"Yes, I believe there are some who are very rich," said the little diplomat, who clearly was ill at ease.
"Where does their money come from?" his inquisitor went on remorselessly, "You are keeping something from me, Count Saito. Please be frank, if there is any mystery."
"Oh no, Lady Everington, there is no mystery, I am sure. There is one family of Fujinami who have many houses and lands in Tokyo and other towns. I will be quite open with you. They are rather what you in England call nouveaux riches."
"Really!" Her Ladyship was taken aback for a moment. "But you would never notice it with Asako, would you? I mean, she does not drop her Japanese aitches, and that sort of thing, does she?"
"Oh no," Count Saito reassured her, "I do not think Mademoiselle Asako talks Japanese language, so she cannot drop her aitches."
"I never thought of that," his hostess continued, "I thought that if a
Japanese had money, he must be a daimyo, or something."
The Ambassador smiled.
"English people," he said, "do not know very well the true condition of Japan. Of course we have our rich new families and our poor old families just as you have in England. In some aspects our society is just the same as yours. In others, it is so, different, that you would lose your way at once in a maze of ideas which would seem to you quite upside down."
Lady Everington interrupted his reflections in a desperate attempt to get something out of him by a surprise attack.
"How interesting," she said, "it will be for Geoffrey Harrington and his wife to visit Japan and find out all about it."