“I shall be as soon as I have made my toilet,” Dave replied. “May I have your indulgence that long?”
“Certainly.”
Going below Ensign Darrin washed off the dust of his forenoon’s wanderings, smoothed back his hair, and with a final look in the glass drew on his coat and started above.
Dave was now in about the middle of a three-weeks’ leave, which Dalzell had taken at the same time. In the Navy service an officer does not have, regularly, one day in every seven on which he is free from toil. He is on duty, day and night, seven days a week. By way of leisure he is allowed a certain portion of every month, when practicable, in the way of “leave.” When an officer has no especial use for leave, he often allows it to accumulate, and then later on secures a long enough leave to use up his privileges in the way of absence from duty. So Dave was now on a three-weeks’ leave—a “vacation” it would be called in civil life.
Several other officers from the “Katahdin” were in either Yokohama or Tokio. The former city, only a few miles from the latter, is the port of entry for the Japanese capital. In the harbor at Yokohama the American flagship now lay.
Up to the present Darrin had devoted most of his waking time to escorting Belle through the bewildering Japanese shops, to Uyeno Park, to the Japanese theatres, to the famous temples, and all the other sights that attract tourists.
But this forenoon Darrin had spent in going about Tokio, meeting a few of the people whom he had known in other parts of the world. There was Lieutenant Anstey, one of Dick Prescott’s West Point chums, now on duty at the American Embassy; there were naval officers, and two or three men in the diplomatic service. Dave had even called at the Japanese Navy Department to shake hands with two Japanese officers whom he had met in Europe. These latter two were absent, and Dave, leaving cards, had promised to return in the afternoon.
“You are going to be busy this afternoon?” Belle asked as they sat at tiffin.
“I shall have to make two or three calls, but I shall come back to you as early as I can.”
Two or three times it was on the tip of Darrin’s tongue to tell his wife of the wonderful medallion he had seen that morning. In each case some remark or question of Mrs. Darrin’s had prevented.