They enter the bazaar, which, if not a very spacious building, is at least well-stocked, and usually crowded with sight-seers or purchasers. Aleck endeavors to keep at a distance from the pair whose entrance has inspired their action, at the same time he manages to direct numerous glances at the gentleman in question.
“Well, what d’ye make of him?” asks Wycherley.
“I am favorably impressed with his looks,” is the frank response that causes a low whistle of surprise to leave the actor’s lips.
“Well, I’ll be hanged! In confidence between us, my dear fellow, I quite agree with you. Looks like an independent young chap. There’s something about his style, his bronzed face and hands, the soft hat he wears, and his general get-up, that suggests the miner to me.”
“Well, it didn’t occur to me before, but now that you mention it I can see the same thing. What it means, I am at a loss to say.”
“See how fondly she clings to him.”
“Claude, you are cruel.”
“Nonsense, my dear boy. Follow my example. When I found my cake was dough, I gave her up without a struggle. That’s diplomacy in love matters. I learned it long ago, on the stage. Go thou and do likewise. Seriously, I reckon you haven’t the ghost of a show there, so be philosophical, my merry bachelor, and take things as they come. As for myself, I’m trying to place this gentleman; something about his face seems familiar. It may be I’ve noticed him on the Midway at some time.”
Aleck buys his cane, and continues to keep a good distance between the couple and himself. They are simply looking at the curios displayed by the cunning Japs, and appear to be more engrossed with each other than the objects around. All of which causes our bachelor the most peculiar sensations of his life.
At one moment he has firmly resolved that he will not seek the presence of this fair one on the succeeding night, and immediately he has bitter reflections, of which he is ashamed later on, reflections that bear upon Dorothy in the sense of her mother being brought up in the peculiar tenets of Oriental life, which in a measure may have descended to the daughter.