JAPANESE PRIDE.
The next day Cleo left Tokyo with the party of tourists. Takashima, who
had called during the afternoon, found a note from her. It told him
simply that she had decided to make a trip through the island, and as
the party left that day she had no time save to write a hurried
good-bye. The letter was weak, conventional in its phrases, and
enigmatical. Had it been written to a westerner he would have understood
at once; in fact, her manner, long before this, would have raised doubts
as to her honesty toward him. It did not have that effect on Takashima,
because it is the nature of the Japanese to believe thoroughly in one
until they are completely undeceived. On returning home Orito found
waiting for him a dainty note from Mrs. Davis, asking him to call on
her.
It was a difficult task she had set herself--difficult even for a woman
of Mrs. Davis' social and worldly experience.
When Orito looked at her with grave, attentive eyes, in which were no
traces of distrust, she felt her heart begin to fail her before she had
said a word. They talked of the weather, of the flowers, of the month,
the foreigners in Tokyo, the pretty geisha girls--every subject save the
one she had at heart. Finally she dashed into it all at once, almost
desperately. Perhaps she had learned in that brief interview why it had
been so hard for Cleo to tell him, for the young man's face was so
earnest, pure, and true.
"Cleo has told me--I know all about that--and I--she told me to say--I
mean--I know about your--your caring for her, and----"
The Japanese had risen sharply to his feet. He was deathly pale.
"Will madam kindly not speak of this?" he said. "I can only speak with
Miss Ballard herself on this subject."
After he had left her Mrs. Davis sat down helplessly, and wrote a
flurried letter to Cleo.
"Dearest Cleo," it ran, "I tried to tell him; tried harder than I ever
tried to do anything in my life. But he would not let me speak--stopped
me as soon as I got started, and I had not the heart to insist."