o others."

"You have found me an interesting subject for investigation perhaps?"
she asked, looking up suddenly.

"You possess gifts," he admitted calmly, "which one does not find
amongst the womenfolk of my country, nor can I say that I have found
them to any extent amongst the ladies of the English Court."

"Gifts of which you do not approve when possessed by my sex," she
suggested.

"You are a law to yourself, Miss Morse," he said. "What one would not
admire in others seems natural enough in you. You have brains and
you have insight. For that reason I have been with you a little
outspoken,--for that reason and another which I think you know of. You
see, my time over here grows nearer to an end with every day. Soon I
must carry away with me, over the seas, all the delightful memories,
the friendships, the affections, which have made this country such a
pleasant place for me."

"You are going soon?" she asked quickly.

"Very soon," he answered. "My work is nearly finished, if indeed I may
dignify it by the name of work. Then I must go back."

She shrank a little away from him, as though the word were distasteful
to her.

"Do you mean that you will go back for always?" she asked.

"There are many chances in life," he answered. "I am the servant of the
Emperor and my country."

"There is no hope, then," she continued, "of your settling down here
altogether?"

For once the marble immobility of his features seemed disturbed. He
looked at her in honest amazement.

"Here!" he exclaimed. "But I am a son of Japan!"

"There are many of your race who do live here," she reminded him.

He smiled with the air of one who is forced to humor a person of limited
vision.

"With them it is, alas! a matter of necessity," he said. "It is very
hard indeed to make you understand over here how we feel about such
things,--there seems to be a different spirit amongst you Western races,
a different spirit or a lack of spirit--I do not know which I should
say. But in Japan the love of our country is a passion which seems to
throb with every beat of our hearts. If we leave her, it is for her
good. When we go back, it is our reward."

"Then you are here now for her good?" she asked.

"Assuredly," he answered.

"Tell me in what way?" she begged. "You have been studying English
customs, their methods of education, their political life, perhaps?"

He turned his head slowly and looked into her eyes. She bore the ordeal
well,