The two young men sat at a little round table at the English Hotel where nightly the foreigners and the fashionable world of Tokio dined and criticized each other’s clothes. Around them were men and women of all types—Germans, English, a few Americans, fewer French, many Japanese, some in native dress and others looking strangely awkward in European garments. Little dark waiters slipped swiftly, though not hurriedly, through the throng. The hum of conversation, punctuated by the click of ice on the rims of delicate glasses rose above the thrumming of the quaint oriental music. The night was heavy with the perfume of lilies. Far away, through the broad windows, across the roofs of the city, the bay gleamed silvery in the moonlight.
Topham took it all in. “It’s beautiful,” he said. “Beautiful! I’ve never been to Japan before and it—well, it’s overpowering.”
“Of course! Everything is, in this country. We’ve got maids at the embassy—the custom of the country, my boy—that are dreams of loveliness. Madame l’Ambassadrice objected and to please her I tried to get ugly ones. Nothing doing, my boy. There aren’t any in Japan—except those that wear Melican man’s clothes.”
Topham smiled. “I like it,” he said.
“Oh! Do you, indeed! Naturally you would. All sailors do. But look out, old man. Times aren’t what they used to be. Don’t trust the old romances on Japan or you’ll get into trouble.”
“I won’t.” Topham stared around him. All about were interesting-looking men and pretty women. “Who’s that?” he asked. “The tall man at the table to your right?”
“That’s Cosdon, the British naval attaché! There’s the Spanish attaché just beyond. Most of the attachés dine here. I’ll introduce you to a bunch of them after a while. You’ll be the whole works at our shop, you know. We haven’t had any sort of attaché, navy or army, for six months. And we’ve needed ’em; needed ’em like the devil.”
“Why?”
“Why what? Why did we need them? Well, you can’t play chess without pawns. You fellows are the pawns. We diplomats can’t play spy, you know; but you navy and army men are licensed.”
Topham raised his eyebrows. “Why not use the natives?” he asked; “or are they too patriotic?”