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A pale-faced Japanese servant stood by his side with a glass in his hand. A few feet away, the man whom he had come to visit was looking down upon him with an expression of grave concern in his kindly face. "You are better, I trust, sir?" Prince Maiyo said. "I am better," Inspector Jacks muttered. "I don't know I can't imagine what happened to me."
"A cousin of the Emperor, and a member of an aristocracy which was old before we were thought of! Surely you cannot class Prince Maiyo amongst those to whom any of your country people could take exception." Penelope shrugged her shoulders slightly. "Perhaps," she said, "my feeling is the result of hearing you all praise him so much and so often.
Unfortunately, however, he belongs to a country which we have some reason to mistrust. He belongs to a country in whose national character we have not absolute confidence. For that reason, my dear Penelope, we mistrust Prince Maiyo." "I do not know him so well as you seem to imagine," Penelope said slowly. "We are not even friends, in the ordinary acceptation of the word.
Was that really the impression people had! Her lips just moved. "Well?" she asked. "I have met Prince Maiyo myself," Mr. Harvey continued, "and I have found him a charming representative of his race. I am not going to say a word against him. If he were an American, we should be proud of him. If he belonged to any other country, we should accept him at once for what he appears to be.
In less than half an hour, the two men were on their way to town. Curiously enough, Penelope and Prince Maiyo met that morning for the first time in several days. They were both guests of the Duchess of Devenham at a large luncheon party at the Savoy Restaurant. Penelope felt a little shiver when she saw him coming down the stairs.
"What of it?" "Nothing, except that it is a prejudice which you do not seem to share," he remarked. "In a way I do share it," she declared, "but there are exceptions, sometimes very wonderful exceptions." "Prince Maiyo, for instance," he said bitterly. "Yet a fortnight ago I could have sworn that you hated him." "I think that I do hate him," Penelope affirmed. "I try to. I want to.
"A propos of our last conversation?" he asked eagerly. She bowed her head. "It concerns Prince Maiyo," she admitted. "You are sure that you will not sit down?" he persisted. "You know how interesting this is to me." She smiled faintly. "To me," she said, "it is terrible. My only desire is to tell you and have finished with it.
She stopped to speak to Penelope, and turned afterwards to Somerfield. Prince Maiyo held out his hand for Penelope's programme. "You will spare me some dances?" he pleaded. "I come late, but it is not my fault." She yielded the programme to him without a word. "Those with an X," she said, "are free. One has to protect oneself." He smiled as he wrote his own name, unrebuked, in four places.
He purposely did not even glance at his companion. "Who was that?" the doctor asked curiously. "Did you call him Prince?" Inspector Jacks sighed. This was a disappointment to him! "His name is Prince Maiyo," he said slowly. "He is a Japanese." The doctor looked across the restaurant with puzzled face. "It's queer," he said, "how all these Japanese seem to one to look so much alike, and yet "
Won't you tell me what it is? You look worried." She returned his anxious gaze, dry-eyed but speechless. "Has that fellow, Prince Maiyo, done or said anything " She interrupted him. "No!" she cried. "No! don't mention his name, please! I don't want to hear his name again just now." "For my part," Somerfield said bitterly, "I never want to hear it again as long as I live!"
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