After the supper there were obligations which the Prince, whose sense of etiquette was always strong, could not avoid. He took Penelope back to her aunt, reminding her that the next dance but one belonged to him. Miss Morse, who was an invalid and was making one of her very rare appearances in Society, watched him curiously as he disappeared.
"I wonder what they'd think of your new admirer in New York, Penelope," she remarked.
"I imagine," Penelope answered, "that they would envy me very much."Miss Morse, who was a New Englander of the old-fashioned type, opened her lips, but something in her niece's face restrained her.
"Well, at any rate," she said, "I hope we don't go to war with them. The Admiral wrote me, a few weeks ago, that he saw no hope for anything else.""It would be a terrible complication," the Duchess sighed, "especially considering our own alliance with Japan. I don't think we need consider it seriously, however. Over in America you people have too much common sense.""The Government have, very likely," Miss Morse admitted, "but it isn't always the Government who decide things or who even rule the country. We have an omnipotent Press, you know. All that's wanted is a weak President, and Heaven knows where we should be!""Of course," the Duchess remarked, "Prince Maiyo is half an Englishman. His mother was a Stretton-Wynne. One of the first intermarriages, I should think. Lord Stretton-Wynne was Ambassador to Japan.""I think," said Penelope, "that if you could look into Prince Maiyo's heart you would not find him half an Englishman. I think that he is more than seven-eighths a Japanese.""I have heard it whispered," the Duchess remarked, leaning forward, "that he is over here on an exceedingly serious mission.
One thing is quite certain. No one from his country, or from any other country, for that matter, has ever been so entirely popular amongst us. He has the most delightful manners of any man I ever knew of any race."Sir Charles came up, with gloomy face, to claim a dance. After it was over, he led Penelope back to her aunt almost in silence.
"You are dancing again with the Prince?" he asked.
"Certainly," she answered. "Here he comes."
The Prince smiled pleasantly at the young man, who towered like a giant above him, and noticed at once his lack of cordiality.
"I am selfish!" he exclaimed, pausing with Penelope's hand upon his coat sleeve. "I am taking you too much away from your friends, and spoiling your pleasure, perhaps, because I do not dance. Is it not so? It is your kindness to a stranger, and they do not all appreciate it.""We will go into the winter garden and talk it over," she answered, smiling.
They found their old seats unoccupied. Once more they sat and listened to the fall of the water.
"Prince," said Penelope, "there is one thing I have learned about you this evening, and that is that you do not love questions. And yet there is one other which I should like to ask you.""If you please," the Prince murmured.
"You spoke, a little time ago," she continued, "of some great crisis with which your country might soon come face to face.
Might I ask you this: were you thinking of war with the United States?"He looked at her in silence for several moments.
"Dear Miss Penelope," he said,--"may I call you that? Forgive me if I am too forward, but I hear so many of our friends--""You may call me that," she interrupted softly.
"Let me remind you, then, of what we were saying a little time ago," he went on. "You will not take offence? You will understand, I am sure. Those things that lie nearest to my heart concerning my country are the things of which I cannot speak.""Not even to me?" she pleaded. "I am so insignificant. Surely Ido not count?"
"Miss Penelope," he said, "you yourself are a daughter of that country of which we have been speaking."She was silent.
"You think, then," she asked, "that I put my country before everything else in the world?""I believe, " he answered, "that you would. Your country is too young to be wholly degenerate. It is true that you are a nation of fused races--a strange medley of people, but still you are a nation. I believe that in time of stress you would place your country before everything else.""And therefore?" she murmured.
"And therefore," he continued with a delightful smile, "I shall not discuss my hopes or fears with you. Or if we do discuss them," he went on, "let us weave them into a fairy tale. Let us say that you are indeed the Daughter of All America and that I am the Son of All Japan. You know what happens in fairyland when two great nations rise up to fight?""Tell me," she begged.
"Why, the Daughter of All America and the Son of All Japan stand hand in hand before their people, and as they plight their troth, all bitter feelings pass away, the shouts of anger cease, and there is no more talk of war."She sighed, and leaned a little towards him. Her eyes were soft and dusky, her red lips a little parted.
"But I," she whispered, "am not the Daughter of All America.""Nor am I," he answered with a sigh, "the Son of all Japan."There was a breathless silence. The water splashed into the basin, the music came throbbing in through the flower-hung doorways. It seemed to Penelope that she could almost hear her heart beat. The blood in her veins was dancing to the one perfect waltz. The moments passed. She drew a little breath and ventured to look at him. His face was still and white, as though, indeed, it had been carved out of marble, but the fire in his eyes was a living thing.
