“To think I didn't know
you!” she began, reproaching
herself breathlessly. “You
aren't changed a bit. You are
exactly the same. No—now, take
your hat off. Oh, yes, you
are changed, too, Uncle Phil. There's
some gray on the
temples, but it is so nice. Oh, you
dear, dear, dear old
thing.” She slipped her arm
through his, and squeezed it
ecstatically.
“No,” said Phil,
comically. “The last five years
has been
doing its changing business on you,
instead of me. I'm 'bout
the same, but you?” He looked
at her critically. “I would
never have known you.”
“Oh, Uncle Phil!” she
reproached.
She introduced him triumphantly to
them all, just as a
young girl might a parent.
As he shook hands with each one
separately, he looked at
them keenly in that quick, sizing-up
way of his.
Koto began to coax him to live with
them, but he laughed
at the idea, lazily declaring that he
was so comfortably
fixed at the hotel he couldn't bother
moving. He added that
she'd better begin packing her little
traps, as he wanted
her with him just as soon as ever
Natsu was married.
“We lig' thad she lif with
us,” Natsu began
timidly.
“Can't help it,” said
Philip Evans, smiling at the shy
little figure; “I've a prior
claim.”
And the day after the wedding he
carried the girl off with
him sure enough. The two sisters
cried at parting, for they
had grown to love each other very
dearly.
“I'll come and see you every
day,” promised Koto
extravagantly, for Komatsu Taro's
castle was quite a
distance off from Tokyo. Jack
Carruthers proffered his
escort to her whenever she wished to
visit them.
And Koto kept her word, and visited
her sister each day.
Always young Carruthers accompanied
her. Once in a while
Phil Evans also was with them, but
not very often. I
understood he had a good deal of
business to attend to in
Tokyo. I believe he had secured the
contract for an immense
electric railroad to be constructed.
Phil had stepped into
his father's shoes as president of an
immensely rich
American syndicate, controlling
railroads and mines all over
the world.
Koto and Jack always walked on
these trips to the castle.
They would arrive there—she
with her arms laden with
flowers, smiling and mischievous, for
I believe she teased
him constantly. He was either
desperately blue, or insanely
happy, according to how she had
treated him.[17]
He was awfully in love with her. I
used to wonder how she
could resist the unspeakable glances
of his eyes. They were
so large and soft, the kind most
girls like, but she laughed
and chatted and coquetted with him,
till he didn't know
where he stood with her, whether he
had cause for hope or
despair. Although she had only just
reached her eighteenth
year, Koto, after a fashion, was a
finished coquette. It was
as natural to her as living.
One day he burst out and made her
listen to him, for I
believe she had cleverly held him off
from speaking.
They were standing right near me,
and I could see their
faces and hear all that passed. He
was white, and his lips
were dry—his eyes looked
unusually large, with dark shadows
under them, as though he had not
slept lately. I felt sorry
for him. She had her head held rather
proudly, and there was
the most provoking little smile
twinkling about her eyes and
dimpling her mouth.
“You shall listen to me.
Koto, don't you know I love
you?”
The words were spoken so quickly
and earnestly that the
drawl that somewhat spoiled his
speech was entirely absent.
She was not looking at him. Her
eyes were looking out of
the window, and feigned to be
intensely interested in
something she saw.
