THE COMING OF AUSTEN WARE
Dusk purpled over the rice-fields as the train sped on. Still the man
who had witnessed that farewell sat crouched in his seat in the forward
car, stirless and pallid.
From boyhood Austen Ware had trod a calculate path. Judicious,
masterful, possessed, he had gone through life with none of the
temptations that had lain in wait for his younger brother Phil. These
traits were linked to a certain incapacity for bad luck and an
unwearying tenaciousness of purpose. Seldom had any one seen his face
change color, had seldom seen his poise of glacial complacency shaken.
To-night, however, the oil lamps which glowed dully in the ceiling of
the carriage threw their faint light on a face torn with passion.
Barbara's beauty, whose perfect indifference no touch of sentimental
passion had devitalized, had, from the first, aroused Ware's stubborn
sense of conquest. He had been too wise to make missteps--had put ardor
into the background, while surrounding her with tactful and graceful
observances which unconsciously usurped a large place in her thought. In
the end he had broken down an instinctive disinclination and converted
it into liking.
But this was all. For the rest he had perforce been content to wait.
Thus matters had stood when they parted a few months ago. He recalled
the day he had sailed for Suez. Looking back across the widening water,
he had conceived then no possibility of ultimate failure. "How beautiful
she is!" he had said to himself. "She will marry me. She does not love
me, but she cares for no other man. She will marry me in Japan." There
had been nobody else then!
As he peered out into the glooming dusk all kinds of thoughts raced
through his mind. Who was the man? Was this the resurrection of an old
"affair" that he had never guessed? No, when he left her, Barbara had
been fancy free! It was either a "steamer acquaintance," or one come to
quick fruition on a romantic soil. He took out a cigar-case and struck a
match with shaking fingers. Had it even come to clandestine
_rendezvous_? She had gone one way, the man another! A whirl of rage
seized him: the slender metal snapped short off in the fierce wrench of
his fingers. He thrust the broken case into his pocket with a muttered
curse that sat strangely on his fastidious tongue.
Gradually, out of the wrack emerged his dominant impulse, caution. He
had many things to learn; he must find out how the land lay. He must
move slowly, reëstablish the old, easy, informal footing. Above all he
must lay himself open to no chance of a definite refusal. A plan began
to take shape. His telegram had told her he would arrive in Tokyo next
day. Meanwhile he would find out what Phil knew.
He left the train at Yokohama under cover of the crowd. In a half-hour
he was aboard his yacht. Two hours later he sat down to order his dinner
on the terrace of the hotel, cool, unruffled, immaculately groomed. The
place was brightly barred with the light from the tall dining-room
windows, and the small, round tables glowed with _andons_ whose
candle-light shone on men's conventional black-and-white, and women's
fluttering gowns. There was no wind--only the long, slow breath of the
bay that seemed sluggish with the scents of the tropical evening. A
hundred yards from the hotel front great floating wharves had been built
out into the water. They were gaily trimmed with bunting and electric
lights in geometrical designs. A series of arches flanked them, and
these were covered with twigs of ground pine. Ware had guessed these
decorations were for the European Squadron of Dreadnaughts, of whose
arrival to-day's newspapers had been full.
As he looked over the _menu_, a man sitting near-by rose and came to him
with outstretched hand. He was Commander DeKay, a naval _attaché_ whom
Ware had known in Europe. They had met again, a few days since, at
Kyoto. He hospitably insisted on the other's joining his own party of
five.
Ware was not gregarious, and to-night was in a sullen mood. But, with
his habitual policy, he thrust this beneath the surface and in another
moment was bowing to the introductions: Baroness Stroloff, her sister, a
chic young matron whose natural habitat seemed to be Paris; the
ubiquitous and popular Count Voynich, and a statuesque American girl,
whose name Ware recognized as that of a clever painter of Japanese
children. He looked well in evening dress, and his dark beard, thick
curling pompadour and handsome eyes added a something of distinction to
a well-set figure.
"So you have just arrived, Mr. Ware?" the Baroness said. "I hope you're
not one of those terrible two-days-in-Japan tourists who spoil all our
prices for us."
"I expect to stay a month or more," he said. "And as for prices, I shall
put up as good a battle as I can."
"You know," said the artist, with an air of imparting confidential
information, "everybody is scheduled in Tokyo. If you belong to an
Embassy you have to pay just so much more for everything. In the
Embassies, 'number-one-man' pays more than 'number-two-man,' and so on
down. You and I are lucky, Mr. Ware. We are not on the list, and can
fight it out on its merits."
"Belonging to the rankless file has its advantages in Japan, then."
"Not at official dinners, I assure you," interposed the Baroness' sister
with a shrug. "It means the bottom of the table, and sitting next below
the same student-interpreter nine times in the season. I have discovered
that I rank with, but not above, the dentist."
"You tempt me to enter the service--in the lowest grade," said Ware, and
the Baroness laughed and shook her fan at him reprovingly.
The sky above their heads was pricked out with pale stars, like
cat's-eye pins in a greenish-violet tapestry. Up and down the roadway
went shimmering _rick'sha_, and Japanese couples in light _kimono_
strolled along the bay's edge, under the bent pines, their low voices
mingled with the soft lapping of the tide. Now and then a bicycle would
pass swiftly, bare sandaled feet chasing its pedals, and _kimono_
sleeves flapping like great bats'-wings from its handle-bars; or a
flanneled English figure would stride along, with pipe and racquet, from
late tennis at the recreation-ground. From the corner came the cries of
romping children and the tapping staff and double flute-note of a blind
_masseur_.
The talk flew briskly hither and thither, skimming the froth of the
capital's _causerie_: recent additions to the official set, the splendid
new ball-room at the German Embassy, and the increasing importance of
Tokyo as a diplomatic center--the coming Imperial "Cherry-Viewing
Garden-Party," and the annual Palace duck-hunt at the _Shin-Hama_
preserve, where the game is caught, like butterflies, in scoop-nets--the
new ceremonial for Imperial audiences--whether a stabbing affray between
two Legation _bettos_ would end fatally, and whether the Turkish
Minister's gold dinner service was solid--and a little scandalous
surmise regarding the newest continental widow whose stay in Japan had
been long and her dinners anything but exclusive--a rumored engagement,
and--at last!--the arrival of the new beauty at the American Embassy.
"A _real one_!" commented Voynich, screwing his eye-glass in more
tightly. "And that means something in the tourist season."
Ware's fingers flattened on the stem of his glass of yellow chartreuse
as the artist said: "We are in the throes of a new sensation at present,
Mr. Ware; a case of love at first sight. It's really a lot rarer than
the novelists make out, you know! We are all tremendously interested."
"But he knows her," said Voynich. "The other evening in Tokyo, Mr. Ware,
Miss Fairfax mentioned having met you. She is from Virginia, I think."
Ware bowed. "She is very good to remember me," he said. "And so Miss
Fairfax has met her fate in Japan?"
"Well, rather!" said the artist. "I hear betting is even that she'll
accept him inside a fortnight."
Ware sipped his liqueur with a tinge of relief. Evidently the world of
Tokyo had not yet discovered that the new arrival's first name was that
of his yacht.
"Daunt doesn't play according to Hoyle," grumbled Voynich. "She's a
guest of his own chief and he ought to give the others half a chance. He
lives in the Embassy Compound, too, confound him! He monopolized her
outrageously at the Review the other day! He's an American 'trust.' I
shall challenge him."
The voice of DeKay broke in:
"Coppery hair and pansy-brown eyes, a skin like a snowdrift caught
blushing, and a mouth like the smile of a red flower! A girl that Romney
might have loved, slim and young and thoroughbred--there you have the
capital sentence of the Secretary of the American Embassy!"
Down the middle of the street came running a boy, bare-legged,
bareheaded and scantily clad. A bunch of jangling bells was tied to his
girdle, and his hands were full of what looked like small blue
hand-bills. DeKay got up quickly. "There's an evening extra," he said.
"It's the _Kokumin Shimbun_." He bolted down the steps, stopped the
runner and returned with one of the blue sheets.
He scanned it rapidly--he was a student of the vernacular. "Nothing
especial," he informed them. "Prices in Wall Street are smashing the
records. That looks like a clear political horizon, in spite of what the
wiseacres have been saying. This visit of the Squadron will prove a
useful poultice, no doubt, to reduce international inflammation--its
officers being shown the sights of the capital, and the celebrations to
come off as per schedule, including the Naval Minister's ball to-morrow
night. By the way," he added, turning to Ware, "I arranged for an
invitation for you. It's probably at the hotel in Tokyo now, awaiting
your arrival."
A little gleam came to Ware's eyes. The threads were in his hands, and
this suited his plan. "Thanks," he said; "you're very kind, Commander. I
shall see the subject of your rhapsody, then, before the Judge puts on
his black cap."
"Ah, but you'll have no chance," laughed the Baroness. "Trust a woman's
eye."
"Unless his aëroplane takes a tumble," said the American girl
reflectively. "There's always a chance for a tragedy there!"
They rose to depart. "We are actually going to the opera, Mr. Ware,"
said the Baroness; "the 'Popular Hardman Comic Opera Company,' if you
please, 'with Miss Cissy Clifford.' Doesn't that sound like Broadway? It
comes over every season from Shanghai, and it's our regular spring
dissipation. You'd not be tempted to join us, I suppose?"
He bowed over her hand. "It is my misfortune to have an engagement
here."
"Well, then--_jusqu'au bal_. Good night."
* * * * *
Ware drank his black coffee alone on the terrace. Daunt--a Secretary of
Embassy! A rival less experienced than he, full of youth's
enthusiasms--a young Romeo, wooing from the garden of officialdom! It
had been a handful of days against his own round year; a few meetings,
at most, to offset his long and constant plan! And, as a result, the
thing he had seen through the car window. He shut his teeth. He would
have taken bitter toll of that kiss!
As he lit his cigar, one of the hotel boys came to him. On his arrival
Ware had sent him to Phil's bungalow on the Bluff with a note.
"Ware-_San_ not at home," he said.
"Where is he?"
"No Yokohama now. He go Tokyo yesterday. Stay one week."
"Is he at the hotel there?"
"Boy say no hotel. House have got."
"What is the address?"
"Boy no must tell. He say letter send Tokyo Club."
Ware's composure had been fiercely shaken that night and this obstacle
in his path pricked him to the point of exasperation. With impatience he
threw away his cigar and walked out through the cool, brilliant evening.
But the glittering pageant of the prismatic streets inspired only a
rising irritation. When a pedestrian jostled him, the elaborate bow of
apology and ceremonial drawing-in of breath met with only a morose
stare. He left the Bund and threaded the _Honcho-dori_--the "Main
Street"--striving to curb his mood. Midway of its length was a jeweler's
shop-window with a beautiful display of jewel-jade. In it was hung a
sign which he read with a wry smile: "English Spoken: American
Understood." Ware entered and handed the Japanese clerk his broken
cigar-case.
The counter was spread with irregular pieces of the green and pink
stone, wrought with all the laborious cunning of the oriental lapidary.
At his elbow a clerk was packing a jade bracelet into a tiny box for
delivery. He wrapped and addressed it painstakingly with a little
brush--
Esquire Philp Weare,
Kasumiga-tani Cho, 36.
Tokyo.
In the street Ware smiled grimly as he entered the address in his
note-book. He had always believed in his luck. To-morrow he would find
Phil, and gain further enlightenment--incidentally on the matter of jade
bracelets! His mouth set in contemptuous lines as he walked back to the
hotel.