"Now remember," he rattled along with assumed merriment, "that when next we meet I expect you to be the Empress of Japan."
"Jerry," said Sunny, in a very little voice, her small eerie face seeming to shine with some light, as she looked steadily at him, "I lig' ask you one liddle bit favour before you go way from these Japan."
"Go to it. What is it, Sunny. Ask, and thou shalt receive."
Sunny put one hand on either of Jerry's arms, and her touch had a curiously electrical effect upon him. In the pause that ensued he found himself unable to remove his fascinated gaze from her face.
"Jerry, I wan' ask you, will you please give me those American—kiss—good-a-bye."
A great wave of tingling emotions swept over Jerry, blinding him to everything in the world but that shining face so close to his own. Sunny a child! Her age terrified him. He drew back, laughing huskily. He hardly knew himself what it was he was saying:
"I don't want to, Sunny—I don't——"
He broke away abruptly and, turning, rushed into the living room, seized his coat and hat, and was out of the house in a flash.
Professor Barrowes stared at the door through which Jerry had made his hurried exit. To his surprise, he heard Sunny in the hall, laughing softly, strangely. To his puzzled query as to why she laughed, she said softly:
"Jerry are afraid of me!"