“Yes,” said Doctor Trigg. “Unofficially, of course, unofficially. The old lady does not give audiences to men as a rule, but we were her son’s teachers, you see, and she seemed to have an idea that she wanted to thank us personally for the attention we had given him during his course at Princeton. Hata took us to the palace to see some manuscripts. She heard we were there, so she sent word for us to drop in and see her.”
“Simple, like that,” murmured Dulcie. “They just dropped in!”
Mr. Hammond laughed.
“By the way, Dulcie, did you know that Mr. Hamilton has left us? He had to get back to Paris by the quickest route. He’s flying to Baku, then to Moscow, then straight over. He has to attend a big directors’ meeting of their Paris house.”
“What a shame!” cried Dulcie. “Goodness, daddy, I’m glad you aren’t a big business man. It’s no wonder they get ‘tired’, is it?” she added wickedly.
CHAPTER XII
CUSTOMS AND COSTUMES
Dulcie dressed for the luncheon that was being given for her by the Japanese Vassar Club, and was immediately driven away to their club house by the faithful Bill. The men of the party had a luncheon at the Aviation Club, an important function because both Mr. Hammond and David were to be presented with decorations. Already Mr. Hammond wore two gorgeous medals presented to him in Friedrichshafen. David glittered in a slightly smaller way and it embarrassed him very much.
When the party from the Moonbeam entered the club, they saw that a large number of very high ranking officials were present. Most of them being older men, they did not speak English, so the speeches of the hosts and the replies of the guests trickled through the medium of an interpreter. Aside from that drawback, and the presence of glittering orderlies standing behind the chairs of the Japanese generals and ministers, they might have been dining at any first-class hotel at home.
The young officer on David’s right spoke only a few broken words of English, but beamed and smiled so brightly that David wished he could communicate with him in some common tongue. Suddenly he thought of an almost forgotten knack of caricature which had always gone over big at school. He brought out a pencil and on the back of the menu drew, with a few sharp strokes, pictures of Mr. Hammond and the others, not sparing himself.
They were very funny. He set them forth on the top of a fat and wobbly blimp with sagging hull. Each one of them was looking through long field glasses toward a point marked with a rising sun. The young Japanese laughed heartily and handed him another card. On the bottom of this David drew a small, distant glimpse of the landing field at Kasumigaura. The eager visitors were shown dancing on the top of their unwieldy ship, and from each mouth issued a balloon inscribed “Banzai.”