then the little lady smiled again and bowed again, and the others bowed.
+
+"Good heavens, Billie, what am I to do? Must I continue to smile and bob
+and bow forever? Do come to my rescue!"
+
+But the hospitable hostess now hurried from the room and presently
+reappeared followed by her maids, each of whom carried a little lacquered
+table. It was indicated that the American guests would confer a favor if
+they would seat themselves.
+
+"I've never sat on the floor in my life," complained Miss Campbell in a
+low voice. "It will kill me. I am certain it will displace a ligament."
+
+"You'll just have to, Cousin. Try sitting on your feet. That's the way
+they do."
+
+"I think tailor-fashion would be easier," answered the poor lady. "Don't
+help me. They might take it for rudeness. Everything is bad manners in
+this country."
+
+Crossing her feet, she slid slowly to the floor. The visitors were
+promptly served with delicious tea, rice cakes, candied fruits and other
+confections molded and colored like the flowers in season.
+
+Certainly that was one of the most silent and ceremonious tea parties
+ever given. It was all dumb show, but the manners of the three Japanese
+ladies were exquisite. While this excruciatingly polite scene transpired,
+there raged such a storm of wind and rain that at each moment they feared
+the fragile bamboo and rice paper abode would be blown from its slight
+foundations.
+
+"They won't lose much if it's blown away," thought Billie. "There's not a
+stick of furniture to be seen except a screen."
+
+In one corner of the room was a splendid vase almost as tall as she was,
+and on the wall hung a scroll showing two women gathering cherry
+blossoms. On the floor were soft mats fitted closely together.
+
+Suddenly Billie blushed scarlet.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Helen," she exclaimed. "We forgot to take off our shoes."
+
+"Don't speak to me," answered her relation. "My legs have gone to sleep
+and I have lost the power to move them. I am in an agony of pain."
+
+At this moment a figure darkened the doorway. The three Japanese women
+rose and bowed low and the servants made obeisances. The five Americans
+were amazed to recognize their friend of yesterday, Yoritomo Ito. He was
+quite as amazed as they were, although he did not show it except by the
+flick of an eyelash, because no well-bred Japanese ever shows surprise.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Ito?" cried Miss Campbell. "Is it possible that this
+is your house we have broken into so rudely?"
+
+It was indeed Mr. Ito's home, and, the three ladies were his mother, his
+aunt and his sister.
+
+"It is a great pleasure, I am sure, that you have found refuge in my
+home. I trust they have served you well."
+
+Then he spoke rapidly in Japanese to his mother, who smiled and clasped
+her hands with joy, as if heaven could not have bestowed a greater gift
+than the privilege to entertain these delightful foreigners.
+
+"And are you the head of the family, Mr. Ito?" asked Miss Campbell.
+
+"No, my father takes first place. He is a tea merchant in Tokyo. I have
+also a younger brother who works with him. He did not wish to go to
+America with me."
+
+At this moment a human doll baby toddled into the room. His round little
+head was bald except for a thick mat of hair on top. His beady black eyes
+gleamed like polished glass. He wore a dark red kimono and his feet and
+legs were bare.
+
+"Oh, the darling," cried Mary whose love of children overcame any shyness
+she might feel before strangers. The three Japanese were pleased at the
+attention the little person created. The girls gathered around him in a
+circle while he stood perfectly still regarding them curiously, as if
+they were some new strange birds which had dropped into his room from the
+skies.
+
+Yoritomo also was pleased. He took the little fellow's hand in his and
+led him from one to another while his relatives stood in a beaming row.
+
+Children are called "treasure-flowers" in Japan, and are petted and
+spoiled quite as much as American children.
+
+"What a cunning little baby brother, Mr. Ito," said Nancy. "What is his
+name?"
+
+"Kenkyo," answered Yoritomo. Suddenly he turned and spoke to one of the
+women and the "treasure-flower" was led from the room.
+
+"Oh, don't send him away," objected Miss Campbell. "I haven't had half a
+chance to see him yet."
+
+"He is not dressed to see distinguished visitors," answered Yoritomo,
+quickly. "My mother would like to show you some of her embroidery if
+you would care to see it."
+
+So the subject of little Kenkyo was dropped and Madame Ito, hurrying
+away, returned in a moment with an armful of linen and silk on which she
+had worked the most wonderful floral designs.
+
+In the meantime, the faithful 'riksha man, Komatsu, had trotted all the
+way through floods of rain to the Campbell villa half a mile distant, and
+now returned in company with O'Haru. Between them they carried a covered
+basket containing five mackintoshes, five pairs of overshoes and five
+umbrellas.
+
+Komatsu was very angry with O'Haru. He explained to Miss Campbell:
+
+"I not wish, but she coming without not wish."
+
+He pointed accusingly at the sad old face. O'Haru, dripping and
+imperturbable, stood on the piazza near the entrance to the villa.
+
+"That was very good of you, O'Haru; we appreciate your devotion," said
+Miss Campbell, but the housekeeper did not appear to grasp all this fine
+English. She seemed to be taking in every detail of the room and its
+occupants. Nobody took any notice of her. All the ladies and the servants
+were engaged in helping the guests on with their rain coats and
+overshoes. Mme. Ito insisted on doing up their hats in paper bundles.
+
+In the midst of a great deal of leave-taking and much smiling and bowing,
+Yoritomo found time to say to Nancy:
+
+"You see, chance has favored me to-day. The rain which kept me away from
+the bridge has brought you to my home."
+
+Nancy blushed in spite of her efforts not to. She felt half pleased and
+half frightened at the earnest manner of the young Japanese. He was
+undeniably handsome and graceful, with a self-possession she had never
+seen equaled. Just then a dark figure darted across the floor so swiftly
+that it was like a flash of brown wings in the air. There was a low
+exclamation from the ladies, a bird-like chatter from the servants, and
+for one brief moment the surprised Americans beheld old O'Haru on her
+knees before little Kenkyo in the act of touching her forehead to the
+floor. She drew a beautiful, bright-colored toy from her bosom and gave
+it to the solemn-eyed little boy. Then, bowing again with extreme
+reverence, she rose and left the house. When they next saw her she was
+swinging along in the rain on her wooden clogs. Miss Campbell made
+Komatsu stop the 'riksha and invited her to climb in, but she refused
+politely but firmly.
+
+"Extraordinary creature," exclaimed Miss Campbell, but Komatsu could
+offer no explanation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE GARDEN IN THE RAIN.
+
+
+For three interminable days the rain poured down uninterruptedly. The
+floodgates of heaven had opened and it seemed as though they would never
+close again. The all-pervading dampness and chill brought illness to the
+Campbell household of a kind not to be healed by medicine. Homesickness
+it was, and it spread rapidly like a contagious disease. Only one member
+of the party of Americans was not afflicted and that was Mr. Campbell,
+who had lived in many climates and countries and was accustomed to
+seasons of rain and wet. Moreover, as he himself had said, he had no home
+to be sick for. He felt a supreme content in the thought of having his
+daughter with him and no amount of rain could chill his enthusiasm.
+
+Miss Campbell took to her bed with an attack of rheumatism, brought on,
+she insisted, from having sat on the floor at the home of Mme. Ito. Mary
+began a diary of her experiences in Japan and had several private weeping
+spells entirely due to the unsurpassed dismalness of the weather. Billie
+endeavored to throw off her depression by giving Onoye lessons in English
+in exchange for lessons in Japanese, and in the course of these lessons
+she learned a little of Onoye's history. O'Haru had been obliged to go to
+work after the death of her husband who had lost all his property in a
+fire. Onoye's only brother had been killed in great "bat-tel." The family
+had had "muchly unfortune. All money gone--nothing."
+
+At the conclusion of this sad story told mostly by expressive gestures
+and queerly chosen words, Onoye smiled sweetly. That is the only polite
+thing for a well brought up Japanese girl to do even when her own
+misfortunes are the subject of the conversation.
+
+"What a shame," Billie exclaimed sympathetically. "I should think you
+would learn something, some trade, I mean, Onoye. You are much too clever
+to be a housemaid. But I suppose you will marry. I hear there are no old
+maids in Japan."
+
+Onoye shook her head and smiled sadly. Perhaps she did not understand
+Billie's remark because she did not reply.
+
+"Old maid, Onoye, is one who never marries," explained Nancy at the
+dressing table arranging her hair.
+
+"Ah, Komatsu old maid. He not marry."
+
+"No, no, Komatsu is a man," said Billie trying not to laugh. "Old maid is
+a woman who has no husband, like Miss Campbell."
+
+"Old maid," repeated Onoye, and because of what happened that very
+evening, it was evident that the retentive Japanese memory had not lost
+the words.
+
+In the afternoon there came a characteristic note from Mr. Campbell to
+his cousin.
+
+"Tell O'Haru to put on the big pot and the little," it ran, "and to kill
+the fatted calf. I am going to cheer up my gloomy household by bringing
+four men home to dinner. If it were not for these flimsy little card
+houses, I would suggest a dance afterwards, but I couldn't answer for
+the walls and roof if two young Americans danced a two-step in the
+parlor."
+
+"I am sure a two-step is no rougher than one of these storms of wind and
+rain," observed Miss Campbell, feeling a sudden loyalty toward everything
+American, including dances.
+
+O'Haru was informed of the party and the house became at once a beehive
+of activity. Several of the little maids, without being told, took down
+all the dresses in the wardrobes and began drying them out with square
+boxes of red embers.
+
+"I'd like to be done the same way," remarked Miss Campbell. "I think I am
+just as mildewed as my clothes."
+
+The kitchen quarters of the house fairly vibrated with the stir of
+preparation. In the living rooms the air was dried with small charcoal
+stoves. The gardener was seen bringing in armfuls of flowers; and with
+all the activity and preparation, there was no noise, not a sound. It
+was positively uncanny.
+
+Late in the afternoon Nancy slipped away from this noiseless busy scene
+and tripped demurely down a garden path toward the bridge. She was not
+exactly bent on mischief but she wanted to satisfy her curiosity about
+something. The rain had lessened considerably but it was still necessary
+for her to protect her recently arranged curls with her small blue silk
+umbrella. In her mackintosh of changeable silk in two shades of blue, she
+made a charming picture coming down the rain-soaked path. The garden
+itself was a thing of beauty. On the end of every pine needle hung a
+crystal drop, and through the thin veil of mist clinging to the shrubbery
+a clump of azaleas glowed like a crimson flame. Taking a path to the
+left, Nancy began the gentle and almost imperceptible descent to the
+little bridge. The air was filled with the perfume of wild roses and late
+plum blossoms. It was really a fairy land, this Japan; a place too
+exquisite and unreal for human beings to live in. She began to sing
+softly to herself Elinor's favorite song:
+
+"'Know'st thou the land of the citron bloom?'"
+
+As she approached the bridge she felt a little frightened for some
+reason. It was rather reckless of her to come down to this lonely place
+in the late afternoon even if it was their own premises. It was the first
+time she had done it and she decided it would be the last. But as long as
+she had come, she would see it through. Nancy could hardly explain to
+herself what she meant by "seeing it through."
+
+She would stroll carelessly down the path, walk across the bridge, pause
+a moment and walk back again, not looking behind her of course, as, if
+she were observed, and she was sure she was not, she would pretend she
+was out for a walk and had not expected to meet anyone. Thus Nancy
+reasoned with herself, but by the time she had reached the bridge she had
+changed her mind and was about to turn and hasten back, when she noticed
+a beautiful tea rose that had been laid conspicuously on the hand rail of
+the bridge.
+
+"He has been here," she thought. "He must have just gone. The rose is
+quite fresh."
+
+Sticking its long stem through the buttonhole of her raincoat, she
+glanced about her curiously. Somehow, behind every clump of shrubs and
+every branching pine tree she felt black eyes staring at her and yet she
+was sure she was alone. Again she started for the house, feeling
+profoundly relieved that Yoritomo had not waited, if, indeed, it was he
+who had left the rose. Suddenly Nancy's heart jumped into her throat and
+she felt a cold chill down her spinal column,--and for no reason, except
+that standing in front of her was not a man, but a woman. The stranger
+was too tall to be a Japanese and she was dressed, moreover, in European
+clothes,--a beautifully fitting tailor-made suit and English traveling
+hat of stitched cloth. But there was something faintly suggestive of the
+Japanese about her face. Perhaps it was the slightly slanting eyes and
+the smooth olive skin. Her hair was much lighter than her eyes and quite
+fluffy; her features were regular and there was a graceful dignity in the
+poise of her head on her shoulders. Nancy concluded after a swift
+examination that she was, if peculiar looking, still strangely
+fascinating.
+
+"May I ask your pardon for intruding on your beautiful gardens?" began
+the woman, speaking with a slightly English accent. "I did not expect
+to meet any one on this rainy afternoon."
+
+Nancy wondered how she had got into the garden and where she had come
+from. These things the stranger did not explain. However, Nancy answered
+politely:
+
+"It isn't my garden, but I am sure Mr. Campbell would be delighted to
+have other people enjoy it."
+
+"You are a sweet child," said the woman, deliberately taking Nancy's chin
+in her hand and looking down at her, "a sweet, exquisite child."
+
+After all, Nancy decided, this mysterious lady was both fascinating and
+beautiful.
+
+"And who is Mr. Campbell?"
+
+Nancy explained. In fact, after a few leading questions, she disclosed
+the entire history of the household; who they were, how long they
+expected to stay, and how they happened to be spending the summer in
+Japan.
+
+"Is it possible that you are the Motor Maids who have ridden so many
+thousands of miles in a red car?" asked the stranger.
+
+Nancy opened her eyes.
+
+"Yes," she answered. "But we never dreamed we were so famous as that."
+
+"Ah, you will find that Tokyo is not so far removed from the world,"
+answered the woman, smiling gravely. "And Mr. Campbell is building a
+railroad, you say?"
+
+"No, I didn't say so," replied Nancy, a little surprised. "He's not
+building anything that I know of. He is being consulted, or something."
+
+But the stranger did not seem to have heard her.
+
+"I must be going," she said absently. "You are an adorably pretty child.
+It's been a pleasure to see you. I only wandered in here because I was
+unhappy and wanted to be alone, but you have cheered me up. Run along,
+now, and don't walk in Japanese gardens at dusk unattended too often."
+Her glance fell on the tea rose. "And remember that the Japanese do not
+understand the meaning of the word 'flirtation.' Good-by, _ma cherie,
+belle et charmante_. You won't tell your Mr. Campbell that I trespassed
+on his garden, will you? Promise?"
+
+"I promise," answered Nancy, quite bewildered and fascinated.
+
+Then the mysterious lady disappeared down a dripping path and Nancy was
+left standing alone in the rain.
+
+"I am sorry I promised," was her first thought. "It would have been such
+fun to tell Billie." But her second thought was: "Billie would have
+asked me why I had gone walking at dusk in the rain, and what a teasing I
+should have got."
+
+It was late and she hurried back to dress for dinner. No one had missed
+her because Billie had been helping Miss Campbell into her best evening
+frock, and the others were all engaged in their own toilets.
+
+That evening at half past seven a very jolly party gathered around the
+dinner table, which was a miracle of beauty with its decorations of apple
+blossoms. Besides Nicholas Grimm and Yoritomo Ito, there were two
+Englishmen, Reginald Carlton, a young man who was taking a trip around
+the world by way of finishing his education, and Mr. Buxton, an older man
+who lived in Tokyo. All the men wore evening clothes, although Mr.
+Campbell had sighed when Billie made him appear in his. He was a man of
+camps and open air and seldom appeared in society. Nancy watched his
+rugged, handsome face admiringly.
+
+"What a splendid looking man he is," she was thinking, when Yoritomo at
+her right said in a low voice:
+
+"You did go to the bridge."
+
+"How do you know?" she asked.
+
+"Because I saw the rose. It was fastened on your rain coat, which you
+left on a hook in the passage with your wet umbrella."
+
+"I only went for the air," said Nancy hastily. "I shall not go again
+alone."
+
+Yoritomo's face darkened, and he turned his attention to his dinner.
+
+In the meantime the others were all amusing themselves in various ways,
+and there was a great deal of talk and laughter. Miss Campbell felt
+rejuvenated and her rheumatic twinges had entirely disappeared.
+
+"There is nothing like a little pleasure for driving acidity out of the
+system," she thought, as she finished the last spoonful of her dessert of
+beautifully preserved fruits.
+
+Onoye had entered, carrying a small lacquered tray on which lay a square,
+foreign-looking visiting card.
+
+"A lady calling to the honorable old maid," she announced calmly at Miss
+Campbell's elbow.
+
+"The what?" cried Mr. Campbell.
+
+"The honorable old maid," repeated poor Onoye, with her precise accent,
+smiling innocently.
+
+There was a perfect shout of laughter. Only Yoritomo's face remained
+impassive, but who could tell what angry thoughts were hidden behind that
+mask-like face? Billie tried to explain how the mistake had occurred, and
+Onoye rushed from the room in an agony of embarrassment and shame.
+
+"Don't scold her, Cousin. She thought she had learned a new English
+word," Billie besought Miss Campbell.
+
+"Scold her? I should think not. I don't mind being called an 'honorable
+old maid,' I am sure. But who is this caller, I wonder?" she added, in
+a lower voice.
+
+Mr. Campbell examined the card with some curiosity. "Mme. Marie
+Fontaine," it read. Miss Campbell hastened into the drawing-room, and
+Nancy, peeping through the doors a few minutes later, was surprised to
+find that Mme. Fontame was her recent companion in the garden.
+
+The visit was very brief, and Miss Campbell presently returned looking
+somewhat amused and a little annoyed.
+
+"Mme. Fontaine wished to know if she might have an interview with the
+Motor Maids on the subject of their motor trip across the American
+continent and through the British Isles."
+
+"And what did you tell her?" demanded the four girls in one voice, it
+must be confessed somewhat eagerly.
+
+"I told her that while we appreciated the compliment, it would be
+impossible."
+
+"Quite right," said Mr. Campbell. "Publicity is the thing of all others I
+wish to avoid, and if an article like that appeared in a Tokyo paper,
+either in Japanese or English, you would probably be the object of the
+most disagreeable curiosity. Am I not right, Yoritomo?"
+
+"Oh, yes. It would not be agreeable to the young ladies. Many people
+would come to look at them."
+
+"I am very glad my action is approved, then," said Miss Campbell. "I have
+an old-fashioned horror of notoriety like that, and I am sure none of my
+girls would care to see herself in a newspaper. Would she?"
+
+"No, indeed," they answered promptly in a chorus.
+
+In a secret place in Nancy's mind, however, she saw a picture of her own
+pretty face occupying at least one-third of a newspaper page and
+underneath, blazoned in large letters: "The Beautiful Miss Anne Starbuck
+Brown, One of the Famous Motor Maids."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+IN THE LIBRARY.
+
+
+The house Mr. Campbell had sub-let for the summer was somewhat
+labyrinthian in design, since it was only one story high and contained
+many rooms for living and sleeping, besides the servants' quarters in the
+rear. Mr. Spears had engaged a Japanese architect to build the house and
+Japanese and European ideas were curiously combined in its construction.
+Down the middle ran a broad hall, intersected at the back by another hall
+running across the house. This was known as "the passage," and it was in
+a manner a social boundary line, dividing the quarters of master and
+servants. Only one opening broke the monotony of the uninterrupted
+partition on the far side of the passage. This was the door into the
+library which had been placed in a quiet and out-of-the-way corner
+overlooking the garden.
+
+This library was decidedly the most attractive and home-like room in the
+villa. There was a large open fireplace at one end where a pile of
+blazing logs now crackled cheerfully. It would have taken an immense
+"go-down" to accommodate  all the books which lined the walls. But Mr.
+Spears was evidently not afraid of fire, for they stood in serried ranks,
+rows and rows of them, and between each group of shelves was a panel of
+carved and polished wood. Over the mantel hung a beautiful Japanese
+print. Curtains of some heavy material, old rose in color, hung at the
+windows, and instead of the usual three by six mats, the floor was
+covered with an Oriental rug in soft warm colors. There were many low,
+comfortable chairs about and several tables on which stood shaded lamps.
+
+Later in the evening after Mr. Campbell's dinner party, the three older
+members of the company sat down in the drawing-room for a quiet game,
+while the young people repaired to the library where they might talk and
+laugh freely without fear of disturbing the players.
+
+"Oh, I say, what a jolly room," exclaimed Reginald Carlton, looking about
+him with interest.
+
+"Isn't it?" agreed Billie. "Papa says that if people would only stick to
+Japanese notions of decoration and add a few comfortable chairs to sit
+in, they would never make any mistakes. You see, there's only one picture
+in this room, but that's considered very fine. It's by a famous Japanese
+artist."
+
+"I like that one-picture idea," put in Nicholas Grimm, "especially if it
+is at a comfortable elevation. Just pull up an easy chair and raise your
+eyes and you have seen all there is to see. There's a delightful
+simplicity about that to me. But I suppose Yoritomo would call this room
+crowded, nevertheless. How about it, old man? It wouldn't take you
+fifteen minutes to pull down the curtains and roll up the rug and store
+them in the 'go-down.' Would it, now, honor bright?"
+
+"No, no. I like the European furnishings," protested the Japanese. "You
+must remember that I lived in America for many years. There is only one
+thing I would store in the 'go-down,' and that is the little safe."
+
+He pointed to a small American fire-proof safe in a corner of the room.
+
+"But that is our 'go-down,'" laughed Billie. "We haven't any other. When
+Papa first came here he discovered that there was no place to lock up
+anything except some desk drawers, and he rented this little safe for his
+papers. A Japanese gentleman advised him to do it. He told Papa there was
+a great deal of curiosity here about the private business of foreigners."
+
+A dark flush overspread Yoritomo's face and gradually faded out. The
+others did not notice it, however. They had followed Nicholas across
+the room and were standing in a circle around the safe, while the young
+American touched it with a caressing hand.
+
+"Made in Newark, N.J., U.S.A.," he exclaimed. "Think of that. It's like
+meeting an old friend from home."
+
+"A very proper kind of friend," observed Reginald. "The kind that keeps a
+secret behind a combination lock."
+
+"I don't call it being a real friend to have any combination at all," put
+in Elinor, "because anybody who learns the combination can get the
+secret."
+
+Nicholas laughed.
+
+"You don't understand the Japanese, Miss Butler," he exclaimed. "They
+regard all persons with important secrets as combination safes. Sooner or
+later they believe they can learn any combination if they only persist."
+
+"Why don't you stand up for your country, Mr. Ito?" asked Nancy.
+
+"What Nicholas says is true," answered Yoritomo. "If the secret concerns
+his country, the Japanese will learn it if he must give up his life. What
+you call 'spy' in your language should be changed to patriot, or one who
+risks all for his country. Every Japanese is a spy, because every
+Japanese will suffer for Japan."
+
+"Perfectly good logic," said Nicholas.
+
+"Are you a spy?" asked Mary, so innocently that even the imperturbable
+Yoritomo laughed.
+
+"I am, in the sense of being a patriot," he answered. "There is nothing I
+would not do for Japan."
+
+"Are you a Samurai?" asked Billie, hardly understanding the meaning of
+the word.
+
+"My grandfather was. There are no real samurai now. Only descendants."
+
+"But what were they?"
+
+Yoritomo's face became strangely animated.
+
+"A samurai was a soldier," he said. "He was brave and feared neither
+death nor suffering in any form. He carried two swords, a long one for
+fighting and a short one for defense. The sword was the emblem of the
+samurai spirit. He took pride in keeping it sharp and bright."
+
+"Aren't some of the descendants of the old warrior samurai rather
+fanatical?" asked Reginald. "That is, I mean--" he hesitated, seeing a
+peculiar gleam in Yoritomo's eyes, "aren't some opposed to the entrance
+of foreigners into Japan, and the invasion of foreign ideas--perhaps that
+feeling has died out now?"
+
+"The old samurai defended his country against the foreigner and no
+descendant of a samurai, either now or ever, would endure for a foreigner
+to learn the secrets of his country. But that is not fanaticism. That is
+patriotism. He is very jealous of his country's honor, you understand.
+You will look at the history of other countries. First it is only a few
+foreigners; then more and more. They slip into the government. They
+spread their ideas and customs--they get a foot-hold--then--all of a
+sudden, what is it? Not Japan any longer--but--America--England."
+
+"Oh, come off, Yoritomo," cried Nicholas, laughing. "What in the name of
+all the powers are you driving at? There are about forty millions of
+people on this island and I guess a few foreigners won't make much
+headway in such a bunch as that."
+
+"At least, you are not afraid of being Americanized, Mr. Ito," broke in
+Nancy, "since you were educated in America."
+
+"I am not afraid of the invasion of beautiful American young ladies,"
+answered Yoritomo gallantly, and the others laughed and felt somewhat
+relieved that the conversation had drifted into a less serious vein. They
+drew their chairs into a circle about the fire and talked pleasantly for
+some time, when they were summoned back to the drawing-room by Mr.
+Campbell, who reminded Elinor of a promise she had made to him to sing
+for them with her guitar.
+
+This performance was a subject of wondering curiosity to the servants of
+the household. Through the door to the dining-room Elinor caught a
+glimpse of a multitude of natives crouched on the floor behind the
+screen, including Komatsu and O'Haru, all the little maids, the
+numerous grandmothers, and the 'riksha men who had brought the guests out
+from Tokyo. If the music seemed strange to the Japanese ear trained for
+centuries to a curious uneven scale, at least they admired Elinor's
+lovely voice, clear and sweet as a bell. She had a large repertoire and
+knew all the favorites of everybody. While she was singing "Oh, that we
+two were Maying," at the request of Miss Campbell, Nancy, seated on the
+couch beside Billie, near the door, whispered into her friend's ear:
+
+"I left my handkerchief in the library," and slipped into the hall.
+Hardly a moment later Billie, glancing through the door, saw Nancy in
+the distance, beckoning violently. She rose and followed, much against
+her will, thinking perhaps Nancy wished to bestow a confidence which
+might just as well be kept until later.
+
+"What on earth do you want?" she asked, with the irritability intimate
+friends use toward each other without meaning really to be cross.
+
+"The queerest thing has happened. The library is perfectly black dark."
+
+"I don't think there is anything specially remarkable about that. The
+fire had burned low before we left and I suppose one of the maids put out
+the lamps. The Japs are nothing if not economical."
+
+"They are nothing if not polite, too," argued Nancy. "And I am sure they
+wouldn't put out the lights before the company left. Besides, they are
+all listening to Elinor sing."
+
+"Well, the lights are out and I don't see that it matters much,
+Nancy-Bell. Let's go back and hear the rest of the song."
+
+"Won't you come with me first to get my handkerchief?" pleaded Nancy. "I
+know exactly where I left it, and I am afraid to go alone, if you want to
+know the real truth."
+
+"Oh, you little coward," laughed Billie good-naturedly, taking her arm.
+"Come along, then."
+
+The two young girls hastened down the long hall until they reached the
+passage.
+
+"Billie," whispered Nancy, pausing at the door. "You won't think me silly
+if I tell you this? Of course it may have been imagination, but I was
+awfully frightened when I came in here just now. I opened the door
+suddenly and ran into the room before I realized it was dark. Then, of
+course, I stopped short. The door had closed behind me and it seemed to
+me that some one else was in the room. I remembered that as I opened the
+door I heard some one move or collide with a chair. I stood perfectly
+still for an instant. I was really frightened. Then I just flew."
+
+"Perhaps it was one of the servants who had put out the lights and was
+afraid to acknowledge it," suggested Billie. "The little maids are as
+timid as wild things."
+
+"But every servant in the house is in the dining room, I tell you. I saw
+them as I went down the hall, and I counted them just for fun. There were
+the four little maids and Onoye and O'Haru and Komatsu and the three
+jinriksha men and the three old grandmothers and the gardener. There
+aren't any others."
+
+The door leading into the library was not a sliding panel of thick opaque
+paper, like the usual Japanese door, but a real European door of heavy
+wood with a brass handle.
+
+"Don't you think we had better get your father, Billie, or one of the
+boys?" whispered Nancy, placing a detaining hand on her friend's arm.
+
+"But that would be a needless alarm. Everybody would want to know what
+was the matter. There would have to be explanations and Cousin Helen
+would be frightened. Besides, I am sure it was just your vivid
+imagination, Nancy."
+
+She opened the door very softly and peeped in. The room was flooded with
+the radiance of two shaded lamps, both burning brightly; in fact, one had
+been turned up too high, as if lighted in haste.
+
+"Oh," gasped Nancy, in amazement.
+
+But Billie was determined not to be surprised.
+
+"Take my word for it, Nancy; one of the servants put out the lights by
+mistake, thinking we had finished in here for the night, and when you
+returned he or she was frightened and lit them again, thinking that
+honorable American young lady might be displeased."
+
+Nancy found her handkerchief.
+
+"Very well," she said. "If that is your expert opinion I am willing to
+abide by it, but I was fright--"
+
+Before she could finish one of the long French windows blew open and a
+gust of wet wind extinguished the lamp on a table near the window. Billie
+marched boldly over and closed and bolted the window.
+
+"Whoever it was," she said, "must have got out this way."
+
+The girls exchanged a long glance of uneasy speculation. In the dim light
+of the remaining lamp the room seemed filled with shadows. Billie drew
+the heavy curtains across the casement. Those at the other window were
+already drawn.
+
+"Come along, Nancy-Bell," she exclaimed. "Thieves don't blow out lights
+and then come back and relight them. It would be extremely unprofessional
+if they did and very reckless besides. It's certain to be one of those
+timid little persons in a kimono. We had better be getting back to the
+drawing-room or Papa will be wondering what has become of us."
+
+Hardly had they closed the door after them, when a figure, wrapped from
+head to foot in a long brown garment something like a cape, emerged from
+behind the other curtains. Whoever it was, whether man or woman, it was
+impossible to judge, opened the door, peeped cautiously into the passage
+and, finding it quite empty, marched boldly out. In another moment the
+intruder had disappeared into the garden.
+
+As the girls passed along the hall they paused to notice the picturesque
+group of servants gathered near the door. There was a smile on every
+face, not a smile of ridicule, but of courteous enjoyment.
+
+"Is there any rude person in the length and breadth of Japan?" thought
+Billie, while Nancy once more counted heads and then shook her own
+thoughtfully.
+
+"I don't understand," she pondered, "but Billie is usually right, so I'll
+just cease to worry."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+CHERRY BLOSSOMS.
+
+
+A few hours of brilliant sunshine and all the dampness had been sucked up
+from the earth; the air was warmed and dried and the mists rolled back
+from the garden, revealing a fairy-land too exquisite to be real.
+
+Something especially wonderful had happened that morning. The faces of
+the little maids had been filled with a joyous expectancy as they hurried
+from room to room on their household duties. A mysterious smile hovered
+on the lips of Komatsu when he appeared to receive his orders. Even old
+O'Haru was secretly immensely pleased about something, but they all had
+evidently agreed among themselves to keep the great news secret until the
+psychological moment had arrived when the ladies of the house and Mr.
+Campbell had assembled on the piazza just before breakfast.
+
+When this occurred word was swiftly and silently conveyed over the
+household and all persons belonging to the domestic staff instantly
+gathered in the hall and doorway.
+
+"Why, what on earth is the matter with them?" Miss Campbell asked
+uneasily. "Will you please look: the entire household collected in the
+front hall."
+
+Mr. Campbell was as much at a loss as his cousin.
+
+"They look as if they were going to play a joke on us," observed Billie,
+"Did you ever see anything so guileless and simple-hearted as they are?"
+
+"Oh, I know what it is," cried Mary, clasping her hands with delight.
+"There," she said, pointing to the old gardener, who was approaching by
+way of one of the paths. There was an inimitable smile on his face, and
+he carried tenderly and gingerly a double handful of brown branches on
+which clustered delicate pink blossoms.
+
+"It's the cherry blossoms! They are in bloom!" Mary shouted in her
+enthusiasm. "That's why they are all so delighted. The dears! They are
+just like a lot of children."
+
+The crown of the year for the Japanese had indeed arrived, the season
+when every cherry tree becomes a magnificent nosegay which has caught the
+sunset's glow, and all the world goes forth to view the splendid sight.
+
+The love of these people, young and old and of all classes, for flowers,
+and particularly for cherry blossoms, is touching in its simplicity and
+sincerity.
+
+The old gardener was himself a delightful picture in his blue cotton,
+tunic-like coat, queer, tight-fitting trousers and an enormous hat that
+resembled an inverted flower basket. Against the coarse blue of his tunic
+rested the delicate rosy cloud of blossoms. With an elaborate bow he
+presented Mr. Campbell and each of the ladies with a branch. "Him muchly
+more big soon all same," he said.
+
+"Thank you, Saiki. They are very beautiful," said Miss Campbell, speaking
+in the distinct, loud tone she used for persons not understanding her
+own language.
+
+The girls exclaimed and admired and Mr. Campbell was delighted. He felt a
+kind of reverence for the old man's simple unaffected love of beauty. In
+the meantime, the regiment of servants who had witnessed and enjoyed the
+ceremony of presenting the first cherry blossoms to the master and
+mistress of the house retired to their various occupations.
+
+The pleasure and surprise of the foreigners over the beauty of the cherry
+blossoms would be a memory for these humble people to cherish all their
+lives. Perhaps they had never seen the like before, these honorable
+barbarians; certainly nothing so perfect as the double blossom, of a
+delicacy and shade not to be surpassed.
+
+Later at the breakfast table Billie concocted a scheme.
+
+"Papa," she began, "can't we take the 'Comet' and go sight-seeing? It
+would be such fun, and while the 'rikshas are very nice, we are so
+separated, we can't all sympathize together as we usually do."
+
+"A kind of sympathy in detachments, is it?" asked Mr. Campbell. "But I
+wanted to go with you on your first ride in the 'Comet.' I don't know
+just how the people will take to a girl's driving a red 'devil-wagon,' as
+they call it."
+
+"Why not let Komatsu go along?"
+
+"What do you think, Cousin?" asked Mr. Campbell.
+
+Up to this time Miss Campbell had kept out of the discussion. The truth
+is, she yearned to relieve the tedium of life by taking a trip in the red
+motor car.
+
+"Couldn't you get away and go with us?"
+
+"Impossible this afternoon, because I have an appointment to meet some
+very distinguished persons to discuss various plans. One can hardly be
+polite enough as it is in this good-mannered country, and it would never
+do to break an engagement. In another week or so I shall be free to take
+the ladies on excursions."
+
+"What is it all about, Papa?" asked Billie.
+
+"Oh, government improvements, child. Things that are too important to be
+talked about." He pinched her cheek. "Well, beautiful American ladies, if
+you take Komatsu with you as interpreter and protector, guide and friend,
+I think you might be trusted to make a little cherry-blossom excursion in
+the 'Comet.' Only don't go too far or too fast and on your life don't run
+over anything, even a chicken, or there'll be trouble for all concerned."
+
+So it was settled, and after breakfast Billie rushed to the mysterious
+back premises of the place on the other side of the house, where various
+hitherto unsuspected industries seemed to be in progress. There was a
+kitchen garden hidden by a hedge of althea bushes, a chicken yard, and
+in a most picturesque building, used by the Spears for a carriage house,
+the "Comet." So far they had been unable to find a chauffeur, and Mr.
+Campbell himself had gone over all the machinery and put it in order.
+Billie cranked up, and, jumping into her old accustomed place, guided the
+motor car into the open. Komatsu came at a run from around the side of
+the house. He was so amazed at sight of Billie in the chauffeur's seat
+that he could not conceal his feelings.
+
+"Komatsu, we want you to go with us to-day. We want you to show us the
+cherry trees in Tokyo and Uyeno Park. I suppose we couldn't get to all
+the famous cherry blossom places in one afternoon?"
+
+"Him fast runner. No sakura all same see."
+
+"No, no. We shall go quite slowly. We want to see everything."
+
+In less than an hour the _hanami_, signifying in Japanese a picnic to a
+famous place to view certain flowers in season, conducted on the most
+modern lines in a red motor car, proceeded on its way. Komatsu, a
+strangely incongruous figure, sat on the front seat beside Billie.
+
+On the way to Tokyo the "Comet" created a sensation. All the varied
+wayfarers on that picturesque highway paused and stared, pointing and
+gesticulating.
+
+The city was a vision of beauty. Most of its broad avenues are lined with
+close set rows of cherry trees which were now bursting into blossom in
+all the most delicate and exquisite shades of pink known to nature.
+Komatsu guided them about the city with a kind of pleased and gratified
+delight as if he were showing his own property. Sometimes he stood up and
+pointed to the feathery tops of carefully nurtured cherry trees, glimpses
+of which could be seen over the high walls surrounding private gardens.
+
+The motorists were fairly bewildered by the beauty of it all. It was like
+a vast conservatory with the roof taken off. Nothing could have been more
+exotic or more lovely than the vista through the park with the white peak
+of Fujiyama, queen of mountains, glistening in the distance.
+
+Moreover, this little jaunt in the car had stirred their blood into
+action. They felt once more the call of the road, the fever to be going.
+The old accustomed sensation that they must make a certain place by such
+and such a time had returned. They were of one opinion, this party of
+Motor-Gypsies: to go back home until sunset would be a foolish waste of
+golden hours. Their five wishes accorded like the notes of an harmonious
+chord and presently Billie, influenced by the force of this silent
+opinion, exclaimed:
+
+"Suppose we take a country road and eat lunch later at some wayside tea
+house?"
+
+"Splendid!" cried the others almost before she had finished.
+
+Miss Campbell raised one feeble objection--something about the
+weather--but it was promptly overridden by her relative at the wheel,
+and presently she settled down in her seat and abandoned herself to the
+joy of motion.
+
+"In all the ten thousands of miles we have covered in this car," she
+remarked, "I never was happier than I am at this moment."
+
+"Why can't we go to the Arakawa Ridge?" suggested Mary, consulting a
+guide book. "It's only seven miles from here on the Sumida River and
+there are miles and miles of road bordered by double-flowering cherry
+trees."
+
+This was agreeable to all concerned, and, accordingly, Komatsu guided
+them to this famous spot, the pride of Tokyo. On the way they passed
+hundreds of people in jinrikshas or on foot. Many of the pedestrians
+carried paper parasols and fans, exactly like the chorus in the "Mikado."
+Those who rode in the graceful little two-wheeled buggies looked out upon
+the world with expressions of calm enjoyment.
+
+The "Comet" was a conspicuous object as it progressed slowly along the
+road, but so far all things worked together for good and there was no
+cause for uneasiness. At a little roadside tea house they paused for
+lunch. The building was nothing more than a shed with a low-hanging
+thatched roof and sides made of coarse strips of matting joined together
+with bamboo sticks. Humble as it was it possessed a peculiar charm, all
+its own. They were presently to find that the rear of the tea house
+facing a little garden was glorified into something rich and strange by a
+magnificent azalea bush in full bloom. It reached to the roof of the
+house and was a mass of deep red blossoms.
+
+The ear was left in a pine grove near the house, and following Komatsu
+along a rocky path they presently found themselves in this delectable
+little garden. Here they were met by an old man and his wife, a very aged
+couple whose gentle deprecating expressions almost moved Miss Campbell to
+tears.
+
+"The adorable old things," she exclaimed. "They remind me of two old
+turtle doves."
+
+Close at their heels came two little maids who conducted the ladies into
+the tea house and brought tea for temporary refreshment, while Komatsu
+consulted with the proprietor regarding lunch.
+
+Presently one of the little maids hurried in and placed a menu in front
+of Miss Campbell.
+
+"Me speak little honorable American language," she said. "You like all
+same American food? Will gracious lady make eyes to look?"
+
+Miss Campbell raised her lorgnette and examined the menu while the small
+maid backed away and disappeared, in the throes of extreme shyness over
+her endeavors.
+
+"Girls," said Miss Campbell, in a curious, strained voice, "don't any of
+you dare to laugh because of course they are all peeping at us from
+somewhere, but I want you all to make eyes to look at this amazing
+production."
+
+They crowded about her and over her shoulder read the following menu:
+
+_Soup by egge
+Eels to rice
+Seaweed
+Podadoe Sweete
+Sponge boiled
+Doormats a la U. S._
+
+There were tears of laughter in Miss Campbell's eyes and her voice was so
+shaky she could hardly trust herself to speak, even when she saw the
+little maid returning around the corner of the azalea bush. The faces of
+the four girls were crimson with suppressed laughter.
+
+"Very nice, my dear," said Miss Campbell, "you may bring in luncheon as
+soon as you can."
+
+After she had gone there was a brief but eloquent silence.
+
+"Do, some one, make a joke," whispered Elinor.
+
+At that moment a strange looking bob-tailed cat walked by.
+
+"There," cried Nancy, and they all instantly burst into hysterical
+laughter.
+
+"In the name of good health and excellent digestion, tell me what are
+doormats?" asked Billie.
+
+"Dear knows," answered her cousin, "but I think if they must be eaten it
+would be best to take boiled sponges afterward."
+
+The luncheon was purely Japanese, in spite of the English menu, and it
+was really excellent.
+
+"I never thought to come to eels," Miss Campbell observed, but she
+enjoyed her portion, nevertheless.
+
+"Doormats a la U. S." turned out to be a sweet cake with a sugary icing.
+
+"I believe they were intended for doughnuts," observed that astute little
+person, Mary Price, and no doubt she was quite right.
+
+When the feast was over Miss Campbell paid the bill, which was
+pathetically small, since there was no charge for tea and sweetmeats.
+
+"How do we give the tip?" she asked.
+
+"I know," answered Billie, "Papa taught me about that the other day." She
+consulted her note book. Tearing out a leaf, she wrapped up what would
+amount to about a dollar in American money, then with her little silver
+pencil she wrote on the package "On chadai." "That means 'honorable money
+for tea,'" she explained.
+
+Next she clapped her hands. All through the house voices could be heard
+calling "Hai! Hai!"
+
+Presently the maid appeared hanging her head humbly.  Billie motioned to
+her that she wished the proprietor, who, indeed, was close at hand. With
+an expression of much surprise he received the chadai and bowing to the
+ground murmured something which Komatsu explained meant honorable thanks
+for poor insignificant service.
+
+Each guest on departing received a fan as a souvenir; because, as they
+were to learn before they left Japan, no Japanese ever receives a present
+without giving another in return. Every person attached to the tea house
+went out to see the departure of the car, and the old woman clutched her
+husband's arm fearfully when she heard the vibrations of the machinery
+and saw Billie turn the "Comet" down the hillside to the main road.
+
+At last, fortified by strange if not unpalatable food and thoroughly
+enjoying themselves, they arrived at the entrance to the magnificent
+avenue called Arakawa Ridge, along each side of which, as far as the eye
+could see, ran two rows of cherry trees in full bloom.
+
+The avenue was lined with 'rikshas, and hundreds of pedestrians paced
+slowly along. They were in holiday attire and the bright colors of the
+kimonos and obis made a bewildering and brilliant picture. At intervals
+booths had been erected, decorated with lanterns, where refreshments were
+sold, and nearby a roving band of musicians and dancers were entertaining
+the crowd.
+
+The mistake Billie made was to attempt to take the car through the
+crowded road where apparently there were only pedestrians and jinrikshas.
+But Komatsu had not objected and since they had been accustomed to take
+the "Comet" wherever there was a navigable road, they pushed innocently
+on. As for the populace celebrating the cherry blossom festival, they
+evidently regarded the sight of a young woman driving a red devil-wagon
+as something just short of miraculous. Slowly and at a dignified pace the
+motor car moved along the avenue, and suddenly like a bolt from the blue
+two things happened.
+
+A little boy escaped from his sister's hand and ran across the road.
+Billie reversed the lever just as the child fell under the wheels. At the
+same instant a tire on a rear wheel exploded with a loud report.
+
+Miss Campbell groaned and hid her face in her hands.
+
+Instantly they were surrounded by a mob of angry people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A BAD QUARTER OF AN HOUR.
+
+
+In the uncertainty of that terrible moment everything turned black before
+Billie's eyes.
+
+"I am a murderer," was all she could think. "I've killed a little child."
+
+When the mists had cleared away she saw a weird scene about her: hundreds
+of Japanese men and women, speaking in low angry voices which somehow
+reminded her of the breaking of the surf on the beach--perhaps because
+the Japanese language has a sing-song rhythm. The little boy, apparently
+limp and lifeless, lay in his sister's arms. Komatsu had leapt clear over
+the front of the car and pushed his way through the people gathered about
+them. With a hand as skillful as a doctor's he felt the child's pulse and
+placed his ear over his heart.
+
+"Baby only make believe dead," he said. "Honorable heart beating all same
+like steam engine."
+
+At these hopeful words Miss Campbell came to herself with a start. For a
+moment she had been faint and sick with the notion of what had happened.
+Never before in all their thousands of miles of touring in the "Comet"
+had they injured so much as a fly; and now to run down a little child! It
+was too dreadful to contemplate.
+
+"Komatsu," she ordered, in an unsteady voice, "tell the girl to get in
+and we will take her brother to the nearest doctor."
+
+Komatsu conveyed this message to the stricken sister, who shook her head
+violently.
+
+"Honorable devil-wagon shoot pistol. Japanese no likee," he said.
+
+Closer and closer pressed the tense mob about the party. These courteous
+and gentle Japanese had suddenly been transformed into a fierce, savage
+people.
+
+From one end of Japan to the other a child is considered a sacred thing.
+If Billie had injured a grown person the public sentiment would not have
+been so strong, but to harm one of these little "treasure flowers" was to
+strike at the very heart of the nation.
+
+"Can't you understand that we are sorry and anxious to help you?" cried
+Miss Campbell, addressing the mob, but her voice was lost in the subdued
+threatening murmur which sounded like distant thunder heralding the
+approach of a storm.
+
+"Good heavens, Komatsu, what are we to do? The child might be saved if
+they would only listen to reason."
+
+"People no likee honorable devil-wagon. Going breaking little pieces all
+same like sticks."
+
+"No, no, they must not," ejaculated Billie. "We are sorry," she cried,
+stretching out her hands appealingly to the circle of Japanese pressed
+around the car. "We didn't mean to do it."
+
+In the meantime Miss Campbell had produced her bottle of smelling salts,
+the same that had accompanied her on all her trips, and climbed out of
+the car. With a motion imperious and compelling she pushed aside the men
+and women in the circle.
+
+The sister had laid the child on the ground and was kneeling beside him.
+Komatsu knelt on the other side, feeling the little legs and body.
+
+"No break bones," he said briefly.
+
+Miss Campbell sat on the ground by the unconscious child, wondering
+vaguely if she would ever rise again.
+
+"They may tear us to pieces before we get back. They are like an angry,
+silent pack of wolves," she thought to herself. "Komatsu," she said
+aloud, "I believe he has fainted from fright," She put the smelling
+bottle to the baby's funny snub nose.
+
+Presently the boy opened his eyes.
+
+At this moment from the midst of the crowd there came a strange shrill
+cry and a distracted looking woman began beating and fighting her way
+toward the group.
+
+"Honorable mother come in big hurry," said Komatsu, in a low voice.
+"Gracious lady, take jinriksha. Honorable quickness best now."
+
+"But the child isn't injured, Komatsu. Look, he's opened his eyes and
+he's going to sit up. It was simply fright."
+
+"No like honorable devil-wagon," went on Komatsu steadily.
+
+While this low, rapid dialogue was taking place Billie, standing on the
+front seat of the "Comet" on the lookout for help, saw something that
+made her blood turn cold. A band of fierce looking young men in Japanese
+costume was approaching on the run. The leader was brandishing a short
+knife with a two-edged glittering blade and the others flourished sword
+canes. Billie was thankful that Miss Campbell was too much occupied at
+that moment in assuring the poor mother that her child was not injured to
+notice this murderous looking company. Komatsu had quietly placed himself
+beside the car, faithful soul, ready to die in the service of his ladies.
+
+Were they all going to be cut to pieces or was only the "Comet" to be
+sacrificed in revenge for the accident?
+
+The Motor Maids exchanged frightened glances.
+
+"If I only knew six words in Japanese," thought Billie.
+
+"Make honorable quickness to descend, gracious lady. Come, come," Komatsu
+urged. "To jinriksha. Leave red devil-wagon. This place no good for
+staying in."
+
+"Oh, Komatsu, try and reason with them," pleaded Billie. "We don't want
+to lose the 'Comet,' It wasn't his fault. He was going quite slowly. He
+didn't mean to hurt the little boy. He's the kindest hearted old thing.
+It wasn't anybody's fault. Can't you tell them that?"
+
+Billie was too distracted and unhappy to realize how absurd her words
+might have sounded to any English-speaking person. It had always seemed
+to her that a real heart beat somewhere in the mechanical organism of the
+red motor. Gasoline was his life's blood and his pulse-beats were only
+the throb of the engine, but, to Billie, he was a faithful and devoted
+soul and she was not quite prepared to say what she would do in order to
+save him from destruction.
+
+However, at the moment that the band of young men, scarcely more than
+boys any of them, reached the car, some one sprang into the machine from
+the other side.
+
+Turning quickly, Billie was confronted by a tall, slender young woman in
+a white serge suit and a big black hat. She had a dark, creamy
+complexion, dark eyes that slanted slightly and hair of a queer mousy
+shade of brown.
+
+"Wait," said the stranger, "I will speak to them," and mounting the seat,
+she addressed the crowd in their own tongue with extraordinary fluency,
+the girls thought, remembering what they had heard concerning the
+difficulties of that language. There was an elegance and fascination
+indescribable about the stranger. Nancy recognized her instantly as the
+lady in the garden. Miss Campbell knew her as Mme. Fontaine, newspaper
+correspondent. The others in the party imagined her to be almost anything
+romantic and interesting; perhaps a foreign princess; a great actress;
+something remarkable, surely.
+
+In a beautiful, cultured voice, far reaching in spite of its soft tones,
+she harangued the multitude which little by little fell back. The group
+of fierce young men put away their weapons and disappeared in the mob.
+The little boy, the cause of all the trouble, was now standing on his
+feet blinking his eyes at Miss Campbell. How the picture was stamped on
+their minds like a vividly colored print!
+
+Miss Campbell took out her purse and gave the mother of the boy some
+money. Being still quite ignorant of Japanese coinage she did not pause
+to make any laborious calculations, but poured all the money in the purse
+into the woman's outstretched hand. It must have been an undreamed-of
+sum, for the mother's face was wreathed in delighted smiles. She bowed
+until her forehead almost touched the ground, as did the witnesses of
+this princely generosity.
+
+"It's all over now," said Mme. Fontaine, stepping down from the seat and
+smiling at Billie. "You had a bad quarter of an hour, though, I fear."
+
+"I don't know how we can ever thank you," exclaimed Billie. "You not only
+saved the car from destruction, but you may have saved us, too. There's
+no telling how far they would have gone once they got started."
+
+"No, no, they would not have harmed you, but they might have injured the
+car. They are a good deal like children, but they are not butchers. I
+think they admired your courage, too, for not deserting the sinking
+ship."
+
+Miss Campbell now approached and held out her hand gratefully.
+
+"You are heaping coals of fire on my head, Mme. Fontaine," she said.
+"Yesterday I refused to grant you a favor and to-day you are placing us
+everlastingly in your debt."
+
+"No, no, you must not put it that way," said the other woman, with a
+graceful movement of protest. "You were quite right not to be interviewed
+if you did not wish it. Some Americans do not object to publicity, you
+know. One can never tell. But what I did just now any other person who
+spoke both languages would have been glad to do."
+
+The end of the episode was that Mme. Fontaine waited with Miss Campbell
+and the three girls, while Billie, in the center of a curious circle of
+onlookers and with the help of Komatsu, put on a new tire.
+
+"Are you in a 'riksha?" asked Miss Campbell of their deliverer. "We would
+be glad if you would let us take you back to Tokyo in the car. My young
+cousin is a careful and experienced chauffeur. This is the only accident
+of the sort we have ever had and I think it was entirely the fault of the
+child."
+
+"Oh, I am not in the least timid in motor cars and I accept with
+pleasure," answered Mme. Fontaine quickly.
+
+Some twenty minutes later, with Komatsu running ahead to clear the road,
+the "Comet" threaded his way at a snail's pace along the Arakawa Ridge.
+No doubt his mechanical organism, which Billie had endowed with a soul,
+heaved a sigh of relief when they took the road home.
+
+"Who were the young men with the knives and sword canes, Mme. Fontaine?"
+asked Mary on the way back.
+
+"Oh, they are a group of fanatical young persons opposed to foreigners.
+Most of them are descendants of the samurai. They believe in old Japan.
+They talk the wildest kind of nonsense, and while their beliefs are
+opposed to progress, they represent in Japan what the Nihilists represent
+in Russia and the Anarchists and such people in other countries. They
+will outgrow it in time. Some of the finest men in Japan once belonged to
+these clubs of _soshi_, as they are called. In another generation there
+will be very few of them left. In the meantime they are quite dangerous
+occasionally. About fifty years ago a band of them attacked the English
+Legation at Takanawa and there was a fierce fight. But I feel perfectly
+sure that they wouldn't attack people now. Only motor cars and the like."
+
+"That would have been bad enough," remarked Billie, patting the wheel of
+the "Comet."
+
+Mme. Fontaine smiled pleasantly.
+
+"After the great excitement may I not have the pleasure of offering you a
+reviving cup of tea at my house? It would make me very happy."
+
+Miss Campbell would have much preferred to go straight home, but to
+decline the invitation would have seemed ungracious and she accepted
+promptly.
+
+Along the broad streets of Tokyo, under out-stretched boughs heavy with
+blossoms, they rolled, and at last Billie paused as directed at a gate in
+a wall behind which was a charming little house, set in the usual
+beautiful garden.
+
+If Mme. Fontaine was fascinating and elegant, so also was her home. The
+drawing-room, which seemed to occupy most of the second floor, was
+furnished in European fashion with deep chairs and couches, Oriental rugs
+and rich hangings. There was a grand piano near the windows, and on the
+walls were the rarest and most beautiful Japanese prints. It was a
+blending of the East and West and was one of the most artistic and
+delightful apartments the girls had ever seen. In the dim shadowy
+confines they caught glimpses of teakwood cabinets in which were carved
+ivories and pieces of fine porcelain. The girls would have liked well to
+linger another hour among all these interesting and strange objects, but
+Miss Campbell, for some reason, was in her most conventional mood. While
+her manner toward Mme. Fontaine left nothing to be desired and she was
+graciousness personified, she cut the call to twenty-five minutes by the
+French clock on the mantel, and then go she would. As they were leaving
+Mary noticed on a table near the door two splendid swords, one very large
+and heavy and one with a double-edged blade of much smaller size.
+
+"Oh, are these the swords of a samurai warrior?" she demanded, with
+excited interest.
+
+"Yes," answered Mme. Fontaine. "They belonged to my great grandfather."
+
+Not until they were back in the "Comet" and well on the way home did they
+realize the meaning of her words.
+
+"Then," exclaimed Nancy, "she is half Japanese."
+
+"And I've invited her to dine the day after tomorrow," Miss Campbell
+remarked irrelevantly.
+
+The adventure on Arakawa Ridge was far-reaching in its results as a
+matter of fact, but the most immediate one was a severe punishment
+administered by that usually kind and gentle person, Mr. Campbell, on no
+less a victim than the "Comet." Just what the punishment was you will
+find out when the Motor Maids themselves discover it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE COMPASSIONATE GOD, JIZU.
+
+
+Miss Campbell was very dubious about having invited Mme. Fontaine to
+dine.
+
+"Of course she was very kind," she remarked, "and we owe her a great
+deal, but I wish we could show our appreciation in some other way. We
+don't know anything about her: who she is; where she came from; whether
+she has any family."
+
+"But, my dear cousin," said Mr. Campbell, who had wandered about the
+world so much that he was accustomed to taking people without any
+questions, "what difference does it make? You say she is refined and
+well-bred. We know she is kind because of what she did for us. But I will
+make some inquiries about her if you like--"
+
+"I never liked mixed bloods," interrupted Miss Campbell, not listening to
+her relation.
+
+"Everybody has some mixture of bloods," laughed Billie. "Look at
+Mary--French and English; look at Elinor--Scotch and Irish."
+
+"No, no," protested Miss Campbell "Those aren't the kinds of mixtures I
+referred to. It's those queer Oriental bloods--yellow people and white
+people."
+
+The others all smiled indulgently. Miss Campbell was just a little
+old-fashioned lady with old-fashioned restricted views, they thought. She
+was the only one of the motor party who had not fallen under the spell of
+Mme. Fontaine, and apparently the only cause for her objection was
+because this charming stranger was part Japanese and wrote for the
+newspapers.
+
+That evening Mr. Campbell endeavored to set her fears at rest.
+
+"I have inquired about your mysterious Mme. Fontaine," he said. "She is a
+widow. Her husband was editor of a paper in Shanghai. She herself is a
+writer and a newspaper correspondent. She has written several novels
+published in Shanghai, and she is generally considered to be a very
+bright person. She has been living in Tokyo not quite a year and goes out
+very little."
+
+This fragment of her history only seemed to deepen the atmosphere of
+romance which enveloped the "Widow of Shanghai," as Mr. Campbell would
+call her, and the Motor Maids rather eagerly awaited the evening when she
+was to dine with them.
+
+In the meantime, they were to receive a ceremonious call from the family
+of Yoritomo Ito, and he himself was to act as interpreter for the three
+Japanese ladies, his mother, his aunt and his sister. They appeared one
+afternoon in two jinrikshas and such a bowing and smiling was never seen
+before. The day had been sultry and hot and tea was served in the
+summer-house in the garden by the little maids attached to the household.
+Miss Campbell was sorry that the pretty Onoye, flower of the staff, did
+not appear. However, these things were all left to O'Haru, and she said
+nothing.
+
+Yoritomo's sister, O'Kami San (that is to say: the honorable Miss Kami),
+spoke a very little English. This fact she had bashfully hidden from the
+girls on the occasion of their first meeting. But when Billie, through
+Yoritomo, asked his sister to walk in the garden, she answered herself:
+
+"Receive thanks. Honorable walk will confer pleasure."
+
+Assuredly the Japanese-English dictionaries and phrase books must all use
+the most stilted and ceremonious English words, so Billie thought.
+
+"'Receive thanks and confer pleasure!' How absurd!"
+
+But then Billie did not realize that the Japanese language abounds in
+such ceremonious words and high-sounding phrases and, in order to keep
+the spirit of the original, translations are generally literal.
+
+Off they trooped down a garden path, followed by the reproachful eyes of
+Miss Helen Campbell, who found it a decided strain on the nerves to keep
+a second-hand conversation going. Nancy lingered behind and helped her
+out by giving Yoritomo an account of their accident on Arakawa Ridge.
+This he immediately passed on to his mother and aunt.
+
+In the meantime, O'Kami San, trotting along beside Billie, with Mary and
+Elinor following behind, might have just stepped out of a Japanese fan.
+She was so entirely unreal and cunning that the girls had no eyes for the
+rosy rain of cherry blossoms dropping from the trees, nor the lovely
+vista of garden with its flaming bushes of azaleas and cool green clumps
+of ferns. Out of compliment to the season O'Kami San wore a robe of
+delicate pink embroidered all over with sprays of cherry blossoms in
+deeper shades. Her obi, or sash, was of pale green silk. Her hair was
+elaborately pompadoured and drawn up in the back into a large glossy roll
+held in place with tortoise shell pins. No doubt it had taken hours to
+arrange; two, at the very least.
+
+Billie patted her own smooth rolls serenely.
+
+"Suppose I had to sleep with my neck on a little wooden bench every night
+to preserve my _coiffure_," she thought. "I think I'd just lay my head
+on the executioner's block and say, 'Strike it off. It's not worth the
+trouble.'"
+
+"Think garden pretty, O'Kami San?" began Mary, whose method of talking
+with the Japanese was to preserve only the framework of a sentence and
+drop all articles and small words.
+
+"Much pretty. Me--like honorable garden and beautiful American ladee,"
+answered O'Kami, speaking slowly and distinctly.
+
+English pronunciation never seemed to trouble the Japanese. It was only
+choice of words and construction.
+
+"What do you do all day, O'Kami San?" asked Elinor.
+
+"Much honorable work," answered the Japanese girl. "Cook-ing; sew-ing";
+she pointed to her kimono; "mu-seek; book-stu-dee. Ah, much work to
+become wife."
+
+"You are not thinking of marrying, surely? Your brother says you are only
+sixteen," protested Mary.
+
+O'Kami nodded her head and smiled.
+
+"Arrange all the day before to this."
+
+"Do you love him?" asked Mary, in an awed tone of voice.
+
+O'Kami looked puzzled. The word "love" she had not learned.
+
+"O'Kami much happy. Honorable mother of husband not any more. Gone." She
+pointed up.
+
+"Goodness!" broke in Elinor. "She means that there will be no
+mother-in-law, so the marriage is sure to be a happy one. What a
+mother-in-law ridden place this country is!"
+
+She spoke too rapidly for the Japanese girl to grasp the meaning of any
+word except "mother-in-law."
+
+"Mother-in-law," she repeated slowly. "Little Japanese girl much afraid
+to great mother-in-law."
+
+The girls laughed and O'Kami's silvery note mingled with theirs.
+
+"I found something quite new and interesting in the garden the other
+day," observed Mary. "Or rather not quite new, but quite old. Who wants
+to see it?"
+
+"Lead on, Macduff," ordered Billie.
+
+"It's an old shrine," continued Mary. "Komatsu says it's to the
+Compassionate God, Jizu. He's sitting cross-legged in a little niche in
+the hillside below the bridge and he has a beautiful frame of clematis
+vines around him. I think he's delightful."
+
+O'Kami San was unable to grasp the meaning of this rapid fire of words,
+at least it seemed to her to be a rapid fire. Most people are under the
+impression that a foreign language is spoken faster than their own. But
+she trotted along beside the others, always with the same polite,
+intelligent smile, as if she understood every word.
+
+Having crossed the bridge, they followed a narrow path through a grove of
+pine trees. The path took an unexpected curve to the right and led them
+around the side of a grassy embankment under which sat the stone image of
+the Compassionate God, Jizu. The inscrutable smile of the nation hovered
+on the lips of the ancient idol, and his compassionate stone eyes looked
+out upon the green little world around him with a gentle tolerance. Time
+and tempests had worn away his arms and softened the outlines of his
+stone countenance. He was indeed a graven image of kindly mien and of a
+certain majesty of expression.
+
+But there was, another visitor at the shrine of the Compassionate God.
+She lay flat on her face in a tumbled, many-colored little heap before
+the gray old image at whose feet was her offering: a pitiful little bunch
+of wild roses. She had been sobbing. It was easy to tell. The storm of
+weeping had passed now and she lay quite still, but at intervals there
+was that catch in the breath which follows a period of bitter crying.
+
+The three American girls paused at the edge of the miniature lawn about
+the shrine and exchanged embarrassed glances. O'Kami Sail drew back a
+step or two. It was their intention to creep away as noiselessly as
+possible and leave the unhappy worshiper at the shrine none the wiser
+that she had been observed by profane, foreign eyes. But at this moment a
+temple bell not far off sent out a clear silver note in the stillness.
+The bright-colored heap stirred into life and the sorrowful worshiper
+rose and looked about her bewildered.
+
+It was Onoye, as they had suspected, and Mary recalled that it was the
+second time she had seen the Japanese girl crying miserably when she
+thought she was alone.
+
+Onoye tried to smile when she saw the three young ladies of the house
+looking at her with great concern. She ran to Billie and fell on her
+knees.
+
+"Forgive, gracious lady," she said, endeavoring to compose her expression
+to its usual tranquility.
+
+"Why, you poor dear, what have I to forgive?" exclaimed Billie, trying to
+raise Onoye to her feet.
+
+"Why are you so unhappy, Onoye? Is there anything we can do for you?"
+asked Elinor.
+
+"Do tell us and let us help you," put in Mary.
+
+But Onoye was silent.
+
+"O'Kami San, will you not ask her?" said Billie. "Perhaps she would tell
+you in Japanese when she can't in English."
+
+At the words "O'Kami San," Onoye jumped to her feet in subdued
+excitement.
+
+"O'Kami San," she repeated.
+
+The two Japanese girls confronted each other. They spoke in low, rapid
+voices and their faces were so calm and unemotional they might have been
+two Japanese dolls wound tip to move the lips and occasionally make a
+slight gesture with one hand. Presently Onoye slipped from her _obi_ a
+small package done up in crêpe paper and gave it to O'Kami, who concealed
+it in the voluminous folds of her own kimono. They exchanged low,
+ceremonious bows and Onoye hurried away, while O'Kami turned to the
+mystified young-Americans with an apologetic smile.
+
+"Receive excuses and pardon grant," she said.
+
+Billie made a superhuman effort not to laugh, while Mary stooped to break
+off a spray of azaleas and Elinor examined intently a stunted pine tree
+planted in a big green jar near the path.
+
+Japanese gardeners are very fond of cultivating these dwarf trees. Some
+of the tiniest are said to be of great age. The arrested development
+contorts the venerable branches into strange twisted forms but they put
+forth blossoms and foliage with systematic dignity.
+
+"What is the matter with our little maid? Were you able to find out?"
+Billie asked the visitor.
+
+But O'Kami San was not inclined to be communicative, and they were
+obliged to return to the summer-house with their curiosity entirely
+unsatisfied. In the meantime, Miss Campbell and Nancy were in a painful
+state of embarrassment about what to say next. The conversation had come
+to a dead stop, while Miss Campbell, with a flushed face, raised her eyes
+to heaven with a prayerful look and Nancy endeavored to say a few words
+about the weather. Yoritomo was inclined to be silent, too. He kept his
+eyes on the floor and only raised them to transmit Miss Campbell's
+remarks to his mother and aunt.
+
+"Will you ask your mother, Mr. Ito, if--she suffers from rheumatism from
+sitting on the floor so much?" asked Miss Campbell, groaning mentally and
+sending up a prayer that the visitors would see fit to bring the visit to
+an immediate end.
+
+There was a short colloquy between mother and son, during which Mme. Ito
+smiled blandly and waved her fan to and fro.
+
+"No, Madam, my mother does not have that complaint," answered her son in
+precise English.
+
+Miss Campbell flashed a glance of black reproach at Nancy, as much as to
+say:
+
+"It's your turn now, ungrateful girl. Speak, for heaven's sake."
+
+Nancy exchanged a hopeless glance with the distracted lady. Then she
+remarked:
+
+"Mr. Ito, is your aunt married?"
+
+Yoritomo smiled broadly.
+
+"She is a widow," he replied. "In Japan all widows cut their hair short."
+
+"But what a strange custom," objected Nancy. "That would keep them from
+ever marrying a second time. I'm sure I should never cut my hair if my
+husband died. I should use hair tonic to make it grow longer and
+thicker."
+
+Yoritomo laughed outright and communicated Nancy's views to his
+relatives. They laughed, too, and contemplated her knot of chestnut curls
+with much admiration.
+
+There came another uncomfortable pause. Two simultaneous winged prayers
+went up into the ether and relief was granted in an unexpected and
+startling guise. Billie and her friends had just returned and tea and
+refreshments of a light volatile nature were being passed for the fourth
+time, by order of Miss Campbell. The visitors were elaborately declining
+all further nourishment when Nancy saw an arm raised from behind a thick
+clump of shrubbery near the summer-house. It was clothed in nondescript
+brown and long fingers clutched a stone. The arm gave a swift circular
+movement, as if to gain impetus. Then it went backward with a movement of
+a pitcher about to throw a ball.
+
+"Yoritomo," shrieked Nancy, for the stone seemed to be aimed straight at
+his head.
+
+In the fraction of an instant the young Japanese had ducked and the stone
+had crashed into the summer-house and fallen at his feet, making a dent
+in the floor.
+
+Undoubtedly Nancy had saved his life.
+
+"Oh, oh, oh!" cried Miss Campbell, but Mme. Ito and her sister and
+daughter were perfectly calm and silent, as were also the Japanese maids,
+gathered in a frightened group behind them.
+
+"I never saw people take on so little," Miss Campbell observed later,
+describing the incident to her cousin.
+
+Nancy wept softly. It was never very difficult for her to weep and she
+emerged from one of these gentle paroxysms--even as the flowers after
+a summer rain--a little dewy but refreshed.
+
+Yoritomo vaulted over the rail of the summer-house and ran in the
+direction of the group of shrubbery. But, of course, no one was there.
+Who could expect an assassin to wait and be caught?
+
+"I think we had better get into the house at once," ordered Miss
+Campbell, and taking Mme. Ito's arm, she hurried the little lady up the
+path, calling to the others to follow. Once in the drawing-room, all the
+windows were ordered closed and the doors locked, while Komatsu was sent
+to search the premises.
+
+"What is your opinion, Mr. Ito?" asked Billie. "Was it an enemy of yours
+or some one who wanted to exterminate us because we are foreigners?"
+
+But Yoritomo could not enlighten her.
+
+"I cannot say," was all they could get out of him.
+
+He was only deeply chagrined, as was his mother, that the American ladies
+should have been subjected to such treatment in Japan.
+
+The Campbell party finally arrived at the conclusion that it was an
+insane person, and Mr. Campbell immediately engaged a day and night
+watchman and reported the matter to the police.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A BIRTHDAY PARTY.
+
+
+It so happened that the dinner to Mme. Fontaine became a triple
+celebration. Billie recalled that it was her father's birthday, for one
+thing.
+
+"He's forgotten it himself," she said. "He never did remember that he was
+entitled to a birthday."
+
+Furthermore, it was the occasion always of great rejoicing in Japan,
+being the fifth day of the fifth month on which the Boys' Festival--_O
+Sekku_, as it is called there--is celebrated.
+
+"Think of my sweet old boy being born on this lucky day!" cried Billie.
+"Why can't we give him a real Japanese surprise party, Cousin Helen, and
+invite those nice men to come? Mr. Ito will tell us what to do."
+
+When Mr. Campbell departed for Tokyo that lovely morning on the fifth of
+May he had no idea of the plans that were hatching in his home. Scarcely
+had his 'riksha disappeared down the road, when the entire household
+became actively busy. Komatsu made a hurried visit to town, bearing notes
+of invitation to the few acquaintances of the Campbells and returned
+later in the day accompanied by two men carrying large bales on their
+backs. That evening when the master of the house returned in time to
+dress for dinner he scarcely recognized his abode, which had been
+decorated in a most extraordinary manner.
+
+Across the front of the house on long poles were at least six enormous
+paper carp, which rose and fell and became realistically inflated with
+every passing breeze. Very fantastic they appeared with their gaping
+mouths, their enormous bulging eyes and fins and their scales shining in
+the sunlight.
+
+The carp, it must be known, is the sacred emblem of the male child in
+Japan. It also signifies courage, endurance and other admirable though
+not exclusively masculine qualities. This valiant fish can accomplish the
+difficult feat of swimming up the rapids, even as a brave youth must
+conquer difficulties and surmount obstacles. His name is synonymous with
+perseverance and fortitude. The fifth of May is every boy's birthday in
+Japan, no matter what his real birthday is, and on that day a feast is
+kept in every home, rich or poor, where there is a son.
+
+"I suppose, because we have only one son in our house, we are entitled to
+only one carp," observed Billie, "but I think our nice old boy is good
+enough for us to string up twenty carp."
+
+This statement was unanimously acceded to by all persons connected with
+the feast.
+
+All the afternoon the girls had worked over the decorations. The garden
+was strung with lanterns much more beautiful and artistic in design than
+any that ever reach America; and the house, under the supervision of
+Onoye and her mother, was made beautiful with the splendid iris in all
+its varying shades from deep purple to pale mauve. Among their long,
+slender, delicate leaves the flowers seemed to be growing in the shallow
+dishes in which devices of soft lead held them in place.
+
+"Are we entertaining a family of sons this evening or have we just
+decided to celebrate whether we have sons or not?" asked Mr. Campbell,
+greeting his daughter on the piazza.
+
+"We are entertaining for our only son, the most promising and delightful
+young man in the entire universe," answered Billie, kissing him.
+
+"I always thought you were a singularly fortunate young man, Duncan,"
+remarked Miss Campbell, "but I shall no longer attribute it entirely to
+industry, intelligence and good looks."
+
+"What's the reason, then, Cousin Helen?" asked Mr. Campbell, laughing.
+
+"Why, have you forgotten, boy, that this is your birthday? Forty-five
+years old, and you don't remember it!"
+
+"I did forget it," said Mr. Campbell, "but I don't see where the luck
+comes in."
+
+They explained the meaning of the Boys' Festival and the lucky
+coincidence that had brought him into the world on that auspicious day.
+
+"Go in now and get dressed, for the Widow of Shanghai will be arriving
+pretty soon and other company besides," ordered Billie.
+
+The girls had dressed early and their pretty summer frocks gleamed softly
+against the green of the shrubbery as they flitted about the garden and
+the lawn in the twilight. Nancy was wearing her first train that night;
+it was only a wee bit of a train, nothing regal and sweeping; but it gave
+her a secret thrill to throw it over one arm, displaying her lace trimmed
+petticoat underneath, while she tripped along the garden path. The dress
+was of pink batiste and delicate lace, and from the round neck her throat
+rose soft and white like a column. She was the first of the four friends
+to wear a train. Even Elinor, tall and slender in her white lingerie
+frock, had not aspired to that dignity. Billie was wearing her best blue
+mulle that became her mightily because it was near the shade of her
+blue-gray eyes, and little Mary was dressed in one of the dainty muslin
+frocks that her mother excelled in making.
+
+"They are no longer little girls," thought Miss Campbell, rather sadly,
+it must be confessed. She was sitting in a long-chair on the piazza
+watching her four charges flit about the lawn. "They are almost young
+ladies now, and how pretty they are, too; each is so different from the
+other and each charming in her own way. Billie, I think, is too much of a
+tomboy to worry about yet. Elinor is far too dignified; Mary is too shy.
+But I feel I shall have to keep a sharp eye on Nancy. Those blue eyes of
+hers are simply wells of coquetry. I believe the child would flirt with a
+stone. I doubt if half the time she realizes herself how eloquent she can
+make them. Little mischief!"
+
+The little lady smiled indulgently, recalling her own blue eyes and the
+mischief they had been known to stir up.
+
+"And now this Widow from Shanghai comes and breaks in on us," her
+thoughts proceeded irrelevantly. "I don't in the least wish to cultivate
+her friendship, but I know her kind. Once she gets her foot in the door
+there'll be no shaking her off."
+
+As a matter of fact, Miss Helen Campbell, spinster, was never very
+enthusiastic about widows.
+
+"I don't care for them," she used to say. "They are a knowing, designing
+lot."
+
+Once when she was asked by a missionary society in West Haven to
+contribute to a fund for the widows in India, to induce them not to mount
+their husbands' funeral pyres and permit themselves to be consumed by
+mortuary flames, Miss Campbell indignantly refused.
+
+"I am sure, if they are so foolish, that's much the best place for them,"
+she announced. "I prefer to give my money for more worthy causes."
+
+And now a widow, who, far from having mounted any funeral pyre, appeared
+to enjoy life immensely, had placed them under obligations.
+
+"She is a slant-eyed widow with a yellow skin," Miss Campbell thought
+uncharitably, "and her hair that ought to be dark is light. Of course
+that isn't her fault and neither is her peculiar complexion nor her slant
+eyes, but I do wish she were one thing or the other and not half and
+half."
+
+Of course all these inhospitable and unfriendly notions the little lady
+was careful to keep to herself. When presently the Widow of Shanghai
+rode up in a 'riksha and was helped to alight by three maids at once,
+Miss Campbell was all graciousness and affability.
+
+Mme. Fontaine wore a beautiful white embroidered crêpe dinner dress. Her
+figure was so slender Miss Campbell feared it might sway and bend with
+the least breath of wind. Her curious fluffy hair was arranged on top of
+her head and her only ornament was a string of small pearls wound twice
+around her throat. They were very beautiful pearls, each one perfect to
+the casual eye.
+
+"But then, who can tell the real from the unreal nowadays," thought Miss
+Campbell, regarding the jewels critically. "They might be imitation,
+every one of them."
+
+"Reggie" Carlton, as he came to be known to the girls, and Nicholas Grimm
+soon followed the widow, and after them came Mr. Buxton. Yoritomo could
+not appear that evening, because of the celebration in his own home where
+he must remain and share in the family feast.
+
+Mme. Fontaine was reserved almost to the point of shyness with the four
+men of the party, whom she now met for the first time. But she drew the
+girls around her by a kind of irresistible attraction. Billie found
+herself talking as freely as she talked with her three friends. The widow
+had a curiously sympathetic way of listening that provoked confidences.
+There was a good deal of friendly rivalry among the Motor Maids for her
+society. They took turns sitting by her side during the half hour before
+dinner was announced; but Nancy felt a certain superiority over the
+others. Was she not bound by a secret tie to this fascinating person
+because of their chance meeting in the garden in the rain?
+
+"These four girls of mine seem to have acquired a monopoly over you, Mme.
+Fontaine," observed Mr. Campbell, just returned from a short conference
+with Mr. Buxton in the library. "They don't give the rest of us half a
+chance. They have fenced you around as if you were a sacred image of
+Buddha."
+
+"I feel that they have paid me a great compliment," answered the widow,
+smiling, "To a lonely woman the friendship of four charming young girls
+is very sweet."
+
+Mr. Campbell somehow felt extremely sorry for this lonely lady. Mr.
+Buxton also was touched with commiseration, and the younger men, too,
+were moved to cast glances of sympathy in her direction.
+
+For the first time in her life Miss Campbell experienced the same
+sensation a young girl feels when she is left sitting against the wall at
+a dance while her friends are being whirled about. At first she thought
+the sensation was a touch of indigestion which frequently brings with it,
+its near relative, depression. But when the circle closed in around the
+Widow of Shanghai, and Helen Campbell, spinster, of America, was left
+sitting quite alone to contemplate the view, she decided that it was not
+indigestion nor any of its ramifications that ailed her. What the
+sensation was she could not name, but she felt a profound and entirely
+human irritation with the Widow of Shanghai and her ingratiating methods.
+
+Fortunately dinner was announced and on the arm of Mr. Buxton she led the
+way to the dining room with the air of an exiled queen.
+
+Billie was very anxious about the success of her father's birthday
+dinner. She had herself assisted in decorating the table, and had
+insisted on placing a crystal bowl of goldfish in the center, although
+O'Haru had told her that goldfish were not carp, and therefore had no
+significance whatever with the day.
+
+However, Onoye had caught the idea at once and had carried it out
+charmingly. Hiding behind the screen, where she could see without being
+seen, her heart warmed with joy when she heard the exclamations of the
+guests. The center of the table was arranged to resemble a little lake.
+The shallow bowl of goldfish was placed on a flat round mirror, on the
+edge of which nodded groups of iris and their sword-like leaves planted
+in shallow green dishes; pebbles and water grasses hid the perforations
+which held them in place. Two little boats sailed on the lake, and at one
+side was a miniature grotto formed of rocks and moss, and spanned by a
+little bridge.
+
+"Isn't it cunning?" asked Billie proudly, "and isn't Onoye clever to have
+carried out the scheme so perfectly?"
+
+"She is, indeed," assented Miss Campbell, feeling suddenly glad to praise
+some one to counteract the unusual sensations that had possessed her a
+moment before.
+
+"It is a part of every Japanese girl's education to learn the art of
+arranging flowers," said Mme. Fontaine. "She is taught that, just as
+girls in other countries are taught music and languages. It often takes
+several hours to arrange a group of flowers. The object is, you see, to
+make them look as natural as possible in the vase."
+
+"It is a pretty accomplishment," said Miss Campbell, "but I doubt if any
+American girl would have the patience to learn it. Can you imagine,
+Billie, spending two hours arranging three lilies in a bowl to make them
+look as if they had grown there?"
+
+"No, I can't," laughed Billie, "but I have spent two hours many times on
+my back under the 'Comet' trying to find a loose screw."
+
+"If I had a wife--" here Nicholas remarked and paused because everybody
+laughed.
+
+"Well, if you had one, what would you do with her? Beat her?" asked Mr.
+Buxton.
+
+"Do I look like a wife beater?" demanded Nicholas indignantly. "No. I was
+going to say I'd rather she would know about loose screws in machinery
+than how to arrange flowers."
+
+"You speak as if marriage was one long motor trip, my boy," observed Mr.
+Campbell.
+
+"And, surely," put in Miss Campbell, "if the machinery broke down, you
+wouldn't compel your wife to repair it?"
+
+"I am afraid very few girls would be eligible for your wife, Mr. Grimm,"
+remarked Mme. Fontaine.
+
+As for Billie, she said nothing at all, but glanced down at her plate,
+because Nicholas looked straight at her and then burst out with:
+
+"Don't jump on me, everybody, with both feet. I only meant that it's a
+jolly fine girl who can--er--who--knows--"
+
+He broke down in confusion.
+
+"You mean that a young lady chauffeur would make an excellent wife?"
+laughed Mr. Campbell.
+
+"Spare his blushes," put in Reggie, and then the talk shifted to other
+subjects.
+
+It is customary in Japan on the day of the Boys' Festival to tell stories
+of the heroes of the country, and after dinner when they had gathered in
+the lantern-hung summer-house for coffee, Mme. Fontaine, urged by the
+girls, recounted an incident in the life of Yamato, or O'Osu, as he was
+then known. He was the son of the Emperor Keiko, and when a mere slip of
+a boy was sent by his father to slay two fierce robbers who had been
+spreading terror through the country. O'Osu gladly undertook the affair
+and since the outlaws were giants and he just a boy, he devised a cunning
+scheme to outwit the terrible brigands. He was slender and small and his
+hair still long, so that in the gorgeous clothes of a dancing girl no one
+would ever have guessed he was a brave and reckless young prince.
+
+One night when the robbers were feasting in their cave after pillaging
+the country for miles around, the beautiful dancing girl appeared before
+them like a vision. She charmed them with her songs and dances and then
+suddenly she whipped out a sharp sword and slew the nearest robber. As
+the other fled terror-stricken to the entrance of the cave, she thrust
+him in the back and he fell to the ground.
+
+"'Pause, oh Prince, for prince thou surely art,' he gasped. 'But why hast
+thou done this deed?'
+
+"And the prince, standing over him with the dripping sword, said:
+
+"'I am O'Osu, messenger of the Emperor and avenger of evil.'
+
+"'Then,' said the dying robber, 'thou shalt have a new name. Until this
+hour my brother and I have been called the bravest men in the West. To
+thee, august boy, I bequeath the title. Let men call thee the bravest in
+Yamato.'
+
+"From that day O'Osu was called 'Yamato Take,' and never did he wrong the
+name."
+
+Mary sighed when Mme. Fontaine had finished the story. She yearned for
+the gift of language and the power to chain the attention of a circle of
+people. How had she done it, this mysterious foreigner who could handle
+the English language even better than English people? Her words were
+simple and gestures she used almost none. It was her voice, Mary thought.
+There was an undercurrent of dramatic power in it, like a subterranean
+river. It could only be guessed at, but it was there, powerful and deep.
+Even Miss Campbell, unreasonably prejudiced, felt the undercurrent.
+
+"That is a charming story," she observed. "I suppose Japan is filled with
+many romantic stories of that sort."
+
+"Hundreds of them," answered the widow. "Volumes and volumes could be
+written about them and still the half not be told."
+
+"And you know many of them, I suppose?" asked Billie.
+
+"Oh, yes. One could not live in Japan without studying her history, so
+filled with romances and legends of heroic deeds. It is fascinating, I
+assure you, and furnishes no end of subjects for decorations from a
+picture on a fan to the masterpiece of a great artist."
+
+There was a moment's silence in the company of which Mme. Fontaine
+certainly seemed the center. She looked suddenly very Japanese. Against
+the white of her dress her soft skin gleamed like polished old ivory. Her
+eyes were darker and more noticeably slanting than ever before. If she
+only had had dark hair! What country had given her those strangely
+incongruous locks?
+
+And now it was proposed that they should wander in the garden, and off
+they started by various paths and bypaths all leading eventually to the
+little curved bridge at the far end, where Nancy had hung two large
+yellow lanterns on the ends of supple willow wands.
+
+The Widow of Shanghai walked between Billie and Mr. Campbell, but she had
+little to say. The moon, swinging over them like another yellow lantern,
+had glorified the garden into a little earthly paradise. It seemed
+somehow inappropriate to speak above a whisper in the midst of so much
+exquisite beauty. The wisteria had opened up during the day and now hung
+in magnificent purple clusters from an arbor across the main walk.
+
+From the servants' quarters came the tinkle of the samisen, and a breeze
+laden with the scent of flowers brought with it also the distant sound of
+voices and laughter.
+
+Nicholas Grimm had joined Billie, and the two young people now lingered
+in the arbor. In the curve of a path they caught an occasional glimpse
+of a white dress. The music of Nancy's laugh came to them mingled with
+Mary's high, sweet note. Gradually the voices died away. The garden
+seemed to be under a spell. Billie, sitting beside Nicholas in the arbor,
+waited breathlessly. Then at last in the stillness there burst forth such
+a stream of full-throated singing as had never been heard.
+
+"It's a nightingale," whispered Nicholas.
+
+Billie felt that she would like very much to cry. Nothing had ever
+stirred her as this flood of melody which seemed to have been turned on
+for their especial benefit. While they listened, there came the sound of
+three pistol shots in quick succession and a cry. Was it an English cry
+for help?
+
+Instantly Nicholas was on his feet.
+
+"You had better stay here," he said. "I'll run and see what has
+happened."
+
+Before Billie could reply, Nancy dashed up.
+
+"We are all to go into the house," she said. "Someone has shot a pistol
+in the far end of the garden. The men have gone down there."
+
+Billie considered the situation for a moment. Certainly neither her
+father nor his three guests were armed. Would it not be a good precaution
+to go to the library and get her father's pistol? It was merely an
+impulse, and she could hardly explain it later, but she obeyed it.
+
+"It's nothing serious, Mr. Buxton says. Probably someone who has been
+celebrating has wandered into the garden, but we had better wait for
+them in the house," Billie heard Miss Campbell remark, as she ran along
+the path to the side entrance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+IN THE DARK.
+
+
+The impulse that had moved Billie to run ahead of her friends and dash
+into the library for her father's pistol carried her so fast, indeed,
+that she was in the room with the door closed behind her before she
+realized what she was doing. It was perfectly dark there. Not even the
+brilliant moonlight outside penetrated through the heavy curtains drawn
+for the night.
+
+"There are always matches on the desk," she thought, remembering that her
+father usually smoked while he worked over his papers.
+
+With her hand still on the doorknob she turned and faced the desk without
+moving a step. Why was she so frightened? It was absurd. Her father would
+be ashamed of her for being afraid of the dark. Giving herself a little
+impatient shake, she took two steps in front of her, groping with her
+hands like a blind person for obstacles in the way.
+
+She stopped short and listened. Every nerve in her body was tingling and
+she felt she was trembling. For half a minute she hardly breathed. Then
+she resolutely began her march in the dark. At last the desk was reached
+and her hand was on the green china match holder. She stood for a moment
+irresolute. The pistol was in the lower left-hand desk drawer. She knew
+exactly where it was. Her father had shown it to her only the other day.
+
+"I think you had better know where I keep it," he had said, "not that you
+will ever need to use it, I hope, because either Komatsu or I shall
+always be here to protect you, but just as a matter of precaution."
+
+Again she reached for the match holder, but it was empty. Softly opening
+the drawer, she felt in the back until her fingers grasped the pistol.
+Carefully she drew it out and transferred it from her right hand to her
+left. There was an unacknowledged relief in Billie's heart that there
+were no matches. She felt she would rather get out of the library in the
+dark than make any investigations with a match. Once in the hall she
+would decide what to do.
+
+She was morally certain now that someone else was in the room. She could
+see nothing, hear nothing, but in the dark she felt the presence of
+another human being. She recalled Nancy's experience.
+
+"Perhaps it wasn't her imagination, after all," she thought.
+
+The thing was to get back to the door and out of it. Billie wished with
+all her soul she had never come in at all. It had been a reckless, silly
+notion. Why should her father need a pistol? After all, it was just some
+roisterer on his way home from the festival. She had heard that _sake_,
+the Japanese brandy, made the men who drank it wild, no doubt wild enough
+to shoot off a pistol in the suburbs where there were no policemen about
+to interfere.
+
+And all because she had heard this pistol shot, she had obeyed a foolish
+impulse to find her father's pistol. How reckless! How foolhardy! How
+stupid! Because, to come right down to a fine point, here she was shut up
+in a perfectly huge room, as black as the pit, with--someone else!
+
+Never in all her experience had Billie been so frightened. Her knees
+knocked together and her head was quite giddy as she made her way
+unsteadily toward the door, still with the pistol in her left hand.
+
+But she seemed to have lost all sense of direction. Groping with her
+right hand, she encountered a chair. There had been no chairs in the
+way before,--was it an hour ago or only a minute?
+
+It would be better to get to the wall and feel her way along the shelves
+until she reached the door.
+
+Why was she so panic-stricken? After all was she so sure about that other
+person crouching somewhere--anywhere?
+
+Then the thing happened that she had known was going to happen all the
+time.
+
+Reaching out in the dark, she encountered an arm. Instantly her right
+hand was seized in a grip of steel. There was a struggle. She was
+thrown to the floor; a shot; a cry--was it her own or another person's
+voice? Then absolute silence.
+
+When Billie came back to consciousness, she was lying on a couch in the
+library. Miss Helen was kneeling beside her with the smelling salts.
+Mary was bathing her forehead with cold water and her father was chafing
+her wrists and saying in a low voice:
+
+"You are not hurt, are you, Billie-girl? There, speak to father. Are you
+all right?"
+
+There seemed to be a great many other people scattered about the room,
+the guests and the servants and her own particular friends leaning over
+her anxiously.
+
+"I hope I didn't kill him?" she said weakly.
+
+Mr. Campbell could not refrain from smiling.
+
+"You are just a little girl after all, Billie," he said. "No, you didn't
+kill him, but you hit him. Look at that." He pointed to some blood spots
+on the rug. "You certainly winged him, whoever he was. In some way, he
+escaped. I don't know how, because we were in the hall when the shot was
+fired and the windows are still locked. He may have got out through the
+servants' quarters but that would have been difficult, too, without
+being seen."
+
+Billie sat up.
+
+"I'm all right now," she said. "It was only fright because I lost my way
+in the dark and couldn't find the door, and it was so ghastly running
+into another person in the blackness like that. Father, I wish you would
+tell them not to put out the lights in this room so early. It's the
+second time it's happened now."
+
+"O'Haru, you hear what the lady says," said Mr. Campbell half humorously.
+
+Billie, knowing her father as she did, was suddenly aware that he was
+trying to make light of the affair for the benefit of the others in the
+room. That the episode was far more serious than he cared to admit, she
+knew perfectly well.
+
+O'Haru left the doorway where she had been standing and came over to the
+group by the couch.
+
+"What was the honorable wish of the young lady?"
+
+"Not to have the lights in the library put out so early in the evening.
+To wait until bedtime at least."
+
+O'Haru disliked to contradict, but the august young lady was honorably
+mistaken. The lights had never been put out by any servant attached to
+the household. She herself, or her daughter, attended to that after the
+honorable family had retired for the night.
+
+"Never mind," said Mr. Campbell in a soothing voice, indicating to Billie
+by a slight shake of the head that he would be glad if she would let the
+matter drop. Billie nodded. There was perfect understanding between the
+father and the daughter.
+
+"How do you feel now, Miss Billie?" asked Nicholas Grimm coming to the
+foot of the couch.
+
+"I'm all right again. I am ashamed of having been such a coward. If it
+had been daylight I shouldn't have been half so frightened."
+
+"I feel that it was all my fault for running off and leaving you alone. I
+should have seen you to the house at least."
+
+"Nonsense," said Billie. "That wouldn't have altered matters in the
+least. I would have come back here just the same for the pistol. You see
+I had a feeling that Papa might need it. Besides, we were all alone here.
+There were no men--"
+
+"I am only glad it was someone else that was shot and not you, my darling
+child," broke in Miss Campbell tremulously. "Duncan, I do wish you
+wouldn't keep pistols lying around the house. They are so dangerous."
+
+"But I don't, Cousin. It was carefully stored in the back compartment of
+a bottom desk drawer. If this reckless young relative of ours would go
+and dig it out, I'm sure it's not my fault."
+
+"I'm sure I can't imagine why you treat the matter as such a joke," Miss
+Campbell was saying, when Mme. Fontaine swept into the room.
+
+Her face was whiter than the long white wrap that enveloped her.
+
+"I am so glad you were not injured," she said standing beside Billie.
+
+"You must thank Mme. Fontaine, Billie. It was she who found you first.
+The rest of us were not certain in which room the shot was fired. I
+thought it was in the kitchen."
+
+"Oh," said Billie, turning to the widow. "Were you the first person on
+the scene? You couldn't have seen much, it was so dark. How did you know
+I was here? I don't suppose the robber made any noise."
+
+"It was very dark. I should not have known, if--if I had not smelt the
+smoke of the powder."
+
+"I thought perhaps you were going to say you heard the robber groan,"
+went on Billie. "You see I hit him. I think I must have a pretty good
+natural aim to shoot with the left hand in the dark and not fire wide of
+the mark. But I don't think he was very badly hurt. He got away so fast.
+I just winged him, I suppose."
+
+"How do you know you shot him?" asked Mme. Fontaine.
+
+Miss Helen pointed dramatically to the blood stains on the floor.
+
+Suddenly the widow's lips turned quite white and a blue line appeared
+around her mouth. She swayed slightly and Mr. Campbell caught her. Billie
+was on her feet in a moment and they laid her on the couch.
+
+"Unfasten her wrap," ordered Miss Campbell.
+
+"No, no," said Mme. Fontaine in a very weak, thin voice. "The sight of
+blood--" she closed her eyes. "I shall be all right in a moment." Beads
+of perspiration appeared on her forehead and she shivered with a chill.
+
+"I think Mme. Fontaine had better stay here to-night. She's too ill to
+get back to town," said Mr. Campbell.
+
+"Oh, do," echoed the girls, and Miss Campbell added hospitably:
+
+"We shall be so glad."
+
+"I am quite well now," said the widow rising unsteadily to her feet. "You
+will forgive me, I hope. It is a faintness that comes to me at the sight
+of blood. Will you call my 'riksha now, Mr. Campbell? I must be going. I
+won't try to shake hands," she added, reaching the door. "I am still so
+light in the head, I am afraid of the effort. But I want to thank you for
+a delightful evening. I am only sorry it ended so disastrously."
+
+Making a ceremonious Oriental bow to Miss Campbell and smiling and
+nodding to the others, she left the room followed by Mr. Campbell and
+the four girls.
+
+"No one has told me yet what the shots were in the garden," announced
+Billie after the widow had departed.
+
+"There was nothing to tell. We never found anything at all," answered
+Nicholas.
+
+The next morning Mr. Campbell engaged another night watchman. His duty
+was to patrol the inside of the house, making his rounds every hour
+through the halls and living rooms. Between times he sat in the library.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL
+
+THE COMET DISGUISED.
+
+
+"Where is Onoye, O'Haru?" Miss Campbell asked, a few days after the
+excitement in the library.
+
+"Honorable Madam, Onoye much business."
+
+To Miss Campbell, a seasoned housekeeper, this reply seemed a little
+irregular.
+
+"What kind of business, O'Haru?" she demanded rather severely.
+
+O'Haru looked amiably sad. It is true that Onoye was on the pay roll of
+the household servants, but then, did not her mother do work for two when
+Onoye was not actively engaged? The Japanese reasons thus: if the work is
+done properly, it is of no consequence who does it. Certainly the
+machinery of the household moved on without a hitch. There was no cause
+for complaint, but it seemed to Miss Campbell that if Onoye received
+wages she should appear about the house. Her position, which was
+practically that of ladies' maid, had been filled by one of the other
+small maids while O'Haru had covered up that vacancy by her own redoubled
+labors.
+
+"Will you send Onoye to me, please," ordered Miss Campbell. "I have some
+sewing for her to do."
+
+Poor O'Haru bowed. Her face looked wan and sad and it seemed to the Motor
+Maids that Miss Campbell might not have been so severe; but as a
+housekeeper, that small, gentle lady was a disciplinarian.
+
+They waited with some curiosity for Onoye to appear. In five minutes
+O'Sudzu, one of the other maids, stood framed in the doorway like a
+Japanese souvenir post card life size. She bowed low and entered the room
+timidly.
+
+"But I sent for Onoye," exclaimed Miss Campbell.
+
+O'Sudzu only smiled. She spoke no English.
+
+"Onoye. Wish Onoye," repeated Miss Campbell. She pointed to the door.
+
+O'Sudzu departed.
+
+O'Matsu appeared next, and after O'Matsu came O'Kiku, who was followed
+presently by Masako, until these successive apparitions of Japanese maids
+became positively bewildering. The girls were consumed with the giggles
+and Miss Campbell was scarcely able to maintain a serious expression.
+
+"No, no!" she would say each time, "Onoye! Wish Onoye!"
+
+At last O'Haru appeared once more.
+
+"August one, much kindness bestow. O'Haru make sewing."
+
+"Where is Onoye? Where is your daughter?" demanded Miss Campbell.
+
+O'Haru on her knees hung her head humbly.
+
+"I think I know what's the matter," put in Mary. "Onoye is ill. I am sure
+it must be that."
+
+"Is there anything the matter with Onoye?" asked Miss Campbell, but
+apparently O'Haru's English did not extend so far.
+
+"Much sickness?" asked Billie.
+
+O'Haru's head sank lower and lower.
+
+"Poor thing," exclaimed Mary. "Onoye is ill, Miss Campbell, and O'Haru is
+afraid to say so."
+
+"You must not be afraid, O'Haru. If little daughter ill, we take care of
+her. Bring doctor. See?"
+
+"No, no, Onoye better. Onoye soon well," said the woman in a low voice.
+"Ask much pardons, gracious lady."
+
+"Can't we see her?" asked Billie.
+
+"Onoye see no one. Onoye only humble servant"
+
+"Nonsense, she might be very ill," put in Miss Campbell. "I'll go with
+you now, O'Haru. Lead the way."
+
+The housekeeper gave a sigh of patient resignation and rose to her feet.
+Miss Campbell and the girls followed her down the long hall and across
+the passage to the servants' quarters.
+
+At last they came to a small room at the end of the house. The floor was
+covered with the usual wicker mats. The _shoji_, or sliding partitions,
+were drawn together, and in the dim mellow light which filtered through
+these opaque walls they saw Onoye. She was stretched on the mat which is
+the usual Japanese bed, her neck on the uncomfortable little pillow
+bench. With a murmur of surprise and apology, she pulled herself weakly
+to her knees and touched her forehead to the floor.
+
+"Pardon, gracious lady," she said, drawing her kimono closely about her.
+
+"But, child, we didn't know you were so ill," said Miss Campbell, gently
+forcing the girl to lie down on her bed. "Has the doctor seen you?"
+
+"Yes, gracious lady"
+
+"What is the matter with you?"
+
+Onoye shook her head.
+
+"Not say it in English." She touched her forehead. "Muchly fire."
+
+"It's fever, of course," said Miss Campbell, kneeling beside the sick
+girl and feeling her forehead. "I think you had better not stay here,
+children. It might be something contagious."
+
+"Nonsense," thought Billie; but Miss Campbell was in one of her
+compelling humors and they retreated obediently, leaving her to hold a
+conference with O'Haru and to see that everything was done that could be
+done to alleviate Onoye's sufferings. She finally departed, after
+satisfying herself that Onoye was in the toils of a bilious attack. But
+she did not administer calomel as she would have done in ordinary cases
+of torpid liver. "I suppose the doctor knows what he is about," she said,
+"and there must be a Japanese equivalent to calomel in a country where it
+rains eternally."
+
+It was decided that they should take the "Comet" out after lunch. Miss
+Campbell wished to visit an apothecary shop and there were other plans
+for sight-seeing,--perhaps the magnificent Shiba Temple and the wisteria
+in the park. But before they were to go, there were two surprises in
+store, one for Billie alone and one for all of them. Just after luncheon
+while the others were dressing for the trip, Billie, who needed about two
+minutes for pinning on her hat and slipping on her coat, went back to the
+stable to take the "Comet" from his garage. On the way, she passed the
+room occupied by O'Haru and her daughter. Not having the least fear of
+contagion, she entered a back passage of the intricate house, which
+reminded her of the houses she used to build with cards as a child.
+Pushing back the partition she marched into Onoye's room without
+announcing herself.
+
+"There's nothing to knock on, so why knock?" she thought.
+
+Billie surprised the little Japanese girl sitting up examining her arm,
+which was wrapped in bandages.
+
+"Why, Onoye, I didn't know you had been injured," she exclaimed, running
+over and kneeling beside the sick girl.
+
+Onoye was speechless. She tried to cover her arm with the sleeve of her
+kimono and to apologize and bow all at the same time.
+
+"Not muchly badly," she said at last in a low voice.
+
+"But how did it happen?"
+
+"Not nothing. Pardon grant," murmured Onoye.
+
+"Of course, you poor dear, but how did you injure yourself?"
+
+She laid the bandaged wrist gently on the palm of her hand and looked at
+it.
+
+"Poor small accident," said Onoye.
+
+"But why was it?"
+
+The two girls looked at each other silently.
+
+"Was it in the library that night?" asked Billie after a long pause.
+
+Onoye's head drooped more and more.
+
+"Poor little thing. Poor child," exclaimed Billie, consumed with pity and
+remorse, since it had been her own carelessness that had caused the poor
+small accident.
+
+Onoye had doubtless put out the lights and when she, Billie, had crept
+into the room like a thief, the Japanese girl was frightened and hid
+herself behind a chair. Then when they had collided, they had both lost
+their heads and the pistol had gone off. In spite of her remorse, Billie
+was immensely relieved.
+
+"Papa will be, too," she thought. "It had much better be Onoye than a
+robber."
+
+And Mr. Campbell was decidedly relieved when he heard the story from his
+daughter that night.
+
+"I'll keep it a secret, Onoye, dear," said Billie, moved by compassion.
+"I'll only tell Papa. I am so sorry I shot you. It must have hurt
+terribly."
+
+Onoye tried to smile.
+
+"Forgiveness grant," she murmured again.
+
+"I think I'd better say 'forgiveness grant,'" said Billie. "But I must be
+going now." She patted Onoye on the cheek and then tiptoed out of the
+room. "It is a relief," she thought, turning her footsteps toward the
+garage.
+
+Some minutes later, Billie ran into her cousin's room breathlessly.
+
+"Ready in one moment," called Miss Campbell, who had heard the whir of
+the motor at the door.
+
+"I want to prepare you for a surprise," said Billie solemnly. "I don't
+mind telling you that I have had the shock of my life."
+
+"But what is it?" they all demanded in one voice.
+
+"I'll only say this much. Papa has punished the 'Comet' for running over
+the child that day."
+
+"How?"
+
+"You'll see. I thought I had better prepare you. The shock might have
+killed you if I hadn't."
+
+"Goodness gracious me, what is it?" cried Miss Campbell, seizing her
+reticule and gloves and rushing into the hall, followed by the others.
+
+When she reached the piazza, she sat down flat in a chair and gasped.
+
+There was the "Comet," to be sure. His outlines were as familiar as the
+profile of a beloved brother, but his beautiful scarlet coat had been
+taken from him and he wore instead a quiet covering of dark blue. The
+luxurious red cushions were covered with buff linen. One small decoration
+had been conceded by Mr. Campbell. The dark, quietly colored coat was
+relieved on each side by the buff-colored initials, "M-M" lovingly
+intertwined.
+
+"I suppose Papa thought the red coat was too gaudy," said Billie, who was
+indeed just a little tearful over the loss of that cheerful and familiar
+scarlet dress which would never again flash along the highways like a
+scarlet bird. "But he's the same old 'Comet' inside," she added hastily.
+"You couldn't change his noble disposition if you painted him sea green."
+
+"I think he looks beautiful," put in Elinor. "He's so neat and elegant in
+buff and blue. It's like a livery."
+
+The other girls laughed because Elinor's speech was so characteristic.
+
+"Oh, you regal young person," exclaimed Nancy. "Your imagination doesn't
+stop at anything short of liveried retinues of servants. There is no
+doubt you were a royal princess in a previous existence. And suppose you
+are a fat old pug in another life, like Nedda!"
+
+"I am sure Nedda is waited on hand and foot," cried Elinor. "She has a
+maid who follows her around with a cushion and a silk cover."
+
+Komatsu, standing at the side of the motor, grinned with amusement.
+
+"They are foolish children, aren't they, Komatsu?" observed Miss
+Campbell, climbing into her accustomed seat.
+
+Nedda, hearing her name mentioned, wobbled on her uncertain old legs to
+the edge of the piazza and whined piteously.
+
+"Go back to your mat, you pathetic, pampered old great grandmother,"
+called Nancy.
+
+The aged animal turned obediently and curled herself on her cushion. Then
+she lifted her wrinkled, snub-nosed face to watch the departing
+motorists.
+
+"She does look like our Irish cook's grandmother," said Nancy.
+
+Everybody laughed gaily and the feelings regarding the "Comet's" new blue
+coat were dispelled. Nedda had been a welcome interruption.
+
+"Papa always does the right thing," Billie announced presently. "I'm glad
+he did it now. I was a little hurt at first, of course. But I understand
+perfectly what his reasons were. Everybody will be looking out for a red
+motor car that runs over people and they'll never recognize the 'Comet'
+It's just as if he wore a disguise."
+
+The dark blue car was, as a matter of fact, not nearly so conspicuous as
+he skimmed along over the road, and it was the very wisest thing Billie's
+father could have done to change the color. Probably every man, woman and
+child in the multitude that had clustered around the car that day on
+Arakawa Ridge would be constantly on the look-out for the red machine,
+and never glance twice at the blue one.
+
+"I do feel so inconspicuous and quiet and lady-like," remarked Billie
+when some time later they left the motor car in charge of Komatsu and
+went in to visit Shiba Temple in Shiba Park. These chapels are mostly the
+tombs of the Shoguns who for many years were powerful nobles and who
+really ruled Japan in place of the Emperor, a mere figurehead in those
+days. The magnificent tombs they built for themselves are now the very
+pride of Tokyo. Within the great red gates of the main temple, upheld
+with scarlet columns, wheeled flights of pigeons quite tame. The girls
+bought packages of grain from little booths and fed them and presently
+one of the pretty creatures perched on Mary's wrist and ate from her
+hand.
+
+"Don't frighten him," she whispered, her eyes brimming with tears of
+pleasure.
+
+All the afternoon the tourists wandered through the wide courts where
+were armies of stone lanterns placed in exactly the right spots. They
+passed softly flowing fountains wherein the worshippers washed themselves
+and climbed stately stairs by fern-set walls. Court within court they
+entered adorned with magnificent paintings and carvings of marvelous
+workmanship. They walked through the great hall of books where scrolls of
+immense value are kept, each swathed in silk and lying in its own lacquer
+box. At last dazzled and silenced by the succession of magic courts, they
+returned to the outer world of the living, and climbed into the motor
+car.
+
+"Before we go home, don't you think we had better inquire for Mme.
+Fontaine?" Billie suggested.
+
+Miss Campbell assented. So long as they did not go in, she was quite
+willing.
+
+They found the gate of the Widow of Shanghai's garden stretched wide
+open; a jinriksha was about to pass into the street. A Japanese lady
+in a rich costume was the occupant. She exchanged one swift glance with
+Billie and quickly looked the other way. Billie started slightly. She
+felt uncomfortable. It seemed to her that she had been looking straight
+into the eyes of Mme. Fontaine.
+
+"Did you notice," said Mary, "that the Japanese lady in the 'riksha wore
+her arm in a sling?"
+
+No, they had not noticed it, but there was nothing remarkable in that. No
+one even commented on the fact, while they waited for Komatsu to inquire
+and leave their cards.
+
+"Mme. Fontaine was still very much indisposed," the message came back,
+"but she would be glad if the ladies would enter and have some
+refreshment. She regretted she would not be able to see them herself."
+
+The ladies would not enter, however, as it was nearing the hour when Mr.
+Campbell would return and expect to find them in the garden waiting tea,
+and the "Comet" bore them swiftly home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A THEATER PARTY.
+
+
+"It's very easy for a bachelor to entertain in Japan," remarked Mr.
+Buxton one afternoon in the Campbells' summer house. "A busy man is
+saved all bother and inconvenience if he wants to give a theater party,
+say, with a dinner to follow, by putting the affair in the hands of an
+'elder sister,'"
+
+"Suppose he hasn't any elder sister," put in Miss Campbell feeling
+slightly offended. Perhaps she was older than Mr. Buxton, but she was
+sure she didn't look it and she had no intention of being designated as
+his "elder sister."
+
+"Oh, but he always has," replied Mr. Buxton. "A Japanese providence
+always provides a _Nesan_, or elder sister, for persons desiring to
+entertain. All she requires of you is to leave her alone and pay the
+bill."
+
+Miss Campbell felt somewhat mollified.
+
+"But what does she do?" asked Mary.
+
+"She does all the work, makes all the arrangements, engages the boxes and
+the 'rikshas, orders the dinner, tells you how to act; in fact, does
+everything any good elder sister would do to oblige a little brother."
+
+The others smiled at this droll notion but there was something rather
+touching, too, about the simple title of elder sister or _Nesan_ for this
+efficient and reliable individual who took all the burdens on her own
+shoulders. As a matter of fact a _Nesan_ is the proprietor of a tea house
+and her business is to get up entertainments.
+
+"And it is for this reason," continued Mr. Buxton, "that I am able to ask
+all of you for the honor of your company to the theater to-morrow at
+three and later to dinner. I could never have undertaken it alone, but
+having been provided with an efficient relative older and wiser than I
+am, although she looks to be under thirty, I feel no uneasiness
+whatever."
+
+"I am inclined to accept your reluctant invitation on the spot, Buxton,"
+laughed Mr. Campbell, "for self and family."
+
+"I didn't intend it to appear reluctant," answered the Englishman. "I
+only wanted to assure you that if you would do me the honor of coming to
+the entertainment, all things would be correctly carried out according to
+Japanese etiquette and there would not be a hitch in the whole affair.
+Will you come?"
+
+"We shall be delighted, Mr. Buxton," answered Miss Campbell.
+
+"I thought you would," he added. "Indeed, I was so certain of it that the
+little _Nesan_ has already got a list of the guests and the whole thing
+has been arranged."
+
+"And to make assurance doubly sure, you thought you would just mention
+the matter to us?" asked Mr. Campbell, who enjoyed teasing this rather
+odd and amusing old bachelor.
+
+"How do we dress?" asked Nancy.
+
+"I never thought to ask the _Nesan_ how the ladies should dress. But if
+you take my advice, I should say comfortably. That is, if you can. I
+believe a woman's clothes are never really comfortable."
+
+"Mine are," broke in Billie, poised on the railing of the summer house
+swinging her feet carelessly.
+
+"Would you have us dress like men?" demanded Miss Campbell indignantly.
+
+"No indeed, Madam," answered the bachelor, "but in your present costume,
+you must admit that it would be difficult to sit on the floor."
+
+"But I don't wish to sit on the floor," exclaimed the spinster. "It's a
+perfectly absurd custom. Besides, you are edging away from the main
+point--trying to draw out of the--"
+
+"There will be no chairs to-morrow," interrupted the other, blinking his
+eyes like a wise old bird. "And," he continued as he took his departure,
+"neither will there be any knives and forks."
+
+"I shall take mine along, then," called Miss Campbell, whose discussions
+with the bachelor kept them in a constant state of amusement.
+
+"It would be an unpardonable breach of etiquette," he called over his
+shoulder. Presently he turned back and added, "You are not to use that
+infernal machine for my party. The _Nesan_ provided 'rikshas for all
+guests."
+
+"But that's just an additional expense to you, Buxton," cried Mr.
+Campbell.
+
+"I know it perfectly well and I so suggested to my elder sister, but she
+didn't seem to understand, and I decided I would rather hire a gross
+of 'rikshas than try and make her. So you may expect three of 'em
+to-morrow at a quarter past two. The performance begins at three."
+
+"Dear old 'Comet,' he's always getting slighted nowadays," remarked
+Billie. "He never gets to go anywhere."
+
+"He's probably glad enough to sit in his cell and meditate on the
+mutability of human events," answered Mr. Buxton, and this time he really
+did go.
+
+It happened therefore that the "Comet" was once more left in humiliating
+retirement while his young mistresses rode off in jinrikshas which
+appeared at the door exactly at the hour mentioned by the host of the
+afternoon. Indeed the motor car had good reason to be a disgruntled
+machine. He never did seem to be a part of the Japanese landscape like
+the graceful 'riksha. As a matter of fact he was a blot on the scene and
+entirely out of place against a background of an ancient temple or a
+group of picturesque individuals in clothes more brilliant in hue than
+his own boyhood coat.
+
+Converging from various points in Tokyo but all timed to meet at the
+theater door exactly at five minutes to three, came the other guests of
+the party in 'rikshas provided by the _Nesan_. Mme. Fontaine was one of
+these.
+
+"What a picture she is," exclaimed Nancy, noticing at once the
+widow's beautiful costume of embroidered pongee over which she wore a
+kimono-shaped mantle of the same embroidered silk, the sleeves of which
+covered her arms and hands completely.
+
+Nodding and smiling at the girls brightly, she followed Miss Campbell
+into the theater where they were met by the plump, hospitable little
+_Nesan_, who prostrated herself before each guest and removed shoes at
+the same time.
+
+Miss Campbell groaned.
+
+"Oh, dear," she complained. "Even at the theater! I shall never get
+accustomed to walking flat-footed. I shall be wearing bifurcated
+stockings next, I suppose."
+
+"Etiquette, Madam, etiquette," said Mr. Buxton. "You must do as the
+Romans do, remember, or else be thought extremely rude."
+
+But there was no time for argument and the party hastily distributed
+themselves in the two boxes. Yoritomo Ito kept close beside Nancy while
+Nicholas Grimm and Reggie Carlton sat tailor fashion in the back of the
+box. The theater was a strange place to the Western eye. There was not a
+chair in the entire house and Mr. Buxton chuckled aloud over Miss
+Campbell's complaints when she was obliged to sit on a mat on the floor.
+Below the two tiers of boxes, the pit appeared like a gigantic
+checker-board divided into square compartments by partitions about a foot
+high. In each compartment squatted six people. Running from the rear of
+the house to the stage was a slightly raised walk three feet broad to be
+used by the actors as an exit. The stalls were crowded with men and women
+and children. Here and there were groups of geishas or dancing girls.
+Their rich apparel made bright spots of color in the scene. The children
+ran about with perfect freedom, up and down the aisles at the sides and
+in and out of the stalls, eating sweetmeats and visiting their friends.
+And there was scarcely a grown person in the entire audience of Japanese
+who was not smoking, for women as well as men smoke in Japan: one pinch
+of tobacco in a short pipe, one puff, a little whiff of smoke inhaled and
+the operation is over. Before the curtain rose, the _Nesan_ flew busily
+from one box to the other with cushions and sweetmeats, baskets of
+oranges and boxes of sweet pickled black beans. Presently came the sound
+of two blocks of wood striking together. Then the curtain rose and the
+audience settled itself for three hours of the most intense enjoyment.
+The play was a Japanese legend and the actors picturesque and dramatic,
+but if all the greatest actors in the world had combined to give the
+performance, Miss Campbell could not have maintained her cramped position
+a minute longer than two hours.
+
+"I am sure my limbs will refuse their office, Duncan," she whispered. "If
+this goes on much longer, I shall have to be carried from the theater
+like a helpless paralytic."
+
+"Buxton, don't you think we've had enough?" suggested Mr. Campbell, and
+the bachelor, glad to stretch his own cramped legs, took the hint and
+gave the signal for departure.
+
+Once more they were in the 'rikshas, only this time Nancy found herself
+seated by Yoritomo and Billie and Nicholas had paired off in the same
+way. Miss Campbell was not sure that she approved of this change.
+
+"In my day," she remarked to her cousin, "young ladies never rode alone
+in buggies with young men."
+
+"But they aren't buggies, Cousin," he answered good-naturedly.
+
+"They are, all but the horse," said Miss Campbell.
+
+But they had arrived at the gate of the tea house before the argument
+could proceed and were presently rolling through a garden enclosed by
+high walls. It was a fairyland of a place, even more beautiful than the
+Campbells' own garden, filled with brilliant beds of flowers and here and
+there a small grove of stunted pine trees.
+
+Through the door of a tea house, low roofed and brown (houses are not
+painted in Japan), rushed a score of _musumes_ (maids), pink-cheeked and
+bare-footed, who greeted the guests with low bows and removed their
+shoes. There also was their own particular _Nesan_, owner of that
+particular tea house, who bowed gracefully and said in Japanese:
+
+"Be honorably pleased to enter."
+
+Inside, the tea house was scrupulously clean. The bare boards in the hall
+seemed worn thin by scrubbing and nowhere were any furniture or ornaments
+except the hanging scroll. The floors were covered with soft wicker mats
+and presently they were all seated in a semicircle at one end of the
+room. The younger members of the party were in a perfect gale of subdued
+laughter by this time. Elinor, too dignified to look where she was going,
+had stubbed her august toe and for at least half a minute had hopped on
+one foot in an agony of pain. Nicholas had privately circulated a rumor
+that live carp would be one of the courses, and not to eat a small piece
+would give grievous offense to the _Nesan_ and her _musumes_.
+
+After a little table about a foot high had been placed before each guest,
+a procession of miniature waitresses entered with the dinner. In quick
+succession were served fish soup, crushed birds with sugared walnuts and
+oranges, broiled fish with tiny balls of sweetened potatoes, and numerous
+other strange but not unpalatable dishes, and all the while streams of
+_hors d'ouvres_: horseradish, spinach and seaweed. But they were not
+obliged to eat with chop sticks. Mr. Buxton had provided knives and
+forks.
+
+At last with the greatest ceremony, the little proprietor herself
+appeared bearing a large silver tray.
+
+"Here it comes," whispered Nicholas. "What did I tell you?"
+
+There, sure enough, was the carp, taken from the water a moment before
+and sliced into delicate pink steaks. He lay on a bed of fresh water
+grasses and leaves, and each portion was served in a dainty mat of
+twisted grass. Nobody refused a sacrificial morsel, but only Yoritomo and
+Mr. Buxton had the courage to eat it. Mr. Buxton swallowed his at a gulp
+and Miss Campbell shivered all over at the sight.
+
+"How could you?" she exclaimed in a whisper.
+
+"Etiquette," he answered. "I would swallow a mouse for the sake of
+etiquette in this polite country."
+
+During the dinner there had been a sound of suppressed laughter and the
+tinkle of music behind the partitions, and now, after the last round of
+the innumerable courses had been served, the partitions were shoved aside
+and four samisen players entered followed by eight dancing girls. Nothing
+could equal the grace of their bows as they glided softly in. Their
+smiles of welcome were inimitable. Then their faces became grave and
+serious and the dance began. The oldest was hardly more than fifteen and
+the youngest about ten. They were like sober-faced little dolls in
+gorgeous brocaded robes as they paraded, stamped their white-stockinged
+feet and postured with elaborate fans.
+
+Mme. Fontaine, who had eaten no dinner and talked very little, watched
+the dancers with intense interest.
+
+"Are they not charming little creatures?" she asked Mr. Campbell. "They
+are trained to be so,--to sing, dance and amuse and to look pretty. But I
+assure you some of them develop into splendid women. Many of them marry
+well. The geisha girl is not always a butterfly."
+
+There was a subdued fire in her eyes as she spoke.
+
+Mr. Campbell looked at her curiously.
+
+"You have a special tenderness for them, I see," he remarked.
+
+"I was one," she said.
+
+While this little colloquy was going on, Yoritomo was whispering into
+Nancy's ear:
+
+"You think they are pretty? But they are not so beautiful as you. There
+are no blue eyes in Japan."
+
+And Nicholas was saying to Billie:
+
+"By Jove, it's terrible sitting in this position for three hours at a
+stretch. Do you think we could slip into the garden? I have something I
+want to tell you."
+
+Being on the end of the semi-circle, they crept behind one of the sliding
+partitions and rose stiffly to their feet. Two steps more and they were
+in the garden, now flooded with moonlight.
+
+"It's romantic," observed Billie, "but what will Cousin Helen say? She's
+a very strict chaperone."
+
+"Tell her you couldn't endure it another moment; or tell her I couldn't,
+which would be perfectly true. I feel as if I had shrunk a few inches. I
+can't stand up straight."
+
+Turning down a walk leading to the little gold fish pond, they presently
+paused on the miniature bridge and looked down at the reflections of the
+stars mirrored in the pool beneath. They were quite silent for a moment.
+Then Nicholas cleared his throat and began in an embarrassed and
+hesitating way:
+
+"Miss Billie, can you keep a secret?"
+
+"Don't you think that is rather an uncomplimentary question?" answered
+Billie. "I must have made a poor impression on you."
+
+"Indeed you haven't. You have made just the other kind," he replied with
+boyish candor. "That's why I wanted to tell you something, but it was a
+stupid way to begin. Please forgive me. Of course you can keep a secret.
+Any girl who is cool-headed enough to run a motor car and--and keep
+machinery in order and--"
+
+"Well--and what?"
+
+"I think you are just great, Miss Billie. I never met a girl like you
+before," he mumbled half audibly. "That's why I wanted to tell you
+something--that is--confide something to you."
+
+Billie looked uncomfortable. She was only a month younger than Nancy, but
+she Was far less experienced in the ways of the world, her tastes being
+more boyish and simple than those of that gay little coquette.
+
+"In the first place, you knew I was a civil engineer. That's how I
+happened to meet your father. Every engineer in the country wanted to
+meet him, because he is a very famous one himself, as you probably know."
+
+Billie was pleased at this compliment. Her father was too modest to tell
+such things about himself, and she had no way of knowing his reputation
+unless other people told her.
+
+"It was through Yoritomo that I came to Japan. We were friends in New
+York; and it was through his uncle, who is high up in public affairs
+here, that I got an appointment almost immediately. It's been interesting
+work, most of the time around Tokyo, and I have enjoyed the experience.
+But, you see, I came here with just a little money and fell on my feet
+and feel that I am under obligations to Yoritomo and his family for a
+good many favors."
+
+"Of course," answered Billie. "But what of it?"
+
+"Well," began Nicholas slowly, "Yoritomo has been a good friend to me. I
+have always liked him and looked up to him because he's a deal cleverer
+than I am and a wonderful student,--but lately,--it's hard to explain to
+you, Miss Bille, but I--"
+
+"Don't you like him any more?"
+
+"No, no, it isn't that." Nicholas paused again and wiped beads of
+perspiration from his face. He shifted his position and dug his hands
+into his pockets. "I don't think I can say it," he said. "I thought I
+could, but it's too deuced hard."
+
+"Go on, you silly boy."
+
+"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't trust him," he blurted out.
+
+"But Papa likes him," said Billie, simply, feeling that her father's
+sanction was as good as a royal stamp of approval.
+
+"Oh, yes, of course. Everybody likes him. It isn't that."
+
+"Then what are you driving at?"
+
+"Good heavens, I don't know what I am driving at. Only, you see, I
+introduced Yoritomo to the family and something happened the other day
+that made me uneasy. It seemed to me that I ought to warn you not to get
+too thick with him--that is--not you but Miss Brown. You see, Japanese
+are different--they take things more seriously--" Nicholas plunged deeper
+and deeper in.
+
+"Can't you tell me what happened?"
+
+"That's the queer part. There's nothing really to tell. It was one of
+those little incidents that mean everything or nothing. I couldn't tell
+Mr. Campbell because it was too insignificant, but I thought I might make
+a clean breast of it to you and you could warn Miss Brown--well--not to
+talk too much to Yoritomo. She might tell him something--"
+
+"But Nancy hasn't any secrets to tell, Mr. Grimm."
+
+"I thought you promised to call me Nicholas? I didn't say she had, but
+these Japanese are the wiliest people. They will use you without your
+knowing you are being used. Couldn't you just tell Miss Nancy to be
+careful without explaining why? Don't girls ever do that? Just say that
+Yoritomo's a Jap, and Japs are deep people and she had better not tell
+him all she knows."
+
+Billie laughed.
+
+"Why, yes, I could, I suppose, but I'm sure it's not necessary. She
+doesn't know anything to tell."
+
+"Whew!" ejaculated Nicholas, fanning himself with his hat. "I'd rather
+dig a tunnel through a mountain than have to do that again. I decided
+I had to do it and I have been working it over in my mind for days. First
+I thought of Miss Campbell, but she would have gone off her head about
+it. Miss Brown wouldn't have understood, either. She would have been
+angry, I suppose. So I decided to come to you. I felt sure you would
+understand and know exactly what to do."
+
+Billie smiled. She was beginning to be very fond of this boyish, honest
+young man whose nature was not unlike her own. Just at that moment they
+saw Yoritomo and Nancy strolling along a moonlit path. He was talking to
+her in a low intense voice and she was smiling and dimpling as usual. It
+occurred to Billie that Nancy was getting very grown up all of a sudden
+and for her part, she couldn't see any fun in it at all. She had noticed
+lately that Nancy did not enjoy their old-time girlish fun half so much
+as she used to. She would rather stroll in the garden with a young man
+than with her four devoted friends, and "hen parties" as she called them,
+did not amuse her any longer.
+
+Billie began to feel quite serious about the benighted state of her best
+friend. Her nature was deeply tinged with sympathy and sweetness, but she
+was not yet old enough to feel tolerant with Nancy for growing up and
+craving beaux and flattery.
+
+"I will speak to Nancy Brown," she thought, and that night going home in
+the 'riksha by Nancy's side she turned the matter over in her mind. "But
+not to-night," she decided, for Nancy had never seemed more adorable than
+on that ride, chatting with her friend about the evening's pleasures.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+A FAILING OUT.
+
+
+Several days went swiftly by and still Billie had not delivered the
+warning to her beloved Nancy.
+
+After all, was it really necessary to warn Nancy not to talk too much and
+tell all she knew? That was a man's idea of a girl's conversation: to
+tell all she knew. How absurd! Besides, Nancy was not much of a
+conversationalist and it's only people who talk all the time who tell
+secrets. After they exhaust every other subject, they begin to draw on
+their confidential stock.
+
+The more Billie turned the question over in her mind, the more
+far-fetched it seemed, and at last she determined not to mention it at
+all.
+
+"Who am I to be scolding anybody?" she said to herself. "I am sure I am
+far from perfect and it would look rather presumptuous to criticize
+Nancy who hasn't done anything to be criticized for."
+
+But these noble and modest sentiments were not destined to remain
+unchanged in Billie's mind. By a curious chain of circumstances, the very
+thing she had concluded to avoid was brought about.
+
+The circumstances began in the morning before breakfast and led up, one
+after another, to the first real quarrel the two friends had ever had
+since their friendship began.
+
+It had been raining all night, a hot sticky downpour, and nobody in the
+house had slept well. The atmosphere was oppressive, and breathing became
+a conscious effort; so that the American members of the household were
+fretful and out of humor after a disagreeable and restless night. Even
+the most even-tempered and well-balanced natures are upset by a steaming,
+humid temperature which seems to creep into the soul and enshroud the
+brighter self with mist.
+
+Billie felt the general depression and after breakfast she followed her
+friends in a disconsolate procession to the library.
+
+"There are as many different kinds of rain as there are people," she
+observed. "The rain in Scotland was like a brisk scolding person. At
+least there was nothing monotonous and tiring about it. It had plenty of
+vigor and energy. But this Japanese summer rain is like a great, fat,
+stupid, lazy creature who never lifts a little finger to do anything but
+just rain and rain and turn into misty steam!"
+
+"One hasn't even the energy to read a book," sighed Mary.
+
+"As Reggie Carlton says, 'it's so infernally damp,'" put in Elinor, and
+the others smiled languidly. Elinor was indeed feeling the humidity to
+quote a semi-profane expression.
+
+Nancy was really the most cheerful member of the party. She had an air of
+expecting something which appeared to give her a reason for existing.
+
+After the outbursts of her three friends, there was a long and heavy
+silence broken only by the steady patter of the rain on the roof.
+
+At last Nancy rose and smiling mysteriously, said:
+
+"Excuse me, ladies. While your company is highly exciting, I must leave
+you to write letters."
+
+"I can't imagine to whom," exclaimed Billie.
+
+"I mailed four for you yesterday to your mother and father and 'Merry'
+and Percy St. Clair."
+
+Billie knew Nancy's affairs quite as well as she knew her own; two
+sisters could hardly have been more intimately associated.
+
+"Guess again, Miss Inquisitive," said Nancy. "And guess fifty times more
+if you like. You'll never guess the right person and I shan't tell you
+for punishment. So there!"
+
+For some reason--of course it was the weather--Billie felt teased and
+hurt. Not for anything would she have kept Nancy in ignorance of any of
+her correspondence.
+
+"I didn't mean to be inquisitive." she called, half apologetically. "I
+was merely surprised at your being so mysterious."
+
+"When you get to be as old as I am," said Nancy in a lofty tone, "you'll
+know better than to tell all you know."
+
+"I'll never get to be as old as you are, Miss Nancy-Bell," retorted
+Billie. "It's a physical impossibility, since you are two months older
+than I am."
+
+Nancy departed from the room, calling out laughingly:
+
+"Smarty! Smarty!"
+
+Billie kicked off her slipper after her, and so the quarrel started with
+good natured raillery. But the memory of the letter lingered in Billie's
+mind all the morning, although why it should have connected itself with
+Onoye, who, an hour later, stepped out into the garden on high wooden
+clogs with an oiled paper umbrella, she could not say. Standing idly by
+the window, Billie watched the little figure disappear down the path.
+
+"I suppose she's going to visit the Compassionate God again," Billie
+thought to herself absently. "I hope he'll be compassionate enough to
+clear the weather by to-morrow."
+
+The next link in the chain of circumstances was forged when Onoye
+returned from her pilgrimage. Billie, who had drawn a stool to the window
+and was sitting with her face pressed against the glass, saw her walking
+slowly along the dripping path to the house. The Japanese girl was
+looking at something she held in her free hand, an envelope undoubtedly.
+Just as she reached the piazza, Onoye slipped the letter into the folds
+of her sash and hurried in.
+
+Billie's mind gave a sudden leap of conjecture but she continued to sit
+quietly, her face against the window, peering into the mist-hung garden.
+
+"Funny," she said to herself. "It couldn't have been a Japanese letter
+because those are rolled up on little sticks."
+
+Not long afterwards, she encountered Onoye in the passage. The Japanese
+girl smiled lovingly into her face. Little by little her feeling for
+Billie was growing and expanding into a real devotion,
+
+"And I'm sure I don't know why she should caress the hand that smote
+her," Billie had thought. "She's a dear, faithful little soul."
+
+"Are you quite well again, Onoye?" she asked, pausing and slipping her
+arm around the Japanese girl's shoulders.
+
+"Yes, honorable lady. Not any sickly arm no more."
+
+"And have you been writing a letter to thank the Compassionate God Jizu
+for your recovery?" went on Billie.
+
+A frightened look came into Onoye's eyes. The English had been too much
+for her comprehension, but the word "letter" she had understood
+perfectly.
+
+"No understand," she said, bowing ceremoniously. And she hastened away,
+leaving Billie much puzzled and rather curious, too.
+
+The day dragged slowly on, and still the rain poured and the mist steamed
+and there was no relief from the circumstances of the weather. Miss
+Campbell had been feeling rheumatic twinges in her "old joints," as she
+called them, and remained in bed reading an agreeable novel. Once more
+the four friends retired to the library where Mary read aloud and the
+others engaged in various characteristic pursuits. Elinor was
+embroidering a royal coat-of-arms in colored silks on a cushion cover;
+Nancy was darning a rent in a lace flounce and Billie was darning her
+father's socks. This task she undertook each week with extraordinary
+cheerfulness, although Onoye had offered to do it for her, and O'Haru had
+almost taken the darning needle and egg from her by force.
+
+As the hands of the clock neared four, Nancy rose.
+
+"Go on with your reading, Mary," she said. "I need some more thread and I
+shall have to look for it. So don't wait."
+
+"What number do you want?" asked Elinor.
+
+Nancy looked annoyed.
+
+"Oh, something quite fine. I know you haven't it, Elinor."
+
+"Will a hundred do?" asked Elinor, extracting the spool from her neat
+sewing bag.
+
+"That's too fine."
+
+"I have all sizes here."
+
+"Never mind," exclaimed Nancy impatiently, and hastened from the room,
+taking her lace-flounced skirt with her.
+
+"Stubborn person," observed Elinor and once more plunged into her
+aristocratic labors.
+
+Billie grew more and more restless. The book Mary was reading aloud was a
+detective story, lately arrived from America. It had reached a thrilling
+point, but Billie could not fasten her attention.
+
+"I think I'll just be obliged to get out and walk," she burst out
+unexpectedly. "I can't stand this life of inaction a minute longer. Don't
+stop reading on my account, Mary, dear. I don't suppose I could tempt
+either of you two hot-house plants to come with me, could I?"
+
+"Since it's just as hot outside as inside, I don't think you could,"
+answered Elinor.
+
+"Perhaps Nancy will go," thought Billie, hastening down the long hall to
+their joint apartment.
+
+But Nancy was not in the room. Her lace petticoat had been thrown hastily
+on the bed with her sewing box. Billie searched over the entire house for
+her friend without success.
+
+"Funny," she thought, slipping on her over-shoes and raincoat and seizing
+an umbrella from the stand in the passage.
+
+Presently she found herself in the mist-hung garden, and instinctively
+her steps turned toward the little bridge and the shrine to the
+Compassionate God. All the way, she kept thinking:
+
+"What is Nancy-Bell up to? Not that,--surely. Why should she write
+letters that way? Nobody would object to their coming by mail. It's just
+her romantic notions," her thoughts continued as she reached the bridge.
+
+Taking the curved path to the foot of the small embankment, the next
+moment Billie came full upon Nancy and Yoritomo Ito talking earnestly
+together. There was something rather amusing in their appearance, because
+down the ribs of their two umbrellas rivulets of water dripped and
+poured in streams about them.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," exclaimed Billie, the prey to varying emotions:
+embarrassment, hurt feelings, surprise and, it must be confessed, a dash
+of anger.
+
+"Oh, Billie," said Nancy, starting violently, "how you frightened me."
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Ito," said Billie stiffly.
+
+"How do you do, Miss Campbell. We seem to be having several unexpected
+encounters this afternoon. Here was Miss Brown out for a wet stroll on a
+day when ladies usually remain indoors, and now you come, too. American
+young ladies are very athletic."
+
+"It isn't a case of exercise with me, Mr. Ito. I came out really to find
+Nancy," said Billie coldly.
+
+"I shall bid you good afternoon," answered Yoritomo in his most formal
+manner. "I was just taking a short cut. Pardon my trespassing on your
+grounds."
+
+Billie detested untruths and she knew quite well that Yoritomo was not
+speaking the real truth. She looked at Nancy reproachfully.
+
+"Good-bye," she said and turned her back.
+
+Yoritomo made an elaborate bow and departed and Nancy followed Billie
+slowly up the dripping path. Half way back, Billie stopped short and
+wheeled around.
+
+"I should think you'd be ashamed of yourself, Nancy Brown," she
+exclaimed.
+
+Nancy had never seen Billie really angry before and she was frightened at
+the new hard look that had come into the frank gray eyes. But Nancy was
+in no mood to be scolded. The truth is, she had reached a difficult age
+and it was not going to be easy to manage her by lecturing and argument.
+She had an enormous appetite for flattery and the power of her prettiness
+had intoxicated her.
+
+"Oh, I don't suppose you would understand, Billie, even if I tried to
+explain," she answered hotly. "I haven't done anything to be ashamed of."
+
+"Meeting people in the garden secretly isn't anything to be proud of,"
+pursued Billie. "And exchanging letters by a servant," she burst out
+suddenly recalling Onoye's unaccountable trip that morning an the rain.
+"I have been told to warn you not to talk too much to Mr. Ito. He's not
+to be trusted, and I think this a very good time to do it."
+
+Nancy flushed. She was angrier than Billie now. The two girls had turned
+and were facing each other furiously. Billie felt the pulse leap in her
+temples and something gripped her throat. The sensation was so new to her
+that she scarcely knew how to handle it. It was like trying to rein in a
+runaway horse.
+
+"He's just as nice as Nicholas Grimm," cried Nancy. "I should think you'd
+be ashamed to spy on anyone. I never thought it of you."
+
+This statement was so unjust that Billie's rage leaped out of all bounds
+and got beyond her control entirely.
+
+"That is untrue. I did not spy on you. I merely put two and two together
+and guessed the rest. Can you deny it? And do you call it lady-like and
+honorable? I don't. I call it common and horrid."
+
+Billie's voice in her extreme anger was very stern. She carefully avoided
+calling Nancy by name. She felt if she spoke the name of her friend, she
+must cry and not for anything did she want to humble herself just then.
+
+"I tell you I won't explain," ejaculated Nancy. "I've done nothing wrong
+and I think you are very hard and unjust. It's because you are still a
+child about some things, Billie. When you are older and have had more
+experience, you will learn not to be a prig."
+
+Older and more experienced! Now all the saints defend us! Billie laughed
+bitterly. Both girls were on the point of weeping and perhaps, if their
+anger had changed to tears at that moment, much bitterness might have
+been saved them. But they were interrupted by Mr. Campbell, who now
+appeared, walking at a leisurely gait up the path.
+
+"Well, well, children! Here is devotion indeed," he exclaimed when he
+espied his daughter and her friend standing stock still in the pouring
+rain. "So intimate and absorbed in each other's society that you are
+oblivious to the weather! That's the right kind of friendship. I would
+not have it any other way. How are you, little daughter?" he asked,
+kissing Billie and shaking hands with Nancy at the same time. "And how's
+little daughter's friend?"
+
+Not for worlds would they have disclosed the real truth to Mr. Campbell.
+Billie drew her arm through her father's and Nancy followed them to the
+house.
+
+"Do you think the rain will ever let up, Papa?" asked Billie, resting her
+cheek against her father's shoulder.
+
+Nancy felt suddenly frightfully homesick for her own bluff good-natured
+parent.
+
+"Well, it once rained forty days and forty nights, you know," said Mr.
+Campbell. "And what's happened before may happen again."
+
+Habitual wranglers regard quarrels as mere ripples on the surface and
+soon forget about them, but the two girls were unaccustomed to such
+scenes and their feelings were deeply lacerated.
+
+"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath," Billie thought, as she lay
+beside Nancy that night, but she remembered that Nancy had called her
+a spy and her soul was filled with bitterness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+A LETTER THAT CAME THOUGH IT WAS NEVER SENT.
+
+
+The two girls put the width of the bed between them that night. Each lay
+stiffly on the very edge of the mattress and silently pondered over the
+situation. Anger was not a self-indulgence with either of them and the
+attack was so unusual that it left them both unnerved and shaken. Nancy
+had only played with her food at dinner and Billie, who had eaten without
+an appetite, now felt the discomfort of a burning indigestion. At last,
+as the hours dragged on, they fell asleep, each profoundly unhappy.
+
+Long ago the two friends had dropped the formality which usually exists
+between guest and hostess, no matter how intimate. Their relations were
+as those of two sisters. For the Motor Maids had become as one family in
+their wanderings  together. But next morning, Nancy, still feeling the
+sting of fancied wrongs, suddenly recalled the fact that she was
+accepting hospitality from one who no longer liked her. It was all very
+absurd, but so does the young person at the awkward age between girlhood
+and womanhood often exaggerate trivial things and enlarge on fancied
+injustice.
+
+Foolish, pretty Nancy permitted herself to slip into the most extreme
+state of wretchedness. She imagined that her friend, whom in her heart
+she loved devotedly, had treated her with unnecessary cruelty and
+sternness. She got it into her silly little head that Billie had confided
+the meeting in the garden to the others. She was ashamed and mortified
+and she felt indeed that the whole world had turned against her. Mr.
+Campbell was cold to her. Miss Helen Campbell hardly civil Mary and
+Elinor looked at her askance. There was not a word of truth in it, of
+course; it was just a figment of Nancy's morbid imaginings. Miss Campbell
+was bored to extinction with the continued rain. Mr. Campbell was
+preoccupied because of business engagements of great importance, and Mary
+and Elinor, if the truth must be told, were intensely homesick; and who
+would not have been with home on the other side of the world and rain
+pouring ceaselessly on this side? As for Billie, she tried to be exactly
+the same as usual, but the cloud of an unsettled disagreement hovered
+between them.
+
+Therefore after a week of steady rain and black depression which did not
+seem more profound in Nancy than in anyone else, silly little Nancy took
+a bold step. Putting on her overshoes and mackintosh late one afternoon,
+she slipped out of the house and hastened down the avenue. On the road,
+she hailed an empty 'riksha returning from some suburban home and gave
+Mme. Fontaine's address in Tokyo.
+
+Nancy was in search of sympathy and of someone who would tell her she had
+done right when she knew she had done wrong.
+
+Mme. Fontaine was in and would be delighted to see Miss Brown, so she was
+informed at the widow's front door, and Nancy, a little frightened, now
+that the deed was done, was ushered into the beautiful drawing-room.
+
+"Why, you sweet child, this is a great pleasure," exclaimed that lady
+herself, entering at the same moment by another door. "Where are your
+friends? Are you alone?" she added looking around for the others.
+
+"Oh, yes," answered Nancy, embarrassed and agitated.
+
+"Not even the austere old lady who chaperones you?" asked the other
+drawing the young girl down beside her on the couch and looking into the
+blue eyes which suddenly welled up with tears and overflowed,
+
+"Why, my dear, are you unhappy? What is the matter? Tell me all about
+it," ejaculated Mme. Fontaine, unpinning Nancy's hat and drawing the
+curly head down on her shoulder.
+
+So it happened that Nancy Brown unburdened herself to the sympathetic
+Widow of Shanghai, and gave an entirely biased and favorable-to-herself
+account of the incident in the garden.
+
+Mme. Fontaine sat silent for a while after the story was finished, and
+Nancy wondered if the charming new friend had heard what she had been
+saying.
+
+"Do you think Miss Campbell would consent to let you make a visit,
+Nancy?" she asked presently, calling her Nainsi, as if it were a French
+name.
+
+Nancy drooped her long lashes.
+
+"I don't know," she answered.
+
+Mme. Fontaine gave one of her inscrutable Mona Lisa smiles and rose from
+the couch.
+
+"We will try her and see. Does she know you were out walking?"
+
+"No," answered Nancy struggling to keep back her tears.
+
+"Does anyone in the house know?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+The widow sat down at a carved desk inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and
+wrote the following note:
+
+"My dear Miss Campbell:
+
+"I trust you will not think I have been unpardonably presumptuous in
+keeping one of your girls over night with me. She had evidently set out
+for a long walk and chance brought us together. The child was wet and
+tired and I have kept her for tea. As the rain is still pouring, she has
+consented to remain over night with your permission which I cannot but
+feel sure will be granted under the circumstances. With the very kindest
+regards for you and your household, I am,
+
+"Faithfully yours,
+
+"ANIELA FONTAINE."
+
+Never was cordial and polite note couched in more non-committal language.
+It was sent out by a messenger and Miss Campbell sat painfully up in bed
+to read it. Both knees and one wrist were swathed in bandages of
+wintergreen liniment and a hot water bottle lay against one hip,
+
+"Why, I didn't know the child had left the house," she exclaimed, when
+she had finished reading the letter and passed it on to the three
+remaining Motor Maids. "How did she happen to go alone on a tramp like
+that? What am I to do? I can't order her to return without being
+exceedingly rude, but I do wish Nancy hadn't been so reckless. She ought
+never to have left the grounds alone. Surely the garden is quite large
+enough for exercising in, if anyone wanted to make the effort."
+
+The little spinster groaned and slipped down among her pillows again.
+
+The girls were silent. Mary secretly sympathized with Nancy. It would be
+rather fascinating to spend a night in the widow's interesting home.
+Elinor disapproved slightly at this unconventional visit, but it is
+doubtful if she would have declined the invitation if she had been in
+Nancy's place. As for Billie, she was puzzled and unhappy. She felt sure
+that there was something back of the departure of her friend. She wished
+with all her heart they had made up their differences. She yearned for
+Nancy and her soul was filled with forebodings. She felt somehow as if
+Nancy had died. That night, with the sheet over her head, she indulged in
+a fit of weeping and resolved to settle all differences the first moment
+they could get alone.
+
+Why should Nancy Brown have unexpectedly grown up like this and become so
+independent and secretive? Elinor, the eldest of the four girls, had
+never shown a disposition to have affairs and write notes. For her part,
+Billie would have liked to go on in the same jolly old way forever, with
+or without beaux. It was all one to her. But Nancy was different. The
+society of her friends was no longer an unmixed pleasure and she was
+beginning to crave more excitement and admiration than was good for her.
+
+The next day was like a dozen of its fellows, wet and muggy. The roads
+were too slippery for the "Comet," and as Miss Campbell still kept her
+bed with rheumatism, it was decided that Billie should go alone for Nancy
+in a 'riksha.
+
+She was so eager to make up with her friend, that she felt as if the
+reconciliation had already taken place and her faithful heart was filled
+with happiness. She had made up her mind to humble herself by offering
+Nancy an apology. After all, was it the act of true friendship to pick
+out all the defects and flaws in a friend's nature?
+
+"A real friend is blind to everything but the best in another friend,"
+reasoned Billie, as her 'riksha splashed along the road, drawn by
+Komatsu.
+
+So, prepared to embrace Nancy tenderly and let bygones be bygones, Billie
+could scarcely wait to leap down from the 'riksha and ring the widow's
+bell. The house had a shut-up appearance, but all Japanese houses look
+thus in rainy weather. Somehow, Billie's inflated enthusiasm received a
+prick when the bell echoed through the rooms with a hollow, empty sound.
+She waited impatiently but no one came to answer it. Usually Mme.
+Fontaine's well-trained maid was bowing and smiling almost before the
+vibrations of the bell had ceased. Billie rang again and again, and
+still there was no answer. She walked around the side of the house and
+peered through the slats of the Venetian blinds but all was dark within.
+
+What could it mean? Where was Nancy? Where was Mme. Fontaine?
+
+"Oh, dear; oh, dear," ejaculated Billie, wiping away the tears that would
+trickle down her cheeks.
+
+But of course they had gone shopping, and the maid was at market,
+perhaps. That was the only explanation.
+
+There was a bench on the piazza and Billie sat down to wait. Komatsu
+stood patiently under his oiled paper umbrella which he always placed in
+the bottom of the 'riksha in bad weather.
+
+Exactly one hour they waited and at last Billie, disconsolate and
+disappointed, returned to the 'riksha and ordered Komatsu to take her to
+some of the shops. Everywhere she watched for the familiar gleam of
+Nancy's blue mackintosh, but there was no sign of it anywhere. Finally
+they returned to Mme. Fontaine's house, to find it still closed.
+
+"Komatsu, where are they?" asked Billie desperately.
+
+"Not know, but honorable young lady not look inside?"
+
+"I can't get inside. The doors are locked. Besides, I don't like to break
+in on a private house like a burglar."
+
+But to the Japanese the end justifies the means, and being on a search
+for Nancy, Komatsu was willing to go to any strategic lengths to find
+her.
+
+"All same look and see," he said and together they followed the gallery
+around the entire house.
+
+"Komatsu make to go up," he said after a fruitless search for an
+entrance. He pointed to one of the slender pillars which upheld the roof
+of the lower gallery forming the floor of the upper one. The next moment
+he had shinned up the pole and Billie could hear him walking softly on
+the wooden floor above. Presently he returned and placed in Billie's lap
+the fragments of a letter which had been pieced together and pasted on
+a sheet of paper.
+
+"Top muchly more easy than bottom," he said smiling. "Empty house but all
+same muchly inside."
+
+Billie glanced hastily at the scraps of paper and saw her own name in one
+corner.
+
+"Why, it's to me," she exclaimed, and sitting on the bench, she began to
+decipher the pieced letter.
+
+"Dear Billie:
+
+"Since you all hate and disapprove of me, I do not wish to stay with you
+any longer. You have been anything but a friend to me, but I will not say
+anything more about that. I will only say that I can never forgive what
+you said to me the other day. I think I have outgrown you. You are just a
+child still and it will be a long time before you understand the ways of
+the world, or sympathize with me when I say that I want to broaden my
+life. Now, Mme. Fontaine, who knows everything, has promised--"
+
+Here the letter broke off.
+
+On the other side of the sheet were some more fragments of paper
+carefully pieced together.
+
+"--do not wish to stay because--father's work--he should not--Mme.
+Fontaine thinks--"
+
+Billie folded the paper and slipped it into her pocket. Tears were
+rolling down her cheeks and she felt suddenly stiff and tired. Komatsu
+regarded her from a distance with respectful sympathy.
+
+"Back home," she ordered, and all the way she indulged in the bitterest
+weeping she had ever known in her life.
+
+"Nancy, Nancy, how could you?" she kept repeating to herself.
+
+Before she reached the house she dried her eyes and leaning out of the
+'riksha let the rain beat against her face.
+
+"I must think of something to tell them," she said to herself. "What did
+she mean about Papa's work?"
+
+Again Billie read the last part of the note.
+
+"I believe it's that woman who made her do this," she cried out suddenly.
+"She worked her up to the point--'broaden her life'--'papa's work,' and
+all that. How could Nancy have thought of such things? And then after
+Nancy wrote the letter she repented--or perhaps the widow wouldn't let
+her send it--but how did it happen to be pieced together like this?"
+
+It was all very puzzling and strange. Billie wanted time to think about
+it and work it out in her own mind, and she was sorry when at last
+Komatsu came to a full stop at their own front door. Slowly she descended
+and walked into the house. Suddenly there was a cry of joy from the back.
+It was the other girls rushing to meet Nancy who had not come, Billie
+thought miserably.
+
+And, lo, it was Nancy herself, laughing and crying at once and embracing
+her beloved Billie, as if they had been separated for a year and a day.
+
+"Where did you come from?" Billie managed to gasp in a bewildered voice.
+
+"I got back a little while ago and oh, I've been so homesick. Are you
+glad to see me, Billie, dearest?"
+
+"I should think I was," said Billie, kissing Nancy's soft round cheek.
+"It seems an age instead of just one night."
+
+"Mme. Fontaine invited me to make her a visit," went on Nancy, "but--but
+I was too lonesome--I never slept a wink last night."
+
+"We are all of us quite jealous of you, Nancy," put in Mary, who, with
+Elinor, had come upon the scene a moment before.
+
+Billie put her hand in her pocket and felt the pieced-together letter. It
+almost seemed like a bad dream now.
+
+"So you decided to come back to us, Nancy?" she asked, trying to smile
+naturally.
+
+"If I almost passed away from homesickness in one night, how should I
+have borne it for--for longer?" answered Nancy, flushing.
+
+"We missed you terribly," was all Billie could trust herself to say as
+she hurried to her room to take off her wet things.
+
+Just then Onoye sounded the Japanese chimes to announce that luncheon was
+served and presently they were all assembled around the table.
+
+But never a word did Nancy say about the torn letter which some one had
+so carefully pieced together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE ANCIENT CITY OF SLEEP.
+
+
+"How would four young parties and another younger party, who claims to be
+old and rheumatic, but isn't, like to take a trip?" asked Mr. Campbell
+one evening at dinner.
+
+Through the inky curtain of blackness that had for days overcast the
+skies the sun had at last burst with a radiance that seemed twice as
+great to unaccustomed eyes. From somewhere a life-giving breeze had
+sprung up and driven away the vapors. Back rolled the walls of mist and
+fog, and in a few hours the world became a smiling paradise of flowers
+and of grass and foliage of intensest green.
+
+Immediately the aspect of life changed. Four young parties and a party
+who claimed to be old but wasn't were eager for anything that would
+furnish variety after the late monotony of existence.
+
+"I feel," said Mr. Campbell, "that we have all been suffering from
+certain states of mind that about match the 'Comet's' disguise, and it
+occurred to me that a change of air would be beneficial."
+
+"And will the 'Cornet' go, too?" asked Billie.
+
+"I'm afraid the 'Comet' is not built for mountain roads in Japan, little
+daughter," answered her father. "We'll go by train and then by
+jinrikshas, much as I regret to leave your gasoline pet behind."
+
+"But where are we going?" asked Miss Campbell, in a tone of noble
+resignation, so chastened were her high spirits by the pains of
+rheumatism.
+
+"I am going to take you to Nikko to spend a few days, and in order to
+liven up things a bit the boys are coming, too, even old Mr. Buxton."
+
+"Is--" began Nancy, and checked herself.
+
+"Well, Miss Nancy, 'is' what?" asked Mr. Campbell, smiling.
+
+Billie knew perfectly well that Nancy was going to say: "Is Yoritomo
+going?" but had changed her mind, when she asked instead:
+
+"Is Nikko a town?"
+
+"It's a number of things. It's considered by some people to be the most
+beautiful place in the world, for one thing. It's a small town; it's a
+magnificent forest of cryptomerias; and it's a sacred mountain, and a
+collection of marvelous old temples and tombs and statues of Buddha.
+But first and foremost it is a cool, green, lovely spot with good, dry,
+pine-scented air for certain persons feeling in need of such."
+
+If Mr. Campbell had a fault it was that when he decided to do a thing he
+wanted to do it at once. Having been a man of camps and considerable
+lonely wanderings about the world, he had been able to gratify this
+tendency to decide and act quickly. But it was not so simple with a
+party of women, and when he announced that they were to start next
+morning early there was some silent consternation among them.
+
+However, such was the force of Mr. Campbell's personality when he
+announced a decision that not even that fearless and redoubtable woman,
+Helen Campbell, had the courage to raise any objections. It was true she
+had engaged a masseuse at eleven o'clock; the laundry had not been
+finished; certain persons had planned to shampoo heads, and Mme. Fontaine
+had asked permission to call in the afternoon.
+
+"All of which things must be postponed and overlooked," thought Miss
+Campbell.
+
+Mr. Campbell had hired a villa for their short stay. Komatsu was to go
+along as cook and to carry excess luggage. And they were to take a train
+at the unearthly hour of eight o'clock a.m., which meant rising at an
+even more unearthly hour; all of which to a great engineer was a mere
+trifle.
+
+But who could be in a bad humor on such a glorious morning? Moreover,
+several funny things happened which set them all laughing as they started
+off. Komatsu appeared, strung with cooking utensils like a tin man.
+
+"Not muchly good in a renting-house. Komatsu take honorable saucepan," he
+explained.
+
+In his arms, beside the luncheon hamper, he bore also a beautiful bunch
+of lilies.
+
+As they climbed into their 'rikshas they were aware of the sound of
+clipping, and glancing toward the summer-house, beheld twelve old women
+cutting the grass with large shears. Most of them were widows, as could
+readily be seen by their short hair. Their worn old faces were wreathed
+in smiles, when they presently touched their foreheads to the grass in
+profound obeisances.
+
+"The dear old things," cried Miss Campbell. "O'Haru, do see that they
+have a good lunch."
+
+No need to give such a command to O'Haru. Refreshments are always given
+to persons who come in for a day's work in a private place in Japan.
+
+The next amusing incident was the appearance of the old gardener, Saiki,
+who came running around the house grasping a bunch of roses.
+
+Giving Mr. Campbell the largest and most beautiful, he divided the others
+among the ladies.
+
+"Honorable flower for looking on train," he said, with his inimitable
+smile.
+
+And so, at last they started. All the servants lined up to bid them a
+respectful farewell. Billie, turning around, saw them gathered in a group
+on the piazza, fading into spots of bright color in the distance, with
+the old grass-cutters' robes making a splash of sky blue on the lawn.
+
+"Oh, Nancy," she exclaimed, "there never were such people as the
+Japanese, so simple and adorable."
+
+Nancy, engaged in pinning a rose on the lapel of her coat and looking at
+the effect with her pocket mirror, made no reply.
+
+At the railroad station they were met by Reggie, Nicholas and Mr. Buxton.
+Everybody was in the wildest spirits because of the change in the
+weather, and as they crowded, laughing and jostling each other, into the
+train, the Japanese travelers smiled good-naturedly. They liked to see
+Americans enjoying the country.
+
+Scarcely had they settled themselves in the train when they became aware
+that two Japanese women were smiling and bowing repeatedly in the most
+cordial manner.
+
+"Why, it's Mme. Ito," exclaimed Miss Campbell.
+
+"And O'Kami San," finished Mary, who remembered names for everybody.
+
+"Are you going to Nikko, too, O'Kami San?" asked Billie, sitting beside
+the pretty little Japanese.
+
+O'Kami San looked much embarrassed and hung her head.
+
+"Make honorable journey to husband's home," she said in a low voice.
+
+"Have you been getting married?" demanded Billie, astonished.
+
+"Yesterdays passing four," answered O'Kami San.
+
+"You mean four days ago?"
+
+"Yes, honorable Mees Cam-el."
+
+Both Japanese women were beautifully dressed and it came out during the
+conversation that the young bride was wearing no less than five elaborate
+kimonos.
+
+"But why?" demanded Billie.
+
+O'Kami San explained that it was to avoid the inconveniences of luggage.
+They were going to a little town in the hills and it would be difficult
+to carry trunks.
+
+Around her head the bride wore a broad band of pink silk, almost covering
+her hair, to keep the horns of jealousy from growing.
+
+Billie looked at her pityingly.
+
+"Poor little thing," she thought. "Why doesn't that good-for-nothing
+brother teach her something? It doesn't seem to me that his schooling did
+him any good. He's so fanatical and bigoted."
+
+"I hope you will be very happy, O'Kami San," said Mary. "I believe you
+said there was no mother-in-law."
+
+"Not no mother-in-law," answered the bride, in the tone of one describing
+a great blessing. "Honorable husband of age like mother-in-law."
+
+"You mean your husband is not young?"
+
+O'Kami San nodded.
+
+"Verily old," she said, with just the faintest quiver at the corners of
+her mouth.
+
+Mary and Billie regarded her with compassion. How little romance there
+was in a Japanese girl's life! O'Kami San, so young and pretty and
+charming, too, was about to enter into years of drudgery perhaps; the
+wife of a cranky old man, and here she was accepting her fate as calmly
+as a novitiate about to take the vows for life and enter a convent.
+
+"New husband much rich," she said. "Much old. Need attentionly young
+wife."
+
+Only once did O'Kami San glance at the two handsome young men who
+belonged to the Campbell party. But Nicholas, always gallant and
+thoughtful, helped Mme. Ito and her daughter to alight at the way-station
+where they were to change cars, while Reggie carried their small
+belongings and placed them on the platform.
+
+"God bless you, O'Kami San," called Billie, leaning far out of the
+window. And if the little Japanese girl did not understand the meaning of
+the salutation she comprehended the spirit of it.
+
+"Receive thanks," she said formally, her eyes glistening suspiciously.
+Then she gave the Japanese farewell, "Sayonara" (since it must be), and
+waved her little hands until the train was out of sight.
+
+Billie watched her sadly. The lines of the five kimonos, which could be
+distinctly counted where they crossed at her neck, seemed to symbolize
+the heavy marriage yoke the little bride had slipped so uncomplainingly
+over her head, and as for that pink silk head band to keep down the horns
+of jealousy, it might just as well have been an iron band with spikes in
+it, for all the sentiment and romance it represented. But little O'Kami
+San had gone up into the hills to her aged husband, and if she guessed
+that there was anything brighter and happier than just being an
+"attentionly wife" to an old man, she never murmured. No one has ever
+plumbed the depths of unselfishness and self-sacrifice of the little
+Japanese wife.
+
+During the last few miles of the journey they left the train and took to
+jinrikshas. Along a magnificent avenue they rode, built through a forest
+of cryptomerias towering one hundred and eighty feet high, some of them
+with trunks thirty feet in diameter. They were like the columns of a
+gigantic cathedral of which the sky was the dome.
+
+After refreshing themselves with tea at their little villa and removing
+the grime of the journey, the travelers wandered off into the ancient
+forest, cool and gray and very still, except for the sound of the wind
+whispering through the pine trees.
+
+Terraced stairways of gray stone climb up the mountainside from temple to
+temple and court to court. Over a busy little river hung the scarlet
+bridge of beauty which no profane foot may ever touch, only the Emperor's
+consecrated feet. No human hand has mended the sacred bridge for nearly
+three centuries, but it is said to be in perfect repair.
+
+Passing along the temples and shrines that crowded one another on the
+hillside, they came at last to a row of images of Buddha, innumerable
+stone statues of the god, his kindly, gentle face almost obliterated by
+spray from the river and a soft mantle of moss. There is a tradition
+which says that no two people have ever counted these images with the
+same results, and while the others wandered up the next terraced flight
+of steps, Billie and Mary remained to count the Buddhas.
+
+The loud song of the little river rushing by them dazed their senses and
+when they reached the end Billie had counted eighty and Mary only
+seventy-five.
+
+"Let's try again," said Billie; once more they followed the interminable
+line and once more there was a wide discrepancy between the results.
+
+For the third time they started the count, and finally came as near as
+seventy-eight and seventy-nine; but the act of counting and recounting
+had a curious effect on their senses. It seemed to make them very sleepy,
+or perhaps it was the magic of that ancient place, the monotonous song
+of the torrent and the cool gray shadows in the depths of the forest
+where the sun never penetrated.
+
+"Do you know, Billie, I think I'll have to rest a moment before we join
+the others," said Mary, leading the way up the hillside and sitting down
+under a giant pine tree. "I'm almost paralyzed with sleep."
+
+"I feel the same way," answered Billie drowsily. "We can catch up with
+them later. Suppose we take a little repose, as a French lady I knew used
+to say."
+
+The two girls removed their hats, and making pillows of their jackets
+they stretched themselves on the soft carpet of pine needles. Presently,
+lulled by the monotonous water song and the murmur of the wind through
+the trees, they dropped off into a sleep so profound and deep that they
+did not hear the voices of their friends returning to search for them.
+
+The enchantment of centuries had woven its net about their feet and
+stilled their senses; for Nikko is called the "City of Rest," and an
+endless number of saints and holy men who once lived and prayed among its
+groves now sleep there.
+
+The two young girls sank deeper and deeper into the peaceful sleep which
+the atmosphere of Nikko breathes. Their souls seemed to have entered the
+region of the most profound rest that may come to a living person.
+
+And while they slept the sun sank and the twilight of the forest faded
+into night. But the searchers had taken the wrong path and their cries
+grew fainter and fainter as they ranged the mountainside for the lost
+girls. Among the trees their paper lanterns glowed like fireflies and
+occasionally there was a long cry: "A-hai!"
+
+But Buddha himself must have placed the seal of sleep on the young girls'
+eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE STORM KING.
+
+
+While two of the Motor Maids slept in the sacred wood on the mountain two
+others rested in one of the bedrooms of the villa straining their ears
+for sounds of the returning search party. It was only eight o'clock, but
+Miss Campbell, worn out with excitement and fatigue, had already dropped
+off to sleep in the next room.
+
+Nancy was quietly and softly weeping, her face buried in her pillow, and
+Elinor lay staring into the darkness. Mr. Campbell had assured them
+that the girls could not be lost for long, and that the only mishap that
+could possibly come to them in that holy place was sleeping under the
+pine trees; but he could not conceal the anxiety he really felt, the
+anxiety of a father for his only daughter, the being he loved best in all
+the world.
+
+Nancy had felt the anxiety, too, and remorse had entered into her soul;
+not because she had met Yoritomo in the garden and exchanged notes with
+him in a romantic manner, the notes having been hidden under a stone near
+the old shrine, for she was beginning dimly to realize that such things
+were only silly and common. Her remorse was caused by something else more
+remote in her consciousness but looming bigger all the time. The cruel
+letter she had written to Billie in anger and then torn into pieces and
+thrown into a brass vase in Mme. Fontaine's drawing-room! Why had she
+been so angry? She could not understand it now. She only knew that the
+longer she poured her troubles into Mme. Fontaine's ears the more
+sympathetic the widow became until Nancy was worked into a perfect rage.
+As for the widow, she had said very little indeed, only a few words now
+and then, vague, suggestive remarks, but they had set Nancy thinking; had
+stirred her up so violently, indeed, that she had written that foolish
+letter. There had been no waste basket by the desk and Nancy, after a
+wretched sleepless night, had torn up the letter and dropped it in the
+nearest vase. Why had she not torn it into smaller bits? Why had she not
+burned it in a charcoal brazier? Why had she ever written it at all?
+Why--why--? A dozen whys flashed through her troubled mind. She would
+never rest again until she knew the letter had been entirely destroyed,
+reduced to ashes. Out of this long train of unhappy thought a resolution
+came to Nancy to write to Mme. Fontame and ask her to find the letter and
+burn it up. This she accordingly did a few days after the visit to Nikko,
+and of what came of it more will be told later.
+
+In the meantime, while Nancy, goaded by a troubled conscience was weeping
+abundantly into her pillow, Billie and little Mary Price lay sleeping
+peacefully in the great cathedral forest.
+
+Precisely at the moment that Nancy's disturbed fancies had taken the form
+of a resolution Billie and Mary opened their eyes on a world of velvety
+blackness. Straight overhead through the lacework of intertwined boughs
+gleamed an occasional tiny star, like the light shining through a pin
+prick in a black curtain. Scarcely two hours had passed since they had
+slipped into the unknown, and now sitting up and rubbing their eyes, they
+wondered where in the world they were. Hearing Mary stirring beside her
+in the dark, Billie put out a hand and grasped Mary's groping to meet it.
+The two friends sat silently for a few minutes. At last Billie said
+softly:
+
+"What are we going to do, Mary, dear?"
+
+"I am thinking of what they are going to do," answered Mary. "How
+frightened they will be about us, Billie! As for me, I can't help feeling
+happy out in this dark peaceful place. I should like to lie here all
+night and watch the dawn come through the trees."
+
+All of which was extremely poetic, but Billie had become suddenly prosaic
+at the thought of her father, wild with anxiety she was certain,
+searching the terraced mountainside for them at the risk of falling off a
+precipice or tumbling into the river. Besides, at that moment, she felt a
+puff of hot wind in her face, and immediately was conscious that she was
+very thirsty and that the palms of her hands were dry and burning.
+
+"Don't you think it's very hot, Mary?" she whispered. "I feel as if I had
+been baked brown in an oven."
+
+"The wind has changed," answered Mary. "It was cool and sweet when we
+dropped off, and now it's like a wind that's blown over a desert."
+
+Through the forest came a murmur like thousands of voices gathering in
+strength and volume all the time. The gigantic pillars of the cathedral
+began swaying and tossing their arched boughs and the whole mountain
+seemed to resound with strange sounds, cries and calls, grindings and
+poundings. The pin prick stars disappeared and the place was as black as
+the pit.
+
+The two girls rose quickly and clasped hands again.
+
+"I think we'd better go straight down," said Billie. "We're obliged to
+strike a path somewhere and perhaps we may find a temple or a tomb or a
+pagoda or something. Anything to get away from that awful thing that's
+coming, whatever it is."
+
+Fortunately the act of descending gave them a sense of direction. Many
+times they fell, skinning their shins and their foreheads against trees,
+but they picked themselves up again, entirely unconscious of bruises, and
+ran on as fast as they could go with the hot devastating wind behind
+them. Suddenly the whole mountainside was illuminated by a flash of
+lightning, like a jagged stream of fire stretching from heaven to earth.
+A deafening roar of thunder followed. Then all the forest seemed to be
+perfectly quiet. Such a stillness settled over the place that the girls
+stopped and held their breath.
+
+"Look," whispered Billie, pointing to a strange looking light coming
+rapidly nearer, wobbling and undulating like the light on the bow of a
+ship in a rough ocean. Then came another terrifying flash of lightning,
+and thunder that seemed to rock the whole world. The two girls rushed
+toward the friendly light with one accord, and collided with the bearer
+with such force that three persons were precipitated with unintentionally
+devotional attitudes at the foot of a shrine of Buddha.
+
+"By Jove, but this is luck," called a familiar voice.
+
+It was Nicholas Grimm, who calmly picked up himself and then his
+oil-paper lantern attached to the end of a slender wand; next he helped
+the girls to their feet.
+
+"Take an arm, each one of you. There's no time to lose. The thing that's
+coming, whatever it is, will get here in a minute now."
+
+Running like mad, on the very wings of the wind, the three young people
+followed the windings of the path and presently came up short on a small
+temple, the tomb of some holy personage. Into this they rushed without
+ceremony just as the storm burst with all its fury, and crouching in a
+corner just out of reach of the rain, they listened to the howls and
+shrieks of the wind.
+
+"It's just like some live thing," remarked Mary after a while. "I feel as
+if some terrible demon lived up in a cave in the mountain, and when he is
+angry he comes down and lashes the earth and shakes the mountain."
+
+Mary's poetic notion of storms in that region was not so far removed from
+the Japanese legends.
+
+"You struck the nail on the head that time, Miss Price," said Nicholas.
+"There is an extinct volcano over here in the northeast and in its side
+is a huge cavern. People around here used to believe that all these
+frightful storms issued from the cavern. Every spring and every fall
+there was a perfectly corking one that tore up the whole place, and they
+called the mountain 'Ni-Ko San,' or Two-Storm Mountain. Then an old party
+who was a saint, I believe, and very wise, placed a curse on the storm
+demon and named the place 'Nikko San,' Mountain of the Sun's Brightness."
+
+"The demon seems to have returned," remarked Billie.
+
+"Oh, he did. That was the point. The magic curse had to be repeated every
+year, and the saint gave the receipt to a priest and it was handed down
+from one generation to another in the priest's family for nearly nine
+hundred years, but the demon still pursued, as you have probably
+observed."
+
+They were all silent for a while. Mary was making a picture in her mind
+of the aged priest in his white robes standing like a midget on the side
+of the vast mountain exorcising the storm king. That personage, she
+imagined, was a gigantic figure formed principally of black clouds with a
+terrifying human countenance. Every breath was a whirlwind or a hailstorm
+and when he struck the side of the mountain with his staff the lightning
+flashed--
+
+Here Mary's thoughts were interrupted by just such a flash uncomfortably
+near.
+
+Billie leaped to her feet.
+
+"Oh, Nicholas," she cried, "do you think Papa could still be looking for
+me? Suppose he should be out now in all this frightful wind! I hadn't
+thought of it until this moment."
+
+"He'll be all right, Miss Billie," answered Nicholas soothingly. "Don't
+you worry."
+
+"Don't you tell me not to worry," cried Billie, almost angrily. "Do you
+think Papa would look after himself if he thought I was lost on the
+mountain? Oh, heavens, why did we count those old broken statues?"
+
+Nicholas laughed.
+
+"Excuse me," he said, choking back his amusement at sight of Billie's
+reproachful eyes which even the dim lantern light could not hide. "What
+are you going to do?" he added, as Billie seized the lantern from his
+hand.
+
+"I'm going to wave this at the door and yell with all my strength until I
+haven't any voice left. If Papa is anywhere near he may see it and come
+straight here."
+
+Nicholas, who, having also had much training in camps and outdoor life,
+had not felt the least uneasiness about Mr. Campbell's safety, now
+quietly took the lantern from Billie and began waving it to and fro at
+the door, while they both shouted again and again. But their voices were
+lost in the roar of the tempest. Billie stifled a sob.
+
+"Papa!" she whispered to herself. "Dearest, dearest Papa!"
+
+While she spoke a flash of lightning lit up the side of the mountain, and
+in that momentary illumination Billie saw her father toiling up the path
+against the wind and rain.
+
+"Papa, Papa!" she shrieked, seizing the lantern and waving it wildly back
+and forth.
+
+"Halloo!" yelled Nicholas, and then there came an answering shout, a
+really human cry this time, and after several breathless moments of
+waiting Mr. Campbell staggered into the temple.
+
+Nicholas and Mary turned their faces away at sight of his emotion when he
+found his daughter in his arms. He actually buried his face on her
+shoulder and wept like a child.
+
+"I was beginning to think I was never going to see you again,
+sweetheart," he said brokenly.
+
+It gave Mary a lonesome, remote feeling. She drew away from the others
+into a corner of the temple and rested her chin on her hands.
+
+"I wonder how it would feel to have some one big and strong and--and
+handsome to love and protect one like that," she thought contemplatively.
+
+Just then a figure staggered into the circle of light cast by the
+lantern. It was Mr. Buxton.
+
+"Good evening," he said. "Delightful weather, isn't it? Suppose we shed a
+little light on Carlton's path," he added calmly, holding the light to
+the door. Reggie was close behind his friend, however, and with feelings
+of enormous relief, the little company proceeded to sit down on the floor
+and relate their experiences.
+
+"It all really happened," remarked Mary, after Billie had confessed the
+cause of all the trouble, "because we tried to count the four hundred
+statues of Buddha and never got the same answer twice, and he naturally
+didn't like it, and I suppose he put us to sleep and summoned the
+Storm King--"
+
+"No, child," interrupted Mr. Buxton, "I am sorry to disabuse your
+romantic young mind, but it really happened because the pressure of the
+coming storm had a stupefying effect. Buddha was a very high-minded
+gentleman. He would never have taken offence over such a trivial matter."
+
+"Don't contradict her, Buxton," said Mr. Campbell. "You have no
+imagination to comprehend the supernatural, anyhow."
+
+"It would be supernatural for two women to count alike," answered the
+incorrigible bachelor, who would have the last word.
+
+Gradually the storm spent its fury, and by midnight they were able to
+return to the little villa. Except for a few scratches and bruises, the
+only important result of the Storm King's visit was Nancy's determination
+to write a letter to Mme. Fontaine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A VISIT OF CEREMONY.
+
+
+The most unhappy person in the whole of fair Japan was Miss Nancy Brown
+one lovely morning in July. At least she thought she was; which is very
+near to being the same thing. She had dispatched a letter to Mme.
+Fontaine and received an answer that the brass vase by the writing desk
+was now empty--a curious way to put it, Nancy thought, and one which did
+not quiet her uneasiness in the least. In return for this bit of
+information the Widow of Shanghai asked a strange favor of Nancy, one
+which puzzled and troubled her considerably. But it was a simple request
+and Nancy could not see any reason for declining to grant it.
+
+So, Mistress Nancy was the prey to indefinable anxieties and vague
+forebodings. Everybody had noticed her sadness. Mr. Campbell had spoken
+of it with concern and had promised to take them all on another trip to
+the mountains.
+
+"The heat is too much for the child," he had remarked to his cousin. "I
+didn't realize she was such a fragile little thing. Even Mary Price seems
+more robust."
+
+"She never was a fragile little thing before, Duncan," answered Miss
+Campbell. "I always thought that Billie and Nancy had unlimited
+endurance. The other girls are much more delicate. Do you suppose Nancy
+has anything on her mind?"
+
+Mr. Campbell shook his head. It was impossible for him to think that any
+of those light-hearted creatures could have troubles. They had nothing to
+think about but their own pleasures; nothing to do but enjoy the house
+and the garden, the tea parties and excursions. Their happy laughter and
+gay chatter, floating to him through the open window of his library did
+not carry a single note of sadness; for Nancy had tried to cover her
+unhappiness under a cloak of forced gaiety; but she could not hide her
+tragic little face, nor the pathetic droop of her lips and the circles
+under her eyes.
+
+"I can never look Billie in the face again," she had said to herself a
+hundred times. "I almost feel as if I had murdered somebody and hidden
+the body away. Nobody knows about the letter but it's just as bad as if
+they did. I believe I couldn't be more miserable if I had sent it to
+Billie. Thinking is just as bad as saying things out loud, and writing
+them seems to make it even worse."
+
+Furthermore, Onoye had been acting very strangely toward Nancy lately.
+Twice she had come and stood before the American girl with downcast eyes
+and twice tried to say something, failed and slipped quietly away.
+
+On this wonderful Sunday morning, when the world seemed indescribably
+fresh and fair after the recent rains, only Nancy was sad. Mary, who had
+blossomed into a flower herself in the soft warm air of Japan, was fairly
+dancing along the walk.
+
+"There is so much to do," she cried. "I haven't a moment to spare. The
+red lilies are in bloom. They all live together in a place near the old
+shrine. Saiki says if the weather keeps on like this the lotus flowers in
+the pond will open. Over against the old south wall there is a climbing
+rose bush that is a perfect marvel. You see, Saiki tells me all the
+secrets of the garden. He and I are the most devoted friends."
+
+The girls smiled indulgently at Mary, who seemed to them to have
+developed in a few weeks from a timid, shrinking little soul with a tinge
+of sadness in her nature into the most joyous being.
+
+"Go on and tell us some more," put in Elinor. "I like to hear all this
+garden gossip. You'll be hearing the secret the white rose whispered to
+the red next; and how the sensitive plant shrank when she heard the news,
+and the lilies shut up--"
+
+"And the flags waved and the grasses drew their blades, and the trees
+barked and the cow slips and the bull rushes--" cried Billie. And they
+all burst into absurd laughter, that is, all except Nancy, who felt
+immensely remote from this foolish, pleasant talk.
+
+"It will never do for you to be a teacher, Mary, dearest," said Elinor.
+"You'd simply fade and droop in a schoolroom. We'll just have to look up
+some other occupation for you. If I had my way with Providence you should
+do nothing but play in a garden all your days in a land of perpetual
+summer."
+
+"I am afraid I should have to pass into another world to accomplish
+anything so wonderful," laughed Mary. "It sounds a good deal like
+Paradise to me, and I haven't learned to play my harp yet. I would never
+be admitted into such a beautiful garden until I had learned to play real
+music on the harp, and not discords."
+
+Mary often spoke in metaphors like this, which half puzzled, half amused
+her friends.
+
+"I never heard you strike a discord, Mary, dear," Nancy observed sadly,
+when Billie interrupted:
+
+"Canst tell me who that grand personage is riding up the avenue?"
+
+In a jinriksha drawn by one man, while two others ran in front to clear
+the way of imaginary obstacles, since there were no real ones, sat a
+magnificent person clad in full Japanese regalia. He wore a robe of dark
+rich colors, but the girls could not see his face, which was hidden by a
+parasol.
+
+"I think Nankipooh has come to call," whispered Billie, as the vehicle
+drew near.
+
+The girls hid themselves behind a clump of shrubbery and peeped through
+the branches.
+
+"He's bringing gifts," whispered Elinor.
+
+The 'riksha had drawn up at the piazza and the two runners, after the
+personage in fancy dress had descended, lifted out a very aged and no
+doubt extremely costly dwarfed apple tree growing in a green vase, and a
+lacquered box.
+
+One of the ever-watchful domestics opened the door and into the hall
+stalked the visitor, followed by his retainers.
+
+"I think he must be a messenger from the Emperor, nothing less," said
+Billie. "He's so awfully grand."
+
+"Perhaps he's the Mikado himself," said Mary.
+
+The others laughed again and even Nancy forgot her troubles and joined
+in.
+
+"I declare I feel as if I had settled down to live on a Japanese fan,"
+continued Billie. "Everything is like a decoration. I can't imagine
+anything really serious ever happening, it's all so gay and pretty and
+the people are like dolls."
+
+"Here comes one of your live dolls," observed Mary, pointing to Onoye,
+who was hastening toward them down the path, the skirts of her flowered
+kimono blowing about her ankles as she walked.
+
+She made straight for the group of girls and falling on her knees before
+Nancy, touched her forehead to the ground.
+
+"What is it, Onoye?" asked Nancy, blushing and paling and blushing again
+with some hidden emotion.
+
+"Gracious lady, warn-ings," she began slowly, as if she had just learned
+the words from a book.
+
+"What on earth?" Nancy asked.
+
+"Gracious lady, warn-ings," repeated Onoye, in a monotonous voice.
+
+"What do you mean, Onoye?" demanded Billie. "Don't kneel. Stand up and
+tell us all about it."
+
+"No explaining words to make understanding. Make prayer to honorable Mees
+Nancee."
+
+"But what about?" asked Nancy, puzzled and troubled at the same time.
+
+"Dee-vorce," answered Onoye, and then touching her forehead to the
+ground, she rose quickly and glided away.
+
+It was so absurd that they were obliged to laugh, and yet they felt that
+the Japanese girl was entirely serious in what she was trying to tell.
+
+"Can't we call her back and ask her some more questions?" suggested
+Elinor.
+
+"We might, but I doubt if she would say another word," answered Billie.
+"They never will tell more than they have to, you know, and I daresay she
+thinks she's told all that is necessary."
+
+"I think she's got hold of the wrong words," put in Mary. "Do you
+remember how she called Miss Campbell 'the honorable old maid'?"
+
+"She has had something on her mind a long time," said Billie
+thoughtfully. "She's a queer little soul. You don't think she could be a
+bit daffy, do you?"
+
+"I never saw any signs of it," said Nancy. "But I do wish she had
+explained why I was to be warned. Perhaps she's got that word wrong,
+too."
+
+"The truth is, the Japanese use synonyms instead of the words themselves.
+That's why their English is so queer," remarked Mary, better trained in
+English than any of the others and with a remarkably good vocabulary when
+she could be persuaded to talk. "Now a synonym of 'to warn' is 'to
+summon.' Maybe Onoye wanted to tell you that some one wished to see you."
+
+Nancy was silent. She vaguely connected Onoye's visit with Mme. Fontaine
+and the note, because her thoughts constantly dwelt on those disquieting
+subjects.
+
+The girls lingered for some time in the garden until they saw the
+Japanese gentleman in fancy dress riding away in his 'riksha, preceded by
+his two runners. Once more Onoye approached them down one of the shady
+garden walks. Once more she paused in front of Nancy and prostrating
+herself, announced:
+
+"The honorable master in libraree to Mees Brown."
+
+Nancy turned as white as a sheet.
+
+"Why, Nancy, don't be frightened. I am sure it's nothing serious," said
+Billie, putting her arm around her friend's waist.
+
+Except for that first greeting when Billie had returned after her search
+for Nancy, it was the first time the two girls had stood thus since the
+letter episode, and it was too much for poor, contrite Nancy, who burst
+into tears.
+
+"She thinks it's bad news from home," said Mary, leaning a cheek
+sympathetically against Nancy's shoulder, while Elinor pressed her hand
+and exclaimed:
+
+"Dearest, dearest Nancy, I'm sure it's nothing sad. Don't cry."
+
+If anything could have made Nancy more wretched, it was the sympathy of
+her three friends.
+
+"I don't deserve it, I don't deserve it!" she sobbed, and except for
+Billie, they had not the remotest idea what she meant.
+
+And now in the midst of this highly emotional scene appeared Miss Helen
+Campbell accompanied by Messrs. Campbell, Buxton, Carlton and Grimm.
+There was an arch and knowing smile on Miss Campbell's face as she
+tripped along the walk holding a lavender parasol over her head, and the
+four men were grinning broadly. Nancy dried her tears quickly. They never
+left any traces on her face nor red rims around her eyelids as with most
+people, and except that she was unusually pale, no one would have guessed
+that her lachrymal ducts had been overflowing only a moment before.
+
+"Well, well, Miss Nancy, I am afraid we shall have to put smoked glasses
+over those pretty blue eyes of yours before they cause any more mischief
+in Japan," exclaimed Mr. Campbell.
+
+"Oh, you little witch," cried Miss Campbell, pinching Nancy's cheek,
+"what shall I do with you, making eyes at these Orientals who don't
+understand?"
+
+"But what--" began Nancy.
+
+"I know," cried Mary, the gleam of romance in her eyes, "I know now.
+She's gone and got proposed to by a Japanese gentleman!"
+
+"But who?" cried all the girls together, brimming over with curiosity.
+
+"Why, Mr. Yoritomo Ito, of course," replied Miss Campbell. "He dressed up
+in his best Japanese fancy costume and brought presents and servants and
+came to ask formally for the hand of Mistress Anne Starbuck Brown."
+
+"Why, the impudent thing," exclaimed Nancy. "Did he think--could he
+imagine for a moment--"
+
+She broke off, too indignant to express herself. Then her eyes
+encountered Billie's and she dropped them in embarrassment. They were
+both thinking of the same thing; the two notes left under a stone at the
+shrine and the rainy meeting in the garden. After all, perhaps Yoritomo
+might have thought she liked him--but the idea was intolerable and Nancy
+thrust it aside.
+
+"How would you like to be mother-in-lawed by Mme. Ito, Nancy?" asked
+Elinor.
+
+"And sleep with your head on a bench and eat with chop sticks?" continued
+Mary.
+
+"You would probably have to do all those things if you married Mr.
+Yoritomo Ito," said Mr. Campbell. "It's very evident that he belongs to
+the most conservative Japanese class and clings to the old notions about
+wives and fancy dress costumes and such things."
+
+"What did you say to him, Papa?" asked Billie.
+
+"Oh, I was very polite, of course. I declined his offer, but that didn't
+surprise him, because in Japan they never stop to consult a young lady
+about her choice. They make it for her and then inform her afterward. Was
+I right in my method of dismissing your suitor, Miss Nancy?" he asked,
+turning to the young girl with a certain charming manner that was
+peculiarly his own, half humorous and half deferential.
+
+"Oh, yes, Mr. Campbell," exclaimed Nancy, a flush spreading over her
+face. "I am ashamed that it ever happened. I'm sure I never meant
+him to think--I'm sure I can't understand his presuming--"
+
+"Never mind, child. Men propose the world over without any more grounds
+than that. They are all alike, yellow skins and white ones, and red ones,
+too," said Miss Campbell.
+
+"Don't be so hard on us, Madam," put in Mr. Buxton, seizing the lady's
+parasol by force and holding it firmly over her head. "It's not our
+fault if we fall victims to a pair of blue eyes. You notice I say
+'victims.' One pair has many, I presume."
+
+Billie and Nicholas brought up the procession which was now moving slowly
+toward the pavilion.
+
+"It's queer that I just learned something about Yoritomo last night,"
+said Nicholas, "and I was going to tell you to-day."
+
+"What is it?" asked Billie.
+
+"He's divorced. You know they get them here on the slightest
+provocation--just change their minds after a few months or years and go
+to court, and one morning a wife finds herself without a husband, or
+children either, if he wants to take them."
+
+"How perfectly outrageous for him to propose to Nancy!" cried Billie.
+"You don't know who his first wife was, do you, Nicholas?"
+
+"No, I didn't hear."
+
+"I think I do," said Billie, after a moment's pause.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE MAGNET AND THE SILVER CHURN.
+
+
+"Is it your head, dear? Are you sure nothing else is involved? No
+indigestion or pains at the neck or burning at the pit of the stomach?"
+
+"Perfectly certain, Miss Campbell," answered Nancy, with a wan smile.
+"It's just one of those sick headaches like the one I had when I ate crab
+salad and peach ice cream that time. You mustn't stay at home on my
+account. O'Haru will look after me."
+
+"But you haven't eaten crab salad and peach ice cream this time, child.
+You haven't eaten anything, in fact. Your appetite is getting smaller all
+the time."
+
+"It's just the heat," said Nancy meekly. "I only want to stay in a
+darkened room and keep as cool as I can. I am sure I shall be all right
+by this evening and I wouldn't for anything interfere with the picnic
+to-day. It would make my head much worse. Really it would."
+
+Each of the Motor Maids offered to stay home with Nancy, but she objected
+and protested so strongly that it looked as if she would work herself
+into a fever if they persisted. O'Haru was therefore left in charge of
+Nancy for the day, while the others, attired for an all-day picnic,
+gathered on the front piazza.
+
+On the driveway stood the "Comet" and behind him at a respectful
+distance, like a servant behind his master, stood another car of an
+undistinguished character, hired in Tokyo. Into this last climbed Miss
+Campbell and Mr. Buxton, while Mr. Campbell took the front seat to run
+the car.
+
+"Won't some little maid keep a lonely man company?" he called, and Mary
+Price responded promptly to this appeal. "I am the most honored man in
+the whole party," he said, gallantly jumping out and helping her in as if
+she were a small queen.
+
+Mary smiled happily, but she felt in her heart that she was the most
+honored of all. No one had ever treated her with such deference and
+courtesy as this splendid big man who gazed down at her with a protecting
+air and listened to her rather timid conversation with absorbed interest.
+
+It was a wonderful thing, Mary thought, almost too wonderful to be
+believed that a distinguished engineer who had been sent for by
+governments to build railroads and give advice about public improvements,
+would condescend even to notice a quiet little person like her. But the
+famous engineer was really a very simple man, as modest as she herself
+was and quite as gentle.
+
+On the front seat beside Billie sat Nicholas, and Reginald was in the
+back with Elinor. Every laddie had a lassie that morning, and Billie, who
+was a bit skeptical over Nancy's headache, wondered vaguely if this could
+have been the reason for her staying at home. But she put the thought
+away from her at once as being unworthy. Billie sighed and gave herself
+an impatient little shake. Her heart yearned for the old Nancy of the
+early days who seemed so changed now. She was determined never to mention
+the letter, but somehow it seemed always to stand between them. Both
+girls thought of it constantly, Nancy with remorse and bitterness for her
+own disloyalty, and Billie with a kind of puzzled sadness. After all, the
+two friends had much to learn about each other's natures.
+
+Nancy on her bed in the darkened room was saying:
+
+"If I only could prove to Billie and to all of them that I am not
+disloyal!"
+
+Billie, guiding the "Comet" along the country road, was thinking:
+
+"If Nancy would only be frank and tell me what's on her mind! How can we
+go on like this when we are drifting farther and farther away?"
+
+The excursion to-day was of special interest to Mr. Campbell and his
+guests. They were riding forth to see Fujiyama (or "Fuji San," as the
+Japanese call it, "yama," meaning simply "mountain"), the sacred mountain
+of perfect beauty and shining whiteness.
+
+Once Saiki, their old gardener, had conducted them to a small elevation
+in the garden, and in a manner both reverential and proud, had pointed
+to a vista in the trees carefully made by lopping off certain branches.
+There, in the background of a long, narrow perspective loomed the great
+mountain, exactly as it does in thousands of Japanese scrolls. Here, many
+a time, Mary had sat and watched the white cone shining in the sunlight.
+She understood why it was called the "Peak of the White Lotus," The low
+green hills at its feet were the leaves of the flower and the eight sided
+crater, perfect in symmetry, formed the petals.
+
+The beautiful Fuji San, the most precious and revered object in all
+Japan, is dedicated to a goddess, "the Princess who makes the blossoms of
+the trees to bear"; but pilgrims of every religious sect crowd its paths
+in warm weather and on its sides dwell holy men or "mountain
+worshippers," who practice great austerities.
+
+It seemed a little unfeeling to be so gay and light-hearted with Nancy
+unhappy and ill at home, but there was gaiety in the warm dry air, and it
+bubbled into happy laughter and chatter as they flew along the road.
+
+"Have we brought everything?" called Billie over her shoulder. "The
+guitar and the tea basket and the luncheon hamper--"
+
+"And the mackintoshes?" finished Nicholas.
+
+Billie frowned and her face darkened.
+
+"Everything but your raincoat, Billie," said Elinor, counting packages in
+the bottom of the car with the toe of her boot. "Did you forget it?"
+
+"No, it had a torn place in it," answered Billie, still frowning.
+
+An incident too trivial to mention, but too unusual to put lightly aside
+had caused her some annoyance that morning. She had closed the bureau
+drawer on a corner of her raincoat, hanging over her arm, and had torn
+the hem off one side.
+
+"How stupid," she had exclaimed impatiently, tossing it into a chair.
+"You'll have to lend me your blue raincoat, Nancy-Bell. I've just done
+for mine completely."
+
+Nancy, lying on the bed with her face turned to the wall, did not reply.
+
+Billie tiptoed to the foot of the bed to see if she was asleep, but the
+blue eyes were wide open staring at the wall paper.
+
+"Will you lend me your raincoat, Miss Nancy?" repeated Billie, trying to
+be jocular to overcome the peculiar sensation of annoyance that had crept
+into her thoughts.
+
+"I'm sorry, but I can't," answered Nancy, in a low voice.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I just can't. That's all."
+
+Billie felt as if a rough hand had seized her by her collar and given her
+a good shaking.
+
+"Oh, very well, Nancy" she said, and went softly out of the room.
+
+"I am sure she must be really ill," she thought, trying to put a
+charitable interpretation on this act of selfishness, but even illness
+could hardly account for anything so entirely remote from their usual
+relations. And, apparently, Nancy had no fever and was only a little
+under the weather with a headache.
+
+Therefore, when the subject of her raincoat had come under discussion,
+Billie quickly changed it.
+
+"Do look at that queer-looking crowd," she ejaculated, pointing to a
+group of people walking in couples along the roadside. Their white
+kirtles were girded high about their waists and they carried staffs.
+
+As the company marched along, always facing Fuji, they began singing a
+weird chant. When the motors drew nearer the tourists saw that each
+man wore a huge mushroom hat made of lightest pith and from his neck hung
+a piece of matting suspended by a cord.
+
+"That must be one of the Pilgrim Clubs," announced Nicholas. "There are
+hundreds of them in Japan and they are fearfully expensive to join. The
+dues are from eight to fifteen cents a year. Every summer a club selects
+a delegate to take a nice little walking trip to a shrine and bring back
+blessings for the other members. His expenses are paid and lots of the
+other members go on their own hook. All the inns make special rates and
+it's come to be a jolly way to spend one's vacation, combining pleasure
+and religion. You see they've got the costume down to the finest point,"
+he continued. "They wear umbrellas on their heads, and the matting
+hanging around their necks serves as a raincoat, seat and bed. It's the
+coolest, lightest and most complete walking equipment I ever saw."
+
+"They make me feel terribly worldly-minded and luxurious," exclaimed
+Billie. "I never thought of bringing back a holy blessing to a friend."
+
+"We can take back a blessing for Miss Nancy, if you like," said Nicholas,
+smiling. "A flask of water from a spring on the sacred mountain would do,
+wouldn't it?"
+
+"But we haven't any flask."
+
+"We have the thermos bottle," put in Elinor. "That would keep it cool
+enough for her to drink."
+
+"She shouldn't drink it. She should sprinkle herself with it, or bathe in
+it," said Nicholas, amused at this ultra-modern way of carrying back a
+heavenly blessing.
+
+But Billie recalled the suggestion later and actually did fill the
+thermos bottle from a little spring that bubbled at the foot of Fuji and
+trickled down a green slope where the company had stopped for luncheon.
+
+"I do wish Nancy had come," she found herself saying while she spread the
+white cloth on the grass and opened the treasures of the luncheon hamper,
+which consisted of cold chicken and sandwiches and eggs prepared in a
+peculiar pickly way, as some one had described it. "It was a shame for
+her to miss this lovely trip. I am sure Fuji would have cured anybody's
+headache. It's so beautiful and so majestic."
+
+"It's cured mine," remarked Mr. Buxton, "either Fuji or something even
+more potent." Here he cast a languishing and eloquent glance toward Miss
+Campbell who flicked the grass with the end of her parasol and pretended
+not to have heard a word.
+
+Nicholas and Reggie grinned openly. Mr. Campbell stifled a smile behind a
+large sandwich and the girls carefully avoided each other's eyes.
+
+"He's got it bad, Miss Billie," whispered Nicholas. "Is this a common
+occurrence with Miss Campbell?"
+
+"It is, indeed," answered Billie. "There is always one and sometimes
+several wherever we go. Once, in Salt Lake City, it saved us no end of
+trouble and brought two lovers together, because a horrid old Mormon
+gentleman caught the fever. He had it so badly that we thought he would
+just carry Cousin Helen off by force, but he was deathly afraid of her."
+
+"Remember your promise, Miss Elinor," called Mr. Campbell presently.
+"Where's your guitar?"
+
+Some one fetched the guitar from the car and Elinor, leaning against a
+tree, struck several chords and smiled mischievously.
+
+"Shall it be a love song?" she asked.
+
+"Something religious would be more appropriate in this sacred spot,"
+observed Miss Campbell severely. But Elinor, ignoring the suggestion,
+began to sing:
+
+"'O, My Luve's like a red, red rose,
+  That's newly sprung in June.
+My Luve's like the melodie
+  That's sweetly played in tune.
+
+"'As fair thou art, my bonnie lass,
+  So deep in luve am I,
+And I will luve thee still, my dear,
+  Till a' the seas gang dry.
+
+"'Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
+  And rocks melt wi' the sun,
+I will luve thee still, my dear,
+  While the sands of life shall run.
+
+"'And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
+  And fare thee weel a while,
+And I will come again My Luve,
+  Tho' it were ten thousand mile.'"
+
+While Elinor sang this charming song Mr. Buxton regarded Miss Helen
+Campbell with an expression so abjectly adoring that Mr. Campbell gave a
+roar of boyish laughter and laid himself flat on the ground in the
+ecstasy of his amusement. They all laughed, indeed. Even Miss Campbell
+joined in, in spite of her annoyance.
+
+"I should think you might sing your own songs, Buxton, instead of letting
+a young lady do it for you," said Mr. Campbell at last.
+
+"Allow me," answered the bachelor calmly.
+
+He seized the guitar, re-tuned it with great care, and began strumming
+lightly on the strings. Suddenly he lifted up his voice in song and
+nobody attempted to keep a serious countenance because he seemed entirely
+oblivious to all jests at his expense. Here is the song he sang:
+
+"A Magnet hung in a hardware shop,
+And all around was a loving crop
+Of scissors and needles, nails and knives,
+Offering love for all their lives;
+But for iron the Magnet felt no whim;
+Though he charmed iron, it charmed not him;
+From needles and nails and knives he'd turn,
+For he'd set his heart on a Silver Churn!
+
+"A Silver Churn! A Silver Churn!
+His most esthetic
+Very magnetic
+Fancy took this turn:
+If I can wheedle
+A knife or a needle,
+Why not a Silver Churn?
+
+"And Iron and Steel expressed surprise;
+The needles opened their well-drilled eyes,
+The penknives felt shut up, no doubt;
+The scissors declared themselves cut out.
+The kettles, they boiled with rage, 'tis said;
+While every nail went off its head
+And hither and thither began to roam,
+Till a hammer came up and drove them home.
+
+"It drove them home! It drove them home!
+While this magnetic,
+Peripatetic
+Lover, he lived to learn,
+By no endeavor
+Can a Magnet ever
+Attract a Silver Churn!"
+
+"Well, really," cried Mr. Campbell, at the end of the song when the
+laughter had somewhat died down, "really, I think Buxton, you are the
+most shameless old soul I ever met in my life. Come along and start home.
+A shower is coming up, and we'd better get the cars into the valley
+before it catches us and wets the Silver Churn, and the scissors, and
+needles, and nails, and knives."
+
+A shower did come up, a big one that lasted most of the way home, and
+Billie's gray linen suit was wet through, but the weather was warm and
+except that she looked extremely bedraggled, she was none the worse and
+refused to accept the loan of Nicholas' coat. They left the three guests
+in Tokyo with the hired motor car, and Mr. Campbell with Miss Helen and
+Mary joined the others in the "Comet." So it was that the subject of the
+raincoat came up again. Miss Campbell, seeing her young cousin's wet
+suit, exclaimed:
+
+"Child! Where is your raincoat? How often have I told you never to leave
+it behind, especially in this country where it rains more than it
+shines."
+
+"It's torn, Cousin Helen," answered Billie meekly.
+
+"But why, pray, didn't you take Nancy's?"
+
+Billie considered a moment what she should say and ended by saying
+nothing at all.
+
+"Why didn't you borrow Nancy's, Billie?" asked Elinor.
+
+"Nancy didn't seem willing to lend it," answered Billie at last, slowly.
+
+There was a strained silence. Then Miss Campbell remarked:
+
+"I believe the child must be seriously ill. It sounds like typhoid fever.
+I think we'd better send for the doctor as soon as we reach home."
+
+However, this was not necessary. There was Nancy waiting for them on the
+piazza. Her headache had gone, she said, and she looked quite well and
+much more cheerful than usual. She did not notice the faintest tinge of
+coldness in their greetings. Even Mr. Campbell was not so cordial as
+usual.
+
+"You must have been caught in the worst of the rain," she said, looking
+at Billie's dripping clothes.
+
+"We were," put in Mary quickly, trying to cover the silence of the
+others.
+
+Somehow Billie felt just a bit savage at the moment.
+
+"I've brought you some sacred water from Fujiyama, Nancy," she said
+presently, in order to hide her hurt feelings.
+
+"Oh, thanks. What am I to do with it? Drink it down?"
+
+"Oh, no. Anoint yourself with it. Sprinkle it over the top of your head
+for luck."
+
+"Better put on your mackintosh first, Nancy," broke in Elinor coldly.
+"You'll be wetter than Billie if you don't."
+
+Nancy's face flushed scarlet and she turned and walked into the house
+without a word.
+
+"Oh, Elinor, I wish you hadn't said that," said Billie. "See how you hurt
+her."
+
+"She needed to be hurt," replied Elinor. "She needs to be brought to her
+senses."
+
+All the world was topsy turvy. The Motor Maids were quarreling among
+themselves and there was mystery in the air. Their happy little kingdom
+was being destroyed by internecine wars, and for what reason, Billie
+could not understand. It was inevitable that Mary and Elinor would come
+over to her side, now, that is, if Nancy persisted in this strange
+behavior.
+
+That night, lying beside Nancy in the dark, Billie's hand crept out to
+meet her unhappy friend's. But Nancy's hands were clasped in front of her
+and she lay quite still, staring at the wall, the most miserable young
+person in all the universe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+FATHER AND DAUGHTER.
+
+
+The first thing Billie saw next morning when she opened her eyes on a
+beautiful but heated world, was Nancy seated by the window reading a
+book, and at a second glance, she recognized it as her own prayer book.
+If it had been Mary or Elinor who had risen at dawn to read the prayer
+book, Billie would not have been in the least surprised, for one was
+deeply religious, and the other also, though she never talked much about
+it.
+
+Nancy, however, little frivolous butterfly, was not given to reading her
+testament or prayer book either, except at very infrequent intervals,
+certainly never early in the morning when other people were asleep.
+Billie wondered and wondered what more could have happened to turn
+Nancy's thought into this unusual channel.
+
+"She must be unhappy," she decided, "or she never would have got up at
+this time of day," and there was a kind of sad humor in the thought
+which Billie did not appreciate at the moment.
+
+When Nancy heard Billie stir, she closed the book hastily and crept back
+to bed and Billie pretended not to be awake. She was sure Nancy would
+rather not have been caught at this act of unusual devotion, and she
+disliked the idea of being an eavesdropper, as it were, to Nancy's
+innermost thoughts. Nevertheless, when some time later, Nancy had dressed
+and gone out of the room, Billie could not resist the temptation to open
+the prayer book at the purple ribbon; it had been placed at "Prayers for
+Fair Weather," which begins:
+
+"Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech thee of thy great
+goodness to restrain those immoderate rains wherewith for our sins thou
+hast afflicted us."
+
+Billie could scarcely keep from smiling when she followed Nancy into the
+dining-room.
+
+"It's about the queerest state of affairs that ever existed," she
+thought, casting a covert glance at her unhappy friend who was munching
+dry toast.
+
+Mr. Campbell came in late. He looked flustered and disturbed about
+something.
+
+"What is the matter with this household?" Billie's thoughts continued.
+"One would think an earthquake had shaken us out of our senses. Even Papa
+is out of sorts. I don't think I ever saw him quite this way before. As
+for me, I can't seem to pull out of the general depression. It's just
+closing in on us and drawing us down. Papa," she exclaimed out loud, "I
+believe we need a trip. When are you going to take us to the mountains?
+Nancy is terribly run down, and Cousin Helen is feeling the heat, and
+Elinor and Mary and I are going to be run down, too, if you don't hustle
+us off somewhere."
+
+"Very soon now, daughter. Just one more piece of business to transact
+and--er--a question to settle, and I'll pack you all off to a cool, dry
+place."
+
+"It will be the very opposite to this one, then," announced Billie. "Hot
+and damp are the words to use about Tokyo, and they do say the long rains
+are coming on--" she stopped short and looked at Nancy.
+
+Everybody was looking at Nancy, in fact.
+
+Mary and Elinor were wondering why Nancy looked so conscious. Miss
+Campbell was thinking how pale the girl looked, and Mr. Campbell was
+thinking of something quite different, but very important, concerning
+Nancy Brown.
+
+Billie tried to cover the uncomfortable silence by adding with a forced
+cordiality:
+
+"Nancy-Bell needs the change more than any of us."
+
+"Very well, if agreeable to your Royal Highness, I will let you know
+tonight when we shall break up camp and march for the hills."
+
+"Good," cried Billie. "The Court is prepared to move on a moment's
+notice."
+
+Mr. Campbell beckoned to his daughter to follow him to his library after
+breakfast. Billie had already had a foreboding that something was the
+matter, and she was sure of it as soon as she had entered the room and
+closed the door.
+
+Her father was standing at his desk frowning as he looked thoughtfully
+into space, and Mr. Campbell never frowned unless he had something to
+frown about.
+
+"What's the matter, Papa?"
+
+"Where are the others?"
+
+"Gone to their rooms, I suppose, or in the garden. I didn't notice."
+
+He drew an easy chair up by the open window and Billie took her seat on
+the arm and rested her cheek against his.
+
+"Papa, is there any trouble brewing in this house?" she asked presently.
+
+Mr. Campbell blew out a long column of smoke from his morning cigar.
+
+"What makes you think so, sweetheart?" he asked.
+
+"I can feel it. It's in the air--it's all about us. It's like a sort of
+plague. Nancy's got it, and now you are getting it, and I have a feeling
+I shall catch it, too."
+
+"Has Nancy got it?"
+
+"She got it first and she's giving it to all the rest of us. Oh, Papa,
+it's the very first time anything like this has ever happened on any of
+our trips. It's making me quite wretched."
+
+"But what is it, little girl?"
+
+"I don't know, at least, not exactly."
+
+"Not exactly? Then you do know something?"
+
+Billie did not wish to tell her father about the letter Nancy had
+written. She felt that her father might not take such a charitable view
+of it as she had, and she had a feeling she must protect poor Nancy,
+wounded as she had been by her strange behavior.
+
+"Then you do know something?" repeated Mr. Campbell.
+
+"Oh, just the littlest something, but I don't want to tell you, Papa."
+
+Mr. Campbell settled himself into the depths of his chair and drew his
+arm around his daughter's waist.
+
+"That's right, little daughter. I'd rather you'd be loyal than anything
+else in the world," he said, stroking her hand. "But I'm going to tell
+you a little bit of something. I want to ask your advice. I don't know
+what to do. You must help your old father decide."
+
+"Fire away, Papa."
+
+"Yesterday a very strange thing happened in this house while we were
+away--a very serious thing, I may say, and one which gives me
+considerable uneasiness. Last night I came into the library to work, just
+after dinner. I opened the safe and found that some one had been
+rummaging among the papers in there."
+
+"Oh, Papa," ejaculated Billie anxiously, knowing the value of those
+documents.
+
+"They were all there, but they had been disturbed. There had been an
+attempt made to trace off some of the drawings. The specifications and
+descriptions had been tampered with, too. I never dreamed such a thing
+could be managed in the daytime with the house full of servants. The two
+watchmen would prevent even a possibility of it at night. Whoever did it
+must have laid his plans well, or else--"
+
+Mr. Campbell paused and looked at his daughter very hard.
+
+"Nancy has been greatly troubled about something lately, hasn't she,
+little daughter?"
+
+"Yes, Papa, she has, but it's nothing serious," said Billie stoutly.
+"Just the heat and that absurd business about Yoritomo. You know she did
+really make eyes at him a good deal."
+
+"Where was she yesterday?"
+
+"In her room, I suppose?"
+
+"Billie, I called several of the servants in last night and questioned
+them about this business here," he pointed to the safe in the corner. "I
+called them in separately and each one made the same statement. Nancy
+spent most of the day in this room."
+
+Billie started.
+
+"I can't believe it. I won't believe it," she cried, rising to her feet
+in her excitement.
+
+"They told a pretty straight story and they had no reason, as far as I
+can see, for telling any other kind."
+
+"But what does Nancy know about opening a safe, Papa? It's absurd. And
+besides what would she want with plans for government improvements or
+whatever they are?"
+
+"I'm just as much in the dark as you are, Billie. I'm only telling you
+what O'Haru and Onoye and Komatsu told me. She went into the library
+twice during the day; once for a little while in the morning, and after
+lunch when the servants were in the back of the house, Onoye saw her come
+out of the garden in a pouring rain. She marched straight to this room
+and locked the door behind her and here she remained until not long
+before we returned."
+
+"Papa, I'll never go back on Nancy," cried Billie. "I'll never believe
+she did it--even--well, even if she were to tell me so herself! I know
+her as well as I know myself. I know all her ins and outs, you might say.
+She's simply incapable of doing a dishonest thing. Besides, what earthly
+use could she have with those papers?"
+
+"Do you think she could be doing it for some one else?" asked Mr.
+Campbell.
+
+"No," burst out Billie, almost angrily. "Why, Papa, I'm ashamed of you,"
+
+Mr. Campbell drew his daughter to him and kissed her.
+
+"You are a good friend, Billie, and I'm going to give your friend the
+benefit of every doubt in her favor. I'm going to assume that she is
+innocent and that there is some big mistake somewhere. But I want you to
+help me because it will be necessary to get at the bottom of the business
+immediately. Now, Yoritomo Ito is one great big fanatic. I discovered
+that the other day when he called here in his foolish garb and demanded
+the hand of Miss Nancy. He was very angry over being turned down and just
+a bit threatening in his manner. Of course he resents outside people
+being called in for the work I am doing. He resents my presence in his
+country, in fact."
+
+"I don't like him, Papa," broke in Billie, "and--you didn't know that he
+has been married and divorced?"
+
+Mr. Campbell looked surprised.
+
+"No, indeed, I did not know it. He has colossal nerve, I must say. But
+divorce is pretty common over here. Most anybody can get one who wants
+to."
+
+"And, Papa," went on Billie, "I believe that our little maid, Onoye, was
+his wife, and when her father lost his money, Yoritomo got a divorce, and
+she and her mother were so poor they had to go to work."
+
+Mr. Campbell was even more shocked at this disclosure.
+
+"And, Papa, I believe she would do most any favor for Yoritomo in order
+to get to see her little boy who lives with Mme. Ito. Onoye and her
+mother are mad about him, and--and--" went on Billie, slowly working out
+the complication in her mind--"they were the ones who laid the blame on
+Nancy, weren't they?"
+
+"I didn't know I had a detective for a daughter," said Mr. Campbell,
+smiling.
+
+"I'm just putting two and two together," said Billie. "You see it works
+out like a jigsaw puzzle."
+
+"So I see," said Mr. Campbell gravely. "There is only one bright spot in
+the whole business," he added, with something very like a chuckle. "For
+once in my life I've out-tricked a trickster and I've really enjoyed
+doing it. Buxton informed me the very night you shot somebody here--"
+
+"There you are," interrupted Billie. "That was Onoye, remember."
+
+"Yes, there is no doubt about that. Well, Buxton informed me that they
+were after my papers and the safe would be the place they would look for
+them. So that very night I substituted some old drawings and put the
+important ones in another place. Now a Japanese, when he's after
+something, is as crafty and shrewd as a fox. That's why I'm patting
+myself on my back for having outwitted one."
+
+"Where do you keep the real papers, Papa?"
+
+"Down where the pistol is under some stationery in the back of the desk
+drawer, and in the big vase in the corner."
+
+Billie went straight to the desk and opened the drawer. She drew out the
+pistol as she had done that dark night, removed several layers of
+envelopes and paper, and came at last to a layer of drawings.
+
+"Are these the ones?" she asked, placing them on the desk and then
+shoving the drawer back with her knee. Something stuck and she pulled it
+all the way out in her effort to discover what the trouble was. In the
+very back, caught between the drawer and the framework was a
+handkerchief. It was small and sheer and in one corner was an embroidered
+butterfly.
+
+Mr. Campbell jumped up in much excitement.
+
+"By Jove," he exclaimed, "did you find that among my papers?"
+
+Billie nodded her head sadly. "It's Nancy's, too," she said.
+
+Mr. Campbell began looking over the papers.
+
+"She may have dropped her handkerchief," he said, "but I don't think she
+got down to these. They are exactly as I left them. I suppose she
+rummaged around with her handkerchief in her lap and it fell in and was
+shoved back when I took out my papers later."
+
+The papers in a leather portfolio in the vase were safe, also.
+
+For some time the father and daughter sat together, turning over the
+events of the morning in their minds.
+
+"Papa," said Billie, after a while, "let's send Cousin Helen and Nancy
+and Elinor to the mountains, because they need the trip more than the
+rest of us, and suppose you and Mary Price and I stay here and ferret out
+the whole thing. Of course the person who did it, and I know Nancy had
+nothing to do with it," she added almost fiercely, "but the real person
+will be coming back for the rest of the drawings, and that will be our
+chance. A detective in the house would give the alarm, but Mary and I
+might turn watchmen without arousing any suspicion, especially if some of
+the servants are mixed in it."
+
+Mr. Campbell ended by taking his daughter's advice.
+
+The very next morning Miss Campbell and two of the Motor Maids were
+packed off to Myanoshita, a summer resort in the mountains, with
+Komatsu to look after them, while the other two Motor Maids remained with
+Mr. Campbell.
+
+"We'll follow you by the end of the week," he said. "I hope you don't
+begrudge a lonely man his daughter for that short time, Cousin."
+
+"I hope you won't keep her in this awful heat any longer than you can
+help," was his cousin's reply. For Miss Campbell had grown to regard
+Billie as her especial property.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE TYPHOON.
+
+
+The three conspirators had formed no particular plan for a campaign. Mr.
+Campbell was certain of only one thing: if poor Nancy Brown had foolishly
+got herself involved in this business, it would be better to keep the
+secret in the family, as it were.
+
+"We'll just give the child a good lecture and take her home," he said to
+himself, biting off the end of his cigar and frowning at the disquieting
+thought. "Whatever she did was through innocence, I am certain of that.
+She may have been flattered or cajoled into it. Who knows? The little
+thing is miserable enough without being made more unhappy. I suppose I
+should have sent for her and asked for a confession, but I hadn't the
+nerve and that's the truth."
+
+Several uneventful days passed after the departure of the others. It was
+very hot and the girls kept indoors until after sunset. But it was a
+dull, dispiriting time, and one morning they decided to take a spin in
+the "Comet," leaving Mr. Campbell at home to look after things. They had
+hardly gone when he was summoned to Tokyo by a messenger, and there was
+no one but the servants left in the house.
+
+The girls motored into town and spent the morning shopping. From one
+curio shop to another they wandered in the quest of nothing except
+diversion.
+
+"There is no end to the beautiful things here," sighed Mary, wishing in
+her heart that she could carry the most beautiful and priceless thing in
+Tokyo home to her mother.
+
+"Yes, everything is beautiful except the weather," remarked Billie,
+pointing to the black clouds which had gathered while they were in a
+shop. "We are going to have one of those red-letter storms, Mary. I think
+we'd better hurry home as fast as we can."
+
+But the "Comet," who never had any luck all the time he was in Japan,
+proceeded to burst one of his tires and the explosion mingled
+threateningly with a low roll of thunder in the distance.
+
+"We'd better take him to a garage and go back in a 'riksha," announced
+Billie, much annoyed. "Poor old 'Comet,' it wasn't his fault, but the
+prologues of these storms do put one in a bad temper."
+
+"They frighten me," said Mary. "They give me evil forebodings."
+
+The "Comet" was accordingly left at the garage to be repaired, and the
+girls were well on their way home in a jinriksha before anything worse
+had happened than rumblings and strange mutterings at what seemed a great
+distance away. It sometimes takes hours for a great storm in Japan to
+reach a head; which, in a way, is rather fortunate, because it gives
+people a chance to prepare for the struggle. A house is usually
+completely closed with storm shutters. Not even the smallest opening is
+left, through which the demon wind can find its way and so carry off
+the roof, or even the house itself. Every detachable object out of doors
+is taken inside. The gardener is seen hurrying about protecting his most
+valuable plants, and by the time the storm bursts upon the scene, filled
+with demoniacal shrieks and howls like an army of barbarians pursuing the
+enemy, it finds its victims prepared for the attack.
+
+When the 'riksha turned in at the Campbell gate, it had grown so dark
+that only the dim outlines of the house were visible at the end of the
+driveway. No one saw them arrive. The servants were probably at the back
+putting on the storm shutters, which were all in place at the front.
+
+Billie invited the 'riksha man to go around to the servants' quarters and
+wait until the storm had passed, but he nodded cheerfully and took his
+way down the road.
+
+"Let's go in by the passage door," suggested Mary. "Everything is closed
+up here."
+
+Billie followed her wearily. The heat and oppression were almost beyond
+endurance. She felt she might be suffocated at any moment. It was like
+trying to breathe under a feather mattress or in a total vacuum, for that
+matter.
+
+"Shall we put on our kimonos and lie on the floor in the library?" she
+suggested as they slipped into the passage. And this they accordingly
+did without another word or a moment's delay. It was too hot to think or
+sleep or eat or speak. All they desired was to stretch out on the rug in
+a cool dark room and keep perfectly still.
+
+There was a deadly quiet in the house when presently two little kimonoed
+forms stole through the halls and crept to the library door. Billie felt
+for the knob in the darkness and turned it. The door was locked. In the
+dense atmosphere it was difficult for them to realize what this meant at
+first.
+
+"Mary, it's--it's the-what-do-you-call-'em," said Billie incoherently.
+
+Mary nodded silently. She might have shrieked her answer aloud, for the
+storm had arrived with a great howling of wind and rain, and with flashes
+of lightning followed by repeated and deafening cannonades of thunder.
+
+The rain rattled on the roof like iron and all the demons in bedlam
+seemed to be besieging the house. Then a most sickening thing happened.
+The floor appeared to be heaving under their feet. Doors all over the
+house banged to with loud reports like revolvers shooting off. There was
+a crash in the library, a loud cry from within, the door flew open and a
+figure rushed past. Mary, kneeling on the floor at the threshold,
+involuntarily reached out her hands and seized the flying skirts of the
+apparition, or whatever it was, which disappeared like a shadow through
+the passage door, leaving Mary still holding the substance of the shadow
+which seemed to be the skirt she had grasped.
+
+A second shock followed almost immediately, less violent than the first
+but quite as sickening. For one instant the house tossed and pitched like
+a ship on a choppy sea. Then it settled down on its foundations. Most
+Japanese houses are built on wooden supports, stout square pillars
+rounded off at the base and resting in a round socket of stone. This
+gives a certain elasticity for resisting shocks which a firmly built
+house would not endure.
+
+The girls lay side by side on the floor of the passage, too frightened to
+speak. There is a horror about an earthquake that is indescribable to
+those who have never felt it; a feeling of sickening inefficiency and
+helplessness.
+
+After a while they plucked up courage to rise and totter weakly into the
+library, where Billie, her hand shaking with nervous excitement, struck
+a match and lit a candle. The room was in dire confusion. Chairs were
+upset, books had fallen off the shelves and lay scattered about the
+floor, and the iron safe had crashed over on its face. On the desk and
+the floor about it were numbers of loose sheets of paper and a narrow
+roll of tracing paper, which had uncoiled itself and lay half on the
+desk, half on the floor like a long white serpent.
+
+Mechanically they began to put things to rights. Mary gathered up the
+books and set them back on the shelves and Billie stood the chairs on
+their legs and collected the papers. They were not important ones, she
+knew, only decoys, as her father had called them. In the mean time the
+house rocked in the clutches of the storm.
+
+"I don't know why we bother to do this," said Billie laughing
+hysterically. "We may be flying through the air any minute ourselves
+along with the chairs and papers and everything else."
+
+"The storm at Nikko was mere child's play to this; just an infant babe in
+arms," answered Mary, weeping softly while she worked.
+
+It seemed better to be doing something than to sit still and listen to
+the terrifying fury of the tempest, as again and again it hurled itself
+against the house.
+
+"It wouldn't have done any good even if we had caught the thief or spy or
+whatever he is," observed Billie after a while. "There would have been no
+one to help us."
+
+Suddenly Mary's perturbed mind harked back to what had happened in the
+hall.
+
+"Billie," she cried, "it wasn't a man; it was a woman. That skirt I
+caught--that--that something--where is it?"
+
+"What are you talking about, Mary?"
+
+"I tell you I caught hold of something. It came off in my hands."
+
+She ran into the hall and, groping about on the floor, presently found
+what seemed to be a long coat. Rushing back she spread it on the desk.
+Billie held the candle high and the two girls stood gazing at it for some
+moments without speaking. Then Billie slowly placed the candle on the
+desk and sat down.
+
+"I don't understand, Billie," said Mary, clasping and unclasping her
+hands in her excitement and surprise, "it's Nancy's blue raincoat,
+but--but I don't understand."
+
+Billie covered her eyes with one hand as if she would like to hide from
+Mary what they might tell of her feelings and thoughts. There was
+nothing to say. It _was_ Nancy's blue raincoat, but she refused to think
+what the explanation might be.
+
+After a long time, it seemed, O'Haru came into the room. She was amazed
+to find the girls in the library until they explained how they had just
+escaped the storm.
+
+"Oh, much terrible," ejaculated the housekeeper. "Much terrible more
+worse than since," from which they gathered that it was one of the worst
+storms ever seen in Tokyo. O'Haru brought in lights and presently
+returned at the head of a procession of maids with trays of food; though
+whether it was luncheon or supper time it was impossible to tell. The
+clocks had all stopped in the earthquake and it was still as black as
+night. It might have been midnight or midday for all they knew.
+
+The girls preferred to remain in the library, which seemed to them more
+protection than the other rooms, and O'Haru drew up three tables and
+arranged the trays with great deftness and celerity.
+
+"Papa didn't come?" asked Billie, noticing the third table.
+
+"No, honorable lady."
+
+"For whom is the other tray, then?"
+
+"Mees Brown," answered O'Haru, rather surprised.
+
+"But she is in the mountains," said Billie, growing very red and uneasy.
+"Oh, Nancy, Nancy," she groaned inwardly, "could it have really been you
+and are you out there in the typhoon?"
+
+"Pardon grant," said O'Haru. "Mees Brown arriving at morning. Mees Brown
+within."
+
+"I think not, O'Haru," said Billie.
+
+"Her honorable rainy coat," said Onoye, pointing to the fated blue
+mackintosh.
+
+"Mary, what shall I say?" asked Billie in a low voice. "I don't know what
+to do."
+
+"Ask them questions," said Mary.
+
+From Onoye they gathered that Miss Brown had arrived soon after Mr.
+Campbell had left the house, and had gone straight to her room. She
+was very tired, she said, and would lie down until lunch time. Then she
+had gone to the library. Just before the storm they had tried to go in
+and close the shutters, but had found the door locked.
+
+Billie formed a resolution to protect Nancy no matter what was to pay.
+
+"It wasn't the real Miss Brown," she announced firmly. "It was some one
+dressed like her. The real Miss Brown is far away from here in the
+mountains."
+
+The two Japanese women withdrew presently, and if they felt any curiosity
+about Nancy's strange appearance at the villa, they were careful to hide
+it.
+
+The storm lasted all night and many times the two girls lying side by
+side on Billie's bed were prepared for the house to fall on top of them
+or to be carried away on the wind like chips of wood. But toward morning
+the wind died down and while the rain continued to flood the earth, they
+knew the worst was over. Billie drew back the bolts of their storm
+shutters and the fresh air came pouring in to revive their drooping
+spirits.
+
+"Mary," she said, creeping back to bed, "I'll never believe it was Nancy.
+No, never, never."
+
+At last they went to sleep, and when they waked the rain had ceased
+altogether. The lawn in front of the house was a muddy lake and many
+trees lay prone on the ground. It was a scene of devastation that greeted
+Mr. Campbell as he hurried home at daylight in a 'riksha. He had
+dispatched a messenger in the night, paying a large fee, to see if the
+girls were safe at home and had spent the night in Tokyo with Mr. Buxton.
+
+It was not until much later in the day that Billie plucked up courage to
+inform her father of what had happened.
+
+"Why on earth didn't you tell me about it immediately?" he exclaimed.
+"The best way to settle that, is to telegraph to Cousin Helen right off."
+
+But with the "Comet" in town and Komatsu in the mountains this was not so
+easy to manage, and it looked as if Mr. Campbell would have to walk back
+to Tokyo. He had got half way down the drive, in fact, when a messenger
+appeared running at full speed as fast as a horse; such is the endurance
+of a Japanese runner. He had been sent with a telegram from Mr.
+Campbell's office, but it had been written in Japanese and had to be
+translated.
+
+Mr. Campbell hurried back to the house and called Onoye:
+
+"Read this for me if you can," he ordered.
+
+Onoye looked at the strange script a long time. Then she read slowly:
+
+"'O'Nainci San gone Tokyo. No honorable telling before for why she make
+those journey--'"
+
+There were a few more words, but Onoye had reached the limit of her
+knowledge of the English language.
+
+Mr. Campbell sighed. Billie was the only girl in the world who wasn't any
+trouble, he thought.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+CONUNDRUMS AND ANSWERS.
+
+
+"I tell you Nancy is on her way, now, Papa," said Billie emphatically.
+"She would never have had time to get here as soon as yesterday. The
+storm would have delayed her. She couldn't have reached here."
+
+Mr. Campbell shook his head anxiously as he paced up and down the piazza
+waiting for the 'riksha the messenger was to send back from Tokyo.
+
+Billie's faith in her friend was wonderful. He admired it, but he was
+obliged to say he felt rather skeptical himself, all things considered.
+
+"There comes the 'riksha," announced Mary at last.
+
+Mr. Campbell went into the house for his hat and cane and Billie followed
+him. She looked so pale and miserable that he stooped to kiss her and
+then led her into the library.
+
+"Come in here a moment, little daughter," he said, "and we'll talk things
+over a bit."
+
+"How are you going to find her, Papa?" Billie asked, wiping away the
+tears that would well in her eyes every few minutes and trickle down her
+cheeks.
+
+"I'll do everything within human power. The police are excellent and so
+are the detectives."
+
+"Why do you think she ran away?" sobbed Billie, breaking down entirely.
+
+"I don't know, my child. I can't make out what the reason was and we'd
+never get anywhere by guessing."
+
+"Papa, do you think she could have gone to that widow? I never told you,
+but she did once before when we had a quarrel. She was awfully sorry
+after the first night and came back."
+
+Mr. Campbell gave a low whistle. He had forgotten the Widow of Shanghai's
+very existence until that moment.
+
+"I hope she's there. That will make it much simpler. But you mustn't take
+on so, little daughter. Nancy is like lots of headstrong girls. She
+resents criticism. Probably she had a falling out with Cousin Helen and
+ran away--"
+
+"I did run away," said a voice at the door, "but that wasn't the reason."
+
+"Nancy!" cried Billie and the two girls rushed into each other's arms and
+embraced like sisters long separated. In the doorway stood Mary and Mr.
+Buxton. Mary's face was beaming with joy and Mr. Buxton wore his old
+expression of humorous tolerance.
+
+"Where did you find her, Buxton?" asked Mr. Campbell gravely.
+
+"I didn't find her. She found me this morning at an unconscionably early
+hour, too, and a fine time we've had of it, I can tell you. We've chased
+a widow back to Shanghai and we've placed a fanatic under bond for good
+behavior."
+
+Nancy laughed her old natural laugh with a ripple of gaiety in it. Her
+eyes were sparkling and the color flooded her cheeks. She was prettier
+than ever, it seemed, and all because she was so happy! Her jaunty little
+traveling hat was over one eye and her dress was crushed and wrinkled,
+but her charming face was radiant.
+
+"The morning we left for the mountains," she began, "two letters came for
+me by mail but I didn't read them until I got on the train. One of them
+was from that awful woman and it frightened me terribly. It seemed
+cordial enough on the surface but my eyes have been opened to her. I
+don't know just what she is, but she is dangerous I am certain,--like a
+cat ready to spring. She said she had taken such a fancy to me that she
+must see me again and she thought it would be advisable for me to come to
+her home at once. The other letter was from that horrid Yoritomo and he
+simply threatened in so many words to blow up the house and everybody in
+it unless I listened to him. I didn't think much about the letters until
+we were settled in the hotel. Then I began to get more and more uneasy
+and I thought the best thing for me to do was to come back to Tokyo and
+see Mr. Campbell. I knew, of course, that Miss Helen would never let me
+go alone, so I just ran away."
+
+"And very glad we are to see you, Miss Nancy," broke in Mr. Campbell in
+the tone of one who felt enormously relieved.
+
+"We were all night on the train," continued Nancy. "The storm had washed
+the track away in places and we had to wait many times while it was
+repaired. As soon as I arrived, I took a 'riksha to Mr. Buxton's lodgings
+and then we went to see Mme. Fontaine and Yoritomo--"
+
+"Oh, that widow woman," interrupted Mr. Buxton. "She's a sly one, I can
+tell you. As we entered the front door, she departed at the back. We left
+several policemen waiting for her to return but I wouldn't be surprised
+if she were well on her way to Shanghai by now."
+
+"I don't understand," said Billie.
+
+"The time we quarreled, Billie, and I behaved like such a silly little
+goose," Nancy explained, "you remember I went to see her. I don't know
+what made me do it, except that I wanted to air my troubles. I've been so
+unhappy since, that I feel years older now. I was only a child then, but
+I'm quite an old person now. She talked to me a long time that night and
+got me all stirred up and believing that I had been badly treated. It was
+not what she really said but what she hinted. She seemed to know a good
+deal about Mr. Campbell's work. She implied that what he was doing for
+the Japanese government was disloyal to America. I was so fascinated with
+the way she put things and the way she looked at me, too, that I didn't
+seem to have any power over myself any more. It was like being
+hypnotized, I suppose. It came into my head to write you a terrible
+letter, Billie,--" Nancy's eyes filled with tears and her voice
+choked--"I can hardly think of it now without crying. She knew I was
+writing it but she didn't ask what was in it, only occasionally, while I
+wrote, she would look over at me and say 'Poor darling! Poor pretty
+darling!' After I got to bed, I came to my senses and began to realize
+what I had done. I was terribly frightened and unhappy and in the middle
+of the night I crept into the drawing-room, tore up the letter and threw
+the pieces into a vase. Next morning, you remember, I came home. But the
+letter was so heavy on my conscience, I couldn't be happy. I had a
+feeling it had never been destroyed and would somehow get to you, Billie.
+I wrote to the widow and asked her to send me back the pieces if she
+could find them, so that I could burn them myself. In her reply, she
+simply said the vase was empty and I gradually began to understand that
+she had got the letter and intended to keep it. There was a threatening
+sound to the note, and she ended by asking to borrow my blue raincoat. I
+had to let her have it, but I knew she didn't want it for any good reason
+and I was more and more miserable. I began to pray that it wouldn't rain.
+People don't wear raincoats in good weather. I tried to argue with myself
+about her reasons for wanting my raincoat and even now I don't know what
+they were unless it was to involve me in something. But we've frightened
+her away, anyhow, and she can have the raincoat if she'll only stay."
+
+"She certainly did want to get you into a peck of trouble, Miss Nancy,"
+said Mr. Campbell bringing the famous raincoat from the passage where it
+hung on the hat rack. "Here's your coat. She left it behind as a souvenir
+yesterday when she broke into the house to steal my drawings. I fooled
+her, though," he added, smiling sweetly. "If she thinks she can ever make
+anything out of those papers, she'll soon find she has been losing time."
+
+"It's the third time she's been here masquerading as you, Nancy." broke
+in Billie. "She must have managed the disguise perfectly because the
+servants were fooled each time."
+
+"She did," said Mary. "I asked Onoye exactly what she looked like. She
+evidently had on a brown curly wig and a hat like Nancy's with a blue
+veil around her head."
+
+At this juncture in the conversation, Onoye announced a visitor who
+proved to be a detective. He was a quiet, self-contained young Japanese
+who spoke excellent English. He had been sent out in a motor car by the
+Chief of Police to find out all he could from the Americans regarding
+Mme. Fontaine.
+
+The Widow of Shanghai, he informed them, was the child of a Russian
+father and a Japanese mother. She was considered to be one of the most
+accomplished and brilliant spies in the Orient and could assume almost
+any disguise and speak most languages. It was a pity a woman of such
+wonderful talents should stoop to work like that, and the strange part of
+it was that she was sometimes treacherous to Russia and in favor of
+Japan: so that it was difficult to tell for which side she worked. Just
+now her sympathies were with Russia, since she was trying to get plans
+for harbor defenses in Japan. The Chief of Police wished to thank Miss
+Brown in behalf of the City of Tokyo for driving the so-called Mme.
+Fontaine out of town. She had entered it so quietly that until that very
+morning it was not known that Mme. Fontaine and the famous Russian spy
+were one and the same person.
+
+"Of course it was she who was in here the night of your birthday party.
+Papa," said Billie. "I must have shot two people instead of one."
+
+This was actually the case, as Onoye explained to her later. Onoye had
+hidden herself behind the curtain that night to watch the couples
+strolling about in the moonlight. Mme. Fontaine came very swiftly into
+the room and blew out the lights. She carried a little electric dark
+lantern. Onoye was too frightened to make her presence known, and had
+crept along the edge of the room hoping to reach the door. Then Billie
+had come in and somehow they had all drifted together in the dark and the
+pistol had gone off. The bullet must have pierced Mme. Fontaine's arm and
+lodged in Onoye's wrist. How she managed to hide the wound with a scarf
+until she got her long wrap from one of the bedrooms was a marvel
+to them all.
+
+"Anyhow the mystery is all cleared away now," cried Nancy joyfully. "I
+suppose you must have thought strange things about me, Mr. Campbell?"
+
+"We had every reason to think them, Miss Nancy, but this loyal young
+person here wouldn't let us. It looked like some pretty convincing
+evidence for a while, but she wouldn't budge from the stand she had
+taken."
+
+Once again the two friends embraced. They were radiantly happy. It was
+just as if Nancy had died and come to life again.
+
+"I think I've learned a good lesson," she admitted at last. "It all
+happened because I wanted to be silly and romantic and meet people in the
+garden and write notes."
+
+"People?" asked Mary.
+
+Nancy laughed and dimpled in her old charming way and everybody laughed,
+even the reserved young detective. Old Nedda, who had followed them into
+the room, carne tottering over to where Nancy sat beside Billie. The aged
+animal whined and wagged her tail, as if she, too, wished to take part in
+the general thanksgiving.
+
+"Dearest old great-grandmama," cried Nancy, kneeling beside the aged pug
+and hiding her face in the tawny coat, "are you really glad to see me,
+too?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+GOOD-BYE, SUMMER.
+
+
+A string of glowing lanterns festooned the piazza of the Campbell villa,
+while within the warm reflection of wood fires and shaded lamps made each
+window a square of hospitable brightness. The house inside was a blaze of
+color. Splendid bunches of scarlet maple leaves and chrysanthemums of
+amazing size and beauty filled the vases and jars.
+
+The Motor Maids, dressed in their very best party frocks, had gathered in
+the drawing-room early before the arrival of the three guests. Each maid
+sat in a large chair and gazed about her from side to side. The riot of
+color, the scarlets and oranges, the tawny browns, pale pinks and
+delicate yellows seemed to bewilder them.
+
+"I suppose it wasn't truly Japanese to decorate a room with all these
+masses of flowers and leaves," said Billie. "But I don't care. It's the
+most gorgeous thing I've ever seen and since this is our last night here
+we want to make it a festive one."
+
+Their last night! Was it possible that time had slipped by so fast? Here
+it was already November, the season of greatest beauty in Japan, when
+Nature has dipped her brush into the most brilliant colors on the palette
+and touched the foliage with red and gold, the skies with deepest blue,
+and the chrysanthemums, favorite flower of the Emperor, with every
+gorgeous shade.
+
+After a good rest in the mountains broken by excursions to various
+interesting places about the country, the Campbell party had returned to
+Tokyo in time to marvel at the wonders of the chrysanthemum festival,
+which is a national affair.
+
+Away off at the other side of the world a certain High School was now in
+full swing. But even Mary Price had lost all scruples concerning her
+education.
+
+"I don't care," she remarked recklessly. "I think all this beauty is just
+as good for the mind as bare plastered walls and plain geometry."
+
+"It's better," exclaimed Nancy, "because it makes one so much happier to
+look at chrysanthemums and red maples than to try and understand why the
+sum of the three angles of a triangle of any old size must always equal
+two right angles. What makes one happy is far more educational than what
+makes one aggravated."
+
+Here was a Pagan theory that Elinor felt inclined to doubt.
+
+"We shall have to study double time all during the Christmas holidays,"
+she said.
+
+"It will be rather fun, I think," put in Billie, always the optimist of
+the quartette. "We'll all just have a small private school of four and
+jump in and work together. To me, working together is almost as nice as
+playing together. I suppose I appreciate it more than the rest of you
+because I had to work and play alone for so many years."
+
+"Billie, you are a perfect dear," ejaculated Nancy. "You furnish all the
+amusement and fun and thank us for sharing it with you."
+
+Billie looked as pleased and happy as if she had never had a compliment
+before in her life. The joy of having regained Nancy after that brief
+eclipse into shadow was still too recent to be forgotten. The two girls
+exchanged one of those telegraphic glances of intimate friends who need
+no words to express their meaning.
+
+"We've had a wonderful time," broke in Mary. "There is something about
+the land that makes one forget the realities. If poor little Kenkyo
+hadn't died--"
+
+"Be careful! Onoye is in the next room," interrupted Billie, lifting a
+warning finger.
+
+Onoye had indeed been the wife of Yoritomo as Billie had guessed. No
+doubt it was poor old O'Haru who had thrown the stone into the summer
+house that day. Billie had mercifully never inquired. And now the little
+son, for whom the two women had yearned with a passion that is
+extraordinarily deep in Japanese women, had been gathered to his
+forefathers. Onoye was dumb and silent with misery during his brief
+illness. When he died, she had disappeared for a few days and returned at
+last calm and still. No one had seen her shed a tear. Yoritomo, it was
+said, was stricken with the wildest grief. But sorrow had cleared his
+brain and brought him to his senses. He had made a really manly apology
+to Mr. Campbell and had even asked that Onoye might be restored to him.
+But this was not to be. Miss Campbell had taken Onoye under her wing.
+
+"I want you to go back to America with me and be educated, child," said
+the kind little lady, "and after a few years, you may return to Japan
+and teach the women here how to be independent."
+
+Onoye had joyfully and gratefully consented to this arrangement,
+providing she might act as Miss Campbell's maid in the meantime.
+
+O'Haru had made an heroic effort to be glad, also. She would continue to
+be the Spears' housekeeper, she said, and wait for her daughter to return
+to Japan with "muchly honorable learning."
+
+During the hot weeks when Miss Campbell and the Motor Maids were
+sojourning in the mountains, old "great grandmama Nedda" had also passed
+into another sphere. Her ending was peaceful, they said; she had slipped
+quietly away one day at sunset. The faithful servants buried the gentle
+creature in the garden not far from the shrine of the Compassionate God.
+When the girls returned they set up a little wooden monument in her
+memory on which Mary printed in India ink the following inscription:
+
+"NEDDA"
+
+Died August 27, 19--
+
+Aged 21.
+
+"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
+The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
+Hath had elsewhere its setting
+  And cometh from afar."
+
+"Here comes someone," announced Billie, peering from the window of the
+drawing-room. "It's Mr. Buxton, I think, and he's heavily laden with
+parcels, apparently."
+
+In another moment, the bachelor himself stood in the doorway regarding
+the charming picture with his half-humorous, half-grave expression.
+
+"There were only three Graces, were there not?" he asked. "I've
+forgotten. It's been so long since I met them. But there should have
+been four."
+
+"And why not five, since you are adding to the number," asked Mary.
+
+"Meaning for the fifth the beauteous lady who lingers in her room?" he
+demanded.
+
+"She out-graces us all," exclaimed Billie. "But what did you bring with
+you? Do tell us. We are dying of curiosity."
+
+The bachelor's lips twitched with a crafty smile and he shook one finger
+at them like the sly old comedian he was.
+
+"Walt!" he said, disappearing into the hall and reappearing in a moment
+with an aged, gnarled dwarf apple tree growing in a green vase, and a
+lacquered box beautifully inlaid with mother-of-pearl.
+
+"Do you think I have the ghost of a chance?" he asked them in a whisper.
+
+The girls were consumed with giggles.
+
+"Not the ghost," laughed Billie. "She wouldn't stay in Japan, not if you
+brought her all the Emperor's chrysanthemums in a single bunch."
+
+"But what's in the box, Mr. Buxton?" demanded Nancy.
+
+"You shall see," he answered. "Wait until the Fifth Grace appears."
+
+"Here she is," they cried in a chorus, as Miss Campbell swept into the
+room, resplendent in mauve satin covered with billows of fine lace.
+
+"Madame, you blind me with your magnificence," exclaimed the bachelor,
+making a low bow.
+
+"I'm glad you like my dress," said the elegant little lady.
+
+"It's not the dress but the eyes," he corrected her, just as Mr.
+Campbell, followed by Reggie Carlton and Nicholas Grimm, appeared.
+
+"We meet to meet again," cried Nicholas, joyfully.
+
+The two young men were sailing for America on the same ship with the
+Campbells, and many a long happy day they were all to have together.
+
+"And I am to be the only figure left on the Japanese screen," said Mr.
+Buxton sadly. "I shall have to walk across the curved bridges alone and
+consume tea for two under the flowering cherry tree."
+
+"I am afraid you will, sir," said Miss Campbell.
+
+"Madam, permit me," he said solemnly, placing the apple tree at her feet.
+"Is this any inducement?"
+
+"Not the slightest," answered Miss Helen with a laugh.
+
+Mr. Buxton gazed sadly from one smiling face to another.
+
+Then he opened the lacquered box and presented each of the Motor Maids
+with a beautiful embroidered silk robe.
+
+"Have an empty box, then, Madam," he announced, placing the casket in her
+lap, and because of the riotous and unseemly laughter, no one heard her
+reply.
+
+So ended the last day of the Motor Maids in their pretty Japanese villa.
+It was as happy and beautiful an evening as that land of flowers and
+hospitality could make it. We should not be sorry ourselves to linger
+with them on those lovely shores, but the winter is at land and the
+season of dreams has passed.
+
+Komatsu and O'Haru and old Saiki, the gardener, the four little maids,
+the grandmothers and the children remain picturesque figures in a
+picturesque land; and behind them, glistening In the sunlight, looms
+Fujiyama, sacred mountain of dazzling whiteness and perfect beauty.
+
+For the Motor Maids this memory will live as the type of all the
+experiences and scenes of fair Japan. Above the remembrance of stormy
+crises--within and without--of their sojourn there, rises the happy
+consciousness of a firmer, larger friendship which they may take with
+them as the choicest souvenir of the summer.
+
+And in their homeland, if we wish, we may join them again to find what
+another year of life has revealed to them. In the meantime, let us
+anticipate the pleasure in store for us with "The Motor Maids at Sunrise
+Camp."
+
+
+END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Motor Maids in Fair Japan, by Katherine Stokes
+
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