THOSE GOOD JINRIKISHA MEN.
It did not take Sinclair long to learn the source of her trouble. It
seems she and Koto had been making trips to Tokyo, and had made special
arrangements with a jinrikisha man to take them for so much per week.
Unfortunately, two new runners had been given to them that day. Like the
rest of their class, they were unscrupulous and, consequently, as soon
as they were in a portion of the road from which the girls could not
attempt either to walk to the city or to their home, they had stopped to
demand extra fare. This the girls could not pay them, having no more
with them. Thereupon the runners had refused to carry them farther. It
was in this pitiful plight the two men had found them.
Sinclair reprimanded the men very severely, threatening to report them
to the police, as soon as he returned to Tokyo. He could not be too
harsh, however, because at heart he was thanking them for giving him
this happy chance to see Numè again.
How pretty she looked in the soft kimona! He had only seen her in
conventional American evening dress. It had seemed to him, then,
wonderfully lovely and suited to her; now he thought it incongruous when
compared to the Japanese gown on her.
"You must have been awfully frightened," he said; "better stop a while
until you are composed;" then, as the girls hesitated, "I'll fix it all
right with the runners." He did so, and soon all were in good humor. As
for Numè and Koto, they stepped daintily, almost fearfully, from the
jinrikisha, and followed the two men to the pretty shaded spot, leaving
the jinrikisha men with their vehicles to take care of themselves.
Sinclair noticed that the Englishman seemed to know Numè. He addressed
her as Miss Watanabe, and inquired after Mrs. Davis.
"You have met before, I see," he remarked.
"Ess," the girl smiled; and Taylor repeated the incident of how he had
spoken to her father of the girl's beauty.
"Did I offend you?" he asked the girl.
"Ess."
Both Sinclair and Taylor laughed heartily at her assent, and the two
girls joined in, scarcely knowing what they were laughing at, but
feeling strangely happy and free.
Numè called their attention to Koto, telling them she was her friend and
maid. Sinclair recognized the girl almost immediately as she smiled at
him.
"And so you have been making almost daily trips to Tokyo?" he said,
wondering at the girl's skill in evading detection.
"Ess--we become so _lonely_."
"Well, it's a jolly shame to shut you up like they do the women here,"
Taylor said, with a vivid memory of how the girl had been kept under
such rigid seclusion after his conversation with her father. Taylor
began fumbling with his sketching tools.
"Will you let me paint you, Miss Numè?" he asked. "I'll make the sky a
vivid blue behind you, and paint you like a bright tropic flower
standing out against it."
The girl looked at Sinclair standing behind Taylor. He shook his head at
her.
"No," she said, with exaggerated dignity, "Numè does not wish to be
painted."
"Well, what about Koto?"
Koto nodded her head in undisguised pleasure at the prospect.