"The Japanese may be what you call in love, but they must not tell it—must not even show it."
"Not even the men?"
"No, not even the men. Is it not so in your country?"
I laughed.
"No, it is not so in my country." I found myself suddenly imitating her own slow speech. "That's the first thing the man in my country does. Sometimes he tells it, even when he can't ask the girl to marry him, and sometimes they even tell it over there when they don't mean it."
"So desuka!"
"They call that 'flirting.'"
"Yes, I know 'flirting,'" said the Little Maid.
"It is not a very nice word," I said. "There is no flirting in Japan?"
"There is no chance. Parents and friends make marriage in Japan."