Jane turned pale, and he hated to see her like that, but he had suddenly made up his mind to tell her all.
“He met Campanula yesterday afternoon, and, not to put too fine a point upon it, insulted her.”
“Oh, Dick!” said Jane, turning, if possible, paler than before. She stared at him in a frightened way, then she recovered herself. “There must be some mistake; she must have misunderstood him. He couldn’t have done such a thing; however foolish he may be, he’s a gentleman.”
“Yes, a gentleman in England, but not a gentleman in Japan. He—God damn it!” blazed out Leslie suddenly, bringing his fist down with a bang on the matting—“he offered her money.”
“I must go to him at once,” said Jane, making as if to rise, “and ask him if this thing is true.”
“Sit down for a while; you can’t possibly get to Osaka to-day. Oh, it’s true enough. I was in a boiling rage last night when I came home and heard it all. I was going down to the hotel with a stick to have it out, and then I thought of you, and the disgrace and uproar there would be, so I just bit on the bullet and went to bed. Honestly, I was going to have got him somewhere by himself to-day, and have it out with him, but it seems he prefers insulting women to facing men. Forgive me, Jane, for all this; I feel bitter about it, but I hate to have to say these things to you.”
“It was good of you to think of me last night,” said Jane in a broken voice, gazing at the matting as she spoke, then looking up full in his face, “very good of you.”
“Oh, I suppose it’s really nothing, after all,” he said. “Those confounded fools that write books about Japan have got it into English people’s heads that every ‘Jap-girl,’ as they call them, is a what’s-its-name at heart. Let’s say no more on the matter, the affair is closed. Have some breakfast?”
“No, thanks; I’m too much troubled and worried,” said Jane, sighing and folding her hands in her lap.
“Oh, don’t trouble about it. I told you because—well, I thought you ought to know.”