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THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 
 
Mr. Sladen is author of— 
 
 "Queer Things about Japan" Illustrated. (Fourth thousand). (Treherne) 
 
 "More Queer Things about Japan" Illustrated. With Norma Lorimer. 
 (Just ready). (Treherne) 
 
 "A Japanese Marriag-e" Illustrated. (Eighty-second thousand). (Treheine) 
 
 " The Japs at Home" Illustrated. (Seventy-fifth thousand). (Newnes) 
 
 " The Admiral " (Twenty-seventh thousand). (Nash) 
 
 " My Son Richard" (Twenty-second thousand). (Treherne) 
 
 Etc . etc 
 

 PLAYING.. 
 
 
 
 THE GAME 
 
 
 
 A STORY OF JAPAN 
 
 
 
 BEING A SEQUEL TO "A JAPANESE MARRIAGE" 
 
 
 
 BY 
 
 DOUGLAS SLADEN 
 
 
 
 author of 
 
 "a japanrse marriage," "the japs at home," 
 
 and "queer things about japan " 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 LONDON 
 
 
 
 F. V. WHITE & CO., LTD. 
 
 
 
 14 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, W. C. 
 
 
 
 1905 
 
 
 
 
 *'lh 
 
The design on the cover is from a sketch 
 of the celebrated Hakusai. 
 

 PREFACE 
 
 The period occupied by the story is from 1894 to 1904, 
 and, among its adventures and its love-episodes, shows 
 how the ex-Grenadier, Sir Randolph Rich, the type of 
 the athletic young Englishman, gradually changed his 
 opinion about the Japanese. When he went to Japan 
 in 1894 he regarded them as a nation of conceited 
 monkeys, and treated them with the utmost arrogance 
 and contempt; in 1904 he thought them the finest 
 foreigners in the world. Though the story is of Lega- 
 tion life in Tokyo, there are no portraits of people 
 actually connected with the British Legation there. 
 Only one personage in the book is drawn from life 
 (with his oivn consent), that of the far-seeing and 
 patriotic man to whom we owe all our good relations 
 with Japan; and he never had the smallest connection 
 with our Legation in Tokyo. 
 
 m31 1 857 
 
DEDICATION 
 
 " To Lady Lindsay 
 
 The Best of our LJving Poetesses 
 
 This Book is Dedicated'' 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 In Tokyo town there are a million and a half of 
 Asiatics and such a handful of English, that like 
 pioneers in the forest primeval, or mariners shipwrecked 
 on an island, they must perforce be conscious of each 
 other's existence. It has been the wont of persons so 
 placed to override distinctions of station, which, in 
 the land of their birth, would have divided them like 
 the great gulf of the Apocalypse. If you are confined 
 for your society to a very small number of persons, 
 you exhaust their powers of nourishing your brain as 
 a succession of the same crops exhausts the soil. A 
 fresh person of no great gifts or charm may be a 
 positive relief to a brain jaded with sameness. Thus 
 it was that we English in Tokyo in the early nineties 
 were something of a happy family, or perhaps a little 
 republic like the Republics of Arts and Letters in 
 European lands. I do not mean by this that there was 
 any feeling of Jack-is-as-good-as-his-master among us, 
 or that anybody except Lord Clapham ever forgot that 
 he was a peer by birth and the British Minister — our 
 official head. Still less did any woman ever think of 
 intruding on the prerogatives of Mrs. Tiffany, who as 
 wife of the First Secretary of the Legation was British 
 official hostess, his lordship being a widower. But all 
 the English of gentle birth were received as personal 
 friends by Lord Clapham and the Tiffanys ; and in his 
 
 \ 
 
lo PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 posing sort of way by the Second Secretary, Basil 
 Finch, and of course by the valuable Secretary-Inter- 
 preter, Orlando Jevons, who would have prefered a 
 wax figure from Madame Tussaud's to no society at 
 
 all. 
 
 Being with Mrs. Tiffany was rather too like being 
 food for powder. She enjoyed exercising her sarcasms, 
 though she was a good-hearted woman, and we used 
 sometimes to wonder how Great Britain would get 
 along without her wordy castigations of our worthy 
 diplomatic representative. 
 
 The one member of our Legation who made no 
 pretence of equality or fraternity was Randolph Rich, 
 the Third Secretary, a big, fair-haired, ruddy English- 
 man, who had been in the Grenadiers and had ex- 
 changed into the Diplomatic Service to get away from 
 regimental expenses. He was the nephew of a baronet, 
 and heir to the title, but the estates were not entailed, 
 and his uncle had a daughter who was, according to 
 Rich's account, the bane of his existence, though he 
 had not seen her since she was a child. 
 
 I knew Rich, because he was at Cheltenham with 
 me. He was sent there in the days when Cheltenham 
 was regarded as the royal road to getting into the 
 army. Its cheapness, too, may have been a considera- 
 tion. Otherwise I do not suppose he would have 
 honoured me with his confidences ; he would have been 
 more likely to include me with the rest of the non- 
 diplomatic in Tokyo, of whom it was his charitable and 
 gentlemanly habit to remark, in his first days in Japan, 
 that he wondered why they let such a lot of bounders 
 have the run of the Legation. Yet I rather liked him 
 at school, where you get to know a man best, because, 
 although he was haughty and off-handed, he was a 
 thorough sportsman. And I do not only mean by this 
 that he was captain of the eleven and splendid at every 
 other sport — which he was — but that he could be relied 
 upon to " play the game," as we say, in a thoroughly 
 English, manly sort of way. You could not help 
 looking up to Rich at school, and you could rely upon 
 his doing the spirited thing to the end of his life. He 
 had become rather snobbish in the Grenadiers, that 
 
PLAYING THE GAME n 
 
 was his weak side, and he began by behaving hatefully 
 at Tokyo. 
 
 It was indeed difficult to say whether his or Lord 
 Clapham's was the worst appointment in a Legation 
 whose personnel seemed to have been selected for their 
 unfitness. But I, looking at it from the outside point 
 of view, used to thank my stars that we had Rich to 
 show them what a big, brave, manly Englishman was 
 like in that five - o'clock tea-party to whom British 
 interests in Tokyo were entrusted in the trustful 
 nineties. 
 
 That was as things seemed then. As they turned 
 out Lord Clapham did the right thing. It may have 
 been long-headed statesmanship on his part, but nobody 
 would have accused him of it in those days. His basis 
 of action seemed rather to be that of so many philo- 
 sophical Radicals who feel a call to be the friends of 
 every country but their own. It seemed the guiding 
 star of his policy to assume that England must be in 
 the wrong. Oh, for an hour of Sir Harry Parkes was 
 the cry of every Englishman who made his livelihood 
 in Japan, during the first days of the Clapham regime. 
 
 In person Lord Clapham was immensely tall. He 
 had a really handsome face of majestic calm, recalling 
 an Egyptian monument, and clean-shaven except for a 
 narrow band of red whiskers which met under his chin. 
 He walked with a stoop, and kept his head thrown 
 back, and his mouth a little open like Luca della 
 Robbia's singing children. But in his deep serious 
 eyes and broad forehead the wisdom of one of the 
 founders of philosophic sects seemed to repose. 
 
 In London he would have filled the post of president 
 of various learned societies with marvellous sympathy 
 and industry, and not a little eclat. He was cut out 
 for the head of the London School Board, which has 
 since done him the honour of dying. But to nearly 
 every Englishman in Japan he seemed a crank ab- 
 solutely unfitted for his present post ; except that, 
 belonging to the school which turns the other cheek 
 to the smiter, he pleased the Japanese, who loved to 
 trample on foreign representatives. It was also 
 imagined that, education being Lord Clapham's hobby, 
 
12 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 he might teach the Japanese something. The burning 
 question of that day was Treaty Revision, in which 
 Great Britain, having far the largest interests, was 
 expected to show an example of firmness to the other 
 nations. 
 
 There was no saying to what depths of humility his 
 Excellency might not have descended but for his 
 beautiful Spanish niece, Chiquita Palafox, who was as 
 engaging as a kitten, but had the temper of a tigress. 
 Chiquita was mistress at the British Legation, though 
 Mrs. Tiffany acted as its official female head. She was 
 only eighteen, but much fitter than her uncle to be Her 
 Britannic Majesty's representative. When she blushed, 
 her clear, dark cheeks mantled with crimson in the 
 most becoming manner ; when she was angry they 
 flamed. 
 
 Chiquita never learnt the fine distinctions of import- 
 ance which reign among Britons, and was just as 
 affable to me as to any titled globe-trotter. 
 
 I made the acquaintance of Lord Clapham and 
 Chiquita not, as might have been expected, through 
 my school-friend Rich, but through Orlando Jevons, 
 the wSecretary-Interpreter of the Legation, and really by 
 far the most important person in it, being the only 
 member of it who could speak a single word of Japanese, 
 and a person of boundless energy, while the rest were 
 dawdlers, a prey to philosophic calm like Lord Clapham, 
 or men who regarded diplomacy as designed to give 
 them sinecures, and not as a means for promoting the 
 interests of Great Britain. They never thought about 
 Great Britain except when their dignity was ruffled 
 and they were complaining of the " bally cheek of the 
 Japs." They would have thought pushing just as bad 
 form diplomatically as socially. 
 
 As Jevons told the Japanese what Lord Clapham 
 said, and told him what they said, the whole control of 
 the situation was in his hands ; and he is now one of 
 the most famous men in his country's diplomatic service 
 because he used that power for the sole object of 
 bringing the English and the Japanese nearer to each 
 other. And this he did, not at a period when the whole 
 world was ringing with Japanese victories over first 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 13 
 
 a great Asiatic and then a great European Power, but 
 at a period when the Japanese were regarded as a nation 
 of amusing but arrogant children who needed keeping 
 in their places with a stern hand. Even the English 
 merchants in Yokohama were of the opinion that, 
 beyond a monkey-like genius for mimicking Western 
 customs and institutions, the Japanese were a people 
 of no account, and much inferior to the Chinese. 
 
 Lord Clapham may privately have shared the opinion 
 of the man who was Consul in China for twenty-five 
 years, and could not conceive any circumstances under 
 which the British Government would support him, but 
 he had the habit of speaking of his countrymen as an 
 over-bearing nation, and tolerably certain to be wrong 
 in any dispute. 
 
 In person Jevons was a dapper, carefully-dressed 
 man, with a handsome pointed Spanish beard and 
 twirling moustaches. His familiarity arose from a 
 geniality which embraced the whole human race, 
 especially the Japanese. 
 
 It was he who first introduced me to Chiquita 
 Palafox, Lord Clapham's Spanish niece. They were 
 great friends because she was jealous of the English. 
 She hated their pride and their power, and though 
 neither Tiffany nor Finch nor Rich did much for British 
 Influence, they were at one In having a fine British 
 contempt for the less fortunate nations who constituted 
 the rest of the world. Rich and she were always 
 fighting. He thought her a silly conceited little 
 Spanish monkey, and treated her as a child— though 
 Spaniards are very grown-up at eighteen. 
 
 Jevons, who owed his eccentric name of Orlando to 
 an Italian mother brought up with a passion for 
 Arlosto, had the advantage of speaking Spanish among 
 his half-dozen languages, so that Chiquita knew what 
 a very accomplished man he was. One thing which 
 enhanced his popularity with her, but, rnore than any- 
 thing else, shook my confidence in him, was Mrs. 
 Tiffany's opinion of him. 
 
 " Tom, my dear," she used to say to her lord and 
 master, " the thing's a bounder— an adventurer— for 
 all we know a creature paid by Russia to sell British 
 
14 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 interests. It's monstrous that the Government should 
 leave him here to bamboozle the chief. A blind man 
 could see what is going on ! But dear me, he's worth 
 the whole lot of you as a man, for he does do something 
 besides eat and drink and smoke and sleep, even if 
 that something is to sell his country; and if he didn't 
 dine with us every Saturday night, I should die of 
 ennui I " 
 
 Then she would kiss her absurd husband, of whom 
 she was really very fond, and cry, " I don't mean a 
 word of what I have said. I am glad that I have 
 married a straightforward English gentleman ! The 
 man must be a rogue, or he wouldn't be able to speak 
 so many languages. I am sure he began by selling 
 carpets at Cairo to the people at Shepherd's Hotel! " 
 
 My position in Japan was a peculiar one. I was master 
 at a Dai Gakku, a sort of advanced school, where 
 my predecessor had met with some not very pleasant 
 experiences. He was what we call a smug at Oxford, 
 and anxious as the Japanese boy is to learn, he is 
 exceedingly fond of taking liberties where he can do 
 so with impunity. From the beginning poor Hewlett 
 was the victim of monkey tricks, but it did not stop 
 there. They used to find fault with his way of teaching 
 instead of his finding fault with their ways of learning, 
 and finally they demanded his dismissal and obtained 
 it. Someone told the Japanese that in English public 
 schools they chose masters because they had been in 
 the 'Varsity Eleven or Eight, with of course a modicum 
 of scholarship ; so as I was a Blue with a First I had 
 no trouble in getting the post on condition that I learnt 
 Japanese. 
 
 By treating the boys as men I managed to avoid 
 outbreaks, but it was as difficult as being British Resi- 
 dent at a savage court. Under their smiling exteriors 
 were concealed hyper-sensitiveness, arrogance, vindic- 
 tiveness, unfathomable cunning. I considered myself 
 pretty successful to have our relations on the whole 
 pleasant. In studiousness and intelligence they were 
 models, and when they had agreed amongst themselves 
 to respect me, they were most polite. 
 
 Their own teachers command the highest respect ; 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 15 
 
 they even use the word " teacher " in addressing an 
 old person — the old being held in extraordinary 
 veneration in Japan. 
 
 The difficulties of my predecessor's position had 
 doubtless been increased by the state of tension in 
 Japan ; the agitation for Treaty Revision had reached 
 an acute stage. After Commodore Perry had forced 
 the opening up of Japan to foreigners, the Powers, as 
 had always been their custom in dealing with Asiatic 
 nations, had imposed various restrictions on the 
 Japanese relations with foreigners. They had fixed 
 what duties Japan was to be allowed to levy on foreign 
 imports, and above all things they had made it im- 
 possible to proceed against the foreigner except in his 
 own Consular Courts. In return for this they had 
 allowed the Japanese to limit foreigners to about half 
 a dozen Treaty Ports, outside of which they could only 
 go with the written permission of the Japanese 
 authorities. To travellers this permission was always 
 readily granted ; to merchants never ; to other residents 
 only when they were really engaged as teachers, or, 
 like the Anglican bishop, had such high claims that 
 they were by a legal fiction registered as teachers. 
 
 As the Japanese increased in warlike strength in the 
 Navy and Army, which they never ceased to develop 
 on the best European models, they naturally grew 
 restive about being treated like savages, and never 
 ceased to agitate for Treaty Revision. To their 
 agitation the Powers had all along turned a deaf ear, 
 but now. Great Britain, the power whose interests out- 
 weighed all others, and the only Power which kept a 
 fleet in Eastern waters capable of coping with the 
 formidable Japanese ships, even in the hands of 
 Asiatics, was beginning to weaken. The English 
 merchants in Yokohama were furious. Even Philip 
 Sandys, who liked the Japanese, and knowing enough 
 of their language to read their newspapers, understood 
 them a great deal better than nine-tenths of his fellows, 
 thought It most unnecessary, and was doubtful whether 
 It would be possible for English merchants to stay in 
 Japan if the Japanese had their way about Treaty 
 Revision. 
 
i6 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 The Japanese were at this moment awaiting the 
 final reply of England, so feeling ran higher than ever. 
 And there were other complications besides the un- 
 willingness of the English in Japan to submit to a 
 Japanese jurisdiction. 
 
 The Young Japanese party considered that Japan 
 would be ruined if foreign merchants, with their wealth, 
 were allowed to go all over Japan; and, not having 
 the slightest notion of the strength of the Western 
 Powers, proposed to abrogate all the existing privileges 
 of foreigners without giving them anything instead. 
 They anticipated the arrival of Great Britain's consent 
 to the Treaty Revision much earlier than the Govern- 
 ment did ; and the material for riots was always at 
 hand in the numerous Soshi, or educated hooligans, of 
 the capital. 
 
 But the tenseness of the political situation did not 
 make the British Legation take itself any more seriously 
 than usual. Lord Clapham was little away from the 
 Legation ; work was his only occupation, and Jevons 
 was a busybody who enjoyed the importance of trans- 
 acting Legation work. But Tiffany and Finch and 
 Randolph Rich went to the Legation during official 
 hours as a matter of form and not because they con- 
 ceived the possibility of there being affairs which 
 required their attention. 
 
 Their luncheon parties and teas and excursions and 
 week-ends in the country were their real business. 
 
 Finch was just this much better than the other two 
 — that instead of thinking Japan a God - forsaken 
 country, which he wished to leave by the next boat, 
 he was impressionizing in an indolent aesthetic way. 
 He was quite as idle about Legation work as the 
 others, but he had Japanese collections — including a 
 Japanese wife. 
 
 One morning I received a note from Chiquita 
 Palafox, Lord Clapham's niece, asking me if I minded 
 staying at the Legation from the following Saturday 
 to Monday, as Jevons was going away for the week-end 
 with Finch. Jevons, being the Japanese-speaking 
 Secretary, lived in the Legation, so as to interpret in 
 any sudden emergency. I was glad to accept the 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 17 
 
 imitalion, for Miss Palafox was a charming hostess, 
 and on the termination of a similar invitation a few 
 months before, I had discovered from Jevons that there 
 were certain fees that I had a right to draw as acting 
 interpreter. 
 
CHAPTER 11 
 
 When I arrived at the Legation 1 found it in its 
 usual state of somnolence. The INIinister was sitting 
 at the table in the library where he transacted his 
 official business and wrote at the *' History of Philo- 
 sophy," which was the serious business of his grave 
 life. Miss Palafox was lolling in a deck chair near 
 the window, engaged in her usual occupation of killing 
 time. The servant showed me straight in. Lord 
 Clapham made hardly any distinction between his 
 official and social life. He gave me a kindly little nod, 
 and asked me to excuse his getting up, as he was 
 sorting some notes for his history. And his niece 
 never got up for anyone when she was once comfortably 
 settled. She held out her hand, and asked me to 
 arrange her cushions more comfortably behind her 
 head. 
 
 I thought she meant it for a little touch of friend- 
 liness to make me realize that I was a guest as well as 
 an acting interpreter; but as I stooped to do it, she 
 said in a low voice: *' Something very serious is going 
 to happen. Be on the qui vive, and be on your guard 
 in everything you do and say. I will give you tea 
 presently in the big drawing-room upstairs — it is about 
 the only place where you can be sure of not being 
 overheard." 
 
 This seemed rather a feeble conclusion to such an 
 important piece of news, but when tea was ready in 
 the little sort of recess formed by the tower, I saw 
 how it bore out the situation. 
 
 ** I always have tea here," she said; " it is the only 
 place where one is quite sure of not being seen or 
 overheard. Walls have more ears in Japan than else- 
 where, but even walls can't hear across a room forty 
 feet square! 
 
 ** There has been a Japanese deputation here," she 
 
 i8 
 
PLAYING THE GAINIE 19 
 
 went on, " and I am sure they mean no good. To 
 begin with, they came after Mr. Jevons had gone away 
 and before you arrived ; they did it on purpose, because 
 they brought one or two people who spoke English 
 and did not ask for the interpreter as they generally 
 do. I was in the room. I was sitting just where you 
 found me, and Uncle was sitting at his table; the 
 deputation stood between me and him. They paid no 
 attention to me — they never dreamt that I could 
 understand any Japanese, and I can't speak it. But 
 we Spaniards do a good deal of our talking with 
 gestures, and the language of gestures is pretty much 
 the same everywhere." 
 
 "Quite so," I said; ''it's the natural form of 
 expression for the whole human race. So you under- 
 stood a good deal of what passed? " 
 
 ** Much more than my uncle did." 
 
 " Well, what did you gather? " 
 
 " In the first place that they were very much in 
 earnest, for they asked again and again, and my uncle 
 kept shaking his head — and in the second place that 
 there was a good deal of discussion between themselves 
 before they answered his questions." 
 
 " Did your uncle tell you what they came about? " 
 
 " Of course he did." 
 
 ** May you tell me? " 
 
 ** That's what I want to see you about! " 
 
 " What was it? " 
 
 " We have just received the British Government's 
 reply about Treaty Revision. The deputation were the 
 spokesmen of the Young Japanese party, and they 
 came to get a sight of the Treaty. They did not ask 
 for it right out, of course — only the English do that — 
 but they came to get it by hook or by crook, and were 
 astonished that my uncle would not give way. The 
 Japanese look upon him as mere clay for the potter. 
 They left him, saying, * You will find it better to have 
 done what we asked you.' That was in English." 
 
 '* Is that all you found out? " 
 
 ** No, that's all my uncle told me. I made out on 
 my own account that they meant to get it before their 
 Foreign Minister returned to Tokyo. He is away just 
 
20 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 now, or my uncle would, of course, have delivered it 
 to him, and I distinctly saw one of them draw the 
 attention of the rest to the Legation Safe, which stands 
 in the library." 
 
 " Then you think that they mean to try and possess 
 themselves of it before their Foreign Minister 
 returns? " 
 
 " I would bet this hat," she said with a little smile 
 which invited my attention to the convincingness of the 
 bet ; " and it's hard to keep oneself in hats out here ! " 
 
 '* You should do in Japan as the Japanese do! " 
 
 ** No, thank you! If we hadn't our hats to think 
 about, how should we get away from our thoughts? 
 The Japanese woman hasn't enough original sin in her 
 to need the relief of tearing an expensive hat to pieces 
 — to re-trim it." 
 
 " Well, when do you think they will make the 
 attempt? " I asked, knowing her capacity for frivolling 
 at the most serious moments. 
 
 " To-night, of course," she replied as coolly as if I 
 had asked her when she thought it would rain. 
 
 '' Why? " 
 
 ** They know that everybody is away. Mr. Jevons 
 has gone with Mr. Finch to Nikko, and Mr. Rich has 
 gone with the Tiffanys to Miyanoshita — not that they 
 would really be any good if they were here." 
 
 "Why? " 
 
 ** They don't live in the Legation, except Mr. Jevons, 
 and you are a bigger man than he is. And my uncle 
 wouldn't have them in to garrison the Legation even 
 if they were in Tokyo." She went off into fits of 
 laughter. 
 
 " What are you laughing at? " 
 
 " Fancy Mr. Tiffany and Mr. Rich and Mr. Finch 
 having to turn out of their beds to make a house-party 
 here where they attend to their office duties every day 
 of their working lives! " 
 
 The intonation with which she uttered this last 
 sentence expressed an amount of innuendo that only a 
 Southern woman could have imported into it. 
 
 We had an anxious time that late spring afternoon. 
 Chiquita was twice the man that her uncle was, yet 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 21 
 
 she thought it madness not to take precautions. But 
 Lord Clapham, though he was weak as a rabbit, and 
 had not the mildest idea of defending himself, had 
 never seen fear. 
 
 " They would not dare to invade the British Lega- 
 tion. It would be an international affair." 
 
 " They would like that. They v>ash to embarrass 
 the Government." 
 
 *' It's British territory." 
 
 " A'ou'd better tell the police," said the practical 
 Chiquita. She could not understand anyone having 
 the smallest fear of British territory represented by 
 her uncle. In her eyes the power of England was 
 nothing compared to the power of the small policeman 
 stationed outside the Legation compound. 
 
 ** The police have no jurisdiction in the Legation." 
 
 " Well, arm the servants, and put them in the 
 room." 
 
 " No one can get into the compound." 
 
 ** We cannot trust to that." 
 
 It ^was impossible to frighten Lord Clapham with 
 bogeys. 
 
 " How I wish Mr. Rich was here," cried Chiquita. 
 
 After her previous remarks this seemed a little in- 
 consequent. 
 
 " He can make Uncle do things," she explained. 
 
 '* I am sure no one could manage Lord Clapham 
 better than you do." 
 
 " Not in a thing like this. I might do something if 
 I knew what to do, but Mr. Rich would just do it, 
 though he knew it was flat against my uncle's wishes, 
 and when it came to Uncle's ears would say, " I 
 thought you would like me to do it, sir.' " 
 
 When I went up to dress I had hardly closed my 
 door before I heard a timid little knock. It was 
 Chiquita. 
 
 " Things aren^t quite right," she said. ** When I 
 went to Mr. Jevons's room to get his revolver for you, 
 I found that all the cartridges were gone." She 
 handed me the revolver. 
 
 " Is this it? " I asked, unable to repress a smile 
 which said, " How like a woman to bring a pistol 
 without any cartridges." 
 
22 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 " You can bluff with it," she retorted, eyeing me 
 narrowly to see how I took it. 
 
 " I'm game," I said. 
 
 *' Besides, I have cartridges." She handed me the 
 absurd little satin bag in which she carried her absurd 
 little pocket-handkerchief. The weight showed that 
 there were a good many. 
 
 *' Are you sure they fit? " 
 
 '* Perfectly. We've fired away half this box. Mr. 
 Jevons has been teaching me to shoot, and I wouldn't 
 use his cartridges." 
 
 I loaded the revolver, and put it in my pocket. 
 
 •' We shall very Hkely want it," I remarked, putting 
 the balance of the cartridges into another pocket. 
 " There must be an accomplice in the house. I shall 
 go and tell that little policeman." 
 
 " What's the use? " she said. " Uncle doesn't 
 mean to have a guard, and the police outside can't see 
 what's going on in the compound. Besides, those 
 people won't break into the compound; they'll get in 
 on some excuse. I don't think they'll even have to 
 break into the house." 
 
 Lord Clapham refused to arm the servants. " It 
 was quite impossible that the British Legation should 
 be robbed. To arm and warn the servants \vas to 
 invite burglary." He would do nothing. He dismissed 
 me immediately after dinner, for fear that I should 
 re-open the subject. 
 
 I joined Miss Palafox and began to discuss what we 
 should do. We agreed both to sleep with our windows 
 open, so as to hear if anyone was moving about in 
 the compound ; and to go to bed without striking a 
 light, so as not to let spies know what tinie we really 
 retired. If either of us heard burglars, we were to 
 throw the wash-hand basin out of the window. Falling 
 on the flagged courtyard of the compound, in the night, 
 this would make a noise that could be heard half a mile. 
 It would probably scare the thieves away, and at all 
 events rouse the whole Legation. 
 
 I did not mean to carry out my part of the bargain. 
 Knowing Chiquita's courage, I felt certain that her 
 first impulse would be to expose herself in trying to 
 
 ^ 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 23 
 
 drive the robbers away. I should hear the basin fall, 
 wherever I was, and I had made my plans. I went 
 and told the little policeman everything; and, though 
 the Minister had forbidden any police to be admitted 
 to the Legation, I handed him my latch-key, and told 
 him that if he heard the basin fall or my revolver fired 
 he was to rush in with any assistance he could get. 
 I begged from him the loan of a dark lantern. 
 
 I settled the whole thing in a few minutes, and then 
 dropped the subject, for though I imagined Miss 
 Palafox to be a woman of great nerve I thought it 
 undesirable to try her nerves by harping on the subject, 
 and I felt very tender to the heroic little beauty who, 
 conscious of a great danger, was calmly preparing to 
 meet it with her hands tied by her uncle's folly. 
 
 My tender speeches I need not set down here, nor 
 her unwontedly gracious responses. It was the first 
 time I had ever known Miss Palafox feminine in ought 
 but the adornment of her graceful person. I should 
 have prefered that she had not suddenly repeated : 
 *' How I wish that Mr. Rich was here! " 
 
 There was nothing I wanted less, for if he was here 
 with his superb physique and boisterous spirits, he 
 would be safe to monopolise the conversation, even if 
 Miss Palafox had the bad taste to prefer me. 
 
 ** Why do you Vv^ant him? He couldn't do anything 
 if he was here now, except be another man for our 
 little garrison." 
 
 " Well, that's something! " 
 
 We were silent for a minute or two, then she said : 
 " He's rather the kind of man a woman wants to lean 
 on when she's in a tight place." 
 
 The words " a tight place " made me feel angry. 
 Why was that idiotic Lord Clapham going to expose 
 a delicately-nurtured woman like his niece to a night 
 of terrors or violence, perhaps murder, and imperil his 
 country's interests by his neglect of the most ordinary 
 precautions? He had had his warning, and it would 
 have been perfectly simple for him to have applied to 
 the Japanese authorities for a guard, or delivered the 
 document for safe-keeping to the oflFicials of the 
 Japanese Foreign Office. It could be kept sealed, and 
 
24 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 handed back to him for formal presentation to the 
 Foreign Minister on his return to Tokyo. 
 
 His contempt of danger was not courage ; it was 
 the fatuousness which made the sexagenarian colonels 
 of the native regiments in the Indian Mutiny allow their 
 men to retain their arms and embark on a debauch of 
 treason and murder, which commonsense would have 
 nipped in the bud. 
 
 " Yet I hate him," she said, her mind continuing 
 to run on Rich. 
 
 " Why? " I asked, not really wishing to know, but 
 thankful for any subject of conversation which kept 
 us from the anxieties which were uppermost in our 
 thoughts. 
 
 " Because he treats me as a little girl ! " 
 
 "How?" 
 
 " Laughs at me when I scold him." 
 
 I might have suggested that she was rather young 
 to take him to task, but I had no desire to defend such 
 a dangerous rival, so I looked as if I thought it was 
 shocking of him to be ungrateful for her admonitions. 
 
 " And he's a beast." 
 
 " What do you mean? " 
 
 ** I mean that he kisses me." 
 
 •• Why do you let him? " 
 
 '• I don't; I hate it! " 
 
 *' But the man can't be such a brute as to go on 
 doing it if you hate it ! " 
 
 " He doesn't go on doing it." 
 
 " I am afraid I don't understand you — I thought 
 you said he did." 
 
 ** It's only when I scold him — he does it to stop me." 
 
 " Why do you scold him then? " 
 
 ** Because he needs it — and it would be cowardly 
 not to." 
 
 "I'm afraid I don't see any way out of it. Miss 
 Palafox." 
 
 " Nor do I," she answered, pensively. " I wish he 
 was here now." 
 
 When we knew that a great crisis, perhaps a tragedy, 
 was hanging over our heads, only waiting for the 
 darkness, it seemed absurd to ramble on about such 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 25 
 
 subjects ; but how few persons when they are waiting 
 for anything, even when they are about to part from 
 their loved ones for a long period, spend the last hours 
 rationally? They pass the time as a rule in an aimless 
 way that would drive them silly with ennui on any 
 ordinary day of their lives. 
 
 It seemed as if the twilight never would end that 
 night, but at length the darkness closed round us 
 like forgetfulness, and according to our previous 
 arrangements we drifted apart, inconsequently, re- 
 cognising that to bid good-night was to give our 
 enemies a signal. 
 
 I secreted myself in the library, in an angle where 
 nobody could approach me from behind. I fixed the 
 door open so that the light which burned all night in 
 the hall should fall on the safe. But I took my dark 
 lantern, because the robbers would extinguish the light. 
 For the next hour I noticed the tick of every second. 
 I was straining my ears. Then I heard a noise I could 
 not account for. I gripped my revolver and got ready 
 to flash my lantern. The noise drew nearer. It was 
 upstairs, and came from unshod feet. The Japanese 
 do not wear shoes in the house. As the feet came 
 downstairs I was more and more certain that they were 
 shoeless. They crept along the passage ; my heart 
 ticked louder than the clock. But the light did not 
 go out. The whole house must be in league against 
 us, or the robber — for I only heard two feet — would 
 not be so bold. I held my revolver at my thigh — I fire 
 on the rise. I thought I had pulled the trigger — and 
 lo ! — it was Chiquita ! I don't know how I stopped my 
 finger. 
 
 She had the keys. She opened the safe, took the 
 fateful dispatch, and locked it again. I wondered if 
 her uncle had repented. If not, how did she get the 
 keys? He must have given them to her, and she must 
 have come down in her stockings only because it was 
 necessary that the abstraction of the dispatch should 
 be kept a secret. 
 
 She went upstairs again, and I could hear her 
 moving about for some time; but that was nothing. 
 It takes an eternal time to do things in the dark with 
 
26 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 as little noise as possible which you are accustomed to 
 do in the light. 
 
 I heard the seconds tick, the hours strike to twelve 
 o'clock, half-past twelve; one o'clock, half-past one ; 
 two o'clock, half-past two; three o'clock — I could not 
 swear about half-past three. No further attempt had 
 been made to enter the room. Gradually I dropped 
 asleep. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Any ordinary sane person is compelled to think of 
 risks on most days of his life, yet he probably runs 
 worse risks than any he takes precautions to avoid. 
 This makes a few people utterly reckless, but the others 
 are content not to encounter perils voluntarily except 
 as heroic measures to meet a crisis. 
 
 Chiquita's stout little heart thumped against her ribs 
 as she slunk upstairs, eager to go more swiftly than 
 silence permitted, fearful that she was not silent 
 enough. A person who is accustomed to walk with 
 high-heeled shoes makes almost more noise walking 
 without shoes — the balance of the body is falsely dis- 
 tributed and the boards creak under it. Thump, 
 thump, thump went her heart. Every moment she 
 expected to feel a Japanese burglar's hand on her 
 throat. A minute before she had been facing the more 
 deadly danger of a revolver which could hardly be 
 prevented from going off, so difficult is it to check 
 oneself when one is ready to fire, and an object presents 
 itself. 
 
 It seemed an age before she reached the door of her 
 bedroom, a fortress in which she could entrench herself. 
 The worst was over now. If the burglars had entered 
 her room they would have found the forged dispatch 
 which she had laid on the edge of the bed — they would 
 not know it from the real, and having possessed them- 
 selves of it would go their way. She laughed to herself 
 at the brilliance of the stratagem which she had un- 
 consciously achieved in leaving the room after she had 
 laid the forged dispatch on the bed. That she had 
 gone down to the safe for the real dispatch was a mere 
 side-incident — the main thing was that she had left her 
 room vacant for them to examine. 
 
 This whole crisis had probably blown over, and a 
 crisis of a more purely political nature might be already 
 
 27 
 
28 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 opening, as some Japanese student, who understood 
 English well, was perusing the craftily-worded dispatch 
 which she had forged. But she did not relax her 
 precautions— she had the Spanish love for plot and 
 intrigue, and this was the grandest plot in which she 
 had ever had a finger. 
 
 Before leaving her room she had taken off her 
 evening dress and silk petticoat— their rustling would 
 have betrayed her — and substituted a soft padded 
 kimono. Just as she got back to her door she slipped 
 this off, and wrapping it round the dispatch, threw 
 it as she entered the room on the back of her bed 
 against the wall, so that if by any chance there were 
 men waiting in her room and they had not found the 
 forged dispatch, when they heard something drop on 
 the bed they might lay their hands on the forgery 
 which was left just where they were likely to look first. 
 
 How wise she felt in the midst of all her terrors— 
 when a sackful of something like bran was flung over 
 her head and her wrists were seized by strong hands 
 and drawn behind her and pinioned. Once, twice, 
 thrice, a strong fine cord was whipped round them 
 and pulled tight, and when it was knotted her bonds 
 were made yet tighter by the ends of the cord being 
 lapped round them between her hands, so as to strain 
 them into her wrists. 
 
 Then she was thrown on the bed on her face, with 
 her head still enveloped in the chaff sack, while her 
 legs were being tied together at the ankles with the 
 same cruel tightness. More terrifying even than this 
 was the feeling of men's arms groping through the 
 chaff for her head. Were they going to strangle her? 
 
 Not by throttling — but something awful was being 
 forced into her mouth. What was coming next? It 
 must be death in some appalling form devised by 
 malignant Japanese cunning. 
 
 They were torturing her, of course, to punish her 
 for defeating their plans. Without her her uncle would 
 have been a lamb in their hands. 
 
 Something was being fastened at the back of her 
 neck — a garotte, of course, which they would twist 
 slowlv till she was strangled. Chiquita had fine 
 
PLAYING THE GA^IE 29 
 
 courage, and even at this awful moment she told 
 herself that garotting could not last long, that k would 
 be more merciful than gradual stifling by having her 
 nose and throat suffocated with chaff. 
 
 A little tug at the strap round her neck told her 
 that the strangling was beginning. Then they stopped. 
 She had heard of the refinement of the cruelty of 
 Orientals ; how they loved to begin their tortures with 
 the refined torture of anticipation, to play with their 
 victims as a cat plays with a mouse, doing their killing 
 by inches. 
 
 The sack was drawn off her head. She was turned 
 on her back. She felt something soft and feathery 
 going up her nostrils. Had she not read somewhere 
 that the brain could be reached in this way? To be 
 killed by a feather tickling the brain! What^ more 
 maddening torture could the devilish ingenuity of 
 Orientals devise. And the awfulness of it was that 
 the first sensation it gave was one of pleasure, as if 
 her torturers were cleansing her nostrils of the chaff, 
 before the feather was thrust up to the brain. She 
 had now the use of her ears, and could gather enough 
 from their whispers to know that they had found one 
 of the dispatches. 
 
 But which was it? 
 
 One thing she learnt at once, that she was not going 
 to be killed or tortured further than by the tightness 
 of her bonds, unless she attempted to give the alarm, 
 which was plainly impossible, for her hands were 
 manacled behind her and her feet were so tightly bound 
 that she could not move, and the gag which she had 
 mistaken for a garotte, prevented her from uttering a 
 sound. 
 
 One of her assailants then whispered to her in 
 English that her hands would be unbound and bound 
 less tightly if she made no attempt to give the alarm, 
 but that she would be killed if she contrived to make 
 any noise. 
 
 She wondered if she could make any noise— her 
 nerves were in such a state of excitement that she 
 almost tried. She could not tell if she was not trying, 
 but no sound came, except the light tread of several 
 
30 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 pairs of feet, and the curious Japanese breathing — 
 almost animal-hke, a form of inarticulate speech. So 
 secretive a people must be capable of dead silence — 
 they had shown it indeed when she entered her room, 
 which seemed quite empty, though there were several 
 men in it. But now they had apparently no fear of 
 being disturbed, for they carried on their whole con- 
 versation in snorts and pants and indrawings. 
 
 No time was lost in showing the subject of their 
 conversation ; it related to a flat board, a little over five 
 feet long, on which she was laid as soon as her hands 
 were unbound, back downwards. Then with more 
 breathings they set about their work of fastening her 
 to the board which was apparently full of holes, with a 
 fine twine which was wound round her neck and body 
 and arms and legs, until she thought that every inch 
 of her must be covered. Her wrists had to be untied 
 before she could be laid on her back, and secured to 
 the board, but the painful cord which bound her ankles 
 together so tightly, had, either by inadvertence or 
 design, been left. Her new bonds were not tight ; 
 there was such a multiplicity of them that she could 
 be held close to the board with comparatively loose 
 ligatures. The most unpleasant thing about her new 
 bondage was that as soon as she was secured to the 
 board, she was wrapped up in a huge Japanese quilt 
 taken from her bed. They wrapped it closer and 
 closer round her. She must be suffocated, though they 
 did not apparently intend to do her any bodily harm 
 which was not necessary to secure their escape with 
 the document. They had laid her on the floor when 
 she was rolled up in the quilt, and so closely did they 
 envelop her, that she could not even hear their 
 breathing. 
 
 For a long time — it must have been for hours — she 
 waited, at first for something to happen, then for 
 death. She gave up all hope of being discovered before 
 she was smothered. 
 
 What a curious thing is the human mind. Her 
 anxiety to know if her assailants had found the right 
 treaty kept intruding on her expectations of death. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 When I awoke next morning, I was of course surprised 
 to find myself in his Excellency's library holding a 
 loaded revolver — still more surprised to find that I had 
 not shot myself, for I had gradually slid down to the 
 floor in the process of going to sleep. 
 
 Otherwise there seemed nothing changed in the 
 atmosphere. The servants were scuffing about the 
 house as usual — Japanese servants do everything at a 
 run, to show that they are making decent haste. It 
 is the stereotyped mark of respect to people older or 
 more important than themselves. I went up to my 
 room to wash and change my clothes. Nothing 
 seemed to have happened anywhere. I did think of 
 knocking at Miss Palafox's door to know how she had 
 got on, but it seemed unkind. She was sure to have 
 been awake half the night, and it would do her good 
 to sleep on. 
 
 Breakfast at the Legation was at nine. She did not 
 come dow^n to it. I ate mine with great deliberation, 
 so as to be able to keep her company when she did 
 come down. 
 
 Half-past nine struck without any sign of her. 
 " Hadn't you better send up to inquire after Miss 
 Palafox, sir," I ventured to ask Lord Clapham. " She 
 may . . . have a nervous headache." 
 
 ** You don't know Chiquita ! " 
 
 Another quarter of an hour passed. 
 
 At the risk of being officious I asked: " Oughtn't 
 her maid to give her another call, sir? I daresay she 
 was a long time in getting to sleep, and may have 
 overslept herself." 
 
 It was horribly selfish of me not to have let her 
 sleep on if she were tired, but though I had not the 
 courage to tell her pooh-poohing uncle so, I was 
 beginning to feel anxious about her non-appearance. 
 
 31 
 
32 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 Fortunately Lord Clapham liked people to be punctual, 
 so he said to his butler: " Yoshi, please tell O-hana to 
 call Chiquita San again." 
 
 In a large Japanese household servants are legion ; 
 each has his own particular department. The wonder 
 was that it only took two to go and see if Chiquita 
 was awake. Fortunately they are quick. 
 
 Yoshi was back before I was sure he was gone. 
 Chiquita-San had locked her door, and refused to 
 answer. Lord Clapham buried his head again in his 
 newspaper. They had daily papers in Japan in all 
 the Treaty Ports, two or three in some of them. 
 
 It seemed that she often locked her door to defy 
 her uncle's breakfast hours. He was satisfied, if I 
 was not. It was natural that I should take more 
 interest in a beautiful young girl than the uncle of 
 advanced years and philosophical habits did. So I 
 cut my finger under the table to stain my pocket- 
 handkerchief, and hurriedly left the table, saying that 
 my nose was bleeding. I flew upstairs. I was sure 
 that something was wrong. 
 
 I knocked at Chiquita's door louder and louder. I 
 thundered, but still there came no answer. I flung 
 myself against the door to burst it open, but without 
 effect. Miss Palafox gave no sign, though I made 
 such a noise that the Minister himself came flying 
 upstairs. 
 
 ** What on earth are you doing, Mr. Page? " he 
 asked. 
 
 ** Trying to burst into your niece's room, sir." 
 
 He displayed no anger ; he was always idiotically 
 reasonable. 
 
 *' And pray may I ask what for? " 
 
 " Because there is something wrong." 
 
 " And how do you know? " 
 
 I felt inclined to shout, " As if any living woman 
 would let a person try and hammer in her door without 
 calling out if she was inside and had the power of 
 speech left to her." 
 
 I put the idea into politer language. His lordship 
 said simply : 
 
 " Of course not, of course not," as if we were having 
 a rhetorical argument. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 33 
 
 Then I remembered what most schoolboys know, 
 that if you want to break a door open you must not 
 go for the lock, but for the panel above it. I put my 
 shoulder through that at the first charge, and saw, lying 
 on the floor rolled up in a ftdon, an inanimate body. 
 Lord Clapham really did wake up then, and sent the 
 major-domo flying for a coal-hammer. But a riksJia 
 boy, who had found his way in, in true Japanese style, 
 to see what the matter was, put his head through the 
 door like a monkey, and found the key inside. The 
 assailants had evidently made their escape by the 
 window. I rushed in to tear the futon off Miss Pala- 
 fox. It was sewn up. I pulled out my knife in feverish 
 haste. I thought she was murdered ; my hand shook 
 as I ripped the futon open, but I found her alive and 
 apparently uninjured, though bound and gagged. 
 
 The gag was very ingenious ; it prevented her from 
 uttering a sound without preventing her from breath- 
 ing. She might have been bound by a spider. She 
 lay on her back on a board pressed flat against it with 
 a network of paper twine drawn through holes in it 
 at intervals of about an inch, and tied round and round 
 every inch of her body and each arm and hand and 
 leg and foot. Her legs were also bound tightly to- 
 gether at the ankles with fine rope. Her head was 
 held down by another ingenious contrivance of straps 
 and pads, which kept it immovable, and was designed 
 to prevent unnecessary pain. 
 
 Bound and sewn up like this, she could not make 
 the slightest sound with moving. They had even laid 
 her on the floor so that she could not give the alarm 
 by rolling off the bed ; a piece of courage which would 
 have been the first act of a Japanese. 
 
 I saw it all at a glance. The reason why I had not 
 been disturbed was because the spy had seen her take 
 the dispatch. 
 
 Why had I not told her my plan? She would have 
 left the safe alone, and the attack would have been 
 made on me — a man, and armed. What an idiot I 
 had been ! Poor little Chiquita ! After all her courage 
 she had been bound and gagged, and perhaps cruelly 
 injured. But she was still game, for the smile with 
 
 c 
 
34 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 which she greeted me was intrepid as well as grateful. 
 I think I should have liked it a little less intrepid. To 
 cut her free with my knife took several minutes. 
 
 " Are you hurt? " I asked, with a tenderness which 
 should have shocked Lord Clapham. But he was 
 superior to human weaknesses. 
 
 " No, not really badly hurt, though my ankles are 
 very painful. I think they must have forgotten to take 
 the rope off them. For they were quite gentle — they 
 only wished to prevent my giving the alarm." 
 
 ** Why didn't you cry out? " 
 
 " I didn't see them. I had no light lest I should 
 be discovered. I had shut the door and was just going 
 to strike a light to see if they had found the forged 
 treaty which I had arranged on the bed for their benefit, 
 when suddenly a sackful of chaff was slipped over my 
 head. I tried to yell, but the chaff poured into my 
 mouth and stifled it. I could not struggle against it, 
 for I was suffocated, and they did not take it off till 
 they had tied my hands and feet and gagged me. 
 That board " 
 
 She did not finish the sentence ; the stress was over 
 and human nature exacted its toll. 
 
 " The whiskey, Yoshi," I cried, ** and smelling 
 salts!" and dipping a towel in cold water, began 
 sprinkling her face. 
 
 She came round very soon, and then her uncle, who 
 had been all tenderness and solicitation, was trans- 
 formed back into the idiotic philosopher, and remarked 
 in his bland, official voice : 
 
 " They must have been disturbed — they have left 
 the jewels on the dressing-table." 
 
 " It was not her jewels they were after, sir; but the 
 dispatch. They have stolen it." 
 
 " God bless my soul ! " 
 
 Even with my previous knowledge of him, I was 
 fairly staggered by his next remark : 
 
 " I don't see what use they can make of it." 
 
 This was innocent sangfroid with a vengeance. 
 With a glance of withering scorn Chiquita turned on 
 her uncle. I expected a scene. But it was only to 
 tell him to leave her, and send a man with a hammer 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 35 
 
 and tacks and cardboard to make the room sufficiently 
 private for her to finish dressing. She had no dress 
 on when she was bound ; the soft padded kimono^ for 
 which she had changed her rustling silk frock, she had 
 flung on the bed as she entered the room. 
 
 " Will you stay outside and see that the man does 
 it properly, Mr. Page? " 
 
 " Yes; might I ask you to stay and see to this, Mr. 
 Page? " said his Excellency. 
 
 The servant tacked the cardboard on. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Page," cried Chiquita, ** see if you can 
 find a peep-hole." 
 
 I peeped and pressed w^ith my fingers, but the job was 
 well done. She opened the door, and called me in to 
 see if it was all right from the inside. 
 
 "How idiotic! Of course it is," was my first 
 thought. But Chiquita had something to say, and 
 wanted to make sure that we w^ere not overheard. 
 There were dress-hooks on the door inside, and she 
 had hung a heavy dress over the broken panel and the 
 keyhole. As soon as the door was shut she flew in a 
 fever of anxiety to the bed, and lifted the kimono. 
 The dispatch was there. I was just beginning : " They 
 
 have not taken it " when she put her finger to her 
 
 mouth, and handed me the dispatch to conceal about 
 my person till I could put it in some safe place. Then 
 with a flaming blush she flung the kimono on again. 
 She had been too anxious up to this to notice that she 
 had no dress on. 
 
 What a quandary ! I was temporarily an employee 
 of the British Legation, and I was asked to be the 
 receiver of a dispatch stolen from it. Should I take 
 Lord Clapham into my confidence? He had been such 
 an idiot about precautions that I hesitated to play into 
 the hands of his enemies. 
 
 " Now go," she said. " Tell them to send up my 
 breakfast, and keep out of my uncle's way until you 
 have seen me." 
 
 " W'here shall I go? " I asked, I was in his Ex- 
 cellency's employ — at his beck and call. 
 
 " There," she said, opening the door to the little 
 work-room, where she pulled her hats to pieces. " I 
 
36 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 shall lock this door and you can lock the door into the 
 passage. I often sit with my doors locked — Japanese 
 servants never obey orders not to disturb you." 
 
 I was thankful that Tiffany, Finch, Rich and Jevons 
 were all away. Rich in particular would have been 
 sure to ask how it had happened. Lord Clapham 
 would say in his helpless way that I had told him, and 
 they would want to see me to find out how I knew, 
 and how it was that I had not roused the house. Very 
 likely he had gone to telegraph for them. I heard 
 someone come upstairs, and knock at Chiquita's door. 
 Now, I thought, the excitement is going to begin ! 
 but it was only the maid bringing her breakfast. 
 
 Chiquita dismissed her, and unlocking the door, 
 brought her breakfast into her work-room, the prettiest 
 and most luxurious spot in that barrack of a house, 
 and changing the key to the other side of the door, 
 re-locked it. She limped in, but was otherwise perfectly 
 fresh and unruffled in her appearance, and miraculously 
 dainty. This was accentuated by her peevish exclama- 
 tion as she held her ridiculous little handkerchief to 
 her nostrils : 
 
 " It has made me forget. I said I would never use 
 that scent again ! " 
 
 She ate her breakfast with the greatest composure. 
 But I could see deep red lines — one, two, three — on 
 her pretty wrists, where those tight cords had bound 
 them. 
 
 " Aren't they frights? " she said. " But the Japs 
 are sure to have some patent way of getting rid of 
 the marks ; or perhaps you may find me pricking them 
 in with a tattoo-needle! " 
 
 Knowing that, like any Southerner, she would go 
 on bantering for hours, I suggested : 
 
 " Hadn't we better discuss the situation before there 
 is a hue and cry for me? " 
 
 She took a fresh help of kidneys. 
 
 *' If you like." 
 
 ** First tell me how it is that they forgot to take the 
 dispatch you were martyred for." 
 
 ** They did take the dispatch, but it was a forgery." 
 
 ** Please explain." 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 37 
 
 " Life is a game of chess to us Spaniards. We 
 see several moves aliead. I have found this very 
 interesting." 
 
 " Moves! " 
 
 " Yes, first I thought that these men would never 
 rest till they got the dispatch. Second that they would 
 not read English well, if at all. Third, that they 
 would not know Lord Salrose's handwriting. Fourth, 
 what did they want it for? Fifth, what could I write 
 in the forged dispatch to make most complete fools of 
 them? These are some of the things I thought of." 
 
 *' One minute. Miss Palafox, what time do the office 
 hours begin? " 
 
 " It's Sunday," she said. 
 
 '' Oh, I forgot; but won't your uncle wire for 
 everybody to come back to see what's to be done? " 
 
 '* Not he! He'll be more red-tapey than ever, so 
 as not to let the Japanese suspect anything." 
 
 " How soon will he want me? " 
 
 '* Oh, you are still thinking about that dispatch that 
 you have in your pocket ! Not for an hour, at least. 
 Uncle never does anything without thinking about it 
 for an hour." 
 
 Thus reassured, I settled down to let her finish the 
 story. 
 
 *' If I could forge a dispatch," she explained, " I 
 held a trump card. To me it was not very hard. I 
 had seen the dispatch ; it was written on four sheets 
 of blue foolscap, in Lord Salrose's own handwriting, 
 and arrived in a long blue envelope marked " O.H. 
 M.S.", sealed with the Royal Arms. It had no post- 
 mark; it was brought by a Queen's messenger, who 
 took a message back a few hours afterwards. I read 
 it. Uncle opened and answered it in this room, for 
 privacy, and left it here when he went to give the 
 answer. Uncle uses paper and envelopes just like 
 Lord Salrose's. He brought more than he used, and 
 I took some for practical jokes. He has a seal with 
 the Royal Arms, and leaves it about like everything 
 else. Yesterday, when I saw what was going to 
 happen, I collared it, came up here, wrote a splendid 
 new dispatch in Lord Salrose's handwriting, sealed it 
 
38 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 up, and broke it open again, as my uncle had broken 
 his dispatch. I meant to wait until it was dark and 
 the coast clear to steal Uncle's keys, and substitute 
 the forged dispatch in the safe ; but when I found Mr. 
 Jevons's revolver cartridges gone, I knew that there 
 were accomplices in the house, and that I should be 
 observed. So I determined to take the dispatch up 
 to my room and push it down between a crack in the 
 boards, and to lock the forged dispatch up in my 
 dressing-case, where I was sure they would look for 
 it." 
 
 " I saw you steal it. I was in the room guarding 
 the safe with Jevons's revolver, and all but shot you. 
 I only just recognised you in time." 
 
 " You didn't matter," she said with a smile of 
 charming impertinence. 
 
 •' Before I left my room I laid the forged dispatch 
 on my bed near the door, so that I could change it 
 the instant I got in the room. Two things were sure 
 to happen. They would attack me directly I got back, 
 and no lights would be used. I had to risk leaving 
 the forged dispatch on my bed. I had the other under 
 my kimono^ which I slipped off just before I entered 
 the room with the dispatch inside it, and threw it on 
 my bed close to the wall. The forged dispatch was 
 on the near side of the bed. I then advanced into the 
 room. If there was no one lying in wait for me I was 
 going to light the gas, and secrete the real dispatch. 
 If I once got that safely under the boards I did not 
 care what happened." 
 
 " For goodness' sake put it there now! " I cried. 
 " It's nothing for you, but it might put me in a false 
 position with your uncle." 
 
 She was on the verge of hating me as a coward ; 
 but her common-sense came to the rescue. She took 
 the dispatch and went into her bedroom. When she 
 called me in, I could not see a trace, though she showed 
 me the crack down which it had gone. 
 
 I heaved a great sigh of relief. 
 
 " Now, please go on with the story. You left off 
 at the most thrilling part." 
 
 •* It was thrilling, I assure you ! Fancy my feelings 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 39 
 
 when something soft and slippery and stifling went over 
 my head, filling my mouth when I tried to scream. I 
 was so frightened that I did not make any resistance 
 while they were tying my hands and feet. They did 
 not ask me where I had put the dispatch ; their quick 
 Japanese ears told them that I had laid something on 
 the bed. As soon as they had gagged and trussed 
 me, they began feeling for it. I heard the low chuckle 
 as they left the room, and I lay there helpless, wonder- 
 ing if that chuckle meant that they had discovered the 
 second dispatch." 
 
 " How did you get your uncle's keys? " 
 
 " I crept into his room as soon as I heard him snore, 
 and took them from his dressing-table." 
 
 *' Doesn't he lock his door? " 
 
 ** No, the only thing in the world he is frightened 
 of is fires. I was in an agony of fright." 
 
 " Of your uncle? " 
 
 *' No, but that some Japanese would get in before 
 me. I stood outside his door waiting nearly an hour 
 to assure myself that he was asleep." 
 
 ** Weren't you afraid of being attacked? " 
 
 " Not there. It was their game, if they had not 
 already taken them, to let me steal his keys and run 
 the risk of opening the safe and getting the dispatch." 
 
 " Weren't you afraid they would attack you as you 
 went upstairs? " 
 
 ** Yes, awfully ; but I should have had time to scream 
 out, and you had a revolver. I could have struggled 
 till you came to my rescue." 
 
 '* I wonder if any men are as plucky as you? " 
 
 ** It wasn't really pluck. I had a presentiment that 
 I shouldn't get hurt." 
 
 ** It was pluck of the best kind. But what are we 
 to do about the dispatch? " 
 
 "That's all right." 
 
 The game of chess was going to begin, and I had 
 to take a hand. 
 
 ** Poor Mr. Page! It is you whose pluck is going 
 to be tested ! What shall we do ? Now we have been 
 through the risk, we ought to enjoy the joke." 
 
 *' The joke'^ " I gasped. 
 
40 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 " Yes. We've drawn all our opponents' trumps, 
 and now the game is in our hands." 
 
 " Oh, is it?" 
 
 " Of course. The Japanese Foreign Minister won't 
 be back for a week. My uncle will do nothing. He 
 knows the contents of the real dispatch by heart, and 
 he has answered Lord Salrose; and, as you have heard, 
 doesn't see what use anybody could make of it." 
 
 " Nor do I — unless they murder the whole Japanese 
 Cabinet to stop the Treaty." 
 
 " But my dispatch is quite different. It will make 
 all the conspirators show their hands, and there will 
 be such lovely, lovely sells! " 
 
 " I think we ought to tell the truth about Lord 
 Salrose's letter to your uncle. A matter like Treaty 
 Revision is too important for practical joking." 
 
 She was furious. 
 
 " I am going to have my revenge for being tied and 
 gagged all night. Your lips, as a gentleman, are 
 sealed." 
 
 I made haste to express my preference that the 
 announcement should come from hers. She was 
 mollified, and changed her mind. 
 
 '* I will tell him — now," she said, and, ringing for 
 O-hana, sent the message which brought her uncle so 
 quickly. 
 
 She sent me into her bedroom, and as she locked 
 the door, told me to keep an eye and an ear on the 
 keyhole. " You're in the conspiracy," she said. 
 
 In a minute or two Lord Clapham came in with his 
 classic calm more disturbed that I ever remember to 
 have seen it. 
 
 " You are not feeling worse," he asked, with a 
 note of apprehension and even of tenderness. 
 
 ** No, dear; it's good news, not bad, for once! " 
 
 " Well, what is it? " he asked, amiably. 
 
 " I have a clue to the whereabouts of the missing 
 dispatch. But I shall not give it to you unless you 
 promise to do as I tell you." 
 
 " How can I make such a promise? " 
 
 " It is not for me to say, but I shan't tell you any 
 more unless you do." 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 41 
 
 He tried to be angry. 
 
 " Chiquita, I'll " 
 
 ** Don't bluster. If I told Lord Salrose how you've 
 behaved you'd be recalled. You've no business to 
 nearly let me get killed because you refuse to take 
 precautions that any child could see were necessary. 
 You've made such a mess of things that you must 
 listen to a little advice." 
 
 The weak conscientious man tried to parley. 
 
 She rose and left the room, crying: " You'll have 
 to find it yourself then! " 
 
 She had him in an impasse and meant to make her 
 escape before he could find a way out. 
 
 " Chiquita," he called after her, " Chiquita, come 
 back! " 
 
 -She knew that this was equivalent to a promise, 
 and came back demurely. She made the prettiest 
 picture while she was acting her little play. 
 
 " Sit down on that arm-chair," she demanded. ^ He 
 obeyed. She perched herself on his knee, and kissed 
 him affectionately. 
 
 ** Now I will tell you all about it. I couldn't tell 
 you before, because I wanted to give you a lesson in 
 diplomacy. To begin with, those Japanese did not 
 wish to steal that letter for nothing. Someone was 
 to make some use of it. I know what was in it, for 
 I read it, when you left it here." 
 
 " Chiquita! " he cried quite hotly, '* this is a breach 
 of all " 
 
 She kissed him again. *' Be quiet, you dear silly 
 old uncle. You promised to do what you were told, 
 and I am going to fulfil my part of the bargain and 
 give you the clue about the dispatch. Well, they 
 didn't steal it at all— I have it safe in my room. The 
 one they carried off was a false one which I wrote." 
 
 " But how could you do it? " 
 
 ** Oh, it wasn't so very hard. You left official paper 
 and envelopes and the Legation seal about." 
 
 " Chiquita! " 
 
 '' And I knew that my imitation of Lord Salrose's 
 hand need not be very clever, because all our writing 
 looks the same to the Japs, as all their writing looks 
 the same to us." 
 
42 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 He drew in his breath with amazement as she con- 
 tinued : " So when you were obstinate about not taking 
 precautions, I wrote a fresh dispatch, denouncing the 
 whole Treaty Revision business as infamous — which 
 is the reverse of my true opinion — and saying that the 
 great Powers were not going to put up any longer 
 with Japanese arrogance, and that all of them except 
 Russia had come to an agreement between themselves 
 to draw up a Treaty for their future relations with 
 Japan on a dignified and sensible basis, which they 
 would support, if necessary, with a naval demonstra- 
 tion." 
 
 ** Chiquita, this is monstrous! This will set all 
 Japan ablaze." 
 
 ** It will do nothing of the sort. If, as I am 
 convinced, it was the Soshi who tried to get hold of 
 it, they will be so alarmed that they will be only too 
 glad to have the Treaty Revision which Lord Salrose 
 agreed to in his dispatch, and if they were Russian 
 emissaries, they will notice the omission of Russia and 
 at once commence showing their hand." 
 
 " I admit," said Lord Clapham in the pedantic style 
 of speaking which he could not drop, even when he 
 was talking to his pretty niece, ** that your deductions 
 sound plausible, and if there were only the irresponsible 
 persons who have committed this outrage to be taken 
 into consideration, they might be allowed to stand, 
 but we cannot commit the indiscretion of making the 
 Imperial Government a party to this jeu d' esprit.'' 
 
 He delivered this with the air of melancholy wisdom 
 which he always wore when he was convinced that 
 his country was in the wrong, or of his own inability 
 to serve her. 
 
 " Uncle," said Chiquita, " I am not a great reader. 
 Don't be impressed by what I am going to tell you, 
 for I only read it in Tit-Bits. Napoleon said that he 
 had no such word as ' impossible ' in his dictionaries. 
 They were, of course, saved, like everything else, down 
 to his washing bills, as curios, and I think you must 
 have made a collection of them." 
 
 " Well, you must acknowledge that this is im- 
 possible." 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 43 
 
 *' I acknowledge nothing of the sort. If you'll 
 telephone to the Japanese Foreign OfHce to send their 
 confidential interpreter, I'll do the rest." 
 
 Lord Clapham submitted to the inevitable with the 
 dignity of a Prometheus. In less than half an hour, 
 Mr. Shujio was in the room, urbane and perfectly 
 dressed in the English style. 
 
 When he arrived, he was received by Chiquita in 
 her work-room. I was still to remain in her bedroom 
 at the keyhole, as it was so important that I should 
 be in full possession of the particulars. She received 
 him with winning graciousness. 
 
 " How quick you have been! Lord Clapham would 
 have been here, but we did not think it possible that 
 you could have been here so soon! " 
 
 This deliberate invention was necessary, perhaps; 
 but she had certainly started pretty well. 
 
 " I must apologise for receiving you here, but I am 
 confined to my own apartments by the injuries I 
 received in an aggravated assault made upon me by 
 some Japanese last night." 
 
 " Please to tell me! The disgrace — it is so great 
 that it is impossible for my country to get over it — 
 but please to tell me." 
 
 She held out her wrists that he might see by the 
 cuts on them how tightly they had been tied behind 
 her back when she was secured. 
 
 Mr. Shujio expressed the most courtly regret. 
 
 " And my ankles are much worse. I haven't had 
 the courage to pull off my stockings and look at them 
 yet, but they hurt horribly." 
 
 Mr. Shujio's face grew more and more eloquent, 
 and in a few pithy sentences she described how her 
 hands had been released for her to be laced down to 
 the board, but the cords which tied her legs together 
 at the ankles so tightly had been left on to keep her 
 helpless while she was being put on the board, and 
 afterwards forgotten by the robbers. 
 
 I think it must have been forgetfulness myself, since 
 when I released her I found each leg closely laced to 
 the board from the thigh to the ankle. To leave the 
 cords round her ankles was both unnecessary and cruel. 
 
44 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 When Mr. Shujio had finished making the proper 
 expressions of regret, he asked her if she had any 
 idea of what had prompted the outrage. 
 
 " Unfortunately, yes," replied Chiquita, impres- 
 sively. *' The dispatch giving Lord Salrose's reply 
 about Treaty Revision has reached Lord Clapham, 
 and will be presented to your Foreign Office as soon 
 as your Minister returns from his holiday. Some 
 members of the Young Japan party had become aware 
 of this, and came to Lord Clapham to demand a sight 
 of Lord Salrose's reply." 
 
 ** Treason to his Most Sacred Majesty the Emperor," 
 cried Mr. Shujio, with unaffected horror. 
 
 " So Lord Clapham thought, and though I detected 
 their plot to make their way into the Legation at 
 night and steal it, he refused to take any precautions, 
 because he felt sure that no Japanese would commit 
 such an outrage! " 
 
 This again was a tolerably free version of what had 
 passed between uncle and niece, but it served its 
 purpose. 
 
 " I, however, knew that they meant it, and as Lord 
 Clapham refused to distrust the Japanese " — Mr. 
 Shujio bowed — " I myself took the necessary measures 
 for maintaining the secrecy of the dispatch intended 
 for the eyes of the Imperial Government only." 
 
 He was now profoundly interested, and began to 
 mingle his fine diplomatic manners with Japanese 
 grunts and breathings in a most picturesque way. 
 
 ** I could see only one way to do it, and that was 
 to conceal the real dispatch. I had made an imitation 
 
 of it to leave where the " She paused for a polite 
 
 word. 
 
 *' The robbers," he said briefly. 
 
 " To leave where the robbers would find it." 
 
 **Hey! You have the brain of a man!" He 
 wished to pay her the highest possible compliment. 
 
 *' You flatter me too much," she replied with a 
 dainty little smile, intended to convey one thing to 
 him and another to me. ** But I tried to serve the 
 Imperial Government to the humble extent of my 
 power." 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 45 
 
 He bowed yet more profoundly. 
 
 " For in the false dispatch I wrote the exact opposite 
 of what was written by Lord Salrose, so as to compel 
 the prompters of the outrage to show their hand to the 
 Government — do you understand that expression of 
 ours, * show their hand '? " 
 
 "It is an expression of the Poker." 
 
 She allowed the " the'' to pass; she did not mean 
 to sacrifice Mr. Shujio's good will for a word of three 
 letters. She went on to tell him most dramatically 
 how she had prepared the false dispatch in the after- 
 noon, but had been unable to get hold of the real one 
 till Lord Clapham was asleep, and she could steal his 
 keys ; how I was in the room where the Legation safe 
 was kept without her knowing it, and almost shot her 
 with Jevons's revolver; how she laid the false dispatch 
 on the bed for the robbers to find it, hoping that they 
 would search her room while she was away, and carry 
 it off ; how this part of the plot had failed because 
 they knew it was still in the safe, and how she had 
 managed to save the real dispatch in the second she 
 had in her bedroom before she was bound. 
 
 For a Japanese Mr. Shujio was enthusiastic. 
 
 ** And I have the real dispatch safe," she said in 
 conclusion, " and the reason why you have seen me 
 and not Lord Clapham is that I am the only person 
 who knows where it is (another conscious inaccuracy), 
 and I wish to consult you as to what should be done 
 for its safety. We have a proverb in Spanish which 
 means, * as jealous as a secret,' so I will not tell you 
 where it is till you have decided what to do." 
 
 His smile expressed as much as a column of a 
 newspaper, and he thought for two or three minutes. 
 At the end of that time all he said was, " I will go 
 and consult the Acting Minister." 
 
 " It will be more regular then for you not to see 
 Lord Clapham till you return," suggested Chiquita, 
 mindful of the time that was likely to be consumed 
 in ceremony and the repetition of ofiEicial regrets. 
 
 "Madame!" said the courtly Japanese with the 
 most beautiful bow. The single word expressed 
 everything. 
 
46 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 In Japan nothing is left to chance except death. 
 Before he left the house, Mr. Shujio asked if he might 
 use the telephone, and before his jinriksha was out of 
 sight, a patrol of constables from the Palace Police 
 Station, which is close to the Legations, arrived at a 
 double, and requested permission to investigate and 
 assume temporary protection at the Legation. Before 
 Chiquita and I had finished replying to their questions, 
 which were much facilitated by my familiarity with 
 the Japanese language, we heard the tramp of infantry, 
 and a detachment of impassive little demons, all shakos 
 and long blue tunics and white spats, with bayonets 
 fixed in their Muratas, arrived, and were stood at ease 
 in open order outside the Legation gates. Soon they 
 stiffened to attention as one of the victorias favoured 
 by Japanese Ministers drove up, containing the Under- 
 Minister left in charge of Foreign Affairs, during the 
 absence of his chief. 
 
 What passed between him and Lord Clapham I only 
 know by hearsay from Chiquita, for the Minister 
 brought his official interpreter, Mr. Shujio, with him. 
 But as Lord Clapham knew so little about the matter, 
 it must have been confined chiefly to diplomatic polite- 
 nesses. The more important part of the proceedings 
 commenced when the Minister desired to be taken to 
 Chiquita, who was in her work-room with myself, and 
 the omniscient Japanese policemen. There were more 
 official regrets expressed through Mr. Shujio, and then 
 at last we came to grips. The Acting Minister had 
 come, not only to pay the official call of the Japanese 
 Foreign Office, but also to take charge of the dispatch, 
 sealed in any manner the British Minister might think 
 necessary, until his superior, who had been telegraphed 
 for, returned to receive it officially from Lord Clap- 
 ham's hands. 
 
 The scenes which followed bordered on comedy. 
 First of all there was a procession of Lord Clapham, 
 always dignified and ungainly, and the Acting Minister 
 and Mr. Shujio, and the police into Chiquita's bedroom. 
 In a very few minutes the board below which the 
 all-important dispatch had taken refuge was raised up. 
 The police seemed to have brought a house-breaker's 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 45 
 
 portable tool-set in their pockets. Under their skilful 
 hands the board came up almost automatically. The 
 second scene of the comedy took place in the library, 
 when the ineptitude displayed by Lord Clapham in the 
 sealing up of the dispatch suggested to me that the 
 impression of the British Arms on sealing-wax in the 
 Legation at Tokyo must ordinarily be performed by 
 the hands of Chiquita. 
 
 When the dispatch had been sealed and delivered 
 into the Acting Minister's hands, and he had, with a 
 most elaborate leave-taking, climbed into his victoria, 
 an escort of cavalry, whose arrival I had not noticed, 
 formed up in front and behind the carriage, and the 
 whole went off at a brisk trot to the Foreign Office. 
 
 In that land of etiquette the escort was doubtless 
 quite as much as a guard of honour as a protection 
 to that fateful dispatch. The anxiety of the Japanese 
 authorities to make reparations did not stop here. 
 For later in the day the places of the infantry were 
 taken by an officer and detachment of the Emperor's 
 own Guards. 
 
 Japanese politeness is a very fine study. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 The Tiffanys got back from Miyanoshita in time for 
 Monday's tiffin. Lord Clapham was not an exacting 
 chief ; there was no real reason why Tom Tiffany should 
 put in an appearance at the Legation before lunch. 
 They had had a most enjoyable trip to Miyanoshita, 
 for they had asked Candida Begg to make the fourth 
 ■to themselves and Randolph Rich. 
 • Candida was an orphan who lived in Yokohama. 
 Her father, who had survived her mother by many 
 years, had died while he was in business there, leaving 
 her six hundred a year — a comfortable income in Japan. 
 And as Japan was her world, she saw no reason for 
 leaving it, but stayed on with occasional acquaintances 
 among the annual crops of globe-trotters to vary the 
 somewhat restricted round of Yokohama society. 
 Candida Begg was the pride of Yokohama. For ten 
 or fifteen years the English in the settlement had told 
 each other that no handsomer or smarter woman ever 
 came to Japan among the multitude of globe-trotters 
 than their Candida, with her slim, erect figure and 
 faultless chin. No one could have believed that such 
 frocks could be achieved simply by a good memory, 
 clever Chinese tailors, and the way she carried herself. 
 If you spoke to her for half an hour you could never 
 forget the beautiful mouth full of white, white teeth 
 and the dark blue eyes, which gave her such an ex- 
 pression of frank and smiling sincerity. You could 
 see what a good sort she was at a glance. 
 
 Randolph Rich was just the type she adm.ired ; and 
 she could not conceal the fact. His very recklessness 
 appealed to the finest horsewoman in Japan ; his in- 
 ordinate love of practical jokes tickled her sense of 
 humour. They became the closest of friends. 
 
 The party had enjoyed themsehes hugely up at 
 Miyanoshita, and Candida had returned to Tokyo with 
 the Tiffanys. 
 
 48 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 49 
 
 All four of them were waiting lunch for Orlando 
 Jevons, who burst in nearly an hour late, very white, 
 and as overcome as if he had seen a ghost. 
 
 " A terrible thing has happened! " he cried. 
 
 " Where? " 
 
 •• At the Legation! " 
 
 " Miss Palafox is not murdered," suggested Mrs. 
 Tiffany, with grim sarcasm. 
 
 ** Precious nearly — and that is not the worst of it! " 
 
 ** Then something has happened to Lord Clapham," 
 she hazarded with well-feigned anxiety. 
 
 " Something has happened to Lord Clapham," he 
 said, oracularly. 
 
 ** Tiff, you'll be Charge d'A;ff aires,''' said his wife. 
 '* England is saved! " she added with mock heroics. 
 
 Tiffany gave a grin which showed the self-importance 
 enshrined in that vacuous but amiable personality. He 
 was a small, clean-shaven, curly-headed man, whose 
 large, rather silly, mouth was redeemed by its good 
 teeth, and whose large blue eyes were robbed of 
 character by their prominence. A short irregular nose 
 gave his face a merry cast which was not belied. He 
 was a cheerful, good-natured sort of man. He had 
 the spruce appearance which comes naturally to a 
 man so fond of horses; and in Japan, where the 
 possession of one carriage and pair marks you out 
 as a prince or a Cabinet Minister, the fine stable he 
 kept and his, English coachman and groom excited an 
 astonishment that bordered on wonder. They could 
 not understand any minor official being so rich as to 
 support such splendour. As a matter of fact, the 
 Tiffanys were rich — the Honourable Tom Tiffany had 
 married a rich young widow, who was equally fond of 
 luxury and display. 
 
 Mrs. Tiffany was more of a character and had more 
 character than her husband. She was not beautiful, 
 and her figure certainly could not be compared to 
 Candida Begg's ; but she was tall, and carried herself 
 well, and had a plumpness that was no more than 
 attractive, kept within the bounds of beauty by admir- 
 able corsetting. She would have been pretty still if 
 it had not been for an excessive use of powder, and 
 
50 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 her frocks, like her husband's horses, were the wonder 
 of Japan. Chiquita was an extravagant little monkey, 
 who clad herself in garments which were inspirations 
 of becomingness, regardless of expense. Mrs. Tiffany 
 thought of nothing but dress and entertainments, 
 especially dinners, which gave the best scope to her 
 culinary resourcefulness and her love of table-talk. 
 
 She could ride well, but was so conscious of looking 
 stout in her habit, tTiat she was glad to get anyone else 
 to ride with her husband. Riding was his link with 
 Randolph Rich, who had no other amusement in a land 
 where foreigners could get no shooting. The foreign 
 residents in Yokohama played tennis ; in Tokyo they 
 were too '* slack." Riding was also the graceful 
 Candida's link with the Tiffanys. Mrs. Tiff liked her 
 favourite horse exercised, but had a horror of its being 
 ridden by a man. Candida was devoted to riding, but 
 had not had a horse of her own since her father died, 
 and Mrs. Tiff was not slow to recognise that Candida 
 was a girl who could keep any man in a good humour 
 and in his place. So the present was not by any means 
 the first excursion they had taken together. 
 
 Tiffany winked, and his wife elevated her eyebrows, 
 as Jevons discharged his bombshell. For that very 
 morning, as they swung down that incomparable glen, 
 with a clear brown mountain river tumbling over mossy 
 boulders at its bottom and its sides thicketed with 
 flowering trees, from Miyanoshita to Yumoto, in their 
 Hong-Kong chairs high on the shoulders of coolies, 
 Mrs. Tiffany had called out to the men who were 
 walking beside them : 
 
 " I wonder what mess the chief will have got himself 
 into? He has been two days without any of us to 
 keep him straight!" 
 
 ** It wouldn't do for me or Rich to say. Our tongues 
 are tied as members of the staff," replied her husband 
 with a pomposity, which in such a man might have 
 been either real or burlesque. 
 
 " It was rather like leaving a child with a box of 
 matches to leave him alone with the Treaty," said his 
 more fearless wife. 
 
 " There's Cheeky," suggested Rich, *' and she's 
 pretty level-headed." 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 51 
 
 "That imp!" cried Mrs. Tiff, wrathfully. ''She 
 does nothing but get into mischief herself — she has 
 the naughtiness of the serpent." 
 
 " It's the wisdom of the serpent, isn't it? " asked 
 Candida. 
 
 *' No, I don't believe in serpents being wise, or 
 they'd kill off every human being in the night. They 
 have such unique opportunities for secret assassination. 
 But they're the wickedest things." 
 
 Jevons's white face saved him. No one could be 
 more withering on occasion than Mrs. Tiffany, and 
 after early rising, a long chair-, tram-, and railway-ride, 
 from Miyanoshita, she was not by any means inclined 
 to be kept waiting from the flesh pots of her own 
 cuisine, for which she had been hankering ever since 
 she left her front door on the Saturday. 
 
 " What an absurd man Mr. Jevons is," she had 
 been saying. " He will let the soup get cold to finish 
 some piece of Legation work that would do just as 
 well this afternoon or to-morrow afternoon, or next 
 year. Nothing ever happens here; we just go on, like 
 the trees, getting mossy." 
 
 It was at this moment that Jevons burst in. 
 
 ** Now, Jevons," cried Mrs. Tiff, who was apt in 
 moments of excitement to dispense with the " Mr.", 
 " tell us what has happened. Have you seen a 
 ghost?" 
 
 " There's been a burglary at the British Legation," 
 he gasped. 
 
 " Are all Chiquita's jewels gone? " she asked, 
 maliciously, knowing of his weakness for the Minister's 
 niece. 
 
 " Worse than that— the Treaty! " 
 
 She went off into fits of laughter. 
 
 " It's no laughing matter," he protested. 
 
 " That's just what it is," she retorted; " an affaire 
 pour rire if ever there was one ! Fancy a Power like 
 Great Britain taking these monkeys as men and making 
 treaties with them! I wonder they don't hold their 
 Diet in the tree-tops instead of that stucco spa." 
 
52 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Tiffany, I must protest! It's monstrous 
 talking like this. The Japanese are a civilised power, 
 and we must treat them as " 
 
 " Power! " she said with a world of scorn in her 
 voice. " They're about as much a Power as they 
 are civilised ! ' ' 
 
 Starting on his favourite subject helped him to pull 
 himself together. " I tell you that if Japan were to 
 go to war to-morrow with one of the Great Powers, 
 we should find that she was as strong as any of us." 
 
 "Oh, my good Jevons ! — tut, tut, tut! Tell us 
 about the burglary." 
 
 " They nearly killed Miss Palafox." 
 
 " Why Miss Palafox? Was she the only man in 
 the place? " 
 
 *' No; Page was there." He accepted her innuendo 
 about their official head. 
 
 " Well, what was Page doing? " she asked sharply. 
 ** Snoring? " 
 
 "No; he was down in the library guarding the 
 Legation safe with my revolver." 
 
 "I'm glad of that. I shouldn't like to have lost my 
 opinion of him — but why didn't he hear? Why did 
 they attack Chiquita? Where was she? " 
 
 " Miss Palafox was in her room," he said, to stem 
 the current of questions. 
 
 " Well, what did they want there? Her jewels? " 
 
 " No, I told you, the Treaty." 
 
 " Does she take all the Legation papers as well as 
 the silver plate to her room at night? " 
 
 " She- took that." 
 
 " And the best thing she ever did in her life," Mrs. 
 Tiffany said, 
 
 " But I say," cried Tiffany, rubbing his hands — it 
 took some time for a situation to reach him — " what 
 did the bally Japs want with the Treaty? They were 
 going to have it anyhow as soon as their Minister 
 came back to receive it." 
 
 " You don't suppose," began Jevons, putting on 
 his oratorical voice, " that the Imperial Government 
 has had anything to do with this outrage? " 
 
 Tiffany rested his elbows on his knees and clapped 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 53 
 
 his hands feebly and fairly shook with laughter as he 
 said: ** Imperial Government! I call that too damned 
 funny! Do you mean the Japs? " 
 
 " That word is most offensive to them. How would 
 we like to be called Brits? " 
 
 " I think it would be jolly good — sounds like chips 
 of the old block." 
 
 " The only thing is that it's a bit too like ' chits,' " 
 said Rich, who, having done nothing but sign chits 
 ever since he had set foot in Japan, was beginning to 
 be pestered to settle them. He had just finished the 
 cigarette which he had lit when Jevons burst in with 
 the news. That was his way of thinking. At the 
 Tiffanys' house people smoked where they pleased. 
 The cigarettes Mrs. Tiffany provided were dreams, 
 and she got through a good many herself in the course 
 of the day. 
 
 Jevons was not disconcerted by the frivolity of his 
 colleagues, but gravely repeated: "Of course the 
 Imperial Governmient had nothing to do with the 
 outrage." 
 
 " Bother the Imperial Government," cried Mrs. Tiff. 
 ** We want the police news. We've not heard yet 
 how the Treaty got into Chiquita's bedroom." 
 
 " How did the Japs know about it? " asked Rich, 
 who was fairly shrewd, though he was such an awful 
 harum-scarum. 
 
 " Well, that is the point, if you'll excuse me for 
 answering Rich's question before yours, Mrs. Tiffany." 
 He gave a polite little foreign bow. 
 
 " Oh, answer any question first, but get on! " 
 
 "You know what the Sos/ii are, Mrs. Tiffany?" 
 
 " Oh, yes; the people who have too much education 
 and too little to eat, and wear bowlers with their 
 kimonos! " 
 
 *' That describes them in a way. They correspond 
 so curiously to our Socialists that I should be tempted 
 to think that there was some affinity in the names if 
 I did not know it to be etymologically impossible." 
 
 "Jevons," she said warningly, "I can't stand 
 etymology on an empty stomach." 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Mrs. Tiffany. Well, the Sos/ii 
 
54 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 — the Young Japan party — knowing the power of 
 their country — they don't, of course, know it better 
 than their Ministers, but they have less reserve in 
 showing the mailed hand " 
 
 " Oh, draw it mild, old man! " chuckled Tiffany. 
 " Isn't the mailed hand coming it a little bit too thick 
 for Japan? That's German slang, when they know 
 the other chap won't hit them back," he said, minuet- 
 ting across the room, squaring his fists. 
 
 " We're not going much forrarder," complained 
 Mrs. Tiffany. " What did happen? " 
 
 " The Young Japan party " 
 
 Another guffaw in which Rich joined, and even 
 Candida showed her white teeth, warmed him into 
 unwonted directness. 
 
 •' Went to the Minister and demanded to see the 
 
 Treaty." 
 
 " Well, I'm damned! " said Tiffany. 
 
 Rich looked as black as thunder and muttered : 
 "Blasted little monkeys! . . ." 
 
 ** And of course he made his best bow and handed 
 it to them," said Mrs. Tiffany. 
 
 " The Minister didn't. He met the demand with 
 proper dignity." 
 
 *' I don't believe it! " cried Mrs. Tiffany. 
 
 " I assure you " 
 
 " And so they tried to burgle it? " said Tiffany. 
 ** I'm not sure that I don't think better of them." 
 
 ** I am sure that I think a good deal better of 
 Chiquita," said Mrs. Tiffany. " She knew the kind 
 of man her uncle was, and perhaps didn't know the 
 kind of men they were — or perhaps she did. She has 
 pluck!" 
 
 " She'd enjoy it," said Rich, *' until she got hurt. 
 Did she get hurt? I hope not. She's a dear little 
 girl, though she has the cheek of the devil." 
 
 *' I regret to say that she was injured severely," 
 replied Jevons, to whom the way in which Rich and 
 the Tiffanys discussed their chief was always painfully 
 disagreeable. Neither Lord Clapham nor the nation 
 to which they were accredited seemed to him proper 
 subjects for the atmosphere of slang in which they 
 lived. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 55 
 
 ** How? " asked Rich, turning quite serious and 
 getting up to do something. He was a man of action 
 — at school his fists were always flying about. 
 
 " They threw a sack of chaff over her head, and flung 
 her down and bound her hand and foot, and then tied 
 her flat against a board and sewed her up in a futon.'" 
 
 " I wonder that there is anything of her left," re- 
 marked Mrs. Tiffany. 
 
 " Get on! " said Rich curtly. ** Was she hurt — 
 really hurt? " 
 
 " Very severely. Her wrists and ankles were 
 shockingly cut with the cords, and she was terribly 
 shaken." 
 
 ** The brutes! " hissed Rich. " If I can find them 
 out, rii " 
 
 " There's no necessity for that — it's an international 
 
 affair. The Imperial Government will " The 
 
 men were too angry to laugh now ; only Mrs. Tiffany 
 interjected : 
 
 " I think we can do without the Imperial! Are the 
 Government going to take the matter up? " 
 
 " Of course, the fullest " 
 
 '* Have you heard? " she asked mercilessly. 
 
 ** The Minister has reported the matter." 
 
 " Lunch, lunch, lunch! " cried Mrs. Tiffany almost 
 triumphantly. She knew when Jevons was at the end 
 of his tether, and her inside was crying out for her 
 own admirable food. 
 
 " I say, Jevons," cried Rich. '* Right to the point, 
 man, is there anything that wants doing? Any danger 
 that we've got to look after? " 
 
 " None whatever. When the Minister sent in his 
 report, a guard of Japanese police was mounted at the 
 Legation, and later on the Emperor sent a picket of his 
 own body-guard, commanded by an officer, to make 
 the amende honorable to a friendly Power. ' ' 
 
 The dignity of Jevons's language restored the good 
 humour of the party sufficiently to make them approach 
 the lunch in the temper it deserved. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 It took a good deal to upset the British Legation at 
 Tokyo under Lord Clapham's philosophical rule, but 
 there were certain deviations of the routine on that 
 Sunday following the burglary which has taken its 
 place among the principal dates of Japan. 
 
 Chiquita could not come down to lunch ; she was 
 very tired, and could not put a foot to the ground. 
 But she sent down word that she would be able to see 
 me at tea-time in the little work-room off her bedroom. 
 
 I went up, expecting to find a darkened room and 
 a white face lying back on pillows ; instead of 
 which I found her radiant, sitting up with a rug 
 wrapped round her legs and surrounded with exquisite 
 boxes of gold lacquer, with rich red silk cord round 
 those which had not been opened, tied in the elegant 
 and fantastic Shogun knots which are the formal way 
 of fastening up presents in Dai Nippon. I knew, of 
 course, that the boxes were not for her to keep ; each 
 bore an elaborate crest showing the noble house from 
 which it came, and was only a vehicle for containing 
 the actual presents. You were no more expected to 
 keep the box in which the present was sent than you 
 would be expected to keep the jinriksJia which carried 
 the box to your residence. 
 
 I had been long enough in Japan to know whose 
 crests they were ; and among them I noticed those of 
 the members of the Cabinet and the principal nobles 
 of the Court. These presents were to show official 
 abhorrence of the outrage, and some of them were 
 not of much further use to a foreigner. But Miss 
 Palafox was none the less pleased with them — she 
 seemed to take as much pride in lengths of heavy 
 brocade a foot wide, of colours which could only be 
 used for Japanese obisy as she did in exquisite fans 
 and delicate little vases of old Satsuma-ware wrapped 
 
 56 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 57 
 
 in several bags of faded silk. Some of the small pieces 
 of lacquer and ancient ivories were superb. The first 
 thing that occurred to my mind was what presents she 
 would send in return. The Japanese are so extra- 
 ordinarily studious in their choice of presents, and I 
 knew that she was far too indolent to choose the right 
 thing. 
 
 " There ought to be a Present-Secretary attached 
 to the Legation," she remarked, which was plain truth ; 
 as was the next remark: " They manage those things 
 much better in Spain, where you don't keep the presents 
 at all. It would save such a lot of trouble and time 
 and expense," she said. " If I could only return the 
 contents as well as the boxes! " 
 
 And she meant it. She had no taste for collecting. 
 In her own apartments she had as few Japanese things 
 as the miost cross-grained English merchant in all 
 Yokoham.a. Fortunately she was well off, so the re- 
 turning of the presents was not the tax on her pocket 
 that it might have been. 
 
 I found out how much money it cost her, because the 
 idea of a Present-Secretary took the tangible form of 
 her getting Jevons, who knew as much about Japanese 
 prices as any curio-dealer, to buy the presents. 
 
 " I have something on my mind to say to you. Miss 
 Palafox. I can't help feeling guilty of your injuries." 
 
 " Why, how absurd ! How could you have prevented 
 them? " 
 
 " In the most obvious way— obvious now. When 
 you took the Treaty out of the safe, I ought to have 
 followed you upstairs and passed the night outside 
 your door." 
 
 "But why?" 
 
 " Two reasons have been as plain as a pike-staff 
 to me ever since it happened. I was trying to guard 
 the Treaty, so when the Treaty was out of the safe 
 it was my place to guard iC Treaty and not the safe. 
 Then I ought to have taken it for granted that we were 
 watched — that they would know you had taken the 
 Treaty, and that from this moment you would be the 
 objective of their attacks. If I had followed you up, I 
 could have disposed of one or two of them with the 
 
58 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 revolver, and the noise might have frightened them 
 off, or attracted help." 
 
 " I'm so thankful you didn't," she said. *' I don't 
 think that anybody would have come to our help except 
 Uncle. The servants, even if they had not been bribed, 
 would have been too frightened, and we should very 
 likely all have been killed. They were sure to have 
 been armed, and the Japanese does not hesitate to 
 die or to kill when he has an important object in hand. " 
 
 '* It's very spirited and generous of you to think so, 
 but at the same time I shall never cease to blame 
 myself." 
 
 *' Uncle is the only one to blame. It isn't only his 
 absurd refusal to have the Legation guarded, but it's 
 just the same about servants." 
 
 " What do you mean. Miss Palafox? " 
 
 ** Why, when we came here, Mr. Jevons told us 
 that we ought to have Samurai servants, because in 
 cases of trouble they would die in our defence." 
 
 ** Surely he didn't expect a trouble of this kind? " 
 
 ** No, not of this kind; something far more serious. 
 Mr. Jevons told my uncle that unless the Japanese 
 were given Treaty Revision, there might be most 
 serious riots, and that in case of such riots, though 
 the English were readier than any other Power to 
 grant Revision, the mob were sure to direct their 
 assaults against the English first, because the ignorant 
 Japanese regard all white people as English." 
 
 " What possible objection could your uncle have 
 found to following Jevons's advice? " 
 
 ** It was his idiotic theoretical Liberalism. A diplo- 
 matist, he said, ought to trust the people to whom he 
 is accredited. He persisted in regarding the Samurai 
 servants you get in most decent Japanese houses as 
 unchanged from the swaggering two-sworded men-at- 
 arms who used to cut down unoffending people for not 
 withdrawing themselves far enough from the road 
 when a great noble was passing ! He thought that 
 Mr. Jevons was asking him to hire bravoes for the 
 defence of the Legation! " 
 
 '' How funny! " 
 
 " It isn't as funny as his thinking that Mr. Jevons 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 59 
 
 himself was as anti-Japanese as the English merchants 
 in Yokohama. It was months before he believed in 
 Mr. Jevons." 
 
 "That's funnier still! Nine-tenths of the English 
 in Japan think that British interests are going to rack 
 and ruin because he is so under the influence of the 
 designing Jevons." 
 
 " Do you think so? " she asked me, point-blank. 
 
 This was a difficult question to answer. I parried 
 it. " As I am a paid official in the employ of the 
 Japanese, I don't think I must express an opinion, but 
 when a man like Philip Sandys thinks so, it's natural 
 that the English should be alarmed." 
 
 " Well, I think it would be a good thing if British 
 interests did suffer," said Chiquita. " I'm a Spaniard, 
 you know, and I don't see why the English should not 
 be stopped as my people were — it is not good for one 
 nation to inherit the earth— not good for the other 
 nations, I mean," she added, with a merry little laugh, 
 so as not to be preaching. 
 
 I looked at her quizzically. 
 
 " I think I know what you would like to say," she 
 continued. 
 
 '' What? " 
 
 *' That, judged from this point of view, my uncle 
 is an ideal ambassador." 
 
 *' Well, he does belong to the school who would 
 like to see Great Britain diminishing her respon- 
 sibilities " 
 
 ** W^hat a nice way of putting it ! Mrs. Tiffany calls 
 him an apostle of scuttle." 
 
 " I should think that there's not much love lost 
 between you and Mrs. Tiffany." 
 
 '* Not much," said Chiquita, ** though I should miss 
 her if she went away." 
 
 ** Do tell me why." 
 
 *' Because she's the only person I can fight with, 
 and there's so little to do in Japan." 
 
 " Don't you ever fight with your lovers? " 
 
 ** Lovers are poor things ; they fight with their hands 
 
 tied. Mrs. Tiffany " The sentence was never 
 
 finished. Without the least warning she went deadly 
 
6o PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 white. I thought she would faint, but a dose of sal 
 volatile, which stood on the table by her side, and for 
 which she motioned with her hand, stopped that. 
 
 What a puzzling woman she was ! A minute before 
 she had been all pugnacity and paradox. Now she 
 was gentle and feeble, and to my mind her attraction 
 was increased — not that I was not charmed with her 
 spirit and vivacity, but that I had never seen her in 
 such a feminine mood. 
 
 " What is the matter? " I asked. 
 
 " The blood had all gone away from my head — to 
 my legs, I suppose. The ropes have made them 
 awfully inflamed and swollen. I have had wet bandages 
 on them all day. The doctor thought I might faint — 
 he knows that I suffer from anaemia in the head, and 
 of course this was liable to bring it on." 
 
 *' Are you in much pain? " I asked. 
 
 " A good bit, but it's not so bad as it was." 
 
 ** How plucky you are. I hadn't the smallest con- 
 ception that you were in pain. I thought you were 
 as jolly as a sand-boy." 
 
 " It's only men who can't be jolly and in pain at 
 the same time," she said, brightening up again. 
 
 *' Are you dreadfully dull in Japan, Miss Palafox? " 
 I asked. " From your sarcasm about Mrs. Tiffany I 
 gathered that you were." 
 
 '* Yes, awfully dull sometimes." 
 
 As I knew her better, I found that she could be 
 literally truthful at times, though her insincerity at 
 other times made me hate her. 
 
 " You don't collect things, I think you say? " 
 
 •' No." 
 
 ** You don't paint or write? " 
 
 '' No." 
 
 " Do you play or sing? " 
 
 ** Only to amuse m.yself when nobody is in the room 
 who matters." 
 
 This meant Lord Clapham, I suppose, and was 
 sufliciently severe. 
 
 ** Haven't you ever thought of learning Japanese? " 
 
 ** No, but I think I will. If I knew Japanese I 
 could talk to the people. Who shall I get to teach 
 me? " 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 6i 
 
 '* I'll teach you if you like." 
 
 " Do you know Japanese? " she asked admiringly, 
 for the moment quite forgetting that it was my knowing 
 Japanese which had taken me there. In the flash she 
 
 recollected. "Oh, of course " It might have 
 
 been to cover her mistake that she asked with the 
 charming graciousness which it was in her power to 
 assume. " Will you teach me? " 
 
 " I should be delighted, if your uncle has no ob- 
 jection." 
 
 Her answer came like a douche of cold water. 
 " He can have no objection. I shall pay for the 
 lessons myself." 
 
 If she had hit me on the mouth and made my lips 
 bleed I could not have felt more staggered. A precept 
 which my old father, whom I can hardly remember 
 for anything else, taught me came in handy: '* When 
 you are in doubt what to say, change the subject, 
 unless you can hold your tongue for five minutes." 
 That, as he knew, it is hard for anybody, who has 
 not the feelings of a pig, to do. 
 
 " Would you like me to send your maid to change 
 your bandages? " I asked. She smiled gratefully, and 
 I left the room. 
 
 My first impulse was not to return— it was insulting 
 of her. I was leaving the Legation the next day to 
 go back to my work. I could see as little as possible 
 of her till then, and I need never come near the 
 Legation again. I flattered myself that she would 
 miss me. I am not vain, but I could not help being 
 conscious that most women, at any rate Englishwomen, 
 would consider me more desirable than Jevons, and 
 more interesting than Tiffany ! Finch she detested for 
 not taking more care to keep the secret about his 
 domestic arrangements ; and she had told me with her 
 own lips that she hated Rich. She would miss me 
 perhaps— but how could she miss me one quarter as 
 much as I should miss her when I had got over the 
 sting of the blow? There were plenty of young men 
 in Japan, nice young men some of them, at the various 
 Legations for instance; and she could speak all their 
 languages ; but there was no girl like her in Tokyo or 
 
62 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 anywhere else, so far as I knew. She was so de- 
 liciously pretty and vivacious and graceful, and though 
 she could snub one cruelly like this, she was^ also 
 capable of being utterly companionable at other times. 
 Standing on her dignity was not a usual fault with 
 her — perhaps she gave out these snubs when she was 
 conscious of having gone too far in the other direction. 
 It may have been only part of her inconsiderateness. 
 I don't think an English girl could have been so 
 inconsiderate and irresponsible as she was at times. 
 She was selfish as an animal. 
 
 The upshot of it all was that I determined to do 
 nothing, but to let things develop themselves. I did 
 not go back to her room. She was unable to come 
 down to dinner, and after dinner a number of Japanese 
 Functionaries came in to pay complimentary visits to 
 Lord Clapham about the outrage, and stayed till long 
 after she had been moved into bed. 
 
 The next morning I took care to leave before she 
 was up, and made all my inquiries about her state to 
 Lord Clapham, who could be trusted to repeat them 
 in such a lackadaisical way that no one would have 
 any conception of how much or how little expression 
 I had put into them. 
 
 It was one thing to dismiss myself from her presence, 
 another thing to dismiss her from my thoughts. I 
 was almost saying it is one thing to bounce out of 
 the presence of the woman you love. I could have 
 loved her, I was sure, if she had not insulted me. I 
 wished I was as sure that I could not love her now. 
 Days passed, and I could not help thinking of her and 
 wishing for all the world that she had not done this 
 thing. Every other thing I could recall about her 
 was charming and companionable — we seemed to have 
 been going along the path of friendship hand in hand 
 till that moment. I told myself that she was a selfish 
 little animal with less sympathy than I had in my 
 little finger; I told myself that her whole acquaintance 
 with me must have been a tissue of insincerities, for 
 up till that moment she had seemed so sympathetic, 
 but it was all no use. Life was so empty without her. 
 I was not in love with her, I was sure of that, but I 
 hankered after the witchery of her presence. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 63 
 
 I was glad afterwards that I had not actually thrown 
 down the gauntlet to her. I felt that she had taken 
 my sudden disappearance and non-return as a declara- 
 tion of war. 
 
 I was not so mad, however, as not to know that I 
 had done no more than laesa majestas demanded. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Rich and Finch, being bachelors, took their meals at 
 the Rokumei-kwan— the Nobles' Club, founded in the 
 Castle of Tokyo for Japanese nobles and foreign 
 gentlemen, to give the former a chance of becoming 
 familiar with foreign club and social life. 
 
 But the Japanese had not yet begun to use it much. 
 On the night after the Tiffanys' lunch^ there was not 
 a Japanese in the smoking-room in which the English 
 had gathered to discuss the great sensation — the 
 burglary at the British Legation. 
 
 Tiffany and Jevons came in, like myself, almost 
 directly after we had finished our dinners, and a few 
 other Englishmen had been dining there, such as 
 Captain Bradwardine, R.N., who was an instructor in 
 the Japanese Navy, and Mr. Tudor-Rose, professor of 
 Roman Law in the University of Tokyo, a pompous 
 Welshman who believed far more in his family than in 
 his subject. Mr. Haig, an old Scotch artist, whose 
 sister had established a flourishing bookshop and 
 English library at Yokohama when she found, after 
 five years in Japan, that she could not keep house for 
 her brother another day without a profession to fill 
 in her spare time ; the Anglican Dean of Tokyo, a 
 curious old gentleman named Stott ; and Doctor Macy, 
 an American Nonconformist Minister had also dropped 
 in for news, just before we made our appearance; 
 while one English merchant, Mr. Sandys, and the 
 editors of the English newspapers had come over from 
 Yokohama. Our appearance was the signal for a 
 chorus of '* Any news? " and a general drawing up 
 of chairs in the verandah where people had gone out 
 to cool or to smoke. 
 
 "There is most serious news," said Jevons, "for 
 the forged treaty has not been recovered yet! " 
 
 Everybody started except myself, for this was the 
 
 64 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 65 
 
 first time that the forged treaty had been publicly 
 mentioned. People knew of the burglary and the 
 unsuccessful attempt to steal the real Treaty, but they 
 did not know that the robbers had been robbed of 
 their prey by being tricked Into stealing a forgery. 
 
 " Well, if it is false, the bally Japs can do what 
 they like with it," observed Tiffany, to whose wisdom 
 as a diplomatist British affairs would have been 
 entrusted if Lord Clapham had been placed hors de 
 combat. Jevons stared aghast, and even I was sur- 
 prised. For to have a false treaty knocking about in a 
 place so like a powder magazine as Tokyo was capable 
 of causing the gravest incidents, especially when the 
 forgery was the work of such a monkey of mischief 
 as Miss Palafox. I had more real reason to be scared 
 than Jevons, for I knew by her impish satisfaction that 
 she must have put something devilish into it, and 
 angry as I was with her, I could not help taking a 
 sort of partner's pride in her cleverness. How had 
 she worded it, I wondered? 
 
 ** I can assure you that the Chief thinks it is most 
 serious," said Jevons to Tiffany. 
 
 " What can it matter with such a lot of rotters as 
 the Japs? " cried Rich. 
 
 We had the electric light on the verandah because, 
 as there was often no one to talk to there, a man 
 liked to have a newspaper while he was smoking. The 
 Club took in a splendid selection of English news- 
 papers, as good as any London Club's, excepting the 
 London dailies. 
 
 I happened to look at Captain Bradwardine, and 
 saw a queer look on his face, but he said nothing. I 
 was not surprised at this, because, though he was 
 far the ablest Englishman in Japan, I had never in 
 the three years that I had known him, heard him make 
 a remark of the slightest general interest. 
 
 I confess that I know nothing about it," began 
 the Dean of Tokyo, a man younger in years than most 
 Deans, but much older than his years from being a 
 bachelor with no one to look after him. 
 
 A kind of gloom fell on the assemblage, for the 
 Dean's confession of ignorance on any subject was 
 
66 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 generally the prelude to about an hour's discourse 
 upon it. But the Dean was popular; he was a man 
 without prejudices outside of certain Church matters, 
 and spent his private fortune liberally on everything 
 except his personal expenses. 
 
 " I confess to knowing nothing about it," said the 
 Dean, *' but I should like to point out that a nation 
 which is capable of stealing a treaty from the Legation 
 of a friendly nation does not seem to me worthy of 
 having a treaty. Our Greek and Roman history, to 
 which we can turn for a parallel to every modern event, 
 for history repeats itself, furnishes many examples of 
 the unwisdom of making treaties with barbarians, who 
 don't understand the motives from which our actions 
 spring." 
 
 " The Japanese are not barbarians," broke in 
 Jevons — he was quite heated. The tone of the Dean's 
 speech filled him with indignation, and he was in 
 dread of not being able to stem the tide of eloquence. 
 
 *' We will waive the point of their being barbarians," 
 said Tudor-Rose loftily, which was not handsomer of 
 him than need be, considering that he was in their 
 pay as a L^niversity Professor of Roman Law, " but 
 they are not the kind of people to be admitted into 
 the comity of nations." 
 
 Rich did not know any more than Tiffany what 
 ** comity " meant; neither of them were quite sure 
 that Tudor-Rose, who spoke with rather a Welsh 
 accent, was not trying to say " committee," and they 
 were perfectly agreed with him that the Japanese were 
 not a suitable people to be admitted into the committee 
 of nations, whatever that meant. As it sounded rather 
 fine, they cried, *' Hear, hear!" Mr. Tudor-Rose 
 was a well-born man and did not talk much, so they 
 thought he must be an oracle, the fact being that he 
 was so conceited that he did not think that people were 
 worth the trouble of talking to them. His wife, who 
 had projecting teeth, erred on the other side — Mrs. 
 Tiffany said that her tongue was like a chaff-cutting 
 machine, with its whirr, whirr, whirr ; and Miss 
 Palafox, who was selfish, would not have her in the 
 Legation except when she was going to leave her 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 67 
 
 uncle by himself, Mrs. Tudor-Rose being generally 
 regarded as a cure for loneliness. 
 
 ** I'll tell you what it is," said Rich — he did not 
 specify who the " you " was, but it was presumably 
 Jevons ; " Great Britain ought to take this opportunity 
 of giving the Japs a jolly good licking. They are 
 getting a damned sight too cocky — the Dutch and 
 Spanish Ministers are afraid to go near their Foreign 
 Oflfice ; they get such raggings. Our Chief is so 
 lenient with them that I don't call it playing the game. " 
 
 *' I can picture what Sir Harry Parkes would have 
 done," said Sandys, the Yokohama merchant, who 
 had not spoken before. " He would have wired for 
 the British Fleet from Hong-Kong, and sent an ulti- 
 matum within twenty-four hours." 
 
 *' It's a good thing he isn't here," said a low, 
 pleasant voice. It was Captain Bradwardine's. 
 
 '* Why? " asked three or four simultaneously. 
 
 ** Because I think that this is what he would have 
 done." 
 
 *' It's what these Oriental nations want," said Rich 
 vindictively. He felt very sore about Chiquita Palafox 
 being hurt by themi, though he and she were always 
 fighting like cat and dog. 
 
 " You must permit me to differ from you. Rich; or, 
 at all events, to except the Japanese from the category. 
 I have had more opportunities of knowing about them 
 than you have, for I have been working in their dock- 
 yards for years. Anyone who starts in to give them 
 ' a jolly good licking ' will soon find out that they 
 are not one of ' these Oriental nations.' Their navy 
 is not very large yet, though they are building all the 
 time, but its efficiency is astonishing. Every man in 
 it is trained both as a combatant and as an engineer, 
 and it's the only navy in the world which can boast 
 that." 
 
 " Oh, I say, Bradwardine ! " put in Tiffany; " that's 
 not a good egg\ It's a chalk one — like the German 
 Johnnies knowing all the lanes in England! " 
 
 " You can think what you like, Tiffany. I know, 
 because I've been instructing the beggars. I shall 
 get the sack soon because they know enough without 
 
68 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 me, and the time has come when they don't want me 
 to know how much they know. But there's one thing 
 jolly certain, that if a shell cleaned out the engineers 
 of a Japanese ship, their fighting officers could take 
 their places in the engine-room, and, as I said, there's 
 no other navy in which they can do that." 
 
 " You don't mean to say that the Japs could take on 
 a European navy? " said Rich. 
 
 " I do. There isn't any nation in the world which 
 could send a fleet to beat them in their own waters, 
 bar Great Britain." 
 
 ** Oh, my dear chap," laughed Tiffany, ** you're like 
 my wife and that Serene Highness who's been putting 
 up at the German Legation." 
 
 '* What's that. Tiff? " 
 
 ** Well, she'd had rather a rocky time with him while 
 he was explaining all that Germany had done for 
 Japan, and he wound up with saying : ' Can you tell me, 
 Mrs. Tiffany, what it is that makes the Japanese look 
 to the Germans for everything?' She answered: 
 ' Two great military nations. Your Highness! ' " 
 
 In eighteen hundred and ninety-four the audacity of 
 the comparison so dumbfounded people that there was 
 dead silence for a minute. Then Rich called out : 
 
 " I call that damned good! " 
 
 And Jevons smiled beatifically. He disliked the 
 Germans, and he thought that the comparison was 
 true. 
 
 ** The time may come sooner than you think when 
 the cap will fit England, and people will say of Great 
 Britain and Japan, ' two great naval nations,' " said 
 Bradwardine, grimly. 
 
 ** Good old Bradwardine! " cried Tiffany. Captain 
 Bradwardine was much attached to Tiffany ; he knew 
 the sincerity of that cheerful grasshopper's soul, so 
 he allowed the remark to pass good - humouredly, 
 though there were not many men from whom he would 
 have stood it. 
 
 '* I had no idea that you had such a high opinion 
 of the Japanese as a fighting power," said Sandys, 
 drawing his chair nearer Bradwardine's, in low tones 
 designed for his ears only. He, too, was a great 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 69 
 
 friend of Bradwardine, who knew that Sandys' wife, 
 Bryn, had no equal among the Englishwomen in Japan 
 — that she was as full of character as she was beautiful. 
 
 *' You ought to know, Sandys. Your wife was 
 born here, and can speak the language like a native." 
 
 " You forget that we live in a set which hates and 
 ignores everything Japanese. We don't agree with 
 their ideas, but they are good fellows — honourable 
 Englishmen — and they are the state of life into which 
 it has pleased God to call us." 
 
 "I'm sorry for you. It's all so wrong-headed, this 
 hostility of the British merchants to Japan." 
 
 ** Well, you know how it is. The Japs we sell to, 
 swindle us — and the Courts give them loopholes." 
 
 *' If any other Yokohama Englishman had said that 
 to me, I should have taken it with a peck of salt. 
 Has this really been your own experience? " 
 
 ** I am afraid it has. There was Okisawa, only last 
 year. He ordered a consignment of hosiery through 
 the Flemings, Miss Begg's father's old firm. When 
 the consignment arrived, the market was flooded with 
 a cargo of cheap German things, that brought down 
 the price of hosiery. Fleming's lot was worth double 
 as much, but Okisawa thought it was disadvantageous 
 for him to buy them unless Fleming would let him 
 have them at the German price. So he got out of 
 taking them — not by direct refusal, that isn't their 
 way — but by promising every day to send a man to 
 take delivery, and taking care not to send him. It 
 was no good Fleming sending the goods to his shop, 
 for there would have been no responsible person there 
 to take delivery — the whole staff would have gone out 
 at the back the moment the trolley drew up at the door. 
 Fleming sold the goods by auction, and Okisawa 
 bought them all at a price far below the German price, 
 because these shopkeepers who deal with European 
 merchants have a compact among themselves never to 
 bid against the man for whom the goods were originally 
 ordered. And the worst feature of the whole thing 
 is that the Japanese merchant cannot see that Okisawa 
 did anything WTong in refusing to take the goods at 
 the price at which he had agreed to pay. * Okisawa 
 
70 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 would have lost by it,' they said; * and he is a poor 
 man.'" 
 
 " Mr. Fleming could have brought an action," said 
 Jevons, sententiously. " The Imperial Government 
 has Courts which are open to the foreigner just as 
 much as to the native ; and they would have decided 
 in his favour without doubt." 
 
 "That's all jolly fine, Jevons; but not being a 
 practical man, you don't know where the screw is 
 loose." 
 
 " I think I am right in saying that there is no 
 foreigner who knows m.ore about the Japanese and 
 their intentions than I do." 
 
 " In general knowledge I am sure there is not," 
 said Sandys, politely. 
 
 " That's a nasty one," chuckled Tiffany. ** That's 
 almost as bad as the man my wife was talking about." 
 
 " The man who knew nothing about everything? " 
 asked Rich. 
 
 " Oh, I'm not going to be rude," said Tiffany, 
 collapsing into fits of suppressed laughter. 
 
 *' This happens to be a matter of experience," said 
 Sandys. " I once brought an action of this kind 
 against a Japanese, and it was not so very long ago. 
 I got my case — the court was perfectly fair ; but when 
 it came to getting my money, I was informed that the 
 debtor had removed his goods into another ken^ and 
 that I should have to bring the action in the ken where 
 his property now was." 
 
 " What is a ken'^ " asked the First Secretary of the 
 British Legation. " It's a jolly good word." 
 
 " A ken is a prefecture," answered Sandys, im- 
 patiently; and continued: '* Murata, the Japanese 
 lawyer I employed, a very decent Jap, a member of 
 one of the Temples in London," he added, for the 
 benefit of the irrepressible Tiffany, " advised me to 
 drop it. When a Japanese took up that line of defence, 
 he told me, it showed that he did not mean to pay, 
 and that he w^ould go on shifting his ken till the end 
 of the chapter." 
 
 *' ' Out of my ken ' has been given a fresh signifi- 
 cance by the Japanese," said Jevons good-humouredly. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 71 
 
 Like most other people, he was friendly with the 
 Sandys. 
 
 ** What would you have done, Sandys, if you had 
 been in Fleming's place? " asked Rich, who spent 
 much of his time when in Yokohama at the Sandys' 
 house, because they were such near neighbours of 
 Candida Begg. 
 
 '* Well, last time this happened to me it was over 
 an awfully nice lot of summer flannels. My Jap refused 
 to take them for the same reason as Fleming's man — 
 a cheaper consignment had been imported in the 
 interval. He told me a very plausible story, and sug- 
 gested that I should not lose anything if I sold them 
 by auction. I said, * All right, I will.' When the day 
 came a lot of Japs turned up to ' make face ' and to 
 see their countrymen outwit me, but not to make bond 
 fide bids I felt quite sure. The proceedings com- 
 menced. The auctioneer described the goods. Then 
 he announced that there was a reserve on them, the 
 reserve being the original price. He asked the room 
 for bids — there were no bids. But the grunts of the 
 angry merchants were as good as a play." 
 
 " That's all very fine, old man," cried Tiffany, ** but 
 what did you do with the bally flannels? " 
 
 ** That's the point of it. The auctioneer then an- 
 nounced that Cock-eye, a Chinaman in Water Street, 
 was willing to take the whole of the goods at the 
 reserve price. There was almost a riot, though nobody 
 was willing to bid." 
 
 " And was Cock-eye willing? " asked Tifl^any in- 
 credulously. 
 
 '* Perfectly. The Japs don't err on the side of 
 liberality in fixing a price, and it happened to suit 
 Cock-eye to get a nice lot of flannels, because an 
 American squadron had come in." 
 
 ** Might I ask how you — ahem — opened up negotia- 
 tions with Mr. — Cock-eye did you say his name was? " 
 asked the Dean, who took an interest in all sorts -of 
 things which you would not have expected to touch 
 him. 
 
 ** His name isn't Cock-eye," said Jevons. " No 
 Chinaman ever does trade under his own name in 
 
72 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 foreign settlements— the words over their shops mean 
 ' good bargain ' or * Heavenly kindness,' or something 
 of the sort." 
 
 ** But what about Cock-eye, Sandys? I want to 
 know," said Rich. " I shall go to Cock-eye for the 
 future instead of Poole." 
 
 '* Well, I told my compradore to go round the 
 various Chinese tailors until he found one who would 
 take the consignment. I don't suppose he told Cock- 
 eye anything about the Jap — he just said that Sandys- 
 San had a splendid lot of flannels to sell at such a 
 price, and the very first Chinaman he struck saw what 
 a good bargain it was." 
 
 "Hear, hear, hear!" cried Rich, hammering the 
 table provided by the Mikado for the use of the 
 Japanese nobles. ** What a blasted sell! " 
 
 *' They are not all as bad as that," protested Jevons. 
 
 " I think the worst feature about Japanese trades- 
 men," I said, '* is the way they adulterate and forge 
 labels. Every day I see fresh examples." 
 
 " I can't agree with you altogether," said Jevons. 
 ** It would be different if foreigners bought the 
 Japanese imitations as genuine. When they ask for 
 Lea and Perrin's Worcester Sauce, they know what 
 they want as well as what they are asking the 
 tradesman to sell them. A Japanese poison instead of 
 that restorative would, I grant you, be injurious to the 
 health, as well as a deliberate fraud, but, in practice, 
 the Japanese do not as a rule sell these things to 
 foreigners. I think I may say that they do not rely 
 upon foreign custom at all. The Japanese customer, 
 on the other hand, only takes Worcester Sauce because 
 it is an expensive luxury popular with foreigners. He 
 buys it for swagger and for luxury, and as his tastes 
 are so different from ours, probably likes the imitation 
 retailed to him as * Lea and Herring's ' or * Flea and 
 Perrin's ' better than he would like the real thing." 
 
 " That's all very well, Mr. Jevons," said the Dean, 
 " but it hardly reinstates the morality of the Japanese 
 trader — / think we shall he agreed upon that pointy at any 
 rate, Mr. Sandys," he added with a smile. 
 
 There was more than met the eye of the stranger in 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 73 
 
 this. Residents in Japan were aware that the Dean 
 by no means shared the Bishop's opinions in the matter 
 of refusing to marry Sandys to his second wife. 
 
 Sandys smiled back his understanding. 
 
 ** Yet there is something to be said for them if you 
 come to think of it," protested Jevons. _ 
 
 " I can't see how you make it out," said the Tudor- 
 Rose, who took a very stern view of his employers. 
 
 '•Well," explained Jevons; "the Japanese do not 
 need Worcester Sauce. Such a poor country has no 
 business to spend money on such things, and if you 
 substitute the word whiskey for Worcester Sauce it 
 makes my case much stronger. The real Worcester 
 Sauce and the real whiskey are British manufactures 
 on which, under the present inadequate treaty, the 
 Imperial Government are only allowed to levy a 
 beggarly five per cent. The imitation Worcester 
 Sauce, on the other hand, is a purely Japanese manu- 
 facture — all the money which is paid for that is spent 
 in the country on a national industry." 
 
 This spacious pleading restored good humour. It 
 sounded like sarcasm, but Jevons meant most of it ; 
 he was quite clever enough to know that you can often 
 maintain an argument cynically with much more chance 
 of success than you can seriously. 
 
 How typical it all was ! We had assembled there 
 to discuss the affairs of Empires, at any rate, the 
 British and Japanese Empires, and the conversation 
 had, as usual, dwindled to a discussion of Japanese 
 trade delinquencies because one Yokohama man was 
 there, and he the most moderate and well-spoken of 
 them all. 
 
 We were beginning to bore ourselves, as the French 
 say, when I noticed a change in Bradwardine. 
 
 Bradwardine's face did not, as a rule, express m.uch 
 more than his conversation. His attitude now arrested 
 my attention. For he was no longer lying back with 
 half-closed eyes, thinking out some naval problem of 
 tactics or construction on which he had to lecture to 
 ready listeners. He had no trouble with his classes 
 —even without that clockwork naval discipline, 
 they were all eagerness to pick up any crumb of 
 
74 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 knowledge which fell from this fighting F.R.S. 
 
 He had suddenly stiffened up ; he was on the alert. 
 Very shortly after, without a word, he rose and left 
 us. We went on talking; we were so busy with the 
 affairs of nations, for which some of us might have 
 done a good deal more. Presently Rich said : 
 
 " What's that shindy? " 
 
 " W^hat shindy? " asked Jevons incredulously, but 
 turned white while he was saying it. 
 
 '* I dunno — some row," answered Rich carelessly. 
 
 " It's a Revolution," cried Jevons. '* Something 
 that foolish girl wrote in that false dispatch has roused 
 the righteous wrath of the Japanese." 
 
 " Righteous fiddlesticks! " 
 
 The naval man came in again perfectly cool. " Did 
 you hear that row, Bradwardine? " asked Jevons 
 anxiously. I don't think he was a coward, but he was 
 a man of nerves. 
 
 '* Yes," he answered as quietly as if it was a matter 
 of no importance. ** It's some sort of riot; a lot of 
 SosJii and students. They seem to be marching on 
 this place. There's nothing much else for them to 
 do in this quarter." 
 
 Further discussion was stopped by an uproar outside 
 the Club door, which the porter had barred in good 
 time. 
 
 For the moment I was interested in watching the 
 various expressions on the faces of the little knot of 
 Europeans gathered in the verandah. The only two 
 who showed any signs of perturbation were Jevons 
 and Finch, w^ho was an effeminate person. The two 
 divines bore the test well. Tudor-Rose looked a bit 
 anxious, but determined not to disgrace himself. 
 Rich and Tiffany did not look as if anything was 
 happening. Bradwardine looked like a quarter-deck 
 Sphinx as usual, and Sandys as if he was the man in 
 command about to issue his instructions. 
 
 Jevons was the first to break the silence. *' I wonder 
 if there are any Japanese in the Club," he said. 
 " They might do something." 
 
 " At any rate they might tell us what it is all about," 
 said Sandys. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 75 
 
 Jevons made a dive from the room, and returned in 
 a moment or two with an old Japanese Marquis who 
 had been one of the principal Daimio of the old feudal 
 days. He used the Club more than any other Japanese, 
 and spoke excellent English. He was, of course, as 
 calm as an idol. Without saying a word he rang the 
 bell and asked some questions of the servant, but^ in 
 a short staccato way which was not usual with him. 
 When he had dismissed the servant, he said : 
 
 " It's a riot against the English— I think they mean 
 all foreigners." 
 
 " What will happen, your Excellency? " asked 
 Jevons. 
 
 ** Nothing, if you stay here— this building was given 
 by the Emperor — they will not dare to do it any 
 violence." 
 
 I think that both Rich and Tiffany, who were not 
 in the least impressed by the rioting, were rather struck 
 by the fact that, even when rioting, the Japanese held 
 anything that had been given by the Emperor sacred. 
 
 " You may be delayed a little, gentlemen, but pre- 
 sently the police will hear them and disperse them." 
 The Club had no telephone. 
 
 There was a brain-wave between Rich and myself. 
 We bounded up at the identical moment. We had 
 both thought of Miss Palafox — left alone at the Lega- 
 tion with her precious uncle. "Chiquita!" was on 
 my lips. 
 
 " Cheekie! " he cried, and we made a bolt for the 
 hall, where our hats and sticks were. The porter, 
 for our own good, refused to let us out. We were safe 
 inside, and might be knocked about or killed when we 
 got out. Rich pushed him aside and began to undo 
 the bolts. 
 
 I dragged him off. " It's hardly fair on the other 
 chaps," I said, *' and there's a window in the library. 
 We could drop from it — it isn't twelve feet from the 
 ground." 
 
 " Bother the other chaps," said Rich. *' Let me 
 go ; she may get scared out of her life while we are 
 talking." 
 
 *' Besides, we shall get there much quicker by the 
 
76 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 window instead of having to fight our way right 
 through them. They will have to come after us and 
 attack us." 
 
 " Right you are! " He was a man of action and 
 saw the point. We were out of the window and on 
 our way in two minutes, but we were not going to have 
 a walk over. They saw us in a twinkling, and a body 
 of them, uttering blood-curdling yells, rushed to cut 
 off our retreat. 
 
 Fortunately the Japanese don't carry sticks, and it 
 was rather dark for stone-throwing ; but it was wonder- 
 ful how they came on at us. They were like wild 
 cats ; and it was no more a laughing matter for them 
 than for us, for we were both big men, and Rich had 
 won the middle weight boxing championship of the 
 Army. As they were so light and had no idea of 
 guarding, the first few who came at us went down 
 like skittles. But we were not going to get off. In 
 a minute or two we each had half a dozen Japs hanging 
 on to us, beating us with their fists, tearing the 
 clothes off our backs, scratching, kicking. If they 
 hadn't got in each other's way they might have killed 
 us ; but they were all so anxious to get at us. I v/as 
 too excited to reflect then that we could probably have 
 got right off if we had started full speed. But Rich 
 would never have taken to his heels from any Jap ; 
 for the moment his fighting instinct rather obliterated 
 the object of our sally. Never till then had I quite 
 realised what a magnificent specimen of English man- 
 hood he was, with that terrible right arm and utter 
 oblivion of safety. 
 
 We kept up a sort of running fight to make our 
 way to the Legation. Sometimes we shook our 
 assailants off for a moment and made good way, but 
 they always came on again. And we were getting 
 very tired by this and bleeding like pigs. 
 
 Then I saw a fresh body approaching, and felt that 
 it was all up. On came our new assailants. We 
 called on each other for a spurt, which we knew must 
 be about the last. Our assailants stopped and called 
 on the others, who stopped also. Then almost 
 miraculously one of the new party came towards me — 
 
PLAYING THE GAME ^^ 
 
 a disreputable piece of butcher's meat almost naked 
 — and took off his shiny-rimmed German cap with 
 punctilious politeness. He was one of my class, and 
 a further glance showed that the rest of the new lot 
 were also from my class. 
 
 I was surprised that I had made such an impression 
 on them, but I took what the gods gave us, and after 
 a few minutes' conversation to thank them for their 
 timely interference, we pursued our way to the 
 Legation. 
 
 I wish I had taken that conversation down while it 
 was fresh in my memory — it was so na'ive, so pompous, 
 so full of the " unfortunate mistake " vein, so burdened 
 down with Japanese " humilifics." For once, *' vile, 
 worthless ruffians," and so on, seemed incontestably 
 true. 
 
 When we got to the Legation we found everything 
 absolutely quiet. We had, in fact, some difficulty in 
 getting there ; so well was it cordoned with Japanese 
 police, who did not think that two such awful-looking 
 objects were fit persons to be admitted to the Legation, 
 till one of the local police came on the scene and 
 recognised Rich. 
 
 It was rather an unheroic ending to a night of action 
 to leave the Legation without anybody belonging to 
 it knowing how hard we had fought to get there — 
 even to the peril of our lives. In one minute we 
 became merely two foreigners who had been in a row ; 
 and had to get rikshas as quickly as possible to go 
 and make ourselves decent. 
 
 As we lived in opposite directions, we had not even 
 the satisfaction of talking it over when we had 
 changed. 
 
 'fc> 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 When I went to the Dai Gakku, I had fresh evidence 
 of the extraordinary character of the Japanese. Bat- 
 tered faces among the members of other classes proved 
 how largely the Dai Gakku had been concerned in the 
 riot. Far from showing me any ill-will on that account, 
 my own students evinced an increased cordiality — they 
 were pleased apparently that their master was a 
 fighting man, and the fact of what their schoolmates 
 had suffered did not seem to create any ill-feeling. 
 Even the victims took it in good part, I was told, 
 which showed what a sporting lot the Japs were. 
 
 From my class, too, I learnt the wording of 
 Chiquita's dispatch, which had exercised the very 
 opposite effect to what I should have prophesied. 
 
 I felt sure that if Mrs. Tiffany had seen Chiquita's 
 forgery she would have cried: " This'll bring these 
 swaggering little Japs to their senses ! Those Soshi 
 will stop their agitation pretty quick— they'll think 
 Treaty Revision a jolly good thing, and wish they may 
 get it on any terms whatever." 
 
 She would have been mightily wrong ; the one feeling 
 when the contents of the false dispatch were circulated 
 among them was a sense of blind rage against every 
 Power except Russia. A grand lantern procession had 
 been parading in front of the Russian Legation while 
 they were trying to kill us, which must have mystified 
 the usually well-informed representative of the Tsar 
 considerably. 
 
 I felt in a very awkward position. I was rather a 
 hero in the Dai Gakku, and I had to go on allowing 
 them to be deceived. It was not for me to tell them 
 the dispatch was forged, and yet there were quite 
 heroic aspects in the attitude they had taken. 
 
 For the moment, when I got back to my house my 
 mind ceased to be agitated in this direction, because 
 
 78 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 79 
 
 there was a note from Chiquita asking me to go and 
 see her — as usual, at tea-time, which suited me best, 
 as my work for the day was then over. 
 
 It was still very hot when I got to the Legation, 
 and the lattices of the Legation drawing-room were 
 closed to keep out the light and heat as much as 
 possible. So Miss Palafox, who was alone, did not 
 notice the cuts and bruises on my face. She was in 
 one of her very nice moods. She handed me an 
 envelope. 
 
 " It contains," she said, " a cheque for two dozen 
 lessons." 
 
 My pride rose in my gorge. I was springing up 
 from my seat when she disarmed me. 
 
 " Wait a minute till I have finished. There is no 
 reason why you should open the envelope till all the 
 lessons are over — it is only a chaperone. As I have 
 no chaperone, I have to be careful! " 
 
 She saw me smile. 
 
 " If you think my carefulness takes curious forms," 
 she said, " principally the form of being rude, and I 
 suppose it does — you see, I don't bother myself to 
 think before I act, and then I go too far and have to 
 pull myself up with a jerk." 
 
 " Now," I thought, '* she is going to say the words 
 which will wipe it all out. She will quote that insult 
 as an instance." 
 
 But she did not do so in so many words. 
 
 " I really want to learn Japanese, but if I take 
 several Japanese lessons a week from you without 
 paying for them, people won't believe me — they will 
 think that the lessons are an excuse, that the whole 
 thing is a flirtation. I know that you would gladly 
 give me the lessons for nothing, but the only way 
 that I can convince my little world that they are bond 
 fide is to pay for them." 
 
 " Well," if you put it like that," I conceded, " it 
 is different." But I registered a vow that I would 
 never present the cheque. I meant to keep it as a 
 memento. 
 
 It had not occurred to her to contemplate my not 
 presenting it. I was afraid to think of this, for she 
 
8o PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 had a queer sort of clairvoyant power, and I knew 
 that we should have words later on if I did not present 
 it. The only thing I could not do was to prevent 
 her making it known that she was paying for the 
 lessons, and this, of course, she would do, in some 
 clever way, as the payment was to be her chaperone. 
 I felt that she meant to do it in some graceful way, 
 for she was in her most sympathetic mood during tea 
 and the talk that followed. 
 
 We had plenty to talk about. This second anti- 
 English outrage following so soon on the first had set 
 the whole English Colony ringing. 
 
 " Were you at the Rokumei-kwan last night " — 
 residents always spoke of the Nobles' Club by its 
 Japanese name — ** when the rioters attacked it? " 
 
 ** They didn't exactly attack it, did they? " 
 
 " Weren't you there? " 
 
 ** Yes, but there had been no attack when I left, 
 though there was a pretty rough mob outside." 
 
 ** I thought they were attacked. Mr. Jevons was 
 very much alarmed, and he made out, quite politely, 
 of course, that I had been the cause of it." 
 
 " There may have been an attack after I left," I 
 said, cautiously. 
 
 *' Didn't they annoy you when you passed them? " 
 
 " We didn't go out that way — the porter wouldn't 
 open the door. We left by a window at the back." 
 
 " Who was * we '? " 
 
 •• Rich and I." 
 
 ** Why did the others not leave with you? " 
 
 ** The Marquis Nabeshima advised people to stay 
 where they were until the police noticed the rioters 
 and drove them away. You see, the building is sacred 
 — it was given by the Emperor." 
 
 " How like Mr. Rich! He is one of those people 
 who are always dying to break their necks for the 
 fun of it." She ended the speech with a little sigh, 
 in which there was a distinct note of admiration, and 
 got up to throw the lattices open and let in the sunset 
 breeze, which had sprung up, to cool the room. Her 
 injuries were quite cured. When she turned round, 
 she saw the cuts and bruises on my face for the first 
 time. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 8i 
 
 "Why, you were in the riot!" she cried, "and 
 of course that precious Mr. Rich was with you. Well, 
 you are a couple ! I suppose you did it for the fun 
 of the thing! " she asked, more than half admiringly. 
 
 " No, I am afraid it was a little too serious for 
 that." 
 
 ** What possible object could you have in doing it 
 then? " 
 
 " W^ell, we wanted to know if — the Legation was 
 all right." 
 
 Want of perception was not one of Miss Palafox's 
 faults. 
 
 " You were frightened about me! " she cried. 
 
 I nodded. 
 
 With Southern impulsiveness she threw her arms 
 round me and kissed the cuts and bruises, and the 
 moment afterwards took away half the effect by saying : 
 
 "Now don't be a goose; it's gratitude, not the 
 other thing. But it was ripping of you both. I hate 
 England often, but you Englishmen do things which 
 — there, I can't finish it; you know what I mean! " 
 
 It was not love, she had told me that with uncom- 
 promising plainness, but it was a bond which bound me 
 to her in the face of unnumbered provocations, one of 
 the hardest of which was the doubt if her impulses were 
 ever whollv sincere. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 That shoulder to shoulder fight with the mob that 
 Rich and I had done together brought us closer than 
 we had been since we left school. He volunteered one 
 afternoon to take me over to tea at Yokohama with 
 Candida Begg, who was evidently what he would call 
 a great *' pal " of his, though she was about ten 
 years older than he was. I had rather a curiosity to 
 see the famous Miss Begg, of whom Yokohama was 
 so proud, and it also gave me the opportunity of seeing 
 one of the show-places in Yokohama, Netheravon, 
 where the Sandys' lived, for her bungalow was in the 
 Netheravon Garden. It was, in fact, the bungalow 
 built by Sandys' father-in-law for his elder daughter 
 and Sandys to occupy on their return from their honey- 
 moon-trip to England, but never used by them. Miss 
 Begg was a bosom friend of the second Mrs. Sandys, 
 his deceased wife's sister, who had dared public opinion 
 and made A Japanese Marriage with him when the 
 Anglican Bishop refused to allow them to be married 
 by the Church. They had been stronger than the 
 Bishop, and w^ere the most respected, as well as the 
 most popular, people in the community. 
 
 Miss Begg was the daughter of a sort of partner 
 of Mrs. Sandys' father. She was very grateful, as 
 she lived by herself, to have the chaperonage and pro- 
 tection of her bungalow being in their compound. 
 Netheravon was at the far end of the Bluff at Yoko- 
 hama, the flat-topped volcanic hill on which most of 
 the English residents lived, as it was much higher 
 ground than anywhere else in "treaty limits." 
 
 It was a novel experience, too, for me. Though I 
 had been three years in Japan, I had never been 
 inside a house on the Bluff. The English merchants 
 of Yokohama saw hardly anything of the Legation 
 people, who regarded them as a nuisance, or of the 
 professors and others in Japanese employ whom they 
 
 82 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 83 
 
 despised as hirelings of the enemy. This was not, I 
 understood, the attitude of the Sandys', but though 
 they did not share the prejudices of their fellows, they 
 kept pretty much to the set. 
 
 We rattled up from the railway station in our 
 rikshas, stopping at the foot of the Bluff to let extra 
 runners with ropes hook on to our shafts, to haul 
 us up the hill. It was quite a long ride before we 
 drew up outside a long red fence with a finely-carved 
 and fantastic gateway which the late Mr. Avon had 
 bought from an abandoned Buddhist temple. We 
 dismounted at the gate, and passed through the covered 
 way which had led to the Hondo of the same temple, 
 to a noble English residence and a low bungalow of 
 the ordinary type used by British residents in the Far 
 East, with a broad verandah smothered in roses. 
 
 Miss Begg came out into the verandah to meet us. 
 I could never have believed that she was, as Chiquita 
 protested, thirty-four. You would have said that she 
 was not more than twenty-four till you noticed that 
 she had an ease and an air which no unmarried woman 
 of four-and-twenty would be likely to attain. Though 
 she had black hair, she gave you the impression of 
 fairness from the pink skin and dark blue eyes, and 
 her undying girlishness may have been partly due to 
 the slightly retrousse cast of the beautiful features and 
 partly to the slender elegance of the figure and the 
 charming poise of her back. She was so remarkably 
 pretty that her friends did not mind teasing her by 
 saying that she ought to have her photographs taken 
 back-view. She might just as well, for a handsomer 
 back I never saw. 
 
 The blueness of her eyes and the freshness of her 
 skin made you expect delightful teeth, and you were 
 glad not to be disappointed. Her frank laugh was 
 the greatest of all her charms. 
 
 Rich was not a marrying man, he had told me before, 
 and he was particular to tell me so again, I suppose 
 lest I should fancy that he was engaged to Miss Begg. 
 
 " I just like her awfully," he said. " It's such a 
 comfort that she means to be an old maid." 
 
 " I don't see why," I said, '' if she is so pretty." 
 
84 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 " That's because no one wants to marry you." 
 
 *' No, nobody does." 
 
 " You are lucky, old man. Now my life is made 
 a burden to me because my uncle has made up his 
 mind that I shall marry my cousin." 
 
 I knew that Sir Cornwallis, the worthy or unworthy 
 baronet to whose honours Rich would in due course 
 succeed, had set his heart on his nephew's marrying 
 the daughter whose sex had been the chief disappoint- 
 ment of his life, and that if Rich married anybody 
 else his allowance would cease, and he would be cut 
 out of his uncle's will. It was rather natural on the 
 part of his uncle to want his daughter to bear the family 
 title, and twenty thousand pounds a year was not to be 
 sneezed at. 
 
 " I don't care about this rotten Service," he said, 
 refering to Her Britannic Majesty's Diplomatic Corps. 
 " I just took on the job because they would persecute 
 me so if I was in London." 
 
 "If it is not rude. Rich, why don't you marry your 
 cousin? Is she so very awful? " 
 
 " Awful. A red-faced flapper, with a lot of freckles 
 and a pigtail, who calls me ' Cousin Randolph,' and 
 shows a sort of proprietary interest in me as if I 
 were part of the furniture of Richborough." 
 
 " Is Richborough the name of the place that you 
 are so anxious not to have? " 
 
 " It isn't that I don't want to have Richborough; 
 it has hunting and shooting, and I could do a bit of 
 racing; but it's that girl. She's such a young heifer 
 — she's at the floppy sentimental age. Some chaps 
 would lump it and marry her, but I can't — I know I 
 should be such a beast to her. She'd bore me so. 
 Fancy settling down at Richborough as a prize 
 husband!" 
 
 It was certainly worth while his telling me that he 
 was so confirmed a bachelor and Candida an inflexible 
 old maid. For people so situated they seemed to enjoy 
 a very complete understanding. They were evidently 
 delighted to see each other. When she was laughing 
 and flying about with him, I simply could not believe 
 that she was thirty-four — surely it was a " two " and 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 85 
 
 not a " three." She must be twenty-four, and Chiquita 
 a malicious slanderer. 
 
 But in her gladness to see Rich she did not forget 
 her duties as hostess. 
 
 " Go and see if you can find any of the Sandys', Dick, 
 while I show Mr. Page their possessions." 
 
 The nick-name Dick, which no one else used, and 
 which wasn't taken from his Christian name, was so 
 very indicative of the degree of intimacy. He called 
 her Candida. It is so much easier for the man to use 
 the woman's real Christian name than it is for the 
 woman to reciprocate. 
 
 The Sandys' had certainly a superb place. Philip 
 would rather the house had been built like a Japanese 
 nobleman's house of the old regime, but as it had been 
 Bryn's home since her childhood he did not like 
 changing it, and left it what rich Melbourne people 
 call a cottage — a cottage with a ball-room and billiard- 
 room, and enough bedrooms to take a good slice out 
 of an acre. Having only one storey is what con- 
 stitutes a cottage in Melbourne. Immediately in front 
 of the house were its tennis lawns in the centre of a 
 beautiful stretch of English turf studded with groups 
 of rare palms and yuccas. 
 
 But this w^as not the part of the garden over which 
 Miss Begg, who had the run of it as tenant of the 
 bungalow, cared to linger. She led me on to the 
 marvellous Oriental pleasance, into which Latimer 
 Avon had poured the sympathetic side of his nature. 
 
 A shallow crater had been converted into an ex- 
 quisite lake, whose slopes, dug into innumerable little 
 bays, were wooded to the water's edge with carefully- 
 trimmed maples — pink, copper, white and variegated, 
 and the queer Japanese fir-trees trained to resemble 
 the native gardeners* repertoire of fancy subjects. 
 Between them little stone causeways led over hog's- 
 back bridges to the islands with which the lake was 
 studded, each bridged to each and piled with votive 
 lanterns, pagodas, shrines and torii till they gave the 
 effect of a gigantic willow-pattern plate. At one end 
 of the lake was a mass of the fantastic rock-work in 
 which the Japanese and Chinese delight. The dragon, 
 
86 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 whose forequarters protruded from a cavern in this 
 maze and whose hindquarters did not exist, cost, Miss 
 Begg told me, a fortune for a Japanese. 
 
 At the end of this rock-maze rose a splendid tea- 
 house of Chinese blackwood copied from the celebrated 
 mandarin tea-house at Shanghai, and the scene of a 
 dramatic episode in the second Mrs. Sandys' life. 
 The lake excited my admiration. Never had I seen 
 a willow-pattern plate reproduced in such perfection in 
 the Chinese gardens of Japan. Everything was in the 
 most classic style of the Japanese landscape gardener, 
 from the noble fir-tree on one of the islands trained 
 into the shape of a peacock with its tail spread out, 
 which had been transfered as it stood from the garden 
 of a Daimio's palace, at a huge cost, to the wistaria 
 arbour built out over the lake, whose tassels of 
 blossoms, four or five feet long, swept the surface of 
 the water. 
 
 And one of the prettiest features in the whole garden 
 was the little stream six feet wide and six inches deep, 
 which, after a winding course of a few hundred yards, 
 spanned by numerous bridges and haunted by six- 
 tailed goldfish, protected by a weir, fell over a waterfall 
 six feet high into the pellucid waters of the lake at 
 the point commanded by the wistaria arbour, which 
 was used for fishing, as the lake was well filled with 
 carp and other fish prized by the Japanese angler. 
 
 Beyond the lake a long slope of about an acre, 
 covered with splendid blossoming thickets of the wild 
 scarlet azalea, whose blossoms attracted the glossy 
 black butterflies as large as humming-birds, carried 
 us up to the artificial Fujiyama, which was no more 
 than a tall mound, with a path winding round it, like 
 the famous pasteboard Fujiyama in the grounds of 
 the Asakusa Temple. It had a few trees on the top 
 for shade, and a stone seat for people to rest on w^hile 
 they took in the view of the matchless snow-mantled 
 shoulders of the real Fuji, towering twelve thousand 
 feet into the air, a dozen leagues away, and the blue 
 Hakone mountains, and the junk-dotted gulf of Tokyo 
 with the million-peopled city at its head. 
 
 " I come here most evenings at sunset when I am 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 87 
 
 not engaged," she said. " Sunset is the time to see 
 Fuji." 
 
 When we got back from our tour of inspection, we 
 found Mrs. Sandys and her charming golden-haired 
 children in Miss Begg's drawing-room with Rich. For 
 a man who had such a horror of marriage he was 
 the picture of domesticity with one of her jolly little 
 boys on each of his knees, and the girl, who was two 
 or three years older, pulling the little curls of blue and 
 green and yellow wool out of his rough light Irish 
 tweed coat, in which there seemed no reason for their 
 existence. 
 
 Mrs. Sandys was laughing as heartily as a child 
 over some absurdity of Rich's — she was one of those 
 women whose nobility strikes you even before their 
 loveliness. She was much younger than Candida, and 
 really had more influence over Rich than anybody in 
 Japan in the direction of laughing him out of his 
 absurdities. I could not make out whether she was 
 laughing at him or with him for the moment. I fancy 
 it was by this uncertainty that she exercised her 
 power. In any case, her influence over him was of 
 the best. 
 
 " What a lovely garden you have, Mrs. Sandys! " 
 
 ** Yes, I think it is," she said simply. " At all 
 events, it is very lovely to me. I have lived in it all 
 my life except during the unhappy time which I 
 should like to cut out with a pair of scissors and throw 
 into the sea. It was my poor father's creation." 
 
 Other people had told me this, and had uncharitably 
 added that there was a romantic touch in Latimer 
 Avon which had partly shown itself in the creation of 
 this exquisite garden and the collection of the lovely 
 curios which made the house so unique, and partly in 
 making him a title-hunting bounder. The daughter 
 was singularly free from affectation. She received me 
 with great kindness, breaking the ice by saying how 
 sorry she and her husband were not to have seen 
 more of the English who were teaching in Tokyo. 
 And it was impossible to doubt the sincerity of any- 
 thing she said. 
 
 Miss Begg's house was arranged with a happy 
 
88 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 audacity and soundness of taste. The first thing that 
 struck you when you entered it was that she must 
 be just moving in. Her drawing-room was almost 
 as bare as a Japanese room, and some Japanese houses 
 do have polished wooden floors. Then you felt a 
 sensation of agreeable relief. The walls, which had 
 hardly anything hanging on them, were covered with 
 perfectly plain but really costly paper, of what the 
 Japanese call night-blue. There was a superlative 
 cabinet of old lacquer which contained the whole 
 apparatus of a Buddhist shrine and a very few other 
 rare pieces ; and there was sitting accommodation for 
 only about half a dozen persons. 
 
 I understood that a few rugs were permitted on 
 the floor in the winter. The room seemed to have 
 been arranged with a view to dusting — you could have 
 seen a speck. 
 
 The same spirit was reflected in her dress, so simple, 
 but distinguished by its admirable cut, and the way 
 it was put on. Miss Begg might have looked severe 
 if it had not been for her frank, contagious laugh. 
 
 Mrs. Sandys was laughing at my surprise. *' It's 
 a pity you can't see Miss Begg's bedroom," she said. 
 
 ** But he can," said Candida. *' You can show it 
 to him." 
 
 All three children hung upon their pretty young 
 mama when she took me to the bedroom. Here 
 simplicity was carried to a still greater extreme. Its 
 pale-coloured walls, it is true, were surrounded for 
 about two feet from the ground with a representation 
 of a hayfield studded with wild flowers, either printed 
 from wood-blocks or painted by Japanese. But the 
 room was almost devoid of furniture, except the 
 beautiful little bed, the whitest thing the human mind 
 could conceive. The one speck of colour about it was 
 a fine copy of Diana and her nymphs, after one of the 
 great eighteenth century Frenchmen, which formed 
 the foot of the bed ; not on the side facing the room, 
 but on the side facing its occupant. 
 
 The only other things in the room were an exquisite 
 white dressing-table, with a chair on each side of it, 
 in the same Louis Quinze style, standing in the window. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 89 
 
 If she looked In any other direction, Miss Begg might 
 have been In a hayfield as she lay In bed. For every- 
 thing else was concealed In cupboards. 
 
 After this Mrs. Sandys, with the children still 
 hanging on her, carried me off to look at their curios. 
 
 My position In the employ of the Japanese Govern- 
 ment had given me a very deep Interest in Japanese 
 art, especially as applied to house-Interiors and the 
 articles in domestic use, and after three years of 
 constantly meeting Japanese and understanding their 
 language, I was beginning to know something about 
 the subject. The friends of my pupils were aware 
 that the way to give me gratification was to initiate 
 me In the knowledge of things Japanese. Mrs. Sandys 
 asked me If I should like to see her husband's 
 collection, and Miss Begg told me not to refuse such 
 a good offer. I felt that she must be dying for me 
 to accept the offer, which might well have been made 
 with a view of giving her half an hour with Rich, 
 though I was confident that the Invitation was sincere. 
 But her manner was perfect ; there was not a trace 
 of suggestion In It. 
 
 I was, of course, glad to accept, and still gladder 
 the moment I entered that sumptuous house. The 
 atmosphere of home reigned supreme, while we were 
 surrounded with pieces which would have made 
 museums envious, and many of which I had not seen 
 equalled In the collections of native connoisseurs. One 
 cannot transmit the charm of such a collection in 
 words — it seemed almost sacrilegious to have them 
 used In the decoration of a house. I wondered If 
 those sturdy little golden - haired boys of hers had 
 derived from their Japanese birthplace the Japanese 
 child's immunity from the desire to break. The little 
 girl, who she said was her step-daughter, was a gentle 
 creature, and apparently the most devoted of the three. 
 
 We did not look into things. " I don't want you 
 to think me a fool," said Mrs. Sandys, " but though 
 I love all these beautiful things and do know something 
 about them, I should tell you all sorts of rubbish if 
 I tried to play showman. Come over here whenever 
 you have two or three free days — we shall be delighted 
 
90 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 to give you a bed, and my husband will enjoy catalogu- 
 ing- them to you, which is just what I could not do." 
 
 She rang the bell. " It's time for the children to 
 take their tea." 
 
 I had noticed that they did not take anything at 
 Miss Begg's. Their tea was their evening meal, far 
 too important to be trifled with. When she had given 
 the order, she took me to the wistaria arbour — there 
 is nothing more deliciously scented in spring. 
 
 While we w^ere there we saw Rich and Miss Begg 
 seated on one of the islands. Mrs. Sandys looked 
 at me hard, to determine, I suppose, how far she 
 should take me into her confidence. Evidently she 
 was reassured, for she said : 
 
 " I am rather anxious about this. Is it coming to 
 anything? " 
 
 It certainly did not look much like it — at one minute 
 he was laughing boisterously ; at another he was 
 breaking off bits of the moss, which made these little 
 stone islands so adorable, to throw at the six-tailed 
 goldfish and frighten them. Evidently Mrs. Sandys 
 divined my thoughts, for she commented on Rich's 
 unlover-like attitude, and she observed with a smile : 
 
 " It does not mean anything with a man like him — 
 that sort of man doesn't fall in love like an ordinary 
 being ; the utmost he can do is to find a woman whose 
 society does not bore him, and who likes him well 
 enough to excuse his want of perception. Accident 
 has to do the rest." 
 
 We watched them for a little. 
 
 ** He is as irresponsible as a faun," she said, " and 
 as happy as one; that's one thing in his favour." 
 And a little later on she said: " I wonder if you have 
 been misunderstanding me, Mr. Page. My anxiety is 
 not that the marriage should take place, but that it 
 should not take place. I can see quite well that 
 Candida is very fond of him, and I should say that 
 he likes her immensely in his way ; but she is ten years 
 older, and she has so much more brains than he has. 
 They might be very unhappy if she began to bore 
 him; then he would be such an awful bore." 
 
 " But surely Rich is as good as engaged, if he 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 91 
 
 ever marries at all. His uncle will cut him off with a 
 shilling if he marries anybody but his cousin." 
 
 " He must have a little money of his own unless 
 his father died insolvent; and he has his profession, 
 and Candida has about six hundred a year. It doesn't 
 make much, I know, for a man like him ; but it is 
 quite enough for him to marry on if he fell violently 
 in love." 
 
 I did not repeat to Mrs. Sandys the conversation 
 which I had had with Rich on our way over from 
 Tokyo that very afternoon. For one thing the con- 
 versation was private ; and for another it might have 
 been a clumsy expedient of Rich's to throw dust in 
 my eyes. He was not very clever. 
 
 '* What sort of a girl is she, Mrs. Sandys?" I 
 asked ; and as soon as the words were out of my 
 mouth I saw that the question sounded rather delicate, 
 and hastened to explain—" I mean, what sort of tastes 
 has she? " 
 
 " It's her tastes which make me anxious. A girl 
 with money of her own and as good-looking and 
 charming as Candida could have married a dozen 
 times. The reason she has not married is that none 
 of the men who have asked her have been interesting 
 enough. She has practically been her own rnistress 
 since she was a girl. The aunt who lived with her 
 till she came of age was a negative sort of person, 
 who did little more than keep house. Candida could 
 not stand being chaperoned, but though she was very 
 frank and ready to make friends, she had no taste for 
 silly flirtations ; so she could be allowed to do what 
 she liked. She is' a wonderfully all-round girl in her 
 interests. She is a great reader, takes quite an in- 
 telligent interest in things Japanese, and is extremely 
 good at sports, especially tennis and riding. The sport 
 is the most hopeful sign about the situation — that's 
 their common ground; but I'm afraid that her reading 
 and gardening, which make such a large part of her 
 day, would bore Mr. Rich horribly. And such a nice 
 w^holesome woman deserves something better." 
 
 " What fools we mortals be," I thought. " Here's 
 a woman her own mistress, untroubled with money 
 
92 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 cares, living almost in the family of charming people; 
 she is devoted to gardening, and shares one of the 
 most beautiful gardens in the world ; she has a deep 
 friendship with books — and will quite likely throw all 
 this over if it enters Rich's addled pate to ask her to 
 marry him. And I, who am casting stones at her, 
 would like nothing better than to share my life with 
 a mischievous little monkey like Chiquita Palafox ! " 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 A PROUD man was Orlando Jevons. The dispatch 
 which Lord Clapham had received from the British 
 Foreign Office authorised the British Legation in 
 Tokyo to concede the Revision of the Treaty so long 
 and so earnestly desired by Japan. Jevons justly felt 
 that it was his doing. Lord Clapham was not the kind 
 of man to take the initiative; he was the kind of 
 man to take kicks. The conviction that the demands 
 of the Japanese were just and the agitation that they 
 should be conceded had been inspired by Jevons. 
 
 Every Englishman in Japan whose opinion was 
 worth having, regarded the concession as fatal, but 
 Jevons was sure that Japan was a nation whose naval 
 and military power entitled her to demand the revision 
 of the treaties, and was sure that she was sufficiently 
 civilised not to abuse them. 
 
 He had twisted Lord Clapham round his little finger, 
 people thought, and the result was that for better or 
 for worse Great Britain acknowledged the independence 
 of Japan. 
 
 That the other nations would follow was a matter 
 of course. Great Britain's power and interest in the 
 country outweighed that of all the other nations put 
 together. The enthusiasm of what Jevons delighted 
 to quote as " the Imperial Government " and its sup- 
 porters knew no bounds. Processions were the order 
 of the day ; the illuminations made the British Legation 
 look as if it were being besieged; but there was the 
 usual hair in the soup — the attitude of the Soshi. 
 These riotous and evil-minded persons (of very tender 
 years for politicians) proceeded to make furious attacks 
 on the Government, raking up the old grievance that 
 foreign merchants, in return for submission to 
 Japanese rule, were to be allowed to settle and trade 
 anywhere in Japan. 
 
 93 
 
94 
 
 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 National bankruptcy was to be the consequence. 
 
 This made the Government very anxious about 
 another matter in connection with the Soshi — the 
 punishment of the burglars who were concerned in 
 the attack on the British Legation and the rioters who 
 had besieged the Rokumei-kwan and half killed Rich 
 and myself. 
 
 The Japanese Government has more moral courage 
 than most Governments; it cannot be accused of 
 truckling to Demos ; but it was justly anxious that 
 the Treaty Revision, for which prominent politicians 
 had lost their lives, should be hailed with a chorus of 
 welcome and not be a bone of contention. 
 
 The British Legation had not yet formulated its 
 demands for compensation, moral or otherwise. _ The 
 Japanese Foreign Minister paid a very special^ visit to 
 iDCg as a favour that it should minimise the incident. 
 Jevons, who acted as interpreter, was in complete 
 sympathy. 
 
 But the Soshi were more obdurate. Instead of 
 being penitent, they were defiant; their attitude 
 threatened to wreck everything. The British Legation 
 was once more consulted, to throw light on what had 
 happened to make the Soshi so difficult. 
 
 Jevons failed. If a man is seldom a prophet in his 
 own country, still seldomer is he a prophet in a foreign 
 country, for which he sacrifices the interests of his 
 own, as pro-Boer members of the British Parliament 
 were to learn before many years were passed. The 
 Soshi, it appeared, had nothing but contempt for 
 Jevons, and were as little disposed to be appeased as 
 if they had been the victims and not the aggressors. 
 
 How Chiquita Palafox arrived at her knowledge of 
 the situation I cannot say, unless one is permitted to 
 suppose that when Lord Clapham had not Jevons to 
 make up his mind for him he fell back on his spirited 
 and opinionated little niece. 
 
 All I know for certain is that when I got back to my 
 house from the Dai Gakku one afternoon, I saw a 
 riksha with two runners— not a very ordinary sight in 
 Tokyo— at the door, and, going in, found a certain 
 young lady, very pretty and puzzled. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 95 
 
 " I wish I had never tried to save the old treaty," 
 she said, as soon as she had given me an exquisitely- 
 gloved hand. Gloves may seem a small matter for 
 me to have noticed, but they are far from being un- 
 important at the beginning of the rainy season in 
 Japan, when they have to be kept in bottles or sealed 
 tins. 
 
 " Miss Palafox, that is not worthy of you." 
 
 "Please never use that word again, Mr. Page; it 
 is one of those words like rigid and wrong which are 
 pure conventions, pure assumptions, pure assertions 
 on the part of the speaker." 
 
 I made no reply. I felt rather at sea. Had she 
 come for the pleasure of rhetorical exercises? 
 
 I gave her lessons in Japanese four times a week, 
 and when she felt more inclined to talk we did no 
 lessons. Why had she come? She was, at any rate, 
 direct if not lucid, for the very next thing she said was : 
 
 " You've got to get me out of this — you are my best 
 friend." 
 
 This was very clever of her. Throwing herself on 
 my mercy, as it were, made me ready to shed my 
 heart's blood, figuratively at any rate. 
 
 '' Well, what am I to do? " 
 
 '* Squash, or win over, the SosJii.'^ 
 
 " This is exactly what the Japanese Government for 
 years past would have liked to do, and I am only a 
 paid employee in a Japanese school." 
 
 *' Is that all? " 
 
 ** I am afraid so." 
 
 " Men are so dull. What was it you were telling 
 me yesterday after our lesson? " 
 
 " I don't think I told you anything of importance; 
 I was just laughing over the absurdity of the situation 
 at the Dai Gakku on the day that I arrived there 
 covered w^ith scratches and bruises, and saw the boys 
 in the other classes to whom Rich and I had given 
 black eyes." 
 
 ** It was your ow^n boys — the boys in your owm class 
 — you told me who saved you." 
 
 ** Yes, it was." 
 
 " Now don't you see any way out of it? " 
 
96 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 ** No, I confess I don't." 
 
 " Well, I do. You have told me more than once 
 of the extraordinary keenness of the Japanese sense 
 of the ridiculous." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Well, you have got to take your boys— your class 
 — into your confidence." 
 
 I smiled feebly. " It is not so easy as it sounds to 
 take a Japanese into your confidence." 
 
 ** You have got to tell them hou^ clever Palaf ox-San 
 is, how she heard of their intentions, and tricked 
 them." 
 
 I simply listened to her. She appeared to have a 
 scheme formulated in her head. 
 
 '' Say that she detected them while they were 
 planning to steal the Treaty, as the British Minister 
 had refused to show it to them ; and since he refused to 
 believe that such an outrage on a Legation could be 
 contemplated, determined to save the Treaty by a 
 ruse. . ." She handed me a copy of what she had 
 written. I glanced my eye over its denunciations and 
 its wild tirade about the great Powers not intending 
 to put up with Japanese arrogance any longer, and all 
 of them except Russia, being on the point of signing 
 a treaty between themselves to arrange their future 
 relations with Japan on a far stricter basis, to be 
 supported if necessary with a naval demonstration. 
 I read it through. 
 
 •' How could you pen such a document as this. Miss 
 Palafox? Did you want to frighten them? " 
 
 " No," she replied, with a little toss of her head. 
 ** I just wanted to give them a jolly good sell by 
 writing the exact opposite to what was really in the 
 Treaty." 
 
 " Well, what am I to do. Miss Palafox? " 
 ** The Dai Gakku youths— they were in it or they 
 would not have been with the people who attacked 
 the Rokumei-kwan. They may not have taken any 
 part in the burglary. Probably not! I think they 
 must have been professionals to break into the 
 Legation and tie me up without anyone hearing a 
 breath. The ordinary Japanese cannot keep his breath 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 97 
 
 quiet. But your students were in with the Soshi in 
 the riots." 
 
 " Yes," I said, in a tone which showed her I had 
 not yet caught her drift. 
 
 " You can work your class," she said triumphantly, 
 as if there was no question about it. 
 
 " What am I to do or say? " 
 
 *' Tell them that they were very clever, but not so 
 clever as a w^oman — that she guessed their plans and 
 made a false treaty on purpose to deceive them. Tell 
 them that she left it on her bed for them to find, 
 and threw the real treaty behind her bed ; and tell 
 them that she is so pleased at saving the Treaty by 
 her wits that she will not allow her uncle, the British 
 Minister, to demand their punishment." 
 
 " I am afraid the ' Imperial Government,' as Jevons 
 calls them, will see to that without any demanding." 
 
 " Well then, tell them that the British Minister will 
 request the Imperial Government that no more notice 
 should be taken of the matter." 
 
 I must own that I felt doubtful as to how the Dai 
 Gakku would receive my mission, know^ing the estima- 
 tion in which the Japanese hold women. There was 
 the chance that they would be angrier than ever to 
 think that their united wits were not equal to those 
 of a mere girl. The Japanese hates being made a fool 
 of anyhow, unless he is in the mood for it. Otherwise, 
 her proposition struck me as very tactful. The country 
 was in a great state of tension ; the British had 
 conceded the country's demands ; it was not, therefore, 
 desirable that its gratitude should be poisoned by 
 resentment at wholesale punishments. 
 
 On the whole the best way to manage things seemed 
 to be to consult my favourite pupil, Mayeda-San, a 
 very bright boy, who was always my guide in my 
 rambles about Tokyo, because he liked to take the 
 opportunity of learning English. I asked him to lunch 
 with me. It was a half day. I was going to take 
 him to one of the hotels, but he suggested that we 
 should go to a large foreign restaurant near the 
 Nihombashi. 
 
 I was so curious to see what the restaurant was like 
 
g8 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 that I agreed at once, for the Nihombashi is in the 
 heart of old Tokyo, in a quarter where half the 
 population live in sampans, little boats with hoods, in 
 a net-work of canals — a water life, half Venice and 
 half Canton. It was outside Treaty limits, so it could 
 not possibly be kept by foreigners. Mayeda spoke of 
 it as being very large, but on the average not one 
 foreigner a day went near the Nihombashi. 
 
 Outside it was a hideous building, like you get in 
 the poor parts of Paris. Inside there were two or 
 three floors all arranged exactly alike, with little round 
 iron cafe tables and Austrian bent-wood chairs. The 
 glass and cutlery were rather poor, and the whole 
 thing reminded you of a cheap French restaurant. 
 The waiters were inexpressibly funny in dress-clothes, 
 which fitted as loosely as kimonos. The thing which 
 struck me most was that every customer in the place 
 was Japanese, and that nearly all of them wore 
 European or pseudo-European clothes. Frock coats 
 and furry top-hats were very popular ; and the men 
 were otherwise a superior lot. 
 
 " I thought you said that this was a foreigners' 
 restaurant, Mayeda-San? " 
 
 "It is," he said. 
 
 " But there is not a foreigner in the place! " 
 
 " Foreigners' restaurant for Japanese," he ex- 
 plained. ** Government have built — if not practise 
 here, Japanese no can eat dinners when to England 
 have gone." 
 
 " Do you mean to tell me, Mayeda-San, that the 
 Japanese Government built this place for the Japanese 
 to learn how to eat in a foreign way? " 
 
 " Yoroshi:' 
 
 Seeing how surprised I was, he added: "For 
 Japanese not easy to sit — look see." 
 
 I had been rather shy of watching them, but when 
 I looked it was very hard not to laugh, for at nearly 
 every table was someone hanging on to a chair with 
 his knees doubled back under it till his heels almost 
 touched the seat of his chair from below. They were, 
 in fact, kneeling in their accustomed posture with the 
 seat of the chair inserted between their heels and 
 their hams. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 99 
 
 Mayeda-San pointed out to me all sorts of important 
 people, whom I knew by name ; it was when they were 
 high up in the Government Service that they began 
 to educate themselves for taking meals with Europeans 
 without making faux pas. That Government officials 
 always wore European dress, I knew ; perhaps for the 
 same reason. 
 
 I tried to picture Lord Salisbury squatting on his 
 heels in a kimono on a yellow mat with the con- 
 scientiousness of the Japanese, trying to teach himself 
 to eat rice with chopsticks ; but my mind was not equal 
 to it, though his nephew, a future Prime Minister, 
 could have done the kimono part pretty reasonably. 
 
 We took table d'hote lunch, because I was anxious 
 to see what they would give us ; but the whole thing 
 was so successfully English that it is not worth 
 describing. Besides, I was rather disconcerted by 
 finding myself with every ej^e in the room on me, and 
 have understood the feelings of the Prince of Wales 
 from that time forward. 
 
 When, however, I realised that I was fulfilling my 
 familiar role of teaching Japanese, I became more at 
 ease. I really did know the proper way for an English 
 gentleman to eat, so there was no reason why I should 
 be disconcerted by finding myself a model. I suspected 
 that the very fine dish of asparagus, which did not 
 appear on the 7nenii (written in English as well as 
 Japanese for every table) was added in order that 
 the guests might have a lesson in the management of 
 this revolutionary vegetable. And I noticed a dozen 
 or more knives being divorced from peas during the 
 progress of that meal, which failed in its prime object 
 of affording me an opportunity of confiding my very 
 delicate and private political mission. So I ordered 
 up a fresh bottle of beer — everybody was drinking 
 bottled beer (made in Japan on the American plan 
 and trade-m.arked with a big dragon) — and confided to 
 the hugely honoured Mayeda that I had something 
 very private to talk to him about, and asked where 
 we should go to have the conversation. 
 
 " Nice place? " asked Mayeda. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
loo PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 " Go Gwai-Rio-Bai." 
 
 This meant the Garden of the Sleeping Dragon. 1 
 knew the place well ; it was an orchard of delightful 
 old plum trees, so gnarled and prostrate that they 
 reminded the Japanese of the mystical kirin, the beast 
 which adorned the bottles of beer we had been drinking. 
 
 " Japanese go Gwai-Rio-Bai when want talk poems." 
 
 I supposed from this that I should have been paying 
 him an extra high compliment if I had gone somewhere 
 to talk poetry to him. I let him cherish the illusion 
 till we were seated on one of the tea-house benches 
 in that garden of mossy turf and lichenous trees. The 
 same bench does for natives and foreigners ; the 
 natives squat on it or sit on it side-saddle. Before 
 we had time to sit down we were saluted by a string 
 of little moosmcs — human butterflies with scarlet 
 under - garments peeping between their pale blue 
 'kimonos^ and with their tiny feet, looking almost like 
 pigeons' feet in their split-toed, dazzling clean tabi. 
 The ohis they showed as they bent their foreheads to 
 the ground, with turned-in knees and respectful hisses, 
 were scarlet too, and they had bright flowers in their 
 glossy black hair, moulded, with camellia oil, into 
 butterfly wings. They brought the honourable tea in 
 five little cups without handles on carved wooden 
 saucers. I was accustomed by this time to the delicate 
 colour and delicate flavour of the tea of Japan ; but I 
 did not touch the salted cherry-blossoms, or, perhaps, 
 they were salted plum-blossoms here. Mayeda looked 
 astonished ; but I did not want salt — though it w^ere 
 the salt of the earth — in my tea. 
 
 He wished, after tea, to take me round the orchard, 
 examining poems which had been written by his friends 
 among the hundreds pinned to the poor old trees. 
 
 His partner in poetry, he told me, was a travelling 
 photographer, who had written the best poems there. 
 I asked with careful politeness how he knew they were 
 the best. 
 
 He told me that his friend had taken the Government 
 prize for handwriting, quite as if the handwriting were 
 the most important part of poetry ! Perhaps it ought 
 to be. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME loi 
 
 He did unpin one of his partner's poems for me to 
 look at. A delicate little water-colour drawing was 
 washed in at the top ; it showed the first tinge of dawn 
 stealing up over the horizon of the low-shored bay 
 of Tokyo. The poem underneath, with its vertical 
 line of the picturesque Japanese letters, executed with 
 a very fine brush and perfectly exquisite handwork, 
 was as beautiful as a maiden-hair fern. One could 
 tolerate the most absolute bosh in handwriting like 
 that — the whole thing was not bigger than a post-card, 
 and the literal translation was, " Dust of light at the 
 back of Ocean," — the Japanese poet's way of express- 
 ing dawn. 
 
 Threatened with this deluge of genius I came to 
 the point at once ; and it was fortunate that I had my 
 three years' experience of the Japanese, for Mayeda 
 showed how thrillingly interested he was by replying 
 in grunts instead of staccato English. 
 
 The Japanese are a cautious race as well as secretive 
 in a matter of any moment. It was not to be expected 
 that he would give an opinion all at once; but if it 
 had been utterly impossible he would have laughed 
 the Japanese laugh which is such an evil thing to hear. 
 The Japanese laughs when he is going to tell you 
 about a death, and he laughs when he means to 
 quarrel. He was so interested, too, in what I told 
 him, that he forgot to show me any more poems 
 pinned to plum-trees. Hardly a word did he say all 
 the time I was talking to him, except : 
 
 " Pity English lady not like Japanese woman — 
 Japanese woman not do these things." 
 
 "Miss Palafox is not English," I said; ** she is 
 Spanish." 
 
 " Spanish, English, American, German, Russian," 
 he said, — " all white man English." 
 
 I think he must have been surprised by the 
 vehemence with which I explained that I was not 
 apologising — that if it had not been for Miss Palafox 's 
 heroism, instead of the whole matter ending in a joke, 
 the Government would have had to pass sentences of 
 great severity on the men who broke into the British 
 Legation. 
 
I02 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 Mayeda knew without my telling him how vindictive 
 these sentences might have been in the flush of the 
 Imperial Government's satisfaction at the all-powerful 
 Great Britain setting the example of recognising 
 Japanese independence. 
 
 All he said when I had finished was : 
 
 " Others must talk to." 
 
 I did not fancy that he himself was mixed up in 
 it ; he was not a revolutionary-looking person — he 
 never wore a hat or lie-European shoes. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 The students and Soshi must have had some central 
 organisation capable of discussing a situation and 
 issuing its orders at very short notice, for when I 
 entered the Dai Gakku the next morning, I found 
 Mayeda waiting to tell me that he could give me my 
 reply at the close of school. I knew from his face 
 that it was an affirmative of some kind, and when he 
 spoke in greater detail later on, I was interested and 
 amused to find the impression which Chiquita Palafox 
 had made on these young men. They did not, of 
 course, think her good-looking; judged by Japanese 
 ideas her type was not correct ; she had not the thin 
 eagle nose, the lantern jaws, the pale face, or the 
 elongated neck, which are their standards of aristo- 
 cratic beauty. But they admired her courage and 
 sense of humour and resourcefulness, and were grateful 
 to her for her generosity. She would receive a written 
 testimonial of their gratitude. They were not rich, 
 or the testimonial would have taken a more solid form. 
 This was the substance of what he was deputed to 
 tell me. 
 
 A few days later I had a note from her saying that 
 she had received a whole bundle of Japanese writing, 
 and would I come and explain it to her. When I 
 went I found her with an armful of neat little slips 
 of rice-paper, many of them with charming pictures, 
 and all of them beautifully written. A moment's 
 glance after my experiences of the Gwai-Rio-Bai told 
 me that they were poems. Such of the rioters, at any 
 rate, as could write poetry had sent her a poem. It 
 did not signify that she could not read a word of 
 them ; they were works of art, probably more than 
 they were works of literature, and so she was full of 
 a project for having them all splendidly mounted in 
 
 103 
 
I04 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 an album with an account of the occurrences which had 
 led up to them— which I was to write. 
 
 There was a great variety of them crediting her with 
 all manner of qualities from out-witting expressed by 
 " A Rat scampered over the Sleeper's face," to 
 generosity instead of vindictiveness expressed by " In- 
 stead of the Thorn the Rose's scented Petals." 
 
 The next I saw of Chiquita was at Yokohama. 
 Having a short holiday, I had taken the Sandys at 
 their word, and invited myself to visit them. 
 
 I had mentioned my intention to her while she was 
 showing me the poems, and she made no allusion to 
 any intention of proceeding to Yokohama. I was a 
 good deal surprised when she arrived a few hours 
 after myself, to stay with Miss Begg, whose bungalow 
 was in the Sandys' grounds, the more so as Miss Begg 
 was Mrs. Tiffany's friend, and Chiquita, as a rule, 
 left the Tiffanys and their friends severely alone. I 
 found the connecting link later, when I learned that 
 Rich was in Yokohama, staying at the United Club. 
 It was he who had brought them together; he had 
 taken Miss Begg to the Legation, and Chiquita had 
 fallen in love wuth her. 
 
 Chiquita was no fool. She recognised that Miss 
 Begg was an unusually wholesome-natured woman, 
 and she had been pining for such a companion of her 
 own sex. 
 
 I am not exaggerating when I say that Mrs. Tiffany 
 was the most agreeable European woman Chiquita 
 could have had for a friend in Tokyo. She, at any 
 rate, was not a humbug, and was capable of honest 
 likes and dislikes. It was a pity they could not be 
 friends, because they would have amused each other 
 with their sharp tongues and wits. But Chiquita went 
 further than her little-England uncle, and the Honour- 
 able Mrs. Tiffany was the leader of the set who sighed 
 for an hour of Sir Harry Parkes to right the state 
 of affairs at the British Legation. Mrs. Tudor-Rose 
 was a silly snob, occupied with family pretensions in 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 105 
 
 an out-of-the-way corner like Japan. Mrs. Macy, the 
 wife of the Nonconformist Minister who was chaplain 
 to the American Legation, was a woman who never 
 stopped talking about things which did not interest 
 Chiquita. 
 
 Rich, therefore, gave her the greatest treat she had 
 had since she came to Japan, by bringing Candida to 
 see her. Chiquita poured out her heart to her; she 
 admired her looks, her figure, her clothes, extrava- 
 gantly, and invited her to the Legation so much while 
 she was staying with the Tiffanys that Miss Begg 
 asked her to visit her at Yokohama. 
 
 Tiffany had been quite a traitor to his camp while 
 this violent friendship was being born ; he really 
 enjoyed Chiquita's society very much, and none the 
 less for the hard knocks she gave him for his wife in 
 her conversation. He took it so good-naturedly that 
 Chiquita reciprocated his good will. 
 
 There was every chance of their becoming quite great 
 friends, because she rather liked the atmosphere of 
 " rotting," as he called it, which was best suited to 
 his brains. A capacity to giggle and indifference to 
 time were, I feared, passports to her favour; and I 
 possessed neither of them. 
 
 The upshot of it all was that Chiquita was staying 
 with Miss Begg, while I was staying w^ith the Sandys ; 
 and my heart gave a little leap when it became clear 
 to me that she had timed her visit at Yokohama to 
 coincide with mine. Both girls and Rich were dining 
 at the Sandys the first night I was there, and it was 
 then I learned that Rich was staying at the Club. 
 
 For people who had such a magnificent place, the 
 Sandys were not formal. Many English conventions 
 they thought did not acclimatise well in Japan. For 
 one thing, except when they were giving a dinner- 
 party, they did not let dinner monopolise the evening. 
 Men and women left the table together, and occupied 
 themselves as they chose. That night Rich went off 
 with the ladies, while I had a delightful evening with 
 Mr. Sandys among his noble curios, discussing their 
 points and deciphering signatures. In the morning 
 Mr. Sandys went away early to his oflfice, and Mrs. 
 
io6 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 Sandys told me that I was to consider my time entirely 
 my own. Japanese servants are admirable in many 
 ways, but not as nurses ; and even with Chinese amahs 
 she had to keep a constant eye on her little step- 
 daughter Mary, and Phil and Rummy (whose proper 
 name was Romney) ; so I strolled about the garden 
 and was not long in discovering two charming ap- 
 paritions in the light bright fabrics that suit that lotus 
 climate. 
 
 Chiquita was hanging on Candida, and they were 
 waiting, and likely to wait a good round time, for 
 Rich, who took getting up seriously. Perhaps Candida 
 had something to do about her house; at any rate, I 
 heard her say: "There's Mr. Page!" And when 
 we had been conversing for a few minutes, I found 
 that she had left us. 
 
 I pictured to myself a delightful morning spent with 
 Chiquita in dawdling about that earthly paradise, the 
 Sandys' garden. Under ordinary circumstances, killing 
 time is much more painful to me than to Time, whom 
 I can only call the " enemy " for being in such a 
 hurry. But I told myself that I was having a holiday 
 and that it would be good for me to try to do absolutely 
 nothing, at which, as a rule, Chiquita had proved such 
 an efficient helpmeet. If she had asked for a hook and 
 a line to catch the Sandys* six-tailed goldfish, I should 
 have been much less surprised than by her almost 
 pettish exclamation, " I want to go into Yokohama, 
 Mr. Page. Will you take me? Candida insists on 
 waiting for Mr. Rich! " 
 
 The Sandys lived at the very end of the Bluff, more 
 than a mile outside the town, though it was within 
 Treaty limits. 
 
 " I shall be delighted. Shall I order the rikshas? " 
 
 She replied v/ith a smile which illuminated her whole 
 face. 
 
 "If it is not a rude question, why were you so 
 anxious to start. Miss Palafox? " I asked. 
 
 "Because I'm homesick; I'm dying to be among 
 Christian men and women." 
 
 As I knew that she was a Roman Catholic, and 
 nearly all the foreigners in Yokohama were Protestants, 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 107 
 
 I took this to mean white people. Her religion did 
 not sit heavily on her. 
 
 I was right, for the next thing she said was : 
 
 " How lovely it is to be with a crowd of Europeans 
 you don't know. I know every European man, 
 woman and child in Tokyo by heart. I know every- 
 thing they wear down to the creases and stains. I 
 watch the gowns fading under the hot sun and the 
 shoes losing their shape. I wish I had gone to the 
 Club Hotel now, and made Candida stay with me there 
 so as not to lose a minute of it. We're rather far 
 out at Netheravon." 
 
 '* What do you want to do first, Miss Palafox? " 
 I asked, as the extra kwumayas hooked themselves 
 on to steady our riksJias, which showed that we were 
 just at the end of the Bluff where it dipped down to 
 join the town. 
 
 " I want to mix with the stream of globe-trotters 
 and do just what they do. I want to be with them 
 and feel that I'm one. I'm going with Candida to 
 her Chinese dressmaker presently ; she's going to meet 
 me in town." 
 
 ** Where? " 
 
 *' Oh, we didn't fix — you can't get away from 
 people in Japan." 
 
 As we passed the Club Hotel, the verandah was full 
 of foreigners, laughing and talking at the tops of their 
 voices, with the excitement of being in Japan. What 
 a contrast to the Mask Chiquita ! Some of them were 
 combating the heat with iced lemon-squashes. 
 
 The sight fired Chiquita. 
 
 "Mat^! Mat^!" (Stop, stop!) she cried to her 
 riksha boy. My boy stopped in sympathy. " We'll 
 go and sit there too, and have squashes! " 
 
 I ordered iced Bass for myself, and we sat down. 
 Chiquita listened with avidity to the plans of young 
 men in immaculate flannels, with dark blue bird's-eye 
 silk puggarees folded to a hair round their broad- 
 brimmed grey icrai hats ; and of young women in 
 smart muslins and surahs with every variety of 
 Japanese fans except good ones. 
 
 You would have fancied that they had all come away 
 
io8 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 from home without their handkerchiefs from the 
 number of times that the name Shobey turned up. 
 
 " We'll go to Shobey 's," said Chiquita decisively, 
 " when we've done our squashes." 
 
 It was only a few minutes' ride up Water Street, 
 but Chiquita enjoyed bowling along the Bund in her 
 riksha — not to notice the junks on the bay and the 
 quaint Japanese life of the Hatobas which give 
 aesthetic foreigners so much pleasure. She liked 
 passing as many as she could of the other kind of 
 foreigners, shouting and giggling at the novelty of 
 riding in rikshas. 
 
 The shop of Shobey (who does not arrange himself 
 and his goods on the floor, but has counters and chairs 
 like a European) was crammed. The first thing a 
 foreigner does on his first riksha drive is to procure 
 a Japanese wife or silk handkerchiefs. Fate rules him 
 — Fate in the shape of his riksha boy, who gets his 
 best commission from the people who deal in these 
 commodities. If a man has a lady with him they artfully 
 direct his eyes to the wonderful bargains in handker- 
 chiefs in the windows of Shobey, who, in his eagerness 
 to capture European custom, used to label his goods 
 ** Crosse and Blackwell." If a man is alone, no 
 matter what he asks for, it will be construed into a 
 delicate way of expressing one particular desire. 
 
 At Shobey's I found that Chiquita was no Tool about 
 shopping ; she did not buy the rubbish other foreigners 
 were buying. She bought quite expensive things and 
 knew their proper value, for she was paying for them 
 by weight. The Japanese buys his silk as he buys 
 his rice, by his comically-named equivalents to pounds 
 and ounces. The American ladies in the shop were 
 so tickled at her buying her black silk stockings by 
 the pound that they plunged into the conversation, and 
 did all their purchasing over again by weight. She 
 eluded being drawn into bargaining for them with 
 the ease of an eel. I smiled to myself as the astute 
 Shobey proved to them that by weight their pur- 
 chases came to far more money. Instead of having 
 to take anything off what they had paid, he left them 
 convinced that he had been giving them absurdly good 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 109 
 
 bargains, because he had omitted to weigh them. In 
 any case, he was so cheap that they bought as much 
 of his shop as they felt that they would be able to 
 smuggle-in on their return to the United States. 
 
 From Shobey's we drove to the curio-shops of the 
 Benten Dori. It was only because the other foreigners 
 were all going there ; Chiquita had not the collector's 
 instinct in the slightest degree. I am not sure that 
 she would have kept the poems sent her by the students 
 if they had not looked like Christmas cards. 
 
 Her fancy took this turn because I was an ardent 
 curio collector, as far as my means allowed, and 
 though the Benten Dori, which means Venus Street, 
 is full of rubbish especially collected for foreigners, 
 there are always good small pieces to be found there. 
 I really thought that Chiquita v/as reforming, she took 
 such an apparent interest; but I am afraid that her 
 attack was only temporary — the animation of the 
 bargaining carried her away. 
 
 Presently Rich and Candida came right into where 
 we were. 
 
 ** Hullo, Cheekie!— you caught it too?" 
 
 Chiquita was in too good a humour to be annoyed 
 at the liberty he was taking with her name. She 
 ignored him and turned to ask Candida: 
 
 ** How did you find us? " 
 
 " We just told our rikslia boys to take us to you. 
 They exchanged grunts with the people all the way 
 along, but they didn't once stop to look, so I suppose 
 your nicknames fit you well." 
 
 She was, of course, alluding to the habit which the 
 Japanese lower classes share with savages of describing 
 a stranger by a nickname based on characteristics 
 which cannot be mistaken. A man with a nose like the 
 great Duke of Wellington would be called " Eagle "; 
 a man with a falsetto voice, " Sparrow." I was 
 wondering whether Rich, in his spotless flannels, would 
 fight shy of the curio-shop, with its filthy old things, 
 as a woman draws in her skirts from merely moral 
 contamination. I almost wished he had, for he be- 
 haved so badly. He was tickled to death by the kind 
 of things which formed the man's stock-in-trade. He 
 
no PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 caught up quite valuable articles, of which the use 
 was not obvious to him, so roughly. 
 
 *' What's this blessed thing? " 
 
 He gave such roars of laughter as he pulled the 
 things about, that it was quite obvious that he had 
 never had the curiosity to go in a curiosity shop since 
 he had come to Japan. 
 
 He went on till Candida simply took him by the 
 shoulders and forced him out, though the proprietor 
 did not seem to mind ; he evidently did a large business 
 with globe-trotters and was accustomed to the manners 
 of barbarians. 
 
 Knowing that Candida had come to take Chiquita to 
 her Chinese dressmaker, I asked Rich where he was 
 going. 
 
 ** With them," he said, in his laconic style. I 
 looked for Chiquita to demur, but evidently, as the 
 dressmaker was a man, she thought there could be 
 no harm. Besides, it gave her the opportunity of 
 saying that she had a low opinion of Mr. Rich, but 
 did not think him worse than a Chinaman. 
 
 I was rather glad. I had no particular desire to 
 spend the rest of the morning in playing billiards with 
 Rich at the Club, and I don't suppose I could have got 
 away from him in a hurry. 
 
 We drove almost to the beginning of the Bluff to 
 a house on the Creek. 
 
 " This isn't a dress-builder's, Candida," cried Rich; 
 " it is a boat-builder's! " 
 
 It was certainly surrounded with the appliances for 
 making and repairing the sculling boats used by the 
 young Englishmen in the settlement. In the midst of 
 them there was a rickety narrow outside staircase. 
 
 '* It's all right," she said; " he lives up there, and 
 when you have seen him you will know that the 
 staircase is safe." (Rich was making a grimace at 
 its ricketiness.) 
 
 W^e tramped up it headed by her. Rich calling out : 
 
 " You keep off the companion. Page, till I'm on 
 deck," as I began to step up just behind him. When 
 we got in we were confronted with the biggest and 
 fattest Chinaman I ever saw. Mr. Rutland Barring- 
 ton's mountainous Marquis was nothing to him. It 
 
PLAYING THE GAME iii 
 
 was Ching-Lee, attired in a rich Chinese dress made 
 Hke padded pyjamas ; the coat was of apple-green silk, 
 the trousers of delicate mauve satin, lapped and tied 
 round his ankles as if he was going on a bicycle, though 
 no bicycle could possibly have borne him. He wore 
 flesh-coloured socks of fine silk, and very small brocaded 
 satin slippers with soft soles about an inch thick ; and 
 he kept a round black cap, with a coral button on the 
 top, upon his head all the time. 
 
 The nails on his beautifully-kept hands projected at 
 least an inch beyond his fingers. When he commenced 
 measuring Chiquita, and his huge talons rested on her 
 thin blouse as he held the tape. Rich called out : " Now 
 then, Cheekie, your last hour's come ! He's a cannibal 
 — he's going to tear you to pieces with those tiger 
 claws ! " 
 
 We should have blushed for him if Ching-Lee's 
 dignity had not been equal to this occasion. 
 
 " No hurtee littlee Missie. Bad man no havee longee 
 nails — blakee. " 
 
 ** He's telling you, Dick," said Candida, drawing 
 him aside to reprove him, " that long nails are a sign 
 of a respectable and peaceful life — otherwise they would 
 break — but you'll have to go away if you can't be 
 good! " 
 
 ** All right," he said; "I'll promise — I was sorry 
 the moment I said it. I forgot that the old buffer 
 spoke English." 
 
 Then the business proceeded. It really was an 
 extraordinary spectacle to see that enormous China- 
 man's talons passing backwards and forwards over 
 Chiquita. His face was so inscrutable that he might 
 have been the greatest villain on earth under that 
 bland smile ; and his remarks on her figure were killing. 
 They were not made in the nature of remarks, but 
 as stage directions for the building of the dress. She 
 was small and had the figure of a fairy. 
 
 After he had taken her measure, he produced various 
 rolls of fine white Chinese silk, far superior to the 
 Japanese, and when Chiquita had selected one and 
 enquired the price, he produced a sort of spoon-shaped 
 wooden spectacle case, out of which he took scales 
 
112 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 delicate enough for an apothecary or a jeweller, con- 
 sisting of a white ivory rod, fine green silk cords, 
 and one little brass plate. On this he balanced the 
 heavy roll of silk with the precision of a conjurer, 
 held it up in the air for a moment, glanced at the 
 index, and said: ** Silkee five dollar, makee thiee 
 dollar, no extola." 
 
 I could see that Chiquita was astonished at the 
 lowness of the estimate; for the dollar, the Japanese 
 yen, even then was not worth more than three shillings ; 
 but she kept her face turned away from Ching-Lee. 
 Though she was very extravagant in some ways, she 
 had the thrift of the Latin races strong in her too. I 
 could see that if Ching-Lee turned her out as satis- 
 factorily as he did Candida, v/ho was the most elegant 
 woman wherever she went, he would pay a good many 
 visits to the British Legation at Tokyo. 
 
 At the same time, it seemed incredible that a woman 
 turned out like Candida should have every dress pro- 
 duced in that attic above the boat-builder's, where the 
 whole stock-in-trade consisted of a dozen rolls of silk 
 tied up in a large handkerchief, and a pile of fashion 
 papers from ten to twenty years old. This great fat 
 man had apparently no one to help him, and of himself 
 had seemingly no ideas, for when Candida told him 
 that Chiquita was Spanish, he turned over the pile and 
 showed her a fashion plate from which he had made 
 a dress for some Spanish woman in 1888, and seemed 
 quite certain that she would want the same in 1894. 
 
 " I say, Candida," began Rich. 
 
 " Yes, Dick." 
 
 " Do you mean to tell me that this old buffer turns 
 out your whole kit? " 
 
 '* Not my hat or my boots." 
 
 " No, I mean all your dresses." 
 
 " Yes, I do." 
 
 " Well, how does he manage it? " 
 
 " Because Bryn Sandys is such an angel." 
 
 *' What's she got to do with it? " 
 
 *' Don't you see? She's awfully well-off, and gets 
 all her frocks, except her summer things, out from 
 home; and she lets me have them copied." 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 113 
 
 " Is that so very generous of her? I should feel a 
 bit sick if there was no other man with clothes like 
 me." 
 
 " Oh, you goose! Women are different — what we 
 pay for is to be unique. Not one woman in a thousand 
 would hand over her new things almost before she 
 has worn them for another woman to get all the value 
 out of them." 
 
 ** What is he copying now? " I asked. There did 
 not seem to be anything in the room except the rolls 
 of silk and the old Queens and Modes Illustrees. 
 
 ** Oh, he's going to have a dress of mine which he 
 has just made; he will come and fetch it." 
 
 *' In a pocket-handkerchief? " 
 
 ** In a sort of glorified pocket-handkerchief — they 
 never crush things." 
 
 At lunch I said to Mrs. Sandys: *' I have been 
 hearing great accounts of your good nature this 
 morning. Miss Begg was saying that you are the 
 b'est-natured woman in the world." 
 
 ** That is what Mr. Rich would call a large order. 
 I'm sure it was very nice of her. Did she let out 
 why? " 
 
 " It was at Ching-Lee's." 
 
 " Oh, I know; she always makes such a fuss because 
 I let the old Chinaman copy a frock of mine when she 
 wishes it." 
 
 *' Miss Begg puts it more strongly than that — she 
 says that you let her copy your very best frocks the 
 moment you get them." 
 
 '* She only tells half the truth, which some divine 
 observed, I believe, was worse than a lie. She didn't 
 tell you about all the long evenings she wastes up at 
 our house devising those frocks w^ith me. They are 
 her creations — it is not such an easy matter to order 
 a dress that you will like from the other side of the 
 world; and there's another thing that she did not tell 
 you — that a dress that comes out this distance nearly 
 always has something not quite right about its fit." 
 
 " No, she did not tell me that." 
 
 " That was not the point; the point is, whose clever 
 
114 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 fingers and good taste make the frocks just what 
 they ought to be instead of just missing it." 
 
 I did not pursue the point further ; I saw that each 
 of these two generous and charming women intended 
 to remain in the other's debt. 
 
 No one could have called Mrs. Sandys a match- 
 maker, but being only something and twenty herself, 
 the wife of a husband who idolized her, and the 
 mother of cherubs, she had a great idea of giving 
 young people a chance. I don't know which of the 
 quartette she specially wished to be guardian angel 
 to, but she observed that without me Rich and Chiquita 
 and Candida would be three, and made it clear that I 
 was to go off with them. I think she must have 
 divined how I appreciated the society of the exquisite 
 Chiquita, who was the kind of girl that any man 
 would choose for a tete-a-tete] she was so radiantly 
 pretty and so chiCy the mistress of many moods. 
 
 I knew that it was very young of me to want to pick 
 up the crumbs that fell from Chiquita's table instead of 
 enjoying the contemplation of womanly perfection like 
 that of Mrs. Sandys, Chiquita's superior in beauty and 
 elegance as well as in intelligence and charm of dis- 
 position — in fact, in everything except in that one 
 point of witchery. 
 
 There was, of course, this further point : that Mrs. 
 Sandys dwelt upon cool, unobtainable heights, from 
 which she could afford to shed her graciousness, while, 
 though it would have been madness on my part to 
 aspire to the hand of Chiquita, there was no blank 
 wall of impossibility between us — she was, at any rate, 
 not married to any one else. Indeed, if I could have 
 attached importance to the warmth with which Chiquita 
 occasionally greeted me, I might have flattered myself 
 that there was no impossibility at all. I did not flatter 
 myself; I was not sure even of her sincerity. 
 
 Chiquita wanted to go to the theatre, the Japanese 
 theatre. Long as she had been in Japan, she had 
 never felt the desire before, and it was only due now, 
 I was convinced, to her having heard that it was one 
 of the things which the globe-trotters did. Rich had 
 never been to one either, and had not the slightest 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 115 
 
 desire to, but the one thing he had learnt in his 
 Grenadier days was to take a hand in anything which 
 was going, if he liked the society he was in. 
 
 Candida, speaking Japanese, had of course been to 
 see Japanese plays constantly, and she said that 
 Europeans had begun going to the Meiji theatre 
 because there was quite a rival to Danjure, named 
 Watanabe, there. 
 
 When we got to the theatre, I could see at once 
 that they were accustomed to foreigners, for there was 
 no attempt to make us take our boots off and leave 
 them on the doorstep in exchange for a fat wooden 
 ticket several inches long, and we were asked if we 
 would have chairs in our box the moment we were 
 inside the door, for which we were charged, as we 
 were for keeping our boots on. 
 
 It was rather a hazardous proceeding. The boxes, 
 being intended for kneeling-in, were not wide enough 
 for sitting-in on chairs without your knees pressing 
 against the front, and as the front was only made of 
 deal, the thickness of a packing case, nailed on, big 
 men like myself and Rich nearly pressed it off every 
 time we bent forward. I found the play absolutely 
 stupid ; it was the usual Japanese drama. Its themes 
 were a girl selling herself into prostitution to relieve 
 the necessities of her parents, and her lover going 
 through wonderful adventures in innumerable disguises. 
 There was, of course, no real love-interest in it : 
 Japanese plays do not deal with a man's love for his 
 betrothed or his wife, but his love for his father and 
 mother. Self-sacrifice is their key-note — it appeals to 
 a Japanese audience. 
 
 " I should like to see a Japanese play founded on 
 a parent's love for his children," said Candida; ** it 
 would be such a refreshing novelty. I have seen so 
 many of the other kind." 
 
 I don't think that the orchestra in a wooden cage 
 on one side of the stage were any worse than usual, 
 but the tum-tumming of the drums and the cater- 
 wauling of the other instruments sounded just awful 
 in that small theatre. 
 
 *' What an infernal shindy," cried Rich, starting 
 
ii6 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 forward. " Let me get at them! " He very nearly 
 did, for they were on our side of the stage, and the 
 front of our box gave a most ominous crack. 
 
 '* Compose yourself, Dick, or I can't take you out 
 again," said Candida, with the air with which gracious 
 women belie their words. 
 
 The play was as bad as the music. In the course 
 of the play the lover, for some stratagem, became an 
 old, old man, and this role was so popular that it 
 seemed to go on for an hour. His representation of 
 bald-headed, palsied old age was certainly marvellous, 
 but he had the stage almost entirely to himself, and 
 to those who had not the ghost of a notion what it 
 was all about, the performance became intolerably 
 wearisome. Rich grew more and more furious. 
 
 *' Can't anybody make that confounded old monkey 
 shut up? " he cried. " Where is the man with the 
 blanket? What are they doing with that diving-bell? " 
 The blanket and the diving-bell had been used to 
 enable this leading man to change his character on 
 the stage in earlier scenes. There was no response 
 to his furious appeal. Instead of that, attendants, 
 with candles stuck in the ends of long bamboos, came 
 forward and held them in front of the actor's face, 
 where the audience w^ere to look for expression. 
 
 The silliness, as he called it, of this restored Rich's 
 good humour ; and then Chiquita took him in hand. 
 Sooth to say she had been enjoying herself immensely. 
 I had by this time taught her a good deal of Japanese 
 — languages came as naturally to her as mimicking 
 to a monkey — so she had the advantage of Rich ; but 
 she did not, I think, make any attempt to follow the 
 play. That was not the part which amused her. She 
 was developing a wild interest in the people. To her 
 the adaptability with which the Japanese sets about 
 the common round, the trivial task, was a humorous 
 performance. She never got tired of watching this 
 burlesque, and she had suddenly discovered that the 
 theatre was one of the best places for observing the 
 never-flagging comedy of Japanese life. It was that 
 and not the dull tragedy on the stage which was 
 engaging her attention. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 117 
 
 Rich's impatience disturbed her; he was getting 
 restless again, when she laid her hand on his arrn in 
 her confiding way and pointed out a baby, which, 
 finding its parents' attention taken off by a thrilling 
 piece in the play, had seized the opportunity of crawling 
 along the tops of the partitions which divide the pit 
 into nests of plebeian families. It had crawled on to 
 the stage, and was in innocent enjoyment of the knife 
 which the hero was to find at his hand when the time 
 came to commit the murder. 
 
 From that time forward both Rich and she were 
 perfectly happy. They watched the family-parties in 
 the nests, fathers and mothers and babies, making their 
 tea or eating repulsive delicacies derived from the offal 
 of the sea. They watched the hawkers who came in 
 to purvey to the wants of the audience, and walk about 
 on the tops of the partitions, which its actors also 
 used when they needed distance for some effect. Rich 
 grew so absorbed in the comedy off the stage that he 
 never even noticed when a suddenly wheeling round 
 of the entire stage replaced the old man's monologue 
 with a battle-field of warriors, whose blood gushed 
 out like fountains. 
 
 I drew his attention to it, and asked him if he 
 remembered what we had learnt in form. ** It's just 
 like the ancient Greek Eccydema^ isn't it? " I said, 
 maliciously, of course. 
 
 " It's just like that ballet at the Empire," he said ; 
 " you know the name — Orpheus and something or 
 other." 
 
 " What's the time, Dick? " asked Candida. In 
 Japanese plays, unless you are a Japanese, you don't 
 wait till the play is over, though their duration is now 
 limited by law to nine hours. They used to go on 
 all day. 
 
 *' By Jove!" he cried, "they have collared my 
 watch. That was that grubby little beast who 
 knocked against me so suddenly, and you wouldn't 
 let me kick him." Then he burst out laughing, and 
 it was about five minutes before we could get in a 
 word. 
 
 " You seem very pleased at the loss of your watch," 
 
ii8 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 said Chlqulta. *' I should swear, and you're not 
 generally backward in that." 
 
 *' Oh, you don't know the fun of it all," he said. 
 " It wasn't my watch at all! " 
 
 " Where is your own watch? " she asked. 
 
 " xA.t the bottom of the sea." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " I dropped it overboard while I was fishing." 
 
 *' On purpose? " 
 
 " No fear." 
 
 *' Well, how did you do it then? " 
 
 ** In bending overboard to grip the big fish that 
 was going to get off the hook. I got the fish, but 
 my watch shot out of my pocket and sank. I could 
 see it shining ever so deep as it went down." 
 
 *' It's just like you not to wear a chain," said 
 Chiquita. 
 
 " It wasn't really ; I always rather kicked at it, but it 
 was a fad of the junior officers when I was in the 
 Grenadiers." 
 
 " But what's all this got to do with the joke? " 
 persisted Chiquita. 
 
 "Well, I'll tell you. The very day I lost it I 
 happened to mention it to Frazar, who told me that 
 a friend in America had sent him over a couple of 
 marvellous watches as samples. They only cost three 
 yen each, were guaranteed to go for a year, and were 
 cased in the New Connecticut gold, which you cannot 
 tell from the real article except by acids. He let me 
 buy one, and I determined from that moment never 
 to give more than three yen for a watch again. Now 
 that dirty little Jap will think that he has made his 
 fortune, and he'll sell it to another Jap, who will 
 murder him when he finds out that it isn't gold. You'll 
 excuse my being amused." 
 
 " Come home to tea," said Candida. 
 
 Outside the theatre v/as sitting a Japanese woman, 
 the picture of patience. It was rather an unusual 
 place, so Candida asked her if anything was the 
 matter. " Very little, Honourable Lady," she an- 
 swered. It was only that she had lost her clogs and 
 would have to wait till everyone who had a ticket had 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 119 
 
 claimed theirs, a matter of five or six hours. She 
 had no money to go back into the theatre. I asked 
 how much the clogs were worth— it was only twelve 
 sen, so I gave it her. She poured thanks on me, but 
 she resumed her seat. 
 
 •* She'll wait for her clogs all the same," said 
 Candida. " She does not often get the chance of 
 making a penny an hour! " 
 
 There is a patience of the poor which passes all 
 understanding, like the peace of God. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 All the Sandys' servants were Japanese, and in the 
 afternoon tea used to appear the moment you arrived, 
 with the magic promptness of a Japanese tea-house. 
 Not Japanese tea, though, but good, sustaining Chinese 
 tea, with all sorts of delicious things to eat. 
 
 The fact that neither of the Sandys were there made 
 not the slightest difference. Tea was evidently only 
 waiting for our appearance. 
 
 Tea in that garden in a Japanese sunset with the 
 woman you loved was something too exquisite. The 
 burden of the heat of the day was over; there was 
 only left a warmth as soft as the yellow light which 
 blended the broad green lawns, the gay wistarias, the 
 blue water of the lake, and the old grey stone of its 
 shrines and bridges into one intoxicating draught of 
 beauty. I had got out of the way of eating big teas 
 — my tea was so often Japanese tea, as I passed some 
 picturesque point in the expeditions to see the inex- 
 haustible wonders of Tokyo, which I made directly I 
 got out of the Dai Gakku in the afternoon. But the 
 others were marvellous in their capacity for assimilating 
 rich cakes and candies, and the numbers of cups of 
 tea they could drink. Rich and Chiquita were just 
 fine young animals, and Candida, whose digestion was 
 as good as her figure, had an appetite as young as 
 theirs. When their powers at length showed signs 
 of slackening, Chiquita lured me away. She used no 
 words, but as she rose showed me, as a pretty woman 
 can, that I might follow. To me this was the crowning 
 of the afternoon, even though I was haunted by the 
 fear that the pretty act of grace was prompted by the 
 desire to take Time by the forepaw, as she once said 
 in one of her rare lapses of English. That Rich and 
 
 1 20 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 121 
 
 Candida, in the intoxicating sunset at the end of a 
 long and rather dull afternoon, would drift off by 
 themselves, was fairly certain. Chiquita had a certain 
 vanity which would make her prefer to take me away 
 from them rather than be left with me. I felt this, 
 but found the invitation delightful. 
 
 I suppose Chiquita had thought of the interpretation 
 which could be placed on it, and that her graciousness 
 was to remove it. But in the pleasure of finding her 
 ready to enjoy things with me, I soon forgot her 
 motives and accepted the wise advice of Herrick, 
 " Gather ye roses." 
 
 One always wasted time with Chiquita. She lived 
 the absolutely idle life of the well-off woman of the 
 Latin races. She had no desire to employ her mind, 
 much less improve it. The day never dragged with 
 her unless her doing nothing was interfered with. 
 Her only real occupation in the day was dressing, and 
 there I daresay the most careless effects were studied. 
 
 When you were with her, she expected you to watch 
 the changes of her face, to notice the points about 
 her costume. 
 
 " When you leave Spain," she had said to me, " and 
 go with English people, you think you must be getting 
 old, for you no longer hear the men say as you pass, 
 * How pretty! ' " 
 
 Remembering this, I feasted my eyes on her, and 
 talked to her about herself, as lovers love to do, till 
 Candida, looking flushed and lovely, and Rich, I 
 thought, looking a trifle guilty, hunted us up to make 
 arrangements for the next day. Would we go to the 
 Toshogu Temple? Rich and she were going to ride. 
 As Chiquita had no habit with her, would I take her 
 in rtksJias ; we should all be together. 
 
 Oh, Candida! with your clear soul, why did you tell 
 that lie knowing what was in your heart, and knowing 
 also the almost impossibility of making a riksha man 
 keep abreast of anything ; his habit being to follow 
 in Indian file — his form of blinkers. 
 
122 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 When the horses came round the next morning, I 
 saw Candida at her best. From her beautiful head, 
 under its sensible tcraiy to her beautiful feet, she was 
 groomed to perfection. 
 
 "By Jove! Candida," cried Rich enthusiastically, 
 when he had given her a hand up, *' I should like to 
 have you in the Row at the most crowded minute in 
 June to see if there was any woman who came up to 
 you in figure with your habit on." 
 
 She answered with a frank smile of pleasure. 
 
 Then she mounted, and those two faultlessly turned- 
 out people, so English except for their tropical head- 
 gear, walked their horses to the gate, not for a canter 
 in Rotten Row, but for an excursion to a hoary 
 Buddhist temple, leaving us to catch them up in our 
 riks/ias, if we had the desire. There was an extra 
 riksha with the lunch. 
 
 Mrs. Sandys saw us off smiling, and looked as if 
 she would have enjoyed going with us, but did not 
 wish to spoil our chances. 
 
 The riders were sometimes ahead of us, sometimes 
 behind us ; never with us except when one couple 
 waited for the other to point out something. 
 
 Only a mile out of the town we climbed the hill of 
 Kanagawa, to-day despised and rejected of Yokohama 
 except for a tea-house, noted equally for the beauty 
 of its garden and its view and its moosrnes^ to which 
 the young Englishmen riksha out after their work on 
 hot days. But Yokohama is in theory only a settle- 
 ment for foreigners in the ancient city of Kanagawa, 
 placed a mile out so that the hated foreigners should 
 not intrude upon the exclusive inhabitants. 
 
 Rich voted that we should stop at this tea-house 
 for the day ; it seemed a good enough place, why 
 should we go further? And he wanted to stop again 
 when we came to the famous temple of Kawasaki, 
 which had a most attractive plum garden full of nice 
 little tea-hoHses. " One temple must be just as good 
 as another," he said, ** and I'm sure the accommo- 
 dation won't be so good at the Toshogu if it's the 
 deserted sort of place you make out." 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 123 
 
 This was his way of viewing Candida's glowing 
 picture of the peacefulness and unalteredness of the 
 Toshogu. He was rather interested, however, when 
 our rikslia boys pointed out the place where Mr. 
 Richardson and the other three English were murdered 
 by the Samurai of the Prince of Satsuma for not getting 
 out of the way of his procession. He knew all about 
 this. I was wondering why it had got fixed in his 
 unintelligent mind when he exclaimed: "They did 
 things better then, they sent a fleet and bombarded the 
 place." 
 
 The spot the riksha boys pointed out was not far 
 from Kanagawa. 
 
 I honestly think that both Rich and Chiquita were 
 impressed with the Kawasaki Temple ; they had 
 apparently never thought of looking at a temple before, 
 in all the time they had been in Japan, though the 
 temples of Shiba, within a walk of the Legation, are 
 among the finest in the East. 
 
 After Kawasaki the road grew more interesting to 
 us, less interesting to them, for we had left the great 
 high road called the Tokaido and struck into the 
 country road, which led us past long stretches of rice- 
 fields, rising in terraces to the top of the low volcanic 
 bluffs, where little Japanese farmers, and more of their 
 little wives, were turning the tiny runnels, which fed 
 their crops, off or on with a piece of turf and a spade 
 like a half-moon. All along the rice-fields were dear 
 little scarlet shrines of Inari, the rice-goddess, guarded 
 by her faithful stone foxes. 
 
 Rich thought they were fox-terriers and ** beastly 
 good." 
 
 " I don't like rice," he said, as we caught them up 
 for a minute. 
 
 *' Did you have to eat too much rice-pudding at 
 school? " asked Chiquita. 
 
 '* I don't mean to eat, I mean as a show — as a — 
 landscape." 
 
 *'Why?" laughed Candida. 
 
 *' Because it has such a disastrous effect on the 
 personal appearance." 
 
124 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 This was true; It is often difficult to tell the sex 
 of the ragged and filthy thing which stands knee-deep 
 in mud and water, with its head nearly between its 
 legs as it thins out or sets out the rice-plants. The 
 rice-farmers are almost black with the weather-beating 
 their faces get. 
 
 ** A tea-garden's much more my style," he cried. 
 
 All three of us roared with laughter. 
 
 " Don't be silly," he said testily; '* I don't mean a 
 place where naughty little girls badger you to drink 
 Japanese wash. I mean a place where they pick tea 
 —like that." 
 
 He pointed to a long slope which had high fences 
 of bamboo, covered with matting on the windy side, 
 and looked like a nursery-garden filled with privet 
 bushes. 
 
 On one edge of it was a line of little women with 
 Cambridge blue towels arranged on their heads like 
 sun-bonnets, little moosmes^ with rosy faces, standing 
 like Ruth amidst the alien corn, breast-high, in a 
 glossy sea of green with busy tongues and fingers. 
 The pale blue of their head-dresses fluttered in a little 
 breeze as we sped past them. 
 
 I could only speak to Chiquita when we drew up. 
 I do not know if the police have raised their resistless 
 voice on the subject (the Japanese does not keep the 
 law, he obeys the police) ; one thing is certain — that 
 nothing will ever persuade two riksJia boys to run side 
 by side. One always follows in the tracks of the 
 other, so close that I have seen a string of foreigners 
 shot on to the backs of their riksJia boys by the first 
 having to stop dead. It was tantalising to see Candida 
 and Rich riding as level as if their horses were 
 harnessed to a carriage, with their faces turned towards 
 each other all the time ; Candida's white teeth gleaming 
 in that frank laugh of hers, while Rich's great peals 
 rang out through the stillness of that country road. 
 
 Soon we struck into an avenue of the solemn fashion 
 that leads to historic temples in Japan, with low con- 
 taining walls of hoary masonry, stained with lichens 
 and moss, and an avenue of tall cryptomerias pointing 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 125 
 
 their spires to heaven. The walls of old Japan are 
 specially beautiful, because they are low enough to 
 reveal the beauties beyond them. In Japan a wall is 
 not built to prevent people scaling it — it would take 
 a very particular wall to effect that — they indicate 
 that there is a boundary. And if the boundary ought 
 to be observed, it is observed, though there is no 
 jealous exclusion where the need does not exist. 
 
 From time to time we passed some evidence of the 
 approaching sanctuary, such as a little red shrine, and 
 sometimes over the low polygonal wall we could see 
 waving fields of the millet which fills Japanese legend, 
 studded with brilliant wild flowers. 
 
 Between a pair of noble dainiio lanterns, made of 
 chased bronze, and several feet high without their 
 granite bases. Rich and Candida drew rein for us to 
 come up to them. It was the beginning of a wide 
 village street, lined on both sides with the booths 
 which grow up round temples, but almost deserted. 
 
 At the end of the street stood one of the vast two- 
 storied scarlet gates which the Buddhists call a sammon. 
 We dismounted there, and the bctto, who had run 
 beside them all the way from Yokohama, took their 
 horses from Candida and Rich. He seemed none the 
 worse for his long run ; and in any case, had not 
 performed so severe a task as our four rikslia boys. 
 One takes an extra man outside the shafts for a 
 journey like this. The Toshogu Temple lay a long 
 way to the land-side of the Tokaido, in a part unfamiliar 
 to me, though it is about equi-distant from Tokyo and 
 Yokohama. Japan is full of glorious old temples, 
 which you do not realise until some energetic friend 
 makes you go to them, after which you begin at once 
 to despise everybody who has not seen them. 
 
 A low stone wall surrounded the temple. Two more 
 fine votive lanterns stood on each side of the causeway 
 which led to the gate. 
 
 Hardly had we dismounted before little moosmes^ 
 all smiles and salaams, strove to direct our steps to 
 the tea-house, which stood on an eminence outside the 
 gate — a most inviting place. 
 
126 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 *' I vote we go there instead of the bally temple," 
 cried Rich. 
 
 " Only for a few minutes," said Candida, giving 
 the little girls their honourable tea-money, though she 
 did not expect any of us to touch the pale uninteresting 
 liquid in the five little cups. But I emptied two or 
 three of them. I had got into the way of taking it 
 as often as it was offered to me. I had done nearly 
 all my excursions with natives. 
 
 " Isn't it horrid? " asked Chiquita, who had never 
 tasted it. 
 
 " Muck," said Rich, dismissing it with one un- 
 savoury word. 
 
 " Even I have never been able to cultivate a taste 
 for it, though I was born in the country. But I often 
 take it for politeness sake," said Candida. 
 
 ** I think I'll try some," cried Chiquita, putting out 
 her hand for a cup ; but before she could take it the 
 tray was politely whisked away and a fresh one brought 
 with hotter tea — as hot as Japanese tea ever is. 
 
 ** You'll poison yourself, Cheekie — it's almost as bad 
 as that sake stuff." 
 
 The faint, unsavoury flavour rather appealed to 
 Chiquita's taste. 
 
 '* I didn't bring you here to drink tea," expostulated 
 Candida. *' I brought you to look at the view of the 
 Temple." 
 
 Even Rich thought the view was " rather ripping. " 
 It was like a hilly and beautifully wooded park with 
 acres of cherry-blossom enfolded in solemn groves of 
 cryptomeria, from which peeped a five-storey scarlet 
 pagoda, and gloriously carved and gilded roofs ; while 
 at a dozen different elevations on the mountain-side 
 glades showed exquisite sacred buildings, approached 
 by stairways and terraces of mossy stone, as fantastic 
 as a willow-pattern plate. The temple seemed to cover 
 the whole mountain. 
 
 We entered the great gate and found ourselves in 
 a vast avenue of stone lanterns given by the chief 
 Vaimios in honour of their Tokugawa lords. It ran 
 through vast cherry orchards. Many of the trees were 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 127 
 
 quite forest trees of the kind with blossoms like a 
 Bankshia rose, which is never asked to bear fruit. 
 The sacred deer came up fearlessly to be fed, hardly 
 to be distinguished from the bronze deer standing in 
 the glades in the attitude of feeding. On each side 
 of the path were stone channels of clear hurrying 
 water, spanned at frequent intervals by tiny hog's- 
 backed bridges of mossy stone. 
 
 Chiquita was making little exclamations of delight. 
 She liked beautiful things, even the beauty of Nature, 
 and she adored fantastic devices. Rich, too, must 
 have been pleased, for he said it was just the place for 
 a Club, which drew a little moue from Candida. 
 
 Under the trees between the rich green of the ancient 
 turf and the living snow of the cherry-blossom we 
 could see a line of vivid scarlet. 
 
 Rich was the first to notice it. ** Hullo, what's 
 that? " he cried. 
 
 " It's the wild azaleas, the deer-park, which we shall 
 see presently, is full of them." 
 
 '* We shan't be seeing things all the time, shall 
 we? " asked Rich, in dismay. 
 
 " We shan't be sight-seeing them — we are going to 
 have _ a picnic for the little man," she answered 
 mockingly. 
 
 He did not feel quite reassured, but about half an 
 hour later his face suddenly cleared up and he began 
 to take the liveliest interest in everything. To do 
 him justice, he did not often play the Achilles in his 
 tent, though he had a blazing temper. 
 
 And the things we looked at first, exquisite as they 
 were, were only the smaller fry of a temple, such as 
 the Gakudo, the funny little hall of the offerings. 
 There were no offerings there, only notice-boards, 
 about a foot long and a few inches wide, hung in rows 
 like the hats in a Club-hall, to record the benefactions 
 to the temple. 
 
 Beside, it was a bell tower, which was not a tower 
 at all, but a roof built over a gigantic bell hung a 
 few inches from the ground, which was never rung, 
 but struck with a beam like a Roman battering-ram. 
 
128 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 Before Candida could stop him, Rich had drawn it 
 back by the fine red tassel of cord which hung on its 
 end. I half expected the holy men to rush at us and 
 hustle us out of the temple, for Buddhist communities 
 can be very aggressive, but they seemed to expect it 
 of an irresponsible idiot like Rich. His^ punishment 
 came in another form, and we shared it, for whenever 
 that bell was rung it shook everything within a hundred 
 yards of it, like the firing of a huge piece of ordnance. 
 Candida was visibly annoyed, for one of the priests 
 in the temple was a friend of hers. The situation 
 was saved by a vile pun. 
 
 " Is this a Gakudo, too? " Chiquita had asked, 
 imagining, I suppose, that it was a kind of generic 
 name for minor sacred buildings. 
 
 "No," I said; " this is the Shoro." 
 " Well, I'm jolly sure I shall never go near one 
 again," cried Rich. 
 
 Candida was mollified, but contented herself with 
 begging him in her pretty persuasive way not to touch 
 any more things. 
 
 He was in a bad mood; he asked: " Because they 
 are so touchy? " 
 ** Precisely." 
 
 He promised to try and remember, and the next 
 minute his mind was taken up with the lustration pool 
 of the temple, a cistern of grey granite, which looked 
 like the sarcophagus of an ancient king transformed 
 by magic into a huge block of ice by the water, which 
 welled up from the centre and poured over every side 
 of it in one unbroken sheet. This, too, was shaded 
 by a noble and fantastic roof, whose upturned beams 
 were adorned with superb carvings. 
 
 " What's its Japanese name? " asked Chiquita, who 
 was taking a great interest in everything. 
 ** That's the Chozubachi." 
 
 ** And what's that? " she asked, pointing to a red 
 wooden tower, which looked like a gigantic chess king. 
 " That's the Koro — the drum-tower." 
 ** What's the good of it? " asked Rich. " It does 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 129 
 
 not seem to have any opening, and what do they want 
 a drum for, any way? " 
 
 I could not tell him. 
 
 Very stately and beautiful was the laying out of that 
 temple. All these buildings had been in one large 
 court, surrounded by mighty daimio lanterns, carved 
 in the same granite as the Chozubachi. On the far 
 side rose a lofty terrace built of vast polygonal blocks 
 of stone, topped by a balustrade of the same stone, 
 absolutely plain, but beautiful from its exquisite pro- 
 portions, and approached by a broad sweep of steps, 
 flanked at the bottom with the two noblest lanterns. 
 Mounting those wide, easy steps, we arrived in a 
 second court. I was wondering why no moss had 
 laid its reverent touch on this ancient masonry, till, 
 in the second court, we came upon a band of old 
 women squatting like frogs, whose pension was to 
 earn the trifling wage paid by the priests for weeding 
 their acres of stately courts flagged like the Romans' 
 roads. 
 
 This court was peculiarly the property of the god, 
 for here were the stables which contained his steed, 
 and the Ginko or treasury, in which armour and 
 weapons that the Toshogu had used in his life-time, 
 and various other relics were kept, and the Koyomachi 
 tree which he had carried in his palanquin on some 
 campaign. 
 
 " Who was Toshogu? " asked Rich, quite interested. 
 " I never heard of him." 
 
 Candida looked at me to tell him, and I explained 
 that when a person dies in Japan they christen him 
 with a new name, just as they do when he is born, 
 and that Toshogu was the name given to the greatest 
 of all the military rulers of Japan, lyeyasu, the founder 
 of the Tokugawa dynasty of Shoguns and of the 
 Japanese Navy, when he was carried to his tomb at 
 Nikko, which is almost as famous among the tombs 
 of the earth as that of Mausolus himself, whose 
 memorial, after giving its name to all others, was 
 razed from the spot where it was built, and carried, 
 every stone of it, thousands of miles to be rebuilt in 
 Bloomsbury for visitors to the British Museum. 
 
I30 
 
 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 -' Yes, I have heard something about that Johnnie," 
 said Rich. ** He was a pretty good fighting man. 
 If he is a god and knows everything about everything, 
 he must be jolly wild with that rotten descendant of 
 his — the chap that gave the Mikado a walk-over." 
 
 This was Rich's way of describing the last of the 
 Shoguns, who offered such a half-hearted resistance 
 when the great Daimios of Satsuma and Choshiu deter- 
 mined to make the Mikado the real, as well as the 
 nominal, Emperor. 
 
 ** Why, I saw that bally chap the other day learning 
 to ride a bicycle," he continued. *' Fancy giving up 
 being a king to take up cycling! " 
 
 " He wasn't a king exactly; he was more like a 
 Cromer and Kitchener combined, with absolute power." 
 
 ** Well, that's good enough for me. Where is that 
 Koyomachi that Toshogu carried round in his palan- 
 quin? " 
 
 I pointed him out the lofty tree which is one of the 
 glories of the temple. 
 
 " No, that's a bit thick! " he said. " Toshogu may 
 have been a mighty big man, big enough to carry 
 that thing in his hand, but you mentioned that he had 
 it in his palanquin ; and if he could have carried it 
 I'm jolly sure his bearers couldn't have carried him." 
 
 " Oh, do stop rotting, Dick," pleaded Candida. 
 ** There is really rather a pretty touch of sentiment 
 about this that doesn't go well with rotting. When 
 lyeyasu carried it round in his palanquin it had been 
 dwarfed by years of skilful gardening, and these dwarf 
 trees can only be kept from growing by constant 
 attention to their roots. But from the day that the 
 hero died, the tree was allowed to grow again, and 
 has grown to the size you see." 
 
 The Temple, like the Toshogu Temple at Nikko, 
 had a good deal of Shinto mixed with its Buddhism. 
 The idea of the Kami, the spirit of the mighty lyeyasu, 
 being on the earth and requiring the use of his steed 
 and his armour, was Shinto rather than Buddhistic, 
 though the temple was a stronghold of the Buddhist 
 hierarchy. The Buddhists were under the special 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 131 
 
 protection of the Tokugawa Shoguns, and those who 
 regret the abolition of the old feudal regime rally round 
 the Buddhist hierarchy. 
 
 It was when we reached the stable where the sacred 
 steed was kept that Rich's interest suddenly revived. 
 Not that the sacred beast was of a kind to satisfy 
 such a connoisseur. A pony was apparently sufficient 
 for the dignity of the mighty lyeyasu, and it was not 
 much of a pony. It was white, and its wicked blue 
 eyes gave it the appearance of being insane. It very 
 probably w^as. Insanity is regarded as supernatural in 
 Japan. It was kept there, so that if lyeyasu should 
 return to the earth, whose Eastern seas he had filled 
 with his renown, he should find a charger ready for 
 him. Incidentally the pony was a valuable item in 
 the maintenance of the temple, deprived of its revenues 
 at the time of the Revolution, for it had an unlimited 
 appetite for beans, and the faithful paid their sen for 
 bags w^hich contained only a rin's worth of beans. 
 
 Rich bought a dozen or more of these bags to win 
 the goodwill of the strange wild creature, and he 
 certainly succeeded marvellously. It allowed him to 
 handle it before he had finished, though it screamed 
 with rage when he made his first attempt. 
 
 Then he went over to the Ginko, or treasury, where 
 various relics of the gods were kept, and the armour 
 and weapons he would don when he came back to 
 earth. In these again he took a great interest, perhaps 
 because he had been a soldier. Even the dullest mind 
 can take a professional interest. 
 
 A very nice priest, a friend of Candida's, was 
 showing us round, and was evidently gratified by the 
 numerous and intelligent questions w^hich Rich asked, 
 through Candida as an interpreter, about the use of 
 each piece, and how the warrior fastened such stiff 
 things on. Candida was so gratified by the change in 
 his behaviour that she felt lenient when, after mounting 
 another noble flight of steps and passing through a 
 gateway, which would be one of the wonders of the 
 world for its carving if it were only known, we came 
 upon a Buddhist library. 
 
132 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 Now there is more in the library of a Buddhist 
 temple than meets the eye, although even in this 
 respect it does pretty well with its six thousand seven 
 hundred and seventy-one volumes of the Buddhist 
 canon, which are always kept in a circulating book- 
 case beyond the dreams of the avarice of the British 
 cabinet-maker — even a Maple. 
 
 A circulating book - case to accommodate nearly 
 seven thousand volumes would meet the requirements 
 of almost any private house, and when mounted on 
 a capstan such as was used for hauling up the best 
 bower anchor of Nelson's flag-ship, they revolve quite 
 easily. But the library's capabilities do not stop 
 there ; it affords the Japanese his best opportunity for 
 indulging in the mystical process of Nazaraeru. The 
 Japanese are our link with the ancient world. The 
 Chinese might do as well, but it is hopeless to try 
 and understand them, even in the superficial way in 
 which we understand the Japanese. In Japan the 
 gods walk the earth as they did in Sicily in the days 
 of which Theocritus sang. In the days when he sang 
 you did not meet them, but every poor simple person 
 whose mind was not stuffed up with new ideas, knew 
 that you might meet them in any place where the 
 vision would be secure from intruders, and felt that 
 they were friends to whom you might turn for sym- 
 pathy in arranging a sin or an amour as naturally as 
 in a matter of business or farming. That is just what 
 the poor Japanese know about their gods, and though 
 their household expenses may be calculated in fractions 
 of halfpennies, they are never too poor to have a little 
 light burning on the god-shelf and a fresh cake and 
 a fresh sprig laid before the god of Wealth, Shinto 
 or Buddhist, whom they make their patron. The gods 
 of Wealth attend, not only to the fortunes of the rich, 
 but to the daily bread of the poor. 
 
 Besides the old great universal gods, the Japanese 
 have millions of kami^ the spirits of the dead, who in 
 world - wide or narrow domestic spheres lived the 
 strenuous life. When these fine spirits consented to 
 let their vile bodies know corruption by the sword or 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 133 
 
 missile of the enemy, or by the decay of natural forces, 
 they did not leave the earth or lay aside their work, 
 but pursued it disembodied, or in some fresh form.* 
 
 Their gods the Japanese have still with them. It 
 is only when you have been in a country like Japan 
 that you know the atmosphere of the Greeks of Plato's 
 day, when to the philosopher religion was merely a 
 system of morality ; but other people knew that there 
 were gods. That the Japanese have heroes of the 
 antique pattern for self-sacrifice and prowess, who 
 shall deny? Never since the dawn of history has a 
 civilised people held its own lives so cheap, and the 
 expert Jujitsu athlete can perform feats of the one 
 against the many worthy of Samson or Hercules or 
 the best of Arthur's court. 
 
 With their gods and heroes the Japanese have the 
 magic practised by the ancients. The Nazaraeru of 
 the Japanese is the self-same witchcraft which we see 
 in the pages of Theocritus ; it embodies the same 
 principle as the wasting of the health of a rival by 
 the melting of wax or the piercing of an image, which 
 was rampant through the Middle Ages, and survives 
 in corners of Europe yet. It consists in taking some 
 type of the object to be operated on and convincing 
 one's mind that the type is the original. 
 
 A certain woman wished to curse a temple bell to 
 which she had contributed her mirror unwillingly. 
 With her dying breath she promised that her spirit 
 should give riches to whoever broke the bell. The 
 people rang it so furiously, to earn the riches, that the 
 maddened priests flung it in the marsh. Unable to 
 reach it there a woman who needed the money took 
 another object of bronze, a basin, to typify the bell, 
 
 "^This is why, when the heroic Commander Hirose was killed by 
 a Russian shell at the moment when he had succeeded in stopping 
 the channel of Port Arthur, the nation acclaimed his death with 
 joy as well as with sorrow, although they knew that the man 
 whose knowledge of Russian was as useful to them as his 
 marvellous seamanship and bravery would be visible to their eyes 
 in his accustomed shape no more, they did not doubt the ability 
 of his liami to perform so tangible an operation as turning a 
 torpedo from a Japanese or into a Russian vessel. 
 
134 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 and striking it till it broke, was rewarded with the 
 money. The strips of paper, which hang in a Japanese 
 temple, by Nazaraeru represent costly cloth of gold. 
 The pebble in front of a Buddha means that the donor, 
 had he sufficient wealth, would build a temple in place 
 of that stone. Nazaraeru gives the donor equal merit. 
 But the oftenest recurring of these good-natured de- 
 ceptions of the friendly gods is that of reading the 
 Buddhist canon. If you read a volume of it every day 
 it would take you twenty years to get through the 
 whole, and few poor people have the leisure for this, 
 but when they turn the book-case which contains the 
 entire canon three times round with the honest meaning 
 that they would read the books if they had the time, 
 they attain the very great merit of having paid this 
 honour to Buddha. 
 
 " What does he say? " asked Rich, as the priest 
 was explaining all this to Candida and myself, with 
 the length to which the Japanese is prone. We dared 
 not translate literally, we merely said that it was a 
 revolving library containing nearly seven thousand 
 books ; and that he would be astonished to find how 
 easily it worked. We told him that it was considered 
 very difficult to make it revolve three times with one 
 push. The priest had been telling us that extra merit 
 attaches to those whom the gods allow to succeed in 
 this. 
 
 '* Jolly 'cute," was Rich's comment. " If that little 
 red-faced flapper dies before I do — God knows I 
 don't wish her any harm— poor little girl, if only I'm 
 not made to marry her! — I'll have one of these merry- 
 go-rounds put up at Richborough and use it for 
 something better than books." It is needless to say 
 that Rich left it with all the merit that accrues to a 
 lusty push. It creaked so ominously that our hearts 
 were in our mouths lest his roughness should have 
 toppled it off its axle. 
 
 Beside the library was another building of scarlet 
 lacquer, glorious with chased brass and noble carving, 
 whose uses we dared not translate to the materialistic 
 Rich, for in it was kept the great Mekoshi or palace 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 135 
 
 car which, borne on the shoulders of a hundred coolies, 
 forms the centre of the annual procession. 
 
 "What is carried in this?" I asked, pointing to 
 the great palanquin, resplendent in scarlet and gold, 
 whose weight was so vast that it should need a hundred 
 men to carry it in the procession. 
 
 " The spirit of the god," said the priest. 
 
 Candida and I were so struck by the majesty of the 
 conception that only the spirit and not an inadequate 
 image made by human hands should occupy the vast 
 and resplendent equipage, that we had not the heart 
 to tell the plain truth to one so inadequate to receive 
 the conception as Rich. We told him that the car also 
 was for the god when he returned to earth, and on 
 other occasions was carried empty. 
 
 This awakened a most inconvenient curiosity on his 
 part ; he wished to have the car opened to see what 
 sort of a carriage the god had to ride in, which was 
 clearly impossible, for the car may only be opened 
 by the god himself from within. 
 
 Undeterred he sprang forward to open it, but 
 Candida seized hold of him, and when he turned round 
 to shake her off he saw that she was crying and almost 
 in hysterics. She was horribly frightened as to what 
 would happen to him. 
 
 His manner changed instantly. Putting his arm 
 round her and drawing her to him protectingly, he 
 said : 
 
 " It's all right, little woman; I'm not going to do 
 it if you're frightened, though I don't see why, when 
 there's no bally god inside; and as for these priests 
 I'd take on the whole lot of them at once if I had a 
 wall at my back." 
 
 Candida smiled up at him so gratefully with her 
 tearful eyes, those violets, as well as her lips, that he 
 was rewarded far beyond his deserts. 
 
 Our presence was a restraint upon any further step 
 towards reconciliation, which, I feel sure, he would 
 have contemplated under favourable circumstances, 
 even if she were not in the habit of submitting to it. 
 
 He was certainly sobered by this occurrence, for 
 
136 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 putting his arm through hers he went over the rest 
 of the temple quite gently and intelligently, and with 
 such a marked propensity for falling behind that the 
 priest devoted himself to Chiquita and myself. We 
 had now reached, what to him were the most important 
 parts of the temple, the two famous buildings which 
 served as the Hondo and the Soshido, the main temple 
 and the founder's hall, vast buildings whose roofs had 
 their tip-tilted gables as loaded with a riot of colour 
 and carving, and brass, plated with gold, as the tiny 
 fountain canopy had been, whose loveliness had set 
 us marvelling as we entered the temple. Both had 
 picturesque galleries running under their broad eaves, 
 round which the priests suffered us to walk to examine 
 the marvellous carvings of birds and flowers and 
 foliage, and the lives of the saints hardly less con- 
 ventionalised. The finest screens of mediaeval churches 
 have no such triumphs of colour and carving con- 
 ventionalised. And Chiquita was willing to be 
 interested and impressed, I thought. I was prepared 
 for her to refuse to go inside, for the priest said that 
 we must take our boots off. But she acquiesced at 
 once. She seemed to find virtue a suflficient reward. 
 And it was a sight that I shall never forget, for when 
 he took us in some sort of service was going on. 
 Priests in gorgeous robes of white and gold were 
 standing before the chief altar, and as their backs 
 were turned towards us and their voices droned and 
 intoned, and the smoke and scent rose from their 
 swinging censers, I felt reminded of my one glorious 
 year in Italy. We might have been in the Royal 
 Chapel at Palermo on Palm Sunday or the church of 
 Giotto over the ashes of St. Francis at Assisi, but for 
 the glassy, jet-black lacquer which bore only on its 
 polished bosom the long line of priests in snow-white 
 robes, bending over dwarf reading-desks of priceless 
 lacquer supporting Buddhist Scriptures. When Chiquita 
 saw the damage that her little heels could have caused 
 she thought no more of the trouble, and took a childish 
 pleasure in the smoothness with which her silk- 
 stockinged feet glided over the mirror-like floor. To 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 137 
 
 that black lacquer the priest seemed to attach almost 
 as much importance as the generous gold lacquer of 
 the walls crusted into dragons and other strange 
 beasts of Japanese mythology. 
 
 Chiquita was dumbfounded with the splendour and 
 inexpressibly fine taste of the decorations. In her 
 excitement she kept laying a light hand on me to 
 draw my attention to this or that which I was to 
 ask the priest. Her soul at last seemed touched, and 
 I veritably believe that it was partly from the re- 
 membrance of the likeness of her own services, which 
 she had not attended since she came to Japan, to the 
 glorious spectacle before her. 
 
 When we got outside again she would do no more 
 sight-seeing. She sat down, and with much delibera- 
 tion laced on her boots with the same closeness and 
 regularity that they had received from the hands of 
 her maid in the morning. She had the pretty woman's 
 particularity about her feet. 
 
 She adhered to her determination in spite of the 
 evident anxiety of the priest that we should see the 
 glories of the founder's hall and the kakemonos of 
 the Abbot's house, and the monastery, which I knew 
 to be of the highest antiquity and value. 
 
 After seeing so much, however, it was natural that 
 she should not wish to begin on the long low range 
 of buildings stretching interminably from the back of 
 the treasury, where the Toshogu relics were kept. 
 The handsome building absolutely next to the treasury 
 was the Abbot's Lodge ; the Hojo or monastery, the 
 Kyaku-den or reception-rooms, and the Dai-dokoro or 
 kitchen, stretched on and on beyond. 
 
 We had lost all track of Candida and Rich, but we 
 had agreed to take lunch in the balcony of a little 
 shrine at the top of the temple hill, which the heito 
 said looked the right way for the sun. 
 
 We climbed leisurely. When you are young and 
 your companion is an exquisite woman younger than 
 yourself, in sympathy for once, the way to anywhere 
 is too short, and you eke it out with lagging footsteps 
 and idlers' pauses. In Japan, blessed land of the 
 
138 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 lotus, you have no need of a watch ; the Japanese never 
 think of time. How long will the day last? the night 
 has a full purse. 
 
 It mattered not that it was a temple ; wherever you 
 thought of a seat there was a tea-house and the 
 honourable tea-money is only three halfpence. It was 
 long after one, so I should have paid my money and 
 left the five little cups untouched, but the day was 
 hot and Chiquita ate sweets and drank tea to the 
 verge of any meal, so the newly-acquired taste would 
 not spoil her lunch. She drank the tea as well as 
 coquetted over it. 
 
 The mountain was most mysterious. It would have 
 been quite uncanny at night : the trees of its woods 
 were so very old and bowed and matted together with 
 the wild wistaria and other tough lianas, horribly like 
 the swarms of snakes, which crossed your^ path at 
 every second and startled you, though their bite might 
 not be venomous. The paths themselves, which led 
 from shrine to shrine, lay perdus till you came upon 
 them. The shrines were such poor little temples with 
 ridiculous images of the gods, unprotected from the 
 hand of mischief, and barely safe from the weather 
 at any moment of the two or three centuries of their 
 existence. I knew all the gods. I spent my leisure 
 in the study of things Japanese, especially those which 
 bore on art, and I found in Chiquita a most receptive 
 and appreciative audience on this day of days. She 
 had had no idea, she said, what an interesting place 
 Japan was. 
 
 And so we climbed that hill, and I performed many 
 little offices paid in smiles. I was struck with the 
 fund of sympathy Chiquita had to draw on. We 
 found our lunch laid out, as only Japanese servants 
 can manage a picnic, on the balcony of that disused 
 temple. It was sheltered by broad eaves from the 
 fierce sun. Our boys had carried up cushions for us 
 to kneel on I suppose, which was all you could use 
 them for, when spread on the flat balcony. The 
 lunch, with snowy linen and glass and cutlery enough 
 for your own house, was spread between them. Rich 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 139 
 
 and Candida were not long in making their appearance. 
 At first I thought she was taking her pleasure, as the 
 English are supposed to do, rather sadly— she was 
 so pensive. I wondered what madcapery Rich had 
 been up to. I examined them rather more closely than 
 was fair, but I could find no traces of a quarrel. Rich 
 was boisterous again, and Candida disposed to give 
 in to him. In the matter of sitting for lunch, for 
 instance, he roared with laughter at the betto's 
 arrangement of seats, and swore there was only one 
 way of sitting on a temple balcony, and that was to 
 put your feet through the balustrade and let them 
 dangle over. The balustrade was, as usual, a plain 
 two-rail fence. 
 
 " You try, Page," he said. '* Girls are so ob- 
 stinate." 
 
 I did, and I found that he was right, though it looked 
 so absurd; it was far the most comfortable way, 
 especially when there was the betto to hand you 
 things. But both Candida and Chiquita preferred to 
 do a half-sit half-kneel on the cushions, where the 
 betto had arranged them with the lunch between them. 
 
 Girls are, as Rich said, so obstinate. With the 
 betto in attendance there was no reason why they 
 should lift a finger to help anybody at lunch ; but they 
 seated themselves in that uncomfortable way and made 
 it the excuse for looking after our wants, because we 
 were not well placed for getting at the victuals. We 
 ended by letting them have their way, and were 
 never better waited on in our lives. Chiquita, for 
 which I was not prepared, took just as good care of 
 me as Candida did of Rich. 
 
 After lunch we were destined to be the spectators 
 of one of the most extraordinary adventures I ever 
 witnessed, which, for some minutes, we expected to 
 have a fatal termination. 
 
 I have mentioned already the marvellous and 
 frightening number of snakes which we passed^ on 
 our way up to the temple. We had paid but little 
 attention to them, because it is a cardinal article of faith 
 among the Europeans in the country that the single 
 
I40 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 serpent in Japan, which is stated by the^ natives to 
 have sufficient venom to be dangerous, exists only in 
 the fertile Oriental imagination. The said snake is 
 spoken of with bated breath by the Japanese as the 
 Mamushi. Well, after lunch, Rich suggested that we 
 should leave " the beastly temple " and select one of 
 the nice little mossy glades for our post-prandial smoke. 
 I was nothing loth ; I had become habituated to the 
 snakes. But Candida, who never had any desire to 
 pose, admitted that she was very frightened of 
 them. 
 
 " What nonsense! " cried Rich; " why, I'd pick one 
 up, any one you please." 
 
 " For goodness sake don't, Dick," begged Candida; 
 but he was not to be deterred in any other way than 
 by the agility with which the snakes themselves ex- 
 pressed their objection. Finally he caught one about 
 a foot long, which was sleeping in the dust. He had 
 the sense to take it just behind the head, remembering 
 that even harmless snakes have very sharp teeth. I 
 never saw a change come over any man like that 
 which came over the Sandys' betto — he turned not 
 only livid, but green with fright. 
 " Mamushi! " he cried piteously. 
 " Oh, stuff! " cried Rich, holding it up in his hand 
 and shaking it. 
 
 " Yes, yes! Mamushi! " persisted the man miser- 
 ably. 
 
 "Oh, Dick dear! Please, please drop it!" wept 
 Candida. Both Chiquita and I noticed the "dear." 
 
 " You can't drop a snake," replied Rich, perfectly 
 cool. " If I tried it would curl round my wrist and 
 bite me. I can't let the beast go; I must kill it. 
 Have any of you got a knife? " 
 
 None of us had. " But there are a lot of knives in 
 the luncheon basket," I cried. 
 
 " Kanji, quick — a knife from the basket! " I cried 
 in Japanese, to the beito. To my horror the basket 
 was nowhere to be seen, though it had only just been 
 packed up. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 141 
 
 " Basket have sent back to riksha,'' he said. Why, 
 to this day remains a mystery, unless some beggar 
 had been waiting for our scraps and been bought with 
 them by the artful Kanji to save him the trouble of 
 carrying the basket back. All this only took a matter 
 of seconds, but even seconds count when the sands of 
 Life and Death are running out. 
 
 ** Can't any of you raise a knife? " asked Rich, 
 without the least anxiety in his voice. ** This beast 
 
 wriggles awfully — it's such a d d slippery thing to 
 
 hold. . . Oh, damn the brute! " he cried, for the 
 first time showing the least excitement. " It's twisted 
 itself round my hand and got a pretty good purchase. 
 It will give me cramp if it goes on." 
 
 I racked my brains to think how I could help him. 
 There were plenty of big stones about, which would 
 have done to smash in its head, but it was impossible 
 to use them — he had to hold it so close up to the 
 back of its head. Then I thought of treading on 
 its head, but unfortunately I had on tennis shoes, 
 with rubber soles and without any heels. We 
 saw its coil growing tighter and tighter round his 
 wrist ; his hand was almost claret coloured with the 
 contraction. In a matter of minutes he would have 
 to give in. The one chance was that Kanji was wrong 
 about it being venomous, and that Rich would get off 
 with a pattern on his hand, like a dentist's wax cast 
 of your jaw, from the serpent's mouthful of sharp 
 teeth. The threat of death did not move him ; he 
 remained perfectly cheerful, and suddenly called out, 
 laughing : 
 
 '* I've euchred it; only look slippy, old man, and 
 open that bottle of soda." 
 
 I undid the wire and out flew the cork with a bang, 
 as is the habit of soda water in hot climates. We 
 had kept back a couple of bottles of it and the whiskey 
 to take with our smoke. 
 
 " I'll try and wait till you've drunk it," he said; 
 " it's a pity to waste good soda water on a blazing 
 day like this." 
 
 " Oh, nonsense, man! " I said. ** Be serious — you 
 
142 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 want me to break the bottle so that you can cut its head 
 off with that instead of a knife." 
 
 "That would do," he said; "but I've thought of 
 something better. I want the empty bottle." 
 
 The earth drank that soda water. None of us had 
 the heart to swallow it when Rich's life hung in the 
 balance. What was he going to do, I wondered— 
 hammer its head in with the bottle or crush its head 
 between the bottle and a stone? 
 
 He had a much more ingenious idea. He slipped 
 the snake's head into the mouth of the bottle as coolly 
 as if he had been putting a cork into it, and then he 
 eased his hold a little. The snake craned forward, 
 and he slackened his hold further. The snake gave 
 a dash and shot right into the bottle. Then Rich 
 calmly turned the bottle upside down against the 
 ground, and holding it there, called for the cork.^ The 
 cork had flown off into the bushes, and finding it 
 seemed to take about an hour, but we did find it, and 
 then he called for whiskey. 
 
 '* I expect the whiskey and soda will be too much 
 for the old snake," he said genially. 
 
 I pulled the cork out of the whiskey and brought it 
 to him, almost trembling for the result. 
 
 *• Now Rich," I cried, " no more fooling! Chuck 
 the bottle and snake away into the bushes. Can't 
 you see that Miss Begg is almost mad with 
 fright?" 
 
 Candida was indeed a pitiable spectacle, but 
 Chiquita, although she had turned the awful^ greeny- 
 white which the Southern nations assume in peril, 
 and though her eyes were starting out of her head, 
 remained calm and tearless, watching every palpitation 
 of this awful drama with breathless interest. I have 
 noticed that the Southern nations rely on callousness 
 where the Northern nations depend on courage to carry 
 them through a crisis. 
 
 " No, I'm dashed if I do," he said. "This chap 
 has given me about the worst scare I ever had, and 
 I intend to keep him in my rooms to remind me not 
 to let my pecker go down just like that old monk chap, 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 143 
 
 or hermit, or whatever he was, kept a skull in front 
 of him to remind him that he had to die." 
 
 I handed him the whiskey and he calmly turned the 
 soda water bottle right side up and began to fill it 
 up with whiskey. 
 
 *• Man alive! " I cried, " the snake will be out on 
 you before you know where you are! " 
 
 ** Not it! " he cried; " I don't think it could have 
 got out if I left the bottle open all this time for it to 
 try. I was brought up in the country, and I know 
 a bit about natural history, and I've tried before now 
 to pull a snake out of his hole by the tail, but you 
 can't move him an inch. When a snake is drawn 
 backwards, its scales rough up like cogs and hold 
 it." 
 
 He gave us this little lecture with the coolness of 
 a professor, while he was filling in the spirit which 
 made the snake give agonised chokes, and then he 
 rammed in the cork and put it in his pocket for the 
 beast to die, in spite of Candida's illogical but 
 affectionate appeal for him to let the man carry it. 
 In any case, nothing would have induced the man to 
 have gone within five yards of it. 
 
 This incident gave us such a shock that we com- 
 menced our homeward journey at once, glad to get 
 away from such an ill-omened place. As we went 
 down through that uncanny wood, there was a regular 
 massacre of the innocents— the girls called on me to 
 slash at every snake that crossed our path with my 
 bamboo cane, though they were everyone of them 
 harmless. 
 
 A good deal of time and effort was also spent in 
 trying to persuade Rich to throw away his dangerous 
 pocketful, but he wanted it for his mantelpiece. ^ As 
 we were getting into our riksJias he exhibited it to 
 Candida to reassure her. It seemed to be stone dead, 
 with its horrid shut eyes and gaping mouth. That it 
 was venomous I had no doubt, for its two poison 
 fangs were now hanging down. A non-venomous 
 snake has even teeth. The only question was how 
 venomous. Truly Rich was a marvellous man. 
 
144 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 Though we were all so sobered he was the same 
 irresponsible tom-boy as ever, while we made our way 
 down to the horses and riksJias. He was pleased, 
 however, when I volunteered to take the snake home for 
 him in my riksJia ; he was afraid of one thing — that 
 it would slip out of his pocket and get lost while he 
 was riding home. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 On the next day I had to go back to Tokyo, for 1 
 was due at the Dai Gakku again on the following day. 
 I said good-bye to my host and hostess with great 
 regret. There was such fine simplicity about both of 
 them. He, in spite of being a Yokohama merchant, 
 was intensely interested in everything Japanese, in 
 the common problems which awaited the two races, 
 the English and the Japanese, as well as in Japanese 
 curios and antiquities. She was so whole-souled and 
 sympathetic, so unconscious of her beauty and 
 popularity. I had told myself more than once during 
 the last two days, while Rich was paired off with 
 Candida and I with Chiquita, what a pity it was 
 that the couples were not vice-versa. It was hope- 
 less for me to aspire to Chiquita's hand, and we 
 might be very unhappy if we were married. On the 
 other hand, if Candida's and my affections had hap- 
 pened to fall on each other instead of in their present 
 directions, it would have been in some ways such a 
 reasonable affair. I had an excellent appointment and 
 should inherit a little money. She had, according to 
 Mrs. Sandys, about six hundred a year. We could 
 both speak Japanese, and were much interested _ in 
 things Japanese, and though I had never had anything 
 to do with horses and had no knowledge of gardening, 
 with the latter, at any rate, I was as much fascinated 
 as she was. We were both reasonable creatures with 
 even tempers, and enjoyed life, and I should have been 
 infinitely proud of such a charming and elegant wife. 
 But Chiquita was the flame and I was the moth, and 
 though I could not have called Rich the flame and 
 Candida the moth, there were times when I feared 
 that she might allow her happiness to be too deeply 
 affected by his being such a splendid specimen of the 
 Englishman, physically. 
 
 In the morning Chiquita came over to the Sandys 
 
 145 ^ 
 
146 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 in the most friendly and gracious way to ask what 
 train I was going by. I told her the twelve-thirty. 
 She said she would go by the same train, and asked 
 me to order a riksha for her too. As Candida lived 
 so far from the station, Chiquita would not hear of 
 her coming. She was sure that I would do everything 
 for her, and finally Candida gave in. 
 
 As I rattled down the Bluff, and through the 
 Settlement to the railway station I had golden antici- 
 pations of the journey back to Tokyo. Rich had 
 returned by an earlier train for his duties, such as 
 they were — not that his presence there was of the 
 slightest real value, except in the unofficial respect of 
 keeping up the dignity of the British Legation in the 
 eyes of the other Legations. Rich might be an anxiety 
 to his friends for his recklessness and his practical 
 jokes, but among the Secretaries attached to the 
 various Legations he was the undisputed leader. He 
 had birth and good looks, always wore exactly the 
 right clothes, and in physical strength and courage 
 had no equal among the foreigners in Japan. It did 
 not matter whether the risk was to his person or his 
 purse, no one could bluff Rich, and that counted for 
 a good deal in a Legation whose other representatives 
 were a peace - at - any - price philosopher like Lord 
 Clapham, an Offenbach Opera Englishman like Tiffany, 
 a cheap aesthete like Finch, and a half-foreigner like 
 Jevons, whom Mrs. Tiffany, with her bitter tongue, 
 had christened ** the auctioneer." Rich was the only 
 stand-no-nonsense Englishman of the lot. Candida 
 had seen him off — was in fact seeing him off when 
 Chiquita came to arrange with me and say good-bye 
 to the Sandys. 
 
 Chiquita had rather fallen in love with Mrs. Sandys 
 as well as Candida. Not in the same degree, because 
 Mrs. Sandys was too busy with her husband and her 
 children and the hospitalities of a great house to spare 
 her the frequent interviews and confidences on which 
 she fed her passion for Candida. I did not find these 
 passions for charming women with noble personalities 
 difficult to understand in one whose physiognomy sug- 
 gested a romantic and devoted nature, but whose heart 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 147 
 
 seemed incapable of being touched by men. The fact 
 was that Chiquita was very young, and had she 
 possessed parents and brothers and sisters, would have 
 been still at the stage in which a girl's devotion is 
 spent on her family. To a girl with the family instincts 
 strong in her, Lord Clapham must have been distinctly 
 unsatisfying. 
 
 Chiquita, in going down to Yokohama, had pictured 
 whole days spent in hanging round Candida — with me 
 to fall back on, I suppose, in case intruders needed 
 her hostess. The arch-intruder Rich had always hung 
 on to Candida like the Old Man of the Sea. Chiquita 
 knew Rich too well to have any hopes of shaking him 
 off, and having plenty of intuition saw that if her 
 heart at eighteen was impervious to the assaults of 
 men, Candida's, at thirty-four, was of softer metal. 
 
 She had her monopoly of Candida in the morning, 
 for Rich was luxurious in the matter of getting up. 
 Having next to nothing to do in Japan, he did not 
 wish to make the day any longer by early rising. 
 Nor, when he was dining at the Club, did he go to 
 bed late. Although he was a man who could drink 
 deep and mix his liquors with impunity and did so 
 on an occasion like a Regimental Dinner, he was 
 habitually temperate, and had no relish for the yarning 
 over pegs of whiskey which forms such a large part 
 of the life of indolent men in the East. In his 
 frequent visits to Yokohama he spent his evenings, 
 when he was not with Candida, in the Club library, 
 reading such books as " Geoffrey Hamlyn," or 
 '* Charles O'Malley," or the romances of Dumas, all of 
 which were new books to him — he had done so little 
 reading in his life. He was one of those who are 
 never in the house except for meals, from the time 
 they get up till the time when the sun goes to bed. 
 The open air was his passion, and it would have been 
 much better for him to have married *' the little red 
 flapper " and lived the sporting life of a rich country 
 gentleman in England. 
 
 The last three evenings he had spent in wandering 
 about the garden with Candida, catching fireflies with 
 one of the ingenious contrivances used by Japanese 
 
148 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 children, and when he had a cageful of them, turning 
 them out where he and Candida sat down for the long 
 tete-a-tete talk with which their evenings always ended. 
 
 When I left the dinner-table, Mr. Sandys generally 
 carried me off to his library to have a yarn. It was 
 all I saw of him during the day, and while we smoked 
 and talked, my fingers were kept busy with pencilling 
 the English translations of the titles on his superb 
 collection of old Japanese books. He could not read 
 Japanese, at all events, not the " classical character." 
 So in the evening Chiquita had Mrs. Sandys pretty 
 much to herself, and fanned her soul into a fever of 
 admiration, especially after she had asked the question 
 about the photographs. 
 
 The house was full of what Chiquita at first took to 
 be portraits of her, but looking darker and sadder and 
 gentler than was Bryn Sandys' wont now. This 
 beautiful sunny-haired creature had such a very healthy 
 and happy personality. 
 
 ** How you are altered since you had those pictures 
 taken," remarked Chiquita. 
 
 " They're not mine, they're Mary's — the child Mary's 
 mother, — my sister, Mr. Sandys' first wife." 
 
 Chiquita looked surprised. 
 
 " Don't you know my story — what a very wicked 
 person I am — I've committed the unpardonable offence 
 of being my brother-in-law's wife." 
 
 " I think your story is common property, Mrs. 
 Sandys," replied Chiquita — the most tactful and re- 
 assuring thing which occurred to her to say, though 
 it would not have been a happy way of expressing 
 herself to a person who was touchy. 
 
 " I lived with dear Mary after she was married till 
 she died," said Bryn, " and she will live with us 
 always. We like to have her portrait wherever our 
 eyes naturally fall, and we want her child to realise 
 that she was her mother, not I." 
 
 *' I think that's rather cruel," said the practical 
 Chiquita. 
 
 " I hope not," sighed Bryn, " for it is a sacred 
 trust ; poor Mary wished us to marry each other, but 
 to this day I can hear her wailing, ' only don't let 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 149 
 
 my child forget me.' . . . Romantically happy as 
 I have been for the past few years, I always long for 
 her to be alive again. She had such a terrible death. 
 Her spine was shattered in a toboggan accident before 
 she was as old as I am now. She lingered on for 
 months in agony and then died. ... I have a 
 great deal that I cannot forgive myself " 
 
 "You!" cried Chiquita in astonishment. 
 
 *' Yes, I. You can't think how shockingly I behaved 
 to her when we were girls." 
 
 " No, I'm sure I can't," said Chiquita decidedly. 
 
 *' But I did. I was so selfish. I took everything 
 as my right, and Mary was so utterly unselfish and 
 devoted that I imposed on her all day long. I was a 
 vampire in the way that I preyed upon her personality. " 
 
 Chiquita eyed her incredulously. 
 
 ** You may imagine the blow I received when I saw 
 her after her accident." 
 
 ** Fortunately, its force was broken by the en- 
 deavours I had made to be more decent to her after 
 she was married, to win her husband's, my Philip's, 
 good opinion. You know I was awfully spoilt as a 
 girl. People used to say I was very pretty, and my 
 father had the finest establishment in Yokohama." 
 
 ** In this house? " asked Chiquita, rather incon- 
 sequently. 
 
 *' Yes, this house. But my father went in for all 
 sorts of insane display and extravagances which Phil's 
 common sense would not tolerate. Anyhow I was 
 awfully spoilt. I was believed to be a great heiress, 
 and I was the best tennis player in the place. The 
 two things which Yokohama counts first. 
 
 " Well, to cut a long story short, the first man who 
 ever had the pluck to tell me that I ought to behave 
 better to my sister was Philip. He fell in love with 
 her instead of me. Everybody else had passed her 
 by, though she was quite pretty and far nicer than I 
 was. I began by being very angry. Then when I 
 saw that he never intruded his interference but just 
 had the courage to reprove me when I intruded my 
 bad behaviour to Mary on him, I observed a sort of 
 armed neutrality till I ended by devoting myself to 
 
I50 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 winning his good opinion, and there was only one way 
 to do that — by being a real sister to Mary. 
 
 " From the time of her accident I have nothing to 
 reproach myself with — not even my being in love with 
 Philip," she added proudly. " I was in love with him, 
 and Mary knew it. I believe I would have married him 
 the day he married her if he had asked me, but though I 
 was in love with him I was never disloyal to her, and 
 she knew that well, and she begged us to marry when 
 she was dead. She did not want anybody else to 
 have the care of her child, though I was never to let 
 it think that I was its mother. And she wanted Philip 
 to marry me so that he should never forget her. One 
 of the strangest things in the world. Miss Palafox,^ is 
 that it is easier for a man to forget the woman with 
 whom he has occupied the most intimate relation in 
 the human existence, than it is for her sister, who may 
 never have seen her from the day that she was married, 
 to forget her. This is how blood is thicker than 
 water." 
 
 Chiquita was deeply interested, and more enthusiastic 
 than ever about her new friend. She begged for a 
 photograph of Bryn Sandys herself. 
 
 '* There isn't one in the house," she said, " unless 
 Philip has one hidden somewhere from the wife of 
 his bosom, who strictly forbids it; and it is not his 
 way to have any secrets from me. It's a sort of 
 silent homage I pay to Mary's memory. She was his 
 wife first. But Philip has a new photo of me, which 
 people think very good, at the office. He never was 
 in that office while she was alive, so I don't mind 
 my portraits being there. Call in for it on your way 
 to the station. His office is in Water Street — Avon, 
 Sandys d^ Co. He keeps on my father's name." 
 
 That portrait of Mrs. Sandys proved, like money 
 and other things which are mighty good in themselves, 
 among the irritatnenta malorum. I, naturally, was not 
 present at the conversation, and Chiquita forgot all 
 about calling for the portrait. I settled with the 
 rihsha boy, registered the baggage to Tokyo, bought 
 the tickets and performed various other small offices 
 in which my intimate knowledge of Japanese saved 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 151 
 
 her a good deal of trouble. A Japanese station is in 
 a perpetual turmoil. The poor Japanese always run 
 in a railway station like your servants run when you 
 give them an order, and as they are all carrying their 
 baggage packed in expanding baskets, confusion is 
 sometimes acute. As a ship had just come in with a 
 lot of passengers who were going to stay at Tokyo, it 
 was, contrary to the usual experience of first-class 
 carriages in Japan, with some difficulty that we found 
 a carriage with vacant corners opposite each other ; 
 and Chiquita's dressing-bag, which she begged me 
 not to let out of my hands, weighed about half a 
 hundredweight. When at last I had found a carriage 
 to her taste, and arranged her comfortably and de- 
 posited her precious dressing-bag beside her, and her 
 other hand packages in the net above her head, and 
 was about to take my seat, she suddenly remembered 
 the portrait. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Page," she said, " how long is there 
 before the train starts? " 
 
 There was a little under half an hour, I found. 
 
 '• Would you mind doing a thing for me? " 
 
 " Not in the least. I shall be delighted." 
 
 *' Well, Mrs. Sandys told me that if I called at her 
 husband's office on my way to the station he would 
 give me a photograph of her. Will you take a riksha 
 to Mr. Sandys' office and explain to him that he is 
 to give the portrait to me? " 
 
 It was not a job I cared about, because I thought 
 that Mr. Sandys might not catch on immediately when 
 I rushed in breathless to demand his pretty wife's 
 portrait with the excuse that it was for Chiquita, but 
 I went with good grace and managed it for her, and 
 tore back to the station, arriving less than five minutes 
 before the train started. When I got to our carriage 
 I found only the umbrella which I had left, with con- 
 siderable misgivings, to keep my place. It was a 
 presentation umbrella and had a gold top with an 
 inscription which I valued very much, from my col- 
 leagues at the school where I was master in England 
 before I got my Japanese appointment. 
 
 W^hat on earth had happened? Chiquita vanished! 
 
152 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 and the umbrella I valued so much left to its 
 fate. I jumped out of the carriage, with the umbrella 
 you may be sure, and the photograph, and ran along 
 the train. I found her in a carriage reserved for 
 ladies with a friend, and handed her the photograph, 
 for which I did not think she was quite sufficiently 
 gracious. 
 
 " Won't you and your friend come into another 
 carriage? " I asked disappointedly. " I can't get in 
 here because it is reserved for ladies." 
 
 *' No, my friend wanted me to come with her," 
 replied Chiquita, after a few words which I did not 
 catch, " and she prefers travelling in a ladies' car- 
 riage." 
 
 A carriage reserved for ladies, which means for 
 old maids, struck me as quite the proper place for such 
 a very sour person ; but that Chiquita should have left 
 me for the Sour Lady while I was away doing a dis- 
 agreeable job for which there was barely time, to oblige 
 her, seemed to me flat rudeness, especially as she had 
 left my umbrella to its fate, after making a railway 
 porter of me for about quarter of an hour to ensure 
 the safety of her dressing-bag. 
 
 I turned on my heel and went right off. 
 
 " Mr. Page," I heard her calling after me, but I took 
 no notice; and retiring to a smoking carriage, passed 
 a very different hour from what I had expected in the 
 journey to Tokyo. 
 
 I had pictured it as the crowning hour of one of 
 the most delightful pieces of companionship I had 
 enjoyed in my life, instead of which I found my mouth 
 full of Dead Sea fruit. 
 
 When we arrived at Tokyo I gave up my ticket and 
 hurried out of the station without waiting to claim 
 my portmanteau. I could send my servant for that 
 with the check which would enable him to get it, and 
 I did not mean to give Chiquita the opportunity of 
 speaking to me again. 
 
 I must own to feeling a petty satisfaction in not 
 seeing the Embassy carriage or any of its servants 
 waiting. Chiquita had evidently meant to go in 
 
PLAYING THE GAME i53 
 
 rikshas with me. Perhaps she would miss me when 
 it came to getting herself and her numerous Packages 
 transfered from the train to a rihsha. She would be 
 certain, too, because I had taught her a little Japanese 
 to have to do all the worrymg for which the Sour 
 Lady hungered. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Two days after I received a note from Chiquita. 
 
 " Come at once, Chiquita." 
 
 She knew my hours — that I should not be at the 
 Dai Gakku, and sent it to my house. 
 
 My pupil Mayeda was talking to me when the note 
 came. I had had no intention of going, so I asked 
 Mayeda to go down and say that I was out and not 
 expected back till very late. When he came back 
 I asked him how he had expressed himself, wishing 
 to know the correct Japanese formula. 
 
 " Gentleman does not wish to be at home," was 
 the message given to the Legation messenger. I 
 could not help thinking how truly it expressed the 
 situation, though doubtless by the time it reached her 
 ears it would be translated back to the baldest English, 
 " Mr. Page was out." 
 
 It required some strength of mind, for doubtless 
 it was meant to hold out the flag of truce, and they 
 had been delightful hours which were broken off by 
 her rudeness at the railway station, a rudeness which 
 amounted to dismissal for anyone with the smallest 
 spirit. I walked right round the Castle of Tokyo, a 
 tramp of miles, to work off my agitation, hardly 
 noticing its swift changes from narrow moats with low 
 walls, which had the dwarf deformed Japanese fir-trees 
 growing out of them, to the tremendous sweeps of 
 iron-grey rampart built of polygonal stones as large 
 as some Japanese houses, shelving down fifty or a 
 hundred feet, to wide stretches of water covered with 
 wild duck or the encroaching leaves of the lotus. And 
 just before I came to the triple gateway of the Imperial 
 Palace I saw the British ensign floating above the 
 Legation Compound. I did not weaken, I was 
 
 154 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 155 
 
 strengthened in my resolve. If I had only known it, 
 Chiquita was not there, so that clenching of my moral 
 fists was not necessary ! 
 
 I passed a most disturbed night, and felt generally 
 angry with myself for the fear that haunted me that 
 I ought to have gone, as, indeed, I ought. But I 
 did not hear anything about it till I got back from 
 the Dai Gakku in the afternoon. 
 
 Chiquita needed me so badly that had she given 
 but a hint of the occasion in the letter I should have 
 swallowed my pride and gone. It did not occur to 
 her that she had lost her influence over me. 
 
 It was all like a thunder-clap. The betto, whom 
 Rich used as his groom, brought a note to her while 
 she was having her afternoon cup of tea with Candida, 
 who had returned the compliment of her visit to 
 Yokohama by coming to stay with her. The beito, 
 fortunately, could not read English, though he could 
 speak it pretty well. 
 
 Rich-San, he said, had told him to saddle a horse, 
 and had taken him with him to the Toshogu Temple, 
 running in front of the horse in the Japanese style. 
 When they got near the temple, Rich-San had asked 
 him if he knew of a poor family who could take care 
 of his horse. He found one, and Rich-San then 
 disappeared. He was away for such a long time, that 
 the betto would have feared that some accident^ had 
 befallen him; but Rich-San often did these things, 
 and had always turned up in the end all right. So 
 that he did not trouble himself, but ate rice with the 
 family till a priest brought him this note and told him 
 to take it to the lady at the British Legation. 
 
 It ran ; 
 
 ** For heaven's sake come straight back with this 
 man. I am a god and don't know how the mischief 
 to get out of it." 
 
 " Serve him right— best thing he can do is to go 
 on being a god. He isn't any good as a man," 
 snapped Chiquita, who wondered why on earth he 
 should have written to her till she remembered that 
 
156 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 Candida must be the lady at the British Legation for 
 whom the letter was intended. 
 
 "But Chiquita, he will be murdered!" cried 
 Candida, aghast. 
 
 " He chanced that, as he does about once a week 
 with his idiotic practical jokes." 
 
 '* Don't talk like that, dear," said Candida. " You 
 don't know what it means to me. ... I shall try 
 to save him if I die for it ! " 
 
 Chiquita raised her eyebrows. ** Are you in love 
 with that whirlwind? " 
 
 " I just adore him," confessed Candida; the moment 
 was too critical for pride or false shame, nor were 
 they in keeping with Candida's character. 
 
 " Well, I'll go with you — I believe in my star, and 
 I'd be sorry to see anything happen to Mr. Rich; 
 he has the pluck of the devil, and he's the only one 
 
 who keeps you alive in this dull old hole, and " 
 
 But Chiquita thought better of what she was going 
 to say, and did not finish the sentence. 
 
 " Think twice before you promise, Chiquita. I can 
 tell you that it's an awful risk. I can speak Japanese 
 like a native, and I grew up among them, so I have 
 a good chance of falling in with the humours of the 
 mob, which is all - important. There's nothing so 
 vindictive as a Buddhist mob, especially where 
 foreigners are concerned — they are the people who 
 fan the hatred against foreigners! " 
 
 " Well, two heads are better than one, and I want 
 to see him through with this, though I can't be 
 bothered with him." 
 
 Long before they got .to the temple they knew the 
 gravity of the situation. The roads were blocked with 
 thousands of Japanese in the old feudal costumes they 
 don on the day when they keep the festival of the 
 deified lyeyasu. Tea-houses improvised under canopies 
 of woven boughs had sprung up by magic all along 
 the road. The air reeked with sesame oil. The 
 presence of the foreigners was openly resented. More 
 than once they were hustled ; but Candida told them 
 in fluent Japanese that she had an appointment with 
 the Abbot. It was obvious that the crowd was there 
 for a miracle. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 157 
 
 Their difficulties would not be over when Candida 
 saw the Abbot ; and it was all-important that she should 
 first know what idiocy Randolph had been indulging in. 
 
 " Oh, what shall we do, Chiquita? " she asked 
 desperately. 
 
 Chiquita knew nothing about temples — they had not 
 interested her enough. She had never been in one 
 till their visit to this very temple a few days before. 
 But she had intuition. 
 
 '* The first thing is to find out where he is, and there 
 is only one way of doing that. We must wander about 
 the temple until he gives us some sign, or the priest 
 who gave the hetio the note comes to the rescue. It 
 must be your friend, who showed us over the temple." 
 
 " Anyway, the heito will know him," said Candida 
 eagerly. 
 
 " That's dangerous. Which way did you leave 
 Rich-San's horse? " she asked, in a low voice. ^ He 
 pointed with his eyes ; that was enough for Chiquita. 
 
 " Wait for us on that side of the crowd," she said 
 to the groom. '' The priest must choose his own time 
 for recognising us," she declared to Candida. 
 
 They were none too soon ; he passed them at that 
 very moment, and in English bade them follow him 
 at a little distance. He halted at the stable. They 
 knew one thing that had happened, for the god's steed 
 was covered with a dry lather of sweat, and had a 
 terrified look in his eyes. Many of the crowd were 
 worshipping it; they were furious at the foreigners' 
 curiosity and jostled them fiercely. The priest was 
 able to quiet the angry crowd a little. He explained 
 to Candida in Japanese that this was no matter for 
 mere curiosity, that many persons had witnessed in 
 the night the god, of more than mortal stature, wearing 
 his armour from the Ginko and riding his white steed 
 like the Thunder God. It had lashed out so furiously 
 that no mortal dared approach. Fire had come out 
 of its eyes and nostrils. It had screamed with pride. 
 The god was still on earth, but sleeping to rest his 
 steed ; fresh manifestations might take place, though 
 they must not dare to hope for such further favour. 
 The crowd murmured hoarsely, and the girls under- 
 stood what had happened. 
 
158 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 " Ask him where the god is," said Chiquita. 
 
 " In the Ginko opposite the stable," he said. 
 
 Chiquita, in spite of the danger, could only just 
 repress a smile as she pictured Rich wondering how 
 on earth he should get out of the " bally " place where 
 he had gone to get rid of his armour. 
 
 All was going well, when Rich, catching sight of 
 them through the chink below the lattice to which he 
 prudently confined his peeping, hee-hawed like a 
 donkey, partly because he trusted in the crowd's never 
 having heard one, and partly because he could not 
 resist the lark. 
 
 The crowd were carried away with fury at foreigners 
 hearing the voice pf the god's steed, and did not spare 
 even blows in driving the girls off. Chiquita was 
 swept from her feet, but had the coolness to choose 
 the direction, and be swept towards the hetto. But, 
 shockingly bruised, and with her clothes torn off her 
 back, Candida clung to the handles of the Ginko doors. 
 The mob should not get to Rich except over her dead 
 body. 
 
 ** What are you doing? " she screamed at them, in 
 Japanese, in a passion as fierce as their own. 
 
 '* Off with you, off with you ! " they yelled. " What 
 right has a foreigner to be here when a god is about 
 to appear? " 
 
 The last moment had come for her and Rich, but 
 she would have the happiness of dying with him. Her 
 strength had gone. She could no longer fight them 
 away from the handles. She was losing consciousness 
 fast; she only just made out that the priest stood by 
 her again. 
 
 " Release the handles, my daughter! No man ever 
 openeth or closeth the doors when the god is within. 
 Let me take thee to the Abbot." 
 
 Extreme danger sharpens the faculties. She under- 
 stood that no one would attempt to enter the treasury ; 
 that things would remain as they were, unless some 
 mania impelled the reckless Rich to sally out. And 
 yet, when it meant life or death, that he should stay 
 where he was, her wits could devise no means of 
 conveying this to him. The only thing to do was to 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 159 
 
 trust the priest. She knew the Abbot to be one of 
 the ablest and most powerful ecclesiastics in Japan. 
 What line would he take? She, alas, could think of 
 but one. 
 
 The Abbot was an old, old man, with a face 
 singularly like that of Pope Leo XIIL, dignified, be- 
 nignant and holy. He greeted her with politeness and 
 friendliness, but passed straight on to saying: " This 
 is one of the most serious episodes which has ever 
 happened in our relations with foreigners, Candida- 
 San. If the crowd gets hold of your friend, he will 
 be torn in pieces." 
 
 She had no wish to play her trumps till she was 
 obliged, so she said deferentially: "It is for your 
 Excellency to speak. I listen." 
 
 " You and your friend and this bad man, who has 
 insulted our religion, can you hold your tongues? " 
 
 " I and Chiquita-San can. And I will manage him." 
 
 " He deserves no mercy — and I am not sure that I 
 can compel it for him. . . . Who is he? " 
 
 '* The Third Secretary of the British Legation." 
 
 The Abbot's immobile face changed the least 
 fraction. '* That is very serious. The English will 
 attach much importance to it. There is no justice 
 where high policy commands. We shall be persecuted 
 for it . . . yet . . . what can I do? " 
 
 Candida led the way to a window from which they 
 could see the crowd praying for the god to appear. 
 
 " Let them believe," she cried desperately. 
 
 The Abbot said nothing. 
 
 *' A miracle will add greatly to the popularity of the 
 temple." 
 
 " A miracle! " he said; '* how can I allow a miracle 
 to be reported which I know to be no miracle but a 
 sacrilege. It is impossible, I tell you, Candida-San, 
 impossible." 
 
 It was not so much his words as the air of gentle 
 and pious conviction with which he spoke them which 
 dashed Candida's hopes. But her love for Rich lent 
 her words. 
 
 " Indeed, I did not mean that you were to declare 
 that which is not true, holy Abbot. The people cry, 
 
i6o PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 'Miracle, miracle!' It is they who have seen the 
 god of more than mortal stature riding the sacred 
 steed. No one in the service of the temple has seen 
 it. Cannot you withhold your pronouncement till some 
 priest has seen it? " 
 
 " But that, too, is a lie, most dangerous to our 
 influence. I can see no reason or excuse for such a 
 course, except to save this foreigner from the results 
 of the outrage he has committed." 
 
 " He will be killed! '\ 
 
 *' He deserves to be killed." 
 
 ** And I shall be killed! " ^ 
 
 ** No; you have done nothing. I will see that not 
 a hair of your head is injured." 
 
 " But no one shall get at him except over my dead 
 body." 
 
 ** Why trouble yourself over such a worthless person, 
 Candida-San? " 
 
 *' Because he is my lover," she cried, bursting into 
 tears. 
 
 " I would do much for you, but my duties are first 
 to the institution over which I have been called to 
 preside. Cease to think of him — he is not worthy of 
 you." 
 
 " Oh, save him, save him! " moaned Candida. 
 
 " I can only save him by deceiving thousands of the 
 faithful. If only I could see a justification, gladly 
 would I save him for your sake. But to save his life 
 is to risk the honour of the Order which he has 
 insulted." 
 
 " Oh, but you have justification," cried Candida 
 desperately, as a light dawned upon her. "It is not 
 for the honour of the Order, but for its very existence 
 that you must save his life. Listen. For years the 
 Japanese Government has been demanding from the 
 Powers the Revision of Treaties, which will free the 
 Japanese from being treated as savages. It is now 
 on the eve of being signed. But if an Englishman 
 is murdered by a mob in a Buddhist temple at this 
 eleventh hour, it will be said that the Japanese are 
 not fit to be trusted with the lives of Englishmen, and 
 the Treaty RcA'ision for which your Government have 
 
PLAYING THE GAME i6i 
 
 strixen so long and so hard will be postponed, until 
 they can assure the Powers that they have crushed the 
 Buddhist hierarchy, as they have wanted to do for 
 twenty years, but have not dared." 
 
 The Abbot took a little brass pipe, no larger than 
 an acorn, and pushed a pinch of tobacco into it. He 
 blew into a glow the charcoal in his fire-box of priceless 
 workmanship and lit it. He smoked it away in a few. 
 whiffs, and began tapping the ashes out. 
 
 "It is very difficult," he said, " to know what to 
 do. . . It would be right for this blasphemer to 
 die, but he is not worthy of bringing immeasurable 
 disaster upon our religion. For this reason his ignoble 
 life is of more value to us that his death. . . But 
 there remains our duty to the faithful. . . They 
 think it is a miracle — but if one miracle be proved to 
 be false . . . how are they to believe a real 
 miracle? They must be spared before him. . . So, 
 mind you," he continued, before she had time to 
 reply, " if anything to shake their faith leaks out from 
 you or your friends, the whole power of England 
 could not stop these people from tearing him limb 
 from limb. Can you make him understand this? " 
 
 " Yes. But the betto? " 
 
 ** The betto will be told that he has not seen or 
 heard anything." 
 
 There was a fresh uproar. 
 
 " Oh, how will he get out? " she cried. 
 
 '* That is easy, my daughter. There is a secret 
 passage from my house to the Ginko, for me to keep 
 an eye upon the treasure. I will withdraw him through 
 this ; he shall stay here until midnight, then walk 
 home. The priest you know — my intelligence officer 
 for the English — will conduct him. His horse will be 
 found at the police station at Shimbashi." 
 
 " Oh, why did you not save him before? " she cried. 
 
 *' Because to save him was to invite a disaster for 
 our religion. But now not to save him is to invite a 
 greater disaster." 
 
 Rich was at the Legation next morning for his duties 
 
 L 
 
i62 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 — those marvellous duties — as calm as if nothing had 
 happened. None of the staff was even aware that 
 anything had happened to him. But he found a 
 message awaiting him from Chiquita, who wished to 
 see him. 
 
 "You cur! you rotter! you idiot!" she began. 
 " Do you know that Miss Begg has been nearly killed 
 because of your silly nonsense in outraging the religion 
 of the country to which you are accredited as a 
 diplomatist? " 
 
 *' Draw it mild, Cheekie ! " 
 
 " Don't ' Cheekie ' me ! " 
 
 " Well, Ghiquita." 
 
 ** Miss Palafox, if you please! " 
 
 " Miss Palafox " 
 
 " I'm not going to draw it mild — I can't draw it 
 strong enough. Do you see that? " 
 
 She turned up her sleeves ; her arms were black and 
 blue from top to bottom. " My back is worse, and 
 it's nothing to Miss Begg's. She is very ill with the 
 injuries and the fright she got." 
 
 " Candida ill! " he cried, really touched. " Well, I 
 
 am a beast ! I will never play any of these d d 
 
 rotten practical jokes again, I swear I won't. Do take 
 me to her, Chiquita! " 
 
 " She is too ill," she said, forgetting to object to 
 the "Chiquita." "Besides, you'd better know all 
 you've got to thank her for, first." 
 
 When she had finished telling him, all he said was : 
 " I think I'll go home," — his boyish way of expressing 
 that he was thoroughly ashamed of himself. 
 
 " Come back to tea in my work-room, and see if I 
 have anything better to report," said Chiquita, a hair's 
 breadth mollified. 
 
 He found Candida alone. " Chiquita was very 
 sorry," she said, " but she would be about half an 
 hour late." 
 
 She looked not only handsome, but charmingly pretty 
 when he said: " I owe you my life, Candida! " 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 163 
 
 It was natural that their lips should meet now, if 
 they had never met before. 
 
 " I feel a mean hound in not asking you to marry 
 me, though I should be perfectly safe, because no- 
 body'd be such a fool as to marry me except Honoria. 
 You know all about it, Candida. I'm heir to my 
 uncle's baronetcy, but the estates are not entailed, so 
 he has arranged in his will for me to marry Honoria, 
 and the twenty thousand a year. Until we are married 
 he allows me five hundred a year, which ceases the 
 day I am married — so if I marry anyone but Honoria, 
 I shall have nothing but my magnificent screw as Third 
 Secretary of Legation. I can't ask a woman to share 
 that! " 
 
 " I would gladly, but I'm not going to let you 
 propose to me. It would be misery to you to live on 
 that, even with my money added to it." 
 
 " Why haven't I enough to marry you? " he cried, 
 with genuine enthusiasm. " I adore you." 
 
 " You don't adore me — it's gratitude. I don't think 
 I'd marry you even if you had the money. You'd get 
 tired of me, and make me miserable. But I should 
 like you never to marry, and never to like any woman 
 as well as me." 
 
 *' Well, you're safe of that, anyhow. I never could 
 be bothered with any other woman." 
 
 " Oh, Dick! How about Chiquita? " 
 
 ** Chiquita doesn't count." 
 
BOOK II 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The third and greatest of the new eras had begun for 
 Japan. The first came with the opening up of the 
 sealed kingdom by the Treaty of 1854; the_ second 
 with the great Emperor IMutsu-Hito resuming the 
 sovereign rights of his position by the Revolution of 
 1868; the third with the signing of the Treaty in July, 
 1894, in which Japan was to resume her sovereign 
 rights as a nation before the end of the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
 This Japan owed to the intervention of England, 
 and England took the lead in signing the Treaty of 
 Revision, in spite of the opposition of the English 
 merchants in Yokohama— the most important body of 
 foreigners in Japan. 
 
 Hard on the heels of this Treaty, while the merchants 
 were still repeating that everyone of them would have 
 to leave Japan in 1899, when its provisions came into 
 full force, fell the news that Japan was at war with 
 China, in February, 1895. 
 
 The British Minister gave a dinner-party to several 
 of the Japanese Ministers in honour of the event. It 
 was called a banquet in the newspapers, and as our 
 relations nominally were as good with China as they 
 were with Japan, should never have been given. Jelly- 
 fish diplomatists can be very undiplomatic. It was 
 Orlando Jevons' doing. Like other Secretary-Inter- 
 preters of Legation, he belonged really to the Consular 
 
i66 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 service and had had no diplomatic training— though 
 what value there could be in the diplomatic education 
 of a Tiffany, a Finch, or a Rich, it passed the wit of 
 man to say. 
 
 Jevons' influence was beginning to be very great. 
 The Japanese understood that it was owing to his 
 unflagging and enthusiastic friendship for their people 
 that England had consented to replace the old Treaty 
 by a new one, which gave up from the year 1899 
 onwards the control, up to this, exercised over Japan 
 in her relations with foreigners. And Jevons' obvious 
 influence with the Japanese made Lord Clapham listen 
 to his advice more than ever. 
 
 To meet the Japanese statesmen and their wives, 
 Lord Clapham had asked the Tiffanys, Finch, Rich, 
 and Jevons ; the Bishop of Japan and his wife, 
 the Dean of Tokyo, the Tudor-Roses, Captain Brad- 
 wardine, and, to please Chiquita, the Sandys' and 
 Candida — and myself. 
 
 I declined with ultra-politeness and promptness, and 
 as a consequence received a call from Candida, who 
 was staying at the Legation, a few hours after I had 
 sent oft' the note. 
 
 Now ever since her heroic rescue of Rich from the 
 Toshogu Temple I had entertained the profoundest 
 admiration for Candida, so when she was announced 
 and came, the picture of elegance, prettiness and 
 frankness, into my little garden where I was sitting 
 after work, it was not easy to refuse her a request, 
 though I suspected that her errand related to the one 
 point upon which I could be adamant. As it proved. 
 She would not have a garden chair ; I suppose she felt 
 that she could be more vigorous in a straight-backed 
 chair. 
 
 " You've quarrelled with Chiquita," she began, look- 
 ing at me full with the truthful violet eyes which filled 
 so readily with laughter and tears. 
 
 " She insulted me the day I left you." 
 
 " I know she did. I cross-questioned her as to what 
 could have happened when your refusal came — the 
 odd thing is that she didn't know she had insulted 
 you." 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 167 
 
 " How could she help knowing it? " 
 
 *' I am quite sure from her manner that she didn't 
 — the only explanation I can suggest is that she makes 
 such slaves of men that they just grin and bear it, 
 as the saying is, when she does outrageous things." 
 
 ** Well, I am afraid that I am not built that way; 
 and, as considering our respective positions out here, 
 there was a sort of condescension about her making 
 a companion of me, she ought to have known that I 
 could not overlook a snub like that, especially after 
 the affair of the lessons in Japanese." 
 
 ** What was that? " Candida had not known 
 Chiquita in those days. 
 
 I told her all about it, and going inside to my 
 bureau, produced the cheque, which I had from the 
 first intended to keep as a memento of the incident 
 instead of cashing it. Chiquita was so careless over 
 her bank-book that she had probably never noticed 
 this assertion of my pride. 
 
 " I think you were quite right, and I shall tell 
 Chiquita so," said Candida. ** But have you no olive 
 branch for me to carry back in my mouth? " 
 
 The mouth was such a beautiful one, with its frank- 
 ness and its perfect teeth, that I had to make some 
 concession. 
 
 " Tell Miss Palafox," I said desperately, " that if 
 she comes here herself and assures me that the 
 rudeness was not intentional, I will accept her uncle's 
 invitation." 
 
 " That's quite enough," said Candida. ** Chiquita 
 must expect to eat some humble pie if she wants you 
 after what has happened. Thank you for going that 
 far," she added, with a glance of friendship from those 
 truthful eyes. 
 
 How difficult it was to diagnose Chiquita's character. 
 That she was heartless and arrogant I had received 
 good evidences. But her friendship apparently stood 
 on a different plane, and she had no false pride when 
 she wished to realise a desire. 
 
i68 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 Less than an hour after Candida had left Chiquita 
 stood before me — unannounced — the picture of penitent 
 loveliness. 
 
 " I have brought you a pig," she said, " to ask 
 your forgiveness," and when I looked about for the 
 animal, she pointed to herself and gave a little pout. 
 
 She half-raised her hand and let it fall again, and 
 asked with charming timidity: " Will you shake hands 
 and be friends again? " 
 
 I put out my hand ; a person with such thought- 
 reading powders as Chiquita must have read gladness 
 in every motion of my body as well as my eyes. 
 
 " I did not know that I had insulted you till Candida 
 showed me, or I should have come for your forgiveness 
 that very night," she said, with a warmth that did 
 not seem assumed. 
 
 " You did hurt me awfully," I said, to explain why 
 I had broken off our acquaintance. 
 
 ** I missed you awfully," she said simply; " more 
 than I should have missed anyone else." 
 
 My heart bounded, but I had grown wiser by this 
 time, and limited the meaning of what she had said 
 to the pleasure she found in my companionship. 
 
 She stayed a long time examining my curios, 
 examining the pieces of my work and my students' 
 work which lay about my sitting-room, drinking cup 
 after cup of tea, then suddenly discovered that she 
 would have hardly any time left to dress for dinner, 
 and flew off in her riksha without putting her gloves 
 on. She even put on her hat, which she had taken 
 off to make herself at home, without a glass. 
 
 The upshot of it all was that I was present at Lord 
 Clapham's banquet in honour of the war with China. 
 Everything about it was as odd as the breach of 
 diplomatic conventions committed in its taking place 
 at all. 
 
 Jevons, who was responsible for it, experienced 
 severe mortifications when it came to details. The 
 other Legations took a correct attitude and would 
 have nothing to do with it. They were delighted to see 
 the representative of Great Britain floundering, so there 
 was nothing to do but to fall back upon the principal 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 169 
 
 English in Japan, including the Sandys', as the repre- 
 sentatives of the mercantile community at Yokohama. 
 This was a fortunate inclusion. The Sandys could 
 speak Japanese, and Philip was favourably known to 
 the Japanese authorities for the large sums he sub- 
 scribed to Japanese public and benevolent objects, as 
 well as for the moderation of his attitude and his 
 great position in the English colony. With Chiquita, 
 knowing quite a little Japanese by this time, the 
 banquet presented the uncommon spectacle of three 
 charming Englishwomen, who could converse with 
 the distinguished Japanese, who took them in to dinner, 
 in their own language. Quite half of those who came 
 to represent the Japanese Cabinet could speak no 
 English, having been selected for their posts, merely 
 on account of their position in the great clans of 
 Satsuma and Choshiu ; so this was a distinct advan- 
 tage. Two of the most modern brought their wives, 
 a great departure from, the old-fashioned etiquette of 
 Japan, and though, as a matter of politeness. Lord 
 Clapham and the Honourable Thomas Tiffany, First 
 Secretary of Legation, took their wives in to dinner, 
 care was taken that Jevons and I should be placed on 
 the other sides of them, on account of our familiarity 
 with the language. Captain Bradwardine, rather 
 typically, knew not a word of Japanese, though he 
 had been instructing Japanese officers in the minutia3 
 of naval science for several years. He might well 
 have been excused for feeling rather sore about the 
 situation, the British Government having required him 
 to resign his post in Japan on the outbreak of the war, 
 which meant, in place of the splendid appointment he 
 had been enjoying, with a charming residence on the 
 Bay of Tokyo, a return to the princely conditions of 
 British half-pay. He might, of course, have retained 
 his position by retiring altogether from the British 
 Navy, but his professional pride was too great for that. 
 All the guests seemed perfectly familiar with foreign 
 ways, though it may have been the result of patient 
 study. Dinner dragged through its dull length. I 
 was, of course, nowhere near Chiquita, who sat be- 
 tween two Japanese Ministers. Lord Clapham, when 
 
I70 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 he had finished the solid part of the eating after giving 
 the healths of the Emperor and the Queen of England, 
 made a speech which was a masterpiece of dull 
 cleverness and pompous unsuitability. It might have 
 commanded respect in the House of Commons for its 
 flow of language and command of logic. As he spoke 
 in the phraseology of the Oxford Greats School, he put 
 all the Japanese in the room on a level — those who 
 could speak English with those who did not understand 
 a word. The most interesting part of the evening was 
 after the Japanese had taken their leave, which was, 
 fortunately, very early: dining out, and, indeed, the 
 wearing of foreign dress being such an effort to them, 
 that their chief desire is always to depart as soon as 
 etiquette permits. 
 
 The conversation then became general, and I should 
 imagine that even Lord Clapham, who was not easily 
 aroused from his condition of philosophic indifference, 
 must have gone to bed with a sort of mental indigestion. 
 
 As the Sandys', like Candida, were staying at the 
 Legation, and the Tiffanys' house was in Legation 
 precincts, though not in the same compound as Lord 
 Clapham 's, there was no occasion for the party to 
 break up very early. Even the Tudor-Roses stayed 
 and showed distinct ability in ill-natured conversation. 
 Mrs. Tiffany soon had her batteries engaged, and, I 
 must say, that this was partly the fault of Chiquita, 
 who, though she did not like Mrs. Tiffany, enjoyed 
 the excursions of her tongue. There seemed to be an 
 universal disposition to regard Lord Clapham as a 
 friend and host rather than as their official head. 
 
 '* You must be jolly glad to have it over, sir," said 
 Rich, with the air of charming deference, combined 
 with freedom of speech, which he generally assumed 
 towards his chief. 
 
 " And why, Randolph? " asked the British Minister 
 airily, with his thumbs stuck into his waistcoat arm- 
 holes in a way which accentuated the shocking fit of 
 his shirt. 
 
 Rich was the son of either a very old friend or a 
 connection of Lord Clapham, who had known him from 
 a child. He answered with a grimace, and Lord 
 
PLAYINCx THE GAME 171 
 
 Clapham laughed — at the grimace, for Rich was rather 
 a funny fellow in what actors call business, though 
 he had not brains enough to be witty. 
 
 Mrs. Tiffany was bolder. *' You ought not to have 
 encouraged them," she said to Lord Clapham. " The 
 Chinese will make curry-powder of the Japs, and some 
 busybody will tell them about this, and there will be 
 questions asked in the House of Commons." 
 
 He was not at all annoyed with her breach of 
 etiquette in taking him to task, but asked in the tones 
 you use to an artist on Show Sunday when you don't 
 take any interest in his pictures : 
 
 " Do you really think so? " 
 
 "Think so! I am sure of it. They'll crush the 
 Japanese like beetles." 
 
 " By the mere weight of their numbers you mean? 
 Yes, I suppose about half the population of the world 
 does live in China." 
 
 Mrs. Tiffany had not been thinking of anything so 
 like Whitaker's Almanack, but she was always content 
 to take the credit of wisdom which she did not possess, 
 so she took the cue and said: " Well, isn't that so? " 
 
 '* Yes, it is," admitted his lordship, having made 
 the assertion himself. *' I have no idea how the 
 Japanese have been getting on with their army and 
 navy, but I am informed that the Chinese have iron- 
 clads, while the Japanese have not." 
 
 That it was his business to be able to keep his 
 Government informed as to the value of the Japanese 
 fighting machine never occurred to him for one second. 
 He seemed to regard the Legation as a kind of com- 
 pliment and expostulation Office. 
 
 Mrs. Tiffany was quick at taking a cue, and at 
 once turned the statistics she had heard from Lord 
 Clapham to account. 
 
 " Well, I work it out this way," she said. " There 
 are ten times as many Chinese as there are Japs, so 
 the odds must be a hundred to one on the Chinese, 
 for one Chinaman is worth three Japs. You've had 
 plenty of experience of both of them, Mr. Sandys ; 
 back me up — isn't that so? " 
 
 " Well, certainly my experience of the Chinese and 
 
172 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 Japanese leads me to think better of the former. I 
 do all my business with the Japanese through a Chinese 
 Shroff, or I should be bankrupt. The credit of the 
 Chinese is excellent, the credit of the Japanese is 
 shocking." 
 
 *' And don't you have Chinese amahs for those 
 dear babies of yours, my dear? " she asked, addressing 
 Mrs. Sandys. 
 
 " Yes," said Bryn. 
 
 " There, I told you," said Mrs. Tiffany to Lord 
 Clapham. " The Chinese must win. I wish I had 
 some gloves on it. I lose so many pairs by spotting 
 in the rainy season, that my glove-maker's bill will 
 ruin me." 
 
 " But, Mrs. Tiffany," protested Sandys, " we have 
 m.any Japanese in our employ, for whom we feel the 
 highest respect and confidence, and I may say affection. 
 Some of them have been with Bryn ever since she was 
 born — that ought to count for something, in your 
 military estimates, and you must remember that the 
 traders with whom we Yokohama merchants have 
 such a bad time, belong to the very worst class of 
 Japanese, only just better than the scavengers." 
 
 " You're a half-hearted fellow, Sandys," she said, 
 forgetting the " Mr. " in her testiness. " You never 
 did back up the English properly." 
 
 " I am contented not to — in that sense," was his 
 good-humoured reply. Just then Orlando Jevons came 
 in from the congenial task of seeing the Japanese 
 Ministers off with proper ceremoniousness. 
 
 ** I need you badly, Jevons," said Lord Clapham; 
 ** I am confronted with the most destructive criticism." 
 
 " Why, what about, sir? " asked Jevons, in his 
 bland way. 
 
 " The nation to which I am accredited," replied the 
 Minister, rather neatly. 
 
 '' What are they saying, sir? " 
 
 ** The severest point of indictment is that we have 
 done very foolishly in giving the banquet, because the 
 Chinese are sure to win, and their Minister will ask for 
 explanations." 
 
 " I am in a position to state," began Jevons, in 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 173 
 
 his most pompous way, " that the Chinese will not win 
 — I will say more — that they have no earthly chance 
 of winning compared with the soldiers of the Emperor 
 of Japan. They are nothing but an armed mob, who, 
 if they do not run away at the first shot, will certainly 
 stampede the moment they see the brave Japanese 
 soldier seeking to engage them with cold steel." 
 
 As people read the lines I have written ten years 
 afterwards these will seem colourless words to describe 
 the dash and heroism of the Japanese soldiers, but 
 when Jevons used them they sounded, to almost every- 
 one present, as the bombast of a dreamer, and when 
 he went on to say, " It will be the same with the 
 Imperial Japanese Navy— they have only to meet the 
 Chinese to vanquish them," we felt that he was talking 
 such rubbish that it was almost insulting to his hearers 
 for him to utter it. 
 
 " Why," cried Rich, '* the Chinese have iron-clads 
 and the Japanese have only cruisers. It's blank rot 
 to talk of cruisers beating battle-ships, isn't it, 
 Bradwardine? " 
 
 ** With equal crews, yes ; but there are several points 
 to be taken into consideration. There are ugly stories 
 of the Chinese ships being supplied with dummy shells 
 to fill some viceroy's pocket, and the Japanese are 
 extraordinarily good sailors." 
 
 " For Asiatics, I suppose you mean? " said Rich; 
 " not judged by our standards." 
 
 ** Judged by any standards," said Bradwardine, in 
 his deliberate low voice. " I don't think our men 
 are a bit better; in fact, in some respects they are 
 behind the Japanese. The Jap fighting officer knows 
 something about the engineering side, and if a shell 
 played the devil with the engineering staff of a British 
 man-of-war the fighting officers would be quite at sea." 
 
 " Isn't that the proper place for them? " asked Mrs. 
 Tiffany. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, I should have said quite at a 
 loss." 
 
 " Will that make quite enough difference to wipe 
 out the want of battle-ships? " asked Rich, quite 
 seriously. Now that the Japanese were at war he 
 
174 
 
 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 was more interested in them than he had been before. 
 
 " Yes," answered Bradwardine, after a minute's 
 dehberation. " I think it will. If the Chinese battle- 
 ships could force the cruisers to fight them in a 
 measured ring, of course they would pound them to 
 pieces, provided that the armour and guns and am- 
 munition of the Celestials are what they should be, 
 but I think the Japanese are good enough sailors not 
 to fight except on their own conditions, and I don't 
 think that the Chinese gunnery can possibly be as 
 good as theirs." 
 
 "What a lot of croakers you are!" said Mrs. 
 Tiffany scornfully. " And I'm sure you are all wrong, 
 and that the whole world will laugh at us for giving 
 the Treaty Revision to a nation which has become a 
 province of China. But it will be all right," she cried 
 cheerfully, as a sudden idea struck her, *' for the 
 Chinese haven't got Treaty Revision — they never had 
 the cheek to ask for it, and when Japan is part of 
 China, of course it will go by our treaties with China." 
 
 " Mrs. Tiffany, Mrs. Tiffany, I must protest! " cried 
 Jevons. 
 
 *' Of course I can't predict the result," said the low 
 voice of Bradwardine, " but I can tell you part of it. 
 China can't have a walk-over. I know the Japanese 
 Navy — it has occupied my whole time for all these 
 years, and I know that China will have to wait until 
 they are all killed ; they will never give in. They 
 are not only splendidly trained, but their courage is 
 quite abnormal. We have nothing in Europe like the 
 Japanese indifference to death — they not only want to 
 conquer for their country, they want to die for it." 
 
 *' Really? " asked Rich, beginning to be as interested 
 as he was in a football final at school. 
 
 " Yes, I can assure you that among the young 
 ofllicers who have been under me there is a patriotism 
 which I can describe in no other way than by calling- 
 it the spirit of martyrdom." 
 
 ** That sort of thing takes a lot of licking," admitted 
 Rich, meditatively, but Mrs. Tiffany was irrepressible. 
 
 " They look like martyrs," she said, " in the old 
 mosaics." 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 /D 
 
 I could not help laughing, though I thought the 
 remark in shocking taste : it was so true. The Japanese 
 soldier has exactly the expression of the martyrs in 
 Byzantine pictures. 
 
 "And how about their soldiers; they're as dying 
 to die for their country as the sailors, I suppose? " 
 she asked. 
 
 ** Of course, and I imagine them to have taken equal 
 trouble to have made themselves ef^cient — but of that 
 I cannot speak with certainty." 
 
 " They are little tin gods on wheels," cried Tiffany, 
 chuckling over his joke as if it had been profoundly 
 original. 
 
 *' Now it's your turn, Jevons," said Mrs. Tiffany. 
 " You blow the horn! " and a laugh went round the 
 room, because though we could not help listening to 
 Bradwardine respectfully, we did not attach the 
 slightest credence to his prophecies. 
 
 At that moment one of the Embassy servants brought 
 a dispatch to Lord Clapham, who had been listening 
 with the same half-amused expression as a judge in 
 a divorce case. It was in Japanese, and was sent on 
 by the Minister of War, who had been dining with 
 us, and must have sent it off the moment he reached 
 his official residence. 
 
 It told how only two days after the declaration of 
 the war the Japanese Fleet had encountered and de- 
 stroyed the Chinese Fleet, and the Chinese Admiral 
 had committed suicide ! 
 
 We all looked as if we had been shot ourselves, 
 except the Minister, who enquired in dry tones in 
 which there was not the slightest trace of crowing 
 over Mrs. Tiffany : 
 
 ** Is the telegram official, Jevons? " 
 
 '* Yes, sir." 
 
 " Well, I'm damned! " muttered Tiffany, in a voice 
 loud enough for us all to hear, and not loud enough 
 to be disrespectful to his chief. 
 
 Bradwardine said nothing, but I could see the quiet 
 smile of satisfaction, which meant so much in a man 
 of his stamp, steal over his face as he saw his reward 
 for these years of unflinching effort under an alien sun. 
 
176 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 " I take back what I said about the Japs," said 
 Rich, getting up and walking about the room. ** If 
 the Japanese cruisers took on Chinese battle-ships and 
 wiped them out, it was a big thing — it was a sporting 
 thing. Shake hands, Bradwardine, old man, I con- 
 gratulate you." 
 
 Jevons left the room, for fear that he would burst, 
 said the irrepressible Mrs. Tiffany, and Bryn and 
 Candida whispered to each other, for they knew that 
 there is something in the earth from which you spring 
 as well as in blood, since at that moment they felt as 
 glad as if they had been Japanese, those two Japan- 
 born Englishwomen. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 As time went on the war became a triumphal progress 
 for the Japanese, but its interest was in no danger 
 of ceasing, for it was full of records of the expression 
 of that spirit of martyrdom, sometimes sealed with 
 the blood of the heroic adventurers, sometimes not. 
 
 Bradwardine one day went up to Rich in the Nobles' 
 Club to tell him about the forcing of the entrance of 
 Wei-ha-wei. The Chinese Fleet lay behind a great 
 boom made fast with steel hawsers. The Japanese 
 Fleet was as mad to get at them as hounds at the 
 fox. There was no means of removing the boom but 
 by cutting the hawsers, and volunteers were called 
 for the forlorn hope. Ten volunteered where one could 
 go, and when the selection had been made, the 
 volunteers calmly rowed up to the boom and cut the 
 hawsers amid a storm of fire from the Chinese. The 
 boom was then removed, and the Chinese Fleet 
 destroyed. 
 
 *' You'll be interested to hear who the chap was 
 who managed it." 
 
 ** Who was he? " 
 
 " Hidetomi." 
 
 " Hidetomi," cried Rich; " our Hidetomi? " 
 
 The name recalled to him the best thing he had ever 
 seen. It had begun in this very Club at Tokyo and 
 been carried to a finish at a Temple in Tsukiji. 
 Temples in Japan may be used for any purpose without 
 shocking the susceptibilities of the faithful. At Nikko 
 and Tomioka they are let for lodging-houses, and at 
 Ekkoin the idea of a temple has been almost lost in the 
 idea of a wrestling booth. Hidetomi, though he had, 
 with the preternatural cleverness of the Japanese, 
 acquired Russian as well as English, because he 
 thought that the predominance in the Far East lay 
 between his own country and England and Russia, 
 
 177 M 
 
178 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 was talking to the Russian Naval Attache in English, 
 the international language of the Far East. He did 
 not wish the Russian to know that he could speak their 
 language. The Attache, in complimenting the Japanese 
 on the tremendous strides they were making, observed, 
 meaning perhaps to be complimentary, that the 
 Japanese might have been the lords of Eastern Asia 
 if they had not been so small. 
 
 Hidetomi fired up though he retained the unchippable 
 lacquer of Japanese politeness. He said that size had 
 nothing to do with strength, or at any rate, that 
 strength was of no value compared to skill. 
 
 *' This is nonsense," said the Russian, rather 
 brusquely. "It is the physique of the Europeans 
 which has given them the victory against Asiatics in 
 spite of incredible odds." 
 
 *' My dear sir," replied Hidetomi, with a blandness 
 worthy of a family doctor, "it is not physique but 
 skill. The European had a knowledge of weapons and 
 tactics which had not yet dawned upon the Asiatic. 
 In the mere matter of physique the Asiatic can hold 
 his own." 
 
 " This is laughable," said the Russian. 
 
 " Not at all, my dear sir, not at all. Look at me — 
 you see the height I am. I weigh not a hundred and 
 tw^enty pounds, but I am willing to wager myself, not 
 only against any man in the Russian squadron at 
 Yokohama, but against any three you like to choose." 
 
 " Oh, this is mere nonsense," cried the Russian 
 angrily. " Even if you could get the better of one of 
 the men I should bring against you, by your skill, you 
 must be so exhausted that you would fall an easy prey 
 to the next." 
 
 " There is no next about it," said Hidetomi proudly. 
 " I am going to fight them all at once." 
 
 " Are you mad? " asked the Russian. 
 
 " Who knows? I hope not," replied Hidetomi, 
 beginning to laugh, which is always the most dangerous 
 sign in a Japanese, but I can beat any three Russians 
 at once. Get your biggest and strongest men so that 
 you may be convinced." 
 
 " And where are you going to do it? " 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 179 
 
 ** At the Temple near the Naval College in Tsukiji. 
 Bring your men there at five o'clock to-morrow after- 
 noon when my work is over, and I will show them 
 a lesson in what the English call the noble art of 
 self-defence." 
 
 The next afternoon there was a tremendous crowd 
 at the temple. Nearly all the officers in the British 
 and Russian squadrons summering in Japanese Seas 
 were there, as well as a great many Japanese. The 
 Russian Attach^ brought three regular giants with him, 
 big, fair-haired fellows who lacked the usual good- 
 natured look of the Russian seamen, and were evidently 
 the prize-fighters of the Siberian station. But Hide- 
 tomi did not seem in the least disturbed. He begged 
 permission to retire and dress for the combat, and 
 came back with hardly anything on him except the 
 scantiest of waist clothes and a pair of stout European 
 shoes, which, he explained, were to prevent his feet 
 getting trodden on. The Japanese conduct all such 
 contests barefooted, and the shoes were at once dis- 
 carded when he learned that the Russian sailors would 
 prefer to fight bare-footed. 
 
 We observed that the floor of the temple, which was 
 of boards, had been covered for the occasion to within 
 a few feet of the edge with the thick soft Japanese 
 mats, and I noticed that the Russians w^ere rather 
 disturbed when Hidetomi explained, in English, that 
 he had had these provided for fear that he should kill 
 his opponents. 
 
 But like the brave men that they were the three 
 giants rushed on him all together the moment the 
 signal was given. The centre one sprang straight at 
 his tiny antagonist, hoping to bear him down. Hide- 
 tomi did not shrink from the impact, but stooped 
 forward to meet him, and appeared to take the Russian 
 by the feet. It was all so quickly done that we could 
 not exactly follow what had happened, but the main 
 feature was that the big fellow went flying over 
 Hidetomi's head, and landed on his face and stomach, 
 knocking the wind out of him, half a dozen or a dozen 
 feet behind the back of the Japanese. 
 
 It was easy to see that so active and resourceful a 
 
i8o PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 man would have a good chance with any single 
 adversary whose skill was not equal to his own, no 
 matter what the disparity of strength and size might 
 be. 
 
 But while he was throwing the big fellow over his 
 head, the others seized the opportunity of jumping on 
 him and bearing him to the ground, not knowing that 
 the practised exponent of Jujitsu is never more 
 dangerous than when he is lying on his back. That 
 is the position in which he practises most, for that is 
 the position in which his battles will have to be fought 
 to a finish. One of them had locked his great hands 
 round Hidetomi's throat to finish the affair by 
 strangling him, the other threw himself on Hidetomi's 
 legs to prevent him using their leverage to save himself 
 from strangulation. Everyone thought him beaten and 
 only dared to hope that he would not be killed by the 
 huge Russian who was digging his giant hands into the 
 throat of the little Japanese, as he would not give in. 
 
 But if the hands of the Russian w^ere iron, Hidetomi's 
 throat was steel ; its highly-trained muscles resisted 
 with ease the attempt to strangle him. He merely 
 put out his hands and seized the feet of the Russian 
 who had him by the throat as he knelt across his 
 body. The giant paid no attention to what his puny 
 adversary was doing until crack, crack ! both his feet 
 were broken like pipe-stems, and the purchase of his 
 kneeling being gone, Hidetomi threw him off his throat 
 like a football, and was able to attend to his third 
 adversary, who, seeing the change in the situation, 
 shifted himself forward on to Hidetomi's body instead 
 of his legs. 
 
 Quick as thought the latter delivered one of the 
 most deadly attacks in the repertoire of Jujitsu, bring- 
 ing down his heels with the force of a steam engine 
 on the Russian's calves. 
 
 Having stunned his adversary's leg power and 
 stunned his faculties for a moment by the severe pain, 
 Hidetomi, still lying on his back, now effected one 
 of the grips which call the anatomical forces of your 
 opponent into play, and in spite of the great weight 
 of the man on the top of him, not only flung him off 
 
PLAYING THE GAME i8i 
 
 backwards, but made him describe a somersault in 
 the air which landed him dazed and badly shaken near 
 the edge of the matting. 
 
 Barely had he done this, when the first man, who 
 had partly recovered, came pluckily to his mate's 
 assistance. 
 
 Hidetomi leapt to his feet in time to face him, and 
 met with the heartiest cheer he had yet received, 
 from the Russians as well as the English, when, 
 gripping the giant's wrist by a dexterous feint, he 
 put a lock on it, as they call that class of hold, and 
 walking him to the door with one hand with as much 
 ease as if he had been handling a child, opened the 
 door with his other hand and put him out. 
 
 " I congratulate you on your victory," said the 
 Attach^ in the warmest manner; and the Russian 
 officers crowded round to take a closer look at the 
 possessor of such extraordinary strength and skill. 
 They did not apparently share the disgust of the 
 English officers at the poor sailor having both his 
 feet broken deliberately in a contest with which he 
 had nothing to do, except blindly obeying orders. One 
 of the most powerful men in the Russian Navy was 
 to be a hopeless cripple for weeks in the settlement of 
 what was little more than a bet— indeed, it might be 
 called a bet of honour. 
 
 They held aloof until Hidetomi, modestly disclaiming 
 any special strength for the offensive, confessed to 
 having increased the defensive strength of his body 
 by processes only known to Jujitsu till they were im- 
 pervious to ordinary injuries by crushing or a blow. 
 
 *' Unless the muscles of my throat had been hardened 
 in this way, that man would have strangled me in a 
 few minutes or seconds. And now I will give you 
 another exhibition," he said, " in which," he added, 
 turning to the British officers, " I promise that no one 
 shall be hurt— not even myself." 
 
 A pole was brought, and with it a pair of handcuffs 
 and a pair of ship-irons, consisting of a short heavy 
 iron bar with shackles working on it, for the^ feet. 
 
 " Will someone please examine these chains and 
 bind me with them? " 
 
i82 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 The big' Russian sailor whom he had put out of the 
 door — a quarter-master — examined the irons and pro- 
 nounced them genuine, and then was allowed the 
 satisfaction of handcuffing his conqueror and making 
 him sit on the floor while he took the padlock off the 
 irons, slipped the shackles off, put them round the 
 captive's legs, ran the bar through them, and locked 
 the padlock through the hole in its end to prevent it 
 being drawn out of the shackles. To make it doubly 
 sure that he should make no use of the terrible grips 
 and kicks which had inspired the spectators with an 
 uncanny dread of his powers, he caused strong ropes 
 to be tied to each of his handcuffs and leg-fetters, 
 which were to be held by any number of the spectators. 
 He then lay down on his back, and invited the ten 
 heaviest men in the room to lay the pole across his 
 throat and stand, sit, or kneel on it, as they chose, 
 all ten of them, to keep him down. They were to tell 
 him when they were ready. 
 
 Five Russians and five Englishmen responded. 
 Their weight bent the pole till it touched the floor a 
 foot or two each side of his neck. But the neck 
 hardly flattened at all, and the moment they gave the 
 signal, he inflated the muscles of his throat and sent 
 the pole flying and most of the ten on their backs. 
 
 He then got up with apparent ease, though he was 
 still handcuffed and had his ankles pinned tight to 
 the bar with the heavy shackles, and taking his stand 
 with his back to the wall between pairs of large rings 
 about six inches and a yard from the floor respectively, 
 asked them to tie the chains on his hands and feet to 
 the wall by the ropes which were fastened to them, 
 and then invited the same ten men, or any others, 
 to place one end of the pole against his throat and 
 press against the other with all their weight, giving, 
 as before, the signal when they were ready. 
 
 No sooner had they given it than with a full inflation 
 of the muscles of his throat he sent them all flying, 
 while two Japanese assistants, who knew what would 
 happen, jumped forward to catch the pole as it fell, 
 and relieved him of his manacles and fetters. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 183 
 
 " I remember so well asking him afterwards," said 
 Bradwardine, ''how he could have been so cruel as to 
 break both the sailor's feet." 
 
 ** ' That fellow,' said Hidetomi, * was a brute. He 
 tried to win the match for the Russians by killing- me 
 outright. Any of you, unless you happened to have 
 gone through the Jujitsu training, would have been 
 killed or alm.ost fatally injured by that throttling.' 
 
 " And after that, I was a proper savage again," 
 said Bradwardine with a grim smile. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 The China war spent its course ; the English merchants 
 in Yokohama and Kobe, who always constitute the 
 most important part of the British community in Japan, 
 were at first in almost open sympathy with China. 
 The Chinese had served them faithfully in their 
 business and won their respect ; the Japanese traders 
 who dealt with them were, many of them, welshers 
 who looked to repudiations for their profits. 
 
 As time wore on opinion was modified. The Japanese 
 in the field and the Japanese Government earned the 
 respect of every right-minded Englishman in Japan, 
 by their courage and magnanimity, and the correctness 
 with which they "played the game." No European 
 enemy could have behaved better than the Power whose 
 claims to civilization were not yet freely recognised. 
 In the opinion of all the Europeans in the East, the 
 Japanese were " awfully decent " to the Chinese when 
 once they had given them the requisite lessons to 
 deter them from torturing prisoners and other in- 
 quisitorial practices to which the Unadvanced Oriental 
 mind inclines. 
 
 There might have been some members of the British 
 Colony in Japan who would have had misgivings if 
 Japan, in addition to the acquisition of Formosa, had 
 retained control of Corea, including the Port Arthur 
 peninsula ; but when, two days after the cession of 
 Port Arthur by treaty to Japan, Russia, France and 
 Germany united to compel her to give it up, opinion 
 veered round. It was considered that Great Britain 
 should have interfered to secure for the Japanese the 
 
 184 
 
PLAYING THE GAME i8 
 
 fruits of their victory over their ancient and gigantic 
 adversary ; and it was freely prophesied that Russia 
 meant to take Port Arthur for herself, and that Ger- 
 many and France would find that they had only been 
 cats '-paws. 
 
 It was now 1899, and the English merchants in 
 Yokohama and Kobe, though they still viewed with 
 much misgiving the Treaty which was to take effect 
 almost immediately, for their persons and their property 
 to pass into Japanese jurisdiction, were sensibly more 
 loyal than they used to be in their feeling towards the 
 Japanese. 
 
 The dreaded change had taken place, and but for the 
 Japanese festivities in connection with it and certain 
 fresh privileges of residence, of which most foreigners 
 forgot to avail themselves, there was nothing to show 
 that any change had taken place at all. The Japanese 
 traders behaved better than usual in their relations 
 with foreign merchants. Perhaps they had received 
 a hint from the police, who are all-powerful in Japan. 
 Foreigners, at any rate, had nothing to complain of, 
 and help towards the establishment of good relations 
 between the English and the Japanese had come from 
 an unexpected source. Lord Clapham had always been 
 pro-Japanese, at first because he was a Little Eng- 
 lander, and the England which sent him to Japan was 
 anti-Japanese, and afterwards under the influence of 
 the Japanophile Jevons. It was Jevons' ardent 
 espousal of the cause of Treaty Revision which brought 
 it about, and Finch, with his aesthetic patter and his 
 Japanese wife, a poor creature, as far as he counted 
 for anything at all, counted on the side of the Japanese. 
 The Tiffanys, as ever, were the head of the John Bull 
 party in Japan, and fought against Japanese influence 
 tooth and nail — and the wealth of the colony was 
 
i86 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 behind them. But Rich, who had been one of the 
 foremost in their ranks, was now on the side of the 
 angels; he said *' the Japs are sportsmen," which 
 was the highest expression of praise in his vocabulary. 
 He was strengthened in his conversion by the in- 
 fluence of Mrs. Sandys and Candida, who could not 
 help growing prouder and prouder of the plucky little 
 country in which they were born. He thought that 
 as the Japanese had shown themselves so completely 
 civilized, it was not fair to keep up the old barriers. 
 
 Rich was now Sir Randolph. Sir Cornwallis had 
 joined his ancestors in the procession of ugliness, which 
 characterized the family tombs, arrayed, since King 
 Charles the First created the first of them a Baronet 
 of Nova Scotia, in the right aisle of Richborough 
 Church. Honoria had written to him on the subject, 
 a letter which had renewed his mental uneasiness. 
 With it came a letter from her lawyer, enclosing a 
 copy of her father's will. The Rich crest and the 
 heavy black border on one envelope, and the " Payne 
 and Sons " on the other, gave him some idea of what 
 must have happened, and as he always sought 
 Candida's advice in business, he took the letters over 
 to Yokohama unopened. 
 
 She was having tea with Bryn wSandys in the garden 
 when she saw his familiar figure go into her verandah 
 and peep to see which room she was in. He heard 
 the rustle behind him, which a woman's silk skirts 
 make when they move quickly. The look of delight 
 on her face and the wifely kiss that was awaiting him 
 when he had closed the verandah doors behind them, 
 steeled him in reading the letter. 
 
 ''Come and sit beside me on the sofa while I read it." 
 
 " No," said Candida, seating herself in the armchair 
 opposite him, with her elbows resting on the arms of 
 the chair and her hands holding their ends. 
 
 " Oh, all right then." He opened both letters before 
 he began to read. " There's the will, anyway," he 
 cried. Candida said nothing, but her whole soul was 
 in her eyes as she watched him read, first Honoria's 
 letter, and then the lawyer's. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 187 
 
 Honoria's letter ran as follows : — 
 
 Richborough, 
 
 Rutland, 
 8th, 1899. 
 
 Dear Cousin Randolph, 
 
 You will, I know, be sorry for me when I 
 tell you that poor old Dad is gone. The suddenness 
 of it was an awful shock to me, but I would rather 
 have had it that way. Dad had been such a healthy 
 out-of-doors man all his life that it would have been 
 dreadful to have had him in bed for weeks growing 
 more and more feeble, dependent on women, only kept 
 alive by drugs. Though the time for saying good-bye 
 was dreadfully short, we were spared all that. 
 
 Well, to come to the point, he went out shooting, 
 and walked as well as usual in the morning. But in the 
 afternoon he complained of being tired, and as he was 
 a very old man, they persuaded him to come home. 
 He grew so sluggish that, as they were crossing a 
 road, they got Miss Bence, an old friend of ours, who 
 happened to pass in a pony-chaise, to drive him home, 
 which was not far. When he got home they sent for 
 me and Sutton, his man, who said that he had been 
 like this once or twice before, and gave him some 
 brandy, which revived him a little. 
 
 I found him sitting in his favourite armchair, the 
 one he used to sink into with a yawn of pleasure when 
 he came home from a hard day's hunting or shooting 
 — but suddenly grown so old that I hardly knew him. 
 I was frightened to touch him, but he called me to 
 him, saying, " Little Honor, your caresses are all I 
 have lived for since your mother died and you were 
 born. I'm dying now, and I want you to sit on the 
 arm of my chair and kiss me your way till I die." 
 
 " Oh, you're not dying. Dad," I cried, confident 
 that as I caressed him he would get over his weakness. 
 
 " Dearest, I know it has come," he said. " My 
 legs are like stones. I should fall if I was not in 
 your arms. I shouldn't mind, we Riches were never 
 afraid," — as he said these words he stiffened up for 
 
i88 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 one moment — " if I knew what was going to happen 
 to you." 
 
 Then he said things about our marriage which would 
 hurt me to write to you. You can gather their nature 
 from the will, of which Mr. Payne, our lawyer, is 
 sending you a copy. 
 
 Now, Cousin Randolph, as I have not seen you for 
 so long, and you went away on purpose to avoid me 
 before I was old enough to marry you, I can't pretend 
 to love you now, though as a child I adored you, 
 especially in your Grenadier uniform. But I want to 
 carry out dear old Dad's wishes, and have a Rich 
 master of Richborough, so for a year and a day I 
 shall hold myself free to be wooed by you. I am not 
 going to marry you unless you make me love you 
 again. Will you come home and try. I'll get you a 
 year's leave from the P.O. ; Uncle Salrose can manage 
 that. Do come and settle things one way or another. 
 Believe me. 
 
 Your affectionate cousin. 
 
 Honor Rich. 
 
 P.S. — I've paid a thousand pounds into your account 
 at Cox and Co., in case you have anything to settle 
 up before you leave Japan. 
 
 " Poor old nunc," said Randolph, as he laid down 
 the letter; "he was a decent sort if only he could 
 have got that rotten idea out of his head. That made 
 him rather an old bore." 
 
 " You mean your marrying your cousin? " 
 
 ** Yes," he said. 
 
 ** What a weary sigh," cried Candida, coming over 
 and sitting on the sofa beside him. " What is it, 
 old boy? " she asked, reaching a hand for the letter. 
 " May I? " 
 
 " Well, considering that I came all the way from 
 Tokyo because I hadn't the pluck to open it without 
 you, I think you may." 
 
 She read the letter. " I don't know what to say, 
 Sir Randolph." 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 189 
 
 '* What's this new idea? Aren't I going to be 
 Dick any more? " 
 
 " Yes, of course you are. Wasn't I to be the first 
 person to have the honour of addressing you by your 
 new title? " 
 
 " If you promise never to do it again." 
 
 " Well, Dick, I don't know what to say. I don't 
 want you ever to marry any woman except me, but 
 your cousin must be an awfully good sort. She's 
 playing the game " 
 
 " Yes, dash her, that's the worst of it. If she'd 
 only bluster a bit, I'd warn her off at once." 
 
 Candida said nothing more ; she sympathised with 
 Honoria, but her heart was singing within her. It 
 was so patent that the only place in the world for 
 Rich was by her side. 
 
 " Dick, old boy," she said, with her cheek against 
 his shoulder, "you haven't looked at the will yet." 
 
 " I don't want to." 
 
 ** How do you mean? " 
 
 ** You generally look in a will to see what you've 
 got left you, and you usually get left — but I'm not 
 having even that run for my money. I've only got 
 to look for my orders." 
 
 " Well, you'd better read it, anyhow." 
 
 " I shouldn't understand it if I did read it," said 
 he. " I'm no bally good at all at that sort of business. 
 I'll look at old Payne's letter, he's sure to tell me all 
 that matters." 
 
 He tore the formidable-looking envelope wider open. 
 As he expected, it contained, beside the will, two or 
 three sheets of black-edged notepaper, with just the 
 formal amount of mourning, dated : 
 
 3, Doctors' Common, 
 
 London, 
 th, 1899. 
 
 It began: '* Dear Sir Randolph," and congratulated 
 him on his accession to the title. — " You were only 
 just in time, old girl," said Randolph. 
 
igo PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 "Read on." 
 
 The second paragraph was one of regret, informing 
 him that the estates did not run with the title— they 
 were not entailed, and had been left by the late baronet 
 to his only child. Provision was, however, made for 
 the continuance of his allowance of five hundred 
 pounds a year until such time as he should marry. 
 The said allowance was then to cease; but this would 
 probably be of no consequence, because it had always 
 been understood that Sir Randolph was to marry his 
 cousin, to whom the estates were left. The late baronet 
 expressed a very strong wish that the said marriage 
 should take place as soon as possible, since his daughter 
 was left alone in the world. Concluding, Mr. Payne 
 urged Rich to settle up his affairs in Japan and return 
 to England immediately in order to carry out his late 
 client's wishes. 
 
 " Damn old Payne," said Rich, throwing his letter 
 and the will to the other end of the room. " I've 
 been longing to damn someone, and I may damn old 
 Payne, mayn't I, Candida? " 
 
 " Yes, you may damn old Payne, because he has 
 been trying to take you away from me." 
 
 Then she asked with just a quaver of anxiety in 
 her voice: ** Are you going, Dick? " 
 
 In reply his arms tightened round her. 
 
 ** Is it likely?" meant more than any quantity of 
 protestations. 
 
 " Well, what will you say to her? " asked Candida, 
 laughing. 
 
 " Say to her — nothing. I never answer letters unless 
 I'm obliged." 
 
 " But don't you think this is a letter which wants 
 answering? " said Candida, fairly choking. 
 ^ " Do you think it does? " 
 
 '' Yes, of course you must answer it." 
 
 " Well, what shall I say? " 
 
 " Oh, I can't write your love-letters for you! " 
 
 It took him about a month, and then he wrote : 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 191 
 
 Dear Honoria, 
 
 I am afraid it is impossible for me to leave 
 Japan, when such important things are on. Lord 
 Salrose does not understand their importance. 
 
 Your affect, cousin, 
 
 Randolph. 
 
 Speaking as a pubHcist, he was right. Lord Sah'ose 
 seldom did understand the importance of what was 
 going on in Japan and China. He only stumbled on 
 doing the right thing in giving the Japanese Treaty 
 Revision a few months before they showed, by their 
 conquest of China, that it could no longer have been 
 safely withheld from them. 
 
 The initiation of this was due to Orlando Jevons, 
 and most English people in Japan thought that Jevons 
 had stumbled on it too ; that his anticipation of the 
 power of Japan was founded on sympathy rather than 
 on know^ledge. Rich, however, was handsome about 
 it, for he went to Jevons, and using other words of 
 course (though they were not at all more felicitous) 
 confessed that Jevons was not such a fool as he had 
 thought him. 
 
 " You are the only chap that sized them up a bit 
 right. I thought they w^ere a lot of monkeys that didn't 
 amount to a row of pins, but by Jove! they can fight, 
 and they are white men in spite of their skins." 
 
 This is anticipating. I left Rich sitting on the sofa 
 beside a happy Candida, but her happiness took a 
 curious form, for she had a tear in her eye and a 
 tremble on her mouth when he happened to look at 
 her. 
 
 " Why, what's the matter, little woman? " 
 
 "I'm not little — I'm more than five feet and a half," 
 she said, standing up to show him. She was smiling 
 brightly now, an exquisite smile. She put her middle 
 finger to her eye and found a tear on it. 
 
 " It isn't ridiculous of me, it's gratitude — that poor, 
 ill-used will is an ocular proof of all you have given 
 up for me. It isn't many men who would give up 
 twenty thousand a year to stay near a woman ten 
 
192 
 
 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 years older than themselves, and twenty thousand a 
 year means more to you than it does to most men, 
 because, dear, you know you were just made to fool 
 about in the open air, and spend money." 
 
 " Bull's-eye! " he said. " But I don't see how I 
 could be any happier than I am now with you to spend 
 my life with." 
 
 " Except when you are attending to your official 
 duties." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Events ^ meanwhile were assuming a most serious 
 aspect in China. England, always prone to the 
 laissez faire in dealing with the Celestials, had been 
 deafer than usual on account of the Boer War, in 
 spite of the thundering of one of the most remarkable 
 voices that ever echoed from the East, which, after a 
 moratorium of years, legitimated its journal's claims 
 to the title of the Thunderer. 
 
 The Times, in a moment of inspiration, had appointed 
 a young Australian doctor, who had been the hero of 
 remarkable walks from Pekin to Bangkok, and Shang- 
 hai^ to Bhamo in British Burmah. Acquainted with 
 Chinese dialects and the Chinese character to no 
 common degree. Doctor Morrison, for many months 
 before the Boxer rising came to a head, laid bare its 
 aims and its workings and those of the Russians who 
 were intent on their time-honoured game of fishing 
 in troubled waters. 
 
 As far as England was concerned his warning would 
 have been in vain. England's one idea with regard 
 to China was not to become involved in any hostile 
 operation w^ith China or any other Power. Twice she 
 gave up her naval rights to Russia in a manner which 
 seriously threatened her prestige in the East, and one 
 of her Consuls, in giving a manifestly-unjust decision 
 against an Englishman, whose charge of shot a 
 Chinaman had succeeded in intercepting with a view 
 to an indemnity, excused himself by declaring that he 
 could not conceive any circumstances under which the 
 British Government could support him. It was not 
 in any way true that the Boer War would have pre- 
 vented the dispatch of an English force to China. By 
 
 193 N 
 
194 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 a foolish self-renouncing ordinance the EngHsh, while 
 in the sorest need of mounted men, had precluded 
 themselves from the employment of their swarms of 
 glorious Indian cavalry and their gigantic army of the 
 East in South Africa, while their navy was free for 
 employ elsewhere the whole time. 
 
 But the British Government had no eyes or ears for 
 anything but South Africa. Some people have sup- 
 posed that the Boxer rising was fomented by Russian 
 agents during the pre-occupation of Great Britain, the 
 only other European Power with a large stake in 
 China. France and Germany had already shown their 
 willingness to play the Russian game there. 
 
 But there was another power to be reckoned with, 
 a new power, smarting with its exclusion from the 
 fruits of its conquest of China through the concert of 
 the three Powers, Russia, France and Germany — that 
 was Japan. The indignation of the Japanese against 
 France and Germany was not as great as it was 
 against Russia, the instigator of their exclusion from 
 Port Arthur, because she meant to take it herself. 
 The European Pow^ers, in spite of the eloquent and 
 well-informed warnings of Dr. Morrison, were in 
 sleepy unconcern about the Boxer rising. Not so the 
 Japanese, who, having more than one Morrison in 
 their employ and living at the gates of China, were 
 "very much fjetter informed. 
 
 The Japanese felt certain that it was the intention 
 of Russia to incite the Boxers to fresh outrages until 
 their cup was full, and then to step in and absorb a 
 large part of China. This they determined to check- 
 mate. Their emissaries were specially active in 
 forming public opinion in Great Britain and America. 
 
 It seemed, however, as if nothing could be done. 
 The British Fleet proceeded as usual to summer in 
 Japanese waters — that is, the fortunate portion of it 
 which was allowed to accompany the Admiral from 
 the heavy humid atmosphere of Hong-Kong. 
 
 Some of the British officers who went to Japan 
 flattered themselves that at last the oft-deferred chance 
 of action was coming, but, the more sober among 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 195 
 
 them thought it was only a cry of " Wolf," and envied 
 the contingents who had been landed for service ashore 
 in South Africa. The Fleet had not lain for more than 
 two or three days at its anchorage in Yokohama Bay 
 when a chit came up to the British Legation enclosing 
 a letter of introduction to Lord Clapham. The writer 
 was the son of an old colleague, Sir Kenneth Rose. 
 The Minister at once sent off a chit to the Commander 
 of H.M.S. Triptolcmus^ asking if young Rose might 
 be allowed to come and spend a day or two at the 
 Legation. No reply w^as sent, but the next morning 
 when Chiquita sailed down to breakfast just before 
 nine, she found a beautiful English boy standing In a 
 timid sort of way in the hall beside a kit-bag. Taking 
 him for a midshipman — for her uncle had not mentioned 
 his rank — she asked him in rather a patronising way 
 what his name was. 
 
 '* Kenneth Rose." 
 
 " Well, then, Kenneth, leave your bag there for 
 one of the boys to take to your room, and come and 
 have some breakfast." 
 
 He only smiled at the insult ; he was accustomed 
 to have his dignity hurt. Every time he put on 
 plain clothes he was taken for a midshipman, he 
 looked so abominably young with his smooth, round, 
 ruddy face, and his glossy golden hair. He was as 
 good-looking a boy as you could see on a summer's 
 day, of the brave, blue-eyed English type. In board- 
 ship theatricals he was always the leading lady, and a 
 ravishingly pretty one. But he was really uncommonly 
 strong, easily cock of the gun-room in his midshipman 
 days, and as ignorant of fear as a Tasmanlan devil. 
 Nature had given him everything but a soul. He had 
 plenty of brains, but no intellectual inclinations. This 
 was his link with Chiquita, who had no more desire 
 for occupation than a monkey, though she occasionally 
 showed a monkey's Ingenuity In getting Into mischief. 
 I don't believe she often lost her heart as she did 
 to that junior sub-lieutenant of H.M.S. Triptolemus. 
 When she said, in the best patronising fashion of 
 womanhood of eighteen, that he was to come and 
 
196 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 have some breakfast, he entered into the humour of 
 the situation, and showed an appetite for jam and 
 marmalade, as well as for the interminable solid courses 
 of a Japanese breakfast, which would have done credit 
 to any midshipman. He had, fortunately, experienced 
 no falling off in this respect. 
 
 While they were gormandising, the two of them, 
 for the cubic capacity of that slender little frame of 
 Chiquita's w^as astonishing. Lord Clapham came in. 
 He had finished his meal long since, and was on his 
 way to the library to weigh some phrases in his 
 " History of Philosophy." 
 
 Kenneth had realised that he was, as usual, being 
 taken for a midshipman, and risen to the occasion. 
 He asked his hostess what her Christian name was, 
 and Chiquita'd her in return for her Kenneths. Lord 
 Clapham w^as too much in dreamland to see anything 
 odd in the Christian names that were lying about. 
 He only stayed long enough to welcome Kenneth 
 cordially and suggest that Chiquita should drive him 
 to see the temples of Shiba, the most superb monu- 
 ment of old Japan in the enormous city of Tokyo. 
 
 Chiquita, who could take a person's measure about 
 as quickly as a Yankee speculator, saw at a glance 
 that the temples of Shiba would be no more to Kenneth 
 than he was to them. But there are other things 
 besides temples at Shiba, so she acquiesced in her 
 uncle's plans for the improvement of Kenneth's mind. 
 
 She was charmed with his beauty and his audacity, 
 and meant to give him as good a time as she possibly 
 could. So when the Embassy carriage came round 
 to the door, she asked : 
 
 " I suppose you've often been in a rlkshal " 
 
 '* No, I haven't; only twice in my life — from the 
 Hatoba to the railway station at Yokohama, and from 
 the Tokyo railway station here. The Triptolemus has 
 only just come in from Esquimault on her way to 
 Hong-Kong." 
 
 " Wouldn't you rather go in a rikslia than the old 
 carriage? " she asked, still taking him for a young 
 boy. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 197 
 
 '' No, thanks." 
 
 ** Oh, stuff! " cried Chiquita ; " you're just saying 
 that because you see that the carriage is ready. If 
 you only knew how little these poor men have to do 
 you wouldn't be bothered about that." 
 
 " Please don't order rikshas^ I really couldn't " 
 
 Chiquita took no notice, but called out : 
 
 " Yoshi, I no take carriage! British Minister-San 
 may require. Two hiruma call." 
 
 " What does that mean? " asked Kenneth, laughing. 
 He had made his protest. 
 
 ** Oh, huriima is the word the natives always use 
 for a riksha.''^ 
 
 The hiruma were ready in less than a minute, and 
 they bowled off along the broad road of Kojimachi, 
 in which the Legation was situated, towards the great 
 red gate which admits to the Shiba temples. The 
 shrines of the dead Shoguns at Shiba are among the 
 most beautiful buildings in the world. There, and at 
 Nikko and Ueno, the house of Tokugawa which gave 
 Japan, after a history unparalleled for the duration 
 and sanguinariness of its dynastic struggles, a peace 
 that lasted from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the 
 reign of Queen Victoria, indulged its taste and its 
 magnificence. Sailors of Kenneth's age who are not 
 of an intellectual turn of mind do not, as a rule, 
 take much notice of architecture. But even he could 
 not help being struck by the splendour of Shiba. The 
 moment you pass through the vast scarlet gateway 
 you find yourself in glittering court after glittering 
 court, with great daimio lanterns in solemn array all 
 round them. And the temples themselves are shaded 
 by fantastic roofs with turned-up dragon's tail eaves 
 which are, like those of Nikko, miracles of carving 
 and colour. Chiquita took Kenneth into one of them. 
 She did not suppose that he would either understand 
 or be interested in the rich gold lacquer of the wall 
 encrusted to bring out all the beauty of the peacocks' 
 tails, or the glittering black lacquer of the floor as hard 
 and bright as a looking-glass. 
 
 But she thought he would enjoy the fun of taking 
 
198 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 slides on stockinged feet as much as she did, and that 
 he would be tickled to death if he saw any of the priests 
 in their white robes bending over the sort of camp- 
 stools on which they place their canonical books. 
 
 He took rather more interest in them than she ex- 
 pected. In the Navy the senior officers drum it into 
 their juniors to see as much as they can at their 
 country's expense in the wonderful world into which 
 their profession takes them. Every midshipman has 
 to keep a log-book, and receives commendation if he 
 makes it interesting. He knew nothing about Japanese 
 temples, but he was willing to take in their points, 
 as he would the points of a Japanese fortress, if he 
 was being shown over one, and he was of course 
 delighted, as sailors always are when they come ashore, 
 with the vegetation, for temples have gardens blazing 
 with colour from their superb blossoms, and are sur- 
 rounded by deep groves of cypress-like cryptomerias. 
 
 The tombs of the dead Shoguns rising on terraces 
 behind the temples, made of a bronze whose strange 
 light colour showed the rich infusion of gold, impressed 
 him less. They reminded him so of gun-mountings. 
 " Captain Percy Scott," he said, *' would have had 
 a quick-firer on the top of each in an hour." 
 
 Chiquita was amused at the practical vein in the 
 boy. The number of the shrines and the amount of 
 money they must each have cost, seemed, she told 
 me, to impress him most. Chiquita herself was not 
 now such a savage as she had been about temples. 
 They were no longer mere Eastern colour and queerness 
 to her, things which she showed to strangers with a 
 certain amount of pride, because she lived in Tokyo, 
 and therefore in a sort of way they belonged to her. 
 When she was going over the Toshogu Temple, she 
 had shown distinctly more interested. The significance 
 of things Japanese seemed gradually to be daw^ning 
 on her. But though she was not always sincere 
 herself when the personal equation came in, Chiquita^ 
 hated affectation in others, and she heard so much of 
 it on the subject of Japan that it was a real pleasure 
 to her to go round with this boy, who viewed even 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 199 
 
 the things which interested him stolidly. She did not 
 see how much he was taking in, and said quite soon: 
 
 '* We'll leave these old temples now and go and see 
 the side-shows. It's always interesting to see the Jap 
 disporting himself — he has so many child-like and 
 bland ways." 
 
 A large Japanese temple is a town in itself. Its 
 grounds contain whole streets of shops and shows ; 
 and there is generally more or less of a fair going on. 
 
 Chiquita was quick to notice the change in Kenneth's 
 face when they found themselves among the holiday- 
 makers in the avenues, white and fragrant with the 
 double cherry-blossom. The little moosmcs walking 
 in twos and threes with flowers in their raven hair, 
 and their peach-blossom complexions and their gay 
 dresses with broad sashes, and scarlet under-garments, 
 roused even his artistic sense, and both of them roared 
 with laughter at the lower-class dudes, Japanese from 
 head to foot, but with their feet projecting below their 
 kimonos in red socks and yellow German shoes, the 
 shape of walnut-shells, while their heads were in the 
 height of Tokyo fashion, smothered to their ears in 
 grey bowler hats. The Japanese likes his hat to rest 
 on his ears. Each of these guys, even when he was 
 as poor as a rat, was treating some child or moosme 
 to shows or presents. 
 
 Chiquita loved the shows, and she and Kenneth 
 paid their sen and went in to see the woman who could 
 stretch her neck the whole length of her arm; the 
 woman who could suck in her face as far as her 
 eyebrows ; and the man who would let you stick a 
 sword down his throat to the hilt ; and other human 
 marvels. 
 
 Then they went, without even noticing as they 
 passed it, the famous temple in the wood with the 
 tomb of Hidetada, to a sweet little tea-house on the 
 knoll, by the three-storied pagoda wiilch commanded 
 a view of the Gulf of Tokyo as far as the distant spars 
 of H.M.S. Triptolemiis. " Kenneth turned away his 
 eyes hastily, and they ordered little cups of Japanese 
 tea, which Chiquita insisted on his drinking, made 
 
200 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 still more undrinkable to Europeans with salted cherry- 
 blossom. 
 
 But though he did not like the tea, he drank it. It 
 was all in the day's pleasure, and he enjoyed watching 
 the little moosmes, as brilliant as butterflies, who 
 came and bowed so low before him, rubbing their 
 knees and hissing their respect. 
 
 He and Chiquita tried kneeling like Japs and sitting 
 cross-legged on the benches of the tea-house, and they 
 tasted and threw away a pound or two of Japanese 
 sweets. They enjoyed crunching their way over the 
 fallen needles of the cryptomerias as they passed the 
 Golden Temple in the wood, though they forgot to 
 look at it. They enjoyed feeding the sacred tortoises 
 in the lake of the stone shores, and swishing the water 
 with the four-feet long trails of wistaria blossom. The 
 rich sunshine enveloped everything in a golden atmo- 
 sphere, and they went back enchanted with Shiba, and 
 satisfied that they had done the temples. 
 
 In the afternoon they drove to another temple. Lord 
 Clapham had observed so little that he regarded it as 
 evidence of a praiseworthy ardour in sight-seeing. 
 The temple was ancient ; its tortoise-lake was more 
 esteemed, its wistaria trails were longer than those 
 of Shiba. 
 
 But it was neither of these advantages which took 
 Chiquita to Kameido. She chose it because to her 
 there seemed less to do there than anywhere else, 
 because the arbour over the lake was the prettiest 
 place she knew for idling away an early summer sunset. 
 At home visitors might call, or Lord Clapham might 
 feel compelled to show his visitor some attention. At 
 Kameido they could have themselves to themselves, 
 and she felt that she could rely on Kenneth not saying 
 one thing that was worth listening to. That was her 
 idea of pleasure — the dolce far niente. 
 
 In the main she was right. Kenneth had no vanity, 
 but he had an idea that it was rude not to talk when 
 you were with a lady, and he had nothing to talk 
 about except his life on board ship, his little hopes 
 and smaller jokes. The absence of any attempt to 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 201 
 
 swagger, the admissions about small things that he 
 could not afford, or meant to do when he could afford 
 them, took Chiquita's fancy mightily. 
 
 How she longed to put her purse, that full little 
 purse, into his hands and tell him to afford himself 
 everything for a week of Sundays. She did not know 
 that he was a man ; she thought he was still a midship- 
 man. But anyhow, here was an officer of the premier 
 Navy in the world, who would doubtless know a good 
 deal about the business of fighting battles, as simple 
 in his tastes and aims as a schoolboy. They went 
 home fast friends. There Lord Clapham had a surprise 
 for them. Somehow or other his surprises usually 
 hung fire in the matter of gratifying his niece. On 
 this occasion, when she had been looking forward to 
 a delightful tete-a-tete as soon as he forgot their 
 existence and retired to polish phrases in his *' History 
 of Philosophy," she found that he had asked Captain 
 Hidetomi to dinner with them. 
 
 If it had been anybody else, Chiquita would have 
 been seriously annoyed, but Hidetomi always went 
 away very early, and she had a very soft spot in her 
 heart for this heroic man. 
 
 She would rather have had him on another evening, 
 because, dif^cult as it ordinarily is to kill two birds 
 with one stone, it is yet more difficult if the birds 
 happen to be lovers, unless you wish to play them off 
 against each other. 
 
 Lord Clapham saw that she was not best pleased, 
 but he was supported by a conscious sense of rectitude. 
 He felt that he had done the right thing in giving 
 Kenneth the opportunity of meeting a distinguished 
 Japanese officer. The worst of it was that Kenneth 
 seemed to think so too. Chiquita was very much 
 mortified at the boy's obvious satisfaction in meeting 
 Captain Hidetomi. He ought, in common compliment 
 to her, have considered it an unmitigated bore, and 
 made an excuse to leave Lord Clapham and his 
 Japanese guest the moment that coffee had been 
 brought in. As Chiquita left them over their wine she 
 felt a pleasurable thrill of excitement. Every sound she 
 
202 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 heard she pictured the boy with his fair young face, 
 flushed with excitement, darting in on her to say: " I 
 left them arguing over this," or " I gave that old Jap 
 the slip as soon as such and such a thing happened." 
 But an hour and more passed and no Kenneth had 
 appeared. 
 
 Lord Clapham always tried to do the right thing, 
 though, to use a familiar Japanese expression, he had 
 a way of carrying the image upside down. But I 
 doubt if he had any conception that he would be giving 
 Kenneth a pleasure when he asked Captain Hidetomi 
 for the boy to meet. But Kenneth was fascinated. 
 Everybody in the Fleet had heard, though Lord 
 Clapham had not, of the wiry little Japanese having 
 Jujitsu'd the three biggest men on the Russian flag- 
 ship, as well as of his heroic exploit in cutting away 
 the boom at Wei-ha-wei. He was the man they always 
 quoted as an instance of the superhuman agility and 
 courage of the Japanese athlete. Kenneth was not 
 prepared to have the honour of meeting the hero of 
 so many yarns, and still less prepared to find him 
 speaking English fluently and acquainted with the 
 whole history and working of the British Navy. 
 Kenneth sat as it were at his feet, open-mouthed, 
 while the little Jap talked with the moderation 
 which is the tradition of that marvellous fighting 
 machine — their navy. Hidetomi, for his part, was 
 mightily pleased with the boy. Having received his 
 training on the Britannia in England, and having been 
 thrown very much in contact with British naval 
 officers, he knew something of our national character- 
 istics, and he saw in the boy an unusually fine specimen 
 of the well-born fighting Englishman. He had often 
 observed in his silent Asiatic way that arrogance is 
 natural to the Englishman of this type, who adds to a 
 fearless disposition the belief that it is impossible to 
 compare anyone to the right sort of Briton. 
 
 It was therefore a pleasant surprise to him to meet 
 an unusually fine specimen of the type so modest and 
 eager to listen as this boy. 
 
 It would have taken a clever man to say how much 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 203 
 
 Chiquita entered into the boy's thoughts. He might 
 have been longing to go to her, but restrained by the 
 respect he owed to Lord Clapham's distinguished 
 Japanese guest. Or he might not have been thinking 
 about her at all, but simply enjoying unlimited good 
 cigarettes, a conversation with a most distinguished 
 foreign naval officer, and a particularly easy chair. His 
 long confidences of the afternoon had arisen honestly 
 from the fact that he started to make conversation, and 
 simply rambled on. Chiquita was a very nice girl, 
 but he hardly thought about girls. Lord Clapham left 
 them talking while he went away to attend to some 
 small routine matters of Legation work, which were 
 usually performed by Jevons. 
 
 The two officers sat on till their host came back 
 and suggested a whiskey and soda in the library. The 
 Japanese excused himself and said good-bye, expressing 
 the polite wish that he might see more of Kenneth. 
 Kenneth, after bidding him a respectful farewell, said 
 that he would like some " soda plain." 
 
 Though the library was the room where Lord 
 Clapham did all his reading as well as the Legation 
 business, Chiquita was there lying down, reading a 
 magazine and drinking an iced lemon squash through 
 a straw. 
 
 *' Come here and talk to me," she said with pretty 
 imperiousness, putting her graceful feet down to make 
 room for him on the sofa. One exquisite slipper had 
 fallen on the floor. Kenneth was very young ; he put 
 it on for her without noticing foot or slipper. " Uncle 
 won't hear us," she said; "he's got a new German 
 book on philosophy. Don't drink that nasty soda; the 
 least you can do is to have a lemon squash." 
 
 "Lemon squashes are bully." 
 
 She said no more for a while, but kept her mouth 
 intently on the straw in her squash, which she held 
 right down on the sugar. 
 
 She was nettled at not having played him right. 
 Her theory was, that the more she left men to find 
 their way to her the more they wanted to do it. It 
 suited her wayward, independent spirit, and had 
 
204 
 
 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 proved more effective than the sweetest smile. But 
 Kenneth had not had " the savvy " to find his way to 
 her. Had he not cared to try after those long con- 
 versations in the afternoon? She secretly hoped so. 
 It would be a new experience for her to find a man or 
 boy so young in his feelings that he had to be drawn 
 on. 
 
 Kenneth was a dear boy, and two precious hours 
 had been wasted which might have been spent in 
 " rotting," or comparing notes between these two 
 young things. They had an hour or two as it was, for 
 Lord Clapham read deep into the night to make up for 
 the afternoon siesta. It was late before Chiquita sum- 
 moned energy to give the signal for going to bed._ 
 
 After they had gone to bed an extraordinary thing 
 happened to her. She seemed to be wide awake, but 
 there was another bed in the room, of a kind which 
 she had never seen before, a Chinese bed of carved 
 black wood and marble, and on it lay a man horribly 
 mangled by a shell. A tall man with a grizzled beard 
 and dark hair, and a small weather-beaten face, full 
 of command and intellect, but with very kind eyes, 
 was bending over the wounded officer, and as he stood 
 there she made out, she did not know how, that the 
 mangled man was Kenneth Rose. And then the vision 
 vanished. 
 
 She was wide awake now, wide awake with her 
 nerves strung by the sickening feeling that something 
 not merely supernatural was happening. She listened 
 as one can only listen when one wakes up with a start 
 in the dead of night. 
 
 Yes, there was a noise— it sounded like people trying 
 to break into the house, and there were excited voices. 
 
 " It must be the mob assaulting the Legation— the 
 Soshi rising against the foreigners in Japan, as the 
 Boxers were doing in China. It was certainly dis- 
 quieting that the Japanese should have again chosen 
 a time when Mr. Jevons was away with Mr. Finch. 
 It showed so conclusively that there was a traitor or 
 spy in the Legation. 
 
 Why did not the Legation watchman hear them. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 205 
 
 Could he have been bribed, or had he been enticed 
 out and stunned? She remembered too well how the 
 burglars had got into the Legation without any of 
 the servants hearing them. This, too, must have been 
 an arranged thing. 
 
 Chiquita was very courageous; she was more 
 frightened by the vision than by the noise. She flew 
 into her clothes to go and see what it was. But half 
 way across the Compound she turned back. Her 
 ankles had pained her for weeks from the tight cords 
 with which the robbers bound her. In a second she 
 was ashamed of herself and went forward; and it 
 could not be burglars— they would not be shouting; 
 so she dashed on. But before she got to the gate 
 she turned again. Unless she opened it she would 
 learn nothing, and when once she had opened it there 
 would be no time to get help. 
 
 But what help was there? The servants would have 
 run away, even if they were not accomplices. She 
 could have cursed her uncle for his folly in adhering 
 to low-born Japanese servants. Why could he not 
 have taken people's advice and have Samurai for 
 servants? His continuing to have the others was sheer 
 obstinacy. Weak people are so often obstinate. It 
 was not the first time that she had wished that her 
 uncle was more like the ordinary Englishman. At 
 any rate, he was the only Englishman in the house 
 now, except young Kenneth. Her uncle, who was not 
 a man of active habits, counted for nothing. Kenneth, 
 of course, would fight until he was stunned, but it 
 would be in vain. One man could not prevail against 
 a mob. If she went alone she might be able to reason 
 with them. She did not know how^ little a mob respects 
 womanhood. 
 
 The hammering and shouting grew louder and louder. 
 What was this cry of '* Mistaloze, Mistaloze ! " 
 
 She nerved herself and flung back the bolts. 
 
 She opened the wicket door. 
 
 There was a crowd of Japanese outside, led by a 
 Chinaman— a Boxer, she thought. But as they did 
 not spring on her she stood still. 
 
2o6 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 "Me wantee Mistaloze — me wantee Mistaloze ! " 
 cried the Chinaman excitedly. 
 
 It was Kenneth Rose they wanted — that was clear. 
 Had he, too, been going in for idiotic skylarking, like 
 Sir Randolph Rich? What a trouble these dare-devil 
 young Englishmen were ! 
 
 ** This not place for Mr. Rose," she said. " You 
 go to British Consul. Makee complaint there." 
 
 "Me no wantee makee complaint; me wantee 
 Mistaloze." 
 
 *' You makee British Minister very angry, you very 
 bad man, disturbee him middle of night. You go 
 away, or I callee police. Chop! cJiop^- " 
 
 " Me not bad man; we no wantee disturbee Berlitis 
 Minister ; me wantee Mistaloze. Ship sailee. Com- 
 mander wantee. Mistaloze here — you call him." 
 
 " You waitee," she said, and shot the bolts. The 
 door of the porter's lodge was open. She called to 
 him. He was not there ; she went in ; a blanket trailing 
 from the bunk to the floor showed that he had bolted 
 when he heard the noise. Oh, why had her uncle not 
 got servants of Samurai birth who would fight for 
 their master? 
 
 There was nothing for it but to make her uncle 
 rouse Kenneth. 
 
 Lord Clapham was not in bed ; he was fast asleep 
 in an armchair. The " System of Philosophy " of 
 that eminent German was lying face downwards on 
 the floor. 
 
 " Uncle, wake! Uncle! " 
 
 " What is it? " he asked, as composedly as if he 
 had been awake all the time. 
 
 " The porter has run away, and there are a whole 
 lot of people hammering at the gates for Kenneth, 
 Mr. Rose." 
 
 " Dear me! what are we to do? " 
 
 " Wake him, I suppose, and let him settle for him- 
 self. They have some story of his ship sailing and 
 the Commander wanting him." 
 
 " What a very odd thing." 
 
 *' Yes, but wake him! " 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 207 
 
 He got up and went to Kenneth's room. She fol- 
 lowed him on tiptoe. She had a passion for observing 
 the ridiculous, and wanted to peep at what her uncle 
 would do. 
 
 He knocked at Kenneth's door. No answer came. 
 He knocked again ; still no answer. He turned 
 round helplessly to go and find Chiquita, and almost 
 trod on her. 
 
 " Go in ! " she said peremptorily. *' Midshipmen 
 don't get such quiet nights as you do. He went in. 
 The electric light was still on, and Kenneth was 
 clutching *' Madame Chrysanth^me," an American 
 translation of it, but sleeping hard enough for a trance. 
 Against the white pillow and counterpane he looked 
 more boyish and seraphic than ever ; but horrors ! he 
 was lying exactly in the position of the dying man in 
 her dream. She gave a little shudder, but recovered 
 herself with characteristic courage and light-hearted- 
 ness. 
 
 " Shall I kiss him, Uncle? They say that wakes you 
 quicker than anything else." 
 
 " I don't think that can be a fact," answered Lord 
 Clapham. It might have been an extreme of sarcasm, 
 but he did not seem to turn a hair at Chiquita 's 
 proposal. She felt very much inclined to carry it out ; 
 he looked so pink and innocent, but it might make her 
 miss the fun of seeing her uncle try to wake him. 
 She nudged Lord Clapham. 
 
 " Wake him! " 
 
 She could not help laughing. It was as difficult 
 for the British Minister to Japan to tackle a sleeping 
 midshipman as it would have been if he had been called 
 in to wake a boa-constrictor. He could not give a 
 shake. Laying his hand on the sleeper and calling to 
 him had less effect than a fly walking over the boy's 
 face would have had. 
 
 Chiquita suggested the sponge, and after a great 
 deal of persuasion Lord Clapham took it. But instead 
 of giving Kenneth what boys would call a " cold pig," 
 he sponged his face like a hospital nurse. 
 
 At last Kenneth started up and Chiquita fled, 
 
2o8 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 expecting some forecastle language, but Kenneth 
 awoke with a silence which may have been an art 
 cultivated by midshipmen to disappoint practical jokers. 
 Her uncle called after her to come to the door and 
 explain. He could not make Kenneth believe anything, 
 not even that he was the British Minister. 
 
 Chiquita repeated in a shrill voice what she had 
 heard from the Chinaman. 
 
 " Oh, it's the other chaps," said Kenneth. " I call 
 it jolly cheek of them coming here with their gibes," 
 and turned over to go to sleep again. 
 
 But Chiquita was convinced that it was not a 
 practical joke. 
 
 "Kenneth!" she shouted, "do you hear me? 
 Kenneth! Kenneth! " 
 
 " Oh, Chiquita," he said, after about half a minute, 
 " it's you, is it? Well, what is it? " 
 
 ** There are some people shouting for you outside, 
 and you must get up and go and see what they want." 
 
 She told him again what had happened at the gate. 
 
 " I'll swear it is one of the other chaps dressed up 
 as a Chinaman. I say, it is awful cheek, isn't it? 
 their coming here. Wouldn't the Commander be mad 
 if it got to his ears ! " 
 
 He was into his clothes like a flash of lightning. 
 Chiquita and her uncle were going to accompany him 
 to the gate, but he said " I think I'd better go alone; 
 it can't be a row ; it must be one of our fellows. I 
 should like to let him know what I think." 
 
 There was a hint of language or summary vengeance 
 which Chiquita took. 
 
 " We'll wait in the hall," she said, laying her hand 
 on her uncle's arm. They heard the door unbolted and 
 a parley going on. 
 
 Then Kenneth returned looking like a grown-up man. 
 
 " It's all right," he said; " the old Chinaman's our 
 compradore ; he's brought me a chit from the Com- 
 mander. I think you ought to see it, sir." 
 
 He handed it to Lord Clapham. It ran : — 
 
 "Join the ship at once; grave news from China. 
 Ship ordered to Hong-Kong at full steam." The latter 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 209 
 
 part of the note was evidently for Lord Clapham's 
 eyes in case he had not received the news. The 
 Commander of H.M.S. Triptolcmtis was not given to 
 entering into explanations with junior officers. 
 
 " There's a riksha with two runners waiting for me, 
 sir, and I shall have to go to Yokohama as fast as 
 they can run. Then he hurried after Chiquita, who 
 had gone on, he hoped, with the idea of giving her 
 uncle the slip. 
 
 " It's war, Chiquita," he cried. '* Isn't it splendid, 
 unless some poor devils have been massacred." She 
 did not reply ; she looked as if she had seen a ghost. 
 And she had seen her ghost less than an hour ago. She 
 felt convinced that Kenneth was going to lose his 
 life, and she racked her ingenious brain to think how 
 she could save him. She must save him. 
 
 " Aren't you glad, Chiquita? " 
 
 *' Oh, Kenneth! " she cried, " what have boys so 
 young as you got to do with the shedding of blood? " 
 
 " It is what we sign on for, that's all," he replied, 
 as if the question possessed no seriousness. 
 
 " Good-bye, Kenneth," she said, with a sadness of 
 which he would not have believed her capable. 
 
 '* Good-bye, Chiquita," he cried, with a note of 
 gladness in his voice that she resented. 
 
 *' Aren't you sorry to go? " she asked reproachfully. 
 
 " Sorry for one thing. I haven't slept in a bed for 
 more than a year, and you can't think how I looked 
 forward to this one long night in bed, instead of eleven 
 to five in a bunk. I knew it was too good to be true." 
 
 " Oh, Kenneth! " she repeated, in a tone of more 
 confirmed reproach. Why could he not be romantic? 
 
 His reply was a thorough boy's reply. He slid his 
 arm round her, and, finding scant resistance, drew her 
 to him and kissed her. 
 
 Chiquita's heart was too full for her to expostulate. 
 She could see him lying on that Chinese opium-eater's 
 couch, mangled by the shell, with the tall man, a high 
 naval officer, leaning over him. 
 
 He kissed her five or six times. She seemed to lose 
 all thought of resistance after the first. Then he flew 
 
 o 
 
2IO PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 upstairs to pack his things, humming, *' We've got 
 the ships, we've got the men," and brimming with 
 excitement over war and its chances of distinction. 
 
 When he came down again she was giving in- 
 structions to her maid so important that she did not 
 see him. She stopped ahnost guiltily when he spoke. 
 He put it down to her sweetness of character. At such 
 a moment she felt it unkind to be pre-occupied. 
 
 *' Good-bye, again, Chiquita," he said; and this time 
 she put her face up to his of her own accord and pressed 
 his hand in silence. 
 
 Then he climbed up into the riksJia^ and, waving 
 his hand, dashed off into the darkness. 
 
 An instant later the thick night was cloven with the 
 sound of " Help, help ! " and the noise of flying wheels. 
 
 It was Chiquita's voice. 
 
 He made his riksJia boys turn and fly after it. He 
 pulled off his overcoat and prepared to spring out and 
 do battle with her assailants, but they knew the road 
 better than his boys, who had come from Yokohama. 
 
 The chase grew long. 
 
 What on earth was he to do? If he abandoned 
 Chiquita, what was there to save her? Lord Clapham 
 had not come to the gate, and the servant who carried 
 his kit-bag to the rikslia went back the moment he 
 had received his tip. 
 
 But he would miss his ship, when she had been 
 warned for active service, and be cashiered and lose 
 all these glorious chances. 
 
 An hour ago he might have hesitated. But Chiquita 
 had rested in his arms and yielded herself to his kisses. 
 She was now more than the mere woman in distress, 
 whom the British sailor finds it so difficult to abandon. 
 He flew on. 
 
 He could not hear a sound, but his boys, who had 
 the keener ears and eyes of half-civilised people, 
 maintained that they could hear the other rikslia and 
 that they had passed no turns. So he let them fly on, 
 though every minute made the loss of his career more 
 irrevocable. 
 
 They raced through the night. The sky whitened 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 211 
 
 behind the black plumes of the cryptomerias ; the crows 
 cawed ; the hoopoe gave his queer call from the grove 
 behind the red temple ; and as they burst from a banked 
 road into the open plain the rising sun fired the opposite 
 mountains. 
 
 In the clear early morning he could see for miles 
 along the road which crossed the flat like a pale ribbon. 
 There was not a vehicle in sight. Had he had a pistol 
 with him, Kenneth might have used it on himself. 
 He swallowed the whole flask of whiskey which 
 Chiquita had pressed on him as he said good-bye, and 
 flung himself on the ground to try and sleep before 
 he faced facts. 
 
 He did not know how long he slept, but when he 
 woke Chiquita was at his side bending over him with 
 her eyes full of tenderness. 
 
 He gathered that on the other side of the plain her 
 captors had espied a police post and had hastily set her 
 down, and that she had torn back in the hopes of 
 meeting him before he gave up the chase. She could 
 not tell him the motive of her capture, but the moment 
 he had left the little gate, she had been dragged into 
 a double riksha, drawn by two very swift runners, and 
 already occupied by a Japanese, who held her in. 
 
 In spite of her safety, Kenneth was too dejected to 
 say more than "Yes" or "No." Chiquita, half a 
 foreigner, wholly irresponsible in her actions, could not 
 understand how the gay, brave boy of yesterday had 
 become the ghost of himself. She had anticipated a 
 day of ecstatic happiness when she came upon him. 
 Even yet, he told himself, if he could only have driven 
 straight to the ship and urged his tired riksJia boys to 
 fresh speed with a doubled fare, he might be there 
 before she w^eighed her anchor, but he could not leave 
 Chiquita alone now any more than he could abandon 
 her when she had raised that cry for help in the lonely 
 night, and as there was only one riksha, she must ride 
 and he must walk beside her. He never walked like 
 that before. He was racing for his good name, racing 
 against the charge of cowardice, racing to prevent 
 the career, which was his one idea in life, being cut 
 
212 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 off like a flower, racing to drown liis thoughts, racing 
 to make it impossible to speak— for though there was 
 a great gladness in his heart to have saved her, he 
 could not forgive her for being the innocent cause of 
 his disgrace. 
 
 The ship had sailed. He telegraphed to the Captain 
 that he was following that evening in the Kobe Maru, 
 a swift Japanese mail-steamer. That telegram took 
 him all the money he had over from the passage, and 
 he was too proud to borrow from Lord Clapham. To 
 Chiquita he did not speak after they reached the 
 Legation. At Hong-Kong he saw the smoke of the 
 Triptolcmus disappearing on the horizon. 
 
 He reported himself at the Admiralty ; he was given 
 a passage to Tientsin in a transport to report himself 
 to his own Commander for orders. He began to hope 
 as the transport trailed up the China coast. 
 
 The Legations at Pekin were expected to fall any day 
 into the hands of a merciless Chinese mob. Every avail- 
 able ship had been sent up that its spare men might be 
 drafted into a little expeditionary force, with which 
 Sir Edward Seymour was going to make a dash to 
 their rescue. Kenneth's heart sank again when he 
 climbed the companion of the TripioUmus and faced 
 the Commander. He could only tell his story blankly, 
 and the Commander as blankly disbelieved him, and 
 ordered him before a court-martial. The court-martial 
 dismissed him from the ship, though every member of 
 it sympathised with him — the issue was a technical one. 
 He was cast on the streets of Tientsin, almost an 
 outlaw, a man without an occupation, in a city full of 
 British sailors about to march on a glorious, forlorn 
 hope. The brother officers w^ho had formed the court- 
 martial had guessed that he was at the end of his 
 money, and clubbed together to make a purse for him. 
 They overcame his unwillingness to receive it by re- 
 minding him of the chances of war, and advised him 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 213 
 
 not to lose touch of their compradore in Tientsin, Ah 
 Tun. 
 
 To Ah Tun he went to know where he could lay 
 his head that night. 
 
 Ah Tun was a kindly man, who regarded the invasion 
 of his country with absolute equanimity. China was to 
 him a geographical expression. He was a Cantonese. 
 Pekin was merely a place to which taxes had to be 
 paid. He was cheerfully doing his best to expedite 
 the British advance. He considered Kenneth well out 
 of such a foolhardy affair. 
 
 But Kenneth was not to be consoled, and poured 
 out his griefs to the old Chinaman. 
 
 ** You muchee wantee go? " he asked. 
 
 " I would sooner die than not go." 
 
 " Allee light; me see what me can do." 
 
 Poor Kenneth had little confidence in Ah Tun's ability 
 to find him the means of throwing away the life he 
 now hated, but any chance was better than none. 
 
 Only a matter of days ago it had been such a relief 
 to him to discard his uniform for a tweed suit. He 
 was out of uniform now, and would always have to 
 be, and would have given the world for the right to 
 put on his uniform again and fight shoulder to shoulder 
 with the other Tripiolemusses. 
 
 It was in this mood that he was dragging himself 
 along the main street of Tientsin, when he felt a touch 
 on his sleeve. It was Ah Tun, who signed to him to 
 follow, and led him to the Japanese oflficer he had met 
 at Lord Clapham's — he could never find out by what 
 occult Asiatic telepathy Ah Tun was guided — the 
 Chinaman was quite unknown to Captain Hidetomi, 
 who greeted Kenneth cordially, and asked, " The 
 English officers, do they even fight without their 
 uniforms? " 
 
 He was so miserable that he poured out his woes 
 into the sympathetic ears of the Japanese Captain. 
 Hidetomi told him the story of the forty-seven Ronin, 
 adding, " And now that you are a Ronin, you too wish 
 to die? " 
 
 ** Yes," cried Kenneth, with feverish anxiety. 
 
214 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 " Listen," said Hidetomi. " My very tall officer is 
 down with fever. To us Japanese it is the act of pity 
 to give a man like you the ability to die. We have men 
 on my ship who can make your smooth face a Japanese. 
 Your uniform is the Japanese uniform if we change 
 some stripes, then you can march in the contingent of 
 Dai Nippon to Pekin and choose your death." 
 
 In his awful rush to Tientsin and his subsequent 
 disgrace, Kenneth did not know about the final 
 arrangements for the relief of the Legation at Pekin, 
 how two thousand men of the picked bravest of the 
 sailors of the nations were to march under the British 
 Admiral, whose name was a proverb for high daring 
 and resource. But only fifty-two Japanese sailors were 
 to take part, so Kenneth found that he could not go. 
 He came near to committing suicide at this fresh 
 disappointment, but the longing to strike a blow for 
 England was too strong, and if he could not fight in 
 her own ranks it was something to fight with her 
 allies, allies so close that they wore her very uniform 
 with only a stripe or so to distinguish them. Sir 
 Edward Seymour began his great march to Pekin 
 on the loth of June, 1900, and Kenneth had to contain 
 his soul in bitter suspense till the afternoon of the 
 i6th, when the order came that the Allied Fleets which 
 were bombarding the Taku forts were to land a 
 storming party. 
 
 Once more Kenneth's luck was against him. The 
 gallant Hidetomi had to stay in command of his ship, 
 which was taking one of the leading parts in the 
 bombardment. But he told his friend. Captain Hattori, 
 Kenneth's story, and that chivalrous commander at 
 once agreed to allow Kenneth to accompany him. 
 
 At dawn on the 17th the fire of the guns on the great 
 north-west fort was sufficiently dominated, and the 
 storming party swarmed to the attack. Side by side 
 the British and the Italians led the assault, the other 
 nations following. Poor Kenneth was reduced to 
 abject misery at the Japanese being in the very rear 
 of all, as they had artillery which kept them to the 
 road while the others dashed across the swampy 
 ground. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 215 
 
 But the swamp was so heavy that before they reached 
 the fort the Japanese began to overhaul them. 
 
 Kenneth's spirits rose as minute by minute the 
 Japanese reached the very head of the column. The 
 Chinese held their ground behind the strong walls of 
 the fort, and threatened to sweep the Allies off the 
 face of the marsh with the heaviness of their fusilade. 
 A wild feeling of happiness seized Kenneth when the 
 Japanese, scorning death, determined to attack the 
 high-walled fort with their bayonets. All might be 
 killed in the attempt ; but if any reached the top they 
 might quell the Chinese riflemen till the British came 
 up. On they dashed, led by the brilliant and fearless 
 Hattori in person. He was only a few yards from the 
 parapet when he was shot down. 
 
 Kenneth sprang to the front, and, leaping on the 
 crowd of murderous-looking Chinese, who stood a 
 living rampart behind the breastwork, forced an 
 opening by his weight and the fury of his attack, 
 backed by a handful of the indomitable Japanese. 
 
 The Chinese riflemen fled ; they dared not face the 
 cold steel of the Samurai, though changed from sword 
 to bayonet and borne by men in the uniforms of 
 Europeans instead of the lacquered armour of old 
 Japan. 
 
 Kenneth took the Japanese flag, which he seized from 
 the hand of the dying Hattori, and swarmed up the 
 flagstaff to fly the banner of the Rising Sun over the 
 Taku forts. But a Chinese bullet struck him before 
 he reached the top and brought him down with the 
 awful thud made by a bear or panther when you shoot 
 it up a tree and its claws relax and it rolls off the 
 branch and strikes the ground of the forest. The next 
 minute a British sailor carried the Union Jack to the 
 top safely. 
 
 " Thank God! " cried the mangled Kenneth, forget- 
 ting that he was a Japanese, as he saw the old flag 
 flying over the famous Taku forts instead of the 
 adopted flag which he had lost his life in the attempt 
 to hoist. Amphlett, the trim British lieutenant who a 
 moment before had been charging at the head of his 
 
2i6 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 stormers, looked at the Japanese officer lying on the 
 ground, shot through the body, and so terribly mangled 
 by his fall, and asked with British directness : 
 
 " Are you an Englishman? " 
 
 Smashed up as he was, Kenneth could still think 
 enough to say, " No." 
 
 *' What are you then? " 
 
 He gasped out the reply: "I was Rose of the 
 Triptolemus. ' ' 
 
 " Oh, my God! " cried Amphlett. Then he called 
 out to another British officer who was coming up. 
 *' Higgins, this is that poor chap Rose who was so 
 badly treated on the Triptolemus.''^ 
 
 Higgins was more practical. He examined Ken- 
 neth's wounds. 
 
 *' He isn't dead," he said, *' though I'm afraid he 
 can't get over it. Here, some of you chaps, knock 
 up a stretcher and carry him into a room." 
 
 No Chinese were left in the fort; they had fled 
 helter-skelter before the Japanese bayonets, and there 
 was every sort of accommodation. Kenneth was laid 
 on a Chinese couch, with a noble marble bed and pillow 
 roll, and a frame and legs of profusely carved black 
 wood. 
 
 '* We could do without some of these gew-gaws if 
 we could get a pallet and a bolster instead, but the 
 poor chap's so far gone that it doesn't matter much, 
 if you roll up that bit of bunting and put it under his 
 head. It was a spare Union Jack, brought in case 
 the first was shot away. Kenneth's fast-glazing eyes 
 gleamed as he recognised " the Rag." 
 
 " It's all right, old chap," said Higgins. *' It's 
 the proper stuff — it will do you as much good as any 
 medicine." He stopped for fear he had spoken 
 prophetically, and asked in a lower voice: "Aren't 
 there any Trippers come up yet? " To the Fleet the 
 Triptolemusses were the " Trippers," though they used 
 the other name themselves. 
 
 Kenneth soon had shipmates by his side, who nursed 
 him night and day. And he had such a splendid 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 217 
 
 constitution that he hung on though he had no desire 
 to live. His unconsciousness kept him alive. 
 
 When at last he did come to, a tall thin man, with 
 a dark grizzled beard and a small head, in which the 
 high message of intellect and command was tempered 
 by kindly grey eyes, stood at his bedside, dressed in 
 khaki, stained with one of the sternest marches in 
 history, the march which -failed^ the march to relieve 
 the beleaguered Legations at Pekin. He was an old 
 friend of Kenneth's father, and called the boy by his 
 Christian name. 
 
 " Yes, sir; " and a feeble motion hardly more than 
 a shiver showed his impulse to salute the great Admiral, 
 who still had his dusty scabbard and water-bottle and 
 revolver-case strapped round his waist, showing that 
 he had come straight to the boy's bedside when he 
 arrived safe back himself. 
 
 " Dr. Knowles says you won't try to live. That 
 won't do. You are wanted to fight for the Queen — 
 we haven't a man to spare." 
 
 He saw the gleam he had aroused in Kenneth's eyes 
 and the question it asked, and saying, " There's room 
 on my staff for you," passed out. The Fleets of the 
 nations were waiting for him. 
 
 As nothing was too great, so nothing was too small 
 for the Admiral. He was furious with the stupidity 
 of the court-martial which had robbed the Fleet of a 
 good officer for a technicality at such a time. But the 
 Commander of the Triptolemus was one of the finest 
 sailors in the Fleet, so with the tact which was as 
 conspicuous in him as his naval skill, the Admiral 
 begged the question by taking the boy on his own 
 staff. The court martial had only dismissed him from 
 his ship. 
 
 There is an old saying, ** While there is life there 
 
2i8 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 is hope." It is sometimes as true to say, " While 
 there is hope there is life." 
 
 Kenneth did not die, but, before he could recover 
 from such injuries, the fighting for the Fleet was over, 
 and he was sent to Japan, of all places, for his con- 
 valescence. It is the sanatorium of the Eastern Seas. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 A YEAR had passed and left Chiquita desperately lonely. 
 She saw nothing of Candida or the Sandys', and the 
 door of Tiffanys, who might have been her port in the 
 storm, was closed to her. For her escapade, which 
 resulted in the cashiering of Kenneth, though he had 
 been reinstated, had presented itself in the most odious 
 light, and she was already very unpopular with the 
 British community in Yokohama because she (and her 
 uncle, too, in his weak-kneed philosophical-Radical 
 way) was a pro-Boer. 
 
 No one could divine that she had tried to prevent 
 Kenneth from joining his ship because she loved him ; 
 the possibility of it never occurred to them, since she 
 had not known him for twenty-four hours when it 
 happened. 
 
 They looked upon it as a conspiracy of an enemy 
 of England to lure a British of^cer away from his 
 duty, and the heinousness of the offence was exagger- 
 ated by her being an inmate of the household of the 
 British Minister. 
 
 The British community at Yokohama is as patriotic 
 as the Stock Exchange ; it had been absorbingly in- 
 terested in the fortunes of its country in the Boer War 
 from the very commencement. It had proclaimed the 
 mitigating circumstances which saved the honour of 
 England in all the early disasters, and in the year of 
 grace igoo, had celebrated with wild enthusiasm 
 French's immortal gallop with his five thousand sabres, 
 scattering the Boers to the winds from the siege of 
 Kimberley ; the surrender of the grim Cronje and all 
 his army in the river-bed at Paardeburg ; Dundonald 
 and his Colonial troopers riding into Ladysmith ; and 
 the little grey Field-IVIarshal, who had once hurled an 
 army across a desert on the astonished Afghans at 
 Kandahar, without waiting to replace the provisions 
 
 219 
 
220 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 of the lost convoy, driving the Boers before him head- 
 long across both their countries and out of both their 
 capitals over the Portuguese border at Coomatipoort. 
 
 It reminded them of the golden days of Sir Harry 
 Parkes and his " Civis Romaniis sum.'' It made them 
 sick that their country's representative should be 
 ashamed of his country, and his niece should be a 
 pro-Boer. 
 
 With the Tiffanys it was open war. Mrs. Tiffany 
 would not have allowed Chiquita in her house, and 
 Tiffany's office relations with his chief were very cold 
 — but Tiffany had always done so little that Legation 
 work did not suffer as it might have done. 
 
 I don't think Jevons was quite sound — but then, 
 he was only half an Englishman. His utterances were 
 most correct, for he took his cue from the Japanese, 
 who found it impossible to contemplate the existence 
 of such a thing as a pro-Boer. The feelings of a 
 Japanese to his country are such that, if a Japanese 
 equivalent of a pro-Boer was found, his own family 
 woufd poison him, to avoid the disgrace of its becoming 
 known. If Jevons had been a pro-Boer openly he 
 might just as well have taken a ticket to Holland by 
 the next steamer, for his well-earned influence with 
 the Japanese would have vanished like a puff of dust, 
 leaving a dirty impression behind. 
 
 It mattered not what Finch's opinions were — he had 
 by this time sunk to insignificance in Oriental 
 uxoriousness. 
 
 I do not mean to say that if Chiquita had gone to 
 Yokohama to call on Candida or the Sandys' that she 
 would have been refused permission to enter their 
 houses, but she knew that she had alienated all their 
 sympathies by her openly-expressed pleasure at the 
 British ill successes. 
 
 The two people of her old set who were least changed 
 to her were Rich and myself, because we only heard 
 from others how badly she had behaved. She had not 
 victimised us personally, probably because she expected 
 us to care, and liked us well enough to restrain herself 
 when she was with us. Of Rich she had seen very 
 little for a long time past, because he spent so much 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 221 
 
 of his time at Yokohama, enjoying the society of 
 Candida, while I had my work till late in the afternoon. 
 
 Chiquita, therefore, was thrown back on the society 
 of globe-trotters, for which, fortunately, she had taken 
 a fancy when she stayed with Candida at Yokohama. 
 The British Embassy became quite hospitable to 
 wanderers, who, most of them, commented on the bad 
 management of the hostess in not bringing the junior 
 members of the Legation into contact with their guests. 
 
 It was in this way that she met Lex Brema, an 
 extremely pretty Dutch girl from the Transvaal, who 
 brought an introduction from a pro-Boer member of 
 Parliament who had been out in South Africa. 
 
 Lex was by no means prepared for the invitation 
 for herself and her aunt to stay at the Legation which 
 followed in a few days ; she was a level-headed young 
 woman, and experience had taught her that Radical 
 M.P. 's were much freer about giving introductions 
 than the people to whom the introductions were ad- 
 dressed were about acting on them. 
 
 Chiquita was really delighted to have Lex staying 
 with her, for two reasons. Though she had not been 
 able to restrain herself from uttering the anti-English 
 sentiments which alienated Candida, she missed her 
 horribly. The Legation was so lonely without a nice 
 woman to keep her company. And then she had the 
 positive pleasure, which she had not before enjoyed, 
 of someone who would talk pro-Boerism with her and 
 add up the sum of England's iniquities. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the two girls always 
 talked politics— as a matter of fact, after the first few 
 days, they hardly talked them at all, but just stamped 
 upon England when the occasion served. 
 
 Lex was a merry, natural girl, who enjoyed the odd 
 little things about Japan which I had taught Chiquita 
 to observe, and in which she had proved a far apter 
 pupil than she had at first promised. She had now 
 learnt enough Japanese from me to talk with the 
 people, and when she was lonely, spent her time in 
 wandering into the servants' quarters of the Legation 
 or into the humble Japanese houses, which abound 
 even in Kojimachi, the court suburb. Her servants 
 
222 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 were at first rather dismayed, for they were indulging 
 in the Japanese weakness of quartering all their re- 
 lations upon their employer, but when they found that 
 Chiquita's view of her household was the more the 
 merrier — she was tickled to death with their grand- 
 mothers and their grandchildren — they welcomed her. 
 
 Chiquita and Lex acquainted each other with their 
 dislike to the English before they had met for five 
 minutes. Chiquita only hated the English as a nation ; 
 Lex hated them nationally and individually, her hatred 
 being fresher. But they never discovered the exact 
 nature of their common ground of sympathy, which 
 was that the Spaniard and the Dutchman played leading 
 parts in the world till the Anglo-Saxon dispossessed 
 them. The battle between themselves had been drawn 
 to the bitter end, but they had gone down before the 
 Anglo-Saxons of two hemispheres. Both of them also, 
 in a minor degree, resented the progress in civilization 
 thrust upon them by their conquerors. 
 
 Chiquita had not only asked Lex and her aunt to 
 stay with her at the Legation, she had carried them 
 on to Miyanoshita when Lord Clapham's household 
 moved up there in the autumn. And it was at 
 Miyanoshita now that the two girls were watching a 
 sunset of unsurpassable glory. 
 
 There had been rain in the air ; the rolling masses 
 of clouds were swathed in crimson ; there was anger 
 as well as splendour in the heavens. All the earth was 
 flooded with the red glare. 
 
 " Lex, look at that sunset! " 
 
 *' I hate it! " she answered sullenly. " We Boers 
 live in a sunset like that." 
 
 The crimson died away from the piled-up clouds 
 and left a dull grey. When the girls looked up again 
 all the clouds had rolled away, revealing a clear 
 horizon of orange, which faded upwards into a tender 
 greenish silver, the lining of dark clouds. 
 
 Lex had gone to Japan, after the war, to get away 
 from the English. She had not been in the country 
 twenty-four hours before she had marked in her Bible 
 the plaint of Ahab to Elijah, " Hast thou found me, 
 O mine enemy? " In her Naboth's vineyard — far-off 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 223 
 
 Japan — she found swarms of English merchants and 
 travellers. The very railway tickets were in English 
 as well as Japanese. She had to speak English to 
 make herself understood. The cruellest stab was that 
 the Japanese always called her English. They are apt 
 to call anyone who has a white skin English ; and any- 
 where Lex would have been taken for the prettiest type 
 of Englishwoman, with her short, straight nose, her 
 brilliant fairness, her lovely womanly mouth, and her 
 firm, well-cut chin. 
 
 Only Chiquita, whom she took to her wounded heart, 
 knew the love latent in her dark blue eyes, and how 
 the beauty of her face was doubled when she laughed 
 out and showed her perfect teeth. London would not 
 have believed that a Dutch girl could be so elegant. 
 Her animation in Tokyo society had taken the form 
 of sarcasm and invective against the English. She 
 hated the Japanese even w^orse, for they were full of 
 pride at the negotiations which were in progress for 
 alliance with the English. Unfortunately, she was 
 technically English, since the men of her family had 
 taken the oath of allegiance after fighting like heroes. 
 Lex had been with them on commando, and there had 
 been no better or more popular nurse among the Dutch 
 ladies who did hospital work. 
 
 Lord Clapham should not have been away from 
 Tokyo, for Germany was believed to be meditating a 
 coup in the Far East. But all European Japan loves, 
 when it can, to go to Miyanoshita for the warm 
 weather. 
 
 Its airy hills, with their view of Fujiyama; its deep- 
 wooded valleys, with vistas of the sea, make it the 
 ideal place for picnics. Chiquita wanted to go there. 
 Her uncle would have been content to stay in his library 
 at the Legation at Tokyo. He was the kind of English- 
 man who becomes a vegetable in Japan. But Chiquita 
 loved al fresco entertainments, and at Miyanoshita there 
 were always some nice globe-trotters. Her uncle was 
 ready to make acquaintances, when she allowed him. 
 
 Lex was in a bad temper; her Elijah had just made 
 his appearance. It made no difference that he looked 
 well-bred, frank, and generous. The yellow African 
 
224 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 sunburn and fever tinge stamped him an invalided 
 British officer ; and Lex detested British officers, 
 especially if they looked chivalrous. It was bad 
 enough that they had conquered the Boers in battle, 
 but that they had won, in spite of quixotic generosity, 
 made her burn with mortification. She was the soul 
 of honour, and hated that her countrymen should have 
 been found inferior to the English in fair play. 
 
 At that moment a high Japanese official, who had 
 gone to Miyanoshita with Lord Clapham and his house- 
 hold to observe what people in good English society 
 did, was introduced to Lex. He spoke fluent but 
 fancy English, and, when he learned where she had 
 come from, said, " Madame, I must congratulate you. 
 You now belong to the great ^wpire which is to be 
 our esteemed ally." 
 
 " My country has the misfortune to be in the hands 
 of England ; but I shall never belong to England. I 
 left my country so as not to take the oath." 
 
 The Japanese put on the inscrutable expression in 
 which his countrymen take refuge from facts, and 
 addressed himself to Chiquita. 
 
 Lord Clapham was speaking to the invalided officer. 
 He had a philosophic mind, and expected his country 
 to be in the wrong ; but he had a son as dashing and 
 courageous as Chiquita, who was in the Guards, and 
 had won mention in some of the most deadly battles 
 of the war. Blood is thicker than water — even than 
 watery philosophy. Nothing had ever brought emotion 
 to Lord Clapham's dull veins like those letters from 
 the Honourable Thomas Cobbe, describing his battles 
 in the language of sport. He introduced himself to 
 the wounded officer as the father of another South 
 African soldier, though he had originally consented to 
 his son going into the Coldstreams only because he 
 did not look on the Guards as soldiers at all. Chiquita 
 did not generally approve of her uncle introducing 
 himself, except at her instigation. But the charm of 
 Frank AUward's disposition was written in his face. 
 So when a German Serene Highness of the military 
 pattern came up to talk to Lex, Chiquita joined her 
 uncle, and was interested to learn that the stranger 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 225 
 
 was the Captain Allward who was already the most 
 popular Englishman in Japan. He was a " Gunner," 
 who had fought through the war and had been left 
 for dead in the latest victory. He had been sent for 
 a long sea voyage to recover from his wounds. 
 
 Chiquita was a pro-Boer. Belonging to a little 
 nation, she resented the masterfulness of the English. 
 But she liked individual Englishmen, and she could 
 be charming to an invalid until he fell in love with her : 
 she even allowed that in some cases. 
 
 Besides, she was having a new experience. Lex's 
 petulant prettiness was most alluring to the sons of 
 men ; and Lex had the grace of femininity. Chiquita's 
 crown was in danger. The Serene Highness led the 
 way; he was Lex's devoted slave, and she encouraged 
 him. It was this daughter of a dead republic's first 
 Serene Highness ; it gave her the pride of conquest and 
 the opportunity of snubbing her English admirers. 
 
 He was a fine man, a little extravagantly proud of 
 his position and the German Army, but seemingly very 
 courteous and noble. 
 
 Chiquita, therefore, welcomed the apparition of 
 Captain Allward, undoubtedly the more attractive man 
 personally, and the hero of the moment in Japan. She 
 made a friendly little speech to him of being proud 
 to welcome to the British Legation such a distinguished 
 man, and invited him to accompany herself and Miss 
 Brema and the Prince to a picnic they were contem- 
 plating on the following day. 
 
 Allward, who was progressing with his convalescence 
 and did not expect any very serious exertions in a 
 picnic with a woman like Chiquita in such a lazy place 
 as Japan, was delighted to consent, and told himself 
 that his stay at Miyanoshita was going to turn out 
 much less dull than he had anticipated. Being the 
 kind of Englishman who feels that a person's looks 
 are their own and that anyone who examines them is 
 taking a liberty, he had not noticed either Chiquita or 
 Lex till the former spoke to him ; indeed he was 
 ignorant of the appearance of Lex until she came out 
 of the hotel to start for the picnic. 
 
 He had felt that Chiquita was pretty enough, and 
 
 p 
 
226 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 as chic as any man could desire. But when he saw 
 Lex the consideration of chic-ness disappeared ; not that 
 she was without it, but that extrinsic features such as 
 fashions and arts were merged in an irresistible 
 femininity. Lex had the alluring grace of Mother Eve, 
 tempered with an adorable petulance, at all events, 
 towards the English, the hereditary enemies of her 
 race. 
 
 The moment that Allward saw her he recognised 
 the presence of the enemy. Soldier-like, he concen- 
 trated his attention ; he saw that the enemy was 
 beautiful, and that if her resistance could only be 
 conquered, she w-ould be generous. It was natural 
 for him to be interested in a Boer against w'hom he 
 had so lately been in arms. 
 
 Lex was up in arms the moment Chiquita introduced 
 him to her. She could barely be civil to him, and 
 at once showed her intention of being monopolised by 
 the happy Prince. 
 
 In any case, Allward w^ould have devoted himself to 
 Chiquita as at once his hostess of the day and the 
 lady who presided over the Legation of his country. 
 
 The favourite way to picnic at Miyanoshita is to take 
 a chair, or ride, or even walk over the great mountain 
 called Oji Goku or Big Hell, to the blue'Hakone Lake 
 w^ith the sacred and exquisitely beautiful volcano of 
 Fujiyama reflected in its waters ; the fairy-like village 
 and noble temple named after the lake ; the tombs of 
 the Kill-Dragon men ; the colossal image of Jizo Sama 
 carved out of the living rock ; and the famous mineral 
 baths of Ashinoyu. 
 
 The chair in which you are carried bears no re- 
 semblance to the domestic or Bath variety ; it is more 
 like the sedan chair with its top off; and still more 
 like a child's nursery chair with a stout pole running 
 along each side of it to go on the bearers' shoulders. 
 
 Chiquita had one waiting for her with two stout 
 Japanese coolies to carry it, while Lex came out pre- 
 pared to ride, with a shawl arranged over her skirt 
 like a habit in the useful Japanese picnic fashion, so 
 that she could walk without being inconvenienced if 
 she felt inclined. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 227 
 
 " Now, Captain Allward, where's your chair? " said 
 Chiquita, making a joke of it, but hoping that he 
 would take the hint. 
 
 ** Oh, the Prince and I are going to walk." The 
 Prince was a very good walker ; he was the president 
 of an Alpine touring club. 
 
 " You must not be so foolish ; it will be far too much 
 for you." 
 
 " My dear Miss Palafox, I did some tremendous 
 marching in Africa." 
 
 " Yes, but that was before you were wounded. At 
 any rate, you ought to have a chair or a pony to pick 
 you up if you are tired — you really ought." 
 
 Allward would not be convinced ; he could not stand 
 the idea of an English soldier having to be carried in 
 a chair in the presence of a German soldier, who was 
 walking. He felt so much better. 
 
 " Oh, I don't want a chair," he said. " I shouldn't 
 use it if I had it. These Japs will never take you 
 two abreast, and I want to talk to you as we go along." 
 
 This was what Chiquita wanted, so she did not press 
 her persuasions further. If he felt really bad, she said 
 to herself, she could let him have hers, which would 
 have been a very great sacrifice if it had ever come oflF. 
 
 The luncheon basket was slung behind her chair. 
 
 Lex rode her Japanese pony, a regular little Boer 
 pony, a few yards in front, with the Prince walking 
 beside her. 
 
 One of Chiquita's chief charms Vv^as that she had 
 no more consciousness (or conscience) than a kitten. 
 She half forgot the person she was with, and gam- 
 bolled like a young animal. Though she was so 
 hlask about the greater things of life, she was as easily 
 amused as a child about trifles. As they passed 
 through the wood she was constantly stopping her 
 chair to kodak the old women wood-cutters, bent almost 
 double under the huge faggots which they carry on 
 their backs, with frames such as glaziers use in 
 England. She gave them all more money than they 
 earned in a day for having their photographs taken, 
 and as soon as they were out of sight imitated their 
 puzzled monkey faces to make her bearers laugh. 
 
228 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 And, higher up the mountain, where there were mud- 
 springs with only a thin crust over the boiHng mud 
 except where the path ran, she lured Allward over a 
 treacherous piece to see him scald his feet — she took 
 care that it was not a very bad piece, but a bit that 
 the natives used for such tricks. It only added another 
 touch of intimacy to their acquaintance. 
 
 She was just the laughing, spirited sort of companion 
 who makes a walk so delightful for a young soldier 
 on a holiday. 
 
 Their shouting and laughter was in marked contrast 
 to the mood in which the Prince escorted Lex. He 
 was an enthusiastic Alpinist, and poetized in the most 
 romantic German vein about the beauty of the gorge 
 of Miyanoshita, stretching its arms towards the sea, 
 and gushed about the rose-red wild azaleas, the thickets 
 of bamboos waving in the wind, and the sadness of 
 the dark camellia trees. 
 
 The veldt had given Lex a love of sweeping views ; 
 the luxurious vegetation of Japan was a feast after 
 the sun-baked rocks of the Transvaal, and, when they 
 reached the top of Oji Goku, Lex's face beamed, for 
 there he pointed out the matchless Fujiyama, with its 
 snow-cap mirrored in the blue Hakone Lake. 
 
 The Prince compared it to Mount Etna, which, like 
 so many German Alpinists, he had ascended, and dilated 
 with real erudition and eloquence on the customs of 
 mountain pilgrimages. 
 
 Even Chiquita listened, inspired with his poetic 
 fervour. Allward was rather interested ; he was no 
 fool, but he would have prefered the eloquence shorter, 
 if it had not given him the opportunity of watching 
 the two women without being rude. 
 
 Chiquita had to the full the lazy tolerance of the 
 Southern races, which allows them to sit with folded 
 hands while some interminable performance is going 
 on, whose futility would kill an Englishman with 
 ejmtii. Her real interest soon died out, but she went 
 on enduring it contentedly with eyes fixed on the 
 speaker graciously. 
 
 Lex, on the other hand, was drinking in every word 
 he said with deep appreciation, so absorbed that she 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 229 
 
 forgot to throw out her outposts against the enemy. 
 Allward had, therefore, the opportunity of seeing what 
 a gracious unaffected woman she really was, and how 
 full of feminine softness. 
 
 In his African campaign he had admired some of 
 the Boer women very much, both for their physical 
 perfection and for their spirit and sincerity; but Lex, 
 he thought, easily excelled them all. Her colouring 
 was so dazzlingly fair, and with all her alluringness 
 she had a restive modesty which is rare in her country- 
 women, and was peculiarly attractive to him. It was 
 the absence of reserve which spoilt Chiquita to him ; 
 her very ease would have made him ill at ease on any 
 occasion except a picnic or a party. 
 
 They took their tiffin (lunch) in a quaint tea-house 
 built across the waterfall. Moosmes, in scarlet kirtles, 
 with flowers in their glossy black hair, knelt before 
 them, with the five cups of " honourable tea," which 
 none of them touched, though they gave a profuse 
 cliadai — tea-money — the baksheesh of Japan ; while 
 Chiquita's bearers unpacked from the basket the joys 
 of a Japanese picnic — snowy linen, and an amazing 
 assortment of food packed in separate white wooden 
 boxes. Food-boxes are the feature of Japan. When 
 a Japanese gives a banquet at a tea-house, the uncon- 
 sumed dishes are packed for him to take away. 
 Chiquita was assiduous, even solicitous, about the 
 convalescing soldier's lunch. He needed it; the walk 
 was too severe in the burning sun of April. She saw 
 how tired he was, and took him to a cooler spot. He 
 felt a pang as he saw Lex abandoning herself to the 
 enchantment of the day under a pale pink Japanese 
 parasol. She had felt the heat hardly more than 
 Chiquita in her chair. Chiquita was sweet and 
 thoughtful, a mood in which she lavished Southern 
 graciousness. 
 
 Tiffin over, they rode down to the lake. It was a 
 piece of Fairyland ; but the enchanted village of 
 Hakone, with its thatched roofs and its noble temple 
 and mossy terraces of age-mellowed stone, was on the 
 other side, and there was no boatman for the sampans. 
 This decided Chiquita to cross the lake. She sent the 
 
230 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 pony and the chair back ; the Prince and Allward were 
 to work the yido (gondola oar) of the sampan. 
 
 " Can you row? " she asked the Prince. 
 
 " Indeed, Madame, I have never tried." 
 
 " Can you row, Captain Allward? " 
 
 *' Oh, yes; but I have never tried in one of these 
 things." He did not add that he was forbidden all 
 violent exertion. Propelling a boat with a yulo is a 
 most trying exercise to an unpractised hand. The boat 
 crawled across the lake. Great beads of sweat started 
 from his forehead. Lex said, quite kindly: " You 
 row, your Highness; Captain Allward is so tired." 
 
 It was a bitter confession for Frank Allward, who, 
 until pulled down with wounds and enteric, had had 
 more than his share of the English country gentleman's 
 skill and endurance in sports. The Prince had been 
 watching Allward with the view of relieving him ; had 
 even noticed how it seemed easier to manage the yido. 
 The sampan made much better pace; he was a big, 
 strong man, and not having been invalided, was able 
 to put his back into it. Chiquita was penitent for 
 having made Captain Allward take exercise w^hich he 
 should not have taken; but her almost caressing 
 solicitude did not draw out the sting of cutting a sorry 
 figure before Lex. He had said he could row, and 
 the Prince had confessed that he had never tried. 
 
 When they landed at the famous tea-house built 
 over the water, as fantastic as a willow-pattern plate, 
 they found that the hetto with the pony, and the boys 
 with the chair, had run all round, so that the ladies 
 might not have to walk home from Hakone. Lex 
 insisted on Allward taking the pony. It played her 
 game. She was sorry for his physical weakness ; it 
 made this big English soldier look like an invalid, to 
 take a lady's pony ; and it gave the Prince an oppor- 
 tunity of lavishing attentions on her and congratulating 
 her on her powers as a pedestrian, which were con- 
 siderable. She was splendidly healthy, and would not 
 have taken the pony if it had not reminded her of a 
 Boer mount. 
 
 What a walk she had along that wonderful mountain 
 path, which began in the grounds of a stately temple 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 231 
 
 and passed under tall torii, those mystic arches of 
 Japan, up stairways of crumbling stone, through sacred 
 groves, and so round the mountain shoulder. 
 
 With German thoroughness, the Prince gave her a 
 scholar's explanation of the old stone tombs figuring 
 the five elements, under which lay the men who had 
 freed the land from the dragon far back in the Middle 
 Ages. He pointed out that tombs almost exactly 
 parallel are to be found in the Etruscan Museum at 
 Florence. And when they came to the gigantic image 
 of Jizo carved out of the rock, with a face of calm 
 beauty breathing the peace of God, he discussed the 
 attempts made to identify Jizo with the Founder of 
 Christianity, and told how Marco Polo had found a 
 place in the Buddhist Pantheon. 
 
 Allward rode behind Chiquita— Japanese paths do 
 not let two ride abreast. He could not see Lex, but 
 he pictured her growing softness as she grew more 
 tired and fuller of Fairyland. It was worse than 
 watching her and the Prince in the morning. This 
 lovely woman, glowing with prettiness and personality, 
 was passing from him by leaps and bounds. He was 
 not single in his consciousness of failure. Want of 
 intuition was not a weakness of Chiquita's— she read 
 his heart. 
 
 The sun sank as they passed the reedy pools of the 
 Healing Waters of Ashinoyu ; his last hues left the sky 
 as they swung down the village of Miyanoshita, trying 
 not to see the jmriksha boys taking baths under the 
 leaks in the bamboo pipes,' which carried the boiling 
 sulphur water from the bowels of the mountain of Hell 
 to the hotel bath-rooms. 
 
 In its place came the soft grey light, which people 
 learn to love in hot climates, the time when all the 
 world goes out to breathe, and the poor Japanese 
 who, like the poor Italian, is accustomed to use the 
 street for his sitting-room, finds his parlour ready. 
 The natives were squatting on their door-steps; the 
 foreigners were standing about in little groups, 
 chatting, watching the various parties returning from 
 their expeditions, or strolling down the village street 
 to shop. 
 
232 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 As Allward dismounted, Lex came up to him, and 
 with much more kindness than she had ever permitted 
 herself to assume before, asked him how he was. He 
 almost resented it, though he was touched with the 
 half - childish, half - affectionate solicitude with which 
 Chiquita, in spite of his indifference to her attractions, 
 had insisted on accompanying him to his room and 
 staying by the door till the servants answered his bell 
 and set about preparing one of the boiling hot baths 
 which are the Japanese panacea for all sorts of seizures. 
 
 He certainly felt much better, when he had been for 
 ten minutes in the deep wooden box, sunk in the floor, 
 which constitutes the famous bath of Miyanoshita. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Lord Clapham— at Chiquita's instigation, of course- 
 invited Allward to take his meals at their table.^ 
 
 Allward at first excused himself ; he was obliged to 
 take special diet while he was convalescing from his 
 wounds, but Chiquita pricked up her ears at the 
 mention of this, and insisted that if he was dieting 
 he would be much the better for sitting at a table where 
 there was a woman to keep the food up to the mark, 
 meaning herself; she was sure to give it minute 
 attention. The small things of life interested her so 
 much more than the large ones. She rather monopo- 
 lized the pleasant invalid with her care for his health. 
 But the ladies saw nothing of him after dinner, for 
 Lord Clapham thought that what he needed was quiet, 
 and probably a whiskey and soda, so after dinner he led 
 him to the large room improvised out of two or three 
 Japanese rooms to act as his study, if any business 
 should turn up while he was at Miyanoshita. Angles 
 were left jutting out where folding doors had been 
 discarded. 
 
 Allward pushed an easy chair into one of these 
 angles, where he would be shaded from the light; a 
 snooze would do him good. He soon dropped off. 
 But the instincts which had been quickened in him 
 during the war were not dead. Presently he woke 
 without stirring, as men do who have been waking for 
 months in the atmosphere of danger. 
 
 There was someone moving round the room. It 
 was not Lord Clapham, for though he was tall, there 
 was light enough to show that he had no beard. 
 
 Soon he made out Prince Adolf. He was hunting 
 for something, high and low, and last of all carried 
 
 233 
 
234 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 the light into the room where Allward was. He went 
 on hunting for a minute or two before he noticed 
 Allward sitting back in the angle to shade his eyes 
 from the light. He gave a perceptible start, and 
 asked, " Have you seen my pipe? " 
 
 Allward did not pause to reflect whether he had ever 
 seen the Prince with a pipe ; and he attached no im- 
 portance to the start. It seemed natural under the 
 circumstances. 
 
 " Won't a cigarette do? " he asked, pulling out a 
 well-browned leather case and offering it to the Prince. 
 
 " For the smoke, perfectly. If you are too waked 
 up to go to sleep again may I take it beside you? I 
 will look for the pipe presently — it is an old friend ; I 
 value it." 
 
 He was soon paying adroit compliments in fluent 
 English on the handling of the British artillery in the 
 war, though he said that their guns were not good 
 enough. He had been attached to one of our armies, 
 and struck Allward as " a very good chap." 
 
 That talk brought them nearer to each other. They 
 smoked together at night, and joined in a partie carrte 
 with Chiquita and Lex for strolls in the exquisite early 
 mornings or the hour of the sunset, which has no 
 treachery in Japan. Those walks were all that Allward 
 could manage now ; he sat in the shade through the 
 day. He had suffered a severe relapse and had to be 
 very careful about over-exerting himself, though the 
 spring air of Miyanoshita was a wonderful tonic. In 
 the morning they walked quietly down the glen below 
 the hotel by short zig-zag paths, which led through 
 deep woods to delightful waterfalls and the queer 
 Japanese village, whose steep thatched roofs might 
 have been carved like netsukes. 
 
 This was Lex's favourite walk; the two couples 
 became separated by the hundred turns. It might 
 have been Allward 's, too, if he had had Lex for a 
 companion. He could hear her when she was with 
 Prince Adolf, laughing like the gay little waterfalls 
 which they kept passing, but with him she was only a 
 kind woman helping an invalid, and when Chiquita 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 235 
 
 found that his heart was Lex's she was no better. As 
 soon as she ceased laying herself out for him — he saw 
 her in her true colours. She did not care for walking, 
 or the country, until they arrived at a village ; there 
 were none of the oddities of Japanese life to amuse 
 her. Chiquita could always be a kitten when she had 
 poor Japanese to make her laugh. To the day that 
 she had left the Legation she regarded all they did in 
 their ordinary occupations as tricks. 
 
 The evenings were better, for when they took their 
 strolls into the town he had more of Lex. Chiquita, 
 who took hardly any interest in the beautiful ancient 
 curios with which Japan abounds, showed a common 
 weakness with the Prince in buying the woodware of 
 Miyanoshita — cabinets, writing-cases, nests of pill- 
 boxes, folding footstools — everything inlaid with wood 
 mosaics like glorified cribbage - boards. The Prince 
 honestly thought them beautiful, and Chiquita loved 
 squatting like a native in the queer little houses where 
 the ware was made and sold, cracking jokes in broken 
 Japanese. 
 
 She made the Prince try to squat too. She shrieked 
 with laughter at his unsuccessful efforts. Being a big, 
 strong, stiff-jointed, rather stoutly-made man, it was 
 torture to him. 
 
 Lex had no bump for collecting. She and xMlward 
 simply sat outside and rested. She was vexed at the 
 way the smart Englishwomen in the Legation Set 
 buzzed round the Captain, if they happened to be 
 strolling in his neighbourhood. 
 
 The Englishwomen — God bless them ! — saw some- 
 thing in this pallid invalid which she did not; a big 
 man, brown from his khaki helmet to his long brown 
 boots, brownest of all in the face, galloping across 
 the open veldt, with the gallant teams of his fifteen- 
 pounders snorting and rattling their chains and flinging 
 up the dust in the desultory hail of aimed bullets. 
 They saw them wheel round and stop and unlimber. 
 Then the long muzzles went up, and though the brown 
 men behind the guns were falling like leaves in a gale, 
 came the sights, the sounds, the smells your true man 
 
236 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 loves; above all, the flames which darted like serpents' 
 tongues from the mouths of the guns answering to 
 other tongues of fire from the mountains in front till 
 there were no more to answer, though the hail from 
 hidden rifles on the kopjes went on sweeping the men 
 from the guns, the tall captain himself not last, till a 
 thin line of bayonets reached the kopjes, and the men 
 who had gone on slaying till the steel was at their 
 breasts threw down their arms and were safe. The 
 boy-subaltern, who should still have been at school, 
 gave his orders for tending the wounded, and harness- 
 ing the proud guns, to march them back from victory. 
 Then he covered the face of his dead captain with tears 
 and kisses before he left him to be buried by the 
 Mounted Infantry. 
 
 But he was not dead. The news of his marvellous 
 recovery was copied from paper to paper, till there was 
 hardly an Englishman in Japan who did not know his 
 story. 
 
 Lex knew it too, though she said nothing to adrnit 
 it. She was quite kind now, except when her preju- 
 dices were ablaze, but her reserve was most marked 
 except over his health, where her knowledge as a 
 nurse made her anxious. She never allowed conver- 
 sations to become personal and never unbent, though 
 she was animation personified when the Prince was 
 explaining Japan. It may be urged in her defence that 
 she might be his Princess if she chose to set her cap 
 at him. He very nearly disliked Chiquita, who was 
 unimpressed by his rank or his cleverness^ or his fine 
 person, and whom he suspected of a desire to force 
 him to do things which made his very bigness look 
 ridiculous, such as taking off his boots and squatting 
 on his heels in Japanese houses, or being taught the 
 Jujitsu wrestling by a tiny Japanese, who threw him 
 about the room like a piece of cork. 
 
 When he offered his heart and his title to Lex the 
 merriment died out of her eyes. 
 
 " I don't— I can't love you," she said. 
 
 " But, Lexchen, you may grow to it," he urged. 
 
 She shook her head sadly. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 237 
 
 '* Is there another? " he asked with dignity. 
 
 " Yes, but I shall never marry him." 
 
 " Then marry me," he cried cheerfully, and trust 
 to love coming afterwards." He had made up his 
 mind after proper consideration and was not to be 
 deterred by trifles. • 1 vu *. 
 
 The House of Borussia had often married without 
 love and enjoyed sufficient happiness afterwards. 
 
 Lex was practical. With her fortune, upon which 
 he was probably well informed, they wou d not be 
 pinched by the poverty of German princelets His 
 position was already splendid; his ability and pre- 
 possessing personality made him sure of advancement 
 in the Prussian Service. She Hked him and if ever 
 the time came for the Dutch in South Africa to fight 
 to regain their nationality, he might be the Lafayette 
 of the war. So, reiterating that she did not love him, 
 
 she promised. , , , .. ^ ^u^f 
 
 It was not long before everybody knew it, and that 
 it had been arranged that Lex and her aunt should 
 follow him to the German Legation at Pekm. His 
 uncle was in the Diplomatic Service there; he was to 
 leave Japan almost immediately, and the invitation was 
 to be telegraphed from Pekin. The aunt was a gossip, 
 and enjoyed painting up the details. r ^ n . 
 
 Ill news travels fast. Allward was one of the tirst 
 to hear it, and that from her own lips. She told him 
 plainly, almost cruelly, that his company would not be 
 welcome any more except in the presence of a third 
 person, because^ she had promised to marry Prince 
 Adolf of Borussia. 
 
 That night Allward was unable to sleep. There was 
 a magnetic wave, of a kind which we do not perfectly 
 understand, though scientific men would never dream 
 of dismissing it unceremoniously, bringing to his 
 
 now 
 
238 ' PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 brain a presentiment of impending evil. It might be 
 with regard to Lex— he put her first— or it might be 
 to his health, or it might be only to the household. 
 His brain was as active as a sentry's. He tossed and 
 tossed, and felt as if he should never sleep again, as 
 he lay there. But he thought that if he put on a 
 dressing-gown and took a rug for his knees and lit 
 a candle and a cigarette, he might be able to read 
 himself to sleep in his armchair in Lord Clapham's 
 study. He knew that he should find the candle just 
 where he had blown it out when he got up to go to 
 bed, and he had left a box of matches beside it. So 
 he never thought of taking a light. Campaigning 
 had taught him to move about in the dark, and to 
 remember the position of the furniture. There would 
 be room to pass between Lord Clapham's desk and 
 the table where his secretary wrote. 
 
 His calculations were correct. He touched nothing 
 till he reached that — and then he walked dead into 
 something. 
 
 What could it be? He could remember nothing! 
 
 It was the back of a stooping man. 
 
 x^llward did not realize this till the man turned, 
 revealing a small search lantern hooked into his waist- 
 coat. 
 
 Quick as thought Allward flung the rug he was 
 carrying over the thief's head and arms. In his weak 
 state it was his only chance. 
 
 As his adversary struggled to disentangle him- 
 self, he threw his arms round him with locked 
 hands. 
 
 If he had been in health his adversary would have 
 been at his mercy. As it was, he could hold him for 
 a time, unless the exertion started his wounds. But 
 how was it to end? 
 
 His English instincts rebelled against shouting for 
 help. The lock was good, but he was growing faint 
 from weakness. He would have to shout. 
 
 The end came first. He knocked over the Secre- 
 tary's lamp and the crash roused the Japanese servants, 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 239 
 
 who came running in with oiled paper lanterns, followed 
 by the managei with an acetylene flare. 
 
 Allward released his hold. The rug fell to the 
 ground, and with it a book, which his practised mili- 
 tary eye recognised as a British Government Cypher. 
 The drawer of Lord Clapham's writing-table was open, 
 his adversary was the German Prince. He seized hold 
 of the book, which meant nothing to the Japanese, 
 and thrust it into his pocket. The German started for 
 the door. The servants, with Oriental quickness, an- 
 ticipated him. But Allward waved them aside. It 
 was only a fight between — two gentlemen^ he was going 
 to say, but the word stuck in his throat — between two 
 foreigners. Would they . . . ? 
 
 He pushed the drawer to, and as the snaplock 
 clicked, fell heavily to the ground. The lynx-eyed 
 Japanese saw a trickle of blood, and flew for Lord 
 Clapham. Lord Clapham was helpless in an emergency 
 and went to rouse Chiquita. Chiquita was by his side 
 like a flash of lightning. She did not wring her hands 
 and shriek like a Spaniard, but for once she owned 
 herself absolutely beaten. She could only think of 
 whiskey, and sent the landlord flying for it. 
 
 She took his head on her lap, and with great gentle- 
 ness and skill managed to force a little down his 
 throat. Her heart throbbed. He was just beginning 
 to open his eyes, when she felt a firm hand on her 
 shoulder. It was Lex, roused by the tramping of so 
 many feet in the night. 
 
 ** Make them carry him to my room. Miss Palafox ; 
 my surgical case is there — quick ! quick ! Tell them in 
 Japanese — there is no time to be lost." 
 
 They laid him on her bed. She stripped him hastily. 
 She did not believe that any living man could have 
 carried so many wounds. Fortunately only one, and 
 that not important, had broken out afresh. Captain 
 Allward had fainted from exertion. But though there 
 was no deadly haemorrhage she dreaded the after- 
 effects of such a terrible shock to his system. 
 
 Presently he opened his eyes again. He thought he 
 was dreaming; for Lex Brema, a white-robed figure. 
 
240 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 was beside him, with long golden hair loose on her 
 shoulders. 
 
 " Go to sleep, Captain Allward, I entreat you," she 
 said, bending over him with the gentle smile and gentle 
 hand with which nurses compel obedience. 
 
 " Whiskey," he raved, " whiskey! " 
 
 ** No, no; it's bad for you," she said. She would 
 not have thought from his appearance that Allward 
 was one of those men who are so accustomed to taking 
 pegs of whiskey as to call for it at such a moment. 
 She felt quite cross with him. 
 
 "Whisk — whisk — I must." He dragged it out 
 syllable by syllable; ** dying — something — say " 
 
 " No you're not dying," she said, forcing a little 
 laugh she did not feel, to restore his confidence. 
 " Take this." 
 
 She gave him a strong restorative. Agitation was 
 so bad for him. 
 
 " My dressing-gown." It was with great difficulty 
 that he managed to get out the words. 
 
 " Here it is," she said, holding it up before him. 
 
 " The pocket," he gasped. He was too feeble to 
 examine it for himself. She felt in it for him. 
 
 " There is a book," she said. 
 
 " Give it me, please." He regained coherence with 
 an effort, and continued: " The British Cypher — some- 
 body trying — steal it — I stopped him — get it back Lord 
 Clapham — nobody know — " 
 
 Chiquita's Japanese maid O-hana was kneeling out- 
 side the door. Lex sent her flying to her mistress. 
 Chiquita was with them in a flash. She had not gone 
 to bed again. 
 
 She bent over the wounded man with the heavenly 
 smile which stole out of her hard little heart when it 
 was touched. 
 
 At that moment he might have won it if he could 
 have raised his little finger. 
 
 " I took this cypher," she said, putting her lips to 
 his ear, " to keep it safe. I am prepared to swear to 
 it. It is not safe down there. Something made me 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 241 
 
 remember my burglary. Good - night, good rest, 
 Chevalier Bayard." 
 
 Chiquita had formed her own conclusions about the 
 occurrence, and she had intuitions. But whatever they 
 were she carried them to bed with her, for she remem- 
 bered Lex's engagement. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 It was not surprising that the Prince left Miyanoshita 
 long before the other Europeans were up, and lost no 
 time in joining his uncle in Pekin. On his voyage 
 from Yokohama to Kobe, from which it was posted, 
 he wrote Lex a long and charming letter about her 
 and her aunt joining him in China. It was rather a 
 sarcasm, as they were both such good linguists, that 
 English should have been the language which sug- 
 gested itself for the letter, since hostility to England 
 was the common ground which had brought about their 
 engagement. 
 
 But in the notes which had passed between them in 
 those golden days of Miyanoshita he had noticed that 
 his handwriting in German often puzzled her. He told 
 her how sorry he was to have left Miyanoshita without 
 taking a lover's leave, but State reasons had forced 
 him to hurry from Japan at an hour's notice. 
 
 Lex was by constitution loyal. Her bitter hostility 
 to England was the fruit of her loyalty to the quarrel- 
 some little Republic which was no more. She thought 
 no evil. 
 
 To the present situation she settled easily. She had 
 so often sat up with her wounded countrymen during 
 the war. She sat with her eyes resting on Allward 
 after she had told O-hana to fetch her quilt and wooden 
 pillow and go to bed. 
 
 She wanted to think. Oh, what queer turns there 
 were in Fortune's wheel — the long romantic days in 
 the glen which she had pictured with her German lover, 
 where were they? She had given up her own bed 
 to his enemy — she could not help regarding Allward 
 
 242 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 243 
 
 as his enemy, though she knew no reason, for she had 
 not yet learned who was the assailant who had so 
 nearly brought about the Englishman's death. 
 
 She had to win the enemy back to life. He needed 
 nursing through this shock, and the constant check of 
 a nurse afterwards. A few more of these episodes, 
 and Ralph Allward's high soul would join the souls of 
 brother officers buried in their boots where they had 
 commanded their unsurrenderable guns. 
 
 Here was her duty — here was her chance. There 
 might not be one other white nurse in Japan. The 
 time had at least come for her to diminish that galling 
 debt of magnanimity. She felt that she could not join 
 her lover till she had given this Englishman his life. 
 
 She gave it. With Lex at his side he had no further 
 thought of dying. It was a pleasure to obey her 
 commands, and she was a strict nurse. 
 
 Bit by bit she caught the malady of nurses — a more 
 than professional interest in her charge. One cruel 
 day in the first week he was on the edge of the black 
 water — it needed but a slip for him to have sunk for 
 evermore. 
 
 She heard a faint voice call "Lex!" He had 
 never spoken her name before — it told her of a crisis, 
 and she came to him very quickly. 
 
 " It is all over. Lex — won't you make peace between 
 
 Boer and Briton, before I go out ? " 
 
 She took a steady look at him, and horror seized 
 her that he should be dying, far from his friends, in 
 Japan, instead of with the kisses and tears of the 
 boy-subaltern on his face beside those valiant guns. 
 
 "You shan't die, you shan't die!" she cried, 
 kneeling beside him with her arms round him and 
 giving him soft wooing kisses — a Lex he had never 
 seen ; and an overmastering desire to live turned back 
 the waters of death. 
 
 Lex's affection and care completely restored him, 
 
 and soon he was well, and that other end had come. 
 
 The Prince's uncle's invitation had been telegraphed, 
 
 but Lex was conscious that Pekin would be exile. She 
 
 had been taking increasing walks down the glen beside 
 
244 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 her patient, with her whole mind riveted upon him. 
 She knew his soul as well as the body which she had 
 nursed back to health. In body and soul she had 
 found no single blemish but the wounds dealt by her 
 countrymen. 
 
 Chiquita found her in her room, not to be recognised 
 for the same Lex, prostrate with dejection. 
 
 '* Oh, what am I to do? " she cried, handing over 
 the telegram. " I have promised to marry the Prince, 
 and " she stumbled for words. 
 
 '* You need not say it," replied Chiquita. " As my 
 people say, I do not want eyes in the back of my head 
 to know your secret. Why have you been so long 
 in finding it out yourself? " 
 
 ** But what shall I write to the Prince? " 
 
 ** Tell him that you cannot marry a thief." 
 
 '' What I " she shrieked. 
 
 " Haven't you guessed what nearly cost your lover 
 his life? " 
 
 " Miss Palafox, how dare you? " 
 
 " Well, I'll put it more mildly. Your Prince — not 
 your lover " — Lex was about to expostulate but re- 
 strained herself — " was trying to possess himself of 
 the cypher of the British Government. Captain Allward 
 came upon him just as he had helped himself to it. 
 That was the book which " 
 
 " The book which he gave you ! " 
 
 " The book he gave me to sneak back into Uncle's 
 drawer so that " 
 
 ** So that what? " 
 
 " So that the world might never know that 
 
 Prince xA.dolf of Borussia could not draw the line 
 between picking and stealing." 
 
 " Why should he have spared him? " 
 
 " You have no eyes at the back of your head. Lex ! " 
 
 When Chiquita left her, Lex seized her blotting-pad 
 and wrote out in feverish haste a telegram and went 
 to find Allward. He was sitting with Candida Begg in 
 a verandah full of other English people when she came 
 upon him, her fair cheeks radiant with excitement, and 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 245 
 
 her eyes and cheeks all smiles. She held out a folded 
 paper. 
 
 He sprang to his feet and went to her. 
 
 With a lovely blush she asked : 
 
 *• Will you send this telegram for me, Captain 
 Allward? " 
 
 ** Delighted," he replied in the stereotyped way, but 
 meaning it from the bottom of his heart. 
 
 *' Promise me not to look at it till you hand it in? " 
 
 He promised. 
 
 When he read it he staggered. He was thankful 
 that the telegraph operator was an absurd-looking 
 Japanese instead of one of those dainty women clerks 
 who receive these appointments in England for their 
 looks. 
 
 The message ran : 
 
 ** Prince Adolf of Borussia, German Legation, Pekin, 
 China. I cannot marry a thief! — Brema. " 
 
 Allward did not show, in piecing together a woman's 
 attitudes, the same quickness as he had shown in 
 piecing together military intelligence. But he was not 
 quite blind, and he happened to notice that Lex had 
 her hat and her boots on when she called him away 
 from speaking to other people just to carry a telegram 
 a hundred yards. 
 
 When he came out, she was talking to Candida 
 Begg, one of the group he had just left. This also 
 was manna in the wilderness, for Candida belonged 
 to the anti-Boer party. She had come up from Yoko- 
 hama with Rich. They had grown into the habit of 
 taking trips together and staying in the same hotel 
 without anyone imputing scandal. It was recognised 
 that they were friends, the best of friends, and nothing 
 more, though they kept very much to themselves on 
 these occasions, going for long walks or rides all 
 day, and retiring to their private sitting-room after 
 dinner. 
 
 When they saw Captain Allward emerge from the 
 
246 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 telegraph office, Lex beat a retreat Into the house, 
 and Candida, who had met the soldier a good deal in 
 Yokohama, gave him a friendly nod and prepared 
 to rejoin her friends. But noticing the look of de- 
 spondency which had settled on his face, she came 
 forward to shake hands with him, and take the 
 opportunity of saying, in a voice which could not be 
 overheard : 
 
 " I think Miss Brema's gone inside to wait for you." 
 
 She smiled softly to herself as she said " I think." 
 She had never felt more certain of anything In her life. 
 
 She smiled further at the quickness with which the 
 wounded man disappeared into the house after Lex. 
 He just caught sight of Lex at the end of the corridor 
 which led to Lord Clapham's suite, and followed her. 
 
 She went into the little morning-room with a view 
 over the glen, which she shared with Chiquita. 
 
 Chiqulta was there. 
 
 Now, Chiquita could be generous about giving 
 presents and In other money matters, but she had 
 never been generous over men. If a man was nice 
 she did her best to annex him, and with her advantages 
 of looks and position she seldom failed. 
 
 But this man was an exception, and though Chiquita 
 would probably have refused him, like all the rest, 
 when he asked her to marry him, she had courted his 
 society and his admiration. 
 
 In affairs of the heart she had the quickness of her 
 race. She knew at a glance why Lex had tamely 
 allowed herself to be followed into the room, taking 
 the chance of its being empty, and she was very 
 mischievous as well as a woman scorned. But she, 
 too, like Candida, saw what was written in his face, 
 and after a momentary struggle with herself, she 
 decided to surrender. But she could not resist the 
 sarcasm of a ridiculous lie. 
 
 " My uncle wants me," she said. 
 
 It was not easy to contemplate Lord Clapham 
 venturing to make such a demand at Miyanoshlta, and 
 still less easy to imagine Chiquita paying any attention 
 to It unless she chose to. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 247 
 
 With this she fled incontinently. 
 
 The perversity of women is such that Lex felt 
 compelled to run after her and beg her not to consider 
 herself de trop. But she was taken prisoner at the 
 door, and marched back with her wrists in one of 
 Allward's big, strong hands. She did not attempt to 
 withdraw her hands, but surrendered at discretion. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 British society in Japan had changed more slowly 
 than usual during the eventful reign of Lord Clapham 
 at the British Legation, which was itself unusually 
 prolonged. It was a cruel sarcasm of Fate to send 
 him to Japan during such a decade. When he 
 accepted the appointment he expected it to be as dull 
 as Learned Societies. But Captain and Mrs. Allward 
 had gone home quietly, directly after their marriage, 
 and lately Tiffany had succeeded to the ancestral 
 honours and become Lord Bunbury. Finch had torn 
 himself away from a gallery of Japanese wives some- 
 time since, and been appointed to \Vashington, where 
 his really fine Japanese collection made him a person 
 of artistic distinction, and he had the immense satis- 
 faction of taking it all in duty free as a member of the 
 Diplomatic Corps of a Foreign Embassy. 
 
 Of Jevons I was growing very jealous, for he was 
 paying marked attention to Chiquita, who, at twenty- 
 six, was not so summary with admirers as she had 
 been at eighteen, though she showed no more dis- 
 position to marry them, when they came to the point. 
 
 For some reason or other^ it grated on me to see 
 her accepting attentions from him, though it was no 
 business of mine. I was not her keeper. 
 
 Candida was still Miss Begg, and Sir Randolph 
 Rich was still in Japan, and her very devoted slave. 
 This wonderful woman was now forty-two ; but the 
 healthy life she led in that exhilarating climate — long 
 hours each day in the open air, and completely un- 
 dressing and going to bed from after lunch till the 
 
 248 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 249 
 
 burden of the day was over in the hot weather, kept 
 her face as young as any ordinary woman's at five- 
 and-twenty; while her admirable figure did as much 
 credit to her admirable dressing as ever. Their 
 friendship was still recognised as scandal-proof, and 
 Rich, at thirty-two, was able to enter into her interests 
 far more. He played quite an intimate part, for 
 instance, in the glorification of the half-acre of the 
 Netheravon grounds which she gardened, and she had 
 taught him to enjoy works of travel and biographies 
 as well as novels, though he made no advance towards 
 essays, much less poetry, and had not progressed as 
 a collector or a sightseer. 
 
 His progress had been in a much more useful and 
 important direction— in his sphere as a Secretary of 
 Legation. It was not that he learnt a word of 
 Japanese, or became more expert in the matter of 
 dispatches, since he had succeeded first Finch as 
 Second Secretary of the Legation, and, later. Tiffany 
 as Secretary of Legation— a direct course of promotion 
 most unusual in British Diplomatic appointments, and 
 due to the combined influence of his relationship to 
 Lord Salrose, Lord Clapham's representations, and 
 Jevons' scheming. For Jevons had set his heart on 
 Great Britain's making an offensive and defensive 
 alliance with Japan, and saw in Rich the most useful 
 instrument towards achieving it. 
 
 Rich— the first time such a thing had happened in 
 the history of the foreign settlements in Japan— was 
 influential, both at Tokyo and Yokohama. He had 
 spent his time almost as much in the latter as in the 
 former, and as a frequenter of the Club and the con- 
 stant companion of the Sandys' and Candida, the most 
 popular figures in Yokohama society, he knew all the 
 leading English there. He was very popular, for he 
 excelled in sports, to which he was devoted, and though 
 so casual and reckless in his conversation, the baronet 
 and ex-Grenadier had lost all trace of snobbishness 
 under the levelling influence of a small community of 
 
2SO PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 exiles in a hot climate. In spite of certain mannerisms, 
 he was almost as natural as the delightful Candida. 
 
 In Tokyo his value lay in the fact that he had a title 
 and an easy swagger on his country's account long 
 after he had learnt to swagger on his own account. 
 
 He was a big, strong man, and very handsome, with 
 his crisply and resolutely-cut features, ruddy-tanned 
 face, and dare-devil blue eyes. He had never shaved 
 off the moustache he wore while in the Army; but 
 he kept it short, and it was so fair that you hardly 
 noticed it. He was very particular about the cut and 
 choice and grooming of his clothes, though like most 
 Guards' oflicers, he dressed plainly to the unobservant 
 eye. 
 
 He completely set the fashion to the Secretaries of 
 the various Legations. They generally ape the Eng- 
 lishman of good form in their attire and habits, and 
 in Rich they found a heaven-born general, while his 
 exploits of strength and courage made him the ideal 
 Englishman they had read so much about in novels. 
 He could not talk any of their languages, but they could 
 all talk his, English being the second language of 
 Japan, in which railway tickets, advertisements and 
 public notices are printed beside the native version, 
 and in which native officials carry on their intercourse 
 with foreigners. It is necessary for other countries 
 to send English-speaking Secretaries to their Lega- 
 tions, and since, when he was in Tokyo, he took his 
 meals at the Nobles' Club, where such of them as were 
 bachelors mostly took theirs, he saw a^^good deal of 
 them. 
 
 There were at this time two burning questions in 
 Japan — the lately-concluded Alliance with Great Britain 
 and the preparations for the War of Revenge against 
 Russia for robbing them of Port Arthur. Russia had 
 long since thrown off all disguise and perfidiously 
 seized this very port which she had objected to Japan's 
 occupying on account of its threatening the integrity 
 of China, Not that the Japanese ever talked of a 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 251 
 
 Revanche. They were far too diplomatic. They 
 pointed out instead that Russia's motto was only too 
 plainly " Delenda est Japan,'' and set about preparing 
 with a feverish intensity for the final struggle. ^ For 
 this reason they were overjoyed when Great Britain, 
 mistress of India and possessor of the most powerful 
 fleet maintained by any European nation in Eastern 
 seas, concluded a defensive alliance with them on the 
 basis that if either Power were attacked by more than 
 one nation, the other should declare war on its behalf. 
 
 On the face of things this was a very one-sided 
 arrangement. Japan seemed such a little Power to 
 come to the assistance of Great Britain, and while 
 there seemed every chance of Great Britain being called 
 to fulfil her part of the compact, her attitude to the 
 other European nations had been so insanely pacific 
 for half a century past, that Japan might never have 
 to take up the cudgels on her behalf. Few Europeans 
 were aware of the immense power which Japan had 
 built up by the unwearying training of soldiers and 
 sailors, the accumulation of magnificent ships and 
 artillery and all manner of warlike stores, the establish- 
 ment of a vast network of spies, and a minuteness of 
 geographical study in the future theatre of war, which 
 had no parallel in history. 
 
 These advantages, of course, lost nothing in im- 
 portance when Jevons was dwelling on them, and he 
 received an unexpected ally in Rich. 
 
 Not that Rich was at all aware that Japan had 
 become one of the Great Powers in fighting capacity — 
 one of the " heavy-weights " as he would have de- 
 scribed it in his sporting tongue. What he did think 
 on this side of the question was that the Japanese, 
 being Orientals, and vastly well informed by their 
 spies, would be sure to get in the first blows, and 
 might deal such damage as would cripple the other 
 Power till Great Britain had time to come up ; and 
 that the British, with a proper intelligence department 
 for the first time in their history, would astonish their 
 
252 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 enemies and give a good account of any number of 
 nations they might " have to take on." 
 
 Now Rich was no longer blazingly indiscreet as he 
 had been in his first days at the Legation, so when he 
 was talking to the Russians, the Germans and the 
 French at the Nobles' Club, he did not air these 
 sentiments, but brought into the argument, in his own 
 vehement and picturesque smoking-room style, the 
 unimpeachable sentiments of Orlando Jevons, whom 
 he had so often heard declaring at Lord Clapham's 
 table that it " had not become recognised that Japan 
 was one of the great civilizing factors in the East, 
 and that interference with her mission by a combination 
 of Powers which did not understand the true inwardness 
 of the Eastern situation, but regarded everything from 
 the restricted point of view of the balance of power 
 in Europe, was a thing to be avoided at all costs." 
 
 " Of course there never would be a war like this," he 
 said to them. " The Powers were not going to plunge 
 Europe into war for the sake of concessions to stock- 
 brokers in the parts of China which were going cheap 
 — that's where the value of the British Alliance came 
 in. If they were not modest, they would have to put 
 up their fists. But if it was only a case of a syndicate 
 of Powers to squeeze Japan, they might play it low 
 again, as they did after she had shown her pluck and 
 half ruined herself by the war with China. You got 
 your whack of China," he said, turning to the Graf 
 von Nehmen. " You collared Port Arthur, and don't 
 seem in any hurry to leave off taking care of Man- 
 churia," he said to Grabolski. " And you — I don't 
 know what you got out of it, except Grabolski's 
 gratitude — you seemed to get about as little as Japan," 
 he said to M. Dodo, the Frenchman, laughing in his 
 jolly way, so as not to seem as if he meant it. 
 
 And they did not take him as seriously as he meant 
 it ; but it served, and in the English circle in Tokyo, 
 Rich's going about saying that the Japs were a damned 
 plucky lot and would make a jolly good ally for anybody 
 had a considerable effect. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 253 
 
 Yokohama was not so easily to be moved. The 
 British merchants had their own idea about things, of 
 which the most distinct was that Great Britain had 
 just committed a crowning act of folly. They did not 
 yet feel reassured on the subject of their persons and 
 their property having passed under Japanese juris- 
 diction, and they had not availed themselves to any 
 extent of the new extension of trading privileges, 
 because they still had their doubts as to whether it 
 would be possible to go on trading in Japan under 
 Japanese law. 
 
 That Great Britain, after deliberately putting her 
 subjects at the mercy of a semi-barbarous Power, had 
 now made herself responsible for the protection of that 
 Power in case its attitude to other countries brought 
 it into collision with them, seemed perfect madness. 
 Even Philip Sandys had grave doubts, though he was, 
 as usual, among the most moderate of the Yokohama 
 British in their attitude towards the Japanese. 
 
 But if it had not been for Rich, the growlings would 
 have been much louder. As a member of the Legation 
 he might have access to certain information which they 
 had not, though he naturally would not be able to use 
 it in arguing. Nor did they attach much value to his 
 arguing, in which most of them were his superiors. 
 Englishmen do a great deal of talking when they live 
 in a country like Japan, where they have not much 
 to do after dusk. Even Yokohama has no English 
 theatre. 
 
 But, though they hardly listened to his arguments, 
 they were impressed by his attitude. No one could 
 mistake Rich for a Little Englander ; he was a regular 
 " You-be-damned-John Bull," and the fact that he was 
 in favour of the Alliance counted with the people with 
 whom his personality was important. 
 
 Candida and Mrs. Sandys would have been a drag 
 upon Sandys' taking an active part against the 
 Alliance, for they were naturally pleased at the idea of 
 an alliance between the country of their race and the 
 country of their birth. 
 
254 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 Rich was in Yokotiama now ; a ball was going on at 
 the Grand Hotel, and he had gone over from Tokyo 
 to take Candida to it. She was, as everything about 
 her would have suggested, an exquisite dancer, but 
 it was so hot that you could not dance without rushing 
 off for a lemon squash the moment the music stopped. 
 So they sat down in one of the little alcoves, made of 
 branches of trees, along the edge of the ball-room. 
 The branches sprang out of tubs of earth, and looked 
 as if they were growing. Japanese gardeners are 
 very clever at this kind of thing. She and Rich enjoyed 
 sitting still and inspecting the globe-trotters, who were 
 very numerous, and had not yet learnt to respect the 
 climate. 
 
 " You are very distrait," said Candida, touching 
 him. 
 
 " I was looking at that girl." 
 
 ** What girl? Is she so nice that there is only 
 one in the room for you? " 
 
 '* That girl there," he said, pointing with his eyes. 
 " Did you ever see such health as that complexion! 
 Her hair is like gold wire." 
 
 " That's what you always say when you are very 
 much gone. . . Oh, that girl? She certainly does 
 extinguish the rest." 
 
 The girl was superb ; a well-set-up woman in beauti- 
 ful clothes, all smiles, with a lovely sunburnt face, 
 which grew rosy with pleasure when she found a good 
 partner. Candida found an additional charm in her 
 — her features and her colouring were so suggestive 
 of Rich's own. They could hardly take their eyes off 
 her, either of them, for the rest of the evening. She 
 danced beautifully and walked beautifully, and seemed 
 a charmingly natural woman. She had evidently come 
 by some ship which had brought a very large number 
 of passengers ; she knew so many people. 
 
 When Rich came down the next morning at the Club, 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 255 
 
 fairly late, for he had stayed talking to Candida when 
 he took her home, and was never the earliest of risers, 
 he found a note forw^arded from Tokyo. 
 
 Grand Hotel, 
 
 Yokohama, 
 
 J th, 1903. 
 
 Dear Cousin Randolph, 
 
 Don't be cross with me. I know you went 
 out to Japan to get away from me, and I expect you 
 did not try very hard to get leave to come home when 
 I wrote to you, though I have seen by the papers that 
 things have been rather disturbed in Japan. So I 
 thought I could come out and see you here to settle 
 the question of our marriage. It's so very awkward 
 to be engaged to a man who does not want to marry 
 you. 
 
 I am still, 
 
 Your affectionate cousin, 
 
 HoxoRiA Rich. 
 
 ** Good old Honoria, good little Honoria," he said. 
 " She did get in one or two. Fancy that little red 
 flapper twigging that I told the Chief that I didn't 
 want the leave. And she signs herself ' still your 
 affectionate cousin, Honoria!' Things are getting 
 serious, Randolph Rich." 
 
 He called one of the Japanese waiters. " Boy, bring 
 me paper and envelope." 
 
 " You want pen, ink, blotting-paper? " 
 
 Japanese breakfasts are rather elaborate affairs, and 
 he went pretty well through the card that morning 
 collecting his ideas as he munched. You order by 
 numbers in Japan — and he had called for Number One 
 — porridge and cream ; Number Two — fried garfish ; 
 Number Three — bacon and eggs ; Number Five — 
 mutton chops. He missed out beefsteak, which was 
 
256 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 Number Four; took potato chips, which was Number 
 Six ; and wound up with curry, Number Eight, and 
 assorted fruits, Number Nine. 
 
 He laughed as he gave the order Number Nine. 
 He drank bottled Bass, deliciously iced, with this 
 egregious meal, and finally committed his thoughts to 
 paper. He had taken plenty of time for consideration 
 in comparison with the very moderate length of the 
 chit which he scribbled off in a large, boyish hand. 
 
 United Club, 
 
 Yokohama, 
 
 J th, 1903. 
 
 Dear Honoria, 
 
 I am a cad to have kept you waiting like this. 
 I am not going to marry you, and I can't marry anyone 
 else, because I couldn't do without that five hundred. 
 
 Your aff. cousin, 
 
 Randolph Rich. 
 
 " That means * your affectionate cousin,' " he said 
 to himself. *' What a lie! But I shall be I daresay, 
 when she is safely married." 
 
 He called the waiter again. 
 
 ** Boy, send a riksha to the Grand Hotel with this 
 chit." 
 
 Then he went out into the verandah and ordered 
 another pint of the Bass — it was iced so exactly to his 
 liking — and had just lit a choice cigar, with a sigh for 
 the good old days when there were no tobacco duties 
 in Japan (though he allowed himself to smoke exactly 
 the same tobacco as before and never paid for any of 
 it except with the accommodating chit), when the 
 riksha boy came back, and dropping his shafts on the 
 road, stepped up into the verandah with a profound 
 salaam to hand him a reply. 
 
 ** Oh, damn the woman," he said. " Isn't she 
 going to give me any peace? " 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 257 
 
 He did not open the chit for about five minutes. It 
 ran : — 
 
 Grand Hotel, 
 
 Yokohama, 
 
 J th, 1903. 
 
 Dear Cousin Randolph, 
 
 As I have come twelve thousand miles to see 
 you, perhaps you won't object to sparing me half an 
 hour of your valuable time. The subject is rather too 
 large to settle in five lines of your writing. I don't 
 suppose that you will eat much tiflfin to-day, as I hear 
 you are still at breakfast. Will you dine with me? We 
 can dine in the public room if you are afraid of me. 
 
 Your affectionate cousin, 
 
 HONORIA. 
 
 " I like Honoria's vigorous way of expressing her- 
 self," he said, *' and I don't know what question could 
 be satisfactorily settled in five lines of my writing. 
 But I think we'll dine in the coffee-room — a girl who 
 can write a letter like that might be unpleasantly 
 vigorous if we were alone." 
 
 He wrote back : 
 
 The United Club, 
 
 Yokohama, 
 
 J th, 1903. 
 
 Dear Honoria, 
 
 Many thanks for your invitation. I shall be 
 delighted to dine with you at table d'hote to-night. 
 Dinner will give us a good opportunity for discussing 
 things. 
 
 Your aff. cousin, 
 
 Randolph. 
 
 He arrived a few minutes before the bell rang for 
 table d'hote. There were a good many people standing 
 and sitting about the hall. Among them, conspicuously 
 
 R 
 
258 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 well-dressed as at the ball, and still all in black, was 
 his beauty. About half a dozen men at once, the pick 
 probably of the ship-load, were trying to engage her 
 attention. 
 
 " Good business I accepted," he thought. " I might 
 get to know her. I needn't stay long with Honoria 
 after dinner. . . Boy! " he called, ''fetch me the 
 hall-porter." 
 
 The hall-porter, a German, arrived very deferentially ; 
 he had a lofty idea of British titles, and was aware 
 that Sir Randolph was the real head of foreign society 
 in Japan, that he set the fashion to the other Legations, 
 who tried to live up to him — in vain. 
 
 " Where shall I find Miss Rich? " he asked. 
 
 The man led the way, bowing, to his beauty. 
 
 She had taken the grand suite, which also impressed 
 the Teutonic mind. 
 
 '* Secretary of Legation, Sir Randolph Rich," he 
 announced pompously. 
 
 " Get out you fool," said the baronet contemptu- 
 ously. 
 
 There was laughter in the Beauty's eyes as she 
 rose, though the air was so thunder-charged. They 
 were the only two Riches in the world of their ancient 
 family, and they had been separated for years by half 
 the world, and were only meeting now to settle the 
 time-honoured difference which had driven him to 
 exile. 
 
 ** Are you Miss Rich? " he asked hesitatingly. He 
 was dumbfounded at the girl's beauty and breeding 
 and obvious spirit. 
 
 "I'm Honoria," she said with dignity. 
 
 " And I'm Randolph." 
 
 One of Rich's nice characteristics was a sort of 
 modesty or boyish shyness when he was very much 
 impressed, and the effect of her appearance on him 
 was not lost upon Honoria, who was, however, 
 merciful. 
 
 His tongue was the less ready because he was 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 259 
 
 cursing his stars for having insisted on dining in the 
 public room. If only they had been dining in her 
 apartments he might have had some chance of apologis- 
 ing and getting back to the cousinly footing which 
 he was afraid he had lost. To do him justice, he did 
 not once think of the twenty thousand a year which 
 he had only that morning finally rejected with the 
 hand of this woman. They exchanged commonplaces 
 till the dinner-bell rang. His spirits rose a little as the 
 waiter conducted them to a table for two in the corner. 
 
 Honoria apologised. 
 
 " If we had dined at the long table, we must have 
 sat next to my gonvernanie, and I thought you might 
 prefer not to discuss family affairs before her." 
 
 " Thanks awfully," he said in his impulsive way, 
 not really listening to her explanation, in his relief at 
 finding that they w^ere to have a tete-a-tete. He expected 
 to be handled pretty severely, but his fears on that score 
 had vanished when he contemplated what a waste it 
 would have been to dine at the table d'hote. Not that 
 he was apparently going to get much change out of it. 
 She asked him in the orthodox way to choose which 
 brand of champagne they should drink, and if there 
 was any other wine he wished to begin with, and then 
 relapsed into silence. 
 
 Meanwhile tongues were busy. There is nothing to 
 talk about in Japan except sight-seeing and scandal, 
 for the world is forgotten. But people had not for- 
 gotten that, at the ball of the night before, the pair 
 who were dining together so intimately had not even 
 been acquainted. 
 
 *' What a minx," said Mrs. Tudor-Rose. She was 
 dining with her mother, a lady with an even higher 
 colour than her own, who had come out to Japan to 
 see them. 
 
 " Rich is eclipsing himself," said her husband. He 
 had a particular dislike to Sir Randolph, who had long 
 since made up his mind that Mr. Tudor-Rose was a 
 rotter, and was at no pains to conceal his opinion. 
 
26o PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 " They might be husband and wife! " IVIrs. Rose 
 had an evil tongue which gave her, though she did 
 not know it, her entree to the Legation, where she used 
 to regale Chiquita with talk about the Tiffanys. 
 
 The cousins said nothing of account to each other 
 during that first part of dinner — they were occupied 
 in focussing each other with the unobtrusiveness of 
 good breeding. Honoria had set the cue and Rich 
 had taken it. For himself he would have been willing 
 enough to "be jolly," as he called it, after he had 
 had a glass or two of champagne to temper his awe 
 of the woman whom he had treated so badly. 
 
 When the dinner was cleared away, and the dessert 
 was put on the table, she said : 
 
 ** Hadn't we better have our talk now, as we neither 
 of us wish to marry each other? " 
 
 Rich, who had been dining well, as things had been 
 so difficult, was not so sure on this point. If he had 
 thought his cousin beautiful while he was watching 
 her in the distance as a stranger, his admiration was 
 doubled by the fresh points closer observation brought 
 out, and by the dignity with which she paralyzed him. 
 
 " I thought it rather unkind of you to write me such 
 a very curt note after I had come all the way from 
 England to see you," she remarked with heightening 
 colour. 
 
 ** It wasn't because I didn't take time over it," he 
 said, apologetically. ** It took me a solid hour to 
 compose." 
 
 ** And you did begin with a sort of apology, you 
 were going to add? " 
 
 " Oh, no, I wasn't," he said with a gruesome smile. 
 " I was going to take my punishment lying down." 
 
 '* What? " she asked, frowning at the familiarity 
 of the slang, but with a sparkle in her eyes which he 
 did not see because he was looking at the cherry-stones 
 on his plate. They seemed to need counting. 
 
 " I've nothing else to say." 
 
 ** Well, I'll excuse the tone of the letter, as it took 
 you so long to write ! And I am to take it as a 
 definite refusal to marry me? " 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 261 
 
 Randolph was silent. Nothing was further from his 
 wishes than to cut himself off irrevocably from_ mar- 
 riage with this superb young cousin, but he considered 
 himself pledged to Candida, to whom he was devoted. 
 No brother or sister could have been as dear to him 
 as Candida, the charming and clever and whole-souled 
 woman who had given him the inestimable boon of 
 her companionship for seven years past — more than 
 that, given him his life as he well knew. Only he 
 knew now that he had never been in love with her 
 as he could be in love with this girl, before the night 
 was over, if the recording angel had not been there 
 to drive him forth from his Eden with a flaming sword. 
 
 '• Just my damned luck," he was saying to himself, 
 and Honoria guessed exactly what was passing through 
 his uncomplex mind. 
 
 *• Well? " she said, with the peculiar intonation by 
 which women make that harmless particle ask incon- 
 venient questions. 
 
 " I don't want to say that exactly." 
 
 " Was your letter meant to leave the matter in- 
 definite? " she asked maliciously. ** You seem to find 
 a great difficulty in expressing yourself— on paper." 
 
 •* No," he said with a touch of doggedness which 
 was in keeping with his courageous nature; " I did 
 not mean it to be indefinite." 
 
 ** Perhaps you had not seen me when you wrote it? " 
 She caught a look of admiration in his eyes, which 
 she had intended to arouse, and grimly changed the 
 tone of the remark by adding: "To know whether 
 I should disgrace you or not " 
 
 He began to protest, but she continued mercilessly, 
 " By being a red-faced woman instead of a little red- 
 faced flapper." 
 
 *' No, I had seen you." 
 
 " I didn't pass muster? " 
 
 •* It wasn't that. . ." 
 
 " What was it then? " she asked. She had not the 
 least desire to spare him. 
 
 " I didn't know that it was you," he said, laughing 
 in spite of himself. 
 
262 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 " Where did you see me? " she asked inconse- 
 quently. 
 
 *• At the ball." 
 
 " So you did condescend to notice me? " 
 
 " Honoria," he said, looking her straight in the 
 eyes, " I'm no good at this kind of game. Of course 
 we noticed you. We thought you the most beautiful 
 thing we had ever seen." 
 
 " Oh, you are married then? I think you might 
 have sent a cable when you got mine and Mr. Payne's 
 letters." 
 
 " No, I'm not married," he said, " and less than 
 ever likely to be," he added gloomily. " I was talking 
 to Candida." 
 
 " Candida! " she repeated, elevating her eyebrows. 
 
 ** Candida Begg, the best ' fellow ' in the world." 
 
 A glimmering began to penetrate Honoria's brain, 
 which placed her cousin in a more sympathetic, if not 
 more satisfactory, light. There was another woman 
 in the case, to whom he was loyal. 
 
 " I've come too late," she said more good-naturedly. 
 
 ** You have," he answered, with a gloominess which 
 had a ring of sincerity that fairly astonished her. 
 
 " There's Candida! " 
 
 " Yes," he said, not blushing or confused, but with 
 a ring of enthusiasm instead of the gloominess in his 
 voice. 
 
 " I must see Candida," she remarked, with decision. 
 
 " All right," he said, with boyish ardour. " We'll 
 call for you to-morrow in rikshas and go and buy silk 
 handkerchiefs together. That's the foundation of every 
 new friendship between foreigners in Japan." 
 
 "Very well," she said; "what time will you be 
 here? " 
 
 " About eleven." 
 
 " Can you manage it as early as that? " she asked 
 with concern. 
 
 " Yes," he said quite simply. " I get up late, not 
 because I find it hard to get up early, but because 
 there isn't anything to do when I am up." 
 
 " How about the Legation which could not spare 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 263 
 
 you when Lord Salrose gave you leave to go to 
 England? " . ,, 
 
 " I get up just in time to go to it. 
 
 " I won't ask you when that is." 
 
 The pleasantest part of the whole evening was the 
 ffood-bve when she came to the door, and, in the 
 courtesies of a hostess, allowed him to see for a second 
 how delightful the woman could have been. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 The meeting between Honoria and Candida was 
 fraught with considerable interest to both of them. 
 Honoria did not believe that Candida would come, 
 as it were, at Randolph's bidding, and having heard 
 that she was ten years older than her cousin, was a 
 little unfavourably prepossessed. Randolph was the 
 type of man over whom women past a certain age 
 made fools of themselves, even supposing her not to 
 be an adventuress. On the other hand, Candida could 
 not but be disturbed at finding that the woman whose 
 beauty had carried both Randolph and herself away, 
 was the cousin whom it was intended that he should 
 marry under his uncle's will. Randolph would be 
 more than human if out of fidelity to herself he refused 
 such a splendid heritage, along with the hand of such 
 a lovely woman. 
 
 In the interval, both women, very high-spirited and 
 courageous, were anxious for the meeting, so as to 
 take each other's measure. 
 
 The good Randolph, as the French would have called 
 him, did not see the difficulties — he had an idea that 
 it would be easier for him if two such nice women met 
 and found there was no harm in each other. So 
 at eleven o'clock he and Candida rattled up to the 
 Grand Hotel in their rikshas^ and were shown up to 
 Honoria's suite. 
 
 There was no doubt about Honoria's dressmaker, 
 he was glad of that; and she had the sense to find 
 sufficient mourning in a broad black sash. The 
 Japanese summer demands concessions. 
 
 She paid her visitors the compliment of being ready, 
 even to the extent of holding her parasol. 
 
 The two women met cordially. At a glance they 
 
 264 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 265 
 
 knew that they could respect each other. Yet it was 
 doubtful which had the more mixed feehngs. Honoria 
 could see that Candida was no adventuress. ^ She 
 regarded it as great good fortune for a man like her 
 cousin, stranded in Japan, to have absorbed the friend- 
 ship of such a woman. But supposing that her own 
 marriage with her cousin came on the tapis again, she 
 felt that the way Candida might regard it must be 
 treated as a factor of the greatest importance. 
 
 Candida, on the other hand, not only recognised that 
 the situation was changed by the remarkable beauty 
 and charm of the girl to whom his uncle's will related, 
 but she also saw that the poison was working already. 
 At a glance she knew that his cousin's personality had 
 affected Randolph, as neither she nor any other woman 
 in Japan had ever affected him. He might not be in 
 love with her yet, or might not know it, but she was 
 the woman he would fall in love with. 
 
 What did the future hold in its lap? Was she, 
 Candida, to accept her fate like a lamb led to the 
 slaughter, or was she to take her part in the moulding 
 of her life as she always had done? 
 
 There was one master decision awaiting her con- 
 sideration. She loved Randolph with her whole heart. 
 Was her love to make her selfish, and spend itself in 
 binding Randolph to her, or was it to make her 
 recognise that the best way she could show her 
 affection was by forcing him to accept the good fortune 
 provided for him. 
 
 The two women wasted no time in discovering that 
 they could tolerate each other. Indeed, when she and 
 Randolph got home to lunch, Candida, with praise- 
 worthy honesty, said: ^^ 
 
 ** The girl is as charming as she is pretty, Dick.' 
 
 " And that afternoon, with characteristic mag- 
 nanimity, she wrote to Chiquita, with whom she had 
 again become intimate as the excitement over the Boer 
 War died down : — 
 
 ''That cousin Dick has always been talking about 
 is in Yokohama, staying at the Grand. Ask her up to 
 Tokyo, and make him marry her, there's a dear." 
 
266 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 To which Chiquita, who did not care whom he 
 married, so long as the marriage did not involve the 
 sacrifice of her dear Candida to a man who was not 
 the right husband for her, replied: " All right, if you 
 will bring her." 
 
 There was no awkwardness about the invitation. 
 Honoria's father and Lord Clapham had been life-long 
 friends, and Chiquita, like all her countrywomen, was 
 a match-maker. She would thoroughly enjoy making 
 Rich marry the little red-faced cousin, whose name he 
 had so often taken in vain. 
 
 When they arrived, it was Chiquita 's turn to be 
 astonished. Candida had said nothing about Honoria's 
 personal appearance. Chiquita saw before her one of 
 the superb English aristocrats who put all other women 
 into the shade when they make their Easter invasion 
 of the Rooms at Monte Carlo with their height, their 
 carriage, their lovely bright colouring, and golden hair 
 — but withal a gracious, natural girl. 
 
 Chiquita stole a look at Rich, who had escorted 
 them up from Yokohama. She knew in that glance 
 that there was no occasion for her to interfere to 
 bring Rich to his knees. This was a matter in which 
 she could decide with absolute confidence, as he had 
 made her the offer of his future title more than once ; 
 and she had submitted to many pettings from him 
 when she was in the mood. 
 
 She anticipated much more trouble from the other 
 side. Why should a lovely woman with all that 
 money wish to saddle herself with an empty-headed 
 practical joker like Randolph Rich? She herself had 
 given him instantaneous refusals, lonely as she was in 
 Japan ; and it had been her nightmare that Candida 
 might drift into marrying him. 
 
 Honoria rather puzzled her. That she had set a 
 price on herself, that she was not to be had for the 
 asking was natural enough. It did not seem to have 
 so much connection with her great fortune as with 
 the slights she had received from Randolph. That 
 Chiquita could also understand, and gave her due credit 
 for it. What she could less understand was that in 
 Randolph, the man, Honoria saw no particular short- 
 comings, though she might not reciprocate his affection. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 267 
 
 But this was not really so odd as it seemed to 
 Chlquita. In England, in his own hunting and house- 
 party set, Randolph's idleness and rowdiness would 
 not have been exceptional, while his strength and pluck 
 and skill in all kinds of sport and games were ex- 
 ceptional. At Tokyo he had been a round peg in a 
 square hole, till the influence which he exercised 
 had such an unexpected weight in the politics of the 
 Settlement. 
 
 A whole month passed in parties at the various 
 Legations and excursions, and latterly in curio- 
 shopping. In the first two they had a good deal of 
 Randolph's society; and in the first especially I 
 had many opportunities for observing them. My 
 footing at the British Legation had now become so 
 intimate that I had the run of the other Legations, 
 where my knowledge of the Japanese language made 
 me really welcome when once they had come to know 
 me. No matter what the capital is, one feature of 
 its diplomatic corps is sure to be the marked insularity 
 of the British representatives compared to the rest. 
 The others, with local exceptions, try to enter into the 
 life of the people to whom they are accredited. The 
 Britons try to set up a Little Britain in partibus 
 in-fidelium, which Little Britain, it should be observed, 
 is associated with ideas exactly opposite to those of 
 Little Englanders. The Little Englander abroad out- 
 Herods Herod — he not only appreciates the country in 
 which he finds himself, but compares everything in it 
 w^ith the corresponding English institution or article 
 to the confounding of the latter. He would find the 
 genuine Brown Windsor Soap of English manufacture 
 inferior to the stony-hearted imitations current from 
 Japan to Italy. The one thing in which he is patriotic 
 is a preference for whiskey made in Scotland. Only 
 Americans yield to the fascinations of the four-franc 
 variety concocted in France. It is to be observed also 
 that the ultra - Britishness of British Legations is 
 balanced by no corresponding fervour in looking after 
 the interests of Great Britain or individual Britons. 
 It exists solely as a form of swagger, like the correct 
 crease in the trousers, for the junior members of 
 British diplomatic staffs. 
 
268 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 The care taken by other countries to send English- 
 speaking Secretaries to Japan made up for my un- 
 fortunate ignorance of any hmguage but my own and 
 Japanese. I made many pleasant friendships amongst 
 them in my capacities of collector and antiquary, for 
 most of them had some small hobby of the sort, and 
 one or two had got themselves appointed for the 
 purpose of collecting or studying. 
 
 Rich naturally accompanied his cousin to the parties, 
 because it was as his cousin, and not as the guest of 
 the British Legation, that she had been invited to the 
 first with such enthusiasm. When she had been to 
 one party, there would naturally have been as great 
 a competition for her presence at the others, if she 
 had no introductions at all. 
 
 Before she had been in Japan a week, anybody could 
 see that Rich was hopelessly in love with his cousin. 
 I use the word with the double meaning that Rich 
 was unable to control his feelings, and that Miss Rich 
 gave him no encouragement. 
 
 Not that she was not extremely nice to him at 
 parties. It was really all to his advantage in his 
 suit that she was so firm in avoiding him on other 
 occasions, as, for instance, after dinner in our own 
 Legation, where he was always welcome to drop in 
 to any meal, and indeed rather expected to turn up 
 while his cousin was staying there. 
 
 In a Ute-a-tetey in a little after-dinner group, he 
 could be very tiresome if you were not in the mood 
 for his jocosities or flirtations. But at a big garden 
 party at one of the Tokyo Legations Sir Randolph 
 was so obviously the man, and was so careful about 
 his behaviour so that nobody should have a word to 
 say against English form, that anyone would have 
 been favourably impressed with him, especially the 
 patriotic Honoria, whose flesh and blood he was. 
 
 In excursions, too, she could not help liking him. 
 Sometimes they all drove, more often they made up 
 riding parties, and there was a good deal of al fresco 
 picnicking. In all the little contretemps which occur 
 on these occasions, even where you had the assiduous 
 Japanese servant to wait upon you, he was always the 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 269 
 
 handy man, always good-natured, never too tired or too 
 hot to do anything, and what he lacked in the power of 
 aesthetic enjoyment he made up in his hearty enjoyment 
 of trifles. 
 
 I was taken on all of their expeditions, for which I 
 had time, because Honoria was no fool, and liked to 
 look at the things which she went to see, and be told 
 all about them. I was rather gratified to note that 
 Chiquita seldom went if I did not, and that when I 
 was showing Honoria over anything she always 
 accompanied us and took a most intelligent interest 
 in what I was saying. I thought, too, that Candida 
 was grateful for my presence, for Rich made no 
 pretence of being interested in what Honoria was 
 seeing. I had rather expected that he would simulate 
 a desire to see everything, though he might not possess 
 it ; Honoria was so intent upon looking at things that 
 he could have looked at her, and he was generally look- 
 ing at her when he could do so without her noticing it. 
 
 But whenever she went in to see a thing he simply 
 waited outside like a dog until she had done. Candida 
 noticed it, and took compassion on him. It began with 
 compassion, but as time went on I thought that those 
 interludes made Candida's day. For years she had 
 been the tenant of almost every leisure thought of 
 Rich's, and now the glorious personality of Honoria 
 had intruded itself on the scene. 
 
 Honoria's personality was glorious. We others, 
 who were not in disgrace like Rich, basked in its full 
 sunshine. She was almost as lovely as Mrs. Sandys 
 when I first saw her, and was the most superbly-made 
 woman I ever saw. She was so tall and so majestic 
 without the least sacrifice of grace and activity. And 
 her colouring was simply adorable under its ruddy 
 sunburn, though it was easy to see that in England 
 its rose and white must have been lovelier still. But 
 one of the most delightful things about her was that, in 
 spite of her pride (of whose wounds Rich was so pain- 
 fully conscious) she had, at the very threshold of 
 womanhood, the graciousness and ease of women like 
 Mrs. Sandys and Candida. If Rich had not been an 
 idiot, he might have been the happiest man alive. 
 
270 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 The time which hung heaviest on her hands was 
 the morning, when the men of the various Legations 
 were at their offices. I, of course, except on festival 
 days, could not take their place, for I was still more 
 tied at the Dai Gakku. 
 
 Candida, who was feeling worried away from her 
 garden and her books, and compelled when she was 
 in the house to kill time in the aimless way which was 
 natural to Chiquita, suggested that they should take 
 rikshas and go out curio-shopping. Honoria eagerly 
 assented ; she was accustomed to kill time at Rich- 
 borough, but she killed it in the open air, not inside 
 a house kept almost as dark as night to exclude the 
 heat. Candida did not know very well where to go 
 in Tokyo, but the riksha boys took them to the most 
 expensive shops, which also happened to be the best, 
 and suited Honoria well enough. Her pocket was 
 deep, and they sold the kind of pieces suited for the 
 decoration of rich Europeans' houses. Candida, being 
 a resident in Japan, had the sense to advise her to 
 bring Mr. Sandys or some other expert — she even 
 mentioned my name — to see them before closing with 
 the dealer. 
 
 That day's shopping whetted Honoria's appetite for 
 curio-shopping, a delightful occupation if you have 
 got twenty thousand a year and have not yet got 
 large ideas of the kind of pieces which are worth your 
 attention. 
 
 Honoria, being in an excitement to complete her 
 purchases, was sure that I should do perfectly well, 
 and I went with them on the following afternoon. I 
 did not give her the mortifications which many residents 
 delight in inflicting on globe-trotters, of pronouncing 
 the whole lot rubbish, vamped up for the European 
 market. But I got her to let me buy for her, at a 
 saving of forty or fifty per cent., which I recommended 
 her to lay out in other objects of the same class — fine 
 modern Japanese work made to stand the heated 
 atmosphere of European rooms, which is so fatal to 
 the glue of some of the best old pieces, since the 
 Japanese do not use fires. I guessed that a woman 
 like Honoria, if she were fitting up a Japanese room 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 271 
 
 at RichboroLigh, would prefer things which were of 
 some conceivable use, instead of what was to her 
 artistic lumber. But I said : 
 
 " You must not only buy furniture— there are heaps 
 of exquisite knick-knacks which repay collection even 
 as an investment, and make your house enviable and 
 famous at the expenditure of only a few hundred 
 pounds." Rich had so often complained of Honoria's 
 income being offered him as a bribe, that its amount 
 was common hearsay in Japan. 
 
 I offered to take her and Candida to a lot of good 
 curio-shops down in the heart of the native city near 
 the Nihombashi, and to do her bargaining for her. 
 She was delighted, and the plan worked very well at 
 first, for Rich stayed outside, or sometimes came in, 
 with Candida, while Honoria and I were hard at work 
 over our purchases. We went out every afternoon as 
 soon as ever I got away from the Dai Gakku and 
 had had a cup of tea. 
 
 But curio-buying is a passion which grows on you 
 at an alarming rate. Honoria's purchases took so 
 long that Rich got tired of waiting for her, when the 
 same thing happened at shop after shop. He tailed 
 off in his attendances, and then Candida found that 
 the long waiting was too much for her too. She was 
 not at all well, for one thing ; she was feeling run down. 
 Things might have cured themselves if Rich and 
 Candida had only gone out for rides together, like 
 they used to, but Rich had grown restless when he 
 was out of the society of Honoria, and Candida, though 
 she said nothing, was horribly hurt by the discovery. 
 
 We were all right, for Chiquita offered to chaperone 
 Honoria, and her patience was limitless of its kind, 
 though when she did not want to be patient she was 
 a demon of impatience. She had never done any curio- 
 shopping in the curious dens near the Nihombashi, and 
 between Shiba and Shlnagawa, to which I was now 
 taking Honoria. She hated the European curio-shops 
 in the Ginza, to which Candida had taken her. But 
 ferreting about in the godowns of my sort of curio- 
 shop, with withered old Japanese collectors as gnarled 
 as their fir-trees, waited on by the quaintest servants, 
 
272 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 tickled her immensely. There was so much interest 
 to be got out of them — as much as there is to be got 
 out of watching the Japanese farmer coaxing his 
 miniature estate. Chiquita enjoyed herself immensely, 
 and told everyone about it ; she was quite full of it. 
 
 Rich felt rather sorry for himself, but consoled himself 
 with reading the newspapers at the Legation instead 
 of at the Nobles' Club, which had been his wont. 
 The only complaint that passed his lips was, ** Why 
 the blazes doesn't the old man take in the Field instead 
 of Nature? They are both about Nature, only one's 
 the kind of thing you want to read and the other isn't." 
 
 Candida had to lie dow^n all the afternoon. Dull as 
 he was, he was almost glad of this, for he was such 
 a warm-hearted man that it was very painful to him to 
 notice that she was aware of the change in him. When 
 he remembered, he played the gentle hypocrite, but he 
 was always forgetting, just as he used to forget that 
 he was in form when we were at school, and whistle 
 or sing till the master came down upon him like a 
 steam-hammer. I remember to this day how much 
 cleverer one master was who, instead of saying any- 
 thing to him, directed the ridicule of the class to the 
 quality of his voice. Rich never could sing in tune, 
 and he whistled like a stuffed-up dog-whistle. 
 
 From going out curio-hunting together Chiquita and 
 Honoria took to going out on other kinds of ex- 
 peditions. One afternoon we had arranged to go to 
 the Asakusa Temple to see the side-shows. This was 
 Chiquita's suggestion. She was very fond of watching 
 the poor Japanese amusing themselves. A little while 
 before we were going to start, Honoria went into the 
 smoking-room, where the papers were kept, and found 
 Rich there. 
 
 " Do you often come here in the afternoon? " she 
 asked, remembering that we generally found him there 
 when we came back from our shopping. 
 
 " Pretty well every afternoon," he said. 
 
 Honoria saw the situation at a glance, for a man 
 like her cousin to spend such weather indoors was a 
 kind of revolution. And a woman's intuition supplied 
 her with the reason. He could not stand the waiting 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 273 
 
 in the curio-shops, but he did not wish to miss a 
 minute of the talk he had with her when she laid all 
 the treasures acquired in the day out on the big oval 
 table. 
 
 "How selfish we all are!" she said impulsively. 
 " Now that poor Candida is seedy you don't get your 
 ride." She felt that Rich was not the kind of man 
 who w^ould go out riding alone, observing things with 
 a Wordsworthian eye. " I'll come with you, if you 
 like — it won't take me long to get into my habit, and 
 I'm sure Mr. Page and Miss Palafox will be quite 
 happy when they get to that wonderful place." 
 
 The smile of delight which broke over his honest 
 face was more than a reward. It touched Honoria's 
 own heart, and brought forth on their ride a flood of 
 reminiscences of the old days when she was a child 
 and he was the tall lieutenant in the Guards, who was 
 commanding a line of Grenadiers who were keeping 
 the crowd back in St. James's Street just beside the 
 big ground floor window, which Sir Cornwallis had 
 taken for the Jubilee procession of the Queen. Every 
 now and then he came to the window to be fed with 
 chocolates by his little cousin, who, regardless of 
 discipline, pushed them under the chained lip-strap of 
 his great bear-skin. That was during her childish 
 beauty, before she passed into red-faced flapperhood. 
 And he often, for the rest of that season, came to 
 their house in Curzon Street to play with the child. 
 He was always a mountain of good nature. 
 
 From these reminiscences they passed to what each 
 had been doing in the seven or eight years since they 
 had seen each other. 
 
 They rode with a loose rein through the delicious 
 avenues of Shiba, unnoticing the temples, whose glories 
 had almost taken away Honoria's breath a day or two 
 before, or the crowds of Japanese holiday-makers who 
 frequent Shiba, on any day of the year, and are as 
 amusing as a comic paper. 
 
 When they got home, and had sent their horses 
 away and stood in the hall of the Legation before 
 going upstairs to the smoking-room, the general 
 rendezvous of the house, Randolph said : 
 
274 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 " You have been very cross with me, Honoria, and 
 I deserved it, for I behaved like a perfect cad, but I'm 
 beastly sorry. Aren't you going to let bygones be 
 bygones? " 
 
 He was not prepared for her answer, though he 
 would have taken a downright refusal as being no 
 more than he deserved ; but she asked him, almost 
 passionately : 
 
 ** Oh, why didn't you say this before? " 
 
 And if he had tried to avail himself of a cousin's 
 privilege, there would have been no resistance from 
 that beautiful face. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Candida evaded admitting how ill she was by dint of 
 her courage and by getting up very late in the morning, 
 and lying down all the afternoon. She managed to 
 put in an appearance at dinner and lunch, and to be 
 her old gracious self, but nobody guessed what a tax 
 on her physical energies it was. And nobody could 
 believe that she really was ill, for she had been in 
 Japan ever since she was born, more than forty years 
 before, without an hour's real illness, in a land where 
 the transit to the Happy Valley is often such a very 
 brief one. 
 
 There is a proverb that hope defered makes the 
 heart sick. It can make the body sick, too, though 
 the proverb does not record it, and hope shattered is 
 a yet more deadly ill. 
 
 Candida was yielding to the inevitable. She did not 
 blame Randolph. Who could resist a woman like 
 Honoria, with all Bryn Sandys' old charm and the 
 added sweetness which had only come to Bryn when 
 she had been tried in the fire and found wanting? 
 Honoria was a jewel of fairness. Candida recognised 
 that. She had not raised her little finger to draw the 
 vagabond Randolph to her since she had first set eyes 
 upon him in Japan. She had paid back his slights, 
 if without revengefulness, at any rate with dignity and 
 immobility. 
 
 These thoughts were passing through Candida's mind 
 on the very evening after Honoria had volunteered to 
 ride with Randolph. This was part of the sarcasm 
 which forms the diversion of Fate. 
 
 275 
 
276 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 Honoria was still firm and dignified, but she had 
 given Randolph a place in her heart before Candida 
 formulated these thoughts. 
 
 I, like Randolph Rich, blessed whatever gods there 
 be that day. I did not trouble myself as to what 
 grouping of the planets had decreed that Honoria 
 should be called away and leave me to take Chiquita 
 alone to the fair at the Asakusa Temple. The one 
 thing needful was that Chiquita should make no 
 objection. She did not seem in the least put out. She 
 was in the brilliant spirits in which her Southern charm 
 showed to such advantage. 
 
 Many straws showed which way the wind blew. 
 
 I knew the Tokyo riksha boy fairly well — he will 
 consent to almost any arrangement when he is trying 
 to persuade you to hire him ; but if you are taking him 
 for a long job and no arrangement has been made, a 
 week's profits will hardly satisfy him for a day's labour, 
 in which he resembles the cabmen who are not their 
 own horses. 
 
 Generally, whenever we were hiring rikshas, and a 
 two minutes' conversation would have put the whole 
 affair right, she showed such signs of impatience 
 that we had to start without making an arrangement, 
 and was equally impatient when we came back because 
 the man was not satisfied with his proper fare and a 
 good present. But on this occasion she reminded me 
 that the men had been troublesome the last time we 
 went out, and said that I was so very clever at 
 managing them. There were occasions when we went 
 out sight-seeing, on which she tried everything in a 
 comprehensive place like the Shiba or Asakusa 
 Temples, and found them all wanting. On this oc- 
 casion she was willing to take an interest in anything. 
 
 All I gathered from this was that it offended her 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 277 
 
 sense of youth to be a chaperone, and that the 
 barometer was suiking at the British Legation. 
 Chiquita was quite of the opinion that sacrifice was 
 better than obedience, but the role of scapegoat had 
 no charms for her. She decided that it was in 
 Honoria's province to clear the air, which was only 
 an indirect way of confessing that Honoria held the 
 cards. Chiquita noticed the moment that Honoria 
 ceased to keep her cousin at bay, and taxed her with 
 weakening. Honoria's high spirit for a moment for- 
 bade her to make any reply to the aspersion, but she 
 liked honesty, and was conscious of innocence. 
 
 " I do like Randolph," she said, " in spite of all 
 his absurdities ; he's an awfully fine fellow. I couldn't 
 be fonder of him if he was my own brother." 
 
 ''I can understand that," said Chiquita, "but I 
 don't think you quite know all the circumstances of 
 the case. Candida Begg, who is the dearest friend I 
 ever had, wrote to me asking me to invite you to 
 stay at the Legation and to try and make it up between 
 you and your cousin, who had treated you very badly. 
 We've all been chaffing Sir Randolph for years about 
 having to marry you, and we all were anxious that 
 he should because he's a man, a real man, and we're 
 very fond of him in spite of the dance he has led us. 
 I did what she asked me, and I would sooner have 
 cut off my right hand, now that it is done. . . ." 
 
 " Why? " 
 
 " Because I have succeeded." 
 
 Honoria gave a grave little nod that was full of 
 meaning, which Chiquita mis-interpreted. 
 
 " We Spaniards have many sayings— one is, ' Fate 
 is an ill horse to drive,' another, ' The Saints only hear 
 what they wish,' and they both point the same lesson- 
 that Fate arranges our affairs better than we arrange 
 them ourselves ; that when we try to drive Fate in the 
 direction we want we get her kicks instead. And as 
 the saints, who are Fate for the common people, only 
 grant such prayers as are good for you, it is safer to 
 
278 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 do nothing and call on the saints for what you want 
 than to try and take it for yourself. I have spoken 
 in proverbs, because our proverbs are like your English 
 hints — they give advice which you need not take." 
 
 *' Do not speak in riddles, Miss Palafox. I can hear 
 the truth without offence, and I feel that something 
 is going wrong." 
 
 Chiquita searched her face with all the intuitive 
 processes used by the Latin races for finding out if 
 a person really means something of importance on 
 which he is passing his word — and then proceeded. 
 
 " Candida asked me to invite you here to make your 
 cousin fall in love with you. I have done what she 
 asked me, and it has broken her heart. I don't know 
 how people break their hearts, but she is dying from 
 it," she added, with one of her characteristic flashes 
 of tragi-comedy. 
 
 It was not for Honoria to deny that Randolph had 
 fallen over head and ears in love with her — anyone 
 could see it, let alone the woman who inspired it, and 
 she was far too straightforward to make the excuses 
 of the false-modest. 
 
 " I did not know that Miss Begg was so fond of 
 the dear fellow as to go into a decline because she has 
 been so generous as to give him up. But I have seen 
 that she loved him for a long time, and that is why I 
 have been keeping him at a distance. It was not hard 
 to forgive Randolph about the letter, when he's sorry 
 he's as sorry as a child. The hard thing was to keep 
 him unforgiven — because one knew what would happen 
 next." 
 
 " Then you wanted to forgive him? " 
 
 ** Of course I did. He's the man I've always dreamt 
 of marrying since I can remember." 
 
 " Don't think me awfully rude, Miss Rich, but would 
 you marry him now? " 
 
 " I won't say that." 
 
 Chiquita formed her own conclusions and acknow- 
 ledged the existence in the world of a generosity of 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 279 
 
 which she was herself incapable. She felt sure that 
 she had read Honoria's heart right, but she did not 
 mean to leave anything to chance. 
 
 " How I wish we could do something for Candida," 
 she cried passionately. She was a born actress, and 
 could work herself up at a moment's notice. ** She 
 isn't the same girl that saved your cousin's life at the 
 temple." 
 
 " Saved his life? " cried Honoria, with glowing 
 colour. " Oh, do tell me about it." 
 
 " Get your cousin to tell you," said Chiquita, with 
 malice prepense. " I didn't see the whole of it." 
 
 Honoria did not go straight to Randolph armed 
 with the new knowledge, she went first to Candida's 
 room. 
 
 She knocked at the door. 
 
 "Come in!" Candida was expecting O-hana, 
 Chiquita's maid, whom she had just dispatched on a 
 message. She was in the act of adding a faint touch 
 of colour to her cheeks with a hare's-foot, and blushed 
 for a glorious moment at being detected. But the 
 blush quickly faded from her cheeks in her anaemic 
 state. 
 
 " May I speak to you privately, Miss Begg? " said 
 Honoria, glancing at the door. Candida crossed the 
 room and locked it. 
 
 Honoria noticed how feebly she walked, and flew 
 after her. 
 
 ** Lie down a little," she said, gently leading her 
 to the couch and laying her on it with affectionate 
 hands. 
 
 '* I want to thank you for bringing me and my 
 cousin together." 
 
 A kind of spasm went over Candida's face. " It's 
 only my heart," she said faintly. She was speaking 
 physically, but Honoria smiled to herself at the double 
 entendre. 
 
 *' I've quite made it up with him; but I'm not going 
 to marry him. I don't think the marriage would be 
 
28o PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 quite a success." Candida tried to say something, but 
 Honoria talked on. " I have reasons which I can't 
 mention." 
 
 Candida strove to look disinterested, but a smile of 
 thankfulness — rather a wan smile — stole over her face. 
 She would have liked to protest, but she felt too weak, 
 and why should she battle further against her own 
 happiness when she was not long for this world? It 
 could mean nothing to Honoria if she did marry him ; 
 it would only be to carry out her father's wishes, not 
 her own. Indeed, it seemed waste for such a beautiful 
 and charming woman with her great fortune to be lost 
 in marriage with Randolph Rich, who would keep her 
 down at Richborough most of the year, enjoying the 
 common round of the country gentleman's life, varied, 
 at best, with some racing. 
 
 He hated Town too much to go in for a career. 
 Honoria ought to be the wife of a man with a career, 
 and double his successes. 
 
 Thus Candida in her own mind piled up excuses 
 for a piece of conduct which she could not but condemn 
 in her own clear vision of what Randolph would call 
 " playing the game." 
 
 It was this which prompted her to say, " Would you 
 think it very extraordinary of me. Miss Rich " 
 
 " Honoria ! " 
 
 " Honoria, would you think it very extraordinary 
 
 of me if I asked you to kiss me? " 
 
 Honoria did not answer in words, and the way she 
 responded wiped away Candida's fears that she must 
 think meanly of her. Honoria knelt by her for a 
 while, holding her hands, distressed really by their 
 transparency, which did not seem natural in the bold 
 horsewoman and active open-air person that Randolph 
 had brought to see her at the Grand Hotel in 
 Yokohama. 
 
 When she got up after making the blood warmer 
 in Candida's veins with the outpourings of her own 
 warm heart, she went off to find Randolph, who was 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 281 
 
 generally waiting about for her after Legation hours. 
 
 She found him, as she expected, in the smoking- 
 room. It had been rather a rendezvous of theirs since 
 his forgiveness. It was not a room that Chiquita ever 
 used, except when they all swarmed in there together 
 after an excursion or a meal. She prefered her own 
 work-room or the turret-recess in the big drawing- 
 room, according to the degree of favour enjoyed by 
 the person she was receiving. 
 
 Randolph was standing over the large oval table on 
 which Lord Clapham had the newspapers arranged, 
 as they are in Clubs, so that you could find the one 
 you wanted at a glance. He was sucking a smoked- 
 out pipe, and leaning on the palms of his hands reading 
 the front page of advertisements in the Athencrum, and 
 thinking how badly his Chief's newspaper list needed 
 revising. He heard a rustle behind him, and felt a 
 hand on his shoulder and a woman leaning against him 
 lightly as she peeped to see what he was reading. 
 Turning half round, he saw Honoria's golden head, 
 and felt sure in his own graphic phraseology that the 
 game was up ; even before he heard the fatal words, 
 *' Randolph, I want you to tell me about Candida — 
 Miss Begg — saving your life." 
 
 He turned now, and faced her ; and as the cousins 
 stood by that table anyone who looked in would have 
 formed an erroneous impression, for Honoria stood 
 with downcast eyes saying nothing, but with her fair 
 face flushing from time to time, and Randolph was 
 pouring out a stream of eager words. 
 
 The Riches were generous — there was not a doubt 
 of that. It would have been an elixir vita to Candida 
 to have heard Randolph telling what he owed to her. 
 When he stopped, Honoria raised eloquent eyes to him. 
 She knew now why he had not told her that he loved 
 her, and how willing he would have been to carry out 
 his part of the contract which had been her father's 
 dying wish. 
 
 She reminded herself that when she first heard of 
 
282 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 his devotion to a woman so much older than himself, 
 she had pictured Candida, either as one of the elderly 
 women who make fools of themselves over dashing 
 young Grenadiers, or else as an adventuress, possessed 
 of some little means, perhaps, who was glad to marry 
 a baronet. She had been unable to picture a woman 
 like Candida's self, and had never dreamt of Randolph 
 owing his life to her heroism. 
 
 It was only after she had looked up that a love-scene 
 really did come. 
 
 *' As you don't mean to marry me. Honor," he 
 began, using unconsciously the pet name he had given 
 her when a child, ** you may just as well have your 
 revenge for the way I have treated you, and know 
 that I love you, as I never expected to love anybody 
 in the world." 
 
 She controlled herself with an effort, which he did 
 not notice, and said, with the best pretence of spirits 
 she could muster: ** You can love me as much as you 
 like as a cousin. But if you ever thought I'd marry 
 an explosive like you after I'd got to know the kind 
 of life you've led, you were very much mistaken." 
 
 He looked as if she had stabbed him, and she felt 
 as if she had stabbed herself. 
 
 " I didn't want to hurt you, Ran," she said 
 hastily. " I love you just as much as I did when I 
 was a little girl before you went to Japan. You can 
 be on the footing of a brother with me." 
 
 He tried to say something, but failed. 
 
 She put her own interpretation on it, and said : 
 
 *' If it wasn't for the five hundred, I suppose you 
 would have married Candida long ago." 
 Yes, I should," he answered readily. 
 
 " Well, marry her as quickly as you can. I suppose 
 there's an English lawyer in Yokohama who can 
 execute a deed making the five hundred a year for 
 life instead of till you are married. I'll have it done 
 at once." 
 
 " Yes — of course there is. But I don't love her 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 283 
 
 now— not— in that way. It is you that I love now, 
 Honor!" 
 
 ** You have answered yourself with that last word 
 ' Honour I ' She saved your life— it is your turn now." 
 
 He smiled. '' My turn to save her life? What do 
 you mean? " 
 
 ** Miss Palafox has put it more plainly than I should 
 perhaps have had the courage to express it. She says 
 in so many words that Candida is rapidly going into 
 a decline, and that as she is an orphan with no one 
 to force her to live, she won't get over it." 
 
 Intuition was not Randolph's strong point, but 
 Chiquita's hint was broad. That Candida, his bosom 
 friend for years, the woman who had saved his life, 
 was ill from neglect, cut him to the quick. 
 
 "By Jovel" he said, ''it's time to dress for 
 dinner." That was his transparent subterfuge to 
 express that he was going to look for Candida. 
 
 Honoria kissed him. 
 
 O-hana said that Miss Begg had not begun to dress 
 yet, and showed him Candida's room. He knocked at 
 her door. 
 
 " May I come in? " 
 
 " I want my sal-volatile— I am so faint! " said a 
 weary voice. 
 
 He opened the door cautiously ; he was fearful of 
 intrusion, for she had not noticed that it was his voice. 
 The extreme neatness struck him ; there was nothing 
 but the bed to show that it was not a sitting-room. It 
 gratified his senses, this little touch of Candida. 
 
 The smile that broke over her wan face as she 
 recognised his presence made fresh scales drop from 
 his eyes. 
 
 " Is that you, Dick? How good of you to come." 
 He stooped to her outstretched arms. 
 
284 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 *' Candida, old girl, I've brought good news! We 
 can marry as soon as you are ready. Honoria has 
 offered to continue my five hundred a year after we've 
 married, and we can live on that and my screw, if 
 we're careful." 
 
 " Say it again, Dick." 
 
 He repeated it to her, 
 
 Honoria was on the watch for him to leave Candida's 
 room, and slipped in directly after him. The look on 
 Candida's face told her that it was all right." 
 
 " I suppose I have to congratulate you? " she said, 
 meaning, *' You're engaged now, aren't you? " 
 
 But Candida took it in the other sense, and an- 
 swered : 
 
 " Indeed you have. The one ambition of my life 
 has been to marry Dick. Oh, how I hope that I shall 
 get well now that I have so much to live for." 
 
 From another woman than Honoria Candida's last 
 sentence might have provoked a smile, but Honoria 
 answered with cheerful conviction : 
 
 " Of course you will. You've been doing it all to 
 yourself." 
 
 " Oh, am I such a soft as that? " asked the happy 
 Candida. 
 
 " My dear, if I used Randolph's select expressions, I 
 should say that you had behaved like a two-year-old. 
 And now do all of us the favour of being just as childish 
 about getting well again, because you've got the moon 
 that you were crying for! " 
 
 " Miss Rich! " 
 
 *' Honoria ! " 
 
 '* Hofioria, then! you're not saying this sarcastically, 
 are you? It's very foolish and weak of me, I know, 
 but I'm not well enough to stand sarcasm just 
 yet." 
 
 ** My dear, not for the world! We've all been so 
 miserable at seeing you slip through our fingers." 
 
 Candida had managed to struggle down to meals 
 all along, but she had excused herself from evening 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 285 
 
 dress. To-night, however, it was noticed that she 
 had been able to dress. Honoria had discouraged 
 her, but it was so warm that there was no risk of her 
 catching cold, so finding Candida bent on it, the good- 
 natured heiress stayed with her and saved her all the 
 fatigue she could, and came down herself in the 
 hastiest dinner toilette, wilfully selected for its un- 
 becomingness. 
 
 His -fiancee's appearance was an agreeable shock to 
 Randolph ; he was not aware that women look their 
 best in the first stage of convalescence, and he was 
 not prepared to see her once more her well-groomed 
 self (which was due to Honoria 's affectionate 
 fingers). 
 
 Honoria had carried the news to Chiquita, and 
 Chiquita reserved it as a honne houclie for her uncle's 
 dinner. She told me that Lord Clapham seldom went 
 into the dining-room with his family. Afternoon tea 
 was his dinner ; he took any number of cups ; he might, 
 with Dr. Johnson, have said: *' I don't count by 
 the cups, but by the pots." A dozen cups was 
 nothing unusual with him as he settled down to work 
 at his philosophy after the Legation business was over. 
 He never took any exercise ; he hardly went outside 
 the house except on official visits. When the Legation 
 moved to Nikko or Miyanoshita for the summer, his 
 habits were the same. He used to forget all about 
 dinner till his Japanese butler became desperate, and 
 then came in the frock coat which he wore as the kind 
 of livery of his position, and took whatever was given to 
 him. You might have expected him to be a teetotaler, 
 but he enjoyed good wine, and when he had drunk 
 two or three glasses, entered into conversation with his 
 household, sometimes allowing himself to be chaffed 
 by Chiquita in a helpless sort of way, at others talking 
 most brilliantly, but far above the heads of a dinner- 
 table in Japan. 
 
 "Uncle," shrieked Chiquita; ''Sir Randolph's 
 going to turn over a new leaf." 
 
286 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 *' With Miss Begg? " he asked, with the apposite- 
 ness of children and fools. 
 
 Poor Candida blushed furiously. Most people at the 
 table, if not Lord Clapham, were aware of the very 
 affectionate terms which had existed between her and 
 Rich for the last seven years, and Lord Clapham's 
 remark reversed the signification of his niece's. 
 
 '' You have been long enough making up your minds 
 as to whether you loved each other." 
 
 It was now Randolph's turn to be embarrassed, as 
 he had not proposed to Candida until he was in love 
 with somebody else, and he was just as good at 
 blushing as either Candida or Honoria ; he was so 
 ingenuous that he could not help turning round to 
 receive his sentence from Candida's eyes ; and for the 
 life of him he Could not make out what it was. But 
 he was contented, for he saw on her face absolute 
 devotion and a radiant prettiness that made her, at any 
 rate in that wax candle-light, for Chiquita would not 
 have the electric light at dinner, quite the old Candida 
 who had queened it at Yokohama. 
 
 *' When are you going to be married? " asked Lord 
 Clapham. 
 
 " Quite soon, sir," said Randolph desperately. 
 *' While my cousin is still in Japan to represent the 
 family." 
 
 The Minister's question made him feel horribly 
 remiss ; he now felt that he ought to have clamoured 
 for Candida to fix the day, whereas an hour before he 
 thought he had been acting rather nobly in proposing 
 to her at all. It was about the most hypocritical thing 
 he had ever done in his life. 
 
 As dinner wore on he felt better about it. There 
 was no mistaking the affection which she inspired in 
 others. Every one was so obviously delighted that 
 her happiness had been accomplished. And he began 
 to remember that of all the people in whose society 
 he had passed much time, he had never found such a 
 jolly companion as Candida. His comfort and every- 
 day happiness were secured, and he did not feel so 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 287 
 
 sure about this new matter of love, to which he had 
 only so very lately given a trial. 
 
 Each succeeding day Candida felt stronger, and 
 Randolph more satisfied. Accustomed as he had been 
 to her frank affection, he was not aware until now 
 how much she had kept back — what witchery she had 
 to lavish on the man who had the right to receive it. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Candida was married, rather naturally, from the 
 Sandys' house and not her own little bungalow. It 
 was no tax on such well-off people, and Bryn enjoyed 
 having the send-off from their hospitable home. Philip 
 Sandys gave her away. I was partner to a pretty 
 surprise which Honoria had arranged for them. 
 
 The gold-lacquered letter boxes of Japan are some 
 of them among the chief treasures of European 
 Museums, and Honoria and I ransacked all our 
 favourite curio-shops to find the most beautiful example 
 which could be procured. Even with my knowledge 
 of values and my experience in bargaining she paid 
 a very large sum for it. It was of the choicest gold 
 lacquer, with an exquisite scene from the Genji 
 Mongatari, a typical bit of old Japanese architecture 
 and legend, executed on it in relief, an object whiph 
 the untrained taste could appreciate, in addition to its 
 being such a splendid example of Japanese art. It 
 was bound round with a rich crimson silk cord, tied in 
 one of the old Daimio knots. 
 
 In old Japan these boxes were used by the Daimios 
 as marks of esteem to convey their letters. The box 
 was not retained, but returned to the sender. Honoria, 
 however, gave special instructions that Candida was 
 to keep the box, and that she was not to open it till 
 after the wedding, as it contained nothing but the deed 
 about Randolph's allowance. Just as Candida was 
 going away after the wedding, she called Honoria into 
 Mr. Sandys' study to say good-bye to her, exclaiming, 
 * ' I owe you so much ! ' ' 
 
 To Honoria's surprise she saw that gold lacquer 
 box, worth far more than its weight in pure gold, 
 lying on the table unopened. She had imagined that 
 
 288 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 289 
 
 Candida had been refering to its contents, and blushed 
 furiously when Candida undid the knot before her, 
 saying : 
 
 " It's the first time I ever had the heart to undo 
 one of these lovely knots." 
 
 There was no getting out of it now, so Honoria stood 
 there, meekly awaiting her fate. The box surely 
 enough contained nothing but an officious-looking blue 
 envelope. Candida was overcome with shyness in 
 opening it ; it was embarrassing enough to receive a 
 present of five hundred pounds a year from a girl 
 without having to read the deed, which confered it, in 
 her presence. 
 
 As she read it through, she almost fainted, for it 
 conveyed to Sir Randolph Rich, Bart., and Dame 
 Candida Rich, his wife, not five hundred pounds a year, 
 but ten thousand, for the proper maintenance of the 
 family seat of Richborough, which was likewise con- 
 veyed to them below, with the proviso that a suite of 
 apartments to be selected, should be reserved for the 
 use of Miss Honoria Rich. 
 
 Candida wished to fly for Randolph to support her 
 in refusing Honoria's generosity, but Honoria held 
 her back. 
 
 " Why do you make such a fuss about this? " she 
 asked. " It did not cost me half so much as something 
 else." 
 
 And then Candida knew. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 The little community of English friends which had 
 started life in Tokyo with such varying degrees of 
 interest and enthusiasm, eight years ago, was rapidly 
 thinning out. The Tiffanys had gone, and Finch had 
 gone, and Rich was about to proceed to England to 
 take up the old role which Nature had obviously 
 intended him to play, that of Sir Randolph Rich of 
 Richborough, Master of Foxhounds, or something of 
 the kind, and with him would go Lady Rich, who had 
 spent so much of her time in Tokyo that she was really 
 one of us. Bradwardine had gone soon after the 
 declaration of the war with China had left him without 
 an occupation in Japan, though he had since been back 
 as captain of a splendid new British cruiser sent out 
 for the operations of the Allies against China, a post 
 which he owed to the knowledge he had picked up 
 while he was attached to the Japanese Navy, so that 
 those years of yeoman's service had not counted for 
 nothing. And now Jevons had been appointed adviser 
 on Japanese affairs to the Foreign Office in London at 
 fifteen hundred a year, with the precedence of a Per- 
 manent Under - Secretary. The Foreign Office had 
 ordered him to take up his new duties at once, without 
 considering the fact that Lord Clapham, who could 
 not speak a word of Japanese, was perfectly helpless 
 without an interpreter. In the interval the Japanese 
 Government, with whom his lordship's relations were 
 exceptionally good, as he had seconded their efforts 
 for Treaty Revision from the first, were delighted to 
 accede to his request that I might be granted leave 
 from the Dai Gakku to act as his interpreter. 
 
 I felt that it was rather pleasant going back to the 
 
 290 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 291 
 
 Legation on this much more recognised footing, and 
 my relations with Chiquita for some time past had 
 been of the pleasantest. At twenty-six she may have 
 lost a Httle of the diablerie which characterized her at 
 eighteen, but she was a nicer woman. She was no 
 longer so inconsiderate or irresponsible, and she had 
 acquired a certain taste for collecting, and a real 
 knowledge of the life of the deserving and amusing 
 Japanese poor. I was, to a certain extent, tickled by 
 her assumption that my duties at the Legation placed 
 me at her beck and call when the office hours were 
 over, but as she was so pretty and so charming, I did 
 not dispute the assumption, but laid myself out to enjoy 
 the companionship. 
 
 Fortunately she no longer cared for riding, for I 
 never had had the opportunity of becoming a horseman. 
 Her ideas of amusing herself lay, as ever, in the 
 direction of going to parties at the other Legations, to 
 which she took me as escort because her uncle refused 
 to go, and in making expeditions to curio-shops and 
 festivals, or any other places where she could see the 
 humorous side of native life. 
 
 I was amazed at the growth of both her intelligence 
 and amiability since the memorable occasion when I 
 last stayed at the Legation. In the evenings, after 
 dinner, when we were very often alone, she was so 
 unaffectedly nice. 
 
 I had been at the Legation about a month, enjoying 
 the greatest kindness from both Lord Clapham and 
 his niece, when the event took place which was to 
 make such a difference to my future life. 
 
 One night, after dinner. Lord Clapham said to me : 
 " I've got something to tell you. Page, which I think 
 will please you, though the rules of our Diplomatic 
 Service lay down that the Secretary-Interpreters of 
 Legation shall be drawn from the interpreters trained 
 for the Consular Service, the British Government, 
 acting on my advice, have decided to offer you Jevons' 
 place." 
 
 I must say that my heart jumped with pleasure. I 
 had so far, by exercising strong restraint upon myself, 
 managed to avoid disagreeables with the Japanese 
 
292 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 students in my class at the Dai Gakku, but the task 
 was not pleasant to one's dignity, though the pay was 
 good, and I enjoyed being in Japan amazingly. The 
 prospect of exchanging that trying kind of post for 
 the ease and dignity of an appointment at the Legation, 
 was fascinating. 
 
 I thanked Lord Clapham profusely, and made bold 
 to ask how he had obtained me the appointment. 
 
 '* By mentioning your special services during the 
 burglarious attack on the British Legation, and the 
 several occasions on which you have come forward 
 and lent your services when the work of the Legation 
 would have been at a standstill! " 
 
 ** The only difficulty is, sir," I said, " that I am in 
 the employ of the Japanese, and under a contract to 
 give them six months' notice of retirement to enable 
 them to get someone to take my place." 
 
 " I have arranged that, through the Minister of 
 Education, if you care to take the place. He will 
 grant you the year's leave which you would have had 
 if the time had come for the holiday in Europe, laid 
 down in your contract, and before the year is up, 
 someone else (probably a Japanese, for they are re- 
 placing the foreign professors as their time expires 
 with Japanese) will be appointed in your place." 
 
 ** That makes it doubly charming, sir," I said, ** and 
 I owe it entirely to you." 
 
 " I'm sure I'm very glad if I have been able to 
 be of any service to you," he said, in his ultra-polite, 
 self-depreciating manner, and pushed the wonderful 
 old claret towards me. The glasses were most 
 generous for such wine. 
 
 As we discussed the bottle, he initiated a fresh 
 surprise. 
 
 ** Have you ever thought of marrying, Page? " he 
 asked. 
 
 *' Oh, I suppose so, my lord, but not in any particular 
 way. The choice out here is not very large." 
 
 *' Why don't you ask my niece? " he enquired, in 
 his naive, almost foolish, way. 
 
 *' Chiefly because she would not look at me," was 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 293 
 
 the reply on the tip of my tongue, but I put it more 
 formally. 
 
 ** How could I aspire to her hand? " 
 
 ** I really don't know," he admitted, " but the wish 
 was father to the thought." 
 
 I fairly glowed with the kindness of the speech, 
 though I could not but regard it as a chimera. 
 
 " I should not like to lose Mercedes," — this was the 
 name by which his niece had been christened ; Lord 
 Clapham used it on State occasions ; other people never 
 thought of her except by her nickname of Chiquita — 
 Little One. " I should not like to lose Mercedes," he 
 repeated; *' she is like my own child to me. I have 
 had her with me ever since she was a little baby, and 
 she is the image of my adorable Spanish wife who 
 ran away with Captain Sandeman and has been lost 
 to me ever since, except in memory." 
 
 There was not a tone of resentment in the voice of 
 this extraordinary man as, for the first time that I 
 had ever heard of it, he alluded to his wife's being 
 still alive, and her infidelity. He merely regretted her 
 loss, and seemed to think it quite natural that a beauti- 
 ful young woman should have run away from a sober- 
 sides like himself. 
 
 " A great deal of the light," he said, '* would go 
 out of my life if Mercedes, too, left me. . . I like 
 her very faults, her unreasonableness, her mischievous- 
 ness — they remind me of her aunt. . . But Mercedes 
 is getting on. She must be five- or six-and-twenty, 
 and in a few years one of her race might, if she were 
 not married, become a cross old woman." 
 
 His frankness was really extraordinary, but what he 
 said was convincing. The element of manvaise honte 
 was left out in his composition. It was this which 
 made him so unsatisfactory upon patriotic questions. 
 If he was ever at school, his breaches of the code of 
 honour maintained by boys would have been appalling. 
 He was more observant though than I thought, for he 
 said : 
 
 " When I saw the way in which Mercedes received 
 you and talked of your taking up your residence here, 
 I could not help thinking how pleasant it would be if 
 
294 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 she were married to a member of my staff, so that 
 she might continue hostess of my house without being 
 an old maid." 
 
 His frankness verged on the appalHng. If it came 
 to Chiquita's ears she would surely have me poisoned, 
 if she could not secure my dismissal. 
 
 I waited for him to dictate the means by which such 
 a desirable event could be brought about, but the 
 initiative was not his strong point, so in my desire to 
 strike further while the iron was hot, and my despair 
 of getting any further if I waited for him, I said : 
 
 '* What do you wish me to do, sir? " 
 
 " Why to get her— I've said so." 
 
 ** But how do you wish me to set about it, sir? " 
 
 "I'm sure I don't know," he replied. 
 
 And I was equally sure that he did not. At last I 
 said: " Am I at liberty to try my luck, sir; and may 
 I tell Miss Palafox that I have your approval? " 
 
 " If you think it will do any good," he said gloomily. 
 
 " Then I think I will join Miss Palafox now, sir." 
 
 When I went upstairs, I found the subject of our 
 conversation in the drawing-room at the piano, singing 
 Spanish popular songs to herself'; songs of Ipve and 
 wit, and putting as much humour and feeling into 
 them as if she was singing to a full theatre. 
 
 I had never seen her look so lovely or so sympathetic, 
 but when I came to know her better, I found that 
 it was music which engaged her sympathies, that 
 human beings had little part in them. She stopped 
 when I came in ; she seldom could be induced to play 
 or sing except when she was alone. 
 
 " Have you heard my news? " I asked excitedly. 
 *' Your uncle has got me Jevons' place, and the 
 Japanese authorities have given their consent to my 
 leaving the Dai Gakku at once, so that I shall be living 
 under your roof for the future." 
 
 *' I am glad," she said unfeignedly. 
 
 ** Your uncle made another announcement to me, 
 which concerns you more intimately." 
 
 *' Dear me, I wonder what that could have been," 
 she said, in total ignorance, unless she was a hypocrite 
 of the first class. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 295 
 
 '' He told me— don't think me horribly presumptuous 
 —that it was his wish that you should marry me. 
 
 I plumped it out in desperation of approachmg the 
 matter diplomatically, and then I waited for the^.«^ 
 de-zrace. I felt that I had gone too far, and laid 
 myself open for one of the merciless snubs which she 
 had administered to me from time to time. 
 
 But she was grown more gracious. She spared me 
 that ; she only gave her head a sad little shake, and 
 
 said: _ , , ^^j 
 
 " I shall never marry now. But don't go away and 
 hide yourself." (I understood the allusion.) 1 m 
 
 not saying this unkindly, and I want you to be just 
 as big friends as you have been all this delightful 
 month. I thought you knew how foolish my uncle 
 was. You belong to the other side." She refered to 
 the opinion Conservatives entertained of Lord Clapham. 
 We were able to go on as if nothing had happened. 
 She had been so temperate in her refusal, and had 
 shown so much tact, and she had in a gentle way 
 treated the matter as so impossible to contemplate. 
 
 But the mere making of that preposterous request 
 had its effect. Until I proposed to marry her she 
 could never have thought of me as a suitor. And now 
 she showed me the chivalry which nice women teel 
 compelled to show towards men whom they have un- 
 horsed in the tournament of love. 
 
 On me the effect of this faineant proposal was much 
 greater. Lord Clapham had put it into my head that 
 the princess of my fairy-tale might be won by the 
 poor boy, and though the princess had refused in the 
 orthodox manner and made it clear that such a thing 
 was not to be thought of, I was going to be with her 
 and treated as a rejected suitor on parole, and not 
 merely as the Secretary-Interpreter at the Legation. 
 
 I really think that Chiquita was glad for me to have 
 proposed ; it made me a more interesting personality 
 to have about the house, and the position gave her 
 no anxiety; she was so perfectly capable of taking 
 care of herself. Though the marriage could not be 
 thought of, she continued to treat me as a rejected 
 lover whose wounds had to be healed with the balm 
 
296 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 of graciousness. The wounds, in fact, hardly existed ; 
 I had so little hope of success that she had knocked 
 me down with the proverbial feather. 
 
 One day while I was doing Legation work down in 
 the library, Mrs. Sandys came in to call. She had 
 come over to Tokyo to see some English friends at 
 the Imperial, and finding them out, dropped in to spend 
 the afternoon at the Legation. 
 
 When I went up into the drawing-room for tea 
 — Lord Clapham prefered his in solitude with his 
 philosophy — I found Mrs. Sandys alone in the 
 drawing-room, Chiquita having gone to fetch her latest 
 purchases at our curio-shops. Her purchases, I may 
 parenthesise, were mostly of articles which would serve 
 for her dress or her dressing-table. 
 
 ** Well, Mr. Page, what is this I hear about you? " 
 asked Bryn Sandys, with a sparkle of amusement in 
 her eye. 
 
 ** How can I tell what you have heard about me, 
 Mrs. Sandys? " 
 
 " I mean your misdemeanour, of course, and I 
 should not think that you commit so many of them as 
 to be unable to trace the one to which I refer." 
 
 " I suppose you mean the fearful indiscretion in 
 which Lord Clapham involved me? " I said, feeling 
 rather uncomfortable. 
 
 *' I mean your proposal to Miss Palafox." 
 
 I told her my version. 
 
 " And you were really willing to entrust your happi- 
 ness to her, or was it merely step Number Two in the 
 ladder of your diplomatic career? " 
 
 " She is the only girl I have ever thought about in 
 Japan." This was true, for beyond acquaintances 
 made at parties, and Candida, who was so very much 
 absorbed in Rich, she was the only woman I had seen 
 anything of except Mrs. Sandys herself. The Sandys' 
 had been delightfully kind to me. I stayed with them 
 repeatedly. They were the most intimate friends I 
 had in the world — and if my affair had not shown itself 
 to be so utterly out of the question that Chiquita could 
 go on as if nothing had happened, I should certainly 
 have gone to Mrs. Sandys for help. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 297 
 
 " She behaved Hke a brat to you when you were 
 going back to Tokyo that very first time you ever 
 stayed with us. I was very nearly asking her to return 
 my photograph when she told me about it. I felt so 
 indignant at her not seeing how abominably she had 
 behaved." 
 
 That wound was grateful for balm, even after all 
 these years. 
 
 " But I suppose she is not such a brat now, for she 
 must be five- or six-and twenty. Dear me ! how we 
 are all getting on ! You would not have to wait many 
 years for our Mary — she's eleven." 
 
 If Mary Sandys had been half a dozen years older 
 when her step-mother made this remark, what a vision ! 
 What ideal parents-in-law Bryn and Philip Sandys 
 would have made. 
 
 ** If Lord Clapham has set his heart upon it," said 
 Mrs. Sandys, " and you are willing to take the re- 
 sponsibility, it would be rather nice if it could be 
 managed. He does not have much of a time, and 
 he is such a decent old thing, though he is a Little 
 Englander. And we must not forget how well he has 
 done for England by yielding with good grace to the 
 pretensions of my fellow-countrymen just before their 
 power began to advance with such leaps and bounds, 
 that they could have been very unpleasant if their 
 demands had been resisted." 
 
 Just then Chiquita returned, followed by Japanese 
 servants carrying huge trays of recent purchases, and 
 dragged me into the explanation of the value of each 
 piece, from the curio-collector's point of view, with 
 great pride, as if she had been guided by artistic or 
 historical considerations in their purchase, and not 
 simply for their value in her colour schemes or because 
 she thought they were '"cute," an expression she had 
 picked up from the American globe-trotters she met 
 at Yokohama. I saw Mrs. Sandys eyeing her while 
 she was catechising me. 
 
 The catechism did not last long, for a servant came 
 in to announce Sir Randolph and Lady Rich. They 
 had come to say good-bye. Rich's successor, for 
 whom Lord Clapham had wired as soon as the engage- 
 
298 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 ment took place, had arrived. Rich had not been in 
 the Legation since his marriage, but Foreign Office 
 rules did not permit his departure from the country 
 till his successor had arrived in it. 
 
 Candida still looked a little delicate, though she had 
 been recovering very fast. She had a most exquisite 
 dress on, so rich and dainty that I could not help 
 looking at it and wondering how Ching Lee could have 
 achieved such a triumph. She read my thoughts and 
 made an attempt at a Court curtsey. 
 
 " It isn't Ching Lee," she said, " it's Bryn Sandys 
 who has been excelling herself and, because I had no 
 chance of getting a proper trousseau out here, had 
 her whole summer shipment of new clothes altered to 
 fit me, and gave them to me as a wedding present, 
 heroically determining to go through the summer on 
 last year's frocks and Ching Lee." 
 
 How happy Candida looked, and we were all glad 
 to see how devoted Rich had become. 
 
 I was specially glad, for I had an indefinite presenti- 
 ment about that marriage. Honoria had gone in spite 
 of Candida's solicitations that she should wait and 
 go with them, which was certainly wise. If it had 
 done no harm, it could not have improved matters, 
 for her and Rich to be thrown together every hour of 
 the day in the restricted space of an ocean liner. 
 
 They did not stay long, for they would see Mrs. 
 Sandys again ; their ship was not leaving Yokohama 
 for a day or two. 
 
 I went down to the compound to see them off. We 
 were right. Randolph was devoted, you could see 
 how delighted he was with his wife as he helped her 
 into her riksha and arranged an extra cushion behind 
 her, which he had carried in a strap from Yokohama. 
 I knew that, because he kicked the strap out of his 
 own riksha as he was vaulting into it, and would have 
 left it behind but for the watchful eyes of the Japanese, 
 who miss nothing. 
 
 What a wonderful woman Candida was. As she 
 stepped up into her riksha she looked as neat and pretty 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 299 
 
 a bride as any man could want. And that was the 
 last I ever saw of her, for business came in suddenly 
 at the Legation and kept me from seeing the steamer 
 off as I had intended. 
 
 Lord Clapham was in the compound to see them 
 off. He pleaded his sedentary habits as an excuse for 
 saying good-bye to them here, instead of at the 
 ship. 
 
 The parting between the two men was gratifyingly 
 hearty, almost affectionate, for the elder man had 
 known Randolph since he was a child, and had had 
 him under him for years, and was glad to see him 
 becoming more serious. And Randolph had acquired 
 a great respect for his Chief, not only because he saw 
 him justified by events in the history of Japan, but 
 because the man whom he had freely characterized in 
 his early days as ** an old rotter " had shown that, 
 although he was not a fighting John Bull like Sir Harry 
 Parkes, when an Englishman was injured or hustled, 
 he had at any rate the courage of his opinions in 
 resisting the importunities of the strong English com- 
 munity at Yokohama when they had tried to force him 
 into courses which would have been grossly impolitic 
 in the light of succeeding events. 
 
 " God bless you, Randolph," he said, as their hands 
 parted from the long grasp. In spite of his devotion 
 to philosophy he was one of the most regular attendants 
 at the Anglican Cathedral ; so it was not a mere phrase 
 with him ; and I considered the kiss on the middle of 
 Lady Rich's forehead a masterpiece of fatherllness. 
 
 He carried me back into the library with him ; he 
 had a Japanese book on German philosophy which 
 he wished me to tell him something about. It was 
 rather dry work compared with having tea with those 
 two charming women upstairs, but I did not lose in 
 the quantity of tea I received, and I was only too 
 delighted to do anything to please him after his mani- 
 festation of feeling for me. Mrs. Sandys had gone 
 before I had settled the pretensions of that Japanese 
 plagiarist ; but Chiquita w^as still in the room, walking 
 
300 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 about re-arranging her purchases on the trays. This 
 was a strange thing for her to be doing, for she was 
 lazy, even for a Spaniard ; and the Japanese excel in 
 the art of clearing up. When she saw me, she came 
 across the room to meet me. 
 
 ''I'm going to do what Uncle wants," she said. 
 
 The inference was irresistible. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Lord Clapham's long tenure of the British Legation 
 had come to an end, and he had been promoted to a 
 certain Latin country, whose susceptibilities are extreme 
 and whose importance is nil, for which the possession 
 of a Spanish niece was a qualification. 
 
 A post was found there for me, too ; after learnmg 
 a language like Japanese without any such advantages 
 it was not difficult to me to learn Spanish from my 
 witch of a wife in the course of a year. We were given 
 six months in England on our way to the new appoint- 
 ment, and were now, in the first days of 1904, visiting 
 Sir Randolph and Lady Rich at Richborough, their 
 place in Northamptonshire. 
 
 Marriage had turned out to me better than Mrs. 
 Tiffany would have prophesied. For one thing, poor 
 young Rose's being sent to Japan for his convalescence, 
 affected my wife a good deal. She made me take her 
 to see him, and was shocked at his appearance, though 
 the doctor assured her that he was doing very well, 
 and would make a good recovery. He had been 
 frightfully disfigured by his fall, but had received no 
 organic injuries, and the bullet at that short range 
 had gone right through him, which is the good or bad 
 feature of the modern small calibre rifle. 
 
 He was very glad to see her. I thought the questions 
 she asked him about how he looked when he was 
 wounded were most gruesome, and could not see that 
 it mattered what sort of bed he was lying on, till she 
 explained to me in the extraordinary confession which 
 she made to me that night. 
 
 " Sam," said Chiquita (my godfathers and god- 
 mothers had testified that Samuel Henry were the 
 names under which my parents wished me to be 
 
 ^01 
 
302 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 baptised) — ** Sam," said Chiquita, kittening as she 
 always did when she had been naughty or wanted 
 anything, ** I have something appalling to tell you. 
 Be very nice to your wife for a few minutes, because 
 you may never like her again." 
 
 The confession, when it did come, was certainly of 
 a character to make a guinea-pig's eyes drop out of 
 its head if it were held up by the tail. It concerned 
 the unfortunate Kenneth Rose, and though he might 
 have been killed in action in the ordinary way, that 
 being as he said what sailors sign on for, yet if he 
 had been killed, his family would have been justified 
 in laying the blame for it at my naughty little wife's 
 door. 
 
 She was in a very truthful mood, and told me the 
 whole ins and outs of that marvellous day which 
 Kenneth Rose spent with her at the British Legation 
 at Tokyo. 
 
 It seems to have been plain enough sailing till just 
 before midnight, when she had that awful dream and 
 woke, and Rose's account of his appearance after the 
 accident tallied exactly with the vision in her dream. 
 
 Well, she had fallen in love with the boy, and 
 assures me, though I have every reason to be satisfied 
 with things as they are, that she never could love 
 me as much as she loved him when she saw his rosy 
 face lying fast asleep on the white pillow looking as 
 innocent as a child, though he had read himself to 
 sleep with a naughty French novel. 
 
 When she had that dream, she knew that an awful 
 catastrophe was going to befall him if he went on the 
 journey he intended, so she cast about for a means 
 to prevent it. 
 
 It never occurred to her that no catastrophe which 
 could possibly befall an oflScer in the British Navy 
 could equal his failure to rejoin his ship when she was 
 ordered on war service. It seemed to her mere 
 woman's mind that if she could by any means keep 
 him back until his ship had sailed that this object 
 would be achieved. That any further consequences 
 could befall him simply never occurred to her. 
 
 She had hardly any time to lay her plans, so the 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 303 
 
 success which she achieved on her own Hnes did credit 
 to her resourcefulness and presence of mind, if not to 
 her sense of rectitude. Quick as thought, she had in- 
 structed her maid to knock up the two rikslia boys 
 who Hved opposite the Legation, for the large amount 
 of chance custom which it afforded. The maid was 
 also to provide herself with a cloak to throw over 
 Chiquita's head, and to instruct the riksha boys the 
 moment they heard Chiquita call out to dash off at 
 their best pace into the country in any direction but 
 that of Yokohama. They were told that they would 
 be pursued and must exercise all their ingenuity to 
 baffle their pursuers. Two boys were to be ordered, 
 but only one riksha. 
 
 Events played into Chiquita's hands. They had 
 heard the commotion. Thinking that there might be 
 some luggage to take to Yokohama, both boys were 
 out in a double riksha waiting to be hired. The 
 Japanese have quite the Southern love for plot or 
 intrigue, and carried out their instructions with great 
 spirit. (*' They thought it was an amour y'^ interjected 
 Chiquita mischievously.) And they kept up the game 
 till daylight, when she got out, leaving her maid in 
 the riksha^ and, paying them extravagantly, told them 
 to follow her home, always keeping out of sight unless 
 she clapped her hands for their attendance. 
 
 When she had finished her confession, I was pre- 
 pared to hear her ask in her play-penitent voice : *' Now 
 what do you think of me, Sam? " but she cut the 
 ground from under my feet by not asking for my 
 forgiveness, but for my advice; and with this she grew 
 sweetly serious, holding on to my arm and looking up 
 to me with childish eyes. The doubt whether she 
 should tell Kenneth had made her very uneasy. 
 
 I thought it would be positively cruel to tell him 
 that his sacrifices had all been made for a deliberate 
 deceit on the part of a girl who had been frightened 
 by a dream, and suggested that now she had confessed 
 to her husband the secret would trouble her no longer. 
 
 ** You are quite sure that I ought not to tell him, 
 aren't you, dear? " 
 
 " Quite sure, and if you feel that you have treated 
 
304 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 him shabbily, you will do much better by going and 
 sitting with him to cheer him up than by making a 
 fate-disturbing confession. Flirting wouldn't be half 
 as bad as that," I added, with a parting shot. 
 
 Chiquita took my advice, even as I suspect, to the 
 extent of flirting with him. He was so ill, poor boy, 
 all by her fault, that he was welcome to any pretty 
 playfulness from her which would beguile him in the 
 tedious progress to recovery. 
 
 I trusted Chiquita then, and I have since found out 
 how implicitly she is to be trusted in these matters. 
 Her flirtations are not flirtations in the ordinary sense 
 of the word ; she merely amuses herself, and the other 
 person does not count at all. At my suggestion Rose 
 went home to England on a sick leave in the same 
 ship that carried Lord Clapham and his fortunes, in- 
 cluding ourselves. He was not in a fit state to be 
 left out in Japan without people who were strongly 
 interested in him. By the end of the voyage he was 
 my friend, not Chiquita's. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 ** Dick, old boy," said Candida, frail in health but 
 with a new kind of prettiness from her months of 
 happy wifehood, ** I wish you'd run down to Rich- 
 borough and get some hunting or shooting. You'll be 
 ill too, if you take no exercise but walking about the 
 streets for an hour." 
 
 " I shouldn't enjoy it; I should always be expecting 
 a telegram. Whenever I go away for long, I find you 
 worse when I come back. You mope so when you're 
 left alone." 
 
 *' But you mustn't mind that. It's the climate 
 makes me mope, and London. It's not that I want 
 to keep my husband tied to my apron-strings. It's 
 just that nobody's so good at making me forget 
 London." 
 
 " You're not regretting that we came to London till 
 it's over, are you? I want to give the heir the best 
 chance." 
 
 " No, I assure you; I shouldn't like to trust myself 
 to Doctor Appleyard. He's a pleasant old gentleman 
 to talk to, and you say that he's a first-rate man if 
 there's an accident in the hunting-field. He's naturally 
 sober then. But think how terrified I should have 
 been if I had to send for him after dinner! " 
 
 ** It's a pity. The views from our windows on a 
 fine winter morning are lovely — the distances are so 
 splendid." 
 
 " You were quite right in bringing me up. The 
 country is a dull place when you must not ride, and 
 I've been enjoying London awfully, till I had to give 
 
 ' 305 u 
 
3o6 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 up going about. The matter with London is the view 
 from the windows. Look at our street! We can't 
 see either end of it, and the houses opposite are all 
 alike, blank walls with holes in them for the doors 
 and windows." 
 
 " We came here because it was such a good house 
 and so near your doctor," said Randolph diplomatic- 
 ally. All the great doctors live in this quarter." 
 
 ** I know, dear. I quite approved of the choice, and 
 we've got one thing to be thankful for, at any rate," 
 she said, with a laugh, which had lost none of its 
 mirth though it was feebler; " we can't see the Square 
 round the corner. The black skeletons of the London 
 elms give me the creeps after our own evergreen 
 cryptomerias." 
 
 " It was awfully unkind of me to bring you to a 
 climate like this." 
 
 " No, no, no! Fancy not wanting to see England, 
 especially when you are mistress of such a fairy palace 
 as Richborough." 
 
 " But you miss Japan so ! " 
 
 " I didn't till I was ill. And this is an illness which 
 could have been avoided if we had not been so anxious 
 for an heir. What I do miss," she continued, " is 
 that crystal atmosphere and the picturesqueness. 
 London looks so drab and dull. It has no outsides." 
 
 He made her take a big armchair in front of the 
 fire, which was, as usual in England, arranged in a 
 blank wall. 
 
 " You can't see the ugly street from here. Try and 
 see Japan in the fire! " He arranged the cushions 
 behind her, and a fat cushion in front of her to toast 
 her pretty ankles, which always put heart into her in 
 winter. 
 
 " You're as good as a nurse at making one comfy. 
 Pull my slippers off, will you, dear. I want to warm 
 the soles of my feet." 
 
 '* What lovely feet you have, Candida," he said, 
 as she held them up to have the exquisitely-fitting 
 slippers drawn off. But won't you get cold wearing 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 307 
 
 such thin things? " The kid was hardly thicker than 
 tissue paper. 
 
 *' I hate warm slippers — they're so ugly. Thank 
 you, I'd rather have my feet neat for my husband and 
 warm them when they get too cold." 
 
 " I feel more at peace with England now," she said, 
 as she sat bending her slender soles to temper the 
 heat of the fire. '* I never knew what a decent fire 
 was till I came home." 
 
 Randolph liked that word ** home." To the English 
 of Antipodea, no matter if they and their fathers before 
 them have been born out there, England is always 
 refered to as " home." 
 
 " But," he asked^ in mock reproach, " is that all 
 you like England for? " 
 
 " No, of course not. I've had the happiest time of 
 my life in England. I did not know that I should 
 ever feel such ecstasy as I felt riding down the green 
 drives in our park with you in the early morning. I 
 was enchanted with the smallness of the leaves, the 
 freshness of the green, the way they almost filled up 
 the sky over our heads and the way the rabbits and 
 pheasants used to cross in front of us between the 
 walls of underwood which came right to the edge of 
 the grass — such royal pheasants they were — and the 
 drives went on for miles, and all our own, thanks to 
 dear, generous Honoria. It was good of you to go 
 straight down to Richborough instead of wanting to 
 spend the season in London." 
 
 " There was nothing very noble about it. I wanted 
 to go to Richborough." 
 
 " All alone, like we went? " 
 
 ** Yes, all alone. You have helped me to ferret out 
 so many things in Japan that I wanted to explore our 
 English possessions together." 
 
 He was not playing the hypocrite to please her ; 
 indeed he could not have played it well enough to 
 deceive anyone, least of all Candida's loving eyes. He 
 had grown so accustomed, as he said, to looking at 
 things with Candida, that it would have taken away the 
 
3o8 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 cream of his pleasure not to have had her with him 
 when he was going over all the things which he re- 
 membered as a boy. 
 
 His father, Sir Cornwallis's next brother, had been 
 Vicar of Richborough, and the church and vicarage 
 were in the Park near the Manor House, so he had 
 always had the run of the place in his father's life-time, 
 and when his father died, and a stranger was appointed 
 to the living because there was no Rich in orders to 
 take it, he had spent his holidays at the Manor House 
 till he left school and went in the Guards ; so there 
 were many memories for him. Candida could not help 
 laughing affectionately at their unromantic nature. 
 Most of them were connected with the slaying of some 
 animal, or a fight with some boy from the brickfields on 
 the edge of the estate, which were responsible for so 
 much of the wealth of the Riches. 
 
 Honoria spent the season in London, and they had 
 been three full months in possession of their estates 
 and themselves before Candida had a note from her 
 that she proposed to come down to the suite she had 
 reserved for herself; but that if it was inconvenient 
 to them, she had visits which she could pay. 
 
 ** Shall we let her pay visits? " asked Randolph, a 
 little doubtful of himself. 
 
 "Visits!" repeated Candida, scornfully. "We'll 
 have exactly the same bell-ringings and bonfires and 
 triumphal arches and village maidens in white starched 
 dresses as we had when we made our entry into 
 Richborough. She's not been home since she came 
 back from Japan." 
 
 This was the outpouring of Candida's heart, but it 
 was very popular with the neighbours and tenantry, 
 who naturally w^ere a little disappointed at the cousins 
 not marrying and keeping the family property together, 
 though Candida's personal qualities had told in her 
 favour ; now especially when they could see the re- 
 lations that existed between her and Honoria. 
 
 They were hardly ever apart. Randolph was seen 
 alone much more, and began to spend his time in 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 309 
 
 taking up his position in the county. He had been 
 gazetted a J. P. as a matter of course. 
 
 He was guarding himself, for he recognised, the 
 moment that he saw Honoria again, that she awoke 
 feelings in him which Candida did not. He loved 
 Candida dearly ; there was no one whose companion- 
 ship he enjoyed so much ; she gratified his senses and 
 sensibilities at more points than any other woman 
 could ; she was everything that was good and gracious 
 to the eye as well as the mind, but he was in love 
 with Honoria, and the worst of it was that Honoria 
 was in love with him. 
 
 Honoria stayed in his house, and they avoided each 
 other except in Candida's presence, and lavished their 
 feelings on her. 
 
 Honoria and Candida, both being frank people and 
 not afraid of facing a situation, thrashed the matter 
 out a few days after the arrival of the former. 
 
 " I ought not to stay here, Candida. I find I am 
 still in love with Randolph. I thought I should have 
 got over it, but I haven't; and I know that he is still 
 fond of me by the way he avoids me. I shall pack 
 up my traps and go." 
 
 "I never heard such nonsense!" said Candida 
 warmly. " If you are in love with each other, and I 
 cannot deceive myself on the subject, that's no reason 
 why you should go away. You are a lady, Honoria, 
 and I would trust you against the evidence of my own 
 eyes." And after a very slight pause she added: 
 ** And Dick's a gentleman, though you don't expect so 
 much of them. But he's too good to me for me to 
 fear any serious aberrations on his part." 
 
 They were silent for a few minutes. Honoria wished 
 to say something and did not know how to say it, and 
 Candida was formulating opinions which she had 
 always held in her clear, generous mind. 
 
 *' For two people to avoid each other," she began, 
 " because they like each other better than anyone else 
 in the world, seems to me the height of folly. We 
 were sent into the world to make the best of our lives. 
 
3IO 
 
 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 To arrogate the functions of the Fates and to de- 
 liberately cut the thread of happiness, seems to me 
 immoral. If people are strong enough to wrench 
 themselves hundreds of miles apart, and stay there, 
 they ought to be strong enough to keep from excesses 
 when they are together. There has been a vast deal 
 of unhappiness in this old world because people have 
 confused two issues. You confess that you are in 
 love with my husband, and we may take it that he is 
 in love with you. For you to enjoy the pleasure of the 
 ordinary intercourse that is maintained between friends 
 is, in my opinion, absolutely unobjectionable. The 
 other issue is of course horrible and wicked, and if you 
 felt that flight was the only way to prevent that, flight 
 is the only remedy. But in nine hundred and ninety- 
 nine cases out of a thousand I believe this to be pure 
 cowardice, and I am quite willing to test my opinion 
 in my own case.*' 
 
 Honoria accepted the situation. Her pride made 
 her feel sure of her behaviour, and a sane, clear-headed 
 woman like her could not but see force in Candida's 
 reasoning. She knew Candida was a woman of 
 transparent sincerity. The only thing which made her 
 hesitate was that Candida had almost died of love, 
 and made no secret of it. 
 
 What a difficult situation it was. She could hardly 
 put this into words in maintaining her objection, and 
 it also seemed so vain of her to expect that Randolph 
 should be led astray by a girl like her after he had 
 known the exquisite intimacy of married life with a 
 woman like Candida. 
 
 She expected Candida to divine her thoughts, but 
 Candida's mind was moving in a different direction. 
 
 ** It would make Dick very unhappy to think he 
 was never to see you again, and it would hurt me so 
 much to think that regret was gnawing his heart when 
 he has made me so exquisitely happy." 
 
 ** I think I ought to go," said Honoria. 
 
 " No, no, stay and be strong! " pleaded Candida. 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 311 
 
 The steam of the sacrifice which Candida laid on 
 the altar was grateful in the nostrils of the gods. Not 
 a particle of harm had come of it when they went 
 up to London in the late autumn, leaving Honoria to 
 entertain her friends with the shooting, for which 
 Randolph, in the delicate state of his wife, had no 
 inclination, if he could have found the leisure. 
 
 Once indeed Candida had come upon them looking 
 out of a window in an attitude which seemed suspicious. 
 That night she asked him : 
 
 *' Were you kissing Honoria, Randolph? " 
 ** No," he said simply; *' I never do." 
 *' You are cousins, anyhow," said Candida. '* I do 
 not want to scold you ; what I did want to say was 
 don't kiss her when she is alone unless you kiss her 
 before me as well. I should not mind your kissing 
 her, though there is a reason why it is better that you 
 should not. But I should have hated to think that 
 you kissed her and hid it from me." 
 
 The suspicion was needless. Honoria would not 
 have permitted it, even if she could have trusted herself. 
 But to her kissing was the Rubicon between the two 
 kinds of love. 
 
 The days dragged on in London. If Candida got 
 no better, it was not to be expected under the circum- 
 stances — and at any rate she got no worse. 
 
 As time drew near she wrote for Honoria, begging 
 her not to refuse, and Honoria came at once with a 
 perceptibly good effect on Candida's spirits. Indeed 
 that night, Friday, at dinner, she seemed quite her 
 old self. But two hours before midnight she was seized 
 with such violent pains that they telephoned for the 
 Doctor, who examined her and at once began to make 
 preparations for her delivery. "I'm sorry it's a 
 Friday," she said, " though I don't much believe in 
 luck." 
 
312 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 " Now, Sir Randolph," said the great man cheerily, 
 " you'll have to leave us. I suppose you would feel 
 more confidence if your cousin stayed with you, Lady 
 Rich?" 
 
 The operation took so long that Randolph began to 
 get anxious, though he had no idea how long such 
 things ought to take. He was walking up and down 
 the next room, muttering, " Poor old Candida! " when 
 Honoria came in to him suddenly. 
 
 " Yes, it is poor old Candida, Ran! She's dying! " 
 she sobbed, and flew back, followed by Randolph with 
 fear written on his face for the first time. 
 
 Candida, who had just received a strong restorative, 
 was not insensible, though she was very weak with 
 the fatal haemorrhage. She recognised her husband at 
 once, and a smile of delight spread over her face, not 
 an angelic smile, but a very human one. She lifted 
 her faint arms to her husband, repeating in a low but 
 distinct voice the words, "Good-bye, Dick; you've 
 given me everything I desired in the world. Friday 
 was not an unlucky day. . . Our child. . ." 
 
 With these words Candida's brave spirit fled. 
 
 '* It is a little girl," the doctor said. *' She did not 
 know." 
 
 It was a long time before he could leave the room, 
 and in the interval Candida's heart - broken maid 
 managed to get out the message that her mistress 
 had left a letter for her husband in her dressing- 
 case. When Randolph lifted up the last tray, 
 there were two envelopes. The large one contained 
 a will, which he had no remembrance of her 
 executing. Indeed, he had for the moment forgotten 
 that her income must represent a capital of fifteen or 
 twenty thousand pounds. This, as it proved, was left 
 to him absolutely. But he put it aside for perusal later, 
 because the other envelope contained something in her 
 own dear handwriting, so characteristic of that frank, 
 sincere life. 
 
 The others crept out of the room, one by one, leaving 
 him with the yet warm body of his wife, and her last 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 313 
 
 message in his hand, so full of humility and nobility, 
 though she died a cheerful pagan without a thought 
 for her future in heaven. It was dated a few days 
 back, and contained these words : — 
 
 My dearest Husband, 
 
 If these words are ever given you to read, 
 they will be the last of our long companionship, for I 
 only write them in case of the sudden death which may 
 always befall a woman in my condition, especially at 
 the birth of her first child. You will perhaps be 
 astonished at what I have to say, but you will end 
 by recognising its justice, as I do. I have left you all 
 I possess, after deducting a sum sufficient for the con- 
 veyance of my body to Japan, and its burial in the 
 Happy Valley at Yokohama. When this is done, I 
 pray you to forget me, and with that intention I ask, 
 though I do not demand, that you should send out to 
 my dear friends, Mr. and Mrs. Sandys, the portrait 
 you had painted of me by Collier. I should like them 
 to remember me, for I have done them no wrong. 
 Against you I have sinned grievously. I made you 
 marry me when you loved another woman far 
 better than me, and she loved you in return. She 
 could not love you better than me, for I sacrificed 
 my honour to my love. But she was more worthy 
 of your love. For she had your heart, and you had 
 hers, and she sacrificed them both to her pity for 
 me. If I die I shall die willingly. For I have had 
 the happiness I desired, and I make way for her 
 whom I robbed of her birthright. I do not anticipate 
 death, though why I am writing this, if I do not, 
 passes my understanding. Neither do I fear it, 
 though I have no conviction as to what comes after. 
 I should like to die in giving birth to my child, and 
 if it survives me I pray that it may be a daughter, so 
 that your heir may spring as in justice he should, 
 from the body of Honoria. 
 
 Have no vain imaginings that you are honouring 
 my memory by delaying your marriage with her. You 
 
314 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 would have been married and the child hers if I had 
 not come between you with my selfish yearnings. 
 
 I desire to offer the only reparation in my power, 
 by having my body buried out of your sight, and 
 enjoining you to forget, as far as you can, that I have 
 ever existed. I pray you both, in your generosity, to 
 forgive me who have nothing to forgive. 
 
 Good-bye, dear Husband, faithful and true, 
 I am your loving wife, 
 
 Candida Rich. 
 
 Randolph stayed all night by the body of the wife 
 who believed in him so implicitly, and whose last 
 thoughts had been so generous, looking at the beauti- 
 ful, calm, courageous face before decay set in. The 
 smile on her features told that she had gone to her 
 death in calm confidence now that she had made re- 
 quital for her one lapse in '' playing the game." 
 
 A week later he was on his way to Yokohama with 
 her body. In his affectionate good-bye to Honoria 
 he said not a word of the future, beyond showing 
 her Candida's last letter, and her will. But he left 
 Richborough and all his affairs in her hands, and a 
 commission for the artist to paint a replica of Candida's 
 portrait, to be forwarded as soon as it was completed, 
 to the Sandys' in Japan. 
 
 Candida, who had gone back to Yokohama to lie 
 with her own people, had the largest funeral ever 
 known in Yokohama ; and Randolph, after staying a 
 short time at the Sandys' to see her tomb erected, 
 returned home. The tomb might excite the wonder of 
 future antiquaries. 
 
 While he and Honoria were discussing the form it 
 should take, an advertisement arrived from Christie's 
 saying that a few days later there would be a sale of 
 the collection made by a famous traveller three 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 315 
 
 generations back, which had lain forgotten in an old 
 country house. The gem of the collection, of which 
 a picture was given on the outside of the catalogue, 
 was an ancient Greek tomb in the Athenian style of 
 the fourth century B.C., which was a lost bit of Miletus. 
 It was like a temple-end with a sunken panel, decorated 
 with a most exquisite bas-relief. The subject of the 
 picture was a young, beautiful and smiling woman 
 saying good-bye to her husband, a youthful Greek 
 warrior. You could see that it was the wife who had 
 died, because she stood on the bank of the Styx with 
 Charon and his boat behind her. 
 
 What struck Randolph and Honoria about the picture 
 was the likeness of the dead girl to Candida. 
 
 " We must have that, Ran, whatever it costs, for 
 Candida's grave," said Honoria. 
 
 The sum ran into four figures, but if it had absorbed 
 the whole of Candida's legacy Randolph would have 
 bought it. 
 
 The significance of this bit of ancient Hellas standing 
 in Japan, the Hellas of to-day, did not strike good, plain 
 Randolph while he was having it erected on the green 
 hillside in the Happy Valley. But to Philip and Bryn 
 Sandys it was a parable; and at their entreaty the 
 funeral was delayed till this fair white shaft of Pentelic 
 marble stood facing the sunset and Greece and England. 
 Randolph was doubly glad that he had followed 
 Candida's body to its grave instead of obeying the 
 instructions laid down so precisely in the will that 
 he should send the body to Japan and leave the carrying 
 out of the funeral arrangements to the Sandys, for it 
 took him to Japan at one of the most inspiring moments 
 in the history of the world, when the Japanese, after 
 exhausting the resources of chivalry and forbearance, 
 had boldly flung down the gauntlet to the greatest 
 military Power on earth, and dealt a staggering blow 
 to its enemy's navy. 
 
 It is impossible to describe Japan as he found it— a 
 nation in arms— a nation in prayer to the old gods who 
 had carried it through so many earlier perils from the 
 
3i6 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 Asian mainland, a nation anxious to shed its blood to 
 secure the crown of martyrdom. How glad Randolph 
 was that his eyes had been opened to the greatness 
 of the Japanese, years before, that he had made his 
 amende honorable before it was in the nature half of 
 an insult, half of a surrender ! 
 
 As he flew home across the Pacific, across the At- 
 lantic, one thing was uppermost in his mind — where 
 would Honoria, virginally, await him ; at Vancouver 
 and New York there were telegrams of welcome, but 
 they said nothing on the point which agitated him. 
 It was not till he got to Liverpool that he read the 
 welcome words, ** Come straight to Richborough." 
 He had hoped that Honoria would have been at the 
 station, but there was only a groom, one he had never 
 seen, with a waggonette and a spanking pair of horses 
 he had bought just before he went up to London. The 
 porter put his luggage in behind. He drew on his 
 gloves, stepped upon the box, and took the reins. If 
 the groom had only been an old servant it would have 
 been natural to have asked the question, " Where 
 was Miss Rich?" It was not decided till a turn in 
 his avenue brought him in sight of the lovely Tudor 
 porch of the old home of the Riches. There, at the 
 head of the stately flight of steps, in her habit, stood 
 Honoria with one trim foot on the threshold. The 
 significance was not lost on him, though he half wished 
 that the meeting, so long delayed, had been in some 
 more private place. 
 
 But her eyes told him all that any man could want, 
 and she looked so typically English with her glorious 
 fairness and in her homespun habit. 
 
 *' I've taken Fen Abbey," she said. " I just rode 
 over to see that everything was ready for you. Your 
 servants gave me lunch, and you are g-oing to dine 
 with me. Will you drive over when you're ready? " 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 317 
 
 "Not I! I'm going to ride back with you. My 
 man can bring my dress tilings later, if you'll give me 
 a room to swop in." 
 
 The cousins, Randolph with the sunburn of Eastern 
 Seas still on him, and Honoria with the love-light still 
 in her eyes, walked their horses through the sunset 
 along the white high road which lies between two blue 
 dykes and " long fields of barley and of rye," all the 
 way from Richborough village to Croyland town and 
 Fen Abbey beyond it, and sat about the ancient lawn 
 of the abbots till it was time to dress for dinner. 
 Not for any party that she had ever been asked to 
 had Honoria been more particular to look her very 
 best. Dinner passed, nor swift nor slow, with talk 
 about the marvellous Japan, from which Randolph had 
 just returned. 
 
 ** When you've finished smoking," she said as she 
 left him, " you can join me in the summer drawing- 
 room." 
 
 The summer drawing-room was a noble room. Its 
 great dimensions were due to the fact that it had been 
 the chapel of the Abbey ; but it was rather barely 
 furnished, and Honoria had made it look inhabited 
 with her own household goods from Richborough, so 
 that everything had the stamp of her personality upon 
 it. 
 
 Its drawback was that it could only be entered by 
 a beautiful fourteenth century processional staircase, 
 supported on three arches, which led up from the 
 courtyard, to what the Italians call the piano nobile. 
 Its dais was lighted by the great south transept 
 window of exquisite tracery of the same period, which 
 contained in its deep recess a wide stone seat now 
 cushioned into a luxurious couch, commanding views 
 of the broad fens, rich corn-lands ribboned with 
 dividing streams, and broken here by an ancient steeple 
 rising from the marsh, there by a farm, a windmill, 
 or a thin line of poplars. 
 
 On this night of nights the enchanter's wand of a 
 full moon had transformed the whole landscape into a 
 
3i8 PLAYING THE GAME 
 
 garden with blossoms too close to distinguish, and 
 silver paths, and had flooded the old Gothic chapel 
 with a pure white light which reflected the delicate 
 window-traceries on the floor, jewelled here and there 
 with rubies and sapphires and emeralds where frag- 
 ments of the old glass remained. 
 
 Randolph Rich was not a man of taste, but he felt 
 that he should never forget the exquisite beauty of 
 that scene. 
 
 But it was not so exquisite in his eyes as the beauty 
 of Honoria, all in white, who crossed a shaft of 
 moonlight as she advanced to meet him, looking her 
 womanliest and her queenliest. 
 
 It was the first embrace between the cousins since 
 they were children, except the kiss of good-bye 
 Honoria had given him when she sent him to lay his 
 heart before another woman, and the long good-bye 
 kiss when he was going away the width of the world 
 to bury that other woman. 
 
 Now she lay in his arms on the window couch for 
 an hour before either of them raised their eyes to the 
 fairyland on the other side of the glass. 
 
 Months after they had been married, they were 
 standing in front of Candida's portrait over their 
 dining-room mantelpiece, as they often did, talking 
 about her. It was a speaking likeness. Candida, in 
 all her grace, smiled her old frank smile and returned 
 their glances with her sincere blue eyes out of the 
 picture. 
 
 *' Do you remember the evening you came back. 
 Ran?" 
 
 " Can I ever forget the loveliest evening in my life? " 
 
 " I knew you were cross because I met you on the 
 threshold. But I wanted to greet you there in memory 
 of my father, and I did not want you to kiss me in 
 
PLAYING THE GAME 319 
 
 the house, where you had lived with Candida, until 
 we were married." 
 
 And then Randolph remembered what Candida had 
 said to him about deceiving her. 
 
 " But Honoria could not have known," he told him- 
 self — it was just a woman's instinct. 
 
 In the Sodcrini Falace at Florence, 
 May 26th, igo4. 
 
 THE END 
 
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