"WATCHING THE NIGHT."
It was quite a wistful, sad-faced girl who took her seat at the table,
and answered, half absently, the light jests of some of the passengers.
Tom's sharp ears missed her usual merry tone. He glanced keenly at her,
as she sat beside him, eating her dinner in almost absolute silence.
"What's up, Cleo?"
"Nothing, Tom."
"Don't fib, now. You are not in the habit of wearing such a countenance
for nothing."
"I can't help my countenance, Tom," she rejoined, with just a suggestion
of a break in her voice.
Tom looked at her a moment in silence, and then delicately turned his
head away. After dinner he took her arm very affectionately, and they
strolled out on deck together.
Takashima was sitting alone, as they came out. He was waiting for Cleo,
as usual, and had been watching the door of the dining-room expectantly.
Tom drew her off in a different direction from where the Japanese was
sitting. For a short time they walked up and down the deck, neither of
them speaking a word. Then Tom broke the silence, saying carelessly, as
he lit a cigar:
"Mind my smoking, sis?"
"No, Tom," the girl answered, looking at him gratefully. Instinctively
she felt the ready sympathy he always extended to her, often without
even knowing her trouble, and seldom asking for her confidence. When she
was worried or distressed about anything, Tom would take her very firmly
away from every one, and if she had anything to tell she usually told it
to him; for since they had been little girl and boy together Tom had
been the recipient of all her woes. When he was a little boy of twelve,
his father and mother both having died, Cleo's father, his uncle, had
taken him into his family, and the two children had been brought up
together. After the death of his uncle he had stood to the mother and
Cleo as father, brother, and son in one, and they both became very
dependent on him. Once in a while when he was feeling exceptionally
loving to Cleo he would call her "little sis." That night he did so very
lovingly.
"Feeling blue, little sis?" he asked.
"Yes, Tom."
Tom cleared his throat. "Er--er--Takashima?"
"No, Tom--it is not he. It is mother."
Tom stopped in his walk, and made a half-impatient exclamation.
"Oh, Tom, I do want to love her so much--but--but she won't let me. I
mean--she is fond of me, and--and--proud, I suppose, but whenever I try
to get close to her she repulses me in some way. We ought to be a
comfort to each other, but--but there is scarcely any feeling between
us." She caught her breath. "Tom, I don't know what's the matter with
me to-night. I--I--Oh, Tom, I do want a little sympathy so much."
The young man threw his lighted cigar away. He did not answer Cleo, but
he drew her little hand closer through his arm. After a time the girl
quieted down, and her voice had lost its restlessness when she said:
"Dear Tom--you are so good."
They strolled slowly back in the moonlight to where Takashima was
sitting. He was leaning over the railing, watching the dark waves
beneath in their silvery, shimmering splendor, touched by the moon's
rays. He turned as Tom called out to him:
"See a--a whale, Takie?"
"No; I was merely watching the--the night."
Cleo raised her head and smiled at Tom, both of them enjoying the
Japanese's naive way of answering.
"I was watching the night," he repeated, "and thinking of Miss Cleo. We
generally enjoy such sights together."
"Well, to-night I thought I had a lien on her for a change," Tom said.
"Cleo is too popular to be monopolized by one person, you know."
The Japanese smiled--a happy, confident smile. It touched the girl, and
she said, impetuously: "Tom, it always depends on who has the monopoly."
Tom answered with mock sternness: "Very well, madam; I leave you and
Takie to the tender mercies of each other."
"Your cousin likes you very much, does he not?" the Japanese asked her,
as Tom moved away.
"Yes; Tom is the best boy in the world. I don't know what I'd do
without him." She leaned her head against the railing. His next quiet,
meaning words startled her: "Would you wish to marry with him?" She
laughed outright; for she perceived the first touch of jealousy he had
shown in these words.
She lifted her little chin in its old saucy fashion.
"No--not if Tom was the only man in the world. It would be too much like
marrying one's brother."
She smiled at the anxious face of the Japanese. He bent over her chair a
moment, then he drew back and stood against the rail, in a still
indecisive posture. The girl knew instinctively what he wanted to say.
Perhaps it was because she was tired, and her heart was hungry for a
little love, that she did not try to prevent him from speaking.
"This afternoon, Miss Ballard, your words gave me courage. Will you
marry with _me?_" he asked.
The question was so direct she could not evade it. She must face it out
now. Yet she could find no words to answer at first. The effort it had
cost the Japanese to say this had made him constrained, for he had all
the pride of a Japanese gentleman; and after all he was not so sure that
the girl would accept him. He had been told it was customary in America
to speak to the girl herself before speaking to the parents, and it was
in a stiff, ceremonious way that he did so. He waited silently for her
answer.
"Don't let us talk about--about such things," she said; and again there
was that little break in her voice that had been there when Tom had
walked with her. "Our--our friendship has been so delightful," she
added; "don't let us break it just now."
For the first time since she had known him there was a note of sternness
in Takashima's voice.
"Love should not break friendship," he said. "It should rather cement
it."
The wind blew her hair wildly about her face, and in her restlessness it
irritated her. She put her hands up and held back the light, soft curls
that had escaped.
"Shall I speak to your mother?" he asked her.
"No!--No!" she said, quickly; "mother has--has nothing to do with it."
"Will you not tell me what to expect, then?" The sadness of his voice
touched the girl's heart, bringing the tears to her eyes.
"I cannot answer yet. Wait till we get to Japan. Please wait till then."
"I tried to plan ahead," he said, "but you are right, Miss Ballard. You
will want some time to think this over. It will be but five days now
before we reach Japan. If that you are very kind to me in those five
days my heart shall take great hope of what your answer will be."