"It is a fact, really it is. Ko-yeda told me and I noticed it myself."
"Let's all do that way the next time we go over to Jo's," proposed Jack. "She won't know what to make of it, but after a while we will tell her it is a custom we learned in Japan."
The girls laughed and agreed to try it. "Poor old Jo," said Jean. "She is out of it this time. I really miss her once in a while. She has always been around when we were having our good times."
"Don't you believe but that she would a thousand times rather be where she is." Nan spoke with conviction.
"I wonder if I shall feel like that ever," said Jack thoughtfully. "I can't imagine myself so devoted to a husband as Jo is to Dr. Paul."
"I wouldn't trust you," returned Jean. "You will quite as likely outdo her in your abject devotion."
"I hope I shall at least not be abject," retorted Jack stiffly. "That is one thing I shall not care to learn from the Japanese."
"Is Mrs. Sannomiya abject?" inquired Eleanor.
"Well, she is a little bit, but I have seen American women with big bullies of husbands quite as much so," Jean replied. "Not that Mr. Sannomiya is a bully, far from it, but I suppose it is the Japanese woman's prerogative to be humble as it is the man's to be lordly. The girls are all trained from the beginning to be meek and gentle, to exercise self-control under all circumstances, to smile and be agreeable no matter how mad they feel inside."
"Humph!" ejaculated Jack. "I'd like to see me."