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

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

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

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

Of course Jack and I were much more sensible, but that whole blessed time is wrapped in rosy mists with streaks of moonlight to the tune of heavenly music, so it ’s futile to try to recall just what did happen.  I ought to have gone to another hotel, but the chain of memory was too strong for me.

I was hesitating between the luxury of a sentimental spell and a fit of loneliness, when a happy interruption came in a message from Countess Otani, naming the next day at two for luncheon with her at the Arsenal Gardens at Tokio.  How I wished for you, Mate!  It was a fairy-story come true, dragons and all.  The Arsenal Garden means just what it says.  Only when the dove of peace is on duty are its gates opened, and then to but a few, high in command.  For across the white-blossomed hedge that encloses the grounds, armies of men toil ceaselessly molding black bullets for pale people and they work so silently that the birds keep house in the long fringed willows and the goldfish splash in the sunned spots of the tiny lake.

After passing the dragons in the shape of sentries and soldiers, to each of whom I gave a brief life-history, I wisely followed my nose and a guard down the devious path.

The Countess received her guests in a banquet-hall all ebony and gold, and was not seated permanently on a throne with a diamond crown screwed into her head as we used so fondly to imagine.

The simplicity of her hospitality was charming.  She and most of her ladies-in-waiting had been educated abroad.  But despite the lure of the Western freedom, they had returned to their country with their heads level and their traditions intact.  But you guess wrong, honey, if you imagine custom and formality of official life have so overcome these high-born ladies as to make them lay figures who dare not raise their eyes except by rule.  There were three American guests, and only by being as nimble as grasshoppers did we hold our own in the table talk which was as exhilarating as a game of snowball on a frosty day.