Without looking for it or even expecting it, Blix
came across a little Japanese tea-house, or rather a tiny Japanese
garden, set with almost toy Japanese houses and pavilions, where
tea was served and thin sweetish wafers for five cents. Blix and
Snooky went in. There was nobody about but the Japanese serving
woman. Snooky was in raptures, and Blix spent a delightful half-
hour there, drinking Japanese tea, and feeding the wafers to the
carp and gold-fish in the tiny pond immediately below where she
sat. A Chinaman, evidently of the merchant class, came in, with a
Chinese woman following. As he took his place and the Japanese
girl came up to get his order, Blix overheard him say in English:
"Bring tea for-um leddy."
"He had to speak in English to her," she whispered; "isn't that
splendid! Did you notice that, Snooky?"
On the way home Blix was wondering how she should pass her
evening. She was to have made one of a theatre party where Jack
Carter was to be present. Then she suddenly remembered "Morrowbie
Jukes," "The Return of Imri," and "Krishna Mulvaney." She
continued on past her home, downtown, and returned late for supper
with "Plain Tales" and "Many Inventions."
Toward half-past eight there came a titter of the electric bell.
At the moment Blix was in the upper chamber of the house of
Suddhoo, quaking with exquisite horror at the Seal-cutter's magic.
She looked up quickly as the bell rang. It was not Condy Rivers'
touch.
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