HER GENTLE ENEMY.
Enemies are often easier made than friends. Fanny Morton was not an
agreeable enemy to have. She was one of those women who were constantly
on the look-out for objects of interest. She was interested in
Takashima, as was nearly every one who met him. In the first place,
Takashima was a desirable person to know; a graduate of Harvard
University, of irreproachable manners, and high breeding, wealthy,
cultured, and even good-looking. Moreover, the innate goodness and
purity of the young man's character were reflected in his face. In fact,
he was a most desirable person to know for those who were bound for the
Land of Sunrise. That he could secure them the entrée to all desirable
places in Japan, they knew. For this reason if for no other Takashima
was popular, but it was more on account of the genuineness of the young
man, and his gentle courtesy to every one, that the passengers sought
him out and made much of him on the steamer. And it was partly because
he was so popular that Cleo Ballard, with the usual vanity of woman,
found him doubly interesting. In his gentle way he had retained all of
them as his friends, in spite of the fact that he had attached himself
almost entirely to Miss Ballard. On the other hand, the girl had
suffered a good deal from the malicious jealousy of some of the women
passengers, who made her a target for all their spite and spleen. But
she enjoyed it rather than otherwise.
"Most people do not like me as well as you do, Mr. Takashima," she said
once. He had looked puzzled a moment, and she had added, "That is
because I don't like everybody. You ought to feel flattered that I like
you."
Fanny Morton could not forgive Cleo the half-cut of the evening of the
hop. A few days afterwards she said to a group of women as they lay back
in their deck-chairs, languidly watching the restless waves, "I wonder
what Cleo Ballard's little game is with young Takashima?"
She had told them of the conversation on deck, of the young Japanese's
peculiar familiarity and homage in addressing her, and of the flowery,
though earnest, compliments he had paid her.
"She must be in love with him," one of the party volunteered.
"No, she is not," contradicted an old acquaintance of Cleo's, "because
Cleo could not be in love with any one. The girl never had any heart."
"I thought she was engaged to Arthur Sinclair, and was going out to join
him in Tokyo," put in an anxious-looking little woman who had spent
almost the entire voyage on her back, being troubled with a fresh
convulsion of seasickness every time the sea got the least bit rough. It
is wonderful what a lot of information is often to be got out of one of
these invalids. During the greater part of the voyage they merely
listen to all about them, and, as a rule, the rest are inclined to
regard them as so many dummies. Then, toward the close of the voyage,
they will surprise you with their knowledge on a question that has never
been settled.
"That _is_ news," said Cleo's old acquaintance, sitting up in her chair,
and regarding the little woman with undisguised amazement. "Who told
you, my dear?"
"I thought I heard her discussing it with her cousin the other day," the
woman answered, with visible pleasure that she was now an object of
interest.
"My dear," repeated the old acquaintance once more, settling her ample
form in the canvas chair, "really, I must have been stupid not to have
guessed this. Why, of course, I understand now. That was what all that
finery meant in Washington, I suppose. That is why her mother has been
so mysteriously uneasy about Cleo's--and I must say it now--outrageous
flirtation with the Japanese. Every time she has been able to come on
deck--and, poor thing, it has not been often through the voyage so
far--she has called Cleo away from Mr. Takashima, and I've even heard
her reprove her, and remonstrate with her. Well! well!"
Fanny Morton was smiling as she stole away from the party.