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.”