It Happened in Japan

To My Brother
MAJOR ARTHUR HAGGARD.
... Pearl's was a perfect Japanese garden: it was a garden of the past, a poem, a creation of an art whose charm and loveliness only a Japanese can produce. -- Page 28.
CONTENTS.
Page.

CHAPTER I.
Renunciation.
Two men, side by side, were slowly pacing the deck of the Empress of India on her outward voyage to Japan. A week had almost passed since the boat had sailed from Vancouver, and the extremely bad weather encountered until this afternoon had prevented all but the most hardened good sailors from penetrating from below. Now, however, the wind and sea had somewhat abated, the first ray of sun had brought the storm-tossed and sea-sick from their berths, and the broad decks were soon swarming with passengers of both sexes, whose faces and general demeanour expressed entire satisfaction at their restored liberty.
Monsieur de Güldenfeldt, the newly-appointed Swedish Minister to Japan, though an experienced and enterprising traveller, was watching this motley crew through his eye-glass with an amused and somewhat quizzical expression. He had seen many such scenes, and yet to his observant mind they were ever new and always entertaining. He was at the present moment occupied in gazing at a French priest, a German commercial traveller, and a cadaverous-looking Englishman discussing with varied gesticulations some point in the political situation, on which question each appeared as ignorant as he was positive, and he was vaguely wondering what means they would ultimately find to unravel the tangled skein, when he felt his companion, a tall dark man with a black moustache and a distinguished nose, grip him by the arm.
By Jove, de Güldenfeldt! exclaimed the latter excitedly, while an unusual air of animation lit up his somewhat sleepy eyes, Isn't that Mrs. Norrywood? That woman about whom there has been all that fuss, you know. Or am I dreaming?
Monsieur de Güldenfeldt glanced along the deck and fixed his eyes on a lady who, all unconscious of the notice she was attracting, slowly came towards them.