together. But if you have
chosen him, it is sufficient. I am quite sure that he is all that a man
should be."
"Tell me in what respect your tastes are so far apart?" she asked. "You
say that as though there were something in the manner of his life of
which you disapproved."
"We are sons of different countries, Miss Penelope," the Prince said.
"We look out upon life differently, and the things which seem good
to him may well seem idle to me. Before I go," he added a little
hesitatingly, "we may speak of this again. But not now."
"I shall remind you of that promise, Prince," she declared.
"I will not fail to keep it," he replied. "You have, at least," he added
after a moment's pause, "one great claim upon happiness. You are the son
and the daughter of kindred races."
She looked at him as though not quite understanding.
"I was thinking," he continued simply, "of my own father and mother. My
father was a Japanese nobleman, with the home call of all the centuries
strong in his blood. He was an enlightened man, but he saw nothing in
the manner of living or the ideals of other countries to compare with
those of the country of his own birth. I sometimes think that my mother
and father might have been happier had one of them been a little more
disposed to yield to the other I think, perhaps, that their union would
have been a more successful one. They were married, and they lived
together, but they lived apart."
"It was not well for you, this," she remarked.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"Do not mistake me," he begged. "So far as I am concerned, I am content.
I am Japanese. The English blood that is in my veins is but as a drop
of water compared to the call of my own country. And yet there are some
things which have come to me from my mother--things which come most to
the surface when I am in this, her own country--which make life at times
a little sad. Forgive me if I have been led on to speak too much
of myself. Today one should think of nothing but of you and of your
happiness."
He turned to accept the greeting of an older woman who had lingered
for a moment, in passing, evidently anxious to speak to him. Penelope
watched his kindly air, listened to the courteous words which flowed
from his lips, the interest in his manner, which his whole bearing
denoted, notwithstanding the fact that the woman was elderly and
plain, and had outlived the friends of her day and received but scanty
consideration from the pr
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