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.