Fortunately dinner was announced and on the arm of Mr. Buxton she led the way to the dining room with the air of an exiled queen.
Billie was very anxious about the success of her father"s birthday dinner. She had herself a.s.sisted in decorating the table, and had insisted on placing a crystal bowl of goldfish in the center, although O"Haru had told her that goldfish were not carp, and therefore had no significance whatever with the day.
However, Onoye had caught the idea at once and had carried it out charmingly. Hiding behind the screen, where she could see without being seen, her heart warmed with joy when she heard the exclamations of the guests. The center of the table was arranged to resemble a little lake.
The shallow bowl of goldfish was placed on a flat round mirror, on the edge of which nodded groups of iris and their sword-like leaves planted in shallow green dishes; pebbles and water gra.s.ses hid the perforations which held them in place. Two little boats sailed on the lake, and at one side was a miniature grotto formed of rocks and moss, and spanned by a little bridge.
"Isn"t it cunning?" asked Billie proudly, "and isn"t Onoye clever to have carried out the scheme so perfectly?"
"She is, indeed," a.s.sented Miss Campbell, feeling suddenly glad to praise some one to counteract the unusual sensations that had possessed her a moment before.
"It is a part of every j.a.panese girl"s education to learn the art of arranging flowers," said Mme. Fontaine. "She is taught that, just as girls in other countries are taught music and languages. It often takes several hours to arrange a group of flowers. The object is, you see, to make them look as natural as possible in the vase."
"It is a pretty accomplishment," said Miss Campbell, "but I doubt if any American girl would have the patience to learn it. Can you imagine, Billie, spending two hours arranging three lilies in a bowl to make them look as if they had grown there?"
"No, I can"t," laughed Billie, "but I have spent two hours many times on my back under the "Comet" trying to find a loose screw."
"If I had a wife--" here Nicholas remarked and paused because everybody laughed.
"Well, if you had one, what would you do with her? Beat her?" asked Mr.
Buxton.
"Do I look like a wife beater?" demanded Nicholas indignantly. "No. I was going to say I"d rather she would know about loose screws in machinery than how to arrange flowers."
"You speak as if marriage was one long motor trip, my boy," observed Mr.
Campbell.
"And, surely," put in Miss Campbell, "if the machinery broke down, you wouldn"t compel your wife to repair it?"
"I am afraid very few girls would be eligible for your wife, Mr. Grimm,"
remarked Mme. Fontaine.
As for Billie, she said nothing at all, but glanced down at her plate, because Nicholas looked straight at her and then burst out with:
"Don"t jump on me, everybody, with both feet. I only meant that it"s a jolly fine girl who can--er--who--knows--"
He broke down in confusion.
"You mean that a young lady chauffeur would make an excellent wife?"
laughed Mr. Campbell.
"Spare his blushes," put in Reggie, and then the talk shifted to other subjects.
It is customary in j.a.pan on the day of the Boys" Festival to tell stories of the heroes of the country, and after dinner when they had gathered in the lantern-hung summer-house for coffee, Mme. Fontaine, urged by the girls, recounted an incident in the life of Yamato, or O"Osu, as he was then known. He was the son of the Emperor Keiko, and when a mere slip of a boy was sent by his father to slay two fierce robbers who had been spreading terror through the country. O"Osu gladly undertook the affair and since the outlaws were giants and he just a boy, he devised a cunning scheme to outwit the terrible brigands. He was slender and small and his hair still long, so that in the gorgeous clothes of a dancing girl no one would ever have guessed he was a brave and reckless young prince.
One night when the robbers were feasting in their cave after pillaging the country for miles around, the beautiful dancing girl appeared before them like a vision. She charmed them with her songs and dances and then suddenly she whipped out a sharp sword and slew the nearest robber. As the other fled terror-stricken to the entrance of the cave, she thrust him in the back and he fell to the ground.
""Pause, oh Prince, for prince thou surely art," he gasped. "But why hast thou done this deed?"
"And the prince, standing over him with the dripping sword, said:
""I am O"Osu, messenger of the Emperor and avenger of evil."
""Then," said the dying robber, "thou shalt have a new name. Until this hour my brother and I have been called the bravest men in the West. To thee, august boy, I bequeath the t.i.tle. Let men call thee the bravest in Yamato."
"From that day O"Osu was called "Yamato Take," and never did he wrong the name."
Mary sighed when Mme. Fontaine had finished the story. She yearned for the gift of language and the power to chain the attention of a circle of people. How had she done it, this mysterious foreigner who could handle the English language even better than English people? Her words were simple and gestures she used almost none. It was her voice, Mary thought.
There was an undercurrent of dramatic power in it, like a subterranean river. It could only be guessed at, but it was there, powerful and deep.
Even Miss Campbell, unreasonably prejudiced, felt the undercurrent.
"That is a charming story," she observed. "I suppose j.a.pan is filled with many romantic stories of that sort."
"Hundreds of them," answered the widow. "Volumes and volumes could be written about them and still the half not be told."
"And you know many of them, I suppose?" asked Billie.
"Oh, yes. One could not live in j.a.pan without studying her history, so filled with romances and legends of heroic deeds. It is fascinating, I a.s.sure you, and furnishes no end of subjects for decorations from a picture on a fan to the masterpiece of a great artist."
There was a moment"s silence in the company of which Mme. Fontaine certainly seemed the center. She looked suddenly very j.a.panese. Against the white of her dress her soft skin gleamed like polished old ivory. Her eyes were darker and more noticeably slanting than ever before. If she only had had dark hair! What country had given her those strangely incongruous locks?
And now it was proposed that they should wander in the garden, and off they started by various paths and bypaths all leading eventually to the little curved bridge at the far end, where Nancy had hung two large yellow lanterns on the ends of supple willow wands.
The Widow of Shanghai walked between Billie and Mr. Campbell, but she had little to say. The moon, swinging over them like another yellow lantern, had glorified the garden into a little earthly paradise. It seemed somehow inappropriate to speak above a whisper in the midst of so much exquisite beauty. The wisteria had opened up during the day and now hung in magnificent purple cl.u.s.ters from an arbor across the main walk.
From the servants" quarters came the tinkle of the samisen, and a breeze laden with the scent of flowers brought with it also the distant sound of voices and laughter.
Nicholas Grimm had joined Billie, and the two young people now lingered in the arbor. In the curve of a path they caught an occasional glimpse of a white dress. The music of Nancy"s laugh came to them mingled with Mary"s high, sweet note. Gradually the voices died away. The garden seemed to be under a spell. Billie, sitting beside Nicholas in the arbor, waited breathlessly. Then at last in the stillness there burst forth such a stream of full-throated singing as had never been heard.
"It"s a nightingale," whispered Nicholas.
Billie felt that she would like very much to cry. Nothing had ever stirred her as this flood of melody which seemed to have been turned on for their especial benefit. While they listened, there came the sound of three pistol shots in quick succession and a cry. Was it an English cry for help?
Instantly Nicholas was on his feet.
"You had better stay here," he said. "I"ll run and see what has happened."
Before Billie could reply, Nancy dashed up.
"We are all to go into the house," she said. "Someone has shot a pistol in the far end of the garden. The men have gone down there."
Billie considered the situation for a moment. Certainly neither her father nor his three guests were armed. Would it not be a good precaution to go to the library and get her father"s pistol? It was merely an impulse, and she could hardly explain it later, but she obeyed it.
"It"s nothing serious, Mr. Buxton says. Probably someone who has been celebrating has wandered into the garden, but we had better wait for them in the house," Billie heard Miss Campbell remark, as she ran along the path to the side entrance.
CHAPTER X.