“Well, a good deal will depend on what Gertie thinks herself, as perhaps you have found out while you’ve been with us.”
He sent for his daughter, and I placed a third chair for the girl when she arrived. She listened with great interest to my narration of the events on board the Chinese steamer, and I added my warning that it was advisable for her not to desert the frequented parts of Nagasaki, and never to make any expedition through the town without one or more masculine persons to protect her. She tossed her head as I said this, and replied rather cuttingly:
“I guess I’m able to take care of myself.”
I should have had sense enough to let it go at that, but I was much better aware of her peril then even her father was, for I knew Nagasaki like a well-thumbed book; so I said it was a regular labyrinth into whose mazes even a person intimately acquainted with the town might get lost, and as the Prime Minister had plenty of money at his command, he had the choice of all the outscourings of the nations here along the port, who would murder or kidnap without a qualm for a very small sum of ready cash.
“There is no use in saying anything more, Mr. Tremorne,” put in her father, definitely; “I’ll see to it that my daughter does not go abroad unprotected.”
“Well, Poppa,” she cried, “I like the hotel idea first rate, and I’m going there right away; but I want a suite of rooms to myself. I’m not coming down to the public table, and I wish to have the Countess and my own maid with me and no one else.”
“That’s all right,” said her father, “you can have what you like. I’ll buy the whole hotel for you if you want it.”
“No, I just wish a suite of rooms that will be my own; and I won’t have any visitors that I don’t invite specially.”
“Won’t you allow me to visit you, Gertie?” asked the old gentleman with a quizzical smile.
“No, I don’t want you or any one else. I’m just tired of people, that’s what I am. I intended to propose going to the hotel anyhow. I’m just sick of this yacht, and have a notion to go home in one of the regular steamers. I’m going right over to the hotel now and pick my own rooms.”