CLEO AND NUMÈ.
As soon as Sinclair left them the Japanese girl went close up to the
American girl.
"Sa-ay--I goin' tell you something," she said, confidingly.
"Yes, dear."
"You mos' beautifoolest womans barbarian--No! no! nod thad. Egscuse me.
I _nod_ perlite to mag' mistakes sometimes. I mean I thing' you mos'
beautifoolest _ladies_ I aever seen," she said.
Again Cleo smiled. Numè wished she would say something.
"You lig' me?" she prompted, encouragingly.
"Yes----"
"Foraever an' aever?"
"Well--yes--I guess so."
"How nize!" she clapped her hands and Koto came through the parted
shoji.
"_Now_ I interducing you to my mos' vaery nize friens, Mees Tominago
Koto."
Koto was as anxious as Numè to please, and as she had seen Numè hold her
two hands out in greeting, she did the same, very sweetly.
About an hour later Mrs. Davis, with Tom and Sinclair, looked in at the
three girls. Cleo was sitting on the mats with Koto and Numè, and they
were all laughing.
"Well, we've come for the invalid," said Tom, cheerily. "She has been
out long enough."
"I have enjoyed my visit," she told them, simply. "And Numè," she turned
to her, "Numè, will you kiss me?"
"Ess;" she paused a moment, bashfully, throwing a charming glance at
Sinclair. "I _kin_ kees--Mr. Sinka tich me."
They all laughed at this.
"An' now," she continued, "I inviting you to visit with me agin." She
included them all with a bewitching little sweep of her hands, but her
eyes were on the American girl's face. "An' also I lig' you to know thad
Mr. Sinka promising to me thad he goin' tek me thad grade big United
States. Now, thad _will_ be nize. I egspeg you lig' me visite with you
also. Yaes?"
"Of course; you would stay _with_ us," Tom said, cordially.
"Thad _is_ perlite," she breathed, ecstatically.
"Not polite, Numè," Sinclair corrected, smiling, "but, well--'nize,' as
you would call it."
"Ah, yaes, of course. I beg pardons, egscuse. I mean thad liddle word
'nize.' Tha's foolish say 'perlite.'" She laughed at what she thought
her own foolishness, and she was so pretty when she laughed.
Cleo turned to Sinclair. "I understand," she said, softly, "why you--you
loved her. If I were a man I would too."
"Ah! thad is a regret," sighed Numè, who had overheard her and half
understood. "Thad you nod a mans to luf with me. Aenyhow, I thing' I
liging you without thad I be a mans. Sa-ay, I lig' you jus' lig' a--a
brudder--no, lig' a mudder, with you." This was very generous, as the
mother love is supreme in Japan, and Numè felt she could not go beyond
that.
Cleo seemed very much absorbed on the way home. Tom was in the kurumma
with her, Sinclair having stayed behind a while.
"Matsu is going back with us to America," she said. "I think she is a
dear little thing, and I shall educate her." She was silent a moment,
and then she said, very wistfully:
"Tom, do you suppose I can ever make up--atone for all my wickedness?"
and Tom answered her with all the old loving sympathy.
"_I_ never _could_ think of you as wicked, sis--not wantonly so--only
thoughtless."
"Ah, Tom--if _I_ could only think so too!"
When the boat moved down the bay Cleo's and Tom's eyes were dim, and
when the wharf was only a shadowy, dark line they still leaned forward
watching a small white fluttering handkerchief, and in imagination they
still saw the little doleful figure trying to smile up at them through a
mist of tears.
And a week later the selfsame missionary who had given Sinclair so much
work, and thereby helped him bear his trouble, married them--Sinclair
and Numè. The girl was gowned all in white--the dress she had worn that
first time Sinclair had met her.
About two years later a party of American tourists called on Sinclair.
Among them were a few old acquaintances. They brought strange news. Cleo
and Tom Ballard had been married for a month past!
Perhaps the most frequent visitors at the Sinclairs' are Mr. and Mrs.
Shiku.
THE END.