“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.