CLEO.
"No use looking over there, my dear. Takie has no heart to break--never
knew a Jap that had, for that matter--cold sort of creatures, most of
them."
The speaker leaned nonchalantly against the guard rail, and looked
half-amusedly at the girl beside him. She raised her head saucily as her
companion addressed her, and the willful little toss to her chin was so
pretty and wicked that the man laughed outright.
"No need for _you_ to answer in words," he said. "That wicked, willful
look of yours bodes ill for the Jap's--er--heart."
"I would like to know him," said the girl, slowly and quite soberly.
"Really, he is very good-looking."
"Oh! yes--I suppose so--for a Japanese," her companion interrupted.
The girl looked at him in undisguised disgust for a moment.
"How ignorant you are, Tom!" she said, impatiently; "as if it makes the
slightest difference _what_ nationality he belongs to. Mighty lot _you_
know about the Japanese."
Tom wilted before this assault, and the girl took advantage to say:
"Now, Tom, I want to know Mr.--a--a--Takashima. _What_ a name! Go, like
the dear good boy you are, and bring him over here."
Tom straightened his shoulders.
"I utterly, completely, and altogether _refuse_ to introduce you, young
lady, to any other man on board this steamer. Why, at the rate you're
going there won't be a heart-whole man on board by the time we reach
Japan."
"But you said Mr. Ta--Takashima--or 'Takie,' as you call him, had no
heart."
"True, but you might create one in him. I have a great deal of
confidence in you, you know."
"Oh! Tom, _don't_ be ridiculous now. Horrid thing! I believe you just
want to be coaxed."
Tom's good-natured, fair face expanded in a broad smile for a moment.
Then he tried to clear it.
"_Always_ disliked to be coaxed," he choked.
"Hem!" The girl looked over into the waters a moment, thinking. Then she
rose up and looked Tom in the face.
"Tom, if you don't I'll go over and speak to him without an
introduction."
"Better try it," said Tom, aggravatingly. "Why, you'd shock him so much
he wouldn't get over it for a year. You don't know these Japs as I do,
my dear--dozens of them at our college--awfully strict on subject of
etiquette, manners, and all that folderol."
"Yes, but I'd tell him it was an American custom."
"Can't fool Takashima, my dear. Been in America eight years now--knows
a thing or two, I guess."
Takashima, the young Japanese, looked over at them, with the unreadable,
quiet gaze peculiar to the better class Japanese. His eyes loitered on
the girl's beautiful face, and he moved a step nearer to them, as a
gentleman in passing stood in front, and for a moment hid them from him.
"He is looking at us now," said the girl, innocently.
Tom stared at her round-eyed for a moment.
"How on earth do you know that? Your head is turned right from him."
Again the saucy little toss of the chin was all the girl's answer.
"He's right near us now. Tom, please, please--now's your chance," she
added, after a minute.
The Japanese had come quite close to them. He was still looking at the
girl's face, as though thoroughly fascinated with its beauty. A sudden
wind came up from the sea and caught the red cape she wore, blowing it
wildly about her. It shook the rich gold of her hair in wondrous soft
shiny waves about her face, as she tried vainly to hold the little cap
on her head. It was a sudden wild wind, such as one often encounters at
sea, lasting only for a moment, but in that moment almost lifting one
from the deck. The girl, who had been clinging breathlessly to the
railing, turned toward Takashima, her cheeks aflame with excitement, and
as the violent gust subsided, they smiled in each other's faces.
Tom relented.
"Hallo! Takie--you there?" he said, cordially. "Thought you'd be laid
up. You're a pretty good sailor, I see." Then he turned to the girl and
said very solemnly and as if they had never even discussed the subject
of an introduction, "Cleo, this is my old college friend, Mr.
Takashima--Takie, my cousin, Miss Ballard."
"Will you tell me why," said the young Japanese, very seriously, "you
did not want that I should know your cousin?"
"Don't mind Tom," the girl answered, with embarrassment, as that
gentleman threw away his cigar deliberately; and she saw by his face
that he intended saying something that would mislead Takashima, for he
had often told her of the direct, serious and strange questions the
Japanese would ask, and how he was in the habit of leading him off the
track, just for the fun of the thing, and because Takashima took
everything so seriously.
"Why--a--" said Tom, "the truth of the matter is--my cousin is a--a
flirt!"
"Tom!" said the girl, with flaming cheeks.
"A flirt!" repeated the Japanese, half-musingly. "Ah! I do not like a
flirt--that is not a nice word," he added, gently.
"Tom is just teasing me," she said; and added, "But how did you know Tom
did not want you to know me?"
"I heard you tell him that you want to know me, and I puzzle much myself
why he did not want."
"I was sorry for you in advance, Takie," said Tom, wickedly, and then
seeing by the girl's face that she was getting seriously offended, he
added: "Well, the truth is--er--Cleo--is--a so--young, don't you know.
One can't introduce their female relatives to many of their male
friends. You understand. That's how you put it to me once."
"Yes!" said Takashima, "I remember that I tell you of that. Then I am
most flattered to know your relative."
As Tom moved off and left them together, feeling afraid to trust himself
for fear he would make things worse, he heard the gentle voice of the
Japanese saying very softly to the girl:
"I am most glad that you do not flirt. I do not like that word. Is it
American?"
Tom chuckled to himself, and shook his fist, in mock threat, at Cleo.