"Alas! I am so foolish, I know not how to amuse. I have told you so much of my own country that you must be tired."
"No! No! No!" cried Mara, with shining eyes and an alert manner. "I never grow weary of hearing about Japan."
"Why?" asked the Count, half-closing his eyes.
Mara's face became strange and cold. "I don't know," she said, in a hesitating manner. "I seem to know Japan."
"But, Mara," cried Basil, staring, "you have never been there!"
"All the same I know it, and especially I know the Temple of Kitzuki."
"Ah! but you were there!" put in Theodore, glancing at the Count, whose eyes were curiously intent upon the girl's pale face.
"How? When?" he asked suddenly.
"She went in her astral body in search for the Mikado Jewel, and----"
"Don't talk of these things," interrupted Mara, in an angry tone. "The Count doesn't want to hear such rubbish."