The Honorable Percival

quatted on their heels and read aloud in monotonous, wailing tones. The air was close, and the floor was strewn with orange peel, spilt tea, and cigarette ends. Percival's fastidious sens

en temporary choice was utterly intolerable. Moreover, he was coming to see that while Bobby had failed to droop under the

ct upon the folly of pursuing an object which he did not mean to possess. B

that cluttered the aisle, went out to the small platform. The train had stopped at a village, and

! Eo B

"I say, can't you get me a

ed the boy,

cival. "Rather strong

omenade?" as

at a silly fool!"

boiling water had been deposited in the aisle, and small tea-pots had been distributed among the passengers. Everybody was partaking of breakfast, and

ir," he said with enthusiasm.

ll smoking rice was not unpleasant. He watched with increasing appetite the disappear

er large hotel. It was on a hillside well out from the city, and two coolies were required for each jinrikisha. S

wn the shafts of the jinrikisha confidently. "Thirty-three th

ed at a flower

fine dancers. Come s

in the stern young gentleman who sat so rigidly in the jinrikisha, with his

rty of five, "one single lady, and two young married couples, he thought," had breakfasted

cival asked, dimly rememberin

proprietor; "view of Lake Biwa.

pine-tree, but the prospect of sharing the sight of

mustn't they? Perhaps I

u, and wait. Very nice, very easy. All come home together. I furnis

ing to be prompted when his memory failed. He received Percival's peremptory order to be silent with an uncomprehending smile and a glib recitation of the Twenty-third Psalm. He was an unusually tall coolie, and the jinrikisha-shafts resting in his hands were a foot

and the four girls, who received him on their knees, failed to revive his spirits. It was going to be deuced awkward explaining his sudden appearance

nno explained with much difficulty. Owing to the autumn festival of the imperial ancestors, th

concluded Sanno; "foreign

then, seeing that a diminutive maiden was unloosing his shoes, h

s small and demure, but her attitude towards him was that of a nurse towards a refractory child. She conducted him, with much sliding of

furniture, its only decoration being a vase of carefully arranged flowers in an alcove, and a queer k

gan to remove it. When he forestalled her at one point she attacked another, u

emanded furiously. "Why doesn't the

" he joined forces with the nesan to get Percival out of his c

tub in the afternoon

t politely, but

"I say, I won't wear a sash; the whole thing'

erfly bow at the back. Seeing that protests were quite useless, and being still chilled from his long ride, he decided to

, with the hot water up to his chin, he forgot his trouble, and gave himself up to the luxury of the moment. Even the knowledge that the determined litt

m. Suppose the Weston party did not return by this route! The possibility of missing Bobby fire

tly cleared and his reason enthroned. Later it became necessary to add the captain's sturdy countenance to his list of exorcising spirits. Now Bobby routed them all, not

he landed in Hong-Kong the whole episode would be relegated to oblivion. But Hong-Kong was yet ten days away, and Perciv

rfully, from the step where

answer, he clapped his

his cuff-links, wrist-watch, and ring, making purring exclamations of delight over each discovery. When he used his monocle she tried it also, and when he took out his cigarette-case, she must examine every detail and help herself to a cigarette into the bargain. Percival

ll the Weston party did not come. Percival's impat

e back another way?"

repeate

aper and tried to convey his

e?" asked San

ration, Percival

l, Kioto,"

Kioto to-night. Big rain. Bridge hi

t his intention. Then the Honorable Percival, who was not used to being crossed, lost his temper, and the entire household came out to see him do it. Sanno and the p

ons were in progress for dinner. The brazier which had been used for the tea still stood in the middle of th

bably back in Kioto by this time, and would be off again in the morning before he could possibly get there. W

he floor before a twelve-inch table, with disgust written on every feature, he drank fish-soup

e asked when the chop-s

dens who knelt before him; then she jo

d it swayed so perilously as when he tried to use chop-sticks for the first time under the fire of those six mi

red as a substitute, and Percival, after a long argument, stretched himself on the soft heap and courted oblivion. But the Fates were against him. As if his thoughts were

the trouble was explained, elaborate preparations were set on foot to remedy it. After much discussion, hook

owing to the fact that the pink silk underwear in which he wa

y mosquitos, and he knew them all, Captain Boynton, Andy Black, Sanno, the Lady Hortense, and even Bobby hers